Frederick II launches the Sixth Crusade

1228

Excommunicated by the pope, the Hohenstaufen emperor sailed for the Holy Land anyway. There he negotiated rather than fought, exchanging letters with Sultan al-Kamil and eventually discussing falconry, mathematics, and the fate of Jerusalem in polished Arabic. The two rulers, each more comfortable with the other than with their own zealots, reached a ten-year truce that restored Jerusalem to Christian pilgrims without bloodshed.