83. A.D. 1076 to 1203

A.D. 1076 to 1203

Chapter VII

1. Jerusalem, though it was in possession of Moslem chiefs, was still revered as a holy city by both Christian and Jew, and was visited by pilgrims from every quarter; among others by Peter the hermit, a native of Amiens. The pathetic tale which he brought to Europe, of the injuries and insults which the Christian pilgrims suffered from the infidels, who possessed and profaned the holy city, excited the deepest sympathy among the people and princes of Christendom. Councils were summoned, and were attended by bishops, a numerous train of ecclesiastics, and by thousands of the laity. The mixed multitude were harangued by the zealous enthusiasts of this sacred cause; their pity and indignation were alternately roused by the sufferings of their brethren in the Holy Land; the flame of enthusiasm was propagated by sympathy and example; and the eager champions of the cross, the flower of the European chivalry, assembled in martial array, to march against the enemies of their common faith. To defray the necessary expenses of the expedition, princes alienated their provinces, nobles their lands and castles, peasants their cattle and instruments of husbandry; and vast armies were transported to Palestine, in order to accomplish the deliverance of the holy sepulcher. These rude and undisciplined bands died in great numbers on reaching the shores of Asia, from disease, famine, and fatigue; and of the first Crusaders, it is estimated that 300,000 had perished before a single city was rescued from the infidels. Of the leaders in the Christian host, the first rank is due to Godfrey, Duke of Brabant and Bouillon, who was accompanied by his two brothers, Eustace the elder, who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and Baldwin the younger. The other chiefs were, Robert of France, the brother of King Philip; Robert, Duke of Normandy, the son of William the Conqueror; Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard; Tancred his cousin, and Raymond of Thoulouse. The vast armies that were collected under the guidance of these leaders arrived by various routes at Constantinople, the Greek capital; after having lost, some say, half their number, in the intermediate march through untried regions, by famine, disease, and the assaults of the inhabitants into whose countries they had made so unexpected an irruption. After some time spent in the capital of the East, they crossed to the opposite shore of Asia. Having taken the towns of Nice and Antioch in the year 1098, they, about a year after, laid siege to Jerusalem, and carried it by assault, with a prodigious slaughter of the garrison and inhabitants, which was continued for three days, without respect either to age or sex.

2. Eight days after the capture of Jerusalem, the Latin chiefs proceeded to the election of a king, who should preside over their conquests in Palestine, and Godfrey of Bouillon was unanimously raised to this high office. But if it was an honorable office, it was also one of danger; he was not chosen to sway a peaceful scepter; and he was summoned to the field in the first fortnight of his reign, to defend his capital against the sultan of Egypt, who approached with powerful army. The signal overthrow of the latter in the battle of Ascalon confirmed the stability of the Latin throne, and enabled Godfrey to extend on every side his infant kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem and Jaffa, with about twenty villages and towns of the adjacent districts. The fortified castles, in which the Mohammedans had taken refuge, and from which they made incursions into the open country, were reduced; the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and Ascalon, were besieged and taken; and the Christian kingdom thus included a range of sea-coast from Scanderoon to the borders of Egypt. Although the province of Antioch claimed independence, the courts of Edessa and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of the king of Jerusalem; and the four cities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus, and Aleppo, were the only relics of the Mohammedan conquests in Syria. The feudal institutions of Europe were introduced into this kingdom in all their purity; and a code of laws, called the assize of Jerusalem, was drawn up and deposited in the sepulcher of the Saviour, as an unerring guide in all doubtful ques. tions that at might be brought before the tribunals of the holy city.

3. Godfrey was succeeded by his brother Baldwin I, who ruled with vigor and success. In 1118 his nephew, Baldwin II, ascended the throne, and still maintained the interests of the kingdom. Melisandra his daughter, married Fulk, Count of Anjou, who, in right of his wife, acquired the kingdom of Jerusalem. He lost his life by a fall from his horse, after having reigned twelve years. His son, Baldwin III, ruled in Jerusalem twenty years; and his reign was remarkable as the era of the second Crusade, and of the rise of the various orders of knighthood,-the hospitallers, templars, and cavaliers.

4. The military force of the first Crusaders, wasted by fatigue, and by losses in the field, was no longer able to oppose the hosts of Turks and Saracens by which it was surrounded. The first victories of the Europeans, and their rapid success, extended far and wide the terror of their arms. But this alarm having subsided, the Mohammedan chiefs collected their armies, and commenced a vigorous attack on the European posts, scattered over a wide extent of country, and gained some important advantages. The accounts of these disasters that were circulated in Europe excited the liveliest sympathy of all Christians for their suffering brethren in the Holy Land, for the defence of which the European princes now entered into a new coalition. A second Crusade was the consequence. It was undertaken by Conrad III, emperor of Germany, and Louis VII king of France, and was even more unfortunate than the first expedition. In the course of a tedious march through an unhealthy and hostile country, more than half the army of Conrad was wasted by famine and the sword, and not above a tenth part ever reached the Syrian shore. The subsequent battles with the Saracens reduced them to a iniserable remnant; and on his return with his shattered forces from this unfortunate campaign, the emperor was met by Louis and the French troops, who arrived in better condition at the scene of action. The French army, rashly advancing into the heart of the country, was assaulted and overwhelmed by an innumerable host of Turks; and the king with great difficulty made his escape, and finally took shipping with his knights and nobles, leaving his plebeian infantry to the sword of the victorious enemy. The two princes proceeding to Jerusalem, united the poor remains of their once mighty armies to the Latin troops in Syria, and laid a fruitless siege to Damascus, which was the termination of the second Crusade.

5. The defeat and dispersion of these armies tended greatly to weaken the Christian cause in the Holy Land, and to shake the foundations of the Latin throne at Jerusalem. Baldwin, the son of Melisandra and the Count of Anjou, together with his brother Amaury or Almeric, long maintained the war with considerable success against the infidels. Baldwin, dying, was succeeded by his brother, who, after a reign of eleven years, transmitted the throne to his son Baldwin IV, disabled both in mind and body by the disease of leprosy. Sybilla, the mother of Baldwin, was the next heiress, who chose for her second husband, and consequently for king of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, base in character, but handsome in his person. This choice was universally blamed, and excited the hatred of Count Raymond, who had been excluded from the succession and regency, and who, entertaining an implacable hatred against the king, was seduced into a traitorous correspondence with the Sultan. Many of the barons were also so dissatisfied, that they refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new king.

6. It was in the midst of these internal dissensions that the kingdom of the Latins was assailed by a new enemy, namely, the Sultan Saladin, who joined much generosity of character to valour, policy, and military skill. He had risen from a private station to the sovereignty of Egypt, and he had been for years extending his influence and dominions. A fortress had been seized by a soldier of fortune, Reginald of Chatillon, from which he issued with his followers to pillage the caravans and insult the Mohammedans, and he even threatened the holy cities of Medina and Mecca. Saladin complained of these injuries, and being refused satisfaction, invaded the Holy Land with an army of 80,000 horse and foot. He advanced against Tiberias, to which he laid siege; and a decisive battle was hazarded by the king of Jerusalem, in defence of this important place. The two armies met on the plain of Tiberias, and in a sanguinary conflict, which lasted two days, the Christians were completely overthrown, with the loss of 30,000 men. The king, the Marquis of Montserrat, and the master of the templars, with many of their followers, were made prisoners; and two hundred and thirty gallant knights of the cross were cruelly led out to execution after the battle. This great victory placed the whole country at the mercy of the conqueror. The Christians were left without a head; the towns and castles, drained of their governors, fell successively before Saladin’s victorious force; and scarcely had three months elapsed when he appeared in arms before the gates of Jerusalem.

7. This city was in no condition to sustain a protracted siege. It was crowded with fugitives from every quarter, who here sought an asylum from the destroying sword; a disorderly throng of 100,000 persons was confined within the walls, but there were few soldiers. The queen was alarmed for the fate of her captive husband, and her government was feeble and indecisive. A defence was, however, maintained for fourteen days, during which the besiegers had effected a breach in the wall, and only waited the Sultan’s orders for the assault. This last extremity was averted by a capitulation, by which it was agreed that all the Franks and Latins should quit Jerusalem, receiving a safe conduct to the ports of Syria and Egypt, that the inhabitants should be ransomed for a sum of money, and that those who were unable to pay it should remain slaves. These conditions were liberally interpreted and greatly mitigated by the generosity of the Sultan, who allowed the poor to be ransomed by wholesale for a moderate sum, and freely dismissed about 3000 more. In his interview with the Queen, he displayed the kindness and courtesy of his disposition, comforting her with his words, and even with his tears; he distributed liberal alms among the widows and orphans of those who were slain, and allowed the warlike knights of the hospital to continue their care of the sick for another year. He made his triumphant entry into the city, with waving banners and martial music; the Christian Church was converted into a mosque, and the glittering cross was taken down and dragged through the streets, amid the shouts of the Moslems. The whole country now submitted to the Sultan, whose victorious progress was first arrested by the resistance of Tyre, which was gallantly defended by Corrad. The Sultan, being foiled in all his attempts to take this place, was finally compelled to raise the siege, and to retreat to Damascus.

8. The capture of Jerusalem by the infidels, and the decline of the Christian cause in Palestine, excited the deepest sorrow; the slumbering zeal of the European powers was aroused, and new expeditions were fitted out for the recovery of the holy city. Philippians king of France, Frederick Barbarossa, the emperor of Germany, and Richard I of England, surnamed Caeur-de-Lion, assembled a large force, and, with the aid of Flanders, Frise, and Denmark, filled about 200 vessels with their troops. The first armaments landed at Tyre, the only remaining inlet of the Christians into the Holy Land, and no time was lost in commencing the celebrated siege of Acre, which was maintained with an enthusiasm that mocked at danger, and by feats of valor that were the theme of wonder, even in that romantic age. This memorable siege lasted for nearly two years, and was attended with a prodigious loss of men on both sides. At length, in the spring of the second year, the royal fleets of France and England cast anchor in the bay, with powerful reinforcements, and the brave defenders of Acre were reduced to capitulate. A ransom was demanded for their lives and liberties, of 200,000 pieces of gold, the deliverance of 100 nobles, and 1500 inferior captives, and the restoration of the holy cross, which had been taken at the battle of Tiberias. Thus was an important town and harbor obtained by the Christians, but by an enormous sacrifice of men. The host that surrounded Acre amounted at different periods to 600,000; of these, 100,000 were slain during the siege of two years, a greater number perished by ship-wreck and disease, and it is computed that only a very small remnant reached their native shores. The place was taken possession of by the Christians on the 12th of July 1191.

9. The capture of Acre was the prelude to farther operations against the enemy. Richard determined to commence the siege of Ascalon, about a hundred miles distant, and his march to this place was a continual battle of eleven days. He was opposed by Saladin with an army of 300,000 combatants; and on this occasion was fought one of the most memorable battles of this or any other age. Saladin was defeated with the loss of 40,000 men, and the victorious Richard obtained possession of Ascalon, and the other towns of Judea A severe winter interrupted the operations of the field. But Richard, issuing from his winter quarters with the first gleam of spring, advanced with his army within sight of Jerusalem, the great object of his enterprise. Saladin had chosen Jerusalem for his head-quarters, where the sudden appearance of the Christian conqueror spread universal consternation. The holy city was, however, relieved by the hasty retreat of the English king, discouraged by the difficulties of the enterprise and the murmurs of his troops. In the meantime, the town of Jaffa was vigorously assaulted by Saladin with a formidable force, and was on the point of surrendering, when Richard, hastening to its relief, encountered the besieging army of Saracens and Turks, amounting to 60,000 men, who yielded to the vigor of his attack. In the meantime, the miseries of a protracted war began to be severely felt, and the energetic views of Richard were obstructed by the discontent of his troops. Negotiations were commenced, which were broken off, and as often resumed. The views of both parties varied with the fortune of war. At last, however, both Saladin and Richard were equally desirous of terminating an unpopular and ruinous contest. The first demands of Richard were, the restitution of Jerusalem, Palestine, and the true cross. These terms were rejected by the Sultan, who would not part with the sovereignty of Palestine, or listen to any proposition for dismembering his dominions. A truce was at length concluded for three years, by which it was stipulated that the Latin Christians should have liberty to visit the holy city without being liable to tribute; that the fort of Ascalon should be dismantled; and that Jaffa and Tyre, with the intervening territory, should be surrendered to the Europeans. Soon after the conclusion of this treaty Richard embarked for Europe; and Saladin, his great rival, did not survive many months the conclusion of peace.

10. The fourth Crusade was encouraged by the zeal of Pope Celestine III. It was directed against the Greek empire, which was too feeble to resist so formidable an attack; and the result was its conquest by the Latins, who ruled over it for fifty-seven years.