in the Temple of the Sepulchre leaving two Sons behind him Balder and Almerick the former being about Thirteen and the latter Eleveâ— years old CHAP. XIV The Reign of Baldwin the Third Of Fulcheâ— Patriarch of Jerusalem and the insoleâ— carriage of the Hospitallers toward him The Institution of Carmelites BAldwin the Eldest Son of Falco succeeded his Father and quickly greâ— up as well in Age as in Royal Qualifications and became a most compleat and well accomplished Prince During his minority his Mother who governed all made up his want of Age with her abundant care she being a Woman in sex but of a masculine Spirit William who was last possessed of the Patriarchs Chair in Jerusalem was no great Clerk being better at Building of Castles than at Edifying the Church He built one at Askelon one at Ramula a third called Blankguard for the securing of Prisoners But having enjoyed the Dignity Fifteen years he was translated to Heaven and Fulcher Arch-Bishop of Tyre succeeded him whose old Age was much molested with the Pride and Rebellion of the Hospitallers who had then obtained from the Pope a plenary Exemption from the Jurisdiction of the Patriarch which he did the more easily grant because he hoped thereby to make himself absolute Master of all Orders and link them intirely to himself by an immediate dependence whereby he made every Covent a Castle of Rebels and armed them with Priviledges to fight their lawful Diocesan Those Hospitallers were by this means become so rude that they would without all shame Ring their Bells when the Patriarch Preached that so his Voice might not be heard and shoot Arrows into the Church to disturb him and the People in Divine Service A bundle whereof was hung up in the Church as a Monument of their monstrous Impiety Fulcher crawled to Rome when an hundred years old to complain of those outrages but the Hospitallers prevented him and bribed off the business beforehand so that the good old man was forced to return without redress whereupon they grew more insolent than ever Nor was Haymericus who succeeded Rodolphus at Antioch much quieter He instituted about the year 1160. the Order of Carmelites who pretended to an imitation of the Prophet Elias Some indeed had formerly lived dispersed about the Mount of Carmel but he gathered them into one House But although Palestine brought them forth yet England proved the most officious in nursing of them up For being first brought into it by Ralph Freshburgh in the year 1240. they were first seated at Newenden in Kent and in a little time scattered themselves all over England and lived in great pomp till dispersed by King Henry the Eighth when he demolished the Abbeys CHAP. XV. Edessa lost The Voyage of the French King and the Emperour of Germany blasted by the perfidiousness of the Graecian Emperour The Turks beaten at Meander Damascus besieged in vain ALL Empires like the swelling Sea have bounds set to them whither being once come they can rise no higher And the Kingdom of Jerusalem being now arrived at its full growth began to decline apace till at last all revolved again into the Infidels hands And the first considerable step which it made in its declension was the loss of Edessa one of the four Tetrarchies of that Kingdom and a place wherein the Christian Religion had always flourished from the time of the Apostles Which loss moved Conrade Emperour of the West and Lewis the Seventh surnamed the Young King of France by the persuasion of St. Bernard to undertake a Voyage to the Holy Land The Emperour for this design had gotten together an Army of 200000 Foot and 50000 Horse and the King near as many more For in France they sent a Distaâ—â— and a Spindle to those that would not goâ— with them as upbraiding their Effeminacy and no wonder for Women themselves went in Armour to this War and had a brave Heroick Lass like another Penthesilea for their Leader who was so richly clad and befringed with Gold that she was generally known by the name of Golden Foot Conrade with his Army took his way through Graecia where Emmanuel the Emperour possessed with an hereditary fear of the Latines fortified his Cities concluding that there needed strong Banks where such a stream of people were to pass using them most treacherously and giving them a very bad welcom in hope thereby to get rid of them the sooner And to increase their misery as they lay incamped by the River Melas if it be proper to call that a River which is all Mud in Summer and all Sea in Winter it drowned many of them by its sudden and unexpected overflowing as if it had learn'd Treachery of the Graecians and conspired with them to spoil the Emperours generous Design And those of them that survived this unhappy accident were reserved for a more lingering misery the Emperour endeavouring by all imaginable ways to accomplish their Ruine as by mixing Lime with their Meal killing those who strayed from the Army holding intelligence with the Turks corrupting his Coin and giving them false Conductors who designedly led them into danger and made the way less doubtful than the Guides And no sooner had the Emperour got through all those dangers and escaped the Treachery of the Greeks but he was immediately encountred by the Hostility of the Turks who waited for them on the Banks of the River Meander which being not fordable and the Christians having neither Boat nor Bridge to convey them over the undaunted Emperour after an Exhortation to his Souldiers to follow his brave Example plunged himself into the Water and quickly reached the other Shoar where in despite of the Enemy he Landed with all his Army Whereat the affrighted Turks did as it were offer their Throats to the Christians Swords and were slain in such numbers that whole piles of dead Bones remain there for a monument of their Victory flushed with this success he marched forward to Iconium now called Cogni which he besieged in vain to the wasting and loâ— of his Army The French King followed after witâ— a numerous Army and drank of the samâ— Cup at the Graecians hands though noâ— so deeply as the Emperour had done before him But at last finding that thoâ— who marched to Palestine by Land me with an Ocean of misery though the came not to Sea he thought it mucâ— safer to trust the Winds and the Waveâ— than the perfidious Graecians and therefore shipping himself and his Army hâ— arrived safe in Palestine where he waâ— highly welcomed by the Prince of Aâ—tioch Some weeks were spent in Princely Entertainments and visiting of holy Places before they entred upon action But having sufficiently recreated themselves and rested their Souldiers the Emperour and the King of France both resolve upon the Siege of Damascus accounting a smaller Town too mean a trifle for them to employ their Arms in its Conquests wherefore they immediately sate down before it and had
before all the Cities of the Earth to be the place of his own habitation dwelling as were in a most immediate manner in the Temple of Jerusalem which was afterward built by King Solomon and commanding all the Tribes of Israel to repair thither to do him homage and adoration And says of it himself That he loved the gates of Sion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Whereby it became a lively Type both of the Gospel Church and the state of the Redeemed in the everlasting injoyment of Heaven which is frequently in Sacred Writ called by the name of the New Jerusalem For which reason as well as its being the place of the Nativity and Death of our Saviour it hath acquired the Name of Holy But altho' Jerusalem and the Land of Judea was thus dignified by the Almighty yet the ungrateful Jews were perpetually multiplying Rebellions against him whereby he was provoked to scurge them with the Rod of the Gentels and give them up to the spoil and cruelty of their Enemies So that it was twice plundered by the Egyptians once in the Reign of Rehoboam and a second time upon the death of Josiah once by the Assyrians in the Reign of Manassch three times by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon first in the Reign of Jehoiakim secondly in the Reign of Jehoiachin and thirdly in the Reign of Zedekiah carrying all those three Kings and all the Inhabitants of the Land Captive into Babylon together with all the Treasure and Riches of the Kingdom and spoiling the City of Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord so that it lay wast for 70 years At the end whereof according to the Prophecy of the Prophet Jeremiah they were freed from their Captivity by Cyrus King of Persia When returning home they rebuilt the City and the Temple and by degrees became as formidable to their Enemies as ever they had been before till by their increasing wickedness they pulled down upon themselves the Vengeance of Heaven to their utter and final ruin The People of Judea and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem having filled up the â—easure of their sins by putting to death â—he Lord of Life and murthering him who came to save them from everlasting â—isery were presently after swallowed up â—y an universal and irrecoverable â—uine and rooted out from being â—ny longer a Nation by the victorious Arms of the conquering Romans who â—ackt the City of Jerusalem destroyed â—he Temple and carried away the Inhaâ—itants captive according to the unerring â—rediction of our blessed Saviour But aâ—out sixty years after this Destruction by â—itus Adrian the Emperour rebuilt the City â—hanging the situation of it somewhat more Westward and calling it by the name â—f Aelia And to shew his hatred to the â—weet and adorable name of Christ and â—espite against the Professors of Christiâ—nity he erected a Temple over our Saâ—iours Sepulcher wherein he placed the â—mages of Jupiter and Venus And that â—e might inrage the Jews likewise he â—aused Swine to be engraven over the â—ates of the City which they accounting â—o be a great profanation of their Land â—rake out into open Rebellion but were â—asily overcome and subdued by the Emâ—erour who to prevent the like Attempt or the future caused them all to be transported into Spain and left the whoâ—â— Country waste and forlorn which partâ— with its Inhabitants and fruitfulness tâ—gether those delicious streams of Miâ— and Honey wherewith it was wont 〈◊〉 flow being now wholly exhausted driâ— up and the Soil become altogethâ—â— barren and unfruitful The wretchâ— Jews being thus transported into Spaâ— were from thence scattered into all paâ—â— of the World so that there is scarce aâ— Nation under Heaven where some of theâ— are not to be found at this day After this Pagan Worship flourisheâ— in Jury and the Professors of Christianâ— were inhumanely and barbarously uâ— by the Roman Emperours under the fâ— Ten Persecutions until at last God out compassion to their deplorable miseâ— raised up Constantine the Great a Brâ—tain born as most Historians affirâ— whose healing hand quickly stanch that Issue of Blod wherewith the Churâ— of Christ had been so long afflicted aâ— blessed her Borders with Peace aâ— Tranquillity Whereupon the devout Helen wâ— was Mother to Constantine and as muâ— fam'd among the Christians for her Pieâ— as the Ancient Helen was among the Pâ—gans for her Beauty Notwithstanding â—he greatness of her Age being about Eighty years old travelled to Jerusalem â—nd having first purged Mount Calvary â—nd Bethlehem from Idolatry built in â—he places of Christs death and burial â—nd elsewhere in Palestine divers very â—ately and magnificent Churches so that Christianity flourished through all Paâ—stine being well provided of able Biâ—ops and Preachers and they indued with very liberal Maintenance But Constantine being succeeded by â—ulian who shamefully apostatized from â—he Christian Religion and turned again 〈◊〉 the Pagan Idolatry the Sun of the â—ospel was for a while eclipsed For in â—ope to prove Christs Prediction false â—e gave the Jews leave to rebuild their Temple who thereupon flockt together 〈◊〉 great numbers with Spades and Matocks of Silver to clear the Foundation â—nd were so desirous of accomplishing â—e work that the Women carried way the Rubbish in their Aprons and ontributed all their Jewels to advance â—e great design But a sudden and amaâ—ng Tempest which carried away their â—ools and Materials for Building and â—ith Balls of Fire scorched the forâ—ardest and most adventurous of â—he Builders made them desist and give over the Enterprize Yet the Christians afterwards in the place where the Temple stood built a stately Church for the Worship of Christ which remained a long time in the Christians hands and was the Ancient Seat of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem but is now in the possession of the Turks and the very entring into it prohibited to Christians upon pain of forfeiting their Lives or renouncing their Religion CHAP. II. The Holy Land conquered 1. By the Persians 2. By the Saracens And 3. By the Turks THE next remarkable Accident that happened in the Holy Land was under Phocas the Emperour who having murdered Mauritius and usurped the Imperial Dignity abandoned himself wholly to ease and pleasure whereby he betrayed the Empire to Forreigâ—â— Foes and invited Chosrees the Persian to invade his Territories who with a greaâ— Army subdued Syria and Jerusalem and carried away many Thousand Christians many of whom he sold to their Ancient Enemies the Jews And to grace his Conquest the more he carried the Cross away with him But Heraclius who succeeded Phocas having gotten an Army together passed into Persia and gave him an absolute overthrow and in his return took Jerusalem in his way and restored the Cross which was then accounted as a most precious Jewel to the Temple of the Sepulchre and appointed the fourteenth day of September to be the Feast of the exaltation of the Cross But wickedness and impiety abounding in and among the
was to pay a Ransom 〈◊〉 an hundred thousand Michaelets for tâ—â— security whereof he left his Daughter 〈◊〉 Hostage But he paid the Turks with tâ—â— Saracens money whom he beat first 〈◊〉 Antioch and then at Damascus whiâ—â— place he unfortunately besieged aâ—â— thereby damped the Joy of his two foâ—mer Victories And the more to quâ— their swelling pride the young Princeâ— Antioch was overthrown in Battel aâ—â— slain Which ill success so afflicted Kiâ—â— Baldwins mind that for some time bâ— fore his death he renounced the worâ—â— and took upon him a Religious Habitâ— thing not very unusual in those days aâ— sometimes though not often practiâ—â— still as by the Late Queen of Sweden Wâ— is yet living CHAP. XIII Of Fulco the Fourth King of Jerusalem The remarkable Ruine of Rodolphus Patriarch of Antioch The Graecian Emperour demands Anti och The Prince thereof pays him Homage for it Theâ—amentable Death of Fulco FVlco Earl of Tours Mam and Anjou came about three years before on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem where he obâ—ained in Marriage Mellesent the Kings Daughter and thereupon had assigned â—he City of Tyre and some other Princeâ—y Accommodations for his present mainâ—enance and the Kingdom after his Father-in-laws decease which he received â—ccordingly He had one Son by a forâ—er Wife which was Jeffry Plantagenet Earl of Anjou to whom he left all his Lands in France and from whom our Kings of England are descended This Fulco was a very valiant man indued with many perfections both of body and mind In his Reign there was â—o Alterations worth remark in the Church of Jerusalem but in that of Antioch there was much stir who should succeed Bernard that peaceable and long liv'd Prelate who sate Thirty six yearâ— in the Chair and survived Eight Patriarchs of Jerusalem For the Clergâ— being long in their choice before theâ— could come to a result the Laity waâ— too nimble for them and clapped oâ— Rodolphus of honourable descent into thâ— Chair who cast off his Obedience to thâ— Pope and refused to acknowledge aâ—â— Superiour but St. Peter He was thâ— Darling of the Gentry but bated of thâ— Clergy because advanced without theâ— suffrage wherefore being conscious 〈◊〉 himself that he needed strong Arms sinâ— he was to swim against the stream 〈◊〉 screwed himself into the favour of tâ—â— Princess of Antioch Widdow to youâ— Boemund so that with her strength 〈◊〉 beat down all his Enemies promising hâ— in requital to make a Marriage betwâ—â— her and Reimund Earl of Poictou who wâ— then coming into those parts But 〈◊〉 deceived her and procured the Earl 〈◊〉 marry with the Lady Constantia hâ— Daughter who was but a Child wiâ—â— whom he had the Principality of Antioâ— The Patriarch that he might maâ—â— sure work and oblige him for ever to 〈◊〉 his friend bound him to it by an Oatâ— But as it is usual in those cases frienâ— unjustly gotten are seldom long injoyed of a sworn Friend he became his sworn Enemy and forced him to go to Rome there to answer many Accusations laid to his charge The chief whereof was that he made odious comparisons between Antioch and Rome and accounted himself equal to his Holiness When he arrived at Rome he found the Popes Doors shut against him but he quickly opened them with a Golden Key and upon his repentance for having refused to acknowledge Obedience to the Church of Rome he was dismissed only it was ordered by his Holiness that the Bishop of Ostia should be sent into Byria to examine matters relating to his other Crimes and proceed accordingly Whereat his Adversaries stormed extreamly expecting that he should have been immediately deposed But having mist their mark they resolved to have a second blow at him wherefore they prevailed with Albericus the Legate to favour their design which was not unknown to Rodolphus who coming to Antioch cited the Patriarch to appear but being called three several times came not which was variously commented upon by those who were present according as they affected or disaffected him Whereupon the Legate directed himself to the Arch-Bishop of Apamea who had formerly been one of the most vehemenâ— Accusers of Rodolphus but had lately beeâ— reconciled to him and demanded why he did not accuse the Patriarch now oâ— those Crimes which he had formerly laid to his charge To which the Arch-Bishop answered That what he theâ— did was done out of heat and prejudice and he thought it was his great sin so unadvisedly to discover the nakedness oâ— his Father like cursed Cham from which God had so far reclaimed him that he would rather die for his safety than accuse him Upon which Speech the Legate such was the Martial-Law in a Prelate in those days immediately deposed him and shortly after thrust out the Patriarch with great violence and shut him up in Prison where he remained a long time in Chains till at last he made his escape and went to Rome with an intent to have traversed his Cause again had not death cut him off About this time Calo Johannes the Graecian Emperour came with a great Army of Horse and Foot and demanded of Reimund Prince of Antioch to resign to him that whole Signiory according to the Composition which the Christian Princes made with Alexius his Father which insolent demand fretted Reimund and all the Latines to the heart in regard they had purchased an Inheritance with their own Blood and yet were required to turn Tenants at will to another They told him it was offered his Father when first taken and he refused it That Alexius kept not his Covenants nor assisted them according to the Agreement He called them his Sons indeed but disinherited them of their hopes and all the Portion that he gave them lay in promises never paid But all these Arguments signified little the Emperours Sword being far stronger than theirs for coming with so great a force he conquered in a few days all Cilicia and then besieged the City of Antioch it self whereupon the King of Jerusalem fearing it would give too great advantage to the Infidels to have the Christians fall together by the Ears among themselves made composition between them wherein Reimund obliged himself to do homage to the Emperour and hold his Principality of him Notwithstanding which about four years after he returned again but did not much harm only pillaged the Country And some few years after that he died being accidentally poisoned by one of his own Arrows which he had prepared for the Wild Bore having always carried it much fairer to the Latines than his Father had done in regard an honourable Foe is much more desirable than a Treacherous Friend Falco having Reigned in Jerusalem about Eleven years with abundance oâ— care and industry being almost continually imbroiled in Civil Discords which hindered him from much inlarging of hiâ— Dominion was slain as he was following his sport in Hunting to the great grieâ— of his Subjects He was buried with his Predecessors
certainly conquered it had they not fallen out among themselves about parting of it before it was theirs to dispose of Conrade and King Lewis designed it for Theodorick Earl of Flanders who was lately arrived in those parts whilst other Princes who had been there a long time and born the brunt of the War could not endure to see a raw Upstart to be preferred before them For which reason together with their being corrupted with Turkish money although it proved but Brass gilt may all Traitors be so paid they persuaded the King of France to remove his Camp to a stronger part of the Wall whereby they rendred the design of taking the Town fruitless and forced them to raise the Siege and return home leaving the City of Damascus and even Honour both behind them Many thousand Christians perished in that adventure whose Souls are said by all the Writers of that Age to be carried up to Heaven upon the Wings of that Holy Cause they died for And the King of France in his return home was taken Prisoner by the Graecian Fleet but rescued again by Gregory who was Admiral to Roger King of Sicilia The King and Emperour being returned Noradine the Turk prevailed in Palestine which was very much occasioned by the unhappy difference which arose between Queen Millesent and her Son Baldwin who was egged on by some of the Nobles that were offended with the Queen for having advanced a certain Nobleman whose name was Manasses to be Constable of the Kingdom who being unable to manage his own happiness grew so insolent that spurning his equals and trampling on his Inferiours he drew upon himself the general hatred and envy of all men quarrelled with his Mother imprisoned first and then banished her Favourite and at last to conclude the difference the Kingdom was divided between them the City of Jerusalem and all the In-land part was allotted to her and what bordered upon the Seâ— to him But the widest Throne being too narrow for two to sit on together he was not long content with this division but marched with a great deal of fury to besiege his Mother in Jerusalem and dispossess her of all When he first approach the City the Patriarch went out to him and with abundance of freedom reproved him sharply for his rash and unnatural attempt and upbraided him for his ingratitude in going about to take all from so good a Mother who had not only proved a good Steward in his minority but had also consented to accept of one halâ— of the Kingdom when the whole of right belonged to her But he was so inchanted with ambltion that no Arguments would prevail which when the Queen perceived she did by the advice of her friends consent to yield up all lest the Christian Cause should suffer by their differences Noradine being incouraged by those Civil Discords came up with a great Army and wasted all the Country of Antioch and Prince Reimund going forth to give him Battel had his Army beaten and himself slain And not long after Joceline Count of Edessa was taken Prisoner In the mean while King Baldwin is not idle but having made great preparations for the besieging of Askelon at last sate down before it and having made a large breach in the Wall the Templars to whom the King promised the spoil if they took it entred through the breach into the City and supposing they were able without any more help to master the Place set a Guard to prevent any more of their fellow Christians from entring in to be sharers with them in the Booty which covetousness of theirs cost them their lives for the Turks contemning the smalness of their number put them all to the Sword notwithstanding which the City was shortly after taken though with abundance of difficulty Divers other considerable Victories King Baldwin obtained over the Turks especially one near the River of Jordan where he vanquished Noradine and twice relieved Caesarea Philippi which the Turk had straitly besieged but death at laâ—â— made a Conquest of him being poisoned by a Jewish Physician as it was believed in regard the remainder of the potion afterwards killed a Dog to whom it was given He was very much lamented by his Subjects and not without reason being so brave and worthy a Prince that even Noradine his mortal Enemy honourably refused to invade his Kingdom during his Funeral Solemnities protesting that in his Opinion the Christians had just cause of sorrow having lost such 〈◊〉 King whose equal for Justice and Valour the whole World could not produce He died without Issue when he had Reigned about one and twenty years CHAP. XVI Almerick Brother to Baldwin succeeds in the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Sultan of Iconium and the Master of the Assassines desire to be baptized Commotions in Aegypt The Turks called thither and set up for themselves The King of Jerusalem 's Aid implored to drive them out He afterwards invades Aegypt His Death ALmerick Brother to King Baldwin and Earl of Joppa and Askelon succeeded to the Kingdom of Jerusalem but was before he could be admitted to his Coronation enjoyned by the Popes Legate and the Patriarch of Jerusalem to put away Anes his Wife Daughter to Joceline Count of Edessa because she was his Cousen in the fourth degree with this reservation that the two Children Baldwin and Sybill which he had by her should be accounted legitimate and capable of their Fathers Possessions In this Kings time the Sultan of Jcenium freely imbraced the Christian Religion and was baptized more of his Courtiers designing to follow him therein had not his Ambassador then at Roâ—â— taken great offence at the vicious and debauched lives which he there observeâ— the Christians to lead which thing maâ—â— many of the Pagans step back when the had one foot in the Church abhorring to see Christians who believe so well and live so ill Not long after the great Master of the Assassines offered to receive the Christian Faith which good intention waâ— spoiled by the base and treacherous killing his Ambassador which he sent tâ—â— Jerusalem to treat with the King about it by one of the Templars 〈…〉 The King demanded the Murderer of the Master of the Templars that so Justice might pass upon him But the Master insolently denied to deliver him saying he had already injoyned him Penance and intended to send him to the Pope but would part with him to none else These Assassines were a certain precise Sect of Mahometans who had in them the very spirit and quintessence of that poisonous Superstition they were about forty thousand in number and were possessed of six Cities near Antaradus in Syria having over them a Chief Master whom they called the Old Man of the Mountains at whose command they would refuse no pain or peril but immediately address themselves to assassinate my Prince whom he had appointed out for death and always find hands to accomplish whatsoever he enjoyed There are now none
of them left they being rooted out and destroyed by Selemus the Turkish Emperour when he conquered Syria and Aegypt or as others say by the Tartarians Anno 1257. unless we may suppose them to be revived again in the Jesuits gracious Loyola having fetched his Platform of blind obedience from them Whilst the Turks Lorded it over Syria and the lesser Asia the Saracen Caliph commanded in Aegypt which was the Stage whereon most of the remarkable passages of King Almericks life were acted For Dargan and Sanar two great Saracen Lords belonging to the Caliph of Aegypt falling out about the Sultany or Viceroyship of the Land made way for the calling of him thither Sanar finding that he was too weak to contend with his Rival craved Aid of Noradine King of the Turks that then Reigned at Damascus who sent him an Army of Turks under the Command of Syracon an experienced Captain Notwithstanding which Dargan obtained the Victory but enjoyed it not long being shortly after slain by Treachery whereby Sanar got the Sultans place It the mean while the voluptuous Calipâ— carelesly pursued his private pleasures without concerning himself about their difference or regarding their introducing forreign Force to decide their Quarrel as though the tottering of his Kingdom had rocked him into a Lethargy out of which nothing would awake him Sanar having now obtained his desire by the death of Dargan liberally rewarded the Turks and desired them to return home but Syracon refused to be gone and having seized on the City of Belbis fortified it and there waited for the coming of more Turks for the Conquest of Aegypt which made Sanar implore the help of Almerick King of Jerusalem to drive them out of Aegypt which he effectually performed But whilst he was Victorious in Aegypt an unfortunate Battel was fought between Boemund the Third Prince of Antioch Reimund Prince of Tripoli Calamarâ— Governour of Cilicia and Joceline Counâ— of Edessa on one side and Noradine the Turkish King on the other wherein the Turk obtained the Victory and took those four Christian Princes Prisoners As for Syracon the Turk though he was forced to retire for the present out of Egypt by the Victorious Arms of Almerick yet he resolved not to part with it so wherefore he presently went to the Caliph of Babylon who was opposite to him of Egypt and accounted him an Usurper each of them claiming as sole Heir to Mahomet their false Prophet the Soveraignty over all the Saracens in the World and offered him that if he would furnish him with a good number of Souldiers he would extirpate this Schismatical Caliph and reduce all Egypt to the Obedience of the Babylonian which motion being joyfully embraced by the greedy and aspiring Fop Syracon once again invadeth Egypt with a great and powerful Army Whereupon Sanar who was greatly affrighted thereat made new and larger offers to King Almericus to come and stop this deluge of his Enemies promising him a Pension of Forty thousand Ducats yearly if he would lend him his Assistance But Almerick perceiving that the Sultan notwithstanding he took so much upon him was subject to a high Lord refused to make any Bargain with him but with the Caliph himself in order whereunto he sent Hugh Earl of â—sarea and a Knight Templar as his Eâ—bassadours to Caliph Elhadach who thâ— kept his Court at Cairo Who being aâ—rived at his Palace were conducted 〈◊〉 the Sultan through several dark passagâ— well guarded with armed Ethiopians aâ— then into divers spacious open Courts such beauty and riches that the Embasadours were amazed and even astonisâ—ed at the rarities they beheld And sâ—â— the farther they went the greater tâ— state appeared till at last they weâ— brought to the Caliphs own Lodingâ— where as soon as they entred the Prâ—sence-Chamber the Sultan prostraâ— himself three several times to tâ— ground before the Curtain behind whiâ— the magnificent Caliph was sitting aâ— thereupon the Traverse which was 〈◊〉 rich Silk wrought all over with Peaâ— of inestimable value was immediate drawn and the Caliph himself discoverâ— sitting with great Majesty on a Throâ— of massy Gold having only some fewâ— his most confiding Eunuchs about him The Caliph having discovered himselâ— and the Sultan humbly kissed his feet â— briefly related the cause of their cominâ— the eminent danger which then threaâ—ned them and the offers which he hâ— made to King Almerick which he intreated him now to ratifie and in demonstration thereof to give his hand to â—he Kings Embassadour The Calip'â— having heard what he had to say demurâ—ed a while upon the Ceremony of giâ—ing them his hand accounting such a geâ—ure beneath the greatness of his state â—nd would by no means consent to give â—em his bare hand but offered it them with his Glove on to which the resoâ—te Earl of Caesarea replied Sir truth â—eks no holes to hide it self in and Prinâ—es who intend to keep Covenant ought â— deal openly and nakedly give us thereâ—re your hand or we will make no barâ—in with your Glove He was loth to â—o it but necessity which was at that â—me a more imperious Caliph than himâ—lf commanding it he at last consented â—nd dismissed the Christian Embassadours â—ith such liberal Gifts as testified his â—reatness Almerick according to this Agreeâ—ent faithfully used his utmost endeaâ—our to expel Syracon with his Turks out â—f Egypt and in order thereunto he met â—hem in the Field and gave them Battel â—herein he got the day but lost all his â—aggage so that the Conquest was as it â—ere divided the Turks gaining the Wealth and the Christians the Honoâ— of the Victory But Almerick followiâ— his success pursued them to Alexandrâ— and pent them up and straitly besiegâ— them in that City and thereby forâ—â— them to accept of conditions of Peaâ— wherein they were obliged to depart 〈◊〉 of Egypt without performing what thâ— had promised and the Caliph of Baby expected and then returned himself wâ—â— honour to Askelon But when a Crown is the Prize playâ— for it is vain to expect fair play in 〈◊〉 Gamesters For King Almerick havâ— once beheld the Beauty and Richesâ— Egypt was so enamoured therewith tâ— he longed to obtain that Kingdom 〈◊〉 himself And the next year contrâ— to his Solemn League with the Calâ— invaded it with a great Army pretendâ— though falsly that the Caliph woâ— make a private Peace with Noraâ— King of the Turks Guilbert Master the Hospitallers was the chief Instrumâ— in stirring up the King to this treacâ—rous and unjust War hoping that 〈◊〉 Country of Perlusium if conquered shoâ— be given to their order But the Teâ—plars very much opposed the design 〈◊〉 of their Order being Embassador at 〈◊〉 ratifying the Agreement between 〈◊〉 King and Caliph and with much Zeal â—otested against it as undertaken against â—ath and Fidelity However the King would not be diâ—erted from his design but having made â—reat preparations for this War descendâ—d into Egypt where he was for a
while â—ccessful and won the City of Belbis or â—erlusium Notwithstanding which Auâ—ors from that time date the ill Success â—f the Holy War and shew us a whole â—loud of Miseries which immediately folâ—wed thereupon and no wonder for God â—ldom lets Perjury go long unpunished First Whilst Almerick was absent in Egypt Noradine won divers considerable â—laces about Antioch Secondly Meller Prince of Armenia â—ho was a Christian entred into a â—eague with Noradine and kept it inâ—iolable to the great disadvantage of the King of Jerusalem which act of Mellers must be condemned and yet the Justice of God ought to be admired in punishâ—ng the Christians thereby for their â—reach of Covenant with the Saracens â—n Egypt Thirdly The Saracens finding themselves faithlesly dealt with laid at on all sides began to learn War and grew good Souldiers on a sudden and although they formerly fought with Bows only yet noâ— they learned of the Christians to use aâ— offensive and defensive Weapons it beinâ— usual with rude Nations to better themâ— selves by fighting with a skilful Enemâ— And Fourthly Almericks hope of coâ—quering Egypt was wholly frustrated bâ—ing after some few Victories driveâ— out and the whole Kingdom conquere by Saladine Nephew to Syracon whâ— beat out the Caliphs brains when he prâ—tended to do him reverence and thereâ— changed the Government of Egypt froâ— the Saracen Caliph to a Turkifh King Aâ— shortly after upon the death of Noradiâ— the Kingdom of the Turks in Syria anâ— the lesser Asia was likewise bestoweâ— upon him whereby he became the moâ—potent Monarch in the World Whilst Jerusalem was left as a poâ— Weather-beaten Kingdom bleak anâ— open to the Storms of its Enemies oâ— every side lying as it were between thâ— Lions Teeth Damascus on the Northâ— and Egypt on the South two poteâ— Turkish Kingdoms united under a valianâ— and successful Prince which made Aâ—merick fend for Succours into Europâ— there being now but few Voluntieâ— flocking to this service and Souldieâ— were forced to be pressed with importâ—nity before they would consent to underâ—ake the Voyage But it being just with God that those who had betrayed the â—aracens whom they undertook to sucâ—our should want succour themselves â—hen they stood most in need of it his Embassadours were forced to return â—ithout any other supplies than pity and â—ommiseration And Lastly The King himself weaâ—ied with so many successive miseries â—nded his life of a Bloody Flux when he â—ad reigned about Eleven years leaving â—esides his two Children by his first Wife one Daughter named Isabel by Mary his second Wife Daughter to John Proto-Sebastus a Grecian Prince who was afterward married to Humphred the third Prince of Thorone CHAP. XVII Baldwin the Fourth succeedeth The Viciousness of the Patriarch of Jerusalem His Embassy to Henry the Second King of England The Original and Power of the Mammalukes Saladine conquered by Baldwin yet afterwards conquers Mesopotamia Baldwins death Baldwin his Son the fourth of that name succeeded his Father having had the benefit of an excellent Education under William Arch-Bishop of Tyre a very Pious Learned Man skilled in all the Oriental Tongues besides the Dutch and French his Native Languages Heraclius who was now Patriarch of Jerusalem being preferred to that Dignity for his handsomness by Queen Mary second Wife to King Almerick and Mother to Baldwin was a man of a debauched and vicious life keeping company with a Vintners Wife whom he maintained in great state like an Empress so that she was generally saluted by the name of Patriarches His ill Example infected the inferiour Clergy whose corrupt manners was a sad presage of the approaching Ruine of that Kingdom This Man was sent by King Baldwin as his Embassadour to Henry the Second King of England to crave his personal assistance in the Holy War and as an inducement thereunto to deliver him the Royal Standard of that Kingdom the Keys of our Saviours Sepulchre the Tower of David and the City of Jerusalem Henry was chosen out before any other Prince because the world justly esteemed him valiant wise rich and fortunate and which was the main that so he might thereby expiate his Murther and gather up again the innocent Blood that he had spilt in the death of Thomas Becket And that he might the more easily be drawn to undertake the Voyage the Patriarch intitled him to the Kingdom of Jerusalem because Geoffrey â—â—â—ntagenet his Father was Son to Fulco the Fourth King of Jerusalem But he was too wise a Prince to be so easily wheedled However he pretended he would go and got together a Mass of Money towards the defraying the Charge of his Voyage making every one as well the Clergy as the Laity pay that year the Tenth of all their Revenues both movables and immovables and when he bad filled his Purse all men expected he should perform his promise but he changed the Voyage into Palestine for a Journey into France The Patriarch while he stayed in England consecrated the Temple Church near St. Dunstans in the West and the House adjoyning belonging then to Knights Templars but since employed to a better use viz. the entertaining those Gentlemen who study and practise the English Laws In the minority of King Baldwin who was but thirteen years old Milo de Planci a Nobleman was Protector of the Kingdom whose Pride and Insolence could not be endured by the great men and therefore they got him to be stabb'd at Ptolemais and chose Raimund Count of Tripoli to suceeed him And Saladine having now seriously resolved upon the Ruine of the Kingdom of Jerusalem endeavoured to furnish himself with such Souldiers as might be most fit for that service in order whereunto he bought a great number of Slaves of the Circassians a People by the Lake of Meotis near Taurica Chersonesus who were brought up to be extream hardy and inured to War by their continual skirmishing with the neighbouring Tartars Those Slaves he trained up in Military Discipline after the Turkish manner They had most of them been Christians and were baptized in their Infancy but being taken from their Parents whilst young they were untaught Christ and instructed in the Mahometan Superstition whereby they became the more implacable Enemies to Christianity for having been once its friends They received from Saladine the name of Mammalukes and were so couragious and expert in War that his and his Successors greatness was not to be so much attributed to their own Conduct as to those Mammalukes Valour till at last perceiving their own strength they wrested the Soveraignty from the Turkish Kings and advanced one of their own number to the Regal Dignity Saladine having thus furnished himself with a new sort of Souldiers resolved to try their Valour upon the Christian and therefore invaded the Holy Land slaying and burning all before him till he came to Askelon where King Baldwin then was before which he sate down and closely besieged it And Count Raimund Protector of
the Kingdom Philip Earl of Flanders and the chief strength of the Kingdom being then absent in Celosyria wasting the Country about Emissa and Cesarea Baldwin was forced to keep himself close in the City not daring to venture on so strong an Enemy which fear of Baldwins having possessed Saladine with a belief that he needed not so great an Army to lie before the City he sent out several Parties to forrage and spoil the Country which the King observing resolved to take opportunity by the fore-lock and set on him when he least expected it To which end he sallied out with great privacy and silence and with about four hundred Horse a few Footmen suddenly assaulted his secure Enemies with such invincible Courage and Resolution that notwithstanding their number being Twenty six thousand Horse and Foot they were utterly routed and the Christians returned with great Triumph and Joy to Jerusalem But Saladine who was rather inraged than daunted by this overthrow resolved not to be long before he recovered his credit and therefore about two months after he fell with his Mammalukes like a mighty and raging Tempest upon the Christians as they were dividing the spoil of a Party of Turks whom they had vanquished a little before putting most of them to the Sword and the rest to flight and taking Otto Grand Master of the Templars and Hugh Son-in-law to the Count of Tripoli Prisoners the King himself hardly escaping So that both sides having sufficiently smarted consented to refresh themselves with a short Peace under the shelter whereof their troubled States breathed quietly for the space of about two years which Truce was the more willingly embraced by Saladine because a Famine then raged in the Kingdom of Damascus where it had scarcely rained for five years together But this welcom Calm was somewhat troubled with an unexpected Storm raised by Domestick Discords in King Baldwins Court. For the Kings Mother and Uncle two persons of turbulent spirits accused the Count of Tripoli of Treason as if he had when he was Governour of the Kingdom affected the Crown for himself which accusation so stung the King in the head that the Count coming shortly after to Jerusalem was as he was on the way thither commanded to stay which he looked upon as a great disgrace But some of the Nobility fearing the mischiefs which might proceed from this unhappy difference brought them to be reconciled But though the matter was seemingly made up yet the King ever after looked upon the Earl with a jealous Eye And the Earl seeing himself suspected proved afterwards really treacherous and disloyal though he is supposed by most Historians to be innocent of what he was then charged withal The Kingdom of Damascus having now recovered its self from the Famine and Saladine obtained his ends by the Truce would observe it no longer wherefore having gotten together a good Army he marcht out of Egypt through Palestine destroying and spoiling the Country all along as he went to Damascus And having strengthened himself with the addition of what Forces he had in Syria he entred the Holy Land again But the King who had not above seven hundred Men to twenty thousand met him at a small Village called Frobolt and opposing Valour to his multitudes overthrew him in a great and bloody Battel wherein Saladine himself was forced by speedy flight to escape the danger and by long Marches get him again to Damascus Nor had he any better success when shortly after he besieged Berytus being forced by the valour and courage of Baldwin to raise his Siege and depart with disgrace Wherefore Saladine finding such tough resistance in the Holy Land hoped to gain a better purchase by imploying his Arms in Mesopotamia to which end passing the River Euphrates he won Charran and divers other Towns after which returning again into Syria he besieged Aleppo which was the strongest place the Christians had in the whole Country being so fortified both by Nature and Art that it would have been almost impossible for him to have taken it had he not by his Bribes made a far larger Breach in the Governours Loyalty than he was able to do in the Walls of the City But having by this means possessed himself of Aleppo he marched again into the Holy Land being now more formidable than ever he had been before and carrying an Army of Terrour in the very mention of his name so that the poor Christians unanimously fled into their fenced Cities As for King Baldwin the Leprosie had arrested and confined him within the compass of his own Court where his great spirit long strove with his infirmity being loth to part with his Crown and disrobe himself of his Royalty before they were pluckt away by death but was however forced at last to stoop and retire himself to a private life appointing Baldwin his Nephew a Child of five years old to be his Successor and Guy Earl of Joppa and Askelon who was the young Childs Father in-law to be Protector of the Realm in his minority But soon after finding Guy to be a silly soft man he revoked the latter Act and designed Raimund Earl of Tripoli to succeed him Guy who though he was not valiant yet was very sullen stormed extreamly at his disgrace and leaving the Court in discontent returned home and fortified his Cities of Joppa and Askelon which greatly perplexed the Kings thoughts not knowing whom to name for Protector fearing lest Guys cowardliness should lose the Kingdom to the Turks or Raimunds treachery get it for himself so that anguish of mind and weakness of body ended his days when he was about five and twenty years of age happy in dying before the death of his Kingdom CHAP. XVIII The short Reign and woful Death of Baldwin the Fifth Guy succeeds him Tripoli revolts The Christians overthrown Their King taken Prisoner And the City of Jerusalem won by the Turks IT hath ever been accounted one of the greatest happinesses that can befal a Family for the Heirs to be of Age before their Fathers death in regard Minors have not only been the Ruine of Families but the overthrow of Kingdoms too And it being one of Gods threatnings against a wicked and disobedient People to give Children to be their Princes and Babes to Rule over them he scourged the Kingdom of Jerusalem three several times with that Rod within the compass of forty years Baldwin the Third Fourth and Fifth being all under Age and the last but five years old being the Posthumus Son of William Marquets of Montferat by Sybil his Wife Sister to Baldwin the Fourth and Daughter to King Almerick who was after the death of the Marquess married to this Guy Now the Earl of Tripoli demanding to be Protector of this young King according to the designation of his Uncle before his death Sybil who was Mother to this Infant to defeat Raimunds hopes of obtaining the Protectorship first murthered all natural affections
City were besieged themselves whilst they besieged Ptolemais It was at last proposed by Saladine that both sides should try their fortune in the field which was easily assented to by the Christians in hopes that they should thereby both obtain the victory and win the City which they concluded would not hold out long if Saladine were beaten But when they were going to ingage an imaginary fear suddenly seizing them they all turned their backs and fled So wavering are the Scales of Victory that sometimes the least mote will turn them In which confusion many would have thought themselves happy if they could have exchanged a strong Hand for a swift Foot But Geoffrey Lusignan Brother to King Guy who was left to guard the Camp seeing the Christians shamefully to run away marched out with his men to meet them and having convinced them of the causelessness of their fear and prevailed with them to return again they set upon the Turks with so much fierceness and rage that they quickly won the day though it cost them the loss of two thousand men and Gerard Master of the Templars After this victory it was vainly expected by the Christians that the City would presently be surrendred to them but the Turks still continued to defend it with much resolution though most of their houses were already burnt or beaten down and the whole City reduced to a perfect Sceleton of Walls and Towers They fought with their wits as well as with their weapons both sides employed themselves in devising strange hitherto unknown offensive defensive Engines So that Mars himself had he resided either in that Camp or City might have learnt to fight and have informed himself in feats of war from their practice But in the mean time famine raged exceedingly in the Christian Camp in regard they had no provision but what they were forced to send for as far as Italy At this time under the Walls of Ptolemais the Teutonick order of Dutch Knights who had hitherto lived as private pilgrims were honoured with a Grand Master their were dispensed with by the Bishop of Rome Most of his Forces he sent about by Spain but went himself and some few of his friends through France having his Pilgrims scrip and staff delivered him at Tours by the Arch-bishop and at Lyons he met with the other Royal pilgrim Philip the Second sirnamed Augustus King of France but parting again by consent they went several ways toward Syria King Richard in his passage through Italy went within fifteen Miles of Rome and yet never vouchsaf'd his Holiness a Visit but told Octavian Bishop of Ostia the Popes Confessor that having better objects before him he would not stir one step out of his way to see the Pope because he had lately extorted without all reason a great Sum of Money from the English Prelates And therefore passing forward at Messina in Sicily the two Kings meet again where likewise King Richard to his exceeding joy found his fleet safely arrived but having met with much difficulty and danger in their passage Richard learnt by his own experience what miseries and dangers Merchants and Mariners at Sea meet withal being always within a few inches and after within an hairs breadth of death which made him revoke the Law of Wracks which intitled the King of England to all Ship wrackt goods Tankred was at this time King of Sicily who being a Bastard born had usurped the Crown detained the Dowrie and imprisoned the person of Joan Wife to William the Late King of Sicily and Sister to K. Richard So that he was in a miserable plight at the arrival of those two mighty Monarchs and knew not what course to steer To keep them out was impossible and above his Power and to let them in was dangerous and might prove his ruin and therefore resolved how Justly or Prudently let the Reader judge to secure himself by creating a misunderstanding between those two Kings And therefore applying himself to the French King he insinuated several false Stories of the King of England permitting his Subjects likewise to do the English all the secret mischief they could for which Richard who was not ignorant of what passed between him and the French King demanded satisfaction which was denied him wherefore resolving to avenge himself he assaulted took Messina it self together with most of the chief Forts in the Island demanding satisfaction for all the wrongs done both to himself and Sister Whereupon Tankred though he was dull at first yet now being prickd with the Sword he freely bled many Thousand Ounces of Gold and finding that as the case stood hiâ— best Thrift was to be Prodigal he gave ouâ— King what conditions soever he demanded However the misunderstanding which he had procured between the two Royal Pilgrims daily increased and Richard slighting the French Kings Sister whom he had formerly promised to marry expressed more affection to Berengariâ— Daughter to the King of Navarr which vexed Philip to the Heart but some Princes interposing between them healed the breach for the present but the cause remaining the Malady quickly returned with worse symptoms then before King Philip thinking to be revenged on Richard by fore staling the Market of Honour and ingrossing all to himself posted many to Ptolemais whilst Richard followed after at his leisure taking Cyprus in his way where reigned Isaac Or as others call him Cursac who under Andronicus the Grecian Emperour when it was common for every Factious Nobleman to snatch a plank of that shipwrack'd and sinking Empire had seized on that Island and there Tyranniz'd as an absolute King but being so fool-hardy as to abuse our Royal Pilgrim at his Arrival there by killing divers of his Souldiers who landed in his Island and refusing to â—ermit the Sea-sick Lady Berengaria to â—ome on Shore he lost both himself and â—is new erected Kingdom at once For â—ing Richard easily conquered the whole â—land and honoured the insolent Grecian with the Magnificent Captivity of Silver Fetters Yet like a noble and generous Conquerour he set his Daughter at Liberty and gave her Princely Usage the Island â—he pawned to the Templars for ready Money and because Cyprus had been anciently accounted the Seat of Venus that it might prove so to him in the pleasant Month of May he there solemnized his Marriage with his Beloved Lady Berengaria Whilst Richard was thus detained in Cyprus the Siege of Ptolemais was carried on with abundance of fierceness and resolution by the French King who hoped to get the Renown of its Conquest before King Richards Arrival but found it so strenuously defended by the Turks within that all his strength was not sufficient to force those Walls which had now above 2 years withstood the Christians Batteries by reason of the length of the Siege the Turks and Christians were become well acquainted with each others Way of fighting so that what advantages happened to either side were meerly
an unfortunate man Tho' the truth is the measuring a Princes worth by his Success is a Rule often false and always uncertain and the common Consent of all Nations will plead this in his Favour that having been once a King he ought ever to remain so But to put a sinal end to this unhappy Controversie King Richard made a pleasing Motion which rellished well to the Palate of that hungry Prince offering him the Island of Cyprus in exchange for his Kingdom of Jerusalem Which motion was willingly imbraced and the exchange actually made to the Content of both parties and the Kings of England bore the Title of King of Jerusalem in their style for many years after But in this exchange Guy had really the better Bargain in regard he bought a real Possession for an Airy Title However he lived not long to injoy it for he dyed soon after his Arrival there but his Family injoyed it for some hundred years after which it fell by some Transaction to the state of Venice and was at last wrested from them by the Turks who injoy it at this day Conrade being killed and Guy having renounced his Kingdom Henry Earl of Champaign was advanced to the Kingdom of Jerusalem by the procurement of King Richard his Uncle who to corroborate his Election by some Right of Succession married Isabella the Widow of Conrade and Daughter of Almerick King of Jerusalem he was a Prince valiant enough but in regard his Reign was short and most of it spent in a Truce he had not an opportunity to express it He took more delight in the style of Prince of Tyre then he did in that of being King of Jerusalem as accounting it more honourable to be Prince of what he had then to be called King of what he injoyed not And now the Christians promising themselves abundance of Peace and Tranquility began every where to build and to beautifie their Habitations The Templers fortified Gaza and King Richard repaired and walled Ptolemais Pomphyria Joppa and Askelon But alass this short liv'd Prosperity like an Autumn Spring came too late and was gone too soon to bring forth any mature Fruit However it was now agreed on by all parties that they should march immediately towards the City of Jerusalem which Holy and Sacred place was the mark at which they all principally Aimed And having prepared all things for the putting this resolution into Practice King Richard lead the Vant Guard of English the Duke of Burgundy Commanded in the main Body over his French and James of Avergn with his Flemings and Brabanters brought up the Rear Saladine who understood by his Spies the manner of their march Serpent like bit them by the Heels for not far from Bethlehem he violently assaulted the Rear of their Army but the English and French suddenly Wheeling about charged the Turks most furiously and Emulation formerly Poyson here proved a Cordial every Christian unanimously striving not only to Conquer their Enemies but to overcome their Friends to in the Honour of the Victory And our Royal Pilgrim in this Battel was so adventrous and fought with such invincible Courage and Resolution against those Enemies of Christianity that his Valour brought his Judgment into question in regard he was more careless of himself and exposed his Person to greater danger then beseemed the prudence of a General for having received a Wound as tho' by losing his Blood he had received a new Addition to his Strength he laid about him like a Mad-man killing divers of the Infidels with his own hands The Turks withstood the Christians force for a long time and strove hard to carry away the Honour of the Day but were at last forced to give Ground and leave the Christians in the Possession of the Victory which they obtained with little or no loss to themselves save James of Avergn who dyed here in the Bed of Honour But there were more Turks slain in this Battel then there had been in any other for forty years before And had the Christian improved this Victory and marched immediately to Jerusalem they might in all Probability have surprized it whilst the Turks were Blind-folded and in a kind of a maze at this Prodigious overthrow But the opportunity was wholly lost by the backwardness of King Richard and his English Soldiers say the French Writers whilst others impute it altogether to the Envy and Emulation of the French who rather chose to have so Glorious an Action left undone then to see it performed by the English together with the Treachery of Odo Duke of Burgundy who being more grieved for the loss of his Credit than careful to preserve a good Conscience was choaked with the shame of the sin which he had swallowed and dyed for Grief that his holding Correspondence with the Turks came to be discovered But most are of the Opinion that Richard attempted not the taking of Jerusalem because like a wise Architect he intended to build his Victories so as they might stand unshaken by securing the Country all along as he went It being Sensless and Imprudent to besiege Jerusalem an In-land City whilst the Turks were still in Possession of all the Sea-Ports and other places of Strength thereabouts Sometime after this Victory he intercepted divers Camels laden with very rich Commodities those Eastern Wars containing a great deal of Treasure in a little Room And yet of all this and of all that abundance of Wealth of England Sicily and Cyprus which he brought hither he carried nothing home save only one Gold-Ring all the rest being melted away and consumed in this hot Service He spent the Winter at Askelon and intended the following Spring to have gone to Jerusalem had not bad News out of Europe altered his resolution and put him in mind of returning home William Bishop of Ely whom he had left his Vice-Roy in England used many unsufferable Insolencies towards his Subjects So hard and difficult a thing it is for one of a mean and Contemptible Birth to personate a King without going beyond his Limits and over Acting his part And that which was yet worse his Brother John Earl of Morton had conspired with the French King to invade his Dominions Which reports and the concluding of this War a Subject not likely to answer the expence and Charge of of it especially now the Venetians Genoans Pisans and Florentines were gone away with their Fleet wisely shrinking themselves out of the Collar when they found their Necks too much Galled with their hard imployment made him desire a Peace of Saladine who thereby finding that he had all the Cords in his own hands knew well enough how to play his Game and make his best of those Exigencies wherein he knew King Richard to be plunged for he had those about him who had cunning and skill enough to read in King Richards Face what grieved and perplexed his mind and knew by his Spies every thing that was worth Observation
in the English Army He offered therefore to Consent that a Truce should be concluded on for three some say five years upon condition that the Christians would demolish all places which they had fortified since the taking of Ptolemais which was in Effect to be at the Charge of undoing all that they had hitherto done But however such was the urgency of King Richards occasion that he was glad to accept of those hard Conditions tho' he hated them at his Heart And thus this great undertaking of those two mighty and Warlike Kings began with great Confidence managed with much Courage and attended with good Success ended notwithstanding with some Honour indeed to the undertakers but no manner of Profit either to themselves or the Christian cause King Richard in this Voyage eternized his Memory and to the Glory of the English Nation render'd his Name so terrible to the Turks that they were used to say to their Horses when they started for fear what dost thou think King Richard is here But Profit neither he nor the French King got any both of them loosing the Hair of their Head in an acute disease which saith one Historian was more then either of them got by the Voyage And as for the poor Christians in Syria they left them in a far worse Case than they found them But to refresh the Readers Spirits a little amidst so many Miseries and sad Stories I must not omit one thing that King Richard did in Palestine which was no doubt an abundant Compensation for all the cost and pains of his Journey Which was his redeeming from the Turks for a great sum of Money a large Chest as much as four Men could lift full of Holy Relicks which precious Treasure they had gotten from the Christians at the taking of Jerusalem Richard the 2d. king of Englad. and Jerusalem King Richard having now signed the Peace with Saladine and thereby ended his Pilgrimage took Shipping in Syria to return to his Kingdom but meeting with a Storm on the Coast of Germany he suffered Shipwrack and therefore resolved to travel through that Country by Land as being his nearest way home without considering that the nearness of the way ought to have been measured not so much by the shortness of it as the safeness of it But however to prevent all danger he disguised himself and pretended to be one Hugo a Merchant whose only Commodity was himself whereof he made but a bad Bargain for being discovered in Austria by his large Expences which so far exceeded the degree of a Merchant that his Hostess detected him and the common People flocking about him used much Rudeness and Insolence towards him And being seized on by the Duke who resolved now to be revenged on him for the affront done him in Palestine he sold him to Henry the Emperor who kept him in Bonds Charging him with a Thousand faults committed in Sicily Cyprus and Palestine the Prooss whereof were as slender as the Crime were small so that Richard having an eloquent Tongue an innocent Heart and a bold Spirit easily acquited himself of all those furious Charges in the Judgment of all that heard him However before he could obtain his Liberty he was forced to pay a Ransom of an Hundred and Twenty Thousand Marks Collen weight which was in that age before the Indies had filled those Northern parts of the World with Gold and Silver so greata sum that to raise it in England they were forced to sell all their Church Plate and in lieu thereof for some Hundred years after to Celebrate the Sacrament in Challices of Latten or Tin After this Money Peter of Bloys who had drank as deep of this Helicon as any of that age sent this Prayer making an Apostrophe to the Emperor or to the Duke of Austria or to both together And now thou basest Avarice Drink till thy Belly burst Whil'st England powers large silver showers To Satiate thy thirst And this we pray thy Money may And thou be like accurst Part of this Ransome being paid and Hostages left for the securing the rest he returned into England having indured Eighteen Months Imprisonment But the Duke was after this sorely aflicted in his Dominions by Fire and Famine And in his Body by a Gangren which seised on him with that Violence that he was forced to cut his leg off with his own hand and died thereof but before his death he fortified Vienna with a strong Wall which he caused to be built with this Money and being in the time of his sickness troubled in conscience for having been so Cruel to our King he willed some Thousand Crowns to be returned to him again CHAP. II. The Death of Saladine Discords among the Turks the Death of Henry King of Jerusalem Almerick the Second Succeeds him The Pilgrims divert their Arms from Palestine to Constantinople and Conquer the Grecian Empire NOT long after King Richards return out of Palestine Saladine who had for sixteen years together been the Terror of the East ended his life He was a Prince fierce in fighting and yet mild in Conquering and when he had his Enemies in his hands delighted himself more in having the power then he did in the Act of revenge finding his life draw to a period he Commanded those about him to use no other Solemnities at his Funeral then a Black Cloth which he ordered them to carry before him and Proclaim that Saladine Conqueror of the East had now nothing left of all his Conquest but only this Black Shirt to attend him to his Grave He Left Nine some say Twelve Sons behind him who were all except one Murthered by Saphradin their Uncle whom Saladine made the overseer of his Will and he was not preserved by his Uncles pity but by the favour of some of his fathers Friends his name being likewise Saphradin Sultan of Aleppo Whereupon there arose much Intestine difference among the Turks during which time the Christians injoyed their Truce with much quiet and security only their peace was somewhat imbittered by the unfortunate death of King Henry who fell as he was walking in his Palace to solace himself out of a Window and brake his Neck After whose death Almerick Lusignan Brother to King Guy Marrying Isabella his Relict was in her right Crowned King of Jerusalem The Christians in Syria promising themselves much aid from his Isle of Cyprus of which he was also King but he abandoning himself to ease and pleasure proved a worthless and an unfortunate Prince In his time Henry Emperor of Germany to make amends for his Cruelty against King Richard and regain his Credit which was very much impaired thereby set on foot an other Voyage to the Holy Land Pope Celestine the third sending his Legat about to promote it by shewing how God himself had sounded the Alarm in the dissention of the Turks and persuading them that Jerusalem might now be recovered with the blows of her adversaries only
Deposed by the Pope John Bren succeeds him the seat of the War removed to Egypt with various success HAving followed this Holy War into France and observed its several steps among the Albingenses we will now returne with ita gain into Palestine where we find the Floud of Pilgrims run very low in regard the Pope had diverted the stream and as for King Almerick we find him as we left him drowning his cares in Wine without once concerning Church was a Patriarchal Seat for manâ— hundred years after Before this City the Pilgrims Army sat down and closely besieged it But thâ— Turks within making a vigorous Defend under Auxianus their Governour frustrate their expectations of forcing the Towâ— as soon as they appeared before it 〈◊〉 the Siege grew very long and Provision very short in the Christians Camâ— which made Peter the Hermite noâ— withstanding his pretended Delegation tâ— manage this War on the behalf of Chrisâ— run away but being pursued anâ— brought back again was bound by a new Oath to prosecute the War Howevâ—â— at length one within the City of who Name and Religion Authors cannot agrâ— some making him a Turk others Christian some call him by one name and some by another in the dead of thâ— night betrayed the City to Boemunâ— whereupon the Pilgrims entred in aâ— being highly exasperated by the lengâ— of the Seige they so remembred thâ— miseries they had endured that they foâ— got all pity and moderation killing aâ— slaying promiscuously Christians 〈…〉 and all that came to hand 〈…〉 The Town was offered 〈…〉 Emperour but he refused 〈◊〉 out of suspicion that there was some deceit in the tender it being common with ill men to measure other mens minds by the crooked rule of their own whereupon it was given to Boemund But notwithstanding the dearness of the purchase it was not long injoyed in quiet for Corboran the Turkish General came with a vast Army of Persian Souldiers and besieged them in the City so that they were greatly distrest between hunger within and their enemies without which made many of them to steal away out of the City whereat the rest no whit discouraged accounting the loss of Cowards the gain of an Army bravely resolved rather to sell their lives by whole-sale on the point of the Sword than to retail them out by famine who is the worst of Tyrants And to hasten the putting this generous resolution into practice they happened to find in the Church of St. Peter a certain Lance which they were made to believe was the very same Lance wherewith our Saviours side was pierced by the Souldier whereat they greatly rejoyced As though this military relique had by wounding of Christ been indued with a certain vertue of wounding and destroying his Enemies and carried with it Reign of King Almerick to the great annoyance of the Christians but tho' they were unsuccessful in this siege yet King John was more fortunate in taking the Castle of Pilgrims a piece of great strength on the Sea side Whereupon it was resolved on to translate the War into Egypt in hope to discourage the Egyptians by the Invasion and ruine of their Country and therefore Hoisting Sail they came before Damiata a chief Haven of Egypt lying on the East side of the River Nilus In the siege whereof they had four difficulties to encounter with besides the City it self first with a great Chain that lay a cross the Harbor which with indefatigable pains and Industry mingled with Art they break asunder Secondly the River Nilus which now suddenly and unexpectedly overflowed and drowned the whole Country so that the Fish came swimming into the Christians Tents and against which mischief they had no other defence but Prayer and a publick Fast enjoyned by the Legate upon which the water abated and a Publick Thanksgiving thereupon injoyned that so the mercy obtained by Prayer might be kept by Praise Thirdly they were to grapple with the Fort of Pharria A seeming Impregnable Piece between them and Damiata for the taking whereof they built a Tower on Ships which falling down killed and wounded many of the Pilgrims and those who had the good hap to escape the blow were notwithstanding terrified by the fright which the fall occasioned among them but King John comforted his Soldiers and desired them not to be discouraged at a thing which was purely accidental and against which there could be no guard or defence by any rules of Wisdom or Valour but immediately address themselves to the Raising one more substantial by his direction and advice which was when finished the rariest piece in that kind that ever the world saw by means whereof after many bloody affaults they Conquered the Fort. And the fourth and wonst enemy they had to do withal was Meladine King of Egypt who lay near them with a great Army Constantly furnishing the City with Men and Victuals and excercising them with continual Skirmishes in one whereof he did them abundance of harm with his Wild fire whereby King John himself was dangerously Scorched but at last seeing that the Christians hewed their way through all those Rocks of difficulties he propounded a Peace to them by the mediation of his Brother Coradine King of Damalcus wherein he offered that if they would depart out of Egypt he would restore them the Cross the City of Jerusalem and all the Land of Palestine The English French and Italians were willing to imbrace so large an offer but the Legate would no ways consent alledging that the Voyage was undertaken not for the recovery of Palestine only but for the extirpation of the Mahometan Religion it being for his Masters Interest to keep that War always on foot Which refusal so inraged Coradine that he beat down the Walls of Jerusalem and all the Beautifull Buildings therein save only the Tower of David and the Temple of the Sepulcher However the siege of Damiata went on and was at length taken by the Christians without resistance most of those that should have defended it being either slain or dead with the Famine or Plague so that the Christians who inraged with the length of the siege entred with a resolution to kill all had their fury soon melted into pitty by beholding the streets every where strewed with dead Corps so that of threescore and ten Thousand there was now but one thousand remain'd alive who were all pardoned by the Conquerors upon Condition that they would cleanse the City which they were three Months in performing Great was the spoil the Pilgrims found in Damiata being as it were a strong barred Chest wherein the Merchants of Egypt and India had as they imagined safely Locked up all their Treasures which detained them there a full year being most of them Content to make that Inn their home during which time the Pope ordered John de Columna a Cardinal to reside there as his Legate in the place of Pelagius CHAP. V. Discords between the King of Jerusalem '
he had slain so many Turks And having at last concluded a Peace with the Sultans for Ten Years wherein it was agreed That all Christian Captives should be released several Forts restored and things reduced to the same state they were at the first Peace made with Frederick the Emperour He returned home with abundance of Honour Having says the Historian compelled those Infidels to offer Terms of Peace without offering them any other violence than shewing his Sword in the Scabbard without ever drawing it And indeed such was the general esteem which he obtained by his Success in this Voyage that he afterwards bid fair for the Imperial Crown of Germany Not long after the Earls return died Reinoldus Frederick's Lieutenant in Syria in whose Grave was buried all the Happiness and Glory of the Christians in Palestine For now the lawless Templars would observe no other Rule than their own Will and the inundation of the rude Tartars having maugre all opposition run over all the North of Asia and forced many Nations to forsake their ancient Habitations among whom was a certain People called Corasine who being thus unkennelled had recourse to the Sultan of Babylon desiring him to give them a place to live in The Sultan who was free enough of that which was none of his own frankly gave them all the Land that the Christians held in Syria upon condition that they would conquer it which he told them was easie to do in regard the People were few and weak and the Country rich and fruitful The Corasines being thus animated by the by the Sultan came with their Wives and Children and their whole Housholds into Syria to win Houses and Land for them there And finding the City of Jerusalem unguarded and without the least suspition of an Enemy easily surprized it and entered without resistance Many of the Christians thereupon flying out of the City with their Wives and Families took their course towards Joppa but unfortunately looking back and seeing their own Ensigns advanced on the Walls were so infatuated as to go back to the City again upon a confute that their fellows had beaten the Corasines and by those Banners invited them to return whereby they were every Mother's Child of them slain Things being brought to this pass in Syria a desperate Disease must have a desperate Remedy whereupon the Christians clapt up a hasty Peace with the two Sultans of Damascus and Cracci between whom and the Sultan of Babylon there was at that time some discord And swearing them to be faithful borrowed an Army of their Forces to assist them in taking vengeance on the Corasines Robert Patriarch of Jerusalem was the chief Commander and St. Luke's day the time agreed on for this fatal Battel which was fought on a Plain near Tyberius But the two Armies were no sooner joyned but the Turks who were placed in the front of the Battel ran over to the Enemy or at least fled through cowardize so that the Christians being over-powered in number though they made a great slaughter of their Enemies were at last utterly overthrown and most of them slain there escaping no more but Three of the Teutonick Order Eighteen Templers and Nineteen Hospitallers besides the Patriarch who says of himself That God accounting him unwortby of Martyrdom permitted him to escape among the rest The Corafines improving this Victory won all from the Christians except Tyre Ptolemais and Antioch with a few Forts So that the Christians were beaten by a beaten People who shortly after falling out with the Sultan of Babylon were by him wholly routed out so as none of their Name remained And it is very observable that all Historians both before and after this time are wholly silent concerning them whereby it seems as tho' God had created this People to punish the Christian and as soon as they had done their work annihilated them again CHAP. VII The French King's Voyage into Palestine He carries the War into Egypt again Damiata taken the second time but afterwards exchanged for King Lewis ABout two years after this overthrow Lewis the Ninth of that Name King of France arrived in Palestine to assist the Christians in recovering what they had lost That which moved him to undertake this Voyage was his recovering of a desperate fit of sickness upon the application of a Piece of the Cross He was accompanied therein besides three of his own Brothers and divers of the French Nobility by William Longspath Earl of Shrewsbury with a brave company of valiant English Soldiers When he came to Cyprus he was met by an Embassadour from a great Tartarian Prince who in vited by the fame of his Piety acquainted him with his design to embrace the Christian Religion He received and entertained the Embassadours with much affability dismissed them with liberal Gifts and by them sent as a Present to their Master a curious Tent wherein the History of the Bible was very dexteriously and richly wrought in Needle-work hoping thereby to catch his Soul in his Eyes Pictures being in that Age of Ignorance accounted Lay-mens Books tho' since they have been generally condemned as full of many damnable Errata's and never published by any Authority of the King of Heaven to be either the means or workers of Faith Thither also the Templers who were afraid of being checked by this Pious King for their debauched Lives wrote to him to accept of a Peace which the King of Egypt offered to make with the Christians But he being informed by the King of Syria that it was only a trick of the Templers to prevent his intentions of going into Syria to behold their wickedness commanded the Grand Master that from thence forward upon the price of his Head he should receive no Messages nor hold any correspondence with the Enemy resolving with himself once more to invade Egypt and make that Country the Seat of the War But having once declared his intentions and making no great haste to put it into execution Ateladine had time enough to provide against the storm by fortifying the Sea-Coast which he did for an Hundred and Eighty Miles together so that their landing was now much more difficult than when King John invaded it However Lewis being re-inforced with a new Army by Robert Duke of Burgundy and Alphonse the King's Brother set forward for Egypt and intended to land near Damiata But the Governour with a Band of resolute Mammalakes opposed it between whom and the Christians there was for some hours a fierce and bloody Fight wherein the Turks were at last overthrown and forced to fly into the Town leaving the Christians Landing-place without any other Guard but their Governour and Five Hundred of their best Soldiers whom they left dead on the place Lewis the 9th King of France Damiata was a City so strong and well fortified that the taking of it was accounted a good Task if performed by an Army within the compass of a Year But those within remembring
the Miseries of the last Siege and fearing the same Tragedy would be acted over again set fire to the Houses and in the Night saved themselves by flight whereupon the French issued in and quenching the fire saved abundance of Treasure from the fury of the flames Which Loss so discouraged Meladine that to purchase Peace with the Christians he offered to restore them the whole Kingdom of Jerusalem in as ample a manner as ever it had been enjoyed by any of their Predecessors to release all Prisoners and disburse a great Sum of Money to defray the Charge of the War But such was their Pride and Folly that they refused to accept of it unless Alexandria the best Port in all Egypt were given them as an Over-plus the Pope's Legate and Robert Earl of Artois persuading them to grant Peace upon no other terms Wherefore the Turk seeing themselves in so desperate a condition their Extremity rendered their Sword the keener and made them provide with the greater resolution to defend their Country to the utmost About this time there arose a difference between the French and the English to the great prejudice of their Proceedings And Meladine King of Egypt died likewise the same Year and left his imbroiled Kingdom to Melcchsala his Son From Damiata the French marched up towards Cairo the Governor whereof being offended with the new King promised to deliver it into their hands And having passed an arm of the River Nilus Earl Robert marched forward with a third part of the Army and suddenly assaulted the Turks in their Tents whilst the King was absent and put them to flight which Victory so lifted him up with conceit that he adventured contrary to the advice of the Master of the Templers to set on the whole Turkish Power which lay incamped not far off without staying for the rest of the Army whereby he was utterly overthrown and as he was crossing the River in his flight found Water enough to drown him tho' not to wash away the stain of rashness and cowardize from his memory and our English Earl refusing to fly died fighting in the midst of his Enemies there escaping no more but four persons to carry News of this fatal overthrow to the rest of the Army It is easier for the Reader to conceive than for my Pen to express the general grief wherewith these doleful Tydings were received by the French among whom the Plague raged so furiously that it daily swept away Thousands And to increase their sorrow several sick persons whom the King had sent down the River to Damiata were set upon by the Egyptian King and having neither Hands to fight nor Legs to run were every one either burned or drowned except Alexander Gifford an English-man whose Name and Family still remains at Chellingworth in Stafford-shire who acquainted the French with what had happened They would now have been glad of those Terms which a little before they slighted but it was too late for the Turks now scorned to treat with them The French would have had the King provided for his own safety by flying back to Damiata But he refused and resolving to live or die overcome or perish with them marched forward to the fatal place where the last Battel was fought And whilst they were astonished at the sight of their mangled fellows the Egyptian King set upon them with an infinite number of men and put them all being but few in number and those very weak to the sword except Lewis and his two Brothers whom he took Prisoners The Turks having thus slain all the French Pilgrims instantly marched up with their Ensigns to Damiata hoping thereby to surprize it which if they had done King Lewis had been for ever lost But God disappointed them for they were easily discovered notwithstanding their disguise and forced to go away without their desire The News of this sorrowful Accident coming to Europe filled every one with grief and made Henry King of England who had made great preparation to undertake the Voyage to alter his mind and imploy his Money to a better use But to return to Egypt Melechsala did not long survive this Victory being slain soon after by Tanquemine a sturdy Mammaluke who succeeded him in the Egyptian Kingdom by whom King Lewis was released in exchange for Damiata being obliged besides the surrender of the City to pay many Thousand Pounds for the releasing of Christian Captives and to make satisfaction for the Damage done in Egypt for the securing whereof he was forced to pawn to the Turks the Pyx and Host whence it is that a Wafer-Cake and a Box is always wrote in the Borders of that Tapestry which we have brought us out of Egypt as a perpetual Memorial of that Victory But tho' Lewis was set at liberty yet he got not home till four years after CHAP. VIII The Mammalukes described The Death of Frederick The Conversion of the Tartars And the extinguishing the Caliphs of Babylon Charles made King of Sicily and Jerusalem King Lewis makes a second Voyage THose Mammalukes which had now seized on the Kingdom of Egypt were the Children of Christian-Parents which were by Saladine and his Successors taught the Mahometan Superstition and instructed in all Military Discipline at several Nurseries and being found by their Valour and Courage to be the chief support of the Turkish Kings were by them advanced to the chief places of profit and trust and thereby the better enabled to pull down their raisers Which was performed during the captivity of King Lewis by Tarquemine who slew Melechsala and thinking it unfit so great a Prince should go to the grave alone sent all his Children after him And was afterwards chosen by the rest of the Mammalukes King of Egypt whereupon he by their advice and consent made several Laws which were ever afterward observed by them as irrevokable The first whereof was That the Sultan or chief of the servile Empire should not succeed by Inheritance but be chosen out of the Mammalukes The second That none should be admitted into the Order of the Mammalukes that were born either of Turkish or Jewish Parents but only such as were born Christians The third was That tho' the Sons of Mammalukes should injoy their Fathers Lands and Wealth yet they should not take upon them the Name and Honour of a Mammaluke The fourth was That the Native Egyptians should be permitted the use of no other Weapons but such wherewith they were to fight against Weeds and Till and Manure their Land There were in this Government several things worthy admiration First That of Slaves they should act the King without playing the Tyrant Secondly That they should neglect their own Children when it is common for other men to idolize them and sacrifice all that they have to their welfare Thirdly That they should not fall out in the Election of their Kings in regard they were all equal among themselves Lastly That it should indure so
long for it lasted Two hundred sixty and seven Years till overcome by Selimus the great Turkish Emperour in the Year 1517. by the help of the Janizaries an Order of Men for Birth and Breeding not unlike themselves In that Year likewise it being a Year of great Revolutions died Frederick Emperour of Germany and King of Jerusalem whereupon followed an Interegnum in that Kingdom for fourteen Years together the right indeed lay in Conrade Frederick's Son by Jole King John's Daughter but he was so imployed in defending himself in Sicily against Maufred his Bastard Brother who quickly after dispatched him out of the way that he had no leisure to look after the fragments of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Near about this time a certain Hungarian Peasant said to have been an Apostate to Mahomet and well learned gathered together several Thousand people who took on them the Name and Habit of Pastorelli in imitation of those in the Gospel who were warned by Angels to go to Bethlehem they had the Holy Lamb for their Ensign and pretended to have intelligence from Heaven to march into the Holy Land but mistaking West for the East they shaped their course into France and committing several outrages that no way suited either with their Habit or Banner they were incountred near Burdeaux and threescore Thousand of them slain and the rest dispersed Things being now brought into a sad and deplorable condition in Syria without any hope of amendment behold a strange and unexpected accident revived them again For Haito King of Armenia taking the pains to travel himself to Margo the Great Cham of Tartaria to acquaint him with the danger he was in from the Turks as well as others telling him Tho' he lay something out of their way yet the only favour he must expect from them was to be last devoured whereupon he not only promised to assist the Christians in suppressing them but himself and by his example a great part of the Country imbraced the Christian Faith and thereupon sent Haalon his Brother with a great Army to suppress the Turks and assist the Christians in recovering what they had lost in the performing whereof his Army seemed to ride post conquering Persia in as little time as one can well travel it within six Months The City of Samarchanda was the only place that resisted him and therefore being unwilling to tempt his Fortune with a long siege he left it to one of his Captains who besieged it seven and twenty year and at last did not take it but had it surrendred to him Haalon having Conquered Persia marched to Babylon the Caliph whereof called Musteazem Idolized his wealth so much that he would not provide necessaries for the defence of the City so that it became an easie Conquest to this Tartarian Prince who having famished the Covetous Caliph to death filled his mouth with melted Gold and now Mosques every where went down and Churches went up from thence he went into Mesopotamia where having Conquered the City of Aleppo and Edessa he restored them to the Christians and many other places which he wan from the Turks whereby he so awed Melechem the Mammaluke who Succeeded Tarminus in Egypt that he durst not budg But of this Tartarian help they were altogether unworthy in regard they would not be at leasure to make use of it but busied themselves in private dissentions the Genoans and Ventians two states in Italy who had thrown of the Imperial Command and had erected themselves into commonwealths being not content to quarrel at home would needs go into Syria to fight it out there that so the Turks might look on and laugh at them the pretence of the quarrel was about superiority in the Church of St. Sabbas which was apointed by the Pope for them and the Pisans who likewise ingaged themselves in the quarrel somtimes siding with one side and some times with the other The Venetians being at length compelled by the Genoans to forsake the City were so incensed thereat that they came with thirteen Galleys and having forced asunder the chain which-crossed the Haven burned five twenty of the Genoans Ships that lay there to revenge which loss the state of Genoa sent a great Navy into Syria which meeting with the Duke of Venice at Tyre with the united power of the Venetians and Pisans being in all seventy four Vessels well provided would have set upon them in the Haven had not the Governour forbid it telling them that they should not fight under his nose but if they loved quarreling so well let them out and try their Fortunes in the open Sea which they did accordingly the manner of Sea-fights in those days before the thundering Ordnance was found out being only for one Vessel to run against another so that the the Ships were both Guns and Bullets themselves In which fight the Venetians prevailed destroying near thirty of the Genoans Ships and forcing the rest to save themselves in the Haven of Tyre Whereupon entering Ptolemais they expelled all the Genoans out of the City pulled down their Buildings and plundered all their Shops and Warehouses but after a ten years War they were at last reconciled in Palestine by the Authority of Pope Clement the fourth tho' their War lasted longer in Italy Charles Duke of Anjou and Brother to King Lewis was now made King of Sicily and Jerusalem by the Pope upon condition that he should conquer Maufred who then Reigned in Sicily and Molested His Holiness and root out all the remaining Race of Frederick and as an acknowledgment that he held those Kingdoms from the Pope pay him an annual pension of four some say forty thousand Pounds But having Conquered Maufred and possessed himself of Sicily he so little minded the regaining of Jerusalem that he never looked after it or came there at all which neglect gave an opportunity to Hugh King of Cyprus to furbish up his old Title to that Kingdom as Linealy descended from Almerick the second who coming to Ptolemais was there Crowned King of Jerusalem However the Christians affairs in Syria began now to hasten to their fatal Catastrophe and the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in a little time between two Kings wholly lost for Haalon the Tartarian Prince being sent for home to Succeed his Brother Mango who died without Issue left Abaga his Son with sufficient forces in the City of Damascus which he had likewise wan from the Turks who following his Father soon after substituted Guirboca his Lieutenant in Damascus who having his Nephew rashly slain by the Christians in an unhapy Broil about parting a great Booty taken from the Turks wholly renounced the Christian Religion together with all the Tartarians under his Command so that the Kingdom of Jerusalem having lost its best support soon after tumbled down Bondocdar who Succeeded Melechem in Egypt taking advantage of their being thus deserted by the Tartars took the City of Joppa all the inhabitants whereof he either
killed or which was worse forced them to forswear their Religion and then marching to Antioch took that likewise slaying twenty and carrying away an hundred thousand Christians tho' it is to be suspected that the number of the Captives were at first written in figures and in time increased some thousands by the addition of nothing after which he laid seige to Ptolemais it self Those woful tidings brought into Europe so wrought on the good disposition of King Lewis that he resolved upon a second Voyage to Palestine from which all the perswasions of his Nobles could no way divert him in which Voyage there went with him his two Sons Philip and Tristram Theobald King of Navarre his Son in law Guido Earl of Flanders and Prince Edward eldest Son of Henry King of England who was attended by his Brother Edmund Earl surnamed Crouchback not because he was crook-shouldered as was pretended by Henry Duke of Lancaster when he usurped King Richard's Throne but from his being a Croised Soldier in the Holy War Lewis being now on his way to Palestine it was concluded by the general consent of his Council That for securing the Christians passage to Syria they should first take the City of Carthage in Affrica or rather Tunis which being raised out of the Ruins of that famous City was now become a Nest of Pirates who had killed and taken captive many Pilgrims who were sailing that way to the Holy Land But no sooner was the Siege began than the Plague seized on the Christian Army whereof Thousands died and among the rest Tristram King Lewis's Son and he himself of a Flux soon followed after His loss was much lamented he being accounted the French Josia as well for the Piety of his Life as the Wofulness of his Death and his wilful ingaging himself in a needless and unfortunate War But notwithstanding this Mortality the Siege was continued and Tunis brought into such distress that they were glad to surrender the Town on these Conditions That it should pay yearly to Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem the Sum of Forty Thousand Crowns That they should receive Christian Ministers freely to Exercise their Religion And that they should be at the whole charge of that Voyage Prince Edward would have had the Town beaten down and all the Inhabitants put to the Sword accounting the foulest Quarter too fair for such Villains and their Goods sacrificed as an Anathema to God and burnt to ashes because gotten by Robbery But seeing he could not prevail with others he resolved however to shew his own detestation by execrating his part of the Spoil and causing it to be burnt forbidding the English Soldiers to save any thing of it telling them that Coals stolen out of that Fire would sooner burn their Houses than warm their Hands It troubled not the conscience of other Princes however to inrich themselves therewith and glut themselves with the stolen Honey found in that Hive of Drones And not only so but terminated their Pilgrimage there too refusing to proceed any further therein Whereat Edward astonished struck his Hands on his Breast and swore That tho' they all forsook him yet he would enter Ptolemais if accompanied with Fowin his Horse-keeper only And accordingly he arrived safe there to the great comfort of the Christians who were in sore distress Whilst Theobald King of Navarre with the Queen and the Earl of Flanders died in their way home and most of the Spoil was cast away At his arrival at Ptolemis he found the Christians just losing their last stake Bondocdar having brought them to so low an ebb that they had resolved if some unexpected Succour reversed not their intentions within three days to resign it up But Edward's coming in the interim revived their hopes and made them take Courage both to desie their Enemies and their own thoughts of surrendring the City Having sufficiently victualed and manned Ptolemais he marched with Six or Seven Thousand Men to Nazareth which he took and slew those he found therein And being afterwards informed that the Turks were gathered together at Cakhow about Forty Miles from thence he marched thither and setting upon them early in the Morning slew a Thousand of them and put the rest to flight In which Battel as well as in several other Skirmishes he gave sufficient proof of his own personal Valour slaying many of the Infidels in single combat After this Victory he returned to Ptolemais where Elenor his Consort was delivered of a fair Daugher but the Joy occasioned thereby was soon turned into Sorrow by the apprehension of his being mortally wounded by one of the Assassines who resorting to him several times with Letters and Messages from the Admiral of Joppa who pretended a desire to turn Christian The first time of his coming as the Prince was lying on his Bed and reading the Letters he brought none being in the Room but them two he suddenly struck him into the Arm with an invenomed Knife and attempted to have fetched another blow but the Prince whose Valour was now awakened gave him such a blow with his Foot that he felled him to the ground and wresting the poysoned Knife out of his hand thrust it into the Murtherer's Belly and slew him yet so that he hurt himself therewith in the Fore-head It is storied that his Lady sucked out all the venom of his Wounds without prejudicing her self But however certain it is that by the help of Physick good Attendance and an Antidote the Master of the Templars gave him he shewed himself on Horse back safe and well within fifteen days after The Admiral hearing of his recovery solemnly disavowed his having any hand in the Treachery it being seldom known that any will own themselves the Parent of an unsucceeding Villany And having done as much and more than could have been expected from so small a number as he had with him he returned home full fraught with Honour And his Father King Henry being dead the English Nobility met him as far as the Alpes to attend him in his return home CHAP. IX Rodulphus the Emperour hindred from going into Palestine sends the Duke of Mechlenburg Charles King of Jerusalem prevented in his intended Voyage MUch talk there was now in Syria of the great preparations of Rodulphus who was after two and twenty years Interregnum chosen Emperour of Germany and though but a meer Earl of Haspurg yet being now advanced to the Emperial dignity layed the first foundation of the Anstrian Family but he was too much imployed at home by Civil Discords and reducing the Princes to obedience whose Knees were too stiff to do him Homage till he had rendered them more pliable by degrees to think of going into Syria But yet being somewhat unwilling to render their great expectations wholly frustrat he sent the Duke of Mechlenburgh with a good Army to assist the Christians who coming to Ptolemais made several succesful incursions into the Enemies Countries about
of this threatned Voyage to Jerusalem which is thought to be propounded only to amuse Henry till Charles should have performed some projects he had then on foot in the Dukedom of Britain which design being scented by our King he used him accordingly More Cordial was the design of James the Fourth of Scotland Who being touched in conscience for his Fathers death which tho' he did not procure yet he seemed to countenance by his presence to expiate his Crime intended a voyage to the Holy Land In order whereunto he had prepared his Souldiers and imparted his design to Forrein Princes and had certainly gon had not other wars breaking out unexpectedly and his own sudden death prevented him Among those Overtures we find one said to be really performed by William Lantgrave of Hesse who with only Ninety eight Noble-men and Earls in his Company made a Holy Voyage into Palestine which he performed in Seven Months time And upon his return brought away with him Forty six Ensigns of Horse which he had taken from the Turks with the loss of one Man only and he not slain neither but died at Cyprus in their return home A Victory so absolute and bloodless to the Conquerour that were it true it would admit no parallel but the Voyage and Victory were both fictitious being found only in Calvisious who quotes one Fab an Historian no where to be met withal for his Author and the Chronology wherein it is recorded being Printed after the Author's death it is most probable that those to whom the care of Printing it was committed found this story in some Paper he had put in his Chronicle and for the improbability of it marked it to be Fabulous which word in regard he had written it defectively with the three first Letters only they thought to have been some Historian whose Name was Fab and so inserted it in the Chronicle it self Ever since the huffing Embassy of Charles the French King the Holy War hath for any thing I can find to the contrary been wholly laid asleep till revived again by the present Emperour of Germany and John Sobieski King of Poland in the Year 1683. The occasion whereof was briefly thus The Grand Seignior having by the persuasions of Count Teckeley sent an huge Army under the leading of the Grand Vizier to invade the Imperial Territories in Hugaria against which the Duke of Lorain who then commanded the Emperours Forces there being not able to make head they destroyed all before them with Fire and Sword and passing forward sat down before Vienna the Imperial City of Germany not doubting but that they should with their vast Army have quickly devoured that Important Place and notwithstanding its having been ever accounted the Bulwork of Christendom have added it to the rest of the Ottoman Conquest The Emperour of Germany and the King of Poland seeing the sad Estate to which things were now like to be reduced entered into a League offensive and defensive and resolved with their united Forces to chastise the Turk for that proud Attempt The Vizier's Army wherewith he had now begirt Vienna consisted of an Hundred and Fifty Thousand Men which were the very Flower of the Turkish Soldiery wherewith he made several fierce Attacks upon the City which were carried on with all the Courage and Skill imaginable and sprang several Mines whereby he did more mischief than by his Batteries Notwithstanding which the City by the resolution and encouragement of Count Starembergh their undaunted Governor bravely defended it self from the fourteenth of July till the twelfth of the following September when the Turks were Forced to raise the Siege and retire with great disorder into Hungaria whither they were so closely persued by the Victorious Christians that very few of that numerous Army escaped to carry the tidings of their Overthrow to Constantinople Vast quantities of Provision and Amunition above an hundred pieces of Cannon two Horse Tayls which the Turks allways use to hang out as a Denounciation of War when ever they undertake any great expedition all their Tents which were above thirty thousand in number all the Enemies Baggage together with the Viziers own Horse and the Grand Seignors STANDARD which was extraordinary Rich and Sumptuous being curiously Embroidered with charactars of Gold and Silver upon Green and Red Silk were here taken by the Christians as Trophies of their Victory the form and shape of the Standard you have here described in this figure The Infidels receiving likwise at the same time several great overthrows by the Sieur Kiniski General of the Cossacks who having slain about thirty thousand Turks and Taratrs entred the Country of Budziak destroying all before him slaying an hundred thousand of them and taking the Cities of Bialogrod and Ketin The Christians incouraged by these Victories resolved to persue them and drive the Turks quite out of Europe in order whereunto after they had taken the City of Tytchin and several other places which the Turks held in Upper Hungaria the Duke of Lorraein invested Buda it self with the greatest part of the Imperial Army Commanding Count Leslie to Encamp with the rest about Virovitzie on the Drave to cover the Siege This City is the strongest place the Turks injoy in Hungary it being formerly the Metropolis of that Kingdom where the Kings of Hungary kept their Courts but being taken from the Christians in the Year 1591. By Solyman the Magnificent Emperor of the Turks they have ever since made it the seat and constant residence of their Chief Bassa or Vice-Roy of that part of Hungary which is ssposseed by them so that it is very populous and rich And being exceedingly well fortified with a strong built Wall and an Invincible Castle and having between 18 or 19 Thousand Men in Garison they have made a stout resistance and declared a resolution to defend it to the last Man Notwithstanding which it is verily believed that it cannot hold out much longer but the Turks must be forced to surrender that City to the Emperor after having injoyed it near an hundred years And that the Turk might be imployed on all sides the Venetians were invited likewise into this League against them which they accepted of and sent out a brave fleet under the Command of their Generall Morosini to attack them at home to whch Fleet the Pope and the Knights of Malta also joyned several of their Galleys and so did the Duke of Tuscany making in all forty six Galleys six Galliesses thirty three Men of War twenty four Petaches four Fire Ships sixteen Brigantines armed and eighty two Galliots on Board whereof they had an Army of twenty five thousand Men or upwards Sancta Maria a strong Fortress of great consequence to the Turks was the first place that felt the force of their victorious Arms which being quickly compelled to a surrender they took their course towardsd Lepanto And General Moraseni concluding it necessary for the maintaining the Conquest of