ABSTRACT
Shortly aer Philip III ascended to the throne of France in 1270, he wrote to the abbot and monks of St Denis about the deaths of his father, Louis IX, his brother John of Nevers, and his brother-in-law ibaut of Navarre:
Aer these men, having signed themselves with the sign of the living cross, had prepared themselves with all their strength to spread and exalt the faith and had come to Africa to extirpate from the roots the errors of the indel Saracens there, they were withdrawn from this world.1
