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THE STORY OF THE NATIONS 
 
 THE CRUSADES 
 
 THE STORY OF THE LATIN KINGDOM 
 OF JERUSALEM 
 
 BY 
 T. A. ARCHER 
 
 • t 
 AND 
 
 CHARLES L. KINGSFORD 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN 
 

 ^^ 
 
 >' 
 
 v^ 
 
 Copyright, 1894 
 
 BY 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons 
 
 Enttred at Stationers^ Hall^ London 
 
 By T. Fisher Unwin 
 
 
 
 Printed and Bound by 
 
 Ube Itnfcfeerbocher prcse, Hew JJorft 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The present volume bears the sub-title, "The 
 Story of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem," in 
 order to make it clear at the outset that we are 
 here concerned only with the Crusades which are 
 Crusades in the proper sense of the word. With 
 the Fourth Crusade, the Latin Empire of Constanti- 
 nople, and still rnore with those developments, or 
 perversions of the Crusading idea, which led to the 
 so-called Crusades against the Albigensians and the 
 Emperor Frederick, we have nothing to do. In 
 making the story of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 
 the main thread of the narrative, stress has intention- 
 ally been laid on an important if comparatively un- 
 familiar side of Crusading history. The romance 
 and glamour of Crusading expeditions has often 
 caused the practical achievements of Crusaders in the 
 East to be overlooked, or underrated. Yet it is 
 through the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 
 that the true character and importance of the 
 Crusades can alone be discerned. 
 
 A brief explanation of the circumstances under 
 which this volume has been written appears to be 
 
 vii 
 
 222333 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 required When ill-health made it impossible for 
 Mr. Archer to contemplate the completion of his own 
 work, his material was placed in Mr. Kingsford's 
 hands. The preparation of this material for the 
 press involved not only much condensation and 
 re-arrangement of the manuscript, but also the filling 
 up of some considerable gaps. It would be almost 
 impossible to satisfactorily divide the responsibility 
 for a work produced under such circumstances, and 
 in point of fact there is no single chapter to which both 
 authors have not in some degree contributed. The 
 book therefore appears, without further comment, 
 under their joint names. 
 
 The circumstances of the present series forbid that 
 constant citation of authorities in notes, which might 
 otherwise be desirable ; but the fact that the narrative 
 has in the main been compiled from the writings of 
 contemporary historians, will, it is hoped, have given 
 it some merit of freshness, even though the conclu- 
 sions arrived at may often not differ materially from 
 those of other writers. Whatever claim of originality 
 is thus put forward for the present volume, is made 
 in no spirit of detraction from the advantage, which 
 has in places been derived from freely consulting 
 previous workers in the same field. 
 
 In the matter of chronology the conclusions pro- 
 pounded by Mr. T. A. Archer in an article in the 
 English Historical Review for January, i88g, have 
 now been adopted without further argument. In the 
 spelling of proper names, those forms which common 
 use has made familiar have been preserved, whilst 
 in the case of persons and places which would be 
 
 1 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 novel to most readers, the endeavour has been to 
 give the simplest form consistent with accuracy. 
 It may, perhaps, be well to observe that the J in 
 names like Kilij, Javaly, Sinjar is to be pronounced 
 likey in judge. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface 
 
 Table of Contents 
 
 Descriptive List of Illustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 vii 
 
 XI 
 
 xix 
 
 \ Introduction . . 1-25 
 
 § I. The Age of the Pilgrims. 
 
 Constantine and Helena, 3 — Chosroes and Heraclius, 4 — 
 Rise of Mohammedanism, 5 — Arculf and Willibald, 9 — 
 Charles the Great, 11 — Bernard of St. Michael's Mount, 
 12. 
 
 § 2. The Eve of the Crusades. " 
 
 The year 1000, 13 — P'^vival of piety, 15 — Eleventh Cen- 
 tury Pilgrims, 17— Rise of the Seljuks, 19 — Constantinople 
 in danger, 21— The Normans, 23 — Gregory VII. and 
 Robert Guiscard, 25. 
 
 II. 
 
 Peter the Hermit and Urban the Pope 
 
 26-40 
 
 Peter at Jerusalem, 27 — The Council of Clermont, 29 — 
 Urban preaches the Crusade, 31— Signs and Wonders, 33 — 
 The preaching of Peter, 35 —Walter the Penniless, 37 — 
 Fate of the pilgrims, 39. 
 
 xi 
 
Xll CONTENTS., 
 
 III. 
 
 PAG« 
 
 > The First Crusade — The Muster and the 
 
 March to Antioch . . . . . 41-58 
 
 Gcxifrey de Bouillon, 43 — Bohemond, 45 — Raymond of 
 Toulouse, 47 — Robert of Normandy, 49 — The Crusaders at 
 Constantinople, 51 — Schemes of Alexius, 53 — Siege of 
 Nicaea, 55~Battle of Dorylaeum, 57. 
 
 IV. 
 
 ^ The First Crusade — The Firstfruits of Con- 
 quest : Edessa and Antioch . . . 59-76 
 
 § I. The Conquest of Edessa. 
 
 Baldwin at Edessa, 61 — A precarious lordship, 63. 
 
 § 2. The Siege of Antioch. 
 
 The City of Antioch, 65— Troubles of the Crusaders, 67— 
 Bohemond captures Antioch, 69 — Approach of Corbogha, 
 71 — Invention of the Holy Lance, 73 — Defeat of Cor- 
 bogha, 75. 
 
 The First Crusade — The Capture of the 
 
 Holy City . . . . . . . 77-92 
 
 Raymond and Bohemond, 79 — The Crusaders at Marra, 81 
 — Peter Bartholomew, 83 — The Siege of Jerusalem, 85 — 
 Quarrels and visions, 87 — Procession round Jerusalem, 89 — 
 Capture of Jerusalem, 91. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Godfrey de Bouillon . . . . . 93-107 
 
 Choosing a king, 93— Quarrel with Raymond, 95 — Battle of 
 Ascalon, 97 — The Christmas Feast, 99 — A hero of Romance, 
 loi— The fates of the Chiefs, 103— The Aquitanian Crusade, 
 105 — A disastrous expedition, 107. 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll* 
 
 VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Land and its Organisation . . 109-129 
 
 Physical characteristics, iii — Edessa and Antioch, 113 — 
 The County of Tripoli, 115 — The lordships of the Kingdom, 
 117 — The City of Jerusalem, 121 — The Assize of Jerusalem, 
 123 — Officers and Courts, 125 — Finance, 127 — The Eccle- 
 siastical Hierarchy, 129. 
 
 VIII. 
 The Conquest of the Land — Baldwin I. . 130-142 
 
 Lack of money and men, 133 — Dangers of the kingdom, 135 
 — Jaffa and Ramleh, 137 — Tiberias and Montreal, 139 — 
 Character of Baldwin I., 141. 
 
 TX. 
 
 The Conquest of the Land — The Franks 
 
 IN Northern Syria . . . . 143-158 
 
 Turkish feuds, 145 — Successes of Tancred, 147 — Maudud 
 of Mosul, 149 — Borsoki and Borsac, 151 — Roger's victory 
 at Rugia, 153— Death of Roger, 155 — Tripoli, 157. 
 
 X. 
 
 The Conquest of the Land— Baldwin TJ. 159-168 
 
 Baldwin II. and Il-Ghazi, 161 — Captivity at Kl.artperc, 163 
 — Baldwin II. and Antioch, 165 — The taking of Tyre, 167. 
 
 XL 
 
 The Military Orders . . . . . 169-187 
 
 Gerard the Hospitaller, 171 — The Rule of the Temple, 173 
 — Bernard and the Knights, 174 — The Hospitallers, 175 — 
 The Knights in the East, 177— Wealth and its abuses, 179 — 
 The Knights in the West, 181— The Lesser Orders, 183 — 
 Later fortunes, 1S5— Elements of strength and weakness, 
 187. 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The Kingdom at its Zenith — Fulk of 
 
 Anjou 188-196 
 
 Character of Fulk, 189 — Antioch and Tripoli, 191— John 
 Comnenus and Raymond of Antioch, 193— Hugh II. of 
 Jaffa, 195 — Capture of Banias, 196. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Zangi and the Fall of Edessa . . . 197-206 
 
 Despair of the Mohammedans, 199 — Rise of Zangi, 201 — 
 • Mohammedan Conquests, 203 — Fate of Joscelin II., 205. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The Second Crusade 207-221 
 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, 209 — Louis and Conrad, 211 — Manuel 
 and the Crusaders, 215 — Disasters in Asia Minor, 217— 
 Siege of Damascus, 219 — Miserable termination, 221. 
 
 XV. 
 Loss and Gain 222-237 
 
 § I. Baldwin III. and Ascalon. 
 
 Expedition to Bostra, 223 — Baldwin III. and Melisend, 
 224 — The Capture of Ascalon, 227 — Theodoric of Flan- 
 ders, 228 — Manuel at Antioch, 229 — Character of Baldwin 
 III., 231. 
 
 § 2. The Struggle for Egypt. 
 
 Anarchy in Egypt, 233 — Shawir, Shirkuh, and Amalric, 
 235 — Saladin lord of Egypt, 237. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 The Rival Kings — Nur-ed-din and Amalric 238-248 
 
 Character of Nur-ed-din, 239 — The defender of Islam, 241 — 
 Death of Nur-ed-din, 243 — Projects of Amalric, 244 — The 
 Templars and the Assassins, 245 — Character of Amalric, 
 247. 
 
CONTENTS, XV 
 
 XVII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Rise of Saladin 249-264 
 
 A leper king, 250— Raymond II. of Tripoli, 251 — Philip of 
 Flanders, 253 — Saracen invasions, 255 — A two years' truce, 
 257 — Siege of Beyrout, 259— Conquest of Aleppo, 261 — 
 Saladin lord supreme, 263. 
 
 XVIII. 
 The Fall of Jerusalem .... 265-281 
 
 Frankish dissensions, 267 — The two parties, 269 — The mar- 
 riage of Botron, 271 — Coronation of Guy, 273— Battle of 
 Nazareth, 275— Battle of Hattin, 277 — Capture of the Holy 
 City, 279 — Joy in Islam, 281. 
 
 XIX. 
 The Life of the People .... 282-304 
 
 Knightly training, 283 — Knightly accomplishments, 285 — 
 Knightly amusements, 287 — Intercourse with the Saracens, 
 291 — Luxury of the nobles, 291 — The country-folk, 292 — 
 The Italian traders and the towns, 295 — The Pullani or 
 Syrian Franks, 297 — Pilgrims and Merchants, 299 — Com- 
 merce with the Far East, 301 — Weakness of the kingdom, 
 303. 
 
 XX. 
 
 The Third Crusade — The Gathering of 
 
 the Host 305-315 
 
 Princes and preachers, 307 — Frederick Barbarossa, 309 — 
 March of Frederick, 311 — Richard I. and Philip Augustus, 
 313— Sicily and Cyprus, 315. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The Third Crusade — The Siege of Acre . 316-326 
 
 Guy de Lusignan, 317— Siege of Acre, 319 — Christian suc- 
 cesses, 321 — Famine in the camp, 323 — Arrival of Richard, 
 325- 
 
XVI CONTENTS, 
 
 XXII. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 The Third Crusade — The Campaigns of 
 
 Richard 327-348 
 
 French and English, 329 — Departure of Philip, 331 — The 
 coast march, 333 — Jaffa and Ascalon, 337 — Negotiations 
 with Saladin, 339 — Conrad of Montferrat, 341 — The capture 
 of the caravan, 343 — Rescue of Jaffa, 345 — Truce with 
 Saladin, 347. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Arms, Armour, and Armaments . . . 349-366 
 
 Siege operations, 351 — Siege caatles, 353 — Defensive armour, 
 354 — Offensive weapons, 357 — The hawk, the hound, and 
 the horse, 359 — Castles and fortresses, 361 — Military organi- 
 sation, 363 —Fleets and ships, 365. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 The Kingdom of Acre— The Struggle for 
 
 Recovery . . . . ■ . . 367-389 
 
 The death of Saladin, 368— The German Crusade, 369— 
 The Fourth Crusade, 371— John de Brienne, 373 -The Fifth 
 Crusade, 375 — The Siege of Damietta, 377 — Frederick II., 
 379 — Frederick in Palestine, 381 — John of Ibelin and 
 Richard Filangier, 383— Quarrels of the Ayubites, 385 — 
 Richard of Cornwall, 387 — The Charismian Invasion, 389. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The Crusades of St. Louis and Edward I. 390-407 
 
 Flagging enthusiasm, 391 — A saintly king, 393 — The expedi- 
 tion to Egypt, 395 — Ruin of the French army, 399 — Louis 
 in Palestine, 401 — Death of St. Louis, 403— Edward in 
 Palestine, 405 — Attempted assassination, 407. 
 
CONTENTS. XVll 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Kingdom of Acre — Its Decay and 
 
 Destruction 408-418 
 
 A kingless realm, 409 — Christian jealousies, 411 — The Tar- 
 tars and Mamluks, 413 — Conquests of Bibars, 414 — The Fall 
 of Acre, 417 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 The Close of the Crusades . . . 419-424 
 
 Fruitless projects, 420 — The Ottoman Turks, 421 — Rhodes 
 and Cyprus, 423 — The pilgrim record, 424. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 Conclusion 425-451 
 
 Results of the Crusades, 427 — Influence on Politics, 429 — 
 The Crusades and the Papacy, 431 — The Crusades and the 
 Reformation, 433 — Social influence, 435 — The Crusades and 
 Commerce, 437 — Influence on Historical Literature, 441 — 
 Influence on Geography and Science, 443 — The Crusades 
 and Romance, 445 — True Character of the Crusades, 447 — 
 Objects of the Crusades, 449— The Crusades not fruitless, 
 451- 
 
 Genealogical Tables 452-456 
 
 Index . . 457 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. {See page 121 in 
 
 Chapter VII.) . . . . . ... Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 2. Mosque of Omar 7 
 
 This building, more properly known as the " Kubbet-es- 
 Sakhrah" or " Dome of the Rock," almost certainly stands 
 on the site of the Ancient Temple. It was commenced 
 by Omar and completed by the Caliph Abd-el-Melek about 
 686. The Crusaders converted it into a church and called 
 it the Templum Domini ; much of their work still remains 
 in the interior — especially a beautiful iron grille between the 
 pillars of the drum. The Templars may have owed their 
 name to the Templum Domini, but their home was at the 
 Aksa Mosque or Templum Salomonis. 
 
 3. Effigy of Robert of Normandy 48 
 
 This oak-wood effigy is in Gloucester Cathedral. The coat- 
 of-arms or surcoat, and perhaps the incomplete nature of 
 the great hauberk, fix its date at the close of the twelfth 
 or beginning of the thirteenth century. 
 
 4. Copper Coins of Alexius 53 
 
 On the obverse of (i) is Alexius with a cross in his right 
 hand and cross-bearing orb in his left ; on the obverse of 
 (2) Alexius has the sacred labarum or sceptre spear in his 
 right hand. The reverse of both coins is the same, Christ's 
 head surrounded with a nimbus. Legend : Obverse, I. 
 *AAE[?t6c]. 2. 'AAE[^(6e] A E^f] 0[r?je] ; reverse, l[q(Tov]2 
 X[,ot(Tro]2. 
 
 xix 
 
XX DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 5. Knights at the Time of the First Crusade . . 56 
 
 From the seals of Guy de Laval {floruit, 1095) and Raoul, 
 Count of Vermandois (1116). These seals illustrate the 
 brunea or broigne as worn at the time of the First Crusade 
 {^see page 353). 
 
 6. Coin of Baldwin I. as Count of Edessa .... 62 
 
 A copper coin; weight about 131 grains. The inscription is 
 BAAAVIN0[2] [K0]MH[2], Baldwin Count. Other coins of 
 Baldwin I. have a figure on the reverse very much like the 
 figure on Baldwin II.'. coin, only much ruder. 
 
 7. Antioch 64 
 
 This view of modern Antioch is taken from the north, and 
 shows the ancient walls on the hills in the distance. 
 
 8. The Walls of Antioch 70 
 
 This shows the line of walls on the southern hills ; the towers, 
 of which there were four hundred and fifty, were eighty feet 
 high and thirty feet square. The walls are fifty to sixty feet 
 high and eight feet wide at the top. 
 
 9. Mosaic in the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem . 87 
 
 The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem is perhaps the oldest 
 Christian church in the world. It was built by Constantine or 
 his mother Helena over the traditional cave in which Christ 
 was born. The rich mosaics, which adorn the interior, were 
 put up by Manuel Comnenus in 1169, as the Emperor's own 
 inscription tells us. His artist was a certain Ephraim, and 
 the mosaics were already complete, when the Greek, John 
 Phocas, visited Bethlehem in 1185. The Church at Bethlehem 
 was the place where Baldwin I., and possibly the later kings 
 of Jerusalem, were crowned. It became a custom for the 
 Latin kings of Jerusalem to spend Christmas Eve in this place 
 waiting for the Christmas morning. The scene here repre- 
 sented is Christ's entry into Jerusalem. 
 
 10. A Siege-Tower (see the description on pages 352-3) . . 89 
 
 The tower here represented is moved on rollers, and has a ram 
 in the lowest story. 
 
 11. Tower of David ........ 94 
 
 Also called the Castle of the Pisans. The existing tower dates 
 from the early part of the twelfth century. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 12. The Tomb of Godfrey de Bouillon . . . . loi 
 
 Chateaubriand saw this tomb in 1805-6 ; but the Greeks out of 
 national jealousy ruined it in 1808, by breaking up the stones 
 and scattering the fragments broadcast. The tomb of Baldwin 
 I., which stood close by, seems to have been destroyed at the 
 same time. 
 
 13. The Castle of Tripoii 114 
 
 Somewhere in the recesses of this castle there is said to exist 
 the tomb of the great Crusader, Raymond of S. Gilles, who 
 died here in 1106. The castle is now turned into barracks for 
 Turkish soldiers. Though a good deal altered, it still preserves 
 much of the aspect of a twelfth or thirteenth-century castle both 
 within and without. In the early years of the present century 
 the traveller could still see the escutcheons of the old Frankish 
 counts on the stones. " Tripoli itself," writes a modern 
 traveller, "is the town of the Crusa.des /-a r exre/Zem-r ; it is 
 still what the knights left it in 1289. Nothing has been 
 destroyed. Houses, arcades, w ndows, armorial blazons 
 cut in stone — all bear witness to the two hundrefi years of 
 Frankish rule." 
 
 14. Fkieze in the Churcm ok the Holy Sepulchre . 121 
 
 This carving was evidently the work of Western ii;iasons. It 
 was probably brought fr'jm France and not executed in Pales- 
 tine. It is twelfth -century work, representing (ij the raising 
 of Lazarus, (2) Christ sends His disciples to procure the 
 ass ; Jesus Himself is seen within the house. Below are two 
 shepherds. {3) The disciples bring the ass to Christ. (4) 
 Christ's entry into Jerusalem. (5) The Last Supper. 
 
 15. Beyrout with Lebanon in the Distance . . . 131 
 
 16. Tower of Ramleh 137 
 
 The so-called White Mosque, or Tower of the Forty Martyrs. 
 Thi§^ tower is said to have been built by Arabic workmen from 
 the plans of a European architect, and is considered to date 
 from about the year 1270. Tradition says it was the belfry 
 of the old Christian church ; m this case it may well have 
 been restored in 13 18, and not as sometimes stated, erected 
 by Malek-en-Nasr, son of Kalaun. 
 
Xxil DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 17. Coin of Tancred 146 
 
 Tancred wears the Mohammedan turban and dress, which 
 shows how early the Prankish settlers began to feel the in- 
 fluence of Eastern luxury. On another coin Tancred even 
 uses the title n^yag dfiripac, "great emir." The legend 
 is K[ypt]E B0[ri9ei] TArKP[i/^<^] I[rj(To!;]2 X[pt(Tro]2 NIKA- 
 [rwp], " O Lord help Tancred : Jesus Christ the Conj 
 queror." 
 
 18. Coin of Roger of Antioch . . . . . . 154 
 
 A copper coin representing St. George and the dragon. 
 Legend 6 dyiog (0 a in monogram), rEQP[ytoe]: POTZEP[oy] 
 nPirK[i]nOS ANTIOK[€tae]. S. George: Roger, prince of 
 
 Antioch. 
 
 19. Coin of Baldwin II 160 
 
 Copper coin of Baldwin as Count of Edessa, weighing about 
 69 grains. Legend: BAAAOIN02AOTAO[2]STA"i\ "Baldwin 
 slave of the cross. " The ra of arav is written as a monogram. 
 
 20. Seal of the Hospitallers . ' 175 
 
 21. Seal of the Templars 176 
 
 This shows the two knights on one horse. The reverse 
 probably represents the Mosque of Omar or Templum Domini, 
 from which the order perhaps drew its name. 
 
 22. Ruins of the Castle at Tortosa 179 
 
 Built by the Templars about 1183. It has been suggested 
 that the huge stones, of which the castle is composed, were 
 drawn from the sepulchral monuments of Phoenician or pre- 
 historic days, and the ruins of the ancient Aradus on the 
 site of which Tortosa stands. Tortosa was captured by the 
 Crusaders in 1099. The Templars abandoned it in 1291 ; 
 they seized it once more in 1 300, but only to lose it again in 
 1302 or 1303. 
 
 23. Seal of Pons, Count of Tripoli, from about 1112 
 
 to 1 137 190 
 
 24. Seal of Hugh of Jaffa 194 
 
 This may be the seal of Hugh II., who was banished by 
 P'ulk, or of his father, Hugh de Puiset, who was of the 
 noble family of Puiset, near Chartres. The elder Hugh was 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xxiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 a rebel against Louis VI. in 1112, and afterwards sought his 
 fortunes in the East, and was made Count of Jaffa by 
 Baldwin I. 
 
 25. Crusaders fighting Saracens 200 
 
 This is one of ten pictures in a window formerly behind the 
 great altar of the church of St. Denys, near Paris ; the 
 window was destroyed in the Revolution. The character 
 of the armour and the execution of the work point to the 
 date as being early in the twelfth century, probably before 
 I140, when Suger dedicated the church. The pictures 
 illustrate the First Crusade : the one given in the text repre- 
 sents a fight between Kilij Arslan and the Crusaders. They 
 form a valuable representation of early twelfth-century 
 arm'our. The Christians are distinguished by a cross on 
 their conical helmets which have no nasals. The Saracens 
 have round helmets, and their armour is more often com- 
 posed of scales than of rings or plates ; only the Saracens 
 have bows. 
 
 z6. Seal of Louis VII. ..... . . 209 
 
 This represents Louis as Duke of Aquitaine, and shows the 
 armour in use at the time of the Second Crusade. The great 
 hauberk is already on its way to completeness, and, as is 
 sometimes the case in the Bayeux Tapestry, has a coif to 
 protect the neck and head. The helmet is conical with a 
 nose piece ; these characteristics appear occasionally till the 
 very end of the century. Compare, however, the develop- 
 ment as shown in plates 42, 53, and 56. 
 
 27. Statue of Conrad III. in the Cathedral at Bamberg 213 
 
 This is a thirteenth-century work, which may possibly repre- 
 sent not Conrad but Stephen of Hungary. In any case, it is 
 a good example of civil dress about the year 1250. 
 
 28. Cover of Queen Melisend's Psalter .... 225 
 
 This twelfth-century psalter, which was probably written 'for 
 Melisend, wife of Fulk, is now in the British Museum, and 
 may be seen in the show cases. The book is beautifully 
 written, and illuminated with full-page scenes from the life 
 of Our Lord, &c. The covers, which may be much 
 earlier than the manuscript, are carved in ivory, and 
 
XXIV DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 jewelled with small rubies and turquoises. The artist was 
 probably a Byzantine, and seems to have been called 
 Herodius. The cover here given represents the six acts of 
 mercy ; the king may be Fulk himself. The other cover 
 represents scenes from the life of David. 
 
 29. Coin of Manuel Comnenus 229 
 
 A besant, the obverse represents S. Theodore, with the 
 Emperor on his right hand ; the reverse Jesus Christ. Legend 
 MANOYHA 0EOAQPO2 llriaov]S X[piaro]S. 
 
 30. Seal of Hugh of C^esarea 234 
 
 Hugh Grener was Lord of Caesarea as early as 1154, and as 
 late as II 68 ; he probably died in or before 11 74. 
 
 31. Seal of Reginald de Chatillon as Prince of 
 
 Antioch 242 
 
 Reginald came to Palestine about the time of the Second 
 Crusade, and was Prince of Antioch from his marri^e to 
 Constance in 11 53 to his captivity in I161. 
 
 32. Seal of Raymond of Tripoli 251 
 
 This is probably the seal of Raymond II., Count of Tripoli, 
 1 1 52-1 187, and protector of the kingdom ; or it may be that 
 of his father, Raymond I., 11 37-1 152. 
 
 33. Seal of Philip of Flanders 253 
 
 This is by no means the most curious of the seals engraved 
 for Philip. An earlier seal (a.d. 1161), figured in Vrede's 
 "Sigilla comitum Flandrensium," is remarkable as showing 
 the lion of Flanders emblazoned on the count's helmet, 
 shield, and banner, and is perhaps the very first instance of 
 so lavish a display of the armorial blazonry that was then 
 coming into fashion. No true armorial bearings can be 
 shown to have existed before the middle of the twelfth 
 century (1134-1166), and the true art of heraldry did not 
 take shape till well into the next century. 
 
 34. Ruined Tov^er of Kerak (the Castle of Reginald 
 
 , OF Chatillon) 263 
 
 -This tower was built by Payn, the king's butler, about 1140. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXV 
 
 For the history of Kerak see p. 117. Its importance was so 
 great that when, in 12 18 El-Kamil offered to surrender the 
 whole kingdom of Jerusalem in exchange for Damietta, he 
 expressly excepted Kerak and Montreal from the exchange ; 
 this exception caused the failure of the negotiations. In the 
 thirteenth century Kerak was the stronghold of Dawud, 
 see p. 387. 
 
 35. Seal of Balian of Ibelin 278 
 
 This may be the seal of Balian the Old, founder of the 
 house of Ibelin, who died in or before 1155. More probably 
 it is that of his son Balian II., the hero of the siege of 
 Jerusalem, who, through his marriage with Maria Comnena, 
 widow of Amalric I. , acquired the lordship of Nablus. Balian 
 II. was a child in 1155, and could not sign his own name ; 
 he died in or before 1205, His son, John "the Old," was 
 the doughty antagonist of Frederick II. ; see pp. 383-4. 
 
 36. Ceremony of Knighthood 283 
 
 From a thirteenth-century manuscript in the British Museum. 
 
 37. Knight: Chessman 286 
 
 This is one of the pieces, found in the island of Lewis. The 
 pieces are large ; the pawns being if to 2| inches in height, 
 and the kings 3^ to 4!^ inches; they are made of walrus ivory, 
 and were originally coloured dark red. From the great number 
 of pieces discovered, it seems probable that the find con- 
 sisted of a merchant's stock, not of the property of a player. 
 The costume of the pieces belongs to the Twelfth Century. 
 
 38. Fre >erick it. and his Falconer and Hawks . . 289 
 
 From a thirteenth-century manuscript of Frederick's treatise, 
 " De arte venandi cum avibus," now in the Vatican Library. 
 It is full of the most beautiful illustrations of hunting and 
 hawking. The illustration here given represents the Emperor 
 clad in a Mue mantle with an under robe of a warm brown ; 
 the falconer kneeling before him has a loose yellow-coloured 
 robe. Frederick was assisted in the compilation of the book 
 by his son Manfred. 
 
XXVI DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 39. Haymaking and Harvesting 293 
 
 These scenes are from a series contained in a manuscript in 
 the British Museum (Cotton Julius A vi, ), which was written 
 about 1050, and is therefore a good authority for agricultural 
 operations about the time of the First Crusade. The twelve 
 months are represented. In January the peasants are 
 ploughing with oxen ; in February pruning trees ; in March 
 digging and sowing ; in April feasting on the ale-bench ; in 
 May tending sheep ; in June cutting timber ; in July and 
 August haymaking and harvesting ; September shows a boar 
 hunt ; October a hawking scene ; November a bon-fire ; 
 December corn- threshing. 
 
 40. Statue of Frederick 1 311 
 
 This represents the contemporary (11 70- 11 90) statue of the 
 Emperor in the cloisters at the church of S. Zeno, near 
 Reichenhall, in Bavaria. 
 
 41. Coin of Guy de Lusignan as King of Cyprus . . 317 
 
 This is a denier. Legend Rex Guido de Cipro. 
 
 42. Seal of Richard 1 325 
 
 The date of this seal is 1195. It shows the grand hauberk 
 complete; but as yet there is no "barding" for the horse 
 and no surcoat or coat-of-arms flowing over the armour. 
 The "bliaud," worn underneath the mail, may be seen flow- • 
 ing behind the left leg. Notice the extreme length of the 
 sword as compared with that of Louis VII., plate 26. 
 
 43 and 44. Knights Fighting .... 332 and 335 
 
 These illustrations are taken from a late thirteenth-century 
 manuscript, " Histoire de la commencement du monde 
 jusques a la naissance de Jesu Crist. " They show the full 
 development of surcoat, barding and closed, helmet ; notice 
 also the large crests. The manuscript (Reg. 16. G. vi. ) 
 from which these illustrations are taken is now lettered on 
 on the back, " Les Chroniques de S. Denys " ; it is most 
 lavishly adorned with beautifully coloured illustrations of 
 scenes from military and domestic life. These illustrations 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, XXV 11 
 
 PAGE 
 
 are to be found at the foot of most pages, and in many cases 
 are crowded with figures. Unfortunately bad colours were 
 used, and in many places the paint has now peeled off or 
 worn away. They may have been in better condition when 
 Shaw made his drawings ; otherwise he has certainly given 
 his copies a finish which the original barely justifies. On 
 many pages towards the end of the volume only the outline 
 of the picture has been sketched ; in other places their out- 
 lines are only partly filled in with colours. 
 
 45 and 46. Military Machines 35o> 35^ 
 
 These are modern reconstructions of mangonels or stone 
 casters, but will show to some extent what the character of 
 the machines must have been. 
 
 47. King and Knight 354 
 
 From a manuscript " Manual of Devotion," written in the 
 early part of the thirteenth, or late in the twelfth, century, 
 and now in the British Museum (MS., Reg. 2 A. xx.). The 
 figure of the knight shows clearly the laces which fastened 
 the armoured hood — or perhaps the movable veittaille — 
 down to the grand hauberk or tunic. It also seems to show 
 thigh pieces, distinct both from the hauberk and the greaves, 
 which cover the fore part of the leg IdcIow the knee. The sur- 
 coat, or coat-of-arms, shows that this drawing can hardly be 
 earlier than 1200 A.d. — soon after which date this adjunct 
 begins to appear on seals. The coat-of-arms is said to have 
 been introduced from the East, where perhaps it served 
 originally to keep the iron broigne from being heated by 
 the sun's rays. Saladin's Mamluks seem to have worn yellow 
 tunics over their armour as early as 1177 — years before we 
 have any trace of this habit in the West. 
 
 48. Kerak des Chevaliers 362 
 
 Now called Kalaat-el-Hosn, was a castle of the knights of 
 S. John and commanded the roads from Emesa and Hamah 
 to Tripoli and Tortosa. Kalaat-el-Hosn was taken by the 
 Franks about 1125, and given to the Hospitallers by Count 
 Raymond I. in 1145. The original castle suffered much from 
 earthquakes in 1157, I169, and 1202 ; after the last date it 
 
xxwm DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 was probably reconstructed as we now see it. The castle is 
 still much as it was when the Franks left it in 1271 a.d. 
 
 49. Seal of James de Vitry 374 
 
 He was a Cardinal, and Bishop of Acre from about 121 7 
 to 1229. James de Vitry was the historian of the Fifth 
 Crusade, and indeed of the whole kingdom from 1099 to his 
 own day. 
 
 50. Besant of Hugh I. of Cyprus 375 
 
 This fine gold coin has the king in his royal robes on the 
 obverse, and Christ seated on the reverse, with the legend, 
 "HvGO Rex Cypri " : 1[t]<tov]^ X[oi(tto]^. The besants 
 struck in Cyprus contained only one-sixth part of gold, the 
 remainder being chiefly silver ; hence from their colour they 
 were called "white besants." The average weight of a 
 white besant was 88 grains. 
 
 51. Seal of Frederick II., as King of Jerusalem . . 382 
 
 52. Seal of Louis IX. of France 393 
 
 397 
 
 53. The Two William Longswords from their Tombs in 
 
 Salisbury Cathedral 
 
 William Longsword I,, Earl of Salisbury {d. 1226), was son 
 of Henry II., and perhaps of Fair Rosamond, and was 
 possibly present at the siege of Damietta ; his tomb affords a 
 beautiful example of early thirteenth-century armour. The 
 other effigy is traditionally that ot his son, the William 
 Longsword mentioned in the text. The two effigies are 
 much alike, except that ^'--e latter has the legs crossed, has 
 no blazonry on the shield, and has small plates of armour to 
 protect the elbows and knees. If this is really the tomb of . 
 William Longsword II., it perhaps affords the earliest known 
 instance of such plates — the beginnings of plate armour. 
 
 54. Fortifications of Sidon 402 
 
 This represents the work of Louis IX. in 1250, which was 
 almost perfect till the English bombardment in 1840. 
 
 55. Seal of Philip III. of France 403 
 
 He accompanied his father to Tunis in 1270, but left Sicily 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXIX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 for France the same year, and never fulfilled his promise to 
 return to the East. This is a splendid example of the 
 luxurious blazonry now so fully in vogue, with coat-of-arms, 
 horse barding and vizored helmet all complete. 
 
 56. Seal of Edward I. 405 
 
 This shows well chain armour and grand hauberk at 
 their fullest development. Notice the vizored helmet com- 
 pletely hiding the face, the coat-of-arms worn over the hauberk 
 and the horo,e barding. Compare the seal of Richard I. in 
 plate 42. 
 
 57. Seal of John de Montfort, Lord of Tyre and Toron 411 
 
 He was son of Philip de Montfort, a cousin of the famous 
 Earl Simon of Leicester, who married the heiress of Toron, 
 and acquired Tyre after the expulsion of Richard Filangier, 
 in which he took a prominent part ; he died November 27th, 
 1283. 
 
 58. Acre as it was about 1291 a.d 415 
 
 From the manuscript of Marino Sanuto's treatise, " Secreta 
 Fidelium Crucis," written in 1307 and presented to Pope 
 John XXII. in September, 1321. The work was intended 
 to urge upon the Church and princes of Western Europe the 
 duty of a new Crusade. It was by the Turris Maledicta — 
 name of ill-omen — that Khalil forced his entry. 
 
 Of the above illustrations numbers i, 2, 11, 13, 16, and 54 
 are reproduced from Lortet's "La Syrie d'Aujourd'hui " ; 
 numbers 8, 10, 12, 20. 22, 25, 42, 45, 46, 48, and 58 from 
 Kugler's "Geschichteder Kreuzziige" ; numbers 3, 27, 36, 40, 
 51, and 56 from Prutz's " Staatengeschichte des abenlandes im 
 Mittelalter in Oncken's Allgemeine Geschichte" ; numbers 21, 
 23, 24, 30-32, 35, 49, and 57 from Sebastian Paoli's " Codice 
 Diplomatico del sacro militare ordine Gerosolamitano " ; 
 numbers 6, 17-19, 41, and 50 from Schlumberger's " Numis- 
 matique de I'orient Latin " ; numbers 4 and 29 from Sabatier's 
 " Monnaies Byzantines " ; numbers 5, 26, and 55 from Demay's 
 " Le Costume au Moyen age d'apres les Sceaux " ; and number 
 33 from Demay's " Inventaire des Sceaux"; numbers 39, 
 43, 44, and 47 from Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations of the 
 
XXX DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Middle Ages" ; numbers 7 and 15 from Taylor's "La Syrie, 
 &c. " ; numbers 9 and 14 from Vogue's " Les Eglises de la 
 Terre Sainte"; 28 is from Bayet's " L'Art Byzantin"; 34 
 from the Due de Luynes' "Voyage d'exploration a la Mer 
 Morte"; 37 from " Archceologia," vol. xxiv. ; 38 from 
 Seroux d'Agincourt's " Histoire d'Art," iii. pi. Ixxiii. ; and 
 53 from Dodsworth's " Historical Account of Salisbury 
 Cathedral." The plan of Jerusalem in 1187, on page 119, 
 is reproduced by permission of the Palestine Exploration 
 Society, from the " Survey of Western Palestine," vi. 283. 
 
 Maps. 
 
 The East illustrating the Routes of the First Three 
 
 Crusades Tofacepage i 
 
 The Latin Principalities of Syria in the Twelfth 
 
 Century 108 
 
 Jerusalem in 1187 . 119 
 
"And I began to talk with the Most High again and said : 
 
 *' O Lord, that bearest rule, of every wood of the earth, 
 and of all the trees thereof, thou hast chosen thee one only 
 vine : And of all the lands of the whole world thou hast chosen 
 thee one pit ; and of all the flowers thereof one lily ; And of 
 all the depths of the sea thou hast filled thee one river ; «nd 
 of all builded cities thou hast hallowed Sion unto thyself; 
 And among all the multitudes of people thou hast gotten thee 
 one people : and unto this people, whom thou lovedst, thou 
 gavest a law that is approved of all." — II. Esdras, c. 5. 
 
^ 
 
 THE CRUSADES, 
 
 I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ** Reft of thy sons ; amid thy foes foilurn, 
 
 Mourn widowed Queen, forsaken Zion, moum." 
 
 Heber, Palestine, 
 
 § I. The Age of the Pilgrims. 
 
 The history of Syria is, to some extent at least, a 
 synopsis of the history of the world ; and the land 
 itself is a palimpsest, from which the records of later 
 civilisations have failed to obliterate entirely those of 
 earlier times. Syria, indeed, is marked out by natui c 
 as a meeting-place of the nations. Westward it looics 
 towards Europe, th.e adopted, if not the original, 
 home of the Aryan race ; to the east, across the 
 desert, lies the great river on whose banks grew up 
 that ancient Akkadian culture, which has bequeathed 
 us much of our most familiar knowledge. In the 
 south its inhabitants were brought into contact with 
 the immemorial civilisation of the Nile ; and in the 
 
 r 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 north with still more mysterious races, of whom 
 even modern research has as yet but little to 
 tell. 
 
 No wonder that Syria has been the battlefield of 
 the dominant powers of the world. Babylonians, 
 Hittites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and 
 Romans, e^ch in their turn were lords of part, if not 
 of the whole, of Syria. Yet later this land beheld the 
 struggle of Heraclius with Chosroes, of Mohammedan 
 with Byzantine, of Turk with Saracen, and Crusader 
 with Turk — all phases in the immemorial conflict of 
 East and West. 
 
 But Syria has been something more to the world 
 than this. Through the enterprise of the Semitic 
 inhabitants of her coast, the germs of Babylonian 
 culture were carried to the Aryan races of the West. 
 Then, when her commercial mission was over, she 
 fell beneath, first the Greek, and afterwards the 
 Roman, and through their double agency imparted 
 to the world that spiritual life which had found its 
 cradle in the uplands of Palestine. So beneath the 
 shadow of the " Pax Romana " this land became the 
 centre towards which all nations of the Western 
 world turned in pious aspiration. 
 
 There is no decisive evidence as to the exact date 
 when the custom of pilgrimages to the Holy Land 
 first obtained in the Christian Church. To the early 
 Christians Jerusalem may well have seemed the city 
 of the wrath rather than of the love of God. To them 
 it was rather the scene of the death than of the 
 resurrection of Christ, and its sacred associations 
 were perhaps obliterated in horror at its profanation 
 
CONSTANTINE AND HELENA, 3 
 
 with heathen worship under the Roman name of 
 Aelia Capitoh'na. 
 
 But when Christianity found a champion in Con- 
 stantine the Great, Jerusalem began to raise its head 
 among the cities of the world. The piety of this 
 Emperor or his mother, Helena, built churches on the 
 traditional scenes of Our Lord's birth,, and burial ; 
 traditional only, since the almost coeval legend of 
 the Invention of the Cross shows clearly that all 
 exact knowledge had been lost. Constantine him- 
 self is credited with the intention of a visit to the 
 Holy Land, and from this time we can trace the his- 
 tory of the sacred pilgrimages from century to cen- 
 tury. That emperor was yet alive when a pilgrim 
 from Bordeaux made the journey by land to Jerusa- 
 lem, and left a record which still survives. In the 
 Holy City he saw the pool of Solomon, the pinnacle 
 whence Satan tempted Christ to throw Himself, and 
 the little hill of Golgotha, which was the scene of the 
 Crucifixion. At other places, too, he notes with care 
 whatever events in Scripture history had made them 
 famous. Clearly men were already seeking to 
 identify the chief scenes of the sacred narrative, 
 although in their credulity they were ready to accept 
 whatever absurdities invention might offer ; such, for 
 instance, as the sycamore tree into whic|i Zacchaeus 
 had climbed. 
 
 By the end of the fourth century the practice of 
 pilgrimages had so much increased as to give rise to 
 the custom of collecting alms for the relief of the 
 poor at Jerusalem. It was well, contended St. 
 Jerome, that men should reverence holy shrines and 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 relics. That saint himself, when forced to leave 
 Rome, made his home in the Holy Land, and there 
 his noble patroness, Paula, came to see him, and visit 
 in his company Elijah's tower at Sarepta, the house 
 of Cornelius at Ca^sarea, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and 
 Hebron. Paula herself wrote afterwards to her friend 
 Marcella : " We do not doubt that there are holy men 
 elsewhere than here, but it is here that the foremost 
 of the whole world are gathere:' together. Here are 
 Gauls and Britons, Persians and Armenians, Indians 
 and Ethiopians, all dwelling in love and harmony." 
 In Jerome's time' Jciusalem already possessed so 
 many sacred places that the stranger could not visit 
 them in a single day. A hundred and fifty years 
 later, after the city had been adorned by the splendid 
 buildings of Justinian, they cannot have been less in 
 number.! 
 
 Early in the seventh century Jerusalem was plundered 
 by Chos^oes the Persian, and the Holy Cross carried 
 off to a strange land, whence it was rescued a few 
 years later by the victorious^ armies of the Emperor 
 Heraclius. But alreadj^-a power was rising which 
 was to overthrow Persian and Roman alike. Even 
 before Heraclius attained the zenith of his fortunes 
 the flight of Mohammed from Mecca had marked for 
 the world of Islam the beginning of a new era. No 
 language can give an adequate idea of the fervour of 
 the adherents of the new creed. Mohammed was hardly 
 
 * Amongst those who described the Holy Land during tlie fifth and 
 sixth centuries we have the famous Eucherius of Lyons (a. d. 450), an 
 anonymous " Breviarius de Hierosolyma " (a.d. 530), the monk Theo- 
 dosius (a.d. 530), and last, Antoninus Martyr (a.d. 570). 
 
RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM. 5 
 
 dead before his followers had conquered Syria and 
 Egypt, overthrown the Persian monarchy, and 
 founded an Arab empire. A century later, despite 
 countless schisms, the new religion ' had made its 
 influence felt from the banks of the Indus to those of 
 the Loire. For a moment in 717 it had even seemed 
 that both the Roman civilisation and Christian faith 
 must perish from the shores of the Bosphorus. But 
 a deliverer appeared in the person of Leo the Is- 
 aurian, who with his successors, if unable to prevent, 
 could at least take vengeance for, the inroads of the 
 Mohammedans. 
 
 But the early enthusiasm of the new faith soon 
 began to wax cold, and by the middle of the tenth 
 centuf5^ the Mohammedan world was in its turn 
 tending to dissolution. The provincial governors 
 rendered a merely nominal allegiance to the Caliph, 
 whilst the st^iism of the Sunnites and Shiites had 
 put on ever new forms, and from a rivalry of faith 
 had produced a rivalry of temporal power. The vast 
 body of Sunnites reverenced the orthodox Abbaside 
 Caliph at Bagdad ; though in Spain a rival dynasty 
 of Omayyad princes established the Saracen Cali- 
 phate of Cordova. Yet a third Caliphate of Shiites 
 has a more important bearing on Crusading history. 
 Towards the end of the ninth century one Abdall'ah, 
 the ^on of Maimun, established a new sect of Moham- 
 medanit,Ti, which absorbed the Ismailians (a division 
 of the Shiites). His doctrines spread rapidly, and 
 above all in Northern Africa, where, in 973, his des- 
 cendant, Moizz-li-dinillah, conquered Egypt, and 
 became the first of that line of Fatimite Caliphs who 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ruled in the valley of the Nile for over two hundred 
 years. Moizz became master of Syria also, and both 
 he and his successor, El- Aziz, showed themselves 
 very friendly to the Christians. Indeed the Ismai- 
 lians, by the very nature of their creed, which taught 
 that absolute truth could only be attained by slow 
 degrees, and lay concealed under many forms of 
 faith, were bound to display a tolerance strange to 
 the ages wherein they flourished. 
 
 During all these centuries Palestine had lain sub- 
 ject to the Mohammedan power. It was one of the 
 first of all the Saracen conquests, achieved in the 
 time of Omar, the second Caliph, whilst the new faith 
 was yet in the first flush of its vigour. Yet none the 
 less, there seems to have been little or no cessation in 
 the stream of pilgrims from the West. The site of 
 the Temple was, it is true, covered by a splendid 
 mosque, but the Holy Sepulchre had been preserved 
 to the Christians through the forbearance of Omar, 
 who refused to enter its precincts lest, after his depar- 
 ture, his infatuated followers should claim posses- 
 sion of a spot whereon their Caliph's foot had 
 rested. 
 
 Among the first of the pilgrims to the Holy Land 
 during the time of the Mohammedan domination 
 was a certain French bishop, Arculf Arculf told the 
 story of his travels to Adamman, Columba's successor 
 at lona, and by this means it came to the knowledge 
 of our own historian, Bede. Arculf spent nine 
 months at Jerusalem ; there he saw not a few novel- 
 ties that had escaped previous travellers ; the lamps 
 that, flashing from the glass windows of the Church 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the Ascension on Mount Olivet, shone out through 
 the night over the hill slopes to the eastern walls of 
 the city ; the linen cloth which had wrapped the 
 Saviour in His tomb ; and the lofty column erected 
 on the spot where the newly-discovered Cross restored 
 the dead youth to life. Arculf likewise visited 
 Jericho, and bathed in the milk-white waters of 
 Jordan. Then he journeyed north, and on his way 
 saw the locusts on which John the Baptist had fed, 
 and the three Tabernacles that now crowned the 
 mountain of the Transfiguration. Afterwards he 
 visited in turn Damascus and Tyre, Alexandria and 
 Constantinople, whence he returned by sea to Rome, 
 and so to his native France. 
 
 There are few or no traces of the pilgrimage of our 
 English ancestors to the Holy Land during the first 
 centuries after their conversion. For them it would 
 seem that the nearer splendour of Rome had more 
 attraction than the remote squalor of Jerusalem. In 
 one instance, however, the Roman pilgrimage was but 
 the first stage in the journey of an Englishman to 
 Jerusalem. St. Willibald was a kinsman of Boniface, 
 the Apostle of Germany. Educated in the monastery 
 of Bishop's Waltham, in Hampshire, Willibald as he 
 grew to manhood was seized with the desire to visit 
 the Holy Land. Accompanied by his father and 
 brother, Wanebald, he travelled across France and 
 into Italy. There his father died at Lucca, and at 
 Rome Wanebald fell ill of a fever. Willibald then 
 continued his journey with two comrades, and 
 reached Palestine by way of Sicily, Ephesus, and 
 Cyprus. They landed at Tortosa, and so journeyed 
 
ARCULF AND WILLIBALD, 9 
 
 to Emesa, where they were thrown into prison as 
 spies. At length a Spaniard, whose brother was 
 chamberlain to the Omayyad Caliph, Yazid II., took 
 pity on them. The master of the ship in which they 
 had come from Cyprus was brought before Yazid, 
 who asked whence the strangers came. " From the 
 land of the sunset," was the reply, " beyond which we 
 know not of earth but only waters." " If this be so," 
 burst out the Caliph, " why punish them } They 
 have done us no wrong ; set them free." Thus Willi- 
 bald and his comrades were released, and so went on 
 to Damascus, and thence to Cana, Mount Tabor, and 
 Tiberias. Willibald spent a considerable time in 
 Palestine, and made four separate visits to Jerusalem. 
 In the Holy City he purchased some of the costly 
 balm for which Jericho was famous. This balm was 
 so precious that its export was forbidden ; but Willi- 
 bald hid his treasure in a vessel partly filled with 
 petroleum, so that when he embarked at Tyre the 
 strong-smelling oil threw the custom officers off the 
 scent. From Tyre Willibald went to Constantinople, 
 and thence, after two years, to Rome. He had been 
 absent ten years, and now retired for a like period to 
 Monte Casino, which he only left to join Boniface in 
 Germany. By Boniface he was consecrated Bishop 
 of Eichstadt, and after holding that see forty- four 
 years, died in 786. 
 
 Less than half a century later the monk Fidelis 
 related in the presence of Dicuil the Irishman how 
 he had sailed up the Nile and visited the pyramids, 
 standing afar off like mountains," and longed to 
 search for the wheels of Pharaoh's chariots in the 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Red Sea. Whether or how Fidel is reached Palestine 
 Dicuil does rTot tell. 
 
 At the end of the century the great Emperor 
 Charles, whom legends long after represented as a 
 Crusader before the Crusades, opened up fresh com- 
 munications between the East and West. When his 
 political ambitions bade fair to involve him in conflict 
 with the Emperor of the East, he found a useful ally 
 in the great Abbaside Caliph Harun-el Rashid. Harun 
 received the Frank ambassadors with kindness,and sent 
 their master many presents, including his only ele- 
 phant, Abulabaz, which Charles had desired to possess. 
 Beyond all else he is said, by a contemporary writer, 
 to have granted the great Emperor the Holy Places 
 at Jerusalem. It is certain that, in the latter years 
 of Charles's reign, a colony of French monks was 
 established on Mount Sion. To this community, 
 Charles himself gave a copy of the Rule of St. 
 Benedict, and a letter is still preserved, wherein the- 
 monks complain to Charles that they had been 
 ejected on Christmas Day from the church at 
 Bethlehem. 
 
 The almsgiving of the great Emperor, which ex- 
 tended to Carthage and Alexandria, did not neglect 
 Jerusalem. More than fifty years later Bernard of 
 St. Michael's Mount, was lodged in the Holy City, 
 "at the hospital of the most glorious Emperor 
 Charles, wherein are received all Roman-speaking 
 pilgrims, who come to that place out of religion." 
 In Bernard's days parts of Southern Italy were subject 
 to the Caliph of Bagdad, and at Tarentum he found 
 six Saracen ships crowded with Christian captives, in 
 
CHARLES THE GREAT. II 
 
 tended for the slave markets of the East. Thirty days' 
 sail in one of these ships brought Bernard and his 
 companions to Alexandria. There they found their 
 letter of recommendation from the Saracen governor 
 of Bari useless, and they had to pay thirteen-pence 
 each for fresh passports. These latter only carried 
 them to Babylon of Egypt, where a like pay- 
 ment had to be made before they could proceed 
 in safety to Jerusalem. In the Holy City Bernard 
 saw the noble library, which Charles had founded 
 in the Virgin's Church, hard by the hospital. For 
 a description of the Holy Sepulchre, he refers his 
 readers to Bcde ; but he saw or heard of a wonder 
 concerning which Bede is silent. " We must note 
 that * Kyrie Eleeson ' is sung until an angel comes and 
 lights the lamps above the Sepulchre. From the 
 flame thus kindled, the patriarch gives a light to the 
 bishops and the rest of the people, so that each may 
 have a light to himself in his own home." This is 
 often but perhaps wrongly said to be the first allusion 
 to the " Miracle of the Sacred Fire," which fraud or 
 superstition from that day to this, with hardly a 
 break, has continued to perpetuate at our Lord's 
 Tomb on every Resurrection Eve.^ After visiting 
 Bethlehem and other places in the neighbourhood, 
 Bernard went back by way of Rome to his monastery 
 of St. Michael in Brittany (circa A.D. 8:^0). 
 
 From the above narratives it is plain that during 
 the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries no insuper- 
 able obstacles barred the way of pilgrims from the 
 
 * Eusebius mentions one form of this miracle, and the e is a possible 
 allusion by Gregory of Tours in the sixth century. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 West. The old path to the Holy City along the 
 great roads of the Empire, through Constantinople 
 and across Asia Minor to Antioch was, it is true, 
 now closed ; closed it may be from the very days 
 when the Huns made themselves masters of the 
 Danube valley. Probably, however, the pilgrims 
 made their journeys as before ; there was no breach 
 of custom, but merely a change of route. The 
 strange concessions which Mohammed made in favour 
 of the " Peoples of the Book," ensured Christian 
 pilgrims from any violent persecution. Willibald, 
 apart from his imprisonment, was not ill-treated at 
 Emesa, and no doubt in the days of Charles the 
 Great, the pilgrim's condition would be improved. 
 Indeed, Bernard found a market-place attached to 
 the Emperor's hospital at Jerusalem, apparently for 
 the special use of pilgrims. 
 
 But Bernard pays a higher tribute to the good 
 order and religious moderation which characterised 
 the Eastern Caliphate in his days. At Beneventum 
 the Christian folk had murdered their own prince, 
 and destroyed all Christian law, till Louis, grandson 
 of Charles the Great, introduced some kind of dis- 
 cipline. Worse than this, the roads leading to Rome 
 were so thronged with banditti, that no one could 
 reach St. Peter's in safety, unless he belonged to a 
 large and well-armed party. This state of misrule 
 Bernard contrasts with the peace prevailing in the 
 Mohammedan lands through which he travelled. 
 " I will tell you how Christians hold the law of God 
 in Jerusalem, and in Egypt. Now the Christians 
 and the pagans have peace one with another, in such 
 
THE YEAR 1000. 1 3 
 
 wise that, if on my journey the camel or ass that 
 bore my h'ttle property were to die, and I were 
 to leave all my chattels there with none to guard 
 them, while I went to another city, on my return I 
 should find everything untouched. But if in any 
 city, or on any bridge or road they find a man 
 journeying, whether by day or by night, without 
 some charter and seal from the king or ruler of the 
 district, he is straightway thrust into prison till he 
 can give an account of himself whether he be a spy 
 or not." 
 
 This happy state of affairs continued with some 
 intervals of disturbance till the early years of the 
 eleventh century. 
 
 § 2. The Eve of the Crusades. 
 
 At the end of the tenth century the great kingdoms 
 of mediaeval Europe were assuming a definite shape. 
 The sceptre of the Western Franks had passed from 
 the hands of the degenerate descendants of Charles 
 to those of Hugh Capet ; from Hugh's accession the 
 modern kingdom of France may be said to date, 
 despite the limitations which the great vassal counts 
 and dukes imposed on their nominal suzerain. In 
 Spain the Christian kingdoms were growing daily at 
 the expense of the decaying Caliphate of Cordova. 
 In other lands the crown of Lombardy already was, 
 and that of Burgundy soon was to be, annexed to 
 the German realm. For the kingdom of the Eastern 
 Franks had now, through the vigour of the three 
 Ottos, entered on its more distinctively German 
 phase. Yet further, the German kings had made good 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 their claim to the imperial title also, and from the 
 days of Otto I., it was the chief ambition of almost 
 every German king to be crowned Emperor of the 
 Romans ; that ambition was destined to be fatal to 
 German kingship, but in the tenth century it yet 
 seemed that the union of the imperial and royal offices 
 would bring strength to both. The papacy, that power 
 whose enmity was to be the ruin of German king 
 and Roman emperor alike, was at this period sunk 
 in the lowest depths of insignificance and vice. From 
 those depths first the Ottos and then the Henrys 
 made a brave effort to raise it. But it was not till 
 the days of Gregory VII. that the Popes learned the 
 secret of their own strength, or the German kings the 
 •secret of their own weakness. 
 
 ^*5 ^G fateful year looo drew near, men's hearts 
 began c. l-h'^^ for fear. To their excited imagi- 
 nation, the Secoii^ i^cvM^r^-- of the Loi'd seemed close 
 at hand 4ud their forebi*«t<vi^ we»-e strengthened by 
 the yfLv-'^of misery ai.iJL-^ti^i'^e %hich brought the 
 tenth century to a close .Th 7-^ dread is marked 
 in every aspect of life, and ihe v«2ry charters bear 
 witness to its reality by their solemn opening 
 " appropinquante termino mundi." The terror passed, 
 but only to revive thirty years later as the thou- 
 sandth anniversary of the Crucifixion approached. 
 
 When at length the cloud was lifted a spirit of 
 piety seems to have seized upon all classes. The 
 Peace of God was already formulated in Southern 
 France ; but of all the characteristics of the new era 
 the most remarkable was the zeal for pilgrimages. 
 No class and no sex was free from this passion. 
 
REVIVAL OF PIETY. 15 
 
 The same enthusiasm seized upon^the mean and tlie 
 mighty alike. " At this time," say.s a contemporary 
 writer,! " there began to flow towards the Holy 
 Sepulchre so great a multitude as, ere this, no man 
 could have hoped for. First of all went uie meaner 
 folk, then men of middle rank, and, lastly, very many 
 kings and counts, marquises and bishops ; aye, and 
 a thing that had never happened before, many women 
 bent their steps in the same direction." Happy 
 circumstances opened up a long-closed pathway to 
 the -ardent pilgrims. For ages the land route to 
 Jerusalem had been practically barred, and would-be 
 travellers like Willibald or BernafQ forced to sail 
 across the Mediterranean to Ephesus or Alexandria. 
 But about the year 1000 the old route was opened up 
 once more. The Huns had been converted to Chris- 
 tianity, and so Ralph Glaber a little later could write 
 that pilgrinis were forsaking the sea route and passing 
 through Stephen's y'^^nii:^ Hungary bccaiise this 
 seemed thersafe^. 1*^^.- • - ^j- . ., 
 
 Of noble eleve ^^ry pilgrims a iew call for 
 
 special , notice, ^y .^ua the counts of Anjou none 
 bore a worse -name than Fulk the Black. At length, 
 a.fter a life of bloodshed and battle, he was moved by 
 the fear of hell to go as a pilgrim to Jerusalem. He 
 returned somewhat softened, but once more his con- 
 
 * Ralph Glaber. It is pathetic to read in the mediaeval martyrologies 
 •the records of the less distinguished wayfarers : May 24, Leger, the deacon " 
 of Auxerre, who died on the way from Jerusalem and had the sea for his 
 grave ; June 30th, Andrew the knight, and was buried at Jerusalem ; 
 November 24th, Hictarius of blessed memory, he set out for Jerusalem, 
 and through God's mercy died on the way. Migne, " Patrologia," 
 cxxxviii. 1229, 1232, 1252. 
 
i6 Introduction. 
 
 science sent him forth. At Jerusalem, so runs the 
 story, he had to purchase an entrance for himself 
 and his comrades ; and to the Holy Sepulchre he was 
 only admitted on promise of an insult to the cross of 
 Christ, a hard necessity from which he escaped by a 
 subterfuge. However he contrived to bite off a bit 
 of the stone, which he brought home as a precious 
 relic for his abbey of Beaulieu. Later on Fulk made 
 a third pilgrimage, and died on his way back at Metz 
 in 1040. In 1035 Robert the Magnificent left his 
 duchy of Normandy and his young son the future 
 conqueror of England, and went on a pilgrimage to 
 Jerusalem, which he accomplished in safety. But on 
 his way home he too fell ill and died at Nicaea, where 
 he was buried in the Virgin's church. 
 
 Those princes who could not themselves go on the 
 pilgrimage displayed their religious feelings by their 
 habitual piety. Robert I. of France was more of a 
 priest than a king. Richard H. of Normandy sup- 
 plied to his namesake, the abbot of Grace Dieu, the 
 funds which enabled him to go to Jerusalem, and 
 between this prince and the monks of Mount Sinai a 
 friendly exchange of gifts was maintained. William 
 HI. of Aquitaine (od. 1029) won for himself the titles 
 of " Father of the monks, builder of churches, and lover 
 of the Roman Church." Every year he made a 
 pilgrimage to Rome, or if circumstances prevented 
 this then at least to St. James at Compostella. Duke 
 William himself never went as far as Jerusalem, but his 
 trusty councillor William of Angouleme went there 
 with many nobles and bishops passing through Hun- 
 gary in the days of King Stephen. He left home on 
 
October 1st, reached Jerusalem in tlie first week of 
 March, and by the third week of June was back in 
 his own city of Angouleme. Other pilgrims of dis- 
 tinction were Earl Godwin's eldest son Swegen, whose 
 uneasy conscience sent him to Jerusalem. Ealdred, 
 Archbishop of York, went to Jerusalem in 1058, in 
 such state as no other before him, and offered at our 
 Lord's tomb a golden chalice of wondrous workman- 
 ship and price. , Six years later Siegfried of Mayence 
 and three other bishops led a motley crowd of seven 
 thousand pilgrims to the Holy Land. Their gorgeous 
 apparel excited the cupidity of the Saracens, and they 
 fled for refuge to a fort, where they defended them- 
 selves during three days, but at last offered all their 
 money in return for their lives, and admitted seven- 
 teen of the Arabs within the walls. The Arab leader 
 unrolled his turban, and flinging it round Bishop 
 Herman of Bamberg's neck exclaimed, " Thou and 
 all thou hast are mine." This was more than the 
 bishop could bear, and with a sudden blow he laid 
 his captor prostrate. At this act of episcopal valour 
 the Christians regained their courage, bound the 
 Saracens who had entered the fort, and renewed the 
 contest with those outside. At last the Saracen lord 
 of Ramleh came to the rescue, and under his guidance 
 the pilgrims visited Jerusalem in safety. But only 
 two thousand lived to return to Europe. 
 
 We must now return to the course of events in the 
 internal history of the East itself, and more particu- 
 larly of Syria during the first three-quarters of the 
 eleventh century. At the beginning of that era 
 Jerusalem was subject to the Fatimite Caliph of 
 
 3. 
 
l8 , INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Cairo. El- Hakim, the then Cah'ph, had succeeded as a 
 boy of eleven in 996 A.D. ; as he grew to manhood he 
 seems to have developed a strain of madness, though 
 it is difficult to trace the exact course of his actions, 
 as told in the narratives of contemporary Christian 
 and later Mohammedan writers. Like the other 
 Fatimites, El-Aziz — El-Hakim's father — had been no 
 bigot ; but had a Christian for secretary, and a Jew 
 for governor of Syria. El- Hakim did not share his 
 liberality ; first he put restrictions on Jews and Chris- 
 tians, then, according to Ralph Glaber on September 
 29, loio, he ordered the destruction of the Holy 
 Sepulchre itself^ Contemporary rumour ascribed 
 this outrage to the artifices of the Jews, who per- 
 suaded El- Hakim, that unless he put a stop to the 
 throngs of pilgrims he would soon find himself with- 
 out a kingdom. False though the rumour was, it 
 became the pretext for the widespread persecution 
 of the Jews in Christian lands. Eastern historians, 
 however, show that El- Hakim was the impartial op- 
 pressor of Jew and Christian alike, imposing absurd 
 but harassing restrictions on the members of either 
 creed.2 Later still his madness took a more serious 
 form, and he allowed himself to be publicly declared 
 the creator of the universe, until finally he was slain 
 by order of his sister in 102 1. 
 
 It was less than twenty years after the death of El- 
 
 * The destruction does not, however, seem to have been very com- 
 plete. The Sepulchre was indeed restored by, Hakim himself in the 
 following year. 
 
 ^ Such as forbidding them to wear rings on their hands, or to ride on 
 horses or mules. 
 
RISE OF THE SELyUKS. I9 
 
 Hakim, that there appeared a new power in Western 
 Asia destined to influence fatally the fortunes of 
 Palestine. In 1038 Masud the Ghaznevid was 
 defeated by the Seljukian Turks, who thereupon 
 chose for their sovereign Toghrul Beg, the grandson 
 of Seljuk, a Turkish chief who had adopted Moham- 
 medanism and founded a principaHty in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Samarcand. Toghrul rapidly extended 
 his conquests over all Persia, and into regions further 
 west. The effeminate Abbasides had long possessed 
 but the shadow of power, and the reality now passed 
 to Toghrul, who was eventually in 1055 invested with 
 the dignity of Sultan or vicegerent for the Caliph in 
 the orthodox Mohammedan world. Toghrul was 
 succeeded in 1063 by his nephew Alp Arslan, under 
 whose leadership the Seljuks conquered Armenia, 
 and defeated the Emperor Romanus Diogenes at 
 the great battle of Manzikert in August, 107 1. As 
 the fruit of this victory Alp Arslan acquired the 
 lordship of Anatolia, and though he himself died 
 within a year, the power of the Seljuks continued to 
 progress throughout the twenty years' reign of his 
 son Malek Shah. After the captivity of Romanus 
 Diogenes, the Byzantine Empire became the prey 
 of imperial pretenders, who appealed without scruple 
 to the aid of Norman and even of Turkish arms. 
 During this period Asia Minor was so ravaged by 
 the Turkish hordes, that almost the whole peninsula 
 was within a few years lost to civilisation. At the 
 beginning of the reign of Alexius Comnenus in 1081, 
 so far had the wave of conquest spread that the 
 Turkish standards on the battlements of Nicaea 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 were almost within sight of the Byzantine metro- 
 polis. 
 
 But the power of the Turks was not the only 
 danger which threatened the empire of Alexius ; the 
 Normans, under Robert Guiscard, were at the same 
 time cutting short his dominions on the shores of the 
 Adriatic. Like his predecessors, Alexius had recourse 
 to foreign arms for assistance and support. Chief 
 amongst the mercenary leaders in the reign of 
 Romanus had been the Norman Ursel, who was 
 perhaps a far-off kinsman of our own English and 
 Scottish house of Balliol. At the capital itself the 
 Emperor maintained the famous Varangian guards, 
 in whose ranks there served side by side with the 
 countrymen of their conquerors, many English, who 
 had fled their native land after the fatal day of 
 Hastings^ The employment of these mercenaries 
 familiarised the Eastern emperors with the notion of 
 deliverance through the prowess of Latin Christen- 
 dom. Nor were the Latins without some feeling of 
 sympathy for the affliction of the Eastern Christians. 
 Pope Sylvester II.'s famous letter of appeal on behalf 
 of Jerusalem, "the immaculate spouse of God," is 
 possibly a forgery of the later " eleventh century. 
 It is, however, certain that seventy years afterwards 
 the profound statecraft of Gregory VII. saw clearly 
 the danger with which the advance of the Turks 
 threatened all Christendom. In an urgent letter he 
 called upon all Christian warriors to take up arms 
 on behalf of Constantinople. But this appeal was 
 not fruitful in important results, and even if Gregory 
 entertained any definite plan for uniting the West in 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE IN DANGER. 21 
 
 defence of the Eastern Empire, the troubles of his 
 later years prevented its execution. v/ 
 
 Alexius I., however, seems to have hoped for some 
 such aid. A letter purporting to be an appeal from 
 him to Robert, Count of Flanders, brother-in-law of 
 William the Conqueror, has been preserved in more 
 than one form. As regards its actual wording it 
 may be a forgery, but it certainly dates from 
 the early years of the twelfth century and, as 
 Robert had visited Constantinople whilst on a pil- 
 grimage to Jerusalem, there is nothing improbable 
 in the appeal. There is a pathetic ring in the Em- 
 peror's words as preserved in this letter : " From 
 Jerusalem to the ^Egaean the Turkish hordes have 
 mastered all : their galleys, sweeping the Black Sea 
 and Mediterranean, threaten the Imperial city itself, 
 which, if fall it must, had better fall into the hands of 
 Latins than of pagans." 
 
 The reference to Jerusalem is literally true, for since 
 the victory of Manzikert, the Turks had conquered 
 Palestine from the Egyptians. Tutush, brother of 
 Malek Shah, had established himself at Damascus, 
 and about 1092 granted Jerusalem to Ortok the 
 Turk, from whose son Sokman, the Egyptian vizir 
 El-Afdal captured it in 1096. But before the coming 
 of the first Crusaders the East had obtained a tem- 
 porary relief through the death, on the i8th of 
 November, 1092, of Malek Shah, the noblest of the 
 Seljukian Sultans, whose empire extended from the 
 borders of China to the southern frontiers of Pales- 
 tine. Tiiis vast inheritance was disputed for by 
 Malek's children, and the consequent dissensions, 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 by weakening the power of the Seljuks, made the 
 progress of the first Crusaders from Nicaea to Jeru- 
 salem a comparatively easy task. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the definite 
 shape that the kingdoms of Western Europe had begun 
 to assume at the opening of the eleventh century. 
 For four hundred years previously Europe had been 
 devastated by three great plagues, against which, in 
 her divided state, she could make no effectual resist- 
 tance. Yet it was, to no small extent, to the resistance 
 offered to these three scourges that the feudal Europe 
 of the Middle Ages owed its shape. Out of resistance 
 to the Saracens arose the notion of religious war on a 
 large scale ; out of resistance to the Northmen rose 
 the sense of national danger, which was ultimately to 
 produce the sense of national unity ; through resist- 
 ance to the Hungarian invasion, the great rulers of 
 the Saxon house made good their claim to the 
 German kingship and all it brought in its train, the 
 kingship of Italy, and the Empire of Rome. 
 
 But amongst all the incidents which these troubles 
 gave rise to, there is none of such interest for our 
 present subject as the settlement of the Normans in 
 Southern Italy. An eleventh-century legend tells 
 how forty Norman warriors, returning from a pil- 
 grimage to Jerusalem, found the Saracens besieging 
 Salerno. They eagerly offered their aid to Guaymar, 
 the Lombard prince of the city ; and, when success 
 crowned their efforts, refused to accept any money 
 payment for what they had done out of love for God. 
 Historically speaking, the Normans seem to have 
 established themselves in Italy towards the beginning 
 
THE NORMANS. 23 
 
 of the eleventh century. The Greek emperors were 
 then striving to recover the land from the Saracens 
 and Lombards. The confusion was favourable to the 
 new-comers, who further were aided by Melo, an 
 Apulian rebel against the Emperor, and under their 
 leader, Count Ranulf, the Normans fortified them- 
 selves near Aversa. Some years later the elder sons 
 ofTancred of Hauteville, of whom the most famous 
 were Robert Guiscard and Roger, came forward as 
 chiefs of the new settlement. Robert obtained f<Sr 
 himself the title of Duke of Calabria and Apulia, 
 while Roger conquered Sicily from the Saracens. 
 The conquerors were, however, eager to find a legal 
 title for their authority. This they secured when, in 
 1053, they defeated and took prisoner Pope Leo IX., 
 who was soon glad to purchase his release by the 
 confirmation to the Normans of all their conquests 
 past or yet to come. 
 
 The great and powerful Emperor, Henry III., died 
 in 1056, leaving a little son — Henry IV. — a boy of six, 
 whose infancy vv^as to be the source of prolonged 
 trouble. His subjects found in the weakness of a 
 divided regency a fit opportunity for revolt, and 
 hardly had the young king come to manhood when a 
 yet greater danger appeared without Gregory VII. 
 availed himself of the king's weakness for an un- 
 paralleled assertion of the superiority of the eccle- 
 siastical over the civil power'; nor did he scruple 
 to support the rebellious nobles of Germany against 
 their lord. Henry set up Guibert of Ravenna as an 
 anti-pope, and when, in 1080, his opponent Rudolf of 
 Saxony had fallen in battle, entered Italy and expelled 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Gregory from Rome. Henry was forced to retire by 
 the approach of the Normans under Guiscard ; but 
 Gregory could not recover his city, and died as an 
 exile at Salerno, leaving the contest to his successors' 
 — in full confidence as to its ultimate issue. 
 
 Indeed, despite the sadness of his last days, 
 Gregory's labours had ensured the consolidation of 
 the papal power. Popes Zachary and Hadrian I. 
 had, it is true, played a great part in the days of 
 Pepin and Charles. Nicholas I. (858-867) also had 
 compelled Lothair to take back his divorced wife 
 Teutberga, and established his authority in the 
 Gallic Church despite the resistance of Hincmar of 
 Rheims. But the ambition of such pontiffs did no 
 more than furnish a foundation for the lofty and 
 wide- spreading pretensions of a later age. The 
 next century and a half forms the most degraded 
 epoch in the papal annals, and it was Gregory who 
 was the true creator of the mediaeval papacy. Only 
 when Gregory's action had forced on a contest with 
 the greatest temporal power of the age did the popes 
 learn to perceive their own strength. It was that 
 contest which gave to the popes their position as the 
 spiritual heads of Christendom, and enabled them to 
 preach with success the Crusade against the Saracen. 
 
 Gregory's ally, Robert Guiscard, had meantime 
 prepared the road in another direction. In 108 1 he 
 had carried his arms across the sea and was already 
 master of Durazzo, when the news of Gregory's 
 disasters compelled him to leave the conduct of the 
 war to his son Bohernond. He was preparing for a 
 second expedition against Constantinople itself, when 
 
GREGORY VII. AND ROBERT GUISCARD. 
 
 25 
 
 death overtook him. He left his duchy to his son 
 Roger, and his ambitious projects in the East to 
 Bohemond. 
 
 Thus neither Robert nor Gregory lived to take part 
 in the Holy War, for which they both had consciously 
 or unconsciously laboured. Tradition, indeed, makes 
 a simple hermit the prime mover in the first crusade, 
 and to his history we must now turn. 
 
II. 
 
 PETER THE HERMIT AND URBAN THE POPE. 
 
 " Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, 
 But to be young was very Heaven." 
 
 Wordsworth, The Prelude, 
 
 There is little in the legend of Peter the Hermit 
 which may not very well be true, and the story as it 
 stands is more plausible than if we had to assume 
 that tradition had transferred the credit of the 
 First Crusade from a pope to a simple hermit. How- 
 ever, the full tale of Peter's visit first appears in the 
 " Chanson d'Antioch," and in Albert of Aix, some 
 forty years after the supposed event. In the more 
 sober writings of contemporaries, there is no proof 
 that Peter the Hermit stirred up Urban to his great 
 achievement, nor indeed that he was present at the 
 Council of Clermont at all. In Guibert of Nogent 
 he appears as the apostle of one district of Northern 
 France ; and, though a contemporary chronicler 
 seemingly takes him to the borders of Spain, it is 
 more probable that his preaching and influence were 
 confined to a very limited area. 
 
 To turn, however, to the picturesque narrative of 
 
 26 
 
PETER AT JERUSALEM. 2 J 
 
 the traditional tale. About the year 1092 Peter the 
 Hermit, a native of Amiens or its neighbourhood, 
 went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Here his soul 
 was stirred by the horrors that he witnessed, in the 
 pollution of the Holy Places, and the cruel oppression 
 of the native Christians and of the pilgrims from 
 distant lands. The Patriarch, when appealed to by 
 Peter, could only lament his own powerlessness and 
 his dread of worse in store unless their brothers in 
 the west should send them aid. At his entreaty Peter 
 promised to rouse the princes of Europe to a sense of 
 the sad condition of the Holy City. Before all else 
 he bound himself to visit the Pope and enlist his 
 sympathies on the same side. 
 
 Then, so runs the story, Peter left the Patriarch's 
 presence, to spend the night in vigil at our Saviour's 
 tomb. Weary with watching, at length he fell asleep. 
 As he slumbered Christ appeared to him in a vision, 
 and bade him hasten home to accomplish his task. 
 But first Peter was to obtain from fhe Patriarch 
 credentials for his mission : " So shalt thou make 
 known the woes of our people, and rouse the 
 faithful to the cleansing of the Holy Places ; for 
 through danger and trial of every kind shall the elect 
 now enter the gates of Paradise." 
 
 At dawn Peter hurried to the Patriarch, and, after 
 obtaining letters signed with the Holy Cross, went 
 down to the coast and took ship for Italy. Urban 
 proved a ready listener, and was easily induced to 
 promise his aid. After more than one council in 
 Italy, he crossed the Alps and gathered a great 
 ''ouncil at Clermont, where his exhortations stirred 
 
28 PETER THE HERMIT AND URBAN THE POPE. 
 
 lords of every degree to bind themselves in a sacred 
 mutual engagement to redeem the Sepulchre of 
 Christ from the hands of the Mohammedan. Such 
 is Albert of Aix's narrative, and despite some taint 
 of legend it is no doubt true in the main. 
 
 Urban II., by birth a native of Rheims, and by 
 breeding a monk of Cluny, had been advanced by 
 Gregory VII. to be bishop of Ostia. Finally, in 
 1088, he became Gregory's second successor in the 
 papacy and the inheritor of his struggle with the 
 Emperor Henry. To this German trouble was added 
 another scandal in France, where King Philip lived in 
 open adyltery with Bertrada de Montfort, the wife of 
 Fulk Rechin of Anjou. In Lent, 1095, Urban held 
 synod at Piacenza, where Philip's envoys attended 
 to make peace for their lord ; but a more remarkable 
 embassy was that from the Emperor Alexius, plead- 
 ing for help against the Turks. The church was not 
 sufficient to hold the crowds that assembled, and 
 mass was celebrated in the fields, where doubtless the 
 multitude listened to the impassioned language in 
 which the Eastern envoys appealed to their brethren 
 of the West for aid against their pagan foes. 
 
 Urban at once displayed his interest in the pro- 
 posal, and induced many to pledge themselves to 
 such a holy service. A second cojuncil was then con- 
 vened to meet at Clermont on November 18, 1095. 
 In the Acts of this council it was declared that — 
 " whoever shall have set out for Jerusalem, not for 
 the sake of honour or gain, but to free the Church of 
 God, may reckon his journey as a penance." The 
 Acts contain no further allusion to the Crusade, but 
 
THE COUNCIL OF CLERMONT. 29 
 
 more than one contemporary historian has preserved 
 what purports to be the very speech with which Urban 
 kindled the hearts of the French warriors. These 
 versions may be copies of encyclical letters from the 
 Pope to the Churches of the West, or the compositions 
 of the historians themselves. But in either case they 
 represent the aspirations and breathe the spirit which 
 impelled the first Crusaders to relinquish wife and 
 child and home for the sake of Christ. 
 
 When the strictly ecclesiastical business of the 
 council was completed, Urban preached to the 
 assembled multitude, exchanging the language of the 
 universal Latin Church for the French speech that 
 had been familiar to him in his youth. To the 
 French warriors the first truly French Pope could 
 speak in his own and their mother tongue. He 
 began by reminding them that they were of God's 
 elect, set apart by a special providence from all other 
 nations for the service of the Church. He painted 
 in vivid colours the sad necessity that had brought 
 him back to Gallic soil ; he told how the cries from 
 threatened Constantinople and down-trodden Jeru- 
 salem had long been ringing in his ears. It would 
 talce two months to traverse the lands, which the 
 " accursed Persian race " had won from the Empire 
 of the East Within all this region the Christians 
 had been led off to slavery, their homes laid waste, 
 their churches overthrown. Could his hearers look 
 on unmoved, when the heathen had entered into 
 God's heritage ? Antioch, once the city of Peter, was 
 given over to Mohammedan superstition. Of Jeru- 
 salem it was a shame even to speak, but there were 
 
30 PETER THE HERMIT AND URBAN THE POPE. 
 
 some there who had witnessed with their own eyes 
 the abominations wrought by the Turks in the very 
 Sepulchre of Christ Yet God had not in His mercy 
 forsaken the land, and still repeated every Easter 
 His miracle of the Sacred Fire. 
 
 Then Urban appealed to the proud knights stand- 
 ing by? and asked, how they were busying themselves 
 in these fateful days, shearing their brethren like 
 sheep, and quarrelling one with another. Yea! the 
 knighthood of Christ were plundering Christ's fold. 
 They were changing the deeds of a knight for the 
 works oi night. ^ As they loved their souls let them 
 go forth boldly, and quitting their mutual slaughter 
 take up arms for the household of faith. " Christ 
 Himself will be your leader, as, more valiantly than 
 did the Israelites of old, you fight for your Jerusalem. 
 It will be a goodly thing to die in that city, where 
 Christ died for you. Let not love of any earthly 
 possession detain you. You dwelt in a land narrow 
 and unfertile. Your numbers overflow, and hence 
 you devour one another in wars. Let these home 
 discords cease. Start upon the way to the Holy 
 Sepulchre ; wrench the land from the accursed race, 
 and subdue it to yourselves. Thus shall you spoil 
 your foes of their wealth and return home victorious, 
 or, purpled with your own blood, receive an everlast- 
 ing reward. ... It were better to die in warfare 
 than behold the evils that befall the Holy Places. 
 ,/Trenchmcn recall the valour of Charles the Great 
 and his son Louis, who destroyed the kingdoms 
 of the unbelievers, and extended the limits of the 
 
 ' In the Latin : •* militiam male depravastis in malitiam." 
 
URBAN PREACHES THE CRUSADE. 31 
 
 Church. Valiant knights, descendants of uncon-^^ 
 quered sires, remember the vigour of your fore- 
 fathers, and do not degenerate from your noble 
 stock." 
 
 This challenge to Christendom to forget its private 
 feuds in one great effort for ^God and Christ, this 
 skilful allusion to the glories of the old Prankish racel^::^ 
 produced an instantaneous result. As the voice of 
 the Pope died away there went up one cry from the_ 
 assembled host : " Deus Vult ! Deus Vult ! " ("It / 
 is the will of God ! It is the will of God ! ") 
 
 Then, raising his eyes to heaven, and stretching out 
 his hand for silence. Urban renewed his speech with^^ 
 words of praise. "This day has been fulfilled in your 
 midst, the saying of our Lord : ' Where two or three 
 are gathered together in My name, there am T in the 
 midst of them.' Had not the Lord been in your midst, 
 you would not thus have a-11 uttered the same cry. 
 Wherefore I tell you it is God who has inspired you 
 with His voice. So let the Lord's motto be your 
 battle cry, and when you go forth to meet the enemy 
 this shall be your watchword : ' Deus Vult ! Deus / 
 Vult!''' 
 
 " The vast concourse," says one who was himself 
 present at this moving scene, " flung themselves pros- 
 trate on the .ground while Gregory, a cardinal, made 
 confession of sin on their behalf, and begging pardon 
 for past misdeeds received the apostolic blessing." 
 Then man after man pressed forward to recei\e his 
 commission in the sacred service from the Pope's own 
 hands. To each class was assigned its special .^hare in 
 the glorious work. But the old and feeble were dis- 
 
32 PETER THE HERMIT AND URBAN THE POPE. 
 
 suaded from an expedition wherein their presence 
 was more likely to impede than to assist. No woman 
 was to venture, unless in the company of husband or 
 brother. Priests and clerks were not to start without 
 the leave of their superior, nor any layman without 
 the blessing of his priest. The rich were to aid in 
 proportion to their wealth, and even to hire soldiers 
 for the field. All these elaborate injunctions can 
 hardly have been given out on one day : it is more 
 likely that the historian is here speaking proleptically, 
 for he certainly wrote at a date, when experience had 
 proved the impossibility of conducting an unarmed 
 rabble through so vast a space of unknown land. Of 
 the warnings thus put into Urban's mouth few at 
 the time could have seen the necessity. 
 
 The enthusiasm reached its height when the envoys 
 of Count Raymond of Toulouse, declared that their 
 lord, the most powerful prince of Southern France, 
 had pledged himself to go on the Crusade. Not only 
 would he conduct a mighty host from his own 
 domains, but he was willing to give his counsel and 
 wealth to all intending pilgrims. Moreover, it was 
 announced that Adhemar, the bishop of Puy, would 
 go with the lord of Toulouse, and so in their persons 
 the people of God would find a new Aaron and a new 
 Moses. 
 
 Urban himself was foremost in the work of dis- 
 tributing the crosses. All who took the cross did 
 so of their own accord ; there was no compulsion, 
 but there must be no turning back. The renegade 
 was to be shunned of all ; he was to be a per- 
 petual outlaw till waking to the true wisdom he 
 
SIGNS AND WONDERS. 33 
 
 undertook once more what he had abandoned so 
 basely. 
 
 At length with the papal blessing all the laymen were 
 dismissed to their homes. To confirm their good 
 intentions, the Church promised her protection to the 
 wives, children, and property of all who undertook the 
 " Way of God." 
 
 The bishops and priests on their part went away to 
 preach tlie new gospel each in his own diocese and 
 parish. As the clergy uttered their exhortations, the 
 laymen raised their voices in one great cry, doubtless, 
 the same that had first made itself heard at the council 
 Clermont : " Beus Vult ! " Soon men began to seek 
 for signs and wonders. Surely God must have given 
 some foretoken of all that was to happen.. Far away 
 from Clermont, Bishop Gilbert of Lisieux, a philoso- 
 pher, famous for his knowledge of astronomy and 
 medicine, one of the physicians who had ^yatched by 
 the death-bed of the Great Conqueror, was looking 
 out upon the starlit sky. The night was thick with 
 falling stars, and as Gilbert watched, he expounded 
 the significance of this marvellous sight to the 
 servant who shared his vigil : " This prefigures 
 the transmigration of many people frorp one realm 
 to another. Many shall go forth and never return, 
 until the stars return to their place in the sky, 
 whence you now see them falling." Later, men 
 saw the moon turn red and black at her eclipse, 
 a sure sign of change in high places.' Yet wilder 
 stories spread abroad, and it was fabled that the Acts 
 of the Council of Clermont became known within a 
 few hours to the whole world ; joy leapt up in the 
 
34 PETER THE HERMIT AND URBAN THE POPE, 
 
 hearts of Christians, but fear and amazement fell upon 
 the heathen dwellers in the East ; for such a blast 
 resounded from the heavenly trumpet that through- 
 out all lands the enemies of Christ trembled and were 
 afraid. 
 
 Raymond was the only great lord who had pledged 
 himself to the Crusade at Clermont. But the 
 enthusiasm was spread broadcast over Western 
 Europe by the prelates, priests, and laymen as they 
 returned from the great assembly. 
 
 A vivid picture of the intense excitement of the 
 next few months has been preserved. In the high- 
 ways and the cross-roads men would talk of nothing 
 else ; layman and priest alike took up the cry and 
 urged their fellows to start for Jerusalem. The 
 intending pilgrim gloried in his resolution, while his 
 laggard friend took shame to himself for his sloth and 
 slackness in the cause of God. 
 
 The last harvest had been a failure so complete 
 that many of the rich found themselves in penury, 
 while the poor were driven to feed on herbs and the 
 wild roots of the field. Guibert of Nogent draws a 
 vivid picture of these winter days, when all were sad 
 with the prospect of approaching famine, save only 
 the prudent rich man, who had long been storing up 
 in the years of plenty, so to gather wealth in times of 
 dearth. " It was a time," writes Guibert, "to gladden 
 the heart of the miser as he added the price of his 
 garnered grain to his precious hoard." And now 
 just when the money-lender was rejoicing in hope of 
 unexampled profit, his dream was rudely dissipated ; 
 Urban had spoken and Christendom was roused 
 
THE PREACHING OF PETER, 35 
 
 Instead of the expected want, the markets were 
 glutted ; every one was eager to sell, few cared to 
 buy. Before the council bread was scarce ; after the 
 council, though it was full winter, when stock had been 
 killed off for salting, seven sheep were sold for fivepence. 
 
 As usual there was the crowd of greedy self-seekers 
 only too eager to snatch a profit out of the enthusiasm 
 of their fellows. " Yet, even these men," says a con- 
 temporary, " could not all hold out against the pre- 
 vailing contagion. To-day a man might be seen 
 chuckling over his friend's madness ; to-morrow he 
 might be seen acting the same part and selling all he 
 had for a few trumpery coins." 
 
 It was in North-eastern France and on the lowef 
 Rhine that the popular frenzy first gathered head. 
 Eight months were to elapse before any of the great 
 leaders started on the road, for many preparations 
 had first to be made. But the wilder spirits could not 
 brook delay, nor were there wanting men to set the 
 torch to their enthusiasm. 
 
 In the long winter months the voice of one 
 preacher was heard in North-eastern France urging 
 men to fulfil the commands of .God. This preacher 
 was Peter the Hermit, and it is with the winter of 
 1095-6 that his historical career commences. From 
 town to town he passed along walled round by a 
 throng of eager devotees. " Never," says Guibert, 
 " within our memory was any man so honoured." Of, 
 small stature, dark complexion, thin features, and if 
 we may trust the evidence of romance, with a long 
 white beard, he rode upon a mule, whence his 
 followers plucked the very hairs as precious relics. 
 
36 PETER THE HERMIT AND URBAN THE POPE. 
 
 The exhortations of Peter and his fellows produced 
 a marvellous effect Guibert saw villages, towns, and 
 cities emptied of their inhabitants as the preacher 
 went along. This of course is the language of exag- 
 geration, though it may possibly bear some relation 
 to the truth, while Peter was passing through a 
 district. But the real effect of his exhortations is 
 to be seen in the expeditions that left France and 
 Lorraine in the early spring of 1096. 
 
 The popular excitement, however, sank to lower 
 depths than these. Madness, the near kinsman of 
 enthusiasm and credulity, is often the slave of persecu- 
 tion. Whilst, on the one hand, crowds were starting 
 for Jerusalem under the guidance of a mad woman, a 
 goose, or a goat whom their frenzied imagination took 
 to be the receptacles of the spirit of God, others made 
 the movement an excuse for wanton rapine and 
 murder. In Lorraine it was declared that a man's 
 first service to God should be the destruction of the 
 accursed race which had crucified the Lord. At 
 Cologne the synagogues were destroyed, the Jews 
 slaughtered, and their houses sacked. At Mayence 
 the Jewish community vainly purchased the arch- 
 bishop's protection and sought safety in his house. 
 Even here they were not secure ; at sunrise a certain 
 Count Emicho led the rabble against them ; the doors 
 were broken open, and men, women, and cliildren 
 massacred without mercy, till in their despair the 
 victims sought death at each other's hands. 
 
 The preaching of Peter the Hermit brought some 
 fifteen thousand French pilgrims to Cologne about 
 Easter 1096. Peter wished to stay and exhort 
 
WALTER THE PENNILESS, ^J 
 
 the Germans also, but the French would not wait, 
 and set out under the guidance of Walter de Poissi 
 and his nephew Walter the Penniless. They jour- 
 neyed through Hungary, where they were kindly 
 treated by King Caloman, to Semlin on the Danube. 
 Here the main body passed over to the Bulgarian 
 city of Belgrade, but a small party remaining 
 behind to purchase arms were plundered by the 
 people of Sernlin. Walter begged the Bulgarian 
 chief to supply him with provisions, and on a re- 
 fusal suffered his followers to pillage as they would. 
 The Bulgarians then mustered in such force that" 
 Walter's host was scattered, and many of his fol- 
 lowers killed. The stragglers, however, forced their 
 way through the woods in eight days to Nisch. 
 and there obtaining guides and food, made their 
 way on to Constantinople, where they remained till 
 Peter the Hermit and his contingent arrived. 
 
 Peter, with the German host which his eloquence 
 gathered round him at Cologne, seems to have 
 followed the same route as Walter the Penniless. 
 Through Germany, Bavaria, and the modern Austria 
 they passed in peace, some on foot, some floating 
 down the Danube and other rivers in boats. At 
 Oedenberg they reached the Hungarian frontier, and 
 there awaited Caloman's permission to traverse his 
 dominions. Thence they journeyed in peace and 
 good order to Semlin. From the walls of that city 
 they saw the arms of Walter's comrades hung as in 
 derision. This sight moved them to take vengeance, 
 the horns blew to arms, the standards were advanced, 
 a dense rain of arrows was poured in upon the city, 
 
38 PETER THE HERMIT AND URBAN THE POPE. 
 
 and the Hungarians were driven from the walls. The 
 citizens for the most part sought refuge in a lofty 
 fortress, while the pilgrims occupied the town, in 
 which they found an abundant supply of food and 
 horses. After a stay of five days the Crusaders 
 crossed over to Belgrade, the inhabitants of which 
 town had fled in terror at the news of Peter's 
 success. At Nisch the Bulgarian prince Nichita 
 granted them a market, but, when he heard that 
 some unruly Germans had fired seven mills on 
 the river, at once bade his subjects make reprisals. 
 Peter, who had already started with the main host, 
 returned at the news, and a general conflict soon 
 ensued. The Crusaders were scattered, their bag- 
 gage lost, and Peter's own treasure chest with all 
 its wealth fell into the hands of the Bulgarian 
 prince. A few of the fugitives gathered under Peter's 
 leadership on a neighbouring height, where one by 
 one the stragglers joined them till seven thousand had 
 re-assembled. Then they renewed their march, and at 
 last, on August 30, 1096, they reached Constantinople. 
 There Peter had an interview with Alexius, who 
 advised him to wait till the great Crusading armies 
 should arrive. But certain unruly Lombards set fire 
 to some buildings near the city, and stripping the lead 
 from the churches sold it to the Greeks. Annoyed 
 at such disorder Alexius urged that they should pass 
 over to Asia. Peter and Walter were accordingly 
 carried across to Nicomedia, whence they proceeded 
 to Civitot, a city on the coast. Here the Emperor's 
 ships supplied them with abundance of food, and. 
 they stayed in all for two months. 
 
FATE OF THE PILGRIMS, 39 
 
 Some of the Germans, however, led by one Reinald, 
 left their fellows and made an expedition towards 
 Nicaea. Near that city they seized a deserted fortress, 
 called Exerogorgo, wherein they were presently 
 besieged by Kilij Arslan, the Sultan of Rum. 
 The sufferings of the Christians were intense, for 
 there was no drinking-water ; in their anguish men 
 drank the blood of their horses, some sought to pro- 
 cure a few drops of water by letting down their girdles 
 into the foul fishponds, others dug pits in the earth, 
 and endeavoured to obtain relief by covering their 
 limbs with the moist soil. After eight days Kilij 
 Arslan captured Exerogorgo, and moved on against 
 Civitot. Peter was away at Constantinople seeking 
 aid from the Emperor, and Walter was unable to 
 control his motley host. The Sultan surprised the 
 Christians as they lay asleep in their camp out- 
 side the walls of the town. Walter was slain, 
 and numbers of his followers ruthlessly massacred ; 
 three thousand of them, however, found shelter in 
 a roofless fort close by. The Turks, unable to 
 effect an entrance, kindled a fire against the walls, 
 but the flames, so runs the contemporary story, 
 were driven back by the wind into the faces of the 
 assailants. In this fort the fugitives maintained 
 themselves, until Peter persuaded Alexius to send 
 a body of troops to the rescue, whereupon the 
 Turks withdrew with their spoil and their captives. 
 
 A second host of Germans started for Constanti- 
 nople under the leadership of a priest named Gots- 
 chalk. They were well received by Caloman, whose 
 kindness they requited in the usual way, by plunder 
 
40 PETER THE HERMIT AND URBAN THE POPE. 
 
 and drunken disorder. Their conduct so angered the 
 king that he ordered the' pilgrims to be disarmed, and 
 then the enraged Hungarians massacred the defence- 
 less host, till, as it is asserted, the whole plain was 
 covered with corpses and blood. Folkmar, a priest, 
 led a mixed host through Bohemia with similar 
 results. A fifth army under Count Emicho included 
 some warriors of renown, but met with no happier 
 fate. They besieged Meseberg, on the Leitha, and 
 Caloman had prepared for a 'flight into Russia, when 
 a sudden panic fell upon the invaders. The Hun- 
 garians took fresh courage and the blood of their 
 foes soon reddened the rivers. A few of the leaders, 
 including Count Emicho, escaped into Italy or to 
 their own homes, but the mass of the pilgrims were 
 slain or drowned : " Thus is the hand of the Lord 
 believed to have been against these pilgrims, who 
 had sinned in His sight, and slain the Jews, rather for 
 greed of money than for justice of God." 
 
IIL 
 
 THE FIRST CRUSADE — THE MUSTER AND THE 
 MARCH TO ANTIOCH. 
 
 'EaTTfTE vvv HOI Movant 'OXvfnna «^wjuar' ixovaai, 
 oiTiviQ rjyefiovsg Aavautv Kai Koipavoi riaav. 
 
 Iliad n. 
 *' Tell me, now, ye Muses that dwell in the halls of Olympus, 
 Who were the chiefs of the Greeks? what were their leaders' names?' 
 
 No sovereign prince of Western Europe took part 
 in the first Crusade, nor did any prince of the second 
 rank start before the summer of 1096. The inter- 
 vening time was spent in negotiations to»secure a free 
 passage and plentiful provisions on the way to Con- 
 stantinople. For there seems to have been no real 
 thought of proceeding to Jerusalem by sea ; men 
 shunned the horrors of a Mediterranean voyage, and 
 the conversion of the Huns had reopened the earlier 
 track, by which the Bordeaux Pilgrim h-id journeyed 
 to t'he Holy City. The numbers of the first Crusade, 
 though perhaps grossly exagG^erated, were too great 
 to admit of a united progress through Central Europe. 
 The main hosts of the Crusaders accordingly set out 
 in five distinct bodies, under different leaders and by 
 
 41 
 
42 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 different routes. The first started in August, 1096, 
 the last did not join its fellows till they were camped 
 round Nicaea in the following summer. 
 
 First marched the Teutonic host, under Godfrey 
 of Lorraine, who was now some thirty-five years 
 old. His father Eustace II. of Boulogne had accom- 
 panied William on his expedition to England, and 
 even before then had played a prominent, if not an 
 honourable, part in English politics. Through his 
 mother Ida he was, perhaps, descended from Charles 
 the Great ; and claimed the duchy of Lorraine, which 
 was confirmed to him while still a youth by the 
 Emperor Henry IV. His early manhood was spent 
 in war and politics ; he fought for Henry against 
 Rudolf and Gregory, and when ill of a fever at 
 Rome vowed to make a pilgrimage to the Holy 
 City. Historically speaking before the first Crusade 
 Godfrey figures as a somewhat turbulent noble of 
 no particular piety. His grandfather, Godfrey the 
 Bearded, Duke of Lorraine, had been one of the 
 sturdiest of the rebels against Henry HI. ; even in 
 an age of violence men stood aghast at the daring 
 of the man who had burnt the great church of 
 Verdun to the ground. His grandson too, for all 
 his later piety, could war upon the Bishop of Verdun 
 in defence of what he deemed his rights. But in the 
 next century men loved to think of Godfrey of 
 Bouillon as marked out from his very infancy for his 
 high career. 
 
 When Godfrey reached Oedenberg, on the borders 
 of Hungary, he found his further advance stopped ; 
 for Caloman, angry at the injury already done to 
 
GODFREY DE BOUILLON. 43 
 
 his kingdom, would not grant a passage till Godfrey- 
 had paid him a visit of reconciliation. Finally God- 
 frey's brother Baldwin, with his wife and children, 
 were given as hostages, and a peaceful compact 
 made with the King. " So day after day in silence 
 and peace, with equal measure and just sale, did 
 the duke and his people pass through the realm of 
 Hungary." 
 
 Shortly after they had crossed the Save, the Greek 
 Emperor's envo}'s met the duke, promising to supply 
 his men with provisions if they would refrain from 
 plunder. Nor did Alexius fail to keep his promise, 
 for there was no lack of corn, wine, and oil for the 
 leaders, while the common folk had full liberty to 
 buy and sell. But at Philippopolis news came how 
 Hugh of Vermandois was a captive in Constanti- 
 nople. At first the duke had no thought of ven- 
 geance ; but when the envoys, whom he sent to 
 petition for the count's release, returned with a 
 blank refusal, Godfrey gave orders to lay waste the 
 surrounding country. A second and more friendly 
 message from Alexius induced him to stay his hand 
 and advance towards Constantinople. He pitched 
 his tents outside the city, where he was welcomed 
 by Hugh and his fellow captives ; but by the advice 
 of the French residents in Constantinople he refused 
 the Emperor's invitation to enter the city, and re- 
 jected all presents, lest they should be poisoned. 
 Alexius, in return, forbade his people to supply 
 the Crusaders with food ; nor was it till Baldwin, 
 brother of Godfrey, took to plundering that the pro- 
 hibition was withdrawn. 
 
44 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 In the latter part of the eleventh century the coast 
 of the Bosphorus beyond the Golden Horn to the 
 Black Sea was bordered for some thirty miles with 
 the palaces of the Byzantine nobles. Alexius, eager 
 to have the Crusading host removed as far as pos- 
 sible from Constantinople itself, persuaded Godfrey 
 to take up his winter quarters in this favourable 
 district. To this Godfrey assented, but still refused 
 the Emperor's solicitations for a personal visit. 
 When Alexius had resort to actual violence, the 
 Crusaders returned to their old position before Con- 
 stantinople, and the Emperor was soon compelled 
 to come to terms. A peace was patched up, and 
 after the Emperor's son John had been given as a 
 hostage, Godfrey visited Alexius in his palace. A 
 little later, perhaps on the 2ist of January, 1097, by 
 the Emperor's request, Godfrey led his troops across 
 to Asia. 
 
 Bohemond and his uncle. Count Roger of Sicily, 
 so runs the contemporary story, were laying siege to 
 Amalfi, when news came that innumerable Prankish 
 warriors had started on the way to Jerusalem. Bohe- 
 mond inquired of the messengers, " What are their 
 weapons, what their badge, and what their war-cry ? " 
 "Our weapons," was the enthusiastic reply, "are those 
 best suited to war ; our badge the cross of Christ 
 upon our shoulders ; our war-cry 'Deus Vtilt I Deus 
 VultV The piety or cupidity of the warlike Nor- 
 man was aroused at this answer. He tore from his 
 shoulders his costly cloak, and with his own hands 
 made of it crosses for all who would follow him in 
 the new enterprise. His example proved contagious, 
 
BOHEMOND. 45 
 
 and nearly all the knights ofifered their services to 
 Bohemond, so that Count Roger returned to Sicily 
 almost alone. With Bohemond went his cousin ^ 
 Tancred, destined in later days to be lord of Antioch, 
 and to find immortal honour in the great poem of 
 Tasso. 
 
 Bohemond crossed to Durazzo about the end of 
 October^^aQji two months later had reached Castoria, 
 where (he spent the Christmas, and then proceeded 
 on hi§) way to Constantinople. He seems to have 
 been well supplied with provisions on the route, and 
 l^ept good order on the march. At Rusa, on the ist 
 of April, he received an invitation to Constantinople, 
 and leaving his troops under the care of Tancred, 
 hurried forward with only a few attendants. Alexius 
 knew Bohemond's measure, and by the promise of a 
 princely lordship in the confines of Antioch prevailed 
 on him to take an oath of fidelity. 
 
 The third host marched under Raymond of St. 
 Gilles, and comprised all the men of the Langue 
 d'Oc. Those of the Langue d'Oil had gone before, 
 and under the guidance of Hugh, Count of Ver- 
 mandois, had been the first of all the Crusaders to 
 take the field. " Hugh," writes a contemporary, "was 
 first to cross the sea to Durazzo, where the citizens 
 took him prisoner, and sent him to the Emperor at 
 Constantinople." How he was released from his 
 captivity we have already seen. 
 
 Raymond had been merely Count of St. Gilles, 
 but through the death of his elder brother, while on 
 a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, had become in 1093 Duke 
 
 ^ Or nephew, for the genealogy is obscure. 
 
 ^ 
 
46 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 of Narbonne, Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Pro- 
 vence. He was older than the other Crusading chiefs, 
 being now past fifty years of age. In his company 
 was the Papal legate Bishop Adhemar of Puy, and 
 under his banners went many noble knights of 
 Southern P'rance. " It was already winter when 
 Raymond's men were toiling over the barren moun- 
 tains of Dalmitia, whe^e for three weeks v/e saw 
 neither bird nor beast. For almost forty days did 
 we struggle on through mists so thick that we could 
 actually feel them, and brush them aside with a 
 motion of the hand." So writes a contemporary, who 
 had shared in all the horrors of this painful march. 
 Raymond, with that careful consideration for the 
 weak which seems to have marked his character, 
 did his best to hold at bay the rude natives, who 
 dogged his rear athirst for the plunder of the sick 
 and old ; as a deterrent he cut off the noses, 
 hands, and feet of his captives, blinded them, and 
 in this plight sent them back to their comrades. At 
 Scutari Bodin, the King of the Slavs, promised them 
 an open market. "But this was fancy only ; for we 
 repented of the peace we had sought for, when the 
 Slavs once more began to rob and slay in their 
 wonted manner." At last they reached Durazzo, 
 " where," writes Raymond's biographer, " we believed 
 that we were in our own country ; for we believed 
 that Alexius and his followers were our brothers 
 and allies." The Imperial friendship proved, how- 
 ever, but a broken reed ; " right and left did the 
 Emperor's Turks and Comans, his Pincenati and 
 Bulgarians, lie in wait for us, and this though in 
 
RAYMOND OF TOULOUSE. - 47 
 
 his letters he spoke to us of peace and brother- 
 hood." However, despite such experiences and the 
 consequent warfare, this host at last made its way 
 to Rodosto, whence Raymond, at Alexius's bidding, 
 hurried on to Constantinople. Raymond, unlike 
 Bohemond, Godfrey, and Robert of Flanders, would 
 take no oath to the Emperor. " Be it far from me," 
 were the words of his proud humility, " that I should 
 take any lord for this way save Christ only, for 
 whose sake I have come hither. If thou art willing 
 to take the cross also, and accompany us to Jeru- 
 salem, I and my men and all that I have will be at 
 thy disposal." 
 
 While at Constantinople Raymond received news 
 that during his absence the Emperor's troops had 
 attacked his men. In his wrath it is said that he 
 ^vited the other Latin chiefs to join him in the 
 sack of Constantinople. Bohemond, however, was 
 staunch to the Emperor, and even gave himself as 
 a hostage that Alexius would recompense the count 
 if it should prove true that the Imperial troops had 
 done him injury. Godfrey, too, refused to bear arms 
 against a brother Christian, and so Raymond had to 
 endure his wrong as best he might. Nothing could 
 induce him to become the Emperor's liegeman, but 
 at last he swore to do Alexius no harm to his life or 
 honour, and not to suffer any such wrong to be done 
 by another. " But when he was called on to do 
 homage," says Raymond of Agiles, "he made answer 
 that he would not, even at the peril of his life. For 
 which reason the Emperor gave him few gifts." Yet 
 Raymond's oath proved of better worth than that of 
 
EFFIGY OF ROBERT 
 
< 
 
 ROBERT OF NORMANDY, 49 
 
 those who had sworn more. Anna Comnena per- 
 haps writes by the Hght of later events, but her 
 words are very precise, and apparently refer to this 
 time: "One of the Crusaders, the Count of St. Gilles. 
 Alexius loved in a special way, because of his wisdom^ 
 sincerity, and purity of life ; and also because he 
 knew that he preferred honour and truth above all 
 things." 
 
 / The last of the great hosts did not start till Sep- 
 tember or October, 1096. At its head was the 
 Conqueror's son, Robert of Normandy, and with 
 him went his sister's husband, Stephen, Count of 
 Blois and Cliartres ; his cousin, Robert of Flanders ; 
 his uncle Odo, the turbulent Bishop of Bayeux, and 
 a goodly host of warriors from the lands of North- 
 west France. They passed through Italy, at Lucca 
 received a blessing from Pope Urban, and so by way 
 of Rome came to Bari. 
 
 Winter was come when Robert of Normandy 
 reached this town. The prospect of the stormy 
 Adriatic determined him to spend the winter in 
 Calabria ; where as head of the Norman race he 
 might look for lavish hospitality from the children 
 of those Normans who had conquered Sicily and 
 South Italy. But Robert of Flanders bade defiance 
 to the winter storms, crossed the Adriatic, and 
 appears to have reached Constantinople a little 
 before Raymond. The great majority of those who 
 remained behind suffered terribly ; Robert enjoyed 
 his ease in Italy or Sicily, but his humbler followers 
 found it hard to support themselves in so unexpected 
 a delay. " Many," says Fulcher, " of the commoner 
 
50 THE FlkST CRVSADk. 
 
 sort became disconsolate, and through fear of want 
 sold their bows. Then, taking up their pilgrims' 
 staves once more, they returned meanly to their 
 homes. So they became vile before God and man, 
 and the thing was turned to their shame." Of the 
 prelates, Odo died at Palermo and was buried there. 
 y By the end of March, 1097, Duke Robert and 
 Count Stephen were ready at Brindisi, and fixed 
 their departure for Easter Day, the 5th of April. The 
 sinking of a large vessel laden with four hundred 
 pilgrims seemed to augur ill for the success of the 
 expedition. But when more than one of the bodies 
 thrown upon the beach was found to be marked with 
 a mysterious cross, the incident was turned to a 
 happy omen. " However," says Fulcher, " some being 
 of a less robust faith were greatly perturbed with 
 fear, and went back home, saying they would no 
 more venture themselves on the treacherous waters. 
 The rest of us placing our trust in Almighty God, 
 launched forth on to the deep amid the blare of 
 many trumpets, and the breath of a gentle breeze." 
 Four days later they disembarked near Durazzo, 
 and thence made their way across Thessaly to 
 Salonica and Constantinople. Fulcher relates that 
 **the Emperor would not let us enter the city lest 
 we should do it harm ; " but the new-comers were 
 not indiscriminately excluded, and it was doubtless 
 the tales of his luckier comrades that filled Fulcher 
 with admiration : " Oh ! how great a city it is ; 
 how noble and comely! What wondrously wrought 
 monasteries and palaces are therein ! What marvels 
 everywhere in street and square ! Tedious would it 
 
THE CRUSADERS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. y 
 
 be to recite its wealth in all precious things, in gold 
 and silver, in divers shaped cloaks, and saintly relics. 
 For thither do ships bring at all tinries all things that 
 man requires." 
 
 So one by one the varied hosts made their way 
 to Constantinople. The successive arrivals of such 
 numerous bodies of men, extending over nearly 
 the whole of a year, may well have excited a feeling 
 of dismay in the Eastern Emperor and his subjects. 
 Almost all contemporary writers go further, and 
 accuse Alexius of an actual • breach of faith ; nor 
 were their charges entirely devoid of foundation. 
 Yet so far as the providing of actual supplies was 
 concerned Alexius seems to have kept his word in 
 the main. We read how Bohemond's army marched 
 " through overmuch plenty from villa to villa, from 
 town to town, and irom fortress to fortress ; " at 
 Philippopolis Duke Godfrey found an abundance of 
 things necessary for eight days ; and at Salonica 
 Duke Robert and his comrades pitched their tents 
 before a city abounding in all good store. 
 
 But the hordes of Peter the Hermit and Walter 
 the Penniless can have known little of discipline, and 
 even in the more .regularly constituted hosts it was 
 impossible that the chiefs should maintain strict 
 authority. It was perhaps still more impossible for 
 Alexius to have arranged the commissariat without 
 a flaw, and possibly his authority did not count for 
 much in cities remote from the capital. "At 
 Castoria," says Bohemond's chronicler, " the inhabi- 
 tants would not assent to a market, for they feared 
 us greatly, deeming us no pilgrims, but a peopb 
 
52 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 desirous to waste their land, and slay them." After- 
 wards this same host was eager to attack a certain 
 fortress, for no other reason than that it was full of 
 all manner of good store. Bohemond refused, as 
 much, we read, from love of justice as from loyalty 
 to the Emperor. But even Tancred did not take 
 so strict a view of what good faith meant. 
 
 Mutual distrust soon breeds open discontent, which 
 is the speedy harbinger of open war. Nor was 
 Alexius without justifiable suspicions of more than 
 one Crusading chief; he can never have forgotten 
 how within the last few years Bohemond and his 
 father had waged war on the Empire. Byzantine 
 duplicity was only too ready to suspect Norman 
 guile ; might not Bohemond, after all, be using the 
 Crusade as a cloak for his own designs against the 
 Imperial city? Such at least was the suspicion of. 
 the Byzantines a few years later, when they could 
 interpret the events of the eleventh century by those 
 of the early twelfth. " Some of the Crusaders," writes 
 Anna Comnena, " were guileless men and women 
 marching in all simplicity to worship at the tomb 
 of Christ ; but there were others of a more wicked 
 l^ind — to wit, Bohemond and the like: such men had 
 but one object — to get possession of the Imperial 
 city." Such plans as these, if they ever existed, 
 Alexius was bound to resist to the utmost, but his 
 hopes went much further. He remembered that the 
 Empire, which h.2 ruled, had once stretched to 
 Antioch and the Euphrates, nay, even to Jerusalem 
 itself Might he not turn the Crusade to his own 
 advantage, by its aid beat back the invading Turks, 
 
SCHEMES OF ALEXIUS. 
 
 53 
 
 and recover for the Empire all that Prankish valour 
 could wrest from Saracen hands ? This was what 
 Alexius had in view, and it was possibly by his 
 insistence on this, that he sowed the first seeds of 
 permanent distrust between himself and his so-called 
 allies. 
 
 In all his actions Alexius had but one aim : he 
 was resolved to give the Crusading hosts no facilities 
 for their journey through Asia Minor until the 
 leaders, one and all, had taken an oath of fealty to 
 him. They must promise too that whatever con- 
 quests they might make elsewhere on their own 
 
 COINS OF ALEXIUS. 
 
 account, everything that had once belonged to the 
 Empire should revert to it again. Doubtless he 
 would grant them out in fiefs to the Prankish 
 warriors, but he must at least be over-lord. Godfrey 
 was first to take this oath, but it was uncertain 
 whether the other leaders would consent to follow 
 his example ; the bargain seemed dishonourable, 
 and they suspected some hidden trap. But at 
 length the Emperor won his way. We have seen 
 how Bohemond was bribed by the promise of a vast 
 principality, and how Raymond, at first inexorable, 
 eventually yielded so far as to take the oath in a 
 modified form. In the end Tancred was the only 
 
\ 
 
 54 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 Crusader of the first rank who escaped the oath, 
 and that only for the time. " He came," says his 
 biographer, " to get himself a kingdom, should he find 
 himself a yoke ? " So Tancred would not approach 
 Constantinople, but crossed the Hellespont in dis- 
 guise, whilst Bohemond had to excuse his con- 
 duct as best he might. After the fall of Nicaea, 
 Bohemond brought his kinsman back to Constanti- 
 nople, and Tancred then took the oath, but refused 
 all the Emperor's smaller gifts, hoping for a splendid 
 tent, "turreted like a city, and a load for twenty 
 camels." This Alexius refused to give him, making 
 a few wholesome remarks on his covetousness, and 
 Tancred accordingly returned in dudgeon to Nicaea. 
 
 The first exploit of the Crusaders after they were 
 all mustered in Asia Minor was the siege of Nicaea, 
 which city they reached on May 6th. The first 
 attack on the city failed, and then came news that 
 Kilij Arslan was approaching with an army of 
 relief On Saturday morning, May i6th, his troops 
 were pressing down upon the city, when fortunately 
 Raymond of St. Gilles and Adhemar of Puy arrived 
 to join their comrades. It was a glorious day for 
 the Crusading armies, and their first battle with the 
 enemy resulted in a complete victory. " The Turks 
 rushed to war, exultingly dragging with them the 
 ropes, wherewith to bind us captive. But as many 
 as descended from the hills remained in our hands ; 
 and our men cutting off their heads flung them into 
 the city, a thing that wrought great terror amongst 
 the Turks inside." 
 
 After this victory the siege was renewed with fresh 
 
SIEGE OF NICMA, 55 
 
 vigour, and when, early in June, Robert of Normandy 
 and Stephen__QfL-Blois, arrived the whole city was 
 at length encompassed, except on one side, where 
 a lake aftbrded- means to go out and come in. It 
 was plain that Nicaea would never be taken till this 
 entry was closed. Envoys were sent to seek aid 
 from Alexius, and through his assistance vessels 
 were brought overland from the sea, and launched 
 upon the lake. It seemed now that the city must 
 fall ; and all were looking forward with eagerness 
 to the plunder, which w^as to repay them for their 
 labour. But the Turks preferred to fall into the 
 hands of Alexius, and just when the Christians were 
 hoping to capture the city the Imperial banners were 
 seen floating from the walls. Still though Alexius 
 had thus forestalled his Prankish allies he was lavish 
 of his gifts'! among them. " To our leaders," says 
 Fulcher, " he gave gold and silver, and raiment ; and 
 among the foot-soldiers he distributed brass coins 
 that they call Tartarons." No generosity, however, 
 could quite satisfy the greed of the disappointed 
 soldiery. What, they angrily demanded, had become 
 of the gold and horses of the conquered ? Where 
 was the hospital that Alexius had promised to build 
 for the poorer Franks ? So also says Raymond of 
 Agiles — " Alexius paid the army in such wise that, so 
 long as ever he lives, the people will curse him, and 
 declare him a traitor." 
 
 The siege of Nicaea thus ended, the Crusaders 
 started on their way to Antioch on June 29th. 
 Whether by accident or design they divided into two 
 parts ; with one went Raymond, Adhemar, Godfrey, 
 
55 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 and Robert of Flanders ; with the other Bohemond, 
 Tancred, Hugh the Great, and Robert of Normandy. 
 At evening on the following day Bohemond found 
 himself beside a little stream. The heights around 
 were thronged with thousands of Turks, and a hasty 
 order was issued to pitch tents. The night passed 
 in anxious expectation, till in tl^e early morning of 
 July 1st, the horn gave the signal to resume the 
 march. An hour or two later tlie scouts of the 
 two armies came to close quarters ; Bohemond 
 
 KNIGHTS AT THE TIME OF Till:: FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 ordered a halt, the baggage was stacked, and a mes- 
 sage sent to call up the other host of the Crusaders. 
 Then the knights dismounted, and Bohemond bade 
 them be of good cheer, and keep the foe at bay, 
 while the footmen guarded the tents. 
 
 It was a day of heroic deeds ; " the very women 
 were a stay to us," writes Bohemond's eulogiser, " for 
 they carried water for our warriors to drink, and ever 
 did they strengthen the fighters." At last, hemmed 
 in by thousands of Turks, Bohemond himself was 
 
BATTLE OF DORYLMUM. 57 
 
 losing heart, and his men giving way, when Robert — 
 mindful, perhaps, how his father turned the day at 
 Hastings — bared his head to view, and urged his 
 comrades to stand firm. The battle was resumed 
 with vigour, and as the other Christian leaders came 
 up, the Turks were driven back, and fled leaving their 
 treasures behind them. Victory had been snatched 
 out of the very jaws of defeat, and well might the 
 Christian warrior write : " Had not the Lord been 
 with us in this battle, and sent us speedily another 
 army, none of our men would have escaped." 
 
 Such was the fight at Dorylaeum, the first pitched 
 battle between the Crusader and the Turk. Fable or 
 superstitious enthusiasm soon cast a halo round the 
 fight. " A wondrous miracle is reported to have 
 taken place," writes Raymond of Agiles, " but we did 
 not behold it ; for it is said that two knights of won- 
 derful appearance, and clad in shining armour, went 
 before our army and pressed the enemy in such wise' 
 as to leave them no chance of fighting." A few years 
 later men told one another with awe how St. George, 
 St. Demetrius, and St. Theodore, came forth from 
 the mountains on white horses, bearing white ban- 
 ners in their hands, and dealt deadly blows against 
 the infidels. 
 
 From Dorylaeum the Crusaders plodded on over the 
 rugged table-lands of Asia Minor, through a water- 
 less and uninhabited region, " whence we scarcely 
 issued with our lives." Survivors related to Albert 
 of Aix, the story of their terrible march across the 
 mountains. Men, women, and horses, perished of 
 thirst in the heat of the hot July sun. Pregnant 
 
58 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 women dropped down by the way to give birth to 
 their hapless offspring before their time ; men 
 marched along with open mouths, hoping thus to cool 
 their parched throats by even the slightest breath of 
 air. The hawks and dogs, which accompanied the 
 chiefs to the war, died in the hands of their at- 
 tendants. At length a stream was reached ; there 
 was a general rush to gain the bank ; men and cattle 
 unable to restrain their desire drank themselves to 
 death. 
 
 Over the rough mountains the Crusaders passed 
 into the pleasant valleys near Iconium, where the 
 friendly inhabitants taught them how to carry water 
 in the skins of the country. At Heraclea now Erkli, 
 Tancred and Baldwin left the main army, and, by 
 the famous "gates of Judas," passed into the 
 Cilician plains. This they did in order to conquer 
 on their own account, nor were they the only chiefs 
 who at this time left the army for such a pur- 
 pose. Raymond, Bohemond, Godfrey, and the two 
 Roberts, for some unexplained reason, turned north 
 towards Armenia ; but at length the main host of 
 the Crusaders, under their command, pitched its tents 
 before the walls of Antioch on Wednesday, October 
 21, 1097. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE FIRST CRUSADE — THE FIRST FRUITS OF CON- 
 QUEST : EDESSA AND ANTIOCH. 
 
 " The true old times 
 When every morning brought a noble chance, 
 And every chance brought out a noble knight." 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 § I. The Conquest of Edessa. 
 
 When Tancred entered Cilicia, and pitched his tents 
 outside the walls of Tarsus, that city, like many other 
 towns of Asia Minor and Syria, though mainly in- 
 habited by Christians, was held by a garrison of 
 Turks. The citizens were eager to obtain Bohe- 
 mond's protection, and in his absence Tancred was 
 only too ready to become their lord. The Turks 
 were on the point of surrendering, when Baldwin's 
 host appeared on the neighbouring mountains. The 
 Turks, mistaking this force for allies of their own, 
 refused to keep their engagement. The new-comers 
 then joined the Normans in prosecuting the siege, but 
 Baldwin, jealous of Tancrcd's success, presently 
 induced the citizens to transfer their allegiance to 
 
 S9. 
 
6o THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 him. Tancred was too weak to resent such injustice, 
 and withdrew to Adana, where Welf the Burgundian 
 gave him a kindly welcome. 
 
 A h"ttle later the Turks surrendered, and Baldwin, 
 leaving a garrison at Tarsus, started eastwards in 
 hi^ turn once more. Tancred who was now at 
 Messis, beheld with indignation his rival come again 
 to pitch his tents outside the city. Was he always 
 to yield his conquests to the greed of Baldwin ? 
 So at their chief's bidding the Norman knights 
 attacked the new-comers, but only to meet with a 
 repulse. Next morning each army began to regret 
 such a violation of their pilgrim's vows, and peace 
 was restored. Baldwin then went off to seek fresh 
 adventures in Armenia, whilst Tancred proceeded by 
 the coast towards Antioch. 
 
 Among the cities of Armenia proper, none was 
 ,^ore famous than Edessa, celebrated in Christian 
 legend for its king Abgar, and for the tombs of the 
 apostles Thomas and Thaddeus. At this time it was 
 ruled by an Armenian prince called Thoros, who, 
 though nominally subject to Alexius, had much diffi- 
 culty in maintaining himself against the conquering 
 Turks. Almost all .rmenian lands had fallen 
 
 into the possess^ lie infidels, and it was only 
 
 here and there that a remnant of that powerful nation 
 still maintained themselves in their ancient home. 
 Others had alread)^ commenced that obscure and 
 mysterious migration, which, before the close of the 
 next century, was destined to establish a new king- 
 dom of Armenia on the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Such a state of confusion offered not merely 
 
BALDWIN AT EDESSA, 6l 
 
 great facilities, but some justification, to Frankish 
 conquests. Nor were the Franks long before they 
 availed themselves to the full of their opportunities. 
 Baldwin was led by the advice of Pakrad, ^n 
 Armenian, who had joined the Crusaders at Nicaea, 
 to seek a field of conquest in Armenia. His fama 
 reached Thoros at Edessa, and a message soon came 
 to beg his assistance against the Turks beyond the 
 Euphrates. Baldwin accepted the invitation with 
 alacrity ; with eighty knights he crossed the great 
 river, and was received within the walls of Edessa to 
 the sound of trumpets. Thoros welcomed him kindl\-, 
 but presently, growing jealous of Baldwin's popularity, 
 refused to pay the promised wage. The twelve 
 senators, who seem to have formed an aristocratic 
 curia in Edessa, then begged their governor to fulfil 
 his bargain, and so retain this illustrious warrior for 
 service against the Turks. Thoros yie'dcd to their 
 persuasion and adopted Baldwin as his son ; after 
 the manner of their race and country, he and his wife 
 in turn took the count beneath their shirts, and 
 pressed him to their naked breasts. This curious 
 ceremony completed, Baldwin started on an un- 
 successful expedition aj. Balduc, the Turkish 
 ruler of Samosata. On • -n he found the 
 people of Edessa eager to have him for their prince. 
 Treachery was at work, and on the Sunday and 
 Monday before Easter, 1098, Thoros and his adherents' 
 were attacked, and the prince imprisoned in his own 
 citadel. Baldwin seems to have been a party to the 
 tumult ; but at least he may be credited with a 
 sincere desire to save his benefactor's life. He 
 
62 
 
 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 counselled Thoros to abandon all his treasures, 
 and swore to secure him a safe retreat to Melitene. 
 But Baldwin's promises were in excess, either of his 
 powers or his intentions. Once more the people rose 
 up against their ancient prince. Trembling for his 
 life, Thoros attempted to let himself down from a 
 window by a rope. His attempt was detec.cd and 
 in a moment his corpse, riddled with arrows, was 
 flung out into the square. 
 
 Baldwin was now lord of Edcssa, but it was by a 
 precarious tenure ; for the Turks were close at hand, 
 and his own troops few in number, whilst he had 
 
 COIN OF BALDWIN I. 
 
 already learnt how little trust could be reposed in 
 Armenian fidelity or valour. Yet for all this he held 
 himself as proudly as if he had an army of Franks at 
 his back. Balduc sent offers of tribute, and in return 
 for a talent of gold Samosata was left in Turkish hands. 
 " But from that day," writes Albert of Aix, '' Balduc 
 became Baldwin's subject, a dweller in his house, and 
 one among his friendly Gauls." 
 
 Baldwin's next conquest was Saruj, a town a few 
 miles south of Edessa, which was surrendered by its 
 Armenian ruler and entrusted to Fulchcr of Chartres.^ 
 
 * This was not the historian, but a namesake. 
 
A PRECARIOUS LORDSHIP. 63 
 
 He then sought to make his rule more pleasing to 
 his subjects by taking an Armenian wife ; for his 
 English wife, Godwera, who accompanied him on the 
 Crusade, had died a few months previously at Marash. 
 Baldwin now married a niece of the Armenian prince 
 Constantine the Rupenian, by which alliance he 
 strengthened himself both among his new subjects 
 and against his Turkish foes. Still his position was 
 very insecure, and he could render no help to the 
 great army of the Crusaders, and indeed was himself 
 besieged for forty days by Corbogha, when the Mussul- 
 man prince was on his way to Antioch. He did, 
 however, contrive to send large store of provisions to 
 his brother Godfrey, whilst the Armenian mountains 
 furnished many of the Crusaders with a refreshing 
 scene of adventure during the weary months of the 
 siege of Antioch. Such hospitality was, however, a 
 great strain on Baldwin's resources, and the consequent 
 oppression excited a rebellion in Edessa. Although 
 this movement failed, the renewed extortion for which 
 it furnished a pretext alienated many of Baldwin's 
 best friends, and so the position of the Franks in 
 Edessa was, from the first, one of danger and 
 difficulty. 
 
 § 2. T/[e Siege of Antioch. 
 
 Antioch on the Orontes was by far the most famous 
 of the sixteen cities founded by Seleucus Nicator in 
 honour of his father. Within four centuries of its 
 creation it was the third city of the Roman world, 
 the central point of all the Hellenic east. Later it 
 became the seat of one of the four great patriarchates, 
 
THE CITY OF ANTIOCH. 65 
 
 and the birth-place of the golden-mouthed preacher < 
 of the Eastern Church. Justinian surrounded it with 
 a girdle of enormous walls, which after the earthquakes 
 and sieges of thirteen centuries, still bid defiance to 
 the wasting power of time. It was taken by the 
 Saracens in 635 A.D., recovered under Nicephorus 
 Phocas in 9^8, and again lost to the Seljuk Soliman 
 in 1084. 
 
 At the present day Antioch, lost in its gardens and 
 orchards, occupies but a small portion of its ancient 
 extent. Now, as of old, the city lies on the south 
 bank of the Orontes, beyond which there stretches 
 northwards to the foot of Mount Amanus a wide 
 and level plain ; on the south the precipitous hills 
 ploughed with deep ravines run down from the 
 mountains of Ansarieh to within half a mile of the 
 river. The modern Antioch is huddled together in 
 one corner of the narrow space that lies between 
 these hills and the Orontes ; but in the eleventh 
 century the southern walls of the city were built along 
 a ridge of the hills which rise in that quarter to a 
 height of several hundred feet above the valley, and 
 are cleft by a deep and narrow ravine, down which a 
 mountain torrent ran northwards through the city to 
 the Orontes. On the more westerly half of the range 
 rose the citadel ; the other portion also was secured 
 by a castle. The whole circuit of the fortifications 
 may have enclosed an area of some four square miles. 
 Within its course were included four gates : on the 
 west, the Gate of St. George ; near the north-west 
 angle, a gate which led to a stone bridge over the 
 Orontes ; on the north-east, the Gate of St. Paul ; 
 
 .6^ 
 
66 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 and on the south, at the deep ravine, the Iron 
 Gate. Besides these there were numerous smaller 
 gates at comparatively short distances apart. 
 
 Such was the city that the Crusaders sat down 
 to besiege in October, 1097. Orders had been issued 
 that all the predatory bands were to gather together, 
 but even in their fullest strength the Crusaders 
 were all" too few for the task before them. Yet 
 a contemporary, who should have had special 
 opportunities for knowledge, asserts that the host 
 consisted of three hundred thousand armed men ; 
 whilst within the walls there were but two thousand 
 choice horsemen, five thousand mercenaries, and some 
 ten thousand footmen. Finding it impossible to 
 invest efficiently the whole circuit, the Crusaders 
 directed their first efforts to the north-eastern portion 
 of the walls. Bohemond pitched his tent furthest 
 south, on a rock opposite the castle ; a stone's throw 
 off and nearer the city wall was Tancred. Then came 
 Duke Robert of Normandy and Robert of Flanders ; 
 near the Dog gate were stationed Raymond and 
 Bishop Adhemar ; Godfrey and his fellow Teutons 
 were posted before a gate which in William of Tyre's 
 days was still called the Duke's gate. 
 
 It was Wednesday, 21st of October, 1097, when 
 the Crusading army encamped before Antioch. For 
 fifteen days no Turk dared issue from the city, but 
 the Armenians and Syrians came out daily to the 
 camp, pretending friendliness to their fellow 
 Christians, but in reality seeking intelligence for the 
 besieged. Presently the Turks began to make sallies 
 in every direction, whilst their friends in Harenc also 
 
TROUBLES OF THE CRUSADERS, 67 
 
 pressed the besiegers hard. As Christmas drew near, 
 the Crusaders felt the first touches of want: "We 
 did not venture abroad, nor could we find aught 
 to eat in the land of the Christians ; for none dared 
 enter Saracen land without a great host" Bohemond 
 and Robert of Flanders led out a large force to forage, 
 but they gained little booty, and the Turks seized the 
 opportunity to make a sudden sally, wherein they 
 slew many knights and footmen. From this moment 
 the Armenians and Syrians ceased to bring provisions 
 to the Christian camp, and transferred their services 
 to the besieged. 
 
 As the new year advanced on things grew worse and 
 worse. There was no provender for the horses, and 
 two solidi would scarcely purchase a man's food for 
 one day. There were signs in heaven above, and in 
 the earth beneath ; the earth trembled, and red lights 
 burnt in the northern sky at night. Terror seized 
 upon the bravest hearts ; Bohemond declared that he 
 could not stay to see his men perish. Godfrey was 
 ill, and so also was Raymond. The leader of Alexius' 
 Greek auxiliaries urged his Latin colleagues to retire, 
 and it seemed that there was no hope but to. abandon 
 the siege. Then came news that a vast host of Turks 
 was advancing from the east. Bohemond's warlike 
 spirit was roused, and at his own suggestion he led 
 out one half of the host to battle, while the other 
 half remained to keep watch on the city. Starting 
 late at night, at early dawn he came upon the Turks 
 encamped on either side of the riven But despite 
 this advantage the battle at first went against the 
 Christians, till the reserve under Bohemond's own 
 
68 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 banner restored the day. Then the Turks were 
 routed, their camp plundered, and Bohemond re- 
 turned with a hundred heads as a trophy of 
 his valour. This was on Tuesday, February 9, 
 1098. 
 
 The Crusaders now determined to build a fortress 
 on the height above Bohemond's camp, hoping thus 
 to check the constant sallies from the city. Another 
 castle was to be built on a little hill near the bridge 
 over the Orontes. During a temporary absence of 
 Bohemond, the Turkish commandant sent out his 
 troops across the bridge, and closed the city gates 
 behind them, bidding them conquer or die. It would 
 have gone hard with the Christians, but for a valiant 
 knight, Isuard of Gagia, who with a hundred and fifty 
 footmen made a desperate onset on the Turks, and 
 drove them back to the bridge to find that Bohemond 
 was returned. The narrow causeway was crowded 
 with horsemen, and the walls of Antioch were thronged 
 with Christian women eager to behold the destruction 
 of their Turkish tyrants. " We overcame the enemy, 
 and flung them into the river, where they received 
 .everlasting darhnation, and rendered up their wretched 
 souls to Satan. If by chance any strove to climb on 
 to the piers of the bridge, or to swim ashore, our men 
 slew them from the bank. Twelve emirs and fifteen 
 hundred of a meaner sort fell upon that day." On 
 the morrow the Turks came out and gathered their 
 dead for burial ; but the Christians broke into the 
 cemetery, flung the corpses into a ditch, and carried 
 off the heads as witness to the number of those slain. 
 Then the besiegers renewed the building of the 
 
BOHEMOND CAPTURES ANTIOCH, 69 
 
 castle, and when it was finished entrusted it to Count 
 Raymond to guard. 
 
 During all these months it would seem that Bohe- 
 mond had been in negotiation with the besieged. He 
 had further obtained a promise from all the other 
 chiefs, except Raymond, that he should be lord of 
 the city when captured. Now, after having arranged 
 with a certain Emir, Pyrrhus or Firuz, for the betrayal 
 of the city, Bohemond prevailed upon the chiefs much 
 against their will to promise Antioch to the man, 
 who should succeed in taking it. 
 
 Once sure of his reward Bohemond revealed his 
 plan. A night was fixed for the surrender, and on 
 the preceding day a part of the Christian army 
 went foraging so as to throw the enemy off their 
 guard. At midnight a Uttle band gathered below 
 the Gate of St. George, and there waited for the 
 signal. At last a messenger came to bid them stay 
 till the passing of the watch, which every night made 
 the circuit of the walls lamps in hand. Dawn was 
 breaking before the wished-for sign was given, and 
 Bohemond ordered his men to advance. They found 
 a ladder ready, and sixty men ascended and seized 
 the three towers of which Pyrrhus had charge. When 
 Bohemond learnt that the towers were in the hands 
 of his men, he advanced with the remainder ; in 
 their exultation the Christians crowded on to the 
 ladder, which broke beneath their weight. It was a 
 desperate moment for the few, who were now left 
 alone upon the walls ; it was still too dark to see 
 clearly, but at last they felt their way to a gate, 
 broke it down, and so let in their comrades. As the 
 
WALLS OF ANTIOCH. 
 
APPROACH OF CORBOGHA, 7I 
 
 morning sun rose, the Christians from their tents 
 against the eastern walls saw Bohemond's banner 
 floating on the hill. There was a general rush 
 forward, the other gates were burst open and the 
 city won. There was riot everywhere, and forgetful 
 of their God men gave themselves over to banquets, 
 and the blandishments of pagan dancers. 
 
 Hardly had the Crusaders taken Antioch, when on 
 June 5th the scouts of Corbogha's army appeared 
 before the city. He drove the Crusaders before him 
 within the walls, and even gained possession of the 
 citadel. From this vantage ground the Turks pressed 
 the city hard. All day the Christians strove to 
 bar their progress, and at night rested among 
 the corpses of their comrades. As Corbogha's hpst 
 closed round the city on the south, the hearts of 
 the besieged began to fail. Men turned their thoughts 
 to flight, and under the cover of darkness let them- 
 selves down by ropes from the walls. The panic 
 affected even the noblest ; the . Grantmaisnils — Al- 
 beric and that Ivo who^e turbulence a few years 
 later won him afi evil fame in English history — 
 escaped over the hills to the port of St Simeon, and 
 put out to sea. Scarcely any event made such an 
 impression as this cowardly flight : the recreant nob'es 
 are spoken of with scorn as " rope-dancers," and as 
 men who were everywhere called infamous and held 
 up to shame and execrario!i. But there was one 
 deserter of still more importance even than these. 
 Stephen of Chartres, son-in-law to the great Con- 
 queror, HaH~^ade his failing health an excuse for 
 retiring to Alexan hetta before the fall of Antioch. 
 
72 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 The besieged Christians sent him daily messages for 
 help, and at last he mustered heart :o scale a height 
 whence he could look down upon the innumerable 
 tents that filled the plain of Antioch. The sight 
 was too much for his unwarlike mind ; panic seized 
 him, and he hurried back to his own camp eager 
 to escape the coming doom. Departing northwards 
 he met Alexius, who was marching with a great 
 army to assist the Crusaders. The Emperor was 
 only too glad for an excuse, and despite the ex- 
 postulation of Bohemond's brother Guy, Stephen and 
 Alexius shortly went back to Constantinople. 
 
 Meanwhile the state of Antioch grew daily worse. 
 * We, who remained," writes Tudebode, " could not 
 hold up against the arms of those within the castle, 
 and we built a wall between ourselves and them, 
 and watched it day and night." Hunger came as 
 the climax of their ills ; those who had money might 
 purchase a small goat for sixty shillings, or a horse's 
 head for three ; the, poorer folk fed on any garbage 
 they could find, on boiled fig-leaves, or ox-hides 
 softened in water. Even the greatest nobles were 
 reduced to beg for the commonest necessities, and 
 but for his successful mendicancy Robert of Flanders 
 would have been horseless on the day of the great 
 battle. 
 
 For nearly -a week the fight had raged hotly along 
 the southern wall, and things were at their very 
 worst, when the madness or enthusiasm of a poor 
 Provencal brought hope and ultimate victory. It 
 was early on Wednesday, June the 9th, as Count Ray- 
 ITiond and Adhemar were sadly gazing at the enemy's 
 
INVENTION OF THE HOLY LANCE. 73 
 
 stronghold, that one Peter Bartholomew appeared 
 before them with a strange story. St. Andrew had 
 revealed to him in a dream the hiding-place of the 
 very lance, wherewith the Roman soldier had pierced 
 the side of Christ. He was bidden to reveal this 
 vision to Raymond and Adhemar, but feared to 
 approach men so noble. Twice was the vision re- 
 peated, and twice he failed to obey the apostle's 
 command. He had even fled from the city, and 
 set sail for Cyprus, but a storm drove him back to 
 Mamistra, whence he had now made his way to 
 Antioch. At first this strange tale received little 
 credence. " The bishop thought it empty words ; 
 but the Count believed, and entrusted Peter to the 
 care of his chaplain Raymond." Such is the account 
 which Raymond of Agiles gives of the famous legend 
 of the Invention of the Holy Lance. 
 
 Confirmation soon followed, for that night as a 
 priest named Stephen was watching in St. Mary's 
 Church, Christ Himself appeared to him, and 
 promised aid within five days. These visions had 
 come at the darkest hour of the Crusaders' fortunes ; 
 it was on the previous night that the Grantmaisnils 
 had fled, and it was even rumoured that all the great 
 leaders were meditating flight. In such a strait it is 
 no wonder that policy or superstition inclined the 
 Crusaders to look for aid from a supernatural 
 quarter. 
 
 The five days passed, and early on the morning of 
 the 14th of June, Raymond of Agiles and eleven 
 others went to the Church of St. Peter. From morn 
 to eve they dug without reward ; as each withdrew 
 
74 THE FIRST CRUSADE, 
 
 in weariness fresh workers took their place. " At 
 last, seeing that we were fatigued, the young man 
 who had told us of the lance leapt into the pit, all 
 ungirt as he was, without shoes and in his shirt. He 
 adjured us to call upon God to render us the lance 
 for our comfort, and our victory. At last the Lord, 
 moved by such devotion, showed us the lance. And 
 1, who have written these things, as soon as ever the 
 blade appeared above ground, greeted it with a kiss ; 
 nor can I tell how great joy and exultation then filled 
 th2 city." 
 
 By this time Corbogha must have changed the 
 siege into a blockade. What happened during the 
 ensuing fortnight we cannot precisely tell. Perhaps 
 these were the worst days of the famine, during 
 which the Crusaders hoped against hope for the 
 coming of Count Stephen, or the Emperor Alexius. 
 It would, however, seem that the time was partly 
 spent on fruitless negotiation. The Christians 
 offered to stake the issue on the valour of six or 
 three chosen champions from either side ; but this 
 and other offers were rejected with disdain. So at 
 length the Crusaders determined on action, and in 
 the morning of Monday, 28th of June, issued to the 
 attack. A gentle rain was falling with the dawn of 
 day, and to their pious feelings it seemed like the 
 dew of God's blessing. 
 
 They marched in six battalions ; first were Hugh 
 the Great, Godfrey and Robert of Normandy ; fourth 
 was Adhemar bearing the Holy Lance, and leading 
 the men of Provence, Count Raymond being left 
 behind to watch the citadel ; fifth went Tancred and 
 
DEFEAT OF CORBOGHA. 75 
 
 the men of Poitou under Gaston de Beam ; last was 
 Bohemond with the horseless knights. Many bishops 
 and priests accompanied the army with crosses in 
 their hands ; whilst others from the city walls called 
 down God's blessing on the departing host. " As we 
 marched from the bridge towards the mountains it 
 was a toilsome journey," writes Raymond of Agiles, 
 " for the enemy strove to hem us in. Yet though we 
 of the bishop's squadron were hard pressed in the 
 fight, thanks to the Lord's Lance none of us were 
 wounded, no not so much as by an arrow. I, who 
 speak these things, saw them for myself, since I was 
 bearing the Lord's Lance. And if any says that 
 Heraclius, the bishop's standard-bearer, was wounded 
 in this battle, let him know that Heraclius was 
 straggling far from our ranks." 
 
 Meantime Corbogha dreamt of nothing so little as 
 an attack. He was sitting in his tent playing at 
 chess, when news came of the sally of the besieged. A 
 fugitive Turk, who had escaped from Antioch, assured 
 Corbogha thit there was no cause for fear ; but as 
 the bishop's followers came in view, he added, "These 
 men may be slain, but they will not be put to flight." 
 
 In strict truth Corbogha seems to have suffered 
 the Crusaders to approach, in the hope of draw- 
 ing them out from the city to battle in the open 
 plain. He had despatched a force of Turks to 
 make a circuit and take the Christians in the rear, 
 warning their commander that a fire would be the 
 signal thit the main battle was lost. Perceiving 
 these tactics, and fearing to be surrounded, the 
 Crusaders organised a seventh squadron of knights, 
 
76 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 taken from the divisions of Godfrey and Robert, 
 and placed it under the command of a certain Count 
 Reginald. When the Christians came within range 
 of the camp, Corbogha's men discharged their bows ; 
 but a violent wind destroyed the surety of their aim, 
 so that they fled in panic, and Count Hugh on his 
 arrival found none to oppose him. Bohemond was, 
 however, hard pressed, and Hugh and Godfrey 
 hastened back to give their aid where the real stress 
 of conflict lay. Many deeds of valour were then 
 wrought ; but at length the signal of defeat was 
 raised, and the Turks fled on all sides for the 
 mountains. In their excitement the Christians 
 imagined allies of no earthly mould. " For there 
 came out of the mountains innumerable armies on 
 white horses, and bearing white banners. And our 
 men seeing this host, knew not who they were, till they 
 recognised it for the promised aid of Christ. The 
 leaders of this host were George, Mercurius, and 
 Demetrius. These things are worthy of belief, for 
 many of our men beheld them." 
 
 It was a day of glory for the Christian host. A 
 half-famished and ill-equipped band had routed an 
 immense army well provided with all warlike stores. 
 " But the Lord multiplied us, so that in battle we 
 were more than they. And returning to the city 
 with great joy, we praised and magnified God, who 
 gave the victory to His people." 
 
THE FIRST CRUSADE — THE CAPTURE OF THE HOLY 
 CITY. 
 
 " Lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mound 
 against it ; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against 
 it round about." — Ezekiel iv. i, 2. 
 
 Though Antioch was at last secured, the Crusaders 
 neglected to hurry on to Jerusalem, the goal of their 
 ambition. Godfrey had learnt at Rome, fifteen years 
 before, what dangers attended summer warfare in a 
 hot climate. He therefore opposed an immediate 
 advance, which, if undertaken promptly, might have 
 brought about the fail of the Holy City without a 
 siege, and the departure was accordingly postponed 
 till November ist. 
 
 This interval the chiefs devoted to conquest on their 
 own account ; each great lord offering pay to all who -^ 
 would enlist under his banner. To these months we 
 must ascribe the acquisition of most of the fortresses \ 
 between Antioch and Edessa, though only a few 
 scattered incidents of this warfare have been preserved. 
 Raymond Pilet, a follower of Count Raymond, took 
 the castle of Tell Mannas, but failed in an attack 
 
78 THE FIRST CRUSADE, 
 
 on the more important town of Marra. The count 
 himself captured Albara, and slew all the Saracens 
 whom he could find, men and women, young and old. 
 Then he sought out for his conquest a bishop who 
 might convert it from a house of devils to a temple of 
 the living God. The chief of Hazart, who was hard 
 pressed by his lord, Ridhwan, the powerful ruler of 
 Aleppo, appealed to Godfrey for assistance. When 
 the proffered alliance had been accepted, the envoys, 
 to the astonishment of the Christian bystanders, 
 drew two pigeons from their breast, and despatched 
 them as messengers of their success to Hazart^ God- 
 frey summoned Baldwin from Edessa, and the two 
 brothers then advanced to Hazart. Ridhwan, who 
 was already encamped before the town, withdrew 
 on their approach. Godfrey renewed his compact 
 with the chief of Hazart, and gave his ally a wrought 
 helmet of gold, a masterpiece of art, wherein his 
 ancestor, Herebrand of Bouillon, had been wont to 
 issue forth to battle. After this Godfrey, shunning 
 the August heat, withdrew to the highlands of 
 Armenia, where his brother gave him Ravendal and 
 Tell-basher. 
 
 About this time the Christians at Antioch ex- 
 perienced a grievous loss. On August ist, Adhemar, 
 Bishop of Puy, " one dear to God and man, departed 
 in peace to the Lord." On the night after his burial 
 in the Church of St. Peter, the bishop appeared in 
 a dream to Peter Bartholomew, in company with 
 
 * This is the first notice we have of this use of pigeons in Syria, 
 which later on was a familiar method of intelligence among the Farnk 
 settlers. 
 
RAY-MOND AND BOHEMOND. 79 
 
 Christ and the Apostle Andrew. To Peter, Adhemar 
 confessed that he had been led down into hell in 
 punishment for his doubts as to the Holy Lance ; but 
 after his burial Christ had visited him in the flames, 
 and brought him up to heaven, whence, Adhemar 
 said, he now came to assure his former comrades that 
 he would not forsake them. 
 
 In November, the chiefs began to assemble at 
 Antioch. Bohemond was absent at first, and Count 
 Raymond took occasion to protest against the be- 
 stowal of the citadel on the Norman chief to his own 
 detriment. The other chiefs feared to offend either of 
 these great lords, and so would make no decision. It 
 seemed that the quarrel would prevent any further 
 advance, when Raymond, with characteristic self- 
 restraint, offered to waive the question for a time. 
 If Bohemond would join in the march south, the 
 count would leave the dispute to the judgment of 
 their peers, always saving the fealty due to the 
 Emperor. Bohemond agreed, and the two rivals 
 were formally reconciled, although both thought well 
 to fortify such parts of the city as they held. 
 
 When peace had thus been patched up, the army 
 set out on its march. On Saturday, November 28th, 
 Raymond made an unsuccessful attack on Marra, 
 wKich, on Bohemond's arrival next day, was renewed, 
 but again' to no purpose. Raymond, who often 
 figures as the engineer among the Crusading chiefs, 
 then built a great wooden castle. ^ The huge machine 
 overtopped the city walls, and defied all attempts to 
 
 * See the detailed description of these engines in chap, xxiii., and the 
 illustration on page 89. 
 
80 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 burn or crush it. The defenders of the city were 
 driven from their posts by showers of stones, the 
 Crusaders clambered up the walls, and the Saracens 
 fled in panic. The Crusaders slew without discrimi- 
 nation, " so that there was no corner without a 
 Saracen corpse, and one could scarcely ride through 
 the streets without trampling on the dead bodies " 
 (Dec. II, 1098). 
 
 The capture of Marra led to a fresh quarrel between 
 Raymond and Bohemond. The Norman mocked at 
 the latest revelations of the Count's Provencal 
 follower, Peter Bartholomew ; he also refused to 
 surrender his portion of the city unless Raymond 
 would relinquish his share of Antioch. Raymond 
 taunted his rival with greed and slackness in the 
 fight ; he wished to bestow Marra as a military fief 
 on the Bishop of Albara. A further cause of discord 
 was soon added. Bohemond urged that the advance 
 to Jerusalem should be postponed till Easter ; 
 Christmas was close at hand, Godfrey and many 
 knights were still absent at Edessa. The army, 
 however, was in favour of advance, and with one 
 accord appealed to Raymond to be their leader, if all 
 the other chiefs should fail. After some hesitation 
 Raymond agreed, and named a day for the renewal 
 of the march. Bohemond thereon returned in wrath 
 to Antioch. In the face of these troubles Godfrey 
 was summoned from Edessa, and a conference of 
 the chiefs held. Only a few supported Raymond, 
 although these few included the two Roberts and 
 Tancred. But news of the dispute reached those 
 who were lying sick at Marra, and their indignation 
 
THE CRUSADERS AT MARRA. 8 1 
 
 took a strange, though practical form. Rising from 
 their beds they tottered feebly to the walls in eager- 
 ness to destroy a city over which their chiefs were 
 quarrelling. Indignation gave them strength to drag 
 huge stones from their places ; and though the 
 bishop's officers might stop the work of destruction 
 for a moment, it was renewed as soon as they had 
 passed by. " Those who dared not destroy by day 
 pressed on by night ; hardly a man was too weak to 
 work at bringing down a wall." 
 
 At last the appointed day arrived, and despite all 
 the opposition, Raymond and his followers marched 
 out from Marra on January 13, 1099. The fear of the 
 Christians had gone before them, and the rulers of the 
 great cities along the Orontes were eager to purchase 
 peace. In the valley of Desem, where the Crusaders, 
 spent the Feast of the Purification (February 2nd), 
 they passed a fortnight of ease and plenty. Then, 
 having determined to forsake the straight road for 
 Damascus, they crossed the Great Lebanon, hoping on 
 the coast to hear news of the ships they had left in 
 the ports near Antioch, and through this means obtain 
 supplies from Cyprus. On Monday, February 14th, 
 Raymond sat down before the stronghold of Arkah, 
 a fortress situated on a steep and almost inaccessible 
 hill, and surrounded with a double wall. Here the 
 Crusaders were detained three months, finding in the 
 neighbourhood ample scope for the foraging ad- 
 ventures, so dear to the eleventh-century knight. 
 Moreover, the besiegers were in no lack of provisions, 
 for these were brought in abundance by the Greek 
 and Italian merchants to the seaports close at hand 
 
82 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 Presently there came a rumour that the Cah'ph of 
 Bagdad was sending an immense host to raise the siege. 
 In this peril Raymond appealed to Godfrey and Robert 
 of Flanders, who were besieging Jebleh or Gibel. 
 The northern army marched to Arkah only to find 
 the rumour false. The new-comers openly charged 
 Raymond with having invented the story, and mur- 
 mured at his wealth, which they contrasted with their 
 own poverty. The visions of Peter Bartholomew and 
 others, which had not abated, were again turned to 
 ridicule, the chief among the scoffers being Robert 
 of Normandy's chaplain Arnulf, afterwards Patriarch 
 of Jerusalem. Peter Bartholomew retorted, "Make 
 me the biggest fire you can, and I will pass through 
 its midst with the Lord's Lance in my hand. If it be 
 the Lord's Lance may I pass through unharmed ; if 
 not, may I be burned up." 
 
 On Good Friday morning, April 8th, forty thousand 
 Crusaders gathered to see the ordeal. In front of them 
 were two parallel piles of dead olive branches, fourteen 
 feet long by four feet high, and only one foot apart. 
 " When the fires were kindled, I, Raymond, spake 
 before the whole multitude: * If God hath spoken to 
 this man face to face, and if the blessed Andrew 
 showed him the Lord's Lance as he slept, may he pass 
 through the fire unharmed ; but if the thing be a lie, 
 let him be burned up together with the Lance that he 
 holds.' And all the people answered, ' Amen.' Now 
 the fire blazed so fiercely that it occupied the space 
 of twenty cubits, nor could any man approach it" 
 Then Peter Bartholomew, clad only in his tunic, 
 knelt before the Bishop of Albara, received the Lance, 
 
PETER BARTHOLOMEW, 83 
 
 and manfully entered the fire. Some fancied that 
 they saw a bird fluttering over his head, but the great 
 mass of the people do not appear to have seen anything 
 miraculous ; though, as Raymond remarks, " There 
 was a multitude present, and all men cannot see 
 everything." As Peter issued from the flames he was 
 greeted with loud cries of " God aid him." Such was 
 the popular enthusiasm that he would have been torn 
 to pieces, had not Raymond Pilet forced a way 
 through the thronging multitude, and carried Peter 
 off* in safety. 
 
 Peter died within a few days, and the ordeal, 
 as might be expected, only served to confirm the 
 believers and the incredulous each in their own faith. 
 For while his supporters declared that he passed 
 through the fire comparatively unhurt, and owed his 
 wounds to the unruly crowd, his enemies asserted his 
 death to be due to the effects of the ordeal itself 
 Even Raymond of Agiles had to confess that "there 
 was some sign of burning about him," though qualify- 
 ing his admission by adding that his wounds were 
 great. 
 
 Easter passed and Arkah was still untaken. 
 There were two parties among the Crusaders ; some 
 urged that the host should await the coming of 
 Alexius, v/ho had promised to join them by mid- 
 summer, others pointed to the harvest, which was 
 already ripening in mid-April, and were for pro- 
 ceeding to Jerusalem with the new crops. The latter 
 counsels prevailed, and on Friday, May 13th, the 
 host departed from before Arkah, and marched along 
 the coast to Ca^sarea. There they celebrated Whit- 
 
84 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 Sunday, and thence, turning inland, marched to 
 Ramleh. 
 
 At Ramleh the Crusading chiefs held a council of 
 war. Some advised that they should strike at the 
 very heart of Mohammedan pov/er, and leaving 
 Jerusalem on one side, march south for Alexandria 
 and Babylon ; thus they would conquer a great 
 kingdom, and Jerusalem would then fall without an 
 effort. Others asked how a host which numbered 
 only fifteen hundred knights could conquer vast 
 nations, if it w^ere too feeble to take the capital of a 
 province like Jerusalem. Finall)-, the latter prevailed, 
 and the march for the Holy City was resumed. Many 
 eager for present gain hastened to set their banners 
 on the neighbouring strongholds and homesteads, 
 others mindful of Peter Bartholomew's advice, refused 
 to think of such earthly things while nearing the goal 
 of their desire. " These, ' to whom the Lord's 
 command was dearer than lust of gain, advanced 
 with naked feet, sighing heavily for the disdain that 
 the others showed for the Lord's command." 
 
 It was June 6, 1099, when the Crusaders arrived 
 before the Holy City. During the course of the few 
 preceding years,^ Jerusalem had once more passed 
 into the hands of the Egyptian Calph, who had been 
 in negotiation with the Crusaders for more than two 
 years before. Alexius had pointed out the advantages 
 to be gained from an alliance with the Egyptian 
 Caliph, who as head of the Shiites would willingly 
 co-operate against the unorthodox Turks. During 
 the siege of Nicaea, the Crusading chiefs had sent an 
 
 * The exact date is obscure ; Arabic writers give 1096. 
 
THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. 85 
 
 embassy to the Caliph, and during that of Antioch 
 had received one in return. Later when the Caliph 
 found both Turks and Christians bidding for his 
 friendship, he had compromised matters by offering 
 to admit three hundred unarmed pilgrims into 
 Jerusalem. '" But we laughed this proffer to scorn, 
 hoping for God's grace, and threatening that unless 
 he gave us up Jerusalem for nothing, we would lay 
 claim to Bab3'lon." 
 
 I'he Crusaders were too few to encompass Jeru- 
 salem entirely ; but so far as possible they distributed 
 their forces over the whole circuit. Robert of Nor- 
 mandy camped on the north, by St. Stephen's Church, 
 and near him was his namesake from Flanders. 
 Godfrey and Tancred besieged the city from the west 
 Count Raymond stationed himself on Mount Sion to 
 the south. Eastward, by Mount Olivet, the Cru- 
 saders kept no watch, for the city was impregnable 
 on that side, where the strong walls of the Temple 
 enclosure rose abruptly from the deep valley of 
 Jehoshaphat.i 
 
 After some days of preparation the Crusaders on 
 June 14th delivered an assault, which almost suc- 
 ceeded, but they could not secure any permanent 
 advantage. Then, as the days crept on, hunger and 
 thirst made their appearance in the besiegers' camp. 
 The chief water supply was the little fountain of 
 Siloe, which, bubbling up only every other day, was 
 but a doubtful blessing ; for as soon as it began to 
 flow, men and animals crowded to the waterside in 
 such numbers that they trod one another to death, 
 
 * See the plan. on p. 119. 
 
86 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 and at last the spring was entirely choked with the 
 corpses of men and animals. Raymond of Agiles 
 draws a fearful picture of the things he saw : " Near 
 the fount lay many weak folk, unable to utter a cry 
 for the dryness of their tongues ; there they remained 
 with open mouths, and hands stretched out to those 
 whom they saw had water. Horses, mules, and oxen, 
 lay rotting where they had fallen, till the stench of 
 the decaying flesh became abhorrent to the camp." 
 Afterwards, when water was discovered a few leagues 
 distant, the Saracens lay in ambush among the moun- 
 tains to plunder the cattle as they were being driven 
 to drink. 
 
 Food also was running short, when fortunately news 
 came that nine Christian ships had put in at Jaffa. 
 With early dawn on Friday, June 17th, Raymond 
 Pilet started with a band of a hundred knights to 
 convey the provisions to the camp. The seamen at 
 Jaffa welcomed the Crusading warriors with a feast, 
 and they spent the night together in careless glee. 
 In fancied security they kept no watch, and at dawn 
 they awoke to find themselves surrounded by their 
 enemies ; but they contrived to unload their cargo^ 
 and carry it up to the camp, though the ships fell into 
 the hands of the Saracens, except for one that had 
 been cruising outside, and which escaped back to 
 Laodicea. 
 
 The danger of famine was thus averted ; but fresh 
 trouble arose through the outbreak of the old quarrels 
 once more. Some grudged Raymond his post on 
 Mount Sion ; others blamed Tancred because he had 
 set up his banner over the Church of the Nativity at 
 
QUARRELS AND VISIONS. 
 
 87 
 
 Bethlehem ; others again began to talk of electing 
 a king for the yet uncaptured city. With the old 
 quarrels the old visions also began to multiply ; 
 Adhemar of Puy appeared to Peter the Hermit, and 
 promised that the city should fall, if the host encom- 
 
 MOSAIC IN THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY, BETHLEHEM. 
 
 passed it barefoot during nine days. The bishop's 
 brother, Hugo, took up the cry ; a council was called, 
 and the chiefs, admitting that they had been lax, 
 agreed to work and pray henceforward with more 
 vigour and concord. A general reconciliation was 
 proclaimed ; processions were to make the circuit of 
 
88 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 the walls, and every effort was devoted to the con- 
 struction of the great engines necessary for the siege. 
 Th2 lack of wood for this last purpose had been 
 among the most pressing difficulties of the besiegers ; 
 Tancrcd, while prowling about the mountains, had 
 discovered four choice beams in a cave, but this was 
 as nothing to the amount required, and there was no 
 nearer source of supply than the groves at Nablus 
 some thirty-six miles off. Robert of Flanders super- 
 intended the work of felling the trees, and protecting 
 the timber on the road, and so at last two wooden 
 castles were constructed ; one by Godfrey on the 
 north, the other by Count Raymond on the south. 
 
 While these works were in progress, the other half 
 of Adhemar's injunctions was not forgotten. It was 
 probably on Tuesday, July 1 2th, that the Crusaders 
 made their grand procession round the city. The 
 whole army, so far as it was possible, marched slowly 
 from St. Mary's Church on Mount Sion to St. 
 Stephen's on the north-east. At their head went the 
 whitc-stoled priests and bishops barefoot, and cross 
 in hand, chanting hymns and praying as they went 
 for the fall of the city. The Saracens clustered on 
 the walls to see the novel sight, and as the Crusaders 
 made their first halt near St. Stephen's, mocked them 
 with derisive shouts and gestures. " Moreover, in 
 sight of all the Christians, they kept beating the most 
 holy crucifix, whereon Christ shed His blood for the 
 redemption of mankind, cr\ing out in the Saracen 
 tongue : * Franks, it is the blessed cross.' " On the 
 Mount of Olives, where a small church marked the 
 place of Christ's ascension, Arnulf, afterwards Patri- " 
 
PROCESSION ROUND JERUSALEM. 
 
 89 
 
 arch of Jerusalem, preached a sermon, while the 
 Saracens ran up and down the opposing height, 
 brandishing their swords in futile anger at the foe. 
 Thence again the Christians started in procession to 
 St. Mary's monastery, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, 
 
 t^MM&£'- 
 
 A SIEGE TOWER. 
 
 and by this route returned at length to Mount Sion. 
 
 The Saracens within the city on their part were not 
 idle ; they had strengthened their walls, and raised 
 the height of their towers. But the native Christians 
 in Jerusalem kept the Crusaders informed of all that 
 
90 THE FIRST CRUSADE, 
 
 went on. On Wednesday, July 13th, the attack was 
 commenced on every side, and continued next day, 
 but without any decided success. On the Friday the 
 Saracens attempted to fire Godfrey's castle, whicli, 
 through the fracture of one of its wheels, was fixed at 
 a little distance from the walls, unable to advance or to 
 withdraw. The defenders further protected the walls 
 from the assaults of the ram by hanging out sacks 
 stuffed with straw. But the Saracens were driven from 
 the walls by continual volleys from the stone-slingers; 
 the straw sacks were set ablaze by fire-bearing arrows; 
 the scaling ladders were placed against the walls ; 
 the drawbridge lowered from the castle, and Jerusalem 
 was won. Bernard of St. Valery, a surname after- 
 wards very glorious in Crusading history, was first to 
 leap upon the battlements, and as his comrades 
 followed him the Saracens fled in panic before them 
 to the Temple of Solomon. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the opposite part of the city, Ray- 
 mond had met with less success. He had built his 
 castle with the aid of the Genoese sailors who had 
 lost their ships at Jaffa. After breaking down the 
 outworks {antemuralid), and filling up the foss {val- 
 lum), he found the Saracens on the walls had ten 
 times as many engines as he could bring against 
 them. It was the ninth day of which Peter had 
 spoken, and though the Crusaders were not working 
 as they should have done, this was doubtless due to 
 the spells of two Saracen witches upon the wall. A 
 stone silenced their iniquitous incantations, but even 
 this brought no relief, and at noon the wall was still 
 unshaken. The chiefs were already meditating the 
 
CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, QI 
 
 withdrawal of the engines, when suddenly the count's 
 men caught sight of a strange apparition. Far away 
 on the Mount of Olives stood a knight waving his 
 shield in triumph. It was a sign that the city had 
 v;^een forced from the other side. " Who this knight 
 was," says Raymond of Agiles, ever ready to believe 
 in a miracle, " we could never find out." But his 
 meaning was understood at once, and the Provencal 
 soldiery returned to the assault with renewed vigour. 
 Jerusalem had at last been taken, and was to fare 
 as captured cities only too often did in mediaeval war- 
 fare. The words of an eye-witness paint the horrors 
 of the day in general terms without any attempt at 
 detail — " When our men had taken the city with its 
 walls and towers, there were things wondrous to be 
 seen. For some of the enemy, and this is a small 
 matter, were reft of their heads, while others riddled 
 through with arrows were forced to leap down from 
 the towers ; others, after long torture, were burnt in 
 the flames. In all the streets and squares there were 
 to be seen piles of heads, and hands, and feet ; and 
 along the public ways foot and horse alike made 
 passage over the bodies of the dead." Tancred burst 
 into the Temple, and tore down the golden hangings 
 from the walls — seven thousand marks in weight. 
 He was, perhaps, of a more pitiful turn than most 
 of his compeers, for he offered to protect such as took 
 refuge in Solomon's Temple. But even his charity 
 could only offer a reprieve, and not a full pardon. 
 Weary with slaughter the Christians at length turned 
 their thoughts to sacred things, and went in tearful 
 procession to the Holy Sepulchre But early next 
 
92 THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
 
 morning their sterner mood revived ; the rumour 
 went about that Tancred had been luring the 
 fugitives to their destruction, and the Crusaders 
 armed themselves anew to the work of death. 
 Every one was eager for blood : some stationed 
 at a distance shot the hapless Saracens with their 
 arrows ; others scaled the roof of the Temple itself 
 and massacred both men and women wi h the sword. 
 Raymond alone seems to have felt an honourable 
 compassion for the conquered ; he offered life to 
 those who had taken refuge in the Tower of David, 
 and on their surrender, suffered them to depart 
 unharmed to Ascalon. 
 
 This terrible slaughter " filled all the city with 
 dead bodies," and the first work of the conquerors 
 was to cleanse the streets of the impurity which 
 might breed a plague. The surviving Saracens 
 were compelled to carry the dead outside the walls, 
 where they were " heaped up in mountains," to be 
 presently destroyed by fire. " Such a slaughter of 
 pagan folk had never been seen or heard of; none 
 knows their number save God alone." 
 
 y 
 
^ 
 
 VI. 
 
 GODFREY DE BOUILLON. 
 
 "He was a very parfile gentil knyght." 
 
 Chaucer. 
 
 Eight days after the capture of the Holy City, 
 the Crusaders met to elect a king (July 22nd). Few, 
 however, of the great chiefs were willing to accept so 
 barren and laborious an honour. The object of their 
 expedition accomplished, all were eager to return 
 home ; so to one after another was the crown offered 
 in vain. Raymond of St. Gilles, if we may trust his 
 biographer, refused to bear a king's title in the Holy 
 City. " Robert of Normandy's refusal," writes an 
 almost contemporary English chronicler, " aspersed 
 his nobility with an indelible stain, to which not re- 
 verence, but sloth or fear impelled him." At last 
 Godfrey de Bouillon was persuaded to accept the 
 headship of .the conquered city. But he, too, refused 
 to wear a crown in the city where our Lord was 
 crucified, and so does not figure among the kings 
 of Jerusalem. He contented himself with the modest 
 
 93, 
 
QUARREL WITH RAYMOND. 95 
 
 title of Baron of the Holy Sepulchre, even after he 
 had practically become king of a new realm. 
 
 After a temporal head, it was necessary to elect a 
 spiritual one. There were many claimants for the 
 office, but finally the choice fell upon Arnulf, chaplain 
 to Robert of Normandy, According to Raymond of 
 Agiles, he was as yet only a sub deacon, and a man 
 of loose life, whose notorious amours were the theme 
 of popular songs in the Crusading camp. Ralph of 
 Caen, on the other hand, speaks in no mean terms 
 of his literary taste. Arnulf had been tutor to the 
 Conqueror's daughter, Cecilia, and followed Odo of 
 Bayeux on the Crusade. He was chief of the dis- 
 believers in the Holy Lance, and narrowly escaped 
 murder at the hands of the Provengal count's 
 emissaries ; when the Holy Lance was discredited 
 he had a golden crucifix made to take its place 
 as an object of devotion. His influence had grown 
 as that of Raymond's followers diminished, and he 
 had been chosen to preach the sermon on Mount 
 Olivet on the day of the great procession round 
 Jerusalem. Such was the man who was first 
 elected to the Latin Patriarchate in the Holy City. 
 
 Immediately after the capture of Jerusalem, 
 Tancrea and Count Eustace started north to secure 
 Nablus. Meantime at Jerusalem a quarrel broke out 
 between Godfrey and Raymond, who refused to sur- 
 render the Tower of David. When Godfrey wrested 
 the stronghold from the Bishop of Albara, to whom it 
 had been entrusted, the count indignantly declared that 
 he would go home at once. But first, in accordance 
 with the injunctions of Peter Bartholomew, Raymond 
 
96 GODFREY DE BOUILLON. 
 
 and his company made a pilgrimage to the Jordan. 
 There his followers, unable to find a vessel, launched 
 their lord on a boat of wicker-work ; and then flinging 
 off his worn-out garb, dressed him in new apparel. 
 " This," said Raymond of Agiles, " we did in accor- 
 dance with our instructions, but we know not why 
 ^ the man of God bade us act so." 
 
 In August, there came news that a great Egyptian 
 army was mustering at Ascalon. Tancred and 
 Eustace were called back in haste, while Godfrey 
 and Robert of Flanders marched out from Jerusalem. 
 Robert of Normandy and Count Raymond refused 
 to move without more certain information, but on a 
 message from Godfrey that, " if they wished to share 
 in the battle they must come quickly," they also set 
 out, leaving Peter the Hermit at Jerusalem to organise 
 processions and prayers for their success. On the i ith 
 of August, the united host advanced towards" Ascalon. 
 The Egyptians never dreamt of danger from so 
 weak a foe, and rested idly in their tents, since the 
 soothsayers forbade them to give battle till Saturday, 
 the 13th of August. The Christians advanced in nine 
 battalions : on the left fought Duke Godfrey ; on the 
 sea by the right, Count Raymond ; while in the centre 
 rode the two Roberts and Tancred. From the 
 moment when the Crusaders caught sight of their 
 adversaries each standing with his skin of water hung 
 round his neck, there seems to have been no doubt 
 as to th3 result of the battle. It was rather a 
 massacre than a conflict ; some threw themselves 
 into the sea, others buried themselves in the earth, 
 "not d.iring to rise up against us, and our men 
 
BATTLE OF ASCALON. 97 
 
 cut them down as a man fells animals at the 
 shambles" (Friday, Aug. 12, 1099). 
 
 The honours of the day seem to have belonged to 
 Robert of Normandy, who slew the standard-bearer 
 with his own hands. The standard with its golden 
 apple and silver shaft, he purchased for twenty marks 
 of silver, and gave to the Holy Sepulchre. The 
 booty was immense, and when each had taken what 
 he desired, they returned with joy to the Holy City, 
 their camels and asses laden with biscuits, flour, 
 wheat, and all things needful. " Wherefore there was 
 such plenty that one could buy an ox for eight or ten 
 coins, a measure of corn for twelve, and a measure of 
 barley for eight." 
 
 Not even the unity forced upon them by the late 
 danger could entirely reconcile Godfrey and Count 
 Raymond. The count had accepted from the citizens 
 of Ascalon the offer of their allegiance ; but the 
 chiefs declared that the possession of that stronghold 
 was essential to the royal power. Truly or falsely — 
 for the story is told in too many ways t^ be entirely 
 true or entirely false — Raymond is alleged to have 
 given back the town to the Egyptians rather than 
 suffer it to pass into Godfrey's hands. It was with 
 difficulty that the two leaders were kept from open 
 warfare through the intervention of Robert of 
 Flanders. 
 
 Many of the leaders now started homewards 
 through Northern Syria. So great was tlie terror 
 produced by the victory of Ascalon that the Egyptian 
 garrisons at Acre, Tyre, and other towns received 
 them kindly. Laodicea which Bohemond, with the 
 
 8 
 
98 GODFREY DE BOUILLON. 
 
 aid of the Pisans and Genoese, was endeavouring to 
 secure for himself, was put into the hands of Count 
 Raymond, who thus obtained some consolation for 
 his previous disappointments. 
 
 Godfrey meanwhile led his whole force against 
 Arsuf, but after a prolonged and futile siege he was 
 forced to go into winter quarters, and withdrew to 
 Jerusalem. His return to the capital was hastened 
 probably by the arrival of his brother Baldwin and 
 Bchemond of Antioch. Fulcher of Chartres, who was 
 present in attendance on Count Baldwin, has left a 
 detailed account of this march, which furnishes a 
 typical example of the perils besetting an eleventh- 
 century pilgrimage. 
 
 The two chiefs started from Balunyas, a little 
 south of Jebleh, taking with them Bishop Dagobert 
 of Pisa. Their united companies numbered some 
 twenty-five thousand, including women and children. 
 As they passed along the Saracens refused them 
 food, and since there was no fodder for the horses, 
 the pilgrims would have fared ill, but that in the 
 tilled fields there were crops of what the common 
 folk called " cannamelles." " These cannamelles are 
 almost like reeds, and hence their name from canna 
 (a reed) and mel {honey). Whence as I take it wild 
 honey draws its name, for that it is cunningly confccted 
 from these." The hungry people managed to stay 
 their pangs by sucking these reeds, but they were 
 of little use as food. During four or five days also 
 a ceaseless torrent of cold rain was added to their 
 troubles. Fulcher says that on one day he saw 
 several men and women, besides very many beasts, 
 
THE CHRISTMAS FEAST. 99 
 
 perish through the cold. Only twice in the long 
 march did the pilgrims secure a market — at Tripoli 
 and Caesarea. At last, on the day of the winter 
 solstice, they reached Jerusalem. The Holy Sepul- 
 chre was visited, and Christmas Eve spent in vigil 
 at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Even 
 now, though it was nearly six months after the taking 
 of Jerusalem, Fulcher was only too conscious of the 
 offensive odours, from the dead bodies of the Saracens. 
 On January ist the pilgrims started on their journey 
 back ; by the Jordan they cut their palm branches, 
 and so returned through Tiberias, Banias, Tortosa, 
 and Laodicea. 
 
 A little later Gabriel, the ruler of Melitene, applied 
 to Bohemond for help against Ibn Danishmend.^ 
 Bohemond, eager to extend his sway, accepted the 
 invitation. On the road he fell into an ambuscade 
 through the careless confidence of his men who, 
 wearied by the heat, were marching without their 
 armour. Most of the Franks were cut to pieces, and 
 Bohemond himself with his cousin Richard were 
 taken prisoners. 
 
 By this time Godfrey had forced Arsuf to sur- 
 render, and obtained a promise of tribute from the 
 other cities along the coast, including Ascalon, 
 Caesarea, and Acre, for " the fear of the most Chris- 
 tian duke fell upon all the lands of the heathen folk." 
 
 ^ Mohammed Gumishtakin ibn Danishmend (the son of the learned 
 man) founded, towards the end of the eleventh century, a great lord- 
 ship in a district that roughly corresponds with the ancient Cappadocia, 
 This district lay east of the Seljukian Sultanate of Rilm. His father 
 had been a Turcoman schoolmaster, whence Mohammed obtained his 
 surname. 
 
100 GODFREY DE BOUILLON. 
 
 Even the sheiks of the wild Arabian tribes begged 
 for peace in order that they might have a market for 
 their flocks. But neither Christian nor Saracen kept 
 peace by sea ; and while the merchants of Ascalon 
 and Jerusalem passed to and fro from one city to the 
 other, the Saracen warships scoured the Mediter- 
 ranean, and the Crusading warriors cut off all vessels 
 that brought up provisions from Alexandria and 
 Damietta for the Egyptian cities along the coast. 
 L< Godfrey's next task was to fortify Jaffa, a town 
 that was of extreme importance to the infant king- 
 dom and for a double reason ; it was practically the 
 only harbour at which the Crusaders could disembark 
 reinforcements from the west ; it was also their base 
 of supply since the Franks could not trust entirely 
 to an alien race for their provisions. From this labour 
 Godfrey was called away to assist Tancred, who was 
 establishing himself near the lake' of Tiberias. As 
 he returned from this expedition along the coast 
 towards Jaffa, a deadly sickness fell upon him, due, 
 so it was declared, to poisoned fruit sent him by the 
 Emir of Caesarea. At Jaffa he met the Venetian 
 bishop and doge, who had lately arrived, but was too 
 feeble to endure the excitement of a prolonged inter- 
 view. The same night he grew worse, and feeling 
 unable to bear the bustle of a maritime city, had 
 himself carried up to Jerusalem. He breathed his 
 last on July i8, i lOO, and was buried in the Church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 Godfrey's death occurred three days after the anni- 
 versary of the capture of the Holy City. Under the 
 later kings the two events were celebrated together, and 
 
A HERO OF ROMANCE. 
 
 lOI 
 
 the anniversary of the great duke's death was marked 
 by the distribution of gifts in accordance with his 
 will. Godfrey himself is one of the most remarkable 
 characters to be met with in history. No other ruler, 
 perhaps, combines so perfectly the religious and active 
 elements in life. His history was soon surrounded 
 with tales of wonder, so that he seemed to have been 
 marked out from his earliest days for his sacred mis- 
 
 GODFREY DE BOUILLON'S TOMB IN THE CHURCH OF 
 THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 
 
 sion. His mother told how long before the First 
 Crusade he had desired to make his journey to Jeru- 
 salem, not as a pilgrim, but at the head of an army. 
 Yet he does not seem to have held the first place 
 amongst the leaders, and the reason for his election 
 must be sought in the jealousy between the men of 
 north and south France. The fierceness of this feel- 
 ing had everywhere been displayed in the quarrels 
 between the followers of the Norman and Provencal 
 
 / 
 
lOis GODFREY DE BOUILLON. 
 
 leaders. Some compromise wa-^ necessary, and seeing 
 that the Germans, as Ralph of Caen expressly says, 
 had " stood outside the quarrel," it is little wonder 
 that the choice fell on the great leader, whose 
 engines had made the first breach in the walls of 
 Jerusalem. Moreover, Godfrey, as a native of the 
 French and Teutonic borderlands, was unlike most 
 of the chiefs, familiar with both the French and 
 German tongues. 
 
 Piety had always been a marlccd feature in God- 
 frey's character. Either this or his natural humility 
 made him refuse to wear a golden crown of state 
 in the city where his Saviour had worn a crown 
 of thorns. He was fond of religious services, and 
 even in the turmoil of the capture had ctolen away to 
 pray at the Holy Sepulchre. Yet there were harder 
 elements in his character ; he had sternly punished 
 any lack of discipline among his followers, and shown 
 himself merciless to his foes. Still his short reign 
 was so far as possible one of peace, and all the varied 
 dwellers round Jerusalem mourned for his death. 
 ^ It must have been within a very few years that 
 Godfrey began to figure in contemporary song. 
 Later he became the centre of one of the five great 
 cycles of romantic literature. In the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries the fame of Godfrey and the First 
 Crusade rivalled the older legends of Arthur and 
 I Charlemagne, and he is named with them as one of 
 the three Christian heroes who made up the number 
 of the nine noblest. Slowly the floating mists of 
 romance gather shape and substance round his name, 
 not only from the true exploits of his Crusading life, 
 
THE FATES OF THE CHIEFS. 103 
 
 but from others in which he had talcen no part. Like 
 the mother of Thomas a Becket, his mother was 
 fabled to have been an Eastern princess, and his 
 grandmother's name was associated with the old- 
 world legend of the Knight of the Swan. Whatever 
 its form his legend became one of the chief themes 
 of mediaeval song. Ballads of the siege of Antioch 
 cheered the camp fires of the warriors of the Third 
 Crusade, and men almost forgot the miserable feuds 
 which wrecked the fair prospects of 1191-2 in think- 
 ing of the self-denial, the devotion and the chivalrous 
 valour of the great Crusaders of an earlier age. 
 
 Thus in little more than a year from the capture 
 of the Holy City had the hero of the First Crusade ./ 
 passed away. Of the other great chiefs, Raymond, ^. 
 Bohemond, Tancred, and Baldwin alone remained in \ 
 the East. The remainder had hurried home to meet 
 with more or less tragical fates. Robert of Nor- 
 mandy reached his duchy just too late to secure the 
 succession to England on the death of his brother 
 William. Six years later his defeat at Tenchebrai 
 consigned him to lifelong captivity, but even so his 
 name was not forgotten in the Holy Land, where an 
 illegitimate son of his, William by name, played a 
 prominent part under Baldwin L Robert of Flanders, 
 like his cousin and namesake, reached home by way 
 of Greek territories; eleven years later he was thrown 
 from his horse and killed. Hugh the Great, who had 
 been sent to Constantinople after the fall of Antioch, 
 shared in the disastrous expedition of nor and died 
 at Tarsus. The recreant Count Stephen of Blois 
 driven back to the East by his wife's reproaches, 
 
104 GODFREY DE BOUILLON. 
 
 took part in the same expedition, and was slain 
 in the great battle of Ramleh (1102). This expedi- 
 tion, which ended so disastrously for the two French 
 counts, must detain us for a little. 
 
 The conquest of Jerusalem kindled a warlike en- 
 thusiasm in many hearts which had been cold to the 
 impassioned pleading of Urban and Peterv Amongst 
 those who now took up arms was the powerful Duke 
 William of Aquitaine. Religious feeling had not 
 restrained him from the endeavour to turn Count 
 Raymond's absence on the Crusade to his own profit. 
 He is perhaps the first of all the Crusading chiefs 
 who undertook the expedition in the frivolous spirit 
 of the mere adventurer eager for some new thing. 
 The details of this crusade, or series of crusades, are 
 difficult to follow ; but first of all a large and unruly 
 horde of Lombards reached Constantinople, and after 
 some riotous conduct, in the course of which they 
 broke into the palace and killed one of the Emperor's 
 pet lions, crossed the Bosphorus. At Nicomedia 
 they were joined by Conrad the Constable of the 
 Emperor Henry, and the two Stephens of Blois and 
 Burgundy. 
 
 It was now Whitsuntide, iioi, and the Crusaders, 
 eager to depart, begged Alexius for a guide. He 
 offered them Raymond of St. Gilles, who was present 
 at Constantinople. But when the time for departure 
 arrived a feud broke out between the two divisions. 
 Stephen of Blois was for following the old Crusading 
 track through Iconium to Antioch. The Lombards, 
 however, were seized with a wild desire to push 
 across the highlands of Asia Minor to the realm of 
 
THE AQUITANIAN CRUSADE, 105 
 
 Chorazan, by which they probably understood Persia 
 or the region of the Lower Tigris. There they 
 hoped to rescue Bohemond from captivity or, happier 
 still, to seize Bagdad itself. Others, among whom 
 was Ekkehard, our chief authority for this expedi- 
 tion, took alarm at a reported speech of the Emperor 
 Alexius, to the effect that he would let the Franks 
 and the Turks devour one another like dogs ; these 
 went by sea from one or other of the Greek ports, 
 and, as Ekkehard says, " Through the Divine mercy, 
 after six weeks we reached the haven of Jaffa." 
 
 Raymond threw in his lot with Count Stephen, 
 Three weeks' march through a region of plenty 
 brought them to Ancyra on June 23rd. Here they 
 entered on a waterless and desert region, and from 
 this point their steps were dogged by the Turks, 
 who, shooting from a distance, picked out with their 
 arrows the stragglers and weak. At last the whole 
 rearguard, consisting of seven hundred Lombards, 
 was cut off. Next morning there was a deadly 
 panic, and only Raymond and the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy volunteered to take the post of danger. Some 
 three weeks later, when the Christians were already 
 near Maresch, not far from Sinope, Raymond was 
 defeated by the Turks, and on the next day rode 
 off with his followers, leaving his fellow Crusaders 
 to fare by themselves. The other leaders, infected 
 by his example, fled in panic, leaving their goods 
 and their very wives as a booty to the Turks. " Ah ! 
 what grief was it to see delicate and noble matrons 
 carried off by impious and horrid men — men whose 
 heads were shorn behind and before, whose beards 
 
I06 GODFREY DE BOUILLON, 
 
 were long and unkempt, and who were like to foul 
 and unclean spirits in conduct." 
 
 The two Stephens, Conrad, and the Bishop of 
 Milan got back to Constantinople, where Raymond 
 also presently arrived by sea. The Count of St. 
 Gilles found a general prejudice against him by 
 reason of his alleged desertion, but he excused 
 himself successfully to Alexius on the score of 
 necessity. 
 
 Another expedition, under William, Count of 
 Nevers, had reached Constantinople from Brindisi, 
 and marched through Asia Minor in the train of 
 Raymond and his fellows. Count William, with a 
 scanty following, at length reached Antioch on foot, 
 in the autumn of iioi. 
 
 Duke William of Aquitaine reached Constantinople 
 a little later than the rest ; with him came Welf of 
 Bavaria, the Countess Ida of Austria, and, if we may 
 credit Albert of Aix, 160,000 pilgrims of either sex. 
 This expedition fared w^orse than their predecessors 
 alike in Europe and in Asia. In the end many thou- 
 sands were slain or carried off captive by Kilij Arslan. 
 Welf went wandering over the mountains, and hardly 
 escaped with his life ; as for the Countess Ida, says 
 Albert of Aix, whether she was carried off or trod 
 to pieces under the feet of horses is unknown to this 
 day ; William fled with a single knight, and found 
 shelter near Tarsus till Tancred came and escorted 
 him to Antioch. 
 
 The remnants of all these expeditions met at 
 Antioch in March, 1102. "Of so innumerable a 
 host of God's people," writes a survivor, " alas ! 
 
A DISASTROUS EXPEDITION. 
 
 107 
 
 alas ! we do not believe one thousand survived ; 
 and these we saw afterwards at Rhodes, Paphos, 
 and other ports, hardly more than bones, but only 
 a few at Jaffa." 
 
'as)te\ 
 
 36/ W.of Greenwich 37 
 
 Typo. Etching Co. Sc, 
 THE LATIN PRINCIPALITIES OF SYRIA IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 
 
/ 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION. 
 
 " A land of settled government, 
 A land of old and fair renown." 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 The capture of Jerusalem and the formal con- 
 stitution of the kingdom which took its name from 
 the Holy City were hardly more than the first stage 
 in the conquest of Palestine. Even at the time 
 of Godfrey's death the Franks held little besides 
 Jerusalem itself, together with the communications 
 with the Byzantine dominions, which they had 
 established in the course of their march south. 
 Though Bohemond at Antioch and Baldwin at 
 Edessa had already secured somewhat more ex- 
 tended sovereignties, the true period of conquest 
 covered the reigns of Godfrey's first two successors. 
 But indeed the whole history of the Prankish rule 
 in Syria was so chequered, that its curtailment at 
 the hands of the reviving power of Mohammedanism 
 had already commenced in one quarter before it 
 could attain its full extension in another. The death 
 of Baldwin II. may be said to mark the moment of 
 
 greatest extension, when in the words of Abul- 
 ia) 
 
no THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION, 
 
 faraj, " all was subject to the Franks, from the 
 neighbourhood of Mardin to El Arish on the borders 
 of Egypt." The present is, however, the most con- 
 venient place for a description of the territory of 
 the Syrian Franks, always remembering that at no 
 moment did its actual extent coincide with that 
 which was theoretically theirs. 
 
 In its entirety the Frankish dominion should have 
 included all the lands that lay between the sea on 
 the west and the desert on the east. This region, 
 taken as a whole, is one of well-marked character- 
 istics, and, despite certain weak points, not ill-suited 
 for defensive occupation. But, as we shall see, the 
 Franks never did occupy it fully, and the neglect or 
 incapacity to do so may without doubt be classed 
 among the causes which prevented the Frankish prin- 
 cipalities from maintaining a more permanent exis- 
 tence. 
 
 The extreme length of the Frankish territory from 
 the Euphrates to the borders of Egypt was some- 
 what over five hundred miles. Its breadth, except 
 in the far north, seldom exceeded fifty miles, and 
 was for the most part much less. This extreme 
 attenuation left a long frontier open to attack, 
 and whilst the Mohammedans still held Damascus, 
 Emesa, Hamah, and Aleppo the danger of attack was 
 ever present. Otherwise, so long as the Franks re- 
 tained their hold on Edessa and had Greeks and 
 Armenians for neighbours in the north-west, the only 
 serious danger would have proceeded from Egypt, a 
 source of trouble to which the later Crusaders at least 
 were keenly alive. \ ' ^ "^ 
 
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. Ill 
 
 Physically speaking, the land consists of four longi- 
 tudinal zones. The first is the plain country on the 
 border of the Mediterranean, a region of sandy tracts 
 alternating with wooded lands. This district, which 
 extends to a width of some fifteen miles in the south, 
 gradually narrows to very small dimensions in the 
 region of the ancient Phoenicia, thus to continue to 
 the head of the Gulf of Iskanderoun. In the king- 
 dom proper the district is broken by the height of 
 Carmel, but immediately to the north, in its turn, 
 extends eastward over the fertile plain of Esdraelon. 
 Behind the plain of the coast lies the mountain 
 country which in Palestine proper consists of an 
 undulating district of moderate elevation (1,500- 
 1,800 feet) ; though with some more striking heights, 
 as those on which the cities of Hebron and Jeru- 
 salem are situate, the one lying 3,000 feet, the other 
 some 500 feet less, above the level of the Mediter- 
 ranean. Behind the Phoenician coast lies the far 
 loftier range of Lebanon, which is continued in the 
 mountains of Ansarieh to the neighbourhood of 
 Antioch. This mountain country rises for the most 
 part gradually on the west, but on the east fajls 
 by a steep and rugged descent to the depression 
 which forms the third zone. The valleys of the 
 Orontes, the Litany, and the Jordan, with the 
 Wady-el-Arabah, form a long and deep trench ex- 
 tending in an almost straight line from Antioch to 
 the Gulf of Elim, and broken only by Hermon and the 
 highlands to the south of the Dead Sea. This trench 
 formed the eastern limit of Prankish conquest 
 except in the extreme north, where the county of 
 
112 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION, 
 
 Edcssa spread to the Euphrates and beyond, and 
 in the south, where it comprised the highlands to 
 the east of the Dead Sea and reached to the Gulf 
 of Elim. The fourth zone, that bordering on the 
 desert, included the highlands of Moab and the 
 Djaulan, together with the range of Anti-Lebanon 
 and its eastern slopes. For the most part a high 
 and bleak plateau, it comprises many well-watered 
 and fertile spots, especially in the more northern 
 part, where lay the great Mohammedan cities of 
 Damascus, Emesa, Hamah, and Aleppo. 
 
 The Frankish dominions in Syria consisted of four 
 main divisions — the kingdom of Jer usale m proper, 
 the county of Tripoli, the principality of Antioch, 
 and the county of Edessa. 
 
 Beginning with the north, we find in Edessa an 
 extensive but ill-defined territory lying on both sides 
 of the Euphrates. On the left bank, besides the 
 proper district of Edessa, it extended northwards to 
 the neighbourhood of Mardin, and in the south to 
 the fertile region of Saruj. On the right bank of the 
 Euphrates its chief territory consisted of the lordship 
 of Joscelin of Courtenay, whose capital was Turbessel, 
 now Tell-basher. The principal fiefs of Edessa werei 
 Hatab or Ain tab, and Tulupe, Coris, Ravendal, 
 Samosata, Bir, and Saruj. The Frankish settlers were 
 not numerous, and confined themselves, as it would 
 seem, to the towns and fortresses ; even in Edessa 
 itself they were but few in number. The mass of 
 the population consisted of Armenians and Syrians, 
 and the system of government appears to have re- 
 mained almost purely Byzantine. Edessa, the capital 
 
EDESSA AND ANTlOCH, II3 
 
 is identical with the Rohas of antiquity and the Orfa 
 of modern times. Built on the banks of the Kara 
 Tchai, at the foot of a hill called the Top Dagh/ and 
 dominated by a strong castle, Edessa was at once a 
 fortress and a great place of commercial transit. To 
 the Franks it was of supreme importance as com- 
 manding the best route from Mesopotamia to Syria. 
 
 West of the county of Edessa lay the extensive 
 principality of Antioch. Under the rule of its first 
 princes Antioch was rapidly developed, till by 1130, 
 the moment of its widest extension, it reached on the 
 north-west far into Cilicia, and even included the 
 towns of Tarsus, Adana, and Mamistra ; but the con- 
 quests of John Comnenus in 11 37 confined it within 
 the river Jihun or Pyramus, and later on it was fur- 
 ther circumscribed by the growth of the kingdom of 
 Armenia. North-east it marched with Edessa, and 
 south east included beyond the Orontes the terri- 
 tories of Albara, Apamea, and Marra, and, as we 
 shall see, pressed hard on Aleppo itself On the 
 west lay the sea, and south the mountain district of 
 Tripoli. Within these limits were included a great 
 number of dependent fiefs, chief of which were Cerep, 
 Harenc, Hazart, Zerdana, and Marra. On the coast 
 lay the important ports of Laodicea, and Soudin, or 
 St. Simeon, at the mouth of the Orontes, which was 
 the harbour of Antioch. The position of the capital 
 has already been sutficiently described,^ and it is^ 
 enough to emphasise here the importanafe of the 
 
 » In Crusading times this was called the Holy Mount^Pi from the 
 numerous monasteries on its slopes. 
 ' Chapter iv. p. 63-6. 
 
 .9, 
 
THE COUNTY OF TRIPOLI. II5 
 
 principality as the earliest, and perhaps the most 
 permanent, of all the Prankish colonies^^ 
 
 The county of Tripoli formed a strip of territory 
 'dbout a hundred miles in length, and extending from 
 the sea on the west to the Orontes on the east Its 
 southern boundary was at the Nahr Ibrahim, a little 
 to the north of Beyrout, and at the other extremity it 
 approached to the neighbourhood of Markab. On 
 the east lay the territory of the Assassins and the 
 Mussulman principalities of Hamah and Emesa. 
 x\mong its fie^s were Arkah, Botron, Jebeil, and Tor- 
 tosa, and it also included the strong fortresses of Safed 
 and Kerak or Krak des Chevaliers. The town of Tripoli 
 in Crusading times consisted of the actual city on 
 Mount Pilgrim and the more ancient city on a penin- 
 sula below. In the thirteenth century it was a great 
 centre of commerce, famous for its schools and for 
 its silk factories, that gave employment to four 
 thousand artisans. 
 
 Edessa, Antioch, and Tripoli were all theoretically 
 dependencies of the kingdom of Jerusalem. In 
 Edessa the royal authority was secured from the day 
 when its first count became the second king of Jeru- 
 salem. Antioch was to have been held by Bohemond 
 as a dependency of the Byzantine Empire ; but the 
 conduct of Alexius gave the Franks a fair excuse for 
 disowning his suzerainty. During the disasters which 
 followed on the death of Roger in 11 19, Baldwin II. 
 was called in to defend the unguarded principality, 
 and for some years the king was in fact its governor. 
 In 1 1 26 the second Bohemond married Baldwin's 
 daughter, and on his death a few years later the king, 
 
Il6 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION. 
 
 as guardian for his grandchild, received the oaths of 
 all the vassals high and low. From this time Antioch 
 may be considered both legally and politically as a 
 dependency of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Tripoli, 
 as we shall see, passed into the same position, when 
 Raymond's son Bertram appealed to Baldwin I. for 
 aid against William Jordan, and became the king's 
 man. Henceforward its allegiance hardly wavered, 
 except when in 1122 Pons for a while refused obedi- 
 ence to Baldwin II. 
 
 The kingdom of Jerusalem properly so called 
 extended along the coast from the Nahr Ibrahim" 
 to the Wady-el-Arish. The eastern boundary was 
 formed by the valley of Baccar and the Ghor, or basin 
 of the Jordan and Dead Sea. But in the north the 
 fortress of Banias and the land of Soad lay east of 
 this line, and in the south-east the Franks occupied 
 the land beyond the Dead Sea, and as far south as 
 the Gulf of Elim. The kingdom was divided into 
 four great baronies and twelve lesser lordships. The 
 first were : — (i) the county of Jaffa and Ascalon ; (2) 
 the lordship of Kerak and Montreal ; (3) the princi- 
 pality of Galilee ; (4) the lordship of Sidon. The 
 lesser fiefs were Darum, Hebron or St. Abraham, 
 Arsuf, Caesarea, Nablus, Bessan or Bethshan, Caimont, 
 Haifa, Toron and Banias, Scandelion, St. George or 
 Lydda, and Beyrout. 
 
 The county of Jaffa and Ascalon stretched over the 
 .plain of Sharon between the sea and the mountains 
 of Judah, and from the river Leddar to Darum and 
 the desert of Sin. It included the fortresses of 
 Ibelin, Blanchegarde, and Mirabel, and the towns of 
 
THE LORDSHIPS OF THE KINGDOM. llf 
 
 Gaza, Lydda, and Ramleh. Jaffa was erected 
 into a county by Baldwin I. for his kinsman Hugh 
 de Puiset. After the untimely fate of his son 
 Hugh H., it passed into the royal hands to be revived 
 by Baldwin HI. for his brother Amalric, who was 
 already Count of Ascalon. From this time the 
 double county became an appanage of the royal 
 house, and so was held by Guy de Lusignan and 
 Walter de Brienne. The authority of the counts was, 
 however, much circumscribed by the power of the 
 great house of Ibelin. Balian the Bearded, founder 
 of that house, appears in 1 1 20 as Constable of Jaffa, 
 and eventually became lord of Ibelin, Ramleh, and 
 Mirabel. In later days his descendants accumulated 
 many fiefs both in Jerusalem and Cyprus. 
 
 The lordship of Kerak and Montreal took its name 
 from the two great fortresses in the land beyond the 
 Dead Sea. Its peculiar importance lay in the fact 
 that the rich caravans from Egypt to Damascus had 
 to pass through its territories, and pay it toll. Its 
 first lord was Roman de Puy, afterwards Fulk gave it 
 to Payn, uncle of Philip of Nablus. Philip's daugh- 
 ter conveyed it to Reginald of Chatillon, its last and 
 most famous lord. This lordship included the mari- 
 time fortress of Elim or Aila, and was eventually unf.ted 
 with the lordship of Hebron. 
 
 The principality of Galilee besides the district pro- 
 perly so called included the land of Soad beyond 
 Jordan, and had Tiberias or Tabarie for its capital. 
 It contained many important fortresses, such as 
 Safed, La Feve, Forbelet, and Belvoir, and the 
 towns of Nazareth and Sepphoris. Tancred was for a 
 
Il8 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION. 
 
 short time Prince of Galilee, afterwards it was held by- 
 Hugh of Falkenberg or St Omer, Joscelin of Cour- 
 tenay before he became Count of Edessa, and William 
 de Bures. Later it returned to the Falkenberg family, 
 and in the thirteenth century passed by marriage to 
 the Ibelins. On its northern borders lay the impor- 
 tant lordship of Toron, whose rulers for four genera- 
 tions were called Henfrid, and were long constables 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 The lordship of Sidon was bounded on the north 
 by the Damour, on the west by the sea, on the east 
 and south by the Litany. It included the strong- 
 holds of Beaufort and the Cave of Tyron, with the 
 towns of Sidon and Sarepta. It was first granted to 
 Eustace Grener, who was lord of Caesarea. Eustace 
 married a niece of the Patriarch Arnulf ; of his two 
 sons, Walter became lord of Caesarea and Gerard of 
 Sidon. 
 
 The immediate royal domain comprised, besides 
 Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, including Nablus, 
 the two great cities of Tyre and Acre, the latter of 
 which became in the thirteenth century the capital of 
 the Latin colonies in Syria. 
 
 Of the city of Jerusalem itself detailed accounts 
 from the hands of one pilgrim or another during the 
 Crusading period are not wanting. Chief among 
 these are the narratives of John of Wurzburg, who 
 visited Palestine between 1160 and 1170, and one 
 Theoderic, who came a few years later. But per- 
 haps we can for the present purpose take no better 
 guide than a Norman- French description of the state 
 of the Holy Places and the city of Jerusalem as they 
 
JERUSALEM 
 
 IN 1187 A.O. 
 TiradUional Names vvlatin 
 
 ^J^sfe* 
 
120 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION, 
 
 were on the day that Salad in and the Saracens con- 
 quered them from the Christians. Mediaeval Jeru- 
 salem had four chief gates — David's gate on the west, 
 the Golden gate on the east, and St. Stephen's and 
 Sion gates on the north and south.. The pilgrim who 
 had arrived from Jaffa would enter by the first named, 
 with the Tower of David on his right, and would soon 
 reach Patriarch Street on the left, where the Patriarch 
 had his palace, and which also led to the Church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre and the Hospital of the Knights 
 of St. John. David Street itself led into" Temple 
 Street, and so to the Temple enclosure or Haram, 
 wherein was the Templum Domini, together with the 
 royal palace or Templum Salomonis, and the House 
 of the Knights Templars. The Temple enclosure lay 
 upon the eastern wall and the Golden gate opened 
 directly into it. 1 he northern gate, or St. Stephen's, 
 was that by which the pilgrims who came up from 
 Acre entered ; from this gate St. Stephen's Street 
 ran into the heart of the city. At its southern end, 
 on the left, were three narrow vaulted ways, the Rue 
 Couverte, where the Latin merchants sold cloth goods ; 
 the Rue des Herbes, which was the market for all 
 vegetables, fruits, and spices ; and the Rue Malcui- 
 sinat, where the hungry pilgrim could obtain his food. 
 From this point two streets ran south to the gate 
 of Mount Sion. 
 
 There were in the city of Jerusalem or its vicinity 
 no less than thirty-seven churches, many of which, as 
 those of St. Anne, St. Maria Majora, and St. Mary 
 Magdalen, were built during the Christian occupation. 
 But churches are far from being the only buildings 
 
THE CITY OF JERVSALE^f. 
 
 12,1 
 
 of the Crusading period which 
 have survived. The Tower of 
 David is the Castle of the 
 Pisans erected early in the twelfth 
 century, Tancred's Tower sur- 
 vives as the Kalat Jalud in the 
 north-west angle of the present 
 city, and the Malcuisinat is a 
 Crusading erection which still 
 forms the meat bazaar. But the 
 zeal of the Crusaders devoted 
 itself above all else to the 
 glorifying of the Church of the 
 Holy Sepulchre. The existing 
 church is mainly their work, and 
 until the great fire in 1808 
 stood practically uninjured. They 
 gathered into one building all 
 the sacred sites of Golgotha and 
 the Resurrection, and adorned 
 the new buildings with rich 
 mosaics and enamels wrought by 
 Greek artists. Within the church, 
 near the Adam Chapel, were the 
 tombs of the Christian kings 
 from Godfrey to Baldwin V., 
 which were much injured by the 
 Charismians in 1244, and finally 
 destroyed by Greek jealousy 
 after the fire. Both the Tem- 
 plum Domini and the Templum 
 Saloinonis, or Aksa Mosque, 
 were also altered and beautified 
 
 r^. 
 
 Wi 
 
 mm 
 
 s^^ 
 
 i^mMs. 
 
122 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION. 
 
 in Crusading times ; but much of the Christian work 
 was defaced or destroyed when these buildings were 
 restored to Mohammedan worship. But in both 
 some mediaeval Christian work still survives, and 
 among other remains in the Haram enclosure are 
 thos€-xi£_the magnificent refectory of the Templars. 
 The organisation of the kifigdom of Jerusalem was 
 feudalism in its purest form, the great feudatories 
 duly receiving and observing their rights and obli- 
 gations. The collection of usages devised for its 
 governance are known as the Assizes of Jerusalem, 
 and give us our most perfect picture of an ideal 
 feudal state. Not that they describe the kingdom as 
 it ever actually existed, for indeed the Assizes only 
 began to take their present shape when the thirteenth 
 century was well advanced, and were the work not of 
 the kings of Jerusalem, but of the jurisconsults of 
 Cyprus. Chief among these lawyers were Philip of 
 Navarre and John of Ibelin, nephew and namesake of 
 the famous head of that house in the time of Frederic 
 II. According to the story preserved by John of 
 Ibelin, Godfrey de Bouillon, by the counsel of the 
 Patriarch of Jerusalem and of the princes and barons, 
 appointed wise men to make inquiry of the Crusaders 
 from the various countries of Europe as to what 
 usages prevailed in their several lands. The result 
 of this inquiry was put in writing, and formed the 
 basis of the " Assizes and usages which Godfrey 
 ordered to be maintained and used in the kingdom 
 of Jerusalem, by the which he and his men, and his 
 people, and all other manner of people going, coming, 
 and dwelling in his kingdom of Jerusalem were to be 
 
THE ASSIZE OF JERUSALEM. I23 
 
 governed and guarded." ^ Thus there were composed 
 two codes, one for the nobles and the other for the 
 bourgeois, which were deposited in a coffer in the 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and from 
 the place of the keeping called " Lettres du Sepulcre." 
 The coffer was not to be opened except for the pur- 
 poses of consulting or modifying the law, and that 
 only in the presence of nine persons who were care- 
 fully specified, and of whom the king and patriarch 
 were two. The laws thus carefully made were after- 
 wards from time to time modified by Godfrey and his 
 successors, and especially by Baldwin I. and Amalric I. 
 On the occasion of the capture of Jerusalem by Sala- 
 din these two precious volumes were destroyed, and 
 thus all written record of the legislation perished. 
 But owing to the circumstance that the knowledge of 
 the written law was not a matter of common property, 
 there had grown up in the courts of the kingdom 
 a body of usages and customs based upon oral tra- 
 dition. These usages and customs were carefully 
 collected by the great jurisconsults of the thirteenth 
 century, and their writings formed the basis of the 
 extant Assizes. 
 
 There are, however, in the Assizes certain salient 
 features which may be safely ascribed to Godfrey or 
 his immediate successors. Such are the prescription 
 of constant military service — not merely for a fixed 
 part of each year — and the rules intended to prevent 
 the concentration of fiefs in a single hand, and to 
 secure that each fief should be able to render its 
 requisite service. These ordinances were very essen- 
 
 ^ Assizes of Jerusalem, i. 22. 
 
124 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION. 
 
 tial for the safeguarding of a conquered country, and 
 though they failed in their purpose, the history of 
 the kingdom illustrates well their necessity ; their 
 failure, inevitable though it may have been, was 
 indeed a main cause of the downfall of the kingdom. 
 More important, however, in the present connection 
 than the actual laws, is the system of government 
 and organisation which was established. At the head 
 of the kingdom stood the king, whose. legal title was 
 " Rex Latinorum in Hierusalem," King of the Latins 
 in Jerusalem. Next to him in dignity came the 
 Seneschal, whose duty was primarily to hold the 
 king's sceptre on the coronation day, and to see to 
 the due ordering of the coronation feast. He also 
 owed services — somewhat like the English custom 
 — at the four great annual feasts. As a great 
 officer of justice the seneschal was supreme over all 
 the bailiffs in the kingdom ; he looked after the 
 king's rents, and visited the royal castles, with power 
 to appoint and remove the castellans ; in the king's 
 absence he presided at muster and foray. Second of 
 the great officers was the Constable, who held the 
 king's horse at the coronation, and, as head of the 
 ro}'al army, ordered the battle in the king's absence, 
 and was responsible for the maintenance of military 
 discipline. The Marshal assisted the constable on 
 the coronation day, and was more or less subordinate 
 to him in ordinary times. It was his duty to engage 
 knights and sergeants for the royal service. The 
 Chamberlain robed the king on coronation day, and 
 had to see to the homage of the king's vassals. 
 Other officers were the Butler, the Forester, and the 
 
OPPtCERS AND COURTS. l2^ 
 
 Chancellor. The last, in this respect differing from 
 the early English custom, often retained his post 
 after he had been rewarded with one of the great 
 bishoprics.^ 
 
 Similar functionaries existed in the great depen- 
 dencies ; Antioch had its own constable, marshal, 
 and a special officer called ''dux" or duke; whilst 
 in a charter of Joscelin II. of Edessa, Robert the 
 Constable, and Hubert the Marshal, appear among 
 the witnesses. Even the smaller baronies within the 
 realm of Jerusalem itself had each its own officials, 
 who, as in the case of Galilee, attested their lord's 
 charters. Every great baron would have his leaden 
 seal, and it is perhaps with a touch of shame that 
 Hugh of Ibelin borrows the seal of his lord Amalric 
 because he " had no seal " of his own. 
 
 For the administration of justice there was at 
 Jerusalem a High Court, over which the king himself 
 presided, or in his absence one of the great officers. 
 This court, intended in the first place to have juris- 
 diction over the great lords, gradually came to con- 
 cern itself with all that related to the political and 
 civil administration of the kingdom, and was, in fact, 
 the king's Council of State. In the country generally 
 the administration of law and justice was in the 
 hands of certain of the lords who had, in technical 
 language, the right to hold a court, coin money, and 
 •afe justice. The lords themselves presided in their 
 seignorial courts, where they dealt with criminal 
 .cases in accordance with the customs and laws 
 observed in the High Coa-rt, to which they were 
 
 * The famous Archbishop William of Tyre is an instance. 
 
126 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION. 
 
 subordinate. In addition to the High Court there 
 was also established in Jerusalem and all other 
 towns where the Prankish settlers were sufficiently 
 numerous, Courts of the Burgesses. These courts 
 were presided over by officers called Viscount*^, and 
 were concerned with the civil jurisdiction. The 
 viscount was the representative of the lord ; his 
 office was often hereditary, and in some cases, as at 
 Nablus, he was a man of noble family. In addition 
 to his judicial functions the viscount had charge of 
 the revenue, and through his assistant, who was 
 called the " Mathessep," was entrusted with the 
 police. Other courts were those of the Fonde for 
 commercial jurisdiction, under a bailiff; of the 
 CItaine for maritime business, instituted by Amalric 
 I. ; and the Syrian Court, or Court of the Reis. No 
 doubt the ccnirts of the Fonde and the Reis were 
 largely governed by local custom, though the Assizes 
 of the Court of th3 Burgesses were held to be of 
 force in them. Wherever the Syrians were not 
 sufficiently numerous to form a community under a 
 ReTs, the Fonde constituted their special court. This 
 elaborate organisation with its criminal, civil, and 
 commercial jurisdiction, formed in its entirety a 
 system that was superior to anything of the kind 
 which then existed in the West. 
 
 The judicial institutions of the subordinate princi- 
 palities closely resembled those of the kingdom 
 proper. The Prince of Antioch had, like the King 
 of Jerusalem, both his High Court and Court of the 
 Burgesses. The Assizes of Antioch were, however, 
 distinct ; they served likewise for the kingdom of 
 
FINANCE. 1^7 
 
 A rmeriia, and no doubt also for the county of Tripoli. 
 Edessa also had, we may assume, a similar body of 
 law, but its existence as a Prankish state was pro- 
 bably too short for the growth of an equally elaborate 
 organisation. 
 
 As for the commercial colonies in the cities on the 
 coast, they had special privileges and their own 
 civil courts presided over by bailiffs, consuls or 
 viscounts. But of these it will be more convenient 
 to speak in a later place.^ 
 
 The pressure of warfare made finance a question 
 of great importance in the Latin colonies of Syria. 
 Baldwin I. was, as we shall see, much crippled by 
 lack of money, and again in the last days of the 
 kingdom its rulers had to seek pecuniary aid from 
 the West. There was, however, a regularly organised 
 financial service, called " La Secrete," managed by a 
 bailiff and a staff of clerks or writers. Chief among 
 the sources of revenue were the customs ; the Assizes 
 of Jerusalem specify 1 1 1 articles on which duty was 
 paid at Acre. Ibn Jubair thus describes a visit to 
 that city in 1 1 84 : " On our arrival we were taken to 
 the custom-house. Opposite the door there sat on 
 a covered bench the clerks of the custom, who are 
 Christians ; they had ink-pots of ebony, gilded and 
 handsomely decorated, and wrote in the Arabic lan- 
 guage, which they spoke well. Their head, who farms 
 the customs, is called simply their chief, and has to 
 pay a very heavy sum to the 'government. The 
 merchants deposited their goods in a store above the 
 custom-house ; private travellers were allowed to pass 
 
 * See below in chapter xix. pp. 294-6. 
 
128 THE LAND AND ITS ORGANISATION. 
 
 after an examination of their baggage. The officials 
 did their work courteously and without violence or 
 exaction." In addition to the customs there were 
 market dues, and tolls on caravans levied by the 
 various lords. Other sources of revenue were the 
 monopolies on various industries, such as dyeing, 
 tanning, brewing ; the tallage paid by the native 
 Syrians ; a poll-tax on the Mohammedans and Jews. 
 On special occasions also the royal treasury had 
 resort to an extraordinary tallage ; such was the 
 great levy for the defence of the kingdom in 1183, of 
 which William of Tyre has left a minute account. 
 One per cent, on movables was to be paid by all 
 who had property worth a hundred besants ; those 
 who had less were to pay one besant for hearth-tax ; 
 the churches, monasteries, barons, and their vassals 
 were to pay 2 per cent, on their rents. The hearth- 
 tax fell upon the country-folk, who dwelt in the 
 casals or villages ; the lord of each casal was to so 
 apportion the tax that the rich should not escape, 
 nor the poor be oppressed. Two treasurers were 
 appointed at Jerusalem and Acre to see that the 
 money was applied only to defence against invasion, 
 and not to the petty business of the realm. The 
 special character of this census was marked by a 
 proviso that it was not to be taken as a precedent, 
 and during its operation the ordinary tallages on 
 churches and towns were to be suspended. We, 
 however, hear of other extraordinary levies, as for 
 the equipment of a fleet, and the building of walls 
 and towers. 
 
 As might be expected from the circumstances of 
 
THE ECCLESIASTICAL HIERARCHY. l^g 
 
 their origin, the Latin colonies boasted an ecclesi- 
 astical organisation not less elaborate than the civil. 
 One of the first acts of the Crusaders was to establish 
 Latin bishops in the conquered cities, following for 
 this purpose the divisions of the ancient Oriental 
 churches. At the head of the Latin hierarchy were 
 the two patriarchs of Jerusalem and Antioch. Under 
 the former were four archbishoprics of which Tyre and 
 CcTesarea were the chief, and nine bishoprics ; under 
 the latter four archbishoprics and seven bishoprics. 
 In each patriarchate there were also numerous abbeys 
 and priories of the Latin rite. In addition to these 
 the hierarchies of the Armenian, Syrian, and Greek 
 rites still subsisted. Despite their external divisions 
 it is noticeable that the Christians were all animated 
 by a very conciliatory spirit, which at one time pro- 
 mised to lead to a general reunion. For the rest it is 
 enough to state that the powers and pretensions of 
 the clergy were not less remarkable than those exer- 
 cised or assumed by their Western brethren, and that 
 from successive donations they acquired vast estates, 
 not only in Syria, but also in every country of 
 Western Europe. 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND- 
 (11OO-III8.) 
 
 -BALDWIN I. 
 
 " Baldwinus qui parum ab optimo, qui unquam fuerit, milite distaret." 
 — William of Malmesbury. 
 
 The succession to the kingdom was not allowed 
 to pass undisputed on Godfrey's death. Dagobert of 
 Pisa, who had supplanted Arnulf in the patriarchate, 
 and whose ecclesiastical pretensions were of the 
 loftiest nature, dreamt that in Bohemond he might 
 find a second Guiscard to defend a second Gregory. 
 But the Crusaders at Jerusalem refused to recognise 
 any lord except one of Godfrey's race. They held 
 the Tower of David against the patriarch, and sum- 
 moned Baldwin of Edessa to come and take posses- 
 sion of his rights. Baldwin accepted the offer, and 
 leaving Edessa to his cousin and namesake, Baldwin 
 du Bourg, started for Antioch on the 26th of Sep- 
 tember ; thence, despite the opposition of Dukak 
 of Damascus, with whom he had to fight a severe 
 battle in the tortuous passes of Lebanon above Bey- 
 rout, he made his way to Jerusalem. The magnifi- 
 cence of his reception in his new capital was only 
 
132 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND, 
 
 marred by the hostility of Dagobert ; there was, how- 
 ever, no further opposition to his recognition as king. 
 
 But king though Baldwin was in name, he had yet 
 to conquer his kingdom. From the first he had to 
 contend with two great obstacles, lack of money and 
 lack of men. The internal history of his reign is 
 to a large extent the story of how he overcame these 
 difficulties. 
 
 On leaving Edessa Baldwin had only been accom- 
 panied by two hundred knights and seven hundred 
 foot, whilst three months later at Jerusalem he could 
 only muster another hundred knights. The Moham- 
 medans themselves do not seem to have ever collected 
 large armies, though they greatly outnumbered the 
 Christians. Thus at JafTa in iioi they were eleven 
 thousand horse and twenty-one thousand foot to two 
 hundred and forty knights and nine hundred foot, 
 and at Ramleh twenty thousand against two hun- 
 dred. " To all," says Fulcher, " it appears to be a 
 palpable and truly wondrous miracle that we could 
 live among so many millions, making them our 
 subjects and tributaries." Had Baldwin been de- 
 pendent solely on the French and German soldiers 
 who stayed with him in Palestine, he could not 
 long have held his own. But aggressive operations 
 on a large scale were almost uniformly carried 
 out with the aid of Crusading fleets from Italy, Eng- 
 land, or Norway. Thus two hundred ships under 
 Harding the Englishman,^ Bernhard of Galatia, and 
 
 * We may fairly find in this Harding, or Hardin, the great Bristol 
 merchant ; the son, may be, of Eadnoth *' Staller," and ancestor of the 
 house of Berkeley. 
 
LACK OF MONEY AND MEN, 133 
 
 Hadewerck the Westphalian, saved Baldwin from 
 the consequences of his rash daring at Jaffa in 1102. 
 An English and North German fleet helped him at the 
 siege of Sidon in 1 107, and the fall of that city three 
 years later was due to the assistance of Sigurd tlie 
 Norwegian. More important still were the services 
 rendered by the Italians. The Genoese helped in the 
 capture of Caesarea (iioi), Tortosa (1102), Acre 
 (i 104), Tripoli (i 109), and other places. The Pisans 
 fought for Bohemond at Laodicea, and for Raymond's 
 successors at Tripoli. The Venetians, who under 
 their doge had met the dying Godfrey at Jaffa, 
 were present at the siege of Sidon, and were the 
 moving force at the conquest of Tyre in the next 
 reign. All these allies reaped large rewards ; Bald- 
 win granted the Genoese streets in Jerusalem and 
 Jaffa, together with their part of Caesarea, Arsuf, and 
 other towns ; the same king promised his Italian 
 confederates one street in the towns they helped to 
 conquer, and a third share of the booty; in 11 24 
 the Venetians bargained for still higher privileges, 
 and were promised a street, oven, and bath in every 
 city whether belonging to king or noble. 
 
 In his early years Baldwin must have relied very 
 largely on the members of his own and Godfrey's 
 household. The need of supplying these and other 
 mercenaries with money forced the king, on many 
 occasions, to injustice and robbery. The easiest way 
 of procuring funds was by taking tribute of the 
 unconquered towns. Thus Godfrey had received 
 tribute from Ascalon, Caesarea, and Arsuf; Baldwin 
 himself raised the siege of Sidon for money in 1107. 
 
134 ^^^ CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 However, despite these and other payments, the 
 king's impecuniosity brought him into serious conflict 
 with the patriarch. Dagobert's pretensions had 
 offended even the pious Godfrey, and his hostility 
 to Baldwin was yet more bitter. It was only after 
 long bickerings that Dagobert had consented to 
 anoint the new king, and when a little later Baldwin 
 demanded that he should furnish forty knights for 
 the war, the patriarch treated his message with 
 contempt. The indignant king broke into the pa- 
 triarch's banqueting-room, and threatened to tear 
 down the golden ornaments of the Sepulchre if his 
 demands were not complied with. Dagobert un- 
 willingly promised thirty knights, but soon after broke 
 his word and fled to Tancred. Evremar, who then 
 succeeded to the patriarchate, worked well with the 
 king for a long time, but eventually lost the royal 
 favour, and was in his turn supplanted by Gibelin. 
 
 Through his want of money Baldwin was frequently 
 driven to have recourse to promiscuous plunder. In 
 1 1 08 he made a night attack on the great Egyptian 
 caravan beyond the Jordan, and carried off thirty-two 
 camels laden with sugar, honey, and oil to Jerusalem. 
 On another occasion William, bastard son of Robert 
 of Normandy, brought a like benefit to the royal 
 treasury. Worse still, after promising protection to 
 the men of Tyre as they were carrying their treasures 
 to Damascus for safety, the king adopted the base 
 maxim that "truth need not be kept with un- 
 believers," and robbed them on the way. In 11 13 
 Baldwin sought to improve his shattered finances 
 in another manner, by marrying Adela, widow of 
 
DANGERS OF THE KINGDOM, I35 
 
 Count Roger of Sicily. Albert of Aix draws a 
 glowing picture of the state in which she reached 
 Acre Her vessels were laden with gold and gems, 
 while her own ship had its mast covered with pure 
 gold. She brought a thousand skilled warriors to aid 
 in the royal wars, and not content with helping her 
 husband, she gave a thousand marks and five hundred 
 besants to Roger of Antioch. But after three years, 
 finding herself unable to live with the king, she 
 returned home. 
 
 Baldwin's reign was one of continued activity ; 
 every year saw him engaged in fresh enterprises, and 
 exploring fresh fields for conquest. His chief dangers 
 lay on the south west and north east of his kingdom. 
 In the former region he had to keep up a perpetual 
 struggle with Ascalon, whence the Egyptian garrison 
 sallied out by land or sea on every opportunity. 
 Even before his coronation Baldwin had been com- 
 pelled to lead an expedition against the town. In 
 I lOi he had renewed the warfare with the cities of the 
 coast. Chiefly through the valour of the Genoese 
 seamen C^esarea was captured with but short delay. 
 Thence a reported invasion called Baldwin south; it 
 was not, however, for four months that the Egyptians 
 took the field near Jaffa with eleven thousand horse 
 and twenty-one thousand foot. To meet this host 
 the king could only muster two hundred and forty 
 knights and nine hundred foot soldiers ; but, says 
 Fulcher, " having God on our side, we did not fear 
 to attack them." Three times the Christians were 
 driven back, but when the king led out his fifth 
 battalion in person, the Egyptians lost heart and fled 
 
 
136 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 before him. Abbot Gerhard, who this day bore the 
 Holy Cross, told Ekkehard that the arrows fell 
 around the king like snow, and everywhere the enemy 
 melted from his face like wax (September 7, iioi). 
 Undismayed at their defeat, the Egyptians renewed 
 the war next year. Baldwin was then at Jaffa, 
 whence the Aquitanian Crusaders, after spending 
 Easter at Jerusalem, were on the point of departing. 
 William of Aquitaine was already gone ; the two 
 Stephens, however, were still there, and those who 
 but now were eager to depart, caught gladly at 
 the chance of striking a last blow against the Saracen. 
 But, though there were many knights in Jaffa, there 
 were but few horses ; and, as Baldwin would not 
 wait to muster his footmen, he had no more than 
 two hundred knights with him when he marched out 
 to Ramleh. Despite the numbers of the enemy the 
 Christians by the fury of their first onset nearly 
 carried the day, but all to no purpose, for within 
 one short hour they were in their turn routed or 
 slain. Baldwin himself, accompanied by four knights, 
 forced his way out of Ramleh, and after wandering 
 over the hills came on the second night to ArsCif 
 Of his companions only one now remained, and the 
 watchmen on the walls refused to believe that it was 
 indeed their king till they had lit a torch, and thus 
 recognised Baldwin as he stood with head uncovered. 
 The two Stephens and many other knights were slain 
 during the battle or after. 
 
 After this battle, Ramleh fell into the hands of 
 the Saracens, and Jaffa was seriously threatened. 
 Baldwin was in great anxiety, for the loss of that 
 
JAFFA AND RAMLEH. 
 
 T-d^y 
 
 town would have involved the downfall of Jerusalem. 
 By land he could not journey, but there was less 
 difficulty by sea. At Arsuf he embarked on May 
 29th, with a certain English pirate, Godric by name, 
 in whom we may fairly recognise our own English 
 saint, Godric of Finchale. With banner displayed, 
 
 THE TOWER OF RAMLEH. 
 
 he boldly sailed into Jaffa, despite the opposition of 
 thirty Egyptian galleys that strove to bar his way. 
 It was a daring exploit that only the urgent necessity 
 could justify. The Saracens almost at once withdrew 
 to a little distance from the walls. Reinforcements 
 gradually arrived from Jerusalem and from Arsilf; 
 
138 THE CONQUESr OF THE LAND. 
 
 and when in the early days of July the great fleet 
 under Harding the Englishman arrived, Baldwin 
 could once more take the field, and retrieve the 
 disaster of Ramleh by a complete victory. Later 
 in the year, when Tancred and Baldwin of Edessa 
 had come to his aid, the king even felt strong enough 
 to make an attack, though with little effect, on 
 Ascalon itself Eight years later, Baldwin nearly 
 secured, by the treachery of the governor, what he 
 could not obtain by force. The governor was, how- 
 ever, slain by the townsmen, and Ascalon remained a 
 constant source of anxiety for many years to come. 
 
 The years that followed the battle of Ramleh were 
 chiefly marked by the capture of Acre and siege of 
 Sidon. Further north the warfare with Damascus 
 was waged by deputy rather than in person. When 
 Tancred was called away to rule Antioch for 
 Bohemond, Baldwin had conferred the lordships of 
 Galilee and Tiberias on Hugh of Falkenberg, a 
 warrior from North-eastern France. This Hugh had 
 fought with Baldwin at Ramleh and before Jaffa in 
 1 102. In his own lordship he imitated Tancred's 
 example by a desultory warfare. After a raid in the 
 summer of 1107, he had drawn off his booty as far 
 as Banias, when the Turks came down upon him. 
 Unarmourod and heedless of his numerical weakness, 
 Hugh turned to meet them ; an arrow pierced his 
 breast, and he breathed his last in the midst of the 
 foe. This disaster called Baldwin north, and gave the 
 men of Ascalon a chance, which they were not slow 
 to take advantage of The lordship of Tiberias was 
 now bestowed on Gervase, another French knight 
 
TIBERIAS AND MONTREAL. 139 
 
 Gervase next year fell into an ambush and was 
 carried captive to Damascus ; Tughtakin, the atabek, 
 demanded as the price of his release Acre, Haifa, and 
 Tiberias. Baldwin, in reply, offered one hundred 
 thousand besants, but he would give up no Christian 
 territory, not even to release his mother's son. Ger- 
 vase was shot to death at Damascus, and then the 
 king restored his lordship to Tancred. During these 
 years Tughtakin, though formidable in the north, 
 had concerned himself little with the warfare in 
 Southern Palestine; however, it was. his intervention 
 which saved Sidon in 1 107, and Tyre three years later. 
 
 Towards the close of his reign, Baldwin was much 
 occupied in Arabia. In 1 1 1 5 he built the famous 
 stronghold of Montreal, or Shobek, beyond the Dead 
 Sea. In the following year he led two hundred 
 knights yet further south, being anxious to gaze on 
 the waters of the Red Sea, which he had not yet seen. 
 They marched as far as Elim, whose inhabitants put 
 out to sea in little boats on their approach. Fulcher, 
 with the curiosity natural to him, eagerly cross- 
 examined the travellers on their return home, and 
 gazed in astonishment at the '' sea-shells " and little 
 stones which they brought back with them : " I 
 questioned them closely, with eager heart, as to the 
 nature of the Red Sea ; for I had hitherto doubted 
 whether its waters were fresh or salt, and whether it 
 was a pool or a lake — with exit and entrance like that 
 of Galilee." 
 
 Baldwin's last years were filled with disasters. 
 The years 11 14 and 11 15 were marked by great 
 earthquakes. In 11 17 a plague of locusts devastated 
 
140 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 the crops and vines. The following June saw a 
 blood-red moon change to black ; and in December 
 there was an aurora borealis, so bright that Fulcher 
 and his friends saw the surrounding country as clear 
 as in the day : " We conjectured it to portend the 
 shedding of much blood in battle, or some other 
 speedily approaching disaster ; but what is uncertain 
 we commit with all humility to the Lord's keeping." 
 A little later, Fulcher knew the true meaning of these 
 portents ; for next year there died Pope Paschal, 
 King Baldwin, Adela his wife, the Patriarch Arnulf, 
 and the Emperor Alexius. 
 
 Early in 1118, Baldwin determined to attack 
 Egypt, hoping through a bold stroke at the heart of 
 this wealthy kingdom to force Ascalon to submission. 
 He plundered the city of El Farema, but could pro- 
 ceed no further. Some fish caught in the Nile 
 disagreed with his digestion, and the consequent 
 illness awoke the trouble from an old wound in his 
 side. Unable to ride on horseback, his followers 
 placed him in a litter ; the horns blew the signal 
 for retreat, and the little army turned slowly back 
 towards Jerusalem. At El Arish Baldwin died ; his 
 body was embalmed and carried home to rest in 
 the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by his brother 
 Godfrey. It was Palm Sunday when the cavalcade, 
 as it drew near the Holy City, met the solemn pro- 
 cession winding down in ancient fashion from the 
 Mount of Olives to the valley of Jehoshaphat. The 
 songs of joy were soon turned to the wail of woe, and 
 Franks, Syrians, and even Saracens, wept for the fate 
 of ':he great king. 
 
CHARACTER OF BALDWIN I. 141 
 
 Baldwin I. was, like Saul, of a very lofty stature ; 
 a man, brown haired and brown bearded, but with a 
 somewhat white complexion. His nose was aquiline, 
 his mouth peculiar, for the teeth in the lower jaw 
 were drawn back. He was neither over-stout nor 
 over-broad. His bearing betokened a man of dignity, 
 and the " chlamys " hanging down from his shoulders 
 stamped him as a person of importance, even to 
 strangers. " He looked," says William of Tyre, 
 " more like a bishop than a layman." His private 
 life was licentious, though he had the prudence to 
 keep this fact from the outer world. But he was a 
 warrior sans peur, if not sans reproche, and was lavish 
 in his generosity. He was indeed the very type of 
 the twelfth-century knight-errant : eager after adven- 
 ture, reckless of his own life, craving for excitement. 
 His rashness more than once threatened not only 
 himself, but his kingdom with ruin. He trusted in 
 himself more than he ought, and lacked the 
 " modesty " requisite for the prudent king and wise 
 general. But from the pictorial point of view, no 
 king in all history stands out in more glowing 
 colours. We can see him striking down the Saracens 
 at Ramleh ; stripping off his armour to find it soaked 
 and clotted with gore ; mounted on his fleet Arab, 
 "the Gazelle," wandering over the hills by midnight, 
 and with the dawn standing beneath the walls of 
 Arsuf ; sailing on to Jaffa in his little vessel, with the 
 royal banner displayed full in view of the hostile 
 fleet. No obstacles could daunt his valour. Once, 
 between Caesarea and Jaffa, he met sixty Saracen 
 horsemen laden with spoil. Amongst their burden 
 
142 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 he espied the head of a Christian knight. This sight 
 scattered all prudence to the winds ; though he had 
 but two horsemen with him, Baldwin attacked the 
 Saracens and drove them back to Ascalon. His 
 favourite sport was hunting, and it was while pursuing 
 this recre'ation, in July, 1103, that he received from 
 some Saracens, who lay in ambush, the wound that 
 troubled him to his death. 
 
 Baldwin had been brought up as a priest, and even 
 held preferment in the diocese of Cambray. But his 
 later life belied the mildness of his youth, and showed 
 litt'e of the priestly spirit. He can hardly have been 
 loved by the people of Edessa, and it is a speaking 
 fact that his biographer and friend, Fulcher, refuses 
 to say a word as to the means by which he became 
 ruler of Edessa. But whatever his blemishes, he was 
 a great warrior, a true knight-errant, with all the 
 accomplishments and all the stains inseparable from 
 his calling. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND — THE FRANKS IN 
 NORTHERN SYRIA. 
 
 " Sciebant milites nostros esse probissimos bellatores, et mirabiles de 
 lanceis percussores." — FuLCHER of Chartres. 
 
 When Bohemond was taken prisoner by Ibn 
 Danishmend Tancred left his lordship in Galilee 
 and went north to rule Antioch for his kinsman 
 in March, iioi. He acted with a vigour sprung 
 from the desire to conquer on his own behalf against 
 the day of Bohcmond's release. Laodicea was cap- 
 tured from the Greeks after a siege of eighteen 
 months, whilst Mamistra, Adana, and Tarsus were 
 also recovered from the Emperor, into whose hands 
 they had once more lapsed. 
 
 Alexius can hardly have regarded these proceedings 
 with equanimity ; and there is therefore less ground 
 for distrusting the almost contemporary story that he 
 endeavoured to get Ibn Danishmend's prisoner into 
 his own hands. Bohemond, hearing of the offer, 
 secured his own freedom by outbidding his would-be 
 
144 ^^^ CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 purchaser. Thenceforward he was the sworn foe of 
 the Christian Emperor, and perhaps the half-ally and 
 tributary of the Turkish lord ; thus there came 
 about a curious combination in which Bohemond and 
 Ibn Danishmend were united against Alexius and 
 Kilij Arslan of Rum. 
 
 It was early in 1103 that Bohemond was released. 
 In the following year he was called to the aid of 
 Baldwin du Bourg. That noble had received the 
 county of Edessa when his cousin and namesake was 
 called to the kingdom of Jerusalem ; Joscelin de 
 Courtenay, another cousin, at the same time obtained 
 the second Baldwin's old territory to the west of the 
 Euphrates. Edessa was as it were an outpost in the 
 enemy's country, and its fields were exposed to yearly 
 ravages. In the hope of preventing this constant loss 
 Baldwin determined to garrison Harran, and accord- 
 ingly invited Bohemond, Tancred, and Joscelin to join 
 in an expedition. 
 
 The feuds of the Turkish emirs left the Franks to 
 pursue their conquests near the Euphrates with com- 
 parative immunity. The contest for the sultanate 
 had continued till January, 1104, when Malek Shah's 
 two sons, Barkiyarok and Mohammed, were reconciled 
 and divided their ruined inheritance. In this time of 
 confusion each emir had enough to do to hold his 
 own, and had little time for concerting plans against 
 the common foe. At Mosul, Corbogha had given 
 place to Jekermish, while further north Sokman ibn 
 Ortok ^ held sway at Hisn Keifa. Further west things 
 were in much the same state of disorder. Ridhwan, 
 
 * Son of Ortok, to whom Tutush had granted Jerusalem (see p. 21). 
 
TURKISH FEUDS. I45 
 
 son of Tutush and nephew of Malek Shah, was prince 
 of Aleppo, whilst Tughtakin ruled Damascus in the 
 name of Ridhwan's nephew, son of his brother Dukak; 
 Hems or Emesa was under an emir named Janch 
 ed-Dauleh. On the coast the Egyptians were 
 recovering much of their lost ground. In the 
 absence of any real central power the Franks had 
 full chance to spread and prosper; and, holding as 
 it were the balance between the rival parties, were 
 not slow to realise the strength of their position. 
 
 However, on this occasion Sokman and Jekermish 
 abandoned their feud to rescue Harran. In a des- 
 perate battle outside that city Baldwin and Joscelin 
 were taken prisoners, whilst Bohemond and his 
 nephew fled to Edessa, where the Christians then 
 chose Tancred for their lord. The battle of Harran 
 had a disastrous effect on the principality of Antioch ; 
 the Greeks once more recovered Adana, Mamistra, 
 and Tarsus, whilst Ridhwan on the south ravaged 
 Artah and captured Kafer Tab. Bohemond declared 
 his intention of seeking help across the sea, and 
 accordingly, towards the end of 1104, left Syria never 
 to return. Going to France, he married Constance, 
 daughter of Philip I., and by his promises of rich fiefs 
 induced many nobles to join him. With a large army 
 he laid siege to Durazzo in October, 1107. A year 
 later he was forced to return to Italy, and died in 
 nil, leaving two sons by his wife Constance. Of 
 these John, the elder, died young ; the second, Bohe- 
 mond, survived to receive his father's principality 
 fifteen years later. 
 
 Tancred had been left to rule Antioch with dis- 
 
146 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND, 
 
 heartened subjects and an exhausted treasury ; by 
 skilful management he contrived to replenish his own 
 coffers from those of the wealthy citizens, and by the 
 example of his self-denial inspired his subjects with 
 fresh confidence. His first exploit was to recover 
 Artah and the neighbouring strongholds from 
 Ridhwan. Thus he became the greatest lord of 
 Northern Syria ; he was master of Antioch, Tell- 
 basher, and Edessa, whilst Aleppo itself could hardly 
 have held out much longer but for the quarrels of the 
 Franks and the coming of Maudud to Mosul. 
 
 Death and dissension worked also for Tancred in 
 
 COIN OF TANCRED. 
 
 the ranks of his Mohammedan rivals. Ibn Danish- 
 mend and Sokman ibn Ortok both died in 1 104-5; 
 whilst, by the decease of Barkiyarok, Mohammed had 
 become sole Sultan. Jekermish at Mosul had lost 
 the vigour of his youth, and Ridhwan took advantage 
 of his weakness to form a league against him ; but 
 the project was frustrated by the craft of Jekermish. 
 In the meantime Mohammed had conferred Mosul 
 on one of his own officers, Javaly Secava, who 
 defeated Jekermish beneath the walls of the city. 
 The citizens, steadfast to the end, appealed for aid to 
 Kilij Arslan of Rum. Kilij Arslan relieved Mosul, 
 
SUCCESSES OF T A ACRED. I47 
 
 but in June or July, 1 107, was, through the treachery 
 of his alh'es, defeated by Javaly near the river 
 Khabur. Javaly then became lord of Mosul, to be 
 supplanted a year later by the Sultan's brother, Mau- 
 dud, with whom was soon afterwards associated his 
 nephew, Masud. 
 
 On Maudud's approach Javaly took refuge with 
 Il-Ghazi, lord of Mardin and brother of Sokman, but 
 finding little support turned towards the Franks. He 
 had the means of purchasing their support ready 
 to hand in Baldwin of Edessa, who had become his 
 captive on the fall of Jekermish. A bargain was 
 struck, and Josceh'n de Courtenay, who had already 
 been set free, came back as hostage for his overlord. 
 Tancred would not surrender Edessa to its old lord, 
 and Javaly, eager to score every point, released 
 Joscelin also. Thereon Tancred called Ridhwan of 
 Aleppo to his aid, and thus, near Tell-basher, a 
 battle was fought, in which Mohammedan strove with 
 Mohammedan, Frank with Frank. In the end Tan- 
 cred was victorious. Javaly, driven from the field, 
 made his way across the desert to Ispahan ; winding- 
 sheet in hand he prayed humbly for his life ; Moham- 
 med forgave him, as he could well afford to do, for 
 Maudud had by now captured Mosul. 
 
 After the battle of Tell-basher Baldwin went back 
 to Edessa, where he was soon threatened by a new 
 and more serious danger. Early in mo Maudud 
 appeared before his walls with an immense host. For 
 a hundred days he pressed the city hard. King 
 Baldwin of Jeru'^alem was appealed to for aid, but 
 would not leave Palestine till he had taken Beyrout, 
 
14^ THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 which was on the point of falling. Directly he was 
 master of the city the king gathered his army and 
 crossed the Euphrates with eleven thousand men. 
 With him came Bertram of Tripoli, the Armenian 
 prince Kogh Vasil, and Tancred, who in such an 
 emergency crushed down his feelings of hatred and 
 jealousy. At their approach Maudud retired to 
 Harran, " knowing that our knights were warriors 
 of prowess and wondrous smiters with the lance." 
 
 A few days sufficed to garrison Edessa, and the 
 royal army turned its steps homewards, followed 
 however, by many Armenians who feared to stay in 
 such an exposed city. At the Euphrates only two 
 vessels were found wherewith to cross the river. 
 Whilst some five thousand unarmed Armenians still 
 remained on the left bank, the Turks suddenly ap- 
 peared ; what followed was a massacre rather than 
 a battle. The river ran red with blood, and all the 
 time the king's troops stood looking on from the 
 opposite bank, grieving, but unable to lend any aid 
 to their perishing comrades. 
 
 Meantime in Tancred's absence Ridhwan had broken 
 the truce. Tancred on his return speedily compelled 
 the emir to purchase peace at the price of twenty 
 thousand dinars, and in a fresh invasion next year 
 reduced Aleppo to a state of terror. The clamour of 
 the unhappy Mohammedans reached the ears of the 
 Caliph at Bagdad. Fugitives from Aleppo burst into 
 the Great Mosque at Bagdad, and tore down the iron- 
 work from the screen of the Caliph himself About the 
 same time, so an Arabic writer says, there came an 
 envoy from Constantinople to Bagdad urging the 
 
MAUDUD OF MOSUL, I49 
 
 Caliph to make war against the Franks. The 
 populace in their fury crowded round the Sultan, 
 reproaching him for his slackness in the service of 
 God " The very infidels," they said, " showed more 
 zeal for the Holy War than did he." 
 
 This disturbance led in 1 1 1 1 .to a great expedition, 
 which besieged Tell-basher under the command of 
 Maudud. But dissension and death paralysed his 
 efforts, whilst Ridhwan, after appealing to him for aid, 
 shut the gates of Aleppo in his face. 
 
 Tancred continued his career of conquest at the 
 expense of Aleppo. Early in 11 12 he captured a 
 fortress near that city itself, but died at the close of 
 the year, on December 12th, whilst warring with the 
 Armenian Kogh Vasil. Antioch should by right 
 have gone to the young Bohemond ; but the times 
 were too troublous for a child of four or five to 
 hold his own, and Roger FitzRichard, Tancred's 
 sister's son, succeeded with little opposition. 
 
 Maudud, after ravaging the neighbourhood of 
 Edessa, gathered a great host, and in June, 11 13, laid 
 siege to Tiberias in Galilee. Baldwin summoned 
 Roger to his aid, and himself started from Acre. 
 The Turks drew the king into an ambush, and, ac- 
 cording to the Arabic account, Baldwin was actually 
 taken prisoner, but his ignorant captor, in greed for 
 spoil, suffered his greatest prize to escape. The royal 
 banner and tent were taken, whilst Baldwin, with 
 the remnants of his host, took refuge on a neigh- 
 bouring hill. There he was presently joined by the 
 reinforcements from Antioch, but for six-and-twenty 
 days he dared not move. Meanwhile the light 
 
150 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 Turkish horsemen were flying over all the land from 
 Jerusalem to Acre. At last, when provisions began 
 to fail, Maudud retired to Damascus (September 
 19th), intending to remain there till the spring. 
 Soon afterwards, as he entered the mosque accom- 
 panied by Tughtakin, an assassin sprang out and 
 dealt him several blows. The wounded prince was 
 carried to the atabek's palace ; recognising that his 
 end was near, he refused all food, declaring that he 
 desired to appear before God fasting. " Maudud," 
 says a contemporary Christian historian, " was a man 
 of great wealth and power. He was most famous 
 among the TurlvS and subtle in his actions. But he 
 could not resist the will of God, who, though He 
 suffered him to scourge us for our sins, decreed that 
 he should die a mean death, and perish by a feeble 
 hand." 
 
 Rumour ascribed the crime to Tughtakin. Nor 
 was the charge against the atabek confined to 
 Mohammedan lands, for Ibn EI-Athir had heard from 
 his father that Baldwin in his indignation wrote to 
 Tughtakin : " A people that is capable of destroying 
 its mainstay, and of slaying him in the house of God, 
 deserves to be cut off from the earth." 
 
 Ridhwan of Aleppo died soon after, on December 
 lOth. The eunuch Lulu administered the govern- 
 ment for ten months in the name of Ridhwan's young 
 son. Alp Arslan. Then he slew his master, and set 
 up his brother, Sultan Shah, a child of six, in his 
 place. Aleppo was during this tim^e in great distress, 
 artd Tughtakin would vouchsafe no aid. " Strange 
 it was," writes the Arabic historian, "that among so 
 
BORSOKI AND BORSAC. 15I 
 
 many princes, none could be found to accept so rich 
 a possession, and defend it against the Franks. But 
 the princes wished to prolong the French occupation, 
 so as to keep themselves in power." At last the 
 Sultan despatched a vast army under El-Borsoki, the 
 new governor of Mosul, with whom was associated 
 Zangi, the future conqueror of Edessa. 
 
 Meantime there had been a general reformation 
 at Antioch. The conscience of its citizens was 
 awakened not less by the terrible earthquakes, which 
 towards the close of 1 1 14 shook the whole Levant, 
 than by the approach of Borsac, lord of Hamadan, 
 whom Mohammed sent in May, 11 15, at the head of 
 a fresh army to support El-Borsoki. At the patriarch's 
 call, with bare feet and streaming eyes, they passed 
 from church to church in long processions. Roger 
 further made alliance with the discontented Moham- 
 medan princes, Tughtakin, who feared to be punished 
 for Maudud's death, and Il-Ghazi of Mardin, who in 
 the previous year had failed in his duty to the new ruler 
 of Mosul. Roger took up his position near Apamea, 
 and sent for aid to King Baldwin and the Count of 
 Tripoli. Borsac supinely let his opportunity slide, 
 and with the arrival of the king and count retired 
 without fighting. 
 
 But when Baldwin had gone home Borsac at once 
 returned. Roger with his personal followers hurried 
 out to Rugia.i Next morning, as the ranks were 
 being arrayed, Theodore de Barneville, one of Roger's 
 
 ' This place was between Marra and the Orontes, but its exact situa- 
 tion is uncertain j probably it is Riha, thirty-seven miles south-east of 
 Antioch. 
 
152 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 scouts, rode up with a joyful countenance : the enemy 
 were even then unfolding their tents in the valley of 
 Sarmit, where the Franks had meant to camp. Roger 
 bade his warriors quit them like men, and the Bishop 
 of Jebleh, holding the cross in his hands, assured them 
 of success. As he spoke the host fell on their knees 
 and burst out with an unanimous cry, " Holy God, 
 holy, mighty, and immortal, have mercy upon us ! " 
 
 The Turks, in accordance with their usual custom, 
 had sent on their baggage ahead. Behind came the 
 troops marching hand in hand, and expecting no ill. 
 Suddenly there appeared the flash of the white 
 banners on the horizon, and before there was time to 
 form their ranks the Christians had burst into the 
 empty and defenceless camp. Each detachment of 
 the Turkish army was cut off as it came up, and 
 Borsac fled from the field to meet a peaceful death 
 at home. 
 
 Roger returned with a vast spoil to Antioch. The 
 streets were hung with silk and gold and flowers, as 
 he passed in triumph to render thanks to God in the 
 Church of St Peter. " Hail, Champion of the Truth ! " 
 was the general cry, " May the enemies of God fear 
 thee, and mayst thou have perpetual peace. Salvation 
 and victory to thee throughout all ages ! Amen ! " 
 
 This victory gave the Franks, the predominance in 
 the northern parts of Syria. " They spread their 
 arms to the east of Aleppo," says an Arabic historian ; 
 " they laid waste the province, and attacked Aleppo 
 itself That city would have been deserted had its 
 inhabitants known where to find safety." 
 
 During the troubles that ensued on this defeat 
 
ROGER'S VICTORY AT RUG I A. 153 
 
 Lulu lost heart, and whilst fleeing from Aleppo was 
 treacherously slain. The allegiance of Aleppo was 
 then offered to Il-Ghazi, of Mardin, who, however, 
 hardly found it worth acceptance. It is strange that 
 in a time of such confusion and distrust the Franks 
 did not make themselves masters of the city. Pro- 
 bably, however, they found more profit in promoting 
 dissensions among their foes, than in burdening them- 
 selves with so vast a conquest. 
 
 In 1 1 19 Il-Ghazi once more took the field, and 
 fortress after fortress fell before him with startling 
 rapidity. Roger of Antioch scorned the sound 
 advice of the patriarch, to wait for King Baldwin, 
 and marched out to an ill-omened spot called the 
 Field of Blood. It was a place deficient both in 
 food and drink. Worse than this, the camp followers 
 carried news of his distress to the enemy. Em- 
 boldened by these tidings the Mohammedans routed 
 a small force of Christians near the fortress of Cerep.^ 
 Thereupon Roger sent forward Mauger of Hauteville 
 with forty knights, and posted others to keep watch 
 at a distant hill-tower. 
 
 Next morning the prince and all his army con- 
 fessed their sins to the archbishop. This solemn 
 work completed, Roger divided his gold among the 
 poor, and then, with something of the true indifference 
 of a Norman baron, went forth for his usual morning 
 ride. His falcons and his hounds accompanied him ; 
 his followers took their hunting spears, and the lads 
 were sent ahead to rouse the game. So Roger, " as 
 became a prince," rode over hill and vale to hawk 
 
 * Some authorities identify this place with Athareb. 
 
154 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 and hunt. But some prescience of disaster prevented 
 him from taking pleasure in the sport. He left his 
 gay companions and turned his steps towards the 
 watchmen on the tower. Even as he rode there 
 galloped up a messenger in headlong haste. " What 
 news ? " asked the prince. " With mine own eyes 
 have I seen the enemy swarming over rough places 
 and plain." *' Christ," said the prince — "Christ hath 
 granted us to suffer for Him." 
 
 Roger hastened back to his tent, but as he donned 
 his armour, and knelt with his host to receive once 
 more the archbishop's blessing, other messengers 
 
 COIN OF ROGER. 
 
 arrived. Many of the knights had fallen at their 
 post ; Mauger was close behind hard pressed by an 
 intolerable host of the enemy. Hardly had the 
 Christians formed their ranks when the standards of 
 the unbelievers began to glimmer between the olive 
 thickets on the hills. Roger bade his little army not 
 to fear the enemy because of their multitude ; before- 
 times they had fought valiantly enough for earthly 
 gain or glory, let them now fight a§ well for God. 
 The Franks were victorious in more than one part of 
 the field ; but they were quite outnumbered, and when 
 the Turcoples were seized with a sudden panic, the 
 terror spread to Roger's own band, who likewise 
 
DEATH OF ROGER. I55 
 
 dispersed in fear. Then, to crown all, a sudden 
 north wind blew down from the hills and, scudding 
 close to the ground, raised a cloud of heated dust to 
 blind the eyes of the Christians. Roger himself with 
 a few followers fought desperately till, pierced through 
 the brain, he fell dead before the Holy Cross — " his 
 body to the earth, and his soul to heaven " (June 27, 
 1 1 19). 
 
 Had Il-Ghazi marched on Antioch in the first flush 
 of victory the city must have fallen. But his delays 
 enabled the patriarch to restore some measure of 
 confidence, and to keep the city safe till the coming 
 of the king. Baldwin shortly marched out through 
 Rugia to Danit, where he pitched his camp. His 
 heedful wariness foiled an intended night surprise. 
 The battle which ensued was long and doubtful ; the 
 Count of Tripoli, who commanded on the right, was 
 driven back on the king's ranks. Evremar, the Arch- 
 bishop of Caesarea, was struck by an arrow, but to 
 the surprise of all only one drop of blood fell from 
 the wound. This they attributed to the efficacy of 
 the Holy Cross, which Evremar carried in his hands. 
 The archbishop turned the sacred relic towards the 
 foe, and cursed them in its name. The Christians 
 thereon took fresh courage and, renewing the fight, 
 were rewarded with victory (August 14, 1 1 19). 
 
 The death of Roger marks a period in the history 
 of the principality of Antioch. Its fortunes in the 
 succeeding years are closely bound up with those of 
 the kingdom of Jerusalem, and will be properly 
 narrated in the following chapter. 
 
 A few words will suffice to describe the course of 
 
156 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 events in Tripoli during these early years. We find 
 there a not dissimilar aspect of Prankish progress in 
 the midst of Mussulman disunion. But the new- 
 comers had a rival in the Egyptian Caliph, whose 
 subordinates contrived during the years of confusion 
 to recover their hold on the Syrian coast. Tyre, 
 Sidon, Tripoli, and Beyrout all passed into their 
 hands, and it was from them that Raymond of St. 
 Giiles and his successors had to win the chief towns 
 of their future county. 
 
 Count Raymond, when he found it impossible to 
 protect Laodicea from the greed of Bohemond, had 
 gone to Constantinople to seek the aid of Alexius, 
 and thus shared in the Aquitanian crusade of iioi, 
 though he escaped the worst of the evils that befell 
 his comrades. Afterwards, however, he fell into the 
 hands of Tancred, from whom he had to purchase his 
 release by an undertaking to make no conquests 
 north of Acre. But on Bohemond's restoration Ray- 
 mond thought himself free to besiege Tripoli. Its 
 emir, Fakr-el-Molk, called in aid from Damascus and 
 Emesa. Raymond .had only three hundred warriors 
 in all, yet he contrived to drive back both of the 
 hostile forces in panic, and to shut up the men of 
 Tripoli more closely than before. But as he could 
 not take the city by storm, he established himself on 
 the neighbouring height of Mount Pilgrim, and was 
 still engaged with the siege at his death on Peb- 
 ruary 28, 1105. Raymond appears to have been the 
 noblest of all the early Crusaders ; he alone was 
 absolutely faithful in his vow to Alexius, and his 
 conduct is in striking contrast to that of his great 
 
TRIPOLI. 157 
 
 colleagues. " Having once begun the fight for 
 Christ," says William of Tyre, "he disdained not to 
 continue his pilgrimage patiently till death. Al- 
 though with his illustrious patrimony and power he 
 might have lived in abundance in his own land, he 
 chose rather to be an abject in the Lord's service 
 than to abide in the tents of sinners." 
 
 On Raymond's death the siege was continued by 
 William Jordan, his nephew. Raymond had, how- 
 ever, left in Mount Pilgrim an infant son, Alfonso. 
 This child was soon sent to France, where a little 
 later his elder brother Bertram resigned to him his 
 father's possessions and started for the East. On his 
 arrival in Palestine Bertram demanded his father's 
 possessions from his cousin William. William 
 denied the claim and appealed to Tancred for aid, 
 while Bertram sailed south to renew the siege of 
 Tripoli on his own account. To secure the aid of the 
 king Bertram offered to do him service. Baldwin 
 feared that the feuds among the Christians would 
 ruin their prospects in the north, and hurrying to 
 Tripoli succeeded in arranging a compromise. 
 W^illiam was to hold Arkah and his present posses- 
 sions ; Bertram was to have the remainder of his 
 father's fiefs — if he could obtain them. Tancred, who 
 had a quarrel of his own with Bertram, was pacified 
 by receiving Haifa, Tiberias, Nazareth, and the Tcm- 
 plum Domini. 
 
 The united forces now laid siege to Tripoli with 
 renewed vigour in March, 1 109. Famine was at work 
 within the walls, and the promised succour from Egypt 
 was delayed till contrary winds prevented its coming 
 
158 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 altogether. The Saracens, in despair, accepted 
 Baldwin's proffer of their lives, but the Genoese 
 supporters of Bertram, eager for plunder, forced their 
 way into the city, slaying all they met. 
 
 Before Tripoli had fallen Bertram was left without a 
 rival, for William Jordan had been mysteriously shot 
 with an arrow while riding at night. Bertram now 
 became the king's man, and thus Tripoli was made a 
 fief of the kingdom of Jerusalem. 
 
 Bertram died about 11 12, and was succeeded by 
 his son Pons, who played a not inconsiderable part 
 till his death in 11 37; the successor of Pons was 
 Raymond I., whose son Raymond II. was the 
 foremost figure among the Syrian nobles in the 
 events which preceded the Third Crusade. 
 
X. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND — BALDWIN II 
 (III8-II31.) 
 
 ** O tempora recordationis dignissima." 
 
 FULCHER OF CHARTRES. 
 
 On the death of Baldwin I. many of the nobles 
 were in favour of offering the crown to Eustace, 
 the late king's brother. But Joscelin de Courtenay, 
 then lord of Tiberias, gave his support to Baldwin du 
 Bourg, declaring that it was better to accept a good 
 king who was to be had for the asking, than to wait 
 the pleasure of a distant ruler, who might prefer the 
 settled order of his European county to the strain 
 and anxiety of a perilous kingdom. These words 
 carried the greater weight because of the speaker's 
 known enmity for Baldwin, and when the patriarch 
 adopted the same view the nobles elected Baldwin to 
 the vacant throne. Some dissentients, however, sent 
 an invitation to Count Eustace, who received them 
 but coldly. " Not by me," was his noble answer, 
 "shall a stumbling block enter into the Lord's 
 kingdom." 
 
 The new king, Baldwin II.. was the son of Hugh, 
 159 
 
t6o 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 Count of Rethel, near Rheims. He liad accompanied 
 Godfrey on the First Crusade, but afterwards joined his 
 namesake in his adventurous conquest of Edessa. He, 
 however, rejoined the main army, to share in the 
 sieges of Antioch and Jerusalem. When his cousin 
 became king he obtained the county of Edessa, and 
 the story of his Hfe in the next eighteen years has 
 already been told. He was a man of lofty stature and 
 comely features. His scanty yellow hair was already 
 tinged with white ; his beard was thin, though long, 
 and his complexion ruddy for his age. A skilful 
 horseman and an experienced military leader, he 
 
 COIN OF BALDWIN II. 
 
 never made his advanced years an excuse for inaction. 
 Unlike his predecessor, he was a wary general, care- 
 ful in organising an expedition, and happy in its 
 results. Above all else he was truly devout in word 
 and deed, a godfearing man, whose hands and knees 
 were hardened with frequent prayer. 
 
 The first years of the new reign were devoted to 
 the defence of Antioch and Edessa. Baldwin's victory 
 at Danit has already been described. In the follow- 
 ing year (June, 1 120), Il-Ghazi returned with a host of 
 Turcomans. These warriors were the moss-troopers 
 of Oriental warfare, to which they came forth, each 
 
BALDWIN IT. AND IL-GHAZt, l6l 
 
 with his skin of water, sack of meal, and strips of 
 dried meat carried on his steed. They fought for the 
 sake of plunder only, and when Il-Ghazi punished 
 such conduct, they gradually deserted him. II-Ghazi, 
 abandoned by his army, had to purchase a truce, 
 which was, however, soon broken through the indiscre- 
 tion of Joscelin de Courtenay, now Count of Edessa. 
 
 Matters were further complicated by the revolt of 
 Soliman, son of Il-Ghazi, and ruler of Aleppo, against 
 his father. Soliman appealed for aid to Baldwin, 
 who demanded, as the price of his assistance, the 
 restoration of Athareb. To this Soliman refused his 
 consent, and it was in vain that the king urged how 
 indefensible Athareb was, ringed round with Chris- 
 tian fortresses like a horse with weak legs, who eats 
 a whole granary without gaining strength. These 
 troubles recalled Il-Ghazi, who found himself obliged 
 to purchase a truce by the cession of Zerdana ^ and 
 Athareb (about August, 1121). However, in June, 
 1 122, despite the truce, he crossed the Euphrates, 
 with his nephew Balak the Victorious, and laid siege 
 to Zerdana. Baldwin refused to believe in such 
 treachery. "I have been faithful," said the chival- 
 rous king, " to the treaty, and have defended II- 
 Ghazi's possessions during his absence, and do not 
 doubt but he will be as loyal on his part" On 
 discovering his mistake, Baldwin called in Joscelin, 
 and advanced to the relief of the beleaguered town. 
 Illness soon forced Il-Ghazi to raise the siege, and 
 on November 3rd he died, while on his way back to 
 Mardin. 
 
 * This place was close to Athareb. 
 
1 62 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 Meanwhile a great disaster had befallen the Chris- 
 tians. Balak having laid siege to Edessa, Joscelin 
 came to its relief. Balak's troops were so scattered 
 that he could barely muster four hundred horsemen 
 to meet the count ; he must have been defeated had 
 it not been for a recent fall of rain, thanks to which 
 the heavy Frank knights and their horses stuck in the 
 miry soil, and were shot down by the Turkish bow- 
 men. Joscelin and his nephew Waleran were taken 
 prisoners, and when they refused to purchase their 
 freedom by the surrender of Edessa were thrown 
 into prison at Khartpert (September 13, 1122). 
 
 Balak's successes called Baldwin to the Euphrates. 
 There, on April 18, 11 23, the Christians fell into an 
 ambuscade whilst engaged on a night march for 
 the relief of Kerker. The Franks were massacred 
 piteously, and Baldwin was in his turn also 
 carried off prisoner to Khartpert. Balak then 
 forced his way into Aleppo, and had proceeded to 
 besiege Kafer Tab,^ when news reached him that 
 Joscelin had escaped from Khartpert. 
 
 Joscelin had endeared himself to his Armenian 
 subjects, who determined to make a desperate effort 
 to secure their lord's freedom. Fifty men disguised 
 as merchants, presented themselves one day in 
 August before the gates of Khartpert. One by one 
 with their wares they smuggled their way within the 
 town to the walls of the citadel. There they found 
 the warder of the gates carelessly playing at chess, 
 and kept from all suspicion by his antagonist who 
 
 * Or Capharda, east of the Orontes, near Marra ; its exact situation 
 is uncertain, but Abulfeda says half-way from Marra to Csesarea. 
 
CAPTIVITY AT KHARTPERT, 163 
 
 was a friend of the conspirators. Throwing off their 
 disguise the Armenians drew their knives and slew 
 the warder ; then seizing 'whatever lances lay at 
 hand they quickly overpowered the Turkish guards. 
 So soon as the king and his comrades were released, 
 they hoisted a Christian flag on the highest battle- 
 ment But not daring to risk the journey home, they 
 resolved to hold out in Khartpert till aid should come 
 from Antioch or Jerusalem. Joscelin volunteered to 
 carry the news ; with three of his servants, he passed 
 by night through the surrounding enemy, and sent 
 back his ring to Baldwin as a token of his success. 
 After twenty-four hours* wandering they found them- 
 selves at the Euphrates ; the count could not swim, 
 so his servants extemporised a raft of bladders, and 
 thus they gained the other side. Hungry and thirsty, 
 Joscelin lay down beneath a tree to rest, covering 
 himself under the bushes. His servants meanwhile 
 went to look for food, and shortly came back with 
 an Armenian peasant, of whose simple fare of figs 
 and raisins the count ate gladly. The peasant knew 
 his lord at once and greeted him by name ; Joscelin's 
 alarmed denial could not deceive the faithful peasant, 
 and at last, assured of the man's loyalty, the count 
 promised him a piece of gold if he would guide them 
 to a place of safety. " I seek no reward," was the 
 generous answer : " before times you gave me bread 
 to eat, and I am glad to repay you." Then taking 
 Joscelin to his cottage the peasant explained his plan 
 for the count's escape ; but first of all wished to kill his 
 pig for breakfast. " Nay," said Joscelin, " thou art not 
 wont to eat a pig at a meal, and that would make thy 
 
164 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND, 
 
 neighbours suspicious." Then the count was disguised 
 in the dress of the peasant's wife, and set upon the 
 man's ass with his baby in his arms. Thus the 
 strange company set out for Tell-basher ; but 
 presently the child began to cry, and so embarrassed 
 the count that he would have left his comrades had 
 he not feared to wound his protector's feelings. At 
 last the}^ reached Tell-basher in safety, and after 
 rewarding the faithful peasant Joscelin set out for 
 Jerusalem and Antioch. 
 
 Meanwhile Balak had turned back to Khartpert, 
 and by undermining the rock on which the citadel 
 was built, forced his way inside. The poorer Franks 
 and the Armenians were massacred without pity, 
 whilst Baldwin and Waleran were carried off to 
 Harran. Joscelin was on his way north once more 
 when he heard the news ; unable to help his kinsmen 
 he turned his arms against Aleppo. The count's 
 successes in this quarter brought Balak back to the 
 Orontes. Balak reached Aleppo in May, 11 24, and 
 soon after marched out against the town of Manbij 
 or Hierapolis. Joscelin, though he could muster but 
 a small army, went out to meet him. The battle at 
 first went favourably for the Christians, but Joscelin 
 was at length compelled to retreat. Balak was, 
 however, soon afterwards mortally wounded whilst 
 prosecuting the siege of Manbij. Aleppo then passed 
 to Hussan-ed-din, son of Il-Ghazi, from whom 
 Baldwin purchased his release at the price of 
 Athareb, Zerdana, Kafer Tab, some other towns, 
 and twenty-four thousand dinars (August 30, 11 24). 
 
 Baldwin, however, kept no faith with the infidels, 
 
BALDWIN II. AND ANT IOC H. 1 65 
 
 and attacked Aleppo. The inhabitants appealed for 
 help to El-Borsoki, Emir of Mosul, who in February 
 1 125, drove back the Christians nd so became Lord 
 of Aleppo ; but in June Baldwi in his turn defeated 
 El-Borsoki. The king, however, caiised that 1- was 
 impossible for one ruler to govern both Antioch and 
 Jerusalem ; and accordingly he sent for the youthful 
 Bohemond, who came from Italy to Antioch in the 
 autumn of 11 26. There the nobles swore fealty to 
 him in Baldwin's presence, and the king gave him his 
 second daughter Alice to wife. Bohemond's rule was 
 short and troubled ; he soon found himself at war with 
 Joscelin, and Baldwin had to be called in to appease 
 the quarrel. Some years later Bohemond was sur- 
 prised and slain at the Meadow of Mantles in Cilicia. 
 He was a youth of great promise, and bade fair to 
 be a valiant warrior. At his death the principality 
 passed to his infant daughter Constance. 
 
 Over and above all this warfare in the north, the 
 reign of Baldwin II. was distinguished by many other 
 expeditions. The Egyptians harassed him more than 
 once from Ascalon, and Tughtakin of Damascus was 
 ever ready to further their efforts by inroads from 
 the east. Baldwin retaliated by more than one expe- 
 dition across the Jordan, as in January, 1 126, when 
 he defeated the atabek with great loss near Marj-as- 
 Suffar. But the great event of the reign was the 
 conquest of Tyre during the king's captivity. That 
 city was ruled by an emir in the name of El-A^dal, 
 the Egyptian vizir. Being hard pressed by the 
 Franks, and unaided by their own Caliph, the men 
 of Tyre appealed to Tughtakin, and offered to take 
 
l66 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. 
 
 him for lord if they might dwell under his protection 
 Tughtakin sent them aid under an emir Masud, but 
 refused to supplant the Egyptian Caliph. He informed 
 El-Afdal that he was ready to withdraw his garrison 
 directly Tyre was strong enough to do without it 
 But when a little later El-Afdal was murdered, the 
 Egyptian admiral seized Masud by treachery and 
 carried him off to Egypt. This conduct alienated 
 Tughtakin, and the Franks seized the opportunity for 
 attacking the city. 
 
 When Baldwin was taken prisoner by Balak, the 
 Franks had elected, as guardian for the orphan realm, 
 Eustace Grener, lord of Caesarea and Sidon. It 
 happened that in 1123 there came to Jaffa a strong 
 Venetian fleet under the doge Domenicho Michaeli. 
 The doge went up to spend Christmas at Jerusalem, 
 and there agreed with the lords of the land to lend 
 his aid for an attack on one of the cities of the coast. 
 Opinion was divided between Ascalon and Tyre, and 
 it was decided to commit the question to the lot. 
 The names of the two towns were written on two 
 strips of parchment, and these were placed on the 
 altar. Then an " innocent orphan boy " was bidden 
 to take up one of them at random ; the lot fell upon 
 Tyre, which city was at once besieged by the com- 
 bined forces of the Franks and Venetians, under 
 Eustace and the doge. It was to no purpose that 
 Tughtakin came up from Damascus, that a fresh fleet 
 was sent from Egypt, or that the men of Ascalon 
 strove to call off the besieging host by a foray to the 
 very walls of Jerusalem. The last were driven back 
 from the Tower of David ; the Venetians defeated 
 
THE TAKING OF TYRE. 1 67 
 
 the Egyptian fleet ; while William de Bures and 
 Pons of Tripoli found the atabek unwilling to abide 
 their onset. All the available forces of the realm 
 seem to have been mustered for the siege, and when 
 it began to flag through lack of military engines, a 
 skilful Armenian engineer was called up from Antioch. 
 At last, broken down by hunger and long privation, 
 the city surrendered ; men told in later days that 
 only five measures of wheat were found within the 
 walls. The fall of this city (July 7, 1124) was a great 
 blow to Islam ; " let us hope that God will one day 
 restore it," writes the Arabic historian a century later. 
 
 Baldwin II. was an old man, and had no son to 
 succeed him on the throne. Unwilling to marry his 
 eldest daughter Melisend to one of his own nobles, 
 he sought her a bridegroom in Europe. His final 
 choice was Fulk V., Count of Anjou, who reached 
 Acre in the spring of 1129. The marriage was cele- 
 brated before Whitsuntide, and the king's son in-law 
 received Tyre and Acre as his wife's dowry. Two 
 years later Baldwin fell into a fatal sickness ; anxious 
 for his soul's health, he quitted the luxury of the 
 royal palace for the patriarch's house hard by the 
 sepulchre of the Lord. There he put on the garb 
 of a monk, and so died August 13, 1131. He was 
 buried with his predecessors before Golgotha, under 
 Mount Calvary. 
 
 With Baldwin II. disappeared the last of the great 
 heroes of the First Crusade who had remained in 
 Palestine. His death, too, marks the conclusion of 
 the first stage in the history of the Syrian Franks. 
 Despite the disaster of his eighteen months' captivity 
 
1 68 THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND, 
 
 Baldwin's reign had been one of prosperity for his 
 kingdom. The ruler of Jerusalem had acquired ex- 
 tended influence in the principality of Antioch, while 
 the great conquest of Tyre had consolidated his own 
 dominion in the south. The period of conquest was 
 now at an end, and after a short period of equili- 
 brium the Christian kingdom entered on a chequered 
 career of loss and gain, which eventually culminated 
 in the conquest of the Holy City by Saladin. 
 
XL 
 
 THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 ** Triplex funiculus non facile rumpitur." 
 
 James de Vitry. 
 
 To the men of the twelfth century there must have 
 been a marvellous attraction in the tales which every 
 returning palmer or crusader brought back from 
 Syria. Adventure was as the very life-breath of 
 the mediaeval warrior, and in the East if anywhere 
 he could find it to the full, with the added prospect 
 of a sure reward, both spiritual and temporal. Did 
 he perish in the combat, heaven, as St. Bernard told 
 him, would throw open her halls to receive him ; was 
 he victor, then the spoils of the vanquished were his. 
 The humblest man-at-arms might acquire wealth 
 through the sack of a Saracen stronghold, or the rout 
 of a Saracen host ; the wandering knight might enter 
 the bodyguard of Godfrey or Baldwin, and be recom- 
 pensed with money or a fief; the greater lord could 
 always hope for conquests on his own account. To 
 the prospect of gain were added two other incentives ; 
 the always unsatisfied longing for travel, which then, 
 
 as now, prompted the noblest spirits of the age to 
 
 269, 
 
170 THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 seek ideals far away from home, and the feeling of 
 devotion which urged mediaeval Christians on to 
 pilgrimages, whether near or distant. These im- 
 pulses together sufficed to keep up a constant stream 
 of visitors to Palestine during many years. Some 
 came, saw, and departed; others however, stayed, 
 and, whether for good or ill, made their home in the 
 East. 
 
 Thus in the course of thirty years there had been 
 built up a- new kingdom, and, as it were, a new 
 nation. So Fulcher of Chartres could write : " God 
 transforms things according to His will. He has 
 poured the West into the East ; we who were 
 westerns are now easterns. We have all forgotten 
 our native soil, it has grown strange unto us." But 
 the most promising feature in this new creation was 
 the rise of military organisations, which might com- 
 bine and turn to good purpose all those whom restless- 
 ness of spirit or devotion of soul drew towards the East. 
 
 The credit of the conception of an order of knights 
 sworn to the service of the Cross belongs to Hugh 
 de Payen, the founder of the Templars. But the 
 priority of rank must be yielded to the Hospitallers, 
 who trace their origin to a more ancient institution, 
 established for a different purpose. According to the 
 story preserved by William of Tyre, and in part con- 
 firmed from other sources, the merchants of Amalfi 
 having won the favour of the Egyptian Caliph, ob- 
 tained permission, as it is said, about the year 1023, to 
 found a hospital at Jerusalem for poor and sick Latin 
 pilgrims. The original dedication was to St. John 
 the Almoner, a humble patron who had afterwards to 
 
GERARD THE HOSPITALLER. 171 
 
 give way to St. John the Baptist. At the time of the 
 First Crusade the master of the hospital was one 
 Gerard, " during many years the devoted sen^ant of 
 the poor." Gerard, who is often regarded as the 
 founder of the hospital, obtained frorri Pope Paschal 
 IL, in 1 1 13, a Bull, which, besides granting him the 
 special protection of the papal see, confirmed to the 
 hospital all the possessions which it then held as well 
 in Syria as in Western Europe. Gerard died in 11 18, 
 and was succeeded by Raymond du Puy, a noble 
 from Dauphine, who held his office over forty years, 
 and taking an example from the recently established 
 order of the Temple, gave his own order a military 
 organisation. 
 
 The Templars, although they were from the first 
 an order of knights, owed their institution, as did the 
 Hospitallers, to a charitable purpose. In the early 
 days of the kingdom a Burgundian knight, Hugh de 
 Payen by name, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 
 Moved to pity by the sufferings of the Christians 
 through the perpetual attacks of the Saracens, he 
 joined with eight other knights in devoting them- 
 selves to the service of protecting the poor pilgrims 
 on the road to Jerusalem. They took the triple vows 
 of chastity, obedience, and poverty, after the manner 
 of regular canons, and obtained from Baldwin II., in 
 the same year that Gerard the Hospitaller died, the 
 gift of a residence near the Temple of Solomon at 
 Jerusalem ; originally designated the poor fellow 
 soldiers of Christ, they from this circumstance came 
 to be known as the Knights of the Temple. After 
 nine years at the Council of Troyes, in January, 1 12S, 
 
lyZ THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 Hugh obtained from Pope Honorius II., through the 
 influence of Bernard of Clairvaux, a formal Rule, 
 which the famous abbot himself drew up, or at least 
 inspired. I 
 
 From a religious point of view the Rule of the 
 Templars not unnaturally followed that of the Cis- 
 tercians, but here it is not necessary to concern 
 ourselves, except with the military organisation 
 of the order. At its head stood the Master, who, 
 though he had great power, was far from absolute, 
 and was obliged even in the field to act by the advice 
 of his council. Second came the Seneschal, and third 
 the Marshal, whose special charge was all that con- 
 cerned the equipment of the order with arms and 
 steeds. After these came the commanders or pre- 
 ceptors of the provinces, premier of whom was the 
 " Commander of the land and kingdom of Jerusalem," 
 who was also Grand Treasurer, and had charge of the 
 port of Acre, where the knights had their chief mari- 
 time establishment. The commander of the city of 
 Jerusalem was Hospitaller of the order, and had to 
 provide for the safe conduct and care of pilgrims. 
 The other provinces were Tripoli and Antioch in the 
 East, and France, England, Poitou, Aragon, Portugal, 
 Apulia, and Hungary in Europe. Last of the great 
 officers was the Drapier, charged with all that con- 
 cerned the dress of the members. Subordinate 
 officials were the commanders of the houses or com- 
 
 ' The extant *' Regie du Temple " is of later date. It has been 
 edited more than once, most recently for the Societe de I'Histoire de 
 France by M. de Curzon. The shorter Lai/n Rule may more closely 
 represent S. Bernard's original statutes. 
 
THE RULE OF THE TEMPLE. 1 73 
 
 manderies, and the commanders of the knights. The 
 greater officers had all a more or less extensive house- 
 hold, and were allowed four horses each ; the ordihary 
 knights had, as a rule, three horses and one squire. 
 Other knights there were ad terminum^ who had 
 not taken the regular vows, but associated themselves 
 with the order for a time, as Fulk of Anjou is said to 
 have done in the early days before he was king or 
 the order fully constituted. After the knights came 
 the sergeants, or serving-brothers, amongst whom 
 were included some inferior officials, as the under- 
 seneschal and the gonfanonier, whose duty it was to 
 bear the banner Beauseant. Besides the knights and 
 sergeants there was a numerous body of light-armed 
 horsemen called Turcoples, under an officer called the 
 Turcopolier. These formed the fighting force ; but 
 there were also chaplains of the order— priests attached 
 to it for religious duties. The " Rule " contains care- 
 ful regulations as to the admission of new members, 
 which could only be done in a chapter ; the aspirant 
 must not be baseborn, a member of any other re- 
 ligious order, or hampered by any worldly ties. In 
 the case of knights he must be of knightly birth, for 
 a sergeant it was enough that he was free-born. The 
 original knights had no regular dress, but wore such 
 motley garb as charity afforded them. Honorius 
 assigned them a white habit, while later on, in the 
 time of Eugenius III., they were granted, as a mark 
 of distinction, a red cross, to be worn on the mantle. 
 The mantles of the knights alone were white, those of 
 the sergeants and squires black or brown, but all alike 
 wore the great red cross. 
 
174 ^^^ MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 St. Bernard, shortly after the foundation of the 
 order, draws a somewhat fanciful picture of the 
 knights of Christ. " They live together without 
 separate property, in one house, under one rule, 
 careful to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond 
 of peace. Never is an idle word, or useless deed, or 
 immoderate laughter, or a murmur, if it be but whis- 
 pered, allowed to go unpunished. Draughts and dice 
 they detest. Hunting they hold in abomination ; and 
 take no pleasure in the frivolous pastime of hawking. 
 Soothsayers, jesters, and story-tellers, ribald songs 
 and stage plays they eschew as insane follies. They 
 cut close their hair, knowing, as the apostle says, that 
 * it is a shame for a man to have long hair.' They 
 never dress gaily, and wash but seldom. Shaggy by 
 reason of their uncombed hair, they are also begrimed 
 with dust, and swarthy from the weight of their 
 armour and the heat of the sun. They strive 
 earnestly to possess strong and swift horses, but not 
 garnished with ornaments or decked with trappings, 
 thinking of battle and victory, not of pomp and show. 
 Such hath God chosen for His own, who vigilantly 
 and faithfully guard the Holy Sepulchre, all armed 
 with the sword, and most learned in the art of war." 
 
 A century later James de Vitry, writing in the 
 light of personal knowledge, says : " When the 
 Templars are summoned to arms, they inquire not 
 of the numbers, but of the position of the foe. They 
 are lions in war, lambs in the house ; to the enemies 
 of Christ fierce and implacable, but to Christians 
 kind and gracious. They bear before them to battle 
 a banner half white, half black ; this they call Beau- 
 
THE HOSPITALLERS. 175 
 
 scant, because they are fair and favourable to the 
 friends of Christ, to his foes drear and black." 
 
 The organisation of the Hospitallers, or the Knights 
 of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, was in its 
 general features similar to that of the Templars, and 
 comprised knights, chaplains, and serving brothers, 
 together with a body of Turcoples. The officers 
 other than the grand master were styled conventual, 
 capitular, or honorary bailiffs. The conventual bailiffs 
 
 SEAL OF HOSPITALLERS. 
 
 were the heads of the langues^ or provinces, of which 
 in 133 1 there were seven, Provence, Auvergne, France, 
 Italy, Germany, Aragon, and England.^ The capitu- 
 lar bailiffs or grand priors were the heads of the 
 langue in Europe ; in the English langue there were 
 
 ^ These conventual bailiffs remained usually at the headquarters of 
 the order. They were respectively grand commander (or treasurer), 
 grand marshal, grand hospitaller, grand admiral, grand conservator (in 
 charge of the commissariat), grand bailiff (chief engineer), grand chan- , 
 cellor, Turcopolier. 
 
176 
 
 THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 two grand priors, one for England and one for Ireland 
 The heads of the houses were called comrir.ndcrs or 
 preceptors. In their religious life the Hospitallers 
 followed the rule of St. Augustine ; their mantles 
 were black with an eii^Hit-pointed cross of white. 
 
 Hugh de Payen and his original eight companions 
 had remained alone for nine years in their primitive 
 poverty, so that, according to a thirteenth-century 
 tradition, two knights rode upon one horse. But 
 after their regular constitution on a military basis 
 both orders grew rapidly in importance, wealth, and 
 
 SEAL OF TEMPLARS. 
 
 numbers. Mention is made of both in different 
 campaigns during the reign of Fulk.^ Both played 
 a prominent part in the futile siege of Damascus 
 during the Second Crusade, and in the succeeding 
 years the two orders were the mainstay of the 
 kingdom. To their care were entrusted some of the 
 most important of the frontier fortresses ; thus the 
 Hospitallers received Gibelin or Beersheba in 11 36, 
 and the Templars Gaza in 1 149. Templars and 
 
 * The first authentic reference to the Hospitallers as a fighting body 
 is in a Bull of Innocent II., dated 1130. 
 
THE KNIGHTS IN THE EAST. 177 
 
 Hospitallers fought side by side under their masters 
 Bernard de Tremelay and the aged Raymond du 
 Puy at Ascalon in 11 53; the Hospitallers were 
 Amalric's chief support in his Egyptian campaign 
 in 1 168, and a few years earlier, in 1163, we find 
 the Templars of Tripoli, under their English pre- 
 ceptor, Gilbert de Lacy, playing a leading part in 
 the contest with Nur-ed-din. In the troublous days 
 that preceded the Third Crusade the masters of the 
 two orders appear as the leaders of the party that 
 favoured active warfare with Saladin. During that 
 Crusade the Templars were foremost among the 
 supporters of Richard, who, according to a thir- 
 teenth-century legend, left the Holy Land in 
 the disguise of a knight and on board a vessel 
 belonging to their order. The loss of Jerusalem 
 deprived both Hospitallers and Templars of their 
 original headquarters. After a short interval both 
 were established at Acre, where they remained till 
 the fall of that city a century later marked the end 
 of Prankish rule in Palestine. During this, the last 
 century of Crusading history, the defence of such 
 possessions as yet remained to the Franks in Syria 
 devolved more and more on the military orders. 
 Many nobles, finding themselves unable to defend 
 their fiefs any longer against the foe, sold their estates 
 to the Templars or Hospitallers, and departed v/est- 
 ward. 
 
 Great as was the power of the knights, their 
 numbers and wealth were not incommensurate. 
 William of Tyre says that in his day the original 
 nine of the Templars had increased to three hundred, 
 
17^ THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 which would seem to be a moderate estimate. At 
 the battle of Hattin, in 1187, this order lost two hun- 
 dred and thirty knights, though only a few weeks 
 previously the marshal and eighty knights had 
 been slain in the fight with El-Afdal. More than 
 three hundred Templars fell before Acre in 1191, 
 and a like number in the battle with the Charismians 
 some fifty years afterwards. As for the Hospitallers, 
 in 1 168 they furnished Amalric with five hundred 
 knights and as many Turcoples for his Egyptian 
 campaign. The Templars held eighteen fortresses 
 in Syria, chief of which were Safed, Tortosa, and 
 Athlit, or Castle Pilgrim. The last was a mag- 
 nificent structure on the coast near Acre, which was 
 commenced in 12 18. It comprised a palace for the 
 master and knights, quarters for their subordinates, 
 and a splendid church — the whole adorned with such 
 a wealth of luxury as filled James de Vitry with 
 amazement ; even in ruins it forms a majestic 
 memorial of its builders. Of the property of the 
 Temple in Syria we have, owing to the destruction 
 of their records, no exact knowledge, but they had 
 fourteen commanderies besides others in Armenia 
 and Cyprus. The Hospitallers owned 135 casals or 
 villages, beside other property. They had twelve 
 commanderies in Syria, and their fortresses com- 
 prised the important castles of Markab, Kerak des 
 Chevaliers, Chastel Rouge, Gibelin, and Belvoir. 
 
 Wealth brought in its train the usual abuses. 
 Even in the days of their first master the Hos- 
 pitallers were engaged in a serious quarrel with the 
 Latin ecclesiastics of the East, due to the grasping 
 
WEALTH AND ITS ABUSES, 
 
 179 
 
 pretensions of the knights. The Templars, on their 
 part, earned an early reputation for avarice and 
 arrogance. One story lays the failure of the siege 
 
 it>^\:*v^vfN^ 
 
 RUINS OF THE CASTLE AT TORTOSA. 
 
 of Damascus at their door, asserting that they took 
 money to raise the siege : an act of cupidity which 
 was miraculously punished by the conversion of the 
 
l8o THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 gold into copper in their chests. Their rash assault 
 at Ascalon five years later was put down to a wish 
 to secure the best of the spoil for themselves.^ So 
 notorious was their arrogance that, when Fulk of 
 Neuilly bade Richard provide for his three daughters, 
 it was an easy jest for the king to bestow " Pride " on 
 the Templars.2 
 
 Great as was the wealth of the two orders in the 
 East, it was not their main resource. Both had from 
 an early date received large benefactions in Western 
 Europe. Hugh de Payen had visited Henry I. in 
 Normandy in 1128, when "the king received him 
 with much worship, and gave him treasure of gold and 
 silver, and afterwards he sent him to England, where 
 he was well treated by all good men, and all gave 
 him treasures." Alfonso I. of Aragon, Raymond 
 Berengar I. of Provence, and Louis VI. of France 
 were not less forward. In England the Templars 
 settled early in the reign of Stephen at the old Temple 
 outside Holborn bars, whence, in 1185, they removed 
 to the new and more famous Temple on the Thames. 
 The church, which was in this year consecrated by 
 the Patriarch Heraclius, and was completed by 1240, 
 still survives as the finest monument of the order in 
 England. The great William Marshal chose it for his 
 burial-place, and his e^gy, with those of two of his 
 sons, still lies in the Round Church. Stephen gave the 
 knights Temple Cressing, in Essex, about 11 50, and 
 his queen Matilda Temple Cowley, near Oxford. 
 Many other benefactions followed during the twelfth 
 
 * For another example of combined treachery and cupidity, see p. 232. 
 " See below, p. 370. 
 
THE KNIGHTS IN THE WEST. l8l 
 
 century, and all our English kings were among their 
 patrons. Henry II. gave them Waterford and Wex- 
 ford, and John Lundy Island ; whilst Henry III. 
 regarded them with such favour that he and his 
 queen at one time chose the Temple Church as their 
 place of burial. Matthew Paris asserts that the 
 Templars possessed no less than seven thousand 
 manors in Christendom. 
 
 The Hospitallers, though not nearly so wealthy, 
 had also great possessions. Even in 1 113 it is clear 
 that they had considerable property in Western 
 Europe. Indeed, their chief English house at 
 Clerkenwell is said to have been founded by Jordan 
 Briset, who died in. mo. After they became a 
 military order they acquired, in the reign of Stephen, 
 lands at Little Maplestead in Essex, Shandon in 
 Hertfordshire, and Shengay in Cambridgeshire, as 
 also at many other places both then and later. 
 
 Wherever their estates were of sufficient importance 
 both orders established houses, or commanderies, 
 which served the double purpose of homes for the 
 aged knights and recruiting stations for young aspi- 
 rants. Great privileges were bestowed on both orders, 
 and many individual knights rose to positions of 
 importance. One Templar was almoner to Philip IV- 
 of France, and another to Henry III. of England. 
 In Aragon the Templars occupied a position of 
 unique importance, and more than one of its kings 
 was entrusted to their care for training. One result 
 of the peculiar position of the orders in East and 
 West, combined with their great wealth, was to give 
 them exceptional opportunities for the commercial 
 
 \ 
 
l82 THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 transactions of exchange — a means of increasing 
 their wealth and power of which they were not slow 
 to avail themselves in times of peace. 
 
 In addition to the two great orders there grew up 
 about the time of the Third Crusade another order, 
 which, from the nationality of its founders, was known 
 as the Teutonic. In 1128 some German merchants 
 had founded at Jerusalem a hospital, which subsisted 
 till the fall of the city sixty years later. During the 
 siege of Acre in 11 90 the charitable work of this 
 hospital (the tending of the sick and wounded) was 
 revived and the active sympathy of many Germans, 
 who had accompanied Frederick Barbarossa, enlisted 
 in its favour. About eight years later the order re- 
 ceived a military constitution as a body of knights, to 
 whom were afterwards added, in imitation of its more 
 ancient models, chaplains and serving brothers. In 
 their military organisation the Teutonic knights fol- 
 lowed the rule of the Temple, but in their religious life 
 they adopted, like the Hospitallers, the rule of St. 
 Augustine. Their mantle was white with a black 
 cross. Under Herman von Salza, who was Grand 
 Master from 12 10 to 1239, the order rose rapidly in 
 wealth and power, and first commenced that work in 
 East Prussia which afterwards made it great and 
 famous. The original seat of the order was at Acre, 
 whence in 1291 they removed to Venice, till a few 
 years later they became entirely Germaji and devoted 
 themselves to the work of maintaining the eastern 
 frontier against the Lithuanians. There they rose 
 to be a famous and important power, which attracted 
 to its ranks many seekers after adventure, amongst 
 
THE LESSER ORDERS, 1 83 
 
 whom was reckoned for a time Henry, thd first of our 
 Lancastrian kings. The order maintained its inde- 
 pendence till Albert of Brandenburg, its last Grand 
 Master, in 1525 converted its lands into a duchy for 
 himself, and so took an important step towards the 
 creation of the modern Prussia. 
 
 Another little known and obscure order deserves 
 a passing mention in this place. The Germans were 
 not alone in their charitable work at Acre, and an 
 English priest, William, chaplain to Ralph de Diceto, 
 devoted himself to the work of burying the Christian 
 dead. Afterwards he built himself a chapel and 
 bought ground for a cemetery, which he dedicated to 
 St. Thomas the Martyr. Through the patronage of the 
 sister of Becket a hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr 
 of Canterbury at Acre was built in London on the 
 site of the archbishop's house; and in 1231, when 
 Peter des Roches was in Palestine, he established 
 these knights under the rule of the Templars. These 
 knights of St. Thomas of Acre wore their own mantle 
 with a cross of red and white, and have the distinc- 
 tion of being one of the few peculiarly English orders. 
 They survived in the kingdom of Cyprus till near the 
 close of the fourteenth century.^ 
 
 On the later fortunes of the two greater orders it is 
 impossible to more than briefly touch. That of the 
 Templars was no less disastrous and shameful than 
 that of the Hospitallers was glorious and honourable. 
 After the fall of Acre the Templars transferred their 
 head -quarters to Cyprus, whence they made some futile 
 attempts to gain a footing at Alexandria and Tortosa. 
 
 * Stubbs, "Lectures on Mediaeval History," pp. 182-5. 
 
184 THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 But their power excited the fear, and their wealth the 
 cupidity of a dangerous foe. Internal dissensions gave 
 Philip IV. of France an opportunity to bring accu- 
 sations of the most shameful character against the 
 whole order. After nearly sixty knights had been 
 burnt in May, 13 10, the royal influence or tyranny 
 prevailed upon Clement V. to decree the suppression 
 of the order in March, 1312 ; and two years later 
 Jacques du Molay, the Grand Master, after a cruel 
 imprisonment, shared the fate of his subordinates. 
 The proceedings which thus terminated the existence 
 of the Temple in France were a precedent for measures 
 of less severity but like effect in other countries. The 
 falsehood of the graver charges, immorality of the 
 grossest kind, is now generally admitted, yet there 
 seems no doubt that practices of an unseemly nature 
 prevailed at least in the French provinces. Friendly 
 intercourse with the Mohammedans had probably 
 influenced the knights in matters both of belief and 
 conduct, whilst it is more than probable that some 
 taint of heresy had penetrated the order through 
 the admission of Albigensian knights, compelled to 
 choose between the service of the cross and the 
 penalty of death. 
 
 Like the Templars the Hospitallers had retired to 
 Cyprus on the fall of Acre ; more fortunate they, 
 twenty years later, achieved the conquest of Rhodes, 
 and at the same time, through the downfall of the 
 rival order, acquired a great accession of wealth. At 
 Rhodes the knights of St. John were, during over two 
 centuries, the bulwark of Christendom against the 
 Turks. When at length that island fell before the 
 
LATER FORTUNES. 185 
 
 power of SoUrpan the Magnificent in 1522, the bounty 
 of Charles the Fifth gave them a new home and a fresh 
 career of glory as the knights of Malta. As a military 
 body the order was long since obsolete, when Ferdi- 
 nand von Hompesch somewhat tamely surrendered 
 the island to the French in 1798. Recent years have, 
 however, witnessed its honourable revival as a charit- 
 able institution, with a special care for the tending of 
 the sick and woUnded in war, and after a chequered 
 career the gate of the priory at Clerkenwoll has once 
 more become the home of the English langue. 
 
 Na attempt has been made in this chapter to even 
 sketch the full career of the two great orders. But 
 indeed the history of the Latin colonies is the history 
 of the knights of the Hospital and Temple. The 
 orders constituted the most stable element in the 
 Angevin kingdom of Jerusalem ; and the later king- 
 dom, subsequent to the Third Crusade, was dependent 
 on them for its very existence. The organisation that 
 was happily devised by Hugh de Payen and 
 Raymond du Puy was the one best suited for the 
 circumstances in which the Syrian Franks found 
 themselves. The climate forbade any hope of success 
 to a regular system of colonisation ; the races of 
 Western Europe could not perpetuate their existence 
 in face of the twofold strain of warfare under an 
 Eastern sun. The lessened vigour of the race inten- 
 sified the evils inherent in the feudal system — the 
 weakness of widows and minors, and the strength of 
 family feud and faction. From these defects the 
 knightly orders were exempt; they could provide more 
 surely that warlike organisation, which the ever-present 
 
1 86 THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 Saracen and Turk made a necessity ; as corporations, 
 whose life-blood came in a fresh and constant .stream 
 from the West, they possessed a cohesion and vigour 
 which were no less essential. With them there was 
 no question, as with the Frank nobles of Syria, of 
 private interest or family advantage ; they had no 
 interest but to justify their existence by preserving 
 the Holy Land from the Moslem ; unhampered by 
 personal or worldly ties they were free and eager to 
 prosecute to the end the sacred enterprise which they 
 had undertaken. 
 
 If it be asked how we are to explain the only 
 moderate measure of success which they achieved, the 
 answer is ready to hand. The field was already 
 occupied by another organisation. The co-existence 
 of the feudal and hereditary barons of Syria with these 
 incorporated bodies of new-come adventurers gave 
 rise to perpetual jealousies. Yet, further, there was 
 th2 weakness natural to the twofold organisation of 
 the orders them.selves. In theory there might be no 
 antagonism between them, and the Templar might be 
 ordered in all good faith to rally to the banner of the 
 Hospital, if in the hour of defeat his own failed him. 
 But in practice there could not but be a rivalry 
 between the two, which was fatal to all solidarity of 
 action. Traces of this rivalry are not wanting in the 
 earlier period, as when the Templars refused to sup- 
 port Amalric's Egyptian policy from jealousy at the 
 prime part which the master of the Hospital had 
 taken in inspiring it. In the thirteenth century this 
 feeling of rivalry became more acute, and through the 
 absence of any controlling power more mischievous. 
 
ELEMENTS OF STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. iSj 
 
 The jealousies of the two orders crippled the hands 
 of Richard of Cornwall in 1240-41, and it was with 
 difficulty that the earl could keep the peace between 
 them. In 1243 the Templars broke the truce which 
 Richard, by the advice of the Hospitallers, had made 
 with the Sultan, and openly attacking their rivals, laid 
 siege to them in Acre. Yet, again, after the first 
 Crusade of St. Louis the ill-feeling became so bitter 
 that in 1259 another open war led to a pitched battle, 
 in which the Templars were disastrously defeated. 
 Mutual rivalry of this sort was not less mischievous 
 than the ambition and treachery with which both 
 orders were freely charged by their opponents ; such 
 accusations are, however, most noteworthy as evidence 
 of the jealousy with which the knights were regarded 
 by the native nobles. The success of the knights of 
 St. John at Rhodes is sufficient proof of what the two 
 orders might have achieved under happier auspices. 
 Even as things were it was chiefly due to the military 
 orders that the Latin kingdom did in any sense so 
 long survive the conquests of Saladin. Their partial 
 ill-success notwithstanding, the history of the Knights 
 of the Temple, and of the Hospital of St. John at 
 Jerusalem, must always afford some of the most pic- 
 turesque pages in mediaeval history. 
 
XII. 
 
 THE KINGDOM AT ITS ZENITH — FULK OF ANJOU. 
 
 (1131-II43.) 
 
 " Princeps potens et apud suos felicissimus." 
 
 William of Tyre. 
 
 FuLK of Anjou, the new king of Jerusalem, belonged 
 to one of the most powerful families in Western Europe. 
 His ancestors during two centuries had been capable 
 warriors and statesmen, the most prominent of all being 
 that Fulk the Black whose numerous pilgrimages 
 have been alluded to in a previous chapter.^ Fulk, 
 the King of Jerusalem, was great grandson of Fulk 
 the Black, and son of Fulk IV. by the infamous 
 Bertrada de Montfort, who forsook her lawful husband 
 for Philip I. The young Fulk became Count of Anjou 
 1109, and had to steer a difficult path through the 
 thick of the Anglo-French complications. But 
 actively engaged, though he was in temporal politics, 
 there was in Fulk a strain of piety, which about 1 120 
 led him to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 
 
 ^ See chapter i. pp. 15-16. 
 <S8 
 
CHARACTER OF FULR. 189 
 
 There he must have been among the very first of 
 the associates ad terminum of the Templar knights, 
 to whom on his departure he granted an annual sum 
 of thirty pounds. But even at home his thoughts 
 still turned towards the East, and his secret longings 
 became known to others, so that Louis VI. was led to 
 advocate his marriage with King Baldwin's daughter. 
 
 Baldwin's envoys could hardly have made a better 
 choice. Fulk wg-s a warrior, a politician, and some- 
 thin;^ of a saint ; more than this he was akin to many 
 of the greatest princes of Western Europe. His two 
 daughters had been married, one to the ill-starred 
 Atheling William who perished in the White Ship, 
 the other, Sibyl, to Theodoric Count of Flanders ; 
 whilst his eldest son Geoffrey became, through his 
 marriage to the ex-empress Matilda, the father of 
 our own Henry H. 
 
 In personal appearance Fulk was, like David, of 
 a ruddy countenance, but, adds William of Tyre, 
 unlike most people of this complexion, affable, kindly, 
 and compassionate. His chief defect was a weakness 
 of memory so marked that he could not recollect the 
 names of his own servants, and would ofien offend 
 his familiar friends by asking who they were. 
 
 The early years of Fulk's reign were occupied 
 with the affairs of Antioch, where even in her 
 father's lifetime Baldwin's daughter Alice had after 
 her husband's death been intriguing to secure the 
 principality for herself Baldwin had forced her to 
 content herself with Laodicea, but she now resumed 
 her pretensions with the support of Pons of Tripoli 
 and Joscelin II. of Edessa. The nobles of Antioch 
 
190 
 
 THE KINGDOM AT ITS ZENITH, 
 
 appealed to Fulk for help ; whereupon Pons soon came 
 to terms, and Antioch was placed in charge of Rainald 
 Mansuer. In P'ebruary, 1133, Fulk was again called 
 north to the assistance of Pons, who was besieged by 
 the Turcomans at Mons Ferrandus. He raised the 
 siege and defeated the marauders near H arena The 
 spoils of this victory sufficed to win over those nobles, 
 who still favoured the pretensions of Alice. 
 
 It was, however, necessary to find a settled ruler 
 
 SEAL OF PONS, COUNT OF TRIPOLI, 
 
 for Antioch, and a husband for its princess, a girl of 
 six or seven. After due consideration Raymond of 
 Poiton, younger son of the Crusading Duke William 
 of Aquitaine, was asked to wed the little heiress, 
 and undertake the defence of her lands. Raymond 
 accepted without hesitation, and set out for Syria 
 forthwith. But he did not dare to travel in his own 
 name, for fear of Roger King of Sicily, who fancied 
 that he himself had claims on Antioch ; so he made 
 his way through Italy disguised as a common 
 
ANTIOCB AND TRIPOLI. IQl 
 
 traveller walking on foot, or riding on pack-horses. 
 He reached Syria about March, 1136, but not even 
 then would his difficulties have been at an end, 
 but for the craft of the Patriarch Ralph, who 
 persuaded Alice that Raymond was destined to be 
 her own husband, and thus secured him a free entry 
 into Antioch. 
 
 In the following year (1137) Pons of Tripoli was 
 defeated and slain by the Vizir of Damascus. Zangi 
 seized the opportunity, burst across the Orontes, and 
 laid siege to Mons Ferrandus. The young Count 
 Raymond I. appealed for aid to his uncle Fulk. 
 Antioch was at the same time threatened with an 
 attack by the Emperor, John Comnenus. Fulk 
 determined to meet the nearer danger ; but his guides 
 misled him, and in a narrow and pathless district 
 of the mountains he was utterly defeated by 
 Zangi (July, 1137). The young Count was taken 
 prisoner, whilst Fulk with a few companions was 
 shut up in Mons Ferrandus. Generously regardless 
 of his own danger the prince of Antioch hurried 
 up at the news ; the Count of Edessa followed, 
 and before long the patriarch appeared with the 
 Holy Cross. Zangi therefore offered the king a 
 free exit, if he would surrender the castle, promising 
 on his part to release the count. Fulk accepted these 
 terms, and the allies went back to their own lands. 
 
 Meantime John Comnenus ^ had invaded Cilicia 
 
 * John came, of course, to assert his suzerainty over Antioch, and it 
 may be the rest of Syria. It was on his return from this expedition 
 that Nicephorus Briennius — Anna Comnena's husband, who figures so 
 larj^ely in Sir Walter Scott's " Count Robert of Paris," as the lover of 
 the Countess — died. He was a man of letters as well as a military 
 
192 THE KIN(^D0M AT ITS ZENITH. 
 
 with a large army ; Tarsus, Adana, Mamistra, and 
 Anazarba had fallen before him, and now he would 
 have captured Antioch also, had not Raymond come 
 to terms and promised to do him fealty. Next spring 
 the Emperor, the Prince of Antioch, and the Count 
 of Edessa took the field together. The united armies 
 laid siege to Caesarea on the Orontes; but as the Latin 
 princes spent their time in playing at dice instead 
 of in fighting, John abandoned the war in disgust and 
 withdrew to Antioch. Entering the city in state he 
 demanded that the citadel should be placed in his 
 hands. Joscelin begged leave to consult the people, 
 and spread the news throughout the city. The angry 
 citizens flew to arms, and in alarm at the uproar the 
 Emperor withdrew his demand, and retired to Cilicia. 
 Four years later in 1 142 John was recaljed to Syria by 
 the news of Zangi's success : he pitched his camp high 
 among the hills of Amanus, whence he could look down 
 on Antioch, and sent to demand the surrender of the 
 city. Raymond by the advice of his council refused ; 
 if the city fell back into Greek hands, it would soon be 
 lost to Christendom as had so often happened before. 
 The approach of winter compelled the Emperor to 
 retire to Cilicia, whence he sent messengers to Fulk 
 announcing his intention to visit the Holy City on 
 a pilgrimage. What might have happened next year 
 is uncertain ; but fortunately for the Latins a hunt- 
 ing accident caused John's death in April, 1143, and 
 
 leader of repute, and left a history of his own times unfinished. Anna 
 took up her pen to complete the work thus broken short. The novel 
 is, of course, wrong in representinji; her as reading her history aloud to 
 Alexius and her husband in 1096-7. She was then probably a child of 
 ten; certainly she was not over seventeen years of age. 
 
yOHN COMNENUS AND RAYMOND OF ANTIOCtt. I93 
 
 Manuel his son and successor for the time abandoned 
 his father's projects in Syria. 
 
 A few words will suffice to sketch the later fortunes 
 of Raymond. Manuel did not lonj leave him un- 
 molested, and compelled him somewhat reluctantly 
 to visit Constantinople and renew his oath of 
 allegiance. Afterwards Raymond played a promi- 
 nent part in the Second Crusade, to the failure of 
 which his folly or vices in some degree contributed. 
 In June, 1 149, whilst on an expedition for the relief 
 of Enncb near Hazart, he was induced against his 
 better judgment to pitch his camp in a marshy spot 
 shut in by hills. His fears were justified, for the 
 Turks surrounded the Prankish camp that night 
 and Raymond himself was slain. Of all the princes 
 in the East none left a more illustrious name than 
 he. A Greek legend tells how, when he visited the 
 Temple at Jerusalem in diguise, his mighty stature 
 and warlike bearing revealed him to the priests. 
 Long years after his death an English monk, who 
 had once served in his army told William of New- 
 burgh that the Turks dreaded Raymond as equal 
 to two hundred of their own soldiers. By his death 
 Antioch was left to the rule of his widow Constance 
 and her little sop Bohemond III. 
 
 Within the strict limits of his own kingdom, the 
 chief trouble of Fulk's reign was a domestic one. 
 Hugh II., Count of Jaffa, had married Emelota, the 
 niece of the Patriarch Arnulf, and widow of Eustace 
 Grener. He thus became one of the greatest nobles 
 of the kingdom, whilst his comely person, high birth, 
 and military vigour left him without a peer in the 
 
 14 
 
194 ^^^ KINGDOM AT ITS ZENITH, 
 
 realm. People whispered that he was paying too 
 much attention to the queen ; others in jealousy- 
 accused him of harbouring rebellious projects against 
 the king. At length his own step-son, Walter, Lord 
 of Caisarea, accused him of high treason in the royal 
 court. Hugh challenged his accuser to single combat, 
 but before the day came fled for refuge to Jaffa. 
 This conduct was taken as a proof of guilt, and the 
 court condemned him in his absence. Hugh in 
 indignation took ship for Ascalon, and demanded 
 
 SEAL OF HUGH, COUNT OF JAFFA. 
 
 help from the Egyptians against his lord. Heartened 
 by such an alliance the men of Ascalon renewed 
 their predatory raids, whilst Fulk prepared to besiege 
 Jaffa, and many of Hugh's vassals, Balian of Ibelin 
 among them, threw off their allegiance to the count. 
 However the Patriarch William soon made peace ; 
 Hugh was to submit to three years' exile, but before 
 he could leave the kingdom he was stabbed whilst 
 playing dice outside an inn in Jerusalem (1132 A.D.). 
 Rumour at once declared that his assailant had been 
 
HUGH II. OF yAFFA. I95 
 
 suborned by the king. Fulk to clear himself had the 
 unhappy wretch ruthlessly tortured but to no pur- 
 pose. Hugh recovered, and going over-sea died in 
 Apulia. This was not the only scandal in which 
 the queen was concerned ; but Fulk was at length 
 reconciled to her, and lived on such friendly terms 
 with her as to be accused of uxoriousness. 
 
 The course of events on his eastern border in- 
 creased Fulk's power by making him a patron instead 
 of an enemy of Damascus. The famous Ismailian 
 Bahram had so won the favour of Tughtakin, that 
 the atabek entrusted him with the strong fortress of 
 Banias or Caesarea Philippi. There he was suc- 
 ceeded by his adherent Ismail, whilst on Tughtakin's 
 death an Ismailian vizir became all-powerful at 
 Damascus under his (Tughtakin's) son Buri. The 
 heretical vizir, hating his fellow countrymen, offered 
 to betray Damascus to the Franks ; but the plot was 
 discovered, the traitor beheaded, and six thousand 
 of his supporters massacred in Damascus alone 
 (September, 11 29). Ismail in wrath or terror sur- 
 rendered Banias to the Franks and took refuge in 
 Jerusalem. Three years later, wheni. Fulk was 
 in the thick of his contest with Hugh of Jaffa, 
 Shams-el-Muluk, son of Buri, and atabek of Damas- 
 cus, recovered 'the fortress. But the atabek was a 
 weak and effeminate ruler, who offended his sub- 
 jects by offering to surrender the city to Zangi. 
 The prince's mother then had her son murdered, 
 and when Zangi appeared before Damascus he was 
 repulsed by one of Tughtakin's Mamluks called 
 Anar. Anar became vizir for another of Buri's sons, 
 
196 THE KINGDOM AT ITS ZENITH, 
 
 and when in 11 39 Zangi again pressed Damascus 
 hard, he turned in despair to the Franks, promising 
 in ^ return for their aid to he^p them to recover 
 Banias. The bribe took, and Zangi, fearing to 
 meet the double attack, withdrew. Anar then 
 joined the Franks in besieging Banias in Ma}-, 
 1 140. Timber was brought from Damascus, and 
 before long a huge siege castle was erected, so lofty 
 that in the chronicler's quaint words " the folk of 
 Banias seemed to fight with angels rather than with 
 men." The siege was not, however, ended till Anar's 
 envoys found their way within the walls, and induced 
 the emir to surrender by the promise of a pension 
 at Damascus. Banias was restored to its old lord, 
 Renier Brus, and was made the see of a Latin 
 bishop. 
 
 Fulk died on November 13, 1143. He had spent 
 the autumn at Acre, where one day as he rode in the 
 country his followers started a hare. The king joined 
 in the sport, seized a lance, and rushed in pursuit. 
 His horse stumbled, and as Fulk lay on the ground 
 the heavy saddle struck him on the head. He was 
 carried back to Acre, where he lingered for three da\'s 
 and then died. Fulk was buried in the Church of the 
 Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, on the right hand near 
 the entrance. His death caused great mourning — 
 the more so perhaps since his two sons were but 
 children — Baldwin, aged thirteen, and Amalric, aged 
 seven. 
 
XIII. 
 
 ZANGI AND THE FALL OF EDESSA. 
 (1 1 30-1 149.) 
 
 " A cry that shivered to the tingling stars." 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 FULK had been a successful ruler of his little 
 kingdom, and had well maintained if he had not 
 indeed extended its power. Yet his reign had 
 witnessed a slow though momentous change that 
 was pregnant with disaster for the Franks. One by 
 one the Mohammedan lords on the Orontes and 
 Euphrates had acknowledged the supremacy of the 
 Viceroy at Mosul, and abandoned their mutual 
 discords. This unification of the power of the 
 Mussulmans, which was the first step towards 
 stemming the tide of Latin conquest, was mainly 
 the work of one man, Zangi, the atabek of Mosul. 
 
 Imad-ed-din Zangi was the son of a favourite 
 counsellor of Malek Shah, who became lord of 
 Aleppo, and fell fighting for his master's son. 
 Zangi was but ten years old at his father's death, 
 
ig8 ZANGI AND THE FALL OF ED ESS A. 
 
 and fought his first campaigns against the Franks 
 in the service of Maudud, with whom he was 
 present at the great battle near Tiberias, when he 
 rode up to the very gate of the city and struck it 
 with his lance. Afterwards he entered the service of 
 Mahmud, who made him his agent at Bagdad and 
 Irak, and on the death of El-Borsoki promoted him 
 to be governor of Mosul (i 127 A.D.). 
 
 At this time the Mohammedans were in the very 
 depths of despair. "The Franks," says an Arabic 
 writer, " were spread far and wide ; their troops were 
 numerous and their hands extended as if to seize all 
 Islam. Day after day their raids followed one 
 another ; through these they did the Mussulmans 
 much mischief, smiting them with desolation and 
 ruin. Thus was the happy star of the Mussulmans 
 darkened, the sky of their puissance cloven in twain, 
 and the sun of their prosperity dimmed." ..." The 
 Frankish possessions stretched from Mardin and 
 Chabakhtan to El-Arish on the Egyptian frontier, 
 with hardly a break, except for a (ew strong cities, 
 such as Aleppo, Emesa, Hamah, and Damascus. 
 Their incursions were pushed as far as Diar-bekr, 
 and the district round Amida ; they spared neither 
 those who believed in the unity of God nor those 
 who denied it. From Upper Mesopotamia to Nisibis 
 and Ras Ain they robbed the folk of money and 
 of goods ; at Harran they weighed down the in- 
 habitants with scorn and oppression. In their 
 misery men longed for death. Commerce was 
 interrupted, and the roads to Damascus save that 
 which passed by Rakka and the desert left 
 
DESPAIR OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. IQQ 
 
 deserted. Even those towns not actually conquered 
 had to pay tribute in return for their freedom. 
 Prankish agents visited Damascus itself, passed the 
 slave markets in review, and set free all Christian 
 captives from Asia Minor, Armenia, and elsewhere." 
 It was Zangi's destiny to change all this ; to inspire 
 his people with courage; to lead then>'to their first 
 successes, and thus to pave the way for his son's 
 conquest of Egypt, and for his third successor's 
 conquest of Jerusalem. To Mohammedans of a 
 later generation it seemed as though Zangi were 
 God's special servant chosen by Him to accomplish 
 the protection of His people. 
 
 Zangi's first conquests were against his Mo- 
 hammedan rivals ; for he could not attack the 
 Franks till he had vindicated the authority of 
 Mosul over the lands east of the Euphrates. After 
 establishing himself firmly in Mosul he captured 
 first Jezirat - ibn - Omar, and then Nisibis and 
 Sinjar. After this* he determined to secure his 
 position on the Orontes, and turned his attention 
 towards Aleppo. 
 
 At this time Aleppo was so weak that its inhabi- 
 tants paid half their revenue to the Franks down to 
 a mill hardly twenty paces from the town. Zangi 
 entered on possession of Aleppo in June, 1128, next 
 year he took Hamah, and in 11 30 began his warfare 
 with the Franks by the conquest of Athareb, a 
 frontier fortress which, says Ibn El-Athir, " held the 
 Moliammcdans as it were by the throat." According 
 to the later legend when Kin^ Bal Iwi 1 heard of the 
 siege he called his council together. Some thought- 
 
200 
 
 ZANGI AND THE FALL OF EDESSA. 
 
 less warriors made light of the new danger. One, 
 however, took a different view. " Was not this the 
 young warrior who had ridden up to the gate of 
 Tiberias ? Had we not better scatter his forces before 
 they grow great ? " These words decided Baldwin 
 to relieve Athareb. Zangi advanced to meet his 
 enemy. The issue was never doubtful. ** The 
 
 FIGHT OF CRUSADERS WITH SARACENS. 
 
 swords of God," in Ibn El-Athir's expressive words, 
 '* found their scabbards in the necks of His foes." 
 Zangi waded through a sea of blood, trampling down 
 the Franks ; this victory was followed by the capture 
 of Athareb. 
 
 Zangi's successes were not, however, achieved 
 except in the face of great disadvantages. In 1129 
 
RISE OF ZANGI. 201 
 
 he had to contend against a riv^al Dubais, who 
 sought to become Emir of Mosul. Two years later 
 the disputed succession to the sultanate involved 
 him in a series of conflicts which occupied most of 
 his time for twelve years to come. In 1133 he was 
 besieged for three months in Mosul, and it was not 
 till 1 143 that he finally made his peace with Mah- 
 mud's brother Masud. 
 
 By that time Zangi was the most powerful chief in 
 Islam. After many failures he had made himself 
 supreme on the Tigris, whilst as lord of the Orontes, 
 he was ready to take the field against the Franks. 
 The course of events soon gave him a favourable 
 opportunity for the great work which he had so long 
 contemplated — the recovery of Edessa. 
 
 Zangi's greatest opponent had been Joscelin de 
 Courtenay, Count of Edessa, a kinsman of Baldwin 
 du Bourg, who had endowed him with the rich fief 
 of Tell -basher. Afterwards, for some offence, he was 
 deprived of his loidship, but in 11 18 Baldwin gave 
 him back his old fief, and made him Count of Edessa 
 also. From this moment his life was one of restless 
 activity, his ravages extended southwards to Aleppo 
 and Manbij ; and eastwards as far as Nisibis, 
 Amida, and Rakka. His name became a terror in 
 Mohammedan lands, so that an Arabic writer calls 
 him, "A Satan among the infidels." After a life of 
 war and turmoil he lost his life as a warrior should 
 in warfare. As he lay on his sick-bed he learnt that 
 the Sultan of Iconium was besieging Cresson.^ His 
 
 * Now Ke9oun in the Taurus, to the east of M^rash, and near the 
 niodern Bchcsnj. 
 
202 Z AN G I AND THE FALL OF ED ESS A. 
 
 son was too cowardly or too sluggish to venture out 
 against so vast a host, and Joscelin, angered at such 
 pusillanimity, had himself carried to the war on a 
 litter. The Sultan retreated at the rumour of his 
 coming ; the dying count returned thanks to heaven 
 for having made him a terror to the infidel even in 
 the gates of death. This was about 1 1 3 1 ; the count 
 was succeeded by his son, Joscelin II., a warrior of 
 whom even Christian writers have but little good to 
 say. Joscelin II. had something of his father's valour, 
 but was given to wantonness and luxury, and though 
 capable of vigorous action at times, preferred a life of 
 ease to one of war. So he abandoned the hardships 
 of Edessa for the comfort and pleasure of Tell-basher. 
 The other Latin warriors followed his example, and 
 Edessa was left to the unwarlike Armenians, and 
 a few Latin merchants. The town was strongly 
 fortified, but for security its peaceful inhabitants 
 trusted to ill-paid mercenaries. " Thus," says William 
 of Tyre, "Joscelin lost the whole region his father 
 had ruled so well." 
 
 The defenceless state of Edessa gave Zangi his 
 opportunity. After a siege of twenty-eight days, the 
 town was captured on December 14, 1144. A pro- 
 miscuous slaughter ensued, which raged till Zangi 
 gave orders to sheath the sword. But even then he 
 spared the Armenians only ; all the Frank prisoners 
 were butchered before Zangi's eyes, and their wives 
 and children carried into captivity. The citadel 
 held out for a few days, till want of water forced 
 it to surrender. A garrison was placed in the 
 conquered town, and Zangi passed on to capture 
 
MOHAMMEDAN CONQUESTS. 203 
 
 the other Prankish towns of Upper Mesopo- 
 tamia. 
 
 Zangi did not h've to reap the fruits of his great 
 conquest For two years later, in September, 1 146, 
 as he was besieging Jaber, some of his own Mam- 
 luks stabbed him while he lay asleep in his tent. 
 One who was there told the father of Ibn El-Athir 
 how he entered the tent and found his lord still alive. 
 " On catching sight of me he fancied I was come to 
 give the last blow, and lifted his forefinger as if to 
 beg for mercy. As for me I stopped short, crying 
 out, * Oh, my master, who has done this ? ' He had 
 no strength to answer, and at that very moment he 
 breathed his last." Of Zangi's three sons, Nur-ed- 
 din succeeded him at Aleppo, and Sayf-ed-din at 
 Mosul. 
 
 Zangi's conquests paved the way for the future 
 successes of Nur-ed-din and Saladin. He was the 
 first Mussulman chief to win any permanent success 
 against the Franks ; and under his rule the Orontes 
 valley became united against the invader. The con- 
 trast between the country as he found it, and as he 
 left it, cannot be better stated than in the words of 
 one who himself remembered the misery of the days 
 before his coming. Ibn El-Athir's father had seen 
 Mosul in ruins so that a traveller might stand in the 
 centre of the town without seeing a single occupied 
 house ; under Zangi it became one of the most 
 prosperous of Mohammedan towns. Zangi had 
 reduced the Ortokid ^ princes to his rule, established 
 
 * The descendants of Ortok {seep. 21), who had established them- 
 selves at Hisn Keifa, Mardin, and other places in Upper Mesopotamia. 
 
204 ZANGI AND THE FALL OF EDESSA. 
 
 order at Aleppo, and made his authority paramount 
 at Hamah, Emesa, and even at Damascus. He had 
 taken many Prankish strongholds ; last of all he had 
 made the conquest of conquests when he wrested 
 Edessa, "the eye of Upper Mesopotamia," from the 
 invader. The Franks, who, at his accession, took 
 tribute from Aleppo, and ravaged as far as Mardin 
 and Nisibis, were driven back, and forced to act on 
 the defensive, while prosperity once more began to 
 smile upon the Mohammedans. 
 
 There were many noble features in Zangi's cha- 
 racter; he was a valiant soldier, an able general, 
 and a wise statesman ; his worst fault was a 
 tendency to trickery and falsehood. As a ruler his 
 subjects marvelled at his care for all matters, great 
 or small, and the untiring activity, which seemed to 
 make him know things almost before they happened. 
 To his subordinates he was a severe disciplinarian : 
 " There must be but one tyrant in my lands," he used 
 to say. He was indeed feared with a mortal terror : 
 once he found a boatman sleeping at his post, the 
 man awoke from his slumbers to meet the gaze of 
 the atabek, and the sight so overcame him that he 
 fell down dead. 
 
 The immediate result of Zangi's great conquest 
 was to rouse the princes of the West to undertake 
 the Second Crusade. The story of that enterprise will 
 be told in another place, but the later fortunes of 
 Count Joscelin and of Edessa form the fitting sequel 
 to the events just described. 
 
 In November, 1146, at the invitation of the 
 Armenians of Edessa, Count Joscelin made a night 
 
FATE OF yoSCELIN II, 205 
 
 attack whilst the. Turkish garrison slept. The city 
 was taken with little difficulty, but the citadel 
 held out till Nur-ed-din came to their assistance. 
 Joscelin then determined on retreat, and the citizens, 
 rather than face the vengeance of Nured-din, 
 resolved to share his fortunes. As they filed through 
 the gates the Turks from the citadel fell upon them 
 in the rear, whilst Nur-ed-din's army barred all 
 progress in front. The slaughter was terrible ; 
 only those Armenians escaped whose bodily vigour 
 or swift steeds enabled them to keep up with the 
 Prankish host. Among the slain was Baldwin of 
 Marash, one of the few Prankish chiefs, who had won 
 the love of their Armenian subjects ; Joscelin him- 
 self escaped to Samosata. 
 
 Somewhat later, probably towards the end of 1149, 
 during a fresh attempt on Edessa, Joscelin fell into 
 the hands of Nur-ed-din's viceroy at Aleppo. Nur- 
 ed-din had a deadly grudge against the count, who 
 had sent the armour of Nur-ed-din's squire to 
 Masud of Iconium, hinting that this gift should 
 soon be followed by that of the atabek himself. 
 By Nur-ed-din's orders Joscelin was blinded, and 
 left to languish in a dungeon at Aleppo, till his 
 death nine years later. 
 
 Joscelin's captivity was speedily followed by the 
 loss of all that remained of his once prosperous 
 county. In the expressive words of William of 
 Tyre, Edessa was ground between the upper and 
 nether millstone. Masud of Iconium had taken 
 Marash in September, 1149, and made further 
 conquests during the next few years. By a bargain 
 
206 ZANGI AND THE FALL OF EDESSA. 
 
 more nominal than real, the Franks l^.anded over 
 their last possessions in Edessa to the Greeks, 
 Joscelin's wife and children taking refuge at 
 Antioch. It was not long before the Greeks lost 
 these acquisitions to Nur-ed-din, and in 1154 that 
 prince put the crown to his father's work by the 
 capture of Damascus. Henceforth Aleppo and 
 Damascus were subject to one lord, and the first 
 effectual step towards the conquest of the Latin 
 kingdom was accomplished. 
 
XIV. 
 
 THE SECOND CRUSADE. 
 (II46-II49.) 
 
 ** Poi seguitai lo 'mperador Currado, 
 Ed ei mi cinse della sua milizia 
 Tanto per bene oprar gli vienni a grado." 
 
 Dante, Paradiso^ xv. 
 
 (**Then I followed the Emperor Conrad, and he belted me of 
 his soldiery, so high in his favour did I come by good works.") 
 
 The fall of Edessa was a keen reproach to the 
 princes of the West, who, as Otto of Freisingen com- 
 plains,, were wasting their strength in internecine 
 slaughter whilst the very existence of the Holy Land 
 was threatened by the pagans. The evil tidings 
 were brought by some Armenian bishops to Pope 
 Eugenius at Viterbo ; but though, his letters to 
 Louis VII. and the nobles of France, and his renewal 
 of the old privileges granted to Crusaders by Urban 
 II. had their due effect, the eloquence of the great 
 St. Bernard of Clairvaux was by far the most potent 
 
 agent in bringing about the Second Crusade. 
 
 207 
 
208 THE SECOND CRUSADE, 
 
 Bernard was now in the very height of his fame, 
 being about fifty-four years old. He liad long taken 
 a special interest in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, 
 and had corresponded with Queen Melisend. His 
 uncle was a Knight Templar, and eventually Grand 
 Master of that order, for which Bernard himself drew 
 up a code of rules. The third son of a Burgundian 
 noble, he had devoted himself from boyhood to holy 
 living and study, stedfastly resisting all the efforts 
 of his elder brothers to divert his mind to secular 
 pursuits. More than this, he induced his haughty 
 brothers one after another to forsake the world, so 
 that at last the youngest, Nivard, was left alone in 
 his father's house. His eldest brother, Guido, saw 
 the lad playing with his comrades, and thinking sadly 
 of an almost extinct house, bade him remember that 
 he was now sole heir of their father's lands. " Heaven 
 for you, and earth for me," cried Nivard, " that is 
 not a fair division ; " and a little later he too followed 
 his brothers' example. At twenty-three Bernard 
 became a monk at Citeaux under Stephen Harding, 
 who presently made him abbot of the newly founded 
 monastery of Clairvaux. His fame for sanctity and 
 learning so increased that when Innocent and 
 Anacletus were contending for the Papacy it was 
 Bernard's influence that decided the French pre- 
 lates in favour of the former claimant. Nor was he 
 less eminent in the intellectual than in the practical 
 world ; he refuted the heresies of Abelard and of 
 Gilbert de la Porree, and reformed the still more 
 dangerous Henrician apostacy in Southern France. 
 With his marvellous eloquence, strong practical turn 
 
BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, 
 
 209 
 
 of mind, and religious enthusiasm he was the very 
 man to be the apostle of a new Crusade. 
 
 The weight of Bernard's influence enrolled in the 
 service of the Cross two princes of the first rank — 
 Louis VII. of Fr-^nce and Conrad III. of Germany. 
 Louis was now about twenty-five years old. With 
 
 SEAL OF LOUIS VIL 
 
 his father, Louis the Fat, the house of Capet had 
 begun to show some signs of real kingly power, and 
 by his own recent marriage with Eleanor of Aqui- 
 taine the young Louis had brought that important 
 duchy under the direct rule of the French king. 
 Louis VIL, like his great grandson Louis IX., was 
 
210 THE SECOND CRUSADE, 
 
 a man of pious disposition. Two considerations of 
 religion quickened him to undertake the Crusade : 
 first, his brotherly anxiety to perform the pilgrimage 
 vowed by his dead brother Philip ; secondly, his 
 remorse for his sacrilege at Vitry, where, during the 
 war with Theobald of Champagne, he had set fire — • 
 to the church and so caused the death of thirteen 
 hundred unoffending people. "" 
 
 Conrad III. was the grandson of Henry IV. and 
 nephew of Henry V. He was in Palestine when his 
 uncle died in 1 125, and on his return found the 
 throne occupied by Lothair, Duke of Saxony. With 
 his brother Frederic, Duke of Swabia, he rebelled 
 against the new king; but after a time a reconcilia- 
 tion was effected by Bernard of Clairvaux. In 11 38 
 he succeeded to the throne of Germany ; but his 
 reign was much troubled by a feud between Leopold 
 of Austria and Welf of Bavaria ; and at the very 
 moment when he promised to join in the Second 
 Crusade he was surrounded by difficulties in Bavaria, 
 Poland, Hungary, and Lorraine. 
 
 In the spring of 1 146 a great council was held at 
 Vezelay, where Louis took the cross from Bernard's 
 hands, and as there was no room within the fortress 
 showed himself to the people, with the cross upon his 
 breast, from a wooden tower erected in the plain out- 
 side. BeriTard, by his oratory, so moved his hearers, 
 that he had to tear up his own robes in order to 
 satisfy their demand for crosses. From Vezelay 
 Bernard passed into Germany, preaching as he went ; 
 miracles dogged his steps ; for the blind saw, the 
 deaf heard, and the lame walked when Bernard 
 
LOUIS AND CONRAD, 211 
 
 signed them wiih the Holy Cross. At Christmas he 
 came to Spires where the king was holding his mid- 
 winter council. Conrad had declared that he had no 
 mind for the Holy War ; but in a sermon on Christ- 
 mas-day Bernard boldly renewed his call. In another 
 sermon two days later he pictured the great king 
 standing before the judgment-seat of Christ, Who 
 asked : " Oh, man, how have / failed in ought of my 
 duty towards t/iee ? " Then as Bernard dwelt on 
 Conrad's riches and power, the king at last burst 
 into tears and declared himself ready to do the 
 Lord's service wherever the Lord should call him. 
 Hardly had Conrad spoken when the whole con- 
 course took up the cry of " Praise to God." Bernard 
 was not the man to lose his opportunity. He signed 
 the king upon the spot, and taking down a banner 
 from above the altar, entrusted it to Conrad to carry 
 in the army of God. 
 
 Louis meantime had made great preparations, and 
 after some negotiations with Roger of Sicily, had 
 decided to journey by land, much to that prince's dis- 
 gust. At Whitsuntide, 1 147, the Pope gave the pious 
 king his pilgrim scrip, and placed in his hands the 
 famous banner of St. Denys, " under whose protection 
 the kings of France were always victorious." The 
 French mustered at Metz, where they were joined by 
 the English and Normans under Bishop Arnulf of 
 Lisieux. Louis made an elaborate code for the 
 governance of his host, as to which Odo of Deuil 
 remarks, " I will not set it down on paper since it 
 was not kept." 
 
 Conrad, with whom went his nephew Frederick, 
 
^12 THE SECOND CRUSADE. 
 
 the future emperor, had started from Ratisbon with- 
 out waiting for Louis, at the end of April, 1147. His 
 vast army kept little or no military order, and after 
 entering the Eastern Empire its progress was hardly 
 more than a drunken rout. Provisions were seized 
 without payment, and since Conrad could give 
 no redress the Greeks retaliated by cutting off the 
 drunken stragglers. Whilst Conrad lay encamped 
 between Adrianople and the Byzantine capital, a 
 sudden flood in the river Melas swept away his tents 
 and drowned thousands of his men. Manuel offered 
 his sympathy, and anxious to be rid of his unwelcome 
 guests urged them to cross the Bosphorus without 
 delay. But Conrad was bent on seeing the wonders 
 of Constantinople, and urged on for the capital ; 
 there he encamped in the suburbs, but though the 
 national jealousy broke into open war he did not 
 dare to attack so strong a city. After much bickering 
 the Crusading host at length crossed the Bosphorus, 
 and Conrad then humbled himself so far as to beg 
 guides of the Byzantine emperor. 
 
 The journey through Asia Minor was one long 
 disaster. Greek and French writers alike charge 
 Manuel with treachery ; Nicetas says that he had 
 ordered chalk to be mingled with the flour supplied 
 to the Crusaders, and cheated them by the use of 
 base coin ; now he also stirred up the Turks 
 against them, whilst his guides first misled and then 
 abandoned them. The Crusaders found themselves 
 with no alternative between famine and ^eath, or 
 "retrccCt: Slowly and painfully they retraced their 
 steps, whilst the Turkish hordes pressed close upon 
 
STATUE OF CONRAD III. 
 
214 THE SECOND CRUSADE, 
 
 their rear. Odo, as he calls to mind how the swarms 
 of unarmed pilgrims clogged the progress of the host, 
 laments that the Pope, when he forbade them to 
 take dogs or falcons with them, had not ordered the 
 weak to stay at home, and the hale to exchange their 
 staves for bows. Conrad was himself wounded twice 
 by arrows ; and perhaps barely one tenth of his 
 followers found their way back to Nicaea. 
 y^ Meanwhile Louis had been following close in 
 \ Conrad's footsteps. Odo of Deuil, who was in 
 Louis' company, complains that " the Germans who 
 preceded us had disturbed everything, and on this 
 account the Greeks fled from our army." Everywhere 
 there were tokens of Greek distrust ; the city gates 
 were closed, and provisions let down from the walls 
 by ropes, with baskets into which the purchasers had 
 to place their price. 
 
 Louis, like Conrad, would tarry in Europe to see 
 Constantinople. Had he been of an adventurous ; 
 disposition he might have anticipated the Fourth . 
 Crusade. For Roger of Sicily was at war with i 
 Manuel, and there were not wanting French nobles \ 
 to counsel immediate war with the Emperor, who wasj 
 said to have concluded a twelve years' peace with thei 
 Turks. " The walls of the city," urged the Bishop ol ! 
 Langres, "are very weak; the people are a feeble j 
 folk ; the Emperor has never scrupled to make war! 
 upon the Christian princes of Antioch ; were Con- 1 
 stantinople once fallen there would be fittle need for 
 further activity." Louis, however, refused such trea- 
 cherous advice and made friends with Manuel. The 
 two princes, says Odo, "became as brothers," and 
 
MANUEL AND THE CRUSADERS. 2I5 
 
 Manuel acted as Louis' guide when he visited the 
 churches of Constantinople. 
 
 But when at last the Bosphorus was crossed, diffi- 
 culties arose. Manuel would furnish no guides till 
 Louis and his barons did him homage ; the French 
 king conceded the point, and then started for Nicaea. 
 Here he heard of Conrad's disaster, and, grieving for 
 his misfortune as though it were his own, went out to 
 meet the Emperor. The combined armies agreed to 
 bear one another company along the coast ; after 
 a toilsome march they reached Ephesus, where 
 messengers from Manuel overtook them with the 
 news that the Turks were gathering to oppose their 
 progress. 
 
 This news determined Conrad to return and winter 
 at Constantinople. Louis, however, continued his 
 march, and, after spending Christmas in the valley 
 of Decervion, pushed on over the snow-covered hills,- 
 and across the swollen stream towards Laodicea. 
 The passage of the Maeander was triumphantly 
 forced, and the French marched through Laodicea in 
 high spirits. But only two days beyond that town 
 the Crusaders met with their greatest disaster. A 
 precipitous range of hills, " whose summit appeared 
 to touch the heavens, whilst the torrent at its base 
 seemed to descend to hell," barred their way. By a 
 fatal error the van, under Geoffrey de Rancogne and 
 Amadeus of Savoy, the king's uncle, instead of halt- 
 ing on the ridge, descended to pitch their tents on 
 the southern slope. The Turks, and even Greeks, 
 who thronged the heights above, sent down a hail 
 of arrows, which swept the sumpter-horses into the 
 
2l6 THE SECOND CRUSADE, 
 
 abyss below. The pass was choked by an unarmed 
 crowd, which, cut off in front and in the rear, was 
 mercilessly massacred. Louis, with a noble disregard 
 for his own life, strove to come to their assistance ; 
 but not having proposed to cross the pass till next 
 day, he had only a few nobles with him, and was 
 hopelessly outnumbered. " I," says Odo, " who, being 
 a mopk, could do notliing but call upon the Lord, 
 and urge others to fight, was sent to carry this news 
 to the camp." Geoffrey in vain endeavoured to 
 return, whilst Louis, hampered with the crowd of 
 panic-stricken pilgrims, could do nothing in the 
 rocky way, where the heavy horses and long lances 
 of his knights were of no avail. From the safe 
 security of the hills the Turks still poured down the 
 deadly storm of stones and trunks of trees. Louis 
 himself only saved his life by seizing on to the roots 
 of a tree, and so scaling the summit of a rock. There 
 he kept his assailants at bay, until, not knowing who 
 he was, they drew off at dusk to seek an easier prey. 
 
 Next morning a doleful spectacle appeared. It 
 seemed the death-blow of the whole Crusade : " The 
 flower of France had withered away before it could 
 ripen into fruit at Damascus." The loss of baggage 
 reduced many of the rich men to poverty, and the 
 clamour against Geoffrey de Rancogne rose to such a 
 height that he would have been hanged had not the 
 king's uncle shared his fault. Louis did what he 
 could to reorganise his army, and, resuming the 
 march, reached Attaleia on February 2nd. 
 
 From Attaleia Louis made his way to Antioch 
 by sea ; before starting he agreed with the Greek 
 
DISASTERS IN ASIA MINOR. 21/ 
 
 governor for the safe conduct of the mass of the 
 pilgrims by land to Tarsus, Needless to say, the 
 Greeks betrayed their trust. The very Turks proved 
 kinder, for, taking pity on the sufferings of the 
 Crusaders, they gave them bread to eat. " Many of 
 the Christians forsook their religion and went over to^ 
 
 the Turks. Oh ! kindness, more cruel than Greek 
 
 trea^Hery, for giving bread they stole the true faith." 
 . . . " God," continues Odo, " may pardon the Ger- 
 man Emperor, through whose counsel we encoun- 
 tered such misfortune, but how shall He spare the 
 Greeks, whose cruel craft slew so many in either 
 army ? " 
 
 It was early in March, 1 148, that Louis reached 
 Antioch, where Raymond, his wife's uncle, welcomed 
 him kindly, hoping that the French Crusaders would 
 help him to conquer Aleppo and Caesarea. Louis 
 was, however, anxious to reach Jerusalem, and 
 refused the proposal, which was practicable enough, 
 as well as one of similar tenour from his own cousin, 
 the other Raymond of Tripoli. 
 
 Conrad meantime had reached Acre by sea, and 
 after a great council had been held it was decided to 
 march against Damascus. From the place of muster 
 at Tiberias the host, with the Holy Cross at its head, 
 marched across Jordan ; first went the barons of 
 the land under King Baldwin, next the French, and 
 last the Germans. The mud wall that surrounded 
 the famous gardens of Damascus offered no bar to 
 the advance of such an army. But the thick orchards 
 with their narrow footpaths, and their growth of fruit 
 and herbage, formed a far better protection to the 
 
2l8 THE SECOND CRUSADE, 
 
 city. Everywhere through the length and breadth of 
 this vast stretch of green and trees the ambushed 
 Saracens opposed the invaders' progress ; or penned 
 up in lofty buildings, which here and there rose up 
 like stone islands out of a sea of green, shot down 
 their arrows from above. At last, after long fighting, 
 the woods were cleared, and the Christians, wearied 
 out with heat and thirst, made for the river, only to 
 find a fresh army drawn up against them. " Why do 
 we not advance," cried Conrad from the rear, and 
 learning the cause, burs.t through the French battalions 
 to the van. There, in true Teutonic fashion, he and 
 his knights leapt off their war-horses, and, closing up 
 behind their shield-wall, soon swept back the enemy 
 within the city. '' The siege now began in earnest, 
 and would have been brought to a successful issue," 
 says William of Tyre, '' had it not been for the greed 
 of the great princes, who commenced negotiations 
 with the citizens." At the advice of traitors the 
 camp was shifted to the south-west, where, so ran the 
 rumour, the wall was too weak to withstand the 
 feeblest onset. But here the Crusaders found a more 
 deadly enemy than strong fortifications ; for in their 
 new position they were cut off from the river, and 
 deprived of the orchard fruits ; and through lack of 
 food and leadership despair fell upon the host, until 
 men began to talk of retreat. There was jealousy, 
 likewise, between the Syrian Franks and their Western 
 allies, and out of this too fertile source of evil Anar, 
 the Vizir of Damascus, was not slow to reap profit 
 for himself He pointed out to the former the folly 
 of helping their brethren to seize Damascus, the cap- 
 
SIEGE OF DAMASCUS. 219 
 
 ture of which would be but the prelude to the seizing 
 of Jerusalem also. His arguments, supported as they 
 doubtless were with bribes, brought about the aban- 
 donment of the siege. A proposal to besiege Ascalon 
 was also defeated by the jealousy of the Syrian 
 Franks, and after a while Conrad sailed home in 
 disgust. 
 
 Louis stayed in Palestine till Easter, 1 149, and 
 then he too went home by sea. Despite his own 
 -misfortunes he never lost his interest in his Eastern 
 brethren. Time after time the later kings of Jeru- 
 salem appealed to him for aid. In his latter years he 
 sent Geoffrey Fulcher, the Templar,' to visit the Holy 
 Places on his behalf; with one letter Geoffrey sends 
 home the royal ring with which he had in the king's 
 name touched each sacred shrine. In 1151, after 
 news reached France of the death of Raymond of 
 Antioch, Louis' great minister, Suger, though he had 
 urgently opposed the king's own Crusade, would 
 have organised" another on his own account had not 
 death cut him off in the midst of his plans. Next 
 year Louis divorced his wife Eleanor, at too long 
 afi interval for us to supp ose that his action was in 
 reality7"^s alleged, for her misconduct on the Cru- 
 sade. Yet Eleanor was beyond all doubt in some 
 degree concerned in the intrigues which led to the 
 final failure of the expedition. Scandal connected 
 her name with that of her uncle, Raymond of 
 Antioch, and though that prince may have only 
 sought to find through her influence some means for 
 diverting the Crusading host to his own aggrandise- 
 ment, his conduct certainly excited the jealousy of 
 
220 THE SECOND CRUSADE. 
 
 l^oms,^ Raymond's disappointmen-t, whether in love 
 J cJrin war, and Louis' suspicion, were not unimportant 
 factors in the ruin of the expedition. Other tales of 
 a more fabulous character make Eleanor ride, like 
 another Penthesilea, at the head of a band of Amazon 
 ladies, and represent her as the heroine of amours 
 with Saladin, then a mere boy of thirteen. ^^=^--^^ 
 
 The miserable termination of the Second Crusade 
 excited in Western Europe a feeling of humiliation 
 and wrath, which vented itself on Bernard as the 
 prime mover in the enterprise. To Bernard himself 
 the disaster came as the bitterest of blows. " We 
 have fallen on evil days," he writes, " in which the 
 Lord, provoked by our sins, has judged the world, 
 with justice indeed, but not with His wonted mercy. 
 . . . The sons of the Church have been overthrown 
 in the desert, slain with the sword, or destroyed by 
 famine. We promised good things, and behold dis- 
 order ! The judgments of the Lord are righteous, but 
 this one is an abyss so deep that I must call him 
 blessed who is not scandalised therein." 
 
 Disastrous as the Second Crusade was for the 
 fortunes and fame of those who had taken the chief 
 part in its inception and performance, it was of little 
 more service to the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. It 
 did not materially weaken th(i Mohammedans, nor 
 substantially strengthen the Syrian Franks, whilst the 
 seeds of mutual distrust that were now sown between 
 the latter and their Western brethren were to continue 
 to bear bitter fruit. One episode alone serves to brighten 
 this dark page of history. A North European fleet, 
 chiefly composed of English, conquered Lisbon from 
 
MISERABLE TERMINATION. 
 
 221 
 
 the Moors, and thus rendered a lasting service to. 
 Christianity. It is with pardonable pride that our 
 English chroniclers dwell on the contrast between 
 this achievement of a humble band of pilgrims, and 
 the disaster which attended the great and splendid 
 host, that had gone forth under the leadership of 
 emperor and king to be swept away like a spider's 
 web. 
 
% 
 
 XV. 
 
 LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 (1143-I169.) 
 
 •* O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? 
 Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. How can it be 
 quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and 
 against the sea shore? " — Jeremiah xlvii. 6, 7. 
 
 § I. Baldwin III. and Ascalon. 
 
 On Christmas Day, 1 143, six weeks after his 
 father's death, the youthful Baldwin IIL was crowned 
 and anointed by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. For 
 some years the land was ruled by his mother Meli- 
 send — a woman " well-skilled in all secular matters, 
 and so far above her sex as to be able to put her 
 hand to great deeds." 
 
 But young as he was Baldwin soon showed signs 
 of the warlike stock from which he had sprung, and 
 in the second year of his reign undertook a somewhat 
 rash and hazardous expedition across the Jordan. 
 Anar, the Vizir of Damascus, had a quarrel with the 
 Governor of Bostra in the Hauran, who offered to sur- 
 render the city to Baldwin. The temptation was too 
 
EXPEDITION TO BOSTRA. 2^3 
 
 great for Latin honesty to resist, and the forces of the 
 kingdom were mustered at Tiberias. It was in vain 
 that Anar offered to buy the invaders off, Baldwin 
 declared that his honour was at stake, and led out his 
 army to the plain of Medan. Here the Franks were 
 surrounded at night by the enemy ; retreat was im- 
 possible, and with the knights at their head the army 
 slowly made its way to Adhirah or Adratum,^ the 
 city of Baldwin d'Etampes. Three days later they 
 sighted Bostra from afar, but that very night came 
 the news that Nur-ed-din's troops had been admitted 
 to the city. There seemed to be no course but to 
 retreat with what speed they could. Some advised 
 that the king at least should secure his own safety, and 
 that of the Holy Cross, by riding off on John Goman's 
 horse, the fleetest and strongest in the host, but this 
 Baldwin refused as unworthy of a king. 
 
 Morning broke and showed Nur-ed-din issuing 
 from the city at the head of a huge army, to join the 
 Turks, who hung on the Christian rear. The retreat 
 began, but without any fear or precipitancy in the 
 " iron people " of the Franks. The sick and even the 
 dead with arms in their nerveless hands were set updn 
 camels and packhorses to give the appearance of 
 strength where none existed. At first the Franks 
 held their own, but when the smoke from the adjoin- 
 ing thickets that had been fired by the Saracens was 
 blown in their faces by the wind, their sufferings 
 became unendurable. " Pray for us," cried the soldiers, 
 as they raised their blackened faces to the Holy Cross, 
 which was borne by Robert, Archbishop of Nazareth. 
 
 * The modern Edra ; Bostra is now Bosrah."^^ 
 
224 I-OSS AND GAIN. 
 
 Robert turned the sacred relic towards the flames, and 
 as he did so the wind seemed to shift and carry the 
 smoke back upon the foe. Thus the Franks obtained 
 a respite, but they had no guide, and the way by 
 which they were returning was unfamiHar. From this 
 fresh strait they were again miraculously delivered ; 
 fc* there went before them on a white steed an 
 unknown knight with a red banner in his hands ; 
 lilce an angel of the Lord he led them by easy stages 
 to unsuspected waters, and in three days conducted 
 them across the waste from the Cave of Roab to 
 Gadara. 
 
 At first Baldwin and his mother ruled conjointly 
 without any jealousy. But when the young king 
 was grown to manhood, busy flatterers persuaded him 
 that such dependence was unworthy. Melisend had 
 appointed as constable of the kingdom Manasses de 
 Herges, her father's sister's son. Manasses' haughty 
 bearing angered the great nobles and the young king, 
 who accordingly resolved to deprive his mother of all 
 authority. So at Easter, 1152, Baldwin refused to let 
 his mother share in the ceremony of his coronation 
 at Jerusalem, and demanded one half of the kingdom 
 for himself. After much discussion the king was 
 assigned Tyre and Ajcre with the coast, his mother 
 JerusaleirT and Nablus. But this did not content 
 Baldwin, who soon afterwards expelled Manasses 
 from the kingdom, seized Nablus, and besieged his 
 mother in Jerusalem. The citizens opened the gates 
 to the king, and Melisend, after a few days' resis- 
 tance in the Tower of David, was forced to capitu- 
 late. Nablus was restored to her, but from this time 
 
COVER OF QUEEN MELISEND'S PSALTER. 
 
226 LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 she led a retired life till her death on the_^jth^of 
 
 For fifty years Ascalon had been as an open sore 
 in the side of the Franks. Now that Baldwin was 
 master of his kingdom, he determined on a great 
 effort for its reduction. Four years previously he had 
 rebuilt Gaza, and put it in the hands of the Templars ; 
 this fortress, with the previous ones at Gibelin, Ibelin, 
 and Blanchegarde, ringed Ascalon in upon the south, 
 the east, and the north. 
 
 For so great an enterprise all the forces of the land 
 were called up, and on the 25th of January, 1153, the 
 siege was began. Gerard of Sidon was stationed off* 
 the harbour with a fleet to prevent all succour from 
 Egypt. For six months the town was besieged 
 without effect, the defenders keeping careful guard, 
 and by night hanging glazed lamps along the walls 
 that gave light as in the day, and prevented any 
 attack under cover of the dark. When Easter brought 
 its usual complement of pilgrims, Baldwin, by an 
 arbitrary exercise of his kingly power, called up all, 
 pilgrims and sailors alike, from the ports, and forbade 
 any vessels to sail for Europe. The ships themselves 
 he bought, and of their timbers constructed wooden 
 castles and the various warlike engines of mediaeval 
 warfare. 
 
 After a time a fleet was sent from Egypt to the 
 succour of the town. Gerard of Sidon fled in terror 
 from his post, whilst the townsfolk gathered fresh 
 courage, and would have burnt the wooden castle 
 near the eastern gate, had not a sudden wind driven 
 the flames back upon the city wall. Then was their 
 
THE CAPTURE OF ASCALON, 227 
 
 device turned to their own destruction, for the fire 
 secured such a hold that it could not be subdued. 
 At daybreak the sound of a mighty crash roused the 
 sleeping host to discover that a great part of the wall 
 had fallen. The Templars, headed by their master, 
 Bernard de Tremelay, eager to secure the city for 
 themselves, rushed recklessly into the breach. Ther? 
 refusing all other help, they were cut off from retreat, 
 and the master with forty of his knights fell victims to 
 their greed or to their valour. The citizens then repaired 
 the breach by a temporary defence, whilst the Chris- 
 tians turned back to their tents almost ready to 
 abandon the siege. Baldwin himself was in favour of 
 retreat, but at last the other party, led by the patri- 
 arch and Raymond, Master of the Hospitallers, 
 prevailed. Once more the trumpets sounded to 
 arms, and after a terrible fight that lasted all day the 
 Christians were victorious. The men of Ascalon now 
 sued for terms, and on the I2th of August were 
 suffered to depart for Egypt with their wives, their 
 children, and their goods. The Christians, with the 
 Holy Cross at their head, then entered Ascalon, 
 which was bestowed on the king's brother,_Amalric, 
 who from this time appears in charters as the Count 
 of Ascalon. 
 
 Four years later, in 1157, the arrival of the veteran 
 Crusader, Xheodoric of Flanders, with his wife Sibylla, 
 the king's half-sister, encouraged Baldwin to an enter- 
 prise in the north. The moment was propitious, for 
 Nur-ed-din lay sick, as it seemed, unto death, but the 
 usual jealousies among the leaders destroyed the 
 opportunity. Siege was laid to Caesarea on the 
 
228 LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 Orontes, a fortress which Nur-ed-din had lately cap- 
 tured from its lord a cousin of the famous Saracen 
 warrior and poet, Ossama, whose autobiography has 
 been recently and strangely recovered. The Cru- 
 saders soon forced their way into the town, and 
 might easily have mastered the citadel had not 
 quarrels broken out in their ranks.^ Baldwin, sup- 
 ported by the great lords, designed the city for 
 Theodoric of Flanders ; but Reginald of Ch^tillon, 
 a French adventurer, whom Constance of Antioch 
 had taken for her second husband, claimed it as 
 part of his principalit}^ and declared that whoever 
 possessed it must do homage to him. This was more 
 than the proud spirit of the Flemish count could bear : 
 he had never done homage save to kings. At last, 
 unable to agree among themselves, they broke up the 
 siege and returned to Antioch. Early next year the 
 Crusaders took Harenc, which was entrusted to 
 Reginald of St. Valery. Theodoric and Baldwin 
 then went south, and after some further achievements 
 Theodoric returned home, reaching Arras in August, 
 1159. 
 
 In the previous year Baldwin, desirous to secure 
 a closer alliance with Constantinople, had sent envoys 
 to beg a member of the Imperial family for his bride. 
 Manuel consented, and despatched his niece Theo- 
 dora, a girl of thirteen, with a splendid dowry of 
 one hundred thousand besants, not to speak of 
 bridal gifts worth forty thousand more. Theodora 
 reached Tyre in September, 11 59, and a few days 
 
 * It is doubtful whether the siege was about Christmas, 1157 or 11 58; 
 but the latter date seems more probable. 
 
MANUEL AT ANTIOCH. 
 
 229 
 
 later was crowned at Jerusalem. Shortly afterwards 
 Manuel returned the compliment by asking for a 
 French bride. His envoys rejected Melisend, the 
 sister of Raymond of Tripoli, in favour of the 
 superior beauty of Maria of Antioch. The rejec- 
 tion of his sister so enraged Raymond that he turned 
 ihe twelve galleys, which he had prepared for his 
 sister's escort, into pirate barks, and laid waste the 
 mainland and islands of the Empire, sparing neither 
 age nor sex. 
 
 In the summer of 11 59 Manuel appeared with a 
 
 COIN OF MANUEL. 
 
 vast army in Cilicia. He came so suddenly that 
 Thoros, the Armenian prince, could barely escape from 
 Tarsus to the mountains. Reginald, who had been 
 scheming with Thoros against the Greeks, presented 
 himself humbly at Mamistra. Barefooted and bare- 
 armed, with a rope round his neck, he fell prostrate 
 before his offended lord, and so " turned the glory of 
 the Latins into shame." Manuel was pleased to be 
 reconciled, and proceeded towards Syria. Near 
 Antioch h? met Baldwin, who also showed due 
 humility, sitting on a lowly seat beside the Imperial 
 
230 LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 throne. Manuel then entered Antioch in triumph, 
 Reginald holding his horse's bridle, and Baldwin, 
 stripped of all regal ornaments, riding at his side. 
 The presence of so enormous an army alarmed Nur- 
 ed-din, who promised to release all his Christian 
 captives. " On these conditions," says the Greek 
 historian, " the Emperor stayed his hand ; " but the 
 forbearance was more probably dictated by the news 
 of a conspiracy at Constantinople. 
 
 After Manuel's departure, Nur-ed-din took Marash 
 and Cresson from Kilij Arslan. Baldwin seized the 
 opportunity to ravage the territory of Damascus, but 
 Saladin's father, Ayub, who was governor of the city, 
 bought him off by a bribe of four thousand besants. 
 About the same time (November 23, 1161), Reginald 
 of Antioch fell into an ambuscade near Cresson, and 
 was carried prisoner to Aleppo. Nur-ed-din then 
 extended his ravages to Tripoli and Harenc, and was 
 only checked from going further by the approach of 
 Baldwin. 
 
 Baldwin came to Antioch in the autumn of 1162. 
 According to the custom of the time, he took some 
 pills from Barek, the Count of Tripoli's doctor, to 
 fortify his constitution against the winter. A feverish 
 dysentery ensued, and getting no better, he proceeded 
 first to Tripoli, and then to Beyrout, where he died, 
 February 10, 1163, in the thirty-third year of his 
 age. His body was carried to Jerusalem and buried 
 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with his 
 ancestors. Wherever the corpse was brought, says 
 William of Tyre, there was mourning such as was 
 never shown for any prince in history. The very 
 
CHARACTER OF BALDWIN III. 23 1 
 
 dwellers in the hills came down to share in the 
 funeral procession as it slowly wound on its eight 
 days' march from Beyrout to Jerusalem. Even the 
 Saracens sympathised, and Nur-ed-din, when advised 
 to seize the opportunity for an inroad, refused with 
 noble scorn : " We ought to pity this people's 
 .righteous sorrow, for they have lost a prince whose 
 like is not now left in the world." 
 
 Baldwin was, tall of stature and largely built, 
 comely featured and of a florid complexion, with 
 prominent eyes, yellowish hair, and a somewhat full 
 beard. William of Tyre praises him for his attention 
 to the church services, but admits that before his 
 marriage he had been licentious. He had many of 
 the qualities most useful for a ruler. He was affable 
 to all men, and would jest with his friends in public ; 
 more than this, he could bear a joke at his own 
 expense. He was kind-hearted and generous, but 
 somewhat careless as to how he supplied his pecuniary 
 needs. He had a quick intellect and a good memory. 
 His knowledge of the customary law of his realm 
 astonished his own nobles, who came to him for 
 advice on legal difficulties. Above all else he was 
 commode litteratus^ by which we may infer that he 
 knew Latin. What time he could spare from public 
 business he used to devote to reading. History was 
 his favourite study ; he delighted to read about the 
 deeds of ancient kings, and loved to converse with 
 learned clerks and wise laymen. Both nobles and 
 people loved him ; for he was patient in hardships, 
 and a wary leader in war, who never lost his presence 
 of mind even in the most adverse circumstances. 
 
232 LOSS AND GAIN. 
 
 § 2. T/ie Struggle for E^pt. 
 
 The history of Egypt during the twelfth century is 
 nothing but a record of waning power and bloodshed. 
 The Caliph was overshadowed by the vizir, whose 
 authority was tempered by assassination or rebellion. 
 In 1 154, Abbas, the vizir, and his son, Nasr-ed din, 
 at the instigation of the poet-statesman Ossama, 
 murdered their master, and made his infant son 
 Caliph ; but a speedy retribution came upon them 
 at the hands of Es-Saleh [Talai], Governor of Upper 
 Egypt, and Abbas and his son were driven into the 
 Syrian desert, where the Templars took Nasr-ed-din 
 prisoner. The captive prince was on the point of 
 declaring himself a Christian, when his captors, by a 
 double act of treachery and greed, sold him to his 
 enemy, Es-Saleh. The new vizir after a short reign 
 of six years was stabbed by his emirs in 1161 ; and 
 his son was quickly overthrown by another competitor, 
 Shawir, the Governor of Said. Shawir found a 
 dangerous rival in the Arab Dirgham, and was 
 forced to take refuge with Nur-ed-din. There had 
 thus been three vizirs in one year. 
 
 The relations of the Franks with Egypt at this 
 time are very obscure ; but there are reasons for 
 thinking that the Caliph of Cairo paid annual tribute 
 to Baldwin III. In September, 1163, Amalric made 
 Dirgham's refusal to continue this payment a pretext 
 for declaring war. Dirgham, beaten in battle, saved 
 his land from conquest by letting in the Nile ; and 
 Amalric, unable to contend with nature, drew back into 
 Palestine. Next year Shawir obtained from Nur-ed- 
 
ANARCHY IN EGYPT. 233 
 
 din an army under Shirkuh the Kurd. Dirgham 
 hastened to make terms with Amalric, but before the 
 Franks could come to his aid, Shirkuh was at' Cairo 
 and his opponent dead. 
 
 The presence of Shirkuh soon proved burdensome 
 to Shawir, who in his turn appealed to Amalric. 
 The Prankish king readily accepted the invitation, 
 and besieged Shirkuh at Pelusium in July. After 
 a three months' siege, the news of Nur-ed-din's 
 invasion of Northern Syria made Amalric offer 
 favourable terms, which Shirkuh, ignorant of what 
 was taking place, accepted. 
 
 But Shirkuh, though defeated for the moment, 
 was too enamoured with the wealth of Egypt to 
 entirely abandon his designs ; he bided his time 
 till, in 1 167, his preparations were ready, and he once 
 more started for the Nile. But Amalric was before 
 him, and had already compelled Shawir to renew 
 his submission and increase the tribute, in return for 
 the promise of protection against his dangerous 
 foe. To make his position more sure, the king 
 required that this bargain should be confirmed by 
 the Caliph, for which purpose he despatched Hugh 
 of Caesarea and Geoffrey Fulcher, the Templar, as 
 his ambassadors. Under the guidance of Shawir 
 the two envoys were introduced to the palace of the 
 Caliph. As they passed between marble columns, 
 under golden ceilings, and over floors of rich mosaic, 
 the rude Frank soldiers marvelled at a display such as 
 neither Europe nor their own country could produce. 
 Their astonished eyes gazed on marble fishponds with 
 pellucid water, birds of strange songs and marvellous 
 
234 
 
 LOSS AND GAIN, 
 
 plumage, beasts that seemed to belong rather to the 
 world of art and dreams than that of waking life. 
 At length, in the presence chamber, a pearl- 
 embroidered curtain rose, and revealed the Caliph 
 seated on a golden throne. El-Adid promised all 
 that the envoys asked, but when desired to pledge 
 his honour with his hand, hesitated for a moment 
 before he proffered his gloved hand to Hugh. The 
 rude knight blurted out : " Truth has no covering ; 
 princes when they pledge themselves should have no 
 
 SEAL OF HUGH OF C^ISAREA. 
 
 secret thoughts." The Caliph, with a forced smile, 
 accepted the challenge and drew off his glove. 
 
 After some desultory operations and the arrival of 
 reinforcements from Palestine, Amalric achieved a 
 partial success, which compelled Shirkuh to retreat. 
 The Franks overtook the Turks at Babein. Some of 
 the emirs were for declining battle, but one turned 
 the scale by a few stinging words, in which he bade 
 the cowards stay at home with the women ; Nur-ed- 
 din had sent them to fight, and fight they must. The 
 battle which ensued was indecisive ; though Amalric 
 was victorious in his part of the field, Shirkuh 
 withdrew in safety towards Alejcandria. 
 
SHAWIR, IHIRKUH, AND AMALRIC. 235 
 
 Amalric then determined to lay siege to this 
 important city, the defence of which had been 
 entrusted by Shirkuh to his nephew Saladin. Hard 
 pressed by the Franks without, and in fear of the 
 unfriendly citizens within, Saladin soon found it 
 necessary to appeal to his uncle. Shirkuh him- 
 self had meantime been endeavouring, without 
 success, to capture Cairo, which was held by Hugh 
 of Ibelin. He was therefore ready to come to terms, 
 and an arrangement was made for the surrender of 
 Alexandria, and the complete evacuation of Egypt 
 by the invading Saracens (Aug. 4, 1167). After this 
 success^ Amalric returned to Palestine ; his triumph 
 indeed seemed complete, for a Prankish guard and 
 agent w^ere established at Cairo, and Shawir had to 
 pay a yearly tribute of one hundred thousand dinars. 
 
 Soon after his return, Amalric married on the 29th 
 of August, 1 167, as his second wife, Maria, a grand niece 
 of the Emperor Manuel.^ The Emperor, by pointing 
 out to his ally the weakness of Egypt, and its conse- 
 quent danger from Nur-ed-din, roused him to fresh 
 thoughts of conquest. Amalric's own greed and 
 poverty made him lend a ready ear to the temptation, 
 and before his envoy, William of Tyre, could return 
 from Constantinople, he had determined on a fresh 
 invasion. Contemporary rumour alleged that Gerbert 
 Assallit, master of the Hospital, advised this breach of 
 the peace, in the hope of benefit to his debt-stricken 
 order, and despite the opposition of the Templars. 
 
 ^ His first wife was Agnes, daughter of Joscelin II. of Edessa ; but 
 ecclesiastical influence compelled the king to divorce her early in his 
 reign. 
 
236 LOSS AND GAIN, 
 
 The campaign began in October, 1168; Pelusium 
 was stormed and sacked on 3rd of November, and 
 ten days later Amalric appeared before Cairo ; the 
 Prankish fleet was brought up the Nile, and the city 
 would have surrendered had not Amalric loitered 
 on the march so long. Shawir had, meanwhile, 
 appealed to Nur-ed-din, and now by false promises 
 of money to be paid, deluded the avaricious king, 
 until the approach of Shirkuh in December. Amalric 
 marched back to meet his new enemy in the desert, 
 but Shirkuh slipped by unnoticed, leaving the Franks 
 to return home from their bootless campaign. 
 
 The withdrawal of Amalric sealed the fate of 
 Egypt ; Shawir found his Turkish ally more danger- 
 ous than his Frank foe ; a futile conspiracy by the 
 vizir gave Shirkuh a plausible excuse for beheading 
 the man whom he had come to aid, and establishing 
 himself in his place. Shirkuh held ,the position he 
 had coveted so long for less than three months, and 
 dying on March 23, 1169, was succeeded by his 
 nephew the famous Saladin. 
 
 Meanwhile Manuel and Amalric had concerted a 
 joint campaign for the following autumn ; a Greek 
 fleet was to join with a Latin army in besieging 
 Damietta. Had the design been accomplished the 
 city must have fallen ; but the ships were becalmed, 
 r and the consequent delay gave Saladin time to 
 regarrison Damietta. The siege was however com- 
 menced, and prosecuted with vigour if with little 
 success ; the Greek fleet could not force the boom 
 which blocked the river from^ the sea, whilst above 
 the town the water gave easy access to reinforce- 
 
SALADIN LORD OF EGYPT. 237 
 
 merits ; thus the numbers inside increased, till the 
 besiegers were in greater peril than the besieged. 
 " There crept a murmur through the people, and 
 almost all were of one mind, that our toil was 
 wasted, and that it would be safer to return home 
 than to die by hunger or the sword." So orders 
 were given to raise the siege, and the one formidable 
 armament undertaken by the Greeks and Latins in 
 conjunction came to a disastrous end. 
 
 William of Tyre, who was absent that year from 
 Palestine, says that the king and nobles attributed 
 their failure to Greek fraud. Whatever the truth of 
 their complaints, it is certainly clear that mutual 
 distrust prevented the allies from taking full advan- 
 tage of their opportunities. 
 
 The conquest of Egypt by the lieutenant of Nur- 
 ed-din was important for Islam, inasmuch as it led 
 two years later to the suppression of the Fatimite 
 caliphate, an event which was soon followed by 
 the death of the hapless prince El-Adid. Yet more 
 important was the fact that the wealth of the Nile 
 was now at the disposal of the lord of Aleppo and 
 Damascus, who from his ports of Damietta and 
 Alexandria could attack the yearly pilgrim fleets, and 
 thus as it were sever the main artery of the Christian 
 kingdom. The full effects of the conquest were not, 
 however, to be felt as yet, for Saladin was but an 
 unruly vassal. Still the time was only deferred when 
 the valleys of the Orontes and Nile would own but 
 one master in fact and in name. When that day 
 arrived no human power could well have saved the 
 kingdom of Jerusalem from its fate. 
 
XVI. 
 
 THE RIVAL KINGS — NUR-ED-DIN AND AMALRIC. 
 (I163-II74.) 
 
 " The fierce joy that warriors feel 
 In foemen worthy of their steel." 
 Scott. 
 
 Zangi'S death had secured a respite for the 
 kingdom of Jerusalem, through the division of his 
 dominions, and the not unnatural jealousy of his 
 sons. Nur-ed-din at Aleppo regarded his elder 
 brother with a feeling of suspicion, which Sayf-ed- 
 din's generous conduct with some difficulty dispelled. 
 On Sayf-ed-din's death in 1 149, there was again some 
 danger of open war between Aleppo and Mosul. 
 But by the mediation of Jamal-ed-din the Vizir, who 
 pointed out that whichever was victorious, the real 
 advantage would rest with the Franks, a compromise 
 was arranged under which Mosul was left to a third 
 brother Kutb-ed-din till his death in 1170. 
 
 Nur-ed-din's character was marked by craft and 
 greed, yet he was one of the greatest princes that 
 ever ruled in Syria. The Christians themselves 
 
CHARACTER OF l^UR-ED-DIN. 239 
 
 acknowledged his valour and success ; to the Moham- 
 medans of this century and the next he was a model 
 of every virtue. " Though so great a persecutor of 
 Christians," writes William of Tyre, " he was a just 
 ruler, wise, and religious, so far as the traditions of 
 his race permitted." It was for his justice above 
 all that his subjects loved him ; he would take no 
 unjust tax from his vast dominions, but like any 
 private man lived of his own ; when his wife com- 
 plained of her poverty, and slighted a gift of three 
 shops in Emesa as insignificant, " I have nought else, 
 for all I have I hold only as treasurer for the faithful," 
 was his reply. He once left his game of ball to 
 appear before the cadi at the suit of a private person, 
 and when the decision was given in his favour, resigned 
 his claim in favour of his opponent. His justice 
 enticed strangers to his dominions, one of whom, 
 after his death, having appealed to Saladin in vain, 
 went in tears to the tomb of INIur-ed-din. The 
 popular sympathy forced Saladin at last to make 
 recompense ; the man then wept again, and when 
 Saladin asked his reason, replied that he wept for a 
 ruler who could do justice even in the grave. 
 
 Though himself a skilful warrior, and like his father 
 careful of his soldiers' rights Nur-ed-din would permit 
 no plundering. Yet his followers loved him, and 
 stood firm in battle, for they knew that if they 
 perished their master would be true to their children. 
 When some of his soldiers grunibled at his bounty to 
 the dervishes, he rebuked them saying, " These men 
 have a right to live at the public expense ; I am 
 grateful to them for being content with only a 
 
240 THE RIVAL KINGS. 
 
 part of what they might justly claim. So, too^ 
 when an emir slandered a learned doctor from 
 Khorassan, Nur-ed-din replied, " If you speak ill 
 of him, I shall punish you severely, even though 
 you tell the truth. His good qualities are enough to 
 cover his faults, whereas you and your like have vices 
 many times greater than your virtues." 
 
 Nur-ed-din was a great builder, and provided for 
 the re-fortification of the chief cities of Syria, especi- 
 ally after the earthquake of 1 169. He raised mosques 
 everywhere, and founded hospitals in various towns. 
 Many years after, Ibn El-Athir, disgusted with his paid 
 physician sought advice from the hospital at Damas- 
 cus ; he would have paid for the service done him, 
 but his gift was refused, with the remark, " Doubtless 
 you are rich enough to pay, but here no one is too 
 proud to accept the gifts of Nur-ed-din." 
 
 The Mohammedan law as regards food, drink, and 
 dress was carefully observed by Nur-ed-din, who 
 unlike previous rulers enforced the same obedience 
 on his subjects. His court was marked by a strict- 
 ness of etiquette, which did not suffer any one to sit 
 in his presence, except Ayub, the father of Saladin. 
 Very different was that of Saladin, where a visitor 
 found himself unable to make the Sultan hear through 
 the babble of so many voices all talking at once ; " At 
 Nur-ed-din's court," he exclaimed, " Nur-ed-din's sight 
 alone made us as motionless as if we had a bird 
 perched on our heads ; in silence we listened when he 
 spoke, and he in turn lent attention to our speech." 
 
 One amusement alone did Nur-ed-din permit him- 
 self — namely, the game of " ball on horseback," a 
 
THE DEFENDER OF ISLAM. 241 
 
 pastime which appealed to him as a rider of unusual 
 skill. When reproached for this, he replied : " I do 
 not play to amuse myself, but for needful recreation, 
 since a soldier cannot always be fighting. Moreover, 
 while playing at this game, we have our horses ready 
 against a sudden attack by the foe. Before God this 
 is my only reason for playing." " Rarely," says Ibn 
 El-Athir, "has a prince made of his very amusements 
 an act of high dev^otion." 
 
 There was much of high religious feeling in Nur- 
 ed-din's character, and this feeling permeated his 
 whole life of active warfare against the Christian 
 intruder. When told how his brother had lost an 
 eye in fighting for the Holy Cause, Nur-ed-din 
 refused to offer his condolence, " for could my brother 
 but see what Allah hath in store for him in Paradise, 
 he would willingly lose his other eye in such a cause." 
 Nor was Nur-ed-din any more regardful of his own 
 safety. One day a friend rebuked him for his care- 
 lessness, bidding him consider what would become of 
 Islam should its chief defender fall. " Who," was 
 Nur-ed-din's noble reply, " who is Mahmud (/>., 
 himself) that you should speak thus of him. Our 
 country and religion have a defender better than me, 
 and that defender is God." 
 
 In his earlier years Nur-ed-din could venture only 
 on foraging raids. But gradually his power grew, 
 and in 1 154, as we have already seen, he captured 
 Damascus.! Good fortune attended him, for Joscelin 
 of Edessa had already become his prisoner, and a few 
 years later in 1161 Reginald de Chatillon, prince of 
 
 ^ See above, p. 206. 
 
242 
 
 THE RIVAL KINGS. 
 
 Antioch, whilst engaged in a plundering expedition 
 to the west of the Euphrates, fell into an ambuscade 
 and was taken prisoner to Aleppo. The young Bohe- 
 mond then assumed the rule of his principality. Nur- 
 ed-din conceived that the occasion was favourable for 
 an attack, and in 1163 invaded the county of Tripoli. 
 A force of Aquitanian pilgrims recently arrived under 
 Geoffrey Martel, together with the Templars under 
 Gilbert de Lacy, and a body of Welshmen under 
 Robert Mansel, opposed the Turks with such success 
 
 SEAL OF REGINALD DE CHATILLON. 
 
 that Nur-ed-din himself barely escaped with his life. 
 In .the following year Nur-ed-din's turn came ; whilst 
 many Franks were absent in Egypt he laid siege to 
 Harenc ; Bohemond of Antioch and Raymond of 
 Tripoli forced him to raise the siege, but in the subse- 
 quent engagement were defeated and carried prisoners 
 to Aleppo. It was the news of this disaster that 
 compelled Amalrfc to concede such favourable terms 
 to Shirkuh. 
 
 There is no need to trace the progress of Nur-ed- 
 
DEATH OF NUR-ED-DIN, 243 
 
 din's power during the next few years. But in 1 170 
 the death of Kutb-ed-din of Mosul gave Nur-ed-din 
 an opportunity to interfere in that quarter to the 
 advantage of his own power. Saladin was, however, 
 already threatening to prove a dangerous rival, and 
 would lend his nominal lord no aid against the 
 Franks, lest their subjection should be but the pre- 
 lude to his own. The danger at last forced Nur-ed- 
 din to contemplate an invasion of Egypt. In this 
 strait Saladin's father recommended his son to adopt 
 a policy of submission, pointing out in private that 
 humility would avert the intended invasion, and that 
 destiny meanwhile would run its course. This policy 
 had its due effect, and Nur-ed-din found sufficient 
 employment in warfare with the Franks and the 
 Sultan of Iconium until his death on May 15, 1 174. 
 
 The death of Nur-ed-din was followed speedily by 
 dissensions in Syria. His son and successor, El-Malek 
 Es-Saleh, was a boy of eleven, whose weakness led his 
 cousin of Mosul to conquer at his expense. In these 
 troubles Saladin saw his opportunity ; on Novem- 
 ber 28, 1 174, he entered Damascus, and a month later, 
 having captured Emesa and Hamah on his way, laid 
 siege to Aleppo, from which a threatened invasion 
 by the Franks soon forced him to withdraw. The 
 intervention of Sayf-ed-din of Mosul led only to his 
 own defeat, and almost to the final displacement of 
 Es-Saleh, who, however, continued to rule over a 
 diminished, territory till his death at the end of 1181. 
 
 We must now return to consider the last years of 
 the reign of Amalric. Throughout his reign that 
 prince had felt that his chief hope of support lay in 
 
244 ^^^ RIVAL KINGS. 
 
 a close alliance with Constantinople, and his return 
 from his last Egyptian expedition was shortly fol- 
 lowed by a visit to the Byzantine capital. Manuel 
 received him nobly, ''as was due to the king of 
 Jerusalem and the advocate and defender of the 
 venerable scenes of our Lord's passion and resurrec- 
 tion." Etiquette forbade even a king to sit in the 
 Emperor's presence when he received in state, but 
 after Amalric had entered the royal chamber, cur- 
 tains fell suddenly and excluded the greater number 
 of the courtiers. Manuel then rose from his golden 
 throne, embraced his guest, and set him on a lowly 
 seat hard by. But though the Emperor lent a ready 
 ear to his visitor's projects for the easy conquest 
 of Egypt, and distributed gifts with splendid magni- 
 ficence, he went no further, and Amalric returned 
 home a disappointed, if a richer, man. 
 
 The events of the previous year had probably 
 moved Amalric to thus seek the aid of the Emperor. 
 In June, 1170, a great earthquake had well-nigh 
 ruined many cities of Northern Syria. Antioch, 
 Tripoli, and Tyre, as well as the Mohammedan cities 
 of Hamah, Emesa, and Aleppo, all shared in the 
 disaster. The earthquakes continued during three 
 or four months, and imposed upon the warring races 
 a short period of peace, for " each man was occupied 
 by his private misfortune, and while harassed by his 
 own grief, forbore to set troubles for another." In the 
 following December Saladin took advantage of the 
 prevalent weakness to attack Darum, a fortress which 
 was held by the Templars. Amalric hurried up 
 in time to save the citadel, but not the town. 
 
THE TEMPLARS AND THE ASSASSINS. 245 
 
 Saladin, however, managed to slip past him to Gaza, 
 and there, too, succeeded in sacking the town and 
 mercilessly slayiiig the defenceless citizens and 
 country folk who had congregated for safety. The 
 citadel was kept safely by its warden, Milo de Planci, 
 who wickedly refused its shelter to the Christian 
 fugitives. With this measure of success Saladin was 
 content to go back to Egypt, whilst Amalric busied 
 himself with the restoration of his fortresses. 
 
 The last days of Amalric were embittered by the 
 ambition of the Templars. The castles of that order 
 hemmed in the mountainous territory of the Assas- 
 sins, from whom the knights exacted a yearly tribute. 
 In the hope of escaping this impost the chief of the 
 Assassins offered to turn Christian ; ^ Amalric readily 
 
 * The name Assassin or Hash ashin means hemp-eaters, and was 
 applied to the sect from the use of a drug prepared from this plant, 
 during the initiation of members or to nerve them for any extraordi- 
 nary effort. The sect owed its origin to a Persian named Hasan ben 
 Sabeh who, after a life of unprincipled adventure, became an Ismailite, 
 and for a time settled in Egypt. Eventually in 1090 he established 
 himself at Alamut south of the Caspian, where his successors main- 
 tained themselves till overthrown by Hulagu in 1256. Hasan's influ- 
 ence was political rather than religious ; his teaching enforced a blind 
 obedience to the grand master's behest, and for nearly two centuries his 
 followers were the terror of east and west. Early in the twelfth century 
 the Assassins began to multiply in Syria. By purchase or conquest 
 they became masters of a ring of fortresses east of Tortosa among the 
 mountains of Lebanon. Their first prior in Syria died in 1169, and it 
 Mas his successor Sinan who sent this embassy to Amalric. Sinan 
 seems to have introcluced fresh tenets into his creed ; he threw off the 
 authority of his nominal lord at Alamut, and in later days is said to have 
 declared himself an incarnation of the Deity. He died in 1192. Eighty 
 years later (he Assassins of Syria were reduced to political subjection 
 by Bibars, but a scanty remnant of the Ismailites still hang round 
 the ruins of their old fortresses. 
 
246 . THE RIVAL KINGS. 
 
 acceded, and promised to recompense the knights out 
 of his own purse. The Templars, however, distrusted 
 his goodwill or his power, and at the instigation of 
 Walter de Maisnil, '' an evil man with one eye," slew 
 the envoys of the Assassins on the borders of Tripoli. 
 Such a crime enraged the whole kingdom, but Odo 
 de St. Amand, the Master of the Temple, claimed the 
 right to punish his knights as he choose, and pro- 
 tected the murderers. Amalric could not brook such 
 defiance ; with the assent of his council, he seized the 
 offenders by force and sent them in chains to Tyre ; 
 probably he would have pursued the matter further 
 had it not been for his own sudden death. 
 
 When Nur-ed-din died in May, 1174, Amalric, un- 
 like his great and generous rival, had no compunction 
 about invading a kingless realm ; he accordingly 
 laid siege to Banias, but allowed himself to be 
 bought off by Nur-ed-din's widow, and withdrew to 
 Tiberias. There he was seized wuth a dysentery, but 
 would not take to his bed or suffer himself to be 
 carried in a litter; on horseback he rode through 
 Nazareth and Nablus to Jerusalem. His illness 
 increasing he desired the Greek and Syrian physi- 
 cians, who were in attendance, to give him a purging 
 draught, and when they refused had resort to the 
 more compliant but less skilful Latin doctors. For a 
 time he seemed to improve, but the disease returned 
 with fresh violence, and on July 11, 11 74, Amalric 
 died in the thirty-eighth year of his age. 
 
 Amalric was of middle height, and somewhat 
 corpulent, but of comely features and a presence 
 which proclaimed his rank. He had bright eyes and 
 
CHARACTER OF AMALRIC. 247 
 
 an aquiline nose, with golden hair and a full beard. 
 In manner he lacked the gracious affability which 
 had endeared his brother to all classes of his subjects, 
 and would rarely enter into familiar conversation. 
 Neither was he so well educated as Baldwin had been, 
 but his understanding was quick, and his tenacious 
 memory made good use of his scanty leisure. History 
 was his favourite study, and his liberality supplied 
 William of Tyre with manuscripts for the compila- 
 tion of his great work on Arabic history, now unfor- 
 tunately lost. His serious disposition gave him no 
 taste for plays or dice, though he was passionately 
 fond of hawking. Though regular in religious 
 observances he seems to have been something of a 
 sceptic, and perhaps a disbeliever in the immortality 
 of the soul. In his private life he was very licentious 
 and in his public much given to avarice ; this latter 
 failing he excused on the plea that if a prince 
 saved he was less likely to rob his subjects, and better 
 equipped against a sudden emergency ; certainly, 
 when his realm was in peril, he spared neither his 
 purse nor person, and even in private matters was 
 often liberal, as when he subscribed largely to ransom 
 his cousin Raymond of Tripoli. 
 
 With all his faults Amalric had many of the 
 qualities of a great ruler, and his death at this 
 moment was a serious blow to the kingdom of Jeru- 
 salem. So valorous and so politic a king would 
 doubtless have been able to reap some advantage 
 from the weakness of the heir of Nur-ed-din, and the 
 ambitious rivalry of Saladin. Would but the princes 
 of the West have forgotten their private feuds, and 
 
248 THE RIVAL KINGS, 
 
 supported the great but futile expedition that Wil- 
 liam of Sicily sent against Alexandria this self-same 
 year; would but the Eastern Franks and the Greeks 
 have cordially united for once, there is no telling 
 what successes might have resulted. But there was 
 how no hand that could unite for one purpose the 
 scattered forces of Christendom. Armies that might 
 have shattered the realm so slowly and laboriously 
 built up by Zangi and Nur-ed-din, were dissipated 
 in predatory raids and desultory enterprises. The 
 Sicilian fleet sailed back from Alexandria after a 
 purposeless siege of a week; Manuel turned his 
 arms against the Sultan of Rum and met with 
 signal disaster; the forces contributed by Western 
 Europe were not the chivalry of two kingdoms, 
 but the scanty following of an English earl and a 
 Flemish count. The opportunity was lost and 
 never returned. The death of Amalric was the 
 knell of his kingdom. 
 
XVII. 
 
 THE RISE OF SALADIN. 
 
 (II74-II85.) 
 
 *' Solo in parfe vidi '1 Saladiho." 
 
 Dante, Inferno, iv. 129. 
 (" Alwne and apart I beheld Saladin.") 
 
 The successor of Amalric was his son Baldwin, a 
 boy of barely thirteen, who through his mother, Agnes 
 of Edessa, inherited the blood of the house of 
 Cpurtenay as welLas of that of Anjou. His fathe'" 
 had taken the greatest care for his education, and 
 entrusted him, when only nine years old, to William 
 of Tyre, as one of a little group of noble youths to 
 whom the great historian imparted some of that 
 Western lore with which his own«mind was so copiously 
 stored. Baldwin did not fail to do his tutor credit ; 
 he had a quick apprehension and a retentive memory, 
 and like both his father and uncle was an eager lover 
 of history. He was of comely form, much resembling 
 his father Dotn m manner and appearance, and even 
 in his youth gave promise of rare abilities should he 
 reach maturer age. But despite the good qualities, 
 
 S49 
 
250 THE RISE OF SALADIN. 
 
 which have made him one of the true hero kings of 
 history, his friend and tutor could not look on him 
 without sympathy and tears, for Baldwin was a leper. 
 
 He was still a child when the first symptoms of 
 the fell disease appeared. When playing with his 
 comrades the lads would test one another's endurance 
 by running their nails into each other's arms. Baldwin 
 alone would give no sign of pain ; this indifference, 
 which was at first taken as a sign of strength of will, 
 proved to be due to the absence of any power of 
 feeling in his right hand and arm. Later on he 
 became a hopeless leper ; and though he was for a 
 time carried even on warlike expeditions in a litter, 
 he was at length compelled to renounce his royal 
 duties and appoint a regent. After a short but heroic 
 life harassed with continual misfortune he died_when 
 only twenty-three, leaving_hisJdngdom on the wergQ 
 of ruin. 
 
 The influence which Milo de^lajK:! had possessed 
 under Amalric pointed toTiim as the guardian of the 
 young king. But the great barons could not brook 
 the rule of a stranger from Champagne, and turned 
 to Raymond II. of Tripoli as their head. Raymond 
 was the most powerful and wealthy noble in the realm, 
 and claimed the guartiianship of the king as his next 
 of kin, and as a debt of gratitude that he owed to 
 Amalric. The dispute was still unsettled, when the 
 murder of Milo at Acre in the.^autumn of 1174 
 removed the chief obstacle to Raymond's ambition. 
 
 Raymond, who was now about thirty years old, 
 was descended not only from the hero of the First 
 Crusade, but also, through his mother, from Baldwin 
 
RAYMOND 11. OF TRIPOLI. 
 
 251 
 
 II. His character must be judged by the subsequent 
 events of his life ; but this much may be remarked, 
 that he had won the esteem of William of Tyre, who 
 may almost be said to write as a partisan whenever 
 the Count of Tripoli is in question. In person 
 Raymond was slightly built, with sharp visage and 
 
 flashi g eyes ; in character he was prudent and 
 cautious, though he could be vigorous in an emer- 
 gency. To his own hereditary county he had added 
 
 SEAL OF RAYMOND H. OF TRIPOLI. 
 
 by his marriage with Eschiva, widow of Walter of 
 Galilee, the possession of the great stronghold of 
 Tiberias. 
 
 The weakly health of the young king made the 
 choice of a husband for his elder sister Sibylla one 
 of the first necessities of the time. The choice fell 
 on William of Montferrat, a kinsman of Philip 
 Augustus and Frederick Barbarossa, who was married 
 to his bride in the autumn o f II 76 . and received with 
 her the cities of Jaffa and Ascalon. The marriage 
 
 1^ 
 
252 THE RISE OF SAL A DIN. 
 
 was of short duration, for in the foll owing Ju np 
 William fell ill and died, leaving his wife with child. 
 Just after this misfortune the young king's cousin 
 Phillp_of Flanders arrived at Acre in August,-! 177. 
 With a great show of humility and disinterestedness 
 he refused the proffer of the guardianship of the 
 realm. He had come to the Holy Land not to seek 
 power, but to do the Lord's will. He would obey 
 any duly constituted regent, as if he were his own 
 liege lord, or lend his ready aid for an expedition 
 to Egypt. The value of these professions was too* 
 soon apparent. When Reginald ..iie__ChatillDn, who 
 after a long captivity had been released from his 
 Saracen^ gaol, wa„s_ nominated^a s the king ls^-p^octor 
 and^general, Philip testily declared that there was 
 no need of suchan officer, and that a man should 
 be chosen who could bear all the authority for the 
 proposed expedition, and would be fit to rule 
 Egypt as its king if successful. When so obviously 
 selfish a suggestion was rejected, Philip, shifting 
 his ground, urged that a new husband should be 
 found for Sibylla. This untimely proposal proved 
 to spring from one of Philip's followers, the Advocate 
 of Bethun, who had offered to surrender all his 
 patrimony to the count, if he could secure Baldwin's 
 two sisters for the wives of his own sons. Such an 
 offer was rejected by the council off-hand as dis- 
 honouring to themselves and the king. But Philip 
 soon found" a fresh subject for the display of his ill- 
 humours. Manuel had sent an embassy to urge the 
 immediate despatch of the Egyptian expedition ; 
 when Philip's opinion was sought, he pleaded his 
 
PHILIP OF FLANDERS. 
 
 253 
 
 Ignorance as a stranger, but urged that the time of 
 year was unsuitable. The council regarded these as 
 but bald excuses, and offered to supply a sufficiency 
 of all that was needed for the journey. Then Philip 
 refused point blank : he would not run the risk of 
 
 SEAL O? PHILIP OF FLANDERS. 
 
 perishing with hunger in Egypt, he had been accus- 
 tomed to make war in fertile lands : let them choose 
 some less dangerous quarter, and he would gladly 
 join them to strike a blow for Christ 
 
 There may have been something of prudence in 
 
254- ^^^ ^ISE OF SALADIN. 
 
 these arguments, but it was generally felt that the 
 count's utterance of them lacked sincerity. To the 
 council it appeared hard to abandon the expedition 
 when a Greek fleet actually lay at Acre, but they felt 
 that there was no choice in the matter. Scarcely had 
 they made this resolution when Philip declared his 
 willingness to go to Egypt, or wherever the council 
 wished. The Greeks were still willing to proceed, if 
 the count would only take an oath to act honourably 
 and openly. This natural stipulation did not, how- 
 ever, commend itself to Philip, and the Greek en\oys, 
 feelrng fuilher j^egotiation to be useless, departed 
 hixmewards. Thus through the obstinacy or timidity 
 — William of Tyre does not scruple to gay the bad 
 faith — of the Flemish count, the Eastern Christians 
 lost tlieir Is'^t Qppoi*l^unity of striking what might 
 have been a fatal blow at the power of Saladin. ~ 
 
 Men ^suspected that Philip's conduct haH~ been 
 influenced by Bohemond of Antioch in the hope of 
 aggrandisement to his own power. But if so, the 
 prince's hope was vain, for though Philip went north 
 in October, 1177, his aid was no more valuable in 
 that quarter than elsewhere. The time was oppor- 
 tune enough, and the Frankish army laid siege to 
 Harenc with good prospects of success. But the 
 allurements of gambling and the luxurious pleasures 
 of Antioch, that lay so close, proved fatal to military 
 discipline, and the siege was raised with no more to 
 show than an uncertain bribe. After this inglorious 
 campaign Philip of Flanders sailed home .Jmm 
 Laodicca at Easter, 11 78, "leaving behind him a 
 memory that was in no wise blessed." 
 
SARACEN INVASIONS. 255 
 
 Meantime the withdrawal of so many of its 
 defenders to the north had left the kingdom open 
 to the attacks of Saladin on the south. His troops 
 scoured the country at their will ; Ramleh and Lydda 
 were sacked and burnt, and for the first time for five- 
 and-twenty years the Holy City itself was threatened. 
 The more experienced warriors advised Baldwin not 
 to risk a battle, but with a few followers he hurried 
 up to Ascalon. There he was joined by the Templars 
 from Gaza, but even then he had only 370 knights to 
 meet a host of six-and-twenty thousand, which in- 
 cluded a thousand Mamluks in yellow tunics, the 
 special guard of Salad in's person. Nevertheless, the 
 Franks went out bravely on November 25th to meet 
 their foe. According to Saladin's own account the 
 Christians charged just as he was executing a strategic 
 movement ; another contemporary Arabic account 
 says that the Mohammedan host was surprised whilst 
 watering ; but all writers admit that Baldwin achieved 
 a glorious victory. The Turks were utterly routed, 
 and Saladin himself barely escaped upon a swift 
 camel with scarcely one hundred horsemen. 
 
 In the following autumn Baldwin erected a fortress 
 on the Upper Jordan, which was named Castle Jacob, 
 from a tradition that its site was the scene of the 
 patriarch's meeting with Esau. In April, 1179, after 
 entrusting his new castle to the Templars, the king 
 led an expedition into Saracen territory. The army 
 scattered in all directions in search of plunder, till 
 Baldwin was left alone with only a few followers in 
 a rocky gorge. Here he was surprised by the 
 Saracens, and though Henfrid of Toron brought his 
 
255 THE RISE OF SALADIN, 
 
 young lord safe out of danger, it was at the cost of 
 his own life ; for a few days later his wounds proved 
 fatal to the gallant constable, whom even Moham- 
 medans admiied for his courage and warlike skill. 
 In June Saladin retaliated by an invasion of the 
 kingdom. The Franks mustered to meet him in 
 force, but the rashness of the Templars under Odo de 
 St. Amand converted a promising opportunity into a 
 disastrous defeat. Odo himself and many nobles were 
 taken prisoners, and two months later Saladin's 
 victory was crowned by the capture of Castle Jacob. 
 The double disaster was aggravated by the long- 
 continued drought, which during five years had 
 impoverished the territory of the Franks. The 
 king's sickness, which grew worse yearly, added to 
 the troubles of the time, and to guard against future 
 mishaps a fresh husband was now found for Sibylla 
 in the person of Guy de Lusignan. In the face of 
 such dangers Baldwin felt it prudent to beg for a 
 truce ; Saladin welcomed the proposition, and in 
 1 1 80 peace both by land and sea was established for 
 two years. Such an agreement was a heavy blow to 
 Christian pride ; for the first time since the Franks 
 set foot in Palestine was a treaty drawn up on equal 
 terms without any special advantage being secured 
 for the Christians. 
 
 There was now peace for a period of two years. 
 The Franks" were, however, troubled by internal 
 dissensions. Raymond of Tripoli, though nominally 
 protector, never entered their land, and Baldwin fell 
 more and more under the influence of tW count's 
 enemies, and, above all, of his mother and uncle, 
 
A TWO YEARS' TRUCh, 257 
 
 Joscelin the Seneschal. An open breach with 
 Raymond was only prevented through the interven- 
 tion of those wiser nobles who saw in the count the 
 most trusty defender of the kingdom. 
 
 Meantime the course of events favoured Saladin. 
 After a brief raid into Tripoli, which was not included 
 in the truce, he had withdrawn to Egypt, and prepared 
 to meet the threatened attack from Sicily. About 
 this time Sayf-ed-din of Mosul and Es-Saleh of Aleppo 
 both died, and left their dominions to Masud, a 
 brother of the former. Masud's counsellors urged 
 him to take advantage of the defenceless state of 
 Damascus during Saladin's detention in Egypt. 
 Their advice was rejected by the prince, who would 
 not break his treaty with Saladin ; but a little later 
 Masud gave Aleppo to his brother Imad-ed-din 
 in exchange for Sinjar, a bargain which excited the 
 alarm of the lord of Egypt. 
 
 Other circumstances besides the peril of Damascus 
 determined Saladin to return to Syria. The danger 
 to Egypt had passed away with the diversion of the 
 Sicilian fleet to the Balearic Islands and its subse- 
 quent destruction. The truce, moreover, was nearly 
 at an end, and there were not a few causes of dispute 
 between Baldwin and Saladin. Reginald of Chatillon 
 had captured some Arab merchants, for which the 
 Sultan retaliated by the detention of one thousand 
 five hundred pilgrims, who had been wrecked near 
 Damietta. Baldwin, despite the warnings of Count 
 Raymond, made an ill-managed and futile attempt 
 to intercept Saladin on his way across the desert. 
 Meanwhile, as Raymond had foreseen, the Syrian 
 
258 THE RISE OF SALADIN. 
 
 emirs took the opportunity to invade Galilee, and, 
 as they returned home with their spoil, inflicted a yet 
 more disastrous blow on the Christians. In the region 
 of Soad (or " Black Country ") beyond Jordan the 
 Franks had converted some caves in the face of a 
 precipitous rock into an almost impregnable fortress. 
 This stronghold, through the carelessness of its lord, 
 had been left in charge of unwarlike Syrians. Either 
 by force or by fraud the Saracens captured its lower 
 stages, and thus compelled the other portion to sur- 
 render. According to the Arabic historian, this victory 
 broke the arm and power of the Franks. 
 
 Saladin now led an army across the Jordan, and, 
 after attacking Beth-Shan without success, went on 
 towards Belvoir. The Franks had mustered at 
 Tiberias, and, on advancing to Forbelet, suddenly 
 found themselves surrounded by the enemy. Old 
 men declared that they had never seen such a host 
 of infidels since the Latins first came . into Syria. 
 The Saracens were twenty thousand men ready for 
 battle, the Christians had only seven hundred horse- 
 men. " Saladin and his chiefs," writes William of 
 Tyre, " had but one mind, namely, to hem us in, so 
 that none could escape. Yet by the mercy of God 
 did our men, bearing themselves bravely, issue the 
 better from the conflict ; and that though many, 
 whose names for very shame we will not write, 
 withdrew themselves from the toils of war." Only 
 a few Christian knights were slain, but the Saracens 
 were so disheartened by their losses that they at once 
 recrossed the Jordan. The Franks then went back to 
 the fountain of Sepphoris. 
 
SIEGE OF BEYROUT, 259 
 
 In August, 1 1 82, on the arrival of his fleet from 
 Egypt, Saladin crossed the Lebanon and laid siege to 
 Beyrout. The news of this fresh attack came to the 
 Franks at Sepphoris, and at the same time they 
 received intelligence that Saladin's brother, El-Adel 
 Sayf-ed-din — known to Crusading chroniclers as 
 Saphadin — had appeared before Darum. Baldwin 
 had not sufficient forces to meet the double attack. 
 After taking counsel with his nobles, he decided to 
 grapple with " the more dangerous disease." No time 
 was lost, and within seven days thirty well-appointed 
 galleys were ready at Tyre and Acre. The fleet 
 reached Beyrout to find the harbour already clear; 
 for Saladin, after commencing the assault with vigour, 
 had suddenly changed his mind and ordered a rC' 
 treat. An invitation from the Governor of Harran 
 had afforded him the opportunity for more important 
 conquests further east. 
 
 For the next few months Saladin was conquering 
 beyond the Euphrates. He passed the great river 
 and called the Mohammedan princes to his side ; 
 Edessa and Nisibis were taken and given to his friends, 
 while Masud fell back before him on Mosul. News 
 came that the Franks had been plundering in the 
 neighbourhood of Damascus. But Saladin would 
 not turn back : " If the Christians destroy our 
 villages, we will take their towns." So he rode on 
 to Mosul. " As he looked upon the city," writes the 
 Arabic historian, " his heart was filled with fear ; for 
 he saw how walls and parapets were crowded, so that 
 there was not one part that had not its warrior." 
 The Caliph had sent envoys to mediate between the 
 
26o THE RISE OF SALADIN. 
 
 combatants. Salad in offered to surrender his late 
 conquests in return for Aleppo ; but Aleppo was not 
 Masud's to give. However, Saladin found Mosul too 
 strong for capture, and after taking Sinjar he turned 
 west to besiege Aleppo. Imad ed-din had no 
 means of defence, and soon consented to resign 
 Aleppo in return for Sinjar, Nisibis, and some other 
 places. " Thus," says the Arabic writer, " he sold 
 Aleppo for the vilest price, and gave away a strong- 
 hold of the greatest importance in exchange for some 
 little towns and cultivated fields." The people of 
 Aleppo cried shame upon him, declaring he was only 
 fit to be a washer of clothes. This conquest (June 12, 
 1183) marks the consolidation of Saladin's power ; he 
 was now beyond all dispute the head power in the 
 Mohammedan world, and might bend his undivided 
 energies towards the great work of his life — the ex- 
 pulsion of the Franks from the Holy City. 
 
 Saladin's absence had given Baldwin an opportunity 
 of attacking Damascus and its neighbourhood. In the 
 autumn of 11 82 one plundering expedition penetrated 
 to the very suburbs of the city, and on its return re- 
 captured the mountain fortress in Soad. In December 
 a great council was held at Caesarea, where it was 
 decided to make a fifteen days' expedition towards 
 Bostra. The Franks under the command of Count 
 Raymond crossed the Jordan at the ford of Jacob, 
 and plundered the Saracen territory to within a few 
 miles from Damascus. 
 
 And now the news of Saladin's successes began 
 to make men fear the ruin of the Latin realm. 
 " For," says William of Tyre, " his departure had 
 
CONQUEST OF ALEPPO. 2f6l 
 
 given us grave matter for thought ; we were 
 right anxious lest he should return yet stronger 
 than before." In February, 1183, there was a 
 great council at Jerusalem ; king and nobles were 
 alike so poor that they could not perform their 
 proper duties ; a scheme was therefore devised for 
 the general taxation of all classes ; the money so 
 obtained was not to be used for the common needs 
 of the realm, but, to be stored at Jerusalem and Acre 
 as a provision against some great emergency.^ With 
 the news of the fall of Aleppo, the alarm grew yet 
 wilder ; the Christians, realising their weakness, began, 
 to strengthen their fortifications especially round Bey- 
 rout. Bohemond of Antioch also came to the king 
 at Acre with an appeal for aid ; he was granted 
 three hundred horsemen, but soon afterwards made 
 a truce with Saladin ; about the same time he sold 
 Tarsus to Rupin of Armenia, as that city was too 
 distant and costly for defence. 
 
 After the conquest of Aleppo, Saladin once more 
 crossed the Jordan to Beth-Shan (September 29, 1 183). 
 Baldwin had mustered his forces at Sepphoris, but, 
 being too ill to lead them in person, entrusted the com- 
 mand to his brother-in-law, Guy de Lusignan. Saracen 
 freebooters ravaged the whole region round ; they 
 forced their way — for the first time — to the Greek 
 monastery on Mount Tabor, destroyed Forbelet, and 
 from the hills abov^e Nazareth looked down upon the 
 city of our Lord's childhood. When the Italian mer- 
 chants on the coast heard of the invasion they put off 
 their intended voyage, and hurried up to join the 
 ^ See above, p. 123, 
 
^62 THE RISE OF SALADIN, 
 
 king's army. Never, so old men said, had Palestine 
 seen so vast an array of Crusaders ; there were one 
 thousand three hundred knights and over fifteen 
 thousand well-armed foot; among them were great 
 nobles from Europe : Henry, Duke of Louvain and 
 Ralf de Maleine ^ from Aquitaine, together with the 
 lords of the land, Guy de Lusignan, Reginald de 
 Chatillon, Baldwin and Balian of Ibelin, Reginald 
 of Sidon, Walter of Caesarea, and Joscelin de 
 Courtenay. But this splendid opportunity for 
 crushing Saladin was lost through internal jealousy ; 
 the lords of Palestine refused to obey Guy de 
 Lusignan, whom they despised as a man " unknown 
 and of little skill in military matters ; " they trumped 
 up excuses for inaction, and after eight days the 
 Saracens went back home. A month later Saladin 
 laid siege to Reginald of Chatillon's strong castle 
 of Kerak. Reginald had just married his stepson, 
 Henfrid IV. of Toron, to the king's younger sister, and 
 the castle was crowded with jesters, minstrels, and 
 others come to help in the wedding festivities. The 
 place was, however, too strong to be taken even by 
 the combined forces of Saladin and his brother El- 
 Adel, who joined him from Egypt ; so when the 
 Franks advanced to raise the siege, Saladin withdrew 
 to Damascus. Next year he made another unsuc- 
 cessful expedition against Kerak ; on his way back 
 he burnt Nablus, and set free the Mohammedan- 
 prisoners in Sebaste. This was his last engagement 
 
 * This was probably Ralf de Mauleon, father of the Crusading poet- 
 warrior, Savary de Mauleon, who played a conspicuous part in English 
 history under John, 
 
SALADIN LORD SUPREME. 263- 
 
 for some years in Palestine. In the summer of 1185 
 he was warring against Mosul ; in the end, after some 
 negotiations conducted by Baha-ed-din the historian, 
 
 RUINED TOWER OF KKRAK. 
 
 Masud of Mosul came to terms with his rival. 
 
 Saladin was now lord supreme of all the Moham- 
 medan princes. He might reckon on being followep 
 
264 THE RISE OF SALADIN. 
 
 to war by the various princes of the house of Zangi. 
 who ruled at Sinjar, Mosul, and Mardin ; perhaps 
 also by Kilij Arslan of Rum ; certainly by all the 
 Ayubite princes whom he had established in the 
 valleys of the Orontes and Nile. Saladin's policy 
 had led him to keep all the great cities of Egypt and 
 Syria in the hands of his own family. Thus his 
 kinsmen, Taki-ed-din, Izz ed-din, and Nasr-ed-din 
 held Edessa, Baalbec, and Emesa ; his sons, Ez- 
 Zahir and El-Afdal, were lords of Aleppo and 
 Damascus, and his brother, El-Adel, ruler of Egypt. 
 All along the frontier there lay a line of strong 
 generals or princes ready at any moment for a foray 
 into Christian lands. The Mohammedans only waited 
 to exchange their tactics of defence or desultory raids 
 for one of active warfare, till the lord of Syria 
 and Egypt, the overlord of Mosul and Rum, should 
 give the word for a general coalition to drive the 
 Christian invaders out of Syria. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 (1183-II87.) 
 
 ** Vae terris ubi rex est puer." 
 
 Ecdesiasticus, 
 
 The position of the Christian kingdom was now- 
 one of extreme peril. The king was sick unto death, 
 and there was no hope for the land save in aid from 
 abroad, which aid was slow to come. Louis VII. 
 of France, so long the hope of the Latin East, had 
 been dead three years, and Philip Augustus, his 
 son, was hardly of the stuff from which Crusading 
 heroes were made. Henry of England had more 
 than enough to occupy him in his home troubles ; 
 y t for" many years past he had sent annually large 
 sums of money to the great orders at Jerusalem, there 
 to be stored against his own intended coming. The 
 kings of France and England had more than once 
 talked of a Crusade ; and Frederick the Emperor, after 
 the conclusion of his papal and Italian disputes in 
 
 1 179, had also meditated an expedition to the East 
 
 265 
 
266 THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 But all these things were mere projects ; internal 
 dissensions, mutual distrust, and perhaps unsteadiness 
 of religious zeal kept the great European lords at 
 home. 
 
 Meanwhile the kingdom of Jerusalem was in a 
 state of rapid decay. The young king had appointed 
 his brother-in-law, Guy de Lusignan, his proctor in 
 the year 1 183, retaining for his own use only the city 
 of Jerusalem, and an income of ten thousand besants. 
 Popular rumour, as represented by William of Tyre, 
 declared that Guy was totally unequal to his high 
 office. Certainly the nobles, jealous of an alien's 
 power, did the new ruler homage with reluctance, 
 and the majority of them, whether honestly or not, 
 urged the superior claims of Raymond of Tripoli. 
 Matters came to 'a climax when the great muster of the 
 Christians, under Guy's leadership, effected nothing, 
 and when Guy refused, very illiberally, to entertain 
 Baldwin's desire to exchange Jerusalem for Tyre. 
 As a consequence .it was decided in a great council 
 held at Jerusalem that Baldwin's little nephew, his 
 sister Sibylla's son by her first husband, William 
 of Montferrat, should be solemnly anointed king. 
 The story cannot be better told than in the quaint 
 words of one who may himself have been present at 
 the ceremony. " When the matter was thus settled, 
 the king bade crown the child. So they led him 
 to the Sepulchre and crowned him. And because the 
 child was small, they put him into the arms of a 
 knight to be carried into the Temple of the Lord, 
 to the end that he might not appear to be of less 
 Stature than the rest This knight was a stalwart 
 
PRANKISH DISSENSIONS. 267 
 
 man and tall, having to name Balian d'Ibelin, one of 
 the barons of the land." The ceremony took place 
 on the 1st of November, 1183.^ 
 
 The revolution which thus transferred the crown to 
 the infant Baldwin V. seems to have been the work 
 of the hereditary nobles of the land, and was chiefly 
 brought about by Baldwin of Ramleh and his brother 
 Balian of Ibelin. The regency was offered to Ray- 
 mond of Tripoli, who accepted the office on condi- 
 tion that he should hold it for ten years. To guard 
 against suspicion the strongholds were placed in the 
 charge of the two great orders, while the care of 
 the young king's person was entrusted to his great 
 uncle, Joscelin de Courtenay. On the other hand, 
 Raymond received Beyrout, to indemnify him for 
 any expenses that he might incur. 
 
 Meanwhile Guy de Lusignan held sullenly aloof 
 The king further proposed to dissolve his sister's 
 marriage, and with this intention summoned Guy to 
 Jerusalem at the beginning of 11 84. The count, 
 however, withdrew to his own city of Ascalon, and, 
 together with his wife, refused to obey the royal 
 summons. Baldwin then came to enforce his orders 
 in person ; but the gates were barred before him, 
 and the walls crowded with the citizens, who looked 
 calmly on whilst the king in vain demanded entrance. 
 Baldwin had to withdraw to Jaffa, and shortly 
 afterwards summoned a great council at Acre; 
 there the internal dissensions of the kingdom 
 
 ^ Ernoul, who is here quoted, fixes the coronation in 1184. William 
 of Tyre as certainly puts it in 1 183. Perhaps there were two corona- 
 tions, though this is not likely. ' 
 
268 THE FALL OF JERUSALEM, 
 
 became plain. The masters of the Temple and the 
 Hospital fell on their knees before the king and 
 begged him to pardon his brother-in-law ; when 
 their petition was refused they left the court and city 
 in anger. Guy, on his part, made the breach wider 
 by plundering some Arabs who were under the royal 
 protection. From all that follows it would seem that 
 there were two parties in the state ; on the one side 
 the native nobles, on the other the aliens ; at the 
 head of the former was Raymond of Tripoli, chief 
 of the latter was Guy de Lusignan or Reginald of 
 Chatillon. Raymond and his party seem to have 
 believed in the impossibility of active resistance to 
 the Saracens. It may be that they were only abiding 
 their time till the coming of a new Crusade should 
 justify them in taking the offensive once more ; but 
 so far as the evidence of contemporary writers, both 
 Christian and Arabic goes, they were actually in 
 communication with Saladin, and anxious for a truce 
 which might ensure them their own in safety. 
 Prominent in this party were Bohemond of Antioch, 
 Reginald of Sidon, and possibly the two brothers, 
 Baldwin and Balian of Ibelin. 
 
 The party of the aliens was possibly moved by a 
 more genuine religious enthusiasm. Guy de Lusignan 
 may perhaps have been influenced by merely selfish 
 aims ; but selfishness can hardly be predicated of the 
 masters of the Temple and Hospital, and possibly not 
 of Heraclius the Patriarch ; family affection may, 
 however, account for the part played by Joscelin de 
 Courtenay. The members of the two great orders 
 had not entered on their Eastern life in search fpr 
 
THE TWO PARTIES. 269 
 
 ease or luxury ; their vows bound them before all 
 else to fight the pagan, and to extend the boundaries 
 of the Lord's kingdom ; the very thought of passing 
 long years without striking a blow for Christ was to 
 them insupportable ; thustheirconstant clamour was for 
 \yar, and in this they were well supported by Reginald 
 de Chatillon. The long years of his captivity in a 
 Saracen prison had made that lioble the bitterest of 
 foes, and he never lost a chance of striking a blow at 
 Saracen trader or soldier ; his reluctance to hold his 
 hand whether in peace or war was to lead a few years 
 later to the ruin of the kingdom. 
 
 At that same council of Acre, where the quarrel ot 
 these two parties had been made so manifest, it was 
 determined to appeal to the sovereigns of Europe for 
 help. Heraclius the Patriarch and the two Grand 
 Masters were entrusted with the mission to the West. 
 Pope Lucius IIL gave them letters to assist their 
 plea, and they bore the keys of the Holy Sepulchre 
 together with the royal banner of the kingdom to 
 Henry II. at Reading. In the spring of 1185 almost 
 all the barons and knights of Henry's dominions from 
 the Cheviots to the Pyrenees took the cross, and the 
 kings of England and France likewise promisedjjieir 
 support. Yet, nevertheless, the patriarch went home 
 a disappointed man with only barren promises where 
 he had looked for material aid. 
 
 The character of Heraclius is a curious problem. 
 He is said to have been a native of Auvergne, and 
 became Archbishop of Caesarea about 1175 ; on the 
 death of the Patriarch Amalric in it 80 his was one 
 of the two names submitted to Baldwin IV. by the 
 
270 THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 canons of the Holy Sepulchre. His competitor was 
 none other than the great historian of the Latin 
 kingdom in the East, William of Tyre. It was 
 rumoured at the time that William, on hearing of the 
 canons' choice, offered to relinquish his own claiins, if 
 by so doing he might exclude his rival ; he had read 
 in ancient chronicles, so he was reported to have said, 
 that as one Heraclius had been the saviour of the 
 Holy City, so another one would be its ruin, 
 the Archbishop of Caesarea, he continued, was the 
 man to whom this ancient prophecy pointed. The 
 king, however, under the influence of his sister's 
 prayers appointed Heraclius. William then appealed 
 to Rome, whither he went to prosecute his cause in 
 person ; success was already crowning his efforts, 
 when he died, as it was whispered, of poison ad- 
 ministered by his rival's envoys. This was not the 
 only scandal that attached to Heraclius' name ; he 
 lived in open imrnorality, and kept his mistress at 
 Jerusalem in such state that strangers deemed she 
 was at least a baron's wife. Much of this is probably 
 legend, though legend of only a slightly later date; 
 yet it seems to sliow in what sort of esteem the 
 patriarch was popularly held. 
 
 Baldwin IV. died in 1185, whilst Heraclius was 
 still in the West.^ Raymond secured an immediate 
 popularity as regent by concluding a four years' 
 truce with Saladin. There is no telling how long 
 he might have preserved the kingdom had it not 
 been that as in the days when the Greek princes 
 were sieging Troy there was strife among the chiefs. 
 
 * Or possibly late in 11 84. 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF BOTRON. 27I 
 
 There is something of an epic ring in the history 
 of the ruin of the Latin kingdom of the East as we 
 read it in the pages of the Continuator of WiUiam 
 of Tyre. 
 
 Gerard de Rideford, a French knight, came to 
 Palestine to make his fortune. Doubtless he looked 
 to win such a prize as that of Reginald of Chatillon, 
 who gained the hand of the widowed princess of 
 Antioch, or of Fulk of Anjou, who received a king- 
 dom with his wife. At last his opportunity came 
 and he asked for the hand of the heiress of Botron, 
 a lordship in the county of Tripoli. But Raymond 
 rejected his petition, and married his ward to a rich 
 burgher from Pisa, who was said to have bought his 
 bride- for her weight in gold, Gerard, who had all 
 a French knight's scorn for an Italian usurer, quitted 
 Tripoli in wrath. He joined the Templars, and by 
 1 185 had become Grand Master of the order. But 
 he still sought an opportunity to avenge the wrong 
 which rankled in his breast. At last his chance came. 
 In September, 11 86, the child king died at AcrCj^ 
 and was carried by the Templars to Jerusalem for 
 burial. Gerard formed a plot with Count Joscelin, and 
 they took Heraclius and Reginald of Chatillon as 
 their partners'; Sibylla was hastily summoned to 
 Jerusalem, the city gates were shut, the walls were 
 manned with troops, and no one was suffered to come 
 in or go out. 
 
 Raymond, suspicious that something was wrong, 
 had sent a man-at-arms in disguise to discover what 
 was happening. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
 the spy heard Reginald bid the assembled people take 
 
«72 THE FALL OF yERU SALEM. 
 
 Sibylla for their queen, and the multitude with one 
 voice declare they would have no other ruler than the 
 daughter of Amalric and the sister of Baldwin. Two 
 crowns had been brought from the royal treasure 
 house. One was now placed by the patriarch on the 
 head of the new queen with these words : " Lady, 
 you are but a woman, wherefore it behoves that you 
 have a man to stay you in your rule ; take the crown 
 you see before you, and give it to him who can best 
 help you to govern your realm." On this Sib)lla 
 called her husband, and as Guy knelt before her set 
 the crown on his head, saying, " Sire, take this crown, 
 for I know not where I could bestow it better." It 
 was rumoured that as the Grand Master of the 
 Temple took the new king by the hand he was 
 heard to say : " This crown is well worth the marriage 
 of Botron." 
 
 If Raymond of Tripoli had harboured any designs 
 on the crown it was now too late. The utmost he 
 and the barons assembled with him at Nablus could 
 do was to set up a king of their own in the person of 
 Henfrid of Toron, the husband of King Amalric's 
 second daughter, Isabella or Melisend. Henfrid, 
 however, fearing the greatness thrust thus suddenly 
 upon him stole away the same night to Jerusalem. 
 There he presented himself before Sibylla, who, in 
 anger at his absence from her coronation, would not 
 return his greeting. He stood before her, says the 
 quaint old chronicler, scratching his head like a 
 shamefaced child, and muttering something about 
 their wanting to make him king by force. The 
 queen caught up his words, and understanding their 
 
CORONATION OF GUY. 273 
 
 drift, granted him her pardon, and despatched him to 
 do his liomage to the king. 
 
 Most of the Frank lords now recognised Guy's 
 coronation as an accomplished fact, and did homage. 
 Two alone remained implacable : Baldwin of Ramleh, 
 who, renouncing his fiefs, fled in defiance to Antioch ; 
 and Raymond of Tripoli, who remained on his lands, 
 sullenly nursing his discontent, and if rumour may 
 be trusted intriguing with Saladin. It was ap- 
 parently about this time that Reginald of Chatillon, 
 notwithstanding the truce, swooped down on a 
 Saracen caravan on its way through his lordship of 
 Kerak. It boots not to inquire whether Saladin's 
 sister was one of his captives ; for Saracen writers 
 fully bear out the words of the Frank chronicler : 
 " The taking of this caravan was the ruin of Jeru- 
 salem ; " Saladin forthwith sounded the tocsin for the 
 Holy War. 
 
 By the advice of the Master of the Temple, Guy 
 now summoned his host to Nazareth, with the 
 intention of besieging Raymond in Tiberias. The 
 count on his part seems to have called upon Saladin 
 for aid, which, if we may trust Ernoul, Saladin was 
 prepared to give. Civil war was, however, averted 
 by the prudence of Balian of Ibelin, who pointed 
 out the danger of forcing Raymond into an alliance 
 with Saladin, and volunteered his aid to effect a 
 reconciliation. But Raymond demanded with firm- 
 ness the repayment of his expenses .as regent, and so 
 the winter passed away with nothing done. 
 
 Easter had come and gone, and Saladin was 
 mustering his forces. The royal council advised 
 
^74 ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ yERU SALEM, 
 
 peace with Raymond ; " for Guy had already lost the 
 wisest knight in the land, Baldwin of Ramleh ; if 
 he lost Count Raymond too, he was indeed undone." 
 Balian was accordingly sent to Tiberias with the two 
 Grand Masters. On reaching Nablus, Balian stayed 
 there to transact some business, whilst his companions 
 rode on to Faba, or La Feve. At evening Balian left 
 Nablus, and rode as far as Sabat, where he turned 
 aside, and tarried at the bishop's house till the 
 warder's horn proclaimed the day. In the morning 
 after hearing mass, he proceeded on his journey. 
 This slight delay prevented his being present at the 
 battle of Nazareth, and perhaps caused the downfall 
 of the kingdom. On reaching Faba Balian found the 
 castle and the tents before its walls alike deserted, 
 whilst the castle gate stood open ; in amazement he 
 bade his servant Ernoul, to whom we owe our know- 
 ledge of these eventful years, dismount and enter. 
 Ernoul went shouting up and down without reply, 
 till at last he found two sick men in a room ; they 
 told him that the Grand Masters had arrived the 
 previous day, but had departed at once on hearing 
 how a body of Saracens had crossed the Jordan. 
 
 According to the romantic story of the Frank 
 chronicler, El-Afdal had begged Count Raymond to 
 grant him a day's excursion across the Jordan. 
 Raymond's position was too delicate for him to 
 venture on a refusal. He bargained only that El- 
 Afdal should harm neither town nor house, and 
 return the same evening. So on the morning of 
 May 1st, El-Afdal crossed the Jordan to plunder 
 and to slay. The watchmen from the towers of 
 
BATTLE OF NAZARETH. 2yS 
 
 Nazareth saw the valleys filled with the Saracen host, 
 and roused the city to arms. The news reached the 
 two Grand Masters at Faba ; with their followers, 
 and forty royal knights from Nazareth, they rode out 
 to meet the foes, seven hundred against seven 
 thousand. The issue was disastrous : the Master of 
 the Hospital and sixty of his knights were slain, 
 whilst of the Templars only two besides Gerard de 
 RicSbrd escaped. 
 
 This was the further news which Balian shortly 
 heard. He rode in haste to Nazareth, and summoned 
 all the knights at Nablus to come to its defence ; 
 next day with the Master of the Temple he went on 
 to Tiberias. In the presence of such a catastrophe 
 all private hate was hushed ; Raymond agreed to a 
 reconciliation and to a meeting with Guy. As soon 
 as the king saw his late rival approaching he sprang 
 from his horse to greet him, and when Raymond bent 
 his knee before him, raised him up and embraced him 
 warmly. A general muster was then ordered to take 
 place at the fountain of Sepphoris, midway between 
 Acre and the Sea of Galilee. In view of the 
 emergency, the Master of the Temple put at Guy's 
 disposal the Jreasure which the King; of England, had 
 sent him year by year, and with this money soldiers 
 were hired who bore King Henry's arms upon their 
 shield. 
 
 In July, when the host was gathered, the Countess 
 of Tripoli sent word that Saladin was besieging her 
 in Tiberias, and that she could hold out no longer. 
 A council was summoned, and Raymond addressing 
 the king said : " Sire, I would fain give you good 
 
276 THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 
 
 advice, if you only trust me ; but I know full well 
 that none will believe." When bidden to speak 
 freely, he recommended that Tiberias should be left 
 to its fate. There was no water on the road, and to 
 attempt its relief would be to court certain destruc- 
 tion. " If I lose wife, retainers, and city, so be it ; I 
 will get them back when I can ; but I had rather see 
 my city, overthrown than the land lost." This noble 
 speech carried conviction with it, and at midnight the 
 council broke up. Then Gerard de Rideford once 
 more found his opportunity, and coming to the 
 king's tent urged him to reject the counsel of the 
 " traitor count." " The king durst not refuse him, 
 for that he had made him king, and delivered to him 
 the great treasure of the King of England." The 
 fatal order to march at dawn proved "too well the 
 truth of Raymond's forecast ; some three miles from 
 Tiberias, in a rocky and waterless spot, the Christians 
 were hemmed in by the Saracein ; unable either to 
 advance or to retreat, they were forced to pitch their 
 camp. Next day (it was Saturday, July 4, 1187) 
 found them disheartened and disorganised ; faint 
 with the heat and with thirst they could offer no 
 effectual resistance ; by evening their army was 
 routed, their king a. prisoner, and the HplyjCross the 
 spoil of the infidel. 
 
 The principal captives were led to the tent of 
 Saladin. Among them were Guy, his brother Geof- 
 frey, and Reginald of Chatillon. By the Sultan's 
 orders a cooling draught was handed to the king, 
 who drank and passed the cup to Reginald. " Know,"- 
 said Saladin, through an interpreter, " that it is you 
 
BATTLE OF HATTIN. 277 
 
 and not I who have given him to drink." Then the 
 Sultan called for a sword, and with his own hand cut 
 off Reginald's head ; thus he fulfilled 4iis oath, and 
 revenged the plunder of his caravan.^ 
 
 The great battle of Hattin was the death-blow to 
 the^RTngdom of Jerusalem as it had existed in the 
 days of Baldwin III. and Amalric. At one stroke it 
 had lost the chief of its leaders and the majority of its 
 defenders ; Raymond, it was true, escaped from the 
 battle, but only^to^jije, of despair fifteen days later 
 aUTyre-; of the other great lords Balian alone was 
 alive and free. In such a strait the Christians seemed 
 powerless to resist their victorious foe ; within little 
 over two months Saladin had secured almost every 
 stronghold of importance from Beyrout to Ascaloa 
 A few scattered fortresses, such as Safed and Kerak 
 by the Dead Sea, held out till next year ; but when 
 Ascalon had fallen on the 5th of September only two 
 of the great cities still remained in Christian hands — 
 Tyre in Ihe., north aiid Jerusalem in the south. The 
 safety of the former was due to Conrad of Mont- 
 ferrat, the defence of the Holy City was the work of 
 Balian of Ibejin and the Patriarch Heraclius. 
 
 Balian had escaped from Hattin to Tyre. Thence 
 he sent to Saladin, begging leave to conduct his wife 
 and children to Jerusalem ; if that leave was given 
 he would only stay a single night in the city. Saladin 
 courteously granted the desire^ permission. The 
 citizens, however, would not let Balian depart ; 
 Heraclius also declared that it would be a greater sin 
 
 " A more probable story, however, relates that Reginald was slain 
 by Saladin's orders, but not by his own hand. 
 
278 THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 to keep such a promise than to break it, — " It will be 
 great shame to you and your heirs after you if you 
 leave the city* of Jerusalem in her perilous strait' 
 " Then did Balian promise to stay, and all that were 
 in the city did him homage, and took him to lord." 
 The peril of the city was in truth extreme ; only two 
 knights were to be found within the walls, and they 
 were fugitives from the great battle. In his emer- 
 gency Balian knighted sixty of the burgesses, and 
 stripped the silver roofing of the Holy Sepulchre to 
 
 SEAL OF BALIAN OF IBELIN. 
 
 provide himself with money. From all the district 
 round the people came flocking into the city, till they 
 had filled every house, and many were encamped in 
 the open streets. 
 
 At last, on September 20, £187, Saladin appeared 
 before the walls. The history of this eventful siege 
 cannot here be told in detail. Its hero was Balian, 
 though the French chronicler gives to Heraclius a 
 meritorious part ; it was the patriarch who, according 
 to this account, persuaded the warriors to take 
 thought of the defenceless women and children when 
 
THE CAPTURE OF THE HOLY CITY. 279 
 
 they proposed to hazard all on one desperate onset 
 on the foe ; it was Balian, however, whose skill kept 
 the walls whilst he could, and who at last persuaded 
 Saladin to accept a ransom of ten dinars for every 
 man, five for every woman, and one for every child 
 under seven years of age. It is impossible to recon- 
 cile the French account of the collection of the ransom 
 of the poor with the reproaches hurled on the selfish 
 citizens by the author of the Latin treatise, " De Ex- 
 pugnatione Terrae Sanctae" — an author who was 
 actually wounded during the siege. Much legend 
 has no doubt found its way into the accounts of the 
 fall of the Holy City even as they have been preserved 
 for us by contemporary writers ; but there is one 
 story too characteristic to be altogether omitted. 
 After every effort had been made to purchase the 
 relief of the poorer Christians, after a tax had been 
 levied in every street, and the King of England's 
 treasures at the Hospital thrown into the common 
 fund, there yet remained a large number for whom 
 no ransom could be paid, and who were thus doomed 
 to perpetual slavery or death. In pity for their sad con- 
 dition^, Saladin's gallant brother El-Adel or Saphadin 
 went to the Sultan, and, reminding him how the city 
 had bejn conquered by his help, begged to have a 
 thousand slaves for his portion of the spoil. Saladin 
 inquired for what purpose he desired them. '' To do 
 with them as I will," was the reply. They were 
 accordingly handed over to El-Adel, who promptly 
 set them frefe. Then came the patriarch making a 
 like request, and received seven hundred. After him 
 Balian of Ibelin was granted five hundred more. 
 
28o THE FALL OF JERU SALEM. 
 
 Then said Saladin : " My brother has made his alms; 
 the patriarch and BaHan have made theirs. Now 
 would I make mine also." Accordingly at his 
 bidding all the aged folk in the city were liberated : 
 " This was the alms that Saladin made of poor folk 
 without number." 
 
 So on October 2, 1 187, Jerusalern was once more 
 in the hands of the Moslem, and the greatest aim of 
 Saladin's life was accomplished. It was for this, as 
 he himself said, that when called to the government 
 of Egypt at the age of thirty he had relinquished the 
 use of wine, and all the pleasures of his youthful life. 
 Forty-three years previously Zangi had turned the 
 tide of Christian success by capturing Edessa. After 
 Zangi's death, so ran the story in the East while 
 Saladin was yet alive, a Mohammedan devotee beheld 
 the great atabek living at his ease in the very fairest 
 part of Paradise, and asked him how he came to 
 occupy so honourable a place. " God," was the reply, 
 " has pardoned all my sins for the conquest of 
 Edessa." If this was the reward of Zangi, what 
 recompense might not the liberator of the Holy City 
 look forward to at the hands of Allah } " Jerusalem," 
 Saladin once sent word to Richard L, " is as much to 
 us Mohammedans as it can be to you Christians, and 
 more. It is the place whence our prophet made his 
 night ascent to heaven, and it will be the gathering 
 place of our nation at the Great Judgment." No 
 wonder, then, that there was joy in Islam when the 
 Temple was again in Mohammedan hands, and when, 
 on the following Friday, after the golden cross that 
 shone above the sacred dome had been taken down, 
 
yOY IN ISLAM. 
 
 281 
 
 the prayers of the Faithful once more went up to 
 Allah from Mount Moriah. " Thus," says the Arabic 
 historian, Salad in's bosom friend and confidant, 
 " thus did God suffer the Mussulmans to retake the 
 town for the anniversary of the nightly journey of 
 their prophet ; a certain sign that this people is the 
 only one whose doctrine is agreeable to Him." 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 *' For manners are not idle, but the fruit 
 Of loyal nature and of noble mind." 
 
 Tennyson, Guinevere. 
 
 The political and social life of the Latin kingdom 
 of Jerusalem was almost the counterpart of the 
 political and social life of ihe great kingdoms of 
 Western Europe. In particular it resembles the 
 great monarchy which the same French race built up 
 at almost the same time in our own land, and there 
 IS a curious parallelism between the charters of the 
 Norman and Angevin kings of England, and those of 
 the French and Angevin kings of Jerusalem.^ W ;th 
 the political organisation of the land we have already 
 dealt, and here we shall concern ourselves with the 
 social life and habits of the Latin settlers and their 
 subjects. 
 
 To begin at the top of the scale, the life of the 
 Prankish nobles in Syria no doubt closely resembled 
 
 * In a charter of Hugh of Ibelin we even get the Syrian equivalent 
 for the formula of the so-called Exeter Domesday, " Die quo Rex 
 Edwardus vivus fuit et mortuus." 
 
KNIGHTLY TRAINING. 
 
 283 
 
 that of their Western cousins. Of the life of the 
 mediaeval knight we can by the combined aid of 
 history and romance form a fairly adequate idea. 
 His childish years would be spent in his father's 
 castle, hunting and hawking with his parents, till 
 when about twelve years old, he would be sent from 
 home to be trained in knightly accomplishments at 
 the court of some great knight or king. Letters, too, 
 
 m 
 
 
 I / 
 
 '^-</i/5'iy^ .T i 
 
 CEREMONY OF KNIGHTHOOD. 
 
 were not neglected, for some tincture of Latin and 
 French was a necessity ; and so we find that William 
 of Tyre had a sort of school for the instruction of the 
 king's son, the future Baldwin IV. and his young 
 companions. 
 
 The attainment of manhood was marked by the 
 conferring of knighthood, for which the ordinary age 
 seems to have been from twenty to fi\e-and-twenty, 
 though Geoffrey of Anjou and his son, Henry Fitz- 
 
284 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Empress, were knighted at fifteen and sixteen respec- 
 tively. To this ceremony there was at an early date 
 attached a religious significance. In a curious 
 romance of the thirteenth century Hue de Tabarie is 
 made to set forth to Saladin all the mysterious 
 qualities of the rite. The order of knighthood, Hugh 
 tells his captor, is open to no unbeliever ; to confer it 
 on such a one were like trying to stifle the stench of a 
 dunghill with a silken mantle. Still Saladin perseveres 
 in his desire to receive the honour, submits to the 
 bath, and is clothed in the white garments of chastity ; 
 over them is cast a red cloak, typical of the blood to 
 be shed in defence of Holy Church. Then the Sultan 
 is shod by his instructor with black shoes, symbolical 
 of the earth from which he sprang and to which he 
 must return ; the white belt round the loins, the 
 gold spurs on the heels, and the sword at the side, 
 have each their appropriate significance of chastity, 
 obedience, and justice. 
 
 Romance and history also help us to a picture of 
 the knight's accomplishments. Like Richard of 
 Normandy he could fence, manage his falcon, chase 
 the deer, and slay the boar. Like Huon of Bordeaux 
 he could serve at dinner, break a horse, wield a lance, 
 and at chess and tables fear no antagonist. Other 
 graces, too, should he possess ; so Doon of Mayence 
 was bidden by his father to be courteous in bearing, 
 attentive to religion, liberal to the poor ; to be modest 
 in the display of his accomplishments, and not to 
 pretend to a skill or knowledge which he did not 
 possess. 
 
 For his amusement outdoors, the knight had 
 
KNIGHTLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 285 
 
 hunting, hawking, and tournaments ; indoors he had 
 chess, tables, and the jeu des dames^ but above all else 
 the minstrel's song. With the Crusaders the favourite 
 themes of minstrelsy were the " Song of Antioch," and 
 the achievements of Godfrey. The minstrel was 
 dependent on the liberality of his hearers, which 
 sometimes provided but a poor reward ; so the 
 jougleur in " Huon of Bordeaux " sings : — 
 
 " Silence for the song I tell, 
 For, by God, 'tis chanted well ; 
 Fair the tale and nobly set, 
 Still I get no guerdon yet, 
 Better largesse, good my friends, 
 Or full soon my story ends," 
 
 and when this appeal fails to produce a due effect, 
 the minstrel playfully invokes the curses of the fairy 
 king — Oberon — the semi-hero of his poem : — 
 
 " By deity of Oberon the great, 
 I here declare you excommunicate. 
 Yea ! every man of you who will not join 
 Loosing his purse to give my wife a coin." 
 
 On the other hand, if the minstrel roused the en- 
 thusiasm of his hearers he reaped a rich reward. In 
 the same romance the old minstrel bids Huon "Take 
 service with me, and thou shalt see folk give me 
 mantles so n;any that it will go hard with thee to 
 carry them all." Even the noblest warriors were not 
 above practising the art, and Richard I. could bandy 
 verses with the Duke of Burgundy and the Dauphin 
 of Vienne. The greatest of the troubadours, like 
 Bertrand de Born and Pierre Vidal, were friends of 
 
286 
 
 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 princes like Richard of England and Alfonso of 
 Aragon. 
 
 Of other indoor recreations tables corresponds 
 
 KNIGHT CHESSMAN, 
 
 to backgammon, and the jeu des dames to draughts. 
 But the chief was chess, which figures in grave 
 historical pages as well as in almost every mediaeval 
 romance. We find the Crusaders amusing them- 
 
kNtGtifLY AMUSEMENTS, 287 
 
 selves with this game during the long siege of 
 Antioch in 1098, and in the " Chr.nsoii de Roland " 
 Charlemagne and his paladins are depicted as whiling 
 away their leisure beneath the walls of Cordova with 
 chess and tables. The game itself is of Eastern and 
 perhaps Indian origin, but may have been known in 
 the West as early as the ninth century, for tradition 
 speaks of a set of chessmen — preserved at Paris till 
 the last century^— as one of the gifts of Harnn- 
 el-Rashid to Charles the Great. Historically, how- 
 ever, it does not appear till two centuries later, when 
 it was so popular that Peter Damiani lamented its 
 prevalence among the clergy ; fifty years later still 
 it was one of the amusements forbidden to the 
 Templars. A little treatise on chess problems dates 
 from the beginning of the fourteenth century, but 
 mediaeval interest in the game was not purely scien- 
 tific, for the players had commonly some stake, thus 
 Charlemagne plays for his kingdom, and Huon of 
 Bordeaux for his own life and the hand of the 
 Sultan's daughter.' 
 
 * Mediseval chess boards and men were so heavy that an angry playe. 
 could use them as a weapon of revenge, as did Renaud of Montauban 
 when he slew Charlemagne's nephew Bertolais. The pawns in a set dis- 
 covered about 1831 on the Island of Lewis were over two inches high. The 
 squares were generally gold and silver, the men red and gold. The pieces 
 had much the same power as now, but the queen could only move one 
 square, and that diagonally, being thus the weakest piece on the board, 
 and the bishop only two squares. The queen was often called " fierce " 
 or " vierge," from the Persian varzin, the bishop "alfil " or the elephant, 
 and the castle " roccus," all names that point to an Eastern origin. 
 In elaborate sets the pawns were all different, and bore the names of 
 farmer, blacksmith, butcher, merchant, physician, innkeeper, warder, 
 and gamester or ribald. But the commoner sets seem to have been of 
 conventional shapes somewhat like those now in use. 
 
288 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 A more distinctly gambling, and therefore per- 
 haps more popular, game was tables, which was 
 a favourite' amusement with Baldwin III., and 
 our own King John, the record of whose losses at 
 tables to his favourite, Roger de Lacy, is preserved. 
 Gaming was a great vice during the whole period 
 and had to be specially forbidden by Louis IX., who 
 when on his voyage from Egypt to Acre, caught his 
 brother, the Count of Anjou, playing tables, and 
 threw the board into the sea ; however, the count 
 played openly at Acre, and got much credit for 
 generosity by the bestowal of his gains on the needy 
 A strange story is that of the exiled Englishman 
 who in his passion for play lost all to his very shirt at 
 Acre ; unable to show his face among Christians, 
 he wandered into the far east and at last took 
 service with the Tartars as an interpreter, and 
 was sent by them to negotiate with the princes of 
 Europe. 
 
 The peculiar amusement of the mediaeval knight 
 was the tournament. Tournaments do not become 
 prominent in our English chronicles till the reign ot 
 Henry III., but on the Continent date back much 
 earlier, and since they were forbidden to the Templars 
 in their original statutes, must have been common 
 about 1 1 30; at the end of the century they were 
 the favourite occupation of the young King Henry, 
 son of Henry II. Tournaments were also popular in 
 the East, and the great jousts held in Cyprus in 1231, 
 to celebrate the knighting of Balian of Ibelin, led 
 to the war of that year. It was no doubt by the 
 Crusaders that this sport was introduced to the 
 
290 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Byzantine Greeks, and won the fancy of the 
 chivalrous Manuel Comnenus, who at Antioch un- 
 horsed two Latin warriors with his own hand. A 
 more primitive amusement was the quintain, which 
 consisted of a hauberk and shield hung on a post, at 
 which the players tilted, the proof of skill being to 
 pierce both shield and armour or even overthrow the 
 post. On the fondness of the Prankish nobles for the 
 chase somewhat is said elsewhere. ^ Above all other 
 sport they delighted in hawking, and a whole chapter 
 of the Assize of Jerusalem deals with the law relating 
 to falcons. 
 
 ' Turning to the more serious business of life we find 
 one of the first difficulties of the Crusaders was due 
 to the necessary intercourse with a people of strange 
 manners and stranger speech. Yet even in the 
 earliest days of Crusading history we meet with 
 instances of familiarity with the Arabic tongue. It 
 was one of the many accomplishments of Tancred, 
 and the Christian interpreter who was sent to 
 Corbogha was a knight called Herluin, perhaps a 
 Norman, who, like Tancred, had learnt the language 
 in Southern Italy. A generation later the office of 
 dragoman seems to have been held as a kind of 
 feudal fief, and under Fulk and Baldwip III., we read 
 of a William Dragomannus, who owned a house at 
 Jerusalem. Later still it was customary for Saracen 
 children to be brought up among Christians, and 
 Christian children among Saracens. Doubtless this 
 custom softened the asperity natural to rival creeds 
 and races, and so the great Christian nobles of 
 
 * See below, pp. 358-9. 
 
INTERCOURSE WITH THE SARACENS. 29I 
 
 Palestine became friendly with their Saracen neigh- 
 bours. Of this familiarity we find abundant examples ; 
 Hcnfrid of Toron once owed his safety when on a 
 plundering raid to the friendship of a Saracen emir ; 
 Hugh of Caesarea could treat with the Caliph of 
 Cairo in his own tongue. One great lord, possibly 
 Reginald of Sidon, had so keen an interest in Saracen 
 literature, that he had a special clerk to interpret it to 
 him, Reginald of Chatillon again is stated expressly 
 to have spoken the Saracen tongue, a faculty that he 
 probably acquired in the long years of his captivity. 
 But with all the intercourse between the two races 
 there seems to have been little close acquaintanceship 
 on either side with the literature or learning of the 
 other. Among the Christians, however, one name is 
 pre-eminent for knowledge of all languages, namely, 
 that of William of Tyre, who wrote his Mohammedan 
 history — now unfortunately lost — entirely from Arabic 
 sources as a counterfoil to his history of his own land, 
 which was compiled from Christian authorities. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that the Prankish 
 nobility of Syria was lacking in luxury and culture ; 
 more probably for their age they were in advance 
 of their Western cousins. The Latin conquest was 
 followed by the erection of numerous castles, churches, 
 and monasteries, many of which, by their solidity 
 and magnificence, bear witness to the skill of their 
 builders, and the facility with which they had learnt 
 from their Byzantine and Saracen contemporaries. 
 The necessities of the climate and the example of the 
 natives led to much luxury and splendour. In the 
 towns where military defence was not of the first 
 
292 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 importance, the residences of the nobles and even of 
 the wealthy citizens were built round open court-yards, 
 cooled by fountains playing in marble basins, and 
 decorated by the skill of Greek and Arab artists. In 
 their dress also, the Franks, when not engaged in 
 warfare, imitated the luxury of their enemies, and 
 often adopted the flowing robes of the East. So 
 when in 1192 Saladin made Henry of Champagne a 
 present of a tunic and turban, the Christian prince 
 replied : " You know that we are far from despising 
 the tunic and turban ; I shall certainly make use of 
 your presents." 
 
 The great nobles of Syria must have depended for 
 their wealth, very much as did their Western cousins, 
 on their rural possessions. The country as distin- 
 guished from the towns was divided into casals or 
 villages, inhabited by " Syrians," " Bedouins," or, as 
 they are otherwise styled, rustici, who paid a quar- 
 ter or a third of the net produce of their harvests 
 to their lord, with perhaps extra payments of fowls, 
 eggs, cheese and the like, at the great festivals. As 
 in England the land was roughly measured into 
 "plough-lands" {carriicae)^ or as much as a single 
 man would plough in a year. The cultivation of the 
 land was subject to strict rules : the land tilled for 
 corn one year was used for b?ans or some similar crop 
 the next ; in some cases the amount of seed to be 
 used for each plough land was definitely fixed. The 
 population of the casals was not very numerous, and 
 was perhaps stationary or even declining ; there seem 
 to have been rarely more than twenty men (heads of 
 families) in a single casal, with a holding of from one 
 
294 ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ PEOPLE. 
 
 to two and a half plough-lands a-picce. The rustici 
 were attached to the land, and were sold along with the 
 estate.! They were regarded with a certain amount 
 of scorn and suspicion hy their Prankish lords, who, 
 whilst admitting that they were " needful for the 
 land," found them useless for military service except 
 in small numbers as light-armed archers. Perhaps 
 they were rightly charged with being but lukewarm 
 in their attachment to the Pranks, and ready to sell 
 information to the Saracens. There is very little 
 evidence as to the monetary value of the casals ; but 
 we know that when Hugh of Ibelin had to raise his 
 ransom money in 1160, he received seven thousand 
 besants for several large casals, and when Julian of 
 Sidon sold some forty casals to the Teutonic knights 
 about a century later, he received from twenty-three 
 thousand to twenty-four thousand besants. 
 
 Passing away from the great lords and their country 
 dependents we come to the town population, the 
 foreign merchants, the Syrian Pranks or Pullani, and 
 the foreign settlers. The foreign trade was mostly in 
 the hands of the great Italian cities, and, above all, 
 of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa. The Genoese made their 
 appearance at the Port of St. Simeon during the .siege 
 of Antioch in 1098, and by maintaining communica- 
 tions with Cyprus and the Greek Empire, furnished 
 the Crusaders with supplies on their march to Jeru- 
 salem. Baldwin I. promised them one-third of all 
 the money they helped to earn, and a quarter in every 
 town they helped to acquire. Bohemond gave them 
 
 * A common formula of sale is " casalia cum omnibus villanis et 
 periineniiis." 
 
THE ITALIAN TRADERS AND THE TOWNS. 295 
 
 a footing in Antioch, but they were specially powerful 
 in the county of Tripoli, where Bertram gave them 
 one-third of his capital itself Much, however, of their 
 first acquisitions were afterwards lost ; but at a later 
 time they had a quarter at Acre and were very power- 
 ful in Armenia, where they had their own viscount 
 and court of justice. The Pisans like the Genoese 
 appear during the progress of the First Crusade, and 
 enjoyed the patronage of their compatriot, Dagobert, 
 who afterwards became Patriarch of Jerusalem. They 
 were established at Antioch in 1109; in 11 56 the 
 Pisans in Syria were under a viscount, but we find a 
 Pisan consul at Antioch in 1170; they had also a 
 quarter at Acre, and establishments at Jaffa, Tyre, 
 Tripoli, and Laodicea. 
 
 By far the most important of the trading com- 
 munities was that of the Venetians, who, however, 
 were later on the scene than their rivals of Genoa 
 and Pisa. A Venetian fleet appeared at Jaffa in 
 1 100, and many privileges were granted by Geoffrey 
 and Baldwin I. But the great triumph of Venice 
 was the taking of Tyre in 11 24, when they assisted 
 in the capture of the city with a fleet of one hundred 
 and thirty vessels under the doge, Domenicho Michaeli. 
 This achievement was the occasion of their obtaining 
 special privileges, which gave them the pre-eminence 
 in the kingdom of Jerusalem itself; they were pro- 
 mised a yearly pension of three hundred besants, a 
 payment which later kings, from Fulk onwards, found 
 it convenient to disallow ; they were also to have a 
 church, street, bath, and oven, in each of the king's 
 towns, and in those of his nobles, with the right to 
 
296 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 use their own measures, not only in their private 
 transactions, but even in sales to other people ; in 
 purchases they were bound to use the royal measures. 
 In the principality of Antioch and county of Tripoli 
 the Venetians obtained but little footing. In 1183 
 we find the Venetian communities under the rule 
 of viscounts, but in the next century there appears 
 an official styled the " Bailiff of Syria," who resided 
 at Acre or Tyre. In other towns there were consuls, 
 who were responsible for the good order of the 
 community. 
 
 Amongst other Italian cities the fivst place belongs 
 to Amalfi, which had traded with Syria from the 
 early years of the eleventh century. Of non- Italian 
 cities Marseilles was alone conspicuous. 
 
 There was much commercial rivalry between the 
 merchants of the various cities, and especially between 
 those of the three great cities. From the Third 
 Crusade onwards the dissensions of the Venetians, 
 Pisans, and Genoese, were the cause of much open 
 bloodshed, and were no slight factor in determining 
 the final downfall of the kingdom. 
 
 Probably at the head of all the Syrian Franks in 
 social position stood those who could pride them- 
 selves on their pure Western blood, and they are 
 perhaps the " Franci " whom the author of the 
 " Itinerary of Richard " distinguishes from the 
 Syrians. But numerically they must have been far 
 less important than the half-castes, or Piillani, 
 These latter represent, if we may trust Suger, those 
 who were born of a Syrian father or mother ; James 
 de Vitry, on the other hand, defines them as the 
 
THE PULLANI OR SYRIAN FRANKS. Zgj 
 
 offspring of the early conquerors by the Apulian 
 wives, for whom they sent over in the first days 
 of the kingdom ; practically, however, the word 
 means simply the Eastern Franks. Gradually they 
 gave themselves up to all the corruptions of the 
 climate, and became lazy frequenters of the baths, 
 luxurious, wanton, quarrelsome, and litigious ; they 
 took up Eastern habits and adopted an effeminate 
 dress. Their womenkind were subjected to an harem- 
 like isolation, and hardly allowed to venture out to 
 church, so that private altars were erected in their 
 chambers, at which wretched and ignorant chaplains 
 officiated ; but though only allowed to visit church 
 once a year, these ladies contrived to go to the public 
 baths three times a week, and in their seclusion gave 
 themselves up to all the superstitious practices of the 
 East. 
 
 Lastly come the foreign settlers, who were only too 
 often the offscouring of the West, evil-livers, who were 
 glad to escape the consequences of their crimes by 
 pretended pilgrimages to the East. In Syria they 
 soon fell back into their old ways, and became brothel 
 keepers, tavern haunters, and gamblers, " monstrous 
 men," says James de Vitry, " who fled from the West 
 to the Holy Land, changing indeed their sky, but 
 not their mind." Such was the natural fruit of 
 papal dispensations, and an unbounded belief in the 
 efficacy of pilgrimages. But as a contrast to these 
 worthless folk were the industrious and frugal Italian 
 traders, sober of life, but lavish of words, who main- 
 tained their own freedom and laws under their own 
 leaders : " a folk very necessary to the Holy Land," 
 
2g8 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE, 
 
 especially in naval affairs, who endured an Eastern 
 climate better than others because of their modera- 
 tion in food and drink. Side by side with them were 
 the wilder Germans, Bretons, Frenchmen, English- 
 men — extravagant, sensuous, gluttonous, wine-bibbers, 
 but, for all that, devout in their religion, and much 
 given to alms and arms. 
 
 Thus there was in Syria a strange conglomeration 
 of races and creeds : " from every quarter of the 
 ivorld, of every tribe and tongue, from every nation 
 under heaven, did devout pilgrims flock to the Holy 
 Land." Jerusalem itself was exempted from all food 
 taxes by the generosity of Baldwin I., so that the 
 poorest pilgrims might find abundant provision there. 
 Jerusalem gloried in the two places of special devo- 
 tion, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Mount Zion 
 and the Templum Domini, or Temple of the Lord, 
 on Mount Moriah. But there was no lack of other 
 places of devotion. At Hebron was the tomb of the 
 patriarchs, hardly more than fifteen years before the 
 fall of Jerusalem there was living at Bethlehem an 
 old knight, who told All of Herat that fifty years 
 before as a boy he had himself penetrated to the 
 chamber in the rock and seen the bodies of the great 
 father of the Hebrew race and his earliest descen- 
 dants. Nazareth boasted of the House of our Lord ; 
 Tortosa of the famous Church of our Lady, the first 
 altar according to Eastern tradition that was ever 
 reared in her name — to which the pious Joinville 
 made a pilgrimage ; Tyre of the tomb of Origen ; 
 Bethlehem of the stall wlierc Christ liad lain, and 
 the cave of St. Jerome ; Antioch of the Cathedral 
 
PILGRIMS AND MERCHANTS, 299 
 
 of St. Peter ; Edessa of the tombs of St. Thomas and 
 St. Thaddeus, and of the renowned sepulchre of the 
 holy king Abgar. 
 
 Nor was religion the only attraction in Palestine ; 
 the merchants were no less important than the 
 pilgrims. The harbours from Ascalon to St. Simeon 
 were thronged with the vessels of every nation of 
 Europe ; pre-eminent above them all was Acre. 
 Other towns were the seats of special industries ; 
 Antioch was famous for its silken cloths ; Tripoli for 
 its cotton and silk factories ; Beyrout for its iron 
 works ; Tyre for its glass and pottery, and for its 
 dyQ works ; Tiberias for its carpets ; Nablus for its 
 oil and soap. The land itself produced fruits of all 
 kinds, which were exported to Italy if not further 
 west ; so that John of Salisbury relates how at a 
 banquet in Italy he was regaled with the delicacies 
 of all lands, from Constantinople and Cairo to Bar- 
 bary and Tripoli. Chief among these fruits were the 
 lemon, the bitter orange, and the citron, and, above all, 
 the sugar-cane, which the early Crusaders found so 
 refreshing on their weary march to Jerusalem ; less 
 strange were the figs and cucumbers and melons. 
 But many of the delicacies which James de Vitry 
 enumerates must have been brought by caravan 
 from more distant lands. 
 
 From time immemorial the ginger and musk of 
 China and Thibet had come by way of India and 
 Ceylon to the ports of the Persian Gulf, thence to 
 be carried by caravans over Western Asia. From 
 Bagdad the caravans made their way by the Tigris 
 a.nd Euphrates to Rakka, Edessa, and. Harran, and 
 
300 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 thence to the great Mohammedan cities of Hamah, 
 Aleppo, and Damascus, and so to the Christian ports 
 on the coast. The caravans from Damascus to 
 Egypt passed through the lordship of Montreal, 
 and the tolls were so rich a source of revenue that 
 Baldwin III. specially reserved them when he granted 
 the lordship to Philip of Nablus. It was the exactions 
 of Reginal'^ of Chatillon on these caravans that caused 
 his feud with Saladin, and so led to the ruin of the 
 kingdom. Of the trade on the coast Acre was the 
 centre, and it is astonishing to read the long list 
 of merchandise that here paid toll to the kings ot 
 Jerusalem ; in it we find pepper, citron, cloves, lemons, 
 aloes, sugar, cardamon, the wines of Nazareth and 
 Sepphoris, and all the manufactured products ot 
 Christian Syria itself. 
 
 It must, however, be remembered that the trade 
 route of the Euphrates and Syria was subordinate 
 to that of the Red Sea and Egypt, in so far as 
 concerns the commerce between India and China 
 and the nations of Europe. Still the Venetian 
 Marino Sanuto, writing soon after the fall of Acre, 
 states that, whilst the heavier goods came by way 
 of Egypt, the lighter and more costly wares were 
 brought by caravan to Acre, Antioch, and elsewhere. 
 It would seem that the land-borne spices were 
 reckoned to have a rarer relish than those that had 
 suffered from the long journey by sea, and the 
 rough handling incidental to frequent transhipments. 
 
 It was into the midst of this feudal and militaiy 
 realm, into the midst of this busy mart of agriculture, 
 manufacture, and trade ; into this land which was 
 
COMMERCE WITH THE FAR EAST. 30I 
 
 the focus of the devotion, the curiosity, the am- 
 bition, and the greed of every nation from Ireland 
 to India, and from Norway to North Africa, 
 that in 11 87 Saladin burst with such appalling 
 velocity and such fatal effect Like a castle of 
 cards or a fortress on the sands the whole kingdom 
 of Jerusalem shuddered, collapsed, and fell ; three 
 months sufficed to work its ruin from the confines 
 of Armenia to the borders of Egypt, and from the 
 Jordan to the Mediterranean ; in the spring it seemed 
 full of life and vigour, in the autumn it lay prostrate 
 in utter destruction. The causes of this sudden fall 
 may here fitly detain us. 
 
 William of Tyre, regarding the events of his own 
 day with the eyes of a priestly if philosophic 
 historian, would have us attribute the misfortunes 
 of his land primarily to the sins of its people. The 
 Latins of the East had forsaken God ; God in His 
 turn was now forsaking them ; the old fervour was 
 gone, no longer were the princes of the West ready 
 to make their whole life a pilgrimage, as had done 
 Godfrey of Bouillon or Theodoric of Flanders. More 
 weight is to be laid on the historian's second cause : 
 tlie degeneracy of the Frankish race under an Eastern 
 sun in the midst of Eastern luxury ; even Arabic 
 writers noted this and tell us that in the latter half 
 of the twelfth century, the individual Saracen was 
 far more nearly a match for the individual Christian 
 than he had been fifty years earlier. Most important 
 of all is the fact that during this century the valley 
 of the Orontes passed from the divided rule of a 
 score of petty lords under the supremacy of one 
 
J02 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Sultan. When the Sultan further became lord of 
 Egypt and carried his conquering arms to the 
 Euphrates and the Tigris, it was evident that the 
 star of Islam was once more in the ascendant. 
 The Mohammedans took fresh courage under their 
 victorious leader, and in their turn embarked on a 
 holy war against the enemies of their faith. 
 
 But there was another cause at work to which 
 historians have perhaps paid too little attention. 
 Long and repeated minorities of the kings gave 
 the opportunity for internecine strife to arise 
 among the nobles. Even in the narrative of 
 William of Tyre we can trace signs of two factions, 
 the one of the nobles, and the other, so to say, of 
 the king's friends ; it was the same struggle that 
 led in England many years later to the Barons* 
 War. The old-established nobility of Syria were 
 careless of fresh conquests ; their ancestors had 
 won vast estates, pleasant lands, and boundless 
 wealth through the expenditure of blood and toil ; 
 they themselves were of a weaklier brood, and asked 
 only to be allowed to pluck the grapes that ripened 
 in the vineyards that their fathers had planted and 
 tilled and dressed. Hence under such a leader as 
 Raymond of Tripoli, sick of warfare, sick of toil, 
 longing for ease and delighting perhaps in the 
 nobler graces of civilisation — in art and literature 
 and science — the Syrian nobles were eager only for 
 a peace that would let them live their pleasant 
 life as seemed good to them — free from care, free 
 from danger, free from war. Perhaps Raymond 
 thought also that under the altered condition of things 
 
WEAKNESS OF THE KINGDOM, 303 
 
 — now that Islam was one, and gradually closing 
 in upon the doomed kingdom — this was the wisest 
 course to pursue ; better so to speak by the payment 
 of tribute to preserve what they had, than by open 
 war to risk the loss of all. 
 
 Over against this peace party may be set the party 
 of the foreigners and the great military orders who, 
 under the leadership of Reginald of Chatillon, looked 
 at matters from a very different point of view. 
 Perhaps they were eager to carve out new princi- 
 palities for themselves ; perhaps they longed merely 
 for the excitement and distinction of war with the 
 infidel ; or, as is more likely still, they had a truer 
 insight into the drift of affairs. They saw that for 
 a little kingdom situated as theirs was— hemmed in 
 by hostile powers to the north and south and east, 
 and with all capacity for expansion cut off by the 
 sea on the west — there was only one sound policy. 
 The sword must keep what the sword had won ; 
 not to advance was to recede, not to conquer to 
 be conquered. Hence their rivalry with Raymond ; 
 hence Raymond's friendship with Salad in ; hence 
 Saladin's enmity with Reginald. This feud between 
 the new men and the old, the strangers and the 
 foreigners, is but faintly reflected in the pages of 
 William of Tyre ; for his is as purely a court history 
 as is that of his contemporary Robert de Monte, who, 
 dedicating his work to Henry II,, barely mentions 
 th'e quarrels between the king and Becket. But on 
 turning from William to his continuator Ernoul, we 
 see the truth at once ; we feel that we are no longer 
 reading sober history but a party pamphlet. Glanc- 
 
304 
 
 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE, 
 
 ing back in this light at the pages of William of 
 Tyre, we become dimly conscious that the greatest 
 of all historians that the world had seen since Tacitus, 
 who was as great in action as he was great in thought, 
 is himself but the spokesman of a political party ; an 
 historian whose presentation of facts, as distinct from 
 the facts themselves, is little more to be trusted than 
 would have been a history of North's ministry from 
 the hands of Burke, or a life of Pitt from the pen of 
 Fox, 
 
XX. 
 
 THE THIRD CRUSADE— THE GATHERING OF THE 
 HOST. 
 
 (1x88-1 191.) 
 
 '* Say, Muse, their names, then known, who first, who last, 
 At their great emperor's call as next in worth. 
 Came singly." Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 
 
 The news of the fall of Jerusalem reached Europe 
 about the end of October, iiS/j^C It is hard at this 
 distance of time to realise the measure of the disaster 
 in the eyes of the Western world. It was not merely 
 that the Holy City had fallen ; that all the scenes of 
 that Bible history which constituted emphatically the 
 literature of mediaeval Christendom, had passed into 
 the hand of the infidel. It was all this and something 
 more ; the little kingdom of Jerusalem was the one 
 outpost of the Latin Church and Latin culture in 
 the East ; it was the creation of those heroes of the 
 First Crusade whose exploits had already become 
 
 305 
 
 I 
 
306 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 the theme of more than one romance ; it lay on 
 the verge of that mysterious East with all its wealth 
 of gold and precious stones and merchandise, towards 
 which the sword of the twelfth-century knight 
 turned as instinctively as the prow of the English or 
 Spanish adventurer four centuries later turned to- 
 wards the West. If the sword had won much, much 
 yet remained for it to win ; Aleppo the chief town 
 of Northern Syria, Damascus the garden of the world, 
 Alexandria the storehouse of the East — all these and 
 other prizes fired from time to time the ambitions 
 of those who aspired to rival the successes of the 
 two Baldwins, of Raymond and Reginald, or of 
 Fulk and Guy ; while for those who fell in battle and 
 lost the prize of temporal power, there was secured 
 an eternity of happiness in heaven. Thus Palestine 
 inspired alike the imagination, the enterprise, and 
 faith of Western Christendom. V 
 
 No wonder that both religious enthusiast and 
 knightly adventurer were stirred ta_ the very utmost at 
 the tidings of Saladin's victory. Pope Urban III. was 
 alleged to have died of grief for the loss^ the Holy 
 City. Unfounded though that report was,i we know 
 with what profound emotion the news was received in 
 the papal court, where the cardinals laid aside their 
 luxury, and pledged themselves to take the cross and 
 beg, if need be, their way to Palestine. Nor was the 
 feeling less profound in the lands beyond the 
 Alps ; it was not, we may be sure, any peculiar 
 
 * Urban died on October 20, 1187, before the fall of Jerusalem could 
 have been known in Europe. 
 
PRINCES AND PREACHERS, 3O7 
 
 grief which made Abbot Samson of Bury St. 
 Edmund's (familiar to. all readers of Carlyle's 
 " Past and Present ") wear sackcloth next his skin, 
 and leave off animal food from the time when he 
 heard that the Holy City was in the hands of the 
 infidel. 
 
 'One of the first acts of the new Pope, Gregory 
 VIII., was to bid the princes of Europe lay aside their 
 private quarrels and unite for the service of Christ 
 in a new Crusade. First to take the Cross in Novem- 
 ber, 1 1 87, was our own Richard, then Count 
 of Poitou ; two months later, on January 21, 
 1 1 88, the kings of France and England were recon- 
 ciled by the Archbishop of Tyre, and both re- 
 ceived the cross at his hands ; their example was 
 quickly followed__by_ Jhe Count of Flanders. The 
 three princes agreed that white, red^^^and green 
 crosses should I jp th e badges of their respective 
 followers. 
 
 Nor was the enthusiasm confined to words ; the 
 
 famous Saladin-tax in England, and perhaps in 
 
 France also, bound every man, on pain of excom- 
 munication, to contribute a tithe of his means for the 
 contemplated expedition ; to all who would pledge 
 themselves to personal service, special privileges were 
 offered. In England the Crusade was preached by 
 Baldwin of Canterbury himself; in his journey through 
 Wales tfte^archbishop was accompanied by the famous 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, who made this the occasion of 
 his -" Itinerary." The foremost preacher in France 
 was Berter of Orleans, the echo of whose eloquence 
 has come down to us in the song which bears his 
 
308 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 name.i Many nobles in both countries followed the 
 example of their kings, but before long the feud 
 between Henry and Philip broke out again. Time 
 after time the expedition was postponed,* and it was 
 nearly three years after the fall of Jerusalem, when 
 Henry himself was dead, that the chivalry of France 
 and England were led over sea by their feudal lords 
 to share in the siege of Acre. 
 
 The kings of the Spanish peninsula were too busy 
 with the infidel at their own gates to go and fight for 
 the Faith at the other extremity of the Mediter- 
 ranean. In Italy, however, William of Sicily was 
 first of the great princes to act ; when the Archbishop 
 of Tyre, in his black-sailed galley, brought the news 
 _of _Hattin^William had forthwith diverted to the re- 
 lief of the Holy Land the fleet which he had collected 
 
 * The first verse of this song, with its refrain, runs as follows : — 
 
 " Juxta threnos Jeremiae 
 vere syon lugent viae, 
 quod solemni non sit die 
 qui sepulcrum visitet, 
 vel casum resuscitet 
 hujus prophetise. 
 Contra quod propheta scribit, 
 quod de syon lex exibit 
 numquid ibi lex peribit, 
 nee habebit vindicem, 
 ubi Christus calicem 
 passionis bibit. 
 
 Lignum crucis 
 
 signum ducis 
 sequitur exercitus 
 
 quod non cessit 
 
 sed prsecessit 
 in vi sancti spiritus." 
 
FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. 309 
 
 foii_an_attack on Constantinople. This armament, 
 underwits— g4^eat-admiral, Margaritus, saved Antioch 
 from Saladin, helped to preserve Tripoli, strengthened 
 Conrad at Tyre, and recovered Jaffa. William was 
 preparing for a fresh expedition when his death, and 
 the troubles which ensued put an end to the design. 
 V A yet more potent sovereign had already pledged 
 himself for the second time to the service of the cross. 
 Forty years had passed since Frederick Barbarossa 
 had borne his part in the Second Crusade, and now 
 as a rnan of_nearly seventy-h€^4=enewed the promise of 
 hig- youth . Th e troubles of jthe_greatLEmperor's reign 
 had come to an end, and it had seemed that he might 
 now close his life in peace ; but all thoughts of rest were 
 banished by the news of the fall of Jerusalem, and 
 Frederick, though last to take the cross, was first to 
 take the field. Whilst Richard and Philip were ^ 
 banded toget her in treas on to their father and fellow- 
 "Crusadef) -the — aged_ Emperor was already ,tiiiliag 
 through Hungary and Bulgaria on his way to the.^ 
 East. In the previous year his envoys had obtained 
 from Isaac Comnenus the promise of ample pro- 
 visions, but the promise of the Greek proved as 
 worthless as ever. Not, indeed, but what Isaac may 
 well have looked on this new enterprise with alarm. 
 Bright, though perhaps misty, visions of a Latin 
 Empire in the East long floated before the eyes of 
 Western Europe. William of Sicily had actually been 
 preparing for such an attempt, and later legend tells 
 how Richard of England hoped to crown the glory of 
 his life by the conquest of so rich a prize. In 1188 
 the world was full with whispers of a coming change ; 
 
STATUE 01- iKLDLKicK 
 
MARCH OF FREDERICK, 3II 
 
 strange prophecies were told to ready ears, and many 
 hoped that in Frederick they might find the yellow- 
 haired king of the West before whom the golden gate 
 of Constantinople was to open ; might he not also be 
 destined to fulfil that other prophecy, and drive back 
 the last remnant of the unconverted Turks beyond 
 the withered tree. 
 
 On May 11, 1189, Frederick's great army started 
 from Ratisbon. . ^In Hungary he was received 
 hospitably, but on entering Bulgaria in July he began 
 to experience the nature of Greek promises. Markets 
 were ill provided, and the natives dogged the line of 
 march to cut off stragglers or in the hope of plunder. 
 At Philippo^lis on the 24th of August there came 
 the news that Isaac had made a league with Saladin, 
 and contrary to all right and custom thrust the Ger- 
 man ambassadors into prison. Isaac's promises were 
 clearly valueless, and Frederick accordingly sent word 
 to his son Henry at home to hire all the ships he 
 could in Italy, and send them to Constantinople in 
 readiness for its siege in the following March. 
 
 Isaac presently took alarm, released the envoys 
 and came to terms. The German army then went 
 into winter quarters at Adrianople ; in February, 
 X190, they started once more, and soon after Easter, 
 which fell this year on the 25th of March, crossed 
 the Bosphorus and entered Asia. At Laodicea they 
 reached the dominions of Kilij Arslan, who, by his 
 envoys had promised Frederick good guidance and. 
 stores of food. It was, however, soon evident riiat 
 Kilij Arslan was no more to be trusted than Isaac ; 
 no food was brought for sale, and as the army toiled 
 
312 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 along the rocky ways that led to Iconium their steps 
 were dogged by the hostile Turks. When at length, 
 on the 1 8th of May, the Crusiders appeared before his 
 city, Kilij Arslan, declaring that it was not he but his 
 son who was to blame for the past, came to terms and 
 opened to the Crusaders an abundant market. 
 
 From Iconium Frederick passed on towards Cilicia. 
 Leo, the Prince of Armenia, sent him envoys with 
 promises of all support and goodvvill. But on the 
 lOth of June while the army was struggling over the 
 rocky hills that separated Cih'ria^ Jrom, Lycaonja they 
 were startled by the news of the Emperor's death. 
 Desirous to avoid the labours of the recognised path 
 which wound up the rocks above the river Saleph, 
 Frederick had determined to make a short cut ; with 
 his attendants he came down to the river side ; the 
 day was hot, and willing to shorten his journey, and at 
 the same time cool his heated limbs the Emperor at- 
 tempted to swim the rapid stream ; the swir) of the 
 waters sucked him down, and so " he, who had often- 
 times escaped from greater dangers, came to a pitiful 
 end." His followers sadly carried his body to Tarsus, 
 where they buried the intestines with great reverence ; 
 his bones were taken to Antioch and interred in the 
 Church of St. Peter. ■~' 
 
 Thus perished the noblest type of German kingship 
 — the Kaiser Redbeard, of whom history and legend 
 have so much to tell. Tradition was soon busy with 
 his death. Men could not believe that he was gone 
 away for ever from his own land : like Arthur, he 
 was but in hiding for a time, and would return in some 
 hour of supreme necessity to save the empire which 
 
RICHARD I. AND PHILIP AUGUSTUS. 313 
 
 he had ruled. The spot which witnessed his destruc- 
 tion was fabled to have been marked out by fate from 
 remote antiquity, and a rock near the river's fount 
 w^as alleged to bear the ominous words — " HiC 
 HOMINUM MAXIMUS PERIBIT " (" Here shall perish 
 the greatest of men "). 
 
 After Frederick's death the German host divided 
 into two. One body went to Tripoli ; the rest, under 
 the Duke of Swabia, made their way to Antioch, 
 where they stayed for some time, recruiting them- 
 selves after their labours, and assisting the prince of 
 that city in his warfare. 
 
 It was not till ^ne, 1190, that Richard and Philip_. 
 Augustus were ready to commence their journey. The 
 two kings met at Vezelay, and proceeded in company 
 to Marseilles, whence Philip sailed in a Genoese fleet 
 for Sicily, and landed at Messina on the i6th of 
 September. Richard had ordered his fleet to meet 
 him at Marseilles, but the English Crusaders, mindful 
 of the exploit of their forefathers nearly half a 
 century before, stopped on the way to help Sancho, 
 of Portugal, in his warfare with the Moors. It was the 
 14th of September before they reached Marseilles. 
 
 Meanwhile Richard, impatient of delay, had started 
 in a single galley. Slowly he sailed from port to port 
 along the western shores of Italy, varying his journey 
 from time to time by a ride on shore. At last, on 
 the 23rd of September, he joined his main fleet, and 
 entered Messina in state and pomp amidst the blare 
 of trumpets, whilst the Frenchmen and Sicilians on 
 the beach marvelled at the splendour of his coming. 
 
 The two kings stayed on in Sicily for six months. 
 
314 ^^£^ THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 The winter was passed in unseemly wrangling ; Tan- 
 cred, the- new ruler of the island, was an illegitimate 
 grandson of Roger I. ; he had seized the person 
 and property of his predecessor's widow, Joanna, 
 and she, as Richard's sister, naturally turned to. her 
 brother for protection. An ill-advised quarrel soon 
 gave Richard a pretext for an attack on Messina ; 
 " Quicker than priest could chant matins," says 
 the old chronicler, "did King Richard take tlje city." 
 Such prompt action brought Tancred to his senses 
 and though Richard did not get the goldtn table and 
 chair, which he claimed as part of his sister's dower, 
 he received what' was perhaps more useful, namely, 
 forty thousand ounces of'gold. 
 
 If the taking of Messina proved Richard's military 
 prowess, his castle of Matte Griffin, or Check Greek, 
 showed him as the skilful engineer ; and the great 
 Christmas feast, when he gave his guests the golden 
 goblets which they used, displayed his generosity. 
 Now also, though late, he recognised his sin against 
 his father, and showed the sincerity of his sorrow by 
 submitting to public penance. In the presence of all 
 his prelates he confessed his sin, and " from that hour 
 once more became a God-fearing man." 
 
 On the 30th of March, 1 191, Richard's mother, 
 Eleanor, brought to Messina her son's destined bride, 
 Berengaria of Navarre. That same day Philip had 
 sailed for PalestineTbut Richard did not start till eleven 
 days later. The English fleet, which numbered more 
 than one hundred and eighty vessels, was scattered 
 by a great storm two days after it set sail. Richard 
 himself put in at Crete ; but some of his ships were 
 
SICILY AND CYPRUS. 315 
 
 wrecked on the coast of Cyprus, and the crews 
 thrown into prison by order of Isaac Comnenus,. 
 the ruler of the island. A little later the ship 
 which carried Berengaria and her future sister-in- 
 law, Joanna, reached Limasol. Somewhat doubtfully 
 they accepted Isaac's invitation to land next da}^, 
 Monday, the 6th of May ; but that same afternoon 
 the sails of the main fleet appeared on the horizon, 
 and on the following morning the king himself 
 arrived. Richard was not the man to suffer tamely 
 the wrongs which had been done to his followers ; 
 when Isaac refused redress, the English king de- 
 termined to use force ; a short campaign of three 
 weeks sufficed for the conquest of Cyprus, and Isaac 
 was imprisoned in chains of^ilven. 
 
 At Cyprus Richard married Berengaria, and after 
 a month's stay in the island sailed, on the 5th of 
 June, for Palestine, in the company of Guy de Lusig- 
 nan7who had come to meet him with many of the 
 great Syrian nobles. On his way Richard encountered 
 and sank a great Saracen vessel laden with provisions 
 for Acre, and after two days. -entered. _the harbour of 
 that city in triumph. " For joy at his coming," says 
 Baha-ed-din, *' the Franks broke forth into public re- 
 joicing, and lit mighty fires in their camps all night 
 long. And seeing that the King of England was old 
 in war and wise in council, the hearts of the Mussul- 
 mans were filled with fear and dread." 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE THIRD CRUSADE — THE SIEGE OF ACRE. 
 
 (1189-II91.) 
 
 ** Corpses across the threshold ; heroes tall 
 Dislodging pinnacle and parapet 
 Upon the tortoise creeping to the wall; 
 Lances in ambush set." 
 
 Tennyson, "A Dream of Fair Women.^* 
 
 We must now turn back to record the fortunes of 
 the Christians in Palestine during the interval between 
 the fall of Jerusalem and the arrival of the main host 
 of the Crusaders under the kings of France and Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Guy de Lusignan had been set free towards the 
 J beginning of July,- H-^8r~but not until he had 
 promised to abandon his claim on the kingdom. 
 From this engagement he was soon released by the 
 clergy, who assured him_ that_lliere was no binding 
 force in such an oath. Near Tortosa he met his wife, 
 and with her proceeded to Antioch at the invitation 
 of Bohemond. The year passed in anxious expec- 
 tation of succour from Europe. But by the following 
 
 316 
 
GUY DE LUSIGNAN. 317 
 
 spring Guy had assembled a little army, and feeling 
 sufficiently strong to take the initiative, marched 
 southwards to Tyre. Conrad refused him admission 
 to the city, declaring that God had entrusted it to his 
 care, and he would keep it ; if the king sought a 
 resting-place let him find it elsewhere. After four 
 months' vain delay near Tyre, Guy marched on to 
 Acre with an army which now numbered seven 
 hundred knights and nine thousand foot, gathered 
 from every nation in Christendom. With this little 
 force he set down to besiege that great and strong 
 city on the 28th of August, 11 89. 
 
 Acre lies on an inlet of the Mediterranean which 
 
 COIN OF GUY DE LUSIGNAN. 
 
 bears its name ; a tongue of land running south- 
 wards into the sea serves as a partial protection for 
 the harbour ; at its extremity rose the famous 
 " Tower of Flies," ^ which, together with a chain, 
 helped to guard the harbour ; to the east the city 
 overlooked a fertile plain. The harbour of Acre vvas 
 the best in the kingdom properly so called, if not along 
 the whole coast of Syria, and the town itself was the 
 chief erriporium of Erankish trade. In recent years it 
 had been gradually supplanting Jerusalem as the royal 
 residence, and had become the recognised landing- 
 
 ^ So called, if we may trust the chroniclers, because it marked the 
 spot where heathen sacrifices had of old attracted Sv\ arms 1 f flies. 
 
3l8 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 place for pilgrims from the West. " Acre," says an 
 Arab writer, who visited it some five years before this 
 time, "is the column on which the Prankish towns 
 in Syria rest Thither put in the tall ships which 
 float like mountains over the sea. It is the meeting- 
 place of crafts and caravans : the place whither 
 Mussulman and Christian merchants muster from all 
 sides." 
 
 At a little distance from the walls a small hill rises 
 above the level of the plain ; here Guy pitched his 
 tent, whence he could look forward over the city for 
 the sails of his expected friends. But to the east a 
 less pleasant sight soon met his gaze, as one after 
 another the Saracen contingents hastened up to hem 
 in the Christian army between the river Kishon and 
 the sea ; before long the Christians were themselves 
 besieged, and their numbers were so few that they 
 could not prevent the Saracens from passing almost 
 at their will to and from the town. 
 
 The siege had hardly commenced when the first 
 ships of the autumn passage began to arrive. First 
 came the Frisians, closely followed by a contingent 
 from Flanders and England. Then came the hero 
 of the siege, James of Avesnes, a warrior proud and 
 turbulent in his own land, but in the eyes of his 
 fellow Crusaders the model of all chivalric virtues — 
 in counsel as Nestor, in arms as Achilles, in faith 
 as Regulus. Other arrivals were Robert of Dreux, 
 grandson of Louis VI., and his brother Philip of 
 J^eauvais, the warrior prelate of the expedition ; the 
 Counts of Brienne and Bar, and the Landgrave, Louis 
 of Thuringia, whose influence induced Conrad of Mont- 
 
SIEGE OF ACRE. 3ig 
 
 ferrat to lend his aid to an enterprise, from which he 
 had as yet held sullenly aloof. By mid-September 
 the Christians perhaps numbered nine thousand 
 horse and thirty thouTaffd foot, and were a¥Ie~"to 
 establish an effectual blockade. Saladin therefore 
 determined on an attempt to break through their 
 lines, and in the early dawn of September 14th, a 
 sudden onset from both the city and the camp proved 
 successful ; despite their valour, the Christians could 
 not prevent the passage of the loaded camels into 
 Acre, nor the escape of one of Saladin's sons from 
 the beleaguered town. 
 
 Three weeks later Guy retaliated by an attack on 
 the Sultan's camp ; the Saracens gave way before 
 the charge of the Franks, who were already plunder- 
 ing Saladin's tent, when a sally from the town 
 cut off the Christians in the rear, and called Geoffrey 
 de Lusignan to his brother's aid, from the camp which 
 he had undertaken to guard. In vain did the Templars 
 offer a stout resistance to the new attack ; twenty of 
 their knights were slain, and among them Gerard de 
 Ridefordy4±LeL_Grarui Master. Gerard died a hero's 
 death ; his comrades urged him to seek safety in 
 retreat ; " God forbid," was his reply, " that men 
 should say of me to the shame of our order, that to 
 save my own life I fled away leaving my fellows 
 dead behind me." Nor was Gerard alone in his 
 gallantry ; Guy himself, in the true spirit of chivalry, 
 rescued his enemy CnTTiadJrojnj he immine nt danger 
 of death, whilst James d'Avesnes owed his safety to 
 the self-sacrifice of one of his knights. In the end 
 the Christians lost the day, but they gained, never- 
 
320 THE THIRD CRUSADB!. 
 
 theless, a substantial advantage, for the Saracens 
 were so exhausted, that Saladin gave orders to fall 
 back on El Kharruba, about twelve miles south- 
 east of Acre.i 
 
 The Christians turned this respite to the best use ; 
 in order at once to secure their own position, and to 
 complete the blockade, they dug a deep trench out- 
 side their canip from sea to sea, and strengthened it 
 with a wall of earth. Night and day they toiled at 
 the task till all was finished. Young and old, men 
 and women, all joined in the labour, and the Christian 
 historian records with enthusiasm, how when one 
 woman was mortally wounded in the midst of her 
 labour, she adjured her husband to let her dead 
 body be flung into the mound, that thus she might 
 further in death the work for which she had sacrificed 
 her life. 
 
 The winter passed away without any important 
 result, though the Egyptian fleet succeeded in re- 
 victualling the town on October 31st, and tvyo months 
 later drove t\\e_ Christian vessels to seek shelter at 
 Tyre. Saladin occupied himself with preparations 
 for mustering a large army ; Baha-ed-din was sent on 
 an embassy to summon the lords bey^|| the 
 Euphrates, and to beg aid of the Calipl^^fcoth A 
 missions proved successful, and in April, i il^»be^ 
 various contingents began to arrive. MecBfanie 
 
 * This probably refers only to part of SalacUn's army. Prevl^py 
 the main host had been encamped on the hill of A'iadiya, about four 
 and a half miles souih-east of Acre. This retreat was occasioned chiefly 
 by Saladin's ill-health ; but none the less does the Arabic contemporaiy 
 historian — wise after the event — blame the hero of Islam. 
 
CHRISTIAN SUCCESSES. 321 
 
 Conrad had brought back the fleet from Tyre, and, 
 in return for a compact, by which he was to have 
 Tyre, Sidon, and Beyrout, lent his hearty aid. But 
 though the Christians could now confine the Saracen 
 fleet at Acre, they still could not prevent the entry 
 of provisions from time to time. The siege_was 
 nevertlieless -prosecuted with vigour from the land 
 side ; three great towers of wood were constructed, 
 and fitted with engines ; when manned by five 
 hundred men a-piece, they were brought to bear on 
 the walls. Perhaps the town would have fallen save 
 for the energy of a young charcoal-burner of Damas- 
 cus ; but by his direction certain ingredients were 
 mixed together in pots, which on being hurled against 
 the towers set them ablaze ; thus they were all des- 
 troyed, and the confusion of the Christians was 
 increased by an attack from the Saracen camp, which 
 was maintained during eight days. 
 
 After this many of Saladin's best troops were called 
 away to oppose the-Germans near Antioch. This 
 circumstances perhaps encouraged the Christian 
 common folk, contrary to the will of their leaders, to 
 sally ou^ i!0_Jiily-2Sth against the foes surrounding 
 them. The wrath of the chiefs was powerless against 
 the lust for spoil, which stirred the crowd to madness ; 
 for a moment the suddenness of the attack made it 
 successful, and the rude host was soon rifling the 
 tents of El-Adel. But the Saracen soldiery quickly 
 mustered to arms, and the Franks, who had no 
 thought except for the plunder, woke up to find their 
 retreat entirely cut off. Hardly one would have 
 escaped but for the valour and self-devotion of an 
 
iii THE THIRD CRVBADE. 
 
 English clerk, Ralph of Hautrey, Archdeacon of 
 Colchester. The Christians themselves admitted a 
 loss of over five thousand men, and Baha-ed-din, who 
 rode over the plain after the battle, declares that 
 he had to cross " waves of blood," and that he 
 could not count the number of the dead. 
 
 The next few months were passed in comparative 
 quiet, but were marked by the coming of the first 
 large contingents of the French and English hosts ; 
 the former under Henry of Champagne and Theo- 
 bald of Blois, the latter under Ranulf Glanville, 
 Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury, and his destined 
 successor, Hubert Walter, then Bishop of Salisbury. 
 About the same time the Germans arrived from 
 Tripoli, under Frederick of Swabia ; but of the vast 
 host which started from Ratisbon, scarcely five 
 thousand were now left. 
 
 Count Henry brought with him ten thousand men, 
 and he was at once appointed to command the army 
 in place of James d'Avesnes and the Landgrave, who 
 had so far held the office by turns. The attack from 
 the land side still met with but indifferent success, 
 but at sea the blockade was so strictly maintained, 
 that famine began to press hard on the besieged. 
 Saladin, however, maintained his communications 
 with the town, through the agency of a messenger 
 named Eissa. This man would creep down to the 
 shore at dark, carrying in his belt letters and money 
 for the payment of the troops ; thence plunging into 
 the waters he would strike out for the harbour, often 
 diving beneath the very keels of the Crusaders' ships. 
 At last one of his journeys proved fatal, and a few 
 
FAMINE IN THE CAMP. 323 
 
 days later the citizens of Acre found his dead body 
 on the sand with his belt still untouched. " Never 
 before," says the Arab historian, quaintly, " had we 
 seen a man pay a debt after his death." 
 
 Provisions grew scarce within the town, but the 
 state of the Christian camp was scarcely less doleful. 
 Archbishop Baldwin, writing home, says : " The Lord 
 is not in the camp ; there is none that doeth good. 
 The leaders strive one with another, while the lesser 
 folk starve, and have none to help. The Turks are 
 persistent in attack, while our knights skulk within 
 their tents. The strength of Saladin increases daily, 
 but daily does our army wither away." 
 
 Sala^ijTjiowever^3iJIh:tGber:20th, went into winter 
 quarters at Shefr 'Amr close to El Kharruba ; for 
 the unhealthiness of the place was proving fatal to 
 himself and to his troops. His troops began to 
 murmur at the long campaign, and one by one 
 many of his chief followers withdrew, till in March, 
 iipi^theSultan was left with only a small force. On 
 the other hand, the stress of winter had prevented the 
 Franks from watching the harbour with the usual 
 closeness, an^'Salad in had contrived to throw a fresh 
 garrison into the town (Feb. 13th). Moreo;v'er famine 
 was rife in the Christian camp, and during il^e enforced 
 idleness of winter the soldiery gave way to dicing, 
 drinking, and even worse. Baldwin took the evil 
 that he saw around him so much to heart, that he 
 fell sick, and after a short illness died, thankful for 
 his speedy delivery from his sojourn in so godless an 
 army. Conrad had withdrawn to Tyre, and promised 
 to send provisions thence ; but he either could not 
 
324 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 or would not fulfil his engagement, and at length the 
 famine grew so severe that the knights slew their 
 chargers to save themselves from death. When it 
 was known that an animal had been slaughtered, men 
 flocked together from all parts of the camp to beg 
 or steal a portion for themselves. Men of noble birth 
 might be seen going out into the plain and eating 
 grass like cattle, others ran about the camp like dogs 
 on the scent for old bones. At last, one Saturday 
 early in March, a ship arrived with a cargo of grain, 
 and by the following day the price of a measure of 
 corn had fallen from a hundred pieces of gold to four. 
 After this there was an end of the famine, and only 
 those grieved who, like a certain Pisan, had hoarded 
 their grain in the hope of an even higher price ; 
 " But his wickedness did God show by a plain token ; 
 for it chanced that his house suddenly took fire and 
 was consumed with all that was in it." 
 
 About the end of March, 1191, Saladin renewed 
 his leaguer of the Christian camp ; but the besieged 
 within the city were now hard pressed, and the 
 Sultan could do no more to help them than to order 
 an attack on the Christian camp, whenever the 
 Christians made a special effort against the town. 
 Philip Augustus arrived on April, ^h, and Richard 
 on June 8th ; it seemed for the moment that Acre 
 must fall at once. The machines which the King of 
 England had constructed in Sicily, including the 
 huge wooden tower Matte Griffin, were brought to 
 bear on the walls. But before anything had been 
 effected, the old feuds broke out afresh ; Guy and 
 Conrad renewed their quarrel, and the latter departFd 
 
ARRIVAL OF RICHARD. 
 
 325 
 
 in wrath to Tyre. Next Richard and then Philip 
 fell sick, and during the illness of the two kings the 
 Mohammedans were enhcartencd by the coming of 
 fresh forces. Philip soon recovered, and on July 3rd 
 a great effort to carry the town was made ; though 
 the assault fell short of complete success, the de- 
 
 SEAL OF RICHARD I. (lIQS-) 
 
 fenders were reduced to despair. Richard, though 
 still unwell, was eager to emulate the deeds of his 
 rival ; so a few days later he had himself carried to 
 a shed whence he could direct the efforts of his 
 engineers ; in his ardour he himself aimed the shots 
 from the balista, while his miners worked with such 
 vigour that at length a piece of the wall fell down 
 with a crash. At last — so the story was told, 
 
326 THE THIRD CRUSADE, 
 
 a little later in England — on July 8th, as the 
 Christians were keeping watch, there shone round 
 them a sudden light, '* for fear of which the guards 
 became as dead men ; " in the midst of the light 
 appeared the Virgin, bidding those to whom she 
 spoke bear her message to the kings ; let them 
 abandon their efforts against the walls, the city- 
 should be theirs on the fourth day. 
 
 Next morning the rulers of the city begged for a 
 truce, and promised to capitulate if Saladin did not 
 send immediate help. The Sultan was forced some- 
 what unwillingly to consent to terms ; Acre was to 
 be given up together with two hundred knights and 
 fifteen hundred other Christian captives ; the Holy 
 Cross was to be restored, and the sum of two hundred 
 thousand besants paid to the Crusaders. So after a 
 siege of nearly two years, on Friday, July 12, 119^ 
 the Christians once more obtained possession, of Arre. 
 Tlie ciiy__and_the captives were divided between the 
 two kings ; Richard took possession of the royal 
 ^lace, whilst Philip hung his banner over the house 
 of the Templars. But even in the hour of victory 
 the princes quarrelled one with another as to their 
 respective shares therein. Leopold of Austria — so 
 the story goes — had set up his banner side by side 
 with that of the King of England as though arrogat- 
 ing to himself an equal share in the triumph ; with 
 Richard's connivance, if not by his command, the 
 duke's banner was torn down and cast into the ditch. 
 Leopold, feeling himself unable to revenge this indig- 
 nity, departed for his own land, bearing in his breast 
 the seeds of a direful hatred for the English king. 
 
XXII. 
 
 THE THIRD CRUSADE — THE CAMPAIGNS OF RICHARD. 
 
 (119I-II92.) 
 
 ** Yet in this heathen war the fire of God 
 Fills him : I never saw his like ; there lives 
 No greater leader. " 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 Hardly was Acre taken ; hardly had the two 
 kin^s established themselves in their quarters in the 
 city ; hardly had the papal legate, the Cardinal 
 Adelard of Verona, and his brother bishops, re- 
 consecrated the churches which for four years had 
 been polluted with Mohammedan rites ; hardly had 
 the Pisan merchants . begun to exercise their Jbrmer 
 privileges and renew tlieir former trade, when the 
 slumbering jealousy of the two kings once more 
 brought peril on the common enterprise. 
 
 Philip Augustus owed no ordinary gratitude to the 
 late King of England and his sons ; it was the 
 young Henrv who had stood by Philip's side at his 
 coronation and helped to raise the crown that bore 
 ^00 heavily on the boy-king's head ; it was the elder 
 
328 THE THIRD CRUSADE, 
 
 Henry who by his wise statesmanship had preserved 
 the first years of Philip's reign from rebellion and 
 civil war ; later, when Richard was at feud with his 
 father, it was to his alliance that Philip owed the 
 grand success of 1189. But the friendliness of the 
 young princes could not survive Richard's elevation 
 to the crown ; and with hi^s- father's, and his mother's 
 lands ,Eichard-_iiihLerited- th£._traditional hostility of 
 the king at Paris, 
 
 Other special grounds of quarrel there were 
 between Richard and Philip which had not existed 
 between Henry and Louis. After long dallying, 
 Richard had repudiated his engagement to Philip's 
 half-sister Alice ; and though tlie French, king could 
 stoop_to accept compensation in money, he can 
 hardly have put out of mind fhe insulting reason 
 which Richard gave for his refusal. Cjjpidity also 
 had its share in the quarrel ; the two kings liad 
 sworn to divide all the spoils of their conquests ; but 
 both had with more or less of reason found occasion 
 to recede from this engagement. Moreover while 
 yet in Sicily they had quarrelled openly ; for 
 
 Tancred had shown to Richard certain letters 
 
 which he professed to have received from Philip, and 
 which invited his assistance in a treacherous attack 
 on the English. Philip denied all knowledge of the 
 letters, but it was only with great difficulty that the 
 Count of Flanders contrived to effect a seeming 
 reconciliation. 
 
 Nor were personal dissensions the only troubles 
 with which the two kings had to contend. National 
 rivalry, which had nearly wrecked the First Crusade, 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH. 329 
 
 was destined to be the ruin of the Third. Richard's 
 coming to Acre had been hailed as the " coming of 
 the desired of all nations ; " but the joy was of short 
 duration, for soon the old jealousies broke out, and 
 it was found necessary to forbid the two nations even 
 to fight side by side. " The two kings and peoples," 
 says the English chronicler, "did less together than 
 they would have done separately, and each set but 
 light store by the other." So it was agreed that 
 when the knights of one nation advanced against the 
 city, the others should remain to keep ward in the 
 trenches. 
 
 But a yet more serious rock of offence lay in the 
 struggle for the kingship -of Jerusalem. Sibylla and_ 
 hcronfant chUdren haddied^ in^the latter part of j .IQO,,^ 
 Their death encouraged some of the native nobles 
 to dispute Guy',3. title once more. According to the 
 normal rules of the land Henfrid IV. of Toron 
 should have governed in the name of his wife Isabella, 
 Sibylla's younger sister. But the great nobles had 
 never forgiven Henfrid for his refusal to join in their 
 rebellion four years before ; they therefore sought 
 another candidate in. Con rad_ of Mjpntferratj_ whose 
 vigoijx^had '^aved T3Te_Jbr_the_^hristians, and whose 
 brother William had been SibyUa's first hu sband and 
 theL father of their las t accepted king. Conrad was a 
 man of resource and action, who, both for his birth 
 and his personal merit, ought to satisfy even the 
 proud barons of Syria. The one obstacle was 
 Isabella's previous marriage ; but with the lady's 
 consent a divorce was procured on the plea that she 
 had been married to Henfrid against her wish. Tho 
 
330 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 attitude of Philip and Richard was foreshadowed in 
 the action of their followers, for Baldwin of Canter- 
 bury was foremost in opposing the divorce, whilst 
 the new marriage was celebrated by Philip of 
 Beauvais, cousin to the king of France. 
 
 Guy could not be expected to acquiesce in the loss 
 of his title and power ; naturally enough he had 
 sought in Cyprus the aid of his former overlord, King 
 Richard, who had there promised him his support. 
 Before the siege of Acre was over the quarrel had 
 culminated in open violence ; Guy's brother Geoffrey 
 bluntly accused Conrad of treachery, and Conrad 
 rather than maintain his innocence by gage of battle 
 withdrew to Tyre ; nevertheless, Philip . Augustus 
 took that noble under his protection, and openly 
 declared his opposition to the wishes of the King of 
 England. However, at the end of July, after a formal 
 trial, a compromise was arranged, under which Guy 
 retained the title of king, but shared the royal 
 revenues with Conrad, who was to be hereditary lord 
 of Tyre, Sidon, and Beyrout ; at Guy's death the 
 crown was to pass to Conrad and his children by 
 Isabella. 
 
 By this time Philip had already wearied of the 
 Crusade, and a little later he rejected Richard's pro- 
 posal that they should both bind themselves to stay 
 in the land for three years. Soon he went even 
 further, and begged Richard's sanction for his return, 
 pleading that his health was bad and that he had 
 sufficiently performed his oath. The remonstrances 
 of Richard and of his own followers had no weight with 
 Philip, who on July 31st set out for Tyre. Before 
 
 \ 
 
DEPARTURE OF PHILIP, 33I 
 
 his departure the French king swore neither actively 
 nor passively to do any wrong to the King of 
 England's men or lands in Europe. " How faithfully 
 he kept his oath the whole world knows. For directly 
 he reached home he stirred up the whole land, and 
 threw^ Normandy into confusion. What need for 
 further words ! Amid the curses of all he departed, 
 leaving his army at Acre." 
 
 Richard waited for Salad in to pay the agreed 
 ransom ; but August T4th arrived and the Moham- 
 medans had not completed their engagement. So 
 on the Eve of the Assumption Richard left Acre and 
 pitched his tents beyond the eastern trenches ; here 
 he waited again six days more, till, on the afternoon 
 of August 20th, _the king andLhi.s Jknights advanced 
 into the plain. Then the captives were brought out 
 and massacred in full view of their countrymen ; it 
 was in vain that the Saracens threw thernselycs upon 
 the murderers of their kinsfolk, and in all five 
 thousand prisoners are said to have been thus slain, 
 the more notable only being preserved for ransom. 
 The massacre was not, perhaps, so gratuitous and 
 unwarrantable as would at first sight appear ; Roger 
 Howden asserts distinctly that Saladin had slain his 
 Christian captives two days before, an assertion which 
 the words of Baha-ed-din seem to countenance ; 
 Richard may also have felt the danger and difficulty 
 of keeping so many prisoners, and have honestly 
 doubted the good faith of Saladin as to the stipu- 
 lated ransom. 
 
 On August 23rd Richard started for Ascalon ; 
 the army marched along the shore, whilst the fleet 
 
THE COAST MARCH, 333 
 
 accompanied them at a little distance from the land. 
 Every evening, when the tents were pitched, the 
 herald took his stand in the midst of the host, and 
 thrice cried aloud: "Aid us, Holy Sepulchre!" As 
 he cried the whole army took up the shout with 
 tears. " Who would not have wept, seeing that the 
 mere recital moves all that hear to sorrow ? " 
 
 Inland on the low hills to the left Saladin's host 
 followed and harassed the Crusaders. Despite the 
 enemy, and the terrible heat, which caused many to 
 fall dead by the way, the Christians marched on past 
 Haifa and Caesarea, till on September ist they 
 reached the Dead River, where the coast became so 
 bad for marching that Richard struck inland by the 
 mountain road. On September 3rd a fierce attack 
 was made on the Templars in the rear ; the arrows 
 flew so fast that there was riot a yard of the army's 
 march where they did not lie ; Richard himself was 
 among the wounded. But still the host pressed on, 
 till on the 6th they rested by the Nahr Falaik, or 
 River of the Cleft, some sixteen miles from Caesarea. 
 Here they learnt that Saladin was awaiting their 
 approach with an army of three hundred thousand 
 men, three times the estimated number of the 
 Crusading host. With the early dawn of the 7th of 
 September the Christians resumed their march in 
 five divisions. First wen t__the„ Templars ; then the 
 Bretons and men of Anjou ; next the Poitevins under 
 Guy ; fourth came the Normans and English with 
 the royal banner ; in the rear were the Hospitallers. 
 The Christian army, marshalled in close array, filled 
 the whole space between the hills and the sea. 
 
334 ^^^ THIRD CRUSADE, 
 
 Richard and the Duke of Burgundy with a band of 
 chosen knights rode up and down the Hnes keeping 
 a wary eye on the order of their troops. 
 
 About nine o'clock the battle began with an 
 attack by Saladin's negro troops and Bedouins — 
 pestilent footmen with bows and round targes ; 
 in their rear the heavier Turkish troops kept up 
 an incessant din with their drums and cymbals. 
 Again and again the Turks rushed down on the 
 rear of the Christians ; at last the Hospitallers 
 could bear up no longer, and begged Richard to let 
 them make but one charge. Richard, however, 
 would permit no deviation from his plans. The 
 heavy horses of his cavalry with their armoured 
 riders were no match for the swift- footed Arab 
 steeds of the lightly-clad Saracens ; it would be 
 worse than useless to charge till the enemy was well 
 within their grasp. When the decisive moment 
 arrived six trumpets were to give the signal ; then 
 the footmen were to open wide their ranks, and let 
 the knights pass through to the attack. 
 
 So the Hospitallers endeavoured to still endure 
 the renewed onset of the foe ; one kn-ght in despair 
 invoked the great warrior-saint of the Crusaders, who 
 perhaps from this period tended to become the patron 
 saint of England : " Oh, St. George ! Why dost thou 
 leave us to be destroyed ? Christendom perisheth, 
 because we strive not against this accursed race." 
 Then the Grand Master petitioned the king in person, 
 but Richard still replied : " It must be borne." Most of 
 the Hospitallers murmured but obeyed ; two knights, 
 however — the marshal of the order, and Baldwin de 
 
336 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 Carew, *' a right good warrior, bold as a lion " — burst 
 from the ranks and overthrew each his man ; the 
 remaining Hospitallers could be no longer restrained 
 and out they charged to their comrades' aid. The 
 battle soon became general and for a time threatened 
 to go ill for the Crusaders ; but when Richard himself 
 came up on his Cyprian bay, the Turks fell back before 
 him as he clove his way into their ranks with his 
 sword. The Christians then resumed their march, 
 and were already encamping outside the walls of 
 Arsuf when the enemy attacked once more ; but 
 again the Turks turned in headlong flight as Richard 
 galloped up to the rescue thundering out his war- 
 cry : " God and the Holy Sepulchre aid us ! " 
 
 The Christians counted two-and-thirty emirs dead 
 upon the field of battle, besides seven thousand 
 corpses of meaner folk. They boasted that their 
 own loss was not as many hundred. But one death 
 in particular they had to mourn ; the heroic James 
 of Avesnes was surrounded and slain by the Turks. 
 On the morrow his corpse was found with fifteen of 
 the enemy lying dead around him. 
 
 On Monday, September 9th, the march was re- 
 newed, and next day, just thre5~\veeks after leaving 
 Acre, the Crusaders encamped in pleasant quarters 
 amid the orchards outside Jaffa. At the same time 
 the fleet arrived bringing an .abundance of Jbod. 
 
 Past experierrce had taught the Crusaders that 
 until they held Ascalon and Jaffa they could not hope 
 to maintain themselves in the Holy City, even if they 
 should succeed in capturing it at once. Worse still 
 would be their position if they had to conduct a 
 
yAFFA AND ASCALON. 337 
 
 prolonged siege with all the seaboard, from Caesarea 
 to Damietta, in the hands of the foe. To all this 
 Saladin was not less alive than Richard himself; but 
 he was too weak to hold Ascalon, and so ordered it 
 to be dismantled in haste, before the Crusaders could 
 come up. The Christians, however, were as busy with 
 the restoration of Jaffa as the Saracens were with the 
 destruction of Ascalon. Not that Richard was blind 
 to the importance of the latter city, which he would 
 have attacked before but for the supineness of Philip ; 
 but now as then French oppositon compelled him to 
 postpone the advance, and this delay perhaps ruined 
 the expedition. 
 
 Six weeks_iDX_pxeciaujs_ tim.e_were j^ost at Ja ffa, an d 
 it was only in the end of October that Richard re- 
 newed his march towards Jerusalem. Even then he 
 Aad to stay at the Casal of the Plains and Casal 
 Maen, between Ramleh and Lydda, for two months. 
 At the end of the year he advanced to Beit-Nuba, 
 some ten miles nearer the Holy City, but was there 
 once more detained by the violence of the winter 
 storms. The wind tore up the tents, and the wet 
 rotted the store of provisions, whilst sickness played 
 havoc both with the men and their horses. Yet in 
 the midst of their misfortunes the Crusaders were 
 glad in heart with the hope of reaching the Lord's 
 Sepulchre, and the thought that nothing should now 
 prevent the accomplishment of their pilgrimage. 
 But the military orders and the Syrian Franks knew 
 the Angers of a winter campaign, and feared that 
 ever success would have no other result than to shut 
 up t- I host in a city which they could not defend. 
 
33^ THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 In a council held on January 13th their opinion 
 prevailed, and the order was given for a retreat to 
 Ramleh. Many of the French then withdrew to 
 Jaffa, or elsewhere ; but Richard, full of wrath at the 
 turn affairs had taken, determined to lead his dimi- 
 nished army to Ascalon. Two days of weary march- 
 ing through snow and rain brought them at last to 
 the ruined town on January 20th. After a little the 
 French were induced to rejoin the host, and pledged 
 themselves to obey Richard's orders till Easter. 
 All then set about the task of restoring Ascalon ; 
 nobles, knights, squires, and men-at-arms working 
 together with their own hands, and with one will. 
 But the main glory of the work belonged to the king; 
 he was everywhere directing, exhorting, and even 
 working. His eloquence heartened the great lords 
 to fresh efforts and larger liberality. Where means 
 were lacking he supplied them, till when at last 
 Ascalon was restored, it was said that Richard had 
 paid for three-quarters of the work. 
 
 The previous autumn had witnessed some lengthy, 
 if not perhaps very genuine negotiations between 
 Richard and Saladin. Richard at first demanded 
 the restoration of the whole kingdom as it existed 
 under Baldwin IV. When this was refused he 
 suggested a marriage between El-Adel or Sapha- 
 din, the Sultan's brother, and his own sister Joanna, 
 who might then rule together in a new kingdom 
 of Pakstine.^ The proposal—flattered El-Adel, who 
 
 ^ This probably gave Sir W. Scott the hint for the proposed marriage 
 of Saladin himself to Edith Plantagenet (a purely fictitious character), in 
 "The Talisman." 
 
NEGOTIATIONS WITH SALADIN. 339 
 
 visited Richard in or near the Crusaders' camp ; the 
 king had just undergone his autumn bleeding and 
 could not receive his visitor in person, but had him 
 entertained at a great banquet. This was followed 
 next day by an interview and the exchange of costly 
 presents, from which there sprung up a warm friend- 
 ship between the two princes. Th^ negotiations, how- 
 ever, fell through, according to the Saracens, because 
 Joanna refused to wed a Mohammedan. The Chris- 
 tian account makes no mention of the marriage, and 
 ascribes the -failure to Saladin's refusal to dismantle 
 Kerak. Perhaps, indeed, the chief object ot both 
 parties had been to gain time — Richard that he 
 might complete^hc^fortifi cation of Jaffa, Saladin that 
 he might postponeJiostiHties tllT winter had made a 
 serious cana^ign im p racticable. At the same time 
 both parties may have found good reasons to wish for 
 peace — Richard in his suspicions of Philip Augustus, 
 and Saladin in his fears of the descendants of Zangi. 
 Richard, moreover, was at this time much hampered 
 by the behaviour of Conrad of Montferrat. The 
 marquis had not only held aloof from the main 
 enterprise, but had also a party among t-he Syrian 
 Eranks, withB alian o f I be] in and Reginald of Sidon 
 for his chief supporters. Conrad and his party, like 
 Richard, had opened negotiations with Saladin, 
 but the Sultan's council had declared against them 
 on the ground that there could be no sincere friend- 
 ship between the Saracens and the Syrian Franks. 
 When in February, i j^g^B.ichard called Conrad to 
 his aid at_Ascalon, the marquis found occasion to 
 excuse himselfr The Duke of Burgundy had about 
 
340 7 HE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 the same time withdrawn from the army because 
 Richard refused him any further loans of money. 
 The French now went to Acre, where they took up 
 the cause of the Genoese against the Pisans, who were 
 partisans of Guy. The Genoese called on Conrad, 
 whilst the Pisans sent word to Richard, on whose 
 approach the marquis went back to Tyre, taking 
 Burgundy with him. 
 
 Despite a personal interview the breach between 
 Conrad and Richard grew wider, and the latter 
 presently renewed his negotiations with Salad in. 
 So friendly did the King and Sultan become that, 
 on Palm Sunday, Richard knighted El-Adcl's son 
 at Acre in great state. However, some hostilities of 
 the Franks near Darum inclined Saladin to turn 
 once more to Conrad, who agreed to join in open 
 war with his fellow Crusaders. Richard, who by 
 this time had returned to Ascalon, was now forced 
 to let the French, who had thus far remained with 
 him, depart to their compatriots at Tyre. The new s 
 of troubles in England which arrived about this 
 time, made Richard himself anxious to go home. 
 Some settlement of the kingdom was now im- 
 perative, and Richard rather reluctantly consented 
 tQ-lhj£^recog nitio n of_Coafad_£LS_lkiQg. . 
 
 Hardly had the marquis thus attained the object 
 of his ambitions, when he was cut off by a mysterious 
 fate. Qn Monday, April 27th, so runs the story in 
 the Franco- Syrian chronicles, Conrad, weary of wait- 
 ing for his queen, who had sta\ ed late at the bath, 
 went out to dine with Philip of Beauvais. Finding 
 that the bishop had already dined, Conrad turned 
 
CONRAD OF MONTFERRAT. 34I 
 
 home. As he came out of the bishop's house into the 
 narrow road, two men advanced to meet him ; one 
 ofJJie two offered him a letter, and whilst Conrad 
 wa^thus off his guard they stabbed him with their 
 knives. Conrad fell dea^ on the spotj^his murderers 
 one was instantly slain, and the other was captured 
 soon after. When put to torture this man confessed 
 that he and his comrade had been despatched by the 
 Old Man of the Mountain to take vengeance for the 
 robbery of one of his merchant vessels. ^ 
 ^Queen Isabella iiowdecTared"fKar"she would hold 
 Tyre for Richard, but the French clamoured for the 
 city to be surrendered to them on behalf of their 
 king. But as it happened Richard's nephew, Henry 
 of Champagne, had hurried to Tyre on the news of 
 Conrad's death ; the people at once hailed him as 
 lord, and begged him to marry Isabella. Richard 
 readily assented to the proposal, and so Palestine 
 once more had a king, whose claim was supported 
 not only by the French and English, but also by the 
 Syrian Franks. With these brighter prospects before 
 him Richard once more postponed his departure. 
 Like a true knight-errant, he was more attracted by 
 the hope of conquering a new kingdom from the 
 Saracen, than by the prospect of merely preserving 
 the one which God had given him. 
 "Richard did not when assenting to his nephew's 
 elevation forget the deposed king for whom he had 
 struggled so long. Cyprus was bestowed on Guy, 
 whose family ruled in that island for more than 
 
 * The French accused Richard of having suborned the Assassins to 
 murder Conrad. 
 
342 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 two centuries after the last remnants of the Christian 
 kingdom on the mainland fell into the hands of the 
 Moslem. 
 
 In the middle of May Richard, who was anxious 
 to strike a blow whilst Saladin was still troubled 
 with the treatened revolt on _±he . Euphrates, left 
 Ascalon with a small force to besiege Darum. That 
 fortress was very strong, but the fleet soon arrived 
 with the siege train, and on the 22nd of May Darum 
 surrendered after only four days' siege. Hardly was 
 the fortress taken when King Henry arrived with the 
 French, and received Darum from his uncle as the 
 first-fruits of his new realm. Very shortly afterwards 
 fresh news of a disquieting nature from England 
 made Richard think once more of returning home. 
 But after some hesitation he pledged himself to stay 
 till the following Easter, and ordered preparations to 
 be made for an immediate advance to Jerusalem. At 
 this news, " all began to rejoice as a bird at dawn of 
 day," and forthwith made themselves ready for the 
 journey, crying out : " We thank Thee, O God L be- 
 cause we shall now behold Thy city, where the Turks 
 have dwelt so long." 
 
 On Sunday, June 7th, the Crusaders marched out 
 from Ascalon, and after a few days' journey, once 
 more pitched their tents at Beit-Nuba. Here they 
 had to stay a month till King Henry brought rein- 
 forcements from Acre. This delay was unfortunate 
 for the Christians, for there seems little doubt that 
 if they had pushed on at once they could have 
 taken the city. Whether they could have held it 
 for long is another matter. Probably most of the 
 
THE CAPTURE OF THE CARAVAN- 343 
 
 Crusaders, after paying their vows at the Holy 
 Sepulchre, would have returned home, without 
 further care for the land they had so hardly v/oa 
 
 Two incidents in the desultory warfare of this 
 tedious month deserve notice. One day in June 
 Richard came upon a party of Turks near the foun- 
 tain of Emmaus unawares, and slew twenty of them. 
 In his pursuit of the remainder along the hills he 
 advanced so far that as he chanced to raise his eyes, 
 he caught a glimpse of the Holy City from afar. A 
 little latter there came news of a great caravan on 
 its way up from Egypt. Richard with characteristic 
 generosity invited the Duke of Burgundy and the 
 French to share in the spoil. Marching by moonlight, 
 the king's force of five hundred knights and a thou- 
 sand serving men came out to Keratiyeh, where 
 during a short halt they learnt that one caravan was 
 already marching past the " Round Cistern." The 
 report was confirmed by Richard's own spies, who 
 were sent out in disguise as Bedouins. Another 
 night's march brought the Crusaders within a short 
 distance of the caravan. At dawn the bowmen 
 were sent out in advance, and the king with his 
 knights followed in the rear. The caravan was sur- 
 prised while resting, and its escort fled before the 
 charge of the Crusaders like hares before the hounds. 
 Besides a very rich spoil of spices, gold, silver, silks, 
 robes, and arms of every kind, there were captured 
 no less than four thousand seven hundred camels, 
 besides mules and asses beyond number. 
 
 The loss of this caravan " was an event most shame- 
 ful to us," writes Baha-ed din ; " not for a long time 
 
344 ^^^ THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 past had such a disaster befallen Islam. Never did any 
 news so trouble the Sultan." Saladin was, indeed, 
 in no small alarm lest the Crusaders should advance 
 forthwith on Jerusalem. But after a few days there came 
 the welcome news that the Franks were in retreat. 
 
 The causes of this retreat are more or less of a 
 mystery. It would seem that about a fortnight pre- 
 viously, before the arrival of Kin^Heriry^vyith the rein- 
 forcements, the" Franks were very- eager for an imme- 
 diate advance. Richard declared that the id 3a was 
 impossible, and that he would not take the responsi- 
 bility for an enterprise which would expose him to the 
 censure of his enemies. If others saw fit to attack 
 Jerusalem, he would not desert them ; but in that 
 case he would follow, and not lead. He pointed out 
 the dangers of their present position, and urged that 
 the Crusaders should follow the advice of the native 
 lords as to whether it was wiser to besiege Jerusalem, 
 or march against Cairo, Beyrout, or Damascus. So 
 at Richard's suggestion the plan of campaign was 
 referred to a committee of twenty sworn jurors. The 
 twenty decided in favour of attacking Cairo. At this 
 the French cried out, declaring that they would march 
 only against Jerusalem ; Richard in vain offered the 
 assistance of his fleet which lay at Acre, and promised 
 a liberal contribution towards their expenses ; his 
 efforts were without avail, and on the 4th of July he 
 ordered a retreat towards Ramleh. 
 
 Richard now withdrew to Acre, and reopened ne- 
 gotiations with Saladin. But the Sultan, hearing of 
 an intended expedition against Beyrout, determined to 
 divert the attack, and on July 26th appeared before 
 
THE RESCUE OF JAFFA. 345 
 
 JafTa. After a five days' siege the town was captured, 
 and the remainder of the garrison in the tower pro- 
 mised to surrender if aid did not come by the follow- 
 ing day. But Richard had been well informed of the 
 danger, and though the French would lend him no 
 assistance, had already left Acre with a few galleys. 
 Through contrary winds he only reached Jaffa at 
 midnight on the 31st. When day dawned it seemed 
 that he had arrived too late, for S:iladin's banners 
 were already flying on the walls. Richard was in 
 doubt what to do, until a priest swam out to the ships 
 with news of the peril to which those in the tower 
 were exposed. The king delayed no longer, but 
 ordered his galleys to be rowed towards the shore, 
 and himself led the Christians as they waded through 
 the water to the land. The Turks fled before them, 
 and the royal banner was soon waving from the walls. 
 Richard himself was foremost in the fight: "nevei 
 did warrior bear himself so nobly, as did the king that 
 day ; Saladin fled before him like a hunted hare." 
 For more than two miles the English cross-bowmen 
 pursued the Turks with terrible carnage, and at night 
 Richard pitched his tent on the very spot where Sala- 
 din's had lately stood. Richard's position was still one of 
 considerable peril. He had with him but fifty knights, 
 and only fifteen horses good or bad. An attempt at 
 a surprise was only frustrated by a happy accident. 
 At dawn on the 5th of August a Genoese, who was out 
 in search of fodder, heard the tramp of men and 
 caught sight of their helmets gleaming in the eastern 
 sky. Hurrying back he roused the sleeping camp, 
 but hardly was there time to arm or even dress before 
 
346 THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 the Turks were upon them. Richard was marshalling 
 his Httle army, when a messenger came up crying out 
 that they were all lost, and that the enemy had seized 
 the town. Sternly ordering the man to hold his 
 peace, Richard bade his followers be of good cheer, 
 and to show his own confidence rode off with half-a- 
 dozen knights to discover what had actually taken 
 place in Jaffa. The Saracens who had gained the 
 town fled before the king as he forced his way into 
 the streets, and Richard could soon rejoin his army 
 outside. There the enemy, though they continually 
 charged close up to the Christian line, would not ven- 
 ture to attack. At last in the afternoon Richard 
 advanced, and after a fierce engagement put the 
 Saracens to flight. It was on this day that, according 
 to the romantic tale, El-Adel, hearing Richard had 
 no horse, sent him two Arab steeds ; a generous gift, 
 which the king accepted in a like spirit, and after- 
 wards splendidly recompensed. 
 
 After this battle negotiations were once more 
 resumed. The French would render no help, and 
 sickness was playing havoc with the Christian host. 
 Richard himself fell ill, and thought it better to ask 
 for a truce than to go away leaving the whole land to 
 be laid waste, as did others who departed by crowds 
 in their ships. By the mediation of El-Adel terms 
 were at length arranged on the 2nd of September. 
 Ascalon was to be left unoccupied for three years, 
 during which time the Christians were to have peace- 
 ful possession of Jaffa, and free access to the Holy 
 Sepulchre ; commerce was to be carried on over the 
 whole land. 
 
TRUCE WITH SAL A DIN. 347 
 
 Richard warned the Sultan frankly of his intention 
 to return and renew the war. If, reph'ed Saladin, 
 he was to lose the land, he would rather it was to 
 Richard than to any other prince he had ever seen. 
 To the Christians the king's departure brought great 
 grief, and when the day (October 9th) arrived, the 
 people cried aloud : " O Jerusalem, now art thou in- 
 deed helpless ! Who will protect thee when Richard 
 is away?" Richard's own last words, as the Holy 
 Land faded from his sight, were a prayer that he 
 might yet return to its aid. Of that other fate which 
 awaited him, of his captivity, of his warfare with his 
 treacherous ally, and of his death, this is not the 
 place to speak. 
 
 Before their departure many of the Crusaders had 
 availed themselves of the truce to go up to Jerusalem. 
 Richard himself would not visit as a pilgrim the city 
 which he could not rescue as a conqueror. The 
 pilgrims, chief among- whom was Hubert Walter, 
 were treated generously. To the bishop Saladin 
 showed much courtesy, and, besides inquiring many 
 things concerning his master, granted him permission 
 for Latin priests to celebrate divine service at the 
 Holy Sepulchre, and in Bethlehem and Nazareth. 
 
 Romance has invested the Third Crusade with a 
 halo of glory, altogether incommensurate with its 
 direct results, which, if less disastrous than those of 
 the Second, were in no wise to be compared with the 
 splendid achievements of the First Crusade. As of 
 old, the failure of the Western Crusaders was due 
 more to divisions amongst themselves than to the 
 prowess of the enemy. Richard alone of the great 
 
34^ THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 princes who took part in the war had his heart in the 
 cause, and, sa ve for Acre, the whole of the acquisi- 
 tions of the Christians were due to Jiis efforts. The 
 French were mpfe3anxi*^ous^ to j]B\'.artthe^ king 
 
 than to further -the Holy War, and -Richard would 
 probably have benefited if Philip Iraid taken all his 
 subjects back with him. As things went, a three 
 years' truce, and a narrow strip of coast from Acre 
 to Ascalon were the sole results of an expedition that 
 had drained the wealth and nobility of Western 
 Europe. Never again did the Syrian Franks behold 
 sc^g^at-an^army, under so valiant a leader come to 
 their aid from the West ; but the mutual jealousies 
 and personal ambitions that had wrought the ruin of 
 the Third Crusade remained-^vith-theiji always as the 
 most persistent and dangerous foes of the Latin king- 
 dom of Jerusalem. 
 
XXIII. 
 
 ARMS, ARMOUR, AND ARMAMENTS. 
 
 " And higher on the walls, 
 Betwixt the monstrous horns of elk and deer, 
 His own forefathers' arms and armour hung. 
 And, ' this,' he said, ' was Hugh's at Agincourt, 
 And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon.' " 
 
 Tennyson, The Princess. 
 
 Inasmuch as the Crusades were in a sense the 
 greatest military achievement of the Middle Ages, 
 and since they influenced profoundly the progress of 
 the art of war during that period, the present volume 
 would be incomplete if it did not attempt some 
 description of the mediaeval warrior's equipment. 
 Yet at the same time it is impossible here to more 
 than briefly discuss a subject which might readily 
 occupy an entire work. 
 
 Siege operations formed so large a part of Crusa- 
 ding warfare, that it does not seem improper to 
 commence with some description of them. The 
 engineering science of the Crusaders was, for the 
 most part, a development of Byzantine methods. 
 The most formidable weapons of attack were 
 machines for hurling huge stones against the walls, 
 
350 ARMS, ARMOUR, AND AKM.-.MENTS. 
 
 known as petrariae or stone-casters, mangonels, and, 
 most formidable of all, the tribuchet Mangonels 
 and stone-casters were used by the Crusaders in their 
 earliest siege operations, as at Nicaea in 1097. Yet 
 the experience requisite for their successful use cannot 
 have been very common, for at Tyre in 11 24 it was 
 
 MILITARY MACHINE. 
 
 found necessary to call in the aid of an Armenian 
 engineer from Antioch. But much of a great leader's 
 reputation for military skill depended upon his capa- 
 city to construct and direct these formidable machines, 
 and even kings did not think it beneath their dignity 
 to give this branch of warfare their personal attention. 
 
5//iG£ OPERATIONS. 
 
 35t 
 
 At the siege of Acre Philip Augustus had a famous 
 stone- caster, " The Bad Neighbour," which the Sara- 
 cens destroyed by means of a h'ke engine called 
 " The Bad Kinsman." Richard, loo, had stone-casters, 
 which discharged day and night a store of polished 
 Sicilian flints, that had been brought on purpose 
 from Messina ; these stones were of such size, that 
 one which was sent out of the city for Salad in 's 
 
 MILITARY MACHINE. 
 
 inspection is said to have killed twelve men. Hov/ 
 Richard rose from his sick-bed to superintend the 
 use of these engines has been already described. 
 When the w^ajls of a fortress had been sufficiently 
 battered by such engines, the besiegers would ap- 
 proach them under cover of a " testudo " or shed, 
 sometimes called a "sow," which was made of wicker- 
 work protected with hides. Under this shelter the 
 
352 ARMS, ARMOUR, AND ARMAMENTS. 
 
 moat would be filled up with stones and earth, and 
 ^us access was obtained to the walls. The "testudo" 
 was often used to cover the men who brought up the 
 " aries " or ram, a heavy beam with which they battered 
 the walls, as did Bohemond's men at Durazzo. 
 At other times the besiegers, under cover of the 
 "testudo," would undermine the walls by picking 
 out the loosened stones. To such labours the men 
 were encouraged by the promise of abundant rewards; 
 Raymond of Toulouse offered a denarius for every 
 three stones cast into the moat at Jerusalem, and 
 Richard two gold pieces for every stone dislodged 
 from the walls of 'Acre. Where the defence was 
 stubborn the besiegers would sap the walls, propping 
 them up for a time with wooden beams, which, when 
 a sufficient distance had been excavated, were fired, 
 and by this means a breach was created. 
 
 But the crowning achievement of mediaeval offen- 
 sive engineering was the " belfry " or siege-castle. 
 This was a movable tower, built of wood, and of such 
 a height as to overtop the walls of the town which 
 was being attacked. It was constructed in several 
 stories, which were called "coenacula" or "solaria." 
 Godfrey's great " Machina " at the taking of Jeru- 
 salem had three stories, while that used by Amalric 
 I. at the siege of Damietta had seven. The " belfry " 
 was moved on wheels, sometimes worked by men 
 from the inside — sometimes moved from the outside 
 on rollers. On one story there was often a ram, in a 
 higher story were fitted bridges, which could be lowered 
 on to the wall, and at the top were the archers, the 
 mangonels, and other missile engines. The besieged 
 
SIEGE CASTLES. 353 
 
 would attempt to keep this machine from approach- 
 ing the walls, by affixing iron-pointed beams to 
 resist it, and if this proved futile they could, as a 
 last resource, pour down the deadly Greek fire upon 
 the enemy, or with flaming arrows set the dreaded 
 construction ablaze. Time after time at the siege 
 of Arsuf did Baldwin I. find himself baffled in this 
 way. At the siege of Damietta in 12 19 the Saracens 
 menaced the Christian floating siege-castle with five 
 mangonels, or similar engines, from the wall. To 
 guard against the effects of fire or stones, the machine 
 was covered with hides steeped in vinegar, and with 
 a network of rope, or with stuffed sacks. These huge 
 constructions, costly and difficult though they must 
 have been to erect, were not in any sense permanent 
 engines, but seem to have been built when occasion 
 required from whatever material was procurable. 
 The famous Matte Griffin, which Richard had made 
 in Sicily, and brought with him to Acre, was, how- 
 ever, an exception. 
 
 From the military engines we turn to the equip- 
 ment of the soldier himself. During the Crusading 
 age and the following half-century, armour underwent 
 a development more important and giore marked 
 than in any other period of the world's history 
 It passed from the broigne^ a loose-fitting mail-coat 
 of steel-rings, or small closely set plates of iron, 
 through the grand hauberk to the mail plate of the 
 fourteenth century. Originally the Teutonic warrior 
 went to battle in the tunic of ring-mail. It was in 
 such array, a war corslet, whose " polished iron rang 
 in its meshes" — that, according ^o the primaeval 
 
354 ARMS, ARMOURy AND ARMAMENTS, 
 
 English battle-song, Beowulf entered Hrothgar's 
 hall to do battle with the fiend Grendal. At the 
 time of the First Crusade we may picture the accoutre- 
 ments of Western Europe from the pictures given 
 in the Bayeux Tapestry and from the " Song of 
 Roland." At this period armour seems to have been 
 made either of linked chains or of plates sewn upon 
 a leather back-ground, or welded close together. If 
 made of plates the garment was generally long and 
 often sleeveless, if of chains it fitted closely to the 
 body and generally covered the arms, while short, 
 armoured breeches protected the thighs. In a very 
 few cases the Norman knight seems to have worn 
 iron shoes and leggings distinct from his upper tunic, 
 and it is thus that William I. is represented in the 
 Bayeux Tapestry. 
 
 Soon after the First Crusade a change set in which 
 did not become universal for nearly a century. This 
 consisted in the introduction of the hauberk, which, 
 in its final form as the grand hauberk, was composed 
 of two parts, a closely fitting chain tunic that covered 
 the whole body to the knees, with an under garment 
 protecting the legs and reaching as far upwards as 
 the waist. This grand hauberk was not sewn upon 
 any ground, but simply formed of interlocking rings r 
 it was cloven behind so as to facilitate horsemanship. 
 In most cases the grand hauberk seems to have been 
 fitted with a ring-mail hood to protect the neck and 
 head, and the whole accoutrement was crowned with 
 a pointed conical helm, laced on to the rest of the 
 armour. In the twelfth century the small conical 
 helmet, which appears everywhere in the Bayeux 
 
356 ARMS, ARMOUR, AND ARMAMENTS. 
 
 Tapestry, began to give way to one of cylindrical 
 shape and much larger proportions, which covered 
 the whole head and face, leaving, when the visor was 
 down, but one or two apertures for seeing and breath- 
 ing. In such helmets it was impossible to recognise 
 friend or leader, and hence it is no wonder that Bald- 
 win I. was refused admission to Arsuf, and that the 
 later chanson represents William of Orange as shut 
 out from his castle by his warder and wife till he had 
 unbared his head. 
 
 Just as the Crusades are ending we may trace the 
 faint beginnings of plate armour, when the links were 
 displaced by large pieces of metal. Gradually the 
 two simple garments gave way to a multitude of 
 detachable pieces, each with its own particular use 
 and special name. But this development does not 
 fall within our period.^ 
 
 The mediaeval warrior's defensive equipment was 
 completed by his shield. This from the earliest days 
 had been made of linden- wood. Such was the 
 " yellow linden shield," with which Wiglaf went to 
 aid his lord Beowulf against the dragon. It was 
 behind the shield-wall of linden-wood that the Danes 
 ranged themselves in vain against Athelstan at 
 Brunanburgh. In the twelfth century the best 
 shields seem to have been made of elm, and it is 
 only very rarely that we read as in Beowulf of an 
 iron buckler. The mediaeval shield was generally kite 
 shaped as in the Bayeux Tapestry, but sometimes 
 almost oblong or circular. It was covered with 
 leather and generally had a raised knob in the centre. 
 
 * See further details in the descriptive list of illustrations. 
 
OFFENSIVE WEAPONS, 357 
 
 whence bands of metal ran out in all directions. 
 When not in use it was carried on the back, but 
 during a single combat, when the lance was in rest, 
 was slung round the neck in front as an extra pro- 
 tection. 
 
 The offensive weapons most in use were the sword, 
 the lance, and the axe. Early English poets sing 
 with rapture of the " sword-play," and invested this 
 weapon with something of a human personality. All 
 the great heroes of romance have names for their 
 swords as though they were something more than 
 senseless metal. Roland's sword was Durendal, 
 Charlemagne's Montjoie, Arthur's Excalibur. So 
 far was this worship carried that we find the rusty 
 weapon furnished to Huon of Bordeaux for his com- 
 bat with Galofre described as Durendal's sister. The 
 mediaeval sword was sometimes long and sometimes 
 short, from three to four, or from two to three feet, 
 as the case might be. 
 
 The spear was generally of ash-wood, but an 
 alternative was the wood of the apple. " Ash- 
 timber with tip of -grey, seamen's artillery, stood 
 stacked together " in Hrothgar's hall. Of ash 
 too was Charlemagne's spear in the " Chanson de 
 Roland." The head was of various shapes — leaf-like, 
 as it appears in the Bayeux Tapestry, or " squared," 
 as it is often designated in mediaeval poems. Shaft 
 and tip together, the weapon seems to have measured 
 some eight feet. When used overhand as a kind 
 of missile, the shaft must have been rather slender, 
 and hence in the Tapestry is represented by a single 
 thread. But with the custom of tilting lance in rest 
 
358 ARMS,. ARMOUR, AND ARMAMENTS. 
 
 it must have assumed larger proportions, and so in 
 most mediaeval poetry the appropriate epithets are 
 "stout" or "thick." 
 
 The axe plays but a small part in the Crusades, 
 though at Constantinople, in 1203, it was still the 
 weapon of the English in the Varangian guard, and, 
 nearly fifty years later, Joinville tells us it was 
 carried by the soldiers of the Old Man of the 
 Mountain. 
 
 The one other weapon of the first importance was 
 the bow in its various forms. At the time of the First 
 Crusade the Westerns seem to have used the short 
 bow alone. The cross-bow or arbalest is, however, of 
 indefinite antiquity, and under the latter name figures 
 in the " Chanson de Roland." Bohcmond's soldiers 
 used it at Durazzo, for Anna Comnena refers to it 
 as " a thoroughly diabolical device." The use of the 
 arbalest rapidly spread among the Crusaders. It was 
 a favourite weapon with Richard, who was very skil- 
 ful in its use, and who is said to have re- introduced it 
 to Western warfare to be himself slain by an arrow 
 from one. Of the English longbow there seems to 
 be no trace throughout the whole period under review. 
 
 Three animals divided the attentions and shared 
 the affections of the mediaeval knight— his hawk, his 
 hound, and his horse. Skill in hawking and the chace 
 was the chief boast of Huon of Bordeaux, and a 
 main part of the education of Richard of Normandy. 
 Nor does art fail to support the evidence of mediaeval 
 song and history. The Bayeux Tapestry shows us 
 Harold riding out with his hawks upon his wrist, 
 while his servants may be seen carrying the dogs on 
 
THE HAWK, THE HOUND, AND THE HORSE. 359 
 
 board the ship which was to bear the Saxon earl into 
 the hands of the Norman duke. Even in the supreme 
 moment of life the passion for the chace did not leave 
 the mediaeval knight. We have seen how Roger of 
 Antioch went out to hunt on the very morning of 
 his last fatal fight. Of the kings of Jerusalem, Fulk 
 died from a hunting accident, and Baldwin I. received 
 the wound which eventually hastened his death whilst 
 in the pursuit of his favourite sport. Even in death 
 the mediaeval sculptor would depict the armour-clad 
 knight with his feet resting on the effigy of the faith- 
 ful hound that had been his comrade in life. 
 
 But the horse was the knight's peculiar friend. 
 " ' O my steed,' cries William of Orange, in the old 
 Romance, *thou art weary; right willingly would I 
 charge the Saracens again, but I see thou canst not 
 help me. Yet I may not blame thee, for well hast 
 thou served me all the day long. . . . Couldst thou 
 only bear me to Orange, none should saddle thee for 
 twenty days, thou shouldst feed on sifted barley and 
 choicest hay, drinking from vessels of gold, and clad 
 in fine silks.' And his horse hears its master's words; 
 its nostrils quiver, and it understands what is said as 
 though it were a man." The horse is indeed almost 
 the hero of one mediaeval song, " Renaud de Montau- 
 ban " — where Bayard, the offspring of a fairy ancestry, 
 bears Renaud and his brothers from the court of 
 Charlemagne to the forest of Ardennes. The twelfth- 
 century horse had, however, but little in common 
 with our modern racer. Now and again we do find 
 allusion to the horse's speed as in the " Chanson de 
 Roland," where horses are spoken of as swifter than 
 
360 ARMSf ARMOUR, AND ARMAMENTS. 
 
 sparrow or swallow, and in some incidents of Crusad- 
 ing history, as Baldwin I.'s swift mare Farisia, and 
 the intended rescue of the young Baldwin III. on 
 the steed of John Goman in 1 145 ; but for the 
 most part strength was preferred to beauty or speed. 
 Archbishop Turpin's horse was light footed, but its 
 legs were thick and short, its breast broad and its 
 flanks long : " With its yellow mane, little ears, and 
 tawny head, there was no beast like unto it." In 
 another romance we are told, " with his short head 
 and gleaming eyes, small ears and large nostrils, the 
 horse was strong and stout, a better steed you would 
 nowhere see." So also Richard I.'s Spanish horse, 
 though of graceful form, with pricked-up ears, and 
 high neck, was also of great height, with broad 
 breast, solid haunches, and wide hoofs. In contrast 
 to the ideal knightly steed, broad breasted, thick 
 ribbed, and short flanked, we have the sorry beast 
 furnished by the Saracens to Huon of Bordeaux for 
 his combat with Galofre, thin ribbed and scraggy 
 necked that had not tasted oat or wheat for seven 
 years. 
 
 From the equipment of the engineer and the knight, 
 we must turn for a little to the fortress, which was at 
 once the Crusader's bulwark against the enemy and 
 his home. The fortification of cities and towns was 
 regarded as of less importance than that of isolated 
 castles or the citadels which protected the towns, and, 
 indeed, the warfare of the age did not well lend itself 
 to the defence of an extensive system of fortifications. 
 So though the walls of the important towns and the 
 great ports was a matter of particular care, and 
 
CASTLES AND FORTRESSES. 36 1 
 
 especially in the last age of Crusading history, it is 
 in the great castles like Kerak or Krak des Cheva- 
 liers and Markab that we find the most stupendous 
 monuments of Prankish enterprise. The care of 
 the kings and military orders lined the Christian 
 frontiers with numerous powerful fortresses from 
 Kerak and Montreal on the south-east, Darum, Ibe- 
 lin, and Blanche Garde on the south; to Beaufort, 
 Chateauneuf, Safed, Chastellet, and Belvoir, which 
 guarded the Lebanon ; and the famous Kerak des 
 Chevaliers, Markab, Tortosa, and others in the terri- 
 tory of Tripoli. The Prankish castles in Palestine 
 followed two main types, of which the first had for 
 their model the Prench castles of the eleventh and 
 twelfth centuries, whilst the other class borrowed 
 more from the Byzantines and Arabs. Of the first 
 the finest examples are found in the castles of the 
 Hospitallers, and especially at Kerak des Chevaliers 
 and Markab ; to the latter class belong the buildings 
 of the Templars as Safed and Tortosa. Even in the 
 first class there were certain Eastern characteristics as 
 the double enceinte which was borrowed from the 
 Byzantines, and the huge mass of masonry specially 
 adapted to meet the possibility of earthquake. Mar- 
 kab had a site of extraordinary grandeur overlooking 
 the Mediterranean, and from its position, on a jutting 
 spur of the mountains, impregnable on all sides but 
 one. Kerak des Chevaliers preserves to this day 
 all its main features intact as they were when the 
 Hospitallers abandoned it in 1271. But the illustra- 
 tions will give a more adequate idea of their grandeur 
 than is possible in a brief description. 
 
362 
 
 ARMS, ARMOUR, AND ARMAMENTS. 
 
 The fortified towns of Syria were many of them 
 girt with twofold walls, and the space between was 
 given up, at all events in large measure, to gardens. 
 
 [iir-ii'iiPFi'i'i, 
 
 Jjti -^^.^^cs 
 
 On the bii^hcst c^^round there usually stood a castle 
 of surpassing strength, to which the inhabitants could 
 retire if the defences of the town proper were forced. 
 
MILITARY ORGANISATION, 363 
 
 The walls were generally broken by frequent towers ; 
 of these the fortifications of Antioch boasted no less 
 four hundred and fifty, which were eighty feet high. 
 
 For the protection of all these towns and for- 
 tresses, the Assizes of Jerusalem recorded .a most 
 elaborate system of military organisation. Every 
 fief, every city town or castle was bound to furnish 
 so many knights and so many men-at-arms for the 
 war. The lordships of Galilee and Sidon had to 
 supply one hundred knights in case of need ; from 
 such smaller fiefs as Toron and Maron fifteen and 
 three were demanded respectively. Among the towns 
 and cities we find Jerusalem assessed at forty knights, 
 Acre at eighty ; whilst a small place like Darum had 
 to supply two only. In addition, they had to furnish 
 a fixed number of men-at-arms from the five hundred 
 of Acre and Jerusalem to the fifty of Caesarea and 
 Haifa. Not even the prelates and great ecclesiastical 
 corporations were exempt, but had each to furnish 
 their fixed quota. To these forces we must add the 
 troops of the military orders, the Turcoples and 
 mercenaries in the royal pay, and the European 
 knights who came with every spring and autumn to 
 fight for Christ and the Holy Sepulchre. Still, with 
 it all, if we may trust William of Tyre, the largest 
 army ever mustered in Palestine since the days of 
 Godfrey was only twenty thousand strong. 
 
 If in many respects the Crusades mark an epoch 
 in military progress, they are of hardly less interest 
 in naval history. In the First Crusade the fleet had 
 been supplied by the Italian republics, and during 
 the early days of the kingdom in particular, valuable 
 
364 ARMSy ARMOUR, AND ARMAMENTS. ■ 
 
 service was rendered by the seamen of Venice, Pisa, 
 and Genoa. The Latin kings, however, estabh'shed 
 a naval service of their own, and maintained arsenals 
 at Tyre and Acre. But it may be that they still 
 chiefly depended on the fleets of the Italian republics, 
 of northern pilgrims like Sigurd, or whatever other 
 assistance chance might afford ; at any rate, there is 
 no mention of the office of admiral in the history of 
 the Cypriote kingdom till towards the end of the 
 thirteenth century. Still, in 1 153, we find Gerard of 
 Sidon commanding the royal fleet at Ascalon, when 
 he had fifteen swift vessels ; and when Saladin 
 threatened Bey rout in 1182, Baldwin IV. was able to 
 assemble thirty-three galleys within seven days. The 
 two great orders also maintained galleys of their own, 
 and the Count of Tripoli and Prince of Antioch had 
 each their own fleet. So in 1 187 Tripoli could muster 
 twenty galleys for the relief of Tyre ; and even 
 as early as 11 27 Bohemond II. had ten galleys and 
 twelve transports. In addition to the Mediterranean 
 fleet thus maintained, there was, at least for a short 
 time, also a Christian armament on the Red Sea. 
 The Franks held Elim from 11 16 to 11 70, and again 
 in 1 1 82-3 ; at the later date, Reginald of Chatillon 
 equipped five galleys and a large number of smaller 
 vessels with which he ravaged the whole coast of the 
 Hedjaz, and, in the absence of any Mussulman fleet 
 that could oppose him, even threatened the pilgrims 
 on their way to Mecca. This success was, however, 
 shortlived, for Saladin had a fleet prepared which, 
 in the early months of 11 83, totally destroyed 
 Reginald's armament. 
 
FLEETS AND SHIPS. 365 
 
 The most important class of ships used for pur- 
 poses of war were galleys ; these vessels were from 
 a hundred to a hundred and twenty feet long, and 
 about six feet wide, with but a single bank of oars 
 and a crew of one hundred men. Other vessels of 
 .,war were " saeties " or scouts, *' colombels," '' gamells.''^ 
 all of them small, swift vessels for scouting purposes. 
 The trading and transport vessels were known as 
 dromonds, busses, salandres, and huissiers. The 
 dromond was the largest of all, and was used to 
 carry pilgrims — as the great vessel wrecked in Egypt 
 in 1 182, which had fifteen hundred persons on board 
 — or merchandise. Richard's rich prize, after leaving 
 Cyprus in 1 191, was a Saracen dromond. In war the 
 dromond was used to carry arms, food, and the mili- 
 tary machines. Busses and salandres were smaller 
 vessels. The huissiers were horse-transports ; those 
 in Manuel's fleet, in 1 169, had large open castles in 
 the poop for the carriage of the horses, with gang- 
 ways for their embarkation. 
 
 None of these vessel's were very fast sailing, nor 
 did they often venture far from land. The swiftest 
 voyage from Marseilles to Acre took from fifteen to 
 twenty days, but was indefinitely lengthened when 
 made by the Italian coast to Messina, then succes- 
 sively to Crete and Cyprus, and so to Syria. For 
 the longer voyage from Northern Europe, Richard's 
 fleet took nearly six months to reach Messina, whilst 
 Sigurd's piratical expedition extended over three or 
 four years. As for equipment, one of Richard's chief 
 ships had " three rudders, thirteen anchors, thirty oars, 
 
 ^ Literally "arrows," "pigeons," "camels." 
 
366 
 
 ARMS, ARMOUR, AND ARMAMENTS. 
 
 two sails, and triple ropes of every kind. Moreover, it 
 had everything that a ship can want in pairs — saving 
 only the mast and boat. This ship was laden with 
 forty horses of price, with all kinds of arms for as 
 many riders, for fourteen footmen and fifteen sailors. 
 Moreover, it had a year's food for all these men and 
 horses." 
 
XXIV 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE— THE STRUGGLE FOR 
 RECOVERY. 
 
 (l 192-1244.) 
 
 " A brave man struggling with the storms of fate, 
 And greatly falling with a falling state." 
 
 Pope. 
 
 SaladiN did not long survive the conclusion of 
 the Third Crusade. Early in November, 1192, he 
 left Palestine for Damascus, where, despite ill health, 
 he spent the winter in hunting. When Baha-ed-din 
 rejoined him in February, he remarked that his 
 master had lost his old elasticity of spirit. On 
 lilebmary j^th _yie_inness^ took a serious form, and a 
 fortnight later termiriated -fatally. " Never since the 
 death of the first four Caliphs," writes Baha-ed-din, 
 " had religion and the . faithful received such a 
 blow." Saladin had won the respectful admiration 
 of Christian and Moslem alike. Both in history and 
 romance his name has always been coupled with that 
 of his great rival Richard. " Could each," said 
 Hubert Walter, " be endowed with the faculties of the 
 
368 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 Other, the whole world could not furnish two such 
 princes." A Western legend, of somewhat later date, 
 is so eminently characteristic of Saladin that it de- 
 serves repetition. When Saladin lay dying he charged 
 his standard-bearer, saying : " As thou didst bear my 
 banner in war, bear also my banner of death. And 
 let it be a vile rag, which thou must bear through all 
 Damascus set upon a lance, crying, ' Lo ! at his 
 death the lord of the East could take nothing with 
 him save this cloth only.' " 
 
 Saladin's dominions were divided at his death. 
 His sons, El-Afdal, El-Aziz, and Ez-Zahir, became 
 lords of r)arnasc4iSj~Egypt^nd AJ^ppcL^ His brother, 
 El-Adel, rujed_-a.t Kerak, and his great-nephews, 
 Shffkuh and El-Mansur, at Emesa and Hamah. 
 But this arrangement did not long subsist, for El- 
 Adel first expelled El-Afdal from Damascus, and 
 afterwards, in February, I2(X>, from Egypt, where 
 the latter prince had become guardian for his infant 
 nephew, El-Mansur. Two years later, by the subjec- 
 / tion of Ez-Zahir, El-Adel became, like his brother 
 / before him, lord supreme of Syria, Mesopotamia, and 
 
 / Egypt. At hia_death, on August 31 j^ 1 2j8j_the Moslem 
 lands were once more divided, but his descendants 
 reigned as sultans of Egypt with more or less power 
 for thirty years afterwards. 
 
 For the Franks the years that followed on the 
 death of Saladin were disturbed only by disputes 
 between the military orders and the warfare of 
 Bohemond of Antioch wTt h the Christian, prince of 
 J Armenia. But if the Syrian Franks were content 
 to enjoy what they still possessed, the opportunity 
 
THE GERMAN CRUSADE. 369 
 
 afforded by the death of Saladin did not pass un- 
 heeded in Western Europe. Pope-C^€stiae- IIJ., 
 
 renewed h's endeavours in the cause of the Holy 
 War. In France and England he met with little 
 success ; Philip was too intent on his ambitious 
 projects, arr<r~Richard too busy counteracting them, 
 whilst their subjects had too lively a recollection 
 of their recent sufferings. But in Germany the 
 Pope's appeal accorded with the Emperor's designs 
 on Sicily and Constantinople. In 1196 Henry 
 entered Italy at the head of forty thousand men, 
 intending to proceed by sea to Palestine as soon 
 as he had secured his authority in his wife's king- 
 dom. He was destined to accomplish only the 
 first part of his plan, but a large contingent of 
 Glemxan^ -Crusaders- came to Acre late in 11 97, 
 under the leadership of Conrad of Wurzburg. Some- 
 what against the will of the native lords, the war 
 was renewed ; El-Adel at once retaliated by an 
 attack on Jaffa ; before the Franks could come to 
 the rescue from Acre, Henry of Champagne was 
 killed by a fall, and during the confusion consequent 
 on his death, Jaffa was taken by the Saracen. 
 
 Isabella now bestowed her hand and kingdom on 
 Amalric de Lusfgnan, who two years previously 
 Had succeeded his br other Gux asHruier gf j^yprus. 
 Encouraged by the arrival of a fresh force of 
 Crusaders from Northern Germany, the new king 
 resolved to attack Beyrout. The Saracens aban- 
 doned the city in panic, and about the same time 
 a Crusading army won a great victory over El-Adel 
 between Tyre and Sidon. These successes were 
 
370 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 followed by the recovery of all the coast towns, and 
 the Crusaders had laid siege to Toron, when in Decem- 
 ber, 1 197, the news^f the Emperor's death called the. 
 -Gennans home. The partial success of this Crusade 
 was thus marred by its hasty termination, which left 
 the recovered territory without defenders in the face 
 of an embittered foe. 
 
 Next— year. _(l?9^S)-^^ preaching of a French 
 priest, Fulk of Neuilly, stirred up a new Crusade. 
 Fiilk was credited with strangely miraculous powers ; 
 he cured the blind and the lame, at his bidding the 
 prostitute forsook her calling and the usurer his 
 treasure. Even before kings he was not ashamed, 
 and in God's name bade Richard of England provide 
 for his three daughters. " Liar ! " said the angry 
 king, " I have no daughter." " Nay ! thou hast 
 three evil daughters — Pride, Lust, and Luxury.'* 
 With mocking words Richard turned to his courtiers : 
 " He bids me marry my daughters. I give Pride to 
 the Templars, Lust to the Cistercians, and Luxury 
 to the prelates." Fulk's efforts were aided by the 
 new Pope, Innocent III., who mourned over the 
 return of the Germans after such slight achievements, 
 and endeavoured to make peace between the kings 
 of France and England. 
 
 The kings turned a deaf ear to priest and pope 
 alike, but many of the great French nobles dic^^ 
 under Fulk's influence, take the Cross. Foremost 
 wer-e -Baldwin of Flanders and__his brother Henry, 
 Theobald of Champagne and His cousin Louis of 
 Blois, the Count of St. Pol, Simon de Montfort, and 
 John de Nesles. But the expedition was long 
 
THE FOURTH CRUSADE. 37 1 
 
 delayed, and only started in 1202. Fulk meantime 
 had died of grief^ and though the treasure he had 
 collected was sent over sea to Palestine, his projected 
 Crusade proved, so far as the Holy Land was con- 
 cerned, a miserable failure. The great part of the 
 Crusaders allowed themselves to be diverted from 
 their prop er aim, and after conquering Zara for the 
 Venetians, sailed against Constantinople. How they 
 captured that city, chose Baldwin for emperor, and 
 portioned out the^European lands of the Eastern 
 Empire amongst themselves, belongs to another 
 story.i 
 
 A smaller force, however, passed through the 
 Straits of Gibraltar, and under the leadership of 
 Reginald de_Dampierr€-reachcd Palestine in .j. 203. 
 Some plundering raids were followed by concessions 
 on the part of El-Adel, who surrendered Nazareth 
 and concluded peace. Reginald, in wrath, went off 
 to join Bohemond of Antioch ; on his way he fell 
 into an ambush, and of all his army only a single 
 knight escaped. When, a little later, John de Nesles 
 reached Acre with a further contingent, he also went 
 north to aid the Prince of Antioch in his warfare 
 with Armenia. 
 
 Duringjthe last years of the twelfth century the 
 power of the Christian princes of. Armenia had much 
 increased. After long disputes between the kins- 
 men of Thoros, a prince called Rupin secured the 
 throne about 1175. Rupin acquired Tarsus from 
 Bohembna''"nT., and ruled on the whole prosperously 
 
 ^ See Mr. C. W. C. Oman's " The Byzantine Empire," chapters xxiL' 
 and xxiii., in this series. 
 
372 THE KINGDOM OP ACRE, 
 
 till 1 1 88. His successor and brother, Leo, though 
 married to a niece of Bohemond, sought to secure 
 the independence of his country, which up to this 
 time had been subject to the princes of Antioch. 
 Bohemond treacherously endeavoured to capture 
 Leo at a conference, but the Armenian, suspicious 
 of his host, had taken such precautions that it was 
 Bohemond, and not Leo, who became the prisoner. 
 As the price of Bohemond 's release, Leo was con- 
 firmed in his conquests and independence, and a few 
 years later, in 1 198, was anointed king by the German 
 chancellor, Conrad of Wurzburg.^ The death of 
 Bohemond IIL in 1201 was followed by further wars, 
 for Leo supported the claims of his nephew Rupin, 
 the child of the late prince's elder son, Raymond, 
 against the new prince, Bohemond IV. It was to 
 aid in this warfare that John de Nesles went north 
 in 1203.2 
 
 The close of the twelfth century had been grievous 
 for the East. Egypt was vexed with a sore famine, 
 and the consequent pestilence spread into Syria, so 
 that all the lands from the Euphrates to the Nile 
 were filled with mourning and desolation. Next 
 year a terrible earthquake ruined almost all. th_e cities 
 of Palestine, with the exception of Jerusalem. The 
 treasure collected by Fulk of Neuilly now proved 
 of timely service for the rebuilding of the walls 
 of Acre. 
 
 * The date is not certain ; it may be 1199. Another account makes 
 Conrad of Mentz perform the coronation. Leo seems to have held 
 his crown as vassal of the emperor and Pope. 
 
 " Rupin contested Antioch till his death in 1222, when Bohemond 
 IV. became undisputed prince. 
 
yOHN DE BRIENNE. 373 
 
 The pressure of these calamities did not avail to 
 enforce observance of the truce. Amalric's Cypriote 
 subjects were vexed by piratical Egyptian galleys, 
 and when El-Adel would make no restitution, the 
 king retaliated by a series of raids, which extended 
 even to the east of Jordan. But eventually the truce 
 was renewed for five years. A little later, in 1205, 
 Amalric died, leaving an infant son, Amalric III. ; 
 but the youthful king and his mother both died 
 within the year. The throne then passed to Mary, 
 Isabella's eldest daughter by. Conrad of Montferrat.- 
 John of Ibelin was made bailiff for the little queen, 
 and Philip of France was asked to recommend a 
 suitable husband. His choice fell on John de Brienne 
 — an experienced warrior, but not a man of any 
 great rank. John accepted the proposal, and after 
 some delay, with the aid of money lent him by the 
 French king and the Pope, equipped three hundred 
 knights, with which little force he reached Acre on 
 September X4,.. 1 2J0.' On the following da3^-fee-waS" 
 married to the young Queen Mary, and a week later 
 was crowned with his wife at Tyre. 
 
 Before John's arrival in Palestine the Christians 
 had refused to renew the truce. . But though the new 
 king took the field with courage, he presently found 
 himself unable to cope with his powerful foe, the 
 more so as most of his own knights had soon returned 
 to Europe. Accordingly, in 121 2, he appealed to the 
 Pope to send him fresh succour from the West. 
 
 Innocent III. had long desired to make good the 
 
 ^ This date is almost certainly correct, though some authorities give 
 1209, or even 1208. 
 
 / 
 
374 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 unhappy Crusade of 1203, but the intervening years 
 had not been propitious. The death of Henry VI. 
 had left Sicily with a child ruler, and Germany with 
 a disputed succession. Both in France and England 
 the Pope was involved in a serious .quarrel with the 
 royal power. But although these troubles. hampered 
 the execution ^/__Innocent's -projects,, he did not 
 abandon them. At the Lateran Coi+nei4~which met 
 -in November, 121 5, and had been summoned over 
 two years previously, four hundred and twelve bishops 
 were present, including the Latin patriarchs of 
 
 SEAL OF JAMES DE VITRY. 
 
 Jerusalem and Constantinople. Through Innocent's 
 influence the project of a new Crusade was adopted, 
 and preached with vigour ; James de Vitry, the future 
 _bjshop of Acre and historian of the Holy Land, and 
 the English Cardinal, Robert de Curzon, who died in 
 12 1 8 at Damietta, being foremost in the work. Chief 
 amongst those who took the Cross were Andrew, 
 King of Hungary ; Leopold, Duke of Austria ; 
 William, Count of Holland;* and the English Earl 
 Ranulf of Chester. 
 
 So towards the autumn of 12 17 there were gathered 
 
THE FIFTH CRUSADE. 
 
 375 
 
 at Acre the four kings of Hungary, Armenia, Cyprus, 
 and Jerusalem, besides many nobles and men of 
 lesser degree. A great foray was made to Bethshan 
 and the Saracen castle on Mount Tabor besieged ; 
 but the Sultan would not permit his son Corradin 
 to offer battle, and the Crusaders were at length 
 forced to retire after effecting but little. The kings 
 of Hungary and Armenia then returned to their own 
 land, whilst Hugh of Cyprus went to Tripoli, where 
 he soon fell ill and died. 
 
 During the winter many Crusaders who had made 
 the long sea voyage from Northern Europe arrived at 
 
 BESANT OF HUGH I. 
 
 Acre. John deBrienne now proposed an expedition 
 to Damietta, and accordingly in May, 1218, the great 
 iSsF set' sail with a fair wind for Egypt. Damietta 
 was well fortified with towers and walls, and protected 
 by the river and a moat. In mid-stream rose an 
 immense tower of great strength, which was the first 
 point for attack. An assault was made on July 1st, 
 but without success, and many of the Crusaders were 
 drowned. On August 24th (St. Bartholomew's Day), 
 the attack was renewed ; the Saracens poured down 
 fire and sulphur on their assailants, so that the ladders 
 were set ablaze, and the Crusaders reduced to despair. 
 
 / 
 
376 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE, 
 
 Suddenly it seemed that the fire was extinguished, 
 and the Christians saw the banner of the Holy Cross 
 waving from the tower. With fresh vigour they 
 returned to the attack, and now their efforts were 
 crowned with success. Men soon fabled that this was 
 due to no earthly prowess, but to a band of heavenly 
 knights in white armour, the brilliancy whereof had 
 dazzled the eyes of the Saracens, whilst their leader, 
 clad in red, was hailed as none other than St. Bar- 
 tholomew himself. 
 
 In September the papal legate. Cardinal Pelagius, 
 reached the camp. A little later there came many 
 French and English knights — the former under the 
 Counts of Nevers, and Marche ; the latter under the 
 earls of Chester, Winchester, and Arundel. But 
 winter was now coming on, the camp was flooded, 
 provisions destroyed, and many ships lost. With the 
 spring, however, the Crusaders renewed their efforts ; 
 by crossing the river on February 5 th, they secy red 
 a better position for the attack, and then prepared 
 their engines for an assault. 
 
 Meantime El-Adel had been succeeded by his 
 son, El-Kamil. The new Sultan was in such despair 
 that he meditated a retreat to Yemen ; but on Palm 
 Sunday, after reinforcements had come from Syria, 
 he made a fierce though unsuccessful attack on the 
 Christian camp. In May, Leopold of Austria went 
 home, whilst on the other side, on Feb. 7, El-Kamil's 
 brother, El-Muazzam, or, as the Crusaders called 
 him, Corradin, prince of Damascus, arrived with 
 a great army of Saracens. But Pelagius and King 
 John had made a Lombard " caroccio " to bear the 
 
THE SIEGE OF DAMIETTA. ' ^yy 
 
 Christian banner, and the sight of this novel engine 
 with its mysterious emblem scared Corradin from a 
 fresh attack. During the summer famine and disease 
 raged within the city, and in the Saracen camp out- 
 side. Nor were the Crusaders in much better plight ; 
 for if many Saracens sought relief and baptism in 
 the Christian camp, certain evil Spaniards and English 
 fled to the Moslem and denied Christ. At last the 
 Saracens sent envoys offering to deliver up the land, 
 " because the power of God was against them." But 
 meantime El-Kamil succeeded in throwing reinforce- 
 ments into the town, thanks to the departure of the 
 Count of Nevers, whose name became a by-word 
 among the Christians. The Crusaders then broke 
 off the negotiations, and on November 5th, at mid- 
 night — the hour when, according to the mediaeval 
 belief, Christ harrowed Hell, the Crusaders forced their 
 way within the walls. The credit of this achieve- 
 ment belongs to certain " Latins and Romans," who, 
 taking one of the towers by stealth, thundered out 
 the " Kyrie Eleeson," as a sign of success to their com- P 
 rades below. Then the Templars and Hospita.lIers 
 forced their way into the city, and so Damietta was 
 —captured. ^ "" 
 
 Scarcelv was the city taken when a quarrel broke 
 out between John and Pelagius. John was angry 
 because the legate had lordship over him, and seeing 
 that Leo of Armenia was now dead, departed to 
 prosecute his wife's rights to that kingdom. John 
 was absent for a whole year, during which time 
 Pelagius vainly endeavoured to keep the Christian 
 host from melting away. The Saracens in their 
 
378 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 de-pair offered extravagant terms for the recovery of 
 Damietta — the whole land of Jerusalem excepting 
 Kerak, and all their Christian prisoners. This the 
 Crusaders refused because they hoped that if the 
 Emperor Frederick came on his long-promised expe- 
 dition, they might then conquer all Egypt. Thus in 
 their folly they threw away the best chance of 
 recovering the Holy City. Philip of France said 
 with reason that they must have been daft to prefer a 
 town to a kingdom. 
 
 When, however, Frederick did not come, it was 
 decided to advance against Cairo. Pelagius was 
 reduced to appeal to John de Brienne for his assis- 
 tance, but the king would not leave his own land till 
 a liberal sum had been promised for his services. 
 Wherujehn arrivedrjun€-29,_i22.i, the Crusaders had 
 already started. Two months later he found the host 
 in a perilous position, for the Saracen galleys prevented 
 provisions from being brought up from the sea, whilst 
 the Nile was already rising. The Sultan ordered the 
 dykes to be cut, and the waters rose so high that it was 
 impossible to advance or to retreat. The Crusaders 
 were at the mercy of the Saracens, and John had to 
 make the best terms he could. El-Kamil, in pity for 
 the Christians, offered to let them go free if Damietta 
 was restored. There was no alternative but to 
 consent, and the Sultan further promised to release 
 all his prisoners, restore the Holy Cross, and grant a 
 truce for eight years. J[ohn^^ri^mi^^d James de 
 Vitry became hostages foi meTuTiTTment of the treaty. 
 It is related that as John sat before the Sultan he 
 wept {^r thought of his starving companions. El- 
 
FREDERICK II. 379 
 
 Kamil, on learning the cause ofjiis tears, was moved 
 to compassion, and sent enough store of food for all 
 the people. 
 
 After his release John appointed Eudes de Mont- 
 beliard his bailiff at Acre, and went over sea to ask 
 aid for his unhappy kingdom. He visited Rome, 
 France, England, and Spain, where he married the 
 King:— of-Gastirle^ -sister. Later he joined the Em- 
 peror in Apulia, and gave his daughter, Isabella or 
 Yolande, in marriage tp_ ^Frederick. . After a time 
 John quarrelled with the Emperor, and took service 
 \^th the Pope ; but he does not again appear in 
 Crusading history. 
 
 The Emperor Frederick, who, by this marriage 
 became lord of Palestine, was certainly the greatest 
 prince, and in some respects also the most remarkable 
 man of his time ; it was not without justice that an 
 English chronicler called him the " Wonder of the 
 World." His natural gifts and acquired accomplish- 
 ments were alike extraordinary ; he was not only a 
 great ruler, but a poet, and lover of art and all intel- 
 lectual pursuits ; the many tongues of his wide 
 dominions — German, Italian, Greek, Latin, and Saracen 
 — were alike familiar to him. But among men of 
 the next generation he was remembered best as the 
 foe of ihe papacy, and a^ the rumoured scoffer at all 
 things holy. His relations with the Roman see can 
 hardly have disposed him to reverence for the faith 
 of which it was the centre, and his attitude to religion 
 was no doubt one of indifference. It was even fabled 
 that he had written a book of extreme blasphemy on 
 the Three Impostors — Moses, Christ, and Mohammed. 
 
380 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 False though this accusation was, there is something 
 almost grotesque in the fate which made him the 
 leader of Christendom in its Holy War. 
 
 After his coronation by Honorius III. in 1220, 
 Frederick publicly renewed his vow of a Crusade. 
 Year after year the Christians had hoped for his 
 coming, and still he had never come — not even on 
 the conquest of Damietta, when it would seem that 
 the very rumour of his coming would suffice to lay 
 the whole East at his mercy. Four months before his 
 marriage to Yolande, in November, 1225, Frederick 
 oncelrfore promised to cross the sea for two years ; if 
 he failed to fulfil his covenant he would fall under the 
 interdict of the Church. Before the appointed time 
 had elapsed, Honorius HI. had been succeeded by 
 Frederick's destined foe Gregory IX. But although 
 one of Gregory's earliest acts was to urge Frederick in 
 a somewhat imperative letter to fulfil his vow, the 
 relations of the new Pope with the Emperor were not 
 at first unfriendly. Frederick, indeed, had made his 
 preparations in all sincerity, and in the appointed 
 month of August, 1227 ,_a large host had assembled 
 at Brindisi. The Emperor embarked, and the fleet 
 set sail ; but three days later the former entered the 
 harbour of Otranto, whilst the latter dispersed. 
 Frederick pleaded sickness as the excuse for his 
 return, but Gregory nevertheless pronounced the 
 excommunication which the Emperor had incurred 
 under his oath two years before. The sentence and 
 its subsequent confirmations were treated with con- 
 tempt by Frederick, who determined to prove his 
 sincerity by starting on the Crusade in the spring. 
 
PREbERtCk IN PALESTINE. 3S1 
 
 The hostility of the Pope caused the desertion of 
 many who had intended to join the Crusade. But 
 Frederick probably counted more on the negotiations, 
 which for some time past he had maintained with 
 El-Kamil, than on the strength of his arms. So it 
 was^ with only six hundred knights — more like a 
 pirate tha n a great king, as Gregory declared — that 
 he landed at Acre on September 7, 1228. Frederick 
 was received with hostility not only by the clergy, but 
 also by the military orders, who presently refused to 
 serve under his commands. El-Kamil, not unaware 
 of the Emperor's difficulties, endeavoured to renew 
 their old amity, and made overtures for a com- 
 promise. The negotiations proceeded slowly, but 
 meanwhile there was much friendly intercourse 
 between the two monarchs. Frederick's first 
 demands were for the restoration of the kingdom" in 
 its fullest extent, together with liberal privileges for 
 his merchants in the ports of Alexandria and Rosetta. 
 But-El-Kamil would not surrender Jerusalem entirely 
 si nce th e Saracens held the Temple in no less esteem 
 than did the ^hri^stians the Holy Sepulchre. At first 
 Frederick was disposed to war, but the news that 
 Gregory and John de Brienne were capturing his 
 Italian cities made hirn. anxious to return at any cost. 
 He therefore came to terms with El-Kamil, who 
 aj^reedL__to — surrender Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and 
 jiaizareth, if the site of the Temple, whereon stood 
 the Mosque of Omar, was left to the Saracens. As 
 soon as the treaty was arranged Frederick and his 
 Germans went up to Jerusalem on March 18, 1229. 
 Next day — it was Sunday in Mid-Lent — he took the 
 
382 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 crown from the high altar in the Church of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, and with h is own~hands placed it on his 
 liead'T'^*~birr^Eliere was no prelate, nor priest, nor 
 clerk, to sing or speak." His pilgrimage to the 
 Sepulchre over, and his coronation accomplished, 
 
 SEAL OF FREDERICK II. AS KING OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 Frederick displayed his strange catholicity by 
 visiting:.ab€-^t €>sque of — Omar als o. So, likewise, 
 when the Cadi out of regard to the Emperor's 
 feelings, forbade the .muezzin_to_give the usual call 
 fir prayer, ^ederick rebuked him :-~ You were wrong 
 to fail in duty to your religion for my sake. God 
 
yOHN OF IBELIN AND RICHARD FILANGIER. 383 
 
 knows, if you were to come to my country, you would 
 find no such respectful deference." 
 
 After a pretence of refortifying Jerusalem, Frederick 
 suddenly went back to Acre, and thence set sail for 
 Europe. The peace which he had secured was 
 extremely distasteful to his foes the Templars, whose 
 great church at Jerusalem was left in the hands of 
 the Moslem. Frederick announced his treaty in 
 Western Europe , as a great achievement. Gerold 
 the Patriarch, on his part, wrote a letter condemning 
 it as a betrayal of religion and the Church. Gregory 
 had already described it as a monstrous reconciliation 
 of Christ and BeHal. But with the effect of this 
 treaty on its author's subsequent fortunes we have 
 nothing to do. Frederick did not again visit his 
 Orientaf kingdom.— ile~die^ in 1250 the victim of a 
 strange and novel crusade. By his will he left a 
 large sum of money for the succour of the Holy Land. 
 
 On his way to Palestine Frederick had stopped at 
 Cyprus. The king of the island, Henry I,^ was then 
 a child of eleven ; the Emperor claimed the right of 
 wardship, and forced the bailiff, John of Ibelin, to 
 do him homage. John accompanied Frederick to 
 I'alestine, but after his departure returned to Cyprus 
 in June, 1229, and besieged the Emperor's officers in 
 the fortress of Dieudamour. His enterprise had just 
 met with success when the arrival of a German fleet 
 led to a new series of troubles. 
 
 The Saracens had not long kept the peace. Within 
 little over a year thqy -began to harass the pilgrims, 
 
 ^ He was son of Hugh I., by Alice, daughter of Henry of Champagne 
 and Isabel'a. 
 
3^4 THE kWGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 and declaring that they would no longer suffer the 
 Holy City to remain in Christian hands, broke into 
 Jerusalem itself. Frederick's representatives were 
 able to expel the intruders, and the Emperor on 
 hearing of the violation of the truce at once des- 
 patched a fleet to Palestine under Richard Filangier^ 
 whom he appointed bailiff of the kingdom. An order 
 to Henry de Lusignan to dismiss John of Ibelin was 
 met with a refusal, and an attempt to dispossess that 
 noble of Beyrout was no more successful. The 
 native lords declared that Frederick was violating the 
 ancestral customs of their land, and together with 
 John of Ibelin appealed to the king of Cyprus for 
 assistance. Henry and his lords responded readily; 
 but even with their aid John could not venture to 
 take the field against the bailiff Richard, who was 
 besieging Beyrout. 
 
 Some time later, on May 3, 1232, Richard surprised 
 the Cypriot lords near Casal Imbert, whilst John of 
 Ibelin chanced to be absent at Acre. Though the 
 young king managed to escape, his followers were 
 utterly routed, and the disaster was fatal to John's 
 ambitions. Richard was even able to carry the war 
 into Cyprus, and for a time held possession of the 
 greater part of that island, until John expelled him in 
 1233. The Imperial power on the mainland did not 
 last much longer, and when John of Ibelin died in 
 1236, Queen Alice of Cyprus persuaded the barons to 
 accept her third husband, Ralph of Soissons as bailiff, 
 since Yolande had long been dead and Frederick 
 would not send her young son Conrad to take her 
 place. 
 
QUARRELS OF THE AY U BITES. 385 
 
 Whilst these feuds weakened the Christian cause 
 in the kingdom, similar troubles were working mis- 
 chief in the principalities further north, where the 
 Prince of Antioch endeavoured to reap advantage 
 from the weakness of the infant daughter of Leo the 
 Armenian. Such a state of affairs gradually wore 
 away whatever powers of resistance the Syrian Franks 
 might yet possess, and so when a new source of 
 danger made its appearance they proved quite incap- 
 able to cope with it. 
 
 Meantime there had been great changes in the 
 lands of the Ayubites. At the death of El-Adel on 
 August 31, 12 18, his son El-Kamil had succeeded 
 him at CaimTwith the title of Sultarrand'Fome T<ind 
 of supremacy over his brothers who ruled in the 
 various cities of Syria. El-Kamil reaped some 
 advantage from the dissensions of his kinsfolk, but 
 his rule in Syria was not altogether prosperous, and 
 his last years were troubled by the dangers which 
 threatened from the Turks of Iconium in the north, 
 and the_advancing Tartars to the east. His sudden 
 death at the beginning of 1238 was the signal for 
 general warfare amongst the Ayubite princes of Syria. 
 Eventually Es-Saleh Ayub, El-Kamil's eldest son, 
 became lord of Damascus ; with the support of his 
 cousin Dawud, the son of Corradin, he invaded Egypt 
 and overthrew his brother El-Adel, in May, 1240. 
 But the new Sultan soon quarrelled with his powerful 
 kinsman Dawud, and the troubles of the Ayubites 
 were still unsettled, when the landing of a new 
 Crusade marked the termination of the ten years* 
 truce concluded by the Emperor Frederick. 
 
 26 
 
386 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE, 
 
 In the midst of his conflict with Frederick II., 
 Gregory IX was not unmindful of his fellow Christians 
 in the East. As the conclusion of the ten years' 
 truce made by Frederick II. drew near he issued 
 a summons to a new Crusade. The time was op- 
 portune for a fresh effort ; the feuds of the Ayubites 
 within, and the pressure of the. Tartars from without, 
 had much shaken the power of Islam. The chief re- 
 sponse to Gregory's appeal came from France and 
 Spain. King Louis being unable to go in person sent his 
 constable Amalric, Count of Montfort ; other French 
 nobles were the Duke of Burgundy and the Counts 
 of Bar and Nevers, whilst tlie leader of the expedition 
 was Theobald, King of Navarre. The host mustered 
 at Marseilles, and refusing to wait a year for the 
 Emperor to join them, sailed for Palestine in August, 
 1239. After landing at Acre they resolved on an 
 expedition for the recovery of Ascalon, and with this 
 purpose marched out towards Jaffa on the 2nd of 
 NQvember. Whilst halting in this town, the Count 
 of Brittany made a successful raid on the Saracens. 
 Emulous of this good fortune the Count of Bar and 
 other nobles determined to make a raid towards 
 Ascalon. Theobald expostulated, but to no purpose ; 
 the knights, bent on gain, declared that at least they 
 would ride to Gaza and return on the morrow. So 
 they went along the coast ^ till they reached the brook 
 that divided the kingdom of Jerusalem from Egypt. 
 Here Count Walter of Jaffa advised that they should 
 rest, but his comrades insisted on proceeding further. 
 At length they halted in a place shut in by mountains, 
 
 * Sunday, the 13th of November. 
 
RICHARD OF CORNWALL. 387 
 
 and prepared to feast on the delicate provisions they 
 had brought with them. Whilst thus engaged the 
 Saracens of Gaza came upon them. Count Walter, 
 at their approach, rode off with the Duke of Burgundy, 
 knowing that it was hopeless to fight in such a posi- 
 tion. But the Counts of Bar and Montfort persisted 
 in giving battle ; they and all their followers were 
 captured or slain before Theobald, who had now 
 advanced to Ascalon, could come to their aid. On 
 the news of this disaster Theobald withdrew in haste 
 to Acre. Next year he sought for the release of 
 the prisoners by making a truce with the Sultan, 
 but before the treaty was completed went home by 
 stealth and most of his host with him. Shortly after- 
 wards Earl Richard of Cornwall reached Acre, and 
 the release of the prisoners was finally secured through 
 the assistance of his wealth. With Richard came 
 Simon de Montfort, Amalric's more famous brother, 
 whom a year or two later the Syrian barons begged 
 Frederick to appoint as bailiff of the kingdom during 
 the minority of Conrad. The quarrels of the military 
 orders rendered any active warfare inipracticable, 
 and the English earls shortly went home after accom- 
 plishing no more than the release of the prisoners. 
 
 The Christians soon found that the Sultan had 
 only granted a truce to gain time for the conquest of 
 his rivals. So in 1243 or 1244 they negotiated with ^ 
 the lords of Kerak ^ and Damascus, who promised the 
 Franks all the land west of Jordan save PW^ron, 
 Nablus, and Bethshan. By this means Jerusalem was 
 restored to the Christians, and in the words of a letter 
 
 ^ This was Dawud, son of El Muazzam, or Corradin. 
 
388 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 of the time, " all the Saracens were expelled, and the 
 sacred mysteries celebrated daily in all the holy 
 places, wherein for fifty-six years the name of God 
 had not been invoked." But hardly had the Christians 
 in Europe time to rejoice over this news, when they 
 heard that Jerusalem was lost again. 
 
 Es-Saleh Ayub, in need of aid to reassert his power, 
 called in strangers from outside. His new allies were 
 the Charismians, an eastern tribe, who, driven from 
 their • own land bjTTjenghis Khan, had conquered 
 themselves a new home on the Euphrates. They 
 offered their services to the highest bidder, and so 
 fought first for one and then for another of the 
 Ayubite princes. As the Charismians marched 
 south to join Es-Saleh they fell^Upon the city of 
 Jerusalem, and slew its inhabitants, men, women, and 
 children, to the number of thirty thousand. Moham- 
 medans and Christians united in face of a common 
 danger. Ismail of Damascus sent an army under El- 
 Mansur of Hamah to help the muster of the military 
 orders, which had marched out from Acre. Count 
 Walter de Brienne joined them at Jaffa, and by the 
 time the army reached Ascalon it mustered six 
 thousand knights without counting the men-at-arms, 
 both horse and foot. El-Mansur advised that they 
 should abide safely in a place well stored with food 
 till the inevitable time when a savage horde with no 
 settled base must melt away. Some of the Christians 
 app^ed, but others distrusted an infidel's advice. 
 The latter prevailed, and the army marched out to 
 encounter the Charismians near Gaza on October 14, 
 1244. The battle was~short but fierce ; El-Mansur 
 
THE CHARISMIAN INVASIOT^, 389 
 
 and his host fled from the field ; the Christian army 
 was almost annihilated. Of the Templars, who 
 numbered three hundred, only four knights survived, 
 and of the Hospitallers only nineteen, and but three 
 men-at-arms of the Teutonic order. The grand 
 masters of the Temple and Hospital, and Count 
 Walter were taken prisoners — the last two died in 
 captivity. This disaster was fatal to the power of 
 the Franks in Palestine, and from this moment 
 even the semblance of the Christian kingdom began 
 to fade away. 
 
XXV. 
 
 THE CRUSADES OF ST. LOUIS AND EDWARD I. 
 
 ** Some grey Crusading knight austere 
 Who bore St. Louis company." 
 
 M. Arnold. 
 
 It might have been expected that the destruction 
 of Jerusalem would send a shock of horror throughout 
 Christendom, and rouse all Christians to the rccon- 
 quest of the Holy Land. Just one hundred years 
 previously the loss of Edessa, far removed as that 
 city was from the interests of the European west, 
 had been a trumpet call to king and noble and 
 peasant. But things were not in the thirteenth 
 century as they had been in the twelfth. The new 
 era had different ideals, different hopes, and different 
 aims ; the political energy of the West was being 
 transfused into new channels. The great cities were 
 winning privileges at the expense of lords and 
 Emperor ; new kingdoms were rising into promi- 
 nence or developing into strength. Here the king 
 was gathering all power more and more into his 
 own hands ; there the nobles were asserting their 
 
FLAGGING ENTHUSIASM. 39I 
 
 rights to his detriment. But in the fervour and 
 industry of a new age, that was building the noblest 
 churches ever seen, inventing fresh heresies, open- 
 ing out new studies, there was little place for true 
 religious enthusiasm. The age of Roger Bacon and 
 Albertus Magnus was beginning, that of Anselm 
 and Peter the Hermit dying out. Religion was no 
 longer a matter for the emotions only ; but was 
 more and more a thing for philosophers to wrangle 
 over, not one that a practical man need trouble 
 himself about. 
 
 But above all else the thirteenth century had no 
 St. Bernard to rouse it to the service of God. Such 
 religious zeal as remained was frittered away in 
 internecine crusades against the Albigeois and a 
 heretic emperor, or diverted its energies from war- 
 fare with the infidel abroad, to the rescue of 
 afflicted Christians at home. The Templar and 
 Hospitaller had warred in Palestine for the Holy 
 Sepulchre, the followers of St. Francis and St. 
 Dominic toiled in the crowded cities for the poor, 
 the friendless, and the sick. 
 
 Europe was, moreover, confronted by a danger 
 unknown for many centuries past. The Tartars 
 threatened to sweep away all civilisation from the 
 Volga to the Atlantic. Frederick, even had he 
 not been excommunicate, was too busy with this 
 grave trouble to undertake a new Crusade. In the 
 west the kings of Spain were still waging theii 
 perpetual crusade with the Saracens of their own 
 peninsula, and the King of England in the pressure 
 of incident at home could spare no time for Jerusa- 
 
392 CRUSADES OF ST, LOUIS AND EDWARD /. 
 
 lem and the East Ital}^ was distracted by the feuds 
 of emperor and pope. To France alone could the 
 Latin Christians of the East look for help. 
 
 Louis IX. of France was now about twenty-seven 
 years old. The great-grandson of our English Henry 
 II. and the grandson of Philip Augustus, he had been 
 left an orphan at the age of ten, but through the 
 prudence of his mother Blanche the troubles of his 
 minority had been averted. About the end of 1244 
 Louis fell so ill that his life was despaired of; as 
 he lay unconscious, his nurse thinking all was 
 over, was about to draw the sheet across his face, 
 when a companion stayed her hand. At the sound 
 of their voices the king roused from his trance, and 
 calling for a cross vowed himself to God's service 
 for the recovery of Jerusalem. It was not, however, 
 for more than three years that Louis sailed from 
 Marseilles on the 25th of August, 1248. 
 
 Louis was perhaps the most truly religious king 
 that ever lived. His whole life was a prayer ; his 
 whole aim to do God's will. His horror of sin was 
 deep and unaffected. " Would you rather be a leper, 
 or commit a deadly sin ? " he once asked Joinville. 
 The seneschal bluntly blurted out that he would 
 rather commit thirty deadly sins than have his body 
 covered with leprosy. Louis reproved his choice : 
 for the leprosy of the body would disappear at 
 death, but the leprosy of sin last hereafter. Every- 
 thing about the king is charming from the " As-you- 
 Like-it" scene where he administered justice beneath 
 the great oak at Vincennes, to his washing of the 
 icct of the poor in imitation of Christ. Nor was he 
 
A SAINTLY KING. 
 
 393 
 
 regardless of learning, even though he commended 
 the knight who closed an unsuccessful disputation 
 with a Jew by a blow from his stick. He had a 
 great library of books at Royaumont, was the 
 patron of Robert of Sorbonne, and chose Vincent 
 
 ;eal of LOUIS IX. 
 
 of Beauvais, the greatest scholar of his day, to be 
 his reader and the teacher of his sons. But with 
 all this he was no weakling or do-nothing. All 
 nen trusted him, and the English barons accepted 
 him as arbiter in their disputes with Henry, knowing 
 
394 CRUSADES OF ST. LOUIS AND EDWARD I. 
 
 that he would never seek his own advantage from 
 quarrels among his neighbours. But that which most 
 struck his contemporaries was his extreme sobriety 
 of language ; Joinville, who was with him constantly 
 for two and twenty years, declares that he never 
 heard him utter a word of blasphemy though this 
 was the commonest fault of that age. 
 
 Such was the king who now started on the last 
 Crusade but one. With him though not in his 
 immediate following, went Jean de Joinville his 
 biographer. All history might be racked in vain 
 for a passage of more simple pathos than that 
 in which the great French noble tells how on his 
 way to Marseilles he passed beneath the walls of 
 his own castle, and dared not cast a look upon 
 them lest his heart should melt at the thought of 
 his little children, who there lay all unconscious of 
 the perils on which their father was embarking. 
 Louis reached Cyprus towards the end of 1248, and 
 remained there till the following May. Great pre- 
 parations had been made in the island long before- 
 hand, and Joinville remarks on the great heaps of 
 corn that were turning green upon the top where 
 the grain was sprouting into active life, with the 
 wine casks piled up into " houses " as it seemed — 
 all in readiness for the start to Syria or Egypt. 
 
 Joinville, whose own money was now spent, 
 took service with the king, and on the 21st of May 
 the French host set forth in eighteen hundred vessels, 
 whose white sails made a very fair sight. A sudden 
 storm, however, dispersed the fleet ; but on Whit- 
 Monday the wind fell, and Louis reached Damietta 
 
THE EXPEDITION TO EGYPT, 395 
 
 three days later on the 27th of May^ with seven 
 hundred ships. He had scarcely landed when the 
 Saracens fled in terror from the city, and the French 
 became masters of this great port without striking 
 a serious blow. 
 
 For six months the army lay in or near Damietta, 
 until the remainder of the fleet under the king's 
 brother, the Count of Poitiers, could arrive from Syria. 
 This was not till October, and then a council de- 
 termined to waste no time in attacking Alexandria, 
 but to push on boldly for Cairo itself; for said the 
 Count of Artois it were better if they wished to kill 
 the serpent to crush him on the head. Accordingly, 
 at the end of November, the army marched south ; 
 but at the Delta, or to use the mediaeval expression 
 " The Island," formed by the Damietta branch of the 
 Nile and one of the other numerous river channels,^ 
 their further advance was stayed ; for they could not 
 cross the river in the face of the great army that 
 opposed them on the southern side. The French 
 determined to construct a causeway to enable them 
 to pass over, but whenever the work seemed to be 
 making progress the enemy managed to destroy it. 
 The Saracen stone-casters, and other military engines 
 troubled the labourers incessantly, whilst the wooden 
 towers or belfrys which the Crusaders had erected 
 for their protection were twice destroyed by Greek 
 
 * So Joinville ; William of Nangis puts the capture of Damietta a week 
 or two later. 
 
 ''Joinville says the " Rexi " or Rosetta branch, which is clearly 
 impossible ; other writers come nearer the truth in saying the Tanis 
 branch ; no doubt it was the canal of Ashmun. , 
 
396 CRUSADES OF ST. LOUIS AND EDWARD I. 
 
 fire. Louis was now in a most perilous position, for 
 a hostile force which had crossed the Damietta 
 branch into '' the Island " threatened his rear. In 
 this emergency he accepted the offer of a Bedouin 
 who agreed for five hundred besants to guide the 
 French to a secret ford. On Shrove Tuesday, 
 February 8, 1250, Louis marched out for the ford, 
 leaving the Duke of Burgundy to guard the camp. 
 In the van went the Templars, with the Count of 
 Artois in the centre, and the king in the rear. 
 
 Amongst the few English who took part in this 
 Crusade, the most distinguished was William Long- 
 sword, second earl of Salisbury, the grandson of 
 Henry II., and in all probability of Rosamond Clif- 
 ford. Though the king's cousin and titular earl of 
 Salisbury he was a poor man, and had been obliged 
 to collect money for his expedition to the East, by 
 what practically amounted to the sale of dispensa- 
 tions to the timid or the old, who at the last moment 
 lacked courage for the journey. In the earlier days 
 of the expedition he had succeeded in capturing an 
 Egyptian caravan on its way with spices to Alexan- 
 dria. Of this spoil, however, so says a contemporary 
 English writer, the French had robbed him ; William 
 appealed to Louis for justice, but the king though 
 admitting his wrong declared himself powerless to 
 grant redress. The angry earl forswore the authority 
 of so weak a prince and withdrew to Acre. There 
 he awaited the coming of the main body of the 
 English, but in vain, for the Pope at King Henry's 
 request forbade their passage. Eventually at Louis' 
 wish, probably when the army was marching on 
 
THE TWO WILLIAM LONGSWORDS. 
 
3g8 CRUSADES OF ST. LOUIS AND EDWARD L 
 
 Cairo, Earl William returned to Egypt, and was 
 thus present on this fatal day. 
 
 The Templars and the Count of Artois crossed the 
 river with such ease that the count was for moving on 
 Mansurah in the first flush of their success. To this 
 rash project the Master of the Templars objected, 
 advising that they should wait for the king. But the 
 fiery temper of the French prince would brook no 
 delay. He accused the Grand Master roundly of 
 treachery, and of a desire to avoid any decisive 
 victory since the power of the military orders 
 depended on the preservation of something like 
 equality between the Eastern Christians and the 
 Saracens. The intervention of the Earl of Salisbury 
 only aggravated the dispute. *' See how timid are 
 these tailed English ! " cried the angry count ; " it 
 would be well if the army were purged of such folk." 
 This taunt stung the English earl to the quick. " At 
 least," he retorted, " we English to-day will be where 
 you will not dare to touch our horses' tails." 
 
 All prudent thoughts were now cast aside, and the 
 whole van charged into Mansurah. The wisdom of 
 the Templar and the boast of Longsword were alike 
 justified. The earl was slain refusing to fly, while 
 the Count of Artois, in his endeavour to escape, was 
 either killed or drowned in the river. The French 
 were only saved from annihilation by the arrival of 
 the king, and by the valour of Joinville, who held, at 
 all hazards, a small bridge that led from Mansurah. 
 
 After this battle Louis remained on the south bank 
 of the stream for several weeks, till the news came 
 that the Saracens had blocked the Damietta stream. 
 
RUIN OF THE FRENCH ARMY. 399 
 
 As he was now on the verge of starvation he 
 reluctantly ordered a retreat into " the Island," and 
 commenced negotiations with the Sultan for the 
 exchange of Damietta against the kingdom of Jeru- 
 salem. But on the 29th of March matters had become 
 so intolerable that the order was given for a further 
 retreat towards Damietta. Then the Saracens seeing 
 what plight the French were in, refused to abide by 
 the terms they had been discussing. They threw 
 themselves on the sick, and began to murder them as 
 they were warming themselves by the fires. Louis 
 himself, despite the desperate valour of his attendant, 
 Sir Geoffrey de Sergines, was taken prisoner as he 
 was attempting to. guard the river. Joinville had 
 already gone on board his ship, and reached the place 
 where the Sultan's galleys blocked the river. Four of 
 these Saracen vessels bore down on him, and his life 
 vas only saved by the generous deceit of a Saracen, 
 who swore that he was the king's cousin. The good 
 knight, though he would not tell a lie himself, did not 
 scruple to take advantage of his protector's falsehood. 
 Nor is it unpleasing to find that afterwards the same 
 Saracen, as he led Joinville away, slipt into his hand 
 that of a little lad, Bartholomew de Montfaucon, 
 bidding him never let himself be parted from him, or 
 the child's life would be sacrificed. 
 
 Such was the end of the French army. After pro- 
 tracted negotiations Louis was set free. In spite of 
 many tortures with which he was threatened the king 
 refused to surrender the Christian fortresses in Pales- 
 tine, or to forswear his faith, but agreed to purchase 
 his freedom and that of his army by the payment of 
 
400 CRUSADES OP ST. LOUIS AND EDWARD 1, 
 
 one hundred thousand livres and the surrender of 
 Damietta. In the midst of the negotiations the Sultan 
 Turan Shah ^ was murdered by his Mamluks on the 
 4th of May, and Louis had once more to display his 
 constancy in the presence of danger. But after the 
 payment of an increased ransom, Louis and the 
 remains oif his host were able to sail for Acre in the 
 middle of the month. 
 
 After the murder of Turan Shah the power in 
 Egypt fell into the hands of the widow of Es-Saleh, 
 who ruled in the name of her son Khalil ; but after 
 a little the emirs displaced her in favour of Musa, a 
 great-grandson of El-Kamil. 2 The Mohammedan 
 princes of Aleppo and Damascus were offended at 
 the ransom of Louis ; such a prince, they said, 
 should have been kept in perpetual captivity and 
 not set free for money. They placed themselves 
 at the head of a great league, and marched against 
 Musa, to be utterly routed on February 3, 1251. 
 Musa, in the stress of his contest with his kins- 
 men entered into communications with the French 
 king, and concluded a truce for fifteen years. In the 
 West men spoke of Musa as a possible convert, and 
 whispered that Louis had sworn to spend the 
 remainder of his life in the Holy Land. The king 
 had sent home his brothers to collect the remainder 
 of his ransom ; they had urged the Pope to compose 
 
 * Turan Shah succeeded his father, Es-Saleh Ayub, on November 
 23, 1249; but he only reached Egypt on February 24, 1250, for he 
 was at Hisn Keifa when his father died. 
 
 ^ Musa was deposed in 1254, and with him the line of the Ayubite 
 sultans in Egypt came to an end. 
 
LOUIS IN PALESTINE. 4OI 
 
 his quarrel with the Emperor in the interests of 
 Christendom, and lend them his aid ; but Innocent 
 remained immovable in the pursuit of his feud with 
 Frederick and his sons. So the time wore on with 
 nothing done, for though Henry of England took the 
 cross his motives were seemingly sinister. A little 
 later the regent of France, Louis' mother Blanche, 
 died, and this event appears to have called the king 
 home. Louis had spent nearly four years in the 
 Holy Land, busy with the fortification of the great 
 seaports. Caesarea, Jaffa, Sidon, were all rebuilt 
 during these years, and it was not till the spring of 
 1254 that the king departed reaching his own country 
 about July nth. 
 
 Sixteen years later King Louis embarked upon a 
 second Crusade. In the interval he had always 
 remained a Crusader at heart, and amidst all the 
 troubles of his home life his real ambition was set 
 upon the Holy Land, though the duties of his position 
 forced him to remain in France. It was not till July, 
 1270, that the king started on his second expedition 
 from Aigues Mortes. Despite Louis's earnest request 
 Joinville would not accompany him, pleading that 
 his first duty was to his own vassals, who suffered 
 so many wrongs during his absence on the previous 
 Crusade. 
 
 Louis, who was accompanied by his eldest son 
 Philip, and the kings of Navarre and Aragon, was 
 induced to turn aside to Tunis in the hope of convert- 
 ing its ruler to Christianity. Whilst encamped near 
 this city he was seized with dysentery. On Sunday, 
 the 24th of August, he crept from bed to confess his 
 
DEATH OF ST. LOUIS. 4O3 
 
 sins and receive, the last sacrament from the hands of 
 Geoffrey de BeauHeu, to whom we owe most of our 
 knowledge of this expedition. In the night as he lay 
 on his ash-sprinkled couch the words "Jerusalem! 
 Jerusalem ! " showed in what direction his thoughts 
 were turning. As marning drew on the watchers 
 caught fragments of the good king's prayer for his 
 people, and a little later heard his last cry, " Domine 
 in manus tuas animam meam commendavi ; " shortly 
 afterwards, about the hour of nones, St. Louis expired. 
 
 SEAL OF PHILIP III. OF FRANCE. 
 
 With him may be said to have perished the last hope 
 of the Latin kingdom in the East For over a century 
 the French kings had been the recognised defenders 
 of this outpost of the Christian religion and French 
 culture. But the old spirit of piety was dying out ; 
 the new king, an illiterate warrior, had little care for 
 a distant land, and after a few years the complex 
 problems of a new age forced the grandson of St. 
 Louis into a very different line of policy. In his life 
 St. Louis afforded the most perfect illustration of the 
 
404 CRUSADES OF ST. LOUIS AND EDWARD I, 
 
 aspiration of two centuries towards an impossible 
 ideal, and his death tolled the knell of hopes, which if 
 essentially futile were no less essentially sublime. 
 The good king did not leave his peer behind, and the 
 dream of a united Christendom mustering its forces 
 for the subjugation of a common foe was destined 
 to fade away among the ruder visions of national 
 integrity and feudal dissolution. 
 
 Amongst those who had taken the cross at the 
 same time as St Louis was Edward, the eldest son of 
 Henry of England. In his company went many of 
 the great English nobles — especially those of the 
 younger generation, whom he is said to have taken 
 with him to divert them from the wars at home. 
 Edward reached Tunis about the 9th of October 
 with his cousin Henry of Almaine. He found the 
 French barons, who had been victorious in more than 
 one engagement, bent on enforcing the tribute which 
 they said was due from Tunis to the King of Sicily. 
 After exacting a great treasure the Crusading host set 
 sail for Sicily, meaning to winter there ; but a storm 
 fell upon them outside the harbour of Trapani, and 
 the tribute of the Mohammedan prince was lost in 
 the sea. Next spring Edward, finding the French 
 princes unwilling to accompany him, set sail with his 
 English followers and reached Acre fifteen days after 
 Easter,^ just in time to save the city from' the Saracens. 
 After a month's rest he made a raid to the casal of S. 
 George between Acre and Safed, and at the end of 
 November led another expedition as far as Chaco 
 (Kakoun), and Castle Pilgrim or Athlit on the south. 
 
 * On May 9th, according to the Templar of Tyre. 
 
EDWARD IN PALESTINE. 405 
 
 These trifling successes were probably intended to 
 pave the way to greater achievements. At his re- 
 quest the barons of Cyprus, who had refused the 
 summons of their own lord, the King of Jerusalem, 
 came over with a great following and declared 
 
 SEAL OF EDWARD I. OF ENGLAND. 
 
 themselves the faithful servants of the English king, 
 whose predecessor had won their island for the 
 Latin Church ; ^ it was only on their coming that 
 Edward had ventured so far afield. After his 
 
 * This is the statement of an English writer and as such must be dis- 
 counted. Edward seems to have been called on to decide as to the 
 rival claims of Hugh III. of Cyprus, and Mary of Antioch, see pp. 409-10. 
 
406 CRUSADES OF ST. LOUIS AND EDWARD I. 
 
 return to Acre Edward commenced negotiations 
 with a Saracen emir who professed himself ready to 
 become a Christian. His messenger was admitted 
 time after time to Edward's presence and all sus- 
 picion was lulled asleep. At last, on his fifth visit, 
 on June i8, 1272, the assassin found his opportunity. 
 After a cursory examination for arms he was per- 
 mitted to pass into the prince's presence. The day 
 was hot and Edward, clad in a tunic only, was resting 
 on a couch ; he took the emir's letter from the mes- 
 senger who, as he bent in Eastern fashion to answer 
 the prince's questions, drew a knife from his belt and 
 struck a blow at his intended victim. Edward caught 
 the blow on his arm, and tripping the villain to the 
 ground with his foot wrenched the dagger from his 
 grasp and stabbed him as he lay. The English ser- 
 vants coming in found the would-be murderer dead, 
 but to make assurance doubly sure, battered out his 
 brains with a footstool. Edward's life was in much 
 danger, for the weapon was poisoned, and though the 
 Master of the Temple gave him what was declared tc 
 be a certain antidote, the wound grew daily worse. 
 At last, an English doctor pledged himself to effect a 
 perfect cure. He bade the nobles lead the weeping 
 Eleanor ^ from her husband's presence ; then he cut 
 away the poisoned flesh, and thus, under his care, 
 Edward was within fifteen days able to appear on his 
 horse in public. Very shortly afterwards Edward 
 concluded a ten years' truce with the Sultan. His 
 departure was accelerated by a letter from King 
 
 * The romantic story of her devotion is first related by Ptolemy of 
 Lucca fifty years later. 
 
b 
 
 ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION. 
 
 407 
 
 Henry urging his son to return immediately since his 
 health was failing, Edward left Palestine on the 14th 
 of September, but did not reach England till two 
 years later, long after his father's death. Through- 
 out his life he cherished the hope of completing the 
 exploits of his earlier manhood, and at the very cjose 
 of his career vowed himself once more to the service 
 of God, if He would but grant him vengeance on 
 his enemy Bruce. 
 
XXVI. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE — ITS DECAY AND 
 DESTRUCTION. 
 
 (1244-I291.) 
 
 fcff SvSev ioTiv oyyc TTvpyog oj^e vavg ' 
 
 ipTjfiog dvdpujv fiij ^vvoikovvtmv tmo. 
 
 Sophocles. 
 
 (*' Worthless each tower and worthless every ship, 
 Reft of the people that should dwell therein.") 
 
 We must now turn back thirty years to trace the 
 last fortunes of the Latin colonies in Syria. After 
 the departure of Frederick II. Jerusalem was to all 
 intents and purposes a kingless realm, and during 
 the greater part of this period even the bare tenure 
 of the title of king was not allowed to go undisputed. 
 It may seem strange that under such circumstances 
 the Prankish rule should have dragged out even a 
 moribund existence for so many years. But a variety 
 of circumstances contributed to delay its dissolution. 
 Chief among these we must place the extreme weak- 
 ness of the Ayubite Sultans during the sixteen years 
 
 408 
 
A KING LESS REALM. 409 
 
 that elapsed between the death of El-Kamil and the 
 final destruction of their power by the Mamluks in 
 1254 ; and, in the second place, we have the fact that 
 the very existence of a Mussulman empire was 
 threatened by the rise of a new power in the person 
 of the Tartar Khans. No credit can be placed to the 
 continuance of any vitality in the Franks themselves ; 
 for saddest of all features in these fifty years of 
 Crusading history is the presence of perpetual feuds 
 among the Christians in the East. 
 
 After Frederick's death in 1250 his rights should 
 have passed to Yolande's son Conrad, but the 
 Emperor, in bequeathing his own dominions to his 
 eldest son, expressly stipulated that Jerusalem should 
 go to Henry, the offspring of his marriage with 
 Isabella of England. But both Conrad and Henry 
 died within a few years, and the title passed to 
 Conradin, the youthful son of the former, on whose 
 tragic death in 1267 the line of Yolande came to an 
 end. Meantime in Palestine the office of bailiff was 
 held for the most part by one member or another of 
 the house of Ibelin. Henry of Cyprus died in 1253, 
 leaving an infant son Hugh by his wife Plaisance 
 of Antioch. The claims of this child were asserted 
 by his uncle Bohemond VI. of Antioch in 1258, 
 but resisted by the Hospitallers and Genoese, who 
 supported Conradin. Hugh died in 1267, ^^^ his 
 cousin and namesake, who had been warden of 
 Cyprus in the boy-king's name, then asserted his 
 right to succeed him both in Cyprus and Jeru- 
 salem. Hugh III. of Cyprus was actually crowned 
 King of Jerusalem at Tyre on September 24, 
 
410 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 1269; but though he maintained a more or less 
 shadowy authority on part of the mainland during 
 seven years, his claims were disputed by his aunt 
 Mary of Antioch. At last, in 1276, the opposi- 
 tion of the Templars drove Hugh to leave Acre ; 
 the knights of the other orders and the Genoese 
 would have supported him, and were anxious for 
 his return. But the Templars declared : " If he 
 wants to come he can come, and if he does not, let 
 him stay away." Hugh contented himself with a 
 declaration to the Western Powers that he could not 
 maintain justice or order in the strife of contending 
 parties at Acre ; whilst Mary, his opponent, went to 
 Europe in person, and there sold her rights to Charles 
 of Anjou, whom the Pope had made king of Sicily. 
 Charles sent Roger of St. Severin as his bailiff to 
 Acre next year, but though Roger had the support 
 of the Templars there was no longer any pretence of 
 a supreme authority in the Prankish possessions. 
 
 The divisions among the Latins in the East 
 had a twofold origin ; on the one side, there was 
 the commercial rivalry of the Venetians, the Pisans, 
 and the Genoese ; on the other, the military jealousy 
 of the two great orders. In 1249 the Pisans and 
 Genoese had fought against one another at Acre 
 for eight and twenty days with two and twenty 
 kinds of engines, stone -casters, tribuchets, and 
 mangonels. Louis IX., during the four years of 
 his residence in Palestine, was able through the 
 preponderance of his authority to maintain some 
 sort of peace. At his departure he left Geoffrey de 
 Sergines as his lieutenant with a force of one hundred 
 
CHRISTIAN JEALOUSIES. 
 
 411 
 
 knights. Geoffrey fought with some success before 
 Jaffa, which was excepted from the truce, but it was 
 not long before these old jealousies broke out with 
 new force, and " the Christians waged war with each 
 other villainously." On the one side, were the Vene- 
 tians, the Pisans, and Pullani, or Syrian Franks, sup- 
 ported as it would seem by the Templars ; on the 
 other side, the Genoese, the Spaniards, and the Hos- 
 pitallers. It was in the midst of this war in 1258 that 
 
 SEAL OF JOHN DE MONTFORT. 
 
 Bohemond VI. paid his visit to Acre, and endeavoured 
 without success to make peace. The struggle con- 
 tinued during two years till at last, in a great sea 
 fight off Acre, a fleet of fifty Genoese galleys was 
 defeated by forty Venetians with a loss of seventeen 
 hundred men. A little later the Templars were 
 disastrously defeated in a pitched battle with their 
 rivals. Much of this warfare had been conducted in 
 the streets of Acre, where the contending parties 
 battered each other's quarters and towers till a great 
 
412 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 portion of the city was utterly destroyed. In the 
 end the Genoese had to abandon their quarter and 
 withdraw to Tyre. There was no such open and 
 prolonged war after this, but the continued dissensions 
 of the Christians lasted till the very day when Acre 
 was taken. 
 
 It was at the time of this warfare among the 
 Christians that the Tartars began to threaten Syria. 
 In the early years of the thirteenth century Genghis 
 Khan had established his authority over the Mongols 
 and laid the foundations of an empire, which within 
 a {g:w years extended from the most eastern confines 
 of Asia to the borders of Germany. The sons of 
 Genghis held rule in China, Persia, and Russia ; 
 Europe was with difficulty preserved by the valour 
 of Conrad ; and when at length in 1258, Bagdad was 
 taken and the orthodox Caliphate extinguished by 
 Hulagu Khan, the son of Genghis, it seemed as 
 though the very existence of Islam was at stake. 
 Despite the terror which the first invasions of the 
 Tartars had inspired, the eyes of the Christians had 
 already been turned towards the new power as. a 
 possible ally for the destruction of the Moslem. 
 From the council of Lyons, in 1245, Innocent 
 IV. despatched Dominicans on a mission to the 
 great Khan ; and four years later Louis IX. received 
 at Cyprus an embassy from Ilchikadai, a Tartar 
 Khan, with promises of assistance. In response the 
 king sent certain friars, who, returning after an 
 absence of two years, found Louis at Ca^sarea ; 
 afterwards Louis despatched the Franciscan Rubru- 
 quis, who has left us a graphic account of his long 
 
THE TARTARS AND MAMLUKS. 413 
 
 journey, and of the court of the great Khan. It was 
 no doubt, therefore, with mingled feeh'ngs of hope 
 and dread that the Franks beheld the Tartars enter 
 Syria in the year after the fall of Bagdad. Aleppo, 
 Hamah, and Damascus fell before them. The Sultan 
 appealed to the Franks for assistance, but through 
 the counsel of the Hospitallers and Teutonic knights 
 the proffered alliance was refused. On September 
 3, 1260, the Sultan Kutuz met and defeated the 
 Tartar host at Ain Talut ; it was one of the decisive 
 battles in the world's history, for not only w^as the 
 tide of Tartar conquest stemmed, but the fate of 
 Palestine was settled. The fruits of the victory did 
 not, however, fall to Kutuz, for as he was returning 
 to Cairo he was murdered on October 24th by his 
 Mamluks, and the throne of Egypt passed to Bibars 
 Bendocdar. 
 
 Bibars was the true founder of the Mamluk rule 
 in Egypt, and was the most formidable and relentless 
 foe that the Christians had had to encounter since 
 the death of Saladin. The first year of his reign was 
 signalised by the discomfiture of the Tartars in a 
 s cond battle near Emesa ; from this moment Bibars 
 was able to turn his arms against the Franks, and 
 \\ in for himself the titles of the Pillar of Religion and 
 Father of Victories. 
 
 The lax authority among the Franks gave Bibars 
 an easy opportunity to disregard the truce, which 
 nominally subsisted between the Christians and 
 Mohammedans in Syria. In 1263, he appeared for 
 the first time before the walls of Acre, and two years 
 later commenced his career of conquest by the cap- 
 
4t4 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 ture of Arsuf. The next year was marked by the fall 
 of Safed and massacre of all its defenders, and in 
 1267, whilst the Venetians and Genoese were con- 
 tending for the mastery outside the harbour of Acre, 
 Bibars was plundering the gardens beneath its very 
 walls. In 1268, the victorious Sultan appeared once 
 more in Palestine, Jaffa was taken on March 2nd, 
 and then passing northwards the Mohammedans laid 
 siege to Antioch in May. The prince was absent at 
 Tripoli, and this great city, which 170 years previously 
 had resisted the Crusaders for over six months, fell 
 once more beneath the sway of the Mohammedans after 
 a siege that had not lasted so many days. The fall 
 of Antioch led to the Crusade of Edward, but that 
 enterprise as we have seen, did little to check the 
 progress of Bibars. It were tedious to trace in detail 
 the steps by which the last poor remnants of the 
 Latin colonies perished. One by one the strong 
 castles of the military orders were captured, until 
 the Franks were confined to a few isolated cities 
 on the coast, which were separated yet more by 
 mutual jealousy or discord. Bibars died, perhaps 
 of wounds received in battle with the Tartars, 
 in 1277, but his death brought no relief to the 
 Franks. His successor, Malek El-Mansiir or Kalaiin, 
 took Markab in 1285, and the great and rich city 
 of Tripoli in 1289. As one by one the different 
 towns were taken, their inhabitants were either put to 
 the sword, or suffered to escape with their lives to 
 Acre. Thus the population of that city was much 
 increased, and within its walls there were gathered 
 representatives from every nation in Christendom. 
 
THE CONQUnsTS OF BIBARS. 
 
 4t; 
 
 For every one there was a separate commune, and the 
 various lords of the land, the masters of the great 
 orders, the representatives of the kings of France, 
 
 ACRE ABOUT I29I. 
 
 England, and Jerusalem, each exercised separate 
 authority, so that there were in one city seventeen 
 independent powers, "whence there sprang much 
 confusion." It is not strange that under such cir- 
 
4l6 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 cumstances the city became, as it were, the sink into 
 which all the vileness of Christendom found its way. 
 Ov^er its mixed population many ruled but none had 
 authority ; within its walls the precepts of religion, 
 law, and morality were alike void, so that in its last 
 days AcYQ became a byword in all Christian lands for 
 the luxury, turbulence, and vice of its inhabitants. 
 Popes did not cease to preach with more or less 
 sincerity the duty of a new Crusade, but the spirit 
 of self-denial and heroism which inspired the warriors 
 of the Cross in an earlier age was now Extinct. Such 
 assistance as the West afforded came in the shape of 
 mercenary troops, and it was the dissolute violence 
 of some of these mis-called Crusaders that precipi- 
 tated the end of the Christian rule in Syria. 
 
 Pope Nicholas IV., in his zeal for the Eastern 
 Christians, had sent, as it is said, no less than seven- 
 teen hundred mercenaries at his own cost to Acre. 
 These men, being left without pay and in lack of 
 means of subsistence, fell to plundering the Saracen 
 merchants, who, under cover of a truce, had come to 
 Acre for the purpose of peaceful trade. The Sultan 
 appealed to the rulers of Acre for redress, but it was 
 in vain that the Templars urged the justice and 
 prudence of concession. Malek El-Ashraf or Khalil, 
 who just at this time succeeded Kalaiin as Sultan, 
 then had resort to arms, and on the 25th of March, 
 1 29 1, his troops appeared before the walls of Acre. 
 There were not wanting enough soldiers to have 
 successfully defended the city ; but even in this the 
 last hour of their extremity, its inhabitants were 
 more intent upon feasting than upon fighting, and 
 
THE FALL OF ACRE. 417 
 
 when the trumpet called them to battle, could 
 not tear themselves from the pleasures of love. 
 Cowardice and discord also played their part in 
 ruining the hopes of a successful defence. Many at 
 the first threat of danger made haste to flee over- 
 sea ; whilst others who stayed for a time departed 
 when the prospects of success grew desperate. 
 Among these latter, to his shame, went the Bur- 
 gundian knight, Otho de Grandison, whom Edward 
 of England had sent with treasure and men to the 
 assistance of the Christians in the East. Not even 
 when the whole purpose of their existence was in peril 
 could the Templars and Hospitallers lay aside their 
 mutual jealousy ; and so the defence, if conducted 
 with valour in parts, lacked that general unity of pur- 
 pose which could alone have made it successful. At 
 length on Friday, the i8th of May, Khalil's engines 
 had wrought such a breach in the walls, that the moat 
 being filled with the stones and the bodies of the 
 dead, his army forced its way into the city. The 
 people fled before him to the towers, thg palaces of 
 the nobles, or the great house of the Templars. 
 Others, making their way to the harbour, crowded 
 on board the ships in such numbers, that some 
 vessels were swamped as they lay at anchor. Henry 
 n. of Cyprus, who had played a not unworthy part 
 in the early days of the siege, had already escaped 
 to his island kingdom, whither the Grand Master of 
 the Hospital and a number of other fugitives now 
 followed him. But there yet remained sixty thou- 
 sand Christians whose fate was slavery, or the sword, 
 or worse. The Templars and those who had taken 
 «8 
 
4l8 THE KINGDOM OF ACRE. 
 
 refuge with them met the noblest end ; for, resisting 
 to the last, they succumbed only when their fortress 
 was undermined, and together with numbers of their 
 assailants perished in its ruins. Thus almost exactly 
 a century after its recovery by the soldiers of the 
 Third Crusade was Acre finally lost to the Christians ; 
 and since Tyre and the few other places that still 
 remained to the Franks could offer no effectual resis- 
 tance, the last vestiges of the Latin kingdom of Jeru- 
 salem were swept away. 
 
XXVII. 
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE CRUSADES. 
 
 "For now I see the true old times are dead, 
 
 And now the whole Round Table is dissolved." 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 It would be wrong to suppose that the feehngs of 
 Western Europe were not deeply excited by the fall 
 of Acre. Pope Nicholas in particular was eager that 
 this loss should be made the occasion of a new 
 Crusade. But neither his influence, nor the feelings 
 of princes and people themselves, were strong enough 
 to bring about the serious undertaking of such an 
 enterprise. The century that had elapsed between 
 the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, and that of Acre 
 by Khalil had witnessed great and marvellous changes 
 in Europe. In a mis-called Crusade the papacy had 
 crushed the power of the Empire, and destroyed the 
 semblance of unity in the Western world. The triumph 
 of the papacy had fostered the growing seed of the 
 principle of separate and independent nationalities. 
 It had been fatal also to its own authority. When 
 the popes debased their spiritual office for the further- 
 
420 THE CLOSE OF THE CRUSADES. 
 
 ance of their political aims, they lost the substance 
 which they possessed, and obtained but the shadow 
 of what they clutched at. The coming century was 
 filled with the national warfare of the French and 
 English, and with a divided papacy and a nerveless 
 empire there was no central authority that might 
 have rallied the nations of the West to a new 
 Crusade. 
 
 Yet in a half-hearted way popes preached and 
 princes talked of renewed warfare for the Church 
 against the Infidel. Nicholas IV. spent his last days 
 in calling on the rulers of Germany, France, and 
 England to take the Cross ; but he did not survive the 
 fall of Acre by a twelvemonth, and after his death the 
 papacy was vacant over two years. Of his successors, 
 Boniface VIII. was too full of his schemes for papal 
 aggrandisement; Clement V. too much the tool of 
 the French king to seriously resume the initiative. 
 John XXII. took up once more the cause of Christ- 
 endom, and obtained from Philip of Valois and 
 Edward III. a promise to go on the Crusade. But 
 in the midst of his labours John was cut off by death, 
 and within a few years his two allies had involved 
 their countries in a war that was to last with but 
 little intermission for over a hundred years. 
 
 Meantime the power of the Ottoman Turks was 
 growing yearly, at the expense of the Greek Empire 
 in the East. At the end of the fourteenth century 
 the victorious Bayazid had overwhelmed Bulgaria and 
 Servia, and threatened to destroy Hungary also. 
 The imminence of the danger stirred the chivalry of 
 the West to take up arms against the common foe 
 
THE OTTOMAN TURKS. 421; 
 
 of Christendom. In 1396 a goodly band of French 
 knights, under the Comte de Nevers, went to aid 
 Sigismund in his warfare with the Turks, but only to 
 share in his defeat at Nicopolis. If Bayazid failed to 
 accomplish the conquest of Constantinople, it was due, 
 not to the valour of Christendom, but to the might of 
 Timur the Tartar. The Greek Empire was further 
 preserved by the quarrel of Bayazid's sons, and 
 it was only in 1453 that the capture of Constanti- 
 nople by Moharnmed II. stirred a pope to proclaim 
 once more to the princes of the West the duty of a 
 Crusade. For another two centuries the Turks hung 
 as a storm-cloud over Eastern Europe, and in one 
 sense the victories of Don John at Lepanto in 
 1 571, and of Sobieski at Vienna in 1683, may be 
 counted amongst the Triumphs of the Cross. Yet 
 these exploits cannot, any more than the frequent 
 wars with the Algerine corsairs from the fourteenth 
 to the nineteenth centuries, properly be counted as 
 Crusades ; for though politically speaking they 
 aimed at averting what was substantially the same 
 danger, tiley did not possess that religious charac- 
 teristic which is essential to the idea of a Holy 
 War. 
 
 It is indeed to the decay of that spirit of enthusiasm 
 which had imparted to the Crusades their religious 
 characteristic, that we must attribute the discontinu- 
 ance of the attempt to preserve the Holy Places under 
 Christian rule. Some instances we do, however, find 
 of men who were to all appearance fired with the true 
 Crusading fervour. Such was our own king, Henry V., 
 who died with these words on his lips : " Good Lord, 
 
422 THE CLOSE OF THE CRUSADES. 
 
 Thou knowest that mine intent hath been, and yet 
 is, if I may live, to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.' 
 Henry's intention seems to have been sincere, and 
 only a short time previously he had despatched the 
 Burgundian knight Gilbert de Lannoy to Egypt and 
 Syria to report on the practicability of a fresh Crusade. 
 So too Columbus dreamt of a new war for the faith 
 in the East, before he took up that marvellous enter- 
 prise in the West, which, by diverting the course of 
 commerce, made a new Crusade more than ever 
 unlikely. But these men stand out as solitary excep- 
 tions, and with the changing spirit of the times it was 
 impossible that the world should witness again such 
 strange scenes of enthusiasm as had marked the early 
 days of the First Crusade, or as that perhaps still 
 stranger delusion which in the years 12 12 and 12 13 
 sent numbers of children wandering off, in the belief 
 that by their means should be accomplished that 
 which had been beyond the power of kings. 
 
 But if the Crusading spirit had run its course in 
 Europe the Latin kings of Cyprus and the knights of 
 St. John at Rhodes maintained during two centuries a 
 gallant struggle in defence of the Cross. The latter 
 were avowedly dependent on recruits from Europe ; the 
 former no doubt also benefited by the aid of soldiers, 
 who had left their homes for this purpose, or who, 
 during a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, landed at 
 Cyprus, and for a time gave their services to the king. 
 Amongst these warrior pilgrims who came from our 
 own land were Henry of Lancaster, father in-law of 
 John of Gaunt; William, Lord Roos of Hamlake, who 
 died in the East in 1352; and Job.n. Lord Grey of 
 
RHODES AND CYPRUS. 423 
 
 Codnor, who, after serving his own sovereign with 
 distinction in France, fought for Peter de Lusignan, 
 King of Cyprus, with other English knights, at Alex- 
 andria in 1365. Peter may in some sense not unfairly 
 be called the last of the Crusaders, and had made an 
 endeavour to rouse the flagging interest of the West, 
 in the course of which he paid a visit to England and 
 was handsomely entertained by Edward III. But his 
 fight at Alexandria had no practical result, and the 
 city was abandoned almost as soon as it was taken. 
 Still it was the last notable achievement of Western 
 chivalry in the East, and it is perhaps in this spirit 
 that Chaucer says of his perfect knight — 
 
 " At Alisaundre he was whan it was wonne.'" 
 
 If, however, military enthusiasm had declined, there 
 was no falling off in pilgrim zeal. From John of 
 Wurzburg and Theoderic, in the days of the king- 
 dom, to Burcard and Felix Fabri, in the latter years of 
 the fifteenth century, the pilgrim record runs on in an 
 unbroken line. So numerous were the pilgrims that 
 a regular system was organised for their conveyance 
 under the superintendence of the Venetian senate. 
 An " Information for Pilgryms," by William Wey, 
 Fellow of Eton, was of sufficient interest to be 
 printed by Caxton. Wey gives the would-be pilgrim 
 careful directions .for his journey to Venice, and 
 details of various excursions to be made in Palestine, 
 together with such useful advice as where to buy a 
 bed for the voyage in Venice ; how it was well to 
 avoid the lowest stage in the vessel, " for it is ryglit 
 evyll and smouldryng bote and stynkynge " ; how 
 
424 THE CLOSE OF THE CRUSADES. 
 
 Famagosta was unhealthy for Engh"shmen ; how there 
 was "good wine and dear" to be had in Jerusalem, 
 and what payments it would be right to make in the 
 Holy Land. 
 
 But the zeal which has maintained the stream of 
 pilgrims to the present day was a thing apart from 
 that enthusiasm for the Holy War which made the 
 Crusades possible. Though in a sense ihe age of the 
 Crusades was not closed till the dawn of the Renais- 
 sance, their inter-est as a living force came to an end 
 when the last visible sign of the kingdom of Jerusalem 
 perished with the fall of Acre. 
 
XXVIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ** The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 
 And God fulfils Himself in many ways, 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 It is always difficult to estimate with precision the 
 exact limits of any great upheaval of human thought 
 and action, or to trace with certainty the true relations 
 of cause and effect amidst the multitude of historic facts. 
 Nowhere is this difficulty more apparent than in tlie 
 Crusading epoch, when so many forces were at work, 
 so many countries in connection, so many creeds and 
 races in strange antagonism or yet stranger alliance. 
 But with it all some broad facts seems to stare us in 
 the face. Contrast the Europe of the eleventh cen- 
 tury with the Europe of the fourteenth, the age that 
 preceded the capture of Jerusalem with the age that 
 succeeded the fall of Acre, and in a rough wa}' we 
 can suggest limits within which the Crusades have 
 affected the world's history. Still we cannot be sure 
 that the changes which we perceive are due to the 
 Crusades alone. Thus nothing seems more clear 
 
426 CONCLUSION. 
 
 than that the growth of the great Italian seaports 
 was fostered by the Crusades ; but that growth had 
 already begun when the First Crusade started, and 
 would doubtless have continued had no armed 
 pilgrim ever set foot in Palestine. Such an ex- 
 ample serves to show the difficulty of assigning a 
 specific cause to any of the great changes wrought 
 during our epoch. Historically speaking, no one 
 influence ever acts singly, and if we are justified in 
 attributing any particular results to the Crusades, 
 it can only be in a very loose and general way. 
 But subject to such limitations it seems proper to 
 indicate, however tentatively, the modes wherein 
 Western life — political, ecclesiastical, social, com- 
 mercial, and intellectual — was aftected by so great 
 an upheaval as was involved in the Crusades. 
 
 In the political, or perhaps to speak more accu- 
 rately the national, life of Europe the Crusades acted 
 both as a combining and a disintegrating force. The 
 continued absence of the petty baronage in the East, 
 and its perpetual decimation under the pressure of 
 debt and travel, battle and disease, helped to concen- 
 trate authority in the hands of the royal, officers. 
 Each nation, too, had brought home to it a conscious- 
 ness of unity such as it had never felt before. Com- 
 munity of danger in the toilsome plains of Hungary, 
 the pathless Bulgarian forest, the rugged depths of Asia, 
 or the burning Syrian desert, drew together all men 
 of kindred race and speech. So in the First Crusade 
 there were the two opposing factions of Proven gals 
 and Franco-Germans, nominally divided as to the 
 genuineness of the Holy Lance, but in truth by 
 
r 
 
 RESULTS OF THE CIWSADES. 427 
 
 mutual jealousy. A like discord between Franks and 
 Teutons was perhaps the rock on which the Second 
 Crusade split ; and again in the Third Crusade it was 
 jealousy of English valour that sent the French king 
 home before the work of the war was well begun. 
 Later Crusades showed similar features on somewhat 
 different lines ; the feud was now between adherents 
 of pope and emperor, but as the one included the 
 French, and the other the Germans, here also the 
 quarrel tended to assume a national aspect. 
 
 It was in France that the combining forces of the 
 Crusades were most felt. There one by one the petty 
 fiefs were swallowed up in the greater lordships, and 
 the greater lordships in the royal power. In the 
 eleventh century the kings of France ruled only in a 
 narrow strip of territory with Paris as its centre, but by 
 the time of the fall of Acre France had already put on 
 much of its present form. It might thus in a sense 
 be said that modern France is a creation of the Cru- 
 sades ; and though such a statement would involve the 
 disregard of other important factors, it must not be 
 forgotten, as we shall see later on, that the Crusades 
 did much for the consolidation of French national 
 sentiment by the spread of French culture and the 
 French speech over a wide area. 
 
 In the other countries of Europe the growth of 
 national sentiment was also fostered during the Cru- 
 sading epoch, but there was no such spectacle of 
 political consolidation as* is afforded in France. We 
 are here more struck by the process of disintegration ; 
 for before the Crusades the Empire gave Europe a 
 semblance of unity which had nearly disappeared by 
 
428 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the time that they came to a close. The power 
 which the Crusades threw into the hands of the popes 
 aided them materially in their struggle with the 
 Empire, and it was indeed in a so-called Crusade to- 
 wards the close of our own period that the true 
 authority of the Empire was destroyed. The disin- 
 tegration of the Imperial power was followed directly 
 by the destruction of true political unity alike in Ger- 
 many and in Italy. In the latter country the power 
 of the cities was fostered through the development 
 of commerce, whilst at the same time such central 
 authority as was possessed by the emperors disap- 
 peared. The process of disintegration was further 
 assisted by the policy of the popes in Southern Italy, 
 where the union of the crowns of Sicily and Jerusalem 
 in the person of Frederick II. was turned to his ruin 
 by Gregory IX. and Innocent IV. It is only in our 
 own time that Germany and Italy have recovered 
 from the havoc that was wrought by the network of 
 Crusading politics. 
 
 In England we can trace no direct influence of 
 equal importance. But it must not be forgotten that 
 the warfare which led to the loss of the Angevin 
 •dominions in Northern France originated in a Cru- 
 sading quarrel, and that it was in the Crusades that 
 the antagonism of France and England was developed, 
 if not actually created. In this way the circumstances 
 of the Third Crusade contributed not a little to the 
 growth of English liberty in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury. The other countries of Europe had but a slight 
 share in the Crusades. Yet Spain and Portugal were 
 created through the process of their own warfare with 
 
POLITICAL INFLUENCE. 429 
 
 I 
 
 » the infidel, and the foundations of modern Prussia 
 ■ were laid through the Crusading enterprise of the 
 F Teutonic knights in Lithuania. 
 
 Outside the limits of the Latin world it is impor- 
 tant to note that the Crusades led to a political inter- 
 course, and to semi-political relationships of a kind 
 that had not been witnessed since Otho IL married 
 his Greek wife. Let alone the alliances of the Frank 
 princes of Syria vyith the Imperial house of Constanti- 
 nople, we find the sister of Philip Augustus wedded 
 to the Emperor Alexius ; Italian nobles, the dukes of 
 Austria and kings of Sicily, sought alliance in the 
 same direction, and even Philip of Swabia, the son of 
 Barbarossa, and claimant of the Imperial throne, did 
 not hesitate to take a Greek wife. Of no great im- 
 portance in themselves, such incidents point to an 
 enlargement of the political horizon, which was of 
 considerable moment to Western Europe. The same 
 tendency finds a rather ludicrous illustration in the 
 proposal gravely made to Edward I., that European 
 princesses should be brought up to speak Eastern 
 tongues, that thus by marrying Tartar kings and 
 Saracen emirs they might through the grace of God 
 and their own beauty win over their husbands to the 
 faith. 
 
 On the vast importance of the Crusades for ec- 
 clesiastical history, there can be but one opinion ; 
 yet here also exists the difficulty of tracing simple 
 relations of cause and effect. Thus we are con- 
 fronted with diverse opinions ; some holding that 
 the Crusades were the foreign policy of the papacy 
 and the source of its preponderant power ; whilst 
 
430 CONCLUStOM. 
 
 others argue that by widening the intellectual 
 horizon of mankind they paved the way for the 
 Reformation, and were an essentially false move on 
 the part of the popes. As a retrospective judgment 
 there is much truth in either statement ; but in so far 
 as they attribute a conscious motive to Roman policy, 
 both appear raistaken. For though the Crusades 
 were turned very much to the advantage of the 
 Roman see, they did not owe their origin to the 
 popes, who were powerless to promote them when 
 enthusiasm had flagged. Still less could the popes 
 have foreseen the dangers that were to result from 
 the breaking down of old barriers of thought and 
 intercourse. 
 
 To turn, however, to particulars. In the first place, 
 there can be no question that the authority of the 
 popes was much increased through the preaching of 
 the Crusades under their auspices. On the other hand, 
 it was no small thing that, whether from forethought 
 or good fortune, the popes avoided those dangers 
 which the actual direction of a Crusade entailed. No 
 other Western power was equally happy. The union 
 of Western Europe in a common effort on behalf of 
 the faith gave the papal see an opportunity to assert 
 for itself a position as the centre and mainspring of 
 the politics of Latiii Christendom. Those, moreover, 
 who took the Cross, put themselves in the power of 
 the Pope, who could alone remit their vows. In each 
 of the great kingdoms of the West the sovereign at 
 one time or another assumed the Cross, either from 
 religious enthusiasm or to propitiate papal favour. 
 The vow once taken, it mattered little whether the 
 
THE CRUSADES AND THE PAPACY. 43I 
 
 prince went or whether he went not, whichsoever 
 course he adopted must turn to the advantage of 
 Rome. If he went he acknowledged the Pope's head- 
 ship, if he went not he incurred his anathema. With 
 what fatal effect the papal^ s^ could use the power 
 thus obtained is best illustrated in the history of 
 Frederick II. In England, also, the power which 
 the popes acquired in the thirteenth century sprang 
 directly from those troubles which had their occasion 
 in the Crusade of Richard. 
 
 If the Crusades contributed to elevate the eccle- 
 siastical over the civil power, within the Church itself 
 they favoured the assertion of papal supremacy. The 
 preaching of the Crusades gave rise to constant lega- 
 tions, which afforded the popes a useful opportunity 
 for asserting their position as the head of the Church 
 in every country of the Latin obedience. The absence 
 of Western bishops in the East gave from time to 
 time further opportunities for the assertion of papal 
 authority, whilst the establishment of Eastern bishop- 
 rics led in the end to the creation of those bishops 
 in partibus infidelium, who have in later ages filled a 
 not unimportant part in the polity of the Church. 
 More than this the Crusades led directly to the crea- 
 tion of the entirely novel military orders. The 
 knights of the Temple, in particular, were a powerful 
 prop of papal policy, and under different auspices 
 might have become a veritable militia of the Church 
 in Western Europe. A more religious, but less direct 
 product of the Crusades, were the orders of Friars, of 
 whom the Dominicans sprang immediately from the 
 pseudo- crusade against the Albigenses. Yet, again, 
 
432 CONCLUSION, 
 
 the Crusades were the pretext for frequent levies on 
 the clergy, by which means both the power and wealth 
 of the papacy were much increased. If, however, the 
 clergy were taxed in the cause of the Church, they 
 themselves could well afford it. The Crusading 
 knight or noble had to sell or mortgage his estates 
 at a sacrifice to procure the money for his journey. 
 When all were in turn so anxious to sell, the eccle- 
 siastical corporations alone had the power and desire 
 to buy. The wealth thus amassed was never alienated, 
 and by this means was brought about that concen- 
 tration of landed property in ecclesiastical hands, 
 which, politically speaking, was in great measure to 
 cause and to justify the Reformation. Yet a further 
 source of wealth was found in the sale of immunities 
 to those who desired exemption from a vow which 
 they had taken in thoughtless enthusiasm. So far 
 did this practice proceed that it was even customary 
 for the aged and infirm to be given the Cross for the 
 express purpose of being made to pay for exemption. 
 It was in this custom that there originated the sale 
 of indulgences for other purposes, which in the course 
 of time was to become the immediate cause of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 If, however, the Crusades brought to the Church 
 both wealth and power, these advantages were inevit- 
 ably followed by the reaction of covetousness and 
 discontent. Thus the age of the Crusades was also 
 the age of heresies,^ to combat which the intolerance 
 
 * As, for instance, the Henrician, the Petrobrussian, the Waldensian, 
 the Paulician, and, above all, the Albigensian. 
 
THE CRUSADES AND THE REFORMATION. 433 
 
 natural in minds accustomed to religious warfare 
 called into being the Holy Inquisition. The Albigen- 
 sians were in a sense the precursors of the Reformers, 
 and Dominic himself the prototype of Torquemada. 
 But in the heresies of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries there was this further peculiarity, that they 
 appear to have originated in part from intercourse 
 with the East. There is grave reason to regard 
 the Albigcnsians as tainted with Manicheism, the 
 doctrines of which were no doubt brought home by 
 returning Crusaders. Be this as it may, there can be 
 no doubt that the doctrinal, political, and social 
 causes which led to the Reformation all sprang 
 from seed that was sown in the times of the 
 Crusades. 
 
 Probably few ages of the world's history have 
 witnessed a greater amelioration in the conditions of 
 social life than took place in Western Europe during 
 the period of the Crusades. The tenth and eleventh 
 centuries were acquiescent under a regime of almost 
 hopeless anarchy, the fourteenth was through the 
 widespread existence of social discontent pregnant 
 with promise for the future. But the causes which 
 underlie any great change of social condition are 
 usually so complex and so obscure that it is hazardous 
 to speak with any certainty. In the present case, 
 however, the changes are most marked pt the top of 
 the social scale, and it is here that the influence 
 exerted by the Crusades can be mo; ': clearly traced. 
 Politically, as we have seen, the Crusades were fatal 
 to the power of the feudal nobility ; but this loss of 
 power was in the end to turn out to the good both of 
 
 29 
 
434 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the order as a part and of society as a whole. The 
 misdirected activity, which found its vent in the waste 
 bickerings of feudal despotism and anarchy, was 
 through the Crusades turned into a well-ordered 
 channel. On the one hand, those turbulent spirits, 
 who made all progress at home impossible, were 
 drawn away to a distant and harmless enterprise ; 
 on the other hand, a high and noble ideal was sub- 
 stituted for the base and petty motives of personal 
 aggrandisement. The lust of warfare was sated by 
 the Crusades, whilst at the same time it was purified 
 by the inspiration of religious enthusiasm. This 
 in itself would have contributed not a little to the 
 general improvement of morals and manners. It 
 was further supplemented by the growth of luxury 
 and culture consequent on the commercial and intel- 
 lectual expansion, which resulted from the Crusades. 
 These influences, combined v/ith the growth of royal 
 authority, transformed the feudal nobility from the 
 curse of the West, into a settled and orderly member 
 of the body politic. 
 
 Such a change was of the utmost importance to 
 the inferior orders of society, and the consequent 
 amelioration of manners could not but make its 
 influence more and more widely felt as time went 
 on. The people of the towns were the first to reap 
 the benefit. The displacement of feudal anarchy by 
 settled order under a strong central authority, enabled 
 the townsfolk to profit to the full from the growth 
 of commerce. With increased wealth came larger 
 notions of liberty, and the power to, assert them. 
 Thus it is to these centuries that in every country of 
 
SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 435 
 
 the West we can trace under diverse circumstances 
 the revival of an organised and vigorous civic Hfe. 
 It is indeed true, so far as we can judge, that the 
 change must in any case have come ; but, at the 
 same time, the Crusades and all that was involved in 
 them did beyond question contribute in a marked 
 degree to that development of town life which is one 
 of the most striking characteristics of Western Europe 
 during our period, 
 
 Of the changes that took place in the condition of 
 the country folk it is more difficult to speak. Their 
 elevation from a condition of serfdom did not come 
 till the age of the Crusades had passed away, and 
 was then, as it would appear, due to the operation 
 of other causes. But over and above the softening 
 influences consequent on the general improvement 
 of manners, there are some respects in which the 
 Crusades were directly beneficial to the peasant class. 
 It was not that those who took the Cross became free, 
 for, numerous as these may have been, those who 
 survived to return were but relatively few. More 
 important were tlie better social order and the milder 
 rule of the new times. To the peasants it must have 
 been an additional boon that, through the transfer of 
 property, many came under the rule of ecclesiastics, 
 who, if harsh taskmasters, were still preferable to 
 the turbulent nobles they displaced. Yet, again, the 
 growth of larger ideas was favourable to freedom, 
 and at least made the future hopeful. But so far as 
 the mass of the populatioa is concerned perhaps 
 the most that can be said, is — that the widening 
 of the bounds of human knowledge through 
 
436 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the Crusades helped to make a better order pos- 
 sible.^ 
 
 One of the greatest of the benefits conferred on 
 society by the Crusades was the raising of the stan- 
 dard of comfort through the spread of luxury. The 
 expansion of commerce in the Middle Ages is from 
 one point of view that change which we can attribute 
 most safely to the influence of the Crusades. It was 
 the need of the Crusaders for transport, and the 
 traffic necessary to supply the wants of those Franks 
 who had settled in Syria, that gave the requisite 
 stimulus to the infant commerce of Italy, and effectu- 
 ally opened up the East to the West. By this means 
 the cities of Italy were brought into close commercial 
 relations with the Greeks and Saracens, and less 
 directly with even more distant nations. The esta- 
 blishment of the Latin Empire at Constantinople 
 paved the way for the creation of the Venetian 
 colonial system in the Levant ; and the fall of that 
 Empire led to the success of the Genoese under Greek 
 patronage in the Euxine. The latter people thus 
 established a caravan trade with Persia from Trebi- 
 zond ; whilst about the same time the Venetians 
 entered into friendly relations with the Saracens of 
 Alexandria, and thus secured the profitable trade of 
 the Nile and the Red Sea. The caravan trade of the 
 Euphrates valley had already been tapped from the 
 
 * In England the Crusades do not seem to have directly influenced 
 social life in the same degree. The worst evils of feudalism existed 
 only during the reign of Stephen, and popular growth proceeded on 
 different lines to those which prevailed on the Continent. But even 
 here weight must be given to the general improvement of manners and 
 to the influence exerted by changes abroad. 
 
THE CRUSADES AND COMMERCE. 437 
 
 ports of the Syrian coast. By the side of this wider 
 commerce the actual trade with the Latin colonies of 
 Syria was of comparatively slight importance, and it 
 is this which explains the fact that the loss of those 
 colonies and the cessation of the Crusades were not 
 detrimental to Italian commerce. Indeed the same 
 motives of self-interest, which made the Italian cities 
 favourable to the Crusades at the start, made them 
 lukewarm, if not hostile, when the continuance of the 
 warfare threatened to jeopardise the commerce which 
 it had created. 
 
 The commercial benefits of the Crusades were not 
 confined to Italy. Marseilles enjoyed like privileges 
 with her Italian rivals in Palestine, and shared in the 
 profits arising from the transport of pilgrims and 
 soldiers, as notably in the Crusade of Richard I. Nor 
 was this all, for during the twelfth century English, 
 Flemish, North German, and even Danish and 
 Norwegian fleets appeared in the Mediterranean. 
 The commercial influence of the Crusades on 
 Northern Europe was, however, for the most part 
 either less direct or of later growth. Venice as the 
 chief distributing mart of the Middle Ages became 
 in the fourteenth century the southern terminus of 
 a great land trade-route. It was on this continental 
 traffic that the wealth of the German and Flemish 
 cities largely depended, and thus the Hanseatic 
 League owed its prosperity if not its origin to the 
 Crusades. It is noteworthy also that the other great 
 line of Hanseatic development was aided by the 
 Crusading enterprise of the Teutonic knights in 
 Prussia and Lithuania. 
 
438 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The commerce which the Crusades assisted to 
 create was purely "thalassic" or "potamic"; when, 
 through the discoveries of Columbus and Vasco da 
 Gama, the trade of the world assumed an " oceanic " 
 phase, the commercial influence of the Crusades came 
 to an end. We could have no clearer evidence of the 
 close relation between the Crusades and mediaeval 
 commerce than the fact that the Crusading epoch 
 was only definitely closed when commerce was 
 diverted into a new course. 
 
 In other points, however, the commercial influence 
 of the Crusades, if less direct, was more enduring. 
 It is not, perhaps, too much to say that the dis- 
 coveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
 were the outcome of the maritime energy that 
 was fostered by the Crusades, At any rate, these 
 discoveries would probably have been deferred 
 had the commerce of Europe pursued a more 
 sluggish course in the early Middle Ages. Yet again, 
 it was to the Crusades that we owe the first 
 beginnings of maritime law ; Crusading princes, like 
 Richard of England, made ordinances for the rule of 
 their fleets at sea, and the Assize of Jerusalem includes 
 regulations which contain the germ of a maritime 
 code. Other indispensable adjuncts of a commercial 
 system which owe their origin, in part at least, to the 
 Crusades are bajiking and exchange. The financial 
 needs of Crusaders and merchants in the East gave 
 occasion for the practice of the elementary principles 
 of commercial finance. The Jews and great Italian 
 merchants had regular banking agents in Syria, and 
 made the advance of money to Crusaders a formal 
 
THE CRUSADES AND COMMERCE. 439 
 
 part of their business. The military orders were not 
 above sharing in such profits, and the Templars in 
 particular undertook financial transactions, and were 
 entrusted frequently with the care of treasure by 
 Western princes and nobles. The extension of papal 
 taxation through the Crusades was also important in 
 this connection. The true development of com- 
 mercial finance belongs, however, to a later age. 
 
 One result of the expansion of commerce was to 
 bring into common use the spices, perfumes, and 
 other products of the East, which, before the 
 Crusades, had been the luxury of the few. Bede, for. 
 instance, on his death-bed divided his little store of 
 pepper and incense amongst his friends as something 
 very precious. But in the thirteenth century pepper 
 was an article of such common use that, according to 
 a rumour recorded by Matthew Paris, the Saracens 
 plotted to destroy their Christian enemies in the 
 West, by poisoning their spices. Pass over a hundred 
 years, and we find in the vivid picture of a country 
 inn in " Piers Plowman," that even the wife of 
 Beton the Brewster has " pepper and pionys, and 
 a pound of garlike," to spice her ale with; 
 Various industries also, such as dyeing and glass- 
 blowing, profited much from intercourse with the 
 East. Silk-weaving was introduced to Sicily from 
 Greece by King Roger, in 1148, and the sugar cane 
 was brought to that island about the same time. 
 The Latin kings of Jerusalem gave special care in 
 their legislation to commerce, and in the trading cities 
 of their kingdom, the merchants of the West could 
 find not only the cotton and silken goods of Syria, 
 
440 CONCLUSION. 
 
 but perfumes from Persia, spices and jewels from 
 India, and even precious pottery from China. 
 
 The previous pages will have indicated that in 
 some respects it is for their intellectual results 
 that the Crusades are most important, and that 
 it was their effect on the mental environment of 
 mankind which determined their influence within the 
 more limited spheres of action. It will be most 
 profitable to dwell on some particular phases of the 
 extension of human knowledge and understanding, 
 which will sufficiently illustrate the general aspect of 
 intellectual development. 
 
 In the First Crusade Europe was, one may almost 
 say for the first time since the days of Thucydides, 
 confronted by an event of stupendous importance, 
 and yet one which, like the struggle between Athens 
 and Sparta, lent itself to a strictly artistic treatment. 
 So unique an occasion was not lost, and the history 
 of the Holy War is told by ten or twelve almost con- 
 temporary historians.! But the fame of all was over- 
 shadowed by the great work of William of Tyre, which 
 may perhaps fairly be called the first historical work 
 of the Middle Ages that is not a mere chronicle of 
 events. If Herodotus is called the Father of History, 
 William may be styled the Father of Modern History. 
 Such a title he deserves for his well-ordered and 
 
 ^ Tudebode, Albert of Aix, and Raymond of Agiles were among the 
 chief. Of the others, it is interesting to note that several were connected 
 with English or Norman princes. Fulcher of Charlies was the com- 
 panion of Robert of Normandy and Stephen of Blois, Ralph of Caen was 
 himself a Norman born, the historian and friend of Tancred, and the 
 pupil of the Patriarch Arnulf. Guibert of Nogent and Baldric of Dol 
 also came from the border lands of the Norman duchy. 
 
INFLUENCE ON HISTORICAL LITERATURE, 441 
 
 artistic treatment of a great and worthy subject, for 
 his judicious, and not slavish use of eariier authorities, 
 and for his vivid narrative of those events which came 
 within the wide range of his own knowledge. The 
 growth of the historic sense is shown also by the 
 change that comes over Western historians. In the 
 twelfth century our English writers not only concern 
 themselves in an unwonted way w^'th continental 
 politics, but actually begin to be somewhat of autho- 
 rities for events abroad. Among the historians of the 
 later Crusades there is no single name of such note as 
 William of Tyre ; but, for another characteristic, they 
 are even more important. William's great work was 
 probably translated into French soon after his own 
 death, and within fifty years a continuation was 
 written in France by Ernoul who, as a young man, 
 had been squire to the famous Balian of Ibelin. 
 Ernoul was the first to tell the story of one of the 
 great kingdoms of Latin Christianity in its own 
 speech, and without the aid of rhyme. Bernard the 
 Treasurer, and others, composed further continuations 
 which carry on the history almost to the fall of Acre. 
 The whole narrative, including the French translation 
 of William of Tyre, was known as the Chronique 
 d^OutremeVy or Estoire d^ Evades ; it enjoyed great 
 popularity, and is well worthy to rank with the works 
 of Villehardouin and Joinville. Ernoul, like these 
 two writers, describes events in which he had himself 
 taken part, and it was no small thing for literature 
 that history had thus begun to be written by laymen 
 in the common speech for popular perusal. 
 
 History, in the literary sense, owed much to the 
 
442 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Crusades, but geography was still more deeply 
 indebted. Geographical knowledge and science had 
 indeed retrograded in Western Europe since the days 
 of Ptolemy. With the First Crusade, however, a new 
 era commences ; not only was the knowledge of 
 Eastern lands revived in the West, but a far more 
 intimate acquaintance was established as to the 
 intervening countries and seas. Every spring and 
 autumn witnessed the departure of the fleets for 
 Syria, and the stages of the journey were marked 
 with such precision, that Roger Howden can give 
 the distances from port to port in regular order from 
 England to Palestine. A further extension soon 
 followed, for in Syria merchants and pilgrims came 
 into contact with those whose knowledge reached to 
 the most eastern and southern confines of Asia. 
 The next step was for Europeans to acquire a first- 
 hand acquaintance with the far East ; this they did 
 through the relations which were established during 
 the thirteenth century between the princes of Latin 
 Christendom and the rulers of the Mongol Empire. 
 Most famous of these early travellers was the Fran- 
 ciscan William Rubruquis, whom Louis IX. sent as 
 his envoy to the great Khan, in 1253. Of still more 
 importance are the Venetian Marco Polo, and the 
 Franciscan Odoric, who, early in the next century, 
 travelled through Persia, India, and China. These 
 travellers first made common in Europe a real ac- 
 quaintance with the far East, and it was through 
 them that geographical knowledge once more began 
 to advance. More than this, it was their discoveries 
 which inspired the enterprise that culminated 
 
INFLUENCE ON GEOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE. 443 
 
 in the achievements of Columbus and Vasco da 
 Gama. 
 
 If the Crusades thus extended man*s knowledge 
 of other peoples and lands, they extended no less the 
 limits of his own understanding. Not, it is true, 
 altogether in those directions that might most natu- 
 rally have been expected. Intercourse with the 
 Empire of the East caused no such revival of classical 
 learning as was to come about three centuries later. 
 Nor did contact with Syrian Christians or Moham- 
 medans confer any special benefit on medicine or 
 philosophy. The treasures of Arabic skill and science 
 were imparted to Latin Christendom from another 
 quarter, and in so far as they contributed to the 
 advance of medicine and philosophy the debt is due to 
 the doctors not of Damascus but of Salerno and Toledo. 
 Nor even was such knowledge of Eastern languages as 
 existed due specially to the Crusades, and the Koran 
 itself was translated about 1 144 by an Englishman, 
 Robert, who had gone to study astronomy in Spain, 
 and probably never set foot in Palestine at all. From 
 the same quarter came also the revived knowledge of 
 Aristotle, which paved the way for mediaeval philo- 
 sophy and scholasticism. 
 
 But if we turn from science to literature we find 
 that the influence exerted by the Crusades was great 
 and manifest. The Crusades were the creation of 
 French-speaking peoples, and, above all, of those 
 adventurous Normans who carried the language of 
 their adoption wheresoever they settled. Never did 
 Christendom come so near having a common speech ; 
 for several centuries French was the most universal 
 
444 CONCLUSION, 
 
 medium of intercourse from the Atlantic to the 
 Jordan and the Golden Horn. If French thus became 
 the speech of princes, lawyers, and merchants, yet 
 more important was it that it became the recognised 
 language of literature. The great Italian, Arnault 
 Daniel, used it for his famous poem on Lancfelot — 
 which Dante has immortalised. Dante's own tutor, 
 Brunetto Latino, adopted it for his Tesauro, boldly 
 declaring that he chose French in preference to bis 
 native tongue "because it is more delectable and 
 more widely diffused." 
 
 Mediaeval poetry was indeed the creation of French- 
 men and the Crusades. Only one chanson — that of 
 Roland — is certainly of earlier date, but from the 
 moment of the Crusades the world of romance wakes 
 into new life. Religious enthusiasm, warlike gallantry, 
 and the mystery of the East, all combined to inspire 
 the minstrel with themes for his song. Jerusalem 
 was hardly captured before French poets began to 
 tell of the achievements of French knights in French 
 verse. Soon every great chanson has its Eastern 
 element ; Huon of Bordeaux has many adventures 
 in Babylon and the East ; Renaud de Montauban, 
 in his later years, performs no mean exploits in the 
 Holy Land ; Bevis of Hamptoun visits Jerusalem 
 and Damascus and weds an emir's daughter ; Richard 
 Cceur de Lion's mother, like Thomas a Becket's, is 
 in legend a Saracen princess. Even when the scene 
 is not laid in the East we have fighting with Saracens 
 nearer home, as in the romance of *' Doon de May- 
 ence." 
 
 If the Crusades created a new poetical literature, 
 
THE CRUSADES AND ROMANCE. 445 
 
 they also created the long historical poem as distinct 
 from the short " cantilena." Geoffrey Bechada, early 
 in the twelfth century, sang in French the story of the 
 First Crusade, in which he had himself taken part ; 
 though his work has now perished it was well known 
 to Geoffrey of Vigeois fifty years later. Richard the 
 Pilgrim, even earlier, composed what was probably the 
 oldest form of the " Chanson d'Antioch," which was 
 afterwards the favourite theme with Crusaders, and 
 was perhaps the foundation of the Latin poem of our 
 own Joseph of Exeter. Another early writer was 
 William IX. of Poitiers, who used to amuse his 
 friends with songs of his adventures in Palestine. 
 The historical narratives thus composed were trans- 
 formed by later minstrels, who embellished them with 
 romantic additions of their own, such as the legend 
 of the " Knight of the Swan," and the wondrous 
 descent of Godfrey of Bouillon. In the process 
 there was created a new romantic literature of pure 
 imagination, wherein the bare facts of the older 
 writers were lost in a wealth of legendary fable, 
 fancy, and folly. 
 
 Of all that was entailed for literature in this 
 creation of romance, and of its still abiding influence, 
 we cannot now speak. Perhaps, indeed, it is of 
 more value here to dwell on its importance for the 
 mediaeval world ; on the new element of brightness 
 that it brought into man's life ; on the inspiration of 
 nobler ideas that it afforded ; and on the quickening 
 of the human intellect, of which it was the first and 
 not the least hopeful evidence. 
 
 But from the discussion of the results of the 
 
44^ CONCLUSION. 
 
 Crusades we must now turn away to consider for 
 a little their true character, and how far they were 
 successful in achieving the objects that they aimed at. 
 If the consequences of the Crusades are puzzling in 
 their complexity, no less complex are the motives to 
 which they owed their origin. The enthusiasm of 
 religion, the spirit of adventure, the lust of power, 
 the desire of gain, all, no doubt, contributed in their 
 degree. Probably it is true to say that only of a 
 few Crusaders, as of Godfrey and St. Louis, can we 
 predicate absolute purity of motive. But after all 
 detractions are made, there will still remain the over- 
 mastering fact that the Crusades were the outcome 
 of an enthusiasm more deep and enduring than any 
 other that the world has witnessed. They were no 
 mere popular delusion ; for principles of sound reason 
 overruled the ungoverned excitement of the mob. No 
 deep-laid plot of papal policy ; for neither Gregory 
 VII. when he projected, nor Urban II. when he 
 preached the Holy War, could have foretold the pur- 
 poses to which their successors would, half uncon- 
 sciously, turn it. Not the savage outbreak of warlike 
 barbarism ; for they entailed a patient endurance which 
 only the inspiration of a noble ideal made possible. 
 The Crusades were then primarily wars of an idea, 
 and it is this which sets them apart from all other 
 wars of religion ; for into the Crusades proper the 
 spirit of religious intolerance or sectarian jealousy 
 hardly entered. The going on the Crusade was the 
 " Way of God," not to be lightly taken up or lightly 
 laid aside like the common affairs of men. The war 
 was God's warfare, to be waged in His behalf for the 
 
TRUE CHARACTER OF THE CRUSADES. 447 
 
 recovery of the Heritage of Christ, the land which 
 Our Blessed Lord Himself had trod. If this idea 
 was not present to all w^hen they took the Cross, 
 yet it is safe to say that the great mass of the Cru- 
 saders came at some time under its spell. It is hard 
 always for the men of one age to comprehend the 
 enthusiasms of another. We can only marvel at the 
 strange infection which for nearly two centuries ran 
 riot through the West of Europe. It is easier for us 
 to recognise the epic grandeur of the enterprise, in 
 which was concentrated all that was noblest in the 
 mediaeval spirit. The Crusades were the first united 
 effort of Western Christendom. They raised mankind 
 above the ignoble sphere of petty ambitions to seek 
 after an ideal that was neither sordid nor selfish. 
 They called forth all that was most heroic in human 
 nature, and filled the world with the inspiration of 
 noble thoughts and noble deeds. Of the manifold 
 consequences that were to spring from this inspira- 
 tion, the higher ideals of life, the wider range of 
 understanding, enough has been said already to show 
 that the Crusades were as beneficial in their general 
 results as they were undoubtedly sincere in their 
 original undertaking. 
 
 From the consideration of ideals which inspired the 
 Crusaders, we pass naturally to the practical purpose 
 which they endeavoured to achieve. Two principal 
 objects presented themselves to the promoters of the 
 First Crusade. The chief was no doubt the restora- 
 tion of the Holy Places to Christian rule ; the secon- 
 dary object — but to such leaders at least as Gregory 
 VII. and Urban II. a no less clear one — was the 
 
44^ CONCLUSION. * 
 
 defence of the Eastern Empire against the danger of 
 Turkish conquest. The first was based on a senti- 
 ment, but on a sentiment which with some change 
 of form still survives ; the second, on an urgent 
 necessity, the pressure of which was yet felt two 
 centuries ago. The first object was within a few 
 years achieved by the establishment of the kingdom 
 of Jerusalem. But the success was barely complete 
 before the process of decay commenced. With the 
 causes of that decay, the narrow limits and ineffectual 
 frontier of the kingdom, the jealousies of Crusaders 
 for the Syrian Franks and for one another, the rival 
 policies of the military orders and the native baron- 
 age, the deterioration of energy amongst those who 
 settled in the East, and the waning enthusiasm 
 amongst those who remained in the West, we have 
 already in their several places dealt. A failure in 
 this sense the Crusades no doubt were ; but with it 
 all we cannot regard as entirely fruitless an enter- 
 prise which maintained a fairly vigorous life for one 
 century, and prolonged its death struggle for another. 
 The success of the second great object of the 
 Crusades is best regarded from a twofold point of 
 view — firstly, as concerns the Empire of the East ; 
 and secondly, as concerns the history of the world at 
 large. In the former case, it seems clear that but for 
 the First Crusade the Empire of the Comneni must 
 have succumbed to the Seljukian Turks. Certainly 
 the twelfth century witnessed a great recovery both 
 of territory and power on the part of the Eastern 
 Empire. But, at the same time, it must be re- 
 membered that the constant passage of huge and 
 
OBJECTS OF THE CRUSADES. 449 
 
 disorderly hosts was the source of serious harm, and 
 that the destruction of the true Empire of the East 
 was the work of a so-called Crusade. Perhaps it is 
 not too much to say that whatever benefit was 
 wrought by the First Crusade was more than undone 
 by the Fourth. From the time of the latter enter- 
 prise there was no strong united power to guard the 
 East, and the success of the Turks was probably due 
 as much to this as to their own prowess. Certainly 
 the political and religious dissensions of East and 
 West were aggravated by the Crusades, but, above 
 all, by the Fourth Crusade, and the power of resis- 
 tance in Christendom was so far weakened. From 
 this standpoint, therefore, the eventual failure of the 
 Crusades to achieve their second great object was 
 hardly less complete than it was in the case of the 
 first. 
 
 Looking at the Crusades, however, from the more 
 general standpoint of the world's history, we can pass 
 a more favourable judgment. It was an impera.tive 
 necessity for the welfare of Christendom that the 
 advance of the Turks — which during the eleventh 
 century had made such rapid progress — should be 
 stayed. The First Crusade rolled back the tide of 
 conquest from the walls of Constantinople, and the 
 wars of the next two centuries gave full employment 
 to the superfluous energies of Islam. Even after 
 Acre had fallen, the Latin kingdom of Cyprus, the 
 knights of St. John at Rhodes, and the maritime 
 power of Venice — all creations of the Crusades — 
 combined to delay, if they could not stop, the 
 advance of Mohammedanism. The importance of 
 
 ,30 
 
450 CONCLUSION. 
 
 this for Western civilisation cannot be over-esti- 
 mated. Had the capture of Constantinople by 
 Mohammed II. been anticipated by three centuries it 
 is impossible that the Turkish conquests should have 
 been confined to the peninsula of the Balkans and 
 the valley of the Lower Danube. A new influx of 
 barbarism, at the very moment when the gloom of 
 the Dark Ages was breaking, might have been as 
 ruinous to the social and political life of Western 
 Europe as it was to that of Western Asia. At the 
 least it must have put back the progress of civilisa- 
 tion in Europe by centuries, if it had not altered 
 utterly the course of the world's history. 
 
 We of the present day who live under the shadow 
 of the Revolution, and still feel the effects of the 
 Reformation, are too apt to regard all that went 
 before as matters of purely archaeological interest, 
 or as furnishing only the foundation for a romantic 
 tale. It is easy to contrast the glories of the 
 Renaissance with the wreck of Mediaevalism, and 
 to feel that between the two there is a great gulf 
 fixed. But the mediaeval world had had its own 
 glories, which, as they faded, let fall the seeds of 
 future prosperity. The processes of decay and new 
 birth are as natural to the historical as to the physical 
 world, and there is no justice in the taunt of failure ; 
 for it is in the failures and half-successes of one age 
 that there are sown the seeds of the glories of another. 
 The Middle Ages were, in their way, as important 
 and fruitful for mankind as any other epoch of the 
 world's history. The Crusades were their crowning 
 glory of political achievementj the central drama to 
 
THE CRUSADES NOT FRUITLESS. 45 1 
 
 which all other incidents were in some degree sub- 
 ordinate. If the enthusiasm which produced them 
 perished, it was not until it had borne good fruit : 
 we may perhaps contrast the age of the Crusades 
 with the age of the Early Renaissance, which suc- 
 ceeded it, in some respects to the disadvantage 
 of the former ; but when all is said and written 
 this much at least must be admitted : it was not 
 altogether a change from the worse to the better 
 that gave France a Louis the Treacherous for a 
 Louis the Saint, and England a Richard of the 
 Subtle Brain for a Richard of the Lion Heart. 
 
 The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 
 
 And God fulfils Himself in many ways, 
 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." 
 
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 ALADIN (Salah- 
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 W 
 
 
 
 • TO 
 
INDEX 
 
 Acre, 97, 99, 118, 120, 127-28, 
 U3^ 135. 138, 149, 167, 172, 
 184, 187, 196, 217, 224, 250; 
 259, 267-68, 295, 299, 30Q, 
 317-26, 330-31. 340, 344-45* 
 348, 363-65, 369, 372, 375> 
 381-83, 386-87, 396, 404, 406, 
 410-1 1, 413-19, 424-25,449 
 
 Adel (Sayf-ed-din el-Adel Abu 
 Bekr, Saphadin), Sultan of 
 Egypt, 259, 262, 264, 279, 
 321, 338-40, 346, 368-69, 371, 
 
 373, 375-76, 385 
 Adhemar, Bishop of Puy, 32, 46, 
 
 54-5, 66, 72-5, 78-9, 87-8 
 Afdal (Ayubite), 178, 264, 274, 
 
 368 
 Albara, 78, 1 13 
 Albert of Aix, historian of the 
 
 First Crusade, 26, 28, 57, 62, 
 
 106, 135, 440 
 Albigensians, 184, 391, 431, 433 
 Aleppo, 78, no, 113, 145, 147, 
 
 149, 150, 152-53, 161-62, 164, 
 
 197-99, 203-6, 217, 237-38, 
 
 242-44, 257, 260 61, 264, 300, 
 
 368, 413 
 Alexandria, 84, 183, 234-35, 248, 
 
 381, 395-96, 423, 436 
 Alexius Coninenus, Emperor of the 
 
 East, 19, 21, 28, 38-9, 43-4, 
 
 47, 44, 51-5, 67, 72, 83-4, 
 
 104, 106, 115, 140, 143-44, 
 
 156 
 
 Alice of Antioch, 189-91, 453 
 
 Alice of Cyprus, 383-84, 453-54 
 
 Amalfi, 170, 296 
 
 Amalric I., King of Jerusalem, 
 123, 177-78, 186, 196, 227, 232- 
 36, 242-50, 272, 352, 453 
 
 Amalric II., King of Jerusalem 
 and Cyprus, 369, 373. 453- 
 
 54 
 Amalric III., King of Jerusalem, 
 
 373, 453-54 
 Amalric de Montfort, 386-87 
 Anar, Vizir of Damascus, 195-96, 
 
 218, 222-23 
 Anna Comnena, historian, 49, 52, 
 
 191-92, 358 
 Antioch, 45, 55, 58, 63-79, 106, 
 
 109, 115, 129, 143-55, 160, 
 
 189-93, 214, 216-17, 229-30, 
 
 242, 244, 273, 294-96, 298, 300, 
 
 309, 312-13, 316, 321, 363, 368, 
 
 371-72, 385, 414 
 Antioch, Princes of, see Bohemond, 
 
 Raymond, Reginald, Roger, 
 
 Tancred 
 Antioch, Princesses of, see Alice, 
 
 Constance 
 Antioch, Principality of, II3-I4, 
 
 125, 155, 168, 242 
 Aquitanian Crusade, the, 103-7 
 Arculf, 6-8 
 
 Arish (El-Arish), no, 140, 198 
 Arkah, 81, 83, 115, 157 
 Armenia and the Armenians, 60- 
 
 61, 129, 148-49, 162-64, 202, 
 
 204-5, 229, 371, 375 
 
45^ 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Arnulf, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 82, 88, 94, 118, 130, 140, 193, 
 440 
 
 Arsuf, 98-9, 116, 133, 136-37, 
 
 141. 336, 353. 356, 414 
 Artois, Count of, see Robert 
 Ascalon, 92, 95, 97, 99-100, 133, 
 
 135, 138, 140, 142, 165-66, 194, 
 
 219, 226-27, 251, 255, 267, 
 
 277, 299, 331, 336-40, 342, 346, 
 
 364. 386-88 
 As< alon. Counts of Jaffa and, see 
 
 Amalric J., Guy, Walter de 
 
 Brienne, William of Mont- 
 
 ferrat 
 Ascalon, County of Jaffa and, 
 
 I 16-17 
 Assassins, tUe, 115,245-46, 341, 
 
 358, 406 
 Assizes of Jerusalem, 122-24, 127, 
 
 290, 363 
 Athareb, 161, 164, 199-200 
 Ayub, 230, 240, 243 
 Ayubites, 264, 36"^, 385-86, 388, 
 
 400, 408, 456 
 
 B 
 
 Bagdad, 5, 105, 148, 412-13 
 
 Baha-ed-din, historian, 263, 281, 
 315, 320, 331, 343, 367 
 
 Balak (Ortokid), 161-62, 164, 166 
 
 Baldwin I., King of Jerusalem, 
 43. 58-63, 78, 98, 109, 123, 
 127, 130-42, 147, 150-51, 157- 
 59. 294-95. 353. 356, 359-60, 
 452 
 
 Baldwin II., du Bourg, King of 
 Jerusalem, 109, 116, 130, 138, 
 144-45, 147, 153, 159-68, 171, 
 189, 199. 453 
 
 Baldwin III., Kin:^ of Jerusalem, 
 117, 196, 217, 222-32, 247, 
 288, 290, 300, 360, 453 
 
 Baldwin IV., King of Jerusalem, 
 249-51, 255 57, 260-61, 265- 
 70, 283, 364, 453 
 
 Baldwin V., King of Jerusalem, 
 121, 266-67, 271, 453 
 
 Baldwin, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 307, 322-23 
 
 Baldwin of Flanders, Emperor of 
 
 Constantinople, 370-71 
 Baldwin of Ibelin or Ramleh, 262, 
 
 267-68, 273 
 Balian I. of Ibelin, 117, 194 
 Balian II. of Ibelin, 262, 267-68, 
 
 273-75. 277-80, 339. 441 
 Banias or Csesarea Philippi, 116, 
 
 195-96, 246 
 Barkiyarok, 144, 146 
 Beit Nuba, 337, 342 
 Belvoir, 178, 258, 361 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, 172,- 174, 
 
 207-11, 220, 391 
 Bernard of St. Michael's Mount, 
 
 10-13, 15 
 Bernard de Tremelay, Master of 
 
 the Temple, 177, 227 
 Bertram, Count of Tripoli, I16, 
 
 148, 157-58, 295 
 Bethlehem, 87, 99, 298, 347, 381 
 Bethshan, 116, 258, 261, 375, 381 
 Beyrout, 115-16, 130, 147, 156, 
 
 230, 259, 267, 277, 299, 321, 
 
 330, 344, 364, 369, 384 
 Bibars Bendocdar, Sultan of Egypt, 
 
 245. 413-14 
 Bohemond I., Prince of Antioch, 
 
 24, 44-5, 47, 51-3, 56, 58-9, 
 
 66-71, 75-6. 79-80, 97-9, 109, 
 
 115,130,133, 143-45,294,352, 
 
 358, 454 
 Bohemond II., Prince of Antioch, 
 
 115, 145, 149, 165, 364, 454 
 Bohemond III., Prince of Antioch, 
 
 193, 242, 254, 261, 268, 316, 
 
 368, 371-72, 454 
 Bohemond IV., Prince of Antioch, 
 
 371-72, 385, 454 
 Bohemond VI., Prince of Antioch, 
 
 409, 411, 414, 454 
 Borsac of Hamadan, 151 
 Borsoki, Emir of Mosul, 151, 165, 
 
 198 
 Bostra, 223, 260 
 Botron, 115, 271-72 
 Brienne, John de, see John 
 Brienne, Walter de, see Walter 
 Bulgaria and Bulgarians, 37-8, 46, 
 
 309-11 
 Bures, William de, see William 
 
INDEX. 
 
 459 
 
 Byzantine Empire, 19, 115, 212, 
 448-49 ; see also Alexius, John, 
 Isaac, Manuel, Greeks 
 
 Csesarea, 83, 99, 116, 118, 129, 
 133, 260, 269, 333, 337, 401, 
 412 
 Cresarea, Lords of, see Eustace, 
 
 Hugh, Walter 
 Cresarea on the Orontes, 192, 217, 
 
 227 
 Ciesarea Philippi, see Banias. 
 Cairo, 233, 235-36, 344, 395 
 Caliph, Caliphate, see Bagdad, 
 
 Egypt, Fatimites 
 Charismians, 178, 388-89 
 Charles the Great, 10, ii, 24, 287 
 Charles of Anjou, 288, 410 
 Clermont, Council of, 26, 28-33 
 Commerce, in the Latin Colonies, 
 113, 117, 127-28, 198, 294-96, 
 299-300, 346, 381, 416; influ- 
 ence of Crusades on, 436-40 
 Commercial legislation, 126, 439 
 Comneni, the, see Alexius, Anna, 
 
 Isaac, John, Manuel 
 Conrad III^, of Germany, 209-19 
 Conrad IV., of Germany, 384, 
 
 387, 409 
 Conrad of Montferrat, King of 
 Jerusalem, 277, 309, 317-19. 
 321, 323-4, 329-30, 339-41. 
 
 373 
 
 Constance of Antioch, 165, 190, 
 193, 228, 454 
 
 Constantinople, 38-9, 43-5, 47, 
 50, 193, 212, 244, 309-11, 358, 
 369, 371,421, 436, 449-50 
 
 Corbogha, Emir of Mosul, 63, 71, 
 75-6, 144, 290 
 
 Corradin (El-.Miiazzam), lord of 
 Damascus, 375-7, 387 
 
 Courtenay, Joscelin de ^^^ Joscelin 
 
 Courts of Law, 125-6 
 
 Crusades, the First, 26-92, 287, 
 328, 426, 440 ; the Aquitanian, 
 103-7 ; the Second, 207-21, 
 427 ; the Third, 305-48, 427, 
 437 ; the German, 369-70 ; the 
 
 Fourth, 370-71, 449; the Fifth, 
 374-79; of Frederick II., 
 379-82 ; of Theobald of Navarre 
 and Richard of Cornwall, 
 386-87 ; of S. Louis, 390-404 ; 
 of Edward I., 404-7 ; the 
 Children's, 422 : Results of, 
 political, 426-29 ; ecclesiastical, 
 429-33 ; social, 433-3^ ; com- 
 mercial, 436-40 ; intellectual, 
 440-45 : true character of, 446- 
 47 : objects of, how far attained, 
 
 447-51 
 Cyprus, 81, 122, 178, 184, 294, 
 
 315, 341, 364-5, 369, 373, 375, 
 
 383-4, 394, 405, 409, 412, 417, 
 
 422-3, 449 
 Cyprus, emperor of, see Isaac 
 Cyprus, kings of, see Amalric II., 
 
 Guy, Henry, Hugh, Peter 
 
 D 
 
 Dagobert of Pisa, Patriarch of 
 Jerusalem, 98, 130-32, 134, 295 
 
 Damascus, no, 117, 130, 134, 
 139, 150, 156, 176, 179, 195-96, 
 198-99, 204, 206, 217-19, 237, 
 240-41, 243, 257, 259-60, 262, 
 264, 300, 368, 376, 385, 387-88 
 
 Damascus, atabeks and rulers of, 
 see Anar, Corradin, Nur-ed-din, 
 Tughtakin 
 
 Damietta, 236-37, 257, 337, 352- 
 53. 374-78, 380, 394-96, 398- 
 400 
 
 Danishmend, see Ibn Danish- 
 mend 
 
 Darum, 116, 244, 259, 340, 342, 
 
 361, 363 
 Dawud (Ayubite), Lord of Kerak, 
 
 385, 387 
 Dorylaeum, 57 
 Durazzo, 24, 45-6, 50, 145, 352, 
 
 358 
 
 Edessa, 60-63, 77-8, 109-10, 
 1 12-13, "5, 125, 130, 142, 
 144-49, 151, 160-62, 201-2, 
 
460 
 
 iNDM. 
 
 204-7, 241, 259, 264, 280, 299, 
 390 
 
 Edessa, Counts of, see Baldwin I. , 
 
 Baldwin II., Joscelin 
 Edessa, County of, 1 12-13 
 Edward I., King of England, 
 
 404-7, 414, 417 
 Edward III., King of England, 
 
 420, 423 
 Egypt, no, 140, 226-27, 232-37, 
 
 243-44, 252, 257-59, 262, 300- 
 
 302, 368, 372-78, 385, 3:4-400 
 Egypt, Cahphs of, 5, 6, 18, 84-5, 
 
 232-34, 237 
 
 Egypt, Sultans of, 368, 285, 400; 
 see Adel, Bibars, Kalaun, 
 Kamil, Khalil, Kutuz, Musa, 
 Saladin, Saleh, Turan Shah 
 
 Egyptians, 135, 145, 156, 226 
 
 El-Adel, El Afdal, &c., see Adel, 
 Afdal, &c. 
 
 Eleanor of Aquitaine, 209^,219- 
 
 Eleanor of Castile, 406- 7 
 
 Elim, or Aila, 111-12, 1 16-17, 
 
 139, 364 
 Emesa, or Hems, no, 112, 115, 
 145, 156, 198, 204, 243-44, 264, 
 
 413 
 
 Emicho, Count, 36, 40 
 
 England, influence of Crusades 
 on, 428, 431, 436 
 
 England, Kings of, see Edward, 
 Henry, Richard 
 
 English and the Crusades, the, 20, 
 132, 137-38, 183, 193, 2n, 
 220, 242, 248, 288, 298, 
 313-15, 318, 322, 333, 374, 
 376-77, 387, 396-98, 404, 427, 
 437 ; see also Edward I. and 
 Richard I. 
 
 Ernoul, historian, 267, 273-74, 
 
 303, 441 
 
 Es-Saleh, &c., see Saleh, &c. 
 Eugenius III., pope, 173, 207 
 Euphrates, 61, no, n2, 144, 
 
 148, 163, 197, 199, 259, 388 
 Eustace Grener, Lord of Csesarea, 
 
 and >idon, 118, 166, 193 
 Evreniar, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 
 134, 155 
 
 Fatimites, the, 5, 17-18; seg 
 
 also Egypt, Caliphs of 
 Flanders, Counts of, see Philip, 
 
 Robert, Theodoric 
 Flemings and the Crusades, the, 
 
 248, 318, 370, 437. See also 
 
 Flanders 
 France, influence of the Crusades 
 
 on, 427-28, 443-44 ; preaching 
 
 of - the Crusades in, 34-5, 210, 
 
 307 370, 374 
 France, Kings of, see Louis VI., 
 
 VII., IX., Philip I., Philip 
 
 Augustus, Philip III., Philip 
 
 IV 
 French and the Crusades, the, 
 
 29, 36-8, 45, loi, 2n-i9, 
 
 313 14, 318, 322, 329, 337-38, 
 
 340-48. 370, 376-77, 386-87, 
 
 394-403 ; see also Louis VII., 
 
 Louis IX., Philip Augustus 
 Frederick I., emperor, 211, 251, 
 
 265, 309-13 
 Frederick IL, emperor, and King 
 
 of Jerusalem, 289, 378-87, 391, 
 
 401, 408-9, 428, 431 
 Frederick of Swabia, 313, 322 
 Fulcher of Chartres, historian, 
 
 49-50, 55. 98-9, I35» 139-40, 
 
 142, 170, 440 
 Fulk the Black, of Anjou, 15-16, 
 
 188 
 Fulk of Anjou, King of Jerusalem, 
 
 167, 173, 176, 188-97, 290, 
 
 295, 359 
 Fulk of Neuilly, 180, 370-71 
 
 Galilee, the Principality of, 116- 
 
 18, 125, 363 
 Galilee, Princes of, see Hugh of 
 
 Falkenberg, Joscelin I., of 
 
 Courtenay, Tancred, William 
 
 de Bures 
 Gaza, n7, 176, 255, 386, 388 
 Genoese, the, 90, 98, 133, 158, 
 
 294-96, 340, 345. 364, 409-12, 
 
 414. 436 
 
INDEX. 
 
 461 
 
 Geoffrey de Lusignan, 276, 319, 
 
 330 
 Geoftrey de Sergines, 399, 410-11 
 Gerard the Hospitaller, 171 
 Gerard de Rideford, Master of 
 
 the Temple, 271-76, 319 
 Gerard of Sidon, 118, 226, 364 
 Germans and the Crusades, the, 
 37-40, 42, 102, 133, 182, 212- 
 14, 217, 311-13, 321-22, 369- 
 70, 381, 427, 437 
 Gibelin, 176, 178 
 Gilbert de Lacy, 177, 242 
 Godfrey de Bouillonj 42-4, 47, 
 SI, 55 i8, 63, 66-7, 74, 76-7, 
 82, 85, 88-90, 93-103, 122-23, 
 133, 160, 285, 295, 30r, 352, 
 445-46, 452 
 Greeks and the Crusaders, the, 
 23, 43, 67, 8r, 121, 143, 145, 
 192, 206, 212. 214, 217, 229, 
 236-37, 254, 309-11, 371 
 Greek Empire, the, 420-21 
 Greek Emperors, see Alexius, 
 
 Isaac, ]< \, Manuel 
 Gregory VII., pope, 14, 20, 23-5, 
 
 28, 42, 446-47 
 Gregory IX., pope, 380-83, 386, 
 
 428 
 Grener, j^^ Eustace, Hugh, Walter 
 Guibert of Nogent, historian, 26, 
 
 34-5,440 
 Guy de Lusignan, King of Jeru- 
 salem and C5^prus, 117, 256, 
 261-62, 266-68, 272-76, 315- 
 19, 324, 329-30, 333, 341, 369 
 
 H 
 
 Haifa, 116, 157, 333, 363 
 Hakim, Caliph of Egypt, 18 
 Hamah, no, 112, 115, 198-99, 
 
 204, 243-44, 300, 388, 413 
 Harenc, 66, 113, 190, 228, 230, 
 
 242, 254 
 Harran, 144-45, ^9^y 259 
 Hattin, 178, 276-77, 308 
 Hazart, 78, 113, 193 
 Hebron, I16-17, 298, 387 
 Henfrid HI., of Toron, n8, 255- 
 
 56, 291 
 
 Henfrid IV., of Toron, 262, 272, 
 
 329 
 Henry of Champagne, King of 
 Jerusalem, 292, 322, 341-42, 
 
 344, 369 
 Henry I., King of Cyprus, 383- 
 
 84, 409 
 Henry II., King of Cyprus, 417 
 Henry IV., Emperor, 23-4, 42, 
 
 210 
 Henry VI., Emperor, 311, 369 
 Henry I., King of England, 180 
 Henry II., King of England, 181, 
 
 189, 265, 269, 279, 283, 307-9, 
 
 328, 392, 396 
 Henry HI., King of England, 
 
 181, 288, 391, 393, 396, 401, 
 
 407 
 Henry V., King of England, 421- 
 
 22 
 Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 
 180, 268-72, 277-80 
 Holy Sepulchre, the, see Sepul- 
 chre, the Holy 
 Hospital of St. John at Jerusalem, 
 
 knights of the, see Hospitallers ; 
 
 Masters of the, see Gerard, 
 
 Raymond du Puy 
 Hospitallers, the, 120, 170-71, 
 
 175-81, 227, 235, 268, 275, 
 
 333-36, 361, 377, 389, 409, 
 
 411,413,417 
 Hubert Walter, Bishop of Salis- 
 bury, 322, 347, 367 
 Hugh I., King of Cyprus, 375, 
 
 383 
 Hugh II., King of Cyprus and 
 
 Jerusalem, 409 
 Hugh HI., King of Cyprus and 
 
 Jerusalem, 405, 409-10 
 Hugh of Falkenberg, Prince of 
 
 Galilee, 1 18, 138 
 Hugh Grener, Lord of Csesarea, 
 
 233-34, 291 
 Plugh of Ibelin, 125, 235, 294 
 Hugh I., Count of Jaffa, 117 
 Hugh II., Count of Jaffa, 117, 
 
 193-95 
 Hugh de Payen, Master of the 
 lemple, 170-72, 176, 180, 
 185 
 
462 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hugh of Vermandois, 43, 45, 56, 
 
 74, 76, 103 
 Hungary, 16, 37, 40, 42, 210, 
 
 309-11, 374-75 
 Huns, the, 15, 22, 41 
 
 Ibelin, 117, 361 
 
 Ibelin, Baldwin of, see Baldwin; 
 
 Balian of, see Balian ; Hugh of, 
 
 see Hugh ; John of, see John 
 Iconium, 58, 201-2, 205, 311-12 ; 
 
 see also Rum 
 Iconium, Sultans of, see Kilij 
 
 Arslan, Masud 
 Ibn Danishmend, 99, 143-44, 146 
 Ibn El-Athir, 150, 199-200, 203, 
 
 240-41 
 II-Ghazi (Ortokid), Emir of 
 
 Mardin, 147, 151, 153, 155, 
 
 160-61 
 I mad -ed -din Zangi, see Zangi 
 Innocent III., pope, 370, 373-74 
 Innocent IV., pope, 396, 400-1, 
 
 412, 428 
 Isaac Comnenus, Emperor, 309- 
 
 10 
 Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus, 315 
 Isabella, Queen of Jerusalem, 
 
 262, 272, 329-30, 341, 369, 
 
 373 
 ItaUans and the Crusades, 81, 
 133, 261, 294-97, 363-64, 426, 
 436-38 ; see also Amalfi, Geno- 
 ese, Pisans, Venetians 
 
 J 
 
 Jaffa, 86, 90, 100, 107, 132-33, 
 135-38, 141, 251, 267, 295, 
 336-39, 345-46, 369, 386, 401, 
 414 
 
 Jaffa, Counts of, see Hugh 
 
 Jaffa and Ascalon, Counts of, see 
 Amalric L, Guy de Lusignan, 
 Walter de Brienne, William of 
 Montferrat 
 
 Jaffa and Ascalon, County of, 116- 
 
 17 
 James of Avesnes, 318-19, 322, 
 
 336 
 
 James de Vitry, Bishop of Acre, 
 174, 178, 296-97, 299, 374, 
 378 
 
 Javaly Secava, Emir of Mosul, 
 146-47 
 
 Jekermish, Emir of Mosul, 144- 
 46 
 
 Jerusalem, City of, 2, 3, 6, 9-1 1, 
 17, 21, 27, 29, 85-92, 95, 98- 
 100, 118-22, 126, 129, 140, 
 166, 170-71, 177, 224, 230, 
 246, 261, 266, 270-72, 277-81, 
 290, 298, 305, 336-37, 344, 
 
 347, 363, 381, 384, 387-88, 
 390, 425 
 
 Jerusalem, Kingdom of, 112, 130, 
 157, 166, 172, 193, 206, 224, 
 247-48, 265-66, 273, 277, 282, 
 
 348, 408, 418, et passim ; 
 geographical extent and divi- 
 sions of, 1 1 6-18; officers of, 
 124 ; judicial organisation, 125- 
 26 ; financial system, 127-28 ; 
 ecclesiastical organisation, 129; 
 bailiffs of, 373, 384, 387, 409, 
 410; causes of its fall, no, 123- 
 24, 186-87, 301-3, 448 
 
 Jerusalem, Kings of, see Amalric, 
 Baldwin, Conrad, Frederick, 
 Fulk, Godfrey, Guy, Henry, 
 Hugh, John 
 
 Jerusalem, Queens of, see Isabella, 
 Mary, Melisend, Sibylla, Yo- 
 lande 
 
 Jews, the, 36, 40, 128, 438 
 
 Joanna, daughter of Henry II., 
 314-15, 338-39 
 
 John de Brienne, King of Jeru- 
 salem, 373, 375-79, 381 
 
 John Comnenus, emperor, 113, 
 191-92 
 
 John of Ibelin, "the Old," bailiff 
 of Jerusalem, 122, 373, 383-84 
 
 John de Nesles, 370-72 
 
 Joinville, Jean de, 298, 358, 394- 
 95, 398-99,401, 441. 
 
 Jordan, William, see William 
 
 Joscelin I. of Courtenay, Count of 
 Edessa, 118, 144, 147, 159, 
 161-65, 201-2 
 
 Joscelin II. of Courtenay, Count 
 
INDEX. 
 
 463 
 
 of Edessa, 189, 191-92, 202, 
 204-6, 235, 241 
 Joscelin III. of Court enay, the 
 Seneschal. 262, 267-68, 271 
 
 K 
 
 Kafer Tab, 145, 162, 164 
 Kalai'in, Sultan of Egypt, 414-16 
 Kc.mil, Sultan of Egypt, 376-79, 
 
 381, 385, 400, 409 
 Kerak, 262-63, 273, 277, 339, 
 
 361, 2>^^, Z7^, Z'>^7 
 Kerak and Montreal, lordship of, 
 
 116-17 
 Kerak and Montreal, Lords of, 
 
 see Philip of Nablus, Reginald 
 
 of Chalillon 
 Kernk des Chevaliers, 115, 178, 
 
 361-62 
 Khalil, Sultan of Egypt, 416-17, 
 
 419 
 Khartpert, 162-65 
 Kilij Arslan I., Sultan of Rum, 
 
 39, 54, 106, 144, 146 
 Kilij Arslan II., Sultan of Rum, 
 
 230, 311-12 
 Knights, see Hospitallers, Tem- 
 plars, Teutonic, Thomas of 
 
 Acre 
 Kutb-ed-din, Atabek of Mosul, 
 
 238, 243 
 Kutuz, Sultan of Egypt, 413 
 
 Latin Empire of Constantinople, 
 
 370-71 
 Laodicea, 86, 97, 99, 113, 133, 
 
 156, 254, 295 
 Laodicea in Asia Minor, 215, 311 
 Lebanon, 81, in, 259 
 Leo of Armenia, 312, 368, 372, 
 
 375, 377, 385 
 Leopold of Austria, 326, 374, 376 
 Louis VI., King of France, 180, 
 
 189, 209, 318 
 Louis VII., King of France, 207, 
 
 209-20, 265 
 Louis IX., King of France, 187, 
 
 209, 288, 386, 392-404, 410, 
 
 412, 442, 446, 451 
 
 Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, 
 
 318, 322 
 Lulu, ruler of Aleppo, 150, 153 
 Lusignan, see Geoffrey, Guy, and 
 
 Cyprus, Kings of 
 Lydda, 1 16-17, 255, 337 
 
 M 
 
 Malek Shah, Seljuk Sultan, 19, 
 
 21, 144, 197 
 Mamluks, 195, 203, 255, 400, 
 
 409, 413 
 Manbij, 164, 201 
 Mansurah, 398 
 Manuel Comnenus, Emperor, 
 
 193, 212, 214-15, 228-30, 235- 
 
 36, 244, 248, 252, 290, 365 
 Mardin, no, 112, 147, 151, 198, 
 
 204, 264 
 Markab, 115, 178, 361, 414 
 Marra, 78-81, 113 
 Marseilles, 296, 313, 365, 386, 
 
 392, 394, 437 
 Mary of Antioch, 405, 410 
 Mary, Queen of Jerusalem, 373 
 Masud, Sultan of Iconium or Riim, 
 
 201, 205 
 Masud (Zangid), Atabek of Mosul, 
 
 257. 259-60, 263-64 
 Maudud of Mosul (Seljuk), 146- 
 
 51, 198 
 Melisend, Queen of Jerusalem, 
 
 167, 189, 194-95, 208, 224-26 
 Messina, 313-4, 365 
 Milo de Planci, 245, 250 
 Mohammed, Seljuk Sultan, 144, 
 
 146-47, 151 
 Mons Ferrandus, 190-91 
 Montferrat, see Conrad, William 
 Montreal, 117, 139, 361 
 Montreal, lords of Kerak and, see 
 
 Kerak 
 Mosul, 144, 146-47, 15 1 » 197-99, 
 
 201, 203, 238, 243, 259-60, 
 
 263-64 
 Mosul, rulers of, see Borsoki, 
 
 Corbogha,. Javaly, Jekermish, 
 
 Kutb-ed-din, Masud, Maudud 
 Musa (Ayubite), Sultan of Egypt, 
 . 400 
 
464 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 N 
 Nablus, 88, 116, 118, 126, 224, 
 
 246, 262, 274-75, 299, 3^7 
 Nablus, Philip of, see Philip 
 Nazareth, 117, 157,223, 246,261, 
 
 274-75> 298, 300, 347, 381 
 Nesles,John de, ^^r John 
 Nicgea, 16, 19, 39, 84, 214-15, 350 
 Nicholas IV., Pope, 416, 419-20 
 Nisibis, 198, 201, 259-60 
 Normandy, Robert of, see Robert 
 Normans, 20, 22-3. 49, 211, 443 ; 
 
 see also Bohemond, Robert, 
 
 Tancred 
 Norwegians and the Crusades, 
 
 the, 132-33* 364-65, 437 
 Nur-ed-din, Atabek of Aleppo, 
 
 177, 203, 205-6, 223, 227-28, 
 
 230-43, 246-48 
 
 Odo of Deuil, historian, 211, 214, 
 
 216 
 Odo de St. Amand, Master of the 
 
 Temple, 246, 256 
 Orontes, 65, 68, 81, 113, 197, 199, 
 
 201, 264 
 Ortok, 21, 144, 203 
 Ortokids, 203 ; see Balak, II- 
 
 Ghazi, Sokman 
 Ossama, 228, 232 
 Ottoman Turks, 421-22 
 
 Papacy and the Crusades, the, 20, 
 24, 28, 207, 306-7, 369-70, 374, 
 380-83, 386, 396, 400-1, 416, 
 419-20, 428-32 
 
 Pelagius, Cardinal legate, 376-78 
 
 Peter Bartholomew, 73, 78-80, 
 82-4, 94 
 
 I ter the Hermit, 26-8, 35-9, 51, 
 87, 96 
 
 Peterde Lusignan, King of Cyprus, 
 
 423 
 Philip, Bishop of Beauvais, 318, 
 
 330, 340 
 Philip, Duke of Burgundy, 285, 
 
 334, 339-40, 343 
 Philip, Count of Flanders, 252-54, 
 
 307, 328 
 
 Philip I., King oi France, 28, 145, 
 
 188 
 Philip Augustus, King of France., 
 
 251, 265, 269, 307-9, 313-15, 
 
 324-31, 337,339, 348, 351,369, 
 
 373, 378, 392 
 Philip III., King of France, 401, 
 
 403 
 Philip IV., King of France, 181, 
 
 184 
 Philip of Nablns, 117,300 
 Philippopolis, 43, 51, 311 
 Physicians, 230, 240, 246, 443 
 Piacenza, Council of, 28 
 Pilgrims and Pilgrimages, 2-4, 6- 
 
 17, 27, 85, 98, 118, 120, 171, 
 
 188-89, 226, 237, 257, 298, 
 
 318, 347, 423-24, 442 
 Pisans, the, 98, 133, 271, 294-96, 
 
 340,364,410-11 
 Pons, Count of Tripoli, 116, 151, 
 
 155, 158, 167, 189-91,453 
 Popes; see Eugenius, Gregory, 
 
 Innocent, Nicholas, Urban 
 Portugal and the Crusades, 220, 
 
 313, 428 
 Pullani, the, 294, 296, 41 1 ; see 
 
 also Syrian Franks 
 
 R 
 
 Ralph of Caen, historian, 95, 440 
 
 Rakka, 198, 201, 299 
 
 Ramleh, 84, 117, 132, 136-38, 
 
 140, 255, 337-38, 344 
 Ramleh, Baldwin of, see Baldwin 
 Raymond of Agiles, historian, 47, 
 
 57, 73, 75, 82-3, 86, 91, 95-6, 
 
 440 
 Raymond, Prince of Antioch, 190- 
 
 93,217, 219 
 Raymond du Puy, Master of the 
 
 Hospital, 171, 177, 185, 227 
 Raymond Pilet, 77, 83, 86 
 Raymond of Toulouse, or St. 
 
 Gilles, 32, 34, 45-8, 53-5, 58, 
 
 66-7, 69, 72-4, T], 79-82, 85, 
 
 88, 90,92, 93, 95-8, 104-6, 116, 
 
 156-57, 352 
 Raymond I., Count of Tripoli, 
 
 158, 191, 217 
 Raymond II., Count of Tripoli 
 
tNDBX. 
 
 465 
 
 158, 229, 242, 247, 250-51, 256- 
 
 57, 266-68, 270-77, 302-3 
 Red Sea, 139, 299-300, 364 
 Reginald of Chatillon, Prince of 
 Antioch and Lord of Kerak, 
 117, 228-30, 241, 252, 257, 
 262, 268-69, 271, 273, 276-77, 
 
 291, 303> 303> 364 
 Reginald, Loidof Sidon,268, 291, 
 
 339 
 
 Rhodes, Knights of St. John at, 
 
 184, 187, 422, 449 
 Richard, Earl of Cornwall, 187, 
 
 387 
 Richard I., King of England, 177, 
 
 180, 280, 285-86, 307-9, 313- 
 
 15, 324-48, 351-53, 358, 360, 
 
 365. 367, 369, 370, 437-38, 
 
 444,451 
 Richard Filangier, 384 
 Ridhwan (Seljuk) of Aleppo, 78, 
 
 144-47, 149-50 
 Robert, Count of Artois, 396, 398 
 Robert I., of Flanders, 21 
 Robert II., of Flanders, 49, 56, 58, 
 
 66-7, 72, 85, 88, 95, 103 
 Robert Ckiiscard, 20, 23-5 
 Robert, Duke of Normandy, 49- 
 
 51, 55-8, 66, 74, 76, 85, 93-7, 
 
 103, 134 
 Roger FitzRichard, Trince of 
 
 Antioch, 115, 135, i49-55> 359 
 Roger, King of Sicily, 190, 211, 
 
 214 
 Romances and the Crusades, 101, 
 
 284-85, 443-45 
 Riim, 39, 144, 248 ; see also Icon- 
 
 ium 
 Rum, Sultans of, see Kilij Arslan, 
 
 Masud 
 
 Safed, 117, 178, 277, 361, 404, 414 
 Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, 187, 
 235-37, 239, 243-45, 247, 255- 
 64, 268, 270, 273, 275-81, 284, 
 292, 300-1, 303, 306, 319-26, 
 331-34, 338-40, 342, 344-47, 
 351, 364, 367-69 
 Saleh Ayub, Sultan of Egypt, 385, 
 400 
 
 Salisbury, Earl ©f, see William 
 
 Longsword 
 Samosata, 61-2, 112 
 Saphadin, see Adel (El Adel 
 
 Sayf-ed-din Abu Bekr) 
 Saruj, 62, 112 
 Sa)^f-ed-din (Zangid) of Mosul, 
 
 203, 238 
 Seljuks, 19, 448 ; Seljuk sultans 
 
 and princes, see Barkiyarok, 
 
 Kilij Arslan, Malek Shah, 
 
 Masud, Maudud, Mohammed, 
 
 Ridhwan, Tutush 
 Sepphoris, 117, 258-59, 261, 
 
 275. 300 
 Sepulchre, the Holy, 6, 16, 18, 
 
 91, 97, 100, 120, 123, 134, 140, 
 
 196, 230, 266, 271-2, 278, 343, 
 
 347, 381782 , 
 Shawir, Vizir of Egypt, 232-33, 
 
 235-36 
 Shirkuh (Ayubite), Vizir of Egypt, 
 
 233-36, 242 
 Shobek, see Montreal 
 Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem, 
 
 251-52, 256, 266, 271-72, 
 
 329 
 
 Sicily, 45, 248, 257, 308-9, 313- 
 
 14, 324, 328, 369, 404, 439 
 Sicily, Kings of, see Roger, 
 
 William 
 Sidon, 133, 138-39, 156, 294, 321, 
 
 330, 363, 401-2 
 Sidon, Lords of, see Gerard, 
 
 Reginald, Walter 
 Sidon, Lordship of, 116-18 
 Sigurd, 133, 364-65 
 Simon de Mont fort, 387 
 Sinjar, 199, 257, 260, 264 
 Sokman ibn Ortok, 21, 144-46 
 Spain and the Crusades, 180-81, 
 
 308, m, 386, 391, 401, 411, 
 
 428 
 Stephen of Burgundy, 104-6, 136 
 Stephen of Chartres and Blois, , 
 
 49, 50, 55, 71-2, 103-6, 136/ 
 Syrians, 126, 128, 292-94 ; 
 
 Syrian Franks, the, 218, 220, 
 
 282-83, 294, 296-97, 302-3, 
 
 329, 337, ZZ9, 341- 348, 368, 
 
 411*448 
 
466 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Tabarie, see Tiberias 
 
 Tancred, Prince of Antioch, 45, 
 52-4, 56, 58-60, 85-8, 91-2, 
 95-6, 100, 106, 117, 134, 138- 
 39, 143-49. 156, 290 
 
 Tarsus, 59-60, 106, 113, 143, 
 192, 217, 229, 261, 312, 371 
 
 Tartars, the, 288, 385-86, 391, 
 409, 412-14 
 
 Tell-basher, 78, 147, 149, 164, 
 201-2 
 
 Templars, the, 120, 122, 170-74, 
 176-87, 189, 208,219, 227, 232- 
 33, 235, 244-46, 255-56, 268, 
 271, 275, 287-88,319, 326, 333, 
 361,370,377, 383, 389, 396-98, 
 410-11, 413, 416-18, 431, 438 
 
 Temple of the Lord, or Templum 
 Domini, 6, 120-21, 157, 266, 
 298, 381 
 
 Temple of Solomon, 91-2, 120- 
 21, 171 
 
 Temple, Knights of the, see Tem- 
 plars 
 
 Temple, Masters of the, see Ber- 
 nard de Tremelay, Gerard de 
 Rideford, Hugh de Payen, 
 Odo de St. Amand 
 
 Teutonic knights, 182-83, 294, 
 389, 413, 429, 437 
 
 Theobald of Navarre, 386-87 
 
 Theodoric of Flanders, 189, 
 227-28, 301 
 
 Thomas of Acre, knights of St. , 
 
 183 
 Tiberias, 100, 117, 138-39, 149, 
 
 157, 159. 198, 200, 217, 223, 
 
 258, 273, 275-76, 299 
 Toron, 116, ii8, 363, 370; see 
 
 Henfrid 
 Tortosa, 133, 178-79, 183, 298, 
 
 316, 361 
 Tripoli, 99, 115, 133, 148, 229- 
 
 30, 242, 244, 257, 295-96, 299, 
 
 309, 414 
 
 Tripoli, Counts of, see Bertram, 
 Pons, Raymond, William Jor- 
 dan 
 
 Tripoli, County of, 11 5-16, 156- 
 58, 361 
 
 Tudebode, historian, 72, 440 
 Tughtakin, Atabek of Damascus, 
 
 139, 145, 150, 151, 165-66, 195 
 Tunis, 401-4 
 Turan Shah (Ayubite), Sultan of 
 
 Egypt, 400 
 Turcoples, 154, 173, 175, 178, 
 
 363 
 Turks, see Seljuks, Ottomans 
 Tutush (Seljuk), 21, 144-45 
 Tyre, 97, 118, 129, 133, 139, 
 156, 165-68, 224, 228, 244, 259, 
 266, 277, 295-96, 298-99, 309, 
 317, 320-21, 323, 325, 330, 
 340-41, 350, 364, 373, 409, 
 412, 418 
 Tyre, William, Archbishop of, see 
 WiUiam 
 
 U 
 
 Urban II., pope, 26-32, 49, 207, 
 446-47 
 
 Venetians, the, 100, 133, 166, 
 294-96, 364, 37 1 > 410-11, 414, 
 423, 436-37, 449 
 
 Vezelay, 210, 313 
 
 Vitry, James de, see James 
 
 W 
 
 Walter de Brienne, Count of 
 Jaffa, 117, 388-89 
 
 Walter Grener, Lord of Caesarea, 
 118, 194 
 
 Walter the Penniless, 37-9, 51 
 
 William, Duke of Aquitaine, 104, 
 106, 136 
 
 William de Bures, Prince of Gali- 
 lee, 118, 167 
 
 William Jordan, Count of Tripoli, 
 116, 157-58 
 
 William Longsword, Earl of Salis- 
 bury, 396-98 
 
 William of Montferrat, 251-52, 
 266, 329 
 
 William IL, King of Sicily, 248, 
 308-9 
 
 William of Tyre, historian, 66, 
 125, 128, 141, 157, 170, I77» 
 
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