Pelagio Galvani

The expedition organized under papal auspices and consisting mainly of French crusaders arrives in September to Acre, under Cardinal Pelagio Galvani as legate.

Since Pelagius regards the crusaders as being under the jurisdiction of the church, he declines to accept the leadership of John of Brienne, king consort of Jerusalem.

Moreover, he is an imperious person who does not hesitate to interfere in military decisions.

The Muslims, seriously alarmed by February 1219, offer peace terms that include the cession of Jerusalem.

King John and many of the crusaders are eager to accept, but Pelagio, supported by the military orders and the Italians, refuses.

William of Holland, after hearing this, leaves the crusade and sails for home.

Francis of Assisi, to whom Pelagio reluctantly gives permission to cross the lines, makes a famous but fruitless evangelistic attempt to convert the new Ayyubid sultan, al-Kamil, while the crusaders lay siege to Damietta, on November 5, 1219, finally taking the harbor.

Francis' visit to the East is a preliminary step in the establishment of a Franciscan province in the Holy Land, a step that will soon be imitated by the Dominicans.

The papal and secular powers had immediately fought for control of Damietta, with John of Brienne claiming it for himself in 1220.

Pelagio will not accept this, and John returns to Acre later in February.

Pelagio, convinced, by rumor, of the imminent approach of a legendary oriental Christian “King David,” is optimistic despite the lack of progress: he hopes that Frederick II, newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor, will arrive with a fresh army, but he never does; instead, after a year of inactivity in both Syria and Egypt, John of Brienne returns, and in July 1221 the crusaders march south towards Cairo.

This march is observed by the forces of Al-Kamil, and frequent raids along the flanks of the army lead to the withdrawal of some two thousand German troops who refuse to continue the advance and return to Damietta.

Al-Kamil is by now able to ally with the other Ayyubids in Syria, who had defeated Kaykaus I.

The crusader march to Cairo is disastrous; the river Nile floods ahead of them, stopping the crusader advance.

A dry canal that had been previously crossed by the crusaders floods, thus blocking the crusader army's retreat.

With supplies dwindling, a forced retreat begins, culminating in a night time attack by Al-Kamil that results in a great number of crusader losses and eventually in the surrender of the army under Pelagio.

The terms of this surrender mean the relinquishing of Damietta to Al-Kamil in exchange for the release of the crusaders.

Al-Kamil agrees to an eight-year peace agreement with Europe, an exchange of prisoners, and to return a piece of the true cross.

(However, the cross will never be returned as Al-Kamil does not, in fact, have it.)

The humiliating terms are far less favorable than those Pelagio had previously rejected.

Disillusioned critics blame Emperor and Pope as well as Pelagio.

The failure of the Crusade, the last in which the papacy will take an active part, causes an outpouring of anti-papal sentiment from the Occitan poet Guilhem Figueira.

The more orthodox Gormonda de Monpeslier responds to Figueira's D'un sirventes far with a song of her own, Greu m'es a durar.

Instead of blaming Pelagio or the Papacy, she lays the blame on the "foolishness" of the wicked.