Princes The Relation of the Conquests and Settlement of the Normans in Italy The Voyage of Bohemond Prince of Tarentum and the Princes that went along with him The Voyage of Raymond de Tholose of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia and the other Princes and Lords which accompanied them The Charaâ—ter of that Earl his Conference with the Emperor and the Treachery of that Prince The Voyage of Robert Duke of Normandy his Character and Treaty with the Emperor Page 1. BOOK II. The Description of the City of Nice in Bithynia and the Siege thereof by the Princes of the Crusade The Second and third Battle of Nice where the young Solyman was beaten The taking of that City and the Treachery of the Greek Emperor The March of the Christian Army One part thereof surprized by Solyman The Battle of the Gorgonian Valley The Progress of the Christian Army in the lesser Asia The great danger of Duke Godfrey and his Combat with a monstrous Bear The difference and little Civil dissention between Baldwin and Tancred Baldwin makes himself Master of the Principality of Edessa The entrance of the Christian Army into Syria The Description of the Famous City of Antioch It is besieged by the Princes The Relation of this famous Siege The Combat at the Bridge of Antioch The marvellous Actions of Duke Godfrey The Approach of Corbagath with a prodigious Army to relieve the City The Relation of the taking of Antioch by Bohemond by Intelligence in the City with one Pyrrhus The Christian Army at the same time besieged by Corbagath A Relation of the discovery of the top of a Spear which was believed to be that which pierced our Saviour's side The memorable Battle of Antioch where the whole power of the Turks and Sarasins in Asia was defeated by the Christians The death of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia The quarrel between Count Raymond and the Prince of Tarentum The taking of Marra A strange Relation of the gratitude of a Lyon The Seige of Arcas The odd Story of Anselm de Ribemond Earl of Bouchain and the deceased Engelram Son to the Earl of St. Paul The taking of Torlosa by a stratagem by the Vicount de Turenne The Sultan of Egypt takes Jerusalem from the Turks breaks his League with the Princes of the Crusade The Ambassadours of Alexis slighted The advantageous 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 p. 33. BOOK III. The Present State of Jerusalem when the Christian Princes Besieged it The Destribution of their Quarters The ill Success of an Assault given against the Rules of War by the Advice of a Hermite who pretended a Revelation for it The Description of Duke Godfrey's Engines The solemn Procession of the Besiegers about the City The Second General Assault for three days together Two Magicians who were Conjuring upon the Walls have their Brains beaten out with a Stone from Duke Godfrey's wooden Castle The Artifice of Godfrey to drive the Enemies from the Walls He is the first that by the Bridge of his Castle mounts the Walls Jerusalem taken The fearful Slaughter of the Sarasins By Godfrey's Example the whole Army return solemn Thanks to God at the Holy Sepulchre An Assembly of the Princes to chuse a King and a Patriarch The Speech of Robert Duke of Normandy upon this Subject Godfrey of Bullen chosen and proclaimed King of Jerusalem The memorable Battle of Ascalon against the Sultan of Egypt and the Victory of the Christians which concluded this first Crusade The return of the Crusades The Conquests of Godfrey of Bullen and his Death An Abridgement of the History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem till the time of the Second Crusade The Reign of Baldwin the First The flourishing Estate of the Christians in the East till his Death The Reign of Balwin the Second The Relation of the founding the Military Orders of the Knights Hospitallers The Captivity of King Baldwin His deliverance His Victories and Death He is succeeded by his Son-in-Law Fowk d'Anjou The Prosperity of his Reign His Death and the Regency of Queen Melisintha during the Minority of Baldwin the Third The Occasion of the second Expedition of the Crusades The Relation of the two Josselins de Courtenay Earls of Edessa The taking of that City by Sanguin Sultan if Alepo and afterwards by Noradin his Son The Character of that Prince and his Conquests over the Christians Applications made to Lewis the young King of France His Character and what moved him to undertake the Crusade He consults St. Bernard concerning it The Character of that Saint and the Order he received from Pope Eugenius the Third to preach the Crusade The General Assemblies of Bourges Vezelay and Chartress for the Crusade It is published by Saint Bernard in France and Germany The Emperor and King take up the Cross The Abbot Sugere declared Regent in France His Character and advice concerning the expedition The Voyage of the Emperor The Description of the Tempest which almost ruined his Army upon the Banks of the River Melas The Fleet of the Crusades takes Lisbon from the Sarasins The Original of the Kings of Portugal The Character and Perfidy of the Greek Emperor Manuel His underhand Treating with the Turks The miserable Overthrow of the Emperor's Army The Voyage of King Lewis to Constantinople and his reception The Advice of the Bishop of Langress who Counsels the King to take Constantinople his Speech upon that Subject the reason that his Advice was not followed the Treacheries of Manuel thereupon The Kings Voyage into Asia His Interview with the Emperor Conrade and the Return of that Prince to Constantinople The Description of the River Meander and the famous passage of the King of France with his Army over it p. 68. PART II. BOOK I. The Rereguard of the Kings Army Defeated in the Mountains of Laodicea for want of observing the Kings Orders The Description of that Combat A most Heroick Action of the King in an extreme Danger of his Life His March and admirable Conduct to Attalia The new Perfidy of the Greeks in Betraying the Royal Army The Arrival of the King at Antioch and his Difference with Prince Raymond The Conquenty March to Jerusalem where he is met by the Emperor Conrade The Councel at Ptolemais where the Seige of Damascus is resolved The Description of the City of Damascus The manner of the March of the Christian Army towards that City The Young King Baldwin makes the first Attack his Character and extraordinary Valour in the Attack against the Gardens and Suburbs of Damascus The great Combat upon the Bank of the River A brave Action of the Emperor Conrade An Account of the Siege of Damascus and the Treachery of the Syrians which occasioned the ill Success of that Enterprise The Return
Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcemet to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Souldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land Two great Armies of Sarasins besiege the Camp They atack the Lines and force them A great Combat within the Lines The Enemy at last repulsed The Arrival of St. Francis before Damiata His Conference with the Sultan The Battle without the Lines lost by the Crusades An Advantageous Peace offered to the Christians by the Sultan The Reasons for and against it It is at last rejected by the Legate Damiata taken by Night PART IV. BOOK I. THE Condition the manners and the Religion of the People of Georgia who resolve to joyn with the Princes of the Crusade but are hindred by an irruption of the Tartars into their Country The Emperor Frederick sends a considerable relief to Damiata The return of King John de Brienne to the Army of the Crusades The Legate Pelagius opposeth his advice and makes them resolve upon a Battle against Meledin who once more offers Peace upon most advantageous Terms The Legate occasions the refusal of them The humour and description of this Legate An account of the miserable adventure of the Christian Army which by the inundation of the Nile is reduced to the Discretion of Meledin The wise Policy of this Sultan who saves the Army by a Treaty which he was willing to make with the Crusades This misfortune is followed by the Rupture of Frederick the Emperor with the Pope The Character of that Emperor The Complaints of Pope Honorius against him His Answers and their Reconciliation A famous Conference for the Holy War King John de Brienne comes to desire assistance throughout Europe The Death of Philip the August His Elogy his Will and his Funerals New endeavours of the Pope and the Emperor for the Holy War The Marriage of Frederick with the Princess Jolante the daughter of King John de Brienne Heiress of the Realm of Jerusalem John de Brienne is dispoiled of his Crown by his new Son-in-Law He puts himself under the Protection of the Pope Honorius The good Offices of the Pope to pacifie the Princes The death of Lewis the eight King of France He is succeeded by his Son Lewis the ninth The Death of Pope Honorius He is succeeded by Gregory the ninth The Portraict of this new Pope The Army of the Crusades much diminished by diseases The Emperor takes shipping He stays at Otranto where the Lantgrave of Thuringia dies A great rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Pope excommunicates him Their Manifests The Revenge which Frederick takes He passes at last into Syria His differences with the Patriarch and the Templers His Treaty with the Sultan his Coronation at Jerusalem his return and accord with the Pope The Conference of Spolata for the Continuation of the Crusade The History of Theobald the fifth Earl of Champagne and King of Navarr His Voyage to the Holy Land with the other Princes of the Crusade His description and his Elogy A Crusade published for the Succour of Constantinople An Abridgement of the History of the Latin Emperors there The Causes of the little Success of the King of Navarr's Enterprise A new Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Occasions thereof The deplorable effects of that breach which ruins the Affairs of the Holy Land The Jealousie among the Princes occasions their loss Their defeat at the Battle of Gaza The unsuccessful Voyage of Richard Earl of Cornwall The death of the Constable Amauri de Montfort His Elogy his Burial and that of his Ancestors and of Simon de Montfort in the Monastery of Hautebruiere A Council called at Rome The Pope's Fleet defeated by the Emperor's and the taking of the Legates and Prelates going to the Council The death of Pope Gregory The election of Celestin the fourth and of Innocent the fourth He breaks with the Emperor and retires into France BOOK II. THE Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the August House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The first Battle of Massore where the Count d' Artois is slain The second Battle and the admirable Actions of the King The Plague and Famine in the Camp An unfortunate Retreat wherein the whole Army is defeated and the King with all the Princes and Lords are taken Prisoners An Heroick Action of Gaucher de Chastillon in this Retreat The admirable Constancy of the King in his Imprisonment His Treaty with the Sultan The Original of the Mamalukes The Revolution in the Empire of Egypt by the Murder of the Sultan The Confirmation of the Treaty with the Admirals The King absolutely refuseth to take the Oath which these Barbarians would exact from him The Refutation of the
of Theodorick the Valiant the Son of Gerard of Alsatia and Duke of high Lorrain And from him in a lineal Descent to this present time are derived all the Princes of that fair Dutchy which not long after his time lost its ancient Name of the Mosellane retaining only that of Lorrain as it doth to this day But whether Godfrey Duke Bossu having no Children adopted his Nephew who was of his own Name and made him his Heir giving him the Earldom of Bullen which belonged formerly to the House of Ardenna or that it came by Ida upon her Marriage with the Earl of Bullen it is most certain the Surname of Bullen which was given to this young Prince hath by him and his Heroick Actions been rendered one of the most Celebrated in the World It is this Glorious Name which in the last Age was so happily Reunited with that of the Tour of Avergne which by a Marriage hath received that of Bullen to restore it to its ancient Lustre as we have seen it by the Virtues the Dignities the great Employments and fair Actions of the Princes of that Noble House As for Prince Godfrey it was impossible for Nature to bestow a more happy Inclination to all sorts of Virtues than which she had given him nor was any thing wanting in his Education which might Contribute to the improvement of that Stock such was the exact Care of his Father who was a most Wise and Virtuous Prince and more especially of his Mother a Lady of a most extraordinary Merit and an Excellent Spirit year 1096 which she had Cultivated also by a Diligence very uncommon to her Sex which she had employed in the Study of all curious Learning and in truth she was a Princess of most admirable Virtue and of a Piety so resplendent that after her death she obtained the glorious Title of a Saint It is said also that by the Assistance of Divine Illumination she did predict the future Greatness of her three Sons Eustace Godfrey and Baldwin For one Day as the Earl her Husband demanded of her what she had hid in her Lap she being playing with the Children she very seriously answered that she had there three great Princes one Duke one King and one Earl which was afterwards Verisied in the admirable Fortunes of these three Princes For Godfrey was Duke of Lorrain and King of Jerusalem Baldwin was King of the same Realm and Prince of Edessa and Eustace whom some will have to be the eldest Brother was Earl of Bullen after the Death of his Father It is also added that she had a strange Dream before the Birth of Prince Godfrey for the Sun seemed to descend from his Heavenly Orb and to fall into her Lap and that she saw her little Son Enthroned in the midst of that Glorious Luminary but it is the Humor of some Writers to render the Nativities of great Men more Illustrious at least as they think by Prodigies and Revelations which after wards the Noble Actions of these Hero's make easily to pass for real Truths especially with Persons who love to divert themselves with matters very Extraordinary and Surprizing But this is most certain which the Countess herself with a great deal of Pleasure was used to relate after the glorious Success which her Sons had in the Holy War that long before there was the least Discourse of the Crusade Prince Godfrey was used to say that he would one day take a Voyage to Jerusalem but not as the poor Pilgrims did only to satisfy his Devotion but as a Captain and a Conqueror at the head of a Puissant Army to Chase the wicked Insidels from that Holy Place Which must needs proceed singly from the impetuosity of his Courage and which considering the Condition of his Fortune very unfit to execute so great a Design may very well pass for a Prophetick Motion and looks like a Presage of that Glory and good Fortune which God had allotted for him and in order to which he seemed beforehand to prepare him by a thousand Beautiful Actions wherein he acquired a most Illustrious Reputation throughout all Europe After the Death of the Duke his Unckle the Emperor Henry the Fourth who pretended that the Dutchy of the Lower Lorrain for want of Heirs Male of the House of Ardenna was devolved to him conferred it upon his Son Conrade leaving nothing to Godfrey besides the Marquisate of Antwerp And on the other side Albert Earl of Namur his Kinsman and Thiery the Bishop of Verdun attempted to take from him Bullen and Verdun So that this Prince who was not yet Seventeen years of Age was compelled to have recourse to an early Valour for the Recovery of one part and the Defence of the other part of his Inheritance And therefore putting himself into the Castle of Bullen which Albert assisted by the Forces of the Bishop of Verdun had besieged he so vigorously repulsed his Enemies in all their attacks that he forced them to a dishonourable Retreat after they had lost the better part of their Army and in the same quarrel he undertook a single Combat against the said Earl in the presence of the Emperor and his whole Court during the Combat he had the Misfortune in making a notable Blow at the Head of his Enemy to break his Sword short within half a foot of the Hilt but notwithstanding this Disaster it was impossible to perswade him to determine the difference upon such terms of accommodation as upon this occasion were tendred to him but pursuing his point he fought with redoubled Ardor till at length having tumbled down his Enemy with a mighty Blow which he gave him with the Pommel of his Sword upon his head being now a Conquerer he accepted that Agreement which before he had generously refused whilest being disarmed he ran the utmost hazzard of being Vanquished And afterwards surmounting those just resentments which he might well have entertained against the Emperour who had so Injuriously deprived him of his Dutchy he nevertheless followed him in those Wars which he made in Germany and Italy whereupon all occasions he rendred him very signal Services and it is reported that he himself took the Imperial Eagle in the Famous Battle against the Saxons who had declared for Emperor Rodolph of Suabia when Victory beginning to declare herself for that Prince he ravished it from him together with his Life by giving him a mortal Wound with the very Cornet which he had newly taken And afterwards when the Emperor took the City of Rome from Pope Gregory the Seventh he was the first man that possessed himself of the breach and thereby Entred the Town They further add that after this falling into a most violent distemper which reduced him to the utmost Extremity of Danger he made a Vow to undertake an Expedition to the Holy Land as not long after did many Princes and Bishops according to the Devotion so much in Vogue at that time and
to enterprize nothing contrary to the honor or the life of Alexis provided that Prince should inviolably observe all that he had promised But when the Homage came under debate he constantly protested that he would die before he would do it and that the Emperor and the Princes ought to be abundantly satisfied with the Oath which he had taken From whence they might have learned that the same Resolution in the rest might have proved no less advantagious to them then their politick Condescension for assuredly what colour soever may be put upon this Action it can never redound much to their Honour in the History of their lives But so it commonly happens that it is the Destiny of humane Prudence to be most grosly mistaken when for its security it makes choice of Profitable rather than Honest This dangerous quarrel being in this manner appeased the Princes after having resolved at a great Council of War immediately to besiege the City of Nice repaired to Calcedon whither also the Army of Raimond marched up to joyn with the rest Raimond himself and Prince Bohemond of whom the jealous Emperor was extreamly suspicious staying still at Constantinople to solicite Alexis to send the Provisions for the Army and according to his promise to go and take upon him the Command of the Army which they the more pressed that thereby they might be the better assured of him but he still excused himself from the apprehensions which he had of the Bulgarians who might draw dangerous advantages from his absence Whereupon Bohemond and the Earl presently after him having given order for the Provisions passed the strait and followed the rest of the Princes towards Nice and in the mean time Robert Duke of Normandy Stephen Earl of Blois and Prince Eustace who were yet expected with impatience after having passed the Winte and Lent in Pavia and Calabria Embarquing after Easter the fifteenth of April towards the latter end of May came up with the Christian Army and encamped near that City year 1097 This Robert Duke of Normandy was the Son of that famous William who effaced the first infamous Surname of the Bastard by that of the Conqueror which he acquired by his Merits in the Conquests of the Kingdom of England This Prince was low of Stature but of a lofty Mind and a large heart valiant and fearless upon occasion of honourable engagements of great sincerity and integrity magnificent in his Expences and liberal even to prodigality but withal he was extream voluptuous and naturally averse to trouble and business a Lover of disorderly pleasures and especially of eating and drinking very plentifully which made him something Corpulent and unwieldy and by these irregularities he lost the Realm of England in which his younger Brother established himself whilest he instead of making Preparation for War diverted himself with making provision only for his pleasures and this also lost him the love of the Normans whom he oppressed with excessive Impositions and exactions to furnish himself wherewithal to support his Luxury However he recovered that Dutchy and resolving in some measure to imitate the Piety of his Grandfather Robert the eighth Duke of Normandy who by an uncommon Devotion for so great a Prince went on Pilgrimage barefooted to Jerusalem he was one of the first in taking upon him the Cross thereby to atone God Almighty for the viciousness of his former life he therefore generously engaged his Dutchy to his two Brothers for fifteen thousand Marks in silver to enable him to undertake this Voyage wherein he suffered much in a toilsome march and performed more when once he came to enter into the War All matters having thus passed at Constantinople between the Emperor and the Princes there remained only Earl Stephen and Prince Eustace who with the Earl of Tholose were still to perform what the rest of the Princes had already done they therefore repaired to Constantinople to pay their Homage to the Emperor who received them with all manner of honour sparing no charges in treating them most Royally and in making them Presents which in beauty richness and magnificence surpassed all that he had bestowed upon the other Princes After which this perfidious man under pretence of furnishing them with an able Conductor and some Troops of his own promising that so soon as his affairs would permit he would follow them in Person with all his Forces gave them one Tatin a wicked fellow of his Court whose nose having been cut off carried in his Face the ugly Witness of his horrid Crimes It was to this infamous wretch that he trusted the great secret of his intended treachery against the Princes of the Crusade He it was who was to give him an exact account of all occurrences and upon occasion to put his orders in Execution for their Ruin whilest the poor Princes who thought they had reason to be extremely well satisfied with his proceedings passed the Bosphorus and by great marches rejoyned the Gross of the Army which had now begun the Siege of Nice THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Description of the City of Nice in Blthynia and the Siege thereof by the Princes of the Crusade The second and third Battle of Nice where the young Solyman was beaten The taking of that City and the Treachery of the Greek Emperor The March of the Christian Army One part thereof surprised by Soliman The Battle of the Gorgonian Valley The Progress of the Christian Army in the lesser Asia The great danger of Duke Godfrey and his Combat with a monstrous Bear The difference and little Civil Dissention between Baldwin and Tancred Baldwin makes himself Master of the Principality of Edessa The Entrance of the Christian Army into Syria The Description of the famous City of Antioch It is besieged by the Princes The Relation of this famous Siege The Combat at the Bridge of Antioch The marvellous Actions of Duke Godfrey The Approach of Corbagath with a prodigious Army to relieve the City The Relation of the taking of Antioch by Bohemond by Intelligence in the City with one Pyrrhus The Christian Army at the same time besieged by Corbagath A Relation of the discovery of the top of a Spear which was believed to be that which pierced our Saviours side The memorable Battle of Antioch where the whole power of the Turks and Sarasens in Asia was defeated by the Christians The death of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia The quarrel between Count Raymond and the Prince of Tarrentum The taking of Marra A strange Relation of the gratitude of a Lyon The Siege of Arcas The odd Story of Anselme de Ribemond Earl of Bouchain and the deceased Engelram Son to the Earl of St. Paul The taking of Torlosa by a stratagem by the Vicount de Turenne The Sultan of Aegypt takes Jerusalem from the Turks breaks
Success of an Assault given against the Rules of War by the Advice of a Hermite who pretended a Revelation for it The Description of Duke Godfrey 's Engines The solemn Procession of the Besiegers about the City The second General Assault for three days together Two Magicians who were Conjuring upon the Walls have their Brains beaten out with a Stone from Duke Godfrey 's wooden Castle The Artifice of Godfrey to drive the Enemies from the Walls He is the first that by the Bridge of his Castle mounts the Walls Jerusalem taken The fearful Slaughter of the Saracens By Godfrey 's Example the whole Army return solemn Thanks to God at the Holy Sepulchre An Assembly of the Princes to chuse a King and a Patriarch The Speech of Robert Duke of Normandy upon this Subject Godfrey of Bullen chosen and proclaimed King of Jerusalem The memorable Battle of Ascalon against the Sultan of Egypt and the Victory of the Christians which concluded this first Crusade The Return of the Crusades The Conquests of Godfrey of Bullen and his Death An Abridgment of the History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem till the time of the second Crusade The Reign of Baldwin the First The flourishing Estate of the Christians in the East till his Death The Reign of Baldwin the Second The Relation of the founding the Military Orders of the Knights Hospitallers The Captivity of King Baldwin His Deliverance His Victories and Death He is succeeded by his Son-in-Law Fowk d' Anjou The Prosperity of his Reign His Death and the Regency of Queen Melesintha during the Minority of Baldwin the Third The Occasion of the second Expedition of the Crusades The Relation of the two Josselins de Courtenay Earls of Edessa The taking of that City by Sanguin Sultan of Alepo and afterwards by Noradin his Son The Character of that Prince and his Conquests over the Christians Applications made to Lewis the young King of France His Character and what moved him to undertake the Crusade He Consults Saint Bernard concerning it The Character of that Saint and the Order he received from Pope Eugenius the Third to Preach the Crusade The General Assemblies of Bourges Vezelay and Chartress for the Crusade It is Published by Saint Bernard in France and Germany The Emperor and King take up the Cross The Abbot Sugere declared Regent in France His Character and Advice concerning the Expedition The Voyage of the Emperor The Description of the Tempest which almost ruined his Army upon the Banks of the River Melas The Fleet of the Crusades take Lisbon from the Saracens The Original of the Kings of Portugal The Character and Perfidy of the Greek Emperor Manuel His underhand Treating with the Turks The miserable Overthrow of the Emperor's Army The Voyage of King Lewis to Constantinople and his Reception The Advice of the Bishop of Langress who Counsels the King to take Constantinople his Speech upon that Subject the reason that his Advice was not followed the Treacheries of Manuel thereupon The Kings Voyage into Asia His Interview with the Emperor Conrade and the Return of that Prince to Constantinople The Description of the River Meander and the famous Passage of the King of France with his Army over it year 1099 JErusalem which after that Herod the Great had beautified it with the most magnificent Structures and had repaired the Temple had been one of the Wonders of the World and one of the fairest Cities of all the East was nothing but a horrible Heap of Cinders and Ruines after its fatal Destruction till such time as the Emperor Adrian who was the last that ruined it caused it to be rebuilt in a manner far different from what it was before For in times-past there was comprised within the Circuit of its Walls four Mountains upon which it was successively Built The first called Salem otherwise Acra which was founded by Melchisedeck The second opposite to that towards the South and which was far higher was the Holy and Famous Mount Sion which David after he had taken the Fortress of the Jebusites joyned to the former by a Wall which invironed it on all parts to distinguish it from the other which in comparison of this new City was called the Lower City The third was the Mountain of Moriah between these towards the East where the Temple of Solomon stood And the fourth upon the North was the Hill Betheza where the same King built a new Town which was afterwards much inlarged by Hezekiah and took in all the Valley between the East and the North to the lower Town This Glorious City of God was afterwards destroyed by the Chaldeans and with the Temple restored to its first Estate in divers Ages by Zorobabel Nehemiah the Machabees and by Herod the Great and was at the last overthrown to the very Ground and laid in Heaps of Rubbish by the Emperor Titus Vespasian three only of the fairest Towers called the Hippico year 1099 Phasele and Mariamne which Herod had Builded escaping the general Desolation for Titus was willing to preserve them as also part of the North Wall of the higher Town to which they were joyned that they might remain as Monuments of the Greatness of his Victory when Posterity should by the Strength of those make a Judgment how Impregnable that City was which he had taken though defended by such mighty Walls and lofty Towers But the Jews Revolting in the time of the Emperor Adrian that Prince after he had made the most horrible Slaughter among the Rebels caused those three Towers and the Wall also to be demolished and razed to the very Foundation thus without designing it intirely accomplishing the dreadful Prediction of the Son of God That the day should come when there should not be one Stone left upon another in that miserable City After this that Emperor to immortalize his own Name in abolishing that of Jerusalem caused a new City to be there Built which according to his own Name was called Aelia giving it also a quite differing Form from the Ancient City whose Memory as well as Name he thought thereby for ever to extinguish For he left out of it the whole Mountain of Sion which had been the best and most Beautiful as well as strongest part of Jerusalem almost all that which had been called the New City and a great part of the Lower Town He made Mount Moriah be levelled and inclosed that and the little Remainder of the New and Low Town as also Mount Calvarie which was nothing but a little Corner of Mount Gihon which was out of the Ancient City towards the West So that this Aelia as it was not by one half so large as Jerusalem so it had quite a differing Figure For the Ancient Jerusalem in its Dimensions approached to a Square though not altogether Regular being something longer than it was broad for it was Extended from North to South a good League the Breadth from East to West being something
met with them in their Return to Egypt year 1124 William de Bures Lord of Tiberias Succeeded in the Regency to Eustace who died some few days after his Victory and he knew so well how to make good Use of it that taking this Occasion to Besiege the City of Tyre by Land with his Army and by Sea with the Venetian Fleet he became Master of the Place before the Sultan of Egypt was in a Condition to Relieve it by a new Fleet. The Earl Josselin also Escaping out of Prison had gotten into Antioch and Fought so successfully with his little Army year 1125 during the Siege against the same Balac who had taken him Prisoner that the Barbarian lost both the Battle and his Life whereby the King also recovered his Liberty paying his Ransom to the Princess the Widdow of Balac The Deliverance of the King was succeeded by other happy Successes He overthrew in Battle Borsequin another potent Turkish Prince who had entred in Arms into the Principality of Antioch He Defeated the Egyptians and Ascalonites who were ready to make an Irruption into his Kingdom and had very great Advantages over Dodequin the Sultan of Damascus whom he went to Attaque in the very Heart of his Dominions He took the strong Place of Raphana near to Arcas for the Earl of Tripolis and by his Actions made it appear to the whole World that he was as a most Virtuous Prince so also a very great Captain year 1126 He put the whole Principality of Antioch into the Hands of the Young Bohemond whom he also made his Son-in-Law giving him in Marriage the Princess Alice his second Daughter for he had before given his Eldest Daughter the Princess Melisentha to Fowk Earl of Anjou to whom he gave the two Cities of Tyre and Ptolemais he being also in right of his Lady to Succeed him in the Realm of Jerusalem But his good Fortune was not constant to him till his Death for having Besieged Damascus with a Puissant Army where were joyned with him the Earls of Edessa and Tripolis the Prince of Antioch and Fowk Earl of Anjou he was obliged for want of Provisions and by the Incommodiousness of the Season to raise his Siege and not long after his Son-in-Law the young Bohemon being Surprized by the Turks was Slain in Cilicia After which having given the necessary Orders for Securing the Principality of Antioch to the Princess Constantia the Daughter of Bohemond whom her own Mother would most unnaturally have Excluded from that Right he died most Religiously at Jerusalem year 1131 in the third Year of his Reign and was Interred at the Foot of Mount Calvary near the two Kings his Predecessors and his Cousins Earl Fowk who Succeeded him did also Inherit his Virtues and above all his Integrity and high Generosity For after having Defended the Principality of Antioch against the Designs of his Sister-in-Law the Princess Dowager of young Bohemond and against a mighty Army of the Turks whom he cut in pieces near Antioch he gave the Principality thereof to Raymond the Son of the Earl of Poitiers giving him in Marriage the young Princess Constantia the Daughter of Bohemond the lawful Heiress of those Territories He also maintained him in it against all the Forces of John the Constantinopolitan Emperor who made two fruitless Expeditions with huge Armies for the re-gaining of Antioch year 1131 which he pretended appertained to him of Right by the Treaty which his Father Alexis had Concluded with the Princes of the first Crusade when they passed by Constantinople into Asia He gloriously preserved both his own Kingdom and the States of Christian Princes his Neighbours against all the Forces of Sanguin Sultan of Alepo the most potent among all the Infidel Princes against whom he entred into Confederacy with the Sultan of Damascus He took from the Turks the City of Paneas or Cesarea Philippi otherwise in Ancient times called Dan near the two Heads from whence arises the River Jordan he re-built and fortified Beersheba at the other Extremity of his Kingdom as it was in the times of the Ancient Kings and as it is frequently said in the Holy Scripture he extended his Dominion from Dan to Beersheba But some time after he happened to have an unfortunate Fall from his Horse year 1142 as he was Hunting the Hare in the Plain of Ptolemais of which he died in the eleventh Year of his Reign leaving for his Successor his eldest Son Baldwin of the Age of three Years under the Regency of his Mother Queen Melesintha and it was in the time of this young King that the second Crusade was Published upon the Occasion which I am now going to relate It was about eleven Years after that Josselin de Courtenay Earl of Edessa dying had left for his Successor a Son of his own Name but one who did neither resemble his Father in Virtue nor in Courage as too plainly appeared by the Dishonorable beginning of the Son and the glorious ending of the Father That valiant Prince who was retired half dead and almost crushed in Pieces by the Ruins of a Fortress which he had Attacqued near Alepo lay Languishing in his Bed expecting every Moment his approaching Death when News was brought him that the Sultan of Iconium thinking to take the Advantage of his Malady had laid Siege to one of his Towns called Croisson At this News he gave order to the young Josselin who was now arrived at the Age fit to Command to go instantly with what Troops he could draw together about Edessa to oppose the Enemy But the Cowardly Youth far from laying hold upon such an Opportunity to gain Glory and Reputation by a Victory which should shew that he Merited that Crown which by Birthright and the expected Death of his Father was shortly to devolve upon him coldly answered his Father That he did not think it consisted with his Prudence to offer to Encounter an Enemy so much Superior to him in Strength and Numbers whereupon the Generous old Prince seeing to what an unworthy Successor he was about to leave so fair a Principality was resolved once more to shew him even as he was dying by his Example what his Honor obliged him to do in Defence thereof and therefore having instantly Assembled his Troops he caused himself to be carried at the Head of them in a Horse-Litter being only able to act with his Noble Mind which still retained all its Vigor and Force in despite of the extream Weakness and Languishment to which his bruised Body was reduced as he Marched in this Condition still Advancing towards the Enemy Word was brought him that the Sultan having been Informed that he who he thought Dead was coming against him with a Resolution to give him Battle had raised his Siege and was Retreated into his own Territories Whereupon the brave Earl ravished with Joy at the same time that he felt himself most cruelly Oppressed with his Pains and the Approaches
not to be behind his Brother-in Law the Count de Champagne whose Sister he had married in this glorious Career of Honour and Vertue He therefore solemnly took upon him the Cross in the Beginning of Lent in the Year 1200 in the Church of St. Donatien at Bruges as did also the Countess Mary year 1200 his Lady a Princess of a most Heroick Courage and a Resolution to bear him faithful Company and run the same Fortune with him until Death He was followed in this gallant Action by his two Brothers Henry and Eustace by Thierri his Cousin the Natural Son of the late Earl Philip Eustace Count de Sarbruck Conon de Bethune James d' Avesnes the Son of the noble Lord of that Name who performed so many brave Actions in Palestine and by the greatest part of the Flemish Nobility A part of these Princes and Lords being assembled at Soissons could there come to no determined Resolution in regard they were not as yet assured that they had sufficient Forces year 1200 but two Months after at a Meeting of all the great Men of the Crusade at Compiegne they found themselves in so good a Condition that there it was agreed for expediting this Affair that the three Earls of Champagne Flanders and Blois should each of them nominate two Deputies who should be authorised with full Power to take care of all things relating to the Design both as to the number of Troops and the Choice of the Men among such an innumerable Multitude of People as had taken upon them the Cross As also to treat with such as it was necessary for their Passage and Provisions The six Deputies having debated an Affair of this Importance found that to secure themselves from those terrible Inconveniences which the Christian Armies had suffered in the first Crusades by long and hazardous Land-Marches it was much more convenient to take the Passage of the Sea and that the Passage might be short and commodious with so much Provision and so many Ships as was necessary for the transporting of so great an Army either into Syria or Egypt there could not be any way more proper than to treat with the Venetians who without all Contradiction were at that time the People of all Europe the most powerful upon the Mediterranean Sea This Advice therefore being approved of by the Princes year 1201 the Deputies repaired to Venice in the Beginning of the following Year 1201. where in a few days they negotiared most successfully with the famous Henry Dandolo who for nine Years past had been the Doge of that flourishing Republick This Henry was a Prince of a great and Majestick Port and being now above fourscore Years old though to a Miracle neither decrepit in Body nor decayed in Mind his great Age rendred him still more August and venerable he had Prudence the consummated Effect of long Experience a most invincible Courage and an immovable Firmness in such Resolutions as he took for the Good of his Country of which he was a most passionate Lover He was a great Captain and a valiant Soldier an able Politician and even at those Years wonderfully taken with the fair Image of Glory Above all he was the most dexterous Manager of Affairs and though he were almost blind not so much by the Decay of Nature as the Effect of Cruelty yet was he the clearest sighted Man of his time in Matters of State The Occasion of the Loss of his Sight was this About fifty Years before being employed from the Republick as their Ambassador at Constantinople where he generously sustained his Character and stoutly maintained the Interests of his Country the perfidious Emperor Manuel not able to bear that Freedom caused a red hot Plate of Iron to be held before his Eyes to put them out But for all this barbarous Outrage whereby he violated the Law of Nations though his Sight was mightily impaired yet it was not wholly lost nor did his Eyes lose any thing to Appearance of their Lustre and Clearness till after this he received an unfortunate Blow upon his Head at the Seige of Zara which if it did not altogether take away his Sight yet left him but a very little Notwithstanding which never any Duke acted with more Application or better Success for the Interests of Venice where his well known Merit gained him an universal Respect and gave him more Authority and Power than either his Charge or Dignity although at that time the Power was far more unlimited than it hath been since by the Laws which that sage Republick hath enacted to abridge the Authority of its Head It was then with this great Man that the Deputies immediately treated in his private Council which was composed of six Senators and they managed their Negotiation with that frankness remitting themselves wholly to him for what they must give the Republick for the Assistance which they desired from them that in eight days they came to agree upon the Conditions of the Treaty which were these That the Venetians should furnish them with flat bottom'd Boats and Ships either to pass into Syria or Egypt for four thousand five hundred Knights with their Horses nine thousand Esquires and twenty thousand Foot with so much Munitions and Provisions which should suffice this Fleet for a Year That all the Vessels should be rigged and ready to sail in the Month of June following and should serve them for one Year accounting from the Day that the Fleet should part from the Port of Venice That the Princes of the Crusade should pay for the same eighty five thousand Marks in Silver which according to the true Supputation year 1201 is about eight hundred thousand Crowns French Money which was a very extraordinary Sum in those times But the Doge who had a great Soul being resolved that it should not be said that the Venetians acted just like Merchants in furnishing Ships and Provisions at a reasonable Rate having besides a great desire to signalize himself upon this Occasion and to have a share in the Glory which was to be acquired in this War therefore acquainted them that the Republick to contribute to such a holy Enterprise was resolved to joyn with them at the least fifty Gallies well rigged and armed with so many Soldiers as were necessary to serve profitably by Sea at the same time that the French acted by Land and that they should equally part betwixt them the Conquests which should be made during the time of their Confederation Dandolo having easily brought the great Council of forty Senators to approve of the Treaty as also the three other Assemblies of the Notables of the City judged that it was convenient to have it ratified by the People whom to the number of above ten thousand he caused to be assembled in the place and the Church of St. Mark where after the Mass of the Holy Ghost had been sung the six Deputies being introduced as before had been agreed with the
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
moment and desolated to that degree by the Mamalukes that it became a vast solitude as it still continues to this Day So little assurance is there of any thing in this World where there needs no more but one Moment to Ruin and Destroy what hath been growing a many Ages Thus Bendoedar who found no more Enemies in the Field to give the least check to his Conquests still pushed his good Fortune forward into Syria whilest the Christians of the East divided into divers Factions seemed to combine with him for their mutual destruction And in vain were any Succours expected from the West for the Assistance which the Armenians and the Tartars came to desire against the Sarasins were always either hindred or diverted by the Quarrels which continued between the Popes and the House of Suabia and which were not to be determined but by the downfal of that Noble House to raise upon its ruines that of France which consequently took up the design of that Crusade again And it is this which I am now obliged to relate for the finishing of this History of the Crusades After the Death of Frederick the Second Pope Innocent did not fail to Excommunicate Conrade the Eldest Son of that Prince because he stiled himself Emperor against William Earl of Holland whom some German Princes who were of the Pope's Party had chosen to oppose Frederick Conrade who wanting the good qualities of his Father had all the ill ones and all the fierceness the Cruelty the insatiable desire of Revenge and the implacable hatred against the Popes entred with great Forces into Italy where he was with joy received by the Gibelins and favoured by the Venetians upon whose Shipping he passed the Gulph into Pavia and having joyned the Troops of his natural Brother Mainfrey his Lieutenant General in that Realm year 1268 he reduced under his obeysance in a short time what ever had declared for the Pope and having at last taken Naples he there executed his most cruel Vengeance by the Desolation of that fair and flourishing City This so amazed the Pope Innocent who after he had struck him with the Anathema had no other Arms to which he might have recourse to oppose him that he believed he was obliged to cause a Crusade to be published against him which without doubt did not contribute much to the Success of that which proved so unfortunate against the Sarasins And at the same time he caused the two Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily to be offered first to Charles d' Anjou who would not then accept them without the consent of the King his Brother who was then in Syria and afterwards to Richard Brother to Henry the King of England but he also refused them not thinking it was at all agreeable to Justice or a good Conscience to despoil the young Prince Henry his Nephew to whom the Emperor Frederick had left for his share the Kingdom of Sicily Whilest matters stood thus Conrade who had underhand procured the Death of this little Prince his Brother that he might have his Kingdom died himself of Poison which as it was believed was given him by his Brother Mainfrey to whom as not suspecting him Guilty of his Death Conrade left the Tuition of his Son Conradin then an Infant of the Age of three Years Innocent resolving to take advantage of his Death went and presented himself before Naples where in hatred of Conrade he was received with great Applauses Mainfrey himself being surprized also submitted to him and was received with all Civil treatment But presently after throwing himself into Nocere whither the Emperor Frederick had transplanted the Sarasins of Sicily he raised an Army and took the Field and Fortune declaring her self at first in his favour he in a Battle defeated the Army of the Pope which was Commanded by the Cardinal de Fiesque the Nephew of Innocent who being then Sick when he received this News at Naples died in a few Days after Alexander the Fourth his Successor had also the same Fortune for having Excommunicated Mainfrey this Prince who from the Example of his Father had learnt not to fear these Roman Thunderbolts Marched directly against the Pontifical Army which had taken the Field under the Conduct of Cardinal Vbald and he not being so great a Captain as his Enemy also lost a Battle which was fought between them Hereupon Mainfrey fierce with these two Victories and sure of the Favour of the Populace which always follows the strongest side caused himself to be Proclaimed King of Naples and Sicily with as much ease as he had with dexterity caused the report to be spread of the Death of the little Conradin his Nephew After which he lead his Victorious Army into the Ecclesiastick Estates where finding little resistance he seized upon the County of Fondi and his Partisans being animated by the report of his Victories the Gibelin Faction became presently the most powerful but principally in Lombardy Tuscany and even in Rome it self Alexander astonished with this Progress and fearing that he should at last fall under the Power of such a formidable Enemy had recourse to the King of England and following the Example of Innocent he offered him the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily for his Son Edmund to whom he also sent the Investiture of them and to oblige that King to undertake the enterprise he absolved him from the Vow which he had made in taking the Cross to be of the Crusade against the Sarasins in the East by changing it into that which he caused to be Preached every where against Mainfrey Also fearing lest the Partisans of the House of Suabia should place Conradin upon the Imperial Throne in the room of Count William who had been slain in the War against the Frieslanders he sent Prohibitions to all the Electors requiring them under pain of Excommunication not to chuse that young Prince But all this which signified just nothing against Mainfrey did a World of mischief to the Crusade which was designed against the Sarasins The Parliament which the King of England had called at London upon the subject of the Neopolitan War would give the King no Money and afterwards all the great Men of the Realm happening to be Embroiled with the Royal House this Project of the Pope's did not Succeed And for Germany one part of the Princes having chosen for their Emperor Alphonso King of Castile and the other Richard Earl of Cornwall year 1268 Brother to the King of England there arose a Schism in the Empire which occasioned mighty Troubles and Disorders there So that Italy Spain England and Germany having so many troublesome Affairs upon their hands there remained only France in a condition to serve the Holy See to any purpose in this occasion and all Christendom indeed against the Infidels For this reason therefore Vrban the fourth the Successor of Pope Alexander having again vainly tried the way of a Crusade against Mainfrey which for want of
Prince Henry de Poitiers the Son of Bohemond the fourth of that name Prince of Antioch and of Plaisance the Daughter of Hugh Lord of Giblet From Henry de Poitiers and Isabella de Lusignan sprung Hugh the third who after the death of his Cousin Hugh the Second who died without Issue was King of Cyprus in Right of his Mother The last Husband of Isabella the Daughter of Amauri King of Jerusalem was Emeri King of Cyprus who had by her the Princess Melisantha who was second Wife to Bohemond the fourth Prince of Antioch and Father to Henry de Poitiers and by her he had the Princess Mary of Antioch who was the Subject of this difference For immediately after the death of Conradin Hugh the third the King of Cyprus who was descended in a right Line from Alice de Champagne the Daughter of Queen Isabella by her third Husband passed into Palestine and at Tyre caused himself to be crowned King of Jerusalem in right of his Grandfather But the Princess Mary of Antioch maintained that the Realm appertained to her in regard that being the Daughter of Melisantha she was nearer by one degree to Queen Isabella than Hugh who was the Son of her Cousin The Process hereupon lasted a long time The Princess Mary opposed the Coronation of Hugh but perceiving that the Patriarch took little notice of her opposition she appealed to the Holy see and came in person to pursue her right before Pope Gregory the tenth who appointed Delegates for the Examination of the matter She also presented her self to the Council of Lyons and there demanded Justice And the cause being remitted to the Barons of the Realm who neither esteemed nor much loved King Hugh the Princess at length with the consent of Pope John the twenty first judicially transferred to Charles d' Anjou King of Naples and Sicily all her Right and Title upon certain conditions by a Treaty year 1277 which was signed by the Cardinals and the Prelates of the Court of Rome And by this Right it is that the Realm of Jerusalem which hath been possessed by the Princes of the House of Suabia Kings of Sicily as Descendants from Queen Isabella year 1277 by Jolanta her Grand-Daughter the Wife of Frederick the Second was devolved to Charles d' Anjou and his Posterity and for this reason the Dukes of Lorrain who are descended from Ranatus d' Anjou King of Sicily by Jolanta his only Daughter Mother to Ranatus Duke of Lorrain bear the Cross of Jerusalem together with the Arms of the House of Anjou which they have added to their Atchievements The Kings of Arragon who usurped Sicily from the Anjouin Family and after them the Kings of Castile heirs to the House of Arragon have also taken to their Arms the Cross of Jerusalem and the Title of that Realm And thus these Princes have pleased themselves with the Shadow the Name and the empty shew leaving the Body the Substance and the reality to the Infidels the weak for want of Power and the strong for want of Zeal chusing rather to imploy their Arms in less difficult Enterprises For it is more easy to take what may be had of what is our own than to recover what belongs to us and might be had though not without trouble charge and hazard In the mean time Charles who resolved to take possession of his new Realm sent Roger Count de St. Severin to Ptolemais where he was received by the Governor who put the Fortress into his hands And King Hugh having refused two or three several times to appear before the Barons to make out the Reasons of his pretensions to that Realm they acknowledged Charles d' Anjou for their King and did him Homage which did still more augment the Division by reason that the King of Cyprus having his Party although it was weak yet was it able to give abundance of trouble even in Ptolemais which he had like to have surprized And certainly there was much danger lest Bendocdar who was so admirably skilled in making his own advantage in such opportunities should lay hold of this to seize upon those small remainders which were yet possessed by the Christians in Syria but that God himself was pleased to deliver them from this formidable Enemy For this Sultan receiving information that the Tartars had besieged a Fortress which he had upon the Euphrates he Marched immediately to relieve it and causing his Cavalry to Swim over this great River he thought to have surprized his Enemies but they received him so well that they cut in pieces almost all his Troops and it was not without great difficulty that he himself escaped having received a dangerous Wound in the Encounter but at last he got to Damascus where the Flux and Fever coming upon him by reason of his Wound he died in a few Days after the Battle It is impossible to express the joy which his Death occasioned among the Christians but it was much increased by the taking of the Fortress of Margath and by the Defeat of the Sarasins who indeavoured to retake it from the Knights of the Temple but above all by the great Victory of the Tartars for these People being entred into Syria laid all wast before them without giving any Quarter to the Sarasins when at length Melech-Sais the Successor of Bendocdar Marched out of Egypt with an Army of two hundred thousand Men to give them Battle The two Armies met and fought most furiously in the plain of Emessa and after a most terrible Slaughter on both sides the Egyptians in conclusion lost the Day and the Tartars who had also lost abundance of Men satisfying themselves with their Victory and the huge Booty which they had taken returned again beyond the Euphrates This without all doubt had been a conjuncture extremely favourable to the Christians and Charles King of Sicily who was the greatest Captain of his time an extreme lover of Glory and Greatness and who at the Solicitation of Pope Gregory the Tenth had taken the Cross and as King of Jerusalem had the principal Interest in the Holy War would certainly have led a powerful Army into Syria to recover the Realm of Jerusalem as was the Expectation of the whole World But the cruel adventure of the Sicilian Vespers year 1281 which happened almost at the same time having overthrown all his designs did also ruin all the hopes and the Affairs of Christendom in the East For on the one side King Hugh year 1282 who had been obliged to return into Cyprus entred now again into Syria year 1283 to make advantage of the Misfortune of King Charles and seized upon Tyre year 1284 and after his Death which happened at the same time King Henry his Son who succeeded to his Brother John was received in Ptolemais besieged and in five Days took the Fortress year 1286 and caused himself to be Crowned King of Jerusalem this also made the division increase among the Christians who divided
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.
this Reason therefore passing from one Extreme to another he Disrobed himself of all his Authority and made the little Baldwin the Fifth his Nephew year 1182 be crowned King an Infant of about five Years of Age the Son of his Sister Sybilla by the Marquis of Montferrat her first Husband leaving the Government of the Kingdom to the Earl of Tripolis the Man whom he had before most disgraced and who was the declared Enemy of Earl Guy against whom he was so incensed year 1182 that he had recourse to Arms to be Revenged on him But these Matters were composed by the Prudence of William Archbishop of Tyre great Chancellor of the Realm year 1183 who found out Expedients to patch up a kind of Accord between these two quarrelling Lords Then it was Resolved to send with all speed a great Ambassage into the West to desire a quick and powerful Assistance against Saladin who now began to push his Conquests even into Palestine For this Purpose Choice was made of Heraclius the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the two great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who were then the two most considerable Men of the Holy Land both in regard of the Number and the Valor of the Knights of these two Orders who were now become most Powerful and most Famous throughout all Christendom These Ambassadors Arrived happily at the Port of Brindes but their Negotiation was not answerably happy to that of their Voyage For the different Interests of the Christian Princes at that time were such as would not permit them to ingage in an Enterprise of such Difficulty as was the Leading of an Army of Crusades into Palestine as the Ambassadors desired William King of Sicily was ingaged in a War against the Cruel Andronicus to take Vengeance upon that Tyrant who had horribly Massacred all the Latins that were at Constantinople that so he might with greater Facility usurp the Imperial Throne by putting to Death the young Alexis the Son of Manuel Having therefore been able to procure nothing more from this Prince besides great Promises for the future they crossed through Italy to Verona where Pope Lucius and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa held a great Assembly of Princes and Prelates to determine the Differences between them and to settle the Affairs of Italy The Emperor who was absolutely resolved to re-settle his Authority which the Wars during the Schism which had been made with the Papal See had so much weakned gave them nothing but fair Words and great Hopes and for the Pope as he ever distrusted the Romans who not long before had Revolted from him he was able to do no more than to give the Ambassadors his Letters to the Kings of England and France wherein he exhorted them to this Enterprise as Alexander the Third his Predecessor had before to little Purpose done The Patriarch therefore and the great Masters of the Hospitallers after having performed their last Duty to the Master of the Temple who Died at Verona passed into France There they were most magnificently Received and Treated by the Order of the King Philip Augustus at Paris to whom they presented the Keys of the Holy City of the Tower of David and the Holy Sepulchre with the Royal Standard in token that they put themselves under his Protection and to oblige him to Succor the Holy Land as if it were his own Kingdom now that it was reduced to such extreme Danger by the Infidels Whereupon a general Assembly of all the Prelates and great Men of the Realm was called at Paris to Debate this great Affair and they considering that the King was not above eight and twenty Years of Age and had no Issue were of Opinion That he ought not in Person to undertake such a dangerous Voyage only Philip promised the Ambassadors that he would move his Subjects throughout the whole Realm to inrowl themselves for this War and that he would at his own Cost furnish all those liberally for their Maintenance who would take up Arms for so Just and Holy a War This Answer was not at all to the Satisfaction of the Patriarch however he contented himself as well as he could upon the Hopes which he had that the King of England upon whom they did particularly rely in Syria would make himself the Head of the Enterprise That King was Henry the Second the Son of Geoffry Earl of Anjou who had married Maud the Empress the Widow of the Emperor Henry the Fourth she was Daughter to Henry the First King of England so that this Henry the Second was Grand-child both to Henry the First and to Fowk d' Anjou King of Jerusalem who was the Father to Geoffry Earl of Anjou and to Amauri King of Jerusalem and by reason thereof he was Cousin German to Baldwin the Fourth who was the late King of Palestine so that doubtless he was more particularly Obliged than any other Prince to Defend that Realm which might one Day descend to him by Inheritance He was also more especially Obliged to it for the Expitation of the Crime which he had Committed year 1183 in permitting the Assassins of St Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury to Murder him in his own Church and he had accepted it as a Penance from the Pope within three Years to lead an Army in Person to the Holy Land More than ten Years were already slip'd away since the Term prefixed and he had not done any thing towards the Accomplishment of his Promise of which he was by a Letter from Pope Lucius reminded in Terms sharp enough who told him plainly that it was impessible for him to escape the severe Judgments of God who would not permit himself to be mocked and whose Vengeance he would have cause to Fear if he persisted willfully in the breach of his Promise All these Considerations made the Patriarch hope for more happy Success to his Negotiation in England in regard that in this pressing Necessity it was probable either that the King would go in Person into Palestine for the satisfaction of his Promise or at least that he would send one of his three Sons to command the Army and bigg with these Expectations he crossed the Sea with his Colleague and in the beginning of the Year following came to London year 1185 Henry who was beforehand resolved not to grant what the Ambassadours came to desire would nevertheless save his Reputation and therefore he did them all the Honour imaginable and took the most plausible Courses to justify his Conduct He therefore sent for them to Reading where the Court then was and gave them a most favourable Audience He very graciously and with great marks of Goodness and Compassion heard the Patriarch Heraclius who in a most passionate Discourse after he had presented him with the Keys of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre represented the piteous Condition to which the Affairs of the Christians in the East were reduced who he said stretched out their beseeching Hands
advantage from his Absence as also that they were not without Jealousies and Suspicious that his own Sons of whom they were not too well assured might occasion some disturbance in the Realm but that for his own particular he would with all his heart give fifty thousand Marks in Silver for the maintaining of the War year 1185 and that he would further oblige himself to maintain all such of his Subjects as would undertake that Enterprise This certainly was very obligingly and advantageously offered by the King but the Cholerick Patriarch fiercely rejecting the Proposition told him very insolently That they had no occasion for his Money but for his Person that they had more Gold and Silver than they desired and that they were not come so far but to search for a Man who wanted Money as he did and who therefore might to his advantage make a profitable War against the Infidels and that they did not seek for Money which stood in need of a Man who was skilled in Military Affairs and knew how to employ it in that War And for you Sir added he speaking to him with an Air as offensive and disobliging as was imaginable You have hitherto reigned with abundance of Glory But know that God whose Cause you have now abandoned is about also to abandon you and he will let you see what will be the Consequence of repaying him with Ingratitude for all those Riches and Kingdoms which you have not obtained but by your Enormous Crimes You have violated your Faith to the King of France who is your Soveraign and you make that your Excuse to refuse this War that you are afraid he should make War upon you You have barbarously caused the holy Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be murdered and yet in Expiation of your Guilt you refuse to undertake this Holy War for the Defence of the Holy Land to which you had engaged your self most solemnly upon the blessed Sacrament And then seeing the King change Colour and blush with Madness and Anger Never believe pursued he thrusting out his Neck Never believe that I have the least Apprehension of the Effects of that Fury which glows about your Cheeks and Eyes and which the truth of what I have spoken which you cannot endure hath kindled in your Soul there taking Head Treat me as you have done St. Thomas I had rather die by your Hand in England than by that of the Sarasins in Syria since I esteem you little less than a barbarous Sarasin In truth this extravagant raving Language in a Patriarch and a Patriarch-Ambassadour was both inexcusable and insupportable but the King whose Age and Experience and the dangerous Consequences which had followed upon the death of Becket the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had rendred more moderate made a great Attempt upon himself and generously surmounted his Passion though the Patriarch went on still vomiting out of indecent Reproaches worse than before which I am ashamed to relate And when the Transport into which the old Prelate had put himself was over and that he began again to be in a tolerable Humour the King did not for all this fail to treat him with abundance of Sweetness and Civility till such time as he carried him over in his own Ship to Roan where after the Celebration of Easter he went with him to the Frontier that so he might be a Witness of the Conference which was held for three days with King Philip upon the Subject of this Holy War But for all that the Patriarch was no more satisfied than he had been before for the two Kings remained fixed in their Resolution and both together informed him that their Affairs would not permit to be so far and long absent from their Dominions but that they were both willing to assist him with such Stores of Men and Money as might defend them against all the Power of Saladin And thus it happened at the last that Heraclius who had made no scruple while he was in Palestine but he should bring along with him either the King of England or one of his Sons was forced to return not only without them but without the Succours also which were offered him which out of madness he foolishly despised contrary to all the Rules of Prudence and Reason and to the mighty prejudice of the declining Affairs of his Master So much doth it import Princes not to abandon their Affairs and Interests to the Discretion of those who have so little themselves as to suffer their unruly Passions to govern them so absolutely as to lose even that little which they have It is true indeed that after all this the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and Roan and the greatest part of the Lords of England Normandy and Guienne and the other Provinces which the English possessed in France took up the Cross as soon as the Soldiers which Philip Augustus had levied in order to the sending them to the Succour of the Holy Land But this beginning of a Crusade turned to no great account not only because the two Kings did not at all engage in it year 1185 but also because the Peace which was made between them was shortly after broken the occasion of which and the renewing of the War happened to be by the Refusal of Richard the Son of the King of England to do the Homage which he ought to have rendred to King Philip for the Earldom of Poitou which he held of the Crown of France by that ancient Tenure as also by reason that King Henry refused to restore the Earldom of Gisors after the death of the young Henry his eldest Son to whom it was given in Dowry with Margaret of France his Lady the Sister of Philip Augustus upon Condition that it should revert to that Crown if Henry should dye without Issue as he did three Years after his Marriage Thus the Holy Land which was so furiously attacked by an Enemy so formidable as Saladin remained destitute of all Assistance and that which was still more deplorable was that this sad Relation being reported throughout Palestine by the Indiscretion of the Patriarch struck the whole Country with such an universal Consternation as produced a most dangerous Effect for an Enggish Knight of the Temple one Robert de St. Alban a good Captain but an ill Man who had neither Religion Honour nor Conscience believing upon this Report that all was lost as to the Christians and that he could no longer hope to establish his Fortune amongst a ruined People he began to think of making it among the Sarasins and to make himself considerable in meriting well of Saladin though by the blackest of all Crimes This infamous Man therefore rendred himself to that Prince offering him his Service against the Christians and promised him that in a little time he would destroy them and also take the City of Jerusalem with the Weakness whereof he was perfectly acquainted And that he might give him such Assurance of his Truth as was
unquestionable he also added That he was ready to renounce his Religion and turn Mahometan Saladin who very well knew him by the Reputation which he had acquired and which had given him the Fame of one of the ablest and most valiant Knights of his Order accepted his Offers and to engage him the more strongly to his Party gave him his Niece in Marriage and in consequence a very good Army with which this infamous Apostate committed most horrid Discorders in Palestine but as he approached to Jorusalem which he believed he should be able to surprize with the third part of his Troops whilst the other desolated all the Country as far as Samaria or Sebastia even to Jericho the small number of Soldiers which were in the City with the Inhabitants sallied out at the Postern-Gates so luckily that the Traytor who expected no such matter was himself surprized and most of his Companions being cut in pieces he was constrained to sly with all the haste his Spurs could help him to thereby to escape the just Punishments which he knew he deserved for his detestable Perfidy This was some little Consolation to poor King Baldwin who had tasted little in his Life but went out of the World some few Days after with this small Satisfaction dying in the twenty fifth Year of his Age and the twelfth of his Reign not less with the Violence of his Disease than with the Grief which he had to see his poor Kingdom destitute of all hopes of Succour and left in the hands of a feeble Infant betwixt eight and nine Years of Age and which was in extream danger to be miserably torn in pieces by the Factions and Ambition of the Great Men. And indeed presently after the death of this Prince year 1186 those dangerous Contests for the Regency began to break out between the Earl of Tripolis and Guy de Lusignan But this Fire became a mighty Blaze by the death of the little King which happened about seven Months after that of his Unkle by a slow Poyson which it is said was given him either by Count Raymond his Governor who had some Pretensions to the Throne or as others believed by his own Mother Sybilla an ambitious and unnatural Woman who was not able to suffer this little Infant to take from her the Hope of being a Queen But let it be as it will that the Malignity of Men's Natures and the Liberty which they give themselves to publish their own Suspicions and the idle Reports of the People for undoubted Truths which hath often given Rise to the Belief of such supposed Crimes This is certain that the death of this Infant King gave the fatal Blow to this unhappy Kingdom year 1186 and to the Liberty of the unfortunate City of Jerusalem King Baldwin the Fourth had two Sisters Sybilla the Mother of this little Baldwin the Fifth which she had by her first Husband William Marquis of Montferrat his second Sister was Isabella the Daughter of Mary the second Wife of Amauri and Niece to Manuel the Emperor of Constaminople who was married to Alfred de Thoron Son to the late Constable of Jerusalem Now Raymond who was the nearest Relation to the deceased Kings pretended that in the present Condition of their Affairs he ought to succeed to the Kingdom to the Exclusion of the Females and he was supported in his Pretensions by the Militia the People and the Judgment of King Baldwin the Fourth who had intrusted him with the Minority of the young King his Nephew excluding from it Guy de Lusignan the second Husband of his Sister Sybilla On the other side all the great Lords of the Realm who were for maintaining the Succession to the lawful Heirs of the Sisters of Baldwin the Fourth were resolute to recognize the Princess Sybilla for their Queen but with this Condition that some Expedient should be found out to break her Marriage with Count Guy of Lusignan with whom they would have nothing to do both in regard that he was not reputed either brave or able as also that they could not endure that a Stranger newly come among them should possess the Throne to the prejudice of so many Lords of the Realm who might sill it more advantageously Nevertheless Sybilla who was altogether as dexterous as she was ambitious having for some time concealed the death of her Son knew so well how to gain the Patriarch and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who made the most powerful Interest that she procured her self and Husband to be crowned almost at the same time that the death of the little King was divulged before the other Pretenders could have the leisure to enterprize any thing against her It is true indeed that they were so transported with Madness at this surprizing Artifice that they offered to declare Alfred de Thoron King but whether it were that he had little Ambition or little Courage he rejected the Tender and went himself immediately to recognize the new King by doing him Homage the others thereupon being astonished with his Action yet followed his Example though they detested in their hearts this Cowardly Submission of his as they termed it and reserved themselves for the future by some Opportunity or other to overthrow that Throne to which they now submitted only in Appearance and Compliance to the present Necessity But it was far otherwise with the Earl of Tripolis for he neither able to suffer nor to dissemble the Injury which he thought he received by preferring his Rival was so transported with Rage and Fury that he immediately retired into his own Estates and presently after to accomplish his Revenge committed a Fact the most black dishonourable and detestable that ever was recorded in any Story This Count Raymond the Third was descended in the Right Line from the famous Raymond Earl of Tholouse who was his third Grandfather and who after he had done so many fair Actions in the first Crusade died in the Year 1105. in the Fortress of Mount Pilgrims about two Miles from Tripolis which he then besieged Bertrand his Son who took that City succeeded his Father in the Earldom which he held of the Realm of Jerusalem and he left for his Successor Pontius de Tholouse his Son who married Cecilia the Widow of the valiant Tancred the Daughter of Philip the King of France which he had by Bertrada de Monfort who had also had by Fowk d' Anjou her former Husband the young Count Fowk who was afterwards King of Jerusalem From this Earl Pontius and Cecilia descended Raymond the Second Nephew to King Fowk and who was also his Brother in Law by the Marriage of the younger Sister of Queen Melesintha the Daughter of King Baldwin the Second and Wife of King Fowk So that Raymond the Third of whom I now speak who was the Son of Raymond the Second was by his Father second Cousin and by his Mother Cousin-german to King Amauri the Father
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
no way Martial together with mighty Boyishness had more of the Air of a young Girl than of a Man And besides the Marquis had a secret Understanding with the Queen Mother Mary the Niece of the Emperor Manuel and the Princess Isabella her Daughter who had no Hatred for his Person Now as they had all taken their Measures the Queen Mary and the Princess caused Humphrey to be Cited before the Bishop of Accon the Patriarch Heraclius being then sick to Death and upon the Testimony of Balian Lord of Ybelin who had espoused the Queen Mary the Widow of King Amauri of Payen Lord of Caïphas and of Renaud de Sidon whom the Marquis had gained the Marriage was declared Null upon the Pretence that the Princess had never given her Consent but that being extreme young she had been compelled to marry Humphrey and that she had always disclaimed it and protested against it as an Act of Force and Violence After which the Marquis publickly Married Isabella by the Ministery of the Bishop of Beavais and carried himself as King to the great Scandal of all good People who plainly saw and detested this shameful Collusion and the horrible Injustice which was done to Humphrey It is said also that Baldwin the Archbishop of Canterbury was so sensibly touched with the Displeasure which he took at this abominable Action and the Apprehension which he had of the horrible Disorders which were like to insue thereupon in the Army that he fell sick with the Vexation and in five days died as Holily as he had lived Religiously But the greatest part adhered to the Marquis and in regard the publick Fortune seemed to depend upon him principally for the Provisions which were to come from Tyre even those who were not at all satisfied yet were obliged to dissemble their Displeasure so that a patched Accommodation was made by which the one and the other were to remain in the State wherein they were year 1190 in expectation of the coming up of the Emperor and the two Kings to whom the Judgment of this Affair was to be committed In this Condition it was that the Affairs of this famous Siege stood when News was brought of the Death of the Emperor and the Arrival of the Duke of Suabia at Tyre to whom the Marquis immediately repaired and conducted him on Board his Fleet to the Camp where he was received with all imaginable Honour He took his Post among the Germans and the Danes in the Quarter which the Lantgrave had before possessed upon the Hill of the Mosquee extending to the Bridge of the River Belus So soon as this considerable Re-inforcement was come it was resolved according to the proposition which was made by Duke Frederick to make a general Assault Which was accordingly done both by Sea and Land with all the Courage imaginable and the Souldiers in despight of the brave Resistance of the Besieged did in more than one place plant the Standards of the Cross upon the Walls It was on this Occasion that it is reported that Leopold Duke of Austria made his heroick Courage most Conspicuous by an Action whose glorious Marks which at this day blazon the Armes of a House which is since become so August under the Name of the House of Austria do eternally publish the Memory Fame and Glory of it He fought from the Height of a wooden Castle which was raised at the Entry of the Gate against the Flye Tower and which was built upon the Deck of a great Ship For being mounted over the Walls followed by a few of his Men he was so hardly pressed by the numerous Infidels that all his Followers being slain and being now Single he was constrained to throw himself into the Sea half drowned already in his own and the Blood of his Enemies for he had nothing but Red about him except the white Scarf which he wore whereupon Frederick to eternize the Memory of such a noble Action gave him for his Armes with the great Applause of the whole Army in a Shield Gules a Fez Argent which the Princes of Austria have ever since that time born The Combat was not much more Advantageous by Land in regard that Saladin having at the same time attacked the Lines which he forced in many places they were obliged to quit the Assault to repulse the Enemies who were at last constrained to retire Saladin in this Rencounter lost the greatest part of his best Men and did not without great Difficulty disingage himself being something too far advanced from those who on every side surrounded him and who pursued him a great way beyond the Lines This was the last military Action of Duke Frederick who this being the second Autumn of the Siege was by the Distemper which raged in the Camp in a few days taken off to the incredible Regret of the whole Army who even adored this brave Prince whose rare Virtue which shined at his Death had rendred him more Illustrious than he had been all the time of his Life although a thousand Actions had made it most Glorious For the Eastern Physicians assuring him that his Distemper might easily be cured by the use of Females he without a moments Hesitation answered that he had much rather lose his Life than preserve it by such a Remedy as must sully both his Soul and Body at the same time that he had obliged himself by the Vow of his Pilgrimage to do what was pleasing to Jesus Christ who is the King the Crown and Husband of chast and pure Souls being all Purity and Chastity himself and thereupon surrendered his victorious Spirit into the Hands of God having overcome the two most formidable Enemies of Mankind the Pleasures of Life and the Pains as well as Fears of Death of which in the middle of a flourishing and verdant Youth he chose to receive the cold Imbraces rather than those of Life which he could not save but by the loss of his Chastity and Purity A rare Example which having been followed some three hundred Years after and in a like Age by Prince Casimir Son of Casimir King of Poland and Elizabeth Daughter of the Emperor Albertus Archduke of Austria advanced him to that degree of Sanctity as to deserve those supreme Honours which the Church solemnly renders to those whom she believes to be in the glorious State of the most Happy after Death But this Death which was so advantageous to Frederick was most sad and pernicious to the Army for the Germans now become desperate by having lost both their Emperor and their Prince would no longer acknowledge any Captain but quitted that Enterprise year 1190 which in Conclusion had been so Unfortunate to them and returned as well as they could into their own Country a few only excepted who resolved to Accomplish their Vow under Leopold Duke of Austria Add to this Accident the Sickness which daily continued in the Camp and the Famine which at some times they suffered and
should fail he should be sure of the third and that though he lost two Thirds of his Alms upon two false Religions yet the other falling upon the true he should undoubtedly find Advantage by it for the good of his Soul Poor well meaning Prince He did not know that there is a vast difference between Temporal and Eternal Goods And that though those are submitted to the Empire of Fortune which gives or takes them according as she pleases to turn her sporting Wheel yet in these it is far otherwise and that Eternal Goods are never exposed to Hazard and Adventure but they are certainly lost The Death of Saladin presently made a Change in the Face of Affairs throughout all Asia For having divided his Dominions among his twelve Sons without leaving any thing to his Brother Saphadin who had most faithfully served him in all his Wars This Prince valiant and ambitious resolved to revenge himself upon the first Opportunity nor was it long before it was offered and by him laid hold of For his Nephew to whose Share in the Distribution Egypt fell being slain by a Fall from his Horse as he was hunting Saphadin with Ease made himself Master of that fair Dominion and presently raising a powerful Army all the Soldiers of Saladin who had served under him and esteemed him infinitely running in to him he attempted the Ruin of his other Nephews and in a short time either by Force of Arms or by Treachery of their Subjects he overthrew them all year 1195 except the Sultan of Alepo to whom his Subjects always preserved a most inviolable Fidelity Thus whilst the Infidels armed one against another and thought of nothing but how to destroy themselves it was believed in Europe that a fair Occasion was offered for the Recovery of the Realm of Jerusalem now almost entirely lost which gave occasion to a new Crusade which was also followed by three others as in the ensuing History may be seen The End of the Second Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The little Disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole Race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemaïs The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jassa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Seige of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Insidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elegy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and general Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elegy and Character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elegy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made Chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Seige of Zara A great Division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperors of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vnkle Alexis Commenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadors The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople year 1194 THere was very little probability for the Christian Princes of the East to hope for any Assistance from the Princes of Europe where there was now not the least favourable Inclination towards the Holy War The Kings of England and France upon whose Protection they had always chiefly depended were so far from uniting as they did before year 1195 in such a glorious Design they were engaged in a most cruel War which was only discontinued for some time by little Truces which served to no other purpose but to give them leisure to take Breath a little and thereby to put themselves into a Condition to attack each other with greater Fury than before The Emperor was wholly taken up with putting himself into the Possession of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily in Right of his Wife Constantia the Empress In pursuit of which after the death of Tancred he extinguished the whole Race of those brave Normans who had so generously conquered and so gloriously possessed those Realms for above one Age. Pope Celestin III. wasted with Age and Fatigues being now advanced to ninety Years was in no Condition to undertake so difficult a Task as the Forming of a new Crusade And besides he was extreamly embroiled with the Emperor whom he had excommunicated for the Violence which he had used to the King of England so that he had little hope to engage him in the Enterprise Nevertheless after he was assured of the death of Saladin and the great Revolutions which that had made in his Empire which he understood by Letters from Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice he applied himself with the same Zeal which his Predecessors had done to form a Holy League among the Christian Princes to make advantage of this fair Opportunity for the re-gaining of Jerusalem For this purpose he sent his Legates throughout all Europe He did all that lay in his power to procure Peace between the two Kings of France and England and conjured them at least to send some Assistance to Palestine if the posture of their Affairs was such as would not permit them to go thither in Person to
was upon it insomuch that by its leaning all upon one side he who carried the Banner of the Duke of Austria was overthrown into the Nile and the Sarasins who were about him as he fell from the end of the Bridge snatched the Colours from him Thereupon the Barbarians gave a mighty Shout as it were to celebrate their Victory which they now held most certain The Patriarch who lay prostrate before the Cross and the Clergy round about it sent forth a greater to implore the Succour of Heaven and the Army which was upon the Hills and perceived this Fall fell upon the Ground humbling themselves before God and joyning their Tears and Prayers to those of the Patriarch and the Bishops they made all resound with their piteous Cries which pierced the Heavens from which they desired Mercy and Help Nor was it long before so many fervent Prayers obtained it the fire was presently extinguished the Bridge which hung all upon one side was set right and sixed and the Assailants without giving the Enemy the Leisure to make a new Attempt upon the Machin pressed up to the Walls and pushing forward with their Bucklers in one hand and charging with the Scimiter in the other they loaded the Sarasins with such heavy Blows with those and the Battle Axes and Iron Maces and pierced them with the Points of the half Pikes and Javelins so that they forced them to recoil then a brave Liegeois who was advanced foremost immediately leaped into the Tower and was at the same time seconded by a young Frieslander who throwing himself into the middle of the Sarasins with a flail the swipple of which was tied to the handle by little Chains and which he handled in such an admirable manner that whisking it round about with mighty Force Swiftness and without ceasing he so thrashed the Infidels breaking Skulls and Arms and in a few moments overthrowing all that came within the reach of his formidable Instrument against which year 1218 according to the Proverb There was no fence that the rest fled to the lower part of the Tower and left the upper part to the Conquerors who presently seized it and planted the Victorious Ensign of the Cross in their Standards upon its Battlements The Sarasins still made some resistance by setting fire to the planchards thereby to stop those who pursued them and the Victory but perceiving that during the Combat those below had opened a breach in the Wall and were now ready to enter at it they called for quarter and yielded themselves to the Duke of Austria who generously gave them their lives Besides those who were slain in this furious Assault which lasted from nine of the Clock in the morning till the next day at noon and those who in the Night endeavoured to make their escape by the Windows whereof some where drowned and others slain by those who in the Ship accompanied the Machin there were about one hundred who were taken in the Tower and made Slaves So soon as the Tower was taken the Christrians unlocked the Chain which shut up the great Chanal and all the Fleet had Liberty to enter and to attack the City upon the side of the Water The news of this loss touched Saphadin so nearly that in a few days after while he was making Preparation to come to the relief of Damiata he died of Grief in his Palace at Caire He was a Prince who yielded nothing to his Brother the great Saladin either in good or ill Qualities For if his ambition had made him usurp the Kingdoms of the East by the Murder of his Nephews as Saladin had seized upon that of Egypt by the Murder of the last Caliph he had also as much Courage Valour Address and good Fortune to maintain himself in them as had that great Conqueror who made himself Master of them and possessed them till his death He had also this advantage above him that during his life he divided his Empire among six of his Sons nine others which he had satisfying themselves without Jealousie with the Revenues which he assigned them for their subssistance they also rendred him continually a perfect Obedience and a respect approaching even to Adoration for this Prince who was extreme politick and throughly acquainted with the Genius of the Orientals born to Servitude maintained so great a Majesty that unless it were when he went to the Wars and that he appeared at the head of his Army and that in the greatest Pomp imaginable he was never seen in publick but six times in the Year and then with more terror than joy to his Subjects who durst not look upon him but in the Posture of prostration upon their Bellies with their Faces to the Earth He left Egypt and Grand Caire the Capital City of his Empire to Meledin his eldest Son with Soveraign Authority over all his Brothers who held their Dominions of him Coradin the second and he of his five other Sons who most resembled him both in Valour and Ambition Anger and Cruelty had the Realms of Palestine and Damascus and for the other Provinces of the Higher Asia they were divided among the other four of his Sons whom he made his Successors in his Dominions The new Sultan Meledin who was nothing so great a Soldier as his Father and who was of an humour sweet enough and pacifick for a Sarasin nevertheless did not fail with a great deal of Care to make the Preparations which Saphadin had begun for the relief of the besieged Coradin also his Brother the Sultan of Damascus with whom during this War he always acted by concert and who understood it far better than himself prepared on his side a puissant Army and demolished most of the Garrisons in Palestine and among the rest the Fortress of Thabor to reinforce those Garrisons which he still kept there As for the Christians they did not make that use of their Victory which they ought to have done in vigorously pressing the Siege but as if after this great Success they could not fail of Victory they suffered a great deal of time to slip away without enterprizing any new thing against the besieged taking unseasonably that repose which they ought to have deferred till after their Conquest There were also divers who by a base desertion contrary to their Vow reimbarked themselves to return into Europe notwithstanding all the Prohibitions which the Patriarch could make and all the threatnings of the Judgments of God by which he endeavoured tho to little purpose to stay them But they were not without Effect year 1218 and indeed a dismal event it was for them For six thousand of these Deserters who followed Hervey de Leon a Gentleman of the lower Bretany the death of whose Brother made him return into France to seize upon his Estate having been a long time tossed with a furious Tempest near the Coasts of Italy perished by a miserable Shipwrack in View of the very Port of Brindes not
wherein he was he could not possibly brook the Sea But this little Voyage was very unfortunate to the poor Lantgrave for the Fever redoubling upon him he died in a few days after receiving the Sacrament from the hands of the Patriarch with great Piety and Devotion He was a Prince of an extraordinary merit and had so well profited by the Admirable Example of his Wise St. Elizabeth the Daughter of Andrew King of Hungary to whom he did not yield in Sanctity and it is said that it pleased God to make his Piety more resplendent after his death by diverse Miracles which were done at his Tomb. I cannot affirm positively what effect the death of this Prince had upon the Soul of Frederick or whether he believed that it furnished him with a specious Pretext to break of his Voyage but it is certain that after this he thought no more of departing but continually pretended that his Malady was the Obstacle to it insomuch that near forty thousand Crusades who were gone before him hearing this news they also suddenly returned to Brindes and from thence into their respective Countries Now the Pope who was then at Anagnia being informed in what manner the Emperor after having begun the Voyage had broken it off he was seized with an excessive Grief seing all the hopes which he had of the happy Success of this Crusade vanished in a moment He had no Consideration of what was alledged concerning the Indisposition of the Emperor he believed that it was all a Fiction and nothing but a false pretext which this Prince made who notwithstanding all his Oaths had no Inclination to accomplish his Vow thereby to elude the Punishments both of God and man And therefore without deferring any longer and without having recourse to Menaces or so much as giving him any notice of it or giving him longer time as had been done before he went in his Pontifical Robes accompanied with the Cardinals and the Prelates the nine and twentieth day of September being St. Michael's day to the great Church where he solemnly declared him excommunicate according to the Sentence to which he himself had voluntarily submitted before the two Legates of the late deceased Pope At the same time he writ to the Princes and Bishops throughout all Christendom his circular Letters wherein he shewed the reasons which had obliged him to have recourse to this severe Method which was the Crimes the Perjuries and the Artifices of the Emperor and especially That having nothing in readiness for the transportation of the Crusades at the time prefixed that he had with a formed design of mischeif stopped them that so the greatest part of the Army might perish by the Intemperance of the Air during the excessive heats of the year as accordingly it had unfortunately happened And in short he said that this Prince nevertheless having not the Power to stop them all but that in despight of his detestable Arts there still remained a great number who having set sail for Syria he had basely abandoned them under the pretence of a feigned Sickness by the most abominable Artifice that so he might return into his Realm and there plunge himself in his scandalous Debauches On the contrary Frederick furiously incensed against the Pope and resolving being as he was Potent and Vindicative to carry matters to the utmost Extremities of Revenge failed not also on his part to send to all the Kings of Europe year 1227 and to all the Princes of the Empire his Manifest in answer to the Pope's Letters wherein After having protested that the pressing Affairs of his Estate and the War which he was constrained to make against his Rebels had obliged him to desire those prolongations of time from the Pope which could not with any manner of Justice be denyed him That he took God to Witness that it was no feigned but a real Indisposition of Body which hindred him from pursuing that Holy Voyage which he had begun with a most real Intention of performing it and that in despight of the Injustice which was done him he was resolved so soon as he was in a Condition for it to undertake it anew And then inlarging himself in sharp Invectives against the abuses and the Crimes whereof he accused the Court of Rome he did what he could to interest all Crowned heads in that which he said was their several and particular concern and to perswade them to unite with him to oppose those Vsurpations which were designed against them and their temporal Rights which they held only and immediately from God alone These Letters which on both sides were with great diligence dispatched to all places produced the Effects which are usual in such quarrels as happen between Great men which is to divide into parties the People and the Writers of those times some declaring themselves for the Pope others for the Emperor and both the one and the other accusing their adverse Party of Calumnies and Impostures But the Emperor who was resolved to make use of other Arms besides Invectives that he might make his Vengeance the more remarkable instead of seeking for the Favour of absolution as the Pope by his Letters invited him to do found means to chase the Pope from Rome For having got to him the Frangepanis year 1228 and diverse other great Lords and Roman Barons who endeavoured nothing so much as powerfully to establish their own Fortunes He made them Princes and Feudatories of the Empire after a manner very advantageous unto them For he bought all their Lands for ready Money which he presently surrendred to them again to be held of him in Fee by making them take an Oath to do him true and Faithful Service and to obey all his Orders without exception so that upon their return to Rome the Pope having upon Holy Thursday anew excommunicated the Emperor they raised against him such a horrible Sedition among the People who in those times did not love the Domination of the Popes that he was constrained to quit Rome and for his Security to retire to Perusa In the mean time the Emperor who omitted nothing to satiate his Revenge terribly prosecuted the Ecclesiasticks whom he believed to adhere to the Pope ravaging their Lands and the Patrimony of the Church by the Sarasins whom he had transported out of Sicily into Pavia pillaging and Sacking the Houses of the Templers and the Hospitallers whom he held for Enemies and by his Lieutenants making a most cruel War in the Duchies of Spoleta and Beneventum and in the Marquisate of Ancona from whence King John de Brienne whom Gregory set to oppose him as his particular Enemy repulsed his Troops being speedily assisted by a powerful Succour from the Lombards who upon this occasion manifested a very great Zeal for the Service of the Church But all these Hostilities did not at last hinder Frederick from taking the resolution to undertake the Voyage into Palestine to which he found himself obliged
the Bulla of this Crusade and the Pope's Letters which exhorted the Crusades to follow him so that he sound a great many who either to please the Pope or that they thought this Enterprise less difficult and dangerous than that of the Holy Land presently joyned with him and among others Peter de Dreux Duke of Bretagne who promised to assist him with twelve thousand men This gave so great a displeasure to the King of Navarr the Duke of Burgundy the Counts of Bar Vendosme and Montfort who had before devoted themselves for the Holy Land and who thought very hard that one Crusade should be ruined or at least extremely weakned by another that they complained thereof to the Pope himself and in a manner reproached him with Levity and this Change which they said was most prejudicial to the principal Enterprise the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ But Gregory made them answer that being at least as zealously interested as they in the Affairs of the Holy Land he also understood himself better than they could inform him and was in the Opinion that it was impossible ever to chase the Infidels out of Palestine unless the Conquest of Constantinople was first well assured and that now it was in danger to fall under the Power of the Schismatical Greeks and therefore he conjured them to joyn with Baldwin remonstrating to them that this was to labour most efficaciously for the End by applying themselves to the means which was so absolutely necessary for the attainment of it year 1238 The Princes nevertheless would not suffer themselves to be perswaded but remained firm in their first Resolution Even the Breton himself Peter de Dreux who had promised the Pope to serve for Constantinople wheeled off again and chose rather to joyn himself to the King of Navarr so that by this Accident there being a great Division among the Minds of men some following Baldwin others the King of Navarr it fell out that in the place of one great Crusade which might have proved successful either in Greece or Palestine there were two very indifferent ones which had in neither place the good Fortune which was to be hoped and desired This was the first Division which hurt the Army of the Crusades but that which happened presently after between the Pope and the Emperor was much more fatal to them and had like to have ruined all The Island of Sardinia as well as several other Estates had been now for a long time held as Fiefs from the Holy See and Gregory had sent thither one Roland one of his Chaplains to receive the Homages and Reserved Rents and to take possession of some Lands about Cagliari Frederick who notwithstanding all the Intreaties and Remonstrances of the Pope who had sufficient cause to be afraid of his Power was now come from Germany into Lombardy with an Army of one hundred thousand men and having gained a great Victory over the Milaneses and reduced the greatest part of the Confederate Cities under his Obedience he believed himself to be in a condition to make himself Master of what ever he pretended appertained to him as being dismembred from the Body of the Empire And thereupon those of the Principality of the Tour which now is called Sassari having given it to him after the Death of their Lord Vbald he sent thither his natural Son Henry who was usually called Entius who presently seised upon the whole Isle which his Father erected for him into the title of a Feudatory Kingdom to be held of the Empire year 1239 The Pope who was in Possession of the Sovereignty of this Isle strangely surprized at this procedure complained bitterly of it and demanded reparation But Frederick was so far from giving him Satisfaction that he seized upon other Lands of a Bishop of Sardinia which the Magistrates had adjudged as Demesnes to the new King and withal he made it be answered to the Pope for good and all that Sardinia had been usurped from the Emperors and before those Usurpations had always belonged to the Empire and that for his own particular it was well enough known that as he was Emperor he had sworn that he would do all that lay in his Power to reunite to the Body of the Empire whatsoever had been dismembred from it and that he was fully resolved most exactly to acquit himself of his Duty in this particular Hereupon the Pope seeing that he remained immoveable in that Resolution solemnly excommunicated him upon Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday for invading the Patrimony of the Church and such other Causes as are comprized in the Decretal which he pronounced himself and which he sent to all Christian Kings Princes and Prelates with orders for them to publish it by the Sound of Bells prohibiting all the Emperor's Subjects to obey him and all the Ecclesiasticks from celebrating the Divine Offices in the Cities or Castles wherever he should be It is said also that having declared that he was fallen from the Imperial Title and Dignity he offered the Crown to St. Lewis for his Brother Robert Count d' Artois but that for very good reasons that pious King rejected the Offer and this is most certain that by a most discreet Policy he would never concern himself in this difference nor be persuaded to change the Conduct and Maximes of his Government by taking Arms against the Emperor although he was extremely sollicited to do so by the Pope as in the following year the King gave the Emperor an account by his Letters The War between the Pope and the Emperor began by the Writings the Letters and the Manifests which both the one and the other dipersed abroad in which were contained the Accusations and the Answers which they made which may be seen at their full length in Matthew Paris after which the Emperor Frederick having a potent Army whilest the Pope sent to all places to demand the Assistance of the Princes and Republicks caused his Son Entius to enter into the Marquisate of Ancona whilest he himself taking the Right Hand marched over Tuscany where the greatest part of the Cities and even Viterbum receiving him and declaring against the Pope he advanced directly towards Rome not doubting but that he had such a Party there as would upon his Appearance open the Gates of that City to him But Gregory who in the extreme danger wherein he found himself destitute of all humane Succours had recourse to God by a great Procession from the Church of the Lateran to that of St. Peter in which he did so movingly harangue the Romans holding between his Arms the Venerable heads of the Apostles protesting with Sighs and Tears that he was not in any sort able to protect them without the Assistance of the People of Rome who were their Protectors that they cried out with an incredible Ardour that they would all perish in the defence of them Hereupon the Pope who was resolved to make his advantage
ratification of the Treaty caused a Fortress to be built near Ascalon which was finished before his departure After which the Sultan who acted like his Father Meledin with great Sincerity having signed and ratified the Treaty which he caused to be approved by all his Emirs he sent back all the Prisoners together with the Constable of Montfort who during his Imprisoment had been treated more rigorously than all the others in regard that out of his Generosity he could never be perswaded to discover the quality of the Barons who were in Captivity with him After which Richard having caused the bones of the French who were slain in the Battle of Gaza to be gathered up and honourably interred in the Church yard at Ascalon reimbarked upon his Fleet and steered towards Italy The Ship which carried the Constable Amauri put in at Otranto where this Illustrious Count died by a kind of Martyrdom by the hardships which he indured in his Captivity happy in this that he had spent the best part of his Life either in Combating against the Albigensian Hereticks year 1241 or the Sarasin Infidels for the Interests of Jesus Christ of whom he had the Honour to be a Knight after a most particular manner and such a one as doth not afford us another Example besides himself For Count Simon his Father General of the Holy League and the Crusade against the Albigenses having made a great meeting of Barons and Bishops at Castelnau-d'-Arry upon St. John Baptist's day in the year twelve hundred and thirteen there to celebrate with great Pomp and magnificence the promotion of his eldest Son Amauri to the order of Knighthood his absolute pleasure was contrary the common to Custom that the Ceremony should be performed by the Bishops And for this purpose addressing himself to two of the greatest Prelates of their time Manasses Bishop of Orleance and William Bishop of Auxerre who was afterwards removed to Paris and who were two Brothers of the Illustrious House of Seignelay whose name they bore he obliged them notwithstanding all their modest resistance to satisfie him telling them that since he was resolved that his Son should be a Knight of Jesus Christ it was reasonable that he should receive that order by the Hands of the Bishops who represent Christ Jesus our Master and our King Thereupon the Bishop of Orleance in his Episcopal Habits having celebrated Mass in a most magnificent Pavilion which was erected in the Field of Castelnau-d'-Arry which was filled with Knights Soldiers and People the Count and Countess his Lady presented Amauri before the Altar supplicating the Bishops to give him the order of Knighthood to serve Jesus Christ against the Enemies of his Holy Name then the Bishop who officiated and William Bishop of Auxerre kneeling down girded the Sword about him and by their Prayers begged the Blessings of Heaven upon this new Knight who about three Months after signalized himself in the memorable Battle of Muret where his Father with less than two thousand men defeated a hundred thousand Albigensians and Aragoneses under their King Peter who was slain upon the field with twenty thousand of his men And afterwards he performed so many gallant things following the Example and the orders of that great Captain that some time after his death King Lewis the eighth acknowledging him for a Son who had rendred himself most worthy of such a Father bestowed upon him the Sword of a Constable of France And as this brave Count was extremely considered by the Pope both for his own Merit and for that of the famous Simon de Montfort he caused magnificent Funerals to be made for him at Rome where he was interred in the Church of the Vatican his heart according to his desire at his death being carried into France and buried under the Monument where his Statue lies in the Church of the Nunnery of Hautebruiere which is at this day more famous than ever not only for the rare Vertues of so many illustrious Virgins as are consecrated to God but also by reason of the certainty that besides the heart of the Constable Amauri and the Bodies of his Grandfather and his Uncle Gui de Montfort there lieth interred that of Simon his Father that invincible Champion of Jesus Christ who with so much Courage and good Fortune combated for his Glory against the Albigensian Hereticks For as they were at work in the Year one thousand six hundred fifty six to repair his Tomb which is to be seen in the middle of that Church there were found the Bones of a man and a Woman lying in their natural order wrapped up neatly in Carnation Taffata which being compared with the inscription gives no place for doubting but that these are the Bones of this famous Count and Alice his Wise which are deposited in that Tomb. And this is so far from contradicting what Peter du Val de Sernay writes that Count Amauri caused the Body of his Father to be carried from the Field of Tolouse to Carcassone that it is most conformable to him because he says that he caused it to be first carried thither and that word makes it clear to me that he had a design to transport them to some other place after which according to the custom of France in that time that they had separated the Flesh from the Bones with boyling Water which the Historian expresseth by these words Primùm apud Carcassonam curatum Gallico more exportavit They first did that to his Body at Carcassone which the French were accustomed to do and which sometime after was done to the Body of St Lowis separating the Flesh from the Bones The Flesh and the Intrals of Count Simon were interred at Carcassone and the Bones were transported into France by his Son into the Earldom year 1241 which bore his name and which to this day carries that of his and his great Grandfather being called Montfort-l'-Amauri I have contrary to my custom made this little remark by the by to do Justice to this Famous Nunnery and to shew that many times People dispute much at ramdom out of passages in Ancient Authors concerning the Monuments they pretend to possess either by reading them only in Quotations or not examining them with that exactness as they ought in order to their making an equitable Judgment of them Thus it was that the Constable Amauri de Montfort ended his days at Otranto in his return from the Holy Land at the same time that Richard Earl of Cornwall landing in Sicily after he had conserred with the Emperor Frederick passed to Rome to endeavour an accomodation of matters with the Pope whom he found still firm and inflexible in his refolution to have intire Satisfaction but yet nevertheless extremely troubled with the sad news which he had received of the taking of his Legates and all the Prelates which he had convoked to Rome The Pope considering the pitious condition to which the Affairs of the Christians in
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
and Damiata for his own in regard he said it was dishonourable for a King of France to buy himself with Silver This so surprized the Sultan who like a Merchant had demanded much more than he thought ought to be given to come at last to the finishing of a bargain that he cried out that the French King was too Free and Generous so soon to agree to pay so great a Sum upon the first demand and that he would quit him of one hundred thousand and content himself with four of the five hundred thousand Livres Thus the Treaty was quickly concluded by which it was agreed That there should be a Truce for ten Years That all the Prisoners which had been taken on either side in Egypt or in Syria as well those which had been taken since the Truce which the Emperor Frederick had made with Sultan Meledin as those which had been taken since the Arrival of the King in Egypt should be set at Liberty That the Christians should peaceably possess all the places which they held in Palestine and Syria That the King should pay eight hundred thousand Bysances of Gold for the Ransom of all the Prisoners and surrender Damiata to the Sultan for his own That all the moveables which the King the Princes the Lords and in general all the Christians should leave in Damiata should be there secured by a Guard from the Sultan till such time as the King should send shipping to transport them whither he pleased That all the Sick and those who had any Affairs at Damiata might remain there in safety till they were in a condition to be removed And that then they might with Freedom retire whither they should please And that the Sultan should give those who went by Land a Convoy until they arrived at some place in the Possession of the Christians This being agreed the Sultan sent to the King the two Counts his Brothers all the Princes and Great Lords upon four Gallies which fell down the River to a certain Place where there was a Wooden Palace built for the Sultan upon the Bank of the River and a Magnificent Tent erected where the King and this Prince had an interview in the beginning of May about a Week before Ascension Day where after having reciprocally confirmed the Treaty year 1250 the King promised the Sultan that within three days he would surrender Damiata to him Insomuch that now there seemed to be nothing which might hinder or retard the Liberty of the King when upon a suddain their happened a strange Revolution in Egypt which overturned all and as an unexpected Tempest happening at Sea forces out a Ship when she is just ready to drop her Anchor and happily to enter into the Port so this unforeseen Accident which in a moment changed the Face of Affairs ruined all the fair hopes of the approaching deliverance of the King and did not only plunge him again into the same Afflictions but put him into the manifest danger of losing both his Liberty and his Life The manner of this change was thus The Sultans of Egypt had for their Guard a great Body of Militia of ten or twelve thousand Choice Men much like which we have since seen and which to this day continues among the Turks composed of Tribute Children of which those who are looked upon as most proper to be made Souldiers are instructed in Military Discipline and inrolled among the Guards of the Prince which are called Janizaries For the Sultans caused to be bought in Europe and Asia and especially in the Countries which lie between the Euxin Sea the River Tanais and the Caspian Sea and in the greater Armenia great numbers of Slaves and reserving the lustiest young men and the Children of those who were born to these Slaves in Egypt after having caused them to be carefully instructed in all Military Skill they placed them into this Body of Souldiers of their Guards which were called Mamalukes which in their Language signifies Servant or Slave and in regard that they were bought with the Sultan's money and knew no other Master they were intirely at his devotion And according as these Mamalukes made themselves considerable by their gallant Actions they were advanced in their Charges and made either Captains of Troops or Governours of Cities and Provinces which in the Arabian Language were called Amir or Emir and which the Writers of those Times have expressed by the Term of Admiral which we have borrowed from the Sarasins and it is fit to advertise the Reader that one of our Writers hath had the confidence to affirm that we make use of that word upon this occasion out of Ignorance when in truth he himself was ignorant of the true Original of the Word and was not acquainted that all the Learned World have constantly used it in this sence giving indifferently to these sort of Persons the Title of Emir Amir or as it is expressed in Latin Admiral as in the Greek also as may be seen in all the Historians of those Times But it was ever thus that they who see the least are the most confident in pronouncing their decisive opinion for having but a short sight which yet in their opinion is very good they have not so much as the Art of thinking or doubting there may be something which at present they either do not discover or cannot see Now the last of the Sultans taking notice of this powerful Body of these Mamalukes who were the bravest Souldiers of the East began to stand in fear of their Captains and for this reason when any one of them grew Rich or very considerable for some great Action they did not fail under some pretext or other to take them out of the way of their Jealousie thus the deceased Sultan Mclech-Salah-Nayem-Addin put to death the Admirals who at the Battle of Gaza had taken the Counts de Bar and Montfort His Son Almoadam Gaiat-Addin returning from the East to take possession of his Empire had at his first coming to the Crown by this wicked and to him unfortunate Policy taken the Principal Charges from all the Ancient Admirals the Captains of the Mamalukes and had conferred them upon those Strangers whom he brought along with him into Egypt This did so furiously provoke the Captains against him that fearing lest being now so firmly established by his Victory over the French Army and the recovery of Damiata he should follow the Example of his Father and put them to Death they resolved to be beforehand with him and to cause him to be slain by the Mamalukes who they were assured were at their devotion and accordingly the next day after he had conferred with St. Lewis his own Guards set upon him just as he rose from the Table after dinner and when he indeavoured to save himself in the highest of the three Towers year 1250 which were in this Wooden Palace which had been built upon the bank of the Nilus they set it on
his Legates for his misfortune and writ to him most excellent Letters dated from Lyons the twelfth of August by which after he had said all the finest and most Christian things suitable to give consolation to a Prince in Afflictions of this nature he conjured him by no means to abandon Palestine but offered him all that he himself should think the Holy See was able to assist him in The Saâ—tan of Damascus also by his Ambassadors desired the conjunction of his Arms against the Mamalukes promising to yield to him thereupon the whole Kingdom of Jerusalem to which St. Lewis willingly accorded provided that the Admirals refused to give him satisfaction But they fearing the Arms of the King offered to give him all manner of satisfaction and to surrender to him all the Realm of Jerusalem which was in their hands provided that he would assist them against the Sultan of Damascus who they said offered the King what was none of his own And to manifest at this time that they dealt sincerely they sent immediately to him all the Christian Prisoners as also the Bones of Count Gantier de Brienne and sometime after the King peremptorily demanding that as a preliminary before he would enter upon a new Treaty with them they sent him the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls of Grand Caire and all the Children and Young People whom they had compelled to deny the Faith of Christ which alone were considerable Effects of the resolution which this Prince had taken to stay in Syria The Ancient of the Mountain also who at first according to his insolent custom had sent to demand a kind of Tribute which the other Princes had been used to pay him that thereby they might live in safety sent new Ambassadors to him with presents of Rock-Crystal in diverse Figures which was the only Rarity of his Country desiring his Amity and Protection in a most submissive manner And the King in return also sent him with rich presents Father Breton a Dominican who was very skilful in the Sarasin Language to endeavour his conversion although that pious design was not followed with answerable Success But that which was most taken notice of by the French Lords was the Ambassage of the Emperor Frederick who believing the King was still a Prisoner offered him all that lay in his Power for his deliverance and assured him that he had writ in most positive terms to the Sultan of Egypt of whose death he was then ignorant to let him know that he would renounce his Amity and his Alliance if he did not immediately restore the King to Liberty with all his People who were Prisoners In truth the greatest part of the French Lords distrusted the Intention of this Emperor in regard that although the King would never break with him notwithstanding his differences with the Pope yet nevertheless that Prince had alway manifested a displeasure because St. Lewis had protected Pope Innocent by affording him a Sanctuary in France and giving him the Liberty to hold a Council at Lyons where matters were carried so high against him However they rejoiced mightily that these Ambassadours did not arrive till after the King had regained his liberty in regard their was reason to be afraid lest if they found him still a Prisoner they might possibly have endeavoured underhand to hinder his deliverance But let it be as it will this was one of the last Actions good or bad that Frederick did for he died not long after in the same Year at Tarentum the third of December As the Actions of his Life were diversly discoursed of so was also his Death some will have it That he died impenitent without any fence of God or Religion without Sacraments That he was poysoned and also strangled by the hands of Mainfrey one of his Natural Sons whom he had made Prince of Tarentum and who by this Parricide thought to seize upon his Treasure and the Kingdom of Sicily And the Monk of Padua makes no manner of difficulty to send him directly to Hell loaden as he clownishly enough expresseth it with a Sack full of his sins On the contrary others affirm that he died very peaceably in his Bed between the Arms of the Arch-Bishop of Palermo year 1250 who gave him absolution he having confessed himself with marvellous Sentiments of contrition and humility that he forgave all his Enemies and submitted himself wholly to whatsoever the Church should ordain concerning the restitution of what appertained to it by his Will giving great Alms to pious uses and commanding that for the health of his Soul all the Prisoners which were in the Empire and in his other Kingdoms except Traitors to the State should be set at Liberty and in short saying and doing all the great things which might give hopes of his Salvation But it is frequent to find in History Relations directly contrary one to another which the Passions of contemporary Historians who have been ingaged in different Parties have left us and wherein it is not very easie to distinguish Truth from Falsehood which many times fails not of very plausible Probabilities to impose upon the Reader For my own part who if I could avoid it would neither deceive any nor be deceived I leave the Judgement of this Dead Prince to God Almighty to whom only it appertains and in his Character which I have given I have drawn both the good and the ill qualities which appeared during his Life and as to what appertains to the History of the Crusades I only say that as appears by an extract out of his last Will and Testament which may be seen in the Imperial Constitutions of Goldastus he gave a Legacy of a hundred thousand Ounces of Gold towards the carrying on the War for the recovery of the Holy Land and certainly this deserves so well that an Historian of the Crusades is bound to shew some respect to the Memory of an Emperor who after all performed many most brave and noble Actions if he had not had the misfortune to do some very ill ones year 1251 Mean while the King finding that he had now an Army able to take the Field he parted from Acre towards the end of the Winter and went to incamp near Cesarea which the Sarasins had demolished and which he undertook to rebuild and fortifie as he did neither the Sultan of Damascus nor the Egyptians offering to oppose him in regard that both the one and the other were in continual hopes to conclude their Treaty with him and to strengthen themselves by his assistance in the War which they were about to make Here it was that the Admirals of Egypt to anticipate their Enemy and ingage the King into their Party sent their Commissioners to assure him that they were ready to surrender the Young Runnegado's and the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls and Towers of Grand Caire and that they would also acquit him
Elmehec having been strangled in a Bath by his own Wise after he had reigned five years the Admirals who revenged his death by the Punishment of this Murderess of her Husband by common consent made choice of his Son Almansor who was within a year dethroned by one of his Emirs whom the rest placed upon the Throne and made him Sultan giving him the name of Melech Elvahet This new Sultan who was a great Captain searing that the Tartars after having conquered Palestine would come pouring into Egypt resolved to prevent them For this purpose therefore having drawn together all the Forces of Egypt he entred into Palestine and made an Alliance with the Christians of the Country against their Common Enemies and after he had for three days refreshed his Army about Ptolemais he marched directly against the Tartars who ravaged Galilee and upon the third of October gave them Battle in the Plain of Tiberias where he cut the greatest part of them in pieces and routed the rest and slew their General Cathogoba upon the place and having thus delivered himself from this formidable Enemy he returned covered with Glory and loaden with Spoils into Egypt But a while after one of his principal Emirs whose name was Bondogar or Bendocdar who continually importuned him to turn his Victorious Arms against the Christians seeing that contrary to the Custom of these Barbarians he would not violate the Faith which he had given them he most barbarously murdered him and caused himself to be chosen Sultan by the Mamalukes who infinitely esteemed him for his Courage And in truth as he was the most brave the most able and Politick so he was also the most wicked persidious and most cruel of all these Barbarians For to the end that he might reign in safety he put to death all that he could find of the race of the former Sultans and in a little time fourscore of the Admirals also fell under diverse Pretexts as Sacrifices to his Jeasousie being in reality guilty of no other Crime but the fear of the Tyrant who believing that they were as wicked as himself was under the continual apprehensions whilst they were living that they should treat him one day in the same cruel manner as he had done his Predecessor and by this procedure he rendred himself so terrible to all his Subjects that no person durst so much as adventure to make a Visit to an acquaintance or to talk with a particular Friend lest it might raise a Jealousie in the Sultan which did not fail to be followed by the death of him against whom it was conceived But as for any thing else he had whatever was requisite to make him a Conqueror for he was Bold undertaking fearless cunning vigilant sober chast not permitting his Souldiers either Wine or Women which he said weakned both there Bodies and their Minds and took away from them all the Vigour of Warriours and above all he had Fortune for his Reward and a constant Success when ever he acted by himself Such a Person was Bendocdar who had not slain his Predecessor but because he refused to make War against the Christians against whom consequently he did not fail presently to lead the Victorious Army which had defeated the Tartars year 1261 This was most fatal to the Christians of the Holy Land For the Infidels having at first defeated the Troops of the Lords of Baruth and Giblet with those of Ptolemais year 1262 and the Templers who were got together to oppose this Enemy who surprized them he wasted and ruined all the Country as far as to Antioch after which he came and presented himself with thirty thousand Horse before Ptolemais year 1263 ruined the Suburbs and came up to the very Gates of the City not a man daring to Sally out to oppose him he ruined the Church and Monastry of Bethlehem year 1264 took Cesarea by Treason the City and Castle of Assur by a long Seige and the impregnable Fortress of Sephet by composition But the Persidious Infidel basely broke his Articles year 1265 for he put to Death the Governour and the whole Garrison which consisted in six hundred Men because that having given them one Nights time to resolve whether they would save their Lives by turning Mahometans they were so incouraged by the Fathers James of Pavia year 1266 and Jeremy of Geneva two fervently Religious of the Order of St. Francis and by the Prior of the Temple that the next Day they all unanimously chose to lose their Heads which were accordingly taken from them to receive the Glorious Crown of Martyrdom As for the two Cordeliers and the generous Prior of the Temple who had so well animated the others to suffer for the sake of Christ they also received the Palms of Victory but after a manner more Glorious than the rest For the Tyrant furiously incensed against them for having snatched the Prey out of his hands and robbed him of what he thought to have made the Glory of his Victory was so filled with Rage and Madness against them that he caused them to be roasted alive and cruelly beaten with Cudgels whilest they were in this dreadful manner exposed to the Flames and afterwards causing them to be dragged to the place where the others were beheaded he caused their Heads also to be cut off there But he had the amazing displeasure to see that God did Honor to his Martyrs by a Heavenly Light which he himself with all his Sarasins saw shining every Night about their Bodies insomuch that he was obliged for the hiding of their Glory and his own Infamy to inclose the place with a mighty high Wall to hinder the sight of this wonder so confounding to his and so honourable to the Christian Religion year 1267 But he still pursuing the Torrent of his Conquests which found nothing that was able to stop their impetuous Course took the City and Castle of Jaffa by treachery a little after the Death of Count John for he never durst attempt it so long as that Noble Earl lived He also made himself Master of the Fortress of Beaufort and the most part of the places which appertained to the Templers And after having ravaged all the plain Country about Acre Tyre and Sidon and burnt the Suburbs of Tripolis he turned once again short upon Antioch year 1268 He found that great City so unprovided of all manner of necessaries to sustain a Siege by reason of the absence of Prince Conrade Cousin of Conradin to whose assistance he was gone into Italy that he took it without resistance slew there seventeen thousand Men and carried above a hundred thousand into Captivity Thus this City so illustrious that it was sometimes called the Eye of the East in regard of its admirable Beauty and which the first Crusades were not able to take but with a nine Months Siege which a thousand Heroick Actions which were there done have rendred so Famous in History was taken in a
themselves between the two Parties On the other side the Sultan Melech Sais retook the Fortress of Margath and made himself Master of the Castle of Laodicea and that of Crac which was one of the strongest places in Syria year 1287 and as at last he was preparing to lay Siege to Tripolis he abandon'd all upon the news which he had of the Death of his Son and returned into Egypt where Elsis one of his Emirs who was mightily esteemed by the Mamalukes tumbled him from the Throne and was chosen Sultan in his place by the name of Melech-Messor This Sultan who was a great Souldier re-entred presently into Syria where he besieged Tripolis year 1288 and at last took it by Assault Seven thousand Christians were there Slain year 1289 and the rest saved themselves by Sea partly in Cyprus and partly in Ptolemais The Sultan who was as able and dexterous as he was Valiant caused this great City to be demolished that so he might not be forced to keep a whole Army in Garrison there and after having taken several places thereabout he made a very advantageous Truce for two Years thereby to frustrate the Design of the Forces which he foresaw would be sent out of Europe against him And indeed a very considerable assistance which the Pope sent at his own charges into the East upon twenty Venetian Gallies arriving not till after the conclusion of this Truce was constrained to return without doing any thing It happened also that an infinite conflux of People of all Nations without Order and without Leaders coming to Ptolemais and finding no imploy committed so many disorders indifferently upon the Lands of the Christians and the Sarasins that the Sultan who only wanted an occasion to break the Truce to his advantage laid hold of that which he believed very favourable to execute the design which he had upon Ptolemais whilest the Christian Princes whom he knew to be ingaged in Wars one against another in Europe had neither Power nor Will to assist it year 1290 For this purpose as he had always a powerful Army on Foot he entred suddainly in the Month of October in the year following and advanced towards Phoenicia and then when he was upon the point of going to invest Ptolemais the Emir whom he had made his Lieutenant thinking by the favour of the Souldiers to obtain his place gave him Poison whereof he died But this did not prevent the Execution of the Design For the Mamalukes who loved Melech-Messor extremely pull'd the Traitor who had poisoned him in a thousand pieces upon the spot and Proclaimed his Son Ely Sultan by the name of Melech-Seraph This new Prince resolved to pursue the design of his Father who at his Death conjured him not to suffer his Body to be Interred before he had taken the City and driven out the Christians And for this purpose therefore without giving them leisure to make any advantage of this so sudden and great change turning short to the left hand towards the Sea he came and laid Siege before Acre or Ptolemais upon the fifth of April year 1291 in the year one thousand two hundred ninety one with an Army of one hundred and sixty thousand Foot and threescore thousand Horse Ptolemais of whose Situation and Strength I have given an account in the fifth Book of this History was at this time one of the fairest richest and most flourishing Cities of all the East by reason of the great Commerce of all the Merchandises which were brought thither from Egypt and Asia by Land and Sea to be from thence transported into Europe And as it was become the Capital City of the Realm since the taking of Jerusalem and the Sanctuary where all the Christians of Palestine took Refuge after the loss of their Cities so it was also then more Populous than ever it had been and such great Industry had been used in these late times in fortifying it that it was thought to be impregnable above all having at least thirty thousand Men well Armed to defend it besides eighteen thousand Crusades who were arrived there a little before without a Commander But this unfortunate City had within its Walls two kinds of Enemies infinitely more formidable than all the Forces of the Sarasins and which were the cause of its being lost year 1291 The first was the division which occasioned most fearful Disorders in regard that besides that there were two Factions which held one of them for the King of Cyprus and the other for the King of Sicily the Venetians the Genoese the Pisans the Florentines the English the Templers the Hospitallers the Teutonick Knights the Princes of the Country and even the Patriarch and the Legate of the Pope would every one so divide the Government as to be independent upon all others so that it might be said that there were in Ptolemais so many different Cities as there were quarters possessed by these Orders and different People who were not only without a Head whose Supreme Authority and Orders they should all obey but who were for the most part in Arms one against another And that which was yet more deplorable and which doubtless was the principal cause of the Desolation of this unfortunate City was that the Corruption of manners was so great and the irregularities of Peoples Lives or rather the inundation of all manner of Crimes and even of the most Infamous and Scandalous Vices were so excessive and horrible that the Divine Justice was even necessitated to exterminate such an abominable Race of Men who calling themselves Christians by their Actions so Wicked and Impious Blasphemed that and his Sacred Name among the Infidels So that one may say as one of the Authors of that time does who was a long time in the Holy Land and averrs it for a deplorable Truth That of all the People which inhabited Syria and Palestine the Christians were the most notoriously lewd and wicked The Sultan who had such a numerous Army and composed of expert Souldiers and above all his Mamalukes who were extreme brave attacked the City upon the Land side by main Force battering the Walls and the Towers Night and Day making abundance of Mines every where and sapping the Foundations of the Towers particularly those of the Tower called Judasses or the Cursed Tower which was as it were the Fortress of the City The besiged also at first defended themselves vigorously being in continual hopes of relief by the way of the Sea which they had open and being united for their better defence under one Chief whom by common consent they chose among all the Captains which was William Beaujeu Great Master of the Temple a most Valiant Man and perfectly skilful in Martial Affairs But there arrived to their assistance only five hundred Foot and two hundred Horse who were conducted by the King of Cyprus And the Great Master of the Temple being unfortunately slain with a poisoned Arrow they lost their Courage