The following article appeared in the Winter 2002 (Vol. 1 No. 2) issue of Templar History Magazine.

With the death of Bohemond VII in October of 1287, the rightful heir apparent of Tripoli was Bohemond's sister Lucia, who resided in Italy. The leaders of the area wanted no part of an absent leader and offered the helm to Sibylla of Armenia, who accepted and tried to install Bishop Bartholomew, whom the Templars held in great contempt for earlier political reasons. While this decision of the rightful heir met with strong objections from local leaders and merchants, she would not back down. The people of Tripoli decreed that the royal line was deposed and that Tripoli would be a commune as was the case in Acre.

Sometime in 1288 Lucia arrived in Tripoli to assert her claim on the land and the new commune did not want to relinquish its newfound power of self-rule. The leaders petitioned the Genoese to make Tripoli a protectorate. This was well received by the Genoese as they welcomed the addition of an important trading partner. War ships were immediately dispatched to defend the city from any forces Lucia might send.

The Venetians backed Lucia and the Templars backed their allies the Venetians. Many of the Templar ships had been built by the Venetians. Soon after a mysterious envoy of Christians arrived on the door of Sultan Kalaun in Egypt requesting that he intervene in the turmoil that was brewing in Tripoli. The envoy was mysterious in that the names of those in attendance are not recorded in history, although some historians suggest that the Templar Grand Master and certainly the secretary of the order was aware of who they were. The argument of the mysterious envoy was that if the Genoese got control of Tripoli, Egyptian trading in Alexandria would be seriously impaired. This met with great approval in the court of Kalaun as he was looking for an excuse to break his treaty with the city. Although the Templar Grand Master was certain of Kalaun's motivations, he could get no serious audience in Tripoli, where everyone seemingly had an unswayable faith in the treaty with Kalaun.

In March of 1289 de Beaujeu's words were finally accepted but it was far too late; some 10,000 Moslem soldiers had surrounded the city. The Venetians and the Genoese who had Galleys were ready to quickly evacuate their people to Cyprus.

Tower after tower soon fell to the steady beat of Moslem war drums as catapults pelted the walls with volley after volley. The Venetians were the first to flee, soon followed by the Genoese, both taking all the supplies their galleys would hold. The remaining citizens were paralyzed with fear as the ships had left to sea taking their only visible means of escape.

When news of the exodus reached the ears of Kalaun, he moved with great haste as he new that the Italians would load their galleys with the richest of materials ahead of their own people. He had desperately wished to plunder the city of its merchandise. Thus he order an immediate assault to halt the further transshipment of goods.

As the Moslem army stormed the walls, they were met with only mild resistance, since Almaric of Cyprus fled the city with four galleys loaded with his own army, the Templar marshal deVanadac and Lucia. The Templar de Modaco was left in charge of the remaining Templars and was slaughtered along with the few remaining Christian forces trying to save the city from a much larger army. When those fighting in the streets were killed the armies of Kalaun began going house to house killing the men and sending women and young boys off in shackles to be sold as slaves. When the city was occupied they set off to do the same on a small island where some had fled in small fishing boats.

Continue To Part Two