Fifth Crusade

Also known as Damietta Crusade

The Egypt-first crusade that captured Damietta but failed at al-Mansurah, throwing away two chances to recover Jerusalem by negotiation.

The Fifth Crusade was built on a hard strategic lesson: Jerusalem could not be held securely while Ayyubid Egypt remained the main centre of Muslim power. Crusaders from Europe joined King John of Brienne and the military orders in an attack on Damietta, the eastern Nile port guarding the route toward Cairo.

Damietta fell in November 1219 after a long siege, but the papal legate Pelagius rejected Egyptian offers that would have returned Jerusalem and other inland territories in exchange for withdrawal. A later advance toward Cairo was trapped by the Nile flood near al-Mansurah, and the crusaders surrendered Damietta in 1221. The campaign's failure set the stage for Frederick II's diplomatic Sixth Crusade.

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