The Last Crusades: the Final Attempts by Christendom to Conquer Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1202-1272-The Fall of Constantinople by Edwi

The strategy of the Fourth Crusade (1202-04) was to first defeat the Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate-the most powerful Muslim force. However, the Christian cause quickly became corrupted when it laid siege to and sacked the Christian city of Zara in Croatia (1202) before advancing on and sacking Byzantine Constantinople and partitioning the empire. Only a handful of the crusaders reached the Holy Land. The Fifth Crusade (1217-21) also attempted to subdue Egypt. The port city of Damietta, at the mouth of the Nile was attacked and taken as a preliminary of an advance on Acre. In July of 1221 the crusaders marched on Cairo where they engaged Muslim forces at Mansurah, were decisively defeated, compelled to surrender and depart from Egypt having achieved nothing. Seven years later the Sixth Crusade began and was a partial diplomatic success which enabled the Kingdom of Jerusalem to restore much of its former influence. The Seventh (1248-54) and Eighth Crusades (1270), made notable by the involvement of King Louis IX of France not only once again failed in their objectives, but resulted in the death of the king. The Ninth Crusade, led by the future king of England, Edward I, led to a ten year truce with the Mamluks before the fall of Acre, the expulsion of permanent European powers and the end of the time of Crusaders.

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