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Panel użytkownika
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Acre 1291 Bloody sunset of the Crusader states David Nicolle | ||||||||||||
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Cena okładkowa: 14.99 GBP
Cena detaliczna: 59.00 zł
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| "On 5 April 1291 a Mamluk army of some 60,000 cavalry and around 100,000–160,000 infantry laid siege to the last great Crusader fortress in the Holy Land – the city of Acre. King Henry II of Jerusalem was not in the city at the time, but his brother Amalric commanded the garrison, which consisted of 700–900 knights and around 14,000–18,000 infantry. These included members of the Military Orders (Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights), Syrian and Cypriote Franks, a regiment of French mercenaries under John de Grailly, and English contingent under a Swiss mercenary officer, Otho de Grandson, and Pisans, Venetians and the troops of the Commune of Acre.. On 4 May King Henry returned from Cyprus bringing reinforcements of 200 knights and around 500 infantry. For 6 weeks the siege dragged on with the Mamluks using their more than 90 siege engines to bombard the walls, and the defenders using siege engines mounted on ships to attack the flanks of the Mamluk lines close to the shore. Various sorties by the defenders were defeated by the Mamluk besiegers. Finally on 15 May the Mamluks took the outer wall of the city, which had been undermined and breached in several places bringing down sections of wall and several towers. The Military orders did succeed in driving the mamluks back, but by evening the Franks had been forced to withdraw behind the inner walls. The Mamluks moved their siege lines forward and just three days later the inner wall was breached near the Accursed Tower. As the Mamluks fought their way into the city, the Military Orders resisted with desperate ferocity | ||||||||||||