Popes continued to call for crusades in the century following the fall of Acre and subsequent loss of the Holy Land by the Western world in 1302. These include further plans and efforts for the recovery of the Holy Land, the later popular crusades, crusades against Christians, political crusades, the latter parts of the Reconquista, and the Northern Crusades. Crusades were to continue well into the fifteenth century and would include those against the Ottoman Empire.
The end of Outremer
When the Eighth Crusade ended in 1270, the Mamluks were free to continue to assert complete control over Syria and Palestine. The Frankish fortresses soon fell, and the last major expedition of Lord Edward's Crusade failed to free Jerusalem. Mamluk sultan Baibars had defeated the Crusaders and continued his quest to drive the Franks from the Holy Land. At the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, Gregory X preached a new crusade to an assembly which included envoys from both the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and the Mongol Ilkhan Abaqa, as well as from the princes of the West. Many among the Western nobility took the cross. But Gregory X died on 10 January 1276, and there was to be no crusade.
Because of civil strife throughout Europe and the Crusader states, Baibars was able to pursue his ambitions without the threat of Western intervention. He led a raid into Armenian Cilicia, sacking the cities of the plain and later invading the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. He did not long survive his Anatolian invasion, dying in Damascus on 1 July 1277. As he was the greatest enemy to Christendom since Saladin, there was rejoicing throughout the Holy Land and Europe at the news of his death. His successor was an emir named al-Mansûr Qalawun who would soon turn his attention from intrigue in Cairo to attack the Franks.
Henry II of Cyprus was crowned King of Jerusalem in Tyre on 15 August 1286, but soon returned to Cyprus. His brother Amalric of Tyre remained as constable. Amalric overthrew his brother on 26 April 1306, but was murdered on 5 June 1310. After a brief interlude, Henry was restored to power and served until 1324.
Open warfare began off the Syrian coast between the Pisans and the Genoese. The Grand Masters Jean de Villiers and Guillaume de Beaujeu brokered a tentative peace to allow free passage for shipping. Lattakieh had not been impacted by this conflict but Syrian merchants had been complaining to Qalawun about sending their goods to a Christian port. Lattakieh was the last remnant of the Principality of Antioch and was not covered by the truce signed after the Siege of Tripoli. Qalawun attacked the town and on 20 April 1287, the garrison surrendered, with no relief coming from Christian forces in the area.
The death of Gregory X resulted in a series of popes––Innocent V, Adrian V, John XXI, Nicholas III, Martin IV, Honorius IV––that were never able to mount an expedition to the East. When the lengthy 1287–1288 Papal Election concluded, Nicholas IV became the new pontiff on 22 February 1288 and immediately wanted to begin a new crusade. In the meantime, Qalawun looked at the situation in Tripoli as an excuse to break his truce with Tripoli and would soon move his army into Syria.
Situation in Europe
With a new pope calling for a crusade and the Mamluk sultan threatening Outremer, the situation was dire. Among the European royalty, only France was actively pursuing various crusades after Acre. This situation would change some but not significantly over the next few decades.
England
Edward I of England was supportive of a crusade but engaged in more pressing matters. His foray as a prince and crusader of 1271–1272 was actually one of the most successful of the crusades to the Holy Land but could not stop the Mamluks' driving the Franks out. He died on 7 July 1307 and was succeeded by his son Edward II of England. In 1313, Edward II and his wife Isabella of France traveled to Paris to visit her father Philip IV of France, hoping to resolve the Gascony issue then being negotiated by Aymer de Valence. Among other things, this trip resulted in a public declaration that both kings and their queens would join a crusade to the Holy Land. The Parliament of 1327 forced the king to abdicate in favor of his son Edward III of England who would later claim the throne of France.
Germany and the Holy Roman Empire
Rudolf I of Germany had taken the cross more than a decade before and was similarly occupied with local intrigue. He died on 15 July 1291 and was succeeded by his eldest son Albert I of Germany who had a reign unmarked by accomplishments, dying on 1 May 1308. As king of Germany, Albert was succeeded by Henry VII of Luxembourg, the first of the House of Luxembourg. Henry VII was also elected Holy Roman Emperor, the first since the death of Frederick II in 1250. This ended the Great Interregnum of the empire and in July 1309, Clement V confirmed Henry's election. He agreed to personally crown Henry emperor in December 1312 in exchange for Henry's oath of protection to the pope, his agreement to defend the rights and not attack the privileges of the cities of the Papal States, and to go on crusade once he had been crowned emperor.
France
Philip IV of France became king on 5 October 1285 and would serve until his death on 29 November 1314. Among the European monarchs, he alone remained interested in crusades to the Holy Land. Towards that end, he was pursuing a Franco-Mongol alliance with Arghun, ruler of the Mongol Ilkhanate in Baghdad. Arghun was seeking to join forces between the Mongols and the Europeans against their common enemy, the Muslim Mamluks. Arghun offered to return Jerusalem to the Christians once it was re-captured from the Muslims. Philip seemingly responded positively to the request of the embassy by sending one of his noblemen, Gobert de Helleville, to accompany Mongol ambassador Rabban Bar Ṣawma back to Mongol lands. There was further correspondence between Arghun and Philip in 1288 and 1289, outlining potential military cooperation. However, Philip never actually pursued such military plans.
The Mediterranean
A crusade was declared by Martin IV against Peter III of Aragon in 1284. The pope also deposed him as king and bestowed Aragon on Peter's nephew Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France. This was part of the larger War of the Sicilian Vespers which had begun in 1282.
War of Curzola
The War of Curzola was fought in 1295–1299 between Venice and Genoa. both looking for ways to increase their dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas. Following the expiration of a truce between the republics, Genoese ships continually harassed Venetian merchants in the Aegean Sea. In 1295, Genoese raids on the Venetian quarter in Constantinople further escalated the tensions, resulting in a formal declaration of war by the Venetians in the same year. The Byzantines entered the war on the Genoan side. While the Venetians made some advances, the Genoans exercised dominance throughout the war, finally defeating the Venetians at the Battle of Curzola in 1298, with a truce being signed the next year.
Aragonese Crusade
Charles of Valois, brother to the king of France, would try in vain for a crown. Thanks to the Aragonese Crusade undertaken by his father, against the advice of his brother, he believed he would win a kingdom but won nothing but ridicule. In 1301, Charles married Catherine of Courtenay, titular Empress of Constantinople, but he was lost in the complexity of Italian politics. He would eventually play a role in later crusades. Catherine died on 11 October 1307 and their daughter Catherine of Valois succeeded her as titular empress.
Charles II of Anjou
The War of the Sicilian Vespers had begun when Charles I of Anjou ruled the Kingdom of Sicily, and was still raging when he died on 7 January 1285. He was succeeded by his son Charles II of Anjou on the mainland as King of Naples and, after some interim rulers, Frederick II of Sicily on the island itself. Because of his father's dealings with Maria of Antioch, Charles II also laid claim to the crown of Jerusalem. The Battle of La Falconara was fought on 1 December 1299, in the latter days of the war, between the forces of Frederick II of Sicily and Philip I of Taranto, the son of Charles II. It was a momentous victory for Frederick and a disaster for Philip, who was captured. He was held until the signing of the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302 that terminated the war. Charles II died on 5 May 1309 and was succeeded by his son Robert the Wise.
Crusade of Nicholas IV
One of Nicholas' first actions as pope was to receive the Mongol ambassador Bar Ṣawma who, with Gobert de Helleville, left Rome in the late spring of 1288 with letters in support of a crusade to the Ilkhan court. The letters were vague and the pope unable to promise a definite date for any action. In 1289, Nicholas dispatched the Franciscan Giovanni da Montecorvino as papal legate to Kubilai Khan, Arghun, and other leading personages of the Mongol Empire.
A year after Nicholas assumed the papacy, Mamluk sultan Qalawun stuck at the Franks, causing the Fall of Tripoli in April 1289. Within days, Henry II of Cyprus came to Acre where he met with an envoy from Qalawun. Despite the attack on Tripoli, their 1283 truce was renewed, covering of Jerusalem and Cyprus for another ten years, ten months and ten days. Lucia of Tripoli and Leo II of Armenia soon joined the pact. Henry had little faith in Qalawun's word, but could not appeal to the Mongols as that would be breach of the truce. He returned to Cyprus in September, sending Jean I de Grailly west to impress upon the Europeans how desperate the situation was.
The West was shocked by the loss of Tripoli and the pope revived the plans for a crusade started by Gregory X that had never been totally abandoned. On 10 February 1290, he proclaimed a crusade with an objective of the total liberation of the Holy Land and support to the places at present held by Christians. The crusade was preached everywhere, including in the Holy Land. For those who took the Cross, the force against the clergy, support to the Sicilians, or visiting the Holy Sepulchre despite pontifical prohibition were sins that were absolved. All trade with the sultan, including pilgrimages, was prohibited. The departure date for the crusade was set at 24 June 1293.
The truce between Henry II and Qalawun had restored the peace at Acre. By summer of 1290, the merchants of Damascus were again sending their caravans to the coast and Acre was bustling. In August, crusaders from Italy arrived and immediately began causing trouble. Their commanders had no control over them. They had come to fight the infidel and began to attack the Muslim merchants and citizens. At the end of August, a riot flared and they began randomly killing Muslims. Deciding that every man with a beard was a Muslim, many Christians were also attacked. All that the authorities could do was do was to rescue a few of the Muslims and take them to the safety of the castle. The ringleaders were arrested, but the damage was done. Vowing to kill every Christian in Acre, Qalawun led his army from Cairo, but fell ill and died on 10 November 1290. He was succeeded by his son, al-Ashraf Khalil.
Fall of Acre
Because of the weather, the Khalil's attack on the remaining Christians in the Holy Land was delayed. Finally, he set out from Cairo and on 5 April 1291, the Siege of Acre began. By 18 May, the walls of the city were breached and the Franks made a desperate stand to contain the incursion. The sack of the city soon began, with hundreds slaughtered as the Mamluks surged in. Desperate Franks tried to escape in any remaining boats. Some got away, including Henry II and Amalric, later accused of cowardice. Many took refuge in the fortified compounds of the Military Orders, holding out for days. The Templar citadel collapsed on 28 May, killing the knights within. Those under the Hospitallers' protection were promised safe conduct, only to be led out of the city to be slaughtered.