“There was a gale on the way back; the crusaders lost forty warships at the port of Trapani and King Philip and his wife only just escaped with their lives. This was taken as a further omen and it was decided that it would be best for everybody if they all went back to France by land. Yet even here tragedy and misfortune dogged their footsteps; the journey home through Italy resembled a funeral procession. Louis’s daughter Isabelle lost her husband, the king of Navarre, to illness in Trapani in December 1270. She herself died the next year en route home. In January, King Philip’s wife, the new queen of France, was thrown from her horse while trying to cross difficult terrain. The fall reportedly broke her spine, and she gave birth prematurely to a stillborn son who would have been heir to the throne, and herself died a few days later. Neither Alphonse of Poitiers nor his wife, Jeanne of Toulouse, ever made it back to France; they died, one day apart, in August 1271 near Genoa. The most virulent enemy of France could not have done a better job of decimating the French royal family than did Louis with his crusade. [...] Marguerite, residing at the castle in Paris, had to wait until May 1271 for Philip and the rest of the survivors to straggle back to the capital. Although messengers had arrived previously with the news of Louis’s death, it was only at this point that the queen mother discovered the magnitude of the loss that the crusade had wrought: her husband, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, prospective grandchild, and brother-and sister-in-law were all dead. Philip’s first official act as king was to bury his father. A casket containing Louis’s remains had accompanied him all the way from Tunis.” – N. Goldstone, Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe.
