turns the greatest Sinners into the greatest Saints Thus was Jerusalem recovered from the Infidels by the Army of the Crusades in the fourth Year of their Expedition the fifteenth day of July upon a Friday and which is most Remarkable at the very precise Hour wherein the Saviour of the World rendred his Blessed Soul into the Hands of Almighty God his Father as if the Divine Providence had determined so to manage the Movements of this great Affair that the Christians should recover his Inheritance exposing their Lives for his Glory at the same time wherein he had assured them of Immortality and Glory in Heaven by dying upon the Cross to purchase it for them Eight days after this happy Conquest during which time News was brought of the Death of the Patriarch Simeon who was Deceased in the Isle of Cyprus the Princes and Lords who followed them Assembled to Reestablish the ancient Kingdom of Jerusalem by giving it a King as David and Solomon and the other Princes their Successors had been till the Babylonish Captivity Count Raymond of Tholose was then proposed but whether he thought himself in the Age to which he was advanced too weak to sustain so weighty a Charge or feared that this Civility which was offered him would not succeed in regard his own People who had already twice forsaken him acted secretly against his Pretensions he excused himself by reason of his Age and would by no means suffer it to proceed to an Election The same Honor was also offered to Robert Duke of Normandy but this Prince having a great Desire to return as soon as he could had no other design but to get his Chaplain to be chosen Patriarch and it is with great probability of Appearance that it was he who made the Speech which one of the Writers of that time hath transmitted to us which proposed that double Election after this manner My Lords Since it is full time after having Accomplished so happily our Vow in this Glorious Expedition that we should now begin to think of Returning into Europe to Govern in our Persons those Estates which God hath there been pleased to give us and since you have also thought it expedient with all convenient Dispatch to take care for the Government of this Place which we came to reconquer from the Infidels Now my Lords this Capital and Holy City of Jerusalem being both a Royalty and a Patriarchate it is necessary that it should have both a King and a Patriarchate the Royalty and the Priesthood are so nearly linked together and accord so well that the one cannot be without the other for that hath need of the Priesthood to procure the Blessings of Heaven and this stands in need of the Royalty to support it and strengthen that Spiritual Authority which God hath Invested it withal It is our Duty to give our Assistance to the Clergy in the Choice of a Pastor for this Church who may be a Man of Wisdom Probity Spirit and Eloquence capable of so great an Office and all this we have Experienced in Arnold de Rohes who is without Contradiction the most Knowing and Able Man of all the Ecclesiasticks who have followed the Army and therefore I am of Opinion that we who are to take Care as much as possibly we can of this Church ought to Recommend him to their Election for a Patriarch As for that which concerns a King which is wholy in our own Power I can see nothing that should Oblige us to defer the Election for one Moment for it is most evident that we ought to Chuse without any sort of Hesitation that Person whose Piety Modesty Prudence sweet Temper Clemency Justice Integrity Liberality Experience in War Generosity Valour Successfulness Reputation and the Glory which he hath acquired in a thousand noble Occasions whose strength of Age of Body of Spirit whose Nobleness admirable Composure and very Air of Greatness and Majesty worthy of an Empire and a hundred other Perfections conspire to rank him among the greatest Kings that ever were My Lords All these extraordinary Qualities which render themselves so Conspicuous in the Person that possesses them make it appear wholy unnecessary for me to name him and must needs have prevented me in that Design nor is it what I can say but it comes from an Authority far Superior to mine God himself in giving him these surpassing Advantages above the rest of Mankind hath himself named the Person whom he hath chosen like a second David to be the King of Jerusalem It is the Illustrious Godfrey of Bullen Duke of Lorrain and that year 1099 The Prince could not sinish the rest for so soon as he had pronounced the Name of Godfrey all the whole Assembly Interrupted him crying out with the same Mind and Voice Godfrey Godfrey long Live Godfrey the most puissant and pious King of Jerusalem And notwithstanding all the Resistance which the Modesty of that excellent Prince brought to oppose it he was obliged instantly to consent to the Election which by so suddain and universal Consent manifested it self to have the Divine Will and Approbation The very same day he was Conducted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and there Proclaimed King amidst the Acclamations of the whole Army and all the Christians of the Country who came flocking in to Inhabit the City of Jerusalem He was there presented with a Crown of Gold which he absolutely refused protesting that he would never wear a Crown of Gold in a City where the King of Kings had for the Sake of Mankind worn a Crown of Thorns And tho he would not take upon himself the Title of King yet it was constantly given him as all the Historians of that time and Posterity have ever since done to this very Day and certainly never any King better deserved to wear that glorious Title which he adorned with so many Royal Actions the first was of Piety for he Founded two Chapters of Canons in the Churches of the Temple and the Holy Sepulchre as also a Monastery in the Valley of Jehosaphat The second was of his Power and Authority in Obliging Count Raymond to put into his Hands the strong Fortress of the Tower of David which he pretended to keep in his Possession at least till his Return into France though he was generally Condemned by the whole Army for it and even by his own Gascons and Provencalls The third was an Action of incomparable Valour and Conduct manifested in that memorable Victory which he obtained over the Sultan of Egypt for the Sultan coming too late to Succour his People Advanced with a formidable Army to Besiege Jerusalem but King Godfrey eased him of that Trouble For so soon as he received that News he sent to recal Tancred and Earl Eustace who were Marched to take the Fortress of Napolis otherwise called Sichem and Sichar formerly the place where Samaria had stood And as these two Princes who were Advanced as far as
once most gloriously vanquished him But at length the Wise Conduct and the good Fortune of this Turkish Prince overcame all the Attempts that were made to stop the Course of his Victorious Arms. He pushed on his great Designs afterwards with more Ease by the Taking of Paneas after the deplorable Death of this unfortunate King who was poysoned by his Physician and died in the two and thirtieth Year of his Life year 1163 and the one and twentieth of his Reign year 1163 He was a Prince who by his admirable Qualities had gained so great an Esteem and the Hearts not only of his Subjects but of Noradin himself Insomuch that the generous Sultan openly protested that he would never draw any Advantage from the Grief and Consternation into which his unexpected Death had put the Kingdom saying with as much magnanimity of Soul as Modesty That he thought it decent to have a Share himself in the Grief and Respect which was due to that Prince who ought by all Men to be Lamented as having not left another like himself in the whole Earth Baldwin dying without Issue his Brother Amauri Succeeded him a young Prince of about twenty seven Years of Age who with a great many admirable Qualities had also a great number of no less Vices and above all his Avarice was the most Predominant and which after he had with Success enough made War against Egypt in the Beginning in the Conclusion occasioned the Loss of Jerusalem and the intire Ruine of the Christians in the East Egypt had for a long time been under the Dominion of the Sarasins of the Sect of Ali and the Soveraign Monarch was called the Caliph who led an easy and voluptuous Life in his magnificent Palace of Grand Cairo leaving the Administration of his Affairs to one who under his Authority Commanded all his Subjects and was called the Sultan of Egypt He who had been Sultan was one Sanar and he being thrown out by his Rival Dorgan went to implore the Assistance of Noradin then the most Powerful among the Turks who besides that he Possessed all Syria and Mesopotamia had also extended his Conquests even into Cilicia as far as Iconium having vanquished that Sultan in Battle Now this Conquering Prince who believed that Fortune pleased with his Ambition presented him a fair Offer to Seise also upon Egypt failed not to send a great Army under his General Syracon a little Man but a great Captain whose Merit and the Justice of his Master notwithstanding the lowness of his Birth had from a Slave advanced to the greatest Charge in his Kingdom Dorgan who perceived the Tempest coming that he might get Shelter had Recourse to the young King who dazled with the Promise of a great Tribute Marched into Egypt with all the Troops he could raise but something with the latest for Dorgan who after he had had the better of his Enemies was unfortunately slain by a Traitor leaving his Place to his Rival Sanar who instantly went to take Possession of it at Grand Cairo In the mean time the dextrous Syracon who was resolved to make his Advantage of this Alteration Seised upon Pelusium now called Belbeis fully Resolving if it were possible to make himself Master of all Egypt But Sanar inlarging the Promises which Dorgan had made to King Amauri was so Iucky as to gain him to his Party and joyning their Forces against Syracon who had not had time sufficiently to Fortify Pelusium year 1164 they constrained him to Deliver up the Town upon honorable Terms and Liberty to Retire to Damascus year 1165 Nevertheless the next Year he returned with a more powerful Army and the King also re-entred Egypt and for a Sum of Mony undertook the War against Syracon The Success was much to his Advantage at that time also for Syracon was Defeated in a great Battle and despairing to Defend Alexandria which he had taken year 1167 against the Arms of two Kings he was constrained a second time to come to an Accommodation and to quit the Realm of Egypt This did not however hinder but that at length he made himself Master of it by the Avarice and Infidelity of that same King whose Arms had twice with so much Glory chased him out of it For Amauri blinded with the ardent Desire which he had to possess the Treasures of Egypt after he had treated upon this Design with the Emperor Manuel whose Niece he had married contrary to his solemn Faith given broke the Peace which he had made with the Sultan year 1168 and upon the sudden taking Pelusium by Storm and giving the Plunder of it to his Soldiers he went and presented his Victorious Army before Grand Cairo which doubtless in the Consternation and Confusion wherein the Surprise had put the Egyptians must have fallen into his Hands if the same Avarice which made him undertake this unjust War had not also together with his Honor made him lose all the Profit of it For fearing if he took the Town by Force the Soldiers would have all the Booty as they had at Pelusium he thought it his wisest Course to treat of a Composition with the Sultan and he knowing the Covetous Disposition of the King year 1168 amused him so long with the pretence of gathering up for him two millions of Gold which he had promised him that the Army of Noradin which he expected had time to Arrive to his Succour conducted by the same Syracon who before had been his Enemy Amauri Surprized at this unexpected News marched imediately to give him Battle before he should joyn with the Egyptians But he found that this Captain as Politick as himself had wheeled off and taken another Way than he expected and was joyned with the Egyptians who now assembled from all Quarters against him And therefore finding that he had nothing to say to two such potent Enemies he was forced to return without the Money into his own Kingdom having lost his Labour his Honour and the yearly Tribute which the Egyptians paid him But it was quite otherwise with Syracon who by his Retreat finding himself in a Condition to Execute his first Design made Sanar be Assassinated as he came to do him the Honour of a Visit after which forcing the Caliph to Establish him in that Place he easily possessed himself of all Egypt where Noradin whose Creature he was willingly permitted him to Reign But it was not long that he rejoyced in his Crimes for he died the very same Year leaving for his Successor his Nephew the mighty Saladin who besides his Age which was pretty well advanced and the great Experience which under his Uncle he had gained in War possessed all the great Qualities and all the Accomplishments of Body and Mind which could be wished in a Captain to render him as they did the greatest and the most glorious Conqueror of his Age. But Ambition which especially among Infidels does think nothing Criminal that may advance their
Horseback Thus heroically died this brave Lord in the eight and twentieth year of his Age sacrificing so great a Life worthy of a much better destiny with so much Courage for the safety of the whole Army which nevertheless he could not save by his glorious Death For this Obstacle being removed the Sarasins pursued their Victory so eagerly that they came up even to the Person of the King whom the Faithful and Valiant Geoffrey de Sergines covered with his Body and with his Sword in his hand made those stand further off who had the considence to approach him But in conclusion all that they could do whilest they did to no purpose perform the bravest Actions in the World was to Conduct the King into Kasel and it being impossible there to defend him against the whole Army of the Sarasins which had already inclosed the rest of the Troops and the Life of the King being in great danger who was reduced to that condition by his Sickness that he seemed to be in the last extremity a Herauld either of his own accord or by order having Proclaimed that they should lay down their Arms and not expose the Life of the King all yielded and submitted themselves to the discretion of these Barbarians who did not fail accordingly to make a most Barbarous use of their Victory For immediately without Mercy or Compassion they cut the throats of all the Sick and Wounded which they found in the Army and then having separated all the Persons of Quality the Captains and Officers from the private Souldiers and the Servants they did upon the spot cut of the heads of all the last who had the constancy to refuse renouncing of Jesus Christ making so many Martyrs as there were Christians thus brutishly Murdered As for the Persons of Quality who were Prisoners the Covetousness of the Infidels prevailing over their Cruelty they spared their Lives in hopes to draw from them considerable Sums of Money for their Ransoms but they treated them in their Imprisonment in a worse manner than the most unfortunate Slaves are wont to be used among Christians and that they might make them suffer in their Souls as well as Bodies they vented before them a thousand Blasphemies and committed a thousand outrages against the Cross thereby to dishonour that adorable God and Man who was Crucified upon it And that which was most surprizing in this Rencountre and which ought to serve the Christians with an excellent instruction which God was pleased to give them from the Mouth of one of these Barbarians which will one day confound them if they do not change their superstitious sentiments was That an old Sarasin Lord who by the richness of his habiliments and by the great train of Armed young Sarasins who accompanied him appeared to be a Person of the first quality among the Infidels coming into the Pavilion where most of the Lords were put gravely demanded of them by an Interpreter if they believed really that their God was made Man and that he had suffered Death for them upon the Cross and that he was raised from the Dead after three Days All the Lords who believed they should instantly be made Martyrs upon their frank confession of Jesus Christ answered with one Voice and without the least hesitation That this was their firm belief If it be so Messieurs replied the Wise Sarasin comfort your selves in your Affliction you have not yet suffered Death for your God as he hath done for you and since he had the Power to raïse himself again you ought also to believe that having had so much kindness for you and having so much Power he will very speedily deliver you out of your Captivity and Misfortunes And thereupon without saying any more he instantly withdrew And in truth he could not have said a greater thing For certainly it is all that can be said to Christians to give them the strongest and most solid consolation in the greatest of all adversities which may befal them in this Mortal State And this was it without doubt this admirable thought in which Lewis had been long confirmed and from whence this Holy King drew that incomparable constancy of Mind which made him appear greater in this Gulph of his Misfortunes into which he was plunged than ever he had appeared upon his Throne in France in the fairest day of his Triumphs after so many Victories as had laid all his Enemies under his Feet year 1250 The first thing which he did after he was come out of the long Swound into which his weakness and the pain of his Disease had thrown him and in which it was thought he would have expired was to ask of one of his Chaplains for the Book of his Prayers which he presently said for that day with the same Peace and Tranquility that by custom he had acquired as if he had been in his Oratory at Paris He praised God with all his Soul that he was found worthy to suffer for his sake and resolved that he would do nothing for his deliverance to the prejudice of his Honor or his Conscience or disadvantageous either to his Realm or to the Affairs of the Christians in the East It is true that at first the Sultan either that he was moved with Compassion for the miserable condition to which he saw so great a Prince reduced or rather that he feared to lose his Ransom treated the King with great Humanity and gave Order that he should be served with all manner of Care and Honor sending to him the most able of his Physicians who being acquainted with the Nature of the Malady with which he was afflicted in a few days put him into a condition quite out of danger But the Infidel soon returned to his own Natural Barbarity and seeing that the King constantly refused to surrender any of those places which the Christians held in Syria and in Palestine he suffered himself to be so brutishly transported as to threaten to put him to the Bernacles which was a kind of most cruel Torture which the Sarasins made use of to Torment their Enemies or their Criminals withal by dislocation of all their Bones But when he saw that this admirable Prince received all his Menaces with a generous disdain and without Emotion and that he remained fixed in his first Resolution he treated him more reasonably and caused it to be demanded of him whether besides Damiata he would give a Million of Bysances of Gold for his Ransom The Lord Joinville reduceth it in his History to five hundred thousand Livres which in my Opinion ought to be understood of so many Crowns in Gold for there is no manner of probability that a Bysance of Gold which was a considerable Price as appears in all Historians should be of no greater value than six pence of our Money To this the King answered instantly with a Marvellous greatness of Soul that he would give that Million for the Ransom of the Prisoners
his Legates for his misfortune and writ to him most excellent Letters dated from Lyons the twelfth of August by which after he had said all the finest and most Christian things suitable to give consolation to a Prince in Afflictions of this nature he conjured him by no means to abandon Palestine but offered him all that he himself should think the Holy See was able to assist him in The Saâ—tan of Damascus also by his Ambassadors desired the conjunction of his Arms against the Mamalukes promising to yield to him thereupon the whole Kingdom of Jerusalem to which St. Lewis willingly accorded provided that the Admirals refused to give him satisfaction But they fearing the Arms of the King offered to give him all manner of satisfaction and to surrender to him all the Realm of Jerusalem which was in their hands provided that he would assist them against the Sultan of Damascus who they said offered the King what was none of his own And to manifest at this time that they dealt sincerely they sent immediately to him all the Christian Prisoners as also the Bones of Count Gantier de Brienne and sometime after the King peremptorily demanding that as a preliminary before he would enter upon a new Treaty with them they sent him the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls of Grand Caire and all the Children and Young People whom they had compelled to deny the Faith of Christ which alone were considerable Effects of the resolution which this Prince had taken to stay in Syria The Ancient of the Mountain also who at first according to his insolent custom had sent to demand a kind of Tribute which the other Princes had been used to pay him that thereby they might live in safety sent new Ambassadors to him with presents of Rock-Crystal in diverse Figures which was the only Rarity of his Country desiring his Amity and Protection in a most submissive manner And the King in return also sent him with rich presents Father Breton a Dominican who was very skilful in the Sarasin Language to endeavour his conversion although that pious design was not followed with answerable Success But that which was most taken notice of by the French Lords was the Ambassage of the Emperor Frederick who believing the King was still a Prisoner offered him all that lay in his Power for his deliverance and assured him that he had writ in most positive terms to the Sultan of Egypt of whose death he was then ignorant to let him know that he would renounce his Amity and his Alliance if he did not immediately restore the King to Liberty with all his People who were Prisoners In truth the greatest part of the French Lords distrusted the Intention of this Emperor in regard that although the King would never break with him notwithstanding his differences with the Pope yet nevertheless that Prince had alway manifested a displeasure because St. Lewis had protected Pope Innocent by affording him a Sanctuary in France and giving him the Liberty to hold a Council at Lyons where matters were carried so high against him However they rejoiced mightily that these Ambassadours did not arrive till after the King had regained his liberty in regard their was reason to be afraid lest if they found him still a Prisoner they might possibly have endeavoured underhand to hinder his deliverance But let it be as it will this was one of the last Actions good or bad that Frederick did for he died not long after in the same Year at Tarentum the third of December As the Actions of his Life were diversly discoursed of so was also his Death some will have it That he died impenitent without any fence of God or Religion without Sacraments That he was poysoned and also strangled by the hands of Mainfrey one of his Natural Sons whom he had made Prince of Tarentum and who by this Parricide thought to seize upon his Treasure and the Kingdom of Sicily And the Monk of Padua makes no manner of difficulty to send him directly to Hell loaden as he clownishly enough expresseth it with a Sack full of his sins On the contrary others affirm that he died very peaceably in his Bed between the Arms of the Arch-Bishop of Palermo year 1250 who gave him absolution he having confessed himself with marvellous Sentiments of contrition and humility that he forgave all his Enemies and submitted himself wholly to whatsoever the Church should ordain concerning the restitution of what appertained to it by his Will giving great Alms to pious uses and commanding that for the health of his Soul all the Prisoners which were in the Empire and in his other Kingdoms except Traitors to the State should be set at Liberty and in short saying and doing all the great things which might give hopes of his Salvation But it is frequent to find in History Relations directly contrary one to another which the Passions of contemporary Historians who have been ingaged in different Parties have left us and wherein it is not very easie to distinguish Truth from Falsehood which many times fails not of very plausible Probabilities to impose upon the Reader For my own part who if I could avoid it would neither deceive any nor be deceived I leave the Judgement of this Dead Prince to God Almighty to whom only it appertains and in his Character which I have given I have drawn both the good and the ill qualities which appeared during his Life and as to what appertains to the History of the Crusades I only say that as appears by an extract out of his last Will and Testament which may be seen in the Imperial Constitutions of Goldastus he gave a Legacy of a hundred thousand Ounces of Gold towards the carrying on the War for the recovery of the Holy Land and certainly this deserves so well that an Historian of the Crusades is bound to shew some respect to the Memory of an Emperor who after all performed many most brave and noble Actions if he had not had the misfortune to do some very ill ones year 1251 Mean while the King finding that he had now an Army able to take the Field he parted from Acre towards the end of the Winter and went to incamp near Cesarea which the Sarasins had demolished and which he undertook to rebuild and fortifie as he did neither the Sultan of Damascus nor the Egyptians offering to oppose him in regard that both the one and the other were in continual hopes to conclude their Treaty with him and to strengthen themselves by his assistance in the War which they were about to make Here it was that the Admirals of Egypt to anticipate their Enemy and ingage the King into their Party sent their Commissioners to assure him that they were ready to surrender the Young Runnegado's and the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls and Towers of Grand Caire and that they would also acquit him
Prince Henry de Poitiers the Son of Bohemond the fourth of that name Prince of Antioch and of Plaisance the Daughter of Hugh Lord of Giblet From Henry de Poitiers and Isabella de Lusignan sprung Hugh the third who after the death of his Cousin Hugh the Second who died without Issue was King of Cyprus in Right of his Mother The last Husband of Isabella the Daughter of Amauri King of Jerusalem was Emeri King of Cyprus who had by her the Princess Melisantha who was second Wife to Bohemond the fourth Prince of Antioch and Father to Henry de Poitiers and by her he had the Princess Mary of Antioch who was the Subject of this difference For immediately after the death of Conradin Hugh the third the King of Cyprus who was descended in a right Line from Alice de Champagne the Daughter of Queen Isabella by her third Husband passed into Palestine and at Tyre caused himself to be crowned King of Jerusalem in right of his Grandfather But the Princess Mary of Antioch maintained that the Realm appertained to her in regard that being the Daughter of Melisantha she was nearer by one degree to Queen Isabella than Hugh who was the Son of her Cousin The Process hereupon lasted a long time The Princess Mary opposed the Coronation of Hugh but perceiving that the Patriarch took little notice of her opposition she appealed to the Holy see and came in person to pursue her right before Pope Gregory the tenth who appointed Delegates for the Examination of the matter She also presented her self to the Council of Lyons and there demanded Justice And the cause being remitted to the Barons of the Realm who neither esteemed nor much loved King Hugh the Princess at length with the consent of Pope John the twenty first judicially transferred to Charles d' Anjou King of Naples and Sicily all her Right and Title upon certain conditions by a Treaty year 1277 which was signed by the Cardinals and the Prelates of the Court of Rome And by this Right it is that the Realm of Jerusalem which hath been possessed by the Princes of the House of Suabia Kings of Sicily as Descendants from Queen Isabella year 1277 by Jolanta her Grand-Daughter the Wife of Frederick the Second was devolved to Charles d' Anjou and his Posterity and for this reason the Dukes of Lorrain who are descended from Ranatus d' Anjou King of Sicily by Jolanta his only Daughter Mother to Ranatus Duke of Lorrain bear the Cross of Jerusalem together with the Arms of the House of Anjou which they have added to their Atchievements The Kings of Arragon who usurped Sicily from the Anjouin Family and after them the Kings of Castile heirs to the House of Arragon have also taken to their Arms the Cross of Jerusalem and the Title of that Realm And thus these Princes have pleased themselves with the Shadow the Name and the empty shew leaving the Body the Substance and the reality to the Infidels the weak for want of Power and the strong for want of Zeal chusing rather to imploy their Arms in less difficult Enterprises For it is more easy to take what may be had of what is our own than to recover what belongs to us and might be had though not without trouble charge and hazard In the mean time Charles who resolved to take possession of his new Realm sent Roger Count de St. Severin to Ptolemais where he was received by the Governor who put the Fortress into his hands And King Hugh having refused two or three several times to appear before the Barons to make out the Reasons of his pretensions to that Realm they acknowledged Charles d' Anjou for their King and did him Homage which did still more augment the Division by reason that the King of Cyprus having his Party although it was weak yet was it able to give abundance of trouble even in Ptolemais which he had like to have surprized And certainly there was much danger lest Bendocdar who was so admirably skilled in making his own advantage in such opportunities should lay hold of this to seize upon those small remainders which were yet possessed by the Christians in Syria but that God himself was pleased to deliver them from this formidable Enemy For this Sultan receiving information that the Tartars had besieged a Fortress which he had upon the Euphrates he Marched immediately to relieve it and causing his Cavalry to Swim over this great River he thought to have surprized his Enemies but they received him so well that they cut in pieces almost all his Troops and it was not without great difficulty that he himself escaped having received a dangerous Wound in the Encounter but at last he got to Damascus where the Flux and Fever coming upon him by reason of his Wound he died in a few Days after the Battle It is impossible to express the joy which his Death occasioned among the Christians but it was much increased by the taking of the Fortress of Margath and by the Defeat of the Sarasins who indeavoured to retake it from the Knights of the Temple but above all by the great Victory of the Tartars for these People being entred into Syria laid all wast before them without giving any Quarter to the Sarasins when at length Melech-Sais the Successor of Bendocdar Marched out of Egypt with an Army of two hundred thousand Men to give them Battle The two Armies met and fought most furiously in the plain of Emessa and after a most terrible Slaughter on both sides the Egyptians in conclusion lost the Day and the Tartars who had also lost abundance of Men satisfying themselves with their Victory and the huge Booty which they had taken returned again beyond the Euphrates This without all doubt had been a conjuncture extremely favourable to the Christians and Charles King of Sicily who was the greatest Captain of his time an extreme lover of Glory and Greatness and who at the Solicitation of Pope Gregory the Tenth had taken the Cross and as King of Jerusalem had the principal Interest in the Holy War would certainly have led a powerful Army into Syria to recover the Realm of Jerusalem as was the Expectation of the whole World But the cruel adventure of the Sicilian Vespers year 1281 which happened almost at the same time having overthrown all his designs did also ruin all the hopes and the Affairs of Christendom in the East For on the one side King Hugh year 1282 who had been obliged to return into Cyprus entred now again into Syria year 1283 to make advantage of the Misfortune of King Charles and seized upon Tyre year 1284 and after his Death which happened at the same time King Henry his Son who succeeded to his Brother John was received in Ptolemais besieged and in five Days took the Fortress year 1286 and caused himself to be Crowned King of Jerusalem this also made the division increase among the Christians who divided
BOOK I. THe little disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemais The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jaffa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Siege of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Infidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elogy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and General Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elogy and character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elogy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Siege of Zara. A great division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperor 's of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vncle Alexis Comnenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadours The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople BOOK II. The Condition wherein the City of Constantinople was when it was besieged by the French and Venetian Crusades The Defeat of the Vsurpers Brother-in-Law by a small Party of the French The Passage and the Battle of the Bosphorus The taking of the Castle of Galatha The Venetians force the Entry of the Port. An Assault given both by Sea and Land â—o Constantinople The Venetians take five and twenty Towers A Sally made by the Emperor Alexis with a prodigious Army and his Infamous Cowardice His Flight and the Reduction of Constantinople The Establishment of Isaac and the young Alexis A Prolongation of the Treaty for a Year between that Emperor and the Confederate Princes Their Exploits in Thracia A Dreadful Fire at Constantinople The History of the horrible Treason of Murtzuphle The young Alexis suffers himself to be surprized by the Artifices of that Traytor and breaks with the Confederates The Speech of Conon de Bethune to the Emperors to oblige them to accomplish their Treaty War declared against them upon their refusal The Greeks attempt in Vain to burn the Venetian Fleet. The Description of that wild Fire The consequent Treasons of Murtzuphle The Election of Cannabus The double Treason of Murtzuphle who makes himself be proclaimed Emperor The Death of Isaac and of the young Alexis whom Murtzuphle strangles with his own Hands The Confederates make War against the Tyrant His Defeat by Henry the Brother of Count Baldwin The first Assault given upon the Port side of Constantinople wherein the Confederates are repulsed The Second Assault by which the City is taken by plain Force The Flight of Murtzuphle The Greeks lay down their Arms. The City plundered and the Booty there gained The Relicks from thence transported to several Churches of Europe Baldwin Earl of Flanders chosen Empeperor The Policy of the Venetians in the Election of that Prince His Elogy and Character The Election of a Patriarch The Destribution of the Provinces of the Empire The happy Beginning of the Emperor who reduceth all Thracia Murtzuphle surprized and betrayed by the Old Alexis who puts out his Eyes The Flight of Alexis and the taking of Murtzuphle He is brought back to 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 BOOK III. The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His
Fable touching the pawning of the Holy Eucharist to the Sarasins by the King Lewis His deliverance and admirable Fidelity to his Promise and the perfidiousness of the Egyptians BOOK III. The General Consternation all over France upon the News of the King's Imprisonment the Tumult the Shepherds their Original their Disorders and Defeat St. Lewis after his deliverance performs his Articles with great Justice The Admirals fail on their part The Original of the Hospital of the Fifteen Score The Councel debates the matter of the King's return The Reasons on the one side and the other It is at last concluded for his stay in Palestine Four Famous embassages to St. Lewis from Pope Innocent from the Sultan of Damascus from the Ancient of the Mountain and from the Emperor Frederick The Death of that Emperor and the different Opinions thereupon An Error of St. Lewis who loseth a fair opportunity of making use of one Party of the Sarasins to ruin the other The Election of a Mamaluke Sultan The gallant Actions of St. Lewis in Palestine The Death of Queen Blanch and the return of the King into France The Rupture and War between the Venetians and Genoese occasions the loss of the Holy Land The Conquests of Haulon Brother to the great Cham stops the Progress of the Sarasins The Relation of the Mamaluke Sultans They vanquish the Tartars which ravage Palestine The Character of Sultan Bendocdar the great Enemy of the Christians His Conquests upon them His Cruelty and the Glorious Martyrdom of the Souldiers of the Garrison of Sephet and of two Cordeliers and a Commander of the Temple The taking and Destruction of Antioch by this Sultan The quarrels between the Popes and the Princes of the House of Suabia obstruct the Succours of the West The Histories of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Conrade of Pope Alexander and Mainfrey against whom he vainly publishes Crusades The History of Charles d' Anjou to whom Pope Urban the Successor of Alexander and Pope Clement the Fourth give the Realms of Naples and Sicily as Fieffs escheated to the Church by Felony His Exploits his Battles and his Victories over Mainfrey and Conradin The deplorable Death of that young Prince The Victories of Charles cause the Pope and St. Lewis to entertain a Design for a new Crusade An Assembly at Paris about that Affair where the King the Princes and Lords take upon them the Cross All other Nations decline the Crusade The Collusion of the Emperor Michael Paleologus The Condition of the King's Army The Resolution taken to Attack Tunis and the Reasons wherefore The Description of Tunis and Carthage The taking of the Port the Tower and the Castle of Carthage The Malady makes great Destruction in the King's Army His Death Elogy and Character The Arrival of Charles King of Sicily The Exploits of the Army The Treaty of Peace with the King of Tunis who becomes Tributary to Charles The return of the two Kings their Fleet is horribly beaten by a Tempest Prince Edward of England saved his Vow to go to the Holy Land His Voyage his Exploits and his return The vain indeavours of Pope Gregory the Tenth for a new Crusade The second Council of Lyons The last causes of the loss of the Holy Land The quarrel among the Christian Princes for the Succession to the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Death of Bendocdar The defeat of his Successor by the Tartars The hopes of the recovery of all Palestine by the Arms of King Charles of Anjon ruined by the sad accident of the Sicilian Vespers The new division among the Princes and the Progress of the Mamaluke Sultans The Relation of the lamentable Siege and the taking of Acre by these Barbarians All the other places are lost and the Christians of the West wholly driven out of Palestine and Syria The vain and fruitless attempts which have since been made to renew the Crusades THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The greatness of the Subject of the ensuing History The newness and advantage of it The Original of the Turks and their Conquest in Asia from the Sarasens The Conference of Peter the Hermite with the Patriarch of Jerusalem The Description of the Hermite His Negotiation with Pope Urban the Second and his Preaching the Crusade The Relation of the Council of Placentia that of the Council of Clermond The horrible Disorders occasioned by the little Wars between private Persons which were tolerated in those times and which were regulated by the Canon of the Peace and the Truce Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia Legate of the Pope for the Crusade The prodigious number of those who took upon them the Cross and the Disorders that insued The Names of the Princes of the Crusade An account of Duke Godfrey and his Character He sends Peter the Hermite before him A Description of the Conduct and manner of living of this Solitary He divides his Army into two Bodies The Disorder and Ruin of the first under Gautier Monyless The greater Disorder and ill Fortune of the second commanded by Peter himself The Defeat of two other Armies of Crusades conducted by a Priest Godescalc and Count Emico their overthrow by the Hungarians The Conference of Peter the Hermite with the Emperor Alexis The Character Conduct and secret designs of that Prince and the reasons of his perfidiousness The passage of the Hermites Army into Asia and the continuance of their disorders The Italians and Germans separate from the French The first overthrown by young Soliman Sultan of Nice The first Battle of Nice where the other part are overthrown also by Soliman The Voyage of Godfrey of Bullen and the Princes that accompanied him The Voyage of Hugh the Great and the Princes that followed him his Character Conduct and Imprisonment by the Greek Emperor The War of Godfrey against Alexis The Extremity to which the Emperor is reduced and the Treaty concluded between him and the Princes The Relation of the Conquests and Settlement of the Normans in Italy The Voyage of Bohemond Prince of Tarentum and the Princes that went along with him The Voyage of Raymond de Tholose of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia and the other Princes and Lords which accompanied them The Character of that Earl his Conference with the Emperor and the Treachery of that Prince The Voyage of Robert Duke of Normandy his Character and Treaty with the Emperor IF ever any Undertaking were capable of possessing the Historian with a just fear of defeating the mighty Expectation of his Reader most assuredly it may be apprehended in attempting the Design of relating the ensuing History of the Crusade And indeed amidst all the most extraordinary Revolutions which may be found either in the Establishment of New or the Ruine of the Ancient Monarchies one shall difficultly meet with any thing more memorable and whether we
the Plain whither it was descended to defend the Pass and if the Entry into the River was easie the getting out was difficult the further Bank being not only possessed by the Enemies but very steep and high and that which made the Difficulty greater was that there was not one fordable place to be found all the Country People though several Examined agreeing in the Protestation that they never knew any passing there And besides all this so soon as any of the Soldiers entred the River to search for a Ford the Turks on the other side also entred the River and showred down their Arrows upon them Nevertheless the Desire which the Army had to pass and fight the Infidels was so great that after having tried both above and below to find out a Ford in the River without regarding the Arrows of the Enemies they at the last found one turning a little upon the left hand which those of the Country had never known The King after he had given Orders to the Cavalry of the Avant-Guard to pass the Ford he put himself at the Head of the Rere which faced the Turks who had charged them there and running upon them at a full Cariere before they had the Liberty according to their Custom to retire he cut a great part of them in pieces and repulsed the rest with Sword and Lance at their very Reins even to the Mountains At the same time Thierri Earl of Flanders Henry the Son of Thibald Earl of Champagne and William Earl de Mascon having thrown themselves with the first Squadrons into the River were followed by all the rest and in Despight of the Arrows which like Hail were showred most furiously upon them from the opposite Bank which did but little Execution upon those armed Troops they gained the other Shoar and sustained the Shock of their Enemies till the rest of the Troops got over and drew up in Batalia Immediately thereupon they made a most furious Charge upon the Turks who now no longer able to use their Bows were presently overthrown for these Barbarians having no defensive Arms and not accustomed to fight Foot to Foot against the Franks were constrained to give way to that Terrible Shock and therefore betook themselves to Flight leaving a great Number of their Men extended upon the Earth and a great many of Prisoners the rest were pursued to the Mountains where they saved themselves year 1148 but the Camp which they had pitched in the Plain fell to the Share of the Soldiers thus the whole Army having now no more Enemy neither in Front or Rear which durst appear passed the River with Ease some behind the Horse others upon the Wagons and Planks of Timber There ran a Report in the Army that a Cavalier in white Arms who was never seen before nor after passing before the rest as it were to shew them the Way they were to take gave the first Charge upon the Squadrons of the Enemy But as it was the Humour of those times to feign such Visions to render extraordinary Actions as this was more miraculous one may without scruple dispense with disbelieving this Apparition Eudes a Monk of St. Dennis who was the Successor of Sugerius and who was by that great Abbot recommended to the King as an able Man to serve him both as his Chaplain and his Secretary during that Voyage satisfies himself with saying that there were several who affirmed they saw that white Cavalier but that for his own particular he was resolved neither to be deceived nor to deceive others and that he saw no such thing He adds like a man of Sense that without having Recourse to this Marvel which was not easie to prove there was another Passage not less remarkable or surprising and which ought to be wholly attributed to the Divine Protection and that is that in this Attempt there was not one Person of Quality lost except Milon or Miles the Lord of Nogent who was drowned A strange and marvellous Adventure which we have seen repeated within a few days by that admirable Reflux and if I may venture to express it so Circulation of the same Events which produces the same thing in succeeding Ages which have happened in those past so long ago For in the War with Holland where the King of France by the prodigious Success of his Arms made himself Master in less than one Champagne of above thirty strong places he commanded a Party of his Cavalry to pass the Rhine not far from its Mouth under the Conduct of the Generous Count de Guiche where those Braves in the View of their Enemies who were drawn up on the other side to oppose them passed that great River partly by a Ford till that time unknown and partly by swimming without any other considerable Loss than that of the Count de Nogent who there perished in signallizing by a glorious Death his Zeal and Courage in one of the fairest Occasions that were ever seen But it is in short that one ought to expect that what ever was great or Heroick in their Ancestors is in our time to be performed by their Descendants under a King who hitherto hath carried the Glory of this August Monarchy to a higher Degree than any of his Illustrious Predecessors have done since Charlemain The End of the First Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land TOME II. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The Rereguard of the Kings Army Defeated in the Mountains of Laodicea for want of observing the Kings Orders The Description of that Combat A most Heroick Action of the King in an extreme Danger of his Life His March and admirable Conduct to Attalia The new Perfidy of the Greeks in Betraying the Royal Army The Arrival of the King at Antioch and his Difference with Prince Raymond The Conquenty March to Jerusalem where he is met by the Emperor Conrade The Councel at Ptolemaïs where the Siege of Damascus is resolved The Description of the City of Damascus The manner of the March of the Christian Army towards that City The young King Baldwin makes the first Attack his Character and extraordinary Valour in the Attack against the Gardens and Suburbs of Damascus The great Combat upon the Bank of the River A brave Action of the Emperor Conrade An Account of the Siege of Damascus and the Treachery of the Syrians which occasioned the ill Success of that Enterprise The Return of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice looseth the Opportunity of Conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who Seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The
Loss One lamented his Father another his Son this his Brother that his Kinsman or his Friend some ran to Embrace those of their Acquaintance who were got off half Naked and without their Arms whilest others who conceived a like Hope for theirs in vain expected those who were never to Return However all of them Comforted themselves in this extream Grief by the Joy which they had at the Kings Escape after he had run such a fearful Danger of being Lost and had defended himself from it in that Heroick manner which hath been related and in short all of them in the midst of this Grief and Joy tumultuously and loudly demanded the Death of Geoffry who had most apparently been the only Cause of this horrible Loss by disobeying those Orders which had been prescribed him by the King and so furiously were they Incensed against him that nothing would satisfy them but to have him Hanged immediately And certainly it is impossible to deny but that he well deserved to have suffered Death but such was the Bounty and natural Goodness of the King and the Count de Morienne having also in a great Measure been Guilty of that Miscarriage for whom the King had a great Value he scaped with his Life The next Day when they were to Decamp the Army was reduced to very great Extremities For they discovered the Enemies upon the Tops of the Mountains ready to follow the remainder of the Army and to take all Advantages to Surprise them again upon their March The Provisions began to fail they had twelve days March to the Place whither they designed to go they wanted good Guides and must of necessity pass through Countries possessed by the Turks and the Greeks who were equally their Enemies All these Dangers and Difficulties how great soever did not yet abate the Courage of the French who are usually Reproached with loosing a great part of their Fire and their natural Confidence when they are under adverse Fortune however it did not happen so upon this Occasion which only made them more Wise and not less Valiant or Resolved The King to model this new Army divided it also into two Bodies one of which was the Rereguard He gave the Command of this to the Great Master of the Temple Everard de Barres a most valiant Gentleman who some days before was come to joyn the Army with a good Troop of the Knights of that Order The Conduct of the other he intrusted with an old Captain one Gilbert to whom all the others though in Quality much Superior to him yet made no Difficulty to submit themselves since the King himself protested that he would obey his Orders But he most humbly intreated the King to put himself between these two Bodies with a good Body of Horse and Foot that so he might be able from thence to send Assistance to either of them if they should happen to be much Pressed by the Enemy The Baggage marched in the Middle and a great part of the Horse were Ranged upon the Wings to the Right and Left to cover the Flanks of the Army In this manner it was that they Advanced and in this Order marched daily towards Pamphilia with so much Conduct that the Enemies who Coasted along with them and Attacked them four several times year 1148 were continually Repulsed and particularly one time the King seeing them Ingaged between two little Rivers Charged them so smartly that he took a sufficient Revenge upon them for the Defeat of his Rereguard cutting in pieces the greatest part of those Barbarians and putting the rest to a shameful Flight The most troublesom Enemy which he had to Combat was Want for all the Country was either Desert or ruined by the Enemies who laid all wast where-ever the Army was to pass so that they were reduced to that Extremity to Eat their Horses which they were also constrained to kill for want of Forrage for so great a Number But that which supported them still was the Example of the King who indured all these Inconveniences as if he had been one of the meanest Soldiers Some he commended others he incouraged and liberally bestowed what he had among them to Comfort the poor Creatures his Care was every where and he took his Share in all the Troubles of the War having his Curiass on almost Night and Day and performing all the Functions of a Great Captain and a Soldier with all the Vigor imaginable And to all this he added a Piety towards God so constant and regular that in all the time of this laborious Voyage he never failed to attend the Divine Offices of publick Prayers In Conclusion the Enemies after their last Defeat not daring to appear or to molest the Army they performed this long March with the greater Ease and about the twentieth of January Arrived near the City of Attalia Situate upon a Bay on the Coast of Pamphylia near the Mouth of the River Cestrius The Governor of that City which was under the Dominion of the Greek Emperor fearing that he was not able to Resist so great an Army if he declared himself their Enemy offered the King Provisions and Ships to Transport his Army into Syria which was the Thing he most ardently Desired thinking himself in no Condition to accomplish so long a March by Land for the King who had no Engines for a Siege and was willing to satisfy his Army by shortning the Voyage was very ready to accept of his Offer But there was no manner of Mischief which this Perfidious and true Greek who held Intelligence with the Turks did not do to Incommode and Ruine as far as he was able this whole Army during five Weeks which they lay there in Expectation of a Wind. And then he would find such a small number of Ships and those at such excessive Rates that the King was at last constrained to Imbarque himself without his Infantry He then treated with the Greeks who obliged themselves for a large sum of Mony which was paid in Hand to receive the Sick into the Town till they should be able to indure the Sea and to Convoy the rest who chose to go by Land through the midst of the Turks than to trust to these Treacherous Greeks who notwithstanding failed not to Sell and Betray them For so soon as the King was gone the Infidels who received Advertisement from these Traitors came pouring down from all Parts upon these who were to venture by Land and for those who were received into the Town the Greeks either Starved them or inhumanly Delivered them into the Hands of the Turks insomuch that of all those brave Men there was but a very few who Escaped by Land with the Earl of Flanders and Archambald de Bourbon who generously offered themselves to be their Conductors And now it was that it appeared too late to be a vain Scruple which was to so ill Purpose opposed against the wise Council of the Bishop of Langres
unquestionable he also added That he was ready to renounce his Religion and turn Mahometan Saladin who very well knew him by the Reputation which he had acquired and which had given him the Fame of one of the ablest and most valiant Knights of his Order accepted his Offers and to engage him the more strongly to his Party gave him his Niece in Marriage and in consequence a very good Army with which this infamous Apostate committed most horrid Discorders in Palestine but as he approached to Jorusalem which he believed he should be able to surprize with the third part of his Troops whilst the other desolated all the Country as far as Samaria or Sebastia even to Jericho the small number of Soldiers which were in the City with the Inhabitants sallied out at the Postern-Gates so luckily that the Traytor who expected no such matter was himself surprized and most of his Companions being cut in pieces he was constrained to sly with all the haste his Spurs could help him to thereby to escape the just Punishments which he knew he deserved for his detestable Perfidy This was some little Consolation to poor King Baldwin who had tasted little in his Life but went out of the World some few Days after with this small Satisfaction dying in the twenty fifth Year of his Age and the twelfth of his Reign not less with the Violence of his Disease than with the Grief which he had to see his poor Kingdom destitute of all hopes of Succour and left in the hands of a feeble Infant betwixt eight and nine Years of Age and which was in extream danger to be miserably torn in pieces by the Factions and Ambition of the Great Men. And indeed presently after the death of this Prince year 1186 those dangerous Contests for the Regency began to break out between the Earl of Tripolis and Guy de Lusignan But this Fire became a mighty Blaze by the death of the little King which happened about seven Months after that of his Unkle by a slow Poyson which it is said was given him either by Count Raymond his Governor who had some Pretensions to the Throne or as others believed by his own Mother Sybilla an ambitious and unnatural Woman who was not able to suffer this little Infant to take from her the Hope of being a Queen But let it be as it will that the Malignity of Men's Natures and the Liberty which they give themselves to publish their own Suspicions and the idle Reports of the People for undoubted Truths which hath often given Rise to the Belief of such supposed Crimes This is certain that the death of this Infant King gave the fatal Blow to this unhappy Kingdom year 1186 and to the Liberty of the unfortunate City of Jerusalem King Baldwin the Fourth had two Sisters Sybilla the Mother of this little Baldwin the Fifth which she had by her first Husband William Marquis of Montferrat his second Sister was Isabella the Daughter of Mary the second Wife of Amauri and Niece to Manuel the Emperor of Constaminople who was married to Alfred de Thoron Son to the late Constable of Jerusalem Now Raymond who was the nearest Relation to the deceased Kings pretended that in the present Condition of their Affairs he ought to succeed to the Kingdom to the Exclusion of the Females and he was supported in his Pretensions by the Militia the People and the Judgment of King Baldwin the Fourth who had intrusted him with the Minority of the young King his Nephew excluding from it Guy de Lusignan the second Husband of his Sister Sybilla On the other side all the great Lords of the Realm who were for maintaining the Succession to the lawful Heirs of the Sisters of Baldwin the Fourth were resolute to recognize the Princess Sybilla for their Queen but with this Condition that some Expedient should be found out to break her Marriage with Count Guy of Lusignan with whom they would have nothing to do both in regard that he was not reputed either brave or able as also that they could not endure that a Stranger newly come among them should possess the Throne to the prejudice of so many Lords of the Realm who might sill it more advantageously Nevertheless Sybilla who was altogether as dexterous as she was ambitious having for some time concealed the death of her Son knew so well how to gain the Patriarch and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who made the most powerful Interest that she procured her self and Husband to be crowned almost at the same time that the death of the little King was divulged before the other Pretenders could have the leisure to enterprize any thing against her It is true indeed that they were so transported with Madness at this surprizing Artifice that they offered to declare Alfred de Thoron King but whether it were that he had little Ambition or little Courage he rejected the Tender and went himself immediately to recognize the new King by doing him Homage the others thereupon being astonished with his Action yet followed his Example though they detested in their hearts this Cowardly Submission of his as they termed it and reserved themselves for the future by some Opportunity or other to overthrow that Throne to which they now submitted only in Appearance and Compliance to the present Necessity But it was far otherwise with the Earl of Tripolis for he neither able to suffer nor to dissemble the Injury which he thought he received by preferring his Rival was so transported with Rage and Fury that he immediately retired into his own Estates and presently after to accomplish his Revenge committed a Fact the most black dishonourable and detestable that ever was recorded in any Story This Count Raymond the Third was descended in the Right Line from the famous Raymond Earl of Tholouse who was his third Grandfather and who after he had done so many fair Actions in the first Crusade died in the Year 1105. in the Fortress of Mount Pilgrims about two Miles from Tripolis which he then besieged Bertrand his Son who took that City succeeded his Father in the Earldom which he held of the Realm of Jerusalem and he left for his Successor Pontius de Tholouse his Son who married Cecilia the Widow of the valiant Tancred the Daughter of Philip the King of France which he had by Bertrada de Monfort who had also had by Fowk d' Anjou her former Husband the young Count Fowk who was afterwards King of Jerusalem From this Earl Pontius and Cecilia descended Raymond the Second Nephew to King Fowk and who was also his Brother in Law by the Marriage of the younger Sister of Queen Melesintha the Daughter of King Baldwin the Second and Wife of King Fowk So that Raymond the Third of whom I now speak who was the Son of Raymond the Second was by his Father second Cousin and by his Mother Cousin-german to King Amauri the Father
watered by the River Cydnus This River ariseth out of Mount Taurus in the Coast of Cappadocia from whence entring into Cilicia by one of these Valleys which are formed by these Mountains it rowls its gentle Streams extream clear and fresh upon its murmuring Bed of clean Gravel and Pebbles and is not very spacious tiil year 1190 having passed through the famous City of Tharsus it dischargeth it self into the Ocean History hath made this River famous by the extream danger which Alexander there run of losing his Life whilst in the Heat of Summer being all on fire with the violence of the burning Season he would needs bath himself in these too cool Streams of Cydnus being then upon his March against Darius But an Accident more deplorable which here happened to the Emperor Frederick by the very same way ought for ever to render the Memory of that fatal River odious For the very same day which was a Sunday the Eve of St. Barnabas this great Prince after having dined upon the Bank of that River which he had just passed seeing the Water which to him seemed very delightful and not able to support the intollerable Heat of that Season of the Year without making use of that Remedy which was so easie and which he naturally loved would needs bath himself in those cool and refreshing Streams notwithstanding all that was alledged to divert him from it but he was no sooner in the River into the middle of which he threw himself but that the excessive Coldness of the Water seized him in a moment and penetrating his Pores which by reason of the extream Heat were so open combated his natural Heat and Spirits with so much Violence that in a Swound he sunk down to the bottom of the Water He was however taken up alive and so soon as he began to return to his Memory perceiving his death approaching he gave Thanks unto Almighty God who did him the favour to call him in his Pilgrimage and in the Performance of his Vow and recommending his Soul into his Hands and offering his Life in Sacrifice for the Remission of his Sins he presently expired I know that many Writers report the matter otherwise and say that his Horse foundring in the Passage of the River his Foot hung in the Stirrup and so he was drowned as he was passing into Armenia over the River Salef but as the most ancient Historians his Contemporaries and some of them who were present positively some of them affirm it was the River Cydnus And others of them say it was a River near Tarsus in which he was drowned swimming after Dinner and that one of them informs us that he died not till the Evening In my Opinion there is not the least place left for deliberation which of them we ought to believe especially considering that it is very easie to reconcile these Historical Differences by what was before observed that it was then very customary to confound Armenia with Cilicia and that the River Salef is the same Cydnus as the Annalist Roger gives us to understand by the Description which he makes of those Countries Thus died one of the greatest Princes that ever silled the Throne of the Caesars Frederick the First in the seventieth Year of his Age whilst he was marching to combat Saladin for the Re-Conquest of the Realm of Jerusalem to which important Design he had levelled the Way by all those Victories which he had so gloriously gained against the Greek Emperor and the Sultan of Iconium the Allies of Saladin The sole Renown of the Actions of this invincible Prince struck that famous Conqueror with so great a fear that upon the very Rumour and Noise of his Coming despairing to be able to maintain them against him he caused the Walls of Laodicea in Syria of Giblet Tortosa Biblis Berytus and Sydon to be demolished and had thoughts himself of retiring into Egypt that he might not be obliged to hazard his Fortune against that of an Enemy so successful and formidable He was happy in finishing a Life so illustrious in the Course of his Victories and before giddy Fortune who never loves to court one Favourite long had begun to forsake him but much more happy in a Death so full of Glory and of Deserts before God and Men since he died in the generous Pursuit of his great Design in quitting his own Empire to re-establish that of Jesus Christ in that mysterious Spot of Ground where he was pleased to work by his Life and by his Death the great Wonder of our Salvation For thus it is that we ought charitably to judge of the Death of this Prince by those things which we know of him and not according to the rash medling Humour of some who will needs pretend to enter into the incomprehensible Judgments of God who have had the Confidence to attribute his Death to the Divine Vengeance as a Punishment for the War which he made against the Holy See year 1190 Great Presumption of Humane Nature which under the pretext of Religion and Piety dares so audaciously undertake to regulate the Decrees of Heaven and by a Judgment which in its own nature is extreamly criminal to pre-judge that which Jesus Christ himself only hath the Authority of giving and which must be kept secret until the last Day So soon as the general Consternation or rather the extream Despair in which the Army was by reason of this deplorable Accident was a little over the Princes and General Officers being assembled by a common Consent acknowledged Frederick Duke of Suabia for their General the Emperor his Father at his death having recommended the Care of the Army to him and left it under his Command It was with as much Joy as was possibly to be expected in such a deep Affliction that the Army took the Oath of Fealty to him whom they acknowledged as the true Heir and the living Image of all the great Qualities and Vertues of his Father And this Prince who in reallity possessed them in a degree very nearly approaching the Perfections of that admirable Emperor made it appear quickly that he was his true Successor by his Liberality in bestowing great Largesses upon the Soldiers to whom he divided the greatest part of the Treasure which fell to his Father's share at the taking of Iconium After he had therefore divided the Army into two parts the lesser number imbarked on the Vessels which the Armenians who then held divers places in Cilicia furnished him withal and himself with the greater Party after having interred the Emperor's Entrails and embalmed the Body of his Father at Tarsus took his way by Land towards Antioch where he did not arrive till after a tedious March of six Weeks wherein he suffered extreamly both by the defect of Provisions and by the continual Ambushes of the Turks But the Abundance which he found in this great City where he was most magnificently received was more fatal to
and such as possibly King Richard would not have required of him but his Cowardly Fear dictated them to him year 1191 And he who in his Prosperity was so presumptuous to imagine he could not offer too little in this Reverse of his Fortune thought he could never offer enough The Conditions were these That he should own the King of England for his Soveraign and should do him Homage for the Island under the Title of the Realm of Cyprus That he should give his only Daughter and Heiress to whomsoever King Richard should nominate That besides delivering the Prisoners which he had taken he should pay twenty thousand Marks in Gold for Dammages to those whom he had plundred That he should go in Person with twenty thousand choice Men to serve the King in the War of the Holy Land That for the Security of his Promises he should instantly put all the Places in his Dominions into the King's Hands and that reciprocally the King should engage upon his Honour to restore them to him so soon as he had accomplished all his Engagements And to begin with what was most shameful he immediately came to do his Homage to King Richard in the Presence of Guy King of Jerusalem and Geoffrey de Lusignan his Brother Raymond Prince of Antioch and Bohemond Count of Tripolis his Son Aufrey de Thoren and the other Lords who were come to Cyprus to oblige King Richard to enter into their Interests against the Marquis of Montferrat Prince of Tyre whose Party King Philip the August seemed much to favour But this Peace did not last long for whether this unfortunate Tyrant was ashamed of his Cowardice or that some Person had advertised him secretly that there was a design to make him a Prisoner he fled the same Day and made it be told to the King That he was resolved never to keep such an unjust Treaty which being the Effect of Force and the suddain Disorder of his Judgment by Dispair was not at all obliging For this Reason Richard who was better pleased with War than Peace which how advantageous soever ravished from him a Conquest which he could not fail of obtaining instantly caused him to be pursued both by Land and Sea with so much Heat and Expedition that running over the whole Island with his Troops divided into several Parties all the Cities opened their Gates to him so soon as he or his Lieutenants appeared before them So that the miserable Isaac abandoned of all the World who had him in Detestation even in his better Fortune was constrained to surrender The Princess his Daughter who was in the Castle of Cherin was the first to implore the Clemency of the King who received her with great Civility and caused her to be conducted to Limisso where was the Queen his Sister and the Princess Berengera After which the Tyrant who had now no other Retreat left besides a Monastery fortified upon a Rock seeing that he was about to be attacked could not resolve to die honourably in making a noble Defence but by extream Lowness of Spirit resolved to beg a Life which ought to have been more insupportable than a thousand Deaths He came then from the Monastery in the Habit of a Mourner his Hair and Beard neglected his Eyes overflown with Tears throwing himself like a Slave at the Feet of the King and he who had so audaciously assumed the Title of an Emperor submitted himself entirely to his Mercy only making his Request that he would not put him in Chains which of all the things of the World he said was what he most feared and which would assuredly make him die with Grief Whereupon King Richard who naturally loved to divert himself with the most serious things and who was so far from being touched with any Compassion for the Misery of this Infamous that in regard of his woful Cowardice he had scarcely the Patience to see him turning himself to Raoul his Chamberlain to whose Charge he consigned this miserable Man and smiling he commanded him to use him as an Emperor and that therefore he should put upon him Manacles Fetters and Chains of Silver to distinguish him to be a Prisoner of Quality Which Raoul did not fail solemnly to put accordingly in Execution Thus the Realm of Cyprus was without any considerable Loss conquered in less than three Weeks by King Richard who at the same time married the Princess Berengera at Limisso and caused her to be Crowned Queen of England year 1191 and of Cyprus with all manner of Magnificence and as it were in a kind of Triumph after such a happy Conquest This done he sent the two Queens and the Princess the Daughter of Isaac with a good Party of his Fleet who arrived happily at Acre the 1st Day of June being the Eve of Whitsunday He caused the Tyrant to be conducted Prisoner to Tripolis and for himself after he had regulated the Affairs of his new Kingdom which he put under the Conduct of two Governors he received from his new Subjects the Value of half their Moveables which they offered him of their own Accord that so they might have from him the Confirmation of the Privileges which they had formerly enjoyed under the Emperor Manuel All which Matters being adjusted upon the 5th of June he parted from Cyprus with the King of Jerusalem and the Levantine Princes The next day he passed before Tyre where the Garrison of Conrade fearing he might seize upon the Place would not permit him to Land The next Day as he drew near to Acre he discovered the biggest of all the Ships that he had ever seen upon the Sea who had the Arms of France painted upon her Stem but suspecting it might be some Stratagem and sending out to hall her he found it was a Ship of Saladin's which had on Board her five hundred choice Men Provisions Arms and Munition as also Artificial Fire-works and two hundred most venemous Serpents in Glasses to throw into the Camp of the Christians Richard caused her to be attacked by his Galliots and after a long and furious Combat which was maintained with extraordinary Obstinacy by those desperate People till such time as being pierced in a great many places by the Stems of the Galliots who ran upon her with full Sails and Oars that she sunk to the Bottom all the Soldiers and Mariners who threw themselves into the Sea or into the Ships of the Christians to save themselves being either drowned or slain excepting two hundred of the principal Officers and Engineers who were taken Prisoners After which Richard landing the next day being the 8th of June entred as it were in Triumph laden with Spoils and Glory into the Camp before Acre Philip the August received him with the greatest Demonstrations of Joy and Friendship But that Prince too generous learnt quickly after by a dangerous Experiment that an Excess of Vertue which causes one to lose a fair Opportunity especially in Matters of
War is always a great Fault in a Prince or Captain And certainly he ought not to have made any Scruple of Taking the City as he might easily have done without King Richard whom he unprofitably staid for so long time while that King more cunning and less scrupulous and who had not for others such tender Concerns did without him take a whole Kingdom For in short the missing of this Opportunity gave Rise to many Accidents which had like to have entirely ruined the Enterprise For the Besieged made great advantage of that long Repose and the leisure which was given them by a kind of Truce of which they knew not the Cause however they employed it to the repairing of the Breaches and were so strengthned by little Succours which frequently slip'd into them that they found themselves in a Condition often to repulse the great Assaults which were given against them at unseasonable times the Opportunity being lost before Besides the King of France first and after some time the King of England fell sick of that dangerous Malady which made them lose their Hair Nails and Skin by its subtil and Corrosive Malignity which consumes all that Matter which is necessary for the Defence or the Ornament of the Body But the most dangerous Evil of all and which endangered the common Ruin was the Division which broke out more furiously than ever between the two Kings The ancient English Historians of that time lay all the Blame upon Philip whilst the French who writ at the same time accuse King Richard and lay all the Fault at his Door and the reason is plain that both the one and the other living at the same time and writing what was done in their own time either their Fear or their Hope their Love or Hate took from them the power and the liberty of writing the Truth sincerely and without Partiality For my own particular who besides the natural Love I have for it have always made Profession to speak and write when there is occasion with that frank and honest liberty which can never be taken from a good Man year 1191 and who am under no manner of Temptations from any of these Passions which may hinder me from speaking concerning these Kings what I believe to be true it cannot be supposed I should do otherwise since I have nothing either to hope or fear from them and that there is no danger four hundred Years after their Death any Person should so warmly espouse the Interests of their Ashes I say then that after having strictly examined whatever is written upon one side and the other concerning this great difference I find that Richard did not use King Philip with that Respect which was due to him as his Liege Lord for so many great and fair Provinces as he held of him in France For as he had amassed prodigious Sums of Money in England in Sicily and in Cyprus he spared no Cost to allure the bravest Men to his Party and to draw them to his Service by excessive Profusions and the extraordinary Advantages which he made them insomuch that understanding that Philip gave three Crowns in Gold by the Month to every Horse-man he promised four to such as would quit that Service and take Pay under him So that he seemed to endeavour to exhalt himself above his Master and to render him contemptible But then on the other side Philip who had a great Heart and who bore it very impatiently to be in this manner insulted over by his Vassal shewed so much displeasure that he gave those whom the Profusions of Richard had gained especially the Levantines who were most charmed with them occasion to believe that he was not able to support his Greatness and his Merit to be thus topped and overshaded Moreover as Philip before the Arrival of the English had so far advanced the Works and so beaten down the Walls and ruined the Defences that he might easily have taken the place if he had not been too scrupulous of taking all the Glory to himself whereas Richard to whom he had given the opportunity of taking his share by a strange Effect of Jealousie and Ambition would by no means have the City taken whilst Philip was there insomuch that when the French assaulted the Town this jealous Prince prohibited the English either to sustain them or to assault it on their side as had before been resolved upon at the Council of War This brought on Reproaches Quarrels and Hatred which daily increased and grew more violent between the two Nations than that of the War which had begun to break out before under King Henry there being besides naturally not too much Sympathy between them That which augmented this Division was also the Difference between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade de Montferrat for the Realm of Jerusalem which the one pretended to keep and the other to have when as Saladin was yet possessed of it For King Philip carried himself openly for the Marquis in the Right of his Wife and for that being a great Warrier who had by his good Conduct preserved the small Remainder of that poor Realm it seemed much better that he should have it rather than his Rival who had lost it so unfortunately for want of Courage and sufficient Conduct On the contrary the King of England for that very reason opposed his Pretensions being unwilling it should fall into the hands of so brave a Man and therefore with all his Power he supported Guy of Lusignan by reason that that unfortunate Prince having much Weakness and little Merit Richard was in hopes of disposing of the Realm according to his own Will And in short the new Conquest which the King of England had made of the Island of Cyprus which he was resolved to keep did not at all please Philip who demanded the half of that Realm in virtue of the Treaty by which they were obliged to divide equally between them whatsoever should be gained by that Voyage But Richard maintained either that this Division was to be restrained to such Conquests as were made upon the Infidels or otherwise that by the same reason he ought to divide the Succession to the Earldom of Flanders with the King since by the Death of the Earl Philip pretended to have acquired a Right unto And by reason of this Division their Spirits were so exasperated that while nothing was done against the common Enemy both sides reproached each other with holding a secret Intelligence and Correspondency with the Infidels both the one Party and the other receiving Presents from Saladin And in truth this brave Sarasin Prince who was naturally generous and made War like a noble Enemy was used from time to time to send the most excellent Fruits of Damascus to the two Kings who in Return sent him some of the pretty Rarities of Europe year 1191 Thus matters were so far from being advantaged by the coming of these two mighty Armies
Soldiers Gentlemen and great Lords Germans English Italians Flemings and Levantines who perished during the Siege either by the Malady or by the frequent Combats which happened The French lost there a-among the Persons of the greatest Quality the Counts Thibaud de Chartres and de Blois Stephen de Sancerre John de Vendome Rotrou de Perche Erard de Brienne Raoul de Clermont Gilbert de Tilieres the Count de Ponthieu the Viscounts de Turenne and de Castillane Alberic Clement Mareschal of France Adam the Great Chamberlain the Lords jocelin de Montmorency Guy de Chastillon Florem de Augest Bernard de St. Valery Enguerand de Fiennes Gautier de Moy Geoffry de la Briere Anselm de Montreal Guy de Dane Hugh de Hoiry Raoul de Fougeres Eudes de Goness Raoul de Hauterive and Renaud de Magni all whose Names I have found among the Writers of those times and which I thought my self obliged by no means to suppress but that in this History the Reader may receive the Pleasure of finding among his Ancestors by consulting the Pedigree some of these Illustrious men whose glorious Memory ought to be an Eternal Honor to those Houses who have descended from them The City being taken the Kings according to their Treaty divided all the Booty equally between them as also the Prisoners and the Houses The Cardinal Bishop of Verona Legat of the Holy See the Archbishop of Tyre and Pisa the Bishops of Beavais Chartres d' Eureux Bayonne Salisbury and Tripolis solemnly re-dedicated the Churches which the Sarasins had turned into Mosches There were also assigned to the Venetians Genoeses Pisans to the Knights of the Temple and those of the Hospital the Quarters and Rights which they were to possess in the City of Acre and in truth every thing passed peaceably and in good Order except that King Richard who too easily suffered himself to be transported by his Natural Violence and Choler committed two Actions of surious Madness one of which proved afterwards very dangerous to himself and the other presently to the poor Christians which happened thus at the same time that the French had overthrown the Walls adjoyning to the Wicked Tower year 1191 and were ready to force the Place and that the Besieged found themselves necessitated to capitulate before the surrender Leopold Duke of Austria who attacked a quarter on the opposite part had seized upon another Tower and had there planted his Standard which stood there after the Reduction of the City Richard who for other Matters was exasperated against Leopold in regard that as well as the rest of the Germans he had been of Philip's Party took this occasion to be revenged of him as if he had usurped upon the Authority of the two Kings and therefore caused the Standard to be taken down by plain Force and being torn in pieces and trampled under Foot he caused it to be thrown into the Kennel by the most insupportable of all Affronts that could be given to a Prince who loved Glory The Germans who were naturally jealous of the Honor of their Nation and incapable of bearing I do not say such a horrible Injury as this was but even the Shadow of being contemned had not failed instantly to do themselves reason by their Arms which they presently took against the English but Leopold who was altogether as brave but something a better Dissembler than King Richard chose rather for a time to respite his Vengeance which he hoped to find a more fit occasion for where he should not be blamed by induring the pain of this Affront for doing greater Mischiefs to the Christian Affairs which must needs suffer much by a Civil War and which in a few days following did suffer extremely by another cruel Effect of the Violent Nature of this Prince For seeing that Saladin persisted in refusing to satisfie the Articles of the Capitulation which the Besieged had on his Behalf ratified he conceived such a Despight that he Inhumanly caused the Heads of above five thousand Prisoners which fell to his Share to be cut off Nor could he be diswaded from it by the Consideration of so many Christian Captives to whom Saladin as he had menaced caused the same measure to be given by a kind of cruel Reprisal the blame of which is always laid upon him who begins And certainly it hath always been seen that these dangerous Examples which are given to an Enemy in the time of War which he always believes he hath a Right to render the like measure for the Security of his own People have always been condemned by others who have had the Occasion to suffer by it and that those who give it are at last constrained to abstain the first from it though something with the latest and after it hath caused the Lives of so many unfortunates as have perished either by the transports of the one or the Vengeance of the other As for King Philip who was more moderate he used his with more humanity and contented himself to leave the Prisoners in the Hands of Marquis Conrade as he Passed by Tyre in his return from the Holy Land into France This Prince who was extreme Wise perceived on the one hand that Richard become now more Fierce and Violent than ever after the taking of Acre kept no sort of Measures and that it was impossible for them long time to keep in any Terms of Accord and on the other perceiving that he was daily infeebled by the Distemper into which he was again relapsed he might run the Hazard of dying in Palestine without being able to do any Service to Christendom and that in the mean time Advantage might be taken of his Absence by invading the Earldom of Flanders which ought to return to the Crown of France by the Death of Count Philip. He made this to be most civilly represented to the King of England that finding by the increase of his Distemper he was like to be rendred incapable to serve the Affairs of the Christians in the Holy Land he judged it more to their Advantage that one single Commander should finish the War and for this purpose that he would resign all wholly to his Conduct together with a good party of his Army under the Command of the Duke of Burgundy He added also that to take from him all manner of Pretext which he might have to complain of his Departure or the Fear that he might entertain that he did not return into France but to fall upon his Dominions there during his Absence he assured him that if he had occasion to make War upon him it should not be till the Expiration of fourty days after his Return After which having left five hundred Men at Armes and ten thousand Foot with the Duke of Burgundy and some Troops which he lent for a Year to the Prince of Antioch he imbarcked the first day of August upon thirty Gallies year 1191 with the remainder of his Army and after
should fail he should be sure of the third and that though he lost two Thirds of his Alms upon two false Religions yet the other falling upon the true he should undoubtedly find Advantage by it for the good of his Soul Poor well meaning Prince He did not know that there is a vast difference between Temporal and Eternal Goods And that though those are submitted to the Empire of Fortune which gives or takes them according as she pleases to turn her sporting Wheel yet in these it is far otherwise and that Eternal Goods are never exposed to Hazard and Adventure but they are certainly lost The Death of Saladin presently made a Change in the Face of Affairs throughout all Asia For having divided his Dominions among his twelve Sons without leaving any thing to his Brother Saphadin who had most faithfully served him in all his Wars This Prince valiant and ambitious resolved to revenge himself upon the first Opportunity nor was it long before it was offered and by him laid hold of For his Nephew to whose Share in the Distribution Egypt fell being slain by a Fall from his Horse as he was hunting Saphadin with Ease made himself Master of that fair Dominion and presently raising a powerful Army all the Soldiers of Saladin who had served under him and esteemed him infinitely running in to him he attempted the Ruin of his other Nephews and in a short time either by Force of Arms or by Treachery of their Subjects he overthrew them all year 1195 except the Sultan of Alepo to whom his Subjects always preserved a most inviolable Fidelity Thus whilst the Infidels armed one against another and thought of nothing but how to destroy themselves it was believed in Europe that a fair Occasion was offered for the Recovery of the Realm of Jerusalem now almost entirely lost which gave occasion to a new Crusade which was also followed by three others as in the ensuing History may be seen The End of the Second Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The little Disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole Race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemaïs The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jassa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Seige of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Insidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elegy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and general Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elegy and Character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elegy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made Chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Seige of Zara A great Division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperors of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vnkle Alexis Commenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadors The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople year 1194 THere was very little probability for the Christian Princes of the East to hope for any Assistance from the Princes of Europe where there was now not the least favourable Inclination towards the Holy War The Kings of England and France upon whose Protection they had always chiefly depended were so far from uniting as they did before year 1195 in such a glorious Design they were engaged in a most cruel War which was only discontinued for some time by little Truces which served to no other purpose but to give them leisure to take Breath a little and thereby to put themselves into a Condition to attack each other with greater Fury than before The Emperor was wholly taken up with putting himself into the Possession of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily in Right of his Wife Constantia the Empress In pursuit of which after the death of Tancred he extinguished the whole Race of those brave Normans who had so generously conquered and so gloriously possessed those Realms for above one Age. Pope Celestin III. wasted with Age and Fatigues being now advanced to ninety Years was in no Condition to undertake so difficult a Task as the Forming of a new Crusade And besides he was extreamly embroiled with the Emperor whom he had excommunicated for the Violence which he had used to the King of England so that he had little hope to engage him in the Enterprise Nevertheless after he was assured of the death of Saladin and the great Revolutions which that had made in his Empire which he understood by Letters from Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice he applied himself with the same Zeal which his Predecessors had done to form a Holy League among the Christian Princes to make advantage of this fair Opportunity for the re-gaining of Jerusalem For this purpose he sent his Legates throughout all Europe He did all that lay in his power to procure Peace between the two Kings of France and England and conjured them at least to send some Assistance to Palestine if the posture of their Affairs was such as would not permit them to go thither in Person to
done an insinite deal of Mischief in the World And after this there is nothing that thou canst do to me which I fear And since I am assured of thy Death I shall with Joy be ready to receive my own though it comes accompanied with all the Terrors and cruel Torments that can be inslicted on me And I replied the King immediately will for the Love of God that thou shalt live And thereupon he caused him presently to be set at liberty commanding that an hundred Pounds Sterling should be bestowed upon him and straitly prohibiting all his People to do him any Injury But presently after the death of the King the Lieutenant General of his Army causing him to be seized made him be hanged and roasted alive in a most barbarous and horrible manner At his Death the King commanded a good part of his Treasure to be distributed among his Domesticks and the Poor He ordered that his Body should be interred at Fontevraud at the Feet of his Father as it were to make some honourable Reparation by this little Humility at his Death for the ill Treatment which he had given him during his Life He bequeathed his Heart to the Church of our Lady at Roan which he had always particularly cherished And for his Soul he entirely submitted it to the Divine Justice offering himself after such an exemplary Repentance to suffer the Pains of Purgatory even till the Day of Judgment for the Expiation of his Crimes It is not my Province to judge of what it pleaseth God to determine and ordain but this is certain that three and thirty Years after his Death Henry Bishop of Rochester in England preaching after he had given holy Orders the Saturday before the Passion-Sunday on which Day the Church begins the Service with those words of Isaiah Ho! Every one that thirsteth come to the Waters saith the Lord Come and drink with Joy In the midst of his Sermon as if it had been by a suddain Enthusiasm he cried out Rejoyce my Brethren the Soul of the glorious King Richard after having till this time been purified like Gold in the Furnace is now passed into Heaven And he affirmed it with such an assured Air exposing to every Person all the Circumstances of the Revelation which he pretended to have had that the Authority of a Prelate who was known to be a most vertuous and learned Man and who was never accused for a Visionary made very many wise People believe that without Weakness they might give Credit to it However it be it is not so much upon these sort of Revelations which are liable to be doubted as upon the manner of the Death of this great Prince that one may reasonably found a Belief of his Salvation However I thought fit to recount these edifying Particularities of the Death of this King who had so great a Share in these Crusades that so Princes may understand that when they have had the happiness to render unto God any considerable Service by any Heroick Action as did this King Richard in being the first that took upon him the Cross in this Holy War where he performed so many brave things they have great reason to hope that the Divine Goodness which is never slow in rewarding the meanest Services will recompense them by the greatest of all Favours in permitting those to die well who have employed their Lives in his Service and for his Glory year 1199 In this time Fouques de Nevilli continued his preaching the Crusade with a most wonderful Success and after he had run through abundance of Provinces distributing an infinite number of Crosses among the People he at last happily sinished his Enterprise by the Engagement of two great Princes in his Design who could not but by their Example draw after them a great number of considerable Persons These two Princes were Theobald IV. Count de Champagne Brother to Henry II. King of Jerusalem who died by the unfortunate Accident at Ptolemais and Lewis his Consin-german Count de Blois and Chartres both of them nearly related to I hilip the August both by the Father and the Mother They were both young and both passionate of Glory And Theobald who was a magnificent Prince that he might declare himself with more Splendor and draw after him more Persons of Quality published a Tournament to be held at his Castle of Escri upon the River Aisne in Advent of that Year 1199. whither the principal Gentry of the Neighbouring Provinces assembled themselves to be Sharers in those Manly Exercises There it was that the brave Count Theobald amidst those noble Exercises of Chivalry which the French and particularly the Counts de Champagne have always so much delighted in resolving to pass magnificently from that gallant Representation of War to that true and holy War which he was about to undertake in most solemn manner took upon him the Cross together with the Count de Blois his Cousin They were immediately followed by two Lords of extraordinary Merit and high Reputation the famous Simon de Montfort and the valiant Renaud de Montmirail the Cousin of Count Lewis After which all those who were under any particular Obligation to these two Counts and many other Gentlemen and Barons especially of the Isle of France and of Picardy also followed their Example and took upon them the Cross The principal among these new Champions of Jesus Christ whose Names are most known and which I mention in this place reserving my self to speak of the others upon occasion of their brave Actions were Geoffry de Joinville Steward and Geoffry de Ville Hardouin Mareshal of Champagne who like a frank and generous Cavalier hath obliged Posterity with the History of this War the Counts Gautier and John de Brienne Gautier de Vignori William and Villain de Neully Erard de Montigni Manasses de l' Isle Guy de Chappes Renard de Dampierre Oliver de Rochefort Ives de Laval Anselme de Courselles Henry de Montreil Paien d'Orleans Matthew de Montmorenci Guy de Couci Robert de Malvoisin Enguerrand Hugh and Robert de Boves Counts d' Amiens to whom the Year following joyned the Counts Hugh de St. Paul Renand de Bologne and Geoffry de Perche and Stephen his Brother with divers other Lords which followed them And to take care of the spiritual Militia of this Army designed for a Holy War Garnier Bishop of Troies who had taken the Cross the Year before and Nevelon Bishop of Soissons resolved to accompany this Crusade Such a famous Action which could not fail of making a mighty noise in the World was the Parent of others great Examples being commonly very prolisick which were produced thereby in generous Minds and Hearts which were amorous of Glory The young Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Henault Nephew to the late Count Philip who died at the Siege of Acre seeing himself at liberty by the Peace of Peronne which he had concluded with Philip the August was resolved
proceedings he made a long Deduction in his Manifest how many and great Subjects he had of Complaint for the Injustices which he said were done him by Pope Innocent his Guardian during his Minority in seizing upon and usurping his Regalities and Rights and even by Honorius also whom he accused to have contrary to all Justice exacted many things of him which he was constrained to yield so much against his will that so he might receive from him the Imperial Crown which he could not in Justice have dispenced with himself in denying to place it upon the Head of an Emperour so lawfully Elected and who had two several times before been Crowned The Pope who was very prudent and of a temper very soft and sweet was resolved not to carry matters to Extremity and therefore he answered to these Complaints that he was a Father and that his Son though he were disobedient and undutiful yet was not therefore either a Stranger or an Enemy so long as there was any hope that he might return to his Duty He therefore satisfied himself to answer to the Complaints and Reproaches of Frederick with abundance of mildness in a long Letter which to speak properly was a Manifest or Apology for the Conduct of his Predecessors and his own year 1222 in reference to this Prince He exhorted him also by other Letters full of Tenderness and Reason seriously to recollect himself and to consider that as he was Emperor he was the Protector of the Church and that therefore he ought not to oppress her or take away her Liberties but to take pity of Christianity in the East which held up her suppliant hands to him from whom only she had hopes of being assisted But whether Frederick was moved by these Remonstrances of the Pope or whether he feared the dangerous consequences of this Rupture particularly in Lombardy where they began to form a great League against him it is certain that this procedure sweetned both Parties and that the Emperor satisfied the Pope taking all his Dominions into his Protection and that the Pope during all his Pontificate never proceeded further than these Menaces and Anathema's as may be seen plainly by the Letters of Honorius and that after this they both acted by Agreement for the Succour of the Holy Land in this following manner They had first a meeting at Veroli between the Cities of Anagnia and Sora where after a Consultation of five Dayes with the Cardinals they ordained that there should be another Conference to which were to be invited King John de Brienne the Legate Pelagius the Patriarch and the Great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who were better able than any others to give them such an understanding of these Affairs as might enable them to come to the last Resolution upon them After which the Emperor sent four Gallies to bring them over and upon their arrival this famous Conference was appointed to be held in Champagne in Italy the year following There it was that to ingage Frederick more strongly than ever to undertake this Holy War year 1223 it was agreed by common consent that this Prince who had in the preceeding year lost the Empress Constantia his Wife the Daughter of the King of Aragon should marry the Princess Jolante the Daughter of King John de Brienne the Heiress of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Conquest whereof it was believed he would take more Interest than before when it should be his own Estate for which he was to sight It was also ordained that in two Years he should part with all the Forces of the Empire at Midsummer to which those that were present and Parties obliged themselves by a Solemn Oath that whoever should fail in the performance of his Promise should be Excommunicate After which the Pope the Emperor and the King of Jerusalem parted every one to indeavour for his part according to his power to dispose all things for this Holy War which was to be begun two Years after For this purpose the King of Jerusalem who was able to do nothing more in Europe but to sollicite the Princes to contribute their part to this War went to desire the Assistance of England Spain Germany and above all in France where he arrived a little before the Death of Philip the August his Benefactor and Protector This great Prince who had laboured under a Quartan Ague for above a Year and who nevertheless did not cease to visit his Provinces and always to carry himself as a Great King with all the strength imaginable of a Soul which did not seem to be concerned at the weakness of the Body died this Year at the Castle of Mante the fourteenth day of July in the eight and fiftieth Year of his Age and the three and thirtieth of his Reign which by the Glory of his Actions by his Heroick Qualities by his Power and by the Force of his Arms he had rendred the most flourishing of all that France had ever seen since that of Charlemagne And as he had worn the Cross in the third Crusade which was famous for the remarkable winning of the City of Ptolemais so he gave in his Will a Noble Testimony of the Zeal which he still preserved for the Glory of Jesus Christ and for the Deliverance of his Holy Sepulchre For among other Magnificent Effects of his pious Liberality which are therein to be observed for the comfort and relief of the Poor for the Deliverance and Ransom of the Wife of Amauri Count de Montfort who was a Prisoner amongst the Albigenses and for other Works of Christian Piety he bequeathed three hundred thousand Livres for the Relief of the Holy Land one hundred thousand to King John de Brienne and so much to each of the two great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital nor was his going of the Theater of the World less glorious than his Actions on it year 1223 for there being at that time a Council assembled at Paris against the Albigenses they all assisted at his Funerals as did also the King of Jerusalem who was also present at the Coronation of Lewis the eighth the Son and Successor of King Philip. As for the Pope he being perswaded that it was to be in his Papacy that Palestine was to be reconquered which was the thing of the World which he most desired he did all that lay in his power to render the Crusade following most numerous and powerful He sent new Preachers throughout Europe to excite the People to undertake it he writ to the Bishops to oblige them to preach it themselves and to collect all the Money which the Ecclesiasticks were obliged to contribute out of their Revenues towards the carrying on of the Holy War And in short he did all that it was possible for him to do to oblige the Christian Kings and Princes to make Peace among themselves and to join their Forces to those of the Emperor and to march in Person
a well known passion tied him and in which he expresseth himself in thoughts infinitely tender though at the same time full of that profound respect which he had lying so near his heart year 1236 So soon as he saw himself peaceably settled in his Dominions and that he believed himself safe on the side of Arragon the King of which Realm pretended some manner of ill grounded Title to that of Navarr he was resolved to accomplish the Vow which his Father Count Theobald had made when he took the Cross with the Earls of Flanders and of Blois He therefore took it himself and by his Example ingaged in the same Enterprise Hugh Duke of Burgundy Peter de Dreux surnamed Illclerk Duke of Bretagne John his Brother Count de Brain and Mascon Henry Count de Bar Guy Count de Nevers the Constable Amauri Count de Montfort the Counts de Joigni and Sancerre and many other Barons of France Navarr and Bretagne as the Counts Guiomar de Leon Henry de Goâ—tlo Andrew de Vitrey Raoul de Fougeres Geoffry de Avesnes and Fouques Paynel who all acknowledged him for their Head and General together with an infinite number of Crusades of France and Germany who waited only for a General of that high Reputation to conduct them year 1236 And certainly there was great probability of the Success of this third Effort which was about to be made happily to determine this Crusude if there had not happened Accidents which could not be foreseen which contributed extremely to the rendring it unfortunate and unsuccessful First by an unhappy Incounter it fell out that the Pope was obliged to publish in the same time another Crusade for the Relief of the Empire of Constantinople which was reduced to the last Extremity For the French as it is observed of them who know much better to make great Conquests in a little time than afterwards to preserve them very long were not so fortunate in keeping this Empire as they had been in gaining it the Emperor Baldwin the First lost it being taken prisoner in a Battle against the King of the Bulgarians who barbarously put him to death His Brother Henry who succeedeed him did truly for above ten Years hold it with great Success and Glory but his Successors found nothing of the same good Fortune For Peter de Courtenay Count d' Auxerre the Husband of Yolanda of Flanders Sister to the last Emperor having succeeded him was taken by treachery as he passed through Macedon to Constantinople and afterwards murdered by Theodore Comnenius Prince of Epirus and in a short time after the Empress who had taken her passage by Sea died of Grief at Constantinople after her delivery of the last Child she had by Peter her Husband Robert de Courtenay his second Son upon the refusal of his Eldest Brother Philip Count de Namur succeeded Peter in the Empire and had the Misfortune in his time to see it miserably dismembred For after he had lost a great Battle in Asia against John Ducas furnamed Vatacus the Successor and Son-in-Law of Theodore Lascaris the Conqueror took from him all that the French were Masters of on the other side the Bosphorus and the Hellespont And on the other side the Prince of Epirus won from him all Thessaly and a great part of Thracia insomuch that after his Death the French Barons seeing that his Brother Baldwin who was not above eight or nine years of Age was not in a condition to sustain the burthen of an Empire which was in so great disorder and attacked on all hands they sent to desire of the Pope to have King John de Brienne who was then the General of his Army for their Emperor assuring him that after his Death the Succession of the Empire should return to Baldwin who was to marry the Princess Mary his Daughter whom he had by his second Wife Berengera the Daughter of Alphonsus King of Castile It is true that this Emperor who was one of the greatest Captains of his time did in some measure re-establish the Affairs of this miserable Empire and with a poor handful of men he defeated a great Army which besieged Constantinople both by Sea and Land But at last two potent Armies Vatacus Emperor of the Greeks and Azen King of Bulgaria who had confederated against him attacked him on both sides with very great Forces whereas he had precisely no more men than were necessary to defend himself in Constantinople in which he was forced to shut himself up he was obliged to send Prince Baldwin his Son-in-Law to implore in Europe the Succours which he had so often desired and so long in vain expected and in the midst of these Transactions he died leaving to all Gentlemen in the History of his Life year 1237 an admirable Example by which they may learn by what ways they must expect in despight of all the disgraces of a malicious Fortune to raise themselves to the height of all earthly Greatness and Glories For he had nothing from his Father who would have constrained him contrary to his Martial Inclinations to devote himself to the Church notwithstanding which he made it his indeavour to find his good Fortune in himself and establish an Inheritance upon the Foundations of his Vertue and by that it was that he so well distinguished himself in the Court of Philip the August that that great Prince who knew how to esteem men for their Vertue judged him worthy not only of his Esteem but his particular Favour and after he had acquired a high Reputation for those Gallant Actions which together with his Brother he performed in Italy he raised him to the Throne of Jerusalem from whence it seemed that Fortune had not made him descend but to mount him with more Glory by his Vertue to the Empire of the East from whence it is easie to observe that true Merit is the best supporter of such Noble Persons who indeavour to obtain the favour of Kings year 1237 who without this are apt to tumble those down for their Vices whom they had for their pleasure raised rather than for their Vertue In this time Baldwin his Son-in-Law and Successor to the Empire found the Pope so well inclined to assist him that as if he had now had no other concern but for the Establishment of the Empire of Constantinople he writ to the Kings of France England and Hungary and to all the Bishops of those Realms to exhort them to contribute the utmost of their power to the Aid of the Emperor Baldwin the Second even so far as to permit those who had undertaken the Crusade for the Holy Land to change their Vow to that of succouring Constantinople He caused also a new Crusade to be preached every where for that purpose and that the greatest part of the money which was designed for the Holy Land should be employed that way Hereupon the Emperor Baldwin went into France and from thence into England with
and that he would dispense with this Article of their Rule from which they could every day dispense with themselves in other points that were much more Essential For the Lord Joinville who executed his Orders most punctually going into one of their Gallies with a good Hatchet which he had already lifted up to break open one of their strong Coffers in the name of the King the Marshal of the Temple who found that he would be obeyed caused the Keys to be given him and thereupon he took out what Money he pleased and the King who was very well satisfied with the Action instantly caused to be paid to the Sarasins not only the thirty thousand Livres which was wanting of the Sum which was due but also ten thousand more of which they had cheated themselves without perceiving it in weighing the Money in their Scales So exact was this incomparable Prince religiously to observe his Word and Faith even to those who had none themselves and who had so brutally violated that which they had given him with so many horrible Oaths After which the Count de Poitiers whom the Sarasins set at Liberty being come up to the Road which Philip Count de Montfort where the King who after the Money was paid was now gotten and staid for them they set Sail and in a few Days came happily to an Anchor in the Port of Ptolemais where this great Prince was received with as much Joy for his deliverance as there had been sorrow for his Captivity THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The General Consternation all over France upon the News of the King's Imprisonment the Tumult the Shepherds their Original their Disorders and Defeat St. Lewis after his deliverance performs his Articles with great Justice The Admirals fail on their part The Original of the Hospital of the Fifteen Score The Councel debates the matter of the King's return The Reasons on the one side and the other It is at last concluded for his stay in Palestine Four Famous Ambassages to St. Lewis from Pope Innocent from the Sultan of Damascus from the Ancient of the Mountain and from the Emperor Frederick The Death of that Emperor and the different Opinions thereupon An Error of St. Lewis who loseth a fair opportunity of making use of one Party of the Sarasins to ruin the other The Election of a Mamaluke Sultan The gallant Actions of St. Lewis in Palestine The Death of Queen Blanch and the return of the King into France The Rupture and War between the Venetians and Genoese occasions the loss of the Holy Land The Conquests of Haulon Brother to the great Cham stops the Progress of the Sarasins The Relation of the Mamaluke Sultans They vanquish the Tartars which ravage Palestine The Character of Sultan Bendocdar the great Enemy of the Christians His Conquests upon them His Cruelty and the Glorious Martyrdom of the Souldiers of the Garrison of Sephet and of two Cordeliers and a Commander of the Temple The taking and Destruction of Antioch by this Sultan The quarrels between the Popes and the Princes of the House of Suabia obstruct the Succours of the West The Histories of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Conrade of Pope Alexander and Mainfrey against whom he vainly publishes Crusades The History of Charles d' Anjou to whom Pope Urban the Successor of Alexander and Pope Clement the Fourth give the Realms of Naples and Sicily as Fieffs escheated to the Church by Felony His Exploits his Battles and his Victories over Mainfrey and Conradin The deplorable Death of that young Prince The Victories of Charles cause the Pope and St. Lewis to entertain a Design for a new Crusade An Assembly at Paris about that Affair where the King the Princes and Lords take upon them the Cross All other Nations decline the Crusade The Collusion of the Emperor Michael Paleologus The Condition of the King's Army The Resolution taken to Attack Tunis and the Reasâ—ns wherefore The Description of Tunis and Carthage The taking of the Port the Tower and the Castle of Carthage The Malady makes great Destruction in the King's Army His Death Elogy and Character The Arrival of Charles King of Sicily The Exploits of the Army The Treaty of Peace with the King of Tunis who becomes Tributary to Charles The return of the two Kings their Fleet is horribly beaten by a Tempest Prince Edward of England saved his Vow to go to the Holy Land His Voyage his Exploits and his return The vain indeavours of Pope Gregory the Tenth for a new Crusade The second Council of Lyons The last causes of the loss of the Holy Land The quarrel among the Christian Princes for the Succession to the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Death of Bendocdar The defeat of his Successor by the Tartars The hopes of the recovery of all Palestine by the Arms of King Charles of Anjou ruined by the sad accident of the Sicilian Vespers The new division among the Princes and the Progress of the Mamaluke Sultans The Relation of the lamentable Siege and the taking of Acre by these Barbarians All the other places are lost and the Christians of the West wholly driven out of Palestine and Syria The vain and fruitless attempts which have since been made to renew the Crusades year 1250 WHilest matters went thus in the East the news which was received in France of the two Victories which the King had gained near Massora was followed with a false report which was currant of the defeat of the Sultan and the taking of Grand Caire And this coming from the Court of the Pope to whom the Bishop of Marseilles who had seen it in Letters Written to the Commandator of the Hospital of St. John had sent it Men being apt easily to believe that which they passionately desire there was no doubt made but it was true so that all was full of rejoycing even then when upon the suddain they were obliged to change this excessive joy into an extreme afflicton by the certain intelligence which they received of the loss of the whole Christian Army and the Captivity of the King and all the Princes And this Affliction was followed by most furious disorders year 1250 which were occasioned by the illusion and folly of some and the extreme Wickedness of others who made use of the simplicity of the former to commit with impunity the most detestable Crimes under the false pretences of Zeal and Piety for the deliverance of the King In Germany a Troop of Vagabonds mingled with young People and the Scum and Refuse of the Peasantry ran all over crying that they must make a Crusade for the deliverance of the Ring of France And a certain Hungarian Apostate of the Cistercian Order one of the most prosligate Villains in the World but very able and Learned in many Languages put himself at the
of Royal Majesty mingled with true Sanctity of Christianity without Illusion without Weakness and without Defaults And I cannot tell whether one can find another of whom may be said with so much Justice what I have said of this Christian Hero to finish in one word his Character and his Elogy That he Was the greatest King of a Saint and the greatest Saint of a King that ever any age hath known The Army of France was under an extreme consternation for the death of the Holy King and for the Indisposition of Philip his Successor and their was great probability that they should in that very moment abandon this unlucky Enterprise if the King of Sicily who was in a great measure by his long delay the Cause of this ill Success had not by a strange adventure arrived with a fair Fleet at the very same time that his Brother the King breathed out his last As he was a great Captain and that his Army which was composed of Neapolitans Sicilians and Provencals was very fresh and he having still in his head his first design to assure himself of the Kingdom of Tunis in at least making the Sarasin King become his Tributary he easily persuaded the French that it was for their Honour to finish the War which they had begun with so much Courage and which they might bring to a happy period being strengthened by the Conjunction of such a Potent Army as desired nothing so much as to be led to the Combat against the Sarasins Hereupon the Army advanced towards Tunis to block it up more closely and for three Months there were every day some little Encounters with the Moors who always went off with disadvantage And it is also reported that they were once overthrown in a set Battle that their Camp was taken and plundered and that such of them as fled thinking to save themselves in the City blindly precipitated themselves into those trenches which they had digged in the Fields with a design to have the Christians fall into them but in regard those of our Historians who writ in those times say nothing of any such matters I dare not be confident of the truth of them year 1268 That which is very certain is That the King of Tunis seeing that the Christians daily gained upon him and that he was always beaten fearing that in conclusion he should lose his Kingdom he sent to desire a Peace or at least a Truce offering to submit to such conditions as the two Kings themselves should judge to be fair and reasonable This matter was long debated in the Council of War in which many were of opinion that the Siege ought to be vigorously pressed on without hearkning at all to the Proposition of the Sarasin King who they said after the losses which he had sustained was in no Condition for any long time to defend the City But the King of Sicily remonstrated to them That if they should take the Town of which they were not to be too confident yet it was impossible for them to keep it in regard That though the whole Army might be commodiously quartered there it being now very near Winter they could not receive either from Italy or Sicily so much provision as was necessary for the subsistence of the Troops and that if they left there only a Garrison it would not be able to defend it against all the Forces of Africa which would most certainly attack it And therefore he concluded that the way for them to come off with Honor and safety in this Affair was rather to treat with the King of Tunis in an honourable and advantageous manner and like Conquerors rather to give him Law than to put themselves into the manifest danger of losing all Thus in regard that King Philip was also very willing to go as soon as he could to take possession of his Kingdom a Truce of ten years was concluded with this Insidel Prince upon these following Conditions That he should presently pay a round sum of Money upon which they were agreed to defray the Charges of the War That he should deliver all the Christian Slaves which were in his whole Realm That he should permit the Religious of the Orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis to preach the Gospel and to build Monasteries there and to all his Subjects Liberty to receive Baptism And that he should yearly pay to King Charles a Tribute of forty thousand Crowns which was the sum that the King paid to the Pope for the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily See what were the aims of Charles for his private Interest and what it was which made many honest People murmur against him as beleiving that he had no mind to take Tunis because he could not hope to dispose of it as he pleased and that he had not advised this War but for his own Ends to make this Sarasin King his Tributary Prince Edward of England also who arrived before Tunis with his Fleet at the same time that this Treaty was concluded could not hinder himself from making the extreme displeasure which he had at it appear publickly especially when he saw that the Fleets of France and Sicily without thinking any further of their principal design which was the Holy War were upon the point of returning home And indeed so soon as the King of Tunis who was very desirous to quit himself of these People who had put him into the fear of losing his Capital City and his Kingdom had delivered the Captives and paid the Money which was agreed upon by the Treaty the two Kings imbarked Philip with the Bones of his Father which according to the Custom of those times were separated from the Flesh and Charles with the Flesh and Entrals of that Holy King which he caused afterwards to be magnificently interred in the Church of the Abby of Montreal near Palermo And certainly it was very advantageous to these two Kings that they carried with them in their Ships the Sacred Remains of that Saint which preserved them from that Lamentable Wreck which the greatest part of the others suffered in View of the Port of Trepano in Sicily eighteen of the biggest men of War and a great number of smaller Vessels with all the Money which was received of the King of Tunis and above four thousand men were cast away in this Tempest and it was not without great difficulty that the Kings were able to make the Port of Trepano where Thibald King of Navarr who was sick before when he came from Tunis in a few days after his landing died Queen Isabella his Wife the Daughter of St. Lewis did not survive him long for about four Months after she died at Yeres in Provence And for King Philip having taken his way by Land as far as Messina he passed over into Italy and so crossing quite through it and France he came to St. Dennis year 1270 whither he brought the Relicks of the King St. Lewis his Father
Princes The Relation of the Conquests and Settlement of the Normans in Italy The Voyage of Bohemond Prince of Tarentum and the Princes that went along with him The Voyage of Raymond de Tholose of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia and the other Princes and Lords which accompanied them The Charaâ—ter of that Earl his Conference with the Emperor and the Treachery of that Prince The Voyage of Robert Duke of Normandy his Character and Treaty with the Emperor Page 1. BOOK II. The Description of the City of Nice in Bithynia and the Siege thereof by the Princes of the Crusade The Second and third Battle of Nice where the young Solyman was beaten The taking of that City and the Treachery of the Greek Emperor The March of the Christian Army One part thereof surprized by Solyman The Battle of the Gorgonian Valley The Progress of the Christian Army in the lesser Asia The great danger of Duke Godfrey and his Combat with a monstrous Bear The difference and little Civil dissention between Baldwin and Tancred Baldwin makes himself Master of the Principality of Edessa The entrance of the Christian Army into Syria The Description of the Famous City of Antioch It is besieged by the Princes The Relation of this famous Siege The Combat at the Bridge of Antioch The marvellous Actions of Duke Godfrey The Approach of Corbagath with a prodigious Army to relieve the City The Relation of the taking of Antioch by Bohemond by Intelligence in the City with one Pyrrhus The Christian Army at the same time besieged by Corbagath A Relation of the discovery of the top of a Spear which was believed to be that which pierced our Saviour's side The memorable Battle of Antioch where the whole power of the Turks and Sarasins in Asia was defeated by the Christians The death of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia The quarrel between Count Raymond and the Prince of Tarentum The taking of Marra A strange Relation of the gratitude of a Lyon The Seige of Arcas The odd Story of Anselm de Ribemond Earl of Bouchain and the deceased Engelram Son to the Earl of St. Paul The taking of Torlosa by a stratagem by the Vicount de Turenne The Sultan of Egypt takes Jerusalem from the Turks breaks his League with the Princes of the Crusade The Ambassadours of Alexis slighted The advantageous composition with the Emir of Tripolis The March of the Christian Army to Jerusalem Lidda Rama Nicopolis and Bethlehem taken by the Christians The extraordinary expressions of their Devotion upon the first discovery of the Holy City p. 33. BOOK III. The Present State of Jerusalem when the Christian Princes Besieged it The Destribution of their Quarters The ill 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 Sarasins 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 Abridgement 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 Balwin 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 Melisintha 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 if 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 St. 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 takes Lisbon from the Sarasins 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 p. 68. PART II. BOOK I. The Rereguard of the Kings Army Defeated in the Mountains of Laodicea for want of observing the Kings Orders The Description of that Combat A most Heroick Action of the King in an extreme Danger of his Life His March and admirable Conduct to Attalia The new Perfidy of the Greeks in Betraying the Royal Army The Arrival of the King at Antioch and his Difference with Prince Raymond The Conquenty March to Jerusalem where he is met by the Emperor Conrade The Councel at Ptolemais where the Seige of Damascus is resolved The Description of the City of Damascus The manner of the March of the Christian Army towards that City The Young King Baldwin makes the first Attack his Character and extraordinary Valour in the Attack against the Gardens and Suburbs of Damascus The great Combat upon the Bank of the River A brave Action of the Emperor Conrade An Account of the Siege of Damascus and the Treachery of the Syrians which occasioned the ill Success of that Enterprise The Return
of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice loseth the Opportunity of conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Raign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadours with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The reasons on one side and the other The best opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her Second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who enters Galilee and besieges Tyberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tyberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that Victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land p. 113. BOOK II. The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legates to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors Where the Arch-Bishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War recommences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guienne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to Combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this Emperor betrayed the Ltains The History of the False Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac And his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stratagem of the Emperor ' s. An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battle of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The Second Battle of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battle of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue p. 149 BOOK III. The Beginning of the Reign of Richard Coeur de Lyon King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelay between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accomodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Description of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a Second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jaffa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and Imprisoned His Deliverance The Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives occasion to a fourth Crusade p. 186. PART III.
Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcemet to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Souldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land Two great Armies of Sarasins besiege the Camp They atack the Lines and force them A great Combat within the Lines The Enemy at last repulsed The Arrival of St. Francis before Damiata His Conference with the Sultan The Battle without the Lines lost by the Crusades An Advantageous Peace offered to the Christians by the Sultan The Reasons for and against it It is at last rejected by the Legate Damiata taken by Night PART IV. BOOK I. THE Condition the manners and the Religion of the People of Georgia who resolve to joyn 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 description of this Legate An account of the miserable adventure of the Christian Army which by the inundation 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 the Princess Jolante the daughter of King John de Brienne Heiress of the Realm of Jerusalem John de Brienne is dispoiled of his Crown by his new Son-in-Law He puts himself under the Protection of the Pope Honorius The good Offices of the Pope to pacifie the Princes The death of Lewis the eight King of France He is succeeded by his Son Lewis the ninth The Death of Pope Honorius He is succeeded by Gregory the ninth The Portraict of this new Pope The Army of the Crusades much diminished by diseases The Emperor takes shipping He stays at Otranto where the Lantgrave of Thuringia dies A great rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Pope excommunicates him Their Manifests The Revenge which Frederick takes He passes at last into Syria His differences with the Patriarch and the Templers His Treaty with the Sultan his Coronation at Jerusalem his return and accord with the Pope The Conference of Spolata for the Continuation of the Crusade The History of Theobald the fifth Earl of Champagne and King of Navarr His Voyage to the Holy Land with the other Princes of the Crusade His description and his Elogy A Crusade published for the Succour of Constantinople An Abridgement of the History of the Latin Emperors there The Causes of the little Success of the King of Navarr's Enterprise A new Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Occasions thereof The deplorable effects of that breach which ruins the Affairs of the Holy Land The Jealousie among the Princes occasions their loss Their defeat at the Battle of Gaza The unsuccessful Voyage of Richard Earl of Cornwall The death of the Constable Amauri de Montfort His Elogy his Burial and that of his Ancestors and of Simon de Montfort in the Monastery of Hautebruiere A Council called at Rome The Pope's Fleet defeated by the Emperor's and the taking of the Legates and Prelates going to the Council The death of Pope Gregory The election of Celestin the fourth and of Innocent the fourth He breaks with the Emperor and retires into France BOOK II. THE Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the August House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The first Battle of Massore where the Count d' Artois is slain The second Battle and the admirable Actions of the King The Plague and Famine in the Camp An unfortunate Retreat wherein the whole Army is defeated and the King with all the Princes and Lords are taken Prisoners An Heroick Action of Gaucher de Chastillon in this Retreat The admirable Constancy of the King in his Imprisonment His Treaty with the Sultan The Original of the Mamalukes The Revolution in the Empire of Egypt by the Murder of the Sultan The Confirmation of the Treaty with the Admirals The King absolutely refuseth to take the Oath which these Barbarians would exact from him The Refutation of the
be ready to march against the Enemy the next day which was the twenty eighth of June being the Eve of the Apostle St. Peter and St. Paul This Order was received with a marvellous Chearfulness every one prepared his Arms and fell to his Devotions the Bishops and Priests Administred the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist all that Night to the Principal Officers and the greatest part of the Soldiers Upon break of Day the Army which by the nine Months Siege of Antioch was reduced to less than one half issued out by the Bridge-Gate divided into six great Batallions which followed one another every one sustained by a very small Squadron of Cavalry for that the greatest part of the Horses were dead and eaten by their Masters during the extream Famine and who this day were therefore constrained to serve on Foot Hugh the Great accompanied with the Earl of Flanders commanded the first Body the great Standard of the Christian Army being carried before him One shall not find in all the fabulous Histories of the feigned Heroes any thing comparable to the Actions of this brave Prince upon this Occasion he was so Meagre and Weak by reason of the extream Famine which he had indured in the Siege that he was scarce able to support himself insomuch that he was requested by the other Princes to stay with those who were left to guard the Retrenchments which were made against the Castle If it shall please God said he I will never lose so fair an Occasion of dying Gloriously for the sake of Jesus Christ I will this day Fight at the Head of the Army and I shall esteem myself extraordinary Happy to be of the number of those who by a Death precious in the Sight of God and full of Glory in the Sight of Men shall gain the glorious Crown of Martyrdom In short he was the first that marched out of the Town and who gave the first happy Presage of the Victory by cutting in pieces two thousand Turks who were advanced out of the Fort to hinder the Sally Duke Godfrey led the second Brigade composed of Lorrainers and Germans year 1098 The Duke of Normands followed after him with his Body After him the Bishop of Pavia with his Troops which were increased by a part of Count Raymond's who being sick remained in the Town with those who kept the Guard against the Castle Tancred led the fifth Batallion and the sixth was conducted by Bohemond There was little need of saying any thing to inspire the Soldiers with Courage who were already prepossessed with so advantagious Imaginations of certain Victory A little pleasant Dew which fell upon them as they marched out increased their Belief and consirmed them in an Opinion that God had sent it for their Refreshment and to give them an Increase of Strength And in effect whether there was any thing extraordinary in it at this time or that their Imagination impregnated with the favourable Visions which had been published among them acted more powerfully upon their Bodies they felt themselves strengthened in such a strange manner that they began to sing and with a mighty loud Voice to cry It is the Will of God it is the Will of God and made no manner of Scruple but that they were going to a most assured Victory So soon as all the Battalions were drawn out they marched Westward to that Quarter where the Mountains abutted upon the River to the end that having them upon their Backs they might not be surrounded by the mighty number of their Enemies after which making a half turn to the left towards the North where the Mountains make a kind of Semicircle they divided every Batalion into two thereby forming twelve which were ranged in two Lines extending a great length thereby to possess all the space between the Mountains and the Orontes Hugh the Great the Earl of Flanders and the Duke of Normandy had the left hand towards the Mountain which covered them Godfrey of Bullen was on the Right extending himself to the very River having Eustace his Brother to sustain him together with the Earls of St. Paul and Toul Baldwin de Bourg Renaud de Beauvais Valon de Chaumont Erard du Puiset and Tancred with his Brigade The Bishop of Pavia was in the middle having the main Body of the Battle with the Troops of the Earl of Tholose which in his Absence were Commanded by the Earls of Die and Rousillon William de Montpellier Gaston de Foix Prince of Bearne Amaneu d' Albret Raymond Viscount of Turene Raimbaud Earl of Orange and Peter Viscount de Castellane Raymond de Agiles Canon of Pavia writes in his History that he carried the Holy Spear before his Bishop who altho he was Armed for his own Safety yet fought no other way than by his Exhortations by his Voice and Gesture animating the Army in shewing them the Sacred Steel He also adds that by an extraordinary Wonder which ought to be attributed to the Faith which these Soldiers had in Christ Jesus whom they honoured in this Spear which they believed was Consecrated by his Blood not one Man of those who fought in that Body received any Wound in this terrible Day Bohemond Commanded the Body of Reserves Composed of his Batallion which was the strongest of them all there being divers other Troops added to his to the intent that he might send Succor to any of the rest which might be too hard pressed by the Enemy One part of the Clergy which came out of the City in Procession at the Head of the Army was placed in his Quarter to implore the Aid of Heaven during the Combat the other which were barefooted upon the Walls displayed the Cross and the Ensigns towards the Army continually giving them their Benediction and with grievous Groans accompanied with the lamentable Cries of the Women and Children who followed them begging the Almighty Protection of God against the wicked Enemies of his most Holy Name In the mean time Corbagath who had so mightily mistaken the Christian Army was ingaged in a Game at Chess when he was informed by a Signal from the Castle that they were issued out of the Town and finding contrary to his Opinion that they made Head that way with an intention to sight him he immediately gave out all necessary Orders for the receiving of them For he instantly sent Soliman the Sultan of Damascus with him of Alepo and a brave Turk whose Name was Karieth with two great Bodies of Cavalry and Infantry to go round about the Mountain upon the right Hand to fall upon the Rere of the Christians by the way of the Sea-Coast But the Princes perceiving it sent a great Detachment composed of several Troops drawn from the two Wings under the Command of Renaud Earl of Toul year 1098 to stop those who might attack them on that Quarter during the Combat to be short he ranged his Army partly upon the Hills which he
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
had before-hand complotted their Destruction there perished a hundred thousand men besides an infinite Number of Women who were led into miserable Captivity The Earl of Poitiers having lost all was reduced to the deplorable Necessity to make his Voyage on Foot Hugh the Great could not finish his but died by the way at Tarsus in Cilicia The Earl of Tholose making Use of the small Remainder of the Pilgrims to regain Tortosa from the Saracens who had seized it abandoned his Benefactors and fortified himself in his Conquest following the Design which he had always cherished to acquire some little Principality in the East The rest after having visited the Holy Places conducted by their ill Destiny compleated their Misfortunes by joyning with the King in this unhappy Battle only the Earl of Poitiers escaped having taken Shipping at Jaffa in order to his return into France the rest who stayed were either slain upon the Place as were the Earls of Blois and Burgogne or taken Prisoners as were the Earl of Bourges and many other brave though unfortunate Persons The King nevertheless escaped to Rama and in a few days having drawn together the Troops of Antipatris Tiberias Jerusalem and Jaffa into which Place he had put himself he made a Sally to so good purpose upon his Enemies who prepared to besiege him that in the End he constrained them to take their Flight leaving to him all the Marks of an absolute Victory the Field of Battle the Bodies of the Slain all their Engines and their Baggage After which he took Ptoelmais by the Help of the Genoese who besieged it by Sea with seventy Ships he a second time defeated the Saracens of Egypt in the Plain of Rama he took the City of Tripolis year 1105 which under the Denomination of an Earldom and the Condition of Homage he conferred upon Bertrand the Son of the Earl of Tholose year 1109 who was dead about four years before he made himself Master of Sidon Beritus and all the Sea-Coast Towns excepting Tyre which he kept blocked up by the Fortress of Scandalion which he caused to be built upon the Coast some five Miles from that City in the same place where Alexander the Great had formerly formed his Camp when he besieged that City In the End after having also built upon the further side of Jordan the Castle of Mont-Real to bridle the Incursions of the Arabians and having carried his Victorious Arms even into Egypt year 1118 he died of the Flux and was interred near his Brother Godfrey at the Foot of Mount Calvary in a Chappel adjoyning to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre He left the Christians in Possession of four large Soveraignties which they had conquered in the East the first was the Earldom of Edessa which extended it self from the further side of Euphrates to the River Tygris the second was the Principality of Antioch in which was comprized all the Country which is between Tarsus of Cilicia towards the West and the City of Maraclea on the East upon the Coast of the Phenician Sea as far as Tortosa It was afterwards governed by Roger the Cousin of Tancred after the Death of that brave Prince who had governed it till after the Deliverance of his Uncle and then returning into France he married Constance the Daughter of King Philip the first and after having made War in Epirus and in Dalmatia with the Greek Emperor he died in Italy leaving behind him a Son of his own Name The third was the Earldom of Tripolis which extends it self along the Sea-Coast of Phenicia beyond Maraclea as far as the River Adonis which runs between Biblis and Baruth The fourth was the Kingdom of Jerusalem which beginning at the same River stretches it self almost to the Castle of Daron upon the Frontier of Idumea near unto Egypt In this flourishing Estate stood the Affairs of the Christians in the East at the death of Baldwin the second His Brother Eustace Earl of Bullen who ought to have succeeded him was at that time in France and in Regard there was a Necessity that they should have a King who should be actually within the Kingdom year 1118 to maintain things in that Condition wherein they stood against so many Potent Enemies which they had upon all hands therefore the Earl of Edessa his Cousin Baldwin de Bourg who was at that time at Jerusalem was called to the Succession of the Kingdom which he took upon him leaving the Earldom of Edessa to Josselin Earl of Courtenay who was his Kinsman Now in Regard that it was in the Beginning of his Reign that the Order of the Knights Templers were first founded in his Palace and that it is requisite something should be said of these Knights as also of the other Order which was called Hospitallers I think it will not be amiss in a few Words to inform the Reader of the Original the Intention the manner of Living and the Employ of these Military Orders which were established in Palestine under the first Kings of Jerusalem It is certain that before the Christian Princes had conquered the Holy Land there were Hospitallers at Jerusalem whereof some received and Entertained the Pilgrims which came from all Parts of Christendom to visit the Holy Places and others of them had the Charge of the Poor Sick and Diseased People and particularly of the Lepers of which there were great Numbers in those times Those who were called the Hospitallers of St. Lazarus are far more Ancient than the first of these as appears by the great Number of Hospitals and Insirmaries of the Name of St. Lazarus which were wholly intended and principally in the East for such as were afflicted with the Leprosie St. Gregory Nazianzen assures us that St. Basil built one at Cesarea dedicated to the same Saint the supposed Protector of the Lepers and that he gave Rules to these Charitable Hospitallers who devoted themselves to the Service of those diseased People As for the others who made Profession to serve the Pilgrims of the Holy Land they were not in being till a long time after that the Merchants of Amalphi in Italy who trafficked into Syria obtained Permission of one of the Caliphs to build a Monastery near the Holy Sepulchre to which they added a Hospital and an Oratory dedicated to St. John the Eleemosynary there to receive the poor Pilgrims as well as the sick and diseased For after they were embodied into a Community as formerly they took Care only of the Infirm and Leprous so now there were others who were particularly appointed to attend the Pilgrims and both the one and the other were indifferently called Hospitallers they lived a long time in this peaceable Exercise of Charity under one Superior who was called the Master of the Hospital until that after tho Conquest of Palestine by the Princes of the Crusade they took up Arms not only for the Desence of the poor Pilgrims but also to serve the Kings of
Dom Roderigo de Bivar so well known in the World under the Glorious Name of Cid After the Death of Ferdinand he linked himself to Dom Alphonso King of Leon and rendred him such Important Services in both his Fortunes that that Prince after the Death of his two Brothers Dom Sancho and Dom Garchia succeding to all the Estates of his Father Ferdinand he gave him in Marriage his Daughter Theresa whom he had by his first Wife Chimena de Gusman He himself also marrying the Princess Constantia the Daughter of the Duke of Burgundy and Aunt to Prince Henry to whom he also gave the City of Porto and sometime after all the Estate which he held in Portugal year 1147 which in his Favor he Erected into the Dignity and Title of an Earldom It is said also that he sent him with the Princes of the first Crusade to the Conquest of the Holy Land whereupon all Occasions he Signalized his Courage and his Conduct But in regard we find no Traces of this Voyage in the Authors his Contemporaries who have written very exactly of that War I think I ought not to Incur any Displeasure if I give little Credit to some of the Historians of Portugal who upon very weak Conjectures have been pleased to Rank among the Heroes of that famous Crusade the Illustrious Head of the House of Portugal though he had such a sufficient Stock of true Glory as not to stand in need of searching for that which may with so much Justice be disputed That which he hath which is most certain is that this admirable Earl after having Defeated the Moors in seventeen pitched Battles and Conquered from them the greatest part of Portugal which he added to that which his Father-in-Law had given him in absolute Soveraignty he dying left this new Earldom to his Son Alphonso who gloriously changed it into a Kingdom For he was Solemnly proclaimed King in the Field of Battle at the memorable Day of Ourique where he defeated the Army of five Moorish Kings who had Assembled against him all their Forces which consisted in more than four hundred thousand Men. The five Kings lay upon the Place Buried in the Heaps of the dead Bodies of their Soldiers who were piled one upon another in Memory whereof the new King who believed that during the Battle he had seen Jesus Christ upon the Cross who promised him the Victory changed the Cross Azure in the Field Argent which his Father had taken for his Coat Armor into five Escoucheons Azure every one charged with five Besants Argent in Saltire to which afterwards was added a Border Gules charged with seven Castles Or. This is that valiant King Descended from a Prince of the most August House of France from whom in a direct Line Male Issued the other sixteen Kings who Reigned till the time of Cardinal Henry for six Hundred Years in Portugal whose Dominions Extended afterwards into three other Parts of the World Affrica Asia and America where the Heroick Piety and Courage of the Portugese by finding a new Passage to the Indies have Established the Empire of Jesus Christ as well as that of their own Nation and as one of their Rivers having for some time hid it self under the Earth afterwards appears again and runs much greater than before so doth the Illustrious Blood of our Kings which hath so long run in the Royal Channel of Portugal at length after having for more than sixty Years ceased to appear in its natural Place the Throne of Portugal which it ought to fill begin in our days to Recover it self with the Applause of all the World in the Person of King John the Fourth the Head of the Royal House of Braganza who besides that he Possesses all the Title of the Infanta Catharina is also Descended in the direct Masculin Line as also from that of John the First from whom are Issued the last Kings unto Sebastian But it was this great Alphonso the Son of Earl Henry and first King of Portugal who after he had taken Santaren and all the places about Lisbon Besieged that great City which was Defended by above two hundred thousand Men. After he had unprofitably spent a whole Month in the Siege having but a few Troops in comparison of such a Number of Defendants he began to despair of his Enterprise when he discovered this great Fleet at Sea which he imagined to be that of the Affrican Kings but he presently after perceived by the Cross which they bore in their Flags that it was a Christian Fleet. He sent immediately to be satisfied what they were and upon what Design and being informed that it was a Party of Crusades who were going against the Infidels he went Aboard the Admiral and proposed to the Captains the Conquest of one of the fairest Cities in the World from those Enemies which they were going to Search for in Syria He Remonstrated to them That God had presented to them a fair Occasion for the present Accomplishment of their Vow in Combating for the Glory of Christ Jesus against his Enemies and that without exposing themselves by the Hazard of the Sea to the Danger of never Combating them at all That they would acquire more Honor by taking Lisbon with the Assistance of those few Portugeses who Besieged it than they could possibly hope for year 1147 by joyning in Syria with two such Puissant Armies as were those of the Emperor and King of France to which they would be Esteemed as nothing and besides that the Recompence which they might expect would be incomparably greater giving them the Word of a King that they should share the Conquest with him There was no necessity for him to say more to persuade People who sought nothing but Occasion to Fight against the Sarasins they with Joy accepted the Offer of the King and presently gave Order for the Disimbarking of their Troops and went to take their Post upon the West Quarter the King with his Army being already Incamped on the East Side of the City in the place where now stands the Monastery of St. Vincent If the Attacque was Hot Furious and often repeated by the Portuguese and the Crusades the Resistance was no ways less on the part of the Moors who far surpassed the Christians in Number This made the Siege last four Months till the twenty fifth day of October when the City was in the End taken by Assault all the romainder of the Sarasins being put to the Sword thereby to Extinguish that accursed Race of Men. Thus this new Kingdom of Portugal which was Founded by a French Prince was owing for the glorious Conquest of its Capital City principally to the Valour of the French Men they being the greatest Number of this Naval Army for tho there were English and other Nations among them yet anciently the Title which the Portuguese gave indifferently to all Strangers was that of French Men. The King also Imployed them in the taking
Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Reign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadors with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to Elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The Reasons on one side and the other The best Opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which Recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who Enters Galilee and Besieges Tiberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tiberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land year 1148 AFTER so fair a Victory the Greeks who could by no means indure the Glory and the Advantages of the French began more openly to declare themselves against them than before for now they plainly joyned with the Turks to whom they afforded not only a Retreat to Antioch in Pisidia but gave them also the Opportunity with Ease to Assemble and Re-unite their scattered Troops Whilest in the mean time the King was in great Straits for Subsistence and finding himself in no Condition to Attaque them in so strong a Place drew towards Laodicea a large City but not so well Fortified as to be in a Condition to Resist him and there he hoped to meet with some Refreshment for his Army He arrived there three or four days after the Battle but to his great Disappointment he found by the Baseness of him that Commanded there for the Emperor that there was no manner of Provision for the Army It was this wicked Villain who pretending to Convoy a party of the poor Germans who had saved themselves after their Defeat lead them into an Ambuscade of Turks who put them all to the Sword and with whom as it was before Agreed he divided their Spoil This Infamous Traitor fearing it seems that the French would be Revenged of him for his Treachery or else that imagining he should not be able to Betray them in the same manner he was resolved to do them a greater Mischief after having caused all the Inhabitants to Retire with their Goods and Provisions to the Woods and Mountains went himself to seek a Refuge among the Turks so that the King was obliged to stay there till those Fugitives could be found and perswaded to return year 1148 after which loading their Waggons and Sumpters with Provisions which the King who was for rendring Good for Evil would have them paid for the Army decamped and took the way of Pamphilia that so they might by Marching near the Sea have a more commodious Passage and meet with better Plenty of Forrage and Subsistence And tho they knew that both the Greeks and the Turks Coasted along with them tho at a great Distance yet they were esteemed such contemptible Enemies and the French were so Confident after the Victory they had gained that there was too little care taken to stand upon their Guard But this Presumption as it usually happens did not fail to be very Pernicious to this Army which was unfortunately beaten by the Turks by the Fault of one Man who neglected to observe the Orders which were wisely Established by Military Discipline the Army following the Custom of those Times was divided only into two Bodies one of which composed the Vanguard and the other the Rereguard To avoid Jealousies these two Bodies were every day Commanded by two of the Principal Lords who under the King took their several Turns the King sometimes Marching with one sometimes with the other Every Night they Assembled in Councel at which all the Lords Assisted where Orders were issued out concerning the Way of the next days March and the Place where the Army was to Encamp Now there happened to be in the Way which they must of necessity pass a mighty high Mountain extream difficult of Access by reason of the dangerous Narrowness and broken Craggs and Rocks where the Army must file off The King therefore following the Resolution which had been taken at the Councel gave Order that they should Encamp on the Top of the Mountain and that they should pass the Night there and the next Morning descend into the Plain in order of Battle He who led the Vanguard that Day was Geoffry Rancon of Poitiers Lord of Taillebourg who carried the Royal Standard according to the Custom next the Orislame at the Head of this Vanguard The Count de Morienne the King's Uncle with the Queen and all the Ladies of Quality were there also by very good Fortune going before that so they might come in better time to the Place where they were to Incamp The King who usually chose the Place where there was most Danger had put himself into the Rere that so he might make Head against the Enemies if they should attempt to Follow or Molest him as they had done at the Battle of Meander Geoffry Arrived at the Mountain in very good time and seeing the Sun yet of a great height and his Guides telling him that if he did but make a little the more Hast he might Incamp far more Commodiously in one of the fairest Plains of all Asia where he should meet with all sorts of Refreshments for the Army forgetting therefore the Orders of the King with extream Rashness he descended from the Mountain and Marched a great way to that agreeable Place which had been shewed him supposing that the Arrierguard not finding him upon the Mountain would certainly follow him But he took very false Measures and in deceiving himself in this manner occasioned the Loss of the other part of the Army which was more miserably deceived by him For the very same Reason which made him March forward from the Mountain to gain the Valley made the others also seeing the Sun so high to make no hast to get to the Mountain where they doubted not but to find him Encamped according to the King's Orders By this means the Turks who Coasted all
who advised the Seising upon Constantinople and which occasioned the Loss of such a fair Army as if it had begun with that Enterprise so just so easy and so necessary might gloriously have Triumphed over the whole East and absolutely assured the Christians of the Possession of the Holy Land But it is the common Weakness of the greatest part of Mankind not to know what they ought to do till for want of doing it all is so far lost that when they would they want the Power proportionate to the Will But as for this persidious City it was afterwards equally Punished both by God and the Greek Emperor though for very different Reasons For God to revenge the Inhumane Treachery with which they had treated the French sent such a Pestilence amongst the Inhabitants a short time after as swept away the greatest part of them and the Emperor out of Madness that they had assisted the French with Provisions and Shipping laid such a Mulâ—t upon them as drained them of all their ill gotten Gold and Silver year 1148 and reduced the Remainder to extream Poverty An Instance from whence we may learn that Injustice Oppression and Cruelty in the Conclusion prove more mischievous to the Actors than to the Sufferers In the mean time the King who had taken the Sea with all the great Lords and the remainder of the Cavalry which might yet compose a considerable Army came happily to an Anchor at the Port of St. Simeon upon the Mouth of the Orontes about four or five Leagues from Antioch into which place he made his Entry upon the 19th Day of March and was received with all manner of Magnificence by Prince Raymond who was Uncle by the Mother to Queen Eleoner Now this Prince passionately desiring that the King should immediately enter upon a War in Syria to conquer for him Aleppo and the other places belonging to the Principality of Antioch which were yet possessed by the Turks there was no sort of Artifice which he did not put in practice to oblige him to undertake it He had Recourse to all manner of Submissions and Prayers he made use of the Solicitations of the Queen his Niece he made magnificent Presents to all the French Lords and in short he omitted no kind of Reasons but pressed them with his utmost force both privately and in Council to persuâ—de the King that it must be not only for his own Interest and Glory but for that of all that part of Christendom in the East But at length he perceived that he laboured but in vain The King whether it were that he feared to engage himself in so long and so daâ—gerous a War for the particular Interest of Prince Raymond or whether it were that some certain Intrigues which the Queen had in Antioch which no doubt did not please him obliged him to leave that City he always answered Raymond that he was fully resolved in the first place to go and pay his Vows at the holy Sepulchre So that as it commonly happens that one violent Passion easily passeth to another Extream this Prince being insinitely exasperated by that Refusal and it may be not a little animated by another Passion in his Niece to which he joyned his he entertained such a mortal Hatred against the King that there was nothing which he did not resolve to do to revenge himself For this reason the King who knew he was to apprehend all things from a Spirit so furiously transported that he valued not what he did secretly conveyed himself by Night out of the City in a manner not very well becoming the Majesty of so great a Monarch and taking the Queen along with him not much to her Satisfaction he went and joyned his Troops which were encamped under the Walls and marched directly towards Jerusalem where the Emperor Conrade was already arrived from Constantinople where he had passed the Winter For that Prince who was resolved to accomplish his Vow and who by reason of the small Remainder of his Troops which were left after his Misfortune gave no Jealousie to Manuel easily obtained from him Shipping to transport himself and his Troops in the Spring by Sea as he did to Ptolemais or Acon from whence he passed by Land to Jerusalem Alphonsus Earl of Tholose and Son to the brave Raymond who had so great a Part in the first Crusade coming at the same time to the same Port took another Way all along by the Sea-Coast but he was stopped in his Journey by a deplorable Death as he passed by Cesarea being unfortunately poysoned one Evening at his Supper without ever being known either for what Reason or by what Person that execrable Fact was committed It was no sooner known at Jerusalem that the King who it was feared would have stayed at Antioch according to the earnest Desires and Sollicitations of Raymond was parted from thence and that he took the Way of Tripolis but that King Baldwin who feared lest the Earl of Tripolis should also press him strongly to stay there sent immediately to him Fulcherius the Patriarch to propound to him such Reasons as he believed would oblige him to make what haste he could to Jerusalem where the Emperor had now been for some time that so there they might take some good and solid Resolution for the common and publick Advantage of Affairs To this the King who desired nothing more easily accorded and therefore kept on his way without staying any where till he arrived at the Holy City There he was received with most extraordinary Honours year 1148 all the Princes the Prelates and Clergy in Procession followed by a Multitude of the People met him with great Acclamations singing as they did to the Son of God Blessed be he that cometh in the Name of the Lord whilst he made his Entry into the City as it were in Triumph After which all the Princes and Prelates accompanied him to visit the Holy Places which he did with a great Piety and Devotion This being done it was resolved that there should be a General Assembly held at Ptolemais whither all the Bishops and the Lords of Palestine and Syria might easily come by Sea where by common Consent the last Resolution was to be taken upon what was to be undertaken for the Security of the Christians in the East There never was a more illustrious Assembly seen in Palestine than this which was honoured with the Presence of so many great Princes There was the Emperor Conrade accompanied with the Cardinal Theodin Bishop of Porto and the Great Men of the Empire who stayed with him among whom the principal were Otho of Fribourg his Brother by the Mother Frederick Duke of Suabia his Nephew the Bishops of Metz and Toul as Princes of the Holy Empire as also the Bishop of Basle Henry his Brother Duke of Austria Berthold afterwards Duke of Bavaria William Marquis of Montferat Guy Earl of Blandras and Herman Marquis of Verona The King came attended with
Designs and judges all things Lawful which seem necessary to obtain Dominion being his predominant Vice This Prince who was not able to indure so much as the apparition or Shadow of Soveraignty that was above him Massacred the Caliph and all that he could find of his Relations making this his Pretext That he had discovered a Plot of the Caliph and his Friends who had the same Intention towards him After which he gratified the Soldiery with such prodigious Largesses out of the Treasures of that Prince that they became his perfect Idolaters and resolved to expose all they had for his Service and Glory And having thus established himself in the independent Soveraignty of Egypt which he looked upon as the first Stage of his Greatness and the Carrier of his Ambition he began now to entertain the lofty and aspiring Thoughts of Conquering all the East And now it was that the Christians found themselves wedged in between two most potent and redoubtable Enemies Noradin upon the East North and West and Saladin upon the South The Apprehension therefore of the extreme Dangers with which they were Surrounded made them begin to think of doing all that possibly they could for their own Security For this Purpose they sent Frederick Archbishop of Tyre to implore the Succours of the Princes of the West and to attack Saladin by Sea and Land with all their Forces year 1169 before he was well Established in his new Dominions But all in vain for Amauri though Assisted by a mighty Navy from the Greek Emperor laying Siege something too late to the City Damiata which lyes upon the second Branch of the River Nilus over against Pelusium was constrained by the excessive Floods and the want of Provisions to raise his Siege and the Navy was miserably lost partly burnt by the Fires which the Enemies threw among them and partly drowned by a fearful Tempest which wracked the greatest part of them in their Return And the Archbishop Frederick after having unprofitably Toiled more than two Years in the West where the Affairs were too much embroiled by civil Dissentions returned without any other Effects of his Ambassage than fair Words and fruitless Promises In this time Saladin who was resolved to make use of this Advantage year 1170 which the Disorder of the Christian Army offered him entred into Palestine with forty thousand Horse and took Gaza which was the Key of the Country on that Side towards Egypt and the Sea And not long after having levied a great Army both of Horse and Foot he Marched on the right Hand by Idumea that so he might secure another Passage and fell upon the Country on the other side of Jordan where he made a most horrible Devastation On the other side the Army of Noradin year 1170 did the same about Antioch and in Phoenicia where the terrible Earth-quake which was felt throughout the whole East had made such fearful Disorders overturning the Towers and throwing down the Walls of the greatest part of the Cities as if it were to facilitate the Conquests of Saladin who was the Scourge of God the Attila of those Times who was destined to Punish the Crimes of the Christians of Syria and Palestine In short to perfect the Misfortune the King who opposed himself with an invincible Conrage against all the Attempts of so many potent Enemies died in the eight and thirtieth Year of his Age just in the very Instant when he was about to make considerable Advantages of the Death of Noradin who was carried off by a Fever a little before And this deplorable Accident which happened in so critical an unlucky Minute occasioned so many Domestick Troubles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as were the concluding Causes of its Ruine This Prince left for his Successor his only Child Baldwin the Fourth who besides the Impotence of his Age being not above three years old was also tainted with a scurvy Distemper which in Conclusion became a Leprosy Raymond Earl of Tripolis his nearest Kinsman being Cousin-german to the late King by the Mother had the Regency during his Minority and in that time Saladin who never missed any Occasion to advance his Power Siezed upon Damascus by a Correspondency which he had with the Widow of Noradin whom he married and in short time after he took most of the considerable Places in Syria dispoiling the young Prince the Son of Noradin after he had Defeated his Uncle the Sultan of Nineveh who came to Assist him of all his Dominions At the same time he entred into a League with the Earl of Tripolis who ingaged not to Assist his Enemies provided that for the remainder of their Ransom he set at Liberty certain Prisoners of Quality which he kept in the Castle of Emessa who had been taken by Noradin some eight Years before Thus this Infidel Prince rendred himself more Potent than ever by the Advantage of this Treaty which gave him intire Liberty to Conquer the whole State of Noradin both on this and the other side of Euphrates and Mesopotamia year 1177 as also all that the Sultan of Nineveh Possessed in Syria It is true that King Baldwin after he came out of his Minority did what was possible for him to do in the Intervals of his Distemper to oppose the Progress of the Conqueror and that he obtained many considerable Advantages against him But at length his Distemper increasing he was obliged to chuse some of the Nobility to Govern under him and this Choice occasioned those Emulations and Divisions in the Realm which at the last completed its Ruin For as when once a Soveraign Prince becomes unable by Diseases to mannage his own Affairs he usually grows very Jealous and Suspicious and full of Fears to be Betraied by those to whom he is obliged to trust with so great a Charge Baldwin seeing himself reduced to this piteous Condition and fearing least Bohemond the young Prince of Antioch and Raymond Earl of Tripolis should attempt something against him under pretext of his Distemper which rendred him unable to Govern in his own Person he therefore without that just Deliberation which an Affair of that Importance required gave Sybilla his Sister who was the Widow of William Longsword the Marquis of Montferrat in Marriage to Guy de Lusignan a young French Lord the third Son of Hugh the Brown Earl of March and Lord of Lusignan who had made the Voyage by Sea with King Lewis the Young and creating him Earl of Jaffa and Ascalon year 1180 he declared him Governor of the Realm to the mighty Discontent of the most of the great Lords who thought themselves more worthy of that Honor. But it was not long before he had Occasion to Repent of his Choice for he found by Experience that he had but little Capacity for the Charge and less Courage as he made appear a little after in a fair Opportunity which he had to Defeat his Enemies if he durst have sought with them For
their Empire and delivering them into the Hands of the Philistins Chaldeans and other Infidel People who were the Executioners of his Justice so did he punish the horrible Crimes of the Christians whom he had brought into Palestine by the victorious Arms of the first Crusades by depriving them of that Kingdom and abandoning them to be Slaves to those People whom their Ancestors had with so much Glory so often vanquished But farther to give some natural Reason for this Change the first Conquerors of Palestine were warlike and most valiant Men accustomed to Fatigues and such as frankly exposed themselves to all manner of Dangers and were never known to recoil let the number of their Enemies which they were to incounter be never so Prodigious they esteemed it a Happiness to dye Martyrs in combating gloriously for the Faith and for the Name of Jesus Christ And the Orientals against whom they fought were at that time little skilled in Wars cowardly undisciplin'd and half-armed People who were not able to abide above one Shock as having nothing to trust to but their Bows and Arrows which they shot at Rovers and commonly rather slying than fighting Whereas on the contrary the Christians having exchanged with the Infidels for all their Vices had also gotten their Cowardice their esseminate and idle way of Living loving Repose and Pleasure and hating the trouble of War and the Severity of that Discipline which is so necessary to a Soldier and which they wholly neglected The Turks and Sarasins on the other hand were become mighty Warlike under their victorious Sultans Sanguin Noradin Syracon and Saladin who having learnt at their Cost to arm themselves like the Europeans with good Curiasses and strong Lances had also taught them to follow their Colours year 1188 to fight hand to hand and had inspired them with Courage and Considence both by their Examples and the fortunate Success of their Arms. And in short The Conquerors of the Holy Land under the first Kings were under one sole Head who uniformly governed the whole Body of his Estate and Army which acted according to the Measures which he prescribed with a perfect Unity without Division without diversity of Interests Inclinations and Opinions as if the whole Army had been as one Man according to the Expression so frequent in the Scripture Whereas the Turks and Sarasins were then divided almost into as many particular Estates as there were Cities in Palestine and Syria and therefore could raise no great Armies but what must be commanded by many Chiefs who for the most part never accorded very well by reason of the diversity of their Opinions and Interests which made them almost continually be overthrown though they were incomparably the stronger in number of Soldiers than their Conquerors But upon the falling of the Realm the Christian Army was composed of the Troops of diverse Chiefs those of the King of Jerusalem the Prince of Antioch the Earl of Tripolis and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who all of them had different Prospects and Designs which did not at all agree one with the other On the contrary all the Estates of the Infidels bordering upon the Christians Egypt Arabia Mesopotamia the Realms of Damascus and Cilicia were at that time united into one single Monarchy under the great Saladin and so their Army had but one Captain and Head who being most Wise and Valiant gave one Impression and a constant regular Movement to this great Body which did not act but according to his positive Orders And certainly it is most particularly this Unity which hath always made great Armies Victorious as may be seen in all Ages and Histories but was never more manifested than in this last Campaign which was so glorious and so advantageous to the King of France For on the one part the Emperour and the Spaniards and great part of the Princes of the Circles of the Empire and the Hollanders being leagued and confederated against him had raised very strong and numerous Armies to invade France both by Sea and Land On the other side that King alone without imploying any other Power but his own and giving out himself those Orders which were with Fidelity Executed always prevented them I do not say from entring but so much as approaching France Beat them thoroughly to the very Islands and in Person by main Force conquered one fair and large Province and his Army alone in Flanders under his auspicious Fortune commanded by the famous Prince of Conde having to oppose them three great Armies of the Emperour the King of Spain and the Hollanders joyned in one Body under three Chieftains yet cut in pieces their Rere took their Baggage ravished from them more than one hundred Colours and shamefully chased them from before Oudenard and pursued them beyond the Scheld And there it was that their Commanders having at last the Leisure to take Breath and to complain one to another were constrained to avow by their Flight which they disguised under the name of a Retreat that as there is but one Soul in one Body to give it Life Movement and the Power to perform those admirable Operations of a Man so there ought to be but one absolute Monarch in a Kingdom and one General in an Army to procure the Felicity of the People and to inable them to triumph gloriously over all the Enemies which go about to trouble their Repose or rob them of their Happiness But after these Reflections which I have made according to my little Art in Politicks which possibly will not appear altogether Useless or at least Indivertive it is time to return to my Subject and pursue this History of the Crusade THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART II. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legats to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors where the Archbishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War re-commences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guinne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this
Emperor betrayed the Latins The History of the false Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac and his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stranagem of the Emperor's An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battel of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The second Battel of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battel of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the Length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue year 1188 THe sad news of the loss of Jerusalem and the deplorable estate into which the fortune of the Christians was reduced in the East made a mighty Change upon the Spirits and a strange Revolution of all the Affairs of the West Pope Vrban III. who was then at Ferrara was so strangely surprized with it that in a Moment he found himself seized and pierced with such an excessive and as it proved a mortal Grief which in a little time after he had heard it carried him to his Tomb. Gregory VIII who succeeded him and was chosen the very next Day after his Decease at the same time writ most pressing and passionate Letters to all faithful Christians exhorting to take up the Cross for the Recovery of the Holy Land promising to them the same Graces which his Predecessors the Popes Vrban II. and Eugenius III. had granted to those who were enrolled upon the two first Crusades And to appease the Wrath of God by Humiliations and by the Sufferings of voluntary Penitences he ordained That throughout all Christendom for the space of five Years the Fast of Friday should be observed with the same Austerity that it was in the time of Lent And besides the Abstinence upon Wednesdays and Saturdays he obliged himself and all his Brethren the Cardinals and Bishops exactly to observe the like Abstinence upon every Monday By which Method he made upon the suddain such a wonderful Reformation in the Court of Rome that the Cardinals did not only voluntarily submit themselves to the Rigour of this Penitence but did of themselves without any Command from him which certainly must strangely surprize my Readers oblige themselves to very strict Rules for their way of Living and the Reformation of their Manners such as certainly could not proceed but from Hearts perfectly contrite and humbled before God thereby to satisfie his Justice and to implore his Mercy and his Pity For being with the Pope's Consent assembled to deliberate among themselves upon what ought to be done for the Service of the Church in this pressing Necessity they resolved and most religiously promised one to another to observe these following Articles year 1188 That they would retrench in their Families what soever was superfluous and whatever had too much of the Pomp and Vanity of the present World That they themselves would for Example be the first who would take up the Cross and not only preach it by their Words but by their Actions That for this purpose they would neither make use of Horses Mules or Litters but that they would constantly go on soot so long as the Feet of the Turks and Sarasins defiled that Holy Land which Jesus Christ had sanctified by his Presence and sacred Steps That they would go in Person themselves before the rest into Palestine without any other Equipage except the Cross and the Poverty of Jesus Christ living upon Alms. And lastly at their Return that they would no more receive any Presents from those who had Affairs in the Court of Rome but content themselves with what was strictly necessary for their living in that modest Way which was conformable to their Condition These were their great Resolves And truly I am of Opinion that without doing any Injury to the Memory of these good Cardinals one may lawfully say that their Devotion in the Transports of its first Heats carried them something further than the Limits of a holy Discretion would have prescribed to them Nor is it to be found in History that these brave Resolutions produced those Effects which they seemed to promise and which might have been expected from them possibly because whilst they would do too much they did too little by that Weakness which is so commonly incident to Mankind to fall very much below when they come to repent themselves of having gone too high above those just Measures which a wise Man after he hath once taken will be sure in all things to observe most exactly After this Gregory seeing that it was impossibly that the Design of Succouring the Holy Land should prosper so long as the Christian Princes of Europe were engaged in Wars among themselves he resolved to send his Legates to bring them to an Accord at least to conclude a Truce for certain Years And that he might do something on his part towards such an excellent Work he went in Person with the Deputies of Genoua to accord the Differences which had occasioned a War between them and Pisa But as he laboured very happily in re-uniting these two potent Republicks who in conclusion embraced that Spirit of Peace wherewith he endeavoured to inspire them he was seized with a Tertian Ague and Fever which in a few days carried him off in the second Month of his Pontificate Clement III. who in twenty days after succeeded him confirmed all that he had done and pursued the same holy Enterprise with the very same Zeal He was admirably seconded by the Negotiation of William Archbishop of Tyre who was come to implore the Assistance of the Christian Princes This is that great Man who with so much strength of Judgment writ the History of the Holy War which he continued till a little before the death of Baldwin IV. and who after he had so often managed the greatest Affairs of that Realm whereof he was the Chancellor was at last sent Ambassador into the West upon the hope that he would negotiate in a different manner than the Patriarch Heraclius had done whom he much surpassed in all manner of Abilities
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
Archbishops of Besanson Nazareth and Montreal on the further side of Jordan The English were posted more to the East under the Conduct of Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert Bishop of Salisbury and Ranulph de Glanvile Next to them were the Flemmings accompanied by the Bishop of Cambray Raymond the Second Viscount de Turenne and the Lord of Issodun who extended themselves to the Hill of Turon Upon the Hill was the Quarter of the King who besides Queen Sibyl his Wise Geoffry and Aimar de Lusignan his Brothers Humphrey de Thoron his Brother-in-Law Hugh Lord of Tabary Renaud de Sidon the Patriarch Heraclius the Bishops of Accon and Bethlehem with all the principal Men of his Realm had also with him the Viscount of Chastelleraud with the Troops of Poiteumes in whom he had the greatest Confidence in regard they were his own Countrymen The Knights of the Temple encamped next under James d' Avesnes with his Hainaulters over against the Wicked Tower Lower towards the South the Lawgrave of Thuringia and the Duke of Guelderland were posted with the Germans Danes and Frisons upon the Hill of the Mosque on this side the River Belus The Archbishop of Pisa with the Pisans was lodged towards the Port and the Archbishop of Ravenna with the Venetians and Lombards a little lower upon the Brink of the Sea where the Lines ended upon the South This was the Disposition of the Christian Camp during all the time of this Siege which proved very long for three Reasons more especially First because Saladin who had re-inforced his Army with a prodigious number of Souldiers which repaired to him continually from all the Provinces of Africa and Asia attacked the Lines so often as the Christians attacked the City and that way made so great a diversion of their Forces that they never had a sufficient Force to take it by Assault The second was that the Garrison being very strong and consisting in the most valiant Men that Saladin had under the Command of Caracos the most experienced of all his Captains and under whom he himself had served his Apprenticeship in the Trade of War they defended themselves so well and made such furious Sallies and to so good Effect ruining the Works burning the Engines the Towers and the wooden Castles which were built by the Besiegers that after a great deal of Time and Trouble and the loss of many of their Men they were always as it were beginning which raised so much Dispair in some that quitting the Siege they returned into the West as among others did the Lantgrave after that the Besieged had burnt a Tower which with prodigious Labour he had raised higher than the highest of the City it self And without all doubt this precipitate Retreat gave occasion to that false and malicious Report which was so much to his Dishonour spread abroad That Saladin had beaten him home with a golden Sword and that by secret Confederacy he had suffered that formidable Machin to be burnt for want of a sufficient Defence But in short the third and principal Reason of the excessive length of this Siege was that both the one and the other received great Succours of Men and Provisions by Sea whereby they still indeavoured to increase their Power In the beginning the Christians were absolute Masters for a few days before the Battle they received a Re-inforcement of ten thousand Foot and five hundred Horse with all sorts of Munitions and in the first Year there came to them above five hundred Ships from Pavia Calabria and Sicily who after having discharged themselves of the Men and Provisions returned to fetch more But this Assistance failing by the Death of William King of Sicily and the Fleet which Saladin had rigged in Egypt riding Mistress of the Ocean the Besieged received all manner of Refreshments and the Besiegers were so miserably afflicted with a cruel Famine which constrained them to feed on the Carcasses of the dead Animals and which became so insupportable that a Party of the Army threw themselves in Disorder and in despight of the Wills of their Officers upon the Enemies Camp that there they might get some Provisions and in their Return falling into an Ambuscade were all cut in pieces However this continued not long in regard it was remedied by the good Conduct of the Marquis de Montferrat year 1190 who returning from Tyre with his Fleet which he went to sit out to Sea defeated that of Saladin in the View of the Town and revictualed the Camp which in a little time received a new Reinforcement of excellent Troops under the Conduct of young Henry Earl of Champagne and also all kind of Provisions and Arms which were now with Liberty brought in by Sea Thus as the Besiegers and Besieged were from time to time succoured by the Way of the Sea they were as it were by turns sometimes Weak and Strong according as they had the Command of that Passage On the other side Saladin who believed always that the best way was to cire out the Patience of the Christians or to famish them would by no means come to a declsive Battle so that Matters stood as it were in a continual Balance neither Party obtaining any considerable Advantage over the other But towards the end of the second Year of the Siege there happened a new Division between the King and the Marquis of Montferrat which indangered the Loss of all Queen Sibyl and her Daughter being dead by the Incommodities of so long a Siege Humphrey de Thoron the Husband of Isabella the Sister of the late Queen who had not the Courage to accept of the Realm when it was offered him intire before the Victories of Saladin had now an Inclination to pretend to it when it was reduced to the last Extremities Guy de Lusignan although with the Queen his Wife he had lost all manner of Right which he held only from her Life yet protested nevertheless that being Chosen Annointed and Acknowledged King he could not be divested of that August Character which he was absolutely resolved never to quit but together with his Life Hereupon the Princes were divided into diverse Factions But the Marquis of Montferrat who was the most powerful and most cunning among them taking the Part first of the one and then of the other with an Intention to remove them both endeavoured upon their Division to establish himself both in the Possession of the Princess and of the Realm And though the Enteprise was both surprizing and bold yet it did not appear to him to be very Difficult for being Brave Rich Liberal fortunate in War and of a mighty Reputation it was easy for him to gain a great Party among the Princes who knew very well there was no Comparison between him and his two Rivals For Guy de Lusignan had nothing that could appear in competition of his great Qualities and Humphrey de Thoron in his Face his Behaviour and his Humour
no way Martial together with mighty Boyishness had more of the Air of a young Girl than of a Man And besides the Marquis had a secret Understanding with the Queen Mother Mary the Niece of the Emperor Manuel and the Princess Isabella her Daughter who had no Hatred for his Person Now as they had all taken their Measures the Queen Mary and the Princess caused Humphrey to be Cited before the Bishop of Accon the Patriarch Heraclius being then sick to Death and upon the Testimony of Balian Lord of Ybelin who had espoused the Queen Mary the Widow of King Amauri of Payen Lord of Caïphas and of Renaud de Sidon whom the Marquis had gained the Marriage was declared Null upon the Pretence that the Princess had never given her Consent but that being extreme young she had been compelled to marry Humphrey and that she had always disclaimed it and protested against it as an Act of Force and Violence After which the Marquis publickly Married Isabella by the Ministery of the Bishop of Beavais and carried himself as King to the great Scandal of all good People who plainly saw and detested this shameful Collusion and the horrible Injustice which was done to Humphrey It is said also that Baldwin the Archbishop of Canterbury was so sensibly touched with the Displeasure which he took at this abominable Action and the Apprehension which he had of the horrible Disorders which were like to insue thereupon in the Army that he fell sick with the Vexation and in five days died as Holily as he had lived Religiously But the greatest part adhered to the Marquis and in regard the publick Fortune seemed to depend upon him principally for the Provisions which were to come from Tyre even those who were not at all satisfied yet were obliged to dissemble their Displeasure so that a patched Accommodation was made by which the one and the other were to remain in the State wherein they were year 1190 in expectation of the coming up of the Emperor and the two Kings to whom the Judgment of this Affair was to be committed In this Condition it was that the Affairs of this famous Siege stood when News was brought of the Death of the Emperor and the Arrival of the Duke of Suabia at Tyre to whom the Marquis immediately repaired and conducted him on Board his Fleet to the Camp where he was received with all imaginable Honour He took his Post among the Germans and the Danes in the Quarter which the Lantgrave had before possessed upon the Hill of the Mosquee extending to the Bridge of the River Belus So soon as this considerable Re-inforcement was come it was resolved according to the proposition which was made by Duke Frederick to make a general Assault Which was accordingly done both by Sea and Land with all the Courage imaginable and the Souldiers in despight of the brave Resistance of the Besieged did in more than one place plant the Standards of the Cross upon the Walls It was on this Occasion that it is reported that Leopold Duke of Austria made his heroick Courage most Conspicuous by an Action whose glorious Marks which at this day blazon the Armes of a House which is since become so August under the Name of the House of Austria do eternally publish the Memory Fame and Glory of it He fought from the Height of a wooden Castle which was raised at the Entry of the Gate against the Flye Tower and which was built upon the Deck of a great Ship For being mounted over the Walls followed by a few of his Men he was so hardly pressed by the numerous Infidels that all his Followers being slain and being now Single he was constrained to throw himself into the Sea half drowned already in his own and the Blood of his Enemies for he had nothing but Red about him except the white Scarf which he wore whereupon Frederick to eternize the Memory of such a noble Action gave him for his Armes with the great Applause of the whole Army in a Shield Gules a Fez Argent which the Princes of Austria have ever since that time born The Combat was not much more Advantageous by Land in regard that Saladin having at the same time attacked the Lines which he forced in many places they were obliged to quit the Assault to repulse the Enemies who were at last constrained to retire Saladin in this Rencounter lost the greatest part of his best Men and did not without great Difficulty disingage himself being something too far advanced from those who on every side surrounded him and who pursued him a great way beyond the Lines This was the last military Action of Duke Frederick who this being the second Autumn of the Siege was by the Distemper which raged in the Camp in a few days taken off to the incredible Regret of the whole Army who even adored this brave Prince whose rare Virtue which shined at his Death had rendred him more Illustrious than he had been all the time of his Life although a thousand Actions had made it most Glorious For the Eastern Physicians assuring him that his Distemper might easily be cured by the use of Females he without a moments Hesitation answered that he had much rather lose his Life than preserve it by such a Remedy as must sully both his Soul and Body at the same time that he had obliged himself by the Vow of his Pilgrimage to do what was pleasing to Jesus Christ who is the King the Crown and Husband of chast and pure Souls being all Purity and Chastity himself and thereupon surrendered his victorious Spirit into the Hands of God having overcome the two most formidable Enemies of Mankind the Pleasures of Life and the Pains as well as Fears of Death of which in the middle of a flourishing and verdant Youth he chose to receive the cold Imbraces rather than those of Life which he could not save but by the loss of his Chastity and Purity A rare Example which having been followed some three hundred Years after and in a like Age by Prince Casimir Son of Casimir King of Poland and Elizabeth Daughter of the Emperor Albertus Archduke of Austria advanced him to that degree of Sanctity as to deserve those supreme Honours which the Church solemnly renders to those whom she believes to be in the glorious State of the most Happy after Death But this Death which was so advantageous to Frederick was most sad and pernicious to the Army for the Germans now become desperate by having lost both their Emperor and their Prince would no longer acknowledge any Captain but quitted that Enterprise year 1190 which in Conclusion had been so Unfortunate to them and returned as well as they could into their own Country a few only excepted who resolved to Accomplish their Vow under Leopold Duke of Austria Add to this Accident the Sickness which daily continued in the Camp and the Famine which at some times they suffered and
by which the Army must certainly have perished if the Marquis had not taken Care from time to time to supply them abundantly with his Fleet. This absolutely gained him all the Commanders and the Souldiers who took his Part against Guy de Lusignan who now had nothing left but the vain Shadow of Royal Majesty without the least Substance of Power or Authority Thus the Army being extremely diminished did nothing now but act upon the Defensive in their Retrenchments opposing the Assaults of Saladin on the one side and the Sallies of the Besieged on the other till the Arrival of the two Kings whose Voyage and Actions it is now time for me after having given myself and the Reader a moments Breath to recount unto him THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART II. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The beginning of the Reign of Richard Caeur-de-Lion King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelaï between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An Adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accommodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Discription of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A Calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jassa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and imprisoned His Deliverance the Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new Division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives Occasion to a fourth Crusade year 1190 T The Crusade which had been so solemly sworn in the Holy Field and which the War that was kindled between the two Kings had so long time retarded had at length its Effect by the perfect Understanding which for some time there was between Philip the August and Richard sirnamed Caeur-de-Lion at the beginning of the Reign of this new King For so soon as he had received the Sword as Duke of Normandy at our Ladies Church in Roan and the Crown of England at Westminster with the general Applause of all his Subjects who saw that he took quite differing Courses from his Father who was not at all beloved he had no other Thoughts but of making Preparations for the Holy War Above all things he applied himself to the procuring a good Treasury of Gold and Silver but not by charging the People with the rigorous Exaction of Saladins Tenth as did his Father who when he had received it made use of it in the War between the two Crowns For this purpose he took the way of selling all the Dignities which he could all Offices and the Lands of his Demesnes at a very low rate thereby to intice the Avarice or the Ambition of unwary Purchasers who easily suffered themselves to be imposed upon with those cheap Bargains not foreseeing that he had Design of Reassumption after his Return as he did without any other Reimbursment than by allowing upon the Foot of the Account what they made over and above their Charges of the Demesnes during the time that they injoyed them But he dissembled the matter so well and on one side seemed so truly to have a design to sell all that he could and on the other shewed so many Marks of a ruined Constitution which both his constant Fatigues of War and his Debauches gained an easy Credit to that the Purchasers without any Difficulty suffered themselves to be perswaded that he would never return and that he had no other Prospect than of the present as not having any hopes of living long And for these Reasons it was that very many straitned themselves to lay hold of this occasion of Profit whereby he drew from them vast Summs turning every thing into Money even to protesting to those who were astonished at his Proceedings that if he could find a Chapman who was able to buy of him the City of London he should make no Difficulty to sell it to him But he drew the greatest Advantages from diverse Prelates of his Realm that were extraordinary Rich from whom he drew all the Money that they had by selling to them temporal Dignities which they were mighty glad to add to their Bishopricks or their Abbies It was by this Stratagem that he drew into the Net the Bishop of Durham year 1190 an old Man equally Covetous and Ambitious by persuading him to purchase the Earldom of that Province which he would unite to his Bishoprick For that Prelate who was ready to die with the Desire which he had to be Earl of Northumberland gave him for that Title all the Riches which he had for a long time been hoarding up out of the Revenue of his Bishoprick as well as those other less honest Markets which he had made And to this he threw in also all the Money which he had reserved purposely to defray his Expences in the Voyage which he had undertaken to make to Jerusalem thereby renouncing his Vow his Conscience and his Honour that so he might become great in this World out of which his old Age was even now ready to chase him which made the King very pleasantly to say when he had gotten all his Money That he was about to work a kind of Miracle and to make a young Earl out of an old Bishop He also seized upon all the Estate of
taken considering the mighty Earnestness which so many brave Men shewed so fresh and so resolute if King Philip who always acted with great sincerity had not been something too scrupulous upon this Occasion even to the disadvantage of the publick Interest For whereas one of the Articles of the Treaty which he had made with the King of England imported that they should equally share their Conquests he understood this Article to extend even to Glory and was resolved that Richard should share it with him in the Taking of the Town which he was in a Condition to take without him And therefore contenting himself with lodging at the Foot of the Wall he resolved to put off the Assault till his Arrival And in truth that Prince was resolved to put to Sea immediately after Philip but he was constrained to defer it some time by reason that Queen Eleonor his Mother who brought along with her the Princess Berengera arrived the same day that Philip sailed He caused these two Princesses to be magnificently received at Messina where he affianced this new Mistriss after which Queen Eleonor returning for England taking with her Jane his Sister and the Princess Berengera he commanded part of his Fleet to attend them and himself with the rest darted at last upon Wednesday in Passion-Week from Messina eighteen days after King Philip the August It is true the Sea was not at all propitious to him for upon Good-Friday he was met by a most furious Tempest but having till this time been ever mighty fortunate he drew a great Advantage from this Accident and the Tempest which scattered his Navy was worth to him the Conquest of the Island of Cyprus The manner whereof I will in short recount The Island of Cyprus one of the fairest and greatest of the Mediterranean Sea lying about some hundred Miles from Syria was at that time under the Dominion of the Emperors of Constantinople who sent thither some Duke or Lieutenant to be their Deputy-Governor Isaac a Prince of the House of the Comnenius's by his Mother who was Daughter of another Isaac Brother to the Emperor Manuel had seized upon that Government during the Empire of Andronicus by virtue of Letters Patents from that Emperor which this Cheat had counterfeited and not long after he very openly usurped the absolute Dominion of the Place by taking upon him the Title and Authoritâ— of Emperor After the Death of the unfortunate Andronicus he maintained himself in his Usurpation year 1191 against all the Forces of Isaacius Angelus whom he defeated with the Assistance of Margeritus Admiral of the Fleet of William King of Sicily After which as this Tyrant who was one of the most wicked of Mankind saw himself assured in his new Empire according to the custom and nature of Tyranny which is indifferently to commit all manner of Crimes to enjoy the first which is committed by revolting from a lawful Master there was no manner of Wickedness Injustice Robbery Extortion Violence or Cruelty which he did not exercise upon the poor Islanders whom he reduced even to the utmost Dispair Nor had he much more Humanity towards Strangers for three great Ships of the English Fleet which by the Violence of the Tempest had been thrown upon the Island and stranded in the View of Limisso anciently called Amathus upon the South side of the Island this Barbarian who presently run with his Soldiers to the Bank caused all those who escaped the Wrack to be taken and after having inhumanely despoiled them of all they had about them and in their Ships he caused them to be bound Hand and Foot and thrown into a deep Dungeon there miserably to perish by Famine Nor would he permit the great Ship on Board of which were the two Princesses and which was in manifest danger of being lost to come within the Port of Limisso as they had earnestly desired Permission of him to do but would have them ride it out exposed to the Mercy of the Seas and the Waves that so he might have the brutish and cruel Pleasure either to see them sink to the Bottom or split against the Rocks In this time the Tempest being appeased Richard who had taken Port at Candia and from thence had sailed to the Rhodes where he re-assembled his Ships and hearing of the ill Treatment which some of his Ships had met with in the Island of Cyprus he came and presented himself with the rest of his Navy in good Order before Limisso the 6th Day of May and immediately sent to the Tyrant to demand Satisfaction for the Affront had been done him with a peremptory Command to him instantly to set such of the English at Liberty as he had made Prisoners and to make full Restitution of whatever he had taken from them The furious Brute fiercely replied to the Envoys of the King That they should go tell their Master that he was so far from giving him the Satisfaction he foolishly demanded that if he did not make the more haste and take the advantage of his Sails and Oars he must expect the same Treatment for himself And thereupon he marched directly to the Shoar with all the Troops which he kept in Pay and a multitude of confused undisciplined People ill armed and worse ordered who ran down in hopes of Booty and not in expectation of Blows But he was mightily mistaken in the Man with whom he was to deal for Richard furiously exasperated by his Answer gave present Order that all his Army should make a Descent by the help of the Barks and Chaloups and putting himself into the first Row of the Barks at the Head of his Archers he rained such a Storm of mortal Arrows as he rowed to the Shoar upon the Heads of his affrighted Enemies that under the favour of that Consternation he leaped first ashoar and was followed so courageously by his Men who sound none to oppose their Descent that they charged so briskly upon these Barbarians with their Swords in their Hands and fell into the Battalions of these cowardly and disorderly Greeks they presently put them into Confusion and in a few Minutes to a manifest Flight and in the Pursuit made a dreadful Slaughter among them till they got to the Mountains where they saved themselves Then returning the victorious Army entred Limisso without Resistance the Soldiers who were to have kept it having for fear abandoned the place This happy Beginning was presently succeeded by a Conclusion no less fortunate for the Night following he surprized Isaac who having rallied his People came to encamp within five Miles of Limisso and having cut the best part of his Troops in pieces dissipated the rest and taken all his Baggage So that this miserable Wretch abandoned of the Cypriots who the next day after the Victory came to do Homage to King Richard was constrained in most humble manner to beg a Peace which he obtained upon Conditions hard enough and sufficiently ignominious
strictly united with them during this Crusade So soon as the Armies came within View which was about Noon the Combat was not long deferred For James d' Avesnes who was one of the bravest and most prudent Captains of his Age charged so furiously upon the first Squadrons of the Enemies who were posted on this side the River that he broak into them twice overturning and killing all that opposed his Passage But being transported with the heat of his Courage as he returned to the third Charge followed but by a few in comparison of that fearful Number of those who succeeded in the place of the broaken Squadrons he received a terrible Blow with a Scymiter which cut off his Leg notwithstanding which he sustained himself by the force of his invincible Courage and failed not still to fight and to Slay on the right and the left all such as durst venture within the reach of his dreadful Sword till at last that also with the Sword fell by another unfortunate Blow of the Scymiter whereupon those cowardly Infidels fell upon him and by a thousand Wounds gave him a glorious Death after he had opened the Way to Victory by that Carnage which he had made of the most daring of the Sarasins and by the Flight of the more Cowardly For Richard who sustained him and who heard him a moment before his Death cry out aloud Brave King come and revenge my Death all in Fury at his Fall entred at the Breach which this illustrious Deceased had made and fell in like a Thunderclap among the thickest of the Enemies where the Flemings mad even to dispair to have lost their General already made a dreadful Slaughter among them that unable to stand the dreadful Shock they turned their Backs and sled amain towards the Mountains to save themselves So that the Bank being on this side cleared of the Enemies this valiant Prince without giving the couragious English leave to cool one Moment threw himself into the River which at this time was but very low and drawing by his Example all his Battail after him and the Vanguard who now had no other General year 1191 he advanced towards that great Body of Sarasins who pretended to defend the other Bank This he did with so much Resolution that they had not the Considence to expect him but instantly dispersed themselves and sled the King not offering to put himself to the trouble to pursue them so that finding himself Master of both the Banks of the River where no Enemy appeared he believed he was in perfect Possession of a compleat Victory when he found himself mistaken and perceived at a great Distance on the other side of the River a prodigious Cloud of Dust mingled with Darts and Arrows which might be seen sly from all Quarters as also one might hear a confused noise of the Instruments of War the cryes of Men and the neighing of Horses This was occasioned by the greatest part of the Army of the Sarasins commanded by Saladin himself who descending from the Mountains into the Plain had surrounded the Arrere-guard which he believed was at too great a distance to be secured by the main Battle For Saladin who was a great Captain had cut them off so much to his Advantage and had them so in the plain Field that he promised himself an assured Victory and doubted not but he should certainly either cut them in pieces or force them to surrender at Descretion But he quickly found that he had to do with People who were Masters in the Trade of War who having without any Confusion ranged themselves into four Battalions sustained on the right and left by what Cavalry they had formed the Face of a Battle every way and with little Loss sustained all the Efforts of the Sarasins who believed themselves already Conquerours till such time as Richard advertised of the Danger of these gallant Men quickly repassing the River came running at full Speed to their Assistance Then it was that for some time the Combat began to be more surious and bloody than it was before the two Kings by their Voice and Gesture but much more by their Example animating their Souldiers to aspire to Victory For after having done all that could be expected from two of the most able Captains in the World Providing against all Events giving out necessary Orders and themselves in the Charge giving the the first Blows it happened that in the Rencounter knowing each other by those Marks which distinguished them from the rest they both hit upon the same thought and each of them believing he had sound an Enemy worthy of himself and whom with honour he might combat both as a Souldier and a King they both believed that the general Victory would depend upon their particular Encounter and that he whom Fortune should declare her Favourite would not fail of having the Glory of singly obtaining the Victory So both of them at the same time charging his Arm with a strong Lance they furiously ran one against the other and being both of them most Stout and Valiant Men admirably mounted and animated with an ardent desire of Glory wherein Hatred had the least Share the Shock was extreme Rude and Violent their Lances flew into a thousand Splinters and Richard was something disordered with the mighty Blow which he received but he had managed his Lance with so much Adress and Force that he overthrew both Horse and Man upon the Ground This raised a mighty Shout from both the Armies as if Saladin had been slain and the Sarasins came tumbling in Shoals about him so thick either to relieve him if alive or to carry him off if he were dead that Richard who was approaching with his Sword advanced to finish his Victory was constrained to let it fall upon less considerable Enemies of whom he made a most horrible Slaughter for their interposing betwixt him and Glory Saladin the goodness of whose Armes had saved his Life sorely bruised in Body and tormented with the Shame of his Fall being mounted upon a fresh Horse did by his speedy Flight prevent a worse Destiny and left the Christians in possession of a cheap and perfect Victory For seeing that a great part of his Men frightned by the Belief they had that he was slain had already found their Heels and that the rest being altogether in Confusion and Disorder retreated before the Enemy he thought now no longer of any thing but how to save himself and after him the whole Army thought it no Disgrace to make the best hast they could from Death and Danger which followed them closely at the Heels Thus the Christian Army remained Victorious on all sides year 1191 and with so great a loss of the Enemies that what in the Battle and what in the Pursuit above fourscore thousand of them were slain and among them thirty two Emirs were found among the Dead on the Field of the Battle so great a Victory cost
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
from a Column which the People took for a Prophetick Mark of the Destiny of this miserable Prince conformable to an ancient Oracle which ran currant by Tradition among them at Constantinople That the Ox should bellow and the Bull should weep It is true that the Combats and the Victories of the great Theodosius were represented upon this Column as are to be seen at this day at Rome those of Trajan and Antoninus upon the two famous Columns there which bear their Names and thus it is possible that among those Figures there may be the Representation of some barbarous Prince falling headlong from a high Tower which they took for a Prediction of this Emperor's Destiny but that there should be any real Prediction either in this Figure or in the Story of the Bull 's weeping to forebode the Death of Murtzuphle is what I cannot easily believe For in short these sort of Prophecys of which there are numerous Examples are so obscure that they either signify nothing at all or all that one would have them signify and that commonly they are taken in a Sense far different from that wherein by the Event they explain themselves Witness that Prediction which they had and upon which the Greeks so much relied that the Latins should never take Constantinople by Force because the Prophecy told them that the City should never be taken but by an Angel But the foolish Greeks were mightily mistaken in their Interpretation as the Event shewed there being the Picture of an Angel in the very place where the City was forced And this ought to teach Christians not to amuse themselves with these Predictions which are not at all authorised by the Holy Scripture or the Church and ordinarily those over curious Persons in their own Sottishness and Credulity find their own Punishment the Event deceiving them by proving contrary to their Hopes and Expectation which are cheated by the Ambiguous Riddles such as were formerly the Oracles of the Pagans This was the tragical End of one of the Tyrants as for the other the old Alexis it is true indeed that his was not altogether so sad but altogether as unhappy For having for some time followed Leon Scurus one of his Sons-in-Law who pretended to oppose the Progress of Marquis Boniface in Macedon and Greece when he saw that all things stooped under the Arms of this Victorious Prince he despaired of being able to save himself to prevent his being taken therefore he voluntarily yeilded himself and the Empress Euphrosine with the imperial Ornaments to the Marquis who instantly sent them to the Emperor After which the poor Alexis only desiring wherewith to pass the rest of his miserable Age in some sort of Repose there were some Lands assigned him for that purpose but it being found out that he fell to his old trade of secret Caballing the Marquis to take from him the means of doing Mischief since he could not cure him of the Will to do it sent him Prisoner to Montferrat Some say that he found Means to escape from thence and to pass over into Asia to his other Son-in-Law Lascaris who had seized upon Nice and against whom this perfidious Dotard stirred up the Turks so that he was forced to take him and clap him into a Monastery where he had time to finish his Life in Repentance Thus the Empire of Constantinople about nine hundred Years after its Establishment under the great Constantine was translated from the Greeks to the French by the strangest and most memorable Conquest that ever was made by so small a Force and in so little a time being undertaken and accomplished in one Campagne year 1204 This may disabuse those who have imagined that the Crusade was not prosperous and certainly four great Estates established for the Christians between the Sea and the River Tygris Egypt and Armenia and all the Eastern Empire reduced under the Power of the Crusades are Conquests worthy the Fortune and the Glory of the Caesars and the Alexanders And if those who succeeded them failed of that good Fortune or the Conduct to preserve them it is not to be attribute to them who did so gloriously accomplish these noble Enterprises But as the Matters which happened afterwards under the French Emperors of Constantinople are not at all related to the Crusade it is not requisite that I speak further of them but proceed regularly to pursue the Course of my History and to describe the Success of those who took the other Way and followed other Designs THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The Design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His Death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcement to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Soldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land
the Princess Jolante the daughter of King John de Brienne Heiress of the Realm of Jerusalem John de Brienne is dispoiled of his Crown by his new Son-in-Law He puts himself under the Protection of the Pope Honorius The good Offices of the Pope to pacifie the Princes The death of Lewis the eight King of France He is succeeded by his Son Lewis the ninth The death of Pope Honorius He is succeeded by Gregory the ninth The Portraict of this new Pope The Army of the Crusades much diminished by diseases The Emperor takes shipping He stays at Otranto where the Lantgrave of Thuringia dies A great rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Pope excommunicates him Their Manifests The Revenge which Frederick takes He passes at last into Syria His differences with the Patriarch and the Templers His Treaty with the Sultan his Coronation at Jerusalem his return and accord with the Pope The Conference of Spolata for the Continuation of the Crusade The History of Theobald the fifth Earl of Champagne and King of Navarr His Voyage to the Holy Land with the other Princes of the Crusade His description and his Elogy A Crusade published for the Succour of Constantinople An Abridgement of the History of the Latin Emperors there The Causes of the little Success of the King of Navarr's Enterprise A new Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Occasions thereof The deplorable effects of that breach which ruins the Affairs of the Holy Land The Jealousie among the Princes occasions their loss Their defeat at the Battle of Gaza The unsuccessful Voyage of Richard Earl of Cornwall The death of the Constable Amauri de Montfort His Elogy his Burial and that of his Ancestors and of Simon de Montfort in the Monastery of Hautebruiere A Council called at Rome The Pope's Fleet defeated by the Emperor's and the taking of the Legates and Prelates going to the Council The death of Pope Gregory The election of Celestin the fourth and of Innocent the fourth He breaks with the Emperor and retires into France year 1220 THe report of the Victory which the Crusades of the West had obtained against the Sultans of Egypt and Damascus being spread all over Asia raised the Courage and hopes of the Christians in the East and more particularly of the Georgians who then were and are at this day the bravest among all those Nations These People to whom that name was given either from their particular Veneration of St. George upon whom they call in their Combats or by Corruption of the word Gurges their Country being called Gurgiston inhabit those Regions which extend themselves from the West to the East between the Euxine and the Caspian Sea the Countries which anciently were called Colchis Iberia a part of Albania and also of the great Armenia as far as Derbent They were at this time under the Obeisance of one King who governed the whole Nation united into one Monarchy and not divided as they are now among many small Princes who are not able to free themselves from paying tribute either to the Turk or Persian They have been Christians ever since they were converted by a young Maid a Christian Slave in the Reign of Constantine the Great and followed the belief and Cerimonies of the Greeks although in some things they differ from them much and especially in this That they have nothing of that Aversion for the Church of Rome which the Greeks have They all shave the middle of their heads in form of a Crown but with this difference among them That the Ecclesiasticks have it round like that of the Roman Churchmen the other square with great Mustaches year 1220 and a long Beard which reaches down to their very Girdle They are in the main People well proportioned and of a good Mind kind and obliging to Strangers terrible to their Enemies great Soldiers extremely brave even to the very Women who like Amazons will go to the Wars and sight most valiantly and they are so taken notice off for this Valour above all other of the Eastern Christians that the Sarasins either out of Fear or respect permit them to enter with their Colours flying like Soldiers into Jerusalem and without paying any thing when they come to visit the Holy Sepulchre But they have this great Blemish that they are most intolerable Drinkers and make little account of such People as will not debauch with them having entertained a brutish persuasion that it is impossible for any persons to be truely valiant who are not excessive Lovers of drinking So that they never go to the Combat till they have well drunk for which purpose they always carry to the field a Bottle of Wine tied to their Girdles and before they begin the Battle they presently and with Chearfulness toss it off to the last drop and then furiously charge the Enemies being elevated with the Wine and half drunk This was the Temper of these Georgians who were now most highly incensed against Coradin because without consulting them he had caused the Walls of the Holy City to be demolished during the Siege of Damiata for which as a common Injury done to all Christians in General they loudly threatned to be avenged on him For this purpose so soon as they heard the news of the taking of Damiata their King writ to the Princes of the Crusade to give them joy of their Victory and to exhort them to follow their good Fortune assuring them that for his own particular as he should esteem it a dishonour to him not to follow the glorious Example which they had given him so he was resolved in favour of them to make a powerful diversion in Syria and to attack Coradin even in his Capital City of Damascus But all these fair hopes of chasing the Insidels out of the Holy Land quickly vanished by two unhappy Accidents which ruined all the Affairs of the Christians in the East The first was that as the King of the Georgians was preparing for this Holy War he received advice that the Tartars who began to make diverse Conquests in Asia were ready to fall into his Dominions and this hindred this Valiant Prince from executing what he had so generously resolved against Coradin The second was the deplorable misfortune which befel the Christian Army which having lost a great deal of time had at last took the field to endeavour to finish in conquering the rest of Aegypt what they had so happily begun by taking the strongest of all the Cities of that Realm and it is this which I am now to treat of and in few words to give an Account of the Causes of this sad event After that the Army had passed the Winter at Damiata and the Country about it to recover themselves from so many Fatigues they were so far from being in a Condition to pursue their Conquests in the Beginning of the Spring that they found themselves more weak than at the end of the Siege for
many of the Crusades of all Nations believing that they had fully accomplished their Vow and being weary of a tedious War returned into their respective Countries and that which weakned them still more was that the King of Jerusalem who commanded the Army quitted them and returned into Palestine This King who was in no sort satisfied with the Legate who had so often shocked him and with whom he found it impossible to keep himself in any good Terms was not at all sorry to have a fair pretext to retire himself and the death of Livon the King of Armenia which then happened furnished him with a plausible reason to go and pursue the Right of the Queen his Wife who in Opposition to the Prince of Antioch pretended that that Realm appertained to her Besides he said that having heard that the Sarasins of Alepo were fallen into the Territories of the Templers he was obliged to go instantly to repel these dangerous Neighbours who made Advantage of his Absence So that notwithstanding what ever the Legate could remonstrate to him to stop his Journey he left the Command of the Army to him and imbarked with his Troops he carried them with him to the City of Acre promising nevertheless to return and join the Army so soon as he could But the long stay which he made to no purpose at Ptolemais year 1220 without either making War against the Sarasins or in Armenia made it evident that the reasons which he alledged to justifie his retreat were nothing but colourable pretences to withdraw himself So that the Crusades having not sufficient Troops to guard the Conquests and to march into the field were constrained to pass the Summer without doing any thing and in the Interim they writ to the Pope to intreat him to hasten the Supplies of the New Crusades which were expected and above all to procure the Emperor Frederick to put himself at the head of them that so under so great a General whose Commands no person would presume to dispute there might be no more such divisions as might retard the progress of the Christian Arms. This Prince who had more than once promised that he would presently accomplish his Vow yet continually put of the Voyage for reasons which appeared very plausible pretended that the present posture of the Affairs of the Empire would not admit of his Absence and that he had not yet received the Crown Imperial at Rome without which at that time they were scarcely thought to be compleat Emperors The Pope therefore to take from him these Excuses which he had hitherto made use of sent for him to Rome where he was solemnly crowned upon St. Cecily's day in St. Peter's Church together with the Empress Constance his Wife there he again received the Cross and renewed his Vow to take the Voyage to the Holy Land giving his Promise and his Oath to the Pope thereupon upon which Confidence the Pope writ to Damiata to encourage the Legate and Crusades assuring them that in the Month of March in the following year the Emperor would send before him the Duke of Bavaria the Bishop of Metz his Great Chancellour with considerable Succours and that he himself would follow in the Month of August with all his forces year 1221 The first part of his Promise he exactly performed and was something better than his word for besides that Lewis Duke of Bavaria according to his promise imbarked in the Spring with above four hundred Lords and Gentlemen Germans and Italians who conducted noble Troops which arrived happily at Damiata he also rigged out three and fourty Gallies out of the Ports of Sicily under the Command of the Bishop of Catania Chancellour of that Realm The Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans also brought thither great reinforcements as did the Arch-Bishops of Milan of Genoa and Candia and the Bishop of Brescia who were accompanied by many Italian Lords insomuch that the Legate who had a great longing to sight whilest he commanded the Army which he had once before drawn out to no purpose to meet the Enemy and now believed that with this reinforcement of so many brave Troops he might more easily execute his Enterprise He communicated his Design to the principal Commanders of the Army the Arch-Bishop of Milan and all the other Bishops who were constantly in the Council and they who were very willing to be at his Devotion were in his Opinion and all concluded as he did that such a flourishing Army ought not to lie idle but that without waiting any longer they ought to march against the Sultan who had not had much time to make his Preparations and who would doubtless perfect his Levies if they should any longer defer attacking of him But the Duke of Bavaria and so many Lords as accompanied him and generally all the Commanders who were not pleased to see a Churchman at the Head of an Army as a General in the day of Battle were unanimous in the opinion that since the Emperor could not possibly come so soon as was desired they ought to expect the King John de Brienne whom the whole Army desired as their General and who would most certainly be there in a very small time And in truth the Pope having understood that this Prince was withdrawn in discontent under pretence of the difference with the Prince of Antioch for the Kingdom of Armenia had writ to him in very pressing Terms to oblige him to return to Damiata and all the Lords of the Army who were resolved to have a Captain of his Quality and Valour pressed him so strongly to return and take the Command of the Army that in four or five days he arrived at Damiata and that which augmented the Joy of this happy return which was so welcome and had been so long hoped and wished by the Army was that Count Matthew Governour of Pavia for the Emperor came almost at the same time to anchor in the Port of Damiata with eight Gallies which Frederick year 1221 who was then in his Kingdom of Sicily had sent as a reinforcement upon which were seven hundred of the most brave among the Nobility and Gentry of Sicily who in their passage having met with twelve great Ships of the Sarasins had sunk four chaced the rest and taken two of them whom they brought in as the Trophees of their Victory to Damiata In this time Meledin who had had leisure to make advantage of this sad division which still continued between the King of Jerusalem and the Legate Pelagius being marched out of Grand Caire accompanied with his two Brothers Coradin Sultan of Damascus and Seraph Sultan of Alepo and the greatest part of his Allies which together made the greatest Army which they had ever had came and posted himself a little above the place where the Pelusiack and Tanitick the two Eastern Chanals of the Nilus divide themselves from each other there he retrenched himself very strongly and built a Fortress
proceeding of the Emperor so little obliging nevertheless as he desired nothing so much as to quiet all those discords and Wars which might be prejudicial to that which he so much desired should be made against the Enemies of Jesus Christ and his Church he did not forbear doing what was most advantageous for the Emperors Interest insomuch that he perswaded the greatest part of the Cities of Lombardy who were confederated against him to lay down their Arms and obliged himself to obtain their Peace and pardon with the Conservation of their Privileges and Immunities upon condition that they should at their own charge maintain a certain number of Soldiers to serve under the Emperor for two years in the Holy War It was for the same reason that he hindred Henry the third King of England from Enterprizing any thing against France whilest Lewis the eighth made War against the Albigenses That King prosecuted the War against them with so much heat and Zeal that he did not spare continually to expose his Royal Person to all hazards and dangers and after having taken Avignion and the greatest part of the considerable places in Languedoc he was seized with that dangerous Malady which was got into his Army year 1226 of which he died at Montpensier the eight of November in the fourtieth Year of his Age and the third of his Reign leaving for his Successor his eldest Son Lewis the ninth of the Age of twelve years under the Regence of the Queen his Mother Blanch of Castile This was he who by the August Sirname of Lewis the Saint which was given him by God by the Authority which he hath given to his Church hath made himself be more gloriously distinguished by that title since his death than all other Kings have done during their lives by all the most Illustrious Sirnames and most magnificent appellations which men have bestowed upon them At last the term drawing near wherein the Emperor had obliged himself to begin this Voyage and that all things appeared better disposed than ever they had been before to the undertaking the Pope believed that the deciding Blow which he had so long desired was now certainly to be given And therefore redoubling his Efforts as one shall see a Flambeau blaze out twice or thrice with mighty Force before it is extinguished so he pressed the Crusades with so much Ardour that an infinite number of them came from all Europe into Italy it is reported that out of England alone there came above sixty thousand men to whom the appearance of a marvellous Crucifix from Heaven all glorious and shining in which were plainly to be seen the five Wounds had given so much Courage that they desired nothing so much as to combat and to die for Jesus Christ But as this devout Pope believed that he should enjoy upon Earth the Fruit of so much care and pains as he had taken to assemble so many Crusades he was taken more happily for himself to receive them in Heaven from whence he might see though without trouble in a small time after that which would have sufficiently afflicted him in this life that the Success of this Crusade proved quite otherways than he had vainly flattered himself withal in the time of his Pontificate But that a man may therefore never be disappointed there is nothing better than for any Person constantly to do what he ought to do and what he can do without promising himself any certainty of future contingencies and Events for which God alone is able to answer year 1227 He died at Rome the sixth of March in the Year 1227 and two days after the Sacred College by common consent gave him for his Successor the famous Hugoline Cardinal of Ostia who took the name of Gregory the ninth He was Nephew to Innocent the third who had imployed him in the most important Affairs of the Church a man of a mighty Spirit well made and of a Port extremely Majestick very knowing a great Canonist and of an irreproachable Life to whom St. Francis whose order he took into his Protection had predicted that he should be Pope He was in short of great Courage and incapable of yielding even in the greatest dangers but withal too quick in Execution of what he proposed without fearing the Consequences how mischeivous soever they might happen to be The first thing that he did after his Exaltation was to pursue the Enterprise of his Predecessor and to press the Emperor Frederick to put himself as soon as it was possible into a Condition to perform what he had so solemnly promised This Prince who after so many delays durst no longer desire the time to be prolonged appointed the Rendevouz to be at Brindes where the Shipping lay all ready for the Transportation of that Infinite number of Crusades who descended from all parts of Italy But as they came into Pavia during the great heats of the Summer which in that Country are excessive an Epidemical Distemper began to disperse it self among them which took off a great number and made others withdraw themselves though few of them ever returned into their own Country but perished miserably by the Way That which further contributed to the diminution of the Army was that a certain Imposture set up by some of the Principal Persons in Rome who had no kindness for the Pope as it appeared presently after counterfeited an Authority and Power from Gregory who had appointed him his Vicar for that purpose to take of the Cross from such as desired to be dispensed with as to the Performance of the Voyage and to commute their Vow into some considerable Alms of which this Cheat made his own advantage It is true that he was taken by the order of the Pope year 1227 and paid the price of his imposture but it was not till after many who were very glad to be dispensed with from a Voyage which they found already to be troublesome and dangerous had quitted the Cross by this Way which they believed was a very lawful and authentick way of being disbanded In short those who remained into Pavia came to Brindes with the Emperor and Lewis Lantgrave of Thuringia and Hesse who had conducted a gallant Troop of Germans who were imbarked about the middle of August and sailed towards Syria not doubting but they should be followed by the Emperor who seemed continually disposed and ready to part thither also And accordingly so soon as he saw the Lantgrave a little recovered of some Fits of a Fever which he had gotten in a little Island near Brindes whether he had gone to divert himself he put to Sea the eight of September with this Prince and the Patriarch of Jerusalem and those few Troops which remained But he sailed not far for the third day of the Navigation he commanded them of a sudden to tack about and stand for the Port of Otranto alledging that he found himself much indisposed and that in the Condition
ratification of the Treaty caused a Fortress to be built near Ascalon which was finished before his departure After which the Sultan who acted like his Father Meledin with great Sincerity having signed and ratified the Treaty which he caused to be approved by all his Emirs he sent back all the Prisoners together with the Constable of Montfort who during his Imprisoment had been treated more rigorously than all the others in regard that out of his Generosity he could never be perswaded to discover the quality of the Barons who were in Captivity with him After which Richard having caused the bones of the French who were slain in the Battle of Gaza to be gathered up and honourably interred in the Church yard at Ascalon reimbarked upon his Fleet and steered towards Italy The Ship which carried the Constable Amauri put in at Otranto where this Illustrious Count died by a kind of Martyrdom by the hardships which he indured in his Captivity happy in this that he had spent the best part of his Life either in Combating against the Albigensian Hereticks year 1241 or the Sarasin Infidels for the Interests of Jesus Christ of whom he had the Honour to be a Knight after a most particular manner and such a one as doth not afford us another Example besides himself For Count Simon his Father General of the Holy League and the Crusade against the Albigenses having made a great meeting of Barons and Bishops at Castelnau-d'-Arry upon St. John Baptist's day in the year twelve hundred and thirteen there to celebrate with great Pomp and magnificence the promotion of his eldest Son Amauri to the order of Knighthood his absolute pleasure was contrary the common to Custom that the Ceremony should be performed by the Bishops And for this purpose addressing himself to two of the greatest Prelates of their time Manasses Bishop of Orleance and William Bishop of Auxerre who was afterwards removed to Paris and who were two Brothers of the Illustrious House of Seignelay whose name they bore he obliged them notwithstanding all their modest resistance to satisfie him telling them that since he was resolved that his Son should be a Knight of Jesus Christ it was reasonable that he should receive that order by the Hands of the Bishops who represent Christ Jesus our Master and our King Thereupon the Bishop of Orleance in his Episcopal Habits having celebrated Mass in a most magnificent Pavilion which was erected in the Field of Castelnau-d'-Arry which was filled with Knights Soldiers and People the Count and Countess his Lady presented Amauri before the Altar supplicating the Bishops to give him the order of Knighthood to serve Jesus Christ against the Enemies of his Holy Name then the Bishop who officiated and William Bishop of Auxerre kneeling down girded the Sword about him and by their Prayers begged the Blessings of Heaven upon this new Knight who about three Months after signalized himself in the memorable Battle of Muret where his Father with less than two thousand men defeated a hundred thousand Albigensians and Aragoneses under their King Peter who was slain upon the field with twenty thousand of his men And afterwards he performed so many gallant things following the Example and the orders of that great Captain that some time after his death King Lewis the eighth acknowledging him for a Son who had rendred himself most worthy of such a Father bestowed upon him the Sword of a Constable of France And as this brave Count was extremely considered by the Pope both for his own Merit and for that of the famous Simon de Montfort he caused magnificent Funerals to be made for him at Rome where he was interred in the Church of the Vatican his heart according to his desire at his death being carried into France and buried under the Monument where his Statue lies in the Church of the Nunnery of Hautebruiere which is at this day more famous than ever not only for the rare Vertues of so many illustrious Virgins as are consecrated to God but also by reason of the certainty that besides the heart of the Constable Amauri and the Bodies of his Grandfather and his Uncle Gui de Montfort there lieth interred that of Simon his Father that invincible Champion of Jesus Christ who with so much Courage and good Fortune combated for his Glory against the Albigensian Hereticks For as they were at work in the Year one thousand six hundred fifty six to repair his Tomb which is to be seen in the middle of that Church there were found the Bones of a man and a Woman lying in their natural order wrapped up neatly in Carnation Taffata which being compared with the inscription gives no place for doubting but that these are the Bones of this famous Count and Alice his Wise which are deposited in that Tomb. And this is so far from contradicting what Peter du Val de Sernay writes that Count Amauri caused the Body of his Father to be carried from the Field of Tolouse to Carcassone that it is most conformable to him because he says that he caused it to be first carried thither and that word makes it clear to me that he had a design to transport them to some other place after which according to the custom of France in that time that they had separated the Flesh from the Bones with boyling Water which the Historian expresseth by these words Primùm apud Carcassonam curatum Gallico more exportavit They first did that to his Body at Carcassone which the French were accustomed to do and which sometime after was done to the Body of St Lowis separating the Flesh from the Bones The Flesh and the Intrals of Count Simon were interred at Carcassone and the Bones were transported into France by his Son into the Earldom year 1241 which bore his name and which to this day carries that of his and his great Grandfather being called Montfort-l'-Amauri I have contrary to my custom made this little remark by the by to do Justice to this Famous Nunnery and to shew that many times People dispute much at ramdom out of passages in Ancient Authors concerning the Monuments they pretend to possess either by reading them only in Quotations or not examining them with that exactness as they ought in order to their making an equitable Judgment of them Thus it was that the Constable Amauri de Montfort ended his days at Otranto in his return from the Holy Land at the same time that Richard Earl of Cornwall landing in Sicily after he had conserred with the Emperor Frederick passed to Rome to endeavour an accomodation of matters with the Pope whom he found still firm and inflexible in his refolution to have intire Satisfaction but yet nevertheless extremely troubled with the sad news which he had received of the taking of his Legates and all the Prelates which he had convoked to Rome The Pope considering the pitious condition to which the Affairs of the Christians in
their lives after having made a wonderful Slaughter among the Sarasins both in the Field and in their Camp The Great Master of the Temple who made a shift to disingage himself from his Enemies yet lost one of his Eyes in the Encounter and Peter Duke of Bretany with some others who fought like Lions after his Example retreated from this Slaughter all covered with Wounds and Blood which issued in great quantity from his Mouth the Seneschal Joinville and the Lords Hugh de Trichasteau Peter de Neville Raoul de Vanon Erard d' Esmeray Hugh of Scotland Renaud de Menoncour and a few more who were not got over when the Count ran upon the Enemy were invested with above six thousand Sarasins who coming from all quarters charged them most furiously and after having slain the Lord de Trichasteau and wounded almost all the rest they were just upon the point of taking them all Prisoners when they were stopped by the relief which the Count d' Anjon brought to their assistance and in a moment after forced to retire to the gross of their Army there appearing to them a mighty Cloud of dust which rise from the Neighbouring heights from whence also was to be heard the fearful Noise of Trumpets Cornets Drums Flutes and Fifes mingled with the neighing of Horses and the shouts of War like those of Men who were going to the charge which made them imagine that all the Christian Army was ready to fall upon them And in truth it was St. Lewis who having understood the disorder of his People was advancing to their assistance with all his Men at Armes and had made a halt upon that eminence to give out his Orders according to the Condition wherein he should find his own Men and the Enemies There was never any thing that appeared more beautiful and withal more formidable than this Prince so soon as this Cloud of dust which covered him was dissipated For whether it were that his charging Horse was really larger than any of his Guards or that he raised himself upon his styrops to speak to his Men and to incourage them in this dangerous occasion or that God was pleased to increase his Majesty in this great Day and to make him appear taller than he was it is certain that the Sieur Joinville who saw him in this condition from the plain where he was assures us that he surpassed all the Knights that were about him by the Head and Shoulders it was in this posture that having his head covered with a Golden Cask a mighty German Sword in his hand his Shield upon his left Arm an assured countenance and a Noble Fire sparkling from his Eyes which pierced the hearts of his Souldiers communicating some part of his generous Flames to every one that saw him he so animated his People that many gallant Men without staying for the Command flew to charge these six thousand Sarasins who were retreating and they also receiving them like Valiant Men and contrary to their custom Fighting Foot to Foot there never was seen in all these Wars a more furious Combate than this which was maintained with mighty blows of the Sword the Mace and Battle Ax. The King who beheld this great Combate transported by a generous impatience to come to blows was upon the point of spurring up after his Men to throw himself into the midst of his Enemies but John de Valery one of the wifest and most experienced Knights of his time remonstrated to him that it was not there that the affair was to be decided but that there was a necessity to draw up in Battalia more to the Right hand along by the River that so he might not be surrounded by the Enemy who without this precaution might easily fall upon his Rear and that also by this means he might receive succour from his Forces which were on the other side of the River with the Duke of Burgundy who now having no Enemy at their Head might have time enough to lay over a Bridge And the event presently shewed that this was wholesome advice For the Sarasins who after the defeat of the Count d' Artois and the Templers no longer doubted of the Victory came all together to attack the King whom they would easily have encompassed with their innumerable multitude if he had not been secured by having the River at his back The Combate was long and bloody and the Enemies charged at first with so much Vigor and gave such a furious Volly of Darts and Arrows that many of the Kings People believing all was lost year 1250 thought basely how to save themselves by getting back again over the River but with the ill fate of Cowards who commonly find their Death by flying they unhappily in their amazement mistook the Ford and so were drowned But the invincible courage of the King and the Heroick Actions which upon this occasion he performed again established all and even constrained Fortune at last to declare in favour of Vertue For having overthrown the Enemies and with his Sword in his hand charged into the thickest of their Battalions he presently drew after him by the greatness of the danger to which he exposed himself and by his example all the Lords and Knights who were about his Person and who all of them shewed prodigious effects of Valour but yet not comparable to those which this Noble King performed for being got mingled with the thickest of his Enemies at some distance from his Men six of the bravest of the Sarasins fell upon him and laid hold of the bridle of his Horse to carry him away by Force before he could be rescued but he disingaged himself from them all by his own single Valour and by the blows which he bestowed among them for he overthrew one with his Buckler and spurring his Horse against a second laid Horse and Man upon the Ground a third he ran quite through the Body and with a dreadful reverse made the Head and Cask roll from the shoulders of a fourth and one of them still hanging upon his Bridle he cut off both his hands at the wrists and so passed over the Bellies of them all still pursuing his point and advancing as resolved either to vanquish or to die so that if it had been a private Souldier who had so bravely acquitted himself he must have been esteemed an extraordinary Prodigy of Courage and Valour These great Actions did so increase the Courage and Strength of all his Men that after they had for three hours after Noon sustained the utmost Efforts of so many thousands of Enemies who believed they should easily Triumph over so small a Number they constrained them to recoil and at last after they had in vain attempted to regain their advantage to draw off towards the evening leaving to the Conquerors their Machins and their Camp upon which the Count d' Artois had seized at the beginning of this Famous Battle The Slaughter was great both on
an hostage Whereupon one of the Commissiones Geoffrey de Sergines one of the wisest and most Valiant Knights of that Age briskly broke up the conference protesting that the French would chuse rather to be cut all in a thousand pieces than to indure being always subject to the intolerable reproach of having given the King of France for an Hostage or to owe their safety to such a base and detestable submission It was therefore upon a Tuesday the fifth of April that the Army attempted to retreat in view of an Enemy whose Forces were infinitely augmented by the conjunction of new Troops which he had received from time to time from all parts of his Empire All was done that could possibly be represented to the King to oblige him considering his Sickness to go before the Army and save himself as did the Legate and divers Bishops who went off in a great Gally which breaking through the Sarasins arrived safe at Damiata But he constantly refused protesting that he would dye a thousand times rather than abandon so many Gallant men who had so generously exposed their Lives for his and the Service of God Thus by his orders they began in the Evening to imbark the Sick and wounded upon those Vessels which were come up the Nilus for the Service of the Army when they approached Massora and for himself taking his way by Land he put himself with Geoffrey de Sergines into the Reerguard which was led by the brave Gaucher de Chastillon But certainly it was impossible without running the danger of losing all to make a movement before an Enemy who was ten times stronger and who only watched for this opportunity to fall upon an Army already half overthrown by Famine and Diseases and in truth they followed them so quickly that they had not so much time as to destroy the Bridge but that the Enemy passed it almost as soon as the Reerguard were got over whilest that a Party of the Sarasins falling into the Camp pitilesly cut the throats of all the Sick and Wounded who waited upon the bank of the River year 1250 for the Vessels that were to take them in After this there was nothing to be seen throughout but a fearful disorder which was followed by the most intire and lamentable loss that any History ever gives a Relation of for on the one part of all the Vessels which went down the Nilus to save themselves by Sea at Damiata there were only a few Boats which secured themselves under the favour of the Legate's great Gally which opened her way by the Force of her Oars all the rest were either taken or burnt by the Saltan's Fleet and one might hear the piteous cries of the Poor Sick Men who not being able to throw themselves into the River to yield themselves to the Enemies by Swimming were miserably consumed by the Flames whilest the greatest part of those who could get out of the burning Vessels either perished in the Waters or were slain by the Sarasins On the other side those who went by Land finding themselves presently surrounded by an infinite multitude of Enemies were so vigorously at tacked on all sides that after having in vain done all that was possible to defend themselves and to make way through so many Battalions and Squadrons as invironed them they were either all taken or Slain not so much as one escaping There it was that Guyde Chastell of the House of Chastillon upon the Marne Bishop of Soissons a most Valiant Man who chose rather to die by this kind of Martyrdom in a Holy War than to be taken Prisoner threw himself single his Sword in his hand into the midle of a Squadron of Sarasins who presently gave him that happy Death which he sought among a thousand Swords in Fighting against the Enemies of Jesus Christ The Greeks indeed are often used to reproach us that our Priests and Bishops make no scruple of going to the Wars and Fighting contrary to the Canons which prohibit them under most rigorous penalties to manage Arms and I must acknowledge that there have been great disorders in this particular among us in former Ages and that the Popes have frequently complained of it to our Kings But in these times of the Crusades our Ancestors believed well that the Canons did not extend to these Holy Wars to which when the Ecclesiasticks had devoted themselves by taking up the Cross as well as the Laicks it was permited them to fight against the Infidels and esteemed as Lawful as for a Shepherd who leaves his Flock to pursue the Wolves if he can to kill them Neither was it known that for this they ever abstained from the exercise of their sacred Function witness the Valiant Chaplain of the Lord de Joinville He was a Priest and constantly officiated for his Master but that nevertheless did not hinder him but that Armed with a Curiass and his Head covered with an Iron Cask his Sword in his hand he went and attacked six Captains of the Sarasins singly in the sight of both the Armies and beat them all to the admiration of all the beholders who could not but praise his Courage and his bravery This makes it clear that the Canons and the Councils which are the Laws of the Church ought to be taken and interpreted according to the usage which they permit or tolerate However it be the Bishop of Soissons believed that inexposing himself in this manner to a certain Death he should acquire a Crown of Immortality both in fame upon Earth and in Heaven nor ought it reasonably to be doubted but that he did At the same time Gaucher de Chastillon his kinsman who Commanded the Reer-guard performed an Action of the like extraordinary Merit and which deserves the Honor of Posterity the Recompence of Heroick Actions of which it may be his was one of the greatest that was ever done For having posted himself the last Man in a narrow passage through which the King was to go to gain a little Village called Kasel he alone for a long time sustained the shock of all the Sarasins upon whom facing about he threw himself like Lightning killing and slaying all those whom he could overtake and then after he had pursued them a while making his retreat whilest he received their Arrows and their Darts upon his Shield his Curiass and his Body which was all bristled with them he would return again upon his Enemies with greater fury than before and every time as he charged raising himself upon his Styrrops he cried amain Follow Chastillon Follow Chastillon my Noble Knights Where are all our gallant Men And thus he maintained continually this strange kind of Combate wherein he was singly against them all year 1250 till such time as being oppressed with the throng of his Enemies who yet were not able to dismount him they wounded him with a thousand Swords and Javelins and at last cut of his head as he still sate upon
all parties according to the agreement the King surrendred Damiata upon the Friday after Ascension-Day and was at the same time set at Liberty himself with all the Prisoners so far as that the four Gallies fell down the River to the Bridge of Damiata into which place Geoffrey de Sergines entred early in the Morning year 1250 to deliver it into the hands of the Sarasins after he had drawn out all the French together with the Queen who after the Imprisonment of the King had been reduced to great extremities For so soon as she received the sad news she fell into such an excessive grief that believing she was upon the point of falling into the hands of the Sarasins she threw her self upon her knees before a Knight of fourscore years of Age who never forsook her and obliged him to promise her with an Oath to grant her one request which she desired him to do for her and this was that if the Sarasins took the City he would cut off her head the Old Knight promised her he would adding with great frankness that before she had done him the Honor to desire it of him he had already resolved to do it thereby to put her into a place of security and out of the Power of those Barbarians The Extremity and Violence of her grief brought her also into her Travail three Days before her time and she was delivered of a Son to whom they gave a Surname drawn from her Affliction calling him Tristan as being in truth the true Son of her Sorrow And upon the same Day understanding that the Pisans the Genoese and all the rest of the People were resolved to abandon the place fearing the Siege and Famine she prevailed so far upon them with her Prayers and Tears that they were contented to stay she promising to furnish them with Provisions at her own Charges which she did at the Expence of above three hundred thousand Livres At length the Queen the Legate the Bishops and the Duke of Burgundy who retired thither in a good hour together with all the Garrison which was Commanded by Oliver de Termes imbarqued upon the Ships which expected them below the Bridge and steered away directly for Acre according to the Order of the King and the Sarasins entred into Damiata where presently making themselves Drunk with the Wines they found there they most brutishly slew all the Sick and fired the Machins which according to the Treaty they were to surrender But the Admirals did far worse for instead of delivering the King and the Prisoners so soon as Damiata was put into their Possession they put it under deliberation Whether they should not rather cut all their throats and one among them maintained that having committed so great a Crime against the Law of Mahomet as they had done in killing their Sultan they should yet commit a greater as he shewed them out of one of their Books if they should suffer the greatest Enemy of their Law to escape with his Life out of their hands And the matter went so far that the four Gallies rowed up the River till they came within a League of Caire insomuch that all the Prisoners except the King whom they Guarded in his Pavilion upon the Bank of the River had now lost all manner of hopes of Life or Liberty But at last the better Opinion prevailed and there were some among them who urged vigorously that if after having slain their Sultan they should again imbrue their hands in the Blood of one of the greatest Kings in the World after having given their Faith to him by such a Solemn Treaty they should pass through the whole Earth for the most infamous and the most abominable of all Mankind but to speak truth I am rather of an Opinion that the eight hundred thousand Bysances which they would have lost by committing such a horrible Crime without any manner of advantage was the weight which turned the Scale and was the strongest reason to perswade them for this time at least to be honest and to keep their Word and their Oath And this informs us that interest is the best Guarranty of any Treaty being the thing which hath more Power over most People to oblige them to stand to their agreements than all the Oaths and all the Hands and Seals which they can give Thus then after two and thirty Days Captivity the King all the Princes and the Lords of France and Cyprus and of the Realm of Jerusalem with the poor remainder of Soldiers which there was left after such a terrible defeat wherein there were lost near thirty thousand Men were set at Liberty the Count de Poitiers only excepted who was kept at Damiata for the security of the first Payment and the same Evening the King was Conducted by twenty thousand Sarasins who to do him Honor Marched on Foot to a large Genoese Gally which attended him below the Bridge and upon which he imbarqued with his Brother Charles year 1250 Count d' Anjou Alberic Marshal of France the Lord de Joinville Philip de Nemours who sold the Town of that name to the King the brave Geoffrey de Sergines and Nicholas General of the Order of the Trinity or the Mathurins The others went aboard the Vessels which were prepared for them and the next Day the Counts of Flanders Bretany and Soissons accompanied with divers Great Lords took their leave of the King and set Sail for France where they all happily arrived except Peter de Dreux Duke of Bretany who being very much indisposed when he took Ship died upon the Sea three Weeks after His Body was carried by his Knights into Bretany where he reposeth in the Nunnery of Villeneuve near Nantes and although the War which he made with St. Lewis in the beginning of his Reign and which thrive so ill that he only got by it the shameful name of Illclerk will be a blemish to him in History yet his Zeal and Courage which he made so highly conspicuous in his two Voyages to the Holy War have so effaced that blot by the Blood which he therein shed for the interest of Jesus Christ and by the happy Death which he found in that service that one may lawfully give him a place among the Hero's of the Crusade The King stayed yet two Days the Saturday and the Sunday after Ascension upon the River in his Gally in expectation of the finishing of the first payment that so the Count de Poitiers might be set at Liberty and understanding in the Evening of the Sunday that there wanted thirty thousand Livres to make up the two hundred thousand and that the Templers who had store of Money aboard their Gallies refused to lend him so much under pretext that by their Rule they were under an Oath to part with nothing of their Revenue but to their Great Master the devout King made them know upon this occasion that he was their first and their greatest Master
greatest number of the French who concluded That he ought with all convenient Expedition to return into France First to give the necessary Orders for the Affairs of his Realm which stood in great necessity of his presence Secondly in regard that having but a very few Knights and Souldiers and who having nothing to subsist upon nor being Master so much as of any one place in the Realm of Jerusalem he could not remain there either with safety Honour or Advantage to himself or the Affairs of the Christians in the East And that he might serve them much more effectually if after having been sometime in France to raise Money and Levy new Troops he should have a desire to return into Egypt to take Vengeance upon these perfidious Enemies of God who had so barbarously violated their Faith and Treaty But all the Knights of the Temple and the Hospital the Patriarch the Prelates and all the Lords of Palestine Cyprus and Syria and even divers of the French Lords among which was the High Steward of Champagne the brave Lord Joinville declared themselves of the contrary opinion and strongly urged That the Honour of the King and welfare of all Christendom in the East obliged him to stay some time longer in the Holy Land That it would be most shameful to abandon so many brave Men as had so faithfully served him in Egypt and also to expose them to the fury of their Enemies who would find them after his retreat much weaker than they were at his coming thither That it was most certain that in the condition wherein things were the Christians of Palestine would not stay there year 1250 but so soon as they should see the King depart they would also abandon the Country and retire to Places of safety and therefore his suddain Retreat must of necessity occasion the loss of all the Realm of Jerusalem for the Conquest whereof the Christians of Europe and especially those of France had spent so much of their Blood and undertaken so many Crusades and that so many thousands of poor Captives who sighed in the Prisons of Caire whereof many were the Relations the Allies or the Friends of those who were in the opinion for the King's return would be reduced to the utmost dispair having once lost all hope of even a possibility of their deliverance since the Infidels would have nothing either to hope or fear from the Christians after having once chased them out of Palestine And in conclusion they added That the stay of the King in the Holy Land for some time longer would without doubt produce the quite contrary Effects to all these Misfortunes which would infallibly be consequent upon his return That it was well known that the King notwithstanding all his losses sustained in Egypt was in a condition to repair one part of them and to strike a terror into his Enemies in regard that all the Money which he had yet expended he had drawn out of the Purses of his Receivers who had gained it unjustly from him That he had still his whole Treasure intire with which he might raise store of good Troops and that so soon as it was known that he would pay well he could not want Souldiers but that men at Arms and Knights would resort to him from all places with which he might serve himself upon the present occasion to very good purpose there being in reality so great a Division among the Infidels that the Sultan of Alepo the most potent of the Sarasins of Syria made War against those of Egypt That he had already taken Damascus from them And that he was resolved in Person to lead his Army into Egypt to revenge the Death of the Sultan his Cousin whom those infamous Mamalukes had so barbarously murdered That the least advantage which the King could draw from this War would be to oblige these perfidious Wretches by the fear which they would have lest he should joyn with their Enemy to set all the Prisoners at liberty That however hereby he would hinder the Infidels from invading the Lands of the Christians And that in the mean time he might fortifie the places which were demolished and thereby leave the Country in a Condition to defend it self whensoever at last he should be obliged to return and leave the Holy Land After he had patiently heard all these Reasons the King took eight days more to consider of what Resolution he ought to make after which having again caused his Lords to be assembled and imploring before them the Light and the Grace of God's Holy Spirit he spoke to them in these Terms That he gave all of them hearty thanks for the Counsel which they had on both parts given him That if any worldly consideration could oblige him to return into France most assuredly it was the Interest of his Realm to which he owed his Principal Applications and his greatest Care But in regard that he was sufficiently satisfied that France had nothing to fear so long as it was under the wise Government of the Queen his Mother who had Forces Courage and Conduct enough to defend it against all those who should in his absence have any designs against it he was resolved not to abandon the Interests of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in Syria but that he would stay there some time longer to put them into a posture of safety That nevertheless he left all Persons who had a desire to it at liberty to return if they so pleased but withal he promised also on the other side to all those who were resolved to run his Fortune that he would make their choice so advantageous that they should have sufficient reason to be satisfied with it This Discourse of the King moved the whole Assembly though with very different Sentiments in some it excited tenderness and Devotion so that they devoted themselves most heartily with this amiable Prince to the Service of Jesus Christ in others it occasioned Grief and Sadness by understanding the King's Resolution which was so unexpected to them and by seeing that their honour obliged them against their Inclinations still to remain in Palestine But hereupon St. Lewis did not fail presently to give out Commissions and Money for making of Levies however for the satisfaction of the Queen his Mother he sent home the two Princes his Brothers into France whither he writ to all the orders of the Realm that admirable Letter by which after he had given them a full account of all the transactions which till then had happened he exhorted them by all the considerations both Divine and Humane year 1250 to come and share with him in the Glory which was to be acquired by generously sacrificing their Lives and Fortunes to the Service of Jesus Christ Whilest these things were doing the King who made his preparations with so much diligence received the Ambassadors which came to him from Europe and from Asia Pope Innocent sent to give him consolation by
moment and desolated to that degree by the Mamalukes that it became a vast solitude as it still continues to this Day So little assurance is there of any thing in this World where there needs no more but one Moment to Ruin and Destroy what hath been growing a many Ages Thus Bendoedar who found no more Enemies in the Field to give the least check to his Conquests still pushed his good Fortune forward into Syria whilest the Christians of the East divided into divers Factions seemed to combine with him for their mutual destruction And in vain were any Succours expected from the West for the Assistance which the Armenians and the Tartars came to desire against the Sarasins were always either hindred or diverted by the Quarrels which continued between the Popes and the House of Suabia and which were not to be determined but by the downfal of that Noble House to raise upon its ruines that of France which consequently took up the design of that Crusade again And it is this which I am now obliged to relate for the finishing of this History of the Crusades After the Death of Frederick the Second Pope Innocent did not fail to Excommunicate Conrade the Eldest Son of that Prince because he stiled himself Emperor against William Earl of Holland whom some German Princes who were of the Pope's Party had chosen to oppose Frederick Conrade who wanting the good qualities of his Father had all the ill ones and all the fierceness the Cruelty the insatiable desire of Revenge and the implacable hatred against the Popes entred with great Forces into Italy where he was with joy received by the Gibelins and favoured by the Venetians upon whose Shipping he passed the Gulph into Pavia and having joyned the Troops of his natural Brother Mainfrey his Lieutenant General in that Realm year 1268 he reduced under his obeysance in a short time what ever had declared for the Pope and having at last taken Naples he there executed his most cruel Vengeance by the Desolation of that fair and flourishing City This so amazed the Pope Innocent who after he had struck him with the Anathema had no other Arms to which he might have recourse to oppose him that he believed he was obliged to cause a Crusade to be published against him which without doubt did not contribute much to the Success of that which proved so unfortunate against the Sarasins And at the same time he caused the two Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily to be offered first to Charles d' Anjou who would not then accept them without the consent of the King his Brother who was then in Syria and afterwards to Richard Brother to Henry the King of England but he also refused them not thinking it was at all agreeable to Justice or a good Conscience to despoil the young Prince Henry his Nephew to whom the Emperor Frederick had left for his share the Kingdom of Sicily Whilest matters stood thus Conrade who had underhand procured the Death of this little Prince his Brother that he might have his Kingdom died himself of Poison which as it was believed was given him by his Brother Mainfrey to whom as not suspecting him Guilty of his Death Conrade left the Tuition of his Son Conradin then an Infant of the Age of three Years Innocent resolving to take advantage of his Death went and presented himself before Naples where in hatred of Conrade he was received with great Applauses Mainfrey himself being surprized also submitted to him and was received with all Civil treatment But presently after throwing himself into Nocere whither the Emperor Frederick had transplanted the Sarasins of Sicily he raised an Army and took the Field and Fortune declaring her self at first in his favour he in a Battle defeated the Army of the Pope which was Commanded by the Cardinal de Fiesque the Nephew of Innocent who being then Sick when he received this News at Naples died in a few Days after Alexander the Fourth his Successor had also the same Fortune for having Excommunicated Mainfrey this Prince who from the Example of his Father had learnt not to fear these Roman Thunderbolts Marched directly against the Pontifical Army which had taken the Field under the Conduct of Cardinal Vbald and he not being so great a Captain as his Enemy also lost a Battle which was fought between them Hereupon Mainfrey fierce with these two Victories and sure of the Favour of the Populace which always follows the strongest side caused himself to be Proclaimed King of Naples and Sicily with as much ease as he had with dexterity caused the report to be spread of the Death of the little Conradin his Nephew After which he lead his Victorious Army into the Ecclesiastick Estates where finding little resistance he seized upon the County of Fondi and his Partisans being animated by the report of his Victories the Gibelin Faction became presently the most powerful but principally in Lombardy Tuscany and even in Rome it self Alexander astonished with this Progress and fearing that he should at last fall under the Power of such a formidable Enemy had recourse to the King of England and following the Example of Innocent he offered him the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily for his Son Edmund to whom he also sent the Investiture of them and to oblige that King to undertake the enterprise he absolved him from the Vow which he had made in taking the Cross to be of the Crusade against the Sarasins in the East by changing it into that which he caused to be Preached every where against Mainfrey Also fearing lest the Partisans of the House of Suabia should place Conradin upon the Imperial Throne in the room of Count William who had been slain in the War against the Frieslanders he sent Prohibitions to all the Electors requiring them under pain of Excommunication not to chuse that young Prince But all this which signified just nothing against Mainfrey did a World of mischief to the Crusade which was designed against the Sarasins The Parliament which the King of England had called at London upon the subject of the Neopolitan War would give the King no Money and afterwards all the great Men of the Realm happening to be Embroiled with the Royal House this Project of the Pope's did not Succeed And for Germany one part of the Princes having chosen for their Emperor Alphonso King of Castile and the other Richard Earl of Cornwall year 1268 Brother to the King of England there arose a Schism in the Empire which occasioned mighty Troubles and Disorders there So that Italy Spain England and Germany having so many troublesome Affairs upon their hands there remained only France in a condition to serve the Holy See to any purpose in this occasion and all Christendom indeed against the Infidels For this reason therefore Vrban the fourth the Successor of Pope Alexander having again vainly tried the way of a Crusade against Mainfrey which for want of
his Mamalukes the particular Enemies of the Name and Nation of France were upon the point of driving them unless they were speedily assisted He protested That he was resolved even tho he were abandoned by all the rest of the World in such a Noble Enterprise to pursue it vigorously himself and to imploy all that he had his Forces his Fortunes and his Life in this Glorious Service and that he should infinitely rejoyce to lose it in his Service who had laid down his precious Life for the Love which he had to Mankind in that precious spot of Earth for the Recovery whereof he exhorted all the French who he doubted not had doubtless the same Courage with which their Ancestors had so gloriously conquered it to take up their Arms and accompany him in this Noble Enterprise A Discourse of this Nature spoken with unexpressible Graces and by so great a King whose Age Experience Wisdom Equity and Love which he had for his People and above all his Eminent Sanctity rendred so much beloved and revered by his Subjects did so sensibly affect the Hearts of all the whole Assembly that after the Legate had made his Speech upon the same Subject and the King himself had with a Marvellous Devotion received the Cross the greatest part of the Princes and Lords following his Example also took it upon them The first among them were the three Princes his Sons Philip his Eldest John Tristan Count de Nevers and Peter Count d' Alenson Alphonso Count de Poitiers and Tholouse his Brother Thibald King of Navarr and Count Palatine of Champagne his Son-in-Law Robert Count d' Artois his Nephew John Son to the Duke of Bretany Son-in-Law to the King of England the Counts Guy of Flanders Philip of Nemours Guy de Laval and Philip de Montfort year 1268 The Lords de Courtenay de Beaujeu de Montmorenci de Harcour de Valeri de Neele d' Estrees de Longueval de Varennes de Clermont de Fiennes de Rochefort de Mirepoix de Cleri de St. Cler de Roye de Precigni de Chastenoy de Saux de Beaumout de Mailly de Vandieres de Lionne d' Auteil d' Orillac and the brave Oliver de Termes all Illustrious Names known and still reverenced in our days after so many Ages in the Persons who are honoured by them and who have done them Honour by their Merits These were followed by all the other Knights and Lords of the Assembly except only the Lord Joinville High Steward of Champagne who having had enough of the first Voyage dispensed with himself for the second alledging that by the first he had ruined his poor Subjects of the Lordship of Joinville and in the ill humour in which he was by reason of this second Undertaking which he did not at all approve he hath written very plainly That it was the opinion of many Learned Men that those who gave the King this Advice sinned mortally in regard that the King was so weak in Body and brought so low that he was but just in a condition to maintain that Peace and justice which by his presence he caused to flourish in his Kingdom and which would by his absence be most certainly banished from thence But this was not the opinion of Clement the Fourth who was esteemed one of the most learned and pious Popes which the Church had ever had and who St. Lewis having consulted him concerning this Voyage extremely approved of it as did also the Confessor of this Holy King And this makes it evident That in all times the most severe Casuists have not always been the most knowing nor the safest advisers in difficult matters After this great Action St. Lewis applied himself with an indefatigable Zeal to dispose all things for the Crusade sparing neither diligence pains nor cost to put it into a condition to have better Success than he had met with in his first Voyage and to draw along with him not only the French his own Subjects but also such of other Nations as were willing to share with him in the Enterprise And for this purpose he did what was possible in conjunction with the Pope to make an Accord between the Venetians and the Genoese that so they might enter with him into this Holy Vnion But it was all Labour in vain for these two Republicks whose difference occasioned so many mischiefs to Palestine had too much animosity one against the other to unite so easily or so quickly As for the Venetians who had at first treated with him for his passage they at last excused themselves from furnishing him with Shipping by the fear which they said they had that the Sultan of Egypt resenting it should seize upon all their Effects within his Ports But the Genoeses who always ran counter to their Enemies and who upon this occasion acted more nobly offered him theirs He also by his Royal Liberality obliged Edward Prince of England to take up the Cross a Prince whom he highly valued for his Spirit and his Valour and gave him thirty thousand Marks in Silver to put him into an Equipage to accompany him like a great Prince offering the same Sum to James King of Arragon who had some years before taken upon him the Cross The Pope also on his side did not fail to excite the Kings and Princes of Europe as also the Greek Emperor by the Example of St. Lewis to joyn their Arms with those of this great King for the deliverance of the Holy Land from the oppression of the Sultan of Egypt who wanted not above two or three Cities to be Master of all that the Christians possessed in Syria Palestine and Egypt since the time that they were conquered by Godfrey of Bullen but all was in vain Ottocare the King of Bohemia the Dukes of Saxony Bavaria and Brunswick Otho Marquess of Brandenburg and divers others whom Clement excited to take the Cross and some of which had already taken it were so incumbred by the Schism of the Empire and besides so exasperated by the Death of Conradin which for a long time rendred the Name of the French odious to them that they could not be perswaded to entertain a thought of uniting with them in the Holy War The King of Castile who disputed the Empire and whose Brother had been taken with Conradin was in the same opinion The King of Portugal Alphonso the Third took the Cross indeed and abtained a Grant to receive the Tenths of all the Goods of the Church in his Realm for the Holy War but after all he performed nothing year 1269 James the King of Arragon made the fairest advances in the World towards this War He protested in the Assembly of the Princes at Toledo That he would accomplish his Vow although his Age seemed to dispense with him for it and notwithstanding all that could be done to divert him from it He promised at Valentia to the Ambassadors of the Greek Emperor and to those of
Abagas King of the Tartars that he would go in Person into Palestine against the Sultan Bendocdar He also caused a fair Fleet of Men of War to be fitted out at Barcelona and a great many Gallies and imbarked himself in the beginning of September one thousand two hundred sixty nine a year before St. Lewis But being near the Isles of Majorca and Minorca met with a furious Tempest which threw him upon the Coasts of Languedoc he went no farther than Aigues-Mort from whence he returned by Land into his own Kingdom alledging for the hiding of a certain shameful and criminal Passion which governed his Soul and which possibly was the true cause of his altering his resolution That he was well satisfied that God dispensed with him for his Voyage which he made known by this accident was not at all pleasing to him so that there were only some few Ships of this Fleet which arrived at Ptolemais with Dom Ferdinand Sancho the Son of this King who presently after returned again without doing any thing As for what concerned the Greek Emperor he acted in this occasion only like a Politician for his own private Interest without ever intending to have any share in this War This Emperor was Michael Paleologus who about eight years before had taken Constantinople by Treachery from the Latins who lost that Empire under Baldwin the Second which Baldwin the First had so gloriously conquered with the French and Venetians about fifty eight years before This Greek Prince who feared to be attack'd on the side of Asia by Bendocdar after that Sultan should have conquered Syria and Palestine and who was already on the Coast of Greece by the New King of Sicily did all that possibly he could with the Pope and the Princes of the West to ingage them in a War against the Sarasins And in regard that the Pope had written to him That the way to secure himself from the Arms of the Latin Princes was to unite the Greek Church with the Latin and to go in Person as did St. Lewis to this Holy War he promised Shipping Provisions and Souldiers and all that could be desired for the War He also sent his Ambassadors into France offering to make the King the Arbiter of the difference which was about the Re-union of the two Churches but St. Lewis who would not undertake to be Judge in a matter of this nature which was purely spiritual remitted him to the Judgment of the Sacred College the Holy See being then vacant by the Death of Pope Clement who deceased about the end of the preceding year But after all this Emperor who was extreme politick had no desire or design either to make a true Re-union or to joyn with the Latin Princes in the Holy War All his Design was only to engage them in a Crusade and thereby to deliver himself from the fear which he had of the Sarasins and the King of Sicily So remote are the Intentions of Princes who act purely according to the Maxims of human Policy from what they seem to appear to those with whom they negotiate with a design to delude them And for the King of England to whom the Pope had at first sent the Cardinal Othobon his Legate he was too far advanced in years and too much oppressed with his own Affairs by reason of the troubles of his Realm to be in a condition to perform the Vow which he had made in taking upon him the Cross and to acquit himself of the Promise by which he was ingaged to the King to accompany him in this War with five hundred Knights for whom the King gave him a years pay in hand and believed that without restoring the Money he satisfied fully for all in giving his Blessing to his Son Prince Edward who not being in a condition to enter upon Action till after the Death of St. Lewis was able to do almost nothing in Palestine Thus of above two hundred and fifty thousand men which were levied in Europe there were none but the Troops of St. Lewis which were about sixty thousand men and the few Spaniards which went with the King of Navarr his Son-in-Law which were in a condition to pursue this Voyage Nevertheless he undertook it with so much resolution as if he had had the Forces of the whole Earth year 1269 The difficulty was only to resolve whither he should go and after having a long time conferred upon this Affair with the Ambassadors of the King of Sicily he resolved at last to go first against Tunis before he undertook to attack the Sultan of Egypt It was for this purpose represented to the King that he ought to begin with the Realm of Tunis if he would go immediately as in reason one ought to do to the Spring and the Root of the Mischief in regard that it was from Tunis that the Sultans of Egypt drew their principal Forces their Horses and the best of their men And besides that in leaving this Kingdom in their Reer as they must do if they marched directly against Egypt or into Palestine they must expose themselves to the hazard of losing their Convoys and the Supplies which were to come from Europe which would run the Fortune of being defeated and taken by the Shipping of these African Pirates who were continually crusing upon the Seas There were also many other Politick Considerations added which are easie to be found out when People are resolved to maintain an Opinion But in Truth that which was most prevalent was that the Inclinations of the two Kings were both conformable to this Enterprise for two very different Reasons For Lewis who like a great Saint regulated all his Actions by the Principles of Piety and Christianity believed that in shewing himself before Tunis that Moorish King who had given him hopes of his Conversion would turn Christian and be baptized which the King most passionately desired as appeared by what he said to the Ambassadors of that Prince whom he commanded to acquaint their Master That he would be contented with all his heart to be a Slave to the Sarasins again and to pass the rest of his Life in the most dreadful of their Dungeons and never more to see the Sun provided that the King of Tunis would with his whole Realm embrace the Faith of Jesus Christ But Charles who was more Politick than Devout resolved to make use of such a fair opportunity to assure himself of that Realm which without doubt was very convenient for the security of the Coasts of Naples and Sicily Thus the two Brothers resolved each upon the same thing though both of them for private Reasons which they did not impart to any Persons but only concluded upon the Enterprise against Tunis the King who fore-saw that it would not meet with a general approbation reserved the Declaration of his Resolution till he came to Cagliari in the Isle of Sardinia at which place he had appointed the Rendezvous of
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
and finding themselves without a Commander they fell into all their former Quarrels and Disorders insomuch that the Sarasins who had already made themselves Masters of two or three Towers giving a General Assault upon the eighteenth Day of May carried the City first by the Gate of the Cursed Tower and after by all the other passages which those of the City basely abandoned presently after to save themselves upon the Ships But nevertheless there were but a very few that escaped who threw themselves first into the Ships and who with the King of Cyprus and the principal among the Knights and the Officers of the Nations arrived at last in the Isle after having been in great danger of perishing by a dreadful Storm which overtook them in their passage for by a surcharge of Misfortune the Sea ran so high that Day that the greatest part of those who to avoid the Swords of the Sarasins threw themselves into the Water thinking to gain the Ships were Drowned The Patriarch himself who had already boarded a Gally upon which he was just going to imbark desiring out of his Charity to take into his Skiff as many as he could of these miserable People which were in Shoals got into the Water to come to the Ships was sunk to the bottom by the too great Number with which the Boat was loaden and at least at his Death did the Office of the good Shepherd who gives his Life for his Sheep although he could not thereby save theirs by dying for them in this manner All the rest were exposed to the fury of these Barbarous Victors who filled all with Death and Slaughter making Slaves of all those whom the Sword spared after they had by all manner of Disorders and Violence glutted their insatiable Cruelty and Lust There were there always a certain Number of Virgins consecrated to God who nevertheless found out a Marvellous way to preserve their Virginity inviolated even by the assistance of these Enemies of their Honor year 1291 the Barbarous ravishers For the Abbess of the Nunnery which was of the Order of St. Clare seeing that the City was taken and that they could not escape the hands of the Sarasins whose Cruelty was less terrible than their brutish Lust she exhorted her Daughters with a most Heroick Courage and an admirable servor of Spirit to imitate her example if they would preserve that treasure which ought to be a thousand times dearer to them than their Lives And thereupon she cut of her own Nose making her self horribly deformed in the Eyes of Men to be admirably beautiful in the sight of God whom only she desired to please All the others doubtless animated by a like inspiration of the Holy Spirit which had formerly inspired a Holy Abbess in England in the same manner did presently the same Execution upon themselves by their Blood to extinguish the brutish Flames of these Barbarians who finding them in this condition which gave them a horror they instantly Murdered them all and by this obliging Cruelty gave them the means to add the Palm of Martyrdom to that of their Virginity and as the Scripture expresseth it to wash their Robes in the Blood of the Lamb to have the Honor to follow him The Cordeliers who were their spiritual Fathers and had a fair Convent in Ptolemais were also all Slain without Pity and above sixty thousand perished in this fatal loss of the City or were carried Captives into Egypt The next Day which was the nineteenth of the Month the Templers who yet held the principal Tower of the Temple after having cut in pieces three hundred Sarasins who were entred into their quarter and who during a Capitulation had attempted the Honor of the Ladies had a destiny like that of Sampson For they were all overwhelm'd with the fall of their Tower which was overthrown with the Sape and which Buried with them under the same Ruines the Enemies which did Attack them Thus the Famous Ptolemais which had been taken a hundred years before by Philip the August King of France and by Richard Coeur-de-Lyon King of England after having maintained a Siege of three years against more than three hundred thousand Crusades who came thither successively was retaken by the Sultan of Egypt in four and forty Days and with it the Christians lost all their Courage and their Judgment to that degree as to suffer all that remained to them in Syria and the Holy Land to follow the same or rather a more shameful Fortune than that of Ptolemais For those who might very well have defended Tyre a City which was extremely strong forsook it and fled away upon their Ships so soon as they heard the sad news of the loss of Ptolemais so that the next Day the Sarasins entred it without resistance The Templers which were in Sidon and in the Pilgrims Castle did the same upon seeing one of the Lieutenants of Melech-Seraph prepare to besiege them by Sea And those of Baruth trusting to this perfidious Emir who had promised to treat them as Friends if in his passage through their Lands they would repair to him were all either cut in pieces or sent in Chains to suffer a miserable Captivity in Egypt And thus these four Maritime places being all that remained to the Christians in the Holy Land after the taking of Ptolemais were also lost and it was precisely at this time that they were wholly chased from thence a hundred ninety and two years after that Godfrey of Bullen and the other Princes of the Crusade had so gloriously Conquered and founded this Realm which continued for near two hundred years under fifteen or sixteen Kings And this makes it appear that it cannot be absolutely said that the Crusades were unfortunate no more than that by the same reason it can be maintained that the enterprises of the great Cyrus were not prosperous because the Monarchy of the Persians which he founded by his Conquests did not last more than two hundred years under thirteen Kings But such is the fatality of all Earthly things which after their Birth and Establishment increase and continue till a certain Period which Nature or rather Divine Providence hath prefixed to them as the term of their perfection after which they decrease either insensibly as in natural productions or else suddainly by some great Revolution of Fortune by which they cease to be what they had never been but upon that necessary condition of fatality that one Day they are to be no more As for the rest the Victorious Sultan that he might take from the Christians the hopes and the desire to recover what they had lost year 1291 and to hinder them for the future from becoming Masters of the Sea by the taking or any of these Maritime places he demolished burnt and overthrew from the very Foundations all these Cities as well as Ptolemais which having been one of the fairest Cities of the World but also one of the most
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