The Fall of Acre 1291
The fall of Acre to the Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Khalil on 18 May 1291 was the final catastrophe of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the moment at which the crusader states, after nearly two centuries of intermittent existence, finally ceased to exist. The fall was a disaster for every Christian institution in the Latin East. For the Teutonic Order, the loss was less ruinous than it was for the Templars and Hospitallers, because the Order had, by 1291, a much more diversified set of possessions and a much more secure territorial base in the Baltic. The fall was, however, an event of the first importance for the Order’s self-understanding, and it marked the end of the Order’s Levantine career.
The Mamluk Offensive
The Mamluk sultanate of Egypt had been, since the accession of Sultan Qalawun in 1279, the principal military power of the eastern Mediterranean. Qalawun had reduced the residual Latin possessions to a single major port: the city of Acre, in which the remnants of the Latin Kingdom’s government, the two great military orders, the Italian merchant communities, and the Latin Christian population of the coastal cities were crowded into a single fortified town.
Qalawun’s first major offensive against Acre was the siege of 1290, which was abandoned after a few weeks when the sultan was assassinated. His son and successor, al-Ashraf Khalil, prepared a much more substantial expedition. The Mamluk army that appeared before Acre in April 1291 was a very large force, accompanied by a fleet that was to blockade the harbour. The total Latin Christian population of the city has been estimated at perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 persons, of whom only a few hundred were trained knight-brothers.
The Defence of Acre
The Latin garrison of Acre was, by the spring of 1291, a small and politically divided force. The city’s political leadership was divided: the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Nicholas of Hanapes, was sympathetic to the Templars; the Genoese and the Venetians were at odds over commercial questions; the master of the Teutonic Order in the Holy Land, Heinrich von Ulmen, was a relative newcomer to the region.
The Teutonic Order’s contribution to the defence was substantial. The Order’s convent in the Montmusard suburb of Acre was one of the principal defensive positions in the northern sector of the city walls. The Order’s knight-brothers, perhaps 40 to 60 in number, were stationed in this convent, and they shared responsibility for the defence of the northern walls.
The siege was, from the outset, conducted with great intensity. The first major assault was delivered on 15 April, against the northern walls of the city, and was repulsed with heavy loss. A second assault, on 4 May, was also repulsed. The Mamluk commanders decided to concentrate their assault against the Montmusard suburb, where the Teutonic and Templar convents stood.
The Final Assault
The assault on Montmusard began on 8 May. The Mamluk engineers succeeded in breaching the walls of the suburb in several places. The Latin garrison was forced to retreat, in successive withdrawals, to the principal line of the city walls. The Order’s convent was overrun on 16 May, and the surviving brethren retreated, under heavy pressure, to the harbour.
The final assault on the city began on 18 May. The Mamluk army attacked along the entire line of the walls, with the principal weight of the assault delivered against the northern and eastern sectors. The Latin defence collapsed in the early afternoon. The Patriarch of Jerusalem was killed; the master of the Templars, Guillaume de Beaujeu, was killed; the master of the Teutonic Order in the Holy Land, Heinrich von Ulmen, was killed. The surviving Latin population was evacuated, in considerable disorder, to the ships of the Italian merchant communities.
The Consequences for the Order
The fall of Acre was, for the Teutonic Order, less catastrophic than it was for the older military orders. The Order’s Levantine property was lost; the Order’s Master in the Holy Land and a substantial proportion of the Order’s knight-brothers in the East were killed. The Order’s political and military weight in the eastern Mediterranean was, in effect, brought to an end.
The fall was, however, a less damaging event for the Teutonic Order than it was for the older military orders, because the Order had, by 1291, a much more diversified base. The Order’s principal territorial base was in Prussia, where the Prussian Crusade was approaching the end of its first, decisive phase. The Order’s German commanderies provided a substantial annual income. The Order’s headquarters, already relocated to Venice, was not in the line of the Mamluk advance.
The fall of Acre was, for the Order, a turning point in the sense that it marked the end of the Order’s Levantine career. The Order never again operated as a major field force in the eastern Mediterranean. The Order’s crusading energy was, from 1291 onwards, directed exclusively to the Baltic theatre, and the Order’s identity was, defined by the Baltic enterprise.
Sources
- Boockmann, Hartmut. Der Deutsche Orden: Zwölf Kapitel aus seiner Geschichte. Munich: Beck, 1981.
- Forey, Alan. The Military Orders: From the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Centuries. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992.
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A Short History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
Related Reading
For the longer context of the Order’s Levantine career, see the article on the Order’s crusades in the Holy Land and the article on the battle of Damietta. For the parent context, see the History of the Teutonic Knights and the article on the founding of the Order. The Baltic enterprise that absorbed the Order’s energy after 1291 is examined in the article on the Northern Crusades and in the Prussian state.