PALESTINE AFTER THE THIRD CRUSADE—HENRY VI.—SIEGE OF THORON.
After the death of Saladin his empire fell to pieces. Afdhal, his eldest
son, secured the title of Sultan of Damascus; another son, Aziz, that of
Sultan of Egypt; and a third, Dahir, that of Sultan of Aleppo;
Malek-Ahdel, his brother, the rule over Mesopotamia. Afdhal warred upon
Aziz, and Malek-Ahdel took advantage of the reverses of both.
The Christians also fought among themselves. The jealousies of Templars
and Hospitallers were intense. These two orders had, since their
founding early in the century, grown to be powerful organizations, not
only in Palestine, but throughout Europe. They held valuable property in
all lands. Princes, feudal lords, and high dignitaries of the church
were enrolled in their membership. They were rivals everywhere for the
repute of bravery, as well as in wealth and political influence. The
Roman see exempted their members from secular taxation, and even from
religious oversight, except by the Holy Father himself. Their grand
masters were autocratic sovereigns within their orders. Naturally they
became overbearing, intolerant of interference, amenable to no counsel
but their own. Their power bred audacity, and ecclesiastical privileges
fostered the conceit of saintship, which even their crimes could not
tarnish. As they despised the rest of mankind, so the two orders hated
each other as rivals.
The Pope appealed for a new crusade, but could not evoke any popular
response. Richard of England and Philip of France had such mutual
suspicion that neither would leave his domain to the depredations of the
other; and they hated each other too cordially to again unite their arms
in the common cause. A few listened to the Pope’s appeal, among them
Simon de Montfort, afterwards known for his butchery of the Albigenses.
It was reserved for Henry VI., the contemptible persecutor of Richard,
to represent the royalty of Europe in response to the call of the Holy
Father. He emulated the fame of his father, Frederick Barbarossa, whose
ambition he inherited with neither his character nor ability. Not
content with issuing royal mandates, he himself became a preacher of the
holy war (spring of 1195). An army under the Archbishop of Mayence,
which was joined by Queen Margaret of Hungary, moved eastward by way of
the Danube. Another, under the dukes of Saxony and Brabant, left the
ports of the Baltic. Henry marched with a force for Italy, but had his
eye rather on Sicily than Palestine.
The first army reached Acre, and began ravaging the Moslem lands in
spite of the protests of the Christian inhabitants, who could not bring
themselves to so shameful a breach of treaty. Instantly the divisions of
the Infidels were healed. From Egypt, Damascus, and Mesopotamia, the
Moslems rallied to Jerusalem. Assigning command to Malek-Ahdel, they
took summary vengeance upon the invaders. Jaffa fell at once into their
hands.
The second army of Christians, having made the voyage down the Atlantic
and through the Mediterranean, landed at Beirut and inflicted a crushing
defeat upon Malek-Ahdel, who had advanced from Jaffa to oppose its
progress.
Henry VI. busied himself in Sicily until he had secured that country,
and with it restored the imperial preponderance in the affairs of Italy.
This he accomplished through the perpetration of barbarities from which
the Turks would have recoiled, and in which the Greeks at Constantinople
were his only competitors. He put out the eyes of the son of Tancred,
ruler of Cyprus, and stole his daughters. With the instinct of a ghoul,
he dug up the body of Tancred in order to strip from it the badge of
dead royalty. When he had satisfied his remorseless ambition in this
section, he allowed the remnant of his army to proceed to Palestine for
the succor of their brethren. He engaged to keep a force of fifty
thousand in the Holy Land for one year at his own expense. The third
army was led by Conrad, Bishop of Hildesheim, chancellor of the empire.
Thus augmented, the Christians in the East were enthusiastic for the
recapture of Jerusalem; but the coming of winter, the well-known
strengthening of the fortifications about the Holy City, and, above all,
the dissensions among the rival leaders, who cared more for the maritime
cities, with their treasures, than for a place whose chief glory was its
sacredness, led to the postponement of the enterprise until the spring.
An assault upon Thoron occupied them meanwhile. The fortress of Thoron,
between the Lebanons and the Mediterranean, was the great menace to the
ambition of the invaders. This stronghold was on the top of a mountain,
and guarded from hostile approach by precipitous walls and deep ravines.
Its seeming impregnability did not daunt the spirit of the crusaders;
they bridged chasms and dug into cliffs, until they thoroughly
undermined the masonry of the fortress.
The Moslems, realizing their extremity, proposed to capitulate on simply
being guaranteed their lives. The proposition divided the Christian
leaders, the majority being willing to accept this condition of
surrender; but many, overcome by their passion for blood, voted to give
no quarter. The attitude of this latter party in the conference
convinced the Moslem deputies that the lives of their people would not
be safe even under the sacredness of an agreement, an impression which
was confirmed by the remembrance of past occasions when the Christians
won the name of truce-breakers. Believing that they had nothing to hope
for, the Moslems resolved to fight it out. In vain did the more moderate
among the besiegers assure them of protection. The broken ramparts were
repaired, or the gaps filled with solid ranks of soldiers who with
upraised swords invoked the judgment of Allah. They countermined, and
met their assailants in subterranean passages. The Saxon miners who
entered these shafts often reappeared in the hands of captors upon the
walls, whence they were hurled by the engines through the air, to fall
dead in the camp they had left. The desperate valor of the Moslems
depressed the hosts which but yesterday were waiting to bathe their
victorious swords in the blood of the victims. The chiefs accused one
another of cowardice and treachery. The miserable rivalry led them one
by one to desert and retire to the coast. One day, when the orders for
general assault had been issued, the various divisions found themselves
without leaders and without plans. Disorder was followed by panic,
augmented by the report that Malek-Ahdel had been joined by Aziz, the
son of Saladin and Sultan of Egypt, and that soon this force would be
upon them. A furious tempest swept over the mountain. Their superstition
heard in the thunders the malediction of heaven, and saw in the freshets
which obliterated the paths the vengeance of nature for their having
turned aside from the conquest of Jerusalem. The Germans made a wretched
flight for Jaffa; the Syrian Christians huddled themselves into Acre.
Malek-Ahdel quickly assaulted Jaffa, and, though repulsed, left the
dukes of Saxony and Brabant dead upon the field.
News soon came of the death of the Emperor Henry VI. (September 28,
1197). The German chieftains hastened their return to Europe in order to
secure their individual interests with the successor to the imperial
throne. In vain did the Pope protest against the desertion of the pious
cause. A woman, Queen Margaret of Hungary, alone remained with her
soldiers on the sacred soil. The remnant left at Jaffa were surprised
during a roisterous and drunken celebration of the feast of St. Martin,
and were massacred almost to a man by the Moslems.
Thus terminated what some writers denominate the fourth crusade, but
which surely deserves no such designation. It was a European raid in
which the religious motive scarcely evidenced itself except in the fact
that it was proclaimed by a Pope. The thirty ounces of gold which Henry
VI. promised to each of his soldiers seem to have been more influential
over their minds than even the desire to pray at the Holy Sepulchre. The
movement inspired new confidence in the prowess of the Moslems,
confirming their own belief in the invincibility of their Prophet, and
exciting a query throughout the Christian world, if Christ had not
deserted His people because of their sins.
THE FOURTH CRUSADE.