the Service of their Prince and Country to mount by the same Steps of Conduct Bravery and Resolution to the top of Honour and Glory and possibly had young Alexander never read the Stories of Achilles in his own Language in the admirable Poem of Homer he had never obtained either the Conquest he did or the Immortal Surname of the Great but had confined his Ambition which afterwards one World could not suffice together with his Knowledge within the narrow limits of his Macedon And certainly as nothing can be more delightful to the Genius of a Soldier than the representation of great Actions Battles Sieges honourable Retreats admirable Stratagems and regular Conducts brave Performances and the happy Successes of the Ancient Hero's so nothing can be more pleasant in the time of Peace or more serviceable to them in the time of War than History which so long as it is vailed under such Languages as are strangers to them is like Treasure in the Mine for which no man is the Richer or the better Nor is it of less advantage to the States-man who will there find those admirable Maxims and Instructions of which he may most successfully serve himself to his own Honour and the advantage of those by whom he is imployed We in England who have many Persons who are in some degree or other to be imployed in the Administration of Publick Affairs such as are Justices of the Peace especially in Corporations and Burroughs and such as serve for the Representatives of those Places in the lower House of Parliament have reason to endeavour by all means to give them the opportunities of improving their Vnderstandings in such ways and measures as they are capable of and as will make them capable of discharging those Trusts to their own Reputation the satisfaction of the King and the advantage of their Country For though many times it happens that the Gentlemen of the Long Robe and others who have opportunities of Learning fill those Charges yet it is not intailed upon them and very frequently Persons to whom it is no disparagement that they are not Scholars their Education having been to Trades and Mysteries necessary for the publick good of the Community are chosen to those Offices and Trusts Now where men act in any publick Capacity especially in our Parliaments whose good or ill Conduct never fails to have a like influence upon the whole Nation it is of great advantage to have them in some measure acquainted with what is their own Interest and that of those whom they represent There is nothing that gives them a better or clearer Prospect in this matter than the Histories of former Ages both in their own and Foreign Countries by which they will be informed of the great necessity of their Duty in Order to their own Happiness There they will see how happy those Princes and People have been who have had the good Fortune to live in good Vnderstanding one with the other and what fatal and dreadful Revolutions have happened upon Discords and Disunions and because men are not apt to flatter the Ashes of the Dead we see impartially the Defects and Failings of past Ages we discover the Secret Springs of those Disorders which Popular Ambitious or Revengeful men have made use of in Councils to raise Seditions and Rebellions against their Sovereigns which whilst they lived some would not others durst not discover and which they themselves do always most studiously indeavour to conceal And these Remarks in History are like Light Houses Buoys and Beacons to Posterity to shew them a dangerous Shoar and to give them notice to stand aloof and where they observe the same Practices to fear the same Intentions and avoid the like Mischiefs and Dangers And herein as I cannot but applaud the Ingenuity and Industry of the French Nation so I cannot but judge their procedure in this particular worthy of our Notice We are reputed in the World very fond of imitating those People even to ridiculous extravagancy in Modes Habits and Dresses of the Body and it were not amiss if we could be perswaded to follow their Examples and Fashion in cultivating and adorning of our Minds It is the general and known observation that as that Language within this fifty Years hath extended it felf farther than in five hundred before so the French are most extraordinarily improved in all manner of Knowledge and Learning which may be of Publick Vse and Advantage Nor can this be attributed to any other Cause but the industrious care and diligence of the Learned and Ingenious Persons of that Nation who have with indefatigable application indeavoured to bring all the Learning of the World into their own Country by making all the Writings of the Greeks Latins Italians and several other Nations who have been Famous in any sort Denizens of France and â—aching them to speak some hundred Years since their Death a Language to which they were Strangers whilest they lived Learning is the glorious Light of the Vniverse a Light which shews us not only how to guide our steps for the present and the future but leads us back into the darker times of Antiquity and like the Perpetual Lamps so much admired shews us the Beauties and the Lineaments of Dead Ages even in their Tombs and certainly they must be very envious who would deny the World this Light and confine these Perpetual Lamps of Light and Knowledge still within the Vrns and the Tombs of the Dead or bury them in Closets and Libraries where they appear to very few For my own particular I must declare my self against such a miserable Covetousness which impoverishes a great many without inriching the Misers who like Evil-Spirits sit watching that Treasure which they neither can make use of themselves nor will permit others to possess who would and I could wish that all manner of gentile and ingenuous Learning for I do not speak of that which is Sacred which ought not to be prostituted or made so cheap as to incourage idleness or detract from the Majesty of the Schools or of Theology were as common as the Air we breath or the Beams of that glorious Luminary which bestows his pleasing Influences upon all the World The Author of this History is the Ingenious Monsieur Maimbourg a Writer of great Fame and Integrity a Person of a solid Judgment and every way a good Historian and which I admire most in him notwithstanding his Education and Profession a man that hath the least of that foolish Bigotry which never fails to render any Profession of Religion ridiculous He is a great Assertor of the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the Prerogatives of Princes against the pretended Supremacy of Popes and the Vsurpations of those who stile themselves the Successors of St. Peter upon the Temporal Power of Princes and to me it is a mighty wonder to find a Romanist and a Jesuit speak so freely and so plain and I doubt not did
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
desired Tancred to send for him to Messina that from him he might be informed of the Success of this War which he was about to undertake to re-conquer Jerusalem from the Hands of the Infidels This is commonly the nature of Men especially of Great Men to have a longing desire to penetrate into the inscrutable Secrets of the time to come year 1190 by a dangerous and vain Curiosity which usurping upon the peculiar Prerogative of God Almighty who hath reserved this Knowledge incommunicably to himself he does not fail to punish that bold Presumption by some Misfortune either agreeable or contrary to the Prediction which is made But that which gave Richard the greater desire to consult this famous Abbot was the sad News of the deplorable Accident which had befallen the Emperor taking him out of the World in the middle of his victorious Course and which it was confidently reported had been predicted to him most clearly by the Abbot who positively affirmed that he should have no good Success This gave a mighty Confirmation to all those People who had conceived this Opinion of him that he had the Gift of Prophecy Come he did then and according to his custom taking upon him the Tone of a Prophet he presently told the two Kings with a serious Air and without a Moments Hesitation That it was to no manner of purpose that they were going to Jerusalem to deliver the Holy Land in regard that the Time appointed for its Deliverance was not yet come Philip the August who had a most solid Mind and who took no further care but to give good Order for the present thereby to assure the future in which consists the best Art of Prediction was in no pain for this Discourse of the Abbot to which he gave but little Credit But Richard who had a certain Weakness for those kind of Prophecies had a Curiosity to be further satisfied demanded of him upon what kind of Knowledge he founded this Prediction that he pronounced with such Assurance Whereupon this Visionary whose Head was full of nothing but the Chimera's of his own Dreams which he made upon the Apocalyps of which he thought he had as perfect an Understanding as St. John who writ these Revelations fell to interpreting the Visions contained in that Book and especially that of the horrible Dragon with seven Heads which would have devoured the Man-child which was to be born of the Woman cloathed with the Sun The sixth Head of this Monster he said was Saladin who had taken Jerusalem who should certainly be destroyed by the Christians who should regain this holy City but that according to the Mystery of the Numbers denoted in the Vision it should not be till seven Years from the Taking of it were accomplished If it be so briskly replied Richard interrupting him What have we done to come so far to no purpose Your Voyage answered the Abbot was necessary for your own Glory for that by doing this God will make you triumph over all your Enemies and will elevate you above all other Princes of the Earth The Events plainly shewed that these two first Predictions were most false since Jerusalem was not taken in that time and that the Voyage was in conclusion very unfortunate for King Richard who fell into the Hands of his Enemies and was very ill treated by them But his Illusion or rather his Extravagance and Folly appeared much more when pursuing the Interpretation of this Mystery according to the disorderly Capricioes of his own Imagination he added that the seventh Head of this Dragon was Antichrist who should be born in Rome and should be Pope for this dangerous Devote had the Confidence to publish this Folly and boldly to affirm that this Enemy of Jesus Christ was at that time in his youthful Age. That in the Year 1199. the sixth Seal of the fatal Book should be opened and that thereupon should ensue the Kingdom Persecution and the Death of Antichrist and that the Gospel should before that be preached in all the World But he might very well himself before his own Death see the falseness of his Prediction And from that time that he undertook with so much Confidence to maintain that Opinion he was most powerfully confuted and convinced of the little probability of his Prophecies by the Archbishops of Ousch and Roan the Bishops of Bayonne and D'Eureux and other learned Ecclesiasticks who were present at this Conference and shewed him by Scripture which plainly tells us that the Time which he undertook to limit was wholly unknown that his Conceptions were not only false but rash and vain Imaginations of his own Fancy which he endeavoured to obtrude upon the World for Truths Insomuch that King Richard himself who now undertook to be able to confute him made no more Account of him than King Philip had done and no further amused himself about him See what manner of Man this Abbot Joachim was and what Belief he gained upon the Minds of the English and French year 1190 who were not altogether so credulous as the Italians many of which though did not believe him but only among the Common People his Fictions passed Currant as if they had been Heavenly Oracles But it is observable that this hath constantly been the Destiny of those who would undertake to prophesie or to explain future Events by accommodating them to the Mysteries of the Apocalyps to lose the greatest part of their Reason and Understanding by dashing against that Rock which hath split so many Spirits as by their foolish Curiosity have at last only gained the infamous Reputation of being Visionary Extravagants The two Kings therefore without being retarded by the Predictions of this Man whom they sent back to his Solitude of Haute-Pierre in Calabria to write upon the Prophets and the Apocalyps resolved to pursue their Voyage so soon as the Season would permit Philip who always pressed the King of England not to delay the time parted the first in the Month of March with all his Fleet and arrived fortunately in two and twenty days upon Easter-Eve before Acre where he was received by the Crusades with incredible Transports of Pleasure as if an Angel from Heaven was come to the Relief of the Christian Army which had now besieged this important Place very near three Years So soon as he was arrived he visited the Works and took his Quarters so near the Walls that his Lodgment was within less than a Discharge of the Darts and Arrows of his Enemies He then began to plant his Slings for great Stones his Rams and other Engines which played to so good purpose and so furiously upon the place that in few days he had made a reasonable fair Breach At which time the French presented themselves before it in order to an Assault resolved to perish or to carry the Place and all the Honour of the Siege And no doubt can be made but the City had certainly that day been
BOOK I. 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 Ptolemais The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jaffa 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 Siege 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 Infidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elogy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and General Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elogy 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 Elogy 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 Siege 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 Emperor 's of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vncle Alexis Comnenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadours 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 BOOK II. The Condition wherein the City of Constantinople was when it was besieged by the French and Venetian Crusades The Defeat of the Vsurpers Brother-in-Law by a small Party of the French The Passage and the Battle of the Bosphorus The taking of the Castle of Galatha The Venetians force the Entry of the Port. An Assault given both by Sea and Land â—o Constantinople The Venetians take five and twenty Towers A Sally made by the Emperor Alexis with a prodigious Army and his Infamous Cowardice His Flight and the Reduction of Constantinople The Establishment of Isaac and the young Alexis A Prolongation of the Treaty for a Year between that Emperor and the Confederate Princes Their Exploits in Thracia A Dreadful Fire at Constantinople The History of the horrible Treason of Murtzuphle The young Alexis suffers himself to be surprized by the Artifices of that Traytor and breaks with the Confederates The Speech of Conon de Bethune to the Emperors to oblige them to accomplish their Treaty War declared against them upon their refusal The Greeks attempt in Vain to burn the Venetian Fleet. The Description of that wild Fire The consequent Treasons of Murtzuphle The Election of Cannabus The double Treason of Murtzuphle who makes himself be proclaimed Emperor The Death of Isaac and of the young Alexis whom Murtzuphle strangles with his own Hands The Confederates make War against the Tyrant His Defeat by Henry the Brother of Count Baldwin The first Assault given upon the Port side of Constantinople wherein the Confederates are repulsed The Second Assault by which the City is taken by plain Force The Flight of Murtzuphle The Greeks lay down their Arms. The City plundered and the Booty there gained The Relicks from thence transported to several Churches of Europe Baldwin Earl of Flanders chosen Empeperor The Policy of the Venetians in the Election of that Prince His Elogy and Character The Election of a Patriarch The Destribution of the Provinces of the Empire The happy Beginning of the Emperor who reduceth all Thracia Murtzuphle surprized and betrayed by the Old Alexis who puts out his Eyes The Flight of Alexis and the taking of Murtzuphle He is brought back to Constantinople where for the Punishment of his Crimes he is thrown headlong from a high Columne Old Alexis taken His End The Glorious Success of this Crusade BOOK III. The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His
great many Cardinals who attended him in his Voyages There was confirmed the Decrees of the Councils of Placentia year 1095 Melphi Beneventum and Troyes which were held under this same Pope for Reformation of the Disorders which had been introduced by the Schisme There new Canons were made to restore Liberty to the Church formerly oppressed and to restore to the Ecclesiasticks the Possession of their Benefices Churches Tithes and Offerings which had been kept from them by the Laicks from the time of Charles Martel by the Grants of the Kings and by the Consent or at least Connivance of the Bishops After which Vrban judging that all Matters were fairly disposed towards the Success of his great Design of promoting the Holy War he thought it convenient to propose it to the Council which he also did in the great Square of the City year 1095 in a most elaborate Discourse which he had prepared for this extraordinary Occasion where with all the power of his Eloquence he delivered himself in these Terms If in this Vniversal Joy which guilds the Face of this great and Illustrious Assembly there appear in mine all the Marks of a most profound Sadness my venerable Brethren and Dear Children in Christ Jesus you will find no Cause of wonder when with me you shall have considered that notwithstanding all that we have hitherto done for the Remedy of our pressing Evils we have neglected to apply any Effectual Redress to those which are the greatest We have indeed humbled the Power of the Schism we have disarmed the Heresie reformed abuses and have reinstated the Church in the possession of those Rights which had been suffered to be lost But alas what pleasure can we reap from all these glorious acquisitions whilest the pittiless Enemies of the Christian Name continue to dishonour it and to commit the most violent Outrages and Tyrannies and are permitted to tear the better part of us in pieces Yes my Brethren the Holy Land the City of God the Inheritance of Christ Jesus which he hath bestowed upon his Children having taken it out of the Hands of Jews and Pagans that admirable Spot of Ground where the Saviour of the World wrought all the stupendious Mysteries of the Salvation of Mankind the very Heart of Christendom as I may term it has for many Ages been usurped by the Infidels by the Turks and Saracens and we permit them insolently to triumph even over Jesus Christ himself if I may so say whom they seem to have chased out of the Capital City of his Empire whilest they establish their cruel Tyranny upon the Ruins of so many Sacred Monuments of his miraculous Conquests What Tongue is able to express the fearful Prophanations which are daily committed in those Holy Places which the Actions the Miracles the Blood and Sufferings of the Saviour of the world have Consecrated and made Venerable to all Christians who from every quarter of the Earth resort thither to pay their Religious Devotions as if Christ Jesus himself were there personally present And if amidsts the horrible marks of their Impiety the overthrowing our Temples and our Altars these Insidels have spared the Church of the Holy Sepulchre we are obliged for that good Office to the Avarice of these Inhumane Robbers who have imposed an Excessive Rate upon the Devotion of the Faithful Christians whom though they cannot rob of their Faith they despoil of their Goods and many times by insufferable torments take away their Lives And all this time the Christians of the West of whom one single Nation were sufficientlyable to Infranchise the East from this unworthy Servitude Coldly and without being moved behold the Oppression of their Brethren as if they had no manner of share in the Injury which these Barbarians do to Jesus Christ whilest they invade that Inheritance which solely appertains to Christians who are his Children we suffer them peaceably to enjoy a Conquest so shameful to all Christendom whilest we lye buried in unimployed Laziness without a single thought of running to our Arms. Without running to Arms did I say Alas one shall see nothing now adayes throughout all Europe but Christians running into Armes one against another for their mutual Ruin and Destruction those Arms which ought to be employed to Exterminate the Enemies of Christ Jesus are turned against him in his Members when they shed the Blood of their Brethren his Children Insomuch that one would think they acted by Confederacy with the Infidels for the Ruin of Christianity whilest that at the same time that those Barbarians bend all their Forces their Malice and their Cruelty to destroy it in the East these no less Barbarous Christians infeeble the West by their Wars their Quarrels and Contentions by so many Slaughters daily diminishing the Number of those who might root out these Cruel Enemies of the Christian Name whose Strength consists chiefly in the advantages which they make of our unfortunate Divisions One of our Realms might with ease triumph over these Barbarians if it were not either wholly employed to defend it self or attack another And what then might they not all do if it should please the Spirit of God to unite them in the Prosecution of so glorious an Vndertaking It is for this Reason my Dear Children that I am now come into this most Christian Kingdom with a design to oblige the French Nation whose Ancestors have been so celebrated for Zeal to Religion to follow their Example and give one to the rest of Europe to follow The Armes of France which have formerly been so successful against the African Moors the Arabians and Huns under the Conduct of Charles Martel and the most August Charlemain cannot be less victorious under the Conduct of the Great God of Hosts who Exhorts you to follow him and reconquer the Inheritance of his Son by chasing out the Infidels who daily dishonour and profane it by a Thousand abominable Sacriledges Follow Generous Frenchmen Follow your Invisible Cheiâ—â—ain in this glorious Enterprise to which you are called by your Honour your Interest your Religion by all the oppressed Christians of the East by me the Vicar of Christ Jesus upon Earth nay by Jesus Christ himself Represent to your selves that your blessed Saviour who from his Holy Sepulchre now captive in the hands of the Saracens triumphed over the World Death and Hell presents unto you his Cross It is the Cross which he displays as his Standard to all the Christians of the West under which Ensign it is impossible for you not to be Victorious here shall you acquire Immortal Glory whether you return from this Holy War loaden with the Trophies and Spoils of these Infidels or whether in emptying your Veins by a glorious Death for the Love of God he shall bestow upon you the Crown of Martyrdom Mean time if the Church And here as he was about to pursue his Discourse he was Interrupted by the Exclamations and Crys of an infinite number of People who
Dom Roderigo de Bivar so well known in the World under the Glorious Name of Cid After the Death of Ferdinand he linked himself to Dom Alphonso King of Leon and rendred him such Important Services in both his Fortunes that that Prince after the Death of his two Brothers Dom Sancho and Dom Garchia succeding to all the Estates of his Father Ferdinand he gave him in Marriage his Daughter Theresa whom he had by his first Wife Chimena de Gusman He himself also marrying the Princess Constantia the Daughter of the Duke of Burgundy and Aunt to Prince Henry to whom he also gave the City of Porto and sometime after all the Estate which he held in Portugal year 1147 which in his Favor he Erected into the Dignity and Title of an Earldom It is said also that he sent him with the Princes of the first Crusade to the Conquest of the Holy Land whereupon all Occasions he Signalized his Courage and his Conduct But in regard we find no Traces of this Voyage in the Authors his Contemporaries who have written very exactly of that War I think I ought not to Incur any Displeasure if I give little Credit to some of the Historians of Portugal who upon very weak Conjectures have been pleased to Rank among the Heroes of that famous Crusade the Illustrious Head of the House of Portugal though he had such a sufficient Stock of true Glory as not to stand in need of searching for that which may with so much Justice be disputed That which he hath which is most certain is that this admirable Earl after having Defeated the Moors in seventeen pitched Battles and Conquered from them the greatest part of Portugal which he added to that which his Father-in-Law had given him in absolute Soveraignty he dying left this new Earldom to his Son Alphonso who gloriously changed it into a Kingdom For he was Solemnly proclaimed King in the Field of Battle at the memorable Day of Ourique where he defeated the Army of five Moorish Kings who had Assembled against him all their Forces which consisted in more than four hundred thousand Men. The five Kings lay upon the Place Buried in the Heaps of the dead Bodies of their Soldiers who were piled one upon another in Memory whereof the new King who believed that during the Battle he had seen Jesus Christ upon the Cross who promised him the Victory changed the Cross Azure in the Field Argent which his Father had taken for his Coat Armor into five Escoucheons Azure every one charged with five Besants Argent in Saltire to which afterwards was added a Border Gules charged with seven Castles Or. This is that valiant King Descended from a Prince of the most August House of France from whom in a direct Line Male Issued the other sixteen Kings who Reigned till the time of Cardinal Henry for six Hundred Years in Portugal whose Dominions Extended afterwards into three other Parts of the World Affrica Asia and America where the Heroick Piety and Courage of the Portugese by finding a new Passage to the Indies have Established the Empire of Jesus Christ as well as that of their own Nation and as one of their Rivers having for some time hid it self under the Earth afterwards appears again and runs much greater than before so doth the Illustrious Blood of our Kings which hath so long run in the Royal Channel of Portugal at length after having for more than sixty Years ceased to appear in its natural Place the Throne of Portugal which it ought to fill begin in our days to Recover it self with the Applause of all the World in the Person of King John the Fourth the Head of the Royal House of Braganza who besides that he Possesses all the Title of the Infanta Catharina is also Descended in the direct Masculin Line as also from that of John the First from whom are Issued the last Kings unto Sebastian But it was this great Alphonso the Son of Earl Henry and first King of Portugal who after he had taken Santaren and all the places about Lisbon Besieged that great City which was Defended by above two hundred thousand Men. After he had unprofitably spent a whole Month in the Siege having but a few Troops in comparison of such a Number of Defendants he began to despair of his Enterprise when he discovered this great Fleet at Sea which he imagined to be that of the Affrican Kings but he presently after perceived by the Cross which they bore in their Flags that it was a Christian Fleet. He sent immediately to be satisfied what they were and upon what Design and being informed that it was a Party of Crusades who were going against the Infidels he went Aboard the Admiral and proposed to the Captains the Conquest of one of the fairest Cities in the World from those Enemies which they were going to Search for in Syria He Remonstrated to them That God had presented to them a fair Occasion for the present Accomplishment of their Vow in Combating for the Glory of Christ Jesus against his Enemies and that without exposing themselves by the Hazard of the Sea to the Danger of never Combating them at all That they would acquire more Honor by taking Lisbon with the Assistance of those few Portugeses who Besieged it than they could possibly hope for year 1147 by joyning in Syria with two such Puissant Armies as were those of the Emperor and King of France to which they would be Esteemed as nothing and besides that the Recompence which they might expect would be incomparably greater giving them the Word of a King that they should share the Conquest with him There was no necessity for him to say more to persuade People who sought nothing but Occasion to Fight against the Sarasins they with Joy accepted the Offer of the King and presently gave Order for the Disimbarking of their Troops and went to take their Post upon the West Quarter the King with his Army being already Incamped on the East Side of the City in the place where now stands the Monastery of St. Vincent If the Attacque was Hot Furious and often repeated by the Portuguese and the Crusades the Resistance was no ways less on the part of the Moors who far surpassed the Christians in Number This made the Siege last four Months till the twenty fifth day of October when the City was in the End taken by Assault all the romainder of the Sarasins being put to the Sword thereby to Extinguish that accursed Race of Men. Thus this new Kingdom of Portugal which was Founded by a French Prince was owing for the glorious Conquest of its Capital City principally to the Valour of the French Men they being the greatest Number of this Naval Army for tho there were English and other Nations among them yet anciently the Title which the Portuguese gave indifferently to all Strangers was that of French Men. The King also Imployed them in the taking
the Plain whither it was descended to defend the Pass and if the Entry into the River was easie the getting out was difficult the further Bank being not only possessed by the Enemies but very steep and high and that which made the Difficulty greater was that there was not one fordable place to be found all the Country People though several Examined agreeing in the Protestation that they never knew any passing there And besides all this so soon as any of the Soldiers entred the River to search for a Ford the Turks on the other side also entred the River and showred down their Arrows upon them Nevertheless the Desire which the Army had to pass and fight the Infidels was so great that after having tried both above and below to find out a Ford in the River without regarding the Arrows of the Enemies they at the last found one turning a little upon the left hand which those of the Country had never known The King after he had given Orders to the Cavalry of the Avant-Guard to pass the Ford he put himself at the Head of the Rere which faced the Turks who had charged them there and running upon them at a full Cariere before they had the Liberty according to their Custom to retire he cut a great part of them in pieces and repulsed the rest with Sword and Lance at their very Reins even to the Mountains At the same time Thierri Earl of Flanders Henry the Son of Thibald Earl of Champagne and William Earl de Mascon having thrown themselves with the first Squadrons into the River were followed by all the rest and in Despight of the Arrows which like Hail were showred most furiously upon them from the opposite Bank which did but little Execution upon those armed Troops they gained the other Shoar and sustained the Shock of their Enemies till the rest of the Troops got over and drew up in Batalia Immediately thereupon they made a most furious Charge upon the Turks who now no longer able to use their Bows were presently overthrown for these Barbarians having no defensive Arms and not accustomed to fight Foot to Foot against the Franks were constrained to give way to that Terrible Shock and therefore betook themselves to Flight leaving a great Number of their Men extended upon the Earth and a great many of Prisoners the rest were pursued to the Mountains where they saved themselves year 1148 but the Camp which they had pitched in the Plain fell to the Share of the Soldiers thus the whole Army having now no more Enemy neither in Front or Rear which durst appear passed the River with Ease some behind the Horse others upon the Wagons and Planks of Timber There ran a Report in the Army that a Cavalier in white Arms who was never seen before nor after passing before the rest as it were to shew them the Way they were to take gave the first Charge upon the Squadrons of the Enemy But as it was the Humour of those times to feign such Visions to render extraordinary Actions as this was more miraculous one may without scruple dispense with disbelieving this Apparition Eudes a Monk of St. Dennis who was the Successor of Sugerius and who was by that great Abbot recommended to the King as an able Man to serve him both as his Chaplain and his Secretary during that Voyage satisfies himself with saying that there were several who affirmed they saw that white Cavalier but that for his own particular he was resolved neither to be deceived nor to deceive others and that he saw no such thing He adds like a man of Sense that without having Recourse to this Marvel which was not easie to prove there was another Passage not less remarkable or surprising and which ought to be wholly attributed to the Divine Protection and that is that in this Attempt there was not one Person of Quality lost except Milon or Miles the Lord of Nogent who was drowned A strange and marvellous Adventure which we have seen repeated within a few days by that admirable Reflux and if I may venture to express it so Circulation of the same Events which produces the same thing in succeeding Ages which have happened in those past so long ago For in the War with Holland where the King of France by the prodigious Success of his Arms made himself Master in less than one Champagne of above thirty strong places he commanded a Party of his Cavalry to pass the Rhine not far from its Mouth under the Conduct of the Generous Count de Guiche where those Braves in the View of their Enemies who were drawn up on the other side to oppose them passed that great River partly by a Ford till that time unknown and partly by swimming without any other considerable Loss than that of the Count de Nogent who there perished in signallizing by a glorious Death his Zeal and Courage in one of the fairest Occasions that were ever seen But it is in short that one ought to expect that what ever was great or Heroick in their Ancestors is in our time to be performed by their Descendants under a King who hitherto hath carried the Glory of this August Monarchy to a higher Degree than any of his Illustrious Predecessors have done since Charlemain The End of the First Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land TOME II. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The Rereguard of the Kings Army Defeated in the Mountains of Laodicea for want of observing the Kings Orders The Description of that Combat A most Heroick Action of the King in an extreme Danger of his Life His March and admirable Conduct to Attalia The new Perfidy of the Greeks in Betraying the Royal Army The Arrival of the King at Antioch and his Difference with Prince Raymond The Conquenty March to Jerusalem where he is met by the Emperor Conrade The Councel at Ptolemaïs where the Siege of Damascus is resolved The Description of the City of Damascus The manner of the March of the Christian Army towards that City The young King Baldwin makes the first Attack his Character and extraordinary Valour in the Attack against the Gardens and Suburbs of Damascus The great Combat upon the Bank of the River A brave Action of the Emperor Conrade An Account of the Siege of Damascus and the Treachery of the Syrians which occasioned the ill Success of that Enterprise The Return of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice looseth the Opportunity of Conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who Seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The
League by a deadly War between these two Princes which if it had happened had absolutely ruined all the Hopes of ever re-establishing the Affairs of the Christians in the Holy Land But in Conclusion there were Expedients found out for the appeasing of this great Quarrel by an amicable Composure which pacified their Spirits at least in Appearance and for some time Richard protested that he would most inviolably have kept his Promise in marrying the Princess Alice if he had not been most certainly assured for some time before that the late King Henry his Father who was known to have been most passionately Amorous of her had not exceeded the Bounds of Modesty in his Courtship to her and she those of Vertue in the Caresses which she received from him And that after this Discovery all the Laws both of God and Nature opposed this Marriage And whereas the Princess pretended her self to be wholly innocent of these Crimes alledging that she had never done any thing Criminal and that the Appearances of Kindness which she might be accused of in permitting the Visits of that importunate old King as she never consented to them so she was not in the Capacity of hindring them which possibly might be true yet it was impossible to repair the Blemish which her Honour had received and which therefore to him was intollerable because it was incurable and the malicious World would to his Dis-reputation believe it true though it might be false He therefore offered to restore Vexin which she was to have in Dowry and to pay her ten thousand Marks in Silver And in short he passed his Royal Word to King Philip that with the beginning of the Spring he would be ready without any further delay to accompany him in the Enterprise of the Holy Land Philip also on his side complained highly and protested that the Letters were suppositious and a treacherous Artifice to engage him in a Quarrel with the King of England his Ally and Companion in Arms in this Holy War Thus the two Kings having once more patched up an Accord did unprofitably renew the Protestations of their Amity which was impossible to hold long between two Princes who had an insuperable Antipathy the one to the other However they passed the remainder of the Winter something more calmly at Messina where it is said the famous Abbot Joachim foretold the little Success which they were to expect from their Voyage This Man who whilst he lived made such a Noise and Figure in the World and who to this very day ever since his Death is so great a Riddle and Mystery was a Calabrian by Birth and an Abbot of the Monastery of the Cistertians in his own Country his Way of Living and his Conduct was wholly extraordinary and of which never any spoke with Mediocrity whether it were good or evil for some would have him pass for one of the most eminent Doctors year 1190 the most famous Prophets and the greatest and most miraculous Saints that ever was in the Church of God On the contrary Others hold him for a most impudent Impostor a wicked Hypocrite and a most dangerous Tritheite Heretick for the proudest most arrogant and presumptuous of Mankind But those who without prejudice have coolly examined all that is alledged on both sides touching this famous Abbot believe that without doing him Injustice one may keep the middle way between these two Extreams and affirm that he was a bold and ignorant Visionary who having a weak Head and a strong Imagination together with little Learning and less Solidity of Judgment to manage it took all his Imaginations and his own Fancies for Oracles and that therefore undertaking to make Predictions amidst a hundred things which he pretended to foretel he must play with very ill Fortune if some of them did not prove true though it were by the pure Effect of Chance So that those who had took their Measures of him according to what he had foretold them truly cried him up as a mighty Prophet and the others who had been deceived as well as he by his Presages treated him as a Cheat and an Impostor Neither the one nor the other of these People all this while having the Wit to perceive that he was in reallity neither Prophet nor Cheat but a silly over-run Visionary who deceived himself first and afterwards those who believed him by his ridiculous Illusions which possibly was the genuine Effect of his few Brains and much Presumption And for certain this is true that going to visit the holy Places at Jerusalem at the Age of fifteen Years when he hardly understood his Grammar he pretended that the Spirit of God was infused into him in the Church of the holy Sepulchre and there a perfect Knowledge of all the hidden Mysteries of the Scripture was bestowed upon him especially of the Book of the Apocalyps whereof he said he had the Key which no Man before him could ever find That thereupon without applying himself to any other Studies he began to labour with the Visions of that Book which he endeavoured to adjust to his own as best pleased him taking his own Dreams for the true Sense of those sacred Mysteries However he was so ingenuous as to acknowledge that he neither had any Revelations nor yet the Gift of Prophecy but that he had received from God the Spirit of Understanding as clearly to understand what was contained in the Prophecies of the Old and New Testament as the Prophets themselves who writ them by the Impulse of the Spirit of God Moreover he was a Man who affected Singularity and who aimed at nothing but was very uncommon and extraordinary both in his Conduct and his Doctrine and that therefore in the Council of Lateran under Innocent III. he was declared an open Heretick because he had undertaken to write and maintain against the Great Master of the Sentences some Positions concerning the Trinity which was open Tritheism for he was of Opinion that every Person in the Holy Trinity had a distinct Proper and peculiar Essence and that they were begotten one from another He was also presented in the Pope's Court and accused by the Religious of his own Order among whom he raised a most dangerous Schism In short He was an eternal Medler with Prophecies Predictions and the Affection of foretelling future Contingencies And if some one of his Presages by mere Chance proved true in the Event there were a hundred of them so obscure and ambiguous that might be interpreted either way many of the most famous of those which he published with so much Noise and Confidence being proved false in their Events even whilst he was alive which cannot be made appear better than by this famous Conference which he had at Messina with King Richard For there being a mighty Talk of this Abbot Joachim who was at this time in the Top of his Reputation especially in Italy where all People heard him as a Prophet Richard
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
done an insinite deal of Mischief in the World And after this there is nothing that thou canst do to me which I fear And since I am assured of thy Death I shall with Joy be ready to receive my own though it comes accompanied with all the Terrors and cruel Torments that can be inslicted on me And I replied the King immediately will for the Love of God that thou shalt live And thereupon he caused him presently to be set at liberty commanding that an hundred Pounds Sterling should be bestowed upon him and straitly prohibiting all his People to do him any Injury But presently after the death of the King the Lieutenant General of his Army causing him to be seized made him be hanged and roasted alive in a most barbarous and horrible manner At his Death the King commanded a good part of his Treasure to be distributed among his Domesticks and the Poor He ordered that his Body should be interred at Fontevraud at the Feet of his Father as it were to make some honourable Reparation by this little Humility at his Death for the ill Treatment which he had given him during his Life He bequeathed his Heart to the Church of our Lady at Roan which he had always particularly cherished And for his Soul he entirely submitted it to the Divine Justice offering himself after such an exemplary Repentance to suffer the Pains of Purgatory even till the Day of Judgment for the Expiation of his Crimes It is not my Province to judge of what it pleaseth God to determine and ordain but this is certain that three and thirty Years after his Death Henry Bishop of Rochester in England preaching after he had given holy Orders the Saturday before the Passion-Sunday on which Day the Church begins the Service with those words of Isaiah Ho! Every one that thirsteth come to the Waters saith the Lord Come and drink with Joy In the midst of his Sermon as if it had been by a suddain Enthusiasm he cried out Rejoyce my Brethren the Soul of the glorious King Richard after having till this time been purified like Gold in the Furnace is now passed into Heaven And he affirmed it with such an assured Air exposing to every Person all the Circumstances of the Revelation which he pretended to have had that the Authority of a Prelate who was known to be a most vertuous and learned Man and who was never accused for a Visionary made very many wise People believe that without Weakness they might give Credit to it However it be it is not so much upon these sort of Revelations which are liable to be doubted as upon the manner of the Death of this great Prince that one may reasonably found a Belief of his Salvation However I thought fit to recount these edifying Particularities of the Death of this King who had so great a Share in these Crusades that so Princes may understand that when they have had the happiness to render unto God any considerable Service by any Heroick Action as did this King Richard in being the first that took upon him the Cross in this Holy War where he performed so many brave things they have great reason to hope that the Divine Goodness which is never slow in rewarding the meanest Services will recompense them by the greatest of all Favours in permitting those to die well who have employed their Lives in his Service and for his Glory year 1199 In this time Fouques de Nevilli continued his preaching the Crusade with a most wonderful Success and after he had run through abundance of Provinces distributing an infinite number of Crosses among the People he at last happily sinished his Enterprise by the Engagement of two great Princes in his Design who could not but by their Example draw after them a great number of considerable Persons These two Princes were Theobald IV. Count de Champagne Brother to Henry II. King of Jerusalem who died by the unfortunate Accident at Ptolemais and Lewis his Consin-german Count de Blois and Chartres both of them nearly related to I hilip the August both by the Father and the Mother They were both young and both passionate of Glory And Theobald who was a magnificent Prince that he might declare himself with more Splendor and draw after him more Persons of Quality published a Tournament to be held at his Castle of Escri upon the River Aisne in Advent of that Year 1199. whither the principal Gentry of the Neighbouring Provinces assembled themselves to be Sharers in those Manly Exercises There it was that the brave Count Theobald amidst those noble Exercises of Chivalry which the French and particularly the Counts de Champagne have always so much delighted in resolving to pass magnificently from that gallant Representation of War to that true and holy War which he was about to undertake in most solemn manner took upon him the Cross together with the Count de Blois his Cousin They were immediately followed by two Lords of extraordinary Merit and high Reputation the famous Simon de Montfort and the valiant Renaud de Montmirail the Cousin of Count Lewis After which all those who were under any particular Obligation to these two Counts and many other Gentlemen and Barons especially of the Isle of France and of Picardy also followed their Example and took upon them the Cross The principal among these new Champions of Jesus Christ whose Names are most known and which I mention in this place reserving my self to speak of the others upon occasion of their brave Actions were Geoffry de Joinville Steward and Geoffry de Ville Hardouin Mareshal of Champagne who like a frank and generous Cavalier hath obliged Posterity with the History of this War the Counts Gautier and John de Brienne Gautier de Vignori William and Villain de Neully Erard de Montigni Manasses de l' Isle Guy de Chappes Renard de Dampierre Oliver de Rochefort Ives de Laval Anselme de Courselles Henry de Montreil Paien d'Orleans Matthew de Montmorenci Guy de Couci Robert de Malvoisin Enguerrand Hugh and Robert de Boves Counts d' Amiens to whom the Year following joyned the Counts Hugh de St. Paul Renand de Bologne and Geoffry de Perche and Stephen his Brother with divers other Lords which followed them And to take care of the spiritual Militia of this Army designed for a Holy War Garnier Bishop of Troies who had taken the Cross the Year before and Nevelon Bishop of Soissons resolved to accompany this Crusade Such a famous Action which could not fail of making a mighty noise in the World was the Parent of others great Examples being commonly very prolisick which were produced thereby in generous Minds and Hearts which were amorous of Glory The young Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Henault Nephew to the late Count Philip who died at the Siege of Acre seeing himself at liberty by the Peace of Peronne which he had concluded with Philip the August was resolved
from a Column which the People took for a Prophetick Mark of the Destiny of this miserable Prince conformable to an ancient Oracle which ran currant by Tradition among them at Constantinople That the Ox should bellow and the Bull should weep It is true that the Combats and the Victories of the great Theodosius were represented upon this Column as are to be seen at this day at Rome those of Trajan and Antoninus upon the two famous Columns there which bear their Names and thus it is possible that among those Figures there may be the Representation of some barbarous Prince falling headlong from a high Tower which they took for a Prediction of this Emperor's Destiny but that there should be any real Prediction either in this Figure or in the Story of the Bull 's weeping to forebode the Death of Murtzuphle is what I cannot easily believe For in short these sort of Prophecys of which there are numerous Examples are so obscure that they either signify nothing at all or all that one would have them signify and that commonly they are taken in a Sense far different from that wherein by the Event they explain themselves Witness that Prediction which they had and upon which the Greeks so much relied that the Latins should never take Constantinople by Force because the Prophecy told them that the City should never be taken but by an Angel But the foolish Greeks were mightily mistaken in their Interpretation as the Event shewed there being the Picture of an Angel in the very place where the City was forced And this ought to teach Christians not to amuse themselves with these Predictions which are not at all authorised by the Holy Scripture or the Church and ordinarily those over curious Persons in their own Sottishness and Credulity find their own Punishment the Event deceiving them by proving contrary to their Hopes and Expectation which are cheated by the Ambiguous Riddles such as were formerly the Oracles of the Pagans This was the tragical End of one of the Tyrants as for the other the old Alexis it is true indeed that his was not altogether so sad but altogether as unhappy For having for some time followed Leon Scurus one of his Sons-in-Law who pretended to oppose the Progress of Marquis Boniface in Macedon and Greece when he saw that all things stooped under the Arms of this Victorious Prince he despaired of being able to save himself to prevent his being taken therefore he voluntarily yeilded himself and the Empress Euphrosine with the imperial Ornaments to the Marquis who instantly sent them to the Emperor After which the poor Alexis only desiring wherewith to pass the rest of his miserable Age in some sort of Repose there were some Lands assigned him for that purpose but it being found out that he fell to his old trade of secret Caballing the Marquis to take from him the means of doing Mischief since he could not cure him of the Will to do it sent him Prisoner to Montferrat Some say that he found Means to escape from thence and to pass over into Asia to his other Son-in-Law Lascaris who had seized upon Nice and against whom this perfidious Dotard stirred up the Turks so that he was forced to take him and clap him into a Monastery where he had time to finish his Life in Repentance Thus the Empire of Constantinople about nine hundred Years after its Establishment under the great Constantine was translated from the Greeks to the French by the strangest and most memorable Conquest that ever was made by so small a Force and in so little a time being undertaken and accomplished in one Campagne year 1204 This may disabuse those who have imagined that the Crusade was not prosperous and certainly four great Estates established for the Christians between the Sea and the River Tygris Egypt and Armenia and all the Eastern Empire reduced under the Power of the Crusades are Conquests worthy the Fortune and the Glory of the Caesars and the Alexanders And if those who succeeded them failed of that good Fortune or the Conduct to preserve them it is not to be attribute to them who did so gloriously accomplish these noble Enterprises But as the Matters which happened afterwards under the French Emperors of Constantinople are not at all related to the Crusade it is not requisite that I speak further of them but proceed regularly to pursue the Course of my History and to describe the Success of those who took the other Way and followed other Designs THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The Design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His Death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcement to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Soldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land
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