of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice loseth the Opportunity of conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Raign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadours with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The reasons on one side and the other The best opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her Second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who enters Galilee and besieges Tyberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tyberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that Victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land p. 113. BOOK II. The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legates to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors Where the Arch-Bishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War recommences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guienne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to Combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this Emperor betrayed the Ltains The History of the False Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac And his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stratagem of the Emperor ' s. An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battle of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The Second Battle of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battle of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue p. 149 BOOK III. The Beginning of the Reign of Richard Coeur de Lyon King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelay between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accomodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Description of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a Second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jaffa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and Imprisoned His Deliverance The Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives occasion to a fourth Crusade p. 186. PART III.
possessed with his Right Wing commanded by the Emir of Jerusalem and partly upon the Plain which in that place inlargeth it self giving a very good Scope to extend his Batallion which was commanded by his Lieutenant the Left Wing where he had placed his best Troops to oppose those of Godfrey was conducted by Bulgadis the Son of Accien and Balduc Sultan of Samosatia for he thought that these two Turkish Princes one of which had lost his Father and the other his Estate would be animated more than any of the rest to avenge their particular Losses by sighting more vigorously in the Common Cause As for himself whether it were that his Courage failed him at that time or that he was surprized and astonished with the Prediction of his Mother an old Sorceress of above an hundred years of Age who to dissuade him from this War had informed him some time before that it was written in the Stars that the Christians should be victorious he retired with a very puissant Body to an Eminence which was upon the left of the Christian Army under Pretext that from thence he might best be able to discover whither to send his Orders and necessary Succours upon all occasions But in his ill Humour wherein he was to see the Christians in so different a Condition from what he believed and who by their possessing in the manner of their drawing up the whole Plain appeared to be far more numerous than in Reality they were he caused the head of a Deserter a Renegade to be out off for that he had assured him that almost all the Crusades were dead with Famine and that those who remained not being able to carry their Arms would never come out of the Town but to sly away The Christian Army in the mean time marching leisurely more animated by seeing the Spear which was carried up on high before Aymar and by the Priests who went singing of Psalms than by the Trumpets advanced still forwards when the Infidels according to their Custom making a hideous Noise with their Instruments and Barbarous Shouts extended themselves to the Right and Left to surround the Christians making at the same time such a Discharge of their Arrows as for some Moments obscured the very Skie but this did very little Damage the Crusades by reason that a great Westerly Wind which they had upon their Backs drove the Arrows back again upon those who discharged them and gave at the same time more Force to those of the Christians which falling among the thickest Ranks made a marvellous Havock upon that crouded Multitude where scarce any one Arrow fell in vain After this first Charge Hugh the Great Robert of Flanders the Duke of Normandy Baldwin Earl of Henault and Anselm de Ribemond without giving the Enemies the Liberty of a second Discharge or so much as to draw their Cimiters sell in furiously with their Lances couched upon their right Wing where the French the Normans the English and the Flemings animated by the Example of their Chieftains with mighty Blows of Lance and Sword made a most horrible Execution among the Barbarians Godfrey who was to charge the bravest of the Infidels which he did in a moment after combated with no less advantage for throwing himself like Lightning into the thickest of the Enemies Squadrons which composed their left Wing he bore down all that opposed him with the prodigious Force of his Terrible Sword which the Saracens trembled at as if he had been Armed with a Thunderbolt The Gascons the Bearnois the Spaniards and the Provencals of Earl Raymond throwing away their Cross-Bows and their Arrows with which they had before done mighty Execution pierced into the main Body of the Battle being supported and followed by their Cavalry till they were come to the place where Hugh and the two Roberts after having routed the Wing which opposed them were arrived turning to the Right to fall upon the Rere of the Enemy In short the Right Wing fell to down-right running away the Left began to stagger and the main Battle was in Disorder when word was brought to Hugh the Great and to Godfrey that Earl Renaud and Prince Bohemond were extremely pressed and in danger of being defeated if they had not present Aid year 1098 And in Truth Soliman who had marched behind the Mountain with great Diligence was entred the Plain upon the West and had attacked Count Renaud who was advanced to oppose him but with Forces very unequal in their Number However he did most bravely sustain the furious Shock of so many Enemies till such time as joyning Artifice with Force they took from him by a new Stratagem the Means either to attack them or defend himself For Soliman who had observed that there was abundance of Hay upon the Plain had caused his People to set it on Fire which presently raised such a horrible thick Cloud intermingled with Flame and Smoak that being carried by a strong West Wind upon the Faces of the Christians it covered their Enemies who all the while poured down Showers of Mortal Arrows among them through the Cloud of Smoak this put them into great Disorder the Horse being neither able to advance through the Fire and Smoak nor to indure the incessant galling of the Turkish Arrows whilest they stood so that they carried their Riders among the Reserves and the Foot who could not retreat so fast remained exposed to the Fury of the Enemies There were not however above three hundred Soldiers slain but all the rest were either taken or dispersed for Soliman did not follow the Pursuit but according to his first Intention advanced to fall upon the Rere of Bohemond whom the stout Turk Karieth with the Sultans of Damascus and Alepo who had now also entred the Plain had already charged upon the Flank This Valiant Prince upon this occasion did all that could possibly be expected from the Courage or Conduct of the Greatest Man in the World but after all it was impossible he should long be able to resist so many Enemies as did surround him if the Succours which he had desired did not arrive more seasonably Hugh the Great was the first that came in to his Assistance and presently observing that the terrible Turk Karieth did the greatest Execution and encouraged others by his Example he made one blow which ought to render the Memory of this great Prince a Son of France Immortal and in Truth our own Historians in my opinion have not done him all the Justice which is his due and which History never refused to the meanest Souldier who behaved himself in like manner upon such an occasion For marking out this Barbarian in the middle of the Turks whom he was encouraging and pushing forwards against the Christians crying to them with a loud Voice to fall on he ran upon him with his Lance couched and hitting him between the Curiass and the Cask it passed cross his Wind-pipe and cutting off one Passage
by which the Army must certainly have perished if the Marquis had not taken Care from time to time to supply them abundantly with his Fleet. This absolutely gained him all the Commanders and the Souldiers who took his Part against Guy de Lusignan who now had nothing left but the vain Shadow of Royal Majesty without the least Substance of Power or Authority Thus the Army being extremely diminished did nothing now but act upon the Defensive in their Retrenchments opposing the Assaults of Saladin on the one side and the Sallies of the Besieged on the other till the Arrival of the two Kings whose Voyage and Actions it is now time for me after having given myself and the Reader a moments Breath to recount unto him THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART II. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The beginning of the Reign of Richard Caeur-de-Lion King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelaï between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An Adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accommodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Discription of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A Calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jassa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and imprisoned His Deliverance the Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new Division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives Occasion to a fourth Crusade year 1190 T The Crusade which had been so solemly sworn in the Holy Field and which the War that was kindled between the two Kings had so long time retarded had at length its Effect by the perfect Understanding which for some time there was between Philip the August and Richard sirnamed Caeur-de-Lion at the beginning of the Reign of this new King For so soon as he had received the Sword as Duke of Normandy at our Ladies Church in Roan and the Crown of England at Westminster with the general Applause of all his Subjects who saw that he took quite differing Courses from his Father who was not at all beloved he had no other Thoughts but of making Preparations for the Holy War Above all things he applied himself to the procuring a good Treasury of Gold and Silver but not by charging the People with the rigorous Exaction of Saladins Tenth as did his Father who when he had received it made use of it in the War between the two Crowns For this purpose he took the way of selling all the Dignities which he could all Offices and the Lands of his Demesnes at a very low rate thereby to intice the Avarice or the Ambition of unwary Purchasers who easily suffered themselves to be imposed upon with those cheap Bargains not foreseeing that he had Design of Reassumption after his Return as he did without any other Reimbursment than by allowing upon the Foot of the Account what they made over and above their Charges of the Demesnes during the time that they injoyed them But he dissembled the matter so well and on one side seemed so truly to have a design to sell all that he could and on the other shewed so many Marks of a ruined Constitution which both his constant Fatigues of War and his Debauches gained an easy Credit to that the Purchasers without any Difficulty suffered themselves to be perswaded that he would never return and that he had no other Prospect than of the present as not having any hopes of living long And for these Reasons it was that very many straitned themselves to lay hold of this occasion of Profit whereby he drew from them vast Summs turning every thing into Money even to protesting to those who were astonished at his Proceedings that if he could find a Chapman who was able to buy of him the City of London he should make no Difficulty to sell it to him But he drew the greatest Advantages from diverse Prelates of his Realm that were extraordinary Rich from whom he drew all the Money that they had by selling to them temporal Dignities which they were mighty glad to add to their Bishopricks or their Abbies It was by this Stratagem that he drew into the Net the Bishop of Durham year 1190 an old Man equally Covetous and Ambitious by persuading him to purchase the Earldom of that Province which he would unite to his Bishoprick For that Prelate who was ready to die with the Desire which he had to be Earl of Northumberland gave him for that Title all the Riches which he had for a long time been hoarding up out of the Revenue of his Bishoprick as well as those other less honest Markets which he had made And to this he threw in also all the Money which he had reserved purposely to defray his Expences in the Voyage which he had undertaken to make to Jerusalem thereby renouncing his Vow his Conscience and his Honour that so he might become great in this World out of which his old Age was even now ready to chase him which made the King very pleasantly to say when he had gotten all his Money That he was about to work a kind of Miracle and to make a young Earl out of an old Bishop He also seized upon all the Estate of
Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcemet to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Souldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land Two great Armies of Sarasins besiege the Camp They atack the Lines and force them A great Combat within the Lines The Enemy at last repulsed The Arrival of St. Francis before Damiata His Conference with the Sultan The Battle without the Lines lost by the Crusades An Advantageous Peace offered to the Christians by the Sultan The Reasons for and against it It is at last rejected by the Legate Damiata taken by Night PART IV. BOOK I. THE Condition the manners and the Religion of the People of Georgia who resolve to joyn with the Princes of the Crusade but are hindred by an irruption of the Tartars into their Country The Emperor Frederick sends a considerable relief to Damiata The return of King John de Brienne to the Army of the Crusades The Legate Pelagius opposeth his advice and makes them resolve upon a Battle against Meledin who once more offers Peace upon most advantageous Terms The Legate occasions the refusal of them The humour and description of this Legate An account of the miserable adventure of the Christian Army which by the inundation of the Nile is reduced to the Discretion of Meledin The wise Policy of this Sultan who saves the Army by a Treaty which he was willing to make with the Crusades This misfortune is followed by the Rupture of Frederick the Emperor with the Pope The Character of that Emperor The Complaints of Pope Honorius against him His Answers and their Reconciliation A famous Conference for the Holy War King John de Brienne comes to desire assistance throughout Europe The Death of Philip the August His Elogy his Will and his Funerals New endeavours of the Pope and the Emperor for the Holy War The Marriage of Frederick with the Princess Jolante the daughter of King John de Brienne Heiress of the Realm of Jerusalem John de Brienne is dispoiled of his Crown by his new Son-in-Law He puts himself under the Protection of the Pope Honorius The good Offices of the Pope to pacifie the Princes The death of Lewis the eight King of France He is succeeded by his Son Lewis the ninth The Death of Pope Honorius He is succeeded by Gregory the ninth The Portraict of this new Pope The Army of the Crusades much diminished by diseases The Emperor takes shipping He stays at Otranto where the Lantgrave of Thuringia dies A great rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Pope excommunicates him Their Manifests The Revenge which Frederick takes He passes at last into Syria His differences with the Patriarch and the Templers His Treaty with the Sultan his Coronation at Jerusalem his return and accord with the Pope The Conference of Spolata for the Continuation of the Crusade The History of Theobald the fifth Earl of Champagne and King of Navarr His Voyage to the Holy Land with the other Princes of the Crusade His description and his Elogy A Crusade published for the Succour of Constantinople An Abridgement of the History of the Latin Emperors there The Causes of the little Success of the King of Navarr's Enterprise A new Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Occasions thereof The deplorable effects of that breach which ruins the Affairs of the Holy Land The Jealousie among the Princes occasions their loss Their defeat at the Battle of Gaza The unsuccessful Voyage of Richard Earl of Cornwall The death of the Constable Amauri de Montfort His Elogy his Burial and that of his Ancestors and of Simon de Montfort in the Monastery of Hautebruiere A Council called at Rome The Pope's Fleet defeated by the Emperor's and the taking of the Legates and Prelates going to the Council The death of Pope Gregory The election of Celestin the fourth and of Innocent the fourth He breaks with the Emperor and retires into France BOOK II. THE Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the August House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The first Battle of Massore where the Count d' Artois is slain The second Battle and the admirable Actions of the King The Plague and Famine in the Camp An unfortunate Retreat wherein the whole Army is defeated and the King with all the Princes and Lords are taken Prisoners An Heroick Action of Gaucher de Chastillon in this Retreat The admirable Constancy of the King in his Imprisonment His Treaty with the Sultan The Original of the Mamalukes The Revolution in the Empire of Egypt by the Murder of the Sultan The Confirmation of the Treaty with the Admirals The King absolutely refuseth to take the Oath which these Barbarians would exact from him The Refutation of the
Fable touching the pawning of the Holy Eucharist to the Sarasins by the King Lewis His deliverance and admirable Fidelity to his Promise and the perfidiousness of the Egyptians BOOK III. The General Consternation all over France upon the News of the King's Imprisonment the Tumult the Shepherds their Original their Disorders and Defeat St. Lewis after his deliverance performs his Articles with great Justice The Admirals fail on their part The Original of the Hospital of the Fifteen Score The Councel debates the matter of the King's return The Reasons on the one side and the other It is at last concluded for his stay in Palestine Four Famous embassages to St. Lewis from Pope Innocent from the Sultan of Damascus from the Ancient of the Mountain and from the Emperor Frederick The Death of that Emperor and the different Opinions thereupon An Error of St. Lewis who loseth a fair opportunity of making use of one Party of the Sarasins to ruin the other The Election of a Mamaluke Sultan The gallant Actions of St. Lewis in Palestine The Death of Queen Blanch and the return of the King into France The Rupture and War between the Venetians and Genoese occasions the loss of the Holy Land The Conquests of Haulon Brother to the great Cham stops the Progress of the Sarasins The Relation of the Mamaluke Sultans They vanquish the Tartars which ravage Palestine The Character of Sultan Bendocdar the great Enemy of the Christians His Conquests upon them His Cruelty and the Glorious Martyrdom of the Souldiers of the Garrison of Sephet and of two Cordeliers and a Commander of the Temple The taking and Destruction of Antioch by this Sultan The quarrels between the Popes and the Princes of the House of Suabia obstruct the Succours of the West The Histories of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Conrade of Pope Alexander and Mainfrey against whom he vainly publishes Crusades The History of Charles d' Anjou to whom Pope Urban the Successor of Alexander and Pope Clement the Fourth give the Realms of Naples and Sicily as Fieffs escheated to the Church by Felony His Exploits his Battles and his Victories over Mainfrey and Conradin The deplorable Death of that young Prince The Victories of Charles cause the Pope and St. Lewis to entertain a Design for a new Crusade An Assembly at Paris about that Affair where the King the Princes and Lords take upon them the Cross All other Nations decline the Crusade The Collusion of the Emperor Michael Paleologus The Condition of the King's Army The Resolution taken to Attack Tunis and the Reasons wherefore The Description of Tunis and Carthage The taking of the Port the Tower and the Castle of Carthage The Malady makes great Destruction in the King's Army His Death Elogy and Character The Arrival of Charles King of Sicily The Exploits of the Army The Treaty of Peace with the King of Tunis who becomes Tributary to Charles The return of the two Kings their Fleet is horribly beaten by a Tempest Prince Edward of England saved his Vow to go to the Holy Land His Voyage his Exploits and his return The vain indeavours of Pope Gregory the Tenth for a new Crusade The second Council of Lyons The last causes of the loss of the Holy Land The quarrel among the Christian Princes for the Succession to the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Death of Bendocdar The defeat of his Successor by the Tartars The hopes of the recovery of all Palestine by the Arms of King Charles of Anjon ruined by the sad accident of the Sicilian Vespers The new division among the Princes and the Progress of the Mamaluke Sultans The Relation of the lamentable Siege and the taking of Acre by these Barbarians All the other places are lost and the Christians of the West wholly driven out of Palestine and Syria The vain and fruitless attempts which have since been made to renew the Crusades THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The greatness of the Subject of the ensuing History The newness and advantage of it The Original of the Turks and their Conquest in Asia from the Sarasens The Conference of Peter the Hermite with the Patriarch of Jerusalem The Description of the Hermite His Negotiation with Pope Urban the Second and his Preaching the Crusade The Relation of the Council of Placentia that of the Council of Clermond The horrible Disorders occasioned by the little Wars between private Persons which were tolerated in those times and which were regulated by the Canon of the Peace and the Truce Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia Legate of the Pope for the Crusade The prodigious number of those who took upon them the Cross and the Disorders that insued The Names of the Princes of the Crusade An account of Duke Godfrey and his Character He sends Peter the Hermite before him A Description of the Conduct and manner of living of this Solitary He divides his Army into two Bodies The Disorder and Ruin of the first under Gautier Monyless The greater Disorder and ill Fortune of the second commanded by Peter himself The Defeat of two other Armies of Crusades conducted by a Priest Godescalc and Count Emico their overthrow by the Hungarians The Conference of Peter the Hermite with the Emperor Alexis The Character Conduct and secret designs of that Prince and the reasons of his perfidiousness The passage of the Hermites Army into Asia and the continuance of their disorders The Italians and Germans separate from the French The first overthrown by young Soliman Sultan of Nice The first Battle of Nice where the other part are overthrown also by Soliman The Voyage of Godfrey of Bullen and the Princes that accompanied him The Voyage of Hugh the Great and the Princes that followed him his Character Conduct and Imprisonment by the Greek Emperor The War of Godfrey against Alexis The Extremity to which the Emperor is reduced and the Treaty concluded between him and the Princes The Relation of the Conquests and Settlement of the Normans in Italy The Voyage of Bohemond Prince of Tarentum and the Princes that went along with him The Voyage of Raymond de Tholose of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia and the other Princes and Lords which accompanied them The Character of that Earl his Conference with the Emperor and the Treachery of that Prince The Voyage of Robert Duke of Normandy his Character and Treaty with the Emperor IF ever any Undertaking were capable of possessing the Historian with a just fear of defeating the mighty Expectation of his Reader most assuredly it may be apprehended in attempting the Design of relating the ensuing History of the Crusade And indeed amidst all the most extraordinary Revolutions which may be found either in the Establishment of New or the Ruine of the Ancient Monarchies one shall difficultly meet with any thing more memorable and whether we
he arose from the Sepulchre who coming towards him and softly jogging him said Arise Peter and immediately go about the Charge Imposed on thee I will be ever with thee It is high time that the Sanctity of these places Consecrated by my Presence should cease to be profaned and that I should deliver my People from the Cruel Servitude under which they have for so many Ages groaned The Hermite presently thereupon awaking felt or at least believed he felt upon his Soul the Effects of an Impression far different from what Common Dreams are wont to leave upon the Mind and therefore doubted not but Jesus Christ had thus appeared to him to give him an immediate Commission from his own Mouth This Belief which did so firmly Establish it self in his Soul would permit him no longer to doubt the Truth of it was such a new Confirmation of the Truth of the Heavenly Vision year 1093 that adding new Fire to his Flame it produced in his Heart the Courage of a Hero insomuch that he believed there was nothing able to resist his Enterprise So that without delaying a moment having received the Benediction of the Patriarch he went to imbarque upon the first Merchants Ship which he should meet which in a few days he did and happily arrived at the Port of Bari from whence he proceeded to the Court of the Pope The Pope then being was Vrban the Second a Frenchman by Nation of the Diocess of Rheims who after he had with great applause and for the advantage of the Church managed his Legation into Germany was created Cardinal of Ostia and Six Years after he was chosen Pope at Terracina whither the Sacred Colledge was retired whilst Guibert the Anti-Pope assisted by the Arms of the Schismatique Emperor Henry the Fourth possessed the City of Rome but Germany and Italy declaring against the Emperor and the Anti-Pope being forced to retire to Verona where Henry had shut himself up Vrban who was unwilling to imploy Force which he could have done to re-enter Rome returned thither peaceably and was received by the City although the Schismatiques kept still the Castle of St. Angelo Here it was that the Hermite addressed himself to the Pope and having delivered to him the Letters of the Patriarch of Jerusalem he gave him a full account of his Commission He had all the Success he could hope or desire to find from this Pope in whose Soul he found all the Inclination he could wish to favour so fair an Enterprise For this Pope Vrban who had not only a great Mind but a large Fond of Piety and Religion but had also been the great Confident of Gregory the Seventh year 1074 and that Pope about twenty years before had laid a Design for the Uniting of all the Christian Kingdoms in a Holy War against the Infidels who having ravaged all Asia were advanced within sight of the Walls of Constantinople which they also threatned to attack He was resolved himself in Person to march at the Head of the Christians of whom above fifty thousand had listed themselves and were ready to march under his Conduct but the jealousie which he had of the ill Designs of the Emperor who refused to joyn with him in this Sacred Expedition obliged him to break those Measures and to apply himself to the defence of the Church which was in Extream Hazzard of being oppressed by the Avarice and Violence of that Prince But Vrban who had as much Courage and better Fortune than Gregory the Obstacle of the Schism being now removed resolved strongly to undertake an Enterprise so illustrious so advantagious to the Glory of God so necessary to the good of all Christendom and which would render his name venerable and his Pontificate Memorable to all Posterity He therefore gave the Hermite a favourable Reception and granted him long Audiences the better to inform himself of the Exact Posture of the Eastern Affairs and the Forces of the Turks and Sarasens which he was to oppose And as he quickly discovered the great Qualities of this little man whose Appearance made yet smaller promises perceiving also his Address good Sense and the Conduct he had to manage this great Affair together with the Courage and Resolution with which he Espoused the Design he was not long before he determined to make use of him alone for the carrying on what ever was necessary for the Design till it was fit for him publickly to appear in it And therefore sending for the Hermit he opened his very heart to him in such terms as made it evident that he had as violent a Passion for the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Infidels as the Patriarch himself who had imployed him in that Negotiation He promised him that he would imploy all the Interest he had in Heaven and Earth his Forces his Revenue his Reputation and all his Pontifical Authority to form a Holy League of all the Western Princes to oppose the Infidels who so cruelly tyrannized over the Christians in the East But withal he informed him that before he proceeded any further it was convenient that he who had begun this great Affair should endeavour to dispose the Minds of the People in all the Countries both on this and the other side of the Alpes by publishing to them those things which he had with so much Zeal and Passion related to him There are few Examples to be produced comparable to this which makes it appear how one single Person was able to move the whole Earth by his Constancy Conduct and Resolution in pursuing a Holy Enterprise which he had formed with so much Generosity Zeal and Courage and whether it were the Extream Passion which the Hermit had to see the Design succeed and prosper that rendred his Arguments perswasive beyond the Power of his own Genius though Naturally Eloquent or whether the Splendor of so grat a Design dazled his Fears and transported his Mind with a Passion for such a Novelty as carried all the Charms of Honorable and Excellent or rather that God who had chosen this Instrument to manifest his Power and his Glory acted by him more Efficaciously upon the Hearts of men which are in his Hands to dispose of as he pleaseth most certain it is that never any single and so inconsiderable a Cause produced such suddain surprizing and wonderful Effects for in less than one Year in which the Hermit by the Popes Command applyed himself to this Affair he travelled over the greatest part of Europe treated in particular with most of the Princes year 1094 and preached publickly in all places where he came insomuch that he inflamed all mens Hearts with such a desire to have a share in the Glory of redeeming the Holy Land that both Princes and People embraced the Design with an Equal Ardor testifying a mighty impatience for the happy moment which should consummate this Holy League wherein they were to be ingaged in this Religious War Ibid. The Pope
Geoffrey of Aigremont and the most valiant William of Paris The Infidels left there upon the place besides a prodigious number of the Arabs and their other ordinary Soldiers above three thousand of the principal persons of Quality among the Turks being those who of all the Infidels fought the most valiantly in that Battle The Victorious Army after having refreshed themselves two days in this Valley year 1097 now famous for this glorious Victory put themselves upon their March advancing towards Syria all the way following the Track of the flying Sultan and this Prince having after the Battle met with ten thousand fresh Arabians which came to Reinforce him and upon the Road having called the scattered Fugitives he applied himself to lay all the Country wast through which the Christian Army was to march this reduced them to extream Want especially in their Passage over the Mountains and the Deserts so that the defect of Provisions and the Thirst occasioned by the excessive Heats reduced them to those Extremities that five hundred Persons died in one day and almost all the Horses perished But at last having gotten out of those Straits they arrived about Antioch in Pisidia which surrendered to them without Resistance as did most of the other Cities in their Passage through Lycaonia Cappadocia and Armenia For the generality of the Inhabitants being Christians and the Turks not daring to appear in the Field being baffled in all the Rencounters upon the Way and therefore unable to protect them those places sent to the Princes to render themselves to their Protection they received the Princes with all sort of Submission and by a thousand Testimonies of Rejoycing made it appear with what infinite Pleasure they saw themselves delivered from the insupportable Yoak of Slavery which had been imposed upon them by the Infidels And therefore seizing upon Iconium Cesaria in Cappadocia sometimes a famous City though now almost wholy Ruinous Heraclia upon the Frontier of Cilicia the Princes placed Governors in them retaining them under their own Jurisdiction For they thought themselves wholy disengaged from the Oath which they had made to the perfidious Alexis who had not observed in any sort the Agreement which he had sworn to them Thus it must happen to such cowardly Princes who not believing themselves obliged to submit to the Laws which they themselves have made and to which they have given their most solemn Faith they gain nothing in conclusion by their Dissimulation but the Disappointment of their Expectations and the unprofitable Shame by breaking their Word of being esteemed dishonest and unworthy Men. Whilest the Army refreshed themselves in Pisidia after such Toyls and Hardships Prince Godfrey had like to have been lost by a strange Accident which however redounded in conclusion much to the Honour of this Prince advancing his Reputation Courage and Nobleness which appeared even to Admiration upon this dangerous Occasion For one day entring alone upon Horseback into a Wood where he hoped to have the Pleasure of entertaining himself some Moments in Solitude he heard the Voice of a Man who cried out for Help with all his Power and advancing to the place from whence the Noise came he presently understood the Cause for he perceived it was a poor Soldier who coming to cut Wood was running quite almost out of Breath round about a great Tree to save himself from the merciless Jaws of a monstrous and furious Bear year 1097 which was just ready to seize upon him Godfrey did not long deliberate what he was to do but transported with his Courage and his Charity to see the Danger of one of his Soldiers he spur'd on his Horse with his Sword in his hand towards the cruel Beast who abandoning her first Prey with her Eyes inflamed and her gaping Jaws and the terrible Claws of her two fore Paws advanced towards him and raising herself upon her hinder Feet to throw herself upon the Horse but being affrighted with the glittering Sword to avoid the Blow she fell sidelong yet so that Horse and Man came over her she catched hold of the Dukes Coat to draw him towards her but Godfrey nimbly recovering his Fall and seizing upon her left Paw which she had thrust out to lay hold upon him he plunged his Sword up to the very Hilt in the Belly of this monstrous Enemy when at the same time one of his Gentlemen named Husequin who was following the Hounds came running in at the horrible Cries of the Bear and the Soldier and put an end to the Life of the Beast already overthrown by the terrible Blow which she had received but the Duke having in drawing his Sword after his Fall from between his Leggs given himself a cruel Wound in his Thigh which during the heat of the Combat he never perceived he had lost so much Blood that after the heat of his Spirits which kept him up began to remit he immediately sunk down in a Swoon This Accident tho in consequence not Dangerous yet spread a mighty Consternation throughout the Army as if all had been lost For altho he had not the absolute Command of a General there being so many Princes and the Sons of two Kings so that all things were done by Consent and an equality of Power yet nevertheless he had so much Authority and so much Deference was given to his Judgment that one shall not need to make any Scruple in saying he was the Chief especially since the Battle of the Gorgonian Valley where by his Valour he not only faved the Army of Bohemond but gained the Christians a most glorious Victory by snatching it out of the hands of the Infidels when they were just upon the point of consummating it But not long after it so happened that Ambition Jealousie and the desire of Revenge three Passions far more dangerous than the most furious Beasts produced Effects more deplorable to the Christian Army than what had like to have befallen them by this monstrous Bear who failed in his Attempt against the Duke who was the Soul and Spirit of the Army For while they lay in Pisidia refreshing themselves waiting the Recovery of the Duke his Brother Baldwin and Tancred two young Princes whom the love of Glory had already rendred Rivals entred into Cilicia by two different Ways with two little Armies to make themselves Masters of such Places as they could Conquer which by the Consent of the other Princes they were to hold and establish there their little Principalities Tancred who took the more easy way all along the Sea Coast came first before Tarsus the Capital City of that Province and having beaten the Turkish Garrison who came out to sight him the Inhabitants who were for the most part Christians submitted to him and planted his Ensigns upon one of the principal Towers of the City Baldwin who followed by the long and difficult way of the Mountains came in just as these matters had passed and was taken by Tancred
Orontes all the way of its passage watring the inward part of the City for these two mountains and two other lesser Hills were all within the Circumference of the Walls which were of an extraordinary height and thickness and defended by above four hundred fair Towers a mighty deep Ditch and a Counter-Scarp well fortified with Palisado's and invironed with a Morass and Pools of water in those parts where by reason of their lying upon the plain the Avenues to the City lay more easie of access And besides all this there was a powerful Army of Turks within the place for its defence as also two Castles upon the Mountain in one of which was the Palace of Sultan Accien who reigned in Antioch fourteen years after the Turks had taken it from the Sarasens and as he had a long time to foresee that the Army of the Christians must come upon him in their passage into Palestine he had used all imaginable diligence to furnish himself which all things necessary to sustain a long Siege hoping in that time to receive great succours from the Turkish Princes and especially the Sultan of Persia who had promised not to fail him and whom Soliman was gone to solicit in the common Cause year 1097 And that which rendred this attempt most extream difficult was not only the Greatness but the Situation of the City which would not admit of being wholly invironed but that there was free Egress and Regress for Succours to come to the besieged The Christian Army consisted not now in above three hundred thousand men the Sieges the Battles the Diseases and Disertions and other losses which they had sustained in their Passage over the Mountains and Deserts together with the Garrisons which they were obliged to put in the conquered Places had reduced them to one half but nevertheless the Princes according to the resolution which they had taken did not cease to form the Siege in this following manner All the South side was left open by reason that it was impossible to attack the City on that side in regard of the Rock and Mountains which rendred the Passage inaccessible So that they were contented to environ it on the side of the Plain beginning at the foot of the Mountain on the East and so drawing by the North towards the West between the Town and the River which in that part for about a mile came so near the Western part that it served for a Ditch upon that Quarter Prince Bohemond and Tancred took their Post over against the Eastern Gate called St. Paul's Gate through which they go to the famous and delightful Suburb of Daphne sometimes so celebrated for the Temple and Oracle of Apollo and afterwards much more for the Tomb of that illustrious Martyr Babylas who silenced the Devil for ever giving any more doubtful Answers to the foolish Inquirers Hugh the Great the Duke of Normandy the Earl of Blois and the Earl of Flanders were posted at the Right drawing more towards the North to the Port commonly called the Dogs Gate The Earl of Tholose with the Bishop of Pavia were encamped before that Gate and possessed all the space between that and the third Gate which afterwards was called the Dukes Gate by reason that Duke Godfrey with his Lorrainers and Germans was posted there his Quarters being extended to that place where the Orontes beginning to turn from the North to the West slides down by the Walls of Antioch so that the greatest part of the Army was encamped between the Town and the River which was there passed by a large stone Bridge just over against the fourth Gate of the Town which was therefore called the Bridge Gate This Gate was also open to the besieged as well as that of St. Georges upon the West by reason that the River was between these two Gates and the Besiegers who by an Error not easily to be excused did not at first raise good Forts against these two Gates as afterwards something with the latest they were constrained to do But this Failure was nothing in comparison of another far greater and which cost the whole Army very dear For the besieged making no manner of Sallies to hinder their Approaches and seeming to be buried in a profound Quiet not so much as bringing one Engine to the Walls for their Defence they in appearance looked as if they had lost all their Courage and their Hope so that it was the Common Imagination that the Christians could not fail presently to make themselves Masters of the Town So that hereupon they took the Liberty to ramble up and down the Country year 1097 and to straggle all over the Villages round about to make merry and without any necessity to wast that mighty plenty of provisions with which that fertile Soil abounded and in short they neither kept Order nor Discipline in the Camp partly by reason of the false opinion which possessed them that this contemptible Enemy would surrender the Town without a Blow but principally by the misfortune that both Duke Godfrey and Prince Raymond were fallen sick which had like to have intirely ruined their Affairs year 1097 The Enemies quickly advertised by their Spies of this disorder failed not to make advantage of it they began at last after so long a silence to make a mighty noise with their Engines and afterwards instantly to assail the Camp upon all Quarters so that the besiegers seemed now to be besieged Their Cavalry fallying at the Bridge-Gate over-ran that Quarter which was beyond the River cutting in pieces all those whom they found dispersed and without Arms as if it had been in a time of perfect Peace Nor was it possible for their Companions to succour them in regard that they must either by swimming or fording come to their Assistance neither of which could quickly be performed Others of them made Sallies either openly and in good Order assaulting the Quarters which were negligently guarded or by surprize creeping along the River side and the Marish among the Reeds they fell upon such as were idly walking or diverting themselves in the Gardens and Orchards as if they had not been in an Enemies Country In this manner the unfortunate Alberon Archdeacon of Mets a young Prince of the Blood Imperial miserably perished for as he was walking with a Lady of great Quality in one of these Gardens he was surprized by the Infidels who cut off his head and carried the Lady Prisoner into the City where after the barbarous Villains had committed all the Outrages imaginable against her Honor they cut off her head also and threw them into Godfrey's Camp After which the Besiegers ashamed to be so affronted by the mistake of the Courage of their Enemies began now to act after new Measures and recalling their Ancient Vertue to think of taking the City in good Earnest They therefore began to attack it by main Force with all sorts of Engines and gave a general Assault with all the
for the Entertainment of so great an Army and besides they who were to share in this prodigious Booty were but an inconsiderable Number in Comparison of those who had been Parties in the other Battles In this Battle there were slain thirty thousand upon the place and twice as many in the Pursuit in the whole above one hundred thousand Men without counting those who were stifled at the Gate of Ascalon or those others who threw themselves into the Sea which though they were a great Number yet it was impossible to compute them On the part of the Christians there was not any one man of Note nor so much as one Horseman slain and but a very inconsiderable Number of the Infantry and of those most were of that unruly sort of Soldiers who disbanded themselves from their Colours to run to the Plunder Thus the King having assured his new Kingdom by this great and Memorable Victory led the Army back again loaden with Spoils and Glory to Jerusalem where it entred in a kind of Triumph which was finished by the solemn returning of Thanks to Jesus Christ at his Holy Sepulchre There Robert Duke of Normandy hung up the great Standard of the Sultan as his Sword also which in his Flight he had let fall and which to add to his Offering he bought of a Soldier who had found it See here the true Account of the Battle of Ascalon which was rather a flight on the one side and a Slaughter on the other than a Combat which Tasso nevertheless hath rendred famous by a hundred Beautiful and Magnificent Falsities which his Art gives him the License to add throughout his Poem of which he makes this the Conclusion as indeed it was also of this first Crusade For the Princes and great Lords with those who had followed them believing that they had fully accomplished their Vow took their Leave of the King to return into their respective Countries and Habitations year 1099 but in Regard it is the History of the Crusades and not only that of the Realm of Jerusalem which I undertake to write I shall not treat of that but so concisely as may be and as it hath a necessary Connexion to that of the Crusades in making it known by the Consequent Events the Occasions and the Causes which gave Birth and Rise to the others and as it shews the Condition in which the Christian Princes found the East when they were published and when they undertook their Voyages to assist them year 1100 After that the Crusades to the Number of about twenty thousand had quitted the Holy Land Godfrey who had not remaining with him more than three hundred Horse and about two thousand Foot together with Tancred who never abandoned him received a reinforcement from Italy which was brought him by Dambert Arch-Bishop of Pisa Legat to Pope Paschal the second who succeeded Pope Vrban It was with these few Troops that the King to inlarge the Frontiers of his new Kingdom conquered the places which were yet untaken round about Jerusalem After which he made himself Master of Tiberias and other Towns upon the Lake of Genazareth and the greatest part of Galilee the Government whereof he bestowed upon Tancred He compelled also the Emirs of Ptolemais Cesarea Antipatris and Ascalon to become his Tributaries and the Arabian Princes beyond Jordan in most humble manner to beg Peace of him After which he caused the Port and the City of Joppa which afterwards was called Jaffa to be fortified where he received the Succours of the Venetians who being joyned with Tancred some time after took Caiphas at the Foot of Mount Carmel And now after so many Toils being fallen sick he caused himself to be removed to Jerusalem whereupon the eight day of July in the fortieth Year of his Age and the first of his Reign he rendred his glorious Soul into the Hands of his Almighty Redeemer by a most Religious Death He was a Prince in whom all the Vertues Christian Civil and Military were assembled in the highest Point of Humane Perfection without the Mixture of any Default so that it will for ever remain difficult to find another like him or of whom one may without the Magnifying Vice of Flattery say the same things even among the Catalogue of the greatest Saints Baldwin his Brother succeeded him and leaving to his Consin Baldwin Earl of Bourg the Principality of Edessa with a few Troops marched to Jerusalem from whence Tancred after having rendred Caiphas into his Hands was retired in Order to his taking upon him the Principality of Antioch during the Imprisonment of his Uncle Bohemond who had by an Ambuscade which they laid for him been taken by the Turks year 1101 This new King who though he was nothing comparable either in Sanctity or Prudence to his Brother had notwithstanding many excellent Qualities and Endowments and above all others he was most extraordinary Valiant and a great Soldier In the beginning of the Spring making a League with the Naval Forces of Genoa at Jaffa he with their Assistance took Antipatris and Cesarea and in Conclusion in a set Battle Vanquished the Army of the Sarasins of Egypt but the Year following year 1102 happening too wilfully and with Precipitation to engage in the Plain of Rama without staying for his Infantry though his Army consisted in twenty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse he lost the Bactle and many French Princes and Lords who at that time were come to visit the Holy Places For so soon as it was known in France that Jerusalem was taken there were an Infinite Number of People of all Ages and Qualities who for Devotion undertook that Voyage the Principal Persons were Hugh the Great and the Earl of Blois who being retired into France the one before the other after the taking of Antioch thought to repair that Fault by this second Voyage also the Earls William de Poitiers Geoffry de Vendosme Stephen de Burgogne and Hugh Brother to Earl Raymond of Tholose who having stayed some time at Constantinople to treat with the Emperor Alexis joyned themselves with those Princes The other Nations and particularly the Lombards and the Cermans would also have a part in this Expedition and the Number of these new Pilgrims was so excessive great that counting also the French there arrived when they passed into Asia year 1102 two hundred and sixty Thousand men but as it was nothing else but a confused Multitude of disorderly Voluntiers of all sorts of Conditions which followed them without Order Discipline Obedience and almost without Arms and that the Princes and Bishops went rather in Pilgrimage than to a Holy War after the Conquest of Jerusalem I do not reckon this among the Crusades And indeed there never was one more irregular or less fortunate for the greatest part of these ill conducted Pilgrims perished by the Miseries of the Way or by the Arms of the Turks under Soliman with whom the Persidious Alexis
the Knights which are the prime Nobility possess great Estates under the Authority of the Great Master of the Teutonick Order But whilest these Military Orders began thus much about the same time to Establish themselves by little and little in Jerusalem that of the Hospitallers both Ancient and Modern which one may say were the Model of the others made a great Progress in Palestine and became of great Consideration by the great Services which it Performed both in Peace and War and upon this Account both the number of Pilgrims as also of Soldiers and Gentlemen who entred into that Order increasing daily St. Gerard the Provincial of the Isle of Martigues who was Master of the Hospitallers when Jerusalem was taken from the Sarasens built about the Year 1112. a third Hospital giving it the Name of St. John Baptist and there placed his new Knights who a little time after began to form the Design of following a Conduct and Manner of Living more Austere and more Perfect than that of the old Fraternity And indeed when after the Death of Gerard Fryer Bryan Roger was chosen by plurality of Voices to be the Great Master of the Hospitallers these new Knights of the third Erection of St. John Baptist persisting in their first Resolution of Living in greater Perfection would needs Imitate the Knights-Templers and add to their other Vows that of Chastity they separated from the Ancient Hospitallers and chose for their Master Fryer Raymond of Pavia a Gentleman of Dauphiny who drew up for them new Constitutions full of solid Christian Piety which may be seen in the Book of the Statutes of that Order with the Approbation of Pope Calixtus the Second in the Year 1123. as also the Priviledges which have been granted to them by forty eight Soveraign Popes After which time to distinguish themselves from the other they called themselves the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem and wore a white Cross of eight Angles upon a black Habit. This is that famous Order which contrary to what usually happens to other Establishments hath daily Increased for above this five hundred Years Advancing to the supreme Elevation of Splendor and Glory wherein it appears at this very Day That Order I say which in all times hath had the Honor to have its Commanders and Knights of all that is Brave and Generous among the Nobility of all Europe and above all those Princes who have been most Remarkable and more distinguished by the Greatness of their Merit than by their Illustrious Names or Birth that Order in short which under the Celebrated Names of Rhodes and Maltha hath filled the Earth the Sea and all the Corners of our World with the glorious Trophics of an infinite number of Victories which they have Obtained against the Turks As for the ancient Hospitallers who were thus separated from these New ones with whom they formerly made up one Order under one great Master they still retained their ancient Name of St. Lazarus they added to the Habits of their Knights a green Cross to distinguish them from the others and maintained themselves within the Limits of their first Institution which allowing of Marriage consisted of three principal Vows of Charity to withdraw themselves from the World to the Service of the Infirm and Leprous of Chastity either in a single or conjugal State and of Obedience to their great Master and above all to be continually ready to Fight against the Infidels and the Enemies of the Church They also performed after this very signal Services in Palestine year 1119 which obliged the Kings Fulk Amaurus Baldwin the Third and Fourth and the Queens Melisantha and Theodora to take them into their particular Protection and to honor them with many Marks of their Royal Bounty the precious Testimonies whereof they do to this day preserve in their Treasury It was for this Cause that the young King Lewis at his Return from the Holy Land brought with him some of them into France there to Exercise their charitable Functions and to this purpose gave them the Supervising of all the Operations of the Infirmaries within his Realm as also the Castle of Boni near Orleans to be the principal House and chief Residence of their Order on this side the Sea as appears by his Letters Patents of the Year 1154. Signed by the Chancellor Huges in the Presence of the Constable Matthew de Montmorency which was Confirmed to them by Philip Augustus in the Year 1208 who also granted them great Priviledges and Immunities which have since been Augmented and solemnly Confirmed by twelve of our Kings of France In process of time the Order extended it self by Degrees through all Europe but principally in France England Scotland Germany Hungary Savoy Sicily Pavia Calabria Campania in Italy where the Emperor Frederick the Second gave them great Possessions in the Year 1225 which was also confirmed to them afterwards by the Bulla's of many Popes It was in that flourishing Estate wherein this Order was in Europe under this Emperor and under the King St. Lewis that the Pope Honorius the Third Approved it and Confirmed it anew giving it the Rule of St. Augustin with many great Priviledges which were also afterwards Augmented by the Bulla's of Pope Gregory the Ninth Alexander the Fourth Clement the Fourth Nicholas the Third Gregory the Tenth and John the Twenty second and many other Soveraign Popes who granted to them the same Favours which were Enjoyed by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem by which they were impowred to hold Estates given either by particular Persons or Bodies Politick and Corporate and all the Hospitals and Infirmaries with their Goods and Possessions which at any time belonged to this Order In the time that the Affairs of the Christians were almost become Desperate in the East after the Return of St. Lewis from his Voyage to the Holy Land the great Master of St. Lazarus with the greatest part of the Knights came to settle themselves in France where this devout King who took this Order into his Royal Protection and gave them of his Bounty a thousand Marks besides other Favours which he conferred on them became in a manner a new Founder and in effect it is most certain as appears by most authentick Acts that after this time the principal Seat of the Order of St. Lazarus as well on this as the other side of the Sea hath always been kept at their Castle of Boni where the general Chapter of the Order ought to be kept once every three Years and that the Kings of France have always been the Conservators and Patrons of the Order and have nominated and appointed the great Master That these great Masters have Exercised their Jurisdictions upon all the Knights of the Order in all the States of Christendom as the Generals of the Cistertians Premonstratenses and other Orders which at present are in France Exercise theirs over all the Religious of other Realms It
Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Reign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadors with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to Elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The Reasons on one side and the other The best Opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which Recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who Enters Galilee and Besieges Tiberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tiberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land year 1148 AFTER so fair a Victory the Greeks who could by no means indure the Glory and the Advantages of the French began more openly to declare themselves against them than before for now they plainly joyned with the Turks to whom they afforded not only a Retreat to Antioch in Pisidia but gave them also the Opportunity with Ease to Assemble and Re-unite their scattered Troops Whilest in the mean time the King was in great Straits for Subsistence and finding himself in no Condition to Attaque them in so strong a Place drew towards Laodicea a large City but not so well Fortified as to be in a Condition to Resist him and there he hoped to meet with some Refreshment for his Army He arrived there three or four days after the Battle but to his great Disappointment he found by the Baseness of him that Commanded there for the Emperor that there was no manner of Provision for the Army It was this wicked Villain who pretending to Convoy a party of the poor Germans who had saved themselves after their Defeat lead them into an Ambuscade of Turks who put them all to the Sword and with whom as it was before Agreed he divided their Spoil This Infamous Traitor fearing it seems that the French would be Revenged of him for his Treachery or else that imagining he should not be able to Betray them in the same manner he was resolved to do them a greater Mischief after having caused all the Inhabitants to Retire with their Goods and Provisions to the Woods and Mountains went himself to seek a Refuge among the Turks so that the King was obliged to stay there till those Fugitives could be found and perswaded to return year 1148 after which loading their Waggons and Sumpters with Provisions which the King who was for rendring Good for Evil would have them paid for the Army decamped and took the way of Pamphilia that so they might by Marching near the Sea have a more commodious Passage and meet with better Plenty of Forrage and Subsistence And tho they knew that both the Greeks and the Turks Coasted along with them tho at a great Distance yet they were esteemed such contemptible Enemies and the French were so Confident after the Victory they had gained that there was too little care taken to stand upon their Guard But this Presumption as it usually happens did not fail to be very Pernicious to this Army which was unfortunately beaten by the Turks by the Fault of one Man who neglected to observe the Orders which were wisely Established by Military Discipline the Army following the Custom of those Times was divided only into two Bodies one of which composed the Vanguard and the other the Rereguard To avoid Jealousies these two Bodies were every day Commanded by two of the Principal Lords who under the King took their several Turns the King sometimes Marching with one sometimes with the other Every Night they Assembled in Councel at which all the Lords Assisted where Orders were issued out concerning the Way of the next days March and the Place where the Army was to Encamp Now there happened to be in the Way which they must of necessity pass a mighty high Mountain extream difficult of Access by reason of the dangerous Narrowness and broken Craggs and Rocks where the Army must file off The King therefore following the Resolution which had been taken at the Councel gave Order that they should Encamp on the Top of the Mountain and that they should pass the Night there and the next Morning descend into the Plain in order of Battle He who led the Vanguard that Day was Geoffry Rancon of Poitiers Lord of Taillebourg who carried the Royal Standard according to the Custom next the Orislame at the Head of this Vanguard The Count de Morienne the King's Uncle with the Queen and all the Ladies of Quality were there also by very good Fortune going before that so they might come in better time to the Place where they were to Incamp The King who usually chose the Place where there was most Danger had put himself into the Rere that so he might make Head against the Enemies if they should attempt to Follow or Molest him as they had done at the Battle of Meander Geoffry Arrived at the Mountain in very good time and seeing the Sun yet of a great height and his Guides telling him that if he did but make a little the more Hast he might Incamp far more Commodiously in one of the fairest Plains of all Asia where he should meet with all sorts of Refreshments for the Army forgetting therefore the Orders of the King with extream Rashness he descended from the Mountain and Marched a great way to that agreeable Place which had been shewed him supposing that the Arrierguard not finding him upon the Mountain would certainly follow him But he took very false Measures and in deceiving himself in this manner occasioned the Loss of the other part of the Army which was more miserably deceived by him For the very same Reason which made him March forward from the Mountain to gain the Valley made the others also seeing the Sun so high to make no hast to get to the Mountain where they doubted not but to find him Encamped according to the King's Orders By this means the Turks who Coasted all
Designs and judges all things Lawful which seem necessary to obtain Dominion being his predominant Vice This Prince who was not able to indure so much as the apparition or Shadow of Soveraignty that was above him Massacred the Caliph and all that he could find of his Relations making this his Pretext That he had discovered a Plot of the Caliph and his Friends who had the same Intention towards him After which he gratified the Soldiery with such prodigious Largesses out of the Treasures of that Prince that they became his perfect Idolaters and resolved to expose all they had for his Service and Glory And having thus established himself in the independent Soveraignty of Egypt which he looked upon as the first Stage of his Greatness and the Carrier of his Ambition he began now to entertain the lofty and aspiring Thoughts of Conquering all the East And now it was that the Christians found themselves wedged in between two most potent and redoubtable Enemies Noradin upon the East North and West and Saladin upon the South The Apprehension therefore of the extreme Dangers with which they were Surrounded made them begin to think of doing all that possibly they could for their own Security For this Purpose they sent Frederick Archbishop of Tyre to implore the Succours of the Princes of the West and to attack Saladin by Sea and Land with all their Forces year 1169 before he was well Established in his new Dominions But all in vain for Amauri though Assisted by a mighty Navy from the Greek Emperor laying Siege something too late to the City Damiata which lyes upon the second Branch of the River Nilus over against Pelusium was constrained by the excessive Floods and the want of Provisions to raise his Siege and the Navy was miserably lost partly burnt by the Fires which the Enemies threw among them and partly drowned by a fearful Tempest which wracked the greatest part of them in their Return And the Archbishop Frederick after having unprofitably Toiled more than two Years in the West where the Affairs were too much embroiled by civil Dissentions returned without any other Effects of his Ambassage than fair Words and fruitless Promises In this time Saladin who was resolved to make use of this Advantage year 1170 which the Disorder of the Christian Army offered him entred into Palestine with forty thousand Horse and took Gaza which was the Key of the Country on that Side towards Egypt and the Sea And not long after having levied a great Army both of Horse and Foot he Marched on the right Hand by Idumea that so he might secure another Passage and fell upon the Country on the other side of Jordan where he made a most horrible Devastation On the other side the Army of Noradin year 1170 did the same about Antioch and in Phoenicia where the terrible Earth-quake which was felt throughout the whole East had made such fearful Disorders overturning the Towers and throwing down the Walls of the greatest part of the Cities as if it were to facilitate the Conquests of Saladin who was the Scourge of God the Attila of those Times who was destined to Punish the Crimes of the Christians of Syria and Palestine In short to perfect the Misfortune the King who opposed himself with an invincible Conrage against all the Attempts of so many potent Enemies died in the eight and thirtieth Year of his Age just in the very Instant when he was about to make considerable Advantages of the Death of Noradin who was carried off by a Fever a little before And this deplorable Accident which happened in so critical an unlucky Minute occasioned so many Domestick Troubles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as were the concluding Causes of its Ruine This Prince left for his Successor his only Child Baldwin the Fourth who besides the Impotence of his Age being not above three years old was also tainted with a scurvy Distemper which in Conclusion became a Leprosy Raymond Earl of Tripolis his nearest Kinsman being Cousin-german to the late King by the Mother had the Regency during his Minority and in that time Saladin who never missed any Occasion to advance his Power Siezed upon Damascus by a Correspondency which he had with the Widow of Noradin whom he married and in short time after he took most of the considerable Places in Syria dispoiling the young Prince the Son of Noradin after he had Defeated his Uncle the Sultan of Nineveh who came to Assist him of all his Dominions At the same time he entred into a League with the Earl of Tripolis who ingaged not to Assist his Enemies provided that for the remainder of their Ransom he set at Liberty certain Prisoners of Quality which he kept in the Castle of Emessa who had been taken by Noradin some eight Years before Thus this Infidel Prince rendred himself more Potent than ever by the Advantage of this Treaty which gave him intire Liberty to Conquer the whole State of Noradin both on this and the other side of Euphrates and Mesopotamia year 1177 as also all that the Sultan of Nineveh Possessed in Syria It is true that King Baldwin after he came out of his Minority did what was possible for him to do in the Intervals of his Distemper to oppose the Progress of the Conqueror and that he obtained many considerable Advantages against him But at length his Distemper increasing he was obliged to chuse some of the Nobility to Govern under him and this Choice occasioned those Emulations and Divisions in the Realm which at the last completed its Ruin For as when once a Soveraign Prince becomes unable by Diseases to mannage his own Affairs he usually grows very Jealous and Suspicious and full of Fears to be Betraied by those to whom he is obliged to trust with so great a Charge Baldwin seeing himself reduced to this piteous Condition and fearing least Bohemond the young Prince of Antioch and Raymond Earl of Tripolis should attempt something against him under pretext of his Distemper which rendred him unable to Govern in his own Person he therefore without that just Deliberation which an Affair of that Importance required gave Sybilla his Sister who was the Widow of William Longsword the Marquis of Montferrat in Marriage to Guy de Lusignan a young French Lord the third Son of Hugh the Brown Earl of March and Lord of Lusignan who had made the Voyage by Sea with King Lewis the Young and creating him Earl of Jaffa and Ascalon year 1180 he declared him Governor of the Realm to the mighty Discontent of the most of the great Lords who thought themselves more worthy of that Honor. But it was not long before he had Occasion to Repent of his Choice for he found by Experience that he had but little Capacity for the Charge and less Courage as he made appear a little after in a fair Opportunity which he had to Defeat his Enemies if he durst have sought with them For
Riches and for the famous Seige which was enterprized against it by Alexander the Great who from an Island which it was before made it a Peninsula joyning it by a prodigious Bank of Earth to the firm Land of the Continent was now under the utmost Consternation finding it self without Defendants and just upon the Point to run the same Fortune with Ptolemaïs The brave Marquis who landed in the Critical Moment and who had abundance of Courage Resolution and Conduct failed not to lay hold upon so fair an Occasion to purchase not only Glory but so considerable a Fortune in Phoenicia by saving this renowned City He therefore offered to defend them against all the Forces of the Sarasins with those which he had brought provided they would Obey him and as a Recompence for preserving of the City which was so visibly exposed to the extreme danger of falling under the Power of the Infidels that they would receive him for their Master and their Lord. All this was imediately consented unto and therefore to secure the City the next day he caused diverse of the Earl of Tripolis his Complices who were discovered to have a Design to seize upon the Fortress to be hanged for their Treason And in short he laboured with so much Diligence in repairing the Fortifications by the help of the Inhabitants and those who were retired thither from Ptolemaïs and furnished it with all things necessary to sustain a Siege that he saw himself in a Condition to resist all the Forces of Saladin And that crafty Prince fearing to receive an Affront before a City so well fortified offered Conrade to give Liberty to the old Marquis his Father and if he would put the Place into his Power to recompense him with so great a Sum of Money as should exceed all that he could reasonably hope But when he saw the Marquis so firm that neither Pity nor Interest were able to work upon him he then resolved to carry the Place by Force and therefore attacked it by Land with all manner of Engines and blocked it up by Sea with a mighty Fleet to prevent the landing of any Supplies by the Shipping of Genoua and Sicily But all his Attempts became fruitless by the Valour and good Fortune and strong Resolution of the Marquis who by two or three stout Sallies which he made with great Success obliged the Turks to remove to a greater Distance He also fitted out all the Shipping in the Port and joyning with the Fleet of Margaritus Admiral of the Royal Navy of Sicily he attacked the Fleet of Saladin ad defeated it so intirely that scarce a Ship escaped but either taken burnt sunk or constrained to avoid being taken to run ashoar in the View of Saladin himself who saw but could not prevent the Misfortune and now began to despair of Success since it was no longer possible for him to hinder the Succours which came from Europe to enter at Pleasure into Tyre And there entred such considerable Numbers of them who expected the arrival of the Army of the Crusades that Conrade had thereby the Means not only to establish his Dominions but also to carry the War among his Enemies and to meet with the good Fortune in one Encounter among many others to take one Prisoner of great Quality who was exchanged for the old Marquis his Father to whom he restored his Liberty by his Valour much more honourably than he could have done by a foolish Pity of his Captivity But Saladin who had a great Soul and who was not much astonished with an Accident which he had in some measure foreseen nor surprised with this little Reverse of his Fortune to which the Prudence and the Success of the greatest Captains must sometimes submit quickly repaired this Loss by throwing himself into the Principality of Antioch which he totally reduced in less than three Months under his Power For he took more than twenty Places and constrained the Capital City to come to Terms by which they promised to surrender to him if in a certain time they were not relieved by an Army of the Princes of Europe more potent than his Thus of all the Conquests which the Franks had made with so much Glory to the Christian Name in Syria Palestine and Mesopotamia there remained nothing but these three Cities Amioch year 1188 which was not theirs neither but upon a Condition which might fail Tripolis where the King who had nothing more left of his Kingdom was retired after his Deliverance and Tyre which the Marquis Conrade had so unexpectedly preserved And that which was yet more Deplorable was the Division which happened between the King and the Marquis who pretended to retain Tyre as having justly acquired it all the Men of Spirit were upon this divided into these two Parties so that it was of great Advantage to Saladin that he had delivered this unhappy King who by this new Disturbance was the cause of the Loss of all the rest Strange Revolution of Fortune which in so small a time made such a prodigious Change in the Condition of the Christians and the Insidels which though it may give one some Astonishment yet to me it doth not seem mighty Difficult to assign the Causes which therefore for a little we will indeavour to find For first The Crusades who founded the Realm of Jerusalem and those who after them atchieved those glorious Conquests altho they had their Passions and their Failings and were as other Men subject to humane Infirmities yet for the most they were good in the main Men who had a great Fond of Honour any Honesty solidly Devout and strongly inclined to the good of Religion fearing God and above all most zealous for his Glory Whereas whether the Manners of their Successors were by little and little corrupted by the contagious Commerce which they had with the Insidel Nations with which they were Surrounded or that great Numbers of wicked People who passed into the Holy to save themselves from the Pursuit of Justice carried thither and left by their pernicious Examples those Crimes to their Posterity which they had escaped the just Punishment of Most certain it is that some small time before the Fall of that Kingdom the Lives of the Christians of the East and even of the Clergy themselves were so horribly Desolute that it is impossible without Horror to represent the frightful Picture which the Writers of those Times and those who have Copied after them have drawn of their Crimes And I wish with all my Soul that it were possible to efface and abolish the Memory of them rather than with a kind of Scandal to expose them to the View of such honest People whose Modesty may recoil at the reading of them For this Reason as God punished the Offences of the Israelites whom himself had conducted by so many Miracles into this same Holy Land and that the Punishment which they had so justly merited was the depriving them of
He came into France at the same time that Cardinal Henry the Bishop of Albano Legate from the Holy See arrived there And there are some Authors who assure us that Pope Clement honoured this Archbishop with the same Character and joyned him in Commission with the Cardinal to treat a Peace between the two Kings of England and France to the end they might unite in the Resolation of undertaking the War against Saladin That War which Philip the August had declared against Henry II. King of England for the Restitution of the Earldom of Vexin had been terminated by the Undertaking of Pope Vrban upon condition that the King of England as a Dependant for those Estates upon the Crown of France should in a time prefixed submit himself to the Judgment of the Court of France That Term being expired Henry not only still retained the Earldom which he was obliged to restore but also the Princess Alice the Sister of Philip who was designed to be married to Richard the Son of the King of England Philip resolved to do himself Reason for such a visible Injustice year 1188 was about to enter into Normandy with a potent Army where Henry also was expecting him with considerable Forces when the Archbishop of Tyre arrived very opportunely to suspend at least for a time the Anger of these two Princes And so it was that by the force of his Genius and his Eloquence he procured an Interview between them in a Plain between Trie and Gisors where they were used to meet when they treated one with the other The two Kings met there about the middle of January accompanied with the Princes Prelates and great Lords of both the Kingdoms And there it was that the illustrious Archbishop employed all the Power of his Eloquence and of his Wit to represent in that August Assembly The deplorable Estate into which the fatal Divisions of the Christian Princes of the East had reduced the Kingdom of Jerusalem which the first Crusades had from so many barbarous and Infidel Nations so gloriously conquered with their victorious Arms. He then remonstrated That of four puissant Estates which they had established upon the Ruins of the Mahomitan Empire and which extended the Dominions of the Christians from Cilicia to Egypt and from the Sea to the River Tygris there remained nothing to them now more than three Cities That Antioch dispairing to be able to preserve it self by its own Forces had already promised to surrender if it were not immediately relieved by those of the West That Tyre without necessary Succours was not in a condition to sustain a second Siege having in the first lost the greatest part of its Defendants That Tripolis was too weak to endure one and could no longer remain in Freedom than it pleased Saladin to present himself before it to add it to his other Conquests And that further after so lamentable a Loss as that of Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land there was great danger of losing also the very Hopes which remained to the Christians in those places from whence they might take a Beginning to re-establish the Kingdom of Christ Jesus if those two Kings the most potent of Christendom did not unite their Hearts and their Arms to run to the Relief of Christ and his Cause of whose only Grace and Goodness they held all which they did possess And in short he said upon that Subject so many pathetick things and in a manner so powerful and so touching that the two Princes whether they had in a former Conference which they had agreed this as one of the Articles of the Peace or that God in whose Hands are the Hearts of Kings to change them in a Moment by the extraordinary Working of his Power it is certain that they embraced one the other mutually in the Presence of the whole Assembly and did it with all the Marks of a perfect Reconciliation and a sincere and cordial Friendship as if there had never been any Subject of Discontent or Difference between them And at the same time might be heard on all sides the confused Voices of a Multitude of People who broak out into great Cries of Joy and from every Quarter was to be heard Long live King Philip Long live King Henry Let us go Let us go to this War against the Infidels under the Conduct of these two mighty Kings Let us deliver Jerusalem and extirpate the Enemies of Jesus Christ The Cross the Cross let it be given us the Sign of our Salvation and the Ruin of the Sarasins These Acclamations were also presently followed with that happy Success which attended the Legation of this brave Archbishop of Tyre that the two Kings first presenting themselves to receive the Cross from the hands of the Legates they were followed by Richard the Son of the King of England Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitou who had voluntarily taken it before the Loss of Jerusalem but would now anew receive it from the hands of the Legates As also did Philip Earl of Flanders the Duke of Burgundy the Earls of Blois Dreux Champagne Perche Clermont Barr Beaumont Nevers James Lord of Avesnes and almost all the great Lords of France England and Flanders who were present at this Assembly And to distinguish the one from the other it was ordained that the French should take a Red Cross being the same they bore in the first Crusade the English a white one and the Flemmings one of Green It is said that at the same time there appeared one in Heaven bright and shining which helped to inflame the Devotion of those who took up the other as if God himself had manifestly called them to this Holy War by a sacred Signal from above And to render the Memory of so great an Action Eternal a Cross was erected and a Church built in the midst of the Field of this Conference which was ever after called The Holy Field year 1188 After this the Kings to support the Charges of this War and to prevent the Disorders which had been so injurious to the former Crusades resolved to publish these following Ordinances That all Persons who had not undertaken the Cross of what Quality soever even the Ecclesiasticks except the Chartreux the Bernardines and the Religious of Fontevraud should pay one Tenth of their Revenues and of their Moveables except their Arms their Habits Books Jewels and consecrated Vtensils and Ornaments which was afterwards called by the name of Saladin's Tenth by reason that it was raised upon the Occasion of making this War with Saladin That the Crusades should have liberty to raise a Tenth of all their Subjects who did not go to this War And that the Husbandmen who undertook to go and take the Cross without the Leave of their Lords first obtained should not be exempted from this Impost That all Interest upon Money lent should cease for all the time that the Debters were upon Service in the Holy Land That
to Sea in Easter-Week and after it had been soundly beaten with a Tempest which they say was miraculously calmed by Thomas of Canterbury who had raised many worse in his Life according to the credulous Humour of those Ages it being affirmed by some that he appeared upon the Deck of the great Ship called the London that Vessel came up with Cape St. Vincent over against the City of Silves nine other Ships entring the River of Lesbon where they came to an Anchor The Miramolin or King of the Sarasins of the Western Africa at that time made War with a potent Army against Sancho King of Portugal whom he had surprized and who with an inconsiderable number of Troops had put himself into Santaren This Prince believing that Heaven had sent him the Succour of these Strangers year 1190 as it had before done to the late King Alphonso his Father requested them to help him in this his pressing Necessity Whereupon five hundred of the bravest of them immediately went into his Service whilst that fourscore of the most valiant young Gentlemen who were aboard the London put themselves into Sylves for the Defence of that City But Fortune without giving them the liberty of drawing their Swords put an end to this War by the suddain Death of Mirmalion after which his Army immediately disbanded it self The English then returning to their Vessels sound there sixty three more of their Ships who had put in there to refresh themselves and all that great City in Arms against their People who had committed great Insolencies and Disorders against the Inhabitants insomuch that Blood had been drawn on both sides divers Houses plundred and burnt and some of the English committed to Prison But all these Matters being calmed by the Prudence of King Sancho who knew very well how to pacifie both Parties the English took their leave the 25th Day of July and the same Day joyning three and thirty great Ships with which Admiral William Fortz attended them at the Mouth of the Tagus they prosperously pursued their Voyage till they came to an Anchor before Salernum There it was that King Richard met his Fleet and the 30th of September arrived at the Port of Messina where he was received by the French and Sicilians with all possible Honour and with all the Marks of a sincere and perfect Friendship But this was not of any long Continuance and the good Understanding which at first appeared among these three Nations was presently interrupted and broken by two great Quarrels which Richard had and which were the Cause that the two Kings instead of presently pursuing their intended Voyage were obliged to defer it till the following Year and to pass all the Winter at Messina The manner was thus William king of Sicily being dead without Issue the Sicilians who were resolved to have a King of the Race of their Norman Princes placed his Cousin Tancred the Natural Son of Roger Duke of Pavia upon the Throne notwithstanding that before his Death William had caused Queen Constance his Aunt the Wife of the Emperor Henry VI. to be acknowledged their Queen and had declared her to be the Inheretrix of the Crown Now Richard without pretending to have any part in this great Difference between the Emperor and Tancred only desired of this new King that he would send to him Jane his Sister the Daughter of Henry II. King of England the Widow of the deceased King William that he would restore to him her Dowry with several other things to which he pretended and above all an hundred Ships which the late King had promised to his Father-in Law King Henry for his Voyage to the Levant Tancred immediately sent the Queen to him but deferring to give him Satisfaction in his other Pretensions Richard who was resolved that he should do him Reason seized upon two strong Places which lay upon the Straits This gave such a Jealousie to the Messineses who naturally are not too much given to forbearing that they took Arms against the English and beat them out of the City and the English no less naturally impatient of Beating but more hot and brave than the Sicilians ran immediately to their Arms and issuing in Battalia out of their Camp repulsed these forward Burghers into the City and put themselves into a Posture to attack it by Force There was however a few Moments Truce agreed to by the Interposition of Philip the August who endeavoured to accommodate this Difference between them But Richard having discovered or at least believing that the Messineses had an Intention to surprize him during the Preliminary Treaty of the Peace began the Assault upon the Town with so much Fury that he carried the Place but he left it again presently after he had received the Excuses of the Magistrates and the Satisfaction which he demanded of them out of Respect as he said to King Philip who had his Quarter in the City and who was not at all satisfied with these violent Proceedings of King Richard For this Reason Richard to strengthen himself against him by the Alliance of Tancred concluded a Peace with that King who offered him besides the Ships twenty thousand Ounces of Gold to quit all his other Pretensions and twenty thousand more for the Portion of his Daughter year 1190 who was to be married to Arthur Duke of Bretany Nephew to King Richard So that the Conclusion of this Quarrel was the Foundation of another incomparably more dangerous which hereby grew between the kings of France and England For Tancred perceiving that the French King had no reason to be satisfied with this Marriage which was surreptitious concluded without his Knowledge and which directly shocked all his Interests endeavoured to link himself more closely with the English as he did and to exasperate them against King Philip. And truly finding that these two Princes were already imbroiled upon the Subject of the Taking Messina where Richard having caused his Standards to be planted Philip sent to have them taken down He went to the King of England and shewed him the Letters which he assured him came from the King of France wherein he offered him the Assistance of all his Forces if he would make War with Richard who he said had no other Thoughts but to amuse him with the Shew of Peace thereby with more Ease to seize upon his Realm Richard although he was extreamly provoked with this Procedure yet was very well pleased to have so specious a Pretence to break with Philip. Philip complaining with Justice enough reciprocally against him that having so long since affianced his Sister Alice he had now altered his Thoughts and was designed to marry Berengera the Daughter of Garcias King of Navarre following therein the Counsel of Queen Eleonor who her self had conducted that Princess thither There seemed great Foundation for the Complaints on either side and their Spirits were wound up to that degree as indangered the Breaking of the holy
to the satisfaction of all Parties Thus it is when Matters are managed with Charity Sweetness and Descretion and that Authority acts prudently and seasonably it ever preserves its own Rights by preserving theirs whom it reduces by gentle Methods to their Obedience but when untuly Passion comes to intermedle and to pour out its Lightnings and Thunder with more Precipitation than Reason it loseth it self making those become Rebels who would easily have been brought back again to be Subjects and is at last obliged to have Recourse to Rigor to make them submit to the Yoke which with good Usage they might have with far less Difficulty have been persuaded to receive year 1202 and which upon any Advantage they will never fail to indeavour to shake off In the mean time the Crusades had the leisure of the whole Winter in a rich City and the Country about abounding with all manner of Provisions to make the necessary Preparations against the Spring for the Conquest of Egypt when the Ambassadors of the Emperor Philip of Suabia and his Brother-in-Law Alexis Prince of Constantinople made them suddenly alter their Design and undertake an Enterprise which was most glorious to the French to whom God had designed the Empire of the East which was translated from the Greeks to the Latins in this admirable Manner which I am about to relate wherein I shall briefly recount the Cause the Progress the Consequence the Execution and Accomplishment of one of the most surprizing and memorable Adventures that ever was known in the World It was about seven Years before that the Emperor Isaac Angelus by the most just Judgment of God who was determined to punish so many horrible Crimes as he had committed during the nine Years of his Reign was tumbled from his Throne by his own Brother Alexis who took upon him the Sirname of Comnenius and who after having barbarously put out his Eyes caused him also inhumanly to be put in Irons with his Son Alexis a young Prince of about twelve Years of Age. Now it being only his Ambition which had rendred this Tyrant so Cruel who otherways was of a Nature Humane and Sweet enough so soon as he believed he was firmly Established in his unjust Domination and that he had no reason to fear that any thing Dangerous could be enterprized against him he forgot that Maxim of Tyrants which informs them That he who will peaceably and securely enjoy his Vsurpation must not do his Work by halves Insomuch that he began to compassionate those whom he had despoiled of the Imperial Dignity and after some Years of severe Imprisonment to restore them to a great share of unexpected Liberty He gave Permission to his Brother to live handsomely in a Palace which he assigned him out of the City between the two Colomnes and suffered the young Alexis to hold the Rank of one of the Princes of his Court commanding him to attend upon his Person and be his Companion in all his Divertisements But he learnt presently after that the Policy of an Usurper ought to take better Precautions than to bestow that kind of Bounty upon those whom he hath injustly Oppressed which may furnish them with an Opportunity of doing themselves Reason for the Violence which they have suffered For Isaac having the Liberty to receive all such as came to visit him treated so secretly with the Latins that by their means he found a safe way of Corresponding with his Daughter Irene the Wife of the Emperor Philip. And so soon as that Princess had disposed the Spirit of her Husband to take these poor Princes into his Protection and to receive the young Alexis her Brother a Merchant of Pisa undertook to carry him off in his Ship To effect this he caused him to be disguised like an Italian Seaman and when the Guards which the Tyrant sent to search in all the Ships so soon as he understood his Flight came aboard the Pisan who lying at the Mouth of the Hellespont ready to Sail was searched with more Exactness than any of the rest The disguished Prince with those of his Retinue who were all on the suddain become Mariners boldly received them upon the Deck and undertook himself to be their Conductor leading them into the most secret Places of the Vessel and thus by not being hid escaped most securely the Danger of being Found so that the Ship being thereupon discharged passed the Strait and the Prince was safely landed in Sicily from whence he went to Rome to implore the Assistance of Pope Innocent from thence he passed by Land to the Court of his Brother-in-Law into Germany and in his Way coming to Verona he met with abundance of Pilgrims who were going to joyn the Army of the Princes of the Crusade at Venice there some of his Retinue advised him to send Deputies to them to lend him their Assistance for the Recovery of his Empire They arrived at the Army whilest they were making their Preparations in Dalmatia for their Voyage into Egypt but the Princes judged that before they came to any Conclusion in an Affair of that Importance it was necessary to send to the Emperor Philip into Germany to be informed from him what Terms the Prince of Constantinople would offer and what was to be expected from him year 1202 after they should have Re-established him in his Dominions Philip who had now upon his Hands great Affairs in Germany to maintain himself in the Empire which he was still forced to dispute with Otho his Competitor and who notwithstanding extremely desired the Re-establishment of Isaac and Alexis Irene his Empress of whom he was most passionately Amorous continually also pressing him with her powerful Sollicitations he acquainted his Brother-in-Law the Prince Alexis that in the Posture of the Affairs of Europe at present he saw no manner of Hope of his Re-establishment but by ingaging the French and Venetians to assist him who had now a great Army on Foot for the Conquest of the Holy Land and that therefore he ought for this Purpose to offer them Conditions so Advantageous that they might be tempted to Comply with them both out of Interest Honour and the publick good of Christendom and thereupon being it was not to cost him any thing he was the more Bold in proposing the Conditions which the young Prince how hard and high soever they seemed received with Joy and instantly closed with them herein following the Example of those who to deliver themselves from a present Evil and to draw themselves out of the last Extremity to which their Affairs are reduced promise whatever is demanded without consulting either their own Hearts and future Intentions or the possibility of their Performance but being seduced by the Hope of re-entring into the Possession of what they desire above all things they promise what they persuade themselves they are willing to do though in reallity they are resolved though possibly at that time without being sensible of
it upon second Thoughts never to perform Philip having after this Manner gained the Consent of Alexis instantly dispatched the Ambassadors of the Princes together with his own and those of his Brother-in-Law Alexis who arrived at Zara about the middle of December The Doge presently gave them Audience in his Palace at Zara where all the Princes and great Lords of the Crusade being assembled the principal of the Ambassage who had order to omit nothing that might oblige the Republick and the Princes to conclude the Treaty according to his Instructions addressed his Discourse to that august Assembly to this Effect My Lords if you see appear in our Faces more Assurance and more Joy than may seem becoming poor and miserable dispoiled Persons who come to implore your Assistance it is to be attributed to our Hopes for besides the Knowledge which we have of the Generosity of so many illustrious Princes and great Personages as compose this August Assembly we have Commission to assure you that we do not present our selves before you with the least intention to retard your glorious Enterprise for the Conquest of the Holy Land but to present you with a Way most Safe Easy and absolutely Necessary not only happily from this Moment to begin it but in consequence most certainly to atchieve it with all the Glory and Advantage which you can hope or desire For the Subject of our Ambassy is to request that those Arms which you design to carry into Egypt and by that Way to enter into Palestine may be employed to render you Masters of Constantinople by placing there the true Heir the Prince Alexis and by overturning the Imperial Throne of the Vsurper who hath seized upon it by the most perfidious Cowardice and the most detestable Treason that ever was See my Lords the shortest and most infallible Way of Conquering the Holy Land and without which it will be always impossible You know generous French nor is it unknown to all Germany what happened to the late King Lewis and to the Emperor Conrade for want of assuring themselves of Constantinople before they passed any further as they were advised by a most able Politician This very Oversight was the cause of the loss of two such flourishing Armies as might with ease have triumphed over all the East if they had been Masters of that great City which is the very Key of Europe and Asia without which one cannot but with extreme Difficulty and a thousand Dangers receive either by Sea or Land those Assistances which are absolutely necessary for the Maintenance of an Army either in Egypt or Syria Nor is it probable that you can repose any sort of Confidence in that perfidious Man who is now Master of it for how can he be trusted who hath so basely betrayed his own Brother who hath banished all the Latins who hath so barbarously affronted the Emperor Philip and Philip King of France both the Allies of these two poor Princes year 1202 whom this wicked Tyrant and Vsurper hath despoiled of their Dominions This Tyrant Barharous and Cruel as he is yet will neither have the Courage nor the Power to resist your invincible Arms which are supported by the Justice of the Cause nor is there any thing so fearful and so basely Mean and Cowardly as a perfidious guilty Tyrant the terrible Images of whose Crimes continually pursue him with the dreadful Fear of Vengeance and render him the most Jealous Vneasy and Fearful of Mankind And so soon as the Prince Alexis shall be seen at the Head of this flourishing Army of French and Venetians at whose very Names the usurping Tyrant will grow pale and tremble all Greece which groans under the load of his servitude will declare themselves for this amiable Prince whom they adore and the Tyrant who is in Execration with the whole World believing that he is Surrounded with so many Enemies armed for his Destruction as there are Men in Constantinople will indeavour by an early Flight to save himself and leave you an easy Conquest over a City willing to be Overcome And for the Advantages which you shall draw from a Conquest so Easy and so Glorious besides what I have already said that it appears of absolute Necessity for the happy Accomplishing of the Holy War it is convenient to let you understand that you are to expect not only Words but real Performances not altogether Contemptible For this Purpose I am to inform you my noble Lords that the Prince Offors and we have ample and full Power to treat with you upon these Conditions First That so soon as he shall be Re-established in the imperial Throne of Constantinople he will pay you two hundred thousand Marks in Silver to be divided between the Confederates for the Charges of the War and to make Provision for the Army Secondly That he will accompany you in Person with an Army to the Conquest of Egypt or if it shall please you better that he shall send along with you ten thousand choise Men and maintain them at his own Charge there for one Year and further that he will during his Life maintain five hundred Knights well Armed for the Preservation of the Conquests which shall be made in the Holy Land And lastly which ought doubtless to be the most powerful Argument of any which I have hitherto used he promises and engages inviolably upon his Faith that if it shall please God by your Assistance to raise him to his Throne that he will reduce his whole Empire under the Obeisance of the Roman Church from which it hath been so long time separated by the Heresie and Schism After this my Lords Judge if the Means which we propose to you for the Execution of your Enterprise of the Holy War is not more Safe more Easy and most Advantageous to you and to the whole Church and in short the Thing of the World most capable to acquire for you Immortal Fame on Eurth and Glory in Heaven This Discourse which seemed so reasonable and persuasive was very diversly received by that Assembly who resolved to take some time to deliberate upon such sair Propositions In truth the Venetians and the greatest Party of the French who besides the Interest of the publick and the common Cause of Christianity found also therein their own made not the least doubt but that the Propositions ought to be accepted but those who had before used their utmost Efforts to hinder the Seige of Zara opposed them with abundance of Heat and above all the rest the Abbot du Val de Sernay who was constantly in the Head of the discontented Party made a mighty Noise with his Monks protesting against this Diversion and urging that they could not with a safe Conscience turn those Arms against Christians which they had taken up for a Holy War against the Infidels for the Deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre On the contrary the Abbot de Los of the same Order a Man of
from a Column which the People took for a Prophetick Mark of the Destiny of this miserable Prince conformable to an ancient Oracle which ran currant by Tradition among them at Constantinople That the Ox should bellow and the Bull should weep It is true that the Combats and the Victories of the great Theodosius were represented upon this Column as are to be seen at this day at Rome those of Trajan and Antoninus upon the two famous Columns there which bear their Names and thus it is possible that among those Figures there may be the Representation of some barbarous Prince falling headlong from a high Tower which they took for a Prediction of this Emperor's Destiny but that there should be any real Prediction either in this Figure or in the Story of the Bull 's weeping to forebode the Death of Murtzuphle is what I cannot easily believe For in short these sort of Prophecys of which there are numerous Examples are so obscure that they either signify nothing at all or all that one would have them signify and that commonly they are taken in a Sense far different from that wherein by the Event they explain themselves Witness that Prediction which they had and upon which the Greeks so much relied that the Latins should never take Constantinople by Force because the Prophecy told them that the City should never be taken but by an Angel But the foolish Greeks were mightily mistaken in their Interpretation as the Event shewed there being the Picture of an Angel in the very place where the City was forced And this ought to teach Christians not to amuse themselves with these Predictions which are not at all authorised by the Holy Scripture or the Church and ordinarily those over curious Persons in their own Sottishness and Credulity find their own Punishment the Event deceiving them by proving contrary to their Hopes and Expectation which are cheated by the Ambiguous Riddles such as were formerly the Oracles of the Pagans This was the tragical End of one of the Tyrants as for the other the old Alexis it is true indeed that his was not altogether so sad but altogether as unhappy For having for some time followed Leon Scurus one of his Sons-in-Law who pretended to oppose the Progress of Marquis Boniface in Macedon and Greece when he saw that all things stooped under the Arms of this Victorious Prince he despaired of being able to save himself to prevent his being taken therefore he voluntarily yeilded himself and the Empress Euphrosine with the imperial Ornaments to the Marquis who instantly sent them to the Emperor After which the poor Alexis only desiring wherewith to pass the rest of his miserable Age in some sort of Repose there were some Lands assigned him for that purpose but it being found out that he fell to his old trade of secret Caballing the Marquis to take from him the means of doing Mischief since he could not cure him of the Will to do it sent him Prisoner to Montferrat Some say that he found Means to escape from thence and to pass over into Asia to his other Son-in-Law Lascaris who had seized upon Nice and against whom this perfidious Dotard stirred up the Turks so that he was forced to take him and clap him into a Monastery where he had time to finish his Life in Repentance Thus the Empire of Constantinople about nine hundred Years after its Establishment under the great Constantine was translated from the Greeks to the French by the strangest and most memorable Conquest that ever was made by so small a Force and in so little a time being undertaken and accomplished in one Campagne year 1204 This may disabuse those who have imagined that the Crusade was not prosperous and certainly four great Estates established for the Christians between the Sea and the River Tygris Egypt and Armenia and all the Eastern Empire reduced under the Power of the Crusades are Conquests worthy the Fortune and the Glory of the Caesars and the Alexanders And if those who succeeded them failed of that good Fortune or the Conduct to preserve them it is not to be attribute to them who did so gloriously accomplish these noble Enterprises But as the Matters which happened afterwards under the French Emperors of Constantinople are not at all related to the Crusade it is not requisite that I speak further of them but proceed regularly to pursue the Course of my History and to describe the Success of those who took the other Way and followed other Designs THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The Design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His Death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcement to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Soldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land
in the Morning the eleventh Day of September with an incredible Heat on both Sides the Christians trusting in the Aid of Heaven which the Cross they had seen seemed to promise them and the Sarasins in their Multitude and besides being ranged in Battalia towards the East they had the Sun upon their Backs and the Christians full in their Eyes Thus the Combat was very obstinate on both sides Victory continuing in Suspence for a long time to which side she would incline till at last the Sarasins struck with a pannick Fear as if new Enemies had fallen upon them began to stagger and recoil and in a short time to throw down their Arms and betake themselves to Flight with all the Hast the desire of Safety could lend them It is said that in the heat of the Battle there appeared new Squadrons of Cavaleers in white Armor who advanced at the Head of the Christians and charged upon the Sarasins with an infinite Storm of Darts and Lances and that the brightness of their glittering Arms and Shields so dazled the Infidels that they were not able to indure the shining Beams or the furious Shock they gave them but that they instantly threw away their Arms and fled However it happened it is most certain that their whole Army was intirely defeated and that there remained above fourteen thousand Sarasins dead upon the Place with two of their Kings that they pursued the Fugitives for three Leagues gleaning up abundance of Straglers who all fell by the Daughter of the Sword They lost all their Tents and Baggage together with a number of Prisoners who all inquired who those white Horsemen were who with the Lustre of their Bucklers had so blinded them and put them into Disorder And it is said that Pope Honorius seemed by one of his Letters to give credit to this miraculous Event For my own particular as I do not pretend to give all these sorts of Apparitions for Truths which I find in some credulous Authors which is a great though too frequent Weakness So I think myself obliged to take care not to suppress such as have any probability of Establishment upon Truth and are related by such credible Authors to whom a Man of Sense and Prudence may give some Faith After this great Victory the Crusades returned to the Siege of Alcazar which defended it self still for a Month longer but at last it was constrained to surrender upon Descretion upon the one and twentieth Day of October There were made above two thousand Slaves of the Sarasins which remained in the Garrison and the Place was put into the Hands of the Knights of Palmela to whom it belonged the great Master of which Order had signalised his Courage in an extraordinary manner both in the Battle and the Siege They also gave Liberty to the Sarasin Governor of the Place and a hundred of his Officers and several of his Soldiers who with him received holy Baptism and renounced the Superstition of Mahomet The Pope to whom the Earl of Holland and the Portuguese sent the Relation of this great Success caused publick Thanks to be given to God in all Places exhorting all faithful Christians to imitate this glorious Example and to take Arms to fight against the Sarasins who Possessed the Holy Land But he would never consent that the Hollanders and those of Cologne who had gained this important Victory should thereby be dispensed with from their Vow as the Portuguese desired that so these brave Men might finish what they had so happily begun in Spain by chasing the Moors from thence For this Reason therefore William Earl of Holland General of the Crusades who had assured the Pope that he would inviolably observe his Orders after he had passed the Winter at Lisbon set Sail in the beginning of April Having passed the Straits of Gibraltar he was surprized by a Tempest which lasted for three days which so dispersed his Fleet that without being able to unite again some of them were forced into Barcelona others into Marseilles Genoa Pisa and Messina from whence they continued their Voyage to Ptolemais where they arrived one after another year 1218 Those who arrived first were the Frisons who had wintred in Italy The Hollanders and those of Cologne came up presently after and whilest they expected the rest it was resolved by King John de Brienne the Duke of Austria the Bishops and great Masters of the Orders for the future to change the manner of the War and instead of amusing themselves about Palestine as they had done hitherto to fall directly upon Egypt and indeavour to take away the Cause and cut up the Root of the War It was remonstrated That from thence came all the great Armies which the Sultans sent to the Holy Land to oppose those of the Crusade and that therefore if they could once make themselves Masters of the Source from whence those terrible Inundations of Barbarians came which did so often deluge Palestine there would be nothing then capable of resisting the Forces of the Christians That the Sarasins being in no manner of Apprehensions of Danger on that side would be without difficulty surprized That there was nothing in all Egypt considerably fortified except Damiata and that after the Taking of that City which might easily be stormed by such a potent Army which would daily be re-inforced by the Arrival of other Crusades which were expected they might without difficulty march and attack the Sultan in Babylon which was in no condition to resist them having no Fortifications and being only crouded with People incapable to defend it And in short That this was the Opinion of Pope Innocent in the Council of Lateran and seemed as if he had a Divine Inspiration and that therefore it was to be hoped that God would assist them in the happy Execution of the great Design which himself had inspired This Resolution being taken all the Fleet rendezvouzed at the Pilgrims Castle from whence the Frisons and Cologners who were the first that were in readiness having chosen the Count de Sarpont to command them set Sail and with the favour of a Stern-Wind which blew a lusty Gale from the Northward they came in three Days upon the 30th of May before Damiata and by a lucky beginning of the War made their Descent without Resistance and retrenched themselves before the City expecting the coming up of the rest of the Christian Army Damiata was at that time one of the fairest and richest Cities of Egypt and without dispute the strongest as being the Key of the Kingdom situate upon the Nile about a Mile from one of its Mouths This great River whose Spring was for so long time unknown is now discovered to rise from five or six Fountains at the Foot of the Mountains of the Moon in thirteen or fourteen Degrees of Southern Latitude and so to cross the great Lake of Zembr and after having wandred from the South to the North quite through
the Princess Jolante the daughter of King John de Brienne Heiress of the Realm of Jerusalem John de Brienne is dispoiled of his Crown by his new Son-in-Law He puts himself under the Protection of the Pope Honorius The good Offices of the Pope to pacifie the Princes The death of Lewis the eight King of France He is succeeded by his Son Lewis the ninth The death of Pope Honorius He is succeeded by Gregory the ninth The Portraict of this new Pope The Army of the Crusades much diminished by diseases The Emperor takes shipping He stays at Otranto where the Lantgrave of Thuringia dies A great rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Pope excommunicates him Their Manifests The Revenge which Frederick takes He passes at last into Syria His differences with the Patriarch and the Templers His Treaty with the Sultan his Coronation at Jerusalem his return and accord with the Pope The Conference of Spolata for the Continuation of the Crusade The History of Theobald the fifth Earl of Champagne and King of Navarr His Voyage to the Holy Land with the other Princes of the Crusade His description and his Elogy A Crusade published for the Succour of Constantinople An Abridgement of the History of the Latin Emperors there The Causes of the little Success of the King of Navarr's Enterprise A new Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Occasions thereof The deplorable effects of that breach which ruins the Affairs of the Holy Land The Jealousie among the Princes occasions their loss Their defeat at the Battle of Gaza The unsuccessful Voyage of Richard Earl of Cornwall The death of the Constable Amauri de Montfort His Elogy his Burial and that of his Ancestors and of Simon de Montfort in the Monastery of Hautebruiere A Council called at Rome The Pope's Fleet defeated by the Emperor's and the taking of the Legates and Prelates going to the Council The death of Pope Gregory The election of Celestin the fourth and of Innocent the fourth He breaks with the Emperor and retires into France year 1220 THe report of the Victory which the Crusades of the West had obtained against the Sultans of Egypt and Damascus being spread all over Asia raised the Courage and hopes of the Christians in the East and more particularly of the Georgians who then were and are at this day the bravest among all those Nations These People to whom that name was given either from their particular Veneration of St. George upon whom they call in their Combats or by Corruption of the word Gurges their Country being called Gurgiston inhabit those Regions which extend themselves from the West to the East between the Euxine and the Caspian Sea the Countries which anciently were called Colchis Iberia a part of Albania and also of the great Armenia as far as Derbent They were at this time under the Obeisance of one King who governed the whole Nation united into one Monarchy and not divided as they are now among many small Princes who are not able to free themselves from paying tribute either to the Turk or Persian They have been Christians ever since they were converted by a young Maid a Christian Slave in the Reign of Constantine the Great and followed the belief and Cerimonies of the Greeks although in some things they differ from them much and especially in this That they have nothing of that Aversion for the Church of Rome which the Greeks have They all shave the middle of their heads in form of a Crown but with this difference among them That the Ecclesiasticks have it round like that of the Roman Churchmen the other square with great Mustaches year 1220 and a long Beard which reaches down to their very Girdle They are in the main People well proportioned and of a good Mind kind and obliging to Strangers terrible to their Enemies great Soldiers extremely brave even to the very Women who like Amazons will go to the Wars and sight most valiantly and they are so taken notice off for this Valour above all other of the Eastern Christians that the Sarasins either out of Fear or respect permit them to enter with their Colours flying like Soldiers into Jerusalem and without paying any thing when they come to visit the Holy Sepulchre But they have this great Blemish that they are most intolerable Drinkers and make little account of such People as will not debauch with them having entertained a brutish persuasion that it is impossible for any persons to be truely valiant who are not excessive Lovers of drinking So that they never go to the Combat till they have well drunk for which purpose they always carry to the field a Bottle of Wine tied to their Girdles and before they begin the Battle they presently and with Chearfulness toss it off to the last drop and then furiously charge the Enemies being elevated with the Wine and half drunk This was the Temper of these Georgians who were now most highly incensed against Coradin because without consulting them he had caused the Walls of the Holy City to be demolished during the Siege of Damiata for which as a common Injury done to all Christians in General they loudly threatned to be avenged on him For this purpose so soon as they heard the news of the taking of Damiata their King writ to the Princes of the Crusade to give them joy of their Victory and to exhort them to follow their good Fortune assuring them that for his own particular as he should esteem it a dishonour to him not to follow the glorious Example which they had given him so he was resolved in favour of them to make a powerful diversion in Syria and to attack Coradin even in his Capital City of Damascus But all these fair hopes of chasing the Insidels out of the Holy Land quickly vanished by two unhappy Accidents which ruined all the Affairs of the Christians in the East The first was that as the King of the Georgians was preparing for this Holy War he received advice that the Tartars who began to make diverse Conquests in Asia were ready to fall into his Dominions and this hindred this Valiant Prince from executing what he had so generously resolved against Coradin The second was the deplorable misfortune which befel the Christian Army which having lost a great deal of time had at last took the field to endeavour to finish in conquering the rest of Aegypt what they had so happily begun by taking the strongest of all the Cities of that Realm and it is this which I am now to treat of and in few words to give an Account of the Causes of this sad event After that the Army had passed the Winter at Damiata and the Country about it to recover themselves from so many Fatigues they were so far from being in a Condition to pursue their Conquests in the Beginning of the Spring that they found themselves more weak than at the end of the Siege for
an answer so little expected seemed to slight it and therefore presently put himself upon his March but at last when he saw these two great Bodies separated from the rest of the Army and that there was reason to fear that many others might be induced to follow their Example so that he should be in a manner wholly diserted by all except the Germans who always continued their Fidelity to him he made a great attempt upon himself and reserving his Vengeance for another time he consented that his Lieutenants should give out his Orders not in his Name but in the behalf of God and Christendom and thereupon the whole Army being reunited they continued their March to Jaffa where they fell to work upon the Fortifications which nevertheless were presently interrupted by the News which was received from Italy For whilest he did all these things directly contrary to the Pope's prohibitions which he despised and contemned Gregory who had been attacked in that time by his Lieutenants who spoiled the Lands of the Church had with the assistance of his Allies raised two good Armies which under the Conduct of King John de Brienne and the Counts de Celano and Aquila his Lieutenants year 1228 did not only drive the Imperialists out of the Marquisate of Ancona into which they had fallen but also pursued them into the Realm of Naples where after they had taken the strong place of St. German they made themselves Masters of all the others even to Capua And in the mean time the confederate Cities of Lombardy sollicited by the Cardinal of St. Martin who was sent Legate to Milan for that purpose declaring themselves for the Pope made War against the other Cities who were of the Emperor's Party And after this not only the Villages of these Provinces but the Families of the same City being divided into these two furious Factions which by an odd name the Original of which is very uncertain were called the Guelphes and the Gibelins the first of which held for the Pope and the other for the Emperor these two Factions did in all places an infinite of mischief silling the Cities and the Villages with Desolations Ruins Massacres and Fires this implacable hatred which they had entertained one against another arming them to their mutual destruction and to the commission of all the most barbarous Inhumanities and most detestable Crimes Such are generally the miserable Consequences of the differences of Princes in which those who take their part having neither their Intentions Sentiments nor Manners frequently run into those transports and excesses of Fury which bring neither Reputation nor Advantage to the Cause which they support and which those Princes are so far from esteeming acceptable Services that they are the first in condemning such false Zeal and horrible brutality year 1229 This news of the Progress of the Pope's Army was such a surprise to Frederick and affrightned him so much that to expedite his return he was resolved to comply with the Sultan almost at any rate and therefore sending Count Thomas with one of his Secretaries to him they concluded a Truce for ten Years upon these conditions That the Sultan should yield the City of Jerusalem to Frederick together with the Cities of Bethlehem Nazareth Thoron and Sajeta or Sidon and the Villages which are directly upon the Road between Jerusalem and Jaffa That it should be lawful for the Christians to fortifie these places and to rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem of which the Emperor might dispose as he pleased excepting only the Temple with its appendages which was to be reserved to the Sarasins with liberty there to perform all the Exercises of their Law That the City of Tripolis the Principality of Antioch and the other places which did not appertain to the Kingdom of Jerusalem should not be comprised in this Treaty and that the Emperor should not permit the Christians to assist them This Treaty was mutually signed between them in the Month of February and though the Patriarch who did not approve of it nor would have any Commerce with the Emperor did not only refuse to perform the Ceremonies of his Coronation but had also interdicted all the Churches of Jerusalem if he should attempt to go thither yet he did nevertheless make his Publick Entry there as it were in Triumph upon the seventeenth day of March followed by his whole Army all the Prohibitions of the Patriarch being not able to hinder him from visiting the Holy Sepulchre The next day which was the third Sunday in Lent he went cloathed in his Imperial Habit with abundance of Pomp and Majesty to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where after having said his private Devotions there being not found any one who by reason of the interdict durst attempt to celebrate the Divine Mysteries he caused a Crown of Gold to be placed upon the great Altar and without troubling himself about the Ceremonies which the Church is wont to observe in the Coronation of Kings he went himself up to the Altar and taking the Crown he placed it upon his Head and with his own hands crowned himself King of Jerusalem with the mighty Acclamations of the Germans and the Knights of the Teutonick Order who highly approved of this Action as well as the Treaty which the Emperor had made At the same time he writ to the Pope and to all Christian Kings and Princes Letters by which he invited them in most Pompous and Magnisicent Termes to render solemn thanks unto Almighty God who had in this manner by a miraculous Effect of his Power happily finished this Enterprise without Effusion of Christian Blood and almost without Forces which so many great Princes had not been able to execute with the most potent Armies and after so many cruel Battles which had been fought to oblige the Infidels to restore to the Christians the Holy City year 1229 with the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ for which so many Crusades had been made and in Conclusion he made a Relation of all the Advantages which he pretended were to be drawn from this Treaty But on the other part the Patriarch writ to the Pope and to all Christian People long Letters in which he complains bitterly of Frederick whom he treats in such a manner as at the least one must say is very injurious there he indeavours to lay open the Shame the Dishonour and Illusion of the Treaty by which he maintains that Frederick hath betrayed Christianity First because it is most shameful to have the Sarasins share the Holy City with the Christians Secondly because the Sultan of Damascus having never given his consent to the Agreement the Treaty signified just nothing and in short that all those places which were in shew yielded to the Emperor were in reallity as much the Sarasins as they were before since he returned into Europe without fortifying any one of them And in truth Frederick who took no care now but to reimbark himself and to
of Braganza and the Bishop of Conimbra to request from the Pope that he would permit them to place upon the Throne his Brother Prince Alphonso who was his presumptive Heir and who possessed all the admirable Qualities which could be desired in a King Innocent who understood that an action of this nature might produce very dangerous Consequences would by no means consent to what they desired yet nevertheless he was willing that Alphonso should govern in the room of the King to whom he ordered that they should give a sufficient allowance for the support of his Royal Dignity in what ever place he should chuse for his retreat But the most of the Governours of places would not at all consent to this Change which they did not believe to appertain to the spiritual Jurisdiction to which the Popes in Virtue of their Authority derived from Jesus Christ either ought to pretend or had any Right to determine And consequently they refused absolutely to receive Alphonso contrary to the Oath which they had taken to the King And the Action which was done upon this occasion by the generous Martin Flecho Governour of the Castle of Conimbra deserves the commendation of all Posterity This brave man having maintained the Siege against Alphonso with so much constancy that having spent all their Provisions he and the Soldiers were reduced to feed upon Hides and the Coverings of Trunks at length a Message was sent to him that now he might surrender the place and yet save his Honour by reason that Dom Sanches the King was dead at Toledo without Issue he desired a Truce for so many days as was necessary for him to go thither and return back again which being granted he took Post and so soon as he came thither he caused the Tomb of the King his Master to be opened in the Presence of a Publick Notary and Witnesses and seeing that he was really dead he put the Keys of the Castle with which that Prince had intrusted him into his hands and had it recorded And then returning within the Term which he had demanded he set open the Gates to receive his new King leaving to all Subjects an Illustrious Example of that Inviolable Fidelity which they owe to their Soveraigns and a fair Copy for all Soldiers to shew them in what manner they ought to defend a place they are instrusted with that so they may answer the expectation of their King who hath done them the Honour to commit it to their keeping year 1245 Mean time the Council being thus ended with the Condemnation of Frederick that Prince who was then at Turin conceived at it an extreme grief mixed with Fury Choler and Contempt which he manifested by a most surprizing Action For causing his Crown to be brought to him he put it upon his Head and then addressing himself to those about him This Crown said he which you now see upon my head is not to be disposed of or lost by the Decrees of the Pope or Council there must be other kind of Arms employed to take it from me and there will be whole Rivers of Blood let out before that be done And thereupon he writ to all the Kings and Princes of Christendom large Letters in which he answered in Order to every particular point of the Sentence shewing the nullity of it by all the reasons which could be drawn either from Law or Fact and above all he endeavoured to interest all Kings in his Cause which he said was the Common Cause of all Soveraigns He protested that he did in this occasion defend not only his particular but all their Rights in maintaining as he did That though those Crimes which were falsely objected against him and those which might be objected against any other Princes were undoubtedly true yet neither Popes nor Councils had any manner of Right to punish them by depriving them of the least part of their Temporal Rights over which Jesus Christ had not given them any manner of Power and consequently did not in any way appertain to them to concern themselves about Adding further that as he was not the first Prince in whom ambitious and medling Popes had endeavoured to depose and dispossess of their Crowns so he should not be the last unless all Kings would joyn with him to oppose an Usurpation so dangerous and prejudicial to the Rights of all Crowned Heads who for their Temporal Dignities depended upon no other except God alone He remonstrated to them that according to his observation the source and Spring of all this disorder was the overgrown Temporal power of the Church and so far was he from retracting what he had been accused for in the Council to have said that it was necessary to reduce the Ecclesiasticks to the condition wherein they were in the Primitive Church that he took God to Witness that this was his Intention and to begin with the greatest and the richest and that this was certainly a work of great Charity to take from them those great Riches which were the Cause of all their disorders and to reduce them to that State of happy Poverty which rendred their Predecessors like to the Apostles by doing of Miracles and not thinking to triumph like Kings but by their Sanctity and the holiness of their Lives and Doctrine imitating and submitting themselves to Jesus Christ And in short he exhorted all Princes to join with him to take from the Ecclesiasticks of what quality soever all that was superfluous to the end that contenting themselves with a little they might have the greater Liberty to serve God the better I must needs say that there are many things to be answered to this design of Frederick and that it is easie to oppose it with many invincible reasons But this shall not hinder me here from making one little remark which so far as I believe hath never been made by any Person and which may be of use to such as apply themselves to reading of History Matthew Pariso an English man and a Monk of St. Albans a rich Abby in England who writ in those times declares himself openly upon all occasions for Frederick whom he praiseth rather with the Affectation of an Orator than the Modesty of an Historian and does so eternally exclaim against the Popes whose conduct he blames in a Manner which is displeasing even to those who are not too favourable to the Holy See but in this place he turns his Stile on the suddain and his own Pittance coming to be touched in the Revenue of his Monastry which according to Frederick's Design was to be retrenched he declames fearfully against this Emperor saying that by his writing at this rate he lost all the Reputation which he had acquired of being a Wise and Prudent Prince and rendred himself extremely suspected of Heresie This makes it evident that an interrested Writer changeth his opinion not only according to the Nature and Quality of the Persons which are changed but
and that he would dispense with this Article of their Rule from which they could every day dispense with themselves in other points that were much more Essential For the Lord Joinville who executed his Orders most punctually going into one of their Gallies with a good Hatchet which he had already lifted up to break open one of their strong Coffers in the name of the King the Marshal of the Temple who found that he would be obeyed caused the Keys to be given him and thereupon he took out what Money he pleased and the King who was very well satisfied with the Action instantly caused to be paid to the Sarasins not only the thirty thousand Livres which was wanting of the Sum which was due but also ten thousand more of which they had cheated themselves without perceiving it in weighing the Money in their Scales So exact was this incomparable Prince religiously to observe his Word and Faith even to those who had none themselves and who had so brutally violated that which they had given him with so many horrible Oaths After which the Count de Poitiers whom the Sarasins set at Liberty being come up to the Road which Philip Count de Montfort where the King who after the Money was paid was now gotten and staid for them they set Sail and in a few Days came happily to an Anchor in the Port of Ptolemais where this great Prince was received with as much Joy for his deliverance as there had been sorrow for his Captivity THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The General Consternation all over France upon the News of the King's Imprisonment the Tumult the Shepherds their Original their Disorders and Defeat St. Lewis after his deliverance performs his Articles with great Justice The Admirals fail on their part The Original of the Hospital of the Fifteen Score The Councel debates the matter of the King's return The Reasons on the one side and the other It is at last concluded for his stay in Palestine Four Famous Ambassages to St. Lewis from Pope Innocent from the Sultan of Damascus from the Ancient of the Mountain and from the Emperor Frederick The Death of that Emperor and the different Opinions thereupon An Error of St. Lewis who loseth a fair opportunity of making use of one Party of the Sarasins to ruin the other The Election of a Mamaluke Sultan The gallant Actions of St. Lewis in Palestine The Death of Queen Blanch and the return of the King into France The Rupture and War between the Venetians and Genoese occasions the loss of the Holy Land The Conquests of Haulon Brother to the great Cham stops the Progress of the Sarasins The Relation of the Mamaluke Sultans They vanquish the Tartars which ravage Palestine The Character of Sultan Bendocdar the great Enemy of the Christians His Conquests upon them His Cruelty and the Glorious Martyrdom of the Souldiers of the Garrison of Sephet and of two Cordeliers and a Commander of the Temple The taking and Destruction of Antioch by this Sultan The quarrels between the Popes and the Princes of the House of Suabia obstruct the Succours of the West The Histories of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Conrade of Pope Alexander and Mainfrey against whom he vainly publishes Crusades The History of Charles d' Anjou to whom Pope Urban the Successor of Alexander and Pope Clement the Fourth give the Realms of Naples and Sicily as Fieffs escheated to the Church by Felony His Exploits his Battles and his Victories over Mainfrey and Conradin The deplorable Death of that young Prince The Victories of Charles cause the Pope and St. Lewis to entertain a Design for a new Crusade An Assembly at Paris about that Affair where the King the Princes and Lords take upon them the Cross All other Nations decline the Crusade The Collusion of the Emperor Michael Paleologus The Condition of the King's Army The Resolution taken to Attack Tunis and the Reasâ—ns wherefore The Description of Tunis and Carthage The taking of the Port the Tower and the Castle of Carthage The Malady makes great Destruction in the King's Army His Death Elogy and Character The Arrival of Charles King of Sicily The Exploits of the Army The Treaty of Peace with the King of Tunis who becomes Tributary to Charles The return of the two Kings their Fleet is horribly beaten by a Tempest Prince Edward of England saved his Vow to go to the Holy Land His Voyage his Exploits and his return The vain indeavours of Pope Gregory the Tenth for a new Crusade The second Council of Lyons The last causes of the loss of the Holy Land The quarrel among the Christian Princes for the Succession to the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Death of Bendocdar The defeat of his Successor by the Tartars The hopes of the recovery of all Palestine by the Arms of King Charles of Anjou ruined by the sad accident of the Sicilian Vespers The new division among the Princes and the Progress of the Mamaluke Sultans The Relation of the lamentable Siege and the taking of Acre by these Barbarians All the other places are lost and the Christians of the West wholly driven out of Palestine and Syria The vain and fruitless attempts which have since been made to renew the Crusades year 1250 WHilest matters went thus in the East the news which was received in France of the two Victories which the King had gained near Massora was followed with a false report which was currant of the defeat of the Sultan and the taking of Grand Caire And this coming from the Court of the Pope to whom the Bishop of Marseilles who had seen it in Letters Written to the Commandator of the Hospital of St. John had sent it Men being apt easily to believe that which they passionately desire there was no doubt made but it was true so that all was full of rejoycing even then when upon the suddain they were obliged to change this excessive joy into an extreme afflicton by the certain intelligence which they received of the loss of the whole Christian Army and the Captivity of the King and all the Princes And this Affliction was followed by most furious disorders year 1250 which were occasioned by the illusion and folly of some and the extreme Wickedness of others who made use of the simplicity of the former to commit with impunity the most detestable Crimes under the false pretences of Zeal and Piety for the deliverance of the King In Germany a Troop of Vagabonds mingled with young People and the Scum and Refuse of the Peasantry ran all over crying that they must make a Crusade for the deliverance of the Ring of France And a certain Hungarian Apostate of the Cistercian Order one of the most prosligate Villains in the World but very able and Learned in many Languages put himself at the
his Navy year 1270 All things being thus disposed for so great an Enterprise the King declared Matthew de Vendosme Abbot of St. Dennis and Simon de Clermont Count de Neele Regents of the Realm during his Absence and after that having taken the Standard of St. Dennis according to the custom of his Ancestors as also the Scarf and the Pilgrim's Staff he parted the first day of March in the year one thousand two hundred and seventy accompanied with the Cardinal d' Albano whom Pope Clement had nominated his Legate for this Crusade and came to Aigues-Mort where he did not imbark till the beginning of July at the same time that the other part of his Fleet sailed from Marseilles and at last all of them after having been soundly beaten by a furious Tempest arrived at Cagliari There it was that the King held a great Council of War to which all the Princes the Lords and principal Officers of the Army were called He then proposed to them the Enterprise of Tunis and after it had passed by plurality of Voices in the affirmative although there were many who had much rather have gone directly to the Holy Land they set sail and steered away directly for Africa and within two days about the twentieth of July came within view of Tunis and Carthage Upon the Coast of Africa over against Sicily there is a Peninsula whose circumference is about three hundred and forty Stadia or two and forty miles which advanceth it self into the Sea between two Gulphs which it there makes That which is upon the West forms it self into a most commodious Port and the other turning a little between the East and South joyns it self to a very narrow Chanal by which there is an Entrance into a great Lake which Extends it self three or four Leagues within the Land and which hath since been called by the name of the Lake of Guletta It was in this fair Peninsula that the famous Rival of Rome year 1270 the Ancient City of Carthage stood in the place between these two Seas But since its last destruction by the Arabian Sarasins about the seventh Age there remained nothing at the time of this Crusade amidst the Ruins of that Magnificent City but a little Burrough upon the Port which was called Marsa and a Tower upon the point of the Cape with a strong Castle upon the Hill of Byrsa where anciently stood the Fortress of Carthage About some five Leagues from this great City drawing towards the South East a little below the Gulph and the Lake of Guletta there stood a little City called Tynis or Tynissa and at present Tunis of which the Great Scipio made himself Master before he besieged Carthage and which afterwards grew so great by the Ruins of Carthage that it was in the time of St. Lewis one of the greatest fairest and strongest Cities of all Africa For the Walls which the Turks afterwards demolished were forty Cubits high with very good Ramparts and Fortresses to support them and with divers Towers to flank them for their mutual defence It had eight Gates with their Portcullisses a very deep Ditch which environed it on the Land side and all manner of Fortifications which were used in those Times with large Suburbs which contained about ten thousand Houses But it was still become much greater since the greatest part of the Moors of Granada who had been driven out of Spain retired thither and applied themselves to all manner of Arts and Trades It is at present a kind of Republick under the Protection and Domination of the Grand Seignior ever since it was taken by Sinan Bassa from the Spaniards in the year one thousand five hundred seventy four It had before been twice taken by the Spaniards once by Charles the Fifth in the year one thousand five hundred thirty five and a second time by Don John of Austria after the Battle of Lepanto But formerly it had been under particular Kings since a certain Person one Abraham Aben Ferez who commanded there for the King of Morocco usurped this Realm from him about sixty years before this Crusade and it was his third Successor Muley Otmen Ostensa who reigned at Tunis then when St. Lewis whom he had made to hope his conversion undertook this Voyage At first this Holy King had reason to believe that this Prince had an Intention to accomplish his Promise by reason that there was not found any who opposed his landing and that he had opportunity to seize the Port of Carthage and after that the Tower almost without any resistance But he was quickly disabused by seeing a great Army sally out of Tunis to relieve the Castle of Carthage but that did not hinder but that it was taken by the Seamen only with the assistance of five hundred Cross-bows which they desired of the King assuring him that they would carry the place by Scalade which they accordingly did with so much Courage and Success that they made themselves Masters of it in an instant without any other loss than only one of their Companions whose Death they revenged by that of all the Sarasins who defended the place who were partly cut in pieces and partly smothered in the Vaults whither they retreated to save themselves and to the Entries of which the Seamen put fire The King who was advanced and drawn up in Battalia between the Castle and the Enemies to hinder their relieving the place stopped them so well by the brave Countenance which he made that the Sarasins durst never quit their Post they retired at Night towards Tunis and satisfied themselves with returning every day in greater numbers giving continual alarms and pickeering on all sides according to their manner without staying in one place either regularly to attack one Quarter or to march in Battalia and combat foot to foot with their Enemy This was what was done in this last Enterprise of St. Lewis in nine or ten days towards the end of July For in regard the King of Tunis had an Army composed of an infinite multitude of Arabs and Moors who had always a safe retreat under the Walls of Tunis which was extraordinarily provided with all sorts of Machins of War it was not thought convenient by his Council to attack them or to undertake the Siege of the City before the arrival of the King of Sicily who was daily expected In the mean time the King retrenched himself and fortified his Camp in a Vally below Carthage whither the Enemies came continually to Skirmishes in which they constantly had the worse but without ever coming to a General Battle year 1270 But the King of Sicily whom St Lewis daily pressed to hasten thither and who notwithstanding did not arrive till a Month after him was the Cause by his long delay of the unfortunate Success of this Voyage which he had with such earnestness advised for his private Interest For it being high Summer which is a season very improper for making
of Royal Majesty mingled with true Sanctity of Christianity without Illusion without Weakness and without Defaults And I cannot tell whether one can find another of whom may be said with so much Justice what I have said of this Christian Hero to finish in one word his Character and his Elogy That he Was the greatest King of a Saint and the greatest Saint of a King that ever any age hath known The Army of France was under an extreme consternation for the death of the Holy King and for the Indisposition of Philip his Successor and their was great probability that they should in that very moment abandon this unlucky Enterprise if the King of Sicily who was in a great measure by his long delay the Cause of this ill Success had not by a strange adventure arrived with a fair Fleet at the very same time that his Brother the King breathed out his last As he was a great Captain and that his Army which was composed of Neapolitans Sicilians and Provencals was very fresh and he having still in his head his first design to assure himself of the Kingdom of Tunis in at least making the Sarasin King become his Tributary he easily persuaded the French that it was for their Honour to finish the War which they had begun with so much Courage and which they might bring to a happy period being strengthened by the Conjunction of such a Potent Army as desired nothing so much as to be led to the Combat against the Sarasins Hereupon the Army advanced towards Tunis to block it up more closely and for three Months there were every day some little Encounters with the Moors who always went off with disadvantage And it is also reported that they were once overthrown in a set Battle that their Camp was taken and plundered and that such of them as fled thinking to save themselves in the City blindly precipitated themselves into those trenches which they had digged in the Fields with a design to have the Christians fall into them but in regard those of our Historians who writ in those times say nothing of any such matters I dare not be confident of the truth of them year 1268 That which is very certain is That the King of Tunis seeing that the Christians daily gained upon him and that he was always beaten fearing that in conclusion he should lose his Kingdom he sent to desire a Peace or at least a Truce offering to submit to such conditions as the two Kings themselves should judge to be fair and reasonable This matter was long debated in the Council of War in which many were of opinion that the Siege ought to be vigorously pressed on without hearkning at all to the Proposition of the Sarasin King who they said after the losses which he had sustained was in no Condition for any long time to defend the City But the King of Sicily remonstrated to them That if they should take the Town of which they were not to be too confident yet it was impossible for them to keep it in regard That though the whole Army might be commodiously quartered there it being now very near Winter they could not receive either from Italy or Sicily so much provision as was necessary for the subsistence of the Troops and that if they left there only a Garrison it would not be able to defend it against all the Forces of Africa which would most certainly attack it And therefore he concluded that the way for them to come off with Honor and safety in this Affair was rather to treat with the King of Tunis in an honourable and advantageous manner and like Conquerors rather to give him Law than to put themselves into the manifest danger of losing all Thus in regard that King Philip was also very willing to go as soon as he could to take possession of his Kingdom a Truce of ten years was concluded with this Insidel Prince upon these following Conditions That he should presently pay a round sum of Money upon which they were agreed to defray the Charges of the War That he should deliver all the Christian Slaves which were in his whole Realm That he should permit the Religious of the Orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis to preach the Gospel and to build Monasteries there and to all his Subjects Liberty to receive Baptism And that he should yearly pay to King Charles a Tribute of forty thousand Crowns which was the sum that the King paid to the Pope for the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily See what were the aims of Charles for his private Interest and what it was which made many honest People murmur against him as beleiving that he had no mind to take Tunis because he could not hope to dispose of it as he pleased and that he had not advised this War but for his own Ends to make this Sarasin King his Tributary Prince Edward of England also who arrived before Tunis with his Fleet at the same time that this Treaty was concluded could not hinder himself from making the extreme displeasure which he had at it appear publickly especially when he saw that the Fleets of France and Sicily without thinking any further of their principal design which was the Holy War were upon the point of returning home And indeed so soon as the King of Tunis who was very desirous to quit himself of these People who had put him into the fear of losing his Capital City and his Kingdom had delivered the Captives and paid the Money which was agreed upon by the Treaty the two Kings imbarked Philip with the Bones of his Father which according to the Custom of those times were separated from the Flesh and Charles with the Flesh and Entrals of that Holy King which he caused afterwards to be magnificently interred in the Church of the Abby of Montreal near Palermo And certainly it was very advantageous to these two Kings that they carried with them in their Ships the Sacred Remains of that Saint which preserved them from that Lamentable Wreck which the greatest part of the others suffered in View of the Port of Trepano in Sicily eighteen of the biggest men of War and a great number of smaller Vessels with all the Money which was received of the King of Tunis and above four thousand men were cast away in this Tempest and it was not without great difficulty that the Kings were able to make the Port of Trepano where Thibald King of Navarr who was sick before when he came from Tunis in a few days after his landing died Queen Isabella his Wife the Daughter of St. Lewis did not survive him long for about four Months after she died at Yeres in Provence And for King Philip having taken his way by Land as far as Messina he passed over into Italy and so crossing quite through it and France he came to St. Dennis year 1270 whither he brought the Relicks of the King St. Lewis his Father
themselves between the two Parties On the other side the Sultan Melech Sais retook the Fortress of Margath and made himself Master of the Castle of Laodicea and that of Crac which was one of the strongest places in Syria year 1287 and as at last he was preparing to lay Siege to Tripolis he abandon'd all upon the news which he had of the Death of his Son and returned into Egypt where Elsis one of his Emirs who was mightily esteemed by the Mamalukes tumbled him from the Throne and was chosen Sultan in his place by the name of Melech-Messor This Sultan who was a great Souldier re-entred presently into Syria where he besieged Tripolis year 1288 and at last took it by Assault Seven thousand Christians were there Slain year 1289 and the rest saved themselves by Sea partly in Cyprus and partly in Ptolemais The Sultan who was as able and dexterous as he was Valiant caused this great City to be demolished that so he might not be forced to keep a whole Army in Garrison there and after having taken several places thereabout he made a very advantageous Truce for two Years thereby to frustrate the Design of the Forces which he foresaw would be sent out of Europe against him And indeed a very considerable assistance which the Pope sent at his own charges into the East upon twenty Venetian Gallies arriving not till after the conclusion of this Truce was constrained to return without doing any thing It happened also that an infinite conflux of People of all Nations without Order and without Leaders coming to Ptolemais and finding no imploy committed so many disorders indifferently upon the Lands of the Christians and the Sarasins that the Sultan who only wanted an occasion to break the Truce to his advantage laid hold of that which he believed very favourable to execute the design which he had upon Ptolemais whilest the Christian Princes whom he knew to be ingaged in Wars one against another in Europe had neither Power nor Will to assist it year 1290 For this purpose as he had always a powerful Army on Foot he entred suddainly in the Month of October in the year following and advanced towards Phoenicia and then when he was upon the point of going to invest Ptolemais the Emir whom he had made his Lieutenant thinking by the favour of the Souldiers to obtain his place gave him Poison whereof he died But this did not prevent the Execution of the Design For the Mamalukes who loved Melech-Messor extremely pull'd the Traitor who had poisoned him in a thousand pieces upon the spot and Proclaimed his Son Ely Sultan by the name of Melech-Seraph This new Prince resolved to pursue the design of his Father who at his Death conjured him not to suffer his Body to be Interred before he had taken the City and driven out the Christians And for this purpose therefore without giving them leisure to make any advantage of this so sudden and great change turning short to the left hand towards the Sea he came and laid Siege before Acre or Ptolemais upon the fifth of April year 1291 in the year one thousand two hundred ninety one with an Army of one hundred and sixty thousand Foot and threescore thousand Horse Ptolemais of whose Situation and Strength I have given an account in the fifth Book of this History was at this time one of the fairest richest and most flourishing Cities of all the East by reason of the great Commerce of all the Merchandises which were brought thither from Egypt and Asia by Land and Sea to be from thence transported into Europe And as it was become the Capital City of the Realm since the taking of Jerusalem and the Sanctuary where all the Christians of Palestine took Refuge after the loss of their Cities so it was also then more Populous than ever it had been and such great Industry had been used in these late times in fortifying it that it was thought to be impregnable above all having at least thirty thousand Men well Armed to defend it besides eighteen thousand Crusades who were arrived there a little before without a Commander But this unfortunate City had within its Walls two kinds of Enemies infinitely more formidable than all the Forces of the Sarasins and which were the cause of its being lost year 1291 The first was the division which occasioned most fearful Disorders in regard that besides that there were two Factions which held one of them for the King of Cyprus and the other for the King of Sicily the Venetians the Genoese the Pisans the Florentines the English the Templers the Hospitallers the Teutonick Knights the Princes of the Country and even the Patriarch and the Legate of the Pope would every one so divide the Government as to be independent upon all others so that it might be said that there were in Ptolemais so many different Cities as there were quarters possessed by these Orders and different People who were not only without a Head whose Supreme Authority and Orders they should all obey but who were for the most part in Arms one against another And that which was yet more deplorable and which doubtless was the principal cause of the Desolation of this unfortunate City was that the Corruption of manners was so great and the irregularities of Peoples Lives or rather the inundation of all manner of Crimes and even of the most Infamous and Scandalous Vices were so excessive and horrible that the Divine Justice was even necessitated to exterminate such an abominable Race of Men who calling themselves Christians by their Actions so Wicked and Impious Blasphemed that and his Sacred Name among the Infidels So that one may say as one of the Authors of that time does who was a long time in the Holy Land and averrs it for a deplorable Truth That of all the People which inhabited Syria and Palestine the Christians were the most notoriously lewd and wicked The Sultan who had such a numerous Army and composed of expert Souldiers and above all his Mamalukes who were extreme brave attacked the City upon the Land side by main Force battering the Walls and the Towers Night and Day making abundance of Mines every where and sapping the Foundations of the Towers particularly those of the Tower called Judasses or the Cursed Tower which was as it were the Fortress of the City The besiged also at first defended themselves vigorously being in continual hopes of relief by the way of the Sea which they had open and being united for their better defence under one Chief whom by common consent they chose among all the Captains which was William Beaujeu Great Master of the Temple a most Valiant Man and perfectly skilful in Martial Affairs But there arrived to their assistance only five hundred Foot and two hundred Horse who were conducted by the King of Cyprus And the Great Master of the Temple being unfortunately slain with a poisoned Arrow they lost their Courage
thereof was obliged to retire into the Castle and to quit the Town which was not yet in a condition to be defended The Sarasins therefore having surprized and cut in pieces two thousand of the Servants and Peasants who followed the Camp entred without resistance into Sidon which they once again demolished overthrowing the Walls to the very Foundation But the Sultan being afraid that the other part of the Army which had by force taken Belinas should march and take Damascus he marched away in all haste to defend his Capital City Whilest the Troops which he feared having not been able to take the Castle of Belinas and being drawn from a dangerous Country by the Wise Conduct of Oliver de Termes one of the most hardy and Valiant Knights of the Army marched back again by another way to join the King of Sidon year 1253 It was at this place that this great Saint did that admirable Action of Charity and Humility which to this very day surprizes all mens minds with wonder for that he might oblige both the Officers and Souldiers to render with him the last duty to those poor creatures who had been slain by the Sarasins and lay unburied whose Bodies lay half putrefied above ground near the City he himself took the most infected of them upon his Royal shouldiers carrying those to their interment whose offensive smell was scarcely to be endured without shewing any manner of aversion for his loathsome burden as did those of his retinue and without receiving the least inconvenience from these infected Bodies A rare example even among the greatest Saints but much more among the greatest Princes and which may well make the delicacy of those blush who being so much below such elevated Majesty have such an extreme aversion for the Exercises of Christian Piety when they are never so little contrary to the Inclinations of Nature so that they are only contented to serve God when they can so accomodate his service with their own as that they may do it without losing any thing of either their profit or their pleasure After this the King according to the desires of the Lords of the Country began to repair the ruins of Sidon which he made stronger than ever it had been before He did the same to the City and Castle of Caiphas which was very necessary for covering the City of Acre whose Walls and Towers also he took care to repair and to fortifie the Suburbs in such a manner as to put them in safety against the attempts of the Sarasins This did so much surprize them with wonder that they were not able sufficiently to admire the Power the Riches and the Magnificence of this great King who after he had as they thought by his extreme misfortune lost all in Egypt had still so much treasure as to defray those prodigious expences which it is well known are so necessary for the maintaining of Armies building of Cities and erecting of Fortresses In short during the time that he remained in the Holy Land he fully satisfied his devotion to God as well as his Duty to the Interest of the Country for he visited the Holy Mountain of Tabor and the Sacred Chamber of Nazareth where accompanied with the Legate and all the Lords he celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation with the magnificence of a King thereby to honour God more eminently among the Infidels with the Piety of a Saint and to inflame the devotion of the Christians of the Country who generally were not addicted too much to it or to lead their Lives conformable to the Holiness of those sacred places which they did inhabit Above all he had an extreme desire to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem whose Walls the Sarasins had rebuilded and who would willingly have given him the liberty to enter into it as a Pilgrim But his Council did not think it convenient that one of the greatest Kings of Christendom ought to go thither to worship Jesus Christ before his Holy Sepulchre before he had conquered it from the Infidels for otherwise they said the other Princes who after him should undertake the Voyage to the Holy Land would believe themselves acquitted of their Duty year 1253 when they should have accomplished their Pilgrimage as the King of France had done which might be of great prejudice to the Crusades the end of which was to be the deliverance of Jerusalem year 1254 The King who was resolved that his private Devotion and Piety should never be prejudicial to the Rights of his Royal Majesty which ought to be maintained inviolably yielded his desires to this advice And therefore after having acted for five years so advantageously for the Affairs of the Holy Land by putting all the Maritim places of the Country into a very good condition having received the sad news of the death of Queen Blanche his Mother for whom he had ever had a most Infinite tenderness and Reverence and seeing that thereupon his presence would be absolutely necessary in his Realm he resolved at last to return But for the safety of Palestine he left the Legate there with considerable store of money and a good part of his Army under the Command of the Wise and Valiant Geoffrey de Sergines After which upon the three and twentieth of April he imbarked with the rest of his People upon fourteen Ships in the greatest of which he would have together with the Queen and the Princes his Children Jesus Christ himself present in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar both for the consolation and the security of his Voyage And it was under the Conduct of this Divine Pilot who nevertheless seemed sometimes to sleep during the Tempest that having escaped the most extraordinary dangers which during two months he had run at Sea he at last landed at Yeres from whence coming into France he went directly to St. Dennis to render most humble thanks unto Almighty God for his return which he acknowledged he had obtained by the intercession of the Holy Martyrs the Protectors of France The Queen who in an eniment danger of suffering shipwrack had made a Vow that if she escaped she would send a ship of Silver to St. Nicholas in Lorrain did not fail to accomplish it She caused this Ship to be made wherein is to be seen her Picture from the Life together with that of the King and the three Princes her Children The Steward of Champagne and Joinville who had persuaded her to make this Vow did himself carry this Offering marching barefoot from Joinville to this famous Church of St. Nicholas where it hath pleased God to continue to this day the working of an infinite of Wonders for the Honour of this Holy Bishop the Protector of those who sail upon the Sea year 1255 But whilest France enjoyed the happy Fruits of the Presence of the King who by his wise Government maintained it in a most profound tranquillity Palestine began to feel those misfortunes which
fell upon it in his absence by the deadly division which had he been there he would have prevented and which was the last cause of the loss of the Holy Land The Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans who had most advantageously served in all the Crusades by their shipping had in Acre their quarter and their Jurisdiction assigned them and their Magistrate who was Independant of any other though the Church of the fair Monastery of St. Sabas was common to the three Nations for the celebration of the Divine Offices The Venetians and the Genoese who in those times rarely agreed had abundance of quarrels under diverse pretences which served to cover the true cause of all these Embroilments which in truth was the Jealousie of State and the Ambition which they had to be the sole Masters of the Sea and every one of them equally pretended that this Church appertained solely to their Republick And whereas Alexander the fourth who succeeded to Pope Innocent had declared that the Church ought to be in common to the three Nations the Genoese who first received this declaration nevertheless being supported by the Authority and the Forces of Count Philip de Montfort who was then the Governour of Ptolemais chased the Venetians from the City and seized upon the Church and the Monastery which they fortified in the form of a Cittadel They took for their Pretext a great violence which a Venetian had offered to a Genoese whom he used very scurvily and which had been sufficiently revenged by the Genoeses upon the Venetians who would never receive the excuses which had been offered to them in the name of the Republick which constantly disavowed these actions of private Persons The War then being declared in this manner by the Way of Fact year 1256 the Venetians assisted by the Pisans who declared for them in renouncing the Amity of the Genoese with whom they were confederated before rigged out a potent Navy year 1257 with which they seized upon the Port of Ptolemais burnt the Genoese ships entred the City and there fought gaining by Inches the quarter of the Enemy besieging and forcing the Monastery year 1258 the Church of St. Sabas and chasing from Ptolemais Count Philip and the Genoese who retreated to Tyre from whence coming the year following with nine and forty Gallies and four great men of War they came to a great Battle which they lost between Ptolemais and Caiphas So that the Cities the Princes the Lords and all the Knights of the Country being divided upon this quarrel some declaring for the Venetians and others for the Genoese their happened between these two Potent Republicks a most cruel War which being from time to time suspended by Feeble Treaties which were quickly broken continued for a whole Age to the great prejudice of all Christendom and especially to the Affairs of the East being the principal Cause of the irreparable loss of all And certainly the Sarasins of Syria and Mesopotamia had not failed upon such a deplorable opportunity as was this miserable division to have ruined the Christians of the Holy Land if God had not at the same time raised other Enemies against those Infidels to destroy them For the Tartars having subdued all Persia passed over the Tygris under the Conduct of Halon the Brother of Mangon the Great Cham of Tartary That Prince who is reported to have been a Christian and a great Enemy to the Mahometans having endeavoured to push his Conquests to the Mediterranean Sea was now going to lay Siege to the City of Bagdad which is not as hath been believed the ancient Babylon of the Chaldeans which was situate upon the River Euphrates and of which there are now not so much as the ruins remaining For this which still carries something of the Name is above fifty miles from Euphrates and stands upon the Tygris near the place where was anciently the Famous City of Seleucia There was the principal Seat of the Mahometan Empire in those times where the Caliph whom all the other Sultans acknowledged at least in appearance for their Head and the cheif Priest of their Law kept his Court. Now the Caliph then in being as he was not at all martially inclined so was so extremely covetous that though he was prodigiously rich yet would he not be at any Charge either to fortifie the City or to maintain a good Garrison so that the City was instantly taken by the Tartar who after he had put to the Sword all the Sarasins which he found there caused the miserable Caliph to be locked up in one of the Chambers where his Treasure lay amongst an infinite quantity of Rich Furniture Plate Money and Jewels telling him with a terrible and Bloody Rallery that since he so delighted in Riches and was so passionately in Love with Gold and Silver he should be treated according to his Inclinations and eat nothing less delicate than Gold Thus this Unfortunate Miser who was the last of the Caliphs the Successors of Mahomet died with hunger in the midst of a most incredible abundance of Gold Silver Pearls and Gemms the sight whereof would not content nature or satisfie her necessities and with which if he had known how to use them he might have avoided this miserable Destiny and at least have died nobly at the head of an Army sighting for his Life and Liberty with this Treasure which would have raised and paid them and have possibly secured him from this insolent Tartar A great but most just punishment of a Covetous Wretch who having all his Life made Idols of his Riches without daring to touch them more than if they had been most Sacred things deservedly learnt at his death that these false Divinities had not the Power either to save his Soul or his Body and that Gold and Silver are no further valuable than by the good use which is made of them year 1259 After this Victory the Tartar Prince entred into Mesopotamia which yielded to the Conqueror without resistance took Edessa passed the Euphrates made himself Master of Samothracia Emessa Haman Harenc and all the places which the Sultan had taken from the Christians in Syria besieged and by storm took Alepo which is thought to have been the Ancient Berea and there he took the Sultan Prisoner whom he carried in Irons to Damascus constraining the Inhabitants to yield after they had seen their Captive Sultan put to death before their Eyes And from thence returning with a small retinue into Tartary upon the news which arrived of his Brother's death to whom he was to succeed year 1260 he left the Command of the Army to his Lieutenant Cathogoba And he who was imbroiled with the Christians whom before he seemed to favour entred into the Realm of Jerusalem and there took Cesarea and Sidon and began to threaten Ptolemais when the Christians received a suddain assistance from Egypt from whence they least expected it The first of the Mamaluke Sultans Atbec or