Osprey's study of the battle at Acre, one of the last campaigns of the Crusages (1095-1291). In April 1291, a Mamluk army laid siege to Acre, the last great Crusader fortress in the Holy Land. For six weeks, the siege dragged on until the Mamluks took the outer wall, which had been breached in several places. The Military Orders drove back the Mamluks temporarily, but three days later the inner wall was breached. King Henry escaped, but the bulk of the defenders and most of the citizens perished in the fighting or were sold into slavery. The surviving knights fell back to their fortress, resisting for ten days, until the Mamluks broke through. This book depicts the dramatic collapse of this great fortress, whose demise marked the end of the Crusades in the Holy Land.

The city of Acre, powerfully fortified and richly provisioned, was the last crusader stronghold. When it fell in 1291, two hundred years of Christian crusading in the Holy Land came to a bloody end. With his customary narrative brilliance and immediacy, Roger Crowley chronicles the tumultuous and violent attack on Acre, the heaviest bombardment before the age of gunpowder, which left this once great Mediterranean city a crumbling ruin.The ‘Accursed Tower’ was the focal point of this siege. As the last garrison of the Crusader defences, it came to symbolise the disintegration of the old world and the rise of a new era of Islamic jihad. Crowley’s narrative is based on forensic research, drawing heavily on little known first hand sources, both Christian and Arabic. This is a fast-paced and gripping account of a pivotal moment in world history.

In the crusader period Acre was in many ways a remarkable place, but the most striking thing about its history is the number of times it fell to enemies. The present volume Acre and Its Falls is unusual in that it analyses a wide range of aspects of the history of Acre across the crusader period, combining political, military and cultural history, with a notable emphasis on the memory of the city in Europe. This may have been a city famous for its falls, but most certainly not for them alone. Contributors are Adrian J. Boas, Charles W. Connell, Paul F. Crawford, Susan B. Edgington, Marie-Luise Favreau-Lilie, John France, Anna Gilmour-Bryson, John D. Hosler, Georg Philipp Melloni, Janus Møller Jensen, J. Rubin, and Iris Shagrir.

Offers an unprecedentedly rich portrait of the vibrant intellectual and intercultural exchanges sparked by the Crusades in thirteenth-century Acre.

The Knights Templars began as a nine-man team of well-intentioned noblemen who became warrior monks which were dedicated to escorting pilgrims to the Holy land. For sustenance, they relied on alms from the pilgrims. Follow the monk warriors as they became a multitude, the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, and went on the Crusades to battle the Moslems for the hold sites of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. See them battle the Moslems as they lay siege to strongholds and cities of Acra, Antioch, Haifa, and others on their march to Jerusalem. Relive the scenes of bloody battles and massacres, some, which they won, and others they lost. You will meet the heroic figures of Bohemund I, King Baldwin of Jerusalem, Robert of Normandy, Stephen of Blois, Richard the Lion Heart, and Saladin as they conduct war. Within two centuries they could defy all but the Papal throne. They were immune from any authority, and were destroyed because of their enormous wealth and seemingly unlimited power. When they returned home to their Chapters after their defeat in the Holy land, they invented the banking system and became money lenders to the monarchs of Europe. Learn how the secret meetings and rituals of the knights eventually caused their down fall. King Philip IV of France turned his greedy eyes to their wealth to fill his coffers. He had all the Templars arrested on a charge of heresy, since this was the only charge that would allow the seizing of money and assets. The Templars were tortured to obtain false confessions of homosexuality, sodomy, trampling and spitting on the cross, and worshiping an idol. The Last Master Templar, Jacques De Molay, was burned at the stake. Some historians believe the remnants of the order went underground and has survived.

An examination of the changing nature of crusade and its participants in the late medieval Mediterranean.

In 1213, Pope Innocent III issued his letter Vineam Domini, thundering against the enemies of Christendom—the "beasts of many kinds that are attempting to destroy the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth"—and announcing a General Council of the Latin Church as redress. The Fourth Lateran Council, which convened in 1215, was unprecedented in its scope and impact, and it called for the Fifth Crusade as what its participants hoped would be the final defense of Christendom. For the first time, a collection of extensively annotated and translated documents illustrates the transformation of the crusade movement. Crusade and Christendom explores the way in which the crusade was used to define and extend the intellectual, religious, and political boundaries of Latin Christendom. It also illustrates how the very concept of the crusade was shaped by the urge to define and reform communities of practice and belief within Latin Christendom and by Latin Christendom's relationship with other communities, including dissenting political powers and heretical groups, the Moors in Spain, the Mongols, and eastern Christians. The relationship of the crusade to reform and missionary movements is also explored, as is its impact on individual lives and devotion. The selection of documents and bibliography incorporates and brings to life recent developments in crusade scholarship concerning military logistics and travel in the medieval period, popular and elite participation, the role of women, liturgy and preaching, and the impact of the crusade on western society and its relationship with other cultures and religions. Intended for the undergraduate yet also invaluable for teachers and scholars, this book illustrates how the crusades became crucial for defining and promoting the very concept and boundaries of Latin Christendom. It provides translations of and commentaries on key original sources and up-to-date bibliographic materials.

A unique examination of the precise weaknesses of the crusader states in the thirteenth century.

The Holy Land, 1291.A war has been raging across these lands for decades. The forces of the Crusaders have been pushed back again and again by the Muslims and now just one city remains in Crusader control. That one city stands between the past and the future. One city which must be defended at all costs. That city is Acre. And into this battle where men will fight to the death to defend their city comes a young boy. Green and scared, he has never seen battle before. But he is on the run from a dark past and he has no choice but to stay. And to stay means to fight. That boy is Baldwin de Furnshill. This is the story of the siege of Acre, and of the moment Baldwin first charged into battle. This is just the beginning. The rest is history.