Philip Augustus, and Richard the First, are the only kings of

France and England who have fought under the same banners; but

the holy service in which they were enlisted was incessantly

disturbed by their national jealousy; and the two factions, which

they protected in Palestine, were more averse to each other than

to the common enemy. In the eyes of the Orientals; the French

monarch was superior in dignity and power; and, in the emperor’s

absence, the Latins revered him as their temporal chief. 71 His

exploits were not adequate to his fame. Philip was brave, but the

statesman predominated in his character; he was soon weary of

sacrificing his health and interest on a barren coast: the

surrender of Acre became the signal of his departure; nor could

he justify this unpopular desertion, by leaving the duke of

Burgundy with five hundred knights and ten thousand foot, for the

service of the Holy Land. The king of England, though inferior in

dignity, surpassed his rival in wealth and military renown; 72

and if heroism be confined to brutal and ferocious valor, Richard

Plantagenet will stand high among the heroes of the age. The

memory of _Cœur de Lion_, of the lion-hearted prince, was long

dear and glorious to his English subjects; and, at the distance

of sixty years, it was celebrated in proverbial sayings by the

grandsons of the Turks and Saracens, against whom he had fought:

his tremendous name was employed by the Syrian mothers to silence

their infants; and if a horse suddenly started from the way, his

rider was wont to exclaim, “Dost thou think King Richard is in

that bush?” 73 His cruelty to the Mahometans was the effect of

temper and zeal; but I cannot believe that a soldier, so free and

fearless in the use of his lance, would have descended to whet a

dagger against his valiant brother Conrad of Montferrat, who was

slain at Tyre by some secret assassins. 74 After the surrender of

Acre, and the departure of Philip, the king of England led the

crusaders to the recovery of the sea-coast; and the cities of

Cæsarea and Jaffa were added to the fragments of the kingdom of

Lusignan. A march of one hundred miles from Acre to Ascalon was a

great and perpetual battle of eleven days. In the disorder of his

troops, Saladin remained on the field with seventeen guards,

without lowering his standard, or suspending the sound of his

brazen kettle-drum: he again rallied and renewed the charge; and

his preachers or heralds called aloud on the _unitarians_,

manfully to stand up against the Christian idolaters. But the

progress of these idolaters was irresistible; and it was only by

demolishing the walls and buildings of Ascalon, that the sultan

could prevent them from occupying an important fortress on the

confines of Egypt. During a severe winter, the armies slept; but

in the spring, the Franks advanced within a day’s march of

Jerusalem, under the leading standard of the English king; and

his active spirit intercepted a convoy, or caravan, of seven

thousand camels. Saladin 75 had fixed his station in the holy

city; but the city was struck with consternation and discord: he

fasted; he prayed; he preached; he offered to share the dangers

of the siege; but his Mamalukes, who remembered the fate of their

companions at Acre, pressed the sultan with loyal or seditious

clamors, to reserve _his_ person and _their_ courage for the

future defence of the religion and empire. 76 The Moslems were

delivered by the sudden, or, as they deemed, the miraculous,

retreat of the Christians; 77 and the laurels of Richard were

blasted by the prudence, or envy, of his companions. The hero,

ascending a hill, and veiling his face, exclaimed with an

indignant voice, “Those who are unwilling to rescue, are unworthy

to view, the sepulchre of Christ!” After his return to Acre, on

the news that Jaffa was surprised by the sultan, he sailed with

some merchant vessels, and leaped foremost on the beach: the

castle was relieved by his presence; and sixty thousand Turks and

Saracens fled before his arms. The discovery of his weakness,

provoked them to return in the morning; and they found him

carelessly encamped before the gates with only seventeen knights

and three hundred archers. Without counting their numbers, he

sustained their charge; and we learn from the evidence of his

enemies, that the king of England, grasping his lance, rode

furiously along their front, from the right to the left wing,

without meeting an adversary who dared to encounter his career.

78 Am I writing the history of Orlando or Amadis?

71 (return) [ Magnus hic apud eos, interque reges eorum tum

virtute tum majestate eminens.... summus rerum arbiter, (Bohadin,

p. 159.) He does not seem to have known the names either of

Philip or Richard.]

72 (return) [ Rex Angliæ, præstrenuus.... rege Gallorum minor

apud eos censebatur ratione regni atque dignitatis; sed tum

divitiis florentior, tum bellicâ virtute multo erat celebrior,

(Bohadin, p. 161.) A stranger might admire those riches; the

national historians will tell with what lawless and wasteful

oppression they were collected.]

73 (return) [ Joinville, p. 17. Cuides-tu que ce soit le roi

Richart?]

74 (return) [ Yet he was guilty in the opinion of the Moslems,

who attest the confession of the assassins, that they were sent

by the king of England, (Bohadin, p. 225;) and his only defence

is an absurd and palpable forgery, (Hist. de l’Académie des

Inscriptions, tom. xv. p. 155—163,) a pretended letter from the

prince of the assassins, the Sheich, or old man of the mountain,

who justified Richard, by assuming to himself the guilt or merit

of the murder. *

Note: * Von Hammer (Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 202) sums up

against Richard, Wilken (vol. iv. p. 485) as strongly for

acquittal. Michaud (vol. ii. p. 420) delivers no decided opinion.

This crime was also attributed to Saladin, who is said, by an

Oriental authority, (the continuator of Tabari,) to have employed

the assassins to murder both Conrad and Richard. It is a

melancholy admission, but it must be acknowledged, that such an

act would be less inconsistent with the character of the

Christian than of the Mahometan king.—M.]

75 (return) [ See the distress and pious firmness of Saladin, as

they are described by Bohadin, (p. 7—9, 235—237,) who himself

harangued the defenders of Jerusalem; their fears were not

unknown to the enemy, (Jacob. à Vitriaco, l. i. c. 100, p. 1123.

Vinisauf, l. v. c. 50, p. 399.)]

76 (return) [ Yet unless the sultan, or an Ayoubite prince,

remained in Jerusalem, nec Cœurdi Turcis, nec Turci essent

obtemperaturi Cœurdis, (Bohadin, p. 236.) He draws aside a corner

of the political curtain.]

77 (return) [ Bohadin, (p. 237,) and even Jeffrey de Vinisauf,

(l. vi. c. 1—8, p. 403—409,) ascribe the retreat to Richard

himself; and Jacobus à Vitriaco observes, that in his impatience

to depart, in alterum virum mutatus est, (p. 1123.) Yet

Joinville, a French knight, accuses the envy of Hugh duke of

Burgundy, (p. 116,) without supposing, like Matthew Paris, that

he was bribed by Saladin.]

78 (return) [ The expeditions to Ascalon, Jerusalem, and Jaffa,

are related by Bohadin (p. 184—249) and Abulfeda, (p. 51, 52.)

The author of the Itinerary, or the monk of St. Alban’s, cannot

exaggerate the cadhi’s account of the prowess of Richard,

(Vinisauf, l. vi. c. 14—24, p. 412—421. Hist. Major, p. 137—143;)

and on the whole of this war there is a marvellous agreement

between the Christian and Mahometan writers, who mutually praise

the virtues of their enemies.]

During these hostilities, a languid and tedious negotiation 79

between the Franks and Moslems was started, and continued, and

broken, and again resumed, and again broken. Some acts of royal

courtesy, the gift of snow and fruit, the exchange of Norway

hawks and Arabian horses, softened the asperity of religious war:

from the vicissitude of success, the monarchs might learn to

suspect that Heaven was neutral in the quarrel; nor, after the

trial of each other, could either hope for a decisive victory. 80

The health both of Richard and Saladin appeared to be in a

declining state; and they respectively suffered the evils of

distant and domestic warfare: Plantagenet was impatient to punish

a perfidious rival who had invaded Normandy in his absence; and

the indefatigable sultan was subdued by the cries of the people,

who was the victim, and of the soldiers, who were the

instruments, of his martial zeal. The first demands of the king

of England were the restitution of Jerusalem, Palestine, and the

true cross; and he firmly declared, that himself and his brother

pilgrims would end their lives in the pious labor, rather than

return to Europe with ignominy and remorse. But the conscience of

Saladin refused, without some weighty compensation, to restore

the idols, or promote the idolatry, of the Christians; he

asserted, with equal firmness, his religious and civil claim to

the sovereignty of Palestine; descanted on the importance and

sanctity of Jerusalem; and rejected all terms of the

establishment, or partition of the Latins. The marriage which

Richard proposed, of his sister with the sultan’s brother, was

defeated by the difference of faith; the princess abhorred the

embraces of a Turk; and Adel, or Saphadin, would not easily

renounce a plurality of wives. A personal interview was declined

by Saladin, who alleged their mutual ignorance of each other’s

language; and the negotiation was managed with much art and delay

by their interpreters and envoys. The final agreement was equally

disapproved by the zealots of both parties, by the Roman pontiff

and the caliph of Bagdad. It was stipulated that Jerusalem and

the holy sepulchre should be open, without tribute or vexation,

to the pilgrimage of the Latin Christians; that, after the

demolition of Ascalon, they should inclusively possess the

sea-coast from Jaffa to Tyre; that the count of Tripoli and the

prince of Antioch should be comprised in the truce; and that,

during three years and three months, all hostilities should

cease. The principal chiefs of the two armies swore to the

observance of the treaty; but the monarchs were satisfied with

giving their word and their right hand; and the royal majesty was

excused from an oath, which always implies some suspicion of

falsehood and dishonor. Richard embarked for Europe, to seek a

long captivity and a premature grave; and the space of a few

months concluded the life and glories of Saladin. The Orientals

describe his edifying death, which happened at Damascus; but they

seem ignorant of the equal distribution of his alms among the

three religions, 81 or of the display of a shroud, instead of a

standard, to admonish the East of the instability of human

greatness. The unity of empire was dissolved by his death; his

sons were oppressed by the stronger arm of their uncle Saphadin;

the hostile interests of the sultans of Egypt, Damascus, and

Aleppo, 82 were again revived; and the Franks or Latins stood and

breathed, and hoped, in their fortresses along the Syrian coast.

79 (return) [ See the progress of negotiation and hostility in

Bohadin, (p. 207—260,) who was himself an actor in the treaty.

Richard declared his intention of returning with new armies to

the conquest of the Holy Land; and Saladin answered the menace

with a civil compliment, (Vinisauf l. vi. c. 28, p. 423.)]

80 (return) [ The most copious and original account of this holy

war is Galfridi à Vinisauf, Itinerarium Regis Anglorum Richardi

et aliorum in Terram Hierosolymorum, in six books, published in

the iid volume of Gale’s Scriptores Hist. Anglicanæ, (p.

247—429.) Roger Hoveden and Matthew Paris afford likewise many

valuable materials; and the former describes, with accuracy, the

discipline and navigation of the English fleet.]

81 (return) [ Even Vertot (tom. i. p. 251) adopts the foolish

notion of the indifference of Saladin, who professed the Koran

with his last breath.]

82 (return) [ See the succession of the Ayoubites, in

Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 277, &c.,) and the tables of M. De

Guignes, l’Art de Vérifier les Dates, and the Bibliothèque

Orientale.]

The noblest monument of a conqueror’s fame, and of the terror

which he inspired, is the Saladine tenth, a general tax which was

imposed on the laity, and even the clergy, of the Latin church,

for the service of the holy war. The practice was too lucrative

to expire with the occasion: and this tribute became the

foundation of all the tithes and tenths on ecclesiastical

benefices, which have been granted by the Roman pontiffs to

Catholic sovereigns, or reserved for the immediate use of the

apostolic see. 83 This pecuniary emolument must have tended to

increase the interest of the popes in the recovery of Palestine:

after the death of Saladin, they preached the crusade, by their

epistles, their legates, and their missionaries; and the

accomplishment of the pious work might have been expected from

the zeal and talents of Innocent the Third. 84 Under that young

and ambitious priest, the successors of St. Peter attained the

full meridian of their greatness: and in a reign of eighteen

years, he exercised a despotic command over the emperors and

kings, whom he raised and deposed; over the nations, whom an

interdict of months or years deprived, for the offence of their

rulers, of the exercise of Christian worship. In the council of

the Lateran he acted as the ecclesiastical, almost as the

temporal, sovereign of the East and West. It was at the feet of

his legate that John of England surrendered his crown; and

Innocent may boast of the two most signal triumphs over sense and

humanity, the establishment of transubstantiation, and the origin

of the inquisition. At his voice, two crusades, the fourth and

the fifth, were undertaken; but, except a king of Hungary, the

princes of the second order were at the head of the pilgrims: the

forces were inadequate to the design; nor did the effects

correspond with the hopes and wishes of the pope and the people.

The fourth crusade was diverted from Syria to Constantinople; and

the conquest of the Greek or Roman empire by the Latins will form

the proper and important subject of the next chapter. In the

fifth, 85 two hundred thousand Franks were landed at the eastern

mouth of the Nile. They reasonably hoped that Palestine must be

subdued in Egypt, the seat and storehouse of the sultan; and,

after a siege of sixteen months, the Moslems deplored the loss of

Damietta. But the Christian army was ruined by the pride and

insolence of the legate Pelagius, who, in the pope’s name,

assumed the character of general: the sickly Franks were

encompassed by the waters of the Nile and the Oriental forces;

and it was by the evacuation of Damietta that they obtained a

safe retreat, some concessions for the pilgrims, and the tardy

restitution of the doubtful relic of the true cross. The failure

may in some measure be ascribed to the abuse and multiplication

of the crusades, which were preached at the same time against the

Pagans of Livonia, the Moors of Spain, the Albigeois of France,

and the kings of Sicily of the Imperial family. 86 In these

meritorious services, the volunteers might acquire at home the

same spiritual indulgence, and a larger measure of temporal

rewards; and even the popes, in their zeal against a domestic

enemy, were sometimes tempted to forget the distress of their

Syrian brethren. From the last age of the crusades they derived

the occasional command of an army and revenue; and some deep

reasoners have suspected that the whole enterprise, from the

first synod of Placentia, was contrived and executed by the

policy of Rome. The suspicion is not founded, either in nature or

in fact. The successors of St. Peter appear to have followed,

rather than guided, the impulse of manners and prejudice; without

much foresight of the seasons, or cultivation of the soil, they

gathered the ripe and spontaneous fruits of the superstition of

the times. They gathered these fruits without toil or personal

danger: in the council of the Lateran, Innocent the Third

declared an ambiguous resolution of animating the crusaders by

his example; but the pilot of the sacred vessel could not abandon

the helm; nor was Palestine ever blessed with the presence of a

Roman pontiff. 87

83 (return) [ Thomassin (Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. iii. p.

311—374) has copiously treated of the origin, abuses, and

restrictions of these _tenths_. A theory was started, but not

pursued, that they were rightfully due to the pope, a tenth of

the Levite’s tenth to the high priest, (Selden on Tithes; see his

Works, vol. iii. p. ii. p. 1083.)]

84 (return) [ See the Gesta Innocentii III. in Murat. Script.

Rer. Ital., (tom. iii. p. 486—568.)]

85 (return) [ See the vth crusade, and the siege of Damietta, in

Jacobus à Vitriaco, (l. iii. p. 1125—1149, in the Gesta Dei of

Bongarsius,) an eye-witness, Bernard Thesaurarius, (in Script.

Muratori, tom. vii. p. 825—846, c. 190—207,) a contemporary, and

Sanutus, (Secreta Fidel Crucis, l. iii. p. xi. c. 4—9,) a

diligent compiler; and of the Arabians Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p.

294,) and the Extracts at the end of Joinville, (p. 533, 537,

540, 547, &c.)]

86 (return) [ To those who took the cross against Mainfroy, the

pope (A.D. 1255) granted plenissimam peccatorum remissionem.

Fideles mirabantur quòd tantum eis promitteret pro sanguine

Christianorum effundendo quantum pro cruore infidelium aliquando,

(Matthew Paris p. 785.) A high flight for the reason of the

xiiith century.]

87 (return) [ This simple idea is agreeable to the good sense of

Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Ecclés. p. 332,) and the fine

philosophy of Hume, (Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 330.)]

The persons, the families, and estates of the pilgrims, were

under the immediate protection of the popes; and these spiritual

patrons soon claimed the prerogative of directing their

operations, and enforcing, by commands and censures, the

accomplishment of their vow. Frederic the Second, 88 the grandson

of Barbarossa, was successively the pupil, the enemy, and the

victim of the church. At the age of twenty-one years, and in

obedience to his guardian Innocent the Third, he assumed the

cross; the same promise was repeated at his royal and imperial

coronations; and his marriage with the heiress of Jerusalem

forever bound him to defend the kingdom of his son Conrad. But as

Frederic advanced in age and authority, he repented of the rash

engagements of his youth: his liberal sense and knowledge taught

him to despise the phantoms of superstition and the crowns of

Asia: he no longer entertained the same reverence for the

successors of Innocent: and his ambition was occupied by the

restoration of the Italian monarchy from Sicily to the Alps. But

the success of this project would have reduced the popes to their

primitive simplicity; and, after the delays and excuses of twelve

years, they urged the emperor, with entreaties and threats, to

fix the time and place of his departure for Palestine. In the

harbors of Sicily and Apulia, he prepared a fleet of one hundred

galleys, and of one hundred vessels, that were framed to

transport and land two thousand five hundred knights, with their

horses and attendants; his vassals of Naples and Germany formed a

powerful army; and the number of English crusaders was magnified

to sixty thousand by the report of fame. But the inevitable or

affected slowness of these mighty preparations consumed the

strength and provisions of the more indigent pilgrims: the

multitude was thinned by sickness and desertion; and the sultry

summer of Calabria anticipated the mischiefs of a Syrian

campaign. At length the emperor hoisted sail at Brundusium, with

a fleet and army of forty thousand men: but he kept the sea no

more than three days; and his hasty retreat, which was ascribed

by his friends to a grievous indisposition, was accused by his

enemies as a voluntary and obstinate disobedience. For suspending

his vow was Frederic excommunicated by Gregory the Ninth; for

presuming, the next year, to accomplish his vow, he was again

excommunicated by the same pope. 89 While he served under the

banner of the cross, a crusade was preached against him in Italy;

and after his return he was compelled to ask pardon for the

injuries which he had suffered. The clergy and military orders of

Palestine were previously instructed to renounce his communion

and dispute his commands; and in his own kingdom, the emperor was

forced to consent that the orders of the camp should be issued in

the name of God and of the Christian republic. Frederic entered

Jerusalem in triumph; and with his own hands (for no priest would

perform the office) he took the crown from the altar of the holy

sepulchre. But the patriarch cast an interdict on the church

which his presence had profaned; and the knights of the hospital

and temple informed the sultan how easily he might be surprised

and slain in his unguarded visit to the River Jordan. In such a

state of fanaticism and faction, victory was hopeless, and

defence was difficult; but the conclusion of an advantageous

peace may be imputed to the discord of the Mahometans, and their

personal esteem for the character of Frederic. The enemy of the

church is accused of maintaining with the miscreants an

intercourse of hospitality and friendship unworthy of a

Christian; of despising the barrenness of the land; and of

indulging a profane thought, that if Jehovah had seen the kingdom

of Naples he never would have selected Palestine for the

inheritance of his chosen people. Yet Frederic obtained from the

sultan the restitution of Jerusalem, of Bethlem and Nazareth, of

Tyre and Sidon; the Latins were allowed to inhabit and fortify

the city; an equal code of civil and religious freedom was

ratified for the sectaries of Jesus and those of Mahomet; and,

while the former worshipped at the holy sepulchre, the latter

might pray and preach in the mosque of the temple, 90 from whence

the prophet undertook his nocturnal journey to heaven. The clergy

deplored this scandalous toleration; and the weaker Moslems were

gradually expelled; but every rational object of the crusades was

accomplished without bloodshed; the churches were restored, the

monasteries were replenished; and, in the space of fifteen years,

the Latins of Jerusalem exceeded the number of six thousand. This

peace and prosperity, for which they were ungrateful to their

benefactor, was terminated by the irruption of the strange and

savage hordes of Carizmians. 91 Flying from the arms of the

Moguls, those shepherds 911 of the Caspian rolled headlong on

Syria; and the union of the Franks with the sultans of Aleppo,

Hems, and Damascus, was insufficient to stem the violence of the

torrent. Whatever stood against them was cut off by the sword, or

dragged into captivity: the military orders were almost

exterminated in a single battle; and in the pillage of the city,

in the profanation of the holy sepulchre, the Latins confess and

regret the modesty and discipline of the Turks and Saracens.

88 (return) [ The original materials for the crusade of Frederic

II. may be drawn from Richard de St. Germano (in Muratori,

Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii. p. 1002—1013) and Matthew Paris,

(p. 286, 291, 300, 302, 304.) The most rational moderns are

Fleury, (Hist. Ecclés. tom. xvi.,) Vertot, (Chevaliers de Malthe,

tom. i. l. iii.,) Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii.

l. xvi.,) and Muratori, (Annali d’ Italia, tom. x.)]

89 (return) [ Poor Muratori knows what to think, but knows not

what to say: “Chino qui il capo,” &c. p. 322.]

90 (return) [ The clergy artfully confounded the mosque or church

of the temple with the holy sepulchre, and their wilful error has

deceived both Vertot and Muratori.]

91 (return) [ The irruption of the Carizmians, or Corasmins, is

related by Matthew Paris, (p. 546, 547,) and by Joinville,

Nangis, and the Arabians, (p. 111, 112, 191, 192, 528, 530.)]

911 (return) [ They were in alliance with Eyub, sultan of Syria.

Wilken vol. vi. p. 630.—M.]

Of the seven crusades, the two last were undertaken by Louis the

Ninth, king of France; who lost his liberty in Egypt, and his

life on the coast of Africa. Twenty-eight years after his death,

he was canonized at Rome; and sixty-five miracles were readily

found, and solemnly attested, to justify the claim of the royal

saint. 92 The voice of history renders a more honorable

testimony, that he united the virtues of a king, a hero, and a

man; that his martial spirit was tempered by the love of private

and public justice; and that Louis was the father of his people,

the friend of his neighbors, and the terror of the infidels.

Superstition alone, in all the extent of her baleful influence,

93 corrupted his understanding and his heart: his devotion

stooped to admire and imitate the begging friars of Francis and

Dominic: he pursued with blind and cruel zeal the enemies of the

faith; and the best of kings twice descended from his throne to

seek the adventures of a spiritual knight-errant. A monkish

historian would have been content to applaud the most despicable

part of his character; but the noble and gallant Joinville, 94

who shared the friendship and captivity of Louis, has traced with

the pencil of nature the free portrait of his virtues as well as

of his failings. From this intimate knowledge we may learn to

suspect the political views of depressing their great vassals,

which are so often imputed to the royal authors of the crusades.

Above all the princes of the middle ages, Louis the Ninth

successfully labored to restore the prerogatives of the crown;

but it was at home and not in the East, that he acquired for

himself and his posterity: his vow was the result of enthusiasm

and sickness; and if he were the promoter, he was likewise the

victim, of his holy madness. For the invasion of Egypt, France

was exhausted of her troops and treasures; he covered the sea of

Cyprus with eighteen hundred sails; the most modest enumeration

amounts to fifty thousand men; and, if we might trust his own

confession, as it is reported by Oriental vanity, he disembarked

nine thousand five hundred horse, and one hundred and thirty

thousand foot, who performed their pilgrimage under the shadow of

his power. 95

92 (return) [ Read, if you can, the Life and Miracles of St.

Louis, by the confessor of Queen Margaret, (p. 291—523.

Joinville, du Louvre.)]

93 (return) [ He believed all that mother church taught,

(Joinville, p. 10,) but he cautioned Joinville against disputing

with infidels. “L’omme lay (said he in his old language) quand il

ot medire de la loi Crestienne, ne doit pas deffendre la loi

Crestienne ne mais que de l’espée, dequoi il doit donner parmi le

ventre dedens, tant comme elle y peut entrer” (p. 12.)]

94 (return) [ I have two editions of Joinville, the one (Paris,

1668) most valuable for the observations of Ducange; the other

(Paris, au Louvre, 1761) most precious for the pure and authentic

text, a MS. of which has been recently discovered. The last

edition proves that the history of St. Louis was finished A.D.

1309, without explaining, or even admiring, the age of the

author, which must have exceeded ninety years, (Preface, p. x.

Observations de Ducange, p. 17.)]

95 (return) [ Joinville, p. 32. Arabic Extracts, p. 549. *

Note: * Compare Wilken, vol. vii. p. 94.—M.]

In complete armor, the oriflamme waving before him, Louis leaped

foremost on the beach; and the strong city of Damietta, which had

cost his predecessors a siege of sixteen months, was abandoned on

the first assault by the trembling Moslems. But Damietta was the

first and the last of his conquests; and in the fifth and sixth

crusades, the same causes, almost on the same ground, were

productive of similar calamities. 96 After a ruinous delay, which

introduced into the camp the seeds of an epidemic disease, the

Franks advanced from the sea-coast towards the capital of Egypt,

and strove to surmount the unseasonable inundation of the Nile,

which opposed their progress. Under the eye of their intrepid

monarch, the barons and knights of France displayed their

invincible contempt of danger and discipline: his brother, the

count of Artois, stormed with inconsiderate valor the town of

Massoura; and the carrier pigeons announced to the inhabitants of

Cairo that all was lost. But a soldier, who afterwards usurped

the sceptre, rallied the flying troops: the main body of the

Christians was far behind the vanguard; and Artois was

overpowered and slain. A shower of Greek fire was incessantly

poured on the invaders; the Nile was commanded by the Egyptian

galleys, the open country by the Arabs; all provisions were

intercepted; each day aggravated the sickness and famine; and

about the same time a retreat was found to be necessary and

impracticable. The Oriental writers confess, that Louis might

have escaped, if he would have deserted his subjects; he was made

prisoner, with the greatest part of his nobles; all who could not

redeem their lives by service or ransom were inhumanly massacred;

and the walls of Cairo were decorated with a circle of Christian

heads. 97 The king of France was loaded with chains; but the

generous victor, a great-grandson of the brother of Saladin, sent

a robe of honor to his royal captive, and his deliverance, with

that of his soldiers, was obtained by the restitution of Damietta

98 and the payment of four hundred thousand pieces of gold. In a

soft and luxurious climate, the degenerate children of the

companions of Noureddin and Saladin were incapable of resisting

the flower of European chivalry: they triumphed by the arms of

their slaves or Mamalukes, the hardy natives of Tartary, who at a

tender age had been purchased of the Syrian merchants, and were

educated in the camp and palace of the sultan. But Egypt soon

afforded a new example of the danger of prætorian bands; and the

rage of these ferocious animals, who had been let loose on the

strangers, was provoked to devour their benefactor. In the pride

of conquest, Touran Shaw, the last of his race, was murdered by

his Mamalukes; and the most daring of the assassins entered the

chamber of the captive king, with drawn cimeters, and their hands

imbrued in the blood of their sultan. The firmness of Louis

commanded their respect; 99 their avarice prevailed over cruelty

and zeal; the treaty was accomplished; and the king of France,

with the relics of his army, was permitted to embark for

Palestine. He wasted four years within the walls of Acre, unable

to visit Jerusalem, and unwilling to return without glory to his

native country.

96 (return) [ The last editors have enriched their Joinville with

large and curious extracts from the Arabic historians, Macrizi,

Abulfeda, &c. See likewise Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 322—325,)

who calls him by the corrupt name of _Redefrans_. Matthew Paris

(p. 683, 684) has described the rival folly of the French and

English who fought and fell at Massoura.]

97 (return) [ Savary, in his agreeable Letters sur L’Egypte, has

given a description of Damietta, (tom. i. lettre xxiii. p.

274—290,) and a narrative of the exposition of St. Louis, (xxv.

p. 306—350.)]

98 (return) [ For the ransom of St. Louis, a million of byzants

was asked and granted; but the sultan’s generosity reduced that

sum to 800,000 byzants, which are valued by Joinville at 400,000

French livres of his own time, and expressed by Matthew Paris by

100,000 marks of silver, (Ducange, Dissertation xx. sur

Joinville.)]

99 (return) [ The idea of the emirs to choose Louis for their

sultan is seriously attested by Joinville, (p. 77, 78,) and does

not appear to me so absurd as to M. de Voltaire, (Hist. Générale,

tom. ii. p. 386, 387.) The Mamalukes themselves were strangers,

rebels, and equals: they had felt his valor, they hoped his

conversion; and such a motion, which was not seconded, might be

made, perhaps by a secret Christian in their tumultuous assembly.

*

Note: * Wilken, vol. vii. p. 257, thinks the proposition could

not have been made in earnest.—M.]

The memory of his defeat excited Louis, after sixteen years of

wisdom and repose, to undertake the seventh and last of the

crusades. His finances were restored, his kingdom was enlarged; a

new generation of warriors had arisen, and he advanced with fresh

confidence at the head of six thousand horse and thirty thousand

foot. The loss of Antioch had provoked the enterprise; a wild

hope of baptizing the king of Tunis tempted him to steer for the

African coast; and the report of an immense treasure reconciled

his troops to the delay of their voyage to the Holy Land. Instead

of a proselyte, he found a siege: the French panted and died on

the burning sands: St. Louis expired in his tent; and no sooner

had he closed his eyes, than his son and successor gave the

signal of the retreat. 100 “It is thus,” says a lively writer,

“that a Christian king died near the ruins of Carthage, waging

war against the sectaries of Mahomet, in a land to which Dido had

introduced the deities of Syria.” 101

100 (return) [ See the expedition in the annals of St. Louis, by

William de Nangis, p. 270—287; and the Arabic extracts, p. 545,

555, of the Louvre edition of Joinville.]

101 (return) [ Voltaire, Hist. Générale, tom. ii. p. 391.]

A more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised than that

which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude,

under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves. Yet such

has been the state of Egypt above five hundred years. The most

illustrious sultans of the Baharite and Borgite dynasties 102

were themselves promoted from the Tartar and Circassian bands;

and the four-and-twenty beys, or military chiefs, have ever been

succeeded, not by their sons, but by their servants. They produce

the great charter of their liberties, the treaty of Selim the

First with the republic: 103 and the Othman emperor still accepts

from Egypt a slight acknowledgment of tribute and subjection.

With some breathing intervals of peace and order, the two

dynasties are marked as a period of rapine and bloodshed: 104 but

their throne, however shaken, reposed on the two pillars of

discipline and valor: their sway extended over Egypt, Nubia,

Arabia, and Syria: their Mamalukes were multiplied from eight

hundred to twenty-five thousand horse; and their numbers were

increased by a provincial militia of one hundred and seven

thousand foot, and the occasional aid of sixty-six thousand

Arabs. 105 Princes of such power and spirit could not long endure

on their coast a hostile and independent nation; and if the ruin

of the Franks was postponed about forty years, they were indebted

to the cares of an unsettled reign, to the invasion of the

Moguls, and to the occasional aid of some warlike pilgrims. Among

these, the English reader will observe the name of our first

Edward, who assumed the cross in the lifetime of his father

Henry. At the head of a thousand soldiers the future conqueror of

Wales and Scotland delivered Acre from a siege; marched as far as

Nazareth with an army of nine thousand men; emulated the fame of

his uncle Richard; extorted, by his valor, a ten years’ truce;

1051 and escaped, with a dangerous wound, from the dagger of a

fanatic _assassin_. 106 1061 Antioch, 107 whose situation had

been less exposed to the calamities of the holy war, was finally

occupied and ruined by Bondocdar, or Bibars, sultan of Egypt and

Syria; the Latin principality was extinguished; and the first

seat of the Christian name was dispeopled by the slaughter of

seventeen, and the captivity of one hundred, thousand of her

inhabitants. The maritime towns of Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli,

Berytus, Sidon, Tyre and Jaffa, and the stronger castles of the

Hospitallers and Templars, successively fell; and the whole

existence of the Franks was confined to the city and colony of

St. John of Acre, which is sometimes described by the more

classic title of Ptolemais.

102 (return) [ The chronology of the two dynasties of Mamalukes,

the Baharites, Turks or Tartars of Kipzak, and the Borgites,

Circassians, is given by Pocock (Prolegom. ad Abulpharag. p.

6—31) and De Guignes (tom. i. p. 264—270;) their history from

Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c., to the beginning of the xvth century, by

the same M. De Guignes, (tom. iv. p. 110—328.)]

103 (return) [ Savary, Lettres sur l’Egypte, tom. ii. lettre xv.

p. 189—208. I much question the authenticity of this copy; yet it

is true, that Sultan Selim concluded a treaty with the

Circassians or Mamalukes of Egypt, and left them in possession of

arms, riches, and power. See a new Abrégé de l’Histoire Ottomane,

composed in Egypt, and translated by M. Digeon, (tom. i. p.

55—58, Paris, 1781,) a curious, authentic, and national history.]

104 (return) [ Si totum quo regnum occupârunt tempus respicias,

præsertim quod fini propius, reperies illud bellis, pugnis,

injuriis, ac rapinis refertum, (Al Jannabi, apud Pocock, p. 31.)

The reign of Mohammed (A.D. 1311—1341) affords a happy exception,

(De Guignes, tom. iv. p. 208—210.)]

105 (return) [ They are now reduced to 8500: but the expense of

each Mamaluke may be rated at a hundred louis: and Egypt groans

under the avarice and insolence of these strangers, (Voyages de

Volney, tom. i. p. 89—187.)]

1051 (return) [ Gibbon colors rather highly the success of

Edward. Wilken is more accurate vol. vii. p. 593, &c.—M.]

106 (return) [ See Carte’s History of England, vol. ii. p.

165—175, and his original authors, Thomas Wikes and Walter

Hemingford, (l. iii. c. 34, 35,) in Gale’s Collection, (tom. ii.

p. 97, 589—592.) They are both ignorant of the princess Eleanor’s

piety in sucking the poisoned wound, and saving her husband at

the risk of her own life.]

1061 (return) [ The sultan Bibars was concerned in this attempt

at assassination Wilken, vol. vii. p. 602. Ptolemæus Lucensis is

the earliest authority for the devotion of Eleanora. Ibid.

605.—M.]

107 (return) [ Sanutus, Secret. Fidelium Crucis, 1. iii. p. xii.

c. 9, and De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. iv. p. 143, from the

Arabic historians.]

After the loss of Jerusalem, Acre, 108 which is distant about

seventy miles, became the metropolis of the Latin Christians, and

was adorned with strong and stately buildings, with aqueducts, an

artificial port, and a double wall. The population was increased

by the incessant streams of pilgrims and fugitives: in the pauses

of hostility the trade of the East and West was attracted to this

convenient station; and the market could offer the produce of

every clime and the interpreters of every tongue. But in this

conflux of nations, every vice was propagated and practised: of

all the disciples of Jesus and Mahomet, the male and female

inhabitants of Acre were esteemed the most corrupt; nor could the

abuse of religion be corrected by the discipline of law. The city

had many sovereigns, and no government. The kings of Jerusalem

and Cyprus, of the house of Lusignan, the princes of Antioch, the

counts of Tripoli and Sidon, the great masters of the hospital,

the temple, and the Teutonic order, the republics of Venice,

Genoa, and Pisa, the pope’s legate, the kings of France and

England, assumed an independent command: seventeen tribunals

exercised the power of life and death; every criminal was

protected in the adjacent quarter; and the perpetual jealousy of

the nations often burst forth in acts of violence and blood. Some

adventurers, who disgraced the ensign of the cross, compensated

their want of pay by the plunder of the Mahometan villages:

nineteen Syrian merchants, who traded under the public faith,

were despoiled and hanged by the Christians; and the denial of

satisfaction justified the arms of the sultan Khalil. He marched

against Acre, at the head of sixty thousand horse and one hundred

and forty thousand foot: his train of artillery (if I may use the

word) was numerous and weighty: the separate timbers of a single

engine were transported in one hundred wagons; and the royal

historian Abulfeda, who served with the troops of Hamah, was

himself a spectator of the holy war. Whatever might be the vices

of the Franks, their courage was rekindled by enthusiasm and

despair; but they were torn by the discord of seventeen chiefs,

and overwhelmed on all sides by the powers of the sultan. After a

siege of thirty three days, the double wall was forced by the

Moslems; the principal tower yielded to their engines; the

Mamalukes made a general assault; the city was stormed; and death

or slavery was the lot of sixty thousand Christians. The convent,

or rather fortress, of the Templars resisted three days longer;

but the great master was pierced with an arrow; and, of five

hundred knights, only ten were left alive, less happy than the

victims of the sword, if they lived to suffer on a scaffold, in

the unjust and cruel proscription of the whole order. The king of

Jerusalem, the patriarch and the great master of the hospital,

effected their retreat to the shore; but the sea was rough, the

vessels were insufficient; and great numbers of the fugitives

were drowned before they could reach the Isle of Cyprus, which

might comfort Lusignan for the loss of Palestine. By the command

of the sultan, the churches and fortifications of the Latin

cities were demolished: a motive of avarice or fear still opened

the holy sepulchre to some devout and defenceless pilgrims; and a

mournful and solitary silence prevailed along the coast which had

so long resounded with the world’s debate. 109

108 (return) [ The state of Acre is represented in all the

chronicles of te times, and most accurately in John Villani, l.

vii. c. 144, in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. xiii.

337, 338.]

109 (return) [ See the final expulsion of the Franks, in Sanutus,

l. iii. p. xii. c. 11—22; Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c., in De Guignes,

tom. iv. p. 162, 164; and Vertot, tom. i. l. iii. p. 307—428. *

Note: * After these chapters of Gibbon, the masterly prize

composition, “Essai sur ‘Influence des Croisades sur l’Europe,”

par A H. L. Heeren: traduit de l’Allemand par Charles Villars,

Paris, 1808,’ or the original German, in Heeren’s “Vermischte

Schriften,” may be read with great advantage.—M.]

Chapter LX: The Fourth Crusade.—Part I.

Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.—State Of Constantinople.— Revolt

Of The Bulgarians.—Isaac Angelus Dethroned By His Brother

Alexius.—Origin Of The Fourth Crusade.—Alliance Of The French And

Venetians With The Son Of Isaac.—Their Naval Expedition To

Constantinople.—The Two Sieges And Final Conquest Of The City By

The Latins.

The restoration of the Western empire by Charlemagne was speedily

followed by the separation of the Greek and Latin churches. 1 A

religious and national animosity still divides the two largest

communions of the Christian world; and the schism of

Constantinople,

by alienating her most useful allies, and provoking her most

dangerous

enemies, has precipitated the decline and fall of the Roman

empire in the East.

1 (return) [ In the successive centuries, from the ixth to the

xviiith, Mosheim traces the schism of the Greeks with learning,

clearness, and impartiality; the _filioque_ (Institut. Hist.

Ecclés. p. 277,) Leo III. p. 303 Photius, p. 307, 308. Michael

Cerularius, p. 370, 371, &c.]

In the course of the present History, the aversion of the Greeks

for the Latins has been often visible and conspicuous. It was

originally derived from the disdain of servitude, inflamed, after

the time of Constantine, by the pride of equality or dominion;

and finally exasperated by the preference which their rebellious

subjects had given to the alliance of the Franks. In every age

the Greeks were proud of their superiority in profane and

religious knowledge: they had first received the light of

Christianity; they had pronounced the decrees of the seven

general councils; they alone possessed the language of Scripture

and philosophy; nor should the Barbarians, immersed in the

darkness of the West, 2 presume to argue on the high and

mysterious questions of theological science. Those Barbarians

despised in then turn the restless and subtile levity of the

Orientals, the authors of every heresy; and blessed their own

simplicity, which was content to hold the tradition of the

apostolic church. Yet in the seventh century, the synods of

Spain, and afterwards of France, improved or corrupted the Nicene

creed, on the mysterious subject of the third person of the

Trinity. 3 In the long controversies of the East, the nature and

generation of the Christ had been scrupulously defined; and the

well-known relation of father and son seemed to convey a faint

image to the human mind. The idea of birth was less analogous to

the Holy Spirit, who, instead of a divine gift or attribute, was

considered by the Catholics as a substance, a person, a god; he

was not begotten, but in the orthodox style he _proceeded_. Did

he proceed from the Father alone, perhaps _by_ the Son? or from

the Father _and_ the Son? The first of these opinions was

asserted by the Greeks, the second by the Latins; and the

addition to the Nicene creed of the word _filioque_, kindled the

flame of discord between the Oriental and the Gallic churches. In

the origin of the disputes the Roman pontiffs affected a

character of neutrality and moderation: 4 they condemned the

innovation, but they acquiesced in the sentiment, of their

Transalpine brethren: they seemed desirous of casting a veil of

silence and charity over the superfluous research; and in the

correspondence of Charlemagne and Leo the Third, the pope assumes

the liberality of a statesman, and the prince descends to the

passions and prejudices of a priest. 5 But the orthodoxy of Rome

spontaneously obeyed the impulse of the temporal policy; and the

_filioque_, which Leo wished to erase, was transcribed in the

symbol and chanted in the liturgy of the Vatican. The Nicene and

Athanasian creeds are held as the Catholic faith, without which

none can be saved; and both Papists and Protestants must now

sustain and return the anathemas of the Greeks, who deny the

procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as from the

Father. Such articles of faith are not susceptible of treaty; but

the rules of discipline will vary in remote and independent

churches; and the reason, even of divines, might allow, that the

difference is inevitable and harmless. The craft or superstition

of Rome has imposed on her priests and deacons the rigid

obligation of celibacy; among the Greeks it is confined to the

bishops; the loss is compensated by dignity or annihilated by

age; and the parochial clergy, the papas, enjoy the conjugal

society of the wives whom they have married before their entrance

into holy orders. A question concerning the _Azyms_ was fiercely

debated in the eleventh century, and the essence of the Eucharist

was supposed in the East and West to depend on the use of

leavened or unleavened bread. Shall I mention in a serious

history the furious reproaches that were urged against the

Latins, who for a long while remained on the defensive? They

neglected to abstain, according to the apostolical decree, from

things strangled, and from blood: they fasted (a Jewish

observance!) on the Saturday of each week: during the first week

of Lent they permitted the use of milk and cheese; 6 their infirm

monks were indulged in the taste of flesh; and animal grease was

substituted for the want of vegetable oil: the holy chrism or

unction in baptism was reserved to the episcopal order: the

bishops, as the bridegrooms of their churches, were decorated

with rings; their priests shaved their faces, and baptized by a

single immersion. Such were the crimes which provoked the zeal of

the patriarchs of Constantinople; and which were justified with

equal zeal by the doctors of the Latin church. 7

2 (return) [ ''AndreV dussebeiV kai apotropaioi, andreV ek sktouV

anadunteV, thV gar 'Esperiou moiraV uphrcon gennhmata, (Phot.

Epist. p. 47, edit. Montacut.) The Oriental patriarch continues

to apply the images of thunder, earthquake, hail, wild boar,

precursors of Antichrist, &c., &c.]

3 (return) [ The mysterious subject of the procession of the Holy

Ghost is discussed in the historical, theological, and

controversial sense, or nonsense, by the Jesuit Petavius.

(Dogmata Theologica, tom. ii. l. vii. p. 362—440.)]

4 (return) [ Before the shrine of St. Peter he placed two shields

of the weight of 94 1/2 pounds of pure silver; on which he

inscribed the text of both creeds, (utroque symbolo,) pro amore

et _cautelâ_ orthodoxæ fidei, (Anastas. in Leon. III. in

Muratori, tom. iii. pars. i. p. 208.) His language most clearly

proves, that neither the _filioque_, nor the Athanasian creed

were received at Rome about the year 830.]

5 (return) [ The Missi of Charlemagne pressed him to declare,

that all who rejected the _filioque_, or at least the doctrine,

must be damned. All, replies the pope, are not capable of

reaching the altiora mysteria qui potuerit, et non voluerit,

salvus esse non potest, (Collect. Concil. tom. ix. p. 277—286.)

The _potuerit_ would leave a large loophole of salvation!]

6 (return) [ In France, after some harsher laws, the

ecclesiastical discipline is now relaxed: milk, cheese, and

butter, are become a perpetual, and eggs an annual, indulgence in

Lent, (Vie privée des François, tom. ii. p. 27—38.)]

7 (return) [ The original monuments of the schism, of the charges

of the Greeks against the Latins, are deposited in the epistles

of Photius, (Epist Encyclica, ii. p. 47—61,) and of Michael

Cerularius, (Canisii Antiq. Lectiones, tom. iii. p. i. p.

281—324, edit. Basnage, with the prolix answer of Cardinal

Humbert.)]

Bigotry and national aversion are powerful magnifiers of every

object of dispute; but the immediate cause of the schism of the

Greeks may be traced in the emulation of the leading prelates,

who maintained the supremacy of the old metropolis superior to

all, and of the reigning capital, inferior to none, in the

Christian world. About the middle of the ninth century, Photius,

8 an ambitious layman, the captain of the guards and principal

secretary, was promoted by merit and favor to the more desirable

office of patriarch of Constantinople. In science, even

ecclesiastical science, he surpassed the clergy of the age; and

the purity of his morals has never been impeached: but his

ordination was hasty, his rise was irregular; and Ignatius, his

abdicated predecessor, was yet supported by the public compassion

and the obstinacy of his adherents. They appealed to the tribunal

of Nicholas the First, one of the proudest and most aspiring of

the Roman pontiffs, who embraced the welcome opportunity of

judging and condemning his rival of the East. Their quarrel was

embittered by a conflict of jurisdiction over the king and nation

of the Bulgarians; nor was their recent conversion to

Christianity of much avail to either prelate, unless he could

number the proselytes among the subjects of his power. With the

aid of his court the Greek patriarch was victorious; but in the

furious contest he deposed in his turn the successor of St.

Peter, and involved the Latin church in the reproach of heresy

and schism. Photius sacrificed the peace of the world to a short

and precarious reign: he fell with his patron, the Cæsar Bardas;

and Basil the Macedonian performed an act of justice in the

restoration of Ignatius, whose age and dignity had not been

sufficiently respected. From his monastery, or prison, Photius

solicited the favor of the emperor by pathetic complaints and

artful flattery; and the eyes of his rival were scarcely closed,

when he was again restored to the throne of Constantinople. After

the death of Basil he experienced the vicissitudes of courts and

the ingratitude of a royal pupil: the patriarch was again

deposed, and in his last solitary hours he might regret the

freedom of a secular and studious life. In each revolution, the

breath, the nod, of the sovereign had been accepted by a

submissive clergy; and a synod of three hundred bishops was

always prepared to hail the triumph, or to stigmatize the fall,

of the holy, or the execrable, Photius. 9 By a delusive promise

of succor or reward, the popes were tempted to countenance these

various proceedings; and the synods of Constantinople were

ratified by their epistles or legates. But the court and the

people, Ignatius and Photius, were equally adverse to their

claims; their ministers were insulted or imprisoned; the

procession of the Holy Ghost was forgotten; Bulgaria was forever

annexed to the Byzantine throne; and the schism was prolonged by

their rigid censure of all the multiplied ordinations of an

irregular patriarch. The darkness and corruption of the tenth

century suspended the intercourse, without reconciling the minds,

of the two nations. But when the Norman sword restored the

churches of Apulia to the jurisdiction of Rome, the departing

flock was warned, by a petulant epistle of the Greek patriarch,

to avoid and abhor the errors of the Latins. The rising majesty

of Rome could no longer brook the insolence of a rebel; and

Michael Cerularius was excommunicated in the heart of

Constantinople by the pope’s legates. Shaking the dust from their

feet, they deposited on the altar of St. Sophia a direful

anathema, 10 which enumerates the seven mortal heresies of the

Greeks, and devotes the guilty teachers, and their unhappy

sectaries, to the eternal society of the devil and his angels.

According to the emergencies of the church and state, a friendly

correspondence was some times resumed; the language of charity

and concord was sometimes affected; but the Greeks have never

recanted their errors; the popes have never repealed their

sentence; and from this thunderbolt we may date the consummation

of the schism. It was enlarged by each ambitious step of the

Roman pontiffs: the emperors blushed and trembled at the

ignominious fate of their royal brethren of Germany; and the

people were scandalized by the temporal power and military life

of the Latin clergy. 11

8 (return) [ The xth volume of the Venice edition of the Councils

contains all the acts of the synods, and history of Photius: they

are abridged, with a faint tinge of prejudice or prudence, by

Dupin and Fleury.]

9 (return) [ The synod of Constantinople, held in the year 869,

is the viiith of the general councils, the last assembly of the

East which is recognized by the Roman church. She rejects the

synods of Constantinople of the years 867 and 879, which were,

however, equally numerous and noisy; but they were favorable to

Photius.]

10 (return) [ See this anathema in the Councils, tom. xi. p.

1457—1460.]

11 (return) [ Anna Comnena (Alexiad, l. i. p. 31—33) represents

the abhorrence, not only of the church, but of the palace, for

Gregory VII., the popes and the Latin communion. The style of

Cinnamus and Nicetas is still more vehement. Yet how calm is the

voice of history compared with that of polemics!]

The aversion of the Greeks and Latins was nourished and

manifested in the three first expeditions to the Holy Land.

Alexius Comnenus contrived the absence at least of the formidable

pilgrims: his successors, Manuel and Isaac Angelus, conspired

with the Moslems for the ruin of the greatest princes of the

Franks; and their crooked and malignant policy was seconded by

the active and voluntary obedience of every order of their

subjects. Of this hostile temper, a large portion may doubtless

be ascribed to the difference of language, dress, and manners,

which severs and alienates the nations of the globe. The pride,

as well as the prudence, of the sovereign was deeply wounded by

the intrusion of foreign armies, that claimed a right of

traversing his dominions, and passing under the walls of his

capital: his subjects were insulted and plundered by the rude

strangers of the West: and the hatred of the pusillanimous Greeks

was sharpened by secret envy of the bold and pious enterprises of

the Franks. But these profane causes of national enmity were

fortified and inflamed by the venom of religious zeal. Instead of

a kind embrace, a hospitable reception from their Christian

brethren of the East, every tongue was taught to repeat the names

of schismatic and heretic, more odious to an orthodox ear than

those of pagan and infidel: instead of being loved for the

general conformity of faith and worship, they were abhorred for

some rules of discipline, some questions of theology, in which

themselves or their teachers might differ from the Oriental

church. In the crusade of Louis the Seventh, the Greek clergy

washed and purified the altars which had been defiled by the

sacrifice of a French priest. The companions of Frederic

Barbarossa deplore the injuries which they endured, both in word

and deed, from the peculiar rancor of the bishops and monks.

Their prayers and sermons excited the people against the impious

Barbarians; and the patriarch is accused of declaring, that the

faithful might obtain the redemption of all their sins by the

extirpation of the schismatics. 12 An enthusiast, named

Dorotheus, alarmed the fears, and restored the confidence, of the

emperor, by a prophetic assurance, that the German heretic, after

assaulting the gate of Blachernes, would be made a signal example

of the divine vengeance. The passage of these mighty armies were

rare and perilous events; but the crusades introduced a frequent

and familiar intercourse between the two nations, which enlarged

their knowledge without abating their prejudices. The wealth and

luxury of Constantinople demanded the productions of every

climate; these imports were balanced by the art and labor of her

numerous inhabitants; her situation invites the commerce of the

world; and, in every period of her existence, that commerce has

been in the hands of foreigners. After the decline of Amalphi,

the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese, introduced their factories

and settlements into the capital of the empire: their services

were rewarded with honors and immunities; they acquired the

possession of lands and houses; their families were multiplied by

marriages with the natives; and, after the toleration of a

Mahometan mosque, it was impossible to interdict the churches of

the Roman rite. 13 The two wives of Manuel Comnenus 14 were of

the race of the Franks: the first, a sister-in-law of the emperor

Conrad; the second, a daughter of the prince of Antioch: he

obtained for his son Alexius a daughter of Philip Augustus, king

of France; and he bestowed his own daughter on a marquis of

Montferrat, who was educated and dignified in the palace of

Constantinople. The Greek encountered the arms, and aspired to

the empire, of the West: he esteemed the valor, and trusted the

fidelity, of the Franks; 15 their military talents were unfitly

recompensed by the lucrative offices of judges and treasures; the

policy of Manuel had solicited the alliance of the pope; and the

popular voice accused him of a partial bias to the nation and

religion of the Latins. 16 During his reign, and that of his

successor Alexius, they were exposed at Constantinople to the

reproach of foreigners, heretics, and favorites; and this triple

guilt was severely expiated in the tumult, which announced the

return and elevation of Andronicus. 17 The people rose in arms:

from the Asiatic shore the tyrant despatched his troops and

galleys to assist the national revenge; and the hopeless

resistance of the strangers served only to justify the rage, and

sharpen the daggers, of the assassins. Neither age, nor sex, nor

the ties of friendship or kindred, could save the victims of

national hatred, and avarice, and religious zeal; the Latins were

slaughtered in their houses and in the streets; their quarter was

reduced to ashes; the clergy were burnt in their churches, and

the sick in their hospitals; and some estimate may be formed of

the slain from the clemency which sold above four thousand

Christians in perpetual slavery to the Turks. The priests and

monks were the loudest and most active in the destruction of the

schismatics; and they chanted a thanksgiving to the Lord, when

the head of a Roman cardinal, the pope’s legate, was severed from

his body, fastened to the tail of a dog, and dragged, with savage

mockery, through the city. The more diligent of the strangers had

retreated, on the first alarm, to their vessels, and escaped

through the Hellespont from the scene of blood. In their flight,

they burnt and ravaged two hundred miles of the sea-coast;

inflicted a severe revenge on the guiltless subjects of the

empire; marked the priests and monks as their peculiar enemies;

and compensated, by the accumulation of plunder, the loss of

their property and friends. On their return, they exposed to

Italy and Europe the wealth and weakness, the perfidy and malice,

of the Greeks, whose vices were painted as the genuine characters

of heresy and schism. The scruples of the first crusaders had

neglected the fairest opportunities of securing, by the

possession of Constantinople, the way to the Holy Land: domestic

revolution invited, and almost compelled, the French and

Venetians to achieve the conquest of the Roman empire of the

East.

12 (return) [ His anonymous historian (de Expedit. Asiat. Fred.

I. in Canisii Lection. Antiq. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 511, edit.

Basnage) mentions the sermons of the Greek patriarch, quomodo

Græcis injunxerat in remissionem peccatorum peregrinos occidere

et delere de terra. Tagino observes, (in Scriptores Freher. tom.

i. p. 409, edit. Struv.,) Græci hæreticos nos appellant: clerici

et monachi dictis et factis persequuntur. We may add the

declaration of the emperor Baldwin fifteen years afterwards: Hæc

est (_gens_) quæ Latinos omnes non hominum nomine, sed canum

dignabatur; quorum sanguinem effundere penè inter merita

reputabant, (Gesta Innocent. III., c. 92, in Muratori, Script.

Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. pars i. p. 536.) There may be some

exaggeration, but it was as effectual for the action and reaction

of hatred.]

13 (return) [ See Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l. vi. p. 161, 162,)

and a remarkable passage of Nicetas, (in Manuel, l. v. c. 9,) who

observes of the Venetians, kata smhnh kai jratriaV thn

Kwnstantinou polin thV oikeiaV hllaxanto, &c.]

14 (return) [ Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 186, 187.]

15 (return) [ Nicetas in Manuel. l. vii. c. 2. Regnante enim

(Manuele).... apud eum tantam Latinus populus repererat gratiam

ut neglectis Græculis suis tanquam viris mollibus et

effminatis,.... solis Latinis grandia committeret negotia....

erga eos profusâ liberalitate abundabat.... ex omni orbe ad eum

tanquam ad benefactorem nobiles et ignobiles concurrebant.

Willelm. Tyr. xxii. c. 10.]

16 (return) [ The suspicions of the Greeks would have been

confirmed, if they had seen the political epistles of Manuel to

Pope Alexander III., the enemy of his enemy Frederic I., in which

the emperor declares his wish of uniting the Greeks and Latins as

one flock under one shepherd, &c (See Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. tom.

xv. p. 187, 213, 243.)]

17 (return) [ See the Greek and Latin narratives in Nicetas (in

Alexio Comneno, c. 10) and William of Tyre, (l. xxii. c. 10, 11,

12, 13;) the first soft and concise, the second loud, copious,

and tragical.]

In the series of the Byzantine princes, I have exhibited the

hypocrisy and ambition, the tyranny and fall, of Andronicus, the

last male of the Comnenian family who reigned at Constantinople.

The revolution, which cast him headlong from the throne, saved

and exalted Isaac Angelus, 18 who descended by the females from

the same Imperial dynasty. The successor of a second Nero might

have found it an easy task to deserve the esteem and affection of

his subjects; they sometimes had reason to regret the

administration of Andronicus. The sound and vigorous mind of the

tyrant was capable of discerning the connection between his own

and the public interest; and while he was feared by all who could

inspire him with fear, the unsuspected people, and the remote

provinces, might bless the inexorable justice of their master.

But his successor was vain and jealous of the supreme power,

which he wanted courage and abilities to exercise: his vices were

pernicious, his virtues (if he possessed any virtues) were

useless, to mankind; and the Greeks, who imputed their calamities

to his negligence, denied him the merit of any transient or

accidental benefits of the times. Isaac slept on the throne, and

was awakened only by the sound of pleasure: his vacant hours were

amused by comedians and buffoons, and even to these buffoons the

emperor was an object of contempt: his feasts and buildings

exceeded the examples of royal luxury: the number of his eunuchs

and domestics amounted to twenty thousand; and a daily sum of

four thousand pounds of silver would swell to four millions

sterling the annual expense of his household and table. His

poverty was relieved by oppression; and the public discontent was

inflamed by equal abuses in the collection, and the application,

of the revenue. While the Greeks numbered the days of their

servitude, a flattering prophet, whom he rewarded with the

dignity of patriarch, assured him of a long and victorious reign

of thirty-two years; during which he should extend his sway to

Mount Libanus, and his conquests beyond the Euphrates. But his

only step towards the accomplishment of the prediction was a

splendid and scandalous embassy to Saladin, 19 to demand the

restitution of the holy sepulchre, and to propose an offensive

and defensive league with the enemy of the Christian name. In

these unworthy hands, of Isaac and his brother, the remains of

the Greek empire crumbled into dust. The Island of Cyprus, whose

name excites the ideas of elegance and pleasure, was usurped by

his namesake, a Comnenian prince; and by a strange concatenation

of events, the sword of our English Richard bestowed that kingdom

on the house of Lusignan, a rich compensation for the loss of

Jerusalem.

18 (return) [ The history of the reign of Isaac Angelus is

composed, in three books, by the senator Nicetas, (p. 228—290;)

and his offices of logothete, or principal secretary, and judge

of the veil or palace, could not bribe the impartiality of the

historian. He wrote, it is true, after the fall and death of his

benefactor.]

19 (return) [ See Bohadin, Vit. Saladin. p. 129—131, 226, vers.

Schultens. The ambassador of Isaac was equally versed in the

Greek, French, and Arabic languages; a rare instance in those

times. His embassies were received with honor, dismissed without

effect, and reported with scandal in the West.]

The honor of the monarchy and the safety of the capital were

deeply wounded by the revolt of the Bulgarians and Walachians.

Since the victory of the second Basil, they had supported, above

a hundred and seventy years, the loose dominion of the Byzantine

princes; but no effectual measures had been adopted to impose the

yoke of laws and manners on these savage tribes. By the command

of Isaac, their sole means of subsistence, their flocks and

herds, were driven away, to contribute towards the pomp of the

royal nuptials; and their fierce warriors were exasperated by the

denial of equal rank and pay in the military service. Peter and

Asan, two powerful chiefs, of the race of the ancient kings, 20

asserted their own rights and the national freedom; their

dæmoniac impostors proclaimed to the crowd, that their glorious

patron St. Demetrius had forever deserted the cause of the

Greeks; and the conflagration spread from the banks of the Danube

to the hills of Macedonia and Thrace. After some faint efforts,

Isaac Angelus and his brother acquiesced in their independence;

and the Imperial troops were soon discouraged by the bones of

their fellow-soldiers, that were scattered along the passes of

Mount Hæmus. By the arms and policy of John or Joannices, the

second kingdom of Bulgaria was firmly established. The subtle

Barbarian sent an embassy to Innocent the Third, to acknowledge

himself a genuine son of Rome in descent and religion, 21 and

humbly received from the pope the license of coining money, the

royal title, and a Latin archbishop or patriarch. The Vatican

exulted in the spiritual conquest of Bulgaria, the first object

of the schism; and if the Greeks could have preserved the

prerogatives of the church, they would gladly have resigned the

rights of the monarchy.

20 (return) [ Ducange, Familiæ, Dalmaticæ, p. 318, 319, 320. The

original correspondence of the Bulgarian king and the Roman

pontiff is inscribed in the Gesta Innocent. III. c. 66—82, p.

513—525.]

21 (return) [ The pope acknowledges his pedigree, a nobili urbis

Romæ prosapiâ genitores tui originem traxerunt. This tradition,

and the strong resemblance of the Latin and Walachian idioms, is

explained by M. D’Anville, (Etats de l’Europe, p. 258—262.) The

Italian colonies of the Dacia of Trajan were swept away by the

tide of emigration from the Danube to the Volga, and brought back

by another wave from the Volga to the Danube. Possible, but

strange!]

The Bulgarians were malicious enough to pray for the long life of

Isaac Angelus, the surest pledge of their freedom and prosperity.

Yet their chiefs could involve in the same indiscriminate

contempt the family and nation of the emperor. “In all the

Greeks,” said Asan to his troops, “the same climate, and

character, and education, will be productive of the same fruits.

Behold my lance,” continued the warrior, “and the long streamers

that float in the wind. They differ only in color; they are

formed of the same silk, and fashioned by the same workman; nor

has the stripe that is stained in purple any superior price or

value above its fellows.” 22 Several of these candidates for the

purple successively rose and fell under the empire of Isaac; a

general, who had repelled the fleets of Sicily, was driven to

revolt and ruin by the ingratitude of the prince; and his

luxurious repose was disturbed by secret conspiracies and popular

insurrections. The emperor was saved by accident, or the merit of

his servants: he was at length oppressed by an ambitious brother,

who, for the hope of a precarious diadem, forgot the obligations

of nature, of loyalty, and of friendship. 23 While Isaac in the

Thracian valleys pursued the idle and solitary pleasures of the

chase, his brother, Alexius Angelus, was invested with the

purple, by the unanimous suffrage of the camp; the capital and

the clergy subscribed to their choice; and the vanity of the new

sovereign rejected the name of his fathers for the lofty and

royal appellation of the Comnenian race. On the despicable

character of Isaac I have exhausted the language of contempt, and

can only add, that, in a reign of eight years, the baser Alexius

24 was supported by the masculine vices of his wife Euphrosyne.

The first intelligence of his fall was conveyed to the late

emperor by the hostile aspect and pursuit of the guards, no

longer his own: he fled before them above fifty miles, as far as

Stagyra, in Macedonia; but the fugitive, without an object or a

follower, was arrested, brought back to Constantinople, deprived

of his eyes, and confined in a lonesome tower, on a scanty

allowance of bread and water. At the moment of the revolution,

his son Alexius, whom he educated in the hope of empire, was

twelve years of age. He was spared by the usurper, and reduced to

attend his triumph both in peace and war; but as the army was

encamped on the sea-shore, an Italian vessel facilitated the

escape of the royal youth; and, in the disguise of a common

sailor, he eluded the search of his enemies, passed the

Hellespont, and found a secure refuge in the Isle of Sicily.

After saluting the threshold of the apostles, and imploring the

protection of Pope Innocent the Third, Alexius accepted the kind

invitation of his sister Irene, the wife of Philip of Swabia,

king of the Romans. But in his passage through Italy, he heard

that the flower of Western chivalry was assembled at Venice for

the deliverance of the Holy Land; and a ray of hope was kindled

in his bosom, that their invincible swords might be employed in

his father’s restoration.

22 (return) [ This parable is in the best savage style; but I

wish the Walach had not introduced the classic name of Mysians,

the experiment of the magnet or loadstone, and the passage of an

old comic poet, (Nicetas in Alex. Comneno, l. i. p. 299, 300.)]

23 (return) [ The Latins aggravate the ingratitude of Alexius, by

supposing that he had been released by his brother Isaac from

Turkish captivity This pathetic tale had doubtless been repeated

at Venice and Zara but I do not readily discover its grounds in

the Greek historians.]

24 (return) [ See the reign of Alexius Angelus, or Comnenus, in

the three books of Nicetas, p. 291—352.]

About ten or twelve years after the loss of Jerusalem, the nobles

of France were again summoned to the holy war by the voice of a

third prophet, less extravagant, perhaps, than Peter the hermit,

but far below St. Bernard in the merit of an orator and a

statesman. An illiterate priest of the neighborhood of Paris,

Fulk of Neuilly, 25 forsook his parochial duty, to assume the

more flattering character of a popular and itinerant missionary.

The fame of his sanctity and miracles was spread over the land;

he declaimed, with severity and vehemence, against the vices of

the age; and his sermons, which he preached in the streets of

Paris, converted the robbers, the usurers, the prostitutes, and

even the doctors and scholars of the university. No sooner did

Innocent the Third ascend the chair of St. Peter, than he

proclaimed in Italy, Germany, and France, the obligation of a new

crusade. 26 The eloquent pontiff described the ruin of Jerusalem,

the triumph of the Pagans, and the shame of Christendom; his

liberality proposed the redemption of sins, a plenary indulgence

to all who should serve in Palestine, either a year in person, or

two years by a substitute; 27 and among his legates and orators

who blew the sacred trumpet, Fulk of Neuilly was the loudest and

most successful. The situation of the principal monarchs was

averse to the pious summons. The emperor Frederic the Second was

a child; and his kingdom of Germany was disputed by the rival

houses of Brunswick and Swabia, the memorable factions of the

Guelphs and Ghibelines. Philip Augustus of France had performed,

and could not be persuaded to renew, the perilous vow; but as he

was not less ambitious of praise than of power, he cheerfully

instituted a perpetual fund for the defence of the Holy Land.

Richard of England was satiated with the glory and misfortunes of

his first adventure; and he presumed to deride the exhortations

of Fulk of Neuilly, who was not abashed in the presence of kings.

“You advise me,” said Plantagenet, “to dismiss my three

daughters, pride, avarice, and incontinence: I bequeath them to

the most deserving; my pride to the knights templars, my avarice

to the monks of Cisteaux, and my incontinence to the prelates.”

But the preacher was heard and obeyed by the great vassals, the

princes of the second order; and Theobald, or Thibaut, count of

Champagne, was the foremost in the holy race. The valiant youth,

at the age of twenty-two years, was encouraged by the domestic

examples of his father, who marched in the second crusade, and of

his elder brother, who had ended his days in Palestine with the

title of King of Jerusalem; two thousand two hundred knights owed

service and homage to his peerage; 28 the nobles of Champagne

excelled in all the exercises of war; 29 and, by his marriage

with the heiress of Navarre, Thibaut could draw a band of hardy

Gascons from either side of the Pyrenæan mountains. His companion

in arms was Louis, count of Blois and Chartres; like himself of

regal lineage, for both the princes were nephews, at the same

time, of the kings of France and England. In a crowd of prelates

and barons, who imitated their zeal, I distinguish the birth and

merit of Matthew of Montmorency; the famous Simon of Montfort,

the scourge of the Albigeois; and a valiant noble, Jeffrey of

Villehardouin, 30 marshal of Champagne, 31 who has condescended,

in the rude idiom of his age and country, 32 to write or dictate

33 an original narrative of the councils and actions in which he

bore a memorable part. At the same time, Baldwin, count of

Flanders, who had married the sister of Thibaut, assumed the

cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry, and the principal

knights and citizens of that rich and industrious province. 34

The vow which the chiefs had pronounced in churches, they

ratified in tournaments; the operations of the war were debated

in full and frequent assemblies; and it was resolved to seek the

deliverance of Palestine in Egypt, a country, since Saladin’s

death, which was almost ruined by famine and civil war. But the

fate of so many royal armies displayed the toils and perils of a

land expedition; and if the Flemings dwelt along the ocean, the

French barons were destitute of ships and ignorant of navigation.

They embraced the wise resolution of choosing six deputies or

representatives, of whom Villehardouin was one, with a

discretionary trust to direct the motions, and to pledge the

faith, of the whole confederacy. The maritime states of Italy

were alone possessed of the means of transporting the holy

warriors with their arms and horses; and the six deputies

proceeded to Venice, to solicit, on motives of piety or interest,

the aid of that powerful republic.

25 (return) [ See Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. tom. xvi. p. 26, &c., and

Villehardouin, No. 1, with the observations of Ducange, which I

always mean to quote with the original text.]

26 (return) [ The contemporary life of Pope Innocent III.,

published by Baluze and Muratori, (Scriptores Rerum Italicarum,

tom. iii. pars i. p. 486—568), is most valuable for the important

and original documents which are inserted in the text. The bull

of the crusade may be read, c. 84, 85.]

27 (return) [ Por-ce que cil pardon, fut issi gran, si s’en

esmeurent mult li cuers des genz, et mult s’en croisierent, porce

que li pardons ere si gran. Villehardouin, No. 1. Our

philosophers may refine on the causes of the crusades, but such

were the genuine feelings of a French knight.]

28 (return) [ This number of fiefs (of which 1800 owed liege

homage) was enrolled in the church of St. Stephen at Troyes, and

attested A.D. 1213, by the marshal and butler of Champagne,

(Ducange, Observ. p. 254.)]

29 (return) [ Campania.... militiæ privilegio singularius

excellit.... in tyrociniis.... prolusione armorum, &c., Duncage,

p. 249, from the old Chronicle of Jerusalem, A.D. 1177—1199.]

30 (return) [ The name of Villehardouin was taken from a village

and castle in the diocese of Troyes, near the River Aube, between

Bar and Arcis. The family was ancient and noble; the elder branch

of our historian existed after the year 1400, the younger, which

acquired the principality of Achaia, merged in the house of

Savoy, (Ducange, p. 235—245.)]

31 (return) [ This office was held by his father and his

descendants; but Ducange has not hunted it with his usual

sagacity. I find that, in the year 1356, it was in the family of

Conflans; but these provincial have been long since eclipsed by

the national marshals of France.]

32 (return) [ This language, of which I shall produce some

specimens, is explained by Vigenere and Ducange, in a version and

glossary. The president Des Brosses (Méchanisme des Langues, tom.

ii. p. 83) gives it as the example of a language which has ceased

to be French, and is understood only by grammarians.]

33 (return) [ His age, and his own expression, moi qui ceste uvre

_dicta_, (No. 62, &c.,) may justify the suspicion (more probable

than Mr. Wood’s on Homer) that he could neither read nor write.

Yet Champagne may boast of the two first historians, the noble

authors of French prose, Villehardouin and Joinville.]

34 (return) [ The crusade and reigns of the counts of Flanders,

Baldwin and his brother Henry, are the subject of a particular

history by the Jesuit Doutremens, (Constantinopolis Belgica;

Turnaci, 1638, in 4to.,) which I have only seen with the eyes of

Ducange.]

In the invasion of Italy by Attila, I have mentioned 35 the

flight of the Venetians from the fallen cities of the continent,

and their obscure shelter in the chain of islands that line the

extremity of the Adriatic Gulf. In the midst of the waters, free,

indigent, laborious, and inaccessible, they gradually coalesced

into a republic: the first foundations of Venice were laid in the

Island of Rialto; and the annual election of the twelve tribunes

was superseded by the permanent office of a duke or doge. On the

verge of the two empires, the Venetians exult in the belief of

primitive and perpetual independence. 36 Against the Latins,

their antique freedom has been asserted by the sword, and may be

justified by the pen. Charlemagne himself resigned all claims of

sovereignty to the islands of the Adriatic Gulf: his son Pepin

was repulsed in the attacks of the _lagunas_ or canals, too deep

for the cavalry, and too shallow for the vessels; and in every

age, under the German Cæsars, the lands of the republic have been

clearly distinguished from the kingdom of Italy. But the

inhabitants of Venice were considered by themselves, by

strangers, and by their sovereigns, as an inalienable portion of

the Greek empire: 37 in the ninth and tenth centuries, the proofs

of their subjection are numerous and unquestionable; and the vain

titles, the servile honors, of the Byzantine court, so

ambitiously solicited by their dukes, would have degraded the

magistrates of a free people. But the bands of this dependence,

which was never absolute or rigid, were imperceptibly relaxed by

the ambition of Venice and the weakness of Constantinople.

Obedience was softened into respect, privilege ripened into

prerogative, and the freedom of domestic government was fortified

by the independence of foreign dominion. The maritime cities of

Istria and Dalmatia bowed to the sovereigns of the Adriatic; and

when they armed against the Normans in the cause of Alexius, the

emperor applied, not to the duty of his subjects, but to the

gratitude and generosity of his faithful allies. The sea was

their patrimony: 38 the western parts of the Mediterranean, from

Tuscany to Gibraltar, were indeed abandoned to their rivals of

Pisa and Genoa; but the Venetians acquired an early and lucrative

share of the commerce of Greece and Egypt. Their riches increased

with the increasing demand of Europe; their manufactures of silk

and glass, perhaps the institution of their bank, are of high

antiquity; and they enjoyed the fruits of their industry in the

magnificence of public and private life. To assert her flag, to

avenge her injuries, to protect the freedom of navigation, the

republic could launch and man a fleet of a hundred galleys; and

the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans, were encountered by

her naval arms. The Franks of Syria were assisted by the

Venetians in the reduction of the sea coast; but their zeal was

neither blind nor disinterested; and in the conquest of Tyre,

they shared the sovereignty of a city, the first seat of the

commerce of the world. The policy of Venice was marked by the

avarice of a trading, and the insolence of a maritime, power; yet

her ambition was prudent: nor did she often forget that if armed

galleys were the effect and safeguard, merchant vessels were the

cause and supply, of her greatness. In her religion, she avoided

the schisms of the Greeks, without yielding a servile obedience

to the Roman pontiff; and a free intercourse with the infidels of

every clime appears to have allayed betimes the fever of

superstition. Her primitive government was a loose mixture of

democracy and monarchy; the doge was elected by the votes of the

general assembly; as long as he was popular and successful, he

reigned with the pomp and authority of a prince; but in the

frequent revolutions of the state, he was deposed, or banished,

or slain, by the justice or injustice of the multitude. The

twelfth century produced the first rudiments of the wise and

jealous aristocracy, which has reduced the doge to a pageant, and

the people to a cipher. 39

35 (return) [ History, &c., vol. iii. p. 446, 447.]

36 (return) [ The foundation and independence of Venice, and

Pepin’s invasion, are discussed by Pagi (Critica, tom. iii. A.D.

81, No. 4, &c.) and Beretti, (Dissert. Chorograph. Italiæ Medii

Ævi, in Muratori, Script. tom. x. p. 153.) The two critics have a

slight bias, the Frenchman adverse, the Italian favorable, to the

republic.]

37 (return) [ When the son of Charlemagne asserted his right of

sovereignty, he was answered by the loyal Venetians, oti hmeiV

douloi Jelomen einai tou 'Rwmaiwn basilewV, (Constantin.

Porphyrogenit. de Administrat. Imperii, pars ii. c. 28, p. 85;)

and the report of the ixth establishes the fact of the xth

century, which is confirmed by the embassy of Liutprand of

Cremona. The annual tribute, which the emperor allows them to pay

to the king of Italy, alleviates, by doubling, their servitude;

but the hateful word douloi must be translated, as in the charter

of 827, (Laugier, Hist. de Venice, tom. i. p. 67, &c.,) by the

softer appellation of _subditi_, or _fideles_.]

38 (return) [ See the xxvth and xxxth dissertations of the

Antiquitates Medii Ævi of Muratori. From Anderson’s History of

Commerce, I understand that the Venetians did not trade to

England before the year 1323. The most flourishing state of their

wealth and commerce, in the beginning of the xvth century, is

agreeably described by the Abbé Dubos, (Hist. de la Ligue de

Cambray, tom. ii. p. 443—480.)]

39 (return) [ The Venetians have been slow in writing and

publishing their history. Their most ancient monuments are, 1.

The rude Chronicle (perhaps) of John Sagorninus, (Venezia, 1765,

in octavo,) which represents the state and manners of Venice in

the year 1008. 2. The larger history of the doge, (1342—1354,)

Andrew Dandolo, published for the first time in the xiith tom. of

Muratori, A.D. 1728. The History of Venice by the Abbé Laugier,

(Paris, 1728,) is a work of some merit, which I have chiefly used

for the constitutional part. * Note: It is scarcely necessary to

mention the valuable work of Count Daru, “History de Venise,” of

which I hear that an Italian translation has been published, with

notes defensive of the ancient republic. I have not yet seen this

work.—M.]

Chapter LX: The Fourth Crusade.—Part II.

When the six ambassadors of the French pilgrims arrived at

Venice, they were hospitably entertained in the palace of St.

Mark, by the reigning duke; his name was Henry Dandolo; 40 and he

shone in the last period of human life as one of the most

illustrious characters of the times. Under the weight of years,

and after the loss of his eyes, 41 Dandolo retained a sound

understanding and a manly courage: the spirit of a hero,

ambitious to signalize his reign by some memorable exploits; and

the wisdom of a patriot, anxious to build his fame on the glory

and advantage of his country. He praised the bold enthusiasm and

liberal confidence of the barons and their deputies: in such a

cause, and with such associates, he should aspire, were he a

private man, to terminate his life; but he was the servant of the

republic, and some delay was requisite to consult, on this

arduous business, the judgment of his colleagues. The proposal of

the French was first debated by the six _sages_ who had been

recently appointed to control the administration of the doge: it

was next disclosed to the forty members of the council of state;

and finally communicated to the legislative assembly of four

hundred and fifty representatives, who were annually chosen in

the six quarters of the city. In peace and war, the doge was

still the chief of the republic; his legal authority was

supported by the personal reputation of Dandolo: his arguments of

public interest were balanced and approved; and he was authorized

to inform the ambassadors of the following conditions of the

treaty. 42 It was proposed that the crusaders should assemble at

Venice, on the feast of St. John of the ensuing year; that

flat-bottomed vessels should be prepared for four thousand five

hundred horses, and nine thousand squires, with a number of ships

sufficient for the embarkation of four thousand five hundred

knights, and twenty thousand foot; that during a term of nine

months they should be supplied with provisions, and transported

to whatsoever coast the service of God and Christendom should

require; and that the republic should join the armament with a

squadron of fifty galleys. It was required, that the pilgrims

should pay, before their departure, a sum of eighty-five thousand

marks of silver; and that all conquests, by sea and land, should

be equally divided between the confederates. The terms were hard;

but the emergency was pressing, and the French barons were not

less profuse of money than of blood. A general assembly was

convened to ratify the treaty: the stately chapel and place of

St. Mark were filled with ten thousand citizens; and the noble

deputies were taught a new lesson of humbling themselves before

the majesty of the people. “Illustrious Venetians,” said the

marshal of Champagne, “we are sent by the greatest and most

powerful barons of France to implore the aid of the masters of

the sea for the deliverance of Jerusalem. They have enjoined us

to fall prostrate at your feet; nor will we rise from the ground

till you have promised to avenge with us the injuries of Christ.”

The eloquence of their words and tears, 43 their martial aspect,

and suppliant attitude, were applauded by a universal shout; as

it were, says Jeffrey, by the sound of an earthquake. The

venerable doge ascended the pulpit to urge their request by those

motives of honor and virtue, which alone can be offered to a

popular assembly: the treaty was transcribed on parchment,

attested with oaths and seals, mutually accepted by the weeping

and joyful representatives of France and Venice; and despatched

to Rome for the approbation of Pope Innocent the Third. Two

thousand marks were borrowed of the merchants for the first

expenses of the armament. Of the six deputies, two repassed the

Alps to announce their success, while their four companions made

a fruitless trial of the zeal and emulation of the republics of

Genoa and Pisa.

40 (return) [ Henry Dandolo was eighty-four at his election,

(A.D. 1192,) and ninety-seven at his death, (A.D. 1205.) See the

Observations of Ducange sur Villehardouin, No. 204. But this

_extraordinary_ longevity is not observed by the original

writers, nor does there exist another example of a hero near a

hundred years of age. Theophrastus might afford an instance of a

writer of ninety-nine; but instead of ennenhkonta, (Prom. ad

Character.,)I am much inclined to read ebdomhkonta, with his last

editor Fischer, and the first thoughts of Casaubon. It is

scarcely possible that the powers of the mind and body should

support themselves till such a period of life.]

41 (return) [ The modern Venetians (Laugier, tom. ii. p. 119)

accuse the emperor Manuel; but the calumny is refuted by

Villehardouin and the older writers, who suppose that Dandolo

lost his eyes by a wound, (No. 31, and Ducange.) * Note: The

accounts differ, both as to the extent and the cause of his

blindness According to Villehardouin and others, the sight was

totally lost; according to the Chronicle of Andrew Dandolo.

(Murat. tom. xii. p. 322,) he was vise debilis. See Wilken, vol.

v. p. 143.—M.]

42 (return) [ See the original treaty in the Chronicle of Andrew

Dandolo, p. 323—326.]

43 (return) [ A reader of Villehardouin must observe the frequent

tears of the marshal and his brother knights. Sachiez que la ot

mainte lerme plorée de pitié, (No. 17;) mult plorant, (ibid.;)

mainte lerme plorée, (No. 34;) si orent mult pitié et plorerent

mult durement, (No. 60;) i ot mainte lerme plorée de pitié, (No.

202.) They weep on every occasion of grief, joy, or devotion.]

The execution of the treaty was still opposed by unforeseen

difficulties and delays. The marshal, on his return to Troyes,

was embraced and approved by Thibaut count of Champagne, who had

been unanimously chosen general of the confederates. But the

health of that valiant youth already declined, and soon became

hopeless; and he deplored the untimely fate, which condemned him

to expire, not in a field of battle, but on a bed of sickness. To

his brave and numerous vassals, the dying prince distributed his

treasures: they swore in his presence to accomplish his vow and

their own; but some there were, says the marshal, who accepted

his gifts and forfeited their words. The more resolute champions

of the cross held a parliament at Soissons for the election of a

new general; but such was the incapacity, or jealousy, or

reluctance, of the princes of France, that none could be found

both able and willing to assume the conduct of the enterprise.

They acquiesced in the choice of a stranger, of Boniface marquis

of Montferrat, descended of a race of heroes, and himself of

conspicuous fame in the wars and negotiations of the times; 44

nor could the piety or ambition of the Italian chief decline this

honorable invitation. After visiting the French court, where he

was received as a friend and kinsman, the marquis, in the church

of Soissons, was invested with the cross of a pilgrim and the

staff of a general; and immediately repassed the Alps, to prepare

for the distant expedition of the East. About the festival of the

Pentecost he displayed his banner, and marched towards Venice at

the head of the Italians: he was preceded or followed by the

counts of Flanders and Blois, and the most respectable barons of

France; and their numbers were swelled by the pilgrims of

Germany, 45 whose object and motives were similar to their own.

The Venetians had fulfilled, and even surpassed, their

engagements: stables were constructed for the horses, and

barracks for the troops: the magazines were abundantly

replenished with forage and provisions; and the fleet of

transports, ships, and galleys, was ready to hoist sail as soon

as the republic had received the price of the freight and

armament. But that price far exceeded the wealth of the crusaders

who were assembled at Venice. The Flemings, whose obedience to

their count was voluntary and precarious, had embarked in their

vessels for the long navigation of the ocean and Mediterranean;

and many of the French and Italians had preferred a cheaper and

more convenient passage from Marseilles and Apulia to the Holy

Land. Each pilgrim might complain, that after he had furnished

his own contribution, he was made responsible for the deficiency

of his absent brethren: the gold and silver plate of the chiefs,

which they freely delivered to the treasury of St. Marks, was a

generous but inadequate sacrifice; and after all their efforts,

thirty-four thousand marks were still wanting to complete the

stipulated sum. The obstacle was removed by the policy and

patriotism of the doge, who proposed to the barons, that if they

would join their arms in reducing some revolted cities of

Dalmatia, he would expose his person in the holy war, and obtain

from the republic a long indulgence, till some wealthy conquest

should afford the means of satisfying the debt. After much

scruple and hesitation, they chose rather to accept the offer

than to relinquish the enterprise; and the first hostilities of

the fleet and army were directed against Zara, 46 a strong city

of the Sclavonian coast, which had renounced its allegiance to

Venice, and implored the protection of the king of Hungary. 47

The crusaders burst the chain or boom of the harbor; landed their

horses, troops, and military engines; and compelled the

inhabitants, after a defence of five days, to surrender at

discretion: their lives were spared, but the revolt was punished

by the pillage of their houses and the demolition of their walls.

The season was far advanced; the French and Venetians resolved to

pass the winter in a secure harbor and plentiful country; but

their repose was disturbed by national and tumultuous quarrels of

the soldiers and mariners. The conquest of Zara had scattered the

seeds of discord and scandal: the arms of the allies had been

stained in their outset with the blood, not of infidels, but of

Christians: the king of Hungary and his new subjects were

themselves enlisted under the banner of the cross; and the

scruples of the devout were magnified by the fear of lassitude of

the reluctant pilgrims. The pope had excommunicated the false

crusaders who had pillaged and massacred their brethren, 48 and

only the marquis Boniface and Simon of Montfort 481 escaped these

spiritual thunders; the one by his absence from the siege, the

other by his final departure from the camp. Innocent might

absolve the simple and submissive penitents of France; but he was

provoked by the stubborn reason of the Venetians, who refused to

confess their guilt, to accept their pardon, or to allow, in

their temporal concerns, the interposition of a priest.

44 (return) [ By a victory (A.D. 1191) over the citizens of Asti,

by a crusade to Palestine, and by an embassy from the pope to the

German princes, (Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom. x. p. 163,

202.)]

45 (return) [ See the crusade of the Germans in the Historia C.

P. of Gunther, (Canisii Antiq. Lect. tom. iv. p. v.—viii.,) who

celebrates the pilgrimage of his abbot Martin, one of the

preaching rivals of Fulk of Neuilly. His monastery, of the

Cistercian order, was situate in the diocese of Basil.]

46 (return) [ Jadera, now Zara, was a Roman colony, which

acknowledged Augustus for its parent. It is now only two miles

round, and contains five or six thousand inhabitants; but the

fortifications are strong, and it is joined to the main land by a

bridge. See the travels of the two companions, Spon and Wheeler,

(Voyage de Dalmatie, de Grèce, &c., tom. i. p. 64—70. Journey

into Greece, p. 8—14;) the last of whom, by mistaking _Sestertia_

for _Sestertii_, values an arch with statues and columns at

twelve pounds. If, in his time, there were no trees near Zara,

the cherry-trees were not yet planted which produce our

incomparable _marasquin_.]

47 (return) [ Katona (Hist. Critica Reg. Hungariæ, Stirpis Arpad.

tom. iv. p. 536—558) collects all the facts and testimonies most

adverse to the conquerors of Zara.]

48 (return) [ See the whole transaction, and the sentiments of

the pope, in the Epistles of Innocent III. Gesta, c. 86, 87, 88.]

481 (return) [ Montfort protested against the siege. Guido, the

abbot of Vaux de Sernay, in the name of the pope, interdicted the

attack on a Christian city; and the immediate surrender of the

town was thus delayed for five days of fruitless resistance.

Wilken, vol. v. p. 167. See likewise, at length, the history of

the interdict issued by the pope. Ibid.—M.]

The assembly of such formidable powers by sea and land had

revived the hopes of young 49 Alexius; and both at Venice and

Zara, he solicited the arms of the crusaders, for his own

restoration and his father’s 50 deliverance. The royal youth was

recommended by Philip king of Germany: his prayers and presence

excited the compassion of the camp; and his cause was embraced

and pleaded by the marquis of Montferrat and the doge of Venice.

A double alliance, and the dignity of Cæsar, had connected with

the Imperial family the two elder brothers of Boniface: 51 he

expected to derive a kingdom from the important service; and the

more generous ambition of Dandolo was eager to secure the

inestimable benefits of trade and dominion that might accrue to

his country. 52 Their influence procured a favorable audience for

the ambassadors of Alexius; and if the magnitude of his offers

excited some suspicion, the motives and rewards which he

displayed might justify the delay and diversion of those forces

which had been consecrated to the deliverance of Jerusalem. He

promised in his own and his father’s name, that as soon as they

should be seated on the throne of Constantinople, they would

terminate the long schism of the Greeks, and submit themselves

and their people to the lawful supremacy of the Roman church. He

engaged to recompense the labors and merits of the crusaders, by

the immediate payment of two hundred thousand marks of silver; to

accompany them in person to Egypt; or, if it should be judged

more advantageous, to maintain, during a year, ten thousand men,

and, during his life, five hundred knights, for the service of

the Holy Land. These tempting conditions were accepted by the

republic of Venice; and the eloquence of the doge and marquis

persuaded the counts of Flanders, Blois, and St. Pol, with eight

barons of France, to join in the glorious enterprise. A treaty of

offensive and defensive alliance was confirmed by their oaths and

seals; and each individual, according to his situation and

character, was swayed by the hope of public or private advantage;

by the honor of restoring an exiled monarch; or by the sincere

and probable opinion, that their efforts in Palestine would be

fruitless and unavailing, and that the acquisition of

Constantinople must precede and prepare the recovery of

Jerusalem. But they were the chiefs or equals of a valiant band

of freemen and volunteers, who thought and acted for themselves:

the soldiers and clergy were divided; and, if a large majority

subscribed to the alliance, the numbers and arguments of the

dissidents were strong and respectable. 53 The boldest hearts

were appalled by the report of the naval power and impregnable

strength of Constantinople; and their apprehensions were

disguised to the world, and perhaps to themselves, by the more

decent objections of religion and duty. They alleged the sanctity

of a vow, which had drawn them from their families and homes to

the rescue of the holy sepulchre; nor should the dark and crooked

counsels of human policy divert them from a pursuit, the event of

which was in the hands of the Almighty. Their first offence, the

attack of Zara, had been severely punished by the reproach of

their conscience and the censures of the pope; nor would they

again imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow-Christians.

The apostle of Rome had pronounced; nor would they usurp the

right of avenging with the sword the schism of the Greeks and the

doubtful usurpation of the Byzantine monarch. On these principles

or pretences, many pilgrims, the most distinguished for their

valor and piety, withdrew from the camp; and their retreat was

less pernicious than the open or secret opposition of a

discontented party, that labored, on every occasion, to separate

the army and disappoint the enterprise.

49 (return) [ A modern reader is surprised to hear of the valet

de Constantinople, as applied to young Alexius, on account of his

youth, like the _infants_ of Spain, and the _nobilissimus puer_

of the Romans. The pages and _valets_ of the knights were as

noble as themselves, (Villehardouin and Ducange, No. 36.)]

50 (return) [ The emperor Isaac is styled by Villehardouin,

_Sursac_, (No. 35, &c.,) which may be derived from the French

_Sire_, or the Greek Kur (kurioV?) melted into his proper name;

the further corruptions of Tursac and Conserac will instruct us

what license may have been used in the old dynasties of Assyria

and Egypt.]

51 (return) [ Reinier and Conrad: the former married Maria,

daughter of the emperor Manuel Comnenus; the latter was the

husband of Theodora Angela, sister of the emperors Isaac and

Alexius. Conrad abandoned the Greek court and princess for the

glory of defending Tyre against Saladin, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant.

p. 187, 203.)]

52 (return) [ Nicetas (in Alexio Comneno, l. iii. c. 9) accuses

the doge and Venetians as the first authors of the war against

Constantinople, and considers only as a kuma epi kumati, the

arrival and shameful offers of the royal exile. * Note: He

admits, however, that the Angeli had committed depredations on

the Venetian trade, and the emperor himself had refused the

payment of part of the stipulated compensation for the seizure of

the Venetian merchandise by the emperor Manuel. Nicetas, in

loc.—M.]

53 (return) [ Villehardouin and Gunther represent the sentiments

of the two parties. The abbot Martin left the army at Zara,

proceeded to Palestine, was sent ambassador to Constantinople,

and became a reluctant witness of the second siege.]

Notwithstanding this defection, the departure of the fleet and

army was vigorously pressed by the Venetians, whose zeal for the

service of the royal youth concealed a just resentment to his

nation and family. They were mortified by the recent preference

which had been given to Pisa, the rival of their trade; they had

a long arrear of debt and injury to liquidate with the Byzantine

court; and Dandolo might not discourage the popular tale, that he

had been deprived of his eyes by the emperor Manuel, who

perfidiously violated the sanctity of an ambassador. A similar

armament, for ages, had not rode the Adriatic: it was composed of

one hundred and twenty flat-bottomed vessels or _palanders_ for

the horses; two hundred and forty transports filled with men and

arms; seventy store-ships laden with provisions; and fifty stout

galleys, well prepared for the encounter of an enemy. 54 While

the wind was favorable, the sky serene, and the water smooth,

every eye was fixed with wonder and delight on the scene of

military and naval pomp which overspread the sea. 541 The shields

of the knights and squires, at once an ornament and a defence,

were arranged on either side of the ships; the banners of the

nations and families were displayed from the stern; our modern

artillery was supplied by three hundred engines for casting

stones and darts: the fatigues of the way were cheered with the

sound of music; and the spirits of the adventurers were raised by

the mutual assurance, that forty thousand Christian heroes were

equal to the conquest of the world. 55 In the navigation 56 from

Venice and Zara, the fleet was successfully steered by the skill

and experience of the Venetian pilots: at Durazzo, the

confederates first landed on the territories of the Greek empire:

the Isle of Corfu afforded a station and repose; they doubled,

without accident, the perilous cape of Malea, the southern point

of Peloponnesus or the Morea; made a descent in the islands of

Negropont and Andros; and cast anchor at Abydus on the Asiatic

side of the Hellespont. These preludes of conquest were easy and

bloodless: the Greeks of the provinces, without patriotism or

courage, were crushed by an irresistible force: the presence of

the lawful heir might justify their obedience; and it was

rewarded by the modesty and discipline of the Latins. As they

penetrated through the Hellespont, the magnitude of their navy

was compressed in a narrow channel, and the face of the waters

was darkened with innumerable sails. They again expanded in the

basin of the Propontis, and traversed that placid sea, till they

approached the European shore, at the abbey of St. Stephen, three

leagues to the west of Constantinople. The prudent doge dissuaded

them from dispersing themselves in a populous and hostile land;

and, as their stock of provisions was reduced, it was resolved,

in the season of harvest, to replenish their store-ships in the

fertile islands of the Propontis. With this resolution, they

directed their course: but a strong gale, and their own

impatience, drove them to the eastward; and so near did they run

to the shore and the city, that some volleys of stones and darts

were exchanged between the ships and the rampart. As they passed

along, they gazed with admiration on the capital of the East, or,

as it should seem, of the earth; rising from her seven hills, and

towering over the continents of Europe and Asia. The swelling

domes and lofty spires of five hundred palaces and churches were

gilded by the sun and reflected in the waters: the walls were

crowded with soldiers and spectators, whose numbers they beheld,

of whose temper they were ignorant; and each heart was chilled by

the reflection, that, since the beginning of the world, such an

enterprise had never been undertaken by such a handful of

warriors. But the momentary apprehension was dispelled by hope

and valor; and every man, says the marshal of Champagne, glanced

his eye on the sword or lance which he must speedily use in the

glorious conflict. 57 The Latins cast anchor before Chalcedon;

the mariners only were left in the vessels: the soldiers, horses,

and arms, were safely landed; and, in the luxury of an Imperial

palace, the barons tasted the first fruits of their success. On

the third day, the fleet and army moved towards Scutari, the

Asiatic suburb of Constantinople: a detachment of five hundred

Greek horse was surprised and defeated by fourscore French

knights; and in a halt of nine days, the camp was plentifully

supplied with forage and provisions.

54 (return) [ The birth and dignity of Andrew Dandolo gave him

the motive and the means of searching in the archives of Venice

the memorable story of his ancestor. His brevity seems to accuse

the copious and more recent narratives of Sanudo, (in Muratori,

Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xxii.,) Blondus, Sabellicus, and

Rhamnusius.]

541 (return) [ This description rather belongs to the first

setting sail of the expedition from Venice, before the siege of

Zara. The armament did not return to Venice.—M.]

55 (return) [ Villehardouin, No. 62. His feelings and expressions

are original: he often weeps, but he rejoices in the glories and

perils of war with a spirit unknown to a sedentary writer.]

56 (return) [ In this voyage, almost all the geographical names

are corrupted by the Latins. The modern appellation of Chalcis,

and all Euba, is derived from its _Euripus_, _Evripo_,

_Negri-po_, _Negropont_, which dishonors our maps, (D’Anville,

Géographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 263.)]

57 (return) [ Et sachiez que il ni ot si hardi cui le cuer ne

fremist, (c. 66.).. Chascuns regardoit ses armes.... que par tems

en arons mestier, (c. 67.) Such is the honesty of courage.]

In relating the invasion of a great empire, it may seem strange

that I have not described the obstacles which should have checked

the progress of the strangers. The Greeks, in truth, were an

unwarlike people; but they were rich, industrious, and subject to

the will of a single man: had that man been capable of fear, when

his enemies were at a distance, or of courage, when they

approached his person. The first rumor of his nephew’s alliance

with the French and Venetians was despised by the usurper

Alexius: his flatterers persuaded him, that in this contempt he

was bold and sincere; and each evening, in the close of the

banquet, he thrice discomfited the Barbarians of the West. These

Barbarians had been justly terrified by the report of his naval

power; and the sixteen hundred fishing boats of Constantinople 58

could have manned a fleet, to sink them in the Adriatic, or stop

their entrance in the mouth of the Hellespont. But all force may

be annihilated by the negligence of the prince and the venality

of his ministers. The great duke, or admiral, made a scandalous,

almost a public, auction of the sails, the masts, and the

rigging: the royal forests were reserved for the more important

purpose of the chase; and the trees, says Nicetas, were guarded

by the eunuchs, like the groves of religious worship. 59 From his

dream of pride, Alexius was awakened by the siege of Zara, and

the rapid advances of the Latins; as soon as he saw the danger

was real, he thought it inevitable, and his vain presumption was

lost in abject despondency and despair. He suffered these

contemptible Barbarians to pitch their camp in the sight of the

palace; and his apprehensions were thinly disguised by the pomp

and menace of a suppliant embassy. The sovereign of the Romans

was astonished (his ambassadors were instructed to say) at the

hostile appearance of the strangers. If these pilgrims were

sincere in their vow for the deliverance of Jerusalem, his voice

must applaud, and his treasures should assist, their pious design

but should they dare to invade the sanctuary of empire, their

numbers, were they ten times more considerable, should not

protect them from his just resentment. The answer of the doge and

barons was simple and magnanimous. “In the cause of honor and

justice,” they said, “we despise the usurper of Greece, his

threats, and his offers. _Our_ friendship and _his_ allegiance

are due to the lawful heir, to the young prince, who is seated

among us, and to his father, the emperor Isaac, who has been

deprived of his sceptre, his freedom, and his eyes, by the crime

of an ungrateful brother. Let that brother confess his guilt, and

implore forgiveness, and we ourselves will intercede, that he may

be permitted to live in affluence and security. But let him not

insult us by a second message; our reply will be made in arms, in

the palace of Constantinople.”

58 (return) [ Eandem urbem plus in solis navibus piscatorum

abundare, quam illos in toto navigio. Habebat enim mille et

sexcentas piscatorias naves..... Bellicas autem sive mercatorias

habebant infinitæ multitudinis et portum tutissimum. Gunther,

Hist. C. P. c. 8, p. 10.]

59 (return) [ Kaqaper iervn alsewn, eipein de kai Jeojuteutwn

paradeiswn ejeid?onto toutwni. Nicetas in Alex. Comneno, l. iii.

c. 9, p. 348.]

On the tenth day of their encampment at Scutari, the crusaders

prepared themselves, as soldiers and as Catholics, for the

passage of the Bosphorus. Perilous indeed was the adventure; the

stream was broad and rapid: in a calm the current of the Euxine

might drive down the liquid and unextinguishable fires of the

Greeks; and the opposite shores of Europe were defended by

seventy thousand horse and foot in formidable array. On this

memorable day, which happened to be bright and pleasant, the

Latins were distributed in six battles or divisions; the first,

or vanguard, was led by the count of Flanders, one of the most

powerful of the Christian princes in the skill and number of his

crossbows. The four successive battles of the French were

commanded by his brother Henry, the counts of St. Pol and Blois,

and Matthew of Montmorency; the last of whom was honored by the

voluntary service of the marshal and nobles of Champagne. The

sixth division, the rear-guard and reserve of the army, was

conducted by the marquis of Montferrat, at the head of the

Germans and Lombards. The chargers, saddled, with their long

caparisons dragging on the ground, were embarked in the flat

_palanders_; 60 and the knights stood by the side of their

horses, in complete armor, their helmets laced, and their lances

in their hands. The numerous train of sergeants 61 and archers

occupied the transports; and each transport was towed by the

strength and swiftness of a galley. The six divisions traversed

the Bosphorus, without encountering an enemy or an obstacle: to

land the foremost was the wish, to conquer or die was the

resolution, of every division and of every soldier. Jealous of

the preeminence of danger, the knights in their heavy armor

leaped into the sea, when it rose as high as their girdle; the

sergeants and archers were animated by their valor; and the

squires, letting down the draw-bridges of the palanders, led the

horses to the shore. Before their squadrons could mount, and

form, and couch their Lances, the seventy thousand Greeks had

vanished from their sight: the timid Alexius gave the example to

his troops; and it was only by the plunder of his rich pavilions

that the Latins were informed that they had fought against an

emperor. In the first consternation of the flying enemy, they

resolved, by a double attack, to open the entrance of the harbor.

The tower of Galata, 62 in the suburb of Pera, was attacked and

stormed by the French, while the Venetians assumed the more

difficult task of forcing the boom or chain that was stretched

from that tower to the Byzantine shore. After some fruitless

attempts, their intrepid perseverance prevailed: twenty ships of

war, the relics of the Grecian navy, were either sunk or taken:

the enormous and massy links of iron were cut asunder by the

shears, or broken by the weight, of the galleys; 63 and the

Venetian fleet, safe and triumphant, rode at anchor in the port

of Constantinople. By these daring achievements, a remnant of

twenty thousand Latins solicited the license of besieging a

capital which contained above four hundred thousand inhabitants,

64 able, though not willing, to bear arms in defence of their

country. Such an account would indeed suppose a population of

near two millions; but whatever abatement may be required in the

numbers of the Greeks, the _belief_ of those numbers will equally

exalt the fearless spirit of their assailants.

60 (return) [ From the version of Vignere I adopt the

well-sounding word _palander_, which is still used, I believe, in

the Mediterranean. But had I written in French, I should have

preserved the original and expressive denomination of _vessiers_

or _huissiers_, from the _huis_ or door which was let down as a

draw-bridge; but which, at sea, was closed into the side of the

ship, (see Ducange au Villehardouin, No. 14, and Joinville. p.

27, 28, edit. du Louvre.)]

61 (return) [ To avoid the vague expressions of followers, &c., I

use, after Villehardouin, the word _sergeants_ for all horsemen

who were not knights. There were sergeants at arms, and sergeants

at law; and if we visit the parade and Westminster Hall, we may

observe the strange result of the distinction, (Ducange, Glossar.

Latin, _Servientes_, &c., tom. vi. p. 226—231.)]

62 (return) [ It is needless to observe, that on the subject of

Galata, the chain, &c., Ducange is accurate and full. Consult

likewise the proper chapters of the C. P. Christiana of the same

author. The inhabitants of Galata were so vain and ignorant, that

they applied to themselves St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians.]

63 (return) [ The vessel that broke the chain was named the

Eagle, _Aquila_, (Dandolo, Chronicon, p. 322,) which Blondus (de

Gestis Venet.) has changed into _Aquilo_, the north wind. Ducange

(Observations, No. 83) maintains the latter reading; but he had

not seen the respectable text of Dandolo, nor did he enough

consider the topography of the harbor. The south-east would have

been a more effectual wind. (Note to Wilken, vol. v. p. 215.)]

64 (return) [ Quatre cens mil homes ou plus, (Villehardouin, No.

134,) must be understood of _men_ of a military age. Le Beau

(Hist. du. Bas Empire, tom. xx. p. 417) allows Constantinople a

million of inhabitants, of whom 60,000 horse, and an infinite

number of foot-soldiers. In its present decay, the capital of the

Ottoman empire may contain 400,000 souls, (Bell’s Travels, vol.

ii. p. 401, 402;) but as the Turks keep no registers, and as

circumstances are fallacious, it is impossible to ascertain

(Niebuhr, Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 18, 19) the real

populousness of their cities.]