and St. Paul at the Castle of Chinon bestowing his Maledictions upon his disobedient Sons which he would never be persuaded to revoke notwithstanding the repeated Instances which were made to him by the Bishops who waited on him in his Sickness He did however receive the Sacrament and Extream Unction with great Devotion giving manifest Tokens of his Repentance in submitting to the Divine Justice which he acknowledged had justly laid this great Change of Fortune upon him as a Punishment for those Crimes which he had committed in his Prosperity He had also the Misfortune that his Domesticks every one seizing upon something left him without any thing else but a poor Sheet to cover him But his Son Richard who had so furiously opposed him in his Life gave all the Testimonies of an excessive Sorrow for his Death and caused him to be carried most magnificently adorned in his Royal Robes to be interred at the Nunnery of Fontevraud where he had a desire to be buried This new King himself assisted at the Funerals where he testified by the abundance of his Tears that he was unfeignedly touched with Sorrow and Remorse for his Father's Death But it is reported that to his other Grief he had the Displeasure to be afflicted with an odd and unaccountable Accident for as he approached the Corps of the deceased King as he lay in the Coffin the Blood which gushed out of his Nostrils seemed to reproach him with his Ingratitude and unnatural Rebellion and even as the Discourse went the Parricide of his Father whom his Disobedience did in some measure seem to have hastned to his Tomb sooner than Nature which was yet strong and vigorous in him had intended He nevertheless stayed out the whole Ceremony till such time as the Royal Defunct was interred in the Quire of the Church of those Religious Nuns which verified the Revelation of a Monk who praying upon a certain time for the Prosperity of the King heard these words which he then did not understand but which were explained by the Event He shall take up my Sign and in carrying it shall be mightily tormented The Belly of his Wife shall rise up against him and at the last he shall be hid among the Veils For as he took the Cross for the Holy War he carried the Sign of Jesus Christ and he was immediately after cruelly tormented by the Persecutions of his Sons which continued till his Death after which he was covered with the Veil of Death being interred in a Quire of Veiled Nuns We must however do Justice to the Memory of this Prince who was one in this Crusade though it so happened that he never had his part in any Action in regard it was so long deferred by the War whereof he was the Occasion He was a French Man by Nation born in the City of Mans which he therefore used to call his Darling and most assuredly he was one of the greatest and most potent Kings that ever sat upon the English Throne and certainly had been the most fortunate if either he had never been a Father or if toward the latter end of his thirty and five Years Reign he had not met with the Opposition of the young and invincible Philip the August whose Fortune supported by his Courage and admirable Prudence was as a fatal Curb which according to the Prediction of the famous Morling was to tame this fierce and haughty Leopard or like a strong Dam which stopped short and broke that impetuous Torrent of his Power and Ambition year 1189 which menaced an Inundation over the rest of France whereof Henry already possessed a very great part For besides England where he reigned as Soveraign Monarch and Ireland which he had conquered Scotland which was Tributary to him he also possessed Normandy in the Right of Inheritance descending to him by his Mother Maud the Empress Daughter of Henry I. King of England and by Geoffrey Earl of Anjou his Father who was Son to Count Fowk he had Anjou Maine Touraine a great part of Berry and Avignion where he pretended to be Soveraign And in Right of Queen Eleonor his Wife whom Lewis the Young quitted to him by a Canonical Sentence he had Gascon Guienne Poitou and the other Countries which depended upon them Besides that Britanny fell to his third Son Geoffrey by the Marriage of the Heiress of that Country So that he was as potent on this Side the Sea where he was a Homager to the Crown of France as he was on the other side where he was King of England and Lord of Ireland He was of a middle Stature but of a Shape no way handsom by reason that he was extream gross and corpulent notwithstanding that he was not only very temperate but amidst the great Affairs in which he was always employed and which he managed with wonderful Application in continual Action either travelling or Walking or making use of the more violent Exercises of Riding the great Horse or Hunting that thereby he might abate the growing unwieldy by his Fatness to which his Sanguin Complexion had condemned him As for any thing else he was of Temperament robust and sound having a large full Breast and a big Head His Eyes were blew handsom and full of Fire His Hair yellow and soft inclining something too much towards the red His Voice hoarse his Speech rough and his Mind very fierce and Martial For his Mind he was very dexterous and of a penetrating Understanding but something more crafty than became so great a Prince He had however cultivated his Spirit with the Study of Ingenuous Learning which inabled him with a certain Eloquence very easily and naturally to express himself And there was in his Soul such a Stock of Vices as well as Vertues natural Perfections and Imperfections which were so blended together that if they would not permit it to be said of him that he was a very exceeding good Prince yet they very absolutely prohibit the fixing the Character of a very ill one upon him For he was gentle and sweet to every body when he was in dangers but harsh fierce and severe when he saw himself out of them he was complaisant abroad morose to his Domesticks liberal to Strangers and in publick but parsimonious to his own and too great a Husband in his private Affairs A great Promiser but a slender Performer above all things loving his Liberty and hating Constraint to that degree that he could not endure to be a Slave to his own Word or his Faith which he made no great scruple upon occasion to violate In matters of Justice he was too slow and sometimes by the Interposition of Money which he loved excessively he would wholly remit the Execution of it He drew great Sums from his Subjects with which he often chose rather to buy Peace than maintain War in which he did not delight though when he was forced to make War he did it like a great Captain and
of 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.
consider the Vastness and Importance of this Famous Enterprize of the Crusado's or the Quality of the Persons who have fortunately executed or unsuccessfully attempted this great Design whether we compute the number or variety of those extraordinary Events which were accompanied with such diversity of Fortune or in short if we take a Survey of those Heroick Actions which were then performed one shall find them such as not scarcely to be out-done even by the Romantick Atchievements of the Fabulous Ages One shall there see the Holy Wars which the Christians have undertaken either to reconquer or preserve a Country wherein all the glorious Mysteries of the Redemption of Mankind were accomplished and which the Worshippers of the Eternal Son of God Jesus Christ did believe that they could not without infamy and betraying the Interest of their Religion permit to remain under the Tyrannick Dominion of Barbarous Infidels On the one Part three of the greatest Kings of France as many Emperours the Kings of England Denmark Hungary Navar and Cyprus the Dukes of Lorrain Normandy Austria and Suabia and most of the Princes of Europe appeared at the head of their Troops being followed by whatever was brave or gallant throughout all the Western Monarchies on the other side the Sultans of Aegypt of Babylon and Damascus with all the celebrated Princes of the Turks and Sarasens who have rendred their names so famous by the greatness of their Actions are the Hero's who must tread the stage of this History persons so considerable that singly they might furnish a very fair Volume All that is surprizing in unexpected successes all that is so admirably represented in Fiction or wonderful in the most Heroick Enterprises will be found in the following Account and to render it yet more valuable will be accompanied with that solid foundation of Truth which will distinguish it from those ingenious Fictions which have been invented with so much pain to produce some pleasure to the Readers That I may therefore endeavour that this History may in some sort appear new and with all its natural Ornaments at least that it may not want that little beauty which even the most indifferent Relations seem to challenge it is to be considered that though these matters have been often heretofore related either in some parts by particular Authors or in the general Histories of such Natures as have had more or less concern in this affair of the Crusade yet the World hath not hitherto seen them wrought together into one Regular composure with all the dependencies consequencies and connexions nor with that continued Chain of Causes and Effects and such Circumstances as might render the work so accomplished and delicate as it ought to be and in which the charming secret which doth so insensibly allure and please consists and which is indeed the soul and spirit of History and ought to be the End of every just Historian Moreover as the Subject is so Noble and agreeable so neither is it less advantagious then delightful For here one shall find the great Concerns of the Church of two mighty Empires and the Principal Estates of Europe and Asia there shall one discover the causes which occasioned that glorious design so often to fall and yet afterwards to rise again there may we see that Zeal of our Ancestors which seems to reproach our slow imitation Especially at a time when the Forces of one single Monarch could he but remain assured of his Neighbours are sufficient to ruine the Tyranny of those Infidels whose power consists chiefly in those fatal divisions among Christians which hitherto have prevented their employing their Arms to their destruction However the hope that my endeavours will not be unprofitable and that God Almighty whose help I implore will assist me with his Grace and bestow that happy success which is not to be expected from me have given me encouragement to pursue this difficult task which I have undertaken year 637 It was about 400 years that the Arabian Sarasens under their Caliphs the successors of Mahomet having made themselves Masters of all the upper Asia and Aegypt did also possess the Holy Land after which time the Turks siezing upon it did by their revolt establish a new Empire over Asia these People are originally descended from that part of the Asiatique Sarmatia which lies between Mount Caucasus and the River Tanais the Lake of Meotis and the Caspian Sea And whether it were that they were dissatisfied with their present Habitations or that they were forced from them by some new Intruders most certain it is that having divided themselves to search for new Regions one part of them marching Westward advanced by degrees as far as the banks of the Danubius and the other far more numerous moving towards the East passed the River Volga and settled in the Northern Climates bordering upon the Caspian Sea formerly the habitation of the Scythians and Massagetes and which at this day retains the name of Turquestan by them imposed upon it lying all along the River Jaxartes and not long after passing that River they extended their Consines as far as Maurenthor betwixt that River and the Oxus or as the Greeks called it the River Araxis year 585 and from thence during the Empire of Mauritius by the way of the Caspian Sea they transported themselves into Persia where they made great depredations and ravaged whole Provinces year 625 Afterwards we find that they served Heraclius in the War which he made against Cosroes But when about the year 640 Omar one of the Successors of Mahomet had reduced all Persia under the Empire of the Sarasens the Turks to whom he allotted certain Countries entred into his pay and served him in his Wars against the Greek Emperors for almost 400 years till such times as the Sarasens being mightily broken by their Intestine Divisions and the Turks on the other hand wonderfully augmented both in number and Strength they embodied themselves under a Prince of their own chusing one of the Descendants of Salgue or Sadock a Person to whom the People paid a singular Veneration And in conclusion having vanquished the Sarasens in three general Battles they rendred themselves Masters of all Persia about the year 1042 and afterwards of Mesopotamia Palestine and Syria changing their Religion also about the same time with their Fortune and being converted from Paganism to the Superstition of Mahomet that great Impostor This Victorious Prince whom the Arabians call Abutalip the Greeks Sangrolipax and William of Tyre Belphet or Belphetoc after he had spent above thirty years in the Establishment of this mighty new Monarchy in the Upper Asia entred also the Lesser Asia with a most numerous Army where in a set Battle he defeated and took Prisoner Diogenes the Roman Emperor year 1069 After which Victory the Turks under the Conduct of Cuthume and his Son Solyman near Relations to the Sultan seized upon the Realm of Pontus since called Turcomania the Provinces of
the Knights which are the prime Nobility possess great Estates under the Authority of the Great Master of the Teutonick Order But whilest these Military Orders began thus much about the same time to Establish themselves by little and little in Jerusalem that of the Hospitallers both Ancient and Modern which one may say were the Model of the others made a great Progress in Palestine and became of great Consideration by the great Services which it Performed both in Peace and War and upon this Account both the number of Pilgrims as also of Soldiers and Gentlemen who entred into that Order increasing daily St. Gerard the Provincial of the Isle of Martigues who was Master of the Hospitallers when Jerusalem was taken from the Sarasens built about the Year 1112. a third Hospital giving it the Name of St. John Baptist and there placed his new Knights who a little time after began to form the Design of following a Conduct and Manner of Living more Austere and more Perfect than that of the old Fraternity And indeed when after the Death of Gerard Fryer Bryan Roger was chosen by plurality of Voices to be the Great Master of the Hospitallers these new Knights of the third Erection of St. John Baptist persisting in their first Resolution of Living in greater Perfection would needs Imitate the Knights-Templers and add to their other Vows that of Chastity they separated from the Ancient Hospitallers and chose for their Master Fryer Raymond of Pavia a Gentleman of Dauphiny who drew up for them new Constitutions full of solid Christian Piety which may be seen in the Book of the Statutes of that Order with the Approbation of Pope Calixtus the Second in the Year 1123. as also the Priviledges which have been granted to them by forty eight Soveraign Popes After which time to distinguish themselves from the other they called themselves the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem and wore a white Cross of eight Angles upon a black Habit. This is that famous Order which contrary to what usually happens to other Establishments hath daily Increased for above this five hundred Years Advancing to the supreme Elevation of Splendor and Glory wherein it appears at this very Day That Order I say which in all times hath had the Honor to have its Commanders and Knights of all that is Brave and Generous among the Nobility of all Europe and above all those Princes who have been most Remarkable and more distinguished by the Greatness of their Merit than by their Illustrious Names or Birth that Order in short which under the Celebrated Names of Rhodes and Maltha hath filled the Earth the Sea and all the Corners of our World with the glorious Trophics of an infinite number of Victories which they have Obtained against the Turks As for the ancient Hospitallers who were thus separated from these New ones with whom they formerly made up one Order under one great Master they still retained their ancient Name of St. Lazarus they added to the Habits of their Knights a green Cross to distinguish them from the others and maintained themselves within the Limits of their first Institution which allowing of Marriage consisted of three principal Vows of Charity to withdraw themselves from the World to the Service of the Infirm and Leprous of Chastity either in a single or conjugal State and of Obedience to their great Master and above all to be continually ready to Fight against the Infidels and the Enemies of the Church They also performed after this very signal Services in Palestine year 1119 which obliged the Kings Fulk Amaurus Baldwin the Third and Fourth and the Queens Melisantha and Theodora to take them into their particular Protection and to honor them with many Marks of their Royal Bounty the precious Testimonies whereof they do to this day preserve in their Treasury It was for this Cause that the young King Lewis at his Return from the Holy Land brought with him some of them into France there to Exercise their charitable Functions and to this purpose gave them the Supervising of all the Operations of the Infirmaries within his Realm as also the Castle of Boni near Orleans to be the principal House and chief Residence of their Order on this side the Sea as appears by his Letters Patents of the Year 1154. Signed by the Chancellor Huges in the Presence of the Constable Matthew de Montmorency which was Confirmed to them by Philip Augustus in the Year 1208 who also granted them great Priviledges and Immunities which have since been Augmented and solemnly Confirmed by twelve of our Kings of France In process of time the Order extended it self by Degrees through all Europe but principally in France England Scotland Germany Hungary Savoy Sicily Pavia Calabria Campania in Italy where the Emperor Frederick the Second gave them great Possessions in the Year 1225 which was also confirmed to them afterwards by the Bulla's of many Popes It was in that flourishing Estate wherein this Order was in Europe under this Emperor and under the King St. Lewis that the Pope Honorius the Third Approved it and Confirmed it anew giving it the Rule of St. Augustin with many great Priviledges which were also afterwards Augmented by the Bulla's of Pope Gregory the Ninth Alexander the Fourth Clement the Fourth Nicholas the Third Gregory the Tenth and John the Twenty second and many other Soveraign Popes who granted to them the same Favours which were Enjoyed by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem by which they were impowred to hold Estates given either by particular Persons or Bodies Politick and Corporate and all the Hospitals and Infirmaries with their Goods and Possessions which at any time belonged to this Order In the time that the Affairs of the Christians were almost become Desperate in the East after the Return of St. Lewis from his Voyage to the Holy Land the great Master of St. Lazarus with the greatest part of the Knights came to settle themselves in France where this devout King who took this Order into his Royal Protection and gave them of his Bounty a thousand Marks besides other Favours which he conferred on them became in a manner a new Founder and in effect it is most certain as appears by most authentick Acts that after this time the principal Seat of the Order of St. Lazarus as well on this as the other side of the Sea hath always been kept at their Castle of Boni where the general Chapter of the Order ought to be kept once every three Years and that the Kings of France have always been the Conservators and Patrons of the Order and have nominated and appointed the great Master That these great Masters have Exercised their Jurisdictions upon all the Knights of the Order in all the States of Christendom as the Generals of the Cistertians Premonstratenses and other Orders which at present are in France Exercise theirs over all the Religious of other Realms It
advantage from his Absence as also that they were not without Jealousies and Suspicious that his own Sons of whom they were not too well assured might occasion some disturbance in the Realm but that for his own particular he would with all his heart give fifty thousand Marks in Silver for the maintaining of the War year 1185 and that he would further oblige himself to maintain all such of his Subjects as would undertake that Enterprise This certainly was very obligingly and advantageously offered by the King but the Cholerick Patriarch fiercely rejecting the Proposition told him very insolently That they had no occasion for his Money but for his Person that they had more Gold and Silver than they desired and that they were not come so far but to search for a Man who wanted Money as he did and who therefore might to his advantage make a profitable War against the Infidels and that they did not seek for Money which stood in need of a Man who was skilled in Military Affairs and knew how to employ it in that War And for you Sir added he speaking to him with an Air as offensive and disobliging as was imaginable You have hitherto reigned with abundance of Glory But know that God whose Cause you have now abandoned is about also to abandon you and he will let you see what will be the Consequence of repaying him with Ingratitude for all those Riches and Kingdoms which you have not obtained but by your Enormous Crimes You have violated your Faith to the King of France who is your Soveraign and you make that your Excuse to refuse this War that you are afraid he should make War upon you You have barbarously caused the holy Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be murdered and yet in Expiation of your Guilt you refuse to undertake this Holy War for the Defence of the Holy Land to which you had engaged your self most solemnly upon the blessed Sacrament And then seeing the King change Colour and blush with Madness and Anger Never believe pursued he thrusting out his Neck Never believe that I have the least Apprehension of the Effects of that Fury which glows about your Cheeks and Eyes and which the truth of what I have spoken which you cannot endure hath kindled in your Soul there taking Head Treat me as you have done St. Thomas I had rather die by your Hand in England than by that of the Sarasins in Syria since I esteem you little less than a barbarous Sarasin In truth this extravagant raving Language in a Patriarch and a Patriarch-Ambassadour was both inexcusable and insupportable but the King whose Age and Experience and the dangerous Consequences which had followed upon the death of Becket the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had rendred more moderate made a great Attempt upon himself and generously surmounted his Passion though the Patriarch went on still vomiting out of indecent Reproaches worse than before which I am ashamed to relate And when the Transport into which the old Prelate had put himself was over and that he began again to be in a tolerable Humour the King did not for all this fail to treat him with abundance of Sweetness and Civility till such time as he carried him over in his own Ship to Roan where after the Celebration of Easter he went with him to the Frontier that so he might be a Witness of the Conference which was held for three days with King Philip upon the Subject of this Holy War But for all that the Patriarch was no more satisfied than he had been before for the two Kings remained fixed in their Resolution and both together informed him that their Affairs would not permit to be so far and long absent from their Dominions but that they were both willing to assist him with such Stores of Men and Money as might defend them against all the Power of Saladin And thus it happened at the last that Heraclius who had made no scruple while he was in Palestine but he should bring along with him either the King of England or one of his Sons was forced to return not only without them but without the Succours also which were offered him which out of madness he foolishly despised contrary to all the Rules of Prudence and Reason and to the mighty prejudice of the declining Affairs of his Master So much doth it import Princes not to abandon their Affairs and Interests to the Discretion of those who have so little themselves as to suffer their unruly Passions to govern them so absolutely as to lose even that little which they have It is true indeed that after all this the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and Roan and the greatest part of the Lords of England Normandy and Guienne and the other Provinces which the English possessed in France took up the Cross as soon as the Soldiers which Philip Augustus had levied in order to the sending them to the Succour of the Holy Land But this beginning of a Crusade turned to no great account not only because the two Kings did not at all engage in it year 1185 but also because the Peace which was made between them was shortly after broken the occasion of which and the renewing of the War happened to be by the Refusal of Richard the Son of the King of England to do the Homage which he ought to have rendred to King Philip for the Earldom of Poitou which he held of the Crown of France by that ancient Tenure as also by reason that King Henry refused to restore the Earldom of Gisors after the death of the young Henry his eldest Son to whom it was given in Dowry with Margaret of France his Lady the Sister of Philip Augustus upon Condition that it should revert to that Crown if Henry should dye without Issue as he did three Years after his Marriage Thus the Holy Land which was so furiously attacked by an Enemy so formidable as Saladin remained destitute of all Assistance and that which was still more deplorable was that this sad Relation being reported throughout Palestine by the Indiscretion of the Patriarch struck the whole Country with such an universal Consternation as produced a most dangerous Effect for an Enggish Knight of the Temple one Robert de St. Alban a good Captain but an ill Man who had neither Religion Honour nor Conscience believing upon this Report that all was lost as to the Christians and that he could no longer hope to establish his Fortune amongst a ruined People he began to think of making it among the Sarasins and to make himself considerable in meriting well of Saladin though by the blackest of all Crimes This infamous Man therefore rendred himself to that Prince offering him his Service against the Christians and promised him that in a little time he would destroy them and also take the City of Jerusalem with the Weakness whereof he was perfectly acquainted And that he might give him such Assurance of his Truth as was
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
He came into France at the same time that Cardinal Henry the Bishop of Albano Legate from the Holy See arrived there And there are some Authors who assure us that Pope Clement honoured this Archbishop with the same Character and joyned him in Commission with the Cardinal to treat a Peace between the two Kings of England and France to the end they might unite in the Resolation of undertaking the War against Saladin That War which Philip the August had declared against Henry II. King of England for the Restitution of the Earldom of Vexin had been terminated by the Undertaking of Pope Vrban upon condition that the King of England as a Dependant for those Estates upon the Crown of France should in a time prefixed submit himself to the Judgment of the Court of France That Term being expired Henry not only still retained the Earldom which he was obliged to restore but also the Princess Alice the Sister of Philip who was designed to be married to Richard the Son of the King of England Philip resolved to do himself Reason for such a visible Injustice year 1188 was about to enter into Normandy with a potent Army where Henry also was expecting him with considerable Forces when the Archbishop of Tyre arrived very opportunely to suspend at least for a time the Anger of these two Princes And so it was that by the force of his Genius and his Eloquence he procured an Interview between them in a Plain between Trie and Gisors where they were used to meet when they treated one with the other The two Kings met there about the middle of January accompanied with the Princes Prelates and great Lords of both the Kingdoms And there it was that the illustrious Archbishop employed all the Power of his Eloquence and of his Wit to represent in that August Assembly The deplorable Estate into which the fatal Divisions of the Christian Princes of the East had reduced the Kingdom of Jerusalem which the first Crusades had from so many barbarous and Infidel Nations so gloriously conquered with their victorious Arms. He then remonstrated That of four puissant Estates which they had established upon the Ruins of the Mahomitan Empire and which extended the Dominions of the Christians from Cilicia to Egypt and from the Sea to the River Tygris there remained nothing to them now more than three Cities That Antioch dispairing to be able to preserve it self by its own Forces had already promised to surrender if it were not immediately relieved by those of the West That Tyre without necessary Succours was not in a condition to sustain a second Siege having in the first lost the greatest part of its Defendants That Tripolis was too weak to endure one and could no longer remain in Freedom than it pleased Saladin to present himself before it to add it to his other Conquests And that further after so lamentable a Loss as that of Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land there was great danger of losing also the very Hopes which remained to the Christians in those places from whence they might take a Beginning to re-establish the Kingdom of Christ Jesus if those two Kings the most potent of Christendom did not unite their Hearts and their Arms to run to the Relief of Christ and his Cause of whose only Grace and Goodness they held all which they did possess And in short he said upon that Subject so many pathetick things and in a manner so powerful and so touching that the two Princes whether they had in a former Conference which they had agreed this as one of the Articles of the Peace or that God in whose Hands are the Hearts of Kings to change them in a Moment by the extraordinary Working of his Power it is certain that they embraced one the other mutually in the Presence of the whole Assembly and did it with all the Marks of a perfect Reconciliation and a sincere and cordial Friendship as if there had never been any Subject of Discontent or Difference between them And at the same time might be heard on all sides the confused Voices of a Multitude of People who broak out into great Cries of Joy and from every Quarter was to be heard Long live King Philip Long live King Henry Let us go Let us go to this War against the Infidels under the Conduct of these two mighty Kings Let us deliver Jerusalem and extirpate the Enemies of Jesus Christ The Cross the Cross let it be given us the Sign of our Salvation and the Ruin of the Sarasins These Acclamations were also presently followed with that happy Success which attended the Legation of this brave Archbishop of Tyre that the two Kings first presenting themselves to receive the Cross from the hands of the Legates they were followed by Richard the Son of the King of England Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitou who had voluntarily taken it before the Loss of Jerusalem but would now anew receive it from the hands of the Legates As also did Philip Earl of Flanders the Duke of Burgundy the Earls of Blois Dreux Champagne Perche Clermont Barr Beaumont Nevers James Lord of Avesnes and almost all the great Lords of France England and Flanders who were present at this Assembly And to distinguish the one from the other it was ordained that the French should take a Red Cross being the same they bore in the first Crusade the English a white one and the Flemmings one of Green It is said that at the same time there appeared one in Heaven bright and shining which helped to inflame the Devotion of those who took up the other as if God himself had manifestly called them to this Holy War by a sacred Signal from above And to render the Memory of so great an Action Eternal a Cross was erected and a Church built in the midst of the Field of this Conference which was ever after called The Holy Field year 1188 After this the Kings to support the Charges of this War and to prevent the Disorders which had been so injurious to the former Crusades resolved to publish these following Ordinances That all Persons who had not undertaken the Cross of what Quality soever even the Ecclesiasticks except the Chartreux the Bernardines and the Religious of Fontevraud should pay one Tenth of their Revenues and of their Moveables except their Arms their Habits Books Jewels and consecrated Vtensils and Ornaments which was afterwards called by the name of Saladin's Tenth by reason that it was raised upon the Occasion of making this War with Saladin That the Crusades should have liberty to raise a Tenth of all their Subjects who did not go to this War And that the Husbandmen who undertook to go and take the Cross without the Leave of their Lords first obtained should not be exempted from this Impost That all Interest upon Money lent should cease for all the time that the Debters were upon Service in the Holy Land That
Actions have rendred as famous among Historians as those others more beautiful which have been given to the most renowned Princes to distinguish them by a particular Appellation and as an Elogy for their Vertues and Atchievements As for the Perfections of his Soul they yet far surpassed those of his Body for he had a most Beautiful Mind a most happy Memory which being joyned with the long Experience and the Care he had taken to instruct himself in all things had made him acquire an infinite Number of such pretty Sorts of Learning and Knowledge as might well rank him in the Catalogue of the most able men of his Time He was extreme Wife and Judicious Liberal and of great Humanity Affable and Courteous to all men condescending even to the meanest of his Subjects but terrible to his Enemies and above all to Rebels a great Captain personally Valiant and fearless in the greatest Dangers always carrying himself with mighty Evenness and Temper in both the one and the other Fortune though it was his Happiness not to be much acquainted with the Worse Being such as I have now described him and therefore equally feared loved and respected by all the Princes of the Empire he had called a General Diet at Mayence to meet the Fourth Sunday in Lont in the Year 1188. there the Legates came in Person where after they had happily composed all the Differences which remained between several Princes and Cities of the Empire they made the same Remonstrances for relieving the Christians of Palestine which they had before made to the Kings of France and England Frederick who for above ten years had fully reconciled himself with the Church had before formed that generous Resolution for his own Satisfaction to employ those Arms for Jesus Christ against the Sarasins which by the Misfortunes of the Times he had made use of against the Christians He nevertheless demanded the Advice of the Assembly thereupon but in such a manner as made it easily be known what was in the Intention of his Soul for he only proposed whether it was to the Purpose not whether he should refuse that Assistance which Jesus Christ himself demanded of him which was such a cowardly and shameful Ingratitude which he knew the whole Assembly would disdain but whether he should defer taking up the Cross after that the French and English had with much Ardour embraced it Whereupon all the Princes and the Prelates and all the Deputies of the Cities cried out with one Voice as if the Emperor had at the same instant inspired them all with his one Zeal and Courage That without deferring any longer they ought to take up the Cross that all the World might see that the German Nation especially under such an Emperor would never yield either in their Zeal or in their Courage to the English French or any Nation under Heaven So that now there was nothing more to be done but to conclude the Holy War and the Crusade The Emperor at the same instant descending from his Throne to receive the Cross by the Hands of the Legates year 1189 being assisted by Godfrey Bishop of Wirtsburgh and Frederick Duke of Suabia his Second Son who had already taken it himself upon the hearing the sad news of the Loss of Jerusalem but now would have it also in Ceremony after the Emperor his Father The greatest part of those who were present at that Assembly following that illustrious Example also took upon them the Cross with an incredible Ardour The Principal of which were Leopold Duke of Austria Berthodus Duke of Moravia Herman Marquis of Baden the Counts de Nassau de Thuringe de Missen de Hollandia and more than sixty others of the most eniment Princes of the Empire the Bishops of Besanson Cambray Munster Osnabrug Missen Passau Wirzbourg and more then ten besides all which besides the Legates went immediately to preach the Crusade in their several Diocesses and throughout Germany where an infinite Number of People of all Conditions took up the Cross But the Emperor who knew by the Experience of the Second Crusade that two great a Multitude occasioned nothing but Cumber Trouble and famine in an Army therefore caused an Edict to be published by which he prohibited all those who were not able to expend three marks in Silver to provide themselves of Necessaries for so long a Voyage to engage in it or list themselves for this Expedition and also commanded those of the greatest Ability to make the best Preparation for it that they were able that so they might have wherewith to serve themselves in their Necessities After which he gave Command that all the Crusades should repair to their Colours at Ratisbonne in the Month of April the Year insuing where he promised without fail to be himself upon the Feast of St. George and that he would then immediately advance without staying for the rest This being done he sent four several Ambassadours to so many Princes with whom he must necessarily treat before he undertook any thing further Henry Earl of Diets was sent to Saladin to summon them to restore the Holy Land which he had usurped from the Christians as also the Wood of the Holy Cross which he had taken at the Battle of Tiberias and in Case of his refusal to denounce War against him from the Emperor I do not here pretend to insert the Letters of these two great Princes which pass for Currant with many Historians in regard that it appears clearly that they are Counterfiets and the Forgeries of some Prolifick Scribe who had more desire to please than Art in the compiling of them so as to render them either probable or Pleasant Godfrey Baron of Wisenbach was dispatched to the Sultan of Iconium who pretended to be a Wonderful Friend to the Christians and who made many strong Protestations that he and all his should ever be at the Emperors Service who might at his Pleasure pass through his Estates with the same Freedom as if they were his own Frederick also himself at the same time writ to the Emperor of Constantinople and sent to desire Passage through his Territories and that he might be furnished with Provisions at the Price Currant To this he agreed but after a very indecent manner detaining the Ambassadour without any positive Resolution till those of the Sultan of Iconium passed by Constantinople to go into Germany there to make the Offers and Complements of their Master to the Emperor The Arch Bishop of Mayence was the only man of that Character who succeeded most advantageously in his Negotiation for he obtained of Bela King of Hungary all that he desired which was the Princess his Daughter for Frederick Duke of Suabia Son to the Emperor and Security of Passage and Provision for the Army at most reasonable Rates Thus all things being disposed to begin this great Enterprise Frederick who had passed all the Lent and the Festivals of Easter at Ratisbonne to attend the
Geoffry Ridel Bishop of Ely for appearing before him with the Train of a King at the City of Winchester but all this magnifick Pomp could not prevent the Triumph of Death which seized imediately upon him by this Surprise and divested him of this stately Vanity so unbecoming the Sacred Character of a Bishop For this Prince believed that these great Riches might to much better Advantage be imployed in defraying the Expences of his Coronation than so foolishly lavished in the Pageantry of worldly Pomp and that he might thereby spare his own which he indeavoured to keep as a Reserve to support the Charges of his Voyage to the Holy Land He also surrendred to William King of Scots for ten thousand Marks Sterling the Castles of Rocksborough and Berwick which he had been constrained to yield to King Henry the Second for his Ransom he being taken Prisoner in the War between them He also acquitted him of the Homage which he was obliged by force to pay as one part of the Price of his Liberty And in short as on one hand he was resolved not to be incumbred with the multitude of the Crusades the Multitudes of which had done more Hurt than Service in the other Expeditions and on the other that he knew very well that diverse of the richest of his Subjects who had ingaged themselves two Years before to undertake that Voyage were willing enough to be dispensed with he therefore obtained Permission from the Pope to discharge all such from their Vow upon Condition that they should proportionably to their Estate contribute a summ of Money towards the Charges of the Holy War All this joyned to the Treasure of his Father which he had at first seized upon and which amounted to more than nine hundred thousand Livers in Gold and Silver gave him the Ability to live after the best manner and in a far more Royal Way than any of his Predecessors had ever done So that he caused to be equipped in all the Ports of England Normandy Bretany Poitou and Guienne a great number of Ships to compose one of the fairest Fleets which had ever before been put to Sea For when he weighed from the Road of Messina where he had passed the Winter he had one hundred and fifty great Ships fifty three Gallies besides Barks Tartanes and other small Craft which attended the Navy with Provisions and Munitions of War He gave the Command of the Fleet to Gerrard Archbishop of Ousch and Bernard Bishop of Bayonne to whom he joyned in Commission Robert de Sablé Richard de Chamville and William Fortz Earl of Albermarle three excellent Men in Sea Affairs who had order without sparing any to put in Execution those admirable Orders which were proclaimed for preventing of Disorders and Punishment of Offences in the Fleet. He could not for all that stop those which were at the same time committed almost all over England upon the Jews of which himself was the Occasion tho he did not command it For as the Jews whom his Father had always favoured were upon his Coronation Day contrary to his express Command entred into the Palace from whence they were thrust out and some of them treated very severely the People who imagined that it was the King's Inclination that they should exterminate that perfidious Nation who for their Extortion Avarice and other enormous Crimes were extremely hated fell upon them with such Fury that it was impossible to appease them And this Example spreading it self occasioned a most horrible Massacre among those miserable People in many Cities where the young People who had undertaken the Cross year 1190 and wanted wherewith to furnish themselves for so chargeable a Voyage were ravished with such opportunity of Plundring their Houses and thereby being inabled to put themselves into an Equipage at the Expence of these declared Enemies of Jesus Christ In this time Philip the August prepared for this Enterprise in a manner more regular and did not to procure Money take those Methods of selling Offices and temporal Dignities to the Prelates of his Realm who were more regular and modest than those of England Neither did he raise any Taxes or Contributions for the Expences of this Voyage in regard that all the French Lords who had taken the Cross were resolved to accomplish their Vow and he believed that he should have enough out of his good Husbandry of that Tenth which was given for this War and which still remained in Bank ever since the last Year For this Reason therefore he caused an Edict to be published and all concerned to be sworn in the Parliament which he held at Paris that they should render themselves at Vezelay in the Week of Easter from thence together to take the Voyage And this being done he sent Rotrou Earl of Perche into England to advertise King Richard of his Proceedings who on his side made those who had taken the Vow swear the same thing upon the Holy Evangelists in the Parliament at London After which the King having recommended the Care of the Realm to Queen Eleonor his Mother having delivered her from the Confinement in which the late King had for five or six Years last kept her and to William Longfield Bishop of Ely his Chancellor he imbarked the fourteenth day of December at Dover and landed the same day at Graveling from whence he went about the end of the Month to Confer with King Philip at Nonancour There it was that after they had mutually given the one to the other all the assurance of an inviolable Amity they caused Letters Patents in the Name of both the Kings to be dispatched whereby they fixed the time of their Departure with all their Subjects of the Crusade and promised to each other a most sincere and indissoluble Friendship according to the Faith which they had severally plighted to one another Philip King of France to Richard King of England as his Friend and faithful Liegeman and Richard King of England to Philip King of France as his Lord and Friend These are the very Words of these Letters dated the thirtieth day of December at Nonancour as they are reported by Radulph Dean of London who writ in that time such Matters as he himself was an Eye Witness of and in the Transaction whereof he had a considerable Share But in regard the Time which they had limited appeared too short for the Preparations which were of necessity to be made the two Kings had a second Interview at Vezelay where they lengthened the time of their Rendezvouz till the Week after Midsummer In which time they finished their Treaty which among others had these Articles That if either of them died in the time of the Holy War the other should make use of the Money and the Army of the deceased King to carry on and finish the War That the Lords of the two Kingdoms should maintain a fraternal Correspondence and that the Bishops should excommunicate all those who
should enterprize any thing to the Disadvantage of the Crusades during their Abscence But it happening that about this same time Queen Isabella lost her Life in giving it to two Twins who did not survive her above three Days an inauspicuous Augury was from thence drawn concerning this Voyage either by the superstitious Humour of the People who love to make their foolish Remarks upon such Events and to turn every surprizing Accident into a Mystery of future Consequences or possibly it might be a kind of Presage which God is sometimes pleased to give as hath been frequenty observed and was more remarkable in another Accident which happened at this very time For as the King of England at the Church of Saint Martin in Tours took the Marks of his Pilgrimage to the Holy Land the Consecrated Pilgrims Staff by his leaning too hard upon it broak in the Middle This Presage gave a certain Horrour and Fear to all the Assistants at the Ceremony but not the least to this immoveable Prince who was not of an Humour to Philosophize upon such sort of Adventures which gave not the least Trouble or Inquietude to his unshaken Soul year 1190 The Devotion of Philip the August was more calm and edifying He received upon St. John Baptist's Day in the Church of St. Dennis in France the consecrated Pilgrim's Staff from the Hands of William Archbishop of Reims his Uncle by the Mother's side and himself took from the Altar the Royal Standard or the Oriflame with all the most sensible Marks of a most tender and admirable Devotion imploring the Aid of Heaven by his Prayers and Tears in such an uncommon and charming Decency of Piety as produced the like Sentiments in the Souls of all those who assisted at that solemn Action After which having left the Government of the Realm in his Absence to the Queen Adela his Mother he came to Vezelay where he was met by King Richard who to avert the Effects of the unlucky Presage which happened to him at Tours would there anew receive the Pilgrim's Staff before the Altar of St. Magdalene whose Body they say reposed in that Abby From hence the two Kings marched together to Lyon where for the Conveniency of the Troops which followed them they divided themselves and took different Ways the King of France taking that of Genoa and the King of England that of Marseilles which two Cities they had made choice of for the Rendezvouz of their respective Armies At their parting they renewed the Protestations of an inviolable Amity which they had so frequently made and which notwithstanding were presently broken at their next Meeting And truly it was not reasonably to be hoped that it should be of any lasting Continuance between two Princes whose Interests Temperaments Humours Sentiments Inclinations and Manners accorded so very little as may easily be observed from the Portraicts and Characters which I am going to draw from the Life and the Truth and to make a Present of them to the Reader Philip was then in the very Flower of his Age being about twenty four Years of Age of a most admirable Shape and a Stature something exceeding the Middle of a Majestick Port and an Air fierce and Martial which nevertheless had nothing in it discouraging the Beholders in regard it was accompanied with that rare Beauty which Nature had so advantageously bestowed upon him for the whole Turn and Composure of his Face was admirable and all the Stroaks of it regular and delicate his Forehead was fair and high his Nose a little gracefully rising his Hair fair his Cheeks wore a beautiful Vermilion his Eyes were quick and sparkled with a certain gentle Fire which with a kind of Fixedness in his Looks joyned with the Colour of his Complexion manifestly shewed his Temper to be naturally Sanguin and inclining to Choler and two little Moles which he had growing at the Corner of his left Eye not at all to the disadvantage of its Beauty rather augmented the Whiteness of his Skin by the Opposition of their Blackness But that which was the Life of this Royal Beauty and which added the greatest Graces to all those Wonders which shined about him with such a charming Glory was the admirable Qualities of an incomparable Mind which made all the Vertues necessary for a great King shine most conspicuously in his Conduct and all his Actions For he was extreamly Religious and even jealous for the Glory of God for which he had Sentiments most infinitely tender and full of a respectful Veneration He was an implacable Enemy to Blasphemers whom he caused to be thrown into the Seine and of Hereticks whom he exterminated with Fire and Faggot He was a most passionate Adorer of Equity Faith and Justice which he caused to be rendred to all his Subjects with the greatest Exactness and without Discrimination Distinction of Persons or Partiality merciful and compassionate to the Poor as if he had been their Father Liberal but according to the Rules of Judgment and Discretion Magnificent above the Genius and the Custom of the Kings of his Age but most particularly in the Expences of his House and the Entertainment of Military Men in publick Buildings and Royal Foundations as well appeared by the ruinous Walls of Paris which he caused to be re-built at the same time that he was engaged in the Holy War Upon the whole he was equally wise prudent and moderate in his Counsels and quick ardent and bold in the Execution of them brave and valiant even to a Fault a great Lover of Learning which he caused to re-flourish especially in the University of Paris affable vigilant provident happy in War and always invincible and victorious year 1190 as he evidently made appear in his Wars with the English and the Flemmings and which in the Process of his Reign more remarkably appeared by the glorious Conquests which he made of a great part of Poitou Guienne and all Normandy of Avignion Artois Cambresis Bullen and so many other Earldoms as he added and re-united to his Crown beginning the first of our Kings of the third Race the great Work which Lewis the Great hath in our time so happily compleated by giving to France the ancient Limits from the Ocean to the Rhine In short if Philip who always triumphed over his Enemies had had the power to vanquish himself and that Impatience and Choler which his hot Temper raised in him and which sometimes overcame his Reason and for some Moments took from him the liberty of acting according to his better Inclinations one might say that his Character is that of a Prince accomplished with all manner of Perfections which could be wished in a great and admirable King And it is much to his advantage that he stands so near King Richard who could not come in comparison with him neither for his Body nor his Soul although it must not be denied but that Prince also possessed many great and excellent Qualities
to Sea in Easter-Week and after it had been soundly beaten with a Tempest which they say was miraculously calmed by Thomas of Canterbury who had raised many worse in his Life according to the credulous Humour of those Ages it being affirmed by some that he appeared upon the Deck of the great Ship called the London that Vessel came up with Cape St. Vincent over against the City of Silves nine other Ships entring the River of Lesbon where they came to an Anchor The Miramolin or King of the Sarasins of the Western Africa at that time made War with a potent Army against Sancho King of Portugal whom he had surprized and who with an inconsiderable number of Troops had put himself into Santaren This Prince believing that Heaven had sent him the Succour of these Strangers year 1190 as it had before done to the late King Alphonso his Father requested them to help him in this his pressing Necessity Whereupon five hundred of the bravest of them immediately went into his Service whilst that fourscore of the most valiant young Gentlemen who were aboard the London put themselves into Sylves for the Defence of that City But Fortune without giving them the liberty of drawing their Swords put an end to this War by the suddain Death of Mirmalion after which his Army immediately disbanded it self The English then returning to their Vessels sound there sixty three more of their Ships who had put in there to refresh themselves and all that great City in Arms against their People who had committed great Insolencies and Disorders against the Inhabitants insomuch that Blood had been drawn on both sides divers Houses plundred and burnt and some of the English committed to Prison But all these Matters being calmed by the Prudence of King Sancho who knew very well how to pacifie both Parties the English took their leave the 25th Day of July and the same Day joyning three and thirty great Ships with which Admiral William Fortz attended them at the Mouth of the Tagus they prosperously pursued their Voyage till they came to an Anchor before Salernum There it was that King Richard met his Fleet and the 30th of September arrived at the Port of Messina where he was received by the French and Sicilians with all possible Honour and with all the Marks of a sincere and perfect Friendship But this was not of any long Continuance and the good Understanding which at first appeared among these three Nations was presently interrupted and broken by two great Quarrels which Richard had and which were the Cause that the two Kings instead of presently pursuing their intended Voyage were obliged to defer it till the following Year and to pass all the Winter at Messina The manner was thus William king of Sicily being dead without Issue the Sicilians who were resolved to have a King of the Race of their Norman Princes placed his Cousin Tancred the Natural Son of Roger Duke of Pavia upon the Throne notwithstanding that before his Death William had caused Queen Constance his Aunt the Wife of the Emperor Henry VI. to be acknowledged their Queen and had declared her to be the Inheretrix of the Crown Now Richard without pretending to have any part in this great Difference between the Emperor and Tancred only desired of this new King that he would send to him Jane his Sister the Daughter of Henry II. King of England the Widow of the deceased King William that he would restore to him her Dowry with several other things to which he pretended and above all an hundred Ships which the late King had promised to his Father-in Law King Henry for his Voyage to the Levant Tancred immediately sent the Queen to him but deferring to give him Satisfaction in his other Pretensions Richard who was resolved that he should do him Reason seized upon two strong Places which lay upon the Straits This gave such a Jealousie to the Messineses who naturally are not too much given to forbearing that they took Arms against the English and beat them out of the City and the English no less naturally impatient of Beating but more hot and brave than the Sicilians ran immediately to their Arms and issuing in Battalia out of their Camp repulsed these forward Burghers into the City and put themselves into a Posture to attack it by Force There was however a few Moments Truce agreed to by the Interposition of Philip the August who endeavoured to accommodate this Difference between them But Richard having discovered or at least believing that the Messineses had an Intention to surprize him during the Preliminary Treaty of the Peace began the Assault upon the Town with so much Fury that he carried the Place but he left it again presently after he had received the Excuses of the Magistrates and the Satisfaction which he demanded of them out of Respect as he said to King Philip who had his Quarter in the City and who was not at all satisfied with these violent Proceedings of King Richard For this Reason Richard to strengthen himself against him by the Alliance of Tancred concluded a Peace with that King who offered him besides the Ships twenty thousand Ounces of Gold to quit all his other Pretensions and twenty thousand more for the Portion of his Daughter year 1190 who was to be married to Arthur Duke of Bretany Nephew to King Richard So that the Conclusion of this Quarrel was the Foundation of another incomparably more dangerous which hereby grew between the kings of France and England For Tancred perceiving that the French King had no reason to be satisfied with this Marriage which was surreptitious concluded without his Knowledge and which directly shocked all his Interests endeavoured to link himself more closely with the English as he did and to exasperate them against King Philip. And truly finding that these two Princes were already imbroiled upon the Subject of the Taking Messina where Richard having caused his Standards to be planted Philip sent to have them taken down He went to the King of England and shewed him the Letters which he assured him came from the King of France wherein he offered him the Assistance of all his Forces if he would make War with Richard who he said had no other Thoughts but to amuse him with the Shew of Peace thereby with more Ease to seize upon his Realm Richard although he was extreamly provoked with this Procedure yet was very well pleased to have so specious a Pretence to break with Philip. Philip complaining with Justice enough reciprocally against him that having so long since affianced his Sister Alice he had now altered his Thoughts and was designed to marry Berengera the Daughter of Garcias King of Navarre following therein the Counsel of Queen Eleonor who her self had conducted that Princess thither There seemed great Foundation for the Complaints on either side and their Spirits were wound up to that degree as indangered the Breaking of the holy
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
deliver the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ He writ very pressing Letters to Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury year 1195 and Primate of all England and to his Suffragan Bishops to oblige them to preach the Crusade throughout England And he was determined also to constrain by the Censures of the Church all such as having not accomplished their Vow had quitted the Crusade to take it upon them again and with all convenient Expedition to put themselves into a Condition to undertake the Voyage to the Holy Land Or however if their imperfect Health would not allow of their undertaking it in Person to send a Man in their place who might be able to serve in that War But after all the Care and Pains of this devout Pope he found very slender Effects of them in the two Realms For Philip who after having discharged his Vow no longer carried the Cross was not at all inclined to re-assume it nor to joyn himself again with a Prince of whom he had so many and great Subjects to complain and with whom it was almost impossible that he should have any firm or durable Peace so much did their Interests as well as their Humours contradict each other However he permitted the two Cardinal Legates whom the Pope had sent to him to cause the Crusade to be preached in France where many took it upon themselves fully resolved to undertake that Voyage with the first Opportunity that should fairly offer it self King Richard still carried the Cross upon his Habits as a Token that he designed upon the Expiration of the Truce to return to the Holy Land But the Troubles which he daily created to himself as by degrees they lessened his Inclinations so also at length they took from him the power of putting that Design in Execution So that he was forced to make the best of it by persuading the Great Men of his Realm to undertake the Expedition for the Health of their Souls and his and since he said he was not in a Condition to satisfie the Desire and Intention which he had once more to combat against the Infidels in Person he hoped he should in some sort accomplish those Intentions by the brave Actions which those who should supply his place would perform in that War But for all that this turned to no great Account whether it were that the Lords were a little shock'd with the thoughts of a Voyage so long dangerous and toilsom or that they easily discovered the little Sincerity in these Discourses of the King who they knew had much rather that they should stay at home than abandon him in the Wars which he then had with France The Pope therefore perceiving that he was to expect little Aid either from France or England in such an unlucky Conjuncture turned all his Thoughts towards the Emperor in hopes that that Prince would not be displeased with so fair an Occasion of putting himself into good Terms with the Holy See And in truth this way which seemed next to impossible after such a notorious Breach as had been betwixt the Pope and the Emperor had an unexpected and undifficult Success For Henry resolved absolutely upon this Occasion to give the Pope all manner of Satisfaction whether it were that he was really touched with a true Remorse for his past Faults and that hereby he thought to oblige Celestin to restore him to the Peace of the Church or that he was glad to have so fair an Opportunity to return into Italy with a powerful Army where the Empress her self highly dissatisfied with his Conduct towards the Norman Princes had raised a potent Interest against him It is certain that he received the Cardinal Gregory in an extraordinary manner at Strasbourg where at his Return from Italy he had caused an Assembly of the States and Princes of the Empire He most favourably heard the Speech which the Legate made to him at the Diet when he presented to him the Letters of Celestin in which the Pope without taking the least notice of their former Differences or the Anathema which he had denounced against him exhorted him as if there had never been any Unkindness or Breach between them to take upon him the Cross and to unite all the Forces of the Empire to gain the Glory of establishing that of Jesus Christ in Palestine The Emperor hereupon at least in outward Appearance embraced that glorious Design with all his Heart and protested publickly that he was ready to do whatsoever the Pope should desire in reference to this holy Enterprise and that he was resolved to employ his Estate his Forces and his Life to put it in Execution and following the Example of his Father to march himself at the Head of the Christian Army year 1195 against the Infidels For this purpose he called a general Diet at Wormes where almost all the Princes Ecclesiastick and Secular were assembled about the latter end of November There he solemnly declared in the Cathedral Church his Resolution to undertake the Holy War in a Discourse which moved the whole Assembly After which eight of the most famous and eloquent Bishops every one in his Turn did for eight days make elaborate Speeches upon this Subject and discoursed it with so much Force and Zeal that the whole Assembly took upon them the Cross some out of a true Sentiment of Piety and a suddain Transport of Devotion others by the Obligation of Shame not to follow the Example of so many Great Men after the Throng of whom they were necessitated for their Honour to permit themselves to swim along that generous Stream Thus it sometimes happens that Men do well even contrary to their own Inclinations when by a kind of Necessity they find themselves forced by the Company and Example of such as out of good Inclinations and Greatness of Soul follow the Paths of Piety and Vertue The most remarkable of those who in this Assembly took upon them the Cross were Henry Duke of Saxony Otho Marquis of Brandenbourg Henry Count Palatin of the Rhine Harman Lantgrave of Thuringia Henry Duke of Brabant Albert Count of Hapsbourg Adolphus Count of Scawenbourg Henry Count de Pappenheim Mareshal of the Empire the Duke of Bavaria Frederick the Son of Leopold Duke of Austria Conrade Marquis of Moravia Valeran Brother to the Duke of Limbourg and the Bishops of Wirtzbourg Breme Verden Halberstad Passau and Ratisbonne But that which was the most extraordinary and which deserves the Admiration of all Ages was that Bela King of Hungary being dead not long before this Diet Queen Margaret a Daughter of France his Widow the Sister of Philip the August and who had some time worn the Crown of England as Wife to the young Henry finding her self a second time in a State of Freedom was resolved to employ that Liberty together with her Life and Fortunes in the Service of Jesus Christ in this fourth Crusade For this purpose she took upon her the Cross and solemnly engaged
Peace which was offered him upon Condition that the Prisoners on both sides should be set at liberty year 1213 But these Letters of the Pope produced not those Effects which he hoped and promised himself for Saphadin who had so frequently combated against the Christians knew by Experience that the Crusades would overthrow themselves if the fury of their first Efforts were but prevented and above all having the Courage the good Fortune and the Success of Saladin he was not much moved by the Remonstrances of Innocent for whom he had no great Consideration And for the other Letters which the Pope writ to all Christian People they came to nothing at last but to raise those great Disorders which had happened in the former Crusades For it happened by a strange Illusion or rather a kind of Frensy which like a Plague spread it self over all France and Germany the Youths of all sorts of Conditions taking a strong Impression in their Minds that God would make use of their Hands to deliver the Holy Sepulchre out of the Hands of the Sarasins and that he commanded them to go to Jerusalem to atchieve that high Enterprise they assembled to the number of thirty thousand in France and twenty thousand in Germany who took upon them the Cross There were many Monks and Priests who undertook to justifie this Folly by another which was greater and as if God had commanded it put themselves at the Head of these Boys and other Vagabonds who maliciously followed them to make some advantage of this Disorder and it being impossible to stop the Torrent of this furious Folly they pleasantly marched along singing and crying all together with all their power Lord Jesus bestow upon us thy Holy Cross The greatest part of those of Germany taking disserent Roads either perished miserably on the Way or were dispoiled by Thieves and Robbers Those of France who could escape to Marseilles were there miserably cheated by two Merchants whose Names were Hugh le Fer and William Porc notorious Villains who having promised to transport them into Palestine for nothing putting them on Board seven of their Ships two of the Vessels were shipwrack'd with the loss of all those poor Boys with which they were charged and for those who were upon the other sive these Traytors carried them into Egypt and there sold them for Slaves to the Sarasins It is true that God who alone can bring Good out of Evil for his Glory drew this Advantage from this great Disorder and horrible Treachery that divers of these Innocents whom the Infidels endeavoured to force to deny and renounce their Faith persisted so constantly to confess Jesus Christ for whose sake they had taken the Cross that they chose rather to be cut in pieces than to renounce their Faith and by this irregular and frantick Action came at last to obtain the Crown of Martyrdom At last the memorable Victory which Philip the August obtained against Otho who having been crowned after the Death of the Emperor Philip troubled all Europe gave the Pope the occasion to accomplish by the General Council the great Design of the Crusade which he had begun by his Letters and which the Preachers by his Orders published every where This Emperor Otho made a most cruel War against the Pope who had always been his Protector so that he was at last constrained by his extream Ingratitude to excommunicate him as also for his openly invading the Churches Patrimony seizing upon what the Holy See had received from the magnificent Liberality of the Kings of France Philip the August who besides that he hated Otho as being the Nephew of his Enemy the King of England thought himself obliged to maintain what his Predecessors had done in favour of the Holy See sailed not to declare himself for the Pope and negotiated so powerfully with divers Princes of the Empire the principal whereof were the King of Bohemia the Dukes of Austria and Bavaria the Archbishops of Treves Mayence and Cologne that they deposed this ingrateful excommunicate Prince and elected Frederick whom his Father the Emperor Henry VI. had caused to be declared King of the Romans at the Age of three Years and who was also King of Naples and Sicily in Right of the Empress Constantia his Mother He came soon after into Germany where he was received by the Princes and crowned Emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle year 1213 by Thierri Bishop of Cologne And that he might support his Right by the Arms of his Protector he came directly to Vaucouleur where after a Conference with Lewis the Son of King Philip he made a new Treaty with the King and renewed the ancient Alliance which had been between his Predecessors and the Crown of France Otho on his side who had a powerful Party in Germany believing that if he could but ruin Philip he should be able easily to manage Frederick and the Pope made a League against France with the English Ferrand de Portugal Earl of Flanders who had revolted against his Master and his Benefactor who had married him to the Heiress of Flanders year 1214 and joyned the Troops of the English and Flemmings which together with his own composed an Army of above two hundred thousand Men So that making no doubt but that he should be able to cut the French Army in pieces who were not a third part so numerous he assailed them when they least expected a Battle as they were passing the Bridge of Bovines But Philip without being dismayed at this Surprise having put himself at the Head of the Rereguard whilst the Vant-guard re-passed the Bridge sustained their first Shock and gave a Check to the Enemies till such time as the other Troops were drawn up in Battalia upon his Right and Left according to the Orders which he had given And then the French animated by the Sight the Words but much more by the Example of their King who this Day behaved himself like one of the ancient Heroes charged with so much fury every where that after having fought victoriously in all places from Noon till Night the Army of the Enemies was totally routed All the principal Captains lay stretched out at length upon the place or else were taken Prisoners Otho only excepted who escaped by the swiftness of his Horse and retreated into the Lower Saxony where about two Years after he died with Grief to see himself forsaken by all the Princes of the Empire and another Emperor generally acknowledged and received by all the Germans This great Victory of Philip and that which Prince Lewis his Son obtained almost at the same time in Poitou against the King of England having made a great Calm in the Church and the Empire the Pope who during the Wars which troubled all Europe could not assemble the Council now caused it to be called year 1215 and accordingly it was held the Year following in the famous Church of the Lateran at Rome This was the twelfth Oecumenical
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
follow the design of his Predecessor year 1244 to redress the Evils of the Church by a General Council for the calling whereof he sent his Circular Letters throughout all Europe It was held at Lyons the year following and was opened upon the Eve of the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles It was at this Council that the Cardinals received from Innocent the Red-Hat for a distinction of their Dignity and the Obligation which they had to loose even their Lives for the cause of God and of his Church especially in this Persecution of the Emperor Frederick The Patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch as also those of Aquilea and Venice assisted at this Council together with one hundred and fourty Arch-Bishops and Bishops of France Italy Spain England Scotland and Ireland the Deputies of many other places the Abbots of Cluni the Cistercians and Claraval the General of the order of St. Dominick and the Vicar of that of St. Francis as also a great number of other Abbots and Priors of the same Kingdoms There came scarcely any at all from Germany for fear of offending the Emperor nor from Hungary by reason of the irruption which the Tartars had made at that time into those Countries Baldwin the Emperor of Constantinople who came to desire assistance from the Pope was there also together with Raymond Count of Tholose Raymond Berenger Count de Provence and the Ambassadors of the Emperor the Kings of England France and the other Christian Princes Affairs of the greatest moment certainly passed with wonderful Expedition in those times in Comparison of what they do in our days For this great Council wherein matters of the Greatest Importance were treated of the smallest of which would now take up much a longer time and would be discussed and debated with extraordinary difficulty was finished in three Sessions In the first of them the Pope being seated upon a Throne which was raised in the great Church at Lyons having at his Right hand the Emperor of Constantinople and upon his Left the other Princes he made a most Pathetick Discourse in which comparing his pains and Grief to those of Jesus Christ upon the Cross he said that the Church had received five great Wounds from which it was impossible but he must be extremely sensible of her pain The first was the abuses and disorders which were so frequent among the Ecclesiasticks The Second was by the Insolence and the Tyranny of the Sarasins year 1245 who had prophaned the Sacred places and laid wast the Holy City and were upon the point of taking all that remained in Palestine from the Christians The third Wound was that which was given by the Schism of the Greeks whose power though it had been brought down yet now began to rise again and even to threaten Constantinople which was reduced to the last Extremities The fourth was by the furious irruption of the Tartars into Hungary even to the very consines of Germany where they filled all with Blood Slaughter and Ruin The Fifth was by the terrible Persecution of Frederick who exposed the Church to all those Sufferings for which Pope Gregory had cut him off from the Body of the Church in which he not only persisted but daily augmented his former guilt by new and greater Crimes After which the Patriarch of Constantinople and Valeran Bishop of Berylus who was sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to implore the Succour of the Christians of the West gave a Relation of the deplorable condition wherein the Affairs of the Latins were in Greece and Palestine And then Thadeus de Sessa the Judge of the Imperial Palace and the Emperors Ambassador rose up and spoke to the Council in the name of his Master At first that he might gain the Favour of the Assembly he repeated in general and few words what the Pope had said concerning the Sarasins Greeks Tartars and the Emperor and protested that Frederick whose Power by reason of so many Victories as he had gained against his Enemies was greater than ever it had been before offered himself withal his heart to employ all that he had his Fortunes and his Arms to reduce the Greeks to reason and to repulse the Tartars and that he was ready to go himself in person and at his own charges into Palestine to drive out the Corasmins and there to reestablish the Affairs of the Christians which were in such ill terms and that in the mean time he promised to restore to the Church whatsoever should be found that he had taken from it and to make all the satisfaction that could be expected if in any thing he had offended To this the Pope not doubting but all this was said as an Artifice to surprize and amuse the Council only answered that they were not met there to talk of new promises but to see that he performed those which he had already made upon his Oath which he had so often eluded And then added he after having so often deceived us what Caution will he give to Warrant that which he promiseth The Kings of France and England boldly and without delay answered Thadeus ought not they to be accepted By no means replyed the Pope because if he should again fail in his promises as thereis reason enough to believe that he will we shall be obliged to take our remedy against these two Kings So that the Church for one Enemy which she hath now upon her hands shall then have three which are the three most puissant Princes in all Europe Then Thadeus continuing his discourse to come to the point which was in question and upon which he was defired to insist he endeavoured to answer precisely to all the Crimes which the Pope had objected against Frederick And being very dexterous and wonderful Eloquent he spoke with so much Art and gave so soft and plausible a turn to his defence that there were very many in the Assembly who appeared highly satisfied But Innocent who was a very able man and who was perfectly well acquainted with all the Circumstances of this Affair replied instantly to all that the Emperors Ambassadour had said in defence of his Master and answered to every particular with as much exactness and Strength as if he had been a long time before prepared by seeing what Thadeus would say upon this Subject And this was what was done in this first Session In the Second which was held eight days after upon Tuesday the fifth of July diverse Bishops especially the Spaniards who were come in greater numbers to the Council than any other Nation tendered an accusation consisting in many Articles against the Emperor urging the Pope to condemn him especially upon this whereon they insisted principally That it was the intention of that Prince as appeared by his own Letters to dispoil the Ecclesiasticks of all their Estates and to reduce them to the same condition that they were in during the times of the primitive Persecution The Ambassadour on
Reigned in France year 1246 had gained over the Princes of the League over the Duke of Bretany the Counts of Tholouse and March and over the King of England and the Prince Richard his Brother who had indeavoured to support the Earl of March and by a pretty piece of Policy he carried along with him all the Princes and all the Great men of the Realm who might give any Suspicion or the least occasion to fear that they had either the Power the Will or the Temptation during his absence to trouble the Repose of his Dominions For of the two most mutinous Spirits of whom he had most reason to be distrustful he took one of them which was the Earl of March along with him and the other which was Raymond the Young who was Earl of Tholouse who had also taken upon him the Cross died before the Voyage leaving his Dominions to Alphonsus the King's Brother the Count of Poitiers who had married the Princess Joanna his Daughter and Heiress and the King for his greater assurance sent that Prince to establish himself in his new Dominion of Languedoc before he imbarqued himself as he afterwards did to go and joyn him in the East Moreover he deferred his Voyage for almost four Years to take the advantage of two fair occasions which presented themselves the one to reunite the County of Mascon to the Crown which he bought of the Countess who after she had distributed the money for which she sold it to the poor retired to the Nunnery of Maubuisson and there professed herself the other was to bring the County of Provence into the Royal House which had been separated from it for above three hundred Years For Raymond Berenger the Fifth of the Name and the last of the Catalonian Family who had reigned in Provence being dead the year preceeding the King knew with so much Art how to gain Romee de Villeneuve and Albert de Tarascon the Trustees and Guardians of the Princess Beatrix the remaining Daughter of the four which Count Raymond had had who was Sister to the Queen and the Heiress to the Count that he obtained her for Charles d' Anjou his Brother and without losing of time advancing towards Provence with one part of the Army which was ready for the Holy War he broke all the measures of James the King of Aragon Cousin German to the deceased Count and hindered his carrying the Princess away by force as he had designed if he could not procure her by other wayes in order to oblige her to marry his Son and by that means to retain this fair County in his Family which lay so conveniently for him During this time Lewis had all the leisure which could be reasonably desired to make his preparations and provisions year 1247 which were the greatest that ever had been seen and also to settle that Publick Peace and Tranquility which he had so happily given to all his Dominions and to assure himself on the side of England also For he prolonged the Truce which had been made with that King two or three Years before after the Victory of Taillebourg and also engaged the Pope to be the Guarranty that it should be inviolably observed as it was during all the time of his absence although the English hearing of his being taken Prisoner indeavoured to break it In short this Wise Prince neither went as the first Crusades had done by Land and thereby he avoided the dangers into which they had fallen of perishing by Famine and the miseries which attended those vast Desert Countries which were possessed by the Barbarians neither did he go with a confused Multitude of all manner of Persons and People who were to be gotten together who served for no other purpose but to put all into disorder but with a good Army consisting in betwixt thirty and forty thousand men which was such a number as the Great Alexander had when he went to the Conquest of Asia but this Army was composed for the greatest part of Gentlemen and choice Souldiers such as were capable of marching over the bellies of all that Egypt and Syria could oppose against them unless some accident should happen or some extraordinary misfortune befal them against which no humane Prudence can give any Warranty or Assurance And that which was most considerable the whole Army was absolutely at his disposal in regard that it consisted wholly of French for the King of England would not permit the Bishop of Berytus who went thither to preach the Crusade to publish it in his Dominions alledging that he stood in need of all his Subjects to defend himself against his Enemies if they should attack him year 1245 King Lewis having wisely provided all things necessary for his Voyage which he undertook in his very prime strength being about three and thirty Years of Age he had nothing further to do but to take care of the Government of his Realm in his absence and this he left to his Mother Queen Blanch the most able Woman and most capable of Governing of any of her time after which he went according to the Custom of those Ages to St. Dennis to receive the Oristame the Scarf and the Pilgrim's Staff which he did in great Solemnity for he parted from Paris upon the Friday after Whitsunday in the year 1248. accompanied with the two Princes his Brothers the Legate year 1248 and the most part of the Princes of the Crusade being preceded by all the Processions of the whole City which were followed by an infinite number of People who all in tears marched from the Palace to the Nunnery of St. Antonina singing Psalms and Letanies for the prosperity of his Voyage From thence he went by Burgundy to Lyons where he made his Entry with all manner of Magnificence for never any King was better acquainted with the Art of making his Royal Majesty most conspicuous in those Publick Ceremonies where he was minded to shew it and the Historians of that Age inform us that among other remarkable Circumstances of this Magnificent Entry there were an hundred Knights who being compleatly armed and mounted upon their great charging Horses caparisoned with their Coat Armor according to the manner of those times marched before him with their Swords drawn in their hands and this is that which our present King who in Magnificience and Grandeur surpasseth all his Predecessars hath revived in our dayes to render to the Majesty of our Kings that which St. Lewis himself as great a Saint as he was judged necessary upon some occasions for the manifesting his Lustre and his Greatness After this the Holy King having again conferred with the Pope who kept his Court at Lyons descended by the Rhone and went to take Shipping with the Queen upon the twenty fifth of August at Aigues-Mortes where the greatest part of his Fleet waited for him the remainder being at Marseilles there to take in the rest of his Army After which setting sail
Money to pay the Crusades came to nothing and seeing himself straitned by that Prince who joyning with the Rebells of the Church had constrained him to withdraw to Orvieta he had at last recourse to France He therefore made new Offers and Solicitations to Count Charles of Anjou and Provence to accept the Realms of Sicily and Naples as Fiefs escheated to the Church by the Felony of the Princes of Suabia who had injoyed them after the Normans And that he might do this more effectually he sent the Arch-Bishop of Cosenca into England to redemand from the King and Prince Edmond his Son the Right which he had invested him within these Kingdoms to which they could now no longer pretend since they had not accomplished the conditions upon which it was granted After which Simon de Brie Cardinal of St. Cecily passed as Legate into France to bestow the Investiture upon Charles who accepted of it by the King's consent and upon the pressing Solicitations of the Countess Beatrix his Lady who was ready to die with longing to be a Queen as well as her three other Sisters who had been so for a long time He therefore promised the Cardinal that he would presently March with a Powerful Army against Mainfrey And accordingly after that Clement the Fourth the Successor of Vrban had confirmed his Election he Sailed from Marseilles with thirty Stout Men of War and arrived safe at Rome where he expected his Land Army which this new Queen like a Female Hero led over the Alps quite through Italy receiving all the way as she passed the Auxiliary Troops of the Guelphs and being come thither she was Crowned Queen as the Count was King of Naples and Sicily in the Church of St. John of Latran by five Cardinals delegated by the Pope for the performance of that Ceremony he himself being then at Perusa After which the new King at the Head of his Army took the Field and forcing the passage of Goriglian and the Fortress of St. German he Marched directly towards the Enemy and in short gave Mainfrey Battle near Beneventum The Battle was bravely fought by Mainfrey who shewed himself a great Captain and Valiant Souldier but in Conclusion he lost it abundance of his gallant Men and he himself remaining among the Dead After which the young Conradin who was now about fifteen years of Age coming with a flourishing Army of Germans strengthened with the Gibelins of Tuscany and Lombardy attempted to recover the Inheritance of his Father but not being able to pursue the advantage which he had intirely at the beginning of the Battle which he fought against Charles he lost all For Charles who knew how to improve his error to his own advantage in conclusion won the Day from him near the Lake of Celano in a second Victory more Glorious and Compleat than the first But his Policy without doubt too severe not to say inhumane in this Rencontre made him dishonour it by cutting off the head of this unfortunate young Prince and that of Frederick of Austria by a Conduct which had nothing in it of the Genius and nature of St. Lewis or of the French Lords who all condemned this Action as Posterity will certainly do and which as it fails not to do justice to the good or evil Actions of Princes will certainly never pardon to his Memory In the mean time the great progress which the Sarasins daily made in the East against the Christians of Syria during the troubles of the West arriving at Rome the Popes Vrban and Clement failed not to write to St. Lewis and to the other Kings to pursue the Crusade which had been begun against these Barbarians But those which the Popes were obliged at the same time to publish against the Princes of Suabia and the Wars of Italy obstructed the doing of any thing effectually towards the General Crusade till such time as Charles after his two great Victories was peaceably established in the possession of his two Kingdoms For then the troubles of Italy being appeased year 1268 and Peace settled throughout all Europe the Pope and the King by agreement took up the design of that Crusade which it was impossible to execute whilest the private ones were published against Mainfrey King Lewis as much St. as he was could not hinder himself from retaining a boiling displeasure for the unhappy Success of his attempt upon Egypt and moreover inflamed as he was with a Zeal for the House of God he was wonderfully afflicted with sorrow to hear every Day that Bendocdar was ready to swallow up all and to chase the Christians wholly out of the Holy Land of Palestine It was therefore his passionate desire to take up the Cross again and to imploy the remainder of his Days in combating against the Enemies of Jesus Christ for the reconquering of his Inheritance which was almost intirely lost But in regard he was unwilling it should be said that in a matter of this importance he acted by the sole movement of his own Inclinations he sent privately to Pope Clement one of his Confidents to Communicate to him his design and to desire him to send a Legate into France with Command to exhort him and all his Subjects to undertake the Holy War The Pope who was very Wise considering that this Great Prince had already done beyond what could be expected from a most Christian King in the War against the Infidels deliberated a long time about this Affair But at last having well examined the matter he kindly assented to the King's desire and highly approved of his Pious Design and consequently resolved not to lose so fair an opportunity to form a Holy League against Bendocdar to which in the beginning of his Pontificate he had exhorted not only all the Kings of Europe but also the King of Armenia and Abagas the King of the Tartars in Persia For this purpose therefore he sent Simon de Brie Cardinal of St. Cecily his Legate into France and the Cardinal Othobon into England with order to pass from thence as he also did into Spain and Portugal then he ordained as he had done formerly that the Religious of the orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis should Preach the Crusade through all Germany as far as Denmark and Poland But nothing of all this had any Success except only in France by the diligence the Care the Example and admirable Zeal of St. Lewis For so soon as the Legate was arrived this devout King called a general Assembly of the Princes Prelates and Barons of his Realm to his Royal Palace in Paris where with all his Power and Eloquence animated with his Ardent Zeal he himself exhorted the whole Assembly To take upon them again the Cross to avenge the Injuries which the Sarasins had for so long time done to Jesus Christ in the fairest part of his Empire and to maintain the Christians in their proper Inheritance out of which the Sultan of Egypt and
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
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
thinking it very lawful to revenge Persidiousness by Treachery no sooner saw them disarmed but they fell upon them and put them all to the Sword except a very few who escaped the Massacre to carry the woful News into their own Country to the other Crusades who yet by their Misfortune grew never the Wiser or more Considerate For in the beginning of the Summer of this same Year a prodigious Multitude of People gathered from divers parts of France England the low Countries Lorrain and that part of Germany which lyes upon the Rhine drawing along with them an infinite of Women and People of the lewdest Condition in the World assembled themselves near Collen where they passed the Rhine in order to joyn with Count Emico who attended them with a great number of Crusades of the higher Germany of the same dissolute Complexion with themselves These People to Signalize their false Zeal by covering a most barbarous Action with the specious pretence of Piety most inhumanly Massacred all the Jews whom they found at Collen and Mayence where they forced the Arch-Bishops Palace where Rothard the Archbishop had secured a hundred of these poor Creatures as in a Sanctuary But it proved no Protection against the Fury of those Barbarians who Butchered them in a most savage manner cutting their Throats like Sheep sparing neither the Women for their Sex nor the Children for their innocent Age nor indeed was there any Sanctuary to be found against this horrible Barbarism which was inspired by Avarice and promoted by an insatiable Covetousness of the Riches of the Jews Insomuch that the remainders of them being reduced to the utmost Dispair chose rather to repeat the doleful Example of Saguntum Capua and with their own Hand to commit the bloody Execution so that barricadoing themselves within their Houses the pityless Mothers like Furies cut the Throats of their sucking Babes the Husbands their Wives and Daughters and the Fathers their Sons and the Servants chose rather to dispatch each other than to fall into the Hands of those incompassionate Monsters who profaned the Character and rendered the Name of Christian of which they were unworthy most Infamous and Detestable But it was not long before God Almighty by the remarkable Vengeance which he executed upon these wicked People manifested the Abhorrence which he had of their Crimes and that he had no Intention to make use of their Service in reconquering the Inheritance of his Son by the profane Hands of those who had declared themselves his Enemies by such Impieties as even the Infidels themselves would have blushed to commit For this huge Army of Bedlams which consisted of above two hundred thousand Men of whom there were not above three thousand Horse laying Siege to Mesbourg a strong place upon the Danubius in Hungary where they were denyed Passage and when they were just upon the point of gaining it was in an instant struck with such a Pannick Fear that they fled with so much Precipitation Blindness and Disorder and all perished there except a very few of the Horse who being well mounted saved themselves by Flight For the greatest part of them were Smothered whilest they indeavoured to pass the Morass with which the Town is Invironed others were slain by the Garrison who upon this occasion sallying out followed them with Death closely at the Heels many were cut off by the Peasants who ran from all parts to take Vengeance of these Robbers and a multitude of them were drowned whilest indeavouring to pass the Danube they tumbled headlong one upon another so that the Shoar of that great River was for some time covered with their dead Bodies insomuch that this prodigious multitude of distracted People who pretended with impunity to commit the most execrable Crimes in the World causing a Shee-Goat to be worshipped which was carried at the Head of the Army as their conducting Divinity vanished in a moment by a terrible Blow of the Divine Justice which would not indure to be affronted by their pretended Piety and making Religion only a Cover for those abominable Wickednesses wherewith they daily dishonored God year 1096 But to proceed the Army of Peter the Hermite did not meet with a Fortune much more advantageous It was now become very numerous by the Conjunction of an infinite number of Lombards Genoese Piemontanes and other People of Italy who having taken upon them the Cross with the earliest even presently after the Council of Clermont came in several Troops by themselves without any Leaders and being joyned with those Forces of Gautier near Constantinople they were commanded there to attend the Arrival of the Hermite by the Emperors Order who now began to entertain some suspicious Jealousies of this great Army of Franks who were to be followed by others as numerous as they So soon as Peter was arrived the Emperor who had an extream desire to see him sent for him to the Palace where the Hermite who by the Voyage he had made into the Levant was well skilled in the Language and as Eloquent an Orator as a great Captain made him a Discourse in publick upon the Subject of this Expedition and the Holy War of the Forces and Qualities of the Princes which were expected with which the Emperor appeared so well satisfied that he made the Hermite very fair Presents and bestowed upon him a round Sum of Money to buy Provisions for his Troops After which he sent him back to the Camp Exhorting him by no means to precipitate this great Affair and especially not to attempt the passing of the Straits till the Arrival of the Princes nor to expose his harrassed Troops against those of the Turks which were far stronger than his and against which his tired and feeble Men would be able to make no tolerable Resistance The truth is the greatest part of our Historians represent this Prince as the most perfidious and disloyal of Mankind one who under the fine appearance of a feigned Friendship covered that horrible Treason which he had contrived against the Latins which was by a thousand unworthy Artifices to bring them to Destruction as well as by the Arms of the Turkish Infidels on the other side the Greek Writers when they mention this Emperor and this War speak nothing like it and the Princess Anna his Daughter who hath written the History of her Father in a Stile Florid and Beautiful after the Genius of her Sex in her Alexiada paints him directly contrary and hath dressed him up like a Hero a Wise and Politick Prince who upon this Occurrence performed the most admirable things in the World But to deal sincerely and without Prejudice the best way in my Opinion is to avoid both these Extreams to the end thereby if possible to find out Truth in the middle Way But this is most certain that this Alexis Comnenius was no other than an Usurper of the Empire of his Master and his Benefactor who had given him the Command
all Persons might mortgage their Inheritances or their Benefices for three Years during which time the Creditors should peaceably enjoy them whatever happened to the Owners That all unlawful Games of Chance all Swearing Blasphemy and Disorders should be severely punished To which were also added very admirable Orders for the Regulation of Excess in Apparel in the Tables and the Retinues of the Crusades and above all that except some old Landresses there should no Women be suffered to go along with the Army as had been permitted in the former Crusades and which had occasioned great Disorders These Ordinances were received and solemnly published in both the Kingdoms where an infinite number of People enrolled themselves for the Cross some out of Zeal and true Devotion others to be exempted from the Tax which though it was consented to by the Bishops in the Parliament of Paris which was held this Year about Mid-Lent yet there were some Ecclesiasticks who declared themselves against it tartly enough Among the rest Peter de Blois one of the most knowing Men of his Age writ against it to Henry de Dreux Bishop of Orleans the King's Nephew in very hard Terms pressing him to oppose this Ordinance of the King which he said was a Breach of the Liberties and Privileges of the Ecclesiasticks from whom he pretended no other Aids ever were or ought to be exacted besides their Suffrages and Prayers But this Advice of this Archdeacon of Bath in England though otherwise an able Man prevailed nothing upon the Bishops of France whom he something too liberally accused of following too gentle and easie a Conduct For they as well as the Bishops of England with great Justice and Reason as well as Piety believed that such a part of the Goods of the Church might very lawfully be employed upon such an holy Occasion for the Deliverance of the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ and so many poor Christian Slaves and in a manner all the Oriental Churches from the Oppression and Tyranny of the Infidels See now how Zeal when it is a little over-heated easily becomes so false and foolish as to blind Men to that degree that they are not able to see that for good Sense which common Reason alone without other Theology discovers so plainly to the whole World Thus then all things were disposed for a happy Beginning to this Crusade if the Division which in a little time after broke out again between the two Kings had not turned those Arms against Christians which they had before prepared to fight against the Sarasins Among other Articles which were agreed upon at this famous Conference in the Field of Gisors it was ordained That all Matters in difference on one part and the other should remain in the same Estate wherein they stood before and that no one should enterprize any thing against his Neighbour till such time as the Holy War were determined In this time Richard Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitiers to the prejudice of a Treaty so solemnly made concluded and ratified renewing the ancient Quarrel betwixt him and Count Raymond of Tholouse threw himself suddenly into that Count's Territories and presently took from him Cahors and Moissack Philip in mighty Indignation for this Action and moved with the Complaints of the Count who came to implore his Succour as his Soveraign immediately made a powerful Diversion in the Provinces of the English where he took Castle-Roux Busencais Argemon Levroux Montrichard and all the places which the English at that time possessed in Avergne and Berry Henry on his part did not fail to make haste to his Son's Assistance who went to joyn him in Normandy year 1188 Philip also marched thither with his Victorious Army where he obtained great Advantages against the English till at length a Conference for Peace was held near Bonmoulin at which the Earls of Flanders and Champaigne with divers other Princes continually importuned the King to conclude protesting to him that otherwise they would desert him for that they were resolved to accomplish their Vow in going to the Holy War There never was any Conference managed with greater Dexterity and Policy than this was by King Philip For knowing perfectly the Humour and the Interests of the King of England and his Son he only demanded that the Princess Alice his Sister whom the late King his Father had designed to be married to Richard and who was kept in Custody by Henry should be put into the hands of her intended Husband since they were now both of Age and that Richard should be declared joynt King of England with his Father as the deceased Prince Henry had been who had married Margaret the eldest Sister of the Princess Alice Henry against whom the Prince his eldest Son supported by the French had formerly made a most cruel War fearing lest Richard who was no less ambitious than his Brother should create him the same trouble or possibly having his Soul pre-possessed with another Passion less excusable but more strong than either Fear or Policy would by no means agree to these two Articles So that this Conference produced no other Effects but only a Truce of a few Months during the Winter and that which Philip had foreseen did not fail to happen to his advantage as well as according to his Expectation for Richard who was of a Temper extream ambitious and turbulent was so exasperated with this Denyal that he instantly abandoned his Father and passed into the Party and Interests of Philip did him Homage for all the Lands which he held in France and promised him an inviolable Fidelity and to serve him against all Persons whatsoever even his own Father as he did And indeed as soon as the short Truce which had been made came to be expired which it did the next Spring the King with all his Forces joyned with those of Richard who had drawn to his Party besides the Gascons and Poitenins his Vassals many Angevins and Bretons marched against Henry who lay with a very few Troops at Saumur But the Cardinal d' Anaigne the Pope's Legate who succeeded in the place of the Cardinal d'Albano who was dead not long before negotiated so happily with the two Kings that they promised to meet in Whitsun-Week near Ferte-Benard and there amicably to treat before him and the Archbishops of Reims Bourges Rean and Canterbury who were to decide all their Differences Whereupon these Prelates instantly pronounced an Anathema against all those of what Quality soever except the Persons of the two Kings who should any way go about to obstruct the Conclusion of a Peace so necessary to all Christendom and without which the Crusade would become wholly ineffectual The Kings and Richard Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitiers accompanied with all the Great Men of both Realms being come to the place designed for the Conference Philip demanded as before That his Sister the Princess Alice who was affianced to Duke Richard should be delivered to
an expert Soldier shewing more Tenderness and Goodness towards his Soldiers when he understood they were slain and in lamenting their Deaths than he used to shew to them whilst they were living He was wonderful kind to the Church-men and above all to the Bishops whom he always loved to have about him but yet not concerning himself much with their Franchises and Privileges to which he had but very little regard He was a passionate Lover of his Children but he was ever raising Differences among them one with another to prevent their falling into Quarrels with himself but this proved an unlucky Project to him and at last was the occasion that they all joyned together against him He was magnanimous and generous in his Enterprises but withal so haughtily ambitious that he was used to say that the whole Earth was not sufficient to satiate the Desires of a King like him He was equally constant in his Love and Hate which he did not easily change a great Patron of Widows Orphans of poor distressed People who were without Support of whom he took great care above all he was kind to such as had the Misfortune to be Shipwrack'd upon the English Coasts year 1189 abolishing that barbarous Custom which had long prevailed of despoiling such miscrable Persons of all that which they had saved from the Sea except their Lives which the Country People were used to call God's Goods He was a great Lover of the publick Peace and Tranquility which he maintained in his Dominion by the rigorous Justice which he caused to be dispensed to such notorious Malefactors as were found Disturbers of them so that he cleared his Estates of Thieves Robbers and Murderers He was pious and fearing God but very shy and reserved to the Church-men after the publick Penance which he did for the Death of Becket But all these Vertues which cannot without Injustice be suppressed were dishonoured by his great Vices and principally by his Impudicity and Avarice which prevailed so upon him that besides the Exactions which were very great which he imposed upon his People he ever protected the Jews dissembling his Knowledge of their Insolencies against the Christians because of the great Gain which these faithless Usurers made whereof he had a Share He would also suffer long Vacancies in the Bishopricks to the end he might enjoy their Revenues giving a very slender Reason in Excuse That it was much better for him to employ that Money for the Service of the Realm than that it should be spent in the Prodigalities of proud and pompous Trains Pleasures and Delicacies as the Bishops wasted it after the manner of the wicked World and in a way far different from the Temperance and Vertue of their Predecessors of the ancient Church But in talking at this rate he condemned himself excusing one fault by committing another far greater than that which he reproached for he usually bestowed the Revenues upon such a sort of People as by the notorious scandalous way of their living even in his own Judgment rendred themselves unworthy of them Whereas he ought rather to have taken care that those great Revenues should have been expended according to the Rules of the Church by the Nomination of good Subjects and worthy Men to those high and great Preferments And indeed he did in a great measure towards the end of his Life and Reign make a Reparation for this Errour which occasioned him much Trouble and raised many uneasie Scruples in his Soul for he nominated to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury Baldwin a Cistertian Monk a most excellent Man and to the See of Lincoln he preferred St. Hugh the Chartreux the Person of all the Prelates of his time who took the holy Liberty to represent their Failings to the Kings his Contemporaries by that marvellous Authority which by the Sanctity of his Life he had so deservedly acquired In short The great Medly of Vertues and of Vices in this King were also accompanied with that of his good and evil Fortune but with this remarkable difference that his happy State lasted thirty Years wherein he flourished in all Earthly Glory and Felicity whereas he was persecuted by his ill Destiny but for the last five Years of his Life and that too was occasioned by his invincible Wilfulness in refusing Peace upon such just and honourable Conditions as were tendred Whereby he brought upon himself that War which for two Years retarded the Effect of the Crusade in France and England so that it was begun by the Germans alone with abundance of Zeal and Courage For presently after the Conference in the Field of Gisors where the two Kings took upon them the Cross Henry Cardinal d' Albano the Pope's Legate and William Archbishop of Tyre passed into Germany to persuade the Emperor to undertake the Holy War The Emperor then reigning was the famous Frederick the first of that Name formerly Duke of Suabia who after having so gloriously assisted his Uncle Conrade in the second Crusade succeeded him in the Imperial Throne which he possessed for six and thirty Years with much Glory and Prosperity leaving throughout all Germany Poland and Italy the illustrious Marks of the greatness of his Courage his Mind his Vertues and his admirable Actions And were it possible to obliterate the deadly Remembrance of the Schism which by an unhappy Engagement he made in the Church and which he so long supported with his Arms year 1189 it might with great Justice be affirmed that his Reign ought to be esteemed as the greatest of any Prince that ever the Empire had since the Death of the celebrated Charlemain He was then about sixty and eight Years of Age of a Port extremely Majestick a Stature somewhat surpassing the middle but of a Proportion in all the Parts of his Body regular and Exact and from which his Age which did him no other Injury but to render him Venerable had not taken much of that natural Force which he had in so great a Measure and which was accompanied with an admirable Agility in all manner of Exercises The turn of his Face was very fine and the Lines delicate considering his Age his Cheeks were plump his Eye-brows large his Eyes very sweet and yet lively and piercing his Speech agreeable his Mouth smiling and his Air so engaging that to whomsoever he did the Honour but once to speak they found it impossible to defend themselves from his Charmes and he always left the Image of Majesty so deeply imprinted and graven in their Memories that it was impossible to efface it from the Mind or to prevent its being continually present to their Remembrance his Hair by reason of the Change which so many Years had brought upon it was perfect white which still seemed to add something more Venerable to his Majesty though the Natural Colour of it had been red from whence he came to acquire the Name of Barbarousse or Red beard a Name which his fair and glorious
of the City had promised to surrender if they were not before that time relieved The Sarasins seeing him coming had put themselves in Battalia upon the Bank to hinder his Descent and the greatest part looking upon such an Attempt as impossible advised the King to return But this undaunted Prince perceiving that the Castle yet held out causing his Shallop to row close to the Shoar was the first that leapt into the Sea and drew the rest after him rather by the extreme Danger to which they saw him expose himself than by the Force of such a brave Example and after he had routed the Sarasins who fled instantly amazed at his prodigious Boldness he stormed the Town by the same Breaches which they had made and cutting in pieces those who besieged the Castle he constrained Saladin with the remainder of his Troops to retire in great disorder to the Mountains But this was not all for three days after seven thousand chosen men of the most brave of all Saladin's Army thinking to surprize him early in the Morning in his Quarters while he was asleep taking the Alarm he so quickly rallied what Troops of Infantry could be gotten together on the sudden and formed them so well into a square Battalion that they durst never so much as approach him for he had so ranged his men that between every Pike who kneeled with one knee upon the Ground two Cross-Bows were placed one of which charged the Cross-Bows whilest the other let fly the Mortal Arrows among them without ceasing and at last seeing the Enemies disordered by the great Showers of those dreadful forked Arrows and that they did nothing but wheel about his Battalion which had a Front every way he by an excess of Courage or rather Temerity threw himself on Horse-Back into the midst of his Enemies although he had not with him above ten Lords who were mounted as he was the Cheif of which were the Count de Champagne the Earl of Leicester Bartholomew Mortemar Raoul de Mauleon Andrew de Savigni William de L' Estang and Henry de Nevile There he did shew the Prodigies of Valour with those Generous Lords who by his Example combated like so many inraged Lyons He relieved Robert Earl of Leicester who happened to be dismounted he cut off the Arms of those who had seized upon the Lord Mauleon to make him Prisoner his Sword like Lightning flew every way carrying Death and Terror along with it among his Enimies and at last seeing the General who commanded the Sarasins who was animating his men to the Combat and reproached them of Cowardice to suffer such a handful to triumph over them he ran up to him and with a mighty Blow of his Falchion cut off his Head and right Arm close by the Shoulder so that he fell dead among the Horses Feet This dreadful Blow so terrified the Sarasins that they durst not come near him but attacked him at a distance with their Arrows so that at last weary of their Slaughter he returned to his Camp the Caparison of his Horse being bristled with the Enemies Arrows of whom he left seven hundred Extended upon the Earth without having lost any more then two of his Men. In truth such a Noble and Heroick Action made it most apparent that there was no manner of Understanding between him and Saladin against whom if there had certainly he would never have fought with such apparent Hazard of his Person to drive him out of Jaffa after he had taken it But all this did not hinder but that Saladin who saw very well that Richard who was fallen sick after this Combat was not only resolved but necessitated to return into Europe obliged him in Conclusion to accept of a Truce with such Conditions as he was pleased to give as if he had been the Conqueror They were these That the Christians should demolish all the places which they had siezed upon since the taking of Acre and above all Ascalon That all the Coast from Tyre to Jaffa should be in the Power of the Christians that the rest should remain in the Possession of Saladin except Ascalon which upon the Expiration of the Truce should fall to his Share who should then be most potent year 1192 and that Richard should be satisfied from him for the Expences which he had been at in the Fortifications of that Place That during the Truce which was to begin at Easter in the following Year and to continue for three Years three Months three Weeks and three Days the Christians should have liberty in small numbers freely to enter into Jerusalem to make there their Devotions at the Holy Sepulchre Thus this great Crusade wherein all the Forces of Germany France and England were employed under three of the greatest Princes of the Universe against one single Conqueror ended at last in nothing more than the Taking of one poor Town which cost the Lives of an infinite number of brave Men the least part of which if they had been under the Command of one single Captain might with ease have conquered the whole Eastern Empire But it is never to be expected or hoped but that Hatred Envy Ambition Jealousie of State and Diversity of Interests which never fail to happen among plurality of Commanders should ever suffer these kind of Unions to continue firm or long And it would be a kind of Prodigy if they should not according to their nature produce those Divisions and Animosities which alone without the Assistance of other Mischiefs are capable of ruining the greatest Enterprises and the bravest Armies Whereas one single Chief with far less number shall certainly triumph over the greatest Multitude leagued against him provided he hath but Patience to permit Discords to enter into the Camp of the Confederates and will but give them leave to overthrow themselves The Truce being signed Richard who found himself still worse in the unwholsom Air of Jaffa caused himself to be removed to Caiphas where Saladin who had naturally a generous Soul sent to visit him with great Marks of Affection Esteem and Respect He also very obligingly received the Bishop of Salisbury at Jerusalem who with the rest of the Pilgrims went thither to offer the Vows of the King who still continued much indisposed in his Health And after he had most courteously entertained that Prelate he obliged him to demand what Favour lay in his Power and promised he would grant it Whereupon the Bishop requested that not only in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre but those of Nazareth and Bethlehem there might be permitted to remain two Latin Priests and two Deacons with freedom publickly to celebrate Divine Service in those places to which Saladin without any difficulty according to his Word accorded After this the King finding his Health in some measure re-established repaired to Acre where the Duke of Burgundy was dead of the Distemper some eight Days before his Arrival There he caused his Fleet to be rigged
Dragon after his Death which demanded Justice of God against him till at last covered all over in slames he was condemned to Purgatory till the day of Judgment for having commited three great Crimes in his Life for which he had certainly been condemned to Hell for ever if our Lady to whose Honor he had built a Church had not obtained the Grace for him that he repented of them before his latest Breath Now this which calls it self an Apparition so plainly resembles the travelling Stories of Apparitions of this Nature that I am astonished there should be any who should doubt of its Falshood so much as for a Moment but it is the sordid Humor of low Spirits to dishonor the Memories of the greatest Lives in the World whom they durst scarcely speak of or look upon whilest they were in it and nothing is more frequent than for Calumny to blast the Reputation of the Dead by reason of that Impunity which Men hope for by being undiscovered nor is there any thing so silly but what will either by the Weakness of some or the Malice of others be believed so that the most sottish and groundless Illusions come many times to gain the Reputation as well as the Name of supernatural Visions and Revelations The Cardinal Cencius a Roman of the illustrious House of Savelli a Person of a great Estate and as great Learning succeeded Innocent within two days by the Name of Honorius the III and imitating his Predecessor in his Zeal for the Deliverance of the Holy Land he at the same time writ Letters to the Princes and Prelates throughout all Europe exhorting them powerfully not to cool in their Zeal which they had till then manifested for the Execution of what had been Decreed in the Holy Council in reserence to the Crusade And the Consequence of these Letters and the Negotiations of his Legats which he sent to all places to press the Accomplishment of this great Affair which lay so near his Heart and which he followed so closely with his utmost Application and Diligence was so successful that an infinite number of Crusades particularly among the Northern Nations were ready to pass both by Sea and Land into the Holy Land at the time appointed He who ought to have Headed them was the Emperor Frederick the II. who had with the first taken upon him the Cross then when he stood in need of the Assistance of the late Pope Innocent for his Establishment against Otho in the imperial Dignity He took it upon him with more Solemnity the year after the Battle of Bovine when all things being at Peace in Germany he was by the Authority of Pope Innocent the second time crowned at Aix by the Hands of Siffride Archbishop of Mayence There he renewed his Vow and with a great deal of Reverence and Submission received the Decree of the Council for the Crusade But as he had a specious Pretext to deser his Voyage in regard he had not been at Rome to receive the imperial Crown nor to regulate the Affairs of Italy the Pope thought it was not convenient at that time to press him further with the Accomplishment of his Vow year 1217 So that Andrew King of Hungary was taken in to supply his Place upon this great Occasion being the only King of Europe who was in a Condition to march at the Head of the Crusades For Peter de Courtenay the Emperor of Constantinople had by Treachery been taken Prisoner in Macedon by Theodore Comnenius who had seized upon Thessaly Philip the August who had already fulfilled his Vow did not believe that he was obliged to ingage himself in another Crusade at a time when France stood in need of him to oppose the Albigenses England Scotland and Ireland were extremely agitated by the Troubles which the Fury of Civil War had raised in them The Kings of Castile Portugal and Navarre were in Arms against the Moors who always prevented the People of Spain from entring into the Crusades with other Nations for the Deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre by obliging them in continual Action against those Infidels who were possessed of many of their Provinces And the King of Arragon was so far from joyning with the Crusades that he had taken Arms in favour of the Hereticks the Albigenses against whom there was another Crusade at the same time And the King of Norway who had caused a great many Men of War to be fitted out for the Holy War would not abandon his Realm by taking the Cross altho he obliged many of his Subjects to undertake it year 1217 that so he might have a share in the Honor of the Enterprise The King of Hungary was therefore the only Prince of Europe who in Person made that Holy Voyage and the principal Princes and Prelates who accompanied him in the Undertaking were the Dukes of Austria Bavaria Moravia Brabant Limbourg the Counts Palatin of the Rhine of Los of Juliers of Holland and Wida the Marquis of Baden the Archbishop of Mayence and the Bishops of Bamberge Passau Strasbourg Munster and Vtrecht as also the greatest part of the Prelates of Hungary who would accompany their King in this War The Cousades whose Number increased daily without expecting those who not being yet ready might well enough follow after to Re-inforce the Army in Palestine divided themselves into several Bodies for the greater Convenience of Passage Andrew King of Hungary with Leopold Duke of Austria Lewis Duke of Bavaria and the greatest part of the other Princes took their Way by Land to Venice where they imbarked upon the Shipping of the Republick which expected them to transport them to the Island of Cyprus which was appointed by the Pope for the Place of Rendezvouz It is said that upon this Occasion to pay the Charges of their Passage the King quitted Dalmatia to the Venetians Another Party of the Crusades were embarked at Genoa Messina and Brindes where they received Orders from the Pope by which he commanded them with all possible Expedition to joyn the King of Hungary in Cyprus and to follow him whithersoever he should judge it necessary to lead them expressly prohibiting them upon pain of Excommunication to separate from the Gross of the Army under pretence of going as Pilgrims to visit the Holy Sepulchre in regard that he feared that this irregular Devotion at such an unseasonable time might weaken the Army and inrich the Infidels by the great Tributes which they exacted of the Pilgrims and the continual Excursions which they made at last to rob them of all they had Those of Cologne and the Frisons animated by the sight of three wonderful Crosses which miraculously appeared in Heaven whilest the Crusade was preaching upon the Friday before Whitsunday put to Sea with a gallant Fleet of three hundred Ships and about the end of May joyning in the Mouth of the Maze with that of William Earl of Holland and George Count of Wida they all together set
the East were reduced and that Frederick drawing his advantage from this ill Success charged it all upon the Pope to render him odious to all the Princes and that he became still more powerful and more hot in his Persecutions of the Holy See and that while the West was troubled with this War it was impossible for any Crusade to prosper in the East all these considerations had made him resolve in the preceding Year according to the advice of the King St. Lewis who passionately desired the Peace of the Church to call a general Council at Rome to meet in Easter of this Year to which he invited all the Princes and Prelates of Christendom Frederick himself at first made some appearance of consenting to it and in order thereto to admit of a Truce with the Pope but he presently changed his opinion and upon the demand that the Lombards should be also comprised in this truce to the end that this War might not obstruct the Freedom of passage to the Council he took occasion to write to all Princes whom he endeavoured to interest in his Cause in which Letters he complained That this Council was not called by the Bishop of Rome his mortal and declared Enemy for any other end but to give his Rebellious Subjects who were at the last gasp the leisure to take breath and to renew the War with more Vigour than before at the same time when he would condemn and depose him in a Council wherein his Capital Enemy was to preside and wherein it was well known that many People who were Enemies to the Empire and others of whom he was well assured that they were his Creatures and dependants were to be his Judges That for these reasons he desired them to advertise all the Prelates in their Dominions that they should forbear this Voyage for which he could not promise them any safety in regard that though for the love of the Princes his Friends and Allies he was ready to favour their Subjects in all things he was nevertheless absolutely resolved not to permit any that should be so audacious as to go to a Council which was called against him by his mortal Enemy Mean while he caused all the Passages to be diligently guarded taking imprisoning treating ill and cruelly Massacring some of those who adventured to go by Land and to guard the Sea he set out a great Fleet and armed out twenty new Gallies at Naples and in Sicily which towards the end of March joined those of Pisa who were of the Emperor's Party under Entius the King of Sardinia The Pope also on his side having a great Soul as upon all occasions he made apparent and a Vigour much surpassing his Age which now approached to a hundred years and whose Courage was invincible in maintaining the Rights of the Church and the Supream dignity of the Pontificate writ the most curious Letters in the World to all Prelates to exhort them by all Considerations both Divine and humane to despise the Menaces of Frederick and generously to expose themselves to all hazards for the Service of the Church in the most important of all occasions which was to hinder her from being oppressed and robbed intirely of all her Liberty promising them withal that he would take care to Arm so potently at Sea for their safe passage that they should have no occasion to fear their Enemies year 1241 And in truth he gave particular and most pressing orders to Cardinal Gregory whom he had sent Legate to Genoa to spare for no charges to reinforce his Fleet with a great number of Ships which he was to join with those of Genoa and the Genoeses who made no doubt but they should be able to beat all that they should encounter upon the Sea promised with so much certainty and Considence to the Prelates of France Spain England and Italy who were come to that Port with the two Legates of France and England that they would conduct them to Rome without any manner of danger that they resolved to venture that passage rather than trust to the offers of the Emperor For that Politick Prince seeing them arrived at Genoa notwithstanding all his menaces changed his method and whether it were that he had a design to surprize them or that he would thereby endeavour to persuade the World that he was ready on his side to make all manner of reasonable advances towards Peace which could be expected from him he offered them all the Security which they could desire and in such manner as should best like them for their free passage through Lombardy and Romanca that so he might have the opportunity of informing them of the Justice of his care it being as he said altogether unreasonable that after having already been condomned by his Enemy Gregory without being heard he should also be condemned by those whom the Pope had called together to serve his own Passion against an Emperor who desired nothing but throughly to instruct them after which he would willingly submit to their Judgment But the Prelates durst not trust to the Faith of a Prince who was accused not to have too great an Honour for his word and being encouraged by the Pope and the Genoese Admiral who considently affirmed always that they should not need to fear any thing they all in conclusion went aboard the Fleet except the Arch-Bishops of Bourges and of Tours and the Bishops of Chartres and some others who not finding the Convoy that was promised them beyond Vienna and judging it was not safe for them to pass any further returned into their respective Diocesses And certainly it appeared quickly after that they had acted with reason and foresight for the Enemies Fleet which expected that of Genoa in their passage meeting with them about Pisa there was a necessity of coming to an engagement which was very fatal to the Genoese and to all the Prelates whom they conducted For three of their Gallies were sunk two and twenty taken with the greatest part of the other Ships together with the three Legates a hundred Ambassadours or Procurators of Cities and Bishops four thousand Genoese and almost all the Prelates who were going to the Council among which for France where the Arch-Bishops of Roan Ausch Bourdeaux and Besanson the Bishops of Nismes Agde and Carcassone the Abbots of the Cluniaques Cistercians and Clairvalleys whom Frederick who was then at Faenza which after a long Siege he had taken caused to be carried bound to the Castle of the Egg at Naples where the greatest part of them perished miserably by their long Sufferings only the Prelates of France escaped better by the interposition of St. Lewis who sent to demand them of the Emperor At first Frederick made some difficulty to deliver them they being as he said his Enemies but the King writ to him a Letter so reasonable but withal so positive giving him to understand on the one hand that they had no manner of intention