Crow
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- Jan 28, 2005
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Gidday all
Well not quite secret but more sexy to say so. There is nothing more alluring than the word Templar. Like some Mystical order with secret knowledge. And secret tunnels well its a hook and you just bit amigo.
But to help understand the purpose of such now not so secret tunnels is to know about the Fall of Acre and the Templars.
Most likely we would see the Templars today as Christian version of ISIS. In effect fanatical. However we must remember their actions in context to their time. But they was not the only order in Acre.
The population of Acre at this time was likely 30-40, 0000, although many civilians had already fled the city to take their chances elsewhere. Without a sizeable land army to engage the enemy in the field, the Christians who remained could do little but watch as Khalil methodically arranged his forces and catapults to cut off land access to the city.
The defenders did have catapults of their own, they even had one or two mounted on their ships, and these fired boulders to try and damage those of Khalil now pounding Acre’s walls with alarming regularity. It seemed only a matter of time before a breach was made, but the city was not defenceless. you can see this 13th century map of the defenses and which areas belong to each order.
There were some 1,000 knights and perhaps 14,000 infantry ready to face the enemy if, or more likely when, they entered Acre. At least the Christians were still able to control the sea access and so could resupply the city as needed. Indeed, King Henry of Cyprus-Jerusalem (r. 1285-1324 CE) made it into the city this way on 4 May.
By early May the defenders were in such reduced circumstances - there were barely enough men to man the whole length of the walls - that any sorties were stopped. King Henry offered to negotiate with Khalil, but the Sultan was only after total victory. By the second week of May, the attackers had undermined sections of the walls, eventually bringing about the partial collapse of several towers.
According to one contemporary account of the siege, the military commander or Marshal of the Knights Hospitaller, Brother Mathew of Claremont, was particularly valiant in defence of one of the breached gates:
Rushing through the midst of the troops like a raging man…he crossed through Saint Anthony’s Gate beyond the whole army. By his blows he threw down many of the infidels dying to the ground. For they fled from him like sheep, whither they knew not, flee before the wolf. (quoted in Nicolle, 23)
Despite such smaller episodes of effective resistance, on 16 May the defenders were compelled to retreat behind the inner circuit wall. On 18 May, one final concentrated Mamluk assault began consisting of artillery fire, volleys of arrows and the cacophony of 300 drummers riding camels. As the historian T. Asbridge notes:
Mammoth in scale, unremitting in its intensity, this bombardment was unlike anything yet witnessed in the field of Crusader warfare. Teams of Mamluk troopers worked in four carefully coordinated shifts, through day and night. (653)
The devastating attack resulted in the Mamluk army breaking into the streets of Acre. Chaos and a massacre followed with the residents who could make it, fleeing for the few remaining ships that offered the only means of escape. Including the Templar treasury.
There were not enough vessels to take everyone - although King Henry had managed to flee the scene unscathed - and there were stories of some captains selling berths to the highest bidder. Hundreds drowned fighting to leave with their worldly possessions falling into the water and shore.
Those who were neither butchered nor ferried away to safety were taken prisoner and sold into slavery. The nuns of the convent disfigured themselves in order not to be violated but all was killed as chaos of murder and looting took part in the streets of Acre.
There was one corner of the city, though, which fought on. In the south-west part of the city was the fortified quarters of the fanatical Knights Templars who knowing that for them defeat meant certain death, managed to resist against all odds for another ten days.
When finally captured, the knights were executed, but there was a modicum of revenge when a portion of the unstable city walls collapsed and killed a number of the victors.
Khalil ordered the total destruction of the city’s fortification and buildings. The Templar castle and harbour was totally destroyed. Today there are no remains of Templar fortress.
Under the ruined city lay the remains of a tunnel from the Templar Castle to the harbour where the Templar treasury was taken to the harbour and sent by ship to Cyprus.
With the fall of Acre so ended Crusader domination or presence in the Holy land. And most of all the reason for the Templars existence....
Crow
Well not quite secret but more sexy to say so. There is nothing more alluring than the word Templar. Like some Mystical order with secret knowledge. And secret tunnels well its a hook and you just bit amigo.
But to help understand the purpose of such now not so secret tunnels is to know about the Fall of Acre and the Templars.
Most likely we would see the Templars today as Christian version of ISIS. In effect fanatical. However we must remember their actions in context to their time. But they was not the only order in Acre.
The population of Acre at this time was likely 30-40, 0000, although many civilians had already fled the city to take their chances elsewhere. Without a sizeable land army to engage the enemy in the field, the Christians who remained could do little but watch as Khalil methodically arranged his forces and catapults to cut off land access to the city.
The defenders did have catapults of their own, they even had one or two mounted on their ships, and these fired boulders to try and damage those of Khalil now pounding Acre’s walls with alarming regularity. It seemed only a matter of time before a breach was made, but the city was not defenceless. you can see this 13th century map of the defenses and which areas belong to each order.
There were some 1,000 knights and perhaps 14,000 infantry ready to face the enemy if, or more likely when, they entered Acre. At least the Christians were still able to control the sea access and so could resupply the city as needed. Indeed, King Henry of Cyprus-Jerusalem (r. 1285-1324 CE) made it into the city this way on 4 May.
By early May the defenders were in such reduced circumstances - there were barely enough men to man the whole length of the walls - that any sorties were stopped. King Henry offered to negotiate with Khalil, but the Sultan was only after total victory. By the second week of May, the attackers had undermined sections of the walls, eventually bringing about the partial collapse of several towers.
According to one contemporary account of the siege, the military commander or Marshal of the Knights Hospitaller, Brother Mathew of Claremont, was particularly valiant in defence of one of the breached gates:
Rushing through the midst of the troops like a raging man…he crossed through Saint Anthony’s Gate beyond the whole army. By his blows he threw down many of the infidels dying to the ground. For they fled from him like sheep, whither they knew not, flee before the wolf. (quoted in Nicolle, 23)
Despite such smaller episodes of effective resistance, on 16 May the defenders were compelled to retreat behind the inner circuit wall. On 18 May, one final concentrated Mamluk assault began consisting of artillery fire, volleys of arrows and the cacophony of 300 drummers riding camels. As the historian T. Asbridge notes:
Mammoth in scale, unremitting in its intensity, this bombardment was unlike anything yet witnessed in the field of Crusader warfare. Teams of Mamluk troopers worked in four carefully coordinated shifts, through day and night. (653)
The devastating attack resulted in the Mamluk army breaking into the streets of Acre. Chaos and a massacre followed with the residents who could make it, fleeing for the few remaining ships that offered the only means of escape. Including the Templar treasury.
There were not enough vessels to take everyone - although King Henry had managed to flee the scene unscathed - and there were stories of some captains selling berths to the highest bidder. Hundreds drowned fighting to leave with their worldly possessions falling into the water and shore.
Those who were neither butchered nor ferried away to safety were taken prisoner and sold into slavery. The nuns of the convent disfigured themselves in order not to be violated but all was killed as chaos of murder and looting took part in the streets of Acre.
There was one corner of the city, though, which fought on. In the south-west part of the city was the fortified quarters of the fanatical Knights Templars who knowing that for them defeat meant certain death, managed to resist against all odds for another ten days.
When finally captured, the knights were executed, but there was a modicum of revenge when a portion of the unstable city walls collapsed and killed a number of the victors.
Khalil ordered the total destruction of the city’s fortification and buildings. The Templar castle and harbour was totally destroyed. Today there are no remains of Templar fortress.
Under the ruined city lay the remains of a tunnel from the Templar Castle to the harbour where the Templar treasury was taken to the harbour and sent by ship to Cyprus.
With the fall of Acre so ended Crusader domination or presence in the Holy land. And most of all the reason for the Templars existence....
Crow
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