Fifth Crusade (1217-1221): The Siege of Damietta in Egypt

The Fifth Crusade (1217–1221) was a Western European expedition that tried to recover Jerusalem by first conquering Ayyubid Egypt. Its main achievement was the capture of the Nile port of Damietta in November 1219 after a long siege, but the crusaders rejected an offer of Jerusalem in exchange for the city and were later defeated in the Nile Delta. The campaign is also remembered for the meeting between Francis of Assisi and the sultan al-Kamil.

Background

Pope Innocent III planned the crusade from 1213 and formally launched it at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. He died in July 1216, and his successor Honorius III carried the project forward. Much of the funding came from a church tax, and the Emperor Frederick II promised to take part but repeatedly delayed.

The first contingents, led by King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria, arrived at Acre in 1217. Their campaigns in Palestine achieved little, and Andrew went home early in 1218. The remaining leaders, including King John of Brienne of Jerusalem, then decided to strike at Egypt, the richest part of the Ayyubid realm.

The siege of Damietta

The crusaders landed near Damietta, at the mouth of the eastern branch of the Nile, in late May 1218. The river was blocked by a great chain stretched from a fortified tower. On 24 August 1218 the crusaders captured this chain tower using a floating siege tower built on two ships, a device credited to the chronicler Oliver of Paderborn.

Soon afterwards the old sultan al-Adil died, and his son al-Kamil took charge of Egypt. In September 1218 the papal legate, Cardinal Pelagius, arrived with reinforcements and soon claimed overall command, which caused friction with John of Brienne. The siege dragged on through 1219, with floods, disease and repeated Egyptian attacks.

In 1219 al-Kamil, also facing a threatened rebellion, offered to return Jerusalem and most of the former kingdom west of the Jordan in exchange for Damietta. John of Brienne and many barons favoured accepting. Pelagius, supported by the military orders and the Italians, refused, arguing that the walls of Jerusalem had been dismantled and that the city could not be held without the castles beyond the Jordan.

Francis of Assisi and al-Kamil

In the summer of 1219, Francis of Assisi came to the crusader camp. Probably in September, during a truce, he crossed to the sultan’s camp with a companion and preached before al-Kamil. Accounts by Christian writers say the sultan received him courteously and let him return safely. The episode later became a symbol of dialogue between Christianity and Islam, though its exact details are uncertain.

Capture and loss

Damietta fell on 5 November 1219, when the crusaders found the walls weakly defended and entered the city. Its population had been devastated by famine and disease. The crusaders then waited over a year and a half for Frederick II, who never came, while quarrels over the city divided them.

In July 1221, reinforced by Duke Louis I of Bavaria, Pelagius ordered a march on Cairo. The army advanced up the Nile to near Mansurah, where al-Kamil’s forces held a fortified line. As the river rose, the Egyptians opened sluices and flooded the land behind the crusaders, cutting off their retreat. Trapped and short of food, the army surrendered on 30 August 1221. Damietta was handed back, prisoners were exchanged and an eight-year truce was agreed.

Why the crusade failed

Historians point to several causes. The crusade had no single leader: contingents arrived and left at different times, and the claims of Pelagius to command as the pope’s representative clashed with the authority of John of Brienne, who left the army for a time in 1220 to defend his own interests. The repeated promise that Frederick II would arrive with a great army encouraged delay and made the leaders reluctant to accept a negotiated settlement.

The refusal of al-Kamil’s offers is the most debated decision. Supporters of Pelagius argued that a Jerusalem without walls or the castles of Transjordan could not be defended. Critics, then and since, have seen it as a lost chance to recover the Holy City without further bloodshed. Finally, the march of 1221 was launched just as the Nile flood was beginning, a basic error in a country whose geography depended on the river.

Key people

Cardinal Pelagius of Albano, the papal legate, dominated the crusade’s decisions from 1219. John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem, was the leading secular commander. Al-Kamil, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt from 1218, combined military defence with diplomacy and later negotiated with Frederick II.

Timeline

• 1215, November: Fourth Lateran Council proclaims the crusade.
• 1217, autumn: Andrew II of Hungary and Leopold VI of Austria reach Acre.
• 1218, May: Crusaders land near Damietta.
• 1218, 24 August: The chain tower on the Nile is captured.
• 1219, September: Francis of Assisi meets al-Kamil.
• 1219, 5 November: Damietta falls to the crusaders.
• 1221, 30 August: The crusade army surrenders near Mansurah.

Why it matters

The Fifth Crusade established Egypt as the main crusading target, a strategy repeated by the Seventh Crusade of Louis IX, which also began at Damietta. Its failure, and Frederick II’s absence, led directly to the Sixth Crusade, when Jerusalem was recovered by treaty with the same sultan, al-Kamil.