GONE MEDIEVAL: THE MONGOLS AND THE FALL OF THE CRUSADERS
History Hit | March 13, 2026
Host: Matt Lewis
Guest: Dr. Nicholas Morton (historian, author of "The Mongol Storm" and "The Crusader Storm")
Bonus reflection: Dr. Elena Janega

Episode Theme & Purpose

This episode explores the pivotal final chapter of the story of the Crusader states in the Levant, with special focus on the era of Mongol expansion and the rise of the Mamluk sultanate in Egypt. Host Matt Lewis and historian Dr. Nicholas Morton dissect how the Mongols catalyzed the collapse of both Crusader kingdoms and existing Muslim powers, ultimately reshaping the Eastern Mediterranean’s political landscape. The episode then transitions to a reflection (with Dr. Elena Janega) on the legacy and consequences of crusading.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Setting the Scene: The Mongol Threat Emerges

[02:04] Matt Lewis narrates the summer of 1260, as Mongol envoys deliver a chilling ultimatum to Mamluk Sultan Qutuz in Cairo—a prelude to the legendary showdown at Ain Jalut.

Quote (Matt Lewis, 02:29):
"You cannot escape from the terror of our armies ... Our horses are swift, our arrows sharp, our swords like thunderbolts, our soldiers as numerous as the sand ... We will shatter your mosques and reveal the weakness of your God. And then we will kill your children. Only those who beg our protection will be safe."

Qutuz famously refuses to submit: Quote (Matt Lewis, 05:13):
"He orders the four ambassadors imprisoned, then publicly cut in half. Their severed heads are skewered on the ramparts as feed for carrion—a fate usually reserved for petty criminals. It serves as a declaration that Kutuz will not be following the precedent set by his near eastern neighbors."

The End of the Crusader States: Context and Fractured Politics

[05:45] The Crusaders become bystanders as two "rising superpowers" (Mongols and Mamluks) battle for dominance.

[09:03] Dr. Nicholas Morton summarizes the context:

• Fusion of major empires, faiths, and populations
• 11th–13th century sees overlapping waves of invaders: Byzantines, Seljuks, Crusaders, Mongols
• Constant internal rivalries within and between Christian and Muslim factions

Quote (Nick Morton, 11:53):
"The complexity of the landscape for me is what makes it so interesting ... There are many occasions when you've got Christians and Muslims on both sides of the battlefield or where the battlefields involve neither Christians nor Muslims, because ultimately you've got people like the Mongols ... their beliefs, for the most part, center on shamanistic Central Asian practices."

Who Were the Mongols? & The Domino of Displacement

[12:59] Morton traces Mongol origins:

• Emergence under Genghis Khan (Chinggis Khan)
• Legacy of periodic invasions from the Central Asian steppe
• Mongols create the largest contiguous empire in history

[16:02] The Mongol drive displaces populations, most notably the Khwarezmians, whose sudden migration and alliance with the Ayyubids trigger chaos in the Holy Land.

Key Insight:

• The sacking of Jerusalem in 1244 by Khwarezmians (allied with Ayyubid Egyptians) triggers Western shock and calls for a new crusade.

The Seventh Crusade: Louis IX and New Strategies

[20:37]–[30:56]

• Louis IX of France launches the Seventh Crusade, motivated by piety, family tradition, and opportunity (other European powers distracted).
• Papacy probes for possible Mongol alliances, but Mongol demands remain absolute: submission rather than alliance.
• Strategy: Target Egypt ("economic backbone" of the Islamic world) to ensure a lasting Christian presence in the Holy Land.

Quote (Nick Morton, 27:09): "A standard crusade ... most crusaders won't be prepared to be away from home for more than three, four years ... If Louis took Jerusalem, fine, he might be able to take it, and then he'll go and then it will disappear again ... the solution a lot of people land on is Egypt."

Catastrophe in Egypt, the Rise of the Mamluks

[31:32]–[40:18]

• Louis IX initially captures Damietta with ease but fails before Mansura due to tactical errors and supply crises.
• Crusader army is starved, struck by disease, and Louis IX is captured.
• Internal strife in Egypt (Ayyubid dynasty succession crisis) leads to the social ascent of the Mamluks—slave-soldiers who assert political control after the assassination of their former master.

Quote (Nick Morton, 43:35): "Baibars began his career as ... an enslaved person taken captive on the ... shores of the Black Sea ... He ends up in service to the Ayyubids, like so many people ... The Mamluks feel as if they haven't received their due from the victory ... they ultimately seize Turhan Shah and then murder him on the banks of the Nile. And through a series of different rulers, they assert themselves as rulers of Egypt."

The Clash: Mamluks vs Mongols at Ain Jalut

[45:41]–[54:13]

• After the Mongols destroy Baghdad (1258) and sweep through Syria, only the Crusader enclaves and the nascent Mamluk state in Egypt remain independent.
• With the Mongol khan's death forcing a partial army recall, the Mamluks seize a rare chance and march out to confront the Mongol garrison at Ain Jalut.
• Against the odds, the Mamluks win, marking the first major defeat for the Mongols.

Quote (Nick Morton, 50:38):
"More or less anyone anywhere in Eurasia under threat of invasion by the Mongols ... what they will do generally is to prepare their defenses and wait to be attacked. But the Mamluks don't do that. They march out beyond Egypt and assertively seek combat with the Mongols, which is an incredibly gutsy thing to do."

Quote (Matt Lewis, 54:13):
"I often wonder what would happen if the Mongols didn't have this situation where they withdraw everything and go back to the center when there's a succession going on, because it kind of brings to a halt everything that they've managed to achieve up until then. ... the Mamluks here have absolutely exploited the fortune that they found in front of them and they've managed to beat the Mongols, which even if it's just a garrison, people don't do."

Aftermath: Dismantling of the Crusader States

[54:52]–[59:02]

• Inter-Mongol wars (Golden Horde vs Ilkhanate) grant the Mamluks time to regroup.
• Second major Mamluk victory at Homs (1281) against full Mongol army.
• From 1260–1291, the Mamluks methodically dismantle Crusader cities and outposts in a campaign of overwhelming force, not a single epic battle.

Quote (Nick Morton, 57:20): "Town by town, city by city, stronghold by stronghold, the Mamluks take the Crusader states apart in a series of campaigns that ultimately sees the collapse of the mainland Crusader states in 1291."

Quote (Matt Lewis, 59:02): "It all begins in this big explosion of the First Crusade. And in the end, 200 years later, it's effectively really just a petering out ... picked apart by the Mamluks ... there simply isn't any more Crusader states and no more Christian crusading in the Holy Land."

Why No Rescue? Decline of Crusader Zeal in Europe

[57:59]–[60:34]

• Repeated calls for new crusades fall on distracted or divided European leadership.
• Internal wars (Sicily, England, France) and disasters (Great Famine, Black Death) sap capacity and will.

Quote (Nick Morton, 59:43): "There's no shortage of armchair strategists ... There's a whole genre of texts that are created after 1291, where people write, 'if we raised an army here, we marched it there, and they did this, then ... the Crusader States could be reconstructed.' ... No major crusade reaches the actual Holy Land region again."

The Legacies of Crusading: Reflections (with Elena Janega)

End of an Era, Persistent Dreams

[62:04]–[64:25]

• After 1291, Papacy continues to preach crusades, but practical appetite fades.
• Social, economic, and climatic crises (Little Ice Age, Black Death) exacerbate decline.

Elena Janega (63:04), humorously:
"Fool me eight times ... I really should have learned something by now. And this is the thing: people do ... It doesn't seem like God is as committed to this as I am ... And also, really, what's in it for the kings in question? Because we've already seen how difficult it is to hold any land over there. So it's just going to be a time suck, a money suck, especially by the time you get to the 14th century, like, babes, I can't even feed my own people. How am I ever going to get over to the Holy Land?"

Crusading Orders: Fall and Adaptation

[64:25]–[67:31]

• Templars transition into a powerful financial corporation, making themselves targets for secular rulers.
• Hospitallers successfully pivot, adopting new roles on the frontier in Rhodes and later Malta.

Crusading Ideology Survives in New Guises

• "Crusading" becomes a rhetorical frame for new ventures and internal European wars.
• French king Francis I even allies with the Ottomans, previously unthinkable.
• Crusading persists in Iberian Peninsula (Reconquista), Baltic (Teutonic Knights), and as justification for early colonial and missionary ventures.

Quote (Matt Lewis, 77:59): "You do see Columbus in particular ... some of the letters that he's writing, he's talking about all of the wealth that I'm finding, plow that into an effort to go back and take Jerusalem. So that dream still hasn't gone."

Inner-European Crusades & Political Manipulation

• Crusading is weaponized against internal Christian opponents: Albigensian Crusade (Cathars in France), papal wars against the Holy Roman Emperor, and more.
• Political and territorial ambition nearly always outweigh any idealistic "clash of civilizations" narrative.

Quote (Elena Janega, 82:56):
"We have, arguably, one of our worst popes is fronting this up, and that is Innocent III. ... and what ends up happening is that they just find a bunch of people who are chilling out in the south of France and, and they've just got, you know, their own ideas about how things look ... and the church goes in and absolutely massacres them."

State-building, Economic and Cultural Legacies

• Crusades drive the formation of more centralized secular states (France, England, Venice).
• Crusaders’ need for finance helps birth modern banking.
• Dramatic East-West contacts speed up cultural transmission ("rediscovery" of classical knowledge).

Quote (Elena Janega, 89:48):
"Venice ... is like one of the real legacies of the Crusade and the fact that they are able to get enough money and power together that they have their own empire ... pretty much down to the Crusades and the fact that everyone is specifically going through Venice."

The Crusades in Historical Memory and Modern Rhetoric

[94:54]–[98:04]

• The idea of crusade is revived in the age of imperialism (19th–20th centuries), often grossly oversimplified as perpetual conflict between Islam and Christianity.
• The word "crusade" becomes a secular term for any supposedly righteous cause.

Quote (Matt Lewis, 96:04): "I think this revival that happens in the 19th century, it's no coincidence that it happens around the same time as imperialism. ... People are positioning things as crusades that aren't. ... It becomes a word that is used to describe any struggle against something that you consider to be bad."

Final Reflection (Elena Janega, 98:04): "I don't think that there is any way to understand our world without understanding the Crusades as a whole. It's just that there's so much to see there. I don't know if we'll ever really get to the bottom of it, which is why we can continue having fun conversations like this."

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The Mongol Envoy’s Threat (Matt Lewis, 02:29):
  “You cannot escape from the terror of our armies ... our swords like thunderbolts ... we will shatter your mosques and reveal the weakness of your God.”
• On the complexity of the era (Nick Morton, 11:53):
  “You've got Christians and Muslims on both sides ... or battlefields involve neither Christians nor Muslims.”
• On the Seventh Crusade’s strategy (Nick Morton, 27:09):
  “Egypt is the economic center ... if Egypt can be conquered ... [they] can then afford to finance an army big enough in the Middle East for the permanent re-establishment of control over Jerusalem.”
• On the Byzantine betrayal (Matt Lewis, 91:11):
  “The First Crusade is kicked off ... because the Byzantine Empire calls for help ... We've seen the Fourth Crusade sack Constantinople.”

Important Timestamps (MM:SS)

• 02:04: Opening narrative: Mongol envoys threaten sultan of Egypt
• 05:40: Introduction of the endgame: Mongol and Mamluk superpowers
• 09:03: Morton explains political complexity and Mongol context
• 16:31: Khwarezmians, Mongol refugees, and crisis in Crusader states
• 21:11: Profile of Louis IX and motives for the Seventh Crusade
• 27:09: Strategy shift – why Crusaders target Egypt
• 31:32: The failed progress of the Seventh Crusade; Egyptian infighting
• 43:35: Rise of the Mamluks and Baybars’ ascent
• 50:38: Mamluk audacity: advancing to meet the Mongols at Ain Jalut
• 57:20: Slow dismantling of Crusader states – no epic final battle
• 67:31: Hospitallers’ survival and the Hospitaller–Templar divergence
• 82:56: Albigensian (Cathar) Crusade as a political land grab

Tone and Style

• Conversational but richly detailed, scholarly yet accessible
• Frequent humor and irony, especially in reflections with Elena
• Acknowledgement of the difficulties in pinning down “legacies”
• Firm on the complexity—resists over-simplification (“clash of civilizations”)

Conclusion

The episode closes by driving home the dual lessons of the Crusade’s fall: history’s tangled complexity, and the persistence of ideas (and terms) long after their original context has faded. Whether through armchair strategists’ plans to resurrect lost Crusader kingdoms or the modern “crusades” against anything from poverty to fascism, the medieval past endures in often unintended ways.

Final Quote (Matt Lewis, 98:21):
“If there’s one thing this journey has shown us, it’s that the Crusades were never simply a clash of civilizations ... They were a tangled web of politics, a diplomatic chess game, a commercial opportunity, and a medieval epic that reshaped Europe and the wider world in ways that lasted far back beyond the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.”

Resources & Further Reading

• Nicholas Morton, The Mongol Storm (Middle East in the 13th Century)
• Nicholas Morton, The Crusader Storm (forthcoming June 2026)
• Previous Gone Medieval episodes: Albigensian Crusade, Teutonic Knights, rise of Saladin

For history lovers and newcomers alike, this episode is a gripping chronicle of the forces—human and impersonal—that washed away the last remnants of the Crusader vision in the East, and a meditation on what such dreams leave behind.