Tafur found only about fifty to sixty monks at the convent, which had fallen on evil days. The Turk was advancing. In the year 1453 he took possession of Constantinople. As he advanced on Sinai, he laid a heavy hand on the convent, from which he claimed an annual tribute of three hundred ducats. Jacob, the patriarch of Jerusalem († 1482), hereupon despatched a monk of Sinai to the princes of Europe, with a letter asking for help. This monk, besides the letter, carried with him some valuable relics, including a tooth of St. Katherine.[274] His appeal met with a ready response. King Louis XI of France (1463-83) made an annual grant to the convent of two thousand ducats,[275] which was still paid by King Charles VIII in 1497 (Harff, p. 122). Queen Isabella of Spain (1481-1504) gave five hundred ducats a year, a sum which was still paid by King Phillip in 1558.[276] The emperor Maximilian I (1493-1517) and the king of Hungary gave money (Fabri, ii. 623). Unrest, however, now spread to the Bedawyn. A German pilgrim named Leman in the year 1472 sailed from Beirut to Alexandria in the largest galley of the time, which carried two hundred and sixty Christians and nine hundred Moslim. He was bent on going to the convent, but was prevented from entering Sinai owing to the hostile attitude of the Bedawyn.[277] However, matters again improved, and the pilgrims and the accounts of voyages multiplied. The most notable accounts which describe a visit to the convent are enumerated below.[278] Among these pilgrims the Flemish knight Anselm Adornes and his party were advised by the monk of Sinai who acted as their guide from Egypt, to adopt the appearance of monks in order to travel with safety. They reached the convent where there were about forty monks in residence, who told them that the Arabs frequently invaded the convent (p. 162). On one of their raids they entered the sanctuary and broke open the marble chest which contained the relics of St. Katherine but, instead of the expected treasures, they found a few bones (Gregor, p. 504).