the whole Army was divided and in perpetual contests for several days But the Sultan who made use of that Opportunity to endeavour to put some succour into the place during this discourse of Peace the King's Party which was the least reunited again with the Legate Hereupon the Conferences for Peace were broken and it was resolved to pursue the Siege with all imaginable Vigor But it lasted not long for one of the Towers which lay upon a Corner of the Town being by the force of the Machins so ruined that it was easie to enter by the Breach and there appearing no great number of Defendants to secure the Breach the Legate made choice of a very dark night wherein the Wind blew very loud to cause it to be attacked The Soldiers approached the Tower and the Gate adjoining which they set on sire and passed to the second Wall whilest others clapt up Ladders and scaled the first Wall in diverse places without resistance then the King being immediately advertised of this strange Success led his Troops thither in good order and with the same facility gained the second Wall and the next morning being the fifth of November by break of day they took the third Wall with so little resistance that there was but one man lightly wounded in his Foot Immediately the Christian Standards were planted upon the Towers which the Sultans perceiving they retired with precipitation setting fire to their Camp and Bridge that so they might not be pursued Thus Damiata which had cost so much Blood and labour for eighteen Months was in one night taken by the Christian Army without Noise without Tumult there being none left in this fair and great City in Condition to defend it For the extreme Famine which they had indured and the diseases which followed upon it had made such a horrible ravage that of eighty thousand Soldiers and Citizens which were in it at the Beginning of the Siege there were scarcely lest three thousand alive and of those not above one hundred who were able to bear Arms. All the Streets and houses were filled with dead and dying Persons which the living who with extreme weakness expected the same Fate were not able to bury so that the Army was forced for a long time to encamp without the City before they could get it cleansed There were found in the City infinite Riches in Vessels of Gold Silver Pearls precious Stones Silks and all manner of Indian Drugs and Spices year 1219 But the Sarasins during the Siege having buried most of their Money and notwithstanding that the Legate had denounced the Anathema against those who should conceal any of the Booty which he ordered to be brought together to make a just distribution among the whole Army yet particular persons concealed the greatest part of the Booty so that there could never be got together above four hundred thousand Crowns in Money which was distributed among the Soldiers There were about four hundred among the Prisoners who were the most considerable who were reserved to be exchanged for those who had been taken by the Enemies during the Siege year 1220 The Principal Mosque which was supported by one hundred and fifty Marble Pillars and invironed by five curious Galleries with a noble Cupelo in the middle upon which was a lofty Spire was consecrated to God in honour of the blessed Virgin and upon the Feast of the Purification the Cardinal Legate accompanied by the Patriarch the Bishops and Clergy of Ptolemais followed by the King the Princes the Lords and all the Chief Commanders went in Solemn Procession there to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries of the Christian Religion after which they built a new Bridge which joyned the City and the Fort which they had during the Siege built upon the other bank of the Nile and then Damiata by the consent of the Legate and the whole Army was annexed to the Realm of Jerusalem and to add to the good Fortune some few dayes after a Party of a thousand Soldiers being commanded to go abroad for Forrage and Provisions failing up the second branch of the River Nilus which is called the Tanitique the Egyptians terrified by their comming cowardly abandoned the strongest of their Castles which was built upon the Ruines of the Famous City of Tanis in Ancient Time the Capital City of Egypt and the Residence of the Pharaohs the place where Moses to move the heart of that obdurate Prince wrought all those memorable Prodigies which are recorded in the Holy Story in the Book of Exodus It is also reported that in a place near Damiata the Christians found a Book written in Arabick the Author whereof who assures us that he was neither Jew Christian nor Mahometan predicted the Victories of the great Saladin the taking of Ptolemais by the Kings of England and France that of Damiata nine and twenty Years after and that one day there should come a King from the East whose name should be David and another from the West whom he does not name who joyning together should overthrow the Empire of the Mahometans and recover the City of Jerusalem But as one cannot judge of the Truth of this Prophecy by the former part of the things which it doth predict since they were already come to pass when the Book was found so it must be Posterity who only can be able to make a certain judgment of the truth of the second part when it shall happen to be accomplished which we have not yet seen The End of the Third Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The Condition the manners and the Religion of the People of Georgia who resolve to join with the Princes of the Crusade but are hindred by an irruption of the Tartars into their Country The Emperor Frederick sends a considerable relief to Damiata The return of King John de Brienne to the Army of the Crusades The Legate Pelagius opposeth his advice and makes them resolve upon a Battle against Meledin who once more offers Peace upon most advantageous Terms The Legate occasions the refusal of them The humour and discription of this Legate An account of the miserable adventure of the Christian Army which by the innundation of the Nile is reduced to the Discretion of Meledin The wise Policy of this Sultan who saves the Army by a Treaty which he was willing to make with the Crusades This misfortune is followed by the Rupture of Frederick the Emperor with the Pope The Character of that Emperor The Complaints of Pope Honorius against him His Answers and their Reconciliation A famous Conference for the Holy War King John de Brienne comes to desire assistance throughout Europe The death of Philip the August His Elogy his Will and his Funerals New Endeavours of the Pope and the Emperor for the Holy War The Marriage of Frederick with
rest of Cilicia even to Alexandretta whilest Baldwin having made a great Progress in Armenia whither he was gone to joyn the gross of the Army was called to the Principality of Edessa where he established himself by that Adventure which I am now about to relate Edessa an ancient and famous City of Mesopotamia known in the sacred History by the Name of Rages which it afterwards changed into that of Rohais and which at this day is called Orfa was in times past under the Power of the ancient Greeks who governed it under the Emperor of Constantinople and after that the Turks had taken from him this Province yet it was still maintained as a little Principality paying a certain Tribute to these Infidels who nevertheless ceased not to Tyrannize over this poor City now hopeless of all Succours The Inhabitants who were all Christians having heard of the famous Actions of Prince Baldwin who pushed on his Conquests as far as Euphrates defeating the Turks in all Encounters obliged their Prince to send to him to desire his Assistance and to offer him the honorable Terms of being his adopted Son and declared Successor Baldwin did not refuse so fair an Occasion which his good Fortune seemed to offer him by possessing him of so considerable an Estate in Asia He adventured therefore to pass the Euphrates being followed by not above one hundred Horse which were all he could spare from the keeping such important Places which he had Conquered nevertheless with this little Troop he bassled the Turks who either openly opposed his Passage or laid Ambuscades in his Way to surprize him and entring Edessa he was received with such extraordinary Acclamations and Honors that the good old Man who had adopted him conceived such a Jealousy of him that repenting of what he had done he resolved in short to get quit of him and send him back at any rate But Baldwin after he had in two or three Rencounters with the Turks who possessed all the Country about Edessa given a Tast of his Courage and Conduct the whole Populace who were ripe for such a Revolution and wanted only an Occasion to revenge themselves of a thousand Evils which they had suffered under the Government of this Covetous old Man ran immediately to their Arms and besieged the Castle and notwithstanding all the Prayers and Opposition which Baldwin made against their Intentions they cut this miserable Man in pieces whilest he endeavoured to escape by throwing himself from a Window opposite to that Quarter which was assaulted After which notwithstanding all the Repugnance which Baldwin either had or feigned to have thereby to shew that he had no share in so horrid an Action he was constrained the next Morning to permit himself to be solemnly proclaimed Prince of Edessa and to be put in Possession of the Treasure of the deceased Prince which according to the Destiny of Covetous Men he had scraped together for another who knew how to employ it better than himself For with one part of it he bought the strong Town of Samosata upon the Euphrates he who held it thinking it better Husbandry prudently to sell it at a good Rate than to expose himself to the danger of losing it for nothing and with another part he levied good Troops with which he took all the places which were capable of incommoding Edessa and in short in a small time he established a most powerful Estate extending it on both sides both towards the South from Euphrates as far as Selencia upon the Tygris and towards the North as far as the strong places upon Mount Taurus He had also the dexterity and good Fortune to unite to his Principality a great part of Armenia by an alliance with one of his Princes whose Neice he married after the death of the generous Gundechilda his Lady who having followed him died at Maresia during the March of the Army of the Confederate Princes Whilst Prince Baldwin made such a marvellous Progress on this side of the Euphrates the Christian Army having reduced all the lesser Armenia took the Road through Comagena towards Syria and drew within fifteen miles of Antioch after having taken the City of Artesia the Inhabitants whereof having cut the throats of the Turkish Garrison had opened their Gates to the Earl of Flanders who was advanced with a thousand choice horse to receive it He there made a defence for divers days with a great deal of Courage and glory against twenty thousand Turks who came from Antioch to retake it and who after a terrible Assault which they maintained for one whole day were constrained to retire upon the Approach of the Christian Army to defend the pass of a Bridge upon the Orontes about two or three Leagues from Antioch year 1097 After the repose of a few dayes during which Tancred and the rest of the Lords except Count Baldwin came to rejoyn the Army it was resolved notwithstanding the Season was now far advanced to besiege this great City in regard the Reputation of the Christian Arms and the happy Success of their great design seemed absolutely to depend upon the taking of Antioch which covered the Country of Palestine This resolution was no sooner taken but it was put in immediate Execution for the next morning Robert Duke of Normandy who led the Vanguard of the Army fell smartly upon the Bridge which the Turks who never behaved themselves better than upon this occasion as vigorously maintained but the Bishop of Pavia coming up to reinforce them did so animate the Normans and the English that some of them having forced the Barricadoes and the two Towers which commanded the Bridge whilst others passing over the Shallows and some throwing themselves into the River swam over they put the Turks to slight and opened the passage for the whole Army That Night they encamped near the River and the next day which was Wednesday the twenty first of October putting themselves in order of Battle and adorning themselves in their fairest Arms with Trumpets founding and Colours flying the whole Army marched as it were in a terrible Triumph and encamped within a mile of Antioch Antioch so renowned in the Greek and Latin Histories and which at present consists only of some part of the beautiful Ruines where sometime that noble City stood was at that time one of the fairest and largest Cities in the World giving place to none for the strength which both Art and Nature had bestowed upon it It was situated in a most fertile and delicious Plain between the Mountains Amanus and Orontes upon the River of that name whose Stream flowed along by the Walls on the Western side being within four or five leagues of its mouth The Town was in length from the East to the West above a league without comprehending the Suburbs which were very large There were two Mountains between the South and East separated by a narrow Valley through which a little River slid along into the
Success of an Assault given against the Rules of War by the Advice of a Hermite who pretended a Revelation for it The Description of Duke Godfrey 's Engines The solemn Procession of the Besiegers about the City The second General Assault for three days together Two Magicians who were Conjuring upon the Walls have their Brains beaten out with a Stone from Duke Godfrey 's wooden Castle The Artifice of Godfrey to drive the Enemies from the Walls He is the first that by the Bridge of his Castle mounts the Walls Jerusalem taken The fearful Slaughter of the Saracens By Godfrey 's Example the whole Army return solemn Thanks to God at the Holy Sepulchre An Assembly of the Princes to chuse a King and a Patriarch The Speech of Robert Duke of Normandy upon this Subject Godfrey of Bullen chosen and proclaimed King of Jerusalem The memorable Battle of Ascalon against the Sultan of Egypt and the Victory of the Christians which concluded this first Crusade The Return of the Crusades The Conquests of Godfrey of Bullen and his Death An Abridgment of the History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem till the time of the second Crusade The Reign of Baldwin the First The flourishing Estate of the Christians in the East till his Death The Reign of Baldwin the Second The Relation of the founding the Military Orders of the Knights Hospitallers The Captivity of King Baldwin His Deliverance His Victories and Death He is succeeded by his Son-in-Law Fowk d' Anjou The Prosperity of his Reign His Death and the Regency of Queen Melesintha during the Minority of Baldwin the Third The Occasion of the second Expedition of the Crusades The Relation of the two Josselins de Courtenay Earls of Edessa The taking of that City by Sanguin Sultan of Alepo and afterwards by Noradin his Son The Character of that Prince and his Conquests over the Christians Applications made to Lewis the young King of France His Character and what moved him to undertake the Crusade He Consults Saint Bernard concerning it The Character of that Saint and the Order he received from Pope Eugenius the Third to Preach the Crusade The General Assemblies of Bourges Vezelay and Chartress for the Crusade It is Published by Saint Bernard in France and Germany The Emperor and King take up the Cross The Abbot Sugere declared Regent in France His Character and Advice concerning the Expedition The Voyage of the Emperor The Description of the Tempest which almost ruined his Army upon the Banks of the River Melas The Fleet of the Crusades take Lisbon from the Saracens The Original of the Kings of Portugal The Character and Perfidy of the Greek Emperor Manuel His underhand Treating with the Turks The miserable Overthrow of the Emperor's Army The Voyage of King Lewis to Constantinople and his Reception The Advice of the Bishop of Langress who Counsels the King to take Constantinople his Speech upon that Subject the reason that his Advice was not followed the Treacheries of Manuel thereupon The Kings Voyage into Asia His Interview with the Emperor Conrade and the Return of that Prince to Constantinople The Description of the River Meander and the famous Passage of the King of France with his Army over it year 1099 JErusalem which after that Herod the Great had beautified it with the most magnificent Structures and had repaired the Temple had been one of the Wonders of the World and one of the fairest Cities of all the East was nothing but a horrible Heap of Cinders and Ruines after its fatal Destruction till such time as the Emperor Adrian who was the last that ruined it caused it to be rebuilt in a manner far different from what it was before For in times-past there was comprised within the Circuit of its Walls four Mountains upon which it was successively Built The first called Salem otherwise Acra which was founded by Melchisedeck The second opposite to that towards the South and which was far higher was the Holy and Famous Mount Sion which David after he had taken the Fortress of the Jebusites joyned to the former by a Wall which invironed it on all parts to distinguish it from the other which in comparison of this new City was called the Lower City The third was the Mountain of Moriah between these towards the East where the Temple of Solomon stood And the fourth upon the North was the Hill Betheza where the same King built a new Town which was afterwards much inlarged by Hezekiah and took in all the Valley between the East and the North to the lower Town This Glorious City of God was afterwards destroyed by the Chaldeans and with the Temple restored to its first Estate in divers Ages by Zorobabel Nehemiah the Machabees and by Herod the Great and was at the last overthrown to the very Ground and laid in Heaps of Rubbish by the Emperor Titus Vespasian three only of the fairest Towers called the Hippico year 1099 Phasele and Mariamne which Herod had Builded escaping the general Desolation for Titus was willing to preserve them as also part of the North Wall of the higher Town to which they were joyned that they might remain as Monuments of the Greatness of his Victory when Posterity should by the Strength of those make a Judgment how Impregnable that City was which he had taken though defended by such mighty Walls and lofty Towers But the Jews Revolting in the time of the Emperor Adrian that Prince after he had made the most horrible Slaughter among the Rebels caused those three Towers and the Wall also to be demolished and razed to the very Foundation thus without designing it intirely accomplishing the dreadful Prediction of the Son of God That the day should come when there should not be one Stone left upon another in that miserable City After this that Emperor to immortalize his own Name in abolishing that of Jerusalem caused a new City to be there Built which according to his own Name was called Aelia giving it also a quite differing Form from the Ancient City whose Memory as well as Name he thought thereby for ever to extinguish For he left out of it the whole Mountain of Sion which had been the best and most Beautiful as well as strongest part of Jerusalem almost all that which had been called the New City and a great part of the Lower Town He made Mount Moriah be levelled and inclosed that and the little Remainder of the New and Low Town as also Mount Calvarie which was nothing but a little Corner of Mount Gihon which was out of the Ancient City towards the West So that this Aelia as it was not by one half so large as Jerusalem so it had quite a differing Figure For the Ancient Jerusalem in its Dimensions approached to a Square though not altogether Regular being something longer than it was broad for it was Extended from North to South a good League the Breadth from East to West being something
met with them in their Return to Egypt year 1124 William de Bures Lord of Tiberias Succeeded in the Regency to Eustace who died some few days after his Victory and he knew so well how to make good Use of it that taking this Occasion to Besiege the City of Tyre by Land with his Army and by Sea with the Venetian Fleet he became Master of the Place before the Sultan of Egypt was in a Condition to Relieve it by a new Fleet. The Earl Josselin also Escaping out of Prison had gotten into Antioch and Fought so successfully with his little Army year 1125 during the Siege against the same Balac who had taken him Prisoner that the Barbarian lost both the Battle and his Life whereby the King also recovered his Liberty paying his Ransom to the Princess the Widdow of Balac The Deliverance of the King was succeeded by other happy Successes He overthrew in Battle Borsequin another potent Turkish Prince who had entred in Arms into the Principality of Antioch He Defeated the Egyptians and Ascalonites who were ready to make an Irruption into his Kingdom and had very great Advantages over Dodequin the Sultan of Damascus whom he went to Attaque in the very Heart of his Dominions He took the strong Place of Raphana near to Arcas for the Earl of Tripolis and by his Actions made it appear to the whole World that he was as a most Virtuous Prince so also a very great Captain year 1126 He put the whole Principality of Antioch into the Hands of the Young Bohemond whom he also made his Son-in-Law giving him in Marriage the Princess Alice his second Daughter for he had before given his Eldest Daughter the Princess Melisentha to Fowk Earl of Anjou to whom he gave the two Cities of Tyre and Ptolemais he being also in right of his Lady to Succeed him in the Realm of Jerusalem But his good Fortune was not constant to him till his Death for having Besieged Damascus with a Puissant Army where were joyned with him the Earls of Edessa and Tripolis the Prince of Antioch and Fowk Earl of Anjou he was obliged for want of Provisions and by the Incommodiousness of the Season to raise his Siege and not long after his Son-in-Law the young Bohemon being Surprized by the Turks was Slain in Cilicia After which having given the necessary Orders for Securing the Principality of Antioch to the Princess Constantia the Daughter of Bohemond whom her own Mother would most unnaturally have Excluded from that Right he died most Religiously at Jerusalem year 1131 in the third Year of his Reign and was Interred at the Foot of Mount Calvary near the two Kings his Predecessors and his Cousins Earl Fowk who Succeeded him did also Inherit his Virtues and above all his Integrity and high Generosity For after having Defended the Principality of Antioch against the Designs of his Sister-in-Law the Princess Dowager of young Bohemond and against a mighty Army of the Turks whom he cut in pieces near Antioch he gave the Principality thereof to Raymond the Son of the Earl of Poitiers giving him in Marriage the young Princess Constantia the Daughter of Bohemond the lawful Heiress of those Territories He also maintained him in it against all the Forces of John the Constantinopolitan Emperor who made two fruitless Expeditions with huge Armies for the re-gaining of Antioch year 1131 which he pretended appertained to him of Right by the Treaty which his Father Alexis had Concluded with the Princes of the first Crusade when they passed by Constantinople into Asia He gloriously preserved both his own Kingdom and the States of Christian Princes his Neighbours against all the Forces of Sanguin Sultan of Alepo the most potent among all the Infidel Princes against whom he entred into Confederacy with the Sultan of Damascus He took from the Turks the City of Paneas or Cesarea Philippi otherwise in Ancient times called Dan near the two Heads from whence arises the River Jordan he re-built and fortified Beersheba at the other Extremity of his Kingdom as it was in the times of the Ancient Kings and as it is frequently said in the Holy Scripture he extended his Dominion from Dan to Beersheba But some time after he happened to have an unfortunate Fall from his Horse year 1142 as he was Hunting the Hare in the Plain of Ptolemais of which he died in the eleventh Year of his Reign leaving for his Successor his eldest Son Baldwin of the Age of three Years under the Regency of his Mother Queen Melesintha and it was in the time of this young King that the second Crusade was Published upon the Occasion which I am now going to relate It was about eleven Years after that Josselin de Courtenay Earl of Edessa dying had left for his Successor a Son of his own Name but one who did neither resemble his Father in Virtue nor in Courage as too plainly appeared by the Dishonorable beginning of the Son and the glorious ending of the Father That valiant Prince who was retired half dead and almost crushed in Pieces by the Ruins of a Fortress which he had Attacqued near Alepo lay Languishing in his Bed expecting every Moment his approaching Death when News was brought him that the Sultan of Iconium thinking to take the Advantage of his Malady had laid Siege to one of his Towns called Croisson At this News he gave order to the young Josselin who was now arrived at the Age fit to Command to go instantly with what Troops he could draw together about Edessa to oppose the Enemy But the Cowardly Youth far from laying hold upon such an Opportunity to gain Glory and Reputation by a Victory which should shew that he Merited that Crown which by Birthright and the expected Death of his Father was shortly to devolve upon him coldly answered his Father That he did not think it consisted with his Prudence to offer to Encounter an Enemy so much Superior to him in Strength and Numbers whereupon the Generous old Prince seeing to what an unworthy Successor he was about to leave so fair a Principality was resolved once more to shew him even as he was dying by his Example what his Honor obliged him to do in Defence thereof and therefore having instantly Assembled his Troops he caused himself to be carried at the Head of them in a Horse-Litter being only able to act with his Noble Mind which still retained all its Vigor and Force in despite of the extream Weakness and Languishment to which his bruised Body was reduced as he Marched in this Condition still Advancing towards the Enemy Word was brought him that the Sultan having been Informed that he who he thought Dead was coming against him with a Resolution to give him Battle had raised his Siege and was Retreated into his own Territories Whereupon the brave Earl ravished with Joy at the same time that he felt himself most cruelly Oppressed with his Pains and the Approaches
it was obliged to halt upon the Frontier of Hungary to treat with King Carloman concerning their passage For in Truth he had sufficient reason to be distrustful of this Army of the Crusades after the horrible injuries which he had received from those of Peter Godescalc and Emico The Treaty was however quickly concluded by the open and plain dealing between the King and the Duke who had an Interview upon a certain Bridge The King demanded as Hostages Prince Baldwin and the Princess his Lady and coasting all along with the Army of Godfrey ordered the Magazines to furnish them with Provisions at a reasonable price till such time as the greatest part of the Troops were passed over the Savus where he returned the Hostages with a thousand Protestations of Amity to the Duke whose Conduct and Fidelity he had in extraordinary admiration With the same order Godfrey caused his Army to pass over the vast Countries of Bulgaria and the Territories of the Greek Emperour according as he had promised his Embassadors who were sent to him by Alexis whilest he was upon his March until at length he arrived at Philipopolis in Thracia where he received Intelligence of the detention of Hugh the Great This young Prince who was Brother to Philip the first King of France had not to speak Truth either so much Experience or so much Ability as the other Princes of the Crusade who were possessed of very fair Estates but however he was a person admirably well composed full of Honour Vertue and Goodness extream Brave and of an Humour sweet and indearing the advantage which he had by his Illustrious Birth above the rest gave him a title to a greater Respect and he was therefore treated with so much Honour and Duty by all that though diverse others had in reality a greater Command and Interest in the Army yet nevertheless his Name was more Celebrated among strangers and especially the Greeks The Princes which accompanied him in this Voyage were Robert Duke of Normandy Son to William the Conquerer with the Noble Troops of English Normans and Brittains Stephen Earl of Chartres and Blois whose power was so great that it was commonly said that he was owner of more Places and Castles then there were days in the year Prince Eustace of Bullen Brother to Duke Godfrey and Robert Earl of Flanders who following the example of the Duke of Lorrain sold his Estate to furnish the Charges of this War These Princes who together composed a most puissant and numerous Army having stated their measures and conferred a long time at Paris with Hugh the great in the presence of the King his Brother put themselves upon their Way in the Month of September and having traversed France and Italy and received the Benediction of the Pope whom they found at Leuca and also having visited Rome and the Holy Places to implore the Divine Assistance the Winter being too far advanced for them commodiously to pass into Epirus they were obliged to distribute their Army about Bari Brindes and Otranto there to attend the coming of the Spring and the conveniency of imbarquing their Forces But Hugh suffering himself to be transported by the heat of his Conrage and the Impatience natural to Young Persons and above all others those of the French Nation was not able to support this delay but exposed himself too rashly to the Faith of the Greeks imbarking at Bari to pass to Duras as he did very slenderly accompanied and in a condition in no sort suitable to his Quality and the Majestick Name of France which he was to sustain during this War But the Governour of that place whether it were that he had secret Orders to secure such of the Crusade as he could surprize or that he believed he should do his Master the Emperor a considerable Service by putting into his hands so great a Prince who might serve for a Hostage to secure him against the Latins immediately upon his arrival seized him and sent him under a strong Guard through By-ways to Constantinople where the Emperor detained him Prisoner Godfrey who presently after this adventure arrived at Philipopolis where he received an account of it sent immediately to the Emperour to demand the Liberty of this Prince and those who accompanied him and in the mean time advanced with his Army as far as Adrianople But perceiving by the Answer which he received from Alexis what he was to Expect he acted like an open Enemy and for eight days wasting the Country all along as he went he marched directly to Constantinople where he raised such a consternation that Alexis sent to him to his Camp to desire a Peace making him all the Promises of receiving a just satisfaction In short Godfrey still advancing encamped two days before Christmass within view of this great City when with joy he received Hugh the Great to whom the Emperor had now given his Liberty and who came to pay his thanks to his Deliverer and Benefactor accompanied with Drogon de Neele Clerembaud de Vendeuïle and William Viscount of Melun commonly called the Carpenter either because he was so notable an Artist in framing of Engines of War or that according to the mode of Expression in those times he used so terribly to hack and hew his Enemies that neither Cask Shield nor Curiass was able to resist the Force of his blows But this Peace by reason of the perfidiousness of Alexis lasted not long for perceiving that after he had given orders privately to prohibit the furnishing them with provisions the Army began to live at Discretion he had recourse to Artifice and desired Godfrey to take up his Quarters in the fair Houses Palaces Hamblets and Villages which lay all along the Bosphorus to the Euxine Sea pretending the Rigor of the season was too extream to permit them to continue in their Camp but the truth is with a design to lock up this great Army in the little space which is between the Strait and the River which discharges it self into the Port that there he might more easily destroy them He had also a design to surprize the Duke inviting him to come to the Palace to confer with him about the War but finding that the Duke would not be decoyed and that he did with good reason distrust him he endeavoured again to famish the Army prohibiting the furnishing them with any kind of provisions he also attacked them both by Sea and Land for he commanded out his Cavalry against those who were sent to forrage and caused many Vessels manned with Archers to fall down the River who incessantly discharged upon such of the Soldiers as appeared But his Enterprize prospered accordingly for Godfrey with ease defeating the Greek Cavalry made himself Master of the Bridge of Blakerness in despite of all that the Emperors People endeavoured to do to oppose him and having without danger repassed the Main of his Army who set sire at their parting to the Houses and
Heaven look there and see the Brightness and the Beauty of that Palace it is from thence that I have what you so much Admire in me And further added he seeing him transported with the Admiration of that Beautiful Palace I am to acquaint you that there is one far more Glorious preparing for you Adieu till to Morrow And thereupon he presently disappeared Early the next Morning Anselm having made his Servants send for the Priests he received the Sacraments and very pleasantly said to his Friends that they should not be surprized at what he was to tell them but that though now they saw him in perfect Health yet assuredly he should die that day and thereupon he related to them what he had seen the Night preceding before he went to sleep And the Event verified his Prediction for the Enemy making a furious Sally Anselm who never failed upon such an Occasion ran thither with his Sword in his Hand when a Stone which was discharged from an Engine hitting him upon the Head sent him instantly to that Beautiful Palace which Engelram told him was preparing for him in the Heavens Now in Regard that he who recounts this extraordinary Accident affirms upon his Salvation that he faithfully writ what he saw himself and that besides one cannot reasonably accuse so brave a Man as this famous Earl of Bouchain and Ribemont as guilty of so much Weakness as to make him pass for a Visionary Extravagant I cannot believe there is the least Place for calling in Question the Truth of this Relation And from hence our Brave Men may draw an Excellent Instruction and learn that in making a Christian War whether it be against Infidels or Hereticks or whether it be in Obedience to their own Prince who is only responsible to God for the Justice of his Arms which the Subjects have no Authority to examine there is such an Insinite Glory in Heaven to be acquired by their Courage on Earth that they ought to expose their Lives with all imaginable Frankness to all sorts of Dangers and Death it self After this all the Advantage that was gotten during this Siege before the Arrival of the other Princes was that Raymond Viscount of Turenne having with him the Viscount de Castellane the Lord Albret and ten or twelve other principal Gascons and Bearnois with about one hundred Horse and two hundred Foot took Torlosa in old Time called Antaradus a fair and great Town upon the Coast over against the Isle of Aradus six or seven Leagues from Arcas towards Antioch He thought to have taken it by Surprize but that Design did not thrive by reason he had so small a Number of Men wherefore in the Night at the side of a Wood which was in View of the City he caused such abundance of Fires to be made that the Inhabitants taking his Party to have been the Van of the Army and that all the rest was now come up to assault them the next day they fled away that Night so that the Viscount entred it the next Morning without Resistance and there found so rich a Booty as rejoyced the whole Army This Valiant Viscount was the Chief of that Illustrious House of Turenne which in Conclusion about two hundred years since happily fell into that de la Tour d' Avergne which by taking up the Name hath restored it not only to its first Splendor but hath also advanced it by an other Viscount Turenne to the highest pitch of Honor to which it could aspire This is he who after having done so many fair Actions in commanding the French Armies in Italy in Germany and Flanders as beyond Contradiction have given him the Reputation of a most accomplished Captain came to add to the Heap of his Glories the Execution of his Kings Commands in this last Campagne and who may well be celebrated as the chief Engineer of the Military Art year 1099 and Master of all those great Qualities which are requisite in the Character of the most compleat General of an Army all which are so conspicuous in him as justly render him one of the most admired able brave and eminent Generals even in the Opinion of the Confederates his Enemies And certainly it will be difficult to find any thing more admirable than the War of this Campagne of more than ten Months Continuance wherein he by his sole Presence and the terror of his Name not only stopped the Course of the greatest Army of his Enemies and hindred them from entring into the Provinces whilest in the mean time the King finished his Conquests but also in Conclusion won two Battles one on this the other on the further side of the Rhine constraining them in Disorder to retire as far as the River of Mein and after that terrible Inundation of sixty thousand Germans had thrown themselves over the Bridge of Strasbourg into Alsatia he there gave them the Diversion of weakening themselves by Famine and Sickness after which in the very Heart of Winter he marched against them over the Mountains and the mighty Snows and there either cut in pieces and dispersed or made Prisoners their forwardest Troops in three Combats and in Conclusion obliged the rest which he had reduced to one half of what passed the Bridge to repass it with so much Precipitation and Shame that to save themselves in their own Country they would not give him the Opportunity to Attacque them Thus it was that he sustained the Glory of that illustrious Name and rendred that of Turenne far more glorious than it was in the first Crusade after that Viscount Raymond alone took so great a City In the mean time the Duke Godfrey Earl Eustace and Robert Earl of Flanders who Marched in the month of March with their Armies in very good Condition Besieged Giblet otherwise called Gabala a Town upon the Sea between Tortosa and Laodicea but being requested by the Earl of Tholose to come to his Assistance upon the Rumor which he had cunningly raised that a great Army of Saracens were advancing to Assail him they accepted the Terms which the Governor offered them to obtain a Peace and came instantly before Arcas where they found no other Enemies to Combat with but those who were within the Town who made a very brave Defence But the two Ambassages which the Princes received shortly after determined the Siege which had been maintained so long For during the Siege of Antioch they had sent their Ambassadors to Babylon with those of the Sultan of Egypt to conclude with him that Alliance which he had desired and which was condescended unto upon Condition that he should joyn his Arms with those of the Christians That Jerusalem with all its Dependancies should be put into the Hands of the Christians That he should have such other Places as should be regained from the Turks who had usurped them from him and that the rest should be divided among them But the great Overthrow of Corbagath which that
other Thoughts about his Heart and that it was his Fear of the Christian Army which drew this Perjury from his Lips For as the Army quitting Ptolemaïs pursued their Way by Caiphas and the Passage of the Strait which lies between the Sea and Mount Carmel and was about to Encamp near the Lake of Cesarea a Pigeon which was escaped from the Talons of a Bird of Prey who astonished at the Noise of the Army had quitted her fell down half dead at the feet of the Soldiers being taken up there was found fastned to her a little Roll of Paper in which the Emir of Ptolemais had written to him of Cesarea that he should do all the Mischief that he could to this Army of Doggs who were about to pass his Territories for that he might more easily Incommode their Passage than he could and also that he should not fail by the same way to give the same Advertisement to the other Cities This Accident occasioned a wonderful Joy in the whole Army for from hence they concluded that God took a particular Care of their Interests since he was pleased in so uncommon a manner to discover to them the Secrets of their Malicious Enemies For this very reason the Princes staid in that place that they might with greaten Devotion celebrate the Holy Feast of Whit-Sunday which was the nine and twentieth day of May. After which leaving the Sea upon their right Hand as also the Cities of Joppa and Antipatris they took the Right-hand-way which leads through the pleasant Vallies which lie at the Foot of Mount Ephraim to Lidda or Diospolis a famous City of Judea and at that time particularly Famous for the magnificent Church which the Emperor Justinian had caused to be built in Honor of St. George in the place where that generous Soldier finished his Martyrdome but the Saracens despairing to maintain the Town had before ruined this noble Structure burning the prodigious Beams which sustained the Roof for fear the Christians should make use of them for Engines of War At the same time the Princes seized upon Ramatha by some called Arimathea Rama and Ramula a City which the Birth the Dwelling and the Sepulchre of the Prophet Samuel have rendred remarkable in the Holy Writings The Saracens had also abandoned that place in so great hast that they left behind them so much Provision as sufficed for three days to refresh the whole Army And because Rama was near unto Lidda it was thought fit to give the Fee-simple of those two Towns together with the Tithes of the Booty to a learned and virtuous Priest one Robert of the Diocess of Rouen who was setled the Bishop of that place to the intent that he should not only take Care of the Christians of Lidda but also of such Pilgrims who resolved to pass the remainder of their Lives in the Holy Land and with which Rama was to be peopled This being done the Army marched very early the next Morning Eastward and the same Evening arrived at Emmaus some sixty Furlongs which is about two Leagues and a half from Jerusalem This City which had in the time of the Machabees been a considerable Place was in our Saviour's time only a little Burrough having been ruined by Varus the Governor of Syria but it was rebuilt by the Romans after the end of the Jewish War and in memory of their Victories they called it Nicopolis as it was at that time called when the Christians seized it At that instant there arrived Deputies from Bethlehem who addressed themselves to Duke Godfrey to request him to send them present Succours year 1099 least the Saracens as they had just ground to apprehend who from all Parts ran to put themselves into Jerusalem should in their Passage fire that City Immediately Tancred who was particularly united in his Interests was dispatched thither and who after he had given all the necessary Orders for the Security of that Place and had planted his Ensign upon the Church rejoyned the other Princes the day following which was Tuesday the sixth of June a day after three years from the first Enterprise of the Voyage so long expected and so ardently desired a day wherein after infinite Pains and Travels they came with incredible Joy to see the Conclusion of their Vows For so soon as the Army was gâ—â— to the top of the Heights which are on the further side of Emaus from whence there was a fair Prospect of the lofty Towers of the Holy City the Princes the Officers the Soldiers and the whole Troop of Pilgrims which followed the Army broak out all together as it were by Consent into Cries of Joy Blessing and Praises to Almighty God which being reverberated and multiplied by the Ecchoes of the Rocks and Mountains with which the City is Invironed repeated in a few Moments a million of times It is the Will of God It is the Will of God And immediately they found their Hearts so lively touched and pierced with the extraordinary Sentiments of Piety Tenderness and Love of God upon the sight of those Holy Places Consecrated by the venerable Mysteries of the Redemption of Mankind that they threw themselves upon the Ground shedding abundance of devout Tears and kissing with unconceivable Pleasure that Soil which had been honored with the Footsteps of the Incarnate Word of God Thus do present Objects without any other Assistance make the most violent Impressions upon the Minds of Men and such as far surpass the most profound Meditations the most powerful Reasonings and the most elaborate Discourses of the most eloquent Orators or Preachers and the single View of them is more capable of softning the hardest Hearts than the finest Discourses at a distance which cannot possibly represent things with that Life and Efficacy which by the Eyes passes in a moment to the Soul Thus the Presence of those glorious Monuments of the Victories of the Son of God after these first motions of Piety inspired in the Hearts of the Crusades such an extraordinary Ardor to Conquer that they cried out to be instantly lead to the Siege of Jerusalem not as Jewish the Enemy and Murdress of the Saviour of the World to destroy it but as Christian and Captive to deliver it from the Tyranny of the Barbarians who hindred the whole World from the Liberty of rendring those Honors due to the Sepulcher of Jesus Christ The Princes therefore judging that they ought to make use of this admirable Disposition of their Soldiers instantly fell upon forming the Siege of this illustrious City of which before I proceed further it will be necessary to represent the Situation the Strength and the Condition wherein they found it at that time THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The Present State of Jerusalem when the Christian Princes Besieged it The Distribution of their Quarters The ill
less On the contrary this new City which was of a Figure altogether Irregular yet approaching to Square extended it self in Length from East to West some twelve hundred Paces and in Breadth from South to North about a third part so much Moreover the Ancient City was wholly inaccessible on the South part by reason of the broaken Rocks of the Mount Sion which Invironed it it was also the same upon the East having the deep Valley of Jehoshaphat between the Mount of Olives and Mount Moriah But this New City which had Mount Sion close by the South Side of it was easily Commanded from thence and the Valleys having been in a manner filled up by the Romans it was very accessible particularly upon the North. It continued a long time in this Estate under the Power of the Gentiles till such time as the Great Constantine peopled it with Christians having there builded the Magnisicent Church of the Resurrection which Incloses the Holy Sepulchre where the Pagans had with the most impious Profaneness erected the Temple of the Idol Venus After this quitting the profane Name of Aelia if recovered that venerable Name of Jerusalem a Name Consecrated by the Sacred Records and by so many Holy Mysteries which for ever after to this present time it hath retained It was taken from the Romans by the Persians under the Reign of King Cosroës and by his Successor Restored to the Emperor Heraclius and not long after about the middle of the seventh Age falling into the Hands of the Saracens the Caliph Omar one of the earliest Successors of Mahomet built there a round Temple of eight Angles or Faces for a Mosch in the same place where sometimes stood the Temple of Solomon and tho it did not in the least Resemble that except in the Greatness of the Porch which was raised very high and with fair Galleries in the Middle whereof stands this Round yet doth it to this Day retain that Name About four hundred Years after this the greatest part of Syria and Palestine falling under the Dominion of the Turks they also took Jerusalem from the Sultan of Egypt and thirty eight Years after it was retaken from them by him making use of the Occasion which was offered him by the memorable Victory of the Christians over the Turks in the Battle of Antioch This Saracen Prince who notwithstanding his Ambassy doubted not but the Christians who looked upon Jerusalem as the end of their Enterprise would certainly besiege it year 1099 forgot nothing which was necessary to put it into a Condition to make a good Defence for with great diligence he caused the Walls and Towers to be repaired although they were very strong before having also a double Wall he provided the Place with all manner of Stores both of Ammunition and Provision he caused all the Christians that were able to bear Arms to quit the City and put into it a Garrison of fourty thousand of his Best Soldiers besides that there were twenty Thousand Inhabitants who were Armed and to whom for their Encouragement he promised a perpetual Exemption from all manner of Taxes and Tributes He caused also the Cisterns and Wells for six miles round the City to be filled up and made a most horrible Wast throughout the Country that so the Christian Army at the same Time that they were to Combat with so strong an Enemy within the Walls might have Famine a more terrible Enemy to Combat with in the Field and above all he hoped to destroy them for Want of Water in those dry and barren Countries where the Heat is great and Thirst most insupportable This was the Estate and Posture in which Jerusalem then stood immediately before it was besieged by the Christians whose Army was not in Truth so Numerous as that which defended the Place For of that immense Multitude of the Crusades who passed into Asia and were at the Siege of Nice there came not above sixty thousand of both Sexes among which there were not more than twenty Thousand Foot and fifteen hundred Horse who were in a Condition to fight the greatest part of the rest being dead either with Diseases or in the several Encounters some were returned some wore put into Garrisons in the conquered places and some followed the Princes Baldwin and Bohemond to defend their new Principalities of Edessa and Antioch Nevertheless both Princes and Soldiers were determined either there to perish or to carry the Pince and to accomplish their Vow either by a Devout Death or Glorious Victory After they had therefore repulsed the Enemies who sallied out they began chearfully to form the Siege in this manner Godfrey of Bullen Earl Eustace his Brother and Tancred took their Post upon the West near to the Fortress which they called the Tower of David The Earl of Tholose was upon his Right directly opposite to the Gate of this Tower and after a little while he enlarged his Quarters Southward to the Extremity of Mount Sion over against the Church of the Holy Virgin The Remainder of the City on the South and towards the East was left free in Regard the Hollow Vallius and the Craggy Rocks made the Approaches Extreme Difficult The North side was surrounded by the Duke of Normandy the Earls of Flanders and St. Paul who lay before the Gate which was then called St. Stephens but now Damascus Gate to the Angular Tower near the Valley of Jehosaphat Moreover that they might avoid a tedious Siege like that of Antioch it was resolved to attack the Place by main Force therein also following the Advice of a Solitary who lived with a great Opinion of his Sanctity in a Cave in the Mount of Olives for he had promised the Christians that they should have the Victory that day telling them he had it in Command from God to acquaint them with that Message although it was told him on the other hand that they were not at all provided with necessary Materials for an Attack But as it appeared afterwards in all kind of Affairs but especially in those of War it is a most dangerous Folly to quit the Rules of Art and Prudence blindly to follow the uncertain Ways of pretended Revelations which one ought rarely to trust in Regard they are so often false and when they are true one is not bound to believe them but upon Invincible Proofs and without those one is obliged always rather to follow good Sense and Reason which God hath given to Men next to his Divine Word to be their Rule and Guide However upon the fifth day of the Siege early in the Morning a General Assault was given upon the Word of this Recluse which was looked upon as an Oracle Never was there seen greater Ardor in the Soldiers whose Courage was redoubled by the certainty of their Belief in the Promise of this Holy Man that they should that very day take Jorusalem Some part were drawn up in close Rank and they advanced holdly after
for the Entertainment of so great an Army and besides they who were to share in this prodigious Booty were but an inconsiderable Number in Comparison of those who had been Parties in the other Battles In this Battle there were slain thirty thousand upon the place and twice as many in the Pursuit in the whole above one hundred thousand Men without counting those who were stifled at the Gate of Ascalon or those others who threw themselves into the Sea which though they were a great Number yet it was impossible to compute them On the part of the Christians there was not any one man of Note nor so much as one Horseman slain and but a very inconsiderable Number of the Infantry and of those most were of that unruly sort of Soldiers who disbanded themselves from their Colours to run to the Plunder Thus the King having assured his new Kingdom by this great and Memorable Victory led the Army back again loaden with Spoils and Glory to Jerusalem where it entred in a kind of Triumph which was finished by the solemn returning of Thanks to Jesus Christ at his Holy Sepulchre There Robert Duke of Normandy hung up the great Standard of the Sultan as his Sword also which in his Flight he had let fall and which to add to his Offering he bought of a Soldier who had found it See here the true Account of the Battle of Ascalon which was rather a flight on the one side and a Slaughter on the other than a Combat which Tasso nevertheless hath rendred famous by a hundred Beautiful and Magnificent Falsities which his Art gives him the License to add throughout his Poem of which he makes this the Conclusion as indeed it was also of this first Crusade For the Princes and great Lords with those who had followed them believing that they had fully accomplished their Vow took their Leave of the King to return into their respective Countries and Habitations year 1099 but in Regard it is the History of the Crusades and not only that of the Realm of Jerusalem which I undertake to write I shall not treat of that but so concisely as may be and as it hath a necessary Connexion to that of the Crusades in making it known by the Consequent Events the Occasions and the Causes which gave Birth and Rise to the others and as it shews the Condition in which the Christian Princes found the East when they were published and when they undertook their Voyages to assist them year 1100 After that the Crusades to the Number of about twenty thousand had quitted the Holy Land Godfrey who had not remaining with him more than three hundred Horse and about two thousand Foot together with Tancred who never abandoned him received a reinforcement from Italy which was brought him by Dambert Arch-Bishop of Pisa Legat to Pope Paschal the second who succeeded Pope Vrban It was with these few Troops that the King to inlarge the Frontiers of his new Kingdom conquered the places which were yet untaken round about Jerusalem After which he made himself Master of Tiberias and other Towns upon the Lake of Genazareth and the greatest part of Galilee the Government whereof he bestowed upon Tancred He compelled also the Emirs of Ptolemais Cesarea Antipatris and Ascalon to become his Tributaries and the Arabian Princes beyond Jordan in most humble manner to beg Peace of him After which he caused the Port and the City of Joppa which afterwards was called Jaffa to be fortified where he received the Succours of the Venetians who being joyned with Tancred some time after took Caiphas at the Foot of Mount Carmel And now after so many Toils being fallen sick he caused himself to be removed to Jerusalem whereupon the eight day of July in the fortieth Year of his Age and the first of his Reign he rendred his glorious Soul into the Hands of his Almighty Redeemer by a most Religious Death He was a Prince in whom all the Vertues Christian Civil and Military were assembled in the highest Point of Humane Perfection without the Mixture of any Default so that it will for ever remain difficult to find another like him or of whom one may without the Magnifying Vice of Flattery say the same things even among the Catalogue of the greatest Saints Baldwin his Brother succeeded him and leaving to his Consin Baldwin Earl of Bourg the Principality of Edessa with a few Troops marched to Jerusalem from whence Tancred after having rendred Caiphas into his Hands was retired in Order to his taking upon him the Principality of Antioch during the Imprisonment of his Uncle Bohemond who had by an Ambuscade which they laid for him been taken by the Turks year 1101 This new King who though he was nothing comparable either in Sanctity or Prudence to his Brother had notwithstanding many excellent Qualities and Endowments and above all others he was most extraordinary Valiant and a great Soldier In the beginning of the Spring making a League with the Naval Forces of Genoa at Jaffa he with their Assistance took Antipatris and Cesarea and in Conclusion in a set Battle Vanquished the Army of the Sarasins of Egypt but the Year following year 1102 happening too wilfully and with Precipitation to engage in the Plain of Rama without staying for his Infantry though his Army consisted in twenty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse he lost the Bactle and many French Princes and Lords who at that time were come to visit the Holy Places For so soon as it was known in France that Jerusalem was taken there were an Infinite Number of People of all Ages and Qualities who for Devotion undertook that Voyage the Principal Persons were Hugh the Great and the Earl of Blois who being retired into France the one before the other after the taking of Antioch thought to repair that Fault by this second Voyage also the Earls William de Poitiers Geoffry de Vendosme Stephen de Burgogne and Hugh Brother to Earl Raymond of Tholose who having stayed some time at Constantinople to treat with the Emperor Alexis joyned themselves with those Princes The other Nations and particularly the Lombards and the Cermans would also have a part in this Expedition and the Number of these new Pilgrims was so excessive great that counting also the French there arrived when they passed into Asia year 1102 two hundred and sixty Thousand men but as it was nothing else but a confused Multitude of disorderly Voluntiers of all sorts of Conditions which followed them without Order Discipline Obedience and almost without Arms and that the Princes and Bishops went rather in Pilgrimage than to a Holy War after the Conquest of Jerusalem I do not reckon this among the Crusades And indeed there never was one more irregular or less fortunate for the greatest part of these ill conducted Pilgrims perished by the Miseries of the Way or by the Arms of the Turks under Soliman with whom the Persidious Alexis
Guy Cardinal of Florence the Pope's Legat in his Army and the Bishops of Langres and Lizieux The Count de Dreux his Brother Thierry Earl of Flanders Henry Earl of Troyes the Son of Thibald Earl of Champagne Ives de Nele and many other Lords of the first Quality who came with him from Attalia The young King Baldwin with his Mother Queen Melesintha also assisted at it together with the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Arch-Bishops of Cesarea and Nazareth the Bishops of Ptolemais Sidon Beritus Paneas and Bethlehem the Earls of Napolis Tiberias Sidon Cesaria Beritus as also the Constable Manasses and the great Masters of the Temple of the Hospitallers It was a long time under Debate what was most advantageous to be undertaken for the common Interest and in conclusion they determined to besiege Damascus Which being as it were in the Centre and Midst of the four Principalities which the Christians held in the East might be equally dangerous to them all Upon this all the Troops were appointed to rendezvous the five and twentieth Day of May at Tiberias where a general Review being made of the Army they advanced to Paneas near the Head of Jordan the Patriarch carrying the true Cross or at least that which was believed to be so before them The Measures which were taken for the Siege were according to the Opinion of the Lords of that Country who were best acquainted with the Strength and Weakness of the place After which crossing the celebrated Mount Lebanon they descended into the fair Champain of Damascus and encamped at Daria a little Village about two Leagues from Damascus from the most elevated place whereof the Towers of that stately City were easily to be discerned Damascus one of the most ancient and sometimes one of the fairest and greatest Cities of Asia is situate in a large Plain at the Foot of Mount Lebanon which is watered with two Rivers and a great number of little Springs and Fountains which notwithstanding its natural Inclination to Sterility it being a hungry sandy Soil render it very fruitful and delightful These two Rivers take their Rise upon the East at no very great distance from the Foot of the Mountain Amana which is a part of Mount Lebanon the lesser is called Abana and slows all along by the Walls of the City upon the West the greater which is Pharpar and which some have confounded with the Orontes and for the beauty of its Streams is called Chryorrhoas or Golden Stream after having passed through the City and wandred through the Fields and the Valleys of the neighbouring Country loseth it self under the Earth either because being divided into a multitude of Canals which are drawn to render the Earth more fruitful that it is so diminished that at last it ends in them or that by some unknown Subterranean Passages it dischargeth it self into the Phenician Sea It was the great Conveniency of making these Canals year 1148 which made all that part of the City towards the North and a great part of the West be inclosed with a prodigious number of Gardens and Orchards where were planted an infinite of Trees producing all manner of Fruits the most delicious of all the East These Gardens were divided one from the other by little narrow Passages which cutting one another and turning and winding several ways without any regular Art or Figure formed a kind of undesigned Labyrinth where it was easie for those who were unacquainted with them to lose themselves in those delightful places Every Garden had its House and its little Tower according to the Mode of the Orientals for the Convenience and the Lodging of its Master So that the City being very populous the number of Gardens which covered those sides was very great and extended themselves almost two Leagues so that viewing it upon that side it represented to the Sight a large Forest which seemed to extend it self to the very Walls But on the contrary the other side which lay to the East and South had not so much as a Tree a Hedge or a Bush but shewed a bald Champaign from whence it was easie to discern the whole City which was defended with high Walls which were fortified with great Towers whereof four which listed up their proud Heads above the rest were of an extraordinary heighth and strength and above all it was defended by a Fortress which was esteemed the fairest and most regular of all Asia This City had been taken from the Sarasins by the Turks whose Sultan Dodequin made a most cruel War against the Christians between the time of the first and the second Crusade After his death his Successors seeing themselves attacked by Sanguin the redoubted Sultan of Alepo and Ninevch who endeavoured the Conquest of all Syria joyned themselves with the Christian Princes to make War against this common Enemy They assisted them according to the Treaty in the Taking of Paneas which they had taken from the Christians before and Sanguin from them again But there being little Faith to be expected from Infidels they soon brake the Peace and declared themselves as before the mortal Enemies of the Christians For this reason it was that the Resolution was sixed to attack them and above all things to carry this City which was in a Condition to give the Check-mate to the four Christian Principalities of the East Hereupon it was also resolved in the Council to attack the Town on the Garden-sides that so the Army might have the Convenience of the River the Fruits and Forrage which were there to be had in abundance The next Morning therefore the Army being divided into three Bodies marched in good Order towards Damascus drawing from the West towards the North to the Garden-Quarter of the City The young King of Jerusalem Baldwin the Third commanded in Person the first Body composed of his own Troops and those of the Princes of Syria who had the same Interest with him in the Siege The French made the second having at their Head King Lewis to support the first which they followed at a little distance to be always ready to afford them Succour The Emperor with his Germans had the Rere to oppose the Enemy's Cavalry if they should attempt to fall upon them as they made their Approaches Baldwin who thirsted mightily after Glory and was transported with Joy to meet with so fair an Opportunity to display his Courage in the View of the French and Germans did instantly press to make the first Attack which was easily granted him in regard he alledged that his People were better acquainted than the rest with the nature of the place and the Turnings of the Gardens He was a Prince who was now advanced to the Flower of his Youth being between eight and nine and twenty Years of Age he was of Stature something less than the Middle but of a Proportion so just and regular in all the parts of his Body that his want of Heighth did not lessen
that Port and Majesty of a King which he wore and which made him be known for one by such as had the honour to see him the Shape of his Face and the Turn of all his Lincaments were very handsom his Eyes indifferent large and full extream sweet and sparkling with a Fire that wanted nothing in it of Attractive his Hair was inclining to Fair of a lively Colour well assuring the Beholders of the strength of his Robust Constitution his Cheeks plump year 1148 and tinctured with Vermilion and in short having in his Composure all that was delicate and lovely in Queen Melesintha his Mother and the Vivacity of Baldwin the Second his Grandfather whom he much resembled And to make the Harmony compleat he had a Soul proportionable to his Body for his Mind was quick easie ready and penetrating which had been cultivated by the Study of all manner of gentile and ingenuous Learning and which was of wonderful Advantage to him he had a most happy Memory and a marvellous Facility in expressing himself eloquently upon the suddain concerning any kind of Subject of Discourse he was naturally of one of the best Tempers in the World of a heart truly Royal being liberal magnisicent affable obliging complaisant of a good Humour and one who understood innocent and divertive Rallery and how to use it without losing his Friend rather than his Wit for he was rather naturally sober vigilant and provident brave and undaunted in War exposing himself freely to Dangers and suffering equally with the meanest Soldier And to conclude all his greatest Accomplishment was that he was above all a most devout and religious Prince having among all these Perfections that could be wished in a great King as few Failings as most common Men being a little inclined by his Heat to love Play and the Conversation of the Ladies but if he erred in any thing in this last Particular he corrected it afterward by a lawful Marriage Baldwin being such as I have endeavoured to describe him full of Courage and Martial Fire ambitious of Glory in valiantly fighting in view of an Emperor and a King of France who were followed by the bravest Men of the West marched briskly to attack these Gardens which like a Labyrinth seemed to render the Town inaccessible on that Quarter but he found that the Enterprise was not so easie as he had painted it in his conquering Imagination and that the Honour which he pretended to gain was like to prove a very dear Purchace For the Turks who well knew that their Safety depended upon the Preservation of this Post had placed the greatest part of their Garrison there to defend it Some of them were retrenched and barricadoed in the Narrow Ways where not above two could pass a-breast where they repulsed those who assisted them with Push of Pike Others having broken small Holes in the Walls which parted the Gardens pierced with their Javelins from both sides such Soldiers as were in the Passages who could not come to be revenged of those Enemies who wounded them without appearing A great number of others were mounted upon the Turrets and the Tops of the Houses from whence they poured an insinite number of mortal Arrows from above upon the Christians who were below whilst others threw down huge Stones upon those who were wedged in those narrow Passages and could no ways secure themselves from that fearful Hail So that the Soldiers being neither able to advance nor retreat by reason of the multitude of those who pressed forward in following them and that they were stopped by the Retrenchments perished miserably without being able to come at the Enemy who attacked them under their Covertures without partaking at all in the danger of the Combat The young King fretting with Anger and Madness to see his first Attempt succeed so ill resolved to repair the Loss or to perish and therefore commanded to change the Order of the Attack and to turn the Fight from Filing two and two a breast in those narrow Ways to the attempting to make Breaches into these Inclosures through the Walls Now these Walls being but low and made of Earth the ardent desire of the Soldiers to be revenged re-doubled their Strength so that they fell to pulling down the Walls with their Ponyards and other Instruments which were brought for that Service and in a little time they had made a great many Breaches by which they furiously entred into these Gardens The Turks who had for their own Security and to keep out the Christians shut themselves close up in these Gardens being closely pursued had so cut off their own Retreat that in a little time there was made a mighty Slaughter among them Whereupon the others who were yet in the other Gardens that were not taken having taken the Fright as well as those who guarded the Barricades abandoned them and saved themselves within the Town The Ways being thus cleared year 1148 all the Van-Guard passed without any Opposition and advanced almost to the City where they were necessitated to a new Combat far more furious than the first For all the Cavalry of the Enemies supported by the best part of their Infantry suspecting that the Christians after they had carried the Gardens would run in disorder to the River had placed themselves in Battalia upon the Banks of it to prohibit their Approaches The young King who was resolved to have all the Honour of this Day making use of the Heat of his Soldiers who all covered with Sweat and Dust and burnt with Heat and Thirst longed for the Water of the River having instantly rallied them he charged fiercely into the thickest Squadrons of the Enemies But they being all fresh whereas his People were faint and quite tired out do what he could after he had made two furious Charges he was repulsed and his Troops put into some Disorder There was a necessity that he must stop a little to rally his Men and to attend the coming up of the Main Body which followed slowly and was also obliged to make a little Halt after it had joyned him for Convenience of drawing up into Order It was upon this Occasion that the Emperor Conrade performed an Action which though certainly something too rash and a little irregular yet ought to have given him sufficient Consolation for all his former ill Fortune in this second Crusade For having demanded why these two Bodies which marched before his halted so long since he understood that the Van-Guard was engaged with the Enemy who had gained some Advantage upon them he suffered himself to be so transported with the desire of the Combat that running at full Speed followed by all his Germans quite through the Body of the Battel without any Order he flew with his Sword in his hand into the midst of the Enemies who unable to resist the Shock of such a furious and unexpected Charge instantly gave Ground It is said also that he gave such
and St. Paul at the Castle of Chinon bestowing his Maledictions upon his disobedient Sons which he would never be persuaded to revoke notwithstanding the repeated Instances which were made to him by the Bishops who waited on him in his Sickness He did however receive the Sacrament and Extream Unction with great Devotion giving manifest Tokens of his Repentance in submitting to the Divine Justice which he acknowledged had justly laid this great Change of Fortune upon him as a Punishment for those Crimes which he had committed in his Prosperity He had also the Misfortune that his Domesticks every one seizing upon something left him without any thing else but a poor Sheet to cover him But his Son Richard who had so furiously opposed him in his Life gave all the Testimonies of an excessive Sorrow for his Death and caused him to be carried most magnificently adorned in his Royal Robes to be interred at the Nunnery of Fontevraud where he had a desire to be buried This new King himself assisted at the Funerals where he testified by the abundance of his Tears that he was unfeignedly touched with Sorrow and Remorse for his Father's Death But it is reported that to his other Grief he had the Displeasure to be afflicted with an odd and unaccountable Accident for as he approached the Corps of the deceased King as he lay in the Coffin the Blood which gushed out of his Nostrils seemed to reproach him with his Ingratitude and unnatural Rebellion and even as the Discourse went the Parricide of his Father whom his Disobedience did in some measure seem to have hastned to his Tomb sooner than Nature which was yet strong and vigorous in him had intended He nevertheless stayed out the whole Ceremony till such time as the Royal Defunct was interred in the Quire of the Church of those Religious Nuns which verified the Revelation of a Monk who praying upon a certain time for the Prosperity of the King heard these words which he then did not understand but which were explained by the Event He shall take up my Sign and in carrying it shall be mightily tormented The Belly of his Wife shall rise up against him and at the last he shall be hid among the Veils For as he took the Cross for the Holy War he carried the Sign of Jesus Christ and he was immediately after cruelly tormented by the Persecutions of his Sons which continued till his Death after which he was covered with the Veil of Death being interred in a Quire of Veiled Nuns We must however do Justice to the Memory of this Prince who was one in this Crusade though it so happened that he never had his part in any Action in regard it was so long deferred by the War whereof he was the Occasion He was a French Man by Nation born in the City of Mans which he therefore used to call his Darling and most assuredly he was one of the greatest and most potent Kings that ever sat upon the English Throne and certainly had been the most fortunate if either he had never been a Father or if toward the latter end of his thirty and five Years Reign he had not met with the Opposition of the young and invincible Philip the August whose Fortune supported by his Courage and admirable Prudence was as a fatal Curb which according to the Prediction of the famous Morling was to tame this fierce and haughty Leopard or like a strong Dam which stopped short and broke that impetuous Torrent of his Power and Ambition year 1189 which menaced an Inundation over the rest of France whereof Henry already possessed a very great part For besides England where he reigned as Soveraign Monarch and Ireland which he had conquered Scotland which was Tributary to him he also possessed Normandy in the Right of Inheritance descending to him by his Mother Maud the Empress Daughter of Henry I. King of England and by Geoffrey Earl of Anjou his Father who was Son to Count Fowk he had Anjou Maine Touraine a great part of Berry and Avignion where he pretended to be Soveraign And in Right of Queen Eleonor his Wife whom Lewis the Young quitted to him by a Canonical Sentence he had Gascon Guienne Poitou and the other Countries which depended upon them Besides that Britanny fell to his third Son Geoffrey by the Marriage of the Heiress of that Country So that he was as potent on this Side the Sea where he was a Homager to the Crown of France as he was on the other side where he was King of England and Lord of Ireland He was of a middle Stature but of a Shape no way handsom by reason that he was extream gross and corpulent notwithstanding that he was not only very temperate but amidst the great Affairs in which he was always employed and which he managed with wonderful Application in continual Action either travelling or Walking or making use of the more violent Exercises of Riding the great Horse or Hunting that thereby he might abate the growing unwieldy by his Fatness to which his Sanguin Complexion had condemned him As for any thing else he was of Temperament robust and sound having a large full Breast and a big Head His Eyes were blew handsom and full of Fire His Hair yellow and soft inclining something too much towards the red His Voice hoarse his Speech rough and his Mind very fierce and Martial For his Mind he was very dexterous and of a penetrating Understanding but something more crafty than became so great a Prince He had however cultivated his Spirit with the Study of Ingenuous Learning which inabled him with a certain Eloquence very easily and naturally to express himself And there was in his Soul such a Stock of Vices as well as Vertues natural Perfections and Imperfections which were so blended together that if they would not permit it to be said of him that he was a very exceeding good Prince yet they very absolutely prohibit the fixing the Character of a very ill one upon him For he was gentle and sweet to every body when he was in dangers but harsh fierce and severe when he saw himself out of them he was complaisant abroad morose to his Domesticks liberal to Strangers and in publick but parsimonious to his own and too great a Husband in his private Affairs A great Promiser but a slender Performer above all things loving his Liberty and hating Constraint to that degree that he could not endure to be a Slave to his own Word or his Faith which he made no great scruple upon occasion to violate In matters of Justice he was too slow and sometimes by the Interposition of Money which he loved excessively he would wholly remit the Execution of it He drew great Sums from his Subjects with which he often chose rather to buy Peace than maintain War in which he did not delight though when he was forced to make War he did it like a great Captain and
of those Ideas might upon this Occasion frame to themselves the like Apparitions Be it as it will this is certain that a Cavaleer of Reputation and in no sort to be thought an idle or dreaming Visionary whose Name was Lewis de Helfenstein affirmed it positively before the Emperor and protested to him before the whole Army upon his Oath and upon the Faith of a vowed Pilgrim of the Holy Sepulchre and of a Crusade that he had more than once seen St. George at the Head of the Squadrons putting the Enemies to Flight This was also afterwards confirmed by the Turks themselves who related that they saw year 1190 at the Head of the Christian Army certain Troops in white Arms which were no where to be found among them I must needs acknowledge that one is not at all obliged to give Credit to these kind of Visions which for the most part are the Effects of great Illusions but I also know very well that an Historian hath no manner of Right by the Warrant of his own Authority to reject such as are supported by Testimonies so remarkable as this is and that if he be left at his own Liberty to disbelieve them as he shall please yet he cannot pretend to the Liberty by suppressing them to take from his Readers the Right which they have after the reading them to judge of them as they think fit Now as these Barbarians did again with the same ease as they had fled rally themselves Melich having quickly re-assembled them before Iconium sent to let the Emperor know from the Sultan his Father that he was ready to permit him free Passage and to furnish him with all manner of Provisions in Plenty provided that he would for Form sake only pay thirty thousand Crowns and oblige the Armenian Christians to yield to the Sultan those Places which they held in Cilicia which the Historians of that time do for this Reason so often confound with Armenia To this Frederick instantly answered sweetly and calmly according to his manner but magnificently and always like Caesar That a Roman Emperor especially at the Head of an Army of Crusades going to deliver the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ was not acquainted with the way of Merchandising for his Passage with Silver when he knew so readily how to open it more nobly with the harder Metal of the glittering Steel which he wore by his Side and which the Sultan should ere long find was a Key that would not only let him out of his Country but open to him the Gates and give him Entrance into his Capital City of Iconium And the following day without staying for any other Answer he removed his Camp which was already within View of Iconium and advanced towards the City to attack it Iconium which at this time is called Cogny the Capital City of Lycaonia and of all the Dominions of this Sultan which besides this Province extended into Pisidia Cappadocia Pamphilia and Isauria which not long after was called Caramania was afore this time a very good City and well Fortified where the Pacha Governour of the Province made his Residence But it was at this time much Greater more Rich and Populous environed with good Walls and fortified with a many fair Towers of a wonderful Thickness and extraordinary Height and besides it had in the fashion of a Citadel a very great Castle scituate upon a Mountain which commanded the Town and in the Opinion of a certain Writer who was present at that War the City was no way less than Cologne which is one of the biggest and most considerable Cities of Germany It was also very Beautiful without the Walls there being on the West side a great Park inclosed with stone Walls in which the Sultans had built two magnificent Palaces for their Diversion during the Heats of the Summer there were also round about it abundance of Gardins which made the coming to it on that part very pleasing but withal very difficult by reason that there was Convenience for the placing a great number of Souldiers who might from those Covertures discharge in great Security their Arrows against those who approached The Emperor nevertheless having commanded every Horseman to take a Footman behind him that so upon their lighting they might the better attack those who defended these Inclosures easily made himself Master of them and there lodged all the Army with a Resolution the next Morning being the twenty eighth of May to Assault the City though it was defended by a great part of the Enemies Army whilest the other part which was re-inforced to the number of two hundred thousand Men was in the Field ready to charge upon the Backs of the Christians in case they attempted any thing against the Town So soon therefore as the Day appeared the Emperor without deferring upon the Propositions of Peace which the Sultan made only to amuse him divided the Army into two Bodies He gave the Command of the first to the Duke of Suabia his Son accompanied with Florent Earl of Holland with Order to attack the City And the other he commanded himself to oppose the Enemies if they should attempt to fall upon them behind during the Attack year 1190 Never was there any Enterprise that appeared more unadvisable nor never any that did more happily succeed For the Sultan who was issued out to repulse the Assailants scarcely saw the foremost Squadrons who ran upon him with their Lances conched but that being seized with the Cowardly Apprehension of Death which he believed without flying was inevitable he ignominiously shewed them his Back and by his timerous Example drew all his Troops after him who fled with such a Pannick Fear that the Germans pursued them so briskly as not to give them liberty to shut the Gates before they also were entred with them into the City And no sooner were they gotten in but they put all to the Sword whom they met in the Streets and Market-places without distinction thereby to oblige them to retire into their Houses and leave the Streets free The Sultan with great difficulty saved himself in the Castle with his Children and that which was most considerable in the Court being hotly pursued by the Duke of Suabia who chased them with the Sword at their Backs killing and slaying all that opposed him or stood in his way to the very Gates of the Fortress Thus this great City was taken by the fearful Disorder occasioned by the Cowardly Timerousness of one Man And the Victors made themselves Masters of it without almost any Loss rather owing it to the fear of the Vanquished than to their own Valour since they found no Enemy that would give them occasion to exercise it in the Execution of a generous Enterprise All this time the Emperor who knew nothing of the Success of those who attacked the City was at hard Blows with the great Army of his Enemies for they knowing that he had only a Moyety of the Army
his Army than either all the Want they had endured or all the Combats they had undergone since their parting from Constantinople for the Soldiers passing suddenly from one Extream into another there followed so much Sickness such a Mortality and at last the Plague among them in such a furious manner that of a numerous and flourishing Army which it was when it entred into Asia there remained not more than seven thousand Foot and five or six hundred Horse with which notwithstanding the valiant Frederick marched over the Bellies of all that durst oppose him and happily arrived at the City of Tyre There it was that he payed the last Duties to his Father whom he caused to be interred in the great Church with all the Magnificence and Ceremonies of a Funeral Pomp worthy of so great an Emperor the Archbishop of Tyre from whom he received the Cross making his Elegy in a most admirable Funeral Oration After which Duke Frederick went to joyn the Christian Army which for two years had undertaken and pursued the famous Siege of Ptolemais in the manner which I am about to relate When Saladin after a Years Imprisonment at Damascus gave Liberty to King Guy of Lusignan he exacted from him among other hard Conditions that he should renounce all manner of Claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and to engage himself by a soremn Oath to repass the Sea as soon as it was possible But after he was at liberty the Bishops declared that this Oath was in no sort obliging in regard it was forced from him by Compulsion and in his Restraint and also because Saladin himself had first violated his Faith in not delivering his Prisoner so soon as Ascalon was rendred to him as he had promised And for this Reason the King who was retired to Tripolis began to renew the War after he had assembled a considerable number of Troops of those of his own Realm who before durst not appear but flocked in to him upon the Arrival of the Crusades who seeing the French and English engaged in War came along with Geoffrey de Lusignan his Brother Having gained some Advantages of the Turks in the beginning he after went and presented himself before Tyre where the Marquis of Montferrat who pretended he had justly acquired the Principality of that City refusing him Entrance he was so enraged that although he had not half Forces enough for such an Enterprise yet he encamped before the place and put himself into a posture of besieging it year 1190 But the Patriarch Heraclius and the great Master of the Templers wisely representing to him that it was impossible for him to attempt a matter of this nature without absolutely ruining not only himself but all the Hopes that yet remained to the Christians in Palestine he desisted from it and thereupon desperate to see that he had not one place left to him in all his Kingdom for Tripolis appertained of Right to Raymond Prince of Antioch he took Counsel of his Dispair and turning short to the Left Hand he lead his little Army directly to Ptolemais in hopes to take it either by Assault or by Surprise Ptolemais by some called Accon or Acre derives its Name from one of the Kings of Egypt who was its Restorer and was at that time a fair and large City lying upon the Coast of the Phoenician Sea It was of a Triangular Figure the Base of it being towards the East the two Sides towards the North and South and the Point ended in a Rock which advanced it self a good space into the Sea upon the West where the Town becoming the narrowest abutted upon a great high and strong Tower which was called the Fly-Tower because that formerly in that place stood a Temple dedicated to Beelzebub which signifies the God of Flies It also served for a Watch-Tower or Light-House to discover the Entry of the Haven which lay towards the South in a certain Bay which the Sea made in that place which was very commodious and capable of receiving great numbers of Ships It was incompassed with very strong Walls and Barbicans or Out-Walls with large and deep Ditches and Graffs as also with very good Towers placed at convenient distances to defend each other The principal of these which served as a Castle and Fortress to the City was called the Wicked Tower by reason that the People by an old sottish Fable which according to Custom was held for an Authentick Tradition among them had a Belief that it was built with those thirty Pieces of Money for which Judas sold our Saviour The Country adjacent was very pleasant being a fair and rich Champaign which upon the North was bounded by Mount Saron distant about two Leagues from the City and upon Mount Carmel on the South much about the same distance towards the East it was extended to the Mountains of Galilee from whence there arose two small Rivers one whereof passing through the City emptied it self into the Sea at the Haven The other called Belus flows about two hundred and fifty Paces from the City Southwards and is famous for having been the occasion of the Invention of Glass by furnishing the Materials of which it was first made For about the middle of its Course it forms a kind of a Lake or Marish which Pliny calls the Lake of Cyndevia of a round Figure which may be some hundred Cubits in Compass the Bottom whereof is full of a certain Sand which by the Winds is driven into it from the Tops of the adjacent Hills where it obtains a Disposition which inclines it easily to be turned into Glass for being boiled and purisied in a Furnace it turns into a transparent Mass white and clear almost like Crystal And that which is most wondrous any small piece of this Crystal being thrown upon the Banks of this Lake in little time regains its former Nature and is converted into the same common Sand which it was before it was blown by the Winds into this Lake But though this Champaign about Ptolemais be very equal and level towards the Foot of the Mountains which inviron it yet there are two Hills near the Town the one of which is called Turon which some have confounded with the famous Castle of Thoron situate some three or four Leagues from thence upon the Extremity of the Mountains of Tyre which extend themselves to the upper Galilee The other is called the Hill of the Mosquee on the other side the River Belus upon which besides that Mosquee of the Sarasins is to be seen an ancient Sepulchre which they say is that of Memnon though without giving us precisely any Foundation whereupon to establish that Belief This was the nature of this place which proved the Theatre of so many brave Actions as were performed at this Siege of Ptolemais which one may well say was one of the most memorable which is related in any History year 1190 This City was taken from the Christians about the
to be suspected by reason that one might well fear that so soon as they had visited the Holy Sepulchre they would quit Palestine to return into their respective Countries aand abandon the new Conquests to the Sarasins who would then easily recover what had been taken from them And for these Reasons It was concluded to defer the Siege till the Spring should be advanced and in the mean time to continue the Fortification of the places which had been Demolished and above all the City of Ascalon which was infinitely Commodious for hindring the Succours which might come to the Enemy out of Egypt and to receive such as might arrive for the Assistance of the Crusades out of Europe This Resolution was no sooner taken than it was put in Execution though with an unconceivable Displeasure to the Souldiers and above all to the French who openly murmured against Richard whom they did not stick to accuse of having a secret Understanding with Saladin They said boldly That Saladin had never shut himself within the Walls of Jerusalem if he had not been very well assured that he had nothing to fear from such an obliging Enemy And that without all question he was ready had the Army but once faced it to quit the Place and that the Garrison would either quickly have followed him or have Surrendred fearing to be abandoned by him like those who so bravely defended Acre to the Descretion and Mercy of the Vanquisher But however it were so soon as the Army came to Rama a great part of it disbanded the most of the French retiring to Jaffa Tyre and Acre but this did not hinder King Richard to pursue the Resolution which had been taken to go and fortify Ascalon whither he went acompanied with the Count de Champagne his Nephew who continued always constantly faithful to him The Dukes of Burgundy and Austria also went thither with him but it was not long before they left him the Austrian because he was afresh unworthily as he thought treated by him for refusing to take one part of the Town to Fortify year 1192 which caused him with all his Germans to retire into his own Country the Burgundian because having desired him to lend him some Money for the payment of his Troops he briskly refused him in Terms very disobliging which caused the Duke who before had no great Kindness for King Richard to carry away the rest of the French to Acre in a little time after which there happened an Accident which occasioned a mighty Change in the Face of Affairs The Pisans and the Genoese to whom Quarters were assigned in that City and who had for a long time quarrelled each other came at last to open Hostilities and in the Fray had committed great Slaughters one upon the other The Genoese who had always joyned with the French in taking part with the Marquis Conrade called him in to their Assistance but the King of England to whose Service the Pisans were devoted came so expeditiously with his Army to their Succour that Conrade who was already incamped before the Town finding himself too weak to make any Resistance was constrained to draw off again to Tyre And within a few days after about the end of April as the Marquis returned from the Bishop of Beauvais who had treated him at a Dinner he was slain in the open Street by two Assassins of the Old Man of the Mountain The Prince so called was Lord of a little Estate situated in the Mountains of Phoenicia between Tortosa and Tripolis which consisted in ten Castles built upon most inaccessible Rocks and in some few Towns which stood in the most fair and delicate Valleys which lay among these Mountains These People who from a Persian Word were called Assissins or Capyciens consisted in about sixty thousand Souls who came from the Confines of Persia near Babylon some four or five hundred Years before about such time as the Arabians the Successors of Mahomet rendred themselves Masters of the East and having possessed themselves of these Mountains whose Avenues they had rendred inaccessible they had so well fortified them that till this very time they had maintained their Liberty independent from either the Caliphs the Sultans or the Kings of Jerusalem Their Prince was Elective who took no other Name but that of the Ancient or the Old Man as a Mark not of his Age but of his Authority and Power And indeed that was so great and he was so obeyed by his Subjects that there was no manner of Danger to which they did not freely expose themselves in the Execution of his Commands tho the most unjust and barbarous in the World even to throwing themselves headlong from any Precipice upon the least signification that such was his Pleasure So much power had this false Belief upon their Spirit which they had by Tradition received from their Ancestors and in which they took great Care to Educate their Children that by dying in this manner in Executing without Exception or Difference what was commanded them by the Ancient they should pass imediately to the injoyment of a Life infinitely Happy in the Heavens So that when he sent them to the Court of any Prince either Christian or Sarasin who had disobliged him with a Command to dispatch him there was no sort of Disguise or Artifice no manner of Treachery which they would not make use of to perform his execrable Commands without ever flinching at the most cruel Torments which they might expect to Suffer and in the midst of which they would manifest a certain Pleasure that they had with Fidelity acquitted themselves of their Commission It is certainly very strange that the Princes who had so much Interest to exterminate such a pernicious Nation should so long time permit them not only to have a Being but looking upon them as it were as Masters of their Lives by the Fear which they had of these Assassins they made them continual Presents thereby to gain their Favour to permit them to live For never any except the Templers were so bold as once to offer to attack them but they valiantly set upon them entred their Country and obliged them to pay the yearly Tribute of two thousand Crowns to secure their Villages from being Plundred but in this Prosperity of their Armes they did an Action so Base and Wicked as diservedly drew upon them the Hatred and the Curse of God and Men. For during the Reign of Amauri King of Jerusalem the Old Man of the Mountain who was a Man of Sense having compared the Gospel with the Alcoran sent to let that King Understand that he with all his People were ready to embrace the Christian Religion provided that at the same time year 1192 that he was received into the Liberty of the Children of God by Baptism he might also be freed from that Tribute which he was constrained to pay to the Templers The King who offered to make the Templers an
some time longer at the Port of Zara to attend the Prince Alexis who in a few days according as had been agreed arrived there very handsomly attended There he was received by the Doge with all manner of Magnificence there were Gallies and other Vessels presented him for himself and those of his Retinue And the Marquis Boniface who had the Honour to be his Ally and to whom the Emperor had extreamly recommended the Care of him after he had done him all the Honours imaginable protested to him that he would sacrifice all for his Service and that he would never abandon him till he saw him seated upon that Throne which the Usurper so injuriously detained from him After this the Fleet weighed and for a happy Beginning of this War as they came before Duras anciently Dyrrachium a most important City of Macedonia and one of the Keys of the Grecian Empire the Inhabitants having learnt that the Prince Alexis was on Board that Fleet they carried him the Keys of the Place and swore an inviolable Fidelity to him And with this happy Presage they proceeded in a few days to joyn the other part of the Army which was already landed upon the Isle of Corfu This Island is that of the antient Pheaques which Homer hath rendred so Famous by the notable Description which he hath given of the Shipwrack of Vlysses upon it the proud Palace and the delicious Gardens of King Alcinous It lies between the Gulph of Venice and the Ionian Sea five or six Miles distant from Epyrus being between twenty and thirty Leagues in Length from North to South and about nine or ten in Breadth a Soil Rich and Plentiful with a City of the same Name very Strong and a Port very Commodious in a Peninsula on that side which looks towards Epyrus It was returned to the Obedience of the Greeks about fifty Years before the Emperor Manuel by the Aid of the Venetians having recovered it from Roger King of Sicily who had before taken it from the Greeks But those who kept it for the Emperor having learnt that the Army of the Crusades was going to re-establish the young Alexis they acknowledged him for their Master and were so far from opposing the Descent of the Army that they promised to Surrender the City so soon as Constantinople should be taken so that the Army Landed and without Hindrance incamped before the City from whence they received all manner of Necessaries for their Refreshment and so soon as they understood the Arrival of the rest of the Fleet they marched to meet the Prince Alexis and conducted him to the Camp as it were in Triumph through the Army ranged in Battalia amidst the loud Acclamations of the Captains and the Soldiers and with all the Testimonies of a most extraordinary Joy year 1203 But it was not long Lived for those who before the Siege of Zara had indeavoured to break the Confederacy either out of a Deâ—â—â—e of returning Home or as they pretended going immediately into Syria by a Way of their own Chusing began here to renew their Trade of tampering with the Army heightning the Difficulties and Dangers which they said were inevitable in this Enterprise upon Constantinople which would ingage them in a Work of many Years By these Arts they debauched a great Party of the Soldiers of whom they had Assurance upon Occasion though for the present they durst not declare themselves The Princes who perceived it were dreadfully afraid of the Danger which they apprehended might ensue upon their being Abandoned by the greatest part of their Soldiers and thereby seeing themselves reduced to a Disability of pursuing the Enterprise which they had so happily begun Whereupon after mature Deliberation and a clear Understanding of the Matter they concluded that if upon this Occasion they should go about to make use of their Authority and think by Compulsion to procure Obedience therebeing so many considerable Lords and Gentlemen who were not used to be so treated it might make them run the Hazard of destroying one another and prove a Remedy incomparably worse than the Disease they resolved therefore upon an odd Experiment which as it was without all President so in probability it will never be an Example for future Imitation For immediately mounting on Horseback with the Prince of Constantinople and all the Bishops and Abbots which were of their Party they went to find out the principal of the Cabal who were already separated from the Army the chief of which were Eudes de Champlite James d' Avesnes Peter de Amiens Guy de Coucy William d' Aunoy Guy de Chappes Guy de Constans Richard and Eudes de Dampierre The Princes no sooner saw them but they alighted from their Horses which obliged the Malecontents to do the same being much surprized to see those great Princes come with so much Respect to Gentlemen who assuredly were much their Inferiors both in Birth and Quality but they were much more amazed when the Princes being come up to them threw themselves at their Feet and with Eyes bathed in Tears conjured them in the Name of God not to abandon them in an Enterprise upon which the Recovery of the Holy Land absolutely depended and protested that they would never rise from that Posture till they had obtained the Favour they desired In truth this surprizing way so wholly Irregular and so much below the Dignity of Princes had nothing of Policy in it being apt to expose Majesty to Contempt and render Authority dispisable to Subjects and Soldiers who by such Submissions are usually made more Fierce because they seem to make them more Considerable But there are certain Moments and Encounters wherein a kind of irregular Conduct wholly extraordinary and against all manner of Forms shall immediately gain that by Surprise which all humane Prudence managed by Methods and according to Rules of Art shall never be able to obtain by the strongest Force of Reason and Argument These Gentlemen afraid and ashamed to see those Persons at their Feet whom Nature had elevated above them and their own Choice had made their Heads were so touched with this Action that unable to retain their Sobs and Tears they prostrated themselves before the Princes and promised them intire Satisfaction of their Demands And after having consulted a few Minutes among themselves that so they might act more firmly by common Consent they ingaged to serve them with all their Troops in the War of Constantinople till the end of September provided the Princes would promise upon Oath upon the expiration of that Term in fifteen days to furnish them with such Shipping as was requisite for their Transportation from Constantinople into Syria The Conditions being accepted and mutual Faith on both Sides given with all the Marks of a perfect Reconciliation they Imbarked on the Eve of Whitsunday and after having coasted all Morea and Achaia the Fleet came to an Anchor in the Negropont where being divided into two
Constantinople where for the Punishment of his Crimes he is thrown headlong from a high Columne Old Alexis taken His End The Glorious Success of this Crusade THE Imperial City of Constantinople of which I have given the Survey and exact Description in the Second Book of the History of the Iconclastes conformable to the Condition wherein it was under the Empire of Constantinus Copronymus was neither so strong so fair nor so well peopled at that time as it was now when the French and Venetians undertook to make themselves Masters of it by plain Force as for the Multitude of Inhabitants the Turks having now overrun and conquered the greatest part of Natolia except some Maritime places upon the Bosphorus the Propomis and the Aegean Sea the Asiatick Greeks came generally to inhabit at Constantinople to secure themselves from the Tyranny of the Infidels And for its Beauty it was so far from having lost any that it was mightily augmented by the great number of Palaces publick Buildings and magnificent Churches which since that time had been built which were so increased that one might count above five hundred of them which rearing their lofty Spires and stately Towers above the rest of the City shewed at once a most pleasing and Majestick Prospect to the Beholders so that when the Crusades first discovered this great and Illustrious City from the highest places of the Port of the Abby of St. Stephen they were so pleasingly surprized that they were forced to avow that they had never seen any thing comparable to it in the whole World And lastly for its Strength it had all that Nature could contribute to it by its incomparable Situation between three Seas which invironed it in the Nature of a Peninsula of a Triangular Figure the Propontis on the South the Bosphorus on the East and the Gulph which makes the Port upon the North. Nor was there any thing wanting which Art could add either towards the Sea or Land to render it impregnable and though the Avarice and Negligence of some of the later Emperors had suffered it to be much weakned in the Fortifications yet was it in such a Condition that the greatest Captains among the Crusades believed they had never seen any thing more difficult to be undertaken than to besiege it For to the Landward it was encompassed with double Walls of hewn Stone mingled with Brick with a Ditch of five and twenty paces breadth which was filled with a Spring which never suffered it to be dry the two Walls were eighteen Foot distance from each other and extending from the Angle of the Propontis on the South to the seven Towers and from thence to the Gulph upon the North joyning the Palace and the Gate of Blaquerness The inward Wall was one hundred Foot high year 1203 and about twenty broad having at just distances eighty six Towers to defend it The outward Wall was not above half so high but in like manner fortified with the same Number of strong Towers and reached from the one Sea to the other upon the Thracian side being near two Leagues in length The Walls which were next the Sea were much lower but very thick being above a good mile in length upon that side which is washed by the Propontis to the point of the Bosphorus and defended by one hundred eighty and eight Towers that side of the Gulph which stretches it self towards the North and makes the Port of Constantinople in the form of a Crescent being above two Leagues reacheth as far as Blaquerness and is defended by one hundred and ten Towers so that admitting there were men enough to guard so many Towers which mutually defend one another it must needs be a very difficult attempt to take the City by Assault Besides the Port was not only defended by these Towers and Walls by the Acropolis or Fortress which was upon the Point of the Promontory of the Bosphorus but also by the strong Town of Galatha situate on the other side of the Gulph but above all by the Tower or Castle there from whence a vast Chain supported by great Timbers in the Sea was drawn to the Acropolis and locked up the Entrance into the Haven And for the Multitude of those who were to defend the City it was innumerable for there were then at Constantinople above a hundred thousand men sit to serve on Horseback and more than three times that number of Foot well armed besides the Soldiers of the Imperial Guard which was very strong and composed principally of the English-Danes whom the Greeks call Barranges which being banished from England by Edward who was descended from the Ancient English Saxon Kings had betaken themselves to the Greek Emperors who had used these People for above a hundred and fifty Years as their Ordinary Guards This was the Condition wherein Constantinople then stood to the Strength of which Alexis Commenius too much trusted believing it impossible for the Power of the whole Earth if it were assembled together to be able to force it This Prince had acquired the Reputation of a valiant man and a great Captain before he came to the Empire and that was one great reason that he met with no greater Opposition in his Usurpation for it was generally believed that he was another kind of man for War and Business than his Brother Isaac Angelus and that therefore he would by his Arms better support the Majesty of the Empire and its Dominions against the Barbarians who frequently attacked them with great advantage But it is too often seen that the Change of Fortune and a happy State produce also a Change in the manners and the Conduct of men and those Vices which before it was necessary to conceal by the appearance of Vertue appear barefaced when they come to have Liberty fortified by Power and are from under the Curb and Discipline of Fear So this Alexis was no sooner an Emperor but that he became the most cowardly and dissolute Person in the World never thinking of any thing but how to drown himself in Pleasures and abandoning the Care of the publick Affairs to those who either wholly neglected them or at least regarded them only to search for opportunities of inriching themselves out of the Spoils of the publick And indeed he was certainly now become most stupid for though it was the Town Discourse at Constantinople what great Preparations the French and Venetians were making and that they had undertaken to resettle the Young Alexis in the Throne yet did he not make the least Preparations for a War only some times in the Jollity of his Entertainments and the Heat of his Wine in which he plunged himself day after day when his Head was warm he would tell those who were the Companions of his Debauches that he would send out a Party of his Guards who should bring this handful of Hairbrain Fellows bound in Irons who being weary of their Lives were come so far to search for Death
whilst the Soldiers animated by their brave Examples threw themselves out of the Ships some into the Sea some upon the Shoar every one having a desire of the Honour of being foremost to come to the Combat but the Cowardice of Commenius and his Greeks did not permit them that Favour year 1203 for though at first they put on the Countenance of Soldiers and resolute Men whilst there was no other fighting but with the Cross-bows and Arrows yet so soon as they saw the French without staying for the dis-imbarking of their Horses march directly towards them with their Swords in their Hands this infinite Rabble turned Head and sled with so much speed that the Count de St. Paul who was one of the first that charged them pleasantly writ in his Letter to the Duke of Brabant that they out-ran the very Arrows which were shot after them so swift were their Feet by the suddain Terrour which then siezed them and put all those Spirits which should have actuated their Hands and Hearts into their Heels So that the Army was constrained to give them over to their own Fear which pursued them nothing else being able to overtake them whilst the Princes had leisure to throw out the Bridges and disimbark the Horses and range the Army as was before agreed into six Squadrons Now they imagining that Alexis Comnenius after his Flight was retreated to his Camp they resolved immediately to attack him there but he eased them of that trouble for they presently found that this Cowardly Prince had for his safety abandoned it with so much Precipitation that he had left behind him his Tents and Equipage and all the Baggage of his Army with which the Soldiers inriched themselves After this the Night approaching they lodged themselves commodiously in the Quarter of the Jews which was upon the Bank of the Bosphorus near the Castle of Galatha which they resolved the next Day to attack thereby to gain the Command of the Haven but they were prevented by the Garrison of the English-Danes Pisans and other Strangers to whom the Emperors had intrusted the Keeping of that Place who by the Order of Comnenius made a vigorous Sally the next Morning being re-inforced by an infinite Multitude of Greek Soldiers and Burghers who continually passed from Pera to relieve them Insomuch that these Strangers who were good Men and found few of the French prepared to receive them had at first some Advantage The valiant James d' Avesnes who was the first that advanced with what Infantry he could get together to oppose them received a great Wound in his Face with a Lance and had undoubtedly been slain if he had not been instantly succoured by Nicholas de Laulain one of his Knights who drew him out of the Press of his Enemies with which he was surrounded and by a prodigious Valour almost singly sustained the Brunt till the rest of the Troops came up who hasted from all Parts to the Combat Then it was that they furiously charged these Soldiers of the Garrison of Galatha who sighting bravely were most of them cut in pieces the rest crowded by that confused Multitude of Greeks who presently took the Fright sled with so great haste and Disorder that one part of them running towards the Port to recover their Barks threw themselves into them with such Precipitation that they sunk the Vessels and were drowned whilst others thinking to save themselves in the Castle of Galatha did in such a manner by their Multitude stop up the Passage of the Gate every one being desirous to be the foremost that those who pursued them closely would not give them the liberty to shut it so that after a bloody Combat which was maintained by these miserable Men out of perfect Necessity and Despair and not by true Courage and Valour the French gained the Gate and after they had either taken or slain all such as made any Resistance they remained Masters of the Fortress and of the Chain At the same time also wherein the French performed this memorable Action the Venetians having drawn up their Fleet in Order in the Chanal below Scutari turned the Prows of their Gallies and Ships against the Entry of the Haven and under the favour of a Tide-Wind which blew from the East just in their Sterns they bore up to the Chain from their Engines which threw Darts and great Stones battering and bruising the five and twenty Gallies and other Ships which lay there to defend it Insomuch that one of the greatest Ships coming up close to the Chain whilst the others continually discharged against the Greeks they cut the Chain in two with prodigious Scissors of Steel which were opened and shut with an Engine After which having broken and chopped in pieces the Timbers that supported the Chain the whole Venetian Fleet freely entred the Port and all the Greek Vessels were either taken disabled or sunk This was but the beginning of the most wonderful and hazardous Enterprise that ever was undertaken which was to take a City in which for one that attacked it the Mareshal de Ville Hardouin tells us there were two hundred to defend it However in order thereunto it was resolved that there should be two Attacks the one by Sea on the Port side and the other by Land towards the Palace of Blaquerness near that end of the Wall which adjoyns to the Haven The Venetians undertook the first and the French made Choice of the second because that in those times they were not acquainted with fighting on Ship-board as were the Venetians who were then accounted the most potent and able Sea-men of the World having as it were founded their Empire upon that Watry Element Having therefore for four days made all the Preparations necessary for their Attacks the French Army coasting along by the Fleet marched near two Leagues to the Stone-Bridge which is a little below the place where the River Barbyses joyning its Streams with that of Cydaris dischargeth it self into the Bottom of the Haven This Bridge was something longer than that which is called the Small Bridge at Paris and so narrow that not above three Horse-men could pass abreast upon it So that if the Greeks had had any Courage they might easily have maintained it but they contented themselves with breaking it and that being easily repaired in the Night the whole Army passed over it without Molestation and having put themselves into the same Order as before of six Bodies they encamped in the Valley of Blaquerness between the City and the Cosmidium or Monastery of St. Cosmus which was sometimes called Bohemond's Castle because that Prince lodged there when he was at Constantinople in the first Crusade The Camp was immediately fortified and the Engines prepared to batter the Courtain and the Towers which were on the Right and Left near the Palace and the Gate of Blaquerness which was the only Quarter which could be besieged by such a small number of Men
property of this Fire not only to burn till it came to the Water but to burn in the Water which seemed to increase its Force and Violence and by a Prodigy quite contrary to the nature of these two Elements which are Enemies one to the other it seemed to make use of it for its Food and Nourishment It had also a Movement wholly contrary to that of common Fire which always raiseth it self and with its pointed Head aspires upward as it were tending to its Sphere But this joyning to its extream Quickness the property of heavy and Terrestrial Bodies burnt downwards and all along to the Right and Left with an Impetuosity proportionable to the Impression which it received from those who had the Art to manage it for they might either throw it a great distance by the Machines which were made for that purpose after the same manner as they threw Darts and great Stones or they might blow it by long Trunks and Pipes of Copper through which they discharged this liquid Fire with Impetuosity like Water out of a Syringe either against Men or any thing which they intended to set on fire and where it once laid hold it would stick so fast that there was no way to extinguish it but with Vinegar mingled with Urine and Sand or which is more wonderful Oyl which is the proper Nourishment of other Fire and which makes it more quick and violent would extinguish this Thus Art whose Perfection we commonly say consists in the Imitation of Nature is never more admirable than when in its Operations it is so far from imitating her that it bestows upon them Properties wholly different and even contrary to those of Nature For the main this wondrous Fire was composed of Brimstone Naphta Pitch the Gums of certain Trees and Bitumen tempered with the Water of a Fountain which had this particular Quality and some other Ingredients which served to produce this marvellous Effect But this Invention is now quite lost year 1203 particularly since that of Powder was found out with which we make all our Artificial Fires and which produces by our Cannons Bombes and Mines Effects incomparably more wonderful and terrible than those of this Grecian Fire with its Engines Blasts and Pipes The Greeks having in this manner prepared their seventeen great Fire-Ships and charged them with the Wild-fire one Night when the Wind blew for their purpose a good stiff Gale at West they sent them adrift towards the middle of the Venetian Fleet which lay to the Leeward at the Entrance of the Haven All these Ships having a Stern Wind and all their Sails filled with it appeared in an instant all on fire like so many glowing Furnaces driven before the Wind with mighty Violence upon the Venetian Fleet and advancing still with their whirling Flames towards them seemed ready to set them on fire there appearing to the distant Spectators almost no possibility of avoiding the threatning danger All the City ran to the Port and to the Towers and Walls to have the pleasure of the burning of the Navy every one impatiently expecting the agreeable Show which they believed was ready to appear and all of them together as upon an Amphitheatre clapping their Hands and making great Shouts of Joy with a most horrible Noise as if all had been their own But this Joy was quickly changed into Shame and Grief when they saw all these artificial Fires from which they stood gaping for such Miracles vanish into Smoak by the Skill and Dexterity of the Venetians who so soon as they saw them leap'd into their Skiffs and Long-Boats and with an incredible diligence having run the Fire-Ships one upon another in despight of all the Showers of Darts and Arrows which were discharged upon them by the force of mighty Hooks and Grappling Irons they drew them out of the Port into the Chanal where leaving them to the Wind and Current they were carried into the Propontis where at length they spent themselves in unprofitable Flames So that the Venetians lost not so much as one Skiff nor was there more than one single Merchant-man of Pisa which being unluckily in their Way could not so suddenly avoid them but that she was quite burnt down year 1204 This Accident gave Murtzuphle a fair Opportunity of finishing the Ruin of the poor Alexis by the blackest and most detestable Treason that the wickedest of Mankind could be capable of For as he had a most absolute power over the Soul of this miserable Prince who acted wholly by his Counsels and esteemed him as an Oracle he told him that to secure himself from the danger wherein he was of falling like his Uncle under the hands of the Latins it was necessary that he should endeavour to amuse them by sending secretly to them and protesting that whatever he had done against them was purely the Effect of Constraint and that for his own part he was readily disposed to do more than he had promised provided that they would assist him against his Subjects who took from him the liberty and the power of keeping his Word and that if they would assist him to become Master of Constantinople as he ought to be he should then be in a Condition most faithfully to perform as he most earnestly desired all the Articles of the Treaty Poor Alexis immediately fell into the Snare which was so artfully placed for him for he instantly dispatched Envoys charged with this Commission to the Princes when at the same time the Traytor having by his Emissaries blazed it all about the City he that very Day being the 25th of January raised such a furious and general Insurrection throughout the Town that believing themselves betrayed after having with the greatest Insolence charged the Emperor with a thousand Imprecations calling him a Slave to the Latins and a Traytor to the Empire they ran tumultuously to the Church of Sancta Sophia there presently to make Choice of a new Emperor The Historian Nicetas who was at that time Lord Chancellor although he does with Passion enough declare himself an Enemy to the Latins yet upon this Occasion did whatever lay in his Power to oppose this Resolution remonstrating to the People that they were in no manner of Condition to defend the Emperor whom they should chuse against the Army of the Crusades But the Populace which after it is once heated is no longer capable of Reason or of following any other Conduct but that of their blind and impetuous Passions year 1204 cried out terribly that they would never stir from thence till they had a new Emperor and in the Heat of the Tumult seizing upon the most Eniment Persons of the City they endeavoured to constrain them even with Menaces and the Ponyard at their Throats to accept of the Imperial Crown At last seeing that all the Ancient Senators to whom they addressed themselves as most capable of governing excused themselves upon divers pretences they took a young man
that so he might be nearer his Brother-in-Law the King of Hungary The Venetians had the Isles of the Archipelagus and a great part of Peloponnesus or Morea with many Cities upon the Coasts of the Hellespont and Phrygia together with the Isle of Candia which they purchased of the Marquis of Montferrat to whom it had been given by the young Alexis Bithynia under the Title of a Dutchy fell to the Share of the Count de Blois William de Champlite of Champagne had the Principality of Achaia and Peloponnesus which he Conquered and at his Death left to Geoffry de Ville Hardouin Nephew to the Mareshal of Champagne who had also for his Share the Province of Romania There were also several other Principalities Lands and great Cities both in Europe and Asia conferred upon the most considerable Persons in the Army After this the Emperor taking the Field before the Winter reduced all the Cities of Thracia under his Obeysance and to compleat his good Fortune the old Alexis and the persidious Murtzuphle who still carried themselves as Emperors in that Province fell alive into his victorious Hands and received Justice according to their Demerits Murtzuphle after his Flight was retired into a City of Thracia about four days March from Constantinople and having rallied some Troops he with them seized upon Tzurulum at this day called Chiorli between the imperial City and Adrianople But when he perceived that all Places surrendred themselves to Prince Henry year 1204 whom the Emperor had sent before with the Men at Armes he quitted that open Country and retreated to Messinople anciently and truly called Maximinianopolis in the Province of Rhodope where the old Alexis had made himself be acknowledged as Emperor during the Siege of Constantinople Murtzuphle sent to him to offer him his Troops and his Service against the common Enemy and intreated him to do him the Honor to consider him and receive him as his Son-in-Law who could have no other Interests but his But Alexis whether it were that he hated him because he was more wicked than himself or that he distrusted him or that he was resolved to revenge the Affront and Dishonor that had been done by him to his Daughter or possibly that wholly Miserable as he was himself yet he could not indure that another should call himself Emperor he resolved to destroy him and to punish his Perfidy by another Treason For as the Devils in the other World are the Executioners of God's Decrees upon the Damned so the Crimes of wicked Men in this Life serve his Justice in the punishing of those Offences which other wicked Men have committed This dissembling and treacherous old Man therefore made shew of receiving these Offers of his Son-in-Law with all the Marks of Tenderness and Affection which he could have wished he went in Person to Confer with him they imbraced they kissed and reciprocally gave to each other their Faith protesting that they would hereafter never have any other but the same Interest and the same Heart After which Murtzuphle made no difficulty intirely to trust his Father-in-Law and went confidently to an Entertainment to which he was invited by him but as he was conducted into a Chamber where the Trap was set for him the People of Alexis who were in Readiness for that Purpose fell upon him and overthrowing him they immediately pulled his Eyes out of his Head Thus divine Justice the wise Disposer of all things ordered it that one Tyrant should execute upon another the same Cruelty which he himself had about nine Years before advised him to act upon his own Brother the Emperor Isaac Not long after Alexis understanding that Baldwin to whom all Thracia submitted was coming against him he fled into Macedon with so much Precipitation and Disorder that some of the Friends of Murtzuphle all whose Troops were disbanded found the Means to procure his Escape But after he had for some time wandred in Disguise with a small Attendance intending to pass the Strait of the Hellespont to save himself in Asia he was surprized by Thierri de Los who had got notice of him and carried Prisoner to Constantinople where the Emperor would have him proceeded against in due course of Law He was therefore accused before the Princes of an infinite number of Crimes and above all of being guilty of the most detestable Parricide upon the Person of the young Emperor Alexis who he had strangled with his own Hands The Fact was publickly notorious nor could he deny it but yet he had the audacious Confidence to indeavour to justify himself by maintaining that he had done nothing but what was most Just and what was approved by the Greeks and even the Relations of Alexis who had lost his Right to the Empire and deserved Death for having betraied his Country in selling it to Strangers But as his insolent Answers were so far from diminishing his Crime that they rendred him more Odious so he was condemned to a Death which might strike a Terror into all those who were the Accomplices or Approvers of his Parricide For this Purpose he was led into the great Square called that of the Bull in the middle of which the great Theodosius had erected a marble Column of extraordinary Height which being hollow had a Staircase within by which they might go to the Top upon which that Emperor had caused his Statue in Brass upon Horseback to be placed but that happening to be thrown down by an Earthquake in the Reign of Zeno Anastatius his Successor caused his to be set up in the Room of it and that having also the same Fate there was nothing after set up but it remained as a little Lodge which was inhabited by a new Stylite who by the means of that Retreat injoyed a Solitude in the midst of the greatest and most populous City in the World It was to the Top of this high Column that the Unfortunate Murtzuphle was carried and in the view of the whole City which might easily see it from all parts this Square of the Bull being one of the most eminent of the seven Hills upon which Constantinople stands year 1204 he was thrown down headlong and dashed in pieces Just it was that he should thus die by this fearful manner of Death that from thence Posterity may learn that if Ambition sometimes mounts wicked Men to the Eminency of Fortune by Treasons Poisonings Murders Parricides and all manner of Crimes which she never spares to prompt her Followers to when she judges them for her Purpose Yet does she at the last bring them when at the top of this Height to the most horrible Precipice from whence their Fall is so much the more Fatal by how much they fall from the greater Height That which is most strange in this terrible Execution is that among other Figures which were carved round about this Column there was to be seen that of an Emperor thrown down in that very manner
And besides year 1204 he now was convinced that nothing could have been done more profitable and advantageous either for the Glory of God in the Good of the universal Church or in particular for the Deliverance of the Holy Land And for this purpose that such a Conquest might be preserved whereupon that of Palestine depended he writ his Circular Letters to all the Archbishops of France and their Suffragans by which he exhorted and commanded them to persuade the French to take Arms and march to the Assistance of their Brethren at Constantinople And above all he desired that they would send some zealous learned Men furnished with Books to labour in the Conversion of the Greeks The University of Paris which Philip the August had taken such care of that it might flourish in all manner of Learning and Knowledge was then in high Reputation throughout the World and this wise Pope who had himself been sometimes a Member of that great Body writ to them upon this Subject with so much force that many Doctors and Batchellors persuaded by his Reasons and inflamed with a Zeal truly Apostolical went to propagate the Light of Truth and the Orthodox Doctrine in the Greek Empire which had been obscured by many Errours of the Schism Thus the Divine Providence which with infinite Wisdom takes care of all things so disposed Matters that upon this Occasion it seemed to make a Retalliation by ordering that Paris should render the same Service to Greece which Greece had sometime bestowed upon France by sending thither St. Denis to be an Apostle for that Country The Pope also at that time did not fail to write to the victorious Army which had so gloriously executed that marvellous Enterprise to oblige them to stay another Year in that Empire to assure those Conquests provided that by the Infidels breaking of the Truce there was not an absolute necessity that they should speedily repair to Palestine to succour the Christians there against the Barbarians But whilst the Pope laboured with so much diligence for the Good of Christendom in the East there happened in the Holy Land two deplorable Accidents which very much disturbed the Joy of that happy Success of the Arms of the Confederates The first was the Death of the Countess Mary Sister of the deceased Count de Champagne Niece to Philip the August and Wife to Baldwin Earl of Flanders who had so generously taken up the Cross with her Husband resolving to run the same Fortunes with him but being big with Child she was not at that time in a Condition to go along with him and therefore after she had lain in she imbarked upon the Fleet which was commanded by John de Nele She had not been long at Ptolemais where she landed in expectation of her Husband Count Baldwin before she received the News that after the Taking of Constantinople he was elevated to the Imperial Throne The Joy which this News occasioned made such a violent Impression upon her Body extreamly infeebled with the Fatigues of so long a Voyage that not being able to surmount it she died of the two Excesses of Joy and Weakness So that the Ships which were sent by the Emperor to conduct her with Pomp to Constantinople to receive the Crown Imperial with her dearest Husband transported her Body only thither to be as it was with the most magnificent Ceremonies usual upon such sad Occasions interred in the Church of Sancta Sophia year 1205 This sad Accident was presently succeeded by another which brought a great Change in the Affairs of the Realm of Jerusalem For King Emeri de Lusignan dying in the City of Acre and the little Emeri his Son not long surviving him Isabella his Mother the Wife of Emeri at the same time also following them to the Tomb the Crown by Right of Succession descended to the Princess Mary her eldest Daughter who was usually called the Marchioness because she was born to her of the famous Marquis de Montferrat Prince of Tyre her second Husband Hereupon the Estates being assembled to provide a Husband for the young Queen who might be able to act and govern the Realm in a time wherein there was such need of a King of great Abilities to supply the defect of Forces which remained in the Realm after so many Disasters But the Jealousie and Ambition of so many Great Men of the same Realm not permitting them to agree in an Election of one of their own number they being all Rivals and resolved not to give place one to another at last year 1205 after they had a long time debated this tender and important Point they resolved that so they might steer an even Course betwixt the Natives and Strangers year 1206 since they could not possibly please them both year 1207 that they would not take one of the Natives of the Country but that they would send into France from whence the first Kings of Jerusalem came and into no other Country and from thence desire one of Philip the August and thereupon they dispatched the Bishop of Ptolemais and the Lord of Cesarea as their Ambassadors year 1208 to receive from the hands of that great King some Prince or Lord of France upon whom together with the young Queen they might confer the Crown of Jerusalem There was no question something very surprizing and unaccountable in the Conduct of Philip in this Encounter for there were in France many great Princes and Lords of very high Quality upon whom he might have cast his Eyes yet nevertheless whether their illustrious Merit his own particular Inclination or some unknown politick Reasons governed him in his Choice two several times successively he chose it is true out of a very Noble House though something inferiour in Quality to many others two Brothers whom upon two Occasions he preferred in the Disposal of two Crowns They were Gautier II. Count de Brienne in Champagne and his Brother John de Brienne the Son of Erard II. Count de Brienne and Agnes de Montheliard He married Gautier to Alberia eldest Daughter of Tancred King of Sicily who with her Mother Sybilla escaping out of the Prison wherein they had been kept by the Emperor Henry IV. in Germany had sled for Refuge into France This valiant Man accompanied with no more than threescore Knights and forty Esquires of the Crusades who resolved to follow his Fortune instead of going to Venice with the Princes had the Confidence to pursue the Rights of his Wife and re-conquer a Kingdom without any other Fond than twenty thousand Livres which he received from King Philip and five hundred Ounces of Gold which he had from the Pope which would raise but a very inconsiderable number of Troops but notwithstanding this with his few Men he acted with so much Courage and Conduct that after having defeated the Emperor's Lieutenants in several Encounters he made himself Master of Pavia Calabria Capua and even Naples it self and in a manner
the vast Tracts of Ethiopia and the higher Egypt it divides it self below Grand Caire or Babylon some twenty Leagues from the Sea into two Arms one of which drawing to the Right Hand towards the East and the other to the Left towards the West form that great Triangle which is the lower Egypt and which by reason of its Triangular Figure the Greeks call Delta These two Arms divide themselves again into others which discharging themselves into the Sea make those Mouths of the Nile whose number is very uncertain most Authors make them seven some nine and others will have it that there are eleven but William of Tyre who had most exactly searched the number of them upon the place assures us that there are no more than four All which Differences may be easily reconciled by considering that when this River overflows the Country as it doth every Year about the middle of June till towards the midst of September it then dischargeth it self by other Chanals which remain dry all the rest of the Year and that then it is restrained to those four which are the natural Branches by which its Waters flow regularly and without Interruption to the Sea The greatest of the Western Chanals is called the Peleusiaque from the name of the City Pelusium which since is called Belbeis upon the Nile towards the Coast of Palestine This City is usually confounded with Damaita by a Mistake which certainly cannot be defended for William of Tyre who speaks exactly of these two Cities which he had seen and which were besieged by Amauri King of Jerusalem saith positively that the King who had by Force taken Pelusium anciently called Belbeis which it is well known stood upon the first Branch of the Nile towards the East passed the first Arm of the River year 1218 and marched at two Encampments which is about twenty Miles to besiege Damiata upon the Oriental Coast of the second Branch of the Nile about a Mile from the Sea This City was invironed with a double brick Wall towards the Nile and a trible one on that side toward the Land the second was higher than the first and the third than the second with an infinite number of Towers to defend them and a great Ditch by which there is a Passage into the Nile which compasses it round about and makes it a great Island something longer than it is broad But that which it wants in Breadth is supplied by the fair Suburbs which in Beauty and Riches yield not to the City And it being thither that all the Merchandises which come from Ethiopia and the Indies by the Red Sea were brought to be from thence transported into Europe and Asia the Sultans had caused to be built upon the other side the River a very strong Tower capable of containing three hundred Soldiers to defend it from whence there was drawn a huge Chain to one of the Towers of the City so that there was no comming in or going out of the Harbor without the Permission of the Sultan who drew from them what Tribute he pleased for the Exportation of all the Merchandises and Spiceries which were not to be had but from Egypt So soon as the rest of the Army which was for some time stayed by contrary Winds was come up the Soldiers being marvellously animated by an Eclipse of the Moon which they took for a certain Presage of Victory and the Ruine of the Sultan a Resolution was taken to attack the Tower upon the Nile in regard that without that it was impossible to batter the City on the River side which was the thing in design that being the weakest part For this purpose the Duke of Austria and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem caused the great Ladders in form of Draw-Bridges to be fastned to their Masts such as had been made use of to be let down with Pullies at the Siege of Constantinople The Germans and Frisons under the Conduct of Count Adolphus du Mont made a kind of a Fort upon a great Ship which below the Round Top of the Main Mast was like a little Castle from whence they might commodiously shoot against those who defended the Tower and the Templers raised upon one of the ablest of the Ships another Machin in form of a Cavalier to batter the Enemy at the same time from another Quarter but these Engines had not the happy Success which they had promised from them the main Mast which supported the Bridge of the Knights of St. John breaking in the middle in the Fall drew along with it the Bridge that also of the Duke of Austria was overturned and broaken under the Feet of the Soldiers who thronged upon it and pushed one another forward with Precipitation every one striving to be foremost to sight with the Sarasins who expected them upon the top of the Tower So that these valiant Men who marched with so much Heat with their Swords in their Hands against the Enemy falling with their Bucklers and Swords one upon another being intangled in the Cordage tumbled one upon another and wounded themselves sorely with their own Arms before they fell from the Bridge into the River where they were miserably plunged in the deep Waters and being armed and such a number of Men Planks and great pieces of broaken Timber that hindred their Swiming they could not possibly save themselves The Christian Army which saw this lamentable Accident without being able to remedy it was infinitely troubled at it but the Infidels who from the Towers and Walls saw this agreeable Spectacle sent forth Shouts of Joy mingled with horrible Noises Insultings and Blasphemies which were so far from discouraging the Christians that they were thereby animated more than before to revenge these horrible Affronts Impieties For this Reason therefore after they had drawn off the other two Machins of the Templers and the Germans which were for no purpose but to favor the other two which were ruined it was resolved that the Gallies and lighter Ships should pass by the Chanal of the Nile which was between the Tower and the other Bank that so they might make themselves Masters of the higher part of the River and break the Bridge of Boats which made the Communication between the Town and the Tower of the Nile This Design was as happily Executed as could be wished for in despight of the horrible storm of Darts Arrows and Stones which were poured upon them from the great Tower to defend the Passage which the Besieged did not believe they would be so mad as to attempt year 1218 the Ships passed up the River and lay so that no Ship could come down to relieve the Town then they fell upon those who defended the Bridge with so much Fury that they broak it in divers places so that the Tower could now no longer be succoured from the City In the mean time a very able Engineer invented a new sort of Machin which at last had that
having continued so long that by reason of the Famine many deseases began to make a cruel Ravage among the defendants so that he could not hope having so often deceived them with vain promises but that they must come to a Capitulation and besides he himself began to be straitned in provisions for his Army by reason that the Besiegers being Masters of the Sea with a strong Fleet received them in abundance and hindred all others from furnishing his Army with supplies so that it was impossible for him longer to subsist in the Posts which now he was in Moreover the inundation of the Nile having not been very favourable this year he feared that the scarcity which he foresaw would not permit him to raise or maintain an Army if he should be obliged to continue the War that after the taking of Damiata he should not therefore be in a condition of resisting the Crusades who would infallibly march against him in Grand Caire For these reasons therefore after the Retreat of diverse of the Crusades who had reimbarked themselves for Europe in the Month of September having again made an unsuccessful attempt against the Christians to force them in their retrenchments by the consent of his Brother Coradin he sent to propose a Peace or at least a Truce for several years upon Conditions which were very fair and advantageous to the Christians which were as follow That he would restore to them the true Cross which was taken by Saladin at the Battle of Tyberias That he would restore to the King all that they held in the Realm of Jerusalem and That he would give so much money as should be sufficient to rebuild the Walls of that City and put it into the same Condition wherein it was before That he would release all the Prisoners which had been taken in Egypt and Syria not only during this but all the preceding Wars That the strong holds of Thoron of Sephet and Beaufort should be surrendred to the Christians in the same condition which they were now in and in short that he would keep nothing but the two Cities of Crac and Montreal on the other side of Jordan in regard they were necessary for the Security of the Pilgrims which should travel to Mecca and that these two Cities should also be in some sort under the Authority of the King of Jerusalem by paying to him a moderate acknowledgement of tribute during the time of the peace or Truce Now this being a decisive affair there was an Assembly called of all the Commanders and Prelates and the question was debated Whether leaving the Enterprise of Damiata the Propositions of the two Sultans ought not to be accepted The opinions were diverse the King of Jerusalem and all the Lords and great Officers among the French English Germans Flemings and Hollanders were of the opinion that they ought to be received and without doubt this Judgment was founded upon reasons equally plausible and substantial For said they that which ought to govern us in this deliberation is the end which we have proposed to our selves in undertaking this War And what is that end Is it not to reconquer the Realm of Jerusalem and to recover the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ out of the hands of the Infidels for the deliverance whereof so many Crusades have from time to time been undertaken Nor had we besieged Damiata but upon the belief that the taking of that City would prove the most proper and conducive means to arrive at that end and although we have now besieged the place for seventeen Months yet we have not taken it and it is uncertain when we shall since not only our one Soldiers daily quit the tedious Service but the Enemies receive daily reinforcements and redouble their attacks which we did not without difficulty resist even when we were stronger and the Events of War being uncertain it is but reasonable to accept those offers now which we would willingly have embraced before the Siege That it is but to quit a certainty for an uncertainty to refuse them and that what we aim at ultimately is now offered unto us That when we have taken Damiata we should be willing to exchange it for the Realm of Jerusalem since that is the only reason for which we endeavour to take it and there is all the reason in the World to accept that now which will deliver the Army from all future difficulties and dangers in continuing the Siege and not only spare the blood of so many brave men as were dayly lost before the Town but also the exposing of the whole Army to the disgrace of not taking it at the last that if as might be objected it was to be feared that the Sarasins never intended to perform the Condition year 1219 which they so liberally offered it was easie to assure themselves of performance by taking sufficient Hostages from them and that admitting the worst they might so fortifie Jerusalem before the Army separated and before the Enemies could be in a Condition to obstruct them as to render it impregnable for the future On the other side the Legate who rarely was in the same Opinion with the King and who wanted neither Wit nor reason to support his own stifly maintained That these Propositions ought by no means to be accepted That this was nothing but the pure Artifice of the Sultans to prevent the taking of the City which they found it was impossble for them to relieve That all they offered being now only a naked Country and defenceless Villages it was easie to take it from them without the help of a Treaty That the Infidels had no other intention by all these seeming advantages which they offered to the Christians but to separate their Army by a delusive Peace that so they might afterwards with ease recover what they had yielded to them only to amuse them And for what concerned the true Cross they were certainly informed that the Sarasins had suffered it to be lost or destroyed since Saladin if after the most diligent search he could have found it would most willingly have restored it for the Ransom of so many Valiant men and so many considerable Emirs as were made Prisoners upon the taking of Ptolemais And in short that the Siege was now so far advanced that the Defendants being reduced to the last Extremities it was impossible but they must take Damiata and that after that it was easie to know what they had to do and that then they might if they pleased treat with more Honour and more advantage Now as the Legate had a strong Party and a great authority especially among the Ecclesiasticks and that his reasons also were not without a Foundation of great Probability the Patriarch the Arch-Bishops the Bishops and all the Ecclesiasticks together with the three great Masters of the Military Orders all the Italians and many other Crusades were in his Opinion so that the others also standing firmly to their Sense
an answer so little expected seemed to slight it and therefore presently put himself upon his March but at last when he saw these two great Bodies separated from the rest of the Army and that there was reason to fear that many others might be induced to follow their Example so that he should be in a manner wholly diserted by all except the Germans who always continued their Fidelity to him he made a great attempt upon himself and reserving his Vengeance for another time he consented that his Lieutenants should give out his Orders not in his Name but in the behalf of God and Christendom and thereupon the whole Army being reunited they continued their March to Jaffa where they fell to work upon the Fortifications which nevertheless were presently interrupted by the News which was received from Italy For whilest he did all these things directly contrary to the Pope's prohibitions which he despised and contemned Gregory who had been attacked in that time by his Lieutenants who spoiled the Lands of the Church had with the assistance of his Allies raised two good Armies which under the Conduct of King John de Brienne and the Counts de Celano and Aquila his Lieutenants year 1228 did not only drive the Imperialists out of the Marquisate of Ancona into which they had fallen but also pursued them into the Realm of Naples where after they had taken the strong place of St. German they made themselves Masters of all the others even to Capua And in the mean time the confederate Cities of Lombardy sollicited by the Cardinal of St. Martin who was sent Legate to Milan for that purpose declaring themselves for the Pope made War against the other Cities who were of the Emperor's Party And after this not only the Villages of these Provinces but the Families of the same City being divided into these two furious Factions which by an odd name the Original of which is very uncertain were called the Guelphes and the Gibelins the first of which held for the Pope and the other for the Emperor these two Factions did in all places an infinite of mischief silling the Cities and the Villages with Desolations Ruins Massacres and Fires this implacable hatred which they had entertained one against another arming them to their mutual destruction and to the commission of all the most barbarous Inhumanities and most detestable Crimes Such are generally the miserable Consequences of the differences of Princes in which those who take their part having neither their Intentions Sentiments nor Manners frequently run into those transports and excesses of Fury which bring neither Reputation nor Advantage to the Cause which they support and which those Princes are so far from esteeming acceptable Services that they are the first in condemning such false Zeal and horrible brutality year 1229 This news of the Progress of the Pope's Army was such a surprise to Frederick and affrightned him so much that to expedite his return he was resolved to comply with the Sultan almost at any rate and therefore sending Count Thomas with one of his Secretaries to him they concluded a Truce for ten Years upon these conditions That the Sultan should yield the City of Jerusalem to Frederick together with the Cities of Bethlehem Nazareth Thoron and Sajeta or Sidon and the Villages which are directly upon the Road between Jerusalem and Jaffa That it should be lawful for the Christians to fortifie these places and to rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem of which the Emperor might dispose as he pleased excepting only the Temple with its appendages which was to be reserved to the Sarasins with liberty there to perform all the Exercises of their Law That the City of Tripolis the Principality of Antioch and the other places which did not appertain to the Kingdom of Jerusalem should not be comprised in this Treaty and that the Emperor should not permit the Christians to assist them This Treaty was mutually signed between them in the Month of February and though the Patriarch who did not approve of it nor would have any Commerce with the Emperor did not only refuse to perform the Ceremonies of his Coronation but had also interdicted all the Churches of Jerusalem if he should attempt to go thither yet he did nevertheless make his Publick Entry there as it were in Triumph upon the seventeenth day of March followed by his whole Army all the Prohibitions of the Patriarch being not able to hinder him from visiting the Holy Sepulchre The next day which was the third Sunday in Lent he went cloathed in his Imperial Habit with abundance of Pomp and Majesty to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where after having said his private Devotions there being not found any one who by reason of the interdict durst attempt to celebrate the Divine Mysteries he caused a Crown of Gold to be placed upon the great Altar and without troubling himself about the Ceremonies which the Church is wont to observe in the Coronation of Kings he went himself up to the Altar and taking the Crown he placed it upon his Head and with his own hands crowned himself King of Jerusalem with the mighty Acclamations of the Germans and the Knights of the Teutonick Order who highly approved of this Action as well as the Treaty which the Emperor had made At the same time he writ to the Pope and to all Christian Kings and Princes Letters by which he invited them in most Pompous and Magnisicent Termes to render solemn thanks unto Almighty God who had in this manner by a miraculous Effect of his Power happily finished this Enterprise without Effusion of Christian Blood and almost without Forces which so many great Princes had not been able to execute with the most potent Armies and after so many cruel Battles which had been fought to oblige the Infidels to restore to the Christians the Holy City year 1229 with the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ for which so many Crusades had been made and in Conclusion he made a Relation of all the Advantages which he pretended were to be drawn from this Treaty But on the other part the Patriarch writ to the Pope and to all Christian People long Letters in which he complains bitterly of Frederick whom he treats in such a manner as at the least one must say is very injurious there he indeavours to lay open the Shame the Dishonour and Illusion of the Treaty by which he maintains that Frederick hath betrayed Christianity First because it is most shameful to have the Sarasins share the Holy City with the Christians Secondly because the Sultan of Damascus having never given his consent to the Agreement the Treaty signified just nothing and in short that all those places which were in shew yielded to the Emperor were in reallity as much the Sarasins as they were before since he returned into Europe without fortifying any one of them And in truth Frederick who took no care now but to reimbark himself and to
return into Italy as soon as was possible to recover the places which the Pope's Army had taken in his Dominions there left all things in Palestine in the same condition wherein he had found them not giving himself the trouble to build either the Walls of Jerusalem or any other of those Cities which were yielded to him by the Treaty insomuch that the Sarasins who were much the stronger in the Country especially after his departure were as much Masters as they had been before the Treaty which Established the Affairs of the Christians in nothing but appearance But the Emperor who believed he had reason to charge the Pope as the Cause of all those Mischiefs which might follow upon his hasty departure was not at all concerned at it but after having treated the Patriarch and the Templers very contemptuously at Acre he commanded all his Soldiers to follow him alledging there was no necessity for their stay in Palestine during the Treaty and therefore upon the first day of May he departed with two Gallies only and in a few dayes arrived in the Kingdom of Naples where in a little time he recovered all the places which had been taken from him during his absence year 1230 and the Year following by the Mediation of Herman de Saltza great Master of the Teutonick Order and divers other Princes and Prelates of Germany he made his peace with the Pope who received him at Anagnia with all manner of Honours and Marks of Affection giving him Absolution and restoring him to all his Rights Thus the differences of Princes the most highly exasperated one against the other may by a Treaty of a few days come to be determined but many Ages ofttimes will not suffice to repair the Evils which they have produced in the World year 1232 In this time Meledin who was come to a Rupture with his Nephew whom he had driven out of Damascus fearing that during the War which he made with him there should be some new Crusade formed in the West sent his Ambassadors to Frederick to renew the Amity which they had contracted and presented him among other precious Rarities of the East a most Magnificent Tent which was valued at above one hundred thousand Crowns in which surpassing all that ever was written of the Magnificence of the Ancient Kings of Persia the Heavens were so perfectly represented that this admirable Pavilion look'd like the true and natural Skie in it were to be seen the shining Globes of the Sun and Moon which by secret Movements turning like those glorious Luminaries by the Skill of Art kept exactly the same measures in their Regular Motions which Nature hath prescribed to those two beautiful Planets insomuch that by this well governed Motion all the Hours of the Day and Night were as well to be known by the Artificial Course of these two Globes within the Tent as by a Dial or Exact Quadrant from the natural Motions of the Sun and Moon It is said also that these Ambassadors addressed themselves to the Pope to desire peace with him but that he dismissed them without an Audience in regard that he would not have any Commerce with Infidels and that he still continued in the Design of pursuing the Crusade year 1233 And indeed as soon as the Troubles of Italy were quieted at least for a time by the fervent Preachings of the Religious of the Orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis whom the Pope sent into all the Cities to compose the Minds of men to peace he called a great Assembly of Prelates to Spoleta year 1234 at which the Emperor himself assisted together with the Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch and Jerusalem whom Gregory had caused to come thither to deliberate with them upon the Affairs of the East There it was resolved That so soon as the Truce was expired the War should be renewed in Palestine and that in the interim Theoderick Archbishop of Ravenna should be sent into Palestine in quality of Legate with Letters from the Pope to all the Prelates and from the Emperor to all his Officers by which they should be injoyned to obey him year 1235 And in short that the Pope should write to all the Princes and should send Preachers to all places to exhort all faithful Christians to take upon them the Cross and to give notice to such as had already taken it to hold themselves ready for the Voyage within four Years which was exactly the time when the Truce expired this did not fail to produce the same Effects which had been seen in the other Crusades for the Devotion of that Holy Voyage being the thing in Vogue in those times there were always a multitude of People of all Ranks and Conditions who either then took the Cross or having taken it before resolved with the first opportunity to accomplish their Vow He who upon this occasion shewed the most Zeal and Fervour and whom all the rest were obliged to look upon as their Chieftain was the King of Navarr This Prince was the famous Theobald the Fifth of the Name Count de Champagne and Brie who renouncing the League which the Princes had made against the Regency of Queen Blanche and discovering the Ambushes which they had laid for the Surprisal of the young King her Son thereby rendred a most signal Service to France and to St. Lewis who reciprocally also defended him against all the Forces of the Princes of the League who had turned their Arms and all their Rage against him for having advertised the King of this Treason which was hatched against him He was the Posthumous Son of that brave Theobald the Fourth who died in his preparations for the Crusade of which he was the Chief and of Blanche de Navarr Sister of Sancho the strong the last of the Male Descendants of Garcias Ximenes who had reigned five Years in Navarr and therefore according to the Custom of the Laws of Spain where in default of Males the Crown descends to the Daughters this Count Theobald was in right of his deceased Mother proclaimed King of Navarr at Pampelona in the Month of May 1224. He was then about the Age of three and thirty Years a goodly Prince of an Excellent Mind and most Noble Inclinations extreamly addicted to the Catholick Religion which he took great care to preserve free from Heresies in his Dominions above all he was liberal and magnificent Vertues which he enjoyed as it were by Succession from the Counts de Campagne his Ancestors who possessed these Royal Vertues in such a degree of perfection as distinguished them from all the other Princes of their time he was besides of an humour sweet and pleasant a Mind extream quick and polite and which he had diligently cultivated and improved by all manner of gentile Learning and particularly Poetry in which he had made himself an able Master as appears by certain Copies of Verses which he made after he had left the Court of France to which
the Bulla of this Crusade and the Pope's Letters which exhorted the Crusades to follow him so that he sound a great many who either to please the Pope or that they thought this Enterprise less difficult and dangerous than that of the Holy Land presently joyned with him and among others Peter de Dreux Duke of Bretagne who promised to assist him with twelve thousand men This gave so great a displeasure to the King of Navarr the Duke of Burgundy the Counts of Bar Vendosme and Montfort who had before devoted themselves for the Holy Land and who thought very hard that one Crusade should be ruined or at least extremely weakned by another that they complained thereof to the Pope himself and in a manner reproached him with Levity and this Change which they said was most prejudicial to the principal Enterprise the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ But Gregory made them answer that being at least as zealously interested as they in the Affairs of the Holy Land he also understood himself better than they could inform him and was in the Opinion that it was impossible ever to chase the Infidels out of Palestine unless the Conquest of Constantinople was first well assured and that now it was in danger to fall under the Power of the Schismatical Greeks and therefore he conjured them to joyn with Baldwin remonstrating to them that this was to labour most efficaciously for the End by applying themselves to the means which was so absolutely necessary for the attainment of it year 1238 The Princes nevertheless would not suffer themselves to be perswaded but remained firm in their first Resolution Even the Breton himself Peter de Dreux who had promised the Pope to serve for Constantinople wheeled off again and chose rather to joyn himself to the King of Navarr so that by this Accident there being a great Division among the Minds of men some following Baldwin others the King of Navarr it fell out that in the place of one great Crusade which might have proved successful either in Greece or Palestine there were two very indifferent ones which had in neither place the good Fortune which was to be hoped and desired This was the first Division which hurt the Army of the Crusades but that which happened presently after between the Pope and the Emperor was much more fatal to them and had like to have ruined all The Island of Sardinia as well as several other Estates had been now for a long time held as Fiefs from the Holy See and Gregory had sent thither one Roland one of his Chaplains to receive the Homages and Reserved Rents and to take possession of some Lands about Cagliari Frederick who notwithstanding all the Intreaties and Remonstrances of the Pope who had sufficient cause to be afraid of his Power was now come from Germany into Lombardy with an Army of one hundred thousand men and having gained a great Victory over the Milaneses and reduced the greatest part of the Confederate Cities under his Obedience he believed himself to be in a condition to make himself Master of what ever he pretended appertained to him as being dismembred from the Body of the Empire And thereupon those of the Principality of the Tour which now is called Sassari having given it to him after the Death of their Lord Vbald he sent thither his natural Son Henry who was usually called Entius who presently seised upon the whole Isle which his Father erected for him into the title of a Feudatory Kingdom to be held of the Empire year 1239 The Pope who was in Possession of the Sovereignty of this Isle strangely surprized at this procedure complained bitterly of it and demanded reparation But Frederick was so far from giving him Satisfaction that he seized upon other Lands of a Bishop of Sardinia which the Magistrates had adjudged as Demesnes to the new King and withal he made it be answered to the Pope for good and all that Sardinia had been usurped from the Emperors and before those Usurpations had always belonged to the Empire and that for his own particular it was well enough known that as he was Emperor he had sworn that he would do all that lay in his Power to reunite to the Body of the Empire whatsoever had been dismembred from it and that he was fully resolved most exactly to acquit himself of his Duty in this particular Hereupon the Pope seeing that he remained immoveable in that Resolution solemnly excommunicated him upon Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday for invading the Patrimony of the Church and such other Causes as are comprized in the Decretal which he pronounced himself and which he sent to all Christian Kings Princes and Prelates with orders for them to publish it by the Sound of Bells prohibiting all the Emperor's Subjects to obey him and all the Ecclesiasticks from celebrating the Divine Offices in the Cities or Castles wherever he should be It is said also that having declared that he was fallen from the Imperial Title and Dignity he offered the Crown to St. Lewis for his Brother Robert Count d' Artois but that for very good reasons that pious King rejected the Offer and this is most certain that by a most discreet Policy he would never concern himself in this difference nor be persuaded to change the Conduct and Maximes of his Government by taking Arms against the Emperor although he was extremely sollicited to do so by the Pope as in the following year the King gave the Emperor an account by his Letters The War between the Pope and the Emperor began by the Writings the Letters and the Manifests which both the one and the other dipersed abroad in which were contained the Accusations and the Answers which they made which may be seen at their full length in Matthew Paris after which the Emperor Frederick having a potent Army whilest the Pope sent to all places to demand the Assistance of the Princes and Republicks caused his Son Entius to enter into the Marquisate of Ancona whilest he himself taking the Right Hand marched over Tuscany where the greatest part of the Cities and even Viterbum receiving him and declaring against the Pope he advanced directly towards Rome not doubting but that he had such a Party there as would upon his Appearance open the Gates of that City to him But Gregory who in the extreme danger wherein he found himself destitute of all humane Succours had recourse to God by a great Procession from the Church of the Lateran to that of St. Peter in which he did so movingly harangue the Romans holding between his Arms the Venerable heads of the Apostles protesting with Sighs and Tears that he was not in any sort able to protect them without the Assistance of the People of Rome who were their Protectors that they cried out with an incredible Ardour that they would all perish in the defence of them Hereupon the Pope who was resolved to make his advantage
Clergy singing Hymns in the praise of the great God of Armies after which the King accompanied with the Queen the King of Cyprus the Counts D' Artois and D' Anjou marched bareheaded and barefooted with a profound Humility giving all the Glory to God only he was followed in this manner by all the Princes the Lords the Officers and the whole Army which afterwards continued there all the Summer and the Autumn partly in the City and partly in the Camp which he caused to be fortified against the Sarasins who indeavoured to surprize it That which made him take this Resolution was the fear of falling into a misfortune by the inundation of the Nilus as the Christian Army under King John de Brienne had done But in regard that the River does not begin to swell till towards Mid-summer if they had marched presently towards Caire and not deferred it to an unseasonable time as they did afterwards it is almost certain that in the disorder which the Sultans Sickness and the defeat of his Army had occasioned they might have had time enough before the rising of the Nile to have taken that great City which being not at all fortified would upon its Reduction have made them Masters of all Egypt without ever drawing the Sword But it is the Misfortune which usually attends Prosperity which is apt so to Blind and unbend Mens spirits and to make them slacken their pace in the full Career of their pursuit of Glory and then to stop when they ought by acting most vigourosly to seek that safe Repose which is only to be had by going through with their great designs The Pious King was not able to oppose the Torrent of Opinions which ran so impetuously strong for their stay at Damiata under a hundred specious pretexts which were alledged for it and during this stay so fatal to their Affairs the Army not only wasted with this long idleness but pulled down upon themselves the just Vengeance of the incensed Omnipotence by all manner of dissoluteness and the most shameful and infamous Debauches into which both the Officers and Soldiers continually plunged themselves nor was it possible for St. Lewis by his utmost Efforts to prevent them either by his Reproofs and Exhortations by his orders which were ill observed of by the Punishments which he did inflict upon the Criminals in banishing many Officers of his own houshold from the Court or even by that which is ordinarily most prevalent from Kings by the admirable examples of all manner of Virtues which upon all occasions were so conspicuous in his Life and Actions At length the Count de Poitiers who had been so long expected arriving about the end of October with his Sister-in-Law the Countess D' Artois and a great and Noble Reinforcement of the choice Gentlemen of the Arrier-ban a Council was held to consider what enterprise was to be undertaken And in this matter there were two Opinions very remote and different The first was maintained by the Duke of Bretany who was of Opinion that they ought to Attack the City of Alexandria in regard that if they could take that place they should thereby become Masters of all that side of Egypt that they should be Masters of an admirable and safe Port for the Fleet to ride in that they should thereby have the great conveniency not only of receiving the Succours of Men and Provisions which they should stand in need of but also be able absolutely to hinder any from coming to the Enemies by Sea But the Count D' Artois declared himself for the second Opinion and strongly argued that as the certain way to destroy a Serpent was to crush his head so to finish the Conquest of Egypt in a little time the certain way was to march directly against Caire which was the Capital City of the Realm This advice which seemed most plausible in regard it seemed to carry more Honor in it was imbraced by all with great applause and thereupon the King gave orders for the Army to march which they did upon the twentieth of November I have shewed formerly that the Nilus entring into the lower Egypt a little below the Grand Caire which is also the ancient Memphis divides it self into four Arms which when this great River increases as it doth certainly more or less every Year from about the Feast of St. John the Baptist till towards the middle of September it also makes several other great Channels which remain dry when the Waters fall and retire within their proper shoars from whence as before was observed arises that opinion so common among Authors year 1249 who frequently talk of the seven Mouths of the Nilus The Ancient Pelusium stood upon the first of these Branches towards Palestine Damiata was situate upon the second Arm towards the left hand about a good mile from the Sea for as for the City of that Name at this time it stands above two Leagues further up the River and upon the other side there is also a little City called Massora on the other side the River in the Land of Goshen upon the Road that leads to Caire in the place where this second Arm divides it self from the first And this is the true situation of these places as appears evidently by the Consequences of this History and that which hath occasioned so much trouble in these matters is the confounding of these Names whilst they give to the first of the Arms of the Nilus that of Rexi or Rossette which at present is the Name of the Fourth and was anciently called Canonique upon which Alexandria stands as the second upon which Damiata was situate was called the Tanitique It was near the Angle which the parting of these two Armes of the Nilus formed near Massora that the Sarasins were incamped with all their Forces commanded by the Emir Secedun Faroardin the most renowned and bravest of their Captains to whom the Sultan Melech-Salah who was almost ready to breath his last had intrusted the Government of all his Dominions and the Conduct of his Army against the Christians in expectation of the return of his Son Almoadam whom he had sent into Syria to raise new Troops The Kings Army which had received a reinforcement of the Troops of the King of Cyprus those of the Prince of Achaia of all the Forces of the Templers and Hospitallers together with those brought by the Patriarch and the Arrierban of France which the Count of Poitiers had happily conducted to Damiata consisted in sixty thousand Men whereof there were twenty thousand Horse these were as many as were sufficient to have conquered the Realm of Egypt if they had been as well disciplined and as obedient to the Orders of the King as they were brave and resolute But every one was for acting according to his own Opinion and St. Lewis who together with his Devotion had as much Courage and Resolution as was capable of making him like a Hero desire
and Damiata for his own in regard he said it was dishonourable for a King of France to buy himself with Silver This so surprized the Sultan who like a Merchant had demanded much more than he thought ought to be given to come at last to the finishing of a bargain that he cried out that the French King was too Free and Generous so soon to agree to pay so great a Sum upon the first demand and that he would quit him of one hundred thousand and content himself with four of the five hundred thousand Livres Thus the Treaty was quickly concluded by which it was agreed That there should be a Truce for ten Years That all the Prisoners which had been taken on either side in Egypt or in Syria as well those which had been taken since the Truce which the Emperor Frederick had made with Sultan Meledin as those which had been taken since the Arrival of the King in Egypt should be set at Liberty That the Christians should peaceably possess all the places which they held in Palestine and Syria That the King should pay eight hundred thousand Bysances of Gold for the Ransom of all the Prisoners and surrender Damiata to the Sultan for his own That all the moveables which the King the Princes the Lords and in general all the Christians should leave in Damiata should be there secured by a Guard from the Sultan till such time as the King should send shipping to transport them whither he pleased That all the Sick and those who had any Affairs at Damiata might remain there in safety till they were in a condition to be removed And that then they might with Freedom retire whither they should please And that the Sultan should give those who went by Land a Convoy until they arrived at some place in the Possession of the Christians This being agreed the Sultan sent to the King the two Counts his Brothers all the Princes and Great Lords upon four Gallies which fell down the River to a certain Place where there was a Wooden Palace built for the Sultan upon the Bank of the River and a Magnificent Tent erected where the King and this Prince had an interview in the beginning of May about a Week before Ascension Day where after having reciprocally confirmed the Treaty year 1250 the King promised the Sultan that within three days he would surrender Damiata to him Insomuch that now there seemed to be nothing which might hinder or retard the Liberty of the King when upon a suddain their happened a strange Revolution in Egypt which overturned all and as an unexpected Tempest happening at Sea forces out a Ship when she is just ready to drop her Anchor and happily to enter into the Port so this unforeseen Accident which in a moment changed the Face of Affairs ruined all the fair hopes of the approaching deliverance of the King and did not only plunge him again into the same Afflictions but put him into the manifest danger of losing both his Liberty and his Life The manner of this change was thus The Sultans of Egypt had for their Guard a great Body of Militia of ten or twelve thousand Choice Men much like which we have since seen and which to this day continues among the Turks composed of Tribute Children of which those who are looked upon as most proper to be made Souldiers are instructed in Military Discipline and inrolled among the Guards of the Prince which are called Janizaries For the Sultans caused to be bought in Europe and Asia and especially in the Countries which lie between the Euxin Sea the River Tanais and the Caspian Sea and in the greater Armenia great numbers of Slaves and reserving the lustiest young men and the Children of those who were born to these Slaves in Egypt after having caused them to be carefully instructed in all Military Skill they placed them into this Body of Souldiers of their Guards which were called Mamalukes which in their Language signifies Servant or Slave and in regard that they were bought with the Sultan's money and knew no other Master they were intirely at his devotion And according as these Mamalukes made themselves considerable by their gallant Actions they were advanced in their Charges and made either Captains of Troops or Governours of Cities and Provinces which in the Arabian Language were called Amir or Emir and which the Writers of those Times have expressed by the Term of Admiral which we have borrowed from the Sarasins and it is fit to advertise the Reader that one of our Writers hath had the confidence to affirm that we make use of that word upon this occasion out of Ignorance when in truth he himself was ignorant of the true Original of the Word and was not acquainted that all the Learned World have constantly used it in this sence giving indifferently to these sort of Persons the Title of Emir Amir or as it is expressed in Latin Admiral as in the Greek also as may be seen in all the Historians of those Times But it was ever thus that they who see the least are the most confident in pronouncing their decisive opinion for having but a short sight which yet in their opinion is very good they have not so much as the Art of thinking or doubting there may be something which at present they either do not discover or cannot see Now the last of the Sultans taking notice of this powerful Body of these Mamalukes who were the bravest Souldiers of the East began to stand in fear of their Captains and for this reason when any one of them grew Rich or very considerable for some great Action they did not fail under some pretext or other to take them out of the way of their Jealousie thus the deceased Sultan Mclech-Salah-Nayem-Addin put to death the Admirals who at the Battle of Gaza had taken the Counts de Bar and Montfort His Son Almoadam Gaiat-Addin returning from the East to take possession of his Empire had at his first coming to the Crown by this wicked and to him unfortunate Policy taken the Principal Charges from all the Ancient Admirals the Captains of the Mamalukes and had conferred them upon those Strangers whom he brought along with him into Egypt This did so furiously provoke the Captains against him that fearing lest being now so firmly established by his Victory over the French Army and the recovery of Damiata he should follow the Example of his Father and put them to Death they resolved to be beforehand with him and to cause him to be slain by the Mamalukes who they were assured were at their devotion and accordingly the next day after he had conferred with St. Lewis his own Guards set upon him just as he rose from the Table after dinner and when he indeavoured to save himself in the highest of the three Towers year 1250 which were in this Wooden Palace which had been built upon the bank of the Nilus they set it on
Elmehec having been strangled in a Bath by his own Wise after he had reigned five years the Admirals who revenged his death by the Punishment of this Murderess of her Husband by common consent made choice of his Son Almansor who was within a year dethroned by one of his Emirs whom the rest placed upon the Throne and made him Sultan giving him the name of Melech Elvahet This new Sultan who was a great Captain searing that the Tartars after having conquered Palestine would come pouring into Egypt resolved to prevent them For this purpose therefore having drawn together all the Forces of Egypt he entred into Palestine and made an Alliance with the Christians of the Country against their Common Enemies and after he had for three days refreshed his Army about Ptolemais he marched directly against the Tartars who ravaged Galilee and upon the third of October gave them Battle in the Plain of Tiberias where he cut the greatest part of them in pieces and routed the rest and slew their General Cathogoba upon the place and having thus delivered himself from this formidable Enemy he returned covered with Glory and loaden with Spoils into Egypt But a while after one of his principal Emirs whose name was Bondogar or Bendocdar who continually importuned him to turn his Victorious Arms against the Christians seeing that contrary to the Custom of these Barbarians he would not violate the Faith which he had given them he most barbarously murdered him and caused himself to be chosen Sultan by the Mamalukes who infinitely esteemed him for his Courage And in truth as he was the most brave the most able and Politick so he was also the most wicked persidious and most cruel of all these Barbarians For to the end that he might reign in safety he put to death all that he could find of the race of the former Sultans and in a little time fourscore of the Admirals also fell under diverse Pretexts as Sacrifices to his Jeasousie being in reality guilty of no other Crime but the fear of the Tyrant who believing that they were as wicked as himself was under the continual apprehensions whilst they were living that they should treat him one day in the same cruel manner as he had done his Predecessor and by this procedure he rendred himself so terrible to all his Subjects that no person durst so much as adventure to make a Visit to an acquaintance or to talk with a particular Friend lest it might raise a Jealousie in the Sultan which did not fail to be followed by the death of him against whom it was conceived But as for any thing else he had whatever was requisite to make him a Conqueror for he was Bold undertaking fearless cunning vigilant sober chast not permitting his Souldiers either Wine or Women which he said weakned both there Bodies and their Minds and took away from them all the Vigour of Warriours and above all he had Fortune for his Reward and a constant Success when ever he acted by himself Such a Person was Bendocdar who had not slain his Predecessor but because he refused to make War against the Christians against whom consequently he did not fail presently to lead the Victorious Army which had defeated the Tartars year 1261 This was most fatal to the Christians of the Holy Land For the Infidels having at first defeated the Troops of the Lords of Baruth and Giblet with those of Ptolemais year 1262 and the Templers who were got together to oppose this Enemy who surprized them he wasted and ruined all the Country as far as to Antioch after which he came and presented himself with thirty thousand Horse before Ptolemais year 1263 ruined the Suburbs and came up to the very Gates of the City not a man daring to Sally out to oppose him he ruined the Church and Monastry of Bethlehem year 1264 took Cesarea by Treason the City and Castle of Assur by a long Seige and the impregnable Fortress of Sephet by composition But the Persidious Infidel basely broke his Articles year 1265 for he put to Death the Governour and the whole Garrison which consisted in six hundred Men because that having given them one Nights time to resolve whether they would save their Lives by turning Mahometans they were so incouraged by the Fathers James of Pavia year 1266 and Jeremy of Geneva two fervently Religious of the Order of St. Francis and by the Prior of the Temple that the next Day they all unanimously chose to lose their Heads which were accordingly taken from them to receive the Glorious Crown of Martyrdom As for the two Cordeliers and the generous Prior of the Temple who had so well animated the others to suffer for the sake of Christ they also received the Palms of Victory but after a manner more Glorious than the rest For the Tyrant furiously incensed against them for having snatched the Prey out of his hands and robbed him of what he thought to have made the Glory of his Victory was so filled with Rage and Madness against them that he caused them to be roasted alive and cruelly beaten with Cudgels whilest they were in this dreadful manner exposed to the Flames and afterwards causing them to be dragged to the place where the others were beheaded he caused their Heads also to be cut off there But he had the amazing displeasure to see that God did Honor to his Martyrs by a Heavenly Light which he himself with all his Sarasins saw shining every Night about their Bodies insomuch that he was obliged for the hiding of their Glory and his own Infamy to inclose the place with a mighty high Wall to hinder the sight of this wonder so confounding to his and so honourable to the Christian Religion year 1267 But he still pursuing the Torrent of his Conquests which found nothing that was able to stop their impetuous Course took the City and Castle of Jaffa by treachery a little after the Death of Count John for he never durst attempt it so long as that Noble Earl lived He also made himself Master of the Fortress of Beaufort and the most part of the places which appertained to the Templers And after having ravaged all the plain Country about Acre Tyre and Sidon and burnt the Suburbs of Tripolis he turned once again short upon Antioch year 1268 He found that great City so unprovided of all manner of necessaries to sustain a Siege by reason of the absence of Prince Conrade Cousin of Conradin to whose assistance he was gone into Italy that he took it without resistance slew there seventeen thousand Men and carried above a hundred thousand into Captivity Thus this City so illustrious that it was sometimes called the Eye of the East in regard of its admirable Beauty and which the first Crusades were not able to take but with a nine Months Siege which a thousand Heroick Actions which were there done have rendred so Famous in History was taken in a
his Navy year 1270 All things being thus disposed for so great an Enterprise the King declared Matthew de Vendosme Abbot of St. Dennis and Simon de Clermont Count de Neele Regents of the Realm during his Absence and after that having taken the Standard of St. Dennis according to the custom of his Ancestors as also the Scarf and the Pilgrim's Staff he parted the first day of March in the year one thousand two hundred and seventy accompanied with the Cardinal d' Albano whom Pope Clement had nominated his Legate for this Crusade and came to Aigues-Mort where he did not imbark till the beginning of July at the same time that the other part of his Fleet sailed from Marseilles and at last all of them after having been soundly beaten by a furious Tempest arrived at Cagliari There it was that the King held a great Council of War to which all the Princes the Lords and principal Officers of the Army were called He then proposed to them the Enterprise of Tunis and after it had passed by plurality of Voices in the affirmative although there were many who had much rather have gone directly to the Holy Land they set sail and steered away directly for Africa and within two days about the twentieth of July came within view of Tunis and Carthage Upon the Coast of Africa over against Sicily there is a Peninsula whose circumference is about three hundred and forty Stadia or two and forty miles which advanceth it self into the Sea between two Gulphs which it there makes That which is upon the West forms it self into a most commodious Port and the other turning a little between the East and South joyns it self to a very narrow Chanal by which there is an Entrance into a great Lake which Extends it self three or four Leagues within the Land and which hath since been called by the name of the Lake of Guletta It was in this fair Peninsula that the famous Rival of Rome year 1270 the Ancient City of Carthage stood in the place between these two Seas But since its last destruction by the Arabian Sarasins about the seventh Age there remained nothing at the time of this Crusade amidst the Ruins of that Magnificent City but a little Burrough upon the Port which was called Marsa and a Tower upon the point of the Cape with a strong Castle upon the Hill of Byrsa where anciently stood the Fortress of Carthage About some five Leagues from this great City drawing towards the South East a little below the Gulph and the Lake of Guletta there stood a little City called Tynis or Tynissa and at present Tunis of which the Great Scipio made himself Master before he besieged Carthage and which afterwards grew so great by the Ruins of Carthage that it was in the time of St. Lewis one of the greatest fairest and strongest Cities of all Africa For the Walls which the Turks afterwards demolished were forty Cubits high with very good Ramparts and Fortresses to support them and with divers Towers to flank them for their mutual defence It had eight Gates with their Portcullisses a very deep Ditch which environed it on the Land side and all manner of Fortifications which were used in those Times with large Suburbs which contained about ten thousand Houses But it was still become much greater since the greatest part of the Moors of Granada who had been driven out of Spain retired thither and applied themselves to all manner of Arts and Trades It is at present a kind of Republick under the Protection and Domination of the Grand Seignior ever since it was taken by Sinan Bassa from the Spaniards in the year one thousand five hundred seventy four It had before been twice taken by the Spaniards once by Charles the Fifth in the year one thousand five hundred thirty five and a second time by Don John of Austria after the Battle of Lepanto But formerly it had been under particular Kings since a certain Person one Abraham Aben Ferez who commanded there for the King of Morocco usurped this Realm from him about sixty years before this Crusade and it was his third Successor Muley Otmen Ostensa who reigned at Tunis then when St. Lewis whom he had made to hope his conversion undertook this Voyage At first this Holy King had reason to believe that this Prince had an Intention to accomplish his Promise by reason that there was not found any who opposed his landing and that he had opportunity to seize the Port of Carthage and after that the Tower almost without any resistance But he was quickly disabused by seeing a great Army sally out of Tunis to relieve the Castle of Carthage but that did not hinder but that it was taken by the Seamen only with the assistance of five hundred Cross-bows which they desired of the King assuring him that they would carry the place by Scalade which they accordingly did with so much Courage and Success that they made themselves Masters of it in an instant without any other loss than only one of their Companions whose Death they revenged by that of all the Sarasins who defended the place who were partly cut in pieces and partly smothered in the Vaults whither they retreated to save themselves and to the Entries of which the Seamen put fire The King who was advanced and drawn up in Battalia between the Castle and the Enemies to hinder their relieving the place stopped them so well by the brave Countenance which he made that the Sarasins durst never quit their Post they retired at Night towards Tunis and satisfied themselves with returning every day in greater numbers giving continual alarms and pickeering on all sides according to their manner without staying in one place either regularly to attack one Quarter or to march in Battalia and combat foot to foot with their Enemy This was what was done in this last Enterprise of St. Lewis in nine or ten days towards the end of July For in regard the King of Tunis had an Army composed of an infinite multitude of Arabs and Moors who had always a safe retreat under the Walls of Tunis which was extraordinarily provided with all sorts of Machins of War it was not thought convenient by his Council to attack them or to undertake the Siege of the City before the arrival of the King of Sicily who was daily expected In the mean time the King retrenched himself and fortified his Camp in a Vally below Carthage whither the Enemies came continually to Skirmishes in which they constantly had the worse but without ever coming to a General Battle year 1270 But the King of Sicily whom St Lewis daily pressed to hasten thither and who notwithstanding did not arrive till a Month after him was the Cause by his long delay of the unfortunate Success of this Voyage which he had with such earnestness advised for his private Interest For it being high Summer which is a season very improper for making
themselves between the two Parties On the other side the Sultan Melech Sais retook the Fortress of Margath and made himself Master of the Castle of Laodicea and that of Crac which was one of the strongest places in Syria year 1287 and as at last he was preparing to lay Siege to Tripolis he abandon'd all upon the news which he had of the Death of his Son and returned into Egypt where Elsis one of his Emirs who was mightily esteemed by the Mamalukes tumbled him from the Throne and was chosen Sultan in his place by the name of Melech-Messor This Sultan who was a great Souldier re-entred presently into Syria where he besieged Tripolis year 1288 and at last took it by Assault Seven thousand Christians were there Slain year 1289 and the rest saved themselves by Sea partly in Cyprus and partly in Ptolemais The Sultan who was as able and dexterous as he was Valiant caused this great City to be demolished that so he might not be forced to keep a whole Army in Garrison there and after having taken several places thereabout he made a very advantageous Truce for two Years thereby to frustrate the Design of the Forces which he foresaw would be sent out of Europe against him And indeed a very considerable assistance which the Pope sent at his own charges into the East upon twenty Venetian Gallies arriving not till after the conclusion of this Truce was constrained to return without doing any thing It happened also that an infinite conflux of People of all Nations without Order and without Leaders coming to Ptolemais and finding no imploy committed so many disorders indifferently upon the Lands of the Christians and the Sarasins that the Sultan who only wanted an occasion to break the Truce to his advantage laid hold of that which he believed very favourable to execute the design which he had upon Ptolemais whilest the Christian Princes whom he knew to be ingaged in Wars one against another in Europe had neither Power nor Will to assist it year 1290 For this purpose as he had always a powerful Army on Foot he entred suddainly in the Month of October in the year following and advanced towards Phoenicia and then when he was upon the point of going to invest Ptolemais the Emir whom he had made his Lieutenant thinking by the favour of the Souldiers to obtain his place gave him Poison whereof he died But this did not prevent the Execution of the Design For the Mamalukes who loved Melech-Messor extremely pull'd the Traitor who had poisoned him in a thousand pieces upon the spot and Proclaimed his Son Ely Sultan by the name of Melech-Seraph This new Prince resolved to pursue the design of his Father who at his Death conjured him not to suffer his Body to be Interred before he had taken the City and driven out the Christians And for this purpose therefore without giving them leisure to make any advantage of this so sudden and great change turning short to the left hand towards the Sea he came and laid Siege before Acre or Ptolemais upon the fifth of April year 1291 in the year one thousand two hundred ninety one with an Army of one hundred and sixty thousand Foot and threescore thousand Horse Ptolemais of whose Situation and Strength I have given an account in the fifth Book of this History was at this time one of the fairest richest and most flourishing Cities of all the East by reason of the great Commerce of all the Merchandises which were brought thither from Egypt and Asia by Land and Sea to be from thence transported into Europe And as it was become the Capital City of the Realm since the taking of Jerusalem and the Sanctuary where all the Christians of Palestine took Refuge after the loss of their Cities so it was also then more Populous than ever it had been and such great Industry had been used in these late times in fortifying it that it was thought to be impregnable above all having at least thirty thousand Men well Armed to defend it besides eighteen thousand Crusades who were arrived there a little before without a Commander But this unfortunate City had within its Walls two kinds of Enemies infinitely more formidable than all the Forces of the Sarasins and which were the cause of its being lost year 1291 The first was the division which occasioned most fearful Disorders in regard that besides that there were two Factions which held one of them for the King of Cyprus and the other for the King of Sicily the Venetians the Genoese the Pisans the Florentines the English the Templers the Hospitallers the Teutonick Knights the Princes of the Country and even the Patriarch and the Legate of the Pope would every one so divide the Government as to be independent upon all others so that it might be said that there were in Ptolemais so many different Cities as there were quarters possessed by these Orders and different People who were not only without a Head whose Supreme Authority and Orders they should all obey but who were for the most part in Arms one against another And that which was yet more deplorable and which doubtless was the principal cause of the Desolation of this unfortunate City was that the Corruption of manners was so great and the irregularities of Peoples Lives or rather the inundation of all manner of Crimes and even of the most Infamous and Scandalous Vices were so excessive and horrible that the Divine Justice was even necessitated to exterminate such an abominable Race of Men who calling themselves Christians by their Actions so Wicked and Impious Blasphemed that and his Sacred Name among the Infidels So that one may say as one of the Authors of that time does who was a long time in the Holy Land and averrs it for a deplorable Truth That of all the People which inhabited Syria and Palestine the Christians were the most notoriously lewd and wicked The Sultan who had such a numerous Army and composed of expert Souldiers and above all his Mamalukes who were extreme brave attacked the City upon the Land side by main Force battering the Walls and the Towers Night and Day making abundance of Mines every where and sapping the Foundations of the Towers particularly those of the Tower called Judasses or the Cursed Tower which was as it were the Fortress of the City The besiged also at first defended themselves vigorously being in continual hopes of relief by the way of the Sea which they had open and being united for their better defence under one Chief whom by common consent they chose among all the Captains which was William Beaujeu Great Master of the Temple a most Valiant Man and perfectly skilful in Martial Affairs But there arrived to their assistance only five hundred Foot and two hundred Horse who were conducted by the King of Cyprus And the Great Master of the Temple being unfortunately slain with a poisoned Arrow they lost their Courage
Effect which they had in vain expected from the others This Man was called Master Olivier who had been the Scholemaster of the Church of Cologne a most famous Preacher and who after he had preached the Crusade by the Pope's Order in Germany Frieseland and Flanders resolved also to go along with them and afterwards came to be Bishop of Paderborn and Cardinal by the Title of St. Sabine It is to him that we are obliged for the Relation of this Siege beginning after the taking of the Tower of the Nile in which by his Invention he had so great a Share but withal so much Modesty as not to make any the least mention of it This Person then who was a man of a great Soul and mightily beloved especially by the Soldiers which came from Cologne with whom he took up the Cross caused this new Machin to be made with the Charity-money which he had collected for the Crusade He caused two great Ships to be tied together with strong Cables and Hawsers and that they might be the stronger he caused strong Piles of Timber which joyned the Ships together at the Heads and Sterns to be fastned with strong Clasps and Bolts of Iron and all along between the two Ships were laid strong Planks from the Hatches of one Ship to the other upon which the Men might pass conveniently and these also were strongly fastned to the Ship at each End which kept them close from moving one from another Upon these two Ships thus joyned firmly together four of the strongest Masts that could be found were planted and joyned together in a Square by four of the largest Yards which were fastned to the Masts almost at the top upon these Yards there lay Joysts fastned and over them Planks nailed down in the manner of a Platform upon this was erected a wooden Castle higher than the Tower of the Nile and this Castle was covered with raw Hides of Oxen and Camels to defend it from the Enemie's Fire below this Castle upon the Platform was fastned a great Ladder covered with Planks in form of a Draw-bridge which hung by Pullies ready to be let down upon the Walls of the Tower and this was so long that it extended several Yards over the Heads of the Ships below this Machin there were placed certain long Tables very thick and strong which were so fastned to the Prows that by the help of Ropes they might be heaved out to the Walls of the Tower and served as Bridges for the Miners who might be at Work below in Sapping whilest the other attacked them above This Work being finished and approved by the Captains who found it was a most proper and rational Invention for the Execution of such a difficult Design they resolved to make use of it and to make their utmost Effort to carry the Tower And the better to dispose and animate the Soldiers and to obtain the Protection of God for the Army the Patriarch Bishops and all the Clergy followed by the King Princes and Officers went barefoot in Procession to the place where the Cross was kept which according to custom was carried to this War After which Friday the Feast of the Apostle St. Bartholomew was appointed for the Day to begin the Assault and choice was made for that Service of Officers and Soldiers of all the Nations who were to be Conducted by the brave Leopold Duke of Austria and this was done to avoid Jealousies and that they might all be Sharers in the Glory of so great an Action The Day which with so much impatience was expected being come the Attack was made in this manner A great Ship well armed sailed up the Nile which was mightily swelled and went as it were to shew the Way to the great Machin which followed it filled on all Sides below upon the Platform and the Castle with those Valiant Men upon whom the Eyes of the whole Army were fastned as the dear Pawns of their Honor and the Fortune of the rest These proud of the glorious Choice which had been made of them to sustain such an illustrious Enterprise looked upon the Danger and the Tower with a generous Contempt and a certain fierce and menacing Joy which shewed the Resolution they had taken either to Perish or to Conquer standing in the View of the City year 1218 and the Army upon the Machin as upon the Theatre of their Glory The Clergy marched bare-footed in Procession upon the Bank at the Right Hand of the Assailants singing of Psalms and imploring the Aid of the God of Armies in favour of his Champions against the Enemies of his holy Name And the Infidels who were run all to their Towers and their Ramparts answered these Songs of Piety with fearful Howlings and horrible Blasphemies at the same time discharging from their Stone-Bows and Slings a dreadful Shower of Stones to break or stop this Machin which crossing this furious Tempest sailed directly to the North side of the Tower which lies to Seaward not being able by reason of the scantness of the Water to get these heavy Ships into the Western Chanal between the Tower and the Bank that lies against the Town All the which Army was placed partly upon the Decks of the Ships as they lay at Anchor and partly drawn up upon the rising Grounds nearest the Enemy stood there to encourage the Assailants and to be Spectators and Witnesses of the brave Actions which were to be performed in a Combat of so extraordinary a nature So soon as the Anchors were dropt on all sides of the great Machin to keep it immovable in the distance which was necessary for the lower Bridges and the great Ladder which hung upon the Platform to reach to the Walls of the Tower those who were in the Wooden Castle gave a most furious discharge of Darts and Arrows from that high place downward upon the Enemies who defended the Tower at the same time some fastned the Bridges to the Walls whilest others threw themselves upon them with a most Heroick Courage and without thinking of the Dangers which threatned them in such different manners some marched to the foot of the Tower to endeavour a Breach with the Force of Pick-Axes and other Instruments whilest those above ran with their Swords in their hands directly against the Sarasins who defended the Walls whilest at the same time all the Engines of the City played upon the Assailants and threw their Wild-fire by the long brazen Conduits from the Tower against the Castle the Platform and the Bridges which began every where to take sire but there being great Provision made of Sand and Vinegar the Infallible Cure of this evil otherwise irremediable it was soon extinguished in all places except the end of the Draw-Bridge Ladder which had like to have occasioned the loss of all in a Moment For the Soldiers running violently to put out the fire the Bridge had like to have been quite overthown by the Crowd that