THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
Heinrich v. Sybel
PAST I.—HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
CHAPTER I.
Mahomet.—Project of the
Mahomedans.—Charlemagne.—Fall of the Empire.—Depressed State of the
World.—Pilgrimages.— The Church and the Pope.—Pope Gregory vii.—Pope Urban ii.—The First Crusade
CHAPTER II.
The First Crusaders.—Peter the
Hermit.—Arrival at Constantinople.—Quarrels among the
Turks.—The Emir Bagi Sijan.— Siege of Antioch.—Sufferings of the
Christians.—March upon Jerusalem.—Godfrey at Jerusalem.—Enthusiasm
caused by the Crusades.—Poetry of the Crusades.—The Taking of the Cross at
Clermont.—The Leaguer of Antioch.—The Gathering of the Paynim.—Godfrey of
Bouillon
CHAPTER iii.
Baldwin ii.—Quarrels among the Princes.—Luxury
of the Crusaders.—Zenki
the Bloody Prince.—Reaction against the Church.—Troubled State of Europe.—St.
Bernard.—The Second Crusade.—Wreck of the Second
Crusade.—Noureddin. —Caution of Noureddin.—Rise of Saladin.—Saladin's Supremacy.—Decline of the Frankish States.—Danger of
the Christians
CHAPTER iv.
The West rises to
Arms.—Preparations in the East.—Siege of Ptolemais.—Frederick Barbarossa.—Death
of Frederick Bar-barossa.—Quarrels among the Princes.—Richard Coeur-de Lion.—Negotiations.—Treaty
with Saladin.—Fresh Outbreak of War.—Three Years' Armistice.—Failure of the
Crusades. —Relations between the East and West.—Destruction of Eastern
Civilization.—Triumph of Christianity
PART II.—LITERATURE
OF THE CRUSADES.
CHAPTER
I.
The Emperor Alexius.—Urban
II.—Stephen of Blois.—Anselm of Ripemont.—Bohemund and Others.—Raymond of Agiles.— Gesta Ersjicorum.—Tudebod.—Guibert, Abbot of Nogent
—Baldric, Archbishop of DoL—History of the Holy War.— Henry of
Huntingdon.—Fulco, Gilo, and the Monk Robert.— Fulcher of
Chart res.—Liziard of Tours.—William of Malmes-bury.—Ordericus Vitalis.—Rodolph
of Caen.—Ekkehard of Urach.—Dodechin
CHAPTER II.
Albert of Aix.—Probable Origin of
the Narrative.—Profusion of Detail.—Discrepancies in his
Narrative.—Richness of Inven-. tion.—No dependence on his Facts
CHAPTER III.
William of Tyre.—His Birth and
Education.—General Character of the Work.—Character of William of
Tyre.—Narrative of the First Crusade.—Its defective
colouring.—William of Tyre a Mediator between Legend and History
CHAPTER IV. Epochs of a later
Literature. —Scholasticus Oliver.—Vincent, Bishop of Beauvais.—The Luneburg
Chronicle.—Matthew of Westminster.—John of Ypres and
others.—Platina.—Legends of the Crusades.—Ariosto.—Jacob
de Vitiy.—Matthew of Paris. —Petrarch.—The Treasurer Bernhard.—Archbishop
Antonine of Florence.—Benedictus Acoolti.—George Nauclerus.—Paulua Emilias of
Verona.—Thomas Fuller.—Father Maimbourg.— Voltaire.—Do Guignes.—Mailly.—Maier, Heller, and Haken. —Mills.—Lebeau.—St.
Maurice.—Wilken.—Von Raumer.— Van Earn pen.—Schlosser.—Michaud.—Capefigue
HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
CHAPTER
I.
The subject of these pages, that series of great wars which we designate as
the Crusades, is one of the greatest revolutions that has ever taken place in
the history of the human race. They have been repeatedly described in various
instructive and celebrated works,
and without doubt there are few who have not heard of those armed pilgrimages
to the Holy Land; of the fame of Peter the Hermit and Godfrey of Bouillon, of
the feats of Richard the Lion-hearted, or of the sufferings of St. Louis.
Nevertheless the interest and importance
of such events is, from its very nature, inexhaustible.
During their progress a universal change takes place in the condition of the
nations involved in them; and every new commentator must find fresh subject for
interest and instruction according to his own requirements and inclinations. This may also be said of the
wars of the Persians, of the migration of the northern hordes, or, after them,
of the Reformation and the French Revolution. Each of these events, like the
Crusades, marks a new epoch in the state of Europe; and it shall
be my task to place these last plainly before you under this aspect, although,
with such an extensive subject, this narrative can at best
only assume the proportions of a slight sketch.
We cannot understand the importance of the Crusades if we look upon
them as a mere sequel and extension of the pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Such a
complete change in the history of the world does not arise out of such
insignificant causes. The Crusades must be regarded as one great portion of the struggle between the two great
religions of the world, Christianity and Mahomedanism; a struggle which began
in the seventh century, on the confines of Arabia and Syria, and embraced in
quick succession all the countries round the Mediterranean,
and after thousands of years and changes has disturbed our own century,
as it did that of Gregory VII. The history of the human race records no contest more violent or more protracted than this. There is
none which filled a greater arena; none which roused the passions or the capabilities of the people to a greater degree. When the prophet Mahomet
began his career at Mecca, Arabia was hardly known to the rest of the world.
Fifty years after his death his followers were already
ruling the land from the Indus in the East, the Caucasus in the North, to the
coasts of the Atlantic in the West. The world never
before saw a quicker or more complete invasion. Mahomet had succeeded in
setting the ardent imaginations of his countrymen on
fire with the idea of a holy war. In short, vigorous sentences, he preached to
them the greatness and power of one Almighty God. He did not reason or explain,
but he carried men away with him. He painted the rewards of Paradise and the
tortures of the damned in glowing colours; and his whole
religion was contained in these words: Obedience to God and to His Prophet. His
teaching was the announcement of a new rule, without dogmatic mystery, and
without any philosophical foundation. Man could alone be just in that he learned God's will from the Prophet, and then fulfilled the Prophet's ordinances. God does not deliver, but he rules; and religion is not to become one with him, but to
obey him implicitly. Thus, his mission from the first was not one of instruction, but of subjugation; unbelievers were rebels, who were to be
smitten with the edge of the sword, and forced to conform to his doctrines, or to pay tribute. War necessarily arose out of the first
principles of his religion; and no sooner was he acknowledged in Mecca than he
sent threatening admonitions to the Persian King and the Byzantine Emperor. The
scorn with which they answered the unknown fanatic,
was met by the most furious attacks; neither Roman nor Persian troops were
able to withstand the masses of brave men, which, with the rapidity of
lightning, inexhaustible, and with exulting contempt of death, spread in
torrents over the country. They had no other thought than fanaticism for the Caliph, no other delight than war against
the infidel, no other hope than entrance into Paradise. They were men with but
few wants, brave in battle, and insensible to fatigue, easily put in motion,
and equally untiring; inaccessible both to luxury and to civilization. They dwell, says one of their poets, beneath the shadow of
their lances, and cook their food upon the ashes of the conquered towns.
In the year 715 these hordes had overrun all Western Asia, the whole
northern coast of Africa, and Spain, even beyond the Pyrenees.
Muza, the ambitious conqueror of Spain, conceived
the plan, which, though vast, was not too extensive for men accustomed to
subdue the world; —by two great simultaneous attacks to render the whole of Christendom subservient to the Prophet.
For this purpose an army was to advance from Asia Minor towards Constantinople,
and another to march across the Pyrenees upon the empire of the Franks; then
from east and west to unite their triumphant forces in Rome, the centre of
Christianity. Luckily for Europe, Muza at this time fell into disgrace with the
Caliph, and his great project was only carried into effect piecemeal, and
consequently without success. He began by attacking Constantinople, and blockaded that town for three years by sea and land. The Emperor
Leo III. defended himself with great courage, destroyed the Mahomedan fleet
with the newly invented Greek fire, and at last, in 718, forced their army to
retire. Ten years then elapsed before the empire of the Franks was
attacked in the west. In Muza's time this attack might have been successful,
because the Franks were then torn by internal discord. Since then, however,
Charles Martel, one of the bravest warriors of any time, had taken his place at the head of the Frankish empire; he beat the Arabian and
African hordes in six hotly contested battles at Poitiers. The people of the
East, says one of the Spanish historians, the German race, men deep-chested,
quick-eyed, and iron-handed, have crushed the Arabs. After this
double failure the great onslaught of Islam was checked. Christendom had suffered much; it had
lost its birthplace, Palestine, and its earliest Churches in Asia Minor and Africa; but it had saved its existence, and soon after Charles Martel's
death it found a representative of its unity and power in his grandson
Charlemagne, who, as Emperor of Western Christendom, extorted some
acknowledgment even from the Caliph himself. The
struggle between the two religions now remained in abeyance for some centuries,
except some insignificant feuds on the frontiers of
Spain, in the Italian Isles, and on the coast of Asia Minor, as symptoms of the
smouldering embers of discord.
From this moment the inward development of the two
worlds totally opposed. In the Mussulman country the religious
element had thrown all others into the shade; religious warfare was the sole
occupation of the inhabitants, and supremacy of the Caliph was the sole basis of political life. After the ninth century, this distinctive
peculiarity was broken down on all sides. Earthly enjoyments, secular culture, and national independence asserted their power; the arts
and sciences flourished extensively ; the dominion of the Caliph was broken, and limited to spiritual supremacy; on every
side temporal institutions sprang up under and
around him; political, intellectual, and manufacturing interests displaced the enthusiasm for the war of
faith. Islam as a conquering religion lost its terrors, and its warlike power
fell into gradual decay. This change from fanaticism to culture, was in reality
the greatest gain to the Mahomedans; and to this period belongs nearly
everything effected by Islam for the real or lasting
interests of humanity, for intellectual progress and the
refinement of manners.
In the West, things took a different course. While the Mahomedans
attained political life and intellectual progress at the expense of
religious vigour and unity, the European nations, from
the ninth to the eleventh century, confined themselves more and more
exclusively within the narrow ecclesiastical paths. This tendency is visible
even in Charlemagne. The worldly, political, and
national elements are brilliantly represented in his reign
: the imperial dignity was restored and endowed with unprecedented power; and the Pope of Rome was subservient
to him like any other bishop of his dominions. Science of every description was
fostered, ancient Roman writers imitated, old German
heroic legends collected. But with all this Charlemagne looked upon his
imperial mission as more particularly a religious one. On the first Diet
after his coronation, he orders, that now the imperial dignity is restored, all men are to entertain the true belief in the Trinity, and to lead a godly life in Christ. Wherever he discovered, within the limits of the Empire, defects in church government, remains of
heathenism, or schismatic tendencies, he opposed them with the whole weight of
the power of the State. He had no foreign war more at heart than that against
the barbarians, that is to say, the heathens, the Saracens in
Spain, the pagan Germans, Danes, and Slaves. Where he conquered he converted;
and although the spreading of Christianity was useful in consolidating the temporal power of the State, yet the first feeling was that
the Emperor was lord of the world, and the
defender of true belief on earth.
The clergy and all ranks of the people held the same ideas. We are
accustomed now to look upon religion as a purely personal and intimate feeling,
the closest, and at the same time freest intercourse of each individual soul
with God, a conviction of the heart, which is only of value in so far as it is
of inward and spontaneous growth. In those ancient times men strove, it is
true, to attain this frame of mind; but they were convinced that the only true path to it was by the outward observances of the Church.
These therefore were enforced by penal laws, and force of arms; religion was
looked upon above all as the direct command of God; and whoever did not profess the true faith, was persecuted
as a rebel against the majesty of the Lord.
Soon after the death of Charlemagne, the Empire fell to pieces, the
organization of the State was dissolved, and anarchy spread over the
whole of Charlemagne's former
dominions, Germany, France, and Italy. It is true that Germany raised herself
from this second period of disorder, to unity and power, under the great
Imperial House of Saxony, under Henry I., and Otho the Great. For a moment the
glory of the Carlovingians seemed renewed; half Europe
recognized the power of the Emperor of Germany, and under his vigorous
protection, German song and the study of antique art put
forth rich blossom. But this edifice was fated to last no longer than that
raised by the Carlovingians. No sooner had Otho the Great
closed his eventful career, than one country after
another tore itself away from the Imperial supremacy, France and Burgundy, Italy and Poland, the Wends and the Danes. Meanwhile none of these
succeeded in establishing for themselves any lasting
government; the monarchies sank into a state of
complete impotence; unruly petty tyrants trampled all
social order underfoot, and all attempts after scientific
instruction and artistic pleasures, were as effectually crushed by this state of general insecurity, as the external well-being and material life of the people. This was a dark and stormy period
for Europe, merciless, arbitrary, and
violent. In Germany a few powerful sovereigns maintained a commanding
position for a time: such were Conrad II. and Henry III., men of iron will,
like their followers. But with them the imaginative impulse, the bright hope,
and the mental activity, which distinguished the days of Otho the Great, were wanting. It is a sign of the prevailing feeling of misery
and hopelessness, that when the first thousand years of our era were drawing to
a close, •the people in every country in Europe looked with certainty for the
destruction of the world. Some squandered their wealth in
riotous living, others bestowed it for the good of their souls on churches and
convents: weeping masses lay day and night around the altars; some looked
forward with dread, but most with secret hope, towards the burning of the earth and the falling in of heaven. Their actual condition was so
miserable, that the idea of destruc tion was relief, spite of all its terrors.
In this hopeless and depressed condition of the world, men's thoughts
turned, as is always the case in any great tribulation, towards Heaven, for
God's salvation and refreshment. All other interests had become worthless; no
possession and no existence was safe from rude force; nowhere was to be found,
after the splendid line of the Othos had passed away, a character or a great idea capable of exciting the imagination of a noble heart. There was nothing for the deadened race
of mankind to hold to, save religion: and, at last, a state of feeling arose,
full of the bitterest hatred against this earthly
world; and, burning with desire for the joys of Heaven, men fled from their
families, occupations, and neighbours; they tore themselves from all worldly
ties: the son abandoned his parents, the husband his wife; the vassal left his feudal lord, and the prince his people. Monasteries were
more filled than ever; new orders were instituted, the rules and practices rose
to the highest degree of asceticism and penance. Monastic
seclusion soon ceased to satisfy the growing desire
to fly from the world and those who dwelt in it. Men sought the depths of the
forest, the loneliness of mountains, or the untrodden wilderness, in order to
mortify the flesh in solitude, and turn their thoughts, with undisturbed zeal, on immediate intercourse with God, his angels, or
his saints. They awoke, with convulsive terror, to the
consciousness of their sins; they spent night after night in breathless
pleadings for enlightenment and grace; their fancy drove them in perpetual
change, through images of infernal torture, and divine
beatitude, till at length a moment of exhaustion and ecstasy
succeeded,—refreshing and dazzling visions gave to the struggling heart a certainty of union with God. In order to understand the character
and deeds of that time, we must not for a moment lose sight of this mystical
excitement, full of contempt of this world; we must not forget that it was the
only thing that touched the imagination of that century, and that it was then a common and everyday occurrence. More
particularly in France, Spain, and Italy, the three countries which spoke the
Roman tongue, this feeling was spread through all classes, and pervaded every
order. Every happiness, every earthly enjoyment, was
deemed dangerous. The body was looked upon as the dead weight which hindered
the soul in its flight to heaven. Men turned with contempt from
science and art. " Upon such toys," wrote the celebrated English Bishop Lanfranc, " upon such toys we have wasted our youth, but now we have cast them from us." The duties
of a patriot, a subject, and a citizen, lost their value and power, under the
ruling passion of that age, because they belonged to this mortal and corrupted
world. Men no longer had any perception
of that plain human feeling which sees God's service in useful labour, and
which feels the support of God's presence in the monotony of everyday life.
Such feeling was not enough for those overheated imaginations. They wanted to
see the Divinity with mortal eyes, and to grasp the
mystery with the bodily senses.
Owing to the condition of public feeling, pilgrims and palmers became more
numerous than ever before. There was, indeed, hardly any other intercourse between nations; commerce hardly existed, and no one thought of
travelling for pleasure, as the smallest journey was attended with difficulties
and dangers of every kind. But many thousands of people went every year to the
famous Abbeys of Clugny or Monte Casino, to the graves of the Apostles, to Rome, or to St. Jago di Compostella; and, above all, crossed
the sea to Palestine, to the land which Christ trod, and to the rock which is
said to have been his grave. High and low took part with equal zeal. Within the space of thirty years, we find in Jerusalem two Counts of Flanders,
one Count of Toulouse, one Duke of Normandy, and a number of German bishops,
all filled with the same belief, that they stood on the threshold of Heaven,
and all equally horror-struck that unbelieving Mussulmans were
desecrating this holy place. When religious enthusiasm had impregnated mankind
to such a degree, anger against the unbeliever arose
of its own accord, and war against the false religion appeared to be the most
holy and praiseworthy action. Wherever the war against Islam had lasted, it now gained fresh vigour and
life from the quantities of volunteers who flocked to victory, or
death and Paradise, under
the banner of the Cross. l3urgundians, Provencals, and Normans, helped the Spanish king to besiege the Caliph of
Cordova, and to take Toledo. The Normans from Naples settled themselves in
Sicily; and the fleets of Pisa and Genoa, decked with Papal flags, stormed the
harbour of Palermo. Thus the Christian faith became
in time the badge of a great system of national defensive and offensive
alliance, which was animated by a sacred fire, and eager for deadly warfare
against all unbelievers. If •from the seventh to the ninth centuries, Islam had harassed the Christian nations by its vigorous aggressions, now, in the eleventh, came the day of reckoning, in a no
less violent attack, on the part of Christendom, upon the whole Mahomedan
world.
Every great war must have a commander-in-chief
to direct, and a ruler to command it. In the days of Charlemagne and Otho,
Christendom possessed such a leader in the person of the Emperor. Now that was
at an end, for the Imperial power was barely tolerated by the German and
Italian nobility, and not recognized at all by the rest of
Europe. To fill up this void, and give to the Latin world a new head, the same
ecclesiastical spirit which bad roused the war against Islam was now at work.
Temporal sovereigns did not appear capable of leading
mankind to salvation: they were worldly and sinful, like the rest. There existed on earth but one institution in which the Spirit of
God constantly and actively manifested itself; this was the
Church with its servants, and its head, the Pope. They, and they alone, were
called upon to govern the earth. Now that the Emperor
had become incapable of representing the Christian
world, the Pope was quite ready to grasp the temporal as well as the
spiritual power, and in the character of chief military commander of Europe to
begin the crusade against Mahomedan Asia. Pope Gregory VII. was the first Pope
who assumed this position in the face of Europe in its full force and extent.
Gregory was without doubt one of the most remarkable
men of any age. Never, as far as we know, has religious enthusiasm been united
with such far-sighted policy, or spiritual fanaticism with such pronounced
talents for government. Hilde-brand, as he was originally named, was the son
of a poor carpenter in a small Tuscan town. He received his first instruction
in Rome, but soon fled in disgust from the lawless profligacy of that town to
the retirement of the convent. There, like hundreds of others, he had prayed, watched, and scourged himself, and had experienced
ecstatic delights, tearful penitence and
humiliation, had shared the belief that only by thus renouncing the world could Heaven be gained. An unexpected occurrence however soon
gave a different impulse to his life. The Church was in the same state of
disorganization as the temporal power; the Emperor Henry III., bent upon
enforcing order and discipline, did not hesitate to intervene even in Rome, deposed three contending Popes, and appointed their successor
himself. The young monk, who was personally attached to one of the three
dethroned Popes, accompanied him into exile in Germany, equally indignant at
the corruption of the Church on the one hand, and the attempts to cure it by the profane
intervention of Imperial power on the other. He had brought
the idea with him from his monastery that all the powers of this world were as
nothing compared to the glory of the Church. That a layman, even though the Emperor himself, and with the most praiseworthy intentions,
should dare to dictate to the Church, filled Hilde-brand with holy indignation;
and this it was that suddenly aroused his eminently practical nature from the
unproductive contemplation of monastic life. Not to flee from
the world, but to redeem it by absolute submission to the purified Church, became henceforth the task of his existence. In the year 1048 news came
to Germany of the death of the new Pope, and the Emperor instantly named the Bishop of Toul as the future head of the Church.
gregory vii.
He—Leo IX.—whose honest and unassuming piety was at first alarmed by
the difficulties of his new calling, turned to Hildebrand for help, and
requested him to come to Rome as his adviser. The answer
was a resolute refusal. He could serve no Pope who held his office by virtue of
an Imperial decree. His personal character and appearance were even then so
commanding that the Pope trembled before the simple monk. Leo promised to go a barefooted pilgrim to Rome, and there to submit to the
canonical election. Hildebrand, mollified by this, became henceforth the sopl of the Papal government, till he ascended the
throne of the Vatican himself in the year 1073.
Scarcely had he grasped the reins of
ecclesiastical government when this carpenter's son
developed such a universal genius for riding as has only since been displayed
in the two greatest self-made men of modern history—Cromwell and Bonaparte. He
had the knowledge, the ability, and the will, to do
everything. He became a reformer of the Church, a statesman, and a conqueror, a
demagogue and a diplomatist, all with equal vigour and masterly skill. While
his conviction rested unshaken on a steadfast belief in God's directing power, he knew that God compassed his ends by means of human
agencies, and was unceasing in his endeavours to employ every earthly means for the consolidation of his spiritual power. In the height of his enthusiasm he went further than
any man had dared to dream of doing before him. " All princes," he
wrote, " shall kiss the Pope's foot; he alone shall wear the imperial insignia; he alone is answerable towards God for the sins of
kings." " When Christ," he again wrote, " said
to Peter, * Feed my sheep/ he did not except kings; what king has ever
performed miracles like so many popes and lowly monks
?" He accordingly demanded, on no other title
than this religious one, the oath of allegiance from
the King of England, declared Spain to be the property of St. Peter,
summoned the Kings of Poland and the Russian Czars to appear before his
tribunal, declared the Emperor Henry IV. of Germany deposed, and made his
antagonist Rudolph promise homage and allegiance to him. For these schemes,
which embraced the whole of Europe, he strengthened himself by retirement and daily sincere and anxious prayer. " I behold
myself," he wrote to the Abbot of Clugny, " so sunk in sin that
prayer from my lips is of no avail. My life, indeed, is blameless,
but my actions are of this world; therefore do I entreat you beseech the devout to pray for me." A longing after the
contemplative quiet of the cloister dwelt in the mind of the proud prince of
the Church amid the struggle
for supremacy in the world.- it
was the root of his nature and the source of his power. Fortified anew by devotion, he again rushed into the thick of the fight, in
order to enforce by worldly weapons that obedience which he had already demanded from kings as his due. He gained adherents
in all countries, and bound them by solemn oaths and military organization to
follow his guidance. In Germany Duke Guelf, of Bavaria,
consented to hold his dominions on feudal tenure from the Pope. In
France a knightly army was assembled for his service by the great Counts of
Burgundy and Toulouse and the renowned Abbot of Clugny. In Italy he relied on
his alliances with the Norman Duke of Naples and the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, while zealous fanatics excited the
populace of the Lombard cities in his behalf. In a word, Gregory did not for an instant rest satisfied with establishing a universal supremacy over crowned heads, but without
hesitation took their subjects into his own allegiance; he was on
the high-road to the destruction of all the existing
governments of the-world, in order that he might embody them in his great
spiritual dominion. This was but the commencement of strife, attack, and
turmoil; and, as was to be expected, opposition to such an
unheard-of system arose in every quarter; but the plan of the
edifice was drawn by a mighty hand, and the temporal supremacy of the Popes was
announced as a new spiritual and warlike impersonation
of Christianity.
This power at once turned its attention to foreign affairs. Gregory had
counted, not only upon the obedience of the Latin nations, but also upon bringing back the Greek schism to its allegiance; and then, upon leading both combined to a decisive attack
upon Islam. A motive was furnished by a warlike movement which broke out in the
bosom of Islam itself. At two points its dominions had been invaded by unruly
hordes of half-savage tribes, who, like the Arabs in
Mahomet's time, had no wish but perpetual warfare, no culture beyond fierce
religious zeal. Among the Kabyles of the desert in Northern Africa arose the
empire of the Morabites, who, after subjugating in rapid campaigns, the whole
district between the Syrtes, the Sahara, and the ocean,
burst upon the Christians of Spain in a furious invasion. Simultaneously, the
wild tribes of the Seljukes, from the steppes of Bulgaria, poured in upon Asia, laid waste the possessions of the Caliph of
Bagdad, and advanced on Asia Minor, and the dominions of
the Greek Emperor, whom they, in a few campaigns, drove across the Hellespont,
in disgraceful flight. It seemed as if the times of Muza had returned, and Rome was again to be threatened both from the East and from the
West. But Gregory VII. felt himself more secure than Charles Martel, and resolved to anticipate the attack. In France he pleaded, with great effect, to obtain assistance for the Spaniards; in Rome he got together, in 1074, an army of 50,000 men, faithful
followers of St. Peter, whom he intended to lead in person to the relief of
Constantinople, and the destruction of the Turks. He called upon the German
Emperor, Henry IV., with whom he was still at peace, to help him in
this undertaking, and at the same time expressed his intention of first
bringing back the Greeks and Armenians to the unity of the Church
of Rome; after which he should lead the triumphant army to the Holy Sepulchre
at Jerusalem. It affords a fresh evidence, that with all his enthusiasm, the
turn of his mind was eminently practical and calculating, that he should look
upon the Holy Sepulchre only as the final ornament of victory, whilst the task
he saw before him was the gradual extension of conquest, and the establishment of a solid foundation in Constantinople,
whence the expulsion of the Turks from Asia Minor and Armenia, and his own triumphal entry into Jerusalem, would follow as a matter of course. It was
the first, and for many subsequent
centuries the last time that so vast and so methodical
a plan of attack upon Asia had been conceived in Christian Europe.
Gregory VII. was not, however, destined to reap these laurels. Like Napoleon, seven hundred years later, he was to begin his career
with dreams of oriental supremacy, and then, through life,
to devote all his energies to the subjugation of the West. Within a few months,
the dispute with Henry IV. broke out, in which the
Pope was victor, and saw the successor of Charlemagne vanquished and trembling
at his feet, while all Europe was convulsed with civil war. Gregory did not
live to see the end; he was forced to fly from Rome before the renewed power of
the Emperor, and died during his flight, under the protection of the Normans of Naples. Meanwhile, the Turks in Asia made
alarming progress; they took Mecca and Jerusalem. The pilgrims complained bitterly of the excesses committed by the brutal soldiery at the tomb of the Saviour. The Greek Emperor Alexius sent the most pressing entreaties for help to the Pope,
saying, that if he did not wish to see 9 Christianity perish in the East, he must render him assistance. Urban
II., an acute and subtle man, now sat on Gregory's
throne; not to be compared with his predecessor in energy and large mould of
mind, but penetrated with the same religious views, filled with ambition, and, although more pliant, his superior adroitness in the management of details rendered him, on the whole, more successful than Gregory. He thought it a religious triumph to stir up the son of Henry IV.
to rebellion against -his father, and thus to deal a terrible
blow to the Imperial power; he had prevailed upon
himself to forego for a time his pretensions to political supremacy in England and Spain, and thus to obtain the ecclesiastical obedience of
those monarchs. By these means his influence, in the year 1094, was more
generally recognized and honoured than
Gregory's had ever been. When, in the summer of that year, a Greek embassy was
sent to him, he decided on using his mighty influence against the East, and
calling upon the Latin nations to make war upon Islam.
We see here a great difference between the two men. Urban did not think of taking the command and leading the attack
in person. But that was not the chief distinction: in like manner as he had
given up that immediate temporal supremacy, which Gregory had insisted upon in all lands, he left out of his warlike plans those great ideas of
military method and politico-ecclesiastical conquest upon which Gregory had
impressed the stamp of his character. Urban viewed the task by
the light of that mystical piety, which, disregarding
all earthly considerations, and setting aside all earthly ambition, strives to follow the straight path to the heavenly Paradise. After making a preliminary announcement of his intentions in a
Council at ^Piacenza, he crossed the Alps late in
the autumn to the south of France,
and held a great Council at Clermont on French affairs
; at the end of this, he called upon the people ,of Europe to aid him, not in
delivering Eastern Christendom, but the Holy Sepulchre.
According to worldly ideas, such an attempt on Jerusalem was quite illusory
without a firm footing in Constantinople or Egypt; it could not have
the slightest prospect of lasting success unless a fatal blow could thence be
aimed at the whole edifice of the Turkish Sultanate. But
Urban's hearers were not disposed to listen to the wisdom of this world. In
drunken religious zeal, they revelled in the idea of rescuing the tomb of the
Saviour from the defilement of the heathen; they looked upon Christ enthroned in heaven as their leader, and hoped to see the gates of
the heavenly Jerusalem thrown open at the same time as those of the earthly.
Fifty thousand warriors had volunteered to carry out Gregory's reasonable plan;
at Urban’s enthusiastic appeal more than three hundred thousand
men fastened the Cross upon their shoulders. In a few months the cry, "
God wills it," had flown from Clermont over half Europe,—throughout France
and England, Italy and
Scandinavia; with one passionate outburst the people sought to free themselves
from the pressure* of earthly wretchedness. They said, God had never permitted
a time like the present, filled with blasphemy, disunion, and immorality;
civil war was raging, truth and
honesty had ceased to exist, famine and earthquakes had threatened destruction.
In the depth of this misery the Lord had sent salvation.
The time was fulfilled, of which it is written, " Whoso will go with me,
let him take up his cross and follow me." Since
the creation of the world, and the mystery of the crucifixion, writes a chronicler, nothing had been seen like this Crusade, which was a work of
God, not of man. On the 4th of April, 1095, says another, fire fell from heaven
like small stars, far and wide over all lands, since which
time France and Italy had gone armed to the Holy Sepulchre without any temporal
commander, led only by the spirit of the Lord. In a moment all evil had
been banished from the Christian world, since Christ had once
more vouchsafed his saving presence as their leader and Lord of Hosts.
Earthquakes had ceased; a year of unexampled plenty followed the scarcity;
peace and union returned among believers. Filled with these hopes, the western
nations entered upon the First Crusade.
CHAPTER II.
When Pope Urban II. announced the Crusade at Clermont in November, 1095, he
secured to himself the leading position in the enterprise, by naming the Bishop
Adhemar of Puy as his Legate and representative with the army, and by officially announcing to the Greek Emperor
Alexius the forthcoming help against the Turks.
Preparations on a large scale were making in most kingdoms of Europe. In Lorraine, Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, a religious and brave but
not very wise man, was collecting a numerous army. In
France, the brother of King Philip, Count Hugo of Vermandois, and the warlike
Count Robert of Flanders, were enlisting men; the unruly and rash Duke Robert
of Normandy mortgaged his whole territory in order to raise a splendid troop of French and English knights; besides these, Count
Stephen of Blois, possessor of as many castles as there are days in the year, a stately, proud, but morally weak man; and lastly, as leader of all the Provencals and Gascons, Count Raymond of Toulouse, more versed
in war and richer, but also more obstinate and violent than all the rest.
Italy, Pisa, and Genoa equipped their fleets, all the Norman knights of Naples
ranged themselves under Bohemund of Tarentum, a lean, pale,
ambitious prince, who was for ever silently forming comprehensive but
constantly changing schemes, always at work and yet always patient, until the
moment arrived for sure and victorious action; he was perhaps the only man
in that army who had nothing of the devout pilgrim spirit, and only thought
how he might on the way entrap his old enemy the Greek Emperor, and at all
events found a splendid kingdom for himself in the East. Everywhere the
greatest activity prevailed: princes assembled their vassals, knights
their retainers ; no compulsion was used towards these dependents, but very few
of them stayed behind. The most perfect personal freedom prevailed during the
whole Crusade in this unprecedented army. Each
knight served at his own pleasure, first under one prince
and then under another, as higher pay or greater fame attracted them. Nothing
but the common impulse towards Jerusalem kept the whole mass at all together. Christ was looked upon as commander-in-chief, and therefore of
course, according to the then existing views, his representative would have
been the Papal Legate: but as he was without any military capacity, a war
committee of the most renowned leaders and bannerets,
ten, twenty, thirty, just as it happened, took the command; sometimes named a
head of the whole army, whose power lasted as long as his commission, or as he
could enforce obedience. We shall see that singular
good luck was needed, in order to secure the most moderate success in the
midst of such anarchy.
Nearly a year had passed since the Council of Clermont in 1095, before
these knightly troops were armed and collected. Many prepared never to return ; nearly all looked forward with beating hearts to an unknown and distant land, brilliant with all the
glory of miracles and the splendour of fairy tales. Such a state of mind, we,
in our fast and far-travelling days, can hardly understand; it was much as if a
large army were now to embark in balloons, in order to conquer an island
between the earth and the moon, which was also expected
to contain the heavenly Paradise. The lower classes were frantic with
excitement. The peasants and artisans, who took no part in war, and were not
admitted into the regular armies, were those upon whom the sufferings of that period fell hardest, and they
pressed with the wildest zeal to join in the Holy Crusade. In various
countries, the Crusade was preached to them through peculiar organs. On the
Rhine, a certain turbulent and ill-famed Count Emicho got together a
troop several thousand strong, with whom he began the war for Christ's sake, by
a bloody massacre and plundering of the Jews. In the north of France a native
of Amiens, Peter the Hermit, travelled about dressed as a pilgrim, with sunburnt face and beard
reaching to his middle, riding upon an ass, and told the gaping people how he
had been in Jerusalem, where the heathen desecrated the Holy Sepulchre with all
manner of filthiness, and how there one night Christ appeared to him in all his glory, and gently addressed him, saying, " Sweet
friend, tell my beloved Christian Church, that the time is
come in which to help me; I have longed for her, I shall rejoice in her, and
Paradise is open to her." His hearers beat their breasts, forsook their hovels, and followed the hermit with their wives and
children; their number grew to sixty thousand. In this case delay was
impossible, and the wild fantastic train poured though Germany in the summer of
1096, down the Danube and through Hungary into
the Greek kingdom. In Constantinople the Emperor
Alexius welcomed with alarm the tumultuous guests,
who proclaimed their leader as the true apostle of Christ, and the author of
the whole Crusade ; and who resorted to plunder to
supply their wants, not even sparing the churches. He did all he could to
hasten their transit to the shores of Asia, where, regardless of his warnings,
they rushed with blind zeal into the midst of the enemy's land, and in the course of a few weeks were nearly all cut to pieces by the Emir
of Nicaea. With the small number of survivors, Peter returned to Constantinople and awaited the coming of the main body. A heterogeneous mass of
camp-followers had joined the army; and as the princes and knights took
no notice of them, they formed into a separate body, numbering about ten
thousand beggars and marauders, who followed unarmed in
the wake of the army, and though they often increased the difficulty of
maintaining it, they sometimes did good service as
spies, servants, and baggage porters. Peter the Hermit became their spiritual
leader and saint; they moreover elected a military commander, whom they called
Tafur, the Turkish for King of the Beggars ; and laid down certain rules: for instance, no one was to be tolerated among them who
possessed any money; he must either quit their honourable community, or hand
over his property to the King of the Beggars for the common fund. The princes and
knights did not venture into their camp except in large bodies and well armed;
the Turks said of the Tafurs, that they liked nothing so well to eat as the
roasted flesh of their enemies.
In the autumn of 1096 the first princely troops arrived at Constantinople; others followed in rapid succession, till the
spring of 1097, some by water, some by land. The northern French mostly came
through Italy and Epirus, the Provençals
through tia, and the Lorrainers through Hungary. The Emperor Alexius was not without misgivings when he saw them arrive. He knew the hatred
of the Latins towards the Greeks, particularly Bohemund's strong hostility towards himself. But their scattered order
somewhat reassured him, and indeed inspired him with an idea of making use of them to forward the interests of his own empire. He
informed them that Syria and Asia Minor were provinces of the Roman Empire, and
only alienated from it for the time by the superior might of the Turks, and
that he therefore expected that when they were driven out the pilgrims
would acknowledge him as their legitimate Sovereign,
and swear fealty to him: under these conditions he would furnish them with
provisions, and assist them with troops. Count Hugo, who landed first, made no
difficulty ; but Duke Godfrey replied, that "his only master was the Lord Jesus Christ, and him only would he serve."
Hereupon he was attacked and beaten by the Emperor's troops, and obliged to
take the oath, to save the rest of his army. Bohemund, the
one whom the Emperor most dreaded, submitted at once; he saw that most of the
pilgrims had no mind to fight near Constantinople, which would have delayed
their departure for the Holy Sepulchre; so he resolved, when once arrived in Asia, to disregard his oaths, and to act according to
circumstances. His example determined the rest, except the stubborn and hot-headed Raymond of Toulouse, who would sooner die than
acknowledge any other lord than Christ He conceived a bitter and lasting hatred against Bohemund on this
occasion; and when Alexius, who by no means trusted the crafty Norman, in spite of his oaths, perceived this, he tried to secure the
friendship of the Count, by overwhelming him with presents, and marks of
honour, and letting him off the oaths. One of the chief officers of his
Court, Tatikios, accompanied the army as the Emperor's representative in the
States that were to be conquered.
After many months bad passed in these transactions,
the troops at last landed on the long-desired Asiatic soil; and the war against the enemies of Christ began with an attack on the Emir of Nicaea. It was fortunate for the pilgrims that the power of the
Seljukes was greatly broken and decayed.
Several pretenders were quarrelling for the Sultan's throne, and the emirs, or
governors of provinces, had made themselves quite independent, and were waging
war with each other. Several Armenian princes belonging to the
subject Christian population had risen in arms in
Taurus, and on the banks of the Euphrates and in Mesopotamia.
On the south the Caliph of Egypt had just commenced a general war against the
Seljukes, and was advancing towards Palestine by the isthmus of Suez. Thus
the Crusaders found every barrier levelled before them. When they arrived in
Asia, the Emir of Nicaea was fighting against the Prince of Melitene, the Emir
of Aleppo besieging his neighbours of Damascus and Emessa, and the Emirs of
Sebaste and Mosul were engaged in war with the Armenian leaders;
all feeling of unity and even of religious zeal among the Turks was entirely
crushed by these manifold feuds. On the other hand, the Armenians were awaiting
the arrival of the Crusaders with impatience. Some Frankish knights, sent on before the army, were cordially welcomed by them, and .
even the Caliph of Egypt, although seeking to seize Jerusalem for himself,
received a deputation from the pilgrims, who
offered him their alliance against the common enemy, the
Seljukes. A year before, an alliance with one Mahomedan against another would
have been regarded with horror by the pilgrims; but in the face of reality,
even fierce zealots could take a practical course.
Nicaea, abandoned to its fate by the other emirs,
fell before the Crusaders in July, 1097. The conquerors
then marched, amid fatigue and hardship, diagonally across Asia Minor. They had
confided to Count Stephen of Blois the direction of their operations, or rather, the presidency of the council of
war, and he chose, on arriving at the foot of the Taurus, to follow the road
along the north of the range as far as the Euphrates, and then, after a
considerable circuit, to cross the mountains and advance
into Syria ; the object of this deviation was probably
to render as much help to the Armenians as possible. Numerous small garrisons
were left behind in the hill forts; Cilicia was called to arms by a division
under Bohet mund's adventurous cousin Tancred, and Count Baldwin, Godfrey's brother; and shortly afterwards Baldwin was sent with
a fresh detachment across the Euphrates into Mesopotamia, where he showed so
much vigour and discretion in his dealings with the Armenians, that in the
course of a few months they proclaimed him their sovereign in their capital city of Edessa. The main army meanwhile
inarched down the course of the Orontes upon the most important and best
fortified of all the Syrian towns, Antioch, where years of fighting, triumphs,
and disasters of all kinds awaited the Christian forces.
In Antioch ruled an aged emir, related to the Sultan's family, by name Bagi Sijan, who had always distinguished himself
by rude energy and valour: he was now determined to resist to the last gasp.
The Christians poured over the rich and fruitful country. More than a hundred of their knights established themselves in the castles and
fortresses of the surrounding land, unmindful of the
wants of the army, or the progress of the siege. The great princes were
meanwhile encamped before the. several gates of the town, without power to blockade the entrance, much less to make an
assault upon its strong and lofty walls. Bagi Sijan s horse scoured the
adjoining country in incessant sorties, destroyed scattered bodies of Christian
troops, and cut off the supplies of the principal
camp. Day after day passed; winter ^came with endless floods of rain; want,
hunger and sickness began to thin the Christian forces to a fearful degree. Of the
300,000 fighting men, only half were at their posts; the horses were all dead,
save a few hundreds; the commander-in-chief, Stephen of Blois, fell sick, and
had himself carried away from the camp to the nearest seaport town of
Alexandretta. The others still persevered. By degrees they erected small entrenchments and forts before the gates, stopped, the passage of
the bridge over which the Turks had .been able to cross the river, and repulsed
some of the emirs who tried to succour the garrison. In the spring, matters
mended; the sickness ceased, many scattered parties returned,
and a Genoese fleet brought abundant supplies, and gave the command of the
Mediterranean. On the other hand, internal discord began to show itself.
Bohemund had cast his eye on Antioch, and therefore persecuted the Greek Tatikios with all kinds of threats and in-, stilts, till he drove him
from the camp; he then declared, that if the princes would promise him the
hereditary possession of this important town, he would deliver it into their
hands. He had ample ground for this assurance. It is true that there
were fiercer warriors among the pilgrims than the Prince of TarenCipm. Count
Robert of Flanders was held to be the best lance in the army, and no sword was
more dreaded than that of Duke Godfrey, whose powerful arm had, in one of the recent skirmishes, cut a fully armed Turk in two, so that
the head and breast fell to the earth, while the lower half of the body was
borne back by the horse into
the town. Nevertheless, the Turks unquestionably
looked upon Prince Bohemund as the head of the army, and the centre of all its
movements; and accordingly Firuz az Zerrad, a grandee of Antioch, moved by
personal hatred to Bagi Sijan, made propositions to him to the effect that
he would receive baptism, and betray the town into his
hands. When Bohemund made known this offer to the council of war, the princes
hesitated: Count Raymond of Toulouse, bitterly envious of his more cunning
comrade, strongly protested against it, on the score of the oath by which they had all acknowledged the claim of the Emperor Alexius,
and thereupon the others declared it impossible to agree to Bohe-mund's
request. He shrugged his shoulders and withdrew from the siege to bide his
time. Before long a general lassitude seemed to prevail in the Christian
camps, and threatening news arrived from the East. The Sultan having mastered
his rival, had commanded the Emir Kerbuga of Mosul, to gather together all the
force of his dominions, and to sweep the ribald crew of unbelievers from the face of the earth. He collected above half a million of
men, who, fortunately for the Crusaders, spent several weeks in fruitless
skirmishes against Baldwin before Edessa. At last their
leader saw where the decisive blow ought to be struck, and led his
3S BISTORT OF THE CRUSADES.
enormous army towards Antioch. The anxiety then became great among the
Christians, for the worst might be anticipated, if they were shut in between
the yet unconquered town and the overwhelming force
which was advancing to its relief. In this strait the princes applied to
Bohemund, but he, cool and unmoved, reiterated his former demand. Already
Kerbuga's light horse had reached the first outposts of the Prankish position,
danger was imminent, when
Raymond retracted his opposition, and the town was promised to Bohemund. During
the night he, accompanied by sixty knights, scaled one of the towers of the
town wall guarded by Firuz; and through the nearest gate, which he instantly
opened to them, the army poured into the town, and
overpowered the Turkish garrison, amid a frightful struggle and bloodshed. The
old emir fled, but was killed in the mountains by a troop of Christian
peasants; his son however succeeded in throwing himself with a
few followers intt> the citadel, where he repulsed
Bohemund's hasty attacks.
This occurred on the 6th of June, 1098; on the 9th, Kerbuga's forces
appeared in endless array; so near had Bohemund's absorbing ambition allowed
destruction to approach. The Christians were still
in great danger; after the assault, they had plun-
SUFFERINGS OF THE CHRISTIANS, 39
'tiered, revelled, and wasted the small stores they had found, and a
blockade of a few days must inevitably produce a famine. The enemy, too, within the walls, entrenched in the citadel, which stood on the south side
of the town and commanded it, had at once opened communication with Ker-buga.
In that quarter of the city, the struggle was carried on day and night, almost
without ceasing. Elsewhere Kerbuga contented himself with a
strict blockade, and used his numerical superiority to keep throwing fresh
troops into the citadel, whence their attacks constantly increased in violence.
Weariness and despair now seized upon the Christians
; their sufferings from hunger were frightful; men were
seen gnawing roots of trees, and shoes, and fighting for dead rats and cats.
Some sank down in the heat of battle unwounded, but tired to death, heedless of
the strife going on above their heads. Thousands gave up all hope and concealed themselves in the houses, which neither promises
nor threats could induce them to leave. In this misery the council appointed
Bohemund commander-in-chief with unlimited power. He
saved them again this time, by ordering the town to be
fired, so as to drive the soldiers into the streets. Upwards
of two thousand houses were reduced to ashes.
This produced a complete revulsion of feel
40 HISTORY of THE CRUSADES.
ing, which, from a state of deep depression, at once rose to fanatical enthusiasm. The strong religious feeling which for
awhile had subsided beneath the influence of strange and foreign impressions,
revived with renewed energy. Led by a vision, a Provencal discovered in a
church the lance with which Christ was pierced on the cross;
pilgrims daily appeared before the council of princes, to announce fresh apparitions of the Virgin and other saints, who exhorted
the army to sally forth and fight. Bohemund himself had no other project; help
was not to be hoped for, and if they were not to starve,
they must conquer. In the enemy's camp dissension and insubordination
prevailed; considerable bodies of men, offended by Kerbuga,
had dispersed, and when, on the 28th of July,
the Pranks sallied forth from the town, they succeeded after a short
struggle in scattering the disconnected and unwieldy masses in all directions.
This settled the whole war; a boundless dread of the Christian arms spread
throughout the East; if the pilgrims had then advanced, they might have taken possession of Palestine without the least
fear of opposition.
But a new difficulty now arose among the princes themselves. Raymond of
Toulouse, who occupied a few towers in Antioch, reverted to his former refusal
to deliver them up to Bohemund. The other princes
MARCH UPON JERUSALEM, 41
did not wish to offend either of these two mighty chiefs by a hostile
decision, and a bitter quarrel, which soon spread among the troops, and often
led to bloody strife between the Provenyals and the
Normans, paralyzed all their movements. At last* in January 1099, when the
dispute between Bohemund and Tancred was repeated, on
occasion of the taking of the neighbouring town Maara, the pilgrims would endure it no longer. A wild outburst ensued; the pilgrims exclaimed that they would go on to Jerusalem; the princes
might quarrel about the things of this world, but Christ would guide his own
people. The old fanatical spirit broke through all the political and military
considerations by which it had been restrained for some time.
Spite of all Raymond's anger, he was forced to evacuate Antioch, and to follow
in the wake of his excited fellow-countrymen. Then the army, in fact without
head or leader, rushed wildly on towards its original
destination. Jerusalem had meanwhile fallen into the
hands of the Egyptians, whose inclinations were originally friendly; but to the
excited feelings of the Christian forces, the Egyptian infidels appeared as hateful and worthy of death as any Seljukes. The town was surrounded and taken by storm on the 15th of July. The Christian fury
against the infidels vented itself in a sanguinary
42 HJ8T0RY OF THE CRUSADES,
struggle, and in some places the besiegers waded knee-deep in blood;
they then, with tears of rapture,
and in a state of ecstatic piety, threw themselves
down to pray at the Holy Sepulchre, surrounded with heaps of the slain.
After eight days passed in the intoxication of victory, the princes met to take counsel as to the best means of keeping
possession of their conquest. The most important question was evidently the
choice of a ruler. The men of the highest eminence were by this time no longer
with the army. The Count of Blois had fled homewards from
Alexandretta on Kerbuga's approach. Bohemund had remained in Antioch, and the
Papal Legate had died soon after the victory over Kerbuga. The princes offered
the crown of the new kingdom to Count Raymond; he, however, declared that he was unworthy to wear an earthly crown in so holy a place.
According to some accounts, they then turned to the Duke of Normandy, but
received the same answer. It is certain that at last they applied to Duke
Godfrey, who, although he, like Raymond, refused
the title of King, accepted the command and power in the course of the
following month. He succeeded in ! beating an Egyptian army near Ascalon, and
thus ( secured the southern frontier of the kingdom. After that however it
became impossible to restrain the
godfrey at jerusalem.
43
masses of pilgrims who, after the fulfilment of their vow, longed to
return home. Godfrey and Tancred were left at Jerusalem with about two hundred
knights and two thousand effective men-at-arms. Count Raymond
attempted, with still fewer followers, to found for himself a
kingdom in Tripoli; the numbers at the disposal of Bohemund in Antioch, and of Baldwin in Edessa, were rather more considerable. To the
duration and fate of these small territories we will
afterwards turn our attention. I will now offer a few
remarks upon the effect which these events produced both on those who took part
in them and upon the European public, an effect which manifested itself in manifold, and in some cases very remarkable
recitals and descriptions.
First, the princes themselves, in letters to the Pope, to their
relations and friends, gave their eager and curious countrymen accounts of the
great events of the war. Nine such letters have been preserved, some of them
instructive and full of detail. There were also several men with the army who
kept an accurate and continuous record of the occurrences as they succeeded
each other—a Norman knight, a Provencal priest, a chaplain of Count Baldwin of
Bouillon; and as they belonged to various countries and
detachments the reports of each supply the
44 history of the CRU8ADE8.
omissions of the rest, and thus form a tolerably complete whole. What
they had written they sent by the first opportunity to Europe, where these journals were expected with the greatest eagerness, and, on
their arrival, received with avidity, and extensively
read and copied. There were neither newspapers nor telegraphs, and in order
to spread the much-desired news as fast as possible, the expedient was hit upon that the priests should
read the newly-arrived reports, on Sundays, from the pulpit, and forward them
one to another, from place to place, for this purpose. These tales were,
indeed, much shorter than the eagerly listening crowd wished; they were also drier, from their very accuracy,
than minds thirsting for the marvellous had expected.
But the same taste had spread among the Crusaders, as well as in Europe, and
was working with creative energy for the satisfaction of that kind of curiosity. There has never yet been a large army without its bards and
poets, faithful men-at-arms, grenadiers, or hussars, who, while sitting round
the watchfire at night, invent songs in praise of their General, of their
sweetheart at home, or of their fallen comrades, which pass from
mouth to mouth, gaining new verses at every repetition. The eleventh century
was, indeed, as we have seen, an eminently unpoetical period, with its gloomy
contempt for the
ENTHUSIASM CAU8ED BY THE CRUSADES. 45
world, and its fanatical enthusiasm; during that time hardly one piece
of real poetry was produced on European soil. The Crusade, however,
in which that fanaticism vented itself, at once produced an agitation favourable to liberty and progress. While
it lasted, men's minds, it is true, were still affected by fierce religious
enthusiasm, but, at the same time, their senses were impressed and captivated
by the spectacle of an entirely new world. Thousands who till then had never
caught a glimpse of anything beyond the narrow circle of
their own parish, now beheld the splendid colouring of southern nature, the
magnificence of the Greek imperial palaces, and the strange customs of the
Mabomedan world, whose pulture, even in its decay, was so far superior to that of the Europeans, as to inspire them with respect. The
excitement produced by such impressions, was augmented by the danger which was
imminent at every moment. Death was ever before their eyes, and every faculty
of body and mind had to be exerted to preserve life, and at last to
reach the glorious goal. Their intoxicated eyes still beheld visions of the
saints and armies of heaven, but they no longer appeared in the lonely
cloistered cell, or during nightly penance and flagellation. They were now seen in the thick of the battlefield, with shining weapons, and mounted
on white steeds, dashing into
46 H18TORT OF THE CRU8ADES.
the midst of the Turkish army, and opening the way for the heroes of
the army, the darlings of the troops, through the swords of the infidel masses.
Thus, religious sentiment was still the basis of this movement; but it took a
new turn, from monkish devotion to chivalrous enthusiasm, from
ascetic renunciation of the world to knightly
valour. A new sort of heroism was thus called into existence, and with the
heroes, heroic poetry arose. It showed itself during the war among all ranks of
the army. Each nation celebrated its warriors, and,
after every great battle, sang the deeds of the victorious leader, the goodly
blows dealt by the foremost knights, and the heavenly joys which rewarded the
fallen heroes. In the fragments of these songs which still remain, we see the natural disposition to attribute the deed which decided the
common victory, to the hero or prince of each particular race, and to claim for
him a prominent and leading position. Thus, the French extolled Count Hugo, the
brother of their king, as the Duke of Dukes and the greatest
leader of the army. The men of Lorraine tell us that even in Asia Minor, Duke
Godfrey was the head of all the princes; that the attack on Antioch remained so
long unsuccessful because of his illness; and that he and his friend Robert of Flanders, had, on that memorable
night, been the first to set the ladders against
POETRY OF THE CRUSADE8.
47
the walls of Antioch, and to enter the town. Even the mob of King Tafur
had their songs in praise of the Hermit, who, in consequence of his
vision in Je* rusalem, had induced the Pope to preach the Crusade, and had then set all Europe in motion.
Altogether, we see with amazement how far, perhaps
even on the very day after the event, the imagination
of these poets and their hearers led them astray
from the truth. The Council of Clermont was held in November; here we find it
transposed into May, when the fields are green, and thrushes and blackbirds are
singing: for Nature must needs rejoice and adorn herself in honour of such an event. This poetical license is continued through the
whole 4 course
of the Crusades: side by side with the real events runs a fantastic story,
glittering and multiform ; a legendary creation,
growing out of actual present history. We see how
religious and warlike enthusiasm excites the love of adventure, and stimulates the power of invention, but also how untrustworthy are the observations and reports made under its influence.
I cannot deny myself the pleasure of giving a few extracts from these poems, which have come down to us in a later but slightly
altered form. They are written in French rhymes. The translation has been
abridged, and only aspires to render the general
tone and colour.
4S HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
THE TAKING OF THE CROSS AT CLERMONT.
At Clermont in Auvergne were met great hosts from near
and far,
From France, and from all Christendom, unto the Lord his
war;
Was none so young but thitherward must fare, and none so
old.
Came prince and peer and paladin, came knights and barons bold,
Each with his stout retainers, pennon and pennoncel;
The abbot brought his crosier, the cowled monk left his cell.
The King rode with his following, armed at point from head
to heel,—
Stout Hugh the Lord of Maine, and Count Bajmond of St.
Gilles,
Stephen the stalwart Duke of Blois, and Bishop Adhemar,
Than whom was none more valiant of all those men of war;
Came Godfrey of Bouloigne, with his two brothers fair,
Baldwin the sturdy striker, Eustace the debonair;
Bobert the Count of Flanders, Hobert the Monk also:
To tell the tale of all that came, were weary work, I trow.
When that their steeds were stabled and fairly foddered all,
That night at board and beaker they feasted them in hall,
And fair disport and solace they held till morning-tide.
When that the Pope in ail his might, he borne him forth to
ride,
The King and all his paladins gave him attendance due,
With the merry bells a-pealing, the minster doors unto;
THE TAKING OF THE CB088 AT CLERMONT. 49
And when the Pope had read the Mass, the multitude of folk
Out at the doors, all in hot haste, crushing and crowding,
broke.
There were so many thousands there gathered, as men sayn,
Ifor house nor hall, nor minster wall, e'er built, might them
contain.
It was a fair May morning, the birds sang roundelay,
The trees were white with blossom, buds sprang on every
spray;
All golden lay the meadows in the sunlight's gladsome sheen,
As they sfct them down by companies upon the springing green;
To left and right as far as sight could stretch they hid the sod;
The Pope he stood alone, and preached the pilgrimage of God.
From son to sire like holy fire God's spirit spread his word;
Was not one eye of thousands dry, was not one heart unstirred.
When now the Pope had ended, the King rose in his place,—
" In God's name, Holy Father, hearken my words with grace.
Well dost thou say; but I am grey, and lacking youthful heat;
A frail man and a feeble, for such pilgrimage unmeet.
'Twere well, in lieu of me, that my brother Hugo ride;
Of all my peers and paladins is none hath him outvied;
To him I render all my might."—The which when Hugo
heard,
His heart within his bosom with rapture swelled and stirred.
A joy past joy it seemed to him in such good grace to stand*
To ride with ban and arriere-ban, unto his Lord's own land.
Quoth he, " Gramercy, Brother," and kissed him foot and
hand.
E
50 HISTORY OF THE CRU8ADES.
Then to the Pope he louted low, the cross on him to take,
And knights and barons after him like act and vow did make;
Both lords of France and England, and lords of Norman
line,
They prayed and pressed to take the cross, the holy pilgrim's sign;
80 great the throng were many swooned, and died there as
they lay.
Two hundred thousand took the cross at Clermont on that
day.
Then loudly wailed the noble dames, and maidens w^pt for woe:
" Out and alas for us that hero henceforth alone must go In widowhood and orphanage! woe worth this princes' day,
That strikes, as with a single blow, our joyaunce ail away !
*Tis sad in tower, 'tis dark in bower, all empty, cold, and lone;
Silent all sound of singing, disport and solace flown."
And many a gentle dame, I wis, her youthful lord bespake,—
" Fair husband, that with' choice of heart me for your love
did take,
Winning my favour with all vows that gain a lady's ear,
For God and Mary mother, when forth o'er sea you steer,
And look upon the city, where our Lord hung on the tree,
Keep thy true wife unforgotten, and give a thought to me."
There were gentle eyes a-weeping, and tears on tears they
flowed,
And many a wedded woman there took the cross of God;
But the maidens sadly wended their weary way again,
Back to their fathers' castles, with their lonely weight of pain.
THE LEAGUER OF ANTIOCH.
51
THE LEAGUER OF ANTIOCH.
Now lithe and listen, lordings, while the Christians' hap I
tell,
That, as they lay in leaguer, from hunger them befell.
In evil case the army stood, their stores of food were spent:
Peter the holy Hermit, he sat before his tent:
Then came to him the King Tafur, and with him fifty score
Of men-at-arms, not one of them but hunger gnawed him sore.
" Thou holy Hermit, counsel us, and help us at our need;
Help, for God's grace, these starving men with wherewithal
to feed."
But Peter answered, "Out, ye drones,a helpless pack that cry,
While all unburied round about the slaughtered Paynim lie.
A dainty dish is Paynim flesh, with salt and roasting due."
" Now, by my fay," quoth King Tafur, " the Hermit sayeth
true."
Then fared he forth the Hermit's tent, and sent his menye
out,
More than ten thousand, where in heaps the Paynim lay
about.
They hewed the corpses limb from limb, and disemboweled
clean,
And there was sodden meat and roast, to blunt their hunger
keen:
Bight savoury fare it seemed them there; they smacked
their lips and spake,—
" Farewell to fasts: a daintier meal than this who asks to
make?
E 2
52 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
'Tis sweeter far than porker's flesh, or bacon seethed in
grease.
Let's make good cheer, and feast us here, till life and hunger
cease."
While King and host, on boiled and roast, were making
merry cheer,
The savoury reek of Paynim flesh 'gan rise into the air,
Till to the walls of Antioch the winds that smell did blow;
Then rose within an angry din, and all were wild for woe.
On house and hall and 'battled wail the swarming Paynim
hung,
While all around the sharper sound was heard of woman's
tongue.
Up to his topmost solar was y-clomb King Garsion,
With Isaes his nephew, and Sansadon his son.
Quoth Garsion to his children,—" Now, by the great Mahoun,
These devils eat our brethren: look, in the plain adown."
Tafur the king looked up from meat; he saw the Paynim
stand,
Men, wives, and maids, on every wall that might a view command ;
No ruth the sight awakened, but thriftily he bade
That they should see the corpses picked from where the
heaps were laid;
Bade roast whatso was fresh, and whatso rotted bade them
throw
Into the stream that by the wails of Antioch did flow.
" We'll give the fish," quoth he," the smack of Paynim flesh
to know." i
THE LEAGUER OF ANTIOCH.
53
It happed that for a chevaachie did with Count Bobert join
Count Tancred, and Count Bohemund, and Godfrey of Bou-loigne;
All closed in steel from head to heel they chanced to pass
that way,'
And knightly greeted they the King, and laughingly 'gan
say,—
" How fares it with the King Tafur P" " In sooth," the King
replied,
" If I said ' ill,' fair sirs, meseems, so speaking, I had lied.
Had we to skink a cup of drink, for food we've here our fill."
" Now, by my fay," quoth Godfrey,44 Here's drink, an if you
will;"
And straight bade bring a pitcher, filled with his own red
wine.
Then drank Tafur, and well I wot, ne'er seemed him drink
so fine.
Then from his solar where he stood, loud called King Garsion
To Bohemund, unto whose ear the wind brought every tone
Of that fierce sound,—44 Now, by Mahound, malapert knaves
ye bin,
To do dead bodies such foul wrong is insolence and sin."
But Bohemund made answer,—44 Fair Lord, what here ye see
Is none of our commanding, nor wight thereof have we:
'Tis King Tafur's devising, his and his devil's crew;
An evil rout are they, God wot.
The brutish taste we rue
That boar or deer holds sorrier cheer than flesh of Paynim
slain.
Yet ask not us to chide them, but unto Heaven complain."
54 FII STORY OF THE CRUSADE8.
THE GATHERING OF THE PAYNIM.
Not far from Samarkand an open meadow lay,
Girt with dark stems of cypress, laurel, and olive grey,
And round the place a fragrant hedge of balsam thicket
went;
Upon that mead the Sultan bade pitch his royal tent.
The tent-poles were of elmen-tree, with silver wrought full
rare;
The tent-stuff was all diapered, like to a chess-board fair,
Half of the white and cramoisy, half of the gold and green,
And in the chequers, ouches and stones that glittered sheen:
Twelve thousand men beneath its shade had lain at ease, I
ween.
And 'mid the household stuff that filled the fair pavilion
round,
Was set on high, in beaten gold, an image of Mahound.
Between four magic-loadstones, all free in air it hung,
And hitherward and thitherward, as the wind listed, swung.
Then fourteen lords came lowly forth, each lord a king's
own son,
And featly at the Sultan's high board have service done,
And after to the idol their sacrifice they made,
And, grovelling upon the ground, their gifts before it laid,
And censered it with incense, and prayed, and still the sound
That ended all their litanies was "Hear us, great Mahound."
While all were still on kneeling knees, in sudden fury broke
Prince Sansadon before the rout, and loud and wrathful
spoke,—
THE GATHERING OF THE PAYNIM.
55
" Up, weakling wittols that ye are, blind fools that here are
la4d,
Not knowing this Mahound of yours is powerless all to aid.
'Tis through that lewd false faith of his, and trusting in his
name,
That I have lost my people and all mine own fair fame."
Then high uprist, he cleuched his fist, and smote the ido\
down,
And trampled it beneath his feet: whereat there rose a
stoun,
A wild uproar and hellish rout of that mad paynimrie;
The knives they rained about his head, the shafts flew fast
and free;
"Accursed!n cried the Sultan, "who taught thee mock
our creed ?
Who art thou ?
What thy lineage P
A rope were thy fit
meed."
Prince Sansadon declared his name, and sadly 'gan to tell
The evil that on Antioch by Christian leaguer fell;
Told of the Christian archers that waste no shaft in air,
The Christian knights, ail sheathed in steel, that steel-sharp iancea bear,
" Each one of whom," quoth he, " if down upon our hosts
he bore,
Would spit of our light horsemen three files, I ween, or
four."
Then scornful waxed the Sultan,— "Now, stout Knight
mote thou be!
Who'd learn faint-heart and cowardice may go to school
to thee "
56 HISTORY Of THE CRUSADE8.
Then up and spake grim Corbaran,—" Nay, Lord, as I opine,
He hath too much y-drunken: his head is hot with wine."
" Now nay, thou Persian Admiral," Prince Sansadon replied,
" Light words, soon said, but by my head I swear thy jape
goes wide.
Tis not faint-heart, nor cowardice, nor wine that speaks
in me.
King Garsion bade me ride to you as fast as fast may be.
For your good aid he prays you : he is right sore bested.
Behold, I bring this token, to seal what I have said."
And with the word, out of the pouch that like a post he
wore t
Girt round about his waist, his sire's grey beard he bore.
But when the Sultan saw it, right sorry waxed his cheer.
" Now of a truth, when Garsion did brook his chin to shear,
- Things stand, I wot, in evil case; his need it is not small.
To counsel how we best may bring him succour, one and all."
Long ail was hush: both prince and peer sat silently and
still,
" As stricken to their inmost souls to hear King Garsion's ill.
Then random counsel counselled they; some this advised,
Some that;
At last out spake King Kangas, on Bubia's throne that sat.
' " Now, by Mahound, great Sultan, this seemeth best to me:
Send through thy land, on every hand, swift posts as swift
may be,
And to Coronda summon all your lords, with their array,
And, before all, the Caliph that in Bagdad holdeth sway.
Comes he, our Pope, salvation and strength come at his side,
And mightiest following of all with him will eastward ride."
THE GATHERING OF THE PAYNIM.
57
' " So be it," cried the Sultan, " a wise word hast thou said;
Four hundred posts with letters shall ere to-night be sped.'1
* A moon had waxed, a moon had waned, and one in crescent
stood,
When all ways to Goronda flowed arm'd warriors like a flood
Of horse and foot; by night and day the mighty muster goes,
With swords and staves and spears and glaives, with maces
and with bows.
1 From Bagdad rode the Caliph, that ail the country round
Had raised in arms by promise of the blessing of Mahound.
Came the swart and sinewy Arabs, that make their godless
scorn
Of Christ bis resurrection; and, the foul Fiend's brother
born,
Leu, fiery-red, and gnashing his teeth as he were wode,
Behind whose heels of Turkish spears four hundred thousand rode;
Came from the furthest East a folk of strange and eldritch
kind,
. In whom, save teeth and eye-balls, no white speck mote you
find.
And in the vanward of this rout, high set you might behold,
Upon a dromedary tall, Corbaran's mother old.
Grey was her hair, her eyes were blear, but still her wits were
strong;
Strange things she knew from sun and moon, that to black
art belong;
Could read the courses of the stars, and in those lights on
high,
foresaw at will the secrets of mortal destiny.
58 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
Their hosts up in the rearward the Kings of Mecca brought,
Bearing their image of Mahound, of hollow gold y- wrought;
Wherein through spell of gramarye an evil spirit sate,
And the Paynim danced before it, for worship and for state.
I trow it was a sight to see, that image of Mahound
Moving to din of shawms and drums, with harp and viol's
sound.
So to its journey's end in state the golden idol came,
Where with his host the Caliph sate to greet Mahound his
name.
Whereat the lying spirit that in this idol sate,
Blew himself up for pride before the Caliph and his state:—
" List what I say, and weigh my words and rightly understand:
The Christians have never right unto the Paynim's land,
For that they worship God on high; this land I give to ye;
Heaven 'longeth to the Christian's God—the land belongs to me."
Then merry were the Paynim, and loud they cried, I wot,—
" Bight well Mahound hath spoken;—a fool that trusts him
not."
Then, as chief captain of the host, the Sultan chose a man,
The Admiral of Olifern, the valiant Corbaran.
By beat of drum the heathen rout he marshalled there and
then,
In two-and-thirty squadrons, each of threescore thousand
men.
His foot was in the stirrup, his grasp was at the mane,
When his old mother, Calabra, his armed hand hath ta'en
THE GATHERING OF THE PAYNIM. $9
'Twaa twice ten years since in the stars, by her black art
she read,
TheChristians should be victors, the Faynims should be sped.
44 Fair Sir," quoth she, 44 now wilt thou ride in good sooth to
the field ?"
" Yea, and in sooth, good mother, and unseemly 'twere to
yield,
While still in Antioch's leaguer the Christians flout our
bands;
I trow 'twere pity of his life, that in my danger stands."
" Son, take good counsel: homeward to Olifern repair.
These Christian knights are terrible; their stars show bright
and fair."
44 What prate is this, good mother ?
Say, is the story true.
That Bohemund and Tancred are their goddikins, the two ?
That for their early breakfast, whene'er they crave to eat,
Two thousand beeves will scarce suffice this doughty twain
for meat.
So runs the tale."
Then said the witch, " Son, leave this
flouting tone;
No gods these Christians worship, save Christ the Lord
alone.
Never a man of all this host shall Christian might defy.
Of all the heads I count, not one but it shall lowly lie."
Heavy of heart that chieftain waxed, but featly hid his pain:
44 Now let her yelp : so old she is, she grows a child again,
*Twere a good deed to cut her throat."
Then into selle he
sprang,
And forward marched the Paynim host to the trumpet's
shattering clang.
60 HI8TOET OF THE CRU8ADE8.
When the Crusade was ended, and the mass of pilgrims came pouring back
to the places of their birth, they imparted these more picturesque descriptions to their fellow-countrymen. We can imagine in how lofty a strain
they would relate these tales; how imperceptibly the
materials would grow beneath their hands; how conjecture
would become certainty, and feeling take the form of undoubted fact. What
awakened the interest of their hearers the most was undoubtedly the choice of a
King of Jerusalem. During the expedition there had been songs in praise of
Count Hugo's and Duke Robert's deeds, as well as of Duke Godfrey's; but the
attention of Europe was now almost exclusively fixed upon the ruler of
Palestine and the protector of the Holy Sepulchre. All the world wished
to know his birth and parentage, to hear of his deeds and virtues; his fame became decidedly and exclusively prominent, and cast the
real or fictitious greatness of the others completely into the shade. He was
made into a descendant of the fabulous Knight of the
Swan; it was reported that he had ever been the protector of innocence and the
defender of the weak; that he once sinfully fought against Pope Gregory in the
service of the Emperor, since when he had lain in heavy sickness
till the time of the Crusades; then, by God's command, and as a sure
GODFREY OF BOUILLON.
61
sign of his heavenly calling, the fever had left the hero. Twenty years
after his death, a priest of Aix-la-Chapelle, named Albert, collected all the songs, and verbal communications in praise of the
Duke, and incorporated them in a prose recital, which is extremely graphic and
lively. Partly from this source, and partly from later poetical versions of the
original songs, subsequent writers have drawn all their knowledge
of Peter the Hermit as originator, and of Godfrey of Bouillon as commander of
the Crusade; here Torquato Tasso found the so-called historical subject of his
great poem; but, as we now know, he did but employ his master hand in polishing and completing the great poem
of a former century.
I have ventured to divert the attention of my readers from the
contemplation of facts to the much-decried domain of scientific investigation
and criticism. We often hear complaints that investigation is dry and criticism destructive. I must admit that in
this instance Godfrey and Peter the Hermit have been shorn of their false
glory; and yet, if I mistake not, the picture of those
remarkable times loses nothing of its freshness or completeness.
A critical examination of the original sources* shows us that certain events
never really took place, and • See Part II.
02 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
existed only in the creative fancy of contemporaries ; but we know, and have here fresh proof, that history
does not consist solely of battles and sieges; the achievements of the mind and
the productions of fancy are among its most important features; and with regard
to the Crusades, I have no hesitation in looking upon the composition of those songs as an event almost greater than the taking of
Jerusalem. The territorial possession was lost in a few years, and indeed it
was untenable from the first; but in those legends we see the first stir of a
vigorous new life, the first pulsation of renewed mental activity
after a century of oppressive and gloomy fanaticism. This direction once taken,
was never again lost by Europe, but gradually carried along the whole
hemisphere in its course.
63
CHARTER III.
The Frankish States founded in Syria by the First
Crusade had no easy task. With an army consisting at the most of seven thousand
horse and five thousand foot, they could not hope for succour from their distant native countries; scattered among a scarcely
conquered hostile population, and surrounded by
powerful and naturally implacable foes. At first the great battles of Antioch
and Ascalon produced great moral effect. Internal dissensions
among the Turkish potentates, helped the Christians through the first period of danger, and then, attracted by the reports of the Crusade, the
European countries sent perpetual reinforcements, which arrived sometimes in
small and sometimes in large bodies, by water and by land, some intending to
settle there entirely, but most for a limited period. From all this,
however, Duke Godfrey derived little advantage; he was so powerless that, in
even Jeru
64 HISTORY OF THE CRU8ADES.
salem itself, he was obliged to acknowledge himself the vassal of an
ambitious prelate, Dagobert, who had been chosen
Patriarch of the Holy City; and he died as early as 1100, after a short and
unevent-; ful reign. He was succeeded by his brothet Baldwin of Edessa, a vigorous and able ruler, who overthrew the supremacy
of the Patriarch by arbitrary
force, and established the royal authority on all points. Within ten years he
took all the seaport towns from Tripoli to Jaffa, and
thereby secured what was most important, freedom of
communication with the Western world; the last years of his life were employed in defending the southern boundary of his kingdom
towards Egypt by a succession of fortresses, which he
planted partly round Ascalon, still held by the Egyptians, partly in the
wilderness, on the spurs of the Arabian desert. His successor,
Baldwin II., who reigned from 1118 till 1130, carried on this warlike movement
with even greater energy and a more far-sighted policy. The rule of the Caliphs
of Egypt was then in a feeble and decaying condition; moreover the desert, and
the naval predominance of the Christians, rendered any serious attack impossible. The probable, indeed the only
danger to the Franks was from the East; in case any leader of eminence should
arise among the vigorous and warlike Seljukes, re-
BALDWIN II.
65
concile or control the dissentient emirs, and then break into the
country with a united force. Baldwin II., who, like his predecessor,
had once been Count of Edessa, had a vivid conception of this danger, and
accordingly wished to direct the military
force at his disposal in Jerusalem and Antioch to that quarter; and there if
not wholly to destroy the Sultanate, at least to secure a safe and defensible
frontier. According to this plan, they must have taken Damascus, Aleppo, and
all the places between Antioch and Edessa: then a
sufficient defence would have been formed by the Taurus mountains on the north,
the Euphrates on the north-east, and the Syrian desert on the south-east, as
the boundaries of a compact kingdom. Baldwin followed up this idea by unceasing warfare and incredible exertion. Once, when taken
prisoner by a bold adventurer, he lay for years a prisoner among the Turks.
After his release, this misfortune only served to spur his activity into
redoubled vigour. During his life the supremacy of the Cross was maintained
in those countries. Haleb and Damascus were not conquered
indeed, but they paid tribute, and the Mussulman merchants trembled as they
passed along the roads between the Euphrates and Tigris, in fear lest the
lances of the Frankish knights should appear on the
horizon. If all the Christians had
F
66 HISTORY OP THE CRUSADES.
shared the ideas of their King, his plan would in all
probability have been carried out, and perhaps a lasting foundation of European
power and civilization would have been laid in those lands.
But Baldwin stood alone among his comrades in his political and
military views. They were never wanting in ardour, courage,
or religious zeal. No sooner did an enemy appear, than they received the
sacrament with fervent tears, and rushed with enthusiastic contempt of death
into the tight, where the overwhelming weight of the Frankish armour always told with effect. Their abilities, however, extended no
further; convinced that they were protected by God himself, they
attended little to earthly considerations. Instead of supporting the King in
his conquests in the north, the barons and burghers
of Jerusalem lamented his leaving the vicinity of the Holy Sepulchre so often,
and even neglecting it for such distant undertakings; besides dragging about
that invaluable relic the Holy Cross, on those accursed campaigns. Thus
hindered and thwarted on all sides, Baldwin was unable to
accomplish his great design. The heroes who drew their swords and shook their
lances so gallantly in Christ's honour, were quite incapable of
understanding the political motives and consequences of their undertaking. It
may even be said that they would not
f
QUARRELS AMONG THE PRINCES. 67
understand them. Every earthly consideration seemed to them a
presumptuous interference with God's ordinances, an impious intermingling of
earth with heaven. They thus ruined their kingdom by the same one-sided
religious zeal which had given them the energy to conquer it. Instead of striving to frame their society according to religious principles,
and then allowing politics to obey political rules, and war military ones, they
started upon the supposition that the very existence of
their dominion was a wonder of God's own working, and
they were convinced that for every fresh danger which threatened it, God had a new miracle in store. They were soon to discover
that such a notion was as destructive to religion and morality, as to political
and warlike success.
It has been remarked, in all times, that the exclusive piety which holds itself superior to human reason, is just that
which panders most to earthly vices. Amidst the most ardent enthusiasm for the
Church, all the most earthly passions soon asserted their sway. The princes of Edessa and Antioch quarrelled among themselves quite as fiercely as the
emirs of Aleppo and Damascus. Ere long, even a knight like Tancred sought
Turkish help against his Christian adversaries, though, according to the fundamental ideas of the Crusade, any alliance with a
f 2
68 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE8.
Turk was an abomination, and their blood the only pleasant offering to
the Lord. It was, however, inevitable that the bitterness of
religious hatred should gradually subside. Each day brought
forth social and commercial relations with the infidels, as well as war. The
Franks saw with amazement that people who in Europe were held to be worse than
wild beasts, half-demons, half-brutes, could be lived with, dealt with, nay,
even that much might be learnt from them. The idea
dawned for the first time upon the Franks, that human nature could exist under
other conditions than those of their own Church, that God's light might be
reflected in a thousand different ways. Such an idea is now welcome and consolatory to our religious feelings, but then it was entirely
subversive of all received opinions. It was the same in all other transactions.
Spite of all the devotion to the Holy Sepulchre, the
Crusaders plunged deeper and deeper into the earthly joys
of Oriental life. Baldwin's successor, King Fulco, was old and somewhat infirm;
he forgot the orders he had just given, mistook his best friends, and had no
memory but for the commands of his imperious wife Meli-sende, which he executed
with tremulous exactness. Under this prince, the
warlike impulse of the Baldwins completely died away. The
Christians devoted their whole attention to personal luxury and splen-
LUXURY OF THE CRU8ADERS. 69
dour. The numerous clergy led the way by their
example. Barons and prelates vied with each other in the race for political
influence, rich benefices and livings, wealth, and pleasure. There was no
kingdom in Europe in which the beauty and power of women played so conspicuous
a part, as in the community at the Holy Sepulchre. Much
as Fulco feared his queen, he was so jealous of her that he brought the
handsome and proud Count Hugo of Joppa, whom he thought she distinguished, in
danger of his life, by a criminal suit. Thereupon Hugo fled to the Egyptians, and commenced a devastating war against the kingdom; this was
assuaged with much difficulty, and Hugo was recalled to Jerusalem, as it
proved, to his misfortune, for an assassin attacked him in the high-road, and
wounded him severely, which induced him to fly anew, to Europe. We find
the same scenes repeated in the north. Count Joscelin of Edessa, a dwarfish,
misshapen man, with a black beard, sparkling eyes, and gigantic bodily
strength, left his capital in order to live joyously with numerous mistresses in shady country palaces, on this side of the Euphrates. In
Antioch, Eliza, the widow of Bohemund II., withheld the inheritance from her daughter Constance. Count Raymond
of Foitou, a handsome and brilliant knight, cast an eye on the rich heiress, but soon perceived,
70
HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
that though favoured by her, he could not gain possession of the throne against the will of her resolute and clever
mother. Upon this, he changed his tactics, and appeared as the mother's passionate adorer, obtained a favourable answer, and led her in
brilliant array to the altar, but no further. When there, he suddenly turned to
the daughter, married her, and then, before the very eyes of the astounded and
bewildered mother, proclaimed his and his consort's accession to
the throne. Amid such occurrences, it was no wonder that the war against the
Turks did not progress. The desire for further conquest was extinct, and the
Christians only prayed to heaven that things might but remain as they were.
Such stability is not, however, the portion of human affairs. While the Franks rested and enjoyed life, trusting in
God's help, a man arose among the Turks, who was destined to be the author of
their destruction. Shortly before the Crusade, the brother
of the Seljuke Sultan had caused one of his most able emirs to be executed, and
had thought himself merciful and gracious because he spared his young son,
Emaleddin Zenki. Deprived of fortune or favour, this boy worked his way up,
from a common horse-soldier, by the strength of his arm
and his intelligence. Amid the disorders of civil war, and more particularly
since the invasion by the Franks,
ZENKI THE BLOODY PRINCE.
71
bis sharp sword, his undaunted courage, and his keen and accurate judgment, had quickly become famous in the Syrian countries.
He rose rapidly, from step to step, and all the Seljukes praised Allah when
Zenki obtained the emirate of Mosul, with the distinct commission to wage an
exterminating war against the Franks. The adversities of his youth had made him stern and harsh; he
was more indignant at the indolent anarchy of his countrymen,
than at the hostility of the Christians, and, while, from the beginning of his
government, he left them not a moment's rest,
perpetually attacked them unawares, and soon gained from them the dreaded title
of the " bloody prince," he was entirely without mercy, or even
justice, towards a Seljuke who was lax in the prosecution of the holy war, or,
still worse, was suspected of friendship for a Christian. Military unity and energy were thus once more established
under the Prophet's flag, and soon made themselves
felt in bloody attacks, now upon the kingdom of Jerusalem, now upon the
northern principalities. In a short time the Turkish
possessions, from the Tigris to Lebanon, were under one rule, and in 1145 one
of the most important Christian cities, Edessa, was taken by storm. Zenki died
directly after, and Count Joscelin, roused from his life of indolence, hastened
to free the town from the Turkish garri-
72
BISTORT Of THE CRCSADES.
sod.
Scarcely had he set foot in it, when Xureddin, Zeuki's son, approached with a
large army, and, after sharp fighting, took Edessa for the second time, and
nearly destroyed it From that time, the whole of Mesopotamia
remained in the hands of the Turks. The Christians discovered that there was no
help for this state of things, and that Antioch must now serve as the northern
frontier town instead, and, as far as they were concerned,
profound peace prevailed in the land. Occasionally they exhorted Europe to send
them a few reinforcements, at their earliest convenience.
There, the Holy Land had for a long time occupied
but a small share of public attention. The reason lay in the general
intellectual movement which had suddenly sprung up among the nations of Europe
at the beginning of the twelfth century. The ascetic piety which despises the
things of this world, and which had culminated in Gregory
VII. and the Crusades, called forth a general reaction by its violence. In
France, one of the acutest and boldest thinkers of any time, Abelard, dared to
demonstrate the fallibility of the dogmas of the Church, and to vindicate the independence of philosophical speculation, with an
energy which gathered around him thousands of enthusiastic disciples. The sunny
air of Provence began to resound with
REACTION AGAIN8T THE CHURCH. 73
the ardent poetry of the Troubadours, free in tone, glowing
in colour, full of the joys of this world, and the passions of love and war.
From Italy news spread on every side, that the great code of the Emperor
Justinian had been discovered; it was read and taught in Bologna with untiring zeal, to a concourse of eager listeners; and a picture was
unfolded before the eyes of a wondering generation, of a bygone period, in
which a united government was really all-powerful, and the heads of the Church
were only its first servants and officers. The effect of this was
powerfully felt in Germany as in Home. The abbots in Germany complained that
even their own monks could not be got away from their legal studies to attend
to the services of the Church. Arnold of Brescia addressed the Roman citizens with electrifying eloquence, and called up before them the
image of the old Populus Romania, inciting them to open rebellion against the
temporal power of a Church, which was, he said, a scandal to religion and
morals, and ought to be made to disburse its treasures for the public
good.
The Papal power had however been too firmly established since the time
of Gregory VII., to succumb to this first movement. Too
many important interests were bound up with it, and
every antagonist was met by a host of enthusiastic admi
74 HISTORY OF THE CRU8ADES.
rers or energetic partisans, and, as usual, an unsuccessful rebellion only served to strengthen the power and ambition of
the government. About 1140 it was principally the Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux,
who in France and Upper Italy kept the people to their allegiance towards the
Pope and the Church. He was sufficiently well grounded in
philosophy not to shun the conflict with Abelard; he brought back the great
Order to which he belonged to strict rules and hard study; he won over the
Lombards and Provenfals, who for a time had upheld a schis-matical pope, by his impassioned and persuasive eloquence. The weak and sickly man gained
the ear of the whole population of the West. Without ambition, and free from
passion, by nature contemplative and quiet, Bernard obtained
a European influence, solely by his fervent devotion
to the leading ideas of the time. His letters, in
which much paius was evidently bestowed on the elegance of tho style, and the
impressiveness and sentiment of the imagery, were current in all the land,
breathing a still dominant and irresistible spirit.
He him* self would be nothing more than a plain and humble
monk; any call to leave the walls of his beloved Clairvaux for a higher place
he obstinately refused to obey; but kings listened to his sermons, and Pope
Eugene thought absolute reverence for the Abbot his greatest virtue.
TROUBLED STATE OF EUROPE.
75
Under these circumstances, Europe was obviously not in a favourable
state for another great under* taking for the relief of Jerusalem, and warfare
against the Turks. The political condition was no less
unfavourable. The general confusion into which Gregory VII. had thrown all the
European nations, and which, like an earthquake following a volcanic outbreak,
had found vent in the First Crusade, was at an end.
Political power hacl everywhere gained strength,
• the European States showed signs of new life, and great national interests
were fermenting. Germany was under the rule of the first king of the race of
the Hohen-Stauffen, Conrad III. Always an opponent of the Popes, he was constantly at war with their allies, particularly the mighty
sovereign house of Guelf. The latter, when conquered in Germany, called foreign
comrades to their aid,—the turbulent Hungarians from the east, the ambitious
Norman King of Naples, Roger II., from the south. Conrad, on the
other hand, entered into an alliance with the Emperor Manuel of Constantinople,
who, like himself, had suffered endless vexations from
the Normans and the Hungarians. Roger hereupon
determined instantly to fall upon the Greek provinces with redoubled
vigour, and earnestly begged King Louis to support him either with a fleet
against
76 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
Manuel, or by land against the German king. In a word, Europe was split
into two great alliances, on one side the German king
with most of his princes and the Greek Emperor; on the other, the Guelfs, Louis
of France, the Hungarians, and Roger of Naples. In this state of things, no one
thought of a Crusade, least of all the Syrian Franks, who wished indeed for the arrival of a few detached bodies of troops, but not for
the presence of a whole army, in their land.
It happened, however, that King Louis VII., on the occasion of an
insurrection in the town of Vitry, in Champagne, stormed the place, cut down a number of the inhabitants, and, amongst
other buildings, burnt the churches also. His excitable temper made him
ungovernable in rage, and crushed by remorse after the first outburst was over;
he was accessible to but one idea at a time, and incapable of taking any comprehensive views. No sooner was the battle ended
than he repented, with horror and bitterness of spirit, his offence against the
churches, feared for the salvation of his soul, and vowed a Crusade as the
expiation for his crime. Bernard, to whom he applied for assistance,
tried to dissuade him, saying that it was better to fight against the sinful
inclinations of his own heart, than against the Turks. When, however, the Kong obtained from
ST. BERNARD. 77
the Pope an order that Bernard should preach in
behalf of the Crusade, he, with humble obedience, exerted all his talent in aid
of the purpose which he disapproved, and with such success that in France an
army of seventy thousand knights joined the King. King Roger joined the undertaking with great eagerness, in the full hope of
involving the French monarch in a quarrel with the Greeks by the way, and of
thus being enabled to carry out Bohe-mund's old plans against Constantinople.
In the meantime, Bernard had gone to Germany, but at first found very
little sympathy from either king or people. This was natural enough. An
uncommonly strong resolution was needed in order to leave all domestic cares
and quarrels, from purely religious motives, and to march straight away to the East, there to make an alliance with those who had been enemies
hitherto, and thus indirectly to break off with Emperor Manuel, who had been
a faithful ally. But Bernard did not despair. One Sunday, when Conrad was
hearing him preach, he suddenly addressed from the pulpit such
warning, promising, and threatening words to the King, that he was overcome,
and in a soft fit of repentant piety, put on the cross. The number of knights
who accompanied him was, however, small, and the chief part of
the German Crusaders
consisted of rabble, of the stamp of the
78 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
Tafurs. The Pope, who, like Urban in 1095, put himself at the head of the whole undertaking, was little pleased with this
reinforcement, and blamed the King for putting on the cross
without asking leave from Rome; to which the King could only reply that the
Holy Spirit Ijloweth where it listeth, and allows no time for tedious
solicitations.
Both armies marched down the Danube, to Constantinople,
in the summer of 1147. At the same moment King
Roger, with his fleet, attacked not the Turks, but the Greek seaport towns of
the Morea. Manuel thereupon, convinced that the large armies were designed for
the destruction of his empire in the first place, with the greatest exertions, got together troops from all his provinces, and entered into a half-alliance with the Turks of Asia Minor. The mischief
and ill-feeling was increased by the lawless conduct of the German hordes; the
Greek troops attacked them more than once; whereupon numerous voices were raised in Louis's headquarters, to demand open war against the faithless Greeks. The kings
were fully agreed not to permit this, but on arriving in Constantinople they
completely fell out, for while Louis made no secret
of his warm friendship for Roger, Conrad promised the Emperor of Constantinople
to attack the Normans as soon as the Crusade should be ended. This was
THE 8EC0ND CRUSADE.
79
o bad beginning for a united campaign in the East, and moreover, at every step eastward, new difficulties arose. The German
army, broken up into several detachments, and led without ability or prudence,
was attacked in Asia Minor by the Emir of Iconium, and cut to pieces, all but a
few hundred men. The French, though better appointed, also
suffered severe losses in that country, but contrived, nevertheless, to reach
Antioch with a very considerable force, and from thence might have carried the
project which the second Baldwin had conceived in vain, namely, the defence of the north-eastern frontier, upon which, especially since
Zenki had made his appearance, the life or death of the Christian States
depended. But in vain did Prince Raymond of Antioch try to prevail upon King Louis to take this view, and to attack without delay the most formidable of all their adversaries, Noureddin. Louis would not hear or do anything till he had
seen Jerusalem, and prayed at the Holy Sepulchre. The brilliant prince had
better success with Louis's wife, Eleanora, the Golden-footed Queen, as the Greeks called her, whose favour he won by such open
homage, that Louis flew into a violent passion, and ordered an instantaneous departure from Antioch. In Jerusalem he was welcomed
by Queen Melisende (now regent, during her son's minority,
after Fulco's death), with praise and
80 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
gratitude, because he had not taken part in the distant wars of the Prince of Antioch, but had reserved his
forces for the defence of the holy city of Jerusalem. It was now resolved to
lead the army against Damascus, the only Turkish town whose
emir had always refused to submit to either Zenki or
Noureddin. Nevertheless Noureddin
instantly collected all his available forces, to succour the besieged town
against the common enemy. It appeared as though, if
Damascus should not fall before his arrival, a great collision must inevitably
take place. Events however took a curious turn. On
the one hand, Melisende had heard that if the town were taken, Louis intended
to give it, not to her, but to a French Count; on the other, the Emir could not
doubt that if Noureddin should relieve the town, his supremacy could no longer
be resisted. Both Queen and Emir were equally dissatisfied with either prospect. To these small rulers, the hostility
between East and West, Islam and Christianity, had become indifferent;
they wished for nothing but the continuance of their own
comfortable local rule, without the interference of the
great oppressive potentates. Accordingly, a
secret compact was made between Jerusalem and Damascus, in consequence of which
the Syrian barons, by treacherous manoeuvres, forced King
Louis to raise the siege, and the Emir then hastened to send the
WRECK OF THE SECOND CRUSADE. 81
joyful news to Noureddin, that he need give himself no further trouble.
The German king, long since tired of his powerless position, returned home in
the autumn of 1148, and Louis, after much pressing, stayed
a few months longer, and reached Europe in the following spring. The whole
expedition, undertaken in a ferment of piety, just as a man might dedicate a
taper, or found a chapel; undertaken without reference to the
great political relations, or the true interests of the
respective States, had been wrecked, without honour and without result, by the
most wretched personal passions, and the most narrow and selfish policy. We see
in the First Crusade the strength, in the Second
the weakness of mediaeval religious feeling. It
was only fitted for rapid, violent, and instant action; lasting combination,
fruitful action, or enduring results, it was unable to produce. It evaporated
in heated enthusiasm, and narrow7
contempt of the world; it rushed madly on, with eyes
turned to heaven, in expectation of some wondrous miracle, and fell crashing to
the ground, its feet entangled in some miserable creeping weed.
Speedy, irresistible, overwhelming retribution overtook the Syrian
Franks for their folly. King Louis had hardly set sail, when Noureddin arose
more terrible than his father had ever been. He
G
82 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
first attacked Antioch, and misfortune rudely overtook Prince Raymond after all his social
triumphs. He was killed in battle, half his army destroyed, and his territories
traversed in all directions by the victors. No less heavily did Noureddin
visit the rest of the dukedom of Edessa on this side the Euphrates. Count Joscelin was taken prisoner,
and the country finally subjugated by the Turks. The power which Zenki had
founded rose higher and higher against the weak bulwarks of the Christian
States. Noureddin grasped it with a firm and steady hand, embracing the whole
of the East in a comprehensive
glance, allied now with Cairo, how with Ico-nium, and even on friendly terms
with the Greek Emperor Manuel. He had inherited the bravery, earnestness, and
religious zeal of his father, and he was especially distinguished by an
unwearied spirit of order and regularity, which showed
itself in his private dealings as strict
conscientiousness, and in his political conduct as methodical forethought. His
serious and thoughtful nature could only be roused by the strongest religious
motives. Against the meanest of his subjects he
appeared before the judge, like any other citizen, and never departed a
hair's-breadth from the precepts of the law, or was unfaithful
for a single moment to the principles he had once recognised as true. His Court had the same
NOUREDDIN, 83
serious tone; there was little outward splendour, bat the Sovereign
never relaxed from his silent and dignified carriage. All who were about his
person aeqtrired a subdued and careful demeanour, and his relations and great Courtiers dared not be guilty of any wantonness or insolence, for
their master was as inexorable to offenders as he was just to merit. All the
harshest part of his resolute nature was felt by the Christians and their
friends. He burdened his Christian subjects with intolerable taxes,
the produce of which was devoted to the holy war. He excited the fanaticism of
Islam against them by every means in his power. In all the neighbouring Turkish States he possessed friends and adherents in the most
pious priests, the holiest dervishes, and the
penitent fakirs, through whose influence the mass of the people were roused to
such enthusiasm, that not one of the neighbouring Princes would have dared to
disregard Noureddin's call to arms. The Sultan did not forgive the Emir of Damascus his treaty with Jerusalem. " Damascus," he said, " is
useless to the cause of Islam, and the Christians will take it if I do not
anticipate them." Every kind of warfare, every means of victory were
justified, in his eyes, by this argument. He sowed dissension between
the Emir and his Officers by one agent, and by another between the
g 2
84
HISTORY OP THE CRUSADES.
people of Damascus and their ruler, whose principal vizier, a Kurdish
chieftain, Eyoob, was also in intimate correspondence with his
brother Shirkuh, Noureddin 's chief officer. The prey
was thus completely surrounded, and in the year 1154 Noureddin took the town and its dependencies without a blow. Thus the whole eastern
frontier of Jerusalem was laid bare to his victorious arms.
Meanwhile the Christians did their utmost to render success easy to him. It never occurred to King Baldwin III. to
secure Damascus against him, either by taking
possession of it himself, or by sending assistance to the Emir. Instead of this
he turned the politics of his country into a channel which quickly led to the
catastrophe. He directed his arms not against the strong and really dangerous enemy, but against the weakest and most impotent of his
neighbours, against Egypt. He took Ascalon in 1153, and in 1156 he made
destructive inroads as far as the Nile. The consequence was that Egypt, until
now exceedingly jealous of Noureddin, was compelled to call on him
for aid, and Baldwin's scattered forces were several times almost cut to pieces
by the Sultan. Nevertheless, in 1164, Baldwin's brother Amalric, who
succeeded him, obstinately pursued the same disastrous
course. He was a fat, solemn, stammering man, with a great
CAUTION OF NOUREDDIN.
85
taste for the study of history and geography, for legal and theological
researches, and a strong propensity for sensual indulgence,
which he knew how to excuse with dry humour; but above all, he was
eager in the pursuit of gold or treasure. In order to extort money, he began a
new war with Egypt immediately upon coining to the throne. He obtained considerable sums, but at the same time inspired such a feeling of desperation, that one party in Egypt
unconditionally embraced Noureddin's cause; and his vizier, Shirkuh, led a
troop of cavalry across the desert into the country, on whose appearance
Ainalric retreated, utterly disheartened, into Palestine. Fortune once more offered him means of escape. Shirkuh behaved with the greatest insolence as the conqueror and ruler of Egypt, and the Caliph, a
stupid and apathetic man, was a puppet in his hands. But the Caliph's vizier
Shawer, enraged at the Kurdish chief, suddenly changed
sides, and now appealed to King Amalric for relief. Shirkuh was unable to
resist with his handful of light cavalry, and hastened to Noureddin at Damascus to beg for reinforcements, describe the thoroughly disorganized and
rotten condition of Egypt, and plan a systematic conquest of
that country. Noureddin hesitated. These designs were too
remote and uncertain for his cautious mind; he thought
86 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
the volatile, cunning, and foolhardy Shirkuh deficient
in the necessary foresight and trustworthiness,
and at last, in 1166, only confided to him a small division, which was repulsed
by Auialric on its arrival in Egypt. The country became, in fact, a Frankish
province, Cairo was garrisoned by Christians, and a considerable
yearly tribute was paid to Jerusalem. It was an unexpected, and, properly used,
would have been an immense gain to the Christian cause. But once more
everything was ruined by Amalric's narrow selfishness. He thought he could
wring more spoil from Egypt, scoffed at the notion of
its resistance, and in 1168 demanded, under the threat of a devastating war, a
tribute of *wo million pieces of gold. This was too much for the Vizier to
bear; his deepest feelings of indignation were roused; "Let Shirkuh destroy us," he cried, " we
shall at least not have submitted to unbelievers." In spite of the recent
disagreements, he once more implored Noureddin's help. The Sultan saw that
he had no choice left. This time Shirkuh hastened across the desert with eight thousand horsemen, defeated all the preparations of the Franks by his
rapid movements, and while Amalric still thought him on Asiatic ground he was
before Cairo, welcomed by the acclamations of its inhabitants. Hereupon
RISE OF U ALA DIN.
87
Amalric quitted the country for ever, and Shirkuh took care that it
should not again be lost to the Turkish rule. A fortnight after the retreat of
the Franks, his young nephew, Saladin, ordered the Vizier Shawer to be arrested
and executed, and the feeble Caliph gave the vacant
office, and with it the government of the country, to the Turkish conqueror. When, a few weeks after," Shirkuh died, Saladin, with
Noureddin's sanction, succeeded him.
He was then in the first fresh bloom of youth, and had given but few proofs of political or military
talent. He had been living in the gardens of Damascus; dividing his time
between scientific studies and social pleasures, and had followed his uncle to
Egypt with the greatest reluctance. " I was as miserable," he said later, " as though I had been led to death."
He did not, as we see, seek fortune, but she sought him. Once in action,
however, he showed himself energetic and ardent; his mind developed itself
largely and vigorously, each successive difficulty and danger called forth, out of his joyous and pleasure-loving nature,
the highest faculties of dominion and conquest He had nothing of Noureddin's somewhat pedantic manners; he loved to be
surrounded by happy faces, and to lay aside his external dignity in personal intercourse, sure of being able at any
moment to resume
88
HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
the character of an absolute commander. He was not so stern a judge as
Noureddin towards others or towards himself; he often acted with great indulgence, and sometimes also with harsh
and arbitrary caprice, but was afterwards ready
to acknowledge his injustice, and to make ample
amends. He was altogether more amiable, frank, and natural than Noureddin; his
was one of those splendid natures, which, in the plenitude of
genius, half unconsciously grasp the dominion over a
people, but know no other rule or limit than their own personal power and inspiration. They in every sense overstep the bounds of
everyday life, they break through all rules, and not unfrequently neglect the
commonest duties; they feel their own strength, and are possessed with the
desire to give full scope to their faculties. The young commander, who a year
before had angrily lamented that the command of the Sultan had driven him to endure fatigue and hardship, now held a vast kingdom in his
firm and supple grasp; he had no feelings save those of a born ruler, and all
who gainsaid him felt the whole force of his resentment. Several insurrections
in Egypt were put down with such promptitude and so much
bloodshed, that the people in fear and trembling gave up
all thoughts of rebellion; and when, in the year 1171, the faint
saladin's supremacy. 89
hearted Caliph made a feeble attempt at independence,
the news suddenly spread through the land that he had ceased to live; and
the race of the Fatimites was extinct after a reign of two hundred y&trs. To none was the rise of Saladin more dangerous
than to the Franks in Palestine, who were now surrounded, and threatened on all sides by a united, unmerciful, and ever restless power.
Noureddin on the east and Saladin on the west, had only to advance with
their masses of troops, aud the Frankish States must have been crusted at once
by the mere force of numbers. But an unforeseen complication of
affairs on the side of the enemy delayed the catastrophe for a few years; it
happened that one of the great Turkish rulers had for the present moment a
personal interest in maintaining the existence of the
Christians.
Saladin had come into Egypt as Noureddin's
subaltern, and ruled there with the title of the Sultan's viceroy. In reality,
he governed quite independently, owing to the great
distance between Damascus and Cairo, and the necessity of quick and decisive
measures in Egypt. It was however certain that
his absolute sovereignty would cease directly the two countries should be
united by the conquest of Palestine; and for this reason Saladin delayed under
every conceivable pretext whenever
00
HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
Noureddin sent him orders to begin the holy war. Noureddin endured this
for two years, and then sent for his nephew Saifeddin from Mosul to Damascus, entrusted to him the government of Syria,, and prepared to
march in person at the head of a mighty army, in order to
call the ambitious upstart to account. Saladin in the meantime conquered Nubia
and part of Arabia, in order to take refuge there on the appearance of his
angry chief. At, this important crisis a higher power .interposed in favour of- the younger potentate. In the year 1174 Sultan Noureddin and
King Amalric died within a short time of each other, both leaving sons under
age, who became the centres of anarchy and party feud. Thus Saladin, yet in the
flower of life, beheld a boundless field open before him, and
the future destiny of the East within his grasp. His first step was to declare
to the ambitious emirs and pretenders to power in Noureddin's dominions that he
should resent eveiy injury to young Ismael as one offered to himself, and that he looked upon the son of his benefactor as his natural
ward. But when Ismael came forward with unexpected vigour, and humbled all his
relations and officers beneath decisive and rapid strokes, Saladin
suddenly changed his policy, appeared with an army in Syria, conquered Damascus, and as an open proclamation of
DECLINE OF THE FRANK IS H 8TATES. 01
his own supremacy, assumed the title of Sultan. Several years were
passed in confusion and fighting, during which the Christians were blind enough to take Saladin's part. In 1181 Ismael died,
Saladin strained every nerve, and in the course of three campaigns, reduced all
the Syrian emirs, those of Mesopotamia, and at last of Mosul itself to acknowledge his supremacy. In the year 1184, he was sole ruler from
the sources of the Nile as far as the river Tigris, and now he began the last
decisive attack upon the Christians, whom, spite of the general largeness of his mind, he hated with relentless hate, worthy of
Zenki or Noureddin. . In the Frankish States the near
approach of dissolution was foretold by inward decline,
by division and anarchy, by miserable cowardice, and insolent rashness. The
young King Baldwin IV. lay incurably ill with leprosy; they sought,
as his future heir, a husband for his sister Sibylla,
and Baldwin hastily pronounced in favour of Count Guy de Lusignan, a Gascon
bully, without wealth or power, and what was worse, without understanding or
character, so that his elevation provoked a storm of indignation throughout the kingdom. Two great parties were instantly formed. At
the head of one stood nomi* nally Baldwin and Guy, but really Reginald of
Chatillon, a desperado athirst for war and plunder,
92
HISTORY OP THE CRUSADES.
and physically and morally ungovernable; a man who under other
circumstances might have been a common pirate, or possibly a great conqueror;
he fully perceived the desperate state of affairs, and exhorted the
Christians—as at the worst they could but lose their
lives—to fight without delay or cessation. The opposing barons ranged
themselves against him under the former regent, Count Raymond of Tripoli, a clever but vacillating and weak man, who, halting
between honesty and ambition, aspired to the crown, half
from selfish, half from patriotic motives, and warmly advocated a peaceful and
yielding policy towards Saladin, as the only chance of safety. Amid these
hopeless disputes, Saladin's mighty onslaught burst upon them, from Egypt, from
Damascus, and from the sea, simultaneous,
and well combined, with armies each more numerous than the whole Christian
force. Once more disturbances on the Tigris, in which the Sultan was involved,
gave the Franks a moment's breathing-time; Raymond of Tripoli used it to remove the incapable Guy, and proclaim Sibylla's son heir to the throne;
but when King Baldwin sank under his disease, and the royal boy died unexpectedly, Sibylla, in spite of all objections, recalled her husband,
and placed the crown upon his head. The Count of
Tripoli, beside himself with rage,
DANGER OF THE CHRISTIANS. 93
forgot every consideration of duty, and applied to Saladin for help.
Guy and Sibylla thought themselves fortunate to obtain by heavy
sacrifices an armistice from the mighty Sultan, who showed himself merciful from contempt. But they were not strong enough to compel
Count Reginald to keep the peace; from the fortresses of the Arabian desert he
sallied forth and attacked the peaceful caravans on their passage, and thereupon Saladin declared the measure to be full. The Count of Tripoli, in
his anger against Guy, allowed the immense army which Saladin brought from
Damascus to pass through his dominions, and on the 1st May, 1187, Saladin
gained his first victory over the advanced Christian troops posted on
the river Kishon, and led his overwhelming army upon Jerusalem. Before
this terrible danger party hatred at last was silent; the Christians collected all their forces, and even the Count of Tripoli repenting the
fearful consequences of his breach of faith, joined his former adversaries.
But even so, they were far inferior in numbers and in generalship to their antagonist. On the 5th of July a battle was fought at
Tiberias, which, in consequence of Guy's utter weakness and incompetence, and Saladin's energetic dispositions, resulted
within the first hour in the total destruction of the Christians. The greater part of
their knights lay dead
04 HISTORY bP THE CRUSADES.
on the field, the Count of Tripoli escaped with a few
followers by rapid flight only to die in a few days conscience-stricken and
broken-hearted. King Guy, Reginald of Chatillon, and many of the principal
barons, were taken prisoners. Saladin received them in his tent, and with consolatory words offered a refreshing drink to the wearied King;
but when Count Reginald reached out his hand for the cup, he clove the head of
the forsworn breaker of treaties with his sword, so that he fell with a groan
and died on the spot. The terrific news of the defeat spread
through the land, destroying all remaining strength or courage. Towns and castles opened their gates wherever the victorious
troops appeared; Tyre alone was defended by the opportune arrival of
an Italian fleet under the Marquis Conrad of Montferrat.
Jerusalem, which, as a holy city, Saladin wished to take by treaty,
capitulated on the 3rd of October, after an investment of three weeks.
Saladin's career of victory did not yet extend as far as Tripoli and Antioch,
but the kingdom of Jerusalem, the pride and
centre of the Christian rule, was destroyed.
95
Although after the failure of the Second Crusade the interest felt by the
Western nations in the kingdom of Jerusalem had greatly
diminished, still the news of the loss of the Holy City
fell like a thunderbolt on men's minds. Excitement,
anger, and grief were universal; once more before its final extinction the
flame which had kindled the mystic war of God blazed high in the hearts of men.
" What a disgrace, what an affliction," cried
Pope Urban III., " that the jewel which the second Urban won for Christendom should
be lost by the third !" He vehemently exhorted the Church and
all her faithful to join the war, worked day and night, prayed, sighed, and so wore himself out with grief and anger that he sickened and died in
a few weeks. His successor, Gregory VIII., and after him Pope Clement III., were inspired by the same feeling, and exerted themselves for the great
cause with untiring energy.
96 HISTORY OP THE CRUSADES.
At the time of the First Crusade, Pope Urban II. had, as we have seen,
preached but once, and then left the ardour of visionary enthusiasm to take its
own ♦effect; but now Gregory VIII. sent legates through every country, and through them watched the progress
of arming, made arrangements for the cost of the expedition, imposed, a
universal tax, called Sa-ladin's tithe, on all classes of the European population, had the plans laid before him, removed political difficulties, and allayed dissensions, which might have hindered the
departure of the armies,—in a word, he acted as though he had been the monarch
of a large, warlike, and wrell
administered kingdom. The effect was wonderful. In 1185 a number of English barons had put on the cross, on hearing of Saladin's menacing
progress; towards the end of 1187 the heir to the throne, Richard, followed
their example; some months later, King Henry II. had a meeting with his former
enemy, Philip Augustus of France, at Gisors, where they vowed to abandon
their earthly quarrels, and to become warriors of the everlasting God. Nearly
the whole nobility, and a number of the lower class of people were carried away
by their example. In Italy, Genoa had long been urging on the Pope, who in his turn succeeded in gaining over Pisa, which had always
been hostile to the Genoese; King William of Sicily fitted out his fleet, and
was
•
THE WEST RI8ES TO ABM8.
97
only prevented by death from joining it himself. From Denmark and Scandinavia pilgrims thronged to Syria both by land and by
water; in Germany, now as formerly, the zeal was not so great, until in March,
1188, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, at the age of near seventy, put on the
cross, and by his ever firm and powerful will collected
together a mass of nearly a hundred thousand pilgrims. All the Western nations rose to arms.
The news of this enormous movement reached the East, where at first it
was hardly believed, but grew louder and more threatening every day, and the ferocious war-cry of Europe was answered by a voice of
defiance quite as eager. Saladin had studied his antagonists with the eye
of a true statesman, and had organized his dominions
almost according to the Western system. Under an
oath of allegiance and service in war, he granted to each of his emirs a town
on feudal tenure; its surrounding land they again divided among their
followers; the Sultan thus attached those wandering hordes of horsemen to the
soil, and kept those restless spirits permanently together. He then
invoked the religious zeal of all Mahomedans with such
success that, partly from fanaticism and partly from love of plunder, volunteers flocked to his standard from every quarter, from the
depths of the Arabian desert, from
H
98 HI8T0EY OF THE CRUSADES.
the country between the Euphrates and the Tigris, from Persia and
Kurdistan. The warlike robbers and hunters of the Caucasus joined his camp at
the same time as the nomads of Bulgaria, with their cattle and camels j from the frontiers of Nubia came crowds of Negroes, "
a people of fiends and devils," said the Franks, " about whom nothing
is white but their eyes and teeth." These masses dispersed, it is true, at
the beginning of every winter, and the Sultan was
then left for a few months with only his feudal troops; but on the return of
fair weather they again collected in ever-increasing numbers round that
nucleus. The arming of the East was not even confined to the territories of
Islam. Saladin well knew the
mutual hatred which divided the Greek Byzantines and the Latin Franks, and kept
so skilfully alive in the Emperor Isaac Angelos the fear of the insolence of
the Western soldiers, that he concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with Saladin against those who shared his own faith.
On the island of Cyprus Isaac Comnenus had founded a separate kingdom in open
revolt against the Emperor, and although he was on terms of bitter hostility
with the Greek Emperor, Saladin won them both over to his policy, so that the ships of Cyprus joined the Egyptian fleet in guarding the
coasts of Syria. Even the
PREPARATIONS IN TBE EAST. 99
Armenians of Cilicia and the Euphrates, whose very existence had been
saved by the First Crusade, he contrived to attach to his side. The whole East,^ from the Danube to the
Indus, from the Caspian Sea to the sources of the Nile, prepared with one
intent to withstand the great invasion of Europe. Amid cares and preparations
which had reference to three-quarters of the globe, Saladin neglected
his nearest enemy, the feeble remnant of the Christian States in Syria, which,
although unimportant in themselves, were of great consequence as landing-places
for the invading Western nations during the
approaching war. The small principalities of Antioch and
Tripoli still existed, and in the midst of the Turkish forces, the Marquis
Conrad of Montferrat still displayed the banner of the cross upon the ramparts
of Tyre. It seems as if in this instance Saladin had abandoned himself too much to the superb and easy carelessness of his
nature. Hitherto he had not shrunk from
the most strenuous exertions; but he was so certain of his victory, that he
neglected to strike the final blow. Not until the autumn of 1187 did he begin the siege of Tyre; and for the first time in his life found a dangerous
adversary in Conrad of Montferrat, a man of cool courage and keen
determination, whose soul was unmoved by religious enthusiasm, and equally free
from weakness or indecision; so that
u 2
100 HI8TORY OP THE CRUSADES.
under his command the inhabitants of the city repulsed every attack with increasing assurance
and resolution. Saladin hereupon
determined to try starvation, which a strict blockade by sea and land was to
cause in tfce town; but in June, 1188, the Sicilian fleet appeared, gave the
superiority by sea to the Christians, and brought relief to Tyre. The Sultan retreated, and marched through the defenceless provinces of Antioch and Tripoli, but there too he left the
capitals in peace upon the arrival of the Sicilian fleet in their waters. The
following summer he spent in taking the Frankish fortresses
in Arabia Petraea, the possession of which was important to him in order to
secure freedom of communication between Egypt and Syria. Meanwhile the reinforcements
from the West were pouring into the Christian seaport towns. In the first place the
two military and religious Orders, the Templars and the Knights of St. John,
had collected munitions of war of every kind from all their European
possessions, and increased the number of their mercenaries to fourteen thousand
men. King Guy also had ransomed himself from captivity and had gone
to Tripoli, where by degrees the remnant of the Syrian barons, and pilgrims of
all nations, gathered round him. They took the right resolution, to remain no
longer inactive, but, with the gigantic preparations in
SIEGE OF PTOLEMAIS.
101
Europe iu prospect, to begin the attack at once. On the 28th of August,
1189, Guy commenced the siege of the strong maritime fortress of Ptolemais (St.
Jean d'Acre). A fleet from Pisa had already joined the Sicilian
one; in October there arrived twelve thousand Danes and Frisians, and in
November a number of Flemings, under the Count of Avesnes, French knights under
the Bishop of Beauvais, and Thuringians, under their landgrave, Louis. Saladin,
roused from his inactivity by these events, hastened to
the spot with his army, and in his turn surrounded
the Christian camp, which lay in a wide semicircle round Ptolemais, and was
defended by strong entrenchments within and without. It formed an iron ring
round the besieged town, which Saladin, spite of
all his efforts, could not break through. Each wing of the position rested upon
the sea, and was thus certain of its supplies, and able to protect the landing
of the reinforcements, which continually arrived in constantly increasing numbers,—Italians, French,English and Germans, Normans
and Swedes. " If on one day we killed ten," said the Arabs, " on
the next, a hundred more arrived fresh from the West." The fighting was
incessant by land and by sea, against the town and
against the Sultan's camp. Sometimes the Egyptian fleet drove the Christian
ships far out to sea; and Saladin could then succour
102
HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
the garrison with provisions and fresh troops, till new Frankish
squadrons again surrounded the harbour, and only a few intrepid divers could
steal through between the hostile ships. On land, too, now one side and now the
other was in danger. One day the Sultan scaled the Christian
entrenchments, and advanced close to the walls of the
city, before the Franks rallied sufficiently to drive him back by a desperate
attack; but they soon took their revenge in a night sortie, when they attacked
the Sultan in his very tent, and he narrowly escaped by
rapid flight. Against the town their progress was very slow, as the garrison,
under an able and energetic commander, Bohaeddin, showed itself resolute and
indefatigable. One week passed after another, and the condition of the Franks became painfully complicated.
They could go neither backwards nor forwards; they could make no impression on
the walls; nor could they re-embark in the face of an active enemy. There was
no choice but to conquer or die; so preparations were made for a long sojourn; wooden barracks, and for the princes even
stone houses were built, and a new hostile town arose all around Ptolemais. In
spite of this the winter brought innumerable hardships. In that small space
more than a hundred thousand men were crowded together, with
insufficient shelter, and
SIEGE OP PTOLEMAIS.
103
uncertain supplies of wretched food; pestilential diseases soon broke
out, which swept away thousands, and were intensified by the
exhalations from the heaps of dead. Saladin retreated from
their deadly vicinity to more airy quarters on the adjacent
hills; his troops also suffered from the severe weather, but were far better
supplied than the Christians with water, provisions,and
other comforts, as the caravans from Cairo and Bagdad met in
their camp, and numbers of merchants displayed in glittering booths all kinds
of Eastern wares. It was an unexampled assemblage of the forces of
two quarters of the world round one spot, unimportant in itself, and chosen almost by accident. Our own times have seen a counterpart to it in
the siege of Sebastopol, which, though in a totally different form, was a new
act in the same great struggle between the East and the West. Happily the
Western nations did not derive their warlike stimulus from religious
sources, and they displayed, if not their military, at any rate their moral
superiority, in the most brilliant manner.
Although in the fight around Ptolemais, this superiority
was doubtless on Saladin's side, there was a moment
in which Europe threatened to oppose to the mighty Sultan an antagonist as
great as himself. In May, 1189, the Emperor Frederick I. marched out of
Ratisbon with his army for Syria. He
had
104 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
already ruled thirty-seven years over Germany and
Italy, and his life had been one of war and labour, of small results, but
growing fame. He was born a ruler in the highest sense of the word; he
possessed all the attributes of power; bold yet cautious, courageous and enduring, energetic and methodical,
he towered proudly above all who surrounded him, and had the highest conception
of his princely calling. But his ideas were beyond his
time, and while he tried to open the way for a distant future, he was made to
feel the penalty of running counter to the inclinations of the present
generation. It seemed to him unbearable, that the Emperor, who was extolled by
all the world as the defender of the right and the fountain-head of law, should
be forced to bow before unruly vassals or unlimited ecclesiastical power. He had, chiefly from the study of the Roman law, conceived
the idea of a state complete within itself, and strong in the name of the
common weal, a complete contrast to the existing condition of Europe, where all the monarchies were breaking up, and the crowned priest reigned
supreme over a crowd of petty princes. Under these circumstances he appeared, foreshadowing modern thoughts deep in the middle ages, like a
fresh mountain breeze dispersing the incense-laden
atmosphere of the time. This discrepancy caused the greatness and
the misfortune of
FREDERICK BARBAR08SA.
105
the mighty Emperor. The current of his time set full against him. When,
as the representative of the State, he enforced obedience
to the law, he appeared to some an impious offender
against the Holy Church; to others, a tyrant trampling on the general freedom;
and while conquering in a hun-. dred fights, he was driven from one position
after another by the force of opinion. But so commanding was the energy, so powerful the earnestness, and so inexhaustible
the resources of his nature, that he was as terrible to his foes on the last
day as on the first, passionless and pitiless, never distorted by cruelty, and never melted by pity, an iron defender of his
imperial rights.
We can only guess at the reasons which may have induced a sovereign of
this stamp to leave a sphere of domestic activity for the fantastic wars of the
Crusades. Once, in the midst of his Italian feud, when the
deeds of Alexander the Great were read aloud to him, he exclaimed, "Happy
Alexander, who didst never see Italy! happy I, had I ever been in
Asia!" Whether piety or love of fame ultimately decided him, he felt
within himself the energy to take a great decision, and at once proceeded to action. The aged Emperor once more displayed, in this last effort, the fullness of his powerful and ever-youthful nature.
For the first time
100 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
during these wars, since the armed pilgrimages had begun,
Europe beheld a spirit conscious of their true object, and capable of carrying
it out. The army was smaller than any
of the former ones, consisting of twenty thousand knights, and fifty thousand
squires and foot-soldiers; but it was guided by one
inflexible, indomitable will. With
strict discipline, the Imperial leader drove all disorderly and useless persons
out of his camp, he was always the first to face every obstacle or danger, and
showed himself equal to all the political or military difficulties
of the expedition. The Greek Empire had
to be traversed first, whose emperor, Isaac, as I have before mentioned, had allied himself with Saladin; but at the sight of these
formidable masses, he shrank in terror from any hostile
attempt, and hastened to transport the German army across into Asia Minor.
There they hoped for a friendly reception from the Emir of Iconium, who was
reported to have a leaning towards Christianity ; but in the meantime the old
ruler had been dethroned by his sons, who opposed the
Germans with a strong force. They were
destined to feel the weight of the German arm. After their mounted bowmen
had harassed the Christian troops for a time with a shower of arrows, the Emperor broke their line of battle, and scattered them by a
sudden attack of cavalry in all directions, while
death Or FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. 107
at the same moment Frederick's son unexpectedly scaled the walls of
their city. The Crusaders then inarched in triumph to
Cilicia; the Armenians already yielded submissively to a
cessation of hostilities; and far and wide thoughout
Turkish Syria went the dread of Frederick's irresistible arms. Even Saladin
himself, who had boldly defied the the disorderly attacks of the hundreds of thousands before Ptolemais, now lost all hope, and announced
to his emirs his intention of quitting Syria on Frederick's
arrival, and retreating across the Euphrates. On this, every highway in the
country became alive, the emirs quitted their towns,
and began to fly with their families, their goods, and chattels, and hope rose
high in the Christian camp. This honour was reserved for the Emperor; that
which no other Prankish sword could achieve, he had done by the mere shadow of
his approach: he had forced from Saladin a confession of
inferiority. But he was not destined to see the realization of his endeavours
here, any more than in Europe. His army had entered
Cilicia, and was preparing to cross the rapid mountain torrent of the Seleph.
On the 10th of June, 1190, they marched slowly across the narrow bridge, and
the Emperor, impatient to get to the front, urged his horse into the stream,
intending to swim to the opposite shore.
The raging waters
108 HISTORY OP THE CRUSADES.
suddenly seized him, and hurried him away before the eyes of his
people. When he was drawn out, far down the river, he was a corpse. Boundlfess
lamentations resounded throughout the army; the most brilliant ornament and
sole hope of Christendom was gone; the troops arrived at Antioch in
a state of the deepest dejection. From thence a number of the pilgrims returned
home, scattered and discouraged, and a pestilence broke
out among the rest, which was fatal Lo the greater number of them: it seemed, says a chronicler, " as
though the members would not outlive their head." The Emperor's son, Duke Frederick of Suabia, reached the camp before
Ptolemais with five thousand men, instituted there the Order of the
Teutonic Knights, —who were destined hereafter to found a splendid
dominion on the distant shores of the German Ocean;—and soon afterwards
followed his father to the grave.
The highest hopes were destroyed by this lamentable
downfall. It seemed as if a stern fate had resolved
to give the Christian world a distant view of the
possibility of victory; the great Emperor might have secured it, but the
generation which had not understood him, was doomed to misery and defeat. A
second winter, with the same fearful additions of hunger and sickness, came upon the camp before
QUARRELS AMONG THE PE1NCES. 109
Ptolemais, and the measure of misfortune was filled by renewed and
bitter quarrels among the Frankish princes.
"King Guy was as incompetent as ever, and so utterly
mismanaged the Christian cause, that the Marquis Conrad of Montferrat
indignantly opposed him. Queen Sibylla, by marriage
with whom Guy had gained possession of the crown, died just at this
juncture. Conrad instantly declared that Sibylla's sister Eliza was now the only rightful heir,
and, as he held every step towards advancement to be laudable, did not for a
moment scruple to elope with her from her husband, to marry her himself, and to
lay claim to the crown. Amid all this confusion and disaster, the eyes of
the Crusaders turned with increasing anxiety towards the horizon, to catch a
glimpse of the sails which were to bring to them two fresh leaders, the kings
of France and of England. Their
preparations had not been very rapid. Henry II. of England had, even since his
oath, got into a new quarrel with Philip Augustus
of France, which only ended with his death, in 1189. His son and successor, Richard, whose zeal
had led him to put up the cross earlier than the
rest, instantly began to arrange the expedition with Philip. In his impetuous
manner, he exulted in the prospect of unheard-of triumphs; the government of
England was hastily and insufficiently provided for
110 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
during the absence of the King; above all, money was needed in great
quantities, and raised by every expedient, good or bad. When some one remonstrated
with the King concerning these extortions, he exclaimed, "I
would sell London itself, if I could but find a purchaser." He legislated with the same inconsiderate
vehemence as to the discipline and order of his army:
murderers were to be buried alive on land, and at sea to be tied to the corpses
of their victims, and thrown into the water; thieves were to
be tarred and feathered; and whoever gambled for money, be he king
or baron, was to be dipped three times in the sea, or flogged naked before the
whole army. Richard led his army
through France, and went on board his splendid
fleet at Marseilles, while Philip sailed from Genoa in hired vessels. Halfway
to Sicily, however, Richard got tired of the sea-voyage, landed near Rome, and
journeyed with a small retinue through the Abruzzi and Calabria, already on the
look-out for adventures, and often engaged in bloody quarrels with the
peasants of the mountain villages. When he at last arrived in Sicily, his
unstable mind suddenly underwent a total change; a quarrel
with the Sicilian king, Tancred, drove the Holy Sepulchre entirely out of his
head. Now
fighting, now negotiating, he stayed nine months at
Messina,—hated
RICHARD CCET7R-DE-LI0N.
Ill
and feared by the inhabitants, who called him the lion, the savage
lion,—deaf to the entreaties of his followers, who were eager to get to Syria, and heedless and defiant to all Philip
Augustus's representations and demands. At last, the
French king, losing patience, sailed without him, and arrived at Ptolemais in April, 1191. He was received with eager joy, but did not
succeed in at all advancing the siege operations; for so
many of the French pilgrims had preceded him, that the army he brought was but
small, and though an adroit and cunning diplomatist,
a tried and unscrupulous statesman, he lacked the rough soldierly vigour and
bravery, on which everything at that moment depended. At length Richard was
again on his road, and again he allowed himself to be turned aside from his
purpose. One of his ships, which bore his betrothed bride, had stranded on the
Cyprian coast, and in consequence of the hostility of the king of
that island, had been very inhospitably received. Richard was instantly up in
arms, declared war against the Comneni, and conquered the whole island in a
fortnight; an impromptu conquest, which was of the highest importance to the Christian party in the East for centuries after.
Still occupied in establishing a military colony of his knights, he was
surprised by a visit from King
112 HI8T0RY 07 THE CRU8ADE8.
Guy, of Jerasalem, who wished to secure the support of the dreaded monarch in his party contests at home. Guy
complained to King Richard of the matrimonial offences of his rival, informed
him that Philip Augustus had declared in favour of Conrad's claims, and on the
spot secured the jealous adherence
of the English monarch. He landed on the 8th of June at Ptolemais; the
Christians celebrated his arrival by an illumination of the camp; and without a
moment's delay, by his warlike ardour, he roused the whole army out of the
state of apathy into which it had lately fallen. Day after
day the walls of the city were energetically assailed on every side. On the 8th
July, Saladin made his last attempt to raise the siege, by an attack on the
Christian entrenchments; he was driven back with great loss, whereupon he permitted the besieged to capitulate. The town surrendered,
with all its stores, after a siege of nearly three years' duration i the heroic defenders still remaining, about three thousand in number, were to be exchanged, within the space of forty days, for two thousand captive Christians,
and a ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. The war, according to all
reports, had by this time cost the Crusaders above thirty thousand men.
Those among the pilgrims who were enthusiastic
NEGOTIATIONS.
113
and devout, now hoped their way would lead straight to the Holy
Sepulchre. But it soon became manifest that the feeling which had
prompted the Cru* sades was dead for ever. The news of the fall of Jerusalem
had awakened a momentary excitement in the Western
nations, but had failed to stir up the old enthusiasm. On Syrian ground, the
ideal faith rapidly gave way before substantial worldly considerations.
Richard, Guy, and the Pisans, on the one hand; Philip, Conrad, and the Genoese, on the other, were already in open discord, which was so
embittered by Richard's blustering fury, that Philip Augustus embarked at the
end of July for France, declaring upon his oath that he had no evil intentions
towards England, but determined in his heart to let Richard
feel his resentment on the first opportunity. Meanwhile negotiations had begun
between Saladin and Richard, which at first seemed to promise favourable
results for the Christians, but unfortunately the day
fixed for the exchange of the prisoners arrived before
Saladin was able to procure the whole of the promised ransom. Richard, with the
most brutal cruelty, slaughtered two thousand seven hundred prisoners in one
day. Saladin magnanimously refused the demands of his exasperated followed' for reprisals, but of course there could be no further
question of a treaty, and
i
114 HISTORY 07 THE CRUSADES.
the war recommenced with renewed fury. Richard led the army on an
expedition against Ascalon„ defeated Saladin on his march thither at Arsuf,
and advanced amid incessant skirmishes and single combats, into which he
recklessly plunged as though he had been a simple knight-errant. Accordingly
his progress was so slow that Saladin had destroyed
the town before his arrival and rendered its capture
worthless to the Christians. Again negotiations were begun, but in
January, 1192, Richard suddenly advanced upon Jerusalem, and by forced marches
quickly reached Baitnube, a village only a few miles distant from the Holy City. But there the Sultan had thrown up strong and extensive
fortifications, and after long and anxious deliberations,
the Franks returned towards Ascalon. Meanwhile Conrad of Montferrat had
placed himself in communication with Saladin, proposed to him point-blank an alliance against Richard, and by his prudent and
consistent conduct, daily grew in favour with the Sultan. The Christian camp,
on the other hand, was filled with ever-increasing discord; and the differences
between Richard and Conrad reached such a height, that the Marquis
went back to Ptolemais, and regularly beseiged the Pisans,
who were friendly to the English. Into such a miserable state of confusion had
the great European enter-
V
TREATY WITH SALADIN. 115
prise fallen for want of a good leader and an adequate object.
In April news came from England, that the King's brother, John, was in
open rebellion against him, and in alliance with France; whereupon Richard,
greatly alarmed, informed the barons that he must prepare for his departure,
and that they must definitively
choose between Guy and Conrad as their future ruler. To his great
disappointment, the actual necessities of the case triumphed over all party
divisions, and all voted for Conrad, as the only able and fitting ruler in the
country. Nothing remained for Richard, but to accede to their wishes, and as a last act of favour
towards Guy, to bestow upon him the crown of Cyprus. Conrad did not delay one
moment signing the treaty with Saladin, and the Sultan left the new King in possession of the whole line of coast taken by the Crusaders, and also ceded to him Jerusalem, where however he was to allow
a Turkish mosque to exist; the other towns of the interior were then to be
divided between the two sovereigns.
What a conclusion to a war in which the whole world had been engaged, and had made such incalculable
efforts! After the only competent leader had been snatched from the Christians
by an angry fate, the weakness and desultoriness of the others
i 2
116 HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
had destroyed all the fruits of conquest. The
host of devout pilgrims had beheld Jerusalem from Baitnuba, and had then been
obliged to turn their backs upon the holy spot in impotent grief. Suddenly a nameless, bold, and cunning prince made his appearance in this
great war between the two religions in the world, a man indifferent to
religion or morality, who knew no other motive than selfishness, but who followed that with vigour and consistency, and had already stretched forth his hand to grasp the crown
of the Holy Sepulchre.
But on the 2Sth April, Conrad was murdered by two Saracen assassins;
many said, at King Richard's instigation, but more
affirmed it was by the order of the Old Man of the Mountain, the head of a
fanatical sect in the Lebanon. Everything was again
unsettled by this event. The Syrian barons instantly elected Count Henry of
Champagne as their king; five days after Conrad's death he married his widow Eliza, and was perfectly ready to succeed to Conrad's
alliance with Saladin, as well as to his wife.
But King Richard, with his usual thoughtlessness, allowed the scandalous
marriage, but prevented the reasonable diplomatic arrangement As he had a certain liking for Henry, who was his nephew, he
wished to conquer a few more provinces for him in a hurry,
and to win some
FRE8H OUTBREAK OF WAR. 117
fresh laurels for himself at the same time; and accordingly began the
war anew against Saladin. A Turkish fortress was taken, when more evil tidings arrived from England, and Richard announced
that he could not remain a moment longer. The barons broke out in a general cry
of indignation, that he who had plunged them into danger, should forsake them
in the midst of it, and once more the vacillating King allowed himself to be
diverted from his purpose. Again the Christians advanced
upon Jerusalem, and again they remained long inactive at Baitnuba, not daring
to attack the city. The ultimate reason for this delay was illustrative N of
the state of things: the leaders knew that the great mass of pilgrims would disperse as soon as their vows were fulfilled by the
deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre; this would seal the destruction of the
Frankish rule in Syria, should it happen before the treaty of peace with
Saladin was concluded. Thus the ostensible object of the Crusade could not
be achieved without ruining Christianity in the East. It is impossible to give
a stronger illustration of the hopelessness and
internal conflict of all their views and endeavours at that time. They at last
turned back disheartened to Ramlah, where they were
startled by the news that Saladin had unexpectedly assumed the offensive,
attacked the
118 HISTORY OP THE CRUSADES.
important seaport town of Joppa, and was probably already in possession
of it. Richard's warlike impetuosity once more burst forth. With a handful of followers he put to
sea, and hastened to Joppa. When he came in sight of the harbour, the Turks
were already inside the town, plundering in every direction, and assailing the
last remains of the garrison. After a short
reconnoitre, Richard drove his vessel on shore, rushed with an echoing war-cry
into the midst of the enemy's superior force, and by his mighty blows actually
drove the Turks in terror and confusion out of the place. On the following day he encamped with conteraptous insolence outside the
gates, with a few hundred horsemen, when he was suddenly attacked by as many
thousands. In one instant he was armed, drove back the foremost assailants,
clove a Turk's head down to his shoulders, and then rode along the
wavering front of the enemy, from one wing to the other; " Now,"
cried he, " who will dare a fight for the honour of God?" Henceforth
his fame was such that, years after, Turkish mothers threatened their children
with "King Richard is coming," and Turkish riders
asked their shying horses if " they saw the Lion-hearted King."
But these knightly deeds did not advance the war at all. It was fortunate for the Franks that
THREE TEARS* ARMISTICE.
119
Saladin's emirs were weary of the long strife, and
the Sultan himself wished for the termination of hostilities in consequence of
his failing health. The favourable terms of the former treaty, more especially
the possession of Jerusalem, were of course no longer to be obtained. The Christians
were obliged to be content, on the 30th of August, 1192, with a three years'
armistice, according to which the seacoast from Antioch to Joppa was to remain
in the possession of the Christians, and the Franks obtained permission to go to Jerusalem as unarmed pilgrims, to pray at the Holy
Sepulchre. Richard embarked directly, without even taking measures for
ransoming the prisoners. As may easily
be imagined, the Christians were deeply exasperated
by such a peace; the Turks rejoiced, and only Saladin looked
forward with anxiety to the future, and feared dangerous consequences from the
duration of even the smallest Christian dominion in the East. The most active and friendly intercourse,, rarely disturbed by suspicion, soon began
between the two nations. On the very
scene of the struggle mutual hatred had subsided, commercial
relations were formed, and political negotiations soon followed. In the place of the mystic trophy which was the object of the religious war, Europe had gained an immense extension of
120 HISTOBY OF THE CRUSADE8.
worldly knowledge, and of wealth, from the struggle of a hundred years.
Saladin did not long survive his triumph over the combined forces of
Europe; he died on the 3rd of March, 1193, at Damascus, aged
fifty-seven. " Take this cloak/' said he on his death-bed to his servant,
" show it to the Faithful, and tell them that the ruler of the East could
take but one garment with him into the grave." He was a man who has often been idealized beyond his deserts; he was ambitious, and disdained no
means to gratify his love of power; a strict Mussulman, fanatical even to
cruelty where religion was concerned, but otherwise of enlarged mind, great
heart, generous and gay, accessible to every mental stimulus or social
impression, sometimes thoughtless in trifles, but
determined and vigorous in every great undertaking. His kingdom and its
institutions depended on his single person, and after his death the same
disorganization and disunion broke out in the Turkish Empire
that we have already observed among the Christians.
I have already asserted, and I think the facts will have convinced my
readers, that the spirit of the Crusades was dead and gone. The war itself did
not therefore end directly, but continued for nearly a
century with various intermissions. We may designate
the Crusades,—in opposition to the earlier
FAILURE OF THE CRU8ADES. 121
wars against Islam, at the head of which stood the Prankish and Greek
Emperors, and to the later, which was led by the great powers of
Europe,—as< the foreign policy of the Papal supremacy. So long as the throne
of the Vatican predominated over and led the temporal powers of Europe, the
occupants of that throne strove to direct the forces of our hemisphere upon
the Syrian coast. But the change that was now beginning manifested itself at
that point earlier than in the interior of the Western countries. The Popes
here experienced only failures, or results contrary to their wishes. A large army of pilgrims slipped from the grasp of the most powerful of all the Popes, Innocent III., and, in the pay of the Republic of
Venice, directed the force of its arms against Constantinople. For a short time
the Greek Empire was overrun with Latin knights; but the only lasting
gain was an enormous extension of Venetian commerce. The most dangerous enemy
the Papacy ever had, the Emperor Frederick II., undertook another pilgrimage in
fulfilment of a vow made in his youth. He sailed to Syria pursued by the excommunication of Pope Gregory IX.; and while the clergy of
Palestine shut their churches in his face, he obtained for the Christians, by a
masterly stroke of diplomatic policy, and without
drawing the sword, the possession of the Holy
122
BISTORT* OF THE CRUSADES.
Places; but he was forced to return home before he could complete the
negotiation, in order to defend his kingdom of Naples against
an attack from the Papal troops. Twenty
years later, the Curia once more beheld a Crusade after its own heart, when St.
Louis, burning with holy ardour, led a French army against the Sultan of Egypt.
But after a brief success, he allowed himself to be surrounded by his opponents in the flooded valley of the Nile; and the
campaign ended, without glory or advantage, in the capture of the whole
crusading army. After this defeat, the
Pope failed in all his endeavours to excite any enthusiasm for the Eastern
war; one Syrian fortress after the other fell into the hands of the victorious
Mussulmans, until at length and last of all, the dearly won Ptolemais was captured, after an obstinate resistance, in the year 1292; just at the time when Pope Boniface VIII., took the first steps towards his
great conflict with King Philip the Handsome, of France, which resulted in the
deepest humiliation of the Papal power. The system of Gregory VII. declined
simultaneously in Europe and in Asia.
It must have struck all my readers, that although during the whole
period of the Crusades, the hostility between the East and the
West was more violent, the difference between them was far less
RELATION8 BETWEEN THE EA8T AND WE8T. 128
marked than in our own days. At the present time Europe, in its
absolute superiority of arms, of culture, and of manners, looks down
upon the Eastern world much as it does upon the perishing red men of the West,
or the falling empire of China. The interval that separates European
nations from the Turks has come to be almost that between civilization and
barbarism. But in the thirteenth century the relations between the two were totally different. Both East and West were then under similar conditions as to government and intellectual culture; they were
engaged in an active contest for superiority; and we may fairly doubt which
excelled the other in intelligence. If on the one hand a whole swarm of
Turcoman horse was scattered by the Frankish chivalry;
on the other, there was no doubt that the Turkish system of warfare and
strategy was very superior to the Christian. Municipal administration and
police, security and order, external comforts and luxuries,
were on a higher level in Cairo and Damascus than either in Paris or in
London. Science and art were cultivated in Syria and Persia with at least as
much success as in Europe. In the former as well as in the latter, Aristotle
was studied, jurisprudence and theology were reduced to a
science, and poetry flourished in youthful freshness.
To
124 H18T0ET OP THE CEU8ADE8.
turn to the domain of religion: while by the influence
of politics and philosophy, the original barbarism of Islam was softened and
enriched, contrariwise, out of the deepest feelings of Christianity were evolved the lust of dominion and the most aggressive
fanaticism. In Asia both the power of the state and the religious feelings of
individuals had by this time freed themselves in a great degree from the
spiritual dominion of the Caliph, while in Europe the Papacy took every measure to destroy the power of the sovereigns and the very existence of
heretics in as determined a manner as Mahomet had once done in the East. In
short, in spite of all inherent differences, we find a decided tendency to
union and assimilation, and a strong mutual influence of each nation upon the
other, in the very midst of their hatred and warfare.
It was therefore the greatest tragedy which our historical knowledge
records, when the highly cultivated
Eastern world was devastated and destroyed for ever, a few years after
Saladin's triumphs, by an overwhelming flood of
barbarians. The savage Mongolian hordes swept down from their high central
plains, laying waste and destroying, throughout
Persia, Asia Minor, Turkistan, and Russia. It was no revivifying flood, like
that which enriched the Roman soil when the Germans in-
DESTRUCTION OP KA8TERN CIVILIZATION. 125
vaded it. Gengis Khan's hordes knew no joy beyond
building huge heaps of the skulls of the slain, and inarching their horses
over the ruins of burnt cities. Wherever they passed, there was an end to all
culture, to all the joys of life, and to the future prosperity of nations; a
dreary savage barbarism pressed upon countries which but a century
before could have rivalled in civilization the very flower of Europe. Here and
there, perchance, Islam could still enter the lists of military prowess with
the Western nations, but her intellectual vigour was . broken, and the dominion of the earth was thus for ever secured to the more
fortunate nations of our hemisphere.
It has however taken them centuries to comprehend
and to solve the problem thus set before them. We may add that they have
deserved to solve it, not only because Islam became weaker, but
also because Christianity has grown stronger; and it has grown stronger because
it has more of the nature of inward conviction, and less of an aggressive character. We have seen what caused the Crusades to fail; not Zenki's impetuosity, Noureddin's firmness, or Saladin's joyous valour. In
the great streams of history, none hopelessly sink but those who destroy
themselves. It was the heat of religious excitement which called the Crusades
into existence, and then
126
HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.
irresistibly hurried them to perdition. We have seen how
over-excitement, thirst for the miraculous, and contempt for the world,
rendered any regular and consecutive plan of conquest in the East impossible from the very beginning. The Crusaders
despised all the earthly resources of the human mind, and thus their mystical
transports led them into every other miserable passion. With the Frank -ish
States the very existence of the Christian religion perished in the East. In modern times, men no longer travel over the world, or
found colonies, or make conquests, for religion's sake; they neither . trade
nor fight nor found colonies according to ecclesiastical
principles. It is enough if their own faith affords the
inward impulse towards justice and morality, and leaves them free to
conduct the various affairs of life according to their
own several laws. They no longer see, as in the Middle Ages, an inveterate
hostility between heaven and earth, or expect religious
perfection from the renunciation, but from the right use of earthly things.
Thus it is that this age, apparently so lukewarm in religion, has succeeded in
attaining an object which the zeal of Urban and the power of the Baldwins in
vain strove to effect. There no longer exists on earth a
hostile religion which can venture to threaten Christianity with impunity. Wherever Christian power
and Christian
TRIUMPH OP CHRISTIANITY.
127
civilization appear, the world at once recognizes, sometimes with joy and sometimes with anger, but always powerless to
resist, the presence of the conqueror and ruler. Jerusalem, for whose conquest millions once shed their blood in vain, could now be torn from
its Turkish ruler by a protocol of five lines, if
only our generation took any interest in the matter. But we now say, with St.
Bernard, " It is better to struggle against the sinful lusts of the heart,
than to conquer Jerusalem."
PAET II.
LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
CRITICAL ACCOUNT
OP
THE ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES AND THE LATER
WRITERS ON THE CRUSADES.
K
131
LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
There are more materials for a history of the First Crusade than for any
other event of the early Middle Ages. They consist of official reports, of
private communications from individual pilgrims to their friends at home; of
many current histories written by eye-witnesses ; all these, again, were
amplified by writers in Western Europe, who were not present themselves,
but who drew their statements from eye-witnesses; and finally, after a lapse of
eighty years, these documents were collected by one eminently fitted for the undertaking. It might well be imagined that such ample
materials would have secured for all times a true appreciation of the course of
events. In fact, whosoever becomes familiar with all these narratives,
is astonished at the fullness of the life therein depicted, and may hope
k 2
132 literature of the crusades.
from all these materials to obtain a competent knowledge and a thorough comprehension of the truth they contain.
The variety of the materials requires judgment in selection and arrangement. The mo3t cursory examination discovers a great difference in the nature and endowments of the various authors. Every conceivable impulse
is at work within them; but that dispassionate frame of mind alone capable of
producing a useful history is almost wholly wanting. In contemporaries we have to guard against a distortion of facts
from personal bias. Later historians again may be influenced by subsequent
events. Great care, therefore, must be taken to lay a good foundation, and to have some standard by which the various discrepancies can be
reconciled.
I. Official Reports, and Letters from Individual
Crusaders.
The number of letters and original narratives written by those actively
engaged in the First Crusade is not large, nor do they constitute the most important sources of our knowledge of
those times; but they must not be disregarded. They throw considerable light
upon many special and doubtful points. We will mention these authorities in
their regular order, in so far as we can.
THE EMPEROR ALEXIUS.
133
1. Letter from the Emperor Alexius to Count Robert
of Flanders}
The Abbot Guibert, in his history of the Crusades,
is the first to mention this letter.2 He
gives a tolerably detailed account of its contents. Mar-tene's collection
contains another version of this letter, agreeing in the main so much with
Guibert, that doubt has been thrown on the authenticity of the whole document.
The silence of Greek authors, and Guibert's known
carelessness, have increased the suspicion that this document in Martene's
collection might be one of the usual monkish manufactures of the Middle Ages,
or a free version of Guibert's text. Much that is singular in this document could not be denied. There is an absence of the high-flown official
style of the Greek Empire. The praise of the Eastern women as an inducement for
Christian Crusaders was considered unbecoming and childish, in the mouth of a
Byzantine monarch.
Without taking upon myself to defend this document as genuine, it may be asked why an intelligent Western author
should be disbelieved because a Byzantine passes over in silence the fact that
his Emperor begged for assistance from a Count of
1 Martene, Thesaur. p. 266 et seq.
1 Lappenberg, in PerU, Archir, ri. 630.
134 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
Flanders.3 It
is very probable that Guibert received the communication from the
Count Robert of Flanders himself.
2. Letter from Urban II. to Alexius}
In the summer of the year 1096, Urban II. wrote a letter to Alexius,
which has been frequently printed in the Collection of the Councils. In it the
Pope recommends the Crusaders to the care of the Emperor. The letter contains little of importance.
3. Stephen of Blots to his Wife.
The Count of Blois, as far as we can learn, wrote three times to his
wife Adela in the course of the Crusades. The first of these letters is lost,
and is unimportant towards a knowledge of the Crusades, as it merely gives
details of the journey to Constantinople.
The second letter was written from the camp at Nicaea, shortly after the
capture of that town.5 It
throws but little light upon the battles that had taken place up to that
period, but gives a good picture of the respective qualities of
the Greek Emperor and Count Stephen of Blois
shown in their relation to each other. Stephen betrays the vanity of
* See fiirther, under Guibert.
4 Frequently printed in the Collection of the Council*.
• In Mabillon, Mui. Ital. ad Calc. HUtor. Belli Sacri.
STEPHEN OP BLOIS.
135
a weak nature delighted with trifles, and manifesting itself most plainly in an assumption of humility. He admires the
Emperor and his riches; the Emperor behaves to him like a father,
and is even pleased with the absence of the Count from his court, on learning
that he is at the camp.
The third letter, written from the camp before Antioch, and shortly
previous to the capture of that city, is in many respects
the most instructive.6
At the very beginning it is stated that, for a time, Count Stephen had
been chosen by all the princes as commander-in-chief, a circumstance we find
mentioned elsewhere, but which requires some such confirmation as this. We are left totally in the dark as to the manner and importance of the
command, and in what manner he exercised his influence. No events of any
consequence followed this nomination; so that but for the Count's own
testimony, the whole affair would be involved in
considerable doubt. In the battle of Dorylaeum, for example, the army was
divided into two parts, end Stephen of Blois was with the Normans, who were
exposed to the first assault of Kilidje Arslan; but there is no mention here of
his issuing orders; on the contrary, Bohemund at once took
the command, and won the day.
• In D'Achery, Spicileg. iii. et
*eq.
ISO LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
" We learned/5
continues Stephen of Blois, " that there dwelt in Cappadocia a Turcoman
prince, by name Assam, whose lands we seized; we left
one of our princes, with many knights there, to complete the conquest/9 It
is not quite clear who was intended by this; whether it is a
mutilation of the name of Kilidje Arslan,7 then
strange to the Latins, or whether Stephen meant some
insignificant prince of the neighbourhood.
But still more interesting, spite of its brevity, is the narrative of
the defeat of the second attempt to raise the siege of Antioch made by the
princes who dwelt around it. In this passage, the
seat of the war, and the number of the combatants on both sides, are mentioned
with greater distinctness than elsewhere. We also obtain further information as
to the condition of the Christian host from the statement
which has hitherto been overlooked, that the troops were
distributed far and wide in the neigh-.bourhood, as they held a hundred and
sixty-five places and fortresses in Syria inproprio dominio.
4. Letter from Anselm of Bipemont to the
Archbishop ofBheims.9
Anselm, one of the most illustrious of the Lorraine
barons in the army of the Crusaders, corre-
7 As the earlier Byzantines call Alp Arslan.
• D'Achery, p. 431.
ANSELM OF EIPEMONT.
137
sponded with Manasses, Archbishop of Rheims. We shall find more about him in the ' Gesta Dei/ of Guibert. One only of
his letters has come down to us, written soon after the capture of Antioch, and
giving short but distinct sketches of the occurrences
before and in this city. The agreement of the statements
in his letters with those of other eyewitnesses, such as Raymund the
author of the 'Gesta Francorum/ etc., in contradistinction in the narrative of Albert of Aix, is very remarkable. As an example I would select
what occurred during the time of the fast, in 1098,—the decisive victory
of the Christians and the consequent erection of the fort in front of the
bridge-gate of Antioch. It is distinctly stated here that Bohemund and Raymond
of Toulouse went to St. Simeon's Haven to fetch workmen for the building of the fort, that they were attacked and suffered a severe loss
on their way back, and that this was subsequently avenged by a splendid victory
gained by the whole army, after which the fort was completed with little difficulty. According to Albert's account, the army was in perfect
repose when Godfrey of Bouillon received intelligence of this unfortunate
skirmish, and immediately prepared for battle.9
Count Stephen of Blois relates that the princes
9 Albert, iii. 64 et *eq.
138 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
rode without suspicion of danger to meet the people coming from St.
Simeon's Haven, and fell among enemies; that by the time the latter came up,
the princes had got all the army under arms. Anselm's narrative fully confirms this, and completely refutes Albert of Aix's statement. The princes had
ridden out with a settled purpose, at the desire of Bohemund, to secure their safe return by a movement of the whole army. The
intention was that the whole army should march, and it was
only some accidental delay that stopped the advance of all the detachments. The
' Gesta Francorum' agree with this; and even some apparent discrepancies serve
to confirm this view, when we call to mind the personal position of the author.
He was, as we shall see, a common soldier, or at any
rate what we should now call a non-commissioned officer. We can therefore
easily understand that he knew nothing of Bohemond's general orders to the
princes; he only knew that the army stood ready for action when Bohemund arrived. At that moment, says he, " nos congregati eramus in
unuin;" we, that is the Normans.10 This
does not contradict what Count Stephen says, that Bohemond arrived
"dum adhuc convenient nostri;" for Count Stephen means the whole
army. •
» Gesta.
BOHEMUND AND OTHERS.
139
It is true that these are mere trifles, but they illustrate the quality
of a narrative, and the relation it bears to other reports. It will not be
difficult for us hereafter to show, on a larger scale, the agreement among the eye-witnesses which is here obvious, and the
contradiction which they thus unanimously give to Albert of Aix; and this will
completely change our view of some of the most important transactions.
5. Letter from the Princes to all the Faithful}1
This report is signed by Bohemund, Raymond, Godfrey, and Hugo. Martene
gives the date as 1097, but it evidently was written in^July 1098. The whole is
short, and told in a summary manner. There are statements of the loss of the
army before Nicaea and Antioch, which appear exaggerated.
The notice at the end, that the King of Persia had threatened them with a new
war after Kerboga's ^defeat, and that, conjointly with the Egyptians, he would
attack them, is quite new.
0. Letter from the Princes to Pope Urban II}2
The date of this letter is not given by Fulcher; he has however
inserted the whole of it into the
11 Martene, p. 272.
13 In Fulcher, p. 399, and Reuber, Cor. Johannis, p. 399.
140 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
body of his narrative, as well as a postscript by one of the party, and
many valuable variations,13 which are noticed in the edition given by Reuber. The writers are
Bohemund, Raymond, Godfrey, the two Roberts, and Eustace of Boulogne. That Hugo
is not mentioned, seems to prove that he had
already gone on his mission to Constantinople. The greater part of the
narrative relates to the battles against Kerboga, and gives the most important
and decisive details on this subject. The scanty chronological notices, which can be obtained from the 'Gesta Francorum,' are completely
confirmed. The same may be said of the narrative of the last great battle
against Kerboga. These statements substantiate, in the most remarkable manner,
the trustworthiness of the eye-witnesses. Albert of Aix, on some special
information, asserts that the capture of Antioch by the Christians was effected
by Godfrey and not by Bohemund. The contrary assertion made in the • Gesta'
receives the most ample confirmation from the words of this document, subscribed by the two princes,—"Ego Bohemundus scalas parum
ante diem muris applied," etc.
u Fulcher, for example, has for Dorylseum in campo Jlorido ; Seuber calls it in valle Doretill*. We see here how with the Europeans the corruption arose of in valle Ozellis.
RAYMOND OF AGILE8.
141
7. Letter from the Princes, after the battle of
Ascalon.
Dodechin has handed this down to us. What little is to be said about
this document will be mentioned in the account of Ekkehard, who made use of it.
8. Letter from the Patriarch and the Princes,
to the Churches of the West.14
The contents of this letter are unimportant.
The writers state that they have captured ten capita] cities, two hundred
castles, and still have one hundred thousand warriors, not counting the common
people and the assistance of the Saints. But their trust in the Saints appears
but small, for this jubilation is followed by an earnest
appeal for help,—"Come hither, ye faithful; come hither: wheresoever only
two men are gathered together in one house, let one of the twain come to the
Holy Sepulchre."
II. Raymond of Agiles.16
In the retinue of the Count of Toulouse and of the Bishop
of Puy, were two Crusaders, the one a
14 Martene, p. 271.
u Bongars thus gives the name. In the preface he gives
the reading De Arguillers: in manuscripts we find it written
De Agilles and De Aguilers (Pertz, Archiv, vii. pp. 56, 61, 81).
I can nowhere find any reference on which he relies.
142 LITERATURE. 07 THE CRUSADES.
brave and worthy knight; the other an ecclesiastic, uneducated, but
well disposed. These two men were intimately bound together by friendship.10 The knight Pontius, Lord of Baladun, was desirous that the memory of so
many great exploits should not perish for want of a chronicler. He was constantly pressing his friend to write down, in the quiet of his tent,
the events that had occurred in the battle-field, to
edify and stir up all the faithful, and especially their friend the Bishop of
Vivars. The ecclesiastic Raymond was easily moved thereto: he wrote down day by
day what he had seen, always with the help and encouragement of his friend, until Pontius found an honourable death in battle, before the
castle of Arkas. Nevertheless he did not leave off the work begun in common
with his friend. " My best friend," said he, " died in the Lord;
but love dieth not, and in love will I finish
this work; so help me God."17
Raymond only received consecration as a priest on his way to the Holy
Land,18 and then became one of the immediate personal followers of the Bishop
of Puy and the Count of Toulouse. He was present at the discovery of the Holy Lance,19
carried this
M Bongars has collected in his preface the notices of Pontius.
17 These dates are taken partly from the preface of the book,
partly from p. 1G3; the former was dictated by Pontius.
» Tage 103. u Page 152.
RAYMOND OF AGILE8. 143
relic in the battle against Kerboga,20 and
read the formulary at the ordeal by which Peter Bartholomew proved the identity* of this instrument of the Passion.21
There is no doubt, therefore, as to the opportunities he had of observing; and
his capacity to judge events may be gathered from his works. Above all things,
Raymond is simple and straightforward; he states, in the
strongest and coarsest manner, what he thinks. We may have some doubt as
to the correctness of his facts, but never as to the truth of the impression
they make on him. Then he is Proven?al to the backbone. He is not highly
gifted, but thoroughly enthusiastic for the success of the undertaking, and, whenever there is an opportunity, for his countrymen and their
leader. The manifestations of his character are not always of the pleasautest:
they display an extravagant belief in miracles, and a fierce
hatred of all who are opposed to him, and a vile way
of connecting divine things with the lowest motives; when to this is added a
very rude manner of expressing himself, it is obvious that in the course of his
narrative there must be many things to shock the reader. For instance, he mentions as a glorious deed of the Count of Toulouse,
that once when hard pressed by the Dalmatians, he caused the eyes of six of the
pri-
30 Page 155. 21 Tage 163.
144 * literature of the CRU8ADES.
soners to be torn out, and their noses, arms, and
legs to be cut off, in order to inspire the rest with terror.*2 At
the taking of Antioch, he says,— " Something pleasant and diverting
occurred after their long tribulations. A troop of Turkish horse, more than
three hundred in number, hard pressed by the Crusaders, were driven over a
precipice; a pleasure to see, much as we regretted the loss of the
horses."23 It
is true that in this war little regard was paid to humanity, but it
would be difficult to find a second example of such excessive virulence.94 Thus he goes on, expressing delight and rapture with the same
eagerness, and is completely carried away when a supernatural apparition manifests itself within his immediate circle. When the point of the Holy
Lance projected above the earth, he says, " Then
I, Raymond the chaplain, sprang forward to kiss it/'25 The
narratives of subsequent visions occupy about one-fourth of the whole book.26 In one word, his was a vigorous but vulgar nature, thrown by a great
impulse into an extraordinary course. The book
would soon excite disgust, were it not so guilelessly written, and did it not
so thoroughly show the personal character of the man.
» Page 139. » Page 149.
u That is to say, in trustworthy histories.
Albert has soma
additional particulars.
* Page 152.
* Nine or ten folio sides, in Bongars1 edition.
RAYMOND OF AQILE8. 145
It is obvious that his judgment is only to be trusted in certain cases:
he can be followed when once he is known. He may be depended upon as to matters
of fact, which- he narrates with the strictest accuracy. He is rich in detail,
but not in anecdote. A few cases, unimportant in themselves, may be found in
which we are forced to reject his statements; on the other hand, he gives
conclusive accounts of the most important events, and, in comparison with others, he must be looked upon as a guiding authority. On
some points his narrative is essential to a right view of events, e.g. the battle with Kilidje Arslan, before Nicaea—the siege of Antioch—and,
above all, the quarrel between Bohemund and the Count of Toulouse. He agrees perfectly
in the main points with the * Gesta Franco-rum the discrepancies are few, and
those only on special matters, quite independent of the general view of
affairs. Moreover, the two works are quite independent of each
other, although, from their similarity, it has been supposed that they had a
common origin,27 and
that Raymond had only ampli-
3? Such an assertion might appear true, when we compare some
of the longer and more connected narratives, such as the siege of
Antioch, or of Jerusalem, with the totally different account given
of the same occurrences by Albert of Aix. We must make up
our minds to leave the false and unfounded statements quite on
one side; if we attempt to connect the false with the true, it leads
us to wrong conclusions. . '
L
14G LITERATURE OF THE CRU8ADES.
fied the ' Gesta/ Each author tells the exact truth as far as he knew
it, the one as to what occurred among the Normans, the other among the Provencals. The events were neither secret nor involved,
and the similarity of the statements of the two authors is
therefore by no means wonderful. Identity of expression, even in isolated
passages, nowhere occurs; in two places, pointed out by critics, it is only
apparent: but at the end of the book, which has not come down to us in its
perfect form from Raymond himself, passages have been added
from the ' Gesta' by a foreign hand.
The question is, when and by whom the interpolations
were made. In all manuscripts which have hitherto been found, the passages in
question invariably occur. It is still more important that
Tudebod, who in this instance follows Raymond, found these words, and copied
them into his text, perhaps comparing them with the ' Gesta/28 It
is probable, indeed, that Raymond himself made the interpolations, that he felt
the omission in his own narrative, and endeavoured to fill it up
with the fragment from the ' Gesta/ This circumstance is important, as
affording the most convincing proof
* It is singular that the text in Tudebod is more like that of
the ' Gesta' than that of Raymond. However, he clearly took
the passage from Raymond, as is proved by the words that immediately follow it
RAYMOND OF A GILES.
147
of the contemporaneous composition of the ' Gesta/ even if the book did
not; contain sufficient internal evidence.
We have dwelt at some length on this
apparently trifling circumstance, for various reasons. First, in order to
establish the date of the * Gesta/ and next for those which relate to the
subject itself. We hear on all sides that it is impossible to form an exact or authentic picture of the occurrences in Constantinople from the
original authorities.29 This
is mainly owing to the confusion that prevails in Albert's narrative,30
which renders it impossible to combine the Latin authorities with the Alexiade.
But if we can succeed in extracting from the eyewitnesses
clear and unanimous statements, if we have the courage upon their authority to
pronounce a strict judgment on Albert of Aix, the apparent discrepancies
which exist in Anna Comnena's works offer no further difficulties.
To sum up our judgment on the work of Ray- « mond of Agiles, we should
say it was full of ample and trustworthy details, the value of which is
somewhat impaired by the passion and superstition
of the otherwise veracious author. As a writer, Raymond,
in spite of his violent, zealous, and supers' See Wilken's History, i. 116,117. Michaud, Hiat. i. 191.
" We have treated this subject further on.
l2
148 literature of the crusades.
stitious nature, takes a correct view of things, and with all the
vulgarity of his mind he is a true representative of his time and of his
country. He is genuine and outspoken, and no one who enters into his spirit can read his work without benefit.
III.
Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolt-
mitanorum.81
Besly, in the preface to Tudebod's ' History of Jerusalem/32
positively asserts that the ' Gesta Fran-corum/ edited by Bongars as a genuine
and authentic narrative, and frequently used as such
by former writers, was nothing more than a plagiarism of the grossest kind, the
anonymous author being entirely indebted to Tudebod for his
facts, and thinks it his duty to expose such a wholesale plagiarism. Besly grounds this assertion chiefly upon three passages,—one in which
Tudebod speaks of himself, and two wherein he mentions the death of his brothers. In these cases, Tudebod, he says, speaks as. an eye-witness, and
the anonymous author of the c
Gesta Francorum' has carefully omitted all mention of these occurrences in his narrative.33
Besly's views met with general concurrence, and have been
n In Bongars * Gesta Dei, p. 1 et
seq. n Dn Chesne, iv. 773 et eeq. « Pages 810,811, and 796,803.
GESTA FRAN CO RUM. 149
followed by all subsequent historians of the Crusades.34
I must confess that the reasons urged for this opinion appear to me
thoroughly unsatisfactory, and that there is evidence of exactly the reverse.
In the case in point, Tudebod narrates an unlucky
event which occurred at the siege of Jerusalem; "the author," he
adds, "Tudebod, a priest of Sivray, was present, and was an
eye-witness." The whole narrative, to which this statement is appended, is
omitted in the 'Gesta Francorum,' and I can conceive
nothing unlikely in the supposition that Tudebod, having got so
far in his transcription of the c
Gesta/ should have inserted in this place something he had himself witnessed.
There is nothing to disprove that he and his brothers
were present with the army, but there are many objections to looking upon his
narrative as the original source of the ' Gesta Francorum/
First of all, the anonymous author invariably speaks in the first
person; Tudebod, sometimes in the first, at other times in the third
person.
Further, the anonymous author, as we shall presently
see, was a knight. Tudebod was a priest. The
34 Since the decision, which agrees with Bongars, given in the
Hist. Litter, de la France, viii. 629, no one has had a doubt on
the matter.
150 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
first remains true to his character, whereas Tudebod introduces himself
sometimes as a warrior, at others as a priest,35
which can easily be accounted for, if we consider him only as the secondary
author.
In both works passages occur which are wanting in the other. Those
which Tudebod alone has are anecdotes, traits of individual character, etc.,
which can be easily inserted or omitted, without interfering
with the narrative. But it is not so in the other case. It clearly appears that
Tudebod, from a mistaken endeavour at compression, has omitted passages
essential to the meaning. His narrative of the conquest
of Nicaea has faults inexcusable in an eye-witness, but easily understood as the errors of a transcriber. It is impossible not to see that the ' Gesta Francorum9 is
the source from which he draws.
This leads me to the last and roost important point, which Besly passes over lightly, but which appears to me conclusive. Tudebod makes use
of Raymond's work, as well as of the ' Gesta/ He has inserted several passages
from the former, word for word, in his compilation. Had the author of the
'Gesta Francorum' followed Tudebod, it would be impossible that some
passage from Ray* Pages 782, 788. The cavalry is mentioned in contradistinction to the infantry.
Tudebod quietly copies the distinctive
GESTA FRANCORUM.
151
mond should not have slipped into his text. Precisely the one passage
which is to be found both in Raymond and in the anonymous author of
the ' Gesta Francorum/ makes the matter quite clear. Tudebod follows first the
' Gesta/ then Raymond, and then repeats the last sentences from the '
Gesta' for a second time.
But the originality of the ' Gesta Francorum9 has
been attacked from another quarter, and it has been traced to the 'Historia
Belli Sacri* in Mabillon. But in this the character of a compilation comes out still more strikingly. Besides the anonymous author of the *
Gesta/ Tudebod, Raymond, and Ro-dolph of Caen, have been extensively laid under
contribution.36
. In short, in every way, and as yet against all comers, we are
disposed to defend the originality of the ' Gesta Francorum /
and, considering the value of the work, the question is not an unimportant one.
Our knowledge of the life of the author is but slight. The work was
anonymous, even to those contemporaries who made use of his
text ;37 nowhere do we find any certain notice of the writer. We only
38 See further on.
v Robert, Baldric, and Guibert, all speak of a small anonymous document, which they wished to work up.
1 52 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
know that he quitted Amalfi with Bohemund in 1096, and remained with
him until the victory over . Kerboga. He served there among the knights,38 and
had the good fortune to take part in all the important
actions. For instance, he was one of those .who assaulted
Antioch; he likewise joined the band which in the summer of 1098 joined Robert
of Normandy and Raymond of Toulouse, in their attack upon Mara and Tripoli.39 This
is the last notice which we can find of the author.
His personal character does'not come out so strongly in connection
with the matters which he relates, as it does in Raymond of Agiles, but it shows itself sufficiently to inspire
confidence in his narrative. In the first place, the author is thoroughly
imbued with the general feeling of the Crusades. He attributes them
immediately to Divine inspiration, and in many passages calls
God himself their true leader and protector. "Almighty God, just and
merciful, who letteth not his host to perish, Bent us very present help. Thus were our enemies
overcome by the power of God and of the Holy
38 This appears from pp. 7 and 17.
* Page 25. " Ezeuntes quatnordecim ex nostris militibus,—ex
exercitu vero Raimundi comitis," etc. Tancred was also with this
army, according to Sad., c. 96; nevertheless it is not to be understood that the author accompanied it, as he does not once
name him.
6E8TA FRANCORUM. 153
-Sepulchre. We, however, wandered securely in the fields and mountains,
glorifying and praising the Lord." With such sentences he begins and ends nearly every account of each single deed and skirmish. We can but read such expressions with pleasure; indifference on
such subjects in a con* temporary would darken and disturb the picture.
Moreover, his enthusiasm is restrained within due
bounds, and is never blindly violent against worldly considerations or
polemical against hostile opinions. He shows an equal interest in human
affairs, as in Heaven and all its Saints. He relates that at Dorylaeum, when
the anxiously expected succour came, they all exclaimed,—" Let
us fight valiantly in the faith of Christ; if it be God's pleasure, we shall
all gain riches."40 And
thus throughout. His passion for war, for its own sake, is as strong as his
religious impulse. "Tarn mirabiliter," says he frequently, had they attacked the Turks, or the latter the pilgrims.
Occasionally, but very seldom, he is struck by the individual heroism of one of
the Crusaders; he then describes the act with quiet pleasure, and we may be
sure that it deserves mention. He
then speaks of the difficulties and hardships they had to encounter, in the
simplest manner, how they had nothing either to eat or td " Page 7.
154 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
drink, for days, and then satisfied their hunger with the bark of
trees, and their thirst with watar. He makes no exclamations, no reflections;
at most he adds that they endured such plagues and necessities for the sake of Christ, and the Holy Sepulchre. What would have filled others with a
high idea of the value of the sacrifices in question, viz. the holy object of
the enterprise, appears to him precisely what excludes any claim to admiration
or pity.
I cannot refrain from noticing one point especially, as marking his sentiments, and this is the terms in which he speaks
of his opponents the Turks, and the conduct of the pilgrims towards them. He
does the Turks full justice. "Who," says he, "can describe the
prudence,41 the
warlike glory, the bravery of the Turks ? I will tell the truth,
which none can gainsay. Were they but steadfast in the holy faith of Christ, it
would be impossible to find greater, stronger, or abler warriors." Now it
is a well-known fact, that this war was carried on with savage cruelty ; there was no question of quarter being given or taken; the heads
of the slain were hewn off, the dead were mutilated. All this is mentioned with
delight by the historians of the age. The author of the 'Gesta Francorum9 is a
remarkable exception to « P*ge7.
GESTA FRANCORUM.
155
the rule. He passes over such subjects on numerous
occasions; and when he does allude to them, he does it with quiet indifference,
never with exultation or unction. It is obvious that his
is the indifference of the soldier, who passes his
life amid blood and wounds, and who considers such horrors as of everyday
occurrence, not worth mentioning, and certainly not deserving praise, or matter
of edification.42 His
position in life, and his own nature give the clue to the method and
general intention of his narrative. His is the report of an eye-witness, not in
the very highest position, nor always acquainted with the leading motives
of events. So for as he can see them, he traces them clearly, and reproduces them in a correct and simple narrative. It is not by any means
a mere diary of the personal life of the author; he records with minuteness
only the most important events. He has great skill in distinguishing between
various facts, and selecting the best. He is never carried away by
what is strange, wonderful, poetical, or personally interesting, but continues the even tenor of his narrative.
Michaud complains that it is impossible to reconstruct
the plans of battles, the orders of march,
" He only mentions the murders in Antioch, because of the
offensire stench from the dead bodies; and the carnage at Jerusalem, because it took place against Tancred's orders.
156 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
and so forth, out of the unskilful writers of the twelfth century ;43 the
rest of the modern historians of those events, if we may judge from their
works, would appear to have attained the same resignation.44 With regard to the works of Albert of Aix and William
of Tyre, the reproach is perfectly well founded; but I must deny that it
applies to the 'Gesta Francorum/ which in this respect affords ample materials
for the history of the First Crusade. The ' Gesta,' in general, is rich in
details, in so far as they concern the matter in hand.
All the events which the 'Gesta! relate are duly set forth and complete in all their parts. The battles, sieges, and all that appertains
to those subjects, are easy to trace. For instance, all the measures of defence
taken by Bohemund at Dorylaeum, the position of the whole army, the
application of the several arms, are accurately set forth; then, when the
remaining forces have arrived, the formation of the line of battle, and lastly
the movement of the Bishop of Puy, which decided the battle, are explained.45 In
like manner, but still better, the siege of Antioch is brought before us: how
the Christians, in an unprotected position, and attacked on
all sides, first of all
« Hist., t. i. pp. 187, 475.
44 See, for example, in WUken, i. p. 156, the battle of Dory-toum; p. 223, the battle of Antioch; in Raumer, the siege of
Antioch, etc 41 Page 7.
GESTA FRANCORUM.
157
cleared the immediate neighbourhood, then placed themselves in
communication with the sea, at length completely surrounded the
town with a line of forts.46 Each individual encounter in the course of the siege, the victory over
Kerboga, the measures taken against Arkas and Jerusalem, are developed in the
same manner. The reader feels he is on safe ground, and soon learns to place
implicit confidence in his author.
It is not often that he permits himself to judge of persons, or to
indulge in general reflections; where it does occur, he is rough and vigorous,
but, prcemissis pramittendis, unprejudiced and correct He always says whatever is best and fittest
for a man in his position to say.47 I
only know of one instance in which he treats of matters of universal import,
and I never read it, rough and unpolished as is his style, without
pleasure. I allude to the introduction to his book:—" When the time
was fulfilled," says he, " which Christ showed to his apostles,
speaking daily and especially in the Gospels, Whosoever will follow me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross: then a great
movement took place throughout France: That whoso-
48 Page 9 et seq.
47 This may be said also of the few expressions concerning
Alexius and the Greeks. They are crude, but by no means false.
158 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
ever wished to follow the Lord with his whole heart, and to carry his
cross after him in faith, he should not delay quickly to begin and walk in the
way of the Lord. And straightway the Pope, with his archbishops, bishops,
priests, and abbots, crossed the Alps, and began to teach wisely and
to preach, and spake thus: Whosoever will save his soul alive, let him not
hesitate to walk in the way of the Lord. Whosoever lacketh money, he will, by
God's grace, be plentifully provided therewith. And when these words were bruited abroad, the Franks who heard them sewed red crosses on
their shoulders and said that they would follow with one accord the footsteps
of Christ, who had loosed them from the bonds of hell," etc.
If we consider that the author had no intention of
giving a connected narrative of the Crusades, but solely meant to describe what
he himself saw, this opening leaves little to be desired. Short as it is, it
places us in the clearest and truest manner, in the midst of the beginning of
the enterprise. It gives the source from which it
originated—the religious impulse of the West; it names the individual, Urban II., who gave expression and life to this impulse ; it tells the manner in which the army was collected and
organized by the personal enthusiasm of the individuals. The anecdote of Peter the
GESTA FRANCORUM.
150
Hermit is happily suppressed. Christ, the Pope, the whole of Western
Europe, are the worthy actors in this great enterprise.
I believe that what I have said justifies my
as* sertion that we have here to do with the most important
authority for a true history of the First Crusade. A character like that of the
author of the 'Gesta Francorum' is peculiarly fitted to give a true picture of
great events. Devoid of personal pre* tensions, strong in will;
without any adventitious interests, but inspired with a great purpose and full
of religious enthusiasm, which, however, does not preclude him from feeling an
interest in human affairs, he shows a meritorious
industry in making use of the rich materials at hand to
give a picture of the important events in which he himself had been an actor.
It is likewise interesting to find in him the purest expression of national
character. He exemplifies the Norman type, in that mixture of the temporal and ecclesiastical, in the freedom
with which he handles all subjects, keeping every part of his picture in
subordination to the whole. In Raymond of Agiles, we saw the Provencal, full of
zeal, forgetting the future and the past in the immediate present, and pressing forward step by step in impetuous passion. In small things there is the same antagonism, upon which the most
important events of the Cru
160 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
sades depend, that antagonism which from the very first disagreement
about Antioch separated Bohemund and Raymond of Toulouse more
and more, until the activity of the one was extinguished in the chains of
Danischmend, and that of the other in the deserts of Phrygia.48 Even
now both these chiefs speak to us in their own tongues,
each one of his own nature, of his deeds, and of their mutual contention. By this means, if we understand their words rightly, scarce
any important point can remain obscure to us.
1. Tudebod.
I have already mentioned Tudebod, the
priest of Sivray. We know but little of his life. Besly asserts that he was
with the army of Poitou, commanded first by Hugo of Lusignan, and then by
Gaston of Beam. But there is no positive proof of this.49 Besly was led to this conclusion because Hugo was
then Lord of Sivray.60 The
book copies the ' Gesta Francorum/ nearly word for word; many of the
48 Their effectual action was then at an end, at least as far as
concerns the East.
49 Although the Hist. Litt. de la France, i. c, cites Tudebod
himself, pp. 173 and 809 in support of it.
*° If we aUowed this to hold good, it would afford an additional argument in favour of the originality of the 'Gesta.'
Why should a native of Aquitaine, devote himself so exclusively
to the history of the Normans P
GUIBERT, ABBOT OF NOGBNT. 161
interpolations are mere episodes, and of little im# portance. He gives
some details concerning the capture of Jerusalem, which may serve partly as an
amplification, partly as a rectification of the 'Gesta/
2. Guibert, Abbot of Nogent.
Guibert was born in the year 1053, at Beauvai^ of noble
parents.51 His
youth was passed in those times when the Roman Church began to bring the world
under its dominion. Many circumstances „ concurred to subject Guibert
altogether to these ecclesiastical influences, his mother was enthusiastically pious, and lived only in
the mortification of the outward senses, and in the
cultivation of the inward and spiritual perceptions. Before his birth his
parents had vowed to devote their son to the service of the Church,62 and
long before manhood he assumed the monk's cowl at Flavigny.63 As
he grew up, the lusts of the world awoke within him: he became a poet and
learned music; he attempted imitations of Ovid and of Virgil's Bucolics. But his teacher was
61 De VitA sua, i. 3.14. Cf. Bongars in prof, and Hist. Litt. x. p. 439.
« Vita, i. 4.
43 Mabillon, Ann. i. 62, n. 65, gives the year 1064. I see no positive testimony for the exact date; the assumption of the cowl
by no means took place later.
M
102 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
warned in a vision, and the lad himself saw how he sinned against the
rules of his Order. In this frame of mind he met with Anselm, Abbot of Bee,
afterwards primate of the English Church, whose powerful influence at once
directed him into the strict path of the Church. Gifted as Guibert
Cas, he soon attained fame by his eloquence and arning, and at an early
age became abbot of No-gent on the Seine* He remained there, respected by a
large circle, and distinguished in politics and literature,55
until his death, in 1124.56
The results of such a career are visible throughout his writings; he was not without abilities, and for the times in
which he lived, he was well read. The advantages of his birth and of his
ecclesiastical dignity were of great service to him in writing a history of the Crusades. His
acquaintances and connections extended over all France ;57 he
was indebted for many valuable hints to Count Robert M Vita, i. 17,19.
M The third book of his autobiography gives an account of his outward life; the Hist. Litt. i. c, gives his writings. He himself
speaks frequently enough of their effect.
H Mabillon, Ann. L 74, n. 71.
57 But not further. His notices on the French nobility, pp.
486-501. are very useful, as weU as his statements as to the consequences of the Council of Clermont, and on the Crusades especially, pp. 481, 508, 552. But Godfrey and Bohemund are out
of his circle. He adduces the most fabulous accounts of both,
pp. 485-488.
GUIBERT, ABBOT OF NOG ENT. 163
of Flanders ;58
Archbishop Manasses of Rheims allowed him to consult the letters of
Anselm of Ripemont60 and
he was himself present at the Council of Clermont. As a man of learning he
affects a cultivated style and artistic form, but he only selected the Crusades as his subject, in order to make the ' Gesta Francorum/
in his paraphrase, more agreeable to cultivated
readers. It is true that he has succeeded very ill: the simple tone of bis
original is overwhelmed by his inflated and pompous style; he appears, conscious of his own high position, to disregard the opinion
of others; and frequently intimates that those who do not approve bis manner of writing may seek some other. Valuable as his work
is, in his literary character, full of pedantry and conceit,
he is most offensive.80 The dignified servant of the Church, the man with whom everything has
succeeded, the ecclesiastic who belongs to a ruling party, is too conscious of
a proud position. He feels all his power when he attacks Fulcher of Chartres, as to his doubts
M Ho was his personal friend; pp. 521,535,548. The frequently
noticed letter of the Emperor Alexius to Robert appears to me to be thoroughly trustworthy, p. 474.
" Pages 543,553-4. We have before mentioned an original letter which has come down to us (in the third volume of D'Achery's
Spicilegium, edit. 2).
* Compare his preface and the prooemium of almost all the
separate books of his history.
M 2
164 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
.with respect to the Holy Lance, and reproaches him with credulity and
superstition as to other miracles.61 It
was not in vain that Guibert had studied the science of demonology, that he had
himself seen visions, and had everywhere found the doctrine of apparitions and wonders flourishing.62 Nor
was it either doubt or enthusiasm that stirred Guibert
to.anger against Fulcher. The pride of superior learning, the consciousness of
belonging to a dominant orthodox party, made him look
down with contempt on his rival.6^
The close of his work is remarkable;64 hard
as he had worked at the historical form of his book, he could not master his
mass of learning. He had come to the end of the ' Gesta Francorum/ which was
his guide, and he still had on hand a variety of
unused materials, too good to be lost to posterity.
« Page 652.
* De Vit& suA, i. i. c. 20 et
seq., i. ii. in extenso. We can conceive nothing, however extravagant, that is not here stated as true and defended as reasonable. We see in this instance how little we can trust the judgments of modern authors, who sometimes call him the most credulous, and sometimes praise him as the most philosophical of all the authors of that time. Compare, for example, Gibbon, pp. 1069,1072 (London edition, 1836), and Michaud, Bibl. i. 124.
• What Neander quotes of St. Bernard, p. 309, from his work 1 De Pignoribus Sanctorum,' appears to me to suit very well the
picture here given. It is the same belief in prodigies, reduced to a system; the unmistakable influence of Anselm of Canterbury.
M From p. 539.
GUIBERT, ABBOT OP NOGENT. 165
He determined to use them at all events, and strung fragment upon
fragment, digression upon digression, important and useless matter in utter confusion, until his store of knowledge was exhausted. These stories
extend as late as the middle of the reign of Baldwin I., and it is easy to
conceive how they vary in value and credibility; the most ordinary and the most
unexpected matters are mixed together; occasionally
we find individual notices on points but little known, which throw new light on
familiar subjects. Such are the details as to the government of Robert of
Normandy in Laodicea, which Lap* penberg has made use of,65 and
which are important as correcting a widely spread
statement by Albert of Aix,66 and
the account of the Crusade of the year V0\l.67 Of
more special subjects we would also mention the death of Anselm of Ripemont and
the end of Baldwin of Hennegau; the former serves to supply deficiencies in the narratives of Raymond and Radulph,68 the
latter is remarkable for its accurate agreement with the local
history of Giselbert of Bergen.69
The book was begun in the year 1108 or 1109, and certainly not finished
till 1110. Guibert
says
** Page 554, Lappenberg's Geschichte von England, ii. p. 224.
« Albert, p. 290. * Ibid., p. 527.
m Raymond, p. 164; Ead. c. 106.
• In Bonqnet, rol. xiii. of the Recueil.
166 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
that he is writing two years after the death of Manasses, Archbishop of
Rheiins,70 which occurred on the 17th September, 1106,71 and
in another place he mentions the death of Bobeinond,72
which is known to have taken place in the year 1110.
3. Baldric, Archbishop of Dol.
Baldric was born at Meun, near Orleans.73 He
was first a monk, and then became Abbot of Bour-gueil in 1079, and in 1107 was
appointed Archbishop of Dol in Brittany. His personal
character was a complete contrast to that of his contemporary Guibert. I dwell with the greater pleasure upon it, as it forms an
agreeable relief to that of Guibert, and also because Baldric represents a more
common though, at that time, an oppressed type.
The ascetic zeal which pervaded the hierarchy of the eleventh century, was as hateful to the nature of Baldric as it was congenial
to the Abbot of No-gent. Baldric saw no impediment to a Christian life in
secular learning and art; the mortification of the senses was not to his mind;
sullen looks and strict fasts—in short, the whole pomp and ceremony
of holy works—appeared to him not sufficient to
70 Page 537. 71 Bonquet, xiii. p. 407.
» Page 483.
71 Baldric, Carolina apud Duchesne, vol. ii. p. 268.
BALDRIC, ARCHBI8H0P OF DOL. 167
fill up human life. He enjoyed the quiet of his cloister, the smiling
garden, the clear running stream, the budding groves, while in his own room
there were books, manuscripts, and all the appliances
of learning. " This is the spot/' writes he to a friend, "in which peace can be found."74 There he wrote his verses; nothing remarkable, but unpretending, and a
labour of love.74
There also be applied himself to severer studies, and interchanged letters with friends of similar tastes. They carefully
discussed their works, among others the History of
the Crusades.76 They
allowed the ecclesiastical contests to be settled elsewhere; it concerned them
but little that a new hierarchy had conquered and remodelled the world; not
that they neglected their duties,77 but their true life lay in their books, in their gardens, and in their
meadows. They were not always able to defend their peaceful existence from the
incursion of a hostile element; their ideas were peculiar and too much opposed
to
74 Baldric, p. 269.
'* He re-wrote an epitaph of aix lines on William I. of England three times.
76 His correspondence with Peter, Abbot of Maillezais, is given
by Bongars, before the History of the Crusades.
77 He jealously maintained his metropolitan rights against the
claims of Tours, and obtained the pallium from Paschal II. AU
the documents concerning the quarrel are in Martene,' Thesaurus/ iii. 857 et seq.
163 LITERATURE OF THE CRUSADES.
the dominant party. Baldric writes to the Bishop of Ostia: " My
vessel sails only by stealth, for pirates of all sorts swarm around me; they
hem me in on every side, gnashing with their teeth because I do not quit my
books, because I do not go about with eyes cast on the ground. Thus am I
flagging in my work. May your hand
protect me."78
As bishop, he remained true to himself and to his nature. He was very
religious, but gentle and mild. It is true -this did not always succeed in his
diocese, with his fierce Bretons.79 He
was not fit to hold ecclesiastical power. He quitted Brittany, and sought a
more peaceful asylum at Bee, Fecamp, and finally in England.86 Men
like him would never have gained honours and triumphs for the hierarchy; but it
is a pleasure to meet with a nature so pure, so
cheerful, and so gentle, in times so full of energy, war, and austerity.81
78 Carmina, p. 275. 79 Orderio Vitalis, p. 718.
80 The Hist. Litt. xi. 96 et seq., gives more particulars.
81 As may be conceived, the judgment of the Benedictines on
him is different. Mabillon, in the Annals, accuses him of world-Hness and lukewarmness. In the main he supports this opinion
by those passages of Baldric's poems, and he quotes a letter
of Ivo of Chartres, wherein he is reported to have said that Baldric had tried every method of bribery in order to become Bishop
of Orleans; but it is only stated in this letter (No. 66. 5, in Duchesne), that Baldric's rival was preferred " quia animadversi
sunt plures et pleniores sacculi nummorum latere in apothecia
amicorum istius, quam apud abbatem."
BALDRIC, ARCHBISHOP OF DOL. 169
His history of the Crusades breathes the same spirit. He is exact and
trustworthy in his use of the ' Gesta/ he has not made many additions to its contents, but the views and opinions which he expresses are in keeping
with his character. He does not withhold praise, even from the Turks ;M he
omits the word " faithless/' as applied to the Emperor
Alexius, which constantly occurs in the'Gesta/83 He endeavours to excuse Count Stephen of Blois, who is generally styled impudens et abomina-bilis, on the score of the general weakness of human nature.84 The
additions he makes are mostly taken from oral testimony, and generally well
selected.85 Of course it is only in few instances that he
can be called an eye-witness; he undoubtedly is so where he mentions the effect
caused by the beginning of the Crusades in France.
Baldric died before 1130, as his death was known to Pope Honorius II.
His work on the Crusades seems to have been widely
known. Or-dericus Vitahs made use of it, and William of Tyre in many instances
took it as the groundwork of his own history.
" Premium. ■ Pages 92,
93.
* Page 118.
* Praises of the chastity of the
Crusaders, p. 96: rather a doubtful statement. Page 137 gives a good account of the Battle of
Ascalon.
170 literature of the CRUSADE8.
4. The History of the Holy War.
The anonymous book bearing this title is a compilation
from the • Gesta/ from Tudebod, Radulph, and Raymond. All these works have
evidently been used, as we find passages taken from each which are wanting in
all the rest.86 But
there are numerous original additions, from which we may gather some idea of
the author. These mostly have reference to Bohemund
and his affairs, so that we may fairly surmise that the author was a Norman,
and apparently one of humble origin.87 After the war he most likely lived in Antioch, as while he speaks in
indistinct terms of the election of the King of Jerusalem, he gives original accounts of Tancred's rule, from 1100 to 1103, and ends
his work with a short review of Bohemund's life and adventures.88 This
gives the measure of his trustworthiness.
His narrative is lively, and
* The narrative about Nicaea is
from the 'Gesta/ and is not to be found in Tudebod.
Chapter 17 is not in the ' Gesta/ but is in Tudebod (Tud. p. 781). Chapter 55
(p. 792), c. 69, 70 (p. 789), c. 5,16,17, init. 24, 30,
are from Kaymond, pp. 140-142. The chapters 107,109,129,131,132,135, and 136,
are out of Radulph, c. 106,110.
* Such are c. 37,45,66,67,83,90,93.
The 'Gesta/ p. 5, shows that the Count of RoussUlon, whose death is mentioned
in chapter 45, was in Raymond's army. Most of these statements can also be
confirmed by Raymond and Radulph.
88 Chapters 130, 138, 139.
FULCO, GILO, AND THE MONK ROBERT. 171
very like that of the ' Gesta.' It was written later than that work;
probably about the year 1181, as the death of Bohemond is mentioned.
Mabiilon has given a complete edition of this work in the second volume
of his ' Museum Itali-cum/89
5. Henry of Huntingdon.
According to a frequent custom of his times, Henry of Huntingdon has
inserted a history of the Crusades in his larger work. But it is without importance, and was most probably derived entirely from the
' Gesta/ I should have scarcely noticed it here, were it not for allusions to
the work in Lappenberg's History of England.
He has not made much use of it.90
6. Fulco, Gilo, and the Monk 'Robert.
I mention these authors together, as Gilo cannot
well be separated from Fulco, whose conti-nuator he is. But Gilo, although in
the first part of his narrative he is as independent of the ' Gesta' as Fulco,
still belongs to the same category, as the last
89 Muratori, Scr. Rer. Ital. t. iv. It is said in the notes to the
passage here referred to, that this chapter was taken from a
special manuscript in Monte Cassin. Pertz reports that this
manuscript only contains that edited by Mabiilon (Archiv, v.
157); their identity is easily verified by comparing the two.
90 History of England, ii. 221.
172 • LITERATURE OP THE CRUSADES.
four books of his work are taken word for word from the ' Gesta/ and
lastly, it is only in connection with the two others that we can give our
judgment on Robert the Monk.
- We know n6thing more than his book tells us as to who Fulco was,
where and when he lived, and whence he gained his
information. The title of his work, 'The History of the Crusades of Our Times/
proves that he lived during the period of the Crusades. The concluding sentence
of his poem: " Caetera describit Gilo,"91
shows that he was a contemporary
and probably wrote from the same place as Gilo, and this is the utmost that we
can learn of him.
Fulco's work treats of the first events of the Crusades until the siege of Nicaea; it is in three books, and in
hexameters. His verses are heavy and overladen
with quotations and illustrations ; he lays no claim to poetical skill, and the
only question is whether his work is worth examining
historically: but it is easy to prove the contrary; it contains, with scarcely
an exception, nothing but what is perfectly well known, utterly
confused, and altogether useless.
Instead of the usual examination, I will briefly review his narrative
of Godfrey's adventures in the
91 The Hist. Litt. zii. 84, is wrong also when it maintains
that Fulco has composed his book as a continuation of the work
of Gilo.
FULCO, GILO, AND THE MONK ROBERT. 173
Greek Empire; this will be sufficient, without entering into any elaborate comparison with original authorities, to give us
the measure of his work. Godfrey, he says,9*
while in Thrace, learnt the approach of the other armies, and determined to
wait for them at Constantinople. Alexius alarmed and angry,
prepared to drive the Duke away by force of arms. In the first place he
refused to supply him with provisions ; whereupon Godfrey plundered the land,
seized upon two thousand swine, which were collected for the Imperial kitchen,
and eventually completely routed the Imperial troops. The
latter, during their retreat, fell in with a body of Lorrai-ners, who, posted
in Adrianople, had not been aware of the outbreak of hostilities, persuaded
them to accompany them to Constantinople, and easily made them prisoners. In order to release his companions-in-arms, Godfrey agreed to the Emperor's terms and crossed over into Asia.
All these occurrences are purely imaginary. A certain interest which
they possess, lies entirely apart from their representing any historical facts. Godfrey did not yield to the Emperor, as has generally been
represented, from any motive of princely generosity, nor out of regard to the
Christianity of Alexius, nor yet from eagerness to prose:
« Page 896.
174 LITERATURE OP THE CRUSADES.
cute the war against the Saracens; he was forced, much against his
will, by the superiority of the Greek arms, to do homage to the Emperor. We see
that this general result lies at the root of Fulco's narrative ; the facts are
strangely misrepresented and added to; intense hatred to
the Greeks is quite obvious; and the author's grand object is not only to save
the personal honour of the Duke, but to glorify him even in his defeat. He can
point to no written authority for his statements; it is not probable that he possessed any other sources
of information than his continuator Gilo, and it
appears most likely that the latter trusted to oral tradition.
Gilo,93 who
came from Toucy, in the province of Auxerre, lived for a time at Paris, then
entered the monastery of Clugny, and was made Bishop of Frascati, and Cardinal
by Calixtus II.94 He
was subsequently employed on important missions;96 lastly he was sent in 1134 into Aquitaine, as legate from
the rival Pope, Anaclete, which naturally exposed
him to the most violent abuse from the opposite
side.96 When he gave in his adhesion to the
M The Hist. Litt. xii. 81, gives a review of his life and works.
w Martene, Prasf. ad Ekkeh. (CoU. Ampl. v. 508).
w 1127, to Palestine.
William of Tyre, p. 827, caJls him
iEgidius.
96 Bibl. Cluniac. pp. 720, 767, contain violent letters