ABSTRACT
Western chronicles are explicit about the fate of Acre when the city was conquered by Sultan al-Ashraf in May 1291. The siege brought destruction on a huge scale, supposedly so that the city could offer no opportunity as a foothold for any future crusade.1 Very little is known, however, about the spoils taken from the city after its fall. Given its importance as the centre of the Frankish presence in the Levant for over a century, and especially given the number of religious houses clustered in the city, and the fact that the assault apparently took many by surprise, one can readily imagine that the loot must have been considerable.2 Presumably some precious objects were saved when King Henry and Otto de Grandson escaped the city on Venetian ships for Cyprus. More were probably lost when the boat carrying the patriarch of Jerusalem, Nicholas de Hanape, sank with the weight of the refugees he had allowed to climb aboard. Some personal wealth and portable ecclesiastical treasures had been taken to Cyprus in mid-May, before the mass exodus started.3 The Catalan Templar Roger de Flor apparently extorted portable treasures from Frankish noblewomen in payment for passage on a large Templar passenger ship, though these are said to have been subsequently reclaimed by the Order and restored to their owners. Although some individual and religious communities had emigrated before 1291, only those individuals and families who could afford to pay for their passage were able to escape.4 The number of refugees was small compared to those enslaved or killed after the city fell, so most of the possessions of the inhabitants of Acre presumably became spoils of war.5
