The Fall of Acre 1291
The Fall of Acre in 1291 was the most important event in the late history of the Crusader states and the defining moment of the final decline of the Knights Templar in the East. The siege, conducted by the Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil, lasted from April 5 to May 18, 1291, and ended with the capture of the city, the death of the Grand Master Guillaume de Beaujeu, and the end of nearly two centuries of Latin Christian presence in the Holy Land.
This cluster page tells the story of the Fall of Acre. It is a companion to the biography of the Grand Masters and to the article on the military orders of the Crusades.
The Last Crusader City
By the late thirteenth century, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem had been reduced to a single great city: Acre. The city, located on a natural harbor on the coast of what is now northern Israel, had been in Crusader hands since 1104, and it had served as the de facto capital of the Latin Kingdom since the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. The Templars had their principal headquarters in the northern quarter of the city, and the Hospitallers had a major complex in the southern quarter.
Acre was, in the late thirteenth century, the principal trading city of the Eastern Mediterranean, with a population of perhaps 30,000–40,000, including a large Italian merchant community. The city was defended by a substantial wall, partly built and partly rebuilt by the Templars and Hospitallers, and by a powerful fleet of Italian galleys.
The Mamluk Threat
The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the late thirteenth century was surrounded by a powerful new enemy: the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. The Mamluks, a dynasty of slave-soldiers who had seized power in Egypt in 1250, were far more powerful than their Ayyubid predecessors. They had taken Caesarea in 1265, Safed and Beirut in 1268, and Antioch in 1268. The fall of the Latin Kingdom was now a matter of time.
In 1289, the Mamluks took the city of Tripoli, the second most important city of the Latin Kingdom, after a savage siege. The fall of Tripoli left Acre as the last major Crusader city in the East. Sultan Qalawun, the Mamluk ruler, was planning to take Acre next, but he died in 1290. His son, al-Ashraf Khalil, was determined to complete the conquest.
For more on the political background, see The Knights Templar in the Holy Land.
The Siege of Acre (1291)
The Mamluk army began to gather in early 1291. By April 1291, an enormous force, estimated at 60,000 to 200,000 men, was encamped around the city. The army was equipped with the most advanced siege engines of the day, including massive catapults and battering rams.
The defense of Acre was led by a coalition of forces, including:
- The Knights Templar, with about 600 knights and sergeants in the city.
- The Knights Hospitaller, with a similar number.
- The Teutonic Knights, with a small contingent.
- The Italian merchant communities of Acre, particularly the Venetians, the Genoese, and the Pisans, with their own ships and fighting men.
- The Secular nobility of the Latin Kingdom, including Henry II of Cyprus, who had come from Cyprus to lead the defense.
The Grand Master of the Templars, Guillaume de Beaujeu, was in nominal command of the defense. The Grand Master of the Hospitallers, Jean de Villiers, was his opposite number.
The Opening Moves
The siege began on April 5, 1291, with a series of probing attacks on the walls. The Mamluk forces were able to make some progress, but the walls held. The defenders, including the Templars and Hospitallers, conducted several sorties, sometimes fighting their way into the Mamluk camp and returning with captured supplies.
The Mamluks, meanwhile, began to construct massive siege engines. The most famous was the Al-Mansur, a huge catapult capable of throwing stones weighing hundreds of kilograms. The bombardment began in earnest on May 4, and the walls began to crack.
The Breach of the Walls
On May 16, the Mamluk bombardment succeeded in breaching the outer wall in several places. The defenders, exhausted by weeks of constant fighting, struggled to repair the breaches. The Templars and Hospitallers fought side by side, but they were too few to hold the entire wall.
On May 18, the Mamluks launched a final, decisive assault. The Templars, fighting near the Tower of the Patriarchs, were the first to be engaged. The Grand Master Guillaume de Beaujeu was struck by a stone from a Mamluk catapult and was mortally wounded. According to legend, his last words were a call to surrender the city to save the civilian population, but the order was not heeded.
The Fall of the City
The breach in the wall widened, and the Mamluks poured into the city. The defenders, caught by surprise, fell back to the inner wall. The fighting was intense and brutal. The Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Italian merchant contingents fought to the last, but they were overwhelmed by the Mamluk numbers. The surviving Templars retreated to their headquarters in the city, but they were killed or captured.
The sack of the city lasted several days. According to the medieval chronicles, thousands of the inhabitants were killed, and many more were carried off into slavery. The great buildings of the city — the Templar headquarters, the Hospitaller complex, the Church of the Holy Cross, the Cathedral of St. John — were destroyed. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem effectively ceased to exist.
The Grand Master
The death of Guillaume de Beaujeu in the siege was a major loss for the Order. He had been a brilliant military commander and a capable administrator, and he had led the Order through some of its most difficult years. His death marked the end of the Order’s effective military role in the East. For his biography, see The Grand Masters of the Order.
The story of the Grand Master’s death is also told in The Knights Templar in the Holy Land.
The Retreat to Cyprus
The surviving Templars, together with the surviving Hospitallers and the Latin Christians of the Kingdom, retreated to the island of Cyprus, which had been a Crusader possession since Richard I of England captured it in 1191. The Order established its new headquarters at Limassol and continued to exist as a sovereign military force, but the military purpose of the Order in the East was over.
For the next twenty years, the Templars lived in a kind of limbo, occasionally attempting small-scale raids against the coast of Syria, but without the resources to mount a major Crusade. The Order’s political and financial activities continued, but the brothers in the East were now a small and aging community.
The Aftermath
The fall of Acre was a major shock to the Christian world. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem had been the focus of nearly two centuries of Crusading effort, and its loss was a major blow to papal and secular prestige. The fall of Acre, together with the earlier fall of Tripoli in 1289, was the end of the Crusader states in the East.
The fall of Acre was also a major moment in the history of the Order itself. The Order had been founded to fight in the Holy Land, and the loss of the Holy Land effectively ended the Order’s reason for existence. The political vacuum that resulted from the loss of the East would, in the years to come, lead to the dramatic events of 1307. The story. See The Trial and Suppression of the Knights Templar.
Sites to Visit Today
The city of Acre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site today, and many of the Crusader buildings are still visible. Some of the most important include:
- The Hospitaller Fortress: the massive complex on the southern hill, now partially restored.
- The Templar Tunnel: a subterranean passage beneath the Templar quarter, sometimes (perhaps mistakenly) attributed to the Templars in the 20th century; its actual date and builders are debated.
- The Templar Refectory: the great dining hall of the Templar headquarters, now incorporated into a mosque.
- The Church of St. John: the ruins of the cathedral of the Crusader city, now a museum.
- The Turkish Bathhouse Museum: a museum housed in a former Ottoman bathhouse in the Templar quarter.
Conclusion
The fall of Acre was the defining moment of the late Templar history. The siege and the death of the Grand Master marked the end of the Order’s effective military role in the East, and the retreat to Cyprus marked the beginning of the Order’s final years. The political vacuum that resulted from the loss of the East would lead, in the years to come, to the dramatic events of 1307. The story. See The Trial and Suppression of the Knights Templar.