Siege of Antioch (1268) - Aftermath

Aftermath

The Hospitaller fortress Krak des Chevaliers fell three years later. While Louis IX of France launched the Eighth Crusade ostensibly to reverse these setbacks, it went to Tunis, instead of Constantinople, as Louis' brother, Charles of Anjou, had initially advised, though Charles I clearly benefited from the treaty between Antioch and Tunis that ultimately resulted from the Crusade.

By the time of his death in 1277, Baibars had forced the Crusaders to a few strongholds along the coast and the Crusaders were forced out of the Middle East by the beginning of the fourteenth century. The fall of Antioch was to prove as detrimental to the crusaders cause, as its capture was instrumental to the initial success of the first Crusade. The population of Antioch consisting primarily of Armenians was put to the sword. Later, the Mamelukes would repeat the same destruction in Acre where the massacre of the civilians there was frustrated by the evacuation attempts of the Templar Knights, who managed to save a number of civilians to the relative safety of Cyprus.