2771

May 15. Acre. Patriarch Robert of Jerusalem describes for the college of cardinals the departure of the crusade from Damietta on 20 November 1249; its advance and encampment at Mansurah (Mansura); the crossing of the River Tanis (fluvius Thaneos) on 8 March at a spot advised by a spy; the battle of Mansurah, during which the count of Artois (comes Attrebathensis), comes Willelmus Longespy, dominus Andreas de Vitreo, dominus de Cusy, dominus Archandus de Brena, dominus Focardus de Merlo, nearly all the Knights Templar present and many others were killed, while others were mortally wounded; the epidemics that afflicted the Christians and the loss of two-thirds of the army (milites, balistarii, armati) through sickness; the attempt on 4 April to retreat to Damietta; the losses on the way and the killing of 3,000 sick by the Saracens (Sarraceni); the escape of the legate and the patriarch by boat to Damietta; the encirclement of the king near a village called Sarensa; the failure of a force, sent from Damietta on the orders of the queen, to extricate the king; the capture of King Louis, his brothers the count of Poitou (comes Pictaviae) and the count of Anjou (comes Andegaviae), the count of Brittany (comes Britanniae), the count of Flanders (comes Flandriae), dominus Philippus de Monte Forti, dominus Baudoinus, dominus Gwido of Ibelin (de Ybelino), praeceptor Templi, praeceptor Hospitalarius, and many barones and milites; their imprisonment at Mansurah; and the message from the king to the queen, the legate and others in Damietta that he had agreed a truce with the sultan. Patriarch Robert gives the terms as follows: Damietta is to be returned to the Saracens (Sarraceni); the king is bound to pay a ransom and reparation payment of 800,000 Saracen besants; all prisoners held by both sides since the emperor Frederick’s truce with Egypt (1229) are to be released; the lands held by the Christians at the time of the king of France’s arrival are secured, but there will be no return of Jerusalem or Bethlehem or the properties of the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Robert describes how on 1 May, at the king’s request, he visited him in imprisonment, accompanied by an amir. While he was present in the camp, the sultan was assassinated and the patriarch and others were in danger, being badly treated by the Muslims. Following further negotiations, Damietta was handed back to the Muslims on 6 May. After the king’s release he, together with the legate, his brothers and many nobles, left Damietta for Acre, where he will remain until the next September passage, to oversee the fulfilment of the terms of the truce.