different degrees of bountie the Spanish Polish Danish Scots and all other people of Europe The French I make the Founders for these reasons First because they began the action first Secondly France in proportion sent most adventurers Some voyages were all of French and all voyages were of some French Yea French men were so frequent at Jerusalem that at this day all Western Europeans there are called Franks as I once conceived and perchance not without companie in my errour because so many French men came thither in the Holy warre Since I am converted from that false opinion having found that two hundred yeares before the Holy warre was dreamed of namely in the time of Constantine Porphyrogenetes Emperour of the East all Western Christians were known to the Greeks by the name of Franks so that it seemeth the Turks borrowed that appellation from the Grecians Thirdly As France sent the most so many of most eminent note She sheweth for the game no worse cards then a pair royall of Kings Lewis the Young Philip Augustus and Saint Lewis besides Philip the Bold his sonne who went half-way to Tunis The first and last Christian King of Europe that went to Palestine was a French man and all the Kings of Jerusalem Frederick the Emperour onely excepted originally were of that nation Fourthly Even at this day France is most loyall to the cause Most grand Masters of the Hospitallers have been French men And at this day the Knights of Malta who have but foure Albergies or Seminaries in all Christendome have three of them in France viz. one of the France in generall one of Avergne and one of Provence Yet France carrieth not the upper hand so clearly but that Germanie justleth for it especially if we adde to it the Low-countreys the best stable of woodden horses and most potent in shipping in that age of any countrey in Europe which though an amphibion betwixt both yet custome at this day adjudgeth it Dutch Now these are the severall accents of honour in the Germane service First That countrey sheweth three Emperours in the Holy warre Conrade Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick the second The last of these was solemnly crowned and peaceably possessed King of Jerusalem Secondly Germanie sent more Princes to this warre then all Europe besides It would be an infinite task to reckon them all it being true of the Germane Nobilitie what Logicians say of a Line that it is divisibilis in semper divisibilia Here honours equally descend to sonnes and daughters whereby they have Counts without counting in the whole Empire There were seventeen Princes of Henault and seven and twentie Earls of Mansfield all living together So that one of their own countreymen saith That the Dutch esteem none to be men but onely such as are Noble-men We will not take notice of Germanie as it is minced into pettie Principalities but as cut into principall Provinces We find these regnant Princes for as for their younger brethren herein they are not accounted to have been personally present in the Holy warre Prince Palatine of Rhene Henry 1197 Duke or as others King of Bohemia Jaboslaus or Ladislaus 1147 Duke of Saxonie Henry the younger 1197 Marquisse of Brandenburg Otho 1197 Archbishops of Mentz 1 Conrade 2 Siphred 1197 Archbish. of Triers Theodoricus 1216 Archbish. of Colen Theodoricus 1216 Dukes of Austria 1 Leopoldus the second 1190 2 Frederick 1197 3 Leopoldus the third surnamed the Glorious 1216 Dukes of Bavaria 1 Guelpho 1101 2 Henry 1147 3 Lewis 1216 Landt-graves of Thuringia 1 Herman 1197 2 Lewis 1227 Marquesse of Moravia Conrade 1197 Duke of Mechlenburg Henry 1277 Earls of Flandres 1 Theodoricus 1147 2 Philippus 1190 3 Baldwine 1200 4 William Dampier 1250 5 Guido 1270 Dukes of Brabant 1 Godfrey 1195 2 Henry 1227 Earl of Holland William 1216 All these I say not these were all went themselves led forth other companies suitable to their greatnesse The Reader as he lighteth on more at his leisure may strike them into this catalogue Thirdly Germanie maintained the Teutonick Order wholly consisting of her nation besides Templars and Hospitallers whereof she had abundance of whose loyall and valiant service we have spoken largely before Lastly She fought another Holy warre at the same time against the Tartars and other barbarous people which invaded her on her North-east-part And though â—ome will except That that warre cannot be intituled Holy because being on the defensive it was rather of nature and necessitie then pietie yet upon examination it will appear that this service was lesse superstitious more charitable to Christendome and more rationall and discreet in it self it being better husbandrie to save a whole cloth in Europe then to winne a ragge in Asia Chap. 22. The English and Italian service compared Of the Spanish Polish Norvegian Hungarian Danish and Swedish performance in this warre NExt in this race of honour follow England and Italie being very even and hard-matched England it is no flatterie to affirm what envie cannot denie spurreth up close for the prize and though she had a great disadvantage in the starting Italie being much nearer to Palestine yet she quickly recovered it Our countrey sent one King Richard the first and three Kings sonnes Robert Courthois Richard of Cornwall and Prince Edward to this warre Yea England was a dayly friend to this action and besides these great and grosse summes of visible adventurers she dropped and cast in privily many a Pilgrime of good qualitie so that there was scarce any remarkable battel or memorable siege done through the warre wherein there were not some English of eminent desert Yet Italy cometh not any whit behind if the atchievements of her severall States Venetians Genoans Pisans Sicilians Florentines were made and moulded up together Yea for sea-service and engineers in this warre they bear the bell away from all other nations But these things allay the Italian service 1. It was not so abstracted from the dregs of mercinarinesse as that of other countreys whose adventurers counted their very work herein sufficient wages but before they would yeeld their assistance they indented and covenanted with the King of Jerusalem to have such and such profits pensions and priviledges in all places they took to them and their posteritie not as an honorarie reward freely conferred on them but in nature of wages ex pacto contracted for aforehand as the Genoans had in Ptolemais and the Venetians in Tyre 2. These Italians stopped two gaps with one bush they were Merchant-Pilgrimes together applied themselves to profit and pietie Here in Tyre they had their banks and did drive a sweet trade of spices and other Eastern commodities 3. Lastly As at first they gave good milk so they kicked it down with their heel and by their mutuall discord caused the losse of all they helped to gain in Syria Spain was exercised all the time of this warre in defending her self against the Moores and Saracens in her
or in hell it self For this was his religion To kill any he was commanded or on the non-performance willingly to forfeit his life The fifth time of his coming he brought Prince Edward letters from his Master which whilest he was reading alone and lying on his bed he struck him into the arm with an invenomed knife Being about to fetch another stroke the Prince with his foot gave him such a blow that he felled him to the ground and wresting the knife from him ranne the Turk into the belly and slew him yet so that in struggling he hurt himself therewith in the forehead At this noise in sprang his servants and one of them with a stool beat the brains out of the dead Turks head shewing little wit in his own and the Prince was highly displeased that the monument of his valour should be stained with anothers crueltie It is storied how Elenor his Lady sucked all the poison out of his wounds without doing any harm to her self So sovereigne a medicine is a womans tongue anointed with the vertue a loving affection Pity it is so pretty a story should not be true with all the miracles in Loves Legends and sure he shall get himself no credit who undertaketh to confute a passage so sounding to the honour of the sex Yet can it not stand with what others have written How the Physician who was to dresse his wounds spake to the Lord Edmund and the Lord John Voysie to take away Lady Elenor out of the Princes presence lest her pity should be cruel towards him in not suffering his sores to be searched to the quick And though she cried out and wrung her hands Madame said they be contented it is better that one woman should weep a little while then that all the realm of England should lament a great season And so they conducted her out of the place And the Prince by the benefit of physick good attendance and an antidote the Master of the Templars gave him shewed himself on horse-back whole and well within fifteen dayes after The Admirall of Joppa hearing of his recovery utterly disavowed that he had any hand in the treachery as none will willingly father unsucceeding villany True it is he was truly sorrowfull whether because Edward was so bad or no worse wounded he knoweth that knoweth hearts Some wholly acquit him herein and conceive this mischief proceeded from Simon Earl of Montforts hatred to our Prince who bearing him and all his kindred an old grudge for doing some conceived wrong to his father in very deed nothing but justice to a rebell hired as they think this Assasine to murder him as a little before for the same quarrel he had served Henry sonne to Richard King of the Romanes and our Edwards cousin-germane at Viterbo in Italy It is much this Simon living in France should contrive this Princes death in Palestine but malice hath long arms and can take men off at great distance Yea this addeth to the cunning of the engineer to work unseen and the further from him the blow is given the lesse is he himself suspected Whosoever plotted God prevented it and the Christians there would have revenged it but Edward would not suffer them In all haste they would have marched and fallen on the Turks had not he disswaded them because then many Christians unarmed and in small companies were gone to visit the Sepulchre all whose throats had then probably been cut before their return Eighteen moneths he stayed at Ptolemais and then came back through Italy without doing any extraordinary matter in Palestine What musick can one string make when all the rest are broken what could Edward do alone when those Princes fell back on whom the project most relied Lewis and Charles were the main undertakers Edward entertained but as an adventurer and sharer and so he furnished himself accordingly with competent forces to succour others but not to subsist of themselves But as too often where the principall miscarrieth the second sureties must lie at the stake to make the debt good so in their default he valiantly went forward though having in all but thirteen ships and some thousands of men too many for a plain Prince to visit with and too few for a great one to warre with and performed what lay within the compasse of his power In a word his coming to Ptolemais and assisting them there was like a cordiall given to a dying man which doth piece out his life or death rather a few grones and as many gasps the longer By this time Henry his aged father being dead his lamp not quenched but going out for want of oil the English Nobility came as far as the Alpes in Savoy to wait on Edward in his return Leave we him then to be attended home by them to receive the Crown to which no lesse his vertues then birth entitled him Since the Conquest he was the first King of his name and the first that settled the Law and State deserving the style of Englands Justinian and that freed this Kingdome from the wardship of the Peers shewing himself in all his actions after capable to command not the realm onely but the whole world Chap. 30. Rodulphus the Emperours voyage to Palestine hindred The Duke of Mechlenburg his captivity and inlargement BEfore Edwards departure Hugh King of Jerusalem and Cyprus concluded a peace to our Princes small liking with the Mammaluke Sultan of Egypt to hold onely in and neare Ptolemais whereby the Christians had some breathing-time But that which now possessed all mens thoughts and talk in Syria was the expectation of Rodulphus to come thither with a great army who after two and twenty yeares interregnum was chosen Emperour of Germany This Rodulphus was a mean Earl of Haspurg Frederick the last Emperour was his godfather who little thought that having so many sonnes of his own his godsonne should next succeed him and lived in a private way But now the Empire refusing her rich suiters married this Earl without any portion onely for pure love A preferment beyond his expectation not above his deserts For Germany had many bigger lights none brighter Pope Gregory the tenth would not ratifie his election but on this condition That he should in person march with an armie to Palestine And though this was but an old policie To send the Emperours far away that so he might command in chief in their absence yet his Holinesse did so turn and dresse this threed-bare plot with specious pretenses of piety that it passed for new and fresh especially to those that beheld it at distance But Rodulphus could not be spared out of Germany being there imployed in civil discords The knees of the Dutch Princes were too stiff to do him homage till he softned them by degrees And indeed he was not provided for the Holy warre and wanted a stock of his own to drive so costly a trade
was King of France the Duke of Burbant sailed over into Africa with a great armie there to fight against the Saracens The Saracen Prince sent an herald to know of him the cause of his coming The Duke answered it was to revenge the death of Christ the Sonne of God and true Prophet whom they had unjustly crucified The Saracens sent back their messenger again to demonstrate their innocencie how they were not Saracens but Jews which put Christ to death and therefore that the Christians if posteritie should be punished for their predecessours fault should rather revenge themselves on the Jews which lived amongst them Another relateth that in the yeare of our Lord 1453 the great Turk sent a letter to the Pope advertising him how he and his Turkish nation were not descended from the Jews but from the Trojans from whom also the Italians derive their pedegree and so would prove himself a-kinne to his Holinesse Moreover he added that it was both his and their dutie to repair the ruines of Troy and to revenge the death of their great grand-father Hector upon the Grecians to which end the Turk said he had already conquered a great part of Greece As for Christ he acknowledged him to have been a noble Prophet and to have been crucified of the Jews against whom the Christians might seek their remedie These two stories I thought good to insert because though of later date and since the Holy warre in Palestine was ended yet they have some reference thereunto because some make that our quarrel to the Turks But grant the Christians right to the Turks lands to be lawfull and the cause in it self enough deserving to ground a warre upon yet in the prosecuting and managing thereof many not onely veniall errours but unexcusable faults were committed no doubt the cause of the ill successe To omit the book called the Office of our Lady made at the beginning of this warre to procure her favourable assistance in it a little manual but full of blasphemies in folio thrusting her with importunate superstitions into Gods throne and forcing on her the glory of her Maker superstition not onely tainted the rind but rotted the core of this whole action Indeed most of the pottage of that age tasted of that wild gourd Yet farre be it from us to condemn all their works to be drosse because debased and allayed with superstitious intents No doubt there was a mixture of much good metall in them which God the good refiner knoweth how to sever and then will crown and reward But here we must distinguish betwixt those deeds which have some superstition in them and those which in their nature are wholly superstitious such as this Voyage of people to Palestine was For what opinion had they of themselves herein who thought that by dying in this warre they did make Christ amends for his death as one saith Which if but a rhetoricall flourish yet doth hyperbolize into blasphemie Yea it was their very judgement that hereby they did both merit and supererogate and by dying for the Crosse crosse the score of their own sinnes and score up God for their debtour But this flieth high and therefore we leave it for others to follow Let us look upon Pilgrimages in generall and we shall find Pilgrimes wandring not so farre from their own countrey as from the judgement of the ancient Fathers We will leave our armie at home and onely bring forth our champion Heare what Gregorie Nyssene saith who lived in the fourth Centurie in which time voluntary Pilgrimages first began though before there were necessarie Pilgrimes forced to wander from their countrey by persecution Where saith he our Lord pronounceth men blessed he reckoneth not going to Jerusalem to be amongst those good deeds which direct to happinesse And afterwards speaking of the going of single-women in those long travels A woman saith he cannot go such long journeys without a man to conduct her and then whatsoever we may suppose whether she hireth a stranger or hath a friend to wait on her on neither side can she escape reproof and keep the law of continencie Moreover If there were more Divine grace in the places of Jerusalem sinne would not be so frequent and customarie amongst those that live there Now there is no kind of uncleannesse which there they dare not commit malice adultery thefts idolatrie poysonings envies and slaughters But you will say unto me If it be not worth the pains why then did you go to Jerusalem Let them heare therefore how I defend my self I was appointed to go into Arabia to an holy Councel held for the reforming of that Church and Arabia being neare to Jerusalem I promised those that went with me that I would go to Jerusalem to discourse with them which were presidents of the churches there where matters were in a very troubled state and they wanted one to be a mediatour in their discords We knew that Christ was a man born of a Virgin before we saw Bethlehem we beleeved his resurrection from death before we saw his sepulchre we confessed his ascension into heaven before we saw mount Olivet But we got so much profit by our journey that by comparing them we found our own more holy then those outward things Wherefore you that fear God praise him in what place you are Change of place maketh not God nearer unto us wheresoever thou art God will come to thee if the Inne of thy soul be found such as the Lord may dwell and walk in thee c. A patrone of Pilgrimages not able to void the blow yet willing to break the stroke of so pregnant and plain a testimonie thus seeketh to ward it That indeed Pilgrimages are unfitting for women yet fitting for men But sure God never appointed such means to heighten devotion necessary thereunto whereof the half of mankind all women are by their very creation made uncapable Secondly he pleadeth That it is lawfull for secular and lay-men to go on Pilgrimages but not for Friars who lived recluse in their cells out of which they were not to come and against such saith he is Nyssens speech directed But then I pray what was Peter the leader of this long dance but an Hermite and if I mistake not his profession was the very dungeon of the Monasticall prison the strictest and severest of all other Orders And though there were not so many cowls as helmets in this warre yet alwayes was the Holy armie well stocked with such cattel So that on all sides it is confessed that the Pilgrimages of such persons were utterly unlawfull Chap. 10. Of superstition in miracles in the Holy warre ranked into foure sorts BEsides superstition inherent in this Holy warre there was also superstition appendant or annexed thereunto in that it was the fruitfull mother of many feigned miracles Hitherto we have refrained to scatter over our storie with them it will not be amisse now to shovel up some of
Kings of Naples 9 The Princes of Antioch 10 The Counts of Brienne 11 The Kings of Armenia 12 The Kings of Hungarie 13 The Kings of Aragon 14 The Dukes of Anjou 15 The Dukes of Loraine 16 Lewis the eleventh King of France 17 The Dukes of Bourbon 18 The Dukes of Savoy 19 Iames de Lusigna base sonne to the King of Cyprus 20 Charles de Lusigna sonne to the Prince of Galilee 21 The State of Genoa 22 The Marquesse of Montferrat 23 The Count of la-Vall 24 The Arch-duke of Nize 25 The Sultan of Egypt 26 The Emperour of the Turks It seemeth by the naming of Lewis the eleventh and James the bastard of Cyprus that this list was taken about the yeare 1466. And now how would a Herald sweat with scouring over these time-rustie titles to shew whence these Princes derived their severall claims and in whom the right resteth at this day when his work is done who should pay him his wages My clew of thread is not strong enough on the guidance thereof for me to venture into this labyrinth of Pedegrees we will content our selves with these generall observations 1. It seemeth this catalogue containeth as well those who had jus in Regno as those who had jus ad Regnum as namely the Prince of Thorone and Patriarchs of Jerusalem and State of Genoa whose ambition surely soared not so high as to claim the Kingdome of Jerusalem but rather perched it self upon some lands and Signories challenged therein 2. A small matter will serve to intitle a Prince to a titular Kingdome In this case Kings can better digest corrivals where they be many and all challenge what is worth nothing In this catalogue it seemeth some onely intitle themselves out of good fellowship and love of good companie These like squirrels recover themselves and climbe up to a claim on the least bough twig yea leaf of a Right Thus the Counts of Brienne in France if any still remain of that house gave away their cake and kept it still in that John Bren parted with his right to this Kingdome in match with Iole his daughter to Frederick the second Emperour and yet the Earls of his familie pretend still to Jerusalem 3. We may beleeve that by matches and under-matches some of these titles may reside in private Gentlemen especially in France And what wonder seeing within fourteen generations the royall bloud of the Kings of Judah ran in the veins of plain Joseph a painfull carpenter 4. At this day some of those titles are finally extinct as that of the Emperours of the East conquered by the Ottoman familie Their Imperiall Eagle was so farre from beholding the sunne that the half-moon dazzled yea quite put out his eyes Rank in the same form the Kings of Armenia and Sultans of Egypt 5. Some of these titles are translated That of the Lusignans Kings of Cyprus probably passed with that Island to the State of Venice The claim of the Hungarian Kings seemeth at this day to remain in the Germane Emperour 6. Some united The claim of the Arch-dukes of Nize a style I meet not with elsewhere twisted with that of the Duke of Savoy The Kings of Naples and Aragon now joyned in the King of Spain 7. Of those which are extant at this day Englands appeareth first our Richard receiving it in exchange of King Guy for the Island of Cyprus Guy's resignation was voluntarie and publick the world was witnesse to it He truly received a valuable consideration which his heirs long peaceably enjoyed and our English Kings styled themselves Kings of Jerusalem till afterwards they disused it for reasons best known to themselves Our Poet Harding in a paper he presented to King Henry the sixth cleareth another double title of our Kings thereunto And because some palates love the mouldie best and place the goodnesse of old verses in the badnesse of them take them as they fell from his penne To Ierusalem I say ye have great right From Erle Geffray that hight Plantogenet Of Aungeâ—y Erle a Prince of passyng might The eldest sonne of Fouke and first beget King of Ierusalem by his wife dewly set Whose sonne Geffray foresaid gat on his wife Henry the second that was known full rife Yet have ye more from Bawldwyne Paralytious King afterward to the same King Henry The Crown sent and his Banner pretious As very heire of whole Auncestrie Descent of bloud by title lineally From Godfray Boleyn and Robert Curthose That Kings were thereof and chose 8. Then cometh forth the Popes title who claimeth it many wayes Either because he was the first and chiefest mover and advancer of this warre Lord Paramont of this action and all the Pilgrimes no better then his servants and then according to the rule in Civil law Quodâ—unque per servum acquiritur id Domino acquiritâ—r suo Or else he challengeth it from John Bren who subjected that Kingdome to the See of Rome and yet the said John used the style of Jerusalem all the dayes of his life and also gave it away in match with his daughter Or else he deriveth it as forfeited to him by the Emperour Frederick the second and his sonnes for taking arms against the Church But what need these farre-abouts They go the shortest cut who accounting the Pope Gods Lieutenant on earth though by a Commission of his own penning give him a temporall power especially in ordine ad spiritualia over all the Kingdomes of the world The originall right of Jerusalem he still keepeth in himself yet hath successively gratified many Princes with a title derived from him Nor shineth his candle the dimmer by lighting of others First he bestowed his title on Charles of Anjou King of Sicilie from which root spring the many-branched French competitours and since hath conferred the same on the house of Aragon or King of Spain Which King alone weareth it in his style at this day and maketh continuall warre with the Turk who detaineth Jerusalem from him Yea all West-Christendome oweth her quiet sleep to his constant waking who with his galleys muzzleth the mouth of Tunis and Algier Yea God in his providence hath so ordered it that the Dominions of Catholick Princes as they term them are the case and cover on the East and South to keep and fense the Protestant countreys The quit-rent which the King of Spain payeth yearly to the Pope for the Kingdomes of Jerusalem Naples and Sicilie is foure thousand crowns sent to his Holinesse upon a hackney Who grudgeth his tenant so great a penie-worth yet cannot help himself except he would follow the Friars advice To send home the Spanish Hackney with a great Horse after him What credit there is to be given to that through-old if not doting prophecie That a Spaniard shall one day recover Jerusalem we leave to the censure of others and mean time we will conclude more serious matters with this pleasant passage When the
having no paternall lands considerable no bottom to begin on though through his thrift and providence he first laid the foundation of the Austrian familie Yet somewhat to answer expectation he sent Henry Duke of Mechlenburg with competent forces into Palestine Who coming to Ptolemais made many notable incursions into the countrey about Damasco with fire sword destroying all as he went carrying thence many rich booties till at last he was circumvented and taken prisoner by the Mammalukes Twenty six yeares he lived in captivity keeping his conscience free all the while At last the Sultan of Egypt a renegado Germane who formerly had been engineer to this Dukes father set him at liberty together with Martine his servant that he who so long had shared of his misery might also partake of his happinesse No sooner had this Duke put to sea but he was again taken by pirates and the Sultan out of pity to this distressed Prince and out of scorn that fortune should frustrate and defeat his reall courtesie set him free again At last he came safely home and was there welcomed with as much wonder as joy his subjects conceiving his return a resurrection having buried him in their thoughts long before Here he found two counterfeits who pretended themselves to be this Duke and on that title challenged lodging with Anastasia his Lady But the one of them had a softer bedfellow provided him a pool of water wherein he was drowned the other was made a bonefire of to solemnize the joy of the Dukes return Chap. 31. Charles King of Ierusalem His intentions in Syria stopped by the Sicilian Vespers His death and sonnes succession BY this time Charles King of Jerusalem and Sicily had made great preparations for the Holy warre And to make his claim to the Kingdome of Jerusalem the stronger he bought also the title of Maria Domicella Princesse of Antioch which pretended a right to the same He sent also Roger the Count of S. Severine as his Vice-roy to Ptolemais where he was honourably received in despite of Hugh King of Cyprus by the especiall favour of Albertine Morisine the Venetian Consul there And now his navie was reported to be readie and that by the way he had a project upon Michael Paleologus the Emperour of Greece When all his intentions were suddenly blasted it so happening that on Easter day as the bell tolled to Even-song all the throats of the Frenchmen in Sicily were cut in a moment by the natives thereof and that Island wonne by Peter King of Aragon The grand contriver of this massacre was one Jacobus Prochyta a Physician and I dare say he killed more in an houre then he cured all his life-time Those that condemn the Sicilians herein cannot excuse the French such formerly had been their pride lust covetousnesse and cruelty to the people of that Island putting them causelessely to exquisite torture so that an ordinary hanging was counted an extraordinary favour But the secrecie of contriving this slaughter of the French was little lesse then miraculous that so many knowing it none should discover it like cunning dogs barking in triumph after they had bitten not before to give any warning Hence grew the proverb of the Sicilian Vespers though their Even-song was nothing to the English Mattens intended in the Gunpowder-treason Mean time King Charles was at Rome beholding the making of Cardinals when this dolefull news was brought unto him and struck him to the heart He survived a yeare or two longer but dull and melancholick living as it were without life and died at last having reigned King of Jerusalem twenty yeares A Prince which had tasted of various successe fortune for a while smiling on him and at last laughing at him His sonne Charles succeeded him in the Kingdome of Naples and in the title of Jerusalem He was surnamed Cunctator Delayer not in the same sense as Fabius the Shield of Rome was so called he onely stayed till opportunity was come our Charles till it was passed I find nothing memorable of him except this That offended with the Templars in Palestine for taking part against him with the King of Cyprus he seised on their lands and confiscated all their goods they had in Naples or any other part of his dominions How-ever let him have room in the catalogue of our Kings of Jerusalem For as high hills neare the sea-side though otherwise never so base and barren ground yet will serve to be sea-marks for the direction of mariners so this Charles together with Hugh John and Henry Kings of Cyprus pretending also to Jerusalem though we reade nothing remarkable of them will become the front of a page and serve to divide and distinguish times and to parcel the history the better to our apprehension As for the bare anatomie of their reigne for we find it not fleshed with any history with the dates of their beginnings and endings we shall present it to the reader hereafter in our Chronologie Chap. 32. The succession of the Mammaluke Princes in Egypt Alphir taketh Tripoli and Tyre The wofull estate of Ptolemais BUt whilest these titular Kings slept the Mammaluke Princes were vigilant to infest the reliques of the Christians in Palestine Which Princes succession we will adventure to set down nor are we discouraged with the difficulties which encounter us herein The hardnesse in the story of the Mammalukes proceedeth as we conceive from one of these causes First the State is not written directly but by reflexion not storied by any constant writer of their own but in snaps and parcels as the Chroniclers of neighbouring Christian countreys have catched at them Secondly out of a popular errour their chief Captains by reason of their large authority passe for absolute Kings Thirdly the same King hath many names and the same name by translation in sundry languages is strangely disguised How-ever we will use our best conjectures in these uncertainties and a dimme candle is better then no light Bendocdar or Bandodacar otherwise Melechdaer was the last Egyptian Prince we mentioned A dangerous man to the Christians but that Abaga the Tartarian took him to task and kept him in continuall imployment This Abaga had a pretty trick to make cowards valiant causing them that ranne away from the battel ever after to wear womens clothes Bendocdar died at Damascus of a wound he received in Armenia or as some say by cold in swimming over Euphrates Elpis succeeded him his sonne say some but the Mammalukes laws forbid that except his extraordinary worth was his faculty dispensed with him ad succedendum patri But who knoweth not that the Eastern tongue speaketh nephews and kinsmen to be sonnes Some wholly omit him enough to make us suspect that he was onely some Deputy clapped in to stop up the vacancie till Melechsaites was chosen Melechsaites called by Marinus Melechmessor wonne the strong castle of Mergath from the Hospitallers He much loved and was