History of Europe

Eduardo I Longshanks, the failed crusade that almost cost him his life.

Entry taken from the book The Plantagenets.

In some blog posts we have dealt with issues related to the formidable English King Edward I, either from the time when his father Henry III still reigned and he was the heir to the crown (see the entries dedicated to the battle of Lewes and Simon de Montfort), and to his activities when he sat on the throne of England (see the entry dedicated to the death of King Alexander III of Scotland). Precisely his adventures in Scotland are the ones that have given him the most fame lately as a result of the release of the film Braveheart, in which Edward appears as the English king who fought against William Wallace (it is not in vain that Edward had the legend engraved on his coffin Hammer of the Scots).

Today we are going to talk about a lesser-known episode in his life, which occurred right between his status as crown prince and his accession to the crown. Until the year 1265, the main efforts of Henry III and his son Edward were directed at putting an end to the rebellion led by Simon de Montfort. Finally the vastly outnumbered rebel forces were massacred by the royalists at the Battle of Evesham, in which de Montfort was killed and his corpse mutilated. The rebel troops were so numerically inferior that a chronicler of the time spoke of "The murder of Evesham, for battle was none".

After Montfort's death it still took a while to put out the embers of the rebellion, but once the country was pacified the young and impetuous Edward needed some battlefield on which to develop his enormous physical power (in the 18th century his body was unearthed and it was found that he was 1.90 meters tall). The ideal place for any Christian knight of the time was to come to the defense of the Christian territories of Outremer, that is, the possessions conquered during the Crusades.

The project was delayed for a while due to lack of funds (parliament repeatedly denied Edward the necessary money so that he and his army could carry out the trip), but finally on August 20, 1271, Edward and his wife Eleanor of Castile, along with their troops set sail for France. The idea was to join the forces of the French King Louis IX, who would also go to Outremer. However, when Eduardo arrived in France, he found out that Luis had already gone to the port of departure, Aigues Mortes. At full speed the English crossed France, but upon reaching the aforementioned port they found two bad news:the first, that Luis had already set sail; and the second, that he had not made it to the Holy Land, but to Tunisia. The brother of the King of France, Charles of Anjou, had conquered the crown of Sicily and wanted to establish his dominions, reminding the Tunisian vassals of his kingdom that they were somewhat late in paying the amounts owed to the royal treasury. /p>

However, the French army had been tremendously decimated by a plague that took King Louis himself, so from then on the English were on their own. The most sensible thing would have been to end the adventure and return home, but Eduardo wanted nothing to do with it and his fleet headed for the Holy Land. At that time, Christian possessions had been limited to a narrow strip of land with its capital in San Juan de Acre, where the English fleet arrived.

Soon Eduardo realized the reality. Not even by adding his forces to the Christians already residing in the Holy Land and to those of the military orders did they have the slightest chance of facing the Muslim troops, led by the Mamluks of Sultan al-Zahir Baybars. Edward sought and secured an alliance with the Mongols led by Agabha Khan (grandson of the great Genghis). The Mongol cavalry attacked Aleppo and the British took advantage of the dispersion of the Muslim forces that this caused to launch an offensive.

The failure was total; Not only were the British unable to take Qaqun Castle, halfway between Acre and Jerusalem, but shortly afterwards they learned that the Mongols had turned back and the bulk of the Muslim forces were returning, so Edward had to return to Acre; all his troops had done was pillage and kill in various unfortunate surrounding towns.

By this time, Edward's presence was beginning to be uncomfortable not only for his Mamluk enemies, but also for the Christians of Saint John of Acre, who had become accustomed to coexistence with the Muslims in which trade between them was very lucrative for both. Muslims and Christians agreed to a ten-year truce that Edward refused to sign, determined to press on until he took Jerusalem.

Then an event occurred that ended the crusade and almost ended Eduardo's life. One of the sultan's lieutenants arrived in Acre with some companions, claiming to have deserted from the Mamluk side. Edward welcomed them and was unsuspecting when a member of the Muslim defectors asked for a private audience to brief him on the sultan. Alone with Eduardo and the interpreter, the Muslim took out a poisoned dagger and tried to assassinate Eduardo. Although he was able to reduce him, the Muslim had time to hurt him.

Edward's life hung in the balance for days, and though he slowly regained his health, the crusade was already doomed. Still convalescing, he set sail in September 1272 for Sicily, where he was received and entertained by Charles of Anjou. There he learned that on November 16 of that same year his father Henry III had died and that, therefore, he was king of England.

The title of the book by Marc Morris Edward I, A Great and Terrible King, which has served as a source for this post, perfectly sums up the reign of Edward I… but that is another story.

Image| Edward I