“Et jam juncta thoro est mihi Berengaria, regisFilia Navarræ.”
[679]Rigord in vit. Phil. Aug.; Hovedon; Rymer.
[680]Bernardus.
[681]Various knights are mentioned by Bernard the Treasurer, as having signalized themselves greatly, both prior to the siege and after its commencement. One in particular, whom he calls the Green Knight, even raised the admiration of the Saracens to such a height that Saladin sent for him, and made him the most brilliant offers, in hopes of bringing him to join the Moslems. It is more than probable that this Green Knight was the famous Jacques d’Avesnes, and was so called from the colour of the cross which he wore.
[682]Auteurs Arabes, rec. de Reinaud; Branche des loyaux Rignages; Rigord in vit. Phil. August.
[683]Boha Eddin, rec. de Reinaud.
[684]Brompton, A. D. 1191; Ben. Abb. Peterborough, 1191.
[685]Hovedon; Ben. Abb. Peterborough.
[686]Hovedon; Brompton; Will. Newb.
[687]Boha Eddin; Walter Vinesauf; Hovedon; Benedict of Peterborough
[688]Peterborough; Vinesauf; James, Cardinal of Vitry, lib. i.
[689]Mills speaks of the conduct of Richard in the following terms: “The sanguinary and ungenerous Richard killed or cast overboard his defenceless enemies; or, with an avarice equally detestable, saved the commanders for the sake of their ransom.” That author, however, says not one word of the Saracens’ fighting under false colours, or of the horrible cargo which they carried in their ship, though he afterward himself alludes to the sufferings of the crusaders from the bites of reptiles. Is this historical justice?
[690]Bernard the Treasurer.
[691]Boha Eddin, rec. Hist. Arabes de Reinaud.
[692]His name, literally translated, meansthe just king, the sword of the faith. From Saif Eddin the Christians composed the word Saphaddin, by which he is generally designated in the chronicles of the time.
[693]Vinesauf; Hovedon.
[694]Chron. St. Denis.
[695]James of Vitry; Hovedon; Vinesauf; Ben. of Pet.; Bernard the Treasurer.
[696]Rigord; William of Nangis; James of Vitry; Bernardus; Vinesauf; Hovedon. All these authors give different accounts of the numbers sacrificed.
[697]Bernard the Treasurer affirms that Philip caused the prisoners to be executed; but most of the other historians agree, that this piece of cruelty was committed by Richard alone.
[698]Rigord.
[699]Bernard the Treasurer says, that the English king lodged in the house of the Templars, and that Philip Augustus occupied the citadel; “Le Roi de France ot le chastel d’Acre, et le fist garnir et le Roi d’Angleterre se herberja en la maison du Temple.” Most authorities, however, are opposed to this statement, declaring that Richard lodged in the palace, and Philip with the Templars.
[700]Bernard the Treasurer; Rigord; William the Breton; Branche des royaux Lignages.
[701]Rigord; Robert of Gloucester.
[702]James of Vitry; Boha Eddin; Emad Eddin; Recueil de Reinaud.
[703]Benedict of Peterborough.
[704]Bernard the Treasurer; James of Vitry, &c.
[705]Hovedon; James of Vitry; Vinesauf.
[706]Vinesauf; Boha Eddin.
[707]Hovedon; Vinesauf.
[708]James of Vitry; Trivet Annales.
[709]Bernard the Treasurer.
[710]James of Vitry.
[711]This gentleman was taken prisoner, but was of course ransomed immediately by Richard.
[712]Hovedon; Boha Eddin.
[713]Vinesauf; James of Vitry.
[714]Hovedon; William of Nangis, ann. 1192; Vinesauf.
[715]For many years a horde of plunderers had been established in the mountains of Phœnicia, in the neighbourhood of Tortosa and Tripoli, who, in the end, obtained the name of Assassins, from the small dagger which was their only weapon, and which was calledhassassin. Their religion was a corrupted species of Islamism, and their government a fanatical despotism. Their chief was called sometimes the Ancient, sometimes the Lord of the Mountains, and among the Christians he obtained the name of the Old Man of the Mountains. By working on the exciteable imaginations of an illiterate and fanatical race, the lords of this extraordinary tribe had obtained over them an influence unknown to any other power which was ever brought to sway the mind of man. The will of the Old Man of the Mountains was absolute law to each of his subjects. Whatever were his commands, whether to slay themselves or another, they asked no questions—paused not to consider of justice or injustice—but obeyed; and when sent to execute the will of their lord upon anyone, they followed their object with a keen sagacity and unalterable perseverance, that placed the life of each individual in the hands of their remorseless monarch. Nothing could turn them aside from the pursuit; no difficulties were too great for them to surmount; and when they had struck the victim, if they escaped, it was well; but if they were taken, they met torture and death with stoical firmness, feeling certain of the joys of Paradise as a compensation for their sufferings. The number of this tribe was about sixty thousand, all conscientious murderers, whom no danger would daunt, and no human consideration could deter. Such were the men who slew Conrad of Montferrat; and yet the French with the wild inconsistency of their national hatred, attributed the deed to Richard, who never found aught on earth that could induce him to cover his wrath when it was excited, or to stay him from the open pursuit of revenge, which was always as bold and unconcealed as it was fierce and evanescent. From this tribe we have derived the wordassassin.—See James of Vitry; Matthew of Paris; William of Tyre; Ducange ou Joinville.
[716]Bernard the Treasurer; James of Vitry; William of Nangis.
[717]Bernard; Vinesauf; Matthew Paris.
[718]Little doubt can exist that one great cause of the abandonment of the crusade were the differences between Richard and the Duke of Burgundy. The Frenchman was jealous of the fame which the English king would have acquired by taking Jerusalem, and consequently took care that he should not effect that object. Such is the account given by Bernard the Treasurer—a Frenchman, who always showed a manifest tendency to exculpate his countrymen, whenever there existed a fair excuse. See the Chronicle in old French, published in the collection of Martenne and Durand. It was generally attributed to Hugh Plagon, but has since been proved to be the original of Bernard the Treasurer.
[719]Vinesauf.
[720]Hovedon; Vinesauf.
[721]The French refused to march to the assistance of Jaffa.
[722]Bernard the Treasurer.
[723]Bernard the Treasurer.
[724]The Queen Berengaria and Joan of Sicily left Acre on the 29th of September, previous to the departure of Richard, who set out on the 25th of October, 1192. After encountering a violent storm, which scattered his fleet and wrecked the greater number of his vessels, Richard, with his single ship, touched at Zara, where he landed, accompanied only by two priests and a few knights of the Temple, whose garb he had assumed. From Zara, Richard endeavoured to make his way through Germany in disguise, but in vain. The news of his journey had already spread; the unforgiving Archduke of Austria, whose banner he had trampled on at Acre, caused every road to be narrowly watched. One after another of his companions were sent away by the king, till at length, with a single squire, he arrived at a small town near Vienna; where, taking up his abode at a petty lodging, Richard despatched his follower for provisions. The squire was recognised by some of the spies of the archduke, and Richard was taken and cast into prison. The royal captive was speedily given into the hands of the emperor of Austria, who concerted with Philip Augustus the means of detaining him in secrecy. His confinement, nevertheless, was soon known in England, and means were used to discover his precise situation. General tradition gives the merit of having ascertained his lord’s prison to his favourite troubadour Blondel, or Blondiau; and we may be surely allowed to regret that no grave historian has confirmed the tale. However that may be, the place of the king’s confinement was discovered, and England began to cry loudly for justice from all Christendom. Knightly honour and religious feeling were invoked, and the infamy of detaining a traveller, a pilgrim, and a crusader was proclaimed with the loud and powerful voice of a people’s indignation. Henry at length felt himself obligated to yield some appearance of justice for detaining an independent monarch; and Richard was brought before the diet at Worms, where he was charged with imaginary crimes, the chief of which was the assassination of Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat. Had the least shadow of reason been left on the side of the emperor, Richard’s fate would have been sealed; but the English monarch defended himself with so much eloquence and justice, that no doubt remained on the minds of those who heard him, and his ransom was agreed upon at one hundred thousand marks of silver. This money was obtained with difficulty, and John and Philip strove to raise greater sums to tempt the cupidity of the emperor to retain the lion-hearted monarch. The avaricious Henry hesitated on their proposals, and thus was the liberty of the noble king of England set up to auction, till the Germanic body indignantly interfered, the ransom was paid, and Richard returned to England.
[725]William of Nangis.
[726]Rigord; William the Breton.
[727]Will. of Nangis, ann. 1196.
[728]James of Vitry.
[729]Bernard the Treasurer.
[730]Bernard; Will. of Nangis, ann. 1197.
[731]James of Vitry.
[732]Hovedon.
[733]Fuller’s Holy War; Bernard the Treasurer.
[734]James of Vitry; Bernard; Will. of Nangis; A. D. 1198.
[735]Vertot; Bernard.
[736]James of Vitry.
[737]Bernard; A. D. 1205.
[738]Sanut. cap. 3.
[739]Hovedon.
[740]The power of the orders of the Temple and the Hospital had, by this time, become immense. Riches flowed in upon riches, and donation was added to donation. In the year 1244, Matthew Paris declares the Templars possessed in Europe nine thousand manors, and the Hospitallers nineteen thousand.
[741]A. D. 1210.
[742]James, Cardinal de Vitry.
[743]A. D. 1202.
[744]Rigord.
[745]Ducange; Villehardouin chronique.
[746]Villehardouin.
[747]Ducange, Hist. de Constantinople sous les Français.
[748]Vit. Innocent III.
[749]Villehardouin.
[750]Ducange.
[751]Villehardouin.
[752]Baronius; Gesta Innocent III.
[753]Villehardouin.
[754]Villehardouin; Ducange, Hist. de Constantinople sous les Français.
[755]Ducange, notes on Villehardouin.
[756]Philip Mouskes.
[757]Villehardouin.
[758]It consisted of three hundred vessels of a large size, besides palanders and storeships.
[759]November, 1202.
[760]Gunther; Villehardouin.
[761]Ducange; Villehardouin.
[762]Alberic; A. D. 1202.
[763]Villehardouin.
[764]Ducange.
[765]Villehardouin.
[766]Ducange.
[767]Gunther in Canisius.
[768]Mills says, that Innocent issued decrees and bulls against the expedition to Constantinople, and founds his reasoning on a passage of Baluzius: but it is extremely probable that the anger of the Pope was a mere menace of the party opposed to the enterprise rather than an existing fact. Baluzius was not present any more than Ducange; and surely, for every thing where research is concerned, Ducange is the better authority of the two: yet Ducange makes no mention of the opposition of the Pope, and absolutely states that the legate counselled the attack on Constantinople. SeeDucange,Hist. de Constantinople sous les Francais.
Geoffroy de Villehardouin, who was not only present, but one of the chief actors in what he relates, speaks fully of the Pope’s wrath at the attack of Zara, but mentions no opposition to the enterprise against Constantinople, though that enterprise was in agitation at the time the deputies were sent to Rome. Philippe Mouskes, Bishop of Tournay, a contemporary, states that the first application of the young Prince Alexius to the crusaders was made by the advice of the Pope.
[769]Villehardouin.
[770]June, 1203.
[771]Nicetas, lib. iii. cap. 5.
[772]Villehardouin.
[773]Ibid.
[774]Dandolo, Chron.; Villehardouin.
[775]Epist. Innocent III.
[776]Villehardouin.
[777]Ducange; Villehardouin; Nicetas.
[778]Villehardouin.
[779]Nicetas.
[780]Ducange; Villehardouin.
[781]Ibid.
[782]Gest. Innoc. III.
[783]Ducange.
[784]Nicetas.
[785]Villehardouin.
[786]Nicetas.
[787]Nicetas; Villehardouin; Gest. Innoc. III.
[788]Villehardouin intimates that Murzuphlis put Alexius to death immediately after having seized the crown; and the Chronicle in the Rouchy dialect, No. 148, Bibliothéque de l’Arsenal, says, “Et ne demeura gaires après que Morcuffle estrangla le josne empereur Alexes en la prison.”
[789]Nicetas.
[790]Ducange; Villehardouin.
[791]Villehardouin; Ducange.
[792]Gunther; Ducange.
[793]Villehardouin.
[794]Ducange.
[795]2d April, 1204.
[796]Nicetas.
[797]Gest. Inn. iii.
[798]Gunther; Villehardouin.
[799]Villehardouin; Ducange.
[800]Nicetas; Gunther.
[801]Nicetas.
[802]Seenote XI.
[803]Nicetas.
[804]Villehardouin; Ducange.
[805]Villehardouin.
[806]Nicetas; Ducange; Villehardouin; Alberic.
[807]Ducange.
[808]The cardinal legate invested Baldwin with the purple with his own hands, and Innocent confirmed, in all points but those of ecclesiastical government, the treaty by which the Venetians and the Franks had bound themselves. He also took the greatest interest in the new state, and wrote to all the prelates of France and Germany to support it by their preaching and influence. This may be added to other proofs, that Innocent never seriously opposed the expedition against the schismatic empire of the Greeks. The truth in all probability is, that he made a show of turning the crusaders from their purpose, both to preserve consistency and to afford room for any after-exertion of his authority that he might judge necessary: but that, at the same time, the cardinal legate very well understood that he was to promote the enterprise, and to be slightly blamed for it afterward, in order to screen his superior from the charge of that ambitious craving for which, however, he was notorious. It would be difficult to believe that Innocent, who triumphed over Philip Augustus, the greatest monarch of the day, and forced him to abandon his dearest wishes, would confine himself to idle threats, if he entertained any serious disinclination to the attack of Constantinople.
[809]Reinaud rec. des Hist. Arabes.
[810]Vertot.
[811]Ducange.
[812]Alberic. Mon. Trium Fontium.
[813]Jacob. de Voragine; Albert Stadensis.
[814]Albericus.
[815]Jacob. de Voragine; Albert. Stadensis.
[816]Gest. Innocent III: Labbe concil. Matthew Paris, A. D. 1213.
[817]Chron. Godefrid Mon.; Bonfinius.
[818]Bernard the Treasurer.
[819]Jacob. Vitriae; Bernardus.
[820]Bernardus.
[821]Mere restlessness is stated by Mills to have been the cause of Andrew’s abandonment of the enterprise, but this was any thing but the case. Andrew, it is true, was of a weak and unstable character; but there were far too many dissensions in Hungary, and tragic horrors in his own family, to permit of his remaining in Palestine without total ruin to himself and his dominions.—SeeBonfinius.
[822]Godefrid. Moc.; James of Vitry.
[823]Bernardus; James of Vitry.
[824]Matthew Paris.
[825]The whole of the siege of Damietta, and the events that followed, I have taken from James of Vitry and the old French of Bernard the Treasurer, with the Recueil des Hist. Arabes.
[826]James of Vitry, Bernard the Treasurer.
[827]This pestilence seems to have been somewhat like the sea scurvy. It was not at all confined to the city, though it raged more furiously within the walls. Nevertheless, many of the soldiers of the Cross were attacked by it. James of Vitry, describing its effects, says, “A sudden pain took possession of the feet and legs: soon after, the gums and the teeth became affected with a sort of gangrene, and the sick persons were not able to eat: then, the bones of the legs became horribly black; and thus, after having suffered long torments, during which they showed much patience a great number of Christians went to repose in the bosom of the Lord.”
[828]James of Vitry; Bernardus.
[829]Recueil des Hist. Arabes; Matthew Paris; Bernard the Treasurer.
[830]Bernard.
[831]Matthew Paris.
[832]Matthew Paris, ad. ann. 1228.
[833]Bernardus.
[834]Rainaldus; Sanut.; William of Nangis, 1232.
[835]Bernard the Treasurer; Cont. of William of Tyre.
[836]For some curious particulars concerning the disputes between the emperor and the Templars, see the old French of Bernard the Treasurer.
[837]Bernard.
[838]This story is doubtful. Matthew Paris says, that the Templars and Hospitallers gave information to the sultaun that Frederic would, on a certain day, make a pilgrimage to bathe in the River Jordan. It was not at all likely, however, that two Orders which were always at enmity should unite for such a purpose.
[839]Matthew Paris, ann. 1229.
[840]There were many motives which induced Frederic to return to Europe besides disgust at the ungrateful conduct of the Syrian Christians. The Pope, not content with using the spiritual sword against him, had unsheathed the temporal one, and was waging a furious war against the imperial lieutenant in Italy. It would seem a strange fact that John of Brienne, ex-king of Jerusalem, and father-in-law of the emperor, was in command of the papal forces which ravaged his son-in-law’s territories, had we not good reason to believe that Frederic’s conduct to Violante (who was now dead) had been of a nature that so chivalrous a man as John of Brienne was not likely to pass unnoticed, when his daughter was the sufferer. However, it is but just to remark that the reason why his crusade did not entirely restore the Holy Land to the dominion of the Christians, is to be found in the vindictive and unchristian enmity of Pope Gregory IX. towards the Emperor Frederic.
[841]Matthew Paris.
[842]Sanutus.
[843]Regist. Greg. Noni, Vertot Preuves.
[844]Matthew Paris, 1237.
[845]Matthew Paris; Sanutus.
[846]Sanutus, lib. iii. page 216.
[847]The Emir of Karac was but a dependant of the Sultaun of Damascus.
[848]Matthew Paris; Litteræ Comit. Richardi.
[849]Sanutus; Vertot.
[850]Bibliothéque Oriental; Joinville; Ducange; Sanutus, 217; Continuation of William of Tyre.
[851]Joinville; Matthew Paris; Bernard in Martenne.
[852]Joinville; Matthew Paris; Epist. Fred. Imper.
[853]Ducange; Joinville; Bernard.
[854]Bernard; Joinville, Matthew Paris.
[855]The whole of these events are extremely obscure in history. I have followed Joinville more than any other author, because I find his account more clear and satisfactory. Ducange’s valuable notes have greatly aided me; but even that indefatigable investigator has not been able to arrive at precise certainty. The accounts in Matthew Paris do not well harmonize with those of persons who had more immediate means of information. Vincent of Beauvais states, that the Corasmins were finally exterminated, not in a battle, but in separate bodies by the peasantry. Their whole number seems to have been about twenty thousand men. Bernard the Treasurer, in Martenne, corroborates the statement of Vincent of Beauvais.
[856]Joinville; Bernard in Martenne; Guillaume Guiart.
[857]Matthew Paris; Joinville.
[858]Joinville.
[859]Guillaume Guiart; Joinville.
[860]Joinville; Branche des royaux Lignages.
[861]Joinville.
[862]Joinville; Guillaume Guiart; Ducange.
[863]Joinville; Ducange, Guillaume Guiart.
[864]Seenote XII.
[865]Ducange; Joinville; Guillaume Guiart.
[866]A. D. 1254.
[867]A. D. 1270.
[868]Joinville.
[869]Guillaume Guiart.
[870]Joinville.
[871]Branche des royaux et Lignages; Sermon de Robert de Saincereaux.
[872]Charles, King of Sicily, was brother to St. Louis.
[873]Guillaume Guiart; William of Nangis.
[874]Hemingford; Langtoft; Matthew Paris, continuation.
[875]The popular version of this story is, that Eleonora, the wife of the prince, who had accompanied him to Palestine, sucked the poison from the wound, at the risk of her own life. Camden sanctions this account.
[876]Hemingford; Langtoft.
[877]Villani; Vet. Script.; Bernard, old French.
[878]Martenne; Villani.
[879]Martenne, Vet. Script.; Villani; Sanutus.
[880]Raynouard.
[881]For the history of the Templars, see Raynouard and Du Puy, Vertot, William of Nangis, Historia Templariorum, &c. Almost all the modern writers are more or less in favour of the Templars, while every contemporary authority condemns them. As to Mills’s assertion, that they were loyal and virtuous, it is perfectly untenable. All the historians of the Holy Land, many of whom died while the Templars were at the height of their power, declare that they were a corrupt, proud, perfidious body. Mills himself shows that such was the opinion entertained of them by the Saracens; and all the general letters of the popes accuse them of manifold vices and depravities.
[882]Vertot.
[883]Will. of Nangis.
[884]Vertot.
[885]He was afterward pardoned when the sultaun’s wrath had abated but Soliman would never see him more.
[886]Vertot.
[887]Watson; Vertot; Nic. Villagagnon.
[888]Vertot; Com. de Bel. Mel.
[889]Vertot; Com. de Bel. Mel. Nic. Villag.; Watson.
[890]Watson; Vertot; Com.
[891]Vertot.
[892]Jouvencel; Ordre de Chevalerie; Fabliaux de le Grand d’Aussi; Chevalier de la Tour; Notes on St. Palaye.
[893]Froissart, chap. 290.
[894]Ibid. chap. 329.
[895]Alain Chartier Le Grand.
[896]La Colombiere Theatre.