History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 107 the fall of acre.

Hello again.

Last week we saw another crusader state, the county of Tripoli, wiped off the map, leaving only

one Crusader state standing, the Kingdom of Acre. The towns within the Kingdom of Acre were protected by a truce and for the moment at least the truce seems to be holding.

In fact, far from spending its days in fear and trepidation, the city of

Acre itself seems to be thriving. As the now sole Latin Christian trading port in the Middle East,

business is booming.

Meanwhile, back in Europe, people were starting to become concerned.

Having learned of the obliteration of another crusader state, the Pope and the monarchs of Europe were starting to think that

maybe the proposal presented by the Mongols when they visited Europe a couple of years ago had some merit after all. In February 1290 the

current Pope, Pope Nicholas the 4th, called for a new crusade, one which,

ambitiously, would achieve the, and I quote, total liberation of the

holy land, end quote. of the they did send some troops to Acre. King Edward I sent a military contingent to the Holy

Land and around 3.5,000 Italian Crusaders set sail for acre in Easter 1290.

Now the Pope decided to place the Italian Crusaders under the command of the Bishop of Tripoli.

The Bishop of Tripoli had fled to Rome as a refugee after the fall of his city and here at last was something he could do.

He could lead a ragtag bunch of Italian warriors back to the Holy Land, then liberate his city and the remainder

of the former crusader states. Easy. Trouble was, the Bishop of Tripoli, really couldn't control his crusaders.

The first signs of trouble appeared not long after they arrived in Acre.

Like many Europeans visiting the crusader states for the first time, the Italians were shocked and appalled to find the streets, marketplaces and

commercial centres full of Muslims, and even more shocking Latin Christian traders and merchants seemed to be interacting

...