control of the city not only to boost his prestige, but also to reassert his
claim to the crusade’s leadership (at least, for the time being). Moreover,
there were pressingfinancial reasons that explain John’s actions as well:
not least, the fact that he had been sustaining a standing army in Egypt
for eighteen months, with very little to show for it until now. The king
may have ratcheted up the pressure on the legate by threatening to
withdraw from the crusade altogether. Whatever it was that he did,
Pelagius soon caved in. John was to have the city, at least until
Frederick’s coming.^98 At around this time, some of John’s French allies
wrote hastily to the pope, commending John’s judgement and loyalty,
whilst John himself suddenly addressed Frederick directly, presenting
himself as the sole leader of the crusade so far, and appealing for aid and
support.^99 It is worth underlining the point that John may have found it
quite awkward to seek arapprochementwith Frederick, who did not have
any reason to remember the Brienne family particularly fondly.
John left the crusader host in Egypt in the spring of 1220. It is often
said that he did so primarily for selfish reasons: that is, to try to win the
Cilician Armenian throne, to which he had a claim in the right of his wife
and infant son. They died soon afterwards, however, effectively nullifying
any claim that John might have had. It is more likely, though, that John
was summoned back to the Holy Land to protect the kingdom of
Jerusalem from Ayyubid attack, and that is why so many Latin Easterners
returned with him. Once the immediate threat had been lifted, John
paused at Acre for more than six months. It is reasonable to suppose
that he was resting his weary troops and building up his resources again
for the next stage of the struggle, whilst waiting to see what would happen
on both fronts. An important development took place during this pro-
longed period, however. The young Walter IV seems to have come out to
the Latin East to see his uncle John. Without much trouble, it seems,
John surrendered Walter’s paternal inheritance back to him, marking the
end of John’sfifteen-year period as count of Brienne.^100 Walter promptly
returned to the West, and he was in possession of his county by the
summer of 1222.^101 It is worth noting, though, that Walter did not take
the full title of‘count of Brienne’until some time later. Perhaps this was
in August 1224, although this could be a scribal or a copyist’s error.^102
If Walter waited to take the full title only when he had properly attained
(^98) Seeibid.,John,94–7, 103–4.
(^99) Seeibid.,105–11, and Appendix 2, 198–200; and also my article,‘From King John of
Jerusalem to the Emperor-elect Frederick II: A Neglected Letter from the Fifth Crusade’,
inThe Fifth Crusade in Context: The Crusading Movement in the Early Thirteenth Century,
100 ed. E. Mylod, G. Perry, T. Smith and J. Vandeburie (Abingdon, 2017).
See Perry,John, 111–6.^101 ‘Catalogue’, no. 150.^102 Ibid., no. 154.
54 Breakthrough and High Point (c. 1191–1237)