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 HISTORY OF THE HOLY WAR Began Anno 1095. by the Christian Princes of Europe AGAINST The Turks FOR THE Recovery of the Holy Land and Continued to the Year 1294. IN TWO BOOKS To which is added A Particular ACCOUNT of the Present War managed by the Emperour King of Poland and several other Princes against the Turks By THO. MILLS Gent. Illustrated with Copper-Plates LONDON Printed for Tho. Malthus at the Sun in the Poultrey 1685. To the Right Honourable Sir JAMES SMITH Kt. Lord Mayor Of the Honourable City of London My Lord HIstories in general are like so many Registers and Records of time that convey to us the knowledg of what passed in the Ages before us and thereby helps us to look back with Pleasure upon the great Actions and Noble Atcheivments of our Worthy Predecessors which renders the reading of them very Pleasant and Delightful The History of the Holy War has not only been the amusement of the Learned Pens of other Nations but of a * Dr. Fuller Celebrated Author of our own which tho' written in a less critical time than this wherein that War seems to have a new resurrection was received with the general approbation of all lovers of History But this Excellent History being now rare to be found several Persons who were extreamly delighted with its agreeable variety wherein no History in the World does excel it mightily Importuned me to revive it or else to write a more Brief and Compendious account of that Religous War that so it might be rendered the more Capable of an Vniversal Reading the latter of which I was upon their persuasions prevailed upon to undertake But having performed the Task imposed upon me I found my self at a loss for a Suitable Person to whom I might address to own and Patronise the work till at length I happily pitch'd my thoughts upon Your Lordship To Dedicate it is made necessary by Custom and to Dedicate it to Your Lordship as necessary by the nature and design of the Book it self My Lord it is a discourse of War and therefore to have offered it to any other than a Soldier and a Brave Son of Mars had been an unpardonable Folly and a Sacrilegious Robery of the God of War And among all the Brave Commanders of this Honourable City I find none whose Courage and Valiour Prudence and LOYALTY bears a better sound then Your Lordships Not only in the Opinion of Your Fellow Subjects but of the King too for it was the singular Wisdom and LOYALTY which you have Manifested upon all Occasions that Recommended You both to his Majesties Gracious Choice and the Peoples Vniversal desire for the Chief Magestrate of Englands Metropolis Wherefore I Humbly Beg You will be Pleased to Accept of the Dedication and Permit this History to pass into the World under the shelter of your Lordships Name and Approbation and Pardon the Authors Presumption in aspiring to so great an Honour Although for an Atonement of the ambition of this offering I can only urge it is the History of the Holy War wherein those of our Nation gave as large a Testimony of their Courage and Bravery against those Infidels and Enemies of our Faith as any Nation whatsoever Which Consideration may Peradventure prevail upon Your Lordship to allow it as a sufficient Expiation for the pride of this Oblation Especially in a Person who is with the most Profound Zeal and Respect My Lord Your Lordships most humble and most devoted Servant THO. MILLS By the absence of the Author from the Press several faults have escaped which the Reader is desired to mend with his Pen. ERATTA PAge 38 Read Gerard. p. 62. l. 18 r. Baldwine p. 63 l. 13 r. Pilgrims p. 69 l. 4 r. their own p. 75 l. 15 Dele prevented it p. 74 r. Ignatius Book 2 p. 49 l. 22 r. conceit p 52 l r Cyprus p 53 l 6 r Meladine p. 67. ad of Lancaster p. 71. l. 13 r. fight Directions to the Binder Place the Cut of the King of Poland page 84. and the Standard page 86. THE HISTORY OF THE Holy War BOOK I. CHAP. I. The Description of the City of Jerusalem and the Land of Judea Why it was called the Holy Land It is conquered by the Egyptians by the Galdeans and by the Romans JAcob having just before his death called all his Twelve Sons together to bless them and to tell them what should happen both to them and to their Children in succeeding Ages he preferred Judah altho' not the Eldest but the Fourth Son before the rest of his Brethren and advanced him to the Throne saying Judah thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise thy hand shall be in the neck of thy enemies and thy Fathers children shall bow before thee Judah is a Lions whelp from the prey my son thou art gone up The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come meaning Christ the Saviour of the World to whom the gathering of the people shall be And after the return of the Israelites out of Egypt and the destroying the Canaanites and other Nations who inhabited Palestine a larger and fairer proportion thereof was alotted for the inheritance of this Royal Tribe than any of their Brethren enjoyed in which Patrimony there were several large fenced Cities the chief whereof was Hebron and great numbers of pleasant and fruitful Villages But altho' Judah had received the promise of the Kingly Dignity yet he was not till many years after the return out of Egypt invested with it but the Government was laid on the shoulders sometimes of one man and sometimes of another who were either by the special direction of Heaven or the favour of the People indifferently chosen out of any Tribe And when the Israelites grown weary of the Judges rule requested a King and God commanded Samuel to establish a Monarchical Government among them as tho' Jacob had been mistaken in his measures or the Promise to Judah had been quite forgotten that Tribe is neglected and a King chosen out of the Off-spring of Benjamen the youngest Son of Jacob. But Saal proving disobedient and rebellious against the Command of the Great and Supream Monarch of Heaven and Earth by whom alone King Reign the Royal Dignity was rent both from him and his Tribe and according to the Prediction of the Patriarch given to David the youngest Son of Jesse the Bethlehemite of the Tribe of Judah out of whose Loyns according to the flesh our Saviour came When he was first advanced to the Throne he only reigned over the Tribe of Judah and made choice of Hebron as his Royal Seat But being afterwards by the unanimous consent of all the Tribes chosen to be King of Israel he took the City of Jerusalem which is the Subject of this History from the Jebusites and made it the Royal Seat of the Kings of Isreal whereupon it was preferred by the great Jehovah
wherein were several Thousand Foot and Eight Horsemen only By which means they were soon after their setting out slain and routed by the Bulgarians he himself hardly escaping And Peter the Hermite having obtained the command of an Army went somewhat further to meet his own ruin for having after many difficulties crossed the Bosphorus got into Asia they found several Cities forsaken by their Turkish Inhabitants which they imagined to be the effect of their fear altho it really proceeded from their Policy and thereupon being more greedy of Gain then desirous of Honour neglected to fortifie the places which they had taken and fell to plundring and seeking after spoil whereby they themselves became an easie prey to their watchful and observing Enemies Not had Hugh who was surnamed the Great Brother to the French King any better success being also overthrown by the Bulgarians in his passage towards the Holy Land and himself taken Prisoner one Gotescallâ—s likewise a Scandaloâ—s Priest and Emmicho a certain Tyrannouâ— Prince near the Rhine led forth a rout of base and disorderly People who wore in deed the Badg of the Cross but served the Devil under Christs Livery killing and pillaging the Poor Jews and others as they went through Germany which made Coloman King of Hungary opposâ— their passage through his Country and put most of them to the Sword Some believing those badbeginnings to have anâ— ill omen abandoned their former Reâ— solutions and returned home But otherâ— took little or no notice of them looking upon them as necessary Physick to purge the Christian Army from the dregâ— of base and ruder People CHAP. V. The Pilgrims arrive at Constantinople Besiege and take Nice and Antroachia overcome Solyman and Corboran in Fight and win the City of Jerusalem NOtwithstanding the bad success of the first adventurers many others addressed themselves to try their fortunes in this Religious War for Godfrey Duke of Bovillon having sold that Dukedom to the Bishop of Liege and the Castles of Sartensy and Monsa to the Bishop of Verdune raised a brave and well managed Army wherewith he marched through Hungary to Constantinople and so did Robert Duke of Normandy Second Son to William the Conqueror King of England Reimond Earl of Tholouse and divers more who though they set forward at several times marcht through different Countries yet they all met together at Constantinople which being then the seat of the Grecian Empire was appointed for the place of their General Rendezvous But although Alexias the Emperour pretended to be over-joyed at their arrival yet he was inwardly grieved thereat for being conscious to himself of his own guilt in deposing and cloistering up Nicephorus his Predecessor and then usurping his Imperial Dignity it was no pleasant sight for him to behold the Sea full of Ships and the Shores covered over and crouded with Souldiers fancying to himself that notwithstanding all their fair pretences of a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem to wrest the holy-land out of the Pagans Possession they only came to undermine him and designed to terminate their Pilgrimage in his destruction And that which is somewhat strange he seems to have entailed his groundless jealousies to all his Successors none where of could ever heartily reconcile themselves to this War but suspected thaâ— those Western Christians made a false blow at Jerusalem but intended it at Constantinople However notwithstanding his secret regret yet finding that his Guests were powerful enough to command their own welcome he entertained them with a seeming complacence and granted them passage through his Country upon Condition that whatsoever they wonâ— Jerusalem only excepted that belonged formerly to the Grecian Empire should be restored to him in lieu whereof he covenanted to furnish them with Shipping Armour and all other warlike Provisions which he never performed but contrary to his Solemn Ingagements endeavoured to retard their generous Designs From hence they marched forward and sate down before the City of Nice formerly fam'd for the first General Council called by Constantine the Great against Arius the Heretick with as glorious an Army and as brave Commanders as ever the Sun saw The Pilgrims had a Lumbard for their Engineer and the Neighbouring Woods afford them Materials for the making many warlike Instruments wherewith they fancied they should soon make themselves Masters of the City But in regard it was strongly fortified both by Art Nature and garrisoned with a great number of well experienced and resolute Soldiers they found it more difficult than they expected But at length the Grecian Fleet blocking up the Lake Ascanius and thereby cutting off from the Besieged all hope of Relief they were forc't to surrender upon condition that the Inhabitants Lives and Goods should be indempnified whereat the Souldiers who promised themselves the Plunder of the City and were thereby frustrated of their hope shewed no small discontent Solymans Wife and young Children were made Prisoners and the City according to the former Agreement with the Grecian Emperour was delivered to Tatinus the Admiral on the behalf of Alexius his Master Having made themselves Masters oâ— this place and thereby flushed themselve with Victory they advance forward to the Vale of Dogorgan where Solyman who had now gotten together a greaâ— Army fell upon them suddenly like lightning so that there followed a fierce and Bloody Battle fought with much courage and great variety of success oâ— both sides Clouds of Arrows darkning the Sky were soon dissolved into Showeâ— of Blood The Europian Pilgrims in this Battle grapled with many disadvantages for their Enemies were three to one and Valour it self may sometimes be beateâ— down by multitudes The weather was extream hot and the scorchnig Sun much annoyed those Northern People whilâ— use had made the Pagans bodies prooâ— against the extremity of the heat Theiâ— Horses likewise unaccustomed to the barâ— barous sound of the Turkish Drums werâ— affrighted that they became altogetheâ— useless notwithstanding which theâ— bravely maintained their ground anâ— by the special Valour and Conduct 〈◊〉 â—heir undaunted Leaders gave the Infidels an absolute overthrow whereat Solyman being desperately inraged as he fled away burned all before him and the better to prop up his broken Credit gave out that he had obtained the Victory and thereby pleased himself with the thoughts of being a Conquerour though only in report From thence with invincible industry and patience they forced their passage through Vallies up Mountains and over Rivers taking in as they went the famous Cities Iconium Heraclea Tarsus â—nd conquering all the Country about Cilicia But being too much puft up with â—his great Success Heaven to cure them of the Pleurisie of Pride let them blood with the tedious and costly Siege of Anâ—iochia which City being called Reblath by the Hebrews was built by Seleucus Nicanor and watered by the River â—rontes but inlarged by Antiochus who â—ncompassed it round with a double Wall one of square Stone and the oâ—er of
was to pay a Ransom 〈◊〉 an hundred thousand Michaelets for tâ—â— security whereof he left his Daughter 〈◊〉 Hostage But he paid the Turks with tâ—â— Saracens money whom he beat first 〈◊〉 Antioch and then at Damascus whiâ—â— place he unfortunately besieged aâ—â— thereby damped the Joy of his two foâ—mer Victories And the more to quâ— their swelling pride the young Princeâ— Antioch was overthrown in Battel aâ—â— slain Which ill success so afflicted Kiâ—â— Baldwins mind that for some time bâ— fore his death he renounced the worâ—â— and took upon him a Religious Habitâ— thing not very unusual in those days aâ— sometimes though not often practiâ—â— still as by the Late Queen of Sweden Wâ— is yet living CHAP. XIII Of Fulco the Fourth King of Jerusalem The remarkable Ruine of Rodolphus Patriarch of Antioch The Graecian Emperour demands Anti och The Prince thereof pays him Homage for it Theâ—amentable Death of Fulco FVlco Earl of Tours Mam and Anjou came about three years before on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem where he obâ—ained in Marriage Mellesent the Kings Daughter and thereupon had assigned â—he City of Tyre and some other Princeâ—y Accommodations for his present mainâ—enance and the Kingdom after his Father-in-laws decease which he received â—ccordingly He had one Son by a forâ—er Wife which was Jeffry Plantagenet Earl of Anjou to whom he left all his Lands in France and from whom our Kings of England are descended This Fulco was a very valiant man indued with many perfections both of body and mind In his Reign there was â—o Alterations worth remark in the Church of Jerusalem but in that of Antioch there was much stir who should succeed Bernard that peaceable and long liv'd Prelate who sate Thirty six yearâ— in the Chair and survived Eight Patriarchs of Jerusalem For the Clergâ— being long in their choice before theâ— could come to a result the Laity waâ— too nimble for them and clapped oâ— Rodolphus of honourable descent into thâ— Chair who cast off his Obedience to thâ— Pope and refused to acknowledge aâ—â— Superiour but St. Peter He was thâ— Darling of the Gentry but bated of thâ— Clergy because advanced without theâ— suffrage wherefore being conscious 〈◊〉 himself that he needed strong Arms sinâ— he was to swim against the stream 〈◊〉 screwed himself into the favour of tâ—â— Princess of Antioch Widdow to youâ— Boemund so that with her strength 〈◊〉 beat down all his Enemies promising hâ— in requital to make a Marriage betwâ—â— her and Reimund Earl of Poictou who wâ— then coming into those parts But 〈◊〉 deceived her and procured the Earl 〈◊〉 marry with the Lady Constantia hâ— Daughter who was but a Child wiâ—â— whom he had the Principality of Antioâ— The Patriarch that he might maâ—â— sure work and oblige him for ever to 〈◊〉 his friend bound him to it by an Oatâ— But as it is usual in those cases frienâ— unjustly gotten are seldom long injoyed of a sworn Friend he became his sworn Enemy and forced him to go to Rome there to answer many Accusations laid to his charge The chief whereof was that he made odious comparisons between Antioch and Rome and accounted himself equal to his Holiness When he arrived at Rome he found the Popes Doors shut against him but he quickly opened them with a Golden Key and upon his repentance for having refused to acknowledge Obedience to the Church of Rome he was dismissed only it was ordered by his Holiness that the Bishop of Ostia should be sent into Byria to examine matters relating to his other Crimes and proceed accordingly Whereat his Adversaries stormed extreamly expecting that he should have been immediately deposed But having mist their mark they resolved to have a second blow at him wherefore they prevailed with Albericus the Legate to favour their design which was not unknown to Rodolphus who coming to Antioch cited the Patriarch to appear but being called three several times came not which was variously commented upon by those who were present according as they affected or disaffected him Whereupon the Legate directed himself to the Arch-Bishop of Apamea who had formerly been one of the most vehemenâ— Accusers of Rodolphus but had lately beeâ— reconciled to him and demanded why he did not accuse the Patriarch now oâ— those Crimes which he had formerly laid to his charge To which the Arch-Bishop answered That what he theâ— did was done out of heat and prejudice and he thought it was his great sin so unadvisedly to discover the nakedness oâ— his Father like cursed Cham from which God had so far reclaimed him that he would rather die for his safety than accuse him Upon which Speech the Legate such was the Martial-Law in a Prelate in those days immediately deposed him and shortly after thrust out the Patriarch with great violence and shut him up in Prison where he remained a long time in Chains till at last he made his escape and went to Rome with an intent to have traversed his Cause again had not death cut him off About this time Calo Johannes the Graecian Emperour came with a great Army of Horse and Foot and demanded of Reimund Prince of Antioch to resign to him that whole Signiory according to the Composition which the Christian Princes made with Alexius his Father which insolent demand fretted Reimund and all the Latines to the heart in regard they had purchased an Inheritance with their own Blood and yet were required to turn Tenants at will to another They told him it was offered his Father when first taken and he refused it That Alexius kept not his Covenants nor assisted them according to the Agreement He called them his Sons indeed but disinherited them of their hopes and all the Portion that he gave them lay in promises never paid But all these Arguments signified little the Emperours Sword being far stronger than theirs for coming with so great a force he conquered in a few days all Cilicia and then besieged the City of Antioch it self whereupon the King of Jerusalem fearing it would give too great advantage to the Infidels to have the Christians fall together by the Ears among themselves made composition between them wherein Reimund obliged himself to do homage to the Emperour and hold his Principality of him Notwithstanding which about four years after he returned again but did not much harm only pillaged the Country And some few years after that he died being accidentally poisoned by one of his own Arrows which he had prepared for the Wild Bore having always carried it much fairer to the Latines than his Father had done in regard an honourable Foe is much more desirable than a Treacherous Friend Falco having Reigned in Jerusalem about Eleven years with abundance oâ— care and industry being almost continually imbroiled in Civil Discords which hindered him from much inlarging of hiâ— Dominion was slain as he was following his sport in Hunting to the great grieâ— of his Subjects He was buried with his Predecessors
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
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
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
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
in the English Army He offered therefore to Consent that a Truce should be concluded on for three some say five years upon condition that the Christians would demolish all places which they had fortified since the taking of Ptolemais which was in Effect to be at the Charge of undoing all that they had hitherto done But however such was the urgency of King Richards occasion that he was glad to accept of those hard Conditions tho' he hated them at his Heart And thus this great undertaking of those two mighty and Warlike Kings began with great Confidence managed with much Courage and attended with good Success ended notwithstanding with some Honour indeed to the undertakers but no manner of Profit either to themselves or the Christian cause King Richard in this Voyage eternized his Memory and to the Glory of the English Nation render'd his Name so terrible to the Turks that they were used to say to their Horses when they started for fear what dost thou think King Richard is here But Profit neither he nor the French King got any both of them loosing the Hair of their Head in an acute disease which saith one Historian was more then either of them got by the Voyage And as for the poor Christians in Syria they left them in a far worse Case than they found them But to refresh the Readers Spirits a little amidst so many Miseries and sad Stories I must not omit one thing that King Richard did in Palestine which was no doubt an abundant Compensation for all the cost and pains of his Journey Which was his redeeming from the Turks for a great sum of Money a large Chest as much as four Men could lift full of Holy Relicks which precious Treasure they had gotten from the Christians at the taking of Jerusalem Richard the 2d. king of Englad. and Jerusalem King Richard having now signed the Peace with Saladine and thereby ended his Pilgrimage took Shipping in Syria to return to his Kingdom but meeting with a Storm on the Coast of Germany he suffered Shipwrack and therefore resolved to travel through that Country by Land as being his nearest way home without considering that the nearness of the way ought to have been measured not so much by the shortness of it as the safeness of it But however to prevent all danger he disguised himself and pretended to be one Hugo a Merchant whose only Commodity was himself whereof he made but a bad Bargain for being discovered in Austria by his large Expences which so far exceeded the degree of a Merchant that his Hostess detected him and the common People flocking about him used much Rudeness and Insolence towards him And being seized on by the Duke who resolved now to be revenged on him for the affront done him in Palestine he sold him to Henry the Emperor who kept him in Bonds Charging him with a Thousand faults committed in Sicily Cyprus and Palestine the Prooss whereof were as slender as the Crime were small so that Richard having an eloquent Tongue an innocent Heart and a bold Spirit easily acquited himself of all those furious Charges in the Judgment of all that heard him However before he could obtain his Liberty he was forced to pay a Ransom of an Hundred and Twenty Thousand Marks Collen weight which was in that age before the Indies had filled those Northern parts of the World with Gold and Silver so greata sum that to raise it in England they were forced to sell all their Church Plate and in lieu thereof for some Hundred years after to Celebrate the Sacrament in Challices of Latten or Tin After this Money Peter of Bloys who had drank as deep of this Helicon as any of that age sent this Prayer making an Apostrophe to the Emperor or to the Duke of Austria or to both together And now thou basest Avarice Drink till thy Belly burst Whil'st England powers large silver showers To Satiate thy thirst And this we pray thy Money may And thou be like accurst Part of this Ransome being paid and Hostages left for the securing the rest he returned into England having indured Eighteen Months Imprisonment But the Duke was after this sorely aflicted in his Dominions by Fire and Famine And in his Body by a Gangren which seised on him with that Violence that he was forced to cut his leg off with his own hand and died thereof but before his death he fortified Vienna with a strong Wall which he caused to be built with this Money and being in the time of his sickness troubled in conscience for having been so Cruel to our King he willed some Thousand Crowns to be returned to him again CHAP. II. The Death of Saladine Discords among the Turks the Death of Henry King of Jerusalem Almerick the Second Succeeds him The Pilgrims divert their Arms from Palestine to Constantinople and Conquer the Grecian Empire NOT long after King Richards return out of Palestine Saladine who had for sixteen years together been the Terror of the East ended his life He was a Prince fierce in fighting and yet mild in Conquering and when he had his Enemies in his hands delighted himself more in having the power then he did in the Act of revenge finding his life draw to a period he Commanded those about him to use no other Solemnities at his Funeral then a Black Cloth which he ordered them to carry before him and Proclaim that Saladine Conqueror of the East had now nothing left of all his Conquest but only this Black Shirt to attend him to his Grave He Left Nine some say Twelve Sons behind him who were all except one Murthered by Saphradin their Uncle whom Saladine made the overseer of his Will and he was not preserved by his Uncles pity but by the favour of some of his fathers Friends his name being likewise Saphradin Sultan of Aleppo Whereupon there arose much Intestine difference among the Turks during which time the Christians injoyed their Truce with much quiet and security only their peace was somewhat imbittered by the unfortunate death of King Henry who fell as he was walking in his Palace to solace himself out of a Window and brake his Neck After whose death Almerick Lusignan Brother to King Guy Marrying Isabella his Relict was in her right Crowned King of Jerusalem The Christians in Syria promising themselves much aid from his Isle of Cyprus of which he was also King but he abandoning himself to ease and pleasure proved a worthless and an unfortunate Prince In his time Henry Emperor of Germany to make amends for his Cruelty against King Richard and regain his Credit which was very much impaired thereby set on foot an other Voyage to the Holy Land Pope Celestine the third sending his Legat about to promote it by shewing how God himself had sounded the Alarm in the dissention of the Turks and persuading them that Jerusalem might now be recovered with the blows of her adversaries only
it was convenient to send an Army not so much to Conquer it as to receive it Henry Duke of Saxony was chosen General of the Pilgrims who was acompanied by Frederick Duke of Austria Hermand Landgrave of Thuringia Henry Palatine of the Rhine the Arch-bishops of Ments and Wittenburgh the Bishops of Bream and Halberstadt and Regenspurg and divers other Prelates so that it was an Episcopal Army and one might there have truly seen the Church Militant In their passage through Greece they found better usage then some of their Predecessors and being conveyed from thence by Shiping into Syria they presently brake the Truce made with the Turks by the King of England being impowered so to do by a Dispensation from the Pope who looked upon a peace Solemnly made the Usurper and free his Father from his Miserable Captivity The Soldiers were well enough pleased with the exchange of service for they knew well enough that in Palestine there was nothing to be got but Honour and here they hoped to get both Honour and Spoil Wherefore setting saile from Jadera they went directly to Constantinople and after some few hot skirmishes easily took the City whereupon Alexius the Usurper with his Wife Whores and Treasure being fled away blind Isaac and his son Alexius were saluted Joynt Emperors which brittle Honour was quickly broken for the Old Emperor being now brought out of a close pent Dungeon into the open Air died soon after and his Son was thereupon Villainously strangled by Alexius Ducas a man of base Parentage who was in a tumultuous manner chosen Emperor by the People but growing proud upon his being thus advanced to the Imperial Throne he gave some affronts to the Latins who still lay in their Ships before Constantinople whereupon they assaulted the City again the Second time and taking it by main force plundered all the inhabitants Ravishing the Women and using a Thousand Insolencies wherein the very Sanctuaries needed Sanctuaries to defend them from the violence of the inraged Soldiers And the Latines having thus Possessed themselves of Constantinople within twelve Months conquered all the Grecian Empire except Adrinople and divided it among themselves Making Baldwine Earl of Flanders Emperor of Grecia Boniface Marquiss of Montferrat King of Thessaly and Geoffrey a French Noble man Prince of Achaia and Duke of Athens And the Venetians got many rich Islands in the Egean and Ionian Seas And Thomas Maucrocenus was Elected the first Latine Patriarch of Constantinople CHAP. III. The Holy War turned upon the Albigenses THe Pope having lately diverted the Holy War and turned it upon the Grecian liked the Success of it so well that he afterwards made a common Trade of it for having about two years after procured the Levying a great Army for the Holy War he sent them against the Albingenses in France Who being accounted Hereticks by his Holiness he resolved to destroy them without Mercy That pretended Shepherd of the Church knowing no other way to bring home wandring Sheep then by worrying them to Death for the promoting which Pious Work he promised all those who would undertake it the same Pardon and Indulgences as to them that went to Conquer the Holy-Land And the better to perswade People to undertake it he only requests their Aid for forty days hoping to have eaten up those despised Hereticks at a mouthful Tho' therein he found himself mistaken for they found him and his Successor work enough for fifty years together However in regard the Seat of the War was nearer the Service shorter and the Wages the same with the Voyage into Palestine many entred themselves for this imploy neglected the other The chief whereof were the Duke of Burgundy the Earls of Nevers St. Paul Auxierne Geneva Poictiers and Montfort And of Church-Men Milo the Popes Legate the Arch-Bishops of Sens and Roven the Bishop of Clearmort Nevers Charters Baguex and many more every Bishop with the Pilgrims of his own Jurisdiction Their work was to destroy the Albingenses which were in great numbers in Daulphine Province and other parts of France and to Root out all their Friends and Favourers or suspected to be so Pope Innocent the Third having gathered together an Army of an hundred thousand Pilgrims Sackt the Cities of Besiers and Carcassone destroying many Papists among the Albingenses and cutting the Priests themselves in pieces even in their Priestly Ornaments After which Simon Earl of Monfort was made General of the Pilgrims who had been hitherto Commanded by Milo the Popes Legate which made the Earls of Fayl Tholouse and Cammurge with the Prince of Berne who were the Patrons of the Albingenses to shelter themselves under Peter King of Aragon whose Homagers they were One great Inconvenience ever attended that Army of Pilgrims for so soon as ever their forty days were expired in regard it was the full time set them by the Pope to merit Paradise in they would not stay a Night longer least peradventure having purchased Heaven they might by continuing longer in the Service be put into the Possession of it sooner then they were willing which being observed by the King of Aragon and that between the going out of the Old and the coming in of the New store of Pilgrims there was usually a very low ebb and their Army was almost dwindled to nothing he took the Earl of Monfort at the advantage before he was re-inforced with new Pilgrims and gave him Battel when he had not above two thousand two hundred Men left himself having an Army of thirty thousand Foot and seven thousand Horse which made him so over-Confident of Victory that out of Pride and Vanity he exposed his Person so openly at the Head of the Army that he did as it were invite his Enemies Arrows to hit so fair a Mark by which he was so mortally Wounded that he fell from his Horse and with his Body sunk the Hearts of his Soldiers who all presently run away Simon pursuing them to the very Gates of Thoulose and killing many thousands of them Yet in a few years the Face of this War was Changed for young Reimund Earl of Thoulose exceeding his Father both in Valour and Success re-gained in a few Months what Simon and his Pilgrims had been many years in Conquering And at last Simon as he laid Siege to Tholose had his Head shot off from his Body by a stone which a Woman let fly out of an Engine from the City wall In whose Death the raging storm of open War against those Albingenses ended In the prosecution whereof Three Hundred Thousand Craised Pilgrims had within the compass of fifteen years lost their lives so that there was not a City or Village in France but what had in it some Widows or Orphans to curse the Promoters of this Expedition but tho' the great storm was over yet many great drops feil upon them afterwards the Pope being still stiring up one or other to molest them CHAP. IV. King Almerick
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.
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
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
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
great a purchase that if once obtained it could not be too dearly bought he resolved to take it before he stirred from the place Peter Belvise Master of the Templars a Valiant and Couragious General being made Governour of the City by the general consent of those within he incouraged the Christians to be Valiant and play the Men and not like Prodigal Heirs part with the City for nothing which cost their Predecessors so much pains and Blood to get or at leastwise to make one Blaze of Valour before their Lamp expired telling them it would be a shame for them to shew their Friends their Faces if they turned their Backs to their Enemies and thefore exhorted them to fight it out manfully that so if forced at last to surrender it they might rather be pittied for want of Fortune then justly blamed for lack of Valour And the City being now to wrestle its last fall he stripped it of all things that were combersom and unuseful for all the Women and Children and the Men too that were either aged or feeble and had Mouths to eat and no Arms to fight he sent away retaining only twelve thousand which he conceived enough to defend the place notwithstanding the vast number of the besiegers The Sultan Assaulted the City divers times with great Fury but was still beaten back by the Christians Artillery and great numbers of the Turks killed but in one of those conflicts the undaunted Governour was unfortunately slain by a poysoned Arrow a loss above grieving for and the greater because irreparable many indeed were strong in desiring the Honour but all too weak to discharge the Office so that the Christians being devided among themseves neglected to defend the City imagining that if it should be taken yet every Nation would be able to defend its part in regard their buildings were all fortified within themselves which idle and dangerous fancy took off their thoughts from minding the publick good and fixed them only on their own private ends The Turks at length taking the advantage of this Preposterous neglect entred the City at a breach which they had made in the Wall by undermining of it thinking their work had then been done tho' they quickly found to their cost that it was but just begun for to their astonishment and wonder they found Ptolemais not a City but a great heap of Citys as it were thrown together the people of every Nation having so Fortified themselves in their several Forts that they didfrom thence Power forth whole vollies of shot upon the Turks when they entered the Streets which makes it a thing hardly to be paralell'd in History for a City to hold out so long after it was taken for they bravely defended themselves against the Whole Turkish power for fifty days together and after all the rest were subdued the Knights Hospitallers who allways bore an implacable hatred to the Turks maintained their Castle near a month longer but their unhappy devision rendering them unable to subsist long they were at length most of them slain and the City wholy subdued by there numerous enemies However it was a Bloody Victory to the Conquerour most of those who entered the City being burned with Fire killed with Arrows or Smothered by the fall of Towers of the very Ruins being as it were greedy of revenge killed those who destroyed them Ptolemais being now taken the Sultan thought it a good penyworth tho' it cost him so dear and therefore to make sure work and prevent all feuture occasion of Ejecting such sturdy Tennants Levelled it even with the Ground No fewer then an hundred thousand Christians which were all the Latines that were left fled at this time out of Palestine into Cyprus where they were freely entertained by Henry King of that Island and Jerusalem to his great cost but greater commendation Five hundred Matrons and Virgins of Noble Blood are by the Mirracle Monger of that age said to stand on the shore of Ptolemais with all their rich Jewels cry out with a lamentable voice for some body to Transport them from that dangerous place proffering any Marriner that would undertake it all their Wealth for his pains and that he should chose out of them any one whom he best liked for a Wife and that thereupon a certain Marriner came and Transported them all freely Landing them safely in Cyprus But when he was sent for to receive his Hire it could not by the strictest enquiry be ever learnt who this Marriner was or what became of him afterwards The Hospitallers were forced for hast to leave their Treasure behind them which they hid in a Vault making it known from time to time to their Successors About three hundred years after it was fetch'd away by the Galleys of Malta Thus after an hundred thirty four years had this Holy War its final period having been for continuance the longest for Charges the most expensive for Slaughter of Men the most Bloody for Pretence the most Pious and for the True Intent of it the most Politick and Subtil that ever the World saw And at this day the Turks to spare the Christians pains in going so far as Palestine have done them the unwelcome courtesie to come more then half the way to meet them but yet it is to be hoped that if they lose Buda which they cannot in all possibility avoid they will be wholly driven out of Europe by the Victorious Arms of the Christians and that it will not be long before their vast and overgrown Empire be finally ruined and sink under the Ponderous Weight of its own greatness to which let all who love the name of Christ say Amen CHAP. XI The Holy War revived again by the present Emperor of Germany and the King of Poland With the Parallel between that and the former War SInce the Holy War was ended there hath been some offers of Christian Princes to revive it again For Henry the Fourth King of England towards the latter end of his Reign purposed to have made a Voyage into Palestine being told by some pretenders to the gift of Prophesie that he should not die tell he had heard Mass in Jerusalem but Henry was deceived and the Voyage prevented by his dying soon after in a Chamber in his own Palace at Westminster called by that name And Charles the Eighth King of France after his return out of Italy sent a huffing Embassage to our Henry the seventh wherein he gave him to understand that he had resolved to make a second conquest of Naples with a design to make use of it as a bridge to transport his Forces into Grecia resolving neither to spare blood nor treasure altho' it were to the imparing of his Crown and dispeopling of his Kingdom till he had either ruined the Ottaman Empire or taken it in his way to Par adice meaning the City of Jerusalem but the French having had enough of the first adventure for Naples we never hear more