Guy Cardinal of Florence the Pope's Legat in his Army and the Bishops of Langres and Lizieux The Count de Dreux his Brother Thierry Earl of Flanders Henry Earl of Troyes the Son of Thibald Earl of Champagne Ives de Nele and many other Lords of the first Quality who came with him from Attalia The young King Baldwin with his Mother Queen Melesintha also assisted at it together with the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Arch-Bishops of Cesarea and Nazareth the Bishops of Ptolemais Sidon Beritus Paneas and Bethlehem the Earls of Napolis Tiberias Sidon Cesaria Beritus as also the Constable Manasses and the great Masters of the Temple of the Hospitallers It was a long time under Debate what was most advantageous to be undertaken for the common Interest and in conclusion they determined to besiege Damascus Which being as it were in the Centre and Midst of the four Principalities which the Christians held in the East might be equally dangerous to them all Upon this all the Troops were appointed to rendezvous the five and twentieth Day of May at Tiberias where a general Review being made of the Army they advanced to Paneas near the Head of Jordan the Patriarch carrying the true Cross or at least that which was believed to be so before them The Measures which were taken for the Siege were according to the Opinion of the Lords of that Country who were best acquainted with the Strength and Weakness of the place After which crossing the celebrated Mount Lebanon they descended into the fair Champain of Damascus and encamped at Daria a little Village about two Leagues from Damascus from the most elevated place whereof the Towers of that stately City were easily to be discerned Damascus one of the most ancient and sometimes one of the fairest and greatest Cities of Asia is situate in a large Plain at the Foot of Mount Lebanon which is watered with two Rivers and a great number of little Springs and Fountains which notwithstanding its natural Inclination to Sterility it being a hungry sandy Soil render it very fruitful and delightful These two Rivers take their Rise upon the East at no very great distance from the Foot of the Mountain Amana which is a part of Mount Lebanon the lesser is called Abana and slows all along by the Walls of the City upon the West the greater which is Pharpar and which some have confounded with the Orontes and for the beauty of its Streams is called Chryorrhoas or Golden Stream after having passed through the City and wandred through the Fields and the Valleys of the neighbouring Country loseth it self under the Earth either because being divided into a multitude of Canals which are drawn to render the Earth more fruitful that it is so diminished that at last it ends in them or that by some unknown Subterranean Passages it dischargeth it self into the Phenician Sea It was the great Conveniency of making these Canals year 1148 which made all that part of the City towards the North and a great part of the West be inclosed with a prodigious number of Gardens and Orchards where were planted an infinite of Trees producing all manner of Fruits the most delicious of all the East These Gardens were divided one from the other by little narrow Passages which cutting one another and turning and winding several ways without any regular Art or Figure formed a kind of undesigned Labyrinth where it was easie for those who were unacquainted with them to lose themselves in those delightful places Every Garden had its House and its little Tower according to the Mode of the Orientals for the Convenience and the Lodging of its Master So that the City being very populous the number of Gardens which covered those sides was very great and extended themselves almost two Leagues so that viewing it upon that side it represented to the Sight a large Forest which seemed to extend it self to the very Walls But on the contrary the other side which lay to the East and South had not so much as a Tree a Hedge or a Bush but shewed a bald Champaign from whence it was easie to discern the whole City which was defended with high Walls which were fortified with great Towers whereof four which listed up their proud Heads above the rest were of an extraordinary heighth and strength and above all it was defended by a Fortress which was esteemed the fairest and most regular of all Asia This City had been taken from the Sarasins by the Turks whose Sultan Dodequin made a most cruel War against the Christians between the time of the first and the second Crusade After his death his Successors seeing themselves attacked by Sanguin the redoubted Sultan of Alepo and Ninevch who endeavoured the Conquest of all Syria joyned themselves with the Christian Princes to make War against this common Enemy They assisted them according to the Treaty in the Taking of Paneas which they had taken from the Christians before and Sanguin from them again But there being little Faith to be expected from Infidels they soon brake the Peace and declared themselves as before the mortal Enemies of the Christians For this reason it was that the Resolution was sixed to attack them and above all things to carry this City which was in a Condition to give the Check-mate to the four Christian Principalities of the East Hereupon it was also resolved in the Council to attack the Town on the Garden-sides that so the Army might have the Convenience of the River the Fruits and Forrage which were there to be had in abundance The next Morning therefore the Army being divided into three Bodies marched in good Order towards Damascus drawing from the West towards the North to the Garden-Quarter of the City The young King of Jerusalem Baldwin the Third commanded in Person the first Body composed of his own Troops and those of the Princes of Syria who had the same Interest with him in the Siege The French made the second having at their Head King Lewis to support the first which they followed at a little distance to be always ready to afford them Succour The Emperor with his Germans had the Rere to oppose the Enemy's Cavalry if they should attempt to fall upon them as they made their Approaches Baldwin who thirsted mightily after Glory and was transported with Joy to meet with so fair an Opportunity to display his Courage in the View of the French and Germans did instantly press to make the first Attack which was easily granted him in regard he alledged that his People were better acquainted than the rest with the nature of the place and the Turnings of the Gardens He was a Prince who was now advanced to the Flower of his Youth being between eight and nine and twenty Years of Age he was of Stature something less than the Middle but of a Proportion so just and regular in all the parts of his Body that his want of Heighth did not lessen
not to be behind his Brother-in Law the Count de Champagne whose Sister he had married in this glorious Career of Honour and Vertue He therefore solemnly took upon him the Cross in the Beginning of Lent in the Year 1200 in the Church of St. Donatien at Bruges as did also the Countess Mary year 1200 his Lady a Princess of a most Heroick Courage and a Resolution to bear him faithful Company and run the same Fortune with him until Death He was followed in this gallant Action by his two Brothers Henry and Eustace by Thierri his Cousin the Natural Son of the late Earl Philip Eustace Count de Sarbruck Conon de Bethune James d' Avesnes the Son of the noble Lord of that Name who performed so many brave Actions in Palestine and by the greatest part of the Flemish Nobility A part of these Princes and Lords being assembled at Soissons could there come to no determined Resolution in regard they were not as yet assured that they had sufficient Forces year 1200 but two Months after at a Meeting of all the great Men of the Crusade at Compiegne they found themselves in so good a Condition that there it was agreed for expediting this Affair that the three Earls of Champagne Flanders and Blois should each of them nominate two Deputies who should be authorised with full Power to take care of all things relating to the Design both as to the number of Troops and the Choice of the Men among such an innumerable Multitude of People as had taken upon them the Cross As also to treat with such as it was necessary for their Passage and Provisions The six Deputies having debated an Affair of this Importance found that to secure themselves from those terrible Inconveniences which the Christian Armies had suffered in the first Crusades by long and hazardous Land-Marches it was much more convenient to take the Passage of the Sea and that the Passage might be short and commodious with so much Provision and so many Ships as was necessary for the transporting of so great an Army either into Syria or Egypt there could not be any way more proper than to treat with the Venetians who without all Contradiction were at that time the People of all Europe the most powerful upon the Mediterranean Sea This Advice therefore being approved of by the Princes year 1201 the Deputies repaired to Venice in the Beginning of the following Year 1201. where in a few days they negotiared most successfully with the famous Henry Dandolo who for nine Years past had been the Doge of that flourishing Republick This Henry was a Prince of a great and Majestick Port and being now above fourscore Years old though to a Miracle neither decrepit in Body nor decayed in Mind his great Age rendred him still more August and venerable he had Prudence the consummated Effect of long Experience a most invincible Courage and an immovable Firmness in such Resolutions as he took for the Good of his Country of which he was a most passionate Lover He was a great Captain and a valiant Soldier an able Politician and even at those Years wonderfully taken with the fair Image of Glory Above all he was the most dexterous Manager of Affairs and though he were almost blind not so much by the Decay of Nature as the Effect of Cruelty yet was he the clearest sighted Man of his time in Matters of State The Occasion of the Loss of his Sight was this About fifty Years before being employed from the Republick as their Ambassador at Constantinople where he generously sustained his Character and stoutly maintained the Interests of his Country the perfidious Emperor Manuel not able to bear that Freedom caused a red hot Plate of Iron to be held before his Eyes to put them out But for all this barbarous Outrage whereby he violated the Law of Nations though his Sight was mightily impaired yet it was not wholly lost nor did his Eyes lose any thing to Appearance of their Lustre and Clearness till after this he received an unfortunate Blow upon his Head at the Seige of Zara which if it did not altogether take away his Sight yet left him but a very little Notwithstanding which never any Duke acted with more Application or better Success for the Interests of Venice where his well known Merit gained him an universal Respect and gave him more Authority and Power than either his Charge or Dignity although at that time the Power was far more unlimited than it hath been since by the Laws which that sage Republick hath enacted to abridge the Authority of its Head It was then with this great Man that the Deputies immediately treated in his private Council which was composed of six Senators and they managed their Negotiation with that frankness remitting themselves wholly to him for what they must give the Republick for the Assistance which they desired from them that in eight days they came to agree upon the Conditions of the Treaty which were these That the Venetians should furnish them with flat bottom'd Boats and Ships either to pass into Syria or Egypt for four thousand five hundred Knights with their Horses nine thousand Esquires and twenty thousand Foot with so much Munitions and Provisions which should suffice this Fleet for a Year That all the Vessels should be rigged and ready to sail in the Month of June following and should serve them for one Year accounting from the Day that the Fleet should part from the Port of Venice That the Princes of the Crusade should pay for the same eighty five thousand Marks in Silver which according to the true Supputation year 1201 is about eight hundred thousand Crowns French Money which was a very extraordinary Sum in those times But the Doge who had a great Soul being resolved that it should not be said that the Venetians acted just like Merchants in furnishing Ships and Provisions at a reasonable Rate having besides a great desire to signalize himself upon this Occasion and to have a share in the Glory which was to be acquired in this War therefore acquainted them that the Republick to contribute to such a holy Enterprise was resolved to joyn with them at the least fifty Gallies well rigged and armed with so many Soldiers as were necessary to serve profitably by Sea at the same time that the French acted by Land and that they should equally part betwixt them the Conquests which should be made during the time of their Confederation Dandolo having easily brought the great Council of forty Senators to approve of the Treaty as also the three other Assemblies of the Notables of the City judged that it was convenient to have it ratified by the People whom to the number of above ten thousand he caused to be assembled in the place and the Church of St. Mark where after the Mass of the Holy Ghost had been sung the six Deputies being introduced as before had been agreed with the
THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR THE EXPEDITIONS OF THE Christian Princes FOR THE CONQUEST OF THE Holy Land Written Originally in FRENCH By the Fam'd MOUNSIEUR MAIMBOURG Englished by JOHN NALSON L L. D. LONDON Printed by R. H. for Thomas Dring at the Corner of Chancery-Lane next Fleet-Street MDCLXXXV TO THE Right Honourable HENRY Earl of CLARENDON Lord Privy Seal My Lord I Am very sensible in what manner I expose my self in adventuring to present your Lordship this Translation since not only my self but the whole World knows that your early Loyalty and Banishment for the Royal Cause by your Retreat in France have made you an absolute Master of that Language from whence it is borrowed So that I could not but foresee That consequently your Lordship is best able to distinguish not only my own but those Imperfections which of necessity must attend Copies when compared with their Originals there being in all Languages some Graces and Beauties of their Native Idiom so peculiar to them as are difficultly to be supplied or tollerably Imitated by any other But My Lord your Noble Character is too well known to permit me to dispair of Pardon and since your Lordship is so publickly remarkable for your admirable Industry in Cultivating your Mind with all manner of Gentile Reading it gives me hopes that your Lordship will not be displeased to see those generous Inclinations cherished in others and some Assistances and Invitations given to such whose Education hath not made them acquainted with Foreign Languages whereby they may receive in the familiar Dress of their Native Countrey the advantage of what hath been written by Curious Pens of other Nations However My Lord Gratitude the only thing wherein I can be Liberal as it obliges me to celebrate your Lordship's Name as having received those Favours from your Lordship for which I must acknowledge my self under such Obligations as lying nearest my Heart will be forward to be upon my Lips so it is impossible for me not to lay hold even with some precipitation upon the least Occasions wherein I may in any measure Express what I do not only Esteem so much a Duty but also so great a Pleasure to do my self the Honour of telling the whole World that I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most obliged and most humble Servant JOHN NALSON Ely March 12th 1684 5. TO THE READER IT is I think if it be a mistake such a one as is common to the greatest part of Mankind to have that Opinion of their Sentiments especially those of Pleasure to believe that what they find divertive and agreeable to themselves must be so likewise to others what ever Inconveniences this may render men liable to in other matters I am not either curious to know or at present to inquire since I am assured that we are obliged to this Humour for the Communication of many admirable things in History especially which afford us both Pleasure and Advantage this being one of those sorts of Treasures which few People delight themselves with hoarding up but there being a certain pleasure in pleasing others they are generally willing to be very bountiful in what may inrich others without impoverishing themselves I must ingenuously confess that it was this little Wheel that gave me this Motion and having some hours liberty I could not be contented with diverting my self but must needs indeavour to propagate the pleasure I found in this History of Monsieur Maimbourg's that others might share with me in it I am very sensible that many Persons of good Judgment have declared themselves against all kind of Translations except those of the Sacred Writings and some against those too as disadvantageous to Learning and especially to Industry and indeavours to attain the knowledge of Languages Now for my own particular as I am satisfied that there are very few who addict themselves to the more difficult Studies of Learning or Languages but such who either out of necessity and upon the prospect of their future advancement by such attainments as qualifie them for the great Imploies of Church or State or such whose natural Curiosity and Inclinations lead them to these researches or will ever bend their Minds to the attainment of Languages so I am confident that neither the natural desires and thirst of the one nor the excited and necessary indeavours of the other will ever be abated by Translations or satisfied but with the Originals nor will they ever sit down by the Streams who can with ease and pleasure draw Learning from its Fountains Now there are a third sort of People who neither are compelled by necessity nor inclined by Nature to give themselves any great trouble in point of Learning who yet by Translations of Learning into their own Language may receive mighty Improvements in their Knowledge Manners Conduct and Vnderstandings and who may be thereby rendred very serviceable in their several Stations to their Prince and Country agreeable in Conversation and may likewise avoid the temptations of bestowing their spare hours upon such Entertainments to which for want of Judgment Experience and more Innocent Diversions Nature too much inclined to Vice and Folly may be apt to tempt them and there can be no doubt but many Persons of great Natural Parts and Ingenuity who have fallen under the misfortune of the Want of such good Education as they might have had as does but too frequently happen to young Gentlemen whom either the Flattery of their Masters Tutors and Governors the fond Indulgence of Parents and Guardians or the neglect of both betrayes into so great a want of Learning as hardly to understand truly their own Native Language these I say when they come to see and as I have known many of them deplore their condition would want all manner of assistance to cultivate and improve themselves which they might have by having Learning brought to them in an easie and familiar Language Nor am I if I could to make an Invidious Catalogue of many Worthy Men who by these little and inconsiderable helps have made such attainments in necessary Knowledge as have rendred them very serviceable to the World in Employs both Civil and Military especially the last And indeed of all men living the Martialists have generally the least Inclination to Learning though they can scarcely be good Soldiers without it For to them History is what the Seaman's Charts are in Navigation There they see the Reasons of all those great Events of former Ages the occasions of the loss and gaining of Battles winning and loosing of Towns and Countries Provinces and Kingdoms there they have a view of the many Stratagems of War divers of which upon occasion suggest new ones to the Invention of the Ingenious there they have the Spurs of Emulation in seeing the Heroick Actions of gallant men sometimes their own Ancestors whose Glory may excite their Imitation and whose Vertues may encourage them whose Honours and Rewards may move them for
Reason and that Ingratitude which is so common among men defacing the fairest Character of Humanity should not be found in the most Savage Creatures whom the Charms of good Offices have devested of their natural Fierceness towards their Benefactors But to return to our History The taking of Marra revived the sleeping Quarrel between the Earl of Tholose and the Prince of Tarentum For the Earl pretended to dispose of this Place as he had done before of Albaria and Rugia upon which he had seized during the Summer but Bohemond who thought there was no manner of Reason that Raimond should do that here which he would not suffer to be done at Antioch opposed him stoutly and in the Dispute they so heated one the others Spirits that the Tarentine thinking he had Reason to do the same on his part returned and immediately drove out all the Earls Forces out of the Forts which they held at Antioch The Princes themselves could in no fort disapprove of this Procedure which they found to be but reasonable especially after having discoursed Raimond at Rugia between Marra and Antioch they found it impossible to perswade him to hear Reason which obliged them to leave him and return to Antioch Thus the great Design of the Conquest of the Holy Land which all the Forces of the Infidels had not been able to hinder seemed in a manner to be ruined by this Difference between two Persons otherwise reputed extraordinary Virtuous and as wise as any of that Age. So that we may see that Wisdom and Reason instantly lose all their Authority when once Passion by the Heart seizing upon the Mind makes herself Mistress there year 1098 But God who was the Chief in this Enterprize repaired that by the Zeal of the feeble and the little ones which was in Danger of being ruined by the Great and the Wise men of the World For the Soldiers of Count Raymond who on one side suffered extremely for want of Provisions after they had been one Month at Marra and on the other hand had a passionate Desire to atchieve the Conquest of Jerusalem thought that the Ambition of the Earl was the only Obstacle who after the Example of Bohemond endeavoured to establish his own Fortune in these Conquests as the other had done in Cilicia during the Summer And therefore making an Insurrection while the Conference was at Rugia they threw down all the Walls of Marra thereby to take away from the Earl the Temptation which he might have to keep it and stay there and more over after his Return they protested that if he would not immediately march in the Head of them towards Jerusalem they would chuse another Captain who they were assured would lead them that they were resolved to accomplish their Vow and that they did not believe they should find themselves alone or abandoned by the other Princes Raimond extremely surprised at this Resolution and fearing in Truth that he should be wholly deserted by his own as he was already by the others his first Zeal which had been so weakened by his Jealousie against the Prince of Tarentum began afresh to flame in his Soul by seeing that of his Soldiers like a Torch that is just ready to be extinguished at the Approach and Touch of another In Conclusion he presently altered his Resolution and setting fire to Marra to shew that he had quitted all Pretensions to it upon the Thirteenth of January he marched out barefoot in the Posture of a Penitent by that Humiliation to repair the Scandal which he had given to his Soldiers who had justly accused him of Ambition He was followed with an incredible Chearfulness of his whole Army who made no Scruple seeing him in this Estate but that he had taken up the same Fervor which he had so well witnessed in being the first Person who took upon him the Cross and who upon all Occasions was wont to animate others by his Example and Perswasion to embrace it with the same Zeal And God also was pleased to bless this generous Action for Robert Duke of Nomandy and Prince Tancred being advertized of this News immediately parted from Antioch whilest the other Princes prepared to follow and joyned him at Capharda where he had posted himself after he had quitted Marra taking the right hand Way toward the Sea year 1099 The taking of Antioch and the great Victory which they had obtained over the Turks the Persians and Arabians had so filled all Syria Phenicia and Palestine with the Terror of the Christian Arms that most of the Emirs who held any Places in those Provinces under the Sultans of Persia or Babylon and Egypt sent their Ambassadours with rich Presents to the Princes to desire their Friendship and Protection promising to pay them Tribute and furnish them with Provisions in their Passage Now in Regard the Principal Design was to go immediately to Jerusalem and to leave the Conquest of the rest till that was taken the Princes thought fit to accept their Offers only the Emir of Tripelis was refused for Earl Raymond perswaded them to besiege Arcas by Reason of the Advice which he received from some Christians who were detained Prisoners at Tripolis that it would either easily be taken or that the Emir to obtain Peace would compound with them for a mighty Sum of money and likewise restore them to their Liberty Arcas which others call Archis was a very strong Town situate upon a Hill some two Leagues from Tripolis and one from the Sea in the middle of a most beautiful and fertile Plain which extends it self along the Lebanon and Antilebanon to the Sea shore The Earl who thought to carry it presently assaulted it the eleventh day of February but the Emir having placed in it a very strong Garrison he was repulsed and constrained to besiege it which he did to no purpose for three months losing before it a great Number of Valiant Men and amongst the rest Anselm de Ribemont descended from the Ancient Earls of Valenciennes and Chastelain of that City one of the most renowned among the Crusades and the Accident by which it happened being altogether extraordinary it well deserves a particular place in this History year 1099 This brave Lord being one Night about to go to Bed having fought stoutly all that day he saw his excellent Friend the young Engelram the Son of the Earl of St. Paul who a little before was slain at the Siege of Marra enter into his Tent. Now Anselm who had an undaunted Soul and to whom the Sight of his Friend gave an extraordinary Joy And how now my dear Engelram said he without being at all disordered are you still alive whom I saw dead at Marra Those replyed Engelram who finish their Lives in the Service of Jesus Christ never die But how comes it Said Anselm that I see you now incomparably more beautiful than you were before Look replyed Engelram shewing him a most admirable Structure in
Designs and judges all things Lawful which seem necessary to obtain Dominion being his predominant Vice This Prince who was not able to indure so much as the apparition or Shadow of Soveraignty that was above him Massacred the Caliph and all that he could find of his Relations making this his Pretext That he had discovered a Plot of the Caliph and his Friends who had the same Intention towards him After which he gratified the Soldiery with such prodigious Largesses out of the Treasures of that Prince that they became his perfect Idolaters and resolved to expose all they had for his Service and Glory And having thus established himself in the independent Soveraignty of Egypt which he looked upon as the first Stage of his Greatness and the Carrier of his Ambition he began now to entertain the lofty and aspiring Thoughts of Conquering all the East And now it was that the Christians found themselves wedged in between two most potent and redoubtable Enemies Noradin upon the East North and West and Saladin upon the South The Apprehension therefore of the extreme Dangers with which they were Surrounded made them begin to think of doing all that possibly they could for their own Security For this Purpose they sent Frederick Archbishop of Tyre to implore the Succours of the Princes of the West and to attack Saladin by Sea and Land with all their Forces year 1169 before he was well Established in his new Dominions But all in vain for Amauri though Assisted by a mighty Navy from the Greek Emperor laying Siege something too late to the City Damiata which lyes upon the second Branch of the River Nilus over against Pelusium was constrained by the excessive Floods and the want of Provisions to raise his Siege and the Navy was miserably lost partly burnt by the Fires which the Enemies threw among them and partly drowned by a fearful Tempest which wracked the greatest part of them in their Return And the Archbishop Frederick after having unprofitably Toiled more than two Years in the West where the Affairs were too much embroiled by civil Dissentions returned without any other Effects of his Ambassage than fair Words and fruitless Promises In this time Saladin who was resolved to make use of this Advantage year 1170 which the Disorder of the Christian Army offered him entred into Palestine with forty thousand Horse and took Gaza which was the Key of the Country on that Side towards Egypt and the Sea And not long after having levied a great Army both of Horse and Foot he Marched on the right Hand by Idumea that so he might secure another Passage and fell upon the Country on the other side of Jordan where he made a most horrible Devastation On the other side the Army of Noradin year 1170 did the same about Antioch and in Phoenicia where the terrible Earth-quake which was felt throughout the whole East had made such fearful Disorders overturning the Towers and throwing down the Walls of the greatest part of the Cities as if it were to facilitate the Conquests of Saladin who was the Scourge of God the Attila of those Times who was destined to Punish the Crimes of the Christians of Syria and Palestine In short to perfect the Misfortune the King who opposed himself with an invincible Conrage against all the Attempts of so many potent Enemies died in the eight and thirtieth Year of his Age just in the very Instant when he was about to make considerable Advantages of the Death of Noradin who was carried off by a Fever a little before And this deplorable Accident which happened in so critical an unlucky Minute occasioned so many Domestick Troubles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as were the concluding Causes of its Ruine This Prince left for his Successor his only Child Baldwin the Fourth who besides the Impotence of his Age being not above three years old was also tainted with a scurvy Distemper which in Conclusion became a Leprosy Raymond Earl of Tripolis his nearest Kinsman being Cousin-german to the late King by the Mother had the Regency during his Minority and in that time Saladin who never missed any Occasion to advance his Power Siezed upon Damascus by a Correspondency which he had with the Widow of Noradin whom he married and in short time after he took most of the considerable Places in Syria dispoiling the young Prince the Son of Noradin after he had Defeated his Uncle the Sultan of Nineveh who came to Assist him of all his Dominions At the same time he entred into a League with the Earl of Tripolis who ingaged not to Assist his Enemies provided that for the remainder of their Ransom he set at Liberty certain Prisoners of Quality which he kept in the Castle of Emessa who had been taken by Noradin some eight Years before Thus this Infidel Prince rendred himself more Potent than ever by the Advantage of this Treaty which gave him intire Liberty to Conquer the whole State of Noradin both on this and the other side of Euphrates and Mesopotamia year 1177 as also all that the Sultan of Nineveh Possessed in Syria It is true that King Baldwin after he came out of his Minority did what was possible for him to do in the Intervals of his Distemper to oppose the Progress of the Conqueror and that he obtained many considerable Advantages against him But at length his Distemper increasing he was obliged to chuse some of the Nobility to Govern under him and this Choice occasioned those Emulations and Divisions in the Realm which at the last completed its Ruin For as when once a Soveraign Prince becomes unable by Diseases to mannage his own Affairs he usually grows very Jealous and Suspicious and full of Fears to be Betraied by those to whom he is obliged to trust with so great a Charge Baldwin seeing himself reduced to this piteous Condition and fearing least Bohemond the young Prince of Antioch and Raymond Earl of Tripolis should attempt something against him under pretext of his Distemper which rendred him unable to Govern in his own Person he therefore without that just Deliberation which an Affair of that Importance required gave Sybilla his Sister who was the Widow of William Longsword the Marquis of Montferrat in Marriage to Guy de Lusignan a young French Lord the third Son of Hugh the Brown Earl of March and Lord of Lusignan who had made the Voyage by Sea with King Lewis the Young and creating him Earl of Jaffa and Ascalon year 1180 he declared him Governor of the Realm to the mighty Discontent of the most of the great Lords who thought themselves more worthy of that Honor. But it was not long before he had Occasion to Repent of his Choice for he found by Experience that he had but little Capacity for the Charge and less Courage as he made appear a little after in a fair Opportunity which he had to Defeat his Enemies if he durst have sought with them For
of the City had promised to surrender if they were not before that time relieved The Sarasins seeing him coming had put themselves in Battalia upon the Bank to hinder his Descent and the greatest part looking upon such an Attempt as impossible advised the King to return But this undaunted Prince perceiving that the Castle yet held out causing his Shallop to row close to the Shoar was the first that leapt into the Sea and drew the rest after him rather by the extreme Danger to which they saw him expose himself than by the Force of such a brave Example and after he had routed the Sarasins who fled instantly amazed at his prodigious Boldness he stormed the Town by the same Breaches which they had made and cutting in pieces those who besieged the Castle he constrained Saladin with the remainder of his Troops to retire in great disorder to the Mountains But this was not all for three days after seven thousand chosen men of the most brave of all Saladin's Army thinking to surprize him early in the Morning in his Quarters while he was asleep taking the Alarm he so quickly rallied what Troops of Infantry could be gotten together on the sudden and formed them so well into a square Battalion that they durst never so much as approach him for he had so ranged his men that between every Pike who kneeled with one knee upon the Ground two Cross-Bows were placed one of which charged the Cross-Bows whilest the other let fly the Mortal Arrows among them without ceasing and at last seeing the Enemies disordered by the great Showers of those dreadful forked Arrows and that they did nothing but wheel about his Battalion which had a Front every way he by an excess of Courage or rather Temerity threw himself on Horse-Back into the midst of his Enemies although he had not with him above ten Lords who were mounted as he was the Cheif of which were the Count de Champagne the Earl of Leicester Bartholomew Mortemar Raoul de Mauleon Andrew de Savigni William de L' Estang and Henry de Nevile There he did shew the Prodigies of Valour with those Generous Lords who by his Example combated like so many inraged Lyons He relieved Robert Earl of Leicester who happened to be dismounted he cut off the Arms of those who had seized upon the Lord Mauleon to make him Prisoner his Sword like Lightning flew every way carrying Death and Terror along with it among his Enimies and at last seeing the General who commanded the Sarasins who was animating his men to the Combat and reproached them of Cowardice to suffer such a handful to triumph over them he ran up to him and with a mighty Blow of his Falchion cut off his Head and right Arm close by the Shoulder so that he fell dead among the Horses Feet This dreadful Blow so terrified the Sarasins that they durst not come near him but attacked him at a distance with their Arrows so that at last weary of their Slaughter he returned to his Camp the Caparison of his Horse being bristled with the Enemies Arrows of whom he left seven hundred Extended upon the Earth without having lost any more then two of his Men. In truth such a Noble and Heroick Action made it most apparent that there was no manner of Understanding between him and Saladin against whom if there had certainly he would never have fought with such apparent Hazard of his Person to drive him out of Jaffa after he had taken it But all this did not hinder but that Saladin who saw very well that Richard who was fallen sick after this Combat was not only resolved but necessitated to return into Europe obliged him in Conclusion to accept of a Truce with such Conditions as he was pleased to give as if he had been the Conqueror They were these That the Christians should demolish all the places which they had siezed upon since the taking of Acre and above all Ascalon That all the Coast from Tyre to Jaffa should be in the Power of the Christians that the rest should remain in the Possession of Saladin except Ascalon which upon the Expiration of the Truce should fall to his Share who should then be most potent year 1192 and that Richard should be satisfied from him for the Expences which he had been at in the Fortifications of that Place That during the Truce which was to begin at Easter in the following Year and to continue for three Years three Months three Weeks and three Days the Christians should have liberty in small numbers freely to enter into Jerusalem to make there their Devotions at the Holy Sepulchre Thus this great Crusade wherein all the Forces of Germany France and England were employed under three of the greatest Princes of the Universe against one single Conqueror ended at last in nothing more than the Taking of one poor Town which cost the Lives of an infinite number of brave Men the least part of which if they had been under the Command of one single Captain might with ease have conquered the whole Eastern Empire But it is never to be expected or hoped but that Hatred Envy Ambition Jealousie of State and Diversity of Interests which never fail to happen among plurality of Commanders should ever suffer these kind of Unions to continue firm or long And it would be a kind of Prodigy if they should not according to their nature produce those Divisions and Animosities which alone without the Assistance of other Mischiefs are capable of ruining the greatest Enterprises and the bravest Armies Whereas one single Chief with far less number shall certainly triumph over the greatest Multitude leagued against him provided he hath but Patience to permit Discords to enter into the Camp of the Confederates and will but give them leave to overthrow themselves The Truce being signed Richard who found himself still worse in the unwholsom Air of Jaffa caused himself to be removed to Caiphas where Saladin who had naturally a generous Soul sent to visit him with great Marks of Affection Esteem and Respect He also very obligingly received the Bishop of Salisbury at Jerusalem who with the rest of the Pilgrims went thither to offer the Vows of the King who still continued much indisposed in his Health And after he had most courteously entertained that Prelate he obliged him to demand what Favour lay in his Power and promised he would grant it Whereupon the Bishop requested that not only in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre but those of Nazareth and Bethlehem there might be permitted to remain two Latin Priests and two Deacons with freedom publickly to celebrate Divine Service in those places to which Saladin without any difficulty according to his Word accorded After this the King finding his Health in some measure re-established repaired to Acre where the Duke of Burgundy was dead of the Distemper some eight Days before his Arrival There he caused his Fleet to be rigged
the Bulla of this Crusade and the Pope's Letters which exhorted the Crusades to follow him so that he sound a great many who either to please the Pope or that they thought this Enterprise less difficult and dangerous than that of the Holy Land presently joyned with him and among others Peter de Dreux Duke of Bretagne who promised to assist him with twelve thousand men This gave so great a displeasure to the King of Navarr the Duke of Burgundy the Counts of Bar Vendosme and Montfort who had before devoted themselves for the Holy Land and who thought very hard that one Crusade should be ruined or at least extremely weakned by another that they complained thereof to the Pope himself and in a manner reproached him with Levity and this Change which they said was most prejudicial to the principal Enterprise the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ But Gregory made them answer that being at least as zealously interested as they in the Affairs of the Holy Land he also understood himself better than they could inform him and was in the Opinion that it was impossible ever to chase the Infidels out of Palestine unless the Conquest of Constantinople was first well assured and that now it was in danger to fall under the Power of the Schismatical Greeks and therefore he conjured them to joyn with Baldwin remonstrating to them that this was to labour most efficaciously for the End by applying themselves to the means which was so absolutely necessary for the attainment of it year 1238 The Princes nevertheless would not suffer themselves to be perswaded but remained firm in their first Resolution Even the Breton himself Peter de Dreux who had promised the Pope to serve for Constantinople wheeled off again and chose rather to joyn himself to the King of Navarr so that by this Accident there being a great Division among the Minds of men some following Baldwin others the King of Navarr it fell out that in the place of one great Crusade which might have proved successful either in Greece or Palestine there were two very indifferent ones which had in neither place the good Fortune which was to be hoped and desired This was the first Division which hurt the Army of the Crusades but that which happened presently after between the Pope and the Emperor was much more fatal to them and had like to have ruined all The Island of Sardinia as well as several other Estates had been now for a long time held as Fiefs from the Holy See and Gregory had sent thither one Roland one of his Chaplains to receive the Homages and Reserved Rents and to take possession of some Lands about Cagliari Frederick who notwithstanding all the Intreaties and Remonstrances of the Pope who had sufficient cause to be afraid of his Power was now come from Germany into Lombardy with an Army of one hundred thousand men and having gained a great Victory over the Milaneses and reduced the greatest part of the Confederate Cities under his Obedience he believed himself to be in a condition to make himself Master of what ever he pretended appertained to him as being dismembred from the Body of the Empire And thereupon those of the Principality of the Tour which now is called Sassari having given it to him after the Death of their Lord Vbald he sent thither his natural Son Henry who was usually called Entius who presently seised upon the whole Isle which his Father erected for him into the title of a Feudatory Kingdom to be held of the Empire year 1239 The Pope who was in Possession of the Sovereignty of this Isle strangely surprized at this procedure complained bitterly of it and demanded reparation But Frederick was so far from giving him Satisfaction that he seized upon other Lands of a Bishop of Sardinia which the Magistrates had adjudged as Demesnes to the new King and withal he made it be answered to the Pope for good and all that Sardinia had been usurped from the Emperors and before those Usurpations had always belonged to the Empire and that for his own particular it was well enough known that as he was Emperor he had sworn that he would do all that lay in his Power to reunite to the Body of the Empire whatsoever had been dismembred from it and that he was fully resolved most exactly to acquit himself of his Duty in this particular Hereupon the Pope seeing that he remained immoveable in that Resolution solemnly excommunicated him upon Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday for invading the Patrimony of the Church and such other Causes as are comprized in the Decretal which he pronounced himself and which he sent to all Christian Kings Princes and Prelates with orders for them to publish it by the Sound of Bells prohibiting all the Emperor's Subjects to obey him and all the Ecclesiasticks from celebrating the Divine Offices in the Cities or Castles wherever he should be It is said also that having declared that he was fallen from the Imperial Title and Dignity he offered the Crown to St. Lewis for his Brother Robert Count d' Artois but that for very good reasons that pious King rejected the Offer and this is most certain that by a most discreet Policy he would never concern himself in this difference nor be persuaded to change the Conduct and Maximes of his Government by taking Arms against the Emperor although he was extremely sollicited to do so by the Pope as in the following year the King gave the Emperor an account by his Letters The War between the Pope and the Emperor began by the Writings the Letters and the Manifests which both the one and the other dipersed abroad in which were contained the Accusations and the Answers which they made which may be seen at their full length in Matthew Paris after which the Emperor Frederick having a potent Army whilest the Pope sent to all places to demand the Assistance of the Princes and Republicks caused his Son Entius to enter into the Marquisate of Ancona whilest he himself taking the Right Hand marched over Tuscany where the greatest part of the Cities and even Viterbum receiving him and declaring against the Pope he advanced directly towards Rome not doubting but that he had such a Party there as would upon his Appearance open the Gates of that City to him But Gregory who in the extreme danger wherein he found himself destitute of all humane Succours had recourse to God by a great Procession from the Church of the Lateran to that of St. Peter in which he did so movingly harangue the Romans holding between his Arms the Venerable heads of the Apostles protesting with Sighs and Tears that he was not in any sort able to protect them without the Assistance of the People of Rome who were their Protectors that they cried out with an incredible Ardour that they would all perish in the defence of them Hereupon the Pope who was resolved to make his advantage
Elogy and Character Meledin succeeds him An Error of the Christians after the taking of Pharus Cardinal Albano arrives with a potent Reinforcemet to the Crusades The Division between the King and the Legate and the Cause of it An heroick Action of certain Souldiers who break the Enemies Bridge The Army passeth the Nile Sultan Meledin flies The City Besieged by Land Two great Armies of Sarasins besiege the Camp They atack the Lines and force them A great Combat within the Lines The Enemy at last repulsed The Arrival of St. Francis before Damiata His Conference with the Sultan The Battle without the Lines lost by the Crusades An Advantageous Peace offered to the Christians by the Sultan The Reasons for and against it It is at last rejected by the Legate Damiata taken by Night PART IV. BOOK I. THE Condition the manners and the Religion of the People of Georgia who resolve to joyn 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 description of this Legate An account of the miserable adventure of the Christian Army which by the inundation 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 the Princess Jolante the daughter of King John de Brienne Heiress of the Realm of Jerusalem John de Brienne is dispoiled of his Crown by his new Son-in-Law He puts himself under the Protection of the Pope Honorius The good Offices of the Pope to pacifie the Princes The death of Lewis the eight King of France He is succeeded by his Son Lewis the ninth The Death of Pope Honorius He is succeeded by Gregory the ninth The Portraict of this new Pope The Army of the Crusades much diminished by diseases The Emperor takes shipping He stays at Otranto where the Lantgrave of Thuringia dies A great rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Pope excommunicates him Their Manifests The Revenge which Frederick takes He passes at last into Syria His differences with the Patriarch and the Templers His Treaty with the Sultan his Coronation at Jerusalem his return and accord with the Pope The Conference of Spolata for the Continuation of the Crusade The History of Theobald the fifth Earl of Champagne and King of Navarr His Voyage to the Holy Land with the other Princes of the Crusade His description and his Elogy A Crusade published for the Succour of Constantinople An Abridgement of the History of the Latin Emperors there The Causes of the little Success of the King of Navarr's Enterprise A new Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor The Occasions thereof The deplorable effects of that breach which ruins the Affairs of the Holy Land The Jealousie among the Princes occasions their loss Their defeat at the Battle of Gaza The unsuccessful Voyage of Richard Earl of Cornwall The death of the Constable Amauri de Montfort His Elogy his Burial and that of his Ancestors and of Simon de Montfort in the Monastery of Hautebruiere A Council called at Rome The Pope's Fleet defeated by the Emperor's and the taking of the Legates and Prelates going to the Council The death of Pope Gregory The election of Celestin the fourth and of Innocent the fourth He breaks with the Emperor and retires into France BOOK II. THE Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the August House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The first Battle of Massore where the Count d' Artois is slain The second Battle and the admirable Actions of the King The Plague and Famine in the Camp An unfortunate Retreat wherein the whole Army is defeated and the King with all the Princes and Lords are taken Prisoners An Heroick Action of Gaucher de Chastillon in this Retreat The admirable Constancy of the King in his Imprisonment His Treaty with the Sultan The Original of the Mamalukes The Revolution in the Empire of Egypt by the Murder of the Sultan The Confirmation of the Treaty with the Admirals The King absolutely refuseth to take the Oath which these Barbarians would exact from him The Refutation of the
Friendship were able to retard Men but they generously broke all those little Chains to enter into the more glorious Bonds of the Solemn Vow of the Crusade Here might you see Friends encouraging one another and entring into this new Amity making mutual Promises never to abandon each other there Enemies Embracing and Religiously Swearing most inviolably to maintain the Truce nay even the weeping Ladys who saw themselves ready to be Divorced from their Beloved Husbands and dearest Children yet did not cease to encourage them to pursue this glorious Enterprize and many of them had the Courage to take a share with them and resolved to follow them notwithstanding all the fearful Dangers and insinite Hazards and Hardships which were to be expected from so long and painful a Voyage Most certain it is that as there is nothing so Perfect or Holy which is not subject to be abused either by the Weakness or Mischievousness of Human Nature so in the beginning of this Holy War there happened so many strange Disorders as might well have rendered the Event of this Enterprise most disastrous if God Almighty himself had not appeared Ingaged in it to that degree as even against all Appearance by a kind of Miracle to bring it to that glorious Issue which was not reasonably to be expected from any inferior Power For an innumerable company of Peasants with their Wives and Children which they carried in their Carts abandoning their laborious Tillage would also have a part in this Voyage which was commonly called Gods Voyage so that all the Mobile of the Realm who upon this occasion entertained a Hope of bettering their Fortunes mingling with those who had undertaken the Cross served to no other purpose but to put all into Disorder and Confusion Nor was it possible to give Bounds to this tumultuary Rabble who to authorise their Actions had so fair a Colour and Pretext of Piety So that the smallest Number were those whom the Consideration of the Glory of the Christian Name or the Service of God obliged to follow this Design but too many Engaged themselves in it some out of Vanity and Affectation others out of a lightness of Spirit these for the Pleasure they proposed in the Voyage those to accompany their Friends and Acquaintance and many to free themselves from the Importunity of their Creditors or to enjoy the benefit of the Truce Great Numbers also of Monks and other Religious Persons weary of their Profession and Solitude abandoned their Cloisters and their Cells and out of the Love of Liberty took up the Cross in a different manner than that which they had obliged themselves to by their Vow and made use of the false Pretence of Zeal to Religion to violate one Vow by entring into another which they had no Power to do so that the Abbots to prevent a greater Mischief were obliged to permit the Monks to follow the Army of the Crusade since they were not able to hinder them who had gotten such a specious Pretence as was the Satisfaction of their ardent Desire which they seemed to have to take their Part in the Deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre Nor were the Women wanting in their little Cheats for they to make it be believed that they were by extraordinary Ways called by God to this Voyage invented those glittering Illusions which some believe have been renounced in our time upon other Occasions for having found a way by the Juice of Herbs to form certain little Crosses upon their Bodies resembling those which the Crusades wore upon their Habits with an impudent Malice they shewed them to every body as if they had been the miraculous Impressions of the Divine Power There were others who with no less Hypocrisie whether by an Excess of ill govern'd Devotion or by an indiscreet Fervour to gain a foolish Glory by a vain Ostentation of their Zeal burnt Crosses upon their Bodies with red hot Irons which they shewed with more affectation and seeming Pleasure than those who wore them upon their Habits Embroidered in Gold and Silver could shew theirs So that Illusion Hypocrisy Vain Glory and Indiscretion the Pests of Virtue and true Piety corrupted and profaned those Actions which otherwise might have been esteemed the most Religious and Heroick But that which prevented these Disorders from being so Mischievous as otherways they might have been was the great number of great Captains Gentlemen Lords and Bishops of France who followed the Princes who were of the Crusade and were joynt Commanders in this famous Enterprise yet without pretending to have any Superiority of Power one over the other which made it apparent that God only was their Conductor and General The Princes then whose Names shall be eternally Reverenced by Posterity and who have acquired immortal Glory in all History were Hugh the great Earl of Vermandois and Brother to Philip the first of France Robert Duke of Normandy Robert Earl of Flanders Raymond Earl of Tholouse and St. Giles Godfrey of Bullen Duke of Lorrain with his Brothers Baldwin and Eustace Stephen Earl of Chartres and Blois Hugh Earl of St. Paul with a very great number of other Lords of the first Quality who shall hereafter more commodiously be made known when Occasion shall present their noble Actions and when I come to describe as I am about to do the Voyage which they made by three several Ways according as before they had agreed in the Winter in order to their Rendevouzing at Constantinople as they did the following Year I am however to inform the Reader that the Respect which I have for him not permitting me to present him with any thing but what has the Warranty of Historical Reputation or Authentick Acts I shall not mention any Names but what I find Recorded in the Historians of those times and if any Persons of Quality who pretend that some of their Ancestors had a share in this Holy War will do me the Favour to send me Authentick Memoires thereof I will not fail in a new Edition of this Work to do Justice to the Merits of those Illustrious deceased and with Satisfaction to render what is due to their Memories and their Descendants year 1096 The first then of these Princes who advanced with his Troops towards Constantinople was the famous Godfrey of Bullen who altho he had not the absolute Command of the whole Army of the Crusades yet without Contradiction he had the greatest share both in the Trouble and Glory of this first Crusade He took the same way which Charlemain in his Conquest had trod before him through Germany all along by the Danubius to the Confines of Thracia This Prince was the Son of Eustace the second Earl of Bullen and Ida the Sister of Godfrey of Bossu Earl of Ardenna Bullen and Verdun and Duke of the lower Lorrain or Brabant to distinguish it from the higher Lorrain year 1070 which was otherwise called Mosellane and which at that time was under the Jurisdiction
some of which lost their Lives by divers kinds of Torments and others by a lingring Martyrdom changing their Freedom into a most cruel Slavery The lot of the French from whom the other Nations had separated themselves was not much more Fortunate they were Incamped near Helenopolis and Cybotus which our Writers call Civitot which are two Villages situate in the Gulph of Nicomedia and nearest to the City of Nice from whence they sent out great Parties to destroy the Forrage about that City But the Disorders among them were still as great or greater than before so that Peter himself unable longer to indure their Insolence abandoned them leaving the whole Command to Gautier and retiring to Constantinople under pretence of procuring Provision for the Army Soliman who was a great Captain and kept good Intelligence and who knew how to use his Victory resolved now to attempt a second by attacking these People who had neither Discipline Order nor Head whom therefore he purposed to surprize in their Camp But by a strange Adventure it happened that these who had just now received the sad News of the Defeat of their Companions forced their Captains contrary to their Inclinations to draw out and March towards Nice with a Resolution to fall unexpectedly upon Soliman and surprize him whilest he was injoying the Pleasures of his last Victory they therefore decamped with twenty five thousand Men divided into six Batallions under so many Standards and with about five hundred Curiassiers on Horseback There lay between the French Camp and the City of Nice several high Mountains covered with Woods from whence there is a Descent into a fair Plain where this great Town is situated As the French passed these Mountains and Forrests in Disorder according to their Custome making a mighty Noise Soliman who was advanced so far on his way from Nice with a design to attack them little imagining they were coming to meet him being thereof informed by his Scouts who without being discovered by the French gave him this Advertisement he immediately retreated into the Plain where he drew up his Army in Battalia The French who were strangely disappointed to find those so near them and in so good Order whom they thought to have surprized nevertheless stood not to consider whether they should fight or not but gave a furious Charge with two of their Batallions and their little body of Cavalry upon the main Body of the Turks but they who were far more in number than the French extending their Wings to the right and left encompassed them and cutting off the Reserves which were to follow they poured in a shower of Arrows from all parts upon them and charged them with so much Fury that not being able to rally they were in conclusion cut all in pieces The brave Gautier Hievelittle who combated that day like a man who since he could not hope to conquer was resolved to fall nobly being shot through with seven Arrows dyed Renaud of Breis and Foucher of Orleans also perished with all the Cavalry selling their lives to the Infidels at an excessive rate Gautier of Breteuil and Godfrey Burel Colonel of Foot who was the Person that contrary to the Opinion of the wiser Captains drew the Army into this misfortune saved themselves among the Rocks and Bushes retiring to those who were not yet drawn out from the Woods but they seeing all lost dreamt of nothing but how to save themselves But the Turks who followed them close at the Heels pursued them with so much heat that they entred their Camp with the Fugitives where they made a most horrible slaughter among the Women Children Sick People Old Men Priests and Monks which were lest there with a very slender Guard of Soldiers and were generally either asleep or which was worse making debauches those who were able to save themselves from such a wosul Massacre retired some of them into the Mountains where they miscrably perished others to Civitot where the Town being presently after taken by the Turks they were all made slaves Insomuch that of this innumerable Multitude of Crusades of so many different Nations which Peter had led as far as the Bosphorus there did not remain above three thousand men who saved themselves in a little Ruinous Village upon the Propontis which they defended for several days by meer desperation and from whence they were at length drawn off and brought to Constantinople by the Emperors Fleet disarmed and almost naked the Emperour being scarce able to dissemble his malicious joy for this defeat of the Christians This was the Event of the Expedition of the Hermit who after he had done such notable things when he acted in his own Sphere as a Hermit a Priest and a Preacher of the Cross to excite-men to this Holy War came off so poorly when he acted contrary to his Profession and exchanged his Pilgrims Staff for a Sword appearing at the head of an Army with a Helmet upon his gray head and under that the Monks Cowl which did so ill accord with the Equipage and the Quality of a General This may inform us in a Lesson which cannot be too often repeated That as the natural frame of the Universe is conserved by the Different actions of the Elements which whilst they act in their proper places produces the most admirable Concord but ruin and confound all when once they depart from those regular Movements so neither can the civil World subsist longer than whilest the different functions of men retain a conformity suitable to their Condition and that generally all is spoiled when these are confounded But the unfortunate beginning of this Holy War was but only a kind discharge of those corrupted Humors which otherwise might have indangered the sounder Body of the whole Christian Army and which enabled it to act after a far different manner than it could possibly have done with the Conjunction of those irregular People For in the same time whilest these matters passed in this manner in Asia in the Months of August September and October Godfrey of Bullen began his March the fifteenth day of August with a puissant Army of ten thousand Horse and seventy thousand foot well appointed and for the most part chosen out of the Noble Families of France year 1196 rain and Germany who seemed transported with joy to sight under the Conduct of such a noble General He had also in his Company his Brother Baldwin and among other Princes and Lords of the first Quality Baldwin de Bourg his Cousin Earl of Retel the Counts Hugh de St. Paul with his Son Engelram Renald de Toul with Peter his Brother Baldwin de Mons Cousin to the Earl of Flanders Garnier de Grezi Kinsman to Duke Godfrey Conon de Mountaigu Dudon de Conty Henry and Godfrey de Hasche all which were sollowed by the Choicest Gentlemen and the brave Spirits of their Estates When this Army was arrived in Austria in the Month of September
being of an Humor not to forget themselves whilest they served others so advantageously they took occasion to be their own Paymasters by making themselves Masters of certain Places in Pavia where they afterwards became very Powerful by the Accession of divers of their Countrymen who flocked thither to them upon the Incouragement of their good Fortune and Renown The most considerable of these was a Person of Quality one Tancred Lord of Hauteville who of twelve Sons which he had not at all inferior to their Father in Courage sent eleven of them into Italy They were so fortunate that in a little time a fair Occasion presented itself to them to establish their Dominion in Italy For Baldwin Lieutenant to the Greek Governor being ill treated by him craving Aid of these Normans broak out into Terms of Defiance with him These Eleven Brothers the most renowned of their Nation and to whom all the rest yeilded Obedience carried themselves with such Conduct and admirable good Fortune that after having intirely defeated the Greeks in three Battles they chaced them out of almost all their Dependancies in Italy dividing the Conquests among themselves But still they acknowledged for their Captain and Chief the eldest Brother William Surnamed for his Valour Iron-Arme who was the first Earl of Pavia his two next Brothers Drogon and Humphry succeeded him and after them the Third which was the famous Robert Guischard This Prince who certainly was one of the greatest Men of his Age not contented with Pavia by the force of his Arms extended his Dominion into Calabria and Conquered the greatest part of that Country which is now called the Kingdom of Naples and took upon himself the Title of Duke of Pavia and Calabria for which he did Homage to Pope Nicholas the Second restoring to him such Lands as had been usurped from the Church He had afterwards great Differences with Gregory the Seventh who Excommunicated him but in the end being Reconciled he received Absolution and became his great Protector and at the earnest intreaty of that Pope it was that he with his Son Bohemond passed the Sea to make War with Alexis Commenius the Usurper of the Imperial Throne out of which his Predecessor Nicephorus Botaniatos had expelled the Emperor Michel Parapinacius who was come to Rome to Implore the Succor of the Pope and the Normans There can be nothing more Glorious than that which upon this Occasion was performed by this admirable Prince for he over-ran all Greece and with no more than fifteen thousand Men defeated Alexis in a set Battle who Encountred him upon the Frontier of Thrace with an Army of one hundred and seventy thousand Combatants Then leaving Bohemond in Thrace who successfully pusht on the War often beating Alexis as the Princess Ann his Sister Confesses he hasted to the Succor of the Pope who was closely Besieged by the Imperialists and Romans in the Castle of St. Angelo he constrained Henry the Emperor to depart from Italy Retook Rome from the Schismaticks conducted the Pope to Salernum returned to the East in his Passage defeated the Fleet of Alexis and having Rejoyned with Bohemond not long after he died full of Glory leaving his Estate to his Son Roger who after an unkind and unlucky War at last came to an Agreement with his Brother Prince Bohemond giving him for his Share the Principality of Tarentum year 1097 This Prince who was nothing Inferior to his Father in Skill or Courage was with his Uncle Roger Earl of Sicily at the Siege of Amalphi when the French Princes passed through Italy for the Levant So soon as he understood the Subject of their Voyage he declared publickly that he would be one with them either out of his great Zeal for the Glory of God or that he believed this might afford a fair Opportunity for him to Recommence the War with Alexis and by Possessing some part of the Empire establish himself in the East for he sent some of his People immediately to Duke Godfrey to obstruct the Peace between him and Alexis Be it as it will for it is no part of my Province to enter into Mens Intentions after the spiteful manner of most People and above all others Historians who to make themselves thought Able and Understanding too frequently fall into this piece of Malice It is most undoubted that Bohemond shewed such a mighty Ardor for this Holy Expedition that having in the Field torn a silken Cloak which he wore into Crosses he took the first himself and afterwards presented the rest to the principal Officers of his Army which were received with such an universal Applause that all the Souldiers protested they would follow him insomuch that passing quite through the quarter of Bohemond Earl Roger was in a manner wholy deserted and forced to retire Bohemond overjoyed at this Adventure applied himself with incredible Diligence to make Preparation for this Enterprize and in a short time passed the Sea after Hugh the Great but with another manner of Equipage than that Prince had done for he had in his Army ten thousand Horse and above so many Foot together with the greatest part of the Gentry of Sicily Calabria and Pavia and the Princes and Norman Lords the principal whereof were the brave Tancred his Nephew his Sisters Son the Earls Richard and Ranulph his Cousins the Sons of William Iron-Arme his Uncle Richard the Son of Earle Ranulph Herman de Canni Humphrey the Son of Raould and Robert de Sourdevall The Army passed through Epirus and Macedon where the Greek Imperialists who had their Winter Quarters there drawing together attended their Motions intending if possible to surprize them and at a certain Pass upon a River when one half of the Army was marched over they fell in upon the Rere But Tancred immediately Repassing followed by two thousand Horse charged them so home that having cut the forwardest of them in pieces the rest consulted their Safety with their Heels He took also many Prisoners whom he sent to Bohemond who reproaching them for this unworthy Action they assured him that what they had done was by particular Order from the Emperor notwithstanding that that perfidious Prince had wrote Letters full of Complements and Civility to Bohemond by that Artifice it seems thinking to amuse him and make him less Careful or Suspicious However this Blow so astonished Alexis that to avoid a greater he sent an Excuse to Bohemond and commanded his Officers to furnish his Army with Provisions he also requested Duke Godfrey with the principal Lords of his Army to meet this Prince and mediate a Reconciliation and the Duke knew so well how to soften that great Spirit that notwithstanding all the reason he had for his Distrusts he brought him along with him to pay his Duty to the Emperor and to take the same Oath with the rest of the Princes which he did with the same Intention lest it should procrastinate that great Design for which they
had taken Arms. The Emperor received him with all the Marks of Esteem and Kindness and believing he knew his blind side which he thought was Ambition he promised him that Conditionally that he would take the Oath which was required of him he would establish this Prince in the greatest part of those Provinces which lye between Constantinople and Antioch which he thought was an irresistable Argument to work upon his Temper But Tancred whether it were that he had secret Orders from Bohemond or that he could not dispose himself to Digest an Oath which he did not approve drew his Troops to this side of the Strait without seeing the Emperor at all who was forced to dissemble this Affront which was put upon him The Earl of Flanders who came up a few Days after went to wait upon the Emperor with a slender Retinue and without Difficulty took the same Oath as the others had done After which these Forces also passed the Bosphorus to encamp near Calcedon with the rest But the Arival of Count Raymond brought such new Difficulties as were not without great Trouble to be Surmounted This Lord had taken the Cross the first of all others at that same time when the Greek Ambassadors came to Pope Vrban after his departure from Clermont and his Example was so prevalent that he was followed by above one hundred thousand Men out of Avergne Gascoine Languedoc and Provence who put themselves under his Conduct He was a Prince of a majestick Aspect and being somewhat advanced in Years his gray Hairs rendered him still more Venerable but he was only so old as to have his Experience increased and his Judgment more strong without any diminution to the strength of his Body which was every way Robust and capable of induring all the Fatigues of War He had acquired a very noble Reputation especially in Spain in the Wars against the Moors for Alphonsus the great King of Castile who gave him his Daughter Elvira in Marriage as a Recompence of his Valor the glorious Marks whereof he carried in his Face having lost one of his Eyes by the shot of an Arrow which was so far from being a Blemish that together with his goodly Presence it inhanced his Esteem and Reputation among the Soldiers who had him in mighty Veneration He possessed moreover all the good Qualities which were requisite to render him a great Prince and an honest Man above all things a lover of Honor Justice and Integrity an inviolable Master of his Word Vigilant Wise and of a great Foresight Magnificent Prudent in his Counsels firm and unalterable in his Resolutions But after all this it must be acknowledged that notwithstanding his Age and all his Prudence he retained too much of the Genius and the Temper of his Country for he was a mighty Opiniatre and not able to bear Injuries or to suffer his own Sentiments or his Will to be Opposed The Countess his Lady who had the Heart of a Heroine generously followed her Husband in this Voyage as did also his Son Bertrand whom he was resolved to educate in this fair School of Virtue both by his Instructions and his Example Many great Persons accompanied him of whom the principal were Aimar Bishop of Pavia the Popes Legate William Bishop of Orange Currard Earl of Rousillon William Earl of Montpellier Gaston de Bearn William de Forrest Raiband of Orange Raimond the first Viscount of Turenne and several Spanish Lords together with Bernard Archbishop of Toledo and all the brave Lords and Gentlemen of Avergn Gascony Languedoc and Provence This brave Earl having passed the Alpes and taken his way by Lombardy and Friul Marched quite through Dalmatia being forced continually to stand upon his Guard to defend himself from the ancient Sclavonians a Barbaroas People who then Inhabited that Country and who never failed upon any Advantage to assail him and lay Ambuscades for him all the Way till he came to Duras from thence he entred into Epirus and traversed all Macedon and Thracia till he came to a Town upon the Hellespont within four days March of Constantinople having been forced to sight his Passage all the way against the Greeks and Bulgarians which the perfidious Alexis contrary to all his fair Protestations of Friendship had caused to arm against him However for the present he dissembled the Injury and tho not without a great deal of Repugnance leaving his Army Encamped near that City he advanced with a small Train to Constantinople there to treat with the Emperor according to the earnest Desires of the Princes who had already passed the Strait who now desired nothing more than to come to a Conjunction of their Forces in order to their entring upon Action The Emperor after a magnificent Reception pressed him also to the point of Homage as the other Princes had agreed The Earl smartly replied That he would never do it and that he was not come so far as the Levant to find a Master nor did he intend to become a Vassal to any other besides Christ Jesus But that nevertheless if his Imperial Majesty would joyn his Forces with theirs and put himself at the Head of the Army he would without trouble acknowledg him for his General and in that Quality oney him as well as any of the rest Alexis netled at this Denial however stilled his ill Humor and amuling the Earl with a pretence of treating with him further concerning the Common Interests the Imperial Troops who were Quartered in Thracia receiving secret Orders to that purpose sell unexpectedly in the Night upon his Camp who believing themselves in great Security in the Country of their Friends kept no manner of strict Guard this Surprise brought a strange Confusion upon the Camp and many Soldiers were killed before they could be awakned but after a little time these cowardly Assailants were repulsed with a very great Slaughter The Disorder however was never the less for the Souldiers who before had suffered so much in their march began to mutiny and believing that they were betrayed by their Officers who had brought them thither to be butchered nothing would satisfie them but to return into their own Country But the Earl who could by no means endure to think of retreating appeased them by changing their dispair into a desire of Revenge he therefore sent openly to reproach the Emperor with this infamous treachery and to sollicit the rest of the Princes to joyn with him and at once to deliver themselves from this persidious Greek by razing his Imperial Throne But the Princes at the earnest prayer of Alexis who absolutely disavowed the action and offered to make any kind of satisfaction to the Earl made such powerful Remonstrances to Raimond that in conclusion they not only appeased him but also obliged him for fear of losing more time to the prejudice of their great design to take the Oath which was desired which accordingly he did but in these terms That he promised
both Parts for it was only the Night and the extream Weariness that obliged them on both sides to give over as it were to take a little Breath year 1099 The Night it self however did not pass in over much Tranquility on either part The Besieged were in continual Fear to be surprized under the favour of the Darkness and the Besiegers lest they should sally out to set Fire to the Machines which were already much indamaged and especially that of the Earl of Tholose which was rendred in a manner wholly unserviceable But however they wrought so hard upon it in the Night that the next morning the Combat was renewed on one side and the other with more Fury than before The Christians irritated by so long a Resistance made their utmost Efforts resolute either to lose all or to gain all and the Sarasins animated by the Success of the two preceding days and by the hope of present Succour which the Sultan of Babylon had promised them fought with new Courage and with so much Assurance of Victory that they could not forbear insulting over their Enemies and assailing their Assailants Above all they aimed at Duke Godfrey against whose Machin whilest it advanced over the great Breach in the Out-Wall they threw a vast Quantity of Fire-Works and huge Stones one of which crushed with its fall one of his Esquires just by his side There were also two famous Magicians whom they brought to the Walls who promised to stop the Dukes Castle by their Enchantments but while the poor Wretches were busie muttering their foolish Charms a great Stone thrown from one of the Dukes Slings spoiled their Conjurations crushing them both together sent them down to those Infernal Spirits which they were in Vain calling up to their Assistance The Assault had now lasted till one of the Clock in the Afternoon without any manner of Appearance of Advantage than it was the day before when the Soldiers discouraged to see themselves so often repulsed began a little to relax of their former Ardor and indeed to recoil in Despair of ever being able to force so many brave Men who defended themselves with so much Vigor and Advantage which the Sarasins perceiving sent forth great Cries of Joy intermingled with Horrible Blasphemies and Insulting Language against the Christians reproaching them with the Cowardize and Impotence of their Crucisied God when Duke Godfrey whether he really was assured that he saw it or whether his Imagination heated by the Ardor of the Combat and filled with the Images of War represented it to him cried out amain That Heaven was come to their Succour and that he saw upon his left hand upon the Top of Mount Oliver a Celestial Cavalier who shaking a shining Buckler towards the City gave the Signal to enter it And that which is most surprizing is that the Earl of Tholose who fought at a great distance from him against another part of the City declared the same thing at the same time to his Soldiers so that one must either conclude that these two Princes had before agreed this matter between them to re-incourage their Men when they saw them a little abate of their Courage and Vigor or else that by chance some Cavalier of the Army at that time getting upon that Hill was by the Princes who saw him at the same time taken for a Warriour-Saint who was descended from Heaven to their Succour Let it be as it will it is certain that this Vision or at least the Belief that it was very true had the most admirable Effect that ever was seen for no sooner was the Report blown about but the Soldiers perswading themselves that it was St. George who as the whole Army believed he had done at the Battle of Antioch was come again to sight for them instantly reassumed such a new Courage that they became quite other men for they returned to the Combat like so many furious Lions and even all without distinction of Age Sex or Condition rushed in to the Assault the Sick and Maimed not Excepted ran before the Rolling Machins so that having in less than an Hour levelled the Way which hindred their advancing they pushed them Home to the innermost Wall where for some time they fought at push of Pike and Javelin But Godfrey who was resolute to throw himself into the Town bethought himself of an Invention which facilitated his Passage and cleared the Walls in a Moment for the Enemies to break the Force of the Blows of the Stones and Rams which battered the Walls had put abundance of Sacks filled with Chaff Hay and Wool Rugs and Alatresses pieces of Cables and Ropes and a hundred other things of that Nature which they thought would by yielding and giing way year 1099 defend the Walls from those Blows of the battering Engines the Duke perceiving that the Wind blew at North and was upon his Back made a great quantity of fire Darts be shot against that soft and combustible Matter which catching hold of them very easily set them in a moment all into a Blaze the Flame which rose very high with a mighty thick Smoak being driven by the Violence of the Wind upon the Faces of those who defended the Walls and the two adjoyning Towers on the Right and Left they were forced at last to Retire and leave the Place Empty The Duke thereupon immediately letting down his Draw-Bridge which was of an exact Height to rest upon the Wall descended instantly to the second Stage where putting himself at the Head of all those brave Men which accompanied him he threw himself with his Sword in his Hand into the Town having at his Side Eustace his Brother Baldwin Earl of Bourg his Cousin and the two Valiant Brothers of Tournay Lethold and Engelbert who were followed by the brave Guicher and that choice Troop of Lords and Gentlemen who never Abandoned the Duke In a little while after the Duke of Normandy the Earl of Flanders and Tancred having used the same Artifice to drive the Enemies from the Walls threw their Bridge over the Wall also and entred at the Angular Tower being sollowed by Gaston de Foix the Earls Hugh de St. Paul Gerrad de Rousillon Raimband de Orange Louïs de Mouson Conon de Montaign Lambert his Son and all the rest who desired to have a share in the Glory of these great Men. In the same Instant the Soldiers seeing that the Princes threw themselves into the Town followed by the principal Persons of the Army they were so Animated that they ran to the Assault of their own Accord every one in the way that his Courage Inspired him with these presented the Ladders and pushed one another forward to gain the Battlements which the Enemies had Abandoned those mounted the second Stage of the Castles to pass over the Bridges and the greatest part desperately threw themselves in at the Breach which had been made the day before so that all the North Side
Rama where they took some of the Enemies Scouts had Advertised him that the Sultan was Incamped at Ascalon a City upon the Sea-Coast two good days Journeys from Jerusalem towards Egypt he resolved to go to meet him and notwithstanding the prodigious Inequality of their Forces to give him Battle For this Purpose having first Implored the Help of Heaven by publick Prayers at which he assisted with marvellous Devotion he parted from Jerusalem upon Tuesday the eleventh day of August with the Earl of Flanders and that Arnold de Rohes who by an Intrigue which is no part of my History to relate was now chosen Patriarch of Jerusalem with the Consent of the Pope This new Patriarch who for very many Reasons was not so very agreeable to the generality of the People thought to acquire Reputation by shewing his extraordinary Zeal upon this Occasion He therefore left Peter the Hermite to take Care that Prayers might be made to God Almighty for the happy Success of the Arms of the King whom he would follow carrying with him to Encourage the Soldiers a part of the Wood of the true Cross which an honest Christian had hid during the Siege lest the Sarasins should profane it The same day the King joyned Tancred and Count Eustace waiting the coming up of the Duke of Normandy and Earl Raymond who met him at Ibelin which was Anciently the City of Gath one of the five Cities of the Lords of the Philistins some few Miles from Lidda and Ramula The next day they advanced together to the Brook Soreck which was not above two or three Leagues from the Enemies Camp There they found a prodigious Number of Horses Oxen Camels Asses Sheep and Goats which were guarded by some Arabians who were easily Routed some of them being taken Prisoners by whom they gained Intelligence of the Posture of the Enemies so that they easily Seized upon these Flocks and Herds of Cattle but there being reason to fear that this was but a Snare which the Sultan had laid for the Christian Army to fall upon them whilest they were busie in dividing the Prey the King expresly Prohibited all Persons to meddle with the Booty and not to think of taking any thing from the Enemy till they had gained the Battle which they were going to give them year 1099 In short the next Morning being Friday and the Eve of the Assumption of our Lady the Army at break of day passed without any Trouble the Torrent which at that dry Season of the Summer had but very little Water in it and the Sultan who could never perswade himself that the Christians would dare to be so hardy as to Advance to him had given no Order to hinder their Passage or to Dispute it with them Never was there seen a greater Ardor than appeared in the Countenances of the Soldiers upon this Occasion so much Joy and so much Assurance of Victory appeared amongst them tho they were but a handful of Men in comparison of the infinite Multitude of their Enemies for those who speak with the least assure us that there were a hundred thousand Horse and above three hundred thousand Foot in their Army for the Sultan who had set his Resolution either to Preserve or Recover Jerusalem had Amassed all the Soldiers that possibly he could out of Egypt Lybia Affrica Ethiopia Arabia and the Towns which were yet Possessed by the Turks who joyned with him against the Christians as their common Enemies And the Historians who speak the most of the Christians will not allow them to be above twenty thousand among which about five thousand Horse they being not in a Condition to Re-mount the Cavalry since the Taking of Jerusalem But that which gave this Confidence to the Christians besides the Contempt which they had of these Numbers of Sarasins which they made no account of was the Zeal which they had for the Glory of Christ Jesus and the eager Desire which boyled in their Hearts to Revenge the horrible Blasphemy of the Sultan For they had learned from the Prisoners that this impious Miscreant had haughtily threatned to Extirpate all the Christians and their Religion out of the East that he would rase the very Foundations of the Holy Sepulchre and utterly Ruine all the Monuments of Christian Religion and thereby spoil the Longing of those of the West to make any more such Voyages to Jerusalem They passed then over the Torrent with Trumpets Sounding and great Shouts of Joy as if it had been in Triumph and that they intended with their small Army to Affront the mighty Number of their Despised Enemies But it happened by a very surprizing Accident that the Mistake of their Enemies supplied the Defect of their Number by making them appear to be far more than in Reality they were which mistake produced all the Effect that could have been hoped or wished had they been really so many as they appeared to be for that mighty number of Cattle which had been taken the day before and which the King had forbidden the Soldiers to meddle with followed the Army as they passed the Rivulet and without being in the least Conducted by any Ranged themselves in the order of Troops upon their March as if it had been the Rere-guard of an Army extending themselves to the left Hand to the very Foot of the Mountains which border upon the East covering all that large Campain which from the Brook extends it self even to Ascalon which lies on the right Hand upon the Sea Coast and as these Animals filled all the Plain even to the Mountains and that the Horses Excited by the Noise of the Trumpets fell to Neighing according to their couragious Nature in such a manner that they might be heard afar off so these great Herds of other Cattle in Marching raised such mighty Clouds of Dust between them and the Sarasins that not being able to distinguish clearly they took them for part of the Christian Army and particularly for Squadrons of Cavalry and consequently their Fear also multiplying them in their amazed Imaginations they conjectured that their Number was not at all inferior to theirs whereupon they were Seised with a general Consternation and not being able to disabuse their troubled imaginations they stood as if they had been stupid thinking they were to deal with a million of Christians who since the taking of Jerusalem were Arrived from the West In the mean time the Armies being thus near there was a necessity of Fighting that of the Christians was divided into three Bodies Count Raymond Commanded the Right Point which was extended to the Sea that so they might not be Surrounded on that side The King took the Left that so he might be opposite to the Right of the Enemy where their Principal Squadrons were ranged The Duke of Normandy the Earl of Flanders Tancred year 1099 and Gaston de Foix were in the middle with the main Body of the Battle These three Bodies were ranged
is true that this Order began to Relax and Decay extremely by the iniquity of the Times during the Wars between the English and French either by the Malice or Negligence of the Knights who either themselves did or permitted others to encroach upon the Estates of the Order appropriating them to their own private Families For this Cause it was that Pope Innocent the Eight at the Request of the Knights of Malta suppressed this Order to Re-unite it with all its Estates to that of St. John of Jerusalem which was obtained by Emery D' Amboise Great Master of the Rhodes by another Bulla from Pope Julius the Second But in regard that the Parliament of France Declared these Bulla's to be Injurious and contrary to the Rights of the Kings of France the Patrons of the Order the Popes Pius Fourth and Pius Fifth caused them to be Revoked upon Remonstrance thereof made to them by Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second who thought themselves too nearly Interessed in the Commanderies or Places of Trust which were within their Dominions so that the Order was again Established with many new Priviledges by Pope Pius the Fourth year 1119 who Created Jannot de Chastillon his Nephew Great Master of the Order after his Death Gregory the Thirteenth Transferred the Great Mastership to Emanuel Philibert the Duke of Savoy and to his Successors granting him also the Union of this Order with all their Estate to that of the Knights of St. Maurice the Erecting of which the Duke had obtained about a Month before It ought nevertheless to be taken for Indubitable that these new Creations to the Dignity of Great Master of St. Lazarus were not made but with Respect to certain Countries and it is no less certain that it was extremely in the Prejudice of the Kings of France who could by no means lose that Right which they had so lawfully acquired and for more than five hundred Years injoyed to have the sole Nomination of the Great Master who ought to be Elected at Boni the principal Conventical General House of the whole Order and who ought to have Jurisdiction over all the Knights of what Nation soever they be Insomuch that all those who are called Great Masters in other Countries are no more to speak properly but Deputies and Substitutes to him who is Established and Acknowledged in France as the King of Spain alledges in his Right Affirming that the Duke of Savoy is only his Vicegerent in Italy which also a very learned Civilian hath remarked according to the Bulla of Gregory the Thirteenth However after all these Bulla's reckoning from that of Innocent the Eight our Kings whose Rights are Sacred and Inviolable have not failed always to name as they did formerly without Interruption the Great Masters of all the Order of St. Lazarus both on this and the other side of the Sea And those of the Fraternity following that is Aignan Claude de Marveil John de Conty John de Leui Michael de Seurre Francis Salviati Aymar de Chartres Hugh Castelan de Castelmore and Charles de Gayan who were provided and nominated by the Kings Lewis Twelfth Francis First Henry Second Francis Second Charles Ninth Henry Third and Henry the Great never failed to take this Quality upon them altho the deplorable Condition to which the Order was Reduced in France the small Number of Knights and the Loss and Alienation of their Estates took from them the Opportunity of maintaining the Dignity of their Place and Order It was for this Reason that Henry the Forth after he had Gloriously Setled the three Estates of his Realm and that after the cruel Disorders of the Civil Wars he had put the Kingdom into a flourishing Condition was resolved also to restore to its primitive Splendor this Military Order of the Hospitallers from which he perswaded himself he should be able to draw very considerable Services He therefore Chose for Great Master one of the Fraternity whose Name was Philibert de Newstang a Gentleman whose Birth and Merit were equally Illustrious He went upon the King's Account to Rome there to treat about this Affair with Pope Paul the Fifth and did so well Negotiate what he had in Commission that the Quality of Restorer Protector and Patron of the Order was reserved to the King and the Dignity of Chief and General of the whole Order of St. Lazarus was Absolutely and without Restrinction to be in him whom the King should name to be Great Master Moreover the Pope having Created a New Order of Knights under the Title of our Lady of Mount Carmel at the Instance of the King he United them to that of St. Lazarus after which time the Knights have with this double Title born for their Armes a Cross or which is doubled consisting of eight Points Pometty between four Flowers-de-Lys with the Image of our Lady in the middle But as the Death of Henry the Great made the greatest of all his Noble Designs to Vanish the Order of St. Lazarus which began to Recover after having received these new Marks of Honor did for the main stand at a Stay continuing in the Condition wherein he lest it till now of late it begins to Flourish in such a manner which would make one believe that we shall one day see it produce those Fruits which it was accustomed to do in the times of its early Force and Vigor For the King who undertakes nothing which he doth not most happily Accomplish having taken up the same generous Design of his August Grandfather whose Sir Name the Acclamation of all Europe hath bestowed upon him will not fail to take all the most Just and Essicacious Ways to restore this ancient Order to that Condition which may render it Serviceable to those necessary Ends for the Good of the Church and State year 1119 which he hath proposed to himself But it is time methinks after this Digression which I hope will neither be Disagreeable nor Unprofitable to the Reader that I should now again follow the Thred of my History year 1123 The new King Baldwin de Bourg who had abundance of Courage and of Virtue obtained many great Victories against the Turks who after having Defeated and Slain in Battle the Prince of Antioch began to menace that great City But as he went to Succour the Earl of Edessa against Balac the most Potent of the Turkish Princes who had taken Earl Josselin with his Cousin Galeran in an Ambuscade he himself happened to be Surprized in the Night by that Emir who sent him Loaden with Irons to the same Castle where the two Earls his Kinsmen were detained Captives His Imprisonment however had not those dismal Consequences as were expected for Eustace Garnier Lord of Sidon or Saietta and Cesarea who was made Regent of the Realm Defeated the Army of the Egyptian Sarasens who Besieged Jaffa After which their Navy which consisted in eighty Sail of Ships was intirely Ruined by the Venetians who
of Death causing his Litter to be set down in the middle of the Army he lifted up his Hands and Eyes all Bathed in Tears of Joy to Heaven and with great Devotion he returned his hearty Thanks unto Almighty God for all the Benefits which he had received from him but above all for the Favor which he had now done him to let him die like a Prince of the Crusade in making War against the Infidels and that he permitted him to Vanquish with the bare Report of his Approach and the Terror of his Name these Enemies of Christ Jesus and of his Holy Faith And thus did this Christian Hero Transported more with the Excess of his Joy than of his Pains render unto God his generous Soul going to the Eternal Triumphs of a Glorious Immortality in Heaven whilest his Army Victorious by him only without Fighting Re-conducted his Body in the Litter as in a Triumphant Chariot to Edessa there to receive the Honors due to one of the bravest Actions that ever were Performed year 1142 Thus it was that this Illustrious Lord finished his Glorious Life and thus it was that with the Disgrace of refusing to hold the Place of so generous a Father the young Josselin his Son began his Reign which he dishonored by a Vicious and Dissolute Life spent in all manner of Debauches and above all by the Loss of Edessa which was the cause of the Decay and in Conclusion of the Ruine of the Affairs of the Western Christians in the East But is no new thing to observe that what the Wisdom Courage and Vigilance of many great Men have not been able without great Difficulty to Establish should be Ruined in a moment by the Brutality Pusillanimity and Cowardice of one Dissolute and Voluptuous Man This new Earl Josselin quitted the City of Edessa which his Father and the two Baldwins his Predecessors who constantly kept their Court there had taken great Care to Fortifie and Retired to Turbessel a delightful House Situate upon the Banks of Euphrates where like a true Epicure he drowned himself in those Vices and continual Debauches which the mistaken World calls Pleasures without ever regarding the weighty and troublesom Affairs of State But to Ease him of those Toils which attend a Crown Sanguin the most Potent and Able of all the Turkish Princes Sultan of Alepo and Nineveh now called Mosula or Mussula laid hold of this Occasion of the Stupidity of this careless Prince and knowing that there was neither a good Garrison nor any kind of Provisions fit to sustain a Siege in Edessa he presently sate down before it and by a furious Assault Carried the Place before the Unfortunate Josselin who was of himself destitute of any Power to prevent it could procure any Assistance from his Neighbours for he had too much Disobliged Raymond Prince of Antioch with whom he lived in continual Broils to afford him any and Queen Melesintha was at too great a Distance to Assemble so suddenly such an Army as was necessary to relieve the Place So that the Conqueror had Opportunity enough to make a great Progress with his Arms had not his ill Destiny rather than the Christian Arms prevented him for as he was Besieging Cologembar a Town upon the Euphrates he was Slain by one of his Eunuchs who having thus revenged himself of some Affront done him by his Master saved himself by Flight His two Sons divided his Dominions between them Cotebin the Eldest had for his Share Nineveh and Assyria and Noradin the Younger Brother was Sultan of Alepo This young Prince who soon after made himself one of the most Potent Princes of all Asia had nothing about him that was either Turk or Barbarian except the Name and without retaining any thing of the Vices of his Nation he made himself most Conspicuous in his Conduct by all the Virtues and accomplishing Qualities of a great Captain He was equally Wise Provident Moderate Bold and Enterprising Couragious Valiant and Fortunate and what was most rare among Infidels he was a Man of Honor Probity and wondrous Devout in his own Religion which was Mahometan above all he was the most Vigilant of Mankind the Stoutest and most prompt to lay hold upon all Opportunities which presented themselves with the prospect of any noble Action as appeared particularly in the Rencounter I am going to relate Having understood at Nineveh that Earl Josselin being underhand Sollicited by the Inhabitants had Seized upon Edessa with a considerable number of Troops he ran thither immediately with such Forces as he could on the suddain get together to Invest it this he performed so readily that the Earl despairing to resist the Enemies within who yet held the Fortresses and those without who went about to cut off all Provisions from coming to him resolved before all the Passages were obstructed to save himself with his Soldiers by quitting the City which being accordingly put in Execution the greatest part of the Inhabitants who were afraid to fall into the Hands of Noradin would also Accompany him in this dishonorable Flight But that Prince falling upon the infortunate Inhabitants at the same time that those within the Fortresses Sallying out had broken in among them at the Gate which they had set open they were all cut in pieces and then immediately pursuing the flying Army of the Earl which were Retreated some two Leagues to gain a Pass upon the Euphrates he Charged them so briskly that in the End he put them to a total Rout so that the miserable Earl did not without great Difficulty Escape to Samosatia year 1143 where he Arrived almost alone Thus Noradin having no more Enemies able to keep the Field and having so easily Re-gained Edessa quickly made himself Master of the greatest Part of that Principality from whence he Menaced the other three and all that part of Christendom which was in the East with utter Ruin and Desolation In the mean time immediately after the first taking of Edessa by Sanguin there being great reason to fear that that powerful Turk who had the Courage and Ambition of a Conqueror would also indeavour the Conquest of Antioch a Dispatch was immediately sent to request the Succours of all the Princes of the West But the principal Application was made to Lewis seventh King of France to whom the Christian Princes of the East who were all of that Nation had Recourse as to their natural Lord and whom the cross Accident which happened a little after put into the most favourable Disposition in the World to undertake such an Enterprise This Prince was in the very Bloom of his Youth being about twenty four Years of Age he was of a most exact Shape and of a marvellous and in his Sex an uncommon Beauty of a sweet Temper Civil and Obliging extream Pious Tender and Sensible of the least Sufferings of his meanest Subjects whom he most passionately Loved and was no less Beloved by them but above all he
unquestionable he also added That he was ready to renounce his Religion and turn Mahometan Saladin who very well knew him by the Reputation which he had acquired and which had given him the Fame of one of the ablest and most valiant Knights of his Order accepted his Offers and to engage him the more strongly to his Party gave him his Niece in Marriage and in consequence a very good Army with which this infamous Apostate committed most horrid Discorders in Palestine but as he approached to Jorusalem which he believed he should be able to surprize with the third part of his Troops whilst the other desolated all the Country as far as Samaria or Sebastia even to Jericho the small number of Soldiers which were in the City with the Inhabitants sallied out at the Postern-Gates so luckily that the Traytor who expected no such matter was himself surprized and most of his Companions being cut in pieces he was constrained to sly with all the haste his Spurs could help him to thereby to escape the just Punishments which he knew he deserved for his detestable Perfidy This was some little Consolation to poor King Baldwin who had tasted little in his Life but went out of the World some few Days after with this small Satisfaction dying in the twenty fifth Year of his Age and the twelfth of his Reign not less with the Violence of his Disease than with the Grief which he had to see his poor Kingdom destitute of all hopes of Succour and left in the hands of a feeble Infant betwixt eight and nine Years of Age and which was in extream danger to be miserably torn in pieces by the Factions and Ambition of the Great Men. And indeed presently after the death of this Prince year 1186 those dangerous Contests for the Regency began to break out between the Earl of Tripolis and Guy de Lusignan But this Fire became a mighty Blaze by the death of the little King which happened about seven Months after that of his Unkle by a slow Poyson which it is said was given him either by Count Raymond his Governor who had some Pretensions to the Throne or as others believed by his own Mother Sybilla an ambitious and unnatural Woman who was not able to suffer this little Infant to take from her the Hope of being a Queen But let it be as it will that the Malignity of Men's Natures and the Liberty which they give themselves to publish their own Suspicions and the idle Reports of the People for undoubted Truths which hath often given Rise to the Belief of such supposed Crimes This is certain that the death of this Infant King gave the fatal Blow to this unhappy Kingdom year 1186 and to the Liberty of the unfortunate City of Jerusalem King Baldwin the Fourth had two Sisters Sybilla the Mother of this little Baldwin the Fifth which she had by her first Husband William Marquis of Montferrat his second Sister was Isabella the Daughter of Mary the second Wife of Amauri and Niece to Manuel the Emperor of Constaminople who was married to Alfred de Thoron Son to the late Constable of Jerusalem Now Raymond who was the nearest Relation to the deceased Kings pretended that in the present Condition of their Affairs he ought to succeed to the Kingdom to the Exclusion of the Females and he was supported in his Pretensions by the Militia the People and the Judgment of King Baldwin the Fourth who had intrusted him with the Minority of the young King his Nephew excluding from it Guy de Lusignan the second Husband of his Sister Sybilla On the other side all the great Lords of the Realm who were for maintaining the Succession to the lawful Heirs of the Sisters of Baldwin the Fourth were resolute to recognize the Princess Sybilla for their Queen but with this Condition that some Expedient should be found out to break her Marriage with Count Guy of Lusignan with whom they would have nothing to do both in regard that he was not reputed either brave or able as also that they could not endure that a Stranger newly come among them should possess the Throne to the prejudice of so many Lords of the Realm who might sill it more advantageously Nevertheless Sybilla who was altogether as dexterous as she was ambitious having for some time concealed the death of her Son knew so well how to gain the Patriarch and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who made the most powerful Interest that she procured her self and Husband to be crowned almost at the same time that the death of the little King was divulged before the other Pretenders could have the leisure to enterprize any thing against her It is true indeed that they were so transported with Madness at this surprizing Artifice that they offered to declare Alfred de Thoron King but whether it were that he had little Ambition or little Courage he rejected the Tender and went himself immediately to recognize the new King by doing him Homage the others thereupon being astonished with his Action yet followed his Example though they detested in their hearts this Cowardly Submission of his as they termed it and reserved themselves for the future by some Opportunity or other to overthrow that Throne to which they now submitted only in Appearance and Compliance to the present Necessity But it was far otherwise with the Earl of Tripolis for he neither able to suffer nor to dissemble the Injury which he thought he received by preferring his Rival was so transported with Rage and Fury that he immediately retired into his own Estates and presently after to accomplish his Revenge committed a Fact the most black dishonourable and detestable that ever was recorded in any Story This Count Raymond the Third was descended in the Right Line from the famous Raymond Earl of Tholouse who was his third Grandfather and who after he had done so many fair Actions in the first Crusade died in the Year 1105. in the Fortress of Mount Pilgrims about two Miles from Tripolis which he then besieged Bertrand his Son who took that City succeeded his Father in the Earldom which he held of the Realm of Jerusalem and he left for his Successor Pontius de Tholouse his Son who married Cecilia the Widow of the valiant Tancred the Daughter of Philip the King of France which he had by Bertrada de Monfort who had also had by Fowk d' Anjou her former Husband the young Count Fowk who was afterwards King of Jerusalem From this Earl Pontius and Cecilia descended Raymond the Second Nephew to King Fowk and who was also his Brother in Law by the Marriage of the younger Sister of Queen Melesintha the Daughter of King Baldwin the Second and Wife of King Fowk So that Raymond the Third of whom I now speak who was the Son of Raymond the Second was by his Father second Cousin and by his Mother Cousin-german to King Amauri the Father
of Tiberias That it was to lose all to lose their Honour by suffering the Princess his Wife who so bravely defended it to perish whilst they stood cowardly looking on And that all the other Cities despairing after such an Example to be relieved would instantly surrender to the Conquerors and follow the Fortune of Tiberias if it should be taken And for any thing else in drawing out the Garrisons from the Cities they should thereby have so good an Army and so numerous that there could not be any room for Fear but that they should beat that Enemy whom they had so often vanquished with far less Forces The four Sons also of the Princess Eschina which she had by her first Husband made a mighty Noise and with repeated Instances demanded Relief to be sent to their Mother The Queen Sybilla also employed for this purpose all the Power which she had over the Spirit of the King her Husband who was indeed her Creature So that in conclusion the greatest part of the Lords inclining to this Opinion some out of Complaisance to the Queen others out of Service to the four Princes of Tiberias and divers out of the design which Count Raymond had secretly communicated to them it was resolved that they should march directly against the Enemies with all the Forces which they could draw out of the Garrisons where none were to be lest but such as were incapable of bearing Arms. And thus with these Troops which were composed of a great many Men and a few Soldiers the Army consisting in twelve thousand Horse and twenty thousand Foot besides the Citizens who were compelled by Force to serve in the War they advanced towards Tiberias Now as Raymond who in Right of the Princess his Lady was Prince of Galilee was better acquainted with the Country than the rest and that he was not only esteemed a great Soldier but that he seemed also to have the greatest Interest in the Victory which was to deliver the Person which ought to be the dearest to him the Conduct of the Army was unanimously committed to him That perfidious Traytor who gave secret Advertisement of all things to the Enemies unfortunately or rather maliciously engaged them in a rude and steril Country among the Straits of the Rocks and Mountains where there was neither Water nor Forrage The Enemies who only waited for this lucky Minute failed not to encompass them with their Troops which were far more numerous after the same manner that the Romans had some time been inclosed in the Furcae Caudinae year 1187 which were not more Famous by the Shameful Ignomony into which the ignorance and the Temerity of their Captains there precipitated their Soldiers then these Straits for the deplorable Overthrow of the Christian Army which was betrayed into the Hands of the Infidels by the baseness of their Perfidious Conductor It was now high Summer in the beginning of July when the Heats of that Burning Climate are most insupportable and there was not one Drop of Water to be found among those Rocks so that the Men and Horses died with Thirst and were able to do no more there was therefore a Necessity of resolving immediately to sight the Enemy For though the Disadvantage was very great by reason that it was impossible to draw up the Army in Battalia in a Post which was so uneven and so strait and broken with Rocks that they could not attack the Enemy but by filing off yet it was impossible to avoid that Choice the Army was divided into a great many Bodies commanded by the Principal Lords who were to follow one another who were to sustain there Companions and who were reciprocally to be sustained by those which followed them The Enemies expected them in good Order to cut them off as they marched in these long Files before they should have Leisure to form themselves into Squadrons upon the Plain to give them Battle The great Master of the Temple who chose to have the Van with his Noble Knights advanced first and charged so furiously upon those Enemies which opposed him that overturning them upon those who followed them he put them into Disorder insomuch that these Gallant men who fought most Valiantly after the Example of their Captain killing overturning or putting to flight all that durst oppose their first Fury had they been sustained by the other Bodies who had Order to follow them the whole Army might with little Difficulty have been drawn from that disadvantageous Post and have had the Liberty of sighting in the Plain Field where they would doubtless have been able to have hoped or however disputed for the Victory but here it was that the detestable Treason of the Perfidious Earl of Tripolis made it self most infamously Visible For he had so ordered the Matter that he himself commanded that Body which was to follow the Templers and he had also disposed the other Troops in such manner that all the Lords who were of his Party were to follow him Now these Traytors would not advance alledging that this was to lead their Souldiers to a perfect Butchery to quit their advantageous Post and to march them thus in Files into the Plain which was all covered with the Battalions and squadrons of the Enemies who must needs cut them all in Pieces taking them thus without Trouble one after another So that these brave Knights infamously abandoned by their Reserves and on every side surrounded by an innumerable Multitude of Sarasins were all either slain upon the Place or taken Prisoners not so much as one of them escaping After this Defeat Saladin seeing that no more durst advance to the Combat approached to the Camp of the Christians which yet he would not adventure to attack but that he might complete their Dispair by taking from them all Appearance of a Possibility to draw themselves out of that wicked Strait he caused Fires to be made in the Woods which invironed the greatest Parts of those Rocks and set strong Guards upon all the other Avenues that so he might sight them with greater Advantage if they should endeavour to Retreat But six Fugitives who run to his Army and to gain Credence with him offered to become Sarasins as they presently did having assured him that the Christian Soldiers were half dead with Hunger and Thirst and under the greatest Consternation so oppressed with their Misfortune Weariness and Despair that they were scarce able to stand or go upon this Advice he instantly resolved to Charge them which he did with that Success that his Army powering in upon them by the Straits which the Christians had abandoned they fell upon these miserable People who were crouded together and who had neither Courage to defend themselves nor Power to fly cross the Flames and the Rocks that it was no longer a Combat but a Horrible Butchery and Slaughter So that almost all the Captains and Christian Soldiers either perished in this miserable Day or were taken Prisoners
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
another Fleet more numerous then the first which came from the Coast of Tyre to reinforce the Camp of the Christians The first was a Fleet of Danes and Frisons to which were joyned such of the English who were resolved not to stay till the two Kings were accorded to make their Voyage to the Holy Land These were all chosen men resolute to employ the last drop of their Blood for the deliverance of the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ and they did so well accomplish that resolution that of twelve thousand Gentlemen who arrived upon this Fleet there remained not above one hundred alive at the End of the Siege Their Passage also was no less glorious than advantageous to Christendom for in their Way they took from the Sarasins the City of Silves in Portugal which they put into the Hands of the King Dom Sancho the Son of the great Alphonso and it hapned that they were at the same time joyned by several other Ships who had on board a great Number of Volunteers both Nobility and Soldiers under diverse French Lords and Princes the Principal of which were Robert Second Count de Dreux with his Brother Philip the Bishop of Beavais the Cousins of the King Thiband Earl of Chartres and Stephen his Brother Earl of Sancerre Rayoul Count de Clermont in Beavoise Thiband Count de Bar Erard Count de Brienne and Andrew his Brother who was esteemed one of the most Gallant men of his time William Count de Châlon upon the Saone Geoffry de Joinville Senescal de Champagne Guy de Dampiere Anseric de Montreal Manasses de Gerland Guy de Chatillon Upon the Marne and his Brother Gaucher the Third who was afterwards Earl of St. Paul and who signalized himself under that illustious name by a thousand noble Actions which he performed in the War against the Albigenses and in serving Philip the August against the Enemies of the Crown and above all in the Famous Battle of Bovines where he commanded the Rereguard of the Royal Army Gaucher the Second Grandfather of these two brave Lords and his Brother Renaud de Chastillon had formerly been in the Second Crusade under the Conduct of King Lewis the Young year 1190 Gaucher miserable perished in the unfortunate Combat of the Mountain of Laodicea and the Valiant Renaud who had been Prince of Antioch was slain by the Hand of Saladin himself after the deplorable and fatal Battle of Tiberias Guy de Chattillon who was imbarked upon this Fleet with the French Princes lost his Life at the Siege of Accon So that there are to be found few Families in France which have contributed so many great Men for the Holy War as have been derived from this Illustrious House of Chastillon from whence some tell us was descended that great Eudes de Chastillon Archdeacon of Reims Prior of Clugny Cardinal de Ostia and at last Sovereign Pope under the Name of Vrban the Second who was the Author of the first of the Crusades But we are otherwise informed by Alberick the Monk of the three Fountains of the Diocess of Chalons upon the Marne in his Chronicle which is only a collection of old Contemporary Authors and of which I have had a fair Manuscript communicated to me by M. Mabre Craymoisy Director of the Royal Printing-House of the Louvre who also printed this History This Alberick in his Chronicle under the Year 1087. which is that of the Exaltation of Vrban produceth not only Guy de Basosches as the Writer of the History of the Popes but another Author called Hugh who affirms that this Pope was born at Chastillon upon the Marne and that he was Son to the Lord de Lageri whose descendants from Rodolph the Brother of Vrban to the fifth Generation he there gives an Account of so that Eudes the Monk of Clugny took his Sirname from the Place of his Birth according to the Custom of those times and of our own also in some Monasteries his Fathers Name according to Panvinius being Miles another of our most Famous Genealogists will by all means have him to be the Son of a Lord of Chastillon whom he calls Miles but who never was in rerum Natura except in his own prolifick Brain since it is most evident that he was deceived as his own Son a most knowing Person ingeniously confesseth and is made apparent by comparing what he saith with Guibert the Abbot of Nogent an Author of that time who affirms that he was born in the Territory of Reims where the Seigniory of Lageri lies I have been willing contrary to my Custom to make this Genealogick Remark to shew how easie it is for Writers to be deceived in these kind of Matters by mistaking sometimes the place of their Birth for that of the Seigniory and that when by such an Equivocal Slip one comes to be perswaded that a man is descended from such a House into which Genealogical Stemm having grafted him they presently find out for him such imaginary Fathers Mothers and Grandfathers as never were in being as they have done for this Pope Vrban the Second And for this reason it is that I have not given my self or the Reader much Trouble in discussing the Genealogies of those persons of whom I have Occasion to speak in this Work in regard that is not only very troublesome but uncertain unprofitable Invidious and Vain and in no sort proper for an Historian who ought to leave such Researches to those who make it their peculiar Design to record the History of some Illustrious House To return therefore to my Subject James Lord of Avesnes and Guise one of the most renowned Captains of his Age being desirous to imitate the Zeal of Gerard d' Avesnes one of his Ancestors who was in the first Crusade joyned these Princes with a good Troop of his Subjects So that these generous French all together made more then ten thousand brave men who burning with an earnest Desire as soon as possible to combat the Infidels had not the Power to wait till the two Kings should be in a Condition to accomplish their Vow but caused a Fleet at their own Charges to be rigged out at Marseilles from whence in thirty five days time they arrived prosperously in the Road of Ptolemais at the same time that the Dains Frisons and English came to an Anchor in the same place so that together they formed a very fair Army The other Fleet was that of the Germans who had gone to Sea to reinforce the Army of the Emperor under the Conduct of the Lantgrave of Thuringia and the Duke of Guelderland who coming to ride before the Port of Tyre had at length perswaded the Marquis of Montferrat who was before frequently sollicited by such as came from the besieged Army upon the Hill Turon to joyn his Fleet with theirs so that weighing Anchor with about twenty two thousand Soldiers aboard they stood directly for Ptolemais year 1190 where by a very fortunate adventure they
was made with this Condition that after the Taking of Zara the Venetians should joyn their Forces with them in order to the attacking of Egypt the Conquest whereof they hoped would not be difficult which by reason of the Famine and the Pestilence had been extreamly desolated for five Years in which it had wanted the Inundation of the River Nilus Dandolo ravished with Joy to have obtained what he so earnestly desired upon this Occasion did an Action which was wholly unexpected from him and by which he most justly acquired immortal Fame For notwithstanding his extream Old Age and the Weakness and in a manner entire Loss of his Sight which might well have dispensed him from going to the Wars yet one Day in a great Assembly of the Senate the Lords of the Crusade and the People being in the Church of St. Mark he unexpectedly mounted the Tribunal and earnestly intreated the Republick to give him permission to take upon him the Cross and in Person to conduct the Venetian Army and that leaving his Son to supply his place after the Taking of Zara he might accompany the brave and generous Princes of France either to partake with them in the Glory of delivering the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ or to die with them in the pursuit of such a glorious Enterprise These Words were received both by the Crusades and Venetians with mighty Applause and with such great Acclamations mingled with Tears and Cries of Joy that the venerable old Prince more encouraged by the general Consent and the glorious Testimonies which were rendred to his Vertue descending instantly from the Tribunal made himself be conducted to the Foot of the Altar where prostrating himself to offer his Life as a Sacrifice to Almighty God to whose Service he now dâ—â—oted the Remainder of his Days he caused the Cross to be affixed to his Ducaâ— Bonnet that so it might be the more conspicuous and visible to all the Beholders An Example so illustrious was presently followed by several of the principal Persons of the Republick And that which augmented the Joy was that at the same time there was seen to arrive a noble Troop of brave German Lords and Brabamers who had taken upon them the Cross with Conrade Bishop of Halberstad and Berthold Count de Catzenelbogen So that by the favour of these Reinforcements the Army found it self compleat and being all imbarked in the Month of October they parted from the Port of Venice upon the gallantest Fleet which had ever spread Canvas upon those Seas and which consisted in three hundred Vessels charged with all manner of Warlike Engines and Munitions Upon the Eve of St. Martin they came within view of Zara and though considering the heighth and thickness of the Walls and the strength of its Towers which were defended by a strong Garrison many of those who beheld it at a distance judged it impregnable yet the next Day they attacked the Port with so much Fury that having dispersed those who defended it with the mighty force of Stones and Darts from the Engines and having broken the Chain which defended it they gained it by main Force and landed on the other Shoar year 1202 there to attack the City so soon as they had made their Lodgments and taken up their several Posts This vigorous Attempt did so terrify the Besieged that the next Day they sent out Deputies to make Offers of Surrendring the City upon Condition of only having their Lives saved And they had most infallibly done it if those of the Cabal who before had indeavoured to break up the Army had not by a most base Perfidiousness altered their Resolution by assuring them that they had none to deal with but the Venetians for that the French in Obedience to the Pope were resolved to undertake nothing against them At the same time Guy Abbot du Val de Sernay the same Person who had done such great Things against the Albigenses and who was afterwards Bishop of Carcassone went to speak with the Doge and the rest of the Princes and by a Zeal which had like to have caused great Disorders certainly a Zeal which made him act very unseasonably by unnecessarily exposing to Contempt the Authority of the Holy See he forbad them in behalf of the Pope to proceed any further or to enterprise any thing against Zara declaring those who should disobey this Order to be Excommunicate by Virtue of the Apostolical Letters which he there presented to them An Action so Surprizing did so Exasperate the Venetians that they had certainly cut this indiscreet Abbot in a thousand Pieces if Simon Earl of Montfort who was of his Party had not stoutly opposed it declaring himself his Protector and protesting that he would obey the Holy See and never employ those Arms against Christians which in taking upon him the Cross he had taken up to make War against the Infidels But the Princes and other French Lords to let the Venetians see that they did not only condemn this Action but that they were resolved like Men of Honor and in despite of all those who opposed it to perform what they had not promised but that notwithstanding their Vow they might well both in point of Conscience and for very considerable Reasons do gave such a furious Assault to the City both by Sea and Land without Intermission for five days successively that the Besieged were compelled to Surrender upon Discretion their Lives only saved After this the Season of the Year being too far declined to think of making War in Egypt it was resolved to pass the Winter at Zara where the Marquis Boniface came about fifteen days after the Reduction of the Place for he would not imbark with the rest upon pretence of giving some necessary Orders concerning the pressing Affairs of his Marquisate but in reallity that he might dexterously avoid appearing at the Siege of Zara and prevent the Displeasure of the Pope tho not long after the Pope received the Excuses which the French made him by their Deputies and granted them the Pardon which they demanded for the greater Satisfaction of their Consciences He also permitted them for the removing of all Scruples the Liberty of Treating at all times with the Venetians who could not be persuaded to believe themselves obliged to desire from him the Absolution from those Censures which they thought they had not at all deserved for which Reason some time after he denounced them Excommunicated by a Decree which the Princes thought convenient to suppress fearing that otherwise it might give occasion intirely to ruine the Enterprise of the Holy War as undoubtedly it would have done It was for this Reason that this sage Pope to whom the French Princes gave an account of their Proceedings by Letters respectful but very resolute after having throughly weighed the Matter approved the Prudence of their Conduct and some time after their Spirits being sweetned by a more propitious Conjuncture a Reconciliation easily ensued
Two great Armies of Sarasins besiege the Camp They attack the Lines and force them A great Combat within the Lines The Enemy at last repulsed The Arrival of St. Francis before Damiata His Conference with the Sultan The Battle without the Lines lost by the Crusades An advantageous Peace offered to the Christians by the Sultan The Reasons for and against it It is at last rejected by the Legate Damiata taken by Night year 1204 WHilest the Confederate Princes did with so much Glory and good Fortune conquer a whole Empire those who had separated from them to go directly into Palestine or who had taken other ways to put themselves under other Commanders met with all manner of ill Success and were so far from supporting that tottering State that in conclusion they did nothing but weaken the poor remainders of the Christian Power in the Holy Land The Truce which had for some time continued between them and the Sarasins having been broaken by one of the Admirals of Egypt and no sort of Satisfaction to be obtained for it the War broke out more furiously than before between King Emeri and Coradin the Son of Saphadin who was as great a Captain as his Father By Saphadin's Orders therefore he immediately advanced with a powerful Army and incamped within a League of Ptolemais Now John de Nele who commanded the great Fleet which had been equipped in Flanders and who staid at Marseilles to Winter having heard this News made hast from thence and whereas he should have joyned the Princes who besieged Constantinople as Count Baldwin had ordered him he sailed directly for Ptolemais where he landed having more Soldiers aboard his Fleet than there was in the whole Army of the Consederate Princes So that with those who were already passed by the Ports of Brindes and Otranto under Simon de Montfort Renard de Dampierre and the other Lords who had quitted the Confederates before they left Venice together with that great Multitude of Bretons who followed the Monk Herloin thither there were more Forces than might have chased the Infidels out of Palestine But there happened so many ill Accidents to them as ruined all their Designs for the Plague which began a little before in Ptolemais raged so furiously among these new Comers that it is reported there died in that City at one time above two thousand Persons in an Hour so that almost one half of them perished of that terrible Disease and the remainder to avoid that Danger year 1204 instantly re-imbarking failed back again to Europe There was also a fearful Dissention between the Christians themselves and the Crusades occasioned by a War betwixt Livon King of Armenia and Bohemond Earl of Tripolis and Prince of Antioch for the Principality of that State and as many great Lords and among others Renard de Dampierre with whom Theobald Count de Champagne at his Death had intrusted his Troops took the Part of Bohemond and marched to his Assistance they were surprized by the Sultan of Alepo who defeated them so intirely that there was scarce one who escaped either being taken or flain Villaine de Nevilly one of the most valiant Men of his time was there unfortunately slain and his Bother William de Nevilly Bernard de Montmirail and John de Villiers were taken as Renard de Dampierre General of the Champenois who was led to Alepo where he remained a Prisoner for thirty Years as for the poor Bretons they having only the Monk to lead them and he knowing better how to persuade them to take Arms than how to manage them they like those who followed Peter the Hermite were quickly dispersed and neither knowing what they had to do nor how to do it they perished either by the Plague or Famine or the Swords of the Infidels and the poor remainders of that great number did not without great Difficulty at last regain their Country of Bretany without having done any thing worthy of the great Zeal and Courage which carried them out of it But it hath been an old Observation that Lions with a timerous Stagg for their Captain will all prove Harts and that even fearful Deer when led by a Lion will do like Lions But in short there was not one of those who separated from the Army of the Confederates to go without them into the Holy Land who had not sufficient Reason of Repentance either for the Disgrace or the Damage which he suffered Even Simon de Momfort who before this had done so many Wonders in the War against the Albigenses was forced to return into France without bringing home with him from the Voyage any thing except the Trouble to have done nothing So dangerous it is to quit the main Body to which one is related and from which no better Fortune is to be expected but like a Branch cut from the Stem of a Tree to be blasted and withered In this miserable Estate were the Christians in the East and almost reduced to the utmost Dispair when they received the News of the taking of Constantinople by the Confederate Princes of whom even those who had abandoned them were constrained to demand Help from those to whom they had before denied theirs tho it was not to be expected that so small a Number ingaged in so great an Enterprise as the settling of their new Conquests and inlarging them could for the present be able to afford them It is impossible however to express the Joy which this News gave the Christians of Palestine who now did not question in the least but the Way was opened for the most short and certain Deliverance of the Holy Land from the Oppression of the barbarous Infidels But in regard of the Fear they were in of losing all after so many Misfortunes as one upon the Neck of another had fallen upon them King Emeri had before made a most disadvantageous Truce with the Infidels for six Years whereupon all the Crusades who were in Palestine went to wait upon the new Emperor at Constantinople The Legate himself Peter de Capua Cardinal of St. Marcellus being sent for thither by Baldwin to regulate the Affairs of the Church sailed thither and was followed by his Collegue the Cardinal of St. Praxede and such a multitude of the Oriental Christians of all Conditions that the King was almost left quite alone without any Forces considerable enough to oppose the Infidels if they should attempt to break the Truce as they quickly after did The Pope was hereupon mightily afraid and extremely troubled that his Legats should also without his Order abandon the Holy Land But the Providence of God averted this threatned Misfortune by a War which presently broke out among the Sarasins one against another and the Pope comforted himself with the Conquest of Constantinople which was altogether so unexpected to him He now no longer condemned this Enterprise of the Crusades as he had done formerly the fortunate Success thereof fully justifying the Undertaking
to do him prejudice and on the other that though he had a resolution to maintain a good understanding with the Empire yet he was not deposed to purchase it at the rate of so disobliging and dishonourable a refusal of his demands insomuch that this Prince as fierce as he was being afraid to provoke a King whom he both extremely honoured and feared in consequence upon his more cool and deliberate thoughts judged it convenient to satisfie him and therefore sent home his Bishops and Abbots into France In short this Accident so fatal to the whole Church and which ruined all the good designs of the Pope for the Holy Land did so afflict him that his extreme old Age although wonderful vigorous being unable long to resist the Violence of his Grief he died of Age and his resentment of this Blow about three Months after having for above fourteen years with marvellous Courage steered the Ship of St. Peter in that terrible Tempest which had been raised by the Quarrels year 1241 and Persecutions of Frederick Geossry de Chastillon a Milanese was thirty days after chosen by the name of Celestine the fourth and did immediately all that he could by writing to the Emperor Letters full of tenderness to sweeten his Spirit and incline him to restore Peace to the Church But the death of this Pope which followed within ten days after his Exhaltation hindred him from finishing what he had so happily begun After his death the Holy See was Vacant for above two years by reason that the Cardinals always refused to assemble unless Frederick would deliver their Bretliren who had protested the Nullity of such Elections as should be made without them and whom the Emperor persisted obstinately to detain all that time But at length Baldwin the Second the Emperor of Constantinople who in the extremity to which his Affairs were reduced was come in Person to desire the Assistance of the West wrought so effectually upon his Spirit already shaken by the Clamours of all Christendom that he restored them to their Liberty And then by common consent Cardinal Sinibald de Fiesque was chosen at Anagnia upon the twenty fourth day of June year 1243 who took the name of Innocent the fourth which he rendred so famous by his Virtue and by his Knowledge in the Canon Law of which he was called the Father It was the General belief of the World that this Election would fully reestablish the Peace of the Church in regard that this Pope while he was Cardinal had been a mighty Friend to Frederick and that at first the Emperor sent to him a magnificent Ambassage to congratulate him upon his Exaltation to offer him whatever was in his power by submitting himself intirely to him in all things the Rights and Dignities of his Empire and his Realms always excepted After this also he sent his Chancellor Peter de Vignes and Thadeus de Sessa who promised solemnly in his behalf and with an Oath that he would stand to his Judgment as to the satisfaction which he was to make insomuch that there seemed to remain no doubt but Peace would be concluded But this belief was quickly lost for the Pope having sent his Legates to the Emperor to let him know that he was ready to receive him to peace and to the Communion of the Church provided that he purged himself of those Crimes for which Gregory had condemned him and that Innocent on his side was disposed to give him satisfaction if in a General Council which should judge of it it should be found that he had offended This so exasperated the Emperor that he carried matters to the utmost Extremities so that the Pope finding that he was not in safety in Italy was obliged to take refuge in France which hath ever been the Sanctuary and retreat of persecuted Popes year 1244 But as the first and the greatest care which he had so soon as he was elevated to St. Peter's Chair was to reestablish Jerusalem and to secure it to the Christians by procuring all the Princes of Europe to contribute to the rebuilding of the Walls of that City so as to render it impregnable it was at the same time that he received a terrible Surcharge of grief by the sad news which he received of the intire desolation of that Holy City and the horrible Profanation of the Sacred places by the Corasmins whom the Tartars who ravaged the whole East had chased out of their Country And this is the Subject which I am next to recount this miserable accident being the principal Cause of the seventh and last Crusade which was wholly managed in a manner by the French under the King St. Lewis THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Original of the Tartars and their Empire They drive the Corasmins the Descendants of the Ancient Parthians out of Persia The Irruption of these Barbarians into Palestine The intire Desolation of Jerusalem The Effect which this produced in the West The Relation of the first Council of Lyons where Frederick is excommunicated and deposed The Decree of the Council for the Crusade The Decision of the Pope touching the Deposition of Dom Sanches King of Portugal A marvellous Example of Fidelity in the Governour of Conimbra The Emperor 's Manifest and his Exploits A Crusade published against him which hinders the Effect of the General Crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Land St. Lewis undertakes it singly with the French He takes the Cross and causes many of the Nobility and Gentry of France to follow his Example in the Assembly of Paris The Conference of Clugri for this Crusade The Ambassage of Frederick to St. Lewis and the wise Conduct of the King in reference to the Emperor The Politick Reasons to justifie this Enterprise of St. Lewis with an account of what was done at the beginning of it His Voyage to Aigues-Mortes where he takes shipping His arrival in the Isle of Cyprus He commits a great Error by staying there six Months The Death of divers Lords there That of Archambald de Bourbon The Marriage of his Grand-daughter Beatrix of Burgundy with Robert the fourth the Son of St. Lewis from whom the Princes of the Angust House of Bourbon are descended The Ambassage of the Tartars to St. Lewis during his stay in Cyprus His arrival in Egypt The Battle of Damiata and the taking of that City from the Sarasins who abandon it and the reason of their doing so The Entry of the King into Damiata The Error which he commits by stopping there The Army grows dissolute and debauched by lying idly there The arrival of the Count de Poitiers The Resolution which is taken of going directly to Caire The Situation of the Places where the two Armies are incamped The unsuccessful attempt of the Crusades to turn the Nile They pass the River The
Battle lasted two dayes the seventeenth and eighteenth of October wherein the Christians fought with more Courage but also with greater misfortune than ever they had done in all their former Battles year 1244 The whole Army was divided into three Bodies Gantier the third Count de Brienne and Jaffa Nephew to King John and the Son of that Count Gautier who died in the Conquests of the Realm of Naples commanded the Left Hand Body with the Knights of the Hospital The Sultan of Chamella or Emessa who conducted the Confederate Sarasins had the Right And the Patriarch accompanied with the other Knights and Barons was in the main Battle He had sometime before excommunicated the Count upon his refusing to give him a Tower in the Castle of Jaffa to which he pretended it being called the Patriarch's Tower This Prince who was a very good Christian and unwilling to have any thing lie upon his Conscience which might hinder him from courageously exposing himself to death demanded absolution of him two several times before they came to charge And as this Prelate without doubt criminally rigorous and too severe in an occasion of this nature persisted obstinately in his refusal to give it him The Bishop of Rama a man of great Courage and who made use of the Sword in this War against the Insidels as well as of the Cross in his Church unable to indure that by this accident so much leisure was given to the Enemies to range their Troops cried out aloud My Lord Let not this Scruple trouble you any longer Let us charge The Patriarch is in the Fault and therefore I absolve you in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And thereupon the Count who took it for a sufficient absolution went to the Charge with his Lance couched and being followed by his Valiant Bishop he threw himself into the thickest Battalions and Squadrons of the Enemies in the place where he observed the Prince of the Corasmins invironed with all the most brave of his Army The Sultan of Emessa also on his side did very Nobly but he was not followed by above two thousand of his Sarasins the others flying upon the first Charge Nevertheless the Christians though abandoned by these Cowards yet never fought more bravely being resolved rather to perish in the Field of Battle than ever to quit it So that after having always maintained their ground without ever recoiling one step in two days from Morning until night at last oppressed by the Multitude of their Enemies who were not only stout men but also infinitely surpassed them in number and of whom notwithstandhing they made a horrible Carnage they were almost all either slain upon the place or taken Prisoners So great was this defeat that there escaped with the Patriarch Robert and some of the Bishops and Abbots not above three and thirty Knights of the Temple six and twenty Hospitallers and three of the Teutonick Knights the Constable Count Philip de Montfort Prince of Tyre Nephew to the Illustrious Count Simon and some hundreds of Soldiers who retired to Ascalon from whence they came to Ptolemais were all was in the utmost Consternation for this dreadful loss The great Masters of the Temple and the Teutonick Order were slain upon the place and the Master of St. John of Jerusalem was taken Prisoner and carried in Irons into Egypt as was also the brave Gautier de Brienne who after he was taken did an Action which made him triumph even in his Captivity over all the Forces of his Conqueror and which doubtless deserves to be recorded to his immortal glory For the Prince of the Corasmins who thought to make advantage of his being taken to gain the City and Castle of Jaffa caused the Valiant Count to be bound under his Arms to a Cross which he had erected before the Gate of the Castle telling the Soldiers of the Garrison who from the walls beheld this woful Spectacle that he would in the most cruel manner put the Count to death except they presently ransomed his life by the surrender of the place But this invincible Hero making a Sacrifice of his life to Jesus Christ to save that little remainder of his Inheritance in the Holy Land cried to his Soldiers as loud as ever he could from his Cross that they should take no care for him but leaving him to the rage of these Dogs to whom he should be obliged for the Crown of Martyrdom that they should courageously defend the place with which he had intrusted them not only for himself but to preserve it for Jesus Christ for whose only sake they had come into Palestine So that the Barbarian losing all hope of gaining the place by this cruel Artifice and not daring to attack it by main Force he would not also lose the opportutunity which he had of making an agreable Present to the Sultan of Egypt year 1244 to whom he sent the brave Count with the other Prisoners and in a few days after the Sarasins of Grand Caire who esteemed him their greatest and most terrible Enemy having demanded him of the Sultan who durst not deny them they fell upon him with the Fury of cruel Wolves or inraged Dogs and after having made him suffer an Infinite number of horrible Torments they tore him in a thousand pieces acquiring for him a thousand Palms and a thousand Crowns of Martyrdom for one which he had wished and which he believed he should have obtained upon his Cross before Jaffa Some years after St. Lewis who had the Memory of this great man in singular Veneration having recovered his Bones which the Admirals of Egypt caused to be restored to him he rendred to him at Acre all the Funeral Honours which were due untohim who had so gloriously given his Life to the Honour of Jesus Christ As for the Corasmins who had exercised so much cruelty upon the Christians and had committed so many horrible Sacrileges in the holy places they afterwards fell out among themselves and the Sultan of Egypt having drawn from them all the Service which he expected he drove them out of his Dominions so that they all miserably perished by the hands of the Sarasins themselves who united all against them for their destruction having a horror for them as the most wicked and most execrable of all Mankind Mean time the news of the lamentable desolation of Jerusalem and the defeat of the Christian Army and of the dangerwherein those few which remained were to be presently besieged by the Sultan of Egypt being brought to the Pope made him resolve to make his last Efforts to procure Succours for them from a General Council which he had convoked For this Pope fearing to fall into the hands of Frederick had saved himself by Sea at Genoa his Native Country and from thence he went by land by Montferrat and Savoy to Lyons where he put himself under the Protection of the King of France resolving to
according to the differing Prospects which his Interest gives him in which he finds himself ingaged in what he writes year 1245 So that in making use of this Author who hath very good things I have endeavoured to make a just difference betwixt what he writes as himself and those authentick Pieces which he produceth which give great insight into the true History such as are the Relations sent by those who had a share in the Affairs then transacted the Letters of the Popes and Princes as also those of the Emperor which contain what I have now related and which the continuator of Baronius hath inserted into his Annals printed at Rome where the Reader may find this and much more to the same purpose that I have recounted But Frederick did not satisfie himself with Writings but pushing on his Sentiments to all things which his Vindicative Nature and his Anger furiously inflamed could transport him there was nothing which he did not attempt or which he did not put in Execution to revenge himself of the Pope persecuting and ruining his Relations banishing and dispoiling them of all their Estates as he did all the Priests and Bishops who refused to celebrate the Divine Offices in those places where he was constraining all the Ecclesiasticks to pay the third part of their Revenues to maintain the War against the Pope Making use of Fire and Sword and all those Violent Ways by himself and his Gibelins against all those who were of the Pope's Party So that the Pope was obliged in his own defence against such a Potent Enemy to cause a Crusade to be preached by his Cordeliers against him and his Sons who on their side acted with as much Violence and Ardour as their Father Thus the Succours designed for Constaminople against Vatacus the Greek Emperor and those for Hungary against the Tartars were frustrated and the Troubles of Germany and Italy which insued upon the Condemnation of Frederick and the Crusade which was published against that Prince were so many diversions which weakned the Principal Crusade in such a manner that notwithstanding that it was resolved in the Council against the Sarasins Of all the Kings of Europe there was none except St. Lewis who with the French only undertook the Holy War he having taken upon him the Cross even before the Council of Lyons For as in the Year before after his return from the War of Poitu where he had so gloriously vanquished the Earl of Marche and the English at the Battle of Tailebourg he fell sick in the Month of December and by the Violence of the Distemper he was reduced to that Extremity that he was believed to be dead remaining without pulse and without Sense for one whole day insomuch that they were consulting of his Funerals when suddainly comming as it were out of an Ecstasie and blessing God who had drawn him from the Gates of Death and looking upon the Standers by he made choice among all the Bishops who where assembled in his Chamber of the Bishop of Paris who was at that time the famous William d' Avergne whom his learned Writings and the eminent Sanctity of his life have rendred so much celebrated He presently called him to him and desired him to fasten a Cross to his Right Shoulder as a mark of the immoveable Resolution which he had taken after the example of his Grandfather Philip the August and his great Grandfather Lewis the young to undertake the Holy War for the deliverance of the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ and he spoke to him in a manner so resolute either because in that Extremity wherein he was he had made a Vow to take upon him the Cross if it should please God to deliver him or else as an ancient Writer assures us that during this long Swoon which Nanges calls an Ecstasy he had a Vision in which he thought he saw the Christian Army vanquish by the Sarasins as it was before Gaza and heard a Voice from Heaven which said to him King of France Go and revenge this irreparable Loss Let it be how it will it is certain that notwithstanding the Prayers and the Tears of the two Queens his Mother and his Wife who conjured him upon their Knees to deferr the taking of such a Resolution till he was in a better condition he protested that he would neither take any nourishment nor Medicin till such time as he had received the Cross Insomuch that in conclusion the Bishop of Paris all in Tears fastned the Cross upon him whilest the Queens the Princes his Bothers and all those who were present began afresh to weep as if he had again been at the point of death but he on the contrary with a pleasant Countenance and a perfect assurance notwithstanding his extreme weakness year 1245 protested that God would restore him to his health for the accomplishment of his Vow And in short in a little time he recovered and whilest he staid till the condition of his Affairs would permit him to pass the Sea with a powerful Army he continually sent great Succours of men and money into Palestine with many Knights of the Temple and Hospital to encourage the Christians of Syria to defend themselves vigourously against the Forces of Egypt in Expectation of his comming in person to their assistance Hereupon Pope Innocent in Execution of the Decree of the Council of Lyons touching the Crusades sent Cardinal Eudes of Castle Roax Bishop of Tusculum his Legate into France to publish it in that Realm The King received him at Paris with all kind of magnificence and to give the greater weight to the Publication of the Crusade he called to meet in the Month of October in the Octaves of St. Dennis a great assembly of the Princes Prelates and Barons where he spoke so powerfully to animate them to the Holy War taking upon him the Office of a Preacher after the Legate that the greatest part of the Assembly following his example took upon them the Cross The most Illustrious and signal among them were the three Princes the Brothers of the King Alphonsus Count de Poitiers Robert Count d' Artois and Charles Count d' Anjou The Princesses their Ladies imitating the example of the Queen who resolved to go along with the King also took upon them the Cross So much Piety and Courage so much love had they for these three brave Princes their Husbands that they would also pertake with them the pains and the dangers of this War leaving to them all the Glory to which their Sex would not permit them to pretend Also Hugh Duke of Burgundy Peter Duke of Bretany William Earl of Flanders Hugh de Chastillon Count de St. Paul and Gautier de Chastillon his Nephew Hugh de Lusignan Earl of March and his Son Hugh the Brown followed them together with the Counts de Dreux de Bar de Soissons de Blois de Retel de Montfort and de Vendosme The Lords John de Beajeu
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