of War in Africa and that they wanted refreshments and above all fresh Water which is very scarce in that Country Diseases and especially the Flux and Fevers fell into the Army and in a short time made a most fearful destruction The greatest part of the bravest and youngest men of the Army were unable to resist the violence of this terrible Enemy which daily carried off abundance of them And among the rest John Tristan Count de Nevers a Young Prince of about twenty years of Age died upon the third of August and the King his Father who loved him most tenderly although it was a most sensible Affiction to him yet sacrificed it to the Will of Heaven with the resignation and constancy of a Christian Hero The Cardinal Legate did not survive the Young Prince above four or five days and Philip the eldest Son of St. Lewis was also seized with a quartan Ague of which by the Strength of his Age and the heat of the season he was quickly delivered But the King his Father who had already fallen into the Flux being shortly after seized with a continual Fever left the whole Army languishing with extreme Grief for his death which happened the five and twentieth day of August after he had received the Sacrament with an admirable Presence of Mind an incomparable Piety and Sedateness of Spirit having nothing in his heart or upon his lips but the Glory of God for which only he had undertaken this Voyage He was constantly saying with a dying but Intelligible Voice to those who applyed their Ear to his Mouth to receive his last words For the Love of God let us indeavour some way to have our Holy Faith preached and received at Tunis Ah! My God whom shall we find to send thither to declare thy Gospel It must be such a one would be say naming a certain Religious of the Order of St. Dominick who was known to the King of Tunis and with these Zealous Ejaculations and this Apostolick fervency which he had for the conversion and salvation of Tunis he rendred his pious Soul into the hands of Almighty God precisely at the same hour that Jesus Christ gave up his to his Father making the same wishes for the Salvation of the whole world I have believed that in the quality of an Historian of the Crusades I was obliged in giving an account of the death of St. Lewis to recount this admirable circumstance which is so essential to my Subject since it shews so well what was the end which he proposed to himself in forming this Enterprise of Tunis and for the other particularities which in such a wonderful manner appeared in his death and all that which is so precious before God in the death of the greatest Saints as they do not properly began to my Crusades I leave them as well as the other admirable and Holy Actions of his miraculous life to those able Writers who so many years ago have promised us and who as I hope will write it exactly after so many Originals and so many Copies as the Writers of his own and the following times have left us I shall only add to give some Idea of his Body and of his Mind that he was then about the Age of five and fifty years of a middle Stature and a delicate Complexion but which he had greatly weakned by his great Austerities His Visage was something long but full his Forehead large and Majestick his head a little inclining to one side his Eyes extreme sweet his Mouth little and pleasing his Speech easie and very agreable and in his whole Person an Air of Goodness so winning and so charming especially in a King that it was impossible to look upon him without loving him or to love him without paying him that respect which was due to the Majesty of so great a Prince And for the Qualities of his Soul whether Natural or acquired one may say That there are few Princes who have possessed them in those high Degrees of Perfection as he did for he had an admirable composure of Spirit quick and clear and which he had cultivated by the Study of polite Learning and a solid Judgement so that he was always the most able Person of his Council always penetrating further than any of them when any difficult matter was under consideration having very easie conceptions of things and expressing himself extempore with much Gracefulness and Ingenuity year 1270 whatever he had to deliver governing much by himself especially after his return from the Holy Land but yet never acting but with the advice of his Council except in the Treaty which he made with the English to whom to oblige them to quit the rest he surrendred Guienne and Gascony not out of any scruple as Nangis writes since he himself acknowldged in Council that the Kings of England could not pretend any Right to them but for Peace sake although herein his Policy was much mistaken by reason that this Treaty having brought a Stranger into France brought a War upon it which lasted above two hundred years before he could again be expelled out of it This indeed is the only blemish with which St. Lewis can be reproached for having in this occasion contrary to the advice of his Council suffered himself to be too far misled by the Goodness of his Nature For as for any thing else there was nothing to be found in his Life but an admirable composure of all Royal and Christian Vertues in a most exact Temperament For he was the most valiant courageous fearless firm and immoveable in the midst of the greatest dangers and withal the most sweet pacifick kind and most easie of Mankind Austere humble modest devout respectful to the Holy See zealous for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls retired patient and mortified above all that is admired in the most Apostolick Men and the most Renowned among Recluses for their penitent Life and yet nowithstanding at the same time he was obliging affable complaisant and of an agreable humour in his Conversation familiar with his Confidents easie in his Domestick Affairs an admirable Husband an indulgent Father a sure Friend a good Master and a most excellent King loving his Subjects and reciprocally beloved by them firm and inexorable in causing Justice to be done his Ordinances and Laws to be observed Jealous of the Rights of his Crown and those of the Gallican Church conformable to the Common Law against all the abuses all the Novelties and the indeavours of such as would shock them he was liberal and magnificent in the ordinary expences of his Houshold in Ceremonies and publick entertainments which upon certain occasions he made very much to the Honour of France with a Splendor and Majestick Pomp far surpassing all his Predecessors which made him be equally admired both by the French and strangers In short there was never seen a more perfect accord than what appeared in this admirable Monarch
purpose either broken by the Engines of the Town or burnt by the Greek Wildfire from which they were never able to secure them But the greatest of all the evils which the Besiegers suffered was the division which happened between the Infantry and Cavalry which had like in one day to have ruined the whole Army For the Cavalry in those times was in a manner wholly composed of Gentlemen who loved their ease and pleasure so much that they left the Foot to all the hard duty and exempted themselves from it The Foot who believed themselves undervalued loudly murmured against them reproaching them with want of Courage and accusing them of leaving them to shift for themselves in the most dangerous combats On the contrary the Cavalry maintained the quite contrary saying the Foot did nothing at all as appeared plainly in the last Battle within the Lines where the Infantry proved themselves good Footman in running for it and that all had been infallibly lost if the Cavalry had not spurred up to their assistance and almost alone repulsed the Enemies So that by the most foolish and strange adventure that ever was seen in an Army both Horse and Foot that they might manifest who had the greatest Courage and most Valour compelled the King to lead them against the Enemy and oblige them to a Battle It was then that St. Francis of Assise who by the earnest desire which he had to gain the Crown of Martyrdom by preaching the Faith to the Infidels was come to the Camp at Damiata and contrary to his custom in medling with matters which were not religious or agreable to his Profession opposed himself stoutly against this foolish Resolution And the Spirit of God being an Emanation of the divine Wisdom upon us which agrees perfectly with good sense and reason made him predict with a great deal of reason to these foolish Braves that if they would be so rash to undertake such an ill grounded Enrerprise it would prove fatal to them year 1219 But these People could hear no other Language but that of their Passions and such was their Fury that they compelled their Captains to go along with them making little Account of what St. Francis threatned them withal who was a man of no presence and whom they did not believe to be a Prophet Leaving therefore a few men to guard the Camp against the Besieged they marched against the Enemy in Battalia upon the nine and twentieth day of August The Sarasins upon the sight of them drew off and retreated into a large Champaign between the Nile and the Sea where there being no water and the season excessive hot they were reduced to the utmost extremities of weariness and thirst and broak all their Ranks and order to search for water to refresh themselves The Sarasins then who waited for this disorder to make advantage of it immediately faced about and came pouring upon the Cyprus Cavalry which was upon the left Wing and charging them in the Flank broak them and dissipated them in a moment whereupon the Italian Infantry who were covered by them presently fled and after them the Horse the Legate and Patriarch who carried the Cross being not able to stop them and in short all had been infallibly lost that day if the King who was in the main Battle perceiving the horrible disorder and letting the Fugitives pass by him that they might not hinder his march had not instantly advanced being followed by the Knights of the three orders the English French and Flemings who stopped the Pursuit of the Sarasins and made good an honourable retreat to their Camp where the Army entred well mortified with the ill Fortune which they had met withal in this foolish adventure For they lost above six thousand men besides the Prisoners among which were the Bishop of of Beauvais and his Brother Andrew de Chastillon Nantueil Gautier de Nemours Brother of Peter the Bishop of Paris John d' Arcis and Henry de l' Orme the Marshal of the order of St. John of Jerusalem and above thirty Knights of the Temple Thus the Prediction of the holy man St. Francis d' Assise was accomplished but he pursuing his principal design wandered from the Christian Camp and permitted himself to be taken by the Sarasins who after they had given him a thousand blows presented him to Meledin to get the reward which he had promised to those who should bring him a Christian dead or alive The good man notwithstanding this preached the Gospel to him with an admirable Zeal offering himself to the Flames for the proof of the truth thereof But he laboured in vain as to the design which he had propounded to himself being neither able to gain the Crown of Martyrdom by reason that the Sultan charmed with his discourse his Patience and his Vertue was so far from putting him to death that he gave him a thousand carresses and all the obliging Usage imaginable nor could he obtain the Conversion of this Prince the fear in which he was of his Subjects being more prevalent with him than the truth which was propounded to him So that the Saint finding there was no good to be done took his way back again and the Prayers which the Sultan whose presents he refused desired of him for his Salvation proved ineffectual by the just Judgement of God who rigorously punishes those who either out of fear or malice refuse his Grace and the tenders of Salvation For the Authors who have written for the Honour of St. Francis that in Virtue of his Prayers this Sultan was converted and baptized before his Death are under a mistake of the Sultan of Iconium who never saw St. Francis who this very year of the Siege of Damiata received Baptism at his death whereas this Sultan of Egypt neither died that year nor was ever baptized And it is a great weakness to give it no worse Title to make such fabulous relations of holy men for the Saints who in Heaven enjoy infinite happiness do neither desire nor stand in necessity that those who write their lives or make their Elogies should give them praises upon Earth that are not true whether it be in magnifiing their Actions or in attributing to them such miracles as may well be doubted and rationally disproved and which is the most abominable and pernicious flattery making them so perfect in all things as to be free from all manner of sin That which is certainly true in this matter is That Sultan Meledin not only treated St. Francis but after this the Christians and particularly the Prisoners with great humanity sending some of the principal of them to the Christian Camp to treat of a Peace year 1219 This Sultan who was a better Politician them a Soldier understood very well that notwithstanding his Victory he had many pressing Considerations to move him to labour all he could for a Peace All the provisions in the City were almost spent the Siege
upon two Lines in the first of which were drawn up the Infantry with very large Intervals between the Batalions and in the second the Cavalry following here in the new Order which the King had given and which was most exactly well performed thereby to put the Enemies in Disorder The Enemies were also drawn up in two long Lines wherein the Batalions and Squadrons had a great depth and looked like two great Armies seperated one from the other a great distance that they might not confound and indamage one another by reason of their Multitude The Lieutenant General who was an Armenian Renegade and the same that had taken Jerusalem from the Turks the Year before commanded the Right Wing where were the Turkish Auxiliary Troops and the greatest Part of the Cavalry which enlarged themselves towards the Mountain to charge the Christians in the Flank The Affricans and the Arabians were in the Left and the Sultan himself with the Aegyptians invironed with all his Braves of Babylon and Grand Cairo was in the main Battle the Ethiopians had the Van in Regard of their manner of Fight which was to expect the Enemy with one Knee upon the Ground and after having in this Posture discharged their Arrows they made use of certain Iron Flails with which they discharged weighty Blows upon the Casks and Bucklers of their Enemies to break them in pieces The Sultan had caused it to be proclaimed among the Ranks as they stood in Batalia that there were no more Christians than that pittiful Company which faced them and that the great Number with which their Imagination was so disturbed was nothing but a pure Illusion that he would not have them permit one single man of these Robbers to escape whom the Despair of being able to escape his hands and no other reason had brought to the Battle But the fear which had already seized upon the Judement of these Barbarians would not suffer them to understand any thing that was said nor give them leave to disbelieve their misinformed Senses which told them they saw what indeed was not an infinite Number of Enemies whom they were to encounter The Crusades all this time advanced still deliberately encouraged by the King who spoke much better to them by the Language of that Joy which they saw in his Countenance the Fire that mounted into his Eyes and the Assurance of his Mine Fierce and yet seeming to despise and contemn his Enemies and by the Terrible Glittering of his Sword than by any words he could have spoken which would difficultly have been understood among the Noise of the Trumpets and the chearful shouts which the Soldiers gave when they saw him in that Condition So soon as they were come within distance the Infantry according to the Order which had been given all together discharged their Arrows and at the same time the Horse ran at full Speed in the Intervals between the Batalions with their Lances couched against the Sarasins and performed the Charge so swiftly that they did not give them Liberty to draw their Bows above all the Brave Duke of Normandy who was accustomed in every Battle to distinguish himself by some great and Illustrious Action having observed the great Standard by its shining Embroidery of Silver and the Golden Apple which glistered under the point of it he ran upon him who carried it and tumbled him dead at the Feet of the Sultans all the rest in their places charged so Home and the Foot also without further troubling their Darts or Arrows with their Swords flew in like Lightning at the Breach which the Horse had made in the Batalions so that the Sarasins already shaken with the Fear which their false Imagination had imprinted in their Hearts made a very miserable Resistance and so absolutely lost their Courage and their Sense that throwing away their Arms some of them stood immoveable as if they had been stupid and suffered themselves to be Slain without making any manner of Defence whilest others of them scrambled up the Trees which were there the Soldiers fetching them down with a certain Cruel Pleasure with their Arrows as if they had been little Birds some of them threw themselves down upon the Earth either thinking to escape Death by counterfeiting it among the Heaps of those that were dead year 1099 or as if they submitted to receive it according to the Pleasure of the Victors some of them crept upon their Bellies others continued in the kneeling Posture without stirring as did the Ethiopians upon whom Godfrey and his Troops fell cutting off Heads and Arms with mighty Blows of the Cimiter in that very Posture wherein he found them with one knee on the Ground they never offering to make one Discharge against him Those on the Left Wing where the Gascons and Provencals under Earl Raymond fought made also a most bloody Execution and charged the Enemy so impetuously that to avoid their Death they hastened it throwing themselves and crouding one another Headlong into the Sea where they were swallowed up in a Moment sparing the Victorious Christians the Trouble of killing them with the Mortal Steel In a word all the rest betook themselves to flight and in flying broke and entangled those of the Second Line who had not yet struck a Blow but yet that did not prevent their having a share in the Misfortune of the first for the Conquerors eagerly pursued the Fugitives killing them continually to the very Gates of Ascalon There the Croud was so great every one striving to be foremost to save himself and they precipitated one another over the Draw-Bridge in such Numbers that two thousand of them were drowned and smothered in the Moat The Sultan himself unable to stop the flight of his Men had like there to have perished and not thinking himself safe in the Town he quitted it and with the hast of a flying Coward threw himself aboard the Ships which he had in the Port loaden with all sorts of Engines for the Siege of Jerusalem It is true that some of the Crusades made too much hast to fall to the Plunder insomuch that they were in Danger of being surprized by the Lieutenant General who had rallied some Troops to make his Advantage of such an Opportunity but the King whose Vigilant Eye was every where perceiving it run immediately to their Succour and not only disingaged his own men but cut in pieces those miserable Remnants of his Enemies and thereby rendred the Victory absolute and compleat although it was not yet much above twelve of the Clock After which he gave the Pillage to the Victorious Army which got there the Richest Booty that they had hitherto met withal during the whole War for the Great Lords of Babylon and all the considerable Persons of Egypt and the Neighbouring Regions were come in their most magnificent Equipage to attend the Sultan who had also brought with him an inestimable Treasure and vast Quantities of all manner of Provisions
had before-hand complotted their Destruction there perished a hundred thousand men besides an infinite Number of Women who were led into miserable Captivity The Earl of Poitiers having lost all was reduced to the deplorable Necessity to make his Voyage on Foot Hugh the Great could not finish his but died by the way at Tarsus in Cilicia The Earl of Tholose making Use of the small Remainder of the Pilgrims to regain Tortosa from the Saracens who had seized it abandoned his Benefactors and fortified himself in his Conquest following the Design which he had always cherished to acquire some little Principality in the East The rest after having visited the Holy Places conducted by their ill Destiny compleated their Misfortunes by joyning with the King in this unhappy Battle only the Earl of Poitiers escaped having taken Shipping at Jaffa in order to his return into France the rest who stayed were either slain upon the Place as were the Earls of Blois and Burgogne or taken Prisoners as were the Earl of Bourges and many other brave though unfortunate Persons The King nevertheless escaped to Rama and in a few days having drawn together the Troops of Antipatris Tiberias Jerusalem and Jaffa into which Place he had put himself he made a Sally to so good purpose upon his Enemies who prepared to besiege him that in the End he constrained them to take their Flight leaving to him all the Marks of an absolute Victory the Field of Battle the Bodies of the Slain all their Engines and their Baggage After which he took Ptoelmais by the Help of the Genoese who besieged it by Sea with seventy Ships he a second time defeated the Saracens of Egypt in the Plain of Rama he took the City of Tripolis year 1105 which under the Denomination of an Earldom and the Condition of Homage he conferred upon Bertrand the Son of the Earl of Tholose year 1109 who was dead about four years before he made himself Master of Sidon Beritus and all the Sea-Coast Towns excepting Tyre which he kept blocked up by the Fortress of Scandalion which he caused to be built upon the Coast some five Miles from that City in the same place where Alexander the Great had formerly formed his Camp when he besieged that City In the End after having also built upon the further side of Jordan the Castle of Mont-Real to bridle the Incursions of the Arabians and having carried his Victorious Arms even into Egypt year 1118 he died of the Flux and was interred near his Brother Godfrey at the Foot of Mount Calvary in a Chappel adjoyning to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre He left the Christians in Possession of four large Soveraignties which they had conquered in the East the first was the Earldom of Edessa which extended it self from the further side of Euphrates to the River Tygris the second was the Principality of Antioch in which was comprized all the Country which is between Tarsus of Cilicia towards the West and the City of Maraclea on the East upon the Coast of the Phenician Sea as far as Tortosa It was afterwards governed by Roger the Cousin of Tancred after the Death of that brave Prince who had governed it till after the Deliverance of his Uncle and then returning into France he married Constance the Daughter of King Philip the first and after having made War in Epirus and in Dalmatia with the Greek Emperor he died in Italy leaving behind him a Son of his own Name The third was the Earldom of Tripolis which extends it self along the Sea-Coast of Phenicia beyond Maraclea as far as the River Adonis which runs between Biblis and Baruth The fourth was the Kingdom of Jerusalem which beginning at the same River stretches it self almost to the Castle of Daron upon the Frontier of Idumea near unto Egypt In this flourishing Estate stood the Affairs of the Christians in the East at the death of Baldwin the second His Brother Eustace Earl of Bullen who ought to have succeeded him was at that time in France and in Regard there was a Necessity that they should have a King who should be actually within the Kingdom year 1118 to maintain things in that Condition wherein they stood against so many Potent Enemies which they had upon all hands therefore the Earl of Edessa his Cousin Baldwin de Bourg who was at that time at Jerusalem was called to the Succession of the Kingdom which he took upon him leaving the Earldom of Edessa to Josselin Earl of Courtenay who was his Kinsman Now in Regard that it was in the Beginning of his Reign that the Order of the Knights Templers were first founded in his Palace and that it is requisite something should be said of these Knights as also of the other Order which was called Hospitallers I think it will not be amiss in a few Words to inform the Reader of the Original the Intention the manner of Living and the Employ of these Military Orders which were established in Palestine under the first Kings of Jerusalem It is certain that before the Christian Princes had conquered the Holy Land there were Hospitallers at Jerusalem whereof some received and Entertained the Pilgrims which came from all Parts of Christendom to visit the Holy Places and others of them had the Charge of the Poor Sick and Diseased People and particularly of the Lepers of which there were great Numbers in those times Those who were called the Hospitallers of St. Lazarus are far more Ancient than the first of these as appears by the great Number of Hospitals and Insirmaries of the Name of St. Lazarus which were wholly intended and principally in the East for such as were afflicted with the Leprosie St. Gregory Nazianzen assures us that St. Basil built one at Cesarea dedicated to the same Saint the supposed Protector of the Lepers and that he gave Rules to these Charitable Hospitallers who devoted themselves to the Service of those diseased People As for the others who made Profession to serve the Pilgrims of the Holy Land they were not in being till a long time after that the Merchants of Amalphi in Italy who trafficked into Syria obtained Permission of one of the Caliphs to build a Monastery near the Holy Sepulchre to which they added a Hospital and an Oratory dedicated to St. John the Eleemosynary there to receive the poor Pilgrims as well as the sick and diseased For after they were embodied into a Community as formerly they took Care only of the Infirm and Leprous so now there were others who were particularly appointed to attend the Pilgrims and both the one and the other were indifferently called Hospitallers they lived a long time in this peaceable Exercise of Charity under one Superior who was called the Master of the Hospital until that after tho Conquest of Palestine by the Princes of the Crusade they took up Arms not only for the Desence of the poor Pilgrims but also to serve the Kings of
Jerusalem for whom they performed many notable Services in their Wars And for this Reason the Hospitallers divided their Community into three different Ranks of which the first was that of Knights who went to the Wars the second of Friers or Brothers Servitors who had the Charge of the Sick and the Pilgrims and the third was that of Ecclesiasticks and Chaplains who administred the Sacraments and this Company which was thus advanced into a Military Order was also confirmed by Pope Paschal the second It was in Imitation of these Armed Hospitallers that many others also much about the same time taking up the Profession of Arms at Jerusalem began to establish other new Military Orders The first were those who had the Guard of the Holy Sepulchre for many Ages and that King Baldwin the First of Canons which they were before changed them into Knights of the Holy Sepulchre They retired after the loss of the Holy Land into Italy where they setled at Perouse and continued there till such time as Pope Innocent the eighth sent them to the Knights of the Rhodes the Fathers Cordeliers succeeded them in keeping the Holy Sepulchre and to this day retain the Power of giving the Honor of Knight-hood to such noble Persons as resort thither to visit the Holy Places Some time after about the Year 1118. nine French Gentlemen of whom the Principal were Hugh de Payn and Geffry de Saint Omer going to present themselves before Guarimond the Patriarch of Jerusalem he perswaded them so Effectually that between his Hands they took upon them a Vow of Chastity and Obedience year 1118 and to employ their Lives in defending the Passes and keeping the Ways clear and free for the Pilgrims who came to the Holy Land King Baldwin gave them Lodgings in his Palace near the Temple and from thence they came to be called Templers or Knights of the Temple They continued nine Years in this manner their Number not at all Increasing and without all distinction of Habits until the Year 1128 when Pope Honorius the Second bestowed upon them at the Council of Troyes a Rule with a white Habit to which Eugenius the Third added a red Cross And after that time as they acquired a mighty Reputation by their Virtue Courage and admirable Things which they did against the Infidels so their Order grew mightily and became so Puissant by the great Estates which were every where Conferred upon them that they became equal in their Fortune to the greatest Princes But in Conclusion these great Revenues which at first were the Recompences and the Testimonies of their Merit became the Occasion of their Misfortune for from thence sprung those Disorders with which they are but too justly Reproached though possibly the Hatred into which they fell by reason of their Pride and Arrogance may have represented those Disorders greater than they were in Reality yet it is certain that they gave an Occasion to the Fathers of the Council of Vienna under Clement the Fifth utterly to Extinguish their Order the greatest part of their fair Revenues being given to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem year 1119 who about this time Conquered the Isle of Rhodes Immediately after the Establishment of this Order of the Templers that of the Knights of the Teutonick Order began being Founded by the Charity of a Rich German Lord who having had his Part in the taking of Jerusalem had resolved there to pass the remainder of his Days with his Family in the Exercises of Piety He observing that many Pilgrims and poor Soldiers of his Nation suffered extreamly in a Country where no body understood them built a Hospital at Jerusalem to receive them and some time after an Oratory in Honor of the Blessed Virgin many Germans drawn by the Example of his so great Charity joyned with him and quitting their Estates to the Use of this Hospital devoted themselves to the Service of the Poor of their Nation and there being among them many Gentlemen who had undertaken this Voyage principally with a Design to make War against the Infidels they added to this Vow that of Fighting unto Death against the Enemies of Jesus Christ herein following the Conduct Manner of Living and the Rule of the Templers until that about seventy Years after Pope Celestin the third Erected it into a military Order under the Rule of St. Augustin for those of the German Nation only giving them a white Habit with a black Cross to distinguish them from the Templers Nevertheless they could after that do no manner of great Services to Christendom in Syria by reason that the Affairs of the Christians were then become altogether Desperate about thirty eight years after the Emperor Frederick the Second Returning from his unfortunate Voyage to the Holy Land brought them all into Germany under their fourth Great Master Herman Psaltza to whom he proposed the Conquest of Prussia from the barbarous People and Pagans who at that time Inhabited there This Valiant Man entred the Country with his Knights and two thousand others who took upon them the Habit after the Example of Conrade Marquess of Thuringia who accompanied him with twenty thousand Soldiers In three Years time they made themselves Masters of all the Country Reducing the People to Christianity and Built Marienburg to be the chief Seat of their Order giving it the Name of the Holy Virgin their Protectress After which their Successors Possessed themselves of the greatest part of the Northern Countries which are on both sides of the Vistula Extending themselves and their Catholick Religion into Lithuania continually Augmenting their Power and Dominion till after a long War which they had undertaken against the King of Poland that King Jagelon Defeated them in that famous Battle wherein they lost the greatest part of their Knights who were accompanied with the Slaughter of fifty thousand of their Soldiers who remained dead upon the Place So that all Prussia being almost Revolted the Great Master to preserve his remaining Interest was obliged to do Homage for it to Casimire King of Poland Afterwards Frederick Duke of Saxony coming to be Great Master year 1118 refused to do that Homage and after that the Knights had for a long time under that Prince used their utmost Efforts to maintain their Soveraign Authority at length Albert Marquis of Brandenburgh who was chosen Great Master abandoning the Interests of the Order to Establish his own particular Designs submitted himself to King Sigismond his Uncle who of Great Master of the Order made him Duke of one part of Prussia under the Soveraignty of Poland After which this new Duke Renouncing the Catholique Religion and Violating his Vow of Knighthood Married the Princess of Denmark and in Conclusion left to his Posterity the Ducal Prussia So that after this time this Order sometimes so Celebrated and powerful having Flourished more than three hundred Years was in a manner quite Extinguished It is nevertheless still kept up in Germany where
War which he did not in the least that it must needs be a Prodigy of ill Presage to see a man devoted to a severe Profession of Religion to take upon himself the Command of the Army that they were at last satisfied that he should do his Duty according to his Profession in preaching up the Crusade as for any thing more the Weakness of his Natural Constitution and his Age gave him a Dispensation from the Toils and Hazards of a Voyage to the Holy Land Being therefore resolved to preserve himself always within the Bounds of his Condition and to apply himself only to that which was his proper Ministry he set himself to preach the Crusade with so much Zeal Power and Success that there was never seen a greater Concourse of People then ran from all Parts to have the good Fortune to receive the Cross from his Hands Geossry who writes his Life that it pleased God to confirm and approve of his preaching by a Prodigious Number of Miracles which he did in healing all kind of Diseases by his Prayers and the Imposition of his Hands But as some of the Historians who gives us this Account produce no manner of particular Proofs but content themselves with saying so only in general Terms and on the other Hand it is well known that in those times they were not so strict and exact in their Examination of those kind of Things as they are in our days but were rather inclined to make even Credulity it self a Matter of great Merit I think every Person is at Liberty to believe at his own Discretion without detracting in the least from the Eminent Sanctity of St. Bernard And that which makes this appear more reasonable is that this great man himself in that Apology which he made after the ill Fortune of this Voyage does not in justifying himself in the least inssist upon the Miracles which God wrought by his preaching but by the Obedience which he owed to the Pope who had commanded him to preach Be it as it will it is most certain as he himself says the Obedience which he rendred to the Pope in preaching the Crusade became so successful that it produced an infinite of Crusades insomuch that the Towns and Villages were almost dispeopled of their Inhabitants except the Children and the Women who remained as Widows during the Lives of their Husbands thus it was that he spoke not knowing that so many of them were to be so in Reality As for the rest in that time that he preached with so much Success in France he advanced the Crusade no less by his Pen in Italy and Germany whither he writ most Eloquent Letters wherein he Exhorted the People to take up the Cross with all the most powerful Motives which were Capable of touching their Christian Compassion and in one of them he advertized the Germans to take Care that they did not suffer themselves to be seduced by a certain Vagabond Monk one Radulph who had taken upon him without any Commission to preach the Crusade at Cologne Mayence Worms Spire Strasbourg and thereabouts exciting the People to Massacre the Jews under Pretext of slgnalizing their Zeal against the Enemies of Jesus Christ He writ the same in pretty Boisterous Terms to the Arch-Bishop of Mayence year 1146 perswading him to treat this Ignorant Monk as an Usurper upon the Sacred Office of Preaching and as a detestable Heretick who Authorized the fearful Sin of Murder And understanding that this furious Disorder increased daily by the Seditious Sermons of this Impudent Impostor he went himself into Germany to acquit himself of the Commission he had received from the Pope to preach the Crusade there and arrived at Spires where the Emperor had called a General Diet against the Feast of the Nativity The Emperor at that time was Conrade the third of that Name Duke of Suabia and Franconia who after the Death of the Emperor Lotharius of the House of Saxony had ascended the Imperial Throne about eight Years before and till then had reigned with abundance of good Fortune and Glory The Devout Abbot treated with him both in Private and Publick concerning the intended Enterprize of the Holy War He there did his accustomed Wonders and though he preached in a Language which the People did not understand yet such was the manner of his Delivery that it wrought more upon them then did his Interpreters who endeavoured to make them understand what it was that he said it was enough that the People saw him to be as it were inchanted by his very Looks and in Consequence to be perswaded for they ran to him from all Parts with such Heat and thronging that one time the Emperor was forced to take him in his Arms to defend him from the Crowd which was ready to stifle him In short he acted and spoke so effectually in the Dict that the Emperor and his Brother Henry Duke of Suabia his Nephew Frederick who afterwards succeeded him in the Empire and the greatest part of the Princes resolved to take upon them the Cross which they also did about two Months after at another Diet which was called for that purpose Their Example was followed by the famous Otho Bishop of Friburgh half Brother by the Mother to the Emperor and after him by the Bishops of Ratisbonne and Passau and an Innumerable Multitude of Lords Gentlemen and Soldiers who ran from all Parts of Germany to this Assembly to take part in this Holy War Labuslaus Duke of Bohemia Odoacer Marquis of Stiria and Bernard Earl of Carinthia did the same not long after and assembled a great Number of their Subjects disposing themselves to attend the March of the Emperor in the beginning of the Spring During which time St. Bernard after having Constrained the Impostor Radulph to retire to his Monastery and preached the Crusade in the Low Countries returned back to the King who had assembled at Estampes the Estates of his Realm in February upon Septuagesima Sunday there to conclude what was necessary to be done before he undertook the Voyage This Assembly sat but three days in the first of which he gave them an Account of the Progress he had made in Germany and the Generous Resolution of the Emperor and Princes of the Empire who had undertaken to joyn with the French in this Enterprize for the Holy Land This was received with so much Joy and so great Applause that nothing further could be done that day the next day the way by which they should march into Syria came under Debate where the Ambassadors of Roger King of Sicily who were too well acquainted with the Malice and Persidiousness of the Greeks and the irreconcilable Hatred which they had against the Franks did all that possibly they could to perswade them to take the Sea Passage as did the Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans offering them their Ports and shipping for the Commodious transporting of the Army But on the one
of Almada Sintria Palmela and a great many other Places After which it being now too late to pursue their Voyage into Palestine the greatest part of these generous Crusades highly Satisfied with the punctual Fidelity of the King who offered them one half of Lisbon nobly refused it and contenting themselves with the rich Presents which the King was pleased to make them Returned loaden with those and Glory into their respective Countries some of the most remarkable of the Captains being willing to remain in the Service of a King so Valiant and Liberal setled in Portugal and there Founded those illustrious Houses which to this very time hold the first rank of Nobility in that Kingdom See now what happy Success befel the smallest of the three Armies of this second Crusade whilest the other two incomparably the greater in Number but incomparably the less Successful disposed themselves to put in Execution their Enterprise by Land For in the same time that the Naval Army made Sail upon the Ocean the young King Lewis began to March with his by Land The Earl of Morienne and the Marquis de Monferat his two Uncles by the Mother joyned him at Mets with many brave Italian Troops he received also a Reinforcement of Troops which were raised in Lorrain by the Bishops of Metz and Toul by Renand Earl of Monson Brother to the Bishop of Metz and by Hugh Earl of Vaudemont So that this Army Royal was as strong in Cavalry and much better Mounted and Armed and not much inferior in Infantry to the Imperial Army which taking the same Way it Marched to joyn in Thracia But it was Difficult for one single Province to contain such a prodigious Multitude of Valiant Soldiers which might easily have Triumphed over the whole East if they had been sufficiently Precautioned as they ought against the most dangerous Enemy which they had to Encounter which was the Greek Emperor whom they took to be their Friend This Emperor was Manuel the Son of Calo Johannes and Grandchild of Alexis Comnenius who hath rendred his Name so Infamously Odious by his Persidiousness towards the Princes of the first Crusade and who notwithstanding never Arrived near the height of that horrible Baseness and Wickedness of this his Grandson of whom I speak He was a Prince in whom both his Good and his Evil Qualities were so Interwoven that in the beginning of his Reign made it doubtful whether he did not deserve the Empire of which his Father had Disinherited his Elder Brother to bestow it upon him For besides that the Lustre of some Virtues which he had seemed very well to Conceal his Vices He was in Person very well made tall but stooping a little his Face was very Pleasing his Colour Lively his Eyes Sweet and Winning accompanied with a certain Smile very natural to him and Charming to those who had the Honor to Approach him he had Spirit a natural Eloquence and a great deal of Knowledge he was besides Politick and Prudent above his Age year 1147 which was yet but in the Flower of his Youth and nevertheless Brave Fearless Hardy Daring and ready in the Execution of what he undertook never considering when he saw an Enemy whether he should give Battle or not and one who not only Loved War but supported the greatest Toils and Hardships of it with as much Pleasure as the meanest Soldier of Fortune But all these good Qualities were corrupted by his Wickedness which far surpassed them For in the time of Peace never was there any Prince more Dissolute than he in all manner of Debauches without taking the least Care in the World to preserve his Reputation by concealing his Vices for he Lived in most scandalous Incest with the Princess Theodora his Niece with as little Precaution as if she had been his Wife Besides he was cruelly Covetous rapaciously taking what he pleased and fottishly Prodigal lavishing all even the Mony with which he was to pay his Soldiers and maintain his Navies giving away his Treasures without Discretion and without Measure to his Niece to the Eunuchs and to Strangers who flattered him in his Brutal Passions He was after all this infinitely Jealous and outrageously Cruel where he suspected Superstitious even to Folly especially in Judicial Astrology believing in every thing the false Oracles of his Figure-Flingers who Abused him to his very Death promising him a little before it fourteen Years of a most delicious and pleasant Life but that which is infinitely more Dangerous he was Rash and Presumptuous in the matter of Religion insomuch that he commanded by an Edict that a place of Scripture should be Explained in his Sense which clearly gave it for the Heresy of Arius at another time he put out a Decree which openly favoured the false Law of the Impostor Mahomet But in short that of his devilish Qualities which was most eminent in him was his Persidiousness which made him commit the blackest and most horrid Crimes upon the Occasion of this second Crusade which have rendred his Memory eternally Execrable to the whole Earth He received at the first the Ambassadors of Conrade indifferently well they coming from his Brother-in-Law for these two Emperors had married two Sisters the Daughters of old Berengarius Earl of Luxemburgh and Sultzbach He also sent some Troops to meet the Emperor not so much out of Respect or Honor but to observe his Motion during the remainder of his March to Constantinople where at his Arrival he was but very coldly Received either because Manuel could not without some Displeasure see a Prince who took upon him that Quality which the Greeks pretend appertained only to their Emperor or that he feared that the Germans who had had great Differences upon the March with the Greeks should indeavour to Revenge themselves or rather that he was resolved to Execute what he had plotted against them as soon as he could possibly In short he did so violently press their Departure that without giving them the Liberty almost of taking Breath the Army was constrained to pass the Strait upon the Vessels which he had ready to waft them over into Asia where this perfidious Emperor had long before disposed all things for the ruine of this Army For so soon as he understood that great Preparations were making in the West for this second Crusade he secretly gave Advise to Mamut the Nephew of Soliman the Sultan of Iconium who Reigned in Lycaonia Cappadocia and Galatia and pressed him vigorously to take up Arms against this Army of the Crusades which he was like to have upon his Hands Whereupon the Sultan immediately sent to all the Princes of his Nation to come for their common Interest with all the Forces they could raise to Succour him against the Christians which they did before one could well think it possible sending him a most formidable Army composed of an infinite number of Turks of the two Armenia's Cappadocia Isauria Cilicia Persia and Media
Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Reign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadors with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to Elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The Reasons on one side and the other The best Opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which Recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who Enters Galilee and Besieges Tiberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tiberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land year 1148 AFTER so fair a Victory the Greeks who could by no means indure the Glory and the Advantages of the French began more openly to declare themselves against them than before for now they plainly joyned with the Turks to whom they afforded not only a Retreat to Antioch in Pisidia but gave them also the Opportunity with Ease to Assemble and Re-unite their scattered Troops Whilest in the mean time the King was in great Straits for Subsistence and finding himself in no Condition to Attaque them in so strong a Place drew towards Laodicea a large City but not so well Fortified as to be in a Condition to Resist him and there he hoped to meet with some Refreshment for his Army He arrived there three or four days after the Battle but to his great Disappointment he found by the Baseness of him that Commanded there for the Emperor that there was no manner of Provision for the Army It was this wicked Villain who pretending to Convoy a party of the poor Germans who had saved themselves after their Defeat lead them into an Ambuscade of Turks who put them all to the Sword and with whom as it was before Agreed he divided their Spoil This Infamous Traitor fearing it seems that the French would be Revenged of him for his Treachery or else that imagining he should not be able to Betray them in the same manner he was resolved to do them a greater Mischief after having caused all the Inhabitants to Retire with their Goods and Provisions to the Woods and Mountains went himself to seek a Refuge among the Turks so that the King was obliged to stay there till those Fugitives could be found and perswaded to return year 1148 after which loading their Waggons and Sumpters with Provisions which the King who was for rendring Good for Evil would have them paid for the Army decamped and took the way of Pamphilia that so they might by Marching near the Sea have a more commodious Passage and meet with better Plenty of Forrage and Subsistence And tho they knew that both the Greeks and the Turks Coasted along with them tho at a great Distance yet they were esteemed such contemptible Enemies and the French were so Confident after the Victory they had gained that there was too little care taken to stand upon their Guard But this Presumption as it usually happens did not fail to be very Pernicious to this Army which was unfortunately beaten by the Turks by the Fault of one Man who neglected to observe the Orders which were wisely Established by Military Discipline the Army following the Custom of those Times was divided only into two Bodies one of which composed the Vanguard and the other the Rereguard To avoid Jealousies these two Bodies were every day Commanded by two of the Principal Lords who under the King took their several Turns the King sometimes Marching with one sometimes with the other Every Night they Assembled in Councel at which all the Lords Assisted where Orders were issued out concerning the Way of the next days March and the Place where the Army was to Encamp Now there happened to be in the Way which they must of necessity pass a mighty high Mountain extream difficult of Access by reason of the dangerous Narrowness and broken Craggs and Rocks where the Army must file off The King therefore following the Resolution which had been taken at the Councel gave Order that they should Encamp on the Top of the Mountain and that they should pass the Night there and the next Morning descend into the Plain in order of Battle He who led the Vanguard that Day was Geoffry Rancon of Poitiers Lord of Taillebourg who carried the Royal Standard according to the Custom next the Orislame at the Head of this Vanguard The Count de Morienne the King's Uncle with the Queen and all the Ladies of Quality were there also by very good Fortune going before that so they might come in better time to the Place where they were to Incamp The King who usually chose the Place where there was most Danger had put himself into the Rere that so he might make Head against the Enemies if they should attempt to Follow or Molest him as they had done at the Battle of Meander Geoffry Arrived at the Mountain in very good time and seeing the Sun yet of a great height and his Guides telling him that if he did but make a little the more Hast he might Incamp far more Commodiously in one of the fairest Plains of all Asia where he should meet with all sorts of Refreshments for the Army forgetting therefore the Orders of the King with extream Rashness he descended from the Mountain and Marched a great way to that agreeable Place which had been shewed him supposing that the Arrierguard not finding him upon the Mountain would certainly follow him But he took very false Measures and in deceiving himself in this manner occasioned the Loss of the other part of the Army which was more miserably deceived by him For the very same Reason which made him March forward from the Mountain to gain the Valley made the others also seeing the Sun so high to make no hast to get to the Mountain where they doubted not but to find him Encamped according to the King's Orders By this means the Turks who Coasted all
once most gloriously vanquished him But at length the Wise Conduct and the good Fortune of this Turkish Prince overcame all the Attempts that were made to stop the Course of his Victorious Arms. He pushed on his great Designs afterwards with more Ease by the Taking of Paneas after the deplorable Death of this unfortunate King who was poysoned by his Physician and died in the two and thirtieth Year of his Life year 1163 and the one and twentieth of his Reign year 1163 He was a Prince who by his admirable Qualities had gained so great an Esteem and the Hearts not only of his Subjects but of Noradin himself Insomuch that the generous Sultan openly protested that he would never draw any Advantage from the Grief and Consternation into which his unexpected Death had put the Kingdom saying with as much magnanimity of Soul as Modesty That he thought it decent to have a Share himself in the Grief and Respect which was due to that Prince who ought by all Men to be Lamented as having not left another like himself in the whole Earth Baldwin dying without Issue his Brother Amauri Succeeded him a young Prince of about twenty seven Years of Age who with a great many admirable Qualities had also a great number of no less Vices and above all his Avarice was the most Predominant and which after he had with Success enough made War against Egypt in the Beginning in the Conclusion occasioned the Loss of Jerusalem and the intire Ruine of the Christians in the East Egypt had for a long time been under the Dominion of the Sarasins of the Sect of Ali and the Soveraign Monarch was called the Caliph who led an easy and voluptuous Life in his magnificent Palace of Grand Cairo leaving the Administration of his Affairs to one who under his Authority Commanded all his Subjects and was called the Sultan of Egypt He who had been Sultan was one Sanar and he being thrown out by his Rival Dorgan went to implore the Assistance of Noradin then the most Powerful among the Turks who besides that he Possessed all Syria and Mesopotamia had also extended his Conquests even into Cilicia as far as Iconium having vanquished that Sultan in Battle Now this Conquering Prince who believed that Fortune pleased with his Ambition presented him a fair Offer to Seise also upon Egypt failed not to send a great Army under his General Syracon a little Man but a great Captain whose Merit and the Justice of his Master notwithstanding the lowness of his Birth had from a Slave advanced to the greatest Charge in his Kingdom Dorgan who perceived the Tempest coming that he might get Shelter had Recourse to the young King who dazled with the Promise of a great Tribute Marched into Egypt with all the Troops he could raise but something with the latest for Dorgan who after he had had the better of his Enemies was unfortunately slain by a Traitor leaving his Place to his Rival Sanar who instantly went to take Possession of it at Grand Cairo In the mean time the dextrous Syracon who was resolved to make his Advantage of this Alteration Seised upon Pelusium now called Belbeis fully Resolving if it were possible to make himself Master of all Egypt But Sanar inlarging the Promises which Dorgan had made to King Amauri was so Iucky as to gain him to his Party and joyning their Forces against Syracon who had not had time sufficiently to Fortify Pelusium year 1164 they constrained him to Deliver up the Town upon honorable Terms and Liberty to Retire to Damascus year 1165 Nevertheless the next Year he returned with a more powerful Army and the King also re-entred Egypt and for a Sum of Mony undertook the War against Syracon The Success was much to his Advantage at that time also for Syracon was Defeated in a great Battle and despairing to Defend Alexandria which he had taken year 1167 against the Arms of two Kings he was constrained a second time to come to an Accommodation and to quit the Realm of Egypt This did not however hinder but that at length he made himself Master of it by the Avarice and Infidelity of that same King whose Arms had twice with so much Glory chased him out of it For Amauri blinded with the ardent Desire which he had to possess the Treasures of Egypt after he had treated upon this Design with the Emperor Manuel whose Niece he had married contrary to his solemn Faith given broke the Peace which he had made with the Sultan year 1168 and upon the sudden taking Pelusium by Storm and giving the Plunder of it to his Soldiers he went and presented his Victorious Army before Grand Cairo which doubtless in the Consternation and Confusion wherein the Surprise had put the Egyptians must have fallen into his Hands if the same Avarice which made him undertake this unjust War had not also together with his Honor made him lose all the Profit of it For fearing if he took the Town by Force the Soldiers would have all the Booty as they had at Pelusium he thought it his wisest Course to treat of a Composition with the Sultan and he knowing the Covetous Disposition of the King year 1168 amused him so long with the pretence of gathering up for him two millions of Gold which he had promised him that the Army of Noradin which he expected had time to Arrive to his Succour conducted by the same Syracon who before had been his Enemy Amauri Surprized at this unexpected News marched imediately to give him Battle before he should joyn with the Egyptians But he found that this Captain as Politick as himself had wheeled off and taken another Way than he expected and was joyned with the Egyptians who now assembled from all Quarters against him And therefore finding that he had nothing to say to two such potent Enemies he was forced to return without the Money into his own Kingdom having lost his Labour his Honour and the yearly Tribute which the Egyptians paid him But it was quite otherwise with Syracon who by his Retreat finding himself in a Condition to Execute his first Design made Sanar be Assassinated as he came to do him the Honour of a Visit after which forcing the Caliph to Establish him in that Place he easily possessed himself of all Egypt where Noradin whose Creature he was willingly permitted him to Reign But it was not long that he rejoyced in his Crimes for he died the very same Year leaving for his Successor his Nephew the mighty Saladin who besides his Age which was pretty well advanced and the great Experience which under his Uncle he had gained in War possessed all the great Qualities and all the Accomplishments of Body and Mind which could be wished in a Captain to render him as they did the greatest and the most glorious Conqueror of his Age. But Ambition which especially among Infidels does think nothing Criminal that may advance their
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
an expert Soldier shewing more Tenderness and Goodness towards his Soldiers when he understood they were slain and in lamenting their Deaths than he used to shew to them whilst they were living He was wonderful kind to the Church-men and above all to the Bishops whom he always loved to have about him but yet not concerning himself much with their Franchises and Privileges to which he had but very little regard He was a passionate Lover of his Children but he was ever raising Differences among them one with another to prevent their falling into Quarrels with himself but this proved an unlucky Project to him and at last was the occasion that they all joyned together against him He was magnanimous and generous in his Enterprises but withal so haughtily ambitious that he was used to say that the whole Earth was not sufficient to satiate the Desires of a King like him He was equally constant in his Love and Hate which he did not easily change a great Patron of Widows Orphans of poor distressed People who were without Support of whom he took great care above all he was kind to such as had the Misfortune to be Shipwrack'd upon the English Coasts year 1189 abolishing that barbarous Custom which had long prevailed of despoiling such miscrable Persons of all that which they had saved from the Sea except their Lives which the Country People were used to call God's Goods He was a great Lover of the publick Peace and Tranquility which he maintained in his Dominion by the rigorous Justice which he caused to be dispensed to such notorious Malefactors as were found Disturbers of them so that he cleared his Estates of Thieves Robbers and Murderers He was pious and fearing God but very shy and reserved to the Church-men after the publick Penance which he did for the Death of Becket But all these Vertues which cannot without Injustice be suppressed were dishonoured by his great Vices and principally by his Impudicity and Avarice which prevailed so upon him that besides the Exactions which were very great which he imposed upon his People he ever protected the Jews dissembling his Knowledge of their Insolencies against the Christians because of the great Gain which these faithless Usurers made whereof he had a Share He would also suffer long Vacancies in the Bishopricks to the end he might enjoy their Revenues giving a very slender Reason in Excuse That it was much better for him to employ that Money for the Service of the Realm than that it should be spent in the Prodigalities of proud and pompous Trains Pleasures and Delicacies as the Bishops wasted it after the manner of the wicked World and in a way far different from the Temperance and Vertue of their Predecessors of the ancient Church But in talking at this rate he condemned himself excusing one fault by committing another far greater than that which he reproached for he usually bestowed the Revenues upon such a sort of People as by the notorious scandalous way of their living even in his own Judgment rendred themselves unworthy of them Whereas he ought rather to have taken care that those great Revenues should have been expended according to the Rules of the Church by the Nomination of good Subjects and worthy Men to those high and great Preferments And indeed he did in a great measure towards the end of his Life and Reign make a Reparation for this Errour which occasioned him much Trouble and raised many uneasie Scruples in his Soul for he nominated to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury Baldwin a Cistertian Monk a most excellent Man and to the See of Lincoln he preferred St. Hugh the Chartreux the Person of all the Prelates of his time who took the holy Liberty to represent their Failings to the Kings his Contemporaries by that marvellous Authority which by the Sanctity of his Life he had so deservedly acquired In short The great Medly of Vertues and of Vices in this King were also accompanied with that of his good and evil Fortune but with this remarkable difference that his happy State lasted thirty Years wherein he flourished in all Earthly Glory and Felicity whereas he was persecuted by his ill Destiny but for the last five Years of his Life and that too was occasioned by his invincible Wilfulness in refusing Peace upon such just and honourable Conditions as were tendred Whereby he brought upon himself that War which for two Years retarded the Effect of the Crusade in France and England so that it was begun by the Germans alone with abundance of Zeal and Courage For presently after the Conference in the Field of Gisors where the two Kings took upon them the Cross Henry Cardinal d' Albano the Pope's Legate and William Archbishop of Tyre passed into Germany to persuade the Emperor to undertake the Holy War The Emperor then reigning was the famous Frederick the first of that Name formerly Duke of Suabia who after having so gloriously assisted his Uncle Conrade in the second Crusade succeeded him in the Imperial Throne which he possessed for six and thirty Years with much Glory and Prosperity leaving throughout all Germany Poland and Italy the illustrious Marks of the greatness of his Courage his Mind his Vertues and his admirable Actions And were it possible to obliterate the deadly Remembrance of the Schism which by an unhappy Engagement he made in the Church and which he so long supported with his Arms year 1189 it might with great Justice be affirmed that his Reign ought to be esteemed as the greatest of any Prince that ever the Empire had since the Death of the celebrated Charlemain He was then about sixty and eight Years of Age of a Port extremely Majestick a Stature somewhat surpassing the middle but of a Proportion in all the Parts of his Body regular and Exact and from which his Age which did him no other Injury but to render him Venerable had not taken much of that natural Force which he had in so great a Measure and which was accompanied with an admirable Agility in all manner of Exercises The turn of his Face was very fine and the Lines delicate considering his Age his Cheeks were plump his Eye-brows large his Eyes very sweet and yet lively and piercing his Speech agreeable his Mouth smiling and his Air so engaging that to whomsoever he did the Honour but once to speak they found it impossible to defend themselves from his Charmes and he always left the Image of Majesty so deeply imprinted and graven in their Memories that it was impossible to efface it from the Mind or to prevent its being continually present to their Remembrance his Hair by reason of the Change which so many Years had brought upon it was perfect white which still seemed to add something more Venerable to his Majesty though the Natural Colour of it had been red from whence he came to acquire the Name of Barbarousse or Red beard a Name which his fair and glorious
watered by the River Cydnus This River ariseth out of Mount Taurus in the Coast of Cappadocia from whence entring into Cilicia by one of these Valleys which are formed by these Mountains it rowls its gentle Streams extream clear and fresh upon its murmuring Bed of clean Gravel and Pebbles and is not very spacious tiil year 1190 having passed through the famous City of Tharsus it dischargeth it self into the Ocean History hath made this River famous by the extream danger which Alexander there run of losing his Life whilst in the Heat of Summer being all on fire with the violence of the burning Season he would needs bath himself in these too cool Streams of Cydnus being then upon his March against Darius But an Accident more deplorable which here happened to the Emperor Frederick by the very same way ought for ever to render the Memory of that fatal River odious For the very same day which was a Sunday the Eve of St. Barnabas this great Prince after having dined upon the Bank of that River which he had just passed seeing the Water which to him seemed very delightful and not able to support the intollerable Heat of that Season of the Year without making use of that Remedy which was so easie and which he naturally loved would needs bath himself in those cool and refreshing Streams notwithstanding all that was alledged to divert him from it but he was no sooner in the River into the middle of which he threw himself but that the excessive Coldness of the Water seized him in a moment and penetrating his Pores which by reason of the extream Heat were so open combated his natural Heat and Spirits with so much Violence that in a Swound he sunk down to the bottom of the Water He was however taken up alive and so soon as he began to return to his Memory perceiving his death approaching he gave Thanks unto Almighty God who did him the favour to call him in his Pilgrimage and in the Performance of his Vow and recommending his Soul into his Hands and offering his Life in Sacrifice for the Remission of his Sins he presently expired I know that many Writers report the matter otherwise and say that his Horse foundring in the Passage of the River his Foot hung in the Stirrup and so he was drowned as he was passing into Armenia over the River Salef but as the most ancient Historians his Contemporaries and some of them who were present positively some of them affirm it was the River Cydnus And others of them say it was a River near Tarsus in which he was drowned swimming after Dinner and that one of them informs us that he died not till the Evening In my Opinion there is not the least place left for deliberation which of them we ought to believe especially considering that it is very easie to reconcile these Historical Differences by what was before observed that it was then very customary to confound Armenia with Cilicia and that the River Salef is the same Cydnus as the Annalist Roger gives us to understand by the Description which he makes of those Countries Thus died one of the greatest Princes that ever silled the Throne of the Caesars Frederick the First in the seventieth Year of his Age whilst he was marching to combat Saladin for the Re-Conquest of the Realm of Jerusalem to which important Design he had levelled the Way by all those Victories which he had so gloriously gained against the Greek Emperor and the Sultan of Iconium the Allies of Saladin The sole Renown of the Actions of this invincible Prince struck that famous Conqueror with so great a fear that upon the very Rumour and Noise of his Coming despairing to be able to maintain them against him he caused the Walls of Laodicea in Syria of Giblet Tortosa Biblis Berytus and Sydon to be demolished and had thoughts himself of retiring into Egypt that he might not be obliged to hazard his Fortune against that of an Enemy so successful and formidable He was happy in finishing a Life so illustrious in the Course of his Victories and before giddy Fortune who never loves to court one Favourite long had begun to forsake him but much more happy in a Death so full of Glory and of Deserts before God and Men since he died in the generous Pursuit of his great Design in quitting his own Empire to re-establish that of Jesus Christ in that mysterious Spot of Ground where he was pleased to work by his Life and by his Death the great Wonder of our Salvation For thus it is that we ought charitably to judge of the Death of this Prince by those things which we know of him and not according to the rash medling Humour of some who will needs pretend to enter into the incomprehensible Judgments of God who have had the Confidence to attribute his Death to the Divine Vengeance as a Punishment for the War which he made against the Holy See year 1190 Great Presumption of Humane Nature which under the pretext of Religion and Piety dares so audaciously undertake to regulate the Decrees of Heaven and by a Judgment which in its own nature is extreamly criminal to pre-judge that which Jesus Christ himself only hath the Authority of giving and which must be kept secret until the last Day So soon as the general Consternation or rather the extream Despair in which the Army was by reason of this deplorable Accident was a little over the Princes and General Officers being assembled by a common Consent acknowledged Frederick Duke of Suabia for their General the Emperor his Father at his death having recommended the Care of the Army to him and left it under his Command It was with as much Joy as was possibly to be expected in such a deep Affliction that the Army took the Oath of Fealty to him whom they acknowledged as the true Heir and the living Image of all the great Qualities and Vertues of his Father And this Prince who in reallity possessed them in a degree very nearly approaching the Perfections of that admirable Emperor made it appear quickly that he was his true Successor by his Liberality in bestowing great Largesses upon the Soldiers to whom he divided the greatest part of the Treasure which fell to his Father's share at the taking of Iconium After he had therefore divided the Army into two parts the lesser number imbarked on the Vessels which the Armenians who then held divers places in Cilicia furnished him withal and himself with the greater Party after having interred the Emperor's Entrails and embalmed the Body of his Father at Tarsus took his way by Land towards Antioch where he did not arrive till after a tedious March of six Weeks wherein he suffered extreamly both by the defect of Provisions and by the continual Ambushes of the Turks But the Abundance which he found in this great City where he was most magnificently received was more fatal to
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
by which the Army must certainly have perished if the Marquis had not taken Care from time to time to supply them abundantly with his Fleet. This absolutely gained him all the Commanders and the Souldiers who took his Part against Guy de Lusignan who now had nothing left but the vain Shadow of Royal Majesty without the least Substance of Power or Authority Thus the Army being extremely diminished did nothing now but act upon the Defensive in their Retrenchments opposing the Assaults of Saladin on the one side and the Sallies of the Besieged on the other till the Arrival of the two Kings whose Voyage and Actions it is now time for me after having given myself and the Reader a moments Breath to recount unto him THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART II. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The beginning of the Reign of Richard Caeur-de-Lion King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelaï between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An Adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accommodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Discription of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A Calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jassa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and imprisoned His Deliverance the Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new Division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives Occasion to a fourth Crusade year 1190 T The Crusade which had been so solemly sworn in the Holy Field and which the War that was kindled between the two Kings had so long time retarded had at length its Effect by the perfect Understanding which for some time there was between Philip the August and Richard sirnamed Caeur-de-Lion at the beginning of the Reign of this new King For so soon as he had received the Sword as Duke of Normandy at our Ladies Church in Roan and the Crown of England at Westminster with the general Applause of all his Subjects who saw that he took quite differing Courses from his Father who was not at all beloved he had no other Thoughts but of making Preparations for the Holy War Above all things he applied himself to the procuring a good Treasury of Gold and Silver but not by charging the People with the rigorous Exaction of Saladins Tenth as did his Father who when he had received it made use of it in the War between the two Crowns For this purpose he took the way of selling all the Dignities which he could all Offices and the Lands of his Demesnes at a very low rate thereby to intice the Avarice or the Ambition of unwary Purchasers who easily suffered themselves to be imposed upon with those cheap Bargains not foreseeing that he had Design of Reassumption after his Return as he did without any other Reimbursment than by allowing upon the Foot of the Account what they made over and above their Charges of the Demesnes during the time that they injoyed them But he dissembled the matter so well and on one side seemed so truly to have a design to sell all that he could and on the other shewed so many Marks of a ruined Constitution which both his constant Fatigues of War and his Debauches gained an easy Credit to that the Purchasers without any Difficulty suffered themselves to be perswaded that he would never return and that he had no other Prospect than of the present as not having any hopes of living long And for these Reasons it was that very many straitned themselves to lay hold of this occasion of Profit whereby he drew from them vast Summs turning every thing into Money even to protesting to those who were astonished at his Proceedings that if he could find a Chapman who was able to buy of him the City of London he should make no Difficulty to sell it to him But he drew the greatest Advantages from diverse Prelates of his Realm that were extraordinary Rich from whom he drew all the Money that they had by selling to them temporal Dignities which they were mighty glad to add to their Bishopricks or their Abbies It was by this Stratagem that he drew into the Net the Bishop of Durham year 1190 an old Man equally Covetous and Ambitious by persuading him to purchase the Earldom of that Province which he would unite to his Bishoprick For that Prelate who was ready to die with the Desire which he had to be Earl of Northumberland gave him for that Title all the Riches which he had for a long time been hoarding up out of the Revenue of his Bishoprick as well as those other less honest Markets which he had made And to this he threw in also all the Money which he had reserved purposely to defray his Expences in the Voyage which he had undertaken to make to Jerusalem thereby renouncing his Vow his Conscience and his Honour that so he might become great in this World out of which his old Age was even now ready to chase him which made the King very pleasantly to say when he had gotten all his Money That he was about to work a kind of Miracle and to make a young Earl out of an old Bishop He also seized upon all the Estate of
taken considering the mighty Earnestness which so many brave Men shewed so fresh and so resolute if King Philip who always acted with great sincerity had not been something too scrupulous upon this Occasion even to the disadvantage of the publick Interest For whereas one of the Articles of the Treaty which he had made with the King of England imported that they should equally share their Conquests he understood this Article to extend even to Glory and was resolved that Richard should share it with him in the Taking of the Town which he was in a Condition to take without him And therefore contenting himself with lodging at the Foot of the Wall he resolved to put off the Assault till his Arrival And in truth that Prince was resolved to put to Sea immediately after Philip but he was constrained to defer it some time by reason that Queen Eleonor his Mother who brought along with her the Princess Berengera arrived the same day that Philip sailed He caused these two Princesses to be magnificently received at Messina where he affianced this new Mistriss after which Queen Eleonor returning for England taking with her Jane his Sister and the Princess Berengera he commanded part of his Fleet to attend them and himself with the rest darted at last upon Wednesday in Passion-Week from Messina eighteen days after King Philip the August It is true the Sea was not at all propitious to him for upon Good-Friday he was met by a most furious Tempest but having till this time been ever mighty fortunate he drew a great Advantage from this Accident and the Tempest which scattered his Navy was worth to him the Conquest of the Island of Cyprus The manner whereof I will in short recount The Island of Cyprus one of the fairest and greatest of the Mediterranean Sea lying about some hundred Miles from Syria was at that time under the Dominion of the Emperors of Constantinople who sent thither some Duke or Lieutenant to be their Deputy-Governor Isaac a Prince of the House of the Comnenius's by his Mother who was Daughter of another Isaac Brother to the Emperor Manuel had seized upon that Government during the Empire of Andronicus by virtue of Letters Patents from that Emperor which this Cheat had counterfeited and not long after he very openly usurped the absolute Dominion of the Place by taking upon him the Title and Authoritâ— of Emperor After the Death of the unfortunate Andronicus he maintained himself in his Usurpation year 1191 against all the Forces of Isaacius Angelus whom he defeated with the Assistance of Margeritus Admiral of the Fleet of William King of Sicily After which as this Tyrant who was one of the most wicked of Mankind saw himself assured in his new Empire according to the custom and nature of Tyranny which is indifferently to commit all manner of Crimes to enjoy the first which is committed by revolting from a lawful Master there was no manner of Wickedness Injustice Robbery Extortion Violence or Cruelty which he did not exercise upon the poor Islanders whom he reduced even to the utmost Dispair Nor had he much more Humanity towards Strangers for three great Ships of the English Fleet which by the Violence of the Tempest had been thrown upon the Island and stranded in the View of Limisso anciently called Amathus upon the South side of the Island this Barbarian who presently run with his Soldiers to the Bank caused all those who escaped the Wrack to be taken and after having inhumanely despoiled them of all they had about them and in their Ships he caused them to be bound Hand and Foot and thrown into a deep Dungeon there miserably to perish by Famine Nor would he permit the great Ship on Board of which were the two Princesses and which was in manifest danger of being lost to come within the Port of Limisso as they had earnestly desired Permission of him to do but would have them ride it out exposed to the Mercy of the Seas and the Waves that so he might have the brutish and cruel Pleasure either to see them sink to the Bottom or split against the Rocks In this time the Tempest being appeased Richard who had taken Port at Candia and from thence had sailed to the Rhodes where he re-assembled his Ships and hearing of the ill Treatment which some of his Ships had met with in the Island of Cyprus he came and presented himself with the rest of his Navy in good Order before Limisso the 6th Day of May and immediately sent to the Tyrant to demand Satisfaction for the Affront had been done him with a peremptory Command to him instantly to set such of the English at Liberty as he had made Prisoners and to make full Restitution of whatever he had taken from them The furious Brute fiercely replied to the Envoys of the King That they should go tell their Master that he was so far from giving him the Satisfaction he foolishly demanded that if he did not make the more haste and take the advantage of his Sails and Oars he must expect the same Treatment for himself And thereupon he marched directly to the Shoar with all the Troops which he kept in Pay and a multitude of confused undisciplined People ill armed and worse ordered who ran down in hopes of Booty and not in expectation of Blows But he was mightily mistaken in the Man with whom he was to deal for Richard furiously exasperated by his Answer gave present Order that all his Army should make a Descent by the help of the Barks and Chaloups and putting himself into the first Row of the Barks at the Head of his Archers he rained such a Storm of mortal Arrows as he rowed to the Shoar upon the Heads of his affrighted Enemies that under the favour of that Consternation he leaped first ashoar and was followed so courageously by his Men who sound none to oppose their Descent that they charged so briskly upon these Barbarians with their Swords in their Hands and fell into the Battalions of these cowardly and disorderly Greeks they presently put them into Confusion and in a few Minutes to a manifest Flight and in the Pursuit made a dreadful Slaughter among them till they got to the Mountains where they saved themselves Then returning the victorious Army entred Limisso without Resistance the Soldiers who were to have kept it having for fear abandoned the place This happy Beginning was presently succeeded by a Conclusion no less fortunate for the Night following he surprized Isaac who having rallied his People came to encamp within five Miles of Limisso and having cut the best part of his Troops in pieces dissipated the rest and taken all his Baggage So that this miserable Wretch abandoned of the Cypriots who the next day after the Victory came to do Homage to King Richard was constrained in most humble manner to beg a Peace which he obtained upon Conditions hard enough and sufficiently ignominious
strictly united with them during this Crusade So soon as the Armies came within View which was about Noon the Combat was not long deferred For James d' Avesnes who was one of the bravest and most prudent Captains of his Age charged so furiously upon the first Squadrons of the Enemies who were posted on this side the River that he broak into them twice overturning and killing all that opposed his Passage But being transported with the heat of his Courage as he returned to the third Charge followed but by a few in comparison of that fearful Number of those who succeeded in the place of the broaken Squadrons he received a terrible Blow with a Scymiter which cut off his Leg notwithstanding which he sustained himself by the force of his invincible Courage and failed not still to fight and to Slay on the right and the left all such as durst venture within the reach of his dreadful Sword till at last that also with the Sword fell by another unfortunate Blow of the Scymiter whereupon those cowardly Infidels fell upon him and by a thousand Wounds gave him a glorious Death after he had opened the Way to Victory by that Carnage which he had made of the most daring of the Sarasins and by the Flight of the more Cowardly For Richard who sustained him and who heard him a moment before his Death cry out aloud Brave King come and revenge my Death all in Fury at his Fall entred at the Breach which this illustrious Deceased had made and fell in like a Thunderclap among the thickest of the Enemies where the Flemings mad even to dispair to have lost their General already made a dreadful Slaughter among them that unable to stand the dreadful Shock they turned their Backs and sled amain towards the Mountains to save themselves So that the Bank being on this side cleared of the Enemies this valiant Prince without giving the couragious English leave to cool one Moment threw himself into the River which at this time was but very low and drawing by his Example all his Battail after him and the Vanguard who now had no other General year 1191 he advanced towards that great Body of Sarasins who pretended to defend the other Bank This he did with so much Resolution that they had not the Considence to expect him but instantly dispersed themselves and sled the King not offering to put himself to the trouble to pursue them so that finding himself Master of both the Banks of the River where no Enemy appeared he believed he was in perfect Possession of a compleat Victory when he found himself mistaken and perceived at a great Distance on the other side of the River a prodigious Cloud of Dust mingled with Darts and Arrows which might be seen sly from all Quarters as also one might hear a confused noise of the Instruments of War the cryes of Men and the neighing of Horses This was occasioned by the greatest part of the Army of the Sarasins commanded by Saladin himself who descending from the Mountains into the Plain had surrounded the Arrere-guard which he believed was at too great a distance to be secured by the main Battle For Saladin who was a great Captain had cut them off so much to his Advantage and had them so in the plain Field that he promised himself an assured Victory and doubted not but he should certainly either cut them in pieces or force them to surrender at Descretion But he quickly found that he had to do with People who were Masters in the Trade of War who having without any Confusion ranged themselves into four Battalions sustained on the right and left by what Cavalry they had formed the Face of a Battle every way and with little Loss sustained all the Efforts of the Sarasins who believed themselves already Conquerours till such time as Richard advertised of the Danger of these gallant Men quickly repassing the River came running at full Speed to their Assistance Then it was that for some time the Combat began to be more surious and bloody than it was before the two Kings by their Voice and Gesture but much more by their Example animating their Souldiers to aspire to Victory For after having done all that could be expected from two of the most able Captains in the World Providing against all Events giving out necessary Orders and themselves in the Charge giving the the first Blows it happened that in the Rencounter knowing each other by those Marks which distinguished them from the rest they both hit upon the same thought and each of them believing he had sound an Enemy worthy of himself and whom with honour he might combat both as a Souldier and a King they both believed that the general Victory would depend upon their particular Encounter and that he whom Fortune should declare her Favourite would not fail of having the Glory of singly obtaining the Victory So both of them at the same time charging his Arm with a strong Lance they furiously ran one against the other and being both of them most Stout and Valiant Men admirably mounted and animated with an ardent desire of Glory wherein Hatred had the least Share the Shock was extreme Rude and Violent their Lances flew into a thousand Splinters and Richard was something disordered with the mighty Blow which he received but he had managed his Lance with so much Adress and Force that he overthrew both Horse and Man upon the Ground This raised a mighty Shout from both the Armies as if Saladin had been slain and the Sarasins came tumbling in Shoals about him so thick either to relieve him if alive or to carry him off if he were dead that Richard who was approaching with his Sword advanced to finish his Victory was constrained to let it fall upon less considerable Enemies of whom he made a most horrible Slaughter for their interposing betwixt him and Glory Saladin the goodness of whose Armes had saved his Life sorely bruised in Body and tormented with the Shame of his Fall being mounted upon a fresh Horse did by his speedy Flight prevent a worse Destiny and left the Christians in possession of a cheap and perfect Victory For seeing that a great part of his Men frightned by the Belief they had that he was slain had already found their Heels and that the rest being altogether in Confusion and Disorder retreated before the Enemy he thought now no longer of any thing but how to save himself and after him the whole Army thought it no Disgrace to make the best hast they could from Death and Danger which followed them closely at the Heels Thus the Christian Army remained Victorious on all sides year 1191 and with so great a loss of the Enemies that what in the Battle and what in the Pursuit above fourscore thousand of them were slain and among them thirty two Emirs were found among the Dead on the Field of the Battle so great a Victory cost
upon which he embarked the two Queens with the greatest part of his Forces who not long after happily arrived in England And about the beginning of October he also departed with the Displeasure of having on one side concluded a Truce most inglorious and disadvantageous to the Christians and on the other with the Honour and Pleasure at his parting to have bestowed two Kingdoms that of Jerusalem which was a very piteous one but yet a Kingdom upon the Count de Champagne his Nephew and that of Cyprus which he had conquered upon Guy de Lusignan in which House it continued two hundred and eighty Years Thus it was that King Richard left the Holy Land with a Promise to these two Princes that upon the Expiration of the Truce he would return with more powerful Forces and to persuade the World that this Resolution of his was in serious Earnest he continued still to wear the Pilgrim's Cross upon his Habit. As for the rest his natural Impatience and Temerity made him commit two mighty Faults which rendred his Return very unfortunate For first Whereas he ought to have embarked himself like a great King upon a gallant Fleet that so he might return with Security and the same Magnificence with which he came he satisfied himself with one great Ship in which he might easily by Sea have fallen either into the hands of Enemies or Pyrates and after that when he was at Corsu perceiving that his Vessel was a Slug and made no Way he threw himself for the more Expedition into a Galliot and was by Tempest driven into the Gulph of Venice where he was shipwrack'd between that place and the City Aquilea and having run a thousand Dangers in crossing through Germany in Disguise year 1193 the greatest part of his Followers being taken Prisoners by the Germans who pursued him and laid all the Passages for him he was at last discovered near Vienna by the Subjects of the Duke of Austria his mortal Enemy who made him Prisoner and treated him with sufficient Inhumanity in Revenge of the old Quarrel before Acre and after some time he delivered him into the hands of the Emperor Henry VI. This Prince to cover his abominable Avarice which made him so unjustly detain this King only to draw a great Ransom from him made his publick Pretence that all this was to do Reason for what Richard had done to his Prejudice in Sicily and for the Assassinate of the Marquis of Montferrat and those other Crimes of which he had been accused in Palestine But Richard who was naturally cloquent in a full Diet before the Princes of the Empire at Spire made his Innocence so evidently appear that the whole Assembly was moved for him even to Tears and intreated the Emperor that for the future he might be treated like a King which the Emperor more out of Shame than Honour consented to Pope Celestin also sollicited by the Letters of Queen Eleonor which were all in the Style of Peter de Blois who writ them and by the Prayers and Intreaties of Gautier Archbishop of Roan and the Bishops of Normandy who upon this occasion manifested great Ardor and Affection for the Service of King Richard did all that he possibly could to obtain his Liberty He proceeded so far as to denounce the Anathema against the Duke of Austria for daring to make a Prisoner of a Pilgrim expresly contrary to an Article of the Crusade which denounces Excommunication against such as should attempt any thing either against the Persons or Estates of such as had taken upon them the Cross He also menaced the Emperor to interdict all his Dominions if he did not presently release this prince who came to employ his Blood and his Fortune against the Infidels and over whom he could pretend no sort of Right But this had very little Effect upon the Germans who for a long time had been accustomed to be in no pain for the Thunders of Rome For notwithstanding all these Menaces year 1194 poor Richard could not be set at Liberty till after above a Years Imprisonment he payed a hundred thousand Marks in Silver before his Releasment and left fifty Hostages among which was the Archbishop of Roan for the Payment of fifty thousand Marks more of which the Duke of Austria was to have twenty thousand and the third part of the hundred thousand already received by the Emperor So that to raise this Sum all England was taxed and even the Chalices and consecrated Vessels were forced to be melted down and coyned So far was this Prince who was falsly accused to have sold Palestine to Saladin from making any Advantage of the Crusade that it is most certain that in this Expedition he spent an immense Treasure to the great Impoverishment of himself and his whole Realm But as he had not made this Treaty but whilst he was under a Force and Violence therefore so soon as he was returned into England he sent his Ambassadors to the Pope to demand Justice from him He desired of him that since by virtue of the Protection of the Holy See it was promised to all the Crusade that their Persons and Estates should be free from Injuries during the whole time of their Pilgrimage that he would by all sorts of Canonical Ways compel the Emperor and the Duke of Austria to set at liberty his Hostages to restore the Money which they had so unjustly exacted from him and to make him Satisfaction for the cruel Injury which they had done him contrary to all the Laws both Humane and Divine Celestin who saw that the Treaty of the Crusade which was universally received and confirmed without Contradiction was manifestly infringed in this great Article could not refuse to do him Justice He therefore according to the Canons caused these two Princes to be three several times admonished to make Satisfaction in these Particulars and seeing that they persisted obstinately to deride his Threatnings he did anew denounce the Anathema of the Church first against Leopold and then against the Emperor with all the usual Solemnities The Duke hereupon became more obstinate and was so far transported as to threaten the Hostages which he had with Death But it was not long before all the World believed that those terrible Scourges with which the Duke was chastised and that deplorable Accident which befel him year 1193 were the evident Effects of the Anger and Justice of God Almighty who would punish his Obstinacy in this World that so he might find Mercy in the next And in truth besides that many of his Cities were destroyed either by Fire from Heaven or by the Waters of the Danubius which drowned the greatest part of his Country in which Plague and Famine made a horrible Ravage one Day when he had made a magnificent Entertainment at Gretz to celebrate his Birth-day his Horse falling upon him broke his Leg after which a Fire in such furious manner seized upon the Part that unable
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
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
proceedings he made a long Deduction in his Manifest how many and great Subjects he had of Complaint for the Injustices which he said were done him by Pope Innocent his Guardian during his Minority in seizing upon and usurping his Regalities and Rights and even by Honorius also whom he accused to have contrary to all Justice exacted many things of him which he was constrained to yield so much against his will that so he might receive from him the Imperial Crown which he could not in Justice have dispenced with himself in denying to place it upon the Head of an Emperour so lawfully Elected and who had two several times before been Crowned The Pope who was very prudent and of a temper very soft and sweet was resolved not to carry matters to Extremity and therefore he answered to these Complaints that he was a Father and that his Son though he were disobedient and undutiful yet was not therefore either a Stranger or an Enemy so long as there was any hope that he might return to his Duty He therefore satisfied himself to answer to the Complaints and Reproaches of Frederick with abundance of mildness in a long Letter which to speak properly was a Manifest or Apology for the Conduct of his Predecessors and his own year 1222 in reference to this Prince He exhorted him also by other Letters full of Tenderness and Reason seriously to recollect himself and to consider that as he was Emperor he was the Protector of the Church and that therefore he ought not to oppress her or take away her Liberties but to take pity of Christianity in the East which held up her suppliant hands to him from whom only she had hopes of being assisted But whether Frederick was moved by these Remonstrances of the Pope or whether he feared the dangerous consequences of this Rupture particularly in Lombardy where they began to form a great League against him it is certain that this procedure sweetned both Parties and that the Emperor satisfied the Pope taking all his Dominions into his Protection and that the Pope during all his Pontificate never proceeded further than these Menaces and Anathema's as may be seen plainly by the Letters of Honorius and that after this they both acted by Agreement for the Succour of the Holy Land in this following manner They had first a meeting at Veroli between the Cities of Anagnia and Sora where after a Consultation of five Dayes with the Cardinals they ordained that there should be another Conference to which were to be invited King John de Brienne the Legate Pelagius the Patriarch and the Great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who were better able than any others to give them such an understanding of these Affairs as might enable them to come to the last Resolution upon them After which the Emperor sent four Gallies to bring them over and upon their arrival this famous Conference was appointed to be held in Champagne in Italy the year following There it was that to ingage Frederick more strongly than ever to undertake this Holy War year 1223 it was agreed by common consent that this Prince who had in the preceeding year lost the Empress Constantia his Wife the Daughter of the King of Aragon should marry the Princess Jolante the Daughter of King John de Brienne the Heiress of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Conquest whereof it was believed he would take more Interest than before when it should be his own Estate for which he was to sight It was also ordained that in two Years he should part with all the Forces of the Empire at Midsummer to which those that were present and Parties obliged themselves by a Solemn Oath that whoever should fail in the performance of his Promise should be Excommunicate After which the Pope the Emperor and the King of Jerusalem parted every one to indeavour for his part according to his power to dispose all things for this Holy War which was to be begun two Years after For this purpose the King of Jerusalem who was able to do nothing more in Europe but to sollicite the Princes to contribute their part to this War went to desire the Assistance of England Spain Germany and above all in France where he arrived a little before the Death of Philip the August his Benefactor and Protector This great Prince who had laboured under a Quartan Ague for above a Year and who nevertheless did not cease to visit his Provinces and always to carry himself as a Great King with all the strength imaginable of a Soul which did not seem to be concerned at the weakness of the Body died this Year at the Castle of Mante the fourteenth day of July in the eight and fiftieth Year of his Age and the three and thirtieth of his Reign which by the Glory of his Actions by his Heroick Qualities by his Power and by the Force of his Arms he had rendred the most flourishing of all that France had ever seen since that of Charlemagne And as he had worn the Cross in the third Crusade which was famous for the remarkable winning of the City of Ptolemais so he gave in his Will a Noble Testimony of the Zeal which he still preserved for the Glory of Jesus Christ and for the Deliverance of his Holy Sepulchre For among other Magnificent Effects of his pious Liberality which are therein to be observed for the comfort and relief of the Poor for the Deliverance and Ransom of the Wife of Amauri Count de Montfort who was a Prisoner amongst the Albigenses and for other Works of Christian Piety he bequeathed three hundred thousand Livres for the Relief of the Holy Land one hundred thousand to King John de Brienne and so much to each of the two great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital nor was his going of the Theater of the World less glorious than his Actions on it year 1223 for there being at that time a Council assembled at Paris against the Albigenses they all assisted at his Funerals as did also the King of Jerusalem who was also present at the Coronation of Lewis the eighth the Son and Successor of King Philip. As for the Pope he being perswaded that it was to be in his Papacy that Palestine was to be reconquered which was the thing of the World which he most desired he did all that lay in his power to render the Crusade following most numerous and powerful He sent new Preachers throughout Europe to excite the People to undertake it he writ to the Bishops to oblige them to preach it themselves and to collect all the Money which the Ecclesiasticks were obliged to contribute out of their Revenues towards the carrying on of the Holy War And in short he did all that it was possible for him to do to oblige the Christian Kings and Princes to make Peace among themselves and to join their Forces to those of the Emperor and to march in Person
a well known passion tied him and in which he expresseth himself in thoughts infinitely tender though at the same time full of that profound respect which he had lying so near his heart year 1236 So soon as he saw himself peaceably settled in his Dominions and that he believed himself safe on the side of Arragon the King of which Realm pretended some manner of ill grounded Title to that of Navarr he was resolved to accomplish the Vow which his Father Count Theobald had made when he took the Cross with the Earls of Flanders and of Blois He therefore took it himself and by his Example ingaged in the same Enterprise Hugh Duke of Burgundy Peter de Dreux surnamed Illclerk Duke of Bretagne John his Brother Count de Brain and Mascon Henry Count de Bar Guy Count de Nevers the Constable Amauri Count de Montfort the Counts de Joigni and Sancerre and many other Barons of France Navarr and Bretagne as the Counts Guiomar de Leon Henry de Goâ—tlo Andrew de Vitrey Raoul de Fougeres Geoffry de Avesnes and Fouques Paynel who all acknowledged him for their Head and General together with an infinite number of Crusades of France and Germany who waited only for a General of that high Reputation to conduct them year 1236 And certainly there was great probability of the Success of this third Effort which was about to be made happily to determine this Crusude if there had not happened Accidents which could not be foreseen which contributed extremely to the rendring it unfortunate and unsuccessful First by an unhappy Incounter it fell out that the Pope was obliged to publish in the same time another Crusade for the Relief of the Empire of Constantinople which was reduced to the last Extremity For the French as it is observed of them who know much better to make great Conquests in a little time than afterwards to preserve them very long were not so fortunate in keeping this Empire as they had been in gaining it the Emperor Baldwin the First lost it being taken prisoner in a Battle against the King of the Bulgarians who barbarously put him to death His Brother Henry who succeedeed him did truly for above ten Years hold it with great Success and Glory but his Successors found nothing of the same good Fortune For Peter de Courtenay Count d' Auxerre the Husband of Yolanda of Flanders Sister to the last Emperor having succeeded him was taken by treachery as he passed through Macedon to Constantinople and afterwards murdered by Theodore Comnenius Prince of Epirus and in a short time after the Empress who had taken her passage by Sea died of Grief at Constantinople after her delivery of the last Child she had by Peter her Husband Robert de Courtenay his second Son upon the refusal of his Eldest Brother Philip Count de Namur succeeded Peter in the Empire and had the Misfortune in his time to see it miserably dismembred For after he had lost a great Battle in Asia against John Ducas furnamed Vatacus the Successor and Son-in-Law of Theodore Lascaris the Conqueror took from him all that the French were Masters of on the other side the Bosphorus and the Hellespont And on the other side the Prince of Epirus won from him all Thessaly and a great part of Thracia insomuch that after his Death the French Barons seeing that his Brother Baldwin who was not above eight or nine years of Age was not in a condition to sustain the burthen of an Empire which was in so great disorder and attacked on all hands they sent to desire of the Pope to have King John de Brienne who was then the General of his Army for their Emperor assuring him that after his Death the Succession of the Empire should return to Baldwin who was to marry the Princess Mary his Daughter whom he had by his second Wife Berengera the Daughter of Alphonsus King of Castile It is true that this Emperor who was one of the greatest Captains of his time did in some measure re-establish the Affairs of this miserable Empire and with a poor handful of men he defeated a great Army which besieged Constantinople both by Sea and Land But at last two potent Armies Vatacus Emperor of the Greeks and Azen King of Bulgaria who had confederated against him attacked him on both sides with very great Forces whereas he had precisely no more men than were necessary to defend himself in Constantinople in which he was forced to shut himself up he was obliged to send Prince Baldwin his Son-in-Law to implore in Europe the Succours which he had so often desired and so long in vain expected and in the midst of these Transactions he died leaving to all Gentlemen in the History of his Life year 1237 an admirable Example by which they may learn by what ways they must expect in despight of all the disgraces of a malicious Fortune to raise themselves to the height of all earthly Greatness and Glories For he had nothing from his Father who would have constrained him contrary to his Martial Inclinations to devote himself to the Church notwithstanding which he made it his indeavour to find his good Fortune in himself and establish an Inheritance upon the Foundations of his Vertue and by that it was that he so well distinguished himself in the Court of Philip the August that that great Prince who knew how to esteem men for their Vertue judged him worthy not only of his Esteem but his particular Favour and after he had acquired a high Reputation for those Gallant Actions which together with his Brother he performed in Italy he raised him to the Throne of Jerusalem from whence it seemed that Fortune had not made him descend but to mount him with more Glory by his Vertue to the Empire of the East from whence it is easie to observe that true Merit is the best supporter of such Noble Persons who indeavour to obtain the favour of Kings year 1237 who without this are apt to tumble those down for their Vices whom they had for their pleasure raised rather than for their Vertue In this time Baldwin his Son-in-Law and Successor to the Empire found the Pope so well inclined to assist him that as if he had now had no other concern but for the Establishment of the Empire of Constantinople he writ to the Kings of France England and Hungary and to all the Bishops of those Realms to exhort them to contribute the utmost of their power to the Aid of the Emperor Baldwin the Second even so far as to permit those who had undertaken the Crusade for the Holy Land to change their Vow to that of succouring Constantinople He caused also a new Crusade to be preached every where for that purpose and that the greatest part of the money which was designed for the Holy Land should be employed that way Hereupon the Emperor Baldwin went into France and from thence into England with
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
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
according to the differing Prospects which his Interest gives him in which he finds himself ingaged in what he writes year 1245 So that in making use of this Author who hath very good things I have endeavoured to make a just difference betwixt what he writes as himself and those authentick Pieces which he produceth which give great insight into the true History such as are the Relations sent by those who had a share in the Affairs then transacted the Letters of the Popes and Princes as also those of the Emperor which contain what I have now related and which the continuator of Baronius hath inserted into his Annals printed at Rome where the Reader may find this and much more to the same purpose that I have recounted But Frederick did not satisfie himself with Writings but pushing on his Sentiments to all things which his Vindicative Nature and his Anger furiously inflamed could transport him there was nothing which he did not attempt or which he did not put in Execution to revenge himself of the Pope persecuting and ruining his Relations banishing and dispoiling them of all their Estates as he did all the Priests and Bishops who refused to celebrate the Divine Offices in those places where he was constraining all the Ecclesiasticks to pay the third part of their Revenues to maintain the War against the Pope Making use of Fire and Sword and all those Violent Ways by himself and his Gibelins against all those who were of the Pope's Party So that the Pope was obliged in his own defence against such a Potent Enemy to cause a Crusade to be preached by his Cordeliers against him and his Sons who on their side acted with as much Violence and Ardour as their Father Thus the Succours designed for Constaminople against Vatacus the Greek Emperor and those for Hungary against the Tartars were frustrated and the Troubles of Germany and Italy which insued upon the Condemnation of Frederick and the Crusade which was published against that Prince were so many diversions which weakned the Principal Crusade in such a manner that notwithstanding that it was resolved in the Council against the Sarasins Of all the Kings of Europe there was none except St. Lewis who with the French only undertook the Holy War he having taken upon him the Cross even before the Council of Lyons For as in the Year before after his return from the War of Poitu where he had so gloriously vanquished the Earl of Marche and the English at the Battle of Tailebourg he fell sick in the Month of December and by the Violence of the Distemper he was reduced to that Extremity that he was believed to be dead remaining without pulse and without Sense for one whole day insomuch that they were consulting of his Funerals when suddainly comming as it were out of an Ecstasie and blessing God who had drawn him from the Gates of Death and looking upon the Standers by he made choice among all the Bishops who where assembled in his Chamber of the Bishop of Paris who was at that time the famous William d' Avergne whom his learned Writings and the eminent Sanctity of his life have rendred so much celebrated He presently called him to him and desired him to fasten a Cross to his Right Shoulder as a mark of the immoveable Resolution which he had taken after the example of his Grandfather Philip the August and his great Grandfather Lewis the young to undertake the Holy War for the deliverance of the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ and he spoke to him in a manner so resolute either because in that Extremity wherein he was he had made a Vow to take upon him the Cross if it should please God to deliver him or else as an ancient Writer assures us that during this long Swoon which Nanges calls an Ecstasy he had a Vision in which he thought he saw the Christian Army vanquish by the Sarasins as it was before Gaza and heard a Voice from Heaven which said to him King of France Go and revenge this irreparable Loss Let it be how it will it is certain that notwithstanding the Prayers and the Tears of the two Queens his Mother and his Wife who conjured him upon their Knees to deferr the taking of such a Resolution till he was in a better condition he protested that he would neither take any nourishment nor Medicin till such time as he had received the Cross Insomuch that in conclusion the Bishop of Paris all in Tears fastned the Cross upon him whilest the Queens the Princes his Bothers and all those who were present began afresh to weep as if he had again been at the point of death but he on the contrary with a pleasant Countenance and a perfect assurance notwithstanding his extreme weakness year 1245 protested that God would restore him to his health for the accomplishment of his Vow And in short in a little time he recovered and whilest he staid till the condition of his Affairs would permit him to pass the Sea with a powerful Army he continually sent great Succours of men and money into Palestine with many Knights of the Temple and Hospital to encourage the Christians of Syria to defend themselves vigourously against the Forces of Egypt in Expectation of his comming in person to their assistance Hereupon Pope Innocent in Execution of the Decree of the Council of Lyons touching the Crusades sent Cardinal Eudes of Castle Roax Bishop of Tusculum his Legate into France to publish it in that Realm The King received him at Paris with all kind of magnificence and to give the greater weight to the Publication of the Crusade he called to meet in the Month of October in the Octaves of St. Dennis a great assembly of the Princes Prelates and Barons where he spoke so powerfully to animate them to the Holy War taking upon him the Office of a Preacher after the Legate that the greatest part of the Assembly following his example took upon them the Cross The most Illustrious and signal among them were the three Princes the Brothers of the King Alphonsus Count de Poitiers Robert Count d' Artois and Charles Count d' Anjou The Princesses their Ladies imitating the example of the Queen who resolved to go along with the King also took upon them the Cross So much Piety and Courage so much love had they for these three brave Princes their Husbands that they would also pertake with them the pains and the dangers of this War leaving to them all the Glory to which their Sex would not permit them to pretend Also Hugh Duke of Burgundy Peter Duke of Bretany William Earl of Flanders Hugh de Chastillon Count de St. Paul and Gautier de Chastillon his Nephew Hugh de Lusignan Earl of March and his Son Hugh the Brown followed them together with the Counts de Dreux de Bar de Soissons de Blois de Retel de Montfort and de Vendosme The Lords John de Beajeu
of the two hundred thousand Livres which were yet unpaid which the King resolved before he would treat with them in regard that they had broken the Truce by not observing the Conditions of their former Treaty and thereupon as the Admirals gave him all the Satisfaction which he demanded he appointed them a day to meet him at Jaffa where a new Treaty was to be made by which the Admirals obliged themselves to put into his hands all the Places of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to which they should for the Future make no more pretensions and the King reciprocally promised to assist them with all his Forces against the Sultan of Damascus their Enemy So soon as the Sultan who was a man of Courage and Conduct understood that the King had accorded with the Egyptians he sent twenty thousand men to seize upon the Passes between Egypt and Palestine but this did not hinder the King from leading his Army to Jaffa the Castle whereof was very strong though the Town was wholly ruinous and fell to rebuilding and fortifyng of it at great charges and with incredible diligence although the Enemies gave continual Alarms to his Camp and daily made a shew as if they would attack it This made the Mamaluke Admirals who had not yet set their Army on foot and therefore durst not repair to Jaffa request the King to deferr their Interview and to appoint another day when they might be in a condition to attend him and in the mean time the Sultan of Damascus having assembled all his best Troops took a review of them about Gadres which was anciently called Gadara a strong City on the other side the Sea of Galilee and from thence passing over the Jordan he went and joined with thirty thousand Horse which he had sent before him to the Frontier of Egypt into which he entred to revenge upon the Admirals the death of his Cousin And they who had had leisure to prepare for his coming did not fail to give him a welcome like men of Courage year 1251 and who understood War It came presently to a Battle and at first the Sultan had the advantage breaking in upon one of their Wings so vigorously that he put it into disorder and wholly routed it But the Egyptians understanding that their Army was Victorious in the other Wing rallied and came to the charge more furiously than before against their Vanquishers and then those also who had been Victorious on the other side falling upon their Rere cut them in pieces and made the Victory so complete that all the Sultan could do was to save himself and retreat to Gadres sorely wounded with two thousand men which only escaped in that Bloody Battle After this great Victory the Admirals made a suddain turn like able Politicians For now perceiving that they had no more need of the Arms of the King they believed that to preserve to themselves the Kingdom of Jerusalem which by Treaty they were obliged to surrender unto him it was much better for them to make Peace with the Sultan who seing himself abandoned by the King would without doubt be very glad to revenge himself and for fear of having both Armies upon his Hands year 1252 to accomodate matters with them They sent therefore to him to Gadres offering him Peace and at the same time desiring it from him They excused themselves for the death of the Sultan of Egypt his Cousin by the necessity which they had to prevent their own by giving him his and remonstrated to him that it was for their Common Interests rather to unite against the Christians who were their Common Enemies than by their divisions to give them the opportunity to make use of their Arms to the mutual destruction one of another The Sultan who desired nothing so much willingly harkned to the Proposition so that without any difficulty a Peace was presently concluded betwixt them and the King by too long deferring to conclude with the one or the other of them was miserably deceived by them both and lost not only the noblest opportunity of recovering the Kingdom of Jerusalem by an honourable Treaty but on the suddain found he had two puissant Enemies to encounter who would now no more hear either of a Peace or a Truce and who might easily have both been ruined by keeping up the Quarrel between them and uniting with the one against the other as they both desired But though the King was a great Saint we must not believe that Saintships render men infallible especially in Policy and above all not in matters of War which is the remotest thing from Religion whose Principles are those of Love and Peace All the advantage which the King gained by this Rencontre was to quit himself of the two hundred thousand Livres to the Admirals which yet in reality he was no ways obliged to pay after they had so perfidiously broken their first Treaty Sometime after they had made this Peace with the Sultan of Damascus although they saw they had nothing to fear either from this Prince their Allie or from the Christians who were in too weak a condition to attack them yet considering that it was impossible for their Empire to subsist any considerable time without a Head they resolved at last to create one of their own Body to the exclusion of the Arabians Egyptians and all the Descendants of the Great Saladin and Saphadin And being well assured that there were none able to oppose them they accordingly chose for their Sultan one of the Mamaluke Admirals whom they named Azzadin Aibec or Elmahec For there is not one of these Sultans but who have different names in diverse Authors who have writ concerning them This Sultan was a Turcoman by Nation and from thence it is that many Historians call him Turquemin However from this time the Mamalukes held the Empire of Egypt not by Succession but Election till the Year one thousand five hundred and seventeen when Selim the Emperor of the Turks conquered it after he had in a great Battle overthrown and near Grand Caire taken Tomombey their last Sultan Mean time the Sultan of Damascus under the Favour of this Peace having assembled his Army came with thirty thousand men to discharge his Indignation upon the Territories of the Christians He presented himself before Acre and threatned to fire the Suburbs if they would not redeem them from that danger with fifty thousand Bysances of Gold but the Lord of Assur the Constable of the Realm thought fit to pay him in another Metal year 1252 and sent him away loaden with Blows instead of the Money he demanded And from thence therefore having understood that the King who had rebuilded Jaffa was about to repair Sidon or Sajetta had but a few Troops with him by reason that he had sent the greatest part of his Souldiers to seize upon Belinas formerly called Cesarea Philippi he marched with a design to surprize him The King who was advertised
fell upon it in his absence by the deadly division which had he been there he would have prevented and which was the last cause of the loss of the Holy Land The Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans who had most advantageously served in all the Crusades by their shipping had in Acre their quarter and their Jurisdiction assigned them and their Magistrate who was Independant of any other though the Church of the fair Monastery of St. Sabas was common to the three Nations for the celebration of the Divine Offices The Venetians and the Genoese who in those times rarely agreed had abundance of quarrels under diverse pretences which served to cover the true cause of all these Embroilments which in truth was the Jealousie of State and the Ambition which they had to be the sole Masters of the Sea and every one of them equally pretended that this Church appertained solely to their Republick And whereas Alexander the fourth who succeeded to Pope Innocent had declared that the Church ought to be in common to the three Nations the Genoese who first received this declaration nevertheless being supported by the Authority and the Forces of Count Philip de Montfort who was then the Governour of Ptolemais chased the Venetians from the City and seized upon the Church and the Monastery which they fortified in the form of a Cittadel They took for their Pretext a great violence which a Venetian had offered to a Genoese whom he used very scurvily and which had been sufficiently revenged by the Genoeses upon the Venetians who would never receive the excuses which had been offered to them in the name of the Republick which constantly disavowed these actions of private Persons The War then being declared in this manner by the Way of Fact year 1256 the Venetians assisted by the Pisans who declared for them in renouncing the Amity of the Genoese with whom they were confederated before rigged out a potent Navy year 1257 with which they seized upon the Port of Ptolemais burnt the Genoese ships entred the City and there fought gaining by Inches the quarter of the Enemy besieging and forcing the Monastery year 1258 the Church of St. Sabas and chasing from Ptolemais Count Philip and the Genoese who retreated to Tyre from whence coming the year following with nine and forty Gallies and four great men of War they came to a great Battle which they lost between Ptolemais and Caiphas So that the Cities the Princes the Lords and all the Knights of the Country being divided upon this quarrel some declaring for the Venetians and others for the Genoese their happened between these two Potent Republicks a most cruel War which being from time to time suspended by Feeble Treaties which were quickly broken continued for a whole Age to the great prejudice of all Christendom and especially to the Affairs of the East being the principal Cause of the irreparable loss of all And certainly the Sarasins of Syria and Mesopotamia had not failed upon such a deplorable opportunity as was this miserable division to have ruined the Christians of the Holy Land if God had not at the same time raised other Enemies against those Infidels to destroy them For the Tartars having subdued all Persia passed over the Tygris under the Conduct of Halon the Brother of Mangon the Great Cham of Tartary That Prince who is reported to have been a Christian and a great Enemy to the Mahometans having endeavoured to push his Conquests to the Mediterranean Sea was now going to lay Siege to the City of Bagdad which is not as hath been believed the ancient Babylon of the Chaldeans which was situate upon the River Euphrates and of which there are now not so much as the ruins remaining For this which still carries something of the Name is above fifty miles from Euphrates and stands upon the Tygris near the place where was anciently the Famous City of Seleucia There was the principal Seat of the Mahometan Empire in those times where the Caliph whom all the other Sultans acknowledged at least in appearance for their Head and the cheif Priest of their Law kept his Court. Now the Caliph then in being as he was not at all martially inclined so was so extremely covetous that though he was prodigiously rich yet would he not be at any Charge either to fortifie the City or to maintain a good Garrison so that the City was instantly taken by the Tartar who after he had put to the Sword all the Sarasins which he found there caused the miserable Caliph to be locked up in one of the Chambers where his Treasure lay amongst an infinite quantity of Rich Furniture Plate Money and Jewels telling him with a terrible and Bloody Rallery that since he so delighted in Riches and was so passionately in Love with Gold and Silver he should be treated according to his Inclinations and eat nothing less delicate than Gold Thus this Unfortunate Miser who was the last of the Caliphs the Successors of Mahomet died with hunger in the midst of a most incredible abundance of Gold Silver Pearls and Gemms the sight whereof would not content nature or satisfie her necessities and with which if he had known how to use them he might have avoided this miserable Destiny and at least have died nobly at the head of an Army sighting for his Life and Liberty with this Treasure which would have raised and paid them and have possibly secured him from this insolent Tartar A great but most just punishment of a Covetous Wretch who having all his Life made Idols of his Riches without daring to touch them more than if they had been most Sacred things deservedly learnt at his death that these false Divinities had not the Power either to save his Soul or his Body and that Gold and Silver are no further valuable than by the good use which is made of them year 1259 After this Victory the Tartar Prince entred into Mesopotamia which yielded to the Conqueror without resistance took Edessa passed the Euphrates made himself Master of Samothracia Emessa Haman Harenc and all the places which the Sultan had taken from the Christians in Syria besieged and by storm took Alepo which is thought to have been the Ancient Berea and there he took the Sultan Prisoner whom he carried in Irons to Damascus constraining the Inhabitants to yield after they had seen their Captive Sultan put to death before their Eyes And from thence returning with a small retinue into Tartary upon the news which arrived of his Brother's death to whom he was to succeed year 1260 he left the Command of the Army to his Lieutenant Cathogoba And he who was imbroiled with the Christians whom before he seemed to favour entred into the Realm of Jerusalem and there took Cesarea and Sidon and began to threaten Ptolemais when the Christians received a suddain assistance from Egypt from whence they least expected it The first of the Mamaluke Sultans Atbec or
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
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
Abagas King of the Tartars that he would go in Person into Palestine against the Sultan Bendocdar He also caused a fair Fleet of Men of War to be fitted out at Barcelona and a great many Gallies and imbarked himself in the beginning of September one thousand two hundred sixty nine a year before St. Lewis But being near the Isles of Majorca and Minorca met with a furious Tempest which threw him upon the Coasts of Languedoc he went no farther than Aigues-Mort from whence he returned by Land into his own Kingdom alledging for the hiding of a certain shameful and criminal Passion which governed his Soul and which possibly was the true cause of his altering his resolution That he was well satisfied that God dispensed with him for his Voyage which he made known by this accident was not at all pleasing to him so that there were only some few Ships of this Fleet which arrived at Ptolemais with Dom Ferdinand Sancho the Son of this King who presently after returned again without doing any thing As for what concerned the Greek Emperor he acted in this occasion only like a Politician for his own private Interest without ever intending to have any share in this War This Emperor was Michael Paleologus who about eight years before had taken Constantinople by Treachery from the Latins who lost that Empire under Baldwin the Second which Baldwin the First had so gloriously conquered with the French and Venetians about fifty eight years before This Greek Prince who feared to be attack'd on the side of Asia by Bendocdar after that Sultan should have conquered Syria and Palestine and who was already on the Coast of Greece by the New King of Sicily did all that possibly he could with the Pope and the Princes of the West to ingage them in a War against the Sarasins And in regard that the Pope had written to him That the way to secure himself from the Arms of the Latin Princes was to unite the Greek Church with the Latin and to go in Person as did St. Lewis to this Holy War he promised Shipping Provisions and Souldiers and all that could be desired for the War He also sent his Ambassadors into France offering to make the King the Arbiter of the difference which was about the Re-union of the two Churches but St. Lewis who would not undertake to be Judge in a matter of this nature which was purely spiritual remitted him to the Judgment of the Sacred College the Holy See being then vacant by the Death of Pope Clement who deceased about the end of the preceding year But after all this Emperor who was extreme politick had no desire or design either to make a true Re-union or to joyn with the Latin Princes in the Holy War All his Design was only to engage them in a Crusade and thereby to deliver himself from the fear which he had of the Sarasins and the King of Sicily So remote are the Intentions of Princes who act purely according to the Maxims of human Policy from what they seem to appear to those with whom they negotiate with a design to delude them And for the King of England to whom the Pope had at first sent the Cardinal Othobon his Legate he was too far advanced in years and too much oppressed with his own Affairs by reason of the troubles of his Realm to be in a condition to perform the Vow which he had made in taking upon him the Cross and to acquit himself of the Promise by which he was ingaged to the King to accompany him in this War with five hundred Knights for whom the King gave him a years pay in hand and believed that without restoring the Money he satisfied fully for all in giving his Blessing to his Son Prince Edward who not being in a condition to enter upon Action till after the Death of St. Lewis was able to do almost nothing in Palestine Thus of above two hundred and fifty thousand men which were levied in Europe there were none but the Troops of St. Lewis which were about sixty thousand men and the few Spaniards which went with the King of Navarr his Son-in-Law which were in a condition to pursue this Voyage Nevertheless he undertook it with so much resolution as if he had had the Forces of the whole Earth year 1269 The difficulty was only to resolve whither he should go and after having a long time conferred upon this Affair with the Ambassadors of the King of Sicily he resolved at last to go first against Tunis before he undertook to attack the Sultan of Egypt It was for this purpose represented to the King that he ought to begin with the Realm of Tunis if he would go immediately as in reason one ought to do to the Spring and the Root of the Mischief in regard that it was from Tunis that the Sultans of Egypt drew their principal Forces their Horses and the best of their men And besides that in leaving this Kingdom in their Reer as they must do if they marched directly against Egypt or into Palestine they must expose themselves to the hazard of losing their Convoys and the Supplies which were to come from Europe which would run the Fortune of being defeated and taken by the Shipping of these African Pirates who were continually crusing upon the Seas There were also many other Politick Considerations added which are easie to be found out when People are resolved to maintain an Opinion But in Truth that which was most prevalent was that the Inclinations of the two Kings were both conformable to this Enterprise for two very different Reasons For Lewis who like a great Saint regulated all his Actions by the Principles of Piety and Christianity believed that in shewing himself before Tunis that Moorish King who had given him hopes of his Conversion would turn Christian and be baptized which the King most passionately desired as appeared by what he said to the Ambassadors of that Prince whom he commanded to acquaint their Master That he would be contented with all his heart to be a Slave to the Sarasins again and to pass the rest of his Life in the most dreadful of their Dungeons and never more to see the Sun provided that the King of Tunis would with his whole Realm embrace the Faith of Jesus Christ But Charles who was more Politick than Devout resolved to make use of such a fair opportunity to assure himself of that Realm which without doubt was very convenient for the security of the Coasts of Naples and Sicily Thus the two Brothers resolved each upon the same thing though both of them for private Reasons which they did not impart to any Persons but only concluded upon the Enterprise against Tunis the King who fore-saw that it would not meet with a general approbation reserved the Declaration of his Resolution till he came to Cagliari in the Isle of Sardinia at which place he had appointed the Rendezvous 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