ABSTRACT

When joyously describing the capture of Damietta by the armies of the Fifth Crusade on 5 November 1219, the German chronicler Oliver of Paderborn compared it with two earlier unsuccessful attempts by Christians to take the city: ‘it was first besieged by the Greeks and Latins, who eventually left it; then by the Latins under Amalric, king of Jerusalem, who did not prevail; yet on this third occasion, the King of kings and Lord of lords delivered it to his servants: Jesus Christ, who conquers and reigns and rules’.2