Alexandrian Crusade

The crusade against Alexandria was a military expedition, which took place in 1365 under King Peter I of Cyprus.

Prehistory

Peter I, King of Cyprus, was titular king of Jerusalem. He was the first head of state since Saint Louis, wishing to commence the Crusades to the conquest of the Holy Land again. 1362, he joined together with his chancellor Philippe de Mézières and the papal legate Peter Thomas, an extended trip to Europe in order to promote his idea. He met with Pope Urban V and with numerous monarchs, including King John II of France and Emperor Charles IV.

Crusade against Alexandria

Peter I actually brought an army under his command. The Crusaders in 1365 With a large fleet of Venice starting, gathered to early September in Rhodes. There they were reinforced by the fleet and army Peters from Cyprus as well as to the resident in Rhodes Knights of Hospitaller Order. The Crusader army was the largest since the Third Crusade.

Only after it was put out to sea, Peter I was the target known: the Egyptian port city of Alexandria.

A few days after his arrival in Alexandria, the city was stormed by the October 9, 1365, after it was the Crusaders managed to overcome the walls at an unguarded point. The crusaders sacked and destroyed the city in the following days, the population was massacred or deported.

As on October 12, approached a mamlukisches relief army, the Crusaders brought their booty and prisoners to their ships, and retired to Cyprus.

Attack on Lebanon and Syria

From Cyprus intention to Peter I. now an attack on Beirut, abandoned its project but at the request of the Venetians indicate that Peter I offered a high compensation, so that did not attack their trade route to Damascus. In January 1366 raided and looted the Crusaders Tripoli and Tartus before the European participants of the Crusade returned to their respective homes. Neither Tripoli still Tartus tried to keep, especially as the cities had no walls Peter I..

1368 Peter tried again to enlist European troops, but was unsuccessful. Under pressure from the Venetians and Pope Urban V finally peace with the Sultan of Egypt was closed.

Interpretations

Jo van Steenbergen assumes that the crusade was an economically motivated company in the first place. Peter I wanted to Alexandria off as a trading port in the eastern Mediterranean, hoping the Cypriot port city of Famagusta would benefit from a shift of trade routes. Religious aspects that have played an important role in the rest of the Orient Crusades were, then, rather subordinate.