ABSTRACT
Unable to accept his humiliating defeat in Egypt, in 1270 the proud Louis IX of France attempted yet another crusade. By now Louis was in his mid-fifties, a considerable age for that time. Louis was disturbed by events in Syria, where the mamluk sultan Baibars (died 1277) had been attacking the remnants of the Crusader states. Baibars had seized the opportunity of a war between the republics of Venice and Genoa in 1256-1260, which had exhausted the Syrian ports that these two cities controlled. By 1265, Baibars had captured Nazareth, Haifa, Le Toron (Latrun), and Arsuf. King Hugues III of Cyprus, the nominal king of Jerusalem, landed in Acre to defend that city, while Baibars marched as far north as Armenia, which was at that time under Mongol control. In 1266, Charles d’Anjou, a son of Louis VIII, conquered Sicily and made himself its king.
