the other side endeavoured to satisfie the Council in every particular of the Charge year 1245 But perceiving that the greatest part of his Judges were not like to be favourable to him he desired that at least it might be deferred for some days till the third Session to the end that the Emperor who he assured them was upon his way to come to the Council might have time according to his desire to make his appearance To this the Pope willingly consented as believing that if that Prince were present all differences would easily be adjusted And although many who desired that this Affair should be quickly determined opposed it he gave twelve days respit in which they laboured in the private meetings to regulate all the other matters that were under debate At last the term being expired and that the Emperor who would by no means acknowledge the Council to be the Judge of his differences with the Pope did not appear the third Session was held upon the Monday being the seventeenth day of July where the seventeen Decrees which were made for the reformation of manners and discipline were approved as also those for finding out the ways to succour the Empire of Constantinople and to oppose the irruption of the Tartars and for the Publication of a Crusade against the Sarasins who possessed the Holy Land That which was decreed upon this Article was That the Crusade should be preached in all places That those who had already taken upon them the Cross and had not accomplished their Vow should be constrained by the Prelates to take it up upon pain of Excommunication That the Ancient Crusades and those who should take it up anew should at a certain time and place to be appointed repair to the Pope to receive his Benediction That there should be either a Peace or a Truce for four years among all the Christian Princes That during all that time there should be no publick Turnaments or Tiltings held That the Lords of the Crusade should retrench all manner of Superfluity and Vain Magnificence in their train their Equipage their habits and their Tables That the Bishops should take great care to exhort their People and especially such upon whom they imposed any Pennance for their Crimes to contribute some part of their Goods to the Holy War and that they should keep an exact Register of what was thus collected That all the Ecclesiasticks should be obliged to pay for this War the twentieth part of their Revenue for three years those only excepted who took up the Cross themselves and that the Pope and the Cardinals should pay the tenth to give an example to others who might be ashamed not to follow them And in short all the Privileges granted by the Councils and by the Popes in Favour of the Crusades were confirmed and all those Punishments denounced by the Bullas and the Canons against such as enterprised any thing against the Persons or Estates of the Crusades or against such as favoured the Pyrates or carried Arms to the Infidels were also ratified And for the obtaining the aid of God Almighty it was ordered that Prayers should be made in all Churches in the Octaves of the Nativity of our Blessed Lady After this the Cause of the Emperor who had refused to appear was taken into consideration And as his Ambassador Thadeus perceived that the Sentence which was already prepared was going to be pronounced by the Pope he protested aloud against it to stop it from proceding any further crying That he appealed to a general Councel To which the Pope replyed with great Moderation That this was one that all the Prelates and Princes had been called to and that if the Bishops of Germany and some others were not present it was the Fault of his Master who had hindred them from coming On the other part Hugh Bigod William de Chanteloup and Philip Basset the Ambassadours of England who favoured Frederick the brother-in-Brother-in-Law of their King whose Sister he had married to gain time presented to the Pope Letters in the Name of the whole English Nation which contained two very nice points wherein they demanded to have Justice done them and which doubtless would take up a great deal of time The first was upon what the late King John had done who in despight and contrary to all right as well as against the Inclination of all his People had they said made a Donation of England and Ireland to the Pope to have the Crown for the future held of the Holy See which they protested was wholly null and void the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury having in the name of the whole Body of the Realm opposed it The Second was a complaint to the Pope that his Legates Nuncio's and other Ministers year 1245 whom he sent into England besides the levying of the Peter-Pence made there under a thousand Pretexts such insupportable Exactions upon the People as they were resolved no longer to suffer To this Innocent who easily discovered the Artifice answered coldly That the Council being not assembled for those matters the discussion of them must be deferred till some other time wherein they might be debated more fully and with more leisure And then after having acquainted the Assembly with how much respect Honour and all the Testimonies of a sincere affection he had treated the Emperor Frederick both before and since his Pontificate and acquainted them how many times he had ineffectually endeavoured to reduce him to his Duty by mild and gentle methods he first pronounced the Sentence against him viva voce and afterwards caused it to be read by which He declared him excommunicate deprived him of the Empire and all his Realms and of all manner of Honours preheminences and Dignities for all those Crimes which are therein at large expressed absolving all his Subjects from the Oaths of Allegiance which they had taken to him and expresly prohibiting all manner of persons under pain of Excommunication to acknowledge him either as Emperor or as King or in that quality to give him either Counsel or Aid And at the same time the Bishops who held the Tapers lighted in their hands approved and confirmed the Sentence and in extinguishing them pronounced the Anathema against him After which the Pope rising from his Throne began the Te Deum with which Hymn this famous Council was concluded in which there was neither Decree nor Canon made concerning matters of Faith though there were many Heresies in those times there being nothing made but certain Regulations for the Discipline of the Church and after the Judgment which was given against Frederick the Pope decided nothing but a Politick and tender Affair of State in which all Sovereigns seemed to have a great Interest For upon occasion of this Council the Estates of Portugal being disatisfied with their King Dom Sanches whom in by reason of the weakness of his Mind they believed unfit and unable to govern they sent to Lyons the Archbishop
him by King Henry who contrary to all Justice had kept her from him And that John the third Son of King Henry usually called Sans-Terre Without Land to whom it seems the King to take off that ignominious Name had given his Interest in Ireland should also take up the Cross Henry on the contrary persisted obstinately in his Protestations that he would never suffer this Marriage although he said he would give his Consent or at least made that Pretence that the Princess should marry John the youngest Brother of Richard knowing well that that fierce and haughty Prince would never suffer tamely that Indignity to be put upon him Whereupon Philip seeing there was nothing further to be expected from that Conference broke it up and protested that he would do himself Justice by his Arms since he was refused it by Reason But the Cardinal d' Anaigne without considering that the Injury proceeded from him who obstinately refused to accomplish a Treaty so solemnly sworn whereas he ought to have pressed the King of England to keep his Promise and to restore the Princess Alice to her designed Husband year 1188 and not to put such an invincible Obstacle to the Peace by so manifest and unjust an Infraction of the Treaty fell upon Philip the August and spoke to him with a surprizing Confidence in such Language as without doubt Pope Clement had made no part either of his Commission or Instructions For he told him plainly That if he did not entirely accord Matters with the King of England he would put the whole Realm of France under an Interdict To which Philip who had a great Soul and who was perfectly acquainted with the Extent both of the Bounds of his own Power and that of the Church which are two Orders very different and which have both their just Limits answered him very readily That he did not in the least stand in fear of that Sentence and that being most unjust as there could be no doubt but it was it must therefore be mill and void That Rome never had any Right to make any Judgment against the Realm of France whether the King should take up Arms or not either to oblige his Enemies to do him Reason or to chastise his Rebellious Subjects And for any thing more the Sentence seemed to be the Product of English Sterling and not to proceed from a dis-interessed Legate whose Duty was to perform the Office of a common Father in the place of the Pope whom he was sent to represent This was to speak like a great King who without Emotion knew how to maintain the Rights of his Crown independent from any other but God alone and to preserve his Soveraign Authority without shocking that of the Church whose Kingdom is wholly spiritual and which it holds from Jesus Christ and therefore as he hath assured us is not of this World But Prince Richard who though he had seen as many Years as Philip was not by far so moderate nor so much Master of his Passion as to be able to contain himself in such reasonable Terms For finding himself particularly interessed in this Procedure of the Legate which wholly ruined all his Pretensions he was so transported that running furiously upon him with his Sword in his Hand without considering where he was or what he was about to do he had undoubtedly run him through if the Archbishops and Lords who assisted at the Conference had not all together rushed upon this violent Prince to stop his Fury and thereby given opportunity to the Legate half dead with Fear to secure himself by Flight from the greatest Danger that ever he had run in all his Life The Preliminary Discourse of the Peace being thus broken Philip who was powerfully armed pursued his Point so vigorously that he took Ferte-Benard Montfort Beaumont and some other places and afterwards attacked and by Force carried Mans from whence Henry who was retired thither did not without great difficulty escape to Chinon after having lost the greatest part of his Men in that Retreat which was little better than a Flight His Son John also whom among all his Children he loved the most tenderly abandoned him to joyn with Philip who at the Head of his Army passing the first over a Ford upon the Loir took Tours by Assault After which the King of England being in fear of his own Person and having no assured place of Retreat was forced to submit to the Law of the Vanquisher and accept such a Peace as he would please to give him which was upon these following Conditions That Henry should pay to Philip twenty thousand Marks in Silver for the Expences of the War That he should put the Princess Alice into the Hands of such as should be appointed by the King and Prince Richard who was to marry her after his Return from the Holy Land That the two Kings and Prince Richard should Rendesvouz in the Mid-lent of the Year following at Vezelay to begin together the Voyage which they were obliged to by their Vow That the Vassals of the King of England should take an Oath of Fealty to Richard and that those of them who had followed him in this War should not be obliged to render their Homage to Henry till such time as they were to go this Voyage to the Holy Land That the Great Men of England should promise to abandon the King in case he should fail in the performance of any one of these Articles and that in the Interim Philip and Richard should hold certain Towns in Hostage till such time as he should fully and truly have performed what was comprehended in the Treaty It is reported that as the two Kings were in a Treaty in the open Field towards the end of June between Tours and Chinon concerning the Articles of this Peace year 1189 which seemed very insupportable to Henry there happened two days successively two most terrible Claps of Thunder although the Heavens were so serene that there was not the least speck of a Cloud to be seen in the Sky at which Henry was so dreadfully amazed that if some of his Followers had not instantly run to him to support him he had fallen from his Horse and that being thereupon struck with mortal Apprehensions of some terrible Punishment from Heaven if he persisted longer to retard the Crusade by refusing the Peace he accorded to Philip whatsoever he demanded and immediately signed the Treaty He had nevertheless a few Moments after so many terrible Assaults of Shame and Grief upon his Soul and was in particular so sensibly touched with the undutiful Actions of his own Children who had from being one of the greatest and most glorious Princes in the Universe reduced him into that piteous Estate to comply so meanly and tamely to what was imposed upon him that he presently fell desperately sick and in three days time dyed in the sixty first Year of his Age upon the Octave of the Apostles St. Peter
to Sea in Easter-Week and after it had been soundly beaten with a Tempest which they say was miraculously calmed by Thomas of Canterbury who had raised many worse in his Life according to the credulous Humour of those Ages it being affirmed by some that he appeared upon the Deck of the great Ship called the London that Vessel came up with Cape St. Vincent over against the City of Silves nine other Ships entring the River of Lesbon where they came to an Anchor The Miramolin or King of the Sarasins of the Western Africa at that time made War with a potent Army against Sancho King of Portugal whom he had surprized and who with an inconsiderable number of Troops had put himself into Santaren This Prince believing that Heaven had sent him the Succour of these Strangers year 1190 as it had before done to the late King Alphonso his Father requested them to help him in this his pressing Necessity Whereupon five hundred of the bravest of them immediately went into his Service whilst that fourscore of the most valiant young Gentlemen who were aboard the London put themselves into Sylves for the Defence of that City But Fortune without giving them the liberty of drawing their Swords put an end to this War by the suddain Death of Mirmalion after which his Army immediately disbanded it self The English then returning to their Vessels sound there sixty three more of their Ships who had put in there to refresh themselves and all that great City in Arms against their People who had committed great Insolencies and Disorders against the Inhabitants insomuch that Blood had been drawn on both sides divers Houses plundred and burnt and some of the English committed to Prison But all these Matters being calmed by the Prudence of King Sancho who knew very well how to pacifie both Parties the English took their leave the 25th Day of July and the same Day joyning three and thirty great Ships with which Admiral William Fortz attended them at the Mouth of the Tagus they prosperously pursued their Voyage till they came to an Anchor before Salernum There it was that King Richard met his Fleet and the 30th of September arrived at the Port of Messina where he was received by the French and Sicilians with all possible Honour and with all the Marks of a sincere and perfect Friendship But this was not of any long Continuance and the good Understanding which at first appeared among these three Nations was presently interrupted and broken by two great Quarrels which Richard had and which were the Cause that the two Kings instead of presently pursuing their intended Voyage were obliged to defer it till the following Year and to pass all the Winter at Messina The manner was thus William king of Sicily being dead without Issue the Sicilians who were resolved to have a King of the Race of their Norman Princes placed his Cousin Tancred the Natural Son of Roger Duke of Pavia upon the Throne notwithstanding that before his Death William had caused Queen Constance his Aunt the Wife of the Emperor Henry VI. to be acknowledged their Queen and had declared her to be the Inheretrix of the Crown Now Richard without pretending to have any part in this great Difference between the Emperor and Tancred only desired of this new King that he would send to him Jane his Sister the Daughter of Henry II. King of England the Widow of the deceased King William that he would restore to him her Dowry with several other things to which he pretended and above all an hundred Ships which the late King had promised to his Father-in Law King Henry for his Voyage to the Levant Tancred immediately sent the Queen to him but deferring to give him Satisfaction in his other Pretensions Richard who was resolved that he should do him Reason seized upon two strong Places which lay upon the Straits This gave such a Jealousie to the Messineses who naturally are not too much given to forbearing that they took Arms against the English and beat them out of the City and the English no less naturally impatient of Beating but more hot and brave than the Sicilians ran immediately to their Arms and issuing in Battalia out of their Camp repulsed these forward Burghers into the City and put themselves into a Posture to attack it by Force There was however a few Moments Truce agreed to by the Interposition of Philip the August who endeavoured to accommodate this Difference between them But Richard having discovered or at least believing that the Messineses had an Intention to surprize him during the Preliminary Treaty of the Peace began the Assault upon the Town with so much Fury that he carried the Place but he left it again presently after he had received the Excuses of the Magistrates and the Satisfaction which he demanded of them out of Respect as he said to King Philip who had his Quarter in the City and who was not at all satisfied with these violent Proceedings of King Richard For this Reason Richard to strengthen himself against him by the Alliance of Tancred concluded a Peace with that King who offered him besides the Ships twenty thousand Ounces of Gold to quit all his other Pretensions and twenty thousand more for the Portion of his Daughter year 1190 who was to be married to Arthur Duke of Bretany Nephew to King Richard So that the Conclusion of this Quarrel was the Foundation of another incomparably more dangerous which hereby grew between the kings of France and England For Tancred perceiving that the French King had no reason to be satisfied with this Marriage which was surreptitious concluded without his Knowledge and which directly shocked all his Interests endeavoured to link himself more closely with the English as he did and to exasperate them against King Philip. And truly finding that these two Princes were already imbroiled upon the Subject of the Taking Messina where Richard having caused his Standards to be planted Philip sent to have them taken down He went to the King of England and shewed him the Letters which he assured him came from the King of France wherein he offered him the Assistance of all his Forces if he would make War with Richard who he said had no other Thoughts but to amuse him with the Shew of Peace thereby with more Ease to seize upon his Realm Richard although he was extreamly provoked with this Procedure yet was very well pleased to have so specious a Pretence to break with Philip. Philip complaining with Justice enough reciprocally against him that having so long since affianced his Sister Alice he had now altered his Thoughts and was designed to marry Berengera the Daughter of Garcias King of Navarre following therein the Counsel of Queen Eleonor who her self had conducted that Princess thither There seemed great Foundation for the Complaints on either side and their Spirits were wound up to that degree as indangered the Breaking of the holy
that so he might be nearer his Brother-in-Law the King of Hungary The Venetians had the Isles of the Archipelagus and a great part of Peloponnesus or Morea with many Cities upon the Coasts of the Hellespont and Phrygia together with the Isle of Candia which they purchased of the Marquis of Montferrat to whom it had been given by the young Alexis Bithynia under the Title of a Dutchy fell to the Share of the Count de Blois William de Champlite of Champagne had the Principality of Achaia and Peloponnesus which he Conquered and at his Death left to Geoffry de Ville Hardouin Nephew to the Mareshal of Champagne who had also for his Share the Province of Romania There were also several other Principalities Lands and great Cities both in Europe and Asia conferred upon the most considerable Persons in the Army After this the Emperor taking the Field before the Winter reduced all the Cities of Thracia under his Obeysance and to compleat his good Fortune the old Alexis and the persidious Murtzuphle who still carried themselves as Emperors in that Province fell alive into his victorious Hands and received Justice according to their Demerits Murtzuphle after his Flight was retired into a City of Thracia about four days March from Constantinople and having rallied some Troops he with them seized upon Tzurulum at this day called Chiorli between the imperial City and Adrianople But when he perceived that all Places surrendred themselves to Prince Henry year 1204 whom the Emperor had sent before with the Men at Armes he quitted that open Country and retreated to Messinople anciently and truly called Maximinianopolis in the Province of Rhodope where the old Alexis had made himself be acknowledged as Emperor during the Siege of Constantinople Murtzuphle sent to him to offer him his Troops and his Service against the common Enemy and intreated him to do him the Honor to consider him and receive him as his Son-in-Law who could have no other Interests but his But Alexis whether it were that he hated him because he was more wicked than himself or that he distrusted him or that he was resolved to revenge the Affront and Dishonor that had been done by him to his Daughter or possibly that wholly Miserable as he was himself yet he could not indure that another should call himself Emperor he resolved to destroy him and to punish his Perfidy by another Treason For as the Devils in the other World are the Executioners of God's Decrees upon the Damned so the Crimes of wicked Men in this Life serve his Justice in the punishing of those Offences which other wicked Men have committed This dissembling and treacherous old Man therefore made shew of receiving these Offers of his Son-in-Law with all the Marks of Tenderness and Affection which he could have wished he went in Person to Confer with him they imbraced they kissed and reciprocally gave to each other their Faith protesting that they would hereafter never have any other but the same Interest and the same Heart After which Murtzuphle made no difficulty intirely to trust his father-in-Father-in-Law and went confidently to an Entertainment to which he was invited by him but as he was conducted into a Chamber where the Trap was set for him the People of Alexis who were in Readiness for that Purpose fell upon him and overthrowing him they immediately pulled his Eyes out of his Head Thus divine Justice the wise Disposer of all things ordered it that one Tyrant should execute upon another the same Cruelty which he himself had about nine Years before advised him to act upon his own Brother the Emperor Isaac Not long after Alexis understanding that Baldwin to whom all Thracia submitted was coming against him he fled into Macedon with so much Precipitation and Disorder that some of the Friends of Murtzuphle all whose Troops were disbanded found the Means to procure his Escape But after he had for some time wandred in Disguise with a small Attendance intending to pass the Strait of the Hellespont to save himself in Asia he was surprized by Thierri de Los who had got notice of him and carried Prisoner to Constantinople where the Emperor would have him proceeded against in due course of Law He was therefore accused before the Princes of an infinite number of Crimes and above all of being guilty of the most detestable Parricide upon the Person of the young Emperor Alexis who he had strangled with his own Hands The Fact was publickly notorious nor could he deny it but yet he had the audacious Confidence to indeavour to justify himself by maintaining that he had done nothing but what was most Just and what was approved by the Greeks and even the Relations of Alexis who had lost his Right to the Empire and deserved Death for having betraied his Country in selling it to Strangers But as his insolent Answers were so far from diminishing his Crime that they rendred him more Odious so he was condemned to a Death which might strike a Terror into all those who were the Accomplices or Approvers of his Parricide For this Purpose he was led into the great Square called that of the Bull in the middle of which the great Theodosius had erected a marble Column of extraordinary Height which being hollow had a Staircase within by which they might go to the Top upon which that Emperor had caused his Statue in Brass upon Horseback to be placed but that happening to be thrown down by an Earthquake in the Reign of Zeno Anastatius his Successor caused his to be set up in the Room of it and that having also the same Fate there was nothing after set up but it remained as a little Lodge which was inhabited by a new Stylite who by the means of that Retreat injoyed a Solitude in the midst of the greatest and most populous City in the World It was to the Top of this high Column that the Unfortunate Murtzuphle was carried and in the view of the whole City which might easily see it from all parts this Square of the Bull being one of the most eminent of the seven Hills upon which Constantinople stands year 1204 he was thrown down headlong and dashed in pieces Just it was that he should thus die by this fearful manner of Death that from thence Posterity may learn that if Ambition sometimes mounts wicked Men to the Eminency of Fortune by Treasons Poisonings Murders Parricides and all manner of Crimes which she never spares to prompt her Followers to when she judges them for her Purpose Yet does she at the last bring them when at the top of this Height to the most horrible Precipice from whence their Fall is so much the more Fatal by how much they fall from the greater Height That which is most strange in this terrible Execution is that among other Figures which were carved round about this Column there was to be seen that of an Emperor thrown down in that very manner