And besides year 1204 he now was convinced that nothing could have been done more profitable and advantageous either for the Glory of God in the Good of the universal Church or in particular for the Deliverance of the Holy Land And for this purpose that such a Conquest might be preserved whereupon that of Palestine depended he writ his Circular Letters to all the Archbishops of France and their Suffragans by which he exhorted and commanded them to persuade the French to take Arms and march to the Assistance of their Brethren at Constantinople And above all he desired that they would send some zealous learned Men furnished with Books to labour in the Conversion of the Greeks The University of Paris which Philip the August had taken such care of that it might flourish in all manner of Learning and Knowledge was then in high Reputation throughout the World and this wise Pope who had himself been sometimes a Member of that great Body writ to them upon this Subject with so much force that many Doctors and Batchellors persuaded by his Reasons and inflamed with a Zeal truly Apostolical went to propagate the Light of Truth and the Orthodox Doctrine in the Greek Empire which had been obscured by many Errours of the Schism Thus the Divine Providence which with infinite Wisdom takes care of all things so disposed Matters that upon this Occasion it seemed to make a Retalliation by ordering that Paris should render the same Service to Greece which Greece had sometime bestowed upon France by sending thither St. Denis to be an Apostle for that Country The Pope also at that time did not fail to write to the victorious Army which had so gloriously executed that marvellous Enterprise to oblige them to stay another Year in that Empire to assure those Conquests provided that by the Infidels breaking of the Truce there was not an absolute necessity that they should speedily repair to Palestine to succour the Christians there against the Barbarians But whilst the Pope laboured with so much diligence for the Good of Christendom in the East there happened in the Holy Land two deplorable Accidents which very much disturbed the Joy of that happy Success of the Arms of the Confederates The first was the Death of the Countess Mary Sister of the deceased Count de Champagne Niece to Philip the August and Wife to Baldwin Earl of Flanders who had so generously taken up the Cross with her Husband resolving to run the same Fortunes with him but being big with Child she was not at that time in a Condition to go along with him and therefore after she had lain in she imbarked upon the Fleet which was commanded by John de Nele She had not been long at Ptolemais where she landed in expectation of her Husband Count Baldwin before she received the News that after the Taking of Constantinople he was elevated to the Imperial Throne The Joy which this News occasioned made such a violent Impression upon her Body extreamly infeebled with the Fatigues of so long a Voyage that not being able to surmount it she died of the two Excesses of Joy and Weakness So that the Ships which were sent by the Emperor to conduct her with Pomp to Constantinople to receive the Crown Imperial with her dearest Husband transported her Body only thither to be as it was with the most magnificent Ceremonies usual upon such sad Occasions interred in the Church of Sancta Sophia year 1205 This sad Accident was presently succeeded by another which brought a great Change in the Affairs of the Realm of Jerusalem For King Emeri de Lusignan dying in the City of Acre and the little Emeri his Son not long surviving him Isabella his Mother the Wife of Emeri at the same time also following them to the Tomb the Crown by Right of Succession descended to the Princess Mary her eldest Daughter who was usually called the Marchioness because she was born to her of the famous Marquis de Montferrat Prince of Tyre her second Husband Hereupon the Estates being assembled to provide a Husband for the young Queen who might be able to act and govern the Realm in a time wherein there was such need of a King of great Abilities to supply the defect of Forces which remained in the Realm after so many Disasters But the Jealousie and Ambition of so many Great Men of the same Realm not permitting them to agree in an Election of one of their own number they being all Rivals and resolved not to give place one to another at last year 1205 after they had a long time debated this tender and important Point they resolved that so they might steer an even Course betwixt the Natives and Strangers year 1206 since they could not possibly please them both year 1207 that they would not take one of the Natives of the Country but that they would send into France from whence the first Kings of Jerusalem came and into no other Country and from thence desire one of Philip the August and thereupon they dispatched the Bishop of Ptolemais and the Lord of Cesarea as their Ambassadors year 1208 to receive from the hands of that great King some Prince or Lord of France upon whom together with the young Queen they might confer the Crown of Jerusalem There was no question something very surprizing and unaccountable in the Conduct of Philip in this Encounter for there were in France many great Princes and Lords of very high Quality upon whom he might have cast his Eyes yet nevertheless whether their illustrious Merit his own particular Inclination or some unknown politick Reasons governed him in his Choice two several times successively he chose it is true out of a very Noble House though something inferiour in Quality to many others two Brothers whom upon two Occasions he preferred in the Disposal of two Crowns They were Gautier II. Count de Brienne in Champagne and his Brother John de Brienne the Son of Erard II. Count de Brienne and Agnes de Montheliard He married Gautier to Alberia eldest Daughter of Tancred King of Sicily who with her Mother Sybilla escaping out of the Prison wherein they had been kept by the Emperor Henry IV. in Germany had sled for Refuge into France This valiant Man accompanied with no more than threescore Knights and forty Esquires of the Crusades who resolved to follow his Fortune instead of going to Venice with the Princes had the Confidence to pursue the Rights of his Wife and re-conquer a Kingdom without any other Fond than twenty thousand Livres which he received from King Philip and five hundred Ounces of Gold which he had from the Pope which would raise but a very inconsiderable number of Troops but notwithstanding this with his few Men he acted with so much Courage and Conduct that after having defeated the Emperor's Lieutenants in several Encounters he made himself Master of Pavia Calabria Capua and even Naples it self and in a manner
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
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
Reason and that Ingratitude which is so common among men defacing the fairest Character of Humanity should not be found in the most Savage Creatures whom the Charms of good Offices have devested of their natural Fierceness towards their Benefactors But to return to our History The taking of Marra revived the sleeping Quarrel between the Earl of Tholose and the Prince of Tarentum For the Earl pretended to dispose of this Place as he had done before of Albaria and Rugia upon which he had seized during the Summer but Bohemond who thought there was no manner of Reason that Raimond should do that here which he would not suffer to be done at Antioch opposed him stoutly and in the Dispute they so heated one the others Spirits that the Tarentine thinking he had Reason to do the same on his part returned and immediately drove out all the Earls Forces out of the Forts which they held at Antioch The Princes themselves could in no fort disapprove of this Procedure which they found to be but reasonable especially after having discoursed Raimond at Rugia between Marra and Antioch they found it impossible to perswade him to hear Reason which obliged them to leave him and return to Antioch Thus the great Design of the Conquest of the Holy Land which all the Forces of the Infidels had not been able to hinder seemed in a manner to be ruined by this Difference between two Persons otherwise reputed extraordinary Virtuous and as wise as any of that Age. So that we may see that Wisdom and Reason instantly lose all their Authority when once Passion by the Heart seizing upon the Mind makes herself Mistress there year 1098 But God who was the Chief in this Enterprize repaired that by the Zeal of the feeble and the little ones which was in Danger of being ruined by the Great and the Wise men of the World For the Soldiers of Count Raymond who on one side suffered extremely for want of Provisions after they had been one Month at Marra and on the other hand had a passionate Desire to atchieve the Conquest of Jerusalem thought that the Ambition of the Earl was the only Obstacle who after the Example of Bohemond endeavoured to establish his own Fortune in these Conquests as the other had done in Cilicia during the Summer And therefore making an Insurrection while the Conference was at Rugia they threw down all the Walls of Marra thereby to take away from the Earl the Temptation which he might have to keep it and stay there and more over after his Return they protested that if he would not immediately march in the Head of them towards Jerusalem they would chuse another Captain who they were assured would lead them that they were resolved to accomplish their Vow and that they did not believe they should find themselves alone or abandoned by the other Princes Raimond extremely surprised at this Resolution and fearing in Truth that he should be wholly deserted by his own as he was already by the others his first Zeal which had been so weakened by his Jealousie against the Prince of Tarentum began afresh to flame in his Soul by seeing that of his Soldiers like a Torch that is just ready to be extinguished at the Approach and Touch of another In Conclusion he presently altered his Resolution and setting fire to Marra to shew that he had quitted all Pretensions to it upon the Thirteenth of January he marched out barefoot in the Posture of a Penitent by that Humiliation to repair the Scandal which he had given to his Soldiers who had justly accused him of Ambition He was followed with an incredible Chearfulness of his whole Army who made no Scruple seeing him in this Estate but that he had taken up the same Fervor which he had so well witnessed in being the first Person who took upon him the Cross and who upon all Occasions was wont to animate others by his Example and Perswasion to embrace it with the same Zeal And God also was pleased to bless this generous Action for Robert Duke of Nomandy and Prince Tancred being advertized of this News immediately parted from Antioch whilest the other Princes prepared to follow and joyned him at Capharda where he had posted himself after he had quitted Marra taking the right hand Way toward the Sea year 1099 The taking of Antioch and the great Victory which they had obtained over the Turks the Persians and Arabians had so filled all Syria Phenicia and Palestine with the Terror of the Christian Arms that most of the Emirs who held any Places in those Provinces under the Sultans of Persia or Babylon and Egypt sent their Ambassadours with rich Presents to the Princes to desire their Friendship and Protection promising to pay them Tribute and furnish them with Provisions in their Passage Now in Regard the Principal Design was to go immediately to Jerusalem and to leave the Conquest of the rest till that was taken the Princes thought fit to accept their Offers only the Emir of Tripelis was refused for Earl Raymond perswaded them to besiege Arcas by Reason of the Advice which he received from some Christians who were detained Prisoners at Tripolis that it would either easily be taken or that the Emir to obtain Peace would compound with them for a mighty Sum of money and likewise restore them to their Liberty Arcas which others call Archis was a very strong Town situate upon a Hill some two Leagues from Tripolis and one from the Sea in the middle of a most beautiful and fertile Plain which extends it self along the Lebanon and Antilebanon to the Sea shore The Earl who thought to carry it presently assaulted it the eleventh day of February but the Emir having placed in it a very strong Garrison he was repulsed and constrained to besiege it which he did to no purpose for three months losing before it a great Number of Valiant Men and amongst the rest Anselm de Ribemont descended from the Ancient Earls of Valenciennes and Chastelain of that City one of the most renowned among the Crusades and the Accident by which it happened being altogether extraordinary it well deserves a particular place in this History year 1099 This brave Lord being one Night about to go to Bed having fought stoutly all that day he saw his excellent Friend the young Engelram the Son of the Earl of St. Paul who a little before was slain at the Siege of Marra enter into his Tent. Now Anselm who had an undaunted Soul and to whom the Sight of his Friend gave an extraordinary Joy And how now my dear Engelram said he without being at all disordered are you still alive whom I saw dead at Marra Those replyed Engelram who finish their Lives in the Service of Jesus Christ never die But how comes it Said Anselm that I see you now incomparably more beautiful than you were before Look replyed Engelram shewing him a most admirable Structure in
coming of the Crusades parted from thence the latter End of April with those who were already come and descended down the Danubius as far as Presbourg whereupon Whitsunday he held a general Council of all the Princes Prelates and high Officers of his Army to regulate their March and to establish that good Order and those wholesome Laws against all Crimes and Licentiousness which were so necessary in an Army and which he was resolved should be most exactly obeyed as they were afterwards during the whole Voyage In Conclusion after having caused Henry his eldest Son to be crowned King of the Romans he took his March at the Head of a fair and flourishing Army year 1189 consisting in more then one hundred and fifty thousand Soldiers all choise men with which he crossed all Hungary with King Bela who came to receive him upon the Frontier conducted him as far as Belgrade from whence after a Repose of eight days he entred into Bulgaria which he was two Months in passing by reason that he was forced so often to combat with those Barbarous People who laid continual Ambushes in his Passage and whom he could defeat no other ways but by guarding the Passage on both sides of his Army and as fast as they could be taken hanging up these Thieves upon the next Trees where they were seized But he had something more to doe when he entred upon the Territories of the Greek Emperor where believing he should pass as a Friend and meet with all manner of Refreshments and Accomodations for his Army as had been promised him he found nothing throughout but Enemies Armed against him by the Perfidy of the Greek Emperor but it did not fail at last to fall heavy upon him as it had formerly upon the two Comnenius's Alexis and Manuel in the two first Crusades This Emperor was that Isaacius Angelus who about five Years before had been proclaimed Emperor in a Sedition which himself had raised for the Destruction of the Cruel Andronicus He was a man who had little either Soul or Heart but the Want of those was supplied with Presumption and Vanity in abundance by which he made all his Follies and those Vices most apparent which are most capable of rendring a Prince despicable and hated for he was sottish even to downright folly extreme light and inconstant cowardly Voluptuous Effeminate most foolishly Prodigal and infamously Covetous taking a Pleasure to receive from all sorts of Persons though it were but Toys add Trisles and making no Difficulty to take any thing that pleased his Fancy even to the horrible Sacriledge of robbing the Churches without any Scruple of their Jewels Plate and Ornaments and even the Consecrated Vessels to make use of at his Publick Entertainments notwithstanding that he seemed even to a strange Bigottry to make Profession of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin to whom he made most Magnificent Offerings and honoured her with Images consecrated to her the richest in the World all glistering with Gold and sparkling with the fairest Stones that could be procured As for any thing more he was aman without Truth Faith and Honour who delighted in nothing but the Injoyment of his Riches and the Sweets of Empire which he soolishly promised himself he should enjoy more than Thirty Years and in the Interim abandoning all the Care and Trouble of it to some one of his Favourites which was sometimes a doating old Eunuch otherwhiles some young fantastical Boy scarcely past the Discipline of a School or got free from the Ferula who now must manage a Sceptre and by whom he permitted himself to be lead as if he had been a meer Child See what sort of man this Emperor Isaacius was who after he had promised to Frederick not only all safe Passage but all manner of Assistance did all that lay in the Compass of his Power against him and that for these two more especial reasons First for that Saladin who knew well how to amuse him had made him abundance of Vain Promises to bestow Palestine upon him upon Condition that he should obstruct the Passage of the Occidentals That he should enter into an alliance with him and thereby oblige himself to send his Gallies to his assistance and that his Ambassadors which he had at the Court of Constaminople should be there treated with all manner of Honour The Second Reason was that he permitted himself most sottishly to be seduced by the Impostures of a remarkable Cheat the manner of which I am about to relate There was a certain Venetian who having got himself naturallized a Geeek at Constantinople took upon him the Name of Dositheos and there turned Monk in the famous Monastery of Studius from whence he hoped that he should one day be able to Mount to the highest Dignities of the Church Now whether this Fellow was really a great Master in the Art of Astrology and taking the true Horescope or that he was really acquainted with that which is more Criminal and the black Art or which I think was the most easie that he boldly played the Prophet at all Adventure in regard he had nothing to loose but his little Credit if his Prophecies should not prove true certain it is that he predicted to Isaacius a long time before it happened that he should one day attain the Empire That Prediction had made such an Impression upon his mind year 1189 and had gained so much Belief and Consideration with him that he believed it as an Oracle and happening luckily to fall out accordingly there was nothing which he thought too much to do for Dosithcos So that some little time after having made two Patriarchs of Constantinople be successively deposed under false Pretexts he having therefore elevated them to that Dignity he took a great Phancy to transferr his Dositheos from the Chair of Jerusalem whereof he possessed only the Titular Right as being one of the Imperial Cities But he found a great Obstacle to the Accomplishment of his Desire in Regard that in the Code of the Oriential Church there were found certain Canons of more than one Ages standing which prohibited these kind of Translations particularly of Metropolitans and much more of one Partiarchate to another To surmount this Difficulty he had recourse to a very pleasant Artifice which was apparently suggested to him by this false Dositheos and which succeeded according to his Wish There was in his Court the Famous Theodore Balsamon who of all the Greeks was esteemed the most able and skilful Canonist and who hath left us a Digest of the Canons of little Fidelity more then to inable the Adversaries of the Roman Church of which he declared himself upon all Occasions the Implacable Enemy from thence to draw Arguments of an Eternal Opposition This man was Patriarch of Antioch where he yet retained not the least Authority in regard that City was wholly in the Power of the Latins who had there a Patriarch of their own I would
desired Tancred to send for him to Messina that from him he might be informed of the Success of this War which he was about to undertake to re-conquer Jerusalem from the Hands of the Infidels This is commonly the nature of Men especially of Great Men to have a longing desire to penetrate into the inscrutable Secrets of the time to come year 1190 by a dangerous and vain Curiosity which usurping upon the peculiar Prerogative of God Almighty who hath reserved this Knowledge incommunicably to himself he does not fail to punish that bold Presumption by some Misfortune either agreeable or contrary to the Prediction which is made But that which gave Richard the greater desire to consult this famous Abbot was the sad News of the deplorable Accident which had befallen the Emperor taking him out of the World in the middle of his victorious Course and which it was confidently reported had been predicted to him most clearly by the Abbot who positively affirmed that he should have no good Success This gave a mighty Confirmation to all those People who had conceived this Opinion of him that he had the Gift of Prophecy Come he did then and according to his custom taking upon him the Tone of a Prophet he presently told the two Kings with a serious Air and without a Moments Hesitation That it was to no manner of purpose that they were going to Jerusalem to deliver the Holy Land in regard that the Time appointed for its Deliverance was not yet come Philip the August who had a most solid Mind and who took no further care but to give good Order for the present thereby to assure the future in which consists the best Art of Prediction was in no pain for this Discourse of the Abbot to which he gave but little Credit But Richard who had a certain Weakness for those kind of Prophecies had a Curiosity to be further satisfied demanded of him upon what kind of Knowledge he founded this Prediction that he pronounced with such Assurance Whereupon this Visionary whose Head was full of nothing but the Chimera's of his own Dreams which he made upon the Apocalyps of which he thought he had as perfect an Understanding as St. John who writ these Revelations fell to interpreting the Visions contained in that Book and especially that of the horrible Dragon with seven Heads which would have devoured the Man-child which was to be born of the Woman cloathed with the Sun The sixth Head of this Monster he said was Saladin who had taken Jerusalem who should certainly be destroyed by the Christians who should regain this holy City but that according to the Mystery of the Numbers denoted in the Vision it should not be till seven Years from the Taking of it were accomplished If it be so briskly replied Richard interrupting him What have we done to come so far to no purpose Your Voyage answered the Abbot was necessary for your own Glory for that by doing this God will make you triumph over all your Enemies and will elevate you above all other Princes of the Earth The Events plainly shewed that these two first Predictions were most false since Jerusalem was not taken in that time and that the Voyage was in conclusion very unfortunate for King Richard who fell into the Hands of his Enemies and was very ill treated by them But his Illusion or rather his Extravagance and Folly appeared much more when pursuing the Interpretation of this Mystery according to the disorderly Capricioes of his own Imagination he added that the seventh Head of this Dragon was Antichrist who should be born in Rome and should be Pope for this dangerous Devote had the Confidence to publish this Folly and boldly to affirm that this Enemy of Jesus Christ was at that time in his youthful Age. That in the Year 1199. the sixth Seal of the fatal Book should be opened and that thereupon should ensue the Kingdom Persecution and the Death of Antichrist and that the Gospel should before that be preached in all the World But he might very well himself before his own Death see the falseness of his Prediction And from that time that he undertook with so much Confidence to maintain that Opinion he was most powerfully confuted and convinced of the little probability of his Prophecies by the Archbishops of Ousch and Roan the Bishops of Bayonne and D'Eureux and other learned Ecclesiasticks who were present at this Conference and shewed him by Scripture which plainly tells us that the Time which he undertook to limit was wholly unknown that his Conceptions were not only false but rash and vain Imaginations of his own Fancy which he endeavoured to obtrude upon the World for Truths Insomuch that King Richard himself who now undertook to be able to confute him made no more Account of him than King Philip had done and no further amused himself about him See what manner of Man this Abbot Joachim was and what Belief he gained upon the Minds of the English and French year 1190 who were not altogether so credulous as the Italians many of which though did not believe him but only among the Common People his Fictions passed Currant as if they had been Heavenly Oracles But it is observable that this hath constantly been the Destiny of those who would undertake to prophesie or to explain future Events by accommodating them to the Mysteries of the Apocalyps to lose the greatest part of their Reason and Understanding by dashing against that Rock which hath split so many Spirits as by their foolish Curiosity have at last only gained the infamous Reputation of being Visionary Extravagants The two Kings therefore without being retarded by the Predictions of this Man whom they sent back to his Solitude of Haute-Pierre in Calabria to write upon the Prophets and the Apocalyps resolved to pursue their Voyage so soon as the Season would permit Philip who always pressed the King of England not to delay the time parted the first in the Month of March with all his Fleet and arrived fortunately in two and twenty days upon Easter-Eve before Acre where he was received by the Crusades with incredible Transports of Pleasure as if an Angel from Heaven was come to the Relief of the Christian Army which had now besieged this important Place very near three Years So soon as he was arrived he visited the Works and took his Quarters so near the Walls that his Lodgment was within less than a Discharge of the Darts and Arrows of his Enemies He then began to plant his Slings for great Stones his Rams and other Engines which played to so good purpose and so furiously upon the place that in few days he had made a reasonable fair Breach At which time the French presented themselves before it in order to an Assault resolved to perish or to carry the Place and all the Honour of the Siege And no doubt can be made but the City had certainly that day been
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
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
all parties according to the agreement the King surrendred Damiata upon the Friday after Ascension-Day and was at the same time set at Liberty himself with all the Prisoners so far as that the four Gallies fell down the River to the Bridge of Damiata into which place Geoffrey de Sergines entred early in the Morning year 1250 to deliver it into the hands of the Sarasins after he had drawn out all the French together with the Queen who after the Imprisonment of the King had been reduced to great extremities For so soon as she received the sad news she fell into such an excessive grief that believing she was upon the point of falling into the hands of the Sarasins she threw her self upon her knees before a Knight of fourscore years of Age who never forsook her and obliged him to promise her with an Oath to grant her one request which she desired him to do for her and this was that if the Sarasins took the City he would cut off her head the Old Knight promised her he would adding with great frankness that before she had done him the Honor to desire it of him he had already resolved to do it thereby to put her into a place of security and out of the Power of those Barbarians The Extremity and Violence of her grief brought her also into her Travail three Days before her time and she was delivered of a Son to whom they gave a Surname drawn from her Affliction calling him Tristan as being in truth the true Son of her Sorrow And upon the same Day understanding that the Pisans the Genoese and all the rest of the People were resolved to abandon the place fearing the Siege and Famine she prevailed so far upon them with her Prayers and Tears that they were contented to stay she promising to furnish them with Provisions at her own Charges which she did at the Expence of above three hundred thousand Livres At length the Queen the Legate the Bishops and the Duke of Burgundy who retired thither in a good hour together with all the Garrison which was Commanded by Oliver de Termes imbarqued upon the Ships which expected them below the Bridge and steered away directly for Acre according to the Order of the King and the Sarasins entred into Damiata where presently making themselves Drunk with the Wines they found there they most brutishly slew all the Sick and fired the Machins which according to the Treaty they were to surrender But the Admirals did far worse for instead of delivering the King and the Prisoners so soon as Damiata was put into their Possession they put it under deliberation Whether they should not rather cut all their throats and one among them maintained that having committed so great a Crime against the Law of Mahomet as they had done in killing their Sultan they should yet commit a greater as he shewed them out of one of their Books if they should suffer the greatest Enemy of their Law to escape with his Life out of their hands And the matter went so far that the four Gallies rowed up the River till they came within a League of Caire insomuch that all the Prisoners except the King whom they Guarded in his Pavilion upon the Bank of the River had now lost all manner of hopes of Life or Liberty But at last the better Opinion prevailed and there were some among them who urged vigorously that if after having slain their Sultan they should again imbrue their hands in the Blood of one of the greatest Kings in the World after having given their Faith to him by such a Solemn Treaty they should pass through the whole Earth for the most infamous and the most abominable of all Mankind but to speak truth I am rather of an Opinion that the eight hundred thousand Bysances which they would have lost by committing such a horrible Crime without any manner of advantage was the weight which turned the Scale and was the strongest reason to perswade them for this time at least to be honest and to keep their Word and their Oath And this informs us that interest is the best Guarranty of any Treaty being the thing which hath more Power over most People to oblige them to stand to their agreements than all the Oaths and all the Hands and Seals which they can give Thus then after two and thirty Days Captivity the King all the Princes and the Lords of France and Cyprus and of the Realm of Jerusalem with the poor remainder of Soldiers which there was left after such a terrible defeat wherein there were lost near thirty thousand Men were set at Liberty the Count de Poitiers only excepted who was kept at Damiata for the security of the first Payment and the same Evening the King was Conducted by twenty thousand Sarasins who to do him Honor Marched on Foot to a large Genoese Gally which attended him below the Bridge and upon which he imbarqued with his Brother Charles year 1250 Count d' Anjou Alberic Marshal of France the Lord de Joinville Philip de Nemours who sold the Town of that name to the King the brave Geoffrey de Sergines and Nicholas General of the Order of the Trinity or the Mathurins The others went aboard the Vessels which were prepared for them and the next Day the Counts of Flanders Bretany and Soissons accompanied with divers Great Lords took their leave of the King and set Sail for France where they all happily arrived except Peter de Dreux Duke of Bretany who being very much indisposed when he took Ship died upon the Sea three Weeks after His Body was carried by his Knights into Bretany where he reposeth in the Nunnery of Villeneuve near Nantes and although the War which he made with St. Lewis in the beginning of his Reign and which thrive so ill that he only got by it the shameful name of Illclerk will be a blemish to him in History yet his Zeal and Courage which he made so highly conspicuous in his two Voyages to the Holy War have so effaced that blot by the Blood which he therein shed for the interest of Jesus Christ and by the happy Death which he found in that service that one may lawfully give him a place among the Hero's of the Crusade The King stayed yet two Days the Saturday and the Sunday after Ascension upon the River in his Gally in expectation of the finishing of the first payment that so the Count de Poitiers might be set at Liberty and understanding in the Evening of the Sunday that there wanted thirty thousand Livres to make up the two hundred thousand and that the Templers who had store of Money aboard their Gallies refused to lend him so much under pretext that by their Rule they were under an Oath to part with nothing of their Revenue but to their Great Master the devout King made them know upon this occasion that he was their first and their greatest Master