a Lady of great perfection and of a Mahometane become a Christian at the request of his wife he besieged the citie Jerusalem and took it without resistance The Temple of our Saviour he gave to the Armenians Georgians and other Christians which flocked thick out of Cyprus there to inhabit But soon after his departure it fell back again to the Mammalukes of Egypt who enjoyed it till Selimus the great Turk anno 1517 overthrew the Empire of Mammalukes and seised Jerusalem into his hand whose successours keep it at this day Jerusalem better acquitteth it self to the eare then to the eye being no whit beautifull at all The situation thereoâ— is very uneven rising into hills and sinking into dales the lively embleme of the fortunes of the place sometimes advanced with prosperitie sometimes depressed in misery Once it was well compacted and built as a citie that is at unitie in it self but now distracted from it self the suspicious houses as if afraid to be infected with more miserie then they have alreadie by contiguousnesse to others keep off at distance having many waste places betwixt them not one fair street in the whole citie It hath a castle built as it is thought by the Pisans tolerably fortified Good guard is kept about the citie and no Christians with weapons suffered to enter But the deepest ditch to defend Jerusalem from the Western Christians is the remotenesse of it and the strongest wall to fense it is the Turkish Empire compassing it round about Poore it must needs be having no considerable commoditie to vent except a few beads of Holy earth which they pay too deare for that have them for the fetching There is in the citie a covent of Franciscans to whom Christians repair for protection during their remaining in the citie The Padre Guardian appointeth these Pilgrimes a Friar who sheweth them all the monuments about the citie Scarce a great stone which beareth the brow of reverend antiquitie that passeth without a peculiar legend upon it But every vault under ground hath in it a deep mysterie indeed Pilgrimes must follow the Friar with their bodies and belief and take heed how they give tradition the lie though she tell one never so boldly The survey finished they must pay the Guardian both for their victuals and their welcome and gratifie his good words and looks otherwise if they forget it he will be so bold as to remember them The Guardian farmeth the Sepulchre of the Turk at a yearly rent and the Turks which reap no benefit by Christs death receive much profit by his buriall and not content with their yearly rent squeeze the Friars here on all occasions making them pay large summes for little offenses The other subsistence which the Friars here have is from the benevolence of the Pope and other bountifull benefactours in Europe Nor getteth the Padre Guardian a little by his fees of making Knights of the Sepulchre of which Order I find some hundred yeares since Sr John Chamond of Lancels in Cornwall to have been dubbed Knight But I beleeve no good English subject at this day will take that honour if offered him both because at their creation they are to swear loyaltie to the Pope and King of Spain and because honours conferred by forrein Potentates are not here in England acknowledged neither in their style nor precedencie except given by courtesie Witnesse that famous case of the Count Arundel of Wardour and Queen Elisabeths peremptorie resolve That her sheep should be branded with no strangers mark but her own The land about it as Authours generally agree is barren Yet Brochard a Monk who lived here some two hundred yeares since commendeth it to be very fruitfull Sure he had better eyes to see more then other men could or else by a Syâ—eâ—doche he imputeth the fertilitie of parcels to the whole countrey But it is as false a consequence as on the other side to conclude from the basenesse of Bagshot-heath the barrennesse of all the Kingdome of England We may rather beleeve that since the fall of the Jews from Gods favour the once-supernaturall fertilitie of the land is taken away and the naturall strength thereof much abated and impaired Chap. 28. Whether it be probable that this Holy warre will ever hereafter be set on foot again THus we state the question Whether this Holy warre I mean for the winning of the citie of Jerusalem and recovering of Palestine will probably ever hereafter be projected and acted again We may beleeve this tragedie came off so ill the last acting that it will not be brought on the stage the second time 1. The Pope will never offer to give motion to it as knowing it unlikely to succeed Policies of this nature are like sleights of hand to be shewed but once lest what is admired at first be derided afterwards 2. Princes are grown more cunning and will not bite at a bait so stale so often breathed on The Popes ends in this warre are now plainly smelt out which though prettie and pleasing at first yet Princes are not now like the native Indians to be cozened with glasse and gaudie toyes The load-stone to draw their affection now out of non-age must present it self necessary profitable and probable to be effected 3. There is a more needfull work nearer hand to resist the Turks invasion in Europe Heark how the Grecians call unto us as once the man in the vision did to S. Paul Come over into Macedonia and help us Yea look on the Popes projects of the last Edition and we shall find the businesse of the Sepulchre buried in silence and the Holy warre running in another chanel against the Turks in Christendome 4. Lastly who is not sensible with sorrow of the dissensions better suiting with my prayers then my penne wherewith Christian Princes at this day are rent in sunder wounds so wide that onely Heavens chirurgerie can heal them Till which time no hope of a Holy warre against the generall and common foe of our Religion We may safely conclude that the regaining of Jerusalem and the Holy land from the Turks may better be placed amongst our desires then our hopes as improbable ever to come to passe except the Platonick yeare turning the wheel of all actions round about bring the spoke of this Holy warre back again Chap. 29. Of the many Pretenders of titles to the Kingdome of Ierusalem NO Kingdome in the world is challenged at this day by such an armie of Kings as this of Jerusalem It is sooner told what Princes of Europe do not then what do lay claim to it they be so many Take their names as I find them in the Catalogue of Stephen a Cypriot 1 The Emperour of the East 2 The Patriarch of Ierusalem 3 The Lusignans Kings of Cyprus 4 Emfred Prince of Thorone 5 Conrade de la-Rame Marquesse of Montferrat 6 The Kings of England 7 His Holinesse 8 The
Eustace The Turks retired to Solomons temple so called because built in the same place there to take the farewell of their lives In a desperate conflict there the foremost of the Christians were miserably slain thrust upon the weapons of their enemies by their fellows that followed them The pavement so swam that none could go but either through a rivulet of bloud or over a bridge of dead bodies Valour was not wanting in the Turks but superlatively abundant in the Christians till night made them leave off Next morning mercie was proclaimed to all those that would lay down their weapons For though bloud be the best sauce for victorie yet must it not be more then the meat Thus was Jerusalem wonne by the Christians and twentie thousand Turks therein slain on the fifteenth of July being Friday about three of the clock in the afternoon Tyrius findeth a great mysterie in the time because Adam was created on a Friday and on the same day and houre our Saviour suffered But these Synchronismes as when they are naturall they are pretty and pleasing so when violently wrested nothing more poore and ridiculous Then many Christians who all this while had lived in Jerusalem in most lamentable slaverie being glad to lurk in secret as truth oftentimes seeketh corners as fearing her judge though never as suspecting her cause came forth joyfully wellcomed and embraced these the procurers of their liberty Three dayes after it was concluded as a necessarie piece of severitie for their defense to put all the Turks in Jerusalem to death which was accordingly performed without favour to age or sex The pretense was for fear of treason in them if the Emperour of Persia should besiege the citie And some slew them with the same zeal wherewith Saul slew the Gibeonites and thought it unfit that these goats should live in the sheeps pasture But noble Tancred was highly displeased hereat because done in cold bloud it being no slip of an extemporany passion but a studied and premeditated act and that against pardon proclaimed many of them having compounded and paid for their lives and libertie Besides the execution was mercilesse upon sucking children whose not-speaking spake for them and on women whose weaknesse is a shield to defend them against a valiant man To conclude Severitie hot in the fourth degree is little better then poyson and becometh crueltie it self and this act seemeth to be of the same nature The end of the first Book The Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book II. Chap. 1. Robert the Normane refuseth the kingdome of Ierusalem Godfrey of Bouillon chosen king his parentage education and vertues FIght dayes after Jerusalem was wonne they proceeded to the election of a King but they had so much choice that they had no choice at all so many Princes there were and so equally eminent that Justice her self must suspend her verdict not knowing which of them best deserved the Crown Yet it was their pleasure to pitch on Robert the Normane as on the man of highest descent being sonne to a King for great Hugh of France was already returned home pretending the colick though some impute it to cowardlinesse and make the disease not in his bowels but his heart Robert refused this honourable profer whether because he had an eye to the kingdome of England now void by the death of William Rufus or because he accounted Jerusalem would be incumbred with continuall warre But he who would not take the Crown with the Crosse was fain to take the Crosse without the Crown and never thrived afterwards in any thing he undertook Thus they who refuse what God fairly carveth for them do never after cut well for themselves He lived to see much misery and felt more having his eyes put out by king Henry his brother and at last found rest when buried in the now Cathedrall church of Glocester under a woodden monument bearing better proportion to his low fortunes then high birth And since in the same quire he hath got the company of another Prince as unfortunate as himself King Edward the second They go on to a second choice and that they may know the natures of the Princes the better their servants were examined on oath to confesse their masters faults The servants of Godfrey of Bouillon protested their masters onely fault was this That when Mattens were done he would stay so long in the church to know of the Priest the meaning of every image and picture that dinner at home was spoiled by his long tarrying All admired hereat that this mans worst vice should be so great a vertue and unanimously chose him their King He accepted the place but refused the solemnity thereof and would not wear a crown of gold there where the Saviour of mankind had worn a crown of thorns He was sonne to Bustace Duke of Bouillon and Ida his wife daughter and heir to Godfrey Duke of Lorein born saith Tyrius at Bologne a town in Champaigne on the English sea which he mistaketh for Bouillon up higher in the continent neare the county of Lutzenburg Such slips are incident to the pennes of the best authours yea we may see Canterbury mistaken for Cambridge not onely in Munster but even in all our own printed Statute-books in the 12. of Richard the second He was brought up in that school of valour the court of Henry the 4. the Emperour Whilest he lived there there happened an intricate suit betwixt him and another Prince about title of land and because Judges could not untie the knot it was concluded the two Princes should cut it asunder with their sword in a combat Godfrey was very unwilling to fight not that he was the worse souldier but the better Christian he made the demurre not in his courage but in his conscience as conceiving any private title for land not ground enough for a duell Yea we may observe generally that they who long most to fight duells are the first that surfet of them Notwithstanding he yeelded to the tyranny of custome and after the fashion of the countrey entred the lists when at the first encounter his sword brake but he struck his adversary down with the hilt yet so that he saved his life and gained his own inheritance Another parallel act of his valour was when being standard-bearer to the Emperour he with the imperiall ensigne killed Rodulphus the Duke of Saxony in single fight and fed the Eagle on the bowels of that arch-rebell His soul was enriched with many vertues but the most orient of all was his humility which took all mens affections without resistance And though one saith Take away ambition and you take away the spurres of a souldier yet Godfrey without those spurres rode on most triumphantly Chap. 2. The establishing of Ecclesiasticall affairs and Patriarchs in Antioch and Ierusalem the numerosity of Palestine-Bishops BUt now let us leave the Helmets and look
on the Mitres and consider the ordering of Ecclesiasticall affairs For the Common-wealth is a Ring the Church the Diamond both well set together receive and return lustre each on other As soon as Antioch was taken one Bernard a reverend Prelate was made Patriarch there with generall consent But more stirre was there about that place in Jerusalem For first Arnulphus a worthlesse and vitious man was by popular faction lifted up into the Patriarchs chair but with much ado was avoided and Dabert Archbishop of Pisa substituted in his room one very wise and politick an excellent book-man in reading of men and otherwise well studied especially as that age went wherein a mediocrity was an eminency in learning But he was infected with the humour of the clergie of that age who counted themselves to want room except they justled with Princes As for Arnulphus he never ceased to trouble and molest this Dabert and as a firebrand smoketh most when out of the chimney so he after his displacing was most turbulent and unquiet ever sitting on his skirts that sat in the Patriarchs chair till after many changes he struggled himself again into the place Under these Patriarchs many Archbishops and Bishops were appointed in the very places as neare as might be where they were before the Saracens overrunning the countrey and good maintenance assigned to most of them But at this time Bishops were set too thick for all to grow great and Palestine fed too many Cathedrall churches to have them generally fat Lydda Jamnia and Joppa three episcopall towns were within foure miles one of another Yea Tyrius makes 14 Bishops under the Archbishop of Tyre 20 under the Archbishop of Caesarea under the Archbishop of Scythopolis 9 12 under the Archbishop of Rabbah besides 25 suffragan churches which it seems were immediately depending on the Patriarch of Jerusalem without subordination to any Archbishop Surely many of these Bishops to use Bishop Langhams expression had high racks but poore mangers Neither let it stagger the reader if in that catalogue of Tyrius he light on many Bishops seats which are not to be found in Mercator Ortelius or any other Geographer for some of them were such poore places that they were ashamed to appear in a map and fall so much under a Geographers notice that they fall not under it For in that age Bishops had their Sees at poore and contemptible villages as here in England before the Conquest who would suspect Sunning in Barkshire or Dorchester neare Oxford to have had Cathedrall churches till in the daies of William the first Bishops removed their seats to the principall towns in the shire Chap. 3. The Saracens conquered at Askelon MAhomets tombe hung not so strong but now it began to shake and was likely to fall These victories of the Christians gave a deadly wound to that religion Wherefore the Saracens combined themselves with the Turks to assist them there being betwixt these two nations I will not say an unity but a conspiracy in the same superstition so that therein they were like a nest of hornets stirre one and anger all Wherefore coming out of Egypt under Ammiravissus their Generall at Askelon they gave the Christians battel But God sent such a qualm of cowardlinesse over the hearts of these Infidels that an hundred thousand of them were quickly slain so that it was rather an execution then a fight and their rich tents which seemed to be the exchequer of the East-countrey spoiled so that the Pilgrimes knew not how to value the wealth they found in them This victory obtained such Pilgrimes as were disposed to return addressed themselves for their countrey and these merchants for honour went home having made a gainfull adventure Those that remained were advanced to Signories in the land as Tancred was made governour of Galilee Nor will it be amisse to insert this story Peter Bishop of Anagnia in Italy was purposed here to lead his life without taking care for his charge when behold S. Magnus patrone of that church appeared to him in a vision pretending himself to be a young man who had left his wife at home and was come to live in Jerusalem Fie said Peter to him go home again to your wife Whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder Why then replied S. Magnus have you left your church a widow in Italy and live here so farre from her company This vision though calculated for this one Bishop did generally serve for all the non-residents which posted hither and who payed not the lawfull debt to their conscience whilest by needlesse bonds they engaged themselves to their own will-worship For though souls of men be light because immateriall yet they may prove an heavy burden to these carelesse Pastours who were to answer for them After the return of these Pilgrimes the heat of the Christians victories in Syria were somewhat allayed for Boemund Prince of Antioch marching into Mesopotamia was taken prisoner and Godfrey besieging the city of Antipatris then called Assur though hitherto he had been alwayes a conquerour was fain to depart with disgrace So small a remora may stay that ship which faileth with the fairest gale of successe Chap. 4. The originall and increase of the Hospitallers their degenerating through wealth into luxury ABout this time under Gerard their first master began the order of Knights-hospitallers Indeed more anciently there were Hospitallers in Jerusalem but these were no Knights they had a kind of order but no honour annexed to it but were pure Alms-men whose house was founded and they maintained by the charity of the merchants of Amalphia a citie in Italy But now they had more stately buildings assigned unto them their house dedicated to S. John of Jerusalem Knights-hospitallers and those of S. John of Jerusalem being both the same although learned Dr. Ridley maketh them two distinct orders for which our great Antiquary doth justly reprove him But such an errour is veniall and it is a greater fault rigidly to censure then to commit a small oversight The one sheweth himself man in mistaking the other no man in not pardoning a light mistake To make one capable of the highest order of this Knighthood for their servitours and priests might be of an inferiour rank the party must thus be qualified Eighteen yeares old at the least of an able body not descended of Jewish or Turkish parents no bastard except bastard to a Prince there being honour in that dishonour as there is light in the very spots of the moon Descended he must be of worshipfull parentage They wore a red belt with a white crosse and on a black cloke the white crosse of Jerusalem which is a crosse crossed or five crosses together in memorie of our Saviours five wounds Yet was there some difference betwixt their habit in peace and in warre Their profession was to fight against Infidels and to secure
as these Pilgrimes went through his countrey he did them all possible mischief still under the pretense of kindnesse What hinderer to a false helper calling the chief Captains of the army his sonnes but they found it true The more courtesie the more craft Yea this deep dissembler would put off his visard in private and professe to his friends that he delighted as much to see the Turks and these Christians in battel as to see mastiffdogs fight together and that which side soever lost yet he himself would be a gainer But when they had passed Grecia and had crossed the Bosporus otherwise called The arm of S. George entring into the dominion of the Turks they were for thirty dayes exposed a mark to their arrows And though this great multitude was never stabbed with any mortall defeat in a set battel yet they consumed away by degrees the cowardly Turks striking them when their hands were pinnioned up in the straits of unknown passages The Generalls bestrawed the countrey about with their corpses Great Hugh of France was buried at Tarsus in Cilicia Duke Guelpho at Paphos in Cyrpus Diemo the Archbishop of Saltzburg saw his own heart cut out and was martyred by the Turks at Chorazin And God saith my Authour manifested by the event that the warre was not pleasing unto him Chap. 10. Antipatris and Cesarea wonne by the Christians The variety of King Baldwines successe MEan time King Baldwine was imployed with better successe in Palestine for hitherto Joppa was the onely port the Christians had but now by the assistance of the Genoan fleet who for their pains were to have a third part of the spoil and a whole street to themselves of every city they took Baldwine wonne most considerable havens along the mid-land-sea He began with Antipatris to ransome the Christian honour which was morgaged here because Godfrey was driven away from hence And no wonder having no shipping whereas that Army which takes a strong harbour otter-like must swim at sea as well as go on ground Next he took Cesarea-Stratonis built and so named in the honour of Cesar Augustus by Herod the great who so politickly poised himself that he sat upright whilest the wheel of Fortune turned round under him Let Antony winne let Augustus winne all one to him by contrary winds he sailed to his own ends Cesarea taken Baldwine at Rhamula put the Turks to a great overthrow But see the chance of warre Few dayes after at the same place he received a great defeat by the Infidels wherein besides many others the two Stephens Earls of Burgundy and Bloys were slain This was the first great overthrow the Christians suffered in Palestine and needs must blows be grievous to them who were not used to be beaten The King was reported slain but fame deserved to be pardoned for so good a lie which for the present much disheartened the Christians a great part of the souldiers courage being wrapped up in the life of the Generall Baronius as bold as any Bethshemite to pry into the ark of Gods secrets saith This was a just punishment on Baldwine for detaining the Churches goods But to leave hidden things to God the apparent cause of his overthrow was his own rashnesse being desirous to ingrosse all the credit alone without sending for succours and supplies from his neighbours He assaulted his numerous enemies with an handfull of men and so brake himself with covetousnesse to purchase more honour then he could pay for And herein he discovered his want of judgement being indeed like an arrow well-feathered but with a blunt pile he flew swift but did not sink deep Thus his credit lay bleeding but he quickly stanched it The Pagans little suspecting to be re-incountred gave themselves over to mirth and jollity as security oftentimes maketh the sword to fall out of their hands from whom no force could wrest it when Baldwine coming on them with fresh souldiers strook them with the back-blows of an unexpected enemy which alwayes pierce the deepest routed them and put them to the light This his victory followed so suddenly after his overthrow that some mention not the overthrow at all but the victory onely as that good horseman is scarce perceived to be thrown that quickly recovereth the saddle Chap. 11. The conquest of sundry fair havens by the Christians Ptolemais c. WHilest the King was thus busied in battel Tancred Prince of Galilee was not idle but enlarged the Christian dominions with the taking of Apamea and Laodicea These cities in Celosyria were built by Antiochus and they agreed so well together that they were called sisters and as in concord so in condition they went hand in hand being now both conquered together Ptolemais next stooped to the Christian yoke so named from Ptolemeus Philometor King of Egypt a citie on the Mediterranean of a triangular form having two sides washed with the sea the third regarding the champian The Genoan galleys being 70 in number did the main service in conquering and had granted them for their reward large profits from the harbour a church to themselves jurisdiction over a fourth part of the citie This Ptolemais was afterwards the very seat of the Holy warre Let me mind the Reader of a Latine proverb Lis Ptolemaica that is A long and constant strife so called from Ptolemais a froward old woman who was never out of wrangling But may not the proverb as well be verified of this citie in which there was ninescore yeares fighting against the Turks With worse successe did Baldwine Count of Edessa and Earl Joceline besiege Charran in Mesopotamia for when it was ready to be surrendred the Christian Captains fell out amongst themselves were defeated by the Pagans and the two forenamed Earls taken prisoners This Charran is famous for Abrahams living and his father Terahs dying there And in the same place rich Crassus the Romane vomited up the sacrilegious goods he had devoured of the temple of Jerusalem and had his army overthrown Nor here may we overpasse how Boemund Prince of Antioch with a great navie spoiled the harbours of Grecia to be revenged of treacherous Alexius the Emperour Voluntaries for this service he had enough all desiring to have a lash at the dog in the manger and every mans hand itching to throw a cudgel at him who like a nut-tree must be manured by beating or else would never bear fruit yet on some conditions an agreement at last was made betwixt them To return to Palestine The next citie that felt the victorious arms of the Christians was Byblus a good haven and built by Heveus the sixth sonne of Canaan Here Adonis was anciently worshipped whose untimely death by a bore Venus so much bemoned And the fable is moralized when Lust lamenteth the losse of Beauty consumed by age Nor did Tripoli hold out long after so called
Bernards bow Wherefore this miscarriage came very seasonably to abate their over-towring conceits of him and perchance his own of himself And no doubt he made a good use of this bad accident The lesse his fame blazed the more his devotion burned and the cutting off of his top made him take deep root and to be made more truly humbled and sanctified In his book of Consideration he maketh a modest defense of himself whither we referre the reader To conclude The devotion of this man was out of question so neglecting this world that he even did spit out that preferment which was dropped into his mouth But as for his judgement it was not alwayes the best which gave occasion to the proverb Bernardus non vidit omnia Chap. 31. Vnseasonable discords betwixt King Baldwine and his mother Her strength in yeelding to her sonne UPon the departure of Emperour Conrade and King Lewis Noradine the Turk much prevailed in Palestine Nor was he little advantaged by the discords betwixt Millesent Queen-mother and the Nobility thus occasioned There was a Noble-man called Manasses whom the Queen governing all in her sonnes minority made Constable of the kingdome This man unable to manage his own happinesse grew so insolent that he could not go but either spurning his equals or trampling on his inferiours No wonder then if envy the shadow of greatnesse waited upon him The Nobility highly distasted him but in all oppositions the Queens favour was his sanctuary who to shew her own absolutenesse and that her affection should not be controlled nor that thrown down which she set up still preserved the creature she had made His enemies perceiving him so fast rooted in her favour and seeing they could not remove him from his foundation sought to remove him with his foundation instigating young King Baldwine against his mother and especially against her favourite They complained how the State groned under his insolency He was the bridge by which all offices must passe and there pay toll He alone sifted all matters and then no wonder if much bran passed He under pretense of opening the Queens eyes did lead her by the nose captivating her judgement in stead of directing it He like a by-gulf devoured her affection which should flow to her children They perswaded the King he was ripe for government and needed none to hold his hand to hold the sceptre Let him therefore either untie or cut himself loose from this slavery and not be in subjection to a subject Liberty needeth no hard pressing on youth a touch on that stamp maketh an impression on that waxen age Young Baldwine is apprehensive of this motion and prosecuteth the matter so eagerly that at length he coopeth up this Manasses in a castle and forceth him to abjure the kingdome Much stirre afterwards was betwixt him and his mother till at last to end divisions the kingdome was divided betwixt them She had the city of Jerusalem and the land-locked part he the maritime half of the land But the widest throne is too narrow for two to sit on together He not content with this partition marcheth furiously to Jerusalem there to besiege his mother and to take all from her Out of the citie cometh Fulcher the good Patriarch his age was a patent for his boldnesse and freely reproveth the King Why should he go on in such an action wherein every step he stirred his legs must needs grate and crash both against nature and religion Did he thus requite his mothers care in stewarding the State thus to affright her age to take arms against her Was it not her goodnesse to be content with a moyety when the whole kingdome in right belonged unto her But ambition had so inchanted Baldwine that he was penetrable with no reasons which crossed his designes so that by the advice of her friends she was content to resigne up all lest the Christian cause should suffer in these dissensions She retired her self to Sebaste and abridged her train from State to necessity And now the lesse room she had to build upon the higher she raised her soul with heavenly meditations and lived as more private so more pious till the day of her death Chap. 32. Reimund Prince of Antioch overcome and killed Askelon taken by the Christians The death of King Baldwine THese discords betwixt mother and sonne were harmonie in the eares of Noradine the Turk Who coming with a great army wasted all about Antioch and Prince Reimund going out to bid him battel was slain himself and his army overthrown nor long after Joceline Count of Edessa was intercepted by the Turks and taken prisoner As for Constantia the relict of Reimund Prince of Antioch she lived a good while a widow refusing the affections which many princely suiters proffered unto her till at last she descended beneath her self to marry a plain man Reinold of Castile Yet why should we say so when as a Castilian Gentleman if that not a needlesse tautologie as he maketh the inventory of his own worth prizeth himself any Princes fellow And the proverb is Each lay-man of Castile may make a King each clergie-man a Pope Yea we had best take heed how we speak against this match for Almericus Patriarch of Antioch for inveighing against it was by this Prince Reinold set in the heat of the sunne with his bare head besmeared with hony a sweet-bitter torment that so bees might sting him to death But King Baldwine mediated for him and obtained his liberty that he might come to Jerusalem where he lived many yeares in good esteem And Gods judgements are said to have overtaken the Prince of Antioch for besides the famine which followed in his countrey he himself afterwards fighting unfortunately with the Turks was taken prisoner But let us step over to Jerusalem where we shall find King Baldwine making preparation for the siege of Askelon Which citie after it had long been blocked up had at last an assaultable breach made in the walls thereof The Templars to whom the King promised the spoil if they took it entred through this breach into the citie and conceiving they had enow to wield the work and master the place set a guard at the breach that no more of their fellow-Christians should come in to be sharers with them in the booty But their covetousnesse cost them their lives for the Turks contemning their few number put them every one to the sword Yet at last the citie was taken though with much difficulty Other considerable victories Baldwine got of the Turks especially one at the river Jordan where he vanquished Noradine And twice he relieved Cesarea-Philippi which the Turks had straitly besieged But death at last put a period to his earthly happinesse being poisoned as it was supposed by a Jewish physician for the rest of the potion killed a dog to whom it was given This Kings youth was stained with unnaturall discords with his
the Christians the honour of the victorie Following his blow he pinned up the Turks afterward in the city of Alexandria and forced them to receive of him conditions of peace and then returned himself with honour to Askelon Chap. 37. Almerick against his promise invadeth Egypt His perjury punished with the future ruine of the kingdome of Ierusalem His death WHen a Crown is the prize of the game we must never expect fair play of the gamesters King Almerick having looked on the beauty of the kingdome of Egypt he longed for it and now no longer to drive out the relicks of the Turks but to get Egypt to himself And the next yeare against the solemn league with the Caliph invaded it with a great army He falsely pretended that the Caliph would make a private peace with Noradine King of the Turks and hence created his quarrel For he hath a barren brain who cannot fit himself with an occasion if he hath a desire to fall out But Gilbert master of the Hospitallers chiefly stirred up the King to this warre upon promise that the city and countrey of Pelusium if conquered should be given to his order The Templars were much against the designe one of their order was Embassadour at the ratifying of the peace and with much zeal protested against it as undertaken against oath and fidelity An oath being the highest appeal perjury must needs be an hainous sinne whereby God is solemnly invited to be witnesse of his own dishonour And as bad is a God-mocking equivocation For he that surpriseth truth with an ambush is as bad an enemy as he that fighteth against her with a flat lie in open field I know what is pleaded for King Almerick namely That Christians are not bound to keep faith with idolaters the worshippers of a false god as the Egyptian Caliph was on the matter But open so wide a window and it will be in vain to shut any doores All contracts with Pagans may easily be voided if this evasion be allowed But what saith S. Hierome It matters not to whom but by whom we swear And God to acquit himself knowing the Christians prosperity could not stand with his justice after their perjury frowned upon them And from hence authours date the constant ill successe of the Holy warre For though this expedition sped well at the first and Almerick wonne the citie of Belbis or Pelusium yet see what a cloud of miseries ensued First Noradine in his absence wasted and wonne places neare Antiochia at pleasure Secondly Meller Prince of Armenia a Christian made a covenant with Noradine and kept it most constantly to the inestimable disadvantage of the King of Jerusalem This act of Meller must be condemned but withall Gods justice admired Christians break their covenant with Saracens in Egypt whilest other Christians to punish them make and keep covenant with Turks in Asia Thirdly the Saracens grew good souldiers on a sudden who were naked at first and onely had bows but now learned from the Christians to use all offensive and defensive weapons Thus rude nations alwayes better themselves in fighting with a skilfull enemy How good mark-men are the Irish now-a-dayes which some seventy yeares ago at the beginning of their rebellions had three men to discharge a hand-gunne Fourthly Almericks hopes of conquering Egypt were frustrated for after some victories he was driven out and that whole kingdome conquered by Saladine nephew to Syracon who killed the Caliph with his horse-mace as he came to do him reverence and made himself the absolutest Turkish King of Egypt And presently after the death of Noradine the kingdome of the Turks at Damascus was by their consent bestowed upon him Indeed Noradine left a sonne Melexala who commanded in part of his fathers dominions but Saladine after his death got all for himself Thus rising men shall still meet with more stairs to raise them as those of falling with stumbling-blocks to ruine them Mean time Jerusalem was a poore weather-beaten kingdome bleak and open to the storm of enemies on all sides having no covert or shelter of any good friend neare it lying in the lions mouth betwixt his upper and nether jaw Damascus on the North and Egypt on the South two potent Turkish kingdomes united under a puissant Prince Saladine This made Almerick send for succours into Europe for now few voluntaries came to this service souldiers must be pressed with importunity Our Western Princes were prodigall of their pity but niggardly of their help The heat of the warre in Palestine had cooled their desires to go thither which made these Embassadours to return without supplies having gone farre to fetch home nothing but discomfort and despair Lastly King Almerick himself wearied with whole volleys of miseries ended his life of a bloudy flux having reigned eleven full yeares and was buried with his predecessours Leaving two children Baldwine and Sibyll by Agnes his first wife and by Mary his second wife daughter to John Proto-Sebastus a Grecian Prince one daughter Isabell married afterwards to Hemphred the third Prince of Thorone Chap. 38. Baldwine the fourth succeedeth His education under William the reverend Archbishop of Tyre BAldwine his sonne the fourth of that name succeeded his father so like unto him that we report the reader to the character of King Almerick and will spare the repeating his description Onely he differed in the temper of his bodie being enclined to the leprosie called Elephantiasis noysome to the patient but not infectious to the company not like King Uzziahs but Naamans leprosie which had it been contagious no doubt the King of Assyria when he went into the house of Rimmon would have chosen another supporter Mean time the kingdome was as sick as the King he of a leprosie that of an incurable consumption This Baldwine had the benefit of excellent education under William Archbishop of Tyre a pious man and excellent scholar skilled in all the learned Orientall tongues besides the Dutch and French his native language a moderate and faithfull writer For in the latter part of his history of the Holy warre his eye guided his hand till at last the taking of the city of Jerusalem so shook his hand that his penne fell out and he wrote no more Treasurer he was of all the money contributed to the Holy warre Chancellour of this kingdome imployed in severall Embassies in the West present at the Lateran Councel the acts whereof he did record Cardinall he might have been but refused it In a word unhappy onely that he lived in that age though that age was happy he lived in it Chap. 39. The vitiousnesse of Heraclius the Patriarch of Ierusalem His Embassie to Henry the second King of England with the successe The Maronites reconciled to the Romane Church AFter the death of Almerick Patriarch of Jerusalem Heraclius was by the Queen-mother Mary second wife to King Almerick for his
professed that she saw in a vision Christ and his Angels rejoycing For the losse of the earthly Canaan was gain to the heavenly peopling it with many inhabitants who were conquerours in their overthrow whilest they requited Christs passion and died for him who suffered for them But for the truth both of the doctrine and historie hereof none need burden their beleef farther then they please We will conclude all with Roger Hovedens witty descant on the time When Jerusalem was wonne by the Christians and afterwards when it was lost an Urbane was Pope of Rome a Frederick Emperour of Germany an Heraclius Patriarch of Jerusalem But by his leave though the first of his observations be true the second is a flat falsitie the third a foul mistake and may thus be mended It is charity to lend a crutch to a lame conceit When the Crosse was taken from the Persians Heraclius was Emperour and when it was taken from the Turks Heraclius was Patriarch Thus these curious observations like over-small watches not one of a hundred goeth true Though it cannot be denied but the same name as Henry of England one the winne-all another the lose-all in France hath often been happy and unhappy in founding and confounding of kingdomes But such nominall toyes are rags not worth a wise mans stooping to take them up The end of the second Book The Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book III. Chap. 1. Conrade of Montferrat valiantly defendeth Tyre and is chosen King IN this wofull estate stood the Christian affairs in the Holy land when Conrade Marquesse of Montferrat arrived there His worth commandeth my penne to wait on him from his own countrey till he came hither Sonne he was to Boniface Marquesse of Montferrat and had spent his youth in the service of Isaacius Angelus the Grecian Emperour This Isaacius fitter for a Priest then a Prince was alwayes bred in a private way and the confining of his body feemeth to have brought him to a pent and narrow soul. For he suffered rebells to affront him to his face never fending any army against them but commending all his cause to a company of bare-footed Friars whom he kept in his Court desiring them to pray for him and by their pious tears to quench the combustions in the Empire But our Conrade plainly told him he must use as well the weapons of the left hand as of the right meaning the sword as well as prayers And by the advice of this his Generall he quickly subdued all his enemies Which his great service found small reward onely he was graced to wear his shoes of the Imperiall fashion a low matter but there forsooth accounted an high honour But soon after Isaac was sick of this Physician who had cured his Empire If private debters care not for the company of their creditours much lesse do Princes love to see them to whom they ow themselves and their kingdome so unwelcome are courtesies to them when above their requitall Now it is an ancient policie to rid away high spirits by sending them on some plausible errand into remote parts there to seek for themselves an honourable grave To this end Isaacius by the perswasions of some spurred on Conrade free enough of himself to any noble action to go into Palestine there to support the ruinous affairs of the Christians Conrade was sensible of their plot but suffered himself to be wrought on being weary of the Grecians basenesse and came into the Holy land with a brave company of Gentlemen furnished on their own cost For a while we set him aside and return to Saladine Who by this time had taken Askelon on condition that King Guy and Gerard master of the Templars should be set at liberty Nor long after was the castle of Antioch betrayed unto him by the Patriarch and the citie scarce got with eleven moneths siege was lost in an instant with five and twenty strong towns more which attended the fortune of Antioch and many provinces thereto belonging came into the possession of the Turks Must not the Christians needs be bankrupts if they continue this trade buying deare and selling cheap gaining by inches and losing by ells With better successe those in Tripoli which citie the wife of Earl Reimund after his death delivered to the Christians defended themselves against Saladine For shame they would not forgo their shirts though they had parted with their clothes Stark-naked from shelter had the Christians been left if stripped out of Tripoli and Tyre Manfully therefore they defended themselves and Saladine having tasted of their valour in Tripoli had no mind to mend his draught but marched away to Tyre But Conrade of Montferrat who was in Tyre with his army so used the matter that Saladine was fain to flie and leave his tents behind him which were lined with much treasure And the Christians had that happinesse to squeeze that sponge which formerly was filled with their spoil They in Tyre in token of gratitude chose this Conrade King of Jerusalem swearing themselves his subjects who had kept them from being the Turks slaves To strengthen his title he married Elisa or Isabella Authours christen her with either name formerly espoused to Humfred of Thoron sister to Baldwine the fourth daughter to Almerick King of Jerusalem By this time King Guy was delivered out of prison having sworn never more to bear arms against Saladine which oath by the Clergie was adjudged void because forced from him when he was detained in prison unjustly against promise The worst was now he had gained his liberty he could not get his Kingdome Coming to Tyre they shut the gates against him owning no King but Conrade Thus to have two kings together is the way to have neither king nor kingdome But Guy following the affront as well as he might and piecing up a cloth of remnants with his broken army besieged Ptolemais The Pisanes Venetians and Florentines with their sea-succours came to assist him But this siege was Church-work and therefore went on slowly we may easier perceive it to have moved then to move especially if we return hither a twelve-moneth hence Chap. 2. The Church-story in the Holy land to the end of the warre The use and abuse of titular Bishops WE must now no longer look for a full face of a Church in the Holy land it is well if we find one cheek and an eye Though Jerusalem and Antioch were wonne by the Turks the Pope ceased not to make Patriarchs of both We will content our selves with the names of those of Jerusalem finding little else of them remarkable After Heraclius Thomas Agni was Patriarch present in the Laterane Councel under Innocent the third Geraldus succeeded him who sided with the Pope against Frederick the Emperour Albertus Patriarch in Jerusalem when the Christians lost their land in Syria He prescribed some rules to the Carmelites After him Antonie Beak
rather watered then baptized affrighted with cruelty into Christianity deserve not to be accounted settled and well-grounded professours of their religion As for reconciliation betwixt the Grecians and Latines it is utterly improbable except the Greeks submit to the Popes Primacie which they will never do No hope then of their meeting together when neither party will stirre step towards other True it is some fourty yeares since anno 1594 the Bishops of little Russia a countrey following the Eastern Church but under the King of Poland on condition they would accept the Popes supremacie were dispensed with and permitted in other matters to adhere to the Greek Church and keep union with it the Pope manifesting herein that he aimeth not so much at the reduction of the Greeks to the truth as to his own obedience Besides the hatred they have against the Popes pride another great hindrance of the union is the small intercourse the Eastern Christians have or desire to have with the Western They live amongst the Turks and are grown to be contented slaves and having long since parted with their hopes now almost have lost their desire of liberty We must not forget how some fifty yeares ago solemn news was reported in Rome that the Patriarch of Alexandria with all the Greek Church in Africa by their Embassadours had submitted and reconciled themselves to the Pope and from him received Absolution and Benediction All which was a politick lie perchance therefore reported that it might make impression in the minds and raise and confirm the spirits of the vulgar who easily beleeve all that their betters tell them And though afterwards this report was controlled to be false yet mens spirits then being cold were not so sensible of it as before and the former news came to many mens eares who never heard afterwards of the check and confutation thereof Nor is there any State in the world that maketh such use and advantage as the Papall doth of false news To conclude As it is a maxime in Philosophy Ex quibus constamus ex iisdem nutrimur so a great part of their religion consisting of errours and falshoods it is suitable that accordingly it should be kept up and maintained with forgeries and deceits To return to Palestine This rent not in the seam but whole cloth betwixt these Churches was no mean hindrance to the Holy warre Formerly the Greeks in Syria were not so clearly cut asunder from the Latines but that they hung together by one great sinew in the common cause agreeing against the Turk the enemy to both But since this last breach the Greeks did in their desires propend and incline to the Turks being better contented they should conquer from whom they should have fair quarter free exercise of their religion and secure dwelling in any citie paying a set tribute then the Latines who they feared would force their consciences and bring their souls in subjection to the Popes supremacie Expect we then never hereafter that either their hearts or hands should afford any assistance to our Pilgrimes in their designes Some conceive that at this day if the Western Christians should stoutly invade Turkie with any likelihood to prevail the Greeks therein would runne to aid them But others are of a contrary judgement considering First the inveterate and inlaid hatred not to be washed off they bear the Latines Secondly the jealousie they have that they will never keep promise with them who have alwayes a warrant dormant from the Pope to break all contracts prejudiciall to the Romish Church Thirdly that custome and long continuance in slavery have so hardened and brawned their shoulders the yoke doth not wring them so much yea they had rather suffer the Turks being old full flies to suck them then to hazard their galled backs to new hungry ones finding by experience That they themselves live on better terms of servitude under the Turk lesse grated and grinded with exactions then some of their countrey-men do under the Latines for instance in Zante and Candie under the Venetians Chap. 7. Theobald King of Navarre maketh an unsuccessefull voyage into Palestine THe ten yeares truce by this time was expired which Frederick made with the Turks and Reinold Vice-roy of Palestine by instructions from him concluded another truce of the same term with them He saw that this young Christian Kingdome of Jerusalem like an infant would thrive best with sleeping with peace and quietnesse Nor was it any policie for him to move at all where there was more danger to hurt then hope to help their present estate But though this peace was honourable and profitable having no fault but that Frederick made it yet the Templars who did not relish the father must needs distast the child They complained that this peace was not used as a slumber to refresh the souldiers spirits but as a lethargie to benumme their valour and chiefly snarled at this indignity That the Turks had accesse to the temple of the Sepulchre and that Goats had free commonage in the Sheeps pasture Wherefore Pope Gregory to despite the Emperour Frederick caused the Dominicanes and Franciscanes his trumpeters to incite people to the Holy warre These were two twin-orders but the Dominicane the eldest which now were no sooner hatched in the world but presently chirped in the pulpits In that age Sermons were news and meat for Princes not common men Yea the Albingenses with their preaching had drowned the voices of secular Priests if these two Orders had not helped to out-noise those supposed hereticks These amplified with their rhetorick the calamity of the Christians tyrannie of the Turks merit of the cause probability of successe performing their parts with such gravity shew of devotion accents of passion not glued on for the present purpose but so naturall as from true affection that many were wooed to undertake the voyage Principally Theobald King of Navarre Almerick Earl of Montfort Henry of Champaigne Peter Earl of Bretaigne with many others of inferiour rank Ships they had none wherefore they were fain to shape their passage by land through Grecia where they were entertained with treachery famine and all the miseries which wait on distressed armies These came last that way I may say shut the doore For no Christian army ever after went that tedious journey by land Having passed the Bosporus they marched into Bithynia thence through Galatia they came unto the mountain Taurus where they were much damnified by the Turks who fell on and off upon them as they were advised by their own advantages The Christians desired no other gift but that a set battel might be given them which the Turks would not grant but played at distance and would never close But with much ado the Christians recovered to Antioch having scarce a third part of them left their horses all dead and themselves scarce mounted on their legs miserably weak as what the mercy of sword plague
this day confesse not to the beholders that any such cost was ever bestowed there He also caused the corpses of the Christians killed at the late battel at Gaza and hitherto unburied decently to be interred and appointed an annuall salarie to a Priest to pray for their souls Hereby he had the happinesse with little cost to purchase much credit and the living being much taken with kindnesse to the dead this burying of those Christians with pious persons wonne him as much repute as if he killed so many Turks At last the truce for ten yeares was concluded with the Sultan all Christian captives were discharged and set free many forts of them restored and matters for the main reduced to the same estate they were at the first peace with Frederick the Emperour and Richard returning through Sicily and by Rome where he visited his Holinesse safely came home to England Where he was welcomed with bad news that a discontented Cornish man banished for his misdemeanours had found out tinne-mines in Bohemia which afterwards more asswaged the swelling of this Earls bags then all his voyage to Palestine For till that time that metall was onely fetched from England which afforded meat to some forrein countreys and dishes to all His voyage was variously censured The Templars which consented not to the peace flouted thereat as if all this while he had laboured about a difficult nothing and as good never a whit as never the better for the agreement would never hold long Others thought he had abundantly satisfied any rationall expectation For he compelled saith one the Saracens to truce a strange compulsion without violence except the shewing of a scabbard he restored many to the life of their life their liberty which alone was worth all his pains the peace he concluded was honourable and a cheap Olive-branch is better then deare Bayes Two of our English Richards were at Palestine one famous for drawing his sword the other his purse He was also remarkable herein that he brought all his men and ships safe home next of kin to a miracle and none will deny but that in such dangerous adventures a saver is a gainer One good he got hereby This journey brought him into play amongst forrein Princes henceforward the beyond-sea-world took notice of him and he of it Never would he have had the face to have courted the Crown Imperiall if these his travels had not put boldnesse and audacity into him which made him afterwards a stiff rivall to bid for the Empire of Germany Chap. 9. The Corasines cruelly sack the city of Ierusalem and kill the Christians therein ABout this time though we find not the punctuall date thereof happened the death of Reinoldus Fredericks Lieutenant in Syria who by his moderation had been a good benefactour to the Holy warre But the Templars counted him to want metall because he would not be mad and causelesly break the truce with the Sultan In his grave was buried the happinesse of the Christians in Palestine for now the lawlesse Templars observe no other rule but their own will And now the inundation of the Tartarians in spite of all dammes and banks overranne the North of Asia and many nations fled from their own countreys for fear of them Amongst other the Corasines called by some Choermines and Groissoms a fierce and warlike people were notwithstanding by the Tartarians forced to forsake their land Being thus unkennelled they had their recourse to the Sultan of Babylon and petitioned him to bestow some habitation upon them Their suit he could neither safely grant nor deny A deniall would egge their discontents into desperatenesse and such sturdy dangerous vagabonds might do much harm to admit them to be joynt-tenants in the same countrey with the Turks was a present inconvenience and would be a future mischief In stead therefore of giving them a house he sent them to a work-house yet so that they apprehended it a great courtesie done unto them For he bestowed on them all the lands which the Christians held in Palestine liberall to give away what was none of his and what the others must purchase before they could enjoy The Sultan encouraged them to invade that countrey whose people he pretended were weak and few the land wealthy and fruitfull so that the conquest would be easie especially they having his assistance in the present service and perpetuall patronage hereafter Animated herewith in come the Corasines with their wives and children bringing their housholds with them to win houses and lands for them into Syria and march directly to Jerusalem which being a weak and unfortified place was taken without resistance Weak and unfortified Strange It is confessed on all sides that Frederick the Emperour and Reinoldus his Lieutenant spared no expense in strengthening this city since which time we find no solemn taking it by the Turks Who then can expect lesse then an impregnable place where so much cost was sown Which driveth us to conceive one of these three things Either that the weaknesse of this citie was chiefly in the defenders hearts Or else that formerly there happened some blind and silent dispoiling of this place not mentioned by Authours Or lastly that Jerusalem was a Jericho I mean a place cursed in building like Pharaohs lean kine never a whit the fatter for devouring much meat and which still went in rags though her friends bestowed change of raiment upon her Thus this city after that it had been possessed fifteen yeares by the Christians was wonne by this barbarous people never since regained to our religion Sleep Jerusalem sleep in thy ruines at this day of little beauty and lesse strength famous onely for what thou hast been The Christians flying out of Jerusalem with their families took their course towards Joppa but looking back beheld their own ensignes advanced on the citie-walls so done in policie by their enemies Whereupon their credulity thus commented That their fellows had beaten the Corasines in Jerusalem and by these banners invited them to return But going back they found but cold or rather too hot entertainment being slain every mothers child of them Dull nostrils not to sent so stale and rank a stratageme of their foes so often used so easily defeated not to send some spies to tast the bait before all swallowed it But men marked out for destruction will runne their own heads into the halter Chap. 10. Robert Patriarch of Ierusalem with the whole strength of the Christians conquered by the Corasines THe desperatenesse of the disease priviledgeth the taking of any Physick The Christians being now in deep distresse resolved on a dangerous course but as their case stood thought necessary For they made peace with the Sultan of Damascus and Seisser and with the Sultan of Cracci These were Dynastes in Syria of some good strength and were at discord with the Sultan of Babylon and swearing them to be faithfull borrowed an armie of their forces
with them joyntly to resist the Corasines seeking saith Frederick the Emperour to find fidem in perfidia trust in treachery Many suspected these auxiliary forces thinking though the forrest-wolves fell out with the mountain ones they would both agree against the sheep Robert Patriarch of Jerusalem was a most active commander over all S. Lukes day was the time agreed upon for the fatall battel neare Tiberias was the place As the Christians were ordering themselves in aray it was questioned in what part of their armie their new Turkish assistants should be disposed and concluded that they should be placed in the front where if they did no other good they would dull the appetite of their enemies sword This is thought to have been a notorious errour and cause of their overthrow For though those souldiers who mean to be false will never be made faithfull in what place soever they be bestowed yet may they be made lesse dangerous if cast into the body or main battel of the army whence they have no such scope to fling out and to take advantage of place to do mischief as they have either in the front or wings thereof Thus in Cesars time Crassus an experienced Generall under him being to bid the Gauls battel auxiliares copias quibus ad pugnam non multum confidebat in mediam aciem colloâ—â—vit that so being hemmed in before and behind they might be ingaged to fight manfully without starting away And to instance in later times our Richard the third who though he usurped the Crown had as none will deny a true title both to prowesse and martiall policie marching to Bosworth placed suspected persons whose bodies were with him and hearts with Earl Henry in the midst and those whom he most trusted before behind and on every side The battel being joyned the Turks ranne over to the other side though some braved them onely with cowardlinesse not treachery and that they fled from the battel but not fell to the enemies The Christians manfully stood to it and though over-powerd in number made a great slaughter of their enemies till at last they were quite overthrown Of the Teutonick Order escaped but three of three hundred Templars but eighteen of two hundred Hospitallers but nineteen The Patriarch to use his own words whom God reputed unworthy of martyrdome saved himself by flight with a few others And this great overthrow to omit lesse partner-causes is chiefly imputed to the Templars former so often breaking the truce with the Sultan of Babylon Thus were the Christians conquered by the Corasines and beaten by a beaten nation Palestine being wonne by those who could not keep their own countrey Improving this victorie they left nothing to the Christians but Tyre Ptolemais and Antioch with some few forts Soon after these Corasines elated herewith fell out with the Sultan himself who in anger rooted out their nation so that none of their name remained Yea all writers are silent of them both before this time and ever after as if God at this very instant had created this people to punish Christians which service performed they were annihilated again Chap. 11. Lewis the ninth setteth forward against the Turks The occasion of his journey and his attendants SOme two yeares after Lewis the ninth of that name King of France came to assist the Christians The occasion of his voyage this He had been visited with a desperate sicknesse insomuch that all art cried craven as unable to help him and the Physicians resigned him to Divines to begin with him where they ended They also gave him over and for a while he lay in a trance not the least breath brought news of any life left in him Then Blanch the Queen-mother and Queen of mothers for her care of her sonne and his Kingdome applied a piece of the Crosse unto him Thereat whether thereby let others dispute he revived and recovered and thereupon was Croised and in thankfulnesse bound himself with a vow to sail to the Holy land But his Nobility disswaded him from that designe The dangers were certain the successe would be doubtfull of so long a journey his own Kingdome would be left desolate and many mischiefs unseen as yet would appear in his absence Besides his vow was made in his sicknesse whilest reason was scarce as yet in the peaceable possession of his mind because of the remnant-dregs of his disease It might also be dispensed with by the Pope yea his deserts did challenge so much from his Holinesse King Lewis as perswaded hereat laid down the Crosse to the great comfort and contentment of all the beholders But then altering his countenance he required the Crosse should be restored to him again and vowed to eat no bread untill he was recognized with the Pilgrimes badge And because his vow should suffer no diminution or abatement from his disease now no longer Lewis the sick but Lewis the sound undertook the Holy warre His Nobles seeing him too stiff to be unbent and counting it a kind of sacrilegious counsel to disswade him from so pious a work left him to his own resolutions There went along with him his two brothers Charles Earl of Anjou Robert Earl of Artois his own Queen and their Ladies O do the Popes Legate Hugh Duke of Burgundie William Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of St. Paul and William Longspath Earl of Sarisbury with a band of valiant English men who went without licence from Henry King of England For in those dayes this doctrine went currant That their Princes leave was rather of complement then essentiall to their voyage as if the band of this Holy warre was an acquittance from all others Our Henry displeased at this Earls departure for his disobedience deprived him of his Earldome and castle of Sarisbury not suffering that sheep to grase in his pasture which would not own him for his shepherd William also sonne to this Earl smarting for his fathers fault never enjoyed that honour And though King Henry himself being a Prince of more devotion then policie did most affectionately tender this Holy cause yet he used this necessary severity towards this Earl at this time first because it would weaken his land thus to be dispeopled of martiall men secondly his subjects forwardnesse might be interpreted a secret check of his own backwardnesse in that warre thirdly the sucking in of forrein aire did wean people from their naturall Prince and did insensibly usher into their hearts an alienation from their own Sovereigne and a dependence on the King of France lastly he had some thoughts on that voyage himself and reserved such prime Peers to attend on his own person thither The Pope gave to this King Lewis his charges the tenth of the Clergies revenues through France for three yeares and the King imployed the Popes collectours to gather it knowing those leaches were the best suckers Hereupon the states of the Clergie were
their armie for the work was weighty they undertook and needed two shoulders the united strength of the Christians effectually to manage it His souldiers were weary and must be refreshed and it was madnesse to starve them to day in hope of a feast tomorrow That they were to march through a strange countrey and their best instructours were behind let them stay for their lantern and not go in the dark He minded him that he overvalued his victory not considering the enemies strength whose harvest was not spoiled by losing an handfull of men But the Earl full of the emptinesse of self-conceit allowed no counsel for currant but that of his own stamp He scorned to wait the leisure of another opportunity and opprobriously objected to the Templars the common fame That the Holy land long since had been wonne but for the collusion of the false Templars and Hospitallers with the Infidels Here the Earl of Sarisbury interposed himself to make peace and to perswade Robert to listen to the wholesome counsel that was given him But his good will was rewarded with Coward Dastard English-tail and such like contumelious terms Wherefore said our Earl Well Generall on in Gods name I beleeve this day you shall not dare to come nigh my horses tail And now the touchstone must tell what is gold what is brasse Marching on they assaulted the castle of Mauzar and were notably repulsed and Melechsala coming in with his whole strength hemmed them in on every side The Christians were but the third part of the armie and at the present they themselves were scarce the half of themselves being faint for want of refreshing Yet never shall one reade more valour in so little a volume They played their parts most stoutly As for the French Earl who went on like thunder he went out like smoke crying to the Earl of Sarisbury Flee flee for God fighteth against us To whom our Earl God forbid my fathers sonne should flee from the face of a Saracen The other seeking to save himself by the swiftnesse of his horse and crossing the river had there water enough to drown him but too little to wash from him the stain of rashnesse and cowardise Thus died the Earl of Artois who had in him the parts of a good Generall but inverted and in transposition bold in counsel fearfull in execution He was one of that princely quaternion of brothers which came hither at this voyage and exceeded each other in some quality Lewis the Holiest Alphonse the Subtillest Charles the Stoutest and this Robert the Proudest As for the Earl of Sarisbury he resolved to sell his life at such a rate that the buyer should little boast of his peny-worth slaying many a Turk and though unhorsed and wounded in his legs stood on his honour when he could not stand on his feet and refusing all quarter upon his knees laid about him like a desperate man The longer he fought the fewer wounds he had and there at last he breathed forth his soul in the midst of his enemies Of all the Christians there escaped no more then two Templars one Hospitaller and one common souldier the messengers of this heavy news The French writers because they can say little good say little of this battel and lessen the overthrow as much as may be which Authours of other nations have more fully reported Thus sometimes unfortunate gamesters flatter themselves belie their own purses and dissemble their losses whereof the standers by take more accurate notice P. Aemylius an Italian born at Verona but by long writing the French history his penne is made free denison of France though with his hand he doth hide the orifice of the wound yet it is too narrow to cover the whole sore round about So that it plainly appeareth that a great and grievous and most mortall blow was here given to the Christians Chap. 16. King Lewis almost in the same place hath the same wofull successe conquered and taken captive by Melechsala IT is easier to be conceived then expressed what generall grief this dolefull news brought to the French who followed not farre off and who before had cause enough to sorrow for themselves For the plague began to rage furiously amongst them and daily swept away thousands Mean time good King Lewis sent many of the weakest and impotentest people down the river to Damiata there to enjoy the benefit of privacie good attendance and physick Melechsala having intelligence hereof met them by the way and setting upon them having neither arm to fight nor legs to runne away either burned or drowned them all save one English man Alexander Giffard whose ancient and famous family flourisheth to this day at Chellington in Staffordshire who wounded in five places of his bodie escaped to the French and reported what had happened to the rest And by this time Melechsala understood of the correspondency betwixt King Lewis and the governour of Cairo for the betraying of the city Whereupon he caused him suddenly to be apprehended whereby the French King lost all hopes to obtain that place of importance Yea now full willingly would the Christians have accepted the terms formerly offered them and now their hungry stomachs would make dainties of those conditions which before when full of pride they threw away as fragments But the Turks now sleighted them as not worth the treating with and as knowing that these Frenchmen who at their first landing were more then men would at last be lesse then women Then began the French Lords to perswade King Lewis to provide for the safety of his own person and to return to Damiata They told him That if he stayed with them there was no hope grounded on probability and what was any other but a wilfull self-delusion of his escaping If he were killed his death would be a living shame to their religion if taken prisoner how would Mahomet insult over Christ The captivity of the most Christian of the most Christian Kings would be foundation enough for the Turks thereon to build tropheys of eternall triumph But Lewis would not leave them that they might not leave him but resolved to be a commoner with them in weal and wo disdaining to be such a niggard of his life as not to spend it in a good cause in so good company Forward they march and come to the fatall place where the last battel was fought There behold the mangled headlesse handlesse feetlesse corpses of their fellow-countreymen They knew in generall they were all their friends none knew his particular friend The cause of this unwonted cruelty to the dead was a proclamation which Melechsala made assigning a great summe of money to every one who would bring the head hand or foot of a Christian And this made many of his covetous cowards who carried their valour in their purses to be couragious Whilest the French were here bemoning their fellows Melechsala came upon them with an infinite multitude and put
haven of Tyre after a most cruel and desperate battel And surely generally sea-fights are more bloudy then those on the land especially since gunnes came up whose shot betwixt wind and water like those wounds so often mentioned in the Scripture under the fifth rib is commonly observed mortall Yea farre harder it is for a ship when arrested and ingaged in a battel to clear it self then for souldiers by land to save themselves by flight Here neither his own two nor his horses foure legges can bestead any but like accidents they must perish with their subjects and sink with their ship And then why is a sea-victory lesse honour being more danger then one atchieved by land Is it because sea-service is not so generall nor so full of varieties and the mysteries thereof sooner learned or because in sea-fights fortune may seem to be a deeper sharer and valour not so much interested Whatsoever it is the laurel purchased on land hath a more lively verdure then that which is got at sea We return to the Venetians Who using or rather abusing this conquest enter Ptolemais cast out all Genoans thence throw down their buildings both publick and private demolish the fort which they had builded at S. Saba rifle and spoil their shops ware-houses and store houses onely the Pope prevailed so farre with them that they set at liberty the prisoners they had taken Ten yeares did this warre last betwixt these two States in Syria composed at last saith my Authour by the authority of Pope Clement the fourth and by famine the bad cause of a good effect which in Palestine starved them into agreement Longer these warres lasted betwixt them in Italy their successe like the sea they fought on ebbing and flowing In this costly warre Pisa was first beggered and for all her politick partaking Genoa at last trode so heavy upon her that ever since she hath drooped and hung the wing and at this day is maid to Florence who formerly was mistresse of a good part of Italy But I have no calling and lesse comfort to prosecute these bloudy dissensions For warres of Christians against Infidels are like the heat of exercise which serveth to keep the body of Christianity in health but these civil warres amongst themselves like the heat of a feaver dangerous and destructive of religion Chap. 25. Charles made King of Sicily and Ierusalem by the Pope Hugh King of Cyprus pretendeth also to go to Ierusalem WE have now gotten Pantaleon a Frechman who succeeded Robert in the titular Patriarchship Jerusalem to be Pope by the name of Urbane the fourth To advance the Holy cause after fourteen yeares interregnum in Syria he appointed Charles Duke of Anjou younger brother to King Lewis of France King of Sicily and Jerusalem and it was ratified by Clement the fourth his successour This honour was first offered to Lewis himself but piety had dried up in him all ambitious humours then to our Henry of England but his warre-wasted purse could not stretch to the Popes price At last this Charles accepted it But it is not for any speciall favour to the bush if a man runne under it in a storm it was no love to Charles but to himself to be sheltred from Maufred that the Pope conferred this honour upon him And the wife of Charles that she might go in equipage with her three sisters being Queens sold all her jewels to furnish her husband with money to purchase these Kingdomes that sex loving bravery well but greatnesse better Now the Pope whose well-grounded and bounded bountie will never undo him for where he giveth away the meat he selleth the sauce conditioned with Charles on these terms First that he should conquer Maufred then King of Sicily who molested the Pope and that he should finally subdue all the remaining race of Frederick the second Emperour who claimed that Kingdome Secondly in acknowledgement that he held these Kingdomes from the Pope he should pay him an annuall pension of foure some say fourty thousand pounds Provided if this Charles should chance to be chosen Emperour of Germany that then he should either resigne Sicily back again into the hands of his Holinesse or not accept the Empire For he knew that all Emperours would be possessed with an anti-papall spirit and that they would hold Sicily not in homage from the Church but as a member of the Empire Besides the Pope would not dispense that Princes should hold pluralitie of temporall Dominions in Italy especially he was so ticklish he could not endure the same Prince should embrace him on both sides Ever since the twinne-titles of Sicily and Jerusalem have gone together and fit it is that the shadow should follow the substance Charles subdued Maufred and Conradine his nephew the last of the Suevian race and grandchild to Emperour Frederick and was possessed of Sicilie and lived there but as for the gaining of Jerusalem he little regarded it nor came thither at all A watchfull King who never slept in his Kingdome His absence gave occasion to Hugh King of Cyprus to furbish up new his old title to the Kingdome as lineally descended from Almerick the second And coming to Ptolemais he there was crowned King of Jerusalem But the extremity of the famine all things being excessive deare much abated the solemnity and state of his Coronation Chap. 26. The Tartarians alienated from the Christians Bendocdar tyrannizeth over them and Lewis King of France setteth forth again for to succour them BUt betwixt two Kings the Kingdome went to the ground For Haalon the Tartarian Prince late Christian convert was returned home to succeed his brother Mango in the Empire leaving Abaga his sonne with competent forces in the city of Damascus which he had wonne from the Turks Soon after Abaga followed his father and substituted Guirboca his Lieutenant in Damascus This Guirboca upon the occasion of his nephew rashly slain by the Christians in a broil fell off wholly from Christianity with all the Tartarians his countreymen The occasion this The Dutch Christians return with great booty they had taken from the Turks Guirboca's nephew meeteth them demandeth it for himself the Christians deny him as souldiers are very tender-conscienced in that point counting it a great sinne to part with the spoil they are possessed of hence brawls then blows Guirboca's nephew is slain Hereat the Tartarians who were very humourous in their friendship if not observed to an inch lost for ever in discontent all either reel aside to Mahomet or fall back to Paganisme Herein the Christians cannot be excused Infant-converts must be well tended It had been discretion in them even against discretion to have yeelded a little to these Tartarians and so to continue their amity which was so advantageous to the Holy warre How-ever one may question the truth of their conversion whether reall at first This spring was too forward to hold and
the very ruines as thirsty of revenge killing those that ruined them Serapha evened all to the ground and lest the Christians should ever after land here demolished all buildings the Turks holding this position That the best way to be rid of such vermine is to shave the hair clean off and to destroy all places wherein they may nestle themselves Some say he plowed the ground whereon the city stood and sowed it with corn but an eye-witnesse affirmeth that still there remain magnificent ruines seeming rather wholly to consist of divers conjoyned castles then any way intermingled with private dwellings No fewer then an hundred thousand Latine Christians all that were left in Syria fled at this time into Cyprus It is strange what is reported That above five hundred matrones and virgins of noble bloud standing upon the shore of Ptolemais and having all their richest jewels with them cried out with lamentable voice and profered to any mariner that would undertake safely to land them any-where all their wealth for his hire and also that he should choose any one of them for his wife Then a certain mariner came and transporting them all freely safely landed them in Cyprus nor by any enquiry could it after be known when he was sought for to receive his hire who this mariner was nor whither he went The Hospitallers for haste were fain to leave their treasure behind them and hide it in a vault which being made known from time to time to their successours was fetched from thence by the galleys of Malta about three hundred yeares afterwards Henry King of Cyprus to his great cost and greater commendation gave free entertainment to all Pilgrimes that fled hither till such time as they could be transported to their own countreys and thanks was all the shot expected of these guests at their departure Thus after an hundred ninety and foure yeares ended the Holy warre for continuance the longest for money spent the costliest for bloudshed the cruellest for pretenses the most pious for the true intent the most politick the world ever saw And at this day the Turks to spare the Christians their pains of coming so long a journey to Palestine have done them the unwelcome courtesie to come more then half the way to give them a meeting The end of the fourth Book A Supplement of the Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book V. Chap. 1. The executing of the Templars in France MY task is done Whatsoever remaineth is voluntary over-measure onely to hemme the end of our historie that it ravel not out As to shew What became of the Templars the Teutonick Order and the Hospitallers What were the hindrances of this warre What nation best deserved in it What offers were afterwards made to recover Jerusalem By how many challengers that title at this day is claimed What is the present strength of Jerusalem What hope to regain it with some other passages which offer attendance on these principall heads Know then Some nineteen yeares after the Christians had lost all in Palestine the Templars by the cruel deed of Pope Clement the fifth and foul fact of Philip the Fair King of France were finally exstirpated out of all Christendome The historie thereof is but in twilight not clearly delivered but darkened with many doubts and difficulties We must pick out letters and syllables here and there as well as we may all which put together spell thus much Pope Clement having long sojourned in France had received many reall courtesies from Philip the King yea he owed little lesse then himself to him At last Philip requested of him a boon great enough for a King to ask and a Pope to grant namely all the lands of the Knights Templars through France forfeited by reason of their horrible heresies and licentious living The Pope was willing to gratifie him in some good proportion for his favours received as thankfulnesse is alwayes the badge of a good nature and therefore being thus long the Kings guest he gave him the Templars lands and goods to pay for his entertainment On a sudden all the Templars in France they clapt into prison wisely catching those Lions in a net which had they been fairly hunted to death would have made their part good with all the dogs in France Damnable sinnes were laid to their charge as sacrificing of men to an idol they worshipped rosting of a Templars bastard and drinking his bloud spitting upon the crosse of Christ conspiring with Turks and Saracens against Christianitie Sodomie bestialitie with many other villanies out of the rode of humane corruption and as farre from mans nature as Gods law Well the Templars thus shut in prison their crimes were half-proved The sole witnesse against them was one of their own Order a notorious malefactour who at the same time being in prison and to suffer for his own offenses condemned by the Master of their Order sought to prove his own innocency by charging all his own Order to be guiltie And his case standing thus he must either kill or be killed die or put others to death he would be sure to provide water enough to drive the mill and swore most heartily to whatsoever was objected against the Order Besides the Templars being brought upon the rack confessed the accusations to be true wherewith they were charged Hereupon all the Templars through France were most cruelly burned to death at a stake with James the grand Master of their Order Chap. 2. Arguments produced on either side both for the innocencie and guiltinesse of the Templars THere is scarce a harder question in later historie then this Whether the Templars justly or unjustly were condemned to suffer On the one side it is dangerous to affirm they were innocent because condemned by the Pope infallible in matters of such consequence This bugbear affrighteth many and maketh their hands shake when they write hereof If they should say the Templars were burned wrongfully they may be fetched over the coals themselves for charging his Holinesse so deeply yea hereby they bring so much innocent bloud on the Popes head as is enough to drown him Some therefore in this matter know little and dare speak lesse for fear of after-claps Secondly some who suspect that one eye of the Church may be dimme yet hold that both the eyes the Pope and generall Councel together cannot be deceived Now the Councel of Vienne countenanced the exstirpation of the Templars determined the dissolution of their Order and adjudged their lands to be conferred on the Knights-Hospitallers Men ought then to be well advised how they condemn a generall Councel to be accessorie post factum to the murder of so many men For all this those who dare not hollow do whisper on the other side accounting the Templars not malefactours but martyrs First because the witnesse was unsufficient a malefactour against his Judge and secondly they bring tortured men against themselves Yea there want not those that
them in a heap One Peter not the Hermite found out the lance wherewith Christ was pierced to approve the truth thereof against some who questioned him herein on Palm-sunday taking the lance in his hand he walked through a mightie fire without any harm but it seemeth he was not his crafts-master for he died soon after An image of our Lady brought from Jerusalem but set up neare Damascus began by degrees to be clothed with flesh and to put forth breasts of flesh out of which a liquour did constantly flow Which liquour the Templars carried home to their houses and distributed it to the Pilgrimes which came to them that they might report the honour thereof through the whole world A Sultan of Damascus who had but one eye chanced to lose the other and so became stark-blind when coming devoutly to this image though he was a Pagan having faith in God and confidence therein he perfectly was restored to his sight Infinite are the sholes of miracles done by Christs Crosse in Jerusalem insomuch that my Authour blamed the Bishop of Acon who carried the Crosse in that battel wherein it was lost to the Turks for wearing a corselet and therefore saith he he was justly slain because his weak faith relied on means not on the miraculous protection thereof When Conrade Landt-grave of Thuringia was inrolled in the Teutonick Order to go to the Holy warre and received his benediction as the fashion was the Holy Ghost visibly descended upon him in the shape of fire The said Conrade received of God as a boon for his valour in this service the rare facultie That by looking on any man he could tell whether or no he had committed a mortall sinne yea at first sight descrie their secret sinnes But the last miracle of our Lady in Palestine is the Lady of all miracles which was this In the yeare 1291 when the Holy land was finally subdued by the Turks the chamber at Nazareth wherein the Angel Gabriel saluted her with joyfull tidings was wonderfully transported into Sclavonia That countrey being unworthy of her divine presence it was by the Angels carried over into Italie anno 1294. That place also being infested with theeves and pirates the Angels removed it to the little village of Loretto where this Pilgrime-Chappel resteth it self at this day and liketh her entertainment so well it will travel no further But enough for fools meat is unsavourie to the tast of the wise I have transgressed already two instances had been sufficient as Noah preserved but two of all unclean creatures the rest might be lost without losse and safely be drowned in oblivion How-ever we may observe these millions of miracles are reducible to one of these foure ranks 1. Falsely reported never so much as seemingly done Asia the theatre whereon they were acted is at a great distance and the miracles as farre from truth as the place from us And who knoweth not when a lie is once set on foot besides the first founders it meeteth with many benefactours who contribute their charitie thereunto 2. Falsely done insomuch as at this day they are sented amongst the Romanists Who would not laugh to see the picture of a Saint weep Where one devout Catholick lifteth up his eyes ten of their wiser sort wag their heads 3. Truly done but by the strength of nature Suppose one desperately sick a piece of the Crosse is applied to him he recovereth is this a miracle Nothing lesse how many thousands have made an escape after Death in a manner hath arrested them As therefore it is sacriledge to father Gods immediate works on naturall causes so it is superstition to intitle naturall events to be miraculous 4. Many miracles were ascribed to Saints which were done by Satan I know it will non-plus his power to work a true miracle but I take the word at large and indeed vulgar not to say humane eyes are too dimme to discern betwixt things wonderfull and truly miraculous Now Satan the master-juggler needeth no wires or ginnes to work with being all ginnes himself so transcendent is the activitie of a spirit Nay may not God give the Devil leave to go beyond himself it being just with him that those who will not have Truth their king and willingly obey it should have Falshood their tyrant to whom their judgement should be captivated and inslaved Chap. 11. The second grand errour in prosecuting the Holy warre being the Christians notorious breaking their faith with Infidels NExt unto Superstition which was deeply inlayed in the Holy warre we may make the Christians Truce-breaking with the Infidels the second cause of their ill successe Yet never but once did they break promise with the Turks which was as I may say a constant and continued faith-breaking never keeping their word To omit severall straining of the sinews and unjoynting the bones of many a solemn peace we will onely instance where the neck thereof was clearly broken a sunder 1. When Godfrey first won Jerusalem pardon was proclaimed to all the Turks which yeelded themselves yet three dayes after in cold bloud they were all without difference of age or sex put to the sword 2. Almerick the first swore effectually to assist the Saracens in driving the Turks out of Egypt and soon after invaded Egypt and warred upon the Turks against his promise I know something he pretended herein to defend himself but of no validitie and such plausible and curious wittie evasions to avoyd perjurie are but the tying of a most artificiall knot in the halter therewith to strangle ones own conscience 3. There was a peace concluded for some time betwixt King Guy and Saladine which non obstante Reinold of Castile robbed Saladines own mother Whereupon followed the miserable overthrow of the Christians and taking of Jerusalem 4. Our Richard at his departure from Palestine made a firm peace for five yeares with Saladine and it stood yet in force when Henry Duke of Saxonie coming with a great armie of new adventurers invaded the Turkish dominions 5. Frederick the second Emperour made a truce of ten yeares with the Sultan of Babylon and yet in despite thereof Theobald King of Navarre forraged the countrey of Gaza to the just overthrow of him and his armie 6. Reinold Vice-roy of Palestine in the name of Frederick the Emperour and after him our Richard Earl of Cornwall drew up a firm peace with the said Sultan which was instantly disturbed and interrupted by the turbulent Templars 7. Lastly the Venetians in the name of all Christian Princes concluded a five yeares peace with Alphir the Mammaluke Prince of Egypt yet some voluntaries in Ptolemais pillaged and robbed many Saracen merchants about the citie But pardon them this last fault we will promise they shall never do so any more in Palestine hereupon losing all they had left there And how could Safetie it self save this people and blesse this project so blackly blasted
of your friends Good is not good when proceeding from them from whom farre better is expected Your youthfull vertues are so promising that you cannot come off in your riper age with credit without performing what may redound to the advancing of the honour of your family and without building your houses one storie higher in the English Historie Now know next Religion there is nothing accomplisheth a man more then Learning Learning in a Lord is as a diamond in gold And if you fear to hurt your tender hands with thornie School-questions there is no danger in meddling with History which is a velvet-study recreation-work What a pitie is it to see a proper Gentleman to have such a crick in his neck that he cannot look backward yet no better is he who cannot see behind him the actions which long since were performed History maketh a young man to be old without either wrinkles or gray hairs priviledging him with the experience of age without either the infirmities or inconveniences thereof Yea it not onely maketh things past present but inableth one to make a rationall conjecture of things to come For this world affordeth no new accidents but in the same sense wherein we call it a new Moon which is the old one in another shape and yet no other then what hath been formerly Old actions return again furbished over with some new and different circumstances Now amongst all particular histories I may say none is more generall then this of the Holy warre which now I present to your Honours Some will condemn me for an ill husband in lavishing two Noble Patrones on one book whereas one of them might have served to have patronized many volumes But first I did it in the weak expression of my thankfulnesse unto you being deeply indebted to you both and I thought it dishonestie to pay all to one creditour and none to another and therefore conceived it best to share my estate joyntly betwixt you as farre forth as it would extend Secondly considering the weaknesse of this Work now being to walk abroad in the world I thought it must be led by both arms and needed a double supporter And now I am sure this Holy warre which was unhappie heretofore when acted will be happie hereafter now written and related because dedicated to your Honours So resteth Your Honours in all service THO. FULLER Broad-windsor March 6. 1638. To the Reader IN this work I can challenge nothing to my self but the composing of it The materialls were found to my hand which if any Historian will make let him not be commended for wit but shamed for falshood If every-where I have not charged the margin with the Authours names it is either because the storie is authour for it self I mean generally received or to avoyd the often citing of the same place Where I could not go abroad my self there I have taken aire at the window and have cited Authours on others citations yet so that the stream may direct to the fountain If the reader may reap in few houres what cost me more moneths just cause have I to rejoyce and he I hope none to complain Thus may the faults of this book redound to my self the profit to others the glory to God To his worthily deare friend THOMAS FVLLER B. D. upon his excellent work the HOLY WARRE PEace is thy Calling friend thy Title Warre What doth thy Title with thy Calling jarre The Holy warre this makes the wonder cease An holy warre becomes a man of peace Tasso be silent my friend speaks his Storie Hath robb'd thy poeme of its long-liv'd glorie So rich his vein his lines of so high state Thou canst not feigne so well as he relate Godfrey first entred on this warre to free His Saviours Tombe from Turks captivitie And too-too meanly of himself he deems If thus he his Redeemer not redeems A glorious end nor did he fear to erre In losing life to gain Christs Sepulchre But I dare say were Godfrey now alive Godfrey who by thy penne must needs survive He would again act o're his noble toil Doing such deeds as should the former foil If for no other reason yet to be Deliver'd unto time and fame by thee Nor would he fear in such exploits to bleed Then to regain a Tombe now not to need ROBERT GOMERSALL Vicar of Thorncombe in Devon OF this our Authours book I 'le say but this For that is praise ample enough 'T is his Nor all the Muses nor Apollo's layes Can sing his worth be his own lines his bayes ROBERT TYRLING On Mr FULLERS Historie of the HOLY WARRE THen Christians rest secure ye need not band Henceforth in Holy leagues for th' Holy land To conquer and recover 't from the Turk 'T is done already FVLLERS learned work And penne more honour to the cause doth bring Then did Great Godfrey or our Lion-King Ierusalem with darknesse long beset Captiv'd to time more then to Mahomet Inthrall'd to silence and oblivion A bondage worse then that of Babylon Is now redeem'd Lo by this sacred Story How she revives into her ancient glory Look how her bury'd pinnacles 'gin to peep Out of their venerable dust and sleep See how the Temple and the Sepulchre Wak'd with the trumpet of this Holy warre From their own grave and ruines do resent A resurrection by this monument Stay Pilgrimes stay wander not hence so farre Set up your rest here in this Holy warre Here you may visit and adore the Shrine For which so many Saints in arms combine Behold the zealous squadrons how they stand Arm'd with devotion for the Holy land They 'l take you if not it while ye admire Their zeal your love will kindle at this fire Thus learned FVLLER a full conquest makes Triumphs o're time and mens affections takes Captive both it and them his historie Me thinks is not a Warre but Victorie Where every line does crown such strength it bears The Authour Laureate and a trophey rears JAMES DUPORT B. D. T. C. To his worthy and learned friend Mr THO. FULLER upon his excellently composed Historie of the HOLY WARRE CAptain of Arts in this thy Holy warre My Muse desires to be thy Trumpeter In thy just praise to spend a blast or two For this is all that she poore thing can do Peter the Hermite like an angry owl Would needs go fight all armed in his cowl What had the Holy man nought else to do But thus to lose his bloud and credit too Seeking to winne Christs Sepulchre God wot He found his own This was the ground he got Except he got more ground when he one day Besieging Antioch fiercely ran away Much wiser was the Pope At home he stay'd And made the world beleeve he wept and pray'd Mean while behold the fruit of feigned tears He sets the world together by the cares His head serves him whil'st others use their hands Whil'st Princes lose their lives he gets their lands To winne
on the day called the Exaltation of the Crosse. This if it be true and not antedated by a Prolepsis then Heraclius gave the lustre not first originall to this festivall and scoured bright an old holy-day with a new solemnitie Chap. 6. Of the deluge of the Saracens in Syria the causes of the farre spreading of Mahometanisme BUt the sinnes of the Eastern countreys and chiefly their damnable heresies hastened Gods judgements upon them In these Western parts heresies like an angle caught single persons which in Asia like a drag-net took whole provinces The stayed and settled wits of Europe were not easily removed out of the old rode and tract of religion whiles the active and nimble heads of the East were more desirous of novelties more cunning to invent distinctions to cozen themselves with more fluent in language to expresse their conceits as alwayes errours grow the fastest in hot brains Hence it came to passe that Melchites Maronites Nestorians Eutycheans Jacobites overspread these parts maintaining their pestilent tenents with all obstinacy which is that dead flesh which maketh the green wound of an errour fester by degrees into the old sore of an heresie Then was it just with God to suffer them who would not be convinced with Christian Councels to be subdued by the Pagans sword For though Chosroes had not long a settled government in Palestine but as a land-floud came and went away quickly yet the Saracens who shortly followed as standing water drowned all for a long continuance These under Haumar Prince of Arabia took Jerusalem conquered Syria and propagated the doctrine of Mahomet round about It may justly seem admirable how that senselesse religion should gain so much ground on Christianitie especially having neither reall substance in her doctrine nor winning behaviour in her ceremonies to allure professours For what is it but the scumme of Judaisme and Paganisme sod together and here and there strewed over with a spice of Christianitie As Mahomets tombe so many sentences in his Alcoran seem to hang by some secret loadstone which draweth together their gaping independences with a mysticall coherence or otherwise they are flat non-sense Yet this wonder of the spreading of this leprosie is lessened if we consider that besides the generall causes of the growing of all errours namely the gangrene-like nature of evil and the justice of God to deliver them over to beleeve lies who will not obey the truth Mahometanisme hath raised it self to this height by some peculiar advantages First by permitting much carnall libertie to the professours as having many wives and no wonder if they get fish enough that use that bait Secondly by promising a paradise of sensuall pleasure hereafter wherewith flesh and bloud is more affected as falling under her experience then with hope of any spirituall delights Thirdly by prohibiting of disputes and suppressing of all learning and thus Mahomet made his shop dark on purpose that he might vent any wares Lastly this religion had never made her own passage so fast and so farre if the sword had not cut the way before her as commonly the conquered follow for the most part the religion of the conquerours By this means that cursed doctrine hath so improved it self that it may outvie with professours the Church of Rome which boasteth so much of her latitude and extent though from thence to inferre that her faith is the best is falsely to conclude the finenesse of the cloth from the largenesse of the measure Now the condition of the Christians under these Saracens was as uncertain as April-weather Sometimes they enjoyed the libertie and publick exercise of their religion and to give the Mahometans their due they are generally good-fellows in this point and Christians amongst them may keep their consciences free if their tongues be fettered not to oppose the doctrine of Mahomet Sometimes they were under fierce and cruel affliction their Bishops and Ministers forced to flie from their places were kept very poore as alwayes the Clergie under persecution count the God gives them living enough when he gives them their lives Tyrius mentioneth one memorable massacre which they narrowly escaped For a spitefull and malicious Saracen had secretly defiled one of their Mosques in Jerusalem which deed being imputed to the poore Christians they were all presently dragged to the place of execution to be put to death when behold a young man a zealous Christian by an officious lie the most lawfull of all unlawfull things confessed himself alone to be guilty of the fact and so being killed by exquisite torments saved the lives of many innocents In memorie of which act the Christians in Jerusalem kept a constant solemnity and once a yeare triumphantly marched with palms in their hands into the citie to perpetuate the remembrance of this deliverance The longest vacation from persecution they enjoyed was when Charles was Emperour of the West surnamed the Great a surname which he did not steal but justly win and deserve not like Pompey who got the title of the Great though as Cesar observed he gained his chief fame for martiall feats by conquering the weak and cowardly Bithynians But this Charles loved of his friends feared of his foes subdued the strong and lusty Lombards yet did he not Christianitie more good by his warre then by his peace concluded with Aaron Emperour of the Saracens under whom the Christians in Palestine obtained many priviledges and much prosperitie though this weather was too fair to last long Chap. 7. The originall and increase of the Turks their conquering the Saracens and taking of Ierusalem BUt the Christians in Palestine afterward changed their masters though not their condition being subdued by the Turks It will be worth our and the Readers pains to enquire into the originall of this nation especially because as the river Nilus they are famous and well known for their overflowing stream though hidden and obscure for their fountain Whence they first came authours onely do agree in disagreeing but most probable it is out Scythia Pomponius Mela reckoning them among the inhabitants of that countrey nigh the river Tanais This Scythia since called Tartaria was virgin-countrey never forced by forrein arms for the Monarchs who counted themselves conquerours of the world by a large Synecdoche taking a sixth part for the whole never subdued it Alexander sent some troups to assault Naura and Gabaza two out-counties thereof as an earnest that the rest of his army should follow but hearing how these were wellcomed willingly lost his earnest and disposed of his army otherwise The Romane eagles flew not thus farre and though heard of were never seen here The reasons that made the Turks leave their native soyl was the barrennesse thereof and therefore the Poet maketh famine which sometimes travelleth abroad into other countreys here to have her constant habitation And yet no doubt so vast a countrey would maintain her people if the wildnesse thereof were
tamed with husbandry But the people scorning that their ground should be better civilized then themselves never manure it and had rather provide their bread with the sword then with the plough Other partiall causes might share in these Turks removall but the cause of causes was the justice of God to suffer this unregarded people to grow into the terrour of the world for the punishment of Christians and we may justly hope that when the correction is done the rod shall be burnt especially finding already their force to abate being at this day stopt with the half-kingdome of Hungarie who formerly could not be stayed by the whole Empire of Greece The first step these Turks took out of their own countrey was into Turcomania a northern part of Armenia conquered and so called by them where they lived like the Scythian Nomades alwayes wandring yet alwayes in their way none claiming a propriety in the land as his all defending the common interest therein as theirs The next step was into Persia whither they were called to assist Mahomet the Saracen Sultan against his enemies where taking notice of their own strength the Saracens cowardize and the pleasure of Persia they under Tangrolipix their first king overcame that large dominion Then did the Turks take upon them the Mahometan religion and having conquered the Saracens by their valour were themselves subdued by the Saracen superstition An accident more memorable because not easily to be paralleled excepting king Amaziah who having taken Edom was took with the idolatry thereof because conquerours commonly bring their religion into the places they subdue and not take it thence Their third large stride was into Babylon the Caliph whereof they overcame And shortly after under Cutlu-muses their second king they wan Mesopotamia the greatest part of Syria and the citie of Jerusalem Mean time whilest these vultures Turks and Saracens pecked out each others eyes the Christians if they had husbanded this occasion might much have advantaged themselves and might have recovered their health by these contrary poysons expelling each other But the Grecian Emperours given over to pleasure and covetousnesse regarded not their own good till at last the Turks devoured them as God willing shall be shewed hereafter As for those Christians who lived in Palestine under the Turks they had no lease of their safetie but were tenants at will for their lives and goods to these tyrants though it rained not down-right yet the storm of persecution hung over their heads their minds were ever in torture being on the rack of continuall fear and suspense and Simon himself was no better then an honourable slave though Patriarch of Jerusalem as appeareth by his letters of complaint Chap. 8. The character of Peter the Hermite his soliciting the Holy warre the Councel at Clermont and the successe thereof IT happened there came a pilgrime to Jerusalem called Peter an Hermite born at Amiens in France one of a contemptible person His silly looks carried in them a despair of any worth and yet as commonly the richest mines lie under the basest and barrenest surface of ground he had a quick apprehension eloquent tongue and what got him the greatest repute was accounted very religious With him Simon the Patriarch of Jerusalem often treated concerning the present miseries of the Christians under the Turks what hope of amendment and how the matter might secretly be contrived that the Princes in Europe might assist and relieve them Peter moved with the Patriarchs perswasions the equitie and honourablenesse of the cause and chiefly with a vision as they say from heaven wherein our Saviour himself appointed him his Legate with a commission to negotiate the Christian cause took the whole businesse upon him and travelled to Rome to consult with Pope Urbane the second about the advancing of so pious a designe Now though many cry up this Hermite to have been so pretious a piece of holinesse yet some suspect him to be little better then a counterfeit and a cloke-father for a plot of the Popes begetting because the Pope alone was the gainer by this great adventure and all other Princes of Europe if they cast up their audit shall find themselves losers This with some is a presumption that this cunning merchant first secretly imployed this Hermite to be his factour and to go to Jerusalem to set on foot so beneficiall a trade for the Romish Church As for the apparition of our Saviour one may wonder that the world should see most visions when it was most blind and that that age most barren in learning should be most fruitfull in revelations And surely had Peter been truly inspired by God and moved by his Spirit to begin this warre he would not have apostated from his purpose so mortified a man would not have feared death in a good cause as he did afterwards and basely ran away at Antioch For when the siege grew hot his devotion grew cold he found a difference betwixt a voluntary fast in his cell and a necessary and undispensable famine in a camp so that being well hunger-pincht this cunning companion who was the trumpet to sound a march to others secretly sounded a retreat to himself ran away from the rest of the Christians and was shamefully brought back again for a fugitive But to return to Pope Urbane who was zealous in the cause to further it and called a Councel at Clermont in France where met many Princes and Prelates to whom he made a long oration Authours differ in the mould but they agree in the metall that it was to this effect First he bemoned the miseries of the Christians in Asia and the vastation of those holy places Jerusalem which was once the joy of the whole earth was now become the grief of all good men the Chapell of Christs conception at Nazareth birth at Bethlehem buriall on mount Calvarie ascension on mount Olivet once the fountains of piety were now become the sinks of all profanenesse Next he encouraged the Princes in the Councel to take arms against those infidels and to break their bonds in sunder and to cast their cords farre from them and as it is written to cast out the handmaid and her children Otherwise if they would not help to quench their neighbours houses they must expect the speedy burning of their own and that these barbarous nations would quickly overrun all Europe Now to set an edge on their courage he promised to all that went this voyage a full remission of their sinnes penance here and the enjoying heaven hereafter Lastly thus concluded Gird your swords to your thighs O ye men of might It is our parts to pray yours to fight ours with Moses to hold up unwearied hands to God yours to stretch forth the sword against these children of Amalek Amen It is above belief with what cheerfulnesse this motion meeting with an active
and religious world was generally entertained so that the whole assembly cried out God willeth it A speech which was afterwards used as a fortunate watch-word in their most dangerous designes Then took many of them a crosse of red cloth on their right shoulder as a badge of their devotion And to gain the favourable assistance of the Virgin Mary to make this warre the more happy her Office was instituted containing certain prayers which at Canonicall houres were to be made unto her If fame which hath told many a lie of others be not therein belyed her self the things concluded in this Councel were the same night reported at impossible distance in the utmost parts of Christendome What spirituall intelligencers there should be or what echoes in the hollow arch of this world should so quickly resound news from the one side thereof to the other belongeth not to us to dispute Yet we find the overthrow of Perseus brought out of Macedon to Rome in foure dayes fame mounted no doubt on some Pegasus in Domitians time brought a report 2500 miles in one day Chap. 9. Arguments for the lawfulnesse of the Holy warre IT is stiffely canvased betwixt learned men whether this warre was lawfull or not The reasons for the affirmative are fetcht either from piety or policie And of the former sort are these 1. All the earth is Gods land let out to tenants but Judea was properly his demesnes which he kept long in his own hands for himself and his children Now though the infidels had since violently usurped it yet no prescription of time could prejudice the title of the King of Heaven but that now the Christians might be Gods champions to recover his interest 2. Religion bindeth men to relieve their brethren in distresse especially when they implore their help as now the Christians in Syria did whose intreaties in this case sounded commands in the eares of such as were piously disposed 3. The Turks by their blasphemies and reproches against God and our Saviour had disinherited and devested themselves of all their right to their lands and the Christians as the next undoubted heirs might seize on the forfeiture 4. This warre would advance and increase the patrimony of Religion by propagating the Gospel and converting of infidels If any object that Religion is not to be beaten into men with the dint of sword yet it may be lawfull to open the way by force for instruction catechising and such other gentle means to follow after 5. The beholding of those sacred places in Palestine would much heighten the adventurers devotion and make the most frozen heart to melt into pious meditations 6. This enterprise was furthered by the perswasions of sundry godly men S. Bernard and others Now though a lying spirit may delude the prophets of Achab yet none will be so uncharitable as to think God would suffer his own Michaiah to be deceived 7. God set his hand to this warre and approved it by many miracles which he wrought in this expedition and which are so confidently and generally reported by credit-worthy writers that he himself is a miracle that will not beleeve them Neither want there arguments derived from policie 1. Palestine was a parcell of the Romane Empire though since won by the Saracens and though the Emperour of Constantinople could not recover his right yet did he alwayes continue his claim and now as appeared by his letters read in the Placentine Councel Alexius requested these Princes of the West to assist him in the recovery thereof 2. A preventive warre grounded on a just fear of an invasion is lawfull But such was this Holy warre And because most stresse is laid on this argument as the main supporter of the cause we will examine and prove the parts thereof Though umbrages and light jealousies created by cowardly fansies be too narrow to build a fair quarrel on yet the lawfulnesse of a preventive warre founded on just fear is warranted by reason and the practice of all wise nations In such a case it is folly to do as countrey-fellows in a fense-school never ward a blow till it be past but it is best to be before-hand with the enemie lest the medicine come too late for the maladie In such dangers to play an after-game is rather a shift then a policie especially seeing warre is a tragedy which alwayes destroyeth the stage whereon it is acted it is the most advised way not to wait for the enemie but to seek him out in his own countrey Now that the Mahometans under whom the Turks and Saracens are comprehended differing in nation agreeing in religion and spite against Christians were now justly to be feared cannot be denied So vast was the appetite of their sword that it had alreadie devoured Asia and now reserved Grecia for the second course The Bosporus was too narrow a ditch and the Empire of Grecia too low an hedge to fense the Pagans out of West-Christendome yea the Saracens had lately wasted Italy pillaged and burned many churches neare Rome it self conquered Spain inroded Aquitain and possessed some islands in the mid-land-sea The cafe therefore standing thus this Holy warre was both lawfull and necessarie which like unto a sharp pike in the bosse of a buckler though it had a mixture of offending yet it was chiefly of a defensive nature to which all preventive warres are justly reduced Lastly this warre would be the sewer of Christendome and drain all discords out of it For active men like mill-stones in motion if they have no other grist to grind will set fire one on another Europe at this time surfeted with people and many of them were of stirring natures who counted themselves undone when they were out of doing and therefore they employed themselves in mutuall jarres and contentions But now this Holy warre would make up all breaches and unite all their forces against the common foe of Christianitie Chap 10. Reasons against the Holy warre YEt all these reasons prevail not so forcibly but that many are of the contrary opinion and count this warre both needlesse and unlawfull induced thereunto with these or the like arguments 1. When the Jews were no longer Gods people Judea was no longer Gods land by any peculiar appropriation but on the other side God stamped on that countrey an indelible character of desolation and so scorched it with his anger that it will never change colour though Christians should wash it with their bloud It is labour in vain therefore for any to endeavour to reestablish a flourishing kingdome in a blasted countrey and let none ever look to reap any harvest who sow that land which God will have to lie fallow 2. Grant the Turks were no better then dogs yet were they to be let alone in their own kennel They and the Saracens their predecessours had now enjoyed Palestine foure hundred and sixty yeares Prescription long enough to sodder the most crackt
little advantage the Turks proceedings that the Grecian Empire fell to Eudoxia a woman and her children in minoritie too weak pilots to steer so great a State in the tempest of warre And though after other changes it fell to Alexius one whose personall abilities were not to be excepted against yet he being totally busied at home to maintain his title against home-bred foes had no leisure to make any effectuall resistance against forrein enemies Nor did the death of Cutlen-Muses their king any whit prejudice the Turkish proceedings for Solyman his sonne succeeded him a Prince no lesse famous for his clemencie then his conquests as victory to generous minds is onely an inducement to moderation In this case under the tyrannie of the Turks stood Asia the lesse and though there were many Christians in every citie yet these being disarmed had no other weapons then those of the Primitive Church tears and prayers But now these Western Pilgrimes arriving there besiege the citie of Nice with an armie as glorious as ever the sunne beheld This citie was equally beholden to nature and art for her strength and was formerly famous for the first generall Councel called there by Constantine against Arius wherein were assembled 318 Bishops The Pilgrimes had a Lombard for their engineer the neighbouring wood afforded them materials whereof they made many warlike instruments and hoped speedily to conquer the citie But breathed deer are not so quickly caught The Turks within being experienced souldiers defeated their enterprises And here one might have seen art promising her self the victory and suddenly meeting with counter-art which mastered her The lake Ascanius whereon the citie stood having an out-let into the sea much advantaged the besieged whereby they fetcht victualls from the countrey till at last that passage was locked up by the Grecian fleet Soon after the citie was surrendred on composition that the inhabitants lives and goods should be untouched whereat the souldiers who hitherto hoped for the spoyl now seeing themselves spoyled of their hope shewed no small discontentment Solymans wife and young children were taken prisoners and the citie according to the agreement was delivered to Tatinus the Grecian Admirall in behalf of Alexius his master From hence the Christians set forward to the vale of Dogorgan when behold Solyman with all his might fell upon them and there followed a cruel battel fought with much courage and varietie of successe A cloud of arrows darkened the skie which was quickly dissolved into a showre a bloud The Christians had many disadvantages For their enemies were three to one and valour it self may be pressed to death under the weight of multitude The season was unseasonable the scorching of the sunne much annoying these northern people whilest the Turks had bodies of proof against the heat Besides the Christians horses affrighted with the barbarous sounds of the Turkish drummes were altogether unserviceable However they bravely maintained their fight by the speciall valour and wisdome of their leaders amongst whom Boemund and Hugh brother to the King of France deserved high commendations till at last finding themselves overmatched they began to guard their heads with their heels and fairly ran away When in came Robert the Normane in the very opportunity of opportunitie Much he encouraged them with his words more with his valour slaying three principall Turks with his own hands This sight so inspirited the Christians that coming in on fresh they obtained a most glorious victorie Two thousand on their side were slain whereof William the brother of Tancred Godfrey de Mont and Robert of Paris were of speciall note But farre greater was the slaughter of their enemies especially after that Godfrey of Bouillon who had been absent all the battel came in with his army yet they wanted a hammer to drive the victory home to the head having no horses to make the pursuit Solyman flying away burned all as he went and to prop up his credit gave it out that he had gotten the day pleasing himself to be a conquerour in report This great battel was fought July the first though some make it many dayes after Yea so great is the varietie of Historians in their dates that every one may seem to have a severall clock of time which they set faster or slower at their own pleasure but as long as they agree in the main we need not be much moved with their petty dissensions Chap. 17. The siege and taking of Antiochia Corboran overcome in fight of Christs spear and of holy fraud FRom hence with invincible industry and patience they bored a passage through valleys up mountains over rivers taking as they went the famous cities Iconium Heraclea Tarsus and conquering all the countrey of Cilicia This good successe much puffed them up God therefore to cure them of the pleurisie of pride did let them bloud with the long and costly siege of Antiochia This citie watered by the river Orontes and called Reblath of the Hebrews was built by Seleucus Nicanor and enlarged by Antiochus Compassed it was with a double wall one of square stone the other of brick strengthened with 460 towres and had a castle on the East rather to be admired then assaulted Here the professours of our faith were first named Christians and here S. Peter first sat Bishop whose fair church was a Patriarchall seat for many hundred yeares after Before this city the Pilgrimes army incamped and strongly besieged it but the Turks within manfully defending themselves under Auxianus their captain frustrated their hopes of taking it by force The siege grew long and victuals short in the Christians camp and now Peter the Hermite being brought to the touch-stone discovered what base metall he was of ran away with some other of good note and were fetcht back again and bound with a new oath to prosecute the warre At last one within the citie though Authours agree neither of his name nor religion some making him a Turk others a Christian some calling him Pyrrhus some Hemirpherrus others Emipher in the dead of the night betrayed the citie to Boemund The Christians issuing in and exasperated with the length of the siege so remembred what they had suffered that they forgot what they had to do killing promiscuously Christian citizens with Turks Thus passions like heavie bodies down steep hills once in motion move themselves and know no ground but the bottom Antiochia thus taken was offered to Alexius the Emperour but he refused it suspecting some deceit in the tender as bad men measure other mens minds by the crooked rule of their own Hereupon it was bestowed on Boemund though this place dearly purchased was not long quietly possessed For Corboran the Turkish Generall came with a vast armie of Persian forces and besieged the Christians in the citie so that they were brought into a great strait betwixt death and death hunger within and their foes without Many
description of Palestine let none conceive that God forgot the Levites in division of the land because they had no entire countrey allotted unto them Their portion was as large as any though paid in severall summes They had 48 cities with their suburbs tithes first-fruits free-offerings being better provided for then many English ministers who may preach of hospitalitie to their people but cannot go to the cost to practice their own doctrine A table shewing the varietie of places names in Palestine  In the old Testament At Christs time In S. Hieromes time At this day 1 Azzah Gaza Constantia Gazra 2 Japho Joppa  Jaffa 3 Ramah Arimathea  Ramma 4 Shechem Sychar Neapolis Pelosa 5  Lydda Diospolis  6 Capharsalama Antipatris  Assur 7 Zarephath Sarepta  Saphet 8  Emmaus Nicopolis  9 Bethsan  Scythopolis  10 Tzor Tyrus  Sur. 11 Laish    Dan. Cesarea-Philippi Paneas Belina Leshem    12 Jerusalem Hierosolyma Aelia Cuds 13 Samaria Samaria Sebaste  14 Cinnereth Tiberias  Saffer 15 Accho Ptolemais  Acre 16 Gath.  Dio-Cesarea Ybilin 17 Dammesek Damascus  Sham. 18 Arnon  Areopolis Petra 19 Rabbah Philadelphia   20 Waters of Merom Semochonite lake  Houle Chap. 24. The siege and taking of Ierusalem BY this time cold weather the best besome to sweep the chambers of the aire had well cleared the Christians camp from infection and now their devotion moved the swifter being come neare to the centre thereof the citie of Jerusalem Forward they set and take the citie of Marrha and imploy themselves in securing the countrey about them that so they might clear the way as they went Neither did the discords betwixt Reimund and Boemund much delay their proceedings being in some measure seasonably compounded as was also the sea-battel betwixt the Pisans and Venetians For the Venetians seeing on the Pisans the cognisance of the Crosse the uncounterfeited pasport that they wear for the Holy warre suffered them safely to go on though otherwise they were their deadly enemies yea and set five thousand of them at libertie whom they had taken captive The Pilgrimes kept their Easter at Tripoli Whitsuntide by Cesarea-Stratonis taking many places in their passage and at last came to Jerusalem Discovering the citie afarre off it was a prettie sight to behold the harmonie in the difference of expressing their joy how they clothed the same passion with diverse gestures some prostrate some kneeling some weeping all had much ado to manage so great a gladnesse Then began they the siege of the citie on the north being scarce assaultable on any other side by reason of steep and broken rocks and continued it with great valour On the fourth day after they had taken it but for want of scaling-ladders But a farre greater want was the defect of water the springs being either stopped up or poysoned by the Turks so that they fetcht water five miles off As for the brook Cedron it was dried up as having no subsistence of it self but merely depending on the benevolence of winter-waters which mount Olivet bestoweth upon it Admirall Coligni was wont to say He that will well paint the beast Warre must first begin to shape the belly meaning that a good Generall must first provide victuals for an armie Yea let him remember the bladder in the beasts belly as well as the guts and take order for moisture more especially then for meat it self thirst in northern bodies being more unsupportable then famine Quickly will their courage be cooled who have no moisture to cool their hearts As for the Christians want of ladders that was quickly supplied for the Genoans arriving with a fleet in Palestine brought most curious engineers who framed a wooden towre and all other artificiall instruments For we must not think that the world was at a losse for warre-tools before the brood of guns was hatched It had the battering ramme first found out by Epeus at the taking of Troy the balista to discharge great stones invented by the Phenicians the catapulta being a sling of mighty strength whereof the Syrians were authours and perchance King Uzziah first made it for we find him very dextrous and happy in devising such things And although these bear-whelps were but rude and unshaped at the first yet art did lick them afterwards and they got more teeth and sharper nails by degrees so that every age set them forth in a new edition corrected and amended But these and many more voluminous engines for the ramme alone had an hundred men to manage it are now virtually epitomized in the cannon And though some may say that the finding of gunnes hath been the losing of many mens lives yet it will appear that battels now are fought with more expedition and victory standeth not so long a neuter before she expresse her self on one side or other But these gunnes have shot my discourse from the siege of Jerusalem To return thither again By this time in the space of a moneth the Genoans had finished their engines which they built seven miles off for nearer there grew no stick of bignesse I will not say that since our Saviour was hanged on a tree the land about that city hath been cursed with a barrennes of wood And now for a preparative that their courage might work the better they began with a fast and a solemn procession about mount Olivet Next day they gave a fierce assault yea women played the men and fought most valiantly in armour But they within being fourtie thousand strong well victualled and appointed made stout resistance till the night accounted but a foe for her friendship umpired betwixt them and abruptly put an end to their fight in the midst of their courage When the first light brought news of a morning they on afresh the rather because they had intercepted a letter tied to the legs of a dove it being the fashion of that countrey both to write and send their letters with the wings of a fowl wherein the Persian Emperour promised present succours to the besieged The Turks cased the outside of their walls with bags of chaff straw and such like pliable matter which conquered the engines of the Christians by yeelding unto them As for one sturdie engine whose force would not be tamed they brought two old witches on the walls to inchant it but the spirit thereof was too strong for their spells so that both of them were miserably slain in the place The day following Duke Godfrey fired much combustible matter the smoke whereof the light cause of an heavie effect driven with the wind blinded the Turks eyes and under the protection thereof the Christians entred the citie Godfrey himself first footing the walls and then his brother
Pilgrimes coming to the Sepulchre and they vowed Poverty Chastity and Obedience Reimundus de Podio their second master made some additionalls to their profession as They must receive the sacrament thrice a yeare heare Masse once a day if possible They were to be no merchants no usurers to fight no private duells to stand neuters and to take no side if the Princes in Christendome should fall out But it is given to most religious orders to be clear in the spring and mirie in the stream These Hospitallers afterwards getting wealth unlaced themselves from the strictnesse of their first Institution and grew loose into all licentiousnesse What was their obedience to their master but rebellion against the Patriarch their first patrone as shall be shewed hereafter What was their poverty but a couzenage of the world whilest their order sued in formâ pauperis and yet had nineteen thousand mannours in Christendome belonging unto them Neither will it be scandalum magnatum to their lordships to say what S. Bernard speaketh of their chastity how they lived inter scorta epulas betwixt bawds and banquets And no wonder if their forced virginity was the mother of much uncleannesse For commonly those who vow not to go the high-way of Gods ordinance do haunt base and unwarrantable by-paths I will not forestall the history to shew how these Hospitallers were afterwards Knights of Rhodes and at this day of Malta but will conclude with the ceremonies used at their creation because much materiall stuff no doubt may be picked out of their formalities There is delivered them 1. a sword in token that they must be valiant 2. with a crosse-hilt their valour must defend religion 3. With this sword they are struck three times over the shoulders to teach them patiently to suffer for Christ 4. They must wipe the sword their life must be undefiled 5. Gilt spurres are put on them because they are to scorn wealth at their heels 6. And then they take a taper in their hands for they are to lighten others by their exemplary lives 7. and so go to heare Masse where we leave them At the same time Knights of the Sepulchre were also ordained which for their originall and profession are like to these Knights-hospitallers The order continueth to this day The Padre Guardian of Jerusalem maketh them of such as have seen the Sepulchre They should be Gentlemen by birth but the Padre carrieth a Chancerie in his bosome to mitigate the rigour of this Common law and will admit of him that bringeth fat enough though no bloud as of late he made an Apothecary of Aleppo of that honour So that there the sword of Knighthood is denied to none who bring a good sheath with them and have a purse to pay soundly for it Chap. 5. The scuffling betwixt the King and Patriarch about the city of Ierusalem the issue thereof NOt long after there was started a controversie of great consequence betwixt the King and Patriarch the Patriarch claiming the cities of Jerusalem and Joppa with the appertenances the King refusing to surrender them The Patriarch pleaded That these places anciently belonged to his predecessours He set before the King the hainousnesse of sacriledge how great a sinne it was when Princes who should be nursing-fathers and suckle the Church shall suck from it and shewed how the Common-wealth may grow fat but never healthfull by feeding on the Churches goods On the other side the King alledged That the Christian Princes had now purchased Jerusalem with their bloud and bestowed it on him that the Patriarchs overgrown title was drowned in this late conquest from which as from a new foundation all must build their claims who challenge any right to any part in the city Secondly he pleaded it was unreasonable that the King of Jerusalem should have nothing in Jerusalem as at this day the Romane Emperour is a very ciphre without power or profit in Rome and should live rather as a sojourner then a Prince in his royall citie confined to an airy title whilest the Patriarch should have all the command To this the Patriarch answered That the Christians new conquest could not cancell his ancient right which was enjoyed even under the Saracens That this voyage was principally undertaken for advancing the Church and not to restore her onely to her liberty and withhold from her her lands so that in this respect she should find better usage from her foes then from her children If we mistake not the chief pinch of the cause lieth on the Patriarchs proof that the lands he demanded formerly belonged to his predecessours and we find him to fail in the main issue of the matter True it was that for the last thirty yeares the Patriarchs on condition they should repair and fortifie the walls of Jerusalem were possessed of a fourth part of the city even by grant from Bomensor the Emperour of the Saracens in the yeare of our Lord 1063. But that ever he had the whole citie either by this or by any previous grant it appeareth not in Tyrius who saith moreover We wonder for what reason the lord Patriarch should raise this controversie against Duke Godfrey Let me adde that this our Authour is above exception for being both a politick states-man and pious prelate no doubt his penne strikes the true and even stroke betwixt King and Patriarch Besides he might well see the truth of this matter writing in a well-proportioned distance of time from it Those who live too neare the stories they write oftentimes willingly mistake through partiality and those who live too farre off are mistaken by uncertainties the footsteps of truth being almost worn out with time But to return to Godfrey who though unwilling at first yet afterwards not onely on Candlemasse-day restored to the Patriarch the fourth part of the citie but also on the Easter following gave him all Jerusalem Joppa and whatsoever he demanded conditionally that the King should hold it of the Patriarch till such time as he could conquer Babylon or some other royall citie fit for him to keep his court in If in the mean time Godfrey died without issue the Patriarch was to have it presently delivered unto him We will be more charitable then those that say that the Patriarch herein did bewitch and be mad Godfrey to make this large donation to him by torturing his conscience at the confession of his sinnes Onely we may question the discretion of this Prince in giving a gift of so large a size for Charities eyes must be open as well as her hands though she giveth away her branches not to part with the root And let the reader observe that Godfrey at the time of this his bountifull grant lay on his death-bed sick of that irrecoverable disease which ended him How easily may importunity stamp any impression on those whom desperate sicknesse hath softened And if the sturdiest man nigh death may be
imployment never played at chesse or dice never hawked nor hunted beheld no stage-playes arming themselves with faith within with steel without aiming more at strength then state to be feared not admired to strike terrour with their valour not stirre covetousnesse with their wealth in the heart of their enemies Other sweet praises of them let him who pleaseth fetch from the mouth of this mellifluous Doctour Indeed at first they were very poore in token whereof they gave for their Seal Two men riding on one horse And hence it was that if the Turks took any of them prisoners their constant ransome was a Sword and a Belt it being conceived that their poore state could stretch to no higher price But after their order was confirmed by Pope Honorius by the intreatie of Stephen the Patriarch of Jerusalem who appointed them to wear a White garment to which Eugenius the third added a Red crosse on their breast they grew wonderfully rich by the bounty of severall Patrones Yea the King and Patriarch of Jerusalem dandled this infant-order so long in their laps till it brake their knees it grew so heavy at last and these ungratefull Templars did pluck out the feathers of those wings which hatched and brooded them From Alms-men they turned Lords and though very valiant at first for they were sworn rather to die then to flie afterwards lazinesse withered their arms and swelled their bellies They laughed at the rules of their first Institution as at the swaddling-clothes of their infancie neglecting the Patriarch and counting themselves too old to be whipped with the rod of his discipline till partly their vitiousnesse and partly their wealth caused their finall extirpation as God willing shall be shewed hereafter At the same time began the Teutonick order consisting onely of Dutch-men well descended living at Jerusalem in an house which one of that nation bequeathed to his countreymen that came thither on pilgrimage In the yeare 1190 their order was honoured with a great Master whereof the first was Henry a-Walpot and they had an habit assigned them to wear Black crosses on White robes They were to fight in the defense of Christianity against Pagans But we shall meet with them more largely in the following story Chap. 17. The Christians variety of successe Tyre taken by the assistance of the Venetians IT is worth the Readers marking how this Kings reigne was checquered with variety of fortune For first Roger Prince of Antioch or rather guardian in the minoritie of young Boemund went forth with greater courage then discretion whereunto his successe was answerable being conquered and killed by the Turks But Baldwine on the 14 of August following forced the Turks to a restitution of their victorie and with a small army gave them a great overthrow in spite of Gazi their boasting Generall To qualifie the Christians joy for this good successe Joceline unadvisedly fighting with Balak a petty King of the Turks was conquered and taken prisoner and King Baldwine coming to deliver him was also taken himself for which he might thank his own rashnesse For it had been his best work to have done nothing for a while till the Venetian succours which were not farre off had come to him and not presently to adventure all to the hazard of a battel Yet the Christians hands were not bound in the Kings captivity For Eustace Grenier chosen Vice-roy whilest the King was in durance stoutly defended the countrey and Count Joceline which had escaped out of prison fighting again with Balak at Hircapolis routed his army and killed him with his own hands But the main piece of service was the taking of Tyre which was done under the conduct of Guarimund the Patriarch of Jerusalem but chiefly by the help of the Venetian navy which Michael their Duke brought who for their pains were to have a third part of the city to themselves Tyre had in it store of men and munition but famine increasing against whose arrows there is no armour of proof it was yeelded on honourable terms And though perhaps hunger shortly would have made the Turks digest courser conditions yet the Christians were loth to anger their enemies valour into desperatenesse Next yeare the King returned home having been eighteen moneths a prisoner being to pay for his ransome an hundred thousand Michaelets and for security he left his daughter in pawn But he payed the Turks with their own money or which was as good coin with the money of the Saracens vanquishing Barsequen their Captain at Antiochia and not long after he conquered Doldequin another great Commander of them at Damascus To correct the ranknesse of the Christians pride for this good successe Damascus was afterward by them unfortunately besieged Heaven discharged against them thunder-ordinance arrows of lightning small-shot of hail whereby they being miserably wasted were forced to depart And this affliction was increased when Boemund the young Prince of Antioch one of great hope and much lamented was defeated and slain Authours impute these mishaps to the Christians pride and relying on their own strength which never is more untrusty then when most trusted True it was God often gave them great victories when they defended themselves in great straits Hereupon they turned their thankfulnesse into presumption grew at last from defending themselves to dare their enemies on disadvantages to their often overthrow for God will not unmake his miracles by making them common And may not this also be counted some cause of their ill successe That they alwayes imputed their victories to the materiall Crosse which was carried before them So that Christ his glory after his ascension suffered again on the Crosse by their superstition Chap. 18. The death of Baldwine the second KIng Baldwine a little before his death renounced the world and took on him a religious habit This was the fashion of many Princes in that age though they did it for divers ends Some thought to make amends for their disordered lives by entring into some holy order at their deaths Others having surfeted of the worlds vanitie fasted from it when they could eat no more because of the impotency of their bodies Others being crossed by the world by some misfortune sought to crosse the world again in renouncing of it These like furious gamesters threw up their cards not out of dislike of gaming but of their game and they were rather discontented to live then contented to die But we must beleeve that Baldwine did it out of true devotion to ripen himself for heaven because he was piously affected from his youth so that all his life was religiously tuned though it made the sweetest musick in the close He died not long after on the 22 of August in the 13 yeare of his reigne and was buried with his predecessours in the temple of the Sepulchre By Morphe a Grecian Lady his wife he had foure daughters whereof Millesent was the eldest the
Emissa and Cesarea young King Baldwine lay close in Askelon not daring to adventure on so strong an enemy With whose fear Saladine encouraged dispersed his army some one way some another to forrage the countrey King Baldwine courted with this opportunity marched out privately not having past foure hundred horse with some few footmen and assaulted his secure enemies being six and twenty thousand But victory standeth as little in the number of souldiers as verity in the plurality of voices The Christians got the conquest and in great triumph returned to Jerusalem This overthrow rather madded then daunted Saladine Who therefore to recover his credit some moneths after with his Mammalukes fell like a mighty tempest upon the Christians as they were parting the spoil of a band of Turks whom they had vanquished put many to the sword the rest to flight Otto grand Master of the Templars and Hugh sonne in law to the Count of Tripoli were taken prisoners and the King himself had much ado to escape And thus both sides being well wearied with warre they were glad to refresh themselves with a short slumber of a truce solemnly concluded and their troubled estates breathed almost for the space of two yeares Which truce Saladine the more willingly embraced because of a famine in the kingdome of Damascus where it had scarce rained for five yeares together Chap. 41. The fatall jealousies betwixt the King and Reimund Earl of Tripoli BUt this so welcome a calm was troubled with domesticall discords For the Kings mother a woman of a turbulent spirit and her brother his steward accused Reimund Count of Tripoli governour of the Realm in the Kings minority as if he affected the Crown for himself which accusation this Earl could never wholly wipe off For slender and lean slanders quickly consume themselves but he that is branded with an hainous crime though false when the wound is cured his credit will be killed with the scarre Before we go further let us view this Earl Reimunds disposition and we shall find him marked to do mischief and to ruine this Realm He was sonne to Reimund grandchild to Pontius Earl of Tripoli by Cecilie the daughter of Philip King of France great-grandchild to Bertram first Earl of Tripoli great-great-grandchild to Reimund Earl of Tholose one of speciall note amongst the primitive adventurers in the Holy warre His mother was Hodiern third daughter of Baldwine the second King of Jerusalem A man whose stomach was as high as his birth and very serviceable to this State whilest the sharpnesse of his parts were used against the Turks which at last turned edge against the Christians Proud not able to digest the least wrong and though long in captivity amongst the Turks yet a very treuant in the school of affliction who never learned the lesson of patience So revengefull that he would strike his enemy though it were through the sides of religion and the Christian cause For this present accusation of treason good authours seem to be his compurgatours for this at this time though afterwards he discovered his treacherous intents And because he could not rise by his service he made his service fall by him and undid what he had done for the publick good because thereby he could not attain his private ends He commanded over the Earldome of Tripoli which was a territory of large extent wherein he was absolute Lord. And by the way we may take notice of this as one of the banes of the Kingdome of Jerusalem That the principalities of Antioch Tripoli and Edessa whilest it was Christian were branches of this Kingdome but too big for the body For the Princes thereof on each petty distast would stand on their guard as if they had been subjects out of courtesie not conscience and though they confessed they owed the King allegeance yet they would pay no more then they thought fitting themselves To return to King Baldwine This suspicion of Earl Reimund though at first but a buzze soon got a sting in the Kings head and he violently apprehended it Whereupon Reimund coming to Jerusalem was by the way commanded to stay to his great disgrace But some of the Nobility foreseeing what danger this discord might bring reconciled them with much labour However Baldwine ever after looked on this Earl with a jealous eye Jealousie if it be fire in private persons is wild-fire in Princes who seldome rase out their names whom once they have written in their black bills And as the Italian proverb is Suspicion giveth a passe-port to faith to set it on packing so this Earl finding himself suspected was never after cordially loyall smothering his treachery in this Kings life which afterwards broke forth into an open flame Chap. 42. Saladine is conquered by King Baldwine and conquereth Mesopotamia Discords about the Protectourship of Ierusalem The death and praise of Baldwine the fourth THe kingdome of Damascus being recovered of the famine Saladine having gotten his ends by the truce would now have the truce to end and breaking it as not standing with his haughty designes marched with a great army out of Egypt through Palestine to Damascus much spoiling the countrey And now having joyned the Egyptian with the Damascene forces re-entred the Holy land But young King Baldwine meeting him though but with seven hundred to twenty thousand at the village Frobolet overthrew him in a great battel and Saladine himself was glad with speedy flight to escape the danger and by long marches to get him again to Damascus Afterward he besieged Berytus both by sea land but the vigilancie and valour of King Baldwine defeated his taking of it Saladine finding such tough resistance in the Holy land thought to make a better purchase by laying out his time in Mesopotamia Wherefore passing Euphrates he wonne Charran and divers other cities and then returning in Syria besieged Aleppo the strongest place the Christians had in that countrey so fortified by nature that he had little hope to force it But treason will runne up the steepest ascent where valour it self can scarce creep and Saladine with the battery of bribes made such a breach in the loyaltie of the governour that he betrayed it unto him Thus he cometh again into the Holy land more formidable then ever before carrying an army of terrour in the mentioning of his name which drove the poore Christians all into their fenced cities As for King Baldwine the leprosie had arrested him prisoner and kept him at home Long had this Kings spirit endured this infirmity swallowing many a bitter pang with a smiling face and going upright with patient shoulders under the weight of his disease It made him put all his might to it because when he yeelded to his sicknesse he must leave off the managing of the State and he was loth to put off his royall robes before he went to bed a Crown being too good a companion for one to part with
willingly But at last he was made to stoop and retired himself to a private life appointing Baldwine his nephew a child of five yeares old his successour and Guy Earl of Joppa and Askelon this childs father in law to be Protectour of the Realm in his minority But soon after he revoked this latter act and designed Reimund Earl of Tripoli for the Protectour He displaced Guy because he found him of no over-weight worth scarce passable without favourable allowance little feared of his foes and as little loved of his friends The more martiall Christians sleighted him as a slug and neglected so lazy a leader that could not keep pace with those that were to follow him Yea they refused whilest he was Protectour at his command to fight with Saladine and out of distast to their Generall suffered their enemie freely to forrage which was never done before For the Christians never met any Turks wandring in the Holy land but on even terms they would examine their passe-port how sufficient it was and bid them battel Guy stormed at his displacing and though little valiant yet very â—ullen left the Court in discontent went home and fortified his cities of Joppa and Askelon What should King Baldwine do in this case Whom should he make Protectour Guy had too little Reimund too much spirit for the place He feared Guy's cowardlinesse lest he should lose the kingdome to the Turks and Reimunds treachery lest he should get it for himself Thus anguish of mind and weaknesse of bodie a doughtie conquest for their united strengths which single might suffice ended this Kings dayes dying young at five and twenty yeares of age But if by the morning we may guesse at the day he would have been no whit inferiour to any of his predecessours especially if his body had been able but alas it spoiled the musick of his soul that the instrument was quite out of tune He reigned twelve yeares and was buried in the Temple of the Sepulchre a King happie in this that he died before the death of his Kingdome Chap. 43. The short life and wofull death of Baldwine the fifth an infant Guy his father in law succeedeth him IT is a rare happinesse of the family of S. Laurence Barons of Hoath in Ireland that the heirs for 400 yeares together alwayes have been of age before the death of their fathers For Minors have not onely baned families but ruined realms It is one of Gods threatnings I will give children to be their Princes and babes shall rule over them With this rod God strook the Kingdome of Jerusalem thrice in 40 yeares Baldwine the third fourth and fifth being all under age and this last but five yeares old He was the posthumus sonne of William Marquesse of Montferrat by Sibyll his wife sister to Baldwine the fourth daughter to King Almerick She afterwards was married to Guy Earl of Joppa and Askelon Now Reimund Earl of Tripoli challenged to be Protectour of this young King by the vertue of an Act of the former King so assigning him But Sibyll mother to this infant to defeat Reimund first murdered all naturall affection in her self and then by poyson murdered her sonne that so the Crown in her right might come to her husband Guy This Baldwine reigned eight moneths eight dayes saith mistaken Munster and some mistake more who make him not to reigne at all cruel to wrong his memorie of his honour whom his mother had robbed both of his life and Kingdome His death was concealed till Guy his father in law had obtained by large bribes to the Templars and Heraclius the Patriarch to be crowned King One more ennobled with his descent from the ancient family of the Lusignans in Poictou then for any eminencie in himself His gifts were better then his endowments Yet had he been more fortunate he would have been accounted more vertuous men commonly censuring that the fault of the King which is the fate of the kingdome And now the Christian affairs here posted to their wofull period being spurred on by the discords of the Princes Chap. 44. Church-affairs Of Haymericus Patriarch of Antioch Of the Grecian Anti-patriarchs and of the learned Theodorus Balsamon WHilest Heraclius did Patriarch it in Jerusalem one Haymericus had the same honour at Antioch He wrote to Henry the second King of England a bemoning letter of the Christians in the East and from him received another fraught with never-performed fair promises This man must needs be different from that Haymericus who began his Patriarchship in Antioch anno 1143 and sat but twelve yeares say the Centuriatours But Baronius as different from them sometimes in Chronologie as Divinitie maketh them the same Then must he be a through-old man enjoying his place above fourtie yeares being probably before he wore the style of Patriarch well worn in yeares himself I must confesse it passeth my Chymistrie to extract any agreement herein out of the contrariety of writers We must also take notice that besides the Latine Patriarchs in Jerusalem and Antioch there were also Grecian Anti-patriarchs appointed by the Emperour of Constantinople who having no temporall power nor profit by Church-lands had onely jurisdiction over those of the Greek Church We find not the chain of their succession but here and there light on a link and at this time in Jerusalem on three successively 1. Athanasius whom though one out of his abundant charitie is pleased to style a Schismatick yet was he both pious and learned as appeareth by his epistles 2. Leontius commended likewise to posteritie for a good Clerk and an honest man 3. Dositheus inferiour to the former in both respects Isaac the Grecian Emperour sent to make him Patriarch of Constantinople and Dositheus catching at both held neither but betwixt two Patriarchs chairs fell to the ground Antioch also had her Greek Patriarchs As one Sotericus displaced for maintaining some unsound tenets about our Saviour After him Theodorus Balsamon the oracle of the learned Law in his age He compiled and commented on the ancient Canons and principally set forth the priviledges of Constantinople listening say the Romanists to the least noise that soundeth to the advancing of the Eastern Churches and knocking down Rome wheresoever it peepeth above Constantinople This maketh Bellarmine except against him as a partiall writer because a true Historian should be neither partie advocate nor judge but a bare witnesse By Isaac the Grecian Emperour this Balsamon was also deceived he pretended to remove him to Constantinople on condition he would prove the translation of the Patriarch to be legall which is forbidden by the Canons Balsamon took upon him to prove it and a Lawyers brains will beat to purpose when his own preferment is the fee. But herein he did but crack the nut for another to eat the kernel For the Emperour mutable in his mind changing his favourites as well
as his clothes before they were old when the legality of the translation was avowed bestowed the Patriarchship of Constantinople on another and Theodorus was still staked down at Antioch in a true spirituall preferment affording him little bodily maintenance Chap. 45. The revolt of the Earl of Tripoli The Christians irrecoverably overthrown and their King taken prisoner THere was at this time a truce betwixt the Christians and Saladine broken on this occasion Saladines mother went from Egypt to Damascus with much treasure and a little train as sufficiently guarded with the truce yet in force when Reinold of Castile surprised and robbed her Saladine glad of this occasion gathereth all his strength together and besiegeth Ptolemais Now Reimund Earl of Tripoli appeareth in his colours vexed at the losse of the government His great stomach hath no room for patience and his passions boyled from a fever to a phrensie so that blinded with anger at King Guy he mistaketh his enemy and will be revenged on God and religion revolting with his Principalitie a third part of the Kingdome of Jerusalem to Saladine and in his own person under a visard assisted him in this siege Out of the citie marched the Templars and Hospitallers and falling on the Turks killed twentie thousand of them Yet they gave welnigh a valuable consideration for their victory the master of the Hospitallers being slain and a brave Generall in battel never dieth unattended Saladine hereupon raiseth his siege and Reimund Earl of Tripoli whether out of fear the Christians might prevail or remorse of conscience or discontent not finding that respect he expected of Saladine who had learned that politick maxime To give some honour no trust to a fugitive reconciled himself to King Guy and sory for his former offense returned to the Christians King Guy hereupon gathering the whole strength of his weak Kingdome to do their last devoir determined to bid Saladine battel though having but fifteen hundred horse and fifteen thousand foot against an hundred and twenty thousand horse and an hundred and sixty thousand foot Nigh Tiberias the battel was fought They close in the afternoon but night moderating betwixt them both sides drew their stakes till next morning then on afresh The Christians valour poised the number of their enemies till at last the distemper of the weather turned the scales to the Turks side More Christians thirsty within and scalded without were killed with the beams the sunne darted then with the arrows the enemies shot Reinold of Castile was slain with most of the Templars and Hospitallers Gerard Master of the Templars and Boniface Marquesse of Montferrat were taken prisoners and also Guy the King who saw the rest of his servants slain before his eyes onely obtaining of Saladine the life of his schoolmaster Yea in this battel the flower of the Christian chevalrie was cut down and what was most lamented the Crosse saith Matthew Paris which freed men from the captivity of their sinnes was for mens sinnes taken captive Most impute this overthrow to the Earl of Tripoli who that day commanded a great part of the Christian army and is said of some treacherously to have fled away But when a great action miscarrieth the blame must be laid on some and commonly it lighteth on them who formerly have been found false be it right or wrong So impossible is it for him who once hath broken his credit by treason ever to have it perfectly joynted again It increaseth the suspicion because this Earl afterwards found dead in his bed as some say was circumcised Victorious Saladine as he had thrown a good cast played it as well in a moneth conquering Berytus Biblus Ptolemais and all the havens Tyre excepted from Sidon to Askelon He used his conquest with much moderation giving lives goods to all and forcing no Christians to depart their cities save onely the Latines This his gentlenesse proceeded from policy well knowing that if the Christians could not buy their lives cheap they would sell them deare and fight it out to the uttermost Askelon was stout and would not surrender Wherefore Saladine loth with the hazard of so long a siege to check his fortune in the full speed left it and went to Jerusalem as to a place of lesse difficulty and more honour to conquer Chap. 46. Ierusalem wonne by the Turk with wofull remarkables thereat BEfore the beginning of the siege the sunne as sympathizing with the Christians woes was eclipsed A sad presage of the losse of Jerusalem For though those within the city valiantly defended it for a fortnight yet they saw it was but the playing out of a desperate game which must be lost Their foes neare their friends farre off and those willing to pity unable to help Why then should they prolong languishing where they could not preserve life Concluding to lavish no more valour they yeelded up the city on condition all their lives might be redeemed a man for ten a woman for five a child for one besant and fourteen thousand poore people not able to pay their ransome were kept in perpetuall bondage All Latines were cast out of the citie but those of the Greek religion were permitted to stay therein Onely Saladine to two Frenchmen gave liberty to abide there and maintenance to live on in reverence to their age the one Robert of Corbie a souldier to Godfrey of Bouillon when he wanne this citie the other Fulk Fiole the first child born in the citie after the Christians had conquered it Saladine possessed of Jerusalem turned the churches into stables sparing onely that of the Sepulchre for a great summe of money Solomons Temple he converted to a Mosque sprinkling it all over with rose-water as if he would wash it from profanenesse whilest he profaned it with his washing Thus Jerusalem after it had fourescore and eight yeares been enjoyed by the Christians by Gods just judgement was taken again by the Turks What else could be expected Sinne reigned in every corner there was scarce one honest woman in the whole city of Jerusalem Heraclius the Patriarch with the Clergie was desperately vitious and no wonder if iron rust when gold doth and if the Laity followed their bad example This dolefull news brought into Europe filled all with sighs and sorrows Pope Urbane the third as another Eli at the Arks captivity died for grief The Cardinals lamented out of measure vowing such reformation of manners Never more to take bribes Never more to live so vitiously yea Never to ride on an horse so long as the Holy land was under the feet of the Turks But this their passion spent it self with its own violence and these mariners vows ended with the tempest In this generall grief of Christendome there was one woman found to rejoyce and she a German Prophetesse called S. Christian a virgin Who as she had foretold the day of the defeat so on the same she
and following the advice of Charatux his counseller counted one of the wisest men in the world though his person was most contemptible so true it is none can guesse the jewel by the casket dismantled all his cities in the Holy land save some frontier-places rasing their walls and forts that they were not tenable with an army For he feared if the Dutch wonne these places they would not easily be driven out whereas now being naked from shelter he would weary them with set battels having men numberlesse and those neare at hand and so he would tame the Romane Eagle by watching him giving him no rest nor respite from continuall fighting It is therefore no Paradox to say That in some case the strength of a kingdome doth consist in the weaknesse of it And hence it is that our English Kings have suffered Time without disturbing her meals to feed her belly full on their in-land castles and citie-walls which whilest they were standing in their strength were but the nurseries of rebellion And now as one observeth because we have no strong cities warre in England waxeth not old being quickly stabbed with set battels which in the Low-countreys hath already outlived the grand climactericall of threescore and ten yeares But Frederick the Emperour being now entring into the Holy land was to the great grief of all Christians suddenly taken away being drowned in the river of Saleph a river such is the envie of Barbarisme obscuring all places which cannot accurately be known at this day because this new name is a stranger to all ancient maps If he went in to wash himself as some write he neither consulted with his health nor honour Some say his horse foundred under him as he passed the water others that he fell from him But these severall relations as varietie of instruments make a dolefull consort in this that there he lost his life and no wonder if the cold water quickly quenched those few sparks of naturall heat left in him at seventie yeares of age Neubrigensis conceiveth that this his sudden death was therefore inflicted on him because in his youth he fought against the Popes and Church of Rome But I wonder that he seeing an Emperour drowned in a ditch durst adventure into the bottomlesse depths of Gods counsels Let it content us to know that oftentimes heaven blasteth those hopes which bud first and fairest and the feet of mightie Monarchs do slip when they want but one step to their enemies throne After his death Frederick Duke of Suevia his second sonne undertook the conduct of the armie Now the Turks conceiving grief had steeped and moistened these Pilgrimes hearts gave them a sudden charge in hope to have overthrown them But the valiant Dutch who though they had scarce wiped their eyes had scoured their swords quickly forced them to retire Then Frederick took the citie of Antioch which was easily delivered unto him and his hungrie souldiers well refreshed by the citizens being as yet for the most part Christians Marching from hence in set battel he overthrew Dodequin Generall of Saladines forces slew foure thousand and took a thousand prisoners with little losse of his own men and so came to the citie of Tyre where he buried the corpse of his worthy father in the Cathedrall Church next the tombe of learned Origen and Gulielmus Tyrius the worthy Archbishop preached his funerall sermon We may heare his sorrowfull army speaking this his Epitaph unto him Earth scarce did yeeld ground enough for thy sword To conquer how then could a brook afford Water to drown thee brook which since doth fear O guiltie conscience in a map t' appear Yet blame we not the brook but rather think The weight of our own sinnes did make thee sink Now sith 't is so wee 'l fetch a brackish main Out of our eyes and drown thee once again From hence by sea they were conveyed to the Christian army before Ptolemais where young Frederick died of the plague and his great army which at first consisted of an hundred and fiftie thousand at their setting forth out of Germanie had now no more left then eighteen hundred armed men Chap. 5. The continuation of the famous siege of Ptolemais The Dutch Knights honoured with a grand Master WE have now at our leisure overtaken the snail-like siege of Ptolemais still slowly creeping on Before it the Christians had not onely a Nationall but an Oecumenicall army the abridgement of the Christian world Scarce a state or populous citie in Europe but had here some competent number to represent it How many bloudie blows were here lent on both sides and repayed with interest what sallies what assaults what encounters whilest the Christians lay betwixt Saladine with his great army behind them and the citie before them One memorable battel we must not omit It was agreed betwixt Saladine and the Christians to trie their fortunes in a pitched field and now the Christians were in fair hope of a conquest when an imaginarie causelesse fear put them to a reall flight so ticklish are the scales of victory a very mote will turn them Thus confusedly they ran away and boot would have been given to change a strong arm for a swift leg But behold Geoffrey Lusignan King Guy's brother left for the guarding of the camp marching out with his men confuted the Christians in this their groundlesse mistake and reinforced them to fight whereby they wonne the day though with the losse of two thousand men and Gerard Master of the Templars It was vainly hoped that after this victorie the citie would be surrendred but the Turks still bravely defended it though most of their houses were burnt and beaten down and the citie reduced to a bare sceleton of walls and towres They fought as well with their wits as weapons and both sides devised strange defensive and offensive engines so that Mars himself had he been here present might have learned to fight and have taken notes from their practice Mean time famine raged amongst the Christians and though some provision was now and then brought in from Italy for so farre they fetched it yet these small showres after great droughts parched the more and rather raised then abated their hunger Once more we will take our farewell of this siege for a twelve-moneth But we must not forget that at this time before the walls of Ptolemais the Teutonick order or Dutch Knights which since the dayes of Baldwine the second lived like private pilgrimes had now their order honoured with Henry of Walpot their first grand Master and they were enriched by the bountie of many Germane benefactours These though slow were sure they did hoc agere ply their work more cordiall to the Christian cause then the Templars who sometimes to save their own stakes would play bootie with the Turks Much good service did the Dutch Knights in the Holy warre till at last no wise Doctour will
lavish physick on him in whom he seeth faciem cadaverosam so that death hath taken possession in the sick mans countenance finding this warre to be desperate and dedecus fortitudinis they even fairly left the Holy land and came into Europe meaning to lay out their valour on some thing that would quit cost But hereof hereafter Chap. 6. Richard of England and Philip of France set forward to the Holy land The danger of the interveiws of Princes THe miseries of the Christians in Syria being reported in Europe made Richard the first King of England and Philip the second surnamed Augustus King of France to make up all private dissensions betwixt them and to unite their forces against the Turks Richard was well stored with men the bones and quickly got money the sinews of warre by a thousand Princely skills gathering so much coin as if he meant not to return because looking back would unbowe his resolution To Hugh Bishop of Duresme for his life he sold the County of Northumberland jesting he had made a new Earl of an old Bishop He sold Barwick and Roxburgh to the Scottish king for ten thousand pounds Yea he protested he would sell his citie of London if any were able to buy it rather then he would be burdensome to his subjects for money But take this as he spake it for a flourish for pretending he had lost his old he made a new seal wherewith he squeezed his subjects and left a deep impression in their purses forcing them to have all their instruments new-sealed which any wayes concerned the Crown Having now provided for himself he forgot not his younger brother John Earl of Morton who was to stay behind him an active man who if he misliked the maintenance was cut for him would make bold to carve for himself Lest therefore straitned for means he should swell into discontent King Richard gave him many Earldomes and honours to the yearly value of foure thousand marks Thus he received the golden saddle but none of the bridle of the Common-wealth honour riches were heaped upon him but no place of trust and command For the King deputed William Bishop of Ely his Viceroy choosing him for that place rather then any lay-Earl because a Coronet perchance may swell into a Crown but never a Mitre For a Clergie-mans calling made him uncapable of usurpation in his own person Thus having settled matters at home he set forth with many of our nation which either ushered or followed him Of these the prime were Baldwine Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert Bishop of Salisburie Robert Earl of Leicester Ralph de Glanvile late chief Justice of England Richard de Clare Walter de Kime c. The Bishops of Duresme and Norwich though they had vowed this voyage were dispensed with by the court of Rome quae nulli deest pecuniam largienti to stay at home His navie he sent about by Spain and with a competent number took his own journey through France At Tours he took his Pilgrimes scrip and staff from the Archbishop His staff at the same time casually brake in pieces which some whose dexteritie lay in sinister interpreting all accidents construed a token of ill successe Likewise when he and the French king with their trains passed over the bridge of Lyons on the fall of the bridge this conceit was built That there would be a falling out betwixt these two Kings which accordingly came to passe their intercourse and familiaritie breeding hatred and discontent betwixt them Yea the interviews of equall Princes have ever been observed dangerous Now Princes measure their equalitie not by the extent of their dominions but by the absolutenesse of their power so that he that is supreme and independent in his own countrey counteth himself equall to any other Prince how great soever Perchance some youthfull Kings may disport and solace themselves one in anothers companie whilest as yet pleasure is all the elevation of their souls But when once they grow sensible of their own greatnesse a lesson they will quickly learn and shall never want teachers then emulation will be betwixt them because at their meeting they cannot so go in equipage but one will still be the foremost Either his person will be more proper or carriage more court-like or attendance more accomplished or attire more fashionable or some thing will either be or conceived to be more majesticall in one then the other And corrivalls in honour count themselves eclipsed by every beam of state which shineth from their competitour Wherefore the best way to keep great Princes together is to keep them asunder accommodating their businesse by Embassadours lest the meeting of their own persons part their affections Chap. 7. King Richard conquereth Sicilie and Cyprus in his passage to the Holy land AT Lyons these two Kings parted their trains and went severall wayes into Sicilie King Richard in his passage though within fifteen miles of Rome wanting forsooth either devotion or manners vouchsafed not to give his Holinesse a visit yea plainly told Octavian Bishop of Ostia the Popes Confessour that having better objects to bestow his eyes on he would not stirre a step to see the Pope Because lately without mercie he had simoniacally extorted a masse of money from the Prelates of England At Messana in Sicilie these two Kings meet again where to complete King Richards joy behold his Navie there safely arriving which with much difficultie and danger had fetched a compasse about Spain And now King Richard by his own experience grew sensible of the miseries which merchants and mariners at sea underwent being alwayes within few inches often within an hairs breadth of death Wherefore now touched with remorse of their pitifull case he resolved to revoke the law of Wracks as a law so just that it was even unjust For formerly both in England and Normandie the Crown was intituled to shipwrackt goods and the King jure gentium made heir unto them which otherwise jure naturali were conceived to be in bonis nullius pertaining to no owner But now our Richard refused to make advantage of such pitifull accidents and to strip poore mariners out of those rags of their estates which the mercie and modestie of the waves and winds had left them And therefore on the moneth of October at Messana in the presence of many Archbishops and Bishops he for ever quitted the claim to Wracks So that if any man out of the ship cometh alive to the shore the propertie of the shipwrackt goods is still preserved to the owner Yea this grant was so enlarged by our succeeding Kings that if a dogge or a cat escaped alive to land the goods still remained the owners if he claimed them within a yeare and a day Tankred at this time was King of Sicilie a bastard born and no wonder if climbing up to the throne the wrong way he shaked when he sat down Besides he was
a Tyrant both detaining the dowrie and imprisoning the person of Joan wife to William late King of Sicilie and sister to King Richard But in what a case was he now having two such mightie Monarchs come unto him To keep them out was above his power to let them in against his will Well he knew it was wofull to lie in the rode where great armies were to passe For power knoweth no inferiour friend and the land-lord commonly loseth his rent sometimes his land where the tenant is too potent for him At last he resolved how wisely or honestly let others judge openly to poise himself indifferent betwixt these two Kings secretly applying himself to the French which King Richard quickly discovered as dissembling goeth not long invisible before a judicious eye Mean time the citizens of Messana did the English much wrong if not by the command with the consent of the King For though it be unjust to father the base actions of unrulie people on their Prince yet Tankred not punishing his people for injuring the English when he might and was required thereunto did in effect justifie their insolencies and adopt their deeds to be his Wherefore King Richard to avenge himself took Messana by assault seised on most forts in the Island demanding satisfaction for all wrongs done to him and his sister Tankred though dull at first now pricked with the sword came off roundly with many thousand ounces of gold and seeing as the case stood his best thrift was to be prodigall gave to our King what rich conditions soever he demanded Worse discords daily encreased betwixt the Kings of France and England King Richard slighting the King of France his sister whom he had promised to marrie and expressing more affection to Beringaria daughter to the King of Navarre Some Princes interposing themselves in this breach rather asswaged the pain then removed the maladie So dangerous are ruptures betwixt great ones whose affections perchance by the mediation of friends may be brought again to meet but never to unite and incorporate King Philip thinking to forestall the market of honour and take up all for himself hasted presently to Ptolemais Richard followed at his leisure and took Cyprus in his way Isaac or Cursac reigned then in Cyprus who under Andronicus the Grecian Emperour when every factious Noble-man snatched a plank out of that shipwracked Empire seised on this Island and there tyrannized as a reputed King Some falsely conceive him a Pagan and his faith is suspected because his charitie was so bad killing the English that landed there not having so much man as to pitie a woman and to suffer the sea-sick Lady Beringaria to come on shore But King Richard speedily overran the Island honoured Isaac with the magnificent captivitie of silver fetters yet giving his daughter libertie and princely usage The Island he pawned to the Templars for readie money And because Cyprus by antiquitie was celebrated as the seat of Venus that so it might prove to him in the joyous moneth of May he solemnly took to wife his beloved Lady Beringaria Chap. 8. The taking of the citie Ptolemais WHilest King Richard stayed in Cyprus the siege of Ptolemais went on and though the French King thought with a running pull to bear the citie away yet he found it staked down too fast for all his strength to stirre Mean time the plague and famine raged in the Christians camp which the last yeare swept away fiftie Princes and Prelates of note Who no doubt went hence to a happie place though it was before Pope Clement the sixth commanded the angels who durst not but obey him presently to convey all their souls into Paradise which should die in their Pilgrimage This mortalitie notwithstanding the siege still continued And now the Christians and Turks like two fensers long playing together were so well acquainted with the blows and guards each of other that what advantage was taken betwixt them was merely casuall never for want of skill care or valour on either side It helped the Christians not a little that a concealed Christian within the citie with letters unsubscribed with any name gave them constant and faithfull intelligence of the remarkable passages amongst the Turks No Prince in this siege deserved more then Leopoldus Duke of Austria who fought so long in assaulting this citie till his armour was all over gore bloud save the place covered with his belt Whereupon he and his successours the Dukes of Austria renouncing the six Golden larks their ancient arms had assigned them by the Emperour a fesse Argent in a field Gules as the paternall coat of their family By this time King Richard was arrived taking as he came a dromond or Saracen ship wherein were fifteen hundred souldiers and two hundred and fiftie scorpions which were to be imployed in the poisoning of Christians and now the siege of Ptolemais more fiercely prosecuted But all their engines made not so wide a breach in that citie walls as envie made betwixt the French and English Kings Yet at last the Turks despairing of succour their victuals wholly spent yeelded up the citie by Saladines consent on condition to be themselves safely guarded out of it all Christian prisoners Saladine had were to be set free and the Crosse to be again restored The houses which were left with the spoil and prisoners were equally divided betwixt Philip and Richard Whereat many Noble-men partners in the pains no sharers in the gains departed in discontent Some Turks for fear embraced the Christian faith but quickly returned to their vomit as religion died in fear never long keepeth colour but this dayes converts will be to morrows apostates Hereupon it was commanded that none hereafter should be baptized against their wills Here the English cast down the ensignes of Leopoldus Duke of Austria which he had advanced in a principall towre in Ptolemais and as some say threw them into the jakes The Duke though angrie at heart forgot this injurie till he could remember it with advantage and afterwards made King Richard pay soundly for this affront It is not good to exasperate any though farre inferiour for as the fable telleth us the beetle may annoy the eagle and the mouse befriend the lion When the citie was taken it grieved the Christians not a little that their faithfull correspondent who advised them by his letters could no where be found Pitie it was that Rahabs red lace was not tied at his window But indeed it was probable that he was dead before the surrendring of the citie Greater was the grief that the Crosse did no where appear either carelessely lost or enviously concealed by the Turks Whilest the Christians stormed hereat Saladine required a longer respite for the performance of the conditions But King Richard would not enlarge him from the strictnesse of what was concluded conceiving this was in effect to forfeit the victorie back again Besides he
knew he did it onely to gain time to fetch new breath and if he yeelded to him his bounty had not been thanked but his fear upbraided as if he durst not denie him Yea in anger King Richard commanded all the Turkish captives which were in his hands seven thousand in number to be put to death except some choice persons on that day whereon the articles should have been but were not performed For which fact he suffered much in his repute branded with rashnesse and crueltie as the murderer of many Christians For Saladine in revenge put as many of our captives to death On the other side the moderation of the French King was much commended who reserving his prisoners alive exchanged them to ransome so many Christians Chap. 9. The unseasonable return of the King of France MEan time the Christians were rent a sunder with faction Philip the French King Odo Duke of Burgundie Leopold Duke of Austria most of the Dutch all the Genoans and Templars siding with King Conrade King Richard Henry Count of Champaigne the Hospitallers Venetians and Pisans taking part with King Guy But King Conrades side was much weakened with the sudden departure of the French King who eighteen dayes after the taking of Ptolemais returned home pretending want of necessaries indisposition of body distemper of the climate though the greatest distemper was in his own passions The true cause of his departure was partly envie because the sound of King Richards fame was of so deep a note that it drowned his partly covetousnesse to seise on the dominions of the Earl of Flanders lately dead Flanders lying fitly to make a stable for the fair palace of France If it be true what some report that Saladine bribed him to return let him for ever forfeit the surname of Augustus and the style of The most Christian Prince His own souldiers disswaded him from returning beseeching him not to stop in so glorious a race wherein he was newly started Saladine was already on his knees and would probably be brought on his face if pursued If he played the unthrift with this golden occasion let him not hope for another to play the good husband with If povertie forced his departure King Richard profered him the half of all his provisions All would not do Philip persisted in his old plea How the life of him absent would be more advantageous to the cause then the death of him present and by importunitie got leave to depart solemnly swearing not to molest the King of Englands dominions Thus the King of France returned in person but remained still behind in his instructions which he left with his armie to the Duke of Burgundie to whom he prescribed both his path and his pace where and how he should go And that Duke moved slowly having no desire to advance the work where King Richard would carrie all the honour For in those actions wherein severall undertakers are compounded together commonly the first figure for matter of credit maketh ciphres of all the rest As for King Philip being returned home such was the itch of his ambition he must be fingering of the King of Englands territories though his hands were bound by oath to the contrary Chap. 10. Conrade King of Ierusalem slain Guy exchangeth his Kingdome for the Island of Cyprus ABout the time of the King of France his departure Conrade King of Jerusalem was murdered in the market-place of Tyre and his death is variously reported Some charged our King Richard for procuring it And though the beams of his innocencie cleared his own heart yet could they not dispell the clouds of suspicions from other mens eyes Some say Humphred Prince of Thoron killed him for taking Isabella his wife away from him But the generall voice giveth it out that two Assasines stabbed him whose quarrel to him was onely this That he was a Christian. These murderers being instantly put to death gloried in the meritoriousnesse of their suffering and surely were it the punishment not the cause made martyrdome we should be best stored with Confessours from gaols and Martyrs from the gallows Conrade reigned five yeares and left one daughter Maria Iole on whom the Knight-Templars bestowed princely education And this may serve for his Epitaph The Crown I never did enjoy alone Of half a Kingdome I was half a King Scarce was I on when I was off the throne Slain by two slaves me basely murdering And thus the best mans life at mercie lies Of vilest varlets that their own despise His faction survived after his death affronting Guy the anti-King and striving to depose him They pleaded that the Crown was tied on Guy's head with a womans fillet which being broken by the death of his wife Queen Sibyll who deceased of the plague with her children at the siege of Ptolemais he had no longer right to the Kingdome they objected he was a worthlesse man and unfortunate On the other side it was alledged for him that to measure a mans worth by his successe is a square often false alwayes uncertain Besides the courtesie of the world would allow him this favour That a King should be semel semper once and ever Whilest Guy stood on these ticklish terms King Richard made a seasonable motion which well rellished to the palate of this hungrie Prince To exchange his Kingdome of Jerusalem for the Island of Cyprus which he had redeemed from the Templars to whom he had pawned it And this was done accordingly to the content of both sides And King Richard with some of his succeeding English Kings wore the title of Jerusalem in their style for many yeares after We then dismisse King Guy hearing him thus taking his farewell I steer'd a state warre-tost against my will Blame then the storm not th' Pilots want of skill That I the Kingdome lost whose emptie style I sold to Englands King for Cyprus Isle I pass'd away the land I could not hold Good ground I bought but onely aire I sold. Then as a happy Merchant may I sing Though I must sigh as an unhappy King Soon after Guy made a second change of this world for another But the family of the Lusignans have enjoyed Cyprus some hundred yeares and since by some transactions it fell to the state of Venice and lately by conquest to the Turks Chap. 11. Henry of Champaigne chosen King The noble atchievements and victories of King Richard COnrade being killed and Guy gone away Henry Earl of Champaigne was chosen King of Jerusalem by the especiall procuring of King Richard his uncle To corroborate his election by some right of succession he married Isabella the widow of King Conrade and daughter to Almerick King of Jerusalem A Prince as writers report having a sufficient stock of valour in himself but little happie in expressing it whether for want of opportunitie or shortnesse of his reigne being most spent in a truce He more
pleased himself in the style of Prince of Tyre then King of Jerusalem as counting it more honour to be Prince of what he had then King of what he had not And now the Christians began every where to build The Templars fortified Gaza King Richard repaired and walled Ptolemais Porphyria Joppa and Askelon But alas this short prosperity like an Autumne-spring came too late and was gone too soon to bring any fruit to maturitie It was now determined they should march towards Jerusalem for all this while they had but hit the butt that Holy citie was the mark they shot at Richard led the vantguard of English Duke Odo commanded in the main battel over his French James of Avergne brought on the Flemings and Brabanters in the rere Saladine serpent-like biting the heel assaulted the rere not farre from Bethlehem when the French and English wheeling about charged the Turks most furiously Emulation formerly poyson was here a cordiall each Christian nation striving not onely to conquer their enemies but to overcome their friends in the honour of the conquest King Richard seeking to put his courage out of doubt brought his judgement into question being more prodigall of his person then beseemed a Generall One wound he received but by losing his bloud he found his spirits and laid about him like a mad-man The Christians got the victory without the losse of any of number or note save James of Avergne who here died in the bed of honour But more of the Turks wore slain then in any battel for fourtie yeares before Had the Christians presently gone to Jerusalem probably they might have surprised it whilest the Turks eyes were muffled and blindfolded in the amazement of this great overthrow But this opportunitie was lost by the backwardnesse and unwillingnesse of King Richard and the English say the French writers To crie quits with them our English authours impute it to the enviâ— of the French who would have so glorious an action rather left undone then done by the English They complain likewise ofâ— the treacherie of Odo Duke of Burgundie who more carefull of his credit then his conscience was choked with the shame of the sinne he had swallowed and died for grief when his intelligence with the Turks was made known This cannot be denied that Saladine sent term them bribes or presents both to our King and the French Duke and they received them no wonder then if neither of them herein had a good name when they traded with such familiars But most hold King Richard attempted not Jerusalem because as a wise architect he would build his victories so as they might stand securing the countrey as he went it being senselesse to besiege Jerusalem a straggling citie whilest the Turks as yet were in possession of all the sea-ports and strong forts thereabout About this time he intercepted many camels loaden with rich commoditie those Eastern wares containing much in a little And yet of all this and of all the treasures of England Sicilie and Cyprus which he brought hither King Richard carried home nothing but one gold-ring all the rest of his wealth melted away in this hot service He wintered in Askelon intending next spring to have at Jerusalem Chap. 12. The little-honourable peace King Richard made with Saladine Of the value of Reliques BUt bad news out of Europe shaked his steadiest resolutions hearing how William Bishop of Ely his Vice-roy in England used unsufferable insolencies over his subjects So hard it is for one of base parentage to personate a King without over-acting his part Also he heard how the King of France and John Earl of Morton his own brother invaded his dominions ambition the Pope in their belly dispensing with their oath to the contrary Besides he saw this warre was not a subject capable of valour to any purpose the Venetians Genoans Pisans and Florentines being gone away with their fleets wisely shrinking themselves out of the collar when they found their necks wrung with the hard imployment Hereupon he was forced first to make the motion of in plain terms to begge peace of Saladine Let Saladine now alone to winne having all the game in his own hand Well knew he how to shoot at his own ends and to take aim by the exigencies wherein he knew King Richard was plunged For he had those cunning gypsies about him who could read in King Richards face what grieved his heart and by his intelligencers was certified of every note-worthy passage in the English armie Upon these terms therefore or none beggers of peace shall never be choosers of their conditions a truce for three some say five yeares might be concluded That the Christians should demolish all places they had walled since the taking of Ptolemais which was in effect to undo what with much charge they had done But such was the tyrannie of King Richards occasions forcing him to return that he was glad to embrace those conditions he hated at his heart Thus the voyage of these two Kings begun with as great confidence of the undertakers as expectation of the beholders continued with as much courage as interchangeablenesse of successe baned with mutuall discord emulation was ended with some honour to the undertakers no profit either to them or the Christian cause Some farre-fetched deare-bought honour they got especially King Richard who eternized his memory in Asia whom if men forget horses will remember the Turks using to say to their horses when they started for fear Dost thou think King Richard is here Profit they got none losing both of them the hair of their heads in an acute disease which was more saith one then both of them got by the voyage They left the Christians in Syria in worse case then they found them as he doeth the benighted traveller a discourtesie rather then a kindnesse who lendeth him a lantern to take it away leaving him more masked then he was before And now a little to solace my self and the reader with a merry digression after much sorrow and sad stories King Richard did one thing in Palestine which was worth all the cost and pains of his journey namely He redeemed from the Turks a chest full of holy Reliques which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem so great as foure men could scarce carry any way And though some know no more then Esops cock how to prize these pearls let them learn the true value of them from the Romane jewellers First they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques In private ones some forgery may be suspected lest quid be put for quo which made S. Augustine put in that wary parenthesis Si tamen Martyrum If so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs But as for publick ones approved by the Pope and kept in Churches such no doubt as these of King Richards were oh let no Christian be such an infidel as to stagger at the
wantonnesse His justice to his own people was remarkable his promise with his enemies generally well kept Much he did triumph in mercy Fierce in fighting mild in conquering and having his enemies in his hand pleased himself more in the power then act of revenge His liberality would have drained his treasure had it not had a great and quick spring those Eastern parts being very rich Serviceable men he would purchase on any rate and sometimes his gifts bare better proportion to his own greatnesse then the receivers deserts Vast bribes he would give to have places betrayed unto him and often effected that with his gold which he could not do with his steel Zealous he was in his own religion yet not violent against Christians quà Christians Scholarship cannot be expected in him who was a Turk by his birth amongst whom it is a sinne to be learned and a souldier by breeding His humility was admirable as being neither ignorant of his greatnesse nor over-knowing it He provided to have no solemnities at his funerals and ordered that before his corpse a black cloth should be carried on the top of a spear and this proclaimed Saladine Conquerour of the East had nothing left him but this black shirt to attend him to the grave Some entitle him as descended from the Royall Turkish bloud Which flattering Heralds he will little thank for their pains counting it most honour that he being of mean parentage was the first founder of his own Nobility His stature for one of that nation was tall His person rather cut out to strike fear then winne love yet could he put on amiablenesse when occasion required and make it beseem him To conclude I will not be so bold to do with him as an Eastern Bishop doth with Plato and Plutarch whom he commendeth in a Greek hymn to Christ as those that came nearest to holinesse of all untaught Gentiles Belike he would be our Saviours remembrancer and put him in mind to take more especiall notice of them at the day of judgement But I will take my farewell of Saladine with that commendation I find of him He wanted nothing to his eternall happinesse but the knowledge of Christ. Chap. 15. Discords amongst the Turks The miserable death of Henry King of Ierusalem SAladine left nine some say twelve sonnes making Saphradine his brother overseer of his will Who of a tutour turned a traitour and murdered them all excepting one called also Saphradine Sultan of Aleppo who not by his uncles pity but by the favour and support of his fathers good friends was preserved Hence arose much intestine discord amongst the Turks all which time the Christians enjoyed their truce with much quiet and security Not long after Henry King of Jerusalem as he was walking in his palace to solace himself fell down out of a window and brake his neck He reigned three yeares But as for the particular time he died on I find it not specified in any Authour Chap. 16. Almerick the second King of Ierusalem The great armie of the Dutch adventurers doeth little in Syria AFter his death Almerick Lusignan brother to King Guy was in the right of his wife crowned King of Jerusalem For he married Isabella the Relict of Henry the last King This Lady was foure times married first to Humphred Prince of Thorone then to the three successive Kings of Jerusalem Conrade Henry and this Almerick He was also King of Cyprus and the Christians in Syria promised themselves much aid from the vicinity of that Island But though he was neare to them he was farre from helping them making pleasure all his work being an idle lazy worthlesse Prince But I trespasse on that politick rule Of Princes we must speak the best or the least if that be not intended when the truth is so late that danger is entailed upon it In his time Henry Emperour of Germany indicted by his conscience for his cruelty against King Richard seeking to perfume his name in the nostrils of the world which began to be unfavourie set on foot another voyage to the Holy land Pope Celestine the third sent his Legates about to promote this service shewing how God himself had sounded the alarm by the dissension of the Turks Jerusalem now might be wonne with the blows of her enemies onely an army must be sent not so much to conquer as to receive it Generall of the Pilgrimes was Henry Duke of Saxony next him Frederick Duke of Austria Herman Landtgrave of Thuringia Henry Palatine of Rhene Conrade Archbishop of Mentz Conrade Archbishop of Wirtzburg the Bishops of Breme Halberstadt Regenspurg with many more Prelates so that here was an Episcopall army which might have served for a nationall Synod Insomuch that one truly might here have seen the Church Militant We have no ambition saith one of their countrey-men to reckon them up for they were plurimi nulli many in number none in their actions Some of these souldiers were imployed by Henry the Emperour who knew well to bake his cake with the Churches feuel to subdue his rebells in Apulia This done they passed through Grecia and found there better entertainment then some of their predecessours Hence by shipping they were conveyed into Syria Here they brake the truce made by King Richard it seemeth by this it was the â—â—st five yeares the Pope dispensing therewith who can make a peace nets to hold others but a cobweb for himself to break through The citie Berytus they quickly wanne and as quickly lost For Henry the Emperour suddenly died the root which nourished this voyage and then the branches withered Henry also Duke of Saxony Generall of this army was slain And Conrade Archbishop of Mentz one of the Electours would needs return home to the choice of a new Emperour knowing he could more profitably use his voice in Germany then his arms in Syria Other Captains secretly stole home and when their souldiers would have fought their Captains ran away And whereas in other Expeditions we find vestigia pauc a retrorsum making such clean work that they left little or no reversions of this voyage many safely returned home with whole bodies and wounded credits The rest that remained fortified themselves in Joppa And now the feast of S. Martin was come the Dutch their Arch-Saint This man being a Germane by birth and Bishop of Tours in France was eminent for his hospitality and the Dutch badly imitating their countrey-man turn his charity to the poore into riot on themselves keeping the eleventh of November I will not say holy-day but feast-day At this time the spring-tide of their mirth so drowned their souls that the Turks coming in upon them cut every one of their throats to the number of twenty thousand and quickly they were stabbed with the sword that were cup-shot before A day which the Dutch may well write in their Kalendars in red letters died
with their own bloud when their camp was their shambles the Turks their butchers and themselves the Martinmasse-beeves from which the beastly drunkards differ but a little The citie of Joppa the Turks rased to the ground and of this victory they became so proud that they had thought without stop to have driven the Christians quite out of Syria But by the coming of Simon Count of Montford a most valiant and expert Captain sent thither by Philip the French King with a regiment of tall souldiers at the instance of Innocent the third that succeeded Celestine in the Papacy and by civil discord then reigning amongst the Turks themselves for sovereignty their fury was repressed and a peace betwixt them and the Christians concluded for the space of ten yeares During which time the Turks promised not to molest the Christians in Tyre or Ptolemais Which peace so concluded the worthy Count returned with his souldiers into France Chap. 17. A Crusado for the Holy land diverted by the Pope to Constantinople They conquer the Grecian Empire THis truce notwithstanding another armie of Pilgrimes was presently provided for Syria The Tetrarchs whereof were Baldwine Earl of Flanders Dandalo the Venetian Duke Theobald Earl of Champaigne Boniface Marquesse of Montferrat with many other Nobles Leave we them a while taking the citie of Jadera in Istria for the Venetians Mean time if we look over into Greece we shall find Isaac Angelus the Emperour deposed thrust into prison his eyes put out the punishment there in fashion so that he ended his dayes before he ended his life by the cruelty of Alexius Angelus his brother who succeeded him But young Alexius Isaac Angelus his sonne with some Grecian Noble-men came to the courts of most Western Princes to beg assistance to free his father and expell the tyrant He so deported himself that each gesture was a net to catch mens good will not seeking their favour by losing himself but though he did bow he would not kneel so that in his face one might reade a pretty combat betwixt the beams of majesty and cloud of adversity To see a Prince in want would move a misers charity Our Western Princes tendered his case which they counted might be their own their best right lying at the mercy of any stronger usurper Young Alexius so dressed his meat that he pleased every mans palate promising for their succours to disingage the French from their debts to the Venetian promising the Venetian satisfaction for the wrongs done them by the Grecians and bearing the Pope in hand he would reduce the Eastern Churches into his subjection things which he was little able to perform But well may the statute of Bankrupt be sued out against him who cannot be rich in promises These his fair proffers prevailed so farre that the Pope commanded and other Princes consented that this army of Pilgrimes levied for the Holy land should be imployed against the usurping Grecian Emperour Many taxed his Holinesse for an unjust steward of the Christian forces to expend them against the Grecians which were to be laid out against the Infidels Especially now when Palestine through the dissension of the Turks offered itself into the Christians arms to be regained Others thought the Pope took the right method because he which should winne Jerusalem must begin at Constantinople And by this warre the Grecian Empire which was the bridge to Syria would be made good and secured for the passage of Pilgrimes The souldiers generally rejoyced at the exchange of their service for the barren warres in Syria starved the undertakers and a cook himself cannot lick his fingers where no meat is dressed There nothing but naked honour was to be gotten here honour clothed with spoil the usurpers treasure would make brave scrambling amongst them And it was good plowing up of that ground which had long lien fallow Setting sail from Jadera which citie they had subdued to the Venetian forcing them to pay three thousand cony-skins yearly for tribute to that State like good fensers they strook at the head and made for Constantinople Which they quickly took after some hot skirmishes Alexius Angelus the usurper with his wife whores and treasure fled away Blind Isaac Angelus was fetched out of prison he and young Alexius his sonne saluted joynt Emperours Which brittle honour of theirs was quickly broken For soon after the father died being brought into an open place kept before in a close pent dungeon and having long fasted from good aire he now got his death by surfeting on it His sonne was villainously strangled by Alexius Ducas called from his beetle-brow Mursiphlus One of base parentage who was tumultuously chosen Emperour by the people This Ducas offered some affronts to the Latines which lay before Constantinople in their ships Wherefore and also because they were not payed for their former service they the second time assaulted the citie and took it by main force killing none but robbing all ravishing women and using a thousand insolencies Some fled for their succour to the shrines of Saints But the Sanctuaries needed sanctuaries to protect themselves the souldiers as little respecting place as formerly age or sex not standing on any reverence to the Saints they stood upon them making footstools of their images and statues Nicetas Choniates hitherto an historian now a plaintiff writing so full of ohs and exclamations as if the while pinched by the arm rather without measure then cause bemoneth the outrages the Latines here committed Poore man all the miseries our Saviour speaketh of in a siege met in him His flight from Constantinople was in the winter on the Sabbath-day his wife being great with child But when the object is too neare the eye it seemeth greater then it is and perchance he amplifieth and aggravateth the cruelty of these Pilgrimes being nearly interessed therein himself especially when the rhetorick of grief is alwayes in the Hyperbole Nor is it any news for souldiers to be so insolent when they take a citie by assault which time is their Saturnalia when servants themselves do command acknowledging no other leader or captain then their own passions Within a twelve-moneth all Greece was subdued save onely Adrianople Baldwine Earl of Flanders chosen Emperour Thomas Maurocenus elected first Latine Patriarch in Constantinople Boniface Marquesse of Montferrat made King of Thessalie Geoffrey of Troy a Frenchman Prince of Achaia and Duke of Athens the Venetians got many rich Islands in the Egean and Ionian seas So that one could not now see the Grecian Empire for Empires It was now expected that they should have advanced hence into Palestine But here having well feathered their nests they were loth to flie any further And now no wonder if the Christians affairs in Palestine were weak and lean the Pope diverting the meat that should feed them another way Chap. 18. The Pope sendeth an armie of Croises against
of Damascus profering them if they would depart to restore them the true Crosse the citie of Jerusalem and all the land of Palestine The English French and Italians would have embraced the conditions pleading That honourable peace was the centre of warre where it should rest That they could not satisfie their conscience to rob these Egyptians of their lands without a speciall command from God That it was good wisdome to take so desperate a debt whensoever the payment was tendred otherwise if they would not be content with their arms full they might perchance return with their hands emptie But the Legate would no wayes consent alledging this voyage was undertaken not onely for the recovery of Palestine but for the exstirpation of the Mahometane superstition And herein no doubt he followed the instructions of his master whose end in this warre was That this warre should have no end but be alwayes in doing though never done He knew it was dangerous to stop an issue which had been long open and would in no case close up this vent of people by concluding a finall peace Besides an old prophesie That a Spaniard should win Jerusalem and work wonders in those parts made Pelagius that countrey-man more zealous herein Coradine angry his profer was refused beat down the walls of Jerusalem and all the beautifull buildings therein save the towre of David and the temple of the Sepulchre Not long after Damiata having been basieged one yeare and seven moneths was taken without resistance plague and famine had made such a vastation therein The Christians entred with an intent to kill all but their anger soon melted into pity beholding the citie all bestrawed with corpses The sight was bad and the sent was worse for the dead killed the living Yea Gods sword had left their sword no work Of threescore and ten thousand but three thousand remained who had their lives pardoned on condition to cleanse the citie which imployed them a quarter of a yeare Hence the Christians marched and took the citie of Tanis and soon after the Pope substituted John de Columna a Cardinall Legate in the place of Pelagius Chap. 26. New discords betwixt the King and the Legate They march up to besiege Cairo GReat was the spoil they found in Damiata wherein as in strong barred chests the merchants of Egypt and India had locked up their treasure A full yeare the Christians stayed here contented to make this inne their home Here arose new discords betwixt the King and the new Legate who by vertue of his Legation challenged Damiata for his Holinesse which by publick agreement was formerly assigned to the King Bren in anger returned to Ptolemais both to puff out his discontents in private to teach the Christians his worth by wanting him For presently they found themselves at a losse neither could they stand still without disgrace nor go on without danger The Legate commanded them to march up but they had too much spirit to be ruled by a Spirituall man and swore not to stirre a step except the King was with them Messengers therefore were sent to Ptolemais to fetch him They found him of a steelie nature once through-hot long in cooling yet by promising him he should have his own desires they over-perswaded him not to starve an armie by feeding his own humours Scarce after eight moneths absence was he returned to Damiata but new divisions were betwixt them The Legate perswaded the armie to march up and besiege Cairo he promised if they would obey him they should quickly command all Egypt by present invading it Let defendants lie at a close guard and offer no play Delayes are a safe shield to save but celerity the best sword to winne a countrey Thus Alexander conquered the world before it could bethink it self to make resistance And thus God now opened them a doore of victorie except they would barre it up by their own idlenesse But the King advised to return into Syria That Cairo was difficult to take and impossible to keep That the ground whereon they went was as treacherous as the people against whom they fought That better now to retire with honour then hereafter flie with shame That none but an empirick in warre will denie but that more true valour is in an orderly well grounded retreat then in a furious rash invasion But the Legate used an inartificiall argument drawn from the authority of his place thundering excommunication against those that would not march forward And now needs must they go when he driveth them The crafty Egyptians of whom it is true what is said of the Parthians Their flight is more to be feared then their fight ran away counterfeiting cowardlinesse The Christians triumphed hereat as if the silly fish should rejoyce that he had caught the fisherman when he had swallowed his bait The Legate hugged himself in his own happinesse that he had given so successefull advice And now see how the garland of their victory proved the halter to strangle them Chap. 27. The miserable case of the drowned Christians in Egypt Damiata surrendred in ransome of their lives EGypt is a low level countrey except some few advantages which the Egyptians had fortified for themselves Through the midst of the land ran the river Nilus whose stream they had so bridled with banks and sluces that they could keep it to be their own servant and make it their enemies master at pleasure The Christians confidently marched on and the Turks perceiving the game was come within the toil pierced their banks and unmuzzling the river let it runne open mouth upon them yet so that at first they drowned them up but to the middle reserving their lives for a further purpose thereby in exchange to recover Damiata and their countreys liberty See here the land of Egypt turned in an instant into the Egyptian sea See an army of sixty thousand as the neck of one man stretched on the block and waiting the fatall stroke Many cursed the Legate and their own rashnesse that they should follow the counsel of a gowned man all whose experience was clasped in a book rather then the advice of experienced captains But too late repentance because it soweth not in season reapeth nothing but unavoidable miserie Meladine King of Egypt seeing the constancy and patience of the Christians was moved with compassion towards them He had of himself strong inclinations to Christianity wearie of Mahometanisme and willing to break that prison but for watchfull jaylers about him He profered the Christians their lives on condition they would quit the countrey and restore Damiata They accepted the conditions and sent messengers to Damiata to prepare them for the surrendring of it But they within the citie being themselves safe on shore tyrannized on their poore brethren in shipwrack pretending That this armie of Pilgrimes deserved no pity who had invited this misfortune on themselves by their own rashnesse That if they
yeelded up this citie for nothing which cost so many lives they should betray themselves to the derision of the whole world That if these perished more men might be had but no more Damiata's being a place of such importance it would alwayes be a snaffle in the mouth of the Egyptian King On the other side the friends of the distressed Christians confessed That indeed their voyage was unadvised and justly to be blamed yet worse and more inconsiderate projects have armies oft undertaken which if crowned with successe have been above censure yea have passed not onely without questioning but with commendations But this is the misery of misery that those who are most afflicted of God shall be most condemned of men Wherefore they requested them to pity their brethren and not to leave them in this forlorn estate How clamourous would their innocent bloud be in the court of Heaven to sue for revenge on those who forsook them in this distresse And grant Damiata a citie of great consequence yet cities in themselves were but dead things and men were the souls to enliven them so that those souldiers which wonne Damiata if preserved alive might haply recover as strong a citie afterwards But finding their arguments not to prevail they betook themselves to arms by force to compell the adverse party to resigne the citie King John also threatned in case they denied to surrender it to give up to Meladine Ptolemais in Syria in exchange for Damiata At last according to the agreement Damiata was restored to the Turks and the Christian armie let out of the trap wherein it was taken Meladine out of his princely goodnesse furnished them with victuals and with horses to carry their feeble persons upon And thus the Christians had the greatest blow given them without a blow given them the Egyptians obtaining their victory not by bloud but by water Chap. 28. Iohn Bren resigneth the Kingdome of Ierusalem to Frederick the second Germane Emperour THere was also concluded a peace with the Turks for eight yeares And now matters being settled as well as they might be in Syria King John took a journey to Rome where he was bountifully feasted and honourably entertained by the Pope Here it was agreed whether at the first by his voluntary offer or working of others it appeareth not that he should resigne the Kingdome of Jerusalem to Frederick the second Germane Emperour who was to marry Iole the sole daughter of King John by his first wife though by a second he had another Martha married to Robert Emperour of Constantinople so that he was father in law both to Emperour of East and West Some condemned his resignation as an unadvised act as if he had first parted from his wits who would willingly part from a Kingdome whilest others commend his discretion For first his wife was dead in whose right he held his Kingdome and thereby a doore was opened for other litigious pretenders to the Crown Secondly it was policie fugere nè fugaretur yea this was no flight but an honourable departure Well he knew the Turks power to invade and his own weaknesse to defend what was left in Syria So that finding the weight too heavy for himself he did well to lay it on stronger shoulders Thirdly before his resignation he had little more then a title and after it he had nothing lesse men having so tuned their tongues to salute him King of Jerusalem that he was so called to the day of his death Lastly what he wanted in the statelinesse of his bed he had in the soundnesse of his sleep and though his commons perchance were shorter yet he battled better on them He got now more in a twelve-moneth then in seven yeares before going from countrey to countrey And yet the farther this stone rolled the more mosse he gathered In France besides rich gifts left to himself he had the managing of sixty thousand crowns the legacie which Philip Augustus the King on his death-bed bequeathed to the Templars and the Holy warre In England he received from Henry the third many great presents though afterwards he proved but unthankfull for them In Spain he got a rich wife Beringaria the daughter of the King of Castile In Italie he tasted very largely of the Popes liberalitie and lived there in good esteem But he went off the stage without an applause because he lost himself in his last act perfidiously raising rebellions against Frederick his sonne in law at the instigation of his Holinesse Nor recovered he his credit though after he went to his sonne Robert to Constantinople and there did many good offices He died anno 1237. Chap. 29. The true character of Frederick How the history of his life is prejudiced by the partialitie of Authours on both sides THe nuptiall solemnities of Frederick with the Lady Iole were performed at Rome in the presence of the Pope with all ceremonies of majesty and Frederick promised to prosecute in person his title in Palestine within two yeares Little hope have I to content the reader in this Kings life who cannot satisfie my self writers of that age are so possessed with partiality The faction of the Guelfes and Gibellines discovereth not it self more plainly in the Camp then in the Chronicles Yea Historians turn Schoolmen in matters of fact arguing them pro con And as it is in the Fable of the man that had two wives whilest his old wife plucked out his black hairs the evidence of his youth his young one ungray-haired him that no standards of antiquity might remain they made him bald betwixt them So amongst our late writers whilest Protestants cut off the authority from all Papized writers of that age and Romanists cast away the witnesse of all Imperialized authours then living such as Urspergensis is and generally all Germanes counting them testes domesticos and therefore of no validitie betwixt them they draw all historie of that time very slender and make it almost quite nothing We will not engage our selves in their quarrels but may safely beleeve that Frederick was neither saint nor devil but man Many vertues in him his foes must commend and some vices his friends must confesse He was very learned according to the rate of that age especially for a Prince who onely baiteth at learning and maketh it not his profession to lodge in Wise he was in projecting nor were his thoughts ever so scattered with any sudden accident but he could instantly recollect himself Valiant he was and very fortunate though this tendeth more to Gods praise then his Wondrous bountifull to scholars and souldiers whose good will he enjoyed for he payed for it But this Gold had its allay of Cruelty though this was not so much bred in him as he brought to it Treasons against him were so frequent he could not be safe but must be severe nor severe without incurring the aspersion of crueltie His Pride was excessive and so was
craft had finished that which these bunglers had so long in vain been fumbling about Wherefore they wanting true merit to raise themselves to the pitch of Fredericks honour sought by false detraction to depresse him to the depth of their own basenesse defaming him as if he conspired with the Sultan to the ruine of all Christianity In the mean time the Christians every where built and repaired the cities of Palestine being now resigned into their hands Joppa and Nazareth they strongly fortified the walls of Jerusalem were repaired the Churches therein adorned and all publick edifices either wholly cast their skin with the snake or at leastwise renewed their bill with the eagle having their fronts either built or beautified But new tackling to an old rotten keel will never make serviceable ship Short were the smiles of this citie which groning under Gods old curse little joyed her self in this her new bravery The end of the third Book The Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book IIII. Chap. 1. Frederick battered with the Popes force and undermined with his fraud leaveth Palestine and returneth into Italy THus the Christian affairs in Palestine were in good case and possibility of improvement But the Pope knew he should catch no fish if the waters were thus clear Wherefore he stirred up John Bren Fredericks father in law ghesse whether his plots ran not low when he used such dregs to raise a rebellion in Italy against him His Holinesse spread a false report of purpose that Frederick was dead Who would think there were so much substance in a shadow This vain rumour wrought reall effects strengthening Fredericks foes with hopes and staggering his friends with fear and uncertainties Bren striking the iron whilest it was hot wonne many places from the Emperour And though Time soon after was delivered of her daughter Truth yet the confutation came too late to shut the doore when the steed was stoln the Pope having attained his ends and served his turn already A jubile of liberty was proclaimed to all the Emperours subjects and they dispensed with from the Pope for their allegeance to him Milain and many other cities in Italy formerly Imperiall danced at this musick made a foot-cloth of their Masters livery and from this time dated themselves Free-States Here was brave gleaning where all ranne away with whole sheaves where robbery was priviledged for lawfull purchase And the Pope wise enough not so to give away the pie but to keep the best corner for himself carved all Apulia for his own part Whilest hostility in Italy treason beset Frederick in Syria the Templars intimated to the Sultan his private project to wash himself in Jordan that so he might be surprized But the Sultan no doubt out of pity to see a Lion catched in a Fox-trap there being a consanguinity of all Princes and the royall bloud which runneth in their veins causing a sympathie of Majesty betwixt them scorned to advantage himself by treachery and sent their letters to Frederick Who afterwards used the Templars and generally all the Clergie in Palestine counting them complies with the Pope coursely not to say cruelly At last having confirmed his ten yeares truce and having appointed Reinoldus Duke of Bavaria his Lieutenant in Syria without noise he cometh into Europe For to return triumphantly in state had been but an alarm to awaken envy and a warning-piece for his enemies to prepare against him He outsailed fame it self landing in Italy in person before he arrived there in report Then the love of his loyall subjects hitherto rather covered then quenched appeared and though formerly forced to a contrary motion returned now quickly to their own Prince their proper centre Within fifteen dayes assisted with the Duke of Spoletum Frederick recovered all which was wonne from him and unravelled the fair web of John Brens victory even to the very hemme thereof Then was all Italy resembled by Geographers for the fashion thereof to a mans legge troubled with the incurable gout of schisme and faction Not a city of note in it which was not dichotomized into the sect of the Guelfes which favoured the Pope and Gibellines which adhered to the Emperour Guelfes for the Pope Gibellines for the Emperour Vrsini in Rome Columnienses in Rome Sabellii in Rome Frangepanes in Rome Caesarini in Rome Adimarii in Florence Pazii in Florence Bondelmontii in Florence Uberti in Florence Amidei in Florence Donati in Florence Cerchii in Florence Albicâ—i in Florence Riccii in Florence Strozi in Florence Medicei in Florence Salviati in Florence Pactii in Florence Interminelli in Lucca Obicii in Lucca Carrarii in Padua Flosci in Genoa Spinola in Genoa Grimaldi in Genoa Adurnii in Genoa Fregosii in Genoa Dorii in Genoa Caneduli in Bonoâ—ia Bentivoli in Bonoâ—ia Pepuli in Bonoâ—ia Malvecii in Bonoâ—ia Mâ—rescotti in Bonoâ—ia Estenses in Ferrara Saliguerri in Ferrara Vicecomites in Milain Turregiani in Milain Gonzagae in Mantua Bonacursii in Mantua I will not quarrel with the tradition That Elves and Goblins in our English tongue had their first originall from the depravation of the names of Guelfes and Gibellines If so sure I am what now we make terriculamenta infantum scarecrows to affright children were then true Harpyes to devoure men I would farther prosecute these discords and also shew how Frederick was forced to ask pardon of him who had most wronged him and dearly to purchase his absolution from the Pope For though this Emperours heart was as hard as stone yet was it furrowed dinted and hollowed at last with the Popes constant dropping and incessant raining of curses upon him But I dare wander no farther in this subject lest any should question my Passe but return back to the Holy land Chap. 2. The Tartars first appearing in the world affright both Christians and Turks Of their name and nature Whether Turks or Tartars be easier convertible to the true religion REinoldus Duke of Bavaria being lest Fredericks Lieutenant in Syria wisely discharged his office and preserved the peace entire which was concluded with the Sultan of Babylon But the Templars sought by all means to bring this ten yeares truce to an untimely end which was as bad as a Lent to them wherein they must fast from fighting the meat and drink of turbulent spirits These counting all luke-warm which were not scalding hot condemned Reinoldus for want of zeal in the Holy warre and gave him many a lift to heave him from his place but still he sat sure poised with his own gravity Nor did the enmity of Henry King of Cyprus much trouble him who challenged the Principality of Antioch as next of kinne to the Prince deceased For Reinold met and defeated him in battel and bestowed Antioch on Frederick base sonne to Frederick the Emperour But that which kept both Christians and Turks in aw and made them willing mutually to observe the truce was the fear of the Tartars a fierce nation which now
had their first flight out of their own nest into the neighbouring countreys These Tartarians anciently called Scythians inhabit the Northern part of Asia a countrey never conquered by any of the Monarchs priviledged from their victorious arms chiefly by its own barrennesse For except souldiers were ambitious of hunger and cold here is nothing to countervail their pains of an invasion yea no meat to maintain them It is true rhubarb the best of drugs groweth in this the worst of countreys But souldiers seek rather for food then physick when they invade a countrey A greater part of their land is undiscovered though map-makers rather then they will have their maps naked and bald do periwig them with false hair and fill up the vacuum especially towards the North with imaginary places of Vng and Gog and the plains of Bargu So true it is what one saith wittily in the Comedie That Phantastes the servant of Geographus travelled further beyond the arctick circle then ever his master durst If it be surest to follow the most the stream of writers make it called Tartaria from the river Tartar but Europe and Asia will by wofull experience justifie the etymologie if deduced from Tartarus Hell For when the spring-tides of this nation overflowed the banks hell might seem to have broken loose and to have sent so many devils abroad As for those that count them the off-spring of the ten tribes of Israel which Salmanasar led away captive because Tatari or Totari signifieth in the Hebrew and Syriack tongue a residue or remnant learned men have sufficiently confuted it And surely it seemeth a forced and overstrained deduction to farrefetch the name of Tartars from an Hebrew word a language so farre distant from them But no more hereof because perchance herein the womans reason hath a masculine truth and the Tartarians are called so because they are called so It may be curious Etymologists let them lose their wages who work in difficult trifles seek to reap what was never sown whilest they study to make those words speak reason which are onely voces ad placitum imposed at pleasure Under their new name Tartarians they keep their old nature of Scythians fierce cruel yea sometimes in stead of other meat making man their meat One humour they have much affecting the owl a bird which other nations scorn and hate as the usher of ill luck The occasion was this A King of Tartary sought for by his enemies hid himself in a bush whither his foes came to seek him when presently an owl flew out of the place Whereupon they desisted from further search conceiving that that anchorite bird proclaimed nothing was there but solitude and desolation Hence in gratitude they never count themselves more gay then when their helmets are hung with owls feathers Whereat I should strange more but that I find this fowl dedicated to Minerva the Goddesse of wit and that Athens schoolmistresse of the world counted it a token of victory The King of these Tartarians styleth himself The great Cham and is monarch of a great part of the world in possession of the rest in imagination He taketh and his subjects give him little lesse then divine honour who in other things at this time were pure Pagans and Idolaters Now their countrey which is like a poore man whose common is overstocked with children swarming with more bees then hives sent their superfluous numbers to seek their fortunes amongst the Christians They needed no steel-armour who had iron-bodies Onely with bows cruelty and multitude they overranne Lituania Podolia Polonia and those countreys which are the East-boundanes of Europe Others took their way Southward into Asia committing outrages as they went and sensible how incomparably their own countrey was surpassed for pleasure and profit by these new lands blame not their judgement if they preferred a palace before a prison they little cared to return home Their incursions into Europe were so farre and frequent that Pope Innocent the fourth about the yeare 1245 began to fear them in Italy Wherefore he sent Askelin a Friar much admired in that age with three other into Tartaria to convert that nation to Christianity Where Askelin in stead of teaching them the elements of our religion laid this foundation to amplifie to them the power of the Pope setting him out in his full dimensions How he was above all men in the Christian world A good nurse to feed infants in stead of milk with such drie bones enough almost to affright them from entring into our Church seeing such a giant as they painted the Pope to stand before the doore But Baiothnoi chief Captain of the Tartarian armie for they were not admitted to speak with the great Cham himself cried quits with this Friar outvying him with the greatnesse and divinity of their Cham and sent back by them a blunt letter Pope know this Thy messengers came and brought letters to us Thy messengers spake great words we know not whether thou enjoynedst them or whether they spake of themselves and in thy letters thou writest thus Many men you kill slay and destroy At last he thus concluded If thou wilt set upon our land water and patrimony it behoveth that thou Pope in thy proper person come unto us and that thou come to him who containeth the face of the whole earth meaning their great Cham. Never did his Holinesse so meet with his match before He durst not meet the great Cham of the East his competitour in the imaginary monarchie of the world to trie whose title was truest Let others tear their skins he would sleep in a whole one And indeed that Shepherd loved his flock of Christians better then by his absence in a long journey into Tartaria to expose them to the wolves And so the conversion of Tartarie at that time was disappointed It is a pretty quaere Whether Turks of Tartars be easier convertible to Christian religion I mean ex parte objecti for otherwise all things are equally easie to an infinite agent Now it seemeth the Tartars are reducible with most facility to our religion For pure Paganisme and native Infidelity like white cloth will take the tincture of Christianity whereas the Turks are soiled and stained with the irreligious religion of Mahometanisme which first with much pains must be scoured out of them And though they may seem to be in some forwardnesse to conversion because they have a kind of knowledge and reverence of Christ yet the best joynt of their belief must be broken before it can be well set and every drop of their present religion pumped out before true faith be infuâ—ed into them And experience the most competent witnesse herein hath proved That afterwards more Tartars both private men and Princes then Turks of either condition have embraced Christianity Enough at this time we shall have occasion too soon to speak more of the Tartars Chap. 3. The Greeks recover their Empire from
the Latines The Holy warre thereby much endamaged IT was conceived that it would be much beneficiall to the Pilgrimes in their voyages to Palestine that the Latines were lately possessed of the Grecian Empire For what is saved is gained And grant that the Latines in Greece should not actually assist in the Holy warre yet it was a considerable advantage what all justly expected That Pilgrimes should now have safe and secure passage through Grecia the pitfall which formerly had devoured so many But these fair hopes soon miscarried For what through the celerity of Theodorus Lascaris and the gravity of John Ducas his sonne in law who reigned as Grecian Emperours in Nice the Greeks recovered every foot of ground that the Latines had wonne from them Onely the Venetians being good at holdfast kept their portion when all others had spent theirs and enjoy Candie to this day This is imputed to their discretion in their choice who in the sharing of this Empire amongst the Western Princes refused the continent countreys though greater in extent and richer in cities and chose rather the Islands which being as little worlds in themselves were most capable of entire fortifications especially in their way who were most powerfull at sea Sixty yeares almost did the Latines make a hard shift to hold Constantinople under five succeeding Emperours 1. Baldwine the first Earl of Flanders 2. Henry his brother 3. Peter Count of Auxerre in France Henrie's sonne in law 4. Robert 5. Baldwine the second and last An example which the observers of the ominous circulation or return of names alledge That as a Baldwine was the first so a Baldwine was the last Latine Emperour in Grecia Of these the first Baldwine had his hands and feet cut off and died in a ditch Peter invited to a feast payed the shot with his life the other three died without any violence but with much misery And thus their conquest of Grecia like a little sprig stuck into the ground did sprout at the first whilest it had any sap in it but then withered for want of a root Indeed it was impossible long to continue For when the generation of the primitive adventurers in this action were dead there wanted another to succeed them and the countreys whence they came were so farre off that supplies of Latine people came thither very slowly Onely Venice well peopled her parts from the vicinity of her dominions And that number of souldiers which is sufficient by sudden conquest to over-runne a countrey is incompetent without a second edition of new supplies to make good manage and maintain it especially being to meddle with the Greeks farre exceeding them in number subject onely out of fear longing daily for their liberty and opportunity to recover it Let never any Pilgrimes hereafter make Greece their inne in their journey to Palestine Yea also at this time the furnace of the Grecian jealousie was made seven times hotter For besides this Civil an Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall breach happened betwixt them and the Latines which we come now to describe Chap. 4. The uncurable breach betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches with the occasion thereof HItherto Grecians and Latines lived together in Palestine in some tolerable correspondencie differing in judgement but complying in affections as counting themselves two severall sides yet both making up the body of Christians But now by an unhappy discord they were irreconcilably parted asunder to the great advantage of the Turks and prejudice of the Holy warre We will fetch this flame from the first spark and though we go farre about the length of the journey will be recompensed by the goodnesse of the way Anciently in the primitive time the Church of Rome was esteemed the first and chiefest of all others but without any jurisdiction above them Because that was the Imperiall citie and Queen of the world therefore the Church therein was highest in account as the candle which is in the fairest candlestick is alwayes set above the rest though otherwise equall unto it in light at the upper end of the table It happened afterward that the Emperour removed his seat from Rome to Constantinople Whereupon orphane Rome suddenly decayed for the Emperours court carried day with it and left night behind it was chief mourner at the funeralls of her own greatnesse and from a pleasant garden turned a wildernesse overgrown with Goths Vandals and other barbarous weeds whilest Constantinople tricked and tired her self started up in an instant great rich and stately insomuch that John her Patriarch claimed to be universall Bishop above all other Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome stoutly withstood him protesting that he was the usher of Antichrist who assumed that swelling title wherein he â—eated the brand to mark his successour with For Boniface save one the next Pope of Rome so dealt with Phocas the Emperour of Constantinople that he got himself confirmed universall Bishop over the whole world A Chaplain and a Patrone well met both usurpers supporting one another like stones in an arch with their reciprocall aid Phocas held Boniface in his chair and Boniface kept Phocas in his throne And thus was the Pope of Rome first possessed of his Primacie both of dignity and authority both of precedencie of power and jurisdiction over all other Churches As for his pretense to challenge it by commission from Christ and succession from Peter this string to his bow is so full of gauls frets and knots it cannot hold and is broken by many learned Divines However Constantinople rather overborn then overcome for want rather of strength then stomach ever rebelled or rather resisted for no rebellion against usurpation Romes supremacie especially when she found her self befriended with any advantage for many hundred yeares after It happened to come to the matter in hand that a Grecian Archbishop went to Rome there to have his confirmation Where the Court demanded for him such unreasonable fees toll more then the grift that the Prelate perceived it would weaken him to be confirmed and shake his estate to settle him in his Bishoprick Home therefore he cometh with a loud alarm against the extortions of Rome and mustereth together many of his countrey-men who hereupon for ever withdrew their obedience from Rome and threw off that heavy yoke they could not bear hereafter owning her for their sister not mother It may seem strange that the Romane Court being here justly taxed for extortion would not amend it But how often soever she be told of her dirty face she will never wash it For reforming would argue a former fault and they feared if they yeelded themselves guilty in one point it would shake the whole fabrick of their credit Besides if the Grecians had received satisfaction and redresse in this grievance it would have given them pretense to prepare more requests and to think that they also were due Lastly no strength of perswasion will draw men from those
them all being few and feeble to the sword taking King Lewis with his two brethren Alphonse and Charles prisoners Instantly the Turks went up with French ensignes to Damiata hoping so suddenly to surprise it Which project had it took effect then farewell King Lewis for ever He must be sent a present to the Caliph of Babylon from whom never any returned alive Melechsala being but Purgatory whence there was redemption but the Babylonian Caliph Hell it self from whence no hope of release But God defeated their designe for the Turks could not French it so handsomely but that they were discovered The very language of their hands made them suspected afarre off because they could not counterfeit the French idiotismes in managing their bucklers that nation being most punctuall and criticall in their military postures But being come neare it was plain for any to read Turk in their beards and complexions so that they departed without having what they desired Chap. 17. The wofull impression which the ill successe of the French wrought on the Christians in Europe SOme made more hast then good speed bad news being the worst ware a ship can be fraught with to sail into France with the sad tidings of this overthrow These intelligencers Blanch the Queen-mother and Regent of France rewarded with the gallows and my Authour doubteth not to pronounce them all Martyrs But let them be contented with the coronet of their own innocence though without the crown of Martyrdome that honour belonging to such alone as suffer death for fundamentall points of religion But so great an eclipse could not long be kept from the eyes of the world this dolefull and dismall news was sounded and seconded from every side Then was there a generall lamentation over all Christendome chiefly in France where all were so sorrowfull that any mirth was counted profanenesse Many bounded not themselves within the banks of grief but brake out into blasphemy both in France and elsewhere taxing Justice it self of being unjust and not content to admire what they could not conceive condemned Gods proceedings herein to be against right because above their reason Fools because they could not conquer on earth did quarrel with heaven This bad breath though it came but from the teeth of some yet proceeded from the corrupted lungs of others some spake but out of present passion but others even out of inbred Atheisme Many who before were but lukewarm in religion now turned stark-cold In Venice and some other cities of Italy the inhabitants whereof Matthew Paris calleth semi-christianos but half-Christians though this his harsh appellation wanteth three parts of charity began wholly to tend to apostasie And now for a crutch to stay their reeling faith it was high time for the Clergie to ply the pulpits They perswaded those Rachels who in this voyage had lost any children and would not be comforted that their children were in a most blessed condition They emptied all their boxes of their colours of rhetorick therewith to paint out the happinesse of their estate which they enjoyed in heaven They pieced out their Sermons with reporting of Miracles How William Earl of Sarisbury appeared to his mother and assured her that he reigned most glorious in heaven She presently forgot her grief for losing her sonne for joy that she had found a Saint yea a Martyr This was their constant custome When any in Europe wept for the losse of their friends in this warre their tears were instantly dried up with some hot miracle that was reported them Wherewith the silly people were well pleased as babes of clouts are good enough to keep children from crying About this time many thousands of the English were resolved for the Holy warre and would needs have been gone had not the King strictly guarded his ports and kept his Kingdome from running away out of doores The King promised he would go with them and hereupon got a masse of money from them for this journey Some say that he never intended it and that this onely was a trick to stroke the skittish cow to get down her milk His stubborn subjects said that they would tarry for his company till midsummer and no longer Thus they weighed out their obedience with their own scales and the King stood to their allowance But hearing of this sorrowfull accident both Prince and people altered their resolution who had come too late to help the French in their distresse and too soon to bring themselves into the same misery Chap. 18. King Lewis exchanged for Damiata stayeth some yeares at Ptolemais BUt return to Egypt where King Lewis was kept prisoner by Melechsala who often felt his disposition about the resigning of Damiata but found that to heare of death was more welcome musick unto him But see here a sudden alteration One Tarqueminus a sturdy Mamaluke with another of that society killed Melechsala in the very height of his victorious happinesse and succeeded him in the Egyptian Kingdome This Tarquemine came in with an intent to send Lewis the same way Which poore Prince was onely armed with innocence and majesty and yet his bare person defended his person from that cruel attempt such an awfull impression did his very presence saith my Authour strike into him who would have stricken him But we may rather think that the city of Damiata was King Lewis his corslet and that all the towres and walls of that place fensed him Tarqueminus reserving his person as an equivalent ransome thereby to redeem that royall citie Now Lewis had changed his Lord but not his lamentable condition continuing still a prisoner At last he was restored to his liberty on condition that the Christians should surrender Damiata and he also pay back to the Turks many thousand pounds both for ransome of Christian captives and in satisfaction of the vastations they had committed in Egypt Lewis for security of this money pawned to the Turk the Pyx and Host that is the body of Christ transsubstantiated in the Eucharist as his chiefest jewel which he should be most carefull to redeem Hence in perpetuall memory of this conquest we may see a Wafer-cake and a Box alwayes wrought in the borders of that tapestry which is brought out of Egypt Note by the way that the Turks were most unreasonable in their rates of ransoming souldiers and in all other their pecuniary demands For their own countrey being neare to the fountain of gold and silver they made as if it flowed as plentifully in other places measuring the wealth of other lands by their own and asking as much for a private mans ransome as would drain a Princes purse in these Western parts Thus was Damiata restored again to the Turks and the Christians punctually performed their promises though the false Miscreant on the other side set not half the captives free killed all the sick persons whom by promise he should relieve and contrary to the agreement suffered not any Christian
the speedy withering of their religion argueth it wanted root And as tame foxes if they break loose and return wild do ten times more mischief then those which were wild from the beginning so these renegadoes raged more furiously then any Pagans against religion Guirboca sacrificed many Christians to the ghost of his nephew destroyed Cesarea and burnt it using all cruelty against the inhabitants Nor lesse were the Christians plagued at the same time with Bendocdar the Mammaluke Prince in Egypt who succeeded Melechem and every where raging against them either killed or forced them to forswear their religion The city of Joppa he took and burned and then wonne Antioch slaying therein twenty thousand and carrying away captive an hundred thousand Christians But it may justly be suspected that these numbers were written first in figures and therefore at too much length when the adding of nothing may increase many thousands These wofull tidings brought into Europe so wrought on the good disposition of Lewis King of France that he resolved to make a second voyage into Palestine to succour the Christians He so fixed his mind on the journeys end that he saw not the dangers in the way His Counsel could not disswade though they did disswade him First they urged That he was old let younger men take their turns They recounted to him his former ill successe How lately had that hot countrey scorched the lilies of France not onely to the blasting of the leaves but almost withering of the root Besides the sinews of the Christians in Syria were so shrunk that though lifted up they could not stand That Nature decayed but not thus wholly destroyed was the subject of physick That the Turks had got a habit of conquering and riveted themselves into the possession of the countrey so that this voyage would but fleet the cream of the Kingdome to cast it into the fire But as a vehement flame maketh feuel of whatsoever it meeteth so this Kings earnest resolution turned bridles into spurres and hindrances into motives to his journey Was he old let him make the more speed lest envious death should prevent him of this occasion of honour Had he sped ill formerly he would seek his credit where he lost it Surely Fortunes lottery had not all blanks but that after long drawing he should light on a prize at last Were the Christians in so low a case the greater need they had of speedy help Thus was this good Kings judgement over-zealed And surely though Devotion be the naturall heat Discretion which wanted in him is the radicall moisture of an action keeping it healthfull prosperous and long-lived Well King Lewis will go and to this end provideth his navie and is accompanied with Philip and Tristram his sonnes Theobald King of Navarre his sonne in law Alphonse his brother and Guido Earl of Flandres There went also Edward eldest sonne to Henry King of England It was a wonder he would now adventure his head when he was to receive a Crown his father being full-ripe to drop down without gathering having reigned longer then most men live fifty and five yeares But thirsty was this Edward of honour Longshanks was he called and as his strides were large so vast and wide was the extent of his desire As for his good father he was content to let go the staff of his age for to be a prop to the Church And though King Lewis was undiscreet in going this journey he was wise in choosing this his companion to have this active Prince along with him it being good to eye a suspicious person and not to leave him behind With Edward went his brother Edmund Earl of Lancaster surnamed Crouch-back not that he was crook-shouldered or camel-backed From which our English Poet most zealously doth vindicate him Edmund like him the comeliest Prince alive Not crook-back'd ne in no wise disfigured As some men write the right line to deprive Though great falshood made it to be scriptured but from the Crosse anciently called a Crouch whence Crouched Friars which now he wore in his voyage to Jerusalem And yet it maketh it somewhat suspicious that in Latine records he is never read with any other epithet then Gibbosus But be he crooked or not let us on straight with our story Chap. 27. King Lewis besiegeth the city of Tunis His death and commendation LEwis now having hoised up sail it was concluded by the generall consent of his Counsel That to secure and clear the Christians passage to Palestine from pirates they should first take the city of Carthage in Africa by the way This Carthage long wrestled with Rome for the sovereignty and gave as many foils as she took till Scipio at last crushed out her bowels with one deadly fall Yet long after the citie stood before wholly demolished to be a spurre to put metall into the Romanes and to be a forrein mark for their arrows lest otherwise they should shoot against themselves At last by the counsel of Cato it was quite destroyed who alledged That it was not safe to have a knife so neare their throat and though good use might be made of an enemy at arms end yet it was dangerous to have him too close to ones side as Carthage was within a dayes sail from Rome Out of the ruines of this famous citie Tunis arose as often a stinking elder groweth out of the place where an oak hath been felled Theeving was their trading but then as yet they were Apprentises to piracie whereof at this day they are grown Masters Yea not considerable was Tunis then in bignesse great onely in mischief But as a small scratch just upon the turning of a joynt is more troublesome then a bigger sore in another place so this paltry town the refuge of rogues and wanderers home seated in the passage betwixt Europe Asia and Africa was a worse annoyance to Christian traffick then a whole countrey of Saracens elsewhere Wherefore both to revenge the bloud of many Christians who passing this way to Palestine were either killed or taken captive as also to secure the way for the time to come Lewis with his whole fleet augmented with the navy of Charles King of Sicilie and Jerusalem his brother bent his course to besiege it It was concluded both unnecessary and unfitting first in a fair way to summon the city because like pernicious vermine they were to be rooted out of the world by any means nor was it meet to lavish the solemn ceremonies of warre on a company of theeves and murderers The siege was no sooner begun but the plague seised on the Christian armie whereof thousands died amongst others Tristram King Lewis his sonne And he himself of a flux followed after This Lewis was the French Josiah both for the piety of his life and wofulnesse of his death ingaging himself in a needlesse warre Many good laws he made for his Kingdome that not the worst He first retrenched
his Barons power to suffer parties to trie their intricate titles to land by duells He severely punished blasphemers searing their lips with an hot iron And because by his command it was executed upon a great rich citizen of Paris some said he was a tyrant He hearing it said before many I would to God that with searing my own lips I could banish out of my realm all abuse of oathes He loved more to heare Sermons then to be present at Masse whereas on the contrary our Henry the third said he had rather see his God then heare another speak of him though never so well His body was carried into France there to be buried and was most miserably tossed it being observed that the sea cannot digest the crudity of a dead corpse being a due debt to be interred where it dieth and a ship cannot abide to be made a bier of He was Sainted after his death by Boniface the eighth and the five and twentieth day of August on which day in his first voyage to Palestine he went on shipboard is consecrated to his memory Herein he had better luck then as good a man I mean our Henry the sixth who could not be canonized without a mighty summe of money belike Angels making Saints at Rome Chap. 28. Tunis taken The French return home whilest our Edward valiantly setteth forward for Palestine BY this time Tunis was brought to great distresse and at last on these conditions surrendred That it should pay yearly to Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem fourty thousand crowns That it should receive Christian Ministers freely to exercise their religion If any Saracen would be baptized he should be suffered That all Christian captives should be set free That they should pay back so much money as should defray the Christians charges in this voyage Our Edward would needs have had the town beaten down and all put to the sword thinking the foulest quarter too fair for them Their goods because got by robbery he would have sacrificed as an anathema to God and burnt to ashes His own share he execrated and caused it to be burnt forbidding the English to save any thing of it because that coals stolen out of that fire would sooner burn their houses then warm their hands It troubled not the consciences of other Princes to enrich themselves herewith but they glutted themselves with the stolen hony which they found in this hive of drones And which was worse now their bellies were full they would go to bed return home and go no further Yea the young King of France called Philip the Bold was fearfull to prosecute his journey to Palestine whereas Prince Edward struck his breast and swore That though all his friends forsook him yet he would enter Ptolemais though but onely with Fowin his horse-keeper By which speech he incensed the English to go on with him The rest pleading the distemperature of the weather went to Sicily in hope with change of aire to recover their health Where many of them found what they sought to avoid death amongst other Theobald King of Navarre and Isabell his wife and William Earl of Flandres who ended their dayes at Drepanum Besides their navie was pursuivanted after with a horrible tempest and a curse entailed either on their ill-gotten goods or deserting Gods cause or both arrested them in their return so that of this great wealth little was landed in Europe their ships being wracked the goods therein cast into the sea with which the waves played a little and then chopped them up at a morsel Whilest the weather frowning on them smiled on the English Prince Edward no whit damnified either in his men or ships with Elenor his tender consort then young with child safely arrived at Ptolemais to the great solace and comfort of the Christians there being in great distresse Chap. 29. Prince Edwards performance in Palestine He is dangerously wounded yet recovereth and returneth home safe AT his arrivall the last stake of the Christians was on losing For Bendocdar the Mammaluke Prince of Egypt and Syria had brought Ptolemais to so low an ebbe that they therein resolved if some unexpected succour reversed not their intentions within three dayes to resigne the city unto him Edward landing stayed this precipitation who arrived with his armie there in the very interim in opportunity it self which is the very quintessence of time so that all concluded his coming thus hitting the mark was guided by the hand of an especiall providence And now those who before in despair would have thrown up their cards hope at least to make a saving game and the Christians taking comfort and courage both defie their enemies and their own thoughts of surrendring the citie Prince Edward having sufficiently manned and victualled Ptolemais taking six or seven thousand souldiers marched to Nazareth which he took and slew those he found there After this about midsummer understanding the Turks were gathered together at Cakhow fourty miles off very early in the morning he set upon them slew a thousand and put the rest to flight In these skirmishes he gave evident testimonies of his personall valour Yea in cold bloud he would boldly challenge any Infidel to a duell To speak truth this his conceived perfection was his greatest imperfection For the world was abundantly satisfied in the point of his valour yet such was his confidence of his strength and eagernesse of honour that having merited the esteem of a most stout man he would still supererogate yea he would profer to fight with any mean person if cried up by the volge for a tall man this daring being a generall fault in great spirits and a great fault in a Generall who staketh a pearl against a piece of glasse The best was in that age a man fighting with sword and buckler had in a manner many lives to lose and duells were not dangerous Whilest he stayed at Ptolemais Elenor his Lady was delivered of a fair daughter called from her birth-place Joan of Acres But fear of her husbands death abated her joy at her daughters birth The Turks not matching him in valour thought to master him with treachery which was thus contrived The Admirall of Joppa a Turk pretended he would turn Christian and imployed one Anzazim an Assasine in the businesse betwixt him and Prince Edward who carried himself so cunningly that by often repairing to our Prince he got much credit and esteem with him Some write this Anzazim was before alwayes bred under ground as men keep hawks and warre-horses in the dark to make them more fierce that so coming abroad he should fear to venture on no man But sure so cunning a companion had long conversed with light and been acquainted with men yea Christians and Princes as appeareth by his complying carriage else if he had not been well read in their company he could not have been so perfect in his lesson But let him be bred any where
or in hell it self For this was his religion To kill any he was commanded or on the non-performance willingly to forfeit his life The fifth time of his coming he brought Prince Edward letters from his Master which whilest he was reading alone and lying on his bed he struck him into the arm with an invenomed knife Being about to fetch another stroke the Prince with his foot gave him such a blow that he felled him to the ground and wresting the knife from him ranne the Turk into the belly and slew him yet so that in struggling he hurt himself therewith in the forehead At this noise in sprang his servants and one of them with a stool beat the brains out of the dead Turks head shewing little wit in his own and the Prince was highly displeased that the monument of his valour should be stained with anothers crueltie It is storied how Elenor his Lady sucked all the poison out of his wounds without doing any harm to her self So sovereigne a medicine is a womans tongue anointed with the vertue a loving affection Pity it is so pretty a story should not be true with all the miracles in Loves Legends and sure he shall get himself no credit who undertaketh to confute a passage so sounding to the honour of the sex Yet can it not stand with what others have written How the Physician who was to dresse his wounds spake to the Lord Edmund and the Lord John Voysie to take away Lady Elenor out of the Princes presence lest her pity should be cruel towards him in not suffering his sores to be searched to the quick And though she cried out and wrung her hands Madame said they be contented it is better that one woman should weep a little while then that all the realm of England should lament a great season And so they conducted her out of the place And the Prince by the benefit of physick good attendance and an antidote the Master of the Templars gave him shewed himself on horse-back whole and well within fifteen dayes after The Admirall of Joppa hearing of his recovery utterly disavowed that he had any hand in the treachery as none will willingly father unsucceeding villany True it is he was truly sorrowfull whether because Edward was so bad or no worse wounded he knoweth that knoweth hearts Some wholly acquit him herein and conceive this mischief proceeded from Simon Earl of Montforts hatred to our Prince who bearing him and all his kindred an old grudge for doing some conceived wrong to his father in very deed nothing but justice to a rebell hired as they think this Assasine to murder him as a little before for the same quarrel he had served Henry sonne to Richard King of the Romanes and our Edwards cousin-germane at Viterbo in Italy It is much this Simon living in France should contrive this Princes death in Palestine but malice hath long arms and can take men off at great distance Yea this addeth to the cunning of the engineer to work unseen and the further from him the blow is given the lesse is he himself suspected Whosoever plotted God prevented it and the Christians there would have revenged it but Edward would not suffer them In all haste they would have marched and fallen on the Turks had not he disswaded them because then many Christians unarmed and in small companies were gone to visit the Sepulchre all whose throats had then probably been cut before their return Eighteen moneths he stayed at Ptolemais and then came back through Italy without doing any extraordinary matter in Palestine What musick can one string make when all the rest are broken what could Edward do alone when those Princes fell back on whom the project most relied Lewis and Charles were the main undertakers Edward entertained but as an adventurer and sharer and so he furnished himself accordingly with competent forces to succour others but not to subsist of themselves But as too often where the principall miscarrieth the second sureties must lie at the stake to make the debt good so in their default he valiantly went forward though having in all but thirteen ships and some thousands of men too many for a plain Prince to visit with and too few for a great one to warre with and performed what lay within the compasse of his power In a word his coming to Ptolemais and assisting them there was like a cordiall given to a dying man which doth piece out his life or death rather a few grones and as many gasps the longer By this time Henry his aged father being dead his lamp not quenched but going out for want of oil the English Nobility came as far as the Alpes in Savoy to wait on Edward in his return Leave we him then to be attended home by them to receive the Crown to which no lesse his vertues then birth entitled him Since the Conquest he was the first King of his name and the first that settled the Law and State deserving the style of Englands Justinian and that freed this Kingdome from the wardship of the Peers shewing himself in all his actions after capable to command not the realm onely but the whole world Chap. 30. Rodulphus the Emperours voyage to Palestine hindred The Duke of Mechlenburg his captivity and inlargement BEfore Edwards departure Hugh King of Jerusalem and Cyprus concluded a peace to our Princes small liking with the Mammaluke Sultan of Egypt to hold onely in and neare Ptolemais whereby the Christians had some breathing-time But that which now possessed all mens thoughts and talk in Syria was the expectation of Rodulphus to come thither with a great army who after two and twenty yeares interregnum was chosen Emperour of Germany This Rodulphus was a mean Earl of Haspurg Frederick the last Emperour was his godfather who little thought that having so many sonnes of his own his godsonne should next succeed him and lived in a private way But now the Empire refusing her rich suiters married this Earl without any portion onely for pure love A preferment beyond his expectation not above his deserts For Germany had many bigger lights none brighter Pope Gregory the tenth would not ratifie his election but on this condition That he should in person march with an armie to Palestine And though this was but an old policie To send the Emperours far away that so he might command in chief in their absence yet his Holinesse did so turn and dresse this threed-bare plot with specious pretenses of piety that it passed for new and fresh especially to those that beheld it at distance But Rodulphus could not be spared out of Germany being there imployed in civil discords The knees of the Dutch Princes were too stiff to do him homage till he softned them by degrees And indeed he was not provided for the Holy warre and wanted a stock of his own to drive so costly a trade
very bountifull to the Carmelites who lived dispersed in Syria but afterwards he banished them out of his countrey because they altered their habit and wore white coats at the appointment of Pope Honorius the Turks being generally enemies to innovations and loving constancy in old customes Nor was this any mishap but an advantage to the Carmelites to lose their dwellings in Syria and gain better in Europe where they planted themselves in the fattest places So that he who knoweth not to choose good ground let him find out an house of the Carmelites a mark that faileth not for his direction Alphir was next to Melechsaites otherwise called Elsi He perceiving that now or never was the time finally to expell the Christians out of Palestine whilest the Princes in Europe were in civil warres besieged and wonne Tripoli Sidon Berytus and Tyre beating them down to the ground but suffering the inhabitants on some conditions to depart Nothing now was left but Ptolemais which Alphir would not presently besiege lest he should draw the Christians in Europe upon him but concluded a peace for five yeares with the Venetians as not willing wholly to exasperate them by winning all from them at once and thinking this bitter potion would be better swallowed by them at two severall draughts Mean time Ptolemais was in a wofull condition In it were some of all countreys so that he who had lost his nation might find it here Most of them had severall courts to decide their causes in and the plenty of Judges caused the scarcity of justice malefactours appealing to a triall in the courts of their own countrey It was sufficient innocency for any offender in the Venetian court that he was a Venetian Personall acts were entituled nationall and made the cause of the countrey Outrages were every-where practised no-where punished as if to spare Divine revenge the pains of overtaking them they would go forth and meet it At the same time they were in fitters about prosecuting their titles to this city no fewer then the Venetians Genoans Pisans Florentines the Kings of Cyprus and Sicily the Agents for the Kings of France and England the Princes of Tripoli and Antioch the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Masters of the Templars and Hospitallers and whom I should have named first the Legate of his Holinesse all at once with much violence contending about the right of right nothing the title to the Kingdome of Jerusalem and command of this city like bees making the greatest humming and buzzing in the hive when now ready to leave it Chap. 33. Ptolemais besieged and taken by Sultan Serapha WIthin the city were many voluntaries lately come over five hundred whereof were of the Popes furnishing But belike he failed afterwards in his payment to them the golden tide flowing not so fast out as into his Holinesse coffers The souldiers being not payed according to their blunt manners would pay themselves and marching out pillaged the countrey contrary to the truce Sultan Serapha who succeeded Alphir demanding restitution is denied and his Embassadours ill intreated Hereupon he sitteth down before the city with six hundred thousand men But we are not bound to beleeve that Alexanders souldiers were so big as their shields speak them which they left in India nor Asian armies so numerous as they are reported Allow the Turks dominions spacious and populous and that they rather drained then chose souldiers yet we had best credit the most niggardly writers which make them an hundred and fifty thousand Serapha resolveth to take it conceiving so convenient a purchase could not be over-bought The place though not great yet was a mote in the eye of the Turkish Empire and therefore pained them Peter Belvise Master of the Templars a valiant Captain had the command of the city assigned him by generall consent He encouraged the Christians to be valiant not like prodigall heirs to lose this city for nothing which cost their grandfathers so much bloud at least let them give one blaze of valour ere their candle went out How should they shew their friends their faces if they shewed their foes their backs Let them fight it out manfully that so if forced at last to surrender it they might rather be pitied for want of fortune then justly blamed for lack of valour And now Ptolemais being to wrestle her last fall stripped her self of all cumbersome clothes women children aged persons weak folks all such hindering help and mouthes without arms were sent away and twelve thousand remained conceived competent to make good the place Serapha marcheth up furiously his men assault the city with open jaws ready to devoure it had not their mouthes been stopped with the artillery the Christians shot at them Back they were beaten and many a Turk slain But Serapha was no whit sensible thereof who willingly would lose a thousand men in a morning for a breakfast double so many at a dinner and continue this costly ordinary for some dayes together yea in spite he would spend an ounce of Turkish bloud to draw a drop of Christian In this conflict Peter Belvise was slain with a poisoned arrow A losse above grieving for Many were strong in desiring the honour who were weak to discharge the office But the worst mischief was the Christians were divided amongst themselves and neglected to defend the citie conceiving that though that was taken yet every particular nation could defend it self having their buildings severally fortified And this dangerous fansie took off their thoughts from the publick good and fixed them on their private ends Mean time the Patriarch of Jerusalem and others some name with them Henry King of Jerusalem and Cyprus more seeking their safety then honour secretly fled with their bodies after their hearts out of the city and some of them shunning a noble death fell on a base end being drowned in the sea Their cowardlinesse is imputed by some Authours to all the rest whereas it appeareth on the contrary they most valiantly behaved themselves At last the Turks entred the city by undermining the walls and conceived their work now done when it was new begun For they found Ptolemais not a city but a heap of cities thrown together wherein the people of every countrey so fensed themselves in their severall forts that they powdered the Turks with their shot when they entred the streets It is hardly to be paralleled in any siege that a taken city was so long before it was taken for it held out fifty dayes and the Knights-Hospitallers made good their castle for two whole moneths together But alas as the severall parts of Insecta being cut asunder may wriggle and stirre a while not live long so these divided limbes could not long subsist and at last most of them were slain Yet was it a bloudy victory to the Turks most of them that entred the city being either burned with fire or killed with arrows or smothered with the fall of towres
from all the rest in the wood namely that what specious shews soever were pretended the true cause of their ruine was that they began to desert the Pope and adhere to the Emperour If this was true no doubt they were deeply guiltie and deserved the hard measure they suffered Sure I am how-ever at this time they might turn edge they had formerly been true blades for his Holinesse All Europe followed the copie that France had set them Here in England King Edward the second of that name suppressed the Order and put them to death So by vertue of a writ sent from him to Sir John Wogan Lord chief Justice in Ireland were they served there and such was the secrecie of the contrivance of the businesse that the storm fell upon them before they saw it and all crannies were so closely stopped that none could steal a glimpse of the mischief intended against them In Germanie they found some mercie and milder dealing for Hugh Wildgrave coming with twenty of his Order all in armour into a Councel of Dutch Bishops who intended to execute the sentence of the Pope upon them there protested his innocencie and appealed to the next Pope who should succeed Clement as to his competent judge Hereupon their lives were spared onely they were forced to renounce the name of Templars and to enter themselves into other Orders chiefly of Hospitallers and Teutonicks on whom their lands were bestowed We will conclude all with that resolution of a brace of Spanish writers who make this epilogue to this wofull tragedie Concerning these Templars whether they were guiltie or not let us suspend our censure till the day of judgement and then and no sooner shall we certainly be informed therein Chap. 4. Of the Teutonick Order When they left Palestine and on what conditions they were entertained in Prussia Their Order at last dissolved FRequent mention hath been formerly made of the Teutonick Order or that of Dutch Knights who behaved themselves right valiantly clean through the Holy warre And which foundeth much to their honour they cannot be touched either for treason or faction but were both loyall and peaceable in the whole service But at last they perceived that by the course of the cards they must needs rise losers if they continued the warre in the Holy land and even resolved to abandon it It happened at the same time that Conrade Duke of Mazovia offered them most honourable conditions namely the enjoying of Prussia on condition they would defend it against the Infidels which annoyed it Indeed the fratres gladiferi or sword-bearing brothers brave slashing lads undertook that task but finding either their arms too weak or swords too blunt to strike through their enemies they imployed the aid of and conjoyned themselves to this Teutonick Order Hereupon in the yeare of our Lord 1239 Hermannus de Saltza fourth Master of these Dutch Knights came with most of his Order into Prussia yet so that he left a competent number of them still in Palestine which continued and did good service there even to the taking of Ptolemais But the greater number of these Dutch Knights in Prussia did knight-service against the Tartarians and were Christendomes best bank against the inundations of those barbarous people By their endeavours the Prussians which before were but heathen-Christians were wholly converted many a brave citie builded specially Marienburg where formerly a great oak stood who would think so many beautifull buildings would spring out of the root of one tree and those countreys of Prussia and Livonia which formerly were the course list are now become the rich fringe of Europe At last the Prussians grew weary of the tyrannous oppression of those Dutch Knighâ—â— as appeareth by the grievances they presented and applied themselves to Casimire King of Poland He took to task Lewis Erlinsufe the Master of their Order and so ordered him that whereas before he pleaded himself to be a free Prince of the Empire hereafter he should acknowledge the King of Poland for his Lord and Master The successours to this Lewis fretted against this agreement as prejudiciall to them They could do no lesse then complain and could do little more for the King of Poland in spite of their resistance held them to their agreements Albert of the house of Brandenburg was the last grand Master of this Order and first Duke of Prussia He brake the vow of their Order losing his virginitie to keep his chastitie and married Dorothie daughter to the King of Denmark The other Teutonicks protested against him and chose Gualther Croneberg in his room Yea Albert was proscribed in a Diet in Germanie and his goods confiscated but the proscription never executed the Emperour of Germanie being the same time employed in matters of greater moment which more nearly concerned himself And thus in this Albert for ought we can find to the contrarie the Teutonick Order had its end and was quite dissolved Chap. 5. The severall flittings of the Knights-Hospitallers from Cyprus by Rhodes Nice Syracuse to Malta WE must now wait on the Hospitallers to their lodgings and we have done We left them driven from Ptolemais and landed at Cyprus where King Henry courteously entertained them But a friends house is no home Hence therefore they were conveyed to their severall Alberges in Europe But such active spirits could not long be idle such running streams would not end in a standing pond Wherefore they used all their own strength and improved their interest with all their benefactours to furnish out a fleet Which done under Fulk de Vilderet their grand Master they wonne the Island of Rhodes from the Turks eighteen yeares after Ptolemais was lost and there seated themselves Besides Rhodes they also enjoyed these five adjacent Islands saith my Authour Nicoria Episcopia Iolli Limonia and Sirana places so small that consulting with maps will not find them out enough almost to make us think with Tertullian of Delos that once there were such Islands which at this day are quite vanished away Two hundred and fourteen yeares to the terrour of the Turks comfort of the Christians and their own immortall fame they maintained this Island and secured the seas for the passage of Pilgrimes to Jerusalem till at last in the yeare 1523 after six moneths siege they surrendred the citie to their own honour and shame of other Christians who sent them no succour in season Yet changing their place they kept their resolution to be honourably imployed Hence they sailed to Nice in Piemont a citie lying opposite to Africa from whence the Moores and Saracens much infested Christendome Wherefore Charles Duke of Savoy bestowed that citie upon them to defend it counting the courtesie rather done to him then by him that they would accept it Afterwards they perceived it was more needfull to stop the Turks invasions then their pillagings They had lately wonne Buda and as it was thought would quickly stride over the Adriatick sea
home who would not substitute their own necks to save theirs from the ax nor by hoping for help from forrein parts who could send them no seasonable succour This counsel harsh at first grew tunable in the eares of the Hospitallers so that contented rather to exchange their clothes for worse then to be quite stript they resigned all into the Kings hands He allowed to Sr William Weston Lord Prior of the Order an annuall pension of one thousand pounds But he received never a penny thereof but dyed instantly struck to the heart when he first heard of the dissolution of his Priory and lieth buried in the Chancell of Clarkenwell with the portraiture of a dead man lying on his shroud the most artificially cut in stone saith my Authour that ever man beheld Others had rent assigned them of 200l l 100l l 80l l 60l l 50l l 20l l 10l l according to their severall qualities and deserts At the same time justs and tornaments were held at Westminster Wherein the challengers against all comers were Sr John Dudley Sr Thomas Seymore Sr Thomas Poinings Sr George Carew Knights Antonie Kingstone and Richard Cromwell Esquires To each of whom for reward of their valour the King gave a hundred marks of yearly revenues and a house to dwell in to them and their heirs out of the lands belonging to these Hospitallers And at this time many had Danae's happinesse to have golden showres rained into their bosomes These Abbey-lands though skittish mares to some have given good milk to others Which is produced as an argument That if they prove unsuccessefull to any it is the users default no inherencie of a curse in the things themselves But let one keep an exact Register of lands and mark their motions how they ebbe and flow betwixt buyers and sellers and surely he will say with the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is most sure Let land be held in never so good a tenure it will never be held by an unthrift The Hospitallers Priory-church was preserved from down-pulling all the dayes of King Henry the eighth but in the third yeare of King Edward the sixth with the bell-towre a piece of curious workmanship graven gilt and enamelled it was undermined and blown up with gunpowder and the stone imployed in building the Lord Protectours house in the Strand Thus as chirurgeons in cutting off a gangrened leg alwayes cut it off above the joynt even where the flesh is whole and sound so belike for fear of further infection to banish Monkerie for ever they rased the structures and harmlesse buildings of Priories which otherwise in themselves were void of any offense They feared if Abbeys were onely left in a swound the Pope would soon get hot water to recover them To prevent which they killed them and killed them again overturning the very foundations of the houses infringing altering and transferring the lands that they might never be reduced to their old propertie Some outrages were committed in the manner of these dissolutions Many manuscripts guiltie of no other superstition then red letters in the front were condemned to the fire and here a principall key of antiquitie was lost to the great prejudice of posteritie But in sudden alterations it is not to be expected that all things be done by the square and compasse Chap. 8. Queen Mary setteth up the Hospitallers again They are again deposed by Queen Elisabeth QUeen Mary a Princesse more zealous then politick attempted to restore Abbeys to their pristine estate and former glory And though certain of her counsellers objected that the state of her Kingdome and dignitie thereof and her Crown imperiall could not honourably be furnished and maintained without the possession of Abbey-land yet she frankly restored resigned and confirmed by Parliament all ecclesiasticall revenues which by the authoritie of that high court in the dayes of her Father were annexed to the Crown protesting she set more by her salvation then by ten kingdomes But the Nobilitie followed not her example They had eaten up the Abbey-lands and now after twentie yeares possession digested and turned them into good bloud in their estates they were loth therefore to emptie their veins again and the forwardest Romanist was backward enough in this costly piece of devotion How-ever out of her own liberalitie she set up two or three bankrupt Covents as Sion and Westminster and gave them stock to trade with The Knights also of S. John of Jerusalem she reseated in their place and S ◠Thomas Tresham of Rushton in Northamptonshire was the first and last Lord Prior after their restitution For their nests were plucked down before they were warm in them by the coming in of Queen Elisabeth To conclude In the founders of Religious houses were some good intents mixt with superstitious ends amongst the Religious persons themselves some pietie more loosenesse and lazinesse in the confounders of those houses some detestation of the vices of Friars more desire of the wealth of Friaries in God all just all righteous in permitting the badnesse and causing the destruction of these numerous Fraternities Chap. 9. Observations on the Holy warre The horrible superstition therein WE have finished the story of the Holy warre And now I conceive my indentures are cancelled and I discharged from the strict service and ties of an Historian so that it may be lawfull for me to take more libertie and to make some observations on what hath been past Before I go further I must deplore the worlds losse of that worthy work which the Lord Verulam left unfinished concerning the Holy warre an excellent piece and alas it is but a piece so that in a pardonable discontent we may almost wish that either it had been more wholly to have satisfied our hunger or lesse not at all to have raised our appetite It was begun not in an historicall but in a politick way not reporting the Holy warre past with the Turks but advising how to manage it in the future And no doubt if he had perfected the work it would have proved worthy the Authour But since any have been deterred from finishing the same as ashamed to adde mud-walls and a thatched roof to so fair a foundation of hewen and polished stone From that Authour we may borrow this distinction That three things are necessarie to make an invasive warre lawfull the lawfulnesse of the jurisdiction the merit of the cause and the orderly and lawfull prosecution of the cause Let us apply to our present purpose in this Holy warre For the first two Whether the jurisdiction the Christians pretended over the Turks dominions was lawfull or not and Whether this warre was not onely operae but vitae pretium worth the losing so many lives we referre the Reader to what hath been said in the first book Onely it will not be amisse to adde a storie or two out of an Authour of good account When Charles the sixth
was King of France the Duke of Burbant sailed over into Africa with a great armie there to fight against the Saracens The Saracen Prince sent an herald to know of him the cause of his coming The Duke answered it was to revenge the death of Christ the Sonne of God and true Prophet whom they had unjustly crucified The Saracens sent back their messenger again to demonstrate their innocencie how they were not Saracens but Jews which put Christ to death and therefore that the Christians if posteritie should be punished for their predecessours fault should rather revenge themselves on the Jews which lived amongst them Another relateth that in the yeare of our Lord 1453 the great Turk sent a letter to the Pope advertising him how he and his Turkish nation were not descended from the Jews but from the Trojans from whom also the Italians derive their pedegree and so would prove himself a-kinne to his Holinesse Moreover he added that it was both his and their dutie to repair the ruines of Troy and to revenge the death of their great grand-father Hector upon the Grecians to which end the Turk said he had already conquered a great part of Greece As for Christ he acknowledged him to have been a noble Prophet and to have been crucified of the Jews against whom the Christians might seek their remedie These two stories I thought good to insert because though of later date and since the Holy warre in Palestine was ended yet they have some reference thereunto because some make that our quarrel to the Turks But grant the Christians right to the Turks lands to be lawfull and the cause in it self enough deserving to ground a warre upon yet in the prosecuting and managing thereof many not onely veniall errours but unexcusable faults were committed no doubt the cause of the ill successe To omit the book called the Office of our Lady made at the beginning of this warre to procure her favourable assistance in it a little manual but full of blasphemies in folio thrusting her with importunate superstitions into Gods throne and forcing on her the glory of her Maker superstition not onely tainted the rind but rotted the core of this whole action Indeed most of the pottage of that age tasted of that wild gourd Yet farre be it from us to condemn all their works to be drosse because debased and allayed with superstitious intents No doubt there was a mixture of much good metall in them which God the good refiner knoweth how to sever and then will crown and reward But here we must distinguish betwixt those deeds which have some superstition in them and those which in their nature are wholly superstitious such as this Voyage of people to Palestine was For what opinion had they of themselves herein who thought that by dying in this warre they did make Christ amends for his death as one saith Which if but a rhetoricall flourish yet doth hyperbolize into blasphemie Yea it was their very judgement that hereby they did both merit and supererogate and by dying for the Crosse crosse the score of their own sinnes and score up God for their debtour But this flieth high and therefore we leave it for others to follow Let us look upon Pilgrimages in generall and we shall find Pilgrimes wandring not so farre from their own countrey as from the judgement of the ancient Fathers We will leave our armie at home and onely bring forth our champion Heare what Gregorie Nyssene saith who lived in the fourth Centurie in which time voluntary Pilgrimages first began though before there were necessarie Pilgrimes forced to wander from their countrey by persecution Where saith he our Lord pronounceth men blessed he reckoneth not going to Jerusalem to be amongst those good deeds which direct to happinesse And afterwards speaking of the going of single-women in those long travels A woman saith he cannot go such long journeys without a man to conduct her and then whatsoever we may suppose whether she hireth a stranger or hath a friend to wait on her on neither side can she escape reproof and keep the law of continencie Moreover If there were more Divine grace in the places of Jerusalem sinne would not be so frequent and customarie amongst those that live there Now there is no kind of uncleannesse which there they dare not commit malice adultery thefts idolatrie poysonings envies and slaughters But you will say unto me If it be not worth the pains why then did you go to Jerusalem Let them heare therefore how I defend my self I was appointed to go into Arabia to an holy Councel held for the reforming of that Church and Arabia being neare to Jerusalem I promised those that went with me that I would go to Jerusalem to discourse with them which were presidents of the churches there where matters were in a very troubled state and they wanted one to be a mediatour in their discords We knew that Christ was a man born of a Virgin before we saw Bethlehem we beleeved his resurrection from death before we saw his sepulchre we confessed his ascension into heaven before we saw mount Olivet But we got so much profit by our journey that by comparing them we found our own more holy then those outward things Wherefore you that fear God praise him in what place you are Change of place maketh not God nearer unto us wheresoever thou art God will come to thee if the Inne of thy soul be found such as the Lord may dwell and walk in thee c. A patrone of Pilgrimages not able to void the blow yet willing to break the stroke of so pregnant and plain a testimonie thus seeketh to ward it That indeed Pilgrimages are unfitting for women yet fitting for men But sure God never appointed such means to heighten devotion necessary thereunto whereof the half of mankind all women are by their very creation made uncapable Secondly he pleadeth That it is lawfull for secular and lay-men to go on Pilgrimages but not for Friars who lived recluse in their cells out of which they were not to come and against such saith he is Nyssens speech directed But then I pray what was Peter the leader of this long dance but an Hermite and if I mistake not his profession was the very dungeon of the Monasticall prison the strictest and severest of all other Orders And though there were not so many cowls as helmets in this warre yet alwayes was the Holy armie well stocked with such cattel So that on all sides it is confessed that the Pilgrimages of such persons were utterly unlawfull Chap. 10. Of superstition in miracles in the Holy warre ranked into foure sorts BEsides superstition inherent in this Holy warre there was also superstition appendant or annexed thereunto in that it was the fruitfull mother of many feigned miracles Hitherto we have refrained to scatter over our storie with them it will not be amisse now to shovel up some of
with perjury As it is observed of tyrants Where one goeth ten are sent to the grave so where one truce concluded with the Turks did naturally expire and determine many were violently broken off A sinne so repugnant to all morall honestie so injurious to the quiet peace of the world so odious in it self so scandalous to all men To dissolve a league when confirmed by Oath the strongest bond of conscience the end of particular strife the soulder of publick peace the sole assurance of amitie betwixt divers nations made here below but inrolled in his high court whose glorious name doth signe it a sinne I say so hainous that God cannot but most severely punish it David asketh Who shall rest upon thy holy hill and answereth himself He that sweareth to his neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his own hindrance No wonder then though the Christians had no longer abidance in the Holy hill of Palestine though this I confesse is but the bark of the text driving that trade wherewith none ever thrived the breaking of promises Wherewith one may for a while fairly spread his train but he will moult his feathers soon after Chap. 12 Of the hindrances of the good successe in the Holy warre whereof the Popes and Emperours of Greece were the two principall SO much concerning those laesa principia in this Holy warre Superstition and Perjurie which struck at the root of it Come we now to consider many other hindrances which abated the good successe thereof Amongst these we will not be so hereticall as to denie the Popes Primacie but account him the first cause of their ill successe Such wounds as we find in his credit we will neither widen nor close up but even present them to the Reader as we found them In foure respects he baned the Christians good speed in this warre 1. He caused most of their truce-breaking with the Turks urging men thereunto Thus Pope Celestine drove on the Christians against the Turks whilest as yet the peace our Richard concluded with them was not expired and so many other times also For alas this was nothing with his Holinesse who sitting in the temple of God so farre advanceth himself above God as to dispense with oathes made sacred by the most holy and high name of God and professing himself the sole Umpire and Peace-maker of the world doth cut asunder those onely sinews which hold peace together 2. In that twice the Kingdome of Jerusalem was offered to the Christians and the Popes Legates would not suffer them to accept it No doubt by instructions from their Master this being to be presumed on That those his absolute creatures altered not a tittle but went according to the copie that was set them Once anno 1219 when Pelagius the Legate refused the free offer of Melechsala And the second time some thirtie yeares after when the same bountifull profer weas refused by Odo the Popes Legate For when the same Melechsala again offered the free resignation of the whole Kingdome of Jerusalem whereby the same day great quietnesse had entred into all Christendome with the end of much bloudshed and miserie the Legate frontosè contradicens would in no wise receive the conditions offered 3. Frederick the second Emperour was possessed of it when the Pope molested him and stirred up the Templars against him as so many needles to prick him when he was to sit down on the throne 4. By diverting the Pilgrimes and over-titling his own quarrels to be Gods cause nothing being more common with him then to employ those armies which were levied for the Holy warre in subduing the Albingenses and many others of his private enemies By all these it plainly appeareth That what fair shews soever his Holinesse made calling Councels appointing Legates providing preachers proclaiming pardons to advance this warre yet in very deed he neither intended nor desired that the Christians should make a finall conquest of Palestine but be imployed in continuall conquering it He would have this warre go on cum decente pausa fair and softly let the Christians now beat the Turks and then the Turks beat the Christians and so let them take their turns whilest his private profit went on For as we touched before to this warre the Pope condemned all dangerous persons especially the Emperours of Germanie to be there imployed As little children are often set to school not so much to learn as to keep them out of harms way at home so this carefull Father sent many of his children to the Holy warre not for any good he knew they would either do or get there but it would keep them from worse doing which otherwise would have been paddling in this puddle raking in that channel stirring up questions and controversies unsavourie in the nostrils of his Holinesse and perchance falling into the fire of discord and dissension against their own Father Indeed at last this warre ended it self in despite of the Pope Who no doubt would have driven this web weaving and unweaving it Penelope-like much longer if he could yet he digested more patiently the ending thereof because the net might be taken away when the fish was already caught and the warre spared now the Germane Emperours strength thereby was sufficiently abated in Italie Much also this warre increased the intrado of the Popes revenues Some say Purgatory-fire heateth his kitchin they may adde the Holy warre filled his pot if not paid for all his second course It is land enough to have the office of collecting the contributions of all Christendome given to this warre So much for his great receits hereby And as for what he expended not too farre in the point If the Pope saith their law thrusteth thousands of souls into Hell none may say to him Why doest thou so It is presumption then to make him answer for money who is not accountable for men With the Pope let the Emperours of Greece their Jealousie go as the second bane of the Christians successe in this warre These Emperours tormented themselves in seeking that they would have been loth to find the treacherie of the Latines and therefore to begin first used them with all treacherie Whereof largely formerly And surely though a cautious circumspection be commendable in Princes yet in such over-fear they were no lesse injurious to themselves then to the western Pilgrimes Yea generally suspiciousnesse is as great an enemy to wisdome as too much credulitie it doing oftentimes as hurtfull wrong to friends as the other doth receive wrongfull hurt from dissemblers Chap. 13. The third hindrance the Equalitie of the undertakers the fourth the Length of the journey THe next cause of their ill successe was the discord arising from the paritie of the Princes which undertook this voyage Many of them could abide no equall all no superiour so that they had no chief or rather were all chiefs The swarm wanted a master-Bee a supreme commander who
been wonne but for the false collâ—sion of the Templars and Hospitallers with the Infidels Which words though proceeding from passion in him yet from premeditation in others not made by him but related deserve to be observed the rather because common reports like smoke seldome but from some fire never but from much heat are generally true It is not to be denied but that both these Orders were guiltie herein as appeareth by the whole current of the storie Yea King Almerick fairly trussed up twelve Templars at once hanging them for delivering up an impregnable fort to Syracon These like a deceitfull chirurgeon who hath more corruption in himself then the sore he dresseth prolonged the cure for their private profit and this Holy warre being the trade whereby they got their gains they lengthened it out to the utmost So that their Treacherie may passe for the eighth impediment Baronius concludeth this one principall cause of the Christians ill successe That the Kings of Jerusalem took away that citie from the Patriarchs thereof herein committing sacriledge a sinne so hainous that malice it self cannot wish an enemy guilty of a worse But wether or no this was sacriledge we referre the reader to what hath been largely discussed before And here I could wish to be an auditour at the learned and unpartiall arguing of this question Whether over-great donations to the Church may not afterwards be revoked On the one side it would be pleaded who should be judge of the over-greatnesse seeing too many are so narrow-hearted to the Church they count any thing too large for it yea some would cut off the flesh of the Churches necessary maintenance under pretense to cure her of a tympanie of superfluities Besides it would be alledged What once hath been bestowed on pious uses must ever remain thereto To give a thing and take a thing is a play too childish for children much lesse must God be mocked therewith in resuming what hath been conferred upon him It would be argued on the other side That when Kings do perceive the Church readie to devoure the Commonwealth by vast and unlimited donations unto it and Clergie-men grown to suspicious greatnesse armed with hurtfull and dangerous priviledges derogatorie to the royaltie of Princes then then it is high time for Princes to pare their overgrown greatnesse But this high pitch we leave to stronger wings Sure I am in another kind this Holy warre was guiltie of sacriledge and for which it thrived no whit the better in that the Pope exempted six and twentie thousand manours in Europe belonging to the Templars and Hospitallers from paying any tithes to the Priest of the parish so that many a minister in England smarteth at this day for the Holy warre And if this be not sacriledge to take away the dowrie of the Church without assuring her any joynture in lieu of it I report my self to any that have not the pearl of prejudice in the eye of their judgement Chap. 18. Three grand faults in the Kingdome of Ierusalem hindring the strength and puissance thereof COme we now to survey the Kingdome of Jerusalem in it self We will take it in its verticall point in the beginning of Baldwine the third when grown to the best strength and beautie yet even then had it some faults whereby it was impossible ever long to subsist 1. It lay farre from any true friend On the West it was bounded with the mid-land-sea but on all other sides it was environed with an Ocean of foes and was a countrey continually besieged with enemies One being to sell his house amongst other commendations thereof proclaimed That his house had a very good neighbour a thing indeed considerable in the purchase and might advance the fale thereof a yeares value Sure I am the Kingdome of Jerusalem had no such conveniencie having bad neighbours round about Cyprus indeed their friend lay within a dayes sail but alas the Kings thereof had their hands full to defend themselves and could scarce spare a finger to help any other 2. The Kingdome was farre extended but not well compacted all the bodie thereof ran out in arms and legs Besides that ground inhabited formerly by the twelve tribes and properly called the Holy land the Kingdome of Jerusalem ranged Northward over all Celosyria and Cilicia in the lesser Asia North-eastward it roved over the Principalities of Antioch and Edessa even unto Carrae beyond Euphrates Eastward it possessed farre beyond Jordan the strong fort of Cracci with a great part of Arabia Petrea Southward it stretched to the entrance of Egypt But as he is a strong man whose joynts are well set and knit together not whom nature hath spunne out all in length and never thickened him so it is the united and well compacted Kingdome entire in it self which is strong not that which reacheth and strideth the farthest For in the midst of the Kingdome of Jerusalem lay the Kingdome of Damascus like a canker feeding on the breast thereof and clean through the Holy land though the Christians had many cities sprinkled here and there the Turks in other strong holds continued mingled amongst them 3. Lastly what we have touched once before some subjects to the Kings of Jerusalem namely the Princes of Antioch Edessa and Tripoli had too large and absolute power and authoritie They would do whatsoever the King would command them if they thought good themselves Now subjects should be Adjectives not able to stand without much lesse against their Prince or they will make but bad construction otherwise These three hindrances in the Kingdome of Jerusalem added to the nine former will complete a Jurie Now if any one chance to censure one or two of them let him not triumph therein for we produce not these impediments severally but joyntly not to fight single duells but all in an armie Non noceant quamvìs singula juncta nocent Chap. 19. What is to be conceived of the incredible numerousnesse of many armies mentioned in this storie FRequent mention hath been made through this Holy warre of many armies as well Christian as Turkish whose number of souldiers swell very great so as it will not be amisse once for all to discusse the point concerning the numerousnesse of armies anciently And herein we branch our opinion into these severals 1. Asian armies are generally observed greater then those of Europe There it is but a sucking and infant companie to have ten thousand yea under fiftie thousand no number The reason of their multitude is not that Asia is more populous but more spatious then Europe Christendome is enclosed into many small Kingdomes and free States which severally can send forth no vast numbers and seldome agree so well as to make a joynt collection of their forces Asia lieth in common in large countreys and many of them united under one head Besides it is probable especially in ancient times as may be proved out of Scripture that those Eastern countreys often spend
different degrees of bountie the Spanish Polish Danish Scots and all other people of Europe The French I make the Founders for these reasons First because they began the action first Secondly France in proportion sent most adventurers Some voyages were all of French and all voyages were of some French Yea French men were so frequent at Jerusalem that at this day all Western Europeans there are called Franks as I once conceived and perchance not without companie in my errour because so many French men came thither in the Holy warre Since I am converted from that false opinion having found that two hundred yeares before the Holy warre was dreamed of namely in the time of Constantine Porphyrogenetes Emperour of the East all Western Christians were known to the Greeks by the name of Franks so that it seemeth the Turks borrowed that appellation from the Grecians Thirdly As France sent the most so many of most eminent note She sheweth for the game no worse cards then a pair royall of Kings Lewis the Young Philip Augustus and Saint Lewis besides Philip the Bold his sonne who went half-way to Tunis The first and last Christian King of Europe that went to Palestine was a French man and all the Kings of Jerusalem Frederick the Emperour onely excepted originally were of that nation Fourthly Even at this day France is most loyall to the cause Most grand Masters of the Hospitallers have been French men And at this day the Knights of Malta who have but foure Albergies or Seminaries in all Christendome have three of them in France viz. one of the France in generall one of Avergne and one of Provence Yet France carrieth not the upper hand so clearly but that Germanie justleth for it especially if we adde to it the Low-countreys the best stable of woodden horses and most potent in shipping in that age of any countrey in Europe which though an amphibion betwixt both yet custome at this day adjudgeth it Dutch Now these are the severall accents of honour in the Germane service First That countrey sheweth three Emperours in the Holy warre Conrade Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick the second The last of these was solemnly crowned and peaceably possessed King of Jerusalem Secondly Germanie sent more Princes to this warre then all Europe besides It would be an infinite task to reckon them all it being true of the Germane Nobilitie what Logicians say of a Line that it is divisibilis in semper divisibilia Here honours equally descend to sonnes and daughters whereby they have Counts without counting in the whole Empire There were seventeen Princes of Henault and seven and twentie Earls of Mansfield all living together So that one of their own countreymen saith That the Dutch esteem none to be men but onely such as are Noble-men We will not take notice of Germanie as it is minced into pettie Principalities but as cut into principall Provinces We find these regnant Princes for as for their younger brethren herein they are not accounted to have been personally present in the Holy warre Prince Palatine of Rhene Henry 1197 Duke or as others King of Bohemia Jaboslaus or Ladislaus 1147 Duke of Saxonie Henry the younger 1197 Marquisse of Brandenburg Otho 1197 Archbishops of Mentz 1 Conrade 2 Siphred 1197 Archbish. of Triers Theodoricus 1216 Archbish. of Colen Theodoricus 1216 Dukes of Austria 1 Leopoldus the second 1190 2 Frederick 1197 3 Leopoldus the third surnamed the Glorious 1216 Dukes of Bavaria 1 Guelpho 1101 2 Henry 1147 3 Lewis 1216 Landt-graves of Thuringia 1 Herman 1197 2 Lewis 1227 Marquesse of Moravia Conrade 1197 Duke of Mechlenburg Henry 1277 Earls of Flandres 1 Theodoricus 1147 2 Philippus 1190 3 Baldwine 1200 4 William Dampier 1250 5 Guido 1270 Dukes of Brabant 1 Godfrey 1195 2 Henry 1227 Earl of Holland William 1216 All these I say not these were all went themselves led forth other companies suitable to their greatnesse The Reader as he lighteth on more at his leisure may strike them into this catalogue Thirdly Germanie maintained the Teutonick Order wholly consisting of her nation besides Templars and Hospitallers whereof she had abundance of whose loyall and valiant service we have spoken largely before Lastly She fought another Holy warre at the same time against the Tartars and other barbarous people which invaded her on her North-east-part And though â—ome will except That that warre cannot be intituled Holy because being on the defensive it was rather of nature and necessitie then pietie yet upon examination it will appear that this service was lesse superstitious more charitable to Christendome and more rationall and discreet in it self it being better husbandrie to save a whole cloth in Europe then to winne a ragge in Asia Chap. 22. The English and Italian service compared Of the Spanish Polish Norvegian Hungarian Danish and Swedish performance in this warre NExt in this race of honour follow England and Italie being very even and hard-matched England it is no flatterie to affirm what envie cannot denie spurreth up close for the prize and though she had a great disadvantage in the starting Italie being much nearer to Palestine yet she quickly recovered it Our countrey sent one King Richard the first and three Kings sonnes Robert Courthois Richard of Cornwall and Prince Edward to this warre Yea England was a dayly friend to this action and besides these great and grosse summes of visible adventurers she dropped and cast in privily many a Pilgrime of good qualitie so that there was scarce any remarkable battel or memorable siege done through the warre wherein there were not some English of eminent desert Yet Italy cometh not any whit behind if the atchievements of her severall States Venetians Genoans Pisans Sicilians Florentines were made and moulded up together Yea for sea-service and engineers in this warre they bear the bell away from all other nations But these things allay the Italian service 1. It was not so abstracted from the dregs of mercinarinesse as that of other countreys whose adventurers counted their very work herein sufficient wages but before they would yeeld their assistance they indented and covenanted with the King of Jerusalem to have such and such profits pensions and priviledges in all places they took to them and their posteritie not as an honorarie reward freely conferred on them but in nature of wages ex pacto contracted for aforehand as the Genoans had in Ptolemais and the Venetians in Tyre 2. These Italians stopped two gaps with one bush they were Merchant-Pilgrimes together applied themselves to profit and pietie Here in Tyre they had their banks and did drive a sweet trade of spices and other Eastern commodities 3. Lastly As at first they gave good milk so they kicked it down with their heel and by their mutuall discord caused the losse of all they helped to gain in Syria Spain was exercised all the time of this warre in defending her self against the Moores and Saracens in her
late warres in the dayes of Queen Elisabeth were hot between England and Spain there were Commissioners on both sides appointed to treat of peace They met at a town of the French Kings and first it was debated what tongue the negotiation should be handled in A Spaniard thinking to give the English Commissioners a shrewd gird proposed the French tongue as most fit it being a language which the Spaniards were well skilled in and for these Gentlemen of England I suppose said he that they cannot be ignorant of the language of their fellow-subjects their Queen is Queen of France as well as England Nay in faith Masters replyed Doctor Dale the Master of Requests the French tongue is too vulgar for a businesse of this secrecie and importance especially in a French town we will rather treat in Hebrew the language of Jerusalem whereof your Master is King I suppose you are herein as well skilled as we in French At this day the Turk hath eleven points of the law in Jerusalem I mean possession and which is more prescription of a hundred and twentie yeares if you date it from the time it came into the Ottoman familie but farre more if you compute it from such time as the Mammaluke Turks have enjoyed it Yea likely they are to keep it being good at hold-fast and who will as soon lose their teeth as let go their prey With the description of the greatnesse of which Empire will we God willing now close this Historie Chap. 30. Of the greatnesse strength wealth and wants of the Turkish Empire What hopes of the approching ruine thereof THe Turkish Empire is the greatest and best-compacted not excepting the Romane it self in the height thereof that the sunne ever saw Take sea and land together as bones and flesh make up one bodie and from Buda in the West to Tauris in the East it stretcheth about three thousand miles little lesse is the extent thereof North and South It lieth in the heart of the world like a bold champion bidding defiance to all his borderers commanding the most fruitfull countreys of Europe Asia and Africa Onely America not more happie in her rich mines then in her remotenesse lieth free from the reach thereof Populous it is not for men will never grow thick where meat groweth thinne It lieth waste according to the old proverb Grasse springeth not where the Grand Signors horse setteth his foot Besides a third part I may say half of those in Turkie are not Turks but either Jews or Christians The strength of this Empire consisteth either in bones or stones men or munition Of the first The best stake in the Turks hedge is his great number of Horsemen called Timariots conceived to exceed seven hundred thousand fighting men These are dispersed over all his Dominions and have lands allotted unto them in reward of their good service and valour much in the nature of those souldiers of the Romish Empire called Beneficiarii And indeed the Turkish Empire resembleth the Romane in many particulars not that they ever studied imitation and by reading of Historie conformed their State to Romane precedents farre be it from us to wrong them with the false imputation of so much learning but rather casually they have met in some common principles of policie Of these Timariots on occasion and competent warning he can bring into the field an hundred and fiftie thousand all bound by the tenure of their lands to arm clothe feed pay themselves So great an armie which would drain the wealth of other Princes doth cost the great Turk no drop of expense Next follow his best footmen called Janizaries taken young from their Christian parents parallel to the Romane Pretorian souldiers being the guard of the Grand Signors person But as they watch about him so he casteth a watchfull eye on them seeing of late they are grown from painfull to be proud yea insolent and intolerable it being true of these Janizaries in the Turkish Empire as of Elephants in an armie If well ruled they alone are enough to winne the battel if unruly they alone are enough to lose it As for all other sorts of the Turks both foot and horse they are but slugs as whom the Grand Signor little trusteth and others need lesse fear His frontier cities especially those which respect Christendome are exactly fortified Rank with these such places of importance and castles as command passages of consequence As for his inland-cities there is no superfluous scarce competent strength in them But if we allow those people to be chaste who never were solicited to be otherwise then may many cities lying in the bowels of his Empire passe for strong which for a long time have not had nor in haste are likely to have the temptation of a siege Of Ordinance he hath great store and hath excellent materials to make them of and is also very powerfull in shipping Indeed ships of great burden would be burdensome in those narrow seas and experience hath found lesser vessels of greater use whereof he hath store And though the Turks either want ingenie or industrie either care not or cannot be good shipwrights themselves yet the spite is as long as there is gold amongst the Turks there will be drosse amongst the Christians I mean some who for base gain will betray the mysteries of our usefull arts unto them As for wood to build with he hath excellent in Bithynia yea generally in this wild Empire trees grow better then men To his sea-munition may be reduced his multitude of slaves though not the informing yet against their wills the assisting form of his Galleys and in whom consisteth a great part of their strength and swiftnesse Nor must we forget the Pirates of Tunis and Algier which are Turks and no Turks Sometimes the Grand Signor disclaimeth renounceth and casteth them off to stand upon their own bottom as when those Christian Princes which are confederate with him complain to him of the wrongs those sea-robbers have done them But though he sendeth them out to seek their own meat he can clock them under his wings at pleasure And we may verily beleeve though sometimes in the summer of his own prosperitie he throweth them off as an upper garment of no use yet in cold weather he will buckle them on again and if necessitie pincheth him receive them not as retainers at large but as his best servants in ordinarie Nor is it the last and least part of the strength of this Empire that all her native people are linked together in one religion The discords about which in other kingdomes have been the cause first of the unjoynting and then of the finall ruine desolation of many worthy States Whereas here the Mahometane religion if I wrong it not with so good a name is so full of unitie and agreement that there is no difference dissension about it Yea well may that coat have no seam which hath no shape A
senselesse ignorant profession it is not able to go to the cost of a controversie And all colours may well agree in the dark Next the strength followeth the wealth yea it is part thereof For all rich Kingdomes may be strong and purchase artificiall fortification The certain and constant revenues of the great Turk are not great if withall we consider the spatiousnesse of his Dominions Some have mounted his ordinarie yearly in-come to eight millions of gold But men guesse by uncertain aim at Princes revenues especially if they be so remote We may beleeve that in their conjecture herein though they misse the mark they hit the butt Farre greater might his intrado be if husbandrie and chiefly merchandise were plied in his countrey merchants being the Vena porta of a Kingdome without which it may have good limbes but emptie veins and nourish little Now although this Empire be of a vast extent having many safe harbours to receive strangers there and Staple commodities chiefly if industrie were used to allure them thither yet hath it in effect but foure prime places of trading Constantinople Cairo Aleppo and Tauris As for the extraordinarie revenues of the Grand Signor by his escheats and other courses if he pleaseth to take them they are a Nemo scit For in effect he is worth as much as all his subjects or slaves rather throughout his whole Empire are worth his spunges to squeeze at pleasure But the Lion is not so fierce as he is painted nor this Empire so formidable as fame giveth it out The Turks head is lesse then his turbant and his turbant lesse then it seemeth swelling without hollow within If more seriously it be considered this State cannot be strong which is a pure and absolute tyrannie His subjects under him have nothing certain but this That they have nothing certain and may thank the Grand Signor for giving them whatsoever he taketh not away from them Their goods they hold by permission not proprietie not sure that either they or theirs shall reap what they sow or eat what they reap and hereupon husbandrie is wholly neglected For the plowman as well as the ground he ploweth will be soon out of heart if not maintained and as I may say composted with hopes to receive benefit by his labours Here great officers if they love themselves must labour not to be beloved for popularitie is high treason and generally wealth is a sinne to be expiated by death In a word it is a cruel tyrannie bathed in the bloud of their Emperours upon every succession a heap of vassals and slaves no Nobles except for time being by office no Gentlemen no Free-men no inheritance of land no Stirp or ancient families a nation without any moralitie arts and sciences that can scarce measure an acre of land or houre of a day And needeth not that Kingdome constant and continued pointing which is cemented with fear not love May we not justly think that there be many in this Empire which rather wait a time then want desire to overthrow it For though some think the Grecians in Turkie bear such inveterate hate to the Latine Christians that they would rather refuse deliverance then accept them for their deliverers yet surely both they and perchance some native Turks out of that principle of desiring libertie the second rule next preserving life in the charter of Nature would be made if this Empire were seriously invaded so that the foundation thereof did totter sooner to find two hands to pluck it down then one finger to hold it up And we have just cause to hope that the fall of this unweldie Empire doth approch It was high noon with it fiftie yeares ago we hope now it draweth neare night the rather because luxurie though late yet at last hath found the Turks out or they it When first they came out of Turcomania and were in their pure naturals they were wonderfully abstemious neglecting all voluptuousnesse not so much out of a dislike as ignorance of it But now having tasted the sweetnesse of the cup they can drink as great a draught as any others That Paradise of corporall pleasure which Mahomet promised them in the world to come they begin to anticipate here at leastwise to take an earnest of it and have well soked themselves in luxurie Yea now they begin to grow covetous both Prince and people rather seeking to enjoy their means with quiet then enlarge them with danger Heaven can as easily blast an oak as trample a mushrome And we may expect the ruine of this great Empire will come for of late it hath little increased its stock and now beginneth to spend of the principall It were arrant presumption for Flesh to prescribe God his way or to teach him when he meaneth to shoot which arrow in his quiver to choose Perchance the Western Christians or the Grecians under him though these be better for seconds then firsts fitter to foment then raise a faction or his own Janizaries or the Persian or the Tartarian or some other obscure Prince not as yet come into play in the World shall have the lustre from God to maul this great Empire It is more then enough for any man to set down the fate of a single soul much more to resolve the doom of a whole nation when it shall be These things we leave to Providence to work and posteritie to behold As for our generation let us sooner expect the dissolutions of our own Microcosmes then the confusion of this Empire For neither are own sinnes yet truly repented of to have this punishment removed from us nor the Turks wickednesse yet come to the full ripenesse to have this great judgement laid upon them Soli Deo gloria The Preface to the Chronologie HErein I present the Reader with a generall view and synopsis of the whole story of the age of the Holy Warre that he may see the coherence betwixt the East and the West and in what equipage and correspondency of time the Asian affairs go on with those of Europe for they will reflect a mutuall lustre and plainnesse on one another The Chronologie is marshalled into Ranks Files The Ranks or transverse spaces contain twentie yeares on a side the Files or columnes directly downward are appropriated to those severall States whose name they bear In the six first columnes I have followed Helvicus with an implicite faith without any remarkable alteration both in ingraffing of yeares and making them concurre as also leaving sometimes emptie spaces In the other columnes I have followed severall authours and left the yeares unnoted where the time was uncertain counting it better to bring in an Ignoramus then to find a verdict where the evidence was doubtfull and obscure Such long notes as would not be imprisoned within the grates of this Chronology we have referred by asterisks to the foot of the page Know that every note belongeth to that yeare wherein it beginneth except signed with
this mark ☉ which reduceth it to the yeare it endeth in Br. standeth for Brother S. Sonne M. Moneths D. Dayes Note whilest there were Caliphs of Egypt then the Sultans were but Deputies and Lieutenants but afterwards the Mamaluke Sultans were absolute Princes acknowledging no Superiour A Chronologicall Table Anno Dom. Popes Emper. of the East Emper. of the West Kings of England Kings of France Holy Warre Kings of Ierusalem Princes of Antioch Patriarchs of Antioch Patriarchs of Ierusalem Mrs of Kn. Hospitallers Caliphs of Syria Caliphs of Egypt 1095 URBANE the second 8 ALEXIUS COMâ—ENê° 15 HENRY the fourth 40 WILLIAM RUFUS 8 PHILIP the first 36 The Councel of Clermont foundeth the Holy Warre     MUSTETAHER 1 MUSTRAL 1 6 9 16 41 9 37 1. VOYAGE under GODFREY Duke of Bouillon     2 2 7 10 17 42 10 38 Nice wonne by the Christians     3 3 8 11 18 43 11 39 Antioch wonne by the Christians BOEMUND 1    4 4 9 M. 4 D. 18 19 44 12 40 Jerusalem wonne by the Christians 2    5 5 1100 PASCHAL the second 2 20 45 13 41 GODFREY King of Jerusalem 1 He is taken captive â—ancred manageth the State in his absence 3 BERNARD 1 1. ARNULPHUS M. 5 â— GERARD 1 6 6 1 3 21 46 HENRY the first 1 42 BALDWINE his brother 2. VOYAGE under severall Princes Prelates 1 Cesaria wonne by the Christians 4 2 II. DABERTUS He stickleth for Jerusalem to get it from the King 1 2 7 ELAMIR S. 1 2 4 22 47 2 43 Apamia Laodicea wonne by the Christians 2 5 3 2 3 8 2 3 5 23 48 3 44 3 Boemund ransomed 6 4 3 II. REIMUND le Podio 1 9 3 4 6 24 49 4 45 Ptolemais wonne by the Christians 4 He unfortunately besiegeth Charâ—as 7 5 Flieth to Antioch 4 2 10 4 5 7 25 M. 10 5 46 5 Travelleth into France 8 6 III. EBREMARUS put in by the King displaced by the Pope 1 Thence to Rome 5 3 11 5 6 8 26 HENRY the fifth 1 6 47 6 9 7 2 6 4 12 6 7 9 27 2 7 48 7 Returneth and wasteth Grecia with his navie 10 8 3 Dieth in Sicily 7 5 13 7 8 10 28 3 8 49 8 11 9 IV. GIâ—ELLINUS Archbishop of Arles 1 6 14 8 9 11 29 4 9 LEWIS the Grosse 2 Tripolis wonne by the Christians 9 BOEMUND the second S. â—et a child and living in Apulia in whose minoritie first Tancred then Roger his kinsman were Princes in trust 1 10 2 7 15 9 1110 12 30 5 10 3 Berytus Sidon wonne by the Christians 10 2 11 3 8 16 10 1 13 31 6 11 4 11 3 12 4 9 17 11 2 14 32 7 12 5 12 4 13 V. ARNULPHUS Archdeacon of Jerusalem 1 10 18 12 3 15 33 8 13 6 13 5 14 2 11 19 13 4 16 34 9 14 7 14 6 15 3 12 20 14 Anno Dom. Popes Emper. of the East Emper. of the West Kings of England Kings of France Holy Warre Kings of Ierusalem Princes of Antioch Patriarchs of Antioch Patriarchs of Ierusalem Mrs of Kn. Hospitallers Mrs of Kn. Templars Caliphs of Syria Caliphs of Egypt 1115 17 35 10 15 8 15 7 16 4 13  21 15 6 18 36 11 16 9 16 8 17 5 14  22 16 7 M. 5 D. 9 37 12 17 10 Baldwines voyages into Egypt 1. when he took Pharamia 17 9 18 He is accused for his wicked life posteth to Rome and there buyeth to be innocent 6 15  23 17 8 GELASIUS 1 D. 5. CALO JOHANNES S. 1 13 18 11 Baldwines voyages into Egypt 2. when he got his death 18 10 19 7 16  MUSTERASâ—MAD 1 18 9  2 14 19 12 BALDVVINE the second his kinsman 1 Roger fighting unadvisedly with the Turks is slain ☉ 11 20 VI. GUARIMUNDê° of Amiens 1 17 HUOâ— de Pagahis GODFRID of S. Omars 1 2 19 1120 CALIXTUS the second 2 3 15 20 13 2 12 21 2 18 2 3 20 1 3 4 16 21 14 3 13 22 3 19 3 4 21 2 4 5 17 22 15 He fighteth on disadvantage with the Turks and is taken captive 4 14 23 4 20 These first nine yeares there were but nine Templars 4 5 22 3 5 6 18 23 16 5 15 24 5 21 5 6 23 4 M. 10 D. 13 7 M. 9 24 17 He is dearly ransomed Tyre taken by the Christians 6 16 25 6 22 6 7 24 5 HONORIUS the second 2 8 LOTHARIUS the Saxon 1 25 18 Baldwine getteth so much spoil from the conquered Turks as serveth to pay his ransome 7 Boemund now of age cometh to Antioch marrieth King Baldwines daughter 17 26 7 23 7 RAâ—CHID S. afterwards deposed by the WISEMAN of the Ismaâ—lites 1 25 6 3 9 2 26 19 8 18 27 8 24 8 2 26 7 4 10 3 27 20 9 19 28 9 25 The Order of the Templars confirmed by the Pope and a Councel 9 3 27 8 5 11 4 28 21 10 20 29 VII STEPHANUS suspected to have been poysoned by the King 1 26 10  28 9 M. 2 D. 3 12 5 29 22 11 21 30 2 27 EVERARDê° master of the Templars to whom Peâ—er Cleniacensis writ a book in praise of this Order 1  29 1130 INNOCENTIUS the second 1 13 6 30 23 12 He is surprised and slain in Cilicia 22 31 VIII WILLIAM Prior of the Sepulchre 1 28 2  30 1 2 14 7 31 24 13 Alice the Relict of Boemund Princesse Regent in the minoritie of Constantia her daughter 1 32 2 29 3  31 2 3 15 8 32 25 FULK Earl of Anjou in right of Millecent his wife eldest daughter to K. Baldvvine 1 2 33 3 30 4  32 3 4 16 9 33 26 2 3 34 4 31   33 4 5 17 10 34 27 3 4 35 5 32   34 1135 6 18 11 35 28 4 5 36 6 33  MUCTAPHIL S. to Mustetaher 1 35 6 7 19 12 STEâ—HEN the Usurper 1 29 5 REIMUND Earl of Poictou in right of Constantia his wife He acknowledgeth himself vassall to the Grecian Emperour and resigneth Cilicia to him 1 RODULPHUS chosen Patriarch by the Laitie 1 7 34  2 ELHAPHIT S. In the 20 yeare of his reigne he was killed by one Nosradine Vide Tyr. lib. 18. cap. 49. Calvis in Anno 1156. 1 7 8 20 13 2 30 6 2 2 8 35  3 2 8 9 21 CONRADUS the third 1 3 LEWIS the seventh or the Younger 1 7 3 3 9 36 ROBERT of Burgundie Tyr. lib. 15 c 6 4 3 9 10 22 2 4 2 8 4 4 10 37  5 4 1140 11 23 3 5 3 9 5 5 11 38  6 5 1 12 24 4 6 4 10 6 6 12 39  7 6 2 13 M. 7 5 7 5 BALDWINE the third S. Edessa wonne by Sanguine from the Christians 1 7 ALMERICUS 1 13 40  8 7 3 M. 7
Ierusalem  24 his discords with the Legate  ibid. he resigneth his kingdome  28 Irish service in this warre 5 23 Isaacius Angelus Emp. of Constant. 3 1 Italian service in this warre 1 13 5 22 Iudea described 1 21 K  B. Ch. KIng for Deputie in Eastern tongues 2 2 Three faults in the Kingdome of Ierusalem which hindred the strength of it 5 18 Knights-Hospitallers their originall 2 4 they degenerate through wealth into luxury  ibid. they rebell against the Patriarch about tithes  25 brawl with the Templars 4 8 flit from Cypr ' by Rhodes to Malta 5 5 the manner of their suppression in England  6 7 in vain restored by Qu. Mary  8 Knights-Templars instituted 2 16 many slain through their own covetousnesse  32 they become rich and proud 4 8 their treachery hindereth the Holy warre 5 17 they are finally exstirpated out of Christendome  1 arguments for and against their innocency with a moderate way betwixt them  2 3 Knights Teutonicks their institution 2 16 they are honoured with a grand Master 3 5 they come into Prussia their service there 5 4 Knights of the Sepulchre 5 27 L LAterane Councel 3 24 Length of the journey hindrance of this warre 5 13 Leopoldus Duke of Austr his valour 3 8 Leprosie 5 15 Lewis the Young K. of France his wofull journey 2 27 28 S t Lewis his voyage to Palestine 4 11 he wintereth in Cyprus  12 lands in Egypt winnes Damiata  13 is conquered and taken captive  16 dearly ransomed  18 S t Lewis his second voyage 4 26 he besiegeth Tunis  27 his death and praise  ibid. M  B. Ch. MAhometanisme the cause why it is so spreading 1 6 Mammalukes their originall 2 40 their miraculous Empire 4 19 Maronites their tenents and reconcilement to Rome 2 39 Meladine King of Egypt his bounty to the Christians 3 27 why not loved of his subjects 4 14 his death  ibid. Melechsala his son King of Egypt  ibid. Melechsaites Sultan of Egypt  32 Mercenary souldiers dangerous 2 35 yet how well qualified they may be usefull  ibid. Miracles of this warre examined and ranked into foure sorts viz. 1 not done 2 falsely done 3 done by Nature 4 done by Satan 5 10 N NIce besieged and taken by the Christians 1 16 Nilus his wonders and nature 2 13 Northern armies may prosper in the South 5 15 Norvegian service 1 13 5 22 Numbers numberlesse slain in these warres  20 What Numbers competent in an army  19 Numbers of Asian armies what we may conceive of them  ibid. O OBservation of Rog. Hoveden confuted 2 46 Offers at Palestine since the end of the warre 5 24 Office of the Virgin why instituted 1 8 Owls why honoured by the Tartarians 4 2 P  B. Ch. PAlestine in generall described 1 18 Pastorells in France slain 4 21 Pelagius the Legate 3 24 Peter the Hermite his character 1 8 he proves himself but an hypocrite  ibid. Peter K. of Aragon a favourer of the Albingenses slain in battel 3 22 Philip Augustus K. of France his voyage to Palestine and unseasonable return  6 Pilgrimages proved unlawfull 5 9 The Popes private profits by the Holy warre 1 11 he the principall cause of the ill successe 5 12 Polands service in this warre 1 13 5 22 Ptolemais wonne by the Christians 2 11 regained by Saladine  45 after three yeares siege recovered by the Christians 3 8 finally taken by Sultan Scrapha 4 33 Q QValitie of the adventurers in this warre 1 12 R REd sea why so called 2 13 Reformation why Rome is averse from it 4 4 Reimund Earl of Tripoli his discords with Baldwine 2 41 his apostasie to Saladine  45 his suspicious death  ibid. Relicks how to be valued 3 12 why so many before death Renounced the world 2 18 Richard K. of England his voyage to Palestine 3 6 he taketh Sicily and Cyprus in his passage  7 vanquisheth Salad in a set battel  11 in his return he is taken prisoner in Austria and ransomed  13 Richard Earl of Cornwall his voyage to Palestine 4 8 Robert D. of Normandie his valour 1 16 he refuseth the Kingdome of Ierusalem and thriveth not after 2 1 Rodulphus chosen unexpectedly Emperour of Germanie 4 30 sendeth supplies to Syria  ibid. Rodulphus the unhappie Patriarch of Antioch 2 20 S  B. Ch. SAcriledge 5 17 Saladine killeth the Caliph of Egypt 2 37 succeeds in Egypt and Damascus  ibid. conquereth Guy  45 taketh Ierusalem and all Syria  46 his commendations and death 3 14 Scholars without experience no good Generalls 3 24 Scottish service in this warre 1 13 5 23 Sea and land-service compared 4 24 Simon Earl of Montfort concludeth a truce in Syria 3 16 chosen captain against the Albingenses  22 is killed by a woman  ibid. Sidon described wonne by the Christians 2 12 lost to the Sultan of Egypt 4 32 Spanish service in this warre 1 13 5 22 Stephen Patriarch of Ierusalem 2 15 Superstition tainting this whole war 5 9 Suspected souldiers in armies where to be placed 4 10 Sultans their large commissions 2 22 Sweden appeareth not in the Holy warre 1 13 T TArtaria described 1 7 4 2 Tartars their name and nature  ibid. when first known to the world  converted to Christianitie  22 their relapse to Paganisme  26 the occasion  ibid.  B. Ch. Theobald King of Navarre his unhappie voyage 4 7 Titular Bishops their use and abuse 3 2 Pretenders of Titles to the Kingdome of Ierusalem 5 29 Tunis described besieged 4 27 taken by the Christians  28 Turks whence descended 1 7 their large strides into Asia  ibid. harder to be converted then Tartars 4 2 Turkish Empire its greatnesse strength and welfare the weaknesse and defects of it what hopes of its approching ruine 5 30 Tyle Colupp a notable cheater 4 20 Tyre described 2 12 taken by the Christians  17 valiantly defended by Conrade 3 1 wonne by Sultan Alphir 4 32 V  B. Ch. VEnetians performance in this warre 2 17 their bloudie sea-battel with the Genoans 4 24 Vitiousnesse of the Pilgrimes which went to Palestine 1 12 5 16 W WAfer-cake why wrought in the borders of all Egyptian tapestrie 4 18 Welsh service in this warre 5 23 William Patriarch of Ierusalem 2 25 William Landt-grave of Hesse his fictitious voyage to Ierusalem confuted 5 26 Women warriours 1 12 2 27 Wracks first quitted by the Kings of England to their subjects 3 7 FINIS Mart. 13. 1638. Imprimatur Cantabrigiae per Thomam Buck. RA. BROWNRIGG Procan SAM WARD THO. BAINBRIGG THO. BACHCROFTS Anno Dom. 34. 72. * Iosephus lib. 7. belli Iud. Gr. c. 45. Lat. c. 17. * Exod. 12.13 * Adricom is Actis Apost fol. 282. credo ex Hegesipp◠* Suetonius in Tit◠Euseb. Eccl.
if the tottering of his kingdome had rocked him fast asleep Nor was he moved with that which followed and more nearly concerned him For Syracon the Turkish Captain whom Sanar had gotten to come into Egypt would not be intreated to go home again but seized on the city of Belbis fortified it and there attended the arrivall of more Turks from Damascus for the conquest of Egypt Which afterwards they performed the land being never completely cleared of them till at last they conquered the whole kingdome partly under this Syracon and wholly under Saladine his nephew And here my discourse by the leave of the reader must a little sally forth to treat of the danger of entertaining mercenary souldiers They may perchance be called in with a whistle but scarce cast out with a whip If they be slugs they indanger a State by their slothfulnesse if spirited men by their activity Cesar Borgia Machiavells idol whose practice he maketh the pattern of policie saith That he had rather be conquered with his own men then be conquerour with an army of others because he counted that conquest to be none at all Yet good physick may be made of poyson well corrected They may sometimes be necessary evils yea good and serviceable to defend a land if thus qualified First if they have no command of castles or place neare about the Princes person for then they have a compendious way to treason if they intend it Secondly if they be not entertained in too great numbers but in such refracted degrees that the natives may still have the predominancie for a surfeit of forrein supplies is a disease incurable Thirdly if the Prince who imployeth them hath their wives children and estates in his own hands which will be both a caution and pawn for their fidelity and will also interest their affections more cordially in the cause Lastly if they be of the same religion with them and fight against the enemy of the religion of both for then they are not purely hirelings but parties in part and the cause doth at least mediately concern them I beleeve that it will scarcely be shown that the Protestants have turned tails and betrayed them they came to assist We may observe the Low-countreys have best thrived by setting this trade of journey-men-souldiers on work Let them thank God and the good English for if Francis Duke of Anjou with his Frenchmen had well succeeded no doubt he would have spread his bread with their butter Next them the Venetians have sped best for they have the trick when they find it equally dangerous to casheer their mercenary Generall or to entertain him any longer fairly to kill him as they served Carmignola England hath best thrived without them under Gods protection we stand on our own legs The last I find are an handfull of Almains used against Kett in Norfolk in the dayes of King Edward the sixth And let it be our prayers That as for those hirelings which are to be last tried and least trusted we never have want of their help and never have too much of it Chap. 36. Sanar imploreth the aid of King Almerick A solemn agreement made betwixt them and ratified by the magnificent Caliph SUltan Sanar perceiving himself pressed and overlayed by these Turks who with Syracon their Captain refused to return and of assistants turned invaders borrowed the help of Almerick King of Jerusalem to avoid them out of Egypt Whilest Almerick marched thither an unfortunate battel was fought betwixt Boemund the third of that name Prince of Antioch Reimund Count of Tripoli Calaman Grecian governour of Cilicia and Joceline the third the titular Count of Edessa on the one side and Noradine King of the Turks on the other The Turks got the victory and these foure Christian Princes were taken prisoners and their army lost so much good bloud that day that cast it into an irrecoverable consumption and hastened the ruine of this kingdome Noradine following his blow wonne Cesarea-Philippi Neverthelesse Almerick went on effectually in Egypt and for a time expulsed the Turks out of this land But Syracon would not so quickly quit the countrey but goeth to the Caliph of Babylon who was opposite to him of Egypt each of them claiming as heir to Mahomet that false prophet the soveraignty over all that were of the Saracen law offereth him his means for the exstirpation of this schismaticall Caliph and the reduction of all Egypt to the subjection of the Babylonian The motion was joyfully entertained and Syracon with a mighty power descendeth into Egypt Sanar affrighted hereat maketh new and larger proffers to King Almerick to stop this deluge of his enemies and proffereth him a pension of fourty thousand ducats yearly for his behooffull assistance But the King understanding that the Sultan how much soever he took upon him was subject to a higher Lord would make no such bargain with him but with the Caliph himself and therefore sent his Embassadours Hugh Earl of Cesarea and a Knight-Templar along with the Sultan to Caliph Elhadach then resident at Cairo Arriving at his palace they passed through dark passages well guarded with armed Ethiopians Hence they were conducted into goodly open courts of such beauty and riches that they could not retain the gravity of Embassadours but were enforced to admire the rarities they beheld The farther they went the greater the state till at last they were brought to the Caliphs own lodging Where entring the presence the Sultan thrice prostrated himself to the ground before the curtain behind which the Caliph sat Presently the traverse wrought with pearls was opened and the Caliph himself discovered sitting with great majesty on a throne of gold having few of his most inward eunuchs about him The Sultan humbly kissed his masters feet and briefly told him the cause of their coming the danger wherein the land stood the proffers he had made to King Almerick desiring him now to ratifie them and in demonstration thereof to give his hand to the Kings Embassadours The Caliph demurred hereat as counting such a gesture a diminution to his State and at no hand would give him his hand bare but gave it in his glove To whom the resolute Earl of Cesarea Sir said he Truth seeketh no holes to hide it self Princes that will hold covenant must deal openly and nakedly give us therefore your bare hand we will make no bargain with your glove He was loth to do it but necessity a more imperious Caliph then himself at this time commanded it and he did it at last dismissing the Christian Embassadours with such gifts as testified his greatnesse According to this agreement King Almerick cordially prosecuted his businesse improving his utmost might to expell Syracon with his Turks out of Egypt whom he bade battel and got the day though he lost all his baggage So that the conquest in a manner was divided the Turks gaining the wealth