first crusade. The emperor Henry the Fourth was not disposed to obey
the summons of the pope: Philip the First of France was occupied by his
pleasures; William Rufus of England by a recent conquest; the kings of
Spain were engaged in a domestic war against the Moors; and the northern
monarchs of Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, were yet strangers
to the passions and interests of the South. The religious ardor was more
strongly felt by the princes of the second order, who held an important
place in the feudal system. Their situation will naturally cast under
four distinct heads the review of their names and characters; but I may
escape some needless repetition, by observing at once, that courage
and the exercise of arms are the common attribute of these Christian
adventurers. I. The first rank both in war and council is justly due to
Godfrey of Bouillon; and happy would it have been for the crusaders,
if they had trusted themselves to the sole conduct of that accomplished
hero, a worthy representative of Charlemagne, from whom he was descended
in the female line. His father was of the noble race of the counts of
Boulogne: Brabant, the lower province of Lorraine, was the inheritance
of his mother; and by the emperor's bounty he was himself invested with
that ducal title, which has been improperly transferred to his lordship
of Bouillon in the Ardennes. In the service of Henry the Fourth, he bore
the great standard of the empire, and pierced with his lance the breast
of Rodolph, the rebel king: Godfrey was the first who ascended the walls
of Rome; and his sickness, his vow, perhaps his remorse for bearing arms
against the pope, confirmed an early resolution of visiting the holy
sepulchre, not as a pilgrim, but a deliverer. His valor was matured by
prudence and moderation; his piety, though blind, was sincere; and, in
the tumult of a camp, he practised the real and fictitious virtues of a
convent. Superior to the private factions of the chiefs, he reserved his
enmity for the enemies of Christ; and though he gained a kingdom by the
attempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknowledged by his rivals.
Godfrey of Bouillon was accompanied by his two brothers, by Eustace the
elder, who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and by the younger,
Baldwin, a character of more ambiguous virtue. The duke of Lorraine,
was alike celebrated on either side of the Rhine: from his birth and
education, he was equally conversant with the French and Teutonic
languages: the barons of France, Germany, and Lorraine, assembled their
vassals; and the confederate force that marched under his banner was
composed of fourscore thousand foot and about ten thousand horse. II. In
the parliament that was held at Paris, in the king's presence, about two
months after the council of Clermont, Hugh, count of Vermandois, was
the most conspicuous of the princes who assumed the cross. But the
appellation of _the Great_ was applied, not so much to his merit or
possessions, (though neither were contemptible,) as to the royal birth
of the brother of the king of France. Robert, duke of Normandy, was the
eldest son of William the Conqueror; but on his father's death he
was deprived of the kingdom of England, by his own indolence and the
activity of his brother Rufus. The worth of Robert was degraded by an
excessive levity and easiness of temper: his cheerfulness seduced him
to the indulgence of pleasure; his profuse liberality impoverished the
prince and people; his indiscriminate clemency multiplied the number
of offenders; and the amiable qualities of a private man became the
essential defects of a sovereign. For the trifling sum of ten thousand
marks, he mortgaged Normandy during his absence to the English usurper;
but his engagement and behavior in the holy war announced in Robert a
reformation of manners, and restored him in some degree to the public
esteem. Another Robert was count of Flanders, a royal province, which,
in this century, gave three queens to the thrones of France, England,
and Denmark: he was surnamed the Sword and Lance of the Christians;
but in the exploits of a soldier he sometimes forgot the duties of a
general. Stephen, count of Chartres, of Blois, and of Troyes, was one of
the richest princes of the age; and the number of his castles has been
compared to the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. His
mind was improved by literature; and, in the council of the chiefs, the
eloquent Stephen was chosen to discharge the office of their president.
These four were the principal leaders of the French, the Normans, and
the pilgrims of the British isles: but the list of the barons who were
possessed of three or four towns would exceed, says a contemporary, the
catalogue of the Trojan war. III. In the south of France, the command
was assumed by Adhemar bishop of Puy, the pope legate, and by Raymond
count of St. Giles and Thoulouse who added the prouder titles of duke of
Narbonne and marquis of Provence. The former was a respectable prelate,
alike qualified for this world and the next. The latter was a veteran
warrior, who had fought against the Saracens of Spain, and who
consecrated his declining age, not only to the deliverance, but to the
perpetual service, of the holy sepulchre. His experience and riches
gave him a strong ascendant in the Christian camp, whose distress he was
often able, and sometimes willing, to relieve. But it was easier for him
to extort the praise of the Infidels, than to preserve the love of his
subjects and associates. His eminent qualities were clouded by a temper
haughty, envious, and obstinate; and, though he resigned an ample
patrimony for the cause of God, his piety, in the public opinion,
was not exempt from avarice and ambition. A mercantile, rather than a
martial, spirit prevailed among his _provincials_, a common name, which
included the natives of Auvergne and Languedoc, the vassals of the
kingdom of Burgundy or Arles. From the adjacent frontier of Spain he
drew a band of hardy adventurers; as he marched through Lombardy,
a crowd of Italians flocked to his standard, and his united force
consisted of one hundred thousand horse and foot. If Raymond was the
first to enlist and the last to depart, the delay may be excused by the
greatness of his preparation and the promise of an everlasting farewell.
IV. The name of Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard, was already famous
by his double victory over the Greek emperor; but his father's will had
reduced him to the principality of Tarentum, and the remembrance of his
Eastern trophies, till he was awakened by the rumor and passage of the
French pilgrims. It is in the person of this Norman chief that we
may seek for the coolest policy and ambition, with a small allay of
religious fanaticism. His conduct may justify a belief that he had
secretly directed the design of the pope, which he affected to second
with astonishment and zeal: at the siege of Amalphi, his example and
discourse inflamed the passions of a confederate army; he instantly tore
his garment to supply crosses for the numerous candidates, and prepared
to visit Constantinople and Asia at the head of ten thousand horse and
twenty thousand foot. Several princes of the Norman race accompanied
this veteran general; and his cousin Tancred was the partner, rather
than the servant, of the war. In the accomplished character of Tancred
we discover all the virtues of a perfect knight, the true spirit of
chivalry, which inspired the generous sentiments and social offices of
man far better than the base philosophy, or the baser religion, of the
times.
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 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, 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. 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.
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, 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 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. 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. 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. 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.
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, and by the Latin writers. 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, 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. 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.
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. 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, 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. 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.