History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 83, the Fifth Crusade Roman numeral 2.

Hello again.

Last week we saw Pope Innocent do his best to whip up support for a massive new European

Crusade.

Unfortunately for Pope Innocent, he died unexpectedly before the crusade was launched.

A new Pope on Aureus III was quickly elected, and he was more than happy to take the crusading banner and run with it.

Pope Onaurius was an elderly man who was an expert in managing ecclesiastical finances.

Pope Onaurius threw himself into his new role,

with one of his main priorities being the arrangements for the forthcoming Crusade.

A few days after his accession he wrote to King John at Acre to tell him that a new

crusade would shortly be heading his way.

While Pope Ornorious might have expected King John to be jubilant about this news, he actually

wasn't. Since the death of Saladin, peace had come to the

crusader states, and with peace came prosperity. Aka was doing nicely as a centre of trade,

and its warehouses were full to the brim with goods from the Middle East

waiting to be shipped off to Europe. The local Latin

Christians were profiting nicely from all this commerce and fancy new

dwellings were being erected by the noblemen of the trading centres

as an indication of their rising wealth. But all this prosperity depended on peace, and peace would definitely be under threat if an

army of battle-hungry Europeans set foot on their shore. The new Bishop of Acre, James of Vitry, was also coming to this realization.

At the end of last week's episode, we saw James of Victory sail to Acre to take up his new role

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