all Persons might mortgage their Inheritances or their Benefices for three Years during which time the Creditors should peaceably enjoy them whatever happened to the Owners That all unlawful Games of Chance all Swearing Blasphemy and Disorders should be severely punished To which were also added very admirable Orders for the Regulation of Excess in Apparel in the Tables and the Retinues of the Crusades and above all that except some old Landresses there should no Women be suffered to go along with the Army as had been permitted in the former Crusades and which had occasioned great Disorders These Ordinances were received and solemnly published in both the Kingdoms where an infinite number of People enrolled themselves for the Cross some out of Zeal and true Devotion others to be exempted from the Tax which though it was consented to by the Bishops in the Parliament of Paris which was held this Year about Mid-Lent yet there were some Ecclesiasticks who declared themselves against it tartly enough Among the rest Peter de Blois one of the most knowing Men of his Age writ against it to Henry de Dreux Bishop of Orleans the King's Nephew in very hard Terms pressing him to oppose this Ordinance of the King which he said was a Breach of the Liberties and Privileges of the Ecclesiasticks from whom he pretended no other Aids ever were or ought to be exacted besides their Suffrages and Prayers But this Advice of this Archdeacon of Bath in England though otherwise an able Man prevailed nothing upon the Bishops of France whom he something too liberally accused of following too gentle and easie a Conduct For they as well as the Bishops of England with great Justice and Reason as well as Piety believed that such a part of the Goods of the Church might very lawfully be employed upon such an holy Occasion for the Deliverance of the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ and so many poor Christian Slaves and in a manner all the Oriental Churches from the Oppression and Tyranny of the Infidels See now how Zeal when it is a little over-heated easily becomes so false and foolish as to blind Men to that degree that they are not able to see that for good Sense which common Reason alone without other Theology discovers so plainly to the whole World Thus then all things were disposed for a happy Beginning to this Crusade if the Division which in a little time after broke out again between the two Kings had not turned those Arms against Christians which they had before prepared to fight against the Sarasins Among other Articles which were agreed upon at this famous Conference in the Field of Gisors it was ordained That all Matters in difference on one part and the other should remain in the same Estate wherein they stood before and that no one should enterprize any thing against his Neighbour till such time as the Holy War were determined In this time Richard Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitiers to the prejudice of a Treaty so solemnly made concluded and ratified renewing the ancient Quarrel betwixt him and Count Raymond of Tholouse threw himself suddenly into that Count's Territories and presently took from him Cahors and Moissack Philip in mighty Indignation for this Action and moved with the Complaints of the Count who came to implore his Succour as his Soveraign immediately made a powerful Diversion in the Provinces of the English where he took Castle-Roux Busencais Argemon Levroux Montrichard and all the places which the English at that time possessed in Avergne and Berry Henry on his part did not fail to make haste to his Son's Assistance who went to joyn him in Normandy year 1188 Philip also marched thither with his Victorious Army where he obtained great Advantages against the English till at length a Conference for Peace was held near Bonmoulin at which the Earls of Flanders and Champaigne with divers other Princes continually importuned the King to conclude protesting to him that otherwise they would desert him for that they were resolved to accomplish their Vow in going to the Holy War There never was any Conference managed with greater Dexterity and Policy than this was by King Philip For knowing perfectly the Humour and the Interests of the King of England and his Son he only demanded that the Princess Alice his Sister whom the late King his Father had designed to be married to Richard and who was kept in Custody by Henry should be put into the hands of her intended Husband since they were now both of Age and that Richard should be declared joynt King of England with his Father as the deceased Prince Henry had been who had married Margaret the eldest Sister of the Princess Alice Henry against whom the Prince his eldest Son supported by the French had formerly made a most cruel War fearing lest Richard who was no less ambitious than his Brother should create him the same trouble or possibly having his Soul pre-possessed with another Passion less excusable but more strong than either Fear or Policy would by no means agree to these two Articles So that this Conference produced no other Effects but only a Truce of a few Months during the Winter and that which Philip had foreseen did not fail to happen to his advantage as well as according to his Expectation for Richard who was of a Temper extream ambitious and turbulent was so exasperated with this Denyal that he instantly abandoned his Father and passed into the Party and Interests of Philip did him Homage for all the Lands which he held in France and promised him an inviolable Fidelity and to serve him against all Persons whatsoever even his own Father as he did And indeed as soon as the short Truce which had been made came to be expired which it did the next Spring the King with all his Forces joyned with those of Richard who had drawn to his Party besides the Gascons and Poitenins his Vassals many Angevins and Bretons marched against Henry who lay with a very few Troops at Saumur But the Cardinal d' Anaigne the Pope's Legate who succeeded in the place of the Cardinal d'Albano who was dead not long before negotiated so happily with the two Kings that they promised to meet in Whitsun-Week near Ferte-Benard and there amicably to treat before him and the Archbishops of Reims Bourges Rean and Canterbury who were to decide all their Differences Whereupon these Prelates instantly pronounced an Anathema against all those of what Quality soever except the Persons of the two Kings who should any way go about to obstruct the Conclusion of a Peace so necessary to all Christendom and without which the Crusade would become wholly ineffectual The Kings and Richard Duke of Guienne and Earl of Poitiers accompanied with all the Great Men of both Realms being come to the place designed for the Conference Philip demanded as before That his Sister the Princess Alice who was affianced to Duke Richard should be delivered to
of the Emperor and the King The Murmurs against St. Bernard and his Apology The Conquest of Noradin after the raising of the Siege The Death of King Baldwin and his Elogy His Brother Amauri Succeeds him The History of that Princes Life who by his Avarice loseth the Opportunity of conquering all Egypt The History of Syracon who seizes upon the Kingdom of Egypt and leaves it to his Nephew Saladin The Elogy and first Conquest of that Prince The Death of Amauri and the Troubles and Divisions which it caused in the Realm The Conquests of Saladin thereupon The Raign of Baldwin the Leprous The Ambassage to the Princes of the West to desire their Help against Saladin The Negotiation of the Ambassadours with the Pope and Emperor in France and England with Henry the Second The Artifices of that King to elude this Ambassage A famous Care of Conscience proposed in the Parliament at London upon this great Affair The reasons on one side and the other The best opinion rejected by the Bishops as False The Displeasure of the Patriarch Heraclius against the King The Conference between Philip Augustus and King Henry which recommences the War The Apostacy and Treason of a Templer The Death of King Baldwin the Fourth and of the young King his Nephew The Artifice of Sybil Mother to the deceased Infant King to obtain the Crown for Guy de Lusignan her Second Husband The Despight of Raymond Earl of Tripolis thereupon His Character His horrible Treason and secret Treaty with Saladin who enters Galilee and besieges Tyberias Division in the Councel of War held by the King The unfortunate Battle of Tyberias which was lost by the Treachery of Count Raymond The Advantage which Saladin made of his Victory The Relation of the Siege and taking of Jerusalem by that Victorious Prince The sorrowful Departure of the Christians from Jerusalem and the Generosity of Saladin The Cruelty and miserable Death of the Earl of Tripolis The Triumph of Saladin An Account of the Preserving of Tyre by Marquis Conrade The Causes of the Loss of the Holy Land p. 113. BOOK II. The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legates to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors Where the Arch-Bishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War recommences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guienne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to Combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this Emperor betrayed the Ltains The History of the False Dositheus who seduced him and of Theodore Balsamon The Victories of Frederick in Thracia The stupid Folly of Isaac And his dishonourable Treaty with the Emperor The Passage and March of Frederick into Asia The Treachery of the Sultan of Iconium and the Defeat of his Troops by a pretty Stratagem of the Emperor ' s. An Heroick Action of a certain Cavalier The first Battle of Iconium The Description Assaulting and Taking of that City The Second Battle of Iconium The Triumph of the Emperor The March of the Army towards Syria The Description and the Passage of Mount Taurus The Death of the Emperor and his Elogy Frederick his Son leads the Army to Antioch after that to Tyre and from thence to the Camp at Ptolemais or Acon The Description of that City and the adjacent Country The Relation of the famous Siege against it begun by King Guy de Lusignan The Succours of two fair Naval Armies The Description of the famous Battle of Ptolemais The manner of the Christians Encampment The Reason of the length of the Siege The Death of Queen Sybilla and the Division between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade who marries the Princess Isabella the Wife of Humphrey de Thoron A general Assault given to Ptolemais upon the Arrival of Frederick Duke of Suabia A brave Action of Leopold Duke of Austria The Death of Frederick and his admirable Vertue p. 149 BOOK III. The Beginning of the Reign of Richard Coeur de Lyon King of England and his Preparations for the Holy War The Preparations of Philip the August The Conferences of Nonancour and Vezelay between the two Kings The Portraict of Philip the August The Character of Richard King of England The Voyage of the two Kings to Messina An adventure of the English Fleet. A Quarrel between the English and the Messineses The taking of that City The Quarrel between the two Kings and their new Accomodation The Relation of the Abbot Joachim and his Character His Conference with King Richard The Departure of King Philip and his Arrival before Acre The Departure of Richard The Relation of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Cyprus by that Prince His Arrival before Acre A new Difference between the two Kings and the true Causes of it Their Accord The Reduction of the City of Acre The extreme Violence of King Richard The Return of Philip the August The March of Richard The Battle of Antipatris The single Combat between King Richard and Sultan Saladin A noble Action of William de Pourcelets who saved the Life of that King Richard presents himself before Jerusalem at an unseasonable Time and therefore retires and disperses his Army into Quarters The Marquis Conrade slain by two Assassins of the old Mountain The Description of that Government and those People A wicked Action of the Templers which hindred their Conversion The Cause of the Marquis his Death Richard accused of that Crime His Innocence is proved Isabella Marries Count Henry and is declared Queen of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan made King of Cyprus Richard pretends a Second time to besiege Jerusalem defeats the Enemies takes the Caravan of Egypt but retires by a cunning Agreement A calumny against Richard which he clears by a most memorable Action The Battle of Jaffa and the taking of that Place from the Sarasins by Richard His Treaty with Saladin and his unfortunate Return He is taken and Imprisoned His Deliverance The Justice which he demanded and which he obtains A new division among the Princes of the East appeased by the Count de Champagne The Death of Saladin and his Elogy Division happens among the Infidels which gives occasion to a fourth Crusade p. 186. PART III.
BOOK I. THe little disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemais The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jaffa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Siege of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Infidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elogy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and General Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elogy and character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elogy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Siege of Zara. A great division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperor 's of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vncle Alexis Comnenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadours The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople BOOK II. The Condition wherein the City of Constantinople was when it was besieged by the French and Venetian Crusades The Defeat of the Vsurpers Brother-in-Law by a small Party of the French The Passage and the Battle of the Bosphorus The taking of the Castle of Galatha The Venetians force the Entry of the Port. An Assault given both by Sea and Land â—o Constantinople The Venetians take five and twenty Towers A Sally made by the Emperor Alexis with a prodigious Army and his Infamous Cowardice His Flight and the Reduction of Constantinople The Establishment of Isaac and the young Alexis A Prolongation of the Treaty for a Year between that Emperor and the Confederate Princes Their Exploits in Thracia A Dreadful Fire at Constantinople The History of the horrible Treason of Murtzuphle The young Alexis suffers himself to be surprized by the Artifices of that Traytor and breaks with the Confederates The Speech of Conon de Bethune to the Emperors to oblige them to accomplish their Treaty War declared against them upon their refusal The Greeks attempt in Vain to burn the Venetian Fleet. The Description of that wild Fire The consequent Treasons of Murtzuphle The Election of Cannabus The double Treason of Murtzuphle who makes himself be proclaimed Emperor The Death of Isaac and of the young Alexis whom Murtzuphle strangles with his own Hands The Confederates make War against the Tyrant His Defeat by Henry the Brother of Count Baldwin The first Assault given upon the Port side of Constantinople wherein the Confederates are repulsed The Second Assault by which the City is taken by plain Force The Flight of Murtzuphle The Greeks lay down their Arms. The City plundered and the Booty there gained The Relicks from thence transported to several Churches of Europe Baldwin Earl of Flanders chosen Empeperor The Policy of the Venetians in the Election of that Prince His Elogy and Character The Election of a Patriarch The Destribution of the Provinces of the Empire The happy Beginning of the Emperor who reduceth all Thracia Murtzuphle surprized and betrayed by the Old Alexis who puts out his Eyes The Flight of Alexis and the taking of Murtzuphle He is brought back to Constantinople where for the Punishment of his Crimes he is thrown headlong from a high Columne Old Alexis taken His End The Glorious Success of this Crusade BOOK III. The unfortunate Success of those who abandoned the Confederates to pass into Syria The Care of the Pope for Constantinople who sends Doctors from Paris to reduce the Schismaticks The Death of Mary the Empress Wife of Baldwin The Death of Isabella Queen of Jerusalem The Princess Mary her Daughter succeeds in the Realm and Marries Count John de Brienne The Relation how that Prince and Count Gautier his Brother conquered the Kingdom of Naples The Exploits of King John de Brienne The Pope procures him Aid A piteous Adventure of some young Men who by a strange Illusion took upon them the Cross The design of Pope Innocent to procure a general Crusade favoured by the Victory of Philip the August against the Emperor Otho The Battle of Bovines The Relation of the Council of Lateran where the Crusade is Decreed The Pope himself Preacheth it His death in that Holy Exercise A Fable concerning his Purgatory The Election of Pope Honorius III of that Name His Zeal and Industry to promote the Crusade Andrew King of Hungary the Head thereof The Princes that Accompanied him and their Voyage Their Conjunction with King John de Brienne Their Expedition against Coradin The Description of Thabor and the Relation of the Siege of that Fortress which had been built there by Coradin The Return of the King into Hungary The Arrival of the Northern Fleet of the Crusades under the Earl of Holland The Relation of their Adventures and Exploits against the Moors in Portugal The Siege and Battle of Alcazar The Victory of the Crusades Their Voyage to Ptolemais The Reasons of the Resolution which they took to attack Egypt The Description of Damiata The Account of that memorable Siege which lasted eighteen Months The Attack and taking of the Tower of Pharus A Description of certain Engines of a new Invention The Death of Saphadin upon the News of the taking of that Place His
their Empire and delivering them into the Hands of the Philistins Chaldeans and other Infidel People who were the Executioners of his Justice so did he punish the horrible Crimes of the Christians whom he had brought into Palestine by the victorious Arms of the first Crusades by depriving them of that Kingdom and abandoning them to be Slaves to those People whom their Ancestors had with so much Glory so often vanquished But farther to give some natural Reason for this Change the first Conquerors of Palestine were warlike and most valiant Men accustomed to Fatigues and such as frankly exposed themselves to all manner of Dangers and were never known to recoil let the number of their Enemies which they were to incounter be never so Prodigious they esteemed it a Happiness to dye Martyrs in combating gloriously for the Faith and for the Name of Jesus Christ And the Orientals against whom they fought were at that time little skilled in Wars cowardly undisciplin'd and half-armed People who were not able to abide above one Shock as having nothing to trust to but their Bows and Arrows which they shot at Rovers and commonly rather slying than fighting Whereas on the contrary the Christians having exchanged with the Infidels for all their Vices had also gotten their Cowardice their esseminate and idle way of Living loving Repose and Pleasure and hating the trouble of War and the Severity of that Discipline which is so necessary to a Soldier and which they wholly neglected The Turks and Sarasins on the other hand were become mighty Warlike under their victorious Sultans Sanguin Noradin Syracon and Saladin who having learnt at their Cost to arm themselves like the Europeans with good Curiasses and strong Lances had also taught them to follow their Colours year 1188 to fight hand to hand and had inspired them with Courage and Considence both by their Examples and the fortunate Success of their Arms. And in short The Conquerors of the Holy Land under the first Kings were under one sole Head who uniformly governed the whole Body of his Estate and Army which acted according to the Measures which he prescribed with a perfect Unity without Division without diversity of Interests Inclinations and Opinions as if the whole Army had been as one Man according to the Expression so frequent in the Scripture Whereas the Turks and Sarasins were then divided almost into as many particular Estates as there were Cities in Palestine and Syria and therefore could raise no great Armies but what must be commanded by many Chiefs who for the most part never accorded very well by reason of the diversity of their Opinions and Interests which made them almost continually be overthrown though they were incomparably the stronger in number of Soldiers than their Conquerors But upon the falling of the Realm the Christian Army was composed of the Troops of diverse Chiefs those of the King of Jerusalem the Prince of Antioch the Earl of Tripolis and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital who all of them had different Prospects and Designs which did not at all agree one with the other On the contrary all the Estates of the Infidels bordering upon the Christians Egypt Arabia Mesopotamia the Realms of Damascus and Cilicia were at that time united into one single Monarchy under the great Saladin and so their Army had but one Captain and Head who being most Wise and Valiant gave one Impression and a constant regular Movement to this great Body which did not act but according to his positive Orders And certainly it is most particularly this Unity which hath always made great Armies Victorious as may be seen in all Ages and Histories but was never more manifested than in this last Campaign which was so glorious and so advantageous to the King of France For on the one part the Emperour and the Spaniards and great part of the Princes of the Circles of the Empire and the Hollanders being leagued and confederated against him had raised very strong and numerous Armies to invade France both by Sea and Land On the other side that King alone without imploying any other Power but his own and giving out himself those Orders which were with Fidelity Executed always prevented them I do not say from entring but so much as approaching France Beat them thoroughly to the very Islands and in Person by main Force conquered one fair and large Province and his Army alone in Flanders under his auspicious Fortune commanded by the famous Prince of Conde having to oppose them three great Armies of the Emperour the King of Spain and the Hollanders joyned in one Body under three Chieftains yet cut in pieces their Rere took their Baggage ravished from them more than one hundred Colours and shamefully chased them from before Oudenard and pursued them beyond the Scheld And there it was that their Commanders having at last the Leisure to take Breath and to complain one to another were constrained to avow by their Flight which they disguised under the name of a Retreat that as there is but one Soul in one Body to give it Life Movement and the Power to perform those admirable Operations of a Man so there ought to be but one absolute Monarch in a Kingdom and one General in an Army to procure the Felicity of the People and to inable them to triumph gloriously over all the Enemies which go about to trouble their Repose or rob them of their Happiness But after these Reflections which I have made according to my little Art in Politicks which possibly will not appear altogether Useless or at least Indivertive it is time to return to my Subject and pursue this History of the Crusade THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART II. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Death of Pope Urban III. upon the News of the Loss of Jerusalem The Decrees of Pope Gregory VIII and the Rules of the Cardinals to move God Almighty to Mercy and Compassion upon the Christians Gregory makes Peace between the Pisans and the Genoese Clement III. his Successor sends his Legats to the King of France and to the King of England The Conference at Gisors where the Archbishop of Tyre proposes the Crusade which is received by the two Kings The Ordinances which they made for the Regulation of it The War re-commences between the two Kings which hinders the Effect of the Crusade Richard Duke of Guinne joins with King Philip against his own Father The Death of Henry II. King of England His Elegy and Character The Legates propose the Crusade at the Diet at Mayence The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa there takes upon him the Cross as do many other Princes and Prelates of the Empire The Description of that Emperor His March to Thracia where he is necessitated to combat the Greeks The Character of the Greek Emperor Isaac Angelus The Reason why this
him by King Henry who contrary to all Justice had kept her from him And that John the third Son of King Henry usually called Sans-Terre Without Land to whom it seems the King to take off that ignominious Name had given his Interest in Ireland should also take up the Cross Henry on the contrary persisted obstinately in his Protestations that he would never suffer this Marriage although he said he would give his Consent or at least made that Pretence that the Princess should marry John the youngest Brother of Richard knowing well that that fierce and haughty Prince would never suffer tamely that Indignity to be put upon him Whereupon Philip seeing there was nothing further to be expected from that Conference broke it up and protested that he would do himself Justice by his Arms since he was refused it by Reason But the Cardinal d' Anaigne without considering that the Injury proceeded from him who obstinately refused to accomplish a Treaty so solemnly sworn whereas he ought to have pressed the King of England to keep his Promise and to restore the Princess Alice to her designed Husband year 1188 and not to put such an invincible Obstacle to the Peace by so manifest and unjust an Infraction of the Treaty fell upon Philip the August and spoke to him with a surprizing Confidence in such Language as without doubt Pope Clement had made no part either of his Commission or Instructions For he told him plainly That if he did not entirely accord Matters with the King of England he would put the whole Realm of France under an Interdict To which Philip who had a great Soul and who was perfectly acquainted with the Extent both of the Bounds of his own Power and that of the Church which are two Orders very different and which have both their just Limits answered him very readily That he did not in the least stand in fear of that Sentence and that being most unjust as there could be no doubt but it was it must therefore be mill and void That Rome never had any Right to make any Judgment against the Realm of France whether the King should take up Arms or not either to oblige his Enemies to do him Reason or to chastise his Rebellious Subjects And for any thing more the Sentence seemed to be the Product of English Sterling and not to proceed from a dis-interessed Legate whose Duty was to perform the Office of a common Father in the place of the Pope whom he was sent to represent This was to speak like a great King who without Emotion knew how to maintain the Rights of his Crown independent from any other but God alone and to preserve his Soveraign Authority without shocking that of the Church whose Kingdom is wholly spiritual and which it holds from Jesus Christ and therefore as he hath assured us is not of this World But Prince Richard who though he had seen as many Years as Philip was not by far so moderate nor so much Master of his Passion as to be able to contain himself in such reasonable Terms For finding himself particularly interessed in this Procedure of the Legate which wholly ruined all his Pretensions he was so transported that running furiously upon him with his Sword in his Hand without considering where he was or what he was about to do he had undoubtedly run him through if the Archbishops and Lords who assisted at the Conference had not all together rushed upon this violent Prince to stop his Fury and thereby given opportunity to the Legate half dead with Fear to secure himself by Flight from the greatest Danger that ever he had run in all his Life The Preliminary Discourse of the Peace being thus broken Philip who was powerfully armed pursued his Point so vigorously that he took Ferte-Benard Montfort Beaumont and some other places and afterwards attacked and by Force carried Mans from whence Henry who was retired thither did not without great difficulty escape to Chinon after having lost the greatest part of his Men in that Retreat which was little better than a Flight His Son John also whom among all his Children he loved the most tenderly abandoned him to joyn with Philip who at the Head of his Army passing the first over a Ford upon the Loir took Tours by Assault After which the King of England being in fear of his own Person and having no assured place of Retreat was forced to submit to the Law of the Vanquisher and accept such a Peace as he would please to give him which was upon these following Conditions That Henry should pay to Philip twenty thousand Marks in Silver for the Expences of the War That he should put the Princess Alice into the Hands of such as should be appointed by the King and Prince Richard who was to marry her after his Return from the Holy Land That the two Kings and Prince Richard should Rendesvouz in the Mid-lent of the Year following at Vezelay to begin together the Voyage which they were obliged to by their Vow That the Vassals of the King of England should take an Oath of Fealty to Richard and that those of them who had followed him in this War should not be obliged to render their Homage to Henry till such time as they were to go this Voyage to the Holy Land That the Great Men of England should promise to abandon the King in case he should fail in the performance of any one of these Articles and that in the Interim Philip and Richard should hold certain Towns in Hostage till such time as he should fully and truly have performed what was comprehended in the Treaty It is reported that as the two Kings were in a Treaty in the open Field towards the end of June between Tours and Chinon concerning the Articles of this Peace year 1189 which seemed very insupportable to Henry there happened two days successively two most terrible Claps of Thunder although the Heavens were so serene that there was not the least speck of a Cloud to be seen in the Sky at which Henry was so dreadfully amazed that if some of his Followers had not instantly run to him to support him he had fallen from his Horse and that being thereupon struck with mortal Apprehensions of some terrible Punishment from Heaven if he persisted longer to retard the Crusade by refusing the Peace he accorded to Philip whatsoever he demanded and immediately signed the Treaty He had nevertheless a few Moments after so many terrible Assaults of Shame and Grief upon his Soul and was in particular so sensibly touched with the undutiful Actions of his own Children who had from being one of the greatest and most glorious Princes in the Universe reduced him into that piteous Estate to comply so meanly and tamely to what was imposed upon him that he presently fell desperately sick and in three days time dyed in the sixty first Year of his Age upon the Octave of the Apostles St. Peter
having coasted along by Syria the leâ—ser Asia Greece Epirus and Calabria from time to time making such Stays by the Way as were necessary for the regaining of his Strength and Health he went to pay his Devotions at Rome There he was received with all imaginable Honour by Pope Celestin the III. who approving of his Return according to the Custom bestowed upon him and his Followers the Palmes and the Crosses in token that they had accomplished their Vow From thence passing by Land into France in the Month of December he arrived at Fountainbleau and from thence he repaired to St. Dennis where prostrating himself before the Altar of the Holy Martyrs he offered his Royal Robe and gave solemn Thanks to Almighty God who had delivered him from so many Dangers as he had run by Sea and Land and had at last happily reconducted him into his own Kingdom This was the Conclusion of this holy Enterprise of Philip the August and as one may say absolutely that it was very Fortunate by the Reduction of the City of Acre so it is most certain that it had been much greater if it had been performed by his single Forces for being composed of the very Flower of the Nobility and Gentry of France and conducted by the most Wise and Valiant King of that time they might without Difficulty have Triumphed over Saladin if the Conjunction of a most potent Rival had not infeebled them by than unhappy Division which his haughty jealous and ambitious Humour occasioned among them But in short this is generally the Fatality which accompanies such kind of Unions which being made among differing States and Princes for some common End usually by the growing of Discords among themselves terminate in the intire Ruin of those united Sentiments and Designs there being nothing so Improsperous especially in the Affairs of War as want of a good Understanding and Concord among Confederates which in reallity is seldom if ever to be expected from the multitude of Coordinate Captains which must needs produce Differences and Oppositions first in point of Opinion and afterwards by necessary Consequence in the very Union it self But in this time King Richard who was now the sole Commander of the Christian Army in Syria and Palestine proved not much more Fortunate in the end of his Enterprise by reason that he was so continually agitated by the Tempests of his own violent and tumultuous Passions that he was difficultly at any Agreement with himself but was become even his own Rival For on the one hand his Ambition and love of Glory mingled with some Remains of Piety and Religion transported him vigorously towards the pushing forward his Conquests against Saladin and above all to take Jerusalem which was the main End of this Crusade on the other the Jealousie of State and the Fear of the Armes of Philip whom in his Conscience he knew to be most justly Exasperated against him the Distrust which he had of the French which were left behind under the Command of the Duke of Burgundy the great Friend of the Marquis the Prince of Tyre his mortal Enemy and above all his Avarice which was his ruling Passion and the Covetousness of drawing immense summs of Money from the Sarasin Nobility whom he detained Prisoners and from Saladin himself who continualy sollicited him for a Peace all these Passions put him into great Discomposures of Mind and he was under very strong Temptations of making some Truce with the Sarasins and passing immediately into Europe But it must be said to the Glory of this King who doubtless was one of the bravest of his Age that at length his most noâ—â—e Passion which was the Love of Glory and it may be also that which he had for the good of Religion prevailed over the rest and in Conclusion carried him to the War which he recommenced in the most glorious manner in the World He employed some six Weeks in repairing the Breaches of Acre and in refreshing his Army which after the Retreat of Marquis Conrade and almost all the Italians and many other Crusades whom either Poverty or Weariness or Discontent caused to forsake this lingring War yet consisted in above one hundred thousand Men. After which towards the latter end of August he began to move and took the right hand along the Sea Coast to selve upon such maritim Places as Saladin had caused to be dismantled The Fleet constantly plyed along the Coast with them year 1190 to furnish them with Provisions but he had also on his left hand the Army of Saladin who coasted along the Mountains to molest him by continual Skirmishes in his March and to watch some favourable Opportunity to give him Battle upon any notable Advantage and upon the seventh of September the Infidel thought he had found the lucky Moment at the Pass of a River which dischargeth it self into the Sea near Antipatris For Saladin who had above three hundred thousand Men in his Army had divided them into three Bodies one of which was posted on this side the River to oppose the Passage of the Christians another was ranged on the further Bank to the intent that if the first Body should be broaken they might be ready to charge such as should attempt to pass the River Saladin himself with the third which was by much the greatest and composed of the choicest of all his Troops kept himself in the Coverture of the Mountains on the left of the Christian Army ready to fall upon the Rereguard at such time as the Van should be ingaged with his other Troops in disputing the Pass of the River King Richard who had stayed some days at Cesarea as well to refresh his Army as to repair the Ruines of that Place no sooner came within View of the River but that he saw it on both sides imbanked with his Enemies he resolved therefore to give them Battle both in regard there was no stopping to loose the Pass nor no retreating without manifest Danger of being surrounded and put into some Disorder by retireing Now as he marched always in Battalia for fear of being surprized his Army was instantly drawn into such Order as was convenient The Valiant James d' Avesnes that day commanded the Van with what remained of the Danes Brabanters Flemings and Hollanders The King led the Body of the Battle where were the English the Normans the Poiteuins the Gascons and the Levantine Troops near his Person was the Young Henry Count of Champagne his Nephew who to the Prejudice of what he owed to King Philip his Soveraign who was also his Uncle this young Prince being born of the Sister of the King the Daughter of Queen Eleonor and Lewis the Young was intirely devoted to King Richard The Rereguard was commanded by the Duke of Burgundy General of the French Army who was accompanied by the Templers and the German Troops who followed Leopold the Archduke of Austria who never abandoned the French but were most
should fail he should be sure of the third and that though he lost two Thirds of his Alms upon two false Religions yet the other falling upon the true he should undoubtedly find Advantage by it for the good of his Soul Poor well meaning Prince He did not know that there is a vast difference between Temporal and Eternal Goods And that though those are submitted to the Empire of Fortune which gives or takes them according as she pleases to turn her sporting Wheel yet in these it is far otherwise and that Eternal Goods are never exposed to Hazard and Adventure but they are certainly lost The Death of Saladin presently made a Change in the Face of Affairs throughout all Asia For having divided his Dominions among his twelve Sons without leaving any thing to his Brother Saphadin who had most faithfully served him in all his Wars This Prince valiant and ambitious resolved to revenge himself upon the first Opportunity nor was it long before it was offered and by him laid hold of For his Nephew to whose Share in the Distribution Egypt fell being slain by a Fall from his Horse as he was hunting Saphadin with Ease made himself Master of that fair Dominion and presently raising a powerful Army all the Soldiers of Saladin who had served under him and esteemed him infinitely running in to him he attempted the Ruin of his other Nephews and in a short time either by Force of Arms or by Treachery of their Subjects he overthrew them all year 1195 except the Sultan of Alepo to whom his Subjects always preserved a most inviolable Fidelity Thus whilst the Infidels armed one against another and thought of nothing but how to destroy themselves it was believed in Europe that a fair Occasion was offered for the Recovery of the Realm of Jerusalem now almost entirely lost which gave occasion to a new Crusade which was also followed by three others as in the ensuing History may be seen The End of the Second Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The little Disposition which was found in Europe to this fourth Crusade The Pope resolves at last to address himself to the Emperor Henry VI. The Diet of Wormes where the Princes of Germany take up the Cross An Heroick Action of Margarite the Sister of Philip the August Queen of Hungary who takes upon her the Cross The Artifice of the Emperor who raiseth three Armies and makes use of one of them to assure himself of the Kingdom of Naples where he extinguishes the whole Race of the Norman Princes The Arrival of the Armies by Sea and Land at Ptolemaïs The Truce broken by the Christians The deplorable Death of Henry Count de Champagne and King of Jerusalem Jassa taken by Saphadin The Battle of Sidon gained against Saphadin by the Princes of the Crusade The greatest part of the Cities of Palestine taken by the Christians Emri Brother of Guy de Lusignan King of Cyprus made King of Jerusalem The Seige of Thoron unhappily raised by the horrible Treason of the Bishop of Wertzbourg and his Punishment Division among the Christians The Combat of Jaffa The Death of the Emperor Henry VI. The Description of that Prince A Schism in the Empire occasions the suddain Return of the Princes of the Crusade who abandon the Holy Land to the Insidels The Death of Pope Celestin III. Innocent III. succeeds him The Elegy and Portraict of that Pope He endeavours to set up a new and general Crusade Fouques de Nevilli preacheth it in France The Elegy and Character of that holy Man The Crusade is preached in England King Richard engages many of his Subjects in it The Death of that Prince and his Penitence The Counts of Champagne Blois and Flanders take upon them the Cross Their Treaty with the Venetians by the Vndertaking of Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice The Description and Elegy of that Prince The Death of the Count of Champagne Boniface Marquis of Montferrat made Chief of the Crusade in his place The Death of Fouques de Nevilli A new Treaty between the Princes of the Crusade and the Venetians for the Seige of Zara A great Division upon that Subject Henry Dandolo takes upon him the Cross The Siege and Taking of Zara. The History of Isaac and the two Alexises Emperors of Constantinople The young Alexis desires the Assistance of the Princes of the Crusade against his Vnkle Alexis Commenius who had usurped the Imperial Throne The Speech of his Ambassadors The Treaty of the French and Venetians with this Prince for his Re-establishment A new Division upon this Subject A new Accord among the Confederate in the Isle of Corfu The Description of their Fleet and their Arrival before Constantinople year 1194 THere was very little probability for the Christian Princes of the East to hope for any Assistance from the Princes of Europe where there was now not the least favourable Inclination towards the Holy War The Kings of England and France upon whose Protection they had always chiefly depended were so far from uniting as they did before year 1195 in such a glorious Design they were engaged in a most cruel War which was only discontinued for some time by little Truces which served to no other purpose but to give them leisure to take Breath a little and thereby to put themselves into a Condition to attack each other with greater Fury than before The Emperor was wholly taken up with putting himself into the Possession of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily in Right of his Wife Constantia the Empress In pursuit of which after the death of Tancred he extinguished the whole Race of those brave Normans who had so generously conquered and so gloriously possessed those Realms for above one Age. Pope Celestin III. wasted with Age and Fatigues being now advanced to ninety Years was in no Condition to undertake so difficult a Task as the Forming of a new Crusade And besides he was extreamly embroiled with the Emperor whom he had excommunicated for the Violence which he had used to the King of England so that he had little hope to engage him in the Enterprise Nevertheless after he was assured of the death of Saladin and the great Revolutions which that had made in his Empire which he understood by Letters from Henry Dandolo Doge of Venice he applied himself with the same Zeal which his Predecessors had done to form a Holy League among the Christian Princes to make advantage of this fair Opportunity for the re-gaining of Jerusalem For this purpose he sent his Legates throughout all Europe He did all that lay in his power to procure Peace between the two Kings of France and England and conjured them at least to send some Assistance to Palestine if the posture of their Affairs was such as would not permit them to go thither in Person to
Peace which was offered him upon Condition that the Prisoners on both sides should be set at liberty year 1213 But these Letters of the Pope produced not those Effects which he hoped and promised himself for Saphadin who had so frequently combated against the Christians knew by Experience that the Crusades would overthrow themselves if the fury of their first Efforts were but prevented and above all having the Courage the good Fortune and the Success of Saladin he was not much moved by the Remonstrances of Innocent for whom he had no great Consideration And for the other Letters which the Pope writ to all Christian People they came to nothing at last but to raise those great Disorders which had happened in the former Crusades For it happened by a strange Illusion or rather a kind of Frensy which like a Plague spread it self over all France and Germany the Youths of all sorts of Conditions taking a strong Impression in their Minds that God would make use of their Hands to deliver the Holy Sepulchre out of the Hands of the Sarasins and that he commanded them to go to Jerusalem to atchieve that high Enterprise they assembled to the number of thirty thousand in France and twenty thousand in Germany who took upon them the Cross There were many Monks and Priests who undertook to justifie this Folly by another which was greater and as if God had commanded it put themselves at the Head of these Boys and other Vagabonds who maliciously followed them to make some advantage of this Disorder and it being impossible to stop the Torrent of this furious Folly they pleasantly marched along singing and crying all together with all their power Lord Jesus bestow upon us thy Holy Cross The greatest part of those of Germany taking disserent Roads either perished miserably on the Way or were dispoiled by Thieves and Robbers Those of France who could escape to Marseilles were there miserably cheated by two Merchants whose Names were Hugh le Fer and William Porc notorious Villains who having promised to transport them into Palestine for nothing putting them on Board seven of their Ships two of the Vessels were shipwrack'd with the loss of all those poor Boys with which they were charged and for those who were upon the other sive these Traytors carried them into Egypt and there sold them for Slaves to the Sarasins It is true that God who alone can bring Good out of Evil for his Glory drew this Advantage from this great Disorder and horrible Treachery that divers of these Innocents whom the Infidels endeavoured to force to deny and renounce their Faith persisted so constantly to confess Jesus Christ for whose sake they had taken the Cross that they chose rather to be cut in pieces than to renounce their Faith and by this irregular and frantick Action came at last to obtain the Crown of Martyrdom At last the memorable Victory which Philip the August obtained against Otho who having been crowned after the Death of the Emperor Philip troubled all Europe gave the Pope the occasion to accomplish by the General Council the great Design of the Crusade which he had begun by his Letters and which the Preachers by his Orders published every where This Emperor Otho made a most cruel War against the Pope who had always been his Protector so that he was at last constrained by his extream Ingratitude to excommunicate him as also for his openly invading the Churches Patrimony seizing upon what the Holy See had received from the magnificent Liberality of the Kings of France Philip the August who besides that he hated Otho as being the Nephew of his Enemy the King of England thought himself obliged to maintain what his Predecessors had done in favour of the Holy See sailed not to declare himself for the Pope and negotiated so powerfully with divers Princes of the Empire the principal whereof were the King of Bohemia the Dukes of Austria and Bavaria the Archbishops of Treves Mayence and Cologne that they deposed this ingrateful excommunicate Prince and elected Frederick whom his Father the Emperor Henry VI. had caused to be declared King of the Romans at the Age of three Years and who was also King of Naples and Sicily in Right of the Empress Constantia his Mother He came soon after into Germany where he was received by the Princes and crowned Emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle year 1213 by Thierri Bishop of Cologne And that he might support his Right by the Arms of his Protector he came directly to Vaucouleur where after a Conference with Lewis the Son of King Philip he made a new Treaty with the King and renewed the ancient Alliance which had been between his Predecessors and the Crown of France Otho on his side who had a powerful Party in Germany believing that if he could but ruin Philip he should be able easily to manage Frederick and the Pope made a League against France with the English Ferrand de Portugal Earl of Flanders who had revolted against his Master and his Benefactor who had married him to the Heiress of Flanders year 1214 and joyned the Troops of the English and Flemmings which together with his own composed an Army of above two hundred thousand Men So that making no doubt but that he should be able to cut the French Army in pieces who were not a third part so numerous he assailed them when they least expected a Battle as they were passing the Bridge of Bovines But Philip without being dismayed at this Surprise having put himself at the Head of the Rereguard whilst the Vant-guard re-passed the Bridge sustained their first Shock and gave a Check to the Enemies till such time as the other Troops were drawn up in Battalia upon his Right and Left according to the Orders which he had given And then the French animated by the Sight the Words but much more by the Example of their King who this Day behaved himself like one of the ancient Heroes charged with so much fury every where that after having fought victoriously in all places from Noon till Night the Army of the Enemies was totally routed All the principal Captains lay stretched out at length upon the place or else were taken Prisoners Otho only excepted who escaped by the swiftness of his Horse and retreated into the Lower Saxony where about two Years after he died with Grief to see himself forsaken by all the Princes of the Empire and another Emperor generally acknowledged and received by all the Germans This great Victory of Philip and that which Prince Lewis his Son obtained almost at the same time in Poitou against the King of England having made a great Calm in the Church and the Empire the Pope who during the Wars which troubled all Europe could not assemble the Council now caused it to be called year 1215 and accordingly it was held the Year following in the famous Church of the Lateran at Rome This was the twelfth Oecumenical
in a Valley so deeply Sandy and loose that both the men and Horses who were soundly harrassed by the nights march had much difficulty to dragg their Legs out of this deep Sand. The Governour of Gaza who had by his Spies been advertised hereof laid himself in Ambush behind some little Hills and all of a suddain appeared upon the top of them with some of his Squadrons but without advancing as first resolving to observe the Countenance of the Christians And accordingly seeing that they made a Halt and shewed some surprize to find those People in order of Battle whom they had thought to have found asleep in their Beds he commanded some Squadrons to descend and charge them at full Speed and the light Arabian Horses running as freely upon these Sands as if they had been upon firm ground they made a furious discharge of their Arrows and then retreated to their main Body in a little time returning again in greater numbers shooting always without coming nearer than the distance of their Arrows and without danger of being pursued by the Christians who did not without difficulty advance over the heavy Sands so that wheeling and running round about the Army all day they harassed them till Night a Night that was to be spent in Arms without repose and repast and without the Possibility of advancing or retreating and in nothing but miserable trouble and waking dispair in which they were overwhelmed And indeed their Fortune was much more deplorable the next morning when the whole Army of the Sultan being joined to the Garrison of Gaza encompassed them on all sides and without fear attacking the poor Soldiers already half dead and almost unable to carry their Arms they came to charge them with the Sword and Lance. The Christians indeed performed in despight of their Fortune all that could be expected from men of Courage and infinitely above their Strength but there was a necessity that they must yield to multitude with which they were oppressed most of them being either slain or taken that miserable day Henry Count de Bar one of the most Valiant Princes of his time Simon Count de Clermont the Lords John de Barres Robert Malet Richard de Beaumont and many others of the Bravest and most remarkable men remained dead upon the place The Constable Amauri and seventy other great French Lords after having fought most courageously and by their long resistance given an opportunity to the Duke of Burgundy to make his escape were taken Prisoners and carried in Chains to Grand Caire Thus ended this unhappy Jealousie Ambition and Vain Glory which were governed by rashness and Imprudence in this fatal Encounter of our Ancient Worthies whose misfortune may teach all the Gallant men of our times that they can never be truely Brave unless their Courage be regulated by Prudence in the Commanders and Obediences in the Inferior Officers and Soldiers This unfortunate news did so astonish all the rest of the Army which was at Ascalon in no very good understanding among themselves that they presently returned to Ptolemais where the divisions which continued still among them as well as between the Sultans of Egypt and Damascus compleated the loss of all by two most Shameful Treaties with the Infidels For the Templers who had one part of the Army on their side made a Truce with Nazer Sultan of Damascus year 1240 upon condition that he should surrender to them the Castles of Beaufort and Saphet with all the Territory of Jerusalem and that they should assist him with all their Forces against Melech-Salah Sultan of Egypt who had dethroned his Brother Edel to possess himself thereof and the Hospitallers supported by the King of Navarr the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretany and the other part of the Army made a truce quite opposite to this with the Sultan of Egypt against the Sultan of Damascus After which the King of Navarr the Duke of Bretany and the greatest part of the Cusades embarking in the Port of Acre returned into their own Country almost at the same time that Richard Earl of Cornwall Brother to King Henry the third of England arrived in Palestine with good Troops of English Crusades This Prince who following the Example of his Uncle Richard Coeur de Lyon had taken the Cross with a great Party of the Nobility and Gentry of England embarked at Dover about Whitsontide and landing in France passed to Paris where he was magnificently received by St. Lewis who lodged him in his Palace and caused him to be royally treated and conducted to Lyons from whence passing by Roan to Arles where he was to be received by Count Raymond de Provence he came to Marseilles and about the middle of September he imbarked upon the Fleet which he had sent through the Straits and upon the eleventh of October in fifteen days after the departure of the King of Navarr he came to Anchor in the Road of Ptolemais The Sarasins had a strange fear upon them for this Prince whose very name was formidable to them renewing the memory of the famous Richard King of England who by his marvellous Feats of Arms was so terrible to these Infidels that the Women were wont to quiet their Children when they cried with threatning them with King Richard and the Horsemen to make a Skewish boggling Horse go forward would commonly say to him in clapping their Spurrs to him What dost think it is King Richard And certainly his Nephew wanted neither Spirit nor Courage neither Money nor Conduct to support a name so great and so terribly to the Sarasins He did all that could be expected from a very great Prince to put things into a Condition so that it might be hoped the War against the Infidels might be happily prosecuted for within three days after his arrival he caused it to be proclaimed by the sound of Trumpet through the whole City That if any one of those who remained in the Holy Land stood in need of Money he would furnish them during all the time of their Service But he quickly learnt that in the deplorable condition to which matters were reduced by the division which still continued among the principal Officers and above all the Templers and Hospitallers there was no appearance of succeeding by the way of Arms. And therefore seeing that it was impossible to bring them to any agreement and that the Sultan of Damascus did not at all observe the truce whereas he of Egypt offered to continue it with new advantages to the Christians he resolved at last by the advice of the Duke of Burgundy the great Master of the Hospital and the greatest part of the Crusades to accept of it upon these conditions That all the Prisoners an each side and especially those who were taken at the Battle of Gaza should be set at liberty and that the Christians should enjoy certain Lands which the Sultan possessed in Palestine Mean time the Earl whilest he staid for the
moment and desolated to that degree by the Mamalukes that it became a vast solitude as it still continues to this Day So little assurance is there of any thing in this World where there needs no more but one Moment to Ruin and Destroy what hath been growing a many Ages Thus Bendoedar who found no more Enemies in the Field to give the least check to his Conquests still pushed his good Fortune forward into Syria whilest the Christians of the East divided into divers Factions seemed to combine with him for their mutual destruction And in vain were any Succours expected from the West for the Assistance which the Armenians and the Tartars came to desire against the Sarasins were always either hindred or diverted by the Quarrels which continued between the Popes and the House of Suabia and which were not to be determined but by the downfal of that Noble House to raise upon its ruines that of France which consequently took up the design of that Crusade again And it is this which I am now obliged to relate for the finishing of this History of the Crusades After the Death of Frederick the Second Pope Innocent did not fail to Excommunicate Conrade the Eldest Son of that Prince because he stiled himself Emperor against William Earl of Holland whom some German Princes who were of the Pope's Party had chosen to oppose Frederick Conrade who wanting the good qualities of his Father had all the ill ones and all the fierceness the Cruelty the insatiable desire of Revenge and the implacable hatred against the Popes entred with great Forces into Italy where he was with joy received by the Gibelins and favoured by the Venetians upon whose Shipping he passed the Gulph into Pavia and having joyned the Troops of his natural Brother Mainfrey his Lieutenant General in that Realm year 1268 he reduced under his obeysance in a short time what ever had declared for the Pope and having at last taken Naples he there executed his most cruel Vengeance by the Desolation of that fair and flourishing City This so amazed the Pope Innocent who after he had struck him with the Anathema had no other Arms to which he might have recourse to oppose him that he believed he was obliged to cause a Crusade to be published against him which without doubt did not contribute much to the Success of that which proved so unfortunate against the Sarasins And at the same time he caused the two Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily to be offered first to Charles d' Anjou who would not then accept them without the consent of the King his Brother who was then in Syria and afterwards to Richard Brother to Henry the King of England but he also refused them not thinking it was at all agreeable to Justice or a good Conscience to despoil the young Prince Henry his Nephew to whom the Emperor Frederick had left for his share the Kingdom of Sicily Whilest matters stood thus Conrade who had underhand procured the Death of this little Prince his Brother that he might have his Kingdom died himself of Poison which as it was believed was given him by his Brother Mainfrey to whom as not suspecting him Guilty of his Death Conrade left the Tuition of his Son Conradin then an Infant of the Age of three Years Innocent resolving to take advantage of his Death went and presented himself before Naples where in hatred of Conrade he was received with great Applauses Mainfrey himself being surprized also submitted to him and was received with all Civil treatment But presently after throwing himself into Nocere whither the Emperor Frederick had transplanted the Sarasins of Sicily he raised an Army and took the Field and Fortune declaring her self at first in his favour he in a Battle defeated the Army of the Pope which was Commanded by the Cardinal de Fiesque the Nephew of Innocent who being then Sick when he received this News at Naples died in a few Days after Alexander the Fourth his Successor had also the same Fortune for having Excommunicated Mainfrey this Prince who from the Example of his Father had learnt not to fear these Roman Thunderbolts Marched directly against the Pontifical Army which had taken the Field under the Conduct of Cardinal Vbald and he not being so great a Captain as his Enemy also lost a Battle which was fought between them Hereupon Mainfrey fierce with these two Victories and sure of the Favour of the Populace which always follows the strongest side caused himself to be Proclaimed King of Naples and Sicily with as much ease as he had with dexterity caused the report to be spread of the Death of the little Conradin his Nephew After which he lead his Victorious Army into the Ecclesiastick Estates where finding little resistance he seized upon the County of Fondi and his Partisans being animated by the report of his Victories the Gibelin Faction became presently the most powerful but principally in Lombardy Tuscany and even in Rome it self Alexander astonished with this Progress and fearing that he should at last fall under the Power of such a formidable Enemy had recourse to the King of England and following the Example of Innocent he offered him the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily for his Son Edmund to whom he also sent the Investiture of them and to oblige that King to undertake the enterprise he absolved him from the Vow which he had made in taking the Cross to be of the Crusade against the Sarasins in the East by changing it into that which he caused to be Preached every where against Mainfrey Also fearing lest the Partisans of the House of Suabia should place Conradin upon the Imperial Throne in the room of Count William who had been slain in the War against the Frieslanders he sent Prohibitions to all the Electors requiring them under pain of Excommunication not to chuse that young Prince But all this which signified just nothing against Mainfrey did a World of mischief to the Crusade which was designed against the Sarasins The Parliament which the King of England had called at London upon the subject of the Neopolitan War would give the King no Money and afterwards all the great Men of the Realm happening to be Embroiled with the Royal House this Project of the Pope's did not Succeed And for Germany one part of the Princes having chosen for their Emperor Alphonso King of Castile and the other Richard Earl of Cornwall year 1268 Brother to the King of England there arose a Schism in the Empire which occasioned mighty Troubles and Disorders there So that Italy Spain England and Germany having so many troublesome Affairs upon their hands there remained only France in a condition to serve the Holy See to any purpose in this occasion and all Christendom indeed against the Infidels For this reason therefore Vrban the fourth the Successor of Pope Alexander having again vainly tried the way of a Crusade against Mainfrey which for want of
Prince Henry de Poitiers the Son of Bohemond the fourth of that name Prince of Antioch and of Plaisance the Daughter of Hugh Lord of Giblet From Henry de Poitiers and Isabella de Lusignan sprung Hugh the third who after the death of his Cousin Hugh the Second who died without Issue was King of Cyprus in Right of his Mother The last Husband of Isabella the Daughter of Amauri King of Jerusalem was Emeri King of Cyprus who had by her the Princess Melisantha who was second Wife to Bohemond the fourth Prince of Antioch and Father to Henry de Poitiers and by her he had the Princess Mary of Antioch who was the Subject of this difference For immediately after the death of Conradin Hugh the third the King of Cyprus who was descended in a right Line from Alice de Champagne the Daughter of Queen Isabella by her third Husband passed into Palestine and at Tyre caused himself to be crowned King of Jerusalem in right of his Grandfather But the Princess Mary of Antioch maintained that the Realm appertained to her in regard that being the Daughter of Melisantha she was nearer by one degree to Queen Isabella than Hugh who was the Son of her Cousin The Process hereupon lasted a long time The Princess Mary opposed the Coronation of Hugh but perceiving that the Patriarch took little notice of her opposition she appealed to the Holy see and came in person to pursue her right before Pope Gregory the tenth who appointed Delegates for the Examination of the matter She also presented her self to the Council of Lyons and there demanded Justice And the cause being remitted to the Barons of the Realm who neither esteemed nor much loved King Hugh the Princess at length with the consent of Pope John the twenty first judicially transferred to Charles d' Anjou King of Naples and Sicily all her Right and Title upon certain conditions by a Treaty year 1277 which was signed by the Cardinals and the Prelates of the Court of Rome And by this Right it is that the Realm of Jerusalem which hath been possessed by the Princes of the House of Suabia Kings of Sicily as Descendants from Queen Isabella year 1277 by Jolanta her Grand-Daughter the Wife of Frederick the Second was devolved to Charles d' Anjou and his Posterity and for this reason the Dukes of Lorrain who are descended from Ranatus d' Anjou King of Sicily by Jolanta his only Daughter Mother to Ranatus Duke of Lorrain bear the Cross of Jerusalem together with the Arms of the House of Anjou which they have added to their Atchievements The Kings of Arragon who usurped Sicily from the Anjouin Family and after them the Kings of Castile heirs to the House of Arragon have also taken to their Arms the Cross of Jerusalem and the Title of that Realm And thus these Princes have pleased themselves with the Shadow the Name and the empty shew leaving the Body the Substance and the reality to the Infidels the weak for want of Power and the strong for want of Zeal chusing rather to imploy their Arms in less difficult Enterprises For it is more easy to take what may be had of what is our own than to recover what belongs to us and might be had though not without trouble charge and hazard In the mean time Charles who resolved to take possession of his new Realm sent Roger Count de St. Severin to Ptolemais where he was received by the Governor who put the Fortress into his hands And King Hugh having refused two or three several times to appear before the Barons to make out the Reasons of his pretensions to that Realm they acknowledged Charles d' Anjou for their King and did him Homage which did still more augment the Division by reason that the King of Cyprus having his Party although it was weak yet was it able to give abundance of trouble even in Ptolemais which he had like to have surprized And certainly there was much danger lest Bendocdar who was so admirably skilled in making his own advantage in such opportunities should lay hold of this to seize upon those small remainders which were yet possessed by the Christians in Syria but that God himself was pleased to deliver them from this formidable Enemy For this Sultan receiving information that the Tartars had besieged a Fortress which he had upon the Euphrates he Marched immediately to relieve it and causing his Cavalry to Swim over this great River he thought to have surprized his Enemies but they received him so well that they cut in pieces almost all his Troops and it was not without great difficulty that he himself escaped having received a dangerous Wound in the Encounter but at last he got to Damascus where the Flux and Fever coming upon him by reason of his Wound he died in a few Days after the Battle It is impossible to express the joy which his Death occasioned among the Christians but it was much increased by the taking of the Fortress of Margath and by the Defeat of the Sarasins who indeavoured to retake it from the Knights of the Temple but above all by the great Victory of the Tartars for these People being entred into Syria laid all wast before them without giving any Quarter to the Sarasins when at length Melech-Sais the Successor of Bendocdar Marched out of Egypt with an Army of two hundred thousand Men to give them Battle The two Armies met and fought most furiously in the plain of Emessa and after a most terrible Slaughter on both sides the Egyptians in conclusion lost the Day and the Tartars who had also lost abundance of Men satisfying themselves with their Victory and the huge Booty which they had taken returned again beyond the Euphrates This without all doubt had been a conjuncture extremely favourable to the Christians and Charles King of Sicily who was the greatest Captain of his time an extreme lover of Glory and Greatness and who at the Solicitation of Pope Gregory the Tenth had taken the Cross and as King of Jerusalem had the principal Interest in the Holy War would certainly have led a powerful Army into Syria to recover the Realm of Jerusalem as was the Expectation of the whole World But the cruel adventure of the Sicilian Vespers year 1281 which happened almost at the same time having overthrown all his designs did also ruin all the hopes and the Affairs of Christendom in the East For on the one side King Hugh year 1282 who had been obliged to return into Cyprus entred now again into Syria year 1283 to make advantage of the Misfortune of King Charles and seized upon Tyre year 1284 and after his Death which happened at the same time King Henry his Son who succeeded to his Brother John was received in Ptolemais besieged and in five Days took the Fortress year 1286 and caused himself to be Crowned King of Jerusalem this also made the division increase among the Christians who divided
War which he did not in the least that it must needs be a Prodigy of ill Presage to see a man devoted to a severe Profession of Religion to take upon himself the Command of the Army that they were at last satisfied that he should do his Duty according to his Profession in preaching up the Crusade as for any thing more the Weakness of his Natural Constitution and his Age gave him a Dispensation from the Toils and Hazards of a Voyage to the Holy Land Being therefore resolved to preserve himself always within the Bounds of his Condition and to apply himself only to that which was his proper Ministry he set himself to preach the Crusade with so much Zeal Power and Success that there was never seen a greater Concourse of People then ran from all Parts to have the good Fortune to receive the Cross from his Hands Geossry who writes his Life that it pleased God to confirm and approve of his preaching by a Prodigious Number of Miracles which he did in healing all kind of Diseases by his Prayers and the Imposition of his Hands But as some of the Historians who gives us this Account produce no manner of particular Proofs but content themselves with saying so only in general Terms and on the other Hand it is well known that in those times they were not so strict and exact in their Examination of those kind of Things as they are in our days but were rather inclined to make even Credulity it self a Matter of great Merit I think every Person is at Liberty to believe at his own Discretion without detracting in the least from the Eminent Sanctity of St. Bernard And that which makes this appear more reasonable is that this great man himself in that Apology which he made after the ill Fortune of this Voyage does not in justifying himself in the least inssist upon the Miracles which God wrought by his preaching but by the Obedience which he owed to the Pope who had commanded him to preach Be it as it will it is most certain as he himself says the Obedience which he rendred to the Pope in preaching the Crusade became so successful that it produced an infinite of Crusades insomuch that the Towns and Villages were almost dispeopled of their Inhabitants except the Children and the Women who remained as Widows during the Lives of their Husbands thus it was that he spoke not knowing that so many of them were to be so in Reality As for the rest in that time that he preached with so much Success in France he advanced the Crusade no less by his Pen in Italy and Germany whither he writ most Eloquent Letters wherein he Exhorted the People to take up the Cross with all the most powerful Motives which were Capable of touching their Christian Compassion and in one of them he advertized the Germans to take Care that they did not suffer themselves to be seduced by a certain Vagabond Monk one Radulph who had taken upon him without any Commission to preach the Crusade at Cologne Mayence Worms Spire Strasbourg and thereabouts exciting the People to Massacre the Jews under Pretext of slgnalizing their Zeal against the Enemies of Jesus Christ He writ the same in pretty Boisterous Terms to the Arch-Bishop of Mayence year 1146 perswading him to treat this Ignorant Monk as an Usurper upon the Sacred Office of Preaching and as a detestable Heretick who Authorized the fearful Sin of Murder And understanding that this furious Disorder increased daily by the Seditious Sermons of this Impudent Impostor he went himself into Germany to acquit himself of the Commission he had received from the Pope to preach the Crusade there and arrived at Spires where the Emperor had called a General Diet against the Feast of the Nativity The Emperor at that time was Conrade the third of that Name Duke of Suabia and Franconia who after the Death of the Emperor Lotharius of the House of Saxony had ascended the Imperial Throne about eight Years before and till then had reigned with abundance of good Fortune and Glory The Devout Abbot treated with him both in Private and Publick concerning the intended Enterprize of the Holy War He there did his accustomed Wonders and though he preached in a Language which the People did not understand yet such was the manner of his Delivery that it wrought more upon them then did his Interpreters who endeavoured to make them understand what it was that he said it was enough that the People saw him to be as it were inchanted by his very Looks and in Consequence to be perswaded for they ran to him from all Parts with such Heat and thronging that one time the Emperor was forced to take him in his Arms to defend him from the Crowd which was ready to stifle him In short he acted and spoke so effectually in the Dict that the Emperor and his Brother Henry Duke of Suabia his Nephew Frederick who afterwards succeeded him in the Empire and the greatest part of the Princes resolved to take upon them the Cross which they also did about two Months after at another Diet which was called for that purpose Their Example was followed by the famous Otho Bishop of Friburgh half Brother by the Mother to the Emperor and after him by the Bishops of Ratisbonne and Passau and an Innumerable Multitude of Lords Gentlemen and Soldiers who ran from all Parts of Germany to this Assembly to take part in this Holy War Labuslaus Duke of Bohemia Odoacer Marquis of Stiria and Bernard Earl of Carinthia did the same not long after and assembled a great Number of their Subjects disposing themselves to attend the March of the Emperor in the beginning of the Spring During which time St. Bernard after having Constrained the Impostor Radulph to retire to his Monastery and preached the Crusade in the Low Countries returned back to the King who had assembled at Estampes the Estates of his Realm in February upon Septuagesima Sunday there to conclude what was necessary to be done before he undertook the Voyage This Assembly sat but three days in the first of which he gave them an Account of the Progress he had made in Germany and the Generous Resolution of the Emperor and Princes of the Empire who had undertaken to joyn with the French in this Enterprize for the Holy Land This was received with so much Joy and so great Applause that nothing further could be done that day the next day the way by which they should march into Syria came under Debate where the Ambassadors of Roger King of Sicily who were too well acquainted with the Malice and Persidiousness of the Greeks and the irreconcilable Hatred which they had against the Franks did all that possibly they could to perswade them to take the Sea Passage as did the Venetians the Genoese and the Pisans offering them their Ports and shipping for the Commodious transporting of the Army But on the one
Dom Roderigo de Bivar so well known in the World under the Glorious Name of Cid After the Death of Ferdinand he linked himself to Dom Alphonso King of Leon and rendred him such Important Services in both his Fortunes that that Prince after the Death of his two Brothers Dom Sancho and Dom Garchia succeding to all the Estates of his Father Ferdinand he gave him in Marriage his Daughter Theresa whom he had by his first Wife Chimena de Gusman He himself also marrying the Princess Constantia the Daughter of the Duke of Burgundy and Aunt to Prince Henry to whom he also gave the City of Porto and sometime after all the Estate which he held in Portugal year 1147 which in his Favor he Erected into the Dignity and Title of an Earldom It is said also that he sent him with the Princes of the first Crusade to the Conquest of the Holy Land whereupon all Occasions he Signalized his Courage and his Conduct But in regard we find no Traces of this Voyage in the Authors his Contemporaries who have written very exactly of that War I think I ought not to Incur any Displeasure if I give little Credit to some of the Historians of Portugal who upon very weak Conjectures have been pleased to Rank among the Heroes of that famous Crusade the Illustrious Head of the House of Portugal though he had such a sufficient Stock of true Glory as not to stand in need of searching for that which may with so much Justice be disputed That which he hath which is most certain is that this admirable Earl after having Defeated the Moors in seventeen pitched Battles and Conquered from them the greatest part of Portugal which he added to that which his Father-in-Law had given him in absolute Soveraignty he dying left this new Earldom to his Son Alphonso who gloriously changed it into a Kingdom For he was Solemnly proclaimed King in the Field of Battle at the memorable Day of Ourique where he defeated the Army of five Moorish Kings who had Assembled against him all their Forces which consisted in more than four hundred thousand Men. The five Kings lay upon the Place Buried in the Heaps of the dead Bodies of their Soldiers who were piled one upon another in Memory whereof the new King who believed that during the Battle he had seen Jesus Christ upon the Cross who promised him the Victory changed the Cross Azure in the Field Argent which his Father had taken for his Coat Armor into five Escoucheons Azure every one charged with five Besants Argent in Saltire to which afterwards was added a Border Gules charged with seven Castles Or. This is that valiant King Descended from a Prince of the most August House of France from whom in a direct Line Male Issued the other sixteen Kings who Reigned till the time of Cardinal Henry for six Hundred Years in Portugal whose Dominions Extended afterwards into three other Parts of the World Affrica Asia and America where the Heroick Piety and Courage of the Portugese by finding a new Passage to the Indies have Established the Empire of Jesus Christ as well as that of their own Nation and as one of their Rivers having for some time hid it self under the Earth afterwards appears again and runs much greater than before so doth the Illustrious Blood of our Kings which hath so long run in the Royal Channel of Portugal at length after having for more than sixty Years ceased to appear in its natural Place the Throne of Portugal which it ought to fill begin in our days to Recover it self with the Applause of all the World in the Person of King John the Fourth the Head of the Royal House of Braganza who besides that he Possesses all the Title of the Infanta Catharina is also Descended in the direct Masculin Line as also from that of John the First from whom are Issued the last Kings unto Sebastian But it was this great Alphonso the Son of Earl Henry and first King of Portugal who after he had taken Santaren and all the places about Lisbon Besieged that great City which was Defended by above two hundred thousand Men. After he had unprofitably spent a whole Month in the Siege having but a few Troops in comparison of such a Number of Defendants he began to despair of his Enterprise when he discovered this great Fleet at Sea which he imagined to be that of the Affrican Kings but he presently after perceived by the Cross which they bore in their Flags that it was a Christian Fleet. He sent immediately to be satisfied what they were and upon what Design and being informed that it was a Party of Crusades who were going against the Infidels he went Aboard the Admiral and proposed to the Captains the Conquest of one of the fairest Cities in the World from those Enemies which they were going to Search for in Syria He Remonstrated to them That God had presented to them a fair Occasion for the present Accomplishment of their Vow in Combating for the Glory of Christ Jesus against his Enemies and that without exposing themselves by the Hazard of the Sea to the Danger of never Combating them at all That they would acquire more Honor by taking Lisbon with the Assistance of those few Portugeses who Besieged it than they could possibly hope for year 1147 by joyning in Syria with two such Puissant Armies as were those of the Emperor and King of France to which they would be Esteemed as nothing and besides that the Recompence which they might expect would be incomparably greater giving them the Word of a King that they should share the Conquest with him There was no necessity for him to say more to persuade People who sought nothing but Occasion to Fight against the Sarasins they with Joy accepted the Offer of the King and presently gave Order for the Disimbarking of their Troops and went to take their Post upon the West Quarter the King with his Army being already Incamped on the East Side of the City in the place where now stands the Monastery of St. Vincent If the Attacque was Hot Furious and often repeated by the Portuguese and the Crusades the Resistance was no ways less on the part of the Moors who far surpassed the Christians in Number This made the Siege last four Months till the twenty fifth day of October when the City was in the End taken by Assault all the romainder of the Sarasins being put to the Sword thereby to Extinguish that accursed Race of Men. Thus this new Kingdom of Portugal which was Founded by a French Prince was owing for the glorious Conquest of its Capital City principally to the Valour of the French Men they being the greatest Number of this Naval Army for tho there were English and other Nations among them yet anciently the Title which the Portuguese gave indifferently to all Strangers was that of French Men. The King also Imployed them in the taking
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
Equivalent to the loss they might hereby sustain made no doubt but that they would with Joy receive a Proposition so advantageous to all Christians but especially to Princes who had always reason to fear all things from these Desperadoes but Avarice which had already begun to corrupt that Order so far blinded them that one of the Knights upon whom the great Master would never permit Justice to be done assassinated the Ambassadour who was come to propose a Condition so just and reasonable This so exasperated these People that they became more obstinate in their Mahometanism more Enemies to the Christians and more Assassins than ever they had been before It was for such a kind of Injustice that these two Russians murdered the Marquis Conrade Prince of Tyre for a ship loaden with rich Merchandise which belonged to a Subject of the Old man of the Mountain being forced by a Tempest to put into the Port of Tyre the Marquis caused her to be seized and put the Master of her to death for complaining of the Injustice which was done him The Prince of the Assassins sending to demand Satisfaction and Restitution of the Ship and Goods and Reparation for the Death of his Subject the Marquis made a laughing matter of it at the first but upon a Second demand he commanded one of the Envoys to be thrown into the Sea This so incensed the old man that he sent two of his Devotes to Tyre who there counterfeited to renounce Mahometanism and got themselves baptized the better to cover and enable them to execute their Treason After some time they found means to get into the Marquis his Retinue and ordinarily to attend him wherever he went and hereby obtained an Opportunity of stabbing him as he returned from Dinner from the Bishop of Beauvais and though they were put to the most exquisite Torments which could be suffered and roasted alive yet would they never accuse any Person or confess who it was that set them on to commit such a horrible Murther There were some however who failed not to suspect King Richard who was known to be his declared Enemy and the report was so strong that it was written to King Philip the August and he was assured that this Prince with whom he had had such great differences had hired the Old man of the Mountain to commit this Assassinate upon the Marquis There cannot indeed be too much Precaution to preserve the Sacred Persons of Kings upon which depends the Welfare of their Dominions and upon this occasion Philip took Guards about his Person to protect himself from a like Treason and such damnable Attempts But neither History nor Historian ought so far to take the particular part either of Princes or Nations as to disingage himself of that Duty which he owes to truth and for the Interest I have in that I think my self obliged tosay That though King Richard neither loved King Philip nor the Marquis yet nevertheless he was not at all culpable of these horrid Crimes of which some have with so much Injustice and so little Truth accused him and endeavoured to blacken his Memory And indeed the Prince of the Mountains did in a short time after wholly justisie and acquit him of this suspicion by the Testimony of his Authentick Letters wherein he declared the true cause of this Murther of the Marquis according to the manner which I have before recounted And one ought with Truth to avow that considering the Natural Humour and Inclination of King Richard he could not be capable of so black a Treason for although he was extreme Violent Impetuous and mighty Impatient of Injuries and Affronts yet he had a great and generous Soul and made Profession openly and like a Gallant man to attack such as he believed he ought to esteem his Enemies and was never known to have recourse to base and Ignominous Ways of taking his Revenge And this great Courage not only taught him to despise all these false Reports but also to draw all those advantages which an able Polititian could make of such an untoward Accident in the baseness whereof he knew he had no share For he managed the matter so well that without much difficulty he perswaded the Princess Isabella the Widow of Marquis Conrade to marry Henry Count of Champagne to whom in regard of his Adherence to him year 1191 he was resolved at his return to leave all that remained to the Christians of the Holy Land the Promise which he made to the Princess to make her Queen of Jerusalem by the Exclusion of Guy of Lusignan was the thing she most passionately desired was the most powerful reason to induce her to this Marriage Nor was it difficult for him to make good his Promise in regard that on the one hand Count Henry was extremely beloved by the great men of the Country who had no manner of kindness for Lusignan and on the other that he promised him in Exchange for a Kingdom which was almost wholly lost to give him that of Cyprus provided he payed to the Templers a certain Summ of Money for which he had engaged it to them This despoiled Prince whose Fortune absolutely depended upon his Protector willingly received this Offer so that shortly after the Marriage was celebrated between the Count du Champain and the Princess Isabella who from that time took upon her the Title of the Queen of Jerusalem although Henry out of Modesty would pretend to nothing higher than that of Prince Thus all the Forces of the Realm being united by this Accomodation Richard put himself at the Head of them and began the Champaign early in the Month of June by the Siege of Darum which he took in four days being one of the strongest Fortresses which Saladin had and after the taking of several other places of less Importance which he put into the Hands of his Nephew he returned to Ascalon where the Duke of Burgundy joyned him with the French Troops under his Command After which to save his Reputation and that it might not appear to have been his Fault that Jerusalem was not taken he seemed resolved to besiege and take it in good Earnest which caused a mighty joy throughout the Army which seemed to breath nothing but the consummating of that glorious Enterprise For this purpose he parted from Ascalon and advanced to Bethanopolis between Jaffa and Jerusasalem to the same place where he was posted before when he had a former Design of besieging the City When he arrived there he understood that a Part of the Army of the Sarasins was encamped behind the neighbouring Mountains with a Design to fall upon him when he should be about making his Lodgements whereupon he went and briskly fell upon them and that with so much Fury and so little Expectation that he cut the greatest part of them in pieces and put the rest to Flight taking all their Baggage and so returned loaden with Booty to the Camp whilest this
upon which he embarked the two Queens with the greatest part of his Forces who not long after happily arrived in England And about the beginning of October he also departed with the Displeasure of having on one side concluded a Truce most inglorious and disadvantageous to the Christians and on the other with the Honour and Pleasure at his parting to have bestowed two Kingdoms that of Jerusalem which was a very piteous one but yet a Kingdom upon the Count de Champagne his Nephew and that of Cyprus which he had conquered upon Guy de Lusignan in which House it continued two hundred and eighty Years Thus it was that King Richard left the Holy Land with a Promise to these two Princes that upon the Expiration of the Truce he would return with more powerful Forces and to persuade the World that this Resolution of his was in serious Earnest he continued still to wear the Pilgrim's Cross upon his Habit. As for the rest his natural Impatience and Temerity made him commit two mighty Faults which rendred his Return very unfortunate For first Whereas he ought to have embarked himself like a great King upon a gallant Fleet that so he might return with Security and the same Magnificence with which he came he satisfied himself with one great Ship in which he might easily by Sea have fallen either into the hands of Enemies or Pyrates and after that when he was at Corsu perceiving that his Vessel was a Slug and made no Way he threw himself for the more Expedition into a Galliot and was by Tempest driven into the Gulph of Venice where he was shipwrack'd between that place and the City Aquilea and having run a thousand Dangers in crossing through Germany in Disguise year 1193 the greatest part of his Followers being taken Prisoners by the Germans who pursued him and laid all the Passages for him he was at last discovered near Vienna by the Subjects of the Duke of Austria his mortal Enemy who made him Prisoner and treated him with sufficient Inhumanity in Revenge of the old Quarrel before Acre and after some time he delivered him into the hands of the Emperor Henry VI. This Prince to cover his abominable Avarice which made him so unjustly detain this King only to draw a great Ransom from him made his publick Pretence that all this was to do Reason for what Richard had done to his Prejudice in Sicily and for the Assassinate of the Marquis of Montferrat and those other Crimes of which he had been accused in Palestine But Richard who was naturally cloquent in a full Diet before the Princes of the Empire at Spire made his Innocence so evidently appear that the whole Assembly was moved for him even to Tears and intreated the Emperor that for the future he might be treated like a King which the Emperor more out of Shame than Honour consented to Pope Celestin also sollicited by the Letters of Queen Eleonor which were all in the Style of Peter de Blois who writ them and by the Prayers and Intreaties of Gautier Archbishop of Roan and the Bishops of Normandy who upon this occasion manifested great Ardor and Affection for the Service of King Richard did all that he possibly could to obtain his Liberty He proceeded so far as to denounce the Anathema against the Duke of Austria for daring to make a Prisoner of a Pilgrim expresly contrary to an Article of the Crusade which denounces Excommunication against such as should attempt any thing either against the Persons or Estates of such as had taken upon them the Cross He also menaced the Emperor to interdict all his Dominions if he did not presently release this prince who came to employ his Blood and his Fortune against the Infidels and over whom he could pretend no sort of Right But this had very little Effect upon the Germans who for a long time had been accustomed to be in no pain for the Thunders of Rome For notwithstanding all these Menaces year 1194 poor Richard could not be set at Liberty till after above a Years Imprisonment he payed a hundred thousand Marks in Silver before his Releasment and left fifty Hostages among which was the Archbishop of Roan for the Payment of fifty thousand Marks more of which the Duke of Austria was to have twenty thousand and the third part of the hundred thousand already received by the Emperor So that to raise this Sum all England was taxed and even the Chalices and consecrated Vessels were forced to be melted down and coyned So far was this Prince who was falsly accused to have sold Palestine to Saladin from making any Advantage of the Crusade that it is most certain that in this Expedition he spent an immense Treasure to the great Impoverishment of himself and his whole Realm But as he had not made this Treaty but whilst he was under a Force and Violence therefore so soon as he was returned into England he sent his Ambassadors to the Pope to demand Justice from him He desired of him that since by virtue of the Protection of the Holy See it was promised to all the Crusade that their Persons and Estates should be free from Injuries during the whole time of their Pilgrimage that he would by all sorts of Canonical Ways compel the Emperor and the Duke of Austria to set at liberty his Hostages to restore the Money which they had so unjustly exacted from him and to make him Satisfaction for the cruel Injury which they had done him contrary to all the Laws both Humane and Divine Celestin who saw that the Treaty of the Crusade which was universally received and confirmed without Contradiction was manifestly infringed in this great Article could not refuse to do him Justice He therefore according to the Canons caused these two Princes to be three several times admonished to make Satisfaction in these Particulars and seeing that they persisted obstinately to deride his Threatnings he did anew denounce the Anathema of the Church first against Leopold and then against the Emperor with all the usual Solemnities The Duke hereupon became more obstinate and was so far transported as to threaten the Hostages which he had with Death But it was not long before all the World believed that those terrible Scourges with which the Duke was chastised and that deplorable Accident which befel him year 1193 were the evident Effects of the Anger and Justice of God Almighty who would punish his Obstinacy in this World that so he might find Mercy in the next And in truth besides that many of his Cities were destroyed either by Fire from Heaven or by the Waters of the Danubius which drowned the greatest part of his Country in which Plague and Famine made a horrible Ravage one Day when he had made a magnificent Entertainment at Gretz to celebrate his Birth-day his Horse falling upon him broke his Leg after which a Fire in such furious manner seized upon the Part that unable
with all the Forces of his Realm joyned to the Troops of Valeran and those which in such hast he could raise at Acre But by a most sad Misfortune as he looked out of a Window of the Palace to see the Troops march bye and thrust himself out of the Casement to give Orders to some of the Officers the Frame of the Window upon which he leaned brake and with its Fall drew him along so falling headlong upon the Pavement he broke his Neck the accident being so sudden Violent and Surprizing that neither those about him above or those beneath could once think to lay hold on him or indeavour to break his Fall this deplorable Accident gave a stop to the intended Succors so that they could not make that hast in their March which the Occasion required And as it usually happens that one Misfortune follows another the Garrison of the besieged City making an unfortunate Sally Saphadin counterfeiting a Flight drew them so far that with his Horse he cut off their Retreat and then turning head upon them he attacked them so furiously on all sides that they were all cut in Pieces After which forcing the City without much Resistance he put all the Christians in it to the Sword and to deliver himself at once from the Fears of this dangerous Post which might so much incommode Jerusalem he caused the City to be intirely ruined from the very Foundations Whilest these Matters were transacting the Dukes of Saxony and Brabant with the other Princes of the Crusade being arrived at Ptolemais a Councel of War was held where it was determined to march immediately against Saphadin in regard that his Army being at present Master of the Field after his Victory and that he had equipped a powerful Navy in Egypt consequently if they did not indeavour presently to remove him by giving him Battle he must of necessity hinder all manner of Passage of Provisions both by Sea and Land whereby they should be reduced to great Extremities at Acre They were not long searching for an Opportunity for Saphadin understanding that the Christians to draw to him to a Combat advanced towards the City of Baruth which he was obliged to relieve being extreme brave and his Army since the taking of Jaffa very much augmented he took the same Resolution of fighting them and to meet them half way he descended from the Mountains of Antilchanon to the Plain by the Sea there to oppose them in their Passage So that the two Armies happening to Rencounter between Tyre and Sidon the Battle was fought in the plain Field with an incredible Courage on the one side and the other and with far more Obstinacy on the part of the Sarasins than had ever been known in any of the preceding Wars For as they were grown very Martial having for so long time been accustomed to Wars without any Interruption either against the Christians or against those of their own Nation since the Death of Saladin and their civil Broils so they were mightily animated by the happy Success which they had met with in the Siege of Jaffa and Saphadin who commanded them forgot nothing upon this Occasion that could be expected from a compleat General and one of the gallantest Men in the World So that their Efforts were wholly extraordinary whilest they indeavoured to follow the Example of so great a Captain and to preserve the Glory and Advantage which they had already gained On the other side the Germans who were no less Brave and much better armed than these Barbarians and who had at the Head of them so many great Princes who animated them not only with their Voice and Gesture but by the gallant Actions which they saw them perform combated so generously and so briskly pursued their Point continually pressing upon the Enemy without so much as recoiling a single Step or making the least Halt as determining either to overcome or perish that in Conclusion the Sarasins who were never before known for so long time to maintain a standing Fight against the Christians of Europe were put into Disorder and in a few Moments after to an intire Rout and downright Flight leaving all the Field covered with the Bodies of the Slain among whom were two Sons of Saladin year 1196 and more than threescore Emirs Saphadin himself being also supposed to be slain nor was it without great Difficulty that he escaped being grievously wounded after he had that day done all that became a great Captain and a gallant Soldier This glorious Victory was followed by the Reduction of the greatest part of the Cities which the Sarasins had seized Sidon Laodicea in Syria Giblet and several other Places of lesser Importance either surrendred themselves or were taken without much Difficulty So that they had Time and Covenience to repair the Ruines of Jaffa year 1197 where a strong Garrison was placed thereby to make sure of a Post so advantageous and necessary for the Conquest of Palestine At the same time one of the Sons of Saladin who was Master of Jerusalem sent to the Princes to offer his Alliance making a shew as if he intended to renounce his Sect and become a Christian but whether with an intention only by this Artifice to amuse them and to divert the furious Tempest of their Arms which he feared was ready to be poured upon his Head or that in reallity his Intention was to joyn with the Christians to revenge himself of his Uncle Saphadin who before had made War upon him and indeavoured his Ruin is uncertain There also happened at the same time another unexpected piece of good Fortune to the Christians for as in prosecution of their first Intention they came within view of Baruth which they designed to Besiege they saw appear the Christian Fleet commanded by the Archbishop of Mayence which returned from the Isle of Cyprus whither they had sailed to Crown and bring along to Palestine Emeri who had succeeded to Guy de Lusignan his Brother who was lately deceased without any Children Upon the sight of these two mighty Armies which at the same time appeared before the City the Sarasins altho they had there a very strong Garrison were so dismaid that they suffered the Castle to be taken by the Christian Captives who in that Consternation found means to knock off their Irons and in Conclusion the Infidels dispairing to be able to Defend the Place made hast to save themselves by abandoning the Town to the Conquerors who there found an inestimable Booty There the Princes to give a Chieftain to the Realm of Jerusalem and a Successor to Count Henry without much Trouble persuaded Queen Isabella to Marry Emri de Lusignan who was her fourth Husband and who joyned the Crown of Cyprus to that of Jerusalem Hitherto all things succeeded most admirably to the Army of the Princes of the Crusade and if after this happy beginning they had marched straight to Jerusalem it is almost certain that in
Division arose between the Orientals and the Germans who now began to perceive that they were betrayed so that separating from the Templers and Hospitallers whom they left at Piolemais resolving to have nothing further to do with such base and infamous Traitors they drew off to Jaffa to preserve that place which they had fortified and to defend it against Saphadin who threatned to besiege it And in truth that Sultan that he might make his Advantage of this Disorder among the Christians after having made them raise the Siege of Thoron took that Resolution and came to Incamp in view of Jaffa almost at the same time that the German Army arrived there Now as it was very much weakned by the Fatigues of a long Siege and by the Retreat of the Orientals who had separated from the Germans they durst not adventure upon a Battle but satisfied themselves with molesting the Sarasins by continual Skirmishes wherein they generally had the Advantage And particularly one time having drawn the Sarasins into a great Ambuscade which they had laid for them they cut in pieces the greatest part of their Army but this cost the Life of the brave Duke of Saxony who was slain upon the Place and of Frederick Duke of Austria who died the night following of a Wound which he received in Combating against the Lieutenant of Saphadin whom he overthrew dead upon the Place with the stroak of his Lance. Such a considerable Victory gave some room to hope that in a little time they might become Conquerors and that they might happily Re-establish the Affairs of the East but the unhappy News which arrived while these Matters were in Agitation from the West caused all these blooming Hopes to wither in a Moment together with the Reinforcements which the Princes of the Crusade expected which obliged them instantly to return into Germany where all was in a Flame of War for the Reason which I am about to relate The Emperor Henry the VI. who had so cruelly treated the Norman Princes in the Realms of Naples and Sicily died a little before at Messina in the Month of September of the preceeding Year either with the Regret which he had to submit to those shameful Conditions imposed upon him by the Empress Constantia his Wife who with the Assistance of the Sicilians had surprized and besieged him in a Castle from whence it was impossible for him to escape or as some suspected but with more malignity than Probability of Poison which that Princess who for his proud and cruel Humor hated him had caused to be given him Now he knowing that he had formerly been Excommunicated by the Pope for his unjust Imprisonment of Richard King of England in his Return from the Crusade when he came to die he manifested great Sorrow for the same He also sent to that King that so he might make him some sort of Satisfaction by the acknowledgment of his Offence and by his last Will he obliged his Heirs to make Restitution of the Money which he had so unjustly exacted from him for his Ransom and in case of failure he desired the Pope to employ all his Power to see it performed Great Weakness of Princes who cannot resolve to make Restitution while they live of what they believe themselves unjustly possessed when they come to die or to think they discharge themselves sufficiently by charging it upon their Successors who commonly are of the same Temper and not troubled with these Sucruples till they come to die where it is not very difficult to make fruitless Orders which rarely oblige the Living who may be supposed after their Example will detain it as long as they live and then only relinquish it when they leave the World and can hold it no longer This unhappy Prince died in the very prime of his Age being about two and thirty Years old and when he was upon the point of putting in Execution those great Designs which he had formed against the Greek Emperor whom he had compelled by the only Terror of his Armes and Name year 1198 to pay him a great Tribute for the Provinces which William King of Sicily had formerly conquered from the Greeks and which they had recovered during the Troubles of Italy He was of a middle Stature having a weak Constitution and a lean Body his Face was handsome enough but something too Meagre his Complexion was delicate and very fair his Head not altogether large enough for the Proportion of the other parts of his Body which were well made and fit for all manner of Exercises in which he was very dextrous either on foot or horsback he was an excessive lover of Hunting Walking and Field Sports and therefore he chose the Country rather than the City for his usual Residence and it was very seldom that he repaired to the City unless it were to shew his Magnificence in the Spectacles and publick Sports or Festivals which he loved to make with great Magnificence and even Vanity This nevertheless did not in the least hinder his applying himself to publick Affairs or acting upon all Occasions with abundance of Vigor Prudence and Resolution for he had a Spirit lively penetrating cultivated by Study and supported by an Eloquence Easy and Natural a Judgment solid a Soul great and enterprizing and a Heart truly generous But all these noble Qualities were dishonoured by his Avarice his Violence and Injustice his extreme Ambition and above all by his insupportable Humor his herce and insatiable desire of Revenge and his barbarous Cruelty which rendered him odious to his own Wife by whom he held the Realms or Naples and Sicily which made her conspire against him thereby to stop the horrible Inundation of his Hatred and Fury He left only one Son about three Years of Age whose Name was Frederick as was his Grandfather and who afterwards was Emperor He had caused him from his Cradle to be recognised for his Successor to the Empire but the Princes and Estates notwithstanding their Oath being on one hand resolved to have an Emperor who was able to manage the publick Affairs and on the other hand not being able to agree among themselves upon whom to fix the Choise there arose a most furious Schism among them in which some of them chose Philip of Suabia Brother of the deceased Emperor others elected Otho the Brother of Henry Duke of Saxony and both the one and the other took Arms to support and defend their Emperor This raised great Troubles and War not only in Germany but all Europe by the different Interests of the several Princes who believed themselves obliged to joyn upon this Occasion with each Party Richard King of England joyned with Otho his Nephew the Son of his Sister to whom he had given the Earldome of Poitiers Philip the August who took the opposite part to the English declared himself for Philip and the Pope on the contrary who believed that the House of Suabia whose Princes
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
in vain for them to expect from the Tyrant and which was really due to them in Virtue of the Treaty which they had made with the late Emperor Alexis And in the last place to make themselves Masters of Constantinople and consequently of all the Empire of the East which was the thing of the World the most glorious for the Crusades the most advantageous to the Church and the most necessary for the Conquest of the Holy Land as had been but too evident in all the other Crusades and without which they could difficultly Expect to be Successful and especially when they should have this Tyrant their mortal Enemy possessed of it who would certainly employ all his Power and his Malice for their Destruction especially since now there could not be the same Scruple which was made against the Advice of the wise Bishop of Langress who counselled Lewis the Young by all means to seize upon Constantinople before he passed any further in regard that there could not be the least Colour that the War against an Usurper and a Parricide against Rebels and Traitors was unjust or unlawful All the Bishops the Abbots and even the Friends of the Pope were so far from opposing this Resolution that they endeavoured to promote it with all their Power assuring the Army that in the Execution of this Enterprise they should obtain the same Indulgences which the Pope had granted to those who went to combat against the Infidels So that all mens minds being perfectly well disposed to it and the Army fully resolved to perform their Duty the War was again begun both by Land and Sea and to encourage them in the very beginning they met with a lucky Presage of the Success of the Enterprise by a most signal Victory which was obtained against the Tyrant Murtzuphle year 1204 For Henry the Brother of Count Baldwin accompanied with James de Avesnes Baldwin de Beavoir Eudes and William de Chamlite with a good Party of the most Valiant men of the Army resolved to endeavour the surprise of the City Philea anciently Phinopolis situate some five or six Leagues from the Camp on the Thracian Side near the Mouth of the Bosphorus upon the Euxine Sea After they had in order to it marched all night early in the morning they came before the Place without being discovered and presently presented the Scalade and notwithstanding all the Resistance of the Inhabitants who as soon as they perceived their Danger ran from all parts to repulse them these brave men took it by Force And the City being a Place of great Traffick and consequently very rich they made there a mighty Booty which together with the Prisoners and abundance of Provisions which they found there they sent down the Chanal in their Barks to the Camp And having refreshed themselves for two days they returned loaden with the Spoils the remainder of their Booty towards the Camp But Murtzuphle being advertised thereof by Night drew out of Constantinople with a great Party of his Army and having placed himself in Ambush near a Wood by which they must of Necessity return he suffered the first Squadrons to pass by and immediately with all his Forces fell upon the Rereguard which was led by Prince Henry Now although this Surprise was very suddain and unexpected yet this Brave Prince shewed his great Courage and admirable Resolution for without being in the least daunted to see so great an Army ready to charge him and the Emperor in Person at the Head of them or to find himself with such a Handful of men divided from the rest who were already advanced a good way into the Forest and who could not come up to him in any Order but by filing off in small Parties by reason of the Straitness of the Passage he notwithstanding all these disadvantages made Head against the Enemy and generously sustained their first Charge when it came to his turn charging them also so vigorously that he still gained Ground of them till such time as his Companions hearing the Noise of the Combat made hast to his Assistance and drew up in Order without the Wood. Then seeing that he should be seconded by his Party he charged with so much Fury upon the Greeks who were already in Disorder that they all took the Rout and followed the Emperour who to make more hast in his Flight lightned himself of his Buckler and his Arms and yet notwithstanding had like to have left his Life too behind him had it not been for the Swiftness of an excellent Horse to whose Heels and the Spurs of his own Fear he that day owed his Life He left however twenty of the most principal Men of his Army among the Slain together with a great Number of private Soldiers and many Prisoners with all his Baggage and that which most rejoyced the Army was that together with the Great Standard of the Empire they took that famous Image of the Blessed Virgin which the Grecian Emperors were accustomed to have carried before them in all their Battles as the invincible Companion of the Romans as Nicetas saith who tells us that the Emperor Zimisces after he had conquered the Bulgarians caused it to be carried in the Triumphant Chariot which was prepared for himself protesting that it was to the Virgin represented by that Image to whom he ought to render that Honor since to her he owed the Victory However the taking of this Banner and Image was looked upon as a happy Presage that they should gain the Empire of Constantinople since the Blessed Virgin to whom that Imperial City was dedicated by the mighty Constantine seemed to forsake it to pass into the French Camp as it were to guide and conduct them in their Entrance into the City Murtzuphle astonished with this Blow began now to think of attempting the ways of Artifice having for that purpose obtained a Conference with the Doge of Venice but with all his Arts he was not able to delude this clear sighted blind old man who by the Eyes of his Soul saw through all his Juggles and Slight of Hand So that all things were prepared to give a general Assault upon the City by Sea for in regard that on that side there was only a single Wall it was believed that the French who were to land upon the Key making their Attack there whilest at the same time the Venetians should make theirs by sighting upon their Ships the place might soon and most easily be carried year 1204 On the other side the Tyrant who was a Soldier and who saw that his safety wholly depended upon his strong Resolution of a stout defence failed nor to give all necessary Orders for opposing the Latins in the best manner that he could he marched quite through the City in his Habiliments of War his Sword by his side and a huge Horsemans Mace in his Hand encompassed with his Guards and with a mind fierce and resolute he endeavoured to encourage
they could find Courage enough to oppose them and telling them it was the easiest matter in the World to surround them and take them alive and make them all Slaves this he spoak with so much assurance and protested that he would march at the head of those who had the Courage to follow him to a most undoubted Victory that a great many of the People and all the Soldiers resolved the next morning under his Conduct to attack the French in their Quarters But this Infamous Coward was so far from the Intention of executing what he pretended that retiring to the great palace as he said a little to repose himself he followed the Example of his usurping Predecessor old Alexis and in the night made his escape upon a Ship which he had caused to be made ready for him He took along with him the Empress Euphrosine Wife to Alexis and her Daughter the Princess Eudoxia of whom he was so desperately Amorous that he chose rather to lose his Honor and his Empire than to expose himself to the Danger of missing the Satisfaction of his Passion which cost what it would he was resolved to gratifie as he did by abandoning his Lawful Wife to espouse that foolish Princess So blind and Tyrannous is irregular Love in a Heart which yields it self up to its Usurpation where when once those Gross and Earthy Flames prevail they extinguish all the Lights of Reason and Vertue and even those more common Principles of good sense and Nature So soon as this Shameful Flight of Murtzuphle was known the People ran thundring to the Church of Sancta Sophia to make a new Emperor and in the Tumult Theodore Lascaris who was just returned to Constantinople was instantly chosen and compelled to take the Helm of this Ship of the Government which was now agitated by such a Furious Tempest But in a few Moments after this new Prince perceiving that this Ardor of the People began to slag and that instead of following him to oppose the Enemy every man began to think of saving one he also took the same Measures and before day made his Escape in the best manner that he could Upon this the whole City threw down their Arms and fell to their Prayers and Processions to implore the Mercy and Compassion of the Conquerors addressing themselves principally to the Marquis of Montferrat who was known among them and to whom the flattering Greeks already gave the Title of Emperor believing that he ought to be the man Thus by the most astonishing and prodigious Event which hath nothing comparable to it in all History the greatest City of the World the richest and according to the manner of those times the best fortified and defended by above four hundred thousand men was taken by Assault and peaceably possessed by the Confederates whose Army did not consist in above twenty thousand Combatants Which may inform the Christians That this very same City which at this day is neither so strong so well furnished nor peopled by far as it was then and upon the taking whereof the Conquest of the Eastern Empire would most certainly depend could never be able to resist one of those great Armies which their Divisions so fatal to the Interest of Christian Religion oblige them so often to bring into the Field for their mutual Destruction But this is an Evil which for a long time we have deplored and must still lament unless it shall please Almighty God in whose hands are the Hearts of Princes to give a firm and solid Peace among them and inspire the Heart of some generous Hero with Courage equal to this of these Brave French Princes who with so few Forces accomplished this glorious Enterprise which would not be so great an Impossibility even for their Descendants to undertake if they were in a Condition of Assurance from the Hatred the Ambition and the Jealousie of their Neighbours The Princes pleasingly surprized to find that they had nothing but Suppliants where they expected Enemies immediately with the Generosity which always accompanies true Valour year 1204 promised them their Lives their Honour their Liberty and one part of their Estates which they knew by the Laws of War all appertained to the Conquerors They therefore commanded them to retire into their Houses and then gave the Soldiers the Plunder of the City for that day but with strict Command to shed no blood and to preserve the Honor of the Women above all other things they also commanded that all the Spoils should be brought into Common Repositories to the End that a just Distribution might be made with Equality according to the Merit and Quality of every Person This being done the Marquis of Montferrat went to the great Palâ—ce of the Emperors where were the two Empresses Agnes the Sister of Philip the August the Widow of the two Emperors Alexis the Son of Manuel and Andronicus and Margaret the Widow of the Emperor Isaac and most of the Ladies of the first Quality who were retired thither The Marquis treated them with all imaginable Honor and Civility due to their Character and not long after married the Empress Margaret At the same time Prince Henry having presented himself before the Palace of Blaquerness whither the greatest part of the Nobility and men of Condition were retired they rendred themselves to him as Prisoners of War their Lives only saved There were found in these two Palaces most Inestimable Riches which the two Princes caused to be most carefully guarded from Spoil and Imbezlement As for the Soldiers who dispersed themselves all over the City as they pleased no man daring to resist them the Historian Nicetas who was present affirms that they committed all the most horrible Excesses that can be imagined by all sorts of Violence Cruelty Avarice Lust and Impiety not sparing so much as the Churches the Shrines the Images the Reliques the Holy Vessels the very Boxes where the consecrated Host was kept nor the most Sacred Mysteries of Religion but profaned them with a thousand such abominable Sacriledges as the very thought of them is sufficient to raise in devout Minds the greatest Horror and detestation but on the contrary those of our Historians who have with the greatest Exactness given us the Relation of all the Circumstances of the taking and plundring of Constantinople say nothing at all of this disorder although they were more likely to know the Truth than Nicetas who during the first Tumult together with the Patriarch John Camaterus saved himself with his Family at Selyvrea They only assure us that the Soldiers made there the greatest Booty in Gold Silver Vessels Pearls precious Stones Cloth of Gold Silks Rich Furs and in all sorts of precious Moveables that ever was made at the taking of any City since the Creation of the World as the Mareshal de Ville Hardouin after his manner ingeniously expresseth himself But to speak without Dissimulation I believe after the matter is throughly considered
And besides year 1204 he now was convinced that nothing could have been done more profitable and advantageous either for the Glory of God in the Good of the universal Church or in particular for the Deliverance of the Holy Land And for this purpose that such a Conquest might be preserved whereupon that of Palestine depended he writ his Circular Letters to all the Archbishops of France and their Suffragans by which he exhorted and commanded them to persuade the French to take Arms and march to the Assistance of their Brethren at Constantinople And above all he desired that they would send some zealous learned Men furnished with Books to labour in the Conversion of the Greeks The University of Paris which Philip the August had taken such care of that it might flourish in all manner of Learning and Knowledge was then in high Reputation throughout the World and this wise Pope who had himself been sometimes a Member of that great Body writ to them upon this Subject with so much force that many Doctors and Batchellors persuaded by his Reasons and inflamed with a Zeal truly Apostolical went to propagate the Light of Truth and the Orthodox Doctrine in the Greek Empire which had been obscured by many Errours of the Schism Thus the Divine Providence which with infinite Wisdom takes care of all things so disposed Matters that upon this Occasion it seemed to make a Retalliation by ordering that Paris should render the same Service to Greece which Greece had sometime bestowed upon France by sending thither St. Denis to be an Apostle for that Country The Pope also at that time did not fail to write to the victorious Army which had so gloriously executed that marvellous Enterprise to oblige them to stay another Year in that Empire to assure those Conquests provided that by the Infidels breaking of the Truce there was not an absolute necessity that they should speedily repair to Palestine to succour the Christians there against the Barbarians But whilst the Pope laboured with so much diligence for the Good of Christendom in the East there happened in the Holy Land two deplorable Accidents which very much disturbed the Joy of that happy Success of the Arms of the Confederates The first was the Death of the Countess Mary Sister of the deceased Count de Champagne Niece to Philip the August and Wife to Baldwin Earl of Flanders who had so generously taken up the Cross with her Husband resolving to run the same Fortunes with him but being big with Child she was not at that time in a Condition to go along with him and therefore after she had lain in she imbarked upon the Fleet which was commanded by John de Nele She had not been long at Ptolemais where she landed in expectation of her Husband Count Baldwin before she received the News that after the Taking of Constantinople he was elevated to the Imperial Throne The Joy which this News occasioned made such a violent Impression upon her Body extreamly infeebled with the Fatigues of so long a Voyage that not being able to surmount it she died of the two Excesses of Joy and Weakness So that the Ships which were sent by the Emperor to conduct her with Pomp to Constantinople to receive the Crown Imperial with her dearest Husband transported her Body only thither to be as it was with the most magnificent Ceremonies usual upon such sad Occasions interred in the Church of Sancta Sophia year 1205 This sad Accident was presently succeeded by another which brought a great Change in the Affairs of the Realm of Jerusalem For King Emeri de Lusignan dying in the City of Acre and the little Emeri his Son not long surviving him Isabella his Mother the Wife of Emeri at the same time also following them to the Tomb the Crown by Right of Succession descended to the Princess Mary her eldest Daughter who was usually called the Marchioness because she was born to her of the famous Marquis de Montferrat Prince of Tyre her second Husband Hereupon the Estates being assembled to provide a Husband for the young Queen who might be able to act and govern the Realm in a time wherein there was such need of a King of great Abilities to supply the defect of Forces which remained in the Realm after so many Disasters But the Jealousie and Ambition of so many Great Men of the same Realm not permitting them to agree in an Election of one of their own number they being all Rivals and resolved not to give place one to another at last year 1205 after they had a long time debated this tender and important Point they resolved that so they might steer an even Course betwixt the Natives and Strangers year 1206 since they could not possibly please them both year 1207 that they would not take one of the Natives of the Country but that they would send into France from whence the first Kings of Jerusalem came and into no other Country and from thence desire one of Philip the August and thereupon they dispatched the Bishop of Ptolemais and the Lord of Cesarea as their Ambassadors year 1208 to receive from the hands of that great King some Prince or Lord of France upon whom together with the young Queen they might confer the Crown of Jerusalem There was no question something very surprizing and unaccountable in the Conduct of Philip in this Encounter for there were in France many great Princes and Lords of very high Quality upon whom he might have cast his Eyes yet nevertheless whether their illustrious Merit his own particular Inclination or some unknown politick Reasons governed him in his Choice two several times successively he chose it is true out of a very Noble House though something inferiour in Quality to many others two Brothers whom upon two Occasions he preferred in the Disposal of two Crowns They were Gautier II. Count de Brienne in Champagne and his Brother John de Brienne the Son of Erard II. Count de Brienne and Agnes de Montheliard He married Gautier to Alberia eldest Daughter of Tancred King of Sicily who with her Mother Sybilla escaping out of the Prison wherein they had been kept by the Emperor Henry IV. in Germany had sled for Refuge into France This valiant Man accompanied with no more than threescore Knights and forty Esquires of the Crusades who resolved to follow his Fortune instead of going to Venice with the Princes had the Confidence to pursue the Rights of his Wife and re-conquer a Kingdom without any other Fond than twenty thousand Livres which he received from King Philip and five hundred Ounces of Gold which he had from the Pope which would raise but a very inconsiderable number of Troops but notwithstanding this with his few Men he acted with so much Courage and Conduct that after having defeated the Emperor's Lieutenants in several Encounters he made himself Master of Pavia Calabria Capua and even Naples it self and in a manner
They were received at Naples at Rome and at Viterbum where the Cardinals were assembled upon the Election of a Pope and at all other Cities in their passage with honours of a different Nature from those which are accustomed to be given to Kings and which sufficiently shewed that they were esteemed to be in a Rank much Superior to them the Voice of the People which is said to be the Voice of God being a forerunner of that of the Church which six and twenty years after solemnly canonized him for a Saint year 1271 Mean time Edward Prince of England who had renewed his Vow during the Tempest and which he weathered so well that he lost not one of his ships sailed towards Ptolemais where he arrived in the Month of May having only three hundred Knights English and French with John Duke of Bretany It was with these few Troops strengthened with five hundred Frisons and another small Reinforcement which Prince Edmond his Brother brought to him from England that he hindred Bendocdar who had taken diverse Castles about Ptolemais from besieging that City He also prevailed with the Tartars the Enemies of this Sultan to enter into Palestine to oppose the Progress of that Conqueror But as on one part these Barbarians after having according to their manner ravaged the Country marched home again and on the other that Hugh King of Cyprus and Jerusalem not being strong enough to do any great matters obtained a Truce of Bendocdar who concluded it with him only to amuse him he was able to do nothing of Moment And therefore as soon as he was recovered of a dangerous Wound which he had received from an Assassin whom he trusted and whom he himself killed with the same poisoned Dagger with which the Traitor had struck him he returned opportunely to take possession of the Kingdom of England which Henry his Father dying left unto him year 1272 Thus this Crusade from which there was reason to expect such great things produced no manner of Effects for the deliverance of the Holy Land And since that time there could never any more be raised although the Pope's had frequently made great attempts to excite the Zeal of Christians therein to imitate that of their Ancestors For first of all Gregory the tenth who from being only Archdeacon of Leige was chosen Pope after the See had been vacant for three Months then when he was at Ptolemais with the Prince of England did more than any of his Predecessors to unite all the Christian Princes and even the Greeks and Tartars in a Holy League to chase the Sarasins out of Palestins and Syria year 1274 And it was he who particularly for this design about two years after held the second Council of Lyons which was one of the greatest and most numerous Assemblies which the Church had ever seen for there were present at it above a thousand Prelates with the Ambassadours of two Emperors of the East and West of the Kings of France Cyprus and all the Christian Princes beyond the Sea together with those of all Europe besides that James King of Arragon and the great Masters of the Temple and the Hospital were there in Person There a Decree was made for the prosecuting the Holy War and an Alliance was made for this purpose with Abagas the King of the Tartars who had sent his Ambassadors thither There Michael Paleologus was recognised for Emperor of Constantinople upon condition That he should join with the Latins in the War against the Sultan of Egypt and there the Election of the Emperor Rodolph was confirmed upon Condition That he should march at the head of the Crusades into Palestine which he also promised to the Pope with an Oath receiving from his hands the Cross at Lausanna whither he followed the Pope after the Council in his return to Italy year 1275 But in conclusion all this produced just nothing either because People were disgusted with this War and such a dangerous Voyage or that having been so long accustomed to hear of this War they were not at all moved with what was no Novelty Insomuch that the Cordeliers and the Jacobins whom the Pope sent all over Europe to preach up the Cross could not meet with so much as one man who would take it Michael Paleologus who had made a Re-union of short continuance between the Greek and the Latin Churches had never any other intention but thereby to hinder the Latins from uniting again to recover Constantinople and to restore Baldwin who did what lay in his Power to that purpose year 1275 especially with Charles King of Naples and Sicily Rodolph who from a bare Count of Habsbourg near Bale issued from a younger Brother of the House of Alsatia was come to be raised to the Empire thought of nothing but how most powerfully to establish his own House in Germany and herein he succeeded so well that it is since become so great and August under the Illustrious name of Austria which this Emperor bestowed upon it in giving that Dutchy to his Son Albert who afterwards also came to be Emperor as well as his Father So that this Emperor Rodolph never accomplished the Vow which he had made between the hands of the Pope who himself gave the Cross to him and to his whole Court and yet nevertheless he was not excommunicated for it as Frederick the Second had been Abagas singly was not strong enough to stop the Course of Bendocdar's Conquests who insolently laughed at all the vain attempts of the Princes of the West and openly threatned to make all the whole East the Trophee of his Arms and oblige it to submit to his Empire And as for the poor Christians of Palestine who most pressingly implored the succours of Europe they every day themselves advanced their own ruin by the fatal Effects of their division which became still greater by the Quarrel which arose among them at this time concerning the succession of a Kingdom which thereby they made all the haste they could to lose The Subject of this Quarrel is one of the points of History which Writers have made the least clear and which in fews words I will endeavour to explain Isabella the Daughter of Amauri King of Jerusalem and Heiress of that Realm had four Husbands The first was Aufrey de Thoron by whom she had no Children The Second was Marquis Conrade de Momferrat Prince of Tyre by whom she had the Marchioness Mary who married John de Brienne and made him King of Jerusalem Of this Marriage issued Jolanta the Wife to the Emperor Frederick the Second Mother to the Emperor Conrade who was Heir to this Realm and consequently without contradiction left it as of right to the Unfortunate Young Conradin The third Husband of Queen Isabella was Henry Count de Champagne whose Daughter Alice married Hugh de Lusignan the first of that name King of Cyprus by whom she had the Princess Isabella who was married to