ePub Britain's Slave Empire by James Walvin in History

Description

The Seventh Crusade; led by King Louis IX of France; was the last major expedition for the recovery of the Holy Land actually to reach the Near East. The failure of his invasion of Egypt (1249-50); followed by his four-year stay in Palestine in order to retrieve the disaster; had a profound impact on the Latin West. In addition; Louis's operations in the Nile delta indirectly precipitated the Mamluk coup d'état; which ended the rule of the Ayyubids; Saladin's dynasty; in Egypt and began the transfer of power there to a military elite that would prove to be a far more formidable enemy to the Franks of Syria and Palestine. This volume comprises translations of the principal documents and of extracts from narrative sources - both Muslim and Christian - relating to the crusade; and includes many texts; notably the account of Ibn Wasil; not previously available in English. The themes covered include: the preparations and search for allies; the campaign in the Nile delta; the impact on recruitment of the simultaneous crusade against the emperor Frederick II; the Mamluk coup and its immediate consequences in the Near East; Western reactions to the failure in Egypt; and the popular 'crusade' of the Pastoureaux in France (1251); which aimed originally to help the absent king; but which degenerated into violence against the clergy and the Jews and had to be suppressed by force.