54 (return) [ To gratify the childish vanity of the house of

Este. Tasso has inserted in his poem, and in the first crusade, a

fabulous hero, the brave and amorous Rinaldo, (x. 75, xvii.

66-94.) He might borrow his name from a Rinaldo, with the Aquila

bianca Estense, who vanquished, as the standard-bearer of the

Roman church, the emperor Frederic I., (Storia Imperiale di

Ricobaldo, in Muratori Script. Ital. tom. ix. p. 360. Ariosto,

Orlando Furioso, iii. 30.) But, 1. The distance of sixty years

between the youth of the two Rinaldos destroys their identity. 2.

The Storia Imperiale is a forgery of the Conte Boyardo, at the

end of the xvth century, (Muratori, p. 281-289.) 3. This Rinaldo,

and his exploits, are not less chimerical than the hero of Tasso,

(Muratori, Antichita Estense, tom. i. p. 350.)]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part III.

Between the age of Charlemagne and that of the crusades, a

revolution had taken place among the Spaniards, the Normans, and

the French, which was gradually extended to the rest of Europe.

The service of the infantry was degraded to the plebeians; the

cavalry formed the strength of the armies, and the honorable name

of miles, or soldier, was confined to the gentlemen 55 who served

on horseback, and were invested with the character of knighthood.

The dukes and counts, who had usurped the rights of sovereignty,

divided the provinces among their faithful barons: the barons

distributed among their vassals the fiefs or benefices of their

jurisdiction; and these military tenants, the peers of each other

and of their lord, composed the noble or equestrian order, which

disdained to conceive the peasant or burgher as of the same

species with themselves. The dignity of their birth was preserved

by pure and equal alliances; their sons alone, who could produce

four quarters or lines of ancestry without spot or reproach,

might legally pretend to the honor of knighthood; but a valiant

plebeian was sometimes enriched and ennobled by the sword, and

became the father of a new race. A single knight could impart,

according to his judgment, the character which he received; and

the warlike sovereigns of Europe derived more glory from this

personal distinction than from the lustre of their diadem. This

ceremony, of which some traces may be found in Tacitus and the

woods of Germany, 56 was in its origin simple and profane; the

candidate, after some previous trial, was invested with the sword

and spurs; and his cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight

blow, as an emblem of the last affront which it was lawful for

him to endure. But superstition mingled in every public and

private action of life: in the holy wars, it sanctified the

profession of arms; and the order of chivalry was assimilated in

its rights and privileges to the sacred orders of priesthood. The

bath and white garment of the novice were an indecent copy of the

regeneration of baptism: his sword, which he offered on the

altar, was blessed by the ministers of religion: his solemn

reception was preceded by fasts and vigils; and he was created a

knight in the name of God, of St. George, and of St. Michael the

archangel. He swore to accomplish the duties of his profession;

and education, example, and the public opinion, were the

inviolable guardians of his oath. As the champion of God and the

ladies, (I blush to unite such discordant names,) he devoted

himself to speak the truth; to maintain the right; to protect the

distressed; to practise courtesy, a virtue less familiar to the

ancients; to pursue the infidels; to despise the allurements of

ease and safety; and to vindicate in every perilous adventure the

honor of his character. The abuse of the same spirit provoked the

illiterate knight to disdain the arts of industry and peace; to

esteem himself the sole judge and avenger of his own injuries;

and proudly to neglect the laws of civil society and military

discipline. Yet the benefits of this institution, to refine the

temper of Barbarians, and to infuse some principles of faith,

justice, and humanity, were strongly felt, and have been often

observed. The asperity of national prejudice was softened; and

the community of religion and arms spread a similar color and

generous emulation over the face of Christendom. Abroad in

enterprise and pilgrimage, at home in martial exercise, the

warriors of every country were perpetually associated; and

impartial taste must prefer a Gothic tournament to the Olympic

games of classic antiquity. 57 Instead of the naked spectacles

which corrupted the manners of the Greeks, and banished from the

stadium the virgins and matrons, the pompous decoration of the

lists was crowned with the presence of chaste and high-born

beauty, from whose hands the conqueror received the prize of his

dexterity and courage. The skill and strength that were exerted

in wrestling and boxing bear a distant and doubtful relation to

the merit of a soldier; but the tournaments, as they were

invented in France, and eagerly adopted both in the East and

West, presented a lively image of the business of the field. The

single combats, the general skirmish, the defence of a pass, or

castle, were rehearsed as in actual service; and the contest,

both in real and mimic war, was decided by the superior

management of the horse and lance. The lance was the proper and

peculiar weapon of the knight: his horse was of a large and heavy

breed; but this charger, till he was roused by the approaching

danger, was usually led by an attendant, and he quietly rode a

pad or palfrey of a more easy pace. His helmet and sword, his

greaves and buckler, it would be superfluous to describe; but I

may remark, that, at the period of the crusades, the armor was

less ponderous than in later times; and that, instead of a massy

cuirass, his breast was defended by a hauberk or coat of mail.

When their long lances were fixed in the rest, the warriors

furiously spurred their horses against the foe; and the light

cavalry of the Turks and Arabs could seldom stand against the

direct and impetuous weight of their charge. Each knight was

attended to the field by his faithful squire, a youth of equal

birth and similar hopes; he was followed by his archers and men

at arms, and four, or five, or six soldiers were computed as the

furniture of a complete lance. In the expeditions to the

neighboring kingdoms or the Holy Land, the duties of the feudal

tenure no longer subsisted; the voluntary service of the knights

and their followers were either prompted by zeal or attachment,

or purchased with rewards and promises; and the numbers of each

squadron were measured by the power, the wealth, and the fame, of

each independent chieftain. They were distinguished by his

banner, his armorial coat, and his cry of war; and the most

ancient families of Europe must seek in these achievements the

origin and proof of their nobility. In this rapid portrait of

chivalry I have been urged to anticipate on the story of the

crusades, at once an effect and a cause, of this memorable

institution. 58

55 (return) [ Of the words gentilis, gentilhomme, gentleman, two

etymologies are produced: 1. From the Barbarians of the fifth

century, the soldiers, and at length the conquerors of the Roman

empire, who were vain of their foreign nobility; and 2. From the

sense of the civilians, who consider gentilis as synonymous with

ingenuus. Selden inclines to the first but the latter is more

pure, as well as probable.]

56 (return) [ Framea scutoque juvenem ornant. Tacitus, Germania.

c. 13.]

57 (return) [ The athletic exercises, particularly the caestus

and pancratium, were condemned by Lycurgus, Philopoemen, and

Galen, a lawgiver, a general, and a physician. Against their

authority and reasons, the reader may weigh the apology of

Lucian, in the character of Solon. See West on the Olympic Games,

in his Pindar, vol. ii. p. 86-96 243-248]

58 (return) [ On the curious subjects of knighthood,

knights-service, nobility, arms, cry of war, banners, and

tournaments, an ample fund of information may be sought in

Selden, (Opera, tom. iii. part i. Titles of Honor, part ii. c. 1,

3, 5, 8,) Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. tom. iv. p. 398-412, &c.,)

Dissertations sur Joinville, (i. vi.—xii. p. 127-142, p.

161-222,) and M. de St. Palaye, (Memoires sur la Chevalerie.)]

Such were the troops, and such the leaders, who assumed the cross

for the deliverance of the holy sepulchre. As soon as they were

relieved by the absence of the plebeian multitude, they

encouraged each other, by interviews and messages, to accomplish

their vow, and hasten their departure. Their wives and sisters

were desirous of partaking the danger and merit of the

pilgrimage: their portable treasures were conveyed in bars of

silver and gold; and the princes and barons were attended by

their equipage of hounds and hawks to amuse their leisure and to

supply their table. The difficulty of procuring subsistence for

so many myriads of men and horses engaged them to separate their

forces: their choice or situation determined the road; and it was

agreed to meet in the neighborhood of Constantinople, and from

thence to begin their operations against the Turks. From the

banks of the Meuse and the Moselle, Godfrey of Bouillon followed

the direct way of Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria; and, as long as

he exercised the sole command every step afforded some proof of

his prudence and virtue. On the confines of Hungary he was

stopped three weeks by a Christian people, to whom the name, or

at least the abuse, of the cross was justly odious. The

Hungarians still smarted with the wounds which they had received

from the first pilgrims: in their turn they had abused the right

of defence and retaliation; and they had reason to apprehend a

severe revenge from a hero of the same nation, and who was

engaged in the same cause. But, after weighing the motives and

the events, the virtuous duke was content to pity the crimes and

misfortunes of his worthless brethren; and his twelve deputies,

the messengers of peace, requested in his name a free passage and

an equal market. To remove their suspicions, Godfrey trusted

himself, and afterwards his brother, to the faith of Carloman,

581 king of Hungary, who treated them with a simple but

hospitable entertainment: the treaty was sanctified by their

common gospel; and a proclamation, under pain of death,

restrained the animosity and license of the Latin soldiers. From

Austria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of Hungary,

without enduring or offering an injury; and the proximity of

Carloman, who hovered on their flanks with his numerous cavalry,

was a precaution not less useful for their safety than for his

own. They reached the banks of the Save; and no sooner had they

passed the river, than the king of Hungary restored the hostages,

and saluted their departure with the fairest wishes for the

success of their enterprise. With the same conduct and

discipline, Godfrey pervaded the woods of Bulgaria and the

frontiers of Thrace; and might congratulate himself that he had

almost reached the first term of his pilgrimage, without drawing

his sword against a Christian adversary. After an easy and

pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to Aquileia,

Raymond and his provincials marched forty days through the savage

country of Dalmatia 59 and Sclavonia. The weather was a perpetual

fog; the land was mountainous and desolate; the natives were

either fugitive or hostile: loose in their religion and

government, they refused to furnish provisions or guides;

murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and day the

vigilance of the count, who derived more security from the

punishment of some captive robbers than from his interview and

treaty with the prince of Scodra. 60 His march between Durazzo

and Constantinople was harassed, without being stopped, by the

peasants and soldiers of the Greek emperor; and the same faint

and ambiguous hostility was prepared for the remaining chiefs,

who passed the Adriatic from the coast of Italy. Bohemond had

arms and vessels, and foresight and discipline; and his name was

not forgotten in the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever

obstacles he encountered were surmounted by his military conduct

and the valor of Tancred; and if the Norman prince affected to

spare the Greeks, he gorged his soldiers with the full plunder of

an heretical castle. 61 The nobles of France pressed forwards

with the vain and thoughtless ardor of which their nation has

been sometimes accused. From the Alps to Apulia the march of Hugh

the Great, of the two Roberts, and of Stephen of Chartres,

through a wealthy country, and amidst the applauding Catholics,

was a devout or triumphant progress: they kissed the feet of the

Roman pontiff; and the golden standard of St. Peter was delivered

to the brother of the French monarch. 62 But in this visit of

piety and pleasure, they neglected to secure the season, and the

means of their embarkation: the winter was insensibly lost: their

troops were scattered and corrupted in the towns of Italy. They

separately accomplished their passage, regardless of safety or

dignity; and within nine months from the feast of the Assumption,

the day appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes had reached

Constantinople. But the count of Vermandois was produced as a

captive; his foremost vessels were scattered by a tempest; and

his person, against the law of nations, was detained by the

lieutenants of Alexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh had been

announced by four-and-twenty knights in golden armor, who

commanded the emperor to revere the general of the Latin

Christians, the brother of the king of kings. 63 631

581 (return) [ Carloman (or Calmany) demanded the brother of

Godfrey as hostage but Count Baldwin refused the humiliating

submission. Godfrey shamed him into this sacrifice for the common

good by offering to surrender himself Wilken, vol. i. p. 104.—M.]

59 (return) [ The Familiae Dalmaticae of Ducange are meagre and

imperfect; the national historians are recent and fabulous, the

Greeks remote and careless. In the year 1104 Coloman reduced the

maritine country as far as Trau and Saloma, (Katona, Hist. Crit.

tom. iii. p. 195-207.)]

60 (return) [ Scodras appears in Livy as the capital and fortress

of Gentius, king of the Illyrians, arx munitissima, afterwards a

Roman colony, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 393, 394.) It is now called

Iscodar, or Scutari, (D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p.

164.) The sanjiak (now a pacha) of Scutari, or Schendeire, was

the viiith under the Beglerbeg of Romania, and furnished 600

soldiers on a revenue of 78,787 rix dollars, (Marsigli, Stato

Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 128.)]

61 (return) [ In Pelagonia castrum haereticum..... spoliatum cum

suis habi tatoribus igne combussere. Nec id eis injuria contigit:

quia illorum detestabilis sermo et cancer serpebat, jamque

circumjacentes regiones suo pravo dogmate foedaverat, (Robert.

Mon. p. 36, 37.) After cooly relating the fact, the Archbishop

Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnes siquidem illi viatores, Judeos,

haereticos, Saracenos aequaliter habent exosos; quos omnes

appellant inimicos Dei, (p. 92.)]

62 (return) [ (Alexiad. l. x. p. 288.)]

63 (return) [ This Oriental pomp is extravagant in a count of

Vermandois; but the patriot Ducange repeats with much complacency

(Not. ad Alexiad. p. 352, 353. Dissert. xxvii. sur Joinville, p.

315) the passages of Matthew Paris (A.D. 1254) and Froissard,

(vol. iv. p. 201,) which style the king of France rex regum, and

chef de tous les rois Chretiens.]

631 (return) [ Hugh was taken at Durazzo, and sent by land to

Constantinople Wilken—M.]

In some oriental tale I have read the fable of a shepherd, who

was ruined by the accomplishment of his own wishes: he had prayed

for water; the Ganges was turned into his grounds, and his flock

and cottage were swept away by the inundation. Such was the

fortune, or at least the apprehension of the Greek emperor

Alexius Comnenus, whose name has already appeared in this

history, and whose conduct is so differently represented by his

daughter Anne, 64 and by the Latin writers. 65 In the council of

Placentia, his ambassadors had solicited a moderate succor,

perhaps of ten thousand soldiers, but he was astonished by the

approach of so many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The

emperor fluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and

courage; but in the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom, I

cannot believe, I cannot discern, that he maliciously conspired

against the life or honor of the French heroes. The promiscuous

multitudes of Peter the Hermit were savage beasts, alike

destitute of humanity and reason: nor was it possible for Alexius

to prevent or deplore their destruction. The troops of Godfrey

and his peers were less contemptible, but not less suspicious, to

the Greek emperor. Their motives might be pure and pious: but he

was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond,

651 and his ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs: the courage of

the French was blind and headstrong; they might be tempted by the

luxury and wealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion

of their invincible strength: and Jerusalem might be forgotten in

the prospect of Constantinople. After a long march and painful

abstinence, the troops of Godfrey encamped in the plains of

Thrace; they heard with indignation, that their brother, the

count of Vermandois, was imprisoned by the Greeks; and their

reluctant duke was compelled to indulge them in some freedom of

retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the submission of

Alexius: he promised to supply their camp; and as they refused,

in the midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters

were assigned among the gardens and palaces on the shores of that

narrow sea. But an incurable jealousy still rankled in the minds

of the two nations, who despised each other as slaves and

Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of suspicion, and suspicion

was inflamed into daily provocations: prejudice is blind, hunger

is deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starve or assault

the Latins in a dangerous post, on all sides encompassed with the

waters. 66 Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net,

overspread the plain, and insulted the suburbs; but the gates of

Constantinople were strongly fortified; the ramparts were lined

with archers; and, after a doubtful conflict, both parties

listened to the voice of peace and religion. The gifts and

promises of the emperor insensibly soothed the fierce spirit of

the western strangers; as a Christian warrior, he rekindled their

zeal for the prosecution of their holy enterprise, which he

engaged to second with his troops and treasures. On the return of

spring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a pleasant and plentiful

camp in Asia; and no sooner had he passed the Bosphorus, than the

Greek vessels were suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The

same policy was repeated with the succeeding chiefs, who were

swayed by the example, and weakened by the departure, of their

foremost companions. By his skill and diligence, Alexius

prevented the union of any two of the confederate armies at the

same moment under the walls of Constantinople; and before the

feast of the Pentecost not a Latin pilgrim was left on the coast

of Europe.

64 (return) [ Anna Comnena was born the 1st of December, A.D.

1083, indiction vii., (Alexiad. l. vi. p. 166, 167.) At thirteen,

the time of the first crusade, she was nubile, and perhaps

married to the younger Nicephorus Bryennius, whom she fondly

styles, (l. x. p. 295, 296.) Some moderns have imagined, that her

enmity to Bohemond was the fruit of disappointed love. In the

transactions of Constantinople and Nice, her partial accounts

(Alex. l. x. xi. p. 283-317) may be opposed to the partiality of

the Latins, but in their subsequent exploits she is brief and

ignorant.]

65 (return) [ In their views of the character and conduct of

Alexius, Maimbourg has favored the Catholic Franks, and Voltaire

has been partial to the schismatic Greeks. The prejudice of a

philosopher is less excusable than that of a Jesuit.]

651 (return) [ Wilken quotes a remarkable passage of William of

Malmsbury as to the secret motives of Urban and of Bohemond in

urging the crusade. Illud repositius propositum non ita

vulgabatur, quod Boemundi consilio, pene totam Europam in

Asiaticam expeditionem moveret, ut in tanto tumultu omnium

provinciarum facile obaeratis auxiliaribus, et Urbanus Romam et

Boemundus Illyricum et Macedoniam pervaderent. Nam eas terras et

quidquid praeterea a Dyrrachio usque ad Thessalonicam

protenditur, Guiscardus pater, super Alexium acquisierat; ideirco

illas Boemundus suo juri competere clamitabat: inops haereditatis

Apuliae, quam genitor Rogerio, minori filio delegaverat. Wilken,

vol. ii. p. 313.—M]

66 (return) [ Between the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and the River

Barbyses, which is deep in summer, and runs fifteen miles through

a flat meadow. Its communication with Europe and Constantinople

is by the stone bridge of the Blachernoe, which in successive

ages was restored by Justinian and Basil, (Gyllius de Bosphoro

Thracio, l. ii. c. 3. Ducange O. P. Christiana, l. v. c. 2, p,

179.)]

The same arms which threatened Europe might deliver Asia, and

repel the Turks from the neighboring shores of the Bosphorus and

Hellespont. The fair provinces from Nice to Antioch were the

recent patrimony of the Roman emperor; and his ancient and

perpetual claim still embraced the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt.

In his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged, or affected, the ambitious

hope of leading his new allies to subvert the thrones of the

East; but the calmer dictates of reason and temper dissuaded him

from exposing his royal person to the faith of unknown and

lawless Barbarians. His prudence, or his pride, was content with

extorting from the French princes an oath of homage and fidelity,

and a solemn promise, that they

would either restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests as the

humble and loyal vassals of the Roman empire. Their independent

spirit was fired at the mention of this foreign and voluntary

servitude: they successively yielded to the dexterous application

of gifts and flattery; and the first proselytes became the most

eloquent and effectual missionaries to multiply the companions of

their shame. The pride of Hugh of Vermandois was soothed by the

honors of his captivity; and in the brother of the French king,

the example of submission was prevalent and weighty. In the mind

of Godfrey of Bouillon every human consideration was subordinate

to the glory of God and the success of the crusade. He had firmly

resisted the temptations of Bohemond and Raymond, who urged the

attack and conquest of Constantinople. Alexius esteemed his

virtues, deservedly named him the champion of the empire, and

dignified his homage with the filial name and the rights of

adoption. 67 The hateful Bohemond was received as a true and

ancient ally; and if the emperor reminded him of former

hostilities, it was only to praise the valor that he had

displayed, and the glory that he had acquired, in the fields of

Durazzo and Larissa. The son of Guiscard was lodged and

entertained, and served with Imperial pomp: one day, as he passed

through the gallery of the palace, a door was carelessly left

open to expose a pile of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of

curious and costly furniture, that was heaped, in seeming

disorder, from the floor to the roof of the chamber. “What

conquests,” exclaimed the ambitious miser, “might not be achieved

by the possession of such a treasure!”—“It is your own,” replied

a Greek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul; and

Bohemond, after some hesitation, condescended to accept this

magnificent present. The Norman was flattered by the assurance of

an independent principality; and Alexius eluded, rather than

denied, his daring demand of the office of great domestic, or

general of the East. The two Roberts, the son of the conqueror of

England, and the kinsmen of three queens, 68 bowed in their turn

before the Byzantine throne. A private letter of Stephen of

Chartres attests his admiration of the emperor, the most

excellent and liberal of men, who taught him to believe that he

was a favorite, and promised to educate and establish his

youngest son. In his southern province, the count of St. Giles

and Thoulouse faintly recognized the supremacy of the king of

France, a prince of a foreign nation and language. At the head of

a hundred thousand men, he declared that he was the soldier and

servant of Christ alone, and that the Greek might be satisfied

with an equal treaty of alliance and friendship. His obstinate

resistance enhanced the value and the price of his submission;

and he shone, says the princess Anne, among the Barbarians, as

the sun amidst the stars of heaven. His disgust of the noise and

insolence of the French, his suspicions of the designs of

Bohemond, the emperor imparted to his faithful Raymond; and that

aged statesman might clearly discern, that however false in

friendship, he was sincere in his enmity. 69 The spirit of

chivalry was last subdued in the person of Tancred; and none

could deem themselves dishonored by the imitation of that gallant

knight. He disdained the gold and flattery of the Greek monarch;

assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician; escaped to Asia

in the habit of a private soldier; and yielded with a sigh to the

authority of Bohemond, and the interest of the Christian cause.

The best and most ostensible reason was the impossibility of

passing the sea and accomplishing their vow, without the license

and the vessels of Alexius; but they cherished a secret hope,

that as soon as they trod the continent of Asia, their swords

would obliterate their shame, and dissolve the engagement, which

on his side might not be very faithfully performed. The ceremony

of their homage was grateful to a people who had long since

considered pride as the substitute of power. High on his throne,

the emperor sat mute and immovable: his majesty was adored by the

Latin princes; and they submitted to kiss either his feet or his

knees, an indignity which their own writers are ashamed to

confess and unable to deny. 70

67 (return) [ There are two sorts of adoption, the one by arms,

the other by introducing the son between the shirt and skin of

his father. Ducange isur Joinville, (Diss. xxii. p. 270) supposes

Godfrey’s adoption to have been of the latter sort.]

68 (return) [ After his return, Robert of Flanders became the man

of the king of England, for a pension of four hundred marks. See

the first act in Rymer’s Foedera.]

69 (return) [ Sensit vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia non

fingere. Tacit. vi. 44.]

70 (return) [ The proud historians of the crusades slide and

stumble over this humiliating step. Yet, since the heroes knelt

to salute the emperor, as he sat motionless on his throne, it is

clear that they must have kissed either his feet or knees. It is

only singular, that Anna should not have amply supplied the

silence or ambiguity of the Latins. The abasement of their

princes would have added a fine chapter to the Ceremoniale Aulae

Byzantinae.]

Private or public interest suppressed the murmurs of the dukes

and counts; but a French baron (he is supposed to be Robert of

Paris 71 presumed to ascend the throne, and to place himself by

the side of Alexius. The sage reproof of Baldwin provoked him to

exclaim, in his barbarous idiom, “Who is this rustic, that keeps

his seat, while so many valiant captains are standing round him?”

The emperor maintained his silence, dissembled his indignation,

and questioned his interpreter concerning the meaning of the

words, which he partly suspected from the universal language of

gesture and countenance. Before the departure of the pilgrims, he

endeavored to learn the name and condition of the audacious

baron. “I am a Frenchman,” replied Robert, “of the purest and

most ancient nobility of my country. All that I know is, that

there is a church in my neighborhood, 72 the resort of those who

are desirous of approving their valor in single combat. Till an

enemy appears, they address their prayers to God and his saints.

That church I have frequently visited. But never have I found an

antagonist who dared to accept my defiance.” Alexius dismissed

the challenger with some prudent advice for his conduct in the

Turkish warfare; and history repeats with pleasure this lively

example of the manners of his age and country.

71 (return) [ He called himself (see Alexias, l. x. p. 301.) What

a title of noblesse of the eleventh century, if any one could now

prove his inheritance! Anna relates, with visible pleasure, that

the swelling Barbarian, was killed, or wounded, after fighting in

the front in the battle of Dorylaeum, (l. xi. p. 317.) This

circumstance may justify the suspicion of Ducange, (Not. p. 362,)

that he was no other than Robert of Paris, of the district most

peculiarly styled the Duchy or Island of France, (L’Isle de

France.)]

72 (return) [ With the same penetration, Ducange discovers his

church to be that of St. Drausus, or Drosin, of Soissons, quem

duello dimicaturi solent invocare: pugiles qui ad memoriam ejus

(his tomb) pernoctant invictos reddit, ut et de Burgundia et

Italia tali necessitate confugiatur ad eum. Joan. Sariberiensis,

epist. 139.]

The conquest of Asia was undertaken and achieved by Alexander,

with thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks; 73 and his best

hope was in the strength and discipline of his phalanx of

infantry. The principal force of the crusaders consisted in their

cavalry; and when that force was mustered in the plains of

Bithynia, the knights and their martial attendants on horseback

amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men, completely armed

with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of these soldiers

deserved a strict and authentic account; and the flower of

European chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this

formidable body of heavy horse. A part of the infantry might be

enrolled for the service of scouts, pioneers, and archers; but

the promiscuous crowd were lost in their own disorder; and we

depend not on the eyes and knowledge, but on the belief and

fancy, of a chaplain of Count Baldwin, 74 in the estimate of six

hundred thousand pilgrims able to bear arms, besides the priests

and monks, the women and children of the Latin camp. The reader

starts; and before he is recovered from his surprise, I shall

add, on the same testimony, that if all who took the cross had

accomplished their vow, above six millions would have migrated

from Europe to Asia. Under this oppression of faith, I derive

some relief from a more sagacious and thinking writer, 75 who,

after the same review of the cavalry, accuses the credulity of

the priest of Chartres, and even doubts whether the Cisalpine

regions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were sufficient to

produce and pour forth such incredible multitudes. The coolest

scepticism will remember, that of these religious volunteers

great numbers never beheld Constantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm

the influence is irregular and transient: many were detained at

home by reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many

were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the more insuperable

as they were unforeseen, to these ignorant fanatics. The savage

countries of Hungary and Bulgaria were whitened with their bones:

their vanguard was cut in pieces by the Turkish sultan; and the

loss of the first adventure, by the sword, or climate, or

fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred thousand men.

Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that pressed

forwards on the holy pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment

to themselves and to the Greeks. The copious energy of her

language sinks under the efforts of the princess Anne: 76 the

images of locusts, of leaves and flowers, of the sands of the

sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly represent what she had

seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius exclaims, that Europe

was loosened from its foundations, and hurled against Asia. The

ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labor under the same doubt of

a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to believe,

that a larger number has never been contained within the lines of

a single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first operation of

the Latin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their

arms, have been already displayed. Of their troops the most

numerous portion were natives of France: the Low Countries, the

banks of the Rhine, and Apulia, sent a powerful reenforcement:

some bands of adventurers were drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and

England; 77 and from the distant bogs and mountains of Ireland or

Scotland 78 issued some naked and savage fanatics, ferocious at

home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition condemned the

sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest

Christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with

mouths but without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek

empire, till their companions had opened and secured the way of

the Lord. A small remnant of the pilgrims, who passed the

Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the holy sepulchre. Their

northern constitution was scorched by the rays, and infected by

the vapors, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with heedless

prodigality, their stores of water and provision: their numbers

exhausted the inland country: the sea was remote, the Greeks were

unfriendly, and the Christians of every sect fled before the

voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire

necessity of famine, they sometimes roasted and devoured the

flesh of their infant or adult captives. Among the Turks and

Saracens, the idolaters of Europe were rendered more odious by

the name and reputation of Cannibals; the spies, who introduced

themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond, were shown several human

bodies turning on the spit: and the artful Norman encouraged a

report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence and the

terror of the infidels. 79

73 (return) [ There is some diversity on the numbers of his army;

but no authority can be compared with that of Ptolemy, who states

it at five thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, (see Usher’s

Annales, p 152.)]

74 (return) [ Fulcher. Carnotensis, p. 387. He enumerates

nineteen nations of different names and languages, (p. 389;) but

I do not clearly apprehend his difference between the Franci and

Galli, Itali and Apuli. Elsewhere (p. 385) he contemptuously

brands the deserters.]

75 (return) [ Guibert, p. 556. Yet even his gentle opposition

implies an immense multitude. By Urban II., in the fervor of his

zeal, it is only rated at 300,000 pilgrims, (epist. xvi. Concil.

tom. xii. p. 731.)]

76 (return) [ Alexias, l. x. p. 283, 305. Her fastidious delicacy

complains of their strange and inarticulate names; and indeed

there is scarcely one that she has not contrived to disfigure

with the proud ignorance so dear and familiar to a polished

people. I shall select only one example, Sangeles, for the count

of St. Giles.]

77 (return) [ William of Malmsbury (who wrote about the year

1130) has inserted in his history (l. iv. p. 130-154) a narrative

of the first crusade: but I wish that, instead of listening to

the tenue murmur which had passed the British ocean, (p. 143,) he

had confined himself to the numbers, families, and adventures of

his countrymen. I find in Dugdale, that an English Norman,

Stephen earl of Albemarle and Holdernesse, led the rear-guard

with Duke Robert, at the battle of Antioch, (Baronage, part i. p.

61.)]

78 (return) [ Videres Scotorum apud se ferocium alias imbellium

cuneos, (Guibert, p. 471;) the crus intectum and hispida chlamys,

may suit the Highlanders; but the finibus uliginosis may rather

apply to the Irish bogs. William of Malmsbury expressly mentions

the Welsh and Scots, &c., (l. iv. p. 133,) who quitted, the

former venatiorem, the latter familiaritatem pulicum.]

79 (return) [ This cannibal hunger, sometimes real, more

frequently an artifice or a lie, may be found in Anna Comnena,

(Alexias, l. x. p. 288,) Guibert, (p. 546,) Radulph. Cadom., (c.

97.) The stratagem is related by the author of the Gesta

Francorum, the monk Robert Baldric, and Raymond des Agiles, in

the siege and famine of Antioch.]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part IV.

I have expiated with pleasure on the first steps of the

crusaders, as they paint the manners and character of Europe: but

I shall abridge the tedious and uniform narrative of their blind

achievements, which were performed by strength and are described

by ignorance. From their first station in the neighborhood of

Nicomedia, they advanced in successive divisions; passed the

contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened a road through the

hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital, their pious

warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum extended

from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred the

pilgrimage of Jerusalem, his name was Kilidge-Arslan, or Soliman,

80 of the race of Seljuk, and son of the first conqueror; and in

the defence of a land which the Turks considered as their own, he

deserved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to

posterity. Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he

deposited his family and treasure in Nice; retired to the

mountains with fifty thousand horse; and twice descended to

assault the camps or quarters of the Christian besiegers, which

formed an imperfect circle of above six miles. The lofty and

solid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by

three hundred and seventy towers; and on the verge of

Christendom, the Moslems were trained in arms, and inflamed by

religion. Before this city, the French princes occupied their

stations, and prosecuted their attacks without correspondence or

subordination: emulation prompted their valor; but their valor

was sullied by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into envy

and civil discord. In the siege of Nice, the arts and engines of

antiquity were employed by the Latins; the mine and the

battering-ram, the tortoise, and the belfrey or movable turret,

artificial fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and the

crossbow for the casting of stones and darts. 81 In the space of

seven weeks much labor and blood were expended, and some

progress, especially by Count Raymond, was made on the side of

the besiegers. But the Turks could protract their resistance and

secure their escape, as long as they were masters of the Lake 82

Ascanius, which stretches several miles to the westward of the

city. The means of conquest were supplied by the prudence and

industry of Alexius; a great number of boats was transported on

sledges from the sea to the lake; they were filled with the most

dexterous of his archers; the flight of the sultana was

intercepted; Nice was invested by land and water; and a Greek

emissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept his master’s

protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender, from

the rage of the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or

at least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder,

were awed by the Imperial banner that streamed from the citadel;

821 and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance this important

conquest. The murmurs of the chiefs were stifled by honor or

interest; and after a halt of nine days, they directed their

march towards Phrygia under the guidance of a Greek general, whom

they suspected of a secret connivance with the sultan. The

consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been honorably

restored without ransom; and the emperor’s generosity to the

miscreants 83 was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause.

80 (return) [ His Mussulman appellation of Soliman is used by the

Latins, and his character is highly embellished by Tasso. His

Turkish name of Kilidge-Arslan (A. H. 485-500, A.D. 1192-1206.

See De Guignes’s Tables, tom. i. p. 245) is employed by the

Orientals, and with some corruption by the Greeks; but little

more than his name can be found in the Mahometan writers, who are

dry and sulky on the subject of the first crusade, (De Guignes,

tom. iii. p. ii. p. 10-30.) * Note: See note, page 556. Soliman

and Kilidge-Arslan were father and son—M.]

81 (return) [ On the fortifications, engines, and sieges of the

middle ages, see Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae, tom. ii.

dissert. xxvi. p. 452-524.) The belfredus, from whence our

belfrey, was the movable tower of the ancients, (Ducange, tom. i.

p. 608.)]

82 (return) [ I cannot forbear remarking the resemblance between

the siege and lake of Nice, with the operations of Hernan Cortez

before Mexico. See Dr. Robertson, History of America, l. v.]

821 (return) [ See Anna Comnena.—M.]

83 (return) [ Mecreant, a word invented by the French crusaders,

and confined in that language to its primitive sense. It should

seem, that the zeal of our ancestors boiled higher, and that they

branded every unbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice still

lurks in the minds of many who think themselves Christians.]

Soliman was rather provoked than dismayed by the loss of his

capital: he admonished his subjects and allies of this strange

invasion of the Western Barbarians; the Turkish emirs obeyed the

call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hordes encamped round

his standard; and his whole force is loosely stated by the

Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty

thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they had left behind

them the sea and the Greek frontier; and hovering on the flanks,

observed their careless and confident progress in two columns

beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reach

Dorylaeum in Phrygia, the left, and least numerous, division was

surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish

cavalry. 84 The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and

the barbarous onset, overwhelmed the crusaders; they lost their

order and confidence, and the fainting fight was sustained by the

personal valor, rather than by the military conduct, of Bohemond,

Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They were revived by the welcome

banners of Duke Godfrey, who flew to their succor, with the count

of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse; and was followed by

Raymond of Tholouse, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the

sacred army. Without a moment’s pause, they formed in new order,

and advanced to a second battle. They were received with equal

resolution; and, in their common disdain for the unwarlike people

of Greece and Asia, it was confessed on both sides, that the

Turks and the Franks were the only nations entitled to the

appellation of soldiers. 85 Their encounter was varied, and

balanced by the contrast of arms and discipline; of the direct

charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched lance, and the

brandished javelin; of a weighty broadsword, and a crooked sabre;

of cumbrous armor, and thin flowing robes; and of the long Tartar

bow, and the arbalist or crossbow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown

to the Orientals. 86 As long as the horses were fresh, and the

quivers full, Soliman maintained the advantage of the day; and

four thousand Christians were pierced by the Turkish arrows. In

the evening, swiftness yielded to strength: on either side, the

numbers were equal or at least as great as any ground could hold,

or any generals could manage; but in turning the hills, the last

division of Raymond and his provincials was led, perhaps without

design on the rear of an exhausted enemy; and the long contest

was determined. Besides a nameless and unaccounted multitude,

three thousand Pagan knights were slain in the battle and

pursuit; the camp of Soliman was pillaged; and in the variety of

precious spoil, the curiosity of the Latins was amused with

foreign arms and apparel, and the new aspect of dromedaries and

camels. The importance of the victory was proved by the hasty

retreat of the sultan: reserving ten thousand guards of the

relics of his army, Soliman evacuated the kingdom of Roum, and

hastened to implore the aid, and kindle the resentment, of his

Eastern brethren. In a march of five hundred miles, the crusaders

traversed the Lesser Asia, through a wasted land and deserted

towns, without finding either a friend or an enemy. The

geographer 87 may trace the position of Dorylaeum, Antioch of

Pisidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare

those classic appellations with the modern names of Eskishehr the

old city, Akshehr the white city, Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As

the pilgrims passed over a desert, where a draught of water is

exchanged for silver, they were tormented by intolerable thirst;

and on the banks of the first rivulet, their haste and

intemperance were still more pernicious to the disorderly throng.

They climbed with toil and danger the steep and slippery sides of

Mount Taurus; many of the soldiers cast away their arms to secure

their footsteps; and had not terror preceded their van, the long

and trembling file might have been driven down the precipice by a

handful of resolute enemies. Two of their most respectable

chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, were

carried in litters: Raymond was raised, as it is said by miracle,

from a hopeless malady; and Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as

he pursued that rough and perilous chase in the mountains of

Pisidia.

84 (return) [ Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to his

brother Roger, (A.D. 1098, No. 15.) The enemies consisted of

Medes, Persians, Chaldeans: be it so. The first attack was cum

nostro incommodo; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon

and Hugh brothers! Tancred is styled filius; of whom? Certainly

not of Roger, nor of Bohemond.]

85 (return) [ Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione;

et quia nullus homo naturaliter debet esse miles nisi Franci et

Turci, (Gesta Francorum, p. 7.) The same community of blood and

valor is attested by Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99.)]

86 (return) [ Balista, Balestra, Arbalestre. See Muratori, Antiq.

tom. ii. p. 517-524. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. i. p. 531, 532.

In the time of Anna Comnena, this weapon, which she describes

under the name of izangra, was unknown in the East, (l. x. p.

291.) By a humane inconsistency, the pope strove to prohibit it

in Christian wars.]

87 (return) [ The curious reader may compare the classic learning

of Cellarius and the geographical science of D’Anville. William

of Tyre is the only historian of the crusades who has any

knowledge of antiquity; and M. Otter trod almost in the footsteps

of the Franks from Constantinople to Antioch, (Voyage en Turquie

et en Perse, tom. i. p. 35-88.) * Note: The journey of Col.

Macdonald Kinneir in Asia Minor throws considerable light on the

geography of this march of the crusaders.—M.]

To improve the general consternation, the cousin of Bohemond and

the brother of Godfrey were detached from the main army with

their respective squadrons of five, and of seven, hundred

knights. They overran in a rapid career the hills and sea-coast

of Cilicia, from Cogni to the Syrian gates: the Norman standard

was first planted on the walls of Tarsus and Malmistra; but the

proud injustice of Baldwin at length provoked the patient and

generous Italian; and they turned their consecrated swords

against each other in a private and profane quarrel. Honor was

the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortune smiled

on the more selfish enterprise of his rival. 88 He was called to

the assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been

suffered under the Turkish yoke to reign over the Christians of

Edessa. Baldwin accepted the character of his son and champion:

but no sooner was he introduced into the city, than he inflamed

the people to the massacre of his father, occupied the throne and

treasure, extended his conquests over the hills of Armenia and

the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the first principality of

the Franks or Latins, which subsisted fifty-four years beyond the

Euphrates. 89

88 (return) [ This detached conquest of Edessa is best

represented by Fulcherius Carnotensis, or of Chartres, (in the

collections of Bongarsius Duchesne, and Martenne,) the valiant

chaplain of Count Baldwin (Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13,

14.) In the disputes of that prince with Tancred, his partiality

is encountered by the partiality of Radulphus Cadomensis, the

soldier and historian of the gallant marquis.]

89 (return) [ See de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 456.]

Before the Franks could enter Syria, the summer, and even the

autumn, were completely wasted: the siege of Antioch, or the

separation and repose of the army during the winter season, was

strongly debated in their council: the love of arms and the holy

sepulchre urged them to advance; and reason perhaps was on the

side of resolution, since every hour of delay abates the fame and

force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive

war. The capital of Syria was protected by the River Orontes; and

the iron bridge, 891 of nine arches, derives its name from the

massy gates of the two towers which are constructed at either

end. They were opened by the sword of the duke of Normandy: his

victory gave entrance to three hundred thousand crusaders, an

account which may allow some scope for losses and desertion, but

which clearly detects much exaggeration in the review of Nice. In

the description of Antioch, 90 it is not easy to define a middle

term between her ancient magnificence, under the successors of

Alexander and Augustus, and the modern aspect of Turkish

desolation. The Tetrapolis, or four cities, if they retained

their name and position, must have left a large vacuity in a

circumference of twelve miles; and that measure, as well as the

number of four hundred towers, are not perfectly consistent with

the five gates, so often mentioned in the history of the siege.

Yet Antioch must have still flourished as a great and populous

capital. At the head of the Turkish emirs, Baghisian, a veteran

chief, commanded in the place: his garrison was composed of six

or seven thousand horse, and fifteen or twenty thousand foot: one

hundred thousand Moslems are said to have fallen by the sword;

and their numbers were probably inferior to the Greeks,

Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteen years

the slaves of the house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid

and stately wall, it appears to have arisen to the height of

threescore feet in the valleys; and wherever less art and labor

had been applied, the ground was supposed to be defended by the

river, the morass, and the mountains. Notwithstanding these

fortifications, the city had been repeatedly taken by the

Persians, the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Turks; so large a

circuit must have yielded many pervious points of attack; and in

a siege that was formed about the middle of October, the vigor of

the execution could alone justify the boldness of the attempt.

Whatever strength and valor could perform in the field was

abundantly discharged by the champions of the cross: in the

frequent occasions of sallies, of forage, of the attack and

defence of convoys, they were often victorious; and we can only

complain, that their exploits are sometimes enlarged beyond the

scale of probability and truth. The sword of Godfrey 91 divided a

Turk from the shoulder to the haunch; and one half of the infidel

fell to the ground, while the other was transported by his horse

to the city gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against his

antagonist, “I devote thy head,” he piously exclaimed, “to the

daemons of hell;” and that head was instantly cloven to the

breast by the resistless stroke of his descending falchion. But

the reality or the report of such gigantic prowess 92 must have

taught the Moslems to keep within their walls: and against those

walls of earth or stone, the sword and the lance were unavailing

weapons. In the slow and successive labors of a siege, the

crusaders were supine and ignorant, without skill to contrive, or

money to purchase, or industry to use, the artificial engines and

implements of assault. In the conquest of Nice, they had been

powerfully assisted by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek

emperor: his absence was poorly supplied by some Genoese and

Pisan vessels, that were attracted by religion or trade to the

coast of Syria: the stores were scanty, the return precarious,

and the communication difficult and dangerous. Indolence or

weakness had prevented the Franks from investing the entire

circuit; and the perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the

wants and recruited the garrison of the city. At the end of seven

months, after the ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous loss by

famine, desertion and fatigue, the progress of the crusaders was

imperceptible, and their success remote, if the Latin Ulysses,

the artful and ambitious Bohemond, had not employed the arms of

cunning and deceit. The Christians of Antioch were numerous and

discontented: Phirouz, a Syrian renegado, had acquired the favor

of the emir and the command of three towers; and the merit of his

repentance disguised to the Latins, and perhaps to himself, the

foul design of perfidy and treason. A secret correspondence, for

their mutual interest, was soon established between Phirouz and

the prince of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in the council of

the chiefs, that he could deliver the city into their hands. 921

But he claimed the sovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his

service; and the proposal which had been rejected by the envy,

was at length extorted from the distress, of his equals. The

nocturnal surprise was executed by the French and Norman princes,

who ascended in person the scaling-ladders that were thrown from

the walls: their new proselyte, after the murder of his too

scrupulous brother, embraced and introduced the servants of

Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and the Moslems soon

found, that although mercy was hopeless, resistance was impotent.

But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victims

themselves were speedily encompassed and besieged by the

innumerable forces of Kerboga, prince of Mosul, who, with

twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced to the deliverance of

Antioch. Five-and-twenty days the Christians spent on the verge

of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and the

sultan left them only the choice of servitude or death. 93 In

this extremity they collected the relics of their strength,

sallied from the town, and in a single memorable day, annihilated

or dispersed the host of Turks and Arabians, which they might

safely report to have consisted of six hundred thousand men. 94

Their supernatural allies I shall proceed to consider: the human

causes of the victory of Antioch were the fearless despair of the

Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps the errors, of

their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle is

described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may

observe the tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace,

enriched with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above

two thousand persons; we may distinguish his three thousand

guards, who were cased, the horse as well as the men, in complete

steel.

891 (return) [ This bridge was over the Ifrin, not the Orontes,

at a distance of three leagues from Antioch. See Wilken, vol. i.

p. 172.—M.]

90 (return) [ For Antioch, see Pocock, (Description of the East,

vol. ii. p. i. p. 188-193,) Otter, (Voyage en Turquie, &c., tom.

i. p. 81, &c.,) the Turkish geographer, (in Otter’s notes,) the

Index Geographicus of Schultens, (ad calcem Bohadin. Vit.

Saladin.,) and Abulfeda, (Tabula Syriae, p. 115, 116, vers.

Reiske.)]

91 (return) [ Ensem elevat, eumque a sinistra parte scapularum,

tanta virtute intorsit, ut quod pectus medium disjunxit spinam et

vitalia interrupit; et sic lubricus ensis super crus dextrum

integer exivit: sicque caput integrum cum dextra parte corporis

immersit gurgite, partemque quae equo praesidebat remisit

civitati, (Robert. Mon. p. 50.) Cujus ense trajectus, Turcus duo

factus est Turci: ut inferior alter in urbem equitaret, alter

arcitenens in flumine nataret, (Radulph. Cadom. c. 53, p. 304.)

Yet he justifies the deed by the stupendis viribus of Godfrey;

and William of Tyre covers it by obstupuit populus facti novitate

.... mirabilis, (l. v. c. 6, p. 701.) Yet it must not have

appeared incredible to the knights of that age.]

92 (return) [ See the exploits of Robert, Raymond, and the modest

Tancred who imposed silence on his squire, (Randulph. Cadom. c.

53.)]

921 (return) [ See the interesting extract from Kemaleddin’s

History of Aleppo in Wilken, preface to vol. ii. p. 36. Phirouz,

or Azzerrad, the breastplate maker, had been pillaged and put to

the torture by Bagi Sejan, the prince of Antioch.—M.]

93 (return) [ After mentioning the distress and humble petition

of the Franks, Abulpharagius adds the haughty reply of Codbuka,

or Kerboga, “Non evasuri estis nisi per gladium,” (Dynast. p.

242.)]

94 (return) [ In describing the host of Kerboga, most of the

Latin historians, the author of the Gesta, (p. 17,) Robert

Monachus, (p. 56,) Baldric, (p. 111,) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p.

392,) Guibert, (p. 512,) William of Tyre, (l. vi. c. 3, p. 714,)

Bernard Thesaurarius, (c. 39, p. 695,) are content with the vague

expressions of infinita multitudo, immensum agmen, innumerae

copiae or gentes, which correspond with Anna Comnena, (Alexias,

l. xi. p. 318-320.) The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Albert

Aquensis at 200,000, (l. iv. c. 10, p. 242,) and by Radulphus

Cadomensis at 400,000 horse, (c. 72, p. 309.)]

In the eventful period of the siege and defence of Antioch, the

crusaders were alternately exalted by victory or sunk in despair;

either swelled with plenty or emaciated with hunger. A

speculative reasoner might suppose, that their faith had a strong

and serious influence on their practice; and that the soldiers of

the cross, the deliverers of the holy sepulchre, prepared

themselves by a sober and virtuous life for the daily

contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows away this charitable

illusion; and seldom does the history of profane war display such

scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were exhibited under

the walls of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no longer flourished;

but the Syrian air was still impregnated with the same vices; the

Christians were seduced by every temptation 95 that nature either

prompts or reprobates; the authority of the chiefs was despised;

and sermons and edicts were alike fruitless against those

scandalous disorders, not less pernicious to military discipline,

than repugnant to evangelic purity. In the first days of the

siege and the possession of Antioch, the Franks consumed with

wanton and thoughtless prodigality the frugal subsistence of

weeks and months: the desolate country no longer yielded a

supply; and from that country they were at length excluded by the

arms of the besieging Turks. Disease, the faithful companion of

want, was envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer heats,

unwholesome food, and the close imprisonment of multitudes. The

pictures of famine and pestilence are always the same, and always

disgustful; and our imagination may suggest the nature of their

sufferings and their resources. The remains of treasure or spoil

were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilest nourishment;

and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, since,

after paying three marks of silver for a goat and fifteen for a

lean camel, 96 the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner,

and Duke Godfrey to borrow a horse. Sixty thousand horse had been

reviewed in the camp: before the end of the siege they were

diminished to two thousand, and scarcely two hundred fit for

service could be mustered on the day of battle. Weakness of body

and terror of mind extinguished the ardent enthusiasm of the

pilgrims; and every motive of honor and religion was subdued by

the desire of life. 97 Among the chiefs, three heroes may be

found without fear or reproach: Godfrey of Bouillon was supported

by his magnanimous piety; Bohemond by ambition and interest; and

Tancred declared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that as long as

he was at the head of forty knights, he would never relinquish

the enterprise of Palestine. But the count of Tholouse and

Provence was suspected of a voluntary indisposition; the duke of

Normandy was recalled from the sea-shore by the censures of the

church: Hugh the Great, though he led the vanguard of the battle,

embraced an ambiguous opportunity of returning to France and

Stephen, count of Chartres, basely deserted the standard which he

bore, and the council in which he presided. The soldiers were

discouraged by the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed

the Carpenter, from the weighty strokes of his axe; and the

saints were scandalized by the fall 971 of Peter the Hermit, who,

after arming Europe against Asia, attempted to escape from the

penance of a necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant

warriors, the names (says an historian) are blotted from the book

of life; and the opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was

applied to the deserters who dropped in the night from the walls

of Antioch. The emperor Alexius, 98 who seemed to advance to the

succor of the Latins, was dismayed by the assurance of their

hopeless condition. They expected their fate in silent despair;

oaths and punishments were tried without effect; and to rouse the

soldiers to the defence of the walls, it was found necessary to

set fire to their quarters.

95 (return) [ See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon

of royal birth, who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an

orchard, playing at dice with a Syrian concubine.]

96 (return) [ The value of an ox rose from five solidi, (fifteen

shillings,) at Christmas to two marks, (four pounds,) and

afterwards much higher; a kid or lamb, from one shilling to

eighteen of our present money: in the second famine, a loaf of

bread, or the head of an animal, sold for a piece of gold. More

examples might be produced; but it is the ordinary, not the

extraordinary, prices, that deserve the notice of the

philosopher.]

97 (return) [ Alli multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia, deleta

de libro vitae, praesenti operi non sunt inserenda, (Will. Tyr.

l. vi. c. 5, p. 715.) Guibert (p. 518, 523) attempts to excuse

Hugh the Great, and even Stephen of Chartres.]

971 (return) [ Peter fell during the siege: he went afterwards on

an embassy to Kerboga Wilken. vol. i. p. 217.—M.]

98 (return) [ See the progress of the crusade, the retreat of

Alexius, the victory of Antioch, and the conquest of Jerusalem,

in the Alexiad, l. xi. p. 317-327. Anna was so prone to

exaggeration, that she magnifies the exploits of the Latins.]

For their salvation and victory, they were indebted to the same

fanaticism which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such a

cause, and in such an army, visions, prophecies, and miracles,

were frequent and familiar. In the distress of Antioch, they were

repeated with unusual energy and success: St. Ambrose had assured

a pious ecclesiastic, that two years of trial must precede the

season of deliverance and grace; the deserters were stopped by

the presence and reproaches of Christ himself; the dead had

promised to arise and combat with their brethren; the Virgin had

obtained the pardon of their sins; and their confidence was

revived by a visible sign, the seasonable and splendid discovery

of the Holy Lance. The policy of their chiefs has on this

occasion been admired, and might surely be excused; but a pious

fraud is seldom produced by the cool conspiracy of many persons;

and a voluntary impostor might depend on the support of the wise

and the credulity of the people. Of the diocese of Marseilles,

there was a priest of low cunning and loose manners, and his name

was Peter Bartholemy. He presented himself at the door of the

council-chamber, to disclose an apparition of St. Andrew, which

had been thrice reiterated in his sleep with a dreadful menace,

if he presumed to suppress the commands of Heaven. “At Antioch,”

said the apostle, “in the church of my brother St. Peter, near

the high altar, is concealed the steel head of the lance that

pierced the side of our Redeemer. In three days that instrument

of eternal, and now of temporal, salvation, will be manifested to

his disciples. Search, and ye shall find: bear it aloft in

battle; and that mystic weapon shall penetrate the souls of the

miscreants.” The pope’s legate, the bishop of Puy, affected to

listen with coldness and distrust; but the revelation was eagerly

accepted by Count Raymond, whom his faithful subject, in the name

of the apostle, had chosen for the guardian of the holy lance.

The experiment was resolved; and on the third day after a due

preparation of prayer and fasting, the priest of Marseilles

introduced twelve trusty spectators, among whom were the count

and his chaplain; and the church doors were barred against the

impetuous multitude. The ground was opened in the appointed

place; but the workmen, who relieved each other, dug to the depth

of twelve feet without discovering the object of their search. In

the evening, when Count Raymond had withdrawn to his post, and

the weary assistants began to murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt,

and without his shoes, boldly descended into the pit; the

darkness of the hour and of the place enabled him to secrete and

deposit the head of a Saracen lance; and the first sound, the

first gleam, of the steel was saluted with a devout rapture. The

holy lance was drawn from its recess, wrapped in a veil of silk

and gold, and exposed to the veneration of the crusaders; their

anxious suspense burst forth in a general shout of joy and hope,

and the desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm

of valor. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the

sentiments of the chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate

revolution by every aid that discipline and devotion could

afford. The soldiers were dismissed to their quarters with an

injunction to fortify their minds and bodies for the approaching

conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance on themselves and

their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day the signal of

victory. On the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of

Antioch were thrown open: a martial psalm, “Let the Lord arise,

and let his enemies be scattered!” was chanted by a procession of

priests and monks; the battle array was marshalled in twelve

divisions, in honor of the twelve apostles; and the holy lance,

in the absence of Raymond, was intrusted to the hands of his

chaplain. The influence of his relic or trophy, was felt by the

servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ; 99 and its

potent energy was heightened by an accident, a stratagem, or a

rumor, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, in white

garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue,

from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope’s legate,

proclaimed them as the martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St.

Maurice: the tumult of battle allowed no time for doubt or

scrutiny; and the welcome apparition dazzled the eyes or the

imagination of a fanatic army. 991 In the season of danger and

triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles was

unanimously asserted; but as soon as the temporary service was

accomplished, the personal dignity and liberal arms which the

count of Tholouse derived from the custody of the holy lance,

provoked the envy, and awakened the reason, of his rivals. A

Norman clerk presumed to sift, with a philosophic spirit, the

truth of the legend, the circumstances of the discovery, and the

character of the prophet; and the pious Bohemond ascribed their

deliverance to the merits and intercession of Christ alone. For a

while, the Provincials defended their national palladium with

clamors and arms and new visions condemned to death and hell the

profane sceptics who presumed to scrutinize the truth and merit

of the discovery. The prevalence of incredulity compelled the

author to submit his life and veracity to the judgment of God. A

pile of dry fagots, four feet high and fourteen long, was erected

in the midst of the camp; the flames burnt fiercely to the

elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrow path of twelve inches

was left for the perilous trial. The unfortunate priest of

Marseilles traversed the fire with dexterity and speed; but the

thighs and belly were scorched by the intense heat; he expired

the next day; 992 and the logic of believing minds will pay some

regard to his dying protestations of innocence and truth. Some

efforts were made by the Provincials to substitute a cross, a

ring, or a tabernacle, in the place of the holy lance, which soon

vanished in contempt and oblivion. 100 Yet the revelation of

Antioch is gravely asserted by succeeding historians: and such is

the progress of credulity, that miracles most doubtful on the

spot, and at the moment, will be received with implicit faith at

a convenient distance of time and space.

99 (return) [ The Mahometan Aboulmahasen (apud De Guignes, tom.

ii. p. ii. p. 95) is more correct in his account of the holy

lance than the Christians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius: the

Greek princess confounds it with the nail of the cross, (l. xi.

p. 326;) the Jacobite primate, with St. Peter’s staff, (p. 242.)]

991 (return) [ The real cause of this victory appears to have

been the feud in Kerboga’s army Wilken, vol. ii. p. 40.—M.]

992 (return) [ The twelfth day after. He was much injured, and

his flesh torn off, from the ardor of pious congratulation with

which he was assailed by those who witnessed his escape, unhurt,

as it was first supposed. Wilken vol. i p. 263—M.]

100 (return) [ The two antagonists who express the most intimate

knowledge and the strongest conviction of the miracle, and of the

fraud, are Raymond des Agiles, and Radulphus Cadomensis, the one

attached to the count of Tholouse, the other to the Norman

prince. Fulcherius Carnotensis presumes to say, Audite fraudem et

non fraudem! and afterwards, Invenit lanceam, fallaciter

occultatam forsitan. The rest of the herd are loud and

strenuous.]

The prudence or fortune of the Franks had delayed their invasion

till the decline of the Turkish empire. 101 Under the manly

government of the three first sultans, the kingdoms of Asia were

united in peace and justice; and the innumerable armies which

they led in person were equal in courage, and superior in

discipline, to the Barbarians of the West. But at the time of the

crusade, the inheritance of Malek Shaw was disputed by his four

sons; their private ambition was insensible of the public danger;

and, in the vicissitudes of their fortune, the royal vassals were

ignorant, or regardless, of the true object of their allegiance.

The twenty-eight emirs who marched with the standard or Kerboga

were his rivals or enemies: their hasty levies were drawn from

the towns and tents of Mesopotamia and Syria; and the Turkish

veterans were employed or consumed in the civil wars beyond the

Tigris. The caliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity of weakness

and discord to recover his ancient possessions; and his sultan

Aphdal besieged Jerusalem and Tyre, expelled the children of

Ortok, and restored in Palestine the civil and ecclesiastical

authority of the Fatimites. 102 They heard with astonishment of

the vast armies of Christians that had passed from Europe to

Asia, and rejoiced in the sieges and battles which broke the

power of the Turks, the adversaries of their sect and monarchy.

But the same Christians were the enemies of the prophet; and from

the overthrow of Nice and Antioch, the motive of their

enterprise, which was gradually understood, would urge them

forwards to the banks of the Jordan, or perhaps of the Nile.

An intercourse of epistles and embassies, which rose and fell

with the events of war, was maintained between the throne of

Cairo and the camp of the Latins; and their adverse pride was the

result of ignorance and enthusiasm. The ministers of Egypt

declared in a haughty, or insinuated in a milder, tone, that

their sovereign, the true and lawful commander of the faithful,

had rescued Jerusalem from the Turkish yoke; and that the

pilgrims, if they would divide their numbers, and lay aside their

arms, should find a safe and hospitable reception at the

sepulchre of Jesus. In the belief of their lost condition, the

caliph Mostali despised their arms and imprisoned their deputies:

the conquest and victory of Antioch prompted him to solicit those

formidable champions with gifts of horses and silk robes, of

vases, and purses of gold and silver; and in his estimate of

their merit or power, the first place was assigned to Bohemond,

and the second to Godfrey. In either fortune, the answer of the

crusaders was firm and uniform: they disdained to inquire into

the private claims or possessions of the followers of Mahomet;

whatsoever was his name or nation, the usurper of Jerusalem was

their enemy; and instead of prescribing the mode and terms of

their pilgrimage, it was only by a timely surrender of the city

and province, their sacred right, that he could deserve their

alliance, or deprecate their impending and irresistible attack.

103

101 (return) [ See M. De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 223, &c.;

and the articles of Barkidrok, Mohammed, Sangiar, in D’Herbelot.]

102 (return) [ The emir, or sultan, Aphdal, recovered Jerusalem

and Tyre, A. H. 489, (Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p.

478. De Guignes, tom. i. p. 249, from Abulfeda and Ben Schounah.)

Jerusalem ante adventum vestrum recuperavimus, Turcos ejecimus,

say the Fatimite ambassadors]

103 (return) [ See the transactions between the caliph of Egypt

and the crusaders in William of Tyre (l. iv. c. 24, l. vi. c. 19)

and Albert Aquensis, (l. iii. c. 59,) who are more sensible of

their importance than the contemporary writers.]

Yet this attack, when they were within the view and reach of

their glorious prize, was suspended above ten months after the

defeat of Kerboga. The zeal and courage of the crusaders were

chilled in the moment of victory; and instead of marching to

improve the consternation, they hastily dispersed to enjoy the

luxury, of Syria. The causes of this strange delay may be found

in the want of strength and subordination. In the painful and

various service of Antioch, the cavalry was annihilated; many

thousands of every rank had been lost by famine, sickness, and

desertion: the same abuse of plenty had been productive of a

third famine; and the alternative of intemperance and distress

had generated a pestilence, which swept away above fifty thousand

of the pilgrims. Few were able to command, and none were willing

to obey; the domestic feuds, which had been stifled by common

fear, were again renewed in acts, or at least in sentiments, of

hostility; the fortune of Baldwin and Bohemond excited the envy

of their companions; the bravest knights were enlisted for the

defence of their new principalities; and Count Raymond exhausted

his troops and treasures in an idle expedition into the heart of

Syria. 1031 The winter was consumed in discord and disorder; a

sense of honor and religion was rekindled in the spring; and the

private soldiers, less susceptible of ambition and jealousy,

awakened with angry clamors the indolence of their chiefs. In the

month of May, the relics of this mighty host proceeded from

Antioch to Laodicea: about forty thousand Latins, of whom no more

than fifteen hundred horse, and twenty thousand foot, were

capable of immediate service. Their easy march was continued

between Mount Libanus and the sea-shore: their wants were

liberally supplied by the coasting traders of Genoa and Pisa; and

they drew large contributions from the emirs of Tripoli, Tyre,

Sidon, Acre, and Caesarea, who granted a free passage, and

promised to follow the example of Jerusalem. From Caesarea they

advanced into the midland country; their clerks recognized the

sacred geography of Lydda, Ramla, Emmaus, and Bethlem, 1032 and

as soon as they descried the holy city, the crusaders forgot

their toils and claimed their reward. 104

1031 (return) [ This is not quite correct: he took Marra on his

road. His excursions were partly to obtain provisions for the

army and fodder for the horses Wilken, vol. i. p. 226.—M.]

1032 (return) [ Scarcely of Bethlehem, to the south of

Jerusalem.— M.]

104 (return) [ The greatest part of the march of the Franks is

traced, and most accurately traced, in Maundrell’s Journey from

Aleppo to Jerusalem, (p. 11-67;) un des meilleurs morceaux, sans

contredit qu’on ait dans ce genre, (D’Anville, Memoire sur

Jerusalem, p. 27.)]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part V.

Jerusalem has derived some reputation from the number and

importance of her memorable sieges. It was not till after a long

and obstinate contest that Babylon and Rome could prevail against

the obstinacy of the people, the craggy ground that might

supersede the necessity of fortifications, and the walls and

towers that would have fortified the most accessible plain. 105

These obstacles were diminished in the age of the crusades. The

bulwarks had been completely destroyed and imperfectly restored:

the Jews, their nation, and worship, were forever banished; but

nature is less changeable than man, and the site of Jerusalem,

though somewhat softened and somewhat removed, was still strong

against the assaults of an enemy. By the experience of a recent

siege, and a three years’ possession, the Saracens of Egypt had

been taught to discern, and in some degree to remedy, the defects

of a place, which religion as well as honor forbade them to

resign. Aladin, or Iftikhar, the caliph’s lieutenant, was

intrusted with the defence: his policy strove to restrain the

native Christians by the dread of their own ruin and that of the

holy sepulchre; to animate the Moslems by the assurance of

temporal and eternal rewards. His garrison is said to have

consisted of forty thousand Turks and Arabians; and if he could

muster twenty thousand of the inhabitants, it must be confessed

that the besieged were more numerous than the besieging army. 106

Had the diminished strength and numbers of the Latins allowed

them to grasp the whole circumference of four thousand yards,

(about two English miles and a half, 107 to what useful purpose

should they have descended into the valley of Ben Hinnom and

torrent of Cedron, 108 or approach the precipices of the south

and east, from whence they had nothing either to hope or fear?

Their siege was more reasonably directed against the northern and

western sides of the city. Godfrey of Bouillon erected his

standard on the first swell of Mount Calvary: to the left, as far

as St. Stephen’s gate, the line of attack was continued by

Tancred and the two Roberts; and Count Raymond established his

quarters from the citadel to the foot of Mount Sion, which was no

longer included within the precincts of the city. On the fifth

day, the crusaders made a general assault, in the fanatic hope of

battering down the walls without engines, and of scaling them

without ladders. By the dint of brutal force, they burst the

first barrier; but they were driven back with shame and slaughter

to the camp: the influence of vision and prophecy was deadened by

the too frequent abuse of those pious stratagems; and time and

labor were found to be the only means of victory. The time of the

siege was indeed fulfilled in forty days, but they were forty

days of calamity and anguish. A repetition of the old complaint

of famine may be imputed in some degree to the voracious or

disorderly appetite of the Franks; but the stony soil of

Jerusalem is almost destitute of water; the scanty springs and

hasty torrents were dry in the summer season; nor was the thirst

of the besiegers relieved, as in the city, by the artificial

supply of cisterns and aqueducts. The circumjacent country is

equally destitute of trees for the uses of shade or building, but

some large beams were discovered in a cave by the crusaders: a

wood near Sichem, the enchanted grove of Tasso, 109 was cut down:

the necessary timber was transported to the camp by the vigor and

dexterity of Tancred; and the engines were framed by some Genoese

artists, who had fortunately landed in the harbor of Jaffa. Two

movable turrets were constructed at the expense, and in the

stations, of the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, and

rolled forwards with devout labor, not to the most accessible,

but to the most neglected, parts of the fortification. Raymond’s

Tower was reduced to ashes by the fire of the besieged, but his

colleague was more vigilant and successful; 1091 the enemies were

driven by his archers from the rampart; the draw-bridge was let

down; and on a Friday, at three in the afternoon, the day and

hour of the passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stood victorious on the

walls of Jerusalem. His example was followed on every side by the

emulation of valor; and about four hundred and sixty years after

the conquest of Omar, the holy city was rescued from the

Mahometan yoke. In the pillage of public and private wealth, the

adventurers had agreed to respect the exclusive property of the

first occupant; and the spoils of the great mosque, seventy lamps

and massy vases of gold and silver, rewarded the diligence, and

displayed the generosity, of Tancred. A bloody sacrifice was

offered by his mistaken votaries to the God of the Christians:

resistance might provoke but neither age nor sex could mollify,

their implacable rage: they indulged themselves three days in a

promiscuous massacre; 110 and the infection of the dead bodies

produced an epidemical disease. After seventy thousand Moslems

had been put to the sword, and the harmless Jews had been burnt

in their synagogue, they could still reserve a multitude of

captives, whom interest or lassitude persuaded them to spare. Of

these savage heroes of the cross, Tancred alone betrayed some

sentiments of compassion; yet we may praise the more selfish

lenity of Raymond, who granted a capitulation and safe-conduct to

the garrison of the citadel. 111 The holy sepulchre was now free;

and the bloody victors prepared to accomplish their vow.

Bareheaded and barefoot, with contrite hearts, and in an humble

posture, they ascended the hill of Calvary, amidst the loud

anthems of the clergy; kissed the stone which had covered the

Savior of the world; and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence

the monument of their redemption. This union of the fiercest and

most tender passions has been variously considered by two

philosophers; by the one, 112 as easy and natural; by the other,

113 as absurd and incredible. Perhaps it is too rigorously

applied to the same persons and the same hour; the example of the

virtuous Godfrey awakened the piety of his companions; while they

cleansed their bodies, they purified their minds; nor shall I

believe that the most ardent in slaughter and rapine were the

foremost in the procession to the holy sepulchre.

105 (return) [ See the masterly description of Tacitus, (Hist. v.

11, 12, 13,) who supposes that the Jewish lawgivers had provided

for a perpetual state of hostility against the rest of mankind. *

Note: This is an exaggerated inference from the words of Tacitus,

who speaks of the founders of the city, not the lawgivers.

Praeviderant conditores, ex diversitate morum, crebra bella; inde

cuncta quamvis adversus loagum obsidium.—M.]

106 (return) [ The lively scepticism of Voltaire is balanced with

sense and erudition by the French author of the Esprit des

Croisades, (tom. iv. p. 386-388,) who observes, that, according

to the Arabians, the inhabitants of Jerusalem must have exceeded

200,000; that in the siege of Titus, Josephus collects 1,300,000

Jews; that they are stated by Tacitus himself at 600,000; and

that the largest defalcation, that his accepimus can justify,

will still leave them more numerous than the Roman army.]

107 (return) [ Maundrell, who diligently perambulated the walls,

found a circuit of 4630 paces, or 4167 English yards, (p. 109,

110: ) from an authentic plan, D’Anville concludes a measure

nearly similar, of 1960 French toises, (p. 23-29,) in his scarce

and valuable tract. For the topography of Jerusalem, see Reland,

(Palestina, tom. ii. p. 832-860.)]

108 (return) [ Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent of

Kedron, dry in summer, and of the little spring or brook of

Siloe, (Reland, tom. i. p. 294, 300.) Both strangers and natives

complain of the want of water, which, in time of war, was

studiously aggravated. Within the city, Tacitus mentions a

perennial fountain, an aqueduct and cisterns for rain water. The

aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekos or Etham, which is

likewise mentioned by Bohadin, (in Vit. Saludio p. 238.)]

109 (return) [ Gierusalomme Liberata, canto xiii. It is pleasant

enough to observe how Tasso has copied and embellished the

minutest details of the siege.]

1091 (return) [ This does not appear by Wilken’s account, (p.

294.) They fought in vair the whole of the Thursday.—M.]

110 (return) [ Besides the Latins, who are not ashamed of the

massacre, see Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 363,) Abulpharagius,

(Dynast. p. 243,) and M. De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 99, from

Aboulmahasen.]

111 (return) [ The old tower Psephina, in the middle ages

Neblosa, was named Castellum Pisanum, from the patriarch

Daimbert. It is still the citadel, the residence of the Turkish

aga, and commands a prospect of the Dead Sea, Judea, and Arabia,

(D’Anville, p. 19-23.) It was likewise called the Tower of

David.]

112 (return) [ Hume, in his History of England, vol. i. p. 311,

312, octavo edition.]

113 (return) [ Voltaire, in his Essai sur l’Histoire Generale,

tom ii. c. 54, p 345, 346]

Eight days after this memorable event, which Pope Urban did not

live to hear, the Latin chiefs proceeded to the election of a

king, to guard and govern their conquests in Palestine. Hugh the

Great, and Stephen of Chartres, had retired with some loss of

reputation, which they strove to regain by a second crusade and

an honorable death. Baldwin was established at Edessa, and

Bohemond at Antioch; and two Roberts, the duke of Normandy 114

and the count of Flanders, preferred their fair inheritance in

the West to a doubtful competition or a barren sceptre. The

jealousy and ambition of Raymond were condemned by his own

followers, and the free, the just, the unanimous voice of the

army proclaimed Godfrey of Bouillon the first and most worthy of

the champions of Christendom. His magnanimity accepted a trust as

full of danger as of glory; but in a city where his Savior had

been crowned with thorns, the devout pilgrim rejected the name

and ensigns of royalty; and the founder of the kingdom of

Jerusalem contented himself with the modest title of Defender and

Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. His government of a single year, 115

too short for the public happiness, was interrupted in the first

fortnight by a summons to the field, by the approach of the

vizier or sultan of Egypt, who had been too slow to prevent, but

who was impatient to avenge, the loss of Jerusalem. His total

overthrow in the battle of Ascalon sealed the establishment of

the Latins in Syria, and signalized the valor of the French

princes who in this action bade a long farewell to the holy wars.

Some glory might be derived from the prodigious inequality of

numbers, though I shall not count the myriads of horse and foot

1151 on the side of the Fatimites; but, except three thousand

Ethiopians or Blacks, who were armed with flails or scourges of

iron, the Barbarians of the South fled on the first onset, and

afforded a pleasing comparison between the active valor of the

Turks and the sloth and effeminacy of the natives of Egypt. After

suspending before the holy sepulchre the sword and standard of

the sultan, the new king (he deserves the title) embraced his

departing companions, and could retain only with the gallant

Tancred three hundred knights, and two thousand foot-soldiers for

the defence of Palestine. His sovereignty was soon attacked by a

new enemy, the only one against whom Godfrey was a coward.

Adhemar, bishop of Puy, who excelled both in council and action,

had been swept away in the last plague at Antioch: the remaining

ecclesiastics preserved only the pride and avarice of their

character; and their seditious clamors had required that the

choice of a bishop should precede that of a king. The revenue and

jurisdiction of the lawful patriarch were usurped by the Latin

clergy: the exclusion of the Greeks and Syrians was justified by

the reproach of heresy or schism; 116 and, under the iron yoke of

their deliverers, the Oriental Christians regretted the

tolerating government of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert,

archbishop of Pisa, had long been trained in the secret policy of

Rome: he brought a fleet at his countrymen to the succor of the

Holy Land, and was installed, without a competitor, the spiritual

and temporal head of the church. 1161 The new patriarch 117

immediately grasped the sceptre which had been acquired by the

toil and blood of the victorious pilgrims; and both Godfrey and

Bohemond submitted to receive at his hands the investiture of

their feudal possessions. Nor was this sufficient; Daimbert

claimed the immediate property of Jerusalem and Jaffa; instead of

a firm and generous refusal, the hero negotiated with the priest;

a quarter of either city was ceded to the church; and the modest

bishop was satisfied with an eventual reversion of the rest, on

the death of Godfrey without children, or on the future

acquisition of a new seat at Cairo or Damascus.

114 (return) [ The English ascribe to Robert of Normandy, and the

Provincials to Raymond of Tholouse, the glory of refusing the

crown; but the honest voice of tradition has preserved the memory

of the ambition and revenge (Villehardouin, No. 136) of the count

of St. Giles. He died at the siege of Tripoli, which was

possessed by his descendants.]

115 (return) [ See the election, the battle of Ascalon, &c., in

William of Tyre l. ix. c. 1-12, and in the conclusion of the

Latin historians of the first crusade.]

1151 (return) [ 20,000 Franks, 300,000 Mussulmen, according to

Wilken, (vol. ii. p. 9)—M.]

116 (return) [ Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 479.]

1161 (return) [ Arnulf was first chosen, but illegitimately, and

degraded. He was ever after the secret enemy of Daimbert or

Dagobert. Wilken, vol. i. p. 306, vol. ii. p. 52.—M]

117 (return) [ See the claims of the patriarch Daimbert, in

William of Tyre (l. ix. c. 15-18, x. 4, 7, 9,) who asserts with

marvellous candor the independence of the conquerors and kings of

Jerusalem.]

Without this indulgence, the conqueror would have almost been

stripped of his infant kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem

and Jaffa, with about twenty villages and towns of the adjacent

country. 118 Within this narrow verge, the Mahometans were still

lodged in some impregnable castles: and the husbandman, the

trader, and the pilgrim, were exposed to daily and domestic

hostility. By the arms of Godfrey himself, and of the two

Baldwins, his brother and cousin, who succeeded to the throne,

the Latins breathed with more ease and safety; and at length they

equalled, in the extent of their dominions, though not in the

millions of their subjects, the ancient princes of Judah and

Israel. 119 After the reduction of the maritime cities of

Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and Ascalon, 120 which were powerfully

assisted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, and even of

Flanders and Norway, 121 the range of sea-coast from Scanderoon

to the borders of Egypt was possessed by the Christian pilgrims.

If the prince of Antioch disclaimed his supremacy, the counts of

Edessa and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of the king of

Jerusalem: the Latins reigned beyond the Euphrates; and the four

cities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus, and Aleppo, were the only relics

of the Mahometan conquests in Syria. 122 The laws and language,

the manners and titles, of the French nation and Latin church,

were introduced into these transmarine colonies. According to the

feudal jurisprudence, the principal states and subordinate

baronies descended in the line of male and female succession: 123

but the children of the first conquerors, 124 a motley and

degenerate race, were dissolved by the luxury of the climate; the

arrival of new crusaders from Europe was a doubtful hope and a

casual event. The service of the feudal tenures 125 was performed

by six hundred and sixty-six knights, who might expect the aid of

two hundred more under the banner of the count of Tripoli; and

each knight was attended to the field by four squires or archers

on horseback. 126 Five thousand and seventy sergeants, most

probably foot-soldiers, were supplied by the churches and cities;

and the whole legal militia of the kingdom could not exceed

eleven thousand men, a slender defence against the surrounding

myriads of Saracens and Turks. 127 But the firmest bulwark of

Jerusalem was founded on the knights of the Hospital of St. John,

128 and of the temple of Solomon; 129 on the strange association

of a monastic and military life, which fanaticism might suggest,

but which policy must approve. The flower of the nobility of

Europe aspired to wear the cross, and to profess the vows, of

these respectable orders; their spirit and discipline were

immortal; and the speedy donation of twenty-eight thousand farms,

or manors, 130 enabled them to support a regular force of cavalry

and infantry for the defence of Palestine. The austerity of the

convent soon evaporated in the exercise of arms; the world was

scandalized by the pride, avarice, and corruption of these

Christian soldiers; their claims of immunity and jurisdiction

disturbed the harmony of the church and state; and the public

peace was endangered by their jealous emulation. But in their

most dissolute period, the knights of their hospital and temple

maintained their fearless and fanatic character: they neglected

to live, but they were prepared to die, in the service of Christ;

and the spirit of chivalry, the parent and offspring of the

crusades, has been transplanted by this institution from the holy

sepulchre to the Isle of Malta. 131

118 (return) [ Willerm. Tyr. l. x. 19. The Historia

Hierosolimitana of Jacobus a Vitriaco (l. i. c. 21-50) and the

Secreta Fidelium Crucis of Marinus Sanutus (l. iii. p. 1)

describe the state and conquests of the Latin kingdom of

Jerusalem.]

119 (return) [ An actual muster, not including the tribes of Levi

and Benjamin, gave David an army of 1,300,000 or 1,574,000

fighting men; which, with the addition of women, children, and

slaves, may imply a population of thirteen millions, in a country

sixty leagues in length, and thirty broad. The honest and

rational Le Clerc (Comment on 2d Samuel xxiv. and 1st Chronicles,

xxi.) aestuat angusto in limite, and mutters his suspicion of a

false transcript; a dangerous suspicion! * Note: David determined

to take a census of his vast dominions, which extended from

Lebanon to the frontiers of Egypt, from the Euphrates to the

Mediterranean. The numbers (in 2 Sam. xxiv. 9, and 1 Chron. xxi.

5) differ; but the lowest gives 800,000 men fit to bear arms in

Israel, 500,000 in Judah. Hist. of Jews, vol. i. p. 248. Gibbon

has taken the highest census in his estimate of the population,

and confined the dominions of David to Jordandic Palestine.—M.]

120 (return) [ These sieges are related, each in its proper

place, in the great history of William of Tyre, from the ixth to

the xviiith book, and more briefly told by Bernardus

Thesaurarius, (de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, c. 89-98, p.

732-740.) Some domestic facts are celebrated in the Chronicles of

Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, in the vith, ixth, and xiith tomes of

Muratori.]

121 (return) [ Quidam populus de insulis occidentis egressus, et

maxime de ea parte quae Norvegia dicitur. William of Tyre (l. xi.

c. 14, p. 804) marks their course per Britannicum Mare et Calpen

to the siege of Sidon.]

122 (return) [ Benelathir, apud De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom.

ii. part ii. p. 150, 151, A.D. 1127. He must speak of the inland

country.]

123 (return) [ Sanut very sensibly descants on the mischiefs of

female succession, in a land hostibus circumdata, ubi cuncta

virilia et virtuosa esse deberent. Yet, at the summons, and with

the approbation, of her feudal lord, a noble damsel was obliged

to choose a husband and champion, (Assises de Jerusalem, c. 242,

&c.) See in M. De Guignes (tom. i. p. 441-471) the accurate and

useful tables of these dynasties, which are chiefly drawn from

the Lignages d’Outremer.]

124 (return) [ They were called by derision Poullains, Pallani,

and their name is never pronounced without contempt, (Ducange,

Gloss. Latin. tom. v. p. 535; and Observations sur Joinville, p.

84, 85; Jacob. a Vitriaco Hist. Hierosol. i. c. 67, 72; and

Sanut, l. iii. p. viii. c. 2, p. 182.) Illustrium virorum, qui ad

Terrae Sanctae.... liberationem in ipsa manserunt, degeneres

filii.... in deliciis enutriti, molles et effoe minati, &c.]

125 (return) [ This authentic detail is extracted from the

Assises de Jerusalem (c. 324, 326-331.) Sanut (l. iii. p. viii.

c. 1, p. 174) reckons only 518 knights, and 5775 followers.]

126 (return) [ The sum total, and the division, ascertain the

service of the three great baronies at 100 knights each; and the

text of the Assises, which extends the number to 500, can only be

justified by this supposition.]

127 (return) [ Yet on great emergencies (says Sanut) the barons

brought a voluntary aid; decentem comitivam militum juxta statum

suum.]

128 (return) [ William of Tyre (l. xviii. c. 3, 4, 5) relates the

ignoble origin and early insolence of the Hospitallers, who soon

deserted their humble patron, St. John the Eleemosynary, for the

more august character of St. John the Baptist, (see the

ineffectual struggles of Pagi, Critica, A. D 1099, No. 14-18.)

They assumed the profession of arms about the year 1120; the

Hospital was mater; the Temple filia; the Teutonic order was

founded A.D. 1190, at the siege of Acre, (Mosheim Institut p.

389, 390.)]

129 (return) [ See St. Bernard de Laude Novae Militiae Templi,

composed A.D. 1132-1136, in Opp. tom. i. p. ii. p. 547-563, edit.

Mabillon, Venet. 1750. Such an encomium, which is thrown away on

the dead Templars, would be highly valued by the historians of

Malta.]

130 (return) [ Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 544. He assigns to

the Hospitallers 19,000, to the Templars 9,000 maneria, word of

much higher import (as Ducange has rightly observed) in the

English than in the French idiom. Manor is a lordship, manoir a

dwelling.]

131 (return) [ In the three first books of the Histoire de

Chevaliers de Malthe par l’Abbe de Vertot, the reader may amuse

himself with a fair, and sometimes flattering, picture of the

order, while it was employed for the defence of Palestine. The

subsequent books pursue their emigration to Rhodes and Malta.]

The spirit of freedom, which pervades the feudal institutions,

was felt in its strongest energy by the volunteers of the cross,

who elected for their chief the most deserving of his peers.

Amidst the slaves of Asia, unconscious of the lesson or example,

a model of political liberty was introduced; and the laws of the

French kingdom are derived from the purest source of equality and

justice. Of such laws, the first and indispensable condition is

the assent of those whose obedience they require, and for whose

benefit they are designed. No sooner had Godfrey of Bouillon

accepted the office of supreme magistrate, than he solicited the

public and private advice of the Latin pilgrims, who were the

best skilled in the statutes and customs of Europe. From these

materials, with the counsel and approbation of the patriarch and

barons, of the clergy and laity, Godfrey composed the Assise of

Jerusalem, 132 a precious monument of feudal jurisprudence. The

new code, attested by the seals of the king, the patriarch, and

the viscount of Jerusalem, was deposited in the holy sepulchre,

enriched with the improvements of succeeding times, and

respectfully consulted as often as any doubtful question arose in

the tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom and city all was

lost: 133 the fragments of the written law were preserved by

jealous tradition 134 and variable practice till the middle of

the thirteenth century: the code was restored by the pen of John

d’Ibelin, count of Jaffa, one of the principal feudatories; 135

and the final revision was accomplished in the year thirteen

hundred and sixty-nine, for the use of the Latin kingdom of

Cyprus. 136

132 (return) [ The Assises de Jerusalem, in old law French, were

printed with Beaumanoir’s Coutumes de Beauvoisis, (Bourges and

Paris, 1690, in folio,) and illustrated by Gaspard Thaumas de la

Thaumassiere, with a comment and glossary. An Italian version had

been published in 1534, at Venice, for the use of the kingdom of

Cyprus. * Note: See Wilken, vol. i. p. 17, &c.,—M.]

133 (return) [ A la terre perdue, tout fut perdu, is the vigorous

expression of the Assise, (c. 281.) Yet Jerusalem capitulated

with Saladin; the queen and the principal Christians departed in

peace; and a code so precious and so portable could not provoke

the avarice of the conquerors. I have sometimes suspected the

existence of this original copy of the Holy Sepulchre, which

might be invented to sanctify and authenticate the traditionary

customs of the French in Palestine.]

134 (return) [ A noble lawyer, Raoul de Tabarie, denied the

prayer of King Amauri, (A.D. 1195-1205,) that he would commit his

knowledged to writing, and frankly declared, que de ce qu’il

savoit ne feroit-il ja nul borjois son pareill, ne null sage

homme lettre, (c. 281.)]

135 (return) [ The compiler of this work, Jean d’Ibelin, was

count of Jaffa and Ascalon, lord of Baruth (Berytus) and Rames,

and died A.D. 1266, (Sanut, l. iii. p. ii. c. 5, 8.) The family

of Ibelin, which descended from a younger brother of a count of

Chartres in France, long flourished in Palestine and Cyprus, (see

the Lignages de deca Mer, or d’Outremer, c. 6, at the end of the

Assises de Jerusalem, an original book, which records the

pedigrees of the French adventurers.)]

136 (return) [ By sixteen commissioners chosen in the states of

the island: the work was finished the 3d of November, 1369,

sealed with four seals and deposited in the cathedral of Nicosia,

(see the preface to the Assises.)]

The justice and freedom of the constitution were maintained by

two tribunals of unequal dignity, which were instituted by

Godfrey of Bouillon after the conquest of Jerusalem. The king, in

person, presided in the upper court, the court of the barons. Of

these the four most conspicuous were the prince of Galilee, the

lord of Sidon and Caesarea, and the counts of Jaffa and Tripoli,

who, perhaps with the constable and marshal, 137 were in a

special manner the compeers and judges of each other. But all the

nobles, who held their lands immediately of the crown, were

entitled and bound to attend the king’s court; and each baron

exercised a similar jurisdiction on the subordinate assemblies of

his own feudatories. The connection of lord and vassal was

honorable and voluntary: reverence was due to the benefactor,

protection to the dependant; but they mutually pledged their

faith to each other; and the obligation on either side might be

suspended by neglect or dissolved by injury. The cognizance of

marriages and testaments was blended with religion, and usurped

by the clergy: but the civil and criminal causes of the nobles,

the inheritance and tenure of their fiefs, formed the proper

occupation of the supreme court. Each member was the judge and

guardian both of public and private rights. It was his duty to

assert with his tongue and sword the lawful claims of the lord;

but if an unjust superior presumed to violate the freedom or

property of a vassal, the confederate peers stood forth to

maintain his quarrel by word and deed. They boldly affirmed his

innocence and his wrongs; demanded the restitution of his liberty

or his lands; suspended, after a fruitless demand, their own

service; rescued their brother from prison; and employed every

weapon in his defence, without offering direct violence to the

person of their lord, which was ever sacred in their eyes. 138 In

their pleadings, replies, and rejoinders, the advocates of the

court were subtle and copious; but the use of argument and

evidence was often superseded by judicial combat; and the Assise

of Jerusalem admits in many cases this barbarous institution,

which has been slowly abolished by the laws and manners of

Europe.

137 (return) [ The cautious John D’Ibelin argues, rather than

affirms, that Tripoli is the fourth barony, and expresses some

doubt concerning the right or pretension of the constable and

marshal, (c. 323.)]

138 (return) [ Entre seignor et homme ne n’a que la foi;.... mais

tant que l’homme doit a son seignor reverence en toutes choses,

(c. 206.) Tous les hommes dudit royaume sont par ladite Assise

tenus les uns as autres.... et en celle maniere que le seignor

mette main ou face mettre au cors ou au fie d’aucun d’yaus sans

esgard et sans connoissans de court, que tous les autres doivent

venir devant le seignor, &c., (212.) The form of their

remonstrances is conceived with the noble simplicity of freedom.]

The trial by battle was established in all criminal cases which

affected the life, or limb, or honor, of any person; and in all

civil transactions, of or above the value of one mark of silver.

It appears that in criminal cases the combat was the privilege of

the accuser, who, except in a charge of treason, avenged his

personal injury, or the death of those persons whom he had a

right to represent; but wherever, from the nature of the charge,

testimony could be obtained, it was necessary for him to produce

witnesses of the fact. In civil cases, the combat was not allowed

as the means of establishing the claim of the demandant; but he

was obliged to produce witnesses who had, or assumed to have,

knowledge of the fact. The combat was then the privilege of the

defendant; because he charged the witness with an attempt by

perjury to take away his right. He came therefore to be in the

same situation as the appellant in criminal cases. It was not

then as a mode of proof that the combat was received, nor as

making negative evidence, (according to the supposition of

Montesquieu; 139 but in every case the right to offer battle was

founded on the right to pursue by arms the redress of an injury;

and the judicial combat was fought on the same principle, and

with the same spirit, as a private duel. Champions were only

allowed to women, and to men maimed or past the age of sixty. The

consequence of a defeat was death to the person accused, or to

the champion or witness, as well as to the accuser himself: but

in civil cases, the demandant was punished with infamy and the

loss of his suit, while his witness and champion suffered

ignominious death. In many cases it was in the option of the

judge to award or to refuse the combat: but two are specified, in

which it was the inevitable result of the challenge; if a

faithful vassal gave the lie to his compeer, who unjustly claimed

any portion of their lord’s demesnes; or if an unsuccessful

suitor presumed to impeach the judgment and veracity of the

court. He might impeach them, but the terms were severe and

perilous: in the same day he successively fought all the members

of the tribunal, even those who had been absent; a single defeat

was followed by death and infamy; and where none could hope for

victory, it is highly probable that none would adventure the

trial. In the Assise of Jerusalem, the legal subtlety of the

count of Jaffa is more laudably employed to elude, than to

facilitate, the judicial combat, which he derives from a

principle of honor rather than of superstition. 140

139 (return) [ See l’Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. In the forty

years since its publication, no work has been more read and

criticized; and the spirit of inquiry which it has excited is not

the least of our obligations to the author.]

140 (return) [ For the intelligence of this obscure and obsolete

jurisprudence (c. 80-111) I am deeply indebted to the friendship

of a learned lord, who, with an accurate and discerning eye, has

surveyed the philosophic history of law. By his studies,

posterity might be enriched: the merit of the orator and the

judge can be felt only by his contemporaries.]

Among the causes which enfranchised the plebeians from the yoke

of feudal tyranny, the institution of cities and corporations is

one of the most powerful; and if those of Palestine are coeval

with the first crusade, they may be ranked with the most ancient

of the Latin world. Many of the pilgrims had escaped from their

lords under the banner of the cross; and it was the policy of the

French princes to tempt their stay by the assurance of the rights

and privileges of freemen. It is expressly declared in the Assise

of Jerusalem, that after instituting, for his knights and barons,

the court of peers, in which he presided himself, Godfrey of

Bouillon established a second tribunal, in which his person was

represented by his viscount. The jurisdiction of this inferior

court extended over the burgesses of the kingdom; and it was

composed of a select number of the most discreet and worthy

citizens, who were sworn to judge, according to the laws of the

actions and fortunes of their equals. 141 In the conquest and

settlement of new cities, the example of Jerusalem was imitated

by the kings and their great vassals; and above thirty similar

corporations were founded before the loss of the Holy Land.

Another class of subjects, the Syrians, 142 or Oriental

Christians, were oppressed by the zeal of the clergy, and

protected by the toleration of the state. Godfrey listened to

their reasonable prayer, that they might be judged by their own

national laws. A third court was instituted for their use, of

limited and domestic jurisdiction: the sworn members were

Syrians, in blood, language, and religion; but the office of the

president (in Arabic, of the rais) was sometimes exercised by the

viscount of the city. At an immeasurable distance below the

nobles, the burgesses, and the strangers, the Assise of Jerusalem

condescends to mention the villains and slaves, the peasants of

the land and the captives of war, who were almost equally

considered as the objects of property. The relief or protection

of these unhappy men was not esteemed worthy of the care of the

legislator; but he diligently provides for the recovery, though

not indeed for the punishment, of the fugitives. Like hounds, or

hawks, who had strayed from the lawful owner, they might be lost

and claimed: the slave and falcon were of the same value; but

three slaves, or twelve oxen, were accumulated to equal the price

of the war-horse; and a sum of three hundred pieces of gold was

fixed, in the age of chivalry, as the equivalent of the more

noble animal. 143

141 (return) [ Louis le Gros, who is considered as the father of

this institution in France, did not begin his reign till nine

years (A.D. 1108) after Godfrey of Bouillon, (Assises, c. 2,

324.) For its origin and effects, see the judicious remarks of

Dr. Robertson, (History of Charles V. vol. i. p. 30-36, 251-265,

quarto edition.)]

142 (return) [ Every reader conversant with the historians of the

crusades will understand by the peuple des Suriens, the Oriental

Christians, Melchites, Jacobites, or Nestorians, who had all

adopted the use of the Arabic language, (vol. iv. p. 593.)]

143 (return) [ See the Assises de Jerusalem, (310, 311, 312.)

These laws were enacted as late as the year 1350, in the kingdom

of Cyprus. In the same century, in the reign of Edward I., I

understand, from a late publication, (of his Book of Account,)

that the price of a war-horse was not less exorbitant in

England.]