the Princess Jolante the daughter of King John de Brienne Heiress of the Realm of Jerusalem John de Brienne is dispoiled of his Crown by his new Son-in-Law He puts himself under the Protection of the Pope Honorius The good Offices of the Pope to pacifie the Princes The death of Lewis the eight King of France He is succeeded by his Son Lewis the ninth The death of Pope Honorius He is succeeded by Gregory the ninth The Portraict of this new Pope The Army of the Crusades much diminished by diseases The Emperor takes shipping He stays at Otranto where the Lantgrave of Thuringia dies A great rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Pope excommunicates him Their Manifests The Revenge which Frederick takes He passes at last into Syria His differences with the Patriarch and the Templers His Treaty with the Sultan his Coronation at Jerusalem his return and accord with the Pope The Conference of Spolata for the Continuation of the Crusade The History of Theobald the fifth Earl of Champagne and King of Navarr His Voyage to the Holy Land with the other Princes of the Crusade His description and his Elogy A Crusade published for the Succour of Constantinople An Abridgement of the History of the Latin Emperors there The Causes of the little Success of the King of Navarr's Enterprise A new Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Occasions thereof The deplorable effects of that breach which ruins the Affairs of the Holy Land The Jealousie among the Princes occasions their loss Their defeat at the Battle of Gaza The unsuccessful Voyage of Richard Earl of Cornwall The death of the Constable Amauri de Montfort His Elogy his Burial and that of his Ancestors and of Simon de Montfort in the Monastery of Hautebruiere A Council called at Rome The Pope's Fleet defeated by the Emperor's and the taking of the Legates and Prelates going to the Council The death of Pope Gregory The election of Celestin the fourth and of Innocent the fourth He breaks with the Emperor and retires into France year 1220 THe report of the Victory which the Crusades of the West had obtained against the Sultans of Egypt and Damascus being spread all over Asia raised the Courage and hopes of the Christians in the East and more particularly of the Georgians who then were and are at this day the bravest among all those Nations These People to whom that name was given either from their particular Veneration of St. George upon whom they call in their Combats or by Corruption of the word Gurges their Country being called Gurgiston inhabit those Regions which extend themselves from the West to the East between the Euxine and the Caspian Sea the Countries which anciently were called Colchis Iberia a part of Albania and also of the great Armenia as far as Derbent They were at this time under the Obeisance of one King who governed the whole Nation united into one Monarchy and not divided as they are now among many small Princes who are not able to free themselves from paying tribute either to the Turk or Persian They have been Christians ever since they were converted by a young Maid a Christian Slave in the Reign of Constantine the Great and followed the belief and Cerimonies of the Greeks although in some things they differ from them much and especially in this That they have nothing of that Aversion for the Church of Rome which the Greeks have They all shave the middle of their heads in form of a Crown but with this difference among them That the Ecclesiasticks have it round like that of the Roman Churchmen the other square with great Mustaches year 1220 and a long Beard which reaches down to their very Girdle They are in the main People well proportioned and of a good Mind kind and obliging to Strangers terrible to their Enemies great Soldiers extremely brave even to the very Women who like Amazons will go to the Wars and sight most valiantly and they are so taken notice off for this Valour above all other of the Eastern Christians that the Sarasins either out of Fear or respect permit them to enter with their Colours flying like Soldiers into Jerusalem and without paying any thing when they come to visit the Holy Sepulchre But they have this great Blemish that they are most intolerable Drinkers and make little account of such People as will not debauch with them having entertained a brutish persuasion that it is impossible for any persons to be truely valiant who are not excessive Lovers of drinking So that they never go to the Combat till they have well drunk for which purpose they always carry to the field a Bottle of Wine tied to their Girdles and before they begin the Battle they presently and with Chearfulness toss it off to the last drop and then furiously charge the Enemies being elevated with the Wine and half drunk This was the Temper of these Georgians who were now most highly incensed against Coradin because without consulting them he had caused the Walls of the Holy City to be demolished during the Siege of Damiata for which as a common Injury done to all Christians in General they loudly threatned to be avenged on him For this purpose so soon as they heard the news of the taking of Damiata their King writ to the Princes of the Crusade to give them joy of their Victory and to exhort them to follow their good Fortune assuring them that for his own particular as he should esteem it a dishonour to him not to follow the glorious Example which they had given him so he was resolved in favour of them to make a powerful diversion in Syria and to attack Coradin even in his Capital City of Damascus But all these fair hopes of chasing the Insidels out of the Holy Land quickly vanished by two unhappy Accidents which ruined all the Affairs of the Christians in the East The first was that as the King of the Georgians was preparing for this Holy War he received advice that the Tartars who began to make diverse Conquests in Asia were ready to fall into his Dominions and this hindred this Valiant Prince from executing what he had so generously resolved against Coradin The second was the deplorable misfortune which befel the Christian Army which having lost a great deal of time had at last took the field to endeavour to finish in conquering the rest of Aegypt what they had so happily begun by taking the strongest of all the Cities of that Realm and it is this which I am now to treat of and in few words to give an Account of the Causes of this sad event After that the Army had passed the Winter at Damiata and the Country about it to recover themselves from so many Fatigues they were so far from being in a Condition to pursue their Conquests in the Beginning of the Spring that they found themselves more weak than at the end of the Siege for
no other Fortune besides his Sword and who for that reason was usually called Captain Have-little or Monyless This Gentleman who had no more than eight Horsemen to guard such a numerous Infantry began his March the eighteenth day of March and after having with a great deal of trouble passed through Germany all along the Danubius he entered into Hungary that Country was then governed by King Carloman the youngest Son of King Bela whose Grandfather was Uncle to St. Stephen the Son of Geiza the first Christian King of Hungary This Prince very frankly permitted them the Liberty of passage they paying for what they had but this could not prevent the Hungarians from very ill treating this stragling People for being arrived upon the Frontier of Bulgaria where they were refused the accommodations of Provisions the Troops were permitted to live at discretion to plunder the Country and take what they could find for their subsistence this so incensed the Inhabitants of those Countries that they presently took Arms and assembling to the number of one hundred forty thousand men they fell upon the Crusades so briskly that they had much to do in great Confusion to save themselves among the Woods after having left a great part of their Companions to the mercy of the Enemies and Gautier with the remainder were in no small danger of perishing being for eight days constrained to indure the utmost Extremities in passing through those vast and desolate Forrests till in conclusion arriving at a great Town in Mysia the Prince of Bulgaria compassionating their Miseries did not only supply them with plenty of Provisions but furnished them with able Guides who carried them the best way towards Constantinople where the Emperor disposed them in an Encampment to attend the rest of the Army which was conducted by Peter himself But the Voyage of the poor Hermite was yet more Unfortunate than that of his Precursor He had about forty thousand Foot indifferently well armed and a good number of Horse of whom the Principal were Renard of Breis Gautier de Breteuil Foucher of Orleans and Godsrey Burel of Estampes besides an insinite Number of unnecessary People Women Old Men and Children who followed the Army some on Foot and some in Carriages But in truth he now quickly found how great a difference there was between Preaching up the Cross to an unarmed Audience who run to hear the Novelty and the Conducting according to the regular Discipline of War and Commanding those who now had Swords in their Hands For as he Marched through Hungary King Carloman having granted him free Passage provided his People committed no Disorders he undertook to signalize himself with an Action which neither comported with his being a Hermite nor a Christian and which both the Laws of Honour and of Prudence might justly have prohibited him to do For under pretence of Revenging the Injury which some Souldiers of the first Army had received at Malleville a good Town upon the Frontier of Hungary and Bulgaria he attaqued the Place by Force and contrary to his Faith given to Carloman he took it by Storm putting to the Sword above four thousand Hungarians after which Action he retained no manner of Authority nor was in any sort master of those People For whether they thought themselves by the Example of their General Authorised to take the Liberty of measuring out their own Revenge or whether it were the desire of Booty the Pleasure of which they now began to tast in the Saccage of this miserable Town or whether seeing the Hermite in a Condition so different from that wherein they had Reverenced him as a Saint they retained nothing of the former Idea of him and they neither considered him as Peter nor as the General of the Army altho he affected both the one and the other However it were it is certain that there was no manner of Excess no sort of Crimes Persidiousness Cruelty Robberies Murder Fire or any kind of Violence which these brutish Dreggs of the People of France Lorrain and Germany did not commit they neither knew Discipline or any fear of God or Man but notwithstanding all that the Hermite could with his utmost Power do to oppose them they abandoned themselves to the Commission of the most horrible Ravages all along their March through Hungary and the Confines of Bulgaria But as one of the Writers of that time observes who doth not dissemble the Truth as doth William of Tyre who writ a long time after When once a Body otherwise of an ill Composure comes to have a weak and languishing Head it becomes every day worse and worse and cannot in Conclusion possibly avoid a necessary Ruin And so it happened here for the Bulgarians and Hungarians justly exasperated against these persidious Wretches took all Occasions to fall upon them and finding them in a disorderly March they slew above ten thousand of them upon the place took all their Baggage and their Provisions their Wives Children and the old Men who could not slye together with two thousand Waggons amongst which were those which carried the Treasure of Peter the Hermite Nor was it without great Difficulty that he rallied the rest of his Troops who saved themselves in the Woods and Mountains and that in Conclusion in extreme want of all things the first day of August he joyned Gautier the Monyless who waited for his coming little expecting to sind him reduced to such a piteous Condition as he himself was in being obliged to live upon the Charity and Alms of the Emperor Now these ill Examples being extremely Contagious it happened that in a little time after two other Armies of these counterfeit Crusades who abused so Religious an Enterprise following the same Methods and rather surpassing the Disorders of the first did also by the most just Judgment of God perish in a most deplorable manner For a German Priest of the Palatinate one Godescale who had conferred with Peter in his Travails was resolved to imitate him and therefore he did with such vehemency preach up the Crusade that he assembled about fifteen thousand Soldiers Germans and Lorrainers at the Head of whom he put himself and very peaceably and with out any Disorder paying exactly for whatever they took he marched as far as Hungary But finding there an excessive Plenty of all things the Year having been the most Fruitful that had been known they fell to Debauchery so that being almost continually drunk there was no sort of Insolence injastice or Cruelty which with a horrible Brutality they did not commit against those who had so courteously Entertained them Whereupon all Hungary by the Command of the King was immediately in Arms in order to exterminate these perfidious Villains so that besieging them in their Camp they were in short compelled to surrender their Arms and themselves to Discretion to the Officers of the King they giving them an assurance of their Lives but the Hungarians furiously Incensed against them
is true that this Order began to Relax and Decay extremely by the iniquity of the Times during the Wars between the English and French either by the Malice or Negligence of the Knights who either themselves did or permitted others to encroach upon the Estates of the Order appropriating them to their own private Families For this Cause it was that Pope Innocent the Eight at the Request of the Knights of Malta suppressed this Order to Re-unite it with all its Estates to that of St. John of Jerusalem which was obtained by Emery D' Amboise Great Master of the Rhodes by another Bulla from Pope Julius the Second But in regard that the Parliament of France Declared these Bulla's to be Injurious and contrary to the Rights of the Kings of France the Patrons of the Order the Popes Pius Fourth and Pius Fifth caused them to be Revoked upon Remonstrance thereof made to them by Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second who thought themselves too nearly Interessed in the Commanderies or Places of Trust which were within their Dominions so that the Order was again Established with many new Priviledges by Pope Pius the Fourth year 1119 who Created Jannot de Chastillon his Nephew Great Master of the Order after his Death Gregory the Thirteenth Transferred the Great Mastership to Emanuel Philibert the Duke of Savoy and to his Successors granting him also the Union of this Order with all their Estate to that of the Knights of St. Maurice the Erecting of which the Duke had obtained about a Month before It ought nevertheless to be taken for Indubitable that these new Creations to the Dignity of Great Master of St. Lazarus were not made but with Respect to certain Countries and it is no less certain that it was extremely in the Prejudice of the Kings of France who could by no means lose that Right which they had so lawfully acquired and for more than five hundred Years injoyed to have the sole Nomination of the Great Master who ought to be Elected at Boni the principal Conventical General House of the whole Order and who ought to have Jurisdiction over all the Knights of what Nation soever they be Insomuch that all those who are called Great Masters in other Countries are no more to speak properly but Deputies and Substitutes to him who is Established and Acknowledged in France as the King of Spain alledges in his Right Affirming that the Duke of Savoy is only his Vicegerent in Italy which also a very learned Civilian hath remarked according to the Bulla of Gregory the Thirteenth However after all these Bulla's reckoning from that of Innocent the Eight our Kings whose Rights are Sacred and Inviolable have not failed always to name as they did formerly without Interruption the Great Masters of all the Order of St. Lazarus both on this and the other side of the Sea And those of the Fraternity following that is Aignan Claude de Marveil John de Conty John de Leui Michael de Seurre Francis Salviati Aymar de Chartres Hugh Castelan de Castelmore and Charles de Gayan who were provided and nominated by the Kings Lewis Twelfth Francis First Henry Second Francis Second Charles Ninth Henry Third and Henry the Great never failed to take this Quality upon them altho the deplorable Condition to which the Order was Reduced in France the small Number of Knights and the Loss and Alienation of their Estates took from them the Opportunity of maintaining the Dignity of their Place and Order It was for this Reason that Henry the Forth after he had Gloriously Setled the three Estates of his Realm and that after the cruel Disorders of the Civil Wars he had put the Kingdom into a flourishing Condition was resolved also to restore to its primitive Splendor this Military Order of the Hospitallers from which he perswaded himself he should be able to draw very considerable Services He therefore Chose for Great Master one of the Fraternity whose Name was Philibert de Newstang a Gentleman whose Birth and Merit were equally Illustrious He went upon the King's Account to Rome there to treat about this Affair with Pope Paul the Fifth and did so well Negotiate what he had in Commission that the Quality of Restorer Protector and Patron of the Order was reserved to the King and the Dignity of Chief and General of the whole Order of St. Lazarus was Absolutely and without Restrinction to be in him whom the King should name to be Great Master Moreover the Pope having Created a New Order of Knights under the Title of our Lady of Mount Carmel at the Instance of the King he United them to that of St. Lazarus after which time the Knights have with this double Title born for their Armes a Cross or which is doubled consisting of eight Points Pometty between four Flowers-de-Lys with the Image of our Lady in the middle But as the Death of Henry the Great made the greatest of all his Noble Designs to Vanish the Order of St. Lazarus which began to Recover after having received these new Marks of Honor did for the main stand at a Stay continuing in the Condition wherein he lest it till now of late it begins to Flourish in such a manner which would make one believe that we shall one day see it produce those Fruits which it was accustomed to do in the times of its early Force and Vigor For the King who undertakes nothing which he doth not most happily Accomplish having taken up the same generous Design of his August Grandfather whose Sir Name the Acclamation of all Europe hath bestowed upon him will not fail to take all the most Just and Essicacious Ways to restore this ancient Order to that Condition which may render it Serviceable to those necessary Ends for the Good of the Church and State year 1119 which he hath proposed to himself But it is time methinks after this Digression which I hope will neither be Disagreeable nor Unprofitable to the Reader that I should now again follow the Thred of my History year 1123 The new King Baldwin de Bourg who had abundance of Courage and of Virtue obtained many great Victories against the Turks who after having Defeated and Slain in Battle the Prince of Antioch began to menace that great City But as he went to Succour the Earl of Edessa against Balac the most Potent of the Turkish Princes who had taken Earl Josselin with his Cousin Galeran in an Ambuscade he himself happened to be Surprized in the Night by that Emir who sent him Loaden with Irons to the same Castle where the two Earls his Kinsmen were detained Captives His Imprisonment however had not those dismal Consequences as were expected for Eustace Garnier Lord of Sidon or Saietta and Cesarea who was made Regent of the Realm Defeated the Army of the Egyptian Sarasens who Besieged Jaffa After which their Navy which consisted in eighty Sail of Ships was intirely Ruined by the Venetians who
Guy Cardinal of Florence the Pope's Legat in his Army and the Bishops of Langres and Lizieux The Count de Dreux his Brother Thierry Earl of Flanders Henry Earl of Troyes the Son of Thibald Earl of Champagne Ives de Nele and many other Lords of the first Quality who came with him from Attalia The young King Baldwin with his Mother Queen Melesintha also assisted at it together with the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Arch-Bishops of Cesarea and Nazareth the Bishops of Ptolemais Sidon Beritus Paneas and Bethlehem the Earls of Napolis Tiberias Sidon Cesaria Beritus as also the Constable Manasses and the great Masters of the Temple of the Hospitallers It was a long time under Debate what was most advantageous to be undertaken for the common Interest and in conclusion they determined to besiege Damascus Which being as it were in the Centre and Midst of the four Principalities which the Christians held in the East might be equally dangerous to them all Upon this all the Troops were appointed to rendezvous the five and twentieth Day of May at Tiberias where a general Review being made of the Army they advanced to Paneas near the Head of Jordan the Patriarch carrying the true Cross or at least that which was believed to be so before them The Measures which were taken for the Siege were according to the Opinion of the Lords of that Country who were best acquainted with the Strength and Weakness of the place After which crossing the celebrated Mount Lebanon they descended into the fair Champain of Damascus and encamped at Daria a little Village about two Leagues from Damascus from the most elevated place whereof the Towers of that stately City were easily to be discerned Damascus one of the most ancient and sometimes one of the fairest and greatest Cities of Asia is situate in a large Plain at the Foot of Mount Lebanon which is watered with two Rivers and a great number of little Springs and Fountains which notwithstanding its natural Inclination to Sterility it being a hungry sandy Soil render it very fruitful and delightful These two Rivers take their Rise upon the East at no very great distance from the Foot of the Mountain Amana which is a part of Mount Lebanon the lesser is called Abana and slows all along by the Walls of the City upon the West the greater which is Pharpar and which some have confounded with the Orontes and for the beauty of its Streams is called Chryorrhoas or Golden Stream after having passed through the City and wandred through the Fields and the Valleys of the neighbouring Country loseth it self under the Earth either because being divided into a multitude of Canals which are drawn to render the Earth more fruitful that it is so diminished that at last it ends in them or that by some unknown Subterranean Passages it dischargeth it self into the Phenician Sea It was the great Conveniency of making these Canals year 1148 which made all that part of the City towards the North and a great part of the West be inclosed with a prodigious number of Gardens and Orchards where were planted an infinite of Trees producing all manner of Fruits the most delicious of all the East These Gardens were divided one from the other by little narrow Passages which cutting one another and turning and winding several ways without any regular Art or Figure formed a kind of undesigned Labyrinth where it was easie for those who were unacquainted with them to lose themselves in those delightful places Every Garden had its House and its little Tower according to the Mode of the Orientals for the Convenience and the Lodging of its Master So that the City being very populous the number of Gardens which covered those sides was very great and extended themselves almost two Leagues so that viewing it upon that side it represented to the Sight a large Forest which seemed to extend it self to the very Walls But on the contrary the other side which lay to the East and South had not so much as a Tree a Hedge or a Bush but shewed a bald Champaign from whence it was easie to discern the whole City which was defended with high Walls which were fortified with great Towers whereof four which listed up their proud Heads above the rest were of an extraordinary heighth and strength and above all it was defended by a Fortress which was esteemed the fairest and most regular of all Asia This City had been taken from the Sarasins by the Turks whose Sultan Dodequin made a most cruel War against the Christians between the time of the first and the second Crusade After his death his Successors seeing themselves attacked by Sanguin the redoubted Sultan of Alepo and Ninevch who endeavoured the Conquest of all Syria joyned themselves with the Christian Princes to make War against this common Enemy They assisted them according to the Treaty in the Taking of Paneas which they had taken from the Christians before and Sanguin from them again But there being little Faith to be expected from Infidels they soon brake the Peace and declared themselves as before the mortal Enemies of the Christians For this reason it was that the Resolution was sixed to attack them and above all things to carry this City which was in a Condition to give the Check-mate to the four Christian Principalities of the East Hereupon it was also resolved in the Council to attack the Town on the Garden-sides that so the Army might have the Convenience of the River the Fruits and Forrage which were there to be had in abundance The next Morning therefore the Army being divided into three Bodies marched in good Order towards Damascus drawing from the West towards the North to the Garden-Quarter of the City The young King of Jerusalem Baldwin the Third commanded in Person the first Body composed of his own Troops and those of the Princes of Syria who had the same Interest with him in the Siege The French made the second having at their Head King Lewis to support the first which they followed at a little distance to be always ready to afford them Succour The Emperor with his Germans had the Rere to oppose the Enemy's Cavalry if they should attempt to fall upon them as they made their Approaches Baldwin who thirsted mightily after Glory and was transported with Joy to meet with so fair an Opportunity to display his Courage in the View of the French and Germans did instantly press to make the first Attack which was easily granted him in regard he alledged that his People were better acquainted than the rest with the nature of the place and the Turnings of the Gardens He was a Prince who was now advanced to the Flower of his Youth being between eight and nine and twenty Years of Age he was of Stature something less than the Middle but of a Proportion so just and regular in all the parts of his Body that his want of Heighth did not lessen
first Battle of Massore where the Count d' Artois is slain The second Battle and the admirable Actions of the King The Plague and Famine in the Camp An unfortunate Retreat wherein the whole Army is defeated and the King with all the Princes and Lords are taken Prisoners An Heroick Action of Gaucher de Chastillon in this Retreat The admirable Constancy of the King in his Imprisonment His Treaty with the Sultan The Original of the Mamalukes The Revolution in the Empire of Egypt by the Murder of the Sultan The Confirmation of the Treaty with the Admirals The King absolutely refuseth to take the Oath which these Barbarians would exact from him The Refutation of the Fable touching the pawning of the Holy Eucharist to the Sarasins by the King Lewis His Deliverance and admirable Fidelity to his Promise and the perfidiousness of the Egyptians year 1244 ALL that vast Tract of Land which anciently comprised the Asiatick Sarmatia the two Scythia's the one on this side the other beyond the Mount Imaus with the third which was unknown to Ptolomy from Tanais to the Strait of Anian was formerly called as it is at this Day Tartaria from the Name of the River Tartar or Tattar which dischargeth it self at the farthest part of this vast Continent towards the East into the Northern Sea It was inhabited by an infinite number of People extremely Barbarous who were called Tartars and Mongols and who for a long time lived without Cities without Laws without Civil Policy being divided into divers Troops who had every one their Conductor to lead them from time to time into divers places proper for the feeding of their Flocks and Herds till such time as one named Cyngis obliged all the rest either by cunning or by force to acknowledge him for their Master and their Sovereign Then he took the Surname of Can which signifies Master Prince and Emperor and after having instructed and disciplined his new Subjects he lead them about the beginning of this Century into Indostan against King David to whom they were Tributaries and having vanquished him in a great Battle he put him with his whole Family to death excepting one of his Daughters whom he married and made himself Master of all that Country where his discendants which are called Mogols a name of the Tartars Reign even to this present day After which this Can being slain with a stroak of Lightning his Son Hocloda-Can who had as much Courage and Conduct as Ambition indeavoured the Conquest of all Asia and having divided his Troops whose number was infinite into four terrible Armies the Conduct of three of which he gave to three of his Sons year 1244 and to his Lieutenant Cabesabada the first of them moving Northward seized in Europe upon the Regions lying between the Tanais the Taurick Chersonesus and the Euxin Sea which at this time are called the lesser Tartars The second after having desolated the great Armenia and the Country of the Georgians penetrated Westward as far as Transylvania Hungary and Poland even to the Confines of Germany putting all before them to Fire and Sword The third entring into the leâ—ser Asia there defeated Gajazadin the Sultan of Iconium and compelled the Turks to pay Tribute to the Tartars The fourth having subdued all Persia obliged the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians to go in search of their Fortunes beyond the Tigris and Euphrates whereupon they addressed themselves to the Sultan of Egypt to desire of him some place of residence they being driven out of their own Country by the Tartars This Sultan who did not like such dangerous Guests and yet who was very glad to make use of them against his Enemies caused it to be told them that he left to them all the Country of Palestine upon which they might without difficulty seize in regard that the greatest part of the places there were open and without defence And this he did in revenge because almost all the Christians of the Holy Land following the Advice and Example of the Knights of the Temple having broken the Truce which they had made with him had confederated against him with the Sultan of Damascus his Enemy upon condition that he should relinquish to them all Palestine from Jordan to the Sea Certainly there is nothing more unlawful or dishonourable than to violate ones Faith when once it is given whether it be even to Infidels and Barbarians for he who receives it does at the same time acquire a natural Right to the observing of it so long as the Treaty continues except he does first violate and infringe it himself And the true Religion which Christians profess can never without being rendred extreme odious be pretended as a sufficient Reason to authorise Persidiousness which it prohibits and which it abhors and therefore we have frequently seen that the Breach of Faith which men have covered with the specious pretext of Religion as if God would permit us to deceive those who differ from us in their Belief hath always been followed by some great Misfortune which justifies the Providence of God by making it apparent that he is so far from approving such Infractions of mutual Treaties and Stipulations that he does most visibly and terribly punish such as are guilty of them as was manifested in this Rencounter For the Corasmins being assured of the Protection and the Assistance of the Sultan of Egypt who resolved to make use of them to revenge himself of these Infractors of the Peace which had been mutually sworn between him and the Christians instantly threw themselves all over Palestine with a fearful Number which covered all the Country like some mighty Inundation which being formed of a thousand Torrents precipitates it self from the Mountains and overflows all the Banks with a furious Tempest They did in consequence commit the most horrible mischiefs plundring sacking burning murdering and ruining all before them without resistance in this Surprize and after having taken and cut in pieces six thousand Christians who upon the noise of their approach had sled into Jerusalem they attacked and without difficulty forced the pitiful Retrenchments which had been there thrown up in hast and entring with the Sword they slew all they met cutting the Throats of such as had taken Sanctuary there even upon the Altar of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which till then had been reverenced by the Sarasins themselves and by a thousand execrable abominations profaning all the Sacred Places about the City and in short they did what ever Cruelty Avarice Luxury Impiety Rage and Fury and all the most brutish Passions could inspire the most brutish and unnatural of all mankind withal At last all the Forces of the Christians in the Countrey being joyned with those of the three Great Masters of the Military Orders and the Succors of the Sultans their Allies they came to a Battle near Gaza where the Corasmins had joyned the Troops of the Sultan of Egypt The
Geoffrey of Aigremont and the most valiant William of Paris The Infidels left there upon the place besides a prodigious number of the Arabs and their other ordinary Soldiers above three thousand of the principal persons of Quality among the Turks being those who of all the Infidels fought the most valiantly in that Battle The Victorious Army after having refreshed themselves two days in this Valley year 1097 now famous for this glorious Victory put themselves upon their March advancing towards Syria all the way following the Track of the flying Sultan and this Prince having after the Battle met with ten thousand fresh Arabians which came to Reinforce him and upon the Road having called the scattered Fugitives he applied himself to lay all the Country wast through which the Christian Army was to march this reduced them to extream Want especially in their Passage over the Mountains and the Deserts so that the defect of Provisions and the Thirst occasioned by the excessive Heats reduced them to those Extremities that five hundred Persons died in one day and almost all the Horses perished But at last having gotten out of those Straits they arrived about Antioch in Pisidia which surrendered to them without Resistance as did most of the other Cities in their Passage through Lycaonia Cappadocia and Armenia For the generality of the Inhabitants being Christians and the Turks not daring to appear in the Field being baffled in all the Rencounters upon the Way and therefore unable to protect them those places sent to the Princes to render themselves to their Protection they received the Princes with all sort of Submission and by a thousand Testimonies of Rejoycing made it appear with what infinite Pleasure they saw themselves delivered from the insupportable Yoak of Slavery which had been imposed upon them by the Infidels And therefore seizing upon Iconium Cesaria in Cappadocia sometimes a famous City though now almost wholy Ruinous Heraclia upon the Frontier of Cilicia the Princes placed Governors in them retaining them under their own Jurisdiction For they thought themselves wholy disengaged from the Oath which they had made to the perfidious Alexis who had not observed in any sort the Agreement which he had sworn to them Thus it must happen to such cowardly Princes who not believing themselves obliged to submit to the Laws which they themselves have made and to which they have given their most solemn Faith they gain nothing in conclusion by their Dissimulation but the Disappointment of their Expectations and the unprofitable Shame by breaking their Word of being esteemed dishonest and unworthy Men. Whilest the Army refreshed themselves in Pisidia after such Toyls and Hardships Prince Godfrey had like to have been lost by a strange Accident which however redounded in conclusion much to the Honour of this Prince advancing his Reputation Courage and Nobleness which appeared even to Admiration upon this dangerous Occasion For one day entring alone upon Horseback into a Wood where he hoped to have the Pleasure of entertaining himself some Moments in Solitude he heard the Voice of a Man who cried out for Help with all his Power and advancing to the place from whence the Noise came he presently understood the Cause for he perceived it was a poor Soldier who coming to cut Wood was running quite almost out of Breath round about a great Tree to save himself from the merciless Jaws of a monstrous and furious Bear year 1097 which was just ready to seize upon him Godfrey did not long deliberate what he was to do but transported with his Courage and his Charity to see the Danger of one of his Soldiers he spur'd on his Horse with his Sword in his hand towards the cruel Beast who abandoning her first Prey with her Eyes inflamed and her gaping Jaws and the terrible Claws of her two fore Paws advanced towards him and raising herself upon her hinder Feet to throw herself upon the Horse but being affrighted with the glittering Sword to avoid the Blow she fell sidelong yet so that Horse and Man came over her she catched hold of the Dukes Coat to draw him towards her but Godfrey nimbly recovering his Fall and seizing upon her left Paw which she had thrust out to lay hold upon him he plunged his Sword up to the very Hilt in the Belly of this monstrous Enemy when at the same time one of his Gentlemen named Husequin who was following the Hounds came running in at the horrible Cries of the Bear and the Soldier and put an end to the Life of the Beast already overthrown by the terrible Blow which she had received but the Duke having in drawing his Sword after his Fall from between his Leggs given himself a cruel Wound in his Thigh which during the heat of the Combat he never perceived he had lost so much Blood that after the heat of his Spirits which kept him up began to remit he immediately sunk down in a Swoon This Accident tho in consequence not Dangerous yet spread a mighty Consternation throughout the Army as if all had been lost For altho he had not the absolute Command of a General there being so many Princes and the Sons of two Kings so that all things were done by Consent and an equality of Power yet nevertheless he had so much Authority and so much Deference was given to his Judgment that one shall not need to make any Scruple in saying he was the Chief especially since the Battle of the Gorgonian Valley where by his Valour he not only faved the Army of Bohemond but gained the Christians a most glorious Victory by snatching it out of the hands of the Infidels when they were just upon the point of consummating it But not long after it so happened that Ambition Jealousie and the desire of Revenge three Passions far more dangerous than the most furious Beasts produced Effects more deplorable to the Christian Army than what had like to have befallen them by this monstrous Bear who failed in his Attempt against the Duke who was the Soul and Spirit of the Army For while they lay in Pisidia refreshing themselves waiting the Recovery of the Duke his Brother Baldwin and Tancred two young Princes whom the love of Glory had already rendred Rivals entred into Cilicia by two different Ways with two little Armies to make themselves Masters of such Places as they could Conquer which by the Consent of the other Princes they were to hold and establish there their little Principalities Tancred who took the more easy way all along the Sea Coast came first before Tarsus the Capital City of that Province and having beaten the Turkish Garrison who came out to sight him the Inhabitants who were for the most part Christians submitted to him and planted his Ensigns upon one of the principal Towers of the City Baldwin who followed by the long and difficult way of the Mountains came in just as these matters had passed and was taken by Tancred
turns the greatest Sinners into the greatest Saints Thus was Jerusalem recovered from the Infidels by the Army of the Crusades in the fourth Year of their Expedition the fifteenth day of July upon a Friday and which is most Remarkable at the very precise Hour wherein the Saviour of the World rendred his Blessed Soul into the Hands of Almighty God his Father as if the Divine Providence had determined so to manage the Movements of this great Affair that the Christians should recover his Inheritance exposing their Lives for his Glory at the same time wherein he had assured them of Immortality and Glory in Heaven by dying upon the Cross to purchase it for them Eight days after this happy Conquest during which time News was brought of the Death of the Patriarch Simeon who was Deceased in the Isle of Cyprus the Princes and Lords who followed them Assembled to Reestablish the ancient Kingdom of Jerusalem by giving it a King as David and Solomon and the other Princes their Successors had been till the Babylonish Captivity Count Raymond of Tholose was then proposed but whether he thought himself in the Age to which he was advanced too weak to sustain so weighty a Charge or feared that this Civility which was offered him would not succeed in regard his own People who had already twice forsaken him acted secretly against his Pretensions he excused himself by reason of his Age and would by no means suffer it to proceed to an Election The same Honor was also offered to Robert Duke of Normandy but this Prince having a great Desire to return as soon as he could had no other design but to get his Chaplain to be chosen Patriarch and it is with great probability of Appearance that it was he who made the Speech which one of the Writers of that time hath transmitted to us which proposed that double Election after this manner My Lords Since it is full time after having Accomplished so happily our Vow in this Glorious Expedition that we should now begin to think of Returning into Europe to Govern in our Persons those Estates which God hath there been pleased to give us and since you have also thought it expedient with all convenient Dispatch to take care for the Government of this Place which we came to reconquer from the Infidels Now my Lords this Capital and Holy City of Jerusalem being both a Royalty and a Patriarchate it is necessary that it should have both a King and a Patriarchate the Royalty and the Priesthood are so nearly linked together and accord so well that the one cannot be without the other for that hath need of the Priesthood to procure the Blessings of Heaven and this stands in need of the Royalty to support it and strengthen that Spiritual Authority which God hath Invested it withal It is our Duty to give our Assistance to the Clergy in the Choice of a Pastor for this Church who may be a Man of Wisdom Probity Spirit and Eloquence capable of so great an Office and all this we have Experienced in Arnold de Rohes who is without Contradiction the most Knowing and Able Man of all the Ecclesiasticks who have followed the Army and therefore I am of Opinion that we who are to take Care as much as possibly we can of this Church ought to Recommend him to their Election for a Patriarch As for that which concerns a King which is wholy in our own Power I can see nothing that should Oblige us to defer the Election for one Moment for it is most evident that we ought to Chuse without any sort of Hesitation that Person whose Piety Modesty Prudence sweet Temper Clemency Justice Integrity Liberality Experience in War Generosity Valour Successfulness Reputation and the Glory which he hath acquired in a thousand noble Occasions whose strength of Age of Body of Spirit whose Nobleness admirable Composure and very Air of Greatness and Majesty worthy of an Empire and a hundred other Perfections conspire to rank him among the greatest Kings that ever were My Lords All these extraordinary Qualities which render themselves so Conspicuous in the Person that possesses them make it appear wholy unnecessary for me to name him and must needs have prevented me in that Design nor is it what I can say but it comes from an Authority far Superior to mine God himself in giving him these surpassing Advantages above the rest of Mankind hath himself named the Person whom he hath chosen like a second David to be the King of Jerusalem It is the Illustrious Godfrey of Bullen Duke of Lorrain and that year 1099 The Prince could not sinish the rest for so soon as he had pronounced the Name of Godfrey all the whole Assembly Interrupted him crying out with the same Mind and Voice Godfrey Godfrey long Live Godfrey the most puissant and pious King of Jerusalem And notwithstanding all the Resistance which the Modesty of that excellent Prince brought to oppose it he was obliged instantly to consent to the Election which by so suddain and universal Consent manifested it self to have the Divine Will and Approbation The very same day he was Conducted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and there Proclaimed King amidst the Acclamations of the whole Army and all the Christians of the Country who came flocking in to Inhabit the City of Jerusalem He was there presented with a Crown of Gold which he absolutely refused protesting that he would never wear a Crown of Gold in a City where the King of Kings had for the Sake of Mankind worn a Crown of Thorns And tho he would not take upon himself the Title of King yet it was constantly given him as all the Historians of that time and Posterity have ever since done to this very Day and certainly never any King better deserved to wear that glorious Title which he adorned with so many Royal Actions the first was of Piety for he Founded two Chapters of Canons in the Churches of the Temple and the Holy Sepulchre as also a Monastery in the Valley of Jehosaphat The second was of his Power and Authority in Obliging Count Raymond to put into his Hands the strong Fortress of the Tower of David which he pretended to keep in his Possession at least till his Return into France though he was generally Condemned by the whole Army for it and even by his own Gascons and Provencalls The third was an Action of incomparable Valour and Conduct manifested in that memorable Victory which he obtained over the Sultan of Egypt for the Sultan coming too late to Succour his People Advanced with a formidable Army to Besiege Jerusalem but King Godfrey eased him of that Trouble For so soon as he received that News he sent to recal Tancred and Earl Eustace who were Marched to take the Fortress of Napolis otherwise called Sichem and Sichar formerly the place where Samaria had stood And as these two Princes who were Advanced as far as
his Army than either all the Want they had endured or all the Combats they had undergone since their parting from Constantinople for the Soldiers passing suddenly from one Extream into another there followed so much Sickness such a Mortality and at last the Plague among them in such a furious manner that of a numerous and flourishing Army which it was when it entred into Asia there remained not more than seven thousand Foot and five or six hundred Horse with which notwithstanding the valiant Frederick marched over the Bellies of all that durst oppose him and happily arrived at the City of Tyre There it was that he payed the last Duties to his Father whom he caused to be interred in the great Church with all the Magnificence and Ceremonies of a Funeral Pomp worthy of so great an Emperor the Archbishop of Tyre from whom he received the Cross making his Elegy in a most admirable Funeral Oration After which Duke Frederick went to joyn the Christian Army which for two years had undertaken and pursued the famous Siege of Ptolemais in the manner which I am about to relate When Saladin after a Years Imprisonment at Damascus gave Liberty to King Guy of Lusignan he exacted from him among other hard Conditions that he should renounce all manner of Claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and to engage himself by a soremn Oath to repass the Sea as soon as it was possible But after he was at liberty the Bishops declared that this Oath was in no sort obliging in regard it was forced from him by Compulsion and in his Restraint and also because Saladin himself had first violated his Faith in not delivering his Prisoner so soon as Ascalon was rendred to him as he had promised And for this Reason the King who was retired to Tripolis began to renew the War after he had assembled a considerable number of Troops of those of his own Realm who before durst not appear but flocked in to him upon the Arrival of the Crusades who seeing the French and English engaged in War came along with Geoffrey de Lusignan his Brother Having gained some Advantages of the Turks in the beginning he after went and presented himself before Tyre where the Marquis of Montferrat who pretended he had justly acquired the Principality of that City refusing him Entrance he was so enraged that although he had not half Forces enough for such an Enterprise yet he encamped before the place and put himself into a posture of besieging it year 1190 But the Patriarch Heraclius and the great Master of the Templers wisely representing to him that it was impossible for him to attempt a matter of this nature without absolutely ruining not only himself but all the Hopes that yet remained to the Christians in Palestine he desisted from it and thereupon desperate to see that he had not one place left to him in all his Kingdom for Tripolis appertained of Right to Raymond Prince of Antioch he took Counsel of his Dispair and turning short to the Left Hand he lead his little Army directly to Ptolemais in hopes to take it either by Assault or by Surprise Ptolemais by some called Accon or Acre derives its Name from one of the Kings of Egypt who was its Restorer and was at that time a fair and large City lying upon the Coast of the Phoenician Sea It was of a Triangular Figure the Base of it being towards the East the two Sides towards the North and South and the Point ended in a Rock which advanced it self a good space into the Sea upon the West where the Town becoming the narrowest abutted upon a great high and strong Tower which was called the Fly-Tower because that formerly in that place stood a Temple dedicated to Beelzebub which signifies the God of Flies It also served for a Watch-Tower or Light-House to discover the Entry of the Haven which lay towards the South in a certain Bay which the Sea made in that place which was very commodious and capable of receiving great numbers of Ships It was incompassed with very strong Walls and Barbicans or Out-Walls with large and deep Ditches and Graffs as also with very good Towers placed at convenient distances to defend each other The principal of these which served as a Castle and Fortress to the City was called the Wicked Tower by reason that the People by an old sottish Fable which according to Custom was held for an Authentick Tradition among them had a Belief that it was built with those thirty Pieces of Money for which Judas sold our Saviour The Country adjacent was very pleasant being a fair and rich Champaign which upon the North was bounded by Mount Saron distant about two Leagues from the City and upon Mount Carmel on the South much about the same distance towards the East it was extended to the Mountains of Galilee from whence there arose two small Rivers one whereof passing through the City emptied it self into the Sea at the Haven The other called Belus flows about two hundred and fifty Paces from the City Southwards and is famous for having been the occasion of the Invention of Glass by furnishing the Materials of which it was first made For about the middle of its Course it forms a kind of a Lake or Marish which Pliny calls the Lake of Cyndevia of a round Figure which may be some hundred Cubits in Compass the Bottom whereof is full of a certain Sand which by the Winds is driven into it from the Tops of the adjacent Hills where it obtains a Disposition which inclines it easily to be turned into Glass for being boiled and purisied in a Furnace it turns into a transparent Mass white and clear almost like Crystal And that which is most wondrous any small piece of this Crystal being thrown upon the Banks of this Lake in little time regains its former Nature and is converted into the same common Sand which it was before it was blown by the Winds into this Lake But though this Champaign about Ptolemais be very equal and level towards the Foot of the Mountains which inviron it yet there are two Hills near the Town the one of which is called Turon which some have confounded with the famous Castle of Thoron situate some three or four Leagues from thence upon the Extremity of the Mountains of Tyre which extend themselves to the upper Galilee The other is called the Hill of the Mosquee on the other side the River Belus upon which besides that Mosquee of the Sarasins is to be seen an ancient Sepulchre which they say is that of Memnon though without giving us precisely any Foundation whereupon to establish that Belief This was the nature of this place which proved the Theatre of so many brave Actions as were performed at this Siege of Ptolemais which one may well say was one of the most memorable which is related in any History year 1190 This City was taken from the Christians about the
that so he might be nearer his Brother-in-Law the King of Hungary The Venetians had the Isles of the Archipelagus and a great part of Peloponnesus or Morea with many Cities upon the Coasts of the Hellespont and Phrygia together with the Isle of Candia which they purchased of the Marquis of Montferrat to whom it had been given by the young Alexis Bithynia under the Title of a Dutchy fell to the Share of the Count de Blois William de Champlite of Champagne had the Principality of Achaia and Peloponnesus which he Conquered and at his Death left to Geoffry de Ville Hardouin Nephew to the Mareshal of Champagne who had also for his Share the Province of Romania There were also several other Principalities Lands and great Cities both in Europe and Asia conferred upon the most considerable Persons in the Army After this the Emperor taking the Field before the Winter reduced all the Cities of Thracia under his Obeysance and to compleat his good Fortune the old Alexis and the persidious Murtzuphle who still carried themselves as Emperors in that Province fell alive into his victorious Hands and received Justice according to their Demerits Murtzuphle after his Flight was retired into a City of Thracia about four days March from Constantinople and having rallied some Troops he with them seized upon Tzurulum at this day called Chiorli between the imperial City and Adrianople But when he perceived that all Places surrendred themselves to Prince Henry year 1204 whom the Emperor had sent before with the Men at Armes he quitted that open Country and retreated to Messinople anciently and truly called Maximinianopolis in the Province of Rhodope where the old Alexis had made himself be acknowledged as Emperor during the Siege of Constantinople Murtzuphle sent to him to offer him his Troops and his Service against the common Enemy and intreated him to do him the Honor to consider him and receive him as his Son-in-Law who could have no other Interests but his But Alexis whether it were that he hated him because he was more wicked than himself or that he distrusted him or that he was resolved to revenge the Affront and Dishonor that had been done by him to his Daughter or possibly that wholly Miserable as he was himself yet he could not indure that another should call himself Emperor he resolved to destroy him and to punish his Perfidy by another Treason For as the Devils in the other World are the Executioners of God's Decrees upon the Damned so the Crimes of wicked Men in this Life serve his Justice in the punishing of those Offences which other wicked Men have committed This dissembling and treacherous old Man therefore made shew of receiving these Offers of his Son-in-Law with all the Marks of Tenderness and Affection which he could have wished he went in Person to Confer with him they imbraced they kissed and reciprocally gave to each other their Faith protesting that they would hereafter never have any other but the same Interest and the same Heart After which Murtzuphle made no difficulty intirely to trust his Father-in-Law and went confidently to an Entertainment to which he was invited by him but as he was conducted into a Chamber where the Trap was set for him the People of Alexis who were in Readiness for that Purpose fell upon him and overthrowing him they immediately pulled his Eyes out of his Head Thus divine Justice the wise Disposer of all things ordered it that one Tyrant should execute upon another the same Cruelty which he himself had about nine Years before advised him to act upon his own Brother the Emperor Isaac Not long after Alexis understanding that Baldwin to whom all Thracia submitted was coming against him he fled into Macedon with so much Precipitation and Disorder that some of the Friends of Murtzuphle all whose Troops were disbanded found the Means to procure his Escape But after he had for some time wandred in Disguise with a small Attendance intending to pass the Strait of the Hellespont to save himself in Asia he was surprized by Thierri de Los who had got notice of him and carried Prisoner to Constantinople where the Emperor would have him proceeded against in due course of Law He was therefore accused before the Princes of an infinite number of Crimes and above all of being guilty of the most detestable Parricide upon the Person of the young Emperor Alexis who he had strangled with his own Hands The Fact was publickly notorious nor could he deny it but yet he had the audacious Confidence to indeavour to justify himself by maintaining that he had done nothing but what was most Just and what was approved by the Greeks and even the Relations of Alexis who had lost his Right to the Empire and deserved Death for having betraied his Country in selling it to Strangers But as his insolent Answers were so far from diminishing his Crime that they rendred him more Odious so he was condemned to a Death which might strike a Terror into all those who were the Accomplices or Approvers of his Parricide For this Purpose he was led into the great Square called that of the Bull in the middle of which the great Theodosius had erected a marble Column of extraordinary Height which being hollow had a Staircase within by which they might go to the Top upon which that Emperor had caused his Statue in Brass upon Horseback to be placed but that happening to be thrown down by an Earthquake in the Reign of Zeno Anastatius his Successor caused his to be set up in the Room of it and that having also the same Fate there was nothing after set up but it remained as a little Lodge which was inhabited by a new Stylite who by the means of that Retreat injoyed a Solitude in the midst of the greatest and most populous City in the World It was to the Top of this high Column that the Unfortunate Murtzuphle was carried and in the view of the whole City which might easily see it from all parts this Square of the Bull being one of the most eminent of the seven Hills upon which Constantinople stands year 1204 he was thrown down headlong and dashed in pieces Just it was that he should thus die by this fearful manner of Death that from thence Posterity may learn that if Ambition sometimes mounts wicked Men to the Eminency of Fortune by Treasons Poisonings Murders Parricides and all manner of Crimes which she never spares to prompt her Followers to when she judges them for her Purpose Yet does she at the last bring them when at the top of this Height to the most horrible Precipice from whence their Fall is so much the more Fatal by how much they fall from the greater Height That which is most strange in this terrible Execution is that among other Figures which were carved round about this Column there was to be seen that of an Emperor thrown down in that very manner
and Damiata for his own in regard he said it was dishonourable for a King of France to buy himself with Silver This so surprized the Sultan who like a Merchant had demanded much more than he thought ought to be given to come at last to the finishing of a bargain that he cried out that the French King was too Free and Generous so soon to agree to pay so great a Sum upon the first demand and that he would quit him of one hundred thousand and content himself with four of the five hundred thousand Livres Thus the Treaty was quickly concluded by which it was agreed That there should be a Truce for ten Years That all the Prisoners which had been taken on either side in Egypt or in Syria as well those which had been taken since the Truce which the Emperor Frederick had made with Sultan Meledin as those which had been taken since the Arrival of the King in Egypt should be set at Liberty That the Christians should peaceably possess all the places which they held in Palestine and Syria That the King should pay eight hundred thousand Bysances of Gold for the Ransom of all the Prisoners and surrender Damiata to the Sultan for his own That all the moveables which the King the Princes the Lords and in general all the Christians should leave in Damiata should be there secured by a Guard from the Sultan till such time as the King should send shipping to transport them whither he pleased That all the Sick and those who had any Affairs at Damiata might remain there in safety till they were in a condition to be removed And that then they might with Freedom retire whither they should please And that the Sultan should give those who went by Land a Convoy until they arrived at some place in the Possession of the Christians This being agreed the Sultan sent to the King the two Counts his Brothers all the Princes and Great Lords upon four Gallies which fell down the River to a certain Place where there was a Wooden Palace built for the Sultan upon the Bank of the River and a Magnificent Tent erected where the King and this Prince had an interview in the beginning of May about a Week before Ascension Day where after having reciprocally confirmed the Treaty year 1250 the King promised the Sultan that within three days he would surrender Damiata to him Insomuch that now there seemed to be nothing which might hinder or retard the Liberty of the King when upon a suddain their happened a strange Revolution in Egypt which overturned all and as an unexpected Tempest happening at Sea forces out a Ship when she is just ready to drop her Anchor and happily to enter into the Port so this unforeseen Accident which in a moment changed the Face of Affairs ruined all the fair hopes of the approaching deliverance of the King and did not only plunge him again into the same Afflictions but put him into the manifest danger of losing both his Liberty and his Life The manner of this change was thus The Sultans of Egypt had for their Guard a great Body of Militia of ten or twelve thousand Choice Men much like which we have since seen and which to this day continues among the Turks composed of Tribute Children of which those who are looked upon as most proper to be made Souldiers are instructed in Military Discipline and inrolled among the Guards of the Prince which are called Janizaries For the Sultans caused to be bought in Europe and Asia and especially in the Countries which lie between the Euxin Sea the River Tanais and the Caspian Sea and in the greater Armenia great numbers of Slaves and reserving the lustiest young men and the Children of those who were born to these Slaves in Egypt after having caused them to be carefully instructed in all Military Skill they placed them into this Body of Souldiers of their Guards which were called Mamalukes which in their Language signifies Servant or Slave and in regard that they were bought with the Sultan's money and knew no other Master they were intirely at his devotion And according as these Mamalukes made themselves considerable by their gallant Actions they were advanced in their Charges and made either Captains of Troops or Governours of Cities and Provinces which in the Arabian Language were called Amir or Emir and which the Writers of those Times have expressed by the Term of Admiral which we have borrowed from the Sarasins and it is fit to advertise the Reader that one of our Writers hath had the confidence to affirm that we make use of that word upon this occasion out of Ignorance when in truth he himself was ignorant of the true Original of the Word and was not acquainted that all the Learned World have constantly used it in this sence giving indifferently to these sort of Persons the Title of Emir Amir or as it is expressed in Latin Admiral as in the Greek also as may be seen in all the Historians of those Times But it was ever thus that they who see the least are the most confident in pronouncing their decisive opinion for having but a short sight which yet in their opinion is very good they have not so much as the Art of thinking or doubting there may be something which at present they either do not discover or cannot see Now the last of the Sultans taking notice of this powerful Body of these Mamalukes who were the bravest Souldiers of the East began to stand in fear of their Captains and for this reason when any one of them grew Rich or very considerable for some great Action they did not fail under some pretext or other to take them out of the way of their Jealousie thus the deceased Sultan Mclech-Salah-Nayem-Addin put to death the Admirals who at the Battle of Gaza had taken the Counts de Bar and Montfort His Son Almoadam Gaiat-Addin returning from the East to take possession of his Empire had at his first coming to the Crown by this wicked and to him unfortunate Policy taken the Principal Charges from all the Ancient Admirals the Captains of the Mamalukes and had conferred them upon those Strangers whom he brought along with him into Egypt This did so furiously provoke the Captains against him that fearing lest being now so firmly established by his Victory over the French Army and the recovery of Damiata he should follow the Example of his Father and put them to Death they resolved to be beforehand with him and to cause him to be slain by the Mamalukes who they were assured were at their devotion and accordingly the next day after he had conferred with St. Lewis his own Guards set upon him just as he rose from the Table after dinner and when he indeavoured to save himself in the highest of the three Towers year 1250 which were in this Wooden Palace which had been built upon the bank of the Nilus they set it on
thereof was obliged to retire into the Castle and to quit the Town which was not yet in a condition to be defended The Sarasins therefore having surprized and cut in pieces two thousand of the Servants and Peasants who followed the Camp entred without resistance into Sidon which they once again demolished overthrowing the Walls to the very Foundation But the Sultan being afraid that the other part of the Army which had by force taken Belinas should march and take Damascus he marched away in all haste to defend his Capital City Whilest the Troops which he feared having not been able to take the Castle of Belinas and being drawn from a dangerous Country by the Wise Conduct of Oliver de Termes one of the most hardy and Valiant Knights of the Army marched back again by another way to join the King of Sidon year 1253 It was at this place that this great Saint did that admirable Action of Charity and Humility which to this very day surprizes all mens minds with wonder for that he might oblige both the Officers and Souldiers to render with him the last duty to those poor creatures who had been slain by the Sarasins and lay unburied whose Bodies lay half putrefied above ground near the City he himself took the most infected of them upon his Royal shouldiers carrying those to their interment whose offensive smell was scarcely to be endured without shewing any manner of aversion for his loathsome burden as did those of his retinue and without receiving the least inconvenience from these infected Bodies A rare example even among the greatest Saints but much more among the greatest Princes and which may well make the delicacy of those blush who being so much below such elevated Majesty have such an extreme aversion for the Exercises of Christian Piety when they are never so little contrary to the Inclinations of Nature so that they are only contented to serve God when they can so accomodate his service with their own as that they may do it without losing any thing of either their profit or their pleasure After this the King according to the desires of the Lords of the Country began to repair the ruins of Sidon which he made stronger than ever it had been before He did the same to the City and Castle of Caiphas which was very necessary for covering the City of Acre whose Walls and Towers also he took care to repair and to fortifie the Suburbs in such a manner as to put them in safety against the attempts of the Sarasins This did so much surprize them with wonder that they were not able sufficiently to admire the Power the Riches and the Magnificence of this great King who after he had as they thought by his extreme misfortune lost all in Egypt had still so much treasure as to defray those prodigious expences which it is well known are so necessary for the maintaining of Armies building of Cities and erecting of Fortresses In short during the time that he remained in the Holy Land he fully satisfied his devotion to God as well as his Duty to the Interest of the Country for he visited the Holy Mountain of Tabor and the Sacred Chamber of Nazareth where accompanied with the Legate and all the Lords he celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation with the magnificence of a King thereby to honour God more eminently among the Infidels with the Piety of a Saint and to inflame the devotion of the Christians of the Country who generally were not addicted too much to it or to lead their Lives conformable to the Holiness of those sacred places which they did inhabit Above all he had an extreme desire to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem whose Walls the Sarasins had rebuilded and who would willingly have given him the liberty to enter into it as a Pilgrim But his Council did not think it convenient that one of the greatest Kings of Christendom ought to go thither to worship Jesus Christ before his Holy Sepulchre before he had conquered it from the Infidels for otherwise they said the other Princes who after him should undertake the Voyage to the Holy Land would believe themselves acquitted of their Duty year 1253 when they should have accomplished their Pilgrimage as the King of France had done which might be of great prejudice to the Crusades the end of which was to be the deliverance of Jerusalem year 1254 The King who was resolved that his private Devotion and Piety should never be prejudicial to the Rights of his Royal Majesty which ought to be maintained inviolably yielded his desires to this advice And therefore after having acted for five years so advantageously for the Affairs of the Holy Land by putting all the Maritim places of the Country into a very good condition having received the sad news of the death of Queen Blanche his Mother for whom he had ever had a most Infinite tenderness and Reverence and seeing that thereupon his presence would be absolutely necessary in his Realm he resolved at last to return But for the safety of Palestine he left the Legate there with considerable store of money and a good part of his Army under the Command of the Wise and Valiant Geoffrey de Sergines After which upon the three and twentieth of April he imbarked with the rest of his People upon fourteen Ships in the greatest of which he would have together with the Queen and the Princes his Children Jesus Christ himself present in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar both for the consolation and the security of his Voyage And it was under the Conduct of this Divine Pilot who nevertheless seemed sometimes to sleep during the Tempest that having escaped the most extraordinary dangers which during two months he had run at Sea he at last landed at Yeres from whence coming into France he went directly to St. Dennis to render most humble thanks unto Almighty God for his return which he acknowledged he had obtained by the intercession of the Holy Martyrs the Protectors of France The Queen who in an eniment danger of suffering shipwrack had made a Vow that if she escaped she would send a ship of Silver to St. Nicholas in Lorrain did not fail to accomplish it She caused this Ship to be made wherein is to be seen her Picture from the Life together with that of the King and the three Princes her Children The Steward of Champagne and Joinville who had persuaded her to make this Vow did himself carry this Offering marching barefoot from Joinville to this famous Church of St. Nicholas where it hath pleased God to continue to this day the working of an infinite of Wonders for the Honour of this Holy Bishop the Protector of those who sail upon the Sea year 1255 But whilest France enjoyed the happy Fruits of the Presence of the King who by his wise Government maintained it in a most profound tranquillity Palestine began to feel those misfortunes which
consider the Vastness and Importance of this Famous Enterprize of the Crusado's or the Quality of the Persons who have fortunately executed or unsuccessfully attempted this great Design whether we compute the number or variety of those extraordinary Events which were accompanied with such diversity of Fortune or in short if we take a Survey of those Heroick Actions which were then performed one shall find them such as not scarcely to be out-done even by the Romantick Atchievements of the Fabulous Ages One shall there see the Holy Wars which the Christians have undertaken either to reconquer or preserve a Country wherein all the glorious Mysteries of the Redemption of Mankind were accomplished and which the Worshippers of the Eternal Son of God Jesus Christ did believe that they could not without infamy and betraying the Interest of their Religion permit to remain under the Tyrannick Dominion of Barbarous Infidels On the one Part three of the greatest Kings of France as many Emperours the Kings of England Denmark Hungary Navar and Cyprus the Dukes of Lorrain Normandy Austria and Suabia and most of the Princes of Europe appeared at the head of their Troops being followed by whatever was brave or gallant throughout all the Western Monarchies on the other side the Sultans of Aegypt of Babylon and Damascus with all the celebrated Princes of the Turks and Sarasens who have rendred their names so famous by the greatness of their Actions are the Hero's who must tread the stage of this History persons so considerable that singly they might furnish a very fair Volume All that is surprizing in unexpected successes all that is so admirably represented in Fiction or wonderful in the most Heroick Enterprises will be found in the following Account and to render it yet more valuable will be accompanied with that solid foundation of Truth which will distinguish it from those ingenious Fictions which have been invented with so much pain to produce some pleasure to the Readers That I may therefore endeavour that this History may in some sort appear new and with all its natural Ornaments at least that it may not want that little beauty which even the most indifferent Relations seem to challenge it is to be considered that though these matters have been often heretofore related either in some parts by particular Authors or in the general Histories of such Natures as have had more or less concern in this affair of the Crusade yet the World hath not hitherto seen them wrought together into one Regular composure with all the dependencies consequencies and connexions nor with that continued Chain of Causes and Effects and such Circumstances as might render the work so accomplished and delicate as it ought to be and in which the charming secret which doth so insensibly allure and please consists and which is indeed the soul and spirit of History and ought to be the End of every just Historian Moreover as the Subject is so Noble and agreeable so neither is it less advantagious then delightful For here one shall find the great Concerns of the Church of two mighty Empires and the Principal Estates of Europe and Asia there shall one discover the causes which occasioned that glorious design so often to fall and yet afterwards to rise again there may we see that Zeal of our Ancestors which seems to reproach our slow imitation Especially at a time when the Forces of one single Monarch could he but remain assured of his Neighbours are sufficient to ruine the Tyranny of those Infidels whose power consists chiefly in those fatal divisions among Christians which hitherto have prevented their employing their Arms to their destruction However the hope that my endeavours will not be unprofitable and that God Almighty whose help I implore will assist me with his Grace and bestow that happy success which is not to be expected from me have given me encouragement to pursue this difficult task which I have undertaken year 637 It was about 400 years that the Arabian Sarasens under their Caliphs the successors of Mahomet having made themselves Masters of all the upper Asia and Aegypt did also possess the Holy Land after which time the Turks siezing upon it did by their revolt establish a new Empire over Asia these People are originally descended from that part of the Asiatique Sarmatia which lies between Mount Caucasus and the River Tanais the Lake of Meotis and the Caspian Sea And whether it were that they were dissatisfied with their present Habitations or that they were forced from them by some new Intruders most certain it is that having divided themselves to search for new Regions one part of them marching Westward advanced by degrees as far as the banks of the Danubius and the other far more numerous moving towards the East passed the River Volga and settled in the Northern Climates bordering upon the Caspian Sea formerly the habitation of the Scythians and Massagetes and which at this day retains the name of Turquestan by them imposed upon it lying all along the River Jaxartes and not long after passing that River they extended their Consines as far as Maurenthor betwixt that River and the Oxus or as the Greeks called it the River Araxis year 585 and from thence during the Empire of Mauritius by the way of the Caspian Sea they transported themselves into Persia where they made great depredations and ravaged whole Provinces year 625 Afterwards we find that they served Heraclius in the War which he made against Cosroes But when about the year 640 Omar one of the Successors of Mahomet had reduced all Persia under the Empire of the Sarasens the Turks to whom he allotted certain Countries entred into his pay and served him in his Wars against the Greek Emperors for almost 400 years till such times as the Sarasens being mightily broken by their Intestine Divisions and the Turks on the other hand wonderfully augmented both in number and Strength they embodied themselves under a Prince of their own chusing one of the Descendants of Salgue or Sadock a Person to whom the People paid a singular Veneration And in conclusion having vanquished the Sarasens in three general Battles they rendred themselves Masters of all Persia about the year 1042 and afterwards of Mesopotamia Palestine and Syria changing their Religion also about the same time with their Fortune and being converted from Paganism to the Superstition of Mahomet that great Impostor This Victorious Prince whom the Arabians call Abutalip the Greeks Sangrolipax and William of Tyre Belphet or Belphetoc after he had spent above thirty years in the Establishment of this mighty new Monarchy in the Upper Asia entred also the Lesser Asia with a most numerous Army where in a set Battle he defeated and took Prisoner Diogenes the Roman Emperor year 1069 After which Victory the Turks under the Conduct of Cuthume and his Son Solyman near Relations to the Sultan seized upon the Realm of Pontus since called Turcomania the Provinces of
Lycaonia year 1081 Cappadocia and Bithynia and about the Year 1081. during the Divisions of the Greeks and the sluggish Emperors Michel Ducas and Nicephorus Botoniatus who was deposed by Alexis Comnenius Solyman placed the Seat of his Empire at Nice the Capital City of that Country It was then under the Tyranny of these Turkish Princes that all Asia Syria and Palestine and the City of Jerusalem lay groaning and in Servitude when it pleased God to inflame the hearts of the Christian Princes with a Noble Zeal to undertake the Conquest and Deliverance of the Holy Land which they accomplished in that wonderful manner which I am now about to relate year 1093 Among the great number of Pilgrims which continually resorted from all the Western Parts of Europe to visit the Holy Places of Palestine a French-man of Amiens in Picardie a Solitary by Profession whose name was Peter the Hermite about the Year 1093. took a Voyage to Jerusalem to satisfie his Devotion towards the Sacred Monuments of the Redemption of mankind Being arrived there he understood from his Host the miserable condition to which the Christians were reduced and having taken a view himself of the piteous estate of that desolate City he resolved to confer with the Patriarch Simeon not only to receive a more perfect Information of the truth of those Particulars but also to deliberate with him concerning some means of delivering the People of God from their cruel Servitude The Patriarch who quickly perceived the virtuous inclinations and brisk temper of the Hermite opened to him his very Soul he recounted to him in most passionate Language the innumerable and horrible Sacriledges which were by the Infidels daily committed within the most Holy Places and the insupportable miseries which not only the poor Christians but the Patriarchs themselves who were treated like Slaves had been forced to indure under their tyrannous and barbarous Lords by the space of five hundred years After which with many bitter Sighs he gave him to understand that considering the lamentable estate of the Eastern Empire the Evils which they suffered were not only insupportable but without all expectation of Redress unless they might hope for Assistance from the West Peter who was most sensibly touched with the Discourse of the Patriarch year 1093 and the miseries of which he was an Eye-witness himself being immediately filled with an extraordinary Zeal for the Publick Good made no difficulty to assure the Patriarch that he doubted not in the least but if the Pope and the Christian Princes of the West were truly informed of the deplorable condition of the Christians in the Holy Land that they would unite in a generous Resolution to break off the Manacles of their Slavery and deliver the Holy Places from the tyrannick Yoke of the Enemies of Jesus Christ And therefore he advised the Patriarch to write effectually to them and implore the Succour of their Arms upon which the only Hopes of the Deliverance of the Christians of Palestine could depend and for his own particular he very couragiously offered to carry those Lords throughout the West and to do all the Good Offices he was capable of towards the exciting of the Christian Princes to undertake an Enterprize so glorious so necessary for the Honor and the Common Interest and good of all Christendom Simeon surprized with the Resolution and Courage of the Hermite which he observed to be accompanied also with so much Wisdom was struck with a strong Impulse that God Almighty was resolved to deliver his People in such a manner as should redound most to his own Glory since the Instrument which he made use of for the accomplishment of such a marvellous Work carried such a disproportion to the Greatness of so high and so hardy an Enterprise for in Truth Peter carried nothing promising in his Person which might make it be believed that he was like to be a proper Negotiator of an Affair of that Importance for he was small of Stature and not well proportioned neither his Aspect was by no means agreeable and he was far from sweetning by Art those ruder Lineaments of his Visage insomuch that by the little care he took in which others bestow so much pains to make himself appear tolerable he rather resembled some savage Creature his hair disordered his Beard long and long neglected and considering the Austerity of his Life his ill shape and the meanness of his Habit those who were not accustomed to make very curious and penetrating discoveries could not but make a very disadvantagious Judgement of him But coming more narrowly to consider him it was easie to discover that as he had been very studious in all sorts of Learning so he had made very great Improvements in his Mind and that together with a solid Judgement he had a great Mind an admirable Resolution to attempt and a marvellous Vivacity in the ready Execution of what he had resolved that he was Master of a Natural Eloquence capable of perswading what he pleased without Artifice and in short there appeared in his Eyes a fire so quick and sparkling and something so Noble in his Air and Mine as was sufficient to convince one that there dwelt a great Soul in that little Body year 1093 The Patriarch therefore who had observed all these Excellent Qualities hearing him discourse with so much Resolution could not doubt but that God had chosen him for the Execution of this great design and therefore closely embracing him with a thousand thanks he accepted of his Proposition exhorting him with Courage and Fidelity to acquit himself of a Charge which he had with so much Zeal and Frankness undertaken and presently delivered to his hands the Dispatches which he desired should be delivered to the Pope and the Christian Princes of the West The Natural Generosity of a Person of Courage who had voluntarily engaged himself in an Enterprise so great and difficult was sufficient of it self to remove all the fear which might be apprehended in the Execution but however he was strongly perswaded that since Providence seemed so extraordinarily engaged nothing was able to surmount the Divine Power and that therefore he might be confident of a happy and successful Conclusion of this Affair Peter now resolved to put in Execution what he had promised the Patriarch Simeon the Evening before his departure shut himself up in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there to pass the night in Prayer with all his Soul to implore the Succor of Almighty God upon such an important occasion and after his Devotions falling asleep whether it were that his imagination violently prepossessed with his intended Enterprise acted upon his Soul more vigorously during his sleep than while he was awake or that God was pleased to make use of a Dream to reveal his pleasure to him as formerly he had to the Holy Prophets in his sleep there seemed to appear to him Jesus Christ in such a Condition as he was when