LVI. David’s Crusade (the Sixth)
David is destined to lead the greatest expedition in the Holy Land since the time of Werner’s unfortunate Fourth Crusade, exactly a century before. Since then, no relevant Christian leader has ventured there, preferring easier targets in North Africa;
the Kingdom of Jerusalem still survives in truncated form under weaker and weaker Lusignan monarchs exercising a symbolic rule on the Holy Sepulchre and another small feud on the Nile Delta.
But the Lusignan authority is so rotten within that in 1329 two brothers, Innocenzo and Sanche, begin to fight over the modest legacy left by their father. The following year Innocenzo defeats Sanche, but the consequence of this pitiful conflict is simply that the Muslim forces surrounding Jerusalem find it even easier to storm the vulnerable city few years later.
Finally, on 29th June 1336 Pope Osmond (de Hauteville) writes a circular letter to all Christian leaders to induce them to undertake the sacred mission of freeing Jerusalem. With a treasury in excess of 8.000 gold bezants, a powerful and well-equipped army, a well renowned name and a network of naval bases spanning the Eastern Mediterranean,
the Duchy of Apulia seems to be fated to lead the Sixth Crusade.
More than Duke Alexios, the goal inflames his brother David. The ducal couple seem tepid in their support to the enterprise: Alexios is content with his three ducal titles, bearing in mind that Normans have not recently collected great successes in the Levant; Finnguala, now also chancellor, tries to oppose David’s plans as she desperately pushes for assistance to be rather given to her brother Cairthenn of Scotland, embroiled in the Great Northern War.
On the other hand,
for David the crusade is a quest for lands and laurels rather than a religious matter. The young man is ambitious and pugnacious, and he appreciates that, as a cadet, there will not be room for him at home. Thus, he assembles an army of 13.000 men (roughly 7.000 levied in Salerno and 6.000 Scottish mercenaries of the Highland Claymore Company), hires a fleet of galleys for 350 bezants and on 25th July 1336 sets sail from Calabria. In November 1336 David’s fleet coasts Crete, arriving at Pelusia in Egypt on the day after Christmas. Although the Nile Delta is firmly in Christian hands, during the exhausting marches the warm Egyptian sun parch the Apulian soldiers with thirst. When in late January 1337 David finally reaches the friendly post of El-Arish, ruled by his uncle Tancred de Hauteville, only slightly more than 11.000 crusaders remain: he has lost some 2.000 men in the crossing of the Mediterranean and the subsequent passage through the Sinai desert.
After some rest, David resumes his march but takes a longer route through Negev, reaching Amman before approaching Jerusalem from the East. Instead, the Scottish mercenary group does not follow the steps of the leader and moves through Beersheb and Hebron, investing the city of the Sepulchre directly from South. On 19th March 1337 David ascends a hill that commands a view of Jerusalem and summons the city’s ruler Sheik Mervan to surrender.
Faced with Mervan’s refusal, David starts the siege of Jerusalem, confident of his own chances. Despite some progress, April and May pass without the capitulation of the Muslims. In the following weeks, Duke Osbert of Cairo, a distant relative of Alexios and David and one of the key vassals of Mauger of Sicily in Egypt, comes and joins the siege – with the consequences we will see below. On 13th June, after almost three months of siege,
Mervan surrenders Jerusalem to Osbert of Cairo personally (there are unconfirmed tales of bribery), rather than to the crusade’s leader David. The usurper claims Jerusalem as his own, making pretence of being the highest King’s lieutenant on the field.
Furious and disillusioned, David immediately leaves Jerusalem and marches north, willing to grab at any cost his well-deserved slice of glory. The progress of Alexios’ brother is not molested, and he quickly arrives at Acre. Yet, near that city an engagement with the defenders could not be avoided.
Despite a remarkable superiority (9.000 crusaders against 2.000 Muslims), David’s army morale, and particularly that of the Scottish bands, has been weakened by the incessant troubles and lack of spoils. So when Nabil of Acre makes a sortie in force, David suffers his first terrible defeat on 7th July. David commands a retreat, and the crusaders get some weeks of rest. In autumn David resumes the attacks against Acre, this time with new powerful siege weapons, trebuchets, but in November the inopportune envoys of Mauger of Sicily are cajoled by Nabil and persuaded to sign a truce, a silly episode that will be repeated at Hebron in early 1338 causing David an outburst of rage against the king.
The affronts suffered at Jerusalem, Acre and Hebron, more than the difficulties of the campaign, finally induce David to leave the Holy Land. Despite the fascinating march on (and liberation of) Jerusalem, for which later in the year
Alexios and David receive the personal praise of Pope Osmond, the venture has not brought the hoped-for fruits. The loss of 9.000 soldiers (2/3 of those departed two years before from Apulia) on the plains of Palestine has earned David more honour than lands. With the exception of a small tail represented by the temporary Sicilian capture of Al’Aqabah, the coastal town on the Red Sea, with David de Hauteville’s departure the Sixth Crusade comes to an end.
Rumours from distant lands – The Second Aragonese-Portuguese War
In summer 1329 the Portuguese raid Faro, initiating the second war against Aragon after the one lost in 1284.
Garcia of Portugal has probably chosen the right moment to declare war on Aragon – that is when the rival country is in the middle a dynastic crisis after the premature death of its young monarch, Flazino. Having died childless the previous year, he has been succeeded by his brother Elpidius who unfortunately suffers from the adverse effects of family inbreeding.
From Faro, Garcia proceeds to take Caceres while the enemy garrisons still stand unprepared. Some skirmishes on the northern frontier with Papal mercenaries supporting Aragon do not divert many Portuguese forces and result in insignificant losses for King Garcia. Thus, in the subsequent year,
the Portuguese army can carry on a massive invasion of Andalusia, capturing key citadels like Almeria, Cadiz and Sevilla. Up to 1331, war accounts only record Portuguese victories and conquests, then follow several years marked by a lack of major changes. Under the leadership of a new, better king – Ramon Roger – the Aragonese nation recovers forces and ground until in late 1330s the course of the war definitively changes: Garcia of Portugal dies in 1337, passing the crown to the deficient Gil de Borgonha (thus switching again the dynastic priority of succession from the House of Lara to the competing House of Borgonha). The poor Gil dies in 1341 leaving his wrecked crown to Duarte, but in the meantime Ramon Roger d’Aragon pushes through, to the point that Duarte cannot even enter his capital Lisboa, captured by the Aragonese.
Duarte’s short reign does not change the odds of the conflict: the
Armistice of Christmas (25th December 1348) finally comes to relief Duarte of his troubles, forcing him to abdicate in favour of Alfonso III (another dynastic switch among Borgonha and Lara!!!). The losses suffered by Portugal with the truce of December 1348 are catastrophic: Mertola, Plasencia, Caceres and Folcalquier go to Aragon, not counting war indemnities in excess of 900 gold coins.
The armistice would not last very long: after one year and half, the new King of Aragon
Ramon Berenguer denounces the truce, taking the military initiative in the south of Portugal. Following a new occupation of Lisboa, Alfonso III is forced to sign an embarrassing treaty, by the terms of which Lisboa, Silves and Zamora are ceded to Aragon. Of Portugal, it remains very little now…
Ramon Berenguer’s domain in 1351 (red-squared the additions after the Second Aragonese-Portuguese War)
