Siege of Antioch (1268)

The Siege of Antioch occurred in 1268 when the Mamelukes under Baibars finally succeeded in capturing the city of Antioch. Prior to the siege, the Crusader Principality was oblivious to the loss of the city, as demonstrated when Baibars sent negotiators to the leader of the former Crusader state and mocked his use of "Prince" in the title Prince of Antioch.

In 1260 Baibars, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, began to threaten the Principality of Antioch, a Crusader state, 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, decades 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.

In 1268 Baibars besieged the city of Antioch, which was "badly defended by its patriarch and abandoned by most of its inhabitants," capturing it on 18 May (the citadel fell two days later) after a relatively feeble defense. Antioch had been weakened by its previous struggles with Armenia and by internal power struggles, and its inhabitants were quick to agree to a surrender, on the condition that the lives of the citizens within the walls would be spared.

...
Wikipedia