Catalan Crusade

The Catalan Crusade, or Crusade of James I, was a failed attempt at a crusade in 1269, which would have been the Ninth Crusade.

Not to be confused with Aragonese Crusade.
Catalan Crusade
Location
Egypt
Result Catalan Defeat
Belligerents

County of Barcelona

 Principality of Catalonia		 Mamluk Egypt
Commanders and leaders
James I of Aragon Sultan Baibars

James I of Aragon, being in Toledo on Christmas Day of 1268 to attend the first mass of Sancho of Aragon, who was archbishop of the city and received a Tartar embassy, who offered his help to the Roman emperor of the East Michael VIII against the Turks in an expedition to the Holy Land projected by the Conqueror.[1]

On September 4, 1269, a fleet of 30 large ships and some galleys set sail from Barcelona, with eight hundred chosen men, Including, Almogavars, Templars, Hospitallers, and the natural children of King Ferdinand Sanxis de Castre and Peter I Ferrandis of Hixar which formed a total army of 2,500 men. The attack was a total failure, as a storm forced the damaged royal galley to take refuge in Aigues-Mortes, near Montpellier, where the king disembarked and returned by land to Catalonia, while only 11 ships were able to finally get to Acre directed by Sanxis de Castre and Ferrandis. The arrival of Christian reinforcements was answered by Baibars with an attack at Acre which caused many casualties among the Crusaders. [2]

While At the Council of Lyons II in 1274, James I offered to take up the cross, However his offer was not accepted.

References
  1. Sanz, Arcadi Garcia i (1977). Història de la marina catalana (in Catalan). Editorial Aedos. ISBN 978-84-7003-161-8.
  2. Marshall, Christopher (1994-10-06). Warfare in the Latin East, 1192-1291. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47742-0.
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