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When [[Jerusalem]] was lost in 1187, the Crusaders moved their headquarters to the coastal city of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], which they held for the next hundred years, until the [[Siege of Acre (1291)|Fall of Acre]] in 1291. They then moved their headquarters north to [[Tartus|Tortosa]] on the coast of [[Syria]], but lost that too on August 4, followed by the loss of the stronghold of [[Atlit]] on August 14.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=BgQ6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA70 ''The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem'' by Denys Pringle p.70]</ref> The remaining elements of the dwindling [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]] relocated their headquarters offshore to the island of [[Cyprus]].<ref name="Barber-22">{{cite book | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=rqfE2l0cowgC&pg=RA1-PA22 | title=The trial of the templars, p.22''ff''| author=Malcom Barber | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2006 | isbn=0521856396 }}</ref>
When [[Jerusalem]] was lost in 1187, the Crusaders moved their headquarters to the coastal city of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], which they held for the next hundred years, until the [[Siege of Acre (1291)|Fall of Acre]] in 1291. They then moved their headquarters north to [[Tartus|Tortosa]] on the coast of [[Syria]], but lost that too on August 4, followed by the loss of the stronghold of [[Atlit]] on August 14.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=BgQ6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA70 ''The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem'' by Denys Pringle p.70]</ref> The remaining elements of the dwindling [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]] relocated their headquarters offshore to the island of [[Cyprus]].<ref name="Barber-22">{{cite book | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=rqfE2l0cowgC&pg=RA1-PA22 | title=The trial of the templars, p.22''ff''| author=Malcom Barber | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2006 | isbn=0521856396 }}</ref>


The nearest (non-Crusader) Christian kingdom in Asia was that of [[Little Armenia]], which was suffering greatly from the attacks of the Egyptian Mamluks.<ref name="Barber-22"/> In 1298–99 the Mamluks attacked Syria, capturing [[Servantikar]] and [[Roche-Guillaume]], the last Templar stronghold in the Levant.<ref name="Demurger 142">Demurger, p.142''ff''</ref> The Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, and his colleague of the [[Hospitallers]], [[Guillaume de Villaret]], apparently participated in the ineffective defence of these fortresses, the losses of which prompted the Armenian king [[Hethum II, King of Armenia|Hethum II]] to request the intervention of the [[Ilkhan|Mongol ruler of Persia]], [[Ghazan]].<ref name="Demurger 142"/>
The nearest (non-Crusader) Christian kingdom in Asia was that of [[Cilician Armenia]], which was suffering greatly from the attacks of the Egyptian Mamluks.<ref name="Barber-22"/> In 1298–99 the Mamluks attacked Syria, capturing [[Servantikar]] and [[Roche-Guillaume]], the last Templar stronghold in the Levant.<ref name="Demurger 142">Demurger, p.142''ff''</ref> The Grand Master of the Templars, [[Jacques de Molay]], and the leader of the [[Hospitallers]], [[Guillaume de Villaret]], apparently participated in the ineffective defence of these fortresses, the losses of which prompted the Armenian king [[Hethum II, King of Armenia|Hethum II]] to request the intervention of the [[Ilkhan|Mongol ruler of Persia]], [[Ghazan]].<ref name="Demurger 142"/>


In 1299, as he prepared an offensive against Syria, Ghazan had sent embassies to the king of Cyprus and to Boniface VIII, inviting them to participate in combined operations against the Mamluks.<ref name="Barber-22"/><ref name="Jackson 171"/> Henry made some attempts to combine with the Mongols,<ref name="Jackson 171"/> and in the autumn of 1299 he sent a fleet of two galleys, led by [[Guy of Ibelin (died 1304)|Guy of Ibelin]] and [[Jean II de Giblet|John of Giblet]], to join Ghazan. The fleet successfully reoccupied [[Botrun]] on the mainland, and began rebuilding the fortress of [[Nephin]] (until February 1300).<ref name="Demurger 142"/><ref name="Jackson 171"/>
In 1299, as he prepared an offensive against Syria, Ghazan had sent embassies to the king of Cyprus and to [[Pope Boniface VIII]], inviting them to participate in combined operations against the Mamluks.<ref name="Barber-22"/><ref name="Jackson 171"/> Henry made some attempts to combine with the Mongols,<ref name="Jackson 171"/> and in the autumn of 1299 sent a fleet of two galleys, led by [[Guy of Ibelin (died 1304)|Guy of Ibelin]] and [[Jean II de Giblet|John of Giblet]], to join Ghazan. The fleet successfully reoccupied [[Botrun]] on the mainland, and began rebuilding the fortress of [[Nephin]] (until February 1300).<ref name="Demurger 142"/><ref name="Jackson 171"/>


==Ruad as bridgehead==
==Ruad as bridgehead==

Revision as of 23:22, 1 March 2010

Ruins of the fortress of Ruad, where the Crusaders attempted to set up a bridgehead to re-take the Holy Land

The Fall of Ruad in 1302/3 was one of the culminating events of the Crusades in the Eastern Mediterranean. When the garrison on the tiny Isle of Ruad fell, it marked the loss of the last Crusader outpost on the coast of the Levant. As lead up to this event, in 1291 the Crusaders had lost their main power base at the coastal city of Acre, and the Muslim Mamluks had been systematically destroying any remaining Crusader ports and fortresses since then, forcing the Crusaders to relocate their dwindling Kingdom of Jerusalem to the island of Cyprus. In 1299/1300, the Cypriots sought to re-take the Syrian port city of Tortosa, by setting up a staging area on Ruad, two miles off the coast of Tortosa. The plans were to coordinate an offensive between the forces of the Crusaders, and those of the Ilkhanate (Mongol Persia). However, though the Crusaders successfully established a bridgehead on the island, the Mongols did not arrive, and the Crusaders were forced to retreat the bulk of their forces to Cyprus. The Knights Templar set up a permanent garrison on the island in 1300, but the Mamluks besieged and captured Ruad in 1302 or 1303. With the loss of the island, the Crusaders lost their last foothold in the Holy Land. Attempts at other Crusades continued for centuries, but the Europeans were never again to occupy any territory in the Holy Land until the 20th century during the events of World War I.[1]

Background

When Jerusalem was lost in 1187, the Crusaders moved their headquarters to the coastal city of Acre, which they held for the next hundred years, until the Fall of Acre in 1291. They then moved their headquarters north to Tortosa on the coast of Syria, but lost that too on August 4, followed by the loss of the stronghold of Atlit on August 14.[2] The remaining elements of the dwindling Kingdom of Jerusalem relocated their headquarters offshore to the island of Cyprus.[3]

The nearest (non-Crusader) Christian kingdom in Asia was that of Cilician Armenia, which was suffering greatly from the attacks of the Egyptian Mamluks.[3] In 1298–99 the Mamluks attacked Syria, capturing Servantikar and Roche-Guillaume, the last Templar stronghold in the Levant.[4] The Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, and the leader of the Hospitallers, Guillaume de Villaret, apparently participated in the ineffective defence of these fortresses, the losses of which prompted the Armenian king Hethum II to request the intervention of the Mongol ruler of Persia, Ghazan.[4]

In 1299, as he prepared an offensive against Syria, Ghazan had sent embassies to the king of Cyprus and to Pope Boniface VIII, inviting them to participate in combined operations against the Mamluks.[3][5] Henry made some attempts to combine with the Mongols,[5] and in the autumn of 1299 sent a fleet of two galleys, led by Guy of Ibelin and John of Giblet, to join Ghazan. The fleet successfully reoccupied Botrun on the mainland, and began rebuilding the fortress of Nephin (until February 1300).[4][5]

Ruad as bridgehead

From Cyprus, the Europeans, including King Henry of Jerusalem and members of the three military orders (Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights), attempted to retake Tortosa in 1300. On the eve of the Ruad expedition, relations between the Templars and the King of Cyprus, Henry II, were stressed, as the former Grand Master Guillaume de Beaujeu had supported a rival claimant to the Cypriot throne.[3] Pope Boniface VIII had since ordered Jacques de Molay to resolve the disputes with Henry II.[3]

The Cypriots ferried troops to the tiny waterless island of Ruad, just two miles off the coast from Tortosa, in preparation for a seaborne assault on the city.

Franco-Mongol operations in the Levant, 1299–1300

[3][5] The hopes were that in synchronization with the naval assault, there would also be a land-based attack by the Mongols of the Ilkhanate.[6][7][8]

However, Ghazan's Mongols did not show up as planned, and the bulk of the Crusader forces returned to Cyprus, having accomplished little except some ineffectual raids. When the Mongols arrived a few months later, they too could do little but launch some raids before withdrawing.

Winter Mongol offensive

Ghazan inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mamluks on 22 December 1299 at the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, assisted by the troops of Hethum II, which included a contingent of Templars and Hospitallers from Little Armenia.[4][5] Ghazan's forces then launched some raids into Palestine from December 1299 until May 1300, reaching as far as Gaza and entering multiple cities, probably including Jerusalem. The Mongols' success in Syria inspired enthusiastic rumours in the West, that the Holy Land had been conquered and that Jerusalem was to be returned to the West.[4][9][10] In May however, when the Egyptians again advanced from Cairo, the remaining Mongols retreated without resistance.[5] Ghazan himself had had to leave as early as February, due to a revolt in the East led by Qutlugh-Khoja, the son of the Jagataid ruler of Turkestan.[11] Before leaving he announced that he would return by November 1300, and sent letters and ambassadors to West so that they could prepare themselves. A Mongol ambassador named Vicarius visited the Pope in July 1300.[4]

Naval raid of July 1300

In July 1300,[12] probably in order to reaffirm his commitment to the military alliance with the Mongols, Henry II set up a large naval raiding operation. Sixteen galleys combining the forces of Cyprus with those of the Templars and Hospitallers were able to raid Rosetta, Alexandria, Acre, Tortosa and Maraclea. Ghazan's Western ambassador, Isol the Pisan, was onboard, and raised the Mongol banner.[3][5][13]

The Knights Templar attempted to create a permanent base on Ruad, and were even granted ownership of the island by the Pope. Their base included 120 Templar knights, 500 bowmen and 400 men and women serving the garrison, all under the command of Barthélemy de Quincy, Marshal of the Order of the Knights Templar.

Siege

In 1302, the Mamluks sent a fleet of 16 ships from Egypt, to Tripoli, from which they besieged the island.[14] They disembarked in two points and set up their own encampment. The Templars fought the invaders, but were eventually starved out. Brother Hugh of Dampierre negotiated a surrender to the Mamluks on September 26, under the condition that they could safely escape to a Christian land of their choice. However when the Templars began to emerge, the Mamluks did not respect the agreement, and combat ensued. Barthélemy de Quincy was killed in the conflict, all the bowmen and Syrian Christians were executed, and dozens of the surviving Templar knights were taken as prisoners to Cairo, where they died of starvation after years of ill-treatment.[15]

The Cypriots had been assembling a fleet to rescue Ruad, which set out from Famagusta, but did not arrive in time.[14]

Expedition of November 1300

Franco-Mongol combined offensives, 1300–1

The citadel of Atlit, having been dismantled by the Mamluks in 1291, Tortosa remained the only stronghold on the mainland which had the potential to be recaptured, especially since Ruad, the Crusaders' only base, lay so close by offshore.[8]

In November 1300 Jacques de Molay and the king's brother, Amaury of Lusignan, launched an expedition to reoccupy Tortosa. Their forces numbred some six hundred, including about 150 Templars.[3] While the Templar Grand Master had high hopes for the operation,[5] the attempt to reoccupy Tortosa lasted only twenty-five days, and the Crusaders acted more like plunderers, destroying property and taking captives. They did not stay permanently in the city, but set up base on Ruad.[3][4] The presence of the Grand Master on Ruad can be established for the month of November 1300.[16] The Mongols were delayed by the rigourous winter, and the planned junction did not happen.[8]

In February 1301 the Mongols, accompanied by the Armenian king Hethum, finally made their promised advance into Syria.[8][5] General Kutlushka went to Little Armenia to fetch troops and from their moved south past Antioch.[4] The Armenians were also accompanied by Guy of Ibelin, Count of Jaffa, and John of Giblet.[4][17] While Kutlushka had a force of 60,000, he could do little else than engage in some perfunctory raiding as far as the environs of Aleppo.[5] When Ghazan announced that he had cancelled his operations for the year, the Crusaders, after some deliberations, decided to return to Cyprus, leaving only a garrison on Ruad.[4][5][17] From his stronghold of Limassol, in Cyprus, Jacques de Molay continued to send appeals to the West to organize the sending of troops and supplies.[16]

Reinforcement of Ruad

Crusader troops at Ruad
November 1300
–January 1301 		May 1301
–April 1302
Cypriots 300 500
Templars 150 120
Hospitallers 150 0

In November 1301, Pope Boniface VIII officially granted Ruad to the Knights Templar.[3] They strengthened its fortifications of Ruad, and installed a force of 120 knights, 500 archers and 400 servants as a permanent garrison.[8][4] This represented a considerable commitment: "close to half the size of the normal complement [of Templars] for the twelfth-century Kingdom of Jerusalem".[8][17] They were under the command of the Templar marshal Barthélemy de Quincy.[8][4]

Plans for combined operations between the Europeans and the Mongols were made for the following winters (1301, 1302).[18] A surviving letter from Jacques de Molay to Edward I of England, dated 8 April 1301, informed the king of the troubles encountered by Ghazan, but announcing his planned arrival in autumn:

"And our convent, with all our galleys and tarides (light galleys) [lacuna] has been transported to the isle of Tortosa to await Ghazan's army and his Tartars."

— Jacques de Molay, letter to Edward I, April 8, 1301[19]

In a letter to the king of Aragon a few months later, Jacques wrote:[18]

"The king of Armenia had sent his messengers to the king of Cyprus to tell him . . . that Ghazan was now on the point of coming to the sultan's lands with a multitude of Tartars. Knowing this, we now intend to go to the isle of Tortosa, where our convent has remained all this year with horses and arms, causing much damage to the casaux along the coast and capturing many Saracens. We intend to go there and settle in to await the Tartars."

— Jacques de Molay, letter to the king of Aragon, 1301.[18]

Ghazan himself sent a letter to king Edward I in 1302.[5]

Mamluk counter-attack

File:Arwadair.jpg
Ruad today, as seen from the air

In mid-1302 the Mamluks attacked Ruad with a fleet of sixteen galleys and captured it.[3][5] Ruad was to be the last Crusader base in the Levant.[20] The Mamluks slaughtered many of the inhabitants, beheaded the Syrian footsoldiers, and captured the surviving Templars to send them to prison in Cairo.[3] About forty of the Templars were still in prison in Cairo several years later, refusing to apostasize.[3]

Ghazan made a last attack on the Mamluks in Spring 1303, which ended in disaster. His general Qutlugh Shah was defeated near Damascus at the Battle of Marj al-Saffar on 20 April.[5] When Ghazan died in 1304, Jacques de Molay's dream of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land was doused. Subsequently the Grand Master opposed small-scale attacks in anticipation of larger forces as a strategy to recapture the Holy Land.[3] In 1305 Pope Clement V made new plans for a Crusade,[3] and in 1307 received new ambassadors from the Mongol leader Oljeitu, which cheered him "like spiritual sustenance" and encouraging him to evoke the restitution of the Holy Land by the Mongols as a strong possibility.[5] To develop these plans, Jacques de Molay was summoned to France, from which he would never return.[3]

Aftermath

Ruad was the last Christian settlement in the Holy Land. The Mongols did return in 1303 in great strength, with 80,000 troops in combination with the Armenians, but were unable to make headway. The Franks from Cyprus did continue to engage in some naval attacks along the Syrian coast, destroying Damour, south of Beyrout.[21] However the Mongol forces, led by Ghazan's generals Mulay and Kutlushah, along with their Armenian vassals, were defeated at the Battle of Homs on March 30, 1303, and at the decisive Battle of Shaqhab, south of Damas, on April 21, 1303.[22] It is considered to be the last major Mongol invasion of Syria.[23]

Notes

  1. ^ Demurger, chapter "The Isle of Ruad", in The Last Templar.
  2. ^ The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem by Denys Pringle p.70
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Malcom Barber (2006). The trial of the templars, p.22ff. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521856396.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Demurger, p.142ff
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Peter Jackson (2005). The Mongols and the West, 1221-1410, p.170ff. Pearson Education. ISBN 0582368960.
  6. ^ "From 1299, Jacques de Molay and his Order fully committed, with the other Christian forces of Cyprus and Armenia, to a reconquest of the Holy Land in liaison with the offensives of Ghazan, the Mongol khan of Persia; the occupation of Ruad for two years, on the Syrian coast near Tortosa, must be understood in this perspective, and would even add, in this perspective only." Alain Demurger, p.139
  7. ^ Crusader art in the Holy Land Jaroslav Folda p.525
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Malcom Barber (1995). The New Knighthood, p. 294. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521558727.
  9. ^ Andrew Jotischky (2004). Crusading and the crusader states, p.249. Pearson Education. ISBN 0582418518.
  10. ^ Helen Nicholson (2001). The Knights Hospitaller, p.45. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 0851158455.
  11. ^ The Islamic world in ascendancy: from the Arab conquests to the siege of Vienna by Martin Sicker p.128
  12. ^ The date comes from Malcom Barber, The new Knighthood, Cambridge University Press, 1995, ISBN 0521558727, p.293
  13. ^ Demurger, pp. 142 & 147
  14. ^ a b Barber, The New Knighthood, p. 294
  15. ^ "Nearly 40 of these men were still in prison in Cairo years later where, according to a former fellow prisoner, the Genoese Matthew Zaccaria, they died of starvation, having refused an offer of 'many riches and goods' in return for apostatising" The Trial of the Templars, Malcolm Barber, p.22
  16. ^ a b Demurger, p.159
  17. ^ a b c Peter W. Edbury (1991). Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191-1374, p.105. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521268761.
  18. ^ a b c Demurger, p.154ff
  19. ^ Quoted in Demurger, p.154. PRO, Ancient Correspondence, Special Collections 1/55, f. 22; published in Sacrae Domus Militiae Templi, p. 368.
  20. ^ Ibn Khaldun: the Mediterranean in the 14th century : rise and fall of Empiresp.19
  21. ^ Demurger, "Jacques de Molay", p.158
  22. ^ Demurger, p. 158
  23. ^ Nicolle, p. 80

References

  • Demurger, Alain, 2007, "Jacques de Molay", Payot
  • Barber, Malcolm, The Trial of the Templars
  • Barber, Malcolm, The New Knighthood
  • Jackson, Peter, Mongols and the West

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