My 21st great-uncle, John Tristan Capet, had French parents but uniquely he was born and died during two separate Crusades in North Africa.
The Crusades were a series of military campaigns by Christian knights, backed by the serving Popes, against the Muslims of the Middle East and the conflicts lasted nearly 200 years.
John Tristan Capet had a relatively short life and although he married, he never fathered children.
He was born in Egypt at Damietta on Thursday the 8th April 1250 during the 7th Crusade. Damietta had been conquered by the crusaders in the previous year – they landed in Egypt on 5th June 1249.
According to a chronicler of the time, Jean de Joinville (1224-1317), John Tristan was delivered with the aid of an old knight who acted as midwife during John’s birth.
Two days before John’s birth his father was captured during the Battle of Al Mansurah by Mamluks (Muslim slave soldiers) which was the reason to name him Tristian due to the triste occasion. His father was released upon payment of a ransom and the surrender of Damietta.