Excerpt from
Kings of Eden by Dr. Louis Montaleux, Professor of History at the University of Jerusalem. (2010)
Fulk II's bold proclamation at St. Pierre in July 1528 that he would take the two most holy cities in the Islamic faith was just another indicator of his loosening grip on fully understanding the reality of the situation but it also presented an all too familiar issue for the Kingdom, dating back to its days as a Monastic Order on Rhodes. The roads from St. Pierre to Jerusalem and eventually Acre remained immensely busy. From St. Pierre came reports of successful raids, new intelligence, and paranoid inquiries from Fulk himself to his Conseil du Roi in Jerusalem who were being kept in the city almost as prisoners. From Acre and Jerusalem to the small outpost in Oultrejordain came hordes of mercenaries purchased on weakening credit from all over Europe and shipped directly to the front.
What this culminated in was a sizable army in the middle of a barren land which turned into a logistical nightmare. In October of 1528 the camel's back finally broke and the nobles of the Kingdom ceased sending shipments of food, crops, and livestock to assist in feeding the army. They invented a litany of reasons for their failures but few, if any, are considered credible. While this doesn't amount to outright rebellion it is a signal to Fulk II (whether he received it or not) that the nobles were unwilling to unabashedly fund and support this war much longer. This lack of food put immense pressure on Fulk II to do something with his army lest it disintegrate from either starvation of food or money. Of no surprise to a modern historian, he waited until the exact worst time to finally march his army, February 1529. Despite Arabia's vast climate stereotype the desert can be an extremely dangerous place in winter and temperatures plummeted at night. On top of this, the Bedouins had departed the area for the winter and thus many had left the army which meant the best scouts of the Kingdom and the only people who truly understood the region were absent from the ensuing campaign.
The initial movement forward took Taima and Tabuk easily enough with minimal resistance and Fulk II split his army into two forces. The majority of the army marched towards Yanbu at the behest of Fulk's chief commanders begging to open a coastal port to have supplies ferried down the coast from Rougeville (Author's Note: Aqaba) while a much smaller force moved onto Medina.
In Egypt the smaller forces continued their excursions along the coast to take territory from the crumbling Mamluk Sultanate but again Fulk II's growing ignorance of warfare showed. He critically failed to move his Egyptian forces down the Gulf of Suez in Egypt and now his forces were stretched so far as to make communication and coordination impossible. This also meant that the Mamluks, who had moved south, were able to continue to send intelligence, forces, and supplies across the Red Sea to Jeddah to bolster their allies. The main army in Yanbu was also feeling the pains of the campaign with the mercenary forces acting on their own to sack villages and towns for their own wealth.
Fulk II's focus on Yanbu left his army in Medina to act as a tempting bait for the bulk of the Mamluk and Hejaz army that had hunkered down in Mecca, expecting a cataclysmic battle at the gates of the great city. Presented with this new opportunity the battle would not be held in Mecca but instead in Medina. The unintended feint worked well and the armies met in Medina in March of 1529.
The battle resulted in a loss for Fulk II due in large part to the failure of the mercenary troops to adhere to any sense of coordinated battle plan. Starved and low on morale, the retreating Outremer army took their frustrations out onto the villages and towns in their path back to St. Pierre. Upon their arrival Fulk II was also met with his Conseil du Roi who had traveled there in hopes of convincing their King to cease the war immediately. Fulk II took these pleas for peace as treason and had Lord Chancellor Fouche hung as the chief culprit.
In my final breath I pray for his majesty, the King, to be benevolent, kind, and generous to his people. I have spent my life only dutifully serving his majesty and the Kingdom of Jerusalem and I know God will greet me with open arms. Long live the King and long live Jerusalem! - Lord Chancellor Alexander Fouche's last words before his execution in St. Pierre.
Much to his bipolar nature, he sent eventually took the advice of his advisors and sent envoys to the Mamluks to negotiate a peace in the hopes that it would at least relieve some burden from the Kingdom. His goals of conquering Egypt fell slightly short however and the resulting treaty only brought Rashid, Damietta, as-Suways, and Ras Gareb into Jerusalem's hands. This was not a complete failure however as it meant the acquisition of key ports on the Mediterranean coast and further control of the Red Sea, although this also meant inheriting a people unwilling to bow their knee to their new Christian liege.
Bolstered by what he saw as "God's divine grace," Fulk II marched his weakened army again into Arabia. His goal of conquering Mecca was incessant and he spoke constantly on the subject to those around him, although that group was dwindling with his increasing paranoia.
The King is sick in the mind. Tonight he shared with us that our victory in Mecca was all but assured for he was gifted with an invisible token from the Archangel Gabriel that guided his decisions and he had been elevated to the same status as Moses himself, a divine prophet guided by God to do his bidding. I don't think any of us can claim we expect to return alive from this. I have made my peace with God but I fear he will not acknowledge my pleas for forgiveness for we have sinned mightily. - Sir John Edgerton
The army marched deep into Arabia again and this time quickly took Yanbu before finally marching onto Mecca. Fulk again ignored the advice his commanders and left no forces in Yanbu which meant the Hejaz army easily circumvented the army in Mecca to cut off the Outremers in Yanbu, confident in the knowledge that Mecca was well prepared for a siege.
This new development was too much for Fulk II's fragile mental state. He collapsed in his tent outside Mecca when given the news that the superior Hejaz army would soon take Yanbu which would make a defeat in Mecca nearly assured. The remaining members of the Conseil du Roi (Just two: Grand Master Gaston Artois and Grand Chamberlain Friedrich von Ritter) took matters into their own hands. They rode to the Hejaz army with several other Outremer commanders to begin negotiations for peace in early 1530 without Fulk II's knowledge.
What had all the bloodshed (1 in 30 men in the Kingdom had been killed) and financial ruin (the Kingdom was almost drowning in debt from mercenary and interest payments) bought them? The single desolate province of Taima which paled in comparison to the gains in Egypt despite that campaign being the easiest. Despite the outcome of the war, the Conseil du Roi and major nobles of the Kingdom were eager to not tarnish the Kingdom's fledgling reputation or erode the prestige associated with the crown for fear that when Fulk II came to his senses they too would be executed as traitors. This may come as a shock to modern day readers but despite Fulk II's mental state he still carried a vast amount of loyalty out of shared zealousness for the cause. The treaty was carefully communicated to the powers that be in the Kingdom in the best light possible and was predominantly taken as a monumental victory. History would say otherwise but what the Kingdom of Jerusalem understood at the time was that two major regional Muslim powers had been fought to the point that territory was taken and not lost. The real cost of the campaign would reveal itself over the next few decades.
By March of 1530 the mercenary army had been dissolved and peace had returned to Jerusalem. Fulk II marched into Jerusalem to cheering crowds with plans to erect a costly Triumphal Arch, in homage to the Romans of the past. But the Kingdom would not be spared from their mad King for long.
