the Miseries of the last Siege and fearing the same Tragedy would be acted over again set fire to the Houses and in the Night saved themselves by flight whereupon the French issued in and quenching the fire saved abundance of Treasure from the fury of the flames Which Loss so discouraged Meladine that to purchase Peace with the Christians he offered to restore them the whole Kingdom of Jerusalem in as ample a manner as ever it had been enjoyed by any of their Predecessors to release all Prisoners and disburse a great Sum of Money to defray the Charge of the War But such was their Pride and Folly that they refused to accept of it unless Alexandria the best Port in all Egypt were given them as an Over-plus the Pope's Legate and Robert Earl of Artois persuading them to grant Peace upon no other terms Wherefore the Turk seeing themselves in so desperate a condition their Extremity rendered their Sword the keener and made them provide with the greater resolution to defend their Country to the utmost About this time there arose a difference between the French and the English to the great prejudice of their Proceedings And Meladine King of Egypt died likewise the same Year and left his imbroiled Kingdom to Melcchsala his Son From Damiata the French marched up towards Cairo the Governor whereof being offended with the new King promised to deliver it into their hands And having passed an arm of the River Nilus Earl Robert marched forward with a third part of the Army and suddenly assaulted the Turks in their Tents whilst the King was absent and put them to flight which Victory so lifted him up with conceit that he adventured contrary to the advice of the Master of the Templers to set on the whole Turkish Power which lay incamped not far off without staying for the rest of the Army whereby he was utterly overthrown and as he was crossing the River in his flight found Water enough to drown him tho' not to wash away the stain of rashness and cowardize from his memory and our English Earl refusing to fly died fighting in the midst of his Enemies there escaping no more but four persons to carry News of this fatal overthrow to the rest of the Army It is easier for the Reader to conceive than for my Pen to express the general grief wherewith these doleful Tydings were received by the French among whom the Plague raged so furiously that it daily swept away Thousands And to increase their sorrow several sick persons whom the King had sent down the River to Damiata were set upon by the Egyptian King and having neither Hands to fight nor Legs to run were every one either burned or drowned except Alexander Gifford an English-man whose Name and Family still remains at Chellingworth in Stafford-shire who acquainted the French with what had happened They would now have been glad of those Terms which a little before they slighted but it was too late for the Turks now scorned to treat with them The French would have had the King provided for his own safety by flying back to Damiata But he refused and resolving to live or die overcome or perish with them marched forward to the fatal place where the last Battel was fought And whilst they were astonished at the sight of their mangled fellows the Egyptian King set upon them with an infinite number of men and put them all being but few in number and those very weak to the sword except Lewis and his two Brothers whom he took Prisoners The Turks having thus slain all the French Pilgrims instantly marched up with their Ensigns to Damiata hoping thereby to surprize it which if they had done King Lewis had been for ever lost But God disappointed them for they were easily discovered notwithstanding their disguise and forced to go away without their desire The News of this sorrowful Accident coming to Europe filled every one with grief and made Henry King of England who had made great preparation to undertake the Voyage to alter his mind and imploy his Money to a better use But to return to Egypt Melechsala did not long survive this Victory being slain soon after by Tanquemine a sturdy Mammaluke who succeeded him in the Egyptian Kingdom by whom King Lewis was released in exchange for Damiata being obliged besides the surrender of the City to pay many Thousand Pounds for the releasing of Christian Captives and to make satisfaction for the Damage done in Egypt for the securing whereof he was forced to pawn to the Turks the Pyx and Host whence it is that a Wafer-Cake and a Box is always wrote in the Borders of that Tapestry which we have brought us out of Egypt as a perpetual Memorial of that Victory But tho' Lewis was set at liberty yet he got not home till four years after CHAP. VIII The Mammalukes described The Death of Frederick The Conversion of the Tartars And the extinguishing the Caliphs of Babylon Charles made King of Sicily and Jerusalem King Lewis makes a second Voyage THose Mammalukes which had now seized on the Kingdom of Egypt were the Children of Christian-Parents which were by Saladine and his Successors taught the Mahometan Superstition and instructed in all Military Discipline at several Nurseries and being found by their Valour and Courage to be the chief support of the Turkish Kings were by them advanced to the chief places of profit and trust and thereby the better enabled to pull down their raisers Which was performed during the captivity of King Lewis by Tarquemine who slew Melechsala and thinking it unfit so great a Prince should go to the grave alone sent all his Children after him And was afterwards chosen by the rest of the Mammalukes King of Egypt whereupon he by their advice and consent made several Laws which were ever afterward observed by them as irrevokable The first whereof was That the Sultan or chief of the servile Empire should not succeed by Inheritance but be chosen out of the Mammalukes The second That none should be admitted into the Order of the Mammalukes that were born either of Turkish or Jewish Parents but only such as were born Christians The third was That tho' the Sons of Mammalukes should injoy their Fathers Lands and Wealth yet they should not take upon them the Name and Honour of a Mammaluke The fourth was That the Native Egyptians should be permitted the use of no other Weapons but such wherewith they were to fight against Weeds and Till and Manure their Land There were in this Government several things worthy admiration First That of Slaves they should act the King without playing the Tyrant Secondly That they should neglect their own Children when it is common for other men to idolize them and sacrifice all that they have to their welfare Thirdly That they should not fall out in the Election of their Kings in regard they were all equal among themselves Lastly That it should indure so
long for it lasted Two hundred sixty and seven Years till overcome by Selimus the great Turkish Emperour in the Year 1517. by the help of the Janizaries an Order of Men for Birth and Breeding not unlike themselves In that Year likewise it being a Year of great Revolutions died Frederick Emperour of Germany and King of Jerusalem whereupon followed an Interegnum in that Kingdom for fourteen Years together the right indeed lay in Conrade Frederick's Son by Jole King John's Daughter but he was so imployed in defending himself in Sicily against Maufred his Bastard Brother who quickly after dispatched him out of the way that he had no leisure to look after the fragments of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Near about this time a certain Hungarian Peasant said to have been an Apostate to Mahomet and well learned gathered together several Thousand people who took on them the Name and Habit of Pastorelli in imitation of those in the Gospel who were warned by Angels to go to Bethlehem they had the Holy Lamb for their Ensign and pretended to have intelligence from Heaven to march into the Holy Land but mistaking West for the East they shaped their course into France and committing several outrages that no way suited either with their Habit or Banner they were incountred near Burdeaux and threescore Thousand of them slain and the rest dispersed Things being now brought into a sad and deplorable condition in Syria without any hope of amendment behold a strange and unexpected accident revived them again For Haito King of Armenia taking the pains to travel himself to Margo the Great Cham of Tartaria to acquaint him with the danger he was in from the Turks as well as others telling him Tho' he lay something out of their way yet the only favour he must expect from them was to be last devoured whereupon he not only promised to assist the Christians in suppressing them but himself and by his example a great part of the Country imbraced the Christian Faith and thereupon sent Haalon his Brother with a great Army to suppress the Turks and assist the Christians in recovering what they had lost in the performing whereof his Army seemed to ride post conquering Persia in as little time as one can well travel it within six Months The City of Samarchanda was the only place that resisted him and therefore being unwilling to tempt his Fortune with a long siege he left it to one of his Captains who besieged it seven and twenty year and at last did not take it but had it surrendred to him Haalon having Conquered Persia marched to Babylon the Caliph whereof called Musteazem Idolized his wealth so much that he would not provide necessaries for the defence of the City so that it became an easie Conquest to this Tartarian Prince who having famished the Covetous Caliph to death filled his mouth with melted Gold and now Mosques every where went down and Churches went up from thence he went into Mesopotamia where having Conquered the City of Aleppo and Edessa he restored them to the Christians and many other places which he wan from the Turks whereby he so awed Melechem the Mammaluke who Succeeded Tarminus in Egypt that he durst not budg But of this Tartarian help they were altogether unworthy in regard they would not be at leasure to make use of it but busied themselves in private dissentions the Genoans and Ventians two states in Italy who had thrown of the Imperial Command and had erected themselves into commonwealths being not content to quarrel at home would needs go into Syria to fight it out there that so the Turks might look on and laugh at them the pretence of the quarrel was about superiority in the Church of St. Sabbas which was apointed by the Pope for them and the Pisans who likewise ingaged themselves in the quarrel somtimes siding with one side and some times with the other The Venetians being at length compelled by the Genoans to forsake the City were so incensed thereat that they came with thirteen Galleys and having forced asunder the chain which-crossed the Haven burned five twenty of the Genoans Ships that lay there to revenge which loss the state of Genoa sent a great Navy into Syria which meeting with the Duke of Venice at Tyre with the united power of the Venetians and Pisans being in all seventy four Vessels well provided would have set upon them in the Haven had not the Governour forbid it telling them that they should not fight under his nose but if they loved quarreling so well let them out and try their Fortunes in the open Sea which they did accordingly the manner of Sea-fights in those days before the thundering Ordnance was found out being only for one Vessel to run against another so that the the Ships were both Guns and Bullets themselves In which fight the Venetians prevailed destroying near thirty of the Genoans Ships and forcing the rest to save themselves in the Haven of Tyre Whereupon entering Ptolemais they expelled all the Genoans out of the City pulled down their Buildings and plundered all their Shops and Warehouses but after a ten years War they were at last reconciled in Palestine by the Authority of Pope Clement the fourth tho' their War lasted longer in Italy Charles Duke of Anjou and Brother to King Lewis was now made King of Sicily and Jerusalem by the Pope upon condition that he should conquer Maufred who then Reigned in Sicily and Molested His Holiness and root out all the remaining Race of Frederick and as an acknowledgment that he held those Kingdoms from the Pope pay him an annual pension of four some say forty thousand Pounds But having Conquered Maufred and possessed himself of Sicily he so little minded the regaining of Jerusalem that he never looked after it or came there at all which neglect gave an opportunity to Hugh King of Cyprus to furbish up his old Title to that Kingdom as Linealy descended from Almerick the second who coming to Ptolemais was there Crowned King of Jerusalem However the Christians affairs in Syria began now to hasten to their fatal Catastrophe and the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in a little time between two Kings wholly lost for Haalon the Tartarian Prince being sent for home to Succeed his Brother Mango who died without Issue left Abaga his Son with sufficient forces in the City of Damascus which he had likewise wan from the Turks who following his Father soon after substituted Guirboca his Lieutenant in Damascus who having his Nephew rashly slain by the Christians in an unhapy Broil about parting a great Booty taken from the Turks wholly renounced the Christian Religion together with all the Tartarians under his Command so that the Kingdom of Jerusalem having lost its best support soon after tumbled down Bondocdar who Succeeded Melechem in Egypt taking advantage of their being thus deserted by the Tartars took the City of Joppa all the inhabitants whereof he either
in the Temple of the Sepulchre leaving two Sons behind him Balder and Almerick the former being about Thirteen and the latter Eleveâ— years old CHAP. XIV The Reign of Baldwin the Third Of Fulcheâ— Patriarch of Jerusalem and the insoleâ— carriage of the Hospitallers toward him The Institution of Carmelites BAldwin the Eldest Son of Falco succeeded his Father and quickly greâ— up as well in Age as in Royal Qualifications and became a most compleat and well accomplished Prince During his minority his Mother who governed all made up his want of Age with her abundant care she being a Woman in sex but of a masculine Spirit William who was last possessed of the Patriarchs Chair in Jerusalem was no great Clerk being better at Building of Castles than at Edifying the Church He built one at Askelon one at Ramula a third called Blankguard for the securing of Prisoners But having enjoyed the Dignity Fifteen years he was translated to Heaven and Fulcher Arch-Bishop of Tyre succeeded him whose old Age was much molested with the Pride and Rebellion of the Hospitallers who had then obtained from the Pope a plenary Exemption from the Jurisdiction of the Patriarch which he did the more easily grant because he hoped thereby to make himself absolute Master of all Orders and link them intirely to himself by an immediate dependence whereby he made every Covent a Castle of Rebels and armed them with Priviledges to fight their lawful Diocesan Those Hospitallers were by this means become so rude that they would without all shame Ring their Bells when the Patriarch Preached that so his Voice might not be heard and shoot Arrows into the Church to disturb him and the People in Divine Service A bundle whereof was hung up in the Church as a Monument of their monstrous Impiety Fulcher crawled to Rome when an hundred years old to complain of those outrages but the Hospitallers prevented him and bribed off the business beforehand so that the good old man was forced to return without redress whereupon they grew more insolent than ever Nor was Haymericus who succeeded Rodolphus at Antioch much quieter He instituted about the year 1160. the Order of Carmelites who pretended to an imitation of the Prophet Elias Some indeed had formerly lived dispersed about the Mount of Carmel but he gathered them into one House But although Palestine brought them forth yet England proved the most officious in nursing of them up For being first brought into it by Ralph Freshburgh in the year 1240. they were first seated at Newenden in Kent and in a little time scattered themselves all over England and lived in great pomp till dispersed by King Henry the Eighth when he demolished the Abbeys CHAP. XV. Edessa lost The Voyage of the French King and the Emperour of Germany blasted by the perfidiousness of the Graecian Emperour The Turks beaten at Meander Damascus besieged in vain ALL Empires like the swelling Sea have bounds set to them whither being once come they can rise no higher And the Kingdom of Jerusalem being now arrived at its full growth began to decline apace till at last all revolved again into the Infidels hands And the first considerable step which it made in its declension was the loss of Edessa one of the four Tetrarchies of that Kingdom and a place wherein the Christian Religion had always flourished from the time of the Apostles Which loss moved Conrade Emperour of the West and Lewis the Seventh surnamed the Young King of France by the persuasion of St. Bernard to undertake a Voyage to the Holy Land The Emperour for this design had gotten together an Army of 200000 Foot and 50000 Horse and the King near as many more For in France they sent a Distaâ—â— and a Spindle to those that would not goâ— with them as upbraiding their Effeminacy and no wonder for Women themselves went in Armour to this War and had a brave Heroick Lass like another Penthesilea for their Leader who was so richly clad and befringed with Gold that she was generally known by the name of Golden Foot Conrade with his Army took his way through Graecia where Emmanuel the Emperour possessed with an hereditary fear of the Latines fortified his Cities concluding that there needed strong Banks where such a stream of people were to pass using them most treacherously and giving them a very bad welcom in hope thereby to get rid of them the sooner And to increase their misery as they lay incamped by the River Melas if it be proper to call that a River which is all Mud in Summer and all Sea in Winter it drowned many of them by its sudden and unexpected overflowing as if it had learn'd Treachery of the Graecians and conspired with them to spoil the Emperours generous Design And those of them that survived this unhappy accident were reserved for a more lingering misery the Emperour endeavouring by all imaginable ways to accomplish their Ruine as by mixing Lime with their Meal killing those who strayed from the Army holding intelligence with the Turks corrupting his Coin and giving them false Conductors who designedly led them into danger and made the way less doubtful than the Guides And no sooner had the Emperour got through all those dangers and escaped the Treachery of the Greeks but he was immediately encountred by the Hostility of the Turks who waited for them on the Banks of the River Meander which being not fordable and the Christians having neither Boat nor Bridge to convey them over the undaunted Emperour after an Exhortation to his Souldiers to follow his brave Example plunged himself into the Water and quickly reached the other Shoar where in despite of the Enemy he Landed with all his Army Whereat the affrighted Turks did as it were offer their Throats to the Christians Swords and were slain in such numbers that whole piles of dead Bones remain there for a monument of their Victory flushed with this success he marched forward to Iconium now called Cogni which he besieged in vain to the wasting and loâ— of his Army The French King followed after witâ— a numerous Army and drank of the samâ— Cup at the Graecians hands though noâ— so deeply as the Emperour had done before him But at last finding that thoâ— who marched to Palestine by Land me with an Ocean of misery though the came not to Sea he thought it mucâ— safer to trust the Winds and the Waveâ— than the perfidious Graecians and therefore shipping himself and his Army hâ— arrived safe in Palestine where he waâ— highly welcomed by the Prince of Aâ—tioch Some weeks were spent in Princely Entertainments and visiting of holy Places before they entred upon action But having sufficiently recreated themselves and rested their Souldiers the Emperour and the King of France both resolve upon the Siege of Damascus accounting a smaller Town too mean a trifle for them to employ their Arms in its Conquests wherefore they immediately sate down before it and had
Damascus destroying all before him with fire and sword and carying away many rich booties till at last he was circumvented and taken prisoner by the Mammalukes who kept him in Captivity twenty six years till at length the Sultan of Egypt a Runegado German who had formerly been Enginneer to this Dukes Father set him at Liberty together with Martin his Servant thinking it but reasonable that he who had been his Partner in Misery should likewise pertake of his Happiness but they were no sooner at Liberty but they were both took again by Pirats as they were sailing into Syria which the Sultan hearing of pittied the misfortune of that distressed Prince and scorning that any should frustrate his designed courtesie set him free once more and then returning home he was welcomed with as much wonder as joy by his Subjects who supposed him to have been dead long before When he came home he found two Counterfeits who both pretended to be the Duke and challenged lodging with his Lady but upon his arrival to confute their false pretences they were both condemned to lose their lives by two contrary deaths the one being Burn'd and the other Drowned Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem having at length made great preparations for the Holy War and strengthned his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem by purchasing the Title of Maria Domicella Princess of Antioch who likewise pretended to a Right he sent Roger Count of Severine as his Vice-Roy to Ptolemais where he was received with a great deal of Honour in despite of King Hugh but when his Navy and all things were said to be ready for his own departure and that he had by the way a design upon Michael Paleologus the Grecian Emperour a sudden and unexpected accident blasted all For on Easter-day as the Bell tolled to Even-Song all the Frenchmen in Sicily had their Throats Cut in a moment by the Natives the contriver of this Massacre was one Jacobus Prochyta a Doctor of Physick who thereby killed more in an hour then he cured in his Whole Life but the secresie of its contrivance vvas litle less then a Miracle that so many should knovv of it and yet none either through accident or design discover it from vvhence came the Proverb the Sicilian Vispers Charles himself was at Rome when this Tragedy was acted to see the Pope make Cardinals and when he received the news it struck him so to the Heart that he never injoyed himself after But living as without Life for about two years he died and left his Son Charles to Succeed him in the Kingdom of Naples and the Title of Jerusalem who had little remarkable in his Life but only that being offended with the Templars in Palestine for taking part with the King of Cyprus against him he siesed all the Lands and Goods they had in Naples or any other part of his dominions CHAP. X. Ptolemais Besieged and taken by the Sultan of Egypt and thereby the Holy War ended MElechsaites or as others call him Melechmessor about this time wan the strong Castle of Mergarh from the Hospitallers who kept it and banished the Carmalites out of Syria because they had changed their Habits at the appointment of Pope Honorious the Turks being generally haters of innovations And Alphir who was his next Successor understanding that the Christian Princes of Europe were at variance among themselves resolved to lay hold of that opportunity as the fitest time finally to expel the Christians out of Palestine and therefore coming out of Egypt with a great Army he besieged and won the Cities of Tripoli Sidon and Berytus and being incouraged with this Success he adventured to Besiege Tyre it self and notwithstanding its invincible strength took it in a very short time and beat it down to the ground as he did the other three Cities So that now there remained nothing of all that the Christians had won in Palestine but Ptolemais which he might easily have taken if he would have sate down before with his Army but he was unwilling to venture for fear least if he should attempt the taking all from them at once he might thereby alarum the Christian Princes to repair thither for their Relief and therefore concluded a Peace with the Venetians for five years thinking that the bitter potion would be the more easily swallowed by them if it were devided into two doses But tho' the City Ptolemais did at this time escape the Turks Victorious Arms ' yet it was notwithstanding in a most Wofull and Dismal condition for there were in it some of all Countrys and every Nation had their several Courts to deside causes in so that the great plenty of Judges occasiond a scarcity of Justice and Malefactors when they were impeached for any Crime would by appealing to a Tryal in the Court of their own Country escape the deserved Punishment it being a sufficient proof of the Criminals innocency in the Venetians or Genoans Court to say that he was a Subject of the State to which the Court belonged wherefore Personal Crimes were made National and particular faults by being espoused rendered publick offences so that outrages were every where practised and no where punished as if they had been resolved to spare Divine Vengance the pains of overtaking them by going forth to meet it Besides which there was at this time a great number of Pretenders eagerly pro secuting their several Titles to that City being no fewer then the Venetians Genoans Pisans Florentins the King of Cyprus and Sicily the Agents of the King of England and France the Princes of Tripoli and Antioch the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Master of the Templars and Hospitallers and the Popes Legate who would if he were now living think himself highly abused in not being first named All which Pretenders did at once with much Heat and Violence urge there Right to the Airy Title of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Command of that City like Bees making the greatest noise and Bwzzing when they were just ready to forsake the Hive There was within the City at this time many new Pilgrims who were lately come thither out of Europe five hundred whereof were of the Popes sending altho' he afterwards took no care for their Pay for tho' he loved to see the Golden Tide flow into his Coffers yet he could not indure to see it ebb again But the soldiers being not paid resolved according to their blunt but usual custom to pay themselves and therefore Marching out of the City Pillaged the Enemies Country contrary to the Peace made with Alphir The Turks demand satisfaction which was not only denied by those of Ptolomais but their Embassadors likewise abused Which so inraged Sultan Serapha Alphir being now dead that he gathered together all his Forces and sat down before the City with an Army of six hundred thousand men say some Historians tho' others make them not half the number and concluding that that City was so