 Chapter 17 Part 1 of Volumes II of a popular history of France from the earliest times. Volume II of a popular history of France from the earliest times by François Guiseau, translated by Robert Black. Chapter 17 The Crusades, Their Decline and End, Part 1 In the month of August 1099 the crusade, to judge by appearances, had attained its object. Jerusalem was in the hands of the Christians, and they had set up in it a king, the most pious and most disinterested of the crusaders. Close to this ancient kingdom were growing up likewise in the two chief cities of Syria and Mesopotamia, Antioch and Edessa, two Christian principalities, in the possession of two crusader chiefs, Bohemond and Baldwin. A third Christian principality was on the point of getting founded at the foot of Libanus at Tripolis, for the advantage of another crusader, Bertrand, eldest son of Count Raymond of Toulouse. The conquest of Syria and Palestine seemed accomplished in the name of the faith, and by the armies of Christian Europe, and the conquerors calculated so surely upon their fixture, that during his reign, short as it was, for he was elected king July 23, 1099, and died July 18, 1100, aged only 40 years. Godfrey de Boulion caused to be drawn up and published under the title of Assizes of Jerusalem a Code of Laws, which transferred to Asia the customs and traditions of the feudal system, just as they existed in France, at the moment of his departure from the Holy Land. Forty-six years afterwards, in 1145, the Muslims, under the leadership of Zangi, Sultan of Aleppo and of Musul, had retaken Edessa. Forty-two years after that, in 1187, Saladin, Salah el-Adun, Sultan of Egypt and of Syria, had put an end to the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, and only seven years later, in 1194, Richard Coeur de Lyon, king of England, after the most heroic exploits in Palestine, on arriving inside of Jerusalem, retreated in despair, covering his eyes with his shield, and saying that he was not worthy to look upon the city, which he was not in a condition to conquer. When he re-embarked at St. Jean d'Arc, casting a lost glance and stretching out his arms towards the coast, he cried, Most Holy Land, I commend thee to the care of the Almighty, and may he grant me long life enough to return hither and deliver thee from the yoke of the infidels. A century had not yet rolled by since the triumph of the first crusaders, on the dominion they had acquired by conquest in the Holy Land, had become, even in the eyes of their most valiant and most powerful successors, an impossibility. Nevertheless, repeated efforts and glory, and even victories, were not then, and were not to be still later, unknown amongst the Christians in their struggle against the Muslims for the possession of the Holy Land. In the space of a hundred and seventy-one years, from the coronation of Gottry de Bullion as King of Jerusalem in 1099, to the death of St. Louis, wearing the cross before Tunis in 1270, seven Grand Crusades were undertaken, with the same design by the greatest sovereigns of Christian Europe, the kings of France and England, the emperors of Germany, the kings of Denmark, and princes of Italy, successfully engaged their in, and they all failed. It was neither right nor desirable to make long pause over the recital of their attempts and their reverses, for it is the history of France, and not a general history of the crusades, which is here related. But it was in France, by the French people, and under French chiefs, that the crusades were begun, and it was with St. Louis, dying before Tunis, beneath the banner of the cross, that they came to an end. They revived in the history of Europe the glorious name of guest-day Perfrankos, God's works by French hands, and they have a right to keep, in the history of France, the place they are really occupied. During a reign of 29 years, Louis VI, called the Fat, son of Philip I, did not trouble himself about the East or the Crusades, at that time in all their fame and renown. Being rather a man of sense than an enthusiast in the cause either of beauty or glory, he gave all his attention to the establishment of some order, justice, and royal authority in his, as yet far from, extensive kingdom. A tragic incident, however, gave the crusade chief place in the thoughts and life of his son, Louis VII, called the Young, who succeeded him in 1137. He got himself rashly embroiled, in 1142, in a quarrel with Pope Innocent II, on the subject of the election of the Archbishop of Boers. The Pope and the King had each a different candidate for the seat. The King is a child, said the Pope, he must get schooling, and we kept from learning bad habits. Never so long as I live, said the King, shall Peter de la Charter, the Pope's candidate, enter the city of Boers. The chapter of Boers, thinking as the Pope sought, elected Peter de la Charter, and so about the Second Count of Champagne, took sides for the Archbishop-Elect. Mind your own business, said the King to him. Your dominions are large enough to occupy you, and leave me to govern my own as I have in mind. They all persisted in backing the elect of Pope and Chapter. The Pope excommunicated the King. The King declared war against the Count of Champagne, and went and besieged VIII. Nearly all the town was built of wood, and the besiegers set fire to it. The besieged fled for refuge to a church, in which they were infested. And the fire reached a church, which was entirely consumed, together with the thirteen hundred inhabitants, men, women and children, who had retreated there. The disaster made a great stir. Saint Bernard, a bot of clairvoy, and the leading ecclesiastical authority of the age, took the part of Count Théobald. King Louis felt a lively sorrow, and sincere repentance. Soon afterwards it became known, in the West, that the affairs of the Christians were going ill in the East, that the town of Edessa had been retaken by the Turks, and all its inhabitants massacred. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, too, was in danger. Great was the emotion in Europe, and the cry of the Crusade was heard once more. Louis the Young, to appease his troubled conscience, and to get reconciled with the Pope, to say nothing of sympathy for the national movement, assembled the grandees like an ecclesiastical of the Kingdom, to deliberate upon the matter. Deliberation was more prolonged, more frequently repeated, and more indecisive, than it had been at the time of the first Crusade. Three grand assemblies met, the first in 1145 at Borgs, the second in 1146 at Wetzelai in Nivernice, and the third in 1147 at Etiamps, all three being called to investigate the expediency of a new Crusade, and of the King's participation in the enterprise. Not only was the question seriously discussed, but extremely diverse opinions were expressed, both amongst the rank and file of those assemblies, and amongst their most illustrious members. There were two men, whose talents and fame made them conspicuous above all, Sugar, Abbot of Saint Denis, the intimate and able advisor of the wise king, Louis the Fat, and Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, the most eloquent, most influential, and most piously disinterested amongst the Christians of his age. Though both were ecclesiastics, these two great men were, touching the second Crusade of opposite opinions. Let none suppose, says Sugar's biographer and confidant, William, monk of Saint Denis, that it was at his instance, or by his counsel, that the king undertook the voyage to the Holy Land. Although the success of it was other than had been expected, this prince was influenced only by pious wishes and zeal for the service of God. As for Sugar, ever far-seeing and only too well able to read the future, not only did he not suggest to the monarch any such design, but he disapproved of it so soon as it was mentioned to him. The truth of it is, that after having vainly striven to nip it in the bud and being unable to put a check upon the king's zeal, he thought it wise, either for fear of wounding the king's pity, or of uselessly incurring the wrath of the partisans of the enterprise, to yield to the times. As for Saint Bernard, at the first of the three assemblies, at Borg's, whether it were, that his mind was not yet made up, or that he desired to cover himself with greater glory, he advised the king to undertake nothing without having previously consulted the Holy See. But when Pope Eugenius III, so far from hesitating, had warmly solicited the aid of the Christians against the infidels, Saint Bernard, at the second assembly, at Wetzelai, gave free vent to his feelings and his eloquence. After having read the Pope's letters, if ye were told, said he, that an enemy had attacked your castles, your cities and your lands, had ravished your wives and your daughters, and had profaned your temples, which of you would not fly to arms? Well, all those evils and evils still greater have come upon your brethren, upon the family of Christ, which is your own. Why tarry ye, then, to repair so many wrongs, to avenge so many insults? Christian warriors, he who gave his life for you to date, demandest yours. Illustrious knights, noble defenders of the cross, call to mind the example of your fathers, who conquered Jerusalem, and whose names are written in heaven. The living God has charged me to tell unto you, that he will punish those who shall not have defended him against his enemies. Fly to arms and let Christendom re-echo with the words of the prophet. Bow to him who dies not his sword with blood. At this fervent address the assembly rang with the shout of the first crusade, God willeth it, God willeth it. The king, kneeling before St. Bernard, received from his hands the cross. The queen, a loner of aquitaine, assumed it like her husband. Nearly all the parents present followed their example. St. Bernard tore up his garments into crosses for distribution, and, on leaving the assembly, he scored the country places, everywhere preaching and persuading the people. The villages and castles are deserted, he wrote to the pope. There is none to be seen, say of widows and orphans, whose husbands and fathers are alive. Nor did he confine himself to France. He crossed into Germany, and preached the crusade all along the Rhine. The emperor, Conrad III, showed great hesitation. The empire was sorely troubled, he said, and had need of its head. Be of a good cheer, replied St. Bernard. So long as you defend his heritage, God himself will take the burden of defending yours. One day, in December 1146, he was celebrating Mass at Spire, in presence of the emperor and a great number of German princes. Suddenly he passed, from the regular service, to the subject of the crusade, and transported his audience to the last judgment, in the presence of all the nations of the earth, someone together, and Jesus Christ bearing his cross, and reproaching the emperor with ingratitude. Conrad was deeply moved, and interrupted the preacher by crying out. I know what I owe to Jesus Christ, and I swear to go, whether it pleases him to call me. The attraction became general, and Germany, like France, took up the cross. St. Bernard returned to France. The ardor there had cooled a little during his absence. The results of his trip in Germany were being waited for, and it was known that, on being eagerly pressed to put himself at the head of the crusaders, and take the command of the whole expedition, he had formally refused. His enthusiasm and his devotion, sincere and deep as they were, did not, in this case, extinguish common sense, and he had not forgotten the melancholy experiences of Peter the Hermit. In support of his refusal, he claimed the intervention of Pope Eugenius III. Who am I, he wrote to him, that I should form a camp, and march at the head of an army? What can be more alien to my calling, even if I lack not the strength and the ability? I need not tell you all this, for you know it perfectly. I conjure you by the charity you owe me, deliver me not o'ers us to the humours of men. The Pope came to France, and the Third Grand Assembly met at attempts, in February 1147. The presence of St. Bernard rekindled zeal, but foresight began to penetrate men's minds. Instead of insisting upon his being the chief of the crusade, attention was given to preparations for the expedition. The points were indicated at which the crusaders should form injunction, and the directions in which they would have to move, and inquiry was made as to what measures should be taken, and what persons should be selected for the government of France during the king's absence. Sir said St. Bernard, after having come to an understanding, upon the subject was the principal members of the assembly, at the same time pointing to sugar, and the count of deniverses. Here be two swords, and it suffices. The count deniverses, peremptorily refused the honour done him. He was resolved, he said, to enter the order of St. Bruno, as indeed he did. Sugar also refused at first, considering the dignity offered him a burden rather than an honour. Wise and clear-sighted by nature, he had learned in the reign of Louis the Fat to know the requirements and the difficulties of government. He consented to accept, says his biographer, only when he was at last forced to it, by Pope Eugenius, who was present at the king's departure, and whom it was neither permissible nor possible for him to resist. It was agreed that the French crusaders should form a junction at Metz, under the command of King Louis, and the Germans at Ratisbon, under that of the Emperor Conrad, and that the two armies should successively repair by land to Constantinople, when they would cross into Asia. Having each a strength, it is said, of 100,000 men, they marched by Germany and the lower Danube at an interval of two months between them, without committing irregularities and without meeting obstacles so serious as those of the first crusade, but still much incommodate, and subjected to great hardships in the countries they traversed. The Emperor Conrad and the Germans first, and then King Louis and the French, arrived at Constantinople in the course of the summer of 1117. Manuel Comenos, grandson of Alexis Comenos, was reigning there, and he behaved towards the crusaders with the same mixture of caresses and malevolence, promises and perfidy, as had distinguished his grandfather. There is no ill turn he did not do them, says the historian Nisetas, himself a Greek. Conrad was the first to cross into Asia Minor, and whether it were unskillfulness or treason, the guides with whom he had been supplied by Manuel Comenos, led him so badly, that on the 28th of October 1147 he was surprised and shockingly beaten by the Turks near Yonikom. An utter distrust of Greeks grew up amongst the French, who had not yet left Constantinople, and some of their chiefs, and even one of their prelates, the Bishop of Languaries, proposed to make without further delay an end of it with its emperor and empire, so treacherously hostile, and to take Constantinople in order to march more securely. But King Louis and the majority of his knights turned a deaf ear. We become forced, that they, to expiate our own sins, not to punish the crimes of the Greeks. When we took up the cross, God did not put into our hands the sword of His justice, and they in their turn crossed over into Asia Minor. There they found the Germans beaten and dispersed, and conjured himself wounded and so discouraged, that instead of pursuing his way by land with the French, he returned to Constantinople to go dance by sea to Palestine. Louis and his army continued their march across Asia Minor, and gained in Friccia at the passage of the River Meander, so brilliant a victory over the Turks, that if such men, says the historian Nicetas, abstained from taking Constantinople, one cannot but admire their moderation and forbearance. End of Chapter 17 Part 1 Chapter 17 Part 2 of Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by François Guiseaux, translated by Robert Black. Chapter 17 The Crusades, Their Decline and End Part 2 But the success was short and earlong, dearly paid for. On entering Vesidia, the French army split up into two, and afterwards into several divisions, which scattered and lost themselves in the defiles of the mountains. The Turks waited for them and attacked them at the mouth and from the tops of the passes. Before long there was nothing but disorder and carnage. The little band which surrounded the king was cut to pieces at his side, and Louis himself, with his back against the rock, defended himself, alone for some minutes, against several Turks, till they, not knowing who he was, drew off, whereupon he, suddenly throwing himself upon a stray horse, rejoined his advanced guard, who believed him dead. The army continued their march pale mail, king, barons, knights, soldiers and pilgrims, uncertain day by day what would become of them on the morrow. The Turks harassed them afield, the towns in which there were Greek governors, residing, refused to receive them. Provisions fell short, arms and baggage were abandoned on the road. On arriving in Pamphylia at Satalia, a little port on the Mediterranean, the impossibility of thus proceeding became evident. They were still, by land, forty days' march from Antioch, whereas it required but three to get there by sea. The governor of Satalia proposed to the king to embark the crusaders. But when the vessels arrived, they were quite inadequate for such an operation. Hardly could the king, the barons and the knights find room in them, and it would be necessary to abandon and expose to the perils of the land march the majority of the infantry and all the mere pilgrims who had followed the army. Louis, this consulate, fluctuated between the most diverse resolutions, at one time demanding to have everybody embarked at any risk, at another determining to march by land himself with all who could not be embarked, distributing whatever money and provisions he had left, being as generous and sympathetic as he was improvident and incapable, and never letting a day pass, says Oddo of Doyle, who accompanied him, without hearing moss and crying unto the God of the Christians. At last he embarked with his queen Eleonore and his principal knights, and towards the end of March 1148 he arrived at Antioch, having lost more than three quarters of his army. Scarcely had he taken a few days' rest when messengers came to him on behalf of Baldwin III, king of Jerusalem, begging him to repair without delay to the holy city. Louis was as eager to go thither as the king and people of Jerusalem were to see him there, but his speedy departure encountered unforeseen hindrances. Raymond of Poitiers, at that time Prince of Antioch, by his marriage with Constance, granddaughter of the great Bohemond of the first crusade, was uncle to the Queen of France, Eleonore of Aquitaine. He was, says William of Tyre, a lord of noble descent, of Doyle an elegant figure, the handsomest of the princes of the earth, a man of charming affability and conversation, open-handed and magnificent beyond measure, and moreover ambitious and eager to extend his small dominion. He had at heart, beyond everything, the conquest of Aleppo and Caesarea. In this design the king of France and the crusaders, who were still about him, might be of real service, and he attempted to win them over. Louis answered that he would engage in no enterprise until he had visited the holy places. Raymond was impetuous, irritable, and as unreasonable in his desires, as unfortunate in his undertakings. He had quickly acquired great influence over his niece, Queen Eleonore, and he had no difficulty in winning her over to his plans. She, says William of Tyre, was a very inconsiderate woman, caring little for royal dignity and conjugal fidelity. She took great pleasure in the court of Antioch, where she also conferred much pleasure even upon Muslims, whom, as some chronicles say, she did not repulse. And when the king, her husband, spoke to her of approaching departure, they emphatically refused, and to justify her opposition, she declared, that they could no longer live together as there was, she asserted, a prohibited decree of consequently between them. Louis, who loved her with an almost excessive love, says William of Nanjis, was at the same time angered and grieved. He was all steer immorals, easily jealous and religiously scrupulous, and for a moment he was on the point of separating from his wife. But the counsels of his chief-parents dissuaded him, and thereupon, taking a sudden resolution, he set out from Antioch secretly by night, carrying off the queen almost by force. They both hid their wrath as much as possible, says the chronicle, but at heart they had ever this outrage. We shall see before long what were the consequences. No history can offer so striking an example of the importance of well-assorted unions amongst the highest as well as the lowest, and of the prolonged woes which may be brought upon a nation by the domestic evils of royalty. On approaching Jerusalem, and the month of April 1148, Louis VII saw coming to meet him King Baldwin III, and the patriarch and the people singing, blessed be he that cometh in the name of Lord. So soon as he had entered the city, his pious wishes were fulfilled by his being taken to pay a solemn visit to all the holy places. At the same time arrived from Constantinople the Emperor Conrad, almost alone and in the guise of a simple pilgrim. All the remnant of the crusaders, French and German, hurried to join them. Impatient to exhibit their power on the theater of their creed, and to render to the kingdom of Jerusalem some striking service, the two Western sovereigns, and Baldwin and their principal barons, assembled at Ptolemy's, sent sheen of the Ark, to determine the direction to be taken by their enterprise. They decided upon the siege of Damascus, the most important and the nearest of the Mosulman prince-doms in Syria, and in the early part of June they moved thither, with forces incomplete and ill-united. Neither the Prince of Antioch, nor the Counts of Edessa and Tripolis, had been summoned to St. Jean of Ark, and Queen Eleonore had not appeared. At the first attack, the ardor of the assailants and the brilliant personal prowess of their chiefs, of the Emperor Conrad amongst others, struck surprise and consternation into the besieged, who, foreseeing the necessity of abandoning their city, laid across the streets beams, chains and heaps of stones to stop the progress of the conquerors, and give themselves time for flying. With their families and their wealth, by the northern and southern gates. But personal interest and secret negotiations, before long, brought into the Christian camp weakness, together with discord. Many of the barons were already disputing amongst themselves, at the very elbows of the sovereigns, for the future government of Damascus. Others were not inaccessible to the rich offers which came to them from the city. And it is maintained that King Baldin himself suffered himself to be bribed by a sum of two hundred thousand pieces of gold, which were sent to him by Mojare Edin, emir of Damascus, and which turned out to be only pieces of copper, covered with gold leaf. News came that the emirs of Aleppo and Mosul were coming, with considerable forces, to the relief of the place. Whatever may have been the cause of retreat, the crusader sovereigns decided upon it, and raising the siege returned to Jerusalem. The Emperor Conrad, in indignation and confusion, set out precipitly to return to Germany. King Louis could not make up his mind, thus to quit the Holy Land in disgrace, and without doing anything for its deliverance. He prolonged his stay there for more than a year, without anything to show for his time and the ill. His parents and his knights nearly all left him, and by sea or land made their way back to France. But the King still lingered. I am under a bond, he wrote to Sugar, not to leave the Holy Land, save with glory, and after doing somewhat for the cause of God and the Kingdom of France. At last, after many fruitless entreaties, Sugar wrote to him, Dear King and Lord, I must cause thee to hear the voice of thy whole kingdom. Why dost thou fly from us? After having toiled so hard in the east, after having endured so many almost unendurable evils, by what harshness or what cruelty comes it, that now, when the barons and grandees of the kingdom have returned, though persistest in abiding with the barbarians. The disturbers of the kingdom have entered into it again, and though, who should defend it, remainnest in exile, as if though were a prisoner, though giveest over the lamb to the wolf, thy dominions to the ravishers. We conjure thy Majesty, we invoke thy piety, we adjure thy goodness, we summon thee in the name of the fealty we oath thee, tarry not at all, or only a little while beyond Easter, else though wilt appear in the eyes of God, guilty of a breach, of that oath which though did stake the time as the crown. At length Luz made up his mind, and embarked at St. Jean d'Arc, at the commencement of July 1149, and he disembarked in the month of October at the port of St. Gilles, at the mouth of the Rhône, whence he rode to sugar. We be hastening unto you safe and sound, and we commend you not to defer, paying us a visit on a given day and before all our other friends. Many rumors reach us, touching our kingdom, and knowing not for certain, we be desirous to learn from you how we should bear ourselves, or hold our peace in every case. And let none but yourself know what I say to you at this present writing. This preference and this confidence were no more than Louis VII's ode to sugar. The abort of St. Denis, after having opposed the crusade with a freedom of spirit and a far-sightedness unique, perhaps in his times, had, during the king's absence, born the weight of government with a political tact, a firmness, and a disinterestedness rare in any times. He had upheld the authority of absent royalty, kept down the pretensions of vessels, and established some degree of order wherever his influence could reach. He had provided for the king's expenses in Palestine by good administration of the domains and revenues of the crown. And lastly, he had acquired such renown in Europe that men came from Italy and from England to view the solitary effects of his government, and that the name of Solomon of his age was conferred upon him by strangers, his contemporaries. With the exception of great sovereigns, such as Charlemagne or William the Conqueror, only great bishops or learned seologians and that, by their influence in the church or by their writings, had obtained this European reputation from the 9th to the 12th century. Sugar was the first man who attained to it by the sole merit of his political conduct and who offered an example of a minister justly admired for his ability and wisdom beyond the circle in which he lived. When he saw that the king's return drew near, he wrote to him saying, You will, I think, have ground to be satisfied with our conduct. We have remitted the nights of the temple, the money we had resolved to send you. We have, besides, reimbursed the Count of Vermandus, the three thousand livers he had lent us for your service. Your land and your people are in the enjoyment for the present of a happy peace. You will find your houses and your palaces in good condition through the care we have taken to have them repaired. Behold me now in the decline of age and I dare to say that the occupations in which I have engaged for the love of God and through attachment to your person have added many to my years. In respect of the queen, your consort, I am of opinion that you should conceal the displeasure she causes you until restored to your dominions. You can calmly deliberate upon that and upon other subjects. On once more entering his kingdom, Louis, who at a distance had sometimes lent a credulous ear to the complaints of the discontented families of sugar's enemies, did him full justice and was the first to give him the name of father of the country. The ill success of the crusade and the remembrance of all that friends had risked and lost for nothing made a deep impression upon the public and they honoured sugar for his far sightedness whilst they blamed St. Bernard for the infatuation which he had fostered and the disasters which had followed it. St. Bernard accepted their approaches in a pious spirit. If, said he, there must be murmuring against God or against me, I prefer to see the murmurs of men falling upon me rather than upon the Lord. To me it is a blessed thing that God should deign to use me as a buckler to shield himself. I shrink not from humiliation provided that his glory be an assailed. But at the same time St. Bernard himself was troubled and he permitted himself to give expression to his troubled feelings in a singularly free and bold strain of piety. We befallen upon very grievous times he wrote to Pope Eugenius III The Lord provoked by our sense seemed in some sort to have determined to judge the world before the time and to judge it doubtless according to his equity but not remembering his mercy. Do not the heathen say where is now their God and who can wonder the children of the church those who be called Christian lie stretched upon the desert smitten with the sword or dead by a famine. Did we undertake the work rushly? Did we behave ourselves lightly? How patiently God hears the sacrilegious voices and blasphemies of these Egyptians assuredly his judgments be righteous who does not know it but in the present judgment there is so profound adepth that I hesitate not to call him blessed whosoever is not surprised and offended by it the soul of man no less than the shifting scene is often a great subject of surprise King Louis on his way back to France had stayed some days at Rome and there in a conversation with the Pope he had almost promised him a new crusade to repair the disasters of that from which he had found it so difficult to get out sugar when he became acquainted with this project opposed it as he had opposed the former but at the same time as he in common with all his age considered the deliverance of the holy land to be the bounden duty of Christians he conceived the idea of dedicating the large fortune and great influence he had acquired to the cause of a new crusade to be undertaken by himself and at his own expense without compromising either king or state he unfolded his views to a meeting of bishops assembled at charters and he went to Tours and paid a visit to the tomb of Saint Martin to implore his protection already more than ten thousand pilgrims were in arms at his call and already he had himself chosen a warrior of ability and renown to command them when he fell ill and died at the end of four months in 1972 aged 70 and thanking the Almighty says his biographer for having taken him to him not suddenly but little by little in order to bring him step by step to the rest needful for the weary men it is said that in his last days and when Saint Bernard was exhorting him not to sing anymore save only of the heavenly Jerusalem his regret are dying without having suckered the city which was so dear to them both almost at the very moment when sugar was dying a French council assembled at Bougian Sea was unearling on the ground of prohibited consequently and with the tacit consent of the two persons most concerned the marriage of Louis VII and Eleonore of Aquitaine some months afterwards at Witsun died in the same year in the same year Henry Plantagen Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou exposed Eleonore thus adding to his already great possessions Poitou and Aquitaine and becoming in France a wassel more powerful than the king Hisosren twenty months later in 1154 the mess of King Stephen Henry Plantagen became king of England and thus there was a recurrence in an aggravated form of the position which had been filled by William the Conqueror and which was the first cause of rivalry between France and England and of the consequence struggles of considerably more than the centuries duration little more than a year after sugar of April 1153 Saint Darnard died also the two great men of whom one had excited and the other opposed the second crusade disappeared together from the theater of the world the crusade had completely failed after a lapse of scarce forty years a third crusade began when a great idea is firmly fixed in men's minds in the cold sanction of duty and feeling many generations live and die in its service before efforts are exhausted and the end reached or abandoned during this forty years interval between the end of the second and beginning of the third crusade the relative positions of west and east Christian Europe and Muslim Asia remained the same outwardly but in Syria and in Palestine there was a continuance of the struggle between Christendom and Islamry with various fortunes on either side the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem still stood and after Godfrey de Bouillon from 1100 to 1180 there had been a succession of eight kings some energetic and bold aspiring to extend others indolent and weak upon a tottering throne the rivalries and often the defections and treasons of the petty Christian princes and lords were set up at different points in Palestine and Syria in danger in their common cause fortunately similar rivalries dissensions and treasons prevailed amongst the Muslim and emirs some of them Turks and others Persians or Arabs and at one time foes at another dependence of the heliffs of Baghdad or of Egypt Anarchy and civil war harassed both races and both religions with almost equal impartiality but beneath the surface of simultaneous agitation and monotony great changes were being accomplished or preparing for accomplishment in the west with the municipal sovereigns of the preceding generation Louis VII's King of France Conrad III's Emperor of Germany and Henry II's King of England were dying and princes more juvenile and more enterprising or simply less we read out Philip Augustus, Frederick Barbarossa and Richard Cordeline were taking their places in the east and the theater of policy and events was being enlarged Egypt was becoming the goal of ambition with the chiefs Christian or Muslim one of Eastern Asia and Amietta the key of Egypt was the object of their enterprises those of Amaury I the boldest of the kings of Jerusalem as well as those of the sultans of Damascus and Aleppo Turks by origin had commenced their fortunes in Syria but it was in Egypt that they culminated and when Saladin became the most illustrious as well as the most powerful of Muslim sovereigns it was with the title of Sultan of Egypt and of Syria that he took his place in history End of chapter 17 Part 2 Chapter 17 Part 3 of Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times Chapter 17 The Crusades, Their Decline and End Part 3 In the course of the year 1187 Europe suddenly heard tale upon tale about the repeated disasters of the Christians in Asia On the 1st of May the two religious and warlike orders which had been founded in the east for the defense of Christendom the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem and the Templars lost at a brush in Galilee 500 of their bravest nights On the 3rd and 4th of July near Tiberias a Christian army was surrounded by the Saracens and also year long by the fire which Saladin had ordered to be set to the dry grass which covered the plain The flames made their way There, say the Oriental Chronicles the Sons of Paradise and the Children of Fire settled their terrible quarrel Arrows hurtled in the air like a noisy flight of sparrows and the blood of warriors dripped onto the ground like rain water I saw, adds one of them who was present at the battle Hugh, plain and wolly covered with their dead I saw their banners blood I saw their heads laid low their limbs scattered their carcasses piled on a heap like stones Four days after the battle of Tiberias on the 8th of July 1187 Saladin took possession of St. John de Acre and on the 4th of September following of Ascalon Finally, on the 18th of September he laid siege to Jerusalem where in refuge had been the food of Christian families driven from their homes by the ravages of the infidels throughout Palestine and the holiest city contained at this time it is said nearly 100,000 Christians On approaching its walls Saladin sent for the principal inhabitants and said to them I know as well as you that Jerusalem is the house of God and I will not have it assaulted if I can get it by peace and love I will give you 30,000 poisons of gold if you promise me Jerusalem and you shall have liberty to go wither you will and do your tillage to a distance of five miles from the city and I will have you supplied with such plenty of provisions that in no place of earth shall they be so cheap you shall have a truth from now to withsuntide and when this time comes if you see that you may have aid but if not you shall give up the city and I will have you conveyed in safety to Christian territory yourselves and your substance we may not yield up to you a city where died our God answered the invoice and still less maybe sell you the siege lasted 14 days after having repulsed several assaults the inhabitants saw that effectual resistance was impossible and the commandant of the place a knight named Dalyand Ibellin an old warrior who had been at the battle of Tiberius returned to Saladin and asked for the conditions back again which had at first been rejected Saladin pointing to his own banner already planted upon several parts of the battlements answered it's too late you surely see that the city is mine very well my lord replied the knight we will ourselves destroy our city and the mosque of Omar and the stone of Jacob and when it is nothing but a heap of ruins we will sadly forced with sword and fire in hand and not one of us will go to paradise without having sent ten more settlements to hell Saladin understood enthusiasm and respected it and to have had the destruction of Jerusalem connected with his name would have caused him deep displeasure he therefore consented to the terms of capitulation demanded of him the fighting men were permitted to retreat to Tyre or Tripolis the last cities of any importance besides Antioch in the power of the Christians and the simple inhabitants of Jerusalem had their lives preserved and permission given them to purchase their pre-freedom in certain conditions but as many amongst them could not find the means Malek at Hell the Sultan's brother and Saladin himself bade the ransom of several thousands of captives all Christians have ever with the exception of Greeks and Syrians had orders to leave Jerusalem within four days when the day came all the gates were closed except that of David by which the people were to go forth and Saladin seated upon a throne sought the Christians defile before him first came his patriarch followed by the clergy carrying the sacred vessels and the ornaments of the church of the Holy Sepulchre after him came Subula Queen of Jerusalem who had remained in the city whilst her husband Guy de Lucignan had been a prisoner at Neblos since the Battle of Tiberias Saladin saluted her respectfully and spoke to her kindly he had too great a soul to take pleasure in the humiliation of greatness the news spreading through Europe caused amongst all classes there high and low a deep feeling of sorrow anger, disquietude and shame Jerusalem was a very different thing from Edessa the fall of the kingdom of Jerusalem meant the sepulchre of Jesus Christ fallen once more into the hands of the infidels and at the same time the destruction of what had been brought by Christian Europe in the East the loss of the only striking and permanent gauge of her victories Christian pride was as much wounded as Christian piety a new fact moreover was conspicuous in this series of reverses and in the accounts received of them after all its defeats and in the midst of its discord Islamry had found a chieftain and a hero Saladin was one of those strange and superior beings who by their qualities and by their very defects make a strong impression upon the imaginations of men whether friends or foes his Muslim fanaticism was quite as impassioned as the Christian fanaticism of the most ardent crusaders when he heard the treasure note of Chattelion Lord of Karat on the confines of Palestine and Arabia had all but succeeded in an attempt to go and pillage the Kaaba and the tomb of Muhammad he wrote to his brother Malek at Hell at that time Governor of Egypt the infidels have violated the home and the cradle of Islamism they have profaned our sanctuary did we not prevent a like insult which God forbid we should render ourselves guilty in the eyes of God and the eyes of men purge we therefore our land from these men who dishonor it purge we the very air from the air they breathe he commanded that all the Christians who could possibly be captured on this occasion should be put to death and many were taken to Mecca where the Muslim pilgrims immolated them instead of the sheep and lambs they were accustomed to sacrifice the expulsion of the Christians from Palestine was Saladin's great idea and unwavering passion and he severely cheered the Muslims for their soft-heartedness in the struggle behold these Christians he wrote to the Caliph of Baghdad how they come crowding in how immolously they press on they are continually receiving fresh reinforcements more numerous than the waves of the sea and to us more bitter than its brackish waters where one dies by land a southern came by sea the crop is more abundant than the harvest the tree puts forth than the axe can lop off it is true that great numbers have already perished in so much that the edge of our swords is blunted but our comrades are beginning to grow weary of so long a war haste we is therefore to implore the help of the Lord nor needed he the excuse of passion in order to be cruel and sanguinary when he considered it would serve his cause for human lives and death he had that barbaric indifference which Christianity alone had rooted out from the communities of men whilst it has remained familiar to the Muslim when he bound himself either during or after a battle confronted by enemies whom he really dreaded such as the hospitalers of Saint John of Jerusalem or the Templars he had them massacred and had them their death blow himself with cool satisfaction but apart from open war and the hatred inspired by passion or cold calculation he was moderate and generous gentle towards the vanquished and the weak just and compassionate towards his subjects faithful to his engagements and capable of feeling sympathetic admiration for men even his enemies whom he recognized superior qualities courage, loyalty and loftiness of mind for Christian knighthood its precepts and the noble character it stamped upon its professors he felt so much respect and even inclination that the wish of his heart it is said was to receive the title of knight and that he did in fact receive it with the approval of Richard Gordon Lyon by reason of all these facts and on all these grounds he acquired even amongst the Christians that popularity which attaches itself to greatness justified by personal deeds and living proofs in spite of the fear and even the hatred inspired thereby Christian Europe saw in him the able and potent chief of Mosulman Asia admired him after the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin the Christians of the East in their distress sent to the west their most eloquent prelet and gravest historian William Archbishop of Tyre who fifteen years before in the reign of Baldwin IV had been Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem he, accompanied by a legate scored Italy, France and Germany recounting everywhere the miseries of the Holy Land and imploring the aid of all Christian princes and peoples whatever might be their own position of affairs and their own quarrels in Europe at the Parliament assembled at Gussours on the 21st of January 1188 and at a diet convoked at Mayans on the 27th of March following he so powerfully affected the knighthood of France England and Germany that the three sovereigns of these three states Philip Augustus Richard Cordelain and Frederick Barbarossa engaged with acclamation in a new crusade they were princes of very different ages and degrees of merit but all three distinguished for their personal qualities were peasants Frederick Barbarossa was 67 and for the last 36 years had been leading in Germany and Italy as politician and soldier a very active and stormy existence Richard Cordelain was 31 and had by just ascended the throne where he was to shine as the most valiant and adventurous of knights rather than as a king Philip Augustus though only 23 had already shown signs beneath the vivacious sellies of youth of the reflective and steady ability characteristic of a riper age of these three sovereigns the eldest Frederick Barbarossa was first ready to plunge amongst the perils of the crusade starting from Rattisbon about Christmas 1189 with an army of 150,000 men he traversed the Greek Empire an Asia Minor defeated the Sultan of Iconium passed the first day files of Taurus and seemed to be approaching the object of his voyage when on the 10th of June 1190 having arrived at the borders of the Selep a small river which throws itself into the Mediterranean close to Seleucia to cross it by fording was seized with a chill and according to some drowned before his people's eyes but according to others carried dying to Seleucia where he expired his young son Conrad Duke of Swabia was not equal to taking the command of such an army and it broke up the majority of the German princes returned to Europe and there remained beneath the banner of Christ a weak band of warriors faithful to their vow a boy chief and a beer when the crusaders of the other nations assembled before St. Genot Archer saw the remnant of the Grand German army arrive not a soul could restrain his tears three thousand men all but stark naked and harassed to death marched sorrowfully along with the dried bones of their emperor carried in a coffin for in the 12th century the art of embalming the dead was unknown Barbarossa before leaving Europe had asked that if he should die in the crusade he might be buried in the church of the resurrection at Jerusalem but this wish could not be accomplished as the Christians did not recover the holy city and the mortal remains of the emperor were carried as some say to Tyre and as others to Antioch where his tomb has not been discovered end of chapter 17 part 3 chapter 17 part 4 of volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by François Guiseaux translated by Robert Black chapter 17 the crusades, their decline and end part 4 Frederick Barbarossa was already dead in Asia Minor and the German army was already broken up when on the 24th of June 1190 Philip Augustus went and took the oriflam at Saint Denis on his way to Vesseli where he had appointed to meet Richard and once the two kings in fact set out on the 4th of July to embark with their troops Philip Ibn Genoa and Richard at Marcelles they had agreed to touch nowhere until they reached Sicily where Philip was to arrive the 1st on the 16th of September and Richard was 8 days later but instead of simply touching they passed at Messina all the autumn of 1190 and all the winter of 1190-91 no longer seeming to think of anything but quarrelling and amusing themselves nor were grounds for quarrel or opportunities for amusements to seek Richard in spite of his promise was unwilling to marry the princess Alice Philip's sister and Philip after lively discussion would not agree to give him back his word save in consideration of a sum of 10,000 silver marks whereof he shall pay us 3,000 at the feast of all saints and year by year in succession at this same feast some of their amusements were not more refined than their family arrangements and rafianly contests and violent enmities sprang up amidst the feasts and the games in which kings and knights nearly every evening indulged in the plains round about Messina one day there came amongst the crusaders thus assembled a peasant driving an ass laden with those long and strong reeds known by the name of Keynes English and French with Richard at their head bought them of him and mounting on horseback ran tilt at one another armed with seas reeds by way of lances Richard found himself opposite to a French knight named William Des Barres of whose strength and valor he had already not without this pleasure had experience in Normandy the two champions met with so rude a shock that their reeds broke and the king's cloak was torn Richard in pig urged his horse violently against the French knight in order to make him lose his stirrups but William kept a firm seat under his horse which came down in his impetuosity Richard more and more exasperated had another horse brought and charged a second time but with no more success the immovable knight one of Richard's favorites the Earl of Leicester would have taken his place and avenged his lord but let be Robert said the king it is a matter between him and me and more attacked William Des Barres and once more to no purpose fly from my sight cried he to the knight and take care never to appear again for I will be ever a mortal foe to thee, to thee and dine William Des Barres somewhat disconfident went in search of the king of France to put himself under his protection Philip accordingly paid a visit to Richard who merely said I'll not hear a word he needed nothing less than the prayers of the bishops and even it is said a threat of excommunication to induce Richard to grant William Des Barres the king's peace during the time of pilgrimage such a comrade was assuredly very inconvenient and might be under difficult circumstances very dangerous Philip without being susceptible or quarrelsome was naturally independent of his ideas he resolved not to break with Richard but to divide their commands and separate their fortunes on the approach of spring 1191 he announced to him that the time had arrived for continuing their pilgrimage to the holy land and that as for himself he was quite ready to set out I am not ready said Richard and I cannot depart and the Russian set out alone with his army on the 30th of March and the 14th of April arrived before St. Jean of the Acker this important place of which Saladin had made himself master nearly four years before was being besieged by the last king of Jerusalem Guy de Lucignan at the head of the Christians of Palestine and by a multitude of crusaders Genoese, Danish, Flemish and German who had flocked freely to the enterprise a strong and valiant Muslim on garrison was defending St. Jean de Acker Saladin manured incessantly for its relief and several battles had already been fought beneath the walls when the king of France arrived he was received by the Christians besieging says the chronicles of Saint Denis with supreme joy as if he were an angel Philip set vigorously to work to push on the siege but at his departure he had promised Richard not to deliver the grand assault until they had formed a junction before the place with all their forces Richard who had set out from Messina at the beginning of May though he had said that he would not be ready till August lingered again on the way to reduce the island of Cyprus his marriage with Berengaria of Nawar in lieu of Alice of France at last he arrived on the 7th of June before St. Jean de Acker and several assaults in succession were made on the place with equal determination on the part of the besiegers and the besieged the tumultuous waves of the Franks says an Arab historian rolled towards the walls of the city with the rapidity of a torrent and they climbed the half ruin battlements as wild goats climbed precipitous rocks whilst the citizens threw themselves upon the besiegers like stones unloosed from the top of a mountain at length on the 13th of July 1191 in spite of the energetic resistance offered by the garrison which defended itself as a lion defends his bloodstain then St. Jean de Acker the terms of capitulation stated that 200,000 pieces of gold should be paid to the chiefs of the Christian army that 1600 prisoners and the wood of the true cross should be given up to them and that the garrison as well as all the people of the town should remain in the conqueror's power pending full execution of the treaty whilst the siege was still going on the discord between the kings of France and England was increasing in Anomocity and Venom the conquest of Cyprus had become a new subject of dispute when the French were most eager for the assault King Richard remained in his tent and so the besieged her scarcely ever to repulse more than one or other of the kings and armies at the time Saladin it is said showed Richard particular attention sending him grapes and Philip conceived some mistrust of these relations in camp the common talk combined with anxious curiosity was that Philip was jealous of Richard's warlike popularity and Richard was jealous of the power and political weight of the king of France when St. Jean de Acker had been taken the judicious Philip in view of what it had cost the Christians of east and west in time and blood in a single town considered that the fresh and complete conquest of Palestine and Syria which was absolutely necessary for a re-establishment of the kingdom of Jerusalem was impossible he had discharged what he owed to the crusade and the course now permitted and prescribed to him was to give his attention to France the news he received from home was not encouraging because hardly four years old had been dangerously ill and he himself fell ill and remained some days in bed in the midst of the town he had just conquered his enemies called his illness in question for already there was a rumor abroad that he had an idea of giving up the crusade and returning to France but the details given by contemporary chronicles about the effect of his illness were regarded as a sham violent sweats they say committed such havoc with his bones and all his members that the nails fell from his fingers and the hair from his head and so much that it was believed and indeed the rumor is not yet dispelled that he had taken a deadly poison there was nothing strange in Philip's illness after all his fatigues in such a country and such a season Saladin too was ill at the same time and more than once unable to take part with his troops in their engagements but however that may be a contemporary English chronicle Benedict a bow of Peterborough relates that on the 22nd of July 1191 whilst King Richard was plying chess with the Earl of Gloucester the Bishop of Beauvoir in his consideration presented themselves before him on behalf of the King of France they were dissolved in tears says he in such sort they could not utter a single word and saying them so moved those present wept in their turn for pity's sake weep not said King Richard to them I know what he become to ask your Lord the King of France desires to go home again and he become in his name to ask on his behalf my counsel and leave to get him gone it is true sir you know all answered the messengers our King says that if he depart not speedily from this land he will surely die it will be for him and for the kingdom of France replied King Richard eternal shame if he go home without fulfilling the work he came and he shall not go with hands by my advice but if he must die or return home let him do what he will and what may appear to him expedient for him for him and his the source from which this story comes and the tone of it are enough to take from it all authority for it is the custom of monastic chronicles to attribute to political or military characters demonstrations alien to their position and their times Philip Augustus moreover was one of the most excited most insensible to any other influence but that of his own mind and most disregardful of his enemy's bitter speeches of all the kings in French history he returned to France after the capture of Saint Jean d'Augre because he considered the ultimate success of the crusade impossible and his return necessary for the interests of France and for his own he was right in thus thinking and acting and King Richard when insultingly reproaching him for it did not foresee that a year later he would himself be doing the same thing and would give up the crusade without having obtained anything more for Christendom except fresh reverses on the 31st of July 1191 Philip leaving with the army of the crusaders 10,000 food and 500 nights under the command of Duke Hugh Burgundy who had orders to obey King Richard set sail for France and a few days after Christmas in the same year landed in his kingdom and force was resumed at Font-et-Blo and at Paris according to others the regular direction of his government we shall see before long with what intelligent energy and with what success he developed and consolidated the territorial greatness of France and the influence of the kingship to her security in Europe and her prosperity at home from the 1st of August 1191 to the 9th of October 1192 King Richard remained alone in the east as chief of the crusade and defender of Christendom he pertains during that period to the history of England and no longer to that of France we will however recall a few facts to show how fruitless for the cause of Christendom in the east was the prolongation of his stay and what strange deeds at one time of savage barbarism and at another of mad pride or fantastic night air entry in him with noble instincts and the most heroic courage on the 20th of August 1191 five weeks after the surrender of St. Jean d'Arcre he found that Saladin was not fulfilling with sufficient promptitude the conditions of capitulation and to bring him up to time he ordered the decapitation before the walls of the place of according to some 2500 Muslims prisoners remaining in his hands the only effect of this massacre was that during Richard's first campaign after Philip's departure for France Saladin put to the sword all the Christians taken in battle or caught struggling and ordered their bodies to be left without burial as those of the garrison of St. Jean d'Arcre had been some months afterward and an end to the struggle between Christendom and Islamry which he was not succeeding in terminating by war by a marriage he had a sister Jean of England widow of William II King of Sicily and Saladin had a brother Malek Atel a valiant warrior respected by the Christians Richard had proposals made to Saladin to unite them in marriage with Muslims and Muslims in the Kingdom of Jerusalem the only result of the negotiation was to give Saladin time for appearing the fortifications of Jerusalem and to bring down upon King Richard and his sister on the part of the Christian bishops the fiercest threats of the fulminations of the church with the exception of this ridiculous incident Richard's life during the whole course of this year was a fight or small battles desperately contested against Saladin when Richard had obtained a success he pursued it in a haughty passionate spirit when he suffered a check he offered Saladin peace but always on condition of surrendering Jerusalem to the Christians and Saladin always answered Jerusalem never was yours and we may not without sin give it up to you for it is the place where the mysteries of our religion were accomplished and the last one of my soldiers will perish before the Muslims renounce conquest's main in the name of Mahomet twice Richard and his army drew near Jerusalem without his daring to look upon it he said since he was not in a condition to take it at last in the summer of 1192 the two armies and the two chiefs were in a hurry of a war without result a great one however for Saladin and the Muslims was the departure of Richard and the crusaders being unable to agree about conditions for a definitive peace they contented themselves on both sides with the truth for three years and eight months leaving Jerusalem in possession of the Muslims but open for worship to the Christians at that time the towns they were in occupation off on the Moritim coast from Jaffa to Tyre this truth which was called peace having received the signature of all the Christian and Muslim princes was celebrated by Galaas and tournaments at which Christians and Muslims seemed for a moment to have forgotten their hate and on the 9th of October 1192 Richard embarked to go and run other risks thus ended the third crusade undertaken by the three greatest sovereigns and the three greatest armies of Christian Europe and with the loudly proclaimed object of retaking Jerusalem from the infidels and re-establishing a king over the sepulchre of Jesus Christ the emperor Frederick Barbarossa perished in it before he had trodden the soil of Palestine Philip Augustus retired from it voluntarily so soon as the experience had foreshadowed to him the impossibility of success King Richard abandoned it per force after having exhausted upon it his heroism and his nightly pride the three armies at the moment of departure from Europe amounted according to the historians of the time to five or six hundred thousand men of whom scarcely one hundred thousand returned and the only result of the third crusade was to leave as head over all the most beautiful provinces of Muslim Asia and Africa Saladin the most illustrious and most able chieftain in war and in politics that Islamry had produced since Muhammad from the end of the 12th to the middle of the 13th century between the crusade of Philip Augustus and that of St. Louis it is usual to count three crusades over which we will not linger two of these crusades one from 1195 to 1198 under Henry VI Emperor of Germany and the other from 1216 to 1240 under the Emperor Frederick II and Andrew II King of Hungary are unconnected with France and almost exclusively German were in origin and range confined to Eastern Europe they led in Syria, Palestine and Egypt to wars, negotiations and manifold complications Jerusalem fell once more for a while into the hands of the Christians and there on the 18th of March 1229 in the church of the resurrection the Emperor Frederick II at that time as communicated by Pope Gregory IX placed with his own hands the royal crown upon his head but these events confused, disconnected and short lived as they were did not produce in the West and especially in France any considerable reverberation and did not exercise upon the relative situations of Europe on Asia of Christendom and Islamary any really historical influence in people's lives and in the affairs of the world there are many movements of no significance and more cries and wool and those facts only which have had some weight and some duration are here to be noted for study and comprehension the event which has been called the fifth crusade was not wanting so far in real importance and it would have to be described here if it had been really a crusade but it does not deserve the name the crusades were a very different thing from wars and conquests their real and peculiar characteristic was that they should be struggles between Christianity and Islamism between the fruitful civilization of Europe and the barbarism and stagnation of Asia their inconsist their originality and their grandeur it was certainly on this understanding and was this view that Pope innocent the third one of the greatest men of the 13th century seconded with all his might the movement which was at that time springing up again in favor of a fresh crusade and which brought about in 1202 an alliance between a great number of powerful lords French, Plemish and Italian and the Republic of Venice for the purpose of recovering Jerusalem from the infidels but from the very first the ambition, the opportunities and the private interests of the Venetians combined with the recollection of the perfidy displayed by the Greek emperors diverted the new crusaders from the design they had proclaimed what Bohemond during the first crusade had proposed to go through the bullion and what the bishop of Langry during the second the young namely the capture of Constantinople for the sake of ensuring that of Jerusalem the first crusaders of the 13th century were led by bias, greed, anger and spite to take in hand an accomplice they conquered Constantinople and having once made that conquest they troubled themselves no more about Jerusalem founded May the 16th 1204 in the person of Bowden the 9th Count of Landers the Latin Empire of the East existed for 70 years in the tease of many a storm only to fall once more in 1273 into the hands of the Greek emperors overthrown in 1453 by the Turks who are still in possession one circumstance connected rather with the Greeks gives Frenchmen a particular interest in this conquest of the Greek Empire by the Latin Christians for it was a Frenchman Joffrey de Villegard Duin Seneschal of Thaobald the 3rd Count of Champagne who after having been one of the chief actors in it wrote the history of it and his work strictly historical as the facts and admirably epic is one of the earliest and finest monuments of French literature but to return to the real crusades end of chapter 17 part 4 chapter 17 part 5 of volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information here please visit LibriVox.org volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by François Guiseaux translated by Robert Black chapter 17 the crusades their decline and end part 5 at the beginning of the 13th century whilst the enterprises which were still called crusades were becoming more and more degenerate and more important there was born in France on the 25th of April 1215 not merely the prince but the man who was to be the most worthy representative and the most devoted slave of that religious and moral passion which had inspired the crusades Louis XIX though born to the purple a powerful king a valiant warrior a splendid knight who at a distance observed his life and of affection to all those who approached his person was neither biased nor intoxicated by any such human glories and delights neither in his thoughts nor in his conduct did they ever occupy the foremost place before all and above all he wished to be and was indeed a Christian a true Christian guided and governed by the idea and the resolve of defending the Christian faith and fulfilling the Christian law had he been born in the most lowly condition as the world holds or as religion the most commanding had he been obscure needy, a priest, a monk or a hermit he would not have been more constantly and more zealously filled with the desire of living as a faithful servant a pious obedience to God here the salvation of his soul hereafter this is the peculiar and original characteristic of St. Louis and a fact rare and probably unique in the history of kings he was canonized on the 11th of August 1297 and during 24 years nine successive popes had prosecuted the customary inquiries as to his faith and life it is said that the Christian enthusiasm of St. Louis had its source in the strict education he received from Queen Blanche his mother that is overstepping the limits of that education and of her influence Queen Blanche though a firm believer and steadfastly pious was a stranger to enthusiasm and too discreet and too politic of life any more than of her own the truth of the matter is that by her watchfulness and her exactitude in morals she helped to impress upon her son the great Christian lesson of hatred for sin and habitual concern for the eternal salvation of his soul Madame used to say of me Louis was constantly repeating that if I were sick and to death by acting in such wise that I should sin mortally she would let me die rather than that I should anger my creator to my damnation in the first years of his government when he had reached his majority there was nothing to show that the idea of the crusade occupied Louis the ninth's mind and it was only in 1239 when he was now 4 and 20 that it showed itself vividly in him some of his principal vessels the counts of champagne Brittany and Mason had raised an army of crusaders and were getting ready to start for Palestine and the king was not contended with giving them encouragement but he desired that Amori Dimon IV his constable should in his name serve Jesus Christ in this war and for that reason he gave his arms to him per day as some of money for which Amori sank him on his knees that is did him homage according to the usage of those times and the crusaders were mighty pleased to have this lord with them five years afterwards at the close of 1244 Louis fell seriously ill at Pontoise the alarm and sorrow in the kingdom were extreme the king himself believed that he was calm and he had all his household summoned thanked them for their kind attentions recommended them to be good servants of God and did all that a good Christian ought to do his mother, his wife, his brothers and all who were about him kept continually praying for him his mother beyond all others adding to her prayers great austerities once he appeared motionless and breathless and said one of the dames who were tending him says join will would have drawn the sheet over his face saying that he was dead but another dame who was on the other side of the bed would not suffer it saying that there was still life in his body when the king heard the dispute between these two dames our lord brought in him he began to sigh stretched his arms and legs and said in a hollow voice other he had come forth from a tomb he, by God's grace has visited me he who cometh from on high and has recalled me from amongst the dead scarcely had he recovered his senses and speech when he sent for William of Avergene bishop of Paris together with Peter de Cousy bishop of Moye in whose diocese he happened to be and requested them to place the cross of the voyage over the sea the two bishops tried to divert him from this idea and the two queens Blanche and Margaret conjured him on their knees to wait till he was well and after that he might do as he pleased he insisted declaring that he would take no nourishment till he had received the cross at last the bishop of Paris yielded and gave him a cross the king received it with transport kissing it and placing it right gently upon his breast when the queen his mother knew that he had taken the cross says Joineville she made as great mourning as if she had seen him dead still more than three years rolled by before Louis fulfilled the engagement which he had thus entered into with himself alone one might say and against the wish of nearly everybody about him the crew says although they still remained an object of religious and nightly aspiration where from the political point of view decried and without daring to say so many men of weight lay or ecclesiastical had no desire to take part in them under the influence of this public feeling dimly exhibited but seriously cherished Louis continued for three years to apply himself to the interior concerns of his kingdom and his relations with the European powers as if he had no other idea there was a moment when his wisest counsellors and the queen his mother conceived a hope of inducing him to give up his purpose my lord king said one day that same bishop of Paris during the crisis of his illness had given way to his wishes be think you that when you received the cross when you suddenly and without reflection made this awful world you were weak and soothed to say of a wandering mind and that took away from your words the weight of verity and authority our lord the pope who knows the necessities of your kingdom and your weakness of body will gladly grant unto you a dispensation low we have the poisons of the schismatic emperor Frederick the snares of the both the king of the English the treasons but lately stopped of the poitivines and the supple wranglings of the albijan sins to fear Germany is disturbed Italy has no rest the holy land is a hard of success you will not easily penetrate this and behind you will the implacable hatred between the pope and Frederick to whom will you leave us every one of us in our feebleness and desolation queen blanche appealed to other considerations the good counsel she had always given her son and the pleasure god took in seeing a son giving heed to and believing his mother and to her she promised that if he would remain the holy land should not suffer and he sent thither than he could lead thither himself the king listened attentively and with deep emotion you say he answered that I was not in possession of my senses when I took the cross well as you wish I lay it aside I give it back to you and raising his hand to his shoulder he ended the cross upon its saying here it is my lord bishop I restored to use the cross I had put on all present congratulated themselves but the king with a sudden change of look and intentions said to them my friends now assuredly I lack not sense and reason I am neither weak nor wondering of mind and I demand my cross back again he who knows all things knows that until it is replaced upon my shoulder no food shall enter my lips at these words all present declared that her reign was the finger of God and none dared to raise in opposition to the king saying any objection in June 1248 Louis after having received at Saint Denis together with the oriflame the scrip and staff of a pilgrim to cleave at Corbell or Clooney to his mother Queen Blanche whom he left regent during his absence with the fullest powers most sweet fair son said she embracing him fair tender son I shall never see you more for well my heart assures me he took with him Queen Margaret of Provence his wife who had declared that she would never part from him on arriving in the early part of August at Augie's mortise he found a sample there a fleet of 38 vessels with a certain number of transport ships which he had hired from the Republic of Genoa and they were to convey to the east the troops and personal retinue of the king himself the number of these vessels proves that Louis was far from bringing one of those vast armies with which the first crusades had been familiar it even appears that he had been careful to get rid of such mobs before embarking he sent away nearly 10,000 bowmen Genoese, Venetian, Byzant and even French whom he had at first engaged and of whom after inspection he desired nothing further the sixth crusade was the personal achievement of St. Louis not the offspring of a popular movement and he carried it out with a peaked army furnished by the feudal chivalry and by the religious and military orders dedicated to the service of the Holy Land the Isle of Cyprus was the trusting place appointed for all the forces of the expedition Louis arrived there on the 12th of September 1248 and reckoned upon remaining there for it was Egypt that he was in a hurry to reach the Christian world was at that time of opinion that to deliver the Holy Land it was necessary first of all to strike a blow at Islamism in Egypt wherein its chief strength resided but scarcely had the crusaders formed a junction in Cyprus when the vices of the expedition and the weaknesses of its chief began to be manifest Louis unshakable in his religious seal was wanting in clear ideas and fixed resolves as to the carrying out of his design he inspired his associates with sympathy rather than exercised authority over them and he made himself admired without making himself obeyed he did not succeed in winning a majority in the council of chiefs over to his opinion it was necessary for a speedy departure for Egypt it was decided to pass the winter in Cyprus and during this leisurely halt of seven months the improvidence of the crusaders their ignorance of the places people and facts amidst which they were about to launch themselves their headstrong rushness their stormy rivalries and their moral and military irregularities aggravated the difficulties of their enterprise great as they already were Louis passed this time in interfering between them in hushing up their quarrels in up-abraiding them for their licentiousness and in reconciling the Templars and Hospitallers his kindness was injurious to his power he lent to ready an ear to the wishes or complaints of his comrades and small matters took up his thoughts at this time almost as much as great at last a start was made from Cyprus in May 1249 and in spite of wildland gales of wind which dispersed a large number of vessels they arrived on the 4th of June before Damietta the crusader chiefs met on board the king's ship the Monde Joy and one of those present Guy, a knight in the train in a letter to one of his friends a student at Paris reports to him the king's address in the following terms my friends unleashes we shall be invincible if we be inseparable and brotherly love it was not without the will of God that we arrived here so speedily descend we upon this land and occupy it in force I am not the king of France I am not holy church it is all ye who are king and holy church I am better man whose life will pass away as that of any other man whenever it shall please God any issue of our expedition is to us for good if we be conquered we shall wing our way to heaven as martyrs and if we be conquerors men will celebrate the glory of the Lord and that of France and what is more that of Christendom will grow thereby it was senseless to suppose that God whose providence is over everything raised me up for naught he will see in us his own his mighty cause fight we for Christ it is Christ who will triumph in us not for our own sake but for the honor and blessedness of his name it was determined to disembark the next day an army of serocins lined the shore the galley which bore the oriflame was one of the first to touch when the king heard tells that the banner of St. Denis was on shore he in spite of the pope's legate who was with him would not leave it he leaped into the sea which was up to his armpits and went shield on neck helm on head and lance in hand and joined his people on the seashore when he came to land and perceived the serocins he asked what folk they were and it was told him that they were the serocins then he put his lance beneath his arm and his shield in front of him and would have charged the serocins if his mighty men who were with him had suffered him this from his very first outset was Louis exactly the most fervent of Christians and the most splendid of knights much rather than a general and a king such he appeared at the moment of landing and such he was during the whole duration and throughout all the incident of his campaign in Egypt from June 1249 to May 1250 ever admirable for his moral greatness and nightly valor but without foresight or consecutive plan as a leader without efficiency as a commander in action and ever decided or biased either by his own momentary impressions or the fancies of his comrades he took Damietta without the least difficulty the musclemen stricken with surprise as much as terror abandoned the place and when Fakro Adin the commandant of the Turks came before the Sultan of Egypt Malek Saleh who was ill and almost dying could so not have held out just an instant said the Sultan