devoured the mother and wealth impaired religion Chap. 12. The qualitie and condition of those people who undertook the warre IT is not to be expected that all should be fish which is caught in a drag-net neither that all should be good and religious people who were adventurers in an action of so large a capacitie as this warre was We must in charitie allow that many of them were truly zealous and went with pious intents These were like to those of whom Bellarmine speaketh who had no fault praeter nimiam sanctitatem too much sanctitie which a learned man interpreteth too much superstition But besides these well-meaning people there went also a rabble-rout rather for companie then conscience Debters took this voyage on them as an acquittance from their debts to the defrauding of their creditours Servants counted the conditions of their service cancelled by it going away against their masters will Theeves and murderers took upon them the crosse to escape the gallows Adulterers did penance in their armour A lamentable case that the devils black guard should be Gods souldiers And no wonder if the successe was as bad as some of the adventurers especially seeing they retained their old conditions under a new climate And as if this voyage had been like to repentance never too soon nor too late for any to begin not onely green striplings unripe for warre but also decayed men to whom age had given a writ of ease became souldiers and those who at home should have waited on their own graves went farre to visit Christs sepulchre And which was more women as if they would make the tale of the Amazons truth went with weapons in mens clothes a behaviour at the best immodest and modesty being the case of chastitie it is to be feared that where the case is broken the jewel is lost This enterprise was also the mother of much non-residence many Prelates and Friars fitter to handle a pen-knife then a sword left their covents and pastorall charges to follow this businesse The totall summe of those pilgrime-souldiers amounted to three hundred thousand and some writers do double that number No doubt the Christians army had been greater if it had been lesse for the belly was too big for the head and a medley of nations did rather burden then strengthen it Besides the armie was like a cloth of many colours and more seams which seams though they were curiously drawn up for the present yet after long wearing began to be seen and at last brake out into open rents Chap. 13. The adventurers sorted according to their severall nations THe French Dutch Italian and English were the foure elementall nations whereof this army was compounded of these the French were predominant they were the cape-merchants in this adventure That nimble nation first apprehended the project and eagerly prosecuted it As their language wanteth one proper word to expresse Stand so their natures mislike a settled fixed posture and delight in motion and agitation of businesse Yea France as being then best at leisure contributed more souldiers to this warre then all Christendome besides The signall men were Hugh surnamed le Grand brother to the King of France Godfrey Duke of Bouillon Baldwine and Eustace his younger brethren Stephen Earl of Bloys father to Stephen afterwards King of England Reimund Earl of Tholouse Robert Earl of Flanders Hugh Earl of Saint-Paul Baldwine de Burge with many more besides of the Clergie Aimar Bishop of Puy and Legate to the Pope and William Bishop of Orange Germanie is slandered to have sent none to this warre at this first voyage and that other pilgrimes passing through that countrey were mocked by the Dutch and called fools for their pains It is true the Germane adventurers in number answered not the largenesse and populousnesse of their countrey for Henry the Emperour a Prince whom the Pope long hacked at and hewed him off at last being desirous to go this voyage was tied up at home with civill discords Yet we find a competencie of souldiers of that nation besides those under Godescalcus a Priest Emmicho the Rhene-grave and Count Herman their leaders But though Germanie was backward at the first yet afterwards it proved the main Atlas of the warre that nation like a heavie bell was long a raising but being got up made a loud sound Italy sent few out of her heart and middle provinces nigh Rome The Pope was loth to adventure his darlings into danger those white-boyes were to stay at home with his Holinesse their tender father Wherefore he dispensed with them for going as knowing how to use their help nearer and to greater profit Peters patrimonie must as well be looked to as Christs sepulchre But though the Pope would spend none of his own fewel he burnt the best stakes of the Emperours hedge and furthered the Imperiall partie to consume it self in this tedious warre Out of the furthermost parts of Italie Boemund Prince of Tarentum and Tancred his nephew both of the Normane seed though growing on the Apulian soyl led an army of twelve thousand men And Lombardy was also very liberall of her souldiers towards this expedition England the Popes pack-horse in that age which seldome rested in the stable when there was any work to be done sent many brave men under Robert Duke of Normandy brother to William Rufus as Beauchamp and others whose names are lost Neither surely did the Irish-mens feet stick in their bogs though we find no particular mention of their atchievements Spain had other use for her swords against the Saracens at home and therefore sent none of her men abroad As one saith The Spaniards did follow their own Holy warre a work more necessary and no lesse honourable Thus they acted the same part though not on the same stage with our Pilgrimes as being also imployed in fight against the infidels Poland had the same excuse for not much appearing clean through this warre because she lieth bordering on the Tartars in her appendant countrey of Lituania and therefore was busied in making good her frontiers Besides no wonder if Prussia Lituania and Livonia were not up in this service for it was scarce break of day with them and the sunne of the Gospel was newly if at all risen in those parts Yea Poland was so farre from sending men hither that she fetcht them from hence and afterwards implored the aid of the Teutonick order who came out of Palestine to assist her against her enemies Hungary might bring filling-stones to this building but few foundation or corner-stones and at this time had no commander of note in this action Scotland also presenteth us not with any remarkable piece of service which her men performed in all this warre It was not want of devotion which was hot enough in that cold countrey rather we may impute it to want of shipping that countrey being little powerfull at sea or which is most
on the Mitres and consider the ordering of Ecclesiasticall affairs For the Common-wealth is a Ring the Church the Diamond both well set together receive and return lustre each on other As soon as Antioch was taken one Bernard a reverend Prelate was made Patriarch there with generall consent But more stirre was there about that place in Jerusalem For first Arnulphus a worthlesse and vitious man was by popular faction lifted up into the Patriarchs chair but with much ado was avoided and Dabert Archbishop of Pisa substituted in his room one very wise and politick an excellent book-man in reading of men and otherwise well studied especially as that age went wherein a mediocrity was an eminency in learning But he was infected with the humour of the clergie of that age who counted themselves to want room except they justled with Princes As for Arnulphus he never ceased to trouble and molest this Dabert and as a firebrand smoketh most when out of the chimney so he after his displacing was most turbulent and unquiet ever sitting on his skirts that sat in the Patriarchs chair till after many changes he struggled himself again into the place Under these Patriarchs many Archbishops and Bishops were appointed in the very places as neare as might be where they were before the Saracens overrunning the countrey and good maintenance assigned to most of them But at this time Bishops were set too thick for all to grow great and Palestine fed too many Cathedrall churches to have them generally fat Lydda Jamnia and Joppa three episcopall towns were within foure miles one of another Yea Tyrius makes 14 Bishops under the Archbishop of Tyre 20 under the Archbishop of Caesarea under the Archbishop of Scythopolis 9 12 under the Archbishop of Rabbah besides 25 suffragan churches which it seems were immediately depending on the Patriarch of Jerusalem without subordination to any Archbishop Surely many of these Bishops to use Bishop Langhams expression had high racks but poore mangers Neither let it stagger the reader if in that catalogue of Tyrius he light on many Bishops seats which are not to be found in Mercator Ortelius or any other Geographer for some of them were such poore places that they were ashamed to appear in a map and fall so much under a Geographers notice that they fall not under it For in that age Bishops had their Sees at poore and contemptible villages as here in England before the Conquest who would suspect Sunning in Barkshire or Dorchester neare Oxford to have had Cathedrall churches till in the daies of William the first Bishops removed their seats to the principall towns in the shire Chap. 3. The Saracens conquered at Askelon MAhomets tombe hung not so strong but now it began to shake and was likely to fall These victories of the Christians gave a deadly wound to that religion Wherefore the Saracens combined themselves with the Turks to assist them there being betwixt these two nations I will not say an unity but a conspiracy in the same superstition so that therein they were like a nest of hornets stirre one and anger all Wherefore coming out of Egypt under Ammiravissus their Generall at Askelon they gave the Christians battel But God sent such a qualm of cowardlinesse over the hearts of these Infidels that an hundred thousand of them were quickly slain so that it was rather an execution then a fight and their rich tents which seemed to be the exchequer of the East-countrey spoiled so that the Pilgrimes knew not how to value the wealth they found in them This victory obtained such Pilgrimes as were disposed to return addressed themselves for their countrey and these merchants for honour went home having made a gainfull adventure Those that remained were advanced to Signories in the land as Tancred was made governour of Galilee Nor will it be amisse to insert this story Peter Bishop of Anagnia in Italy was purposed here to lead his life without taking care for his charge when behold S. Magnus patrone of that church appeared to him in a vision pretending himself to be a young man who had left his wife at home and was come to live in Jerusalem Fie said Peter to him go home again to your wife Whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder Why then replied S. Magnus have you left your church a widow in Italy and live here so farre from her company This vision though calculated for this one Bishop did generally serve for all the non-residents which posted hither and who payed not the lawfull debt to their conscience whilest by needlesse bonds they engaged themselves to their own will-worship For though souls of men be light because immateriall yet they may prove an heavy burden to these carelesse Pastours who were to answer for them After the return of these Pilgrimes the heat of the Christians victories in Syria were somewhat allayed for Boemund Prince of Antioch marching into Mesopotamia was taken prisoner and Godfrey besieging the city of Antipatris then called Assur though hitherto he had been alwayes a conquerour was fain to depart with disgrace So small a remora may stay that ship which faileth with the fairest gale of successe Chap. 4. The originall and increase of the Hospitallers their degenerating through wealth into luxury ABout this time under Gerard their first master began the order of Knights-hospitallers Indeed more anciently there were Hospitallers in Jerusalem but these were no Knights they had a kind of order but no honour annexed to it but were pure Alms-men whose house was founded and they maintained by the charity of the merchants of Amalphia a citie in Italy But now they had more stately buildings assigned unto them their house dedicated to S. John of Jerusalem Knights-hospitallers and those of S. John of Jerusalem being both the same although learned Dr. Ridley maketh them two distinct orders for which our great Antiquary doth justly reprove him But such an errour is veniall and it is a greater fault rigidly to censure then to commit a small oversight The one sheweth himself man in mistaking the other no man in not pardoning a light mistake To make one capable of the highest order of this Knighthood for their servitours and priests might be of an inferiour rank the party must thus be qualified Eighteen yeares old at the least of an able body not descended of Jewish or Turkish parents no bastard except bastard to a Prince there being honour in that dishonour as there is light in the very spots of the moon Descended he must be of worshipfull parentage They wore a red belt with a white crosse and on a black cloke the white crosse of Jerusalem which is a crosse crossed or five crosses together in memorie of our Saviours five wounds Yet was there some difference betwixt their habit in peace and in warre Their profession was to fight against Infidels and to secure
lavish physick on him in whom he seeth faciem cadaverosam so that death hath taken possession in the sick mans countenance finding this warre to be desperate and dedecus fortitudinis they even fairly left the Holy land and came into Europe meaning to lay out their valour on some thing that would quit cost But hereof hereafter Chap. 6. Richard of England and Philip of France set forward to the Holy land The danger of the interveiws of Princes THe miseries of the Christians in Syria being reported in Europe made Richard the first King of England and Philip the second surnamed Augustus King of France to make up all private dissensions betwixt them and to unite their forces against the Turks Richard was well stored with men the bones and quickly got money the sinews of warre by a thousand Princely skills gathering so much coin as if he meant not to return because looking back would unbowe his resolution To Hugh Bishop of Duresme for his life he sold the County of Northumberland jesting he had made a new Earl of an old Bishop He sold Barwick and Roxburgh to the Scottish king for ten thousand pounds Yea he protested he would sell his citie of London if any were able to buy it rather then he would be burdensome to his subjects for money But take this as he spake it for a flourish for pretending he had lost his old he made a new seal wherewith he squeezed his subjects and left a deep impression in their purses forcing them to have all their instruments new-sealed which any wayes concerned the Crown Having now provided for himself he forgot not his younger brother John Earl of Morton who was to stay behind him an active man who if he misliked the maintenance was cut for him would make bold to carve for himself Lest therefore straitned for means he should swell into discontent King Richard gave him many Earldomes and honours to the yearly value of foure thousand marks Thus he received the golden saddle but none of the bridle of the Common-wealth honour riches were heaped upon him but no place of trust and command For the King deputed William Bishop of Ely his Viceroy choosing him for that place rather then any lay-Earl because a Coronet perchance may swell into a Crown but never a Mitre For a Clergie-mans calling made him uncapable of usurpation in his own person Thus having settled matters at home he set forth with many of our nation which either ushered or followed him Of these the prime were Baldwine Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert Bishop of Salisburie Robert Earl of Leicester Ralph de Glanvile late chief Justice of England Richard de Clare Walter de Kime c. The Bishops of Duresme and Norwich though they had vowed this voyage were dispensed with by the court of Rome quae nulli deest pecuniam largienti to stay at home His navie he sent about by Spain and with a competent number took his own journey through France At Tours he took his Pilgrimes scrip and staff from the Archbishop His staff at the same time casually brake in pieces which some whose dexteritie lay in sinister interpreting all accidents construed a token of ill successe Likewise when he and the French king with their trains passed over the bridge of Lyons on the fall of the bridge this conceit was built That there would be a falling out betwixt these two Kings which accordingly came to passe their intercourse and familiaritie breeding hatred and discontent betwixt them Yea the interviews of equall Princes have ever been observed dangerous Now Princes measure their equalitie not by the extent of their dominions but by the absolutenesse of their power so that he that is supreme and independent in his own countrey counteth himself equall to any other Prince how great soever Perchance some youthfull Kings may disport and solace themselves one in anothers companie whilest as yet pleasure is all the elevation of their souls But when once they grow sensible of their own greatnesse a lesson they will quickly learn and shall never want teachers then emulation will be betwixt them because at their meeting they cannot so go in equipage but one will still be the foremost Either his person will be more proper or carriage more court-like or attendance more accomplished or attire more fashionable or some thing will either be or conceived to be more majesticall in one then the other And corrivalls in honour count themselves eclipsed by every beam of state which shineth from their competitour Wherefore the best way to keep great Princes together is to keep them asunder accommodating their businesse by Embassadours lest the meeting of their own persons part their affections Chap. 7. King Richard conquereth Sicilie and Cyprus in his passage to the Holy land AT Lyons these two Kings parted their trains and went severall wayes into Sicilie King Richard in his passage though within fifteen miles of Rome wanting forsooth either devotion or manners vouchsafed not to give his Holinesse a visit yea plainly told Octavian Bishop of Ostia the Popes Confessour that having better objects to bestow his eyes on he would not stirre a step to see the Pope Because lately without mercie he had simoniacally extorted a masse of money from the Prelates of England At Messana in Sicilie these two Kings meet again where to complete King Richards joy behold his Navie there safely arriving which with much difficultie and danger had fetched a compasse about Spain And now King Richard by his own experience grew sensible of the miseries which merchants and mariners at sea underwent being alwayes within few inches often within an hairs breadth of death Wherefore now touched with remorse of their pitifull case he resolved to revoke the law of Wracks as a law so just that it was even unjust For formerly both in England and Normandie the Crown was intituled to shipwrackt goods and the King jure gentium made heir unto them which otherwise jure naturali were conceived to be in bonis nullius pertaining to no owner But now our Richard refused to make advantage of such pitifull accidents and to strip poore mariners out of those rags of their estates which the mercie and modestie of the waves and winds had left them And therefore on the moneth of October at Messana in the presence of many Archbishops and Bishops he for ever quitted the claim to Wracks So that if any man out of the ship cometh alive to the shore the propertie of the shipwrackt goods is still preserved to the owner Yea this grant was so enlarged by our succeeding Kings that if a dogge or a cat escaped alive to land the goods still remained the owners if he claimed them within a yeare and a day Tankred at this time was King of Sicilie a bastard born and no wonder if climbing up to the throne the wrong way he shaked when he sat down Besides he was
Eustace The Turks retired to Solomons temple so called because built in the same place there to take the farewell of their lives In a desperate conflict there the foremost of the Christians were miserably slain thrust upon the weapons of their enemies by their fellows that followed them The pavement so swam that none could go but either through a rivulet of bloud or over a bridge of dead bodies Valour was not wanting in the Turks but superlatively abundant in the Christians till night made them leave off Next morning mercie was proclaimed to all those that would lay down their weapons For though bloud be the best sauce for victorie yet must it not be more then the meat Thus was Jerusalem wonne by the Christians and twentie thousand Turks therein slain on the fifteenth of July being Friday about three of the clock in the afternoon Tyrius findeth a great mysterie in the time because Adam was created on a Friday and on the same day and houre our Saviour suffered But these Synchronismes as when they are naturall they are pretty and pleasing so when violently wrested nothing more poore and ridiculous Then many Christians who all this while had lived in Jerusalem in most lamentable slaverie being glad to lurk in secret as truth oftentimes seeketh corners as fearing her judge though never as suspecting her cause came forth joyfully wellcomed and embraced these the procurers of their liberty Three dayes after it was concluded as a necessarie piece of severitie for their defense to put all the Turks in Jerusalem to death which was accordingly performed without favour to age or sex The pretense was for fear of treason in them if the Emperour of Persia should besiege the citie And some slew them with the same zeal wherewith Saul slew the Gibeonites and thought it unfit that these goats should live in the sheeps pasture But noble Tancred was highly displeased hereat because done in cold bloud it being no slip of an extemporany passion but a studied and premeditated act and that against pardon proclaimed many of them having compounded and paid for their lives and libertie Besides the execution was mercilesse upon sucking children whose not-speaking spake for them and on women whose weaknesse is a shield to defend them against a valiant man To conclude Severitie hot in the fourth degree is little better then poyson and becometh crueltie it self and this act seemeth to be of the same nature The end of the first Book The Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book II. Chap. 1. Robert the Normane refuseth the kingdome of Ierusalem Godfrey of Bouillon chosen king his parentage education and vertues FIght dayes after Jerusalem was wonne they proceeded to the election of a King but they had so much choice that they had no choice at all so many Princes there were and so equally eminent that Justice her self must suspend her verdict not knowing which of them best deserved the Crown Yet it was their pleasure to pitch on Robert the Normane as on the man of highest descent being sonne to a King for great Hugh of France was already returned home pretending the colick though some impute it to cowardlinesse and make the disease not in his bowels but his heart Robert refused this honourable profer whether because he had an eye to the kingdome of England now void by the death of William Rufus or because he accounted Jerusalem would be incumbred with continuall warre But he who would not take the Crown with the Crosse was fain to take the Crosse without the Crown and never thrived afterwards in any thing he undertook Thus they who refuse what God fairly carveth for them do never after cut well for themselves He lived to see much misery and felt more having his eyes put out by king Henry his brother and at last found rest when buried in the now Cathedrall church of Glocester under a woodden monument bearing better proportion to his low fortunes then high birth And since in the same quire he hath got the company of another Prince as unfortunate as himself King Edward the second They go on to a second choice and that they may know the natures of the Princes the better their servants were examined on oath to confesse their masters faults The servants of Godfrey of Bouillon protested their masters onely fault was this That when Mattens were done he would stay so long in the church to know of the Priest the meaning of every image and picture that dinner at home was spoiled by his long tarrying All admired hereat that this mans worst vice should be so great a vertue and unanimously chose him their King He accepted the place but refused the solemnity thereof and would not wear a crown of gold there where the Saviour of mankind had worn a crown of thorns He was sonne to Bustace Duke of Bouillon and Ida his wife daughter and heir to Godfrey Duke of Lorein born saith Tyrius at Bologne a town in Champaigne on the English sea which he mistaketh for Bouillon up higher in the continent neare the county of Lutzenburg Such slips are incident to the pennes of the best authours yea we may see Canterbury mistaken for Cambridge not onely in Munster but even in all our own printed Statute-books in the 12. of Richard the second He was brought up in that school of valour the court of Henry the 4. the Emperour Whilest he lived there there happened an intricate suit betwixt him and another Prince about title of land and because Judges could not untie the knot it was concluded the two Princes should cut it asunder with their sword in a combat Godfrey was very unwilling to fight not that he was the worse souldier but the better Christian he made the demurre not in his courage but in his conscience as conceiving any private title for land not ground enough for a duell Yea we may observe generally that they who long most to fight duells are the first that surfet of them Notwithstanding he yeelded to the tyranny of custome and after the fashion of the countrey entred the lists when at the first encounter his sword brake but he struck his adversary down with the hilt yet so that he saved his life and gained his own inheritance Another parallel act of his valour was when being standard-bearer to the Emperour he with the imperiall ensigne killed Rodulphus the Duke of Saxony in single fight and fed the Eagle on the bowels of that arch-rebell His soul was enriched with many vertues but the most orient of all was his humility which took all mens affections without resistance And though one saith Take away ambition and you take away the spurres of a souldier yet Godfrey without those spurres rode on most triumphantly Chap. 2. The establishing of Ecclesiasticall affairs and Patriarchs in Antioch and Ierusalem the numerosity of Palestine-Bishops BUt now let us leave the Helmets and look
pleased himself in the style of Prince of Tyre then King of Jerusalem as counting it more honour to be Prince of what he had then King of what he had not And now the Christians began every where to build The Templars fortified Gaza King Richard repaired and walled Ptolemais Porphyria Joppa and Askelon But alas this short prosperity like an Autumne-spring came too late and was gone too soon to bring any fruit to maturitie It was now determined they should march towards Jerusalem for all this while they had but hit the butt that Holy citie was the mark they shot at Richard led the vantguard of English Duke Odo commanded in the main battel over his French James of Avergne brought on the Flemings and Brabanters in the rere Saladine serpent-like biting the heel assaulted the rere not farre from Bethlehem when the French and English wheeling about charged the Turks most furiously Emulation formerly poyson was here a cordiall each Christian nation striving not onely to conquer their enemies but to overcome their friends in the honour of the conquest King Richard seeking to put his courage out of doubt brought his judgement into question being more prodigall of his person then beseemed a Generall One wound he received but by losing his bloud he found his spirits and laid about him like a mad-man The Christians got the victory without the losse of any of number or note save James of Avergne who here died in the bed of honour But more of the Turks wore slain then in any battel for fourtie yeares before Had the Christians presently gone to Jerusalem probably they might have surprised it whilest the Turks eyes were muffled and blindfolded in the amazement of this great overthrow But this opportunitie was lost by the backwardnesse and unwillingnesse of King Richard and the English say the French writers To crie quits with them our English authours impute it to the enviâ— of the French who would have so glorious an action rather left undone then done by the English They complain likewise ofâ— the treacherie of Odo Duke of Burgundie who more carefull of his credit then his conscience was choked with the shame of the sinne he had swallowed and died for grief when his intelligence with the Turks was made known This cannot be denied that Saladine sent term them bribes or presents both to our King and the French Duke and they received them no wonder then if neither of them herein had a good name when they traded with such familiars But most hold King Richard attempted not Jerusalem because as a wise architect he would build his victories so as they might stand securing the countrey as he went it being senselesse to besiege Jerusalem a straggling citie whilest the Turks as yet were in possession of all the sea-ports and strong forts thereabout About this time he intercepted many camels loaden with rich commoditie those Eastern wares containing much in a little And yet of all this and of all the treasures of England Sicilie and Cyprus which he brought hither King Richard carried home nothing but one gold-ring all the rest of his wealth melted away in this hot service He wintered in Askelon intending next spring to have at Jerusalem Chap. 12. The little-honourable peace King Richard made with Saladine Of the value of Reliques BUt bad news out of Europe shaked his steadiest resolutions hearing how William Bishop of Ely his Vice-roy in England used unsufferable insolencies over his subjects So hard it is for one of base parentage to personate a King without over-acting his part Also he heard how the King of France and John Earl of Morton his own brother invaded his dominions ambition the Pope in their belly dispensing with their oath to the contrary Besides he saw this warre was not a subject capable of valour to any purpose the Venetians Genoans Pisans and Florentines being gone away with their fleets wisely shrinking themselves out of the collar when they found their necks wrung with the hard imployment Hereupon he was forced first to make the motion of in plain terms to begge peace of Saladine Let Saladine now alone to winne having all the game in his own hand Well knew he how to shoot at his own ends and to take aim by the exigencies wherein he knew King Richard was plunged For he had those cunning gypsies about him who could read in King Richards face what grieved his heart and by his intelligencers was certified of every note-worthy passage in the English armie Upon these terms therefore or none beggers of peace shall never be choosers of their conditions a truce for three some say five yeares might be concluded That the Christians should demolish all places they had walled since the taking of Ptolemais which was in effect to undo what with much charge they had done But such was the tyrannie of King Richards occasions forcing him to return that he was glad to embrace those conditions he hated at his heart Thus the voyage of these two Kings begun with as great confidence of the undertakers as expectation of the beholders continued with as much courage as interchangeablenesse of successe baned with mutuall discord emulation was ended with some honour to the undertakers no profit either to them or the Christian cause Some farre-fetched deare-bought honour they got especially King Richard who eternized his memory in Asia whom if men forget horses will remember the Turks using to say to their horses when they started for fear Dost thou think King Richard is here Profit they got none losing both of them the hair of their heads in an acute disease which was more saith one then both of them got by the voyage They left the Christians in Syria in worse case then they found them as he doeth the benighted traveller a discourtesie rather then a kindnesse who lendeth him a lantern to take it away leaving him more masked then he was before And now a little to solace my self and the reader with a merry digression after much sorrow and sad stories King Richard did one thing in Palestine which was worth all the cost and pains of his journey namely He redeemed from the Turks a chest full of holy Reliques which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem so great as foure men could scarce carry any way And though some know no more then Esops cock how to prize these pearls let them learn the true value of them from the Romane jewellers First they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques In private ones some forgery may be suspected lest quid be put for quo which made S. Augustine put in that wary parenthesis Si tamen Martyrum If so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs But as for publick ones approved by the Pope and kept in Churches such no doubt as these of King Richards were oh let no Christian be such an infidel as to stagger at the
this mark ☉ which reduceth it to the yeare it endeth in Br. standeth for Brother S. Sonne M. Moneths D. Dayes Note whilest there were Caliphs of Egypt then the Sultans were but Deputies and Lieutenants but afterwards the Mamaluke Sultans were absolute Princes acknowledging no Superiour A Chronologicall Table Anno Dom. Popes Emper. of the East Emper. of the West Kings of England Kings of France Holy Warre Kings of Ierusalem Princes of Antioch Patriarchs of Antioch Patriarchs of Ierusalem Mrs of Kn. Hospitallers Caliphs of Syria Caliphs of Egypt 1095 URBANE the second 8 ALEXIUS COMâ—ENê° 15 HENRY the fourth 40 WILLIAM RUFUS 8 PHILIP the first 36 The Councel of Clermont foundeth the Holy Warre     MUSTETAHER 1 MUSTRAL 1 6 9 16 41 9 37 1. VOYAGE under GODFREY Duke of Bouillon     2 2 7 10 17 42 10 38 Nice wonne by the Christians     3 3 8 11 18 43 11 39 Antioch wonne by the Christians BOEMUND 1    4 4 9 M. 4 D. 18 19 44 12 40 Jerusalem wonne by the Christians 2    5 5 1100 PASCHAL the second 2 20 45 13 41 GODFREY King of Jerusalem 1 He is taken captive â—ancred manageth the State in his absence 3 BERNARD 1 1. ARNULPHUS M. 5 â— GERARD 1 6 6 1 3 21 46 HENRY the first 1 42 BALDWINE his brother 2. VOYAGE under severall Princes Prelates 1 Cesaria wonne by the Christians 4 2 II. DABERTUS He stickleth for Jerusalem to get it from the King 1 2 7 ELAMIR S. 1 2 4 22 47 2 43 Apamia Laodicea wonne by the Christians 2 5 3 2 3 8 2 3 5 23 48 3 44 3 Boemund ransomed 6 4 3 II. REIMUND le Podio 1 9 3 4 6 24 49 4 45 Ptolemais wonne by the Christians 4 He unfortunately besiegeth Charâ—as 7 5 Flieth to Antioch 4 2 10 4 5 7 25 M. 10 5 46 5 Travelleth into France 8 6 III. EBREMARUS put in by the King displaced by the Pope 1 Thence to Rome 5 3 11 5 6 8 26 HENRY the fifth 1 6 47 6 9 7 2 6 4 12 6 7 9 27 2 7 48 7 Returneth and wasteth Grecia with his navie 10 8 3 Dieth in Sicily 7 5 13 7 8 10 28 3 8 49 8 11 9 IV. GIâ—ELLINUS Archbishop of Arles 1 6 14 8 9 11 29 4 9 LEWIS the Grosse 2 Tripolis wonne by the Christians 9 BOEMUND the second S. â—et a child and living in Apulia in whose minoritie first Tancred then Roger his kinsman were Princes in trust 1 10 2 7 15 9 1110 12 30 5 10 3 Berytus Sidon wonne by the Christians 10 2 11 3 8 16 10 1 13 31 6 11 4 11 3 12 4 9 17 11 2 14 32 7 12 5 12 4 13 V. ARNULPHUS Archdeacon of Jerusalem 1 10 18 12 3 15 33 8 13 6 13 5 14 2 11 19 13 4 16 34 9 14 7 14 6 15 3 12 20 14 Anno Dom. Popes Emper. of the East Emper. of the West Kings of England Kings of France Holy Warre Kings of Ierusalem Princes of Antioch Patriarchs of Antioch Patriarchs of Ierusalem Mrs of Kn. Hospitallers Mrs of Kn. Templars Caliphs of Syria Caliphs of Egypt 1115 17 35 10 15 8 15 7 16 4 13  21 15 6 18 36 11 16 9 16 8 17 5 14  22 16 7 M. 5 D. 9 37 12 17 10 Baldwines voyages into Egypt 1. when he took Pharamia 17 9 18 He is accused for his wicked life posteth to Rome and there buyeth to be innocent 6 15  23 17 8 GELASIUS 1 D. 5. CALO JOHANNES S. 1 13 18 11 Baldwines voyages into Egypt 2. when he got his death 18 10 19 7 16  MUSTERASâ—MAD 1 18 9  2 14 19 12 BALDVVINE the second his kinsman 1 Roger fighting unadvisedly with the Turks is slain ☉ 11 20 VI. GUARIMUNDê° of Amiens 1 17 HUOâ— de Pagahis GODFRID of S. Omars 1 2 19 1120 CALIXTUS the second 2 3 15 20 13 2 12 21 2 18 2 3 20 1 3 4 16 21 14 3 13 22 3 19 3 4 21 2 4 5 17 22 15 He fighteth on disadvantage with the Turks and is taken captive 4 14 23 4 20 These first nine yeares there were but nine Templars 4 5 22 3 5 6 18 23 16 5 15 24 5 21 5 6 23 4 M. 10 D. 13 7 M. 9 24 17 He is dearly ransomed Tyre taken by the Christians 6 16 25 6 22 6 7 24 5 HONORIUS the second 2 8 LOTHARIUS the Saxon 1 25 18 Baldwine getteth so much spoil from the conquered Turks as serveth to pay his ransome 7 Boemund now of age cometh to Antioch marrieth King Baldwines daughter 17 26 7 23 7 RAâ—CHID S. afterwards deposed by the WISEMAN of the Ismaâ—lites 1 25 6 3 9 2 26 19 8 18 27 8 24 8 2 26 7 4 10 3 27 20 9 19 28 9 25 The Order of the Templars confirmed by the Pope and a Councel 9 3 27 8 5 11 4 28 21 10 20 29 VII STEPHANUS suspected to have been poysoned by the King 1 26 10  28 9 M. 2 D. 3 12 5 29 22 11 21 30 2 27 EVERARDê° master of the Templars to whom Peâ—er Cleniacensis writ a book in praise of this Order 1  29 1130 INNOCENTIUS the second 1 13 6 30 23 12 He is surprised and slain in Cilicia 22 31 VIII WILLIAM Prior of the Sepulchre 1 28 2  30 1 2 14 7 31 24 13 Alice the Relict of Boemund Princesse Regent in the minoritie of Constantia her daughter 1 32 2 29 3  31 2 3 15 8 32 25 FULK Earl of Anjou in right of Millecent his wife eldest daughter to K. Baldvvine 1 2 33 3 30 4  32 3 4 16 9 33 26 2 3 34 4 31   33 4 5 17 10 34 27 3 4 35 5 32   34 1135 6 18 11 35 28 4 5 36 6 33  MUCTAPHIL S. to Mustetaher 1 35 6 7 19 12 STEâ—HEN the Usurper 1 29 5 REIMUND Earl of Poictou in right of Constantia his wife He acknowledgeth himself vassall to the Grecian Emperour and resigneth Cilicia to him 1 RODULPHUS chosen Patriarch by the Laitie 1 7 34  2 ELHAPHIT S. In the 20 yeare of his reigne he was killed by one Nosradine Vide Tyr. lib. 18. cap. 49. Calvis in Anno 1156. 1 7 8 20 13 2 30 6 2 2 8 35  3 2 8 9 21 CONRADUS the third 1 3 LEWIS the seventh or the Younger 1 7 3 3 9 36 ROBERT of Burgundie Tyr. lib. 15 c 6 4 3 9 10 22 2 4 2 8 4 4 10 37  5 4 1140 11 23 3 5 3 9 5 5 11 38  6 5 1 12 24 4 6 4 10 6 6 12 39  7 6 2 13 M. 7 5 7 5 BALDWINE the third S. Edessa wonne by Sanguine from the Christians 1 7 ALMERICUS 1 13 40  8 7 3 M. 7
the Christians the honour of the victorie Following his blow he pinned up the Turks afterward in the city of Alexandria and forced them to receive of him conditions of peace and then returned himself with honour to Askelon Chap. 37. Almerick against his promise invadeth Egypt His perjury punished with the future ruine of the kingdome of Ierusalem His death WHen a Crown is the prize of the game we must never expect fair play of the gamesters King Almerick having looked on the beauty of the kingdome of Egypt he longed for it and now no longer to drive out the relicks of the Turks but to get Egypt to himself And the next yeare against the solemn league with the Caliph invaded it with a great army He falsely pretended that the Caliph would make a private peace with Noradine King of the Turks and hence created his quarrel For he hath a barren brain who cannot fit himself with an occasion if he hath a desire to fall out But Gilbert master of the Hospitallers chiefly stirred up the King to this warre upon promise that the city and countrey of Pelusium if conquered should be given to his order The Templars were much against the designe one of their order was Embassadour at the ratifying of the peace and with much zeal protested against it as undertaken against oath and fidelity An oath being the highest appeal perjury must needs be an hainous sinne whereby God is solemnly invited to be witnesse of his own dishonour And as bad is a God-mocking equivocation For he that surpriseth truth with an ambush is as bad an enemy as he that fighteth against her with a flat lie in open field I know what is pleaded for King Almerick namely That Christians are not bound to keep faith with idolaters the worshippers of a false god as the Egyptian Caliph was on the matter But open so wide a window and it will be in vain to shut any doores All contracts with Pagans may easily be voided if this evasion be allowed But what saith S. Hierome It matters not to whom but by whom we swear And God to acquit himself knowing the Christians prosperity could not stand with his justice after their perjury frowned upon them And from hence authours date the constant ill successe of the Holy warre For though this expedition sped well at the first and Almerick wonne the citie of Belbis or Pelusium yet see what a cloud of miseries ensued First Noradine in his absence wasted and wonne places neare Antiochia at pleasure Secondly Meller Prince of Armenia a Christian made a covenant with Noradine and kept it most constantly to the inestimable disadvantage of the King of Jerusalem This act of Meller must be condemned but withall Gods justice admired Christians break their covenant with Saracens in Egypt whilest other Christians to punish them make and keep covenant with Turks in Asia Thirdly the Saracens grew good souldiers on a sudden who were naked at first and onely had bows but now learned from the Christians to use all offensive and defensive weapons Thus rude nations alwayes better themselves in fighting with a skilfull enemy How good mark-men are the Irish now-a-dayes which some seventy yeares ago at the beginning of their rebellions had three men to discharge a hand-gunne Fourthly Almericks hopes of conquering Egypt were frustrated for after some victories he was driven out and that whole kingdome conquered by Saladine nephew to Syracon who killed the Caliph with his horse-mace as he came to do him reverence and made himself the absolutest Turkish King of Egypt And presently after the death of Noradine the kingdome of the Turks at Damascus was by their consent bestowed upon him Indeed Noradine left a sonne Melexala who commanded in part of his fathers dominions but Saladine after his death got all for himself Thus rising men shall still meet with more stairs to raise them as those of falling with stumbling-blocks to ruine them Mean time Jerusalem was a poore weather-beaten kingdome bleak and open to the storm of enemies on all sides having no covert or shelter of any good friend neare it lying in the lions mouth betwixt his upper and nether jaw Damascus on the North and Egypt on the South two potent Turkish kingdomes united under a puissant Prince Saladine This made Almerick send for succours into Europe for now few voluntaries came to this service souldiers must be pressed with importunity Our Western Princes were prodigall of their pity but niggardly of their help The heat of the warre in Palestine had cooled their desires to go thither which made these Embassadours to return without supplies having gone farre to fetch home nothing but discomfort and despair Lastly King Almerick himself wearied with whole volleys of miseries ended his life of a bloudy flux having reigned eleven full yeares and was buried with his predecessours Leaving two children Baldwine and Sibyll by Agnes his first wife and by Mary his second wife daughter to John Proto-Sebastus a Grecian Prince one daughter Isabell married afterwards to Hemphred the third Prince of Thorone Chap. 38. Baldwine the fourth succeedeth His education under William the reverend Archbishop of Tyre BAldwine his sonne the fourth of that name succeeded his father so like unto him that we report the reader to the character of King Almerick and will spare the repeating his description Onely he differed in the temper of his bodie being enclined to the leprosie called Elephantiasis noysome to the patient but not infectious to the company not like King Uzziahs but Naamans leprosie which had it been contagious no doubt the King of Assyria when he went into the house of Rimmon would have chosen another supporter Mean time the kingdome was as sick as the King he of a leprosie that of an incurable consumption This Baldwine had the benefit of excellent education under William Archbishop of Tyre a pious man and excellent scholar skilled in all the learned Orientall tongues besides the Dutch and French his native language a moderate and faithfull writer For in the latter part of his history of the Holy warre his eye guided his hand till at last the taking of the city of Jerusalem so shook his hand that his penne fell out and he wrote no more Treasurer he was of all the money contributed to the Holy warre Chancellour of this kingdome imployed in severall Embassies in the West present at the Lateran Councel the acts whereof he did record Cardinall he might have been but refused it In a word unhappy onely that he lived in that age though that age was happy he lived in it Chap. 39. The vitiousnesse of Heraclius the Patriarch of Ierusalem His Embassie to Henry the second King of England with the successe The Maronites reconciled to the Romane Church AFter the death of Almerick Patriarch of Jerusalem Heraclius was by the Queen-mother Mary second wife to King Almerick for his
handsomenesse preferred to be Patriarch William Archbishop of Tyre was violent against his election because of a prophesie That as Heraclius King of Persia wonne so an Heraclius should lose the Crosse. But others excepted that this exception was nothing worth For let God give the man and let the devil set the name As for those blind prophesies they misse the truth ofter then hit it so that no wise man will lean his belief on so slender a prop. But Heraclius had a worse name then his name the bad report of his vitious life keeping a Vintners wife whom he maintained in all state like an Empresse and owned the children he had by her Her name Pascha de Rivera and she was generally saluted The Patriarchesse His example infected the inferiour clergie whose corruption was a sad presage of the ruine of the realm For when Prelates the Seers when once those eye-strings begin to break the heart-strings hold not out long after In his time the Maronites were reconciled to the Romane Church Their main errour was the heresie of the Monothelites touching one onely will and action in Christ. For after that the heresie of Nestorius about two persons in our Saviour was detested in the Eastern Churches some thought not themselves safe enough from the heresie of two persons till they were fallen with the opposite extremity of one nature in Christ violence making men reel from one extreme to another The errour once broched found many embracers As no opinion so monstrous but if it hath had a mother it will get a nurse But now these Maronites renouncing their tenents received the Catholick faith though soon after when Saladine had conquered their countrey they relapsed to their old errours wherein they continued till the late times of Pope Gregory the thirteenth and Clement the eighth when they again renewed their communion with the Romane Church They live at this day on mount Libanus not exceeding twelve thousand households and pay to the great Turk for every one above twelve yeares old seventeen sultanines by the yeare and for every space of ground sixteen spanne square one sultanine yearly to keep themselves free from the mixture of Mahometanes A sultanine is about seven shillings six pence of our money To return to Heraclius Soon after he was sent Embassadour to Henry the second King of England to crave his personall assistance in the Holy warre delivering unto him the Royall standard with the keyes of our Saviours sepulchre the towre of David and the city of Jerusalem sent him by King Baldwine King Henry was singled out for this service before other Princes because the world justly reported him valiant wise rich powerfull and fortunate And which was the main hereby he might expiate his murder and gather up again the innocent bloud which he had shed of Thomas Becket Besides Heraclius entituled our Henry to the kingdome of Jerusalem because Geoffrey Plantagenet his father was sonne some say brother to Fulk the fourth King of Jerusalem But King Henry was too wise to bite at such a bait wherein was onely the husk of title without the kernel of profit Yet he pretended he would go into Palestine and got hereby a masse of money towards his voyage making every one as well Clerk as Lay saving such as went to pay that yeare the tenth of all their revenues moveables and chattells as well in gold as in silver Of every citie in England he chose the richest men as in London two hundred in York an hundred and so in proportion and took the tenth of all their moveables by the estimation of credible men who knew their estates imprisoning those which refused to pay sub eleemosynae titulo vitium rapacitatis includans saith Walsingham But now when he had filled his purse all expected he should fulfill his promise when all his voyage into Palestine turned into a journey into France Heraclius whilest he stayed in England consecrated the Temple-church in the suburbs of London and the house adjoyning belonging to the Templars since turned to a better use for the students of our municipall Law these new Templars defending one Christian from another as the old ones Christians from Pagans Chap. 40. Saladine fitteth himself with forrein forces The originall and great power of the Mammalukes with their first service IN the minority of King Baldwine who was but thirteen yeares old Milo de Plancia Noble-man was Protectour of the Realm Whose pride and insolence could not be brooked and therefore he was stabbed at Ptolemais and Reimund Count of Tripoli chosen to succeed him Now Saladine seriously intendeth to set on the Kingdome of Jerusalem and seeketh to furnish himself with souldiers for that service But he perceived that the ancient nation of the Egyptians had lasted so long that now it ranne dregs their spirits being as low as the countrey they lived in and they fitter to make merchants and mechanicks then military men For they were bred in such soft imployments that they were presently foundred with any hard labour Wherefore he sent to the Circassians by the lake of Meotis neare Taurica Chersonesus and thence bought many slaves of able and active bodies For it was a people born in a hard countrey no fewel for pleasure grew there nor was brought thither and bred harder so that warre was almost their nature with custome of continuall skirmishing with the neighbouring Tartars These slaves he trained up in military discipline most of them being Christians once baptized but afterwards untaught Christ they learned Mahomet and so became the worse foes to religion for once being her friends These proved excellent souldiers and speciall horsemen and are called Mammalukes And surely the greatnesse of Saladine and his successours stood not so much on the legs of their native Egyptians as it leaned on the staff of these strangers Saladine and especially the Turkish Kings after him gave great power and placed much trust in these Mammalukes Who lived a long time in ignorance of their own strength till at last they took notice of it and scorning any longer to be factours for another they would set up for themselves and got the sovereignty from the Turkish Kings Thus Princes who make their subjects over-great whet a knife for their own throats And posterity may chance to see the insolent Janizaries give the grand Seignor such a trip on the heel as may tumble him on his back But more largely of these Mammalukes usurping the kingdome of Egypt God willing in its proper place Thus Saladine having furnished himself with new souldiers went to handsel their valour upon the Christians invaded the Holy land burning all the countrey before him and raging in the bloud of poore Christians till he came and encamped about Askelon Mean time whilest Reimund Count of Tripoli Protectour of the Kingdome with Philip Earl of Flanders the chief strength of the Kingdome were absent in Celosyria wasting the countrey about