Louis IX

On July 21, 1242, Louis IX (Saint Louis) won a decisive victory on the Taillebourg bridge, on the Charente, against the army of Henry III of England and his revolting Poitevin allies led by Hugh X of Lusignan, Count of La Marche. The battle began when the French, having taken up position on the north bank of the bridge, repelled the English and Poitevin assaults. Louis IX, present in person, led a daring counterattack which crossed the bridge and broke through the enemy lines. The French cavalry, superior in discipline and equipment, caused the complete rout of the Allies, who retreated in disorder towards Saintes where they were defeated again two days later.

On April 6, 1250, the crusader army of Louis IX, retreating from Mansourah towards Damietta, was surrounded and annihilated at Fariskur by Mamluk forces. After two months of siege in front of Mansourah, decimated by fighting, epidemics and hunger, the crusader army tried to regain Damietta. But the retreat turned into a rout: harassed by the Mamluk cavalry, deprived of supplies, the army was surrounded at Fariskur. The crusaders, weakened and demoralized, attempted a last desperate breakthrough but failed. Louis IX, refusing to flee, surrendered with his surviving knights. It is the first and only time in French history that a Capetian king was taken prisoner on a battlefield. The king's captivity, his exorbitant ransom and the loss of Damietta mark the complete failure of the Seventh Crusade.

On February 8, 1250, the crusader army of Louis IX confronted the Ayyubid and Mamluk forces at Mansourah, a fortified city in the Nile delta. The battle began with a remarkable tactical success: the king's brother, Robert of Artois, crossed a ford of the Nile with the vanguard and surprised the Ayyubid camp, killing the commander Fakhr ad-Din. But this initial victory turned into disaster when Robert, disobeying orders, plunged into the narrow streets of Mansourah without waiting for the main body of the army. Baybars' Mamluks counterattack fiercely, trapping the French knights in an urban maze where their heavy cavalry loses all advantage. The Crusader army suffered catastrophic losses, including the death of Robert of Artois and many knights. Louis IX, arriving as reinforcement, managed to stabilize the situation but could not prevent the gradual encirclement of his army, a prelude to the final defeat of Fariskur.