in the Temple of the Sepulchre leaving two Sons behind him Balder and Almerick the former being about Thirteen and the latter Eleveâ— years old CHAP. XIV The Reign of Baldwin the Third Of Fulcheâ— Patriarch of Jerusalem and the insoleâ— carriage of the Hospitallers toward him The Institution of Carmelites BAldwin the Eldest Son of Falco succeeded his Father and quickly greâ— up as well in Age as in Royal Qualifications and became a most compleat and well accomplished Prince During his minority his Mother who governed all made up his want of Age with her abundant care she being a Woman in sex but of a masculine Spirit William who was last possessed of the Patriarchs Chair in Jerusalem was no great Clerk being better at Building of Castles than at Edifying the Church He built one at Askelon one at Ramula a third called Blankguard for the securing of Prisoners But having enjoyed the Dignity Fifteen years he was translated to Heaven and Fulcher Arch-Bishop of Tyre succeeded him whose old Age was much molested with the Pride and Rebellion of the Hospitallers who had then obtained from the Pope a plenary Exemption from the Jurisdiction of the Patriarch which he did the more easily grant because he hoped thereby to make himself absolute Master of all Orders and link them intirely to himself by an immediate dependence whereby he made every Covent a Castle of Rebels and armed them with Priviledges to fight their lawful Diocesan Those Hospitallers were by this means become so rude that they would without all shame Ring their Bells when the Patriarch Preached that so his Voice might not be heard and shoot Arrows into the Church to disturb him and the People in Divine Service A bundle whereof was hung up in the Church as a Monument of their monstrous Impiety Fulcher crawled to Rome when an hundred years old to complain of those outrages but the Hospitallers prevented him and bribed off the business beforehand so that the good old man was forced to return without redress whereupon they grew more insolent than ever Nor was Haymericus who succeeded Rodolphus at Antioch much quieter He instituted about the year 1160. the Order of Carmelites who pretended to an imitation of the Prophet Elias Some indeed had formerly lived dispersed about the Mount of Carmel but he gathered them into one House But although Palestine brought them forth yet England proved the most officious in nursing of them up For being first brought into it by Ralph Freshburgh in the year 1240. they were first seated at Newenden in Kent and in a little time scattered themselves all over England and lived in great pomp till dispersed by King Henry the Eighth when he demolished the Abbeys CHAP. XV. Edessa lost The Voyage of the French King and the Emperour of Germany blasted by the perfidiousness of the Graecian Emperour The Turks beaten at Meander Damascus besieged in vain ALL Empires like the swelling Sea have bounds set to them whither being once come they can rise no higher And the Kingdom of Jerusalem being now arrived at its full growth began to decline apace till at last all revolved again into the Infidels hands And the first considerable step which it made in its declension was the loss of Edessa one of the four Tetrarchies of that Kingdom and a place wherein the Christian Religion had always flourished from the time of the Apostles Which loss moved Conrade Emperour of the West and Lewis the Seventh surnamed the Young King of France by the persuasion of St. Bernard to undertake a Voyage to the Holy Land The Emperour for this design had gotten together an Army of 200000 Foot and 50000 Horse and the King near as many more For in France they sent a Distaâ—â— and a Spindle to those that would not goâ— with them as upbraiding their Effeminacy and no wonder for Women themselves went in Armour to this War and had a brave Heroick Lass like another Penthesilea for their Leader who was so richly clad and befringed with Gold that she was generally known by the name of Golden Foot Conrade with his Army took his way through Graecia where Emmanuel the Emperour possessed with an hereditary fear of the Latines fortified his Cities concluding that there needed strong Banks where such a stream of people were to pass using them most treacherously and giving them a very bad welcom in hope thereby to get rid of them the sooner And to increase their misery as they lay incamped by the River Melas if it be proper to call that a River which is all Mud in Summer and all Sea in Winter it drowned many of them by its sudden and unexpected overflowing as if it had learn'd Treachery of the Graecians and conspired with them to spoil the Emperours generous Design And those of them that survived this unhappy accident were reserved for a more lingering misery the Emperour endeavouring by all imaginable ways to accomplish their Ruine as by mixing Lime with their Meal killing those who strayed from the Army holding intelligence with the Turks corrupting his Coin and giving them false Conductors who designedly led them into danger and made the way less doubtful than the Guides And no sooner had the Emperour got through all those dangers and escaped the Treachery of the Greeks but he was immediately encountred by the Hostility of the Turks who waited for them on the Banks of the River Meander which being not fordable and the Christians having neither Boat nor Bridge to convey them over the undaunted Emperour after an Exhortation to his Souldiers to follow his brave Example plunged himself into the Water and quickly reached the other Shoar where in despite of the Enemy he Landed with all his Army Whereat the affrighted Turks did as it were offer their Throats to the Christians Swords and were slain in such numbers that whole piles of dead Bones remain there for a monument of their Victory flushed with this success he marched forward to Iconium now called Cogni which he besieged in vain to the wasting and loâ— of his Army The French King followed after witâ— a numerous Army and drank of the samâ— Cup at the Graecians hands though noâ— so deeply as the Emperour had done before him But at last finding that thoâ— who marched to Palestine by Land me with an Ocean of misery though the came not to Sea he thought it mucâ— safer to trust the Winds and the Waveâ— than the perfidious Graecians and therefore shipping himself and his Army hâ— arrived safe in Palestine where he waâ— highly welcomed by the Prince of Aâ—tioch Some weeks were spent in Princely Entertainments and visiting of holy Places before they entred upon action But having sufficiently recreated themselves and rested their Souldiers the Emperour and the King of France both resolve upon the Siege of Damascus accounting a smaller Town too mean a trifle for them to employ their Arms in its Conquests wherefore they immediately sate down before it and had
while â—ccessful and won the City of Belbis or â—erlusium Notwithstanding which Auâ—ors from that time date the ill Success â—f the Holy War and shew us a whole â—loud of Miseries which immediately folâ—wed thereupon and no wonder for God â—ldom lets Perjury go long unpunished First Whilst Almerick was absent in Egypt Noradine won divers considerable â—laces about Antioch Secondly Meller Prince of Armenia â—ho was a Christian entred into a â—eague with Noradine and kept it inâ—iolable to the great disadvantage of the King of Jerusalem which act of Mellers must be condemned and yet the Justice of God ought to be admired in punishâ—ng the Christians thereby for their â—reach of Covenant with the Saracens â—n Egypt Thirdly The Saracens finding themselves faithlesly dealt with laid at on all sides began to learn War and grew good Souldiers on a sudden and although they formerly fought with Bows only yet noâ— they learned of the Christians to use aâ— offensive and defensive Weapons it beinâ— usual with rude Nations to better themâ— selves by fighting with a skilful Enemâ— And Fourthly Almericks hope of coâ—quering Egypt was wholly frustrated bâ—ing after some few Victories driveâ— out and the whole Kingdom conquere by Saladine Nephew to Syracon whâ— beat out the Caliphs brains when he prâ—tended to do him reverence and thereâ— changed the Government of Egypt froâ— the Saracen Caliph to a Turkifh King Aâ— shortly after upon the death of Noradiâ— the Kingdom of the Turks in Syria anâ— the lesser Asia was likewise bestoweâ— upon him whereby he became the moâ—potent Monarch in the World Whilst Jerusalem was left as a poâ— Weather-beaten Kingdom bleak anâ— open to the Storms of its Enemies oâ— every side lying as it were between thâ— Lions Teeth Damascus on the Northâ— and Egypt on the South two poteâ— Turkish Kingdoms united under a valianâ— and successful Prince which made Aâ—merick fend for Succours into Europâ— there being now but few Voluntieâ— flocking to this service and Souldieâ— were forced to be pressed with importâ—nity before they would consent to underâ—ake the Voyage But it being just with God that those who had betrayed the â—aracens whom they undertook to sucâ—our should want succour themselves â—hen they stood most in need of it his Embassadours were forced to return â—ithout any other supplies than pity and â—ommiseration And Lastly The King himself weaâ—ied with so many successive miseries â—nded his life of a Bloody Flux when he â—ad reigned about Eleven years leaving â—esides his two Children by his first Wife one Daughter named Isabel by Mary his second Wife Daughter to John Proto-Sebastus a Grecian Prince who was afterward married to Humphred the third Prince of Thorone CHAP. XVII Baldwin the Fourth succeedeth The Viciousness of the Patriarch of Jerusalem His Embassy to Henry the Second King of England The Original and Power of the Mammalukes Saladine conquered by Baldwin yet afterwards conquers Mesopotamia Baldwins death Baldwin his Son the fourth of that name succeeded his Father having had the benefit of an excellent Education under William Arch-Bishop of Tyre a very Pious Learned Man skilled in all the Oriental Tongues besides the Dutch and French his Native Languages Heraclius who was now Patriarch of Jerusalem being preferred to that Dignity for his handsomness by Queen Mary second Wife to King Almerick and Mother to Baldwin was a man of a debauched and vicious life keeping company with a Vintners Wife whom he maintained in great state like an Empress so that she was generally saluted by the name of Patriarches His ill Example infected the inferiour Clergy whose corrupt manners was a sad presage of the approaching Ruine of that Kingdom This Man was sent by King Baldwin as his Embassadour to Henry the Second King of England to crave his personal assistance in the Holy War and as an inducement thereunto to deliver him the Royal Standard of that Kingdom the Keys of our Saviours Sepulchre the Tower of David and the City of Jerusalem Henry was chosen out before any other Prince because the world justly esteemed him valiant wise rich and fortunate and which was the main that so he might thereby expiate his Murther and gather up again the innocent Blood that he had spilt in the death of Thomas Becket And that he might the more easily be drawn to undertake the Voyage the Patriarch intitled him to the Kingdom of Jerusalem because Geoffrey â—â—â—ntagenet his Father was Son to Fulco the Fourth King of Jerusalem But he was too wise a Prince to be so easily wheedled However he pretended he would go and got together a Mass of Money towards the defraying the Charge of his Voyage making every one as well the Clergy as the Laity pay that year the Tenth of all their Revenues both movables and immovables and when he bad filled his Purse all men expected he should perform his promise but he changed the Voyage into Palestine for a Journey into France The Patriarch while he stayed in England consecrated the Temple Church near St. Dunstans in the West and the House adjoyning belonging then to Knights Templars but since employed to a better use viz. the entertaining those Gentlemen who study and practise the English Laws In the minority of King Baldwin who was but thirteen years old Milo de Planci a Nobleman was Protector of the Kingdom whose Pride and Insolence could not be endured by the great men and therefore they got him to be stabb'd at Ptolemais and chose Raimund Count of Tripoli to suceeed him And Saladine having now seriously resolved upon the Ruine of the Kingdom of Jerusalem endeavoured to furnish himself with such Souldiers as might be most fit for that service in order whereunto he bought a great number of Slaves of the Circassians a People by the Lake of Meotis near Taurica Chersonesus who were brought up to be extream hardy and inured to War by their continual skirmishing with the neighbouring Tartars Those Slaves he trained up in Military Discipline after the Turkish manner They had most of them been Christians and were baptized in their Infancy but being taken from their Parents whilst young they were untaught Christ and instructed in the Mahometan Superstition whereby they became the more implacable Enemies to Christianity for having been once its friends They received from Saladine the name of Mammalukes and were so couragious and expert in War that his and his Successors greatness was not to be so much attributed to their own Conduct as to those Mammalukes Valour till at last perceiving their own strength they wrested the Soveraignty from the Turkish Kings and advanced one of their own number to the Regal Dignity Saladine having thus furnished himself with a new sort of Souldiers resolved to try their Valour upon the Christian and therefore invaded the Holy Land slaying and burning all before him till he came to Askelon where King Baldwin then was before which he sate down and closely besieged it And Count Raimund Protector of
casual and not the effect of Carelesness or Cowardize in the losing party But it was some help to the Christians that a certain concealed Christian within the City by Letters unsubscribed gave them constant and faithful Intelligence of all remarkable passages among the Turks within In the mean while the Plague and Famine raged in the Christian Camp and in the compass of one year had swept away above Fifty Princes and Prelates of note who together with all the rest of the common Souldiers in the opinion of those who wrote the History of that Siege went undoubtedly to Heaven Although it were before Pope Clement the sixth had commanded the Angels who durst not disobey him to convey every Soul into Paradice which should die in their Pilgrimage Among those who survived no Prince shewed more Valour and deserved greater commendation than Leopoldus Arch-Duke of Austria who fought so long in assaulting this City that his Armour was all gore Blood save only that part of it which was covered with his Belt For which reason renouncing the six Golden Larks the Ancient Arms of his Family he had assigned him by the Emperour as a Testimony of his valour a Fess Argentin a Field Gules And King Richard being now at last arrived in the Camp before Ptolemais having taken a Dromand or Saracen Ship which he mett in his way thither wherein were Fifteen Hundred Soldiers and two hundred and fifty Scorpions designed for the poysoning of Christians the Siege was carried on by him and his English Souldiers more fiercely than ever it had been before So that the Turks despairing of relief and their provisions wholly spent offered to yield up the City which the Christians would not accept of unless Saladine would promise to deliver all the Christian Prisoners which were then in his custody and restore them the Cross again which he promising to do the City was delivered and the Turkish Soldiers guarded safely out of it The Houses which were yet left standing in the City together with the Spoil and Prisoners were by the Kings of England and France divided among themselves whereupon divers great Persons who had been sharers in the pains but were hereby excluded from the gains departed in discontent and King Richards Soldiers rudely pulled down the Arch-Duke of Austria's Ensigns which he haâ—â— advanced in a principal Tower in thaâ— City and as some write threw them in to the Jakes whereat the Duke waâ— highly displeased but yet wisely dissenâ—bled his anger and seemed to forget thâ—â— Injury till he might remember it to hisadvantage which he afterwards did made King Richard pay severely for this affronâ— When the City was taken it grieveâ— the Christians that they could not finâ— out their Faithful Intelligencer whâ— had all along by his Letters acquainted them with the State of the City bâ— more that the Cross did no where appear being either carelesly lost or enviouâ—â— concealed by the Turks They demanded 〈◊〉 of Saladine with the delivery of the Christian Prisoners which he refused not but demanded a longer time for the performance in regard the Cross could not be found But King Richard supposing that it was only a pretence to gain time resolved to have all things performed according to their agreement which being not done he in the heat of his Passioâ— commanded Seven Thousand Turkish Prisoners to be immediately cut to pieces for which rash and cruel act he suffereâ— much in his reputation and was lookeâ— upon as the Murtherer of the like number of Christians whom Saladine in revenge put to the Sword whereas on the contrary the moderation of the French King was very much commended for sparing his Prisoners and reserving them to ransom so many Christians But that which most obscured the Glory of this Victory was the Christians being tent asunder with Faction and divided among themselves King Philip the Dukes of Burgundy and Austria most of the Dutch and all the Genoans and Templars fiding with King Conrade and King Richard Henry Count of Champaigne with the Hospitallers the Venetians and Pisans taking part with Guy Conrades side was very much weakned by the sudden departure of the French King who eighteen days after the taking of Ptolemais returned home pretending want of necessaries indisposition of body through the distemper of the Climate but the true cause was his not induring to hear King Richards Fame so much transcend his own together with a desire to seize on the Dominions of the Earl of Flanders who was then lately dead His own Souldiers mightily disswaded him from returning and besought him not to stop in so glorious a work wherein he had prospered so well already telling him that Saladine being already on his Knees he might peradventure be brought on his Face if this Victory were well pursued And since one of his pretences was want of necessaries King Richard generously offered him one half of his Provisions but all this would not prevail with him to stay and therefore with great importunity he obtained leave to depart having first taken an Oath not to molest the King of Englands Dominions during his stay in the Holy Land which Oath was forgot as soon as he got home And at his departure he left his instructions together with his Army to the Duke of Burgundy ordering him to move as slowly as possible in advancing that work wherein the King of England would have all the Honour which rendred this great undertaking less advantagious to the Christians in Syria than otherwise it might have been THE HOLY VVAR BOOK II. CHAP. I. Conrade slain Guy exchanges his Kingdom for the Isle of Cyprus Henry of Champaign chosen King King Richard obtains many Victories but at last makes a dishonourable Peace and in his return home is taken Prisoner in Austria SOon after the French Kings departure Conrade King of Jerusalem was cruelly murthered in the Market-place of Tyre the cause of whose Death is variously reported some falsely charging our King Richard with having procured it and others say he was killed by Humphred Prince of Thoron for marrying Isabella who had been before espoused to him But most affirm that he was stabbed by two Assassines by command of their Master the Old man of the Mountains whose only Quarrel with him was his being a Christian and that the two Murtherers being immediately taken and put to a cruel Death Gloried in the Meritoriousness of their suffering He had Reigned about five years and left on t Daughter Maria Jole on whom the Templers bestowed Princely Education But tho' Conrade was Dead his Faction still survived and those of his party affronted King Guy and strove to have him deposed telling him that the Crown was only tyed on his Head with a Womans Fillet which being now broken by the Death of Queen Sibyl who dyed together with all her Children of the Plague at the Siege of Ptolomais he had no longer any Right to the Kingdom especially being a worthless and
the contrary commend it as a Wise and Considerate Action and give us those reasons to prove it First his Wife was dead by whose Right he held his Kingdom Secondly he knew the Turks power to Invade it and his own weakness to defend it Thirdly before his resignation he had little left but the bare Title and after it he had nothing less it being so customary for all men to salute him by the name of King of Jerusalem that he was called so to his dying day Fourthly he thereby provided better for his Daughter then otherwise he could in all probability have done And Lastly because he got more after the surrender then he did before for in England he received many great presents from Henry the Third In France besides rich gifts left to himself he had the managing of 60000 Crowns left by Phillip Augustus the French King to the Templars for the carrying on the Holy War In Spain he got a rich Wife Beringaria the Daughter of the King of Castile and in Italy he tasted largely of the Popes liberality lived there in great plenty but at last Perfidiously raising Rebellion against the Emperour of Germany his Son in Law at the Instigation of the Pope he lost the General Esteem of most men and went off the stage without Applause Fredericks Nuptials with the Lady Jole was solemnized at Rome in the presence of the Pope with all the Ceremonies of Majesty imaginable and he ingaged himself by promise that he would within two years prosecute his Title in Palestine but by Discords and Jealousies between the Pope and him he was much longer before he got things in readiness to march and when he was on his way to Palestine the Plague seized on his Army at Brindisi in Italy where he likewise was shortly after Visited with a desperate fit of sickness which stayed his Journey for many Months It went against the grain with the Pope to have the Emperor so near him and therefore he Excommunicated him afresh having done it divers times before pretending his sickness was only the Cramp of Laziness and charging him with the unjust seizing on the goods of Lewis Lantgrave of Thuringia who died a little before in the Camp The Emperour protested his innocency and accused the Pope of injustice offering for the proof of it to put himself on the tryal of all Christian Princes However at last health came and Frederick departed with his Fleet for the Holy Land whereaâ— the Pope who was neither well full nor fasting stormed exceedingly and be libel'd him more then ever because he had forsooth departed without his Fathers Blessing or being Absolved and Reconciled to his Mother the Church But we may observe that Gods Blessing often times goes along with the Popes curses for the Fame of Fredericks Valour and his Virgin Fortune never yet stained with ill Success hastning like an Harbinger before perpared Victory to entertain him at his arrval there This Emperor Swifter then Caesar himself overcame before he came to Palestine so that Coradine being dead and his Children in their Minority the Sultan of Babylon who was then of greatest Authority among the Turks and Governed Syria offered him what he could never have expected viz. To restore him Jerusalem and all Palestine in as full and ample a manner as it was enjoyed by Baldwine the Fourth before it was Conquered by Sâ—ladine and to release all Christian Prisoners upon condition that the Turks might be permitted in small numbers to have access to the Sepulcher they likewise having some Knowledg off and some kind of Veneration for Christ Before Frederick would ratifie any thing by Oath he sent to have the Popes approbation but hearing that he had Imprisoned his Messengers and in a most contemptuous manner torn his Letters he concluded a Truce with the Sultan for Ten years without the Popes consent and entering on Easter-day Triumphantly into Jerusalem he Crowned himself King with his own hands for the Patriarch the Master of the Templars and all the Clergy absented themselves neither was there any Mass Sung in the City so long as the Emperor staid there because he was Excommunicated And thus by the Valour and Policy of Frederick was the Holy Land recovered without blood which had been for many years before attempted without success and the affairs of Palestine brought into a good condition rendered capable of improving had not the Pope ruined all by forcing the Emperor to return sooner then he intended to supress the Rebellion which the Pope had caused John Bren to raise against him at home At his departure he appointed Reinoldus Duke of Bavaria to be his Lieutenant in Syria who wisely discharged his Office and preserved the Peace intire which was concluded with the Sultan of Babylon although the Tempâ—ars endeavoured to bring that Ten years Truce to an untimely end it being an insufferable thing with them to fast from Fighting which was Meat and Drink to their Turbulent Spirits Condemning him for his want of Zeal in the Holy War and giving him many a lift to heave him from his place but still he sate sure nor was he much troubled at the envy of Henry King of Cyprus who challenged the principality of Antioch as next of kin the last deceased Prince for the Duke met him and defeated him in battle and gave that Principality to Frederick base Son to the Emperor But that which kept both Turks and Christians in awe and made them the more carefull to observe the Truce was their mutual fear of the Tartars a fierce People which at this time took their first flight out of their own nest into the Neighbouring Countries they were anciently called Scythians and Inhabited the Northern parts of Asia a country never Conquered by any of the Monarchs being priviledged from their Victorious Arms by its own barrenness which was the reason why after they had made several incursions into Europe and the lesser Asia they found it so sweet that they cared not to return home They were by their multitudes and ferceness become so formidable that the Pope himself began to fear them in Italy to prevent which he sent Askelin a Frier much famed in those days and three others to Convert them to the Christian Religion who instead of instructing them the Rudiments of Christianity acquainted them with the greatness and power of the Pope who was as he told them exalted above all the Princes of Europe but Baiothnoi Chief Captain of the Tartarian Army for they were not admitted to the Great Cham himself crying quits with this Frier outvyed him in discribing his Cham whose greatness and Divinity he affirmed to exceed that of the Popes and sent him back with a blunt Letter which he concluded thus If thou wilt set upon our Land and Inheritance it behoveth that Thou Pope in thy proper Person come unto us and that Thou come to him who containeth the Face of the Whole Earth meaning their Great Cham.
an unfortunate man Tho' the truth is the measuring a Princes worth by his Success is a Rule often false and always uncertain and the common Consent of all Nations will plead this in his Favour that having been once a King he ought ever to remain so But to put a sinal end to this unhappy Controversie King Richard made a pleasing Motion which rellished well to the Palate of that hungry Prince offering him the Island of Cyprus in exchange for his Kingdom of Jerusalem Which motion was willingly imbraced and the exchange actually made to the Content of both parties and the Kings of England bore the Title of King of Jerusalem in their style for many years after But in this exchange Guy had really the better Bargain in regard he bought a real Possession for an Airy Title However he lived not long to injoy it for he dyed soon after his Arrival there but his Family injoyed it for some hundred years after which it fell by some Transaction to the state of Venice and was at last wrested from them by the Turks who injoy it at this day Conrade being killed and Guy having renounced his Kingdom Henry Earl of Champaign was advanced to the Kingdom of Jerusalem by the procurement of King Richard his Uncle who to corroborate his Election by some Right of Succession married Isabella the Widow of Conrade and Daughter of Almerick King of Jerusalem he was a Prince valiant enough but in regard his Reign was short and most of it spent in a Truce he had not an opportunity to express it He took more delight in the style of Prince of Tyre then he did in that of being King of Jerusalem as accounting it more honourable to be Prince of what he had then to be called King of what he injoyed not And now the Christians promising themselves abundance of Peace and Tranquility began every where to build and to beautifie their Habitations The Templers fortified Gaza and King Richard repaired and walled Ptolemais Pomphyria Joppa and Askelon But alass this short liv'd Prosperity like an Autumn Spring came too late and was gone too soon to bring forth any mature Fruit However it was now agreed on by all parties that they should march immediately towards the City of Jerusalem which Holy and Sacred place was the mark at which they all principally Aimed And having prepared all things for the putting this resolution into Practice King Richard lead the Vant Guard of English the Duke of Burgundy Commanded in the main Body over his French and James of Avergn with his Flemings and Brabanters brought up the Rear Saladine who understood by his Spies the manner of their march Serpent like bit them by the Heels for not far from Bethlehem he violently assaulted the Rear of their Army but the English and French suddenly Wheeling about charged the Turks most furiously and Emulation formerly Poyson here proved a Cordial every Christian unanimously striving not only to Conquer their Enemies but to overcome their Friends to in the Honour of the Victory And our Royal Pilgrim in this Battel was so adventrous and fought with such invincible Courage and Resolution against those Enemies of Christianity that his Valour brought his Judgment into question in regard he was more careless of himself and exposed his Person to greater danger then beseemed the prudence of a General for having received a Wound as tho' by losing his Blood he had received a new Addition to his Strength he laid about him like a Mad-man killing divers of the Infidels with his own hands The Turks withstood the Christians force for a long time and strove hard to carry away the Honour of the Day but were at last forced to give Ground and leave the Christians in the Possession of the Victory which they obtained with little or no loss to themselves save James of Avergn who dyed here in the Bed of Honour But there were more Turks slain in this Battel then there had been in any other for forty years before And had the Christian improved this Victory and marched immediately to Jerusalem they might in all Probability have surprized it whilst the Turks were Blind-folded and in a kind of a maze at this Prodigious overthrow But the opportunity was wholly lost by the backwardness of King Richard and his English Soldiers say the French Writers whilst others impute it altogether to the Envy and Emulation of the French who rather chose to have so Glorious an Action left undone then to see it performed by the English together with the Treachery of Odo Duke of Burgundy who being more grieved for the loss of his Credit than careful to preserve a good Conscience was choaked with the shame of the sin which he had swallowed and dyed for Grief that his holding Correspondence with the Turks came to be discovered But most are of the Opinion that Richard attempted not the taking of Jerusalem because like a wise Architect he intended to build his Victories so as they might stand unshaken by securing the Country all along as he went It being Sensless and Imprudent to besiege Jerusalem an In-land City whilst the Turks were still in Possession of all the Sea-Ports and other places of Strength thereabouts Sometime after this Victory he intercepted divers Camels laden with very rich Commodities those Eastern Wars containing a great deal of Treasure in a little Room And yet of all this and of all that abundance of Wealth of England Sicily and Cyprus which he brought hither he carried nothing home save only one Gold-Ring all the rest being melted away and consumed in this hot Service He spent the Winter at Askelon and intended the following Spring to have gone to Jerusalem had not bad News out of Europe altered his resolution and put him in mind of returning home William Bishop of Ely whom he had left his Vice-Roy in England used many unsufferable Insolencies towards his Subjects So hard and difficult a thing it is for one of a mean and Contemptible Birth to personate a King without going beyond his Limits and over Acting his part And that which was yet worse his Brother John Earl of Morton had conspired with the French King to invade his Dominions Which reports and the concluding of this War a Subject not likely to answer the expence and Charge of of it especially now the Venetians Genoans Pisans and Florentines were gone away with their Fleet wisely shrinking themselves out of the Collar when they found their Necks too much Galled with their hard imployment made him desire a Peace of Saladine who thereby finding that he had all the Cords in his own hands knew well enough how to play his Game and make his best of those Exigencies wherein he knew King Richard to be plunged for he had those about him who had cunning and skill enough to read in King Richards Face what grieved and perplexed his mind and knew by his Spies every thing that was worth Observation
killed or which was worse forced them to forswear their Religion and then marching to Antioch took that likewise slaying twenty and carrying away an hundred thousand Christians tho' it is to be suspected that the number of the Captives were at first written in figures and in time increased some thousands by the addition of nothing after which he laid seige to Ptolemais it self Those woful tidings brought into Europe so wrought on the good disposition of King Lewis that he resolved upon a second Voyage to Palestine from which all the perswasions of his Nobles could no way divert him in which Voyage there went with him his two Sons Philip and Tristram Theobald King of Navarre his Son in law Guido Earl of Flanders and Prince Edward eldest Son of Henry King of England who was attended by his Brother Edmund Earl surnamed Crouchback not because he was crook-shouldered as was pretended by Henry Duke of Lancaster when he usurped King Richard's Throne but from his being a Croised Soldier in the Holy War Lewis being now on his way to Palestine it was concluded by the general consent of his Council That for securing the Christians passage to Syria they should first take the City of Carthage in Affrica or rather Tunis which being raised out of the Ruins of that famous City was now become a Nest of Pirates who had killed and taken captive many Pilgrims who were sailing that way to the Holy Land But no sooner was the Siege began than the Plague seized on the Christian Army whereof Thousands died and among the rest Tristram King Lewis's Son and he himself of a Flux soon followed after His loss was much lamented he being accounted the French Josia as well for the Piety of his Life as the Wofulness of his Death and his wilful ingaging himself in a needless and unfortunate War But notwithstanding this Mortality the Siege was continued and Tunis brought into such distress that they were glad to surrender the Town on these Conditions That it should pay yearly to Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem the Sum of Forty Thousand Crowns That they should receive Christian Ministers freely to Exercise their Religion And that they should be at the whole charge of that Voyage Prince Edward would have had the Town beaten down and all the Inhabitants put to the Sword accounting the foulest Quarter too fair for such Villains and their Goods sacrificed as an Anathema to God and burnt to ashes because gotten by Robbery But seeing he could not prevail with others he resolved however to shew his own detestation by execrating his part of the Spoil and causing it to be burnt forbidding the English Soldiers to save any thing of it telling them that Coals stolen out of that Fire would sooner burn their Houses than warm their Hands It troubled not the conscience of other Princes however to inrich themselves therewith and glut themselves with the stolen Honey found in that Hive of Drones And not only so but terminated their Pilgrimage there too refusing to proceed any further therein Whereat Edward astonished struck his Hands on his Breast and swore That tho' they all forsook him yet he would enter Ptolemais if accompanied with Fowin his Horse-keeper only And accordingly he arrived safe there to the great comfort of the Christians who were in sore distress Whilst Theobald King of Navarre with the Queen and the Earl of Flanders died in their way home and most of the Spoil was cast away At his arrival at Ptolemis he found the Christians just losing their last stake Bondocdar having brought them to so low an ebb that they had resolved if some unexpected Succour reversed not their intentions within three days to resign it up But Edward's coming in the interim revived their hopes and made them take Courage both to desie their Enemies and their own thoughts of surrendring the City Having sufficiently victualed and manned Ptolemais he marched with Six or Seven Thousand Men to Nazareth which he took and slew those he found therein And being afterwards informed that the Turks were gathered together at Cakhow about Forty Miles from thence he marched thither and setting upon them early in the Morning slew a Thousand of them and put the rest to flight In which Battel as well as in several other Skirmishes he gave sufficient proof of his own personal Valour slaying many of the Infidels in single combat After this Victory he returned to Ptolemais where Elenor his Consort was delivered of a fair Daugher but the Joy occasioned thereby was soon turned into Sorrow by the apprehension of his being mortally wounded by one of the Assassines who resorting to him several times with Letters and Messages from the Admiral of Joppa who pretended a desire to turn Christian The first time of his coming as the Prince was lying on his Bed and reading the Letters he brought none being in the Room but them two he suddenly struck him into the Arm with an invenomed Knife and attempted to have fetched another blow but the Prince whose Valour was now awakened gave him such a blow with his Foot that he felled him to the ground and wresting the poysoned Knife out of his hand thrust it into the Murtherer's Belly and slew him yet so that he hurt himself therewith in the Fore-head It is storied that his Lady sucked out all the venom of his Wounds without prejudicing her self But however certain it is that by the help of Physick good Attendance and an Antidote the Master of the Templars gave him he shewed himself on Horse back safe and well within fifteen days after The Admiral hearing of his recovery solemnly disavowed his having any hand in the Treachery it being seldom known that any will own themselves the Parent of an unsucceeding Villany And having done as much and more than could have been expected from so small a number as he had with him he returned home full fraught with Honour And his Father King Henry being dead the English Nobility met him as far as the Alpes to attend him in his return home CHAP. IX Rodulphus the Emperour hindred from going into Palestine sends the Duke of Mechlenburg Charles King of Jerusalem prevented in his intended Voyage MUch talk there was now in Syria of the great preparations of Rodulphus who was after two and twenty years Interregnum chosen Emperour of Germany and though but a meer Earl of Haspurg yet being now advanced to the Emperial dignity layed the first foundation of the Anstrian Family but he was too much imployed at home by Civil Discords and reducing the Princes to obedience whose Knees were too stiff to do him Homage till he had rendered them more pliable by degrees to think of going into Syria But yet being somewhat unwilling to render their great expectations wholly frustrat he sent the Duke of Mechlenburgh with a good Army to assist the Christians who coming to Ptolemais made several succesful incursions into the Enemies Countries about
habitations save only the Lâ—tines knowing full well that if the Christians could not buy their lives cheaâ— they would not fail to sell them dear aâ— fight it out to the last man Saladine flushed with this great succeâ— summon'd Askelon but the Governoâ— refusing to surrender it he concluded would not be convenient to hazard thâ— checking of his fortune in so long a Siegâ— and therefore left it and went to Jerusâ—lem which he looked upon to be a plaâ— of less difficulty and more honour 〈◊〉 conquer and so indeed he found it fâ—â— though they within the City valiantly defended it for about fourteen days yet a last considering that it was but playing out a desperate game which must certainly be lost in the end in regard theâ— Enemies were near and their Friends fâ—â— off and unable to send them any otheâ— relief than vain and helpless pity they resolved to lavish out no more valour bâ— yield up the City upon condition thâ— all their lives might be redeemed 〈◊〉 man for Ten a woman for five and child for one Besent But 14000 wâ—â— were not able to discharge their Ransom were kept as perpetual Slaves Those of the Greek Church were permitted to stay in the City but all the Latines were commanded to depart except two Frenchmen to whom Saladine gave leave to stay and allowed them maintenance to live on in Reverence to their great Age one of them having been a Soldier under Godfrey when he first took the City and the other the first Child that was born in it after it was conquered by the Christians Thus Jerusalem after it had been enjoyed by the Christians for the space of eighty eight years was by the just Judgment of God wrested from them again by the Turks and all their stately Churches turned into Stables except those of the Sepulcher and the Temple The former whereof Saladine spared for a great Sum of Money to the Chiristians which is enjoyed by them to this day by licence from the Grand Signior and innumerable Pilgrimages continually made to it by all sorts of Christians either out of Zeal or Curiosity And the other he Converted to a Mosque for the Worship of Mahomet sprinkling it all over with Rose-water as if he intended thereby to cleanse it from its Profanation by the Christians whilst he really defiled it by his unholy washing It was generally observed that the Sun as sympathizing with the Christians in their approaching Miseries suffered an Eclipse which was afterward looked upon as a sad presage of the loss of thaâ— City But that which was much more deplorable and threatning than the Suns Eclipse was the total Eclipse of Piety Wickedness abounding in every corner and scarce one honest Woman to be found in the whole City of Jerusalem For Heraclius the Patriarch and the whole Clergy being exceedingly debaucht the Laity imitated their bad Example When this doleful News of Jerusalem'â— loss arrived in Europe it filled every Eye with Tears and swelled all Hearts with Sorrow and Anguish CHAP. XIX Conrade Valiantly defending Tyre is chosen King The Voyage of Frederick Emperor of Germany to the Holy Land The Siege of Ptolemais The Voyage of Richard King of England and Philip King of France to the Holy Land IN this sad deplorable State stood the affairs in Palestine when Conrade arrived there whose Worth and Excellence commands my Pen to attend him from his own Country thither He was Son to Boniface Marquess of Montferrat who was taken Prisoner in that Fatal Battle wherein King Guy lost himself and his Kingdom His Youth was for the most part spent in the Service of Isaaccius Angelus the Grecian Emperour who being bred in a Monastery the confining of his Body seemed to have brought him to a pent and narrow Soul and indued him with Accomplishments more becoming a Priest than a Prince For when his Rebellious Subjects affronted him to the face instead of sending an Army against them to reduce them to their obedience he only committed his cause to a company of Bald-pated Friers whom he kept in his Court to pray for his Prosperity Hoping that by their supposed Pious Tears he should be able to quench the Combustions of his Empire But this Conrade told him plainly that if ever he intended to sit upon the Imperial Throne in Peace he must make use of the Weapons of the left Hand as well as those of the right and Fight as well as Pray Which advice being taken by the Emperour he did by the help of this General quickly subdue all his Enemies But our brave Conrade found but a small reward for so great a service being only graced in consideration thereof to wear his Shoes of the Imperial Fashion And it being usual with Princes not to love the sight of those to whom they know themselves obliged and yet care not to reward Isaaccius by the perswasion of some about him who envied his Courage and Bravery spurred on Conrade who was free enough of himself to any Noble Enterprize to go into Palestine and endeavour to support the ruinous affairs of the afflicted Christians And although he was sensible of their Plot yet being weary of the Grecians baseness he suffered himself to be prevailed upon to undertake that Honourable Imployment and therefore set forward with all convenient speed for the Holy Land with a gallant Band of Gentlemen who fitted out themselves at their own charge wherewith he marched to the City of Tyre where we will leave him for the present to return again to Saladine Who having won the City and possessed himself of the greatest part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem laid close Siege to the City of Askelon which had refused to surrender when Ptolemais and the rest yielded to his victorious Arms but was now after a short Siege delivered to him upon condition that King Guy Gerard Masters of the Templars should be sett at Liberty And shortly after the Castle of Antioch was betrayed to him by the Patriarch And Antioch it self which cost the Christians 11 Months Siege was by that means lost in an instant besides several Provinces thereunto belonging Five Twenty strong Towns more which followed the like Fate with Antioch and fell into the Possession of the Turks After which he sat down likewise before Tripoli but that City being after the death of Earl Reimond delivered to the Christians by his Wife they Bravely defended it against all Saladines Force so that having once tasted of their Valour in Tripoli he had no great Stomach to make a second trial but raised his Siege and marched away to Tyre where he hoped to speed better But he found himself greatly mistaken for Conrade being a little before got thither with his Army gave him so hot a Welcome that he was glad to fly and leave all his Tents behind him which were sufficiently lined with Treasure whereby the Christians had the happiness to inrich themselves with their own Spoil Those
City were besieged themselves whilst they besieged Ptolemais It was at last proposed by Saladine that both sides should try their fortune in the field which was easily assented to by the Christians in hopes that they should thereby both obtain the victory and win the City which they concluded would not hold out long if Saladine were beaten But when they were going to ingage an imaginary fear suddenly seizing them they all turned their backs and fled So wavering are the Scales of Victory that sometimes the least mote will turn them In which confusion many would have thought themselves happy if they could have exchanged a strong Hand for a swift Foot But Geoffrey Lusignan Brother to King Guy who was left to guard the Camp seeing the Christians shamefully to run away marched out with his men to meet them and having convinced them of the causelessness of their fear and prevailed with them to return again they set upon the Turks with so much fierceness and rage that they quickly won the day though it cost them the loss of two thousand men and Gerard Master of the Templars After this victory it was vainly expected by the Christians that the City would presently be surrendred to them but the Turks still continued to defend it with much resolution though most of their houses were already burnt or beaten down and the whole City reduced to a perfect Sceleton of Walls and Towers They fought with their wits as well as with their weapons both sides employed themselves in devising strange hitherto unknown offensive defensive Engines So that Mars himself had he resided either in that Camp or City might have learnt to fight and have informed himself in feats of war from their practice But in the mean time famine raged exceedingly in the Christian Camp in regard they had no provision but what they were forced to send for as far as Italy At this time under the Walls of Ptolemais the Teutonick order of Dutch Knights who had hitherto lived as private pilgrims were honoured with a Grand Master their were dispensed with by the Bishop of Rome Most of his Forces he sent about by Spain but went himself and some few of his friends through France having his Pilgrims scrip and staff delivered him at Tours by the Arch-bishop and at Lyons he met with the other Royal pilgrim Philip the Second sirnamed Augustus King of France but parting again by consent they went several ways toward Syria King Richard in his passage through Italy went within fifteen Miles of Rome and yet never vouchsaf'd his Holiness a Visit but told Octavian Bishop of Ostia the Popes Confessor that having better objects before him he would not stir one step out of his way to see the Pope because he had lately extorted without all reason a great Sum of Money from the English Prelates And therefore passing forward at Messina in Sicily the two Kings meet again where likewise King Richard to his exceeding joy found his fleet safely arrived but having met with much difficulty and danger in their passage Richard learnt by his own experience what miseries and dangers Merchants and Mariners at Sea meet withal being always within a few inches and after within an hairs breadth of death which made him revoke the Law of Wracks which intitled the King of England to all Ship wrackt goods Tankred was at this time King of Sicily who being a Bastard born had usurped the Crown detained the Dowrie and imprisoned the person of Joan Wife to William the Late King of Sicily and Sister to K. Richard So that he was in a miserable plight at the arrival of those two mighty Monarchs and knew not what course to steer To keep them out was impossible and above his Power and to let them in was dangerous and might prove his ruin and therefore resolved how Justly or Prudently let the Reader judge to secure himself by creating a misunderstanding between those two Kings And therefore applying himself to the French King he insinuated several false Stories of the King of England permitting his Subjects likewise to do the English all the secret mischief they could for which Richard who was not ignorant of what passed between him and the French King demanded satisfaction which was denied him wherefore resolving to avenge himself he assaulted took Messina it self together with most of the chief Forts in the Island demanding satisfaction for all the wrongs done both to himself and Sister Whereupon Tankred though he was dull at first yet now being prickd with the Sword he freely bled many Thousand Ounces of Gold and finding that as the case stood hiâ— best Thrift was to be Prodigal he gave ouâ— King what conditions soever he demanded However the misunderstanding which he had procured between the two Royal Pilgrims daily increased and Richard slighting the French Kings Sister whom he had formerly promised to marry expressed more affection to Berengariâ— Daughter to the King of Navarr which vexed Philip to the Heart but some Princes interposing between them healed the breach for the present but the cause remaining the Malady quickly returned with worse symptoms then before King Philip thinking to be revenged on Richard by fore staling the Market of Honour and ingrossing all to himself posted many to Ptolemais whilst Richard followed after at his leisure taking Cyprus in his way where reigned Isaac Or as others call him Cursac who under Andronicus the Grecian Emperour when it was common for every Factious Nobleman to snatch a plank of that shipwrack'd and sinking Empire had seized on that Island and there Tyranniz'd as an absolute King but being so fool-hardy as to abuse our Royal Pilgrim at his Arrival there by killing divers of his Souldiers who landed in his Island and refusing to â—ermit the Sea-sick Lady Berengaria to â—ome on Shore he lost both himself and â—is new erected Kingdom at once For â—ing Richard easily conquered the whole â—land and honoured the insolent Grecian with the Magnificent Captivity of Silver Fetters Yet like a noble and generous Conquerour he set his Daughter at Liberty and gave her Princely Usage the Island â—he pawned to the Templars for ready Money and because Cyprus had been anciently accounted the Seat of Venus that it might prove so to him in the pleasant Month of May he there solemnized his Marriage with his Beloved Lady Berengaria Whilst Richard was thus detained in Cyprus the Siege of Ptolemais was carried on with abundance of fierceness and resolution by the French King who hoped to get the Renown of its Conquest before King Richards Arrival but found it so strenuously defended by the Turks within that all his strength was not sufficient to force those Walls which had now above 2 years withstood the Christians Batteries by reason of the length of the Siege the Turks and Christians were become well acquainted with each others Way of fighting so that what advantages happened to either side were meerly
Never did his Holiness so meet with his match before however he loved his Flock in Europe too well to run the hazard of losing them by a long Journey into Tartaria and so the Conversion of the Tartarians was neglected About this time likewise the Grecian Emperour who had been now near sixty years confined to the Citys of Nice and Adrianople only recovered every foot of Land that the Latins had won from the Greeks after it had been enjoyed by five Succesive Latine Emperours except what was enjoyed by the Venetians who kept Candia till lately wrested from them by the Turks presently after the Greek Church wholly cast of their subjection to the Pope and declared the Patriarch of Constantinople to be absolute of himself without having any dependency on Rome the occasion of their disavowing the Popes Authority was this Germanus being upon this new revolution of the Grecian Empire chosen Patriarch of Constantinople a certain Archbishop preferred by him went to Rome there to have his confirmation but finding that Court so unreasonable in their demands of Fees that it would weaken him to be confirmed and shake his Estate to settle him in his Bishoprick he returned again without confirmation but with so great an outcry upon the Extortion of Rome that the Patriarch and the whole Clergy for ever after threw off the Popes heavy Yoke which they were no longer able to bear His Holiness stormed exceedingly at this loss and therefore dispairing to reduce them by fair means proclaimed open War against them and resolved to send an Army of Crossed Soldiers against those Schismatical Grecians as he had formerly done against the Albigenses It being customary with that imperious Prelate to make use of the Secular Power as his Hang-man to execute those whom he shall please to condemn But his Commands were herein but little regarded very few Volunteers entering themselves for this Service and most men entertaining a Religious Horror and Detestation of so odious an Imployment This irrepairable rent and division between the two Churches was very advantagious to the Turks and a greath inderance to the Holy War for the Greeks in Syria who had hitherto lived in some kind of friendly correspondency with the Latins differing indeed in Judgment but complying in Affections and uniting against the Turk the common Enemy of both began now to conceive so great a hatered for the Latins that they wished the Turk from whom they expected fair Quarter the free Exercise of their Religion and a secure dwelling in any City for paying a set Tribute might conquer rather than their fellow Christians from whom they expected nothing but a forcing of their Conscience and the bringing their Souls into subjection to the Popes Supremacy and therefore from thence forward never lent a helping hand to that War CHAP. VI. The Voyage of Theobald Kingof Navarre Of Robert Earl of Cornwall Jerusalem taken by the Corasines THe Ten Years Truce made by Frederick being ended he ordered Reinold his Vice-Roy to conclude another for the same term of years which tho' honourable enough and without any other fault than Frederick's having made it yet the Templars would not indure it pretending that it was a great Indignity to the Christians for the Turks to have access to the Sepulchre And Pope Gregory to despite the Emperour commanded his Trumpeters the Dominican and Franciscan Fryers to sound a fresh Alarum to the Holy War who amplifying with their Rhetorick the Calamity of the Christians the Tyranny of the Turks the Merit of the Cause and the Probability of Success prevailed with many to undertake the Voyage the principal whereof was Theobald King of Navarre Almerick Earl of Montfort Henry Earl of Champaigne Peter Earl of Bretaigne who having no Ships were forced to march with their Armies by Land through Grecia where they were entertained as others had been before them with Treachery Famine and all the Miseries that could attend an unfortunate Army insomuch that none ever after adventured to go that way into the Holy Land But having passed the Bosporus they marched to Antioch being more than half of them destroyed by the Turks in their passage thither and the rest miserably weaken'd and almost dead with sickness and famine However after they had for sometime refreshed themselves there the Templars conducted them to Gaza where they fell to spoiling and foraging the Sultan's Country assaulting no place of strength but only poor Villages who thought themselves sufficiently walled by the Truce But as they were returning home laden with Treasure the Turks in great numbers fell upon them near Gaza where after a bloody fight wherein the Christians behaved themselves with so much bravery that they were rather killed than conquered they were utterly overthrown Earl Henry being slain Almerick taken prisoner and the King of Navarre forced to save himself by the swiftness of his Spanish Gennet In the mean while the other Christians looked on and saw their Brethren slaughtered before their faces without being able to help them in regard their hands were tyed by the Truce and Reinoldus charged them not to infringe the Peace made with the Sultan As for the King of Navarre he stole home with as much fecresie as possible being greatly ashamed that his Voyage from which so much was expected had effected nothing but the ruin of its undertakers Fifteen days after his departure Richard Earl of Cornwall and Brother to King Henry the Third landed at Ptolemais accompanied by Theodoricus Lord Prior of the English Hospitallers divers Barons and an Army of brave and well-appointed Soldiers where he was joyfully received especially by the Clergy who Sang at his arrival Blessed is he who cometh in the Name of the Lord. This Prince was our English Croesus and the Tinn-Mines in Cornwall were his Indies that inriched him so that England never had a poorer King and a richer Subject than those two Brothers When he was got as far as the Mediterranean Sea the the Pope sent his Legate to command him back and forbid his proceeding any farther in his Voyage Whereat our Heroick Pilgrim was somewhat astonished that the Pope should so solemnly summon and then as suddenly discharge his Holy Souldiers as tho' he designed only to delude peoples devotions with false alarums However having vowed the Voyage and his Honour and Treasure being ingaged therein he resolved that his Holiness should not with a breath blast his generous Resolutions but went forward notwithstanding this Command to the contrary The Sultans in Syria hearing of his arrival offered him Peace but whilst he was treating of it he fortified Askelon which was the best Harbour in all Syria and beautified it with Marble and Statues caused the Christians killed at the late Battel of Gaza to be decently buried and gave a Priest an yearly Salary to Pray for their Souls so that the living being much taken with his kindness to the dead he thereby purchased as much love and honour as tho'
the Miseries of the last Siege and fearing the same Tragedy would be acted over again set fire to the Houses and in the Night saved themselves by flight whereupon the French issued in and quenching the fire saved abundance of Treasure from the fury of the flames Which Loss so discouraged Meladine that to purchase Peace with the Christians he offered to restore them the whole Kingdom of Jerusalem in as ample a manner as ever it had been enjoyed by any of their Predecessors to release all Prisoners and disburse a great Sum of Money to defray the Charge of the War But such was their Pride and Folly that they refused to accept of it unless Alexandria the best Port in all Egypt were given them as an Over-plus the Pope's Legate and Robert Earl of Artois persuading them to grant Peace upon no other terms Wherefore the Turk seeing themselves in so desperate a condition their Extremity rendered their Sword the keener and made them provide with the greater resolution to defend their Country to the utmost About this time there arose a difference between the French and the English to the great prejudice of their Proceedings And Meladine King of Egypt died likewise the same Year and left his imbroiled Kingdom to Melcchsala his Son From Damiata the French marched up towards Cairo the Governor whereof being offended with the new King promised to deliver it into their hands And having passed an arm of the River Nilus Earl Robert marched forward with a third part of the Army and suddenly assaulted the Turks in their Tents whilst the King was absent and put them to flight which Victory so lifted him up with conceit that he adventured contrary to the advice of the Master of the Templers to set on the whole Turkish Power which lay incamped not far off without staying for the rest of the Army whereby he was utterly overthrown and as he was crossing the River in his flight found Water enough to drown him tho' not to wash away the stain of rashness and cowardize from his memory and our English Earl refusing to fly died fighting in the midst of his Enemies there escaping no more but four persons to carry News of this fatal overthrow to the rest of the Army It is easier for the Reader to conceive than for my Pen to express the general grief wherewith these doleful Tydings were received by the French among whom the Plague raged so furiously that it daily swept away Thousands And to increase their sorrow several sick persons whom the King had sent down the River to Damiata were set upon by the Egyptian King and having neither Hands to fight nor Legs to run were every one either burned or drowned except Alexander Gifford an English-man whose Name and Family still remains at Chellingworth in Stafford-shire who acquainted the French with what had happened They would now have been glad of those Terms which a little before they slighted but it was too late for the Turks now scorned to treat with them The French would have had the King provided for his own safety by flying back to Damiata But he refused and resolving to live or die overcome or perish with them marched forward to the fatal place where the last Battel was fought And whilst they were astonished at the sight of their mangled fellows the Egyptian King set upon them with an infinite number of men and put them all being but few in number and those very weak to the sword except Lewis and his two Brothers whom he took Prisoners The Turks having thus slain all the French Pilgrims instantly marched up with their Ensigns to Damiata hoping thereby to surprize it which if they had done King Lewis had been for ever lost But God disappointed them for they were easily discovered notwithstanding their disguise and forced to go away without their desire The News of this sorrowful Accident coming to Europe filled every one with grief and made Henry King of England who had made great preparation to undertake the Voyage to alter his mind and imploy his Money to a better use But to return to Egypt Melechsala did not long survive this Victory being slain soon after by Tanquemine a sturdy Mammaluke who succeeded him in the Egyptian Kingdom by whom King Lewis was released in exchange for Damiata being obliged besides the surrender of the City to pay many Thousand Pounds for the releasing of Christian Captives and to make satisfaction for the Damage done in Egypt for the securing whereof he was forced to pawn to the Turks the Pyx and Host whence it is that a Wafer-Cake and a Box is always wrote in the Borders of that Tapestry which we have brought us out of Egypt as a perpetual Memorial of that Victory But tho' Lewis was set at liberty yet he got not home till four years after CHAP. VIII The Mammalukes described The Death of Frederick The Conversion of the Tartars And the extinguishing the Caliphs of Babylon Charles made King of Sicily and Jerusalem King Lewis makes a second Voyage THose Mammalukes which had now seized on the Kingdom of Egypt were the Children of Christian-Parents which were by Saladine and his Successors taught the Mahometan Superstition and instructed in all Military Discipline at several Nurseries and being found by their Valour and Courage to be the chief support of the Turkish Kings were by them advanced to the chief places of profit and trust and thereby the better enabled to pull down their raisers Which was performed during the captivity of King Lewis by Tarquemine who slew Melechsala and thinking it unfit so great a Prince should go to the grave alone sent all his Children after him And was afterwards chosen by the rest of the Mammalukes King of Egypt whereupon he by their advice and consent made several Laws which were ever afterward observed by them as irrevokable The first whereof was That the Sultan or chief of the servile Empire should not succeed by Inheritance but be chosen out of the Mammalukes The second That none should be admitted into the Order of the Mammalukes that were born either of Turkish or Jewish Parents but only such as were born Christians The third was That tho' the Sons of Mammalukes should injoy their Fathers Lands and Wealth yet they should not take upon them the Name and Honour of a Mammaluke The fourth was That the Native Egyptians should be permitted the use of no other Weapons but such wherewith they were to fight against Weeds and Till and Manure their Land There were in this Government several things worthy admiration First That of Slaves they should act the King without playing the Tyrant Secondly That they should neglect their own Children when it is common for other men to idolize them and sacrifice all that they have to their welfare Thirdly That they should not fall out in the Election of their Kings in regard they were all equal among themselves Lastly That it should indure so
Damascus destroying all before him with fire and sword and carying away many rich booties till at last he was circumvented and taken prisoner by the Mammalukes who kept him in Captivity twenty six years till at length the Sultan of Egypt a Runegado German who had formerly been Enginneer to this Dukes Father set him at Liberty together with Martin his Servant thinking it but reasonable that he who had been his Partner in Misery should likewise pertake of his Happiness but they were no sooner at Liberty but they were both took again by Pirats as they were sailing into Syria which the Sultan hearing of pittied the misfortune of that distressed Prince and scorning that any should frustrate his designed courtesie set him free once more and then returning home he was welcomed with as much wonder as joy by his Subjects who supposed him to have been dead long before When he came home he found two Counterfeits who both pretended to be the Duke and challenged lodging with his Lady but upon his arrival to confute their false pretences they were both condemned to lose their lives by two contrary deaths the one being Burn'd and the other Drowned Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem having at length made great preparations for the Holy War and strengthned his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem by purchasing the Title of Maria Domicella Princess of Antioch who likewise pretended to a Right he sent Roger Count of Severine as his Vice-Roy to Ptolemais where he was received with a great deal of Honour in despite of King Hugh but when his Navy and all things were said to be ready for his own departure and that he had by the way a design upon Michael Paleologus the Grecian Emperour a sudden and unexpected accident blasted all For on Easter-day as the Bell tolled to Even-Song all the Frenchmen in Sicily had their Throats Cut in a moment by the Natives the contriver of this Massacre was one Jacobus Prochyta a Doctor of Physick who thereby killed more in an hour then he cured in his Whole Life but the secresie of its contrivance vvas litle less then a Miracle that so many should knovv of it and yet none either through accident or design discover it from vvhence came the Proverb the Sicilian Vispers Charles himself was at Rome when this Tragedy was acted to see the Pope make Cardinals and when he received the news it struck him so to the Heart that he never injoyed himself after But living as without Life for about two years he died and left his Son Charles to Succeed him in the Kingdom of Naples and the Title of Jerusalem who had little remarkable in his Life but only that being offended with the Templars in Palestine for taking part with the King of Cyprus against him he siesed all the Lands and Goods they had in Naples or any other part of his dominions CHAP. X. Ptolemais Besieged and taken by the Sultan of Egypt and thereby the Holy War ended MElechsaites or as others call him Melechmessor about this time wan the strong Castle of Mergarh from the Hospitallers who kept it and banished the Carmalites out of Syria because they had changed their Habits at the appointment of Pope Honorious the Turks being generally haters of innovations And Alphir who was his next Successor understanding that the Christian Princes of Europe were at variance among themselves resolved to lay hold of that opportunity as the fitest time finally to expel the Christians out of Palestine and therefore coming out of Egypt with a great Army he besieged and won the Cities of Tripoli Sidon and Berytus and being incouraged with this Success he adventured to Besiege Tyre it self and notwithstanding its invincible strength took it in a very short time and beat it down to the ground as he did the other three Cities So that now there remained nothing of all that the Christians had won in Palestine but Ptolemais which he might easily have taken if he would have sate down before with his Army but he was unwilling to venture for fear least if he should attempt the taking all from them at once he might thereby alarum the Christian Princes to repair thither for their Relief and therefore concluded a Peace with the Venetians for five years thinking that the bitter potion would be the more easily swallowed by them if it were devided into two doses But tho' the City Ptolemais did at this time escape the Turks Victorious Arms ' yet it was notwithstanding in a most Wofull and Dismal condition for there were in it some of all Countrys and every Nation had their several Courts to deside causes in so that the great plenty of Judges occasiond a scarcity of Justice and Malefactors when they were impeached for any Crime would by appealing to a Tryal in the Court of their own Country escape the deserved Punishment it being a sufficient proof of the Criminals innocency in the Venetians or Genoans Court to say that he was a Subject of the State to which the Court belonged wherefore Personal Crimes were made National and particular faults by being espoused rendered publick offences so that outrages were every where practised and no where punished as if they had been resolved to spare Divine Vengance the pains of overtaking them by going forth to meet it Besides which there was at this time a great number of Pretenders eagerly pro secuting their several Titles to that City being no fewer then the Venetians Genoans Pisans Florentins the King of Cyprus and Sicily the Agents of the King of England and France the Princes of Tripoli and Antioch the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Master of the Templars and Hospitallers and the Popes Legate who would if he were now living think himself highly abused in not being first named All which Pretenders did at once with much Heat and Violence urge there Right to the Airy Title of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Command of that City like Bees making the greatest noise and Bwzzing when they were just ready to forsake the Hive There was within the City at this time many new Pilgrims who were lately come thither out of Europe five hundred whereof were of the Popes sending altho' he afterwards took no care for their Pay for tho' he loved to see the Golden Tide flow into his Coffers yet he could not indure to see it ebb again But the soldiers being not paid resolved according to their blunt but usual custom to pay themselves and therefore Marching out of the City Pillaged the Enemies Country contrary to the Peace made with Alphir The Turks demand satisfaction which was not only denied by those of Ptolomais but their Embassadors likewise abused Which so inraged Sultan Serapha Alphir being now dead that he gathered together all his Forces and sat down before the City with an Army of six hundred thousand men say some Historians tho' others make them not half the number and concluding that that City was so