_CRUSADES AND THE CRUSADERS_.
1. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, in the year 70 of the
Christian era, Palestine continued for upward of two centuries in the
condition of a Roman province, inhabited by a mixed population of
pagans, Jews, and Christians. In Jerusalem, temples of Venus and
Jupiter were erected on the most sacred spots of Christian history;
and heathenism triumphed in the possession of the Holy City of two
religions. On the establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire by
Constantine, in the year 321, this state of things was changed;
Palestine and Jerusalem became objects of interest to all Christians,
and crowds of pilgrims visited the localities celebrated by the
evangelists. Splendid churches were erected on the ruins of pagan
temples, and every spot pointed out as the scene of the memorable
events in the life of Christ and his apostles was marked by a chapel
or house of prayer. Jerusalem and the Holy Land became the resort of
numerous bodies of clergy, who resided in the churches and monasteries
which the piety of the wealthy had founded for them.
2. At the end of the fourth century, the gigantic Roman Empire was
broken up into two, the Eastern, the capital of which was
Constantinople, and the Western, the capital of which was Rome. It was
to the former of these that Syria and Palestine were attached. Before
the end of the fifth century the Western Empire had been destroyed by
the eruption of the German races, and the beginnings of a new European
civilization were rising from its ruins. Meanwhile, the Eastern
remained entire, till about the year 630, when the Arabs, burning with
the spirit of conquest infused into them by the religion of Mohammed,
poured into its provinces. Egypt, Syria, and Palestine were annexed as
dependencies to the great Arabic Empire of the caliphs. The religion
of Mohammed became dominant in the Holy Land, the temples and chapels
were converted into mosques.
3. Numbers of pilgrims still continued each year to visit Palestine.
In return for a certain tribute, the earlier caliphs permitted the
Christians of Jerusalem to have a patriarch, and to carry on their own
form of worship. Of all the caliphs, the celebrated Haroun al-Rashid,
best known to us in the stories of the "Arabian Nights," was the most
tolerant, and under him the Christians enjoyed perfect peace.
4. Great cruelties were practised by the Fatimite caliphs, who
conquered Syria about the year 980. The pilgrims were robbed, beaten,
and sometimes slain on their journey, the Christian residents
oppressed by heavy impositions, and their feelings outraged by insults
against their religion. These sufferings were slight, however,
compared with those which they endured after the invasion and conquest
of Palestine by the Turkish hordes in 1065. But recently converted to
Moslemism, and therefore more rude and fanatical than the other
Mohammedans, these Turks wreaked their vengeance on all
alike--Christians, Jews, and even the native Mohammedans.
5. The news of the atrocities perpetrated by the Turks produced a deep
sensation over the whole of Christendom, as well among the Latin
Christians as among the Greek Christians, the name given to the
population of what remained of the old Byzantine Empire. The latter
had reason to dread that, if the Turks were not checked,
Constantinople, their capital, would soon share the same fate as
Jerusalem. Accordingly, about the year 1073, the Greek Emperor, Manuel
VII, sent to supplicate the assistance of the great Pope Gregory VII
against the Turks. Till now there had prevailed a spirit of antagonism
between the Greek and Latin churches, the former refusing to yield
obedience to the pope of the West as the universal head of the Church.
Gregory, therefore, eagerly received the application of the Greek
Emperor, seeing the promise of the final subjection of the Greek to
the Latin Church. He resolved to give the enterprise his countenance,
and to march himself at the head of an army to rescue the Holy
Sepulchre.
6. Gregory was prevented from ever carrying out his design, and the
idea of a crusade gradually died away. Meanwhile, the Turks extended
their victories at the expense of the Greek Empire. Before the
accession of the celebrated Alexius Comnenus to the throne in 1081,
the whole of Asia Minor was in the possession of the Turks, and broken
up into a number of kingdoms, the sultans of which soon began to
quarrel among themselves. The disturbed state of Asia Minor greatly
increased the sufferings of the pilgrims; not one out of three
returned to recount the story of his hardships.
7. Among those who undertook the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, when the
dangers attending it were the greatest, was a native of Amiens in
France, named Peter, who had become a monk and an ascetic, being
called from his solitary manner of life, Peter the Hermit. He arrived
safely at Jerusalem, and visited all the scenes sacred to a
Christian's eyes. As he walked along the streets, looking at this and
that holy spot, insolent and contemptuous Turks looked on and mocked
him, and his spirit grew bitter within him, and his hand clutched
itself convulsively as if longing for a sword.
8. Burning with a sense of injuries sustained by the Christians, and
the desecration of the sacred places, he sought the counsel of Simeon,
the Greek patriarch of Jerusalem. In reply to Peter's questions, he
explained that nothing was to be expected from the Greek Empire in
behalf of the Holy Land, the court of Constantinople was so dissolute
and corrupt, and that the only hope was that the Latin princes might
be persuaded to form a league for the grand purpose entertained by
Gregory VII. "Write," Peter said to the patriarch, "to the pope and to
all Latin Christians, and seal your letters with the signet of your
office as patriarch of Jerusalem. As a penance for my sins, I will
travel over Europe, I will describe everywhere the desolate condition
of the Holy City, and exhort princes and people to wrest it from the
profane hands of the infidels."
[Illustration: _Mosque of Achmet, Constantinople_]
9. The letters were accordingly written, and the hermit set sail with
them from Joppa. Arriving in Italy he presented the documents to the
pope, Urban II, a pupil and _protégé_ of Gregory VII, urging his
holiness to use his authority, as the head of Christendom, to set in
motion a scheme for regaining the birthplace of Christ. Enthusiasm is
contagious, and the pope appears to have caught it instantly from one
whose zeal was so unbounded. Giving the Hermit full powers, he sent
him abroad to preach the holy war. Peter departed, going from town to
town, and from village to village, and, in the language of the
chroniclers, "traversing the whole of Europe in less than a year's
time." His strange and wild aspect, his glittering eye, his shrill
and unearthly eloquence, the grandeur of his theme, his pathetic
descriptions of Jerusalem and the Christians there, produced
everywhere the most extraordinary sensations. "He set out," says a
contemporary historian, "from whence I know not, nor with what
purpose; but we saw him passing through the towns and villages,
everywhere preaching, and the people flocking round him, loading him
with gifts, and praising his sanctity with such eulogiums, that I
never remember having seen so great honors paid to any other man. The
people reverenced him so that they plucked the hairs from the mane of
his mule, and kept them afterward as relics. Out of doors he generally
wore a woolen tunic, with a brown mantle, which descended to his
heels. His arms and feet were bare, he ate little or no bread, but
lived on fish and wine."
10. Such being the success of the Hermit's mission, the pope showed
his approbation of the project by summoning in the year 1095 two
councils. The first of these was held at Placentia in March;
ambassadors from the Greek Emperor appeared to petition for aid
against the Turks, and the members of the council were unanimous in
their support of the crusade. The second, the famous Council of
Clermont, was held at the town of that name in Auvergne in the month
of November. It was in the midst of an extremely cold winter, and the
ground was covered with snow. During seven days the council sat with
closed doors, while immense crowds from all parts of France flocked
into the town, in the expectation that the pope himself would address
the people.
11. All the neighborhood presented the appearance of a vast camp.
Issuing from the church in his full canonicals, surrounded by his
cardinals and bishops in all the splendor of ecclesiastical costume,
the pope stood before the populace on a high scaffolding, erected for
the occasion, and covered with scarlet cloth. A brilliant array of
bishops and cardinals surrounded him, and among them, humbler in rank
but more important in the world's eye, the Hermit Peter, dressed in
his simple woolen gown. The pope's eloquent words touched every heart.
He was interrupted by the united voice of the people shouting "God
wills it! God wills it!" Hushing the joyous tumult with a wave of his
hand, the pontiff continued "Be they then your war-cry in the combat,
for those words came from God. Let the army of the Lord, when it
rushes upon its enemies, shout but that one cry, 'God wills it! God
wills it!' Let whoever is inclined to devote himself to this holy
cause wear on his breast or back the sign of the holy cross." From
this time the red cross was the sacred emblem of the crusaders.
THE FIRST CRUSADE.
12. Following the Council of Clermont, preparations for invading the
Holy Land began in almost every country of Europe. The clanging of the
smith's hammer, making or repairing armor, was heard in every village.
All who had property of any description rushed to the mart to change
it for hard cash. The nobles mortgaged their estates, the farmer
endeavored to sell his plow, and the artisan his tools to purchase a
sword for the deliverance of Jerusalem. Women disposed of their
trinkets for the same purpose. During the spring and summer of 1096
the roads teemed with crusaders, all hastening to the towns and
villages appointed as the rendevous of the district. Very few knew
where Jerusalem was. Some thought it fifty thousand miles away, and
others imagined it but a month's journey; while at the sight of every
tower or castle the children exclaimed "Is that Jerusalem?" Little
attempt at any organization was made, though the multitude had three
leaders. It is said that the first band, consisting of twenty thousand
foot, with only eight horsemen, were led by a Burgundian gentleman,
called Walter the Penniless. They were followed by a rabble of forty
thousand men, women, and children, led by Peter the Hermit, a medley
of all nations and languages. Next followed a band of fifteen thousand
men, mostly Germans, under a priest named Gottschalk. These three
multitudes led the way in the crusades, pursuing the same route, that,
namely, which leads through Hungary and Bulgaria toward Asia Minor.
13. Like their nominal leader, each of the followers of Walter the
Penniless was poor to penury, and trusted for subsistence to the
chances of the road. In Hungary they met with loud resistance from the
people, whose houses they attacked and plundered, but in Bulgaria the
natives declared war against the hungry horde; they were dispersed and
almost exterminated. Some of the survivors retraced their steps; the
rest, among whom was Walter, reached Constantinople, where they
awaited the arrival of Peter and his companions. The Hermit, who had
the same difficulties to contend with in marching through Hungary and
Bulgaria, reached Constantinople with his army greatly reduced, and in
a most deplorable condition. Here he and Walter joined forces, the
Hermit assuming the superior command. They were hospitably received by
the emperor, but their riotous conduct soon wearied out his patience,
and he was glad to listen to a proposal of the Hermit to furnish them
with the means of passing at once into Asia. The rabble accordingly
crossed the Bosphorus, and took up their quarters in Bethynia. Here
they became perfectly ungovernable, ravaging the country around, and
committing incredible excesses; at length Peter, utterly disgusted and
despairing, left them to their own guidance and returned to
Constantinople. The bravest of them were annihilated in a battle
fought near Nice, Walter the Penniless falling with seven mortal
wounds. Between two and three thousand alone escaped, brought back to
Constantinople by the troops of Alexius, who rescued them from the
Turks. The emperor dismissed them, with orders to return home, and
thus ended the disastrous expedition of Walter the Penniless and Peter
the Hermit.
14. The fifteen thousand Germans led by Gottschalk never reached
Constantinople, being slaughtered or dispersed during their passage
through Hungary. Hungary was also fatal to another army of crusaders,
the fourth in order, but greatly exceeding in numbers the other three
put together. This terrible horde, consisting of about two hundred
thousand, swept through Germany committing horrible outrages,
especially against the Jews, whom they murdered without mercy. They
were preceded by a goose and a goat, to which they attributed divine
powers. As the rabble advanced, the Hungarians gave themselves up for
lost, the king and nobles were preparing to flee, when the mass fell
asunder of its own accord. Many were slain by the enraged Hungarians.
Some escaped to the north, a few ultimately joined the succeeding
bands of crusaders, but the majority perished. Thus, within a few
months, upward of a quarter of a million of human beings were swept
out of existence. And they had spent their lives, without one
important result having been accomplished, without one glorious feat
having been achieved.
15. This was the worst paroxysm of the madness of Europe, and this
passed, her chivalry stepped upon the scene. Men of cool heads, mature
plans, and invincible courage stood forward, to lead and direct not
more fanatical masses, but the gentry, yeomanry, and serfs of feudal
Europe. These were the true crusaders. Altogether they formed six
armies, marching separately, and at considerable intervals of time.
First carne the army of Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, the
pride of his age for all noble and knightly virtues, immortalized by
the poet Tasso. He had risen from a sick-bed to join the crusade, and
sold his lordship to raise the necessary money; around his standard
assembled many of the best knights of the age. In the month of August,
1096, they commenced their march, through Hungary and Bulgaria.
16. Four other chiefs of the royal blood of Europe also assumed the
cross, and led each his army to the Holy Land; Hugh, Count of
Vermandois, brother of the king of France; Robert, Duke of Normandy,
the elder brother of William Rufus; Robert, Count of Flanders, and
Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum, eldest son of the celebrated Robert
Guiscard. With Bohemond, and second in command in the army, came
Tancred, the favorite hero of all the historians of the crusade, so
young, so valiant, so enthusiastic. There was not among them all, says
Tasso, a greater warrior, nor any one of more courteous behavior, of
fairer countenance, or of loftier and more intrepid heart. The last
army was led by the haughty and resolute Count Raimond of Toulouse.
17. To detail the progress of the various armies is unnecessary.
Upward of six hundred thousand warriors of the West, beside a
multitude of priests, women, and children, were at last actually
encamped on Asiatic soil. It was literally a moving nation, in which
all languages were spoken, all costumes worn. There was the
fair-haired son of the north, with broad, open forehead, mild blue
eyes, sanguine complexion, and large frame; there the dark visaged
southron, with his flashing glance and fiery soul; there was the
knight in his armor, the priest in his robes, the foot-soldier in his
tough jerkin, the unkempt serf with his belt of rope. There were
pawing horses, swearing grooms, carts full of provisions, sacks,
groups of gossiping women, crowds of merry children. Under the bright
sun of Asia, all was gaudy and brilliant. Spearpoints glittered,
breast-plates and helmets gleamed, thousands of targets displayed
their painted glories, pennons of blue, purple, and white streamed
from every tent, while heavier flags flapped their sullen folds; and
everywhere, on shield, flag, helmet, tunic, and coat of mail, was seen
blazoned the holy sign of the red cross. Walking through all these,
heedless of the looks cast upon him, and hearing not the oft-repeated
bugle-blasts from all parts of the camp, might be seen a man of small
stature, thin and poorly clad, with down-cast face, wild, unsettled
eye, and timid, nervous gait. It was the man who had created it
all--Peter the Hermit. He had crossed from Constantinople with Godfrey
of Bouillon. His revenge was near! On, on, then, to the Holy City!
18. Alas, the Holy City was yet far distant! Not much more than half
their journey in point of space had been accomplished, and in point of
difficulty and peril their march had little more than begun, for they
had just entered the countries of the infidels. Months had to roll on,
and many battles to be fought, ere the pinnacles of the Holy City
should greet their longing eyes.
19. The route of the crusading armies lay in a southeasterly
direction, through Asia Minor, and then southward to Jerusalem, along
the shores of the Levant. Their march along this route, counting from
the time of their crossing into Asia Minor, May, 1097, to the time
when they came in sight of Jerusalem and laid siege to it, June, 1099,
occupied upward of two years. Countless were the dangers to which the
crusaders were subject in this trial. Of the many sieges two are
especially memorable, that of Nice and that of Antioch.
20. The siege of Nice was the first exploit in which the crusading
armies were engaged. During these six weeks the slaughter of the
Christians, by the arrows of the Turkish garrison, and by the bolts
and large stones which they discharged from mangonels and catapults,
was immense. The city surrendered at last, not, however, to the Latin
chiefs, but to an envoy of the Greek Emperor Alexius, who contrived to
enter into communication with the besieged and induced them to
capitulate. Angry and dissatisfied, the crusaders left their
encampment and resumed their march, not in one mass, but in several
bodies. At length the scattered armies reunited for the siege of
Antioch toward the end of October, 1097. All the known means of attack
were put in operation; movable towers were constructed from which to
discharge missiles into the city. The walls were battered, and the
sallies of the besieged bravely met, still without any effective
result. At the end of ten days famine stared them in the face, so
extravagant were they in the use of their stores. Pestilence joined
its ravages, and instead of the brave army of chivalry which had sat
down before Antioch, was to be seen a crowd of gaunt and famishing
creatures, with scarcely a thought but that of procuring food.
Multitudes died, desertions became numerous.
21. The chiefs began to weary of the expedition, and, most disgraceful
of all, Peter the Hermit turned his back on the enterprise, and had
actually fled several miles on his way home, when he was brought back
by the soldiers of Tancred and forced to undergo a public reprimand.
At length, after infinite sufferings on the part of the Christians,
Antioch was taken on the 3d of June, 1098, by means of the treachery
of an Armenian captain, whom the Turks had intrusted with the command
of one of the towers, and who admitted a number of the crusaders
during a dark and stormy night.
22. Imagination can not conceive a scene more dreadful than that
presented by the devoted city of Antioch on that night of horror. The
crusaders fought with a blind fury which fanaticism and suffering
alike incited. No quarter was shown. At daylight the massacre ceased,
and the crusaders gave themselves up to plunder. They found gold,
jewels, and rich fabrics in abundance, but of provisions little of any
kind. Suddenly they were roused from their sloth and pleasure by the
appearance before Antioch of an immense army, which the Persian caliph
had dispatched to sweep the Christian locusts from the face of the
earth. Great was the alarm of the Christians when they saw this
splendid host of more than two hundred thousand men encamped around
the hills of Antioch. The corn and wine found in the city were soon
exhausted; all the horrors of a second famine began.
23. Many deserted and escaped over the walls, carrying the news of the
sad condition of the Christians back toward Europe. The worst
consequence of these desertions was, that the Greek Emperor Alexius,
who, hearing of the successes of the Latins, was on his march to
assist the crusaders, was deterred from advancing, and returned to
Constantinople. With increasing famine came a pestilence, so that in a
short time but sixty thousand remained of the three hundred thousand
that had invested Antioch. But this bitter extremity knit the leaders
more firmly together, and Bohemond, Godfrey, and Tancred swore never
to desert the cause while life lasted.
24. It is said that belief in the remarkable fulfillment of a dream
brought hope once more to the disheartened crusaders. Peter Barthelmy,
a priest of Provence, dreamed, he said, that Saint Andrew appeared to
him in the night, and informed him that underneath a certain spot in
the floor of the church of Saint Peter was buried the identical lance
with which the Roman soldiers pierced the side of Christ as he hung on
the cross. This relic, said the apparition, was to be the guarantee of
God's presence and their guide to victory. Twelve persons were chosen
to conduct the search. A whole day was spent in vain, the workmen were
tired out, and still no lance was found. At last Peter descended into
the pit and began to dig the loose earth. Suddenly a cry of joy was
heard, and stretching himself to his full height, Peter handed up into
the eager fingers of those above an actual rusty lance-head. In an
instant it was noised abroad that the holy relic had been found. What
remained now but to issue forth and discomfit the infidel host.
25. The infidel host was discomfited. On the 28th of June, 1098, two
hundred thousand Turks, in the full flush of health and strength, were
routed, outside the walls of Antioch, by a half-famished Christian
army. Antioch was bestowed upon Bohemond, and it was resolved that the
army should remain there to recruit before advancing toward Jerusalem.
The tragical fate of Peter Barthelmy must be mentioned. Many of the
crusaders had begun to question the genuineness of the relic he had
found. He was prevailed upon to submit to the ordeal of fire, and
perished in the flames. From that moment the story of the relic lost
credit.
26. It was on a lovely morning in the summer of 1099 that the forty
thousand crusaders, who were all that remained of the vast army which
had two years ago laid seige to Nice, were recompensed for all their
toils by a sight of the Holy City, bathed in the splendor of eastern
sunshine. The name "Jerusalem" escaped from every lip; some leaped and
shouted, some kneeled and prayed, some wept, some threw themselves
prostrate and kissed the earth, some gazed and trembled. "All had much
ado," says the quaint Fuller, "to manage so much gladness."
27. Preparations for a siege were soon under way. The besiegers, who
had gained skill by their former attempts, employed all the methods of
attack that experience could suggest or courage execute, while the
garrison of forty thousand Turks, who maintained the city for their
master, the caliph of Egypt, resisted with determined obstinacy. At
length, after a confession of sins by the whole army, and a
penitential procession around the walls, a simultaneous attack was
made with battering-rains, mangonels, and all manner of besieging
engines. At one quarter a huge wooden tower was wheeled close to the
walls, a movable bridge was let down, and, bounding across it, a
soldier named Lutold was the first man to stand upon the battlements.
Godfrey of Bouillon and a number of knights sprang after him, and the
Christians were within Jerusalem. Meanwhile, at another part of the
wall, Tancred and Robert of Normandy had shattered open a gate, and
rushed in with their men; while at a third part of the city, Raimond
of Toulouse effected an entrance for himself and his followers by the
help of scaling-ladders. In an instant after, the banner of the cross
floated upon the walls of Jerusalem. The crusaders, raising once more
their redoubtable war-cry, rushed on from every side, and the city was
taken. The battle raged for several hours, and the Christians gave no
quarter. Peter the Hermit, who had remained so long under the veil of
neglect, was repaid that day for all his zeal and all his suffering.
He was once more the idol of the army, but history is silent
concerning the remainder of his life.
28. Eight days after the capture of the city, the Latin chiefs
unanimously elected Godfrey of Bouillon king of Jerusalem. A new
Christian state was thus founded in Syria, consisting at first of
little more than the mere city of Jerusalem, but extending by
subsequent battles and conquests until it included the whole of
Palestine. A language resembling Norman-French was established in this
kingdom, and a code of feudal laws drawn up for its government. The
clergy also obtained their share of the conquest, Jerusalem was
created into a patriarchate, and Bethlehem into a bishopric. The
foundation of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in July, 1099, was the
consummation of the first crusade.
29. A period of fifty years succeeded, during which time many battles
were fought with the Saracens of Syria and Egypt, the result of which
was to strengthen the Latin state. No fewer than five hundred thousand
persons set out from Europe for Syria, incited by the news of the
success of the first crusade. The three centers from which the
Christian power sought to spread itself through the Mussulman
possessions were Jerusalem, Antioch, and Edessa.
30. The very spirit of the crusade seemed to have died out. The Latin
Kingdom of Jerusalem had become, like any other kingdom of the period,
a country in which men built houses, plowed land, made bargains, gave
feasts, etc., drank, laughed, talked, quarreled, and went to law. The
fall of Edessa, the first conspicuous success of the Turks, came like
a surprise upon the Latin population of Syria. An attempt was made by
the Christians to recover the city, but it failed, and the frontier of
Syria was open to invasion from the East.
THE SECOND CRUSADE.
31. The fall of Edessa, and the petitions of the people of Palestine
for aid, produced a sensation throughout Europe, and especially in
France. Nor was an apostle wanting worthy to fill the place of Peter,
and to summon the chivalry of Europe to a second crusade. Commissioned
by Pope Eugenius for that purpose, the famous Saint Bernard, Abbot of
Clairvaux in Champagne, traveled through France and Germany, exerting
the power of his marvelous eloquence in recruiting the armies of the
cross. The chiefs of the second crusade were two of the most powerful
princes of Europe, Louis VII, King of France, and Conrad III, Emperor
of Germany. Under their command upward of one million two hundred
thousand men, collected from all parts of Europe, marched toward
Palestine in two great armies, early in 1147.
32. Notwithstanding the vastness of the preparations, the expedition
was a total failure. The events of the last fifty years had rendered
the policy of the Greek princes hostile to the crusades. Manuel
Comnenus, the grandson of Alexius, who now occupied the throne,
suffered both armies to pass into Asia Minor, where, misled by Greek
scouts, the army of Conrad was all but destroyed by the Turks, near
Iconium, while the army of Louis, after undergoing infinite hardships,
was wrecked in the defiles of the Pisidian mountains. The fragments of
the two armies uniting made their way to Syria, where they co-operated
with forces of the princes of Jerusalem and Antioch, in laying seige
to Damascus, but without effect. In 1149 Conrad and Louis returned to
Europe, and the second crusade was at an end, having attained nothing
but the expenditure of more than a million of lives.
THE THIRD CRUSADE.
33. A period of forty years elapsed before Europe fitted out another
crusade. Meanwhile the struggle between the Christian and the Turks in
Syria was carried on without intermission. Noureddin, the son of the
conqueror of Edessa, displayed a genius which astonished both
Christians and Turks. Keeping possession of Edessa, he aimed at
extending his conquest at the expense of the Christians still further.
For some time he was kept in check by the abilities of Baldwin III,
King of Jerusalem. On his death, in 1162, his brother Amalric, far
inferior to Baldwin in ability, succeeded to the throne.
34. At this crisis, while Noureddin, the Sultan of Aleppo, and
Amalric, the Christian King of Jerusalem, were the rival powers in
Syria, occurred a circumstance which exercised considerable influence
on the subsequent course of events, and which makes necessary a
retrospective glance.
35. At the time of the first crusade Palestine was the scene of a
violent contest between the Turks, who had poured down from the North,
conquering as they went, and the Fatimites of Egypt, who had possessed
Syria for nearly a century. The Turks had at first been irresistible.
The Fatimites, however, had been able to recover Jerusalem from the
hands of their enemies, and held it when besieged by the Christians.
Interrupted in their conflict with each other for the sovereignty of
Palestine, the Fatimites and Turks turned their arms with one accord
against the invader. In the person of Noureddin the Turkish power was
now increasing. The Fatimite dynasty of Egypt, meanwhile, had long
been showing signs of decay, the caliphs having become mere tools in
the hands of their viziers. In 1163 one of these viziers, Shawer,
finding himself expelled from his post by a rival, sought refuge at
the court of Aleppo, and applied to the sultan for assistance.
Noureddin eagerly embraced an opportunity for obtaining a footing in
Egypt, and sent two persons, Chyrkouh and his nephew Saladin, to
displace the usurping vizier and re-establish Shawer. They, however,
usurped the government, and Shawer applied to the King of Jerusalem,
Amalric, for assistance. Amalric in turn attempted usurpation, and
again the officers of Noureddin came to the aid of Shawer. The vizier
paid the penalty of his fickleness by losing his head, and his post
was occupied by Chyrkouh, who, while ruling Egypt as a vizier of the
Fatimite caliph, was in reality the lieutenant of Noureddin.
36. On the death of Chyrkouh, Saladin was appointed to the viziership.
The caliph fancied that he would now regain the control of his own
dominions, but he little knew the character of his new vizier. Saladin
soon effected a revolution in Egypt, declared the Fatimite dynasty to
be at an end, and subjected the country once more to the nominal
authority of the Bagdad caliphs, whom Noureddin professed to reverence
as the supreme heads of the Mohammedan Empire. Nor did he stop here.
He soon showed a disposition to shake off the supremacy of Noureddin,
and the sultan of Aleppo was marching into Egypt to vindicate his
authority, when he suddenly died in the year 1171.
37. Saladin now saw the great obstacle to his ambition removed, and
began to aim at realizing those schemes of sovereignty which Noureddin
had projected. The state of the Christian kingdom during the ten or
twelve years which followed directly favored his plans. Civil
dissensions arose which the keen eye of Saladin discovered, and,
already master of all Syria, he resolved to complete his greatness by
the conquest of Palestine. Accordingly, when in the year 1157 it was
known that he was on his march against Jerusalem, the Christian
crusaders saw the necessity of abandoning their dissensions and
uniting cordially against the invader. Town after town surrendered to
the victorious Saracen, and, in October, 1187, Jerusalem itself, after
fourteen days' defense, was obliged to submit to his mercy. The
conduct of Saladin on this occasion was more generous than might have
been expected. A moderate ransom was fixed for every individual, on
the payment of which he was at liberty to remove with his goods to
whatever place he chose. To the Christian ladies, Saladin's conduct
was courteous in the extreme, so that it became a remark among the
Latins of Palestine that Saladin was a barbarian only in name.
38. Thus, after ninety years, was the Holy City again inhabited by the
infidel, and all the fruits of the first crusade lost, as it seemed to
the world. Saladin now possessed the whole of Palestine, with the
single exception of the city of Tyre, which was gallantly defended by
Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat.
39. The epidemic frenzy which had been gradually cooling was now
extinct, or nearly so, and the nations of Europe looked with cold
indifference upon the armaments of their princes. But chivalry was now
in all its glory, and it continued to supply armies for the Holy Land.
Poetry more than religion inspired the Third Crusade. The knights and
their retainers listened with delight to the martial and amatory
strains of the ministrels, minnesingers, and troubadors. Men fought
not so much for the holy sepulchre as to gain glory for themselves in
the best and only field where glory could be obtained. They fought not
as zealots, but as soldiers, not for religion, but for honor.
40. The first to take the field was the illustrious German emperor,
Frederick Barbarossa. Marching from Ratisbon at the bead of a
magnificent army in 1189, he fought his way through the Greek
dominions, advanced through Asia Minor, conquering as he went, and was
already on the borders of Palestine, when, imprudently bathing, he was
cut off in the seventieth year of his age. His army suffered greatly
from the difficulties of their march and the attacks of the Saracens.
The wrecks of it under Frederick's son, the Duke of Swabia, proved a
most valuable reinforcement to the Christians in Syria, who had by
this time rallied and combined against the domination of Saladin,
laying siege to the city of Acre on the sea-coast, a town of so much
importance that the possession of it was considered almost equivalent
to being master of the whole country.
41. Upon this siege, commenced in August, 1189, was concentrated all
the force at the command of the Christians in Palestine, the remnants
of the two great military orders the Knights Templars and the Knights
Hospitallers, the survivors of Frederick's army, together with such
bodies of crusaders as were continually arriving from Europe by sea.
Guy de Lusignan was the commander of the besieging forces, and so
skillfully was his army fortified that Saladin was unable to dislodge
him. For two-and-twenty months the siege continued, and many
engagements had taken place between the Christian army and that of
Saladin, which occupied the mountains to the south, but without
visible advantage on either side.
42. Such was the position of affairs when, early in the summer of
1191, Philip, of France, and Richard Coeur de Lion, of England,
arrived with their fleets. The struggle was soon over, and on the 12th
of July, 1191, Acre surrendered to the Christians. Had the crusaders
been united among themselves, the fall of this city might have been
but preliminary to the recovery of the whole country. The rivalry of
the kings of France and England, however, prevented their cordial
co-operation, and, not long after the capture of Acre, Philip ruined
the cause of the crusade by returning to Europe.
43. After gaining many important successes against Saladin, and
earning for himself the reputation of the most valiant knight of the
age, Richard, involved in disputes with the other chiefs of the
crusade, and anxious to revisit England, where his presence was
becoming daily more necessary, was glad to conclude an honorable
peace. Saladin, on his part, was equally willing to end a struggle
which had cost him so much. A truce was concluded for three years and
eight months, during which Christian pilgrims were to enjoy the
liberty of visiting Jerusalem without hindrance.
44. Saladin entertained many Christians in his own palace, from which
they returned, their tongues laden with praises of the noble infidel.
Richard and Saladin never met, but each admired the prowess and
nobleness of soul of his rival.
45. The Christians and Moslems no longer looked upon each other as
barbarians, to whom mercy was a crime. Each host entertained the
highest admiration for the bravery and magnanimity of the other, and
in their occasional truces met upon the most friendly terms. When
Richard, the lion-hearted king of England, lay in his tent consumed by
a fever, there came into the camp camels laden with snow, sent by his
enemy, the Sultan Saladin, to assuage his disease, the homage of one
brave soldier to another. But, when Richard was returning to England,
it was by a Christian prince that he was treacherously seized and
secretly confined.
46. It was on the 25th of October, 1192, that Richard set sail for
Europe. Forced by stress of weather to land at Zara, he made the
attempt to journey through the continent, and was arrested and held a
prisoner while passing through the dominions of his enemy and former
fellow-crusader, the archduke of Austria, and remained in prison in
Vienna for several months. He returned to England in 1194, and died in
1199. His great antagonist, Saladin, had died in 1193, not long after
the Christian armies left Palestine. At the end of the crusade, the
Crescent waved as defiantly as ever over the land of Israel.
THE FOURTH CRUSADE.
47. The fourth crusade, from 1195 to 1198, led by Henry VI of Germany,
was equally a failure. There were gained some brilliant victories, but
dissensions divided the armies, and at last a truce was made with the
Mohammedans. It is true that these victories made the crusaders
masters of the sea-coast, but, when the armies departed, the Christian
king found himself in possession of cities which he was unable to
garrison, and which he felt would be held only by the sufferance of
the enemy.
THE FIFTH CRUSADE.
48. In the year 1203 a new crusade was set on foot, commanded by
several of the most powerful nobles of Italy and France. Instead of
marching at once against the infidels, the crusaders suffered
themselves to be drawn into a contest with the Greek empire. Just at
this time the emperor of the Greeks had been deposed and deprived of
his eyes by his own brother. His son, Alexius, fled to Europe, and
petitioned the assistance of the Latin princes against the usurper,
promising in return to use his efforts to bring about a union of the
Greek with the Latin church, and to employ all the resources of his
kingdom against the infidels of Syria. The temptation of such a
prospect could not be resisted; the crusaders marched into Greece,
laid siege to Constantinople, and took the city by storm A. D. 1204,
thereby establishing Latin Christianity in the eastern metropolis, but
at what a cost. Neither the works of God nor man were respected by the
invaders; they vented their brutal ferocity upon the one, and
satisfied their avarice upon the other. "In St. Sophia, the silver was
stripped from the pulpit, an exquisite and highly-prized table of
oblation was broken in pieces, the sacred chalices were turned into
drinking-cups, the gold fringe was ripped off the veil of the
sanctuary. Asses and horses were led into the churches to carry off
the spoil.
49. "Many beautiful bronze pieces, above all price as works of art,
were broken into pieces to be sold as old metal. The finely chiseled
marble was also destroyed by the same spirit of vandalism. Two
thousand people were put to the sword; had there been less plunder,
the slaughter would in all probability have been much greater."
50. For fifty years the empire was ruled over by the Franks. Meanwhile
the knights, plunged in the luxury of the city, heeded not the appeals
from Palestine, but allowed the besieged and suffering, for whose
rescue they had enlisted, to linger and die without an effort on their
behalf. Moved to desperation, in this emergency, the Christians sent
to Europe a heart-rending cry for help.
THE SIXTH CRUSADE.
51. The urgent appeal from Palestine caused Pope Innocent III to
earnestly preach a new crusade, and he crowned his labors and appeals
with his famous exclamation, "Sword, sword, start from thy scabbard,
and sharpen thyself to kill." Though the many disastrous and
fruitless expeditions had so dampened the ardor of men that they gave
little heed to his appeals, the zeal of the young was kindled for the
cause to which their elders seemed so indifferent.
52. The children of Germany and France caught the madness of the hour,
and resolved upon a crusade of their own. Inspired by the preaching of
a fanatical priest named Nicholas, twenty thousand boys of the average
age of twelve years assembled at Cologne. They came from all ranks of
life, and the heir of the proud noble marched side by side with the
son of the humblest peasant. Sisters, priests, and servants joined the
throng, swelling the numbers and adding to the confusion.
53. Their journey began in July, 1212, and their destination was
Palestine, and they were to go by way of Rome, so as to obtain the
assistance and the blessing of the Pope. In their ignorance these poor
children thought that Palestine was but a few miles distant, and
before the close of the first day's march excited voices were heard
asking if the holy sepulchre was in sight. Slowly onward the multitude
moved up the Rhine, and over the Mont Cenis pass of the Alps, into
Italy.
54. But day by day hearts became sick with continued disappointment,
and little feet weary with the never-ending miles which stretched
before. The weak and the sickly were the first to give out, and,
though they struggled to keep their places in the ranks, one by one
they fell by the wayside to die alone, with no loving hands to soothe
their last moments or to moisten their parched lips with a drop of
cold water. The path of the youthful crusaders might be traced by the
marks left by thousands of bleeding feet and by the victims stretched
in death along the course.
55. Death, disease, and desertion soon thinned their ranks to such an
extent that only one half of their original number lived to reach the
summit of the Alps and look down into Italy. The journey across the
mountains was a fearful one. They had left home in summer, when their
raiment was thin; it had become scanty and ragged in the long and
dusty march, so that they were exposed to the full severity of the
cold. The rocks cut their shoeless feet, but nothing remained but to
press onward or to lie down and die.
56. Only seven thousand lived to reach Genoa, where they were received
coldly, but where they were at last permitted to stay a week to rest.
Then again onward through the plains of Italy, until all that survived
made their way to Rome. Pope Innocent partook of the fanaticism which
affected all Europe, but the sight of these little victims of the
universal delusion, reduced to mere spectres by hardships, disease,
and famine, aroused in him an unexpected human sympathy. He blessed
the children, forbade them to go farther, and when rested sent them
back to their German homes.
57. The winter had passed and the spring had come again before the few
survivors reached their beloved fatherland. Day by day there came
straggling into the German cities groups of these victims, their heads
drooping for shame, their eyes red with tears, their clothing in rags.
Many died upon realizing the last hope which had sustained them so
long. Sad-eyed mothers looked in vain among the thin ranks for their
beloved ones, and time only soothed the untold misery of this wild
enterprise.
58. Soon after the departure of the German children on their crusade
under Nicholas, another of about equal numbers set out from Cologne by
a different route. They crossed the Alps by the pass of St. Gothard,
and descended into Eastern Italy. Keeping along the coast of the
Adriatic, they at last came to the southern front of the peninsula,
and could go no farther. They met with a fate similar to that of the
first band, with the additional horror that many of them were seized
by Turkish pirates and carried away into life-long slavery. The few
who survived to reach Southern Italy embarked on a vessel, and never
were heard of more. No messenger even returned to the vine-clad hills
of the Rhine to report the fate of the little ones, and they all
disappeared from the aching gaze of anxious mothers as though the
earth had swallowed them up.
59. The third children's crusade set out from France under the
leadership of a bare-footed friar named Stephen. They numbered thirty
thousand, and their first destination was Marseilles, whence they were
to take shipping for Palestine through means directly provided by the
Lord. Through the broad fields of France, during the hot summer days,
the crusaders marched, every mile marked by victims; and, when the
white walls of the city of their destination became visible, their
numbers were reduced one half.
60. The charity of Marseilles was taxed to its utmost to provide for
the fifteen thousand mouths open to receive it. Through weary weeks
the children waited in vain for the promised aid from the Lord.
Despair was more fatal than famine, and soon two thirds of those who
had reached the city perished. When their numbers were reduced to five
thousand, apparently the promise of Divine aid was fulfilled. Two
wealthy and benevolent merchants volunteered to send the children on
to their destination. Seven ships were prepared, and into these the
five thousand crowded, believing their troubles were at an end.
61. The ships sailed out of port, freighted with mother love and
religious blessings. To anxious eyes that watched their departure,
their white sails, lessening in the distance, wafted back messages of
hope and assurance. At the dawn of another day the last speck had
disappeared, and the blue waves of the Mediterranean rolled
tranquilly, as if jealously guarding the secrets of fate. But time
went on. Homeward-bound vessels, direct from the scene of conflict,
saw the precious fleet. News of stern conflicts with the infidels was
brought by wandering palmers; but from sailor merchant, from peasant
warrior, and from noble, scarred with Saracenic wounds, there was a
death-like silence in regard to the little wanderers. Streaming eyes
fixed upon the East looked in vain until all tears were quenched in
death.
62. Eighteen years passed since the children's fleet sailed out of
European life. Then a vague rumor of treachery began to circulate,
and, little by little, the details came out of one of the most inhuman
crimes that ever shocked the hearts of men. The benevolent merchants
who furnished the ships had sold the children to the barbarous
Moslems, and the course of the fleet was turned from east to south. On
the second day out a great storm arose, and two of the ships
foundered, and all on board perished. A more horrible fate awaited the
survivors. Landing in a city of the Moors in northern Africa, they
were conducted to a secure prison, and from the gloomy portals they
passed out into distant and perpetual slavery. One by one the captives
died, some by disease, some by cruelty, others passed away in old age.
At length all dropped their weary burdens, and their toils and sorrows
ended. Not one of the hundreds that sailed out of Marseilles on that
sunny afternoon ever saw Europe again. Rarely in the history of the
world has a story in real life been freighted with so much woe as fell
to the lot of the victims of the strange madness which swept over
Europe less than seven hundred years ago. Peace to their memories!
63. At last an army was organized, and Innocent announced that he
himself would lead the host to the defense of the holy sepulchre; but
his death intervened before the project was ripe. Andrew, king of
Hungary, was the only monarch who had leisure or inclination to leave
his dominions. He led the army to Palestine and defeated the Saracens,
but failed to follow up his victory, and soon after abandoned the
enterprise. The Duke of Austria, who succeeded him as leader, directed
the whole energy of the crusade against Egypt; and Damietta, which
commanded the river Nile, was chosen as the first point of attack.
Finding themselves unable to successfully defend the city, the Moslems
offered to yield the whole of Palestine to the Christians upon the
condition of the evacuation of Egypt. With a blindness almost
incredible these terms were refused, and a last attack made on the
walls of Damietta. The besieged made but slight resistance, and the
Christians entered the city, to find out of seventy thousand but three
thousand remaining, so fearful had been the scourge of plague and
famine. Several months were spent in Damietta. The climate either
weakened the frames or obscured the understandings of the Christians,
for after their conquest they remained inactive until the Moslems
recuperated their army and were able to recapture Damietta and expel
the Crusaders from Egypt.
64. With a view to the recovery of the Holy Land, Frederick II, of
Germany, had been married to Iolante, the heiress of the kingdom of
Jerusalem. His early life was spent in Sicily, in familiar intercourse
with Jews and Arabs, and Sicily was to the last the favored portion of
his dominion. The emperor's court was given up to unpardonable
frivolities in the eyes of Pope Gregory IX, one of whose first
pontifical acts was to summon Frederick to a new crusade. The emperor
paid little heed to the aged Pope's exhortations and commands,
postponing from time to time the period of his departure. He embarked
at last, but in ten days returned. The Pope was not to be trifled
with, and pronounced his excommunication. Frederick treated it with
contempt, and appealed to Christendom to sustain him. For this be
underwent a more tremendous excommunication, but his partisans in Rome
raised an insurrection and expelled the Pope.
65. And now Frederick set sail of his own accord on his crusading
expedition. On reaching the Holy Land he was received with joy by the
knights and pilgrims, but the clergy held aloof from him as under the
ban of the Church. He negotiated privately with the Sultan of Egypt.
The Christian camp was thronged with Saracens. The emperor wore a
Saracen dress. In his privacy he did not hesitate to say, "I came not
here to deliver the Holy City, but to maintain my estimation among the
Franks." To the Sultan he appealed: "Out of your goodness surrender
to me Jerusalem as it is, that I may be able to lift up my head among
the kings of Christendom." Accordingly, the city was surrendered to
him. The Pope repudiated the transaction.
66. While the emperor proclaimed his successes to Europe, the pope
denounced them. Frederick crowned himself at Jerusalem, being unable
to find any ecclesiastic who dared to perform the ceremony, and
departed from the Holy Land. He prepared to enter on his conflict with
the pontiff, and drew over to his side the general sentiment of
Europe; the Pope was made to give way, and peace proclaimed. The
treaty, which closed the sixth crusade, was for ten years.
THE SEVENTH CRUSADE.
67. On neither side probably was the truce strictly kept, and the
injuries done to pilgrims on their way from Acre to Jerusalem were
alleged as a sufficient reason for sending out the expedition headed
by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of the English Henry III, and
afterward King of the Romans. This expedition may be regarded as the
seventh in the list of crusades, and deserves notice as having been
brought to an end, like that of Frederick, by a treaty, in 1240. The
terms of the latter covenant were even more favorable to the
Christians, but, two years later, the Latin power, such as it was, was
swept away by the sword of Korasmians, pushed onward by the hordes of
Jenghiz Khan. The awful inroad was alleged by Pope Innocent IV as
reason for summoning Christendom again to the rescue of the Holy Land.
THE EIGHTH CRUSADE.
68. Nearly seven years passed away before the French king, Louis IX,
was able to set sail for Egypt. The royal saint, who lives for us in
the quaint and graphic account of his seneschal Joinville, may with
truth be said to have been animated by a spirit of devotion and
self-sacrifice. Intolerant in theory and bigoted in language, Louis
had that true charity which would make him succor his enemies not less
than his friends. Nor was his bravery less signal than his gentleness.
His dauntless courage saved his army from complete destruction at
Mansourah in 1249, but his offer to exchange Damietta for Jerusalem
was rejected, and in the retreat, during which they were compelled to
fight at desperate disadvantage, Louis was taken prisoner. With serene
patience he underwent suffering, for which the Saracens, so Joinville
tells us, frankly confessed that they would have renounced Mahommed;
and, when the payment of his ransom set him free, he made a pilgrimage
in sackcloth to Nazareth in 1250. As a general he achieved nothing,
but his humiliation involved no dishonor; and the genuineness of his
faith, his devotion, and his love had been fully tested in the furnace
of affliction.
69. The crusading fire was now rapidly burning itself out. In the West
there was nothing to awaken again the enthusiasm which had been
stirred by Peter the Hermit and St. Bernard, while in Palestine itself
the only signs of genuine activity were furnished by the antagonism
between the religious orders there. The quarrels of Templars and
Hospitallers led to a pitched battle in 1259, in which almost all the
Templars were slain.
THE NINTH CRUSADE.
70. Some eight years later the tidings that Antioch had been taken by
the infidels revived in St. Louis the old yearning for the rescue of
the holy places. Cheered by the sympathy of Pope Clement IV, he
embarked with an army of sixty thousand in 1270, but a storm drove his
ships to Sardinia, and thence they sailed for Tunis. They encamped on
the site of Carthage, when a plague broke out. The saintly king was
among the victims, and the truest of all crusaders died. In the
following year Edward, of England, reached Acre, took Nazareth--the
inhabitants of which he massacred--fell sick, and during his sickness
narrowly escaped being murdered by an assassin sent by the Emir of
Joppa. Having made a peace for nine years, he returned to Europe, and
the ninth and last crusade was at an end.
71. The after fate of the Holy Land may be briefly told: The
Christians, unmindful of their past sufferings and of the jealous
neighbors they had to deal with, first broke the truce by plundering
some Egyptian traders, near Margat. The Sultan revenged the outrage by
taking possession of Margat, and war once more raged between the two
nations. Tripoli and the other cities were captured in succession,
until at last Acre was the only city of Palestine remaining to the
Christians.
72. The Grand Master of the Templars collected his small and devoted
band, and prepared to defend to the death the last possession of the
order. Europe was deaf to his cry, the numbers of the foe were
overwhelming, and devoted bravery was of no avail. In the disastrous
siege the Christians were all but exterminated. The Grand Master fell
at the head of his knights, pierced by many wounds. Seven Templars and
as many Hospitallers alone escaped from the dreadful carnage. The
victorious Moslems then set fire to the city, and the rule of the
Christians in Palestine was brought to a close forever.
73. Kingsley ably summarizes the effects of the crusades as follow:
"Egypt was still the center of communication between the two great
stations of the Moslem power; and, indeed, as Mr. Lane has shown us in
his most valuable translation of the 'Arabian Nights,' possessed a
peculiar life and character of its own.
74. "It was the rash object of the crusaders to extinguish that life.
Palestine was first their point of attack, but the later crusaders
seem to have found, like all the rest of the world, that the destinies
of Palestine could not be separated from those of Egypt, and to
Damietta accordingly was directed that last disastrous attempt of St.
Louis. The crusaders failed utterly of the object at which they aimed.
They succeeded in an object of which they never dreamed; for in those
crusades the Moslem and the Christian had met face to face, and found
that both were men, that they had a common humanity, a common eternal
standard of nobility and virtue. So the Christian knights went home
humbler and wiser men, when they found in the Saracen enemies the same
generosity, truth, mercy, chivalrous self-sacrifice, which they
fancied their own peculiar possession; and, added to that, a
civilization and a learning which they could only admire and imitate.
And, thus, from the era of the crusades, a kindlier feeling sprang up
between the Crescent and the Cross, till it was again broken by the
fearful invasions of the Turks through Eastern Europe.
75. "The learning of the Moslem, as well as their commerce, began to
pour rapidly into Christendom, both from Spain, Egypt, and Syria; and
thus the crusaders were, indeed, rewarded according to their deeds.
They took the sword and perished by the sword. But the truly noble
element in them, the element which our hearts and reasons recognize
and love, in spite of all the folly and fanaticism of the crusades,
whensoever we read 'Ivanhoe' or the 'Talisman,' the element of loyal
faith and self-sacrifice, did not go unrequited.
76. "They learned wider, juster views of man and virtue, which I can
not help believing must have had great effect in weakening in their
minds the old, exclusive, bigoted notions, and in paving the way for
the great outburst of free thought and the great assertion of the
dignity of humanity which the fifteenth century beheld. They opened a
path for that influx of scientific knowledge which has produced in
after centuries the most enormous effects on the welfare of Europe,
and made life possible for millions who would otherwise have been pent
within the narrow bounds of Europe to devour each other in the
struggle for life and bread!"