1808

Sept. 14 and 22. In the army besieging Damietta. James of Vitry [I. Acconensis ecclesie minister] writes to Pope Honorius and to his friends. He narrates how, after returning from Caesarea, the Christian army in Palestine built a new castle [Castrum Peregrinorum] by the sea, at a place on the road to Jerusalem called Districte, how the Sarraceni made an unsuccessful attack on Caesarea, how, after the Christian army had returned to Acre, a fleet of 40 Frisian and German cogones arrived not long after Easter and a council-of-war [commune consilium] decided to invade Egypt [Egyptum]. He describes the wealth of Egypt, its flatness, the absence of major fortifications other than Damiata, Babylonia - called Kayre by the Egyptians - and Alexandria, the sites of Christian pilgrimage in the country and the fact that it is the centre of the production of balsam. He maintains that most of the population are still Christian, if pacific, and comments on the fact that there are Christian populations in the East. He narrates how on 24 May the patriarch of Jerusalem embarked with the relic of the True Cross, which was a splinter of that which had been lost [at Hattin], how the army voyaged to Egypt, arrived before Damietta and established an encampment on an island before the city. He describes the practice of the incubination of hen eggs, the situation of the city, the flooding of the river Nile, sickness in the army, the difficulty, even with siege engines, of ship-borne assaults on a strong tower in the middle of the river from which a chain barred the progress of shipping. The attacks continued for 4 months until the Frisians, under magister Oliverus Coloniensis cancellarius, constructed a magnificent and expensive floating siege engine on 2 ships and the tower was captured. At the time of writing [14 September] the Christians, who were expecting reinforcements, were planning a crossing of the Nile to attack Damietta. Many Sarraceni were deserting and being baptized, while part of the garrison of Mons Thabor had been sent to Egypt and their castle had been destroyed, as had been the city of Gibelet [Gibel ?] and 5 fortresses between Tyre and Damascus, at a time when the Christians had strengthened the fortresses [munitiones] of Districtum and Caesarea on the way to Jerusalem. Further, the sultan of Egypt had died from sorrow at the loss of the tower in the Nile. James of Vitry asks for prayers that the Christians successfully take Egypt. In the copy of his letter to the pope, James reports that 9 ships with domnus Petrus Hanibal and other Romans arrived in the week after 24 August. Cardinal Pelagius of Albano, the papal legate, has reached Acre with a Roman prince and is daily expected in Egypt. In the copy of his letter to his friends, James of Vitry asks for prayers for those who have died, including magister Walterus de Tornacho archidiaconus ecclesie Acconensis, who did much good in Acre; magister Constantius de Duacho decanus ecclesie Acconensis; domnus Iohannes de Cameracho ecclesie Acconensis cantor; domnus Reinerus, a cleric in James’s household who became Sancti Michaelis in Accon pastor; H. serviens episcopi Acconensis; magister Thomas cancellarius Noviomensis; magister Leonius qui legebat de Theologia in civitate Acconensi; magister Alexander nepos magistri R. cardinalis; Iohannes iunior de Cameraco nepos cantoris ecclesie Acconensis; magister Reinaldus de Barbachon ecclesie Acconensis thesaurarius. James adds that he was very ill for 2 months in the camp before Damietta.