It was from this castle that in May 1218 the fifth crusade started for the expedition against Egypt. The Templars were the heroes of the siege of Damietta, at which William de Chartres was slain. "First to attack and last to retreat," they saved the Christian army from annihilation on 29th August 1219; and when the city surrendered (5th November) the only one of its twenty eight towers that had begun to give way had been shaken by their engines. On the other hand, it was largely owing to their objec tions that John de Brienne refused the sultan's offer to restore Jerusalem and Palestine.
From the very first the Templars seem to have been opposed to Frederick II., and when he landed at Acre (7th September 1228) they refused to march under the banners of an excommunicated man, and would only accompany his host from Acre to Joppa in a separate body. They were accused of notifying Frederick's in tended pilgrimage to the Jordan to the sultan, and they were certainly opposed to Frederick's ten years' peace with Al-Kcmil, the sultan of Egypt, and refused to be present at his coronation in Jerusalem. On neither side was the treaty fully observed; and preparations were made in Europe for a fresh crusade. In the meantime open dissension broke out between the Templars and the Hospitallers, the former advocating negotiations with the sultans of Damascus and Kerak, the latter with the sultan of Egypt; and when Richard of Cornwall arrived (11th October) he had to decide between the two rival orders and their opposing policies. After some hesitation he concluded a treaty with the sultan of Egypt, much to the annoyance of the Templars, who openly mocked his efforts. On his departure the three orders came to open discord : the Templars laid siege to the Hospitallers in Acre and drove out the Teutonic Knights "in contumeliam imperatoris." They were successful on all sides. The negotiations with Damascus and Kerak were reopened, and in 1244 Hermann of Perigord wrote to the princes of Europe that of ter a "silence of fifty-six years the divine mysteries would once more be cele brated in the Holy City." It was in this moment of danger that the sultan of Babylon called in the barbarous Kharizmians, whom the Mongol invasions had driven from their native lands. These savages, entering from the north, flowed like a tide past the newly built and impregnable Templar fortress of Safed, swept down on Jerusalem, and anni hilated the Christian army near Gaza on October i8th, 1244. From this blow the Latin kingdom of the East never recovered ; 600 knights took part in the battle ; the whole force of the Templars, 30o in number, was present, but only 18 survived, and of 200 Hos pitallers only 16. The masters of both orders were slain or taken
prisoners, and Jerusalem was lost to Christendom once more. The havoc caused by the Kharizmians was alleged by pope In nocent IV. as the reason for again summoning Christendom to the rescue of the Holy Land. Recognizing the fact that the true way to Jerusalem lay through Egypt, Louis IX. led his host to the banks of the Nile, being accompanied by the Templars. Their master, William de Sonnac, attempted in vain to restrain the rash advance of the count of Artois at the battle of Mansura (8th February 125o), which only three Templars survived. St. Louis, when captured a few weeks later, owed his speedy release to the generosity with which the order advanced his ransom money.
A new enemy was now threatening Mohammedan and Christian alike. For a time the Mongol advance may have been welcomed by the Christian cities, as one of ter another the Mohammedan principalities of the north fell before the new invaders. But this new danger stimulated the energies of Egypt, which under the Mameluke Bibars encroached year after year on the scanty remains of the Latin kingdom. The great Frankish lords, fearing that all was lost, made haste to sell their lands to the Templars and Hospitallers before quitting Palestine for ever. But they lost their power of resistance, and became so enfeebled as to welcome the treaty which secured them the plain of Acre and a free road to Nazareth as the result of the English crusade of 1272. While thus weak against external foes, the Templars were strong enough for internal warfare. In 1277 they espoused the quarrel of the bishop of Tripoli, formerly a member of the order, against his nephew Bohemond, prince of Antioch and Tripoli, and began a war which lasted three years. In 1276 their conduct drove Hugh III., king of Cyprus and Jerusalem, from Acre to Tyre. In the ensuing year, when Mary of Antioch had sold her claim to the crown to Charles of Anjou, they welcomed this prince's lieutenant to Acre and succeeded for the moment in forcing the knights of that city to do homage to the new king. Thirteen years later (26th April 129o) Tripoli fell, and next year Acre, after a siege of six weeks, at the close of which (16th May) William de Beau jeu, the grand master, was slain. The few surviving Templars elected a new master, and sailed for Cyprus, which now became the headquarters of the order.