so that their luxury differed from Elias his austerity as much as velvet from sackcloth Wherefore that the Carmelites came from mount Carmel cannot be denied But on that mountain I find that both Elias and Baals priests gathered together and let the indifferent reader judge which of them their lives do most resemble Afterwards Pope Honorius 3. counting the party-coloured coats these Carmelites did wear to be too gaudy caused them to wear onely white the colour which nature doth die simple and therefore fittest for religion But Melexala King of Egypt who formerly was very bountifull to the Carmelites knew not his Alms-men in their new coats but changed his love as they their livery and persecuted them out of all Egypt It seemeth afterwards by the complaint of Mantuan that they wore some black again over their white For he playeth on them as if their bad manners had blacked and altered their clothes Now though Palestine was their mother England was their best nurse Ralph Fresburg about the yeare 1240 first brought them hither and they were first seated at Newenden in Kent An hundred and fourty English writers have been of this order And here they flourished in great pomp till at last King Henry the 8. as they came out of the wildernesse so turned their houses into a wildernesse not onely breaking the necks of all Abbeys in England but also scattering abroad their very bones past possibility of recouniting them Chap. 27. Edessa lost The hopefull voyage of Conrade the Emperour and Lewis King of France to the Holy land blasted by the perfidiousnesse of Emmanuel the Grecian Emperour EMpires have their set bounds whither when they come they stand still go back fall down This we may see in the kingdome of Jerusalem which under Godfrey and the two first Baldwines was a gainer under Fulk a saver under the succeeding Kings a constant loser till all was gone For now Sanguin Prince of the Turks as bloudy as his name wrested from the Christians the countrey and city of Edessa one of the foure Tetrarchies of the kingdome of Jerusalem And though Sanguin shortly after was stabbed at a feast yet Noradine his sonne succeeded and exceeded him in cruelty against the Christians The losse of Edessa wherein our religion had flourished ever since the Apostles time moved Conrade Emperour of the West and Lewis the 7. surnamed the Young King of France to undertake a voyage to the Holy land Pope Eugenius the 3. bestirred himself in the matter and made S. Bernard his soliciter to advance the designe For never could so much steel have been drawn into the east had not this good mans perswasion been the loadstone The Emperours army contained two hundred thousand foot besides fifty thousand horse Nor was the army of King Lewis much inferiour in number In France they sent a distaff and a spindle to all those able men that went not with them as upbraiding their effeminatenesse And no wonder when women themselves went in armour having a brave lasse like another Penthesilea for their leader so befringed with gold that they called her Golden-foot riding astride like men which I should count more strange but that I find all women in England in the same posture on their horses till Anna wife to King Richard the second some 200 yeares since taught them a more modest behaviour The Turks did quake hearing of these preparations which to them were reported farre greater then they were fame contrary to all other painters making those things the greatest which are presented the farthest off Conrade with his army took his way through Grecia where Emmanuel the Emperour possessed with an hereditary fear of the Latines fortified his cities in the way as knowing there needed strong banks where such a stream of people was to passe And suspecting that if these Pilgrimes often made his Empire their high-way into Palestine little grasse would grow in so troden a path and his countrey thereby be much endamaged he used them most treacherously giving them bad welcome that he might no more have such guests To increase their miseries as the Dutch encamped by the river Melas if that may be called a river which is all mud in summer all sea in winter deserving his name from this black and dismall accident it drowned many with its sudden overflowings as if it had conspired with the Grecians and learned treachery from them They that survived this sudden mishap were reserved for lingring misery For the Grecian Emperour did them all possible mischief by mingling lime with their meal by killing of stragglers by holding intelligence with the Turks their enemies by corrupting his coyn making his silver as base as himself so that the Dutch sold good wares for bad money and bought bad wares with good money by giving them false Conductours which trained them into danger so that there was more fear of the guides then of the way All which his unfaithfull dealings are recorded by that faithfull historian Nicetas Choniates who though a Grecian born affirmeth these things the truth of his love to his countrey-men no whit prejudicing his love to the truth Chap. 28. The Turks conquered at Meander The Dutch and French arrive in Palestine SCarce had the Dutch escaped the treachery of the Greeks when they were encountred with the hostility of the Turks who waited for them on the other side of Meander The river was not foordable ship or bridge the Christians had none when behold Conrade the Emperour adventured on an action which because it was successefull shall be accounted valiant otherwise we should term it desperate After an exhortation to his army he commanded them all at once to flownce into the river Meander was plunged by their plunging into it his water stood amazed as unresolved whether to retreat to the fountain or proceed to the sea and in this extasie afforded them a dry passage over the stream An act which like that of Horatius Cocles his leaping into Tiber plus famae ad posteros habiturum quà m fidei will find more admirers then beleevers with posterity The affrighted Turks on the other side thinking there was no contending with them that did teach nature it self obedience offered their throats to the Christians swords and were killed in such number that whole piles of dead bones remain there for a monument like those heaps of the Cimbrians slain by Marius neare Marseils where afterwards the inhabitants walled their vineyards with sculls and guarded their grapes with dead men Hence Conrade made forward to Iconium now called Cogni which he besieged in vain to the great losse of his army The King of France followed after with great multitudes and drank of the same cup at the Grecians hands though not so deeply till at last finding that those who marched through the continent met with an ocean of miserie he thought better to trust the wind and sea then
and following the advice of Charatux his counseller counted one of the wisest men in the world though his person was most contemptible so true it is none can guesse the jewel by the casket dismantled all his cities in the Holy land save some frontier-places rasing their walls and forts that they were not tenable with an army For he feared if the Dutch wonne these places they would not easily be driven out whereas now being naked from shelter he would weary them with set battels having men numberlesse and those neare at hand and so he would tame the Romane Eagle by watching him giving him no rest nor respite from continuall fighting It is therefore no Paradox to say That in some case the strength of a kingdome doth consist in the weaknesse of it And hence it is that our English Kings have suffered Time without disturbing her meals to feed her belly full on their in-land castles and citie-walls which whilest they were standing in their strength were but the nurseries of rebellion And now as one observeth because we have no strong cities warre in England waxeth not old being quickly stabbed with set battels which in the Low-countreys hath already outlived the grand climactericall of threescore and ten yeares But Frederick the Emperour being now entring into the Holy land was to the great grief of all Christians suddenly taken away being drowned in the river of Saleph a river such is the envie of Barbarisme obscuring all places which cannot accurately be known at this day because this new name is a stranger to all ancient maps If he went in to wash himself as some write he neither consulted with his health nor honour Some say his horse foundred under him as he passed the water others that he fell from him But these severall relations as varietie of instruments make a dolefull consort in this that there he lost his life and no wonder if the cold water quickly quenched those few sparks of naturall heat left in him at seventie yeares of age Neubrigensis conceiveth that this his sudden death was therefore inflicted on him because in his youth he fought against the Popes and Church of Rome But I wonder that he seeing an Emperour drowned in a ditch durst adventure into the bottomlesse depths of Gods counsels Let it content us to know that oftentimes heaven blasteth those hopes which bud first and fairest and the feet of mightie Monarchs do slip when they want but one step to their enemies throne After his death Frederick Duke of Suevia his second sonne undertook the conduct of the armie Now the Turks conceiving grief had steeped and moistened these Pilgrimes hearts gave them a sudden charge in hope to have overthrown them But the valiant Dutch who though they had scarce wiped their eyes had scoured their swords quickly forced them to retire Then Frederick took the citie of Antioch which was easily delivered unto him and his hungrie souldiers well refreshed by the citizens being as yet for the most part Christians Marching from hence in set battel he overthrew Dodequin Generall of Saladines forces slew foure thousand and took a thousand prisoners with little losse of his own men and so came to the citie of Tyre where he buried the corpse of his worthy father in the Cathedrall Church next the tombe of learned Origen and Gulielmus Tyrius the worthy Archbishop preached his funerall sermon We may heare his sorrowfull army speaking this his Epitaph unto him Earth scarce did yeeld ground enough for thy sword To conquer how then could a brook afford Water to drown thee brook which since doth fear O guiltie conscience in a map t' appear Yet blame we not the brook but rather think The weight of our own sinnes did make thee sink Now sith 't is so wee 'l fetch a brackish main Out of our eyes and drown thee once again From hence by sea they were conveyed to the Christian army before Ptolemais where young Frederick died of the plague and his great army which at first consisted of an hundred and fiftie thousand at their setting forth out of Germanie had now no more left then eighteen hundred armed men Chap. 5. The continuation of the famous siege of Ptolemais The Dutch Knights honoured with a grand Master WE have now at our leisure overtaken the snail-like siege of Ptolemais still slowly creeping on Before it the Christians had not onely a Nationall but an Oecumenicall army the abridgement of the Christian world Scarce a state or populous citie in Europe but had here some competent number to represent it How many bloudie blows were here lent on both sides and repayed with interest what sallies what assaults what encounters whilest the Christians lay betwixt Saladine with his great army behind them and the citie before them One memorable battel we must not omit It was agreed betwixt Saladine and the Christians to trie their fortunes in a pitched field and now the Christians were in fair hope of a conquest when an imaginarie causelesse fear put them to a reall flight so ticklish are the scales of victory a very mote will turn them Thus confusedly they ran away and boot would have been given to change a strong arm for a swift leg But behold Geoffrey Lusignan King Guy's brother left for the guarding of the camp marching out with his men confuted the Christians in this their groundlesse mistake and reinforced them to fight whereby they wonne the day though with the losse of two thousand men and Gerard Master of the Templars It was vainly hoped that after this victorie the citie would be surrendred but the Turks still bravely defended it though most of their houses were burnt and beaten down and the citie reduced to a bare sceleton of walls and towres They fought as well with their wits as weapons and both sides devised strange defensive and offensive engines so that Mars himself had he been here present might have learned to fight and have taken notes from their practice Mean time famine raged amongst the Christians and though some provision was now and then brought in from Italy for so farre they fetched it yet these small showres after great droughts parched the more and rather raised then abated their hunger Once more we will take our farewell of this siege for a twelve-moneth But we must not forget that at this time before the walls of Ptolemais the Teutonick order or Dutch Knights which since the dayes of Baldwine the second lived like private pilgrimes had now their order honoured with Henry of Walpot their first grand Master and they were enriched by the bountie of many Germane benefactours These though slow were sure they did hoc agere ply their work more cordiall to the Christian cause then the Templars who sometimes to save their own stakes would play bootie with the Turks Much good service did the Dutch Knights in the Holy warre till at last no wise Doctour will
knew he did it onely to gain time to fetch new breath and if he yeelded to him his bounty had not been thanked but his fear upbraided as if he durst not denie him Yea in anger King Richard commanded all the Turkish captives which were in his hands seven thousand in number to be put to death except some choice persons on that day whereon the articles should have been but were not performed For which fact he suffered much in his repute branded with rashnesse and crueltie as the murderer of many Christians For Saladine in revenge put as many of our captives to death On the other side the moderation of the French King was much commended who reserving his prisoners alive exchanged them to ransome so many Christians Chap. 9. The unseasonable return of the King of France MEan time the Christians were rent a sunder with faction Philip the French King Odo Duke of Burgundie Leopold Duke of Austria most of the Dutch all the Genoans and Templars siding with King Conrade King Richard Henry Count of Champaigne the Hospitallers Venetians and Pisans taking part with King Guy But King Conrades side was much weakened with the sudden departure of the French King who eighteen dayes after the taking of Ptolemais returned home pretending want of necessaries indisposition of body distemper of the climate though the greatest distemper was in his own passions The true cause of his departure was partly envie because the sound of King Richards fame was of so deep a note that it drowned his partly covetousnesse to seise on the dominions of the Earl of Flanders lately dead Flanders lying fitly to make a stable for the fair palace of France If it be true what some report that Saladine bribed him to return let him for ever forfeit the surname of Augustus and the style of The most Christian Prince His own souldiers disswaded him from returning beseeching him not to stop in so glorious a race wherein he was newly started Saladine was already on his knees and would probably be brought on his face if pursued If he played the unthrift with this golden occasion let him not hope for another to play the good husband with If povertie forced his departure King Richard profered him the half of all his provisions All would not do Philip persisted in his old plea How the life of him absent would be more advantageous to the cause then the death of him present and by importunitie got leave to depart solemnly swearing not to molest the King of Englands dominions Thus the King of France returned in person but remained still behind in his instructions which he left with his armie to the Duke of Burgundie to whom he prescribed both his path and his pace where and how he should go And that Duke moved slowly having no desire to advance the work where King Richard would carrie all the honour For in those actions wherein severall undertakers are compounded together commonly the first figure for matter of credit maketh ciphres of all the rest As for King Philip being returned home such was the itch of his ambition he must be fingering of the King of Englands territories though his hands were bound by oath to the contrary Chap. 10. Conrade King of Ierusalem slain Guy exchangeth his Kingdome for the Island of Cyprus ABout the time of the King of France his departure Conrade King of Jerusalem was murdered in the market-place of Tyre and his death is variously reported Some charged our King Richard for procuring it And though the beams of his innocencie cleared his own heart yet could they not dispell the clouds of suspicions from other mens eyes Some say Humphred Prince of Thoron killed him for taking Isabella his wife away from him But the generall voice giveth it out that two Assasines stabbed him whose quarrel to him was onely this That he was a Christian. These murderers being instantly put to death gloried in the meritoriousnesse of their suffering and surely were it the punishment not the cause made martyrdome we should be best stored with Confessours from gaols and Martyrs from the gallows Conrade reigned five yeares and left one daughter Maria Iole on whom the Knight-Templars bestowed princely education And this may serve for his Epitaph The Crown I never did enjoy alone Of half a Kingdome I was half a King Scarce was I on when I was off the throne Slain by two slaves me basely murdering And thus the best mans life at mercie lies Of vilest varlets that their own despise His faction survived after his death affronting Guy the anti-King and striving to depose him They pleaded that the Crown was tied on Guy's head with a womans fillet which being broken by the death of his wife Queen Sibyll who deceased of the plague with her children at the siege of Ptolemais he had no longer right to the Kingdome they objected he was a worthlesse man and unfortunate On the other side it was alledged for him that to measure a mans worth by his successe is a square often false alwayes uncertain Besides the courtesie of the world would allow him this favour That a King should be semel semper once and ever Whilest Guy stood on these ticklish terms King Richard made a seasonable motion which well rellished to the palate of this hungrie Prince To exchange his Kingdome of Jerusalem for the Island of Cyprus which he had redeemed from the Templars to whom he had pawned it And this was done accordingly to the content of both sides And King Richard with some of his succeeding English Kings wore the title of Jerusalem in their style for many yeares after We then dismisse King Guy hearing him thus taking his farewell I steer'd a state warre-tost against my will Blame then the storm not th' Pilots want of skill That I the Kingdome lost whose emptie style I sold to Englands King for Cyprus Isle I pass'd away the land I could not hold Good ground I bought but onely aire I sold. Then as a happy Merchant may I sing Though I must sigh as an unhappy King Soon after Guy made a second change of this world for another But the family of the Lusignans have enjoyed Cyprus some hundred yeares and since by some transactions it fell to the state of Venice and lately by conquest to the Turks Chap. 11. Henry of Champaigne chosen King The noble atchievements and victories of King Richard COnrade being killed and Guy gone away Henry Earl of Champaigne was chosen King of Jerusalem by the especiall procuring of King Richard his uncle To corroborate his election by some right of succession he married Isabella the widow of King Conrade and daughter to Almerick King of Jerusalem A Prince as writers report having a sufficient stock of valour in himself but little happie in expressing it whether for want of opportunitie or shortnesse of his reigne being most spent in a truce He more
or in hell it self For this was his religion To kill any he was commanded or on the non-performance willingly to forfeit his life The fifth time of his coming he brought Prince Edward letters from his Master which whilest he was reading alone and lying on his bed he struck him into the arm with an invenomed knife Being about to fetch another stroke the Prince with his foot gave him such a blow that he felled him to the ground and wresting the knife from him ranne the Turk into the belly and slew him yet so that in struggling he hurt himself therewith in the forehead At this noise in sprang his servants and one of them with a stool beat the brains out of the dead Turks head shewing little wit in his own and the Prince was highly displeased that the monument of his valour should be stained with anothers crueltie It is storied how Elenor his Lady sucked all the poison out of his wounds without doing any harm to her self So sovereigne a medicine is a womans tongue anointed with the vertue a loving affection Pity it is so pretty a story should not be true with all the miracles in Loves Legends and sure he shall get himself no credit who undertaketh to confute a passage so sounding to the honour of the sex Yet can it not stand with what others have written How the Physician who was to dresse his wounds spake to the Lord Edmund and the Lord John Voysie to take away Lady Elenor out of the Princes presence lest her pity should be cruel towards him in not suffering his sores to be searched to the quick And though she cried out and wrung her hands Madame said they be contented it is better that one woman should weep a little while then that all the realm of England should lament a great season And so they conducted her out of the place And the Prince by the benefit of physick good attendance and an antidote the Master of the Templars gave him shewed himself on horse-back whole and well within fifteen dayes after The Admirall of Joppa hearing of his recovery utterly disavowed that he had any hand in the treachery as none will willingly father unsucceeding villany True it is he was truly sorrowfull whether because Edward was so bad or no worse wounded he knoweth that knoweth hearts Some wholly acquit him herein and conceive this mischief proceeded from Simon Earl of Montforts hatred to our Prince who bearing him and all his kindred an old grudge for doing some conceived wrong to his father in very deed nothing but justice to a rebell hired as they think this Assasine to murder him as a little before for the same quarrel he had served Henry sonne to Richard King of the Romanes and our Edwards cousin-germane at Viterbo in Italy It is much this Simon living in France should contrive this Princes death in Palestine but malice hath long arms and can take men off at great distance Yea this addeth to the cunning of the engineer to work unseen and the further from him the blow is given the lesse is he himself suspected Whosoever plotted God prevented it and the Christians there would have revenged it but Edward would not suffer them In all haste they would have marched and fallen on the Turks had not he disswaded them because then many Christians unarmed and in small companies were gone to visit the Sepulchre all whose throats had then probably been cut before their return Eighteen moneths he stayed at Ptolemais and then came back through Italy without doing any extraordinary matter in Palestine What musick can one string make when all the rest are broken what could Edward do alone when those Princes fell back on whom the project most relied Lewis and Charles were the main undertakers Edward entertained but as an adventurer and sharer and so he furnished himself accordingly with competent forces to succour others but not to subsist of themselves But as too often where the principall miscarrieth the second sureties must lie at the stake to make the debt good so in their default he valiantly went forward though having in all but thirteen ships and some thousands of men too many for a plain Prince to visit with and too few for a great one to warre with and performed what lay within the compasse of his power In a word his coming to Ptolemais and assisting them there was like a cordiall given to a dying man which doth piece out his life or death rather a few grones and as many gasps the longer By this time Henry his aged father being dead his lamp not quenched but going out for want of oil the English Nobility came as far as the Alpes in Savoy to wait on Edward in his return Leave we him then to be attended home by them to receive the Crown to which no lesse his vertues then birth entitled him Since the Conquest he was the first King of his name and the first that settled the Law and State deserving the style of Englands Justinian and that freed this Kingdome from the wardship of the Peers shewing himself in all his actions after capable to command not the realm onely but the whole world Chap. 30. Rodulphus the Emperours voyage to Palestine hindred The Duke of Mechlenburg his captivity and inlargement BEfore Edwards departure Hugh King of Jerusalem and Cyprus concluded a peace to our Princes small liking with the Mammaluke Sultan of Egypt to hold onely in and neare Ptolemais whereby the Christians had some breathing-time But that which now possessed all mens thoughts and talk in Syria was the expectation of Rodulphus to come thither with a great army who after two and twenty yeares interregnum was chosen Emperour of Germany This Rodulphus was a mean Earl of Haspurg Frederick the last Emperour was his godfather who little thought that having so many sonnes of his own his godsonne should next succeed him and lived in a private way But now the Empire refusing her rich suiters married this Earl without any portion onely for pure love A preferment beyond his expectation not above his deserts For Germany had many bigger lights none brighter Pope Gregory the tenth would not ratifie his election but on this condition That he should in person march with an armie to Palestine And though this was but an old policie To send the Emperours far away that so he might command in chief in their absence yet his Holinesse did so turn and dresse this threed-bare plot with specious pretenses of piety that it passed for new and fresh especially to those that beheld it at distance But Rodulphus could not be spared out of Germany being there imployed in civil discords The knees of the Dutch Princes were too stiff to do him homage till he softned them by degrees And indeed he was not provided for the Holy warre and wanted a stock of his own to drive so costly a trade
very bountifull to the Carmelites who lived dispersed in Syria but afterwards he banished them out of his countrey because they altered their habit and wore white coats at the appointment of Pope Honorius the Turks being generally enemies to innovations and loving constancy in old customes Nor was this any mishap but an advantage to the Carmelites to lose their dwellings in Syria and gain better in Europe where they planted themselves in the fattest places So that he who knoweth not to choose good ground let him find out an house of the Carmelites a mark that faileth not for his direction Alphir was next to Melechsaites otherwise called Elsi He perceiving that now or never was the time finally to expell the Christians out of Palestine whilest the Princes in Europe were in civil warres besieged and wonne Tripoli Sidon Berytus and Tyre beating them down to the ground but suffering the inhabitants on some conditions to depart Nothing now was left but Ptolemais which Alphir would not presently besiege lest he should draw the Christians in Europe upon him but concluded a peace for five yeares with the Venetians as not willing wholly to exasperate them by winning all from them at once and thinking this bitter potion would be better swallowed by them at two severall draughts Mean time Ptolemais was in a wofull condition In it were some of all countreys so that he who had lost his nation might find it here Most of them had severall courts to decide their causes in and the plenty of Judges caused the scarcity of justice malefactours appealing to a triall in the courts of their own countrey It was sufficient innocency for any offender in the Venetian court that he was a Venetian Personall acts were entituled nationall and made the cause of the countrey Outrages were every-where practised no-where punished as if to spare Divine revenge the pains of overtaking them they would go forth and meet it At the same time they were in fitters about prosecuting their titles to this city no fewer then the Venetians Genoans Pisans Florentines the Kings of Cyprus and Sicily the Agents for the Kings of France and England the Princes of Tripoli and Antioch the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Masters of the Templars and Hospitallers and whom I should have named first the Legate of his Holinesse all at once with much violence contending about the right of right nothing the title to the Kingdome of Jerusalem and command of this city like bees making the greatest humming and buzzing in the hive when now ready to leave it Chap. 33. Ptolemais besieged and taken by Sultan Serapha WIthin the city were many voluntaries lately come over five hundred whereof were of the Popes furnishing But belike he failed afterwards in his payment to them the golden tide flowing not so fast out as into his Holinesse coffers The souldiers being not payed according to their blunt manners would pay themselves and marching out pillaged the countrey contrary to the truce Sultan Serapha who succeeded Alphir demanding restitution is denied and his Embassadours ill intreated Hereupon he sitteth down before the city with six hundred thousand men But we are not bound to beleeve that Alexanders souldiers were so big as their shields speak them which they left in India nor Asian armies so numerous as they are reported Allow the Turks dominions spacious and populous and that they rather drained then chose souldiers yet we had best credit the most niggardly writers which make them an hundred and fifty thousand Serapha resolveth to take it conceiving so convenient a purchase could not be over-bought The place though not great yet was a mote in the eye of the Turkish Empire and therefore pained them Peter Belvise Master of the Templars a valiant Captain had the command of the city assigned him by generall consent He encouraged the Christians to be valiant not like prodigall heirs to lose this city for nothing which cost their grandfathers so much bloud at least let them give one blaze of valour ere their candle went out How should they shew their friends their faces if they shewed their foes their backs Let them fight it out manfully that so if forced at last to surrender it they might rather be pitied for want of fortune then justly blamed for lack of valour And now Ptolemais being to wrestle her last fall stripped her self of all cumbersome clothes women children aged persons weak folks all such hindering help and mouthes without arms were sent away and twelve thousand remained conceived competent to make good the place Serapha marcheth up furiously his men assault the city with open jaws ready to devoure it had not their mouthes been stopped with the artillery the Christians shot at them Back they were beaten and many a Turk slain But Serapha was no whit sensible thereof who willingly would lose a thousand men in a morning for a breakfast double so many at a dinner and continue this costly ordinary for some dayes together yea in spite he would spend an ounce of Turkish bloud to draw a drop of Christian In this conflict Peter Belvise was slain with a poisoned arrow A losse above grieving for Many were strong in desiring the honour who were weak to discharge the office But the worst mischief was the Christians were divided amongst themselves and neglected to defend the citie conceiving that though that was taken yet every particular nation could defend it self having their buildings severally fortified And this dangerous fansie took off their thoughts from the publick good and fixed them on their private ends Mean time the Patriarch of Jerusalem and others some name with them Henry King of Jerusalem and Cyprus more seeking their safety then honour secretly fled with their bodies after their hearts out of the city and some of them shunning a noble death fell on a base end being drowned in the sea Their cowardlinesse is imputed by some Authours to all the rest whereas it appeareth on the contrary they most valiantly behaved themselves At last the Turks entred the city by undermining the walls and conceived their work now done when it was new begun For they found Ptolemais not a city but a heap of cities thrown together wherein the people of every countrey so fensed themselves in their severall forts that they powdered the Turks with their shot when they entred the streets It is hardly to be paralleled in any siege that a taken city was so long before it was taken for it held out fifty dayes and the Knights-Hospitallers made good their castle for two whole moneths together But alas as the severall parts of Insecta being cut asunder may wriggle and stirre a while not live long so these divided limbes could not long subsist and at last most of them were slain Yet was it a bloudy victory to the Turks most of them that entred the city being either burned with fire or killed with arrows or smothered with the fall of towres
professed that she saw in a vision Christ and his Angels rejoycing For the losse of the earthly Canaan was gain to the heavenly peopling it with many inhabitants who were conquerours in their overthrow whilest they requited Christs passion and died for him who suffered for them But for the truth both of the doctrine and historie hereof none need burden their beleef farther then they please We will conclude all with Roger Hovedens witty descant on the time When Jerusalem was wonne by the Christians and afterwards when it was lost an Urbane was Pope of Rome a Frederick Emperour of Germany an Heraclius Patriarch of Jerusalem But by his leave though the first of his observations be true the second is a flat falsitie the third a foul mistake and may thus be mended It is charity to lend a crutch to a lame conceit When the Crosse was taken from the Persians Heraclius was Emperour and when it was taken from the Turks Heraclius was Patriarch Thus these curious observations like over-small watches not one of a hundred goeth true Though it cannot be denied but the same name as Henry of England one the winne-all another the lose-all in France hath often been happy and unhappy in founding and confounding of kingdomes But such nominall toyes are rags not worth a wise mans stooping to take them up The end of the second Book The Historie of the HOLY WARRE Book III. Chap. 1. Conrade of Montferrat valiantly defendeth Tyre and is chosen King IN this wofull estate stood the Christian affairs in the Holy land when Conrade Marquesse of Montferrat arrived there His worth commandeth my penne to wait on him from his own countrey till he came hither Sonne he was to Boniface Marquesse of Montferrat and had spent his youth in the service of Isaacius Angelus the Grecian Emperour This Isaacius fitter for a Priest then a Prince was alwayes bred in a private way and the confining of his body feemeth to have brought him to a pent and narrow soul. For he suffered rebells to affront him to his face never fending any army against them but commending all his cause to a company of bare-footed Friars whom he kept in his Court desiring them to pray for him and by their pious tears to quench the combustions in the Empire But our Conrade plainly told him he must use as well the weapons of the left hand as of the right meaning the sword as well as prayers And by the advice of this his Generall he quickly subdued all his enemies Which his great service found small reward onely he was graced to wear his shoes of the Imperiall fashion a low matter but there forsooth accounted an high honour But soon after Isaac was sick of this Physician who had cured his Empire If private debters care not for the company of their creditours much lesse do Princes love to see them to whom they ow themselves and their kingdome so unwelcome are courtesies to them when above their requitall Now it is an ancient policie to rid away high spirits by sending them on some plausible errand into remote parts there to seek for themselves an honourable grave To this end Isaacius by the perswasions of some spurred on Conrade free enough of himself to any noble action to go into Palestine there to support the ruinous affairs of the Christians Conrade was sensible of their plot but suffered himself to be wrought on being weary of the Grecians basenesse and came into the Holy land with a brave company of Gentlemen furnished on their own cost For a while we set him aside and return to Saladine Who by this time had taken Askelon on condition that King Guy and Gerard master of the Templars should be set at liberty Nor long after was the castle of Antioch betrayed unto him by the Patriarch and the citie scarce got with eleven moneths siege was lost in an instant with five and twenty strong towns more which attended the fortune of Antioch and many provinces thereto belonging came into the possession of the Turks Must not the Christians needs be bankrupts if they continue this trade buying deare and selling cheap gaining by inches and losing by ells With better successe those in Tripoli which citie the wife of Earl Reimund after his death delivered to the Christians defended themselves against Saladine For shame they would not forgo their shirts though they had parted with their clothes Stark-naked from shelter had the Christians been left if stripped out of Tripoli and Tyre Manfully therefore they defended themselves and Saladine having tasted of their valour in Tripoli had no mind to mend his draught but marched away to Tyre But Conrade of Montferrat who was in Tyre with his army so used the matter that Saladine was fain to flie and leave his tents behind him which were lined with much treasure And the Christians had that happinesse to squeeze that sponge which formerly was filled with their spoil They in Tyre in token of gratitude chose this Conrade King of Jerusalem swearing themselves his subjects who had kept them from being the Turks slaves To strengthen his title he married Elisa or Isabella Authours christen her with either name formerly espoused to Humfred of Thoron sister to Baldwine the fourth daughter to Almerick King of Jerusalem By this time King Guy was delivered out of prison having sworn never more to bear arms against Saladine which oath by the Clergie was adjudged void because forced from him when he was detained in prison unjustly against promise The worst was now he had gained his liberty he could not get his Kingdome Coming to Tyre they shut the gates against him owning no King but Conrade Thus to have two kings together is the way to have neither king nor kingdome But Guy following the affront as well as he might and piecing up a cloth of remnants with his broken army besieged Ptolemais The Pisanes Venetians and Florentines with their sea-succours came to assist him But this siege was Church-work and therefore went on slowly we may easier perceive it to have moved then to move especially if we return hither a twelve-moneth hence Chap. 2. The Church-story in the Holy land to the end of the warre The use and abuse of titular Bishops WE must now no longer look for a full face of a Church in the Holy land it is well if we find one cheek and an eye Though Jerusalem and Antioch were wonne by the Turks the Pope ceased not to make Patriarchs of both We will content our selves with the names of those of Jerusalem finding little else of them remarkable After Heraclius Thomas Agni was Patriarch present in the Laterane Councel under Innocent the third Geraldus succeeded him who sided with the Pope against Frederick the Emperour Albertus Patriarch in Jerusalem when the Christians lost their land in Syria He prescribed some rules to the Carmelites After him Antonie Beak
they must first kill and slay him themselves At last Simon of Montfort nigh Paris accepted of it swearing to vex the Lords enemies And for a breakfast to begin with he was seised of the Vicecounty of Besiers proceeding from hence to take many castles and cities One grand inconvenience attended on this armie of Pilgrimes For when their quarantine or fourty dayes service was expired the term the Pope set them to merit Paradise in they would not stay one whit longer Like post-horses they would runne to their set stage but could not be spurred one foot further contenting themselves they had already purchased heaven and fearing they should be put in possession thereof too soon by losing their lives in that service And though the Bishops perswaded some few to stay that so the surplusage of their merits might make up the arrerages of their friends which wanted them yet could they not prevail to any purpose Nor could they so cast and contrive their matters the tide of peoples devotion being uncertain but that betwixt the going out of the old and coming in of the new store of Pilgrimes there would be a low ebbe wherein their armie was almost wasted to nothing whereof the Albingenses made no small advantage However the Earls of Tholose Foyx and Comminge and Prince of Berne the patrones of the Albingenses finding they were too weak for this Holy armie sheltered themselves under Peter King of Aragon whose homagers they were receiving investiture from him though their dominions lay on this side of the Pyrenean hills This King had the greatnesse of the Earl of Montfort in suspicion fearing lest these severall Principalities which now were single arrows should be bound in one sheaf conquered and united under Earl Simon Wherefore he fomented a faction in them against the Holy armie publickly protesting against the proceedings of Earl Simon charging him to have turned the bark of Gods Church into a pirates ship robbing others and enriching themselves under the pretense of Religion seising on the lands of good Catholicks for supposed hereticks using Gods cause as hunters do a stand in it the more covertly to shoot at what game they please Otherwise why was the Vicecount of Beziers who lived and died firm in the Romish faith lately trained into the Legates hand and against oathes and promises of his safe return kept close prisoner till his death and his lands seised on by Earl Simon At last the King of Aragon taking the Earl of Montfort on the advantage shooting him as it were betwixt wind and water the ending of the old and beginning of new Pilgrimes forced him to a battel The King had thirty thousand foot and seven thousand horse but the Earl of both foot and horse not above two thousand two hundred They closed together neare the castle of Moret And the King whether out of zeal of conquest and thirst of honour or distrust of under-officers or desire to animate others or a mixture of all ranne his curvets so openly and made his turns and returns in the head of the army that so fair a mark invited his enemies arrows to hit him by whom he was wounded to death and fell from his horse to lesson all Generals to keep themselves like the heart in the body of the army whence they may have a virtuall omnipresence in every part thereof and not to expose their persons which like crystall viols contain the extracted spirits of their souldiers spilled with their breaking to places of imminent danger With his bodie fell the hearts of his men And though the Earls of Tholose Foyx and Comminge perswaded entreated threatned them to stay they used their oratorie so long till their audience ranne all away and they were fain to follow them reserving themselves by flight to redeem their honour some other time Simon improving this victorie pursued them to the gates of Tholose and killed many thousands The Friars imputed this victory to the Bishops benediction and adoring a piece of the Crosse together with the fervency of the Clergies prayers which remaining behind in the castle of Moret battered heaven with their importunity On the other side the Albingenses acknowledged Gods justice in punishing the proud King of Aragon who as if his arm had been strong and long enough to pluck down the victory out of heaven without Gods reaching it to him conceived that Earl Simon came rather to cast himself down at his feet then to fight But such reckonings without the host are ever subject to a rere-account Yet within few yeares the face of this warre began to alter With writers of short-hand we must set a prick for a letter a letter for a word marking onely the most remarkables For young Reimund Earl of Tholose exceeding his father in valour and successe so bestirred himself that in few moneths he regained what Earl Simon was many yeares in getting And at last Earl Simon besieging Tholose with a stone which a woman let flie out of an engine had his head parted from his body Men use not to be niggards of their censures on strange accidents Some paralleled his life with Abimelech that tyrant-Judge who with the bramble fitter to make a fire then a King of accepted of the woodden Monarchie when the vine olive figge-tree declined it They paired them also in their ends death disdaining to send his summons by a masculine hand but arresting them both by a woman Some perswaded themselves they saw Gods finger in the womans hand that because the greater part of his cruelty lighted on the weaker sex for he had buried the Lady of laVaur alive respecting neither her sex nor nobility a woman was chosen out to be his executioner though of himself he was not so prone to cruelty but had those at his elbow which prompted him to it The time of his death was a large field for the conceits of others to walk in because even then when the Pope and three Councels of Vaur Montpelier and Laterane had pronounced him sonne servant favourite of the faith the invincible defender thereof And must he not needs break being swoln with so many windie titles Amongst other of his styles he was Earl of Leicester in England and father to Simon Montfort the Catiline of this Kingdome who under pretense of curing this land of some grievances had killed it with his physick had he not been killed himself in the battel of Evesholm in the reigne of Henry the third And here ended the storm of open warre against the Albingenses though some great drops fell afterwards Yea now the Pope grew sensible of many mischiefs in prosecuting this people with the Holy warre First the incongruity betwixt the Word and the Sword to confute hereticks with armies in the field opened clamourous mouthes Secondly three hundred thousand of these Croised Pilgrimes lost their lives in this expedition within the space of fifteen yeares so that there was neither citie nor