many callers while at Nicosia. Hethoum of Armenia sent him gifts. Bohemond V of Antioch requested several hundred archers to protect his principality from brigands, which were provided. Maria of Brienne came to beg for help for the Latin empire being threatened by John III Ducas Vatatzes, the emperor of Nicaea. Her pleas were refused as the Crusade against the infidel took precedence. Loyalist Hugh IV of Burgundy had spent the winter in Achaea and convinced their ruler William of Villehardouin to join the Crusade. He arrived with ships and Frankish soldiers from the Morea, to remain for the duration. The Crusaders at Damietta The sultan as-Salih Ayyub had spent the winter at Damascus, trying finish the conquest of Homs before the Franks invaded. He had expected them to land in Syria, and realizing that the objective was instead Egypt, the siege was lifted and he ordered his armies to follow him to Cairo. He was stricken with tuberculosis and could no longer lead his men in person and turned to his aged vizier Fakhr ad-Din ibn as-Shaikh, who had negotiated with Frederick II during the Sixth Crusade, to command the army. He sent stores of munitions to Damietta and garrisoned it with the Bedouin tribesmen of the Banū Kinana, known for their courage. He monitored the coming conflict from his camp at the village of Ashmun al-Rumman, to the east of the main branch of the Nile. Fakhr ad-Din was supported by Qutuz, later sultan himself. (See a map of the area here.) On 13 May 1249, a fleet of one hundred and twenty large transports were assembled and the army began to embark. A storm scattered the ships a few days later and the king finally set sail on 30 May, arriving off Damietta on 4 June 1249. Only a quarter of his army sailed with him, the rest making their way independently to the Egyptian coast. Aboard his flagship the Montjoie, Louis' advisers urged a delay until the rest of his ships arrived before disembarking, but he refused. At dawn of 5 June, the landing and subsequent Siege of Damietta began. There was a fierce battle at the edge of the sea led by the king. The onslaught of the knights of France and those of Outremer under John of Ibelin prevailed against the Muslims back. At nightfall, Fakhr ad-Din withdrew over a bridge of boats to