THE ARRIVAL AT ACRE.
1190
The besieging army at Acre.--Motives of the Saracens.--Motives of
the Christians.--Envyings and jealousy among the besiegers.--King
of Jerusalem.--A common danger makes a common cause.--The
terrible loss of life in the siege of Acre.--The unwieldy armor
of the knights.--King Richard received by the besieging
army.--Berengaria a bride.--Philip's conciliation.
While Richard was thus, with his fleet, drawing near to Acre, the
armies of the Crusaders that were besieging the town had been for some
time gradually getting into a very critical situation. This army was
made up of a great many different bodies of troops, that had come in
the course of years from all parts of Europe to recover the Holy Land
from the possession of the unbelievers. There were Germans, and
French, and Normans, and Italians, and people from the different
kingdoms of Spain, with knights, and barons, and earls, and bishops,
and archbishops, and princes, and other dignitaries of all kinds
without number. With such a heterogeneous mass there could be no
common bond, nor any general and central authority. They spoke a great
variety of languages, and were accustomed to very different modes of
warfare; and the several orders of knights, and the different bodies
of troops, were continually getting involved in dissensions arising
from the jealousies and rivalries which they bore to each other. The
enemy, on the other hand, were united under the command of one great
and powerful Saracen leader named Saladin.
There was another great difference between the Crusaders and the
Saracens which was greatly to the advantage of the latter. The
Saracens were fighting simply to deliver their country from these
bands of invaders. Thus their object was _one_. If any part of the
army achieved a success, the other divisions rejoiced at it, for it
tended to advance them all toward the common end that all had in view.
On the other hand, the chief end and aim of the Crusaders was to get
glory to themselves in the estimation of friends and neighbors at
home, and of Europe in general. It is true that they desired to obtain
this glory by victories over the unbelievers and the conquest of the
Holy Land, but these last objects were the means and not the end. The
_end_, in their view, was their own personal glory. The consequence
was, that while the Saracens would naturally all rejoice at an
advantage gained over the enemy by any portion of their army, yet in
the camp of the Crusaders, if one body of knights performed a great
deed of strength or bravery which was likely to attract attention in
Europe, the rest were apt to be disappointed and vexed instead of
being pleased. They were envious of the fame which the successful
party had acquired. In a word, when an advantage was gained by any
particular body of troops, the rest did not think of the benefit to
the common cause which had thereby been secured, but only of the
danger that the fame acquired by those who gained it might eclipse or
outshine their own renown.
The various orders of knights and the commanders of the different
bodies of troops vied with each other, not only in respect to the
acquisition of glory, but also in the elegance of their arms, the
splendor of their tents and banners, the beauty and gorgeous
caparisons of the horses, and the pomp and parade with which they
conducted all their movements and operations. The camp was full of
quarrels, too, among the great leaders in respect to the command of
the places in the Holy Land which had been conquered in previous
campaigns. These places, as fast as they had been taken, had been made
principalities and kingdoms, to give titles of rank to the crusaders
who had taken them; and, though the places themselves had in many
instances been lost again, and given up to the Saracens, the titles
remained to be quarreled about among the Crusaders. There was
particularly a great quarrel at this time about the title of King of
Jerusalem. It was a mere empty title, for Jerusalem was in the hands
of the Saracens, but there were twenty very powerful and influential
claimants to it, each of whom manoeuvred and intrigued incessantly
with all the other knights and commanders in the army to gain
partisans to his side. Thus the camp of the Crusaders, from one cause
and another, had become one universal scene of rivalry, jealousy, and
discord.
There was a small approach toward a greater degree of unity of feeling
just before the time of Richard's arrival, produced by the common
danger to which they began to see they were exposed. They had been now
two years besieging Acre, and had accomplished nothing. All the
furious attempts that they had made to storm the place had been
unsuccessful. The walls were too thick and solid for the
battering-rams to make any serious impression upon them, and the
garrison within were so numerous and so well armed, and they hurled
down such a tremendous shower of darts, javelins, stones, and other
missiles of every kind upon all who came near, that immense numbers of
those who were brought up near the walls to work the engines were
killed, while the besieged themselves, being protected by the
battlements on the walls, were comparatively safe.
In the course of the two years during which the siege had now been
going on, bodies of troops from all parts of Europe had been
continually coming and going, and as in those days there was far less
of system and organization in the conduct of military affairs than
there is now, the camp was constantly kept in a greater or less degree
of confusion, so that it is impossible to know with certainty how many
were engaged, and what the actual loss of life had been. The lowest
estimate is that one hundred and fifty thousand men perished before
Acre during this siege, and some historians calculate the loss at five
hundred thousand. The number of deaths was greatly increased by the
plague, which prevailed at one time among the troops, and committed
fearful ravages. One thing, however, must be said, in justice to the
reckless and violent men who commanded these bands, and that is, that
they did not send their poor, helpless followers, the common
soldiers, into a danger which they kept out of themselves. It was a
point of honor with them to take the foremost rank, and to expose
themselves fully at all times to the worst dangers of the combat. It
is true that the knights and nobles were better protected by their
armor than the soldiers. They were generally covered with steel from
head to foot, and so heavily loaded with it were they, that it was
only on horseback that they could sustain themselves in battle at all.
Indeed, it was said that if a full-armed knight, in those days, were,
from any accident, unhorsed, his armor was so heavy that, if he were
thrown down upon the ground in his fall, he could not possibly get up
again without help.
Notwithstanding this protection, however, the knights and commanders
exposed themselves so much that they suffered in full proportion with
the rest. It was estimated that during the siege there fell in battle,
or perished of sickness or fatigue, eighteen or twenty archbishops and
bishops, forty earls, and no less than five hundred barons, all of
whose names are recorded. So they obtained what they went
for--commemoration in history. Whether the reward was worth the price
they paid for it, in sacrificing every thing like happiness and
usefulness in life, and throwing themselves, after a few short months
of furious and angry warfare, into a bloody grave, is a very serious
question.
* * * * *
As soon as Richard's fleet appeared in view, the whole camp was thrown
into a state of the wildest commotion. The drums were beat, the
trumpets were sounded, and flags and banners without number were waved
in the air. The troops were paraded, and when the ships arrived at the
shore, and Richard and his immediate attendants and followers landed,
they were received by the commanders of the Crusaders' army on the
beach with the highest honors, while the soldiers drawn up around
filled the air with long and loud acclamations.
Berengaria had come from Cyprus, not in Richard's ship, although she
was now married to him. She had continued in her own galley, and was
still under the charge of her former guardian, Stephen of Turnham.
That ship had been fitted up purposely for the use of the queen and
the princess, and the arrangements on board were more suitable for the
accommodation of ladies than were those of Richard's ship, which being
strictly a war vessel, and intended always to be foremost in every
fight, was arranged solely with a view to the purposes of battle, and
was therefore not a very suitable place for a bride.
Berengaria and Joanna landed very soon after Richard. Philip was a
little piqued at the suddenness with which Richard had married another
lady, so soon after the engagement with Alice had been terminated; but
he considered how urgent the necessity was that he should now be on
good terms with his ally, and so he concealed his feelings, and
received Berengaria himself as she came from her ship, and assisted
her to land.