Prelude To The Siege
In 1260 Baibars, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, began to threaten the crusader state of Antioch, which (as a vassal of the Armenians) had supported the Mongols, the traditional enemies of the Turks. In 1265, Baibars took Caesarea, Haifa and Arsuf and massacred the inhabitants. A year later, Baibars conquered Galilee and devastated Cilician Armenia.
As Steven Runciman relates in his last book about the Crusades, time ago before the siege of Antioch (1268), prince Bohemond IV of Antioch had settled his court in the city of Tripoli, capital of his other state, the County of Tripoli. In 1268, the Antiochene knights and garrison were under the command of Simon Mansel, Constable of Antioch, whose wife was an Armenian Lady who was relative to Sybilla of Armenia, wife of prince Bohemond VI.
Read more about this topic: Siege Of Antioch (1268)
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