errour and cause of their overthrow For though those souldiers who mean to be false will never be made faithfull in what place soever they be bestowed yet may they be made lesse dangerous if cast into the body or main battel of the army whence they have no such scope to fling out and to take advantage of place to do mischief as they have either in the front or wings thereof Thus in Cesars time Crassus an experienced Generall under him being to bid the Gauls battel auxiliares copias quibus ad pugnam non multùm confidebat in mediam aciem collocavit that so being hemmend in before and behind they might be ingaged to fight manfully without starting away And to instance in later times our Richard the third who though he usurped the Crown had as none will deny a true title both to prowesse and martiall policie marching to Bosworth placed suspected persons whose bodies were with him and hearts with Earl Henry in the midst and those whom he most trusted before behind and on every side The battel being joyned the Turks ranne over to the other side though some braved them onely with cowardlinesse not treachery and that they fled from the battel but not fell to the enemies The Christians manfully stood to it and though over-powred in number made a great slaughter of their enemies till at last they were quite overthrown Of the Teutonick Order escaped but three of three hundred Templars but eighteen of two hundred Hospitallers but nineteen The patriarch to use his own words whom God reputed unworthy of martyrdome saved himself by flight with a few others And this great overthrow to omit lesse partner-causes is chiefly imputed to the Templars former so often breaking the truce with the Sultan of Babylon Thus were the Christians conquered by the Corasines and beaten by a beaten nation Palestine being wonne by those who could not keep their own countrey Improving this victorie they left nothing to the Christians but Tyre Ptolemais and Antioch with some few forts Soon after these Corasines elated herewith fell out with the Sultan himself who in anger rooted out their nation so that none of their name remained Yea all writers are silent of them both before this time and ever after as if God at this very instant had created this people to punish Christians which service performed they were annihilated again Chap. 11. Lewis the ninth setteth forward against the Turks The occasion of his journey and his attendants SOme two years after Lewis the ninth of that name King of France came to assist the Christians The occasion of his voyage this He had been visited with a desperate sicknesse insomuch that all art cried craven as unable to help him and the Physicians resigned him to Divines to begin with him where they ended They also gave him over and for a while he lay in a trance not the least breath brought news of any life left in him Then Blanch the Queen-mother and Queen of mothers for her care of her sonne and his Kingdome applied a piece of the Crosse unto him Thereat whether thereby let others dispute he revived and recovered and thereupon was Croised and in thankfulnesse bound himself with a vow to sail to the Holy land But his Nobility disswaded him from that designe The dangers were certain the successe would be doubtfull of so long a journey his own Kingdome would be left desolate and many mischiefs unseen as yet would appear in his absence Besides his vow was made in his sicknesse whilest reason was scarce as yet in the peaceable possession of his mind because of the remnant-dregs of his disease It might also be dispensed with by the Pope yea his deserts did challenge so much from his Holinesse King Lewis as perswaded hereat laid down the Crosse to the great comfort and contentment of all the beholders But then altering his countenance he required the Crosse should be restored to him again and vowed to eat no bread untill he was recognized with the Pilgrimes badge And because his vow should suffer no diminution or abatement from his disease now no longer Lewis the sick but Lewis the sound undertook the holy Warre His Nobles seeing him too stiff to be unbent and counting it a kind of sacrilegious counsel to disswade him from so pious a work left him to his own resolutions There went along with him his two brothers Charles Earl of Anjou Robert Earl of Artois his own Queen and their Ladies Odo the Popes Legate Hugh Duke of Burgundie William Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of St. Paul and William Longspath Earl of Sarisbury with a band of valiant English men who went without licence from Henry King of England For in those dayes this doctrine went currant That their Princes leave was rather of complement then essentiall to their voyage as if the band of this holy Warre was an acquitance from all others Our Henry displeased at this Earls departure for his disobedience deprived him of his Earldome and castle of Sarisbury not suffering that sheep to grase in his pasture which would not own him for his shepherd William also sonne to this Earl smarting for his fathers fault never enjoyed that honour And though King Henry himself being a Prince of more devotion then policie did most affectionately tender this Holy cause yet he used this necessary severity towards this Earl at this time first because it would weaken his land thus to be dispeopled of martiall men secondly his subjects forwardnesse might be interpreted a secret check of his own backwardnesse in that warre thirdly the sucking in of forrein aire did wean people from their naturall Prince and did insensibly usher into their hearts an alienation from their own Sovereigne and a dependence on the King of France lastly he had some thoughts on that voyage himself and reserved such prime Peers to attend on his own person thither The Pope gave to this King Lewis his charges the tenth of the Clergies revenues through France for three years and the King imployed the Popes collectours to gather it knowing those leaches were the best suckers Hereupon the states of the Clergy were shaved as bare as their crowns and a poore Priest who had but twenty shillings annuall pension was forced to pay two yearly to the King And this by my Authour is made the cause of his following ill successe there being much extortion used by his under-officers No wonder then if the wings of that army did quickly flag having so heavy a weight of curses hanging upon them And though money be the sinews of warre yet ill-gotten money like gouty sinews rather paineth then strengtheneth True it is that this pious King was no way guilty thereof but such as were under him and oftentimes the head doth ach for the ill vapours of the stomach He himself most princely caused to be proclaimed through his realm If any merchant
Martine his servant that he who so long had shared of his miserie might also partake of his happinesse No sooner had this Duke put to sea but he was again taken by pirates and the Sultan out of pitie to this distressed Prince and out of scorn that fortune should frustrate and defeat his reall courtesie set him free again At last he came safely home and was there welcomed with asmuch wonder as joy his subjects conceiving his return a resurrection having buried him in their thoughts long before Here he found two counterfeits who pretended themselves to be this Duke and on that title challenged lodging with Anastasia his Lady But the one of them had a softer bedfellow provided him a pool of water wherein he was drowned the other was made a bonefire of to solemnize the joy of the Dukes return Chap. 31. Charles King of Ierusalem His intentions in Syria stopped by the Sicilian Vespers His death and sonnes succession BY this time Charles King of Jerusalem and Sicily had made great preparations for the Holy war And to make his claim to the Kingdome of Jerusalem the stronger he bought also the title of Maria Domicella Princesse of Antioch which pretended aright to the same He sent also Roger the Count of S. Severine as his Vice-roy to Ptolemais where he was honourably received in despite of Hugh King of Cyprus by the especial favour of Albertine Morisine the Venetian Consul there And now his navie was reported to be readie and that by the way he had a project upon Michael Paleologus the Emperour of Greece Whē all his intentions were suddenly blasted it so happening that on Easter day as the bell tolled to Even-song all the throats of the Frenchmen in Sicily were cut in a moment by the natives thereof and that Island won by Peter King of Aragon The grand contriver of this massacre was one Jacobus Prochyta a Physician and I dare say he killed more in an houre then he cured all his life-time Those that condemn the Sicilians herein cannot excuse the French such formerly had been their pride lust covetousnesse and crueltie to the people of that Island putting them causelesly to exquisite torture so that an ordinary hanging was counted an extraordinarie favour But the secrecie of contriving this slaughter of the French was little lesse then miraculous that so many knowing it none should discover it like cunning dogs barking in triumph after they had bitten not before to give any warning Hence grew the proverb of the Sicilian Vespers though their Even-song was nothing to the English Mattens intended in the Gunpowder-Treason Mean time King Charles was at Rome beholding the making of Cardinals when this doleful news was brought unto him and struck him to the heart He survived a year or two longer but dull and melancholick living as it were without life and died at last having reigned King of Jerusalem twentie year A Prince which had tasted of various successe fortune for a while smiling on him and at last laughing at him His son Charles succeded him in the Kingdome of Naples and in the title of Jerusalem He was surnamed Cunctator Delayer not in the same sense as Fabius the Shield of Rome was so called he onely stayed till opportunitie was come our Charles till it was passed I find nothing memorable of him except this That offended with the Templars in Palestine for taking part against him with the King of Cyprus he seised on their lands and confiscated all their goods they had in Naples or any other part of his dominions How ever let him have room in the catalogue of our Kings of Jerusalem For as high hills near the sea-side though otherwise never so base and barren ground yet will serve to be sea-marks for the direction of mariners so this Charles together with Hugh John and Henry Kings of Cyprus pretending also to Jerusalem though we reade nothing remarkable of them will become the front of a page and serve to divide and distinguish times and to parcell the historie the better to our apprehension As for the bare anatomie of their reigne for we find it not fleshed with any historie with the dates of their beginnings and endings we shall present it to the reader hereafter in our Chronologie Chap. 32. The succession of the Mammaluke Princes in Egypt Alphir taketh Tripoli and Tyre The wofull estate of Ptolemais BUt whilest these titular Kings slept the Mammaluke Princes were vigilant to infest the reliques of the Christians in Palestine Which Princes succession we will adventure to set down nor are we discouraged with the difficulties which encounter us herein The hardnesse in the story of the Mammalukes proceedeth as we conceive from one of these causes First the State is not written directly but by reflexion not storied by any constant writer of their own but in snaps and parcels as the Chroniclers of neighbouring Christian countreyes have catched at them Secondly out of a popular errour their chief Captains by reason of their large authoritie passe for absolute Kings Thirdly the same King hath many names and the same name by translation in sundrie languages is strangely disguised How-ever we will use our best conjectures in these uncertainties and a dimme candle is better then no light Bendocdar or Bandodacar otherwise Melechdaet was the last Egyptian Prince we mentioned A dangerous man to the Christians but that Abaga the Tartarian took him to task and kept him in continuall imployment This Abaga had a prettie trick to make cowards valiant causing them that ranne away from the battell ever after to wear womens clothes Bendocdar died at Damascus of a wound he received in Armenia or as some say by cold in swimming over Euphrates Elpis succeeded him his sonne say some but the Mammalukes laws forbid that except his extraordinary worth was his facultie and dispenied with him ad succedendum patri But who knoweth not that the Eastern tongue speaketh nephewes and kinsmen to be sonnes Some wholly omit him enough to make us suspect that he was onely some Deputy clapped in to stop up the vacancie till Melechsaites was chosen Melechsaites called by Marinus Melechmessor wonne the strong castle of Mergath from the Hospitallers He much loved and was very bountifull to the Carmelites who lived dispersed in Syria but afterwards he banished them out of his countrey because they altered their habit and wore white coats at the appointment of Pope Honorius the Turks being generally enemies to innovations and loving constancy in old customes Nor was this any mishap but an advantage to the Carmelites to lose their dwellings in Syria and gain better in Europe where they planted themselves in the fattest places So that he who knoweth not to choose good ground let him find out an house of the Carmelites a mark that faileth not for his direction Alphir was next to Melechsaites otherwise called Elsi He perceiving that now or never was the time
the portraiture of a dead man lying on his shroud the most artificially cut in stone saith my Authour that ever man beheld Others had rent assigned them of 200l 80l l 60l l 50l l 20l l 10l l according to their severall qualities and deserts At the same time justs and tornaments were held at Westminster wherein the challengers against all comers were Sr John Dudly Sr Thomas Seymore Sr Thomas Poinings Sr George Carew Knights Anthonie Kingstone and Richard Cromwell Esquires To each of whom for reward of their valour the King gave a hundred markes of yearely revenues and a house to dwell in to them and their heires out of the lands belonging to these Hospitallers And at this time many had Danae's happinesse to have golden showres rained into their bosomes These Abbey-lands though skittish mares to some have given good milk to others Which is produced as an argument That if they prove unsuccessefull to any it is the users default no inherencie of a curse in the things themselves But let one keep an exact Register of lands and mark their motions how they ebbe and flow betwixt buyers and sellers and surely he will say with the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is most sure Let land be held in never so good a tenure it will never be held by an unthrift The Hospitallers Priory-church was preserved from down-pulling all the dayes of King Henry the eighth but in the third yeare of King Edward the sixth with the bell-towre a piece of curious workmanship graven gilt and enamelled it was undermined and blown up with gunpowder and the stone imployed in building the Lord Protectours house in the Strand Thus as chirurgeons in cutting off a gangrened leg alwayes cut it off above the joynt even where the flesh is whole and sound so belike for fear of further infection to banish Monkerie for ever they rased the structures and harmlesse buildings of Priories which otherwise in themselves were void of any offence They feared if Abbeys were onely left in a swound the Pope would soon get hot water to recover them To prevent which they killed them and killed them again overturning the very foundation of the houses infringing altering and transferring the lands that they might never be reduced to their own propertie Some outrages were committed in the manner of these dissolutions Many manuscripts guilty of no other superstition then red letters in the front were condemned to the fire and here a principall key of antiquitie was lost to the great prejudice of posteritie But in sudden alterations it is not to be expected that all things be done by the square and compasse Chap. 8. Queen Mary setteth up the Hospitallers again They are again deposed by Queen Elisabeth QUeen Mary a Princesse more zealous then politick attempted to restore Abbeys to their pristine estate and former glory And though certain of her counsellers objected that the state of her Kingdome and dignity thereof and her Crown imperiall could not honourably be furnished and maintained without the possession of Abbey-land yet she frankly restored resigned and confirmed by Parliament all ecclesiasticall revenues which by the authority of that high Court in the dayes of her Father were annexed to the Crown protesting she set more by her salvation then by ten Kingdomes But the Nobilitie followed not her example They had eaten up the Abbey-lands and now after twenty yeares possession digested and turned them into good bloud in their estates they were loth therefore to emptie their veins again and the forwardest Romanist was backward enough in this costly piece of devotion However out of her own liberalitie she set up two or three bankrupt Covents as Sion and Westminster and gave them stock to trade with The Knights also of S. John of Jerusalem she reseated in their place and Sr Thomas Tresham of Rushton in Northamptonshire was the first and last Lord Prior after their restitution For their nests were plucked down before they were warm in them by the coming in of Queen Elisabeth To conclude in the founders of religious houses were some good intents mixt with superstitious ends amongst the Religious persons themselves some pietie more loosnesse and lazinesse in the confounders of those houses some detestation of the vices of Friars more desire of the wealth of Friaries in God all just all righteous in permitting the badnesse and causing the destruction of these numerous Fraternities Chap. 9. Observations on the Holy warre The horrible superstition therein WE have finished the story of the Holy warre And now I conceive my indentures are cancelled and I discharged from the strict service and ties of an Historian so that it may be lawfull for me to take more libertie and to make some observations on what hath been past Before I go further I must deplore the worlds losse of that worthy work which the Lord Verulam left unfinished concerning the Holy warre an excellent piece and alas it is but a piece so that in a pardonable discontent we may almost wish that either it had been more wholly to have satisfied our hunger or lesse not at all to have raised our appetite It was begun not in an historicall but in a politick way not reporting the Holy warre past with the Turks but advising how to manage it in the future And no doubt if he had perfected the work it would have proved worthy the Authour But since any have been deterred from finishing the same as ashamed to add mud-walls and a thatched roof to so fair a foundation of hewen and polished stone From that Authour we may borrow this distinction That three things are necessary to make an invasive warre lawfull the lawfullnesse of the jurisdiction the merit of the cause and the orderly and lawfull prosecution of the cause Let us apply it to our present purpose in this Holy warre For the first two Whether the jurisdiction the Christians pretended over the Turks dominions was lawfull or not and Whether this warre was not onely operae but vitae pretium worth the losing so many lives we referre the reader to what hath been said in the first Book Onely it will not be amisse to adde a storie or two out of an Authour of good account When Charles the sixth was King of France the Duke of Bourbon sailed over into Africa with a great armie there to fight against the Saracens The Saracen Prince sent an herald to know of him the cause of his coming The Duke answered it was to revenge the death of Christ the Sonne of God and true Prophet whom they had unjustly crucified The Saracens sent back again their messenger to demonstrate their innocencie how they were not Saracens but Jews which put Christ to death and therefore that the Christians if posteritie should be punished for their predecessours fault should rather revenge themselves on the Jews which lived amongst them Another relateth that in the yeare of our Lord 1453
but lust boreth them out Yea now she pleaded that she might be no longer wife to the King because she was too near unto him within the degrees forbidden This new-started scruple never troubled her before but some have sluces in their consciences and can keep them open or shut them as occasion requireth Chap. 29. Damascus besieged in vain The return of the Emperour and King with the censure on this voyage THe late-come Pilgrimes having sufficiently recreated themselves the Emperour and the King of France concluded to besiege Damascus for a small town was conceived too narrow an object of their valour whilest so eminent an action was adequate to the undertakers Damascus is so pleasant a city that Mahomet durst never enter into it lest this deceiver should be deceived himself and be so ravished with the pleasures of the place that he should forget to go on in that great work he had in hand Some make Eliezer Abrahams steward builder of this citie because he is called Eliezer of Damascus though that phrase speaketh him rather to have had his birth or dwelling there then the city her building from him To passe this by because as the foundations are hidden in the ground so the founders of most ancient places are forgotten It was for many years after the Metropolis of Syria and was now straitly besieged by the Christians with great hope of successe had they not afterwards fallen out amongst themselves who should eat the chickens before they were hatched Conrade and King Lewis destined the city to Theodorick Earl of Flanders lately arrived in those parts whilest other Princes which had been long resident in Palestine and born the heat of the warre grudged hereat and their stomachs could not digest the cruditie of a raw upstart to be preferred before them Yea some of the Christians corrupted with Turkish money though when they received it it proved but guilded brasse may all traitours be payed in such coin perswaded the King of France to remove his camp to a stronger part of the walls which they long besieged in vain and returned home at last leaving the city and their honours behind them The French proverb was verified of this voyage Much bruit and little fruit They not onely did no good in the Holy land save that some think their coming advantaged King Baldwine for the taking of the city of Askelon but also did much harm For now the Turks seeing one city both bear the brunt and batter the strength of both armies began to conceive that their own fear was their greatest enemy and those swords of these new Pilgrimes which they dreaded in the sheath they sleighted when they saw them drawn and shook off that aw which had formerly possessed them of the strength of the Western Emperour Many thousand Christians perished in this adventure whose souls are pronounced by all the writers of this age to be carried up into heaven on the wings of the holy cause they died for Whose blessed estate I will not disprove nor will I listen to the unhappy Dutch proverb He that bringeth himself into needlesse dangers dieth the devils martyr We must not forget how the French King coming homeward was taken prisoner by the fleet of the Grecian Emperour and rescued again by Gregory Admirall to Roger King of Sicilie When he was safely arrived in France in open Parliament his wife was divorced from him Her nearnesse in bloud was the onely cause specified and the King took no notice of her inconstancy accounting those but foolish husbands who needlessely proclaim their wives dishonesty He gave her back again all the lands in Francâ— which he had received with her in portion scorning her wealth which neglected his love Herein he did nobly but not politickly to part with the Dukedomes of Poictou and Aquitain which he enjoyed in her right for he brake his own garland by giving her her flowers back again mangled and dismembred his own Kingdome and gave a torch into Henry King of England his hands who afterwards married her to set France on fire Chap. 30. An apologie for S. Bernard whom the vulgar sort condemned for the murderer of those that went this voyage SLander quicker then Martiall law arraigneth condemneth and executeth all in an instant This we may see in poor S. Bernard who was the mark for every mans tongue to shoot arrows against and when this voyage had miscarried many condemned him because his perswasion set this project not onely on foot but on wings as if he had thrust so many men as one morsell into the jaws of death But much may be alledged truly to excuse this good man First he was but an instrument imployed by Pope Eugenius and a Provinciall Council of French Bishops to forward the designe Rather then should they have blamed his Holinesse who set him on work But the saddle oftentimes is not set on the right horse because his back is too high to be reached and we see commonly that the instruments are made skreens to save the face of the principall from scorching Secondly the true cause of the ill successe was the vitiousnesse of the undertakers For Germany at this time foâ—feted of lewd people and those grew the fattest which lived on the high-wayes But this voyage robbed the whole countrey of her theeves and then no wonder if they found their death in Asia who deserved it in Europe Hear what Otho Frisingensis who went this voyage speaketh impartially in the matter If we should say that Bernard that holy Abbot was inspired by Gods Spirit to inciâ—e us to this warre but we through our pride and wantonnesse not observing his holy commands deservedly brought on our selves the losse of our goods and lives we should say nothing but what is agreeable to reason and to ancient examples However it was an heavie affliction to S. Bernards aged back to bear the reproch of many people it being a great grief for one to be generally condemned as guilty for want of proof of his innocency And though God set his hand to S. Bernards testimoniall by the many miracles which that Father wrought yet still some challenged him for a counterfeit And surely this humiliation was both wholesome and necessary for him For the people who cannot love without doting nor approve without admiring were too much transported with an high opinion of this man and his directions as if that arrow could not misse the mark which came out of S. Bernards bow Wherefore this miscarriage came very seasonably to abate their over-towring conceits of him and perchance his own of himself And no doubt he made a good use of this bad accident The lesse his fame blazed the more his devotion burned and the cutting off of his top made him take deep root and to be made more truly humble and sanctified In his book of Consideration he maketh a modest defence of himself whether we referre the
reader To conclude The devotion of this man was out of question so neglecting this world that he even did spit out that preferment which was dropped into his mouth But as for his judgement it was not alwayes the best which gave occasion to the proverb Bernardus non videt omnia Chap. 31. Vnseasonable discords betwixt King Baldwine and his mother Her strength in yielding to her sonne UPon the departure of Emperour Conrade and K. Lewis Noradine the Turk much prevailed in Palestine Nor was he little advantaged by the discords betwixt Milleâ—ent Queen-mother and the Nobility thus occasioned There was a Noble-man called Manasses whom the Queen governing all in her sonnes minority made Constable of the Kingdome This man unable to manage his own happinesse grew so insolent that he could not go but either spurning his equals or trampling on his inferiours No wonder then if envy the shadow of greatnesse waited upon him The Nobility highly distasted him but in all oppositions the Queens favour was his sanctuary who to shew her own absolutenesse and that her affection should not be controlled nor that thrown down which she set up still preserved the creature she had made His enemies perceiving him so fast rooted in her favour and seeing they could not remove him from his foundation sought to remove him with his foundation instigating young King Baldwine against his mother and especially against her favourite They complained how the State groaned under his insolency He was the bridge by which all offices must passe and there pay toll He alone sifted all matters and then no wonder if much bran passed He under pretence of opening the Queens eyes did lead her by the nose captivating her judgement in stead of directing it He like a by-gulf devoured her affection which should flow to her children They perswaded the King he was ripe for government and needed none to hold his hand to hold the sceptre Let him therefore either un tie or cut himself loose from this slavery and not be in subjection to a subject Liberty needeth no hard-pressing on youth a touch on that stamp maketh an impression on that waxen age Young Baldwine is apprehensive of this motion and prosecuteth the matter so eagerly that at length he coopeth up this Manasses in a castle and forceth him to abjure the Kingdome Much stirre afterwards was betwixt him and his mother till at last to end divisions the Kingdome was divided betwixt them She had the city of Jerusalem and the land-locked part he the maritime half of the land But the widest throne is too narrow for two to sit on together He not content with this partition marcheth furiously to Jerusalem there to besiege his mother and to take all from her Out of the city cometh Fulcher the good Patriarch his age was a patent for his boldnesse and freely reproveth the King Why should he go on in such an action wherein every step he stirred his legs must needs grate and crash both against nature and religion Did he thus requite his mothers care in stewarding the State thus to affright her age to take arms against her Was it not her goodnesse to be content with a moyety when the whole Kingdome in right belonged unto her But ambition had so inchanted Baldwine that he was penetrable with no reasons which crossed his designes so that by the advice of her friends she was content to resign up all lest the Christian cause should suffer in these dissensions She retired her self to Sebaste and abridged her train from State to necessity And now the lesse room she had to build upon the higher she raised her soul with heavenly meditations and lived as more private so more pious till the day of her death Chap. 32. Reimund Prince of Antioch overcome and killed Askelon taken by the Christians The death of King Baldwine THese discords betwixt mother and son were harmonie in the ears of Noradine the Turk Who coming with a great army wasted all about Antioch and Prince Reimund going out to bid him battel was slain himself and his army overthrown nor long after Joceline Count of Edessa was intercepted by the Turks and taken prisoner As for Constantia the relict of Reimund Prince of Antioch she lived a good while a widow refusing the affections which many princely suiters proffered unto her till at last she descended beneath her self to marry a plain man Reinold of Castile Yet why should we say so when as a Castilian Gentleman if that be not a needlesse tautologie as he maketh the inventory of his own worth prizeth himself any Princes fellow And the proverb is Each lay-man of Castile may make a King each clergy-man a Pope Yea we had best take heed how we speak against this match for Almericus Patriarch of Antioch for inveighing against it was by this Prince Reinold set in the heat of the sunne with his bare head besmeared with honey a sweet bitter torment that so bees might sting him to death But King Baldwine mediated for him and obtained his liberty that he might come to Jerusalem where he lived many years in good esteem And Gods judgements are said to have overtaken the Prince of Antioch for besides the famine which followed in his countrey he himself afterwards fighting unfortunately with the Turks was taken prisoner But let us step over to Jerusalem where we shall find King Baldwine making preparation for the siege of Askelon Which citie after it had been long locked up had at last an assaultable breach made in the walls thereof The Templars to whom the King promised the spoil if they took it entred through this breach into the citie and conceiving they had enow to wield the work and master the place set a guard at the breach that no more of their fellow-Christians should come in to be sharers with them in the booty But their covetousnesse cost them their lives for the Turks contemning their few number put them every one to the sword Yet at last the city was taken though with much difficulty Other considerable victories Baldwine got of the Turks especially one at the river Jordan where he vanquished Noradine And twice he relieved Cesarea-Philippi which the Turks had straitly besieged But death at last put a period to his earthly happinesse being poisoned as it was supposed by a Jewish physician for the rest of the potion killed a dog to whom it was given This Kings youth was stained with unnaturall discords with his mother and other vices which in his settled age he reformed Let the witnesse of Noradine his enemy be believed who honourably refused to invade the Kingdome whilest the funerall solemnities of Baldwine were performing and professed the Christians had a just cause of sorrow having lost such a King whose equall for justice and valour the world did not afford He died without issue having reigned one and twenty years So that sure it is the
would weary them with set battels having men numberless and those near at hand and so he would tame the Romane Eagle by watching him giving him no rest nor respite from continuall fighting It is therefore no Paradox to say That in some case the strength of a Kingdome doth consist in the weaknesse of it And hence it is that our English Kings have suffered Time without disturbing her meals to feed her belly full on their in-land castles and citie-walls which whilest they were standing in their strength were but the nurseries of rebellion And now as one observeth because we have no strong cities war in England waxeth not old being quickly stabbed with set battels which in the Low-countreys hath already outlived the grand climactericall of threescore and ten years But Frederick the Emperour being now entring into the Holy land was to the great grief of all Christians suddenly taken away being drowned in the river of Saleph a river such is the envie of Barbarisme obscuring all places which cannot accurately be known at this day because this new name is a stranger to all ancient maps If he went in to wash himself as some write he neither consulted with his health nor honour Some say his horse foundred under him as he passed the water others that he fell from him But these severall relations as variety of instruments make a dolefull conâ—ort in this that there he lost his life and no wonder if the cold water quickly quenched those few sparks of naturall heat left in him at seventy years of age Neubrigensis conceiveth that this his sudden death was therefore inflicted on him because in his youth he fought against the Popes and Church of Rome But I wonder that he seeing an Emperour drowned in a ditch durst adventure into the bottomlesse depths of Gods counsels Let it content us to know that oftentimes heaven blasteth those hopes which bud first and fairest and the feet of mighty Monarchs do slip when they want but one step to their enemies throne After his death Frederick Duke of Suevia his second sonne undertook the conduct of the army Now the Turks conceiving grief had steeped and moistened these Pilgrimes hearts gave them a sudden charge in hope to have overthrown them But the valiant Dutch who though they had scarce wiped their eyes had scoured their swords quickly forced them to retire Then Frederick took the citie of Antioch which was easily delivered unto him and his hungry souldiers well refreshed by the citizens being as yet for the most part Christians Marching from hence in set battel he overthrew Dordequin Generall of Saladines forces slew four thousand and took a thousand prisoners with little losse of his own men and so came to the city of Tyre where he buried the corpse of his worthy father in the Cathedrall Church next the tomb of the learned Origen and Guilelmus Tyrius the worthy Archbishop preached his funerall sermon We may hear his sorrowfull army speaking this his Epitaph unto him Earth scarce did yield ground enough for thy sword To conquer how then could a brook afford Water to drown thee brook which since doth fear O guilty conscience in a map t' appear Yet blame we not the brook but rather think The weight of our own sinnes did make thee sink Now sith 't is so wee 'l fetch a brackish main Out of our eyes and drown thee once again From hence by sea they were conveyed to the Christians army before Ptolemais where young Frederick died of the plague and his great army which at first consisted of an hundred and fifty thousand at their setting forth out of Germany had now no more left then eighteen hundred armed men Chap. 5. The continuation of the famous siege of Ptolemais The Dutch Knights honoured with a Grand Master WE have now at our leisure overtaken the snail-like fiege of Ptolemais still slowly creeping on Before it the Christians had not onely a Nationall but an Oecumenicall army the abridgement of the Christian world Scarce a state or populous city in Europe but had here some competent number to represent it How many bloudy blows were here lent on both sides and repayed with interest what sallies what assaults what encounters whilest the Christians lay betwixt Saladine with his great army behind them and the city before them One memorable battel we must not omit It was agreed betwixt Saladine and the Christians to try their fortunes in a pitched field and now the Christians were in fair hope of a conquest when an imaginary causelesse fear put them to a reall flight so ticklish are the scales of victory a very mote will turn them Thus confusedly they ran away and boot would have been given to change a strong arm for a swift leg But behold Geoffrey Lusignan King Guy's brother left for the guarding of the camp marching out with his men confuted the Christians in this their groundlesse mistake and reinforced them to fight whereby they wonne the day though with the losse of two thousand men and Gerard Master of the Templars It was vainly hoped that after this victory the city would be surâ—endred but the Turks still bravely defended it though most of their houses were burnt and beaten down and the city reduced to a bare sceleton of walls and towers They fought as well with their wits as weapons and both sides devised strange defensive and offensive engines so that Mars himself had he been here present might have learned to fight and have taken notes from their practice Mean time famine raged amongst the Christians and though some provision was now and then brought in from Italy for so far they fetched it yet these small showers after good droughts parched the more and rather raised then abated their hunger Once more we will take our farewell of this siege for a twelve-moneth But we must not forget that at this time before the walls of Ptolemais the Teutonick order or Dutch Knights which since the dayes of Baldwine the second lived like private pilgrimes had now their order honoured with Henry of Walpot their first grand Master and they were enriched by the bounty of many Germane benefactours These though slow were sure they did hoc agere ply their work more cordiall to the Christian cause then the Templars who sometimes to save their own stakes would play booty with the Turks Much good service did the Dutch Knights in the Holy warre till at last no wise Doctour will lavish physick on him in whom he seeth faciem cadaverosam so that death hath taken possession in the sick mans countenance finding this warre to be desperate and dedecus fotitudinis they even fairly left the Holy land and came into Europe meaning to lay out their valour on some thing that would quit cost But hereof hereafter Chap. 6. Richard of England and Philip of France set forward to the Holy land The danger of the interviews of Princes THe
branded with rashnesse and cruelty as the murderer of many Christians For Saladine in revenge put as many of our captives to death On the other side the moderation of the French King was much commended who reserving his prisoners alive exchanged them to ransome so many Christians Chap. 9. The unseasonable return of the King of France MEan time the Christians were rent asunder with faction Philip the French King Odo Duke of Burgundy Leopold Duke of Austria most of the Dutch all the Genoans and Templars siding with King Conrade King Richard Henry Count of Champaigne the Hospitallers Venetians and Pisans taking part with King Guy But King Conrades side was much weakened with the sudden departure of the French King who eighteen dayes after the taking of Ptolemais returned home pretending want of necessaries indisposition of body distemper of the climate though the greatest distemper was in his own passions The true cause of his departure was partly envie because the sound of King Richards fame was of so deep a note that it drowned his partly covetousnesse to seize on the dominions of the Earl of Flanders lately dead Flanders lying fitly to make a stable for the fair palace of France If it be true what some report that Saladine bribed him to return let him for ever forfeit the surname of Augustus and the style of the most Christian Prince His own souldiers disswaded him from returning beseeching him not to stop in so glorious a race wherein he was newly started Saladine was already on his knees and would probably be brought on his face if pursued If he played the unthrift with this golden occasion let him not hope for another to play the good husband with If poverty forced his departure King Richard profered him the half of all his provisions All would not do Philip persisted in his old plea How the life of him absent would be more advantagious to the cause then the death of him present and by importunity got leave to depart solemnly swearing not to molest the King of Englands dominions Thus the King of France returned in person but remained still behind in his instructions which he left with his army to the Duke of Burgundy to whom he prescribed both his path and his pace where and how he should go And that Duke moved slowly having no desire to advance the work where King Richard would carry all the honour For in those actions wherein severall undertakers are compounded together commonly the first figure for matter of credit maketh ciphres of all the rest As for King Philip being returned home such was the itch of his ambition he must be fingering of the King of Englands territories though his hands were bound by oath to the contrary Chap. 10. Conrade King of Ierusalem slain Guy exchangeth his Kingdome for the Island of Cyprus ABout the time of the King of France his departure Conrade King of Jerusalem was murdered in the market-place of Tyre and his death is variously reported Some charged our King Richard for procuring it And though the beams of his innocency cleared his own heart yet could they not dispell the clouds of suspicions from other mens eyes Some say Humphred Prince of Thoron killed him for taking Isabella his wife away from him But the generall voice giveth it out that two Assasines stabbed him whose quarrell to him was onely this That he was a Christian. These murderers being instantly put to death gloried in the meritoriousnesse of their suffering and surely were it the punishment not the cause made martyrdome we should be best stored with Confessours from gaols and Martyrs from the gallows Conrade reigned five years and left one daughter Maria Iole on whom the Knight-Templars bestowed princely education and this may serve for his Epitaph The Crown I never did enjoy alone Of half a Kingdome I was half a King Scarce was I on when I was off the throne Slain by two slaves me basely murdering And thus the best mans life at mercy lies Of vilest varlets that their own despise His faction survived after his death affronting Guy the antient King and striving to depose him They pleaded that the Crown was tyed on Guy's head with a womans fillet which being broken by the death of his wife Queen Sibyll who deceased of the plague with her children at the siege of Ptolemais he had no longer right to the Kingdome they objected he was a worthlesse man and unfortunate On the other side it was alledged for him that to measure a mans worth by his successe is a â—quare often false alwayes uncertain Besides the courtesie of the world would allow him this favour That a King should be semel semper once and ever Whilest Guy stood on these ticklish terms King Richard made a seasonable motion which well relished to the palate of this hungry Prince To exchange his Kingdome of Jerusalem for the Island of Cyprus which he had redeemed from the Templars to whom he had pawned it And this was done accordingly to the content of both sides And King Richard with some of his succeeding English Kings wore the title of Jerusalem in their style for many years after We then dismisse King Guy hearing him thus taking his farewell I steer'd a state warre-tost against my will Blame then the storm not th' Pilots want of skill That I the Kingdome lost whose empty style I sold to Englands King for Cyprus Isle I pass'd away the land I could not hold Good ground I bought but onely air I sold. Then as a happy Merchant may I sing Though I must sigh as an unhappy King Soon after Guy made a second change of this world for another But the family of the Lusignans have enjoyed Cyprus some hundred years and since by some transactions it fell to the state of Venice and lately by conquest to the Turks Chap. 11. Henry of Champaigne chosen King The noble atchievements and victories of King Richard COnrade being killed and Guy gone away Henry Earl of Champaigne was chosen King of Jerusalem by the especiall procuring of King Richard his uncle To corroborate his election by some right of succession he married Isabella the widow of King Conrade and daughter to Almerick King of Jerusalem A Prince as writers report having a sufficient stock of valour in himself but little happy in expressing it whether for want of opportunity or shortnesse of his reign being most spent in a truce He more pleased himself in the style of Prince of Tyre then King of Jerusalem as counting it more honour to be Prince of what he had then King of what he had not And now the Christians began every where to build The Templars fortified Gaza King Richard repaired and walled Ptolemais Porphyria Joppa and Askelon But alas this short prosperity like an Autumne-spring came too late and was gone too soon to bring any fruit to maturity It was now determined they should march towards
Jerusalem for all this while they had but hit the but that Holy City was the mark they shot at Richard led the vantguard of English Duke Odo commanded in the main battel over his French James of Auvergne brought on the Flemings and Brabanters in the rere Saladine serpent-like biting the heel assaulted the rere not far from Bethlehem when the French and English wheeling about charged the Turks most furiously Emulation formerly poyson was here a cordiall each Christian nation striving not onely to conquer their enemies but to overcome their friends in the honour of the conquest King Richard seeking to put his courage out of doubt brought his judgement into question being more prodigall of his person then beseemed a Generall One wound he received but by losiâ—g his bloud he found his spirits and laid about him like a mad-man The Christians got the victory without the losse of any of number or note save James of Auvergne who here died in the bed of honour But more of the Turks were slain then in any battel for fourty years before Had the Christians presently gone to Jerusalem probably they might have surprised it whilest the Turks eyes were muffled and blindfolded in the amazement of this great overthrow But this opportunity was lost by the backwardnesse and unwillingnesse of King Richard and the English say the French writers To cry quits with them our English authours impute it to the envie of the French who would have so glorious an action rather left undone then done by the English They complain likewise of the treachery of Odo Duke of Burgundie who more carefull of his credit then his conscience was choked with the shame of the sinne he had swallowed and died for grief when his intelligence with the Turks was made known This cannot be denyed that Saladine sent term them bribes or presents both to our King and the French Duke and they received them no wonder then if neither of them herein had a good name when they traded with such familiars But most hold King Richard attempted not Jerusalem because as a wise architect he would build his victories so as they might stand securing the countrey as he went it being senselesse to besiege Jerusalem a straggling city whilest the Turks as yet were in possession of all the sea-ports and strong forts thereabout About this time he intercepted many camels loaded with rich commodity those Eastern wares containing much in a little And yet of all this and of all the treasures of England Sicilie and Cyprus which he brought hither King Richard carried home nothing but one gold-ring all the rest of his wealth melted away in this hot service He wintered in Askelon intending next spring to have at Jerusalem Chap. 12. The little-honourable peace King Richard made with Saladine Of the value of Reliques BUt bad news out of Europe shaked his steadiest resolutions hearing how William Bishop of Ely his Vice-roy in England used unsufferable insolencies over his subjects So hard it is for one of base parentage to personate a King without over-acting his part Also he heard how the King of France and John Earl of Morton his own brother invaded his dominions ambition the Pope in their belly dispensing with their oath to the contrary Besides he saw this warre was not a subject capable of valour to any purpose the Venetians Genoans Pisans and Florentines being gone away with their fleets wisely shrinking themselves out of the collar when they found their necks wrung with the hard imployment Hereupon he was forced first to make the motion of in plain terms to begge peace of Saladine Let Saladine now alone to winne having all the game in his own hand Well knew he how to shoot at his own ends and to take aim by the exigencies wherein he knew King Richard was plunged For he had those cunning gypsies about him who could read in King Richards face what grieved his heart and by his intelligencers was certified of every note-worthy passage in the English army Upon these terms therefore or none beggers of peace shall never be choosers of their conditions a truce for three some say five years might be concluded That the Christians should demolish all places they had walled since the taking of Ptolemais which was in effect to undo what with much charge they had done But such was the tyranny of King Richards occasions forcing him to return that he was glad to embrace those conditions he hated at his heart Thus the voyage of these two Kings begun with as great confidence of the undertakers as expectation of the beholders continued with as much courage as interchangeablenesse of successe baned with mutuall discord and emulation was ended with some honour to the undertakers no Profit either to them or the Christian cause Some farre-fetched dear-bought honour they got especially King Richard who eternized his memory in Asia whom if men forget horses will remember the Turks using to say to their horses when they started for fear Dost thou think King Richard is here Profit they got none losing both of them the hair of their heads in an acute disease which was more saith one then both of them got by the voyage They left the Christians in Syria in worse case then they found them as he doeth the benighted traveller a discourtesie rather then a kindnesse who lendeth a lantern to take it away leaving him more masked then he was before And now a little to solace my self and the reader with a merry digression after much sorrow and sad stories King Richard did one thing in Palestine which was worth all the cost and pains of his journey namely He redeemed from the Turks a chest full of holy Reliques which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem so great as four men could scarce carry any way And though some know no more then Esops cock how to prize these pearls let them learn the true value of them from the Romane jewellers First they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques In private ones some forgery may be suspected lest quid be put for quo which made S. Augustine put in that wary parenthesis Si tamen Martyrum If so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs But as for publick ones approved by the Pope and kept in Churches such no doubt as these of King Richards were oh let no Christian be such an infidel as to stagger at the truth thereof If any object That the head of the same Saint is shewed at severall places the whole answer is by a Synecdoche That a part is put for the whole As for the common exception against the Crosse That so many severall pieces thereof are shown which put together would break the back of Simon of Cyrene to bear them it is answered Distrahitur non diminuitur and like the loaves in the Gospel it is miraculously multiplied in the dividing If all these
there was nothing to be gleaned in the stubble whereas Egypt was so rich and fruitfull it cared not for the frowns of heaven so it might have the favour of Nilus and there was no fear to want bread in that the granary of the world That according to the rule Plus animi est inferenti periculum quam propulsanti the Christians would be heartned but the Egyptians discouraged in the invasion of Egypt The sad spectacle of their countreys vastation would disturb their minds make them diffident of their own worth and unsufficient to maintain their cause Lastly the Christians might leave when they list reserving at all times Ptolemais to entertain them in case fortune should crosse their designes But the reasons to the contrary wanted not weight but weighing They considered not what was objected That to invade a strong entire countrey without having a partie within it to side with them was to endeavour to cleave a tree with a beetle without a wedge Besides Egypt was an exception from the rules of all other countreys and had certain locall maximes of leading of an army appropriated to it alone That Valour must needs have the fall when it wrastleth with Nature it self and fighteth against bogs rivers and inundations That it was more agreeable to reason first to recover and defend what once was their own before they attempted other mens possessions That these their forces afforded little hope of victory in another Kingdome which were not able to clear their own countrey and the forts in Syria from so dangerous an enemy Lastly That the Egyptians fighting for their fathers wives and children would raise their valour to the highest point of resolution These arguments notwithstanding the watch-word was given for Egypt whither all addressed themselves And here began the discords betwixt King John and the Popes Legate who challenged not onely an influence but a predominancy in every thing and would dictate to the Gâ—nerall what he should do in martiall affairs He presumed on his book-learning to controll the practice of experienced Captains by his military speculations The King stormed hereat shewing there were some mysteries in the Captain-craft not communicable to any which had not served the trade and which the heart of a Scholar was too narrow to contain That though Scholarship was a stock fit to graff any profession on yet some good time is requisite thereunto and that they must not think to proceed military Masters at their first admission in a camp That though the Legate might conceive himself to know the Latitude of warlike principles yet he knew not the use of distinctions exceptions and cautions of application and might easily be misled by disproportion and dissimilitude of examples the variation of circumstances the infinitenesse of punctuall occurrences Wherefore he forbad him to meddle with martiall matters challenging them to belong to his own disposall But Pelagius the Legate highly opinioned of his own sufficiencie as if his place made him infallible in every thing and loth to confesse himself besides the cushion whilest he sat in the chair would have an oar in all actions He held this conclusion That the generall rules of warre were easily known and as for the qualification of them pro exigentia hic nunc herein reason was the key of the work which scholars having most perfected by learning were thereby the most competent judges what should be done on all occasions How dearly the Christians payed for this his errour and how this discord smothered for a while brake out we shall see hereafter Mean time hoising up sails the Pilgrimes navie safely arrived at Damiata Chap. 25. Damiata besieged and taken The Christians unadvisedly refuse honourable conditions DAmiata is a chief haven of Egypt anciently Pelusium seated on the Eastern-most stream of Nilus Here the East and West world met together to exchange their wares she grudging for trade to give the upper hand to Alexandria it self At their landing the moon was almost totally eclipsed whence the Christians conceited guesse the frailnesse of the building by the unconstancy of the foundation that the overthrow of the Mahometanes whose ensigne was the Half-moon was portended But the calculations of after-chances seldome hit right In the siege of this citie they were to encounter with a fourefold difficulty besides Damiata it self First with a great chain crossing the harbour which with indefatigable pains and art mingled with labour they brake asunder industry in action bâ—eing as importunity in speech by continuall inculcation forcing a yielding beyond the strength of reason Secondly the river Nilus did much annoy them This river the height of whose flowing is the Egyptian Almanack whereby they prognosticate future plenty or penury now out of time and beyond measure drowned the countrey Bold fishes swamme into the Christians tents who took them with their hands though willingly they could have wanted such dainties for the sauce was more then the meat Against this mischief they fensed themselves with prayer and a publick fast enjoyned by the Legate whereby the water soon abated And lest Gods mercy herein when gotten should be forgotten a publick thanksgiving was proclaimed that this favour obtained by prayer might be kept by praises Thirdly they were to grapple with the fort of Pharia a seeming-impregnable place betwixt them and Damiata To check this fort the Christians built a towre on ships which suddenly falling brained many bruised more of their own men and all who felt not the blow were stricken with the fright King John comforted his souldiers discouraged hereat desiring them to apprehend actions by their true causes and as not to vaunt of blind victories so not to be dismaied at casuall mishaps so purely accidentall that there was no guard against them in the schools of defence either of wisdome or valour By his advice a more substantiall towre was built the rarest piece in that kind the world ever saw by the manning whereof after many bloudy assaults they mastered the fort of Pharia Fourthly they had to do with Meladine King of Egypt who lay besides them constantly furnishing the citie with men and victuals and exercising the Christians with continual skirmishes In one with his wild-fire he did them much harm and King John was dangerously scorched But seeing that the Christians hewed their way through the rocks of all difficulties he propounded peace unto them by the mediation of Noradine his brother King of Damascus profering them if they would depart to restore them the true Crosse the citie of Jerusalem and all the land of Palestine The English French and Italians would have embraced the conditions pleading That honourable peace was the centre of war where it should rest That they could not satisfie their conscience to rob these Egyptians of their lands without a speciall command from God That it was good wisdome to take so desperate a debt whensoever the payment was tendred otherwise if they would
short space all that part of Egypt was fenced which respecteth the sea Winter being past Robert Duke of Burgundie and Alphonse King Lewis his brother arrived in Cyprus with a new army and hereupon they concluded to set forward for Egypt and attempted to land near Damiata But the governour thereof with a band of valiant souldiers stoutly resisted them Here was a doubtfull fight The Egyptians standing on the firm ground were thereby enabled to improve and inforce their darts to the utmost whilest the French in their ticklish boats durst not make the best of their own strength Besides those on land threw their weapons downwards from the forts they had erected so that the declivity and downfall did naturally second the violent impression of their darts How-ever the Infidels at last were here beaten with what commonly was their own weapon I mean multitude so that they fled into the town leaving behind them their governour and five hundred of their best souldiers dead on the shore Damiata was a strong city the taking whereof was accounted the good task of an army for a yeare But now the Egyptians within were presented afresh with the memory of the miseries they indured in the last long siege by the Christians and fearing lest that tragedy should be acted over again set fire on their houses and in the night saved themselves by flight The French issuing in quenched the fire and rescued much corn and other rich spoil from the teeth of the flame Meladine much troubled with this losse to purchase peace offered the Christians all Jerusalem in as ample a manner as ever formerly they had enjoyed it all prisoners to be restored with a great summe of money to defray their charges and many other good conditions So that we may much wonder at his profusenesse in these profers and more at the Christians indiscretion in their refusall For though some advised to make much of so frank a chapman and not through covetousnesse to outstand their market yet the Popes Legate and Robert Earl of Artois heightened with pride that they could not see their profit and measuring their future victories by the largenesse of their first footing in Egypt would make no bargain except Alexandria the best port in Egypt were also cast in for vantage to make the conditions down-weight And King Lewis whose nature was onely bad because it was so good would in no wise crosse his brother in what he desired Whereupon the Turks seeing themselves in so desperate condition their swords being sharpened on extremity provided to defend their countrey to the utmost Chap. 14. Discords betwixt the French and English The death and disposition of Meladine King of Egypt ABout this time brake out the dissensions betwixt the French and English The cause whereof as some say was for that the Earl of Sarisbury in sacking a fort got more spoil then the French But surely the foundation of their discontents lay much lower being on old enmity betwixt the two nations and Robert Earl of Artois used Earl William and his men with much discourtesie The Robert stood much on the Royaltie of his descent being brother to King Lewis though nothing of kin in conditions being as bountifull to deal injuries and affronts as the other alms and charitable deeds The English Earl though he stood on the lower ground in point of birth yet conceived himself to even him in valour and martiall knowledge And though godly King Lewis used all his holy-water to quench these heart-burnings his successe answered not this pains much lesse his desires onely his cooling perswasions laid their enmities for the present fairly asleep Amidst these broils died Meladine the Egyptian King A worthy Prince he was though some write very coursely of him as he must rise early yea not at all go to bed who will have every ones good word Let Christians speak of him as they found whose courtesies to them when they were half-drowned in Egypt if they will not confesse they deserve to be wholly drowned for their ingratitude In the latter end of his age he quite lost the good will of his subjects and lived unloved and died unlamented though a deserving and fortunate man which oftentimes covereth a multitude of faults The chief reason whereof was because they suspected him to be unsound in his religion and offering to Christianity Besides having reigned above thirty years his government became stale and good things if of long continuance grow â—edious they being rather affected for their variety then true worth Lastly the rising sunne stole the adorers from the sunne setting and Melechsala his sonne being an active and promising Prince reigned before in mens desires over the Kingdome To him now they all applied themselves and having more wisdome in their generation then the Christians instantly ceased their private dissâ—nsions And now the Sultans of Damascus Aleppo and Babylon twisted themselves in a joint agreement with Melechsala to defend their Mahometane religion Chap. 15. Robert Earl of Artois fighting with the Egyptians contrary to the counsel of the Master of the Templars is overthrown and drowned FRom Damiata the French marched up towards Cairo the governour whereof offended with Melechsala promised to deliver that Regall citie to the French With some danger and more difficultie they passed an arm of Nilus being conducted by a fugitive Saracen to a place where it was foordable Hence Earl Robert marched forward with a third part of the army and suddenly assaulting the Turks in their tents whilest Melechsala was absent in solemnizing a feast put them to flight Hereupon this Earl proâ—laimed himself in his hopes Monarch of the world This blow made his enemies reel the next would fell them Now speed was more needfull then strength This late victory though gotten was lost if not used What though they were not many the fewer the adventurers the greater the gain Let them therefore forwards and set on the whole power of the Turks which was incamped not farre off But the Master of the Templars in whom the sap of youth was well dried up advised the Earl to stay and digest the honour he had gotten expecting the arrivall of the rest of their armie for the work was weighty they undertook and needed two shoulders the united strength of the Christians effectually to manage it His souldiers were weary and must be refreshed and it was madnesse to starve them to day in hope of a feast to morrow That they were to march through a strange countrey and their best instructours were behind let them stay for their lantern and not go in the dark He minded him that he overvalued his victory not considering the enemies strength whose harvest was not spoiled by losing an handfull of men But the Earl full of the emptinesse of self-concâ—it allowed no counsel for currant but that of his own stamp He scorned to wait the leisure of another opportunity and opprobriously objected to the
Templars the common fame That the Holy land long since had been wonne but for the collusion of the false Templars and Hospitallers with the Infidels Here the Earle of Sarisbury interposed himself to make peace and to perswade Robert to listen to the wholesome counsel that was given him But his good will was rewarded with Coward Dastard English tail and such like contumelious terms Wherefore said our Earl Well Generall on in Gods name I believe this day you will not dare to come nigh to my horses tail And now the touchstone must tell what is gold what is brasse Marching on they assaulted the castle of Mauzar and were notably repulsed and Melechsala coming in with his whole strength hemmed them in on every side The Christians were but the third part of the armie and at the present they themselves were scarce the half of themselves being faint for want of refreshing Yet never shall one read more valour in so little a volume They played their parts most stoutly As for the French Earl who went on like thunder he went out like smoke crying to the Earl of Sarisbury Flee flee for God fighteth against us To whom our Earl God forbid my fathers sonne should flee fom the face of a Saracen The other seeking to save himself by the swiftnesse of his horse and crossing the river had there water enough to drown him but too little to wash from him the stain of rashnesse and cowardise Thus died the Earl of Artois who had in him the parts of a good Generall but inverted and in transposition bold in counsel fearfull in execution He was one of that princely quaternion of brothers which came hither at this voyage and exceeded each other in some quality Lewis the Holiest Alphonse the Subtillest Charles the Stoutest and this Robert the Proudest As for the Earl of Sarisbury he resolved to sell his life at such a rate that the buyer should little boast of his penny-worth slaying many a Turk and though unhorsed and wounded in his legs stood on his honour when he could not stand on his feet and refusing all quarter upon his knees laid about him like a desperate man The longer he fought the fewer wounds he had and there at last he breathed forth his soul in the middest of his enemies Of all the Christians there escaped no more then two Templars one Hospitaller and one common souldier the messengers of this heavy news The French writers because they can say little good say little of this battel and lessen the overthrow as much as may be which Authours of other nations have more fully reported Thus sometimes unfortunate gamestâ—rs flâ—tter themselves belie their own purses and dissemble their losses whereof the standers by take more accurate notice P. Aemylius an Italian born at Verona but by long writing the French history his penne is made free denison of France though with his hand he doth hide the orifice of the wound yet it is too narrow to cover the whole sore round about So that it plainly appeareth that a great and grievous and most mortall blow was here given to the Christians Chap. 16. King Lewis almost in the same place hath the same wofull successe conquered and taken captive by Melechsala IT is easier to be conceived then expressed what generall grief this dolefull news brought to the French who followed not farre off and who before had cause enough to sorrow for themselves For the plague began to rage furiously amongst them and daily swept away thousands Mean time good King Lewis sent many of the weakest and impotentest people down the river to Damiata there to enjoy the benefit of privacie good attendance and physick Melechsala having intelligence hereof met them by the way and setting upon them having neither arm to fight nor legs to runne away either burned or drowned them all save one English man Alexander Giffard whose ancient and famous family flourisheth to this day at Chellington in Staffordshire who wounded in five places of his bodie escaped to the French and reported what had happened to the rest And by this time Melechasala understood of the correspondency betwixt King Lewis and the governour of Cairo for the betraying of the city Whereupon he caused him suddenly to be apprehended whereby the French King lost all hopes to obtain that place of importance Yea now full willingly would the Christians have accepted the terms formerly offered them and now their hungry stomachs would make dainties of those conditions which before when full of pride they threw away as fragments But the Turks now sleighted them as not worth the treating with and as knowing that these Frenchmen who at their first landing were more then men would at last be lesse then women Then began the French Lords to perswade King Lewis to provide for the safety of his own person and to return to Damiata They told him That if he stayed with them there was no hope grounded on probability and what was any other but a wilfull self-delusion of his escaping If he were killed his death would be a living shame to their religion if taken prisoner how would Mahomet insult over Christ The captivity of the most Christian of the most Christian Kings would be foundation â—nough for the Turks thereon to build tropheys of eternall triumph But Lewis would not leave them that they might not leave him but resolved to be a commoner with them in weal and wo disdaining to be such a niggard of his life as not to spend it in a good cause in so good company Forward they march and come to the fatall place where the last battel was fought There behold the mangled headlesse handlesse feetlesse corpses of their fellow-countreymen They knew in generall they were all their friends none knew his particular friend The cause of this unwonted cruelty to the dead was a proclamation which Melechsala made assigning a great summe of money to every one who would bring the head hand or foot of a Christian And this made many of his covetous cowards who carried their valour in their purses to be couragious Whilest the French were here bemoning their fellows Melechsala came upon them with an infinite multitude and put them all being few and feeble to the sword taking King Lewis with his two brethren Alphonse and Charles prisoners Instantly the Turks went up with French ensignes to Damiata hoping so suddenly to surprise it Which projeâ—t had it took effect then farewell King Lewis for ever He must be sent a present to the Caliph of Babylon from whom never any returned alive Melechsala being but Purgatory whence there was redemption but the Babylonian Caliph Hell it self from whence no hope of release But God defeated their designe for the Turks could not French it so handsomely but that they were discovered The very language of their hands made them suspected afarre off because they could not counterfeit the French idiotismes in managing their bucklers that
as the marrer of their mart Damiata being formerly their most gainfull port but now their hony was spoiled by destroying their hive for the Sultan seing the city taken twice of the Christians in short time to prevent further dispute about it took away the subject of the question and rased it to the ground The Pope forsook him And though many intreated his Holinesse not to prosecute the Emperour Frederick any further from whom Lewis expected all the beams of his comfort yet he would hear of no submission from him but sought finally to ruine him Onely Blanch King Lewis his mother was carefull for her sonne and laboured his cause day and night But alas her armes were too short to bring all ends together And having gathered a considerable summe of money and shipped it for Palestine a tempest in a moment cast that away which her care and thrift was many moneths in getting All this he bore with a soul not benummed with Stoicall senslessenesse but becalmed with Christian patience a second Job so that what pleased God pleased him It somewhat mitigated his misery that he had the company of his consort Margaret a woman worthy so good a husband Here she bore him a child which because another Benoni or sonne of sorrow was called Tristram But that name is more ancient nor had it its birth from the christening of this child Foure yeares King Lewis lived not to say loitered in Syria daily expecting in vain that some Prince of Europe should fetch him off with honour being loth to return till he could carry home his credit with him And though he was out of his Kingdome yet was he in his Kingdome whilest surveying there the sacred monuments wherewith he was so highly affected Chap. 19. The Common-wealth of the Mammalukes described presenting us with many unexampled remarkables NOw more largely of Tarqueminus and his killing Melechsala and of the common-wealth of the Mammalukes begun by him And because great is the merit of this story as very memorable we will fetch it from its first originall Saladine as is touched before was the first of the Turkish Kings who began the gainfull trade of the Mammalukes These were Christian captives brought out of Taurica Cherâ—onesus and instructed as in Mahometanisme so in all military discipline Saladine disposing them in martiall nurseries and continuing a constant succession of them one under another It is above belief how much and speedily they were improved in warlike exercises Art doubled their strength by teaching them to use it And though they came rough out of their own countrey they were quickly hewen and polished by education yea their apprehensions prevented the precepts and their practise surpassed the presidents of those that instructed them As it is observed in fruits and flowers that they are much bettered by change to a fitter soil so were these people by altering their climate the cold countrey wherein they were bred gave them big and robustious bodies and the hot climate whereinto they were transplanted ripened their wits and bestowed upon them craft and activity the dowrie of the Southern countreys They attained to be expert in any service especially they were excellent horsemen and at last they began to ride on the backs and necks of the Turkish Kings themselves True it is Saladine kept his distance over them used them kindly yet made them not wantons and so poised these Mammalukes with his native Egyptians that in all actions he still reserved the casting voice for himself But Meladine and Melechsala his successours entertained them without number and instructed them beyond reason so that under them in a manner they monopolized all places of strength and command till at last the stemme of these mercenary souldiers being too great for the stock of the natives the Turkish Kingdome in Egypt like a top-heavy tree became a windfall Indeed the dastardnesse of the Egyptians made these Mammalukes more daring and insolent For the Egyptians more loved profit then honour and wealth then greatnesse and though contented to abide labour would in no wise undergo danger Merchandise they where wholly imployed in and it seemed they used trading so long till at last they made sale of their own spirits Yea one could not now know Egypt to be Egypt but onely by the overflowing of Nilus not by any remaining ancient marks of valour in the peoples disposition Thus the genius of old Kingdomes in time groweth weaker and doteth at the last But to come to Tarqueminus He being one of these Mammalukes and perceiving how easie it was for those that did support to supplant the Turkish Kings with another of his associates slew Melechsala as it was said And because it was unfitting so great a Prince should go to the grave alone he also sent his children and intimate friends thither to attend him Tarqueminus afterwards procured of his society to be chosen King of Egypt He was the Solon or Lycurgus of this slavish common-wealth and by the consent of the rest of his company he enacted many laws Whereof these were those of the Grand Charter which admitted of no revocation First That the Sultan or chief of this servile Empire should be chosen alwayes out of the Mammalukes Secondly That none should be admitted to the Order of the Mammalukes which were either Jews or Turks by birth but onely such as being born Christians were afterwards taken captives and then from the time of their slavery had been instructed in the Mahometane religion Thirdly That though the sonnes of the Mammalukes might enjoy their fathers lands and wealth yet they might not take upon them the name or honour of a Mammaluke Fourthly That the native Egyptians should be permitted no use of weapons but onely such as with which they fought against weeds to till and manure the land In surveying this State we can turn no way but must meet with wonders First one would think that there was such an indelible character of slavery in these captives and such a laesum principium in them that none of them ever should make a good Prince as knowing no more how to sway a scepter then a pure clown to manage a sword or else that they should over-state it turn tyrants and onely exchange their slavery by becoming vassals to their own passions Yet many of them in their kinds were worthy Princes for government no whit inferiour to those which are advantaged with royall birth and breeding Secondly it is a wonder they should be so neglective of their own children How many make an idol of their posterity and sacrifice themselves unto it stripping themselves out of necessaries to provide their heirs a wardrobe yea it is a principle in most moderate minds to advance their posterity thinking hereby in a manner they overcome death and immortalize their memories in leaving their names and honours to their children Whereas the contrary appeared in these Mammalukes Thirdly it is admirable that they fell
generall nor so full of varieties and the mysteries thereof sooner learned or because in sea-fights fortune may seem to be a deeper sharer and valour not so much interested Whatsoever it is the laurel purchased on land hath a more lively verdure then that which is got at sea We return to the Venetians who using or rather abusing this conquest enter Ptolemais cast out all Genoans thence throw down their buildings both publick and private demolish the fort which they had builded at S. Saba rifle and spoil their shops warehouses and storehouses onely the Pope prevailed so farre with them that they set at liberty the prisoners they had taken Ten years did this warre last betwixt these two States in Syria composed at last saith my Authour by the authority of Pope Clement the fourth and by famine the bad cause of a good effect which in Palestine starved them into agreement Longer these warres lasted betwixt them in Italy their successe like the sea they fought on ebbing and flowing In this costly warre Pisa was first beggered and for all her politick partaking Genoa at last trode so heavy upon her that ever since she hath drooped and hung the wing and at this day is maid to Florence who formerly was mistresse of a good part of Italy But I have no calling and lesse comfort to prosecute these bloudy dissensions For warres of Christians against Infidels are like the heat of exercise which serveth to keep the body of Christianity in health but these civil warres amongst themselves like the heat of a feaver dangerous and destructive of religion Chap. 25. Charles made King of Sicily and Ierusalem by the Pope Hugh King of Cyprus pretendeth also to go to Ierusalem WE have now gotten Pantaleon a Frenchman who succeeded Robert in the titular Patriarchship of Jerusalem to be Pope by the name of Urbane the fourth To advance the Holy cause after fourteen years interregnum in Syria he appointed Charles Duke of Anjou yonger brother to King Lewis of France King of Sicily and Jerusalem and it was ratified by Clement the fourth his successour This honour was first offered to Lewis himself but piety had dried up in him all ambitious humours then to our Henry of England but his warre-wasted purse could not stretch to the Popes price At last this Charles accepted it But it is not for any speciall favour to the bush if a man run under it in a storm it was no love to Charles but to himself to be sheltred from Maufred that the Pope conferred this honour upon him And the wife of Charles that she might go in equipage with her three sisters being Queens sold all her jewels to furnish her husband with money to purchase these Kingdomes that sex loving bravery well but greatnesse better Now the Pope whose well grounded and bounded bountie will never undo him for where he giveth away the meat he selleth the sauce conditioned with Charles on these termes First that he should conquer Maufred then King of Sicily who molested the Pope and that he should finally subdue all the remaining race of Frederick the second Emperour who claimed that Kingdome Secondly in acknowledgement that he held these Kingdomes from the Pope he should pay him an annuall pension of four some say fourty thousand pounds Provided if this Charles should chance to be chosen Emperour of Germany that then he should either resigne Sicily back again into the hands of his Holinesse or not accept the Empire For he knew that all Emperours would be possessed with an anti-papall spirit and that they would hold Sicily not in homage from the Church but as a member of the Empire Besides the Pope would not dispense that Princes should hold pluralitie of temporall Dominions in Italy especially he was so ticklish he could not endure the same Prince should embrace him on both sides Ever since the twinne-titles of Sicily and Jerusalem have gone together and fit it is that the shadow should follow the substance Charles subdued Maufred and Conradine his nephew the last of the Suevian race and grandchild to Emperour Frederick and was possessed of Sicilie and lived there but as for the gaining of Jerusalem he little regarded it nor came thither at all A watchfull King who never slept in his Kingdome His absence gave occasion to Hugh King of Cyprus to furbish up new his old title to the Kingdome as lineally descended from Almerick the second And coming to Ptolemais he there was crowned King of Jerusalem But the extremity of the famine all things being excessive dear much abated the solemnity and state of his Coronation Chap. 26. The Tartarians alienated from the Christians Bendocdar tyrannizeth over them and Lewis King of France setteth forth again for to succour them BUt betwixt two Kings the Kingdome went to the ground For Haalon the Tartarian Prince and late Christian convert was returned home to succeed his brother Mango in the Empire leaving Abaga his sonne with competent forces in the city of Damascus which he had wonne from the Turks Soon after Abaga followed his father aud substituted Guirboca his Lieutenant in Damascus This Guirboca upon the occasion of his nephew rashly slain by the Christians in a broil fell off wholly from Christianity with all the Tartarians his countreymen The occasion this The Dutch Christians return with great booty they had taken from the Turks Guirboca's nephew meeteth them demandeth it for himself the Christians deny him as souldiers are very tender-conscienced in that point counting it a great sinne to part with the spoil they are possessed of hence brawls then blows Guirboca's nephew is slain Hereat the Tartarians who were very humorous in their friendship if not observed to an inch lost for ever in discontent all either reel aside to Mahomet or fall back to Paganisme Herein the Christians cannot be excused Infant-converts must be well tended It had been discretion in them even against discretion to have yielded a little to these Tartarians and so to continue their amity which was so advantageous to the Holy warre However one may question the truth of their conversion whether reall at first This spring was too forward to hold and the speedy withering of their religion argueth it wanted root And as tame foxes if they break loose and return wild do ten times more mischief then those which are wild from the beginning so these renegadoes raged more furiously then any Pagans against religion Guirboca sacrificed many Christians to the ghost of his nephew destroyed Cesarea and burnt it using all cruelty against the inhabitants Nor lesse were the Christians plagued at the same time with Bendocdar the Mammaluke Prince in Egypt who succeeded Melechem and every where raging against them either killed or forced them to forswear their religion The city of Joppa he took and burned and then wonne Antioch slaying therein twenty thousand and carrying away captive an hundred
observed that the sea cannot digest the cruditie of a dead corpse being a due debt to be interred where it dieth and a ship cannot abide to be made a bier of He was Sainted after his death by Boniface the eighth and the five and twentieth day of August on which day in his first voyage to Palestine he went on shipboard is consecrated to his memorie Herein he had better luck then as good a man I mean our Henry the sixth who could not be canonized without a mightie summe of money belike Angels making Saints at Rome Chap. 28. Tunis taken The French return home whilest our Edward valiantly setteth forward for Palestine BY this time Tunis was brought to great distresse and at last on these conditions surrendred That it should pay yearly to Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem fourtie thousand crowns That it should receive Christian Ministers freely to exercise their religion If any Saracen would be baptized he should be suffered That all Christian captives should be set free That they should pay back so much money as should defray the Christians charges in this voyage Our Edward would needs have had the town beaten down and all put to the sword thinking the foulest quarter too fair for them Their goods because got by robberie he would have sacrificed as an anathema to God and burnt to ashes His own share he execrated and caused it to be burnt forbidding the English to save any thing of it because that coals stolen out of that fire would sooner burn their houses then warm their hands It troubled not the consciences of other Princes to enrich themselves herewith but they glutted themselves with the stolen honie which they found in this hive of drones And which was worse now their bellies were full they would go to bed return home and goe no further Yea the young King of France called Philip the Bold was fearfull to prosecute his journey to Palestine whereas Prince Edward struck his breast and swore That though all his friends forsook him yet he would enter Prolemais though but onely with Fow in his horse-keeper By which speech he incensed the English to go on with him The rest pleading the distemperature of the weather went to Sicily in hope with change of aire to recover their health Where many of them found what they sought to avoid death amongst other Theobald King of Navarre and Isabell his wife and William Earl of Flanders who ended their dayes at Drepanum Besides their navie was pursuivanted after with a horrible tempest and a curse entailed either on their ill-gotten goods or deserting Gods cause or both arrested them in their return so that of this great wealth little was landed in Europe their ships being wracked and the goods therein cast into the sea with which the waves played a little and then chopped them up at a morsel Whilest the weather frowning on them smiled on the English Prince Edward no whit damnified either in his men or ships with Elenor his tender consort then young with child safely arrived at Ptolemais to the great solace and comfort of the Christians there being in great distresse Chap. 29. Prince Edwards performance in Palestine He is dangerously wounded yet recovereth and returneth home safe AT his arrivall the last stake of the Christians was on losing For Bendocdar the Mammaluke Prince of Egypt and Syria had brought Ptolemais to so low an ebbe that they therein resolved if some unexpected succour reversed not their intentions within three dayes to resigne the citie unto him Edward landing stayed this precipitation who arrived with his armie there in the very interim in opportunitie it self which is the very quintessence of time so that all concluded his coming thus hitting the mark was guided by the hand of an especiall providence And now those who before in despair would have thrown up their cards hope at least to make a saving game and the Christians taking comfort and courage both defie their enemies and their own thoughts of surrendring the citie Prince Edward having sufficiently manned and victualled Ptolemais taking six or seven thousand souldiers marched to Nazareth which he took and slew those he found there After this about midsummer understanding the Turks were gathered together at Cakhow fourtie miles off very early in the morning he set upon them slew a thousand and put the rest to flight In these skirmishes he gave evident testimonies of his personall valour Yea in cold bloud he would boldly challenge any Infidel to a duell To speak truth this his conceived perfection was his greatest imperfection For the world was abundantly satisfied in the point of his valour yet such was his confidence of his strength and eagernesse of honour that having merited the esteem of a most stout man he would still supererogate yea he would profer to fight with any mean person if cried up by the volge for a tall man this daring being a generall fault in great spirits and a great fault in a Generall who staketh a pearl against a piece of glasse The best was in that age a man fighting with sword and buckler had in a manner many lives to lose and duells were not dangerous Whilest he stayed at Ptolemais Elenor his Lady was delivered of a fair daughter called from her birth-place Joan of Acres But fear of her husbands death abated her joy at her daughters birth The Turks not matching him in valour thought to master him with treachery which was thus contrived The Admirall of Joppa a Turk pretended he would turn Christian and imployed one Anzazim an Assasine in the businesse betwixt him and Prince Edward who carried himself so cunningly that by often repairing to our Prince he got much credit and esteem with him Some write this Anzazim was before alwayes bred under ground as men keep hawks and warre-horses in the dark to make them more fierce that so coming abroad he should fear to venture on no man But sure so cunning a companion had long conversed with light and been acquainted with men yea Christians and Princes as appeareth by his complying carriage else if he had not been well read in their company he could not have been so perfect in his lesson But let him be bred any where or in hell it self For this was his religion To kill any he was commanded or on the non-performance willingly to forfeit his life The fifth time of his coming he brought Prince Edward letters from his Master which whilest he was reading alone and lying on his bed he struck him into the arm with an invenomed knife Being about to fetch another stroke the Prince with his foot gave him such a blow that he felled him to the ground and wresting the knife from him ranne the Turk into the belly and slew him yet so that in struggling he hurt himself therewith in the forehead At this noise in sprang his servants and one of them with a stool beate the braines out of
torment then generous spirits who are for the enduring of honourable danger and speedie death but not provided for torment which they are not acquainted with neither is it the proper object of valour Again it is produced in their behalf that being burned at the stake they denied it at their death though formerly they had confessed it and whose charitie if not stark-blind will not be so tender-eyed as to believe that they would not breath out their soul with a lie and wilfully contract a new guilt in that very instant wherein they were to be arraigned before the Judge of heaven A Templar being to be burned at Burdeaux and seeing the Pope and King Philip looking out at a window cried unto them Clement thou cruell Tyrant seeing there is no higher amongst mortall men to whom I should appeal for my unjust death I cite thee together with King Philip to the tribunall of Christ the just Judge who redeemed me there both to appear within one yeare and a day where I will lay open my cause and justice shall be done without any by-respect In like manner James grand Master of the Templars though by piece-meal he was tortured to death craved pardon of God and those of his Order that forced by extremitie of pain on the rack and allured with hope of life he had accused them of such damnable sinnes whereof they were innocent Moreover the people with their suffrage acquitted them happie was he that could get an handfull of their ashes into his bosome as the Relique of pious martyrs to preserve Indeed little heed is to be given to peoples humours whose judgement is nothing but prejudice and passion and commonly envie all in prosperitie pitie all in adversitie though often both undeservedly And we may believe that the beholding of the Templars torments when they were burned wrought in the people first a commiserating of their persons and so by degrees a justifying of their cause However vulgus non semper errat aliquando elìgit and though it matters little for the gales of a private mans fancie yet it is something when the wind bloweth from all corners And true it is they were generally cryed up for innocents Lastly Pope Clement and King Philip were within the time prefixed summoned by death to answer to God for what they had done And though it is bad to be busie with Gods secrets yet an argment drawn from the event especially when it goeth in company with others as it is not much to be depended on so it is not wholly to be neglected Besides King Philip missed of his expectation and the morsell fell besides his mouth for the lands of the Templars which were first granted to him as a portion for his youngest sonne were afterwards by the Council of Vienne bestowed on the Knights-Hospitallers Chap. 3. A moderate way what is to be conceived of the suppression of the Templars BEtwixt the two extremities of those that count these Templars either Malefactours or Martyrs some find a middle way whose verdict we will parcell into these severall particulars 1. No doubt there were many novices and punies amongst them newly admitted into their Order which if at all were little guiltie for none can be fledge in wickednesse at their first hatching To these much mercy belonged The punishing of others might have been an admonition to them and crueltie it was where there were degrees of offenses to inflict the same punishment and to put all of them to death 2. Surely many of them were most hainous offenders Not to speak what they deserved from God who needeth not pick a quarrel with man but alwayes hath a just controversie with him they are accounted notorious transgressours of humane laws yet perchance if the same candle had been lighted to search as much dust and dirt might have been found in other Orders 3. They are conceived in generall to be guiltlesse and innocent from those damnable sinnes wherewith they were charged Which hainous offenses were laid against them either because men out of modestie and holy horrour should be ashamed and afraid to dive deep in searching the ground-work and bottome of these accusations but rather take them to be true on the credit of the accusers or that the world might the more easily be induced to believe the crimes objected to be true as conceiving otherwise none would be so devilish as to lay such devilish offenses to their charge or lastly if the crimes were not believed in the totall summe yet if credited in some competent portion the least particular should be enough to do the deed and to make them odious in the world 4. The chief cause of their ruine was their extraordinary wealth They were feared of many envied of more loved of none As Naboths vineyard was the chiefest ground for his blasphemie and as in England Sr John Cornwall Lord Fanhop said merrily That not he but his stately house at Ampthill in Bedford-shire was guiltie of high treason so certainly their welath was the principall evidence against them and cause of their overthrow It is quarrell and cause enough to bring a sheep that is fat to the shambles We may believe King Philip would never have tooke away their lives if he might have took their lands without putting them to death but the mischief was he could not get the hony unlesse he burnt the bees Some will say The Hospitallers had great yea greater revenues nineteen thousand Mannors to the Templars nine thousand yet none envied their wealth It is true but then they busied themselves in defending of Christendome maintaining the Island of Rhodes against the Turks as the Teutonick order defended Pruss-land against the Tartarian the world therefore never grudged them great wages who did good work These were accounted necessary members of Christendome the Templars esteemed but a superfluous wenne they lay at rack and manger and did nothing who had they betook themselves to any honourable employment to take the Turks to task either in Europe or Asia their happinesse had been lesse repined at and their overthrow more lamented And certain it is that this their idlenesse disposed them for other vices as standing waters are most subject to putrifie I heare one bird sing a different note from all the rest in the wood namely that what specious shews soever were pretended the true cause of their ruine was that they began to desert the Pope and adhere to the Emperour If this was true no doubt they were deeply guiltie and deserved the hard measure they suffered Sure I am how-ever at this time they might turn edge they had formerly been true blades for his Holinesse All Europe followed the copie that France had set them Here in England King Edward the second of that name suppressed the Order and put them to death So by vertue of a writ sent from him to Sir John Wogan Lord chief Justice in Ireland were they served
Porphyrogenetes Emperour of the East all Western Christians were known to the Greeks by the name of Franks so that it seemeth the Turks borrowed that appellation from the Grecians Thirdly as France sent the most so many of most eminent note She sheweth for the game no worse cards then a pair royall of Kings Lewis the Young Philip Augustus and Saint Lewis besides Philip the Bold his sonne who went half-way to Tunis The first and last Christian King of Europe that went to Palestine was a French man and all the Kings of Jerusalem Frederick the Emperour onely excepted originally were of that nation Fouthly even at this day France is most loyall to the cause Most grand Masters of the Hospitallers have been French men And at this day the Knights of Malta who have but four Albergies or Seminaries in all Christendome have three of them in France viz. one of France in generall one of Avergne and one of Provence Yet France carrieth not the upper hand so clearly but that Germanie justleth for it especially if we adde to it the Low-countreys the best stable of wooden horses and most potent in shipping in that age of any countrey in Europe which though an amphibion betwixt both yet custome at this day adjudgeth it Dutch Now these are the severall accents of honour in the Germane service First That countrey sheweth three Emperours in the Holy warre Conrade Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick the second The last of these was solemnly crowned and peaceably possessed King of Jerusalem Secondly Germanie sent more Princes to this warre then all Europe besides It would be an infinite task to reckon them all it being true of the Germane Nobility what Logicians say of a line that it is divisibilis in semper divisibilia Here honours equally descend to sonnes and daughters whereby they have Counts without counting in the whole Empire There were seventeen Princes of Henault and seven and twenty Earls of Mansfield all living together So that one of their own countrey men saith that the Dutch esteem none to be men but onely such as are Noble-men We will not take notice of Germanie as it is minced into petty Principalities but as cut into principall Provinces We find these regnant Princes for as for their younger brethren herein they are not accounted to have been personally present in the Holy warre Prince Palatine of Rhene Henry 1197 Duke or as others King of Bohemia Joboslaus or Ladislaus 1147 Duke of Saxonie Henry the younger 1197 Mar quesse of Brandenburg Otho 1197 Archbishops of Mentz 1 Conrade 2 Siphred 1197 Archbish. of Triers Theodoricus 1216 Archbish. of Colen Theodoricus 1216 Dukes of Austria 1 Leopoldus the second 1190 2 Frederick 1197 3 Leopoldus the third surnamed the Glorious 1216 Dukes of Bavaria 1 Guelpho 1101 2 Henry 1147 3 Lewis 1216 Landt-graves of Thuringia 1 Herman 1197 2 Lewis 1227 Marquesse of Moravia Conrade 1197 Duke of Mechlenburg Henry 1277 Earls of Flandres 1 Theodoricus 1147 2 Philippus 1190 3 Baldwine 1200 4 William Dampier 1250 5 Guido 1270 Dukes of Brabant 1 Godfrey 1195 2 Henry 1227 Earl of Holland William 1216 All these I say not these were all went themselves and led forth other companies suitable to their greatnesse The Reader as he lighteth on more at his leisure may strike them into this catalogue Thirdly Germanie maintained the Teutonick Order wholly consisting of her nation besides Templars and Hospitallers whereof she had abundance of whose loyall and valiant service we have spoken largely before Lastly She fought another Holy warre at the same time against the Tartars and other barbarous people which invaded her on her North-east-part And though some will except That that warre cannot be intituled Holy because being on the defensive it was rather of nature and necessitie then pietie yet upon examination it will appear that this service was lesse superstitious more charitable to Christendome and more rationall and discreet in it self it being better husbandrie to save a whole cloth in Europe then to winne a ragge in Asia Chap. 22. The English and Italian service compared Of the Spanish Polish Norvegian Hungarian Danish and Swedish performance in this warre NExt in this race of honour follow England and Italie being verie even and hard-matched England it is no flatterie to affirm what envie cannot denie spurreth up close for the prize and though she had a great disadvantage in the starting Italie being much nearer to Palestine yet she quickly recovered it Our countrey sent one King Richard the first and three Kings sonnes Robert Courthois Richard of Cornwall and Prince Edward to this warre Yea England was a dayly friend to this action and besides these great and grosse summes of visible adventurers she dropped and cast in privily many a Pilgrime of good qualitie so that there was scarce any remarkable battel or memorable siege done through the warre wherein there were not some English of eminent desert Yet Italy cometh not any whit behind if the atchievements of her severall States Venetians Genoans Pisans Sicilians Florentines were made and moulded up together Yea for sea-service and engineers in this warre they bear the bell away from all other nations But these things allay the Italian service 1. It was not so abstracted from the dregs of mercinarinesse as that of other countreys whose adventurers counted their very work herein sufficient wages but before they would yield their assistance they indented and covenanted with the King of Jerusalem to have such and such profits pensions and priviledges in all places they took to them and their posteritie not as an honorarie reward freely conferred on them but in nature of wages ex pacto contracted for aforehand as the Genoans had in Ptolemais and the Venetians in Tyre 2. These Italians stopped two gaps with one bush they were Merchant-Pilgrimes and together applied themselves to profit and pietie Here in Tyre they had their banks and did drive a sweet trade of spices and other Eastern commodities 3. Lastly As at first they gave good milk so they kicked it down with their heel and by their mutuall discord caused the losse of all they helped to gain in Syria Spain was exercised all the time of this warre in defending her self against the Moores and Saracens in her own bowels Yet such was her charitie that whilest her own house was on burning she threw some buckets of water to quench her neighbours and as other nations cast their superfluitie she her widows mite into the treasurie of this action and produceth two Theobalds Kings of Navarre and Alphonse King of Castile that undertook expeditions to Palestine Hungary sheweth one King Andrew who washed himself in Jordan and then shrinking in the wetting returned presently home again But this countrey though it self did go little yet was much gone through to the Holy warre being the rode to Syria for all land armies and merited well in this action in giving peaceable passage and courteous
entertainment to Pilgrimes as to Duke Godfrey and Frederick Barbarossa with all their souldiers as they travelled through it Had the Kings of Hungarie had the same principle of basenesse in their souls as the Emperours of Grecia they had had the same cause of jealousie against the Christians that passed this way yet they used them most kindly and disdained all dishonourable suspicioâ—s True it is at the first voyage King Coloman not out of crueltie but carefulnesse and necessary securitie did use his sword against some unruly and disorderly Pilgrimes but none were there abused which first abused not themselves But what-ever Hungarie was in that age it is at this day Christendomes best land bulwark against the Turks Where this prettie custome is used That the men wear so many feathers as they have killed Turks which if observed elsewhere either feathers would be lesse or valour more in fashion Poland could not stirre in this warre as lying constant perdue of Christendome against the Tartarian yet we find Boleslaus Crispus Duke or King thereof waiting on shall I say or accompanying Conrade the Emperour in his voyage to Palestine and having defraid all his and his armies costs and charges towards Constantinople he returned home as not to be spared in his own Countrey But if by King Davids statute the keepers of the baggage are to be sharers in the spoil with the fighters of the battel then surely Poland and such other countreys may entitle themselves to the honour of the warre in Palestine which in the mean time kept home had an eye to the main chance and defended Europe against forrein invaders Norway in that age the sprucest of the three Kingdomes of Scandia and best tricked up with shipping though at this day the case is altered with her and she turned from taking to paying of tribute sent her fleet of tall souldiers to Syria who like good fellows asked nothing for their work but their victuals and valiantly wonne the city of Sidon for the King of Jerusalem And it is considerable that Syria but a step or stride from Italie was a long race from Norway so that their Pilgrimes went not only into another countrey but into another world Denmark was also partner in the foresaid service Also afterwards Ericus her King though he went not quite through to the Holy land yet behaved himself bravely in Spain and there assisted the winning of Lisbon from the Infidels His successour Canutus anno 1189 had provided his navie but was prevented by death his ships neverthelesse came to Syria Of Sweden in this grand-jurie of nations I heare no Vous avez but her default of appearance hath been excused before Chap. 23. Of the Scottish Welsh and Irish their severall adventures THere remain behind the Scottish Welsh and Irish. It may occasion suspicion that these nations either did neglect or are neglected in this Holy warre because clean through this Historie there is no mention of them or their atchievements True it is these countreys can boast of no King of their own sent to Syria nor of any great appearing service by them alone performed It seemeth then they did not so 〈◊〉 much play the game themselves as bet on the hands of others and haply the Scottish service is accounted to the French the Welsh and Irish to the English That Scotland was no ciphre in this warre plainly appeareth 1. In that David Earl of Huntington and younger brother to William the Elder King of Scotland went along with our Richard the first no doubt suitably attended with souldiers This David was by a tempest cast into Egypt taken captive by the Turks bought by a Venetian brought to Constantinople there known and redeemed by an English merchant and at last safely arrived at Alectum in Scotland which Alectum he in memorie and gratitude of his return called Dundee or Dei donum Gods gift 2. By the plentifull provision which there was made for the Templars and Hospitallers Who here enjoyed great priviledges this amongst many others Take the Scottish law in its pure naturals That the Master of the Knicts of the Temple and chief Priors of the Hospitall of Jerusalem wha were keepers of strangers to the Haly grave sould be receaved themselves personally in any suit without entertaining a procuratour for them Nor must we here forget a Saint Willam a Scot of Perth by birth by trade a baker in charitie so abundant that he gave his tenth loaf to the poore in zeal so fervent that he vowed to visit the Holy land But in his journey as he passed through Kent he was slain by his servant buried at Rochester afterwards Sainted and shewed many miracles Neither may we think whilest all other nations were at this Martiall school that Wales the while truanted at home The Welsh saith my Authour left their forrests and now with them no sport to the hunting of Turks especially after that Wizo and Walter his sonne had founded the fair Commandrie for Hospitallers at Slebach in Pembroke-shire and endowed it with rich revenues Ireland also putteth in for her portion of honour in this service Indeed for the first fourescore yeares in the Holy warre Ireland did little there or in any other Countrey It was divided into many pettie Kingdomes so that her peoples valour had no progressive motion in length to make any impression in forrein parts but onely moving round in a circle at home their pettie Reguli spending themselves against themselves till our Henry the second conquered them all After which time the Irish began to look abroad into Palestine witnesse many houses for Templars and the stately Priorie of Kilmainam nigh Dublin for Hospitallers the last Lord Prior whereof at the dissolution was Sir John Rawson Yea we may well think that all the consort of Christendome in this warre could have made no musick if the Irish harp had been wanting Chap. 24. Of the honourable Arms in scutcheons of Nobilitie occasioned by their service in the Holy warre NOw for a corollarie to this storie if we survey the scutcheons of the Christian Princes and Nobilitie at this day we shall find the Arms of divers of them pointing at the atchievements of their predecessours in the Holy warre Thus the Dukes of Austria bear Gules a Fesse Argent in memory of the valour of Leopoldus at the siege of Ptolemais whereof before The Duke of Savoy beareth Gules a Crosse Argent being the Crosse of S. John of Jerusalem because his predecessours were speciall benefactours to that Order and assisted them in defending of Rhodes Queens Colledge in Cambridge to which I ow my education for my first seven yeares in that Universitie giveth for parcel of her Arms amongst many other rich Coats the Crosse of Jerusalem as being founded by Queen Margaret wife to King Henry the sixth and daughter of Renate Earl of Angiers and titular King of Sicilie and Jerusalem The noble
and numerous familie of the Douglasses in Scotland whereof at this day are one Marquesse two Earls and a Vice count give in their Arms a mans Heart ever since Robert Bruce King of Scotland bequeathed his heart to James Douglasse to carry it to Jerusalem which he accordingly performed To instance in particulars were endlesse we will only summe them up in generals Emblemes of honour born in Coats occasioned by the Holy warre are reducible to these heads 1. Scallop-shells which may fitly for the workmanship thereof be called artificium naturae It seemeth Pilgrimes carried them constantly with them as Diogenes did his dish to drink in I find an order of Knights called Equites Cochleares wearing belike Cocle or Scallop-shells belonging to them who had done good sea-service especially in the Holy warre and many Hollanders saith my Authour for their good service at the siege of Damiata were admitted into that Order 2. Saracens heads It being a maxime in Heraldrie that it is more honourable to bear the head then any other part of the bodie They are commonly born either black or bloudie But if Saracens in their Arms should use Christians heads I doubt not but they would shew ten to one 3. Pilgrimes or Palmers Scrips or Bags the Arms of the worshipfull family of the Palmers in Kent 4. Pilgrimes Staves and such like other implements and accoutrements belonging unto them 5. But the chiefest of all is the Crosse which though born in Arms before yet was most commonly and generally used since the Holy warre The plain Crosse or S. Georges Crosse I take to be the mother of all the rest as plain-song is much seniour to any running of division Now as by transposition of a few letters a world of words are made so by the varying of this Crosse in form colour and metall ringing as it were the changes are made infinite severall Coats The Crosse of Ierusalem or five crosses most frequently used in this warre Crosse Patée because the ends thereof are broad Fichée whose bottom is sharp to be fixed in the ground Wavée which those may justly wear who sailed thither through the miseries of the sea or sea of miseries Molinée because like to the rind of a mill Saltyrée or S. Andrews Crosse Florid or garlanded with flowers the Crosse crossed Besides the divers tricking or dressing as piercing voiding fimbriating ingrailing couping And in fansie and devices there is still a plus ultra insomuch that Crosses alone as they are variously disguised are enough to distinguish all the severall families of Gentlemen in England Exemplary is the Coat of George Villiers Duke of Buckingham five Scallop-shells on a plain Crosse speaking his predecessours valour in the Holy warre For Sir Nicolas de Villiers Knight followed Edward the first in his warres in the Holy land and then and there assumed this his new Coat For formerly he bore Sable three Cinquefoils Argent This Nicolas was the ancestour of the Duke of Buckingham lineally descended from the ancient familie of Villiers in Normandie then which name none more redoubred in this service For we find John de Villiers the one and twentieth Master of the Hospitallers and another Philip de Villiers Master of Rhodes under whom it was surrendred to the Turks a yielding equall to a conquest Yet should one labour to find a Mysterie in all Arms relating to the qualitie or deserts of the owners of them like Chrysippus who troubled himself with a great contention to find out a Stoicall assertion of Philosophie in every fiction of the Poets he would light on a labour in vain For I believe be it spoken with loyaltie to all Kings of Arms and Heralds their Lieutenants in that facultie that at the first the will of the bearer was the reason of the bearing or if at their originall of assuming them there were some speciall cause yet time since hath cancelled it And as in Mythologie the morall hath often been made since the Fable so a sympathy betwixt the Arms and the bearer hath sometimes been of later invention I denie not but in some Coats some probable reason may be assigned of bearing them But it is in vain to digge for mines in every ground because there is lead in Mendip hills To conclude As great is the use of Arms so this especially To preserve the memories of the dead Many a dumbe monument which through time or sacriledge hath lost his tongue the epitaph yet hath made such signes by the scutcheons about it that Antiquaries have understood who lay there entombed Chap. 25. Some offers of Christian Princes for Palestine since the end of the Holy warre by Henry the fourth of England Charles the eighth of France and Iames the fourth of Scotland AS after that the bodie of the sunne is set some shining still surviveth in the West so after this Holy warre was expired we find some straggling rayes and beams of valour offering that way ever and anon the Christian Princes having a bout with that design To collect the severall essayes of Princes glancing on that project were a task of great pains and small profit specially some of them being umbrages and State-representations rather then realities to ingratiate Princes with their subjects or with the oratorie of so pious a project to wooe money out of peoples purses or thereby to cloke and cover armies levied to other intents Besides most of their designes were abortive or aborsive rather like those untimely miscarriages not honoured with a soul or the shape and lineaments of an infant Yet to save the Readers longing we will give him a tast or two and begin with that of our Henry the fourth of England The end of the reign of this our Henry was peaceable and prosperous For though his title was builded on a bad foundation yet it had strong buttresses most of the Nobilitie favoured and fenced it And as for the house of York it appeared not its best bloud as yet ranne in feminine veins and therefore was the lesse active Now King Henry in the sunne-shine evening of his life after a stormy day was disposed to walk abroad and take in some forrein aire He pitched his thoughts on the Holy warre for to go to Jerusalem and began to provide for the same One principall motive which incited him was That it was told him he should not die till he had heard Masse in Jerusalem But this proved not like the revelation told to old Simeon for King Henry was fain to sing his Nunc dimittis before he expected and died in the chamber called Ierusalem in Westminster By comparing this prophesie with one of Apollo's oracles we may conclude them to be brethren they are so alike and both begotten of the father of lies for the Devil eartheth himself in an homonymie as a fox in the ground if he be stopped at one hole he will get out at another How-ever the Kings purpose deserveth