On This Day 30 October Events that happened on this date.

Lord Edward's Crusade, sometimes called the Ninth Crusade, was a military expedition to the Holy Land under the command of Edward Longshanks, later king of England, in 1271–1272. In practice an extension of the Eighth Crusade, it was the last of the Crusades to reach the Holy Land before the fall of Acre in 1291 brought an end to the permanent crusader presence there.
The crusade saw Edward clash with the Egyptian Mamluk sultan Baibars, with both achieving limited victories. The Crusaders were ultimately forced to withdraw since Edward had pressing concerns at home and felt unable to resolve the internal conflicts within the remnant Outremer territories. It also foreshadowed the imminent collapse of the last remaining crusader strongholds along the Mediterranean coast.

From Dover to Acre

Following the Mamluk victory over the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut by Qutuz and his general Baibars, Qutuz was assassinated, leaving Baibars to claim the sultanate for himself. As sultan, Baibars proceeded to attack the Christian crusaders at Arsuf, Atlit, Haifa, Safad, Jaffa, Ascalon, and Caesarea. As the Crusader fortress cities fell one by one, the Christians sought help from Europe, but assistance was slow in coming.
In 1268, Baibars captured Antioch, thereby destroying the last remnant of the Principality of Antioch, securing the Mamluk northern front and threatening the small Crusader County of Tripoli. With royal and papal approval, Edward "took the cross" on 24 June 1268. Louis IX of France organized a large crusader army with the intent of attacking Egypt, but diverted it instead to Tunis. Louis himself died there in 1270. He had loaned Edward 70,000 livres tournois for his crusade.
Edward and his brother Edmund prepared an expedition to join Louis at Tunis, but it was delayed several times in the summer of 1270 because their father, King Henry III of England, could not make up his mind whether to join it or not. On the advice of his councilors, he opted to stay in England and the crusaders embarked at Dover on 20 August. Unusual for the time, they were accompanied by Edward's wife Eleanor of Castile throughout. There is some debate around the place and month of departure, Portsmouth or Dover, August or September, Dover is certainly more likely, the month less so.
Edward traveled slowly through France, arriving in Aigues-Mortes, the same port from which Louis had embarked, in late September (a month later than expected). He went from there to Sardinia, where he waited a month before crossing to Tunis, where he arrived on 10 November, too late for the fighting. In fact, the Treaty of Tunis that ended the crusade had been signed on 30 October. Although Edward had played no role in its negotiation, the treaty obligated its signatories—Philip III of France, Charles I of Sicily and Theobald II of Navarre—to prevent Edward from attacking Tunis. Edward was also excluded from receiving a portion of the indemnity paid to the crusaders for leaving.
On 18 November, Charles granted Edward a safe-conduct allowing him to stay in Sicily while contemplating his next steps. Although the other crusaders decided each to return home, Edward opted to continue on his way to the Holy Land to assist Bohemund VI, Prince of Antioch and Count of Tripoli, against the Mamluk threat to the remnant of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On May 9, 1271 Edward finally arrived at Acre with a fleet of eight sailing vessels and thirty galleys. He brought a small but not insignificant contingent of no more than 1,000 men, including 225 knights.
Edmund meanwhile left England between 25th February and 4th March 1271. His route is mostly unknown, but we do know he travelled through France as Savoyard archives place him in Saint-Georges-d'Espéranche visiting his great-uncle Philip I, Count of Savoy. Thus making his departure port most likely Aigues-Mortes.

Operations in the Holy Land

Edward arrived at Acre while it was still under siege. His arrival caused Baibars to change his plans and turn away from Acre. In the meantime, Edward discovered that the Venetians had a flourishing trade with the Mamluks, providing the latter with timber and metal needed for armaments. In addition, they controlled the slave-trade along with the Genoese, in which they carried Turkish and Tartar slaves from the Black Sea ports to Egypt. However, he could not prevent such businesses, as they had licenses from the High Court at Acre.

Crusader raids

The forces under Edward's command were much too small to take on the Mamluks in a straight battle, being unable to even stop the Mamluks from seizing the nearby Teutonic Montfort Castle. They settled for launching a series of raids, one of which reached Nazareth. The 14th-century English chronicler Walter of Guisborough mentions that Nazareth was captured, a detail not mentioned in sources from the Crusader states themselves. Another raid struck St Georges-de-Lebeyne but accomplished little other than burning some houses and crops, on top of losing a few men to the heat.
Later, the arrival of additional forces from England and Hugh III of Cyprus, under the command of Edward's younger brother Edmund, emboldened Edward. He launched a larger raid with the support of the Templar, Hospitaller, and Teutonic Knights on the town of Qaqûn. The Crusaders surprised a large force of Turcomans (mostly itinerant herdsmen), reportedly killing 1,500 of them and taking 5,000 animals as booty. These Turcomans were likely relatively new additions to Baibars' army, being integrated in 1268 and given horses, titles, and lands in return for military service after the Turkmen migrations following the Mongol invasions. Muslim sources list one emir as killed and one as wounded during this raid. On top of that, the Muslim commander of the castle was forced to abandon his command. However, Edward did not take the castle itself and retreated before Baibars could respond in kind (he was with his main army in Aleppo at the time, guarding against the Mongol raid).
In December 1271, Edward and his troops saw some action when they repelled an attack by Baibars on the city of Acre.