Meanwhile, Cuman Baybars continued to successfully conduct military operations aimed at conquering the last Christian positions in the 70s of the 13th century. In January 1270, the sultan, at the head of only 200 mounted soldiers, suddenly appeared near Krakow and thwarted an attempt by the weak garrison to engage him in battle, quickly driving the Hospitallers back to their castle. After that, Baybars, as if wanting to demonstrate to the garrison his complete disregard for its weak defenses, accompanied by only a few companions, climbed the mountain, inspected the castle and returned unhindered to his squad. This fact alone seems to be quite enough to illustrate how great was the reluctance of the Johannites of that era to fight, since the Johannite garrison, probably terrified, perhaps on the instructions of the Grand Master, did not risk sending a single person into the field so as not to weaken the defense. Probably, this “reconnaissance” performed by Baybars served only to test the strength and willingness of the Hospitaller garrison to fight and collect data to draw up a plan for the siege of Krak, which was soon implemented. By the beginning of the siege on March 3, 1271 Baybars reinforced his Egyptian army with detachments from neighboring emirates. According to the reports of the Mohammedan chronicler, the knights of St. John fought with desperate tenacity and only on March 21 were forced out of the bridgehead by the Mamelukes, retreating behind the first ring of the castle walls. Eight days later, as a result of the successful mining of the fortifications by the Egyptians, the southwestern tower of Krak collapsed, and the remnants of the garrison retreated to the inner fortification-the donjon. On April 7, the surviving Johannites put forward a proposal for surrender. The next day, Baybars allowed them to retreat to Tripoli.
The Sultan sent a mocking letter to the Grand Master of the Johannites, in which he informed him of the fall of the fortress. In May of the same year, he took Akkar, another castle in the south of the Bekaa Valley, which also belonged to the Johannites. It was already the third of five castles that defended the narrow coastal strip of Christian possessions as a defensive rampart. Even earlier, in February 1270, Baybars captured the Templar castle of Safita (Chastel Blanche) on the southern coast of Syria. Located on a rocky cliff that dominated the area, the Templar stronghold, thanks to its main tower (31 m high), was an important signal post for all the Crusader castles located in the area. Having initially resisted the Mamelukes stubbornly, the Templar garrison soon received orders from Grand Master Guillaume de Beaujeu to surrender. After much negotiation, the Knights Templar were allowed to retreat to Tortosa. Only the castle of Chastel Rouge remained unconquered, originally owned by Prince Raymond of Tripoli, but then ceded by Raymond to the Order of the Johnites in 1277-78. The fortress of Arima, also located on a ridge of hills at the beginning of the Bekaa Valley, and blocking the way to the valley for enemy troops, also remained unconquered. This fortress belonged to the templars and remained in their possession until the very end of Christian rule. From this brief overview, it is clear that both the military monastic Orders and the secular Christian states of the Holy Land were powerless, and Baybars could do almost anything he wanted. The Latins could only ask him for peace, but not resist him. After the fall of Antioch, an envoy from King Hugon III of Cyprus, who ruled the remnants of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the same time, arrived at Baybars with the intention of negotiating peace. The following agreements were reached: Haifa with three villages was left to the Christians, and the rest of the kingdom, namely, the area around Accord with the Mount Carmel district, was divided into two equal halves; ten villages remained behind Montfort (Starkenberg), the castle of the Teutonic Order, and behind the castle of Chastel Pelerin (Castrum Peregrinorum) — five villages. Peace was concluded for a period of ten years.
The list of «franks» asking Sultan Baybars for peace or at least a truce grew longer in the following years. Even the spiritual and knightly Orders were among them. After the fall of Krak Castle, they also had to ask the Sultan for peace. He granted them peace for the regions of Margate and Tortosa on the following terms: Both military monastic Orders, both the Templars and the Johnites, who had been collecting tribute from Muslim-populated areas for half a century, were now required, as part of this agreement, to renounce all tributes and revenues from there.; In addition, the Johannites were forced to cede to Baybars half of their territories around Margat, including the city of Beldu, and, in addition, to commit themselves not to build new fortifications in Margat.
Despite the energetic measures of the Grand Master, the financial situation of the Order of St. John, apparently, improved very slowly. Probably, more funds flowed from the possessions of the Order of St. John in Western Europe into the coffers of the Akkon Hospital of the Order than before, although widespread military operations and mismanagement of many of the Order’s provinces often led to a significant decrease in income. As can be seen from the descriptions given by the envoys of the Order of St. John at the Second Council of Lyon, the Order was heavily in debt, so that, in view of this state of affairs, genuine improvement could not be achieved very soon. Fra Yug de Revel never lived to see it, because, starting in 1277, the signature of the new Grand Master Fra Nicolas de Lorgne appeared under the Order’s official documents, whose efforts were also aimed at changing the Order’s constitution according to the spirit of the times, which happened at the meetings of the General Chapters in 1278-1283.
The situation of Christians in the Holy Land seemed to improve somewhat after Baybars’ death in 1277. They hoped that now they would be able to at least catch their breath. New forces were given to them by another invasion of the Tatar-Mongols in Mohammedan Syria. The general unrest that arose there was exploited by the Johannites, who advanced as far as the Bekaa Valley, advanced almost as far as Krak, plundered their villages and defeated the five thousand Saracen army on the way back without suffering significant damage themselves. When the Muslim Emir of Krakow in February 1281 He tried to take revenge on the Johannites for this raid, he was also put to flight. But these were the last victories of the Order of St. John in the Holy Land.
Sultan Emir Qalaoun seized power in Cairo. Like the power of his predecessor Baybars, the power of Kalaun was characterized by extreme cruelty; he continued the policy of his predecessor towards Christians. The goal of Kalaun was the final elimination of Christian rule. In the deepest secrecy, he was preparing for the siege of the powerful fortress of Margat. Modern Christian and Arab sources describe the conquest of this fortress in the following terms:
On April 17, 1285, Sultan Kalaun with a large army appeared at the foot of the mountain on which the castle stood, bringing with him more stone-throwing guns than anyone had seen before in one place. His men dragged them up the mountain and began shelling the walls and ramparts. However, the castle was well fortified, and the stone throwers mounted on its walls had the advantage that they were in more advantageous positions. Many of the enemy vehicles were destroyed as a result of the shelling from the fortress. For a whole month, the Muslims failed to succeed. Finally, the sultan’s sappers managed to undermine the Tower of Hope, which stood on the edge of the northern slope, and fill it with logs. On May 23, they set fire to the logs, and the tower collapsed. Its collapse interrupted the Muslim attack, and the besieged managed to drive them away from the walls. But the soldiers of the garrison discovered that the Muslim excavation went far into the territory of the fortress. They realized that all was lost and gave up.
The knights were allowed to leave the fortress on horseback and fully armed, allowing them to take 25 mules with their baggage. The fall of the fortress was a great victory for the Mohammedans, for it was considered the most heavily fortified, and even impregnable, Christian castle in the entire Front East. One of the Arab chroniclers attributed the victory of the Muslims to fakirs and dervishes, who, with their prayers, called upon the heavenly host to help the sultan’s soldiers achieve victory.
Now, only a few port cities, including Tripoli and Akkon, remain of the once vast Christian possessions in the Holy Land. Tripoli was besieged in March 1289 and captured after 34 days. During the siege, the Muslims used 19 combat vehicles and 1,500 experienced sappers, who secretly undermined the walls and towers. The Bishop’s Tower fell first, followed by the Tower of the Johnites, who, at the head of a large military detachment, rushed to the aid of their brothers in the Order and the besieged city from Akkon. The Venetians and Genoese, who had their own quarters to live in this city, had a nervous breakdown after the fall of these two most important bastions, according to eyewitness accounts. They suddenly lost all courage and desire to continue fighting and abandoned their combat posts. In a panic, but not forgetting to grab as much of their real estate as they could, the Venetians and Genoese left the line of defense and rushed to the harbor to escape from there on their ships. This massive desertion of the Italians led to the disruption of the entire defense. A mass massacre began, as in Antioch. All Christian men were slaughtered, women and children were captured and taken into slavery. Only Akkon remained unconquered. True, Sultan Qalaun died in November 1290, barely managing to move his troops from Egypt to conquer this city, but his son Malik al-Ashraf took over the implementation of his father’s plan.