and to gather the nation into a bundle to be cast into the fire of his anger Besides those who were slain ninety seven thousand were taken captives and they who had bought our Saviour for thirty pence were themselves sold thirty for a pennie The Generall of the Romanes in this action was Titus sonne to Vespasian the Emperour A Prince so good that he was styled the Darling of mankind for his sweet and loving nature and pity it was so good a stock had not been better grafted so virtuously disposed that he may justly be counted the glory of all Pagans and shame of most Christians He laboured what lay in his power to have saved the temple and many therein but the Jews by their obstinacy and desperateness made themselves uncapable of any mercy Then was the temple it self made a sacrifice and burnt to ashes and of that stately structure which drew the Apostles admiration not a stone left upon a stone The walls of the city more shaken with the sinnes of the Jews defending them then with the battering rammes of the Romanes assaulting them were levelled to the ground onely three towres left standing to witnesse the great strength of the place and greater valour of the Romanes who conquered it But whilest this storme fell on the unbelieving Jews it was calm amongst the Christians who warned by Christs predictions and many other prodigies fled betimes out of the city to Pella a private place beyond Jordan which served them in stead of a little Zoar to save them from the imminent destruction Chap. 2. How Iudea was dispeopled of Iews by Adrian the Emperour THreescore years after Adrian the Emperour rebuilt the city of Jerusalem changing the situation somewhat westward and the name thereof to Aelia To despite the Christians he built a temple over our Saviours grave with the images of Jupiter and Venus another at Bâ—thlâ—hâ—m to Adonis her minion and to enrage the Jews did engrave swine over the gates of the city Who storming at the profanation of their land brake into open rebellion but were subdued by Julius Severus the Emperours lieutenant an experienced captain and many thousands slain with Bencochab their counterfeit Messias for so he termed himself that is the sonne of a star usurping that prophesie Out of Iacob shall a star arise though he proved but a fading comet whose blazing portended the ruine of that nation The captives by order from Adrian were transported into Spain the countrey laid waste which parted with her people and fruitfulnesse both together Indeed pilgrims to this day here and there light on parcels of rich ground in Palestine which God may seem to have left that men may tast the former sweetnesse of the land before it was sowred for the peoples sinnes and that they may guesse the goodnesse of the cloth by the finenesse of the shreds But it is barren for the generality the streams of milk and hony wherewith once it flowed are now drained dry and the whole face of the land looketh sad not so much for want of dressing as because God hath frowned on it Yet great was the oversight of Adrian thus totally to unpeople a province and to bequeath it to foxes and leopards Though his memory was excellent yet here he forgot the old Romanes rule who to prevent desolations where they rooted out the natives planted in colonies of their own people And surely the countrey recovered not a competency of inhabitants for some hundred years after For though many pilgrimes came thither in after-ages yet they came rather to visit then to dwell and such as remained there most embracing single lives were no breeders for posterity If any say that Adrian did wilfully neglect this land and prostitute it to ruine for the rebellion of the people yet all account it small policy in him in punishing the Jews to hurt his own Empire and by this vastation to leave fair and clear footing for forrein enemies to fasten on this countrey and from thence to invade the neighbouring dominions as after the Persians and Saracens easily overran and dispeopled Palestine and no wonder if a thin medow were quickly mown But to return to the Jews Such straglers of them not considerable in number as escaped this banishment into Spain for few hands reap so clean as to leave no gleanings were forbidden to enter into Jerusalem or so much as to behold it from any rise or advantage of ground Yet they obtained of the after-Emperours once a year namely on the tenth of August whereon their citie was taken to go in and bewail the destruction of their temple and people bargaining with the souldiers who waited on them to give so much for so long abiding there and if they exceeded the time they conditioned for they must stretch their purses to a higher rate So that as S. Hierome noteth they who bought Christs bloud were then glad to buy their own tears Chap. 3. Of the present wofull condition of the Iews and of the small hope and great hinderances of their conversion THus the main body of the Jews was brought into Spain and yet they stretched their out-limbs into every countrey so that it was as hard to find a populous city without a common sink as without a company of Jews They grew fat on the barest pasture by usury and brokage though often squeezed by those Christians amongst whom they lived counting them dogs and therefore easily finding a stick to beat them And alwayes in any tumult when the fence of order was broken the Jews lay next harms as at the coronation of Richard the first when the English made great feasts but the pillaged Jews paid the shot At last for their many villanies as falsifying of coin poysoning of springs crucifying of Christian children they were slain in some places and finally banished out of others Out of England anno 1291 by Edward the first France 1307 by Philip the fair Spain 1492 by Ferdinand Portugall 1497 by Emmanuel But had these two latter Kings banished all Jewish bloud out of their countreys they must have emptied the veins of their best subjects as descended from them Still they are found in great numbers in Turkie chiefly in Salonichi where they enjoy the freest slavery and they who in our Saviours time so scorned Publicanes are now most employed in that office to be the Turks toll-gatherers Likewise in the Popish parts of Germany in Poland the Pantheon of all religions and Amsterdam may be forfeited to the King of Spain when she cannot shew a pattern of this as of all other sects Lastly they are thick in the Popes dominions where they are kept as a testimony of the truth of the Scriptures and foyl to Christianity but chiefly in pretence to convert them But his Holinesse his converting faculty worketh the strongest at the greatest distance for the Indians he turneth to his religion and these Jews he converteth to his
thousand Christians But it may justly be suspected that these numbers were written first in figures and therefore at too much length when the adding of nothing may increase many thousands These wofull tidings brought into Europe so wrought on the good disposition of Lewis King of France that he resolved to make a second voyage into Palestine to succour the Christians He so fixed his mind on the journeys end that he saw not the dangers in the way His Counsel could not disswade though they did disswade him First they urged that he was old let younger men take their turns They recounted to him his former ill successe How lately had that hot countrey scorch'd the lilies of France not onely to the blasting of the leaves but almost withering of the root Besides the sinews of the Christians in Syria were so shrunk that though lifted up they could not stand That Nature decayed but not thus wholly destroyed was the subject of physick That the Turks had got a habit of conquering and riveted themselves into the possession of the countrey so that this voyage would but fleet the cream of the Kingdome to cast it into the fire But as a vehement flame maketh feuel of whatsoever it meeteth so this Kings earnest resolution turned bridles into spurres and hind rances into motives to his journey Was he old let him make the more speed lest envious death should prevent him of this occasion of honour Had he sped ill formerly he would seek his credit where he lost it Surely Fortunes lottery had not all blanks but that after long drawing he should light on a prize at last Were the Christians in so low a case the greater need they had of speedy help Thus was this good Kings judgement over-zealed And surely though Devotion be the naturall heat Discretion which wanted in him is the radicall moisture of an action keeping it healthfull prosperous and long-lived Well King Lewis will go and to this end provideth his navie and is accompanied with Philip and Tristram his Sonnes Theobald King of Navarre his sonne in law Alphonse his brother and Guido Earl of Flanders There went also Edward eldest sonne to Henry King of England It was a wonder he would now adventure his head when he was to receive a Crown his father being full-ripe to drop down without gathering having reigned longer then most men live fifty and five yeares But thirsty was this Edward of honour Longshanks was he called and as his strides were large so vast and wide was the extent of his desire As for his good Father he was content to let go the staff of his age for to be a prop to the Church And though King Lewis was undiscreet in going this journey he was wise in choosing this his companion to have this active Prince along with him it being good to eye a suspicious person and not to leave him behind With Edward went his brother Edmund Earl of Lancaster surnamed Crouch-back not that he was crook-shouldered or camel-backed From which our English Poet most zealously doth vindicate him Edmond like him the comeliest Prince alive Not crook-bac'd ne in no wise disfigured As some men write the right line to deprive Though great falsehood made it to be scriptured but from the Crosse anciently called a Crouch whence Crouched Friars which now he wore in his voyage to Jerusalem And yet it maketh it somewhat suspicious that in Latine records he is never read with any other epithet then Gibbosus But be he crooked or not let us on straight with our story Chap. 27. King Lewis besiegeth the city of Tunis His death and commendation LEwis now having hoised up sail it was concluded by the generall consent of his Counsell That to secure and clear the Christians passage to Palestine from pirates they should first take the city of Carthage in Africa by the way This Carthage long wrastled with Rome for the sovereignty and gave as many foils as she took till Scipio at last crushed out her bowels with one deadly fall Yet long after the city stood before wholly demolished to be a spurre to put metall into the Romanes and to be a forrain mark for their arrows lest otherwise they should shoot against themselves At last by the counsel of Cato it was quite destroyed who alledged That it was not safe to have a knife so near their throat and though good use might be made of an enemy at arms end yet it was dangerous to have him too close to ones side as Carthage was within a dayes sail from Rome Out of the ruines of this famous citie Tunis arose as often a stinking elder groweth out of the place where an oak hath been felled Thieving was their trading but then as yet they were Apprentices to pâ—racie whereof at this day they are grown Masters Yea not considerable was Tunis then in bignesse great onely in mischief But as a small scratch just upon the turning of a joynt is more troublesome then a bigger sore in another place so this paltry town the refuge of rogues and wanderers home seated in the passage betwixt Europe Asia and Africa was a worse annoyance to Christian traffick then a whole countrey of Saracens elsewhere Wherefore both to revenge the bloud of many Christians who passing this way to Palestine were either killed or taken captive as also to secure the way for the time to come Lewis with his whole fleet augmented with the navy of Charles King of Sicilie and Jerusalem his brother bent his course to besiege it It was concluded both unnecessary and unfitting first in a fair way to summon the city because like pernicious vermine they were to be rooted out of the world by any means nor was it meet to lavish the solemn ceremonies of warre on a company of thieves and murderers The siege was no sooner begun but the plague seised on the Christian armie whereof thousands died amongst others Tristram King Lewis his sonne And he himself of a flux followed after This Lewis was the French Josia both for the piety of his life and wofulnesse of his death ingaging himself in a needlesse warre Many good laws he made for his Kingdome that not the worst He first retrenched his Barons power to suffer parties to trie their intricate titles to land by duells He severely punished blasphemers fearing their lips with an hot iron And because by his command it was executed upon a great rich citizen of Paris some said he was a tyrant He hearing it said before many I would to God that with fearing my own lips I could banish out of my realm all abuse of oaths He loved more to heare Sermons then to be present at Masse whereas on the contrary our Henry the third said he had rather see his God then hear another speak of him though never so well His body was carried into France there to be buried and was most miserably tossed it being
Porphyrogenetes Emperour of the East all Western Christians were known to the Greeks by the name of Franks so that it seemeth the Turks borrowed that appellation from the Grecians Thirdly as France sent the most so many of most eminent note She sheweth for the game no worse cards then a pair royall of Kings Lewis the Young Philip Augustus and Saint Lewis besides Philip the Bold his sonne who went half-way to Tunis The first and last Christian King of Europe that went to Palestine was a French man and all the Kings of Jerusalem Frederick the Emperour onely excepted originally were of that nation Fouthly even at this day France is most loyall to the cause Most grand Masters of the Hospitallers have been French men And at this day the Knights of Malta who have but four Albergies or Seminaries in all Christendome have three of them in France viz. one of France in generall one of Avergne and one of Provence Yet France carrieth not the upper hand so clearly but that Germanie justleth for it especially if we adde to it the Low-countreys the best stable of wooden horses and most potent in shipping in that age of any countrey in Europe which though an amphibion betwixt both yet custome at this day adjudgeth it Dutch Now these are the severall accents of honour in the Germane service First That countrey sheweth three Emperours in the Holy warre Conrade Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick the second The last of these was solemnly crowned and peaceably possessed King of Jerusalem Secondly Germanie sent more Princes to this warre then all Europe besides It would be an infinite task to reckon them all it being true of the Germane Nobility what Logicians say of a line that it is divisibilis in semper divisibilia Here honours equally descend to sonnes and daughters whereby they have Counts without counting in the whole Empire There were seventeen Princes of Henault and seven and twenty Earls of Mansfield all living together So that one of their own countrey men saith that the Dutch esteem none to be men but onely such as are Noble-men We will not take notice of Germanie as it is minced into petty Principalities but as cut into principall Provinces We find these regnant Princes for as for their younger brethren herein they are not accounted to have been personally present in the Holy warre Prince Palatine of Rhene Henry 1197 Duke or as others King of Bohemia Joboslaus or Ladislaus 1147 Duke of Saxonie Henry the younger 1197 Mar quesse of Brandenburg Otho 1197 Archbishops of Mentz 1 Conrade 2 Siphred 1197 Archbish. of Triers Theodoricus 1216 Archbish. of Colen Theodoricus 1216 Dukes of Austria 1 Leopoldus the second 1190 2 Frederick 1197 3 Leopoldus the third surnamed the Glorious 1216 Dukes of Bavaria 1 Guelpho 1101 2 Henry 1147 3 Lewis 1216 Landt-graves of Thuringia 1 Herman 1197 2 Lewis 1227 Marquesse of Moravia Conrade 1197 Duke of Mechlenburg Henry 1277 Earls of Flandres 1 Theodoricus 1147 2 Philippus 1190 3 Baldwine 1200 4 William Dampier 1250 5 Guido 1270 Dukes of Brabant 1 Godfrey 1195 2 Henry 1227 Earl of Holland William 1216 All these I say not these were all went themselves and led forth other companies suitable to their greatnesse The Reader as he lighteth on more at his leisure may strike them into this catalogue Thirdly Germanie maintained the Teutonick Order wholly consisting of her nation besides Templars and Hospitallers whereof she had abundance of whose loyall and valiant service we have spoken largely before Lastly She fought another Holy warre at the same time against the Tartars and other barbarous people which invaded her on her North-east-part And though some will except That that warre cannot be intituled Holy because being on the defensive it was rather of nature and necessitie then pietie yet upon examination it will appear that this service was lesse superstitious more charitable to Christendome and more rationall and discreet in it self it being better husbandrie to save a whole cloth in Europe then to winne a ragge in Asia Chap. 22. The English and Italian service compared Of the Spanish Polish Norvegian Hungarian Danish and Swedish performance in this warre NExt in this race of honour follow England and Italie being verie even and hard-matched England it is no flatterie to affirm what envie cannot denie spurreth up close for the prize and though she had a great disadvantage in the starting Italie being much nearer to Palestine yet she quickly recovered it Our countrey sent one King Richard the first and three Kings sonnes Robert Courthois Richard of Cornwall and Prince Edward to this warre Yea England was a dayly friend to this action and besides these great and grosse summes of visible adventurers she dropped and cast in privily many a Pilgrime of good qualitie so that there was scarce any remarkable battel or memorable siege done through the warre wherein there were not some English of eminent desert Yet Italy cometh not any whit behind if the atchievements of her severall States Venetians Genoans Pisans Sicilians Florentines were made and moulded up together Yea for sea-service and engineers in this warre they bear the bell away from all other nations But these things allay the Italian service 1. It was not so abstracted from the dregs of mercinarinesse as that of other countreys whose adventurers counted their very work herein sufficient wages but before they would yield their assistance they indented and covenanted with the King of Jerusalem to have such and such profits pensions and priviledges in all places they took to them and their posteritie not as an honorarie reward freely conferred on them but in nature of wages ex pacto contracted for aforehand as the Genoans had in Ptolemais and the Venetians in Tyre 2. These Italians stopped two gaps with one bush they were Merchant-Pilgrimes and together applied themselves to profit and pietie Here in Tyre they had their banks and did drive a sweet trade of spices and other Eastern commodities 3. Lastly As at first they gave good milk so they kicked it down with their heel and by their mutuall discord caused the losse of all they helped to gain in Syria Spain was exercised all the time of this warre in defending her self against the Moores and Saracens in her own bowels Yet such was her charitie that whilest her own house was on burning she threw some buckets of water to quench her neighbours and as other nations cast their superfluitie she her widows mite into the treasurie of this action and produceth two Theobalds Kings of Navarre and Alphonse King of Castile that undertook expeditions to Palestine Hungary sheweth one King Andrew who washed himself in Jordan and then shrinking in the wetting returned presently home again But this countrey though it self did go little yet was much gone through to the Holy warre being the rode to Syria for all land armies and merited well in this action in giving peaceable passage and courteous
would weary them with set battels having men numberless and those near at hand and so he would tame the Romane Eagle by watching him giving him no rest nor respite from continuall fighting It is therefore no Paradox to say That in some case the strength of a Kingdome doth consist in the weaknesse of it And hence it is that our English Kings have suffered Time without disturbing her meals to feed her belly full on their in-land castles and citie-walls which whilest they were standing in their strength were but the nurseries of rebellion And now as one observeth because we have no strong cities war in England waxeth not old being quickly stabbed with set battels which in the Low-countreys hath already outlived the grand climactericall of threescore and ten years But Frederick the Emperour being now entring into the Holy land was to the great grief of all Christians suddenly taken away being drowned in the river of Saleph a river such is the envie of Barbarisme obscuring all places which cannot accurately be known at this day because this new name is a stranger to all ancient maps If he went in to wash himself as some write he neither consulted with his health nor honour Some say his horse foundred under him as he passed the water others that he fell from him But these severall relations as variety of instruments make a dolefull conâ—ort in this that there he lost his life and no wonder if the cold water quickly quenched those few sparks of naturall heat left in him at seventy years of age Neubrigensis conceiveth that this his sudden death was therefore inflicted on him because in his youth he fought against the Popes and Church of Rome But I wonder that he seeing an Emperour drowned in a ditch durst adventure into the bottomlesse depths of Gods counsels Let it content us to know that oftentimes heaven blasteth those hopes which bud first and fairest and the feet of mighty Monarchs do slip when they want but one step to their enemies throne After his death Frederick Duke of Suevia his second sonne undertook the conduct of the army Now the Turks conceiving grief had steeped and moistened these Pilgrimes hearts gave them a sudden charge in hope to have overthrown them But the valiant Dutch who though they had scarce wiped their eyes had scoured their swords quickly forced them to retire Then Frederick took the citie of Antioch which was easily delivered unto him and his hungry souldiers well refreshed by the citizens being as yet for the most part Christians Marching from hence in set battel he overthrew Dordequin Generall of Saladines forces slew four thousand and took a thousand prisoners with little losse of his own men and so came to the city of Tyre where he buried the corpse of his worthy father in the Cathedrall Church next the tomb of the learned Origen and Guilelmus Tyrius the worthy Archbishop preached his funerall sermon We may hear his sorrowfull army speaking this his Epitaph unto him Earth scarce did yield ground enough for thy sword To conquer how then could a brook afford Water to drown thee brook which since doth fear O guilty conscience in a map t' appear Yet blame we not the brook but rather think The weight of our own sinnes did make thee sink Now sith 't is so wee 'l fetch a brackish main Out of our eyes and drown thee once again From hence by sea they were conveyed to the Christians army before Ptolemais where young Frederick died of the plague and his great army which at first consisted of an hundred and fifty thousand at their setting forth out of Germany had now no more left then eighteen hundred armed men Chap. 5. The continuation of the famous siege of Ptolemais The Dutch Knights honoured with a Grand Master WE have now at our leisure overtaken the snail-like fiege of Ptolemais still slowly creeping on Before it the Christians had not onely a Nationall but an Oecumenicall army the abridgement of the Christian world Scarce a state or populous city in Europe but had here some competent number to represent it How many bloudy blows were here lent on both sides and repayed with interest what sallies what assaults what encounters whilest the Christians lay betwixt Saladine with his great army behind them and the city before them One memorable battel we must not omit It was agreed betwixt Saladine and the Christians to try their fortunes in a pitched field and now the Christians were in fair hope of a conquest when an imaginary causelesse fear put them to a reall flight so ticklish are the scales of victory a very mote will turn them Thus confusedly they ran away and boot would have been given to change a strong arm for a swift leg But behold Geoffrey Lusignan King Guy's brother left for the guarding of the camp marching out with his men confuted the Christians in this their groundlesse mistake and reinforced them to fight whereby they wonne the day though with the losse of two thousand men and Gerard Master of the Templars It was vainly hoped that after this victory the city would be surâ—endred but the Turks still bravely defended it though most of their houses were burnt and beaten down and the city reduced to a bare sceleton of walls and towers They fought as well with their wits as weapons and both sides devised strange defensive and offensive engines so that Mars himself had he been here present might have learned to fight and have taken notes from their practice Mean time famine raged amongst the Christians and though some provision was now and then brought in from Italy for so far they fetched it yet these small showers after good droughts parched the more and rather raised then abated their hunger Once more we will take our farewell of this siege for a twelve-moneth But we must not forget that at this time before the walls of Ptolemais the Teutonick order or Dutch Knights which since the dayes of Baldwine the second lived like private pilgrimes had now their order honoured with Henry of Walpot their first grand Master and they were enriched by the bounty of many Germane benefactours These though slow were sure they did hoc agere ply their work more cordiall to the Christian cause then the Templars who sometimes to save their own stakes would play booty with the Turks Much good service did the Dutch Knights in the Holy warre till at last no wise Doctour will 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 fotitudinis 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 interviews 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 unbow 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 city of London if any were able to buy it rather then he would be burthen some 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 way 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 four thousand marks Thus he received the golden saddle but none of the bridle of the Common-wealth honour and 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 Salisbury Robert Earl of Leicester Ralph de Glanvile late chief Justice of England Richard de Clare Walter de Kime c. The Bishops of Duresâ—e 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 dexterity 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 familiarity breeding hatred and discontent betwixt them Yea the interviews of equall Princes have ever been observed dangerous Now Princes measure their equality not by the extent of their dominions but by the absoluteness 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 company 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 courtlike or attendance more accomplished or attire more fashionable or something 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 mercy he had simoniacally extorted a masse of money from the Prelates of England At Messana in Sicilie these two Kings met again where to complete King Richards joy behold his Navie there safely arriving which with much difficulty 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 mercy and modesty 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 property of the shipwrackt goods is still preserved to the owner Yea this grant was so enlarged by our succeeding Kings that if a dog or a cat escaped alive to land the goods still remained the owners if he claimed them within a yeare and a day Tancred at this time was King of Sicilie a bastard born and no wonder if climbing up the throne the wrong way he shaked when he sate down Besides he was a Tyrant both detaining the dowrie and imprisoning the person of Joan wife to William late King of Sicilie and sister to King Richard But in what a case was he now having two such mighty Monarchs come unto him To keep them out was above his power to let them in against his will Well he knew it was wofull to lie in the rode where great armies were to passe For power knoweth no inferiour friend and the land-lord commonly loseth his rent