Louis IX launches the Seventh Crusade

1248

Having vowed to crusade during a near-fatal illness, the French king set sail from Aigues-Mortes at the head of an enormous army bound for Egypt. He took Cyprus as a staging ground. The campaign that followed would consume his treasury, his brother, and nearly his life. His wife Margaret of Provence, left behind at Damietta, managed the retreat and the ransom negotiations with iron resolve.