The Seventh Crusade: The King In Chains

In 1248, King Louis IX of France launched the most carefully planned crusade in medieval history, commanding an army of fifteen thousand soldiers, a fleet of hundreds of ships, and resources accumulated over four years of meticulous preparation. What followed was one of the most dramatic reversals of fortune the medieval world had ever witnessed: a stunning initial victory, a catastrophic defeat in the Egyptian Delta, the capture and ransom of a king, and the destruction of an entire generation of French military leadership. The Seventh Crusade would reshape the political landscape of the Near East and set in motion events that would ultimately doom the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

This book follows Louis from his sickbed vow in 1244 through the blood-soaked streets of Mansourah to his years of self-imposed exile in the crusader states. It examines the forces that drove a pious king to risk everything on a gamble that veteran crusaders knew was perilous, and the fatal decisions that transformed potential triumph into utter catastrophe. The story reveals a man whose faith never wavered even as he watched his army die of disease and starvation, who maintained his dignity in chains, and who refused to abandon the cause even after it had broken him.

The consequences of the crusade extended far beyond one king's failure. The political chaos that followed in Egypt brought the Mamluks to power, creating a military dynasty that would dominate the region for centuries and systematically dismantle what remained of the crusader states. The fortifications Louis built, the truces he negotiated, the prisoners he ransomed—all would prove merely a postponement of the inevitable collapse that culminated in the fall of Acre in 1291.

Here is the full story of ambition, faith, and catastrophe: how the greatest crusading army since Richard the Lionheart was swallowed by the Nile Delta, how a king became a prisoner and a prisoner became a saint, and how the dream of Christian Jerusalem died in the marshes of Egypt.