his majority at the age of twenty-one, then this would have been in
around late 1226–and we know that Walter consistently styled himself
as count from 1227 onwards.^103
During John’s long absence from the crusader host at Damietta, a
number of prophetic texts had been pressed into service by Pelagius,
who was doing everything he could to drive the faltering expedition into
action. The crucial development, though, was the arrival of an imperial
contingent led by Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, the highest-ranking repre-
sentative that Frederick had yet sent out to Egypt. Between them, the
legate and the duke agreed on an advance south towards the sultan’s
camp at Man
_
sūrah: thefirst stage of a‘big push’that would culminate in
the emperor’s arrival for thefinal march on Cairo. John was duly
summoned back from Acre to play his part in the campaign. It is notice-
able that the king still wanted to accept the sultan’s peace proposals, but
there was no chance of this happening as John was no longer really in
control of the crusade. No doubt it was good propaganda for John to
claim that he had always been opposed to the expedition’s‘last advance’,
but it does seem to have been true. The army was soon trapped,‘like a
fish in a net’, amidst a veritable kaleidoscope of mudflats and waterways
on theflooded Nile delta, where the local knowledge of the converging
Ayyubid forces proved to be decisive.^104 The ensuing peace deal was
quite remarkably generous to the defeated crusaders, primarily because
they still possessed a number of important bargaining chips, not least the
city of Damietta itself. Nonetheless, John, Pelagius and Ludwig all had to
endure a short period of honourable captivity before they embarked for
Acre, bringing the Fifth Crusade to its close.^105
However, John had evidently decided that it was insufficient to retire
to the Holy Land to lick his wounds. Towards the end of the crusade, he
had taken an unprecedented decision: that he would go in person,
to appeal for aid, on a panoramic‘crusade tour’of western Europe.
He wasfinally able to set out just over a year later, towards the end of
1222.^106 However, he was going back in the immediate aftermath of
aBriennefamilyscandal–and, what is more, for which he bore some
responsibility. To set these events in context, we need to go back in
time to examine the earlier career of John’s young cousin, Erard I of
Ramerupt.
(^103) Ibid., nos. 155–73.
(^104) For the quote, see Roger of Wendover,Liber qui dicitur Flores Historiarum, ed. H. G.
105 Hewlett, 3 vols. (London, 1886–9), ii, p. 265.
See Perry,John, 116–9.^106 Ibid., 119–21.
John of Brienne and the Call of Jerusalem 55