ABSTRACT
The main European countries involved in the Fifth Crusade were France, Germany, the Low Countries, and Hungary. In 1219, Pope Honorius III sent Pelagius of Albano or Pelagio Galvani, a Portuguese-born Benedictine monk, cardinal, and canon lawyer, as his papal legate to lead the Fifth Crusade. The tragedy of the Fifth Crusade, however, was neither the "wickedness of the pope" nor the "foolishness of the wicked". It was the denial of reality, the inability to mourn, and a life in fantasy. Sultan Al-Kamil of Egypt tried to negotiate peace with the Crusaders. Cardinal Pelagius had hoped that the German king Friedrich II would arrive from Germany with a fresh army, so that the Crusaders could take all of Egypt, but Friedrich never did, as part of his struggle with Pope Honorius III. The pro-papal Occitan poetess Gormonda de Monpeslier was a trobairitz, or troubadresse, from Montpellier in Languedoc.
