History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 95, King Louis's Crusade Roman numeral 5.

Hello again.

Last week we left King Louis and his Crusaders in a precarious position.

Camped on the banks of the river Tannas outside the city of Mansura, the Crusaders need to take Mansura if they are to have any hope of

proceeding down the river Nile to their next objective Cairo.

Trouble is, with their ranks depleted by fighting and disease,

they really don't have enough manpower to make a serious assault on the heavily fortified city.

To make matters worse, the Egyptians now have also cut their supply line,

meaning that no food or equipment can reach them from Damietta.

It's now March 1250, and the situation at the crusader camp has become untenable.

Weeks with no new supplies of food has taken its toll on the Latin Christian army.

The camp is being ravaged by disease and famine.

King Louis, the meticulous planner who was so sure that his crusade would succeed, doesn't know what to do.

He was hoping that the Muslims would face some internal strife with the arrival of their new sultan, Alsali Ayub's son, Almarazim

Taransha, but this doesn't seem to have happened.

Instead, King Louis is stuck on a riverbank outside a fortified city which he has no hope of taking, with the men all around him sickening and dying of dysentery, typhoid and scurvy.

In a desperate move to try and salvage his crusade, King Louis sent a message to the new Sultan Taransha with an offer of peace.

King Louis would withdraw his army weakened and with defeat looking him squarely in the eye, it wasn't

the best time to try and strike a deal.

It must have come as no surprise to King Louis that Taranshire quickly rejected the offer.

In late March, 1250, the final nail was driven into the crusader's coffin.

...