Fall of Acre (1291): The End of the Crusader Kingdom

The fall of Acre in 1291 was the capture of the last great crusader city in the Holy Land by the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. After a siege lasting from 6 April to 18 May 1291, the army of Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil stormed the walls; the city was sacked and later largely demolished. Within months the remaining crusader towns on the coast surrendered, ending almost two centuries of Latin Christian rule in the Levant that had begun with the First Crusade.

Background: the last crusader capital

Acre had been the main port of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem since the 12th century. After the Third Crusade recaptured it in 1191 (see Siege of Acre), it served as the kingdom’s capital, since Jerusalem itself was held only briefly. By the late 13th century it was a crowded, wealthy commercial city with quarters belonging to Venice, Genoa and Pisa and strongholds of the military orders: the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights.

It was also politically divided. The Italian merchant communities had fought each other in the streets in the War of Saint Sabas (1256–1270). The crown was disputed, and the king, Henry II of Cyprus, ruled from his island through a deputy.

Thirty years of Mamluk conquest

After their victory over the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260, the Mamluks of Egypt turned on the crusader states. Sultan Baybars took Caesarea, Arsuf, Safed, Jaffa and Antioch in the 1260s and Krak des Chevaliers in 1271. His successor Qalawun captured the Hospitaller castle of Marqab in 1285 and the city of Tripoli in April 1289.

Acre itself was protected by a ten-year truce agreed with Qalawun in 1283. Its leaders appealed to Europe for help, but the response was small.

The pretext for war

In 1290 a force of crusaders, mostly poorly disciplined recruits from northern Italy, arrived in Acre. In August 1290 some of them attacked and killed Muslim merchants and peasants in and around the city, as well as some local Christians mistaken for Muslims.

Qalawun demanded that the culprits be handed over. The city’s council refused, offering excuses instead. Qalawun treated this as a breach of the truce and began preparing a great army. He died on 10 November 1290, but his son and successor, al-Ashraf Khalil, continued the plan.

What happened: the siege

The Mamluk army arrived before Acre in early April 1291, and the siege is usually dated from 6 April. It was a very large force drawn from Egypt and all of Syria. Medieval figures are inflated, but historians agree that the attackers vastly outnumbered the defenders, who are commonly estimated at around 15,000 fighting men, including perhaps 700 to 1,000 knights and sergeants on horseback.

Khalil brought dozens of siege engines, including huge trebuchets transported in pieces from Syria, some of which were given names such as “the Victorious” and “the Furious”. Mamluk miners dug under the towers while the engines battered the walls day and night.

Sorties and negotiations

The defenders made several night sorties. In one, the Templars attacked the Mamluk camp but became entangled in tent ropes and were driven back with losses. On 4 May King Henry II arrived from Cyprus with reinforcements, usually given as about 100 to 200 horsemen and some 2,000 foot soldiers. He sent envoys to Khalil, but the sultan offered only the surrender of the city in exchange for the inhabitants’ lives, which was rejected.

By mid-May the mines had brought down the outer defences of the New Tower, also called the Tower of King Henry. On 15 May the Mamluks took the outer works of this tower, and on 16 May they attacked the gate of Saint Anthony, where the Templars and Hospitallers drove them back.

The final assault of 18 May 1291

At dawn on 18 May the Mamluks launched a general assault to the sound of drums, concentrating on the Accursed Tower at the north-eastern angle of the walls. They broke through into the city. The Templar Grand Master William of Beaujeu was struck by an arrow and mortally wounded; the Hospitaller Master John of Villiers was badly wounded but carried to a ship.

Panic followed. Crowds fled to the harbour, where there were too few ships, and many drowned in the overloaded boats, including, according to accounts, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Nicholas of Hanapes. King Henry and many nobles escaped to Cyprus.

The Templars, joined by refugees, held out in their great fortress by the sea. Negotiations broke down, and on 28 May, after the Mamluks had undermined the building, it collapsed during the final assault, killing defenders and attackers alike.

Key people

• al-Ashraf Khalil (c. 1260s–1293): Mamluk sultan from November 1290, who led the siege in person. His victory made him famous, but his harsh treatment of senior emirs led to his assassination after only three years on the throne.
• Qalawun (died 1290): Khalil’s father, who took Tripoli in 1289 and began the preparations for the attack on Acre.
• William of Beaujeu (died 1291): Grand Master of the Templars since 1273. He had warned Acre of the coming attack and died of his wounds during the final assault.
• John of Villiers: Master of the Hospitallers, who survived his wounds and led his order to Cyprus.
• Henry II of Cyprus (c. 1270–1324): King of Cyprus and Jerusalem, who brought reinforcements to Acre and escaped by sea when the city fell.
• The Templar of Tyre: an anonymous eyewitness, probably a secretary to William of Beaujeu, whose chronicle is the most detailed Christian account of the siege.

Consequences

Khalil ordered Acre’s walls and many buildings destroyed so that the crusaders could never return. The rest of the coast fell quickly:

• Tyre was abandoned without a fight on 19 May.
• Sidon fell in July, after the Templars withdrew to their sea castle and then left.
• Beirut surrendered at the end of July.
• Tortosa (Tartus) and the Templar castle of Atlit were evacuated in August.

The Templars kept only the small island of Ruad (Arwad) off Syria until 1302 or 1303. The military orders moved their headquarters to Cyprus. Within two decades the Templars had been suppressed in Europe (1307–1312), while the Hospitallers moved on to Rhodes in 1309–1310.

Al-Ashraf Khalil returned to Cairo in triumph but was murdered by his own emirs in December 1293.

Legacy

The fall of Acre shocked Western Europe. Popes and writers produced plans for new crusades to recover the Holy Land, but none succeeded. Crusading energy shifted towards the Baltic, Spain and, later, the defence of Europe against the Ottomans. In the Muslim world the victory completed the work begun by Saladin a century earlier and confirmed the Mamluk Sultanate as the leading power of the region.

Acre itself recovered only slowly. Much of the crusader city now lies beneath the Ottoman-era town, and the Old City of Acre, with its underground crusader halls, is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Timeline

• 1283: Truce agreed between Qalawun and Acre.
• 1289, April: Qalawun captures Tripoli.
• 1290, August: Italian crusaders kill Muslims in and around Acre.
• 1290, 10 November: Qalawun dies; al-Ashraf Khalil becomes sultan.
• 1291, 6 April: The siege of Acre begins.
• 1291, 4 May: Henry II of Cyprus arrives with reinforcements.
• 1291, 18 May: General assault; the city falls.
• 1291, 28 May: The Templar fortress collapses.
• 1291, July–August: Sidon, Beirut, Tortosa and Atlit are surrendered or evacuated.

Why it matters

The fall of Acre marked the end of the crusader states on the mainland of the Levant, almost two hundred years after the First Crusade. It closed one of the defining chapters of medieval history and changed the direction of crusading and of the military orders that had grown up to defend the Holy Land.