The Crusades/V

1217–1221 · 4 event records

Fifth Crusade

Planned at Lateran IV, the crusade aimed to break Ayyubid power in Egypt; Damietta was taken, but the march on Cairo ended in disaster in the Nile flood.

Fifth Crusade — Visual summary
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Crusade file

Fifth Crusade

01

Overview

The Fifth Crusade was planned at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and carried out under Pope Honorius III. Contingents of King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria reached Acre in 1217; when operations in Syria achieved little, the crusaders turned to Egypt, the centre of Ayyubid power.

Damietta was taken in November 1219 after a long siege begun in 1218. Sultan al-Kamil's offer to return Jerusalem in exchange for Damietta was rejected at the insistence of the papal legate Pelagius. In summer 1221 the army marching on Cairo was trapped by the Nile flood near Mansurah and forced to surrender. Damietta was handed back and an eight-year truce was signed.

02

Main route

Acre · Damietta · Nile Delta · Mansurah

03

Outcome

Damietta was returned under an eight-year truce; the rejection of al-Kamil's Jerusalem offer was bitterly debated.

CONTEXTUAL READING

Event records for this crusade

November 1215 · Rome

Fourth Lateran Council and plan for the Fifth Crusade

The Fourth Lateran Council, held by Pope Innocent III in November 1215, was the most comprehensive church assembly of the Middle Ages. Alongside reform canons, its decree Ad liberandam set a new crusade to begin on 1 June 1217 and ordered a special tax on the clergy.

Open record →September–November 1217 · Acre and Galilee

Fifth Crusade armies at Acre

The first armies of the Fifth Crusade, led by King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria, reached Acre in autumn 1217. Campaigns in Galilee and the Jordan valley and an attack on Mount Tabor produced no decisive result; Andrew went home in early 1218 and the target shifted to Egypt.

Open record →May 1218 – 5 November 1219 · Damietta

Capture of Damietta

The army of the Fifth Crusade besieged Damietta in the Nile delta in May 1218. After the chain tower was taken in August 1218 the siege lasted a year and a half; weakened by hunger and disease, the city was taken on 5 November 1219.

Open record →28 August – 8 September 1221 · Mansurah – Damietta

Surrender of the Fifth Crusade army

In July 1221 the army of the Fifth Crusade, advancing toward Cairo under Cardinal Pelagius, was trapped near Mansura by the flooding Nile and dikes opened by Ayyubid forces. The army surrendered at the end of August; Damietta was returned, an eight-year truce was made and prisoners were released on both sides.

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