84. A.D. 1203 to 1850

A.D. 1203 to 1850

Chapter VIII

1. In the meantime, though partial successes were gained by the armies of the Crusaders in Palestine, their power was on the decline. A truce for six years had been concluded with Saphadin, the brother and successor of the Sultan Saladin. The sovereign of the Latin kingdom at this time was Mary, the daughter of Isabella by Conrad of Tyre, Almeric and his wife being dead. In order to strengthen the government of Jerusalem, it was resolved to request the king of France, Philip Augustus, to provide a husband for Mary. John de Brienne, one of the most accomplished cavaliers in Europe, of tried valour and experience in war, was chosen; and the Christian chiefs were so elated by this union, that they sought a pretence for breaking the subsisting truce between them and the Sultan, and bringing matters to the arbitration of the sword. War accordingly ensued, and the new monarch of Jerusalem displayed all the great qualities of a statesman and a soldier, for which he was chosen; and though his success did not entirely correspond to his hopes or wishes, yet he made a successful defence, and maintained for a time the Latin kingdom against the growing power of its enemies. He foresaw, however, that its gradual decline and final ruin were approaching, as it was now reduced to two or three towns, and preserved only in a precarious existence by the divisions and civil wars that prevailed among its enemies.

2. This intelligence rekindled the dying zeal of the Christian world. A new Crusade was commenced, and a large force, chiefly of Hungarians and Germans, landed at Acre. The sons of Saphadin, who now ruled in Syria, collected their armies to oppose this formidable attack. But the Crusaders, rashly conducted, and weakened by divisions, advanced into the country without concert or prudence; provisions failed them; they were wasted, as usual, by famine and disease; and at length their leader, the sovereign of Hungary, resolved to quit a country where he had been exposed to hardship and danger, without glory. The crusading armies, thus weakened and discouraged, had laid aside all further idea of offensive operations, when, in the spring of the following year, a fleet of 300 vessels, from the Rhine, appeared on the coast, and brought to their aid powerful reinforcements, which recruited their strength, and restored their ascendancy in the field. For reasons which do not clearly appear, they now retired from Palestine, and carried the war into Egypt, where they obtained important successes, having taken Damietta by storm, and spread such consternation among the infidels, that the most favorable terms of peace were offered, and rejected by the Crusaders. Soon after, however, having wasted their strength on the banks of the Nile, they were reduced to the necessity of bargaining for permission to retire to Palestine, by the cession of all their conquests in Egypt.

3. The next Crusade was undertaken by Frederic II, the grandson of Barbarossa, according to a vow which had been long made, and the performance of which had been so long delayed, that he was excommunicated by Gregory IX. By his marriage with Violante, the daughter of John de Brienne, he was the more especially bound to vindicate his right to the kingdom of Jerusalem, which he had received as a dowry with his wife. After many delays, he set sail with a fleet of 200 ships and an army of 40,000 men, and arrived at Acre. This was the most successful and the most bloodless expedition that had yet been undertaken. Without the hazard of a battle Frederic entered Jerusalem in triumph. The Saracen power was at this time weakened by divisions; and, owing to suspected treachery among his kindred, Kamel, he son of Saphadin, held precarious possession of the throne. It was his policy, therefore, rather to disarm the hostility of these powerful armies by treating with them, than to encounter them in the field; and accordingly a treaty was concluded, by which Jerusalem, Jaffa, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and their dependencies, were restored to the Christians; religious toleration was established, and the contending parties of Christians and Mohammedans were allowed each to offer up their devotions, the first in the mosque El-Aksa, and the last in the mosque of Omar.[*] But all these services were performed by Frederic while under the stain of excommunication; and hence the patriarch, when he made his entry into Jerusalem, refused to crown him, or to be present at the ceremonial; Frederic, therefore, himself took the crown from the holy sepulchre, and placed it on his own head. The stipulations of this treaty were not faithfully observed by the Saracens, and the Christians in Palestine still suffered under the oppression of the infidels. New levies were raised in Europe for the holy war, and a large force of French and English, led by the chief nobility of both nations, landed in Syria. Numerous battles were fought, which terminated in favor of the Saracens; and the French Crusaders, accordingly, after severe losses, were glad to purchase peace by the cession of almost all their conquests in Palestine. Next year, when the Earl of Cornwall, with the English levy, arrived at the scene of action, he found, to his surprise, that all the territories and privileges which had been ceded to the emperor of Germany were lost; and that a few fortresses, and a small strip of territory on the coast, comprised all that the Latins possessed in Palestine. He immediately prepared for the vigorous prosecution of hostilities. But the Sultan, being involved in war with his brother in Damascus, readily granted favorable terms as the price of peace—namely, the cession to the Christian armies of Jerusalem, Beirut, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Mount Tabor, and a large tract of the adjoining country. But the kingdom of Jerusalem, thus so happily re-established, was subverted by a calamity from a new and unexpected quarter. In the interior of Asia the conquests of Ghenghis Khan had brought about the most stupendous revolutions, and the bar. barous hordes of the desert, flying before his conquering sword, rushed like a torrent on other nations. The Kharismians, unable to withstand this powerful invader, were driven upon Syria, and the coalesced powers of Saracen and Christian were unable to resist their powerful assault. The Christian host was overthrown in a great battle, which lasted two days, and in which the grand masters of two orders, and most of the knights, were slain. The merciless invaders revelled in the sack and pillage of the holy city, sparing neither sex nor age; and it was not until the year 1247 that they were routed near Damascus, by the Syrians and Mamluks, and driven back to their former settlements on the Caspian Sea.

[*] Both these mosques stand on Mount Moriah; the Christians believed that the mosque El-Aksa (which was originally a Christian church), and the Moslems that the mosque of Omar, occupied the precise site of Solomon’s Temple.

4. Each new disaster of the Christian arms served to rekindle the languishing zeal of the Europeans; and Louis IX of France fitted out an immense armament for the Holy Land, consisting of 1800 sail, in which he embarked an army of 50,000 men. He landed in Egypt, and, after storming the town of Damietta, advanced along the sea-coast towards Cairo, when his troops were so wasted by sickness and famine, that they fell an easy prey to the enemy. The king, the most of his nobles, and the remnant of his army, were made prisoners; and it was owing to the clemency of the Sultan Moadhdham, who accepted a ransom for their lives, that Louis, with his few surviving followers, was permitted to embark for Palestine.

5. The power of the Christians in Palestine, weakened, among other causes, by internal dissensions, was now vigorously assailed by the Sultan Bibars, the Mamluk sovereign of Egypt. He invaded Palestine with a formidable army, advanced to the gates of Acre, and, reducing the towns of Sepphoris and Azotus, massacred or carried into captivity numbers of Christians. The important city of Antioch yielded to his powerful assault, when 40,000 of the inhabitants were jut to the sword, and 100,000 carried into captivity. The report of these cruelties in Europe gave rise to the ninth and last Crusade against the infidels, which was undertaken by Louis, the French king, sixteen years after his return from captivity. In place of directing his arms immediately against Palestine, he landed in Africa, and laid siege to Carthage, which he reduced. But he perished miserably on the burning sands of Africa, of a pestilential disease, which proved fatal also to many of his troops; and thus ingloriously terminated this expedition, which h was the last undertaken by the Europeans for the recovery of the Holy Land.

6. The Europeans in Palestine were now confined within the walls of Acre, their last stronghold, which was besieged by a Mamluk host of 200,000 troops, that issued from Egypt, and encamped on the adjacent plain. In this their last conflict with the infidels of the Holy Land, the Europeans fully maintained the glory of their high name. They displayed all’ the devotion of martyrs in a holy cause, and performed prodigies of valor. But, equalled as they were in discipline, and fearfully overmatched in numbers, by their enemies, they were overborne by the weight and violence of their attacks, and in the storm and sack of the city, all either perished or were carried into captivity. Thus terminated for ever al those visions of glory and conquest by which so many adventurers were seduced from Europe to the Holy Land, there to perish under the complicated perils of disease and the sword. The other smaller towns which still remained in possession of the Christians yielded without a struggle to the Moslem arms, and, under the religious tyranny of the infidels which succeeded, the Christians in Palestine were everywhere reduced to the lowest degree of debasement. The pilgrims who still visited Jerusalem were exposed to insult and danger; and large contributions were exacted by their oppressors for a free passage through the Holy Land. The Mamluk Sultans of Egypt continued to rule over Palestine till the year 1382, when the country was overrun by a barbarous tribe from the interior of Asia. On their expulsion, the sovereignty of the Egyptian Sultans was again acknowledged, until the country yielded to the formidable irruption of the great Tamerlane. At his death Jerusalem reverted to the kingdom of Egypt, and was finally subdued by the Turks, under whose barbarous rule it has continued for more than 300 years. The country was partitioned into provinces, in each of which a pasha ruled with a despotic authority equal to that of the Sultan.

7. In this condition Palestine remained without any remarkable event in its history, except that for nearly three centuries it was the scene of domestic broils, insurrections, and massacres, until the memorable invasion of Egypt by the French army. Bonaparte, being apprised that preparations were making in the pachalik of Acre for attacking him in Egypt, resolved, according to his usual tactics, to anticipate the movements of his enemies. He accordingly marched across the desert which divides Egypt from Palestine, and invaded the country at the head of 10,000 troops. El-Arish surrendered, and the lives of the garrison were spared on condition that they should not serve against him during the war. Gaza also yielded without opposition; and Jaffa, stormed after a brave resistance, was given up to pillage, The French army then proceeded to form the siege of Acre; and this fortress, the last scene of conflict between the Christians and infidels of former days, became a modern field of battle, in which were exhibited prodigies of valour that rivalled the most renowned deeds of those chivalric times. The trenches were opened on the 10th of March; in ten slays a breach was effected, and a desperate assault took place. At first the defenders were forced to give way; but Djezzar Pasha, who had shut himself within the walls, and who was aided by Sir Sidney Smith with a body of British sailors, rushed forward among the thickest of the combatants, and, animating the troops by his example, drove back the enemy with heavy loss. Bonaparte still persevered in a series of furious assaults against the fortress, which were all most gallantly repelled; and after a protracted siege of sixty days, a last assault was ordered, which being equally unsuccessful with all former attempts, and attended with the loss of some of his bravest warriors, dictated the necessity of an immediate retreat.

8. In the present century a new power arose in the East, namely, that of Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, who, having collected large treasures and a well-disciplined army, openly renounced his allegiance to the Grand Signior. A war took place, in which the hasty levies of Turkey were broken and put to flight by the veteran troops of Egypt; and a series of brilliant successes added Syria, with Palestine, to the pasha’s dominion. The people generally were disposed to hail the change of masters with pleasure; and by a well-advised and moderate system of government, Mehemet Ali might have bound them firmly to his person and his cause. But, although in some respects an enlightened man, his notions of government were still Oriental and despotic; and the sort of European discipline and order which he had introduced into his civil and military service, was chiefly valued by him as an instrument in giving the more general and certain effect to his extortions. The Syrians soon discovered that, instead of being relieved from the exactions of the Turkish government, much heavier burdens were laid upon them. The conscription, or forcible impressment of young men for the array, and the disarming of the population, were, however, the measures which created the most general discontent, and led to such disturbances and revolts, as encouraged the Porte in the design which it had always entertained, of reducing the pasha and recovering the ceded provinces. Eventually a Turkish army appeared on the northern frontier of Syria, and soon came into collision with the Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pasha, eldest son of Mehemet Ali. The Turks were completely routed by the Egyptians in the battle of Nezib; and the great powers of Europe then deemed it right to interfere, to prevent Ibrahim from pursuing his victory, and to crush the ambitions designs of his father. This was accomplished chiefly through the brilliant operations of an English fleet, under Admiral Stopford and Commodore Napier, by which Acre and other strongholds on the coast were taken for the Sultan; and the pasha was at length compelled to evacuate Syria, and restore it to the dominion of the Porte, which has since administered the government of the country with greater mildness, and with less disregard of European influence, than they formerly manifested. Jerusalem, which had long been overlooked in the policy of nations, has recently become of importance in the eyes of the greatest states in the world, The five great powers of Europe have established consuls in the city, and two of them, England and Prussia, have joined to found there an Anglican Episcopate, in connection with which a Protestant church has been built upon Mount Zion.

Jerusalem Gate