184 Hundred Years’ War Baghdad Fearing an invasion by Berke, Hulagu withdrew back into Persia with the bulk of his army In Syria, he left behind between 10,000 and 20,000 troops under the command of Naiman Kitbuqa, his best general and a Nestorian Christian After negotiating an alliance with the remaining European crusader states along Syria’s Mediterranean coast, Kitbuqa then proceeded to besiege or capture other Syrian cities, including Aleppo, which fell on February 25, 1260 The northern Syrian cities of Hama and Homs surrendered to Hulagu soon thereafter, as did Damascus after Sultan an-Nasir had fled toward Egypt By early April the last vestiges of Ayyubid resistance in Syria had been crushed and the Mongols proceeded to conquer much of Ayyubid Palestine in the following months The inexorable wave of Mongol expansion, however, began to wane soon after Kitbuqa’s conquests in Palestine Later in 1260 his alliance with the crusader states ended after European nobles from the city of Sidon attacked a Mongol scouting party Kitbuqa responded by besieging and then sacking that city When news of this rift reached Cairo, the capital city of the Mamluk Turks, their sultan, Qutuz, sent one of his generals, Baybars, to Palestine with a large army On September 3, the Mamluk army, which was made up of professional and highly trained troops, unlike that of their adversaries, defeated Kitbuqa’s smaller force The Mongol general was captured and executed The Mamluks recaptured Palestine and Syria and repulsed a Mongol invasion force in December Hulagu’s dreams of a Middle Eastern empire that reached Egypt were dashed, though he was able to solidify his control over Persia before his death in February 1265 The dynastic line he founded, the Il-Khanids, would remain in power over Persia and parts of Central Asia until 1335 Within a few generations after Hulagu’s death, his successors converted to Islam and became some of history’s greatest patrons of Islamic art, architecture, and literature See also Abbasid dynasty; Crusades; Isma’ilis Further reading: Amitai-Preiss, Reuven Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260–1281 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005; Frazier, Ian “Invaders: Destroying Baghdad.” The New Yorker (April 25, 2005); Grousset, René The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970; Hodgson, Marshall G S The Venture of Islam Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1974; Lewis, Bernard The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years New York: Touchstone, 1997; Lewis, Bernard Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974; Morgan, David The Mongols New York: Blackwell Publishers, 1990; Smith, John Masson, Jr “Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (December 1984) Christopher Anzalone Hundred Years’ War In battles fought from 1337 to 1453 primarily by England and France for control of France and the French Crown, England initially had the upper hand, but in 1429 the French, inspired by Joan of Arc, regained all areas of France that they had lost except for Calais England and France had been at war several times before the Hundred Years’ War because of the landholdings of the English Crown in France Through several wars, the French had slowly been regaining control of these lands With the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War the French found themselves losing ground against the English Militarily the English longbow proved especially devastating to the French and led to the English victories at Crécy and Agincourt The English believed that they were secure in their victory but found the tables turned on them in 1429 by Joan of Arc The French were able to retake much of the land the English had captured up to that point in the war The Burgundians switched sides, joining the French, and the English found themselves pushed back even more The English would continue to send armies to France and were, at times, able to retake lost territory; the war had definitely turned against them The final years of the war saw the English lose all their territory in France except Calais With France’s control over all the previously controlled English lands in France, the war ended in 1453 EARLY ENGLISH LANDS IN FRANCE The English and the French had been at odds over the relationship of their kings to each other because of the English Crown’s control over lands in France In England the English king was sovereign, yet in France he was a vassal of the French king and accountable to the French king This accountability was used, usually on trumped up charges, by the French kings to try to take land away from the English The French did this in 1202 and when the English king did not show up at the French court to answer charges brought against him, the French king declared his lands to be confiscated and war followed During the war (which lasted