2745

June 25. Iohannes de Bellomonte, Francie camerarius, describes recent events to his friend Geoffrey de la Chapelle, panetier of France. The king and queen of France, the count of Artois (comes Attrebatensis), the count of Anjou (comes Andegavensis), the countess of Anjou (comitissa Andegavensis), Iohannes himself and his sons Guido and Guilelmus are well. Iohannes describes how it took 23 days for the crusade to make what in good weather would have been a 3-day crossing from Cyprus to Egypt. The fleet contained at least 120 large ships (magne naves) and 800 smaller ones (minora vasa). He describes how the army (rex et fratres, barones, milites, servientes, balistarii) was transferred from the large ships to smaller vessels; the battle against the Saracens (Sarraceni) that followed the landing, in which the Christians sustained few casualties; the abandonment of the city of Damietta and the Christian occupation of it. He estimates that there are 1,900 knights from France in the army, supplemented by 700 from Syria, Cyprus, the Knights Templar and the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, and elsewhere in the East, and 3,000 [from other regions].