them, the infirm were executed immediately, and every day several hundred were decapitated, by order of the sultan. Louis was moved to a private residence in Mansurah and the Crusader leaders were kept together in a larger prison. While they were threatened with death, their value for ransom allowed them to stay alive. Jean de Joinville, on-board one of the captured ships, saved his life by claiming to be the king’s cousin. It was later revealed that he was actually the emperor's cousin, which served him well as the prestige of Frederick II among the Egyptians was a plus. When Louis was ordered by the sultan to cede not only Damietta but all the Frankish lands in Syria, he noted that they were not under his control, but rather that of Conrad II of Jerusalem, the emperor’s son. The demand was quickly dropped. The final terms exacted from Louis were harsh. He was to ransom himself by the surrender of Damietta and his army by the payment of a million bezants (later reduced to 800,000). After the terms were agreed to, the king and the barons were taken down the river to Fariskur, where the sultan had taken residence. There they would go on to Damietta, the city to be handed over on 30 April 1250. That the bargain could be made at all was due in large part to the queen. When Louis began his march on Mansurah, Margaret of Provence was in the later stages of pregnancy and their son John Tristan, the child of sorrow, was born on 8 April, three days after the news came of the surrender of the army. At the same time, she learned that the Pisans and Genoese were planning to evacuate Damietta due to lack of food. She knew that Damietta could not hold without the Italians and she summoned their leaders. If Damietta were to be abandoned there would be nothing to offer towards the release of her husband. She proposed buying all the food in the city and distributing at an enormous cost, and they agreed to stay, boosting the morale of the city. Soon thereafter, she was moved to Acre, while the Latin patriarch Robert of Nantes went under safe-conduct to complete the arrangements for the ransom with the sultan. Robert arrived there to find Turanshah dead, murdered on 2 May 1250 in a coup instigated by his