advantage from his Absence as also that they were not without Jealousies and Suspicious that his own Sons of whom they were not too well assured might occasion some disturbance in the Realm but that for his own particular he would with all his heart give fifty thousand Marks in Silver for the maintaining of the War year 1185 and that he would further oblige himself to maintain all such of his Subjects as would undertake that Enterprise This certainly was very obligingly and advantageously offered by the King but the Cholerick Patriarch fiercely rejecting the Proposition told him very insolently That they had no occasion for his Money but for his Person that they had more Gold and Silver than they desired and that they were not come so far but to search for a Man who wanted Money as he did and who therefore might to his advantage make a profitable War against the Infidels and that they did not seek for Money which stood in need of a Man who was skilled in Military Affairs and knew how to employ it in that War And for you Sir added he speaking to him with an Air as offensive and disobliging as was imaginable You have hitherto reigned with abundance of Glory But know that God whose Cause you have now abandoned is about also to abandon you and he will let you see what will be the Consequence of repaying him with Ingratitude for all those Riches and Kingdoms which you have not obtained but by your Enormous Crimes You have violated your Faith to the King of France who is your Soveraign and you make that your Excuse to refuse this War that you are afraid he should make War upon you You have barbarously caused the holy Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be murdered and yet in Expiation of your Guilt you refuse to undertake this Holy War for the Defence of the Holy Land to which you had engaged your self most solemnly upon the blessed Sacrament And then seeing the King change Colour and blush with Madness and Anger Never believe pursued he thrusting out his Neck Never believe that I have the least Apprehension of the Effects of that Fury which glows about your Cheeks and Eyes and which the truth of what I have spoken which you cannot endure hath kindled in your Soul there taking Head Treat me as you have done St. Thomas I had rather die by your Hand in England than by that of the Sarasins in Syria since I esteem you little less than a barbarous Sarasin In truth this extravagant raving Language in a Patriarch and a Patriarch-Ambassadour was both inexcusable and insupportable but the King whose Age and Experience and the dangerous Consequences which had followed upon the death of Becket the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had rendred more moderate made a great Attempt upon himself and generously surmounted his Passion though the Patriarch went on still vomiting out of indecent Reproaches worse than before which I am ashamed to relate And when the Transport into which the old Prelate had put himself was over and that he began again to be in a tolerable Humour the King did not for all this fail to treat him with abundance of Sweetness and Civility till such time as he carried him over in his own Ship to Roan where after the Celebration of Easter he went with him to the Frontier that so he might be a Witness of the Conference which was held for three days with King Philip upon the Subject of this Holy War But for all that the Patriarch was no more satisfied than he had been before for the two Kings remained fixed in their Resolution and both together informed him that their Affairs would not permit to be so far and long absent from their Dominions but that they were both willing to assist him with such Stores of Men and Money as might defend them against all the Power of Saladin And thus it happened at the last that Heraclius who had made no scruple while he was in Palestine but he should bring along with him either the King of England or one of his Sons was forced to return not only without them but without the Succours also which were offered him which out of madness he foolishly despised contrary to all the Rules of Prudence and Reason and to the mighty prejudice of the declining Affairs of his Master So much doth it import Princes not to abandon their Affairs and Interests to the Discretion of those who have so little themselves as to suffer their unruly Passions to govern them so absolutely as to lose even that little which they have It is true indeed that after all this the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and Roan and the greatest part of the Lords of England Normandy and Guienne and the other Provinces which the English possessed in France took up the Cross as soon as the Soldiers which Philip Augustus had levied in order to the sending them to the Succour of the Holy Land But this beginning of a Crusade turned to no great account not only because the two Kings did not at all engage in it year 1185 but also because the Peace which was made between them was shortly after broken the occasion of which and the renewing of the War happened to be by the Refusal of Richard the Son of the King of England to do the Homage which he ought to have rendred to King Philip for the Earldom of Poitou which he held of the Crown of France by that ancient Tenure as also by reason that King Henry refused to restore the Earldom of Gisors after the death of the young Henry his eldest Son to whom it was given in Dowry with Margaret of France his Lady the Sister of Philip Augustus upon Condition that it should revert to that Crown if Henry should dye without Issue as he did three Years after his Marriage Thus the Holy Land which was so furiously attacked by an Enemy so formidable as Saladin remained destitute of all Assistance and that which was still more deplorable was that this sad Relation being reported throughout Palestine by the Indiscretion of the Patriarch struck the whole Country with such an universal Consternation as produced a most dangerous Effect for an Enggish Knight of the Temple one Robert de St. Alban a good Captain but an ill Man who had neither Religion Honour nor Conscience believing upon this Report that all was lost as to the Christians and that he could no longer hope to establish his Fortune amongst a ruined People he began to think of making it among the Sarasins and to make himself considerable in meriting well of Saladin though by the blackest of all Crimes This infamous Man therefore rendred himself to that Prince offering him his Service against the Christians and promised him that in a little time he would destroy them and also take the City of Jerusalem with the Weakness whereof he was perfectly acquainted And that he might give him such Assurance of his Truth as was
not he as well as many others of that Religion labour under the hard prepossessions of Education and the disadvantages of prejudice but they might be easily induced to throw off the Manacles which Innovation hath laid upon them and be perswaded to see how much the Church of England hath done towards restoring the Catholick Religion to its Primitive Antiquity by disburthening it of the foolish Principles and superstitious Practices with which succeeding Ages have with more Zeal than Prudence overloaden Religion But this is not any part of my present Province all that I have to say is to recommend this Historical Collection to the Reader who if he will but first please with a favourable Pen to correct the following Errors of the Press which by reason of my distance from it was not in my power to remedy he will I hope receive the same pleasure and possibly more advantage in reading it than I have done in taking care to present it to him THE Authors Epistle TO THE FRENCH KING To the King SIR THE Great Men whom I have the Honor to present to your Majesty are the Hero's of these Famous Crusades who have seven several times armed all Europe for the Conquest of the Holy Land And possibly it may not be displeasing to your Majesty to see the most valiant Princes of their times and above all the Princes of your August Consanguinity whom the Glory which they have acquired by a thousand Gallant Actions hath rendred Immortal It is true that their Arms have not had all that happy Success which they seemed to promise and that those of so many Barbarous Nations who united against them have at last remained Victorious But Sir after that which all the Earth hath seen with astonishment in this last Champaign one may say That there hath not been for this four hundred years and upwards above one single Hero who is to be found in the Person of your Majesty who hath been able to atchieve so great and Glorious an enterprise and to triumph so gloriously over so many Enemies And in truth all the Forces of the Emperor the King of Spain the greatest part of the Circles of the Empire and all those of the Hollanders both by Sea and Land are something more formidable than those of the Egyptians the Arabians the Persians and the Turks and nevertheless your Majesty Commanding either your self in Person or causing your Orders to be executed by your Lieutenants hath vanquished and dissipated them all you only without the assistance of your Allies who seemed as if they had taken Arms only to be with more Pomp and Ceremony the spectators of your Victories This Wonder Sir is the most surprizing effect of a consummated Prudence and an Heroick Courage accompanied with a Fortune always invincible which may justly acquire you the most Glorious Surnames of your Predecessors which your Majesty hath long since Merited by the Conquests of the preceding Campaigns and by so many Royal Actions as have in all things rendred the incomparable greatness of your Soul most eminently conspicuous to the whole Earth After this can it be doubted but that if Lewis the Great had reigned in the Ages of these Crusades or if the Age of the Crusades had been retarded till the Raign of Lewis the Great we should have seen at this Day the Empire of Jesus Christ re-established in the Holy Land without having any need of the other Christian Princes to mingle their Arms with his otherwise than to celebrate his Triumphs As for my self who have been always obliged to your Majesty by an inviolable Tye both of my Duty and my Choice and who have the Honour to be particularly your Creature by the effects of your Royal Bounty I am confident to say that I should make more noise than all the rest in such an agreeable Concert I hope also that I shall give some proofs to posterity that I have the Idea of your Majesty so imprinted in my Heart and Soul that I shall always borrow some Lines from it whether it be in the painting of my Hero's who can never appear so great as when they come to be observed to have the good Fortune to resemble your Majesty or in recounting their admirable Actions in such places as they seem to imitate though much short of them the Greatness of yours This Testimony Sir of my Zeal for your Majestie 's Glory is no more than Truth for so great a King and tho' possibly it may be too little for so good a Master yet since in the condition wherein the Divine Providence hath placed me it is all that I can do to let the whole World understand with how much Ardor Submission and Veneration I am SIR Your Majestie 's most Humble most Obedient and most Faithful Servant and Subject Lewis Maimbourg An Advertisement of the Author 's to the Reader AFTER what I have said to the Reader in my Advertisements to the History of Arianism and that of the Iconoclasts I have not much to add but only to inform him that having drawn from the ancient Authors French Italians Germans and English almost all that I have written in this History I have not believed that I was obliged to cite the Modern Historians who have said something of these Crusades and who doubtless have drawn them from the same Fountains which I have done I have done the same thing in all my other Histories as where I recount the admirable Actions of St. Athanasius St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen St. John Chrysostome and several other Famous Saints I have not produced for my Vouchers Simeon Metaphrastes Lipomannus Surius Ribadeneira or the other Writers or Collectors who have given us the Lives of the Saints and much less the new Legend makers For in those places where we agree it is not of them that I have made use but of the Ancients from whom they have borrowed what they have Written as well as I and in other places where I am obliged to contradict them as I am perswaded that they are mistaken I could not speak of them but to refute their Errors But that being neither agreeable to my Humor nor to my Duty in the Quality of an Historian and which would render me rather a Critick than an Historian I have not troubled my self or the Reader with what I believe is not by ingenious Persons expected from me A Second Advertisement WHAT I have to add to my first Advertisement is only for the satisfaction of those who possibly may imagine that the Portraicts and Characters which are to be seen in my Histories are rather like those of Romances the Designs of a Luxuriant Fancy than of a Modest Truth or at least that like Paintings they are done with the utmost advantage and not without Flattery But it will not be very difficult for me to destroy an Imagination so little conformable to reason and I have nothing to do but to desire the Reader to remove his
of Theodorick the Valiant the Son of Gerard of Alsatia and Duke of high Lorrain And from him in a lineal Descent to this present time are derived all the Princes of that fair Dutchy which not long after his time lost its ancient Name of the Mosellane retaining only that of Lorrain as it doth to this day But whether Godfrey Duke Bossu having no Children adopted his Nephew who was of his own Name and made him his Heir giving him the Earldom of Bullen which belonged formerly to the House of Ardenna or that it came by Ida upon her Marriage with the Earl of Bullen it is most certain the Surname of Bullen which was given to this young Prince hath by him and his Heroick Actions been rendered one of the most Celebrated in the World It is this Glorious Name which in the last Age was so happily Reunited with that of the Tour of Avergne which by a Marriage hath received that of Bullen to restore it to its ancient Lustre as we have seen it by the Virtues the Dignities the great Employments and fair Actions of the Princes of that Noble House As for Prince Godfrey it was impossible for Nature to bestow a more happy Inclination to all sorts of Virtues than which she had given him nor was any thing wanting in his Education which might Contribute to the improvement of that Stock such was the exact Care of his Father who was a most Wise and Virtuous Prince and more especially of his Mother a Lady of a most extraordinary Merit and an Excellent Spirit year 1096 which she had Cultivated also by a Diligence very uncommon to her Sex which she had employed in the Study of all curious Learning and in truth she was a Princess of most admirable Virtue and of a Piety so resplendent that after her death she obtained the glorious Title of a Saint It is said also that by the Assistance of Divine Illumination she did predict the future Greatness of her three Sons Eustace Godfrey and Baldwin For one Day as the Earl her Husband demanded of her what she had hid in her Lap she being playing with the Children she very seriously answered that she had there three great Princes one Duke one King and one Earl which was afterwards Verisied in the admirable Fortunes of these three Princes For Godfrey was Duke of Lorrain and King of Jerusalem Baldwin was King of the same Realm and Prince of Edessa and Eustace whom some will have to be the eldest Brother was Earl of Bullen after the Death of his Father It is also added that she had a strange Dream before the Birth of Prince Godfrey for the Sun seemed to descend from his Heavenly Orb and to fall into her Lap and that she saw her little Son Enthroned in the midst of that Glorious Luminary but it is the Humor of some Writers to render the Nativities of great Men more Illustrious at least as they think by Prodigies and Revelations which after wards the Noble Actions of these Hero's make easily to pass for real Truths especially with Persons who love to divert themselves with matters very Extraordinary and Surprizing But this is most certain which the Countess herself with a great deal of Pleasure was used to relate after the glorious Success which her Sons had in the Holy War that long before there was the least Discourse of the Crusade Prince Godfrey was used to say that he would one day take a Voyage to Jerusalem but not as the poor Pilgrims did only to satisfy his Devotion but as a Captain and a Conqueror at the head of a Puissant Army to Chase the wicked Insidels from that Holy Place Which must needs proceed singly from the impetuosity of his Courage and which considering the Condition of his Fortune very unfit to execute so great a Design may very well pass for a Prophetick Motion and looks like a Presage of that Glory and good Fortune which God had allotted for him and in order to which he seemed beforehand to prepare him by a thousand Beautiful Actions wherein he acquired a most Illustrious Reputation throughout all Europe After the Death of the Duke his Unckle the Emperor Henry the Fourth who pretended that the Dutchy of the Lower Lorrain for want of Heirs Male of the House of Ardenna was devolved to him conferred it upon his Son Conrade leaving nothing to Godfrey besides the Marquisate of Antwerp And on the other side Albert Earl of Namur his Kinsman and Thiery the Bishop of Verdun attempted to take from him Bullen and Verdun So that this Prince who was not yet Seventeen years of Age was compelled to have recourse to an early Valour for the Recovery of one part and the Defence of the other part of his Inheritance And therefore putting himself into the Castle of Bullen which Albert assisted by the Forces of the Bishop of Verdun had besieged he so vigorously repulsed his Enemies in all their attacks that he forced them to a dishonourable Retreat after they had lost the better part of their Army and in the same quarrel he undertook a single Combat against the said Earl in the presence of the Emperor and his whole Court during the Combat he had the Misfortune in making a notable Blow at the Head of his Enemy to break his Sword short within half a foot of the Hilt but notwithstanding this Disaster it was impossible to perswade him to determine the difference upon such terms of accommodation as upon this occasion were tendred to him but pursuing his point he fought with redoubled Ardor till at length having tumbled down his Enemy with a mighty Blow which he gave him with the Pommel of his Sword upon his head being now a Conquerer he accepted that Agreement which before he had generously refused whilest being disarmed he ran the utmost hazzard of being Vanquished And afterwards surmounting those just resentments which he might well have entertained against the Emperour who had so Injuriously deprived him of his Dutchy he nevertheless followed him in those Wars which he made in Germany and Italy whereupon all occasions he rendred him very signal Services and it is reported that he himself took the Imperial Eagle in the Famous Battle against the Saxons who had declared for Emperor Rodolph of Suabia when Victory beginning to declare herself for that Prince he ravished it from him together with his Life by giving him a mortal Wound with the very Cornet which he had newly taken And afterwards when the Emperor took the City of Rome from Pope Gregory the Seventh he was the first man that possessed himself of the breach and thereby Entred the Town They further add that after this falling into a most violent distemper which reduced him to the utmost Extremity of Danger he made a Vow to undertake an Expedition to the Holy Land as not long after did many Princes and Bishops according to the Devotion so much in Vogue at that time and
no other Fortune besides his Sword and who for that reason was usually called Captain Have-little or Monyless This Gentleman who had no more than eight Horsemen to guard such a numerous Infantry began his March the eighteenth day of March and after having with a great deal of trouble passed through Germany all along the Danubius he entered into Hungary that Country was then governed by King Carloman the youngest Son of King Bela whose Grandfather was Uncle to St. Stephen the Son of Geiza the first Christian King of Hungary This Prince very frankly permitted them the Liberty of passage they paying for what they had but this could not prevent the Hungarians from very ill treating this stragling People for being arrived upon the Frontier of Bulgaria where they were refused the accommodations of Provisions the Troops were permitted to live at discretion to plunder the Country and take what they could find for their subsistence this so incensed the Inhabitants of those Countries that they presently took Arms and assembling to the number of one hundred forty thousand men they fell upon the Crusades so briskly that they had much to do in great Confusion to save themselves among the Woods after having left a great part of their Companions to the mercy of the Enemies and Gautier with the remainder were in no small danger of perishing being for eight days constrained to indure the utmost Extremities in passing through those vast and desolate Forrests till in conclusion arriving at a great Town in Mysia the Prince of Bulgaria compassionating their Miseries did not only supply them with plenty of Provisions but furnished them with able Guides who carried them the best way towards Constantinople where the Emperor disposed them in an Encampment to attend the rest of the Army which was conducted by Peter himself But the Voyage of the poor Hermite was yet more Unfortunate than that of his Precursor He had about forty thousand Foot indifferently well armed and a good number of Horse of whom the Principal were Renard of Breis Gautier de Breteuil Foucher of Orleans and Godsrey Burel of Estampes besides an insinite Number of unnecessary People Women Old Men and Children who followed the Army some on Foot and some in Carriages But in truth he now quickly found how great a difference there was between Preaching up the Cross to an unarmed Audience who run to hear the Novelty and the Conducting according to the regular Discipline of War and Commanding those who now had Swords in their Hands For as he Marched through Hungary King Carloman having granted him free Passage provided his People committed no Disorders he undertook to signalize himself with an Action which neither comported with his being a Hermite nor a Christian and which both the Laws of Honour and of Prudence might justly have prohibited him to do For under pretence of Revenging the Injury which some Souldiers of the first Army had received at Malleville a good Town upon the Frontier of Hungary and Bulgaria he attaqued the Place by Force and contrary to his Faith given to Carloman he took it by Storm putting to the Sword above four thousand Hungarians after which Action he retained no manner of Authority nor was in any sort master of those People For whether they thought themselves by the Example of their General Authorised to take the Liberty of measuring out their own Revenge or whether it were the desire of Booty the Pleasure of which they now began to tast in the Saccage of this miserable Town or whether seeing the Hermite in a Condition so different from that wherein they had Reverenced him as a Saint they retained nothing of the former Idea of him and they neither considered him as Peter nor as the General of the Army altho he affected both the one and the other However it were it is certain that there was no manner of Excess no sort of Crimes Persidiousness Cruelty Robberies Murder Fire or any kind of Violence which these brutish Dreggs of the People of France Lorrain and Germany did not commit they neither knew Discipline or any fear of God or Man but notwithstanding all that the Hermite could with his utmost Power do to oppose them they abandoned themselves to the Commission of the most horrible Ravages all along their March through Hungary and the Confines of Bulgaria But as one of the Writers of that time observes who doth not dissemble the Truth as doth William of Tyre who writ a long time after When once a Body otherwise of an ill Composure comes to have a weak and languishing Head it becomes every day worse and worse and cannot in Conclusion possibly avoid a necessary Ruin And so it happened here for the Bulgarians and Hungarians justly exasperated against these persidious Wretches took all Occasions to fall upon them and finding them in a disorderly March they slew above ten thousand of them upon the place took all their Baggage and their Provisions their Wives Children and the old Men who could not slye together with two thousand Waggons amongst which were those which carried the Treasure of Peter the Hermite Nor was it without great Difficulty that he rallied the rest of his Troops who saved themselves in the Woods and Mountains and that in Conclusion in extreme want of all things the first day of August he joyned Gautier the Monyless who waited for his coming little expecting to sind him reduced to such a piteous Condition as he himself was in being obliged to live upon the Charity and Alms of the Emperor Now these ill Examples being extremely Contagious it happened that in a little time after two other Armies of these counterfeit Crusades who abused so Religious an Enterprise following the same Methods and rather surpassing the Disorders of the first did also by the most just Judgment of God perish in a most deplorable manner For a German Priest of the Palatinate one Godescale who had conferred with Peter in his Travails was resolved to imitate him and therefore he did with such vehemency preach up the Crusade that he assembled about fifteen thousand Soldiers Germans and Lorrainers at the Head of whom he put himself and very peaceably and with out any Disorder paying exactly for whatever they took he marched as far as Hungary But finding there an excessive Plenty of all things the Year having been the most Fruitful that had been known they fell to Debauchery so that being almost continually drunk there was no sort of Insolence injastice or Cruelty which with a horrible Brutality they did not commit against those who had so courteously Entertained them Whereupon all Hungary by the Command of the King was immediately in Arms in order to exterminate these perfidious Villains so that besieging them in their Camp they were in short compelled to surrender their Arms and themselves to Discretion to the Officers of the King they giving them an assurance of their Lives but the Hungarians furiously Incensed against them
thinking it very lawful to revenge Persidiousness by Treachery no sooner saw them disarmed but they fell upon them and put them all to the Sword except a very few who escaped the Massacre to carry the woful News into their own Country to the other Crusades who yet by their Misfortune grew never the Wiser or more Considerate For in the beginning of the Summer of this same Year a prodigious Multitude of People gathered from divers parts of France England the low Countries Lorrain and that part of Germany which lyes upon the Rhine drawing along with them an infinite of Women and People of the lewdest Condition in the World assembled themselves near Collen where they passed the Rhine in order to joyn with Count Emico who attended them with a great number of Crusades of the higher Germany of the same dissolute Complexion with themselves These People to Signalize their false Zeal by covering a most barbarous Action with the specious pretence of Piety most inhumanly Massacred all the Jews whom they found at Collen and Mayence where they forced the Arch-Bishops Palace where Rothard the Archbishop had secured a hundred of these poor Creatures as in a Sanctuary But it proved no Protection against the Fury of those Barbarians who Butchered them in a most savage manner cutting their Throats like Sheep sparing neither the Women for their Sex nor the Children for their innocent Age nor indeed was there any Sanctuary to be found against this horrible Barbarism which was inspired by Avarice and promoted by an insatiable Covetousness of the Riches of the Jews Insomuch that the remainders of them being reduced to the utmost Dispair chose rather to repeat the doleful Example of Saguntum Capua and with their own Hand to commit the bloody Execution so that barricadoing themselves within their Houses the pityless Mothers like Furies cut the Throats of their sucking Babes the Husbands their Wives and Daughters and the Fathers their Sons and the Servants chose rather to dispatch each other than to fall into the Hands of those incompassionate Monsters who profaned the Character and rendered the Name of Christian of which they were unworthy most Infamous and Detestable But it was not long before God Almighty by the remarkable Vengeance which he executed upon these wicked People manifested the Abhorrence which he had of their Crimes and that he had no Intention to make use of their Service in reconquering the Inheritance of his Son by the profane Hands of those who had declared themselves his Enemies by such Impieties as even the Infidels themselves would have blushed to commit For this huge Army of Bedlams which consisted of above two hundred thousand Men of whom there were not above three thousand Horse laying Siege to Mesbourg a strong place upon the Danubius in Hungary where they were denyed Passage and when they were just upon the point of gaining it was in an instant struck with such a Pannick Fear that they fled with so much Precipitation Blindness and Disorder and all perished there except a very few of the Horse who being well mounted saved themselves by Flight For the greatest part of them were Smothered whilest they indeavoured to pass the Morass with which the Town is Invironed others were slain by the Garrison who upon this occasion sallying out followed them with Death closely at the Heels many were cut off by the Peasants who ran from all parts to take Vengeance of these Robbers and a multitude of them were drowned whilest indeavouring to pass the Danube they tumbled headlong one upon another so that the Shoar of that great River was for some time covered with their dead Bodies insomuch that this prodigious multitude of distracted People who pretended with impunity to commit the most execrable Crimes in the World causing a Shee-Goat to be worshipped which was carried at the Head of the Army as their conducting Divinity vanished in a moment by a terrible Blow of the Divine Justice which would not indure to be affronted by their pretended Piety and making Religion only a Cover for those abominable Wickednesses wherewith they daily dishonored God year 1096 But to proceed the Army of Peter the Hermite did not meet with a Fortune much more advantageous It was now become very numerous by the Conjunction of an infinite number of Lombards Genoese Piemontanes and other People of Italy who having taken upon them the Cross with the earliest even presently after the Council of Clermont came in several Troops by themselves without any Leaders and being joyned with those Forces of Gautier near Constantinople they were commanded there to attend the Arrival of the Hermite by the Emperors Order who now began to entertain some suspicious Jealousies of this great Army of Franks who were to be followed by others as numerous as they So soon as Peter was arrived the Emperor who had an extream desire to see him sent for him to the Palace where the Hermite who by the Voyage he had made into the Levant was well skilled in the Language and as Eloquent an Orator as a great Captain made him a Discourse in publick upon the Subject of this Expedition and the Holy War of the Forces and Qualities of the Princes which were expected with which the Emperor appeared so well satisfied that he made the Hermite very fair Presents and bestowed upon him a round Sum of Money to buy Provisions for his Troops After which he sent him back to the Camp Exhorting him by no means to precipitate this great Affair and especially not to attempt the passing of the Straits till the Arrival of the Princes nor to expose his harrassed Troops against those of the Turks which were far stronger than his and against which his tired and feeble Men would be able to make no tolerable Resistance The truth is the greatest part of our Historians represent this Prince as the most perfidious and disloyal of Mankind one who under the fine appearance of a feigned Friendship covered that horrible Treason which he had contrived against the Latins which was by a thousand unworthy Artifices to bring them to Destruction as well as by the Arms of the Turkish Infidels on the other side the Greek Writers when they mention this Emperor and this War speak nothing like it and the Princess Anna his Daughter who hath written the History of her Father in a Stile Florid and Beautiful after the Genius of her Sex in her Alexiada paints him directly contrary and hath dressed him up like a Hero a Wise and Politick Prince who upon this Occurrence performed the most admirable things in the World But to deal sincerely and without Prejudice the best way in my Opinion is to avoid both these Extreams to the end thereby if possible to find out Truth in the middle Way But this is most certain that this Alexis Comnenius was no other than an Usurper of the Empire of his Master and his Benefactor who had given him the Command
it was obliged to halt upon the Frontier of Hungary to treat with King Carloman concerning their passage For in Truth he had sufficient reason to be distrustful of this Army of the Crusades after the horrible injuries which he had received from those of Peter Godescalc and Emico The Treaty was however quickly concluded by the open and plain dealing between the King and the Duke who had an Interview upon a certain Bridge The King demanded as Hostages Prince Baldwin and the Princess his Lady and coasting all along with the Army of Godfrey ordered the Magazines to furnish them with Provisions at a reasonable price till such time as the greatest part of the Troops were passed over the Savus where he returned the Hostages with a thousand Protestations of Amity to the Duke whose Conduct and Fidelity he had in extraordinary admiration With the same order Godfrey caused his Army to pass over the vast Countries of Bulgaria and the Territories of the Greek Emperour according as he had promised his Embassadors who were sent to him by Alexis whilest he was upon his March until at length he arrived at Philipopolis in Thracia where he received Intelligence of the detention of Hugh the Great This young Prince who was Brother to Philip the first King of France had not to speak Truth either so much Experience or so much Ability as the other Princes of the Crusade who were possessed of very fair Estates but however he was a person admirably well composed full of Honour Vertue and Goodness extream Brave and of an Humour sweet and indearing the advantage which he had by his Illustrious Birth above the rest gave him a title to a greater Respect and he was therefore treated with so much Honour and Duty by all that though diverse others had in reality a greater Command and Interest in the Army yet nevertheless his Name was more Celebrated among strangers and especially the Greeks The Princes which accompanied him in this Voyage were Robert Duke of Normandy Son to William the Conquerer with the Noble Troops of English Normans and Brittains Stephen Earl of Chartres and Blois whose power was so great that it was commonly said that he was owner of more Places and Castles then there were days in the year Prince Eustace of Bullen Brother to Duke Godfrey and Robert Earl of Flanders who following the example of the Duke of Lorrain sold his Estate to furnish the Charges of this War These Princes who together composed a most puissant and numerous Army having stated their measures and conferred a long time at Paris with Hugh the great in the presence of the King his Brother put themselves upon their Way in the Month of September and having traversed France and Italy and received the Benediction of the Pope whom they found at Leuca and also having visited Rome and the Holy Places to implore the Divine Assistance the Winter being too far advanced for them commodiously to pass into Epirus they were obliged to distribute their Army about Bari Brindes and Otranto there to attend the coming of the Spring and the conveniency of imbarquing their Forces But Hugh suffering himself to be transported by the heat of his Conrage and the Impatience natural to Young Persons and above all others those of the French Nation was not able to support this delay but exposed himself too rashly to the Faith of the Greeks imbarking at Bari to pass to Duras as he did very slenderly accompanied and in a condition in no sort suitable to his Quality and the Majestick Name of France which he was to sustain during this War But the Governour of that place whether it were that he had secret Orders to secure such of the Crusade as he could surprize or that he believed he should do his Master the Emperor a considerable Service by putting into his hands so great a Prince who might serve for a Hostage to secure him against the Latins immediately upon his arrival seized him and sent him under a strong Guard through By-ways to Constantinople where the Emperor detained him Prisoner Godfrey who presently after this adventure arrived at Philipopolis where he received an account of it sent immediately to the Emperour to demand the Liberty of this Prince and those who accompanied him and in the mean time advanced with his Army as far as Adrianople But perceiving by the Answer which he received from Alexis what he was to Expect he acted like an open Enemy and for eight days wasting the Country all along as he went he marched directly to Constantinople where he raised such a consternation that Alexis sent to him to his Camp to desire a Peace making him all the Promises of receiving a just satisfaction In short Godfrey still advancing encamped two days before Christmass within view of this great City when with joy he received Hugh the Great to whom the Emperor had now given his Liberty and who came to pay his thanks to his Deliverer and Benefactor accompanied with Drogon de Neele Clerembaud de Vendeuïle and William Viscount of Melun commonly called the Carpenter either because he was so notable an Artist in framing of Engines of War or that according to the mode of Expression in those times he used so terribly to hack and hew his Enemies that neither Cask Shield nor Curiass was able to resist the Force of his blows But this Peace by reason of the perfidiousness of Alexis lasted not long for perceiving that after he had given orders privately to prohibit the furnishing them with provisions the Army began to live at Discretion he had recourse to Artifice and desired Godfrey to take up his Quarters in the fair Houses Palaces Hamblets and Villages which lay all along the Bosphorus to the Euxine Sea pretending the Rigor of the season was too extream to permit them to continue in their Camp but the truth is with a design to lock up this great Army in the little space which is between the Strait and the River which discharges it self into the Port that there he might more easily destroy them He had also a design to surprize the Duke inviting him to come to the Palace to confer with him about the War but finding that the Duke would not be decoyed and that he did with good reason distrust him he endeavoured again to famish the Army prohibiting the furnishing them with any kind of provisions he also attacked them both by Sea and Land for he commanded out his Cavalry against those who were sent to forrage and caused many Vessels manned with Archers to fall down the River who incessantly discharged upon such of the Soldiers as appeared But his Enterprize prospered accordingly for Godfrey with ease defeating the Greek Cavalry made himself Master of the Bridge of Blakerness in despite of all that the Emperors People endeavoured to do to oppose him and having without danger repassed the Main of his Army who set sire at their parting to the Houses and
Bridge-Gate And meeting with these disorderly Souldiers in the Plain loaden with Provisions and without other Arms than their Swords they fell in among them and notwithstanding all the Valour of Count Raimond and the Prince of Tarrentum they could not stop the Rout but that the Souldiers fled towards the Mountains leaving all their Provisions and a thousand of their Companions dead upon the place year 1098 Godfrey who was immediately advertized of this Disaster by some who fled with the first took a Party resolving immediately to charge the Turks whom he doubted not with the Joy of their Victory and the Greediness of the Booty to find in sufficient Disorder drawing out therefore four Batalions sustained with all the Cavalry at the head of whom were Hugh the Great the Duke of Normandy and the Earls of Flanders and Bullen he passed the Bridge of Boats and marched directly towards the Enemies with all the Marks of Hope and Courage in the way he joyned the two Princes whom he had given over for lost and who after they had unprofitably used their utmost Efforts to rally their Fugitives had disingaged themselves very fortunately from the Turks In the mean time Accien who had an account of this Victory and who from one of the Towers of his Castle observed this great Movement of the Crusades began to be in pain for the return of his Men he therefore commanded the greatest part of his Army to sally out to their Relief He conducted them himself to the Gate and giving order to have it shut after them he thus addressed himself to the Souldiers That after the advantages which their Companions had had against their Enemies it would be a shame to them to think of Precautions or to assure themselves of a Retreat that this was the time that they must think of nothing but Victory or Death and that they should never see this Gate opened to them but after an intire Conquest of their Enemies On the other side Godfrey who marched but slowly at the Head of his Troops having understood by the hasty return of his Scouts that the Conquerors who had joyned the Succours from the Town drew near loaden with their Booty drawing his Sword and turning to his Men after he had cast a fierce and menacing look towards the Enemy he cryed Follow me It is the Will of God Giving them to understand by this action that upon this occasion they should trust to their Swords only without using either Lances or Arrows Whereupon all the Souldiers in an instant drawing their Swords and making a kind of Penthouse of their Bucklers against the Arrows of the Infidels who running hither and thither incessantly discharged upon them they marched gravely neither with Precipitation nor Heaviness till they came up to the Enemies at Swords point thereby rendring their Bows and Arrows useless The Barbarians terrified with this confident March which put them out of their way of sighting and took away the Service of their Bows they presently recoiled upon their Reserves who were come to relieve them and being incumbred with the Spoils they had taken were in no condition to resist the Swords of the Christians against whom they did not much delight to combat but at a distance so that the Fight was not very long for after the first Squadrons of the Enemy were repulsed the Christians fell into the middle of them with their Infantry and on all hands made a most horrible Slaughter of these miserable Wretches with the mighty Blows of the Sword so that they were totally routed some flying to the Mountains others towards the City not dreaming that the Gate was shut against them Here it was that Despair and the fatal Necessity of vanquishing or dying which Accien had denounced against them made them renew the Combat in the view of the whole Town which ran to the Walls and stood there as in an Amphitheatre to be Spectators and Witnesses either of their shame in being vanquished or of their Glory in being Victors For Godfrey after he was pretty well assured of the Victory had disingaged himself from the Combat with a Design to prevent the Runaways getting into the Town by cutting off their Retreat and therefore being got to a rising Ground near the Bridge he flew like Lightning among his Enemies who fled at full Speed thinking he had been at their Heels who was at their Head to stop their Cariere Never was there seen any thing comparable to the Effects of that extraordinary and prodigious Force which Nature had bestowed upon this Prince there was not one Blow of his terrible Sword which did not carry a dreadful Death along with it here he made a Head with the Cask that was on it roll off from the Shoulders there a whole Arm with the Cimiter which it yet grasped some he cleft down to the very Shoulders others he cut asunder in the Middle filling all with Horror Blood and Terror year 1098 which way soever he turned himself and at the same time the other Princes who pursued the Fugitives with their Swords at their Backs finding them stopped by the Squadron of Godfrey made a most dreadful Slaughter among them or whilest they indeavoured to save their Lives made them lose them in a manner as dreadful for they constrained them blindly to precipitate themselves into the Orontes where the Soldiers dispatched them with their Pikes which the poor Wretches could no way escape but by Swimming The Places adjacent resounded with the lamentable Cries and the Tumult of the Barbarians dying either in the Field or in the River which began to be discoloured with the Blood of the Slain and the Noise was Ecchoed by those who from the Walls saw the woeful Slaughter of their Companions so that in conclusion Accien was obliged to open the Gate to help those who could to make their Escape by the Bridge into the Town It was upon this Occasion that Godfrey performed an Action of which the whole Earth talks as of a Prodigy of Strength and Valour and which I should not have adventured to have given a place to in this History if it were not attested both by all the Writers of that Age and by the Testimony of so many Eye-Witnesses of its Truth One of the principal Captains of the Enemies of a Stature much exceeding the common transported with Fury to observe that Godfrey kill'd all that came within the reach of his terrible Sword at the entry of the Bridge where he had posted himself to obstruct the Passage and that the Turks to avoid his dreadful Blows threw one another headlong into the River he ran up to him foaming with Rage with his Sword advanced in the Air and with all his force discharged so terrible a Blow upon the Duke that he split his Shield in two pieces which he had opposed to it to ward it off his Head when Godfrey raising himself upon his Stirrups gave him such a furious Reverse that his
Sword falling upon his right Shoulder passed quite through his Brest to his left side and made that half of his Body tumble to the Ground whilest the other remaining in the Saddle was carried by the Horse who was continually pricked by the Spurs which stuck in his Sides by the convulsive Motions of the dying remainder of the Body quite through the Town making there such a fearful Spectacle as struck Consternation Horror and Despair into the Hearts of the most resolute and daring who beheld it The Night now coming on and the Defendants pouring whole Showers of Arrows from their Engines upon the Walls hindred the further Pursuit of the Victory The Christians lost something above a thousand Men in this memorable Day but it is impossible to recount the Loss which the Infidels sustained for besides those which were slain upon the Field of Battle there were above five thousand who lost their Lives upon the Bridge and thereabout and the Number of those who were either drowned or slain in the River was so great that they almost made a Damm with their dead Bodies among the rest one of the Sons of Accien and twelve of their Amirals or Emirs which are their chief Nobility perished in that fatal Day and two days after there were found fifteen hundred Persons of Quality whom according to their Custom they interred privately in the Night near the Bridge with their Cimiters their Arms Habits and some Gold and Silver and other their most precious Ornaments After this great Victory the Besieged who were now more closely blocked up than ever by the Forts which were raised near the two Gates which had been free had totally lost their Courage if at the same time they had not received the News that the Sultan of Persia the most potent Monarch of the East was sending a prodigious Army to their Relief which did something revive their fainting Hopes And in truth this Sultan being continually sollicited by Soliman and by Sensadole the Son of Accien had sent Corbagath to relieve Antioch the Person in whom among all his Captains he reposed the greatest Confidence with a formidable Army of two hundred thousand Horse and an innumerable Multitude of Foot of all the Nations subject to his Empire consisting in all of six hundred and fifty thousand Men. This General after he had in vain in his Passage attacqued Edessa which was valiantly defended by Prince Baldwin year 1098 passed over the Euphrates and advanced towards Antioch with the Sultans of Damascus and Jerusalem who had joyned their Troops with his Army with an intention to attaque the Christians in their Camp This News which gave great Courage to the Besieged caused much Disorder in the Christian Army so that many and some of principal Note despairing of their Safety daily deserted and among the rest the Earl of Blois was so terrified that feigning himself Sick he caused himself to be removed in the beginning of June to Alexandretta whither he was followed by four thousand of his Soldiers this Action made it be feared that others following so pernicious an Example the whole Army would be in danger of Disbanding But as it happened presently after by a pleasant Frolique of Fortune this which was dreaded as a mighty Mischief proved in the end a great Advantage and this News which made the Christians despair of taking Antioch was the Occasion that one Night presently after it was taken in the manner which I am now going to relate There was a Person in Antioch a Citizen of Quality one Pyrrhus a Man of great Spirit he was born of Christian Parents and had been one himself but for the saving his Estate he pretended to turn Mahometan as did divers others in the fourteen years after the City came under the Dominion of the Turks This Pyrrhus had gained so much Esteem and Credit among the Infidels that notwithstanding the Distrust which they had of the Antiochians whom therefore they kept very low not permitting them to exercise any Place of Trust or to bear Arms yet Accien charmed with his good Qualities and the Belief of his Fidelity had honoured him with the Dignity of an Emir intrusted him with the Guard of three Towers made him his Secretary of State and gave him a Place in his Council This Man had a Son a sprightly young Gentleman who at the beginning of the Siege was in a Sally taken Prisoner by Bohemond that Prince who was no less Dextrous and Wise than Vailant having examined his Prisoner whose Countenance promised so fairly found in his Soul a great Inclination to return to the Religion of his Ancestors and that he was ready to undertake any thing to deliver his Country from the cruel Tyranny of the Turks He therefore laid hold upon this propitious Opportunity to gain the Father who passionately loved this Son and offered a mighty Ransom for his Redemption for this purpose when he had well assured himself of the young Gentleman who secretly abjured the Mahometan Superstition and received Baptisme he freely sent him back to Pyrrhus who was so transported with his Return and the account he gave of the good Treatment which he had received from Bohemond and the Wonders which were related to him of that Prince that there was nothing which he did not resolve to do to give him assurance of his Acknowledgments and to procure the honor of his Friendship After this Bohemond failed not to maintain a secret Correspondence with him by the Assistance of his Son who frequently went out of the Town into the Camp under pretence of being a Spie as divers others did and he laboured so successfully under the Favour of this Friendship which was made between them that in conclusion Pyrrhus desired nothing more ardently than to reimbrace the Christian Religion and to deliver his Country But that which perfected this Affair was a great Conference which the Prince had with Pyrrhus during the little Truce which was made after the Defeat at the Bridge-Gate for after he had given him a thousand Testimonies of the tenness which he had for him and the reason which he had to make his Fortune and a true Happiness he said such moving things to him upon this Subject and so well managed his Spirit by his Arguments his Intreaties and his Promises that he quickly perceived he had so intirely gained him that he was now become absolutely at his Devotion In short after the Truce was broken by the persidiousness of the Turks who in that time basely murdered one of the principal Crusades Pyrrhus sent to acquaint Bohemond That having now fully considered of all things he had taken his last Resolution which was to be ready to serve him to the utmost that for his own particular it was not any sort of Fear that he had to suffer in the common Ruine of the City that moved him to Act as he did since he was well assured that the Christians would never be able to take
was so great that the ordinary sort of Provision being spent the Christians were reduced to the most deplorable Extremities that are upon Record in any History either Sacred or Profain Insomuch that many did every Night desert and ran away to the Enemies or climbing over the Rocks indeavoured to get to the Ships which lay in the Port St. Simeon as did among others of the first Quality Alberic and his Brother William de Grandmenil who had Married the Sister of Bohemond the Vicount de Melun that famous William the Carpenter who thought that Famine was a sufficient Dispensation for the Oath which he had taken to desert no more The Earl of Blois feigning himself Sick was gone two days before the Town was taken and joyning himself with them they all together went to the Camp of Alexis who was coming or at least pretended so to joyn the Crusades and there they made all appear so desperate to cover their own ignomimous Cowardice that that treacherous Prince who was before resolved to do nothing was overjoyed to meet with so fair a Pretence to alter his Course and march back again to Constantinople In short Matters went so very far that the Soldiers half mad with Despair abandoned all sort of Care of their own Defence so that Prince Bohemond who Commanded in the Town was forced to set Fire to their Houses to force them out and put them upon Action Things being reduced to this deplorable Extremity it is strange what Power Religion hath upon the Spirits of Men and how in a Moment it will raise them after once it becomes Master by the power of a strong Perswasion for two Priests one called Stephen the other Peter Bartholomew both of Marseilles presented themselves before the Princes to acquit themselves of a Commission which they assured them they had received from Heaven The first said That at his Prayers he had seen Jesus Christ who after he had complained of the Ingratitude and horrible Crimes of the Crusades being in the end inclined by the Intreaties of his Mother he was come to him and commanded him to let them know that if they would for the future amend and turn from their vicious Ways he would send them Succour within five Days The second affirmed That St. Andrew had shewed him within the Church of St. Peter the Place where they might find the Iron of the Spear that pierced the Side of our Lord and that he had assured him that this Holy Iron should be a certain Pledge of the approaching Deliverance of the Crusades provided they repented of their Sins and both the one and the other offered themselves to the Flames to confirm the Truth of what they had declared The Bishop of Pavia who was a Person of a clear Insight did not believe these kind of Visions which he knew were generally the Effects of Forgery or Illusion but nevertheless that he might not seem to neglect any thing that might be true and which however might be of some Service to them he obliged the Priests to Swear upon the Holy Evangelists that what they said was true being unwilling to have Recourse to those other Proofs which had nothing in them of the Spirit of the Church and not thinking it agreeable to Religion by such Methods to tempt Providence After which going to the Place which the Priest directed they there found the top of a Spear so that the whole Army was so perswaded of the Truth of these Visions and that Relique that no body durst presume to make any Doubt of it However the Belief did not last always for some eight or nine Months after as they were at the Siege of a certain Town where they had recourse to this Relique which was most curiously preserved by Count Raymond a Priest who was the Domestick Chaplain of the Duke of Normandy and a knowing Man maintained publickly that it was a Counterfeit that the true Spear had been long ago carried to Constantinople and that the Provencals had put this in the Place where it was found only on purpose to please their Earl Upon which the whole Army was divided the Priest of Marseilles constantly maintaining that he was ready to prove the Truth of his Revelation by passing the Trial of the Fire which in Conclusion the Bishops permitted him to do After a Fast of three Days therefore a great Fire was made year 1098 upon which they bestowed a Solemn Benediction after which the Provencal taking the Iron of the Spear in his Hand passed excepting his Shirt quite Naked through it but for all the hast that he could make over that huge Pile in the sight of the Army who were scarce able to indure the Heat at a Distance the poor Priest who was a silly Man and credulous of his Revelation did not find the Success answer his Expectation It is true he came out from the midst of the Flames but so Roasted without and Scorched within by the Vapor of the Fire which he sucked in with his Breath that within twelve days he died in most exquisite Torments So that there was no longer that Reverence given to this Iron as was before although Count Raymond would by no means be perswaded to abate of his Devotion towards this Relique which for all this he would not believe to be False not thinking this Accident of the Priest which went something too high was a sufficient Argument to prove the Falsity of the Vision For God he said was not obliged to confirm by Miracles what he was pleased to reveal to Men. But however the Belief which was so firm while they were at Antioch that this was the real Spear which was Consecrated by the Blood of Christ Jesus found a most admirable Effect upon the Spirits of the whole Army who not doubting now in the least of the Protection of God and a most assured Victory most eagerly demanded to be led to the Combat The Princes who thought it very convenient to make use of this Heat sent Peter the Hermite with an Interpreter to Corbagath to offer him the Combat either Man to Man between him and one of the Princes or himself and a certain number of chosen Soldiers of one side and the other or in short a general Battle that so they might quickly determine the Quarrel between them And in the mean time every one applied himself to the Work of Repentance and with fervent Prayers to implore the Heavenly Aid from God who had promised it upon those Conditions The Answer which Corbagath returned was in these haughty Terms That it was not for the Vanquished to prescribe Laws to the Victor That it could not be long before he should have them with Halters about their Necks and that it would be in his Power to determine their Destiny and by what kind of Death they were to Dye Peter having made his Report to the Princes they only acquainted the Soldiers that they must Fight and that therefore they should
possessed with his Right Wing commanded by the Emir of Jerusalem and partly upon the Plain which in that place inlargeth it self giving a very good Scope to extend his Batallion which was commanded by his Lieutenant the Left Wing where he had placed his best Troops to oppose those of Godfrey was conducted by Bulgadis the Son of Accien and Balduc Sultan of Samosatia for he thought that these two Turkish Princes one of which had lost his Father and the other his Estate would be animated more than any of the rest to avenge their particular Losses by sighting more vigorously in the Common Cause As for himself whether it were that his Courage failed him at that time or that he was surprized and astonished with the Prediction of his Mother an old Sorceress of above an hundred years of Age who to dissuade him from this War had informed him some time before that it was written in the Stars that the Christians should be victorious he retired with a very puissant Body to an Eminence which was upon the left of the Christian Army under Pretext that from thence he might best be able to discover whither to send his Orders and necessary Succours upon all occasions But in his ill Humour wherein he was to see the Christians in so different a Condition from what he believed and who by their possessing in the manner of their drawing up the whole Plain appeared to be far more numerous than in Reality they were he caused the head of a Deserter a Renegade to be out off for that he had assured him that almost all the Crusades were dead with Famine and that those who remained not being able to carry their Arms would never come out of the Town but to sly away The Christian Army in the mean time marching leisurely more animated by seeing the Spear which was carried up on high before Aymar and by the Priests who went singing of Psalms than by the Trumpets advanced still forwards when the Infidels according to their Custom making a hideous Noise with their Instruments and Barbarous Shouts extended themselves to the Right and Left to surround the Christians making at the same time such a Discharge of their Arrows as for some Moments obscured the very Skie but this did very little Damage the Crusades by reason that a great Westerly Wind which they had upon their Backs drove the Arrows back again upon those who discharged them and gave at the same time more Force to those of the Christians which falling among the thickest Ranks made a marvellous Havock upon that crouded Multitude where scarce any one Arrow fell in vain After this first Charge Hugh the Great Robert of Flanders the Duke of Normandy Baldwin Earl of Henault and Anselm de Ribemond without giving the Enemies the Liberty of a second Discharge or so much as to draw their Cimiters sell in furiously with their Lances couched upon their right Wing where the French the Normans the English and the Flemings animated by the Example of their Chieftains with mighty Blows of Lance and Sword made a most horrible Execution among the Barbarians Godfrey who was to charge the bravest of the Infidels which he did in a moment after combated with no less advantage for throwing himself like Lightning into the thickest of the Enemies Squadrons which composed their left Wing he bore down all that opposed him with the prodigious Force of his Terrible Sword which the Saracens trembled at as if he had been Armed with a Thunderbolt The Gascons the Bearnois the Spaniards and the Provencals of Earl Raymond throwing away their Cross-Bows and their Arrows with which they had before done mighty Execution pierced into the main Body of the Battle being supported and followed by their Cavalry till they were come to the place where Hugh and the two Roberts after having routed the Wing which opposed them were arrived turning to the Right to fall upon the Rere of the Enemy In short the Right Wing fell to down-right running away the Left began to stagger and the main Battle was in Disorder when word was brought to Hugh the Great and to Godfrey that Earl Renaud and Prince Bohemond were extremely pressed and in danger of being defeated if they had not present Aid year 1098 And in Truth Soliman who had marched behind the Mountain with great Diligence was entred the Plain upon the West and had attacked Count Renaud who was advanced to oppose him but with Forces very unequal in their Number However he did most bravely sustain the furious Shock of so many Enemies till such time as joyning Artifice with Force they took from him by a new Stratagem the Means either to attack them or defend himself For Soliman who had observed that there was abundance of Hay upon the Plain had caused his People to set it on Fire which presently raised such a horrible thick Cloud intermingled with Flame and Smoak that being carried by a strong West Wind upon the Faces of the Christians it covered their Enemies who all the while poured down Showers of Mortal Arrows among them through the Cloud of Smoak this put them into great Disorder the Horse being neither able to advance through the Fire and Smoak nor to indure the incessant galling of the Turkish Arrows whilest they stood so that they carried their Riders among the Reserves and the Foot who could not retreat so fast remained exposed to the Fury of the Enemies There were not however above three hundred Soldiers slain but all the rest were either taken or dispersed for Soliman did not follow the Pursuit but according to his first Intention advanced to fall upon the Rere of Bohemond whom the stout Turk Karieth with the Sultans of Damascus and Alepo who had now also entred the Plain had already charged upon the Flank This Valiant Prince upon this occasion did all that could possibly be expected from the Courage or Conduct of the Greatest Man in the World but after all it was impossible he should long be able to resist so many Enemies as did surround him if the Succours which he had desired did not arrive more seasonably Hugh the Great was the first that came in to his Assistance and presently observing that the terrible Turk Karieth did the greatest Execution and encouraged others by his Example he made one blow which ought to render the Memory of this great Prince a Son of France Immortal and in Truth our own Historians in my opinion have not done him all the Justice which is his due and which History never refused to the meanest Souldier who behaved himself in like manner upon such an occasion For marking out this Barbarian in the middle of the Turks whom he was encouraging and pushing forwards against the Christians crying to them with a loud Voice to fall on he ran upon him with his Lance couched and hitting him between the Curiass and the Cask it passed cross his Wind-pipe and cutting off one Passage
the manner of the Ancient Romans covering themselveslike Tortoises with their Bucklers whilst others were extended in long siles and followed them at a just distance year 1099 to have convenient Room to make use of their Bows their Slings and Cross-Bows to drive the Enemy from the Walls with great Stones Darts and Arrows which they showered continually upon them whilest in the mean time the first endeavoured in Despite of pieces of Rock and Beams which they threw down from the Walls to crush them to come at the Wall and with Pick-Axes Mattocks Levers and such sort of Iron Instruments wanting Rams they tried to make a Breach or Passage through the Wall and they acted with so much Force and Courage that they overthrew the Out-Wall and made a Passage to the very Foot of the Inward-Wall but that being too strong to receive any Damage by such pittiful Tools there was no Hope but to force the Place by a Scalade and so little Care had been taken to make Provision relying upon the Promise of the Hermit who told them if they had no more than one Ladder of Osiers they should nevertheless take the City that when they came to make Use of them there was no more than one sound Ladder that was long enough to reach the Walls notwithstanding which these Braves transported with mad Courage being prepossessed with the Belief that they should carry the Town planted that Ladder and mounted with so much Resolution that pushing one another upwards many of them got up to the Top and threw themselves over the Wall where they desperately fought hand to hand against the Saracens who were amazed at this more than Heroick Boldness and there is no doubt but if they had had more Ladders Jerusalem had been that day taken for the Enemies who did not in the least expect such an irregular and brisk Attempt had not brought any of their Engines to the Walls But seeing there could but by one Ladder mount a very few men who must needs be exposed to a Multitude of Enemies without Hope of Succour a Retreat was sounded after having lost in that rash Attempt a great many brave men who yet sold their Lives at so dear a Rate that twice their Number of the Saracens paid theirs in lieu of them Duke Godfrey who was ashamed of the Fault he had committed by preferring the idle Visions of a simple Hermit before the just Rules of Military Art remonstrated to the Princes that if they resolved to carry the Town by Force it was necessary to attack it with good Engines of War since they were to sight with men who having once would not a second time be surprised in their Defence against a Scalade This Advice was approved by all but the difficulty was to know where they should be furnished with Materials to frame them there being never a Forrest in all the Country For as for the famous Enchanted Woods of Ismena Clormea Renaud and Armida and a hundred other such like Inventions of Tasso they are nothing but the agreeable Visions of a Poetical Fancy which takes a great deal of Delight in pleasing others with making new Creations which never were except in his own or the Imaginations of his Readers but which must as the Amusements of Fables and Chimera's be rejected by Historians who are to entertain their Readers with nothing but solid Truth But this is most certain that while they were in this Trouble a Christian of the Country informed the Princes that about three or four Leagues off in the Way that leads to Arabia there was a Valley quite out of any Road where in a great Cavern there was a good Quantity of large Beams of Cedar and Cypress and that there was thereabout some Trees of which they might make very good Use although they were of no considerable Height The Duke of Normandy and the Earl of Flanders went thither with some Troops being Conducted by this Guide where they really found such Wood which they caused to be carried to the Camp They also carried thither all the Planks Joists and Beams of the Houses near the City which they could sind and for a whole Month they wrought all sorts of Engines which are made use of in Sieges as also some of a new Invention according as they were designed by Duke Godfrey and Gaston de Foix Prince of Bearne who took care of the Management of these Works but that which mightily advanced them was that nine great Ships being arrived at Joppa with Provisions from Pisa and Genoa for the Army and despairing to defend themselves in that little Fleet against that of the Saracens which was coming to attack them they broke up the Ships and setting Fire to what they could not carry to the Camp the Seamen applied themselves most industriously to the building of these Engines year 1099 All this time the Army was ready to perish with the excessive Thirst which it indured for the Brook Cedron which divides the Valley of Jehosaphat hath very little Water except in the Winter and the Fountain of Siloe which is at the Foot of Mount Sion toward the South afforded but a very little Water so that there was scarce any to be had but what was to be found two Leagues off and that with great Hazard of falling into the Hands of the Saracens who lay continually in Ambuscades to surprize such whose Thirst constrained them to straggle abroad to seek for Water and besides what was to be had was so little and there were so many People besides the Beasts that were to drink that it became presently pudled and stinking In this Extremity there could be no other Resolution but so soon as ever the Engines which were preparing were sinished to give a General Assault with a sirm Determination either to carry the Place or perish in the Attempt And therefore before the Execution of so dangerous an Enterprize and whilest the Preparations were making it was thought fit that publick Prayers should be made by the whole Army to implore the Mercy of Almighty God and to crave his Blessing and Assistance For this Purpose after a Fast of three days upon Fryday the eighth of July there was a solemn Procession where the Bishops and Clergy barefooted followed by the Princes and Soldiers in their Arms surrounded the City setting out at the Church of Sion and passing by the Oratory of St. Stephen through the Valley of Jehosaphat and so by the Mountain of Olives to the Place from whence Christ Jesus ascended into Heaven Here it was that Peter the Hermit and Arnold the Chaplain to the Duke of Normandy made such Powerful Exhortations to reunite the Hearts of the Army that all the Chiefs and the Soldiers and particularly Tancred and Count Raymond who had had the greatest Differences embraced each other in Token of a mutual Reconciliation and Exhorted one another to revenge those Injuries and Outrages which were offered to Jesus Christ by the Saracens
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
happened news was brought him that the Caravan of Egypt guarded with above ten thousand men with all sorts of Munitions for the Relief of Jerusalem was advancing thither and at no great distance whereupon taking five thousand Horse he marched upon the Eve of St. John Baptist to surprize them and charged them so Impetuously that after having slain the greatest part of the Convoy with the loss of not above seventeen or eighteen Horsemen and dissipated the rest he took betwixt four and five thousand Camels and an Infinite Number of other Beasts of Burden charged with Gold Silver and precious Merchandises not only for Necessity but delight such as come from the Indies by the Arabian Gulph to Egypt And this great Booty he destributed liberally among the Army without reserving any thing for himself which was more then ever he had done in all the former Battles which he had gained And in Truth it seemed very resonable that after two such great Victories and the taking of such a rich Convoy the taking of Jerusalem could not be a thing to be doubted but the Joy which possessed the whole Army which with incredible Ardor undertook that Enterprise was presently after changed into an Excessive Grief when the Resolution of returning to Ascalon was declared to them as the Advice of twenty Captains whom Richard had chosen to deliberate concerning the Siege of Jerusalem whilest he marched to attack the Caravan For they all concluded that the Siege was not by any means fit to be undertaken alledging many weak and feeble reasons but concealing the true ones upon which it was grounded which was that the King of England had strongly resolved to return to his own Dominions and that all which he had done was but to amuse the World and to make a shew as if he would besiege Jerusalem For he had received advice two several times after Easter by two Expresses from England that his Brother John having by force displaced and driven out of the Realm the Bishop of Ely his Chancellor year 1192 and the Principal Officers of the Crown manifestly intended to make himself King he was also assured that he was powerfully protected by the King of France who was ready by force to take Vexin because it was refused to be surrendred to him according to the Articles of Messina Richard who was extreme hasty would have immediately imbarked himself leaving to the Count de Champagne with the Places in Palestine three hundred men at Arms and two thousand English Foot together with the Forces of the Country for his Defence But a certain Ecclesiastick a very able man who was near his Person and in whom he reposed very much Confidence perswaded him to deferr his Departure for a little time that so he might save his Honor by making some Movement by which the World might be perswaded that it was not his Fault that Jerusalem was not taken and upon this Account it was that he did all that is before mentioned and that he would have those twenty Captains of whom he was very well assured determine the Affair concerning the Siege of Jerusalem who by no means approved it but urged that it was much better to continue the Fortifications of Ascalon and Gaza which were the two Keys of the Realm towards Egypt and by that means to secure themselves from the Attempts of Saladin before they undertook the Siege of the Capital City So that Richard seemed only to deferr it upon the Opinion of so many knowing men who were chosen from among the Templers and Knights of the Hospital the Lords of the Country and several of those who come from Europe after which he declared publickly that since it was judged inconvenient at that time to attempt the Siege of Jerusalem he would there leave thee Count de Champagne his Nephew to undertake it in due time and that for himself he was obliged to return to defend his Dominions against such as laid hold of this Advantage of his Absence to Enterprize against him and to invade them It is impossible to express the Mischief which this Imprudent Declaration occasioned which he did before he had perfected his Treaty with Saladin which was then a Foot for Saladin seeing the Danger he was in to lose all was contented to have some and to yield the rest to the Christians upon most advantageous Conditions But so soon as he perceived that he had nothing to fear from that quarter and that upon Richard's resolving to depart the whole Army would Instantly disband he held so firm and fierce that a Truce in such a manner as he pleased was all that could be gained from him a Truce unworthy of the Reputation and Courage of a King of England the Army of the Crusades being herewith most furiously inraged and almost mad to see themselves robbed of the Glory of delivering the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ which they had with so much Danger come so far to search after disbanded of its one accord the greatest part of them thinking now of nothing but returning into their own Country bestowing a thousand Curses upon King Richard whom they accused more than ever to have assassinated the Prince of Tyre to have attempted against the Life of Philip the August and sold the Holy Land to Saladin with whom he held a Correspondence Richard by the Grandeur of his Soul and his Natural Courage gave himself no manner of trouble for what was the Effect of Rage and Anger and the Malicious pleasure which men take to speak Evil of those whom Fortune or Merit have elevated above them or what they spoak so outragiously against his Conduct in this War and indeed in a short time after he made it evident by a most glorious Action that this last Accusation was as great a Calumny as the two former For as he arrived at Acre where the Duke of Burgundy with the French were also come to give order for their Return he received advice that Saladin understanding that the Christian Army was broken up had laid Siege to Jaffa Upon this news he rallied all the Troops he could and dividing them into two Bodies he gave one to the Count de Champagne with Orders to march by Land and with the other he himself went by Sea with the choice Lords of the French and Flemings who would follow him upon this great occasion Those who manifested the greatest Ardour and whom among others he chose to be near his Person were Gauchier de Chastillon who had lost his Brother in the Siege of Acre the Counts of Cleves and Limbourg the Baron of Stanford Valeran de Luxenburg Guy de Montfort Bartholomew de Mortemar Raoul de Mauleon William de L' Estang Andrew de Savigni Henry de Nevile Dreux de Mello and William de Barres He was for some time stayed by contrary Winds and did not arrive till precisely the Evening of that day wherein those who had retired into the Castle after the taking
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
the Condition wherein the City then was without all manner of Hopes of being relieved and under a Prince who already seemed to Capitulate it must either have been surrendred upon Composition or carried by Force But there is no time wherein it is not easy to observe that those who have known very well how to Vanquish their Enemies have not yet been so Fortunate as to know how to make the best Use of their Victories and that they have lost all the Fruit of their gallant Actions for want of taking Time and their Enemies by the Head after such considerable Defeats For the Crusades whereas they ought immediately to have lead the conquering Army to Jerusalem and to take all the Advantage they could of the Disorder of the Sarasins before they could be able to recover the Consternation of the Blow and to re-settle their Affairs they very unadvisedly undertook the Siege of Thoron which was the most impregnable of all the Places which the Sarasins yet held in Palestine and the most able to stop the Course of a Victorious Army to no purpose This place was rather a great Castle than a Town which Hugh de St. Omer Lord of Tiberias had beforetime caused to be built in the Reign of Baldwin the I. about seven or eight Leagues from Tyre towards the East to oppose the Excursions of the Sarasins who at that time were Masters of that great City It was situate upon the top of a high Mountain which was invironed round with broaken Rocks which rendred it wholly inaccessible to an Army for there was no coming to it but by one way which was very Narrow and on each hand whereof lay most dreadful Precipices so that a few Defendants might easily maintain it against all the Forces of the Earth only by rolling down great Stones in this narrow Way where not above two Men could march abreast The Lords of Thoron had also taken great Care year 1197 to add all that Art could do towards the Fortification of it as far as the Invention of those Times would admit to render the Place impregnable The Army coming to incamp before it in the beginning of the Winter it was quickly perceivable that the way of Force would be to no purpose against a place of that Nature for there were no kind of Engines which could be elevated proportionably to the height of the Walls and Towers to batter them the Darts Arrows and Stones which were thrown from below upwards lost all their Force of doing any Execution before they could come at the Besieged who laughed at the vain Efforts which were used against them whereas at the same time their Engines discharging from above showred down a furious Tempest of Darts Stones and Arrows upon the Camp which had much to do to cover it self from the dreadful Storm They indeavoured however by mining to find a Way under the Earth after the Example of the Dictator Camillus who by that means entred the City of Veiae scituate like Thoron upon the top of a Mountain But the German Engineers who began the Work found the Rock so very hard that they dispaired of Success year 1198 and were at last obliged to give it over so that after three Months spent unprofitably in the Siege they found themselves no nearer taking the Place than when they first sate down before it In the mean time Saphadin who was cured of his Wound had time to levy Men and raise an Army more numerous than before with which he intended to besiege the Christians in their Camp Nevertheless Thoron which began to be in great want of Provisions and which had already desired to Capitulate had undoubtedly fallen into the hands of the Christians if the Avarice and infamous Treason of those whose principal Interest it was to have it taken had not saved it For the Templers who served in the Army and whose Manners were already abominably degenerated suffered themselves to be corrupted by the Gold of Saphadin who promised them vast Summs if they would find out some way to cause the Siege to be raised they therefore gained by the same way Conrade Bishop of Wirtzbourg the Emperor's Chancellor who either out of Jealousie and Envy of the Glory of the Archbishop of Mayence and the Dukes of Saxony and Brabant who commanded the whole Army or blinded with the Lustre of the prodigious quantity of Gold which was offered him no longer regarded either his Conscience his Honour his Truth or Fidelity Vertues which in all Ages have been the Glory of the German Nation but that he joyned with the wicked Templers to betray the Interests of Jesus Christ For having persuaded the greatest part of the Italian Captains who came along with him into Palestine to enter into the same Sentiments with himself these joyned with the Templers made the major part of the Councel And first therefore he opposed the receiving the Besieged to Conditions alledging that it was impossible but they must presently come and submit themselves with Halters about their Necks and after that having spread a Report that Saphadin who had received a most powerful Reinforcement by his Fleet from Egypt was about to attack Baruth at the same time that he would also besiege them in their Camp he therefore protested that there was an absolute Necessity that they should march the next day to relieve that City And accordingly marching out of his Quarter with those of his Party to take that Way he obliged the rest of the Army instantly to raise the Siege and follow them least Saphadin coming upon them thus divided with his whole Strength they might fall into a worse Disaster Thus was Jesus Christ in his Interest and the Reputation of his Religion sold to the Sarasins by these Traitors as he had formerly been in his Person to the Jews by Judas But as that Infamous received little Benefit by that ill gotten Money and afterwards came to a deserved End so these perfidious Men gained little by their detestable Bargain more than the Vexation and Shame to find that the Besances with which the crafty Saphadin had in such profusion paid them were nothing but counterfeit Gold which so blinded were they at the receiving as not to discover And for the traiterous Bishop of Wirtzbourg returning some time after to his Bishoprick he was unluckily assassinated by some Officers of his Chapiter with whom he had made a cruel War Thus it is year 1198 that by the most just Judgments of God Treason never fails to fall upon the Heads of those who act it to the end that if the Infamy of such a black and cowardly Crime be not sufficient to deter those from it who by an extreme debasedness of Soul are tempted to commit it they may at least be restrained by the Fear of Divine Vengeance and the Justice of Almighty God which never fails where that of Men either is too short or too slow in punishing it After this Misfortune a mighty
it upon second Thoughts never to perform Philip having after this Manner gained the Consent of Alexis instantly dispatched the Ambassadors of the Princes together with his own and those of his Brother-in-Law Alexis who arrived at Zara about the middle of December The Doge presently gave them Audience in his Palace at Zara where all the Princes and great Lords of the Crusade being assembled the principal of the Ambassage who had order to omit nothing that might oblige the Republick and the Princes to conclude the Treaty according to his Instructions addressed his Discourse to that august Assembly to this Effect My Lords if you see appear in our Faces more Assurance and more Joy than may seem becoming poor and miserable dispoiled Persons who come to implore your Assistance it is to be attributed to our Hopes for besides the Knowledge which we have of the Generosity of so many illustrious Princes and great Personages as compose this August Assembly we have Commission to assure you that we do not present our selves before you with the least intention to retard your glorious Enterprise for the Conquest of the Holy Land but to present you with a Way most Safe Easy and absolutely Necessary not only happily from this Moment to begin it but in consequence most certainly to atchieve it with all the Glory and Advantage which you can hope or desire For the Subject of our Ambassy is to request that those Arms which you design to carry into Egypt and by that Way to enter into Palestine may be employed to render you Masters of Constantinople by placing there the true Heir the Prince Alexis and by overturning the Imperial Throne of the Vsurper who hath seized upon it by the most perfidious Cowardice and the most detestable Treason that ever was See my Lords the shortest and most infallible Way of Conquering the Holy Land and without which it will be always impossible You know generous French nor is it unknown to all Germany what happened to the late King Lewis and to the Emperor Conrade for want of assuring themselves of Constantinople before they passed any further as they were advised by a most able Politician This very Oversight was the cause of the loss of two such flourishing Armies as might with ease have triumphed over all the East if they had been Masters of that great City which is the very Key of Europe and Asia without which one cannot but with extreme Difficulty and a thousand Dangers receive either by Sea or Land those Assistances which are absolutely necessary for the Maintenance of an Army either in Egypt or Syria Nor is it probable that you can repose any sort of Confidence in that perfidious Man who is now Master of it for how can he be trusted who hath so basely betrayed his own Brother who hath banished all the Latins who hath so barbarously affronted the Emperor Philip and Philip King of France both the Allies of these two poor Princes year 1202 whom this wicked Tyrant and Vsurper hath despoiled of their Dominions This Tyrant Barharous and Cruel as he is yet will neither have the Courage nor the Power to resist your invincible Arms which are supported by the Justice of the Cause nor is there any thing so fearful and so basely Mean and Cowardly as a perfidious guilty Tyrant the terrible Images of whose Crimes continually pursue him with the dreadful Fear of Vengeance and render him the most Jealous Vneasy and Fearful of Mankind And so soon as the Prince Alexis shall be seen at the Head of this flourishing Army of French and Venetians at whose very Names the usurping Tyrant will grow pale and tremble all Greece which groans under the load of his servitude will declare themselves for this amiable Prince whom they adore and the Tyrant who is in Execration with the whole World believing that he is Surrounded with so many Enemies armed for his Destruction as there are Men in Constantinople will indeavour by an early Flight to save himself and leave you an easy Conquest over a City willing to be Overcome And for the Advantages which you shall draw from a Conquest so Easy and so Glorious besides what I have already said that it appears of absolute Necessity for the happy Accomplishing of the Holy War it is convenient to let you understand that you are to expect not only Words but real Performances not altogether Contemptible For this Purpose I am to inform you my noble Lords that the Prince Offors and we have ample and full Power to treat with you upon these Conditions First That so soon as he shall be Re-established in the imperial Throne of Constantinople he will pay you two hundred thousand Marks in Silver to be divided between the Confederates for the Charges of the War and to make Provision for the Army Secondly That he will accompany you in Person with an Army to the Conquest of Egypt or if it shall please you better that he shall send along with you ten thousand choise Men and maintain them at his own Charge there for one Year and further that he will during his Life maintain five hundred Knights well Armed for the Preservation of the Conquests which shall be made in the Holy Land And lastly which ought doubtless to be the most powerful Argument of any which I have hitherto used he promises and engages inviolably upon his Faith that if it shall please God by your Assistance to raise him to his Throne that he will reduce his whole Empire under the Obeisance of the Roman Church from which it hath been so long time separated by the Heresie and Schism After this my Lords Judge if the Means which we propose to you for the Execution of your Enterprise of the Holy War is not more Safe more Easy and most Advantageous to you and to the whole Church and in short the Thing of the World most capable to acquire for you Immortal Fame on Eurth and Glory in Heaven This Discourse which seemed so reasonable and persuasive was very diversly received by that Assembly who resolved to take some time to deliberate upon such sair Propositions In truth the Venetians and the greatest Party of the French who besides the Interest of the publick and the common Cause of Christianity found also therein their own made not the least doubt but that the Propositions ought to be accepted but those who had before used their utmost Efforts to hinder the Seige of Zara opposed them with abundance of Heat and above all the rest the Abbot du Val de Sernay who was constantly in the Head of the discontented Party made a mighty Noise with his Monks protesting against this Diversion and urging that they could not with a safe Conscience turn those Arms against Christians which they had taken up for a Holy War against the Infidels for the Deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre On the contrary the Abbot de Los of the same Order a Man of
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
in the Morning the eleventh Day of September with an incredible Heat on both Sides the Christians trusting in the Aid of Heaven which the Cross they had seen seemed to promise them and the Sarasins in their Multitude and besides being ranged in Battalia towards the East they had the Sun upon their Backs and the Christians full in their Eyes Thus the Combat was very obstinate on both sides Victory continuing in Suspence for a long time to which side she would incline till at last the Sarasins struck with a pannick Fear as if new Enemies had fallen upon them began to stagger and recoil and in a short time to throw down their Arms and betake themselves to Flight with all the Hast the desire of Safety could lend them It is said that in the heat of the Battle there appeared new Squadrons of Cavaleers in white Armor who advanced at the Head of the Christians and charged upon the Sarasins with an infinite Storm of Darts and Lances and that the brightness of their glittering Arms and Shields so dazled the Infidels that they were not able to indure the shining Beams or the furious Shock they gave them but that they instantly threw away their Arms and fled However it happened it is most certain that their whole Army was intirely defeated and that there remained above fourteen thousand Sarasins dead upon the Place with two of their Kings that they pursued the Fugitives for three Leagues gleaning up abundance of Straglers who all fell by the Daughter of the Sword They lost all their Tents and Baggage together with a number of Prisoners who all inquired who those white Horsemen were who with the Lustre of their Bucklers had so blinded them and put them into Disorder And it is said that Pope Honorius seemed by one of his Letters to give credit to this miraculous Event For my own particular as I do not pretend to give all these sorts of Apparitions for Truths which I find in some credulous Authors which is a great though too frequent Weakness So I think myself obliged to take care not to suppress such as have any probability of Establishment upon Truth and are related by such credible Authors to whom a Man of Sense and Prudence may give some Faith After this great Victory the Crusades returned to the Siege of Alcazar which defended it self still for a Month longer but at last it was constrained to surrender upon Descretion upon the one and twentieth Day of October There were made above two thousand Slaves of the Sarasins which remained in the Garrison and the Place was put into the Hands of the Knights of Palmela to whom it belonged the great Master of which Order had signalised his Courage in an extraordinary manner both in the Battle and the Siege They also gave Liberty to the Sarasin Governor of the Place and a hundred of his Officers and several of his Soldiers who with him received holy Baptism and renounced the Superstition of Mahomet The Pope to whom the Earl of Holland and the Portuguese sent the Relation of this great Success caused publick Thanks to be given to God in all Places exhorting all faithful Christians to imitate this glorious Example and to take Arms to fight against the Sarasins who Possessed the Holy Land But he would never consent that the Hollanders and those of Cologne who had gained this important Victory should thereby be dispensed with from their Vow as the Portuguese desired that so these brave Men might finish what they had so happily begun in Spain by chasing the Moors from thence For this Reason therefore William Earl of Holland General of the Crusades who had assured the Pope that he would inviolably observe his Orders after he had passed the Winter at Lisbon set Sail in the beginning of April Having passed the Straits of Gibraltar he was surprized by a Tempest which lasted for three days which so dispersed his Fleet that without being able to unite again some of them were forced into Barcelona others into Marseilles Genoa Pisa and Messina from whence they continued their Voyage to Ptolemais where they arrived one after another year 1218 Those who arrived first were the Frisons who had wintred in Italy The Hollanders and those of Cologne came up presently after and whilest they expected the rest it was resolved by King John de Brienne the Duke of Austria the Bishops and great Masters of the Orders for the future to change the manner of the War and instead of amusing themselves about Palestine as they had done hitherto to fall directly upon Egypt and indeavour to take away the Cause and cut up the Root of the War It was remonstrated That from thence came all the great Armies which the Sultans sent to the Holy Land to oppose those of the Crusade and that therefore if they could once make themselves Masters of the Source from whence those terrible Inundations of Barbarians came which did so often deluge Palestine there would be nothing then capable of resisting the Forces of the Christians That the Sarasins being in no manner of Apprehensions of Danger on that side would be without difficulty surprized That there was nothing in all Egypt considerably fortified except Damiata and that after the Taking of that City which might easily be stormed by such a potent Army which would daily be re-inforced by the Arrival of other Crusades which were expected they might without difficulty march and attack the Sultan in Babylon which was in no condition to resist them having no Fortifications and being only crouded with People incapable to defend it And in short That this was the Opinion of Pope Innocent in the Council of Lateran and seemed as if he had a Divine Inspiration and that therefore it was to be hoped that God would assist them in the happy Execution of the great Design which himself had inspired This Resolution being taken all the Fleet rendezvouzed at the Pilgrims Castle from whence the Frisons and Cologners who were the first that were in readiness having chosen the Count de Sarpont to command them set Sail and with the favour of a Stern-Wind which blew a lusty Gale from the Northward they came in three Days upon the 30th of May before Damiata and by a lucky beginning of the War made their Descent without Resistance and retrenched themselves before the City expecting the coming up of the rest of the Christian Army Damiata was at that time one of the fairest and richest Cities of Egypt and without dispute the strongest as being the Key of the Kingdom situate upon the Nile about a Mile from one of its Mouths This great River whose Spring was for so long time unknown is now discovered to rise from five or six Fountains at the Foot of the Mountains of the Moon in thirteen or fourteen Degrees of Southern Latitude and so to cross the great Lake of Zembr and after having wandred from the South to the North quite through
thereby he might strengthen his Army by the Troops which otherwise he must be obliged to leave for the defence of so strong a Garrison or possibly that he feared that the Christian Army after they had taken Damiata would enter victorious into Palestine and take that City which he knew to be the end of their Enterprise and the occasion of all the Crusades which had been made in Europe This being done he marched directly to Damiata and as his Army was far more numerous than that of the Christians which wasted every day and also that he had seized upon certain very advantageous Posts by the negligence of those who ought to have defended them the besiegers found themselves in a manner as straitly besieged by his Army as Damiata was by theirs and that they were more easily and dangerously to be attacked themselves than they could attack the City their retrenchments being nothing so terrible or strong as the Treble Wall with which the City was surrounded And in truth Coradin who was a brave and a great Captain attempted the lines three several times with all the Vigour imaginable and particularly upon Palm Sunday having made himself Master of the Bridge which joined the two Camps he had forced them on that side if the brave Duke of Austria who with the Germans and Templers came rushing in upon him had not chocked his Success and at last repulsed him after a most obstinate Combat maintained from morning till it was high noon This was the last of those fair actions which that gallant Duke performed in this Crusade for having on one side accomplished his vow having staid in the Levant above six Months longer than the time of Service which he had only vowed for a year and on the other side his own Affairs recalling him into his Dominions he took Sea in the Spring and this example was quickly followed by a great number of Crusades who wearied with the length and the inconveniences of the Siege returned into Europe So that the Army being extremely weakned by this retreat and the diseases ran the Fortune of being at last forced in their retrenchments if the great Succours of new Crusades of all Nations whom the Pope pressed continually to part from all the Ports of Italy had not come most seasonable in the very nick of time with great plenty of all manner of refreshments in abundance of which the besiegers stood in great want And certainly the arrival of these recruits was no more than necessary for shortly after Meledin having recovered his courage out of the Swound into which it had fallen raised an Army more numerous than the first and marched to join his Brother Coradin that so with their joint forces they might make one great attempt for all upon the Camp of the Christians which they believed was then in no condition of resisting them so soon therefore as the necessary time to make all the Preparations for so great an Action was over these two great Armies of Sarasins having ranged themselves in Battalia early in the morning upon the last day of July presented themselves in good order before the Lines and made four or five several attacks thereby to divide the forces of the Christians which notwithstanding their recruits were not by far so numerous as theirs It was fought with incredible heat and Fury on the one side and the other the Sarasins animated by the presence of their Sultans and the certain hope they had conceived that they should that day deliver the besieged City the Christians by the fatal necessity to which they were reduced either to repulse the Enemy or to be all cut in pieces their camp being shut up between two mighty Armies an Enemies City and a great River over which it was impossible for them to escape In this time those who attacked the quarter of the Knights Templers made such a vigorous impression and returned so often to the Assault that they forced the Lines on that side entered the Camp charged furiously upon the Infantry whom the Knights had posted for the defence of that place and pressed so stoutly upon them that at length they put them to slight and pursued their point so briskly being followed by their reserves who came crouding after them into the lines that the intire ruin of the Army seemed inevitable when the French and English arriving in good time with their Swords in their hands year 1219 made these fierce Enemies stop short in their carreer and again turned the Face of the Combat For being all Fresh men and desirous above all things to signalize their Courage by some gallant action they charged the Enemy according to their manner with so much fury that they forced them to recoil and beat them back again to the Lines where the Sarasins finding themselves sustained by those without who continually mounted over the Works they also took their turn and as they had been themselves beaten back so now they made the French retreat But in a minute after the shame and madness which they had to be thus bassed redoubling their Courage and their Strength they came up to the Charge again and three several times fell upon the Enemy with such irresistable Valour that being unable to sustain their Fury they tumbled over the Lines and into the ditch when at the same time those of the City making a notably Sally by setting fire to the Machins which put the Christians into great fear and disorder gave them the opportunity of regaining their advantage Thereupon the great Master of the Temple and the other of the Knights of the Teutonick Order who hasted to their relief observing that the Sarasins who believed themselves assured of the Victory advanced with precipitation and disorder shouting for Joy as they ran to the Charge they marched to charge them in the Flanks on both sides whilest the French who now took new Courage by the sight of these Succours attacked them in the Front so that being beset on three sides by so many Valiant men whom the danger of losing all had rendred furious they were almost all cut in pieces and those who followed them were chased over the Lines and the Ditch which was almost filled up with the heaps of the slain After which the Army falling upon those of the Town who had made the Sally they were presently repulsed with a most dreadful Slaughter though notwithstanding they had first destroyed a great number of Machins by setting them on fire which could not in that great Confusion be suddainly quenched Thus ended this great Battle which lasted from morning until night On the other side the Venetians the Pisans and Genoese who were wholly managed by the Legate were not much more fortunate in their Enterprise and though they had assured him the Success was infallible yet they happened to be mistaken for all the new Machins which they had built upon four great Ships were in several Assaults which they gave to little
by many reasons For that it might appear that the Sickness which he had made use of for the Excuse of his delay was not feigned he had engaged his Word to all the Princes of Europe that so soon as his health would permit him he would pass into Syria and that being now very well established there was a necessity that he should make good his Promise lest otherwise he might incurr the disfavour and ill opinion of so many great Princes as he should thereby delude Moreover the Patriarch of Jerusalem to whom he had given two Gallies at Otranto and all the other Commanders of the Crusades who were already passed into Syria had writ the most pressing Letters to the Pope which he sent all over Europe to oblige all Faithful People to go to the relief of their Christian Brethren in Palestine Besides Frederick was afraid lest John de Brienne should put himself at the head of those who would go and recover the Kingdom of which he had despoiled him And in short the Empress Jolante who died after her Lying-in had left him a Son called Conrade who assuring the Crown of Jerusalem to his House well deserved that he should be at the Pains to recover it out of the hands of the Sarasins year 1228 so that all these things considered he resolved notwithstanding the War which he had with the Pope to pass over into Palestine For this purpose having assembled all the Great men of his Realm at Barletta and those of Germany who had followed him into Italy he ascended a Throne which he had caused to be erected in the middle of a great field filled with an infinite number of People who flocked from all parts to this new and magnificent Spectacle and in this lofty manner he was resolved to declare his intention that so it might make the greater noise in the World and persuade the whole Earth that he looked upon this Enterprise of the Conquest of Palestine as an Affair which lay nearest to his heart and which he esteemed of the greatest Importance of all others There he caused his last Will and Testament to be publickly read in which he declared at large what was his desire in case it pleased God to dispose of his life in this dangerous Voyage and obliged all the Sicilian and Neopolitan Nobility to promise with an Oath that they would see it performed unless they received another Written with his own hand And this without doubt was capable of blinding abundance of People and destroying the report which ran currant that whatever he had done hitherto was only perfect Pageantry to amuse the World and that notwithstanding his repeated Vows promises and oaths he never had any real intention of putting himself at the head of the Crusades for the Conquest of the Holy Land And after all this it must be avowed that the end did not at all correspond with these specious Beginnings For leaving the greatest part of his Forces with Renard Duke of Spoleta whom he declared Vicegerent of the Empire in Italy and his Lieutenant General in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily he gave him Order to continue the War with the Pope and in the Month of August he himself imbarked upon twenty Gallies with such a retinue and an Army as for the smallness of their number were neither becoming the Majesty of such a potent Prince nor proportionable to the Enterprise in which he was engaged Insomuch that the Pope who had the greatest Interest in this Affair wherein the general good of the Church and the Honour of the Christian Name was so nearly concerned sent a Prohibition to him absolutely forbidding him to concern himself with the Holy War it being as he said altogether insupportable that a Prince who was cut off from the Body of the Church by the Anathema should appear at the head of the Army of God against the Infidels and besides that he had nothing near the number either of shipping or of Soldiers which by his Oath he was obliged to carry to the Holy Land and that with that small Fleet he went rather like a Pyrate than an Emperor But Frederick the more inraged against Gregory for this Ambassage whom he no longer now regarded but as his mortal Enemy embarked himself and set sail in the view of the Pope's envoyes to whom he would not condescend to give any other answer than what they received from the Sterns of his Gallies And after having as he passed by determined to his own advantage a difference in the Isle of Cyprus which he had with the Lord of Baruch the Governour of the Young King Henry he arrived prosperously at the Port of Acre the Eve of the Nativity of our Lady The Patriarch accompanied with his Clergy and People came to meet him and received him with all the Honors which were due to an Emperor but withal protested to him with great Freedom that it was not permitted him to communicate or treat with his Imperial Majesty till such time as he should have received Absolution from the Pope to whom he most humbly intreated him to apply himself above all things and to obtain this Favour from him without which God would never bless his designs and this he repeated to him several times after upon occasion And this was the first cause of the rupture between this Prince and the Patriarch who afterwards writ Letters against him into Europe full of sharpness and Injuries And I must needs affirm that it hath not been possible for me to perswade my self to write my History after such Copies as many others have done upon the disposition of one Witness who appears so Cholerick and transported with Anger and which is an Injury which the meanest Person in the World before any equitable Judge would have reason to complain of and think himself unfairly dealt withal if being accused in such a manner he should be condemned Of such Importance it is to those who write year 1228 that when they relate the truth if they desire to gain Credit and Reputation they ought to do it in such a Fashion as may not render them suspected by mingling Invective Satyr and Passion with it which always gives the Reader just occasion to suspect them guilty of Partialty As for Frederick he did not shew much resentment in this Rencontre but after he had received the Complements of the Princes and Lords of the Crusade he satisfied himself with protesting to them as he had ever done that his Indisposition was the only Cause which had obstructed his Voyage till that time and that also the Sentence which the Pope had pronounced against him without giving him the hearing and without informing himself in a judicial Way of the truth of his case was therefore in its own Nature null and void After which he took an Account of the Affairs of the Country which were then in this Condition After the Departure of the great number of Crusades who had
the East were reduced and that Frederick drawing his advantage from this ill Success charged it all upon the Pope to render him odious to all the Princes and that he became still more powerful and more hot in his Persecutions of the Holy See and that while the West was troubled with this War it was impossible for any Crusade to prosper in the East all these considerations had made him resolve in the preceding Year according to the advice of the King St. Lewis who passionately desired the Peace of the Church to call a general Council at Rome to meet in Easter of this Year to which he invited all the Princes and Prelates of Christendom Frederick himself at first made some appearance of consenting to it and in order thereto to admit of a Truce with the Pope but he presently changed his opinion and upon the demand that the Lombards should be also comprised in this truce to the end that this War might not obstruct the Freedom of passage to the Council he took occasion to write to all Princes whom he endeavoured to interest in his Cause in which Letters he complained That this Council was not called by the Bishop of Rome his mortal and declared Enemy for any other end but to give his Rebellious Subjects who were at the last gasp the leisure to take breath and to renew the War with more Vigour than before at the same time when he would condemn and depose him in a Council wherein his Capital Enemy was to preside and wherein it was well known that many People who were Enemies to the Empire and others of whom he was well assured that they were his Creatures and dependants were to be his Judges That for these reasons he desired them to advertise all the Prelates in their Dominions that they should forbear this Voyage for which he could not promise them any safety in regard that though for the love of the Princes his Friends and Allies he was ready to favour their Subjects in all things he was nevertheless absolutely resolved not to permit any that should be so audacious as to go to a Council which was called against him by his mortal Enemy Mean while he caused all the Passages to be diligently guarded taking imprisoning treating ill and cruelly Massacring some of those who adventured to go by Land and to guard the Sea he set out a great Fleet and armed out twenty new Gallies at Naples and in Sicily which towards the end of March joined those of Pisa who were of the Emperor's Party under Entius the King of Sardinia The Pope also on his side having a great Soul as upon all occasions he made apparent and a Vigour much surpassing his Age which now approached to a hundred years and whose Courage was invincible in maintaining the Rights of the Church and the Supream dignity of the Pontificate writ the most curious Letters in the World to all Prelates to exhort them by all Considerations both Divine and humane to despise the Menaces of Frederick and generously to expose themselves to all hazards for the Service of the Church in the most important of all occasions which was to hinder her from being oppressed and robbed intirely of all her Liberty promising them withal that he would take care to Arm so potently at Sea for their safe passage that they should have no occasion to fear their Enemies year 1241 And in truth he gave particular and most pressing orders to Cardinal Gregory whom he had sent Legate to Genoa to spare for no charges to reinforce his Fleet with a great number of Ships which he was to join with those of Genoa and the Genoeses who made no doubt but they should be able to beat all that they should encounter upon the Sea promised with so much certainty and Considence to the Prelates of France Spain England and Italy who were come to that Port with the two Legates of France and England that they would conduct them to Rome without any manner of danger that they resolved to venture that passage rather than trust to the offers of the Emperor For that Politick Prince seeing them arrived at Genoa notwithstanding all his menaces changed his method and whether it were that he had a design to surprize them or that he would thereby endeavour to persuade the World that he was ready on his side to make all manner of reasonable advances towards Peace which could be expected from him he offered them all the Security which they could desire and in such manner as should best like them for their free passage through Lombardy and Romanca that so he might have the opportunity of informing them of the Justice of his care it being as he said altogether unreasonable that after having already been condomned by his Enemy Gregory without being heard he should also be condemned by those whom the Pope had called together to serve his own Passion against an Emperor who desired nothing but throughly to instruct them after which he would willingly submit to their Judgment But the Prelates durst not trust to the Faith of a Prince who was accused not to have too great an Honour for his word and being encouraged by the Pope and the Genoese Admiral who considently affirmed always that they should not need to fear any thing they all in conclusion went aboard the Fleet except the Arch-Bishops of Bourges and of Tours and the Bishops of Chartres and some others who not finding the Convoy that was promised them beyond Vienna and judging it was not safe for them to pass any further returned into their respective Diocesses And certainly it appeared quickly after that they had acted with reason and foresight for the Enemies Fleet which expected that of Genoa in their passage meeting with them about Pisa there was a necessity of coming to an engagement which was very fatal to the Genoese and to all the Prelates whom they conducted For three of their Gallies were sunk two and twenty taken with the greatest part of the other Ships together with the three Legates a hundred Ambassadours or Procurators of Cities and Bishops four thousand Genoese and almost all the Prelates who were going to the Council among which for France where the Arch-Bishops of Roan Ausch Bourdeaux and Besanson the Bishops of Nismes Agde and Carcassone the Abbots of the Cluniaques Cistercians and Clairvalleys whom Frederick who was then at Faenza which after a long Siege he had taken caused to be carried bound to the Castle of the Egg at Naples where the greatest part of them perished miserably by their long Sufferings only the Prelates of France escaped better by the interposition of St. Lewis who sent to demand them of the Emperor At first Frederick made some difficulty to deliver them they being as he said his Enemies but the King writ to him a Letter so reasonable but withal so positive giving him to understand on the one hand that they had no manner of intention
Horseback Thus heroically died this brave Lord in the eight and twentieth year of his Age sacrificing so great a Life worthy of a much better destiny with so much Courage for the safety of the whole Army which nevertheless he could not save by his glorious Death For this Obstacle being removed the Sarasins pursued their Victory so eagerly that they came up even to the Person of the King whom the Faithful and Valiant Geoffrey de Sergines covered with his Body and with his Sword in his hand made those stand further off who had the considence to approach him But in conclusion all that they could do whilest they did to no purpose perform the bravest Actions in the World was to Conduct the King into Kasel and it being impossible there to defend him against the whole Army of the Sarasins which had already inclosed the rest of the Troops and the Life of the King being in great danger who was reduced to that condition by his Sickness that he seemed to be in the last extremity a Herauld either of his own accord or by order having Proclaimed that they should lay down their Arms and not expose the Life of the King all yielded and submitted themselves to the discretion of these Barbarians who did not fail accordingly to make a most Barbarous use of their Victory For immediately without Mercy or Compassion they cut the throats of all the Sick and Wounded which they found in the Army and then having separated all the Persons of Quality the Captains and Officers from the private Souldiers and the Servants they did upon the spot cut of the heads of all the last who had the constancy to refuse renouncing of Jesus Christ making so many Martyrs as there were Christians thus brutishly Murdered As for the Persons of Quality who were Prisoners the Covetousness of the Infidels prevailing over their Cruelty they spared their Lives in hopes to draw from them considerable Sums of Money for their Ransoms but they treated them in their Imprisonment in a worse manner than the most unfortunate Slaves are wont to be used among Christians and that they might make them suffer in their Souls as well as Bodies they vented before them a thousand Blasphemies and committed a thousand outrages against the Cross thereby to dishonour that adorable God and Man who was Crucified upon it And that which was most surprizing in this Rencountre and which ought to serve the Christians with an excellent instruction which God was pleased to give them from the Mouth of one of these Barbarians which will one day confound them if they do not change their superstitious sentiments was That an old Sarasin Lord who by the richness of his habiliments and by the great train of Armed young Sarasins who accompanied him appeared to be a Person of the first quality among the Infidels coming into the Pavilion where most of the Lords were put gravely demanded of them by an Interpreter if they believed really that their God was made Man and that he had suffered Death for them upon the Cross and that he was raised from the Dead after three Days All the Lords who believed they should instantly be made Martyrs upon their frank confession of Jesus Christ answered with one Voice and without the least hesitation That this was their firm belief If it be so Messieurs replied the Wise Sarasin comfort your selves in your Affliction you have not yet suffered Death for your God as he hath done for you and since he had the Power to raïse himself again you ought also to believe that having had so much kindness for you and having so much Power he will very speedily deliver you out of your Captivity and Misfortunes And thereupon without saying any more he instantly withdrew And in truth he could not have said a greater thing For certainly it is all that can be said to Christians to give them the strongest and most solid consolation in the greatest of all adversities which may befal them in this Mortal State And this was it without doubt this admirable thought in which Lewis had been long confirmed and from whence this Holy King drew that incomparable constancy of Mind which made him appear greater in this Gulph of his Misfortunes into which he was plunged than ever he had appeared upon his Throne in France in the fairest day of his Triumphs after so many Victories as had laid all his Enemies under his Feet year 1250 The first thing which he did after he was come out of the long Swound into which his weakness and the pain of his Disease had thrown him and in which it was thought he would have expired was to ask of one of his Chaplains for the Book of his Prayers which he presently said for that day with the same Peace and Tranquility that by custom he had acquired as if he had been in his Oratory at Paris He praised God with all his Soul that he was found worthy to suffer for his sake and resolved that he would do nothing for his deliverance to the prejudice of his Honor or his Conscience or disadvantageous either to his Realm or to the Affairs of the Christians in the East It is true that at first the Sultan either that he was moved with Compassion for the miserable condition to which he saw so great a Prince reduced or rather that he feared to lose his Ransom treated the King with great Humanity and gave Order that he should be served with all manner of Care and Honor sending to him the most able of his Physicians who being acquainted with the Nature of the Malady with which he was afflicted in a few days put him into a condition quite out of danger But the Infidel soon returned to his own Natural Barbarity and seeing that the King constantly refused to surrender any of those places which the Christians held in Syria and in Palestine he suffered himself to be so brutishly transported as to threaten to put him to the Bernacles which was a kind of most cruel Torture which the Sarasins made use of to Torment their Enemies or their Criminals withal by dislocation of all their Bones But when he saw that this admirable Prince received all his Menaces with a generous disdain and without Emotion and that he remained fixed in his first Resolution he treated him more reasonably and caused it to be demanded of him whether besides Damiata he would give a Million of Bysances of Gold for his Ransom The Lord Joinville reduceth it in his History to five hundred thousand Livres which in my Opinion ought to be understood of so many Crowns in Gold for there is no manner of probability that a Bysance of Gold which was a considerable Price as appears in all Historians should be of no greater value than six pence of our Money To this the King answered instantly with a Marvellous greatness of Soul that he would give that Million for the Ransom of the Prisoners
God although he was assured that he might do it with a safe Conscience would thus throw Pearls before Swine and deliver Jesus Christ himself whom he believed by a faith so lively to be present under the Species of that adorable Sacrament and like Judas put him once again into the hands of his mortal Enemies to be exposed to those Outrages and Indignities which they might offer And in reality with all my search I could never find nor can there one single witness be produced of such an Extraordinary Action nor among all the Authors of that time any one Writer be found who hath said the least thing upon which it is possible to lay the Foundation of such a groundless Calumny The Pledges which St. Lewis gave for the security of the two payments are positively told us Alphonsus Count de Poitiers his Brother for the first all the Sick all the Munitions and Engins for the second that there is neither necessity room nor one word concerning the Holy Sacrament How then can he dare to assure us that St. Lewis left it in pawn with the Barbarians A Modern Writer ought to say nothing of the Ages past but upon good Warranty from the Records of those Times for what he writes for otherwise he is so far from being a good Historian that he becomes a paltry Romancer and Inventer of Fictions And herein du Haillan is excusable who having given this Account in a few words adds very honestly that there is no certainty of this Story And the Continuator of William of Tyre Heroldus another Protestant is much an honester man when he tells us plainly that all this is a meer Fable which hath been raised upon an ill grounded conjecture as many learned Persons have observed For by reason that after this the Egyptians caused a Chalice with the Hostia to be represented upon their Money their Tapistry hangings and their Publick Buildings some have conjectured that the reason was in commemoration that St. Lewis had left there the Ciboir or Box and the consecrated Hostia But from whence can one draw this untoward consequence or is it therefore that conjectures and such feeble conjectures as this must be imposed upon us for Truths in Fact that men take the liberty to publish them as things of the greatest certainty If conjectures be of any value it is more reasonable and natural to say That the Egyptians did this as in Triumph and that these were the Publick Trophies and Marks of the Victory year 1250 which in defeating the Christian Army they believed they had gained against the God of the Christians who was adored in the Eucharist and to whom they knew very well that St Lewis did most assiduously pay his duty with an infinite respect And this is the more credible in regard that this great Prince after his return into France carried money to be minted whereupon was to be seen Manacles to shew his imprisonment and thereby to animate the French one day to revenge upon the Sarasins the Injuries and Outrages which they had received from them during their Captivity I have thought it necessary in short thus to refute this gross mistake that so I might prevent many and some even among the Catholick Writers who have suffered themselves to be miserably deceived and who have misled others in relating a thing so little credible upon the bare word of Paulus Jovius who is their only Warranty for it in the first Book of his Elogies which he hath written of illustrious men in that of Saladin And yet even this Author saith no more but barely without quoting any Person That it is reported that St. Lewis gave him for a pledge the Holy Sacrament And so little doth he know what it is that he says that in the same place he adds that it was to Saladin or as he believes it is most probable to his Brother Saphadin that St. Lewis gave this Pledge Whereas it is of publick notoriety in History that these two Sultans were dead the one above fifty the other more than thirty years before the War which St. Lewis made in Egypt How can any one then pretend to be so far in the Right I do not say to assure it but even to relate upon the Authority of a Modern Historian of so little exactness and fidelity as Paulus Jovius a thing so little probable and so highly injurious to one of the greatest and without contradiction one of the holiest Kings of Europe But further all the Mamaluke Admirals and the Sarasins themselves were of a quite different opinion and could not imagine that St. Lewis was so cowardly as at last to resolve to give them for an Hostage the Eucharist which he adored after that Geoffrey de Sergines had protested as he did before them all that they would all chuse to perish rather than give the King himself in Hostage as the Sultan had demanded For they were so smitten with the bright lustre of the Royal Vertues of this great King and with that Majesty with which he treated them as if they had been his Subjects and indeed his Prisoners as they would say themselves in admiration of the strength of his Mind the greatness of his Soul and his Heroick Courage that one day in sounding before his Pavilion in honor of him all their Trumpets and Warlike Instruments they had it under debate whether they should chuse him for their Sultan and there was nothing that obstructed it besides his immoveable Resolution to do nothing which might in the least shock his Religion the Exercises whereof he would perform aloud like a Master and as if he were assured that they durst not so much as entertain a thought of opposing him so that they were used to say That he was the most Fierce Christian that they had ever seen And one may from hence well judge whether after this these Emirs would have the Confidence to demand from him to put that into their hands which they knew he acknowledged to be and worshipped as true God And that which was yet most admirable in this adventure was that this Holy King demanded sometime after of the Lord De Joinville what his opinion was in this matter and supposing the Admirals should offer him the Crown whether he should accept it to whom the good Seneschal after his manner answered very bluntly That he should be a very fool to accept it and trust himself to these Villains who had murdered their Prince And I answered the King For my part I declare to you that I would never have refused it And this without doubt proceeded from the pleasure with which he was ravished to have so fair an opportunity of sacrificing himself by accepting this Empire for the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in Egypt where Christianity had sometimes flourished by an infinite multitude of the Servants of God in the first Ages of the Church The Treaty being thus at last confirmed by
head of them and undertook to be their Captain Conductor For this purpose he passed into France with his Company and fell to Preaching as if he had been a Prophet and published this Crusade as he said from God Almighty for the deliverance of the King telling of a world of Miracles Visions and Revelations which he had especially from the Blessed Virgin and the Angels which these simple well meaning People especially the Countrymen and Shepherds looked upon as the express Commands of God For he said himself and caused it to be Preached also by his Impostors whom he sent abroad that Jesus Christ who was the good Shepherd and Innocence it self was resolved to make use of Shepherds and the good innocent Country People for the deliverance of the best King in the World And herewith he assembled an infinite number of young People Shepherds and Peasants who leaving their Teams and their Toils their Flocks and Herds took upon them the Cross and took up Arms all the Rabble joyning with them under this new head of the Crusade thereby to gain their Liberty under such a specious pretext as this of the deliverance of the King And in truth it was an Army of Villains of Thieves Murderers and Sacrilegious Wretches which was divided into Companies who had a Lamb painted in their Colours which gave occasion to their name of Shepherds He also himself created Captains among them who were called Masters to whom he gave the Sacrilegious Licence to exercise the Sacerdotal and Pontifical Functions so that they undertook to bless the People giving remission not only for Sins already committed but such as should be committed for the future making Marriages and Divorces according to their pleasure committing a thousand other Sacrileges and above all declaring War against the Priests and Monks whom they cruelly Murdered alledging they had drawn down the indignation of God upon the People and were by their dissolute Lives the cause of the King's Misfortunes and Captivity The People at first were so Sottish as to favour these new Crusades who where-ever they came committed infinite disorders Those of Orleans were so silly as to permit them to do what they pleased in their City where they put all the Clergy to the Sword They would have done the same at Berri where they began to Plunder but they found there some People too Wise and Courageous to endure it For after they had been driven out of Bourges where they thought to have done the same they did at Orleans the Gentlemen of Berri took Arms together with the Commons and pursued these Robbers and overtaking them between Mortemer and Villeneuve upon the Char they cut the greatest part of them in Pieces together with their Apostate General who was slain upon the place The remainder of this Rout who saved themselves by Flight and all that could be found of them in the other Provinces perished shortly after either by the Halter or by the hands of such as followed the Example of these brave Gentlemen of Berri to whom the Queen Regent was obliged for the Tranquillity which they restored to the state in the absence of the King who in this time was busie in the Affairs of the Realm of Jesus Christ in the East The first thing which he did after his Arrival at Ptolemais was to deliver all the Sarasin Prisoners according to his Promise and to send Men and Ships into Egypt to bring the Christian Captives from thence according to the Treaty as well those who were taken last as those who had been made Prisoners after the Truce of the Emperor Frederick with Sultan Meledin who had so generously exposed their Lives and Liberty for the Glory of Jesus Christ But these perfidious Admirals who already repented and reproached their own folly as they called it in letting so great a King escape out of their hands could never be perswaded to restore more than four hundred year 1250 of above twelve thousand whom they held in Chains at Caire unless he would pay more Money for their Ransom It is reported also that they did most inhumanely cause the Eyes of three hundred of the most Noble and bravest among the other Captives to be put out before they sent them back to the King thereby to put them out of a condition of ever being able to bear Arms against them any more And it was as it is credibly believed in Memory of these three hundred blind Gentlemen that St. Lewis afterwards founded the Famous Hospital of the fifteen score at Paris as it is declared in the Bulla which Pope Sixtus Quartus gave in the year one thousand four hundred eighty three in favour of that Famous House wherein there are at this Day maintained three hundred poor blind People of both Sexes according to the intention of their Founder St. Lewis But it was not here that the Perfidy and the Cruelty of these Infidel Emirs stopped for besides that they would never restore either the Arms the Horses the Munitions nor the Baggage of the Christians they picked out all the handsomest young Men and making them kneel down one after another under a Scymiter which the Executioner held up ready to give the blow they pressed them to renounce Jesus Christ and embrace the Law of Mahomet And in truth some of them overcome by a Cowardly fear of Death abandoned their Religion to preserve a Criminal Life which rendred them Infamous before God and Man for their base Apostacy but the greatest number of them dispising the Menaces of these Barbarians died gloriously in confessing Jesus Christ for whose sake they had taken upon them the Cross And thus it was that the Success of this Crusade which appeared so unfortunate in humane appearance became most happy in the sight of God whose Glory was highly exalted by these new Martyrs The King was surprized with this News and the perfidiousness of these Barbarians meaning well himself he thought during all the time of the Truce which he had concluded for ten years that nothing was to be feared as to Palestine but now perceiving he was deceived although he had caused the Ships to be made ready for his return into France yet he called an Assembly of all the Princes and Lords both of France and Palestine Where having opened to them the condition of his Affairs in France where it was apprehended that the English would make advantage of his absence as also the terms in which they then stood with the Egyptians who openly infringed the Treaty of the Truce and that in the most Barbarous and insolent manner in the World he commanded them to consider seriously what they thought fit to advise him thereupon and to give him their Opinions within eight Days Whether he ought to return into France or remain some time longer in the East The eight Days being expired the Council was reassembled where there were two Opinions directly opposite one to the other proposed The first was that of the
his Legates for his misfortune and writ to him most excellent Letters dated from Lyons the twelfth of August by which after he had said all the finest and most Christian things suitable to give consolation to a Prince in Afflictions of this nature he conjured him by no means to abandon Palestine but offered him all that he himself should think the Holy See was able to assist him in The Saâ—tan of Damascus also by his Ambassadors desired the conjunction of his Arms against the Mamalukes promising to yield to him thereupon the whole Kingdom of Jerusalem to which St. Lewis willingly accorded provided that the Admirals refused to give him satisfaction But they fearing the Arms of the King offered to give him all manner of satisfaction and to surrender to him all the Realm of Jerusalem which was in their hands provided that he would assist them against the Sultan of Damascus who they said offered the King what was none of his own And to manifest at this time that they dealt sincerely they sent immediately to him all the Christian Prisoners as also the Bones of Count Gantier de Brienne and sometime after the King peremptorily demanding that as a preliminary before he would enter upon a new Treaty with them they sent him the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls of Grand Caire and all the Children and Young People whom they had compelled to deny the Faith of Christ which alone were considerable Effects of the resolution which this Prince had taken to stay in Syria The Ancient of the Mountain also who at first according to his insolent custom had sent to demand a kind of Tribute which the other Princes had been used to pay him that thereby they might live in safety sent new Ambassadors to him with presents of Rock-Crystal in diverse Figures which was the only Rarity of his Country desiring his Amity and Protection in a most submissive manner And the King in return also sent him with rich presents Father Breton a Dominican who was very skilful in the Sarasin Language to endeavour his conversion although that pious design was not followed with answerable Success But that which was most taken notice of by the French Lords was the Ambassage of the Emperor Frederick who believing the King was still a Prisoner offered him all that lay in his Power for his deliverance and assured him that he had writ in most positive terms to the Sultan of Egypt of whose death he was then ignorant to let him know that he would renounce his Amity and his Alliance if he did not immediately restore the King to Liberty with all his People who were Prisoners In truth the greatest part of the French Lords distrusted the Intention of this Emperor in regard that although the King would never break with him notwithstanding his differences with the Pope yet nevertheless that Prince had alway manifested a displeasure because St. Lewis had protected Pope Innocent by affording him a Sanctuary in France and giving him the Liberty to hold a Council at Lyons where matters were carried so high against him However they rejoiced mightily that these Ambassadours did not arrive till after the King had regained his liberty in regard their was reason to be afraid lest if they found him still a Prisoner they might possibly have endeavoured underhand to hinder his deliverance But let it be as it will this was one of the last Actions good or bad that Frederick did for he died not long after in the same Year at Tarentum the third of December As the Actions of his Life were diversly discoursed of so was also his Death some will have it That he died impenitent without any fence of God or Religion without Sacraments That he was poysoned and also strangled by the hands of Mainfrey one of his Natural Sons whom he had made Prince of Tarentum and who by this Parricide thought to seize upon his Treasure and the Kingdom of Sicily And the Monk of Padua makes no manner of difficulty to send him directly to Hell loaden as he clownishly enough expresseth it with a Sack full of his sins On the contrary others affirm that he died very peaceably in his Bed between the Arms of the Arch-Bishop of Palermo year 1250 who gave him absolution he having confessed himself with marvellous Sentiments of contrition and humility that he forgave all his Enemies and submitted himself wholly to whatsoever the Church should ordain concerning the restitution of what appertained to it by his Will giving great Alms to pious uses and commanding that for the health of his Soul all the Prisoners which were in the Empire and in his other Kingdoms except Traitors to the State should be set at Liberty and in short saying and doing all the great things which might give hopes of his Salvation But it is frequent to find in History Relations directly contrary one to another which the Passions of contemporary Historians who have been ingaged in different Parties have left us and wherein it is not very easie to distinguish Truth from Falsehood which many times fails not of very plausible Probabilities to impose upon the Reader For my own part who if I could avoid it would neither deceive any nor be deceived I leave the Judgement of this Dead Prince to God Almighty to whom only it appertains and in his Character which I have given I have drawn both the good and the ill qualities which appeared during his Life and as to what appertains to the History of the Crusades I only say that as appears by an extract out of his last Will and Testament which may be seen in the Imperial Constitutions of Goldastus he gave a Legacy of a hundred thousand Ounces of Gold towards the carrying on the War for the recovery of the Holy Land and certainly this deserves so well that an Historian of the Crusades is bound to shew some respect to the Memory of an Emperor who after all performed many most brave and noble Actions if he had not had the misfortune to do some very ill ones year 1251 Mean while the King finding that he had now an Army able to take the Field he parted from Acre towards the end of the Winter and went to incamp near Cesarea which the Sarasins had demolished and which he undertook to rebuild and fortifie as he did neither the Sultan of Damascus nor the Egyptians offering to oppose him in regard that both the one and the other were in continual hopes to conclude their Treaty with him and to strengthen themselves by his assistance in the War which they were about to make Here it was that the Admirals of Egypt to anticipate their Enemy and ingage the King into their Party sent their Commissioners to assure him that they were ready to surrender the Young Runnegado's and the Heads of the Christians which they had set upon the Walls and Towers of Grand Caire and that they would also acquit him
Abagas King of the Tartars that he would go in Person into Palestine against the Sultan Bendocdar He also caused a fair Fleet of Men of War to be fitted out at Barcelona and a great many Gallies and imbarked himself in the beginning of September one thousand two hundred sixty nine a year before St. Lewis But being near the Isles of Majorca and Minorca met with a furious Tempest which threw him upon the Coasts of Languedoc he went no farther than Aigues-Mort from whence he returned by Land into his own Kingdom alledging for the hiding of a certain shameful and criminal Passion which governed his Soul and which possibly was the true cause of his altering his resolution That he was well satisfied that God dispensed with him for his Voyage which he made known by this accident was not at all pleasing to him so that there were only some few Ships of this Fleet which arrived at Ptolemais with Dom Ferdinand Sancho the Son of this King who presently after returned again without doing any thing As for what concerned the Greek Emperor he acted in this occasion only like a Politician for his own private Interest without ever intending to have any share in this War This Emperor was Michael Paleologus who about eight years before had taken Constantinople by Treachery from the Latins who lost that Empire under Baldwin the Second which Baldwin the First had so gloriously conquered with the French and Venetians about fifty eight years before This Greek Prince who feared to be attack'd on the side of Asia by Bendocdar after that Sultan should have conquered Syria and Palestine and who was already on the Coast of Greece by the New King of Sicily did all that possibly he could with the Pope and the Princes of the West to ingage them in a War against the Sarasins And in regard that the Pope had written to him That the way to secure himself from the Arms of the Latin Princes was to unite the Greek Church with the Latin and to go in Person as did St. Lewis to this Holy War he promised Shipping Provisions and Souldiers and all that could be desired for the War He also sent his Ambassadors into France offering to make the King the Arbiter of the difference which was about the Re-union of the two Churches but St. Lewis who would not undertake to be Judge in a matter of this nature which was purely spiritual remitted him to the Judgment of the Sacred College the Holy See being then vacant by the Death of Pope Clement who deceased about the end of the preceding year But after all this Emperor who was extreme politick had no desire or design either to make a true Re-union or to joyn with the Latin Princes in the Holy War All his Design was only to engage them in a Crusade and thereby to deliver himself from the fear which he had of the Sarasins and the King of Sicily So remote are the Intentions of Princes who act purely according to the Maxims of human Policy from what they seem to appear to those with whom they negotiate with a design to delude them And for the King of England to whom the Pope had at first sent the Cardinal Othobon his Legate he was too far advanced in years and too much oppressed with his own Affairs by reason of the troubles of his Realm to be in a condition to perform the Vow which he had made in taking upon him the Cross and to acquit himself of the Promise by which he was ingaged to the King to accompany him in this War with five hundred Knights for whom the King gave him a years pay in hand and believed that without restoring the Money he satisfied fully for all in giving his Blessing to his Son Prince Edward who not being in a condition to enter upon Action till after the Death of St. Lewis was able to do almost nothing in Palestine Thus of above two hundred and fifty thousand men which were levied in Europe there were none but the Troops of St. Lewis which were about sixty thousand men and the few Spaniards which went with the King of Navarr his Son-in-Law which were in a condition to pursue this Voyage Nevertheless he undertook it with so much resolution as if he had had the Forces of the whole Earth year 1269 The difficulty was only to resolve whither he should go and after having a long time conferred upon this Affair with the Ambassadors of the King of Sicily he resolved at last to go first against Tunis before he undertook to attack the Sultan of Egypt It was for this purpose represented to the King that he ought to begin with the Realm of Tunis if he would go immediately as in reason one ought to do to the Spring and the Root of the Mischief in regard that it was from Tunis that the Sultans of Egypt drew their principal Forces their Horses and the best of their men And besides that in leaving this Kingdom in their Reer as they must do if they marched directly against Egypt or into Palestine they must expose themselves to the hazard of losing their Convoys and the Supplies which were to come from Europe which would run the Fortune of being defeated and taken by the Shipping of these African Pirates who were continually crusing upon the Seas There were also many other Politick Considerations added which are easie to be found out when People are resolved to maintain an Opinion But in Truth that which was most prevalent was that the Inclinations of the two Kings were both conformable to this Enterprise for two very different Reasons For Lewis who like a great Saint regulated all his Actions by the Principles of Piety and Christianity believed that in shewing himself before Tunis that Moorish King who had given him hopes of his Conversion would turn Christian and be baptized which the King most passionately desired as appeared by what he said to the Ambassadors of that Prince whom he commanded to acquaint their Master That he would be contented with all his heart to be a Slave to the Sarasins again and to pass the rest of his Life in the most dreadful of their Dungeons and never more to see the Sun provided that the King of Tunis would with his whole Realm embrace the Faith of Jesus Christ But Charles who was more Politick than Devout resolved to make use of such a fair opportunity to assure himself of that Realm which without doubt was very convenient for the security of the Coasts of Naples and Sicily Thus the two Brothers resolved each upon the same thing though both of them for private Reasons which they did not impart to any Persons but only concluded upon the Enterprise against Tunis the King who fore-saw that it would not meet with a general approbation reserved the Declaration of his Resolution till he came to Cagliari in the Isle of Sardinia at which place he had appointed the Rendezvous of