of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice loseth the Opportunity of conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Raign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadours with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The reasons on one side and the other The best opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her Second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who enters Galilee and besieges Tyberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tyberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that Victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land p. 113. BOOK II. The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legates to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors Where the Arch-Bishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War recommences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guienne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to Combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this Emperor betrayed the Ltains The History of the False Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac And his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stratagem of the Emperor ' s. An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battle of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The Second Battle of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battle of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue p. 149 BOOK III. The Beginning of the Reign of Richard Coeur de Lyon King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelay between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accomodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Description of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a Second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jaffa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and Imprisoned His Deliverance The Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives occasion to a fourth Crusade p. 186. PART III.
this Reason therefore passing from one Extreme to another he Disrobed himself of all his Authority and made the little Baldwin the Fifth his Nephew year 1182 be crowned King an Infant of about five Years of Age the Son of his Sister Sybilla by the Marquis of Montferrat her first Husband leaving the Government of the Kingdom to the Earl of Tripolis the Man whom he had before most disgraced and who was the declared Enemy of Earl Guy against whom he was so incensed year 1182 that he had recourse to Arms to be Revenged on him But these Matters were composed by the Prudence of William Archbishop of Tyre great Chancellor of the Realm year 1183 who found out Expedients to patch up a kind of Accord between these two quarrelling Lords Then it was Resolved to send with all speed a great Ambassage into the West to desire a quick and powerful Assistance against Saladin who now began to push his Conquests even into Palestine For this Purpose Choice was made of Heraclius the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the two great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who were then the two most considerable Men of the Holy Land both in regard of the Number and the Valor of the Knights of these two Orders who were now become most Powerful and most Famous throughout all Christendom These Ambassadors Arrived happily at the Port of Brindes but their Negotiation was not answerably happy to that of their Voyage For the different Interests of the Christian Princes at that time were such as would not permit them to ingage in an Enterprise of such Difficulty as was the Leading of an Army of Crusades into Palestine as the Ambassadors desired William King of Sicily was ingaged in a War against the Cruel Andronicus to take Vengeance upon that Tyrant who had horribly Massacred all the Latins that were at Constantinople that so he might with greater Facility usurp the Imperial Throne by putting to Death the young Alexis the Son of Manuel Having therefore been able to procure nothing more from this Prince besides great Promises for the future they crossed through Italy to Verona where Pope Lucius and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa held a great Assembly of Princes and Prelates to determine the Differences between them and to settle the Affairs of Italy The Emperor who was absolutely resolved to re-settle his Authority which the Wars during the Schism which had been made with the Papal See had so much weakned gave them nothing but fair Words and great Hopes and for the Pope as he ever distrusted the Romans who not long before had Revolted from him he was able to do no more than to give the Ambassadors his Letters to the Kings of England and France wherein he exhorted them to this Enterprise as Alexander the Third his Predecessor had before to little Purpose done The Patriarch therefore and the great Masters of the Hospitallers after having performed their last Duty to the Master of the Temple who Died at Verona passed into France There they were most magnificently Received and Treated by the Order of the King Philip Augustus at Paris to whom they presented the Keys of the Holy City of the Tower of David and the Holy Sepulchre with the Royal Standard in token that they put themselves under his Protection and to oblige him to Succor the Holy Land as if it were his own Kingdom now that it was reduced to such extreme Danger by the Infidels Whereupon a general Assembly of all the Prelates and great Men of the Realm was called at Paris to Debate this great Affair and they considering that the King was not above eight and twenty Years of Age and had no Issue were of Opinion That he ought not in Person to undertake such a dangerous Voyage only Philip promised the Ambassadors that he would move his Subjects throughout the whole Realm to inrowl themselves for this War and that he would at his own Cost furnish all those liberally for their Maintenance who would take up Arms for so Just and Holy a War This Answer was not at all to the Satisfaction of the Patriarch however he contented himself as well as he could upon the Hopes which he had that the King of England upon whom they did particularly rely in Syria would make himself the Head of the Enterprise That King was Henry the Second the Son of Geoffry Earl of Anjou who had married Maud the Empress the Widow of the Emperor Henry the Fourth she was Daughter to Henry the First King of England so that this Henry the Second was Grand-child both to Henry the First and to Fowk d' Anjou King of Jerusalem who was the Father to Geoffry Earl of Anjou and to Amauri King of Jerusalem and by reason thereof he was Cousin German to Baldwin the Fourth who was the late King of Palestine so that doubtless he was more particularly Obliged than any other Prince to Defend that Realm which might one Day descend to him by Inheritance He was also more especially Obliged to it for the Expitation of the Crime which he had Committed year 1183 in permitting the Assassins of St Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury to Murder him in his own Church and he had accepted it as a Penance from the Pope within three Years to lead an Army in Person to the Holy Land More than ten Years were already slip'd away since the Term prefixed and he had not done any thing towards the Accomplishment of his Promise of which he was by a Letter from Pope Lucius reminded in Terms sharp enough who told him plainly that it was impessible for him to escape the severe Judgments of God who would not permit himself to be mocked and whose Vengeance he would have cause to Fear if he persisted willfully in the breach of his Promise All these Considerations made the Patriarch hope for more happy Success to his Negotiation in England in regard that in this pressing Necessity it was probable either that the King would go in Person into Palestine for the satisfaction of his Promise or at least that he would send one of his three Sons to command the Army and bigg with these Expectations he crossed the Sea with his Colleague and in the beginning of the Year following came to London year 1185 Henry who was beforehand resolved not to grant what the Ambassadours came to desire would nevertheless save his Reputation and therefore he did them all the Honour imaginable and took the most plausible Courses to justify his Conduct He therefore sent for them to Reading where the Court then was and gave them a most favourable Audience He very graciously and with great marks of Goodness and Compassion heard the Patriarch Heraclius who in a most passionate Discourse after he had presented him with the Keys of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre represented the piteous Condition to which the Affairs of the Christians in the East were reduced who he said stretched out their beseeching Hands
their Empire and delivering them into the Hands of the Philistins Chaldeans and other Infidel People who were the Executioners of his Justice so did he punish the horrible Crimes of the Christians whom he had brought into Palestine by the victorious Arms of the first Crusades by depriving them of that Kingdom and abandoning them to be Slaves to those People whom their Ancestors had with so much Glory so often vanquished But farther to give some natural Reason for this Change the first Conquerors of Palestine were warlike and most valiant Men accustomed to Fatigues and such as frankly exposed themselves to all manner of Dangers and were never known to recoil let the number of their Enemies which they were to incounter be never so Prodigious they esteemed it a Happiness to dye Martyrs in combating gloriously for the Faith and for the Name of Jesus Christ And the Orientals against whom they fought were at that time little skilled in Wars cowardly undisciplin'd and half-armed People who were not able to abide above one Shock as having nothing to trust to but their Bows and Arrows which they shot at Rovers and commonly rather slying than fighting Whereas on the contrary the Christians having exchanged with the Infidels for all their Vices had also gotten their Cowardice their esseminate and idle way of Living loving Repose and Pleasure and hating the trouble of War and the Severity of that Discipline which is so necessary to a Soldier and which they wholly neglected The Turks and Sarasins on the other hand were become mighty Warlike under their victorious Sultans Sanguin Noradin Syracon and Saladin who having learnt at their Cost to arm themselves like the Europeans with good Curiasses and strong Lances had also taught them to follow their Colours year 1188 to fight hand to hand and had inspired them with Courage and Considence both by their Examples and the fortunate Success of their Arms. And in short The Conquerors of the Holy Land under the first Kings were under one sole Head who uniformly governed the whole Body of his Estate and Army which acted according to the Measures which he prescribed with a perfect Unity without Division without diversity of Interests Inclinations and Opinions as if the whole Army had been as one Man according to the Expression so frequent in the Scripture Whereas the Turks and Sarasins were then divided almost into as many particular Estates as there were Cities in Palestine and Syria and therefore could raise no great Armies but what must be commanded by many Chiefs who for the most part never accorded very well by reason of the diversity of their Opinions and Interests which made them almost continually be overthrown though they were incomparably the stronger in number of Soldiers than their Conquerors But upon the falling of the Realm the Christian Army was composed of the Troops of diverse Chiefs those of the King of Jerusalem the Prince of Antioch the Earl of Tripolis and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who all of them had different Prospects and Designs which did not at all agree one with the other On the contrary all the Estates of the Infidels bordering upon the Christians Egypt Arabia Mesopotamia the Realms of Damascus and Cilicia were at that time united into one single Monarchy under the great Saladin and so their Army had but one Captain and Head who being most Wise and Valiant gave one Impression and a constant regular Movement to this great Body which did not act but according to his positive Orders And certainly it is most particularly this Unity which hath always made great Armies Victorious as may be seen in all Ages and Histories but was never more manifested than in this last Campaign which was so glorious and so advantageous to the King of France For on the one part the Emperour and the Spaniards and great part of the Princes of the Circles of the Empire and the Hollanders being leagued and confederated against him had raised very strong and numerous Armies to invade France both by Sea and Land On the other side that King alone without imploying any other Power but his own and giving out himself those Orders which were with Fidelity Executed always prevented them I do not say from entring but so much as approaching France Beat them thoroughly to the very Islands and in Person by main Force conquered one fair and large Province and his Army alone in Flanders under his auspicious Fortune commanded by the famous Prince of Conde having to oppose them three great Armies of the Emperour the King of Spain and the Hollanders joyned in one Body under three Chieftains yet cut in pieces their Rere took their Baggage ravished from them more than one hundred Colours and shamefully chased them from before Oudenard and pursued them beyond the Scheld And there it was that their Commanders having at last the Leisure to take Breath and to complain one to another were constrained to avow by their Flight which they disguised under the name of a Retreat that as there is but one Soul in one Body to give it Life Movement and the Power to perform those admirable Operations of a Man so there ought to be but one absolute Monarch in a Kingdom and one General in an Army to procure the Felicity of the People and to inable them to triumph gloriously over all the Enemies which go about to trouble their Repose or rob them of their Happiness But after these Reflections which I have made according to my little Art in Politicks which possibly will not appear altogether Useless or at least Indivertive it is time to return to my Subject and pursue this History of the Crusade THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART II. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legats to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors where the Archbishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War re-commences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guinne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this
He came into France at the same time that Cardinal Henry the Bishop of Albano Legate from the Holy See arrived there And there are some Authors who assure us that Pope Clement honoured this Archbishop with the same Character and joyned him in Commission with the Cardinal to treat a Peace between the two Kings of England and France to the end they might unite in the Resolation of undertaking the War against Saladin That War which Philip the August had declared against Henry II. King of England for the Restitution of the Earldom of Vexin had been terminated by the Undertaking of Pope Vrban upon condition that the King of England as a Dependant for those Estates upon the Crown of France should in a time prefixed submit himself to the Judgment of the Court of France That Term being expired Henry not only still retained the Earldom which he was obliged to restore but also the Princess Alice the Sister of Philip who was designed to be married to Richard the Son of the King of England Philip resolved to do himself Reason for such a visible Injustice year 1188 was about to enter into Normandy with a potent Army where Henry also was expecting him with considerable Forces when the Archbishop of Tyre arrived very opportunely to suspend at least for a time the Anger of these two Princes And so it was that by the force of his Genius and his Eloquence he procured an Interview between them in a Plain between Trie and Gisors where they were used to meet when they treated one with the other The two Kings met there about the middle of January accompanied with the Princes Prelates and great Lords of both the Kingdoms And there it was that the illustrious Archbishop employed all the Power of his Eloquence and of his Wit to represent in that August Assembly The deplorable Estate into which the fatal Divisions of the Christian Princes of the East had reduced the Kingdom of Jerusalem which the first Crusades had from so many barbarous and Infidel Nations so gloriously conquered with their victorious Arms. He then remonstrated That of four puissant Estates which they had established upon the Ruins of the Mahomitan Empire and which extended the Dominions of the Christians from Cilicia to Egypt and from the Sea to the River Tygris there remained nothing to them now more than three Cities That Antioch dispairing to be able to preserve it self by its own Forces had already promised to surrender if it were not immediately relieved by those of the West That Tyre without necessary Succours was not in a condition to sustain a second Siege having in the first lost the greatest part of its Defendants That Tripolis was too weak to endure one and could no longer remain in Freedom than it pleased Saladin to present himself before it to add it to his other Conquests And that further after so lamentable a Loss as that of Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land there was great danger of losing also the very Hopes which remained to the Christians in those places from whence they might take a Beginning to re-establish the Kingdom of Christ Jesus if those two Kings the most potent of Christendom did not unite their Hearts and their Arms to run to the Relief of Christ and his Cause of whose only Grace and Goodness they held all which they did possess And in short he said upon that Subject so many pathetick things and in a manner so powerful and so touching that the two Princes whether they had in a former Conference which they had agreed this as one of the Articles of the Peace or that God in whose Hands are the Hearts of Kings to change them in a Moment by the extraordinary Working of his Power it is certain that they embraced one the other mutually in the Presence of the whole Assembly and did it with all the Marks of a perfect Reconciliation and a sincere and cordial Friendship as if there had never been any Subject of Discontent or Difference between them And at the same time might be heard on all sides the confused Voices of a Multitude of People who broak out into great Cries of Joy and from every Quarter was to be heard Long live King Philip Long live King Henry Let us go Let us go to this War against the Infidels under the Conduct of these two mighty Kings Let us deliver Jerusalem and extirpate the Enemies of Jesus Christ The Cross the Cross let it be given us the Sign of our Salvation and the Ruin of the Sarasins These Acclamations were also presently followed with that happy Success which attended the Legation of this brave Archbishop of Tyre that the two Kings first presenting themselves to receive the Cross from the hands of the Legates they were followed by Richard the Son of the King of England Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitou who had voluntarily taken it before the Loss of Jerusalem but would now anew receive it from the hands of the Legates As also did Philip Earl of Flanders the Duke of Burgundy the Earls of Blois Dreux Champagne Perche Clermont Barr Beaumont Nevers James Lord of Avesnes and almost all the great Lords of France England and Flanders who were present at this Assembly And to distinguish the one from the other it was ordained that the French should take a Red Cross being the same they bore in the first Crusade the English a white one and the Flemmings one of Green It is said that at the same time there appeared one in Heaven bright and shining which helped to inflame the Devotion of those who took up the other as if God himself had manifestly called them to this Holy War by a sacred Signal from above And to render the Memory of so great an Action Eternal a Cross was erected and a Church built in the midst of the Field of this Conference which was ever after called The Holy Field year 1188 After this the Kings to support the Charges of this War and to prevent the Disorders which had been so injurious to the former Crusades resolved to publish these following Ordinances That all Persons who had not undertaken the Cross of what Quality soever even the Ecclesiasticks except the Chartreux the Bernardines and the Religious of Fontevraud should pay one Tenth of their Revenues and of their Moveables except their Arms their Habits Books Jewels and consecrated Vtensils and Ornaments which was afterwards called by the name of Saladin's Tenth by reason that it was raised upon the Occasion of making this War with Saladin That the Crusades should have liberty to raise a Tenth of all their Subjects who did not go to this War And that the Husbandmen who undertook to go and take the Cross without the Leave of their Lords first obtained should not be exempted from this Impost That all Interest upon Money lent should cease for all the time that the Debters were upon Service in the Holy Land That
him by King Henry who contrary to all Justice had kept her from him And that John the third Son of King Henry usually called Sans-Terre Without Land to whom it seems the King to take off that ignominious Name had given his Interest in Ireland should also take up the Cross Henry on the contrary persisted obstinately in his Protestations that he would never suffer this Marriage although he said he would give his Consent or at least made that Pretence that the Princess should marry John the youngest Brother of Richard knowing well that that fierce and haughty Prince would never suffer tamely that Indignity to be put upon him Whereupon Philip seeing there was nothing further to be expected from that Conference broke it up and protested that he would do himself Justice by his Arms since he was refused it by Reason But the Cardinal d' Anaigne without considering that the Injury proceeded from him who obstinately refused to accomplish a Treaty so solemnly sworn whereas he ought to have pressed the King of England to keep his Promise and to restore the Princess Alice to her designed Husband year 1188 and not to put such an invincible Obstacle to the Peace by so manifest and unjust an Infraction of the Treaty fell upon Philip the August and spoke to him with a surprizing Confidence in such Language as without doubt Pope Clement had made no part either of his Commission or Instructions For he told him plainly That if he did not entirely accord Matters with the King of England he would put the whole Realm of France under an Interdict To which Philip who had a great Soul and who was perfectly acquainted with the Extent both of the Bounds of his own Power and that of the Church which are two Orders very different and which have both their just Limits answered him very readily That he did not in the least stand in fear of that Sentence and that being most unjust as there could be no doubt but it was it must therefore be mill and void That Rome never had any Right to make any Judgment against the Realm of France whether the King should take up Arms or not either to oblige his Enemies to do him Reason or to chastise his Rebellious Subjects And for any thing more the Sentence seemed to be the Product of English Sterling and not to proceed from a dis-interessed Legate whose Duty was to perform the Office of a common Father in the place of the Pope whom he was sent to represent This was to speak like a great King who without Emotion knew how to maintain the Rights of his Crown independent from any other but God alone and to preserve his Soveraign Authority without shocking that of the Church whose Kingdom is wholly spiritual and which it holds from Jesus Christ and therefore as he hath assured us is not of this World But Prince Richard who though he had seen as many Years as Philip was not by far so moderate nor so much Master of his Passion as to be able to contain himself in such reasonable Terms For finding himself particularly interessed in this Procedure of the Legate which wholly ruined all his Pretensions he was so transported that running furiously upon him with his Sword in his Hand without considering where he was or what he was about to do he had undoubtedly run him through if the Archbishops and Lords who assisted at the Conference had not all together rushed upon this violent Prince to stop his Fury and thereby given opportunity to the Legate half dead with Fear to secure himself by Flight from the greatest Danger that ever he had run in all his Life The Preliminary Discourse of the Peace being thus broken Philip who was powerfully armed pursued his Point so vigorously that he took Ferte-Benard Montfort Beaumont and some other places and afterwards attacked and by Force carried Mans from whence Henry who was retired thither did not without great difficulty escape to Chinon after having lost the greatest part of his Men in that Retreat which was little better than a Flight His Son John also whom among all his Children he loved the most tenderly abandoned him to joyn with Philip who at the Head of his Army passing the first over a Ford upon the Loir took Tours by Assault After which the King of England being in fear of his own Person and having no assured place of Retreat was forced to submit to the Law of the Vanquisher and accept such a Peace as he would please to give him which was upon these following Conditions That Henry should pay to Philip twenty thousand Marks in Silver for the Expences of the War That he should put the Princess Alice into the Hands of such as should be appointed by the King and Prince Richard who was to marry her after his Return from the Holy Land That the two Kings and Prince Richard should Rendesvouz in the Mid-lent of the Year following at Vezelay to begin together the Voyage which they were obliged to by their Vow That the Vassals of the King of England should take an Oath of Fealty to Richard and that those of them who had followed him in this War should not be obliged to render their Homage to Henry till such time as they were to go this Voyage to the Holy Land That the Great Men of England should promise to abandon the King in case he should fail in the performance of any one of these Articles and that in the Interim Philip and Richard should hold certain Towns in Hostage till such time as he should fully and truly have performed what was comprehended in the Treaty It is reported that as the two Kings were in a Treaty in the open Field towards the end of June between Tours and Chinon concerning the Articles of this Peace year 1189 which seemed very insupportable to Henry there happened two days successively two most terrible Claps of Thunder although the Heavens were so serene that there was not the least speck of a Cloud to be seen in the Sky at which Henry was so dreadfully amazed that if some of his Followers had not instantly run to him to support him he had fallen from his Horse and that being thereupon struck with mortal Apprehensions of some terrible Punishment from Heaven if he persisted longer to retard the Crusade by refusing the Peace he accorded to Philip whatsoever he demanded and immediately signed the Treaty He had nevertheless a few Moments after so many terrible Assaults of Shame and Grief upon his Soul and was in particular so sensibly touched with the undutiful Actions of his own Children who had from being one of the greatest and most glorious Princes in the Universe reduced him into that piteous Estate to comply so meanly and tamely to what was imposed upon him that he presently fell desperately sick and in three days time dyed in the sixty first Year of his Age upon the Octave of the Apostles St. Peter
should fail he should be sure of the third and that though he lost two Thirds of his Alms upon two false Religions yet the other falling upon the true he should undoubtedly find Advantage by it for the good of his Soul Poor well meaning Prince He did not know that there is a vast difference between Temporal and Eternal Goods And that though those are submitted to the Empire of Fortune which gives or takes them according as she pleases to turn her sporting Wheel yet in these it is far otherwise and that Eternal Goods are never exposed to Hazard and Adventure but they are certainly lost The Death of Saladin presently made a Change in the Face of Affairs throughout all Asia For having divided his Dominions among his twelve Sons without leaving any thing to his Brother Saphadin who had most faithfully served him in all his Wars This Prince valiant and ambitious resolved to revenge himself upon the first Opportunity nor was it long before it was offered and by him laid hold of For his Nephew to whose Share in the Distribution Egypt fell being slain by a Fall from his Horse as he was hunting Saphadin with Ease made himself Master of that fair Dominion and presently raising a powerful Army all the Soldiers of Saladin who had served under him and esteemed him infinitely running in to him he attempted the Ruin of his other Nephews and in a short time either by Force of Arms or by Treachery of their Subjects he overthrew them all year 1195 except the Sultan of Alepo to whom his Subjects always preserved a most inviolable Fidelity Thus whilst the Infidels armed one against another and thought of nothing but how to destroy themselves it was believed in Europe that a fair Occasion was offered for the Recovery of the Realm of Jerusalem now almost entirely lost which gave occasion to a new Crusade which was also followed by three others as in the ensuing History may be seen The End of the Second Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The little Disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole Race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemaïs The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jassa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Seige of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Insidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elegy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and general Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elegy and Character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elegy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made Chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Seige of Zara A great Division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperors of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vnkle Alexis Commenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadors The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople year 1194 THere was very little probability for the Christian Princes of the East to hope for any Assistance from the Princes of Europe where there was now not the least favourable Inclination towards the Holy War The Kings of England and France upon whose Protection they had always chiefly depended were so far from uniting as they did before year 1195 in such a glorious Design they were engaged in a most cruel War which was only discontinued for some time by little Truces which served to no other purpose but to give them leisure to take Breath a little and thereby to put themselves into a Condition to attack each other with greater Fury than before The Emperor was wholly taken up with putting himself into the Possession of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily in Right of his Wife Constantia the Empress In pursuit of which after the death of Tancred he extinguished the whole Race of those brave Normans who had so generously conquered and so gloriously possessed those Realms for above one Age. Pope Celestin III. wasted with Age and Fatigues being now advanced to ninety Years was in no Condition to undertake so difficult a Task as the Forming of a new Crusade And besides he was extreamly embroiled with the Emperor whom he had excommunicated for the Violence which he had used to the King of England so that he had little hope to engage him in the Enterprise Nevertheless after he was assured of the death of Saladin and the great Revolutions which that had made in his Empire which he understood by Letters from Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice he applied himself with the same Zeal which his Predecessors had done to form a Holy League among the Christian Princes to make advantage of this fair Opportunity for the re-gaining of Jerusalem For this purpose he sent his Legates throughout all Europe He did all that lay in his power to procure Peace between the two Kings of France and England and conjured them at least to send some Assistance to Palestine if the posture of their Affairs was such as would not permit them to go thither in Person to
deliver the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ He writ very pressing Letters to Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury year 1195 and Primate of all England and to his Suffragan Bishops to oblige them to preach the Crusade throughout England And he was determined also to constrain by the Censures of the Church all such as having not accomplished their Vow had quitted the Crusade to take it upon them again and with all convenient Expedition to put themselves into a Condition to undertake the Voyage to the Holy Land Or however if their imperfect Health would not allow of their undertaking it in Person to send a Man in their place who might be able to serve in that War But after all the Care and Pains of this devout Pope he found very slender Effects of them in the two Realms For Philip who after having discharged his Vow no longer carried the Cross was not at all inclined to re-assume it nor to joyn himself again with a Prince of whom he had so many and great Subjects to complain and with whom it was almost impossible that he should have any firm or durable Peace so much did their Interests as well as their Humours contradict each other However he permitted the two Cardinal Legates whom the Pope had sent to him to cause the Crusade to be preached in France where many took it upon themselves fully resolved to undertake that Voyage with the first Opportunity that should fairly offer it self King Richard still carried the Cross upon his Habits as a Token that he designed upon the Expiration of the Truce to return to the Holy Land But the Troubles which he daily created to himself as by degrees they lessened his Inclinations so also at length they took from him the power of putting that Design in Execution So that he was forced to make the best of it by persuading the Great Men of his Realm to undertake the Expedition for the Health of their Souls and his and since he said he was not in a Condition to satisfie the Desire and Intention which he had once more to combat against the Infidels in Person he hoped he should in some sort accomplish those Intentions by the brave Actions which those who should supply his place would perform in that War But for all that this turned to no great Account whether it were that the Lords were a little shock'd with the thoughts of a Voyage so long dangerous and toilsom or that they easily discovered the little Sincerity in these Discourses of the King who they knew had much rather that they should stay at home than abandon him in the Wars which he then had with France The Pope therefore perceiving that he was to expect little Aid either from France or England in such an unlucky Conjuncture turned all his Thoughts towards the Emperor in hopes that that Prince would not be displeased with so fair an Occasion of putting himself into good Terms with the Holy See And in truth this way which seemed next to impossible after such a notorious Breach as had been betwixt the Pope and the Emperor had an unexpected and undifficult Success For Henry resolved absolutely upon this Occasion to give the Pope all manner of Satisfaction whether it were that he was really touched with a true Remorse for his past Faults and that hereby he thought to oblige Celestin to restore him to the Peace of the Church or that he was glad to have so fair an Opportunity to return into Italy with a powerful Army where the Empress her self highly dissatisfied with his Conduct towards the Norman Princes had raised a potent Interest against him It is certain that he received the Cardinal Gregory in an extraordinary manner at Strasbourg where at his Return from Italy he had caused an Assembly of the States and Princes of the Empire He most favourably heard the Speech which the Legate made to him at the Diet when he presented to him the Letters of Celestin in which the Pope without taking the least notice of their former Differences or the Anathema which he had denounced against him exhorted him as if there had never been any Unkindness or Breach between them to take upon him the Cross and to unite all the Forces of the Empire to gain the Glory of establishing that of Jesus Christ in Palestine The Emperor hereupon at least in outward Appearance embraced that glorious Design with all his Heart and protested publickly that he was ready to do whatsoever the Pope should desire in reference to this holy Enterprise and that he was resolved to employ his Estate his Forces and his Life to put it in Execution and following the Example of his Father to march himself at the Head of the Christian Army year 1195 against the Infidels For this purpose he called a general Diet at Wormes where almost all the Princes Ecclesiastick and Secular were assembled about the latter end of November There he solemnly declared in the Cathedral Church his Resolution to undertake the Holy War in a Discourse which moved the whole Assembly After which eight of the most famous and eloquent Bishops every one in his Turn did for eight days make elaborate Speeches upon this Subject and discoursed it with so much Force and Zeal that the whole Assembly took upon them the Cross some out of a true Sentiment of Piety and a suddain Transport of Devotion others by the Obligation of Shame not to follow the Example of so many Great Men after the Throng of whom they were necessitated for their Honour to permit themselves to swim along that generous Stream Thus it sometimes happens that Men do well even contrary to their own Inclinations when by a kind of Necessity they find themselves forced by the Company and Example of such as out of good Inclinations and Greatness of Soul follow the Paths of Piety and Vertue The most remarkable of those who in this Assembly took upon them the Cross were Henry Duke of Saxony Otho Marquis of Brandenbourg Henry Count Palatin of the Rhine Harman Lantgrave of Thuringia Henry Duke of Brabant Albert Count of Hapsbourg Adolphus Count of Scawenbourg Henry Count de Pappenheim Mareshal of the Empire the Duke of Bavaria Frederick the Son of Leopold Duke of Austria Conrade Marquis of Moravia Valeran Brother to the Duke of Limbourg and the Bishops of Wirtzbourg Breme Verden Halberstad Passau and Ratisbonne But that which was the most extraordinary and which deserves the Admiration of all Ages was that Bela King of Hungary being dead not long before this Diet Queen Margaret a Daughter of France his Widow the Sister of Philip the August and who had some time worn the Crown of England as Wife to the young Henry finding her self a second time in a State of Freedom was resolved to employ that Liberty together with her Life and Fortunes in the Service of Jesus Christ in this fourth Crusade For this purpose she took upon her the Cross and solemnly engaged
Division arose between the Orientals and the Germans who now began to perceive that they were betrayed so that separating from the Templers and Hospitallers whom they left at Piolemais resolving to have nothing further to do with such base and infamous Traitors they drew off to Jaffa to preserve that place which they had fortified and to defend it against Saphadin who threatned to besiege it And in truth that Sultan that he might make his Advantage of this Disorder among the Christians after having made them raise the Siege of Thoron took that Resolution and came to Incamp in view of Jaffa almost at the same time that the German Army arrived there Now as it was very much weakned by the Fatigues of a long Siege and by the Retreat of the Orientals who had separated from the Germans they durst not adventure upon a Battle but satisfied themselves with molesting the Sarasins by continual Skirmishes wherein they generally had the Advantage And particularly one time having drawn the Sarasins into a great Ambuscade which they had laid for them they cut in pieces the greatest part of their Army but this cost the Life of the brave Duke of Saxony who was slain upon the Place and of Frederick Duke of Austria who died the night following of a Wound which he received in Combating against the Lieutenant of Saphadin whom he overthrew dead upon the Place with the stroak of his Lance. Such a considerable Victory gave some room to hope that in a little time they might become Conquerors and that they might happily Re-establish the Affairs of the East but the unhappy News which arrived while these Matters were in Agitation from the West caused all these blooming Hopes to wither in a Moment together with the Reinforcements which the Princes of the Crusade expected which obliged them instantly to return into Germany where all was in a Flame of War for the Reason which I am about to relate The Emperor Henry the VI. who had so cruelly treated the Norman Princes in the Realms of Naples and Sicily died a little before at Messina in the Month of September of the preceeding Year either with the Regret which he had to submit to those shameful Conditions imposed upon him by the Empress Constantia his Wife who with the Assistance of the Sicilians had surprized and besieged him in a Castle from whence it was impossible for him to escape or as some suspected but with more malignity than Probability of Poison which that Princess who for his proud and cruel Humor hated him had caused to be given him Now he knowing that he had formerly been Excommunicated by the Pope for his unjust Imprisonment of Richard King of England in his Return from the Crusade when he came to die he manifested great Sorrow for the same He also sent to that King that so he might make him some sort of Satisfaction by the acknowledgment of his Offence and by his last Will he obliged his Heirs to make Restitution of the Money which he had so unjustly exacted from him for his Ransom and in case of failure he desired the Pope to employ all his Power to see it performed Great Weakness of Princes who cannot resolve to make Restitution while they live of what they believe themselves unjustly possessed when they come to die or to think they discharge themselves sufficiently by charging it upon their Successors who commonly are of the same Temper and not troubled with these Sucruples till they come to die where it is not very difficult to make fruitless Orders which rarely oblige the Living who may be supposed after their Example will detain it as long as they live and then only relinquish it when they leave the World and can hold it no longer This unhappy Prince died in the very prime of his Age being about two and thirty Years old and when he was upon the point of putting in Execution those great Designs which he had formed against the Greek Emperor whom he had compelled by the only Terror of his Armes and Name year 1198 to pay him a great Tribute for the Provinces which William King of Sicily had formerly conquered from the Greeks and which they had recovered during the Troubles of Italy He was of a middle Stature having a weak Constitution and a lean Body his Face was handsome enough but something too Meagre his Complexion was delicate and very fair his Head not altogether large enough for the Proportion of the other parts of his Body which were well made and fit for all manner of Exercises in which he was very dextrous either on foot or horsback he was an excessive lover of Hunting Walking and Field Sports and therefore he chose the Country rather than the City for his usual Residence and it was very seldom that he repaired to the City unless it were to shew his Magnificence in the Spectacles and publick Sports or Festivals which he loved to make with great Magnificence and even Vanity This nevertheless did not in the least hinder his applying himself to publick Affairs or acting upon all Occasions with abundance of Vigor Prudence and Resolution for he had a Spirit lively penetrating cultivated by Study and supported by an Eloquence Easy and Natural a Judgment solid a Soul great and enterprizing and a Heart truly generous But all these noble Qualities were dishonoured by his Avarice his Violence and Injustice his extreme Ambition and above all by his insupportable Humor his herce and insatiable desire of Revenge and his barbarous Cruelty which rendered him odious to his own Wife by whom he held the Realms or Naples and Sicily which made her conspire against him thereby to stop the horrible Inundation of his Hatred and Fury He left only one Son about three Years of Age whose Name was Frederick as was his Grandfather and who afterwards was Emperor He had caused him from his Cradle to be recognised for his Successor to the Empire but the Princes and Estates notwithstanding their Oath being on one hand resolved to have an Emperor who was able to manage the publick Affairs and on the other hand not being able to agree among themselves upon whom to fix the Choise there arose a most furious Schism among them in which some of them chose Philip of Suabia Brother of the deceased Emperor others elected Otho the Brother of Henry Duke of Saxony and both the one and the other took Arms to support and defend their Emperor This raised great Troubles and War not only in Germany but all Europe by the different Interests of the several Princes who believed themselves obliged to joyn upon this Occasion with each Party Richard King of England joyned with Otho his Nephew the Son of his Sister to whom he had given the Earldome of Poitiers Philip the August who took the opposite part to the English declared himself for Philip and the Pope on the contrary who believed that the House of Suabia whose Princes
a well known passion tied him and in which he expresseth himself in thoughts infinitely tender though at the same time full of that profound respect which he had lying so near his heart year 1236 So soon as he saw himself peaceably settled in his Dominions and that he believed himself safe on the side of Arragon the King of which Realm pretended some manner of ill grounded Title to that of Navarr he was resolved to accomplish the Vow which his Father Count Theobald had made when he took the Cross with the Earls of Flanders and of Blois He therefore took it himself and by his Example ingaged in the same Enterprise Hugh Duke of Burgundy Peter de Dreux surnamed Illclerk Duke of Bretagne John his Brother Count de Brain and Mascon Henry Count de Bar Guy Count de Nevers the Constable Amauri Count de Montfort the Counts de Joigni and Sancerre and many other Barons of France Navarr and Bretagne as the Counts Guiomar de Leon Henry de Goâ—tlo Andrew de Vitrey Raoul de Fougeres Geoffry de Avesnes and Fouques Paynel who all acknowledged him for their Head and General together with an infinite number of Crusades of France and Germany who waited only for a General of that high Reputation to conduct them year 1236 And certainly there was great probability of the Success of this third Effort which was about to be made happily to determine this Crusude if there had not happened Accidents which could not be foreseen which contributed extremely to the rendring it unfortunate and unsuccessful First by an unhappy Incounter it fell out that the Pope was obliged to publish in the same time another Crusade for the Relief of the Empire of Constantinople which was reduced to the last Extremity For the French as it is observed of them who know much better to make great Conquests in a little time than afterwards to preserve them very long were not so fortunate in keeping this Empire as they had been in gaining it the Emperor Baldwin the First lost it being taken prisoner in a Battle against the King of the Bulgarians who barbarously put him to death His Brother Henry who succeedeed him did truly for above ten Years hold it with great Success and Glory but his Successors found nothing of the same good Fortune For Peter de Courtenay Count d' Auxerre the Husband of Yolanda of Flanders Sister to the last Emperor having succeeded him was taken by treachery as he passed through Macedon to Constantinople and afterwards murdered by Theodore Comnenius Prince of Epirus and in a short time after the Empress who had taken her passage by Sea died of Grief at Constantinople after her delivery of the last Child she had by Peter her Husband Robert de Courtenay his second Son upon the refusal of his Eldest Brother Philip Count de Namur succeeded Peter in the Empire and had the Misfortune in his time to see it miserably dismembred For after he had lost a great Battle in Asia against John Ducas furnamed Vatacus the Successor and Son-in-Law of Theodore Lascaris the Conqueror took from him all that the French were Masters of on the other side the Bosphorus and the Hellespont And on the other side the Prince of Epirus won from him all Thessaly and a great part of Thracia insomuch that after his Death the French Barons seeing that his Brother Baldwin who was not above eight or nine years of Age was not in a condition to sustain the burthen of an Empire which was in so great disorder and attacked on all hands they sent to desire of the Pope to have King John de Brienne who was then the General of his Army for their Emperor assuring him that after his Death the Succession of the Empire should return to Baldwin who was to marry the Princess Mary his Daughter whom he had by his second Wife Berengera the Daughter of Alphonsus King of Castile It is true that this Emperor who was one of the greatest Captains of his time did in some measure re-establish the Affairs of this miserable Empire and with a poor handful of men he defeated a great Army which besieged Constantinople both by Sea and Land But at last two potent Armies Vatacus Emperor of the Greeks and Azen King of Bulgaria who had confederated against him attacked him on both sides with very great Forces whereas he had precisely no more men than were necessary to defend himself in Constantinople in which he was forced to shut himself up he was obliged to send Prince Baldwin his Son-in-Law to implore in Europe the Succours which he had so often desired and so long in vain expected and in the midst of these Transactions he died leaving to all Gentlemen in the History of his Life year 1237 an admirable Example by which they may learn by what ways they must expect in despight of all the disgraces of a malicious Fortune to raise themselves to the height of all earthly Greatness and Glories For he had nothing from his Father who would have constrained him contrary to his Martial Inclinations to devote himself to the Church notwithstanding which he made it his indeavour to find his good Fortune in himself and establish an Inheritance upon the Foundations of his Vertue and by that it was that he so well distinguished himself in the Court of Philip the August that that great Prince who knew how to esteem men for their Vertue judged him worthy not only of his Esteem but his particular Favour and after he had acquired a high Reputation for those Gallant Actions which together with his Brother he performed in Italy he raised him to the Throne of Jerusalem from whence it seemed that Fortune had not made him descend but to mount him with more Glory by his Vertue to the Empire of the East from whence it is easie to observe that true Merit is the best supporter of such Noble Persons who indeavour to obtain the favour of Kings year 1237 who without this are apt to tumble those down for their Vices whom they had for their pleasure raised rather than for their Vertue In this time Baldwin his Son-in-Law and Successor to the Empire found the Pope so well inclined to assist him that as if he had now had no other concern but for the Establishment of the Empire of Constantinople he writ to the Kings of France England and Hungary and to all the Bishops of those Realms to exhort them to contribute the utmost of their power to the Aid of the Emperor Baldwin the Second even so far as to permit those who had undertaken the Crusade for the Holy Land to change their Vow to that of succouring Constantinople He caused also a new Crusade to be preached every where for that purpose and that the greatest part of the money which was designed for the Holy Land should be employed that way Hereupon the Emperor Baldwin went into France and from thence into England with
follow the design of his Predecessor year 1244 to redress the Evils of the Church by a General Council for the calling whereof he sent his Circular Letters throughout all Europe It was held at Lyons the year following and was opened upon the Eve of the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles It was at this Council that the Cardinals received from Innocent the Red-Hat for a distinction of their Dignity and the Obligation which they had to loose even their Lives for the cause of God and of his Church especially in this Persecution of the Emperor Frederick The Patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch as also those of Aquilea and Venice assisted at this Council together with one hundred and fourty Arch-Bishops and Bishops of France Italy Spain England Scotland and Ireland the Deputies of many other places the Abbots of Cluni the Cistercians and Claraval the General of the order of St. Dominick and the Vicar of that of St. Francis as also a great number of other Abbots and Priors of the same Kingdoms There came scarcely any at all from Germany for fear of offending the Emperor nor from Hungary by reason of the irruption which the Tartars had made at that time into those Countries Baldwin the Emperor of Constantinople who came to desire assistance from the Pope was there also together with Raymond Count of Tholose Raymond Berenger Count de Provence and the Ambassadors of the Emperor the Kings of England France and the other Christian Princes Affairs of the greatest moment certainly passed with wonderful Expedition in those times in Comparison of what they do in our days For this great Council wherein matters of the Greatest Importance were treated of the smallest of which would now take up much a longer time and would be discussed and debated with extraordinary difficulty was finished in three Sessions In the first of them the Pope being seated upon a Throne which was raised in the great Church at Lyons having at his Right hand the Emperor of Constantinople and upon his Left the other Princes he made a most Pathetick Discourse in which comparing his pains and Grief to those of Jesus Christ upon the Cross he said that the Church had received five great Wounds from which it was impossible but he must be extremely sensible of her pain The first was the abuses and disorders which were so frequent among the Ecclesiasticks The Second was by the Insolence and the Tyranny of the Sarasins year 1245 who had prophaned the Sacred places and laid wast the Holy City and were upon the point of taking all that remained in Palestine from the Christians The third Wound was that which was given by the Schism of the Greeks whose power though it had been brought down yet now began to rise again and even to threaten Constantinople which was reduced to the last Extremities The fourth was by the furious irruption of the Tartars into Hungary even to the very consines of Germany where they filled all with Blood Slaughter and Ruin The Fifth was by the terrible Persecution of Frederick who exposed the Church to all those Sufferings for which Pope Gregory had cut him off from the Body of the Church in which he not only persisted but daily augmented his former guilt by new and greater Crimes After which the Patriarch of Constantinople and Valeran Bishop of Berylus who was sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to implore the Succour of the Christians of the West gave a Relation of the deplorable condition wherein the Affairs of the Latins were in Greece and Palestine And then Thadeus de Sessa the Judge of the Imperial Palace and the Emperors Ambassador rose up and spoke to the Council in the name of his Master At first that he might gain the Favour of the Assembly he repeated in general and few words what the Pope had said concerning the Sarasins Greeks Tartars and the Emperor and protested that Frederick whose Power by reason of so many Victories as he had gained against his Enemies was greater than ever it had been before offered himself withal his heart to employ all that he had his Fortunes and his Arms to reduce the Greeks to reason and to repulse the Tartars and that he was ready to go himself in person and at his own charges into Palestine to drive out the Corasmins and there to reestablish the Affairs of the Christians which were in such ill terms and that in the mean time he promised to restore to the Church whatsoever should be found that he had taken from it and to make all the satisfaction that could be expected if in any thing he had offended To this the Pope not doubting but all this was said as an Artifice to surprize and amuse the Council only answered that they were not met there to talk of new promises but to see that he performed those which he had already made upon his Oath which he had so often eluded And then added he after having so often deceived us what Caution will he give to Warrant that which he promiseth The Kings of France and England boldly and without delay answered Thadeus ought not they to be accepted By no means replyed the Pope because if he should again fail in his promises as thereis reason enough to believe that he will we shall be obliged to take our remedy against these two Kings So that the Church for one Enemy which she hath now upon her hands shall then have three which are the three most puissant Princes in all Europe Then Thadeus continuing his discourse to come to the point which was in question and upon which he was defired to insist he endeavoured to answer precisely to all the Crimes which the Pope had objected against Frederick And being very dexterous and wonderful Eloquent he spoke with so much Art and gave so soft and plausible a turn to his defence that there were very many in the Assembly who appeared highly satisfied But Innocent who was a very able man and who was perfectly well acquainted with all the Circumstances of this Affair replied instantly to all that the Emperors Ambassadour had said in defence of his Master and answered to every particular with as much exactness and Strength as if he had been a long time before prepared by seeing what Thadeus would say upon this Subject And this was what was done in this first Session In the Second which was held eight days after upon Tuesday the fifth of July diverse Bishops especially the Spaniards who were come in greater numbers to the Council than any other Nation tendered an accusation consisting in many Articles against the Emperor urging the Pope to condemn him especially upon this whereon they insisted principally That it was the intention of that Prince as appeared by his own Letters to dispoil the Ecclesiasticks of all their Estates and to reduce them to the same condition that they were in during the times of the primitive Persecution The Ambassadour on
the other side endeavoured to satisfie the Council in every particular of the Charge year 1245 But perceiving that the greatest part of his Judges were not like to be favourable to him he desired that at least it might be deferred for some days till the third Session to the end that the Emperor who he assured them was upon his way to come to the Council might have time according to his desire to make his appearance To this the Pope willingly consented as believing that if that Prince were present all differences would easily be adjusted And although many who desired that this Affair should be quickly determined opposed it he gave twelve days respit in which they laboured in the private meetings to regulate all the other matters that were under debate At last the term being expired and that the Emperor who would by no means acknowledge the Council to be the Judge of his differences with the Pope did not appear the third Session was held upon the Monday being the seventeenth day of July where the seventeen Decrees which were made for the reformation of manners and discipline were approved as also those for finding out the ways to succour the Empire of Constantinople and to oppose the irruption of the Tartars and for the Publication of a Crusade against the Sarasins who possessed the Holy Land That which was decreed upon this Article was That the Crusade should be preached in all places That those who had already taken upon them the Cross and had not accomplished their Vow should be constrained by the Prelates to take it up upon pain of Excommunication That the Ancient Crusades and those who should take it up anew should at a certain time and place to be appointed repair to the Pope to receive his Benediction That there should be either a Peace or a Truce for four years among all the Christian Princes That during all that time there should be no publick Turnaments or Tiltings held That the Lords of the Crusade should retrench all manner of Superfluity and Vain Magnificence in their train their Equipage their habits and their Tables That the Bishops should take great care to exhort their People and especially such upon whom they imposed any Pennance for their Crimes to contribute some part of their Goods to the Holy War and that they should keep an exact Register of what was thus collected That all the Ecclesiasticks should be obliged to pay for this War the twentieth part of their Revenue for three years those only excepted who took up the Cross themselves and that the Pope and the Cardinals should pay the tenth to give an example to others who might be ashamed not to follow them And in short all the Privileges granted by the Councils and by the Popes in Favour of the Crusades were confirmed and all those Punishments denounced by the Bullas and the Canons against such as enterprised any thing against the Persons or Estates of the Crusades or against such as favoured the Pyrates or carried Arms to the Infidels were also ratified And for the obtaining the aid of God Almighty it was ordered that Prayers should be made in all Churches in the Octaves of the Nativity of our Blessed Lady After this the Cause of the Emperor who had refused to appear was taken into consideration And as his Ambassador Thadeus perceived that the Sentence which was already prepared was going to be pronounced by the Pope he protested aloud against it to stop it from proceding any further crying That he appealed to a general Councel To which the Pope replyed with great Moderation That this was one that all the Prelates and Princes had been called to and that if the Bishops of Germany and some others were not present it was the Fault of his Master who had hindred them from coming On the other part Hugh Bigod William de Chanteloup and Philip Basset the Ambassadours of England who favoured Frederick the Brother-in-Law of their King whose Sister he had married to gain time presented to the Pope Letters in the Name of the whole English Nation which contained two very nice points wherein they demanded to have Justice done them and which doubtless would take up a great deal of time The first was upon what the late King John had done who in despight and contrary to all right as well as against the Inclination of all his People had they said made a Donation of England and Ireland to the Pope to have the Crown for the future held of the Holy See which they protested was wholly null and void the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury having in the name of the whole Body of the Realm opposed it The Second was a complaint to the Pope that his Legates Nuncio's and other Ministers year 1245 whom he sent into England besides the levying of the Peter-Pence made there under a thousand Pretexts such insupportable Exactions upon the People as they were resolved no longer to suffer To this Innocent who easily discovered the Artifice answered coldly That the Council being not assembled for those matters the discussion of them must be deferred till some other time wherein they might be debated more fully and with more leisure And then after having acquainted the Assembly with how much respect Honour and all the Testimonies of a sincere affection he had treated the Emperor Frederick both before and since his Pontificate and acquainted them how many times he had ineffectually endeavoured to reduce him to his Duty by mild and gentle methods he first pronounced the Sentence against him viva voce and afterwards caused it to be read by which He declared him excommunicate deprived him of the Empire and all his Realms and of all manner of Honours preheminences and Dignities for all those Crimes which are therein at large expressed absolving all his Subjects from the Oaths of Allegiance which they had taken to him and expresly prohibiting all manner of persons under pain of Excommunication to acknowledge him either as Emperor or as King or in that quality to give him either Counsel or Aid And at the same time the Bishops who held the Tapers lighted in their hands approved and confirmed the Sentence and in extinguishing them pronounced the Anathema against him After which the Pope rising from his Throne began the Te Deum with which Hymn this famous Council was concluded in which there was neither Decree nor Canon made concerning matters of Faith though there were many Heresies in those times there being nothing made but certain Regulations for the Discipline of the Church and after the Judgment which was given against Frederick the Pope decided nothing but a Politick and tender Affair of State in which all Sovereigns seemed to have a great Interest For upon occasion of this Council the Estates of Portugal being disatisfied with their King Dom Sanches whom in by reason of the weakness of his Mind they believed unfit and unable to govern they sent to Lyons the Archbishop
moment and desolated to that degree by the Mamalukes that it became a vast solitude as it still continues to this Day So little assurance is there of any thing in this World where there needs no more but one Moment to Ruin and Destroy what hath been growing a many Ages Thus Bendoedar who found no more Enemies in the Field to give the least check to his Conquests still pushed his good Fortune forward into Syria whilest the Christians of the East divided into divers Factions seemed to combine with him for their mutual destruction And in vain were any Succours expected from the West for the Assistance which the Armenians and the Tartars came to desire against the Sarasins were always either hindred or diverted by the Quarrels which continued between the Popes and the House of Suabia and which were not to be determined but by the downfal of that Noble House to raise upon its ruines that of France which consequently took up the design of that Crusade again And it is this which I am now obliged to relate for the finishing of this History of the Crusades After the Death of Frederick the Second Pope Innocent did not fail to Excommunicate Conrade the Eldest Son of that Prince because he stiled himself Emperor against William Earl of Holland whom some German Princes who were of the Pope's Party had chosen to oppose Frederick Conrade who wanting the good qualities of his Father had all the ill ones and all the fierceness the Cruelty the insatiable desire of Revenge and the implacable hatred against the Popes entred with great Forces into Italy where he was with joy received by the Gibelins and favoured by the Venetians upon whose Shipping he passed the Gulph into Pavia and having joyned the Troops of his natural Brother Mainfrey his Lieutenant General in that Realm year 1268 he reduced under his obeysance in a short time what ever had declared for the Pope and having at last taken Naples he there executed his most cruel Vengeance by the Desolation of that fair and flourishing City This so amazed the Pope Innocent who after he had struck him with the Anathema had no other Arms to which he might have recourse to oppose him that he believed he was obliged to cause a Crusade to be published against him which without doubt did not contribute much to the Success of that which proved so unfortunate against the Sarasins And at the same time he caused the two Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily to be offered first to Charles d' Anjou who would not then accept them without the consent of the King his Brother who was then in Syria and afterwards to Richard Brother to Henry the King of England but he also refused them not thinking it was at all agreeable to Justice or a good Conscience to despoil the young Prince Henry his Nephew to whom the Emperor Frederick had left for his share the Kingdom of Sicily Whilest matters stood thus Conrade who had underhand procured the Death of this little Prince his Brother that he might have his Kingdom died himself of Poison which as it was believed was given him by his Brother Mainfrey to whom as not suspecting him Guilty of his Death Conrade left the Tuition of his Son Conradin then an Infant of the Age of three Years Innocent resolving to take advantage of his Death went and presented himself before Naples where in hatred of Conrade he was received with great Applauses Mainfrey himself being surprized also submitted to him and was received with all Civil treatment But presently after throwing himself into Nocere whither the Emperor Frederick had transplanted the Sarasins of Sicily he raised an Army and took the Field and Fortune declaring her self at first in his favour he in a Battle defeated the Army of the Pope which was Commanded by the Cardinal de Fiesque the Nephew of Innocent who being then Sick when he received this News at Naples died in a few Days after Alexander the Fourth his Successor had also the same Fortune for having Excommunicated Mainfrey this Prince who from the Example of his Father had learnt not to fear these Roman Thunderbolts Marched directly against the Pontifical Army which had taken the Field under the Conduct of Cardinal Vbald and he not being so great a Captain as his Enemy also lost a Battle which was fought between them Hereupon Mainfrey fierce with these two Victories and sure of the Favour of the Populace which always follows the strongest side caused himself to be Proclaimed King of Naples and Sicily with as much ease as he had with dexterity caused the report to be spread of the Death of the little Conradin his Nephew After which he lead his Victorious Army into the Ecclesiastick Estates where finding little resistance he seized upon the County of Fondi and his Partisans being animated by the report of his Victories the Gibelin Faction became presently the most powerful but principally in Lombardy Tuscany and even in Rome it self Alexander astonished with this Progress and fearing that he should at last fall under the Power of such a formidable Enemy had recourse to the King of England and following the Example of Innocent he offered him the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily for his Son Edmund to whom he also sent the Investiture of them and to oblige that King to undertake the enterprise he absolved him from the Vow which he had made in taking the Cross to be of the Crusade against the Sarasins in the East by changing it into that which he caused to be Preached every where against Mainfrey Also fearing lest the Partisans of the House of Suabia should place Conradin upon the Imperial Throne in the room of Count William who had been slain in the War against the Frieslanders he sent Prohibitions to all the Electors requiring them under pain of Excommunication not to chuse that young Prince But all this which signified just nothing against Mainfrey did a World of mischief to the Crusade which was designed against the Sarasins The Parliament which the King of England had called at London upon the subject of the Neopolitan War would give the King no Money and afterwards all the great Men of the Realm happening to be Embroiled with the Royal House this Project of the Pope's did not Succeed And for Germany one part of the Princes having chosen for their Emperor Alphonso King of Castile and the other Richard Earl of Cornwall year 1268 Brother to the King of England there arose a Schism in the Empire which occasioned mighty Troubles and Disorders there So that Italy Spain England and Germany having so many troublesome Affairs upon their hands there remained only France in a condition to serve the Holy See to any purpose in this occasion and all Christendom indeed against the Infidels For this reason therefore Vrban the fourth the Successor of Pope Alexander having again vainly tried the way of a Crusade against Mainfrey which for want of
BOOK I. THe little disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemais The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jaffa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Siege of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Infidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elogy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and General Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elogy and character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elogy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Siege of Zara. A great division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperor 's of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vncle Alexis Comnenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadours The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople BOOK II. The Condition wherein the City of Constantinople was when it was besieged by the French and Venetian Crusades The Defeat of the Vsurpers Brother-in-Law by a small Party of the French The Passage and the Battle of the Bosphorus The taking of the Castle of Galatha The Venetians force the Entry of the Port. An Assault given both by Sea and Land â—o Constantinople The Venetians take five and twenty Towers A Sally made by the Emperor Alexis with a prodigious Army and his Infamous Cowardice His Flight and the Reduction of Constantinople The Establishment of Isaac and the young Alexis A Prolongation of the Treaty for a Year between that Emperor and the Confederate Princes Their Exploits in Thracia A Dreadful Fire at Constantinople The History of the horrible Treason of Murtzuphle The young Alexis suffers himself to be surprized by the Artifices of that Traytor and breaks with the Confederates The Speech of Conon de Bethune to the Emperors to oblige them to accomplish their Treaty War declared against them upon their refusal The Greeks attempt in Vain to burn the Venetian Fleet. The Description of that wild Fire The consequent Treasons of Murtzuphle The Election of Cannabus The double Treason of Murtzuphle who makes himself be proclaimed Emperor The Death of Isaac and of the young Alexis whom Murtzuphle strangles with his own Hands The Confederates make War against the Tyrant His Defeat by Henry the Brother of Count Baldwin The first Assault given upon the Port side of Constantinople wherein the Confederates are repulsed The Second Assault by which the City is taken by plain Force The Flight of Murtzuphle The Greeks lay down their Arms. The City plundered and the Booty there gained The Relicks from thence transported to several Churches of Europe Baldwin Earl of Flanders chosen Empeperor The Policy of the Venetians in the Election of that Prince His Elogy and Character The Election of a Patriarch The Destribution of the Provinces of the Empire The happy Beginning of the Emperor who reduceth all Thracia Murtzuphle surprized and betrayed by the Old Alexis who puts out his Eyes The Flight of Alexis and the taking of Murtzuphle He is brought back to Constantinople where for the Punishment of his Crimes he is thrown headlong from a high Columne Old Alexis taken His End The Glorious Success of this Crusade BOOK III. The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His
Fable touching the pawning of the Holy Eucharist to the Sarasins by the King Lewis His deliverance and admirable Fidelity to his Promise and the perfidiousness of the Egyptians BOOK III. The General Consternation all over France upon the News of the King's Imprisonment the Tumult the Shepherds their Original their Disorders and Defeat St. Lewis after his deliverance performs his Articles with great Justice The Admirals fail on their part The Original of the Hospital of the Fifteen Score The Councel debates the matter of the King's return The Reasons on the one side and the other It is at last concluded for his stay in Palestine Four Famous embassages to St. Lewis from Pope Innocent from the Sultan of Damascus from the Ancient of the Mountain and from the Emperor Frederick The Death of that Emperor and the different Opinions thereupon An Error of St. Lewis who loseth a fair opportunity of making use of one Party of the Sarasins to ruin the other The Election of a Mamaluke Sultan The gallant Actions of St. Lewis in Palestine The Death of Queen Blanch and the return of the King into France The Rupture and War between the Venetians and Genoese occasions the loss of the Holy Land The Conquests of Haulon Brother to the great Cham stops the Progress of the Sarasins The Relation of the Mamaluke Sultans They vanquish the Tartars which ravage Palestine The Character of Sultan Bendocdar the great Enemy of the Christians His Conquests upon them His Cruelty and the Glorious Martyrdom of the Souldiers of the Garrison of Sephet and of two Cordeliers and a Commander of the Temple The taking and Destruction of Antioch by this Sultan The quarrels between the Popes and the Princes of the House of Suabia obstruct the Succours of the West The Histories of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Conrade of Pope Alexander and Mainfrey against whom he vainly publishes Crusades The History of Charles d' Anjou to whom Pope Urban the Successor of Alexander and Pope Clement the Fourth give the Realms of Naples and Sicily as Fieffs escheated to the Church by Felony His Exploits his Battles and his Victories over Mainfrey and Conradin The deplorable Death of that young Prince The Victories of Charles cause the Pope and St. Lewis to entertain a Design for a new Crusade An Assembly at Paris about that Affair where the King the Princes and Lords take upon them the Cross All other Nations decline the Crusade The Collusion of the Emperor Michael Paleologus The Condition of the King's Army The Resolution taken to Attack Tunis and the Reasons wherefore The Description of Tunis and Carthage The taking of the Port the Tower and the Castle of Carthage The Malady makes great Destruction in the King's Army His Death Elogy and Character The Arrival of Charles King of Sicily The Exploits of the Army The Treaty of Peace with the King of Tunis who becomes Tributary to Charles The return of the two Kings their Fleet is horribly beaten by a Tempest Prince Edward of England saved his Vow to go to the Holy Land His Voyage his Exploits and his return The vain indeavours of Pope Gregory the Tenth for a new Crusade The second Council of Lyons The last causes of the loss of the Holy Land The quarrel among the Christian Princes for the Succession to the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Death of Bendocdar The defeat of his Successor by the Tartars The hopes of the recovery of all Palestine by the Arms of King Charles of Anjon ruined by the sad accident of the Sicilian Vespers The new division among the Princes and the Progress of the Mamaluke Sultans The Relation of the lamentable Siege and the taking of Acre by these Barbarians All the other places are lost and the Christians of the West wholly driven out of Palestine and Syria The vain and fruitless attempts which have since been made to renew the Crusades THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The greatness of the Subject of the ensuing History The newness and advantage of it The Original of the Turks and their Conquest in Asia from the Sarasens The Conference of Peter the Hermite with the Patriarch of Jerusalem The Description of the Hermite His Negotiation with Pope Urban the Second and his Preaching the Crusade The Relation of the Council of Placentia that of the Council of Clermond The horrible Disorders occasioned by the little Wars between private Persons which were tolerated in those times and which were regulated by the Canon of the Peace and the Truce Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia Legate of the Pope for the Crusade The prodigious number of those who took upon them the Cross and the Disorders that insued The Names of the Princes of the Crusade An account of Duke Godfrey and his Character He sends Peter the Hermite before him A Description of the Conduct and manner of living of this Solitary He divides his Army into two Bodies The Disorder and Ruin of the first under Gautier Monyless The greater Disorder and ill Fortune of the second commanded by Peter himself The Defeat of two other Armies of Crusades conducted by a Priest Godescalc and Count Emico their overthrow by the Hungarians The Conference of Peter the Hermite with the Emperor Alexis The Character Conduct and secret designs of that Prince and the reasons of his perfidiousness The passage of the Hermites Army into Asia and the continuance of their disorders The Italians and Germans separate from the French The first overthrown by young Soliman Sultan of Nice The first Battle of Nice where the other part are overthrown also by Soliman The Voyage of Godfrey of Bullen and the Princes that accompanied him The Voyage of Hugh the Great and the Princes that followed him his Character Conduct and Imprisonment by the Greek Emperor The War of Godfrey against Alexis The Extremity to which the Emperor is reduced and the Treaty concluded between him and the Princes The Relation of the Conquests and Settlement of the Normans in Italy The Voyage of Bohemond Prince of Tarentum and the Princes that went along with him The Voyage of Raymond de Tholose of Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia and the other Princes and Lords which accompanied them The Character of that Earl his Conference with the Emperor and the Treachery of that Prince The Voyage of Robert Duke of Normandy his Character and Treaty with the Emperor IF ever any Undertaking were capable of possessing the Historian with a just fear of defeating the mighty Expectation of his Reader most assuredly it may be apprehended in attempting the Design of relating the ensuing History of the Crusade And indeed amidst all the most extraordinary Revolutions which may be found either in the Establishment of New or the Ruine of the Ancient Monarchies one shall difficultly meet with any thing more memorable and whether we
consider the Vastness and Importance of this Famous Enterprize of the Crusado's or the Quality of the Persons who have fortunately executed or unsuccessfully attempted this great Design whether we compute the number or variety of those extraordinary Events which were accompanied with such diversity of Fortune or in short if we take a Survey of those Heroick Actions which were then performed one shall find them such as not scarcely to be out-done even by the Romantick Atchievements of the Fabulous Ages One shall there see the Holy Wars which the Christians have undertaken either to reconquer or preserve a Country wherein all the glorious Mysteries of the Redemption of Mankind were accomplished and which the Worshippers of the Eternal Son of God Jesus Christ did believe that they could not without infamy and betraying the Interest of their Religion permit to remain under the Tyrannick Dominion of Barbarous Infidels On the one Part three of the greatest Kings of France as many Emperours the Kings of England Denmark Hungary Navar and Cyprus the Dukes of Lorrain Normandy Austria and Suabia and most of the Princes of Europe appeared at the head of their Troops being followed by whatever was brave or gallant throughout all the Western Monarchies on the other side the Sultans of Aegypt of Babylon and Damascus with all the celebrated Princes of the Turks and Sarasens who have rendred their names so famous by the greatness of their Actions are the Hero's who must tread the stage of this History persons so considerable that singly they might furnish a very fair Volume All that is surprizing in unexpected successes all that is so admirably represented in Fiction or wonderful in the most Heroick Enterprises will be found in the following Account and to render it yet more valuable will be accompanied with that solid foundation of Truth which will distinguish it from those ingenious Fictions which have been invented with so much pain to produce some pleasure to the Readers That I may therefore endeavour that this History may in some sort appear new and with all its natural Ornaments at least that it may not want that little beauty which even the most indifferent Relations seem to challenge it is to be considered that though these matters have been often heretofore related either in some parts by particular Authors or in the general Histories of such Natures as have had more or less concern in this affair of the Crusade yet the World hath not hitherto seen them wrought together into one Regular composure with all the dependencies consequencies and connexions nor with that continued Chain of Causes and Effects and such Circumstances as might render the work so accomplished and delicate as it ought to be and in which the charming secret which doth so insensibly allure and please consists and which is indeed the soul and spirit of History and ought to be the End of every just Historian Moreover as the Subject is so Noble and agreeable so neither is it less advantagious then delightful For here one shall find the great Concerns of the Church of two mighty Empires and the Principal Estates of Europe and Asia there shall one discover the causes which occasioned that glorious design so often to fall and yet afterwards to rise again there may we see that Zeal of our Ancestors which seems to reproach our slow imitation Especially at a time when the Forces of one single Monarch could he but remain assured of his Neighbours are sufficient to ruine the Tyranny of those Infidels whose power consists chiefly in those fatal divisions among Christians which hitherto have prevented their employing their Arms to their destruction However the hope that my endeavours will not be unprofitable and that God Almighty whose help I implore will assist me with his Grace and bestow that happy success which is not to be expected from me have given me encouragement to pursue this difficult task which I have undertaken year 637 It was about 400 years that the Arabian Sarasens under their Caliphs the successors of Mahomet having made themselves Masters of all the upper Asia and Aegypt did also possess the Holy Land after which time the Turks siezing upon it did by their revolt establish a new Empire over Asia these People are originally descended from that part of the Asiatique Sarmatia which lies between Mount Caucasus and the River Tanais the Lake of Meotis and the Caspian Sea And whether it were that they were dissatisfied with their present Habitations or that they were forced from them by some new Intruders most certain it is that having divided themselves to search for new Regions one part of them marching Westward advanced by degrees as far as the banks of the Danubius and the other far more numerous moving towards the East passed the River Volga and settled in the Northern Climates bordering upon the Caspian Sea formerly the habitation of the Scythians and Massagetes and which at this day retains the name of Turquestan by them imposed upon it lying all along the River Jaxartes and not long after passing that River they extended their Consines as far as Maurenthor betwixt that River and the Oxus or as the Greeks called it the River Araxis year 585 and from thence during the Empire of Mauritius by the way of the Caspian Sea they transported themselves into Persia where they made great depredations and ravaged whole Provinces year 625 Afterwards we find that they served Heraclius in the War which he made against Cosroes But when about the year 640 Omar one of the Successors of Mahomet had reduced all Persia under the Empire of the Sarasens the Turks to whom he allotted certain Countries entred into his pay and served him in his Wars against the Greek Emperors for almost 400 years till such times as the Sarasens being mightily broken by their Intestine Divisions and the Turks on the other hand wonderfully augmented both in number and Strength they embodied themselves under a Prince of their own chusing one of the Descendants of Salgue or Sadock a Person to whom the People paid a singular Veneration And in conclusion having vanquished the Sarasens in three general Battles they rendred themselves Masters of all Persia about the year 1042 and afterwards of Mesopotamia Palestine and Syria changing their Religion also about the same time with their Fortune and being converted from Paganism to the Superstition of Mahomet that great Impostor This Victorious Prince whom the Arabians call Abutalip the Greeks Sangrolipax and William of Tyre Belphet or Belphetoc after he had spent above thirty years in the Establishment of this mighty new Monarchy in the Upper Asia entred also the Lesser Asia with a most numerous Army where in a set Battle he defeated and took Prisoner Diogenes the Roman Emperor year 1069 After which Victory the Turks under the Conduct of Cuthume and his Son Solyman near Relations to the Sultan seized upon the Realm of Pontus since called Turcomania the Provinces of
the Knights which are the prime Nobility possess great Estates under the Authority of the Great Master of the Teutonick Order But whilest these Military Orders began thus much about the same time to Establish themselves by little and little in Jerusalem that of the Hospitallers both Ancient and Modern which one may say were the Model of the others made a great Progress in Palestine and became of great Consideration by the great Services which it Performed both in Peace and War and upon this Account both the number of Pilgrims as also of Soldiers and Gentlemen who entred into that Order increasing daily St. Gerard the Provincial of the Isle of Martigues who was Master of the Hospitallers when Jerusalem was taken from the Sarasens built about the Year 1112. a third Hospital giving it the Name of St. John Baptist and there placed his new Knights who a little time after began to form the Design of following a Conduct and Manner of Living more Austere and more Perfect than that of the old Fraternity And indeed when after the Death of Gerard Fryer Bryan Roger was chosen by plurality of Voices to be the Great Master of the Hospitallers these new Knights of the third Erection of St. John Baptist persisting in their first Resolution of Living in greater Perfection would needs Imitate the Knights-Templers and add to their other Vows that of Chastity they separated from the Ancient Hospitallers and chose for their Master Fryer Raymond of Pavia a Gentleman of Dauphiny who drew up for them new Constitutions full of solid Christian Piety which may be seen in the Book of the Statutes of that Order with the Approbation of Pope Calixtus the Second in the Year 1123. as also the Priviledges which have been granted to them by forty eight Soveraign Popes After which time to distinguish themselves from the other they called themselves the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem and wore a white Cross of eight Angles upon a black Habit. This is that famous Order which contrary to what usually happens to other Establishments hath daily Increased for above this five hundred Years Advancing to the supreme Elevation of Splendor and Glory wherein it appears at this very Day That Order I say which in all times hath had the Honor to have its Commanders and Knights of all that is Brave and Generous among the Nobility of all Europe and above all those Princes who have been most Remarkable and more distinguished by the Greatness of their Merit than by their Illustrious Names or Birth that Order in short which under the Celebrated Names of Rhodes and Maltha hath filled the Earth the Sea and all the Corners of our World with the glorious Trophics of an infinite number of Victories which they have Obtained against the Turks As for the ancient Hospitallers who were thus separated from these New ones with whom they formerly made up one Order under one great Master they still retained their ancient Name of St. Lazarus they added to the Habits of their Knights a green Cross to distinguish them from the others and maintained themselves within the Limits of their first Institution which allowing of Marriage consisted of three principal Vows of Charity to withdraw themselves from the World to the Service of the Infirm and Leprous of Chastity either in a single or conjugal State and of Obedience to their great Master and above all to be continually ready to Fight against the Infidels and the Enemies of the Church They also performed after this very signal Services in Palestine year 1119 which obliged the Kings Fulk Amaurus Baldwin the Third and Fourth and the Queens Melisantha and Theodora to take them into their particular Protection and to honor them with many Marks of their Royal Bounty the precious Testimonies whereof they do to this day preserve in their Treasury It was for this Cause that the young King Lewis at his Return from the Holy Land brought with him some of them into France there to Exercise their charitable Functions and to this purpose gave them the Supervising of all the Operations of the Infirmaries within his Realm as also the Castle of Boni near Orleans to be the principal House and chief Residence of their Order on this side the Sea as appears by his Letters Patents of the Year 1154. Signed by the Chancellor Huges in the Presence of the Constable Matthew de Montmorency which was Confirmed to them by Philip Augustus in the Year 1208 who also granted them great Priviledges and Immunities which have since been Augmented and solemnly Confirmed by twelve of our Kings of France In process of time the Order extended it self by Degrees through all Europe but principally in France England Scotland Germany Hungary Savoy Sicily Pavia Calabria Campania in Italy where the Emperor Frederick the Second gave them great Possessions in the Year 1225 which was also confirmed to them afterwards by the Bulla's of many Popes It was in that flourishing Estate wherein this Order was in Europe under this Emperor and under the King St. Lewis that the Pope Honorius the Third Approved it and Confirmed it anew giving it the Rule of St. Augustin with many great Priviledges which were also afterwards Augmented by the Bulla's of Pope Gregory the Ninth Alexander the Fourth Clement the Fourth Nicholas the Third Gregory the Tenth and John the Twenty second and many other Soveraign Popes who granted to them the same Favours which were Enjoyed by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem by which they were impowred to hold Estates given either by particular Persons or Bodies Politick and Corporate and all the Hospitals and Infirmaries with their Goods and Possessions which at any time belonged to this Order In the time that the Affairs of the Christians were almost become Desperate in the East after the Return of St. Lewis from his Voyage to the Holy Land the great Master of St. Lazarus with the greatest part of the Knights came to settle themselves in France where this devout King who took this Order into his Royal Protection and gave them of his Bounty a thousand Marks besides other Favours which he conferred on them became in a manner a new Founder and in effect it is most certain as appears by most authentick Acts that after this time the principal Seat of the Order of St. Lazarus as well on this as the other side of the Sea hath always been kept at their Castle of Boni where the general Chapter of the Order ought to be kept once every three Years and that the Kings of France have always been the Conservators and Patrons of the Order and have nominated and appointed the great Master That these great Masters have Exercised their Jurisdictions upon all the Knights of the Order in all the States of Christendom as the Generals of the Cistertians Premonstratenses and other Orders which at present are in France Exercise theirs over all the Religious of other Realms It
to him who above all others had so many powerful Reasons both Divine and Humane to oblige him to take them into his Protection The King gave him Hopes that he should in a little time receive Satisfaction in what he had proposed assuring him with all the appearances of a great Sincerity that with God's Help all should go well and that this Affair should succeed to his Contentment And in the Interim he conducted the Amhassadours to London there to attend the more particular Answer which he promised to give them after he had first according to the Custom taken the Advice of the Prelates and Lords of his Parliament upon it which he had ordered to be called against the first Sunday in Lent And accordingly he did not fail to call a Parliament where besides the great Men of England there were also present William King of Scotland and David his Brother and the Lords of that Realm which then was held of the King of England Now the Patriarch as the Pope in his Letter and himself in his Speech had done principally insisted upon the Promise which the King made when he obtained his Absolution to go in Person to the Holy Land the King consulted the Bishops and the Abbots in the Case to know whether considering the present Circumstances of his Affairs he was obliged to aquit himself of his Promise by accomplishing that part of his Penance which was imposed on him by the Pope and to which he had so solemnly obliged himself This certainly was a most nice and curious Case of Conscience and which ought in the first place to be decided in regard that if his Promise was binding there was no longer place for Deliberation and that he had but one Choice to make which was to acquit himself of it by undertaking the Voyage If he was not obliged to that Condition of his Penance then it must fall under Examination whether of these two was most Expedient either that the King should assist the Orientals without going in Person out of the Kingdom or that he should himself conduct the Succours into Palestine As for the King to shew that his Proceedings were clear and with good Faith upon the matter he would by all means that the Patriarch and the great Master should themselves Assist at the Debate while this Question was under Deliberation with full and intire Liberty there to offer what they should judge Convenient And withal he strictly required of all that assisted at that Assembly that they should faithfully give their Opinions without any sort of Complaisance to him and declare their Judgment upon their Consciences which of these two was most expedient and necessary for his Souls Health and Salvation year 1185 protesting that he was firmly resolved to put in Execution what should be determined by the Plurality of Votes in that Assembly The more severe Opinion assuredly was That the King should abide by his Word and Promise that he should accomplish the Penance which he had accepted of and that he should go in Person to the Succour of the Holy Land and this the Patriarch failed not to support with all the Reasons and Arguments which could be alledged For urged he What is there in all Civil Society which ought to be more sacred and inviolable than the Word of a mighty King Can there be any thing that ought more religiously to be observed than a Promise made upon receiving the Holy Sacrament at the Absolution given for an Offence which was granted upon the Condition of accomplishing the Penance which is accepted to satisfie God Almighty And supposing that there could be a Dispensation so as to change it to another Who could give that Dispensation or make that Exchange except the Pope who had imposed the Penance and who was so far from being willing to grant any such Dispensation that he presssed the Performance of it in the most pressing Terms and with the most terrible Menaces of the Judgments of God if the Satisfaction was longer deferred These Arguments without doubt appeared very strong Nevertheless all the Bishops and Abbots among whom there were many extraordinary knowing and very good People among others Baldwin Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Man of most wonderful Merit concluded with one common Consent for the more mild Opinion and maintained that the King was not only not obliged at present to undertake this Voyage to Palestine but also that it was more conducing to the Health of his Soul that he should stay to govern his Dominions in regard that the Promise which he had made in accepting the Penance was not only in its own Nature dispensable but ought to be dispensed with because nothing could oblige a Prince to the prejudice of another Promise which was made before it and which was indispensable and by which the King by his Coronation Oath had obliged himself to govern his Subjects and defend them against the Attempts of all their Enemies both Foreign and Domestick which it was impossible for him to do in his Absence in a Government where his Presence could not be wanting And for what concerned one of the Sons of the King which was desired in default of the King 's going in Person they all agreed unanimously with the Lords Temporal that the Parliament had no power to determine upon it in regard they were absent and that therefore the Resolution which was to be taken upon that Matter depended absolutely upon their own Will and Pleasure And in short they judged all together that though the King had of himself a mighty desire to go this Voyage yet he ought not to undertake it without first consulting the King of France who in respect of the Estates of Normandy Guienne and other Provinces which he held in the French Monarchy was his Lord and Soveraign But that notwithstanding he might give liberty to his Subjects to take up the Cross and undertake that Voyage upon the first Occasion and that the King should advance a Sum of Money for their Support who should undertake this War who it was promised should follow shortly after This was the Resolution which was taken in the Parliament of London and with which the Patriarch Heraclius who was of a very violent Humour was so exasperated by thinking all his Hopes and Endeavours were lost that he instantly threw off all manner of Respect which was due to so great a Prince and treated him after so rude a fashion that it is impossible to excuse it under the soft name of Zeal as he endeavoured to persuade the World For the King that he might sweeten what seemed so harsh in this matter was resolved himself to remonstrate to the Ambassadours whom he sent for the Reasons which had moved the Parliament to come to that Resolution which they esteemed so prejudicial to the Hopes of their Embassage He informed them that it was the fear they had that the French with whom they never continued long in Peace would draw some
advantage from his Absence as also that they were not without Jealousies and Suspicious that his own Sons of whom they were not too well assured might occasion some disturbance in the Realm but that for his own particular he would with all his heart give fifty thousand Marks in Silver for the maintaining of the War year 1185 and that he would further oblige himself to maintain all such of his Subjects as would undertake that Enterprise This certainly was very obligingly and advantageously offered by the King but the Cholerick Patriarch fiercely rejecting the Proposition told him very insolently That they had no occasion for his Money but for his Person that they had more Gold and Silver than they desired and that they were not come so far but to search for a Man who wanted Money as he did and who therefore might to his advantage make a profitable War against the Infidels and that they did not seek for Money which stood in need of a Man who was skilled in Military Affairs and knew how to employ it in that War And for you Sir added he speaking to him with an Air as offensive and disobliging as was imaginable You have hitherto reigned with abundance of Glory But know that God whose Cause you have now abandoned is about also to abandon you and he will let you see what will be the Consequence of repaying him with Ingratitude for all those Riches and Kingdoms which you have not obtained but by your Enormous Crimes You have violated your Faith to the King of France who is your Soveraign and you make that your Excuse to refuse this War that you are afraid he should make War upon you You have barbarously caused the holy Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be murdered and yet in Expiation of your Guilt you refuse to undertake this Holy War for the Defence of the Holy Land to which you had engaged your self most solemnly upon the blessed Sacrament And then seeing the King change Colour and blush with Madness and Anger Never believe pursued he thrusting out his Neck Never believe that I have the least Apprehension of the Effects of that Fury which glows about your Cheeks and Eyes and which the truth of what I have spoken which you cannot endure hath kindled in your Soul there taking Head Treat me as you have done St. Thomas I had rather die by your Hand in England than by that of the Sarasins in Syria since I esteem you little less than a barbarous Sarasin In truth this extravagant raving Language in a Patriarch and a Patriarch-Ambassadour was both inexcusable and insupportable but the King whose Age and Experience and the dangerous Consequences which had followed upon the death of Becket the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had rendred more moderate made a great Attempt upon himself and generously surmounted his Passion though the Patriarch went on still vomiting out of indecent Reproaches worse than before which I am ashamed to relate And when the Transport into which the old Prelate had put himself was over and that he began again to be in a tolerable Humour the King did not for all this fail to treat him with abundance of Sweetness and Civility till such time as he carried him over in his own Ship to Roan where after the Celebration of Easter he went with him to the Frontier that so he might be a Witness of the Conference which was held for three days with King Philip upon the Subject of this Holy War But for all that the Patriarch was no more satisfied than he had been before for the two Kings remained fixed in their Resolution and both together informed him that their Affairs would not permit to be so far and long absent from their Dominions but that they were both willing to assist him with such Stores of Men and Money as might defend them against all the Power of Saladin And thus it happened at the last that Heraclius who had made no scruple while he was in Palestine but he should bring along with him either the King of England or one of his Sons was forced to return not only without them but without the Succours also which were offered him which out of madness he foolishly despised contrary to all the Rules of Prudence and Reason and to the mighty prejudice of the declining Affairs of his Master So much doth it import Princes not to abandon their Affairs and Interests to the Discretion of those who have so little themselves as to suffer their unruly Passions to govern them so absolutely as to lose even that little which they have It is true indeed that after all this the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and Roan and the greatest part of the Lords of England Normandy and Guienne and the other Provinces which the English possessed in France took up the Cross as soon as the Soldiers which Philip Augustus had levied in order to the sending them to the Succour of the Holy Land But this beginning of a Crusade turned to no great account not only because the two Kings did not at all engage in it year 1185 but also because the Peace which was made between them was shortly after broken the occasion of which and the renewing of the War happened to be by the Refusal of Richard the Son of the King of England to do the Homage which he ought to have rendred to King Philip for the Earldom of Poitou which he held of the Crown of France by that ancient Tenure as also by reason that King Henry refused to restore the Earldom of Gisors after the death of the young Henry his eldest Son to whom it was given in Dowry with Margaret of France his Lady the Sister of Philip Augustus upon Condition that it should revert to that Crown if Henry should dye without Issue as he did three Years after his Marriage Thus the Holy Land which was so furiously attacked by an Enemy so formidable as Saladin remained destitute of all Assistance and that which was still more deplorable was that this sad Relation being reported throughout Palestine by the Indiscretion of the Patriarch struck the whole Country with such an universal Consternation as produced a most dangerous Effect for an Enggish Knight of the Temple one Robert de St. Alban a good Captain but an ill Man who had neither Religion Honour nor Conscience believing upon this Report that all was lost as to the Christians and that he could no longer hope to establish his Fortune amongst a ruined People he began to think of making it among the Sarasins and to make himself considerable in meriting well of Saladin though by the blackest of all Crimes This infamous Man therefore rendred himself to that Prince offering him his Service against the Christians and promised him that in a little time he would destroy them and also take the City of Jerusalem with the Weakness whereof he was perfectly acquainted And that he might give him such Assurance of his Truth as was
all Persons might mortgage their Inheritances or their Benefices for three Years during which time the Creditors should peaceably enjoy them whatever happened to the Owners That all unlawful Games of Chance all Swearing Blasphemy and Disorders should be severely punished To which were also added very admirable Orders for the Regulation of Excess in Apparel in the Tables and the Retinues of the Crusades and above all that except some old Landresses there should no Women be suffered to go along with the Army as had been permitted in the former Crusades and which had occasioned great Disorders These Ordinances were received and solemnly published in both the Kingdoms where an infinite number of People enrolled themselves for the Cross some out of Zeal and true Devotion others to be exempted from the Tax which though it was consented to by the Bishops in the Parliament of Paris which was held this Year about Mid-Lent yet there were some Ecclesiasticks who declared themselves against it tartly enough Among the rest Peter de Blois one of the most knowing Men of his Age writ against it to Henry de Dreux Bishop of Orleans the King's Nephew in very hard Terms pressing him to oppose this Ordinance of the King which he said was a Breach of the Liberties and Privileges of the Ecclesiasticks from whom he pretended no other Aids ever were or ought to be exacted besides their Suffrages and Prayers But this Advice of this Archdeacon of Bath in England though otherwise an able Man prevailed nothing upon the Bishops of France whom he something too liberally accused of following too gentle and easie a Conduct For they as well as the Bishops of England with great Justice and Reason as well as Piety believed that such a part of the Goods of the Church might very lawfully be employed upon such an holy Occasion for the Deliverance of the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ and so many poor Christian Slaves and in a manner all the Oriental Churches from the Oppression and Tyranny of the Infidels See now how Zeal when it is a little over-heated easily becomes so false and foolish as to blind Men to that degree that they are not able to see that for good Sense which common Reason alone without other Theology discovers so plainly to the whole World Thus then all things were disposed for a happy Beginning to this Crusade if the Division which in a little time after broke out again between the two Kings had not turned those Arms against Christians which they had before prepared to fight against the Sarasins Among other Articles which were agreed upon at this famous Conference in the Field of Gisors it was ordained That all Matters in difference on one part and the other should remain in the same Estate wherein they stood before and that no one should enterprize any thing against his Neighbour till such time as the Holy War were determined In this time Richard Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitiers to the prejudice of a Treaty so solemnly made concluded and ratified renewing the ancient Quarrel betwixt him and Count Raymond of Tholouse threw himself suddenly into that Count's Territories and presently took from him Cahors and Moissack Philip in mighty Indignation for this Action and moved with the Complaints of the Count who came to implore his Succour as his Soveraign immediately made a powerful Diversion in the Provinces of the English where he took Castle-Roux Busencais Argemon Levroux Montrichard and all the places which the English at that time possessed in Avergne and Berry Henry on his part did not fail to make haste to his Son's Assistance who went to joyn him in Normandy year 1188 Philip also marched thither with his Victorious Army where he obtained great Advantages against the English till at length a Conference for Peace was held near Bonmoulin at which the Earls of Flanders and Champaigne with divers other Princes continually importuned the King to conclude protesting to him that otherwise they would desert him for that they were resolved to accomplish their Vow in going to the Holy War There never was any Conference managed with greater Dexterity and Policy than this was by King Philip For knowing perfectly the Humour and the Interests of the King of England and his Son he only demanded that the Princess Alice his Sister whom the late King his Father had designed to be married to Richard and who was kept in Custody by Henry should be put into the hands of her intended Husband since they were now both of Age and that Richard should be declared joynt King of England with his Father as the deceased Prince Henry had been who had married Margaret the eldest Sister of the Princess Alice Henry against whom the Prince his eldest Son supported by the French had formerly made a most cruel War fearing lest Richard who was no less ambitious than his Brother should create him the same trouble or possibly having his Soul pre-possessed with another Passion less excusable but more strong than either Fear or Policy would by no means agree to these two Articles So that this Conference produced no other Effects but only a Truce of a few Months during the Winter and that which Philip had foreseen did not fail to happen to his advantage as well as according to his Expectation for Richard who was of a Temper extream ambitious and turbulent was so exasperated with this Denyal that he instantly abandoned his Father and passed into the Party and Interests of Philip did him Homage for all the Lands which he held in France and promised him an inviolable Fidelity and to serve him against all Persons whatsoever even his own Father as he did And indeed as soon as the short Truce which had been made came to be expired which it did the next Spring the King with all his Forces joyned with those of Richard who had drawn to his Party besides the Gascons and Poitenins his Vassals many Angevins and Bretons marched against Henry who lay with a very few Troops at Saumur But the Cardinal d' Anaigne the Pope's Legate who succeeded in the place of the Cardinal d'Albano who was dead not long before negotiated so happily with the two Kings that they promised to meet in Whitsun-Week near Ferte-Benard and there amicably to treat before him and the Archbishops of Reims Bourges Rean and Canterbury who were to decide all their Differences Whereupon these Prelates instantly pronounced an Anathema against all those of what Quality soever except the Persons of the two Kings who should any way go about to obstruct the Conclusion of a Peace so necessary to all Christendom and without which the Crusade would become wholly ineffectual The Kings and Richard Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitiers accompanied with all the Great Men of both Realms being come to the place designed for the Conference Philip demanded as before That his Sister the Princess Alice who was affianced to Duke Richard should be delivered to
and St. Paul at the Castle of Chinon bestowing his Maledictions upon his disobedient Sons which he would never be persuaded to revoke notwithstanding the repeated Instances which were made to him by the Bishops who waited on him in his Sickness He did however receive the Sacrament and Extream Unction with great Devotion giving manifest Tokens of his Repentance in submitting to the Divine Justice which he acknowledged had justly laid this great Change of Fortune upon him as a Punishment for those Crimes which he had committed in his Prosperity He had also the Misfortune that his Domesticks every one seizing upon something left him without any thing else but a poor Sheet to cover him But his Son Richard who had so furiously opposed him in his Life gave all the Testimonies of an excessive Sorrow for his Death and caused him to be carried most magnificently adorned in his Royal Robes to be interred at the Nunnery of Fontevraud where he had a desire to be buried This new King himself assisted at the Funerals where he testified by the abundance of his Tears that he was unfeignedly touched with Sorrow and Remorse for his Father's Death But it is reported that to his other Grief he had the Displeasure to be afflicted with an odd and unaccountable Accident for as he approached the Corps of the deceased King as he lay in the Coffin the Blood which gushed out of his Nostrils seemed to reproach him with his Ingratitude and unnatural Rebellion and even as the Discourse went the Parricide of his Father whom his Disobedience did in some measure seem to have hastned to his Tomb sooner than Nature which was yet strong and vigorous in him had intended He nevertheless stayed out the whole Ceremony till such time as the Royal Defunct was interred in the Quire of the Church of those Religious Nuns which verified the Revelation of a Monk who praying upon a certain time for the Prosperity of the King heard these words which he then did not understand but which were explained by the Event He shall take up my Sign and in carrying it shall be mightily tormented The Belly of his Wife shall rise up against him and at the last he shall be hid among the Veils For as he took the Cross for the Holy War he carried the Sign of Jesus Christ and he was immediately after cruelly tormented by the Persecutions of his Sons which continued till his Death after which he was covered with the Veil of Death being interred in a Quire of Veiled Nuns We must however do Justice to the Memory of this Prince who was one in this Crusade though it so happened that he never had his part in any Action in regard it was so long deferred by the War whereof he was the Occasion He was a French Man by Nation born in the City of Mans which he therefore used to call his Darling and most assuredly he was one of the greatest and most potent Kings that ever sat upon the English Throne and certainly had been the most fortunate if either he had never been a Father or if toward the latter end of his thirty and five Years Reign he had not met with the Opposition of the young and invincible Philip the August whose Fortune supported by his Courage and admirable Prudence was as a fatal Curb which according to the Prediction of the famous Morling was to tame this fierce and haughty Leopard or like a strong Dam which stopped short and broke that impetuous Torrent of his Power and Ambition year 1189 which menaced an Inundation over the rest of France whereof Henry already possessed a very great part For besides England where he reigned as Soveraign Monarch and Ireland which he had conquered Scotland which was Tributary to him he also possessed Normandy in the Right of Inheritance descending to him by his Mother Maud the Empress Daughter of Henry I. King of England and by Geoffrey Earl of Anjou his Father who was Son to Count Fowk he had Anjou Maine Touraine a great part of Berry and Avignion where he pretended to be Soveraign And in Right of Queen Eleonor his Wife whom Lewis the Young quitted to him by a Canonical Sentence he had Gascon Guienne Poitou and the other Countries which depended upon them Besides that Britanny fell to his third Son Geoffrey by the Marriage of the Heiress of that Country So that he was as potent on this Side the Sea where he was a Homager to the Crown of France as he was on the other side where he was King of England and Lord of Ireland He was of a middle Stature but of a Shape no way handsom by reason that he was extream gross and corpulent notwithstanding that he was not only very temperate but amidst the great Affairs in which he was always employed and which he managed with wonderful Application in continual Action either travelling or Walking or making use of the more violent Exercises of Riding the great Horse or Hunting that thereby he might abate the growing unwieldy by his Fatness to which his Sanguin Complexion had condemned him As for any thing else he was of Temperament robust and sound having a large full Breast and a big Head His Eyes were blew handsom and full of Fire His Hair yellow and soft inclining something too much towards the red His Voice hoarse his Speech rough and his Mind very fierce and Martial For his Mind he was very dexterous and of a penetrating Understanding but something more crafty than became so great a Prince He had however cultivated his Spirit with the Study of Ingenuous Learning which inabled him with a certain Eloquence very easily and naturally to express himself And there was in his Soul such a Stock of Vices as well as Vertues natural Perfections and Imperfections which were so blended together that if they would not permit it to be said of him that he was a very exceeding good Prince yet they very absolutely prohibit the fixing the Character of a very ill one upon him For he was gentle and sweet to every body when he was in dangers but harsh fierce and severe when he saw himself out of them he was complaisant abroad morose to his Domesticks liberal to Strangers and in publick but parsimonious to his own and too great a Husband in his private Affairs A great Promiser but a slender Performer above all things loving his Liberty and hating Constraint to that degree that he could not endure to be a Slave to his own Word or his Faith which he made no great scruple upon occasion to violate In matters of Justice he was too slow and sometimes by the Interposition of Money which he loved excessively he would wholly remit the Execution of it He drew great Sums from his Subjects with which he often chose rather to buy Peace than maintain War in which he did not delight though when he was forced to make War he did it like a great Captain and
Actions have rendred as famous among Historians as those others more beautiful which have been given to the most renowned Princes to distinguish them by a particular Appellation and as an Elogy for their Vertues and Atchievements As for the Perfections of his Soul they yet far surpassed those of his Body for he had a most Beautiful Mind a most happy Memory which being joyned with the long Experience and the Care he had taken to instruct himself in all things had made him acquire an infinite Number of such pretty Sorts of Learning and Knowledge as might well rank him in the Catalogue of the most able men of his Time He was extreme Wife and Judicious Liberal and of great Humanity Affable and Courteous to all men condescending even to the meanest of his Subjects but terrible to his Enemies and above all to Rebels a great Captain personally Valiant and fearless in the greatest Dangers always carrying himself with mighty Evenness and Temper in both the one and the other Fortune though it was his Happiness not to be much acquainted with the Worse Being such as I have now described him and therefore equally feared loved and respected by all the Princes of the Empire he had called a General Diet at Mayence to meet the Fourth Sunday in Lont in the Year 1188. there the Legates came in Person where after they had happily composed all the Differences which remained between several Princes and Cities of the Empire they made the same Remonstrances for relieving the Christians of Palestine which they had before made to the Kings of France and England Frederick who for above ten years had fully reconciled himself with the Church had before formed that generous Resolution for his own Satisfaction to employ those Arms for Jesus Christ against the Sarasins which by the Misfortunes of the Times he had made use of against the Christians He nevertheless demanded the Advice of the Assembly thereupon but in such a manner as made it easily be known what was in the Intention of his Soul for he only proposed whether it was to the Purpose not whether he should refuse that Assistance which Jesus Christ himself demanded of him which was such a cowardly and shameful Ingratitude which he knew the whole Assembly would disdain but whether he should defer taking up the Cross after that the French and English had with much Ardour embraced it Whereupon all the Princes and the Prelates and all the Deputies of the Cities cried out with one Voice as if the Emperor had at the same instant inspired them all with his one Zeal and Courage That without deferring any longer they ought to take up the Cross that all the World might see that the German Nation especially under such an Emperor would never yield either in their Zeal or in their Courage to the English French or any Nation under Heaven So that now there was nothing more to be done but to conclude the Holy War and the Crusade The Emperor at the same instant descending from his Throne to receive the Cross by the Hands of the Legates year 1189 being assisted by Godfrey Bishop of Wirtsburgh and Frederick Duke of Suabia his Second Son who had already taken it himself upon the hearing the sad news of the Loss of Jerusalem but now would have it also in Ceremony after the Emperor his Father The greatest part of those who were present at that Assembly following that illustrious Example also took upon them the Cross with an incredible Ardour The Principal of which were Leopold Duke of Austria Berthodus Duke of Moravia Herman Marquis of Baden the Counts de Nassau de Thuringe de Missen de Hollandia and more than sixty others of the most eniment Princes of the Empire the Bishops of Besanson Cambray Munster Osnabrug Missen Passau Wirzbourg and more then ten besides all which besides the Legates went immediately to preach the Crusade in their several Diocesses and throughout Germany where an infinite Number of People of all Conditions took up the Cross But the Emperor who knew by the Experience of the Second Crusade that two great a Multitude occasioned nothing but Cumber Trouble and famine in an Army therefore caused an Edict to be published by which he prohibited all those who were not able to expend three marks in Silver to provide themselves of Necessaries for so long a Voyage to engage in it or list themselves for this Expedition and also commanded those of the greatest Ability to make the best Preparation for it that they were able that so they might have wherewith to serve themselves in their Necessities After which he gave Command that all the Crusades should repair to their Colours at Ratisbonne in the Month of April the Year insuing where he promised without fail to be himself upon the Feast of St. George and that he would then immediately advance without staying for the rest This being done he sent four several Ambassadours to so many Princes with whom he must necessarily treat before he undertook any thing further Henry Earl of Diets was sent to Saladin to summon them to restore the Holy Land which he had usurped from the Christians as also the Wood of the Holy Cross which he had taken at the Battle of Tiberias and in Case of his refusal to denounce War against him from the Emperor I do not here pretend to insert the Letters of these two great Princes which pass for Currant with many Historians in regard that it appears clearly that they are Counterfiets and the Forgeries of some Prolifick Scribe who had more desire to please than Art in the compiling of them so as to render them either probable or Pleasant Godfrey Baron of Wisenbach was dispatched to the Sultan of Iconium who pretended to be a Wonderful Friend to the Christians and who made many strong Protestations that he and all his should ever be at the Emperors Service who might at his Pleasure pass through his Estates with the same Freedom as if they were his own Frederick also himself at the same time writ to the Emperor of Constantinople and sent to desire Passage through his Territories and that he might be furnished with Provisions at the Price Currant To this he agreed but after a very indecent manner detaining the Ambassadour without any positive Resolution till those of the Sultan of Iconium passed by Constantinople to go into Germany there to make the Offers and Complements of their Master to the Emperor The Arch Bishop of Mayence was the only man of that Character who succeeded most advantageously in his Negotiation for he obtained of Bela King of Hungary all that he desired which was the Princess his Daughter for Frederick Duke of Suabia Son to the Emperor and Security of Passage and Provision for the Army at most reasonable Rates Thus all things being disposed to begin this great Enterprise Frederick who had passed all the Lent and the Festivals of Easter at Ratisbonne to attend the
by which the Army must certainly have perished if the Marquis had not taken Care from time to time to supply them abundantly with his Fleet. This absolutely gained him all the Commanders and the Souldiers who took his Part against Guy de Lusignan who now had nothing left but the vain Shadow of Royal Majesty without the least Substance of Power or Authority Thus the Army being extremely diminished did nothing now but act upon the Defensive in their Retrenchments opposing the Assaults of Saladin on the one side and the Sallies of the Besieged on the other till the Arrival of the two Kings whose Voyage and Actions it is now time for me after having given myself and the Reader a moments Breath to recount unto him THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART II. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The beginning of the Reign of Richard Caeur-de-Lion King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelaï between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An Adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accommodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Discription of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A Calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jassa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and imprisoned His Deliverance the Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new Division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives Occasion to a fourth Crusade year 1190 T The Crusade which had been so solemly sworn in the Holy Field and which the War that was kindled between the two Kings had so long time retarded had at length its Effect by the perfect Understanding which for some time there was between Philip the August and Richard sirnamed Caeur-de-Lion at the beginning of the Reign of this new King For so soon as he had received the Sword as Duke of Normandy at our Ladies Church in Roan and the Crown of England at Westminster with the general Applause of all his Subjects who saw that he took quite differing Courses from his Father who was not at all beloved he had no other Thoughts but of making Preparations for the Holy War Above all things he applied himself to the procuring a good Treasury of Gold and Silver but not by charging the People with the rigorous Exaction of Saladins Tenth as did his Father who when he had received it made use of it in the War between the two Crowns For this purpose he took the way of selling all the Dignities which he could all Offices and the Lands of his Demesnes at a very low rate thereby to intice the Avarice or the Ambition of unwary Purchasers who easily suffered themselves to be imposed upon with those cheap Bargains not foreseeing that he had Design of Reassumption after his Return as he did without any other Reimbursment than by allowing upon the Foot of the Account what they made over and above their Charges of the Demesnes during the time that they injoyed them But he dissembled the matter so well and on one side seemed so truly to have a design to sell all that he could and on the other shewed so many Marks of a ruined Constitution which both his constant Fatigues of War and his Debauches gained an easy Credit to that the Purchasers without any Difficulty suffered themselves to be perswaded that he would never return and that he had no other Prospect than of the present as not having any hopes of living long And for these Reasons it was that very many straitned themselves to lay hold of this occasion of Profit whereby he drew from them vast Summs turning every thing into Money even to protesting to those who were astonished at his Proceedings that if he could find a Chapman who was able to buy of him the City of London he should make no Difficulty to sell it to him But he drew the greatest Advantages from diverse Prelates of his Realm that were extraordinary Rich from whom he drew all the Money that they had by selling to them temporal Dignities which they were mighty glad to add to their Bishopricks or their Abbies It was by this Stratagem that he drew into the Net the Bishop of Durham year 1190 an old Man equally Covetous and Ambitious by persuading him to purchase the Earldom of that Province which he would unite to his Bishoprick For that Prelate who was ready to die with the Desire which he had to be Earl of Northumberland gave him for that Title all the Riches which he had for a long time been hoarding up out of the Revenue of his Bishoprick as well as those other less honest Markets which he had made And to this he threw in also all the Money which he had reserved purposely to defray his Expences in the Voyage which he had undertaken to make to Jerusalem thereby renouncing his Vow his Conscience and his Honour that so he might become great in this World out of which his old Age was even now ready to chase him which made the King very pleasantly to say when he had gotten all his Money That he was about to work a kind of Miracle and to make a young Earl out of an old Bishop He also seized upon all the Estate of
Geoffry Ridel Bishop of Ely for appearing before him with the Train of a King at the City of Winchester but all this magnifick Pomp could not prevent the Triumph of Death which seized imediately upon him by this Surprise and divested him of this stately Vanity so unbecoming the Sacred Character of a Bishop For this Prince believed that these great Riches might to much better Advantage be imployed in defraying the Expences of his Coronation than so foolishly lavished in the Pageantry of worldly Pomp and that he might thereby spare his own which he indeavoured to keep as a Reserve to support the Charges of his Voyage to the Holy Land He also surrendred to William King of Scots for ten thousand Marks Sterling the Castles of Rocksborough and Berwick which he had been constrained to yield to King Henry the Second for his Ransom he being taken Prisoner in the War between them He also acquitted him of the Homage which he was obliged by force to pay as one part of the Price of his Liberty And in short as on one hand he was resolved not to be incumbred with the multitude of the Crusades the Multitudes of which had done more Hurt than Service in the other Expeditions and on the other that he knew very well that diverse of the richest of his Subjects who had ingaged themselves two Years before to undertake that Voyage were willing enough to be dispensed with he therefore obtained Permission from the Pope to discharge all such from their Vow upon Condition that they should proportionably to their Estate contribute a summ of Money towards the Charges of the Holy War All this joyned to the Treasure of his Father which he had at first seized upon and which amounted to more than nine hundred thousand Livers in Gold and Silver gave him the Ability to live after the best manner and in a far more Royal Way than any of his Predecessors had ever done So that he caused to be equipped in all the Ports of England Normandy Bretany Poitou and Guienne a great number of Ships to compose one of the fairest Fleets which had ever before been put to Sea For when he weighed from the Road of Messina where he had passed the Winter he had one hundred and fifty great Ships fifty three Gallies besides Barks Tartanes and other small Craft which attended the Navy with Provisions and Munitions of War He gave the Command of the Fleet to Gerrard Archbishop of Ousch and Bernard Bishop of Bayonne to whom he joyned in Commission Robert de Sablé Richard de Chamville and William Fortz Earl of Albermarle three excellent Men in Sea Affairs who had order without sparing any to put in Execution those admirable Orders which were proclaimed for preventing of Disorders and Punishment of Offences in the Fleet. He could not for all that stop those which were at the same time committed almost all over England upon the Jews of which himself was the Occasion tho he did not command it For as the Jews whom his Father had always favoured were upon his Coronation Day contrary to his express Command entred into the Palace from whence they were thrust out and some of them treated very severely the People who imagined that it was the King's Inclination that they should exterminate that perfidious Nation who for their Extortion Avarice and other enormous Crimes were extremely hated fell upon them with such Fury that it was impossible to appease them And this Example spreading it self occasioned a most horrible Massacre among those miserable People in many Cities where the young People who had undertaken the Cross year 1190 and wanted wherewith to furnish themselves for so chargeable a Voyage were ravished with such opportunity of Plundring their Houses and thereby being inabled to put themselves into an Equipage at the Expence of these declared Enemies of Jesus Christ In this time Philip the August prepared for this Enterprise in a manner more regular and did not to procure Money take those Methods of selling Offices and temporal Dignities to the Prelates of his Realm who were more regular and modest than those of England Neither did he raise any Taxes or Contributions for the Expences of this Voyage in regard that all the French Lords who had taken the Cross were resolved to accomplish their Vow and he believed that he should have enough out of his good Husbandry of that Tenth which was given for this War and which still remained in Bank ever since the last Year For this Reason therefore he caused an Edict to be published and all concerned to be sworn in the Parliament which he held at Paris that they should render themselves at Vezelay in the Week of Easter from thence together to take the Voyage And this being done he sent Rotrou Earl of Perche into England to advertise King Richard of his Proceedings who on his side made those who had taken the Vow swear the same thing upon the Holy Evangelists in the Parliament at London After which the King having recommended the Care of the Realm to Queen Eleonor his Mother having delivered her from the Confinement in which the late King had for five or six Years last kept her and to William Longfield Bishop of Ely his Chancellor he imbarked the fourteenth day of December at Dover and landed the same day at Graveling from whence he went about the end of the Month to Confer with King Philip at Nonancour There it was that after they had mutually given the one to the other all the assurance of an inviolable Amity they caused Letters Patents in the Name of both the Kings to be dispatched whereby they fixed the time of their Departure with all their Subjects of the Crusade and promised to each other a most sincere and indissoluble Friendship according to the Faith which they had severally plighted to one another Philip King of France to Richard King of England as his Friend and faithful Liegeman and Richard King of England to Philip King of France as his Lord and Friend These are the very Words of these Letters dated the thirtieth day of December at Nonancour as they are reported by Radulph Dean of London who writ in that time such Matters as he himself was an Eye Witness of and in the Transaction whereof he had a considerable Share But in regard the Time which they had limited appeared too short for the Preparations which were of necessity to be made the two Kings had a second Interview at Vezelay where they lengthened the time of their Rendezvouz till the Week after Midsummer In which time they finished their Treaty which among others had these Articles That if either of them died in the time of the Holy War the other should make use of the Money and the Army of the deceased King to carry on and finish the War That the Lords of the two Kingdoms should maintain a fraternal Correspondence and that the Bishops should excommunicate all those who
should enterprize any thing to the Disadvantage of the Crusades during their Abscence But it happening that about this same time Queen Isabella lost her Life in giving it to two Twins who did not survive her above three Days an inauspicuous Augury was from thence drawn concerning this Voyage either by the superstitious Humour of the People who love to make their foolish Remarks upon such Events and to turn every surprizing Accident into a Mystery of future Consequences or possibly it might be a kind of Presage which God is sometimes pleased to give as hath been frequenty observed and was more remarkable in another Accident which happened at this very time For as the King of England at the Church of Saint Martin in Tours took the Marks of his Pilgrimage to the Holy Land the Consecrated Pilgrims Staff by his leaning too hard upon it broak in the Middle This Presage gave a certain Horrour and Fear to all the Assistants at the Ceremony but not the least to this immoveable Prince who was not of an Humour to Philosophize upon such sort of Adventures which gave not the least Trouble or Inquietude to his unshaken Soul year 1190 The Devotion of Philip the August was more calm and edifying He received upon St. John Baptist's Day in the Church of St. Dennis in France the consecrated Pilgrim's Staff from the Hands of William Archbishop of Reims his Uncle by the Mother's side and himself took from the Altar the Royal Standard or the Oriflame with all the most sensible Marks of a most tender and admirable Devotion imploring the Aid of Heaven by his Prayers and Tears in such an uncommon and charming Decency of Piety as produced the like Sentiments in the Souls of all those who assisted at that solemn Action After which having left the Government of the Realm in his Absence to the Queen Adela his Mother he came to Vezelay where he was met by King Richard who to avert the Effects of the unlucky Presage which happened to him at Tours would there anew receive the Pilgrim's Staff before the Altar of St. Magdalene whose Body they say reposed in that Abby From hence the two Kings marched together to Lyon where for the Conveniency of the Troops which followed them they divided themselves and took different Ways the King of France taking that of Genoa and the King of England that of Marseilles which two Cities they had made choice of for the Rendezvouz of their respective Armies At their parting they renewed the Protestations of an inviolable Amity which they had so frequently made and which notwithstanding were presently broken at their next Meeting And truly it was not reasonably to be hoped that it should be of any lasting Continuance between two Princes whose Interests Temperaments Humours Sentiments Inclinations and Manners accorded so very little as may easily be observed from the Portraicts and Characters which I am going to draw from the Life and the Truth and to make a Present of them to the Reader Philip was then in the very Flower of his Age being about twenty four Years of Age of a most admirable Shape and a Stature something exceeding the Middle of a Majestick Port and an Air fierce and Martial which nevertheless had nothing in it discouraging the Beholders in regard it was accompanied with that rare Beauty which Nature had so advantageously bestowed upon him for the whole Turn and Composure of his Face was admirable and all the Stroaks of it regular and delicate his Forehead was fair and high his Nose a little gracefully rising his Hair fair his Cheeks wore a beautiful Vermilion his Eyes were quick and sparkled with a certain gentle Fire which with a kind of Fixedness in his Looks joyned with the Colour of his Complexion manifestly shewed his Temper to be naturally Sanguin and inclining to Choler and two little Moles which he had growing at the Corner of his left Eye not at all to the disadvantage of its Beauty rather augmented the Whiteness of his Skin by the Opposition of their Blackness But that which was the Life of this Royal Beauty and which added the greatest Graces to all those Wonders which shined about him with such a charming Glory was the admirable Qualities of an incomparable Mind which made all the Vertues necessary for a great King shine most conspicuously in his Conduct and all his Actions For he was extreamly Religious and even jealous for the Glory of God for which he had Sentiments most infinitely tender and full of a respectful Veneration He was an implacable Enemy to Blasphemers whom he caused to be thrown into the Seine and of Hereticks whom he exterminated with Fire and Faggot He was a most passionate Adorer of Equity Faith and Justice which he caused to be rendred to all his Subjects with the greatest Exactness and without Discrimination Distinction of Persons or Partiality merciful and compassionate to the Poor as if he had been their Father Liberal but according to the Rules of Judgment and Discretion Magnificent above the Genius and the Custom of the Kings of his Age but most particularly in the Expences of his House and the Entertainment of Military Men in publick Buildings and Royal Foundations as well appeared by the ruinous Walls of Paris which he caused to be re-built at the same time that he was engaged in the Holy War Upon the whole he was equally wise prudent and moderate in his Counsels and quick ardent and bold in the Execution of them brave and valiant even to a Fault a great Lover of Learning which he caused to re-flourish especially in the University of Paris affable vigilant provident happy in War and always invincible and victorious year 1190 as he evidently made appear in his Wars with the English and the Flemmings and which in the Process of his Reign more remarkably appeared by the glorious Conquests which he made of a great part of Poitou Guienne and all Normandy of Avignion Artois Cambresis Bullen and so many other Earldoms as he added and re-united to his Crown beginning the first of our Kings of the third Race the great Work which Lewis the Great hath in our time so happily compleated by giving to France the ancient Limits from the Ocean to the Rhine In short if Philip who always triumphed over his Enemies had had the power to vanquish himself and that Impatience and Choler which his hot Temper raised in him and which sometimes overcame his Reason and for some Moments took from him the liberty of acting according to his better Inclinations one might say that his Character is that of a Prince accomplished with all manner of Perfections which could be wished in a great and admirable King And it is much to his advantage that he stands so near King Richard who could not come in comparison with him neither for his Body nor his Soul although it must not be denied but that Prince also possessed many great and excellent Qualities
to Sea in Easter-Week and after it had been soundly beaten with a Tempest which they say was miraculously calmed by Thomas of Canterbury who had raised many worse in his Life according to the credulous Humour of those Ages it being affirmed by some that he appeared upon the Deck of the great Ship called the London that Vessel came up with Cape St. Vincent over against the City of Silves nine other Ships entring the River of Lesbon where they came to an Anchor The Miramolin or King of the Sarasins of the Western Africa at that time made War with a potent Army against Sancho King of Portugal whom he had surprized and who with an inconsiderable number of Troops had put himself into Santaren This Prince believing that Heaven had sent him the Succour of these Strangers year 1190 as it had before done to the late King Alphonso his Father requested them to help him in this his pressing Necessity Whereupon five hundred of the bravest of them immediately went into his Service whilst that fourscore of the most valiant young Gentlemen who were aboard the London put themselves into Sylves for the Defence of that City But Fortune without giving them the liberty of drawing their Swords put an end to this War by the suddain Death of Mirmalion after which his Army immediately disbanded it self The English then returning to their Vessels sound there sixty three more of their Ships who had put in there to refresh themselves and all that great City in Arms against their People who had committed great Insolencies and Disorders against the Inhabitants insomuch that Blood had been drawn on both sides divers Houses plundred and burnt and some of the English committed to Prison But all these Matters being calmed by the Prudence of King Sancho who knew very well how to pacifie both Parties the English took their leave the 25th Day of July and the same Day joyning three and thirty great Ships with which Admiral William Fortz attended them at the Mouth of the Tagus they prosperously pursued their Voyage till they came to an Anchor before Salernum There it was that King Richard met his Fleet and the 30th of September arrived at the Port of Messina where he was received by the French and Sicilians with all possible Honour and with all the Marks of a sincere and perfect Friendship But this was not of any long Continuance and the good Understanding which at first appeared among these three Nations was presently interrupted and broken by two great Quarrels which Richard had and which were the Cause that the two Kings instead of presently pursuing their intended Voyage were obliged to defer it till the following Year and to pass all the Winter at Messina The manner was thus William king of Sicily being dead without Issue the Sicilians who were resolved to have a King of the Race of their Norman Princes placed his Cousin Tancred the Natural Son of Roger Duke of Pavia upon the Throne notwithstanding that before his Death William had caused Queen Constance his Aunt the Wife of the Emperor Henry VI. to be acknowledged their Queen and had declared her to be the Inheretrix of the Crown Now Richard without pretending to have any part in this great Difference between the Emperor and Tancred only desired of this new King that he would send to him Jane his Sister the Daughter of Henry II. King of England the Widow of the deceased King William that he would restore to him her Dowry with several other things to which he pretended and above all an hundred Ships which the late King had promised to his Father-in Law King Henry for his Voyage to the Levant Tancred immediately sent the Queen to him but deferring to give him Satisfaction in his other Pretensions Richard who was resolved that he should do him Reason seized upon two strong Places which lay upon the Straits This gave such a Jealousie to the Messineses who naturally are not too much given to forbearing that they took Arms against the English and beat them out of the City and the English no less naturally impatient of Beating but more hot and brave than the Sicilians ran immediately to their Arms and issuing in Battalia out of their Camp repulsed these forward Burghers into the City and put themselves into a Posture to attack it by Force There was however a few Moments Truce agreed to by the Interposition of Philip the August who endeavoured to accommodate this Difference between them But Richard having discovered or at least believing that the Messineses had an Intention to surprize him during the Preliminary Treaty of the Peace began the Assault upon the Town with so much Fury that he carried the Place but he left it again presently after he had received the Excuses of the Magistrates and the Satisfaction which he demanded of them out of Respect as he said to King Philip who had his Quarter in the City and who was not at all satisfied with these violent Proceedings of King Richard For this Reason Richard to strengthen himself against him by the Alliance of Tancred concluded a Peace with that King who offered him besides the Ships twenty thousand Ounces of Gold to quit all his other Pretensions and twenty thousand more for the Portion of his Daughter year 1190 who was to be married to Arthur Duke of Bretany Nephew to King Richard So that the Conclusion of this Quarrel was the Foundation of another incomparably more dangerous which hereby grew between the kings of France and England For Tancred perceiving that the French King had no reason to be satisfied with this Marriage which was surreptitious concluded without his Knowledge and which directly shocked all his Interests endeavoured to link himself more closely with the English as he did and to exasperate them against King Philip. And truly finding that these two Princes were already imbroiled upon the Subject of the Taking Messina where Richard having caused his Standards to be planted Philip sent to have them taken down He went to the King of England and shewed him the Letters which he assured him came from the King of France wherein he offered him the Assistance of all his Forces if he would make War with Richard who he said had no other Thoughts but to amuse him with the Shew of Peace thereby with more Ease to seize upon his Realm Richard although he was extreamly provoked with this Procedure yet was very well pleased to have so specious a Pretence to break with Philip. Philip complaining with Justice enough reciprocally against him that having so long since affianced his Sister Alice he had now altered his Thoughts and was designed to marry Berengera the Daughter of Garcias King of Navarre following therein the Counsel of Queen Eleonor who her self had conducted that Princess thither There seemed great Foundation for the Complaints on either side and their Spirits were wound up to that degree as indangered the Breaking of the holy
League by a deadly War between these two Princes which if it had happened had absolutely ruined all the Hopes of ever re-establishing the Affairs of the Christians in the Holy Land But in Conclusion there were Expedients found out for the appeasing of this great Quarrel by an amicable Composure which pacified their Spirits at least in Appearance and for some time Richard protested that he would most inviolably have kept his Promise in marrying the Princess Alice if he had not been most certainly assured for some time before that the late King Henry his Father who was known to have been most passionately Amorous of her had not exceeded the Bounds of Modesty in his Courtship to her and she those of Vertue in the Caresses which she received from him And that after this Discovery all the Laws both of God and Nature opposed this Marriage And whereas the Princess pretended her self to be wholly innocent of these Crimes alledging that she had never done any thing Criminal and that the Appearances of Kindness which she might be accused of in permitting the Visits of that importunate old King as she never consented to them so she was not in the Capacity of hindring them which possibly might be true yet it was impossible to repair the Blemish which her Honour had received and which therefore to him was intollerable because it was incurable and the malicious World would to his Dis-reputation believe it true though it might be false He therefore offered to restore Vexin which she was to have in Dowry and to pay her ten thousand Marks in Silver And in short he passed his Royal Word to King Philip that with the beginning of the Spring he would be ready without any further delay to accompany him in the Enterprise of the Holy Land Philip also on his side complained highly and protested that the Letters were suppositious and a treacherous Artifice to engage him in a Quarrel with the King of England his Ally and Companion in Arms in this Holy War Thus the two Kings having once more patched up an Accord did unprofitably renew the Protestations of their Amity which was impossible to hold long between two Princes who had an insuperable Antipathy the one to the other However they passed the remainder of the Winter something more calmly at Messina where it is said the famous Abbot Joachim foretold the little Success which they were to expect from their Voyage This Man who whilst he lived made such a Noise and Figure in the World and who to this very day ever since his Death is so great a Riddle and Mystery was a Calabrian by Birth and an Abbot of the Monastery of the Cistertians in his own Country his Way of Living and his Conduct was wholly extraordinary and of which never any spoke with Mediocrity whether it were good or evil for some would have him pass for one of the most eminent Doctors year 1190 the most famous Prophets and the greatest and most miraculous Saints that ever was in the Church of God On the contrary Others hold him for a most impudent Impostor a wicked Hypocrite and a most dangerous Tritheite Heretick for the proudest most arrogant and presumptuous of Mankind But those who without prejudice have coolly examined all that is alledged on both sides touching this famous Abbot believe that without doing him Injustice one may keep the middle way between these two Extreams and affirm that he was a bold and ignorant Visionary who having a weak Head and a strong Imagination together with little Learning and less Solidity of Judgment to manage it took all his Imaginations and his own Fancies for Oracles and that therefore undertaking to make Predictions amidst a hundred things which he pretended to foretel he must play with very ill Fortune if some of them did not prove true though it were by the pure Effect of Chance So that those who had took their Measures of him according to what he had foretold them truly cried him up as a mighty Prophet and the others who had been deceived as well as he by his Presages treated him as a Cheat and an Impostor Neither the one nor the other of these People all this while having the Wit to perceive that he was in reallity neither Prophet nor Cheat but a silly over-run Visionary who deceived himself first and afterwards those who believed him by his ridiculous Illusions which possibly was the genuine Effect of his few Brains and much Presumption And for certain this is true that going to visit the holy Places at Jerusalem at the Age of fifteen Years when he hardly understood his Grammar he pretended that the Spirit of God was infused into him in the Church of the holy Sepulchre and there a perfect Knowledge of all the hidden Mysteries of the Scripture was bestowed upon him especially of the Book of the Apocalyps whereof he said he had the Key which no Man before him could ever find That thereupon without applying himself to any other Studies he began to labour with the Visions of that Book which he endeavoured to adjust to his own as best pleased him taking his own Dreams for the true Sense of those sacred Mysteries However he was so ingenuous as to acknowledge that he neither had any Revelations nor yet the Gift of Prophecy but that he had received from God the Spirit of Understanding as clearly to understand what was contained in the Prophecies of the Old and New Testament as the Prophets themselves who writ them by the Impulse of the Spirit of God Moreover he was a Man who affected Singularity and who aimed at nothing but was very uncommon and extraordinary both in his Conduct and his Doctrine and that therefore in the Council of Lateran under Innocent III. he was declared an open Heretick because he had undertaken to write and maintain against the Great Master of the Sentences some Positions concerning the Trinity which was open Tritheism for he was of Opinion that every Person in the Holy Trinity had a distinct Proper and peculiar Essence and that they were begotten one from another He was also presented in the Pope's Court and accused by the Religious of his own Order among whom he raised a most dangerous Schism In short He was an eternal Medler with Prophecies Predictions and the Affection of foretelling future Contingencies And if some one of his Presages by mere Chance proved true in the Event there were a hundred of them so obscure and ambiguous that might be interpreted either way many of the most famous of those which he published with so much Noise and Confidence being proved false in their Events even whilst he was alive which cannot be made appear better than by this famous Conference which he had at Messina with King Richard For there being a mighty Talk of this Abbot Joachim who was at this time in the Top of his Reputation especially in Italy where all People heard him as a Prophet Richard
desired Tancred to send for him to Messina that from him he might be informed of the Success of this War which he was about to undertake to re-conquer Jerusalem from the Hands of the Infidels This is commonly the nature of Men especially of Great Men to have a longing desire to penetrate into the inscrutable Secrets of the time to come year 1190 by a dangerous and vain Curiosity which usurping upon the peculiar Prerogative of God Almighty who hath reserved this Knowledge incommunicably to himself he does not fail to punish that bold Presumption by some Misfortune either agreeable or contrary to the Prediction which is made But that which gave Richard the greater desire to consult this famous Abbot was the sad News of the deplorable Accident which had befallen the Emperor taking him out of the World in the middle of his victorious Course and which it was confidently reported had been predicted to him most clearly by the Abbot who positively affirmed that he should have no good Success This gave a mighty Confirmation to all those People who had conceived this Opinion of him that he had the Gift of Prophecy Come he did then and according to his custom taking upon him the Tone of a Prophet he presently told the two Kings with a serious Air and without a Moments Hesitation That it was to no manner of purpose that they were going to Jerusalem to deliver the Holy Land in regard that the Time appointed for its Deliverance was not yet come Philip the August who had a most solid Mind and who took no further care but to give good Order for the present thereby to assure the future in which consists the best Art of Prediction was in no pain for this Discourse of the Abbot to which he gave but little Credit But Richard who had a certain Weakness for those kind of Prophecies had a Curiosity to be further satisfied demanded of him upon what kind of Knowledge he founded this Prediction that he pronounced with such Assurance Whereupon this Visionary whose Head was full of nothing but the Chimera's of his own Dreams which he made upon the Apocalyps of which he thought he had as perfect an Understanding as St. John who writ these Revelations fell to interpreting the Visions contained in that Book and especially that of the horrible Dragon with seven Heads which would have devoured the Man-child which was to be born of the Woman cloathed with the Sun The sixth Head of this Monster he said was Saladin who had taken Jerusalem who should certainly be destroyed by the Christians who should regain this holy City but that according to the Mystery of the Numbers denoted in the Vision it should not be till seven Years from the Taking of it were accomplished If it be so briskly replied Richard interrupting him What have we done to come so far to no purpose Your Voyage answered the Abbot was necessary for your own Glory for that by doing this God will make you triumph over all your Enemies and will elevate you above all other Princes of the Earth The Events plainly shewed that these two first Predictions were most false since Jerusalem was not taken in that time and that the Voyage was in conclusion very unfortunate for King Richard who fell into the Hands of his Enemies and was very ill treated by them But his Illusion or rather his Extravagance and Folly appeared much more when pursuing the Interpretation of this Mystery according to the disorderly Capricioes of his own Imagination he added that the seventh Head of this Dragon was Antichrist who should be born in Rome and should be Pope for this dangerous Devote had the Confidence to publish this Folly and boldly to affirm that this Enemy of Jesus Christ was at that time in his youthful Age. That in the Year 1199. the sixth Seal of the fatal Book should be opened and that thereupon should ensue the Kingdom Persecution and the Death of Antichrist and that the Gospel should before that be preached in all the World But he might very well himself before his own Death see the falseness of his Prediction And from that time that he undertook with so much Confidence to maintain that Opinion he was most powerfully confuted and convinced of the little probability of his Prophecies by the Archbishops of Ousch and Roan the Bishops of Bayonne and D'Eureux and other learned Ecclesiasticks who were present at this Conference and shewed him by Scripture which plainly tells us that the Time which he undertook to limit was wholly unknown that his Conceptions were not only false but rash and vain Imaginations of his own Fancy which he endeavoured to obtrude upon the World for Truths Insomuch that King Richard himself who now undertook to be able to confute him made no more Account of him than King Philip had done and no further amused himself about him See what manner of Man this Abbot Joachim was and what Belief he gained upon the Minds of the English and French year 1190 who were not altogether so credulous as the Italians many of which though did not believe him but only among the Common People his Fictions passed Currant as if they had been Heavenly Oracles But it is observable that this hath constantly been the Destiny of those who would undertake to prophesie or to explain future Events by accommodating them to the Mysteries of the Apocalyps to lose the greatest part of their Reason and Understanding by dashing against that Rock which hath split so many Spirits as by their foolish Curiosity have at last only gained the infamous Reputation of being Visionary Extravagants The two Kings therefore without being retarded by the Predictions of this Man whom they sent back to his Solitude of Haute-Pierre in Calabria to write upon the Prophets and the Apocalyps resolved to pursue their Voyage so soon as the Season would permit Philip who always pressed the King of England not to delay the time parted the first in the Month of March with all his Fleet and arrived fortunately in two and twenty days upon Easter-Eve before Acre where he was received by the Crusades with incredible Transports of Pleasure as if an Angel from Heaven was come to the Relief of the Christian Army which had now besieged this important Place very near three Years So soon as he was arrived he visited the Works and took his Quarters so near the Walls that his Lodgment was within less than a Discharge of the Darts and Arrows of his Enemies He then began to plant his Slings for great Stones his Rams and other Engines which played to so good purpose and so furiously upon the place that in few days he had made a reasonable fair Breach At which time the French presented themselves before it in order to an Assault resolved to perish or to carry the Place and all the Honour of the Siege And no doubt can be made but the City had certainly that day been
taken considering the mighty Earnestness which so many brave Men shewed so fresh and so resolute if King Philip who always acted with great sincerity had not been something too scrupulous upon this Occasion even to the disadvantage of the publick Interest For whereas one of the Articles of the Treaty which he had made with the King of England imported that they should equally share their Conquests he understood this Article to extend even to Glory and was resolved that Richard should share it with him in the Taking of the Town which he was in a Condition to take without him And therefore contenting himself with lodging at the Foot of the Wall he resolved to put off the Assault till his Arrival And in truth that Prince was resolved to put to Sea immediately after Philip but he was constrained to defer it some time by reason that Queen Eleonor his Mother who brought along with her the Princess Berengera arrived the same day that Philip sailed He caused these two Princesses to be magnificently received at Messina where he affianced this new Mistriss after which Queen Eleonor returning for England taking with her Jane his Sister and the Princess Berengera he commanded part of his Fleet to attend them and himself with the rest darted at last upon Wednesday in Passion-Week from Messina eighteen days after King Philip the August It is true the Sea was not at all propitious to him for upon Good-Friday he was met by a most furious Tempest but having till this time been ever mighty fortunate he drew a great Advantage from this Accident and the Tempest which scattered his Navy was worth to him the Conquest of the Island of Cyprus The manner whereof I will in short recount The Island of Cyprus one of the fairest and greatest of the Mediterranean Sea lying about some hundred Miles from Syria was at that time under the Dominion of the Emperors of Constantinople who sent thither some Duke or Lieutenant to be their Deputy-Governor Isaac a Prince of the House of the Comnenius's by his Mother who was Daughter of another Isaac Brother to the Emperor Manuel had seized upon that Government during the Empire of Andronicus by virtue of Letters Patents from that Emperor which this Cheat had counterfeited and not long after he very openly usurped the absolute Dominion of the Place by taking upon him the Title and Authoritâ— of Emperor After the Death of the unfortunate Andronicus he maintained himself in his Usurpation year 1191 against all the Forces of Isaacius Angelus whom he defeated with the Assistance of Margeritus Admiral of the Fleet of William King of Sicily After which as this Tyrant who was one of the most wicked of Mankind saw himself assured in his new Empire according to the custom and nature of Tyranny which is indifferently to commit all manner of Crimes to enjoy the first which is committed by revolting from a lawful Master there was no manner of Wickedness Injustice Robbery Extortion Violence or Cruelty which he did not exercise upon the poor Islanders whom he reduced even to the utmost Dispair Nor had he much more Humanity towards Strangers for three great Ships of the English Fleet which by the Violence of the Tempest had been thrown upon the Island and stranded in the View of Limisso anciently called Amathus upon the South side of the Island this Barbarian who presently run with his Soldiers to the Bank caused all those who escaped the Wrack to be taken and after having inhumanely despoiled them of all they had about them and in their Ships he caused them to be bound Hand and Foot and thrown into a deep Dungeon there miserably to perish by Famine Nor would he permit the great Ship on Board of which were the two Princesses and which was in manifest danger of being lost to come within the Port of Limisso as they had earnestly desired Permission of him to do but would have them ride it out exposed to the Mercy of the Seas and the Waves that so he might have the brutish and cruel Pleasure either to see them sink to the Bottom or split against the Rocks In this time the Tempest being appeased Richard who had taken Port at Candia and from thence had sailed to the Rhodes where he re-assembled his Ships and hearing of the ill Treatment which some of his Ships had met with in the Island of Cyprus he came and presented himself with the rest of his Navy in good Order before Limisso the 6th Day of May and immediately sent to the Tyrant to demand Satisfaction for the Affront had been done him with a peremptory Command to him instantly to set such of the English at Liberty as he had made Prisoners and to make full Restitution of whatever he had taken from them The furious Brute fiercely replied to the Envoys of the King That they should go tell their Master that he was so far from giving him the Satisfaction he foolishly demanded that if he did not make the more haste and take the advantage of his Sails and Oars he must expect the same Treatment for himself And thereupon he marched directly to the Shoar with all the Troops which he kept in Pay and a multitude of confused undisciplined People ill armed and worse ordered who ran down in hopes of Booty and not in expectation of Blows But he was mightily mistaken in the Man with whom he was to deal for Richard furiously exasperated by his Answer gave present Order that all his Army should make a Descent by the help of the Barks and Chaloups and putting himself into the first Row of the Barks at the Head of his Archers he rained such a Storm of mortal Arrows as he rowed to the Shoar upon the Heads of his affrighted Enemies that under the favour of that Consternation he leaped first ashoar and was followed so courageously by his Men who sound none to oppose their Descent that they charged so briskly upon these Barbarians with their Swords in their Hands and fell into the Battalions of these cowardly and disorderly Greeks they presently put them into Confusion and in a few Minutes to a manifest Flight and in the Pursuit made a dreadful Slaughter among them till they got to the Mountains where they saved themselves Then returning the victorious Army entred Limisso without Resistance the Soldiers who were to have kept it having for fear abandoned the place This happy Beginning was presently succeeded by a Conclusion no less fortunate for the Night following he surprized Isaac who having rallied his People came to encamp within five Miles of Limisso and having cut the best part of his Troops in pieces dissipated the rest and taken all his Baggage So that this miserable Wretch abandoned of the Cypriots who the next day after the Victory came to do Homage to King Richard was constrained in most humble manner to beg a Peace which he obtained upon Conditions hard enough and sufficiently ignominious
and such as possibly King Richard would not have required of him but his Cowardly Fear dictated them to him year 1191 And he who in his Prosperity was so presumptuous to imagine he could not offer too little in this Reverse of his Fortune thought he could never offer enough The Conditions were these That he should own the King of England for his Soveraign and should do him Homage for the Island under the Title of the Realm of Cyprus That he should give his only Daughter and Heiress to whomsoever King Richard should nominate That besides delivering the Prisoners which he had taken he should pay twenty thousand Marks in Gold for Dammages to those whom he had plundred That he should go in Person with twenty thousand choice Men to serve the King in the War of the Holy Land That for the Security of his Promises he should instantly put all the Places in his Dominions into the King's Hands and that reciprocally the King should engage upon his Honour to restore them to him so soon as he had accomplished all his Engagements And to begin with what was most shameful he immediately came to do his Homage to King Richard in the Presence of Guy King of Jerusalem and Geoffrey de Lusignan his Brother Raymond Prince of Antioch and Bohemond Count of Tripolis his Son Aufrey de Thoren and the other Lords who were come to Cyprus to oblige King Richard to enter into their Interests against the Marquis of Montferrat Prince of Tyre whose Party King Philip the August seemed much to favour But this Peace did not last long for whether this unfortunate Tyrant was ashamed of his Cowardice or that some Person had advertised him secretly that there was a design to make him a Prisoner he fled the same Day and made it be told to the King That he was resolved never to keep such an unjust Treaty which being the Effect of Force and the suddain Disorder of his Judgment by Dispair was not at all obliging For this Reason Richard who was better pleased with War than Peace which how advantageous soever ravished from him a Conquest which he could not fail of obtaining instantly caused him to be pursued both by Land and Sea with so much Heat and Expedition that running over the whole Island with his Troops divided into several Parties all the Cities opened their Gates to him so soon as he or his Lieutenants appeared before them So that the miserable Isaac abandoned of all the World who had him in Detestation even in his better Fortune was constrained to surrender The Princess his Daughter who was in the Castle of Cherin was the first to implore the Clemency of the King who received her with great Civility and caused her to be conducted to Limisso where was the Queen his Sister and the Princess Berengera After which the Tyrant who had now no other Retreat left besides a Monastery fortified upon a Rock seeing that he was about to be attacked could not resolve to die honourably in making a noble Defence but by extream Lowness of Spirit resolved to beg a Life which ought to have been more insupportable than a thousand Deaths He came then from the Monastery in the Habit of a Mourner his Hair and Beard neglected his Eyes overflown with Tears throwing himself like a Slave at the Feet of the King and he who had so audaciously assumed the Title of an Emperor submitted himself entirely to his Mercy only making his Request that he would not put him in Chains which of all the things of the World he said was what he most feared and which would assuredly make him die with Grief Whereupon King Richard who naturally loved to divert himself with the most serious things and who was so far from being touched with any Compassion for the Misery of this Infamous that in regard of his woful Cowardice he had scarcely the Patience to see him turning himself to Raoul his Chamberlain to whose Charge he consigned this miserable Man and smiling he commanded him to use him as an Emperor and that therefore he should put upon him Manacles Fetters and Chains of Silver to distinguish him to be a Prisoner of Quality Which Raoul did not fail solemnly to put accordingly in Execution Thus the Realm of Cyprus was without any considerable Loss conquered in less than three Weeks by King Richard who at the same time married the Princess Berengera at Limisso and caused her to be Crowned Queen of England year 1191 and of Cyprus with all manner of Magnificence and as it were in a kind of Triumph after such a happy Conquest This done he sent the two Queens and the Princess the Daughter of Isaac with a good Party of his Fleet who arrived happily at Acre the 1st Day of June being the Eve of Whitsunday He caused the Tyrant to be conducted Prisoner to Tripolis and for himself after he had regulated the Affairs of his new Kingdom which he put under the Conduct of two Governors he received from his new Subjects the Value of half their Moveables which they offered him of their own Accord that so they might have from him the Confirmation of the Privileges which they had formerly enjoyed under the Emperor Manuel All which Matters being adjusted upon the 5th of June he parted from Cyprus with the King of Jerusalem and the Levantine Princes The next day he passed before Tyre where the Garrison of Conrade fearing he might seize upon the Place would not permit him to Land The next Day as he drew near to Acre he discovered the biggest of all the Ships that he had ever seen upon the Sea who had the Arms of France painted upon her Stem but suspecting it might be some Stratagem and sending out to hall her he found it was a Ship of Saladin's which had on Board her five hundred choice Men Provisions Arms and Munition as also Artificial Fire-works and two hundred most venemous Serpents in Glasses to throw into the Camp of the Christians Richard caused her to be attacked by his Galliots and after a long and furious Combat which was maintained with extraordinary Obstinacy by those desperate People till such time as being pierced in a great many places by the Stems of the Galliots who ran upon her with full Sails and Oars that she sunk to the Bottom all the Soldiers and Mariners who threw themselves into the Sea or into the Ships of the Christians to save themselves being either drowned or slain excepting two hundred of the principal Officers and Engineers who were taken Prisoners After which Richard landing the next day being the 8th of June entred as it were in Triumph laden with Spoils and Glory into the Camp before Acre Philip the August received him with the greatest Demonstrations of Joy and Friendship But that Prince too generous learnt quickly after by a dangerous Experiment that an Excess of Vertue which causes one to lose a fair Opportunity especially in Matters of
War is always a great Fault in a Prince or Captain And certainly he ought not to have made any Scruple of Taking the City as he might easily have done without King Richard whom he unprofitably staid for so long time while that King more cunning and less scrupulous and who had not for others such tender Concerns did without him take a whole Kingdom For in short the missing of this Opportunity gave Rise to many Accidents which had like to have entirely ruined the Enterprise For the Besieged made great advantage of that long Repose and the leisure which was given them by a kind of Truce of which they knew not the Cause however they employed it to the repairing of the Breaches and were so strengthned by little Succours which frequently slip'd into them that they found themselves in a Condition often to repulse the great Assaults which were given against them at unseasonable times the Opportunity being lost before Besides the King of France first and after some time the King of England fell sick of that dangerous Malady which made them lose their Hair Nails and Skin by its subtil and Corrosive Malignity which consumes all that Matter which is necessary for the Defence or the Ornament of the Body But the most dangerous Evil of all and which endangered the common Ruin was the Division which broke out more furiously than ever between the two Kings The ancient English Historians of that time lay all the Blame upon Philip whilst the French who writ at the same time accuse King Richard and lay all the Fault at his Door and the reason is plain that both the one and the other living at the same time and writing what was done in their own time either their Fear or their Hope their Love or Hate took from them the power and the liberty of writing the Truth sincerely and without Partiality For my own particular who besides the natural Love I have for it have always made Profession to speak and write when there is occasion with that frank and honest liberty which can never be taken from a good Man year 1191 and who am under no manner of Temptations from any of these Passions which may hinder me from speaking concerning these Kings what I believe to be true it cannot be supposed I should do otherwise since I have nothing either to hope or fear from them and that there is no danger four hundred Years after their Death any Person should so warmly espouse the Interests of their Ashes I say then that after having strictly examined whatever is written upon one side and the other concerning this great difference I find that Richard did not use King Philip with that Respect which was due to him as his Liege Lord for so many great and fair Provinces as he held of him in France For as he had amassed prodigious Sums of Money in England in Sicily and in Cyprus he spared no Cost to allure the bravest Men to his Party and to draw them to his Service by excessive Profusions and the extraordinary Advantages which he made them insomuch that understanding that Philip gave three Crowns in Gold by the Month to every Horse-man he promised four to such as would quit that Service and take Pay under him So that he seemed to endeavour to exhalt himself above his Master and to render him contemptible But then on the other side Philip who had a great Heart and who bore it very impatiently to be in this manner insulted over by his Vassal shewed so much displeasure that he gave those whom the Profusions of Richard had gained especially the Levantines who were most charmed with them occasion to believe that he was not able to support his Greatness and his Merit to be thus topped and overshaded Moreover as Philip before the Arrival of the English had so far advanced the Works and so beaten down the Walls and ruined the Defences that he might easily have taken the place if he had not been too scrupulous of taking all the Glory to himself whereas Richard to whom he had given the opportunity of taking his share by a strange Effect of Jealousie and Ambition would by no means have the City taken whilst Philip was there insomuch that when the French assaulted the Town this jealous Prince prohibited the English either to sustain them or to assault it on their side as had before been resolved upon at the Council of War This brought on Reproaches Quarrels and Hatred which daily increased and grew more violent between the two Nations than that of the War which had begun to break out before under King Henry there being besides naturally not too much Sympathy between them That which augmented this Division was also the Difference between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade de Montferrat for the Realm of Jerusalem which the one pretended to keep and the other to have when as Saladin was yet possessed of it For King Philip carried himself openly for the Marquis in the Right of his Wife and for that being a great Warrier who had by his good Conduct preserved the small Remainder of that poor Realm it seemed much better that he should have it rather than his Rival who had lost it so unfortunately for want of Courage and sufficient Conduct On the contrary the King of England for that very reason opposed his Pretensions being unwilling it should fall into the hands of so brave a Man and therefore with all his Power he supported Guy of Lusignan by reason that that unfortunate Prince having much Weakness and little Merit Richard was in hopes of disposing of the Realm according to his own Will And in short the new Conquest which the King of England had made of the Island of Cyprus which he was resolved to keep did not at all please Philip who demanded the half of that Realm in virtue of the Treaty by which they were obliged to divide equally between them whatsoever should be gained by that Voyage But Richard maintained either that this Division was to be restrained to such Conquests as were made upon the Infidels or otherwise that by the same reason he ought to divide the Succession to the Earldom of Flanders with the King since by the Death of the Earl Philip pretended to have acquired a Right unto And by reason of this Division their Spirits were so exasperated that while nothing was done against the common Enemy both sides reproached each other with holding a secret Intelligence and Correspondency with the Infidels both the one Party and the other receiving Presents from Saladin And in truth this brave Sarasin Prince who was naturally generous and made War like a noble Enemy was used from time to time to send the most excellent Fruits of Damascus to the two Kings who in Return sent him some of the pretty Rarities of Europe year 1191 Thus matters were so far from being advantaged by the coming of these two mighty Armies
Soldiers Gentlemen and great Lords Germans English Italians Flemings and Levantines who perished during the Siege either by the Malady or by the frequent Combats which happened The French lost there a-among the Persons of the greatest Quality the Counts Thibaud de Chartres and de Blois Stephen de Sancerre John de Vendome Rotrou de Perche Erard de Brienne Raoul de Clermont Gilbert de Tilieres the Count de Ponthieu the Viscounts de Turenne and de Castillane Alberic Clement Mareschal of France Adam the Great Chamberlain the Lords jocelin de Montmorency Guy de Chastillon Florem de Augest Bernard de St. Valery Enguerand de Fiennes Gautier de Moy Geoffry de la Briere Anselm de Montreal Guy de Dane Hugh de Hoiry Raoul de Fougeres Eudes de Goness Raoul de Hauterive and Renaud de Magni all whose Names I have found among the Writers of those times and which I thought my self obliged by no means to suppress but that in this History the Reader may receive the Pleasure of finding among his Ancestors by consulting the Pedigree some of these Illustrious men whose glorious Memory ought to be an Eternal Honor to those Houses who have descended from them The City being taken the Kings according to their Treaty divided all the Booty equally between them as also the Prisoners and the Houses The Cardinal Bishop of Verona Legat of the Holy See the Archbishop of Tyre and Pisa the Bishops of Beavais Chartres d' Eureux Bayonne Salisbury and Tripolis solemnly re-dedicated the Churches which the Sarasins had turned into Mosches There were also assigned to the Venetians Genoeses Pisans to the Knights of the Temple and those of the Hospital the Quarters and Rights which they were to possess in the City of Acre and in truth every thing passed peaceably and in good Order except that King Richard who too easily suffered himself to be transported by his Natural Violence and Choler committed two Actions of surious Madness one of which proved afterwards very dangerous to himself and the other presently to the poor Christians which happened thus at the same time that the French had overthrown the Walls adjoyning to the Wicked Tower year 1191 and were ready to force the Place and that the Besieged found themselves necessitated to capitulate before the surrender Leopold Duke of Austria who attacked a quarter on the opposite part had seized upon another Tower and had there planted his Standard which stood there after the Reduction of the City Richard who for other Matters was exasperated against Leopold in regard that as well as the rest of the Germans he had been of Philip's Party took this occasion to be revenged of him as if he had usurped upon the Authority of the two Kings and therefore caused the Standard to be taken down by plain Force and being torn in pieces and trampled under Foot he caused it to be thrown into the Kennel by the most insupportable of all Affronts that could be given to a Prince who loved Glory The Germans who were naturally jealous of the Honor of their Nation and incapable of bearing I do not say such a horrible Injury as this was but even the Shadow of being contemned had not failed instantly to do themselves reason by their Arms which they presently took against the English but Leopold who was altogether as brave but something a better Dissembler than King Richard chose rather for a time to respite his Vengeance which he hoped to find a more fit occasion for where he should not be blamed by induring the pain of this Affront for doing greater Mischiefs to the Christian Affairs which must needs suffer much by a Civil War and which in a few days following did suffer extremely by another cruel Effect of the Violent Nature of this Prince For seeing that Saladin persisted in refusing to satisfie the Articles of the Capitulation which the Besieged had on his Behalf ratified he conceived such a Despight that he Inhumanly caused the Heads of above five thousand Prisoners which fell to his Share to be cut off Nor could he be diswaded from it by the Consideration of so many Christian Captives to whom Saladin as he had menaced caused the same measure to be given by a kind of cruel Reprisal the blame of which is always laid upon him who begins And certainly it hath always been seen that these dangerous Examples which are given to an Enemy in the time of War which he always believes he hath a Right to render the like measure for the Security of his own People have always been condemned by others who have had the Occasion to suffer by it and that those who give it are at last constrained to abstain the first from it though something with the latest and after it hath caused the Lives of so many unfortunates as have perished either by the transports of the one or the Vengeance of the other As for King Philip who was more moderate he used his with more humanity and contented himself to leave the Prisoners in the Hands of Marquis Conrade as he Passed by Tyre in his return from the Holy Land into France This Prince who was extreme Wise perceived on the one hand that Richard become now more Fierce and Violent than ever after the taking of Acre kept no sort of Measures and that it was impossible for them long time to keep in any Terms of Accord and on the other perceiving that he was daily infeebled by the Distemper into which he was again relapsed he might run the Hazard of dying in Palestine without being able to do any Service to Christendom and that in the mean time Advantage might be taken of his Absence by invading the Earldom of Flanders which ought to return to the Crown of France by the Death of Count Philip. He made this to be most civilly represented to the King of England that finding by the increase of his Distemper he was like to be rendred incapable to serve the Affairs of the Christians in the Holy Land he judged it more to their Advantage that one single Commander should finish the War and for this purpose that he would resign all wholly to his Conduct together with a good party of his Army under the Command of the Duke of Burgundy He added also that to take from him all manner of Pretext which he might have to complain of his Departure or the Fear that he might entertain that he did not return into France but to fall upon his Dominions there during his Absence he assured him that if he had occasion to make War upon him it should not be till the Expiration of fourty days after his Return After which having left five hundred Men at Armes and ten thousand Foot with the Duke of Burgundy and some Troops which he lent for a Year to the Prince of Antioch he imbarcked the first day of August upon thirty Gallies year 1191 with the remainder of his Army and after
to be suspected by reason that one might well fear that so soon as they had visited the Holy Sepulchre they would quit Palestine to return into their respective Countries aand abandon the new Conquests to the Sarasins who would then easily recover what had been taken from them And for these Reasons It was concluded to defer the Siege till the Spring should be advanced and in the mean time to continue the Fortification of the places which had been Demolished and above all the City of Ascalon which was infinitely Commodious for hindring the Succours which might come to the Enemy out of Egypt and to receive such as might arrive for the Assistance of the Crusades out of Europe This Resolution was no sooner taken than it was put in Execution though with an unconceivable Displeasure to the Souldiers and above all to the French who openly murmured against Richard whom they did not stick to accuse of having a secret Understanding with Saladin They said boldly That Saladin had never shut himself within the Walls of Jerusalem if he had not been very well assured that he had nothing to fear from such an obliging Enemy And that without all question he was ready had the Army but once faced it to quit the Place and that the Garrison would either quickly have followed him or have Surrendred fearing to be abandoned by him like those who so bravely defended Acre to the Descretion and Mercy of the Vanquisher But however it were so soon as the Army came to Rama a great part of it disbanded the most of the French retiring to Jaffa Tyre and Acre but this did not hinder King Richard to pursue the Resolution which had been taken to go and fortify Ascalon whither he went acompanied with the Count de Champagne his Nephew who continued always constantly faithful to him The Dukes of Burgundy and Austria also went thither with him but it was not long before they left him the Austrian because he was afresh unworthily as he thought treated by him for refusing to take one part of the Town to Fortify year 1192 which caused him with all his Germans to retire into his own Country the Burgundian because having desired him to lend him some Money for the payment of his Troops he briskly refused him in Terms very disobliging which caused the Duke who before had no great Kindness for King Richard to carry away the rest of the French to Acre in a little time after which there happened an Accident which occasioned a mighty Change in the Face of Affairs The Pisans and the Genoese to whom Quarters were assigned in that City and who had for a long time quarrelled each other came at last to open Hostilities and in the Fray had committed great Slaughters one upon the other The Genoese who had always joyned with the French in taking part with the Marquis Conrade called him in to their Assistance but the King of England to whose Service the Pisans were devoted came so expeditiously with his Army to their Succour that Conrade who was already incamped before the Town finding himself too weak to make any Resistance was constrained to draw off again to Tyre And within a few days after about the end of April as the Marquis returned from the Bishop of Beauvais who had treated him at a Dinner he was slain in the open Street by two Assassins of the Old Man of the Mountain The Prince so called was Lord of a little Estate situated in the Mountains of Phoenicia between Tortosa and Tripolis which consisted in ten Castles built upon most inaccessible Rocks and in some few Towns which stood in the most fair and delicate Valleys which lay among these Mountains These People who from a Persian Word were called Assissins or Capyciens consisted in about sixty thousand Souls who came from the Confines of Persia near Babylon some four or five hundred Years before about such time as the Arabians the Successors of Mahomet rendred themselves Masters of the East and having possessed themselves of these Mountains whose Avenues they had rendred inaccessible they had so well fortified them that till this very time they had maintained their Liberty independent from either the Caliphs the Sultans or the Kings of Jerusalem Their Prince was Elective who took no other Name but that of the Ancient or the Old Man as a Mark not of his Age but of his Authority and Power And indeed that was so great and he was so obeyed by his Subjects that there was no manner of Danger to which they did not freely expose themselves in the Execution of his Commands tho the most unjust and barbarous in the World even to throwing themselves headlong from any Precipice upon the least signification that such was his Pleasure So much power had this false Belief upon their Spirit which they had by Tradition received from their Ancestors and in which they took great Care to Educate their Children that by dying in this manner in Executing without Exception or Difference what was commanded them by the Ancient they should pass imediately to the injoyment of a Life infinitely Happy in the Heavens So that when he sent them to the Court of any Prince either Christian or Sarasin who had disobliged him with a Command to dispatch him there was no sort of Disguise or Artifice no manner of Treachery which they would not make use of to perform his execrable Commands without ever flinching at the most cruel Torments which they might expect to Suffer and in the midst of which they would manifest a certain Pleasure that they had with Fidelity acquitted themselves of their Commission It is certainly very strange that the Princes who had so much Interest to exterminate such a pernicious Nation should so long time permit them not only to have a Being but looking upon them as it were as Masters of their Lives by the Fear which they had of these Assassins they made them continual Presents thereby to gain their Favour to permit them to live For never any except the Templers were so bold as once to offer to attack them but they valiantly set upon them entred their Country and obliged them to pay the yearly Tribute of two thousand Crowns to secure their Villages from being Plundred but in this Prosperity of their Armes they did an Action so Base and Wicked as diservedly drew upon them the Hatred and the Curse of God and Men. For during the Reign of Amauri King of Jerusalem the Old Man of the Mountain who was a Man of Sense having compared the Gospel with the Alcoran sent to let that King Understand that he with all his People were ready to embrace the Christian Religion provided that at the same time year 1192 that he was received into the Liberty of the Children of God by Baptism he might also be freed from that Tribute which he was constrained to pay to the Templers The King who offered to make the Templers an
happened news was brought him that the Caravan of Egypt guarded with above ten thousand men with all sorts of Munitions for the Relief of Jerusalem was advancing thither and at no great distance whereupon taking five thousand Horse he marched upon the Eve of St. John Baptist to surprize them and charged them so Impetuously that after having slain the greatest part of the Convoy with the loss of not above seventeen or eighteen Horsemen and dissipated the rest he took betwixt four and five thousand Camels and an Infinite Number of other Beasts of Burden charged with Gold Silver and precious Merchandises not only for Necessity but delight such as come from the Indies by the Arabian Gulph to Egypt And this great Booty he destributed liberally among the Army without reserving any thing for himself which was more then ever he had done in all the former Battles which he had gained And in Truth it seemed very resonable that after two such great Victories and the taking of such a rich Convoy the taking of Jerusalem could not be a thing to be doubted but the Joy which possessed the whole Army which with incredible Ardor undertook that Enterprise was presently after changed into an Excessive Grief when the Resolution of returning to Ascalon was declared to them as the Advice of twenty Captains whom Richard had chosen to deliberate concerning the Siege of Jerusalem whilest he marched to attack the Caravan For they all concluded that the Siege was not by any means fit to be undertaken alledging many weak and feeble reasons but concealing the true ones upon which it was grounded which was that the King of England had strongly resolved to return to his own Dominions and that all which he had done was but to amuse the World and to make a shew as if he would besiege Jerusalem For he had received advice two several times after Easter by two Expresses from England that his Brother John having by force displaced and driven out of the Realm the Bishop of Ely his Chancellor year 1192 and the Principal Officers of the Crown manifestly intended to make himself King he was also assured that he was powerfully protected by the King of France who was ready by force to take Vexin because it was refused to be surrendred to him according to the Articles of Messina Richard who was extreme hasty would have immediately imbarked himself leaving to the Count de Champagne with the Places in Palestine three hundred men at Arms and two thousand English Foot together with the Forces of the Country for his Defence But a certain Ecclesiastick a very able man who was near his Person and in whom he reposed very much Confidence perswaded him to deferr his Departure for a little time that so he might save his Honor by making some Movement by which the World might be perswaded that it was not his Fault that Jerusalem was not taken and upon this Account it was that he did all that is before mentioned and that he would have those twenty Captains of whom he was very well assured determine the Affair concerning the Siege of Jerusalem who by no means approved it but urged that it was much better to continue the Fortifications of Ascalon and Gaza which were the two Keys of the Realm towards Egypt and by that means to secure themselves from the Attempts of Saladin before they undertook the Siege of the Capital City So that Richard seemed only to deferr it upon the Opinion of so many knowing men who were chosen from among the Templers and Knights of the Hospital the Lords of the Country and several of those who come from Europe after which he declared publickly that since it was judged inconvenient at that time to attempt the Siege of Jerusalem he would there leave thee Count de Champagne his Nephew to undertake it in due time and that for himself he was obliged to return to defend his Dominions against such as laid hold of this Advantage of his Absence to Enterprize against him and to invade them It is impossible to express the Mischief which this Imprudent Declaration occasioned which he did before he had perfected his Treaty with Saladin which was then a Foot for Saladin seeing the Danger he was in to lose all was contented to have some and to yield the rest to the Christians upon most advantageous Conditions But so soon as he perceived that he had nothing to fear from that quarter and that upon Richard's resolving to depart the whole Army would Instantly disband he held so firm and fierce that a Truce in such a manner as he pleased was all that could be gained from him a Truce unworthy of the Reputation and Courage of a King of England the Army of the Crusades being herewith most furiously inraged and almost mad to see themselves robbed of the Glory of delivering the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ which they had with so much Danger come so far to search after disbanded of its one accord the greatest part of them thinking now of nothing but returning into their own Country bestowing a thousand Curses upon King Richard whom they accused more than ever to have assassinated the Prince of Tyre to have attempted against the Life of Philip the August and sold the Holy Land to Saladin with whom he held a Correspondence Richard by the Grandeur of his Soul and his Natural Courage gave himself no manner of trouble for what was the Effect of Rage and Anger and the Malicious pleasure which men take to speak Evil of those whom Fortune or Merit have elevated above them or what they spoak so outragiously against his Conduct in this War and indeed in a short time after he made it evident by a most glorious Action that this last Accusation was as great a Calumny as the two former For as he arrived at Acre where the Duke of Burgundy with the French were also come to give order for their Return he received advice that Saladin understanding that the Christian Army was broken up had laid Siege to Jaffa Upon this news he rallied all the Troops he could and dividing them into two Bodies he gave one to the Count de Champagne with Orders to march by Land and with the other he himself went by Sea with the choice Lords of the French and Flemings who would follow him upon this great occasion Those who manifested the greatest Ardour and whom among others he chose to be near his Person were Gauchier de Chastillon who had lost his Brother in the Siege of Acre the Counts of Cleves and Limbourg the Baron of Stanford Valeran de Luxenburg Guy de Montfort Bartholomew de Mortemar Raoul de Mauleon William de L' Estang Andrew de Savigni Henry de Nevile Dreux de Mello and William de Barres He was for some time stayed by contrary Winds and did not arrive till precisely the Evening of that day wherein those who had retired into the Castle after the taking
to endure the violence of the pain of that terrible Inflammation he caused it to be cut off but the Inflammation of whose Nature the Physicians were wholly ignorant mounted from his Leg to his Thigh and from his Thigh expanding its Flame through his whole Body he then acknowledged that it was the Hand of God which was upon him confessed his Fault delivered the Hostages of King Richard became a Penitent received Absolution from the Bishops and died in the Peace of the Church after he had by his last Will and Testament ordered Restitution to be made to Richard King of England of all the Money which he had received from him But it is commonly to be observed that these kind of Restitutions with which dying Persons charge their Executors are rarely discharged by the Living And Pope Innocent III. who succeeded Celestin had not a little trouble with the Successors of Leopold when he endeavoured to oblige them to the Performance of that part of his Will the difficulty of Restitution persuading them against the Justice of it But as to any thing further it is to be observed that neither this Leopold nor his Successors of whom I discourse were at all related to those Princes who at present possess the Title of Austria that Family which about a hundred Years after entred into the House of Hapsbourg being descended from the House of Alsatia from which that August Family which now bears the name of the House of Austria derives its Original In this time the Affairs of the Christians of the East remained in great Tranquility in reference to the Sarasins who willingly maintained a Truce which was so extreamly advantageous to them and which gave them reason to hope that in a small time they should become Masters of all the Remainder of Syria But they happened to be something embroiled by a kind of Civil War which was like to break out by the Treachery of Bohemond the third of that Name Prince of Antioch For being a Man of great Ambition little Prudence and less Power to support it he had recourse to unworthy Artifices and Cheats which he made use of to oppress the Armenian Princes his Neighbours whose Power and Greatness which increased every day gave him a troublesom Jealousie He had by these Cowardly ways made Rupin of the Mountain his Prisoner upon pretext of a Conference and thought to have done the same to Livon who did not only succeed in the Power of his Brother Rupin but was also more successful and augmented that Power by the taking of divers places from Bohemond This Prince after he had made an Accommodation with him thought to have surprized him also in the same manner and having sent to him to desire an Interview in a certain place he resolved there to seize upon him and make him his Prisoner But Livon who followed the Maxim of those who hold That one ought never to trust a Man who hath once violated his Faith came to the place appointed strongly guarded with a great number of brave Men whom he placed in Ambuscade in a place at a convenient distance from the place of Meeting and then advancing only accompanied with two Persons according as it was concluded between them perceiving by the Company which Bohemond had with him the Treachery which was intended he gave the Signal to his People who immediately came pouring in upon Bohemond and surprized him putting him into the hands of Prince Livon who carried him Prisoner into his Dominions Count Henry who saw well that this Quarrel must necessarily divide all the Christians of the East went himself into Armenia where he was by Livon received with all the Respect imaginable but with a strong Resolution nevertheless to draw all the Advantage he could possibly from his good Fortune as indeed he did For the Count so well managed the Spirit of Bohemond year 1195 that to re-gain his Liberty which he made him understand was never to be obtained but upon these Terms he at last consented that Prince Raymond his Son should marry the Princess Alice the Daughter of Rupin and Neice to Livon That Livon should hold all the Places which he had conquered in the Principality of Antioch and that for the future that Principality should do Homage to Armenia After which Livon by the Consent of Count Henry took upon him the Title of King of Armenia which was afterwards confirmed to him by the Pope and the Emperor It is most certain that the Sarasins might have drawn extraordinary Advantages from these Divisions which began to arise among the Christians but the Divine Providence averted that Misfortune by the Revolution which happened in the Empire of the Infidels by the Decease of Saladin who amidst these Actions died at Damascus after he had tamed all the Rebels on this side Euphrates He was certainly a Prince notwithstanding all the Sarasin he had about him who was possessed of Vertues and Qualities which might well be compared with those of the most famous Conquerors of Antiquity and who after having performed a thousand noble Actions in his Life did one at his Death which ought to be received by Posterity as a most admirable Lecture of the Vanity of all Earthly Pomp and Glory For some Moments before his Death calling for him who used to carry his Banner before him in all his Battles he commanded him to tie to the Top of a Lance a Linen Shrowd in which he was to be wrap'd at his Interment and displaying it as being the Standard of Death which triumphed over so great a Prince to make this Proclamation This is all which the great Saladin Vanquisher and Master of the Empire of the East must carry with him out of the World of all the Treasures and the Glory which he hath acquired by so many mighty Conquests A rare Spectacle and most worthy to be eternally regarded by the greatest Kings who from hence may see and know that though their Birth and Fortune have elevated them above the Level of Mankind yet Death which will one day equal them with the meanest of their Subjects will strip them of all the Pomp and Grandure of this World and that nothing but the Riches of the Soul and the Glories of their Vertue will distinguish them from others in the Life to come As to the rest This great Prince who by the Obligations of his Birth and the Policy of State upon which his Interest and his Fortune depended had during his Life made publick Profession of Mahometanism at his Death seemed not so very well satisfied of the Truth of that Sect for after he had disposed of his Dominions in favour of his Children he divided all his Personal Estate into three Parts which he ordered to be equally distributed among the poor Sarasins Jews and Christians which should be found in all his Dominions And this he did with an Imagination that at his Death he having these three Strings to his Bow though two
her self in this Holy War with the Resolution of a true Heroine and having joyned her Troops with the Army of the Princes of the Crusade she under went the Voyage with them with as great Zeal and Ardour as any of them and with far more Constancy and firmness of Resolution For being ashamed of the precipitate Return of the others who unworthily abandoned the Interests of Jesus Christ in the East in the very Heat of the War she only remained unmoveable in her first Resolution and passed all the Remainder of her Days at Ptolemais that so she might be always ready upon all Occasions which offered either to attack the Infidels or defend the Christians An Example which confirms what hath been frequently seen in other Princesses that Heroick Vertue does not at all depend upon the Quality of the Sex but that the weakness of Temper and Body may be supplied by the greatness of the Soul and the Vigour of the Spirit During this time the Letters of the Pope with those of the Emperor which were sent all over Germany produced such Effects upon the Minds of Men already filled and prepossessed with the haughty Idea's which they had conceived of a Crusade wherein the Empire only should be concerned so that every City willing to signalize themselves upon this Occasion furnished out a considerable number of Crusades Insomuch that the Emperor found wherewithal abundantly to satisfie not only the great Desire which he seemed to have to undertake the Holy War but also that which in reallity he had which was under this pretext to lead a potent Army into Italy to exterminate the Remainder of the Normans who had caused a Revolt in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily And that he might play his Game with greater Success by covering his principal Intendment under this specious Appearance of a mighty Zeal he presented himself to take the Cross from the hand of the Legate protesting that for the Accomplishment of his Promise and to animate others by his Example he was resolved to march at the Head of his Army and in Person to combat against the Infidels But whether it were that they discovered his Artifice and saw that it would be an acceptable Service to him year 1195 to stop him in this Design or that they really believed that after the deplorable Accidents which happened to his Father and his Brother in the other Crusade it was not at all expedient that he should engage himself in Person to undertake this Voyage it is certain that all the Princes humbly intreated him to continue in the Empire remonstrating to him that thereby he would render greater Service to God by constantly taking care and providing the Necessaries for Subsistence and Recruits for the Armies which he should send into the East So that after some small Struggling and faint Oppositions he submitted to the Request of the Assembly and in conclusion resolved to set on foot three great Armies that so he might make profitable use of that infinite multitude of Soldiers who had taken upon them the Cross throughout all the Provinces of Germany The first of these Armies under the Conduct of Conrade Archbishop of Mayence accompanied by the Dukes of Saxony and Brabant and the greatest part of the Princes of the Crusade took its Way by Land to Constantinople where being imbarked upon the Fleet of the Greek Emperor whose Daughter Irene Philip Duke of Suabia Brother to the Emperor Henry had married they arrived happily at Antioch from whence they marched to Tyre and a few days after to Ptolemais The second Army passed by Sea and after having coasted along the Low Countries England France and Spain in their Passage they took the City of Sylves which the Sarasins had regained from the Portuguese and fearing lest the Infidels should again seize upon that important place which had been so ill defended by Dom Sancho the Crusades demolished it from the very Foundation After which they prosperously held on their Course and came to an Anchor in the Port of Acre where they joyned the first Army And for the third Army which was the strongest and composed of the best Troops drawn particularly out of the Dutchies of Suabia Bavaria and Franconia consisting in sixty thousand Combatants the Emperor in Person conducted it into Italy where in Execution of the Design which he had so artfully concealed under the specious pretext of the Holy War he surprized the Norman Princes and Lords who were confederated against him and without any trouble made himself Master of all the places which they yet held against him in the Realms of Naples and Sicily year 1196 putting those brave Unfortunates to death by all the ways of Rage and Cruelty Insomuch that the Empress Constantia unable to endure this horrible Butchery which was made of those of her Nation whom this cruel fierce and vindicative Prince resolved utterly to exterminate she conspired against him both to take away his Life and Empire And that her wicked Enterprise might prove successful she covered it and her Resentment for the present with a deep Dissimulation Henry who believed that he had now no more Enemies who were in a Condition to enterprize any thing against him caused the greatest part of his Army to be imbarked upon the Fleet which Conrade Bishop of Wirtzbourg his Chancellor and Lieutenant General in Italy had rigged the Year before who conducted them with a prosperous Voyage in a few days to the Port of Acre where they arrived very opportunely to reinforce the German Troops who for some time before had had all the Forces of the Insidels upon their hands For Valeran de Limbourg who with his Brigade having marched with the first was arrived in Palestine before the rest having broken the Truce which was made with the Sarasins they who before thought of nothing but how to ruin one another began immediately to re-unite under Saphadin against the common Enemy as they esteemed the Christians This Prince who was a great Soldier having presently raised a potent Army of his own Troops and those of his Nephews who upon this Occasion owned him as their General made a great Slaughter of all the Christians who fell into his Power thereby to revenge himself of Valeran who by an Action very little Christian and of most dangerous Consequence had in like manner treated the Sarasins whom he surprized upon his breaking the Truce After which by a wonderful Diligence preventing the Army of the Crusades he laid Siege before their Arrival to Jaffa into which the King of England had put a strong Garrison before he quitted Palestine year 1196 The young Henry Count de Champagne who had all the Authority of a Soveraign after his Marriage with Queen Isabella saw very well of what Importance it was to save that Place without which it was almost impossible to undertake the Siege of Jerusalem and therefore he resolved to march to relieve it with all the Expedition possible and
Church should give the fortieth penny of their Revenue and the Cardinals the tenth for the carrying on of this Holy War Obliging himself in particular to send considerable Summs of Money and store of Provisions for that purpose and to raise Money for those Expences he caused all his Plate both Gold and Silver to be melted down and would be served in nothing but earthen Wooden or Vessels made of Glass At the same time he sent Cardinals to Venice Genoa and Pisa to exhort those potent Republicks to rigg out their Shipping as well to transport the Crusades into Palestine as to attack the Sarasins by Sea He also took great care to pacifie the Troubles of Hungary which hindred the Effect of the Crusade there and which Duke Andrew the Youngest Son of the deceased King Bela had raised in that Realm against Henry his Brother who succeeded to the Crown But in regard the happy Success of this Crusade depended more especially upon the Kings of England and France the two most potent Monarchies of Christendom who were now engaged in a cruel War he sent the Cardinal Peter of Capua his Legate who negotiated so skilfully and with such Success between them that at length at a Conference which they had at Andeli they consented to a Truce of five Years in which time it was supposed the Enterprise of the Holy War might be happily concluded And in the mean time the Crusade was published in all Places but especially in France where that Devout man Fouques de Nevilli preached it by order from the Pope This so famous man who without Dispute was one of the greatest and most admirable Preachers that ever was was Curate of Nevilli upon the Marne not far from Paris a man of a great temporal Estate but most Zealous for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls which he endeavoured after by exercising with an incredible Fervency that extraordinary Talent which he had received from God to preach his Holy word This he did with all the Force imaginable not only in his own Parish Church but in all the adjacent Places and especially in Paris where he declared himself the Implacable Enemy of all Vices but above all of Usury and Impudicity which occasioned such horrible disorders in that time which he reproved boldly without fearing any person and with all the Heat and Zeal which his Temperament ardent and billious could furnish him with God who at the Beginning of his Ministry to elevate him by the Way of Humiliation permitted him for two Years to toil and labour without any Fruit whilest preaching with all his Power against those two Vices some mocking him others wholly abandoning him whilest a third sort took occasion outrageously to abuse his Sermons not any one seeming to reform or be converted by all his preaching insomuch that he was just upon the point of quitting and giving over his preaching despairing ever to do any good by it But God who was resolved to make use of him did so suddenly Change their Hearts and gave such Power to his words that piercing like flaming Darts into the most obdurate Hearts they made such a Prodigious Change upon the Manners of Men that to astonishment all France seemed to be reformed by him For he did not only abolish that Extravagant Extortion and unjust Usury which had so prevailed that neither the Ordinances of the King nor the Censures of the Church had been able to repress but he touched the Hearts of the Usurers so to the quick that publickly detesting their Crime they made restitution of what they had gotten by this kind of Robbery unto those whom they had oppressed by those horrid Extortions and where they could not sind those to whom they ought to make Reparation they came drowned in Tears throwing themselves at his Feet year 1198 and intreating him to take that unlawful Gain and destribute it among the Poor That which added still more Force and Efficacy to his Discourses was that it pleased God to bestow upon him the Gift of Miracles which he wrought in the Presence of the whole World either before or after his Preaching curing all sorts of Maladies and Infirmities by the sole Imposition of his Hands The Writers of those times tell us of great Wonders which he did and one among the rest assures us that he durst not recount all that he knew in regard of the great Incredulity of Mankind as for my own particular I believe that the greatest Miracle which he did was the clearing of Paris of those Infamous Places and the converting of so many lewd and debauched Women some of which making the Vow of Chastity silled the new Nunnery of St. Antonina whic'h he sounded for so pious a Design others of them publickly promised for the Future to lead a most austere and penitent Life and among the Young Women many who distrusted their Courage and their Power accepted the Favour which he offered which was a handsome Portion by the help whereof they easily passed from that danderous Condition wherein they were into that of an honest and lawful Marriage For this Purpose he procured mighty Contributions even the Schollars of the University raising for him five hundred Livres in Silver and the Burgers of Paris in a Body not reckoning the Particular Benefactions adding above a thousand more which was a very extraordinary Summ for those times So many Wonders which his Renown published of this admirable Preacher caused the Bishops to invite him into their Diocesses where he was received with extraordinary respect the People and Clergy flocking to him as if he had been an Angel sent from Heaven The good man did not hereupon grow proud and vain or distinguished himself by any foolish Affectation for he always went according to his Custom on Horseback decently habited like a man of his Profession he kept his Beard shavenaccording to the Custom of that Age his Diet which he always received with Benediction and giving of Thanks was indifferently what was offered him neither did there appear any thing singular either in his Person or in his manner of Living so that his preaching and his Miracles always produced good Effects wherever he came excepting in two Places in Normandy where he was very ill treated For coming to Lizieux and taking upon him with his usual Liberty and Vehemence to reprove the Disorders of the Ecclesiasticks who were very irregular they made him Prisoner but without being able to abridge him even in his Fetters of the Fredom which he took to reprehend them so that being ashamed to detain him after they were a little recovered from the Brutal Transport they set him again at Liberty After which as he preached at Caen doing his usual Wonders before the People The Governor of the Castle thinking he should do the King of England a great pleasure the good man having been very liberal in reproving his Debauches committed him to Prison from whence being in a marvellous way
Peace which was offered him upon Condition that the Prisoners on both sides should be set at liberty year 1213 But these Letters of the Pope produced not those Effects which he hoped and promised himself for Saphadin who had so frequently combated against the Christians knew by Experience that the Crusades would overthrow themselves if the fury of their first Efforts were but prevented and above all having the Courage the good Fortune and the Success of Saladin he was not much moved by the Remonstrances of Innocent for whom he had no great Consideration And for the other Letters which the Pope writ to all Christian People they came to nothing at last but to raise those great Disorders which had happened in the former Crusades For it happened by a strange Illusion or rather a kind of Frensy which like a Plague spread it self over all France and Germany the Youths of all sorts of Conditions taking a strong Impression in their Minds that God would make use of their Hands to deliver the Holy Sepulchre out of the Hands of the Sarasins and that he commanded them to go to Jerusalem to atchieve that high Enterprise they assembled to the number of thirty thousand in France and twenty thousand in Germany who took upon them the Cross There were many Monks and Priests who undertook to justifie this Folly by another which was greater and as if God had commanded it put themselves at the Head of these Boys and other Vagabonds who maliciously followed them to make some advantage of this Disorder and it being impossible to stop the Torrent of this furious Folly they pleasantly marched along singing and crying all together with all their power Lord Jesus bestow upon us thy Holy Cross The greatest part of those of Germany taking disserent Roads either perished miserably on the Way or were dispoiled by Thieves and Robbers Those of France who could escape to Marseilles were there miserably cheated by two Merchants whose Names were Hugh le Fer and William Porc notorious Villains who having promised to transport them into Palestine for nothing putting them on Board seven of their Ships two of the Vessels were shipwrack'd with the loss of all those poor Boys with which they were charged and for those who were upon the other sive these Traytors carried them into Egypt and there sold them for Slaves to the Sarasins It is true that God who alone can bring Good out of Evil for his Glory drew this Advantage from this great Disorder and horrible Treachery that divers of these Innocents whom the Infidels endeavoured to force to deny and renounce their Faith persisted so constantly to confess Jesus Christ for whose sake they had taken the Cross that they chose rather to be cut in pieces than to renounce their Faith and by this irregular and frantick Action came at last to obtain the Crown of Martyrdom At last the memorable Victory which Philip the August obtained against Otho who having been crowned after the Death of the Emperor Philip troubled all Europe gave the Pope the occasion to accomplish by the General Council the great Design of the Crusade which he had begun by his Letters and which the Preachers by his Orders published every where This Emperor Otho made a most cruel War against the Pope who had always been his Protector so that he was at last constrained by his extream Ingratitude to excommunicate him as also for his openly invading the Churches Patrimony seizing upon what the Holy See had received from the magnificent Liberality of the Kings of France Philip the August who besides that he hated Otho as being the Nephew of his Enemy the King of England thought himself obliged to maintain what his Predecessors had done in favour of the Holy See sailed not to declare himself for the Pope and negotiated so powerfully with divers Princes of the Empire the principal whereof were the King of Bohemia the Dukes of Austria and Bavaria the Archbishops of Treves Mayence and Cologne that they deposed this ingrateful excommunicate Prince and elected Frederick whom his Father the Emperor Henry VI. had caused to be declared King of the Romans at the Age of three Years and who was also King of Naples and Sicily in Right of the Empress Constantia his Mother He came soon after into Germany where he was received by the Princes and crowned Emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle year 1213 by Thierri Bishop of Cologne And that he might support his Right by the Arms of his Protector he came directly to Vaucouleur where after a Conference with Lewis the Son of King Philip he made a new Treaty with the King and renewed the ancient Alliance which had been between his Predecessors and the Crown of France Otho on his side who had a powerful Party in Germany believing that if he could but ruin Philip he should be able easily to manage Frederick and the Pope made a League against France with the English Ferrand de Portugal Earl of Flanders who had revolted against his Master and his Benefactor who had married him to the Heiress of Flanders year 1214 and joyned the Troops of the English and Flemmings which together with his own composed an Army of above two hundred thousand Men So that making no doubt but that he should be able to cut the French Army in pieces who were not a third part so numerous he assailed them when they least expected a Battle as they were passing the Bridge of Bovines But Philip without being dismayed at this Surprise having put himself at the Head of the Rereguard whilst the Vant-guard re-passed the Bridge sustained their first Shock and gave a Check to the Enemies till such time as the other Troops were drawn up in Battalia upon his Right and Left according to the Orders which he had given And then the French animated by the Sight the Words but much more by the Example of their King who this Day behaved himself like one of the ancient Heroes charged with so much fury every where that after having fought victoriously in all places from Noon till Night the Army of the Enemies was totally routed All the principal Captains lay stretched out at length upon the place or else were taken Prisoners Otho only excepted who escaped by the swiftness of his Horse and retreated into the Lower Saxony where about two Years after he died with Grief to see himself forsaken by all the Princes of the Empire and another Emperor generally acknowledged and received by all the Germans This great Victory of Philip and that which Prince Lewis his Son obtained almost at the same time in Poitou against the King of England having made a great Calm in the Church and the Empire the Pope who during the Wars which troubled all Europe could not assemble the Council now caused it to be called year 1215 and accordingly it was held the Year following in the famous Church of the Lateran at Rome This was the twelfth Oecumenical
Council and the fourth of Lateran and one of the greatest which the Church had ever had for besides the Pope who presided in Person the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem and the Deputies of those of Antioch and Alexandria were present at it together with seventy one Archbishops four hundred and twelve Bishops with the Proxies of divers others above eight hundred Abbots and Priors and the Ambassadors of the Emperor Frederick II. Henry the Emperor of Constantinople of the Kings of England France Hungary Jerusalem Cyprus and Aragon The Pope who was a Man very learned and eloquent opened the Session by a Speech which is verbatim inserted into the Acts of the Council as he spoke it and therein after he had acquainted them that the principal Reason why he had assembled them was to consider how they might relieve the Holy Land he brought in Jerusalem addressing her self to the Christians of the West and to implore their Assistance in the Language of the holy Scripture representing in a manner so pathetick and moving the piteous Estate to which she was reduced under the Tyrannick Dominion of the Sarasins to the shame of the Christian Name that it was impossible but the whole Assembly should be moved with it or refuse taking the generous Resolution of employing all things for the Deliverance of the holy City from that cruel Servitude So that after they had established the Doctrines of the Faith against the Heresies of Berengarius Amauri de Chartres the Albigenses and the Abbot Joachim without meddling with his Person by reason that he submitted himself to the Judgment of the Holy See and after they had regulated such Matters as concerned Discipline and the Reformation of Manners the Fathers with the Consent of the Ambassadors of the Princes made these following Orders for the Crusade That the Bishops should cause it to be preached in their respective Diocesses above all enjoyning the Preachers to press it as a thing necessary for all those who took it upon them to put themselves by true Repentance into a State of Grace thereby to preserve themselves in the Favour of God year 1215 and to procure his Blessings upon them and the Vndertaking That they themselves should exhort the Kings the Princes and Persons of the greatest Quality to take upon them the Cross and to contribute to the Expences of the Holy War That the Bishops the Abbots the Priors and all other Ecclesiasticks should give the twentieth part of their Revenues and the Pope and Cardinals the tenth towards the carrying on the Crusade And to excite others by his Example to this Liberality the Pope promised that besides this Tax he would provide Shipping and great Sums of Money for the particular Maintenance of such of the Romans as should take upon them the Cross That the Crusades should have all the same Privileges Spiritual and Temporal which the former Popes had indulged to the first Crusades That they should all be in readiness to pass into Palestine by the 1st Day of June in the following Year That in the Interim those who resolved to be of the Land-Army should come to the Rendezvouz which should be appointed whither the Pope would send his Legate and that those who chose rather to go by Sea should repair to the Port of Brindes in Pavia or to Messina in Sicily where he himself would be present to take care and give Orders for what should be needful since he was not as he passionately desired permitted to pass beyond the Seas and take the Voyage with the Crusades That there should be either a Peace or a Truce among the Christian Princes for four Years and that during that time all publick Sports and Turnaments should be straitly prohibited That those who aided the Crusades or furnished them with Equipage should enjoy the Benefits of the Indulgences And on the contrary that such as favoured the Pyrates and such Christian Merchants as betrayed their Brethren by selling Arms and Ammunition to the Sarasins should as impious Traytors to God and Religion be exposed to all the Censures of the Church It must be avowed that our Ancestors who acted as exactly and prudently but with far fewer Intrigues of Nicity and Ceremony than we do at this Day were far more expeditious in the concluding of their greatest Affairs than in the succeeding Ages This great Council wherein so many and such important Matters were debated both in relation to Faith and Manners so many things of a differing Nature as the Policy and the Discipline of the Church the Peace among the Christian Princes and the War against the Insidels and almost the general Interests of all Europe was terminated in less than three Weeks continuing only between the Feast of St. Martin and that of St. Andrew a time which now would scarcely be thought sufficient for the regulating of one single Preliminary Article in an Assembly of far less importance than this was And that which is still more admirable the Execution immediately succeeded the Debates and Determinations no manner of Considerations Passions or Interests being capable of stopping or even so much as retarding it every one gladly contributing what was his part towards the Performance and Accomplishment of the whole Design The Bishops preached the Crusade in all places year 1216 with mighty Zeal and great Success and the Pope to give the greater Authority to it after he had published it in Rome went to preach it himself in Tuscany where there was an insinite of Crusades every one desiring to have the Honour to receive the Cross from his own Hands But as he was going to Pisa to accord the Differences between that Republick and the other of Genoa which did something hinder the Effect of the Crusade in his Passage by Perusa he was seized with a violent Fever occasioned by his great Pains and the excessive Heats of the Season which in a few days carried him out of the World He died the 6th Day of July in the 19th Year of his Pontificate and the 49th of his Life after having performed all the Duties of a Soveraign Pope in such perfection that there have been few of his Successors I do not say that have surpassed him but that have been equal to him and if we may give Credit to the unanimous Consent of all the Authors that write of him none greater either in Learning in Prudence in Firmness of Resolution in Authority over all the Powers of the Earth for the maintaining the Discipline of the Church in its Force and Vigour or any more zealous for the Purity of the Faith or more conversant than himself in all manner of vertuous Actions which as they are the Effects so they are upon Earth the most certain Marks of a most eminent Sanctity And from hence doubtless we may conclude year 1216 that there is nothing more Unjust or more Weak than the giving Credit to the Fable of the Apparition of this Pope being pursued by a
above fourscore of these miserable men being saved upon the broken Planks A Party also of Frieselanders who hitherto had so well behaved themselves having abandoned their Companions were no sooner returned into Frieseland but they were miserably swallowed up by the Sea which having this Year broken the Banks and passed all the Bounds overflowed all the Country with such a fearful deluge that above a hundred thousand Persons were swallowed up of the merciless Waves But nevertheless the loss which the Christian Army suffered by this desertion was quickly repaired by the Arrival of diverse Troops of Crusades who being excited by the Letters which Pope Honorius had writ continually to all the Princes of Europe arrived one after another during all the Autumm The Cardinal d' Albanâ— the Popes Legate for the Holy War arrived with the first accompanied with a fair Troop of the Nobility of Rome whom the Pope who was himself of the first of those orders had obliged to take upon them the Cross that so they might draw others by their Example There came also from Germany the Low Countries Venice Genoa and Pisa and many from France who inbarked at Genoa with Robert de Corceone an English man Cardinal of St. Stephen upon Mount-Coelius whom the Pope ordered to accompany them in this Voyage The most signal of those who with the consent of Philip the August went from France were the Counts Hervey de Nevers Hugh de la Marche Miles de Barr upon the Seine with his Sons and the Lords John d' Artois Ponce de Grancey Ithier de Tacy Savary de Mauleon and among the Prelates William Arch-Bishop of Bourdeaux William de Beaumont Bishop of Anger 's Gautier Bishop of Autun Miles de Chastillon de Nantueil Bishop Elect of Beauvais with Andrew his Brother and Peter de Nemours Bishop of Paris the Son of Gautier great Chamberlain of France and Brother to the Bishop of Meaux and Noyon This good Prelate after he had for ten years governed with great Wisdom the Church of the Capital City of the Realm where he took great care to maintain the Purity of the Faith against the Errors of Amauri of Chartres which he caused to be condemned resolved also to signalise his Zeal against the Infidels by taking upon him the Cross with which he gloriously consummated that kind of Martyrdom at Damiata where he died after the taking of the City Prince Oliver also the Son of Henry the third King of England came by the same passage in September with the Earls of Chester Winchester and Arundel and William de Harcourt accompanied with a Gallant Troop of English who had devoted themselves to the Holy War The Legate being arrived with so considerable a Succour presented to the King of Jerusalem the Duke of Austria and the other Princes the Letters by which the Pope after having extremely commended the Cardinal informed them that he had sent him principally to create and preserve a perfect Union in the Army and to animate them to do well by going before them not with the Pomp and Majesty of a Prince to command but with that humility worthy of Jesus Christ whom he represented and for whose Cause the Crusades in taking up his Cross had obliged themselves to combat But it must be avowed that this good Prelate did very ill acquit himself of his Charge and acted directly contrary to the Intentions of the Pope and the good Instructions which he had given him For at the first Conference which he had with King John de Brienne to whom all the Chief of the Crusades yielded Obedience he told him plainly and without a Complement that he was resolved to command the Army alledging for his reason that the Church having commanded the Crusade and that the Crusades who were come to the relief of the Holy Land were not Subjects of the King of Jerusalem but depended upon the Church by the Authority whereof they had taken upon them the Cross The King was extremely surprized with such a foolish Proposition which he had so little expected but as he was very discreet he did not declare it lest he should be obliged openly to break with a man whose Ambition year 1218 which keeps no measures especially when it is supported by a great name might carry him to dangerous Extremities in abusing a Power and Authority which Jesus Christ hath not given to the Church but for the spiritual Kingdom which is not of this World as he himself assures us and hath nothing to do with the Temporal On the other side notwithstanding this as this Prince had a great Soul he was resolved to do nothing to stain his Honour or to lessen the August Character of Royalty which he was resolved to support with the utmost Vigour against all that should enterprize any thing against it He therefore kept fair with the Legate he made no direct answer to any thing which he said but would turn the discourse to some other Subject always treating him with extraordinary Civility but in the same time he continued more positively than ever to give out his Orders independant of any other Person and caused them to be exactly obeyed and acted in all things so like an absolute Master and a King that the good Legate at last perceived that he had to do with a Prince who in rendring to God with a profound Veneration that which was due to him knew also continually how to maintain the Rights that appertained to Caesar This nevertheless did not fail to occasion some Trouble in the Army by dividing the principal Officers for those who found themselves any ways dissatisfied with the King inclined always to the Legate and he finding himself able to do nothing more usually came to the Council only to give his Opinion in contradiction to the King But at length the Arrival of the Sultan Meledin who came down the Nile to Damiata with a potent Army before the Christians had passed the River to besiege the City by Land obliged all the Commanders to re-unite and recover the time which they had wasted and lost by an extreme Negligence and seriously to dispose themselves to Combat the Enemy After some light Skirmishes wherein the Sarasins were constantly beaten upon the thirtieth of November there arose such a furious Tempest that the Sea repelling the Waters of the Nile and breaking over all the Banks the whole Army had like to have perished by the Inundation many of the Ships were driven ashoar and beaten in pieces and four great Vessels upon which there were Castles built in order to attack the City were driven by the Wind and the Waves against the Towers and the Walls where they were unfortunately Consumed by the Wildfire which the Besieged with ease threw into them in the sight of the Christians who during that dreadful Storm were not able to Relieve them Several Knights of the Temple who were in another great Ship which the Tempest had also forced to
the whole Army was divided and in perpetual contests for several days But the Sultan who made use of that Opportunity to endeavour to put some succour into the place during this discourse of Peace the King's Party which was the least reunited again with the Legate Hereupon the Conferences for Peace were broken and it was resolved to pursue the Siege with all imaginable Vigor But it lasted not long for one of the Towers which lay upon a Corner of the Town being by the force of the Machins so ruined that it was easie to enter by the Breach and there appearing no great number of Defendants to secure the Breach the Legate made choice of a very dark night wherein the Wind blew very loud to cause it to be attacked The Soldiers approached the Tower and the Gate adjoining which they set on sire and passed to the second Wall whilest others clapt up Ladders and scaled the first Wall in diverse places without resistance then the King being immediately advertised of this strange Success led his Troops thither in good order and with the same facility gained the second Wall and the next morning being the fifth of November by break of day they took the third Wall with so little resistance that there was but one man lightly wounded in his Foot Immediately the Christian Standards were planted upon the Towers which the Sultans perceiving they retired with precipitation setting fire to their Camp and Bridge that so they might not be pursued Thus Damiata which had cost so much Blood and labour for eighteen Months was in one night taken by the Christian Army without Noise without Tumult there being none left in this fair and great City in Condition to defend it For the extreme Famine which they had indured and the diseases which followed upon it had made such a horrible ravage that of eighty thousand Soldiers and Citizens which were in it at the Beginning of the Siege there were scarcely lest three thousand alive and of those not above one hundred who were able to bear Arms. All the Streets and houses were filled with dead and dying Persons which the living who with extreme weakness expected the same Fate were not able to bury so that the Army was forced for a long time to encamp without the City before they could get it cleansed There were found in the City infinite Riches in Vessels of Gold Silver Pearls precious Stones Silks and all manner of Indian Drugs and Spices year 1219 But the Sarasins during the Siege having buried most of their Money and notwithstanding that the Legate had denounced the Anathema against those who should conceal any of the Booty which he ordered to be brought together to make a just distribution among the whole Army yet particular persons concealed the greatest part of the Booty so that there could never be got together above four hundred thousand Crowns in Money which was distributed among the Soldiers There were about four hundred among the Prisoners who were the most considerable who were reserved to be exchanged for those who had been taken by the Enemies during the Siege year 1220 The Principal Mosque which was supported by one hundred and fifty Marble Pillars and invironed by five curious Galleries with a noble Cupelo in the middle upon which was a lofty Spire was consecrated to God in honour of the blessed Virgin and upon the Feast of the Purification the Cardinal Legate accompanied by the Patriarch the Bishops and Clergy of Ptolemais followed by the King the Princes the Lords and all the Chief Commanders went in Solemn Procession there to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries of the Christian Religion after which they built a new Bridge which joyned the City and the Fort which they had during the Siege built upon the other bank of the Nile and then Damiata by the consent of the Legate and the whole Army was annexed to the Realm of Jerusalem and to add to the good Fortune some few dayes after a Party of a thousand Soldiers being commanded to go abroad for Forrage and Provisions failing up the second branch of the River Nilus which is called the Tanitique the Egyptians terrified by their comming cowardly abandoned the strongest of their Castles which was built upon the Ruines of the Famous City of Tanis in Ancient Time the Capital City of Egypt and the Residence of the Pharaohs the place where Moses to move the heart of that obdurate Prince wrought all those memorable Prodigies which are recorded in the Holy Story in the Book of Exodus It is also reported that in a place near Damiata the Christians found a Book written in Arabick the Author whereof who assures us that he was neither Jew Christian nor Mahometan predicted the Victories of the great Saladin the taking of Ptolemais by the Kings of England and France that of Damiata nine and twenty Years after and that one day there should come a King from the East whose name should be David and another from the West whom he does not name who joyning together should overthrow the Empire of the Mahometans and recover the City of Jerusalem But as one cannot judge of the Truth of this Prophecy by the former part of the things which it doth predict since they were already come to pass when the Book was found so it must be Posterity who only can be able to make a certain judgment of the truth of the second part when it shall happen to be accomplished which we have not yet seen The End of the Third Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The Condition the manners and the Religion of the People of Georgia who resolve to join with the Princes of the Crusade but are hindred by an irruption of the Tartars into their Country The Emperor Frederick sends a considerable relief to Damiata The return of King John de Brienne to the Army of the Crusades The Legate Pelagius opposeth his advice and makes them resolve upon a Battle against Meledin who once more offers Peace upon most advantageous Terms The Legate occasions the refusal of them The humour and discription of this Legate An account of the miserable adventure of the Christian Army which by the innundation of the Nile is reduced to the Discretion of Meledin The wise Policy of this Sultan who saves the Army by a Treaty which he was willing to make with the Crusades This misfortune is followed by the Rupture of Frederick the Emperor with the Pope The Character of that Emperor The Complaints of Pope Honorius against him His Answers and their Reconciliation A famous Conference for the Holy War King John de Brienne comes to desire assistance throughout Europe The death of Philip the August His Elogy his Will and his Funerals New Endeavours of the Pope and the Emperor for the Holy War The Marriage of Frederick with
proceedings he made a long Deduction in his Manifest how many and great Subjects he had of Complaint for the Injustices which he said were done him by Pope Innocent his Guardian during his Minority in seizing upon and usurping his Regalities and Rights and even by Honorius also whom he accused to have contrary to all Justice exacted many things of him which he was constrained to yield so much against his will that so he might receive from him the Imperial Crown which he could not in Justice have dispenced with himself in denying to place it upon the Head of an Emperour so lawfully Elected and who had two several times before been Crowned The Pope who was very prudent and of a temper very soft and sweet was resolved not to carry matters to Extremity and therefore he answered to these Complaints that he was a Father and that his Son though he were disobedient and undutiful yet was not therefore either a Stranger or an Enemy so long as there was any hope that he might return to his Duty He therefore satisfied himself to answer to the Complaints and Reproaches of Frederick with abundance of mildness in a long Letter which to speak properly was a Manifest or Apology for the Conduct of his Predecessors and his own year 1222 in reference to this Prince He exhorted him also by other Letters full of Tenderness and Reason seriously to recollect himself and to consider that as he was Emperor he was the Protector of the Church and that therefore he ought not to oppress her or take away her Liberties but to take pity of Christianity in the East which held up her suppliant hands to him from whom only she had hopes of being assisted But whether Frederick was moved by these Remonstrances of the Pope or whether he feared the dangerous consequences of this Rupture particularly in Lombardy where they began to form a great League against him it is certain that this procedure sweetned both Parties and that the Emperor satisfied the Pope taking all his Dominions into his Protection and that the Pope during all his Pontificate never proceeded further than these Menaces and Anathema's as may be seen plainly by the Letters of Honorius and that after this they both acted by Agreement for the Succour of the Holy Land in this following manner They had first a meeting at Veroli between the Cities of Anagnia and Sora where after a Consultation of five Dayes with the Cardinals they ordained that there should be another Conference to which were to be invited King John de Brienne the Legate Pelagius the Patriarch and the Great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who were better able than any others to give them such an understanding of these Affairs as might enable them to come to the last Resolution upon them After which the Emperor sent four Gallies to bring them over and upon their arrival this famous Conference was appointed to be held in Champagne in Italy the year following There it was that to ingage Frederick more strongly than ever to undertake this Holy War year 1223 it was agreed by common consent that this Prince who had in the preceeding year lost the Empress Constantia his Wife the Daughter of the King of Aragon should marry the Princess Jolante the Daughter of King John de Brienne the Heiress of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Conquest whereof it was believed he would take more Interest than before when it should be his own Estate for which he was to sight It was also ordained that in two Years he should part with all the Forces of the Empire at Midsummer to which those that were present and Parties obliged themselves by a Solemn Oath that whoever should fail in the performance of his Promise should be Excommunicate After which the Pope the Emperor and the King of Jerusalem parted every one to indeavour for his part according to his power to dispose all things for this Holy War which was to be begun two Years after For this purpose the King of Jerusalem who was able to do nothing more in Europe but to sollicite the Princes to contribute their part to this War went to desire the Assistance of England Spain Germany and above all in France where he arrived a little before the Death of Philip the August his Benefactor and Protector This great Prince who had laboured under a Quartan Ague for above a Year and who nevertheless did not cease to visit his Provinces and always to carry himself as a Great King with all the strength imaginable of a Soul which did not seem to be concerned at the weakness of the Body died this Year at the Castle of Mante the fourteenth day of July in the eight and fiftieth Year of his Age and the three and thirtieth of his Reign which by the Glory of his Actions by his Heroick Qualities by his Power and by the Force of his Arms he had rendred the most flourishing of all that France had ever seen since that of Charlemagne And as he had worn the Cross in the third Crusade which was famous for the remarkable winning of the City of Ptolemais so he gave in his Will a Noble Testimony of the Zeal which he still preserved for the Glory of Jesus Christ and for the Deliverance of his Holy Sepulchre For among other Magnificent Effects of his pious Liberality which are therein to be observed for the comfort and relief of the Poor for the Deliverance and Ransom of the Wife of Amauri Count de Montfort who was a Prisoner amongst the Albigenses and for other Works of Christian Piety he bequeathed three hundred thousand Livres for the Relief of the Holy Land one hundred thousand to King John de Brienne and so much to each of the two great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital nor was his going of the Theater of the World less glorious than his Actions on it year 1223 for there being at that time a Council assembled at Paris against the Albigenses they all assisted at his Funerals as did also the King of Jerusalem who was also present at the Coronation of Lewis the eighth the Son and Successor of King Philip. As for the Pope he being perswaded that it was to be in his Papacy that Palestine was to be reconquered which was the thing of the World which he most desired he did all that lay in his power to render the Crusade following most numerous and powerful He sent new Preachers throughout Europe to excite the People to undertake it he writ to the Bishops to oblige them to preach it themselves and to collect all the Money which the Ecclesiasticks were obliged to contribute out of their Revenues towards the carrying on of the Holy War And in short he did all that it was possible for him to do to oblige the Christian Kings and Princes to make Peace among themselves and to join their Forces to those of the Emperor and to march in Person
proceeding of the Emperor so little obliging nevertheless as he desired nothing so much as to quiet all those discords and Wars which might be prejudicial to that which he so much desired should be made against the Enemies of Jesus Christ and his Church he did not forbear doing what was most advantageous for the Emperors Interest insomuch that he perswaded the greatest part of the Cities of Lombardy who were confederated against him to lay down their Arms and obliged himself to obtain their Peace and pardon with the Conservation of their Privileges and Immunities upon condition that they should at their own charge maintain a certain number of Soldiers to serve under the Emperor for two years in the Holy War It was for the same reason that he hindred Henry the third King of England from Enterprizing any thing against France whilest Lewis the eighth made War against the Albigenses That King prosecuted the War against them with so much heat and Zeal that he did not spare continually to expose his Royal Person to all hazards and dangers and after having taken Avignion and the greatest part of the considerable places in Languedoc he was seized with that dangerous Malady which was got into his Army year 1226 of which he died at Montpensier the eight of November in the fourtieth Year of his Age and the third of his Reign leaving for his Successor his eldest Son Lewis the ninth of the Age of twelve years under the Regence of the Queen his Mother Blanch of Castile This was he who by the August Sirname of Lewis the Saint which was given him by God by the Authority which he hath given to his Church hath made himself be more gloriously distinguished by that title since his death than all other Kings have done during their lives by all the most Illustrious Sirnames and most magnificent appellations which men have bestowed upon them At last the term drawing near wherein the Emperor had obliged himself to begin this Voyage and that all things appeared better disposed than ever they had been before to the undertaking the Pope believed that the deciding Blow which he had so long desired was now certainly to be given And therefore redoubling his Efforts as one shall see a Flambeau blaze out twice or thrice with mighty Force before it is extinguished so he pressed the Crusades with so much Ardour that an infinite number of them came from all Europe into Italy it is reported that out of England alone there came above sixty thousand men to whom the appearance of a marvellous Crucifix from Heaven all glorious and shining in which were plainly to be seen the five Wounds had given so much Courage that they desired nothing so much as to combat and to die for Jesus Christ But as this devout Pope believed that he should enjoy upon Earth the Fruit of so much care and pains as he had taken to assemble so many Crusades he was taken more happily for himself to receive them in Heaven from whence he might see though without trouble in a small time after that which would have sufficiently afflicted him in this life that the Success of this Crusade proved quite otherways than he had vainly flattered himself withal in the time of his Pontificate But that a man may therefore never be disappointed there is nothing better than for any Person constantly to do what he ought to do and what he can do without promising himself any certainty of future contingencies and Events for which God alone is able to answer year 1227 He died at Rome the sixth of March in the Year 1227 and two days after the Sacred College by common consent gave him for his Successor the famous Hugoline Cardinal of Ostia who took the name of Gregory the ninth He was Nephew to Innocent the third who had imployed him in the most important Affairs of the Church a man of a mighty Spirit well made and of a Port extremely Majestick very knowing a great Canonist and of an irreproachable Life to whom St. Francis whose order he took into his Protection had predicted that he should be Pope He was in short of great Courage and incapable of yielding even in the greatest dangers but withal too quick in Execution of what he proposed without fearing the Consequences how mischeivous soever they might happen to be The first thing that he did after his Exaltation was to pursue the Enterprise of his Predecessor and to press the Emperor Frederick to put himself as soon as it was possible into a Condition to perform what he had so solemnly promised This Prince who after so many delays durst no longer desire the time to be prolonged appointed the Rendevouz to be at Brindes where the Shipping lay all ready for the Transportation of that Infinite number of Crusades who descended from all parts of Italy But as they came into Pavia during the great heats of the Summer which in that Country are excessive an Epidemical Distemper began to disperse it self among them which took off a great number and made others withdraw themselves though few of them ever returned into their own Country but perished miserably by the Way That which further contributed to the diminution of the Army was that a certain Imposture set up by some of the Principal Persons in Rome who had no kindness for the Pope as it appeared presently after counterfeited an Authority and Power from Gregory who had appointed him his Vicar for that purpose to take of the Cross from such as desired to be dispensed with as to the Performance of the Voyage and to commute their Vow into some considerable Alms of which this Cheat made his own advantage It is true that he was taken by the order of the Pope year 1227 and paid the price of his imposture but it was not till after many who were very glad to be dispensed with from a Voyage which they found already to be troublesome and dangerous had quitted the Cross by this Way which they believed was a very lawful and authentick way of being disbanded In short those who remained into Pavia came to Brindes with the Emperor and Lewis Lantgrave of Thuringia and Hesse who had conducted a gallant Troop of Germans who were imbarked about the middle of August and sailed towards Syria not doubting but they should be followed by the Emperor who seemed continually disposed and ready to part thither also And accordingly so soon as he saw the Lantgrave a little recovered of some Fits of a Fever which he had gotten in a little Island near Brindes whether he had gone to divert himself he put to Sea the eight of September with this Prince and the Patriarch of Jerusalem and those few Troops which remained But he sailed not far for the third day of the Navigation he commanded them of a sudden to tack about and stand for the Port of Otranto alledging that he found himself much indisposed and that in the Condition
in a Valley so deeply Sandy and loose that both the men and Horses who were soundly harrassed by the nights march had much difficulty to dragg their Legs out of this deep Sand. The Governour of Gaza who had by his Spies been advertised hereof laid himself in Ambush behind some little Hills and all of a suddain appeared upon the top of them with some of his Squadrons but without advancing as first resolving to observe the Countenance of the Christians And accordingly seeing that they made a Halt and shewed some surprize to find those People in order of Battle whom they had thought to have found asleep in their Beds he commanded some Squadrons to descend and charge them at full Speed and the light Arabian Horses running as freely upon these Sands as if they had been upon firm ground they made a furious discharge of their Arrows and then retreated to their main Body in a little time returning again in greater numbers shooting always without coming nearer than the distance of their Arrows and without danger of being pursued by the Christians who did not without difficulty advance over the heavy Sands so that wheeling and running round about the Army all day they harassed them till Night a Night that was to be spent in Arms without repose and repast and without the Possibility of advancing or retreating and in nothing but miserable trouble and waking dispair in which they were overwhelmed And indeed their Fortune was much more deplorable the next morning when the whole Army of the Sultan being joined to the Garrison of Gaza encompassed them on all sides and without fear attacking the poor Soldiers already half dead and almost unable to carry their Arms they came to charge them with the Sword and Lance. The Christians indeed performed in despight of their Fortune all that could be expected from men of Courage and infinitely above their Strength but there was a necessity that they must yield to multitude with which they were oppressed most of them being either slain or taken that miserable day Henry Count de Bar one of the most Valiant Princes of his time Simon Count de Clermont the Lords John de Barres Robert Malet Richard de Beaumont and many others of the Bravest and most remarkable men remained dead upon the place The Constable Amauri and seventy other great French Lords after having fought most courageously and by their long resistance given an opportunity to the Duke of Burgundy to make his escape were taken Prisoners and carried in Chains to Grand Caire Thus ended this unhappy Jealousie Ambition and Vain Glory which were governed by rashness and Imprudence in this fatal Encounter of our Ancient Worthies whose misfortune may teach all the Gallant men of our times that they can never be truely Brave unless their Courage be regulated by Prudence in the Commanders and Obediences in the Inferior Officers and Soldiers This unfortunate news did so astonish all the rest of the Army which was at Ascalon in no very good understanding among themselves that they presently returned to Ptolemais where the divisions which continued still among them as well as between the Sultans of Egypt and Damascus compleated the loss of all by two most Shameful Treaties with the Infidels For the Templers who had one part of the Army on their side made a Truce with Nazer Sultan of Damascus year 1240 upon condition that he should surrender to them the Castles of Beaufort and Saphet with all the Territory of Jerusalem and that they should assist him with all their Forces against Melech-Salah Sultan of Egypt who had dethroned his Brother Edel to possess himself thereof and the Hospitallers supported by the King of Navarr the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretany and the other part of the Army made a truce quite opposite to this with the Sultan of Egypt against the Sultan of Damascus After which the King of Navarr the Duke of Bretany and the greatest part of the Cusades embarking in the Port of Acre returned into their own Country almost at the same time that Richard Earl of Cornwall Brother to King Henry the third of England arrived in Palestine with good Troops of English Crusades This Prince who following the Example of his Uncle Richard Coeur de Lyon had taken the Cross with a great Party of the Nobility and Gentry of England embarked at Dover about Whitsontide and landing in France passed to Paris where he was magnificently received by St. Lewis who lodged him in his Palace and caused him to be royally treated and conducted to Lyons from whence passing by Roan to Arles where he was to be received by Count Raymond de Provence he came to Marseilles and about the middle of September he imbarked upon the Fleet which he had sent through the Straits and upon the eleventh of October in fifteen days after the departure of the King of Navarr he came to Anchor in the Road of Ptolemais The Sarasins had a strange fear upon them for this Prince whose very name was formidable to them renewing the memory of the famous Richard King of England who by his marvellous Feats of Arms was so terrible to these Infidels that the Women were wont to quiet their Children when they cried with threatning them with King Richard and the Horsemen to make a Skewish boggling Horse go forward would commonly say to him in clapping their Spurrs to him What dost think it is King Richard And certainly his Nephew wanted neither Spirit nor Courage neither Money nor Conduct to support a name so great and so terribly to the Sarasins He did all that could be expected from a very great Prince to put things into a Condition so that it might be hoped the War against the Infidels might be happily prosecuted for within three days after his arrival he caused it to be proclaimed by the sound of Trumpet through the whole City That if any one of those who remained in the Holy Land stood in need of Money he would furnish them during all the time of their Service But he quickly learnt that in the deplorable condition to which matters were reduced by the division which still continued among the principal Officers and above all the Templers and Hospitallers there was no appearance of succeeding by the way of Arms. And therefore seeing that it was impossible to bring them to any agreement and that the Sultan of Damascus did not at all observe the truce whereas he of Egypt offered to continue it with new advantages to the Christians he resolved at last by the advice of the Duke of Burgundy the great Master of the Hospital and the greatest part of the Crusades to accept of it upon these conditions That all the Prisoners an each side and especially those who were taken at the Battle of Gaza should be set at liberty and that the Christians should enjoy certain Lands which the Sultan possessed in Palestine Mean time the Earl whilest he staid for the
Reigned in France year 1246 had gained over the Princes of the League over the Duke of Bretany the Counts of Tholouse and March and over the King of England and the Prince Richard his Brother who had indeavoured to support the Earl of March and by a pretty piece of Policy he carried along with him all the Princes and all the Great men of the Realm who might give any Suspicion or the least occasion to fear that they had either the Power the Will or the Temptation during his absence to trouble the Repose of his Dominions For of the two most mutinous Spirits of whom he had most reason to be distrustful he took one of them which was the Earl of March along with him and the other which was Raymond the Young who was Earl of Tholouse who had also taken upon him the Cross died before the Voyage leaving his Dominions to Alphonsus the King's Brother the Count of Poitiers who had married the Princess Joanna his Daughter and Heiress and the King for his greater assurance sent that Prince to establish himself in his new Dominion of Languedoc before he imbarqued himself as he afterwards did to go and joyn him in the East Moreover he deferred his Voyage for almost four Years to take the advantage of two fair occasions which presented themselves the one to reunite the County of Mascon to the Crown which he bought of the Countess who after she had distributed the money for which she sold it to the poor retired to the Nunnery of Maubuisson and there professed herself the other was to bring the County of Provence into the Royal House which had been separated from it for above three hundred Years For Raymond Berenger the Fifth of the Name and the last of the Catalonian Family who had reigned in Provence being dead the year preceeding the King knew with so much Art how to gain Romee de Villeneuve and Albert de Tarascon the Trustees and Guardians of the Princess Beatrix the remaining Daughter of the four which Count Raymond had had who was Sister to the Queen and the Heiress to the Count that he obtained her for Charles d' Anjou his Brother and without losing of time advancing towards Provence with one part of the Army which was ready for the Holy War he broke all the measures of James the King of Aragon Cousin German to the deceased Count and hindered his carrying the Princess away by force as he had designed if he could not procure her by other wayes in order to oblige her to marry his Son and by that means to retain this fair County in his Family which lay so conveniently for him During this time Lewis had all the leisure which could be reasonably desired to make his preparations and provisions year 1247 which were the greatest that ever had been seen and also to settle that Publick Peace and Tranquility which he had so happily given to all his Dominions and to assure himself on the side of England also For he prolonged the Truce which had been made with that King two or three Years before after the Victory of Taillebourg and also engaged the Pope to be the Guarranty that it should be inviolably observed as it was during all the time of his absence although the English hearing of his being taken Prisoner indeavoured to break it In short this Wise Prince neither went as the first Crusades had done by Land and thereby he avoided the dangers into which they had fallen of perishing by Famine and the miseries which attended those vast Desert Countries which were possessed by the Barbarians neither did he go with a confused Multitude of all manner of Persons and People who were to be gotten together who served for no other purpose but to put all into disorder but with a good Army consisting in betwixt thirty and forty thousand men which was such a number as the Great Alexander had when he went to the Conquest of Asia but this Army was composed for the greatest part of Gentlemen and choice Souldiers such as were capable of marching over the bellies of all that Egypt and Syria could oppose against them unless some accident should happen or some extraordinary misfortune befal them against which no humane Prudence can give any Warranty or Assurance And that which was most considerable the whole Army was absolutely at his disposal in regard that it consisted wholly of French for the King of England would not permit the Bishop of Berytus who went thither to preach the Crusade to publish it in his Dominions alledging that he stood in need of all his Subjects to defend himself against his Enemies if they should attack him year 1245 King Lewis having wisely provided all things necessary for his Voyage which he undertook in his very prime strength being about three and thirty Years of Age he had nothing further to do but to take care of the Government of his Realm in his absence and this he left to his Mother Queen Blanch the most able Woman and most capable of Governing of any of her time after which he went according to the Custom of those Ages to St. Dennis to receive the Oristame the Scarf and the Pilgrim's Staff which he did in great Solemnity for he parted from Paris upon the Friday after Whitsunday in the year 1248. accompanied with the two Princes his Brothers the Legate year 1248 and the most part of the Princes of the Crusade being preceded by all the Processions of the whole City which were followed by an infinite number of People who all in tears marched from the Palace to the Nunnery of St. Antonina singing Psalms and Letanies for the prosperity of his Voyage From thence he went by Burgundy to Lyons where he made his Entry with all manner of Magnificence for never any King was better acquainted with the Art of making his Royal Majesty most conspicuous in those Publick Ceremonies where he was minded to shew it and the Historians of that Age inform us that among other remarkable Circumstances of this Magnificent Entry there were an hundred Knights who being compleatly armed and mounted upon their great charging Horses caparisoned with their Coat Armor according to the manner of those times marched before him with their Swords drawn in their hands and this is that which our present King who in Magnificience and Grandeur surpasseth all his Predecessars hath revived in our dayes to render to the Majesty of our Kings that which St. Lewis himself as great a Saint as he was judged necessary upon some occasions for the manifesting his Lustre and his Greatness After this the Holy King having again conferred with the Pope who kept his Court at Lyons descended by the Rhone and went to take Shipping with the Queen upon the twenty fifth of August at Aigues-Mortes where the greatest part of his Fleet waited for him the remainder being at Marseilles there to take in the rest of his Army After which setting sail
and that he would dispense with this Article of their Rule from which they could every day dispense with themselves in other points that were much more Essential For the Lord Joinville who executed his Orders most punctually going into one of their Gallies with a good Hatchet which he had already lifted up to break open one of their strong Coffers in the name of the King the Marshal of the Temple who found that he would be obeyed caused the Keys to be given him and thereupon he took out what Money he pleased and the King who was very well satisfied with the Action instantly caused to be paid to the Sarasins not only the thirty thousand Livres which was wanting of the Sum which was due but also ten thousand more of which they had cheated themselves without perceiving it in weighing the Money in their Scales So exact was this incomparable Prince religiously to observe his Word and Faith even to those who had none themselves and who had so brutally violated that which they had given him with so many horrible Oaths After which the Count de Poitiers whom the Sarasins set at Liberty being come up to the Road which Philip Count de Montfort where the King who after the Money was paid was now gotten and staid for them they set Sail and in a few Days came happily to an Anchor in the Port of Ptolemais where this great Prince was received with as much Joy for his deliverance as there had been sorrow for his Captivity THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The General Consternation all over France upon the News of the King's Imprisonment the Tumult the Shepherds their Original their Disorders and Defeat St. Lewis after his deliverance performs his Articles with great Justice The Admirals fail on their part The Original of the Hospital of the Fifteen Score The Councel debates the matter of the King's return The Reasons on the one side and the other It is at last concluded for his stay in Palestine Four Famous Ambassages to St. Lewis from Pope Innocent from the Sultan of Damascus from the Ancient of the Mountain and from the Emperor Frederick The Death of that Emperor and the different Opinions thereupon An Error of St. Lewis who loseth a fair opportunity of making use of one Party of the Sarasins to ruin the other The Election of a Mamaluke Sultan The gallant Actions of St. Lewis in Palestine The Death of Queen Blanch and the return of the King into France The Rupture and War between the Venetians and Genoese occasions the loss of the Holy Land The Conquests of Haulon Brother to the great Cham stops the Progress of the Sarasins The Relation of the Mamaluke Sultans They vanquish the Tartars which ravage Palestine The Character of Sultan Bendocdar the great Enemy of the Christians His Conquests upon them His Cruelty and the Glorious Martyrdom of the Souldiers of the Garrison of Sephet and of two Cordeliers and a Commander of the Temple The taking and Destruction of Antioch by this Sultan The quarrels between the Popes and the Princes of the House of Suabia obstruct the Succours of the West The Histories of Pope Innocent and the Emperor Conrade of Pope Alexander and Mainfrey against whom he vainly publishes Crusades The History of Charles d' Anjou to whom Pope Urban the Successor of Alexander and Pope Clement the Fourth give the Realms of Naples and Sicily as Fieffs escheated to the Church by Felony His Exploits his Battles and his Victories over Mainfrey and Conradin The deplorable Death of that young Prince The Victories of Charles cause the Pope and St. Lewis to entertain a Design for a new Crusade An Assembly at Paris about that Affair where the King the Princes and Lords take upon them the Cross All other Nations decline the Crusade The Collusion of the Emperor Michael Paleologus The Condition of the King's Army The Resolution taken to Attack Tunis and the Reasâ—ns wherefore The Description of Tunis and Carthage The taking of the Port the Tower and the Castle of Carthage The Malady makes great Destruction in the King's Army His Death Elogy and Character The Arrival of Charles King of Sicily The Exploits of the Army The Treaty of Peace with the King of Tunis who becomes Tributary to Charles The return of the two Kings their Fleet is horribly beaten by a Tempest Prince Edward of England saved his Vow to go to the Holy Land His Voyage his Exploits and his return The vain indeavours of Pope Gregory the Tenth for a new Crusade The second Council of Lyons The last causes of the loss of the Holy Land The quarrel among the Christian Princes for the Succession to the Kingdom of Jerusalem The Death of Bendocdar The defeat of his Successor by the Tartars The hopes of the recovery of all Palestine by the Arms of King Charles of Anjou ruined by the sad accident of the Sicilian Vespers The new division among the Princes and the Progress of the Mamaluke Sultans The Relation of the lamentable Siege and the taking of Acre by these Barbarians All the other places are lost and the Christians of the West wholly driven out of Palestine and Syria The vain and fruitless attempts which have since been made to renew the Crusades year 1250 WHilest matters went thus in the East the news which was received in France of the two Victories which the King had gained near Massora was followed with a false report which was currant of the defeat of the Sultan and the taking of Grand Caire And this coming from the Court of the Pope to whom the Bishop of Marseilles who had seen it in Letters Written to the Commandator of the Hospital of St. John had sent it Men being apt easily to believe that which they passionately desire there was no doubt made but it was true so that all was full of rejoycing even then when upon the suddain they were obliged to change this excessive joy into an extreme afflicton by the certain intelligence which they received of the loss of the whole Christian Army and the Captivity of the King and all the Princes And this Affliction was followed by most furious disorders year 1250 which were occasioned by the illusion and folly of some and the extreme Wickedness of others who made use of the simplicity of the former to commit with impunity the most detestable Crimes under the false pretences of Zeal and Piety for the deliverance of the King In Germany a Troop of Vagabonds mingled with young People and the Scum and Refuse of the Peasantry ran all over crying that they must make a Crusade for the deliverance of the Ring of France And a certain Hungarian Apostate of the Cistercian Order one of the most prosligate Villains in the World but very able and Learned in many Languages put himself at the
Money to pay the Crusades came to nothing and seeing himself straitned by that Prince who joyning with the Rebells of the Church had constrained him to withdraw to Orvieta he had at last recourse to France He therefore made new Offers and Solicitations to Count Charles of Anjou and Provence to accept the Realms of Sicily and Naples as Fiefs escheated to the Church by the Felony of the Princes of Suabia who had injoyed them after the Normans And that he might do this more effectually he sent the Arch-Bishop of Cosenca into England to redemand from the King and Prince Edmond his Son the Right which he had invested him within these Kingdoms to which they could now no longer pretend since they had not accomplished the conditions upon which it was granted After which Simon de Brie Cardinal of St. Cecily passed as Legate into France to bestow the Investiture upon Charles who accepted of it by the King's consent and upon the pressing Solicitations of the Countess Beatrix his Lady who was ready to die with longing to be a Queen as well as her three other Sisters who had been so for a long time He therefore promised the Cardinal that he would presently March with a Powerful Army against Mainfrey And accordingly after that Clement the Fourth the Successor of Vrban had confirmed his Election he Sailed from Marseilles with thirty Stout Men of War and arrived safe at Rome where he expected his Land Army which this new Queen like a Female Hero led over the Alps quite through Italy receiving all the way as she passed the Auxiliary Troops of the Guelphs and being come thither she was Crowned Queen as the Count was King of Naples and Sicily in the Church of St. John of Latran by five Cardinals delegated by the Pope for the performance of that Ceremony he himself being then at Perusa After which the new King at the Head of his Army took the Field and forcing the passage of Goriglian and the Fortress of St. German he Marched directly towards the Enemy and in short gave Mainfrey Battle near Beneventum The Battle was bravely fought by Mainfrey who shewed himself a great Captain and Valiant Souldier but in Conclusion he lost it abundance of his gallant Men and he himself remaining among the Dead After which the young Conradin who was now about fifteen years of Age coming with a flourishing Army of Germans strengthened with the Gibelins of Tuscany and Lombardy attempted to recover the Inheritance of his Father but not being able to pursue the advantage which he had intirely at the beginning of the Battle which he fought against Charles he lost all For Charles who knew how to improve his error to his own advantage in conclusion won the Day from him near the Lake of Celano in a second Victory more Glorious and Compleat than the first But his Policy without doubt too severe not to say inhumane in this Rencontre made him dishonour it by cutting off the head of this unfortunate young Prince and that of Frederick of Austria by a Conduct which had nothing in it of the Genius and nature of St. Lewis or of the French Lords who all condemned this Action as Posterity will certainly do and which as it fails not to do justice to the good or evil Actions of Princes will certainly never pardon to his Memory In the mean time the great progress which the Sarasins daily made in the East against the Christians of Syria during the troubles of the West arriving at Rome the Popes Vrban and Clement failed not to write to St. Lewis and to the other Kings to pursue the Crusade which had been begun against these Barbarians But those which the Popes were obliged at the same time to publish against the Princes of Suabia and the Wars of Italy obstructed the doing of any thing effectually towards the General Crusade till such time as Charles after his two great Victories was peaceably established in the possession of his two Kingdoms For then the troubles of Italy being appeased year 1268 and Peace settled throughout all Europe the Pope and the King by agreement took up the design of that Crusade which it was impossible to execute whilest the private ones were published against Mainfrey King Lewis as much St. as he was could not hinder himself from retaining a boiling displeasure for the unhappy Success of his attempt upon Egypt and moreover inflamed as he was with a Zeal for the House of God he was wonderfully afflicted with sorrow to hear every Day that Bendocdar was ready to swallow up all and to chase the Christians wholly out of the Holy Land of Palestine It was therefore his passionate desire to take up the Cross again and to imploy the remainder of his Days in combating against the Enemies of Jesus Christ for the reconquering of his Inheritance which was almost intirely lost But in regard he was unwilling it should be said that in a matter of this importance he acted by the sole movement of his own Inclinations he sent privately to Pope Clement one of his Confidents to Communicate to him his design and to desire him to send a Legate into France with Command to exhort him and all his Subjects to undertake the Holy War The Pope who was very Wise considering that this Great Prince had already done beyond what could be expected from a most Christian King in the War against the Infidels deliberated a long time about this Affair But at last having well examined the matter he kindly assented to the King's desire and highly approved of his Pious Design and consequently resolved not to lose so fair an opportunity to form a Holy League against Bendocdar to which in the beginning of his Pontificate he had exhorted not only all the Kings of Europe but also the King of Armenia and Abagas the King of the Tartars in Persia For this purpose therefore he sent Simon de Brie Cardinal of St. Cecily his Legate into France and the Cardinal Othobon into England with order to pass from thence as he also did into Spain and Portugal then he ordained as he had done formerly that the Religious of the orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis should Preach the Crusade through all Germany as far as Denmark and Poland But nothing of all this had any Success except only in France by the diligence the Care the Example and admirable Zeal of St. Lewis For so soon as the Legate was arrived this devout King called a general Assembly of the Princes Prelates and Barons of his Realm to his Royal Palace in Paris where with all his Power and Eloquence animated with his Ardent Zeal he himself exhorted the whole Assembly To take upon them again the Cross to avenge the Injuries which the Sarasins had for so long time done to Jesus Christ in the fairest part of his Empire and to maintain the Christians in their proper Inheritance out of which the Sultan of Egypt and
his Mamalukes the particular Enemies of the Name and Nation of France were upon the point of driving them unless they were speedily assisted He protested That he was resolved even tho he were abandoned by all the rest of the World in such a Noble Enterprise to pursue it vigorously himself and to imploy all that he had his Forces his Fortunes and his Life in this Glorious Service and that he should infinitely rejoyce to lose it in his Service who had laid down his precious Life for the Love which he had to Mankind in that precious spot of Earth for the Recovery whereof he exhorted all the French who he doubted not had doubtless the same Courage with which their Ancestors had so gloriously conquered it to take up their Arms and accompany him in this Noble Enterprise A Discourse of this Nature spoken with unexpressible Graces and by so great a King whose Age Experience Wisdom Equity and Love which he had for his People and above all his Eminent Sanctity rendred so much beloved and revered by his Subjects did so sensibly affect the Hearts of all the whole Assembly that after the Legate had made his Speech upon the same Subject and the King himself had with a Marvellous Devotion received the Cross the greatest part of the Princes and Lords following his Example also took it upon them The first among them were the three Princes his Sons Philip his Eldest John Tristan Count de Nevers and Peter Count d' Alenson Alphonso Count de Poitiers and Tholouse his Brother Thibald King of Navarr and Count Palatine of Champagne his Son-in-Law Robert Count d' Artois his Nephew John Son to the Duke of Bretany Son-in-Law to the King of England the Counts Guy of Flanders Philip of Nemours Guy de Laval and Philip de Montfort year 1268 The Lords de Courtenay de Beaujeu de Montmorenci de Harcour de Valeri de Neele d' Estrees de Longueval de Varennes de Clermont de Fiennes de Rochefort de Mirepoix de Cleri de St. Cler de Roye de Precigni de Chastenoy de Saux de Beaumout de Mailly de Vandieres de Lionne d' Auteil d' Orillac and the brave Oliver de Termes all Illustrious Names known and still reverenced in our days after so many Ages in the Persons who are honoured by them and who have done them Honour by their Merits These were followed by all the other Knights and Lords of the Assembly except only the Lord Joinville High Steward of Champagne who having had enough of the first Voyage dispensed with himself for the second alledging that by the first he had ruined his poor Subjects of the Lordship of Joinville and in the ill humour in which he was by reason of this second Undertaking which he did not at all approve he hath written very plainly That it was the opinion of many Learned Men that those who gave the King this Advice sinned mortally in regard that the King was so weak in Body and brought so low that he was but just in a condition to maintain that Peace and justice which by his presence he caused to flourish in his Kingdom and which would by his absence be most certainly banished from thence But this was not the opinion of Clement the Fourth who was esteemed one of the most learned and pious Popes which the Church had ever had and who St. Lewis having consulted him concerning this Voyage extremely approved of it as did also the Confessor of this Holy King And this makes it evident That in all times the most severe Casuists have not always been the most knowing nor the safest advisers in difficult matters After this great Action St. Lewis applied himself with an indefatigable Zeal to dispose all things for the Crusade sparing neither diligence pains nor cost to put it into a condition to have better Success than he had met with in his first Voyage and to draw along with him not only the French his own Subjects but also such of other Nations as were willing to share with him in the Enterprise And for this purpose he did what was possible in conjunction with the Pope to make an Accord between the Venetians and the Genoese that so they might enter with him into this Holy Vnion But it was all Labour in vain for these two Republicks whose difference occasioned so many mischiefs to Palestine had too much animosity one against the other to unite so easily or so quickly As for the Venetians who had at first treated with him for his passage they at last excused themselves from furnishing him with Shipping by the fear which they said they had that the Sultan of Egypt resenting it should seize upon all their Effects within his Ports But the Genoeses who always ran counter to their Enemies and who upon this occasion acted more nobly offered him theirs He also by his Royal Liberality obliged Edward Prince of England to take up the Cross a Prince whom he highly valued for his Spirit and his Valour and gave him thirty thousand Marks in Silver to put him into an Equipage to accompany him like a great Prince offering the same Sum to James King of Arragon who had some years before taken upon him the Cross The Pope also on his side did not fail to excite the Kings and Princes of Europe as also the Greek Emperor by the Example of St. Lewis to joyn their Arms with those of this great King for the deliverance of the Holy Land from the oppression of the Sultan of Egypt who wanted not above two or three Cities to be Master of all that the Christians possessed in Syria Palestine and Egypt since the time that they were conquered by Godfrey of Bullen but all was in vain Ottocare the King of Bohemia the Dukes of Saxony Bavaria and Brunswick Otho Marquess of Brandenburg and divers others whom Clement excited to take the Cross and some of which had already taken it were so incumbred by the Schism of the Empire and besides so exasperated by the Death of Conradin which for a long time rendred the Name of the French odious to them that they could not be perswaded to entertain a thought of uniting with them in the Holy War The King of Castile who disputed the Empire and whose Brother had been taken with Conradin was in the same opinion The King of Portugal Alphonso the Third took the Cross indeed and abtained a Grant to receive the Tenths of all the Goods of the Church in his Realm for the Holy War but after all he performed nothing year 1269 James the King of Arragon made the fairest advances in the World towards this War He protested in the Assembly of the Princes at Toledo That he would accomplish his Vow although his Age seemed to dispense with him for it and notwithstanding all that could be done to divert him from it He promised at Valentia to the Ambassadors of the Greek Emperor and to those of
Abagas King of the Tartars that he would go in Person into Palestine against the Sultan Bendocdar He also caused a fair Fleet of Men of War to be fitted out at Barcelona and a great many Gallies and imbarked himself in the beginning of September one thousand two hundred sixty nine a year before St. Lewis But being near the Isles of Majorca and Minorca met with a furious Tempest which threw him upon the Coasts of Languedoc he went no farther than Aigues-Mort from whence he returned by Land into his own Kingdom alledging for the hiding of a certain shameful and criminal Passion which governed his Soul and which possibly was the true cause of his altering his resolution That he was well satisfied that God dispensed with him for his Voyage which he made known by this accident was not at all pleasing to him so that there were only some few Ships of this Fleet which arrived at Ptolemais with Dom Ferdinand Sancho the Son of this King who presently after returned again without doing any thing As for what concerned the Greek Emperor he acted in this occasion only like a Politician for his own private Interest without ever intending to have any share in this War This Emperor was Michael Paleologus who about eight years before had taken Constantinople by Treachery from the Latins who lost that Empire under Baldwin the Second which Baldwin the First had so gloriously conquered with the French and Venetians about fifty eight years before This Greek Prince who feared to be attack'd on the side of Asia by Bendocdar after that Sultan should have conquered Syria and Palestine and who was already on the Coast of Greece by the New King of Sicily did all that possibly he could with the Pope and the Princes of the West to ingage them in a War against the Sarasins And in regard that the Pope had written to him That the way to secure himself from the Arms of the Latin Princes was to unite the Greek Church with the Latin and to go in Person as did St. Lewis to this Holy War he promised Shipping Provisions and Souldiers and all that could be desired for the War He also sent his Ambassadors into France offering to make the King the Arbiter of the difference which was about the Re-union of the two Churches but St. Lewis who would not undertake to be Judge in a matter of this nature which was purely spiritual remitted him to the Judgment of the Sacred College the Holy See being then vacant by the Death of Pope Clement who deceased about the end of the preceding year But after all this Emperor who was extreme politick had no desire or design either to make a true Re-union or to joyn with the Latin Princes in the Holy War All his Design was only to engage them in a Crusade and thereby to deliver himself from the fear which he had of the Sarasins and the King of Sicily So remote are the Intentions of Princes who act purely according to the Maxims of human Policy from what they seem to appear to those with whom they negotiate with a design to delude them And for the King of England to whom the Pope had at first sent the Cardinal Othobon his Legate he was too far advanced in years and too much oppressed with his own Affairs by reason of the troubles of his Realm to be in a condition to perform the Vow which he had made in taking upon him the Cross and to acquit himself of the Promise by which he was ingaged to the King to accompany him in this War with five hundred Knights for whom the King gave him a years pay in hand and believed that without restoring the Money he satisfied fully for all in giving his Blessing to his Son Prince Edward who not being in a condition to enter upon Action till after the Death of St. Lewis was able to do almost nothing in Palestine Thus of above two hundred and fifty thousand men which were levied in Europe there were none but the Troops of St. Lewis which were about sixty thousand men and the few Spaniards which went with the King of Navarr his Son-in-Law which were in a condition to pursue this Voyage Nevertheless he undertook it with so much resolution as if he had had the Forces of the whole Earth year 1269 The difficulty was only to resolve whither he should go and after having a long time conferred upon this Affair with the Ambassadors of the King of Sicily he resolved at last to go first against Tunis before he undertook to attack the Sultan of Egypt It was for this purpose represented to the King that he ought to begin with the Realm of Tunis if he would go immediately as in reason one ought to do to the Spring and the Root of the Mischief in regard that it was from Tunis that the Sultans of Egypt drew their principal Forces their Horses and the best of their men And besides that in leaving this Kingdom in their Reer as they must do if they marched directly against Egypt or into Palestine they must expose themselves to the hazard of losing their Convoys and the Supplies which were to come from Europe which would run the Fortune of being defeated and taken by the Shipping of these African Pirates who were continually crusing upon the Seas There were also many other Politick Considerations added which are easie to be found out when People are resolved to maintain an Opinion But in Truth that which was most prevalent was that the Inclinations of the two Kings were both conformable to this Enterprise for two very different Reasons For Lewis who like a great Saint regulated all his Actions by the Principles of Piety and Christianity believed that in shewing himself before Tunis that Moorish King who had given him hopes of his Conversion would turn Christian and be baptized which the King most passionately desired as appeared by what he said to the Ambassadors of that Prince whom he commanded to acquaint their Master That he would be contented with all his heart to be a Slave to the Sarasins again and to pass the rest of his Life in the most dreadful of their Dungeons and never more to see the Sun provided that the King of Tunis would with his whole Realm embrace the Faith of Jesus Christ But Charles who was more Politick than Devout resolved to make use of such a fair opportunity to assure himself of that Realm which without doubt was very convenient for the security of the Coasts of Naples and Sicily Thus the two Brothers resolved each upon the same thing though both of them for private Reasons which they did not impart to any Persons but only concluded upon the Enterprise against Tunis the King who fore-saw that it would not meet with a general approbation reserved the Declaration of his Resolution till he came to Cagliari in the Isle of Sardinia at which place he had appointed the Rendezvous of
of War in Africa and that they wanted refreshments and above all fresh Water which is very scarce in that Country Diseases and especially the Flux and Fevers fell into the Army and in a short time made a most fearful destruction The greatest part of the bravest and youngest men of the Army were unable to resist the violence of this terrible Enemy which daily carried off abundance of them And among the rest John Tristan Count de Nevers a Young Prince of about twenty years of Age died upon the third of August and the King his Father who loved him most tenderly although it was a most sensible Affiction to him yet sacrificed it to the Will of Heaven with the resignation and constancy of a Christian Hero The Cardinal Legate did not survive the Young Prince above four or five days and Philip the eldest Son of St. Lewis was also seized with a quartan Ague of which by the Strength of his Age and the heat of the season he was quickly delivered But the King his Father who had already fallen into the Flux being shortly after seized with a continual Fever left the whole Army languishing with extreme Grief for his death which happened the five and twentieth day of August after he had received the Sacrament with an admirable Presence of Mind an incomparable Piety and Sedateness of Spirit having nothing in his heart or upon his lips but the Glory of God for which only he had undertaken this Voyage He was constantly saying with a dying but Intelligible Voice to those who applyed their Ear to his Mouth to receive his last words For the Love of God let us indeavour some way to have our Holy Faith preached and received at Tunis Ah! My God whom shall we find to send thither to declare thy Gospel It must be such a one would be say naming a certain Religious of the Order of St. Dominick who was known to the King of Tunis and with these Zealous Ejaculations and this Apostolick fervency which he had for the conversion and salvation of Tunis he rendred his pious Soul into the hands of Almighty God precisely at the same hour that Jesus Christ gave up his to his Father making the same wishes for the Salvation of the whole world I have believed that in the quality of an Historian of the Crusades I was obliged in giving an account of the death of St. Lewis to recount this admirable circumstance which is so essential to my Subject since it shews so well what was the end which he proposed to himself in forming this Enterprise of Tunis and for the other particularities which in such a wonderful manner appeared in his death and all that which is so precious before God in the death of the greatest Saints as they do not properly began to my Crusades I leave them as well as the other admirable and Holy Actions of his miraculous life to those able Writers who so many years ago have promised us and who as I hope will write it exactly after so many Originals and so many Copies as the Writers of his own and the following times have left us I shall only add to give some Idea of his Body and of his Mind that he was then about the Age of five and fifty years of a middle Stature and a delicate Complexion but which he had greatly weakned by his great Austerities His Visage was something long but full his Forehead large and Majestick his head a little inclining to one side his Eyes extreme sweet his Mouth little and pleasing his Speech easie and very agreable and in his whole Person an Air of Goodness so winning and so charming especially in a King that it was impossible to look upon him without loving him or to love him without paying him that respect which was due to the Majesty of so great a Prince And for the Qualities of his Soul whether Natural or acquired one may say That there are few Princes who have possessed them in those high Degrees of Perfection as he did for he had an admirable composure of Spirit quick and clear and which he had cultivated by the Study of polite Learning and a solid Judgement so that he was always the most able Person of his Council always penetrating further than any of them when any difficult matter was under consideration having very easie conceptions of things and expressing himself extempore with much Gracefulness and Ingenuity year 1270 whatever he had to deliver governing much by himself especially after his return from the Holy Land but yet never acting but with the advice of his Council except in the Treaty which he made with the English to whom to oblige them to quit the rest he surrendred Guienne and Gascony not out of any scruple as Nangis writes since he himself acknowldged in Council that the Kings of England could not pretend any Right to them but for Peace sake although herein his Policy was much mistaken by reason that this Treaty having brought a Stranger into France brought a War upon it which lasted above two hundred years before he could again be expelled out of it This indeed is the only blemish with which St. Lewis can be reproached for having in this occasion contrary to the advice of his Council suffered himself to be too far misled by the Goodness of his Nature For as for any thing else there was nothing to be found in his Life but an admirable composure of all Royal and Christian Vertues in a most exact Temperament For he was the most valiant courageous fearless firm and immoveable in the midst of the greatest dangers and withal the most sweet pacifick kind and most easie of Mankind Austere humble modest devout respectful to the Holy See zealous for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls retired patient and mortified above all that is admired in the most Apostolick Men and the most Renowned among Recluses for their penitent Life and yet nowithstanding at the same time he was obliging affable complaisant and of an agreable humour in his Conversation familiar with his Confidents easie in his Domestick Affairs an admirable Husband an indulgent Father a sure Friend a good Master and a most excellent King loving his Subjects and reciprocally beloved by them firm and inexorable in causing Justice to be done his Ordinances and Laws to be observed Jealous of the Rights of his Crown and those of the Gallican Church conformable to the Common Law against all the abuses all the Novelties and the indeavours of such as would shock them he was liberal and magnificent in the ordinary expences of his Houshold in Ceremonies and publick entertainments which upon certain occasions he made very much to the Honour of France with a Splendor and Majestick Pomp far surpassing all his Predecessors which made him be equally admired both by the French and strangers In short there was never seen a more perfect accord than what appeared in this admirable Monarch
of Royal Majesty mingled with true Sanctity of Christianity without Illusion without Weakness and without Defaults And I cannot tell whether one can find another of whom may be said with so much Justice what I have said of this Christian Hero to finish in one word his Character and his Elogy That he Was the greatest King of a Saint and the greatest Saint of a King that ever any age hath known The Army of France was under an extreme consternation for the death of the Holy King and for the Indisposition of Philip his Successor and their was great probability that they should in that very moment abandon this unlucky Enterprise if the King of Sicily who was in a great measure by his long delay the Cause of this ill Success had not by a strange adventure arrived with a fair Fleet at the very same time that his Brother the King breathed out his last As he was a great Captain and that his Army which was composed of Neapolitans Sicilians and Provencals was very fresh and he having still in his head his first design to assure himself of the Kingdom of Tunis in at least making the Sarasin King become his Tributary he easily persuaded the French that it was for their Honour to finish the War which they had begun with so much Courage and which they might bring to a happy period being strengthened by the Conjunction of such a Potent Army as desired nothing so much as to be led to the Combat against the Sarasins Hereupon the Army advanced towards Tunis to block it up more closely and for three Months there were every day some little Encounters with the Moors who always went off with disadvantage And it is also reported that they were once overthrown in a set Battle that their Camp was taken and plundered and that such of them as fled thinking to save themselves in the City blindly precipitated themselves into those trenches which they had digged in the Fields with a design to have the Christians fall into them but in regard those of our Historians who writ in those times say nothing of any such matters I dare not be confident of the truth of them year 1268 That which is very certain is That the King of Tunis seeing that the Christians daily gained upon him and that he was always beaten fearing that in conclusion he should lose his Kingdom he sent to desire a Peace or at least a Truce offering to submit to such conditions as the two Kings themselves should judge to be fair and reasonable This matter was long debated in the Council of War in which many were of opinion that the Siege ought to be vigorously pressed on without hearkning at all to the Proposition of the Sarasin King who they said after the losses which he had sustained was in no Condition for any long time to defend the City But the King of Sicily remonstrated to them That if they should take the Town of which they were not to be too confident yet it was impossible for them to keep it in regard That though the whole Army might be commodiously quartered there it being now very near Winter they could not receive either from Italy or Sicily so much provision as was necessary for the subsistence of the Troops and that if they left there only a Garrison it would not be able to defend it against all the Forces of Africa which would most certainly attack it And therefore he concluded that the way for them to come off with Honor and safety in this Affair was rather to treat with the King of Tunis in an honourable and advantageous manner and like Conquerors rather to give him Law than to put themselves into the manifest danger of losing all Thus in regard that King Philip was also very willing to go as soon as he could to take possession of his Kingdom a Truce of ten years was concluded with this Insidel Prince upon these following Conditions That he should presently pay a round sum of Money upon which they were agreed to defray the Charges of the War That he should deliver all the Christian Slaves which were in his whole Realm That he should permit the Religious of the Orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis to preach the Gospel and to build Monasteries there and to all his Subjects Liberty to receive Baptism And that he should yearly pay to King Charles a Tribute of forty thousand Crowns which was the sum that the King paid to the Pope for the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily See what were the aims of Charles for his private Interest and what it was which made many honest People murmur against him as beleiving that he had no mind to take Tunis because he could not hope to dispose of it as he pleased and that he had not advised this War but for his own Ends to make this Sarasin King his Tributary Prince Edward of England also who arrived before Tunis with his Fleet at the same time that this Treaty was concluded could not hinder himself from making the extreme displeasure which he had at it appear publickly especially when he saw that the Fleets of France and Sicily without thinking any further of their principal design which was the Holy War were upon the point of returning home And indeed so soon as the King of Tunis who was very desirous to quit himself of these People who had put him into the fear of losing his Capital City and his Kingdom had delivered the Captives and paid the Money which was agreed upon by the Treaty the two Kings imbarked Philip with the Bones of his Father which according to the Custom of those times were separated from the Flesh and Charles with the Flesh and Entrals of that Holy King which he caused afterwards to be magnificently interred in the Church of the Abby of Montreal near Palermo And certainly it was very advantageous to these two Kings that they carried with them in their Ships the Sacred Remains of that Saint which preserved them from that Lamentable Wreck which the greatest part of the others suffered in View of the Port of Trepano in Sicily eighteen of the biggest men of War and a great number of smaller Vessels with all the Money which was received of the King of Tunis and above four thousand men were cast away in this Tempest and it was not without great difficulty that the Kings were able to make the Port of Trepano where Thibald King of Navarr who was sick before when he came from Tunis in a few days after his landing died Queen Isabella his Wife the Daughter of St. Lewis did not survive him long for about four Months after she died at Yeres in Provence And for King Philip having taken his way by Land as far as Messina he passed over into Italy and so crossing quite through it and France he came to St. Dennis year 1270 whither he brought the Relicks of the King St. Lewis his Father
and finding themselves without a Commander they fell into all their former Quarrels and Disorders insomuch that the Sarasins who had already made themselves Masters of two or three Towers giving a General Assault upon the eighteenth Day of May carried the City first by the Gate of the Cursed Tower and after by all the other passages which those of the City basely abandoned presently after to save themselves upon the Ships But nevertheless there were but a very few that escaped who threw themselves first into the Ships and who with the King of Cyprus and the principal among the Knights and the Officers of the Nations arrived at last in the Isle after having been in great danger of perishing by a dreadful Storm which overtook them in their passage for by a surcharge of Misfortune the Sea ran so high that Day that the greatest part of those who to avoid the Swords of the Sarasins threw themselves into the Water thinking to gain the Ships were Drowned The Patriarch himself who had already boarded a Gally upon which he was just going to imbark desiring out of his Charity to take into his Skiff as many as he could of these miserable People which were in Shoals got into the Water to come to the Ships was sunk to the bottom by the too great Number with which the Boat was loaden and at least at his Death did the Office of the good Shepherd who gives his Life for his Sheep although he could not thereby save theirs by dying for them in this manner All the rest were exposed to the fury of these Barbarous Victors who filled all with Death and Slaughter making Slaves of all those whom the Sword spared after they had by all manner of Disorders and Violence glutted their insatiable Cruelty and Lust There were there always a certain Number of Virgins consecrated to God who nevertheless found out a Marvellous way to preserve their Virginity inviolated even by the assistance of these Enemies of their Honor year 1291 the Barbarous ravishers For the Abbess of the Nunnery which was of the Order of St. Clare seeing that the City was taken and that they could not escape the hands of the Sarasins whose Cruelty was less terrible than their brutish Lust she exhorted her Daughters with a most Heroick Courage and an admirable servor of Spirit to imitate her example if they would preserve that treasure which ought to be a thousand times dearer to them than their Lives And thereupon she cut of her own Nose making her self horribly deformed in the Eyes of Men to be admirably beautiful in the sight of God whom only she desired to please All the others doubtless animated by a like inspiration of the Holy Spirit which had formerly inspired a Holy Abbess in England in the same manner did presently the same Execution upon themselves by their Blood to extinguish the brutish Flames of these Barbarians who finding them in this condition which gave them a horror they instantly Murdered them all and by this obliging Cruelty gave them the means to add the Palm of Martyrdom to that of their Virginity and as the Scripture expresseth it to wash their Robes in the Blood of the Lamb to have the Honor to follow him The Cordeliers who were their spiritual Fathers and had a fair Convent in Ptolemais were also all Slain without Pity and above sixty thousand perished in this fatal loss of the City or were carried Captives into Egypt The next Day which was the nineteenth of the Month the Templers who yet held the principal Tower of the Temple after having cut in pieces three hundred Sarasins who were entred into their quarter and who during a Capitulation had attempted the Honor of the Ladies had a destiny like that of Sampson For they were all overwhelm'd with the fall of their Tower which was overthrown with the Sape and which Buried with them under the same Ruines the Enemies which did Attack them Thus the Famous Ptolemais which had been taken a hundred years before by Philip the August King of France and by Richard Coeur-de-Lyon King of England after having maintained a Siege of three years against more than three hundred thousand Crusades who came thither successively was retaken by the Sultan of Egypt in four and forty Days and with it the Christians lost all their Courage and their Judgment to that degree as to suffer all that remained to them in Syria and the Holy Land to follow the same or rather a more shameful Fortune than that of Ptolemais For those who might very well have defended Tyre a City which was extremely strong forsook it and fled away upon their Ships so soon as they heard the sad news of the loss of Ptolemais so that the next Day the Sarasins entred it without resistance The Templers which were in Sidon and in the Pilgrims Castle did the same upon seeing one of the Lieutenants of Melech-Seraph prepare to besiege them by Sea And those of Baruth trusting to this perfidious Emir who had promised to treat them as Friends if in his passage through their Lands they would repair to him were all either cut in pieces or sent in Chains to suffer a miserable Captivity in Egypt And thus these four Maritime places being all that remained to the Christians in the Holy Land after the taking of Ptolemais were also lost and it was precisely at this time that they were wholly chased from thence a hundred ninety and two years after that Godfrey of Bullen and the other Princes of the Crusade had so gloriously Conquered and founded this Realm which continued for near two hundred years under fifteen or sixteen Kings And this makes it appear that it cannot be absolutely said that the Crusades were unfortunate no more than that by the same reason it can be maintained that the enterprises of the great Cyrus were not prosperous because the Monarchy of the Persians which he founded by his Conquests did not last more than two hundred years under thirteen Kings But such is the fatality of all Earthly things which after their Birth and Establishment increase and continue till a certain Period which Nature or rather Divine Providence hath prefixed to them as the term of their perfection after which they decrease either insensibly as in natural productions or else suddainly by some great Revolution of Fortune by which they cease to be what they had never been but upon that necessary condition of fatality that one Day they are to be no more As for the rest the Victorious Sultan that he might take from the Christians the hopes and the desire to recover what they had lost year 1291 and to hinder them for the future from becoming Masters of the Sea by the taking or any of these Maritime places he demolished burnt and overthrew from the very Foundations all these Cities as well as Ptolemais which having been one of the fairest Cities of the World but also one of the most
wicked is no more at present but a miserable remnant of ruins the greatness whereof make apparent both that of the City when it was in its flourishing estate and that of the terrible punishment which it drew upon it self by its Enormous Crimes This sad news of so great and unexpected a loss did wonderfully surprize Pope Nicholas the fourth who for above a year last past had used all imaginable industry to form a general Crusade of all the Christians of the West against the Mamalukes who continually threatned Palestine He had with powerful Sollicitations invited all the Kings of Europe into it and had prevailed so well that Edward King of England had declared himself chief thereof and had made great preparations throughout his whole Kingdom to put himself into a Condition to march at the time which this good Pope had named which was at the Feast of St. John Baptist in the year one thousand two hundred and ninety three When in the mean time he understood that the Christians had lost all in Syria in the Month of May one thousand two hundred ninety one This was like a mighty clap of thunder which did mightily amaze him but which nevertheless did not hinder him from redoubling his endeavours by his Letters by his Legates and by his Preachers whom he dispatched to all places to excite the Christians to take upon them the Cross and to unite the Princes of the East and West and even the Kings of the Tartars the Iberians Georgians and Armenians with their forces in the design to recover together from their Common Enemy what had been lost for want of this Union But the Evil being now believed to be desperate and without Remedy all that this Pope did and all that his Successors endeavoured to do afterwards upon this Subject was never able to produce one Crusade to procure the recovery of the Holy Land year 1296 Boniface the eighth upon the desire of Cassan King of the Tartars in Persia that the Princes of Europe would join with him in a War against the Sultan of Egypt writ indeed to them but in terms so high and lofty that there were not any who would take notice of them year 1311 Clement the fifth following the Example of his Predecessors acted in the Council of Vienna by the way of powerful exhortation and caused it to be ordained by a particular Decree that the Cross should be preached in all places for the recovery of the Holy Land and there were many of all Nations who took it upon them But as it was only a confused Multitude without any head of Reputation the Princes of those times having other interests than that of the Holy Land he gave them all absolution from their Vow and sent them back into their own Countries year 1328 That which was done upon the same Subject under Pope John the two and twentieth made a far greater Noise but produced no more effect This Pope who with a mighty passion desired the reestablishment of the Empire of the Christians in Palestine acted by Agreement for this noble end with King Philip de Valois who was then the most potent and renowned King of France especially after that glorious Victory which he obtained against the Flemmings at Cassel For this purpose he created Patriarch of Jerusalem the famous Doctor of Paris year 1330 Peter de la Palu a noble Burgundian or Brescian of the Illustrious House of the Lords of Varembon a Religious of the Order of St. Dominick and the King who had procured this Dignity for him in honour of his extraordinary Merit sent him presently after into Egypt with order to treat with the Sultan about the restitution of Jerusalem upon reasonable terms before he went to compel him to it by making War upon him with all the Forces of Europe And in the mean time Philip taking the opportunity of a Pilgrimage which he made to Marseilles to do honour to the sacred Relicks of St. Lewis Bishop of Tolouse his Kinsman went also to Avignion to conferr with the Pope concerning this great Affair where the Pope gave him the tenths of all the Ecclesiastical estates in France to be employed in the Holy War year 1334 But as this great Enterprise could not be so quickly put in Execution by reason of the troubles year 1334 which the fatal Schism of Lewis of Bavaria had raised in the Church Philip to whom the Patriarch of Jerusalem who was returned from his Ambassy had given an account of the Obstinacy of the Sultan of Egypt sent some time after to Avignion Peter de Roger Arch-Bishop of Roan a Prelate of consummate Wisdom and learning where at length a Pope was chosen to the throne of St. Peter by the name of Clement the sixth This great man very strongly harangued the Council upon the necessity of a general Crusade and upon the means which the King his Master had taken to make it successful to the glory of the Church provided that she would contribute her Authority to it He promised also with an Oath that this generous Prince should march within less than two years at the head of the Crusades so that the Pope declared him General of the Holy League and confirmed to him the Grant of the Tenths for six years and sent to him the Arch-Bishop with a most ample Commission to bestow the Cross and all the privileges and perogatives which the former Popes had granted to the other Crusades Thereupon the King in Ceremony received the Cross from the hands of the Prelate in his Chappel at Paris with John King of Bohemia and Philip King of Navarr who were then at his Court and so did the greatest part of the Barons of the Realm He also made his preparations with extreme application and excessive cost surpassing all that any of the Kings his Predecessors had done upon the like occasions causing to be rigged in several Ports the fairest Fleet that ever France had seen which was able to transport forty thousand men at Arms with their Horses and which was furnished with all sorts of Provisions in prodigious abundance He had also taken great care to publish this Crusade throughout Europe and had engaged the Kings of Arragon Majorca Sicily Cyprus and Hungary the Republicks of Venice and Genoa to joyn their Arms with his that they might all march together under his Conduct against the Sultan So that it was thought this mighty Army of Crusades would consist in three hundred thousand Combatants which already made the whole East to tremble and filled the whole Earth with the Glory of the name of France and the noise of such formidable preparations But as there is nothing more required to the fixing a mighty Engine and rendring it immoveable but to stop the secret Springs which give it that violent Impression which draws upon it the Eyes and admiration of the Spectators by its prodigious movement so the War which in the midst of these transactions Edward King
of England declared against Philip having stopped this Prince by obliging him to turn his Arms another way and to defend himself all this great Crusade about which he had taken such care and pains became vain and fruitless And all the forces of the Princes of Europe being divided between these two great Enemies England and France there remained none to go into Egypt and Syria to combat against the Enemies of Jesus Christ And thus the War which the English made with France and which at length drive them out of it hindred the War of the Holy Land which the French had undertaken to make against the Infidels from having a conclusion answerable to its beginning and the general expectation that thereby the Infidels should be chased out of the Inheritance of the Son of God year 1336 And this seems to me to be all that was any ways considerable which was ever done afterwards in regard of Palestine For the great endeavours which were afterwards made by the Pope's Nicholas the fifth Calixtus the third and Pius the Second for the Reunion of all Christians in a Holy War were not for the Recovery of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Matters then were far different and all the care was how to oppose the furious Torrent of the Conquests of the Ottoman Family Mahomet the Second after having taken Constantinople year 1453 already beginning to threaten Hungary Greece and Italy As for Syria it was ever abandoned from the time that the Christians had been chased out of it by the Sultan of Egypt after the taking of Ptolemais and much more after that Selim year 1494 the Emperor of the Turks conquered Palestine and Egypt from the Mamalukes The fear which there was that his Grand-Son Selim the Second after the Conquest of Cyprus should fall into Italy obliged Pope Pius the fifth Philip the Second King of Spain year 1571 and the Venetians to unite their Forces against such a dreadful Enemy against whom the famous Victory of Lepanto of which so little advantage was made signified nothing as to the regaining of Cyprus or any other of his Conquests from him It hath been frequently seen since that and even in our days that the French the Italians the Poles the Germans and Hungarians have united themselves against these fierce Ottomans who think of nothing so much as raising their Empire still higher upon the ruins of the Christians but these Unions have proceeded no further but to prevent them from pushing on their Conquests further rather than for the recovery of what they have gained and I know not by what inchantment it happens that the Turks have ever gained upon the Christians and that the Christians who are much Superior to them in Courage and Soul think they do enough if they resist them when they are attacked at their own doors without ever daring to undertake to go directly against them to snatch out of their hands what they have despoiled them of or to overturn their Empire I know there are Writers who have endeavoured to make such a Design appear not impossible to be executed according as they have imagined and chalked out the ways which ought to be taken to make it succeed without much difficulty which certainly were the most certain way to recover the Kingdom of Jerusalem As for my part who must acknowledge the deficiency of my Understanding in matters of War and Policy I shall not undertake to reason upon that Subject which is neither any part of my Profession nor design It sufficeth me that God hath done me the favour to permit me to finish an enterprise so difficult as this of writing at least with great fidelity and with all the exactness I have been able as I think I have done this present Work of the History of the Crusades for the deliverance of the Holy Land FINIS