History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 104 Troubled Times.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the last of the Crusades as the French, Spanish and English royal families

each made a final and ultimately fruitless attempt to assist the Crusader states.

Meanwhile, as these European rescue operations were underway,

Beibars continued to pummel away at Latin Christian territory in the Holy Land.

In 1271, shortly prior to the arrival of Lord Edward of England, Babers enjoyed a massive strategic and

psychological victory when he defeated a castle which had always been viewed as impregnable.

That's right. In March 1271, Beibars achieved the impossible.

He succeeded in taking the mighty fortress cracked a chivalier.

How did it happen? Well, it went a little something like this.

Having heard about the death of King Louis IX of France in Tunis,

and being vastly relieved that he didn't have to march his army westwards into northern Africa,

Sultan Beibars instead turned his attention back to the crusader states.

Deciding to concentrate on eliminating the

Frankish defences protecting the county of Tripoli, Bebars and his forces

easily took the Templar castle of Safita.

The region, however, was dominated by one massive castle,

a castle which no Muslim attacker had ever seriously tried to take.

Bebars seemed undeterred by the legendary defences of Crackeda Chevalier and marched to the castle in early March 1271.

As we saw way back in episode 43, Crack de Chivalier stands on a ridge and can only really

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