The loss of Jerusalem and defeat at Gaza in 1244 ultimately marked the collapse of Christian military power in the Holy Land and led to the rise of the Mamluk sultanate.

The defeat of the imperialists left the Templars in a strong position, negotiating a treaty in 1243 with a coalition of the rulers of Homs, Kerak, and Damascus against Egypt that eased tensions and restored Temple Mount to the order.

In early 1240, while making ready to invade Egypt, as-Salih Ayyub, the eldest son, was informed that his half-brother Al-Adil II, then sultan, was being held prisoner by his own soldiers.

Besides, almost all Western European states were embroiled in local conflicts or larger wars between them keeping their leaders from embarking on a foreign yet extremely risky and iffy endeavour.

With Rome under siege by Frederick, that year the pope also issued his Ad Apostolicae Dignitatis Apicem, formally renewing the sentence of excommunication on the emperor, and declared him deposed from the imperial throne and that of Naples.

In January 1248, Innocent joined with Heinrich von Hohenlohe, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, in warning Daniel and Yaroslav's son Alexander Nevsky of impending Mongol attacks on Christianity and to unite under papal protection in the defense against the invaders.

In 1249 the pope ordered a crusade to be preached against Frederick II, and after the emperor's death in December 1250, he continued the struggle against Conrad IV of Germany and his half-brother Manfred of Sicily with unrelenting severity.

The crown of Sicily had devolved upon the Holy See after the deposition of Frederick II, and Innocent first offered it to Richard of Cornwall and Edmund Crouchback, brother and son of Henry III of England.

[25] In 1245, Innocent IV supplemented efforts in the Holy Land and Baltics by sending two embassies to Mongolia to the court of the Great Khan, beginning the attempts at a Franco-Mongol alliance.

Despite apparently strong initial opposition from his mother and other members of his entourage, Louis stuck to his decision, repeating his vow when he recovered and persuading his brothers and those in his court to follow suit.

Robert had been present at La Forbie, barely escaping, and later sent a relic of the Holy Blood to Henry III in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to convince him to go on crusade.

[36] English chronicler Matthew Paris assisted Louis IX in his attempt to recruit Haakon IV and wrote of the Crusade in his Chronica Majora but did not travel to the Holy Land.

Hugh I of Blois, who also died before setting out from Inverness, while one of the transports for Raymond's force had to come to Marseilles from the Atlantic coast via the Straits of Gibraltar, a delay that kept the count in port for the winter 1248–1249.

The Venetians, already annoyed at yet another Crusade that might interrupt their commercial arrangements with Egypt, were made still more hostile when Louis utilized ships from Genoa and Marseilles.The situation with emperor Frederick II was unusually thorny.

An English detachment was led by William Longespée, grandson of Henry II of England, who took his mistress Ida de Tosny (not the rumoured Fair Rosamond) along, followed close behind.

This, the palace's chapel, was built as the actual reliquary container housing his newly acquired collection of Holy relics from the Passion that Baldwin II, the Latin emperor of Constantinople, had sent him.

The king of France with his crusade was attempting to fill in the vacated position of the par excellence leader of Christendom, an eventuality that happened due to the friction between the emperor Frederick II and pope Gregory IX, leading the latter to excommunicated the former.

[33] Louis IX arrived in Cyprus on 17 September 1248 and landed the next day accompanied by his queen, her sister, and his chamberlain Jean Pierre Sarrasin (John the Saracen).

[46] After a discourse by Rothelin's anonymous author on the perils of sea travel and authentic or legendary Roman history, the work returns to Sarrasin's letter for the events occurring through 1250.

He was stricken with tuberculosis and could no longer lead his men in person and turned to his aged vizier Fakhr ad-Din ibn as-Shaikh, who had negotiated with Frederick II during the Sixth Crusade, to command the army.

The largest was the al-Bahr as-Saghit (Ushmum canal), which left the main river just below Mansurah and ran past Ashmun al-Rumman to Lake Manzala, isolating the island of Damietta.

When Louis began his march on Mansurah, Margaret of Provence was in the later stages of pregnancy and their son John Tristan, the child of sorrow, was born on 8 April, three days after the news came of the surrender of the army.

Louis was the last of the Crusader leaders to actually reach the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, and his failure was keenly felt in the West as well as the Holy Land and Muslim world.

The French nobles contented themselves with bitter comments against the pope who preferred to preach a crusade against the Christian Imperialists rather than to send help to those who were struggling against the infidel.

After his release from the Egyptians, Louis sent his brothers to France to obtain relief and his mother Blanche of Castile, acting as regent, endeavoured in vain to find reinforcements as neither the noblemen nor the clergy would help.

At Eastertime 1251, a mysterious person known as the Le Maître de Hongrie (Master of Hungary) began to preach a crusade to the shepherds in the north of France, always holding a map supposedly given to him by the Virgin Mary.

[81] The movement spread rapidly and soon an army of the Pastoureaux of nearly 60,000 men was formed, carrying a banner on which was depicted the Blessed Virgin appearing to the Master of Hungary.

[89] As one of his last official acts, Louis arranged a multi-year truce with Damascus beginning 21 February 1254, as an-Nasir Yusuf was justifyably concerned about the Mongol peril and had no wish for war with the Franks.

[91] As the Mamluk dynasty grew in power under Baibars, Louis IX petitioned Clement IV, elected pope in 1265, to go on yet another expedition, the Eighth Crusade.

The rei que conquer Suria is a mocking reference to Louis, who was still in Syria in 1254 when Bernart was writing, probably in hopes that the English and Aragonese kings would take advantage of the French monarch's absence.