Crusade of the Infants of Aragon

The intention of King James I of Aragon was to join forces with the Mongol Ilkhanate and jointly attack the Mamluk Sultanate.

The main French sources for the crusade of 1269 are the Gestes des Chiprois, the Estoire d'Eracles and the Annales de Terre Sainte.

[2] James I may have intended to send a force to the Holy Land in 1260 to help defend it against a possible Mongol invasion, only to relent in the face of adverse weather.

[5] On 16 January 1267, Pope Clement IV ordered him to abandon his mistress, Berenguela Alfonso, or else there would be no spiritual merit in his crusade.

[10] According to James's own account, Abaqa promised to provide his army with food and siege engines, which would have been too bulky to efficiently transport across the sea.

The alliance's plans were sufficiently concrete by February 1269 to be presented to King Louis IX of France.

[16] There was no longer any question of a rendezvous with the Mongols, both because of the reduced fleet and because of a Chagatayid attack on the Ilkhanate in central Asia.

[11] Of the 442 knights who landed in Acre, 254 opted to return home a month later when they realized that James would not be coming.

This prompted Baybars to set out from Egypt in late November for Damascus, where he arrived early the following month.

[18] Baybars ordered the men of Safad to attack the raiders while he retreated southwards to Toron in the hopes of drawing them into an ambush.

The raiders and the men of Safad fought an engagement on 19 December, after which Olivier pushed for a withdrawal towards Acre.