of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice loseth the Opportunity of conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Raign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadours with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The reasons on one side and the other The best opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her Second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who enters Galilee and besieges Tyberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tyberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that Victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land p. 113. BOOK II. The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legates to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors Where the Arch-Bishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War recommences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guienne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to Combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this Emperor betrayed the Ltains The History of the False Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac And his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stratagem of the Emperor ' s. An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battle of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The Second Battle of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battle of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue p. 149 BOOK III. The Beginning of the Reign of Richard Coeur de Lyon King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelay between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accomodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Description of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a Second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jaffa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and Imprisoned His Deliverance The Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives occasion to a fourth Crusade p. 186. PART III.
BOOK I. THe little disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemais The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jaffa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Siege of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Infidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elogy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and General Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elogy and character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elogy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Siege of Zara. A great division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperor 's of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vncle Alexis Comnenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadours The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople BOOK II. The Condition wherein the City of Constantinople was when it was besieged by the French and Venetian Crusades The Defeat of the Vsurpers Brother-in-Law by a small Party of the French The Passage and the Battle of the Bosphorus The taking of the Castle of Galatha The Venetians force the Entry of the Port. An Assault given both by Sea and Land â—o Constantinople The Venetians take five and twenty Towers A Sally made by the Emperor Alexis with a prodigious Army and his Infamous Cowardice His Flight and the Reduction of Constantinople The Establishment of Isaac and the young Alexis A Prolongation of the Treaty for a Year between that Emperor and the Confederate Princes Their Exploits in Thracia A Dreadful Fire at Constantinople The History of the horrible Treason of Murtzuphle The young Alexis suffers himself to be surprized by the Artifices of that Traytor and breaks with the Confederates The Speech of Conon de Bethune to the Emperors to oblige them to accomplish their Treaty War declared against them upon their refusal The Greeks attempt in Vain to burn the Venetian Fleet. The Description of that wild Fire The consequent Treasons of Murtzuphle The Election of Cannabus The double Treason of Murtzuphle who makes himself be proclaimed Emperor The Death of Isaac and of the young Alexis whom Murtzuphle strangles with his own Hands The Confederates make War against the Tyrant His Defeat by Henry the Brother of Count Baldwin The first Assault given upon the Port side of Constantinople wherein the Confederates are repulsed The Second Assault by which the City is taken by plain Force The Flight of Murtzuphle The Greeks lay down their Arms. The City plundered and the Booty there gained The Relicks from thence transported to several Churches of Europe Baldwin Earl of Flanders chosen Empeperor The Policy of the Venetians in the Election of that Prince His Elogy and Character The Election of a Patriarch The Destribution of the Provinces of the Empire The happy Beginning of the Emperor who reduceth all Thracia Murtzuphle surprized and betrayed by the Old Alexis who puts out his Eyes The Flight of Alexis and the taking of Murtzuphle He is brought back to Constantinople where for the Punishment of his Crimes he is thrown headlong from a high Columne Old Alexis taken His End The Glorious Success of this Crusade BOOK III. The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His
their Empire and delivering them into the Hands of the Philistins Chaldeans and other Infidel People who were the Executioners of his Justice so did he punish the horrible Crimes of the Christians whom he had brought into Palestine by the victorious Arms of the first Crusades by depriving them of that Kingdom and abandoning them to be Slaves to those People whom their Ancestors had with so much Glory so often vanquished But farther to give some natural Reason for this Change the first Conquerors of Palestine were warlike and most valiant Men accustomed to Fatigues and such as frankly exposed themselves to all manner of Dangers and were never known to recoil let the number of their Enemies which they were to incounter be never so Prodigious they esteemed it a Happiness to dye Martyrs in combating gloriously for the Faith and for the Name of Jesus Christ And the Orientals against whom they fought were at that time little skilled in Wars cowardly undisciplin'd and half-armed People who were not able to abide above one Shock as having nothing to trust to but their Bows and Arrows which they shot at Rovers and commonly rather slying than fighting Whereas on the contrary the Christians having exchanged with the Infidels for all their Vices had also gotten their Cowardice their esseminate and idle way of Living loving Repose and Pleasure and hating the trouble of War and the Severity of that Discipline which is so necessary to a Soldier and which they wholly neglected The Turks and Sarasins on the other hand were become mighty Warlike under their victorious Sultans Sanguin Noradin Syracon and Saladin who having learnt at their Cost to arm themselves like the Europeans with good Curiasses and strong Lances had also taught them to follow their Colours year 1188 to fight hand to hand and had inspired them with Courage and Considence both by their Examples and the fortunate Success of their Arms. And in short The Conquerors of the Holy Land under the first Kings were under one sole Head who uniformly governed the whole Body of his Estate and Army which acted according to the Measures which he prescribed with a perfect Unity without Division without diversity of Interests Inclinations and Opinions as if the whole Army had been as one Man according to the Expression so frequent in the Scripture Whereas the Turks and Sarasins were then divided almost into as many particular Estates as there were Cities in Palestine and Syria and therefore could raise no great Armies but what must be commanded by many Chiefs who for the most part never accorded very well by reason of the diversity of their Opinions and Interests which made them almost continually be overthrown though they were incomparably the stronger in number of Soldiers than their Conquerors But upon the falling of the Realm the Christian Army was composed of the Troops of diverse Chiefs those of the King of Jerusalem the Prince of Antioch the Earl of Tripolis and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who all of them had different Prospects and Designs which did not at all agree one with the other On the contrary all the Estates of the Infidels bordering upon the Christians Egypt Arabia Mesopotamia the Realms of Damascus and Cilicia were at that time united into one single Monarchy under the great Saladin and so their Army had but one Captain and Head who being most Wise and Valiant gave one Impression and a constant regular Movement to this great Body which did not act but according to his positive Orders And certainly it is most particularly this Unity which hath always made great Armies Victorious as may be seen in all Ages and Histories but was never more manifested than in this last Campaign which was so glorious and so advantageous to the King of France For on the one part the Emperour and the Spaniards and great part of the Princes of the Circles of the Empire and the Hollanders being leagued and confederated against him had raised very strong and numerous Armies to invade France both by Sea and Land On the other side that King alone without imploying any other Power but his own and giving out himself those Orders which were with Fidelity Executed always prevented them I do not say from entring but so much as approaching France Beat them thoroughly to the very Islands and in Person by main Force conquered one fair and large Province and his Army alone in Flanders under his auspicious Fortune commanded by the famous Prince of Conde having to oppose them three great Armies of the Emperour the King of Spain and the Hollanders joyned in one Body under three Chieftains yet cut in pieces their Rere took their Baggage ravished from them more than one hundred Colours and shamefully chased them from before Oudenard and pursued them beyond the Scheld And there it was that their Commanders having at last the Leisure to take Breath and to complain one to another were constrained to avow by their Flight which they disguised under the name of a Retreat that as there is but one Soul in one Body to give it Life Movement and the Power to perform those admirable Operations of a Man so there ought to be but one absolute Monarch in a Kingdom and one General in an Army to procure the Felicity of the People and to inable them to triumph gloriously over all the Enemies which go about to trouble their Repose or rob them of their Happiness But after these Reflections which I have made according to my little Art in Politicks which possibly will not appear altogether Useless or at least Indivertive it is time to return to my Subject and pursue this History of the Crusade THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART II. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legats to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors where the Archbishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War re-commences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guinne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this
should fail he should be sure of the third and that though he lost two Thirds of his Alms upon two false Religions yet the other falling upon the true he should undoubtedly find Advantage by it for the good of his Soul Poor well meaning Prince He did not know that there is a vast difference between Temporal and Eternal Goods And that though those are submitted to the Empire of Fortune which gives or takes them according as she pleases to turn her sporting Wheel yet in these it is far otherwise and that Eternal Goods are never exposed to Hazard and Adventure but they are certainly lost The Death of Saladin presently made a Change in the Face of Affairs throughout all Asia For having divided his Dominions among his twelve Sons without leaving any thing to his Brother Saphadin who had most faithfully served him in all his Wars This Prince valiant and ambitious resolved to revenge himself upon the first Opportunity nor was it long before it was offered and by him laid hold of For his Nephew to whose Share in the Distribution Egypt fell being slain by a Fall from his Horse as he was hunting Saphadin with Ease made himself Master of that fair Dominion and presently raising a powerful Army all the Soldiers of Saladin who had served under him and esteemed him infinitely running in to him he attempted the Ruin of his other Nephews and in a short time either by Force of Arms or by Treachery of their Subjects he overthrew them all year 1195 except the Sultan of Alepo to whom his Subjects always preserved a most inviolable Fidelity Thus whilst the Infidels armed one against another and thought of nothing but how to destroy themselves it was believed in Europe that a fair Occasion was offered for the Recovery of the Realm of Jerusalem now almost entirely lost which gave occasion to a new Crusade which was also followed by three others as in the ensuing History may be seen The End of the Second Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The little Disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole Race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemaïs The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jassa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Seige of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Insidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elegy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and general Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elegy and Character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elegy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made Chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Seige of Zara A great Division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperors of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vnkle Alexis Commenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadors The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople year 1194 THere was very little probability for the Christian Princes of the East to hope for any Assistance from the Princes of Europe where there was now not the least favourable Inclination towards the Holy War The Kings of England and France upon whose Protection they had always chiefly depended were so far from uniting as they did before year 1195 in such a glorious Design they were engaged in a most cruel War which was only discontinued for some time by little Truces which served to no other purpose but to give them leisure to take Breath a little and thereby to put themselves into a Condition to attack each other with greater Fury than before The Emperor was wholly taken up with putting himself into the Possession of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily in Right of his Wife Constantia the Empress In pursuit of which after the death of Tancred he extinguished the whole Race of those brave Normans who had so generously conquered and so gloriously possessed those Realms for above one Age. Pope Celestin III. wasted with Age and Fatigues being now advanced to ninety Years was in no Condition to undertake so difficult a Task as the Forming of a new Crusade And besides he was extreamly embroiled with the Emperor whom he had excommunicated for the Violence which he had used to the King of England so that he had little hope to engage him in the Enterprise Nevertheless after he was assured of the death of Saladin and the great Revolutions which that had made in his Empire which he understood by Letters from Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice he applied himself with the same Zeal which his Predecessors had done to form a Holy League among the Christian Princes to make advantage of this fair Opportunity for the re-gaining of Jerusalem For this purpose he sent his Legates throughout all Europe He did all that lay in his power to procure Peace between the two Kings of France and England and conjured them at least to send some Assistance to Palestine if the posture of their Affairs was such as would not permit them to go thither in Person to
moment and desolated to that degree by the Mamalukes that it became a vast solitude as it still continues to this Day So little assurance is there of any thing in this World where there needs no more but one Moment to Ruin and Destroy what hath been growing a many Ages Thus Bendoedar who found no more Enemies in the Field to give the least check to his Conquests still pushed his good Fortune forward into Syria whilest the Christians of the East divided into divers Factions seemed to combine with him for their mutual destruction And in vain were any Succours expected from the West for the Assistance which the Armenians and the Tartars came to desire against the Sarasins were always either hindred or diverted by the Quarrels which continued between the Popes and the House of Suabia and which were not to be determined but by the downfal of that Noble House to raise upon its ruines that of France which consequently took up the design of that Crusade again And it is this which I am now obliged to relate for the finishing of this History of the Crusades After the Death of Frederick the Second Pope Innocent did not fail to Excommunicate Conrade the Eldest Son of that Prince because he stiled himself Emperor against William Earl of Holland whom some German Princes who were of the Pope's Party had chosen to oppose Frederick Conrade who wanting the good qualities of his Father had all the ill ones and all the fierceness the Cruelty the insatiable desire of Revenge and the implacable hatred against the Popes entred with great Forces into Italy where he was with joy received by the Gibelins and favoured by the Venetians upon whose Shipping he passed the Gulph into Pavia and having joyned the Troops of his natural Brother Mainfrey his Lieutenant General in that Realm year 1268 he reduced under his obeysance in a short time what ever had declared for the Pope and having at last taken Naples he there executed his most cruel Vengeance by the Desolation of that fair and flourishing City This so amazed the Pope Innocent who after he had struck him with the Anathema had no other Arms to which he might have recourse to oppose him that he believed he was obliged to cause a Crusade to be published against him which without doubt did not contribute much to the Success of that which proved so unfortunate against the Sarasins And at the same time he caused the two Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily to be offered first to Charles d' Anjou who would not then accept them without the consent of the King his Brother who was then in Syria and afterwards to Richard Brother to Henry the King of England but he also refused them not thinking it was at all agreeable to Justice or a good Conscience to despoil the young Prince Henry his Nephew to whom the Emperor Frederick had left for his share the Kingdom of Sicily Whilest matters stood thus Conrade who had underhand procured the Death of this little Prince his Brother that he might have his Kingdom died himself of Poison which as it was believed was given him by his Brother Mainfrey to whom as not suspecting him Guilty of his Death Conrade left the Tuition of his Son Conradin then an Infant of the Age of three Years Innocent resolving to take advantage of his Death went and presented himself before Naples where in hatred of Conrade he was received with great Applauses Mainfrey himself being surprized also submitted to him and was received with all Civil treatment But presently after throwing himself into Nocere whither the Emperor Frederick had transplanted the Sarasins of Sicily he raised an Army and took the Field and Fortune declaring her self at first in his favour he in a Battle defeated the Army of the Pope which was Commanded by the Cardinal de Fiesque the Nephew of Innocent who being then Sick when he received this News at Naples died in a few Days after Alexander the Fourth his Successor had also the same Fortune for having Excommunicated Mainfrey this Prince who from the Example of his Father had learnt not to fear these Roman Thunderbolts Marched directly against the Pontifical Army which had taken the Field under the Conduct of Cardinal Vbald and he not being so great a Captain as his Enemy also lost a Battle which was fought between them Hereupon Mainfrey fierce with these two Victories and sure of the Favour of the Populace which always follows the strongest side caused himself to be Proclaimed King of Naples and Sicily with as much ease as he had with dexterity caused the report to be spread of the Death of the little Conradin his Nephew After which he lead his Victorious Army into the Ecclesiastick Estates where finding little resistance he seized upon the County of Fondi and his Partisans being animated by the report of his Victories the Gibelin Faction became presently the most powerful but principally in Lombardy Tuscany and even in Rome it self Alexander astonished with this Progress and fearing that he should at last fall under the Power of such a formidable Enemy had recourse to the King of England and following the Example of Innocent he offered him the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily for his Son Edmund to whom he also sent the Investiture of them and to oblige that King to undertake the enterprise he absolved him from the Vow which he had made in taking the Cross to be of the Crusade against the Sarasins in the East by changing it into that which he caused to be Preached every where against Mainfrey Also fearing lest the Partisans of the House of Suabia should place Conradin upon the Imperial Throne in the room of Count William who had been slain in the War against the Frieslanders he sent Prohibitions to all the Electors requiring them under pain of Excommunication not to chuse that young Prince But all this which signified just nothing against Mainfrey did a World of mischief to the Crusade which was designed against the Sarasins The Parliament which the King of England had called at London upon the subject of the Neopolitan War would give the King no Money and afterwards all the great Men of the Realm happening to be Embroiled with the Royal House this Project of the Pope's did not Succeed And for Germany one part of the Princes having chosen for their Emperor Alphonso King of Castile and the other Richard Earl of Cornwall year 1268 Brother to the King of England there arose a Schism in the Empire which occasioned mighty Troubles and Disorders there So that Italy Spain England and Germany having so many troublesome Affairs upon their hands there remained only France in a condition to serve the Holy See to any purpose in this occasion and all Christendom indeed against the Infidels For this reason therefore Vrban the fourth the Successor of Pope Alexander having again vainly tried the way of a Crusade against Mainfrey which for want of
Princes The Relation of the Conquests and Settlement of the Normans in Italy The Voyage of Bohemond Prince of Tarentum and the Princes that went along with him The Voyage of Raymond de Tholose of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia and the other Princes and Lords which accompanied them The Charaâ—ter of that Earl his Conference with the Emperor and the Treachery of that Prince The Voyage of Robert Duke of Normandy his Character and Treaty with the Emperor Page 1. BOOK II. The Description of the City of Nice in Bithynia and the Siege thereof by the Princes of the Crusade The Second and third Battle of Nice where the young Solyman was beaten The taking of that City and the Treachery of the Greek Emperor The March of the Christian Army One part thereof surprized by Solyman The Battle of the Gorgonian Valley The Progress of the Christian Army in the lesser Asia The great danger of Duke Godfrey and his Combat with a monstrous Bear The difference and little Civil dissention between Baldwin and Tancred Baldwin makes himself Master of the Principality of Edessa The entrance of the Christian Army into Syria The Description of the Famous City of Antioch It is besieged by the Princes The Relation of this famous Siege The Combat at the Bridge of Antioch The marvellous Actions of Duke Godfrey The Approach of Corbagath with a prodigious Army to relieve the City The Relation of the taking of Antioch by Bohemond by Intelligence in the City with one Pyrrhus The Christian Army at the same time besieged by Corbagath A Relation of the discovery of the top of a Spear which was believed to be that which pierced our Saviour's side The memorable Battle of Antioch where the whole power of the Turks and Sarasins in Asia was defeated by the Christians The death of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia The quarrel between Count Raymond and the Prince of Tarentum The taking of Marra A strange Relation of the gratitude of a Lyon The Seige of Arcas The odd Story of Anselm de Ribemond Earl of Bouchain and the deceased Engelram Son to the Earl of St. Paul The taking of Torlosa by a stratagem by the Vicount de Turenne The Sultan of Egypt takes Jerusalem from the Turks breaks his League with the Princes of the Crusade The Ambassadours of Alexis slighted The advantageous composition with the Emir of Tripolis The March of the Christian Army to Jerusalem Lidda Rama Nicopolis and Bethlehem taken by the Christians The extraordinary expressions of their Devotion upon the first discovery of the Holy City p. 33. BOOK III. The Present State of Jerusalem when the Christian Princes Besieged it The Destribution of their Quarters The ill Success of an Assault given against the Rules of War by the Advice of a Hermite who pretended a Revelation for it The Description of Duke Godfrey's Engines The solemn Procession of the Besiegers about the City The Second General Assault for three days together Two Magicians who were Conjuring upon the Walls have their Brains beaten out with a Stone from Duke Godfrey's wooden Castle The Artifice of Godfrey to drive the Enemies from the Walls He is the first that by the Bridge of his Castle mounts the Walls Jerusalem taken The fearful Slaughter of the Sarasins By Godfrey's Example the whole Army return solemn Thanks to God at the Holy Sepulchre An Assembly of the Princes to chuse a King and a Patriarch The Speech of Robert Duke of Normandy upon this Subject Godfrey of Bullen chosen and proclaimed King of Jerusalem The memorable Battle of Ascalon against the Sultan of Egypt and the Victory of the Christians which concluded this first Crusade The return of the Crusades The Conquests of Godfrey of Bullen and his Death An Abridgement of the History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem till the time of the Second Crusade The Reign of Baldwin the First The flourishing Estate of the Christians in the East till his Death The Reign of Balwin the Second The Relation of the founding the Military Orders of the Knights Hospitallers The Captivity of King Baldwin His deliverance His Victories and Death He is succeeded by his Son-in-Law Fowk d'Anjou The Prosperity of his Reign His Death and the Regency of Queen Melisintha during the Minority of Baldwin the Third The Occasion of the second Expedition of the Crusades The Relation of the two Josselins de Courtenay Earls of Edessa The taking of that City by Sanguin Sultan if Alepo and afterwards by Noradin his Son The Character of that Prince and his Conquests over the Christians Applications made to Lewis the young King of France His Character and what moved him to undertake the Crusade He consults St. Bernard concerning it The Character of that Saint and the Order he received from Pope Eugenius the Third to preach the Crusade The General Assemblies of Bourges Vezelay and Chartress for the Crusade It is published by Saint Bernard in France and Germany The Emperor and King take up the Cross The Abbot Sugere declared Regent in France His Character and advice concerning the expedition The Voyage of the Emperor The Description of the Tempest which almost ruined his Army upon the Banks of the River Melas The Fleet of the Crusades takes Lisbon from the Sarasins The Original of the Kings of Portugal The Character and Perfidy of the Greek Emperor Manuel His underhand Treating with the Turks The miserable Overthrow of the Emperor's Army The Voyage of King Lewis to Constantinople and his reception The Advice of the Bishop of Langress who Counsels the King to take Constantinople his Speech upon that Subject the reason that his Advice was not followed the Treacheries of Manuel thereupon The Kings Voyage into Asia His Interview with the Emperor Conrade and the Return of that Prince to Constantinople The Description of the River Meander and the famous passage of the King of France with his Army over it p. 68. PART II. BOOK I. The Rereguard of the Kings Army Defeated in the Mountains of Laodicea for want of observing the Kings Orders The Description of that Combat A most Heroick Action of the King in an extreme Danger of his Life His March and admirable Conduct to Attalia The new Perfidy of the Greeks in Betraying the Royal Army The Arrival of the King at Antioch and his Difference with Prince Raymond The Conquenty March to Jerusalem where he is met by the Emperor Conrade The Councel at Ptolemais where the Seige of Damascus is resolved The Description of the City of Damascus The manner of the March of the Christian Army towards that City The Young King Baldwin makes the first Attack his Character and extraordinary Valour in the Attack against the Gardens and Suburbs of Damascus The great Combat upon the Bank of the River A brave Action of the Emperor Conrade An Account of the Siege of Damascus and the Treachery of the Syrians which occasioned the ill Success of that Enterprise The Return
Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcemet to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Souldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land Two great Armies of Sarasins besiege the Camp They atack the Lines and force them A great Combat within the Lines The Enemy at last repulsed The Arrival of St. Francis before Damiata His Conference with the Sultan The Battle without the Lines lost by the Crusades An Advantageous Peace offered to the Christians by the Sultan The Reasons for and against it It is at last rejected by the Legate Damiata taken by Night PART IV. BOOK I. THE Condition the manners and the Religion of the People of Georgia who resolve to joyn with the Princes of the Crusade but are hindred by an irruption of the Tartars into their Country The Emperor Frederick sends a considerable relief to Damiata The return of King John de Brienne to the Army of the Crusades The Legate Pelagius opposeth his advice and makes them resolve upon a Battle against Meledin who once more offers Peace upon most advantageous Terms The Legate occasions the refusal of them The humour and description of this Legate An account of the miserable adventure of the Christian Army which by the inundation of the Nile is reduced to the Discretion of Meledin The wise Policy of this Sultan who saves the Army by a Treaty which he was willing to make with the Crusades This misfortune is followed by the Rupture of Frederick the Emperor with the Pope The Character of that Emperor The Complaints of Pope Honorius against him His Answers and their Reconciliation A famous Conference for the Holy War King John de Brienne comes to desire assistance throughout Europe The Death of Philip the August His Elogy his Will and his Funerals New endeavours of the Pope and the Emperor for the Holy War The Marriage of Frederick with the Princess Jolante the daughter of King John de Brienne Heiress of the Realm of Jerusalem John de Brienne is dispoiled of his Crown by his new Son-in-Law He puts himself under the Protection of the Pope Honorius The good Offices of the Pope to pacifie the Princes The death of Lewis the eight King of France He is succeeded by his Son Lewis the ninth The Death of Pope Honorius He is succeeded by Gregory the ninth The Portraict of this new Pope The Army of the Crusades much diminished by diseases The Emperor takes shipping He stays at Otranto where the Lantgrave of Thuringia dies A great rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Pope excommunicates him Their Manifests The Revenge which Frederick takes He passes at last into Syria His differences with the Patriarch and the Templers His Treaty with the Sultan his Coronation at Jerusalem his return and accord with the Pope The Conference of Spolata for the Continuation of the Crusade The History of Theobald the fifth Earl of Champagne and King of Navarr His Voyage to the Holy Land with the other Princes of the Crusade His description and his Elogy A Crusade published for the Succour of Constantinople An Abridgement of the History of the Latin Emperors there The Causes of the little Success of the King of Navarr's Enterprise A new Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Occasions thereof The deplorable effects of that breach which ruins the Affairs of the Holy Land The Jealousie among the Princes occasions their loss Their defeat at the Battle of Gaza The unsuccessful Voyage of Richard Earl of Cornwall The death of the Constable Amauri de Montfort His Elogy his Burial and that of his Ancestors and of Simon de Montfort in the Monastery of Hautebruiere A Council called at Rome The Pope's Fleet defeated by the Emperor's and the taking of the Legates and Prelates going to the Council The death of Pope Gregory The election of Celestin the fourth and of Innocent the fourth He breaks with the Emperor and retires into France BOOK II. THE Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the August House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The first Battle of Massore where the Count d' Artois is slain The second Battle and the admirable Actions of the King The Plague and Famine in the Camp An unfortunate Retreat wherein the whole Army is defeated and the King with all the Princes and Lords are taken Prisoners An Heroick Action of Gaucher de Chastillon in this Retreat The admirable Constancy of the King in his Imprisonment His Treaty with the Sultan The Original of the Mamalukes The Revolution in the Empire of Egypt by the Murder of the Sultan The Confirmation of the Treaty with the Admirals The King absolutely refuseth to take the Oath which these Barbarians would exact from him The Refutation of the
Fable touching the pawning of the Holy Eucharist to the Sarasins by the King Lewis His deliverance and admirable Fidelity to his Promise and the perfidiousness of the Egyptians BOOK III. The General Consternation all over France upon the News of the King's Imprisonment the Tumult the Shepherds their Original their Disorders and Defeat St. Lewis after his deliverance performs his Articles with great Justice The Admirals fail on their part The Original of the Hospital of the Fifteen Score The Councel debates the matter of the King's return The Reasons on the one side and the other It is at last concluded for his stay in Palestine Four Famous embassages to St. Lewis from Pope Innocent from the Sultan of Damascus from the Ancient of the Mountain and from the Emperor Frederick The Death of that Emperor and the different Opinions thereupon An Error of St. Lewis who loseth a fair opportunity of making use of one Party of the Sarasins to ruin the other The Election of a Mamaluke Sultan The gallant Actions of St. Lewis in Palestine The Death of Queen Blanch and the return of the King into France The Rupture and War between the Venetians and Genoese occasions the loss of the Holy Land The Conquests of Haulon Brother to the great Cham stops the Progress of the Sarasins The Relation of the Mamaluke Sultans They vanquish the Tartars which ravage Palestine The Character of Sultan Bendocdar the great Enemy of the Christians His Conquests upon them His Cruelty and the Glorious Martyrdom of the Souldiers of the Garrison of Sephet and of two Cordeliers and a Commander of the Temple The taking and Destruction of Antioch by this Sultan The quarrels between the Popes and the Princes of the House of Suabia obstruct the Succours of the West The Histories of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Conrade of Pope Alexander and Mainfrey against whom he vainly publishes Crusades The History of Charles d' Anjou to whom Pope Urban the Successor of Alexander and Pope Clement the Fourth give the Realms of Naples and Sicily as Fieffs escheated to the Church by Felony His Exploits his Battles and his Victories over Mainfrey and Conradin The deplorable Death of that young Prince The Victories of Charles cause the Pope and St. Lewis to entertain a Design for a new Crusade An Assembly at Paris about that Affair where the King the Princes and Lords take upon them the Cross All other Nations decline the Crusade The Collusion of the Emperor Michael Paleologus The Condition of the King's Army The Resolution taken to Attack Tunis and the Reasons wherefore The Description of Tunis and Carthage The taking of the Port the Tower and the Castle of Carthage The Malady makes great Destruction in the King's Army His Death Elogy and Character The Arrival of Charles King of Sicily The Exploits of the Army The Treaty of Peace with the King of Tunis who becomes Tributary to Charles The return of the two Kings their Fleet is horribly beaten by a Tempest Prince Edward of England saved his Vow to go to the Holy Land His Voyage his Exploits and his return The vain indeavours of Pope Gregory the Tenth for a new Crusade The second Council of Lyons The last causes of the loss of the Holy Land The quarrel among the Christian Princes for the Succession to the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Death of Bendocdar The defeat of his Successor by the Tartars The hopes of the recovery of all Palestine by the Arms of King Charles of Anjon ruined by the sad accident of the Sicilian Vespers The new division among the Princes and the Progress of the Mamaluke Sultans The Relation of the lamentable Siege and the taking of Acre by these Barbarians All the other places are lost and the Christians of the West wholly driven out of Palestine and Syria The vain and fruitless attempts which have since been made to renew the Crusades THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The greatness of the Subject of the ensuing History The newness and advantage of it The Original of the Turks and their Conquest in Asia from the Sarasens The Conference of Peter the Hermite with the Patriarch of Jerusalem The Description of the Hermite His Negotiation with Pope Urban the Second and his Preaching the Crusade The Relation of the Council of Placentia that of the Council of Clermond The horrible Disorders occasioned by the little Wars between private Persons which were tolerated in those times and which were regulated by the Canon of the Peace and the Truce Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia Legate of the Pope for the Crusade The prodigious number of those who took upon them the Cross and the Disorders that insued The Names of the Princes of the Crusade An account of Duke Godfrey and his Character He sends Peter the Hermite before him A Description of the Conduct and manner of living of this Solitary He divides his Army into two Bodies The Disorder and Ruin of the first under Gautier Monyless The greater Disorder and ill Fortune of the second commanded by Peter himself The Defeat of two other Armies of Crusades conducted by a Priest Godescalc and Count Emico their overthrow by the Hungarians The Conference of Peter the Hermite with the Emperor Alexis The Character Conduct and secret designs of that Prince and the reasons of his perfidiousness The passage of the Hermites Army into Asia and the continuance of their disorders The Italians and Germans separate from the French The first overthrown by young Soliman Sultan of Nice The first Battle of Nice where the other part are overthrown also by Soliman The Voyage of Godfrey of Bullen and the Princes that accompanied him The Voyage of Hugh the Great and the Princes that followed him his Character Conduct and Imprisonment by the Greek Emperor The War of Godfrey against Alexis The Extremity to which the Emperor is reduced and the Treaty concluded between him and the Princes The Relation of the Conquests and Settlement of the Normans in Italy The Voyage of Bohemond Prince of Tarentum and the Princes that went along with him The Voyage of Raymond de Tholose of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia and the other Princes and Lords which accompanied them The Character of that Earl his Conference with the Emperor and the Treachery of that Prince The Voyage of Robert Duke of Normandy his Character and Treaty with the Emperor IF ever any Undertaking were capable of possessing the Historian with a just fear of defeating the mighty Expectation of his Reader most assuredly it may be apprehended in attempting the Design of relating the ensuing History of the Crusade And indeed amidst all the most extraordinary Revolutions which may be found either in the Establishment of New or the Ruine of the Ancient Monarchies one shall difficultly meet with any thing more memorable and whether we
of Theodorick the Valiant the Son of Gerard of Alsatia and Duke of high Lorrain And from him in a lineal Descent to this present time are derived all the Princes of that fair Dutchy which not long after his time lost its ancient Name of the Mosellane retaining only that of Lorrain as it doth to this day But whether Godfrey Duke Bossu having no Children adopted his Nephew who was of his own Name and made him his Heir giving him the Earldom of Bullen which belonged formerly to the House of Ardenna or that it came by Ida upon her Marriage with the Earl of Bullen it is most certain the Surname of Bullen which was given to this young Prince hath by him and his Heroick Actions been rendered one of the most Celebrated in the World It is this Glorious Name which in the last Age was so happily Reunited with that of the Tour of Avergne which by a Marriage hath received that of Bullen to restore it to its ancient Lustre as we have seen it by the Virtues the Dignities the great Employments and fair Actions of the Princes of that Noble House As for Prince Godfrey it was impossible for Nature to bestow a more happy Inclination to all sorts of Virtues than which she had given him nor was any thing wanting in his Education which might Contribute to the improvement of that Stock such was the exact Care of his Father who was a most Wise and Virtuous Prince and more especially of his Mother a Lady of a most extraordinary Merit and an Excellent Spirit year 1096 which she had Cultivated also by a Diligence very uncommon to her Sex which she had employed in the Study of all curious Learning and in truth she was a Princess of most admirable Virtue and of a Piety so resplendent that after her death she obtained the glorious Title of a Saint It is said also that by the Assistance of Divine Illumination she did predict the future Greatness of her three Sons Eustace Godfrey and Baldwin For one Day as the Earl her Husband demanded of her what she had hid in her Lap she being playing with the Children she very seriously answered that she had there three great Princes one Duke one King and one Earl which was afterwards Verisied in the admirable Fortunes of these three Princes For Godfrey was Duke of Lorrain and King of Jerusalem Baldwin was King of the same Realm and Prince of Edessa and Eustace whom some will have to be the eldest Brother was Earl of Bullen after the Death of his Father It is also added that she had a strange Dream before the Birth of Prince Godfrey for the Sun seemed to descend from his Heavenly Orb and to fall into her Lap and that she saw her little Son Enthroned in the midst of that Glorious Luminary but it is the Humor of some Writers to render the Nativities of great Men more Illustrious at least as they think by Prodigies and Revelations which after wards the Noble Actions of these Hero's make easily to pass for real Truths especially with Persons who love to divert themselves with matters very Extraordinary and Surprizing But this is most certain which the Countess herself with a great deal of Pleasure was used to relate after the glorious Success which her Sons had in the Holy War that long before there was the least Discourse of the Crusade Prince Godfrey was used to say that he would one day take a Voyage to Jerusalem but not as the poor Pilgrims did only to satisfy his Devotion but as a Captain and a Conqueror at the head of a Puissant Army to Chase the wicked Insidels from that Holy Place Which must needs proceed singly from the impetuosity of his Courage and which considering the Condition of his Fortune very unfit to execute so great a Design may very well pass for a Prophetick Motion and looks like a Presage of that Glory and good Fortune which God had allotted for him and in order to which he seemed beforehand to prepare him by a thousand Beautiful Actions wherein he acquired a most Illustrious Reputation throughout all Europe After the Death of the Duke his Unckle the Emperor Henry the Fourth who pretended that the Dutchy of the Lower Lorrain for want of Heirs Male of the House of Ardenna was devolved to him conferred it upon his Son Conrade leaving nothing to Godfrey besides the Marquisate of Antwerp And on the other side Albert Earl of Namur his Kinsman and Thiery the Bishop of Verdun attempted to take from him Bullen and Verdun So that this Prince who was not yet Seventeen years of Age was compelled to have recourse to an early Valour for the Recovery of one part and the Defence of the other part of his Inheritance And therefore putting himself into the Castle of Bullen which Albert assisted by the Forces of the Bishop of Verdun had besieged he so vigorously repulsed his Enemies in all their attacks that he forced them to a dishonourable Retreat after they had lost the better part of their Army and in the same quarrel he undertook a single Combat against the said Earl in the presence of the Emperor and his whole Court during the Combat he had the Misfortune in making a notable Blow at the Head of his Enemy to break his Sword short within half a foot of the Hilt but notwithstanding this Disaster it was impossible to perswade him to determine the difference upon such terms of accommodation as upon this occasion were tendred to him but pursuing his point he fought with redoubled Ardor till at length having tumbled down his Enemy with a mighty Blow which he gave him with the Pommel of his Sword upon his head being now a Conquerer he accepted that Agreement which before he had generously refused whilest being disarmed he ran the utmost hazzard of being Vanquished And afterwards surmounting those just resentments which he might well have entertained against the Emperour who had so Injuriously deprived him of his Dutchy he nevertheless followed him in those Wars which he made in Germany and Italy whereupon all occasions he rendred him very signal Services and it is reported that he himself took the Imperial Eagle in the Famous Battle against the Saxons who had declared for Emperor Rodolph of Suabia when Victory beginning to declare herself for that Prince he ravished it from him together with his Life by giving him a mortal Wound with the very Cornet which he had newly taken And afterwards when the Emperor took the City of Rome from Pope Gregory the Seventh he was the first man that possessed himself of the breach and thereby Entred the Town They further add that after this falling into a most violent distemper which reduced him to the utmost Extremity of Danger he made a Vow to undertake an Expedition to the Holy Land as not long after did many Princes and Bishops according to the Devotion so much in Vogue at that time and
to enterprize nothing contrary to the honor or the life of Alexis provided that Prince should inviolably observe all that he had promised But when the Homage came under debate he constantly protested that he would die before he would do it and that the Emperor and the Princes ought to be abundantly satisfied with the Oath which he had taken From whence they might have learned that the same Resolution in the rest might have proved no less advantagious to them then their politick Condescension for assuredly what colour soever may be put upon this Action it can never redound much to their Honour in the History of their lives But so it commonly happens that it is the Destiny of humane Prudence to be most grosly mistaken when for its security it makes choice of Profitable rather than Honest This dangerous quarrel being in this manner appeased the Princes after having resolved at a great Council of War immediately to besiege the City of Nice repaired to Calcedon whither also the Army of Raimond marched up to joyn with the rest Raimond himself and Prince Bohemond of whom the jealous Emperor was extreamly suspicious staying still at Constantinople to solicite Alexis to send the Provisions for the Army and according to his promise to go and take upon him the Command of the Army which they the more pressed that thereby they might be the better assured of him but he still excused himself from the apprehensions which he had of the Bulgarians who might draw dangerous advantages from his absence Whereupon Bohemond and the Earl presently after him having given order for the Provisions passed the strait and followed the rest of the Princes towards Nice and in the mean time Robert Duke of Normandy Stephen Earl of Blois and Prince Eustace who were yet expected with impatience after having passed the Winte and Lent in Pavia and Calabria Embarquing after Easter the fifteenth of April towards the latter end of May came up with the Christian Army and encamped near that City year 1097 This Robert Duke of Normandy was the Son of that famous William who effaced the first infamous Surname of the Bastard by that of the Conqueror which he acquired by his Merits in the Conquests of the Kingdom of England This Prince was low of Stature but of a lofty Mind and a large heart valiant and fearless upon occasion of honourable engagements of great sincerity and integrity magnificent in his Expences and liberal even to prodigality but withal he was extream voluptuous and naturally averse to trouble and business a Lover of disorderly pleasures and especially of eating and drinking very plentifully which made him something Corpulent and unwieldy and by these irregularities he lost the Realm of England in which his younger Brother established himself whilest he instead of making Preparation for War diverted himself with making provision only for his pleasures and this also lost him the love of the Normans whom he oppressed with excessive Impositions and exactions to furnish himself wherewithal to support his Luxury However he recovered that Dutchy and resolving in some measure to imitate the Piety of his Grandfather Robert the eighth Duke of Normandy who by an uncommon Devotion for so great a Prince went on Pilgrimage barefooted to Jerusalem he was one of the first in taking upon him the Cross thereby to atone God Almighty for the viciousness of his former life he therefore generously engaged his Dutchy to his two Brothers for fifteen thousand Marks in silver to enable him to undertake this Voyage wherein he suffered much in a toilsome march and performed more when once he came to enter into the War All matters having thus passed at Constantinople between the Emperor and the Princes there remained only Earl Stephen and Prince Eustace who with the Earl of Tholose were still to perform what the rest of the Princes had already done they therefore repaired to Constantinople to pay their Homage to the Emperor who received them with all manner of honour sparing no charges in treating them most Royally and in making them Presents which in beauty richness and magnificence surpassed all that he had bestowed upon the other Princes After which this perfidious man under pretence of furnishing them with an able Conductor and some Troops of his own promising that so soon as his affairs would permit he would follow them in Person with all his Forces gave them one Tatin a wicked fellow of his Court whose nose having been cut off carried in his Face the ugly Witness of his horrid Crimes It was to this infamous wretch that he trusted the great secret of his intended treachery against the Princes of the Crusade He it was who was to give him an exact account of all occurrences and upon occasion to put his orders in Execution for their Ruin whilest the poor Princes who thought they had reason to be extremely well satisfied with his proceedings passed the Bosphorus and by great marches rejoyned the Gross of the Army which had now begun the Siege of Nice THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Description of the City of Nice in Blthynia and the Siege thereof by the Princes of the Crusade The second and third Battle of Nice where the young Solyman was beaten The taking of that City and the Treachery of the Greek Emperor The March of the Christian Army One part thereof surprised by Soliman The Battle of the Gorgonian Valley The Progress of the Christian Army in the lesser Asia The great danger of Duke Godfrey and his Combat with a monstrous Bear The difference and little Civil Dissention between Baldwin and Tancred Baldwin makes himself Master of the Principality of Edessa The Entrance of the Christian Army into Syria The Description of the famous City of Antioch It is besieged by the Princes The Relation of this famous Siege The Combat at the Bridge of Antioch The marvellous Actions of Duke Godfrey The Approach of Corbagath with a prodigious Army to relieve the City The Relation of the taking of Antioch by Bohemond by Intelligence in the City with one Pyrrhus The Christian Army at the same time besieged by Corbagath A Relation of the discovery of the top of a Spear which was believed to be that which pierced our Saviours side The memorable Battle of Antioch where the whole power of the Turks and Sarasens in Asia was defeated by the Christians The death of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia The quarrel between Count Raymond and the Prince of Tarrentum The taking of Marra A strange Relation of the gratitude of a Lyon The Siege of Arcas The odd Story of Anselme de Ribemond Earl of Bouchain and the deceased Engelram Son to the Earl of St. Paul The taking of Torlosa by a stratagem by the Vicount de Turenne The Sultan of Aegypt takes Jerusalem from the Turks breaks
rest of Cilicia even to Alexandretta whilest Baldwin having made a great Progress in Armenia whither he was gone to joyn the gross of the Army was called to the Principality of Edessa where he established himself by that Adventure which I am now about to relate Edessa an ancient and famous City of Mesopotamia known in the sacred History by the Name of Rages which it afterwards changed into that of Rohais and which at this day is called Orfa was in times past under the Power of the ancient Greeks who governed it under the Emperor of Constantinople and after that the Turks had taken from him this Province yet it was still maintained as a little Principality paying a certain Tribute to these Infidels who nevertheless ceased not to Tyrannize over this poor City now hopeless of all Succours The Inhabitants who were all Christians having heard of the famous Actions of Prince Baldwin who pushed on his Conquests as far as Euphrates defeating the Turks in all Encounters obliged their Prince to send to him to desire his Assistance and to offer him the honorable Terms of being his adopted Son and declared Successor Baldwin did not refuse so fair an Occasion which his good Fortune seemed to offer him by possessing him of so considerable an Estate in Asia He adventured therefore to pass the Euphrates being followed by not above one hundred Horse which were all he could spare from the keeping such important Places which he had Conquered nevertheless with this little Troop he bassled the Turks who either openly opposed his Passage or laid Ambuscades in his Way to surprize him and entring Edessa he was received with such extraordinary Acclamations and Honors that the good old Man who had adopted him conceived such a Jealousy of him that repenting of what he had done he resolved in short to get quit of him and send him back at any rate But Baldwin after he had in two or three Rencounters with the Turks who possessed all the Country about Edessa given a Tast of his Courage and Conduct the whole Populace who were ripe for such a Revolution and wanted only an Occasion to revenge themselves of a thousand Evils which they had suffered under the Government of this Covetous old Man ran immediately to their Arms and besieged the Castle and notwithstanding all the Prayers and Opposition which Baldwin made against their Intentions they cut this miserable Man in pieces whilest he endeavoured to escape by throwing himself from a Window opposite to that Quarter which was assaulted After which notwithstanding all the Repugnance which Baldwin either had or feigned to have thereby to shew that he had no share in so horrid an Action he was constrained the next Morning to permit himself to be solemnly proclaimed Prince of Edessa and to be put in Possession of the Treasure of the deceased Prince which according to the Destiny of Covetous Men he had scraped together for another who knew how to employ it better than himself For with one part of it he bought the strong Town of Samosata upon the Euphrates he who held it thinking it better Husbandry prudently to sell it at a good Rate than to expose himself to the danger of losing it for nothing and with another part he levied good Troops with which he took all the places which were capable of incommoding Edessa and in short in a small time he established a most powerful Estate extending it on both sides both towards the South from Euphrates as far as Selencia upon the Tygris and towards the North as far as the strong places upon Mount Taurus He had also the dexterity and good Fortune to unite to his Principality a great part of Armenia by an alliance with one of his Princes whose Neice he married after the death of the generous Gundechilda his Lady who having followed him died at Maresia during the March of the Army of the Confederate Princes Whilst Prince Baldwin made such a marvellous Progress on this side of the Euphrates the Christian Army having reduced all the lesser Armenia took the Road through Comagena towards Syria and drew within fifteen miles of Antioch after having taken the City of Artesia the Inhabitants whereof having cut the throats of the Turkish Garrison had opened their Gates to the Earl of Flanders who was advanced with a thousand choice horse to receive it He there made a defence for divers days with a great deal of Courage and glory against twenty thousand Turks who came from Antioch to retake it and who after a terrible Assault which they maintained for one whole day were constrained to retire upon the Approach of the Christian Army to defend the pass of a Bridge upon the Orontes about two or three Leagues from Antioch year 1097 After the repose of a few dayes during which Tancred and the rest of the Lords except Count Baldwin came to rejoyn the Army it was resolved notwithstanding the Season was now far advanced to besiege this great City in regard the Reputation of the Christian Arms and the happy Success of their great design seemed absolutely to depend upon the taking of Antioch which covered the Country of Palestine This resolution was no sooner taken but it was put in immediate Execution for the next morning Robert Duke of Normandy who led the Vanguard of the Army fell smartly upon the Bridge which the Turks who never behaved themselves better than upon this occasion as vigorously maintained but the Bishop of Pavia coming up to reinforce them did so animate the Normans and the English that some of them having forced the Barricadoes and the two Towers which commanded the Bridge whilst others passing over the Shallows and some throwing themselves into the River swam over they put the Turks to slight and opened the passage for the whole Army That Night they encamped near the River and the next day which was Wednesday the twenty first of October putting themselves in order of Battle and adorning themselves in their fairest Arms with Trumpets founding and Colours flying the whole Army marched as it were in a terrible Triumph and encamped within a mile of Antioch Antioch so renowned in the Greek and Latin Histories and which at present consists only of some part of the beautiful Ruines where sometime that noble City stood was at that time one of the fairest and largest Cities in the World giving place to none for the strength which both Art and Nature had bestowed upon it It was situated in a most fertile and delicious Plain between the Mountains Amanus and Orontes upon the River of that name whose Stream flowed along by the Walls on the Western side being within four or five leagues of its mouth The Town was in length from the East to the West above a league without comprehending the Suburbs which were very large There were two Mountains between the South and East separated by a narrow Valley through which a little River slid along into the
was so great that the ordinary sort of Provision being spent the Christians were reduced to the most deplorable Extremities that are upon Record in any History either Sacred or Profain Insomuch that many did every Night desert and ran away to the Enemies or climbing over the Rocks indeavoured to get to the Ships which lay in the Port St. Simeon as did among others of the first Quality Alberic and his Brother William de Grandmenil who had Married the Sister of Bohemond the Vicount de Melun that famous William the Carpenter who thought that Famine was a sufficient Dispensation for the Oath which he had taken to desert no more The Earl of Blois feigning himself Sick was gone two days before the Town was taken and joyning himself with them they all together went to the Camp of Alexis who was coming or at least pretended so to joyn the Crusades and there they made all appear so desperate to cover their own ignomimous Cowardice that that treacherous Prince who was before resolved to do nothing was overjoyed to meet with so fair a Pretence to alter his Course and march back again to Constantinople In short Matters went so very far that the Soldiers half mad with Despair abandoned all sort of Care of their own Defence so that Prince Bohemond who Commanded in the Town was forced to set Fire to their Houses to force them out and put them upon Action Things being reduced to this deplorable Extremity it is strange what Power Religion hath upon the Spirits of Men and how in a Moment it will raise them after once it becomes Master by the power of a strong Perswasion for two Priests one called Stephen the other Peter Bartholomew both of Marseilles presented themselves before the Princes to acquit themselves of a Commission which they assured them they had received from Heaven The first said That at his Prayers he had seen Jesus Christ who after he had complained of the Ingratitude and horrible Crimes of the Crusades being in the end inclined by the Intreaties of his Mother he was come to him and commanded him to let them know that if they would for the future amend and turn from their vicious Ways he would send them Succour within five Days The second affirmed That St. Andrew had shewed him within the Church of St. Peter the Place where they might find the Iron of the Spear that pierced the Side of our Lord and that he had assured him that this Holy Iron should be a certain Pledge of the approaching Deliverance of the Crusades provided they repented of their Sins and both the one and the other offered themselves to the Flames to confirm the Truth of what they had declared The Bishop of Pavia who was a Person of a clear Insight did not believe these kind of Visions which he knew were generally the Effects of Forgery or Illusion but nevertheless that he might not seem to neglect any thing that might be true and which however might be of some Service to them he obliged the Priests to Swear upon the Holy Evangelists that what they said was true being unwilling to have Recourse to those other Proofs which had nothing in them of the Spirit of the Church and not thinking it agreeable to Religion by such Methods to tempt Providence After which going to the Place which the Priest directed they there found the top of a Spear so that the whole Army was so perswaded of the Truth of these Visions and that Relique that no body durst presume to make any Doubt of it However the Belief did not last always for some eight or nine Months after as they were at the Siege of a certain Town where they had recourse to this Relique which was most curiously preserved by Count Raymond a Priest who was the Domestick Chaplain of the Duke of Normandy and a knowing Man maintained publickly that it was a Counterfeit that the true Spear had been long ago carried to Constantinople and that the Provencals had put this in the Place where it was found only on purpose to please their Earl Upon which the whole Army was divided the Priest of Marseilles constantly maintaining that he was ready to prove the Truth of his Revelation by passing the Trial of the Fire which in Conclusion the Bishops permitted him to do After a Fast of three Days therefore a great Fire was made year 1098 upon which they bestowed a Solemn Benediction after which the Provencal taking the Iron of the Spear in his Hand passed excepting his Shirt quite Naked through it but for all the hast that he could make over that huge Pile in the sight of the Army who were scarce able to indure the Heat at a Distance the poor Priest who was a silly Man and credulous of his Revelation did not find the Success answer his Expectation It is true he came out from the midst of the Flames but so Roasted without and Scorched within by the Vapor of the Fire which he sucked in with his Breath that within twelve days he died in most exquisite Torments So that there was no longer that Reverence given to this Iron as was before although Count Raymond would by no means be perswaded to abate of his Devotion towards this Relique which for all this he would not believe to be False not thinking this Accident of the Priest which went something too high was a sufficient Argument to prove the Falsity of the Vision For God he said was not obliged to confirm by Miracles what he was pleased to reveal to Men. But however the Belief which was so firm while they were at Antioch that this was the real Spear which was Consecrated by the Blood of Christ Jesus found a most admirable Effect upon the Spirits of the whole Army who not doubting now in the least of the Protection of God and a most assured Victory most eagerly demanded to be led to the Combat The Princes who thought it very convenient to make use of this Heat sent Peter the Hermite with an Interpreter to Corbagath to offer him the Combat either Man to Man between him and one of the Princes or himself and a certain number of chosen Soldiers of one side and the other or in short a general Battle that so they might quickly determine the Quarrel between them And in the mean time every one applied himself to the Work of Repentance and with fervent Prayers to implore the Heavenly Aid from God who had promised it upon those Conditions The Answer which Corbagath returned was in these haughty Terms That it was not for the Vanquished to prescribe Laws to the Victor That it could not be long before he should have them with Halters about their Necks and that it would be in his Power to determine their Destiny and by what kind of Death they were to Dye Peter having made his Report to the Princes they only acquainted the Soldiers that they must Fight and that therefore they should
Heaven look there and see the Brightness and the Beauty of that Palace it is from thence that I have what you so much Admire in me And further added he seeing him transported with the Admiration of that Beautiful Palace I am to acquaint you that there is one far more Glorious preparing for you Adieu till to Morrow And thereupon he presently disappeared Early the next Morning Anselm having made his Servants send for the Priests he received the Sacraments and very pleasantly said to his Friends that they should not be surprized at what he was to tell them but that though now they saw him in perfect Health yet assuredly he should die that day and thereupon he related to them what he had seen the Night preceding before he went to sleep And the Event verified his Prediction for the Enemy making a furious Sally Anselm who never failed upon such an Occasion ran thither with his Sword in his Hand when a Stone which was discharged from an Engine hitting him upon the Head sent him instantly to that Beautiful Palace which Engelram told him was preparing for him in the Heavens Now in Regard that he who recounts this extraordinary Accident affirms upon his Salvation that he faithfully writ what he saw himself and that besides one cannot reasonably accuse so brave a Man as this famous Earl of Bouchain and Ribemont as guilty of so much Weakness as to make him pass for a Visionary Extravagant I cannot believe there is the least Place for calling in Question the Truth of this Relation And from hence our Brave Men may draw an Excellent Instruction and learn that in making a Christian War whether it be against Infidels or Hereticks or whether it be in Obedience to their own Prince who is only responsible to God for the Justice of his Arms which the Subjects have no Authority to examine there is such an Insinite Glory in Heaven to be acquired by their Courage on Earth that they ought to expose their Lives with all imaginable Frankness to all sorts of Dangers and Death it self After this all the Advantage that was gotten during this Siege before the Arrival of the other Princes was that Raymond Viscount of Turenne having with him the Viscount de Castellane the Lord Albret and ten or twelve other principal Gascons and Bearnois with about one hundred Horse and two hundred Foot took Torlosa in old Time called Antaradus a fair and great Town upon the Coast over against the Isle of Aradus six or seven Leagues from Arcas towards Antioch He thought to have taken it by Surprize but that Design did not thrive by reason he had so small a Number of Men wherefore in the Night at the side of a Wood which was in View of the City he caused such abundance of Fires to be made that the Inhabitants taking his Party to have been the Van of the Army and that all the rest was now come up to assault them the next day they fled away that Night so that the Viscount entred it the next Morning without Resistance and there found so rich a Booty as rejoyced the whole Army This Valiant Viscount was the Chief of that Illustrious House of Turenne which in Conclusion about two hundred years since happily fell into that de la Tour d' Avergne which by taking up the Name hath restored it not only to its first Splendor but hath also advanced it by an other Viscount Turenne to the highest pitch of Honor to which it could aspire This is he who after having done so many fair Actions in commanding the French Armies in Italy in Germany and Flanders as beyond Contradiction have given him the Reputation of a most accomplished Captain came to add to the Heap of his Glories the Execution of his Kings Commands in this last Campagne and who may well be celebrated as the chief Engineer of the Military Art year 1099 and Master of all those great Qualities which are requisite in the Character of the most compleat General of an Army all which are so conspicuous in him as justly render him one of the most admired able brave and eminent Generals even in the Opinion of the Confederates his Enemies And certainly it will be difficult to find any thing more admirable than the War of this Campagne of more than ten Months Continuance wherein he by his sole Presence and the terror of his Name not only stopped the Course of the greatest Army of his Enemies and hindred them from entring into the Provinces whilest in the mean time the King finished his Conquests but also in Conclusion won two Battles one on this the other on the further side of the Rhine constraining them in Disorder to retire as far as the River of Mein and after that terrible Inundation of sixty thousand Germans had thrown themselves over the Bridge of Strasbourg into Alsatia he there gave them the Diversion of weakening themselves by Famine and Sickness after which in the very Heart of Winter he marched against them over the Mountains and the mighty Snows and there either cut in pieces and dispersed or made Prisoners their forwardest Troops in three Combats and in Conclusion obliged the rest which he had reduced to one half of what passed the Bridge to repass it with so much Precipitation and Shame that to save themselves in their own Country they would not give him the Opportunity to Attacque them Thus it was that he sustained the Glory of that illustrious Name and rendred that of Turenne far more glorious than it was in the first Crusade after that Viscount Raymond alone took so great a City In the mean time the Duke Godfrey Earl Eustace and Robert Earl of Flanders who Marched in the month of March with their Armies in very good Condition Besieged Giblet otherwise called Gabala a Town upon the Sea between Tortosa and Laodicea but being requested by the Earl of Tholose to come to his Assistance upon the Rumor which he had cunningly raised that a great Army of Saracens were advancing to Assail him they accepted the Terms which the Governor offered them to obtain a Peace and came instantly before Arcas where they found no other Enemies to Combat with but those who were within the Town who made a very brave Defence But the two Ambassages which the Princes received shortly after determined the Siege which had been maintained so long For during the Siege of Antioch they had sent their Ambassadors to Babylon with those of the Sultan of Egypt to conclude with him that Alliance which he had desired and which was condescended unto upon Condition that he should joyn his Arms with those of the Christians That Jerusalem with all its Dependancies should be put into the Hands of the Christians That he should have such other Places as should be regained from the Turks who had usurped them from him and that the rest should be divided among them But the great Overthrow of Corbagath which that
turns the greatest Sinners into the greatest Saints Thus was Jerusalem recovered from the Infidels by the Army of the Crusades in the fourth Year of their Expedition the fifteenth day of July upon a Friday and which is most Remarkable at the very precise Hour wherein the Saviour of the World rendred his Blessed Soul into the Hands of Almighty God his Father as if the Divine Providence had determined so to manage the Movements of this great Affair that the Christians should recover his Inheritance exposing their Lives for his Glory at the same time wherein he had assured them of Immortality and Glory in Heaven by dying upon the Cross to purchase it for them Eight days after this happy Conquest during which time News was brought of the Death of the Patriarch Simeon who was Deceased in the Isle of Cyprus the Princes and Lords who followed them Assembled to Reestablish the ancient Kingdom of Jerusalem by giving it a King as David and Solomon and the other Princes their Successors had been till the Babylonish Captivity Count Raymond of Tholose was then proposed but whether he thought himself in the Age to which he was advanced too weak to sustain so weighty a Charge or feared that this Civility which was offered him would not succeed in regard his own People who had already twice forsaken him acted secretly against his Pretensions he excused himself by reason of his Age and would by no means suffer it to proceed to an Election The same Honor was also offered to Robert Duke of Normandy but this Prince having a great Desire to return as soon as he could had no other design but to get his Chaplain to be chosen Patriarch and it is with great probability of Appearance that it was he who made the Speech which one of the Writers of that time hath transmitted to us which proposed that double Election after this manner My Lords Since it is full time after having Accomplished so happily our Vow in this Glorious Expedition that we should now begin to think of Returning into Europe to Govern in our Persons those Estates which God hath there been pleased to give us and since you have also thought it expedient with all convenient Dispatch to take care for the Government of this Place which we came to reconquer from the Infidels Now my Lords this Capital and Holy City of Jerusalem being both a Royalty and a Patriarchate it is necessary that it should have both a King and a Patriarchate the Royalty and the Priesthood are so nearly linked together and accord so well that the one cannot be without the other for that hath need of the Priesthood to procure the Blessings of Heaven and this stands in need of the Royalty to support it and strengthen that Spiritual Authority which God hath Invested it withal It is our Duty to give our Assistance to the Clergy in the Choice of a Pastor for this Church who may be a Man of Wisdom Probity Spirit and Eloquence capable of so great an Office and all this we have Experienced in Arnold de Rohes who is without Contradiction the most Knowing and Able Man of all the Ecclesiasticks who have followed the Army and therefore I am of Opinion that we who are to take Care as much as possibly we can of this Church ought to Recommend him to their Election for a Patriarch As for that which concerns a King which is wholy in our own Power I can see nothing that should Oblige us to defer the Election for one Moment for it is most evident that we ought to Chuse without any sort of Hesitation that Person whose Piety Modesty Prudence sweet Temper Clemency Justice Integrity Liberality Experience in War Generosity Valour Successfulness Reputation and the Glory which he hath acquired in a thousand noble Occasions whose strength of Age of Body of Spirit whose Nobleness admirable Composure and very Air of Greatness and Majesty worthy of an Empire and a hundred other Perfections conspire to rank him among the greatest Kings that ever were My Lords All these extraordinary Qualities which render themselves so Conspicuous in the Person that possesses them make it appear wholy unnecessary for me to name him and must needs have prevented me in that Design nor is it what I can say but it comes from an Authority far Superior to mine God himself in giving him these surpassing Advantages above the rest of Mankind hath himself named the Person whom he hath chosen like a second David to be the King of Jerusalem It is the Illustrious Godfrey of Bullen Duke of Lorrain and that year 1099 The Prince could not sinish the rest for so soon as he had pronounced the Name of Godfrey all the whole Assembly Interrupted him crying out with the same Mind and Voice Godfrey Godfrey long Live Godfrey the most puissant and pious King of Jerusalem And notwithstanding all the Resistance which the Modesty of that excellent Prince brought to oppose it he was obliged instantly to consent to the Election which by so suddain and universal Consent manifested it self to have the Divine Will and Approbation The very same day he was Conducted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and there Proclaimed King amidst the Acclamations of the whole Army and all the Christians of the Country who came flocking in to Inhabit the City of Jerusalem He was there presented with a Crown of Gold which he absolutely refused protesting that he would never wear a Crown of Gold in a City where the King of Kings had for the Sake of Mankind worn a Crown of Thorns And tho he would not take upon himself the Title of King yet it was constantly given him as all the Historians of that time and Posterity have ever since done to this very Day and certainly never any King better deserved to wear that glorious Title which he adorned with so many Royal Actions the first was of Piety for he Founded two Chapters of Canons in the Churches of the Temple and the Holy Sepulchre as also a Monastery in the Valley of Jehosaphat The second was of his Power and Authority in Obliging Count Raymond to put into his Hands the strong Fortress of the Tower of David which he pretended to keep in his Possession at least till his Return into France though he was generally Condemned by the whole Army for it and even by his own Gascons and Provencalls The third was an Action of incomparable Valour and Conduct manifested in that memorable Victory which he obtained over the Sultan of Egypt for the Sultan coming too late to Succour his People Advanced with a formidable Army to Besiege Jerusalem but King Godfrey eased him of that Trouble For so soon as he received that News he sent to recal Tancred and Earl Eustace who were Marched to take the Fortress of Napolis otherwise called Sichem and Sichar formerly the place where Samaria had stood And as these two Princes who were Advanced as far as
for the Entertainment of so great an Army and besides they who were to share in this prodigious Booty were but an inconsiderable Number in Comparison of those who had been Parties in the other Battles In this Battle there were slain thirty thousand upon the place and twice as many in the Pursuit in the whole above one hundred thousand Men without counting those who were stifled at the Gate of Ascalon or those others who threw themselves into the Sea which though they were a great Number yet it was impossible to compute them On the part of the Christians there was not any one man of Note nor so much as one Horseman slain and but a very inconsiderable Number of the Infantry and of those most were of that unruly sort of Soldiers who disbanded themselves from their Colours to run to the Plunder Thus the King having assured his new Kingdom by this great and Memorable Victory led the Army back again loaden with Spoils and Glory to Jerusalem where it entred in a kind of Triumph which was finished by the solemn returning of Thanks to Jesus Christ at his Holy Sepulchre There Robert Duke of Normandy hung up the great Standard of the Sultan as his Sword also which in his Flight he had let fall and which to add to his Offering he bought of a Soldier who had found it See here the true Account of the Battle of Ascalon which was rather a flight on the one side and a Slaughter on the other than a Combat which Tasso nevertheless hath rendred famous by a hundred Beautiful and Magnificent Falsities which his Art gives him the License to add throughout his Poem of which he makes this the Conclusion as indeed it was also of this first Crusade For the Princes and great Lords with those who had followed them believing that they had fully accomplished their Vow took their Leave of the King to return into their respective Countries and Habitations year 1099 but in Regard it is the History of the Crusades and not only that of the Realm of Jerusalem which I undertake to write I shall not treat of that but so concisely as may be and as it hath a necessary Connexion to that of the Crusades in making it known by the Consequent Events the Occasions and the Causes which gave Birth and Rise to the others and as it shews the Condition in which the Christian Princes found the East when they were published and when they undertook their Voyages to assist them year 1100 After that the Crusades to the Number of about twenty thousand had quitted the Holy Land Godfrey who had not remaining with him more than three hundred Horse and about two thousand Foot together with Tancred who never abandoned him received a reinforcement from Italy which was brought him by Dambert Arch-Bishop of Pisa Legat to Pope Paschal the second who succeeded Pope Vrban It was with these few Troops that the King to inlarge the Frontiers of his new Kingdom conquered the places which were yet untaken round about Jerusalem After which he made himself Master of Tiberias and other Towns upon the Lake of Genazareth and the greatest part of Galilee the Government whereof he bestowed upon Tancred He compelled also the Emirs of Ptolemais Cesarea Antipatris and Ascalon to become his Tributaries and the Arabian Princes beyond Jordan in most humble manner to beg Peace of him After which he caused the Port and the City of Joppa which afterwards was called Jaffa to be fortified where he received the Succours of the Venetians who being joyned with Tancred some time after took Caiphas at the Foot of Mount Carmel And now after so many Toils being fallen sick he caused himself to be removed to Jerusalem whereupon the eight day of July in the fortieth Year of his Age and the first of his Reign he rendred his glorious Soul into the Hands of his Almighty Redeemer by a most Religious Death He was a Prince in whom all the Vertues Christian Civil and Military were assembled in the highest Point of Humane Perfection without the Mixture of any Default so that it will for ever remain difficult to find another like him or of whom one may without the Magnifying Vice of Flattery say the same things even among the Catalogue of the greatest Saints Baldwin his Brother succeeded him and leaving to his Consin Baldwin Earl of Bourg the Principality of Edessa with a few Troops marched to Jerusalem from whence Tancred after having rendred Caiphas into his Hands was retired in Order to his taking upon him the Principality of Antioch during the Imprisonment of his Uncle Bohemond who had by an Ambuscade which they laid for him been taken by the Turks year 1101 This new King who though he was nothing comparable either in Sanctity or Prudence to his Brother had notwithstanding many excellent Qualities and Endowments and above all others he was most extraordinary Valiant and a great Soldier In the beginning of the Spring making a League with the Naval Forces of Genoa at Jaffa he with their Assistance took Antipatris and Cesarea and in Conclusion in a set Battle Vanquished the Army of the Sarasins of Egypt but the Year following year 1102 happening too wilfully and with Precipitation to engage in the Plain of Rama without staying for his Infantry though his Army consisted in twenty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse he lost the Bactle and many French Princes and Lords who at that time were come to visit the Holy Places For so soon as it was known in France that Jerusalem was taken there were an Infinite Number of People of all Ages and Qualities who for Devotion undertook that Voyage the Principal Persons were Hugh the Great and the Earl of Blois who being retired into France the one before the other after the taking of Antioch thought to repair that Fault by this second Voyage also the Earls William de Poitiers Geoffry de Vendosme Stephen de Burgogne and Hugh Brother to Earl Raymond of Tholose who having stayed some time at Constantinople to treat with the Emperor Alexis joyned themselves with those Princes The other Nations and particularly the Lombards and the Cermans would also have a part in this Expedition and the Number of these new Pilgrims was so excessive great that counting also the French there arrived when they passed into Asia year 1102 two hundred and sixty Thousand men but as it was nothing else but a confused Multitude of disorderly Voluntiers of all sorts of Conditions which followed them without Order Discipline Obedience and almost without Arms and that the Princes and Bishops went rather in Pilgrimage than to a Holy War after the Conquest of Jerusalem I do not reckon this among the Crusades And indeed there never was one more irregular or less fortunate for the greatest part of these ill conducted Pilgrims perished by the Miseries of the Way or by the Arms of the Turks under Soliman with whom the Persidious Alexis
had before-hand complotted their Destruction there perished a hundred thousand men besides an infinite Number of Women who were led into miserable Captivity The Earl of Poitiers having lost all was reduced to the deplorable Necessity to make his Voyage on Foot Hugh the Great could not finish his but died by the way at Tarsus in Cilicia The Earl of Tholose making Use of the small Remainder of the Pilgrims to regain Tortosa from the Saracens who had seized it abandoned his Benefactors and fortified himself in his Conquest following the Design which he had always cherished to acquire some little Principality in the East The rest after having visited the Holy Places conducted by their ill Destiny compleated their Misfortunes by joyning with the King in this unhappy Battle only the Earl of Poitiers escaped having taken Shipping at Jaffa in order to his return into France the rest who stayed were either slain upon the Place as were the Earls of Blois and Burgogne or taken Prisoners as were the Earl of Bourges and many other brave though unfortunate Persons The King nevertheless escaped to Rama and in a few days having drawn together the Troops of Antipatris Tiberias Jerusalem and Jaffa into which Place he had put himself he made a Sally to so good purpose upon his Enemies who prepared to besiege him that in the End he constrained them to take their Flight leaving to him all the Marks of an absolute Victory the Field of Battle the Bodies of the Slain all their Engines and their Baggage After which he took Ptoelmais by the Help of the Genoese who besieged it by Sea with seventy Ships he a second time defeated the Saracens of Egypt in the Plain of Rama he took the City of Tripolis year 1105 which under the Denomination of an Earldom and the Condition of Homage he conferred upon Bertrand the Son of the Earl of Tholose year 1109 who was dead about four years before he made himself Master of Sidon Beritus and all the Sea-Coast Towns excepting Tyre which he kept blocked up by the Fortress of Scandalion which he caused to be built upon the Coast some five Miles from that City in the same place where Alexander the Great had formerly formed his Camp when he besieged that City In the End after having also built upon the further side of Jordan the Castle of Mont-Real to bridle the Incursions of the Arabians and having carried his Victorious Arms even into Egypt year 1118 he died of the Flux and was interred near his Brother Godfrey at the Foot of Mount Calvary in a Chappel adjoyning to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre He left the Christians in Possession of four large Soveraignties which they had conquered in the East the first was the Earldom of Edessa which extended it self from the further side of Euphrates to the River Tygris the second was the Principality of Antioch in which was comprized all the Country which is between Tarsus of Cilicia towards the West and the City of Maraclea on the East upon the Coast of the Phenician Sea as far as Tortosa It was afterwards governed by Roger the Cousin of Tancred after the Death of that brave Prince who had governed it till after the Deliverance of his Uncle and then returning into France he married Constance the Daughter of King Philip the first and after having made War in Epirus and in Dalmatia with the Greek Emperor he died in Italy leaving behind him a Son of his own Name The third was the Earldom of Tripolis which extends it self along the Sea-Coast of Phenicia beyond Maraclea as far as the River Adonis which runs between Biblis and Baruth The fourth was the Kingdom of Jerusalem which beginning at the same River stretches it self almost to the Castle of Daron upon the Frontier of Idumea near unto Egypt In this flourishing Estate stood the Affairs of the Christians in the East at the death of Baldwin the second His Brother Eustace Earl of Bullen who ought to have succeeded him was at that time in France and in Regard there was a Necessity that they should have a King who should be actually within the Kingdom year 1118 to maintain things in that Condition wherein they stood against so many Potent Enemies which they had upon all hands therefore the Earl of Edessa his Cousin Baldwin de Bourg who was at that time at Jerusalem was called to the Succession of the Kingdom which he took upon him leaving the Earldom of Edessa to Josselin Earl of Courtenay who was his Kinsman Now in Regard that it was in the Beginning of his Reign that the Order of the Knights Templers were first founded in his Palace and that it is requisite something should be said of these Knights as also of the other Order which was called Hospitallers I think it will not be amiss in a few Words to inform the Reader of the Original the Intention the manner of Living and the Employ of these Military Orders which were established in Palestine under the first Kings of Jerusalem It is certain that before the Christian Princes had conquered the Holy Land there were Hospitallers at Jerusalem whereof some received and Entertained the Pilgrims which came from all Parts of Christendom to visit the Holy Places and others of them had the Charge of the Poor Sick and Diseased People and particularly of the Lepers of which there were great Numbers in those times Those who were called the Hospitallers of St. Lazarus are far more Ancient than the first of these as appears by the great Number of Hospitals and Insirmaries of the Name of St. Lazarus which were wholly intended and principally in the East for such as were afflicted with the Leprosie St. Gregory Nazianzen assures us that St. Basil built one at Cesarea dedicated to the same Saint the supposed Protector of the Lepers and that he gave Rules to these Charitable Hospitallers who devoted themselves to the Service of those diseased People As for the others who made Profession to serve the Pilgrims of the Holy Land they were not in being till a long time after that the Merchants of Amalphi in Italy who trafficked into Syria obtained Permission of one of the Caliphs to build a Monastery near the Holy Sepulchre to which they added a Hospital and an Oratory dedicated to St. John the Eleemosynary there to receive the poor Pilgrims as well as the sick and diseased For after they were embodied into a Community as formerly they took Care only of the Infirm and Leprous so now there were others who were particularly appointed to attend the Pilgrims and both the one and the other were indifferently called Hospitallers they lived a long time in this peaceable Exercise of Charity under one Superior who was called the Master of the Hospital until that after tho Conquest of Palestine by the Princes of the Crusade they took up Arms not only for the Desence of the poor Pilgrims but also to serve the Kings of
met with them in their Return to Egypt year 1124 William de Bures Lord of Tiberias Succeeded in the Regency to Eustace who died some few days after his Victory and he knew so well how to make good Use of it that taking this Occasion to Besiege the City of Tyre by Land with his Army and by Sea with the Venetian Fleet he became Master of the Place before the Sultan of Egypt was in a Condition to Relieve it by a new Fleet. The Earl Josselin also Escaping out of Prison had gotten into Antioch and Fought so successfully with his little Army year 1125 during the Siege against the same Balac who had taken him Prisoner that the Barbarian lost both the Battle and his Life whereby the King also recovered his Liberty paying his Ransom to the Princess the Widdow of Balac The Deliverance of the King was succeeded by other happy Successes He overthrew in Battle Borsequin another potent Turkish Prince who had entred in Arms into the Principality of Antioch He Defeated the Egyptians and Ascalonites who were ready to make an Irruption into his Kingdom and had very great Advantages over Dodequin the Sultan of Damascus whom he went to Attaque in the very Heart of his Dominions He took the strong Place of Raphana near to Arcas for the Earl of Tripolis and by his Actions made it appear to the whole World that he was as a most Virtuous Prince so also a very great Captain year 1126 He put the whole Principality of Antioch into the Hands of the Young Bohemond whom he also made his Son-in-Law giving him in Marriage the Princess Alice his second Daughter for he had before given his Eldest Daughter the Princess Melisentha to Fowk Earl of Anjou to whom he gave the two Cities of Tyre and Ptolemais he being also in right of his Lady to Succeed him in the Realm of Jerusalem But his good Fortune was not constant to him till his Death for having Besieged Damascus with a Puissant Army where were joyned with him the Earls of Edessa and Tripolis the Prince of Antioch and Fowk Earl of Anjou he was obliged for want of Provisions and by the Incommodiousness of the Season to raise his Siege and not long after his Son-in-Law the young Bohemon being Surprized by the Turks was Slain in Cilicia After which having given the necessary Orders for Securing the Principality of Antioch to the Princess Constantia the Daughter of Bohemond whom her own Mother would most unnaturally have Excluded from that Right he died most Religiously at Jerusalem year 1131 in the third Year of his Reign and was Interred at the Foot of Mount Calvary near the two Kings his Predecessors and his Cousins Earl Fowk who Succeeded him did also Inherit his Virtues and above all his Integrity and high Generosity For after having Defended the Principality of Antioch against the Designs of his Sister-in-Law the Princess Dowager of young Bohemond and against a mighty Army of the Turks whom he cut in pieces near Antioch he gave the Principality thereof to Raymond the Son of the Earl of Poitiers giving him in Marriage the young Princess Constantia the Daughter of Bohemond the lawful Heiress of those Territories He also maintained him in it against all the Forces of John the Constantinopolitan Emperor who made two fruitless Expeditions with huge Armies for the re-gaining of Antioch year 1131 which he pretended appertained to him of Right by the Treaty which his Father Alexis had Concluded with the Princes of the first Crusade when they passed by Constantinople into Asia He gloriously preserved both his own Kingdom and the States of Christian Princes his Neighbours against all the Forces of Sanguin Sultan of Alepo the most potent among all the Infidel Princes against whom he entred into Confederacy with the Sultan of Damascus He took from the Turks the City of Paneas or Cesarea Philippi otherwise in Ancient times called Dan near the two Heads from whence arises the River Jordan he re-built and fortified Beersheba at the other Extremity of his Kingdom as it was in the times of the Ancient Kings and as it is frequently said in the Holy Scripture he extended his Dominion from Dan to Beersheba But some time after he happened to have an unfortunate Fall from his Horse year 1142 as he was Hunting the Hare in the Plain of Ptolemais of which he died in the eleventh Year of his Reign leaving for his Successor his eldest Son Baldwin of the Age of three Years under the Regency of his Mother Queen Melesintha and it was in the time of this young King that the second Crusade was Published upon the Occasion which I am now going to relate It was about eleven Years after that Josselin de Courtenay Earl of Edessa dying had left for his Successor a Son of his own Name but one who did neither resemble his Father in Virtue nor in Courage as too plainly appeared by the Dishonorable beginning of the Son and the glorious ending of the Father That valiant Prince who was retired half dead and almost crushed in Pieces by the Ruins of a Fortress which he had Attacqued near Alepo lay Languishing in his Bed expecting every Moment his approaching Death when News was brought him that the Sultan of Iconium thinking to take the Advantage of his Malady had laid Siege to one of his Towns called Croisson At this News he gave order to the young Josselin who was now arrived at the Age fit to Command to go instantly with what Troops he could draw together about Edessa to oppose the Enemy But the Cowardly Youth far from laying hold upon such an Opportunity to gain Glory and Reputation by a Victory which should shew that he Merited that Crown which by Birthright and the expected Death of his Father was shortly to devolve upon him coldly answered his Father That he did not think it consisted with his Prudence to offer to Encounter an Enemy so much Superior to him in Strength and Numbers whereupon the Generous old Prince seeing to what an unworthy Successor he was about to leave so fair a Principality was resolved once more to shew him even as he was dying by his Example what his Honor obliged him to do in Defence thereof and therefore having instantly Assembled his Troops he caused himself to be carried at the Head of them in a Horse-Litter being only able to act with his Noble Mind which still retained all its Vigor and Force in despite of the extream Weakness and Languishment to which his bruised Body was reduced as he Marched in this Condition still Advancing towards the Enemy Word was brought him that the Sultan having been Informed that he who he thought Dead was coming against him with a Resolution to give him Battle had raised his Siege and was Retreated into his own Territories Whereupon the brave Earl ravished with Joy at the same time that he felt himself most cruelly Oppressed with his Pains and the Approaches
Dom Roderigo de Bivar so well known in the World under the Glorious Name of Cid After the Death of Ferdinand he linked himself to Dom Alphonso King of Leon and rendred him such Important Services in both his Fortunes that that Prince after the Death of his two Brothers Dom Sancho and Dom Garchia succeding to all the Estates of his Father Ferdinand he gave him in Marriage his Daughter Theresa whom he had by his first Wife Chimena de Gusman He himself also marrying the Princess Constantia the Daughter of the Duke of Burgundy and Aunt to Prince Henry to whom he also gave the City of Porto and sometime after all the Estate which he held in Portugal year 1147 which in his Favor he Erected into the Dignity and Title of an Earldom It is said also that he sent him with the Princes of the first Crusade to the Conquest of the Holy Land whereupon all Occasions he Signalized his Courage and his Conduct But in regard we find no Traces of this Voyage in the Authors his Contemporaries who have written very exactly of that War I think I ought not to Incur any Displeasure if I give little Credit to some of the Historians of Portugal who upon very weak Conjectures have been pleased to Rank among the Heroes of that famous Crusade the Illustrious Head of the House of Portugal though he had such a sufficient Stock of true Glory as not to stand in need of searching for that which may with so much Justice be disputed That which he hath which is most certain is that this admirable Earl after having Defeated the Moors in seventeen pitched Battles and Conquered from them the greatest part of Portugal which he added to that which his Father-in-Law had given him in absolute Soveraignty he dying left this new Earldom to his Son Alphonso who gloriously changed it into a Kingdom For he was Solemnly proclaimed King in the Field of Battle at the memorable Day of Ourique where he defeated the Army of five Moorish Kings who had Assembled against him all their Forces which consisted in more than four hundred thousand Men. The five Kings lay upon the Place Buried in the Heaps of the dead Bodies of their Soldiers who were piled one upon another in Memory whereof the new King who believed that during the Battle he had seen Jesus Christ upon the Cross who promised him the Victory changed the Cross Azure in the Field Argent which his Father had taken for his Coat Armor into five Escoucheons Azure every one charged with five Besants Argent in Saltire to which afterwards was added a Border Gules charged with seven Castles Or. This is that valiant King Descended from a Prince of the most August House of France from whom in a direct Line Male Issued the other sixteen Kings who Reigned till the time of Cardinal Henry for six Hundred Years in Portugal whose Dominions Extended afterwards into three other Parts of the World Affrica Asia and America where the Heroick Piety and Courage of the Portugese by finding a new Passage to the Indies have Established the Empire of Jesus Christ as well as that of their own Nation and as one of their Rivers having for some time hid it self under the Earth afterwards appears again and runs much greater than before so doth the Illustrious Blood of our Kings which hath so long run in the Royal Channel of Portugal at length after having for more than sixty Years ceased to appear in its natural Place the Throne of Portugal which it ought to fill begin in our days to Recover it self with the Applause of all the World in the Person of King John the Fourth the Head of the Royal House of Braganza who besides that he Possesses all the Title of the Infanta Catharina is also Descended in the direct Masculin Line as also from that of John the First from whom are Issued the last Kings unto Sebastian But it was this great Alphonso the Son of Earl Henry and first King of Portugal who after he had taken Santaren and all the places about Lisbon Besieged that great City which was Defended by above two hundred thousand Men. After he had unprofitably spent a whole Month in the Siege having but a few Troops in comparison of such a Number of Defendants he began to despair of his Enterprise when he discovered this great Fleet at Sea which he imagined to be that of the Affrican Kings but he presently after perceived by the Cross which they bore in their Flags that it was a Christian Fleet. He sent immediately to be satisfied what they were and upon what Design and being informed that it was a Party of Crusades who were going against the Infidels he went Aboard the Admiral and proposed to the Captains the Conquest of one of the fairest Cities in the World from those Enemies which they were going to Search for in Syria He Remonstrated to them That God had presented to them a fair Occasion for the present Accomplishment of their Vow in Combating for the Glory of Christ Jesus against his Enemies and that without exposing themselves by the Hazard of the Sea to the Danger of never Combating them at all That they would acquire more Honor by taking Lisbon with the Assistance of those few Portugeses who Besieged it than they could possibly hope for year 1147 by joyning in Syria with two such Puissant Armies as were those of the Emperor and King of France to which they would be Esteemed as nothing and besides that the Recompence which they might expect would be incomparably greater giving them the Word of a King that they should share the Conquest with him There was no necessity for him to say more to persuade People who sought nothing but Occasion to Fight against the Sarasins they with Joy accepted the Offer of the King and presently gave Order for the Disimbarking of their Troops and went to take their Post upon the West Quarter the King with his Army being already Incamped on the East Side of the City in the place where now stands the Monastery of St. Vincent If the Attacque was Hot Furious and often repeated by the Portuguese and the Crusades the Resistance was no ways less on the part of the Moors who far surpassed the Christians in Number This made the Siege last four Months till the twenty fifth day of October when the City was in the End taken by Assault all the romainder of the Sarasins being put to the Sword thereby to Extinguish that accursed Race of Men. Thus this new Kingdom of Portugal which was Founded by a French Prince was owing for the glorious Conquest of its Capital City principally to the Valour of the French Men they being the greatest Number of this Naval Army for tho there were English and other Nations among them yet anciently the Title which the Portuguese gave indifferently to all Strangers was that of French Men. The King also Imployed them in the taking
the Plain whither it was descended to defend the Pass and if the Entry into the River was easie the getting out was difficult the further Bank being not only possessed by the Enemies but very steep and high and that which made the Difficulty greater was that there was not one fordable place to be found all the Country People though several Examined agreeing in the Protestation that they never knew any passing there And besides all this so soon as any of the Soldiers entred the River to search for a Ford the Turks on the other side also entred the River and showred down their Arrows upon them Nevertheless the Desire which the Army had to pass and fight the Infidels was so great that after having tried both above and below to find out a Ford in the River without regarding the Arrows of the Enemies they at the last found one turning a little upon the left hand which those of the Country had never known The King after he had given Orders to the Cavalry of the Avant-Guard to pass the Ford he put himself at the Head of the Rere which faced the Turks who had charged them there and running upon them at a full Cariere before they had the Liberty according to their Custom to retire he cut a great part of them in pieces and repulsed the rest with Sword and Lance at their very Reins even to the Mountains At the same time Thierri Earl of Flanders Henry the Son of Thibald Earl of Champagne and William Earl de Mascon having thrown themselves with the first Squadrons into the River were followed by all the rest and in Despight of the Arrows which like Hail were showred most furiously upon them from the opposite Bank which did but little Execution upon those armed Troops they gained the other Shoar and sustained the Shock of their Enemies till the rest of the Troops got over and drew up in Batalia Immediately thereupon they made a most furious Charge upon the Turks who now no longer able to use their Bows were presently overthrown for these Barbarians having no defensive Arms and not accustomed to fight Foot to Foot against the Franks were constrained to give way to that Terrible Shock and therefore betook themselves to Flight leaving a great Number of their Men extended upon the Earth and a great many of Prisoners the rest were pursued to the Mountains where they saved themselves year 1148 but the Camp which they had pitched in the Plain fell to the Share of the Soldiers thus the whole Army having now no more Enemy neither in Front or Rear which durst appear passed the River with Ease some behind the Horse others upon the Wagons and Planks of Timber There ran a Report in the Army that a Cavalier in white Arms who was never seen before nor after passing before the rest as it were to shew them the Way they were to take gave the first Charge upon the Squadrons of the Enemy But as it was the Humour of those times to feign such Visions to render extraordinary Actions as this was more miraculous one may without scruple dispense with disbelieving this Apparition Eudes a Monk of St. Dennis who was the Successor of Sugerius and who was by that great Abbot recommended to the King as an able Man to serve him both as his Chaplain and his Secretary during that Voyage satisfies himself with saying that there were several who affirmed they saw that white Cavalier but that for his own particular he was resolved neither to be deceived nor to deceive others and that he saw no such thing He adds like a man of Sense that without having Recourse to this Marvel which was not easie to prove there was another Passage not less remarkable or surprising and which ought to be wholly attributed to the Divine Protection and that is that in this Attempt there was not one Person of Quality lost except Milon or Miles the Lord of Nogent who was drowned A strange and marvellous Adventure which we have seen repeated within a few days by that admirable Reflux and if I may venture to express it so Circulation of the same Events which produces the same thing in succeeding Ages which have happened in those past so long ago For in the War with Holland where the King of France by the prodigious Success of his Arms made himself Master in less than one Champagne of above thirty strong places he commanded a Party of his Cavalry to pass the Rhine not far from its Mouth under the Conduct of the Generous Count de Guiche where those Braves in the View of their Enemies who were drawn up on the other side to oppose them passed that great River partly by a Ford till that time unknown and partly by swimming without any other considerable Loss than that of the Count de Nogent who there perished in signallizing by a glorious Death his Zeal and Courage in one of the fairest Occasions that were ever seen But it is in short that one ought to expect that what ever was great or Heroick in their Ancestors is in our time to be performed by their Descendants under a King who hitherto hath carried the Glory of this August Monarchy to a higher Degree than any of his Illustrious Predecessors have done since Charlemain The End of the First Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land TOME II. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The Rereguard of the Kings Army Defeated in the Mountains of Laodicea for want of observing the Kings Orders The Description of that Combat A most Heroick Action of the King in an extreme Danger of his Life His March and admirable Conduct to Attalia The new Perfidy of the Greeks in Betraying the Royal Army The Arrival of the King at Antioch and his Difference with Prince Raymond The Conquenty March to Jerusalem where he is met by the Emperor Conrade The Councel at Ptolemaïs where the Siege of Damascus is resolved The Description of the City of Damascus The manner of the March of the Christian Army towards that City The young King Baldwin makes the first Attack his Character and extraordinary Valour in the Attack against the Gardens and Suburbs of Damascus The great Combat upon the Bank of the River A brave Action of the Emperor Conrade An Account of the Siege of Damascus and the Treachery of the Syrians which occasioned the ill Success of that Enterprise The Return of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice looseth the Opportunity of Conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who Seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The
Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Reign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadors with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to Elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The Reasons on one side and the other The best Opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which Recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who Enters Galilee and Besieges Tiberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tiberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land year 1148 AFTER so fair a Victory the Greeks who could by no means indure the Glory and the Advantages of the French began more openly to declare themselves against them than before for now they plainly joyned with the Turks to whom they afforded not only a Retreat to Antioch in Pisidia but gave them also the Opportunity with Ease to Assemble and Re-unite their scattered Troops Whilest in the mean time the King was in great Straits for Subsistence and finding himself in no Condition to Attaque them in so strong a Place drew towards Laodicea a large City but not so well Fortified as to be in a Condition to Resist him and there he hoped to meet with some Refreshment for his Army He arrived there three or four days after the Battle but to his great Disappointment he found by the Baseness of him that Commanded there for the Emperor that there was no manner of Provision for the Army It was this wicked Villain who pretending to Convoy a party of the poor Germans who had saved themselves after their Defeat lead them into an Ambuscade of Turks who put them all to the Sword and with whom as it was before Agreed he divided their Spoil This Infamous Traitor fearing it seems that the French would be Revenged of him for his Treachery or else that imagining he should not be able to Betray them in the same manner he was resolved to do them a greater Mischief after having caused all the Inhabitants to Retire with their Goods and Provisions to the Woods and Mountains went himself to seek a Refuge among the Turks so that the King was obliged to stay there till those Fugitives could be found and perswaded to return year 1148 after which loading their Waggons and Sumpters with Provisions which the King who was for rendring Good for Evil would have them paid for the Army decamped and took the way of Pamphilia that so they might by Marching near the Sea have a more commodious Passage and meet with better Plenty of Forrage and Subsistence And tho they knew that both the Greeks and the Turks Coasted along with them tho at a great Distance yet they were esteemed such contemptible Enemies and the French were so Confident after the Victory they had gained that there was too little care taken to stand upon their Guard But this Presumption as it usually happens did not fail to be very Pernicious to this Army which was unfortunately beaten by the Turks by the Fault of one Man who neglected to observe the Orders which were wisely Established by Military Discipline the Army following the Custom of those Times was divided only into two Bodies one of which composed the Vanguard and the other the Rereguard To avoid Jealousies these two Bodies were every day Commanded by two of the Principal Lords who under the King took their several Turns the King sometimes Marching with one sometimes with the other Every Night they Assembled in Councel at which all the Lords Assisted where Orders were issued out concerning the Way of the next days March and the Place where the Army was to Encamp Now there happened to be in the Way which they must of necessity pass a mighty high Mountain extream difficult of Access by reason of the dangerous Narrowness and broken Craggs and Rocks where the Army must file off The King therefore following the Resolution which had been taken at the Councel gave Order that they should Encamp on the Top of the Mountain and that they should pass the Night there and the next Morning descend into the Plain in order of Battle He who led the Vanguard that Day was Geoffry Rancon of Poitiers Lord of Taillebourg who carried the Royal Standard according to the Custom next the Orislame at the Head of this Vanguard The Count de Morienne the King's Uncle with the Queen and all the Ladies of Quality were there also by very good Fortune going before that so they might come in better time to the Place where they were to Incamp The King who usually chose the Place where there was most Danger had put himself into the Rere that so he might make Head against the Enemies if they should attempt to Follow or Molest him as they had done at the Battle of Meander Geoffry Arrived at the Mountain in very good time and seeing the Sun yet of a great height and his Guides telling him that if he did but make a little the more Hast he might Incamp far more Commodiously in one of the fairest Plains of all Asia where he should meet with all sorts of Refreshments for the Army forgetting therefore the Orders of the King with extream Rashness he descended from the Mountain and Marched a great way to that agreeable Place which had been shewed him supposing that the Arrierguard not finding him upon the Mountain would certainly follow him But he took very false Measures and in deceiving himself in this manner occasioned the Loss of the other part of the Army which was more miserably deceived by him For the very same Reason which made him March forward from the Mountain to gain the Valley made the others also seeing the Sun so high to make no hast to get to the Mountain where they doubted not but to find him Encamped according to the King's Orders By this means the Turks who Coasted all
Guy Cardinal of Florence the Pope's Legat in his Army and the Bishops of Langres and Lizieux The Count de Dreux his Brother Thierry Earl of Flanders Henry Earl of Troyes the Son of Thibald Earl of Champagne Ives de Nele and many other Lords of the first Quality who came with him from Attalia The young King Baldwin with his Mother Queen Melesintha also assisted at it together with the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Arch-Bishops of Cesarea and Nazareth the Bishops of Ptolemais Sidon Beritus Paneas and Bethlehem the Earls of Napolis Tiberias Sidon Cesaria Beritus as also the Constable Manasses and the great Masters of the Temple of the Hospitallers It was a long time under Debate what was most advantageous to be undertaken for the common Interest and in conclusion they determined to besiege Damascus Which being as it were in the Centre and Midst of the four Principalities which the Christians held in the East might be equally dangerous to them all Upon this all the Troops were appointed to rendezvous the five and twentieth Day of May at Tiberias where a general Review being made of the Army they advanced to Paneas near the Head of Jordan the Patriarch carrying the true Cross or at least that which was believed to be so before them The Measures which were taken for the Siege were according to the Opinion of the Lords of that Country who were best acquainted with the Strength and Weakness of the place After which crossing the celebrated Mount Lebanon they descended into the fair Champain of Damascus and encamped at Daria a little Village about two Leagues from Damascus from the most elevated place whereof the Towers of that stately City were easily to be discerned Damascus one of the most ancient and sometimes one of the fairest and greatest Cities of Asia is situate in a large Plain at the Foot of Mount Lebanon which is watered with two Rivers and a great number of little Springs and Fountains which notwithstanding its natural Inclination to Sterility it being a hungry sandy Soil render it very fruitful and delightful These two Rivers take their Rise upon the East at no very great distance from the Foot of the Mountain Amana which is a part of Mount Lebanon the lesser is called Abana and slows all along by the Walls of the City upon the West the greater which is Pharpar and which some have confounded with the Orontes and for the beauty of its Streams is called Chryorrhoas or Golden Stream after having passed through the City and wandred through the Fields and the Valleys of the neighbouring Country loseth it self under the Earth either because being divided into a multitude of Canals which are drawn to render the Earth more fruitful that it is so diminished that at last it ends in them or that by some unknown Subterranean Passages it dischargeth it self into the Phenician Sea It was the great Conveniency of making these Canals year 1148 which made all that part of the City towards the North and a great part of the West be inclosed with a prodigious number of Gardens and Orchards where were planted an infinite of Trees producing all manner of Fruits the most delicious of all the East These Gardens were divided one from the other by little narrow Passages which cutting one another and turning and winding several ways without any regular Art or Figure formed a kind of undesigned Labyrinth where it was easie for those who were unacquainted with them to lose themselves in those delightful places Every Garden had its House and its little Tower according to the Mode of the Orientals for the Convenience and the Lodging of its Master So that the City being very populous the number of Gardens which covered those sides was very great and extended themselves almost two Leagues so that viewing it upon that side it represented to the Sight a large Forest which seemed to extend it self to the very Walls But on the contrary the other side which lay to the East and South had not so much as a Tree a Hedge or a Bush but shewed a bald Champaign from whence it was easie to discern the whole City which was defended with high Walls which were fortified with great Towers whereof four which listed up their proud Heads above the rest were of an extraordinary heighth and strength and above all it was defended by a Fortress which was esteemed the fairest and most regular of all Asia This City had been taken from the Sarasins by the Turks whose Sultan Dodequin made a most cruel War against the Christians between the time of the first and the second Crusade After his death his Successors seeing themselves attacked by Sanguin the redoubted Sultan of Alepo and Ninevch who endeavoured the Conquest of all Syria joyned themselves with the Christian Princes to make War against this common Enemy They assisted them according to the Treaty in the Taking of Paneas which they had taken from the Christians before and Sanguin from them again But there being little Faith to be expected from Infidels they soon brake the Peace and declared themselves as before the mortal Enemies of the Christians For this reason it was that the Resolution was sixed to attack them and above all things to carry this City which was in a Condition to give the Check-mate to the four Christian Principalities of the East Hereupon it was also resolved in the Council to attack the Town on the Garden-sides that so the Army might have the Convenience of the River the Fruits and Forrage which were there to be had in abundance The next Morning therefore the Army being divided into three Bodies marched in good Order towards Damascus drawing from the West towards the North to the Garden-Quarter of the City The young King of Jerusalem Baldwin the Third commanded in Person the first Body composed of his own Troops and those of the Princes of Syria who had the same Interest with him in the Siege The French made the second having at their Head King Lewis to support the first which they followed at a little distance to be always ready to afford them Succour The Emperor with his Germans had the Rere to oppose the Enemy's Cavalry if they should attempt to fall upon them as they made their Approaches Baldwin who thirsted mightily after Glory and was transported with Joy to meet with so fair an Opportunity to display his Courage in the View of the French and Germans did instantly press to make the first Attack which was easily granted him in regard he alledged that his People were better acquainted than the rest with the nature of the place and the Turnings of the Gardens He was a Prince who was now advanced to the Flower of his Youth being between eight and nine and twenty Years of Age he was of Stature something less than the Middle but of a Proportion so just and regular in all the parts of his Body that his want of Heighth did not lessen
once most gloriously vanquished him But at length the Wise Conduct and the good Fortune of this Turkish Prince overcame all the Attempts that were made to stop the Course of his Victorious Arms. He pushed on his great Designs afterwards with more Ease by the Taking of Paneas after the deplorable Death of this unfortunate King who was poysoned by his Physician and died in the two and thirtieth Year of his Life year 1163 and the one and twentieth of his Reign year 1163 He was a Prince who by his admirable Qualities had gained so great an Esteem and the Hearts not only of his Subjects but of Noradin himself Insomuch that the generous Sultan openly protested that he would never draw any Advantage from the Grief and Consternation into which his unexpected Death had put the Kingdom saying with as much magnanimity of Soul as Modesty That he thought it decent to have a Share himself in the Grief and Respect which was due to that Prince who ought by all Men to be Lamented as having not left another like himself in the whole Earth Baldwin dying without Issue his Brother Amauri Succeeded him a young Prince of about twenty seven Years of Age who with a great many admirable Qualities had also a great number of no less Vices and above all his Avarice was the most Predominant and which after he had with Success enough made War against Egypt in the Beginning in the Conclusion occasioned the Loss of Jerusalem and the intire Ruine of the Christians in the East Egypt had for a long time been under the Dominion of the Sarasins of the Sect of Ali and the Soveraign Monarch was called the Caliph who led an easy and voluptuous Life in his magnificent Palace of Grand Cairo leaving the Administration of his Affairs to one who under his Authority Commanded all his Subjects and was called the Sultan of Egypt He who had been Sultan was one Sanar and he being thrown out by his Rival Dorgan went to implore the Assistance of Noradin then the most Powerful among the Turks who besides that he Possessed all Syria and Mesopotamia had also extended his Conquests even into Cilicia as far as Iconium having vanquished that Sultan in Battle Now this Conquering Prince who believed that Fortune pleased with his Ambition presented him a fair Offer to Seise also upon Egypt failed not to send a great Army under his General Syracon a little Man but a great Captain whose Merit and the Justice of his Master notwithstanding the lowness of his Birth had from a Slave advanced to the greatest Charge in his Kingdom Dorgan who perceived the Tempest coming that he might get Shelter had Recourse to the young King who dazled with the Promise of a great Tribute Marched into Egypt with all the Troops he could raise but something with the latest for Dorgan who after he had had the better of his Enemies was unfortunately slain by a Traitor leaving his Place to his Rival Sanar who instantly went to take Possession of it at Grand Cairo In the mean time the dextrous Syracon who was resolved to make his Advantage of this Alteration Seised upon Pelusium now called Belbeis fully Resolving if it were possible to make himself Master of all Egypt But Sanar inlarging the Promises which Dorgan had made to King Amauri was so Iucky as to gain him to his Party and joyning their Forces against Syracon who had not had time sufficiently to Fortify Pelusium year 1164 they constrained him to Deliver up the Town upon honorable Terms and Liberty to Retire to Damascus year 1165 Nevertheless the next Year he returned with a more powerful Army and the King also re-entred Egypt and for a Sum of Mony undertook the War against Syracon The Success was much to his Advantage at that time also for Syracon was Defeated in a great Battle and despairing to Defend Alexandria which he had taken year 1167 against the Arms of two Kings he was constrained a second time to come to an Accommodation and to quit the Realm of Egypt This did not however hinder but that at length he made himself Master of it by the Avarice and Infidelity of that same King whose Arms had twice with so much Glory chased him out of it For Amauri blinded with the ardent Desire which he had to possess the Treasures of Egypt after he had treated upon this Design with the Emperor Manuel whose Niece he had married contrary to his solemn Faith given broke the Peace which he had made with the Sultan year 1168 and upon the sudden taking Pelusium by Storm and giving the Plunder of it to his Soldiers he went and presented his Victorious Army before Grand Cairo which doubtless in the Consternation and Confusion wherein the Surprise had put the Egyptians must have fallen into his Hands if the same Avarice which made him undertake this unjust War had not also together with his Honor made him lose all the Profit of it For fearing if he took the Town by Force the Soldiers would have all the Booty as they had at Pelusium he thought it his wisest Course to treat of a Composition with the Sultan and he knowing the Covetous Disposition of the King year 1168 amused him so long with the pretence of gathering up for him two millions of Gold which he had promised him that the Army of Noradin which he expected had time to Arrive to his Succour conducted by the same Syracon who before had been his Enemy Amauri Surprized at this unexpected News marched imediately to give him Battle before he should joyn with the Egyptians But he found that this Captain as Politick as himself had wheeled off and taken another Way than he expected and was joyned with the Egyptians who now assembled from all Quarters against him And therefore finding that he had nothing to say to two such potent Enemies he was forced to return without the Money into his own Kingdom having lost his Labour his Honour and the yearly Tribute which the Egyptians paid him But it was quite otherwise with Syracon who by his Retreat finding himself in a Condition to Execute his first Design made Sanar be Assassinated as he came to do him the Honour of a Visit after which forcing the Caliph to Establish him in that Place he easily possessed himself of all Egypt where Noradin whose Creature he was willingly permitted him to Reign But it was not long that he rejoyced in his Crimes for he died the very same Year leaving for his Successor his Nephew the mighty Saladin who besides his Age which was pretty well advanced and the great Experience which under his Uncle he had gained in War possessed all the great Qualities and all the Accomplishments of Body and Mind which could be wished in a Captain to render him as they did the greatest and the most glorious Conqueror of his Age. But Ambition which especially among Infidels does think nothing Criminal that may advance their
Designs and judges all things Lawful which seem necessary to obtain Dominion being his predominant Vice This Prince who was not able to indure so much as the apparition or Shadow of Soveraignty that was above him Massacred the Caliph and all that he could find of his Relations making this his Pretext That he had discovered a Plot of the Caliph and his Friends who had the same Intention towards him After which he gratified the Soldiery with such prodigious Largesses out of the Treasures of that Prince that they became his perfect Idolaters and resolved to expose all they had for his Service and Glory And having thus established himself in the independent Soveraignty of Egypt which he looked upon as the first Stage of his Greatness and the Carrier of his Ambition he began now to entertain the lofty and aspiring Thoughts of Conquering all the East And now it was that the Christians found themselves wedged in between two most potent and redoubtable Enemies Noradin upon the East North and West and Saladin upon the South The Apprehension therefore of the extreme Dangers with which they were Surrounded made them begin to think of doing all that possibly they could for their own Security For this Purpose they sent Frederick Archbishop of Tyre to implore the Succours of the Princes of the West and to attack Saladin by Sea and Land with all their Forces year 1169 before he was well Established in his new Dominions But all in vain for Amauri though Assisted by a mighty Navy from the Greek Emperor laying Siege something too late to the City Damiata which lyes upon the second Branch of the River Nilus over against Pelusium was constrained by the excessive Floods and the want of Provisions to raise his Siege and the Navy was miserably lost partly burnt by the Fires which the Enemies threw among them and partly drowned by a fearful Tempest which wracked the greatest part of them in their Return And the Archbishop Frederick after having unprofitably Toiled more than two Years in the West where the Affairs were too much embroiled by civil Dissentions returned without any other Effects of his Ambassage than fair Words and fruitless Promises In this time Saladin who was resolved to make use of this Advantage year 1170 which the Disorder of the Christian Army offered him entred into Palestine with forty thousand Horse and took Gaza which was the Key of the Country on that Side towards Egypt and the Sea And not long after having levied a great Army both of Horse and Foot he Marched on the right Hand by Idumea that so he might secure another Passage and fell upon the Country on the other side of Jordan where he made a most horrible Devastation On the other side the Army of Noradin year 1170 did the same about Antioch and in Phoenicia where the terrible Earth-quake which was felt throughout the whole East had made such fearful Disorders overturning the Towers and throwing down the Walls of the greatest part of the Cities as if it were to facilitate the Conquests of Saladin who was the Scourge of God the Attila of those Times who was destined to Punish the Crimes of the Christians of Syria and Palestine In short to perfect the Misfortune the King who opposed himself with an invincible Conrage against all the Attempts of so many potent Enemies died in the eight and thirtieth Year of his Age just in the very Instant when he was about to make considerable Advantages of the Death of Noradin who was carried off by a Fever a little before And this deplorable Accident which happened in so critical an unlucky Minute occasioned so many Domestick Troubles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as were the concluding Causes of its Ruine This Prince left for his Successor his only Child Baldwin the Fourth who besides the Impotence of his Age being not above three years old was also tainted with a scurvy Distemper which in Conclusion became a Leprosy Raymond Earl of Tripolis his nearest Kinsman being Cousin-german to the late King by the Mother had the Regency during his Minority and in that time Saladin who never missed any Occasion to advance his Power Siezed upon Damascus by a Correspondency which he had with the Widow of Noradin whom he married and in short time after he took most of the considerable Places in Syria dispoiling the young Prince the Son of Noradin after he had Defeated his Uncle the Sultan of Nineveh who came to Assist him of all his Dominions At the same time he entred into a League with the Earl of Tripolis who ingaged not to Assist his Enemies provided that for the remainder of their Ransom he set at Liberty certain Prisoners of Quality which he kept in the Castle of Emessa who had been taken by Noradin some eight Years before Thus this Infidel Prince rendred himself more Potent than ever by the Advantage of this Treaty which gave him intire Liberty to Conquer the whole State of Noradin both on this and the other side of Euphrates and Mesopotamia year 1177 as also all that the Sultan of Nineveh Possessed in Syria It is true that King Baldwin after he came out of his Minority did what was possible for him to do in the Intervals of his Distemper to oppose the Progress of the Conqueror and that he obtained many considerable Advantages against him But at length his Distemper increasing he was obliged to chuse some of the Nobility to Govern under him and this Choice occasioned those Emulations and Divisions in the Realm which at the last completed its Ruin For as when once a Soveraign Prince becomes unable by Diseases to mannage his own Affairs he usually grows very Jealous and Suspicious and full of Fears to be Betraied by those to whom he is obliged to trust with so great a Charge Baldwin seeing himself reduced to this piteous Condition and fearing least Bohemond the young Prince of Antioch and Raymond Earl of Tripolis should attempt something against him under pretext of his Distemper which rendred him unable to Govern in his own Person he therefore without that just Deliberation which an Affair of that Importance required gave Sybilla his Sister who was the Widow of William Longsword the Marquis of Montferrat in Marriage to Guy de Lusignan a young French Lord the third Son of Hugh the Brown Earl of March and Lord of Lusignan who had made the Voyage by Sea with King Lewis the Young and creating him Earl of Jaffa and Ascalon year 1180 he declared him Governor of the Realm to the mighty Discontent of the most of the great Lords who thought themselves more worthy of that Honor. But it was not long before he had Occasion to Repent of his Choice for he found by Experience that he had but little Capacity for the Charge and less Courage as he made appear a little after in a fair Opportunity which he had to Defeat his Enemies if he durst have sought with them For
this Reason therefore passing from one Extreme to another he Disrobed himself of all his Authority and made the little Baldwin the Fifth his Nephew year 1182 be crowned King an Infant of about five Years of Age the Son of his Sister Sybilla by the Marquis of Montferrat her first Husband leaving the Government of the Kingdom to the Earl of Tripolis the Man whom he had before most disgraced and who was the declared Enemy of Earl Guy against whom he was so incensed year 1182 that he had recourse to Arms to be Revenged on him But these Matters were composed by the Prudence of William Archbishop of Tyre great Chancellor of the Realm year 1183 who found out Expedients to patch up a kind of Accord between these two quarrelling Lords Then it was Resolved to send with all speed a great Ambassage into the West to desire a quick and powerful Assistance against Saladin who now began to push his Conquests even into Palestine For this Purpose Choice was made of Heraclius the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the two great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who were then the two most considerable Men of the Holy Land both in regard of the Number and the Valor of the Knights of these two Orders who were now become most Powerful and most Famous throughout all Christendom These Ambassadors Arrived happily at the Port of Brindes but their Negotiation was not answerably happy to that of their Voyage For the different Interests of the Christian Princes at that time were such as would not permit them to ingage in an Enterprise of such Difficulty as was the Leading of an Army of Crusades into Palestine as the Ambassadors desired William King of Sicily was ingaged in a War against the Cruel Andronicus to take Vengeance upon that Tyrant who had horribly Massacred all the Latins that were at Constantinople that so he might with greater Facility usurp the Imperial Throne by putting to Death the young Alexis the Son of Manuel Having therefore been able to procure nothing more from this Prince besides great Promises for the future they crossed through Italy to Verona where Pope Lucius and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa held a great Assembly of Princes and Prelates to determine the Differences between them and to settle the Affairs of Italy The Emperor who was absolutely resolved to re-settle his Authority which the Wars during the Schism which had been made with the Papal See had so much weakned gave them nothing but fair Words and great Hopes and for the Pope as he ever distrusted the Romans who not long before had Revolted from him he was able to do no more than to give the Ambassadors his Letters to the Kings of England and France wherein he exhorted them to this Enterprise as Alexander the Third his Predecessor had before to little Purpose done The Patriarch therefore and the great Masters of the Hospitallers after having performed their last Duty to the Master of the Temple who Died at Verona passed into France There they were most magnificently Received and Treated by the Order of the King Philip Augustus at Paris to whom they presented the Keys of the Holy City of the Tower of David and the Holy Sepulchre with the Royal Standard in token that they put themselves under his Protection and to oblige him to Succor the Holy Land as if it were his own Kingdom now that it was reduced to such extreme Danger by the Infidels Whereupon a general Assembly of all the Prelates and great Men of the Realm was called at Paris to Debate this great Affair and they considering that the King was not above eight and twenty Years of Age and had no Issue were of Opinion That he ought not in Person to undertake such a dangerous Voyage only Philip promised the Ambassadors that he would move his Subjects throughout the whole Realm to inrowl themselves for this War and that he would at his own Cost furnish all those liberally for their Maintenance who would take up Arms for so Just and Holy a War This Answer was not at all to the Satisfaction of the Patriarch however he contented himself as well as he could upon the Hopes which he had that the King of England upon whom they did particularly rely in Syria would make himself the Head of the Enterprise That King was Henry the Second the Son of Geoffry Earl of Anjou who had married Maud the Empress the Widow of the Emperor Henry the Fourth she was Daughter to Henry the First King of England so that this Henry the Second was Grand-child both to Henry the First and to Fowk d' Anjou King of Jerusalem who was the Father to Geoffry Earl of Anjou and to Amauri King of Jerusalem and by reason thereof he was Cousin German to Baldwin the Fourth who was the late King of Palestine so that doubtless he was more particularly Obliged than any other Prince to Defend that Realm which might one Day descend to him by Inheritance He was also more especially Obliged to it for the Expitation of the Crime which he had Committed year 1183 in permitting the Assassins of St Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury to Murder him in his own Church and he had accepted it as a Penance from the Pope within three Years to lead an Army in Person to the Holy Land More than ten Years were already slip'd away since the Term prefixed and he had not done any thing towards the Accomplishment of his Promise of which he was by a Letter from Pope Lucius reminded in Terms sharp enough who told him plainly that it was impessible for him to escape the severe Judgments of God who would not permit himself to be mocked and whose Vengeance he would have cause to Fear if he persisted willfully in the breach of his Promise All these Considerations made the Patriarch hope for more happy Success to his Negotiation in England in regard that in this pressing Necessity it was probable either that the King would go in Person into Palestine for the satisfaction of his Promise or at least that he would send one of his three Sons to command the Army and bigg with these Expectations he crossed the Sea with his Colleague and in the beginning of the Year following came to London year 1185 Henry who was beforehand resolved not to grant what the Ambassadours came to desire would nevertheless save his Reputation and therefore he did them all the Honour imaginable and took the most plausible Courses to justify his Conduct He therefore sent for them to Reading where the Court then was and gave them a most favourable Audience He very graciously and with great marks of Goodness and Compassion heard the Patriarch Heraclius who in a most passionate Discourse after he had presented him with the Keys of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre represented the piteous Condition to which the Affairs of the Christians in the East were reduced who he said stretched out their beseeching Hands
unquestionable he also added That he was ready to renounce his Religion and turn Mahometan Saladin who very well knew him by the Reputation which he had acquired and which had given him the Fame of one of the ablest and most valiant Knights of his Order accepted his Offers and to engage him the more strongly to his Party gave him his Niece in Marriage and in consequence a very good Army with which this infamous Apostate committed most horrid Discorders in Palestine but as he approached to Jorusalem which he believed he should be able to surprize with the third part of his Troops whilst the other desolated all the Country as far as Samaria or Sebastia even to Jericho the small number of Soldiers which were in the City with the Inhabitants sallied out at the Postern-Gates so luckily that the Traytor who expected no such matter was himself surprized and most of his Companions being cut in pieces he was constrained to sly with all the haste his Spurs could help him to thereby to escape the just Punishments which he knew he deserved for his detestable Perfidy This was some little Consolation to poor King Baldwin who had tasted little in his Life but went out of the World some few Days after with this small Satisfaction dying in the twenty fifth Year of his Age and the twelfth of his Reign not less with the Violence of his Disease than with the Grief which he had to see his poor Kingdom destitute of all hopes of Succour and left in the hands of a feeble Infant betwixt eight and nine Years of Age and which was in extream danger to be miserably torn in pieces by the Factions and Ambition of the Great Men. And indeed presently after the death of this Prince year 1186 those dangerous Contests for the Regency began to break out between the Earl of Tripolis and Guy de Lusignan But this Fire became a mighty Blaze by the death of the little King which happened about seven Months after that of his Unkle by a slow Poyson which it is said was given him either by Count Raymond his Governor who had some Pretensions to the Throne or as others believed by his own Mother Sybilla an ambitious and unnatural Woman who was not able to suffer this little Infant to take from her the Hope of being a Queen But let it be as it will that the Malignity of Men's Natures and the Liberty which they give themselves to publish their own Suspicions and the idle Reports of the People for undoubted Truths which hath often given Rise to the Belief of such supposed Crimes This is certain that the death of this Infant King gave the fatal Blow to this unhappy Kingdom year 1186 and to the Liberty of the unfortunate City of Jerusalem King Baldwin the Fourth had two Sisters Sybilla the Mother of this little Baldwin the Fifth which she had by her first Husband William Marquis of Montferrat his second Sister was Isabella the Daughter of Mary the second Wife of Amauri and Niece to Manuel the Emperor of Constaminople who was married to Alfred de Thoron Son to the late Constable of Jerusalem Now Raymond who was the nearest Relation to the deceased Kings pretended that in the present Condition of their Affairs he ought to succeed to the Kingdom to the Exclusion of the Females and he was supported in his Pretensions by the Militia the People and the Judgment of King Baldwin the Fourth who had intrusted him with the Minority of the young King his Nephew excluding from it Guy de Lusignan the second Husband of his Sister Sybilla On the other side all the great Lords of the Realm who were for maintaining the Succession to the lawful Heirs of the Sisters of Baldwin the Fourth were resolute to recognize the Princess Sybilla for their Queen but with this Condition that some Expedient should be found out to break her Marriage with Count Guy of Lusignan with whom they would have nothing to do both in regard that he was not reputed either brave or able as also that they could not endure that a Stranger newly come among them should possess the Throne to the prejudice of so many Lords of the Realm who might sill it more advantageously Nevertheless Sybilla who was altogether as dexterous as she was ambitious having for some time concealed the death of her Son knew so well how to gain the Patriarch and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who made the most powerful Interest that she procured her self and Husband to be crowned almost at the same time that the death of the little King was divulged before the other Pretenders could have the leisure to enterprize any thing against her It is true indeed that they were so transported with Madness at this surprizing Artifice that they offered to declare Alfred de Thoron King but whether it were that he had little Ambition or little Courage he rejected the Tender and went himself immediately to recognize the new King by doing him Homage the others thereupon being astonished with his Action yet followed his Example though they detested in their hearts this Cowardly Submission of his as they termed it and reserved themselves for the future by some Opportunity or other to overthrow that Throne to which they now submitted only in Appearance and Compliance to the present Necessity But it was far otherwise with the Earl of Tripolis for he neither able to suffer nor to dissemble the Injury which he thought he received by preferring his Rival was so transported with Rage and Fury that he immediately retired into his own Estates and presently after to accomplish his Revenge committed a Fact the most black dishonourable and detestable that ever was recorded in any Story This Count Raymond the Third was descended in the Right Line from the famous Raymond Earl of Tholouse who was his third Grandfather and who after he had done so many fair Actions in the first Crusade died in the Year 1105. in the Fortress of Mount Pilgrims about two Miles from Tripolis which he then besieged Bertrand his Son who took that City succeeded his Father in the Earldom which he held of the Realm of Jerusalem and he left for his Successor Pontius de Tholouse his Son who married Cecilia the Widow of the valiant Tancred the Daughter of Philip the King of France which he had by Bertrada de Monfort who had also had by Fowk d' Anjou her former Husband the young Count Fowk who was afterwards King of Jerusalem From this Earl Pontius and Cecilia descended Raymond the Second Nephew to King Fowk and who was also his Brother in Law by the Marriage of the younger Sister of Queen Melesintha the Daughter of King Baldwin the Second and Wife of King Fowk So that Raymond the Third of whom I now speak who was the Son of Raymond the Second was by his Father second Cousin and by his Mother Cousin-german to King Amauri the Father
and St. Paul at the Castle of Chinon bestowing his Maledictions upon his disobedient Sons which he would never be persuaded to revoke notwithstanding the repeated Instances which were made to him by the Bishops who waited on him in his Sickness He did however receive the Sacrament and Extream Unction with great Devotion giving manifest Tokens of his Repentance in submitting to the Divine Justice which he acknowledged had justly laid this great Change of Fortune upon him as a Punishment for those Crimes which he had committed in his Prosperity He had also the Misfortune that his Domesticks every one seizing upon something left him without any thing else but a poor Sheet to cover him But his Son Richard who had so furiously opposed him in his Life gave all the Testimonies of an excessive Sorrow for his Death and caused him to be carried most magnificently adorned in his Royal Robes to be interred at the Nunnery of Fontevraud where he had a desire to be buried This new King himself assisted at the Funerals where he testified by the abundance of his Tears that he was unfeignedly touched with Sorrow and Remorse for his Father's Death But it is reported that to his other Grief he had the Displeasure to be afflicted with an odd and unaccountable Accident for as he approached the Corps of the deceased King as he lay in the Coffin the Blood which gushed out of his Nostrils seemed to reproach him with his Ingratitude and unnatural Rebellion and even as the Discourse went the Parricide of his Father whom his Disobedience did in some measure seem to have hastned to his Tomb sooner than Nature which was yet strong and vigorous in him had intended He nevertheless stayed out the whole Ceremony till such time as the Royal Defunct was interred in the Quire of the Church of those Religious Nuns which verified the Revelation of a Monk who praying upon a certain time for the Prosperity of the King heard these words which he then did not understand but which were explained by the Event He shall take up my Sign and in carrying it shall be mightily tormented The Belly of his Wife shall rise up against him and at the last he shall be hid among the Veils For as he took the Cross for the Holy War he carried the Sign of Jesus Christ and he was immediately after cruelly tormented by the Persecutions of his Sons which continued till his Death after which he was covered with the Veil of Death being interred in a Quire of Veiled Nuns We must however do Justice to the Memory of this Prince who was one in this Crusade though it so happened that he never had his part in any Action in regard it was so long deferred by the War whereof he was the Occasion He was a French Man by Nation born in the City of Mans which he therefore used to call his Darling and most assuredly he was one of the greatest and most potent Kings that ever sat upon the English Throne and certainly had been the most fortunate if either he had never been a Father or if toward the latter end of his thirty and five Years Reign he had not met with the Opposition of the young and invincible Philip the August whose Fortune supported by his Courage and admirable Prudence was as a fatal Curb which according to the Prediction of the famous Morling was to tame this fierce and haughty Leopard or like a strong Dam which stopped short and broke that impetuous Torrent of his Power and Ambition year 1189 which menaced an Inundation over the rest of France whereof Henry already possessed a very great part For besides England where he reigned as Soveraign Monarch and Ireland which he had conquered Scotland which was Tributary to him he also possessed Normandy in the Right of Inheritance descending to him by his Mother Maud the Empress Daughter of Henry I. King of England and by Geoffrey Earl of Anjou his Father who was Son to Count Fowk he had Anjou Maine Touraine a great part of Berry and Avignion where he pretended to be Soveraign And in Right of Queen Eleonor his Wife whom Lewis the Young quitted to him by a Canonical Sentence he had Gascon Guienne Poitou and the other Countries which depended upon them Besides that Britanny fell to his third Son Geoffrey by the Marriage of the Heiress of that Country So that he was as potent on this Side the Sea where he was a Homager to the Crown of France as he was on the other side where he was King of England and Lord of Ireland He was of a middle Stature but of a Shape no way handsom by reason that he was extream gross and corpulent notwithstanding that he was not only very temperate but amidst the great Affairs in which he was always employed and which he managed with wonderful Application in continual Action either travelling or Walking or making use of the more violent Exercises of Riding the great Horse or Hunting that thereby he might abate the growing unwieldy by his Fatness to which his Sanguin Complexion had condemned him As for any thing else he was of Temperament robust and sound having a large full Breast and a big Head His Eyes were blew handsom and full of Fire His Hair yellow and soft inclining something too much towards the red His Voice hoarse his Speech rough and his Mind very fierce and Martial For his Mind he was very dexterous and of a penetrating Understanding but something more crafty than became so great a Prince He had however cultivated his Spirit with the Study of Ingenuous Learning which inabled him with a certain Eloquence very easily and naturally to express himself And there was in his Soul such a Stock of Vices as well as Vertues natural Perfections and Imperfections which were so blended together that if they would not permit it to be said of him that he was a very exceeding good Prince yet they very absolutely prohibit the fixing the Character of a very ill one upon him For he was gentle and sweet to every body when he was in dangers but harsh fierce and severe when he saw himself out of them he was complaisant abroad morose to his Domesticks liberal to Strangers and in publick but parsimonious to his own and too great a Husband in his private Affairs A great Promiser but a slender Performer above all things loving his Liberty and hating Constraint to that degree that he could not endure to be a Slave to his own Word or his Faith which he made no great scruple upon occasion to violate In matters of Justice he was too slow and sometimes by the Interposition of Money which he loved excessively he would wholly remit the Execution of it He drew great Sums from his Subjects with which he often chose rather to buy Peace than maintain War in which he did not delight though when he was forced to make War he did it like a great Captain and
watered by the River Cydnus This River ariseth out of Mount Taurus in the Coast of Cappadocia from whence entring into Cilicia by one of these Valleys which are formed by these Mountains it rowls its gentle Streams extream clear and fresh upon its murmuring Bed of clean Gravel and Pebbles and is not very spacious tiil year 1190 having passed through the famous City of Tharsus it dischargeth it self into the Ocean History hath made this River famous by the extream danger which Alexander there run of losing his Life whilst in the Heat of Summer being all on fire with the violence of the burning Season he would needs bath himself in these too cool Streams of Cydnus being then upon his March against Darius But an Accident more deplorable which here happened to the Emperor Frederick by the very same way ought for ever to render the Memory of that fatal River odious For the very same day which was a Sunday the Eve of St. Barnabas this great Prince after having dined upon the Bank of that River which he had just passed seeing the Water which to him seemed very delightful and not able to support the intollerable Heat of that Season of the Year without making use of that Remedy which was so easie and which he naturally loved would needs bath himself in those cool and refreshing Streams notwithstanding all that was alledged to divert him from it but he was no sooner in the River into the middle of which he threw himself but that the excessive Coldness of the Water seized him in a moment and penetrating his Pores which by reason of the extream Heat were so open combated his natural Heat and Spirits with so much Violence that in a Swound he sunk down to the bottom of the Water He was however taken up alive and so soon as he began to return to his Memory perceiving his death approaching he gave Thanks unto Almighty God who did him the favour to call him in his Pilgrimage and in the Performance of his Vow and recommending his Soul into his Hands and offering his Life in Sacrifice for the Remission of his Sins he presently expired I know that many Writers report the matter otherwise and say that his Horse foundring in the Passage of the River his Foot hung in the Stirrup and so he was drowned as he was passing into Armenia over the River Salef but as the most ancient Historians his Contemporaries and some of them who were present positively some of them affirm it was the River Cydnus And others of them say it was a River near Tarsus in which he was drowned swimming after Dinner and that one of them informs us that he died not till the Evening In my Opinion there is not the least place left for deliberation which of them we ought to believe especially considering that it is very easie to reconcile these Historical Differences by what was before observed that it was then very customary to confound Armenia with Cilicia and that the River Salef is the same Cydnus as the Annalist Roger gives us to understand by the Description which he makes of those Countries Thus died one of the greatest Princes that ever silled the Throne of the Caesars Frederick the First in the seventieth Year of his Age whilst he was marching to combat Saladin for the Re-Conquest of the Realm of Jerusalem to which important Design he had levelled the Way by all those Victories which he had so gloriously gained against the Greek Emperor and the Sultan of Iconium the Allies of Saladin The sole Renown of the Actions of this invincible Prince struck that famous Conqueror with so great a fear that upon the very Rumour and Noise of his Coming despairing to be able to maintain them against him he caused the Walls of Laodicea in Syria of Giblet Tortosa Biblis Berytus and Sydon to be demolished and had thoughts himself of retiring into Egypt that he might not be obliged to hazard his Fortune against that of an Enemy so successful and formidable He was happy in finishing a Life so illustrious in the Course of his Victories and before giddy Fortune who never loves to court one Favourite long had begun to forsake him but much more happy in a Death so full of Glory and of Deserts before God and Men since he died in the generous Pursuit of his great Design in quitting his own Empire to re-establish that of Jesus Christ in that mysterious Spot of Ground where he was pleased to work by his Life and by his Death the great Wonder of our Salvation For thus it is that we ought charitably to judge of the Death of this Prince by those things which we know of him and not according to the rash medling Humour of some who will needs pretend to enter into the incomprehensible Judgments of God who have had the Confidence to attribute his Death to the Divine Vengeance as a Punishment for the War which he made against the Holy See year 1190 Great Presumption of Humane Nature which under the pretext of Religion and Piety dares so audaciously undertake to regulate the Decrees of Heaven and by a Judgment which in its own nature is extreamly criminal to pre-judge that which Jesus Christ himself only hath the Authority of giving and which must be kept secret until the last Day So soon as the general Consternation or rather the extream Despair in which the Army was by reason of this deplorable Accident was a little over the Princes and General Officers being assembled by a common Consent acknowledged Frederick Duke of Suabia for their General the Emperor his Father at his death having recommended the Care of the Army to him and left it under his Command It was with as much Joy as was possibly to be expected in such a deep Affliction that the Army took the Oath of Fealty to him whom they acknowledged as the true Heir and the living Image of all the great Qualities and Vertues of his Father And this Prince who in reallity possessed them in a degree very nearly approaching the Perfections of that admirable Emperor made it appear quickly that he was his true Successor by his Liberality in bestowing great Largesses upon the Soldiers to whom he divided the greatest part of the Treasure which fell to his Father's share at the taking of Iconium After he had therefore divided the Army into two parts the lesser number imbarked on the Vessels which the Armenians who then held divers places in Cilicia furnished him withal and himself with the greater Party after having interred the Emperor's Entrails and embalmed the Body of his Father at Tarsus took his way by Land towards Antioch where he did not arrive till after a tedious March of six Weeks wherein he suffered extreamly both by the defect of Provisions and by the continual Ambushes of the Turks But the Abundance which he found in this great City where he was most magnificently received was more fatal to
no way Martial together with mighty Boyishness had more of the Air of a young Girl than of a Man And besides the Marquis had a secret Understanding with the Queen Mother Mary the Niece of the Emperor Manuel and the Princess Isabella her Daughter who had no Hatred for his Person Now as they had all taken their Measures the Queen Mary and the Princess caused Humphrey to be Cited before the Bishop of Accon the Patriarch Heraclius being then sick to Death and upon the Testimony of Balian Lord of Ybelin who had espoused the Queen Mary the Widow of King Amauri of Payen Lord of Caïphas and of Renaud de Sidon whom the Marquis had gained the Marriage was declared Null upon the Pretence that the Princess had never given her Consent but that being extreme young she had been compelled to marry Humphrey and that she had always disclaimed it and protested against it as an Act of Force and Violence After which the Marquis publickly Married Isabella by the Ministery of the Bishop of Beavais and carried himself as King to the great Scandal of all good People who plainly saw and detested this shameful Collusion and the horrible Injustice which was done to Humphrey It is said also that Baldwin the Archbishop of Canterbury was so sensibly touched with the Displeasure which he took at this abominable Action and the Apprehension which he had of the horrible Disorders which were like to insue thereupon in the Army that he fell sick with the Vexation and in five days died as Holily as he had lived Religiously But the greatest part adhered to the Marquis and in regard the publick Fortune seemed to depend upon him principally for the Provisions which were to come from Tyre even those who were not at all satisfied yet were obliged to dissemble their Displeasure so that a patched Accommodation was made by which the one and the other were to remain in the State wherein they were year 1190 in expectation of the coming up of the Emperor and the two Kings to whom the Judgment of this Affair was to be committed In this Condition it was that the Affairs of this famous Siege stood when News was brought of the Death of the Emperor and the Arrival of the Duke of Suabia at Tyre to whom the Marquis immediately repaired and conducted him on Board his Fleet to the Camp where he was received with all imaginable Honour He took his Post among the Germans and the Danes in the Quarter which the Lantgrave had before possessed upon the Hill of the Mosquee extending to the Bridge of the River Belus So soon as this considerable Re-inforcement was come it was resolved according to the proposition which was made by Duke Frederick to make a general Assault Which was accordingly done both by Sea and Land with all the Courage imaginable and the Souldiers in despight of the brave Resistance of the Besieged did in more than one place plant the Standards of the Cross upon the Walls It was on this Occasion that it is reported that Leopold Duke of Austria made his heroick Courage most Conspicuous by an Action whose glorious Marks which at this day blazon the Armes of a House which is since become so August under the Name of the House of Austria do eternally publish the Memory Fame and Glory of it He fought from the Height of a wooden Castle which was raised at the Entry of the Gate against the Flye Tower and which was built upon the Deck of a great Ship For being mounted over the Walls followed by a few of his Men he was so hardly pressed by the numerous Infidels that all his Followers being slain and being now Single he was constrained to throw himself into the Sea half drowned already in his own and the Blood of his Enemies for he had nothing but Red about him except the white Scarf which he wore whereupon Frederick to eternize the Memory of such a noble Action gave him for his Armes with the great Applause of the whole Army in a Shield Gules a Fez Argent which the Princes of Austria have ever since that time born The Combat was not much more Advantageous by Land in regard that Saladin having at the same time attacked the Lines which he forced in many places they were obliged to quit the Assault to repulse the Enemies who were at last constrained to retire Saladin in this Rencounter lost the greatest part of his best Men and did not without great Difficulty disingage himself being something too far advanced from those who on every side surrounded him and who pursued him a great way beyond the Lines This was the last military Action of Duke Frederick who this being the second Autumn of the Siege was by the Distemper which raged in the Camp in a few days taken off to the incredible Regret of the whole Army who even adored this brave Prince whose rare Virtue which shined at his Death had rendred him more Illustrious than he had been all the time of his Life although a thousand Actions had made it most Glorious For the Eastern Physicians assuring him that his Distemper might easily be cured by the use of Females he without a moments Hesitation answered that he had much rather lose his Life than preserve it by such a Remedy as must sully both his Soul and Body at the same time that he had obliged himself by the Vow of his Pilgrimage to do what was pleasing to Jesus Christ who is the King the Crown and Husband of chast and pure Souls being all Purity and Chastity himself and thereupon surrendered his victorious Spirit into the Hands of God having overcome the two most formidable Enemies of Mankind the Pleasures of Life and the Pains as well as Fears of Death of which in the middle of a flourishing and verdant Youth he chose to receive the cold Imbraces rather than those of Life which he could not save but by the loss of his Chastity and Purity A rare Example which having been followed some three hundred Years after and in a like Age by Prince Casimir Son of Casimir King of Poland and Elizabeth Daughter of the Emperor Albertus Archduke of Austria advanced him to that degree of Sanctity as to deserve those supreme Honours which the Church solemnly renders to those whom she believes to be in the glorious State of the most Happy after Death But this Death which was so advantageous to Frederick was most sad and pernicious to the Army for the Germans now become desperate by having lost both their Emperor and their Prince would no longer acknowledge any Captain but quitted that Enterprise year 1190 which in Conclusion had been so Unfortunate to them and returned as well as they could into their own Country a few only excepted who resolved to Accomplish their Vow under Leopold Duke of Austria Add to this Accident the Sickness which daily continued in the Camp and the Famine which at some times they suffered and
Geoffry Ridel Bishop of Ely for appearing before him with the Train of a King at the City of Winchester but all this magnifick Pomp could not prevent the Triumph of Death which seized imediately upon him by this Surprise and divested him of this stately Vanity so unbecoming the Sacred Character of a Bishop For this Prince believed that these great Riches might to much better Advantage be imployed in defraying the Expences of his Coronation than so foolishly lavished in the Pageantry of worldly Pomp and that he might thereby spare his own which he indeavoured to keep as a Reserve to support the Charges of his Voyage to the Holy Land He also surrendred to William King of Scots for ten thousand Marks Sterling the Castles of Rocksborough and Berwick which he had been constrained to yield to King Henry the Second for his Ransom he being taken Prisoner in the War between them He also acquitted him of the Homage which he was obliged by force to pay as one part of the Price of his Liberty And in short as on one hand he was resolved not to be incumbred with the multitude of the Crusades the Multitudes of which had done more Hurt than Service in the other Expeditions and on the other that he knew very well that diverse of the richest of his Subjects who had ingaged themselves two Years before to undertake that Voyage were willing enough to be dispensed with he therefore obtained Permission from the Pope to discharge all such from their Vow upon Condition that they should proportionably to their Estate contribute a summ of Money towards the Charges of the Holy War All this joyned to the Treasure of his Father which he had at first seized upon and which amounted to more than nine hundred thousand Livers in Gold and Silver gave him the Ability to live after the best manner and in a far more Royal Way than any of his Predecessors had ever done So that he caused to be equipped in all the Ports of England Normandy Bretany Poitou and Guienne a great number of Ships to compose one of the fairest Fleets which had ever before been put to Sea For when he weighed from the Road of Messina where he had passed the Winter he had one hundred and fifty great Ships fifty three Gallies besides Barks Tartanes and other small Craft which attended the Navy with Provisions and Munitions of War He gave the Command of the Fleet to Gerrard Archbishop of Ousch and Bernard Bishop of Bayonne to whom he joyned in Commission Robert de Sablé Richard de Chamville and William Fortz Earl of Albermarle three excellent Men in Sea Affairs who had order without sparing any to put in Execution those admirable Orders which were proclaimed for preventing of Disorders and Punishment of Offences in the Fleet. He could not for all that stop those which were at the same time committed almost all over England upon the Jews of which himself was the Occasion tho he did not command it For as the Jews whom his Father had always favoured were upon his Coronation Day contrary to his express Command entred into the Palace from whence they were thrust out and some of them treated very severely the People who imagined that it was the King's Inclination that they should exterminate that perfidious Nation who for their Extortion Avarice and other enormous Crimes were extremely hated fell upon them with such Fury that it was impossible to appease them And this Example spreading it self occasioned a most horrible Massacre among those miserable People in many Cities where the young People who had undertaken the Cross year 1190 and wanted wherewith to furnish themselves for so chargeable a Voyage were ravished with such opportunity of Plundring their Houses and thereby being inabled to put themselves into an Equipage at the Expence of these declared Enemies of Jesus Christ In this time Philip the August prepared for this Enterprise in a manner more regular and did not to procure Money take those Methods of selling Offices and temporal Dignities to the Prelates of his Realm who were more regular and modest than those of England Neither did he raise any Taxes or Contributions for the Expences of this Voyage in regard that all the French Lords who had taken the Cross were resolved to accomplish their Vow and he believed that he should have enough out of his good Husbandry of that Tenth which was given for this War and which still remained in Bank ever since the last Year For this Reason therefore he caused an Edict to be published and all concerned to be sworn in the Parliament which he held at Paris that they should render themselves at Vezelay in the Week of Easter from thence together to take the Voyage And this being done he sent Rotrou Earl of Perche into England to advertise King Richard of his Proceedings who on his side made those who had taken the Vow swear the same thing upon the Holy Evangelists in the Parliament at London After which the King having recommended the Care of the Realm to Queen Eleonor his Mother having delivered her from the Confinement in which the late King had for five or six Years last kept her and to William Longfield Bishop of Ely his Chancellor he imbarked the fourteenth day of December at Dover and landed the same day at Graveling from whence he went about the end of the Month to Confer with King Philip at Nonancour There it was that after they had mutually given the one to the other all the assurance of an inviolable Amity they caused Letters Patents in the Name of both the Kings to be dispatched whereby they fixed the time of their Departure with all their Subjects of the Crusade and promised to each other a most sincere and indissoluble Friendship according to the Faith which they had severally plighted to one another Philip King of France to Richard King of England as his Friend and faithful Liegeman and Richard King of England to Philip King of France as his Lord and Friend These are the very Words of these Letters dated the thirtieth day of December at Nonancour as they are reported by Radulph Dean of London who writ in that time such Matters as he himself was an Eye Witness of and in the Transaction whereof he had a considerable Share But in regard the Time which they had limited appeared too short for the Preparations which were of necessity to be made the two Kings had a second Interview at Vezelay where they lengthened the time of their Rendezvouz till the Week after Midsummer In which time they finished their Treaty which among others had these Articles That if either of them died in the time of the Holy War the other should make use of the Money and the Army of the deceased King to carry on and finish the War That the Lords of the two Kingdoms should maintain a fraternal Correspondence and that the Bishops should excommunicate all those who
but they were mixed with so many Faults and Vices which exceeded his Perfections that they were obscured and sullied by them He was about the three and thirtieth Year of his Age of Stature very tall but of a Shape very disproportionate being become excessive gross either by his Intemperance or by a Swelling which remained after a long Quartane Ague which had left his Vifage of a pale Leaden Colour His Arms were also somewhat with the longest though very strong and Nervous and his Thighs too short in Proportion His Eyes were full of a Fire but a Fire that was too fierce and ardent His Hair extraordinary light and inclining towards Red which denoted his Complexion to be excessively hot and cholerick and naturally strong if the Violence of his Exercises his Passions and his Debauches had not so ruined it as to make it appear almost quite overthrown and wholly languishing It is said also that he had abundance of Cauteries or Issues upon his Body in order to the continual discharging of those corrupted Humours with which he abounded so much had that tedious Ague and the Disorders of his Life altered the Establishment and Foundation of his Health and all the beauteous Lineaments of his Face which Nature had bestowed on him He was however in the main a Prince magnanimous bold enterprizing brave fearless and of an invincible Courage by which he acquired the Sir-name of Caeur-de-Lion or Lyon's Heart a Name which the English and Normans bestowed on him and which the Memory of those noble Actions which he so happily and couragiously executed have preserved to him to this day It was nevertheless easily discoverable that he had something of the Fierceness and Brutallity of that Animal mixed with the noble Courage of the Lyon for it is certain that he was most violent rash and turbulent subject to the Transports of Fury hard and severe even to Cruelty which rendred him odious Besides he was inconstant making little Account of his Word and Faith without a true Sense of Friendship Tenderness or good Nature even to the Violation of the most sacred Laws and Rights of Nature as appears by his frequent taking up Arms against his own Father Above all He was as eager to draw Money from every thing as he was prodigal in wasting it when he had it He was presumptuous proud and arrogant voluptuous and debauched even in publick and so far from being concerned to conceal them that he would turn his Crimes into Raillery witness the Answer which he gave one day to that holy Man Fouques de Neuilly who preaching before him in Normandy told him seriously that it was time for him to set his Affairs in order and to quit himself of three dangerous Daughters which he had which would certainly prove his Ruin if he kept them any longer with him Richard who took him according to the literal meaning thinking that it was very easie to convince him of Imposture That is false said he to him thou Hypocrite I have no Daughters at all Pardon me Sir replied the good Man you have three very lewd ones your Arrogance your Avarice and your Luxury which will infallibly in a little time ruin you if you keep them them with you Very well replied the King year 1190 laughing instead of seriously thinking of Repentance and Amendment Since there is a necessity then of parting with them therefore I do immediately bequeath my Arrogance to the Templers my Avarice to the Monks and my Luxury to the Prelates of my Realm But as on the one side notwithstanding all his Debauches he had a Principle of Religion which was firmly rooted in his Soul and on the other side according to his impetuous Nature he was usually in the Extreams either of Good or Bad he had sometimes such great Transports of Devotion and was so sensible of the Enormity of his Crimes that to witness his Repentance and to satisfie God Almighty for his Follies he would do such things as certainly the most severe Directors of Conscience would never have thought fit to be exacted from so great a King And that which was infinitely advantageous to this Prince was that this Principle of Religion summoning up all its Power in his Soul at the Hour of his Death made him express the most rigorous Repentance that is possible to be found in the Histories of the greatest Saints Thus so long as a Man more especially a Prince preserves the Principles of true Faith by submitting his Sentiments to those of Religion and the Catholick Church one may still retain a Hope notwithstanding the Infirmities to which he is subject that this Root of Life will in time produce the Fruits of a true Conversion and like a Plant which keeps its Root how dead soever it may appear in the Winter and dispoiled of its Leaves and Flowers yet at the Return of the Spring it will recover its native Beauty and pleasant Verdure Sea now what kind of Men these two Kings were and from so vast a difference of their Tempers and Inclinations it will be easie to fore-see that they could not remain long in a good Understanding one with the other as appeared but too visibly in the Consequences of their future Voyage Philip whose Fleet waited for him at Genoa parted the first with a brave and flourishing Army composed of the greatest part of his Nobility and the choice Soldiers of France though it is hard to determine precisely in what number they consisted in regard the Writers of those times have not left us any certain Information But this is most certain that he was accompanied with the greatest Men of the Realm the Principal of which were Eudes Duke of Burgundy Peter Count de Nevers Renaud Count de Chartres Geoffrey Count de Perche Aubrey de Rullen Mareshal of France Matthew de Montmorency who was afterwards Constable of France the Counts de Beaumont Rochefort Valery Dreux de Mello Lord de Loches and Chattillon and William de Mello his Brother The Fleet was met at Sea with a furious Tempest which gave the King occasion to shew the Greatness of his Soul in the magnificent Gifts which he bestowed on chose who lost their Equipage being forced to throw it over-board for the Safety of their Lives At last he came to an Anchor upon the 6th of September in the Road of Messina where the two Kings had before agreed the place of their Joyning should be In this time King Richard after having waited eight days to no purpose the Arrival of his Fleet at Marseilles being pushed on by his natural Impatience he imbarked himself the 17th of August upon thirty Merchants Ships which he caused to be fitted up and after having Coasted all along by Genoa Tuscany and Champaign in Italy he arrived happily at Naples from whence he passed to Salernum there to expect News of his Fleet whose long and unaccountable Delay gave him an extraordinary Inquietude and Displeasure The Fleet had put
Equivalent to the loss they might hereby sustain made no doubt but that they would with Joy receive a Proposition so advantageous to all Christians but especially to Princes who had always reason to fear all things from these Desperadoes but Avarice which had already begun to corrupt that Order so far blinded them that one of the Knights upon whom the great Master would never permit Justice to be done assassinated the Ambassadour who was come to propose a Condition so just and reasonable This so exasperated these People that they became more obstinate in their Mahometanism more Enemies to the Christians and more Assassins than ever they had been before It was for such a kind of Injustice that these two Russians murdered the Marquis Conrade Prince of Tyre for a ship loaden with rich Merchandise which belonged to a Subject of the Old man of the Mountain being forced by a Tempest to put into the Port of Tyre the Marquis caused her to be seized and put the Master of her to death for complaining of the Injustice which was done him The Prince of the Assassins sending to demand Satisfaction and Restitution of the Ship and Goods and Reparation for the Death of his Subject the Marquis made a laughing matter of it at the first but upon a Second demand he commanded one of the Envoys to be thrown into the Sea This so incensed the old man that he sent two of his Devotes to Tyre who there counterfeited to renounce Mahometanism and got themselves baptized the better to cover and enable them to execute their Treason After some time they found means to get into the Marquis his Retinue and ordinarily to attend him wherever he went and hereby obtained an Opportunity of stabbing him as he returned from Dinner from the Bishop of Beauvais and though they were put to the most exquisite Torments which could be suffered and roasted alive yet would they never accuse any Person or confess who it was that set them on to commit such a horrible Murther There were some however who failed not to suspect King Richard who was known to be his declared Enemy and the report was so strong that it was written to King Philip the August and he was assured that this Prince with whom he had had such great differences had hired the Old man of the Mountain to commit this Assassinate upon the Marquis There cannot indeed be too much Precaution to preserve the Sacred Persons of Kings upon which depends the Welfare of their Dominions and upon this occasion Philip took Guards about his Person to protect himself from a like Treason and such damnable Attempts But neither History nor Historian ought so far to take the particular part either of Princes or Nations as to disingage himself of that Duty which he owes to truth and for the Interest I have in that I think my self obliged tosay That though King Richard neither loved King Philip nor the Marquis yet nevertheless he was not at all culpable of these horrid Crimes of which some have with so much Injustice and so little Truth accused him and endeavoured to blacken his Memory And indeed the Prince of the Mountains did in a short time after wholly justisie and acquit him of this suspicion by the Testimony of his Authentick Letters wherein he declared the true cause of this Murther of the Marquis according to the manner which I have before recounted And one ought with Truth to avow that considering the Natural Humour and Inclination of King Richard he could not be capable of so black a Treason for although he was extreme Violent Impetuous and mighty Impatient of Injuries and Affronts yet he had a great and generous Soul and made Profession openly and like a Gallant man to attack such as he believed he ought to esteem his Enemies and was never known to have recourse to base and Ignominous Ways of taking his Revenge And this great Courage not only taught him to despise all these false Reports but also to draw all those advantages which an able Polititian could make of such an untoward Accident in the baseness whereof he knew he had no share For he managed the matter so well that without much difficulty he perswaded the Princess Isabella the Widow of Marquis Conrade to marry Henry Count of Champagne to whom in regard of his Adherence to him year 1191 he was resolved at his return to leave all that remained to the Christians of the Holy Land the Promise which he made to the Princess to make her Queen of Jerusalem by the Exclusion of Guy of Lusignan was the thing she most passionately desired was the most powerful reason to induce her to this Marriage Nor was it difficult for him to make good his Promise in regard that on the one hand Count Henry was extremely beloved by the great men of the Country who had no manner of kindness for Lusignan and on the other that he promised him in Exchange for a Kingdom which was almost wholly lost to give him that of Cyprus provided he payed to the Templers a certain Summ of Money for which he had engaged it to them This despoiled Prince whose Fortune absolutely depended upon his Protector willingly received this Offer so that shortly after the Marriage was celebrated between the Count du Champain and the Princess Isabella who from that time took upon her the Title of the Queen of Jerusalem although Henry out of Modesty would pretend to nothing higher than that of Prince Thus all the Forces of the Realm being united by this Accomodation Richard put himself at the Head of them and began the Champaign early in the Month of June by the Siege of Darum which he took in four days being one of the strongest Fortresses which Saladin had and after the taking of several other places of less Importance which he put into the Hands of his Nephew he returned to Ascalon where the Duke of Burgundy joyned him with the French Troops under his Command After which to save his Reputation and that it might not appear to have been his Fault that Jerusalem was not taken he seemed resolved to besiege and take it in good Earnest which caused a mighty joy throughout the Army which seemed to breath nothing but the consummating of that glorious Enterprise For this purpose he parted from Ascalon and advanced to Bethanopolis between Jaffa and Jerusasalem to the same place where he was posted before when he had a former Design of besieging the City When he arrived there he understood that a Part of the Army of the Sarasins was encamped behind the neighbouring Mountains with a Design to fall upon him when he should be about making his Lodgements whereupon he went and briskly fell upon them and that with so much Fury and so little Expectation that he cut the greatest part of them in pieces and put the rest to Flight taking all their Baggage and so returned loaden with Booty to the Camp whilest this
to endure the violence of the pain of that terrible Inflammation he caused it to be cut off but the Inflammation of whose Nature the Physicians were wholly ignorant mounted from his Leg to his Thigh and from his Thigh expanding its Flame through his whole Body he then acknowledged that it was the Hand of God which was upon him confessed his Fault delivered the Hostages of King Richard became a Penitent received Absolution from the Bishops and died in the Peace of the Church after he had by his last Will and Testament ordered Restitution to be made to Richard King of England of all the Money which he had received from him But it is commonly to be observed that these kind of Restitutions with which dying Persons charge their Executors are rarely discharged by the Living And Pope Innocent III. who succeeded Celestin had not a little trouble with the Successors of Leopold when he endeavoured to oblige them to the Performance of that part of his Will the difficulty of Restitution persuading them against the Justice of it But as to any thing further it is to be observed that neither this Leopold nor his Successors of whom I discourse were at all related to those Princes who at present possess the Title of Austria that Family which about a hundred Years after entred into the House of Hapsbourg being descended from the House of Alsatia from which that August Family which now bears the name of the House of Austria derives its Original In this time the Affairs of the Christians of the East remained in great Tranquility in reference to the Sarasins who willingly maintained a Truce which was so extreamly advantageous to them and which gave them reason to hope that in a small time they should become Masters of all the Remainder of Syria But they happened to be something embroiled by a kind of Civil War which was like to break out by the Treachery of Bohemond the third of that Name Prince of Antioch For being a Man of great Ambition little Prudence and less Power to support it he had recourse to unworthy Artifices and Cheats which he made use of to oppress the Armenian Princes his Neighbours whose Power and Greatness which increased every day gave him a troublesom Jealousie He had by these Cowardly ways made Rupin of the Mountain his Prisoner upon pretext of a Conference and thought to have done the same to Livon who did not only succeed in the Power of his Brother Rupin but was also more successful and augmented that Power by the taking of divers places from Bohemond This Prince after he had made an Accommodation with him thought to have surprized him also in the same manner and having sent to him to desire an Interview in a certain place he resolved there to seize upon him and make him his Prisoner But Livon who followed the Maxim of those who hold That one ought never to trust a Man who hath once violated his Faith came to the place appointed strongly guarded with a great number of brave Men whom he placed in Ambuscade in a place at a convenient distance from the place of Meeting and then advancing only accompanied with two Persons according as it was concluded between them perceiving by the Company which Bohemond had with him the Treachery which was intended he gave the Signal to his People who immediately came pouring in upon Bohemond and surprized him putting him into the hands of Prince Livon who carried him Prisoner into his Dominions Count Henry who saw well that this Quarrel must necessarily divide all the Christians of the East went himself into Armenia where he was by Livon received with all the Respect imaginable but with a strong Resolution nevertheless to draw all the Advantage he could possibly from his good Fortune as indeed he did For the Count so well managed the Spirit of Bohemond year 1195 that to re-gain his Liberty which he made him understand was never to be obtained but upon these Terms he at last consented that Prince Raymond his Son should marry the Princess Alice the Daughter of Rupin and Neice to Livon That Livon should hold all the Places which he had conquered in the Principality of Antioch and that for the future that Principality should do Homage to Armenia After which Livon by the Consent of Count Henry took upon him the Title of King of Armenia which was afterwards confirmed to him by the Pope and the Emperor It is most certain that the Sarasins might have drawn extraordinary Advantages from these Divisions which began to arise among the Christians but the Divine Providence averted that Misfortune by the Revolution which happened in the Empire of the Infidels by the Decease of Saladin who amidst these Actions died at Damascus after he had tamed all the Rebels on this side Euphrates He was certainly a Prince notwithstanding all the Sarasin he had about him who was possessed of Vertues and Qualities which might well be compared with those of the most famous Conquerors of Antiquity and who after having performed a thousand noble Actions in his Life did one at his Death which ought to be received by Posterity as a most admirable Lecture of the Vanity of all Earthly Pomp and Glory For some Moments before his Death calling for him who used to carry his Banner before him in all his Battles he commanded him to tie to the Top of a Lance a Linen Shrowd in which he was to be wrap'd at his Interment and displaying it as being the Standard of Death which triumphed over so great a Prince to make this Proclamation This is all which the great Saladin Vanquisher and Master of the Empire of the East must carry with him out of the World of all the Treasures and the Glory which he hath acquired by so many mighty Conquests A rare Spectacle and most worthy to be eternally regarded by the greatest Kings who from hence may see and know that though their Birth and Fortune have elevated them above the Level of Mankind yet Death which will one day equal them with the meanest of their Subjects will strip them of all the Pomp and Grandure of this World and that nothing but the Riches of the Soul and the Glories of their Vertue will distinguish them from others in the Life to come As to the rest This great Prince who by the Obligations of his Birth and the Policy of State upon which his Interest and his Fortune depended had during his Life made publick Profession of Mahometanism at his Death seemed not so very well satisfied of the Truth of that Sect for after he had disposed of his Dominions in favour of his Children he divided all his Personal Estate into three Parts which he ordered to be equally distributed among the poor Sarasins Jews and Christians which should be found in all his Dominions And this he did with an Imagination that at his Death he having these three Strings to his Bow though two
her self in this Holy War with the Resolution of a true Heroine and having joyned her Troops with the Army of the Princes of the Crusade she under went the Voyage with them with as great Zeal and Ardour as any of them and with far more Constancy and firmness of Resolution For being ashamed of the precipitate Return of the others who unworthily abandoned the Interests of Jesus Christ in the East in the very Heat of the War she only remained unmoveable in her first Resolution and passed all the Remainder of her Days at Ptolemais that so she might be always ready upon all Occasions which offered either to attack the Infidels or defend the Christians An Example which confirms what hath been frequently seen in other Princesses that Heroick Vertue does not at all depend upon the Quality of the Sex but that the weakness of Temper and Body may be supplied by the greatness of the Soul and the Vigour of the Spirit During this time the Letters of the Pope with those of the Emperor which were sent all over Germany produced such Effects upon the Minds of Men already filled and prepossessed with the haughty Idea's which they had conceived of a Crusade wherein the Empire only should be concerned so that every City willing to signalize themselves upon this Occasion furnished out a considerable number of Crusades Insomuch that the Emperor found wherewithal abundantly to satisfie not only the great Desire which he seemed to have to undertake the Holy War but also that which in reallity he had which was under this pretext to lead a potent Army into Italy to exterminate the Remainder of the Normans who had caused a Revolt in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily And that he might play his Game with greater Success by covering his principal Intendment under this specious Appearance of a mighty Zeal he presented himself to take the Cross from the hand of the Legate protesting that for the Accomplishment of his Promise and to animate others by his Example he was resolved to march at the Head of his Army and in Person to combat against the Infidels But whether it were that they discovered his Artifice and saw that it would be an acceptable Service to him year 1195 to stop him in this Design or that they really believed that after the deplorable Accidents which happened to his Father and his Brother in the other Crusade it was not at all expedient that he should engage himself in Person to undertake this Voyage it is certain that all the Princes humbly intreated him to continue in the Empire remonstrating to him that thereby he would render greater Service to God by constantly taking care and providing the Necessaries for Subsistence and Recruits for the Armies which he should send into the East So that after some small Struggling and faint Oppositions he submitted to the Request of the Assembly and in conclusion resolved to set on foot three great Armies that so he might make profitable use of that infinite multitude of Soldiers who had taken upon them the Cross throughout all the Provinces of Germany The first of these Armies under the Conduct of Conrade Archbishop of Mayence accompanied by the Dukes of Saxony and Brabant and the greatest part of the Princes of the Crusade took its Way by Land to Constantinople where being imbarked upon the Fleet of the Greek Emperor whose Daughter Irene Philip Duke of Suabia Brother to the Emperor Henry had married they arrived happily at Antioch from whence they marched to Tyre and a few days after to Ptolemais The second Army passed by Sea and after having coasted along the Low Countries England France and Spain in their Passage they took the City of Sylves which the Sarasins had regained from the Portuguese and fearing lest the Infidels should again seize upon that important place which had been so ill defended by Dom Sancho the Crusades demolished it from the very Foundation After which they prosperously held on their Course and came to an Anchor in the Port of Acre where they joyned the first Army And for the third Army which was the strongest and composed of the best Troops drawn particularly out of the Dutchies of Suabia Bavaria and Franconia consisting in sixty thousand Combatants the Emperor in Person conducted it into Italy where in Execution of the Design which he had so artfully concealed under the specious pretext of the Holy War he surprized the Norman Princes and Lords who were confederated against him and without any trouble made himself Master of all the places which they yet held against him in the Realms of Naples and Sicily year 1196 putting those brave Unfortunates to death by all the ways of Rage and Cruelty Insomuch that the Empress Constantia unable to endure this horrible Butchery which was made of those of her Nation whom this cruel fierce and vindicative Prince resolved utterly to exterminate she conspired against him both to take away his Life and Empire And that her wicked Enterprise might prove successful she covered it and her Resentment for the present with a deep Dissimulation Henry who believed that he had now no more Enemies who were in a Condition to enterprize any thing against him caused the greatest part of his Army to be imbarked upon the Fleet which Conrade Bishop of Wirtzbourg his Chancellor and Lieutenant General in Italy had rigged the Year before who conducted them with a prosperous Voyage in a few days to the Port of Acre where they arrived very opportunely to reinforce the German Troops who for some time before had had all the Forces of the Insidels upon their hands For Valeran de Limbourg who with his Brigade having marched with the first was arrived in Palestine before the rest having broken the Truce which was made with the Sarasins they who before thought of nothing but how to ruin one another began immediately to re-unite under Saphadin against the common Enemy as they esteemed the Christians This Prince who was a great Soldier having presently raised a potent Army of his own Troops and those of his Nephews who upon this Occasion owned him as their General made a great Slaughter of all the Christians who fell into his Power thereby to revenge himself of Valeran who by an Action very little Christian and of most dangerous Consequence had in like manner treated the Sarasins whom he surprized upon his breaking the Truce After which by a wonderful Diligence preventing the Army of the Crusades he laid Siege before their Arrival to Jaffa into which the King of England had put a strong Garrison before he quitted Palestine year 1196 The young Henry Count de Champagne who had all the Authority of a Soveraign after his Marriage with Queen Isabella saw very well of what Importance it was to save that Place without which it was almost impossible to undertake the Siege of Jerusalem and therefore he resolved to march to relieve it with all the Expedition possible and
done an insinite deal of Mischief in the World And after this there is nothing that thou canst do to me which I fear And since I am assured of thy Death I shall with Joy be ready to receive my own though it comes accompanied with all the Terrors and cruel Torments that can be inslicted on me And I replied the King immediately will for the Love of God that thou shalt live And thereupon he caused him presently to be set at liberty commanding that an hundred Pounds Sterling should be bestowed upon him and straitly prohibiting all his People to do him any Injury But presently after the death of the King the Lieutenant General of his Army causing him to be seized made him be hanged and roasted alive in a most barbarous and horrible manner At his Death the King commanded a good part of his Treasure to be distributed among his Domesticks and the Poor He ordered that his Body should be interred at Fontevraud at the Feet of his Father as it were to make some honourable Reparation by this little Humility at his Death for the ill Treatment which he had given him during his Life He bequeathed his Heart to the Church of our Lady at Roan which he had always particularly cherished And for his Soul he entirely submitted it to the Divine Justice offering himself after such an exemplary Repentance to suffer the Pains of Purgatory even till the Day of Judgment for the Expiation of his Crimes It is not my Province to judge of what it pleaseth God to determine and ordain but this is certain that three and thirty Years after his Death Henry Bishop of Rochester in England preaching after he had given holy Orders the Saturday before the Passion-Sunday on which Day the Church begins the Service with those words of Isaiah Ho! Every one that thirsteth come to the Waters saith the Lord Come and drink with Joy In the midst of his Sermon as if it had been by a suddain Enthusiasm he cried out Rejoyce my Brethren the Soul of the glorious King Richard after having till this time been purified like Gold in the Furnace is now passed into Heaven And he affirmed it with such an assured Air exposing to every Person all the Circumstances of the Revelation which he pretended to have had that the Authority of a Prelate who was known to be a most vertuous and learned Man and who was never accused for a Visionary made very many wise People believe that without Weakness they might give Credit to it However it be it is not so much upon these sort of Revelations which are liable to be doubted as upon the manner of the Death of this great Prince that one may reasonably found a Belief of his Salvation However I thought fit to recount these edifying Particularities of the Death of this King who had so great a Share in these Crusades that so Princes may understand that when they have had the happiness to render unto God any considerable Service by any Heroick Action as did this King Richard in being the first that took upon him the Cross in this Holy War where he performed so many brave things they have great reason to hope that the Divine Goodness which is never slow in rewarding the meanest Services will recompense them by the greatest of all Favours in permitting those to die well who have employed their Lives in his Service and for his Glory year 1199 In this time Fouques de Nevilli continued his preaching the Crusade with a most wonderful Success and after he had run through abundance of Provinces distributing an infinite number of Crosses among the People he at last happily sinished his Enterprise by the Engagement of two great Princes in his Design who could not but by their Example draw after them a great number of considerable Persons These two Princes were Theobald IV. Count de Champagne Brother to Henry II. King of Jerusalem who died by the unfortunate Accident at Ptolemais and Lewis his Consin-german Count de Blois and Chartres both of them nearly related to I hilip the August both by the Father and the Mother They were both young and both passionate of Glory And Theobald who was a magnificent Prince that he might declare himself with more Splendor and draw after him more Persons of Quality published a Tournament to be held at his Castle of Escri upon the River Aisne in Advent of that Year 1199. whither the principal Gentry of the Neighbouring Provinces assembled themselves to be Sharers in those Manly Exercises There it was that the brave Count Theobald amidst those noble Exercises of Chivalry which the French and particularly the Counts de Champagne have always so much delighted in resolving to pass magnificently from that gallant Representation of War to that true and holy War which he was about to undertake in most solemn manner took upon him the Cross together with the Count de Blois his Cousin They were immediately followed by two Lords of extraordinary Merit and high Reputation the famous Simon de Montfort and the valiant Renaud de Montmirail the Cousin of Count Lewis After which all those who were under any particular Obligation to these two Counts and many other Gentlemen and Barons especially of the Isle of France and of Picardy also followed their Example and took upon them the Cross The principal among these new Champions of Jesus Christ whose Names are most known and which I mention in this place reserving my self to speak of the others upon occasion of their brave Actions were Geoffry de Joinville Steward and Geoffry de Ville Hardouin Mareshal of Champagne who like a frank and generous Cavalier hath obliged Posterity with the History of this War the Counts Gautier and John de Brienne Gautier de Vignori William and Villain de Neully Erard de Montigni Manasses de l' Isle Guy de Chappes Renard de Dampierre Oliver de Rochefort Ives de Laval Anselme de Courselles Henry de Montreil Paien d'Orleans Matthew de Montmorenci Guy de Couci Robert de Malvoisin Enguerrand Hugh and Robert de Boves Counts d' Amiens to whom the Year following joyned the Counts Hugh de St. Paul Renand de Bologne and Geoffry de Perche and Stephen his Brother with divers other Lords which followed them And to take care of the spiritual Militia of this Army designed for a Holy War Garnier Bishop of Troies who had taken the Cross the Year before and Nevelon Bishop of Soissons resolved to accompany this Crusade Such a famous Action which could not fail of making a mighty noise in the World was the Parent of others great Examples being commonly very prolisick which were produced thereby in generous Minds and Hearts which were amorous of Glory The young Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Henault Nephew to the late Count Philip who died at the Siege of Acre seeing himself at liberty by the Peace of Peronne which he had concluded with Philip the August was resolved
some time longer at the Port of Zara to attend the Prince Alexis who in a few days according as had been agreed arrived there very handsomly attended There he was received by the Doge with all manner of Magnificence there were Gallies and other Vessels presented him for himself and those of his Retinue And the Marquis Boniface who had the Honour to be his Ally and to whom the Emperor had extreamly recommended the Care of him after he had done him all the Honours imaginable protested to him that he would sacrifice all for his Service and that he would never abandon him till he saw him seated upon that Throne which the Usurper so injuriously detained from him After this the Fleet weighed and for a happy Beginning of this War as they came before Duras anciently Dyrrachium a most important City of Macedonia and one of the Keys of the Grecian Empire the Inhabitants having learnt that the Prince Alexis was on Board that Fleet they carried him the Keys of the Place and swore an inviolable Fidelity to him And with this happy Presage they proceeded in a few days to joyn the other part of the Army which was already landed upon the Isle of Corfu This Island is that of the antient Pheaques which Homer hath rendred so Famous by the notable Description which he hath given of the Shipwrack of Vlysses upon it the proud Palace and the delicious Gardens of King Alcinous It lies between the Gulph of Venice and the Ionian Sea five or six Miles distant from Epyrus being between twenty and thirty Leagues in Length from North to South and about nine or ten in Breadth a Soil Rich and Plentiful with a City of the same Name very Strong and a Port very Commodious in a Peninsula on that side which looks towards Epyrus It was returned to the Obedience of the Greeks about fifty Years before the Emperor Manuel by the Aid of the Venetians having recovered it from Roger King of Sicily who had before taken it from the Greeks But those who kept it for the Emperor having learnt that the Army of the Crusades was going to re-establish the young Alexis they acknowledged him for their Master and were so far from opposing the Descent of the Army that they promised to Surrender the City so soon as Constantinople should be taken so that the Army Landed and without Hindrance incamped before the City from whence they received all manner of Necessaries for their Refreshment and so soon as they understood the Arrival of the rest of the Fleet they marched to meet the Prince Alexis and conducted him to the Camp as it were in Triumph through the Army ranged in Battalia amidst the loud Acclamations of the Captains and the Soldiers and with all the Testimonies of a most extraordinary Joy year 1203 But it was not long Lived for those who before the Siege of Zara had indeavoured to break the Confederacy either out of a Deâ—â—â—e of returning Home or as they pretended going immediately into Syria by a Way of their own Chusing began here to renew their Trade of tampering with the Army heightning the Difficulties and Dangers which they said were inevitable in this Enterprise upon Constantinople which would ingage them in a Work of many Years By these Arts they debauched a great Party of the Soldiers of whom they had Assurance upon Occasion though for the present they durst not declare themselves The Princes who perceived it were dreadfully afraid of the Danger which they apprehended might ensue upon their being Abandoned by the greatest part of their Soldiers and thereby seeing themselves reduced to a Disability of pursuing the Enterprise which they had so happily begun Whereupon after mature Deliberation and a clear Understanding of the Matter they concluded that if upon this Occasion they should go about to make use of their Authority and think by Compulsion to procure Obedience therebeing so many considerable Lords and Gentlemen who were not used to be so treated it might make them run the Hazard of destroying one another and prove a Remedy incomparably worse than the Disease they resolved therefore upon an odd Experiment which as it was without all President so in probability it will never be an Example for future Imitation For immediately mounting on Horseback with the Prince of Constantinople and all the Bishops and Abbots which were of their Party they went to find out the principal of the Cabal who were already separated from the Army the chief of which were Eudes de Champlite James d' Avesnes Peter de Amiens Guy de Coucy William d' Aunoy Guy de Chappes Guy de Constans Richard and Eudes de Dampierre The Princes no sooner saw them but they alighted from their Horses which obliged the Malecontents to do the same being much surprized to see those great Princes come with so much Respect to Gentlemen who assuredly were much their Inferiors both in Birth and Quality but they were much more amazed when the Princes being come up to them threw themselves at their Feet and with Eyes bathed in Tears conjured them in the Name of God not to abandon them in an Enterprise upon which the Recovery of the Holy Land absolutely depended and protested that they would never rise from that Posture till they had obtained the Favour they desired In truth this surprizing way so wholly Irregular and so much below the Dignity of Princes had nothing of Policy in it being apt to expose Majesty to Contempt and render Authority dispisable to Subjects and Soldiers who by such Submissions are usually made more Fierce because they seem to make them more Considerable But there are certain Moments and Encounters wherein a kind of irregular Conduct wholly extraordinary and against all manner of Forms shall immediately gain that by Surprise which all humane Prudence managed by Methods and according to Rules of Art shall never be able to obtain by the strongest Force of Reason and Argument These Gentlemen afraid and ashamed to see those Persons at their Feet whom Nature had elevated above them and their own Choice had made their Heads were so touched with this Action that unable to retain their Sobs and Tears they prostrated themselves before the Princes and promised them intire Satisfaction of their Demands And after having consulted a few Minutes among themselves that so they might act more firmly by common Consent they ingaged to serve them with all their Troops in the War of Constantinople till the end of September provided the Princes would promise upon Oath upon the expiration of that Term in fifteen days to furnish them with such Shipping as was requisite for their Transportation from Constantinople into Syria The Conditions being accepted and mutual Faith on both Sides given with all the Marks of a perfect Reconciliation they Imbarked on the Eve of Whitsunday and after having coasted all Morea and Achaia the Fleet came to an Anchor in the Negropont where being divided into two
be stretched out against this unfortunate City that the Wind which before blew from the North and carried the Flames to the South as far as the Propontis came about to the South and South-West and carried the Fire into the other Quarters of the City which before seemed out of danger by lying from the Wind. So that the Fire which began about the middle of the Haven being pushed by these contrary Winds higher to the West and North extended its Rage from Sea to Sea above a League passing by the famous Church of Sancta Sophia without touching it the furious Element seeming to pay a Respect even in its greatest Violence to that goodly Pile at the same time that it manifested no Compassion to the great and wealthy Streets of the Merchants which were round about it nor the Palaces or other Churches or the proud and stately Edifices of the Imperial Place of the great Constantine all which in a little time were reduced to Ruines Rubbidge and Cynders Such a horrible Conflagration which continued all that Night and the two following Days in its full Rage and Fury and which was not in a Weeks time wholly extinguished was a most miserable Spectacle to the Princes who from the Eminencies of Galatha saw with an extream Trouble what was not in theirs nor any Humane Power to help One may say however that it was a Presage of the Ruin of the Grecian Empire whom God was pleased thus to punish for so many infamous Treasons which they had plotted and executed against the Latins in the first Crusades and to translate their Empire to the French as he did presently after in the manner which I am going to relate There was at the Court of Constantinople a Lord of the first Quality of the Illustrious House of Ducas nearly related to the Emperors whose Name was Alexis and commonly called Murtzuphle by reason that his Eye-brows joyning and very thick hung over his Eyes which hath always been looked upon as a Mark of a very ill Man And in truth one shall difficultly find one in all History more wicked or who had a blacker Soul a Nature more savage and cruel year 1203 or more capable of the most base and cowardly Treasons to come to the Accomplishment of his own Ends. Now as he was the most insatiably ambitious of Mankind he easily persuaded himself that after the Example of Alexis Comnenius whom he had served against Isaac he might make himself Emperor provided he durst undertake the Enterprise without scrupling the greatest Crimes to lay hold quickly of the Opportunity which seemed to favour his wicked Projection considering in what manner of Disposition the Spirits of the Greeks were at present in regard to the two Emperors and the Latins And certainly as for Isaac besides that he had ever been one of the most fantastical Men in the World and least capable of Governing as may be seen by his Character which I have given in the fifth Book of this History he seemed by his Imprisonment to have lost all that little Soul which he had before for he acted and said so many extravagant things after he had once entertained these crazed Imaginations that he was guilty of the most pleasant Dotage in the World for he sancied that he was destined one day to be the Universal Monarch of the World and that he should also recover his Sight together with the Vigour and Beauty of a flourishing Youth and become in a manner a Demi-God This was confirmed to him by his Astrologers who made a mere Fool of him and by the Monks of Constantinople the most of which since their Schism had shaken hands with Truth Honour and good Manners and studied nothing so much as the servile and unmanly Art of Flattering their Emperors even in their most sottish Follies thereby to procure good Entertainment for their Bellies which was the chief thing which these lazy Cheats and Hypocrites regarded These Extravagancies of the poor old Dotard brought him into the very last degrees of Contempt with the People who made no manner of account of him and in all publick Ceremonies and Transactions boldly named his Son before him Nor was the Son in much better Terms in the Opinion of his Subjects than the Father for by reason of the Confederacy which he had made with the Latins they had changed that Love which before they had for him into the most implacable Hatred the very name of the Latins was so odious to them that they could not hear it without Grief and Horrour esteeming them the Cause of all their Miseries and those Exactions which were made to satisfie the Treaty And to augment this Detestation the last Desolation of their City they knew was wholly owing to those lewd Fellows whom they protected in their Army although it was no fault of the Princes that Justice was not done upon them but so long as they kept themselves concealed the impossibility of Discovery who were the Authors of that horrible Fact which protected them from the Hand of Justice Murtzuphle therefore to make his Advantage of this great Aversion which the People had for the Emperors believed that his first Step was by Popularity to ingratiate himself with the discontented Multitude And this was no difficult matter for it was no more but his declaring himself a mortal Enemy of the Latins and he was sure of the People And the next thing was to find some way to create a Difference between the young Emperor and the Princes but yet so as that the Quarrel with the Latins might not diminish the People's Hatred against the Emperor which such a Difference he foresaw would be apt to do This indeed seemed no easie matter to do but yet notwithstanding all the difficulty he found the opportunity in a little time to effect it For this purpose being a Man of a most supple and smooth Conversation cunning complaisant and assiduous and besides having got the Reputation of being a Man of Spirit and Courage he presently conveyed himself into the Esteem and Affections of Alexis Insomuch that the young Prince who had not too much Soul nor was over-burdened with the Talent of Conduct and Government made this wicked Traitor his only Confident and that he might have him constantly near his Person he made him the great Master of the Wardrobe The insinuating Murtzuphle being thus got into his Bosom made use of all the Artifices which an ambitious Cheat could invent to render the Prince jealous and the Latins odious and suspected to him and to efface out of his Mind all the Obligations of his Benefactors and in short to oblige him to an open Breach and to declare War against them pretending that he did not doubt but to be able to furnish him with all things necessary for the carrying it on year 1203 and happy ending of it He laboured however some time in vain in regard that though he had gained a mighty Ascendant upon
from a Column which the People took for a Prophetick Mark of the Destiny of this miserable Prince conformable to an ancient Oracle which ran currant by Tradition among them at Constantinople That the Ox should bellow and the Bull should weep It is true that the Combats and the Victories of the great Theodosius were represented upon this Column as are to be seen at this day at Rome those of Trajan and Antoninus upon the two famous Columns there which bear their Names and thus it is possible that among those Figures there may be the Representation of some barbarous Prince falling headlong from a high Tower which they took for a Prediction of this Emperor's Destiny but that there should be any real Prediction either in this Figure or in the Story of the Bull 's weeping to forebode the Death of Murtzuphle is what I cannot easily believe For in short these sort of Prophecys of which there are numerous Examples are so obscure that they either signify nothing at all or all that one would have them signify and that commonly they are taken in a Sense far different from that wherein by the Event they explain themselves Witness that Prediction which they had and upon which the Greeks so much relied that the Latins should never take Constantinople by Force because the Prophecy told them that the City should never be taken but by an Angel But the foolish Greeks were mightily mistaken in their Interpretation as the Event shewed there being the Picture of an Angel in the very place where the City was forced And this ought to teach Christians not to amuse themselves with these Predictions which are not at all authorised by the Holy Scripture or the Church and ordinarily those over curious Persons in their own Sottishness and Credulity find their own Punishment the Event deceiving them by proving contrary to their Hopes and Expectation which are cheated by the Ambiguous Riddles such as were formerly the Oracles of the Pagans This was the tragical End of one of the Tyrants as for the other the old Alexis it is true indeed that his was not altogether so sad but altogether as unhappy For having for some time followed Leon Scurus one of his Sons-in-Law who pretended to oppose the Progress of Marquis Boniface in Macedon and Greece when he saw that all things stooped under the Arms of this Victorious Prince he despaired of being able to save himself to prevent his being taken therefore he voluntarily yeilded himself and the Empress Euphrosine with the imperial Ornaments to the Marquis who instantly sent them to the Emperor After which the poor Alexis only desiring wherewith to pass the rest of his miserable Age in some sort of Repose there were some Lands assigned him for that purpose but it being found out that he fell to his old trade of secret Caballing the Marquis to take from him the means of doing Mischief since he could not cure him of the Will to do it sent him Prisoner to Montferrat Some say that he found Means to escape from thence and to pass over into Asia to his other Son-in-Law Lascaris who had seized upon Nice and against whom this perfidious Dotard stirred up the Turks so that he was forced to take him and clap him into a Monastery where he had time to finish his Life in Repentance Thus the Empire of Constantinople about nine hundred Years after its Establishment under the great Constantine was translated from the Greeks to the French by the strangest and most memorable Conquest that ever was made by so small a Force and in so little a time being undertaken and accomplished in one Campagne year 1204 This may disabuse those who have imagined that the Crusade was not prosperous and certainly four great Estates established for the Christians between the Sea and the River Tygris Egypt and Armenia and all the Eastern Empire reduced under the Power of the Crusades are Conquests worthy the Fortune and the Glory of the Caesars and the Alexanders And if those who succeeded them failed of that good Fortune or the Conduct to preserve them it is not to be attribute to them who did so gloriously accomplish these noble Enterprises But as the Matters which happened afterwards under the French Emperors of Constantinople are not at all related to the Crusade it is not requisite that I speak further of them but proceed regularly to pursue the Course of my History and to describe the Success of those who took the other Way and followed other Designs THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The Design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His Death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcement to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Soldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land
purpose either broken by the Engines of the Town or burnt by the Greek Wildfire from which they were never able to secure them But the greatest of all the evils which the Besiegers suffered was the division which happened between the Infantry and Cavalry which had like in one day to have ruined the whole Army For the Cavalry in those times was in a manner wholly composed of Gentlemen who loved their ease and pleasure so much that they left the Foot to all the hard duty and exempted themselves from it The Foot who believed themselves undervalued loudly murmured against them reproaching them with want of Courage and accusing them of leaving them to shift for themselves in the most dangerous combats On the contrary the Cavalry maintained the quite contrary saying the Foot did nothing at all as appeared plainly in the last Battle within the Lines where the Infantry proved themselves good Footman in running for it and that all had been infallibly lost if the Cavalry had not spurred up to their assistance and almost alone repulsed the Enemies So that by the most foolish and strange adventure that ever was seen in an Army both Horse and Foot that they might manifest who had the greatest Courage and most Valour compelled the King to lead them against the Enemy and oblige them to a Battle It was then that St. Francis of Assise who by the earnest desire which he had to gain the Crown of Martyrdom by preaching the Faith to the Infidels was come to the Camp at Damiata and contrary to his custom in medling with matters which were not religious or agreable to his Profession opposed himself stoutly against this foolish Resolution And the Spirit of God being an Emanation of the divine Wisdom upon us which agrees perfectly with good sense and reason made him predict with a great deal of reason to these foolish Braves that if they would be so rash to undertake such an ill grounded Enrerprise it would prove fatal to them year 1219 But these People could hear no other Language but that of their Passions and such was their Fury that they compelled their Captains to go along with them making little Account of what St. Francis threatned them withal who was a man of no presence and whom they did not believe to be a Prophet Leaving therefore a few men to guard the Camp against the Besieged they marched against the Enemy in Battalia upon the nine and twentieth day of August The Sarasins upon the sight of them drew off and retreated into a large Champaign between the Nile and the Sea where there being no water and the season excessive hot they were reduced to the utmost extremities of weariness and thirst and broak all their Ranks and order to search for water to refresh themselves The Sarasins then who waited for this disorder to make advantage of it immediately faced about and came pouring upon the Cyprus Cavalry which was upon the left Wing and charging them in the Flank broak them and dissipated them in a moment whereupon the Italian Infantry who were covered by them presently fled and after them the Horse the Legate and Patriarch who carried the Cross being not able to stop them and in short all had been infallibly lost that day if the King who was in the main Battle perceiving the horrible disorder and letting the Fugitives pass by him that they might not hinder his march had not instantly advanced being followed by the Knights of the three orders the English French and Flemings who stopped the Pursuit of the Sarasins and made good an honourable retreat to their Camp where the Army entred well mortified with the ill Fortune which they had met withal in this foolish adventure For they lost above six thousand men besides the Prisoners among which were the Bishop of of Beauvais and his Brother Andrew de Chastillon Nantueil Gautier de Nemours Brother of Peter the Bishop of Paris John d' Arcis and Henry de l' Orme the Marshal of the order of St. John of Jerusalem and above thirty Knights of the Temple Thus the Prediction of the holy man St. Francis d' Assise was accomplished but he pursuing his principal design wandered from the Christian Camp and permitted himself to be taken by the Sarasins who after they had given him a thousand blows presented him to Meledin to get the reward which he had promised to those who should bring him a Christian dead or alive The good man notwithstanding this preached the Gospel to him with an admirable Zeal offering himself to the Flames for the proof of the truth thereof But he laboured in vain as to the design which he had propounded to himself being neither able to gain the Crown of Martyrdom by reason that the Sultan charmed with his discourse his Patience and his Vertue was so far from putting him to death that he gave him a thousand carresses and all the obliging Usage imaginable nor could he obtain the Conversion of this Prince the fear in which he was of his Subjects being more prevalent with him than the truth which was propounded to him So that the Saint finding there was no good to be done took his way back again and the Prayers which the Sultan whose presents he refused desired of him for his Salvation proved ineffectual by the just Judgement of God who rigorously punishes those who either out of fear or malice refuse his Grace and the tenders of Salvation For the Authors who have written for the Honour of St. Francis that in Virtue of his Prayers this Sultan was converted and baptized before his Death are under a mistake of the Sultan of Iconium who never saw St. Francis who this very year of the Siege of Damiata received Baptism at his death whereas this Sultan of Egypt neither died that year nor was ever baptized And it is a great weakness to give it no worse Title to make such fabulous relations of holy men for the Saints who in Heaven enjoy infinite happiness do neither desire nor stand in necessity that those who write their lives or make their Elogies should give them praises upon Earth that are not true whether it be in magnifiing their Actions or in attributing to them such miracles as may well be doubted and rationally disproved and which is the most abominable and pernicious flattery making them so perfect in all things as to be free from all manner of sin That which is certainly true in this matter is That Sultan Meledin not only treated St. Francis but after this the Christians and particularly the Prisoners with great humanity sending some of the principal of them to the Christian Camp to treat of a Peace year 1219 This Sultan who was a better Politician them a Soldier understood very well that notwithstanding his Victory he had many pressing Considerations to move him to labour all he could for a Peace All the provisions in the City were almost spent the Siege
many of the Crusades of all Nations believing that they had fully accomplished their Vow and being weary of a tedious War returned into their respective Countries and that which weakned them still more was that the King of Jerusalem who commanded the Army quitted them and returned into Palestine This King who was in no sort satisfied with the Legate who had so often shocked him and with whom he found it impossible to keep himself in any good Terms was not at all sorry to have a fair pretext to retire himself and the death of Livon the King of Armenia which then happened furnished him with a plausible reason to go and pursue the Right of the Queen his Wife who in Opposition to the Prince of Antioch pretended that that Realm appertained to her Besides he said that having heard that the Sarasins of Alepo were fallen into the Territories of the Templers he was obliged to go instantly to repel these dangerous Neighbours who made Advantage of his Absence So that notwithstanding what ever the Legate could remonstrate to him to stop his Journey he left the Command of the Army to him and imbarked with his Troops he carried them with him to the City of Acre promising nevertheless to return and join the Army so soon as he could But the long stay which he made to no purpose at Ptolemais year 1220 without either making War against the Sarasins or in Armenia made it evident that the reasons which he alledged to justifie his retreat were nothing but colourable pretences to withdraw himself So that the Crusades having not sufficient Troops to guard the Conquests and to march into the field were constrained to pass the Summer without doing any thing and in the Interim they writ to the Pope to intreat him to hasten the Supplies of the New Crusades which were expected and above all to procure the Emperor Frederick to put himself at the head of them that so under so great a General whose Commands no person would presume to dispute there might be no more such divisions as might retard the progress of the Christian Arms. This Prince who had more than once promised that he would presently accomplish his Vow yet continually put of the Voyage for reasons which appeared very plausible pretended that the present posture of the Affairs of the Empire would not admit of his Absence and that he had not yet received the Crown Imperial at Rome without which at that time they were scarcely thought to be compleat Emperors The Pope therefore to take from him these Excuses which he had hitherto made use of sent for him to Rome where he was solemnly crowned upon St. Cecily's day in St. Peter's Church together with the Empress Constance his Wife there he again received the Cross and renewed his Vow to take the Voyage to the Holy Land giving his Promise and his Oath to the Pope thereupon upon which Confidence the Pope writ to Damiata to encourage the Legate and Crusades assuring them that in the Month of March in the following year the Emperor would send before him the Duke of Bavaria the Bishop of Metz his Great Chancellour with considerable Succours and that he himself would follow in the Month of August with all his forces year 1221 The first part of his Promise he exactly performed and was something better than his word for besides that Lewis Duke of Bavaria according to his promise imbarked in the Spring with above four hundred Lords and Gentlemen Germans and Italians who conducted noble Troops which arrived happily at Damiata he also rigged out three and fourty Gallies out of the Ports of Sicily under the Command of the Bishop of Catania Chancellour of that Realm The Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans also brought thither great reinforcements as did the Arch-Bishops of Milan of Genoa and Candia and the Bishop of Brescia who were accompanied by many Italian Lords insomuch that the Legate who had a great longing to sight whilest he commanded the Army which he had once before drawn out to no purpose to meet the Enemy and now believed that with this reinforcement of so many brave Troops he might more easily execute his Enterprise He communicated his Design to the principal Commanders of the Army the Arch-Bishop of Milan and all the other Bishops who were constantly in the Council and they who were very willing to be at his Devotion were in his Opinion and all concluded as he did that such a flourishing Army ought not to lie idle but that without waiting any longer they ought to march against the Sultan who had not had much time to make his Preparations and who would doubtless perfect his Levies if they should any longer defer attacking of him But the Duke of Bavaria and so many Lords as accompanied him and generally all the Commanders who were not pleased to see a Churchman at the Head of an Army as a General in the day of Battle were unanimous in the opinion that since the Emperor could not possibly come so soon as was desired they ought to expect the King John de Brienne whom the whole Army desired as their General and who would most certainly be there in a very small time And in truth the Pope having understood that this Prince was withdrawn in discontent under pretence of the difference with the Prince of Antioch for the Kingdom of Armenia had writ to him in very pressing Terms to oblige him to return to Damiata and all the Lords of the Army who were resolved to have a Captain of his Quality and Valour pressed him so strongly to return and take the Command of the Army that in four or five days he arrived at Damiata and that which augmented the Joy of this happy return which was so welcome and had been so long hoped and wished by the Army was that Count Matthew Governour of Pavia for the Emperor came almost at the same time to anchor in the Port of Damiata with eight Gallies which Frederick year 1221 who was then in his Kingdom of Sicily had sent as a reinforcement upon which were seven hundred of the most brave among the Nobility and Gentry of Sicily who in their passage having met with twelve great Ships of the Sarasins had sunk four chaced the rest and taken two of them whom they brought in as the Trophees of their Victory to Damiata In this time Meledin who had had leisure to make advantage of this sad division which still continued between the King of Jerusalem and the Legate Pelagius being marched out of Grand Caire accompanied with his two Brothers Coradin Sultan of Damascus and Seraph Sultan of Alepo and the greatest part of his Allies which together made the greatest Army which they had ever had came and posted himself a little above the place where the Pelusiack and Tanitick the two Eastern Chanals of the Nilus divide themselves from each other there he retrenched himself very strongly and built a Fortress
proceedings he made a long Deduction in his Manifest how many and great Subjects he had of Complaint for the Injustices which he said were done him by Pope Innocent his Guardian during his Minority in seizing upon and usurping his Regalities and Rights and even by Honorius also whom he accused to have contrary to all Justice exacted many things of him which he was constrained to yield so much against his will that so he might receive from him the Imperial Crown which he could not in Justice have dispenced with himself in denying to place it upon the Head of an Emperour so lawfully Elected and who had two several times before been Crowned The Pope who was very prudent and of a temper very soft and sweet was resolved not to carry matters to Extremity and therefore he answered to these Complaints that he was a Father and that his Son though he were disobedient and undutiful yet was not therefore either a Stranger or an Enemy so long as there was any hope that he might return to his Duty He therefore satisfied himself to answer to the Complaints and Reproaches of Frederick with abundance of mildness in a long Letter which to speak properly was a Manifest or Apology for the Conduct of his Predecessors and his own year 1222 in reference to this Prince He exhorted him also by other Letters full of Tenderness and Reason seriously to recollect himself and to consider that as he was Emperor he was the Protector of the Church and that therefore he ought not to oppress her or take away her Liberties but to take pity of Christianity in the East which held up her suppliant hands to him from whom only she had hopes of being assisted But whether Frederick was moved by these Remonstrances of the Pope or whether he feared the dangerous consequences of this Rupture particularly in Lombardy where they began to form a great League against him it is certain that this procedure sweetned both Parties and that the Emperor satisfied the Pope taking all his Dominions into his Protection and that the Pope during all his Pontificate never proceeded further than these Menaces and Anathema's as may be seen plainly by the Letters of Honorius and that after this they both acted by Agreement for the Succour of the Holy Land in this following manner They had first a meeting at Veroli between the Cities of Anagnia and Sora where after a Consultation of five Dayes with the Cardinals they ordained that there should be another Conference to which were to be invited King John de Brienne the Legate Pelagius the Patriarch and the Great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who were better able than any others to give them such an understanding of these Affairs as might enable them to come to the last Resolution upon them After which the Emperor sent four Gallies to bring them over and upon their arrival this famous Conference was appointed to be held in Champagne in Italy the year following There it was that to ingage Frederick more strongly than ever to undertake this Holy War year 1223 it was agreed by common consent that this Prince who had in the preceeding year lost the Empress Constantia his Wife the Daughter of the King of Aragon should marry the Princess Jolante the Daughter of King John de Brienne the Heiress of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Conquest whereof it was believed he would take more Interest than before when it should be his own Estate for which he was to sight It was also ordained that in two Years he should part with all the Forces of the Empire at Midsummer to which those that were present and Parties obliged themselves by a Solemn Oath that whoever should fail in the performance of his Promise should be Excommunicate After which the Pope the Emperor and the King of Jerusalem parted every one to indeavour for his part according to his power to dispose all things for this Holy War which was to be begun two Years after For this purpose the King of Jerusalem who was able to do nothing more in Europe but to sollicite the Princes to contribute their part to this War went to desire the Assistance of England Spain Germany and above all in France where he arrived a little before the Death of Philip the August his Benefactor and Protector This great Prince who had laboured under a Quartan Ague for above a Year and who nevertheless did not cease to visit his Provinces and always to carry himself as a Great King with all the strength imaginable of a Soul which did not seem to be concerned at the weakness of the Body died this Year at the Castle of Mante the fourteenth day of July in the eight and fiftieth Year of his Age and the three and thirtieth of his Reign which by the Glory of his Actions by his Heroick Qualities by his Power and by the Force of his Arms he had rendred the most flourishing of all that France had ever seen since that of Charlemagne And as he had worn the Cross in the third Crusade which was famous for the remarkable winning of the City of Ptolemais so he gave in his Will a Noble Testimony of the Zeal which he still preserved for the Glory of Jesus Christ and for the Deliverance of his Holy Sepulchre For among other Magnificent Effects of his pious Liberality which are therein to be observed for the comfort and relief of the Poor for the Deliverance and Ransom of the Wife of Amauri Count de Montfort who was a Prisoner amongst the Albigenses and for other Works of Christian Piety he bequeathed three hundred thousand Livres for the Relief of the Holy Land one hundred thousand to King John de Brienne and so much to each of the two great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital nor was his going of the Theater of the World less glorious than his Actions on it year 1223 for there being at that time a Council assembled at Paris against the Albigenses they all assisted at his Funerals as did also the King of Jerusalem who was also present at the Coronation of Lewis the eighth the Son and Successor of King Philip. As for the Pope he being perswaded that it was to be in his Papacy that Palestine was to be reconquered which was the thing of the World which he most desired he did all that lay in his power to render the Crusade following most numerous and powerful He sent new Preachers throughout Europe to excite the People to undertake it he writ to the Bishops to oblige them to preach it themselves and to collect all the Money which the Ecclesiasticks were obliged to contribute out of their Revenues towards the carrying on of the Holy War And in short he did all that it was possible for him to do to oblige the Christian Kings and Princes to make Peace among themselves and to join their Forces to those of the Emperor and to march in Person
wherein he was he could not possibly brook the Sea But this little Voyage was very unfortunate to the poor Lantgrave for the Fever redoubling upon him he died in a few days after receiving the Sacrament from the hands of the Patriarch with great Piety and Devotion He was a Prince of an extraordinary merit and had so well profited by the Admirable Example of his Wise St. Elizabeth the Daughter of Andrew King of Hungary to whom he did not yield in Sanctity and it is said that it pleased God to make his Piety more resplendent after his death by diverse Miracles which were done at his Tomb. I cannot affirm positively what effect the death of this Prince had upon the Soul of Frederick or whether he believed that it furnished him with a specious Pretext to break of his Voyage but it is certain that after this he thought no more of departing but continually pretended that his Malady was the Obstacle to it insomuch that near forty thousand Crusades who were gone before him hearing this news they also suddenly returned to Brindes and from thence into their respective Countries Now the Pope who was then at Anagnia being informed in what manner the Emperor after having begun the Voyage had broken it off he was seized with an excessive Grief seing all the hopes which he had of the happy Success of this Crusade vanished in a moment He had no Consideration of what was alledged concerning the Indisposition of the Emperor he believed that it was all a Fiction and nothing but a false pretext which this Prince made who notwithstanding all his Oaths had no Inclination to accomplish his Vow thereby to elude the Punishments both of God and man And therefore without deferring any longer and without having recourse to Menaces or so much as giving him any notice of it or giving him longer time as had been done before he went in his Pontifical Robes accompanied with the Cardinals and the Prelates the nine and twentieth day of September being St. Michael's day to the great Church where he solemnly declared him excommunicate according to the Sentence to which he himself had voluntarily submitted before the two Legates of the late deceased Pope At the same time he writ to the Princes and Bishops throughout all Christendom his circular Letters wherein he shewed the reasons which had obliged him to have recourse to this severe Method which was the Crimes the Perjuries and the Artifices of the Emperor and especially That having nothing in readiness for the transportation of the Crusades at the time prefixed that he had with a formed design of mischeif stopped them that so the greatest part of the Army might perish by the Intemperance of the Air during the excessive heats of the year as accordingly it had unfortunately happened And in short he said that this Prince nevertheless having not the Power to stop them all but that in despight of his detestable Arts there still remained a great number who having set sail for Syria he had basely abandoned them under the pretence of a feigned Sickness by the most abominable Artifice that so he might return into his Realm and there plunge himself in his scandalous Debauches On the contrary Frederick furiously incensed against the Pope and resolving being as he was Potent and Vindicative to carry matters to the utmost Extremities of Revenge failed not also on his part to send to all the Kings of Europe year 1227 and to all the Princes of the Empire his Manifest in answer to the Pope's Letters wherein After having protested that the pressing Affairs of his Estate and the War which he was constrained to make against his Rebels had obliged him to desire those prolongations of time from the Pope which could not with any manner of Justice be denyed him That he took God to Witness that it was no feigned but a real Indisposition of Body which hindred him from pursuing that Holy Voyage which he had begun with a most real Intention of performing it and that in despight of the Injustice which was done him he was resolved so soon as he was in a Condition for it to undertake it anew And then inlarging himself in sharp Invectives against the abuses and the Crimes whereof he accused the Court of Rome he did what he could to interest all Crowned heads in that which he said was their several and particular concern and to perswade them to unite with him to oppose those Vsurpations which were designed against them and their temporal Rights which they held only and immediately from God alone These Letters which on both sides were with great diligence dispatched to all places produced the Effects which are usual in such quarrels as happen between Great men which is to divide into parties the People and the Writers of those times some declaring themselves for the Pope others for the Emperor and both the one and the other accusing their adverse Party of Calumnies and Impostures But the Emperor who was resolved to make use of other Arms besides Invectives that he might make his Vengeance the more remarkable instead of seeking for the Favour of absolution as the Pope by his Letters invited him to do found means to chase the Pope from Rome For having got to him the Frangepanis year 1228 and diverse other great Lords and Roman Barons who endeavoured nothing so much as powerfully to establish their own Fortunes He made them Princes and Feudatories of the Empire after a manner very advantageous unto them For he bought all their Lands for ready Money which he presently surrendred to them again to be held of him in Fee by making them take an Oath to do him true and Faithful Service and to obey all his Orders without exception so that upon their return to Rome the Pope having upon Holy Thursday anew excommunicated the Emperor they raised against him such a horrible Sedition among the People who in those times did not love the Domination of the Popes that he was constrained to quit Rome and for his Security to retire to Perusa In the mean time the Emperor who omitted nothing to satiate his Revenge terribly prosecuted the Ecclesiasticks whom he believed to adhere to the Pope ravaging their Lands and the Patrimony of the Church by the Sarasins whom he had transported out of Sicily into Pavia pillaging and Sacking the Houses of the Templers and the Hospitallers whom he held for Enemies and by his Lieutenants making a most cruel War in the Duchies of Spoleta and Beneventum and in the Marquisate of Ancona from whence King John de Brienne whom Gregory set to oppose him as his particular Enemy repulsed his Troops being speedily assisted by a powerful Succour from the Lombards who upon this occasion manifested a very great Zeal for the Service of the Church But all these Hostilities did not at last hinder Frederick from taking the resolution to undertake the Voyage into Palestine to which he found himself obliged
to do him prejudice and on the other that though he had a resolution to maintain a good understanding with the Empire yet he was not deposed to purchase it at the rate of so disobliging and dishonourable a refusal of his demands insomuch that this Prince as fierce as he was being afraid to provoke a King whom he both extremely honoured and feared in consequence upon his more cool and deliberate thoughts judged it convenient to satisfie him and therefore sent home his Bishops and Abbots into France In short this Accident so fatal to the whole Church and which ruined all the good designs of the Pope for the Holy Land did so afflict him that his extreme old Age although wonderful vigorous being unable long to resist the Violence of his Grief he died of Age and his resentment of this Blow about three Months after having for above fourteen years with marvellous Courage steered the Ship of St. Peter in that terrible Tempest which had been raised by the Quarrels year 1241 and Persecutions of Frederick Geossry de Chastillon a Milanese was thirty days after chosen by the name of Celestine the fourth and did immediately all that he could by writing to the Emperor Letters full of tenderness to sweeten his Spirit and incline him to restore Peace to the Church But the death of this Pope which followed within ten days after his Exhaltation hindred him from finishing what he had so happily begun After his death the Holy See was Vacant for above two years by reason that the Cardinals always refused to assemble unless Frederick would deliver their Bretliren who had protested the Nullity of such Elections as should be made without them and whom the Emperor persisted obstinately to detain all that time But at length Baldwin the Second the Emperor of Constantinople who in the extremity to which his Affairs were reduced was come in Person to desire the Assistance of the West wrought so effectually upon his Spirit already shaken by the Clamours of all Christendom that he restored them to their Liberty And then by common consent Cardinal Sinibald de Fiesque was chosen at Anagnia upon the twenty fourth day of June year 1243 who took the name of Innocent the fourth which he rendred so famous by his Virtue and by his Knowledge in the Canon Law of which he was called the Father It was the General belief of the World that this Election would fully reestablish the Peace of the Church in regard that this Pope while he was Cardinal had been a mighty Friend to Frederick and that at first the Emperor sent to him a magnificent Ambassage to congratulate him upon his Exaltation to offer him whatever was in his power by submitting himself intirely to him in all things the Rights and Dignities of his Empire and his Realms always excepted After this also he sent his Chancellor Peter de Vignes and Thadeus de Sessa who promised solemnly in his behalf and with an Oath that he would stand to his Judgment as to the satisfaction which he was to make insomuch that there seemed to remain no doubt but Peace would be concluded But this belief was quickly lost for the Pope having sent his Legates to the Emperor to let him know that he was ready to receive him to peace and to the Communion of the Church provided that he purged himself of those Crimes for which Gregory had condemned him and that Innocent on his side was disposed to give him satisfaction if in a General Council which should judge of it it should be found that he had offended This so exasperated the Emperor that he carried matters to the utmost Extremities so that the Pope finding that he was not in safety in Italy was obliged to take refuge in France which hath ever been the Sanctuary and retreat of persecuted Popes year 1244 But as the first and the greatest care which he had so soon as he was elevated to St. Peter's Chair was to reestablish Jerusalem and to secure it to the Christians by procuring all the Princes of Europe to contribute to the rebuilding of the Walls of that City so as to render it impregnable it was at the same time that he received a terrible Surcharge of grief by the sad news which he received of the intire desolation of that Holy City and the horrible Profanation of the Sacred places by the Corasmins whom the Tartars who ravaged the whole East had chased out of their Country And this is the Subject which I am next to recount this miserable accident being the principal Cause of the seventh and last Crusade which was wholly managed in a manner by the French under the King St. Lewis THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the Angust House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The
and that he would dispense with this Article of their Rule from which they could every day dispense with themselves in other points that were much more Essential For the Lord Joinville who executed his Orders most punctually going into one of their Gallies with a good Hatchet which he had already lifted up to break open one of their strong Coffers in the name of the King the Marshal of the Temple who found that he would be obeyed caused the Keys to be given him and thereupon he took out what Money he pleased and the King who was very well satisfied with the Action instantly caused to be paid to the Sarasins not only the thirty thousand Livres which was wanting of the Sum which was due but also ten thousand more of which they had cheated themselves without perceiving it in weighing the Money in their Scales So exact was this incomparable Prince religiously to observe his Word and Faith even to those who had none themselves and who had so brutally violated that which they had given him with so many horrible Oaths After which the Count de Poitiers whom the Sarasins set at Liberty being come up to the Road which Philip Count de Montfort where the King who after the Money was paid was now gotten and staid for them they set Sail and in a few Days came happily to an Anchor in the Port of Ptolemais where this great Prince was received with as much Joy for his deliverance as there had been sorrow for his Captivity THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The General Consternation all over France upon the News of the King's Imprisonment the Tumult the Shepherds their Original their Disorders and Defeat St. Lewis after his deliverance performs his Articles with great Justice The Admirals fail on their part The Original of the Hospital of the Fifteen Score The Councel debates the matter of the King's return The Reasons on the one side and the other It is at last concluded for his stay in Palestine Four Famous Ambassages to St. Lewis from Pope Innocent from the Sultan of Damascus from the Ancient of the Mountain and from the Emperor Frederick The Death of that Emperor and the different Opinions thereupon An Error of St. Lewis who loseth a fair opportunity of making use of one Party of the Sarasins to ruin the other The Election of a Mamaluke Sultan The gallant Actions of St. Lewis in Palestine The Death of Queen Blanch and the return of the King into France The Rupture and War between the Venetians and Genoese occasions the loss of the Holy Land The Conquests of Haulon Brother to the great Cham stops the Progress of the Sarasins The Relation of the Mamaluke Sultans They vanquish the Tartars which ravage Palestine The Character of Sultan Bendocdar the great Enemy of the Christians His Conquests upon them His Cruelty and the Glorious Martyrdom of the Souldiers of the Garrison of Sephet and of two Cordeliers and a Commander of the Temple The taking and Destruction of Antioch by this Sultan The quarrels between the Popes and the Princes of the House of Suabia obstruct the Succours of the West The Histories of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Conrade of Pope Alexander and Mainfrey against whom he vainly publishes Crusades The History of Charles d' Anjou to whom Pope Urban the Successor of Alexander and Pope Clement the Fourth give the Realms of Naples and Sicily as Fieffs escheated to the Church by Felony His Exploits his Battles and his Victories over Mainfrey and Conradin The deplorable Death of that young Prince The Victories of Charles cause the Pope and St. Lewis to entertain a Design for a new Crusade An Assembly at Paris about that Affair where the King the Princes and Lords take upon them the Cross All other Nations decline the Crusade The Collusion of the Emperor Michael Paleologus The Condition of the King's Army The Resolution taken to Attack Tunis and the Reasâ—ns wherefore The Description of Tunis and Carthage The taking of the Port the Tower and the Castle of Carthage The Malady makes great Destruction in the King's Army His Death Elogy and Character The Arrival of Charles King of Sicily The Exploits of the Army The Treaty of Peace with the King of Tunis who becomes Tributary to Charles The return of the two Kings their Fleet is horribly beaten by a Tempest Prince Edward of England saved his Vow to go to the Holy Land His Voyage his Exploits and his return The vain indeavours of Pope Gregory the Tenth for a new Crusade The second Council of Lyons The last causes of the loss of the Holy Land The quarrel among the Christian Princes for the Succession to the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Death of Bendocdar The defeat of his Successor by the Tartars The hopes of the recovery of all Palestine by the Arms of King Charles of Anjou ruined by the sad accident of the Sicilian Vespers The new division among the Princes and the Progress of the Mamaluke Sultans The Relation of the lamentable Siege and the taking of Acre by these Barbarians All the other places are lost and the Christians of the West wholly driven out of Palestine and Syria The vain and fruitless attempts which have since been made to renew the Crusades year 1250 WHilest matters went thus in the East the news which was received in France of the two Victories which the King had gained near Massora was followed with a false report which was currant of the defeat of the Sultan and the taking of Grand Caire And this coming from the Court of the Pope to whom the Bishop of Marseilles who had seen it in Letters Written to the Commandator of the Hospital of St. John had sent it Men being apt easily to believe that which they passionately desire there was no doubt made but it was true so that all was full of rejoycing even then when upon the suddain they were obliged to change this excessive joy into an extreme afflicton by the certain intelligence which they received of the loss of the whole Christian Army and the Captivity of the King and all the Princes And this Affliction was followed by most furious disorders year 1250 which were occasioned by the illusion and folly of some and the extreme Wickedness of others who made use of the simplicity of the former to commit with impunity the most detestable Crimes under the false pretences of Zeal and Piety for the deliverance of the King In Germany a Troop of Vagabonds mingled with young People and the Scum and Refuse of the Peasantry ran all over crying that they must make a Crusade for the deliverance of the Ring of France And a certain Hungarian Apostate of the Cistercian Order one of the most prosligate Villains in the World but very able and Learned in many Languages put himself at the
his Legates for his misfortune and writ to him most excellent Letters dated from Lyons the twelfth of August by which after he had said all the finest and most Christian things suitable to give consolation to a Prince in Afflictions of this nature he conjured him by no means to abandon Palestine but offered him all that he himself should think the Holy See was able to assist him in The Saâ—tan of Damascus also by his Ambassadors desired the conjunction of his Arms against the Mamalukes promising to yield to him thereupon the whole Kingdom of Jerusalem to which St. Lewis willingly accorded provided that the Admirals refused to give him satisfaction But they fearing the Arms of the King offered to give him all manner of satisfaction and to surrender to him all the Realm of Jerusalem which was in their hands provided that he would assist them against the Sultan of Damascus who they said offered the King what was none of his own And to manifest at this time that they dealt sincerely they sent immediately to him all the Christian Prisoners as also the Bones of Count Gantier de Brienne and sometime after the King peremptorily demanding that as a preliminary before he would enter upon a new Treaty with them they sent him the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls of Grand Caire and all the Children and Young People whom they had compelled to deny the Faith of Christ which alone were considerable Effects of the resolution which this Prince had taken to stay in Syria The Ancient of the Mountain also who at first according to his insolent custom had sent to demand a kind of Tribute which the other Princes had been used to pay him that thereby they might live in safety sent new Ambassadors to him with presents of Rock-Crystal in diverse Figures which was the only Rarity of his Country desiring his Amity and Protection in a most submissive manner And the King in return also sent him with rich presents Father Breton a Dominican who was very skilful in the Sarasin Language to endeavour his conversion although that pious design was not followed with answerable Success But that which was most taken notice of by the French Lords was the Ambassage of the Emperor Frederick who believing the King was still a Prisoner offered him all that lay in his Power for his deliverance and assured him that he had writ in most positive terms to the Sultan of Egypt of whose death he was then ignorant to let him know that he would renounce his Amity and his Alliance if he did not immediately restore the King to Liberty with all his People who were Prisoners In truth the greatest part of the French Lords distrusted the Intention of this Emperor in regard that although the King would never break with him notwithstanding his differences with the Pope yet nevertheless that Prince had alway manifested a displeasure because St. Lewis had protected Pope Innocent by affording him a Sanctuary in France and giving him the Liberty to hold a Council at Lyons where matters were carried so high against him However they rejoiced mightily that these Ambassadours did not arrive till after the King had regained his liberty in regard their was reason to be afraid lest if they found him still a Prisoner they might possibly have endeavoured underhand to hinder his deliverance But let it be as it will this was one of the last Actions good or bad that Frederick did for he died not long after in the same Year at Tarentum the third of December As the Actions of his Life were diversly discoursed of so was also his Death some will have it That he died impenitent without any fence of God or Religion without Sacraments That he was poysoned and also strangled by the hands of Mainfrey one of his Natural Sons whom he had made Prince of Tarentum and who by this Parricide thought to seize upon his Treasure and the Kingdom of Sicily And the Monk of Padua makes no manner of difficulty to send him directly to Hell loaden as he clownishly enough expresseth it with a Sack full of his sins On the contrary others affirm that he died very peaceably in his Bed between the Arms of the Arch-Bishop of Palermo year 1250 who gave him absolution he having confessed himself with marvellous Sentiments of contrition and humility that he forgave all his Enemies and submitted himself wholly to whatsoever the Church should ordain concerning the restitution of what appertained to it by his Will giving great Alms to pious uses and commanding that for the health of his Soul all the Prisoners which were in the Empire and in his other Kingdoms except Traitors to the State should be set at Liberty and in short saying and doing all the great things which might give hopes of his Salvation But it is frequent to find in History Relations directly contrary one to another which the Passions of contemporary Historians who have been ingaged in different Parties have left us and wherein it is not very easie to distinguish Truth from Falsehood which many times fails not of very plausible Probabilities to impose upon the Reader For my own part who if I could avoid it would neither deceive any nor be deceived I leave the Judgement of this Dead Prince to God Almighty to whom only it appertains and in his Character which I have given I have drawn both the good and the ill qualities which appeared during his Life and as to what appertains to the History of the Crusades I only say that as appears by an extract out of his last Will and Testament which may be seen in the Imperial Constitutions of Goldastus he gave a Legacy of a hundred thousand Ounces of Gold towards the carrying on the War for the recovery of the Holy Land and certainly this deserves so well that an Historian of the Crusades is bound to shew some respect to the Memory of an Emperor who after all performed many most brave and noble Actions if he had not had the misfortune to do some very ill ones year 1251 Mean while the King finding that he had now an Army able to take the Field he parted from Acre towards the end of the Winter and went to incamp near Cesarea which the Sarasins had demolished and which he undertook to rebuild and fortifie as he did neither the Sultan of Damascus nor the Egyptians offering to oppose him in regard that both the one and the other were in continual hopes to conclude their Treaty with him and to strengthen themselves by his assistance in the War which they were about to make Here it was that the Admirals of Egypt to anticipate their Enemy and ingage the King into their Party sent their Commissioners to assure him that they were ready to surrender the Young Runnegado's and the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls and Towers of Grand Caire and that they would also acquit him
fell upon it in his absence by the deadly division which had he been there he would have prevented and which was the last cause of the loss of the Holy Land The Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans who had most advantageously served in all the Crusades by their shipping had in Acre their quarter and their Jurisdiction assigned them and their Magistrate who was Independant of any other though the Church of the fair Monastery of St. Sabas was common to the three Nations for the celebration of the Divine Offices The Venetians and the Genoese who in those times rarely agreed had abundance of quarrels under diverse pretences which served to cover the true cause of all these Embroilments which in truth was the Jealousie of State and the Ambition which they had to be the sole Masters of the Sea and every one of them equally pretended that this Church appertained solely to their Republick And whereas Alexander the fourth who succeeded to Pope Innocent had declared that the Church ought to be in common to the three Nations the Genoese who first received this declaration nevertheless being supported by the Authority and the Forces of Count Philip de Montfort who was then the Governour of Ptolemais chased the Venetians from the City and seized upon the Church and the Monastery which they fortified in the form of a Cittadel They took for their Pretext a great violence which a Venetian had offered to a Genoese whom he used very scurvily and which had been sufficiently revenged by the Genoeses upon the Venetians who would never receive the excuses which had been offered to them in the name of the Republick which constantly disavowed these actions of private Persons The War then being declared in this manner by the Way of Fact year 1256 the Venetians assisted by the Pisans who declared for them in renouncing the Amity of the Genoese with whom they were confederated before rigged out a potent Navy year 1257 with which they seized upon the Port of Ptolemais burnt the Genoese ships entred the City and there fought gaining by Inches the quarter of the Enemy besieging and forcing the Monastery year 1258 the Church of St. Sabas and chasing from Ptolemais Count Philip and the Genoese who retreated to Tyre from whence coming the year following with nine and forty Gallies and four great men of War they came to a great Battle which they lost between Ptolemais and Caiphas So that the Cities the Princes the Lords and all the Knights of the Country being divided upon this quarrel some declaring for the Venetians and others for the Genoese their happened between these two Potent Republicks a most cruel War which being from time to time suspended by Feeble Treaties which were quickly broken continued for a whole Age to the great prejudice of all Christendom and especially to the Affairs of the East being the principal Cause of the irreparable loss of all And certainly the Sarasins of Syria and Mesopotamia had not failed upon such a deplorable opportunity as was this miserable division to have ruined the Christians of the Holy Land if God had not at the same time raised other Enemies against those Infidels to destroy them For the Tartars having subdued all Persia passed over the Tygris under the Conduct of Halon the Brother of Mangon the Great Cham of Tartary That Prince who is reported to have been a Christian and a great Enemy to the Mahometans having endeavoured to push his Conquests to the Mediterranean Sea was now going to lay Siege to the City of Bagdad which is not as hath been believed the ancient Babylon of the Chaldeans which was situate upon the River Euphrates and of which there are now not so much as the ruins remaining For this which still carries something of the Name is above fifty miles from Euphrates and stands upon the Tygris near the place where was anciently the Famous City of Seleucia There was the principal Seat of the Mahometan Empire in those times where the Caliph whom all the other Sultans acknowledged at least in appearance for their Head and the cheif Priest of their Law kept his Court. Now the Caliph then in being as he was not at all martially inclined so was so extremely covetous that though he was prodigiously rich yet would he not be at any Charge either to fortifie the City or to maintain a good Garrison so that the City was instantly taken by the Tartar who after he had put to the Sword all the Sarasins which he found there caused the miserable Caliph to be locked up in one of the Chambers where his Treasure lay amongst an infinite quantity of Rich Furniture Plate Money and Jewels telling him with a terrible and Bloody Rallery that since he so delighted in Riches and was so passionately in Love with Gold and Silver he should be treated according to his Inclinations and eat nothing less delicate than Gold Thus this Unfortunate Miser who was the last of the Caliphs the Successors of Mahomet died with hunger in the midst of a most incredible abundance of Gold Silver Pearls and Gemms the sight whereof would not content nature or satisfie her necessities and with which if he had known how to use them he might have avoided this miserable Destiny and at least have died nobly at the head of an Army sighting for his Life and Liberty with this Treasure which would have raised and paid them and have possibly secured him from this insolent Tartar A great but most just punishment of a Covetous Wretch who having all his Life made Idols of his Riches without daring to touch them more than if they had been most Sacred things deservedly learnt at his death that these false Divinities had not the Power either to save his Soul or his Body and that Gold and Silver are no further valuable than by the good use which is made of them year 1259 After this Victory the Tartar Prince entred into Mesopotamia which yielded to the Conqueror without resistance took Edessa passed the Euphrates made himself Master of Samothracia Emessa Haman Harenc and all the places which the Sultan had taken from the Christians in Syria besieged and by storm took Alepo which is thought to have been the Ancient Berea and there he took the Sultan Prisoner whom he carried in Irons to Damascus constraining the Inhabitants to yield after they had seen their Captive Sultan put to death before their Eyes And from thence returning with a small retinue into Tartary upon the news which arrived of his Brother's death to whom he was to succeed year 1260 he left the Command of the Army to his Lieutenant Cathogoba And he who was imbroiled with the Christians whom before he seemed to favour entred into the Realm of Jerusalem and there took Cesarea and Sidon and began to threaten Ptolemais when the Christians received a suddain assistance from Egypt from whence they least expected it The first of the Mamaluke Sultans Atbec or
Abagas King of the Tartars that he would go in Person into Palestine against the Sultan Bendocdar He also caused a fair Fleet of Men of War to be fitted out at Barcelona and a great many Gallies and imbarked himself in the beginning of September one thousand two hundred sixty nine a year before St. Lewis But being near the Isles of Majorca and Minorca met with a furious Tempest which threw him upon the Coasts of Languedoc he went no farther than Aigues-Mort from whence he returned by Land into his own Kingdom alledging for the hiding of a certain shameful and criminal Passion which governed his Soul and which possibly was the true cause of his altering his resolution That he was well satisfied that God dispensed with him for his Voyage which he made known by this accident was not at all pleasing to him so that there were only some few Ships of this Fleet which arrived at Ptolemais with Dom Ferdinand Sancho the Son of this King who presently after returned again without doing any thing As for what concerned the Greek Emperor he acted in this occasion only like a Politician for his own private Interest without ever intending to have any share in this War This Emperor was Michael Paleologus who about eight years before had taken Constantinople by Treachery from the Latins who lost that Empire under Baldwin the Second which Baldwin the First had so gloriously conquered with the French and Venetians about fifty eight years before This Greek Prince who feared to be attack'd on the side of Asia by Bendocdar after that Sultan should have conquered Syria and Palestine and who was already on the Coast of Greece by the New King of Sicily did all that possibly he could with the Pope and the Princes of the West to ingage them in a War against the Sarasins And in regard that the Pope had written to him That the way to secure himself from the Arms of the Latin Princes was to unite the Greek Church with the Latin and to go in Person as did St. Lewis to this Holy War he promised Shipping Provisions and Souldiers and all that could be desired for the War He also sent his Ambassadors into France offering to make the King the Arbiter of the difference which was about the Re-union of the two Churches but St. Lewis who would not undertake to be Judge in a matter of this nature which was purely spiritual remitted him to the Judgment of the Sacred College the Holy See being then vacant by the Death of Pope Clement who deceased about the end of the preceding year But after all this Emperor who was extreme politick had no desire or design either to make a true Re-union or to joyn with the Latin Princes in the Holy War All his Design was only to engage them in a Crusade and thereby to deliver himself from the fear which he had of the Sarasins and the King of Sicily So remote are the Intentions of Princes who act purely according to the Maxims of human Policy from what they seem to appear to those with whom they negotiate with a design to delude them And for the King of England to whom the Pope had at first sent the Cardinal Othobon his Legate he was too far advanced in years and too much oppressed with his own Affairs by reason of the troubles of his Realm to be in a condition to perform the Vow which he had made in taking upon him the Cross and to acquit himself of the Promise by which he was ingaged to the King to accompany him in this War with five hundred Knights for whom the King gave him a years pay in hand and believed that without restoring the Money he satisfied fully for all in giving his Blessing to his Son Prince Edward who not being in a condition to enter upon Action till after the Death of St. Lewis was able to do almost nothing in Palestine Thus of above two hundred and fifty thousand men which were levied in Europe there were none but the Troops of St. Lewis which were about sixty thousand men and the few Spaniards which went with the King of Navarr his Son-in-Law which were in a condition to pursue this Voyage Nevertheless he undertook it with so much resolution as if he had had the Forces of the whole Earth year 1269 The difficulty was only to resolve whither he should go and after having a long time conferred upon this Affair with the Ambassadors of the King of Sicily he resolved at last to go first against Tunis before he undertook to attack the Sultan of Egypt It was for this purpose represented to the King that he ought to begin with the Realm of Tunis if he would go immediately as in reason one ought to do to the Spring and the Root of the Mischief in regard that it was from Tunis that the Sultans of Egypt drew their principal Forces their Horses and the best of their men And besides that in leaving this Kingdom in their Reer as they must do if they marched directly against Egypt or into Palestine they must expose themselves to the hazard of losing their Convoys and the Supplies which were to come from Europe which would run the Fortune of being defeated and taken by the Shipping of these African Pirates who were continually crusing upon the Seas There were also many other Politick Considerations added which are easie to be found out when People are resolved to maintain an Opinion But in Truth that which was most prevalent was that the Inclinations of the two Kings were both conformable to this Enterprise for two very different Reasons For Lewis who like a great Saint regulated all his Actions by the Principles of Piety and Christianity believed that in shewing himself before Tunis that Moorish King who had given him hopes of his Conversion would turn Christian and be baptized which the King most passionately desired as appeared by what he said to the Ambassadors of that Prince whom he commanded to acquaint their Master That he would be contented with all his heart to be a Slave to the Sarasins again and to pass the rest of his Life in the most dreadful of their Dungeons and never more to see the Sun provided that the King of Tunis would with his whole Realm embrace the Faith of Jesus Christ But Charles who was more Politick than Devout resolved to make use of such a fair opportunity to assure himself of that Realm which without doubt was very convenient for the security of the Coasts of Naples and Sicily Thus the two Brothers resolved each upon the same thing though both of them for private Reasons which they did not impart to any Persons but only concluded upon the Enterprise against Tunis the King who fore-saw that it would not meet with a general approbation reserved the Declaration of his Resolution till he came to Cagliari in the Isle of Sardinia at which place he had appointed the Rendezvous of