Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Home | Prev
| Next
| Contents
Chapter LIX: The Crusades. -- Part III.
Philip Augustus, and Richard the First, are the only kings of France and
England who have fought under the same banners; but the holy service in
which they were enlisted was incessantly disturbed by their national
jealousy; and the two factions, which they protected in Palestine, were
more averse to each other than to the common enemy. In the eyes of the
Orientals; the French monarch was superior in dignity and power; and, in
the emperor's absence, the Latins revered him as their temporal chief.
^71 His exploits were not adequate to his fame. Philip was brave, but
the statesman predominated in his character; he was soon weary of
sacrificing his health and interest on a barren coast: the surrender of
Acre became the signal of his departure; nor could he justify this
unpopular desertion, by leaving the duke of Burgundy with five hundred
knights and ten thousand foot, for the service of the Holy Land. The
king of England, though inferior in dignity, surpassed his rival in
wealth and military renown; ^72 and if heroism be confined to brutal and
ferocious valor, Richard Plantagenet will stand high among the heroes of
the age. The memory of Cur de Lion, of the lion-hearted prince, was long
dear and glorious to his English subjects; and, at the distance of sixty
years, it was celebrated in proverbial sayings by the grandsons of the
Turks and Saracens, against whom he had fought: his tremendous name was
employed by the Syrian mothers to silence their infants; and if a horse
suddenly started from the way, his rider was wont to exclaim, "Dost thou
think King Richard is in that bush?" ^73 His cruelty to the Mahometans
was the effect of temper and zeal; but I cannot believe that a soldier,
so free and fearless in the use of his lance, would have descended to
whet a dagger against his valiant brother Conrad of Montferrat, who was
slain at Tyre by some secret assassins. ^74 After the surrender of Acre,
and the departure of Philip, the king of England led the crusaders to
the recovery of the sea-coast; and the cities of Cæsarea and Jaffa were
added to the fragments of the kingdom of Lusignan. A march of one
hundred miles from Acre to Ascalon was a great and perpetual battle of
eleven days. In the disorder of his troops, Saladin remained on the
field with seventeen guards, without lowering his standard, or
suspending the sound of his brazen kettle-drum: he again rallied and
renewed the charge; and his preachers or heralds called aloud on the
unitarians, manfully to stand up against the Christian idolaters. But
the progress of these idolaters was irresistible; and it was only by
demolishing the walls and buildings of Ascalon, that the sultan could
prevent them from occupying an important fortress on the confines of
Egypt. During a severe winter, the armies slept; but in the spring, the
Franks advanced within a day's march of Jerusalem, under the leading
standard of the English king; and his active spirit intercepted a
convoy, or caravan, of seven thousand camels. Saladin ^75 had fixed his
station in the holy city; but the city was struck with consternation and
discord: he fasted; he prayed; he preached; he offered to share the
dangers of the siege; but his Mamalukes, who remembered the fate of
their companions at Acre, pressed the sultan with loyal or seditious
clamors, to reserve his person and their courage for the future defence
of the religion and empire. ^76 The Moslems were delivered by the
sudden, or, as they deemed, the miraculous, retreat of the Christians;
^77 and the laurels of Richard were blasted by the prudence, or envy, of
his companions. The hero, ascending a hill, and veiling his face,
exclaimed with an indignant voice, "Those who are unwilling to rescue,
are unworthy to view, the sepulchre of Christ!" After his return to
Acre, on the news that Jaffa was surprised by the sultan, he sailed with
some merchant vessels, and leaped foremost on the beach: the castle was
relieved by his presence; and sixty thousand Turks and Saracens fled
before his arms. The discovery of his weakness, provoked them to return
in the morning; and they found him carelessly encamped before the gates
with only seventeen knights and three hundred archers. Without counting
their numbers, he sustained their charge; and we learn from the evidence
of his enemies, that the king of England, grasping his lance, rode
furiously along their front, from the right to the left wing, without
meeting an adversary who dared to encounter his career. ^78 Am I writing
the history of Orlando or Amadis?
[Footnote 71: Magnus hic apud eos, interque reges eorum tum virtute tum
majestate eminens . . . . summus rerum arbiter, (Bohadin, p. 159.) He
does not seem to have known the names either of Philip or Richard.]
[Footnote 72: Rex Angliæ, præstrenuus . . . . rege Gallorum minor apud
eos censebatur ratione regni atque dignitatis; sed tum divitiis
florentior, tum bellicâ virtute multo erat celebrior, (Bohadin, p. 161.)
A stranger might admire those riches; the national historians will tell
with what lawless and wasteful oppression they were collected.]
[Footnote 73: Joinville, p. 17. Cuides-tu que ce soit le roi Richart?]
[Footnote 74: Yet he was guilty in the opinion of the Moslems, who
attest the confession of the assassins, that they were sent by the king
of England, (Bohadin, p. 225;) and his only defence is an absurd and
palpable forgery, (Hist. de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p.
155--163,) a pretended letter from the prince of the assassins, the
Sheich, or old man of the mountain, who justified Richard, by assuming
to himself the guilt or merit of the murder. *
- Note
- * Von Hammer (Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 202) sums up against
Richard, Wilken (vol. iv. p. 485) as strongly for acquittal. Michaud
(vol. ii. p. 420) delivers no decided opinion. This crime was also
attributed to Saladin, who is said, by an Oriental authority, (the
continuator of Tabari,) to have employed the assassins to murder both
Conrad and Richard. It is a melancholy admission, but it must be
acknowledged, that such an act would be less inconsistent with the
character of the Christian than of the Mahometan king. -- M.]
[Footnote 75: See the distress and pious firmness of Saladin, as they
are described by Bohadin, (p. 7--9, 235--237,) who himself harangued the
defenders of Jerusalem; their fears were not unknown to the enemy,
(Jacob. à Vitriaco, l. i. c. 100, p. 1123. Vinisauf, l. v. c. 50, p.
399.)]
[Footnote 76: Yet unless the sultan, or an Ayoubite prince, remained in
Jerusalem, nec Curdi Turcis, nec Turci essent obtemperaturi Curdis,
(Bohadin, p. 236.) He draws aside a corner of the political curtain.]
[Footnote 77: Bohadin, (p. 237,) and even Jeffrey de Vinisauf, (l. vi.
-
1--8, p. 403--409,) ascribe the retreat to Richard himself; and
Jacobus à Vitriaco observes, that in his impatience to depart, in
alterum virum mutatus est, (p. 1123.) Yet Joinville, a French knight,
accuses the envy of Hugh duke of Burgundy, (p. 116,) without supposing,
like Matthew Paris, that he was bribed by Saladin.]
[Footnote 78: The expeditions to Ascalon, Jerusalem, and Jaffa, are
related by Bohadin (p. 184--249) and Abulfeda, (p. 51, 52.) The author
of the Itinerary, or the monk of St. Alban's, cannot exaggerate the
cadhi's account of the prowess of Richard, (Vinisauf, l. vi. c. 14--24,
-
412--421. Hist. Major, p. 137--143;) and on the whole of this war
there is a marvellous agreement between the Christian and Mahometan
writers, who mutually praise the virtues of their enemies.]
During these hostilities, a languid and tedious negotiation ^79 between
the Franks and Moslems was started, and continued, and broken, and again
resumed, and again broken. Some acts of royal courtesy, the gift of snow
and fruit, the exchange of Norway hawks and Arabian horses, softened the
asperity of religious war: from the vicissitude of success, the monarchs
might learn to suspect that Heaven was neutral in the quarrel; nor,
after the trial of each other, could either hope for a decisive victory.
^80 The health both of Richard and Saladin appeared to be in a declining
state; and they respectively suffered the evils of distant and domestic
warfare: Plantagenet was impatient to punish a perfidious rival who had
invaded Normandy in his absence; and the indefatigable sultan was
subdued by the cries of the people, who was the victim, and of the
soldiers, who were the instruments, of his martial zeal. The first
demands of the king of England were the restitution of Jerusalem,
Palestine, and the true cross; and he firmly declared, that himself and
his brother pilgrims would end their lives in the pious labor, rather
than return to Europe with ignominy and remorse. But the conscience of
Saladin refused, without some weighty compensation, to restore the
idols, or promote the idolatry, of the Christians; he asserted, with
equal firmness, his religious and civil claim to the sovereignty of
Palestine; descanted on the importance and sanctity of Jerusalem; and
rejected all terms of the establishment, or partition of the Latins. The
marriage which Richard proposed, of his sister with the sultan's
brother, was defeated by the difference of faith; the princess abhorred
the embraces of a Turk; and Adel, or Saphadin, would not easily renounce
a plurality of wives. A personal interview was declined by Saladin, who
alleged their mutual ignorance of each other's language; and the
negotiation was managed with much art and delay by their interpreters
and envoys. The final agreement was equally disapproved by the zealots
of both parties, by the Roman pontiff and the caliph of Bagdad. It was
stipulated that Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre should be open, without
tribute or vexation, to the pilgrimage of the Latin Christians; that,
after the demolition of Ascalon, they should inclusively possess the
sea-coast from Jaffa to Tyre; that the count of Tripoli and the prince
of Antioch should be comprised in the truce; and that, during three
years and three months, all hostilities should cease. The principal
chiefs of the two armies swore to the observance of the treaty; but the
monarchs were satisfied with giving their word and their right hand; and
the royal majesty was excused from an oath, which always implies some
suspicion of falsehood and dishonor. Richard embarked for Europe, to
seek a long captivity and a premature grave; and the space of a few
months concluded the life and glories of Saladin. The Orientals describe
his edifying death, which happened at Damascus; but they seem ignorant
of the equal distribution of his alms among the three religions, ^81 or
of the display of a shroud, instead of a standard, to admonish the East
of the instability of human greatness. The unity of empire was dissolved
by his death; his sons were oppressed by the stronger arm of their uncle
Saphadin; the hostile interests of the sultans of Egypt, Damascus, and
Aleppo, ^82 were again revived; and the Franks or Latins stood and
breathed, and hoped, in their fortresses along the Syrian coast.
[Footnote 79: See the progress of negotiation and hostility in Bohadin,
-
207--260,) who was himself an actor in the treaty. Richard declared
his intention of returning with new armies to the conquest of the Holy
Land; and Saladin answered the menace with a civil compliment, (Vinisauf
-
vi. c. 28, p. 423.)]
[Footnote 80: The most copious and original account of this holy war is
Galfridi à Vinisauf, Itinerarium Regis Anglorum Richardi et aliorum in
Terram Hierosolymorum, in six books, published in the iid volume of
Gale's Scriptores Hist. Anglicanæ, (p. 247--429.) Roger Hoveden and
Matthew Paris afford likewise many valuable materials; and the former
describes, with accuracy, the discipline and navigation of the English
fleet.]
[Footnote 81: Even Vertot (tom. i. p. 251) adopts the foolish notion of
the indifference of Saladin, who professed the Koran with his last
breath.]
[Footnote 82: See the succession of the Ayoubites, in Abulpharagius,
(Dynast. p. 277, &c.,) and the tables of M. De Guignes, l'Art de
Vérifier les Dates, and the Bibliothèque Orientale.]
The noblest monument of a conqueror's fame, and of the terror which he
inspired, is the Saladine tenth, a general tax which was imposed on the
laity, and even the clergy, of the Latin church, for the service of the
holy war. The practice was too lucrative to expire with the occasion:
and this tribute became the foundation of all the tithes and tenths on
ecclesiastical benefices, which have been granted by the Roman pontiffs
to Catholic sovereigns, or reserved for the immediate use of the
apostolic see. ^83 This pecuniary emolument must have tended to increase
the interest of the popes in the recovery of Palestine: after the death
of Saladin, they preached the crusade, by their epistles, their legates,
and their missionaries; and the accomplishment of the pious work might
have been expected from the zeal and talents of Innocent the Third. ^84
Under that young and ambitious priest, the successors of St. Peter
attained the full meridian of their greatness: and in a reign of
eighteen years, he exercised a despotic command over the emperors and
kings, whom he raised and deposed; over the nations, whom an interdict
of months or years deprived, for the offence of their rulers, of the
exercise of Christian worship. In the council of the Lateran he acted as
the ecclesiastical, almost as the temporal, sovereign of the East and
West. It was at the feet of his legate that John of England surrendered
his crown; and Innocent may boast of the two most signal triumphs over
sense and humanity, the establishment of transubstantiation, and the
origin of the inquisition. At his voice, two crusades, the fourth and
the fifth, were undertaken; but, except a king of Hungary, the princes
of the second order were at the head of the pilgrims: the forces were
inadequate to the design; nor did the effects correspond with the hopes
and wishes of the pope and the people. The fourth crusade was diverted
from Syria to Constantinople; and the conquest of the Greek or Roman
empire by the Latins will form the proper and important subject of the
next chapter. In the fifth, ^85 two hundred thousand Franks were landed
at the eastern mouth of the Nile. They reasonably hoped that Palestine
must be subdued in Egypt, the seat and storehouse of the sultan; and,
after a siege of sixteen months, the Moslems deplored the loss of
Damietta. But the Christian army was ruined by the pride and insolence
of the legate Pelagius, who, in the pope's name, assumed the character
of general: the sickly Franks were encompassed by the waters of the Nile
and the Oriental forces; and it was by the evacuation of Damietta that
they obtained a safe retreat, some concessions for the pilgrims, and the
tardy restitution of the doubtful relic of the true cross. The failure
may in some measure be ascribed to the abuse and multiplication of the
crusades, which were preached at the same time against the Pagans of
Livonia, the Moors of Spain, the Albigeois of France, and the kings of
Sicily of the Imperial family. ^86 In these meritorious services, the
volunteers might acquire at home the same spiritual indulgence, and a
larger measure of temporal rewards; and even the popes, in their zeal
against a domestic enemy, were sometimes tempted to forget the distress
of their Syrian brethren. From the last age of the crusades they derived
the occasional command of an army and revenue; and some deep reasoners
have suspected that the whole enterprise, from the first synod of
Placentia, was contrived and executed by the policy of Rome. The
suspicion is not founded, either in nature or in fact. The successors of
St. Peter appear to have followed, rather than guided, the impulse of
manners and prejudice; without much foresight of the seasons, or
cultivation of the soil, they gathered the ripe and spontaneous fruits
of the superstition of the times. They gathered these fruits without
toil or personal danger: in the council of the Lateran, Innocent the
Third declared an ambiguous resolution of animating the crusaders by his
example; but the pilot of the sacred vessel could not abandon the helm;
nor was Palestine ever blessed with the presence of a Roman pontiff. ^87
[Footnote 83: Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. iii. p. 311--374)
has copiously treated of the origin, abuses, and restrictions of these
tenths. A theory was started, but not pursued, that they were rightfully
due to the pope, a tenth of the Levite's tenth to the high priest,
(Selden on Tithes; see his Works, vol. iii. p. ii. p. 1083.)]
[Footnote 84: See the Gesta Innocentii III. in Murat. Script. Rer.
Ital., (tom. iii. p. 486--568.)]
[Footnote 85: See the vth crusade, and the siege of Damietta, in Jacobus
à Vitriaco, (l. iii. p. 1125--1149, in the Gesta Dei of Bongarsius,) an
eye-witness, Bernard Thesaurarius, (in Script. Muratori, tom. vii. p.
825--846, c. 190--207,) a contemporary, and Sanutus, (Secreta Fidel
Crucis, l. iii. p. xi. c. 4--9,) a diligent compiler; and of the
Arabians Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 294,) and the Extracts at the end of
Joinville, (p. 533, 537, 540, 547, &c.)]
[Footnote 86: To those who took the cross against Mainfroy, the pope
Prev
| Next
| Contents
|