 15. Ruriks and Norsemen becomes ruler in Russia. The people who lived in the central part of Russia in the 9th century did not all belong to any one nation. Many tribes had come from Asia and passed through the land, and some members of the tribes went no further. These people were tall and strong. They could climb cliffs which one would think only goats could scale, and they could swim across the swiftest rivers. They taught their children that every injury must be avenged, and that it was a disgrace to forgive a wrong. They had no idea of what it meant to be afraid, and when they went to battle it was the same to them, whether they were fighting with some tribe as wild as themselves or with the well-trained Roman soldiers. And they had but one fashion of attack. When the enemy drew near, the whole body flung themselves furiously upon their foes. If they had once taken any plunder, they would die rather than give it up, no matter how useless it might be to them. There are two good things to say about these people. The first is that they were kind to one another. The second is that they were most hospitable. They had a custom of putting some food in sight when they left their huts, so that no chance waferer need go away hungry. Indeed, their hospitality went so far that if a stranger came to them and they had no food for him, it was regarded as entirely proper to steal whatever was needed. They believed in a great God, whom they called the Sundermaker, and in a vast number of less powerful gods. They never thought of their deities as kind and gentle, but always as fierce and savage, and they carved most hideous images into which they believed the spirits of the gods would enter that they might be worshiped. After a while the wisest and bravest among them became chiefs. Still, they were a rude savage folk, and some drives were more like beasts than human beings. In northern Russia, around the Baltic Sea, lived people who were more fierce than these in central Russia. They were always ready to leap into their boats and go as fast as wind, and oars would carry them wherever they thought they could find plunder. These were the people whom the English called Danes. They were also called Norsemen, or Norsemen, because they came from the Norse, and Vikings, which meant pirates. Some of them entered the service of the emperors at Constantinople. They were most loyal bodyguards, and they could be trusted freely with the keys of both palace and treasury. In battles they were valuable friends, but sometimes the officers must have been a little puzzled to know how to manage them. Once the odds were so much against them that the Greek commander, whose allies they were, sent a herald to them to ask, Will you fight or will you retreat? We will fight, the Norsemen shouted. And one of them was so enraged at the suggestion of retreat that he gave the herald's horse such a blow with his fist as to strike it dead. The Norsemen usually went to Constantinople by launching their boats in the headwaters of the Tnepr river and floating down to the Black Sea. They had seen a good deal of the world, and they were bright and keen. They succeeded in making the people of Central Russia pay them tribute. According to the old story there came a time when the people determined not to pay it any longer. They united and drove the Norsemen away. But they did not stay united. They quarreled among themselves, for each man did whatever he chose, and no one cared for the rights of his neighbor. It is said that one among them, who was wiser than the rest, thought that they needed some ruler to govern them. He knew how much more civilized the Norsemen were, and he persuaded several of the tribes about him to send envoys to the Rus, a tribe of Norsemen, to say. Our country is large and rich, but we have no order. Do you come and rule over us? A Norseman named Rurik and his two brothers said, We will come. And the three set out with their followers, all well armed, as were those who had come as envoys. Rurik built his stronghold at Novgorod. One brother went farther south, and the other farther northeast. After a year or two, the younger brothers died, and Rurik was left through alone. He chose men whom he could trust and gave them land. In return, they built fortresses and helped him to keep peace in the land, to govern the unruly tribes and to teach them to obey. As soon as he had them well in hand, he conquered neighboring tribes, and so his little kingdom grew rapidly, until it became a large kingdom, which took the name of Russia from the Rus tribe. Rurik himself was now called Grand Prince or Veliki Knyaz. After Rurik had reigned for 17 years, he died, leaving his throne to his little son. So it was that the first ruler of Russia was a bold and daring warrior, and the second a boy only four years old. Rurik is told that while Charlemagne was sitting one day at dinner, a fleet of long narrow boats came swiftly towards the land. Those must have come from Brittany, someone declared, and another said, No, they are surely Jewish merchant men. But Charlemagne had noted the vessels that they had only one sail, that bow and stern were shaped like, and were gilded and carved to represent the head or tail of a dragon. And that a row of shields was ranged along the gunwale. Those bring nothing to sell, he said. They are most cruel foes. They are Norsemen. Then there was hurrying and scurrying to put on armor snatch-up swords and spears, and hastened to the shore to drive away the pirates. But the Norsemen had heard of the battles of Charlemagne, and as soon as they knew he was there, they rode away as fast as their boats could be made to carry them. The Franks had much to say about these enemies, but Charlemagne stood silent, gazing at the sea. At length he turned toward his friends. His eyes were full of tears, and he said, I am not afraid that the Norsemen will harm me. But I weep to see that they have ventured so near our shore, and to think of the evils that they will bring upon my children and their people. Charlemagne was right. For it was not many years after his death, before one hundred and twenty pirate vessels, where roads swiftly up the river sang, and a horde of Norsemen, or Vikings, poured into the little city of Paris, ready to kill, burn and steal, as usual. But suddenly a heavy fog hit them from one another. There was some enchantment about it, they thought, and they made their way back to their ships as best they might. They came again and again, however. Sometimes they were met with arms, sometimes with tribute. Still they came. Did not we promise you twelve thousand pounds of silver if you would leave us in peace, demanded the Franks in despair. The king promised it, replied the Norsemen insolently, and we left him in peace. He is dead now, and what we do will not disturb him. The following year the famous leader Rollo led the Vikings in an attack upon Paris. They hammered at the walls of the city with battering rams. With great slings they hurled stones and leaden balls. They dug a mine under one of the walls, leaving wooden props. Then they set fire to these and scrambled out of the narrow passage as fast as they could. The beams burned and the earth fell in, but the walls did not crumble as the Vikings had hoped. Then they built a fire close to the wooden walls, but a sudden rain put it out. There were thirty or forty thousand of the Vikings and only two hundred of the Franks in the besieged city. But the Franks had wise leaders, and all these times they were boiling oil and pitch and pouring them down upon the besiegers. The blazing Norsemen leaped into the river to extinguish the flames, but they never thought of giving up. They collected food and encamped near the city. Month after month the siege went on, and still the king did not come to help his brave people. At last the valiant Oides, or Odol, one of the chief leaders of the Parisians, determined to go in search of aid, and one stormy night he managed to slip through the gate of the city and the lines of the Norsemen and gallop off to the king. Soon the king came with his army and went into camp. After he had waddled a month away, news came that more Vikings were at hand. The king was so frightened that he offered the Norsemen seven hundred pounds of silver if they would depart, and told them they might go farther up the river and plunder burgundy as much as they choose. The brave defenders of Paris were indignant. They rushed out of the city and struck one fierce blow at their departing foes. The following year the covertly king was deposed, and at his death they chose the valiant Oides for their ruler. The Norsemen were bright, rude people, and, wild as they were, they could not help seeing that the Frankish way of living was better than theirs, and that the worship of the Christian God was better than that of Odin and Thor. Rolo led them again to France some years later, and this time the Vikings ranged themselves on one side of a little river, and the king with his frank stood on the other side to talk about peace. Rolo was willing to give up his pirate life, be baptized, and live in the Frankish country if the king would give him land. I will give you flanders, said the king. But Rolo replied, No, that is too swampy. Then you may have the parts of Noistria nearest to the shore. No, declared Rolo, that is nothing but forest land. At length it was agreed that he and his followers should have the land which afterward took its name from them, and to this day is called Normandy. They were to hold it by what is known as a feudal tenure, that is, it was to be there so long as they were faithful to the king and gave him loyal military service. There is a story that the bishops told Rolo he must kiss the king's foot in token of his having received this great gift and having become the king's vessel. The haughty Norseman had no idea of doing any such thing, but when the bishops insisted, he motioned to one of his warriors to do it for him. The warrior was as proud as his lord. The old account says that he would not kneel but lifted the royal foot so high that the king fell backward. The Franks were angry, but the Norseman roared with laughter. The Norsemen, or Normans, as they were afterwards called, went into their new domain. Rolo ruled them strictly, for he was as anxious to be a successful ruler as he had been to be a successful pirate. The same story is told of him that is related of Alfred the Great and several other kings, that one might leave a golden bracelet hanging on a tree in perfect safety anywhere in his possessions. Whether that is true or not, it is true that any robber who fell into the hands of Rolo was promptly hanged. It is also true that it was exceedingly difficult for a criminal to escape, because Rolo made the whole land responsible for him. Whenever anyone committed a trespass, the first man who found it out must cry, Harro! And the cry must go through the whole kingdom until the man was captured. So it was that the Vikings, who had come to France to plunder, gave up their wild, savage life and became permanent dwellers in that country. End of chapter 16 CHAPTER 17 OF HEROES OF THE MIDDLE AGES This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Evermarch Tappan Chapter 17 William the Conqueror Conquers England The Danes not only invaded France and settled in that land, but they won so much power in England that a little more than a century after the death of Alfred the Great, one of them drove away the weak king Etihad and took possession of the English throne. The son of this dame was the famous Canute. Canute was not only kind and just to his English subjects, but he seemed to love them and to wish to do his best for them. During his absence from England on one occasion, he left the government in the hands not of a dame, but of an Englishman. Canute was a very sensible man and he disliked flattery more than kings are usually supposed to do. Once, when his foolish courtiers assured him that even the sea would obey him, he bade them place his chair on the beach. Then he gravely ordered the ocean to retreat and not wet even the border of his robe. The courtiers stood about him in some alarm, for they were afraid of being punished for their untruthfulness. Soon the wave splashed the king and then he turned to the flatterers and said gently, He who is king of kings and lord of lords, he is the one whom the earth and the sea and the heavens obey. Etihad had fled to Normandy and there his son Edward afterward known as a confessor grew up. His mother was a Norman and his own ways of thinking were French rather than English. After Canute's two sons had died the English sent for Edward to come and rule over them. The young Duke William of Normandy, a bold, ambitious man, was his friend and ginsmen and Edward promised to bequeath to him the English throne. After Edward had been in England a while, however, he said that he could not give away the throne as if it were a bag of gold, but that the English people had something to say about who should rule them. When Edward died therefore they asked a brave Englishman named Harold to become their king. Duke William of Normandy was indignant. He was a descendant of Rolo and was as energetic as the Viking himself. He set out with a great force of men and ships to seize the kingdom that he believed was justly his own. He sailed straight for the English coast and not a ship came out to fight him. He landed at Pevensea near Hastings and not a man cast a spear at him. He began to pillage the country and no one opposed him. There were good reasons why the English were so quiet. One was that their fleet was made up of fishing vessels which were now scattered her and there. For according to custom their owners were allowed at stated times to take them away in order to attend to their fishing. Secondly the army was made up chiefly of farmers and they had been permitted to go home to attend to their harvesting. Harold meanwhile was in the north with a few followers repelling an invasion of the Danes led by his brother Tostig and Harold Hardrada. These he conquered at Stanford Bridge then making a rapid march to the south he brought together what troops he could and with no chance to train them he fought a fierce battle with the Normans and was defeated. It is possible that the invaders might not have won the day if they had not used a favorite trick of their pirate ancestors to run away. The English forgot their orders to keep in their places and dashed forward in pursuit. Then when they were unprotected and scattered the Normans suddenly turned upon them and overcame them and Harold was slain. This was the famous Battle of Hastings or Sunlock one of the most important battles in all English history because it decided that England was the only country in the world that had ever fought the Normans. In France there are some very interesting pictures of this invasion embroidered upon a strip of linen 70 years long called the Biotepestry. These pictures look as if a little child had drawn them but there is a good deal of life in them and they do tell a story. It is possible that they were after the Battle of Sunlock William marched to London no one dared to oppose him and the chief men of the nation went to his camp and asked him to become their ruler. So on Christmas Day 1066 William the Conqueror as he is known in history was crowned king in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of York. The English watched anxiously to see how their new soaring those who wished to keep their land had to go to him and swear to be faithful. The land of those who would not take the oath and of those who had fought at Hastings came into his hands and he gave it to his Norman followers. He also gave the highest offices in church and state to Normans. That was natural but it was hard for the English to bear especially as the Normans looked upon them as a rude, ignorant folk much their inferiors. The English rose against William again and again. Four years after the Battle of Hastings a valiant leader named Harrivard with a large number of men and camped on the Isle of Elly and resisted him for more than a year. William built a causeway through the marsh that surrounded the island but for a long time his efforts to break up the refuge, as it was called, were unsuccessful. Finally, through treachery some believe the English were overcome. Harrivard escaped but this was the last rising of the English against their conqueror. William was severe and those who broke his laws rarely escaped punishment but even the English admitted that he was just. On one occasion he threw one of his own brothers into prison wronging his English subjects. Three of his acts, however, they never forgave. One was his driving away the tenants from many thousand acres of land near his palace in Winchester. He may have done this to prevent any sudden attack upon him but the people believed it was in order to provide him with a convenient hunting ground the new forest, as it was called and they were angry. Again they were indignant because he ordered that a curfew or cover fire bell should be rung every evening and that at its sound all fires should be covered and all lights put out. William may have felt that this was necessary to prevent people from coming together at night to plot against him. Moreover it was an old French custom to prevent the burning of houses but the English objected stoutly when they were to go to bed. On the whole, however, nothing else made them quite so angry as William's doomsday book so cold because its records were supposed to be final. In order to assess the taxes fairly he sent men throughout the kingdom to find out just how much property each person owned. The men went into every house barnyard and shipfold and rode in their accounts not only who held the land but even how many animals there were. Then the English were enraged. They were afraid their taxes would be made larger but worse than that they felt that it was a great insolence for strange men to come into their homes and write down the value of their property. They had to yield, however, to this and whatever else William sought best to do. All together the English people were not very happy but to have such a king was really what they needed. They were a little slow and grave while William was quick and liked to jest. They were good followers and steady fighters while William was a bold leader and could change his plans on the battlefield in a moment if those that he had made failed. William still ruled Normandy and he had to go back and forth to France, that is, it was held by feudal tenure but it was a most independent duchy and was not at all afraid to resist the French king. In one of their struggles the city of Montes was burned. When riding over the ruins William was thrown from his horse and afterward died of his injuries. The English royal family is descended from William the Conqueror and Matilda, his wife and most of us descended from Alfred the Great. Therefore the present king of England represents both Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror. End of Chapter 17 Chapter 18 of Heroes of the Middle Ages This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva-Marc Steppen Chapter 18 Lave Ericsson Visits the coast of New England There was once a Northman called Erick the Red. For some reason he was exiled to Iceland but in a little while he was in trouble there also. He had lent his seed post or wooden posts carved into images of the gods at the feasts and the man who held them refused to return them. A quarrel had arisen and in the course of it Erick had slain the man. For this reason he was now exiled from Iceland for three years. He knew there was a country lying to the westward for a sailor caught in a storm had been thrown upon its shores and he determined to seek it. He found the land then he returned to Iceland. He meant, however, to found a colony in the new country and therefore he called it Greenland. People will not like to move there if it has not a good name declared this wise colonizer. Probably he had update some new seed posts by this time. For the custom was to throw them overboard when land was near and to settle wherever they floated ashore. A few years after Erick founded his colony in Greenland. His son Leif or Leif Erick's son spent a winter in Norway. There he became a Christian and was baptized. When he was about to return to his home in Greenland King Olaf of Norway said I beg of you to see that the people in Greenland are told of the Christ for no one is better to attend to this than you. That when Leif returned to Greenland he carried with him a priest and several other religious teachers. Other to later he saved a ship's crew from drowning and because of this people called him Leif the Lucky. But his father said rather grimly that Leif might have done a good thing in saving the man but he had done a bad thing in bringing a priest to Greenland. After a while, however, Erick himself became a Christian and so did his wife and most of the people followed their example. Now among those who came to Greenland was a man named Bjarn. On the voyage he had been blown out of his course close to an unknown land lying through the south of Greenland and when he finally reached the colony he told of how he had seen this land. The Leif and the other young men gathered around him. What sort of country was it? Were there any people there? What grows in the place? Are there mountains or lowlands? They questioned and Bjarn had to own that he had not gone ashore. Hump, he was not very eager for knowledge, said the young men rather contemptuously. They talked a great deal about the unknown lands and finally Leif bought Bjarn's ship and made ready for the discovery. Do you go with us as a leader? he urged his father. But Eric replied Oh, I am growing too old for a hard voyage at sea. But no one else of all our kin will be as lucky as you, pleaded Leif, and at length Eric mounted his horse and rode toward the ship. Suddenly the horse slipped and he fell off. That settled the question. That I should never discover any other lands in Greenland. And so Leif and his men were obliged to sail without him. After a while they came to ashore where lofty mountains rose covered with snow. This is so to have been the coast of Labrador. Then they passed a flat and wooded shore which is believed to have been Nova Scotia. The shores were of white shining sand and beyond them were pleasant woods which seemed to stretch far inland. There were rivers full of salmon and meadows covered with rich grass. Leif and his followers carried their beds to land, sent up their tents and made ready to explore the country. He divided his men into two parties and made them take turns in staying by the camp and going out to explore. One of the other men on the voyage was a German. One day he came back chattering away in his own language. Weintrauben, he exclaimed, Ich habe Weintrauben gefunden. The Norseman could not tell what he meant and at first he was too much pleased and excited to talk Norwegian. At length he told them he had found grapes such as he used to have when he was a boy. It was because of this discovery that Leif named the country Vinland or the land of wines. This is thought to have been Rhode Island and the southern part of Massachusetts. Then the men said to work to gather grapes and hew wood. Towards spring they took their cargo of wood and dried grapes and sailed back to Greenland. This is a story that the Icelandic sagas or hero stories tell. The voyage took place in the year 1000 and if we may trust the old saga Leif Eriksson was the first white man to set foot on the continent of America. There is little more of the saga stories that ought to be told. After Leif went back to Greenland a wealthy merchant named Thorfinn Karelsefne went to visit him. On this visit Thorfinn met Goodred one of the shipwrecked people whom Leif had rescued so long ago and married her. She persuaded her husband to go to Vinland to found a colony. The first outman in the new home their little son Snorri was born at Stamford which is thought to have been what is now Buzards Bay. Snorri was the first white child born in Massachusetts. When he was three years old the colony was given up and the baby explorer with his parents returned to Greenland. Little American boy lived through it and became the ancestor of a long line of wise and excellent men. The saga's tale of many later voyages to America but at length a terrible plague came upon the northern lands. In Norway six-sevenths of the people died and Vinland was forgotten. End of Chapter 18 Chapter 19 of Heroes of the Middle Ages This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March Tappen Chapter 19 Henry the Fowler founds the German monarchy. About 100 years after the death of Charlemagne one of his descendants a little boy only six years old succeeded to a part of his kingdom. Although the child had guardians they did not seem to be able to defend the crown. There was trouble from without the kingdom and more trouble from within. The trouble from without was because the Hungarians or Magyars were making fierce and bloody invasions of the country. The trouble from within came from the five dukes each of whom was afraid that the others would become more powerful than he. The child king died when he was only 18 and then there was quarreling indeed for every duke wanted to be sovereign. At length Conrad Duke of Franconia was set upon the throne but that did not quite matters for some of the dukes had not agreed to his election. Conrad was a gentle, thoughtful man. He defended his people as well as he could but perhaps the best thing he did for them was to give them a piece of good advice when he was dying. He had sent for the nobles to come to him and when they stood around his bed he talked to them as if they were his children and begged them to live peaceably together. I do now command you he said to choose Henry Duke of Saxony for your king. He is a man of energy and battle yet he is a strong friend in peace. I can find no one else so well fitted to rule the kingdom and therefore I sent to him the crown and the scepter and bid him shield and protect the realm. The nobles were amazed for this Henry of Saxony had opposed most strongly of them all the election of Conrad but the more they thought of their king's advice the more they saw that it was good and after Conrad was dead they carried the crown and the scepter to Henry's castle. He was not there where is he the nobles demanded and the attendants replied he is in the forest hunting with his falcons then the nobles and their followers set out into the forest to search for a king it was several days before they found him and when they did discover him he was standing in his hunting suit for his wrist was a falcon waiting patiently until its master should give it the signal to fly after a wild duck or whatever other bird he was pursuing the falcon and the duke were both surprised when the company of nobles and their attendants appeared and Henry was still more amazed when they showed him the crown and scepter and told him that they had followed the will of Conrad and had chosen him for their king this is the way the duke Henry of Saxony became king Henry the first of Germany and won his nickname of the Fowler the Magyars came upon the land and swarms Henry met them bravely but in every battle the invaders had one great advantage they fought on horseback while the Germans were skilled only in fighting on foot something happened very soon however that changed the whole face of matters Henry captured a Magyar chief said to have been the king's son the Magyars were ready to do almost anything to secure his release and at length Henry said to them if you will leave my country and promise to make no attacks upon it for nine years I will give back your chief and pay you 5000 pieces of gold every year the Magyars were glad to accept this offer and soon they were rejoicing or the return of their chief Henry however was not spending time in rejoicing he had much business to attend to in the nine years and he said about it at once first he brought his people together in cities which could be fortified instead of allowing them to live in scattered villages next he trained his men to fight on horseback to test their ability he tried his new cavalry in battles with the Danes and some tribes around him then he waited the Magyars were in no haste to give up the tribute of gold and when the tenth year had come they demanded that the king should send it as usual but now he was ready to fight them and he refused they started out with a great army to make this Teffian ruler yield but to their surprise he drove them out of his kingdom they never succeeded in entering the northern Duchies again and it was many years before they ever seen in any part of Germany the wisdom and courage of Henry the Fowler brought peace to his country and when he died he left to his son Otho a quiet and prosperous kingdom Otho was quite as energetic as his father he took the title of emperor as if his rule were a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire and for 900 years after him every German king claimed the same title End of chapter 19 Chapter 20 of Heroes of the Middle Ages This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Evermarch Tappen Chapter 20 Hugh Capet becomes the first king of the French it has already been said that Charlemagne was a German he of course spoke German but even in his day the people in the western part of his kingdom in what is now the land of France used a language that was beginning to approach somewhat to what is now known as French this change had begun long before in the days when the country fell into the hands of the Romans who introduced their own language the Latin now if a new language were introduced into any country today few people would speak it correctly and it was so in France the people mixed the new tongue with their own for instance when a Roman wished off or to he usually added a letter or two to the noun following the people of France used the prepositions de or a and did not trouble themselves to change the noun other words or expressions were made simpler or altered in much the same way and before the end of the 10th century the people of France were speaking a language that was composed of a little Celtic a little German a little Latin but the Latin had become quite different from that used in Rome this mixture was rapidly turning into French as it is spoken today the French people then differed in language from the Germans and many of the nobles were feeling more and more strongly that they did not wish to be ruled by a German but by one of themselves who would talk French and feel and think like a Frenchman one who would be satisfied with ruling France and would not be ever thinking of forming an empire and becoming emperor in 987 there was an excellent opportunity to put a new family upon the throne for the last of Charlemagne's direct descendants Louis the Child had just died the great barons met together to choose a ruler they decided upon Duke Hugh Capet and he became king he had little more power however than some of his Counts and Dukes and it may be that he sometimes wished he was still a Duke for some of the nobles refused to accept him as their ruler there is a story that one of his vessels that is one who held land from him by feudal tenure overruns a district of terrain and for Smith began to call himself Count of Tours and Poitiers who made you Count demanded Hugh and the independent was self retorted who made you King indeed if the brave man of Normandy had not stood by him Hugh would have had a hard struggle to keep his throne he meant not only to keep it but to hand it down in his family and only a few months after his election he asked his nobles to elect his son Robert King also then while he lived he reasoned rudely Robert would help him govern the kingdom and at his death there would be no question as to who should rule and no division of the kingdom at first the nobles hesitated a little we cannot elect two kings in one year they gave us an excuse but at length they used it this was the beginning of the rule of the powerful Capetian family which was to hold the throne of France for more than three centuries Gaul or France had been ruled for many years by Romans and by Germans but Hugh Capet was a Frenchman ruling French people the first king of France end of chapter 20 chapter 21 of Heroes of the Middle Ages this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Evermarch Tappen chapter 21 the seed captures Valencia a little while before Charles Martel fought the battle of Tours and drove the Mohammedans or Moors out of Gaul they came into Spain and before long the southern part of that country was in their hands they became very prosperous and founded splendid cities of which the most famous were Granada and Valencia the earlier comers the Goths held the northern part of Spain and there were continual wars between the two peoples the Goths now called Spaniards also fought among themselves and in their quarrels they were glad of anyone's help no matter whether he was Christian or Mohammedan of all these warriors Rodrigo Díaz or the seed was the greatest the poem of the seed was afterwards written about his exploits besides a countless number of ballads the following are some of the stories that were told about him long before he was made a knight two of the Spanish kings had a quarrel about a certain city that lay on the line between their two kingdoms each wanted it and the dispute would have come to war if one of them had not suggested that each should choose a warrior and that single combat should settle the question one king choose a famous knight but the other choose the young Rodrigo I will gladly fight for you he said to his king but I have vowed to make a pilgrimage and I must do that first so on the pilgrimage he went on the way he saw a leper who begged for help Rodrigo helped him out of the bog in which he was fast thinking set him in front of him on his own horse and carried him to an inn there he and the leper used the same trencher or wooden plate and they slept in the same bed in the night Rodrigo awoke with the feeling that someone had breezed upon him so strongly that the breath had passed through his body the leper was gone but a vision of Saint Lazarus appeared to him and said I was the leper whom you helped and for your kindness God grants that your foes shall never prevail against you upon returning from his pilgrimage Rodrigo vangished and single contest the night opposed to him and so gained the city for his king after this people called him the Campeador or champion even before this he had won his title of the Sid or chief by overcoming five Mohammedan kings instead of putting them to death however he had let them go free and they were so grateful that they agreed to become his vessels and to send him tribute but this was not the end of their gratitude a while later some of the counts of Castile became so envious of the Sid's greatness that they plotted to bring about his death they made what they thought was a most excellent plan they wrote to a number of the Moors saying that in the next battle that should be fought they all intended to desert the Sid and then when he was alone the Moors could easily capture him or slay him the Moors would have been delighted to do this but unluckily for the plotters some of the letters went to the five kings to whom the Sid had shown mercy they had not forgotten his kindness they sent him word of the proposed treachery and the wicked counts were driven out of the kingdom the greatest exploit of the Sid was his capture of the Moorish city of Palencia the richest city in all Spain after a siege nine months long the city euded and the people were in terror of what the Sid might do to them for having resisted him so long but he was a human warrior he called the chief men together and told them that they were free to cultivate their lands and that all he should ask from them was one tenth of their grains the ruler of Valencia was a man who had slain their rightful king while the siege was going on he had sold food to the starving people at a great price and after the surrender he offered to the Sid the money that he had made in this way but the Sid would not accept it and he put the wicked man to death with many tortures the Sid was now a mighty ruler and a very wealthy man even the Sultan of far away Persia sent noble gifts to him and earnestly desired his friendship after some years the Sid heard that the king of Morocco was about to come upon him with six and thirty other kings and a mighty force and he was troubled but one night St. Peter came to him in a vision in thirty days you will leave this world he said but do you atone for your sins and you shall enter into the light be not troubled about the coming of the Moors upon your people for even though you are dead you shall win the battle for them then the Sid made himself ready for death he ordered that after he was dead his people should put his body in battle array with helmet and armor with shield and sword and fix it firmly upon his horse with arm appraised as if to strike this they did and they went forth with the body of the Sid at their head to meet the six and thirty kings the knights of the Sid came so suddenly and fought so fiercely that the six and thirty kings fled and galloped their horses even into the sea we saw an amazing sight the Moors afterwards declared for there came upon us full seventy thousand knights all as white as snow and before them rode a knight of great stature facing upon a white horse with a bloody cross in one hand he bore a white banner and in the other a sword which seemed to be of fire and he slew many twenty-two of the six and thirty kings were slaying the others went their way and never even turned their heads then when the body of the Sid had been lifted down from the horse his friends robed it in clothes of purple and set it in the ivory chair with his sword to Zona in its hand and after ten years it was buried close by the altar of St. Peter in a monastery at Cardina one of his followers scared for Banisa the horse that had been so dear to the Sid every day he led it to water and led it back and gave it food with his own hand when the horse died he buried it before the gate of the monastery he set an elm in its head and another at its feet and he bade that when he himself should die he should be buried beside the good horse Banika whom he had loved so well and for whom he had cared so tenderly End of Chapter 21 Chapter 22 of Heroes of the Middle Ages This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Evermarch happened Chapter 22 Magna Carta signed by King John Less than two hundred years after the reign of William the Conqueror one of his descendants King John set up on the throne of England He was an exceedingly bad ruler He stole, he told lies and he put innocent people in prison If he wanted money he simply demanded it of any persons who had it and if they refused to give it he did not hesitate to torture them till they yielded Men who had committed crime and deserved to be punished he would set free if they could raise money enough to make him a present If two men disagreed and brought their difficulty before him for trial King John was one who had made him the larger gift Sometimes for some very small offence he would demand money of a poor man who had only a horse and cart with which to earn his living and if the man had no friends to bribe the king his horse and cart were sold to help fill the royal treasury King John was even believed to have murdered a nephew the young prince Arthur who had claimed to the throne John ruled not only England but also the Duchy of Normandy which had descended to him from William the Conqueror as Normandy was the fief of France Philip, king of France caught upon his vassal John to account for the death of the prince John refused to appear then Philip took away nearly all his French possessions that loss made his income much smaller moreover the cost of carrying on the government had increased there was then some reason for his constant need of money even though there was so little excuse for his manner of obtaining it when the Archbishop of Canterbury died there was a dispute about who should succeed him the Pope was appealed to and he bade the monks of Canterbury name a good upright man named Stephen Langton to take his place this choice did not please the king therefore he seized the monastery and its revenues and benefits the monks for six years John resisted the Pope and refused to allow Langton to become Archbishop finally he became afraid that he was going to die and then he yielded most meekly he even went to Langton to beg for absolution or the pardon of the church when you promised to obey the law of the land and to treat your people justly I will absolve you replied the Archbishop John was always ready to make a promise but he never kept it unless it was convenient he promised that the Archbishop asked but as might have been expected he soon broke his word now next to the king the barons were the most powerful men of the kingdom but even they did not know what to do fortunately the Archbishop knew he called the barons together and read them what had been the law of the land since a short time after the death of William the Conqueror then the barons understood what their rights were and they took a solemn oath to defend them but we will wait for one year they said the king may do better they waited a year then they waited till Christmas the king had not improved to him and asked him to repeat the promises that he had made to the Archbishop John was insolent at first but when he saw that the barons were in earnest he became very meek and said that what they asked was important to be sure but also difficult and he should need a little time before making the agreement by Easter he should be able to satisfy them the barons did not believe him and so when Easter came they brought to the appointed place a large body of armoured followers after a while John sent to ask what it was that the barons insisted upon having then bold dignified Stephen Langton read aloud to him from apartments such articles as these a free man shall not be fined for a small offence except in proportion to the gravity of the offence no free man shall be imprisoned or banished except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land John grew more and more angry as these were read and when the Archbishop went on to read other articles declaring that the king must not take bribes or impose taxes without the consent of his council or body of advisors and finally won giving the barons the right to elect 25 of their number to keep watch over him and seize his castles if he did not keep his promise then he went into a furious passion I will never grant liberties that would make me a slave he declared nevertheless he had to yield there was a famous green meadow with low hills on one side and the river James on the other its name of runny mead or meadow of council was given it long before William the Conqueror landed in England because there the Saxons used to hold their councils to this meadow the barons and their army marched from London then out of a strong fortress that rose near at hand and across the drawbridge that swung over the moat rode an angry and sulky ruler of England he promised that his seal should be fixed to the parchment he went back to his palace he was well-nigh mad with rage but the barons scared little for this and they caused many copies of this parchment to be made and sent over the land to be read aloud in the churches this parchment was the famous Magna Carta or great charter sealed in 1215 the barons were then the most powerful men of the kingdom and they thought to it as long as he lived the king kept his word about 50 years later not only the barons but representatives of the towns were admitted to the council this was the beginning of the English parliament and now if a king ruled unjustly he must account not only to the barons but to the whole people from that day to this no monarch has been able to remain on the throne of England despite the promises that King John was obliged to make that June day at Rooneymeade end of chapter 22 chapter 23 of Heroes of the Middle Ages this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages chapter 23 the life of the knight when a knight galloped into the courtyard of a castle his helmet armor glittering his sword clanking at his side his bloom waving and his horse prancing and care-calling it is small wonder if the boys of the place gathered to see him and if each said to himself I wish I were a knight the boy who was to be a knight must be of noble birth his training generally began when he was only 7 or 8 years old he was taken away from his mother and his father's castle for it was the custom for boys to be brought up in the castle of some friend of their fathers or perhaps of someone of higher ranks than he a castle was a gloomy stone building with strong walls and towers usually placed either high up on a cliff or in a swamp so that it could not be easily captured within it were dungeons and treasure rooms and rooms for the lord and his family it had also a well and perhaps a garden and it was protected by a moat and a drawbridge the little boy about to begin his training at such a castle was first called a page and before he could hope to become even a squire there was much for him to learn until he was 14 or 15 his first business was to wait upon the ladies of the household to run on their errands carry messages for them and ride with them when they went out hunting or hooking he must always be polite and obedient for no one could imagine such a thing as a knight who was rude or would not obey the laws of knighthood he must learn to play chess to read, to sing, to dance to play on the flute and harp and to say his catechism he was also taught that he must choose some lady and must serve her truly there is a story that a lady of the French court once asked a little page who was the mistress of his heart I love my mother best and my sister next he replied yes but who is your lady love in chillery she asked and he finally choose a little 10 year old girl that is not the way declared his teacher you must not choose a child but some lady of noble births who can advise and help you someday you must do daring deeds for her sake and you must be so humble and faithful to her that she cannot help being kind to you most of the training of the page was given him by the ladies of the household but he was also taught to ride and leap to roll a light spear and to fight in sham battles was the other pages of the castle he waited upon his lord and the ladies at the table and sometimes he accompanied his lord to battle he did no fighting there but simply served in any ways that a boy could he was in no danger for it would have been a disgrace to any knight to found a page of course all this time the boy was looking forward to the day when he would be promoted and would become a squire that came to pass when he was about 14 then he not only served a table and brought water for the lord and his guests to wash their hands before and after the meal but he learned to carve he brought his lord special cup of wine at retiring and waited upon him in every way in the large castle where there were many squires one cared for the dining hall arranged it for singing or made the tables ready for chess a squire was not permitted to sit at table with a knight not even if the knight was his own father but he might join in the amusements each in turn was the squire of the body and the one in office was he whom all the others invite for when his lord went to battle the squire was his regular attendant the young page might carry the helm but the squire bore the armor and shield and it was his task no easy one to entice his lord in the heavy armor that was then worn if the knight lost his weapon the squire must be ready with another if he took prisoners they were handed over to the squire to guard and if the knight was thrown from his horse the squire must help him to mount again although a squire was rarely made a knight before he was 20 or 21 he had little chance to be idle he was still expected to keep up his attendance upon the ladies of the castle and he now learned to use not the light weapons with which he had practiced as a page but the battle axe and sword and lands of the knight he must become a master of horsemanship and be prepared to become a master of horsemanship and be perfect in leaping and swimming and climbing he must learn to bear heat and cold and hunger without a word of complaint and he must accustom himself to wearing the heavy armor of the time and to moving easily in it there was one exercise in particular which he was expected to practice until he had become perfect this was called the quintane a figure of a man with sword and shield as if for battle was fastened to a post in such a way that it swung about easily the young squire rode up to the figure full tilt and struck it with his lands if he hit it on the breast nothing happened but if he aimed badly and hit the legs or the arms or was slow in getting away then the courtyard re-ehold was shouts of laughter for the figure whirled about the fire was struck a heavy blow with a sandbag when the time had come for the young man to become a knight there was such ceremony and every act had its meaning he went into a bath and afterwards put on a white garment to indicate purity a red one was placed over it to show that he would shed his blood for the ride one whole night he spent fully armed praying and meditating in a church on the following day he gave his sword to the priest who laid it upon the altar blessed it and returned it he made solemn vows to defend the church to be true to the king and to help every lady who was in distress then the night of high strength came forward the young man kneeled before him with clasped hands and declared solemnly that his earnest wish was to maintain religion and chivalry after this the knights and ladies put on first his spores then the other pieces of his armor the chief knight fixed on the sword and struck him upon the neck a slight blow called the acolyte and said aloud add up the knight in the name of god and the saints the other knights embraced him and the priest prayed that he might ever be faithful and loyal then the people all went out of the church and the newly made knights sprang upon his horse and rode about in his gleaming armor flashing his sword and spurring on his steed to prance and curvert and cargo after this he dismounted he made as generous gifts as he could afford to the servants and ministers of the castle in which he had received his training the rest of the day was given to feasting and entertainments of course this ceremony differed somewhat in different countries and sometimes a man was made a knight on the battlefield because he had just performed some deed of valor if a knight broke his woes his spores were cut off his sword broken over his head his armor taken from him and he was laid in a coffin then the bureau service was read over him as if he were dead the great pleasure and amusement of the knights was the tournament and they would journey long distances to see one or take part in one the battle took place in what was called the Lists a large oblong space marked off by railings close to these were the galleries or seats for the spectators it was all made as gorgeous as possible with a vast display of banners and tapestry and coats of mail and especially by the brilliant robes of the ladies and the cry was heard come forth knights come forth the two bodies of knights that were to tilt one against the other galloped forward at full speed from opposite ends of the list with their lances in rest and met with a terrible shock the ribbons of their lady loves waved from their helmets pieces of wood were fastened to the points of the lances for the object of the charge was not to kill but to unhorse there were strict rules for the behavior of knights during a tournament and an accurate method of counting their owners to strike an opponent out of his saddle counted three to break a lance on his hem counted ten the ladies were the judges of all questions but they usually resigned their power into the hands of an empire called the Knight of Honor after the tournament had come to an end a fair lady who had been chosen queen of beauty and love presented the prizes knighthood flourished from the 11th to the 15th centuries armor grew heavier and heavier till it became almost impossible to mount his horse without help and if his horse was slain he rolled off helplessly and became an easy prey for his foes about the middle of the 14th century the English won two great battles at sea and at Poitiers against the French not by the power of the knights but by the valor of the foot soldiers with their bows and arrows then came the invention of gunpowder and after that the knight became little more than a useless encumperance his time was passed and his armor is now exhibited as a curiosity in museums End of Chapter 23 Chapter 24 of Heroes of the Middle Ages this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March Tappan Chapter 24 Country Life in the Middle Ages The people of the Middle Ages would have thought it exceedingly strange for one man to ask another the price of a piece of land pay for it and then call it his own as a general thing they obtained land in a quite different fashion the theory was that the king owned the whole country but he could not cultivate it all or even defend it with a single sword therefore he gave the use of large districts to his chief men each man when he received a share kneeled before the king with uncovered head laid his hands in those of his sovereign and vowed to be his man and to serve him facefully then the king kissed his vessel or leech man and gave him a bit of turf and a twig to indicate that he was to hold the land and what grew upon it often when land was granted to a man he was required to make a small payment of money or produce this was not rent but merely an acknowledgement that the property was not his but his lords it was sometimes nothing more than a measure of grain or a fish or two for some river flowing through the land in 1492 a piece of land in Newcastle on Tyne was granted on condition that the red rose be paid every midsummer day if it should be called for the service that the king wanted for his grants was almost always service in war when there was need of fighting he had a right to call out his vessel to fight for him but every vessel divided his land into portions and gave it to people who were his vessels and had vowed to be faithful to him therefore when the king needed men he called out his vessels the great nobles they called out their vessels and these vessels called out those who were under them and all had to go forth to do battle this was the foydale system it was a sort of endless chain except that it did finally come to an end in the manner or village exactly how it arose is still a subject of great dispute the early manner usually consisted of one house of fire size perhaps even a castle and gathered around it a number of little cottages these were attached with straw and had generally only one room the large house was the abode of the lord of the manner and the little houses were the homes of his tenants some of these were called free tenants and they generally paid in money for the use of the land and the protection of their lord the others were called serfs or relines from the word will meaning village they paid some rent in money or in fouls or produce and they also had to spend a goodly share of their time sometimes as much as half of it working on the land which the lord reserved for himself the lord of a manner always had a list of the tenants called an extent which stated what each one was bound to pay and what work he must do for instance on one manner a man who had a cottage of land had to pay at the feast of St. Michael three pence and at Christmas a cock and a hen worth three pence another who had only a little piece of land had to bring to his lord one goose worth two pence every year the labor varied greatly in kind and in amount one man among other sorts of work had to provide a cart and three animals of his own and carry wood from the forest to the manner house two days every summer this was worth nine pence but his lord was to give him three meals worth two pence, half penny each twice every summer he was to carry half a load of grain but his meals in this case were not to be so extravagant for they were to be worth only two pence each the arable land of the manner was divided into three or more great fields one field was planted with wheat or rye another with oats or peas or barley and the third field lay fellow for a season the next year the arrangement was changed about and thus every field had its rotation of crops and its year of rest these lands were divided among the tenants in what seems now a strange fashion they were marched off into strips usually forty rods long and four rods wide instead of attendants having a field to himself he had a certain number of strips moreover these were not together but were scattered one or two in a place even the lord's land was generally scattered in the same way the villains were not allowed to leave the manner and if it passed into the hands of another owner they went with it as the oxen or the houses did and even if a man wished to run away where could he go? the whole country was divided into manors each one had its own tenants and there was seldom room for any new ones there was no work by which one could earn his bread for a long while there was only one way by which a boy could escape from the manor life and that was by becoming a priest if he wished to be a priest and showed that he had the ability his lord had to let him go free farm work was exceedingly hard in those days for the implements were rude and clumsy the bluffs for instance were made of wood and were so heavy that eight oxen were needed to draw them the manor life could not have been very agreeable but it had one great advantage it was safe for the lord was bound to protect his tenants and in those days of strife and disorder it was a great thing to have protection indeed it often happened that for the sake of being protected a free man would go of his own accord to some powerful noble and offered to become his vassal between the 11th and the 13th centuries many knights went on crusades or warlike expeditions to try to rescue the holy land from the Mohammedans these knights required large sums of money and they allowed many of their tenants to pay their rent and money instead of work sometimes they would even let them have a piece of land this made the villains feel a little more independent but until after the battles of Crassie and Poitiers it did not occur to them that they were well able to protect themselves with their own weapons they had supposed that to be an efficient soldier it was necessary to have a horse and armor and to be trained as a knight but these two battles were won by men who had no armor and no swords but only their bows and arrows two or three years after the battle of Crassie a terrible disease known as the black death swept over the land so many villains died that now a man could find plenty of work at good wages wherever he chose to go moreover if he did not wish to work on a manor he could live in a city if he chose for fine wool weaving had been introduced from Flanders and he could easily earn his living as a weaver thus little by little the old way of living in manors was given up and the Foiteau system gradually disappeared in a few places in Europe however the ground is still cultivated in great fields wherein each person holds one or more strips and in the little town of Mannheim in Pennsylvania there is some land that is held by a sort of feudal tenure it was given by a wealthy baron a century and a half ago as a site for a church and the rental was to be as in the case of the land of Newcastle one red rose payable in June when the same shall be lawfully demanded twice the baron asked for the rose and then the old custom was forgotten so it was revived a few years ago now one day in every June is set apart for the payment of the rose to some descendant of the baron there is always a pleasant little celebration then after the music and the addresses in the church so people present all walk past the cancel each one laying down a red rose as he passes the roses are afterwards gathered up and carried to the sick folk in some hospital end of chapter 24 chapter 25 of Heroes of the Middle Ages this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March-Tappen chapter 25 Town life in the Middle Ages people living in a town in the Middle Ages had to make sure that it could not be easily captured by an enemy for this reason they often built a heavy wall around it with watchtowers where men were always on guard battering rams and other machines for knocking down a wall could not be used unless they were brought close up to it and therefore just outside the fortifications of the city a deep ditch was often dug and kept full of water there were only a few gates and those were carefully protected outside the walls were forests and fields and every morning the public herdsmen drove the oxen of the townspeople to pasture bringing them back again at night there were gardens and cultivated fields around the town and indeed there were many gardens and orchards within the walls if everything had been kept clean the town might have been a pleasant sweet smelling place but rubbish was heaped up in front of the doors and pigs roamed about the streets at their own will these streets were usually narrow and crooked there were no pavements and the upper stories of the houses sometimes projected so far that people living on opposite sides of the street could shake hands from their windows the nearer one came to the center from the closer together were the houses merchants usually had shop and home in the same building the lower part of the front was the shop and the rear of the house was the home this was by far the pleasanter part for it often looked out upon gardens filled with bright flowers besides the merchants there were the humbler folk the craftsmen, that is the carpenters, masons, blacksmiths every trade had its apprentices boys who were bound to remain with some craftsmen a certain number of years to learn his business the master fed and closed the boy gave him a home and taught him when he had finished his apprenticeship he became a journeyman or workman of course he was eager to become a master but before he could do this he must make a masterpiece that is a piece of work excellent enough to be accepted by the guild or society composed of the men of his trade there were guilds of bakers weavers, coopers brewers, goldsmiths, carpenters indeed every trade had its guild the guild did a great deal for its members if one of them became poor or was ill his guild gave him assistance if he died in poverty the guild paid his funeral expenses and aided his family if a journeyman a cooper for instance came to a strange town the guild of coopers in that town would find work for him or if there was none to pay his way to the next town the guild not only helped its members but thought to it that they did not impose upon the public if a baker made his laws too small or a diar gave short measure of clothes or a maker with spurs gilded old ones and sold them for new his guild punished him by a fine or by expulsion the master himself was punished and not the workman who had perhaps done the actual work in many places men were forbidden by their guilds to carry on their trades after the curfew let's say should not do good work or should disturb their neighbors or perhaps set their houses ablaze the craft guilds were also religious societies and each one had its pattern saint they gave altars and painted windows and generous presents of money to the cathedrals the whole guild often went to church in solemn procession they also presented what were known as mystery plays that is plays showing four scenes in the bible one guild presented the creation another the flood another the flight of the holy family into Egypt and so on the presenting of these plays was often very expensive but it was looked upon as a religious duty when the morning for the plays had come the members of the guild met together and after prayers those who were to act clambered into a clumsy two-story wagon called a pagiant and went to the corner open square where the play was to be shown when it was enacted they moved on to present the same play elsewhere while another guild acted the second play of the series in the place that they had just left when the play had been repeated in all the places chosen the members of the guilds went to their homes feeling that they had performed a religious duty that would be good for them and for the crowds that had been listening to them another latter kind of was known as a morality play in which characters representing the virtues and biases took part the incidents in these plays were not drawn directly from the bible as was the case with the mystery plays ultimately this rude acting developed into the great Elizabethan drama the merchants too had their guilds and these were very powerful associations they won a great deal of liberty for the town for when a king or noble was in need of money the rich merchant guilds would say we will provide it if you will agree no longer to lay taxes upon our town at your own will sometimes the guilds made rather hard bargains if a king or a nobleman wished to go on a crusade or if he had been taken prisoner and needed a large sum of money for his ransom he was ready to give many privileges to the town that would supply him with gold or even to grant it's a right to govern itself in all things many a city literally bought its charter with its gold these merchant guilds were afterwards called corporations and from them was gradually developed the town council of the present day End of Chapter 25 Chapter 26 of Heroes of the Middle Ages this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March Tappan Chapter 26 Peter the Hermit leads the first crusade During many centuries if a man asked what can I do that will be most pleasing to God not only the priests but nearly all his friends would answer make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to the place where our Lord suffered and was buried to go from England or any part of western Europe was a long journey and often dangerous but it was not expensive for all Christians felt it a duty to give the pilgrims food and lodging Jerusalem was in the hands of the Saracens they were Mohammedans but they had no objection to allowing pilgrims to visit the city especially at the wealthier among them spent much money during their stay Good Harun Al Rashid even erected a Christian church and a building in which the pilgrims might lodge about the time that William the Conqueror took possession of England the Seljukian Turks captured Jerusalem became a different matter to make a pilgrimage to the holy city for the pilgrims were robbed and tortured and sometimes put to death the emperor in the east and the popes one after another were most indignant finally Pope Orban II determined that the church should be aroused to capture the holy land from the Turks he had a powerful helper a Frenchman known as Peter the Hermit Peter had been on a pilgrimage to the holy land and on his return he traveled about Europe in course woolen shirt and Hermit's cloak telling people everywhere of the cruelties of the Turks At Clermont in France Pope Orban went out into a widespreading plane and made an eloquent address to the thousands of Frenchmen who were gathered together he told them that God had given their nation glory in arms he wished them to use their power not in fighting one another but in winning the city of Christ from the infidels the multitude shouted God wills it and it was not long before hundreds of thousands had fastened the red cross to their shoulders and had set out for Jerusalem the Latin word for cross is cru and from this the expedition was known as a crusade Peter had urged that none should go unless they were able to bear arms and that the rich should take soldiers with them but people paid little attention to this advice the first company started under Peter the Hermit and a knight known as Watter the Pennyless not all its members however were real pilgrims some went for game some to see the world and some were mere robbers and thieves and they did what they choose while they were passing through Germany the people were kind to them and gladly brought them food but when they came to other countries they were not treated so generously then they demanded food often most insolently and when it was refused they stole it they killed flocks and herds and even their owners of course the people avenged their wrongs with the sword the pilgrims fought or fled as best they might on arriving at Constantinople they were received kindly by the emperor and given food but even there they stole from houses and gardens and churches they pushed on towards Jerusalem and soon were attacked and slaughtered by the Turks but there were hundreds of thousands of others making ready to join the crusade who were not wild trouble and folk like the first company but far more earnest and serious it is thought that at least 100,000 of these were knights they came by different ways but all met at Constantinople then they marched on into Asia Minor they were in need of food and even of water thousands perished the others were saved by some dogs that had followed them these dogs deserted their masters but finally came back to the camp see their muddy paws they have found water cried the thirsty people they followed the dogs tracks and came to water a pigeon too did them a good turn one ruler had pretended to be friendly but just after they had left his territory they picked up in their camp a dead carrier pigeon bearing a letter to the ruler of the next district bidding him destroy the accursed Christians so they went on sometimes they captured a town sometimes many of them died of famine or plague at length they came inside of the holy city and then all their troubles were forgotten they cried Jerusalem, Jerusalem they fell upon their knees they kissed one another with joy they cuffed of their shoes for had not the very soil become holy where the lord had once walked they threw themselves down upon it and kissed the ground with shouts of God wills it, God wills it they attacked the walls after a savage combat the city was captured then came a massacre of Syracians as brutal as any in history for even the gallant knights had not yet learned that it is better to convert an enemy than to kill him the most valiant leader amongst the crusaders was Godfried of Bullion and he was chosen king of Jerusalem he was escorted to the church of the Holy Sepulcher and there he would have been crowned but he said now I cannot wear a crown of gold in the very city in which my lord and master wore a crown of thorns he was willing to be called defender of the Holy Sepulcher but he would not take the title of king Godfried and a few other knights remained in Jerusalem and the rest of the pilgrims went to their homes they had spent 4 years in this crusade hundreds of thousands of Christians and perhaps as many Syracians had been slain but the Holy City had been taken from the infidels and there was great rejoicing End of chapter 26 Chapter 27 of Heroes of the Middle Ages This is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Evermarch Tapin Chapter 27 Richard the Lionheart would lead the third crusade There were several expeditions to rescue Jerusalem but the third may fairly be named the Royal Crusade because of the number of sovereigns who took part in it There was Frederick the German Emperor nicknamed Barbarossa because of his long red beard There was Philip II, King of France and there was Richard I of England the famous Quartet Lion the Lionhearted Soldier After being 88 years in the hands of the Christians Jerusalem had been recaptured in 1187 by a great Syracian commander named Saladin He was far more merciful, however than the Christians of the first crusade For when the women of Jerusalem begged for the lives of their fathers and brothers and husbands he forgot all his stern threats and not only freed his prisoners but loaded them with presents The Emperor Frederick could not bear the thought of Jerusalem being in the hands of the Syracians and he set off with his army to regain it He was a brave and wise soldier and would have led his troops most nobly but by some accident he was drowned before reaching the Holy Land His subjects were heartbroken at the news of his death They could hardly believe it possible and the legend arose that he had hidden himself away in the depths of the mountains and fathers said to their children The good Barbarossa is not dead He and his daughter and his brave comrades sit about a marble table in some mountain cavern His red beard has grown through the marble so long as he waited but by and by there will come a time when the ravens no longer fly around the mountain then he will come forth and in that day our land shall be great indeed King Richard of England was eager for glory and would gladly have set out for the Holy Land at once but first the money for an army must be raised not care more than one man who wanted to be a bishop obtained his wish by paying for it If a man was guilty of wrongdoing he need not go to prison if he could send a good list sum of money to the king England held two fortresses in Scotland but Richard willingly gave up all claim to them and to the whole country for ten thousand marks He and Philip Augustus of France were enemies they swore to be most faithful friends if one of us is slain during the crusade they said the other shall take all troops and money and go on with the great work of freeing the Holy Land Richard meant to have better orders than during the first crusade and he made some remarkable laws if one man killed another the murderer was to be tied to the body of his victim and both were to be thrown into the sea a man who stole was to have hot pitch poured upon his head and over this feathers were to be shaken At length both French and English were on the way but long before they reached Syria the two kings quarreled they patched up a sort of peace and went on to Aikru a seaport town of Syria that the Christians were besieging that soon fell both kings put their banners on the ramparts but Richard took up his abode in the royal palace leaving to Philip a humbler place indeed in whatever they did Richard always took the first place and before long Philip declared that he was sick and should return to Europe if you are really sick or afraid of the enemy you would better go home said Richard scornfully he easily guessed that Philip's real reason for wishing to go home was that he might try to seize some of the English possessions and he made the French king spare not to make war upon any of the English lands while he himself was away Richard marched south toward Jerusalem every night when he hoted Harold cried three times saves this holy sepalker and all the army kneeled and said amen the hot tempered Richard had already had trouble not only with Philip but with Duke Leopold of Austria for at Acre the Duke had set his banner upon a tower that he had taken and Richard had torn it down and flung it into the ditch there was also trouble at Ascalon Richard was bent upon rebuilding the walls with his own royal hands he brought stones and mortar Leopold refused to follow his example and he declared as the old poem puts it then as the story goes Richard not only stormed at the noble Duke but struck him naturally the Duke too went home on the whole none of the warriors seems to have behaved in so praiseworthy a fashion as the Mohammed and Saladin this brave and nightly leader greatly admired the daring deeds of Richard and the Duke and the Duke greatly admired the daring deeds of Richard they exchanged many courtesies and when the English king was ill his enemies sent him fruit and ice for his comfort Richard's boldness amazed everyone he was always in the thickest of the fight striking off a woman's head with one blow of his sword or swinging his terrible battle axe with 20 pounds of steel in its head one of his enemies declared no man can escape from his sword his attack is dreadful to engage with him is fatal and his deeds are beyond human nature Saladin's brother too looked upon his enemy with marmest admiration and when Richard was once dismounted in battle the Saracen sent him as a gift to noble horses it is said that 50 years later if the horse of a Saracen sheed they would say what do you think you're seeking Richard in that bush but the Germans and the French and even many of his own troops had left Richard therefore as he had not man enough to take Jerusalem he made the best terms he could with Saladin and departed from the Holy Land on the way home over land through Austria he was captured by his enemy Duke Leopold and put into prison there is a pleasant story that Blondel one of his ministers roamed over Europe in search of his beloved master a minister might go safely wherever he would and Blondel wondered about for a year without success at last some country folk pointed out a castle belonging to the emperor and said folk say there is a king kept prisoner in the tower then Blondel sang beside the tower the first stanza of a little French song that he and the king had written together he paused the moment and from the tower came the voice of Richard singing the second stanza Blondel straight away went home and told the English where their king was and they were ready to pay ransom for him Philip of France and Richard's younger brother John the John who had to sign Magna Carta some years later did all they could to have him kept in prison for Philip thought he could seize Normandy if Richard was out of the way as for John he had been ruling England during his brothers absence and he was determined not to give up the kingdom but the pope threatened Philip and the emperor with excommunication from the church if they did not let Richard go and at last they yielded it was not easy to raise the Lord ransom demanded but the English had a hearty admiration for their king and finally it was paid and Richard was set free he hastened to England and the whole English people rejoiced saved John and his followers to John Philip had sent a message saying take care of yourself the devil has broken loose Richard have ever made no attempt to punish his brother and even when John again showed himself unfaithful he gave him saying I hope I shall as easily forget his injuries as he will my pardon End of Chapter 27 Chapter 28 of Heroes of the Middle Ages this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March Tappen Chapter 28 The Children's Crusade A marvelous thing now came to pass for the children of France and Germany went on a crusade Stefan a French shepherd boy twelve years old declared that Jesus had appeared to him and bidden him lead a company of children to rescue the holy sepulchre from the infidels as their children joined him and they went about from village to village bearing crosses and candles swinging censors singing hymns and crying God wills it, God wills it soon a great army of boys and girls including the humblest shepherd lads and the children of wealthy nobles started to march for the holy land no one could stop them the king bade them return to their homes but they only cried the more God wills it God wills it they broke away from their friends from the very arms of their parents the older folk knew not what to sing some said this was a work of satin to destroy the children others believed that it was the will of God that where armed men had failed in assault children should succeed and they dared not hold them back lest they should be fighting against God in Germany too there was a boy preacher one Nicholas and he aroused the German children as Stefan aroused the French the little German boys and girls set out 20,000 strong many of them wearing long grey coats upon which crosses were sewn they had broad brimmed heads and they carried the staffs of pilgrims as they marched they sang hymns one of these had come down to us it begins Jesus ruler of all nature but the way grew rougher and rougher the air of the mountains was cold they came to desert places where there was no food thousands died and when the others reached the city of Genoa they were only 7,000 still the children did not lose courage God would open away from them through the sea they believed and soon they would be in the holy land they would tell the story of the good Jesus the infidels would listen and would become his followers the morning came they waited patiently on the shore at Genoa but no path was opened through the sea there are the traditions that part of the children sailed for Syria but what became of them is not known some pressed on to Rome they told the Pope about their journey and their sufferings he said that it was of no use for them to try to reach Syria but as they were bound by their woes they must go on a crusade when they were older by this time only a few children were left many had died as has been said some had been stolen or sold the slaves and still others had stopped in one place or another nothing now remained but to suffer the long hard journey home and at last this too was ended tell us of your wonderings where have you been begged their parents and friends but all that the tired little crusaders could answer was we do not know meanwhile the French children 30,000 in all had set out for themselves their way was less rough but the heat of the summer was terrible many of the little ones had never been farther from their homes than some neighboring village and whenever they came inside of a city wall or a castle they would ask piteously isn't that Jerusalem after a journey of 300 miles about 20,000 of them came to Marcel's let us stay here tonight they begged and tomorrow God will open a way for us through the sea no path was opened and many started to return to their homes at length the merchants offered to provide vessels for all who wished to go to the holy land we do it for the cause of God they said and we ask no reward but your prayers then the children were happy this is the path through the sea they cried joyfully this is what God promised us seven vessels full of the bravest of the children set sail to cross the blue Mediterranean 18 years later and old priest came to Europe and told the sad ending of the story two of the seven vessels two of the seven vessels had been wrecked but the hundreds of children on board the others had been carried to the coast of Africa and sold to the Mohammedans as slaves for the generous men of Marcel's who had so kindly offered to carry them across the sea were slave traders not one of the seven shiploads of children ever saw his home again end of chapter 28 chapter 29 of Heroes of the Middle Ages this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Heroes of the Middle Ages by Eva March Tappan chapter 29 Roger Bacon a pioneer in science and philosophy while the 13th century was by no means free from wars the western nations of Europe were beginning to fuel the results of ordered government and a great impetus was given to intellectual pursuits to a very great extent this took the direction of theological disputes but secular knowledge also shared the inspiration the scientists of that day were concerned almost solely with astrology and alchemy and owing to the superstitions and so prevalent all who studied these so-called sciences were liable to be suspected of practicing the magic arts Roger Bacon was not the man to be turned from the pursuit of knowledge by any fear of evil consequences that might spring from the ignorance of his fellow men born of a good Somerset family he was sent to Oxford where he studied the works of Aris Total which had been forgotten for centuries and thus became acquainted with the greatest of the classical scientists he also took a great interest in mathematics and was the first to apply this knowledge to the science of astronomy after some years at Oxford he went to the University of Paris returning to Oxford again in 1250 he then entered the Franciscan Order and hence is often called Friar Bacon having acquired all the learning of the age he spent all that he had and much that he borrowed from friends in his scientific research into the secrets of nature he was especially interested in the science of optics as being useful to the study of astronomy but this resulted in the invention of the magnifying glass but he was greatly hindered by the need of proper apparatus such a man would naturally gather many students around him and we learned that he was a kindly teacher and never hesitated to impart his knowledge freely when his scholars were too poor to make him any payment from my youth up he writes I have labored at the sciences and tongues I have sought the friendship of all men among the Latins who had any reputation for knowledge I have caused youth to be instructed in languages geometry, arithmetic the construction of tables and instruments and many needful things besides returning to Paris his great gifts brought him many enemies and he was at last accused of the practice of magic and imprisoned in 1257 he was forbidden all intercourse with the world and even the privilege of writing was denied him then Pope Clement IV became interested in his work and it was at the Pope's request that Bacon wrote his Opus Magus and the manuscript was sent to Rome by the hand of his favourite pupil John of London we do not know how it was received for Clement died shortly afterward this wonderful book sums up the state of knowledge both on philosophy and science of the time many other books were written by a friar Bacon some of which have never been translated from the Latin some of the books were written in his day for Latin was still the common language of European scholars in his later years Bacon drew up a rectified calendar invented gunpowder and was, as Mr. Lecky says the greatest natural philosopher of the Middle Ages it seems strange to us that such a man could believe in astrology and in the philosopher's stone but Bacon was sufficiently a child of his time to feel the fascination which these idle pursuits had for nearly all the learned men of that day Bacon's greatest achievement was his application of new principles to the study of science he believed that experiment was necessary and not merely the acceptance of beliefs handed down from ancient philosophers to his optical and astronomical researches he brought to bear his knowledge of mathematics in which he had learned much from the Arabs who in that day were especially renowned in that science although his work had no great immediate effect owing to the decay of learning during the next two centuries when all the energies of the church were devoted to preventing chosen his influence during the renaissance in the 16th century was marked for many of his books were amongst the earliest printed Bacon was released from prison in Paris about the year 1267 and for 10 years enjoyed his freedom in spite of the attacks of his enemies in 1278 the chief of the franciscan order declared his books to be unorthodox and kept him in confinement until 1292 two years later he died at Oxford