William de Scotney

**William de Scotney** (born 1248, died 1316) was Regent of Angelona from 1290 to 1294 and Lord of Scotney. William was elected Regent when his 11 year old grandson, Peter I was crowned King. Although his regency ended when Peter turned 15 in 1294, he effectively continued to rule the country until his death in 1316.

## Regent of Angelona

William was elected as Regent of Angelona in 1290, when his 11 year old grandson, Peter I was crowned King. William was present at the Battle of Acre, where King John I died. After Jihn's death, William remained in Acre to defend the siege from the Mamluk attackers. William chose not to leave the city and allowed women, children and elderly citizens to use his ships to flee the battle, whilst other Crusaders chose to leave.

As the city fell to the Mamluk's, under the cover of darkness, Thibaud Gaudin, the new Master of the Temple, left the fortress for Sidon along with William and around 500 Angelonian and Templar Knights.

William arrived in Sidon, but the Mamluk's continued there onslaught and the remaining Crusader strongholds were evacuated. When Tyre fell, William departed Sidon with a large large number of Christian refugees from Sidon, Beirut, Haifa and other settlements and sailed back to Angelona. The last Crusader strongholds fell to the Muslims one after the other ending the Crusader period in the Levant.

## The War of Damietta

Angelona had controlled Damietta since 1247 and the city had been bestowed upon House de Scotney. Successive Kings of Angelona has spent considerable resources in turning the city into an extremely well defended fortress. Since the city had been taken by Angelona, every ruler of Egypt had viewed the existence of Christian rulers over an Egyptian city as a major slight against Islam. Numerous attacks on the city had failed and cost the attackers huge numbers of troops.

Sultan Khalil, fresh from his victories in the Levant now turned his attention to Damietta. William appealed to a number of European monarchs and received support from France, England, Portugal, Aragon, Venice and Genoa.

Khalil's attack began in January 1292 and the city was immediately besieged. William had foreseen this and had prepared a large invasion force in Angelona in which he launched his counter attack.

With a combined Angelonian, Venetian, Genoese and Cypriot naval fleet, the Crusader fleet destroyed the Mamluk navy, landed an army at Alexandria and blockaded all of Egypt's major ports. William besieged Alexandria in an attempt to draw the large Mamluk army away from Damietta. Khalil was reluctant do so and made repeated attempts to storm Damietta, but only achieved making major loses against the impregnable Damiettan defences. Alexandria fell after a six month siege, but William chose not to occupy the city and instead sacked and looted the city before marching on to Damietta.

Khalil broke of his siege and met William at the battle of Baltim. What Khalil possessed superior numbers, his army was routed with both sides suffering huge casualties. Khalil retreated to Mansoura to regroup and William began sacking settlements in northern Egypt.

Khalil regrouped his army and was strengthened with reinforcements from Cairo and Damascus. Khalil met William once more at the battle of Mansoura on 8 December 1293. William once again achieved a heroic victory and Khalil was killed attempting to flee the battlefield.

William sacked the city of Mansoura, but his army was not big enough to mount a campaign on Cairo. William met with a number of Mamluk nobles where a treaty was signed, which very much favoured William, who agreed to call off his campaign in return for payment and a surety to recognise Damietta as property of Angelona. As part of the treaty Angelona also gained lands from Rosetta to Damietta.

## Post regency

William's military exploits in Egypt were celebrated across Europe. William had won a number of major battles against superior odds and ensured the safety of Angelona for at least a decade.

King Peter I of Angelona came of age in 1294, but William continued to be an important figure and effectively continued to run Angelona as the King's advisor.

Angelona experienced a period of growth between 1294 and 1300. The vast numbers of nobles and citizens that arrived in Angelina after the fall of the Crusader states fuelled the economy and William invested his loot from the Mamluk war into building defensive structures, churches and education facilities across Angelona.

The city of Bourgenay was founded in 1295, where William constructed a new royal palace for the King and constructed the new Palace of Bourgenay and Castle Bourgenay, where a new royal council hall was established and the council was relocated from Kingscourt. The famous Italian architect, Simone Lafayette was commissioned to design and build the grand Cathedral of Bourgenay.

## Death of King Peter

In 1301, Peter I, died in a hunting accident. Peter died without child, leaving his brother, Henry, to be crowned King. Henry was just 18 years old and continued to rely heavily on William to advise on running the Kingdom.

## End of the Templar Knights

The history of Angelona was entwined with that of the Templar Knights and relations between the Kingdom and the Order had always been extremely good. From 1307 King Phillip IV of France and Pope Clement V led a witch hunt against the Templar Knights across Europe. Hundreds of Knights were rounded up on put on trial on spurious charges.

William refused to participate in the Templar purge and allowed thousands of Templars across Europe to take up refuge in Angelona. Relations between Angelona, the Papacy and France became cold and King Phillip IV even threatened to invade Angelona.

William and Henry II met with Alric de Laurcourt, the Grand Master of the Angelonian Templar Knights chapter, in 1311 in Bourgenay. As a result of the meeting, Henry II founded the Order of Saint Francis, which was effectively the Templar Knights, rebranded under a new name in Angelona.

## Death and legacy

William died peacefully at Castle de Scotney, Scotneyshire. In death he was named, William the Iron Lord, in memory of his military exploits for Angelona and Christendom. Upon his death, Henry commissioned the statue of William de Scotney, which stands in Elysium Square, Bourgenay.