This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights and duplication or sale of all or part is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for research, private study, criticism/review or educational purposes. Electronic or print copies are for your own personal, non- commercial use and shall not be passed to any other individual. No quotation may be published without proper acknowledgement. For any other use, or to quote extensively from the work, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder/s. The Emperor Frederick II's Crusade 1215 - c. 1231 Keith Richard Giles Submitted to fulfil the requirements of the University of Keele for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1987. Abstract The aim of this thesis is not simply to reassess Frederick II's crusade and the treaty in which it resulted, but to flesh and clothe an episode of crusading history which, in the shadow of more colourful campaigns, has often suffered neglect. The first half of the thesis (chapters one to four) covers the period from the time of Frederick's assumption of the cross in 1215 to the despatch of Thomas of Acerra to the East in 1227, although in its investigation of the possibility that Frederick may have inherited the unfulfilled vow of crusade sworn by his father, Henry VI, chapter one necessarily defies these parameters. Chapter two considers the influence of the Fifth Crusade on Frederick's crusading plans; chapter three discusses the preoccupations which compelled the emperor to delay the fulfilment of his vow until 1228, and chapter four looks at the military and financial preparations which were set in motion during this period. The second half of the thesis can reasonably be divided into two. Chapters five to seven deal primarily with the crusade proper - the activities of the crusaders prior to Frederick's arrival in Syria, the role of two leading English bishops in the crusade, Frederick's strained relations with the nobility in Cyprus and the Latin Kingdom, his presence in the Holy Land and conclusion of peace with the Egyptian sultan al-Kämil. The eighth and final chapter takes a brief glimpse at the observance of Frederick's treaty in the immediate aftermath of the crusade and subsequent diplomatic contacts between the Hohenstaufen and Ayyobid dynasties. -1- Acknowledgements I should like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Peter Jackson, for his unfailing encouragement, advice, patience and persistence, and for the benefit of his superior knowledge. I must also thank Dr. Colin Richmond and Dr. Christopher Harrison of the History Department at Keele, and my friends Wayne, Richard, Paul, and Ellen for many lengthy and highly necessary pep-talks. I must also acknowledge the justified impatience of my mother and father, which I hope will now be satisfied, and the financial assistance of the British Academy whose parsimony is masked neatly by its cinematic title. Keith R. Giles 11 - - Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Abbreviations iv Introduction v Chapter 1: The legacy of Henry VI's crusade 1 Chapter 2: The precedent of the Fifth Crusade 18 Chapter 3: Frederick's pre-occupations in advance of the imperial crusade 34 Chapter 4: Finance and organisation of the imperial crusade 68 Chapter 5: The Emperor Frederick and the nobility of the Latin East 100 Chapter 6: The Treaty of Jaffa: a reassessment 161 Chapter 7: The English contribution to the imperial crusade 216 Chapter 8: The aftermath of the crusade; diplomatic relations between Frederick II and the Ayyübids 234 Some conclusions 246 Appendix 1 252 Appendix 2 254 Bibliography 1: primary sources 256 Bibliography 2: secondary sources 264 Abbreviations AM - Annales Monastici AOL - Archives de l'Orient latin DNB - Dictionary of National Biography EHR - English Historical Review HDFS- Historia Diplomatica Friderici Secundi HPEC- History of the Patriarchs of the Egyptian Church MGH - Monumenta Germaniae Historica MGHS- Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores PL - Patrologiae cursus completus.. series Latina RHC - Recueil des Historiens des croisades RHGF- Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France RIS - Rerum Italicarum Scriptores ROL - Revue de 1'0rient latin RRH - Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani RTDA- Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association SRG - Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum - iv - Introduction The Emperor Frederick II's crusade spanned the years 1227 to 1229 but, to be specific, could justifiably be said to have lasted a mere eight months - the length of time from September 1228 to the beginning of May 1229 which the emperor spent in the Holy Land. To study such a narrow period of history is, of course, to ignore the preparations and the repercussions of the expedition, the precedents and experiences on which it drew. In writing this thesis I have sought to avoid the calendaric constraints of the crusade itself, but nevertheless have consciously attempted to limit the scope of the work to the period defined by Frederick's assumption of the cross in 1215 and his reconciliation with the pope in 1230/1. This aim is reflected in the terminal dates included in the title of the thesis. Even so, in order to set the expedition more fully in context, it was considered useful to examine the extent to which Frederick's father, Henry VI, played a role in his son's decision to go on crusade, and to investigate, if briefly, Frederick's relations with the Ayyübid dynasty and nobility of the Latin Kingdom post-1229. These are aspects which are dealt with in chapters one and eight respectively. The bulk of the thesis, as has already been implied, looks initially at the choice of destination for the crusade, its financial and military organisation, and the delays to which the expedition was subject. In addition there is discussion of the crusade itself, Frederick's relations with the nobles of Syria and Cyprus during his stay in the East, and the provisions of the peace settlement agreed with the sultan of Egypt. -V- The principal sources of primary literature used in this study were Huillard-Breholles' monumental compilation Historia Diplomatica Friderici Secundi, which has usefully brought together documents, letters and chronicle excerpts, the Scriptores volumes of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, the Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, and the Rolls Series. For the Muslim histories of the period I have been largely in the hands of nineteenth century French compilers and translators whose work is collected in the Recueil des Historiens des croisades. A few relevant Muslim authors such as MagrTi and Juvaini have been translated into English by modern scholars and these translations have been used where possible. Dr. Peter Jackson has also very kindly provided me with translations of certain passages from a number of published Muslim chronicles which would otherwise have been inaccessible. Although heavy reliance has been placed on printed primary sources, a number of unpublished thirteenth century English manuscripts have been consulted (see bibliography), and again I must thank Dr. Jackson for translating sections from the unpublished manuscript of the contemporary Muslim author Ibn Abi '1-Dam. I should point out that in referring in the text to the continuations of William of Tyre I have retained the very serviceable terms Eracles, 'Ernoul', and 'Rothelin' in preference to the more correct terminology devised by Dr. Morgan'. A further discussion of the sources appears in chapter six, and a full list appears in the bibliography at the end of this volume. - vi - Notes to introduction " See M.R. Morgan, The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre (Oxford, 1973). - vii - Chapter One The legacy of Henry VI's crusade Twenty years separated the crusader vows of the Western Emperor Henry VI and his son Frederick II. When Henry died at Messina in September 1197, his vow remained unfulfilled; and it appears that to many a vow of crusade, once taken, was held in such seriousness that if it were not discharged in a crusader's lifetime, his heirs were considered to be obligated by itl. Was Frederick's vow linked directly to his father's failure to depart for the East? Certainly a degree of papal pressure was brought to bear on the sons of the nobility, in particular, whose fathers had taken the cross but had died before they were able to set out. The decretal collection Compilatio tertia, compiled on the authorisation of the pope by the notary Pietro Collivaccino around the year 1209, included the decretal Licet which stated that the obligation incurred by an outstanding vow of crusade might be transmitted to an heir of the person assuming the cross, and the heir's obligation could be enforced, if necessary, by sequestration of the inherited estate2. Innocent III had already threatened to disinherit Andrew II of Hungary if he did not discharge the vow sworn by his father, Bela III3; and there are other precedents to indicate that the vow which Henry VI's son, Frederick, enunciated at Aachen in 1215 was the action of an obligated heir. For instance, Louis VII was said to have taken the cross in 1145 out of a desire to fulfil the vow his brother had sworn before his inopportune death4; and Henry III of England, only nine years old, but apparently already bound by the vow -1- of his father, appears to have assumed the cross at the time of his coronation in October 12165. It seems clear, therefore, that the imperial crusade of 1227-29 had its origins in the vow of Henry VI and the ensuing German crusade. Or did it? Although the principle of heritability of votive obligations appears to have been incorporated in Justinian's Digest and is found in Romaninscriptions, at the time of Frederick II's oath of crusade the idea of the inherited vow was new to canon law6 and had not yet been taken to the ultimate refinement of Innocent IV who was to interpret the vow not as having been uttered as a personal promise to God, but as a firm commitment to aid the Holy Land, carrying with it an obligation which bound the heirs of the author by the Romanlaw of succession7.