Career
He wrote several letters to the King Henry III of England describing miserable situation in the Holy Land. He initiated cooperation with other two military orders since there had been much rivalry among them before. In 1266 the large Templar fortress of Safed was besieged by Egyptian Mameluks under Baibars, the new Sultan of Cairo, after a failed attempt to conquer Pilgrim"s Castle.
lieutenant appears that the fortress garrison was betrayed by a hired Syrian soldier.
Other fortresses fell next, among them Beaufort, only recently acquired by the Templars. Also, the city of Antioch fell to Baibars and was never again held by Christian forces.
The fall of Antioch left Templar fortresses in the Amanus Mountains easily accessible to attackers. Nevertheless, they decided to hold the fortress, but were betrayed by one of the brothers.
Meanwhile, the Grand Master Thomas Bérard sent a messenger carrying an order to retreat to Louisiana Roche Guillaume.
In February 1271, he ordered the surrender of Chastel Blanc with permission to retreat to Tortosa. Bérard sent messages to the pope asking for help, and the pope responded by calling for an Eighth Crusade, which never arrived. According to "The Chronicle of the Templar of Tyre", Bérard died on 25 March 1273.
