ABSTRACT
On 25 August 1270 King Louis IX of France died at the siege of Tunis, thereby putting an end to any hope that the settlers in the East may have had that they would ever receive effective support from Western Europe. It was his brother, Charles of Anjou, who had convinced the French king to divert his expedition from the Holy Land to North Africa on the grounds that Mustansir, the emir of Tunis, seemed well disposed towards the Latins and ready to embrace Christianity. 2
