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
Squadrons the first wherein was the Prince Alexis with the Marquis Boniface and Count Baldwin sailed to the Isle of Andros where the Inhabitants immediately yielded themselves to their Prince The second sailed to rights to the Straits of the Hellespont where they made a Descent at the City of Abydus year 1202 which is in the Entrance of the Strait on the Coast of Asia the inhabitants immediately presenting them with the Keys of their City So that all the Fleet had the Opportunity to assemble as it did in eight Days after and then passed the Chanal which seemed all covered between Europe and Asia with Ships and Gallies which composed the gallantest Fleet that the Christians had ever seen upon those Seas they came to an Anchor at the Port of the Abby of St. Stephen upon the Bank of the Propontis on the Thracian Coast about five or six miles from Heptapyrgium which is the famous Castle of seven Towers From thence as they resolved to go to the Islands of those Seas to secure themselves of Provisions before they attempted to form a Siege by Land against so great and strong a City the Wind and the Current carried the Fleet from the West to the East along by the Coast of the City which is situate upon the Propontis so near the Walls which were all crouded with Greek Soldiers that with their Darts they might reach the Ships The Ships also came so near as to be able to strike a Terror into the Hearts of the most undaunted who might at one View discover three hundred Vessels in order of Battle which made the fairest and yet one of the most terrible Sights in the World the Standards flying upon the Poops the Ensigns displaid the Flags and Pendants flying in the Wind the Machines mounted upon the Decks and the Shields of the Knights painted with their Arms glittering with Gold and Silver ranged all along the Hatches seemed to represent the Battlements of some glorious City It was in this Condition that this Gallant and formidable Navy bearing with full Sails before the Wind was carried to the Port of Chalcedon where the Army made an immediate Descent Chalcedon sometimes so famous for the fourth Universal Council which was there held under the Emperor Martian in the Papacy of St. Leo in the magnificent Church of St. Euphemia was at this time an indifferent fair City situate in a Peninsula which advancing it self into the Sea at the Entrance of the Bosphorus over against Constantinople forms upon its two sides two Ports whereof that which is upon the East was very large and capable of receiving a great number of ships that which rendred it more considerable was the proud Palace which the Emperors had caused to be built near that City there to enjoy the Beauty of the Place and the Sweetness of the Country Air which hath the Reputation of being very healthful But since the Turks are become Masters of the Empire they have in such manner ruined this poor City and all the Country thereabout That there remain scarcely any Footsteps either of Palaces or so much as of any Walls nor is it any thing but a wretched Village composed of the Cabins of a few pitiful Fishermen The Port for want of use and care being also now so grown up with Sand that it admits of no other Vessels but those poor Fisher Boots There it was that upon St. John Baptist's Day the whole Army landed and lodged themselves most commodiously partly in the City partly in the Palace and the remainder in the Country Houses of Pleasure thereabouts where they found abundance of Wealth which they put into the Ships which had now only the Mariners aboard them Two days after this fair Fleet was conducted to the Port of Scutari formerly known by the name of Chrysopolis over against the Promontory of Bosphorus or that of Acropolis now the Seraglio which is seperated by the Strait not above a good mile At the same time the whole Army took its March by Land in order of Battle along the Bosphorus having Constantinople upon their left hand which they fiercely beheld as their approaching Conquest and the Subject of their future glory and went and encamped below Scutari upon the Bank of the Strait fully resolved to pass it in the Sight of their Enemies as they did in the manner which I shall relate so soon as I shall have given an Account of the Condition wherein the City of Constantinople then was to resist such resolute Enemies as came generously to attack it and fully determined to carry it or to perish year 1203 THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Condition wherein the City of Constantinople was when it was besieged by the French and Venetian Crusades The Defeat of the Vsurpers Brother-in-Law by a small Party of the French The Passage and the Battle of the Bosphorus The taking of the Castle of Galatha The Venetians force the Entry of the Port. An Assault given both by Sea and Land to Constantinople The Venetians take five and twenty Towers A Sally made by the Emperor Alexis with a prodigious Army and his Infamous Cowardice His Flight and the Reduction of Constantinople The Establishment of Isaac and the young Alexis A Prolongation of the Treaty for a Tear between that Emperor and the Confederate Princes Their Exploits in Thracia A dreadful Fire at Constantinople The History of the horrible Treason of Murrzuphle The young Alexis suffers himself to be surprized by the Artifices of that Traytor and breaks with the Confederates The Speech of Conon de Bethune to the Emperors to oblige them to accomplish their Treaty War declared against them upon their Refusal The Greeks attempt in Vain to burn the Venetian Fleet. The Discription of that wild Fire year 2103 The consequent Treasons of Murtzuphle The Election of Cannabus The double Treason of Murtzuphle who makes himself be proclaimed Emperor The Death of Isaac and of the young Alexis whom Murtzuphle strangles with his own Hands The Confederates make War against the Tyrant His Defeat by Henry the Brother of Count Baldwin The first Assault given upon the Port side of Constantinople wherein the Confederates are repulsed The Second Assault by which the City is taken by plain Force The Flight of Murtzuphle The Greeks lay down their Arms. The City plundered and the Booty there gained The Reliques from thence transported to several Churches of Europe Baldwin Earl of Flanders chosen Emperor The Policy of the Venetians in the Election of that Prince His Elogy and Character The Election of a Patriarch The Destribution of the Provinces of the Empire The happy beginning of the Emperor who reduceth all Thracia Murtzuphle surprized and betrayed by the Old Alexis who puts out his Eyes The Flight of Alexis and the taking of Murtzuphle He is brought back to
his League with the Princes of the Crusade The Ambassadours of Alexis slighted The advantagious composition with the Emir of Tripolis The March of the Christian Army to Jerusalem Lidda Rama Nicopolis and Bethlehem taken by the Christians The extraordinary expressions of their Devotion upon the first discovery of the Holy City AFter the Arrival of these Princes at Constantinople Duke Godfrey and Tancred being advanced as far as Nicomedia and having levelled the ways over the Mountains from that Town to the City of Nice they invested that place the sixteenth day of May. They staid some time for the coming of the other Princes and of Peter the Hermit who was gone into Asia to recollect some of those unfortunate Reliques of his Forces which had saved themselves in the Woods And then it was resolved without staying for the Troops of Raymond Earl of Tholose and those of the Duke of Normandy and the Earl of Blois which were not yet come up that they should begin to form the Siege of Nice Nice the Capital City of Bythinia and which is famous to this day for the first and seventh Oecumenical Councils which were held there against the Heresies of the Arians and the Iconoclasts was at this time a fair and spaious City liyng about fifteen or sixteen Leagues from Nicomedia in the middle of a most fertile and pleasant Valley on all sides encompassed with high Mountains except on the Western Quarter where the great Lake of Ascanius which by small Vessels furnisheth it plentifully with all the Commodities of the Country serves instead of a natural Fortification rendring it wholly inaccessible on that side It was encompassed with double Walls of an extraordinary thickness and flanked with very fair and lofty Towers strongly built and placed at convenient distance to defend each other and that part of the Curtain which was between them It was also strengthened without the Counterscarp with a great retrenchment admirably Palisadoed and which was extream difficult of access by reason of the great number of Springs and Rivulets which falling from the Mountains and being stopped by the Fortifications drowned all the adjacent fields to what degrees the defendants pleased Old Soliman who after the Turks had entred the lesser Asia pushed his Conquests by a continual succession of Victories as far as the Propontis had taken extraordinary pains in the fortifying of this City where he established the Seat of his Empire that he might be so much the nearer Constantinople and upon occasion one day pass over more commodiously into Europe The young Soliman who about ten years after succeeded him usually kept a very strong Garrison there but upon the noise which the Enterprize of the Christians of the West were about to make he reinforced it with the choicest of his Troops for he did not doubt but in order to their opening a passage to Jerusalem this place would be the first that would be attacked He himself was gone into Persia year 1097 to request the assistance of all the Princes of his Nation and returning just in the nick of time to succour the City he posted himself in the Mountains at the same time when the Christian Army not suspecting that such a terrible Enemy was so near began the Siege However the Christians applyed themselves to a formal Siege distributing their several Quarters in his open view their Army being far more numerous then his and consisting in above four hundred thousand Combatants Bohemond after he had taken care for Provisions for the Army in a very plentiful manner returning to the Camp posted himself on the Northwest quarter of the City with his Nephew Tancred who extended his quarter on the right hand even to the Lake Godfrey of Bullen with Baldwin took the Right Hand over against the Principal Gate of the City taking up all that space between the North and the East upon that side where the City was most strongly fortified After them upon the South East quarter encamped Hugh the Great in the same place where after their arrival the Duke of Normandy and Count Stephen were to make their attack so soon as they should come up All the South side was reserved for Count Raymond who was upon his way in Bythinia and not far distant from the Camp That part towards the West South-West which lay upon the Lake could not be blocked up so close but that the Enemies had that way the convenience of furnishing themselves with Provisions The Town being in this manner begirt quite round the besiegers began briskly with a General Assault which upon the fourteenth day of May was given at the same time upon all the several Quarters with all kind of military Engines The Combat was maintained all that day till the darkness of the Night obliged them to discontinue it and was again renewed in the Morning with extraordinary fury though without Effect For the besieged were not only gallant men but every minute in expectation of being relieved by Soliman to whom they had dispatched an Express both to inform him of their Condition and to advertise him that he might easily do it by forcing the Christian Camp on that part which lay to the Southward which was but as yet very slenderly guarded but it so fell out that the Letters of the Sultan were intercepted that very day as they were going to the Town to assure the besieged that he would not fail the next morning according to their advice to attack that part of the Camp Notice thereupon was immediately given to Prince Raymond who was not far off who marched with such diligence that by good Fortune the next morning very early he arrived in the Camp He was no sooner begun to make his Lodgement but the Turks descended from the Mountain and divided themselves into two great Bodies to attack the Christian Camp in two quarters One party of them marched to the right towards the South believing according to the advice which they had received from the besieged that the passage there was free whilest the other advanced to the Quarter of Duke Godfrey which lay next the Earl to prevent his sending any succours from that part and thereby to be the better able to put his designed relief into the City year 1097 But the gallant Raymond whom the Turks little expected to have found there received them in so good a posture and charged their Troops who looked for nothing less than such opposition with so much fury that he presently put them into disorder and having routed them and cut the best part of them in pieces the rest were forced to betake themselves to a hasty slight pursuing them to the very foot of the Mountains whilst Godfrey in his quarter dealt in the same manner with those who made the false attack upon his Post Nevertheless the besieged failed not at all in their Courage but made a very obstinate defence under the Protection of their Walls whose strength was so great as
rest of Cilicia even to Alexandretta whilest Baldwin having made a great Progress in Armenia whither he was gone to joyn the gross of the Army was called to the Principality of Edessa where he established himself by that Adventure which I am now about to relate Edessa an ancient and famous City of Mesopotamia known in the sacred History by the Name of Rages which it afterwards changed into that of Rohais and which at this day is called Orfa was in times past under the Power of the ancient Greeks who governed it under the Emperor of Constantinople and after that the Turks had taken from him this Province yet it was still maintained as a little Principality paying a certain Tribute to these Infidels who nevertheless ceased not to Tyrannize over this poor City now hopeless of all Succours The Inhabitants who were all Christians having heard of the famous Actions of Prince Baldwin who pushed on his Conquests as far as Euphrates defeating the Turks in all Encounters obliged their Prince to send to him to desire his Assistance and to offer him the honorable Terms of being his adopted Son and declared Successor Baldwin did not refuse so fair an Occasion which his good Fortune seemed to offer him by possessing him of so considerable an Estate in Asia He adventured therefore to pass the Euphrates being followed by not above one hundred Horse which were all he could spare from the keeping such important Places which he had Conquered nevertheless with this little Troop he bassled the Turks who either openly opposed his Passage or laid Ambuscades in his Way to surprize him and entring Edessa he was received with such extraordinary Acclamations and Honors that the good old Man who had adopted him conceived such a Jealousy of him that repenting of what he had done he resolved in short to get quit of him and send him back at any rate But Baldwin after he had in two or three Rencounters with the Turks who possessed all the Country about Edessa given a Tast of his Courage and Conduct the whole Populace who were ripe for such a Revolution and wanted only an Occasion to revenge themselves of a thousand Evils which they had suffered under the Government of this Covetous old Man ran immediately to their Arms and besieged the Castle and notwithstanding all the Prayers and Opposition which Baldwin made against their Intentions they cut this miserable Man in pieces whilest he endeavoured to escape by throwing himself from a Window opposite to that Quarter which was assaulted After which notwithstanding all the Repugnance which Baldwin either had or feigned to have thereby to shew that he had no share in so horrid an Action he was constrained the next Morning to permit himself to be solemnly proclaimed Prince of Edessa and to be put in Possession of the Treasure of the deceased Prince which according to the Destiny of Covetous Men he had scraped together for another who knew how to employ it better than himself For with one part of it he bought the strong Town of Samosata upon the Euphrates he who held it thinking it better Husbandry prudently to sell it at a good Rate than to expose himself to the danger of losing it for nothing and with another part he levied good Troops with which he took all the places which were capable of incommoding Edessa and in short in a small time he established a most powerful Estate extending it on both sides both towards the South from Euphrates as far as Selencia upon the Tygris and towards the North as far as the strong places upon Mount Taurus He had also the dexterity and good Fortune to unite to his Principality a great part of Armenia by an alliance with one of his Princes whose Neice he married after the death of the generous Gundechilda his Lady who having followed him died at Maresia during the March of the Army of the Confederate Princes Whilst Prince Baldwin made such a marvellous Progress on this side of the Euphrates the Christian Army having reduced all the lesser Armenia took the Road through Comagena towards Syria and drew within fifteen miles of Antioch after having taken the City of Artesia the Inhabitants whereof having cut the throats of the Turkish Garrison had opened their Gates to the Earl of Flanders who was advanced with a thousand choice horse to receive it He there made a defence for divers days with a great deal of Courage and glory against twenty thousand Turks who came from Antioch to retake it and who after a terrible Assault which they maintained for one whole day were constrained to retire upon the Approach of the Christian Army to defend the pass of a Bridge upon the Orontes about two or three Leagues from Antioch year 1097 After the repose of a few dayes during which Tancred and the rest of the Lords except Count Baldwin came to rejoyn the Army it was resolved notwithstanding the Season was now far advanced to besiege this great City in regard the Reputation of the Christian Arms and the happy Success of their great design seemed absolutely to depend upon the taking of Antioch which covered the Country of Palestine This resolution was no sooner taken but it was put in immediate Execution for the next morning Robert Duke of Normandy who led the Vanguard of the Army fell smartly upon the Bridge which the Turks who never behaved themselves better than upon this occasion as vigorously maintained but the Bishop of Pavia coming up to reinforce them did so animate the Normans and the English that some of them having forced the Barricadoes and the two Towers which commanded the Bridge whilst others passing over the Shallows and some throwing themselves into the River swam over they put the Turks to slight and opened the passage for the whole Army That Night they encamped near the River and the next day which was Wednesday the twenty first of October putting themselves in order of Battle and adorning themselves in their fairest Arms with Trumpets founding and Colours flying the whole Army marched as it were in a terrible Triumph and encamped within a mile of Antioch Antioch so renowned in the Greek and Latin Histories and which at present consists only of some part of the beautiful Ruines where sometime that noble City stood was at that time one of the fairest and largest Cities in the World giving place to none for the strength which both Art and Nature had bestowed upon it It was situated in a most fertile and delicious Plain between the Mountains Amanus and Orontes upon the River of that name whose Stream flowed along by the Walls on the Western side being within four or five leagues of its mouth The Town was in length from the East to the West above a league without comprehending the Suburbs which were very large There were two Mountains between the South and East separated by a narrow Valley through which a little River slid along into the
upon which he embarked the two Queens with the greatest part of his Forces who not long after happily arrived in England And about the beginning of October he also departed with the Displeasure of having on one side concluded a Truce most inglorious and disadvantageous to the Christians and on the other with the Honour and Pleasure at his parting to have bestowed two Kingdoms that of Jerusalem which was a very piteous one but yet a Kingdom upon the Count de Champagne his Nephew and that of Cyprus which he had conquered upon Guy de Lusignan in which House it continued two hundred and eighty Years Thus it was that King Richard left the Holy Land with a Promise to these two Princes that upon the Expiration of the Truce he would return with more powerful Forces and to persuade the World that this Resolution of his was in serious Earnest he continued still to wear the Pilgrim's Cross upon his Habit. As for the rest his natural Impatience and Temerity made him commit two mighty Faults which rendred his Return very unfortunate For first Whereas he ought to have embarked himself like a great King upon a gallant Fleet that so he might return with Security and the same Magnificence with which he came he satisfied himself with one great Ship in which he might easily by Sea have fallen either into the hands of Enemies or Pyrates and after that when he was at Corsu perceiving that his Vessel was a Slug and made no Way he threw himself for the more Expedition into a Galliot and was by Tempest driven into the Gulph of Venice where he was shipwrack'd between that place and the City Aquilea and having run a thousand Dangers in crossing through Germany in Disguise year 1193 the greatest part of his Followers being taken Prisoners by the Germans who pursued him and laid all the Passages for him he was at last discovered near Vienna by the Subjects of the Duke of Austria his mortal Enemy who made him Prisoner and treated him with sufficient Inhumanity in Revenge of the old Quarrel before Acre and after some time he delivered him into the hands of the Emperor Henry VI. This Prince to cover his abominable Avarice which made him so unjustly detain this King only to draw a great Ransom from him made his publick Pretence that all this was to do Reason for what Richard had done to his Prejudice in Sicily and for the Assassinate of the Marquis of Montferrat and those other Crimes of which he had been accused in Palestine But Richard who was naturally cloquent in a full Diet before the Princes of the Empire at Spire made his Innocence so evidently appear that the whole Assembly was moved for him even to Tears and intreated the Emperor that for the future he might be treated like a King which the Emperor more out of Shame than Honour consented to Pope Celestin also sollicited by the Letters of Queen Eleonor which were all in the Style of Peter de Blois who writ them and by the Prayers and Intreaties of Gautier Archbishop of Roan and the Bishops of Normandy who upon this occasion manifested great Ardor and Affection for the Service of King Richard did all that he possibly could to obtain his Liberty He proceeded so far as to denounce the Anathema against the Duke of Austria for daring to make a Prisoner of a Pilgrim expresly contrary to an Article of the Crusade which denounces Excommunication against such as should attempt any thing either against the Persons or Estates of such as had taken upon them the Cross He also menaced the Emperor to interdict all his Dominions if he did not presently release this prince who came to employ his Blood and his Fortune against the Infidels and over whom he could pretend no sort of Right But this had very little Effect upon the Germans who for a long time had been accustomed to be in no pain for the Thunders of Rome For notwithstanding all these Menaces year 1194 poor Richard could not be set at Liberty till after above a Years Imprisonment he payed a hundred thousand Marks in Silver before his Releasment and left fifty Hostages among which was the Archbishop of Roan for the Payment of fifty thousand Marks more of which the Duke of Austria was to have twenty thousand and the third part of the hundred thousand already received by the Emperor So that to raise this Sum all England was taxed and even the Chalices and consecrated Vessels were forced to be melted down and coyned So far was this Prince who was falsly accused to have sold Palestine to Saladin from making any Advantage of the Crusade that it is most certain that in this Expedition he spent an immense Treasure to the great Impoverishment of himself and his whole Realm But as he had not made this Treaty but whilst he was under a Force and Violence therefore so soon as he was returned into England he sent his Ambassadors to the Pope to demand Justice from him He desired of him that since by virtue of the Protection of the Holy See it was promised to all the Crusade that their Persons and Estates should be free from Injuries during the whole time of their Pilgrimage that he would by all sorts of Canonical Ways compel the Emperor and the Duke of Austria to set at liberty his Hostages to restore the Money which they had so unjustly exacted from him and to make him Satisfaction for the cruel Injury which they had done him contrary to all the Laws both Humane and Divine Celestin who saw that the Treaty of the Crusade which was universally received and confirmed without Contradiction was manifestly infringed in this great Article could not refuse to do him Justice He therefore according to the Canons caused these two Princes to be three several times admonished to make Satisfaction in these Particulars and seeing that they persisted obstinately to deride his Threatnings he did anew denounce the Anathema of the Church first against Leopold and then against the Emperor with all the usual Solemnities The Duke hereupon became more obstinate and was so far transported as to threaten the Hostages which he had with Death But it was not long before all the World believed that those terrible Scourges with which the Duke was chastised and that deplorable Accident which befel him year 1193 were the evident Effects of the Anger and Justice of God Almighty who would punish his Obstinacy in this World that so he might find Mercy in the next And in truth besides that many of his Cities were destroyed either by Fire from Heaven or by the Waters of the Danubius which drowned the greatest part of his Country in which Plague and Famine made a horrible Ravage one Day when he had made a magnificent Entertainment at Gretz to celebrate his Birth-day his Horse falling upon him broke his Leg after which a Fire in such furious manner seized upon the Part that unable
having continued so long that by reason of the Famine many deseases began to make a cruel Ravage among the defendants so that he could not hope having so often deceived them with vain promises but that they must come to a Capitulation and besides he himself began to be straitned in provisions for his Army by reason that the Besiegers being Masters of the Sea with a strong Fleet received them in abundance and hindred all others from furnishing his Army with supplies so that it was impossible for him longer to subsist in the Posts which now he was in Moreover the inundation of the Nile having not been very favourable this year he feared that the scarcity which he foresaw would not permit him to raise or maintain an Army if he should be obliged to continue the War that after the taking of Damiata he should not therefore be in a condition of resisting the Crusades who would infallibly march against him in Grand Caire For these reasons therefore after the Retreat of diverse of the Crusades who had reimbarked themselves for Europe in the Month of September having again made an unsuccessful attempt against the Christians to force them in their retrenchments by the consent of his Brother Coradin he sent to propose a Peace or at least a Truce for several years upon Conditions which were very fair and advantageous to the Christians which were as follow That he would restore to them the true Cross which was taken by Saladin at the Battle of Tyberias That he would restore to the King all that they held in the Realm of Jerusalem and That he would give so much money as should be sufficient to rebuild the Walls of that City and put it into the same Condition wherein it was before That he would release all the Prisoners which had been taken in Egypt and Syria not only during this but all the preceding Wars That the strong holds of Thoron of Sephet and Beaufort should be surrendred to the Christians in the same condition which they were now in and in short that he would keep nothing but the two Cities of Crac and Montreal on the other side of Jordan in regard they were necessary for the Security of the Pilgrims which should travel to Mecca and that these two Cities should also be in some sort under the Authority of the King of Jerusalem by paying to him a moderate acknowledgement of tribute during the time of the peace or Truce Now this being a decisive affair there was an Assembly called of all the Commanders and Prelates and the question was debated Whether leaving the Enterprise of Damiata the Propositions of the two Sultans ought not to be accepted The opinions were diverse the King of Jerusalem and all the Lords and great Officers among the French English Germans Flemings and Hollanders were of the opinion that they ought to be received and without doubt this Judgment was founded upon reasons equally plausible and substantial For said they that which ought to govern us in this deliberation is the end which we have proposed to our selves in undertaking this War And what is that end Is it not to reconquer the Realm of Jerusalem and to recover the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ out of the hands of the Infidels for the deliverance whereof so many Crusades have from time to time been undertaken Nor had we besieged Damiata but upon the belief that the taking of that City would prove the most proper and conducive means to arrive at that end and although we have now besieged the place for seventeen Months yet we have not taken it and it is uncertain when we shall since not only our one Soldiers daily quit the tedious Service but the Enemies receive daily reinforcements and redouble their attacks which we did not without difficulty resist even when we were stronger and the Events of War being uncertain it is but reasonable to accept those offers now which we would willingly have embraced before the Siege That it is but to quit a certainty for an uncertainty to refuse them and that what we aim at ultimately is now offered unto us That when we have taken Damiata we should be willing to exchange it for the Realm of Jerusalem since that is the only reason for which we endeavour to take it and there is all the reason in the World to accept that now which will deliver the Army from all future difficulties and dangers in continuing the Siege and not only spare the blood of so many brave men as were dayly lost before the Town but also the exposing of the whole Army to the disgrace of not taking it at the last that if as might be objected it was to be feared that the Sarasins never intended to perform the Condition year 1219 which they so liberally offered it was easie to assure themselves of performance by taking sufficient Hostages from them and that admitting the worst they might so fortifie Jerusalem before the Army separated and before the Enemies could be in a Condition to obstruct them as to render it impregnable for the future On the other side the Legate who rarely was in the same Opinion with the King and who wanted neither Wit nor reason to support his own stifly maintained That these Propositions ought by no means to be accepted That this was nothing but the pure Artifice of the Sultans to prevent the taking of the City which they found it was impossble for them to relieve That all they offered being now only a naked Country and defenceless Villages it was easie to take it from them without the help of a Treaty That the Infidels had no other intention by all these seeming advantages which they offered to the Christians but to separate their Army by a delusive Peace that so they might afterwards with ease recover what they had yielded to them only to amuse them And for what concerned the true Cross they were certainly informed that the Sarasins had suffered it to be lost or destroyed since Saladin if after the most diligent search he could have found it would most willingly have restored it for the Ransom of so many Valiant men and so many considerable Emirs as were made Prisoners upon the taking of Ptolemais And in short that the Siege was now so far advanced that the Defendants being reduced to the last Extremities it was impossible but they must take Damiata and that after that it was easie to know what they had to do and that then they might if they pleased treat with more Honour and more advantage Now as the Legate had a strong Party and a great authority especially among the Ecclesiasticks and that his reasons also were not without a Foundation of great Probability the Patriarch the Arch-Bishops the Bishops and all the Ecclesiasticks together with the three great Masters of the Military Orders all the Italians and many other Crusades were in his Opinion so that the others also standing firmly to their Sense
fell upon it in his absence by the deadly division which had he been there he would have prevented and which was the last cause of the loss of the Holy Land The Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans who had most advantageously served in all the Crusades by their shipping had in Acre their quarter and their Jurisdiction assigned them and their Magistrate who was Independant of any other though the Church of the fair Monastery of St. Sabas was common to the three Nations for the celebration of the Divine Offices The Venetians and the Genoese who in those times rarely agreed had abundance of quarrels under diverse pretences which served to cover the true cause of all these Embroilments which in truth was the Jealousie of State and the Ambition which they had to be the sole Masters of the Sea and every one of them equally pretended that this Church appertained solely to their Republick And whereas Alexander the fourth who succeeded to Pope Innocent had declared that the Church ought to be in common to the three Nations the Genoese who first received this declaration nevertheless being supported by the Authority and the Forces of Count Philip de Montfort who was then the Governour of Ptolemais chased the Venetians from the City and seized upon the Church and the Monastery which they fortified in the form of a Cittadel They took for their Pretext a great violence which a Venetian had offered to a Genoese whom he used very scurvily and which had been sufficiently revenged by the Genoeses upon the Venetians who would never receive the excuses which had been offered to them in the name of the Republick which constantly disavowed these actions of private Persons The War then being declared in this manner by the Way of Fact year 1256 the Venetians assisted by the Pisans who declared for them in renouncing the Amity of the Genoese with whom they were confederated before rigged out a potent Navy year 1257 with which they seized upon the Port of Ptolemais burnt the Genoese ships entred the City and there fought gaining by Inches the quarter of the Enemy besieging and forcing the Monastery year 1258 the Church of St. Sabas and chasing from Ptolemais Count Philip and the Genoese who retreated to Tyre from whence coming the year following with nine and forty Gallies and four great men of War they came to a great Battle which they lost between Ptolemais and Caiphas So that the Cities the Princes the Lords and all the Knights of the Country being divided upon this quarrel some declaring for the Venetians and others for the Genoese their happened between these two Potent Republicks a most cruel War which being from time to time suspended by Feeble Treaties which were quickly broken continued for a whole Age to the great prejudice of all Christendom and especially to the Affairs of the East being the principal Cause of the irreparable loss of all And certainly the Sarasins of Syria and Mesopotamia had not failed upon such a deplorable opportunity as was this miserable division to have ruined the Christians of the Holy Land if God had not at the same time raised other Enemies against those Infidels to destroy them For the Tartars having subdued all Persia passed over the Tygris under the Conduct of Halon the Brother of Mangon the Great Cham of Tartary That Prince who is reported to have been a Christian and a great Enemy to the Mahometans having endeavoured to push his Conquests to the Mediterranean Sea was now going to lay Siege to the City of Bagdad which is not as hath been believed the ancient Babylon of the Chaldeans which was situate upon the River Euphrates and of which there are now not so much as the ruins remaining For this which still carries something of the Name is above fifty miles from Euphrates and stands upon the Tygris near the place where was anciently the Famous City of Seleucia There was the principal Seat of the Mahometan Empire in those times where the Caliph whom all the other Sultans acknowledged at least in appearance for their Head and the cheif Priest of their Law kept his Court. Now the Caliph then in being as he was not at all martially inclined so was so extremely covetous that though he was prodigiously rich yet would he not be at any Charge either to fortifie the City or to maintain a good Garrison so that the City was instantly taken by the Tartar who after he had put to the Sword all the Sarasins which he found there caused the miserable Caliph to be locked up in one of the Chambers where his Treasure lay amongst an infinite quantity of Rich Furniture Plate Money and Jewels telling him with a terrible and Bloody Rallery that since he so delighted in Riches and was so passionately in Love with Gold and Silver he should be treated according to his Inclinations and eat nothing less delicate than Gold Thus this Unfortunate Miser who was the last of the Caliphs the Successors of Mahomet died with hunger in the midst of a most incredible abundance of Gold Silver Pearls and Gemms the sight whereof would not content nature or satisfie her necessities and with which if he had known how to use them he might have avoided this miserable Destiny and at least have died nobly at the head of an Army sighting for his Life and Liberty with this Treasure which would have raised and paid them and have possibly secured him from this insolent Tartar A great but most just punishment of a Covetous Wretch who having all his Life made Idols of his Riches without daring to touch them more than if they had been most Sacred things deservedly learnt at his death that these false Divinities had not the Power either to save his Soul or his Body and that Gold and Silver are no further valuable than by the good use which is made of them year 1259 After this Victory the Tartar Prince entred into Mesopotamia which yielded to the Conqueror without resistance took Edessa passed the Euphrates made himself Master of Samothracia Emessa Haman Harenc and all the places which the Sultan had taken from the Christians in Syria besieged and by storm took Alepo which is thought to have been the Ancient Berea and there he took the Sultan Prisoner whom he carried in Irons to Damascus constraining the Inhabitants to yield after they had seen their Captive Sultan put to death before their Eyes And from thence returning with a small retinue into Tartary upon the news which arrived of his Brother's death to whom he was to succeed year 1260 he left the Command of the Army to his Lieutenant Cathogoba And he who was imbroiled with the Christians whom before he seemed to favour entred into the Realm of Jerusalem and there took Cesarea and Sidon and began to threaten Ptolemais when the Christians received a suddain assistance from Egypt from whence they least expected it The first of the Mamaluke Sultans Atbec or
of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice loseth the Opportunity of conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Raign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadours with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The reasons on one side and the other The best opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her Second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who enters Galilee and besieges Tyberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tyberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that Victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land p. 113. BOOK II. The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legates to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors Where the Arch-Bishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War recommences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guienne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to Combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this Emperor betrayed the Ltains The History of the False Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac And his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stratagem of the Emperor ' s. An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battle of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The Second Battle of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battle of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue p. 149 BOOK III. The Beginning of the Reign of Richard Coeur de Lyon King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelay between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accomodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Description of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a Second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jaffa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and Imprisoned His Deliverance The Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives occasion to a fourth Crusade p. 186. PART III.
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
of General of all his Forces He was a Prince who was dexterously Cunning and a witty Dissembler Covetous and Cruel and one who easily made the Laws of Honour Conscience and Justice comply with humane Policy and whatever seemed to be his present Interest And therefore it is most probable in my Judgment that he having so earnestly requested of the Pope to procure him the Assistance of the Latins against the Turks who were now become Masters of the lesser Asia and threatned the Imperial City that it was his real Design to receive the Crusades and to joyn his Forces with them to Defeat those incroaching and dangerous Neighbours and to recover those Provinces which his Predecessors had lost and that for this Reason he advised Peter by no means to pass into Asia with those raw and undisciplined Men. But in making my Observations out of some of our own Authors I find there were two things which made him change this Opinion and take Measures quite different from his former Resolution The first was that great and indeed prodigious Number of the Crusades and those valiant Men who were expected under the Conduct of the Princes of France of whose Courage and Ambition he was not too well assured For in truth the Pope believing it would be joyful and welcome News to him had given him an account by Letters some time after the Council of Clermont that in a small time he should have on Foot an Army of three hundred thousand Crusades under the Command of those brave Princes whose Names and Qualities he therein recounted to him and that by the Noise which this Design made throughout all the West he believed the Number would be augmented every day But that which gave him the greatest Disturbance of all was that some time after he received Intelligence that the famous Bohemond Prince of Tarentum the Son of Robert Guischard who even in Greece had made War with him so much to his Glory and Advantage was to make one of the Party then immediately the Devil of State-Jealousy entred into and possessed his Soul that this brave Norman Prince might possibly have preingaged all those other Princes and formed such a powerful League amongst them under the Colour of a War against the Infidels to turn all those Arms against himself and following the Traces of his Fathers Design indeavour to deprive him of the Constantinopolitan Empire The second was the insupportable Insolence of this Army of Peasants and Vagabonds which Peter the Hermite and Gautier after a miserable Fashion seemed to Command who indeed were under no manner of Obedience the Emperor Alexis had given them Liberty to Encamp without the Suburbs of Constantinople and to Traffique with his People for all kind of Necessaries at the Price Currant but these Brutes who laughed at the Orders of their Superiors took what Liberty they thought fit and committed the very same Disorders which had been so fatal to them before in Hungary for in five days space they made such a Desolation in the Suburbs of that City and the places adjacent that even the Turks and Saracens themselves could not have done more they Plundered all the beautiful Houses of Pleasure and the magnificent Palaces which were without the City and afterwards burnt them they Sacrilegiously Robbed the Churches stripping them even of the very Coverings of the Lead which they sold to the Greeks These fearful and excessive Brutalities did so fortify the Jealousies of Alexis and so exasperated him against the Latins that without considering that these were only the Scum and Sink of the common People as he very well understood himself he resolved to do all that possibly he could utterly to destroy them and yet so far to dissemble with the Princes as to draw to himself all the Advantages he could from their Conquests And therefore whereas formerly he had Counselled the Hermite to expect the coming up of the rest of the Forces and not to expose himself with those pitiful Troops he was now for having him immediately to pass forwards to the Straits through Bithynia This they did all the way commiting the same Disorder till they came to Nicomedia Plundering Ravaging and Desolating the Lands Houses and the Churches of the Christians against whom these Libertines seemed to make that War which they had vowed to make against the Infidels neither the Fear of God nor the Authority of their Hermite General being in the least available to stop the Torrent of their Fury But God Almighty to vindicate the Honor of his Justice in a little time took Vengeance on them and punished their innumerable Crimes making to perish by the Hands of the Turks those who had so unworthily profaned the Cross which they had undertaken against them For as Peace and Unity cannot long be preserved among wicked Men who are always restless so here it happened For the Spirit of Division falling upon this unruly Army the Italians and Germans separated themselves from the French whose Humor they were not able to support and who in reality treated them with more Arrogance and Contempt and as our own Historians affirm in terms far worse than I relate it therefore abandoning Peter the Hermite they chose for their Captain one Renaud as appeared by his future Conduct one of the loosest and most Wicked of the whole Crew He being imployed in the mountainous Country near Nice took there first a small Village and presently after seized on another large Town which he found forsaken of all its Inhabitants but replenished with abundance of all sorts of Provisions And whilest he there amused himself and his whole Army with Feasting and Jollity the young Soliman Sultan of Nice who upon the Alarm of the coming of the Western Christians had raised a formidable Army composed of the most valiant Turks of all Asia came to Invest him the better part of his Army being before defeated upon Michaelmas day whilest going out under his ill Conduct to surprize the Sultan by an Ambuscade they themselves fell into an Ambuscade of the Turks by whom they were surprized After this the Siege was of no long continuance for the Leud and Cowardly Renaud unable to indure the Extremity of Thirst to which Soliman had reduced the Place by cutting off their Water pretending to go out upon a Parly went and rendered himself with his Followers to the Enemies and turned Turk after which the others were forced to Surrender themselves upon Discretion And that which is the most deplorable and remarkable piece of Divine Vengeance is that those Persons who had by their enormous Crimes rendred themselves unworthy of the Grace of God generally imitating their wicked Captain renounced their Faith to save their Lives There were divers nevertheless upon whom God had so much Compassion who abhorring that detestable Apostacy chose to obliterate the shame of their former wicked Lives by a glorious Death to which they generously offered themselves for the sake of Christ Jesus
Orontes all the way of its passage watring the inward part of the City for these two mountains and two other lesser Hills were all within the Circumference of the Walls which were of an extraordinary height and thickness and defended by above four hundred fair Towers a mighty deep Ditch and a Counter-Scarp well fortified with Palisado's and invironed with a Morass and Pools of water in those parts where by reason of their lying upon the plain the Avenues to the City lay more easie of access And besides all this there was a powerful Army of Turks within the place for its defence as also two Castles upon the Mountain in one of which was the Palace of Sultan Accien who reigned in Antioch fourteen years after the Turks had taken it from the Sarasens and as he had a long time to foresee that the Army of the Christians must come upon him in their passage into Palestine he had used all imaginable diligence to furnish himself which all things necessary to sustain a long Siege hoping in that time to receive great succours from the Turkish Princes and especially the Sultan of Persia who had promised not to fail him and whom Soliman was gone to solicit in the common Cause year 1097 And that which rendred this attempt most extream difficult was not only the Greatness but the Situation of the City which would not admit of being wholly invironed but that there was free Egress and Regress for Succours to come to the besieged The Christian Army consisted not now in above three hundred thousand men the Sieges the Battles the Diseases and Disertions and other losses which they had sustained in their Passage over the Mountains and Deserts together with the Garrisons which they were obliged to put in the conquered Places had reduced them to one half but nevertheless the Princes according to the resolution which they had taken did not cease to form the Siege in this following manner All the South side was left open by reason that it was impossible to attack the City on that side in regard of the Rock and Mountains which rendred the Passage inaccessible So that they were contented to environ it on the side of the Plain beginning at the foot of the Mountain on the East and so drawing by the North towards the West between the Town and the River which in that part for about a mile came so near the Western part that it served for a Ditch upon that Quarter Prince Bohemond and Tancred took their Post over against the Eastern Gate called St. Paul's Gate through which they go to the famous and delightful Suburb of Daphne sometimes so celebrated for the Temple and Oracle of Apollo and afterwards much more for the Tomb of that illustrious Martyr Babylas who silenced the Devil for ever giving any more doubtful Answers to the foolish Inquirers Hugh the Great the Duke of Normandy the Earl of Blois and the Earl of Flanders were posted at the Right drawing more towards the North to the Port commonly called the Dogs Gate The Earl of Tholose with the Bishop of Pavia were encamped before that Gate and possessed all the space between that and the third Gate which afterwards was called the Dukes Gate by reason that Duke Godfrey with his Lorrainers and Germans was posted there his Quarters being extended to that place where the Orontes beginning to turn from the North to the West slides down by the Walls of Antioch so that the greatest part of the Army was encamped between the Town and the River which was there passed by a large stone Bridge just over against the fourth Gate of the Town which was therefore called the Bridge Gate This Gate was also open to the besieged as well as that of St. Georges upon the West by reason that the River was between these two Gates and the Besiegers who by an Error not easily to be excused did not at first raise good Forts against these two Gates as afterwards something with the latest they were constrained to do But this Failure was nothing in comparison of another far greater and which cost the whole Army very dear For the besieged making no manner of Sallies to hinder their Approaches and seeming to be buried in a profound Quiet not so much as bringing one Engine to the Walls for their Defence they in appearance looked as if they had lost all their Courage and their Hope so that it was the Common Imagination that the Christians could not fail presently to make themselves Masters of the Town So that hereupon they took the Liberty to ramble up and down the Country year 1097 and to straggle all over the Villages round about to make merry and without any necessity to wast that mighty plenty of provisions with which that fertile Soil abounded and in short they neither kept Order nor Discipline in the Camp partly by reason of the false opinion which possessed them that this contemptible Enemy would surrender the Town without a Blow but principally by the misfortune that both Duke Godfrey and Prince Raymond were fallen sick which had like to have intirely ruined their Affairs year 1097 The Enemies quickly advertised by their Spies of this disorder failed not to make advantage of it they began at last after so long a silence to make a mighty noise with their Engines and afterwards instantly to assail the Camp upon all Quarters so that the besiegers seemed now to be besieged Their Cavalry fallying at the Bridge-Gate over-ran that Quarter which was beyond the River cutting in pieces all those whom they found dispersed and without Arms as if it had been in a time of perfect Peace Nor was it possible for their Companions to succour them in regard that they must either by swimming or fording come to their Assistance neither of which could quickly be performed Others of them made Sallies either openly and in good Order assaulting the Quarters which were negligently guarded or by surprize creeping along the River side and the Marish among the Reeds they fell upon such as were idly walking or diverting themselves in the Gardens and Orchards as if they had not been in an Enemies Country In this manner the unfortunate Alberon Archdeacon of Mets a young Prince of the Blood Imperial miserably perished for as he was walking with a Lady of great Quality in one of these Gardens he was surprized by the Infidels who cut off his head and carried the Lady Prisoner into the City where after the barbarous Villains had committed all the Outrages imaginable against her Honor they cut off her head also and threw them into Godfrey's Camp After which the Besiegers ashamed to be so affronted by the mistake of the Courage of their Enemies began now to act after new Measures and recalling their Ancient Vertue to think of taking the City in good Earnest They therefore began to attack it by main Force with all sorts of Engines and gave a general Assault with all the
less On the contrary this new City which was of a Figure altogether Irregular yet approaching to Square extended it self in Length from East to West some twelve hundred Paces and in Breadth from South to North about a third part so much Moreover the Ancient City was wholly inaccessible on the South part by reason of the broaken Rocks of the Mount Sion which Invironed it it was also the same upon the East having the deep Valley of Jehoshaphat between the Mount of Olives and Mount Moriah But this New City which had Mount Sion close by the South Side of it was easily Commanded from thence and the Valleys having been in a manner filled up by the Romans it was very accessible particularly upon the North. It continued a long time in this Estate under the Power of the Gentiles till such time as the Great Constantine peopled it with Christians having there builded the Magnisicent Church of the Resurrection which Incloses the Holy Sepulchre where the Pagans had with the most impious Profaneness erected the Temple of the Idol Venus After this quitting the profane Name of Aelia if recovered that venerable Name of Jerusalem a Name Consecrated by the Sacred Records and by so many Holy Mysteries which for ever after to this present time it hath retained It was taken from the Romans by the Persians under the Reign of King Cosroës and by his Successor Restored to the Emperor Heraclius and not long after about the middle of the seventh Age falling into the Hands of the Saracens the Caliph Omar one of the earliest Successors of Mahomet built there a round Temple of eight Angles or Faces for a Mosch in the same place where sometimes stood the Temple of Solomon and tho it did not in the least Resemble that except in the Greatness of the Porch which was raised very high and with fair Galleries in the Middle whereof stands this Round yet doth it to this Day retain that Name About four hundred Years after this the greatest part of Syria and Palestine falling under the Dominion of the Turks they also took Jerusalem from the Sultan of Egypt and thirty eight Years after it was retaken from them by him making use of the Occasion which was offered him by the memorable Victory of the Christians over the Turks in the Battle of Antioch This Saracen Prince who notwithstanding his Ambassy doubted not but the Christians who looked upon Jerusalem as the end of their Enterprise would certainly besiege it year 1099 forgot nothing which was necessary to put it into a Condition to make a good Defence for with great diligence he caused the Walls and Towers to be repaired although they were very strong before having also a double Wall he provided the Place with all manner of Stores both of Ammunition and Provision he caused all the Christians that were able to bear Arms to quit the City and put into it a Garrison of fourty thousand of his Best Soldiers besides that there were twenty Thousand Inhabitants who were Armed and to whom for their Encouragement he promised a perpetual Exemption from all manner of Taxes and Tributes He caused also the Cisterns and Wells for six miles round the City to be filled up and made a most horrible Wast throughout the Country that so the Christian Army at the same Time that they were to Combat with so strong an Enemy within the Walls might have Famine a more terrible Enemy to Combat with in the Field and above all he hoped to destroy them for Want of Water in those dry and barren Countries where the Heat is great and Thirst most insupportable This was the Estate and Posture in which Jerusalem then stood immediately before it was besieged by the Christians whose Army was not in Truth so Numerous as that which defended the Place For of that immense Multitude of the Crusades who passed into Asia and were at the Siege of Nice there came not above sixty thousand of both Sexes among which there were not more than twenty Thousand Foot and fifteen hundred Horse who were in a Condition to fight the greatest part of the rest being dead either with Diseases or in the several Encounters some were returned some wore put into Garrisons in the conquered places and some followed the Princes Baldwin and Bohemond to defend their new Principalities of Edessa and Antioch Nevertheless both Princes and Soldiers were determined either there to perish or to carry the Pince and to accomplish their Vow either by a Devout Death or Glorious Victory After they had therefore repulsed the Enemies who sallied out they began chearfully to form the Siege in this manner Godfrey of Bullen Earl Eustace his Brother and Tancred took their Post upon the West near to the Fortress which they called the Tower of David The Earl of Tholose was upon his Right directly opposite to the Gate of this Tower and after a little while he enlarged his Quarters Southward to the Extremity of Mount Sion over against the Church of the Holy Virgin The Remainder of the City on the South and towards the East was left free in Regard the Hollow Vallius and the Craggy Rocks made the Approaches Extreme Difficult The North side was surrounded by the Duke of Normandy the Earls of Flanders and St. Paul who lay before the Gate which was then called St. Stephens but now Damascus Gate to the Angular Tower near the Valley of Jehosaphat Moreover that they might avoid a tedious Siege like that of Antioch it was resolved to attack the Place by main Force therein also following the Advice of a Solitary who lived with a great Opinion of his Sanctity in a Cave in the Mount of Olives for he had promised the Christians that they should have the Victory that day telling them he had it in Command from God to acquaint them with that Message although it was told him on the other hand that they were not at all provided with necessary Materials for an Attack But as it appeared afterwards in all kind of Affairs but especially in those of War it is a most dangerous Folly to quit the Rules of Art and Prudence blindly to follow the uncertain Ways of pretended Revelations which one ought rarely to trust in Regard they are so often false and when they are true one is not bound to believe them but upon Invincible Proofs and without those one is obliged always rather to follow good Sense and Reason which God hath given to Men next to his Divine Word to be their Rule and Guide However upon the fifth day of the Siege early in the Morning a General Assault was given upon the Word of this Recluse which was looked upon as an Oracle Never was there seen greater Ardor in the Soldiers whose Courage was redoubled by the certainty of their Belief in the Promise of this Holy Man that they should that very day take Jorusalem Some part were drawn up in close Rank and they advanced holdly after
promising to furnish the King with three or four Greek Noblemen who had Skill to conduct his Army by good Ways and that he would furnish Magazines of Provisions for them during their March The French Lords who were ready to dye with the desire they had to make haste to have their share in the good Fortune and the Glory which they believed the German Army were now reaping made no sort of difficulty to make that Oath to the Emperor saying That they did the same every day in France to the Lords of Fieffs without any prejudice to the Sovereignty of the King But the Count de Dreux the King's Brother believing that he should dishonour the Blood of France if he should acknowledge for his Lord any one except the King his Brother took occasion to give them the slip taking along with him some of the most Generous as also the Princess his Cousin whom Manuel desired for a Wife for one of his Nephews And while they were hotly disputing about these two Articles which the Bishop of Langress ever most vigorously opposed he had Leisure enough to get as far as Nicomedia At the same time the King of Sicily who made War with Manuel with Success enough did whatever he was able by his Ambassadors to oblige the King to joyn with him in a League against that Emperor and to attack him both by Sea and Land in Europe and in Asia But the Scruple which the King had still in his Mind which made him fearful of violating his Vow if he should make never so little a Sally from this Holy War made him refuse all these fair Offers contrary to the Advice of the wise Bishop of Langress who clearly fore-saw and to no purpose fore-told the Misfortunes which would befall him and the Army by the Perfidiousness of the Grecian Emperor Thus the Treaty being concluded and the Emperor after an Interview with the King upon the Banks of the Propontis having sent over all the French that yet remained at Constantinople the whole Army marched in the beginning of November towards Nicomedia a City which at that time was in a manner wholly ruinous And now the Baseness and Treachery of the perfidious Manuel began plainly to appear for the Guides and Officers which he promised to send to conduct the Army through a good Country and to give Orders for Provisions were not to be found and in the Road wherein they now were there was very little Subsistence for the Army so that it was resolved to change it and quitting the lest Hand where the Provinces were very barren and desolate year 1147 to take the Right Hand way towards the South and to incamp upon the Lake of Ascanius near unto Nice There it was that in the Heat of those Desires which possessed the Army to advance and joyn as soon as possible with the Germans who were supposed to be so victorious they were extremely surprized with hearing of their Defeat At first the news came but by some whispering Rumors but it was in a little time confirmed by Frederick Duke of Suabia the Emperors Nephew whom that unfortunate Prince who with great difficulty had recovered Nice with the pittiful Remainder of his ruined Army who in their Extremity were very ill treated also by the Greeks had sent to the King to advertise him of his overthrow and to request of him that he might see him to the End that from his disaster he might give him Notice of some things of great Importance in this unhappy Conjuncture The King who certainly was a Prince the most Civil and Obliging in the World and had a Soul of the best Temper of any man of his time resolved instantly to prevent the Emperor in his Design of seeing him and to endeavour to sweeten his ill Fortune by all manner of Honors and good Offices which he was capable to do him he therefore immediately mounted to Horse accompanied with all the great Lords and Officers of his Army and went to find the Emperor in the Place where he was encamped expecting the Return of his Nephew Frederick Never was there any thing seen more Tender and Moving than this Enterview for no sooner did these two great Princes see each other but they ran into mutual Embraces wherein they held one the other for a long time without being able to speak any other Language but those Tears which the Joy the Grief and Compassion which moved so diversly in their Hearts drew at last into their Eyes The King was the first who broke the Silence and endeavouring to force a Joy into his Lips in Despite of the Sorrow which surrounded his Heart he said all that it was possible in the most Christian and obliging manner to comfort the Afflicted Emperor for his Loss he offered him all that he had his Forces and his Fortune and protested that he always would esteem it as great an Honor to be his Faithful Companion in this War as he should have done were he still at the Head of an Army as numerous and flourishing as that which he commanded before this Disaster The Emperor also on his part said all that was most capable to touch the Heart of a Christian Prince he acknowledged with great Humility the Heavy hand of God to be justly laid upon him for the Sins of his Army and for his own too great Presumption in relying so much upon the Strength of his own Arms to the Prejudice of that Confidence which he ought to have reposed in God alone in whose Almighty Hands is the Disposal of the Fortunes of Kings Nevertheless he said since God had been pleased still to give him the same Ardent Desire to accomplish his Vow and that he had in his Extremity found out for him such a Generous Protector he hoped that his Divine Majesty would be pleased yet to make use of him to combat the Infidels among the Arms of France which he hoped would be happier than his and that he was resolved never to part from them After which the two Princes having held a great Councel with the Principal Lords of the one and the other Nation it was resolved that the two Armies should march together following the Road which the King had already taken in drawing toward the lesser Asia between the Sea and Phrygia But this Resolution of the Emperor did not continue long for the German Lords some or other of them every day demanding of him leave to depart under Pretext that they had lost their Equipage when they were arrived at the City of Ephesus after having suffered much by the mischievous Greeks this poor Prince found himself so slenderly accompanied that he was ashamed of himself and believing that it was putting an Affront upon his own Character and the Empire which he governed to have it said that an Emperor of Germany without an Army should seem to serve under a King of France he therefore Excused himself in the best manner that he could to
the King and sending away the little Remainder of his Infantry by Land himself with a few Noblemen who yet attended him took the Opportunity of the Return of the Greek Ambassadors who had followed the King to Ephesus year 1147 and went by Sea to Constantinople where his miserable Fortune which intituled him to pity procured a better Reception for him from his Brother in Law the Emperor than he found in his more prosperous Condition to whom the Attendance of a flourishing Army which he had before gave so much Occasion of Fear and Jealousie So Great is the Malignity of Humane Nature that it is a Pleasure to see men become unfortunate As for the Ambassadors which Manuel had sent to the King to Ephesus they only seved more to manifest the base Perfidy and Malice of this Emperor their Business was only to present the King with Letters from their Master by which he advertized the King that he was like to have upon his Hands such an innumerable Company of Turks that it was impossible for him to resist them and therefore he advised him to secure himself from so furious a Tempest by retiring into some Places within his Empire where he might be in safety The King who easily discovered the Malice of that wicked Prince whose Design was to stop his further Progress and by obliging him to divide his Troops to weaken himself in such sort as that he might become an easie Prey to the Infidels generously answered the Ambassadors That as he did not in the least Degree stand in Fear of the Turks so he stood in no Necessity of the Favour which the Emperor their Master pretended to do him and that he was fully resolved to pursue his Enterprise Whereupon the Ambassadors according to the Orders which they had received seeing they had unprofitably spent the other foolish Temptation of Fear presented the King with other Letters by which that Emperor discovered more plainly his Malicious Will for therein he complained mightily of the Disorders which he said the Kings Army committed in his Territories and with a kind of Menace gave him to understand that it was impossible for him hereafter to prevent his Subjects from taking Vengeance upon them upon all Occasions that should offer To this the King who amidst all the Goodness of his Natural Disposition ever retained a certain Air and Character of Greatness and a Noble Fierceness worthy of the Greatest of all Kings made no other Answer than by a Gesture of Disdain by a short turn Leaving the Ambassadors to carry that Account for he would send no other to their Master leaving Ephesus therefore which at that time was almost nothing but a miserable Heap of Ruins he went to pass the Feasts at Christmass in the open Fields in that fair and delicious Valley where now the rest of that City is situate After Christmass he quitted the Sea-Coast and advanced more within Land towards the East drawing right toward Laodicea a City of Lydia between Tralla and Apamia upon the River Lycus where it goes to lose it self in that of Meander upon the Banks whereof all the Army went to encamp in the beginning of the following Year The River of Meander so celebrated by the Songs of the Poets for the singing of her Swans of which they have there created great Numbers which never mortal man could yet find is one of the fairest Rivers of the lesser Asia and which in its Course waters more Countries than all the others for it hath so many several Windings and Turnings that it is said between the Head of its Spring and its Fall into the Sea it makes six hundred Semicircles It rises out of a Fountain sometimes called Aulocrene at the Foot of the Mount Selenus in the greater Phrygia and after having moistened that fair Province it turns from the East to the West running between the Mountains and the Hills through those rich and spacious Vallies and delightful Medows which on the right Hand divide Lydia and Ionia from Caria whose Boundary it is on the left Hand till it falls into the Egean Sea between the Cities of Miletus and Priena When the Army was arrived to the Banks of this famous River it was resolved to stay there to refresh themselves for a few days in that place which is one of the richest and most delightful Countries of all Asia But they were no sooner incamped but they perceived that the Turks had posted themselves most advantageously upon the Mountains which lye on both sides of the River For the Infidels had learnt by their Greek Spies who gave them constant Intelligence that the French marching from Ephesus took the way for Laodicea which lies on the further side of Meander and there they imagined they might combat them with great advantage and defeat them without difficulty in their passage over the River year 1148 For this purpose therefore they divided their Army into two Parts possessing themselves of all the Heights on both sides of the River that when the French Army should attempt to pass it the one should fall in upon their Rere at the same time that the others being posted on the further Bank should oppose the Van in their Endeavours to pass over and in Case either of them found themselves pressed they should retire to the Mountains which were at no great distance from them The King presently apprehended their Design and finding no Possibility of passing it in that place where he was encamped by reason the River was too deep and large resolved to pass up higher towards Laodicea and to secure his March he placed the Baggage and all that was feeble in the middle ranging his best Troops in the Rere and on his left towards the Mountains for he feared not to be attacked either in the Front or on that side where the River separated him from the Enemies who marched over against him to impeach his Passage In this Condition he marched some time but could make no manner of Progress because he was continually obliged to make Halts to repulse the Enemies who perpetually followed the Army coming to make a Discharge with their Arrows without coming nearer and then wheeling off at full Speed immediately returning in the same manner without ever coming to handy Blows So that the second day seeing that he could neither sight nor march at quiet he stopt short about Noon and resolved to attempt the Pass in the View of both the Armies who observed his Motions In Truth it was a brave and Generous Resolution but extreme difficult in the Execution for the Meander though it be not very Rapid by Reason of its many Windings yet it is very broad and deep It was in the Month of January when Rivers usually are at the biggest and it had now rained for four days in such abundance that its Waters were considerably increased there was one Army at his Back and another appeared drawn up in Batallia upon the further Bank and in
another dreadful Blow as that of the great Godfrey of Bullen which finished the Victory already inclining upon his first Charge for a puissant Turk armed with a Curiass having attacked him he discharged with all his force such a furious Blow upon the place where the Shoulder joyns to the Neck that the Sword passing through the Neck to the right Shoulder took that and part of the Breast clear off the Head and that Arm and Shoulder falling to the Ground whilst the other remained a Spectacle of Horrour for some time upon the Horse The Turks amazed at this frightful Blow immediately fled and saved themselves in the Town leaving all the Fields and the Rivers free to the Christians who immediately encamped upon the Banks and in the Gardens with mighty convenience both for the Men and Horses This Victory brought such a Despair among the Turks and the Inhabitants of Damascus that knowing well that they were in danger of losing the place upon the first Assault which should be given there being on that side no other Defence beside the Gardens which were now lost they began to think of nothing but how to save themselves by retreating For this purpose they barricadoed all the Streets which opened that way to the end that while their Enemies were busie in breaking the Barricadoes and removing the great Beams which they had laid cross the Streets they might have the more time to save themselves and their Families by the opposite Gates and so retreat with more Security to such neighbouring Towns as were in the Hands of their Friends Thus had Damascus most assuredly fallen into the Power of the Christians if Covetousness Hatred and Envy three furious Passions which at this time wrought more deplorable Effects than the Arms of the Infidels had not suddainly precipitated their Affairs by a most infamous Treason from a certain Hope and a flourishing Condition into the very Gulph of Misfortune and Confusion from whence they were never able to recover again Those of Damascus seeing themselves thus just upon the Eve of their Ruin after they had barricadoed the Streets they advised themselves again of another Means to save themselves which did not fail of the wished Effect After that the French had conquered the Holy Land many Persons of both Sexes not only of the Common People but also of the Nobility were married in Palestine and Syria with the Ladies of that Country and many of the great Lords who were in Baldwin's Army were such as were born of those Marriages and consequently Syrians by Birth year 1148 and by Original either by Father or Mother And as these kind of Mungrels usually degenerate from the fair Qualities of the more noble Nations and participate of the Imperfections of the other so many of these half French half Syrian Lords retained the Vices of the Country and particularly Greediness of Riches and Avarice which to this day is the domineering Vice and Passion of the Orientals The Turks and principal Men of the City who being of the same Country very well knew their Feeble secretly sent some of the most dexterous and cunning of their Citizens to these Motley Lords and Barons whom they knew to be of the most covetous Dispositions and consequently most capable of being brought into Treason To these they gave all imaginable Assurances that they could desire that they should have certain Payment made of most considerable Sums of Money provided they could induce the Besiegers only to change their Attack and remove the Siege to the other side of the City Now he to whom they principally trusted the Management of this Affair found amongst those to whom he addressed himself Inclinations favourable as he could desire to entertain his Propositions Prince Raymond who mortally hated King Lewis the Seventh after the Affair of Antioch had as it is said beforehand corrupted some of his People and obliged them underhand to do all that possibly they could against him that so he might not acquire any Glory from this War There were others who could not with Patience think of permitting the Earl of Flanders as they understood it was concluded between the Emperor and the two Kings to enjoy the Principality of Damascus and they had rather that it should continue in the Possession of the Turks than fall to the share of a Man whom they looked upon as a Stranger in regard he was not born in Syria Thus the Envy of some and the Hatred which Raymond had inspired into others being joyned with the Avarice which reigned equally in both the one and the other produced the most infamous and most cowardly Treason that it was possible for Lords of great Quality not to say Christians to be capable of For counterfeiting a marvellous Zeal for the publick Good they remonstrated to the Council That hitherto they had taken very false Measures That they had too long permitted themselves to be deceived with vain Appearances of a commodious Encampment upon the Banks of the River among the Gardens and Orchards not considering that this was the main Obstacle which had hitherto hindred the Taking of the City for that the River one part whereof served for the Ditch upon that Quarter rendred the Access more difficult and the Attack most dangerous That the Gardens hindred the disposing of the Machins to such convenient Distances as were requisite for the Battery and that the Siege being spun out to a greater length than had been promised to the Soldiers there was great danger that being disgusted and the great Heats beginning now to become insupportable they would quit the Siege That for this Reason they were in the Opinion that they ought to remove the Camp to the other side of the City between the South and East in regard that there being no Gardens nor Rivers nor Ditches full of Water which could hinder them from descending to the very Foot of the Walls which were low weak and without Terrasses on that side and where the Besieged having not expected to be attacked had made no Retrenohments there was all the Appearance imaginable that they should carry the Town at the first Assault without so much as making use of any Engines against it There is a great deal of Room for Wonder and Astonishment to consider the Conduct of these three great Frinces upon this Occasion who at other times wanted neither Spirit nor Judgment nor Experience in Martial Affairs in which it commonly happens That no Man fails twice the first Fault that is committed being for the most part irreparable But whether it was the Eagerness of their Desire to become Masters of the Town in a little time which blinded them or that they believed that it was impossible to act more prudently or more safely than by the Counsels of those who who had the greatest Interest in the Taking of the Place and who being Natives of the Country must needs be much better acquainted than any others with the Strength or
Emperor betrayed the Latins The History of the false Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac and his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stranagem of the Emperor's An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battel of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The second Battel of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battel of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the Length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue year 1188 THe sad news of the loss of Jerusalem and the deplorable estate into which the fortune of the Christians was reduced in the East made a mighty Change upon the Spirits and a strange Revolution of all the Affairs of the West Pope Vrban III. who was then at Ferrara was so strangely surprized with it that in a Moment he found himself seized and pierced with such an excessive and as it proved a mortal Grief which in a little time after he had heard it carried him to his Tomb. Gregory VIII who succeeded him and was chosen the very next Day after his Decease at the same time writ most pressing and passionate Letters to all faithful Christians exhorting to take up the Cross for the Recovery of the Holy Land promising to them the same Graces which his Predecessors the Popes Vrban II. and Eugenius III. had granted to those who were enrolled upon the two first Crusades And to appease the Wrath of God by Humiliations and by the Sufferings of voluntary Penitences he ordained That throughout all Christendom for the space of five Years the Fast of Friday should be observed with the same Austerity that it was in the time of Lent And besides the Abstinence upon Wednesdays and Saturdays he obliged himself and all his Brethren the Cardinals and Bishops exactly to observe the like Abstinence upon every Monday By which Method he made upon the suddain such a wonderful Reformation in the Court of Rome that the Cardinals did not only voluntarily submit themselves to the Rigour of this Penitence but did of themselves without any Command from him which certainly must strangely surprize my Readers oblige themselves to very strict Rules for their way of Living and the Reformation of their Manners such as certainly could not proceed but from Hearts perfectly contrite and humbled before God thereby to satisfie his Justice and to implore his Mercy and his Pity For being with the Pope's Consent assembled to deliberate among themselves upon what ought to be done for the Service of the Church in this pressing Necessity they resolved and most religiously promised one to another to observe these following Articles year 1188 That they would retrench in their Families what soever was superfluous and whatever had too much of the Pomp and Vanity of the present World That they themselves would for Example be the first who would take up the Cross and not only preach it by their Words but by their Actions That for this purpose they would neither make use of Horses Mules or Litters but that they would constantly go on soot so long as the Feet of the Turks and Sarasins defiled that Holy Land which Jesus Christ had sanctified by his Presence and sacred Steps That they would go in Person themselves before the rest into Palestine without any other Equipage except the Cross and the Poverty of Jesus Christ living upon Alms. And lastly at their Return that they would no more receive any Presents from those who had Affairs in the Court of Rome but content themselves with what was strictly necessary for their living in that modest Way which was conformable to their Condition These were their great Resolves And truly I am of Opinion that without doing any Injury to the Memory of these good Cardinals one may lawfully say that their Devotion in the Transports of its first Heats carried them something further than the Limits of a holy Discretion would have prescribed to them Nor is it to be found in History that these brave Resolutions produced those Effects which they seemed to promise and which might have been expected from them possibly because whilst they would do too much they did too little by that Weakness which is so commonly incident to Mankind to fall very much below when they come to repent themselves of having gone too high above those just Measures which a wise Man after he hath once taken will be sure in all things to observe most exactly After this Gregory seeing that it was impossibly that the Design of Succouring the Holy Land should prosper so long as the Christian Princes of Europe were engaged in Wars among themselves he resolved to send his Legates to bring them to an Accord at least to conclude a Truce for certain Years And that he might do something on his part towards such an excellent Work he went in Person with the Deputies of Genoua to accord the Differences which had occasioned a War between them and Pisa But as he laboured very happily in re-uniting these two potent Republicks who in conclusion embraced that Spirit of Peace wherewith he endeavoured to inspire them he was seized with a Tertian Ague and Fever which in a few days carried him off in the second Month of his Pontificate Clement III. who in twenty days after succeeded him confirmed all that he had done and pursued the same holy Enterprise with the very same Zeal He was admirably seconded by the Negotiation of William Archbishop of Tyre who was come to implore the Assistance of the Christian Princes This is that great Man who with so much strength of Judgment writ the History of the Holy War which he continued till a little before the death of Baldwin IV. and who after he had so often managed the greatest Affairs of that Realm whereof he was the Chancellor was at last sent Ambassador into the West upon the hope that he would negotiate in a different manner than the Patriarch Heraclius had done whom he much surpassed in all manner of Abilities
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
to be suspected by reason that one might well fear that so soon as they had visited the Holy Sepulchre they would quit Palestine to return into their respective Countries aand abandon the new Conquests to the Sarasins who would then easily recover what had been taken from them And for these Reasons It was concluded to defer the Siege till the Spring should be advanced and in the mean time to continue the Fortification of the places which had been Demolished and above all the City of Ascalon which was infinitely Commodious for hindring the Succours which might come to the Enemy out of Egypt and to receive such as might arrive for the Assistance of the Crusades out of Europe This Resolution was no sooner taken than it was put in Execution though with an unconceivable Displeasure to the Souldiers and above all to the French who openly murmured against Richard whom they did not stick to accuse of having a secret Understanding with Saladin They said boldly That Saladin had never shut himself within the Walls of Jerusalem if he had not been very well assured that he had nothing to fear from such an obliging Enemy And that without all question he was ready had the Army but once faced it to quit the Place and that the Garrison would either quickly have followed him or have Surrendred fearing to be abandoned by him like those who so bravely defended Acre to the Descretion and Mercy of the Vanquisher But however it were so soon as the Army came to Rama a great part of it disbanded the most of the French retiring to Jaffa Tyre and Acre but this did not hinder King Richard to pursue the Resolution which had been taken to go and fortify Ascalon whither he went acompanied with the Count de Champagne his Nephew who continued always constantly faithful to him The Dukes of Burgundy and Austria also went thither with him but it was not long before they left him the Austrian because he was afresh unworthily as he thought treated by him for refusing to take one part of the Town to Fortify year 1192 which caused him with all his Germans to retire into his own Country the Burgundian because having desired him to lend him some Money for the payment of his Troops he briskly refused him in Terms very disobliging which caused the Duke who before had no great Kindness for King Richard to carry away the rest of the French to Acre in a little time after which there happened an Accident which occasioned a mighty Change in the Face of Affairs The Pisans and the Genoese to whom Quarters were assigned in that City and who had for a long time quarrelled each other came at last to open Hostilities and in the Fray had committed great Slaughters one upon the other The Genoese who had always joyned with the French in taking part with the Marquis Conrade called him in to their Assistance but the King of England to whose Service the Pisans were devoted came so expeditiously with his Army to their Succour that Conrade who was already incamped before the Town finding himself too weak to make any Resistance was constrained to draw off again to Tyre And within a few days after about the end of April as the Marquis returned from the Bishop of Beauvais who had treated him at a Dinner he was slain in the open Street by two Assassins of the Old Man of the Mountain The Prince so called was Lord of a little Estate situated in the Mountains of Phoenicia between Tortosa and Tripolis which consisted in ten Castles built upon most inaccessible Rocks and in some few Towns which stood in the most fair and delicate Valleys which lay among these Mountains These People who from a Persian Word were called Assissins or Capyciens consisted in about sixty thousand Souls who came from the Confines of Persia near Babylon some four or five hundred Years before about such time as the Arabians the Successors of Mahomet rendred themselves Masters of the East and having possessed themselves of these Mountains whose Avenues they had rendred inaccessible they had so well fortified them that till this very time they had maintained their Liberty independent from either the Caliphs the Sultans or the Kings of Jerusalem Their Prince was Elective who took no other Name but that of the Ancient or the Old Man as a Mark not of his Age but of his Authority and Power And indeed that was so great and he was so obeyed by his Subjects that there was no manner of Danger to which they did not freely expose themselves in the Execution of his Commands tho the most unjust and barbarous in the World even to throwing themselves headlong from any Precipice upon the least signification that such was his Pleasure So much power had this false Belief upon their Spirit which they had by Tradition received from their Ancestors and in which they took great Care to Educate their Children that by dying in this manner in Executing without Exception or Difference what was commanded them by the Ancient they should pass imediately to the injoyment of a Life infinitely Happy in the Heavens So that when he sent them to the Court of any Prince either Christian or Sarasin who had disobliged him with a Command to dispatch him there was no sort of Disguise or Artifice no manner of Treachery which they would not make use of to perform his execrable Commands without ever flinching at the most cruel Torments which they might expect to Suffer and in the midst of which they would manifest a certain Pleasure that they had with Fidelity acquitted themselves of their Commission It is certainly very strange that the Princes who had so much Interest to exterminate such a pernicious Nation should so long time permit them not only to have a Being but looking upon them as it were as Masters of their Lives by the Fear which they had of these Assassins they made them continual Presents thereby to gain their Favour to permit them to live For never any except the Templers were so bold as once to offer to attack them but they valiantly set upon them entred their Country and obliged them to pay the yearly Tribute of two thousand Crowns to secure their Villages from being Plundred but in this Prosperity of their Armes they did an Action so Base and Wicked as diservedly drew upon them the Hatred and the Curse of God and Men. For during the Reign of Amauri King of Jerusalem the Old Man of the Mountain who was a Man of Sense having compared the Gospel with the Alcoran sent to let that King Understand that he with all his People were ready to embrace the Christian Religion provided that at the same time year 1192 that he was received into the Liberty of the Children of God by Baptism he might also be freed from that Tribute which he was constrained to pay to the Templers The King who offered to make the Templers an
happened news was brought him that the Caravan of Egypt guarded with above ten thousand men with all sorts of Munitions for the Relief of Jerusalem was advancing thither and at no great distance whereupon taking five thousand Horse he marched upon the Eve of St. John Baptist to surprize them and charged them so Impetuously that after having slain the greatest part of the Convoy with the loss of not above seventeen or eighteen Horsemen and dissipated the rest he took betwixt four and five thousand Camels and an Infinite Number of other Beasts of Burden charged with Gold Silver and precious Merchandises not only for Necessity but delight such as come from the Indies by the Arabian Gulph to Egypt And this great Booty he destributed liberally among the Army without reserving any thing for himself which was more then ever he had done in all the former Battles which he had gained And in Truth it seemed very resonable that after two such great Victories and the taking of such a rich Convoy the taking of Jerusalem could not be a thing to be doubted but the Joy which possessed the whole Army which with incredible Ardor undertook that Enterprise was presently after changed into an Excessive Grief when the Resolution of returning to Ascalon was declared to them as the Advice of twenty Captains whom Richard had chosen to deliberate concerning the Siege of Jerusalem whilest he marched to attack the Caravan For they all concluded that the Siege was not by any means fit to be undertaken alledging many weak and feeble reasons but concealing the true ones upon which it was grounded which was that the King of England had strongly resolved to return to his own Dominions and that all which he had done was but to amuse the World and to make a shew as if he would besiege Jerusalem For he had received advice two several times after Easter by two Expresses from England that his Brother John having by force displaced and driven out of the Realm the Bishop of Ely his Chancellor year 1192 and the Principal Officers of the Crown manifestly intended to make himself King he was also assured that he was powerfully protected by the King of France who was ready by force to take Vexin because it was refused to be surrendred to him according to the Articles of Messina Richard who was extreme hasty would have immediately imbarked himself leaving to the Count de Champagne with the Places in Palestine three hundred men at Arms and two thousand English Foot together with the Forces of the Country for his Defence But a certain Ecclesiastick a very able man who was near his Person and in whom he reposed very much Confidence perswaded him to deferr his Departure for a little time that so he might save his Honor by making some Movement by which the World might be perswaded that it was not his Fault that Jerusalem was not taken and upon this Account it was that he did all that is before mentioned and that he would have those twenty Captains of whom he was very well assured determine the Affair concerning the Siege of Jerusalem who by no means approved it but urged that it was much better to continue the Fortifications of Ascalon and Gaza which were the two Keys of the Realm towards Egypt and by that means to secure themselves from the Attempts of Saladin before they undertook the Siege of the Capital City So that Richard seemed only to deferr it upon the Opinion of so many knowing men who were chosen from among the Templers and Knights of the Hospital the Lords of the Country and several of those who come from Europe after which he declared publickly that since it was judged inconvenient at that time to attempt the Siege of Jerusalem he would there leave thee Count de Champagne his Nephew to undertake it in due time and that for himself he was obliged to return to defend his Dominions against such as laid hold of this Advantage of his Absence to Enterprize against him and to invade them It is impossible to express the Mischief which this Imprudent Declaration occasioned which he did before he had perfected his Treaty with Saladin which was then a Foot for Saladin seeing the Danger he was in to lose all was contented to have some and to yield the rest to the Christians upon most advantageous Conditions But so soon as he perceived that he had nothing to fear from that quarter and that upon Richard's resolving to depart the whole Army would Instantly disband he held so firm and fierce that a Truce in such a manner as he pleased was all that could be gained from him a Truce unworthy of the Reputation and Courage of a King of England the Army of the Crusades being herewith most furiously inraged and almost mad to see themselves robbed of the Glory of delivering the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ which they had with so much Danger come so far to search after disbanded of its one accord the greatest part of them thinking now of nothing but returning into their own Country bestowing a thousand Curses upon King Richard whom they accused more than ever to have assassinated the Prince of Tyre to have attempted against the Life of Philip the August and sold the Holy Land to Saladin with whom he held a Correspondence Richard by the Grandeur of his Soul and his Natural Courage gave himself no manner of trouble for what was the Effect of Rage and Anger and the Malicious pleasure which men take to speak Evil of those whom Fortune or Merit have elevated above them or what they spoak so outragiously against his Conduct in this War and indeed in a short time after he made it evident by a most glorious Action that this last Accusation was as great a Calumny as the two former For as he arrived at Acre where the Duke of Burgundy with the French were also come to give order for their Return he received advice that Saladin understanding that the Christian Army was broken up had laid Siege to Jaffa Upon this news he rallied all the Troops he could and dividing them into two Bodies he gave one to the Count de Champagne with Orders to march by Land and with the other he himself went by Sea with the choice Lords of the French and Flemings who would follow him upon this great occasion Those who manifested the greatest Ardour and whom among others he chose to be near his Person were Gauchier de Chastillon who had lost his Brother in the Siege of Acre the Counts of Cleves and Limbourg the Baron of Stanford Valeran de Luxenburg Guy de Montfort Bartholomew de Mortemar Raoul de Mauleon William de L' Estang Andrew de Savigni Henry de Nevile Dreux de Mello and William de Barres He was for some time stayed by contrary Winds and did not arrive till precisely the Evening of that day wherein those who had retired into the Castle after the taking
to the satisfaction of all Parties Thus it is when Matters are managed with Charity Sweetness and Descretion and that Authority acts prudently and seasonably it ever preserves its own Rights by preserving theirs whom it reduces by gentle Methods to their Obedience but when untuly Passion comes to intermedle and to pour out its Lightnings and Thunder with more Precipitation than Reason it loseth it self making those become Rebels who would easily have been brought back again to be Subjects and is at last obliged to have Recourse to Rigor to make them submit to the Yoke which with good Usage they might have with far less Difficulty have been persuaded to receive year 1202 and which upon any Advantage they will never fail to indeavour to shake off In the mean time the Crusades had the leisure of the whole Winter in a rich City and the Country about abounding with all manner of Provisions to make the necessary Preparations against the Spring for the Conquest of Egypt when the Ambassadors of the Emperor Philip of Suabia and his Brother-in-Law Alexis Prince of Constantinople made them suddenly alter their Design and undertake an Enterprise which was most glorious to the French to whom God had designed the Empire of the East which was translated from the Greeks to the Latins in this admirable Manner which I am about to relate wherein I shall briefly recount the Cause the Progress the Consequence the Execution and Accomplishment of one of the most surprizing and memorable Adventures that ever was known in the World It was about seven Years before that the Emperor Isaac Angelus by the most just Judgment of God who was determined to punish so many horrible Crimes as he had committed during the nine Years of his Reign was tumbled from his Throne by his own Brother Alexis who took upon him the Sirname of Comnenius and who after having barbarously put out his Eyes caused him also inhumanly to be put in Irons with his Son Alexis a young Prince of about twelve Years of Age. Now it being only his Ambition which had rendred this Tyrant so Cruel who otherways was of a Nature Humane and Sweet enough so soon as he believed he was firmly Established in his unjust Domination and that he had no reason to fear that any thing Dangerous could be enterprized against him he forgot that Maxim of Tyrants which informs them That he who will peaceably and securely enjoy his Vsurpation must not do his Work by halves Insomuch that he began to compassionate those whom he had despoiled of the Imperial Dignity and after some Years of severe Imprisonment to restore them to a great share of unexpected Liberty He gave Permission to his Brother to live handsomely in a Palace which he assigned him out of the City between the two Colomnes and suffered the young Alexis to hold the Rank of one of the Princes of his Court commanding him to attend upon his Person and be his Companion in all his Divertisements But he learnt presently after that the Policy of an Usurper ought to take better Precautions than to bestow that kind of Bounty upon those whom he hath injustly Oppressed which may furnish them with an Opportunity of doing themselves Reason for the Violence which they have suffered For Isaac having the Liberty to receive all such as came to visit him treated so secretly with the Latins that by their means he found a safe way of Corresponding with his Daughter Irene the Wife of the Emperor Philip. And so soon as that Princess had disposed the Spirit of her Husband to take these poor Princes into his Protection and to receive the young Alexis her Brother a Merchant of Pisa undertook to carry him off in his Ship To effect this he caused him to be disguised like an Italian Seaman and when the Guards which the Tyrant sent to search in all the Ships so soon as he understood his Flight came aboard the Pisan who lying at the Mouth of the Hellespont ready to Sail was searched with more Exactness than any of the rest The disguished Prince with those of his Retinue who were all on the suddain become Mariners boldly received them upon the Deck and undertook himself to be their Conductor leading them into the most secret Places of the Vessel and thus by not being hid escaped most securely the Danger of being Found so that the Ship being thereupon discharged passed the Strait and the Prince was safely landed in Sicily from whence he went to Rome to implore the Assistance of Pope Innocent from thence he passed by Land to the Court of his Brother-in-Law into Germany and in his Way coming to Verona he met with abundance of Pilgrims who were going to joyn the Army of the Princes of the Crusade at Venice there some of his Retinue advised him to send Deputies to them to lend him their Assistance for the Recovery of his Empire They arrived at the Army whilest they were making their Preparations in Dalmatia for their Voyage into Egypt but the Princes judged that before they came to any Conclusion in an Affair of that Importance it was necessary to send to the Emperor Philip into Germany to be informed from him what Terms the Prince of Constantinople would offer and what was to be expected from him year 1202 after they should have Re-established him in his Dominions Philip who had now upon his Hands great Affairs in Germany to maintain himself in the Empire which he was still forced to dispute with Otho his Competitor and who notwithstanding extremely desired the Re-establishment of Isaac and Alexis Irene his Empress of whom he was most passionately Amorous continually also pressing him with her powerful Sollicitations he acquainted his Brother-in-Law the Prince Alexis that in the Posture of the Affairs of Europe at present he saw no manner of Hope of his Re-establishment but by ingaging the French and Venetians to assist him who had now a great Army on Foot for the Conquest of the Holy Land and that therefore he ought for this Purpose to offer them Conditions so Advantageous that they might be tempted to Comply with them both out of Interest Honour and the publick good of Christendom and thereupon being it was not to cost him any thing he was the more Bold in proposing the Conditions which the young Prince how hard and high soever they seemed received with Joy and instantly closed with them herein following the Example of those who to deliver themselves from a present Evil and to draw themselves out of the last Extremity to which their Affairs are reduced promise whatever is demanded without consulting either their own Hearts and future Intentions or the possibility of their Performance but being seduced by the Hope of re-entring into the Possession of what they desire above all things they promise what they persuade themselves they are willing to do though in reallity they are resolved though possibly at that time without being sensible of
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
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
return into Italy as soon as was possible to recover the places which the Pope's Army had taken in his Dominions there left all things in Palestine in the same condition wherein he had found them not giving himself the trouble to build either the Walls of Jerusalem or any other of those Cities which were yielded to him by the Treaty insomuch that the Sarasins who were much the stronger in the Country especially after his departure were as much Masters as they had been before the Treaty which Established the Affairs of the Christians in nothing but appearance But the Emperor who believed he had reason to charge the Pope as the Cause of all those Mischiefs which might follow upon his hasty departure was not at all concerned at it but after having treated the Patriarch and the Templers very contemptuously at Acre he commanded all his Soldiers to follow him alledging there was no necessity for their stay in Palestine during the Treaty and therefore upon the first day of May he departed with two Gallies only and in a few dayes arrived in the Kingdom of Naples where in a little time he recovered all the places which had been taken from him during his absence year 1230 and the Year following by the Mediation of Herman de Saltza great Master of the Teutonick Order and divers other Princes and Prelates of Germany he made his peace with the Pope who received him at Anagnia with all manner of Honours and Marks of Affection giving him Absolution and restoring him to all his Rights Thus the differences of Princes the most highly exasperated one against the other may by a Treaty of a few days come to be determined but many Ages ofttimes will not suffice to repair the Evils which they have produced in the World year 1232 In this time Meledin who was come to a Rupture with his Nephew whom he had driven out of Damascus fearing that during the War which he made with him there should be some new Crusade formed in the West sent his Ambassadors to Frederick to renew the Amity which they had contracted and presented him among other precious Rarities of the East a most Magnificent Tent which was valued at above one hundred thousand Crowns in which surpassing all that ever was written of the Magnificence of the Ancient Kings of Persia the Heavens were so perfectly represented that this admirable Pavilion look'd like the true and natural Skie in it were to be seen the shining Globes of the Sun and Moon which by secret Movements turning like those glorious Luminaries by the Skill of Art kept exactly the same measures in their Regular Motions which Nature hath prescribed to those two beautiful Planets insomuch that by this well governed Motion all the Hours of the Day and Night were as well to be known by the Artificial Course of these two Globes within the Tent as by a Dial or Exact Quadrant from the natural Motions of the Sun and Moon It is said also that these Ambassadors addressed themselves to the Pope to desire peace with him but that he dismissed them without an Audience in regard that he would not have any Commerce with Infidels and that he still continued in the Design of pursuing the Crusade year 1233 And indeed as soon as the Troubles of Italy were quieted at least for a time by the fervent Preachings of the Religious of the Orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis whom the Pope sent into all the Cities to compose the Minds of men to peace he called a great Assembly of Prelates to Spoleta year 1234 at which the Emperor himself assisted together with the Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch and Jerusalem whom Gregory had caused to come thither to deliberate with them upon the Affairs of the East There it was resolved That so soon as the Truce was expired the War should be renewed in Palestine and that in the interim Theoderick Archbishop of Ravenna should be sent into Palestine in quality of Legate with Letters from the Pope to all the Prelates and from the Emperor to all his Officers by which they should be injoyned to obey him year 1235 And in short that the Pope should write to all the Princes and should send Preachers to all places to exhort all faithful Christians to take upon them the Cross and to give notice to such as had already taken it to hold themselves ready for the Voyage within four Years which was exactly the time when the Truce expired this did not fail to produce the same Effects which had been seen in the other Crusades for the Devotion of that Holy Voyage being the thing in Vogue in those times there were always a multitude of People of all Ranks and Conditions who either then took the Cross or having taken it before resolved with the first opportunity to accomplish their Vow He who upon this occasion shewed the most Zeal and Fervour and whom all the rest were obliged to look upon as their Chieftain was the King of Navarr This Prince was the famous Theobald the Fifth of the Name Count de Champagne and Brie who renouncing the League which the Princes had made against the Regency of Queen Blanche and discovering the Ambushes which they had laid for the Surprisal of the young King her Son thereby rendred a most signal Service to France and to St. Lewis who reciprocally also defended him against all the Forces of the Princes of the League who had turned their Arms and all their Rage against him for having advertised the King of this Treason which was hatched against him He was the Posthumous Son of that brave Theobald the Fourth who died in his preparations for the Crusade of which he was the Chief and of Blanche de Navarr Sister of Sancho the strong the last of the Male Descendants of Garcias Ximenes who had reigned five Years in Navarr and therefore according to the Custom of the Laws of Spain where in default of Males the Crown descends to the Daughters this Count Theobald was in right of his deceased Mother proclaimed King of Navarr at Pampelona in the Month of May 1224. He was then about the Age of three and thirty Years a goodly Prince of an Excellent Mind and most Noble Inclinations extreamly addicted to the Catholick Religion which he took great care to preserve free from Heresies in his Dominions above all he was liberal and magnificent Vertues which he enjoyed as it were by Succession from the Counts de Campagne his Ancestors who possessed these Royal Vertues in such a degree of perfection as distinguished them from all the other Princes of their time he was besides of an humour sweet and pleasant a Mind extream quick and polite and which he had diligently cultivated and improved by all manner of gentile Learning and particularly Poetry in which he had made himself an able Master as appears by certain Copies of Verses which he made after he had left the Court of France to which
of this extraordinary Zeal of the People whilest the first heat of it lasted caused a new Crusade to be instantly published with great Indulgences to all those who would take up the Cross against Frederick and his endeavours proved so effectual that the same Romans who before had been raised against him and had driven him out of Rome in favour of the Emperor now took up the Cross against him So easily is the Spirit of the People turned from one Extremity to another especially when they are acted by some high Object of Devotion and that Religion or what they call so which is able to do all things when once it becomes Mistress of their Souls seems to call them to the performance of what they think their Duty It happened therefore that Frederick coming to Rome which he believed he should enter without resistance was strangely surprized to meet with a whole Army of Crusades who were marched out in Battalia to hinder his entrance and had posted themselves under the Walls in shelter of the Engines However he did not fail to attack them in the Order wherein they were rather with Fury than hope to overcome them and all those which he took both in this Combat and during the whole War he treated in the most cruel manner year 1239 and in hatred of this Crusade he caused their heads to be cut in a Cross After this there were no kind of disorders miseries and calamities publick and private which this cruel War did not produce between the two furious Factions of the Guelphes and the Gibelins who like Infernal Furies let loose with Fire in one hand and the Sword in the other laid wast all the Provinces and all the Cities of Italy whilest to satisfie their Revenge they buried one another under the Ruins of their miserable Country It was this Rupture which did the greatest mischief to the Army of the Princes of the Crusade who were already advanced as far as Lyons For the Pope who saw himself so vigorously attacked was so far from giving them any assistance that he himself desired it of all the World and sent to them to Lyons to desire them to procede no further but to defer their Voyage to the Holy Land till a more proper and convenient Season Besides all the Italians were wholly divided between the two parties of the Guelphes and Gibelins who made a mostcruel War against each other without thinking of the Crusade insomuch that all those who had a design to imbark themselves in the Ports of Italy could find there neither convenience nor safety for their transportation into Syria For the Genoese who were of the Pope's Party stood in need of all their shipping to oppose the Emperor's Navy which was commanded by his Son the King of Sardinia The Venetians were taken up in the Service of the Emperor of Constantinople against the Greeks and the Pisans who declared themselves highly for the Emperor Frederick were taken up in his Service against the Genoese so that there was only Province and Languedoc where the Crusades could hope for shipping to transport them But there being not a sufficient number of shipping to supply so great an Army of the Crusades they were forced to divide themselves One Part with the King of Navarr and the greatest part of the Princes embarked themselves at Marseilles and Aigues Mortes and the other being forced to take their Way by Land and as the first Crusades did to cross over all Germany Hungaria Bulgaria Tracia and all the lesser Asia they lost a World of men in that long March by Famine Diseases and the Ambushes which the Barbarians laid for them in the Straits of Mount Taurus insomuch that not above the third part of them ever came into Syria where the King of Navarr to whom the Sea had been very civil was arrived before and in Expectation of them year 1240 It seems that the condition of the Affairs of the Sarasins at that time in the East were extremely favourable to this Enterprize of the Christians For Meledin the Sultan of Egypt being dead the year before Edel his Successor and Nazer the Sultan of Damascus who was reentred into his Dominions out of which he had been driven by his Uncle Meledin made a most cruel War one against the other so that undoubtedly great advantages might easily have been made of this division of these Infidels if the Christians had not lost those opportunities by those divisions of their own which ruined all their Affairs And in truth the Emperor's Lieutenants having by his orders renewed the Truce with the Successor of Meledin notwithstanding all that the Templers could do to persuade them against it they would never join their Forces with those of the Crusades and besides although the princes had all owned the King of Navarr for their Head yet he found that he had nothing but the Title and Honour of the name without any manner of Authority for every one of them would be independant of another and act according to his own pleasure without receiving Orders from any Person Hereupon as the Army marched towards Ascalon which they resolved to rebuild the Duke of Bretany separating with his Troops from the rest of the Army without their consent made an irruption into the Terretories of the Sultan of Damascus from whence after having taken and sacked some places of small Strength he returned with a rich Booty was received with great Acclamations of the Soldiers as if he had gained some memorable Victory over his Enemies There is no Passion so dangerous to men of Courage as Jealousie of their Honour which by diminishing the Strength of their reason and Judgment in proportion as it augments their natural Boldness generally does precipitate them blindly into inevitable misfortunes The Duke of Burgundy the Count de Bar and the Constable Amauri de Montfort year 1240 were so piqued with the praises which were given to the Breton who in truth had done no such considerable Exploit to deserve them that they believed it would be a dishonour to them if they also should not do some brave thing to be talked on Dividing therefore from the main Body of the Army contrary to the opinion of all the other Commanders they took the Field and after having made a great Booty in a Country where they found no manner of resistance puft up with their good Fortune they resolved to attempt the surprizing of Gaza a strong City and admirably provided now though they knew nothing of it it happened also that the Sultan of Egypt had not only reinforced the Garrison but that his Army which advanced daily to oppose that of the Crusades was at no great distance from the City Conducted therefore by their ill Destiny after they had marched one whole night with Intention early in the Morning to execute their design before the Enemy should have notice of their march just upon the break of day they found themselves engaged
to do him prejudice and on the other that though he had a resolution to maintain a good understanding with the Empire yet he was not deposed to purchase it at the rate of so disobliging and dishonourable a refusal of his demands insomuch that this Prince as fierce as he was being afraid to provoke a King whom he both extremely honoured and feared in consequence upon his more cool and deliberate thoughts judged it convenient to satisfie him and therefore sent home his Bishops and Abbots into France In short this Accident so fatal to the whole Church and which ruined all the good designs of the Pope for the Holy Land did so afflict him that his extreme old Age although wonderful vigorous being unable long to resist the Violence of his Grief he died of Age and his resentment of this Blow about three Months after having for above fourteen years with marvellous Courage steered the Ship of St. Peter in that terrible Tempest which had been raised by the Quarrels year 1241 and Persecutions of Frederick Geossry de Chastillon a Milanese was thirty days after chosen by the name of Celestine the fourth and did immediately all that he could by writing to the Emperor Letters full of tenderness to sweeten his Spirit and incline him to restore Peace to the Church But the death of this Pope which followed within ten days after his Exhaltation hindred him from finishing what he had so happily begun After his death the Holy See was Vacant for above two years by reason that the Cardinals always refused to assemble unless Frederick would deliver their Bretliren who had protested the Nullity of such Elections as should be made without them and whom the Emperor persisted obstinately to detain all that time But at length Baldwin the Second the Emperor of Constantinople who in the extremity to which his Affairs were reduced was come in Person to desire the Assistance of the West wrought so effectually upon his Spirit already shaken by the Clamours of all Christendom that he restored them to their Liberty And then by common consent Cardinal Sinibald de Fiesque was chosen at Anagnia upon the twenty fourth day of June year 1243 who took the name of Innocent the fourth which he rendred so famous by his Virtue and by his Knowledge in the Canon Law of which he was called the Father It was the General belief of the World that this Election would fully reestablish the Peace of the Church in regard that this Pope while he was Cardinal had been a mighty Friend to Frederick and that at first the Emperor sent to him a magnificent Ambassage to congratulate him upon his Exaltation to offer him whatever was in his power by submitting himself intirely to him in all things the Rights and Dignities of his Empire and his Realms always excepted After this also he sent his Chancellor Peter de Vignes and Thadeus de Sessa who promised solemnly in his behalf and with an Oath that he would stand to his Judgment as to the satisfaction which he was to make insomuch that there seemed to remain no doubt but Peace would be concluded But this belief was quickly lost for the Pope having sent his Legates to the Emperor to let him know that he was ready to receive him to peace and to the Communion of the Church provided that he purged himself of those Crimes for which Gregory had condemned him and that Innocent on his side was disposed to give him satisfaction if in a General Council which should judge of it it should be found that he had offended This so exasperated the Emperor that he carried matters to the utmost Extremities so that the Pope finding that he was not in safety in Italy was obliged to take refuge in France which hath ever been the Sanctuary and retreat of persecuted Popes year 1244 But as the first and the greatest care which he had so soon as he was elevated to St. Peter's Chair was to reestablish Jerusalem and to secure it to the Christians by procuring all the Princes of Europe to contribute to the rebuilding of the Walls of that City so as to render it impregnable it was at the same time that he received a terrible Surcharge of grief by the sad news which he received of the intire desolation of that Holy City and the horrible Profanation of the Sacred places by the Corasmins whom the Tartars who ravaged the whole East had chased out of their Country And this is the Subject which I am next to recount this miserable accident being the principal Cause of the seventh and last Crusade which was wholly managed in a manner by the French under the King St. Lewis THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the Angust House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The
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
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
They were received at Naples at Rome and at Viterbum where the Cardinals were assembled upon the Election of a Pope and at all other Cities in their passage with honours of a different Nature from those which are accustomed to be given to Kings and which sufficiently shewed that they were esteemed to be in a Rank much Superior to them the Voice of the People which is said to be the Voice of God being a forerunner of that of the Church which six and twenty years after solemnly canonized him for a Saint year 1271 Mean time Edward Prince of England who had renewed his Vow during the Tempest and which he weathered so well that he lost not one of his ships sailed towards Ptolemais where he arrived in the Month of May having only three hundred Knights English and French with John Duke of Bretany It was with these few Troops strengthened with five hundred Frisons and another small Reinforcement which Prince Edmond his Brother brought to him from England that he hindred Bendocdar who had taken diverse Castles about Ptolemais from besieging that City He also prevailed with the Tartars the Enemies of this Sultan to enter into Palestine to oppose the Progress of that Conqueror But as on one part these Barbarians after having according to their manner ravaged the Country marched home again and on the other that Hugh King of Cyprus and Jerusalem not being strong enough to do any great matters obtained a Truce of Bendocdar who concluded it with him only to amuse him he was able to do nothing of Moment And therefore as soon as he was recovered of a dangerous Wound which he had received from an Assassin whom he trusted and whom he himself killed with the same poisoned Dagger with which the Traitor had struck him he returned opportunely to take possession of the Kingdom of England which Henry his Father dying left unto him year 1272 Thus this Crusade from which there was reason to expect such great things produced no manner of Effects for the deliverance of the Holy Land And since that time there could never any more be raised although the Pope's had frequently made great attempts to excite the Zeal of Christians therein to imitate that of their Ancestors For first of all Gregory the tenth who from being only Archdeacon of Leige was chosen Pope after the See had been vacant for three Months then when he was at Ptolemais with the Prince of England did more than any of his Predecessors to unite all the Christian Princes and even the Greeks and Tartars in a Holy League to chase the Sarasins out of Palestins and Syria year 1274 And it was he who particularly for this design about two years after held the second Council of Lyons which was one of the greatest and most numerous Assemblies which the Church had ever seen for there were present at it above a thousand Prelates with the Ambassadours of two Emperors of the East and West of the Kings of France Cyprus and all the Christian Princes beyond the Sea together with those of all Europe besides that James King of Arragon and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital were there in Person There a Decree was made for the prosecuting the Holy War and an Alliance was made for this purpose with Abagas the King of the Tartars who had sent his Ambassadors thither There Michael Paleologus was recognised for Emperor of Constantinople upon condition That he should join with the Latins in the War against the Sultan of Egypt and there the Election of the Emperor Rodolph was confirmed upon Condition That he should march at the head of the Crusades into Palestine which he also promised to the Pope with an Oath receiving from his hands the Cross at Lausanna whither he followed the Pope after the Council in his return to Italy year 1275 But in conclusion all this produced just nothing either because People were disgusted with this War and such a dangerous Voyage or that having been so long accustomed to hear of this War they were not at all moved with what was no Novelty Insomuch that the Cordeliers and the Jacobins whom the Pope sent all over Europe to preach up the Cross could not meet with so much as one man who would take it Michael Paleologus who had made a Re-union of short continuance between the Greek and the Latin Churches had never any other intention but thereby to hinder the Latins from uniting again to recover Constantinople and to restore Baldwin who did what lay in his Power to that purpose year 1275 especially with Charles King of Naples and Sicily Rodolph who from a bare Count of Habsbourg near Bale issued from a younger Brother of the House of Alsatia was come to be raised to the Empire thought of nothing but how most powerfully to establish his own House in Germany and herein he succeeded so well that it is since become so great and August under the Illustrious name of Austria which this Emperor bestowed upon it in giving that Dutchy to his Son Albert who afterwards also came to be Emperor as well as his Father So that this Emperor Rodolph never accomplished the Vow which he had made between the hands of the Pope who himself gave the Cross to him and to his whole Court and yet nevertheless he was not excommunicated for it as Frederick the Second had been Abagas singly was not strong enough to stop the Course of Bendocdar's Conquests who insolently laughed at all the vain attempts of the Princes of the West and openly threatned to make all the whole East the Trophee of his Arms and oblige it to submit to his Empire And as for the poor Christians of Palestine who most pressingly implored the succours of Europe they every day themselves advanced their own ruin by the fatal Effects of their division which became still greater by the Quarrel which arose among them at this time concerning the succession of a Kingdom which thereby they made all the haste they could to lose The Subject of this Quarrel is one of the points of History which Writers have made the least clear and which in fews words I will endeavour to explain Isabella the Daughter of Amauri King of Jerusalem and Heiress of that Realm had four Husbands The first was Aufrey de Thoron by whom she had no Children The Second was Marquis Conrade de Momferrat Prince of Tyre by whom she had the Marchioness Mary who married John de Brienne and made him King of Jerusalem Of this Marriage issued Jolanta the Wife to the Emperor Frederick the Second Mother to the Emperor Conrade who was Heir to this Realm and consequently without contradiction left it as of right to the Unfortunate Young Conradin The third Husband of Queen Isabella was Henry Count de Champagne whose Daughter Alice married Hugh de Lusignan the first of that name King of Cyprus by whom she had the Princess Isabella who was married to
Sword falling upon his right Shoulder passed quite through his Brest to his left side and made that half of his Body tumble to the Ground whilest the other remaining in the Saddle was carried by the Horse who was continually pricked by the Spurs which stuck in his Sides by the convulsive Motions of the dying remainder of the Body quite through the Town making there such a fearful Spectacle as struck Consternation Horror and Despair into the Hearts of the most resolute and daring who beheld it The Night now coming on and the Defendants pouring whole Showers of Arrows from their Engines upon the Walls hindred the further Pursuit of the Victory The Christians lost something above a thousand Men in this memorable Day but it is impossible to recount the Loss which the Infidels sustained for besides those which were slain upon the Field of Battle there were above five thousand who lost their Lives upon the Bridge and thereabout and the Number of those who were either drowned or slain in the River was so great that they almost made a Damm with their dead Bodies among the rest one of the Sons of Accien and twelve of their Amirals or Emirs which are their chief Nobility perished in that fatal Day and two days after there were found fifteen hundred Persons of Quality whom according to their Custom they interred privately in the Night near the Bridge with their Cimiters their Arms Habits and some Gold and Silver and other their most precious Ornaments After this great Victory the Besieged who were now more closely blocked up than ever by the Forts which were raised near the two Gates which had been free had totally lost their Courage if at the same time they had not received the News that the Sultan of Persia the most potent Monarch of the East was sending a prodigious Army to their Relief which did something revive their fainting Hopes And in truth this Sultan being continually sollicited by Soliman and by Sensadole the Son of Accien had sent Corbagath to relieve Antioch the Person in whom among all his Captains he reposed the greatest Confidence with a formidable Army of two hundred thousand Horse and an innumerable Multitude of Foot of all the Nations subject to his Empire consisting in all of six hundred and fifty thousand Men. This General after he had in vain in his Passage attacqued Edessa which was valiantly defended by Prince Baldwin year 1098 passed over the Euphrates and advanced towards Antioch with the Sultans of Damascus and Jerusalem who had joyned their Troops with his Army with an intention to attaque the Christians in their Camp This News which gave great Courage to the Besieged caused much Disorder in the Christian Army so that many and some of principal Note despairing of their Safety daily deserted and among the rest the Earl of Blois was so terrified that feigning himself Sick he caused himself to be removed in the beginning of June to Alexandretta whither he was followed by four thousand of his Soldiers this Action made it be feared that others following so pernicious an Example the whole Army would be in danger of Disbanding But as it happened presently after by a pleasant Frolique of Fortune this which was dreaded as a mighty Mischief proved in the end a great Advantage and this News which made the Christians despair of taking Antioch was the Occasion that one Night presently after it was taken in the manner which I am now going to relate There was a Person in Antioch a Citizen of Quality one Pyrrhus a Man of great Spirit he was born of Christian Parents and had been one himself but for the saving his Estate he pretended to turn Mahometan as did divers others in the fourteen years after the City came under the Dominion of the Turks This Pyrrhus had gained so much Esteem and Credit among the Infidels that notwithstanding the Distrust which they had of the Antiochians whom therefore they kept very low not permitting them to exercise any Place of Trust or to bear Arms yet Accien charmed with his good Qualities and the Belief of his Fidelity had honoured him with the Dignity of an Emir intrusted him with the Guard of three Towers made him his Secretary of State and gave him a Place in his Council This Man had a Son a sprightly young Gentleman who at the beginning of the Siege was in a Sally taken Prisoner by Bohemond that Prince who was no less Dextrous and Wise than Vailant having examined his Prisoner whose Countenance promised so fairly found in his Soul a great Inclination to return to the Religion of his Ancestors and that he was ready to undertake any thing to deliver his Country from the cruel Tyranny of the Turks He therefore laid hold upon this propitious Opportunity to gain the Father who passionately loved this Son and offered a mighty Ransom for his Redemption for this purpose when he had well assured himself of the young Gentleman who secretly abjured the Mahometan Superstition and received Baptisme he freely sent him back to Pyrrhus who was so transported with his Return and the account he gave of the good Treatment which he had received from Bohemond and the Wonders which were related to him of that Prince that there was nothing which he did not resolve to do to give him assurance of his Acknowledgments and to procure the honor of his Friendship After this Bohemond failed not to maintain a secret Correspondence with him by the Assistance of his Son who frequently went out of the Town into the Camp under pretence of being a Spie as divers others did and he laboured so successfully under the Favour of this Friendship which was made between them that in conclusion Pyrrhus desired nothing more ardently than to reimbrace the Christian Religion and to deliver his Country But that which perfected this Affair was a great Conference which the Prince had with Pyrrhus during the little Truce which was made after the Defeat at the Bridge-Gate for after he had given him a thousand Testimonies of the tenness which he had for him and the reason which he had to make his Fortune and a true Happiness he said such moving things to him upon this Subject and so well managed his Spirit by his Arguments his Intreaties and his Promises that he quickly perceived he had so intirely gained him that he was now become absolutely at his Devotion In short after the Truce was broken by the persidiousness of the Turks who in that time basely murdered one of the principal Crusades Pyrrhus sent to acquaint Bohemond That having now fully considered of all things he had taken his last Resolution which was to be ready to serve him to the utmost that for his own particular it was not any sort of Fear that he had to suffer in the common Ruine of the City that moved him to Act as he did since he was well assured that the Christians would never be able to take
it by Force year 1098 but that it was the ardent Desire which he had to return to the Christian Religion to deliver Antioch his Country from the Servitude and Oppression of the Turks and to give him some undeniable Effects of that Friendship which he might expect from him which obliged him to follow his Advice and wholy to throw himself upon his Word in an Affair of that Importance wherein he must hazard not only his Fortune and his Life but that of his whole Family But that it was but just that in regard he had only entrusted him with the Secret that he should give him Assurance before any thing should be Attempted that he should only depend upon him And that therefore he was absolutely resolved that this should be one Condition without which he would proceed no further That whereas the other Princes had all the same Authority in the Army they would yield the Principality of Antioch to Bohemond to whom only he would deliver it and from whom only he would expect the Accomplishment of his Promises That upon these Terms he would put the three Towers whereof he had the Command into his Possession and by Consequence the Town That he would send his Son as a Hostage to engage for the Truth of his Word and that he desired him singly to consider that he had not a moments time to lose by reason of the Succours which were now at hand and that it was absolutely necessary for him to Act according to these Offers or else to resolve wholy to abandon the Design Now whether this Norman Prince who was mighty Politick had laid the Train in this manner by which he was resolved to accomplish his Ends and therefore made Pyrrhus speak at this rate or whether Pyrrhus himself found it effectually his clear Interest to raise his own Fortunes by the greatness of his Friend and therefore proposed this as the only probable Expedient most certain it is that Bohemond accepted the Condition with all his Heart and that he was extreamly satisfied to see that there was no possibility of taking Antioch but by his single Interest He nevertheless dissembled his Joy that so his Design might succeed the better and failed not the same day at a Council of War with a melancholy Air to complain in these Terms of the present Condition of Affairs he said That those Evils which the Army induâ—ed were Insupportable which they daily Suffered and which daily increased by that long Siege which had now lasted seven Months without making any tolerable Advance and which was yet worse that they were in danger shamefully to abandon the Siege since there was no appearance that they should take Antioch neither by Force which their Condition would not suffer them to attempt nor by Starving them since the so long talked of Succours could not now be at any great Distance There remains therefore added he very Insinuatingly nothing more to be done but to try if there be any one amongst us who before the Succours arrive will endeavour to make himself Master of the Town either by Surprize or by Intelligence and gaining some in the place by Money or Promises or any other way which his Mind can suggest to him as most probable And in short that we may animate one another to this Enterprize I am of Opinion that for the publick Good which every one of us ought to prefer before his private Interest we ought all to promise that if the Design succeeds he shall have the Principality of Antioch for his Reward who shall perform this Exploit and disengage the Army from this Siege which hath so long troubled it There is certainly nothing so clear-sighted as Jealousy nothing that so soon discovers a Rival be it in Love or be it in Honor. And whatsoever Artifice there was in this Discourse of Bohemond these Princes who besides the Interest of Religion for which they made this War had also those of their Glory and their Advancement easily penetrated into the Heart of the Tarentine and making no question by the manner of his Discourse but that he acted for himself they all answered with some kind of Precipitation That they were all Brothers and all Equals and that they would never permit that there should be any Preference among those who had equally served with the others That there was no manner of Justice to divide the Conquest but to those who had shared in the Pains and Danger and that tho Antioch was to have but one Master yet it must be Lot that must chuse him and it was to Fortune only and her Power that the Principality of Antioch was to be owing year 1098 Bohemond seeming not to take the least Notice that this Blow was levelled at him only smiled at the Discourse without making any Reply well considering that whether they would or not Necessity without his Help would mannage this Affair in which he could not now move but to his Disadvantage and so it happened for at the same time News was brought them by those who were sent to make Discovery that the Enemy approached with a most formidable Power Whereupon they went again to the Council where some were of Opinion that they should march out and meet the Enemy with the whole Army others were for leaving only so many as might guard the Trenches in the Camp and to lead the rest to Battle But Bohemond made it appear on the contrary that neither the one nor the other of these Propositions were practicable For in doing the first they raised the Siege and then the Town would infallibly be Relieved that in following the second they must needs run the Hazzard of being beaten since their whole Army lessened by above half was scarce able to oppose the Forces of the City alone Now these things being so clear and that there was no Expedient so proper to draw the Army out of so pressing and manifest a Danger all the Princes except Count Raymond found it more agreeable to Reason that Bohemond if he could gain it should be Master of Antioch than that they should all be affronted by losing it after so tedious a Siege They therefore consented that provided he took the City let the Way be what it would every one should relinquish their Interest to him with condition that the Greek Emperor failed in his part of the Agreement made with him The Prince of Tarentum had now all that he could wish for Alexis had already broke his Word a thousand times so that instantly he sent to Pyrrhus to acquaint him that he was ready to put the Matter in Execution according to those Measures which he should himself prescribe and to desire him to let him know as soon as it was possible Pyrrhus presently sent him an Answer by his Son who was to be the Hostage with the Order which was to be observed which after it had been Communicated to the Princes was executed in this manner He gave