In the year 1269, a terrible famine, consequent upon the ravages of the infidels, afflicted Syria and Palestine, and many of those whom the sword had spared, now died of hunger. Louis IX., king of France, being deeply affected by the intelligence of the misfortunes of the Latin Christians, attended an assembly of Preceptors of the Temple in France, to devise means of forwarding succour to the Holy Land, and caused a quantity of corn to be sent from Languedoc to Palestine. He moreover determined to embark in another crusade, and he induced prince Edward of England to assume the cross, and prepare to join his standard. Bendocdar, on the other hand, returned from Egypt to Palestine; he surprised and cut to pieces several bands of Christians, and made his public entry into Damascus, preceded by many hundred ghastly heads stuck on the points of lances, and by a vast number of weeping captives of both sexes, and of every age. He then proceeded to Hamah and Kafarthab, and attempted to undertake the siege of the strong fortress of Merkab, but the winter rains and the snow on the mountain compelled him to abandon the enterprise. He then made an attack upon the castle of the Kurds, which belonged to the Hospitallers, but receiving intelligence of the sailing of the expedition of king Louis, who had left the ports of France with an army of sixty thousand men, and a fleet of eighteen hundred vessels; he hurried with all his forces to Egypt to protect that country against the French. Instead of proceeding direct to the Holy Land, king Louis was unfortunately induced to steer to Tunis. He fell a victim to the insalubrity of the climate, and his army, decimated by sickness, sailed back to France. Bendocdar immediately returned to Palestine. He halted at Ascalon, and completed the destruction of the fortifications of that place; he stormed Castel Blanc, a fortress of the Templars, and appeared with his Mamlook cavalry before the gates of Tripoli. He ravaged the surrounding country, and then retired into winter quarters, leading away many christian prisoners of both sexes into captivity. The next year he stormed the fortified town of Safitza, and laid siege to Hassan el Akrad, or the castle of the Kurds. His victorious career was checked by the arrival (A. D. 1271) of prince Edward of England, who joined the Grand Master of the Temple at the head of a welcome reinforcement of knights and foot soldiers. Various successes were then obtained over the infidels, and on the 21st Ramadan, (April 23rd, A. D. 1272,) a truce was agreed upon for the space of ten years and ten months, as far as regarded the town and plain of Acre, and the road to Nazareth.
On the 18th of June, prince Edward was stabbed with a poisoned dagger by an assassin. Though dangerously wounded, he struck the assailant to the ground, and caused him to be immediately despatched by the guards. The same day the prince made his will; it is dated at Acre, June 18, A. D. 1272, and Brother Thomas Berard, Grand Master of the Temple, appears as an attesting witness. The life of the prince, however, was happily preserved, the effects of the poison being obviated by an antidote administered by the Grand Master of the Temple. On the 14th of September, the prince returned to Europe, and thus terminated the last expedition undertaken for the relief of Palestine. Whilst prince Edward was pursuing his voyage to England, his father, king Henry III., died, and the council of the realm, composed of the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the English bishops and barons, assembled in the Temple at London, and swore allegiance to the prince. They there caused him to be proclaimed king of England, and, with the consent of the queen-mother, they appointed Walter Giffard, archbishop of York, and the earls of Cornwall and Gloucester, guardians of the realm. Letters were written from the Temple to acquaint the young sovereign with the death of his father, and many of the acts of the new government emanated from the same place.[138]
The Grand Master of the Temple, Brother Thomas Berard, died at Acre on the 8th of April, and on the 13th of May, A. D. 1273, the general chapter of the Templars being assembled in the Pilgrim’s Castle, chose for his successor Brother William de Beaujeu, Grand Preceptor of Apulia. The late Vice-Master, Brother William de Poucon, was sent to Europe with Brother Bertrand de Fox, to announce to him the tidings of his elevation to the chief dignity of the order. The following year William de Beaujeu, accompanied by the Grand Master of the Hospital, proceeded to Lyons, to attend a general council which had been summoned by the pope to provide succour for the Holy Land. The two Grand Masters took precedence of all the ambassadors and peers present at that famous assembly. It was determined that a new crusade should be preached, that all ecclesiastical dignities and benefices should be taxed to support an armament, and that the sovereigns of Europe should be compelled by ecclesiastical censures to suspend their private quarrels, and afford succour to the desolate land of promise. More than a thousand bishops, archbishops, and ambassadors from the different princes and potentates of Europe, graced the assembly with their presence. From Lyons, the Grand Master William de Beaujeu proceeded to England, and called together a general chapter of the order at London. Whilst resident at the Temple in that city, he received payment of a large sum of money, which the young king Edward had borrowed of the Templars during his stay at Acre.[139]
Pope Gregory X. died in the midst of his exertions for the creation of another crusade. The enthusiasm which had been partially awakened subsided; those who had assumed the cross forgot their engagements, and the Grand Master of the Temple at last returned, in sorrow and disappointment, to the far East. He reached Acre on St. Michael’s day, A. D. 1275, attended by a band of Templars, drawn from the preceptories of England and France. Shortly after his arrival Bendocdar was poisoned, and was succeeded by his son, Malek Said. Malek Said only mounted the throne to descend from it. He was deposed by the rebellious Mamlooks, and the sceptre was grasped by Malek-Mansour-Kelaoun, the bravest and most distinguished of the emirs. As there was now no hope of recovering the towns, castles, and territories taken by Bendocdar, the Grand Master directed all his energies to the preservation of the few remaining possessions of the Christians in the Holy Land. At the expiration of the ten years’ truce, he entered into various treaties with the infidels. One of these, called “the peace of Tortosa,” is expressed to be made between sultan Malek-Mansour-Kelaoun, and his son Malek-Saleh-Ali, “honour of the world and of religion,” of the one part, and Afryz Dybadjouk, (William de Beaujeu,) Grand Master of the order of the Templars, of the other part. It relates to the territories and possessions of the order of the Temple at Tortosa, and provides for their security and freedom from molestation by the infidels. The truce is prolonged for ten years and ten months from the date of the execution of the treaty, (A. D. 1282,) and the contracting parties strictly bind themselves to make no irruptions into each other’s territories during the period. To prevent mistakes, the lands and villages, towers, corn-mills, gardens, brooks, and plantations, belonging to the Templars are specified and defined, together with the contiguous possessions of the Moslems. By this treaty, the Templars engage not to rebuild any of their citadels, towers, or fortresses, nor to cut any new ditch or fosse in their province of Tortosa.
Another treaty entered into between William de Beaujeu and the infidels, is called the peace of Acre. It accords to the Christians Caiphas and seven villages, the province of Mount Carmel the town and citadel of Alelyet, the farms of the Hospitallers in the province of Cæsarea, the half of Alexandretta, the village of Maron, &c., and confirms the Templars in the possessions of Sidon and its citadel, and its fifteen cantons. By this treaty, sultan Malek Mansour conceded to the inhabitants of Acre a truce of ten years, ten months, and ten days; and he swore to observe its provisions and stipulations in the presence of the Grand Master of the Temple and the vizir Fadhad. But all these treaties were mere delusions. Bendocdar had commenced the ruin of the Christians, and sultan Kelaoun now proceeded to complete it.
The separate truces and treaties of peace which Bendocdar had accorded to the maritime towns of Palestine, in return for payments of money, were encumbered with so many minute provisions and stipulations, that it was almost impossible for the Christians to avoid breaking them in some trifling and unimportant particular; and sultan Kelaoun soon found a colourable pretence for recommencing hostilities. He first broke with the Hospitallers and stormed their strong fortress of Merkab, which commanded the coast road from Laodicea to Tripoli. He then sought out a pretext for putting an end to the truce which the count of Tripoli had purchased of Bendocdar by the payment of eleven thousand pieces of gold. He maintained that a watch-tower had been erected on the coast between Merkab and Tortosa, in contravention of the stipulation which forbad the erection of new fortifications; and he accordingly marched with his army to lay siege to the rich and flourishing city of Laodicea. The Arabian writers tell us that Laodicea was one of the most commercial cities of the Levant, and was considered to be the rival of Alexandria. A terrible earthquake, which had thrown down the fortifications, and overturned the castle at the entrance of the port, unfortunately facilitated the conquest of the place, and Laodicea fell almost without a struggle. The town was pillaged and set on fire, and those of the inhabitants who were unable to escape by sea, were either slaughtered or reduced to slavery, or driven out homeless wanderers from their dwellings, to perish with hunger and grief in the surrounding wilderness. Shortly after the fall of Laodicea, the castle of Krak, which belonged to the Hospitallers, was besieged and stormed; the garrison was put to the sword, and some other small places on the sea-coast met with a similar fate.
On the 13th Moharran (9th of February,) A. D. 1287, the sultan marched against Tripoli at the head of ten thousand horse, and thirty-three thousand foot. The separate timbers of nineteen enormous military engines were transported in many hundred wagons drawn by oxen; and fifteen hundred engineers and firework manufacturers were employed to throw the terrible Greek fire and combustible materials, contained in brass pots, into the city. After thirty-four days of incessant labour, the walls were undermined and thrown into the ditch, and the engineers poured an incessant stream of Greek fire upon the breach, whilst the Moslems below prepared a path for the cavalry. Brother John de Breband, Preceptor of the Temple at Tripoli, fought upon the ramparts with a few knights and serving brethren of the order; but they were speedily overthrown, and the Arab cavalry dashed through the breach into the town. Upwards of one thousand Christians fell by the sword, and the number of captives was incalculable. Twelve hundred trembling women and children were crowded together for safety in a single magazine of arms, and the conquerors were embarrassed with the quantity of spoil and booty. More than four thousand bales of the richest silks were distributed amongst the soldiers, together with ornaments and articles of luxury and refinement, which astonished the rude simplicity of the Arabs. When the city had been thoroughly ransacked, orders were issued for its destruction. Then the Moslem soldiers were to be seen rushing with torches and pots of burning naphtha to set fire to the churches, and the shops, and the warehouses of the merchants; and Tripoli was speedily enveloped in one vast, fearful, wide-spreading conflagration. The command for the destruction of the fortifications was likewise issued, and thousands of soldiers, stonemasons, and labourers, were employed in throwing down the walls and towers. The Arabian writers tell us that the ramparts were so wide that three horsemen could ride abreast upon them round the town. Many of the inhabitants had escaped by sea during the siege, and crowds of fugitives fled before the swords of the Moslems, to take refuge on the little island of Saint Nicholas at the entrance of the port. They were there starved to death; and when Abulfeda visited the island a few days after the fall of Tripoli, he found it covered with the dead bodies of the unburied Christians. Thus fell Tripoli, with its commerce, its silk manufactories, churches, and public and private buildings. Everything that could contribute to prosperity in peace, or defence in war, perished beneath the sword, the hammer, and the pick-axe of the Moslems. In the time of the crusaders, the port was crowded with the fleets of the Italian republics, and carried on a lucrative trade with Marseilles, Amalfi, Genoa, Pisa, Venice, and the cities of the Grecian islands; but the rich stream of commerce hath never since revisited the inhospitable shore.
Shortly after the fall of Tripoli, Gabala, Beirout, and all the maritime towns and villages between Sidon and Laodicea, fell into the hands of the infidels; and sultan Kelaoun was preparing to attack the vast and populous city of Acre, when death terminated his victorious career. He was succeeded, A. D. 1291, by his eldest son, Aschraf Khalil, who hastened to execute the warlike projects of his father. He assembled the ulemas and cadis around his father’s tomb, and occupied himself in reading the Koran, in prayer, and invocation of Mahomet. He then made abundant alms-giving, collected his troops together, and marched across the desert to Damascus, where he was joined by Hosam-eddin Ladjin, viceroy of Syria, Modaffer, prince of Hems, and Saifeddin, lord of Baalbec, with the respective forces under their command. Ninety-two enormous military engines had been constructed at Damascus, which were transported across the country by means of oxen; and in the spring of the year, after the winter rains had subsided, sultan Khalil marched against Acre at the head of sixty thousand horse, and a hundred and forty thousand foot.
After the loss of Jerusalem, the city of Acre became the metropolis of the Latin Christians, and was adorned with a vast cathedral, with numerous stately churches, and elegant buildings, and with acqueducts, and an artificial port. The houses of the rich merchants were decorated with pictures and choice pieces of sculpture, and boasted of the rare advantage of glass windows. An astonishing, and probably an exaggerated, account has been given of the wealth and luxury of the inhabitants. We read of silken canopies and curtains stretched on cords to protect the lounger from the scorching sunbeams, of variegated marble fountains, and of rich gardens and shady groves, scented with the delicious orange blossom, and adorned with the delicate almond flower; and we are told that the markets of the city could offer the produce of every clime, and the interpreters of every tongue. The vast and stupendous fortifications consisted of a double wall, strengthened at proper intervals with lofty towers, and defended by the castle called the King’s Tower, and by the convent or fortress of the Temple. Between the ramparts extended a large space of ground, covered with the chateaus, villas, and gardens of the nobility of Galilee, the counts of Tripoli and Jaffa, the lords of Tyre and Sidon, the papal legate, the duke of Athens, and the princes of Antioch. The most magnificent edifices within the town were, the cathedral church of St. Andrew, the churches of St. Saba, St. Thomas, St. Nicholas, and St. John, the tutelar saint of the city; the abbey of St. Clare, the convents of the Knights Hospitallers and the Knights Templars, and various monasteries and religious houses.