High Middle Ages · Middle East · War
1249
Louis IX captures Damietta
1249
The crusader fleet disembarked in the teeth of Ayyubid cavalry and seized Damietta almost without a fight. The French king knelt in thanksgiving on the sand. Emboldened, he ordered a march on Cairo that would end catastrophically in the Delta's mud. The ease of Damietta's capture bred fatal overconfidence, and the decision to advance upriver against seasoned Egyptian defenders proved a strategic disaster.
In context
Also in 1249 (3 other events on record)
- Roger Bacon experiments with gunpowder at Oxford · Europe · Science
- Universities at Oxford issue early statutes · Europe · Culture
- Alphonse de Poitiers administers southern France · Europe · Politics
Before and after in Middle East
Before and after in War
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.