Chapter V: The Fourth to the Sixth Crusades (2)

Pious exercises, however, re-established order. The ecclesiastical chief of the Latin Christians led the army in religious procession across the river of Kishon, to the valley of Jezreel. They bathed in the Jordan, made their pilgrimage to the Lake of Gennesaret, observed with devout awe the scenes of various miracles performed by Christ, and returned to Acre. But they soon repaired their wasted strength, and trod with holy reverence the road to the scene of the transfiguration. The ascent to Mount Tabor, however, was difficult; and the summit was defended by a strongly garrisoned tower. Attached as much to pilgrimages as to war, the crusaders went in holy order to Tyre and Sidon; but the inclemency of the season drove them into disorder, and the Saracens made dreadful havoc on their divided parties. The Christians separated for the remainder of the winter. The kings of Cyprus and Hungary repaired to Tripolis; and if the people were grieved at the death of the former of these princes, their feelings were quickly changed into indignation against the latter. Neither the entreaties nor the threats of the clergy could persuade the unstable Andrew to remain in Palestine. Taking with him most of his soldiers and stores, he traversed Armenia and the Greek Empire, and at last returned to his kingdom, which had been so deeply exhausted by this expensive expedition, that it did not for years recover its pristine strength.

The king of Jerusalem, the duke of Austria, and the master of the Hospitallers, took up a strong position on the plains of Cæsarea. The Templars, the Teutonic knights, and Walter d’Avesnes, occupied Mount Carmel, and their station was defended by a tower which the Templars had formerly erected, for the defence and protection of the Jerusalem pilgrims. In the spring of the following year they were joined by new and zealous crusaders from the north of Germany. Cologne had been the rendezvous, and nearly three hundred vessels sailed from the Rhine. Many of the ships were wrecked by the violence of the autumnal winds, and the remainder anchored off the Portuguese shore. By the aid of the Germans, the queen of Portugal took Alcacer from the Moors. Conscience and valour would be equally satisfied by the slaughter of Saracens, in whatever country they might be. As soon as the Cologne reinforcements arrived, the chiefs assembled in council, and it was agreed that siege should be laid to Damietta, which was looked upon as the key of Egypt. A voyage of a few days brought the Christian army within sight of Damietta. The catapults and ballistæ shook the walls of the citadel to their foundations, and the garrison was happy in surrendering to the discretion of the besiegers.

Before the joy of the Christians had subsided, news arrived of the death of Saphedin. The power of his house had lately been strengthened by the death of the sultan of Mosul, the last great supporter of the name of the atabegs. But Saphedin did not live to complete the addition of all Mosul to his empire of Damascus and Egypt. The brother of Saladin has been variously represented, according to the different feelings with which he was regarded. But the crusaders had such a limited knowledge of oriental affairs, that their invectives cannot be opposed to the reputation which he acquired for virtue and ability. His second son, Coradin, the prince of Syria and Palestine, did not proclaim the death of his father till he had secured himself in the possession of the royal coffers. Discord and rebellion were universal throughout Egypt, when the news arrived of the death of Saphedin; and his son Kamil, lord of that country, was compelled to fly into Arabia for protection from his mutinous people.

After the surrender of the castle of Damietta, the acquisition of the city appeared so easy an achievement, that the besieging army sunk into inertness and dissoluteness. The sultan of Syria had anticipated the fall of Damietta, the sultan of Egypt despaired of its defence, and no wisdom could calculate the magnitude of the effects which its capture might produce. Prudence suggested the policy of negotiation, and the Latins were therefore offered the piece of the true cross, the city of Jerusalem, and all the prisoners in Syria and Egypt. The Mussulmans were to rebuild the walls of the sacred city. Of the whole kingdom of Palestine they only proposed to retain the castles of Karak and Montreal, as necessary for the safe passage of the Meccan pilgrims and merchants. The evacuation of Egypt was the equivalent expected from the Christians for these important concessions.

[Sidenote: [1219-1220 A.D.]]

All the legitimate consequences of the Crusades were at the command of the soldiers of the cross. The king, the French, the earl of Chester, and the Teutonic knights hailed with joy the prospect of the termination of the war. But the legate, the bishops, the Italians, the Templars, and Hospitallers were deaf to counsels of moderation. They contended that no faith could be reposed upon the promises of infidels, unless peace was made at the point of a victorious sword. The siege had already lasted seventeen months, and it would be disgraceful to fly from the fair prospect of success. Unhappily for the general interests of the Christian cause, the mild suggestions of policy were disregarded amidst the clamours of thoughtless valour. Hostilities were recommenced. The besiegers interrupted all communication between the Egyptian army and the garrison of Damietta. Resistance was fruitless, but the Mussulmans were too brave and too proud to surrender. The legate and the king assaulted the walls, and soon entered the city, with the same ruthless feelings as had maddened the early crusaders, when they first leaped on the battlements of Jerusalem.

But revenge sought its victims in vain. Damietta was one vast charnel-house. Of a population, which at the beginning of the siege consisted of more than seventy thousand souls, three thousand only were the relics. The conquerors marched through a pestilential vapour. The streets, the mosques, and the houses were strewn with dead bodies. From scenes of death the Christians turned to plunder. Damietta was as rich a city as any in Islam, and the terrible anathemas of the legate could not prevent self-appropriation of spoil. Dominion over the place was given to the king of Jerusalem. The splendid mosque was converted into a Christian church, and dedicated to the Virgin and all the apostles. But the soldiers were soon compelled to return to the camp, for pestilence was in the city. Life and liberty were granted to the surviving Mussulmans, on their performing the horrid and melancholy task of cleansing the city from the remains of their relations and friends.

So great was the terror which the loss of Damietta spread among the Mussulmans, that the fortress of Tanis surrendered. By this acquisition, the way into Palestine was open. But instead of urging their advantages, the army passed the winter in luxury and in discord, and in the spring more than half of the soldiers returned to Europe. The power of the legate was supreme, and the king of Jerusalem retired in disgust to Acre. The duke of Bavaria, and many knights from Germany and Italy, arrived, as soon as the weather would permit the passage; but they disdained to submit to the command of a bishop, and Pelagius was compelled to solicit with humility the return of the king. Jean de Brienne repaired to Damietta, and a council was held on the subject of hostile operations. The conquest of Egypt was resolved upon, and the army marched by the eastern side of the Fatimite branch of the Nile, till their progress was arrested by the canal of Ashmun. On the southern side of that canal the Mussulman forces were posted. Every sultan of Syria had sent assistance to their brother in the faith, and the allied troops under Kamil could cope with the Latins in the field.

The sultan, however, would not trust his kingdom to the caprice of fortune. He offered peace to the Christians on nearly the same terms as those which had been proposed previously to the last assault on Damietta. The legate refused with indignation these noble offers; but instead of crossing the canal and giving the enemy battle, he remained for more than a month inactive on his post expecting the unconditional surrender of the sultan. During this time the Nile had rapidly increased in height. The Mussulmans opened the sluices and inundated their enemy’s camp. The Christians could neither advance nor retreat; and, to use the humble simile of a Templar, they were enclosed like a fish in a net. When the overflowings of the Nile had swept away all the tents and baggage, Pelagius sent an embassy to the Mussulman camp, imploring a safe return to Acre, and offering to surrender Damietta and Tanis to the Mussulmans. The distress of the Christian army was mitigated by the humanity of Kamil. The king of Jerusalem was one of the hostages, and in an interview with the sultan, he wept for the miserable state of his army. “Why do you weep?” inquired the sultan. “I have reason to weep,” replied the king, “for the people whom God has given into my charge, are perishing in the midst of the waters, or dying of hunger.” The sultan shed tears of pity, and opened the Egyptian granaries for their relief. When, after eight months’ possession by the Latins, Damietta was delivered into the power of the Mussulmans, the hostages were exchanged, and the Christian army retreated to the seacoast, through the road by which they had advanced in full confidence of victory. The barons of Syria, and the military orders, retired to Acre; and the volunteers returned to Europe.

[Sidenote: [1220-1227 A.D.]]

The pope cast all the odium on the emperor Frederick, a man who had thrice sworn to redeem the Holy Land, and had compromised with his conscience by merely sending soldiers and provisions. Frederick despised the thunders of the Vatican; but although he was not awed by force, he could not resist papal artifice. Honorius soothed his irritated mind, and received him again as a faithful son of the church. Hermann von Salza, master of the Teutonic order, returned to Europe, and gave the emperor the hope of being the redeemer of Palestine. Yolande, the daughter of the king of Jerusalem, could easily be obtained in marriage, and her father would cede his rights, which he was wearied of endeavouring to convert into an actual and firm dominion. The emperor and the pope approved of this project. Frederick accepted from the king of Jerusalem a renunciation of all his claims to the Holy Land, as the dowry of Yolande; and he pledged his honour to the pope, the cardinals, and the masters of the Hospitallers and Teutonic knights, that he would within two years travel with a powerful army into the East, and re-establish the throne of Godfrey de Bouillon. For the succeeding five years, rebellions in Italy, and the insurrections of the Saracens in Sicily, detained the emperor from his purpose. Honorius did not live to witness the event of his exertions, but his successor, Gregory IX, was equally furious in the cause.

At the time appointed for the sailing of the expedition, Brundusium and its vicinity were crowded with soldiers. But the heats of summer destroyed the health of the people of the north; thousands died, and of those who endeavoured to return to their homes, the greatest part perished through poverty or disease. Although the emperor did not escape the common illness, yet he embarked at Brundusium. But after sailing for three days, additional infirmity compelled him to return. Gregory inherited the papal virtues of violence and ambition; he pronounced a sentence of excommunication against the emperor, for declining to combat the enemy of God.[71]

[Sidenote: [1227-1229 A.D.]]

The thunders of the Vatican rolled again and again over the head of the emperor, but the author of them suffered more than the object. The emperor sent troops into the papal territories, who ravaged the march of Ancona, and the patrimony of St. Peter. Such of the Hospitallers and Templars (the firm friends of the pope) as had estates in the imperial dominions in Italy, were plundered and dispossessed.[72] The emperor heavily taxed his subjects, both churchmen and laity, for the expenses of the holy war. In defiance of Gregory’s warnings against his entering on the crusade, till he should be relieved from the censures of the church, Frederick embarked at Brundusium in August, 1228, and arrived shortly afterwards at Acre. The joy of the Christians at the arrival of the emperor was soon checked by letters which the patriarch received from the pope, prohibiting the faithful from obeying a rebellious son of the church. The Teutonic knights feared no clerical censures; and at their head, and of some other soldiers, the emperor quitted Acre, went to Joppa, and repaired the fortifications of that important city. He then made further advances towards Jerusalem.

While matters were in this state, news was brought to the emperor of an effectual method which the pope had taken of preventing him from continuing the war in Palestine with the enemies of Christ. The pope’s troops, of whom Jean de Brienne (the father-in-law of Frederick) was one of the chief commanders, burned the imperial towns in Italy, imprisoned, tortured, and robbed the people. The duke of Spalato, the emperor’s lieutenant, had been unable successfully to resist, though the imperial army had been but little impaired by Frederick’s foreign expedition. These circumstances made the emperor anxious to return to Europe; a treaty was immediately signed. For ten years the Christians and Mussulmans were to live upon terms of brotherhood. Jerusalem, Joppa, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and their appendages, were restored to the Christians. The Holy Sepulchre likewise was given to them; and the people of both religions might offer up their prayers in the place of devotion, which the former class called the temple of Solomon, and the latter named the mosque of Omar. The address of Frederick more effectually promoted the object of the holy wars than the heroic frenzy of Richard; many of the disasters consequent on the battle of Tiberias were wiped away, and the serious and habitual hopes of Europe, for a permanent settlement in Asia, seemed to be realised. But the barons of the Holy Land, breathing interminable war, and secretly envying superior genius, avowed indignation that a Christian sovereign should accept the friendship of the infidels. The patriarch and clergy hated an excommunicated prince; a man too who had given licence to the Saracens to adore their God in a Christian temple. With some appearance of reason, however, they contended that the treaty was not binding on the Mussulmans while the approbation of the sultan of Damascus was withheld. But, despising the blood-thirstiness of the barons, and the cruel bigotry of the priests, Frederick asserted his royal prerogatives; and, as he had acquired some of the old possessions of the Bouillon family, he avowed his intention of having the crown placed upon his head in the Holy City agreeably to constitutional forms.

Some persons, discontented with the conditions of the treaty, wished to betray him into the hands of the sultan of Egypt. The guilt of this treachery lies between the Hospitallers and the Templars. Kamil read the letter which conveyed to him the news, exclaimed to his associates, “See the fidelity of these Christian dogs”; and despatched a friend to Frederick with the paper which he had received. The emperor repaired to Jerusalem; but no hosannas welcomed his approach. By the command of the patriarch no religious ceremonies were performed in the churches during his stay. Even the German prelates preferred their spiritual to their temporal allegiance; and the emperor, accompanied only by his courtiers and the Teutonic knights, went to the church of the sepulchre. He boldly took the crown from the altar, and placed it on his own head, and Hermann von Salza pronounced a laudatory oration. Orders were then given for the restoration of the city’s walls, and the emperor returned to Acre. In that city too there was every demonstration of sorrow at his appearance. Mass was performed in secret; the churches were deprived of their ornaments; the bells were not rung, and the dead were interred without any religious ceremony. But by some well-measured acts of severity, a semblance of respect was at length shown to the emperor; and he then returned to Europe, leaving the priests and people to thank Heaven for his departure.

Few parts of the Crusades are more difficult to understand, and to reduce into a clear and intelligible form, than the expedition of Frederick. He was vilified by the Templars and Hospitallers, and other friends of the pope; and their narratives of events are more numerous than those of the imperial party. He gained more for the Christians than any prince had acquired since the first establishment of the kingdom; and if the pope had not hated him worse than his holiness hated the Saracens, and thereby caused his return to Europe, there is every probability that after the death of the sultan of Damascus, the emperor would have brought matters to an issue completely triumphant. Gregory IX and his clergy had the effrontery to tell the world that Frederick had left the sepulchre of Christ in the hands of the infidels. But the fact was that it was given to the Christians. The temple of Solomon indeed, or rather the mosque of Omar, was left in the hands of the Mussulmans; a right of visiting it, however, being allowed to the Christians.[c]

FOOTNOTES

[68] [It will be well to refer back to the earlier account of the sack of Constantinople in Vol. 7, Chap. 11, p. 352. It is noteworthy how much more atrocious was the barbarity of the crusaders to these their own people, than was that of the Moslems themselves when they took the same city in 1453.]

[69] According to Fuller’s[f] _Holy War_, “Pope Innocent III, having lately learned the trick of employing the army of pilgrims in bye-services, began now to set up a trade thereof. He levied a great number of crusaders, whom he sent against the Albigenses in France. These were reputed heretics, whom his holiness intended to root out with all cruelty, that good shepherd knowing no other way to bring home a wandering sheep than by worrying him to death. He freely and fully promised the undertakers the self-same pardons and indulgences as he did to those who went to conquer the Holy Land; and very conscionably requested their aid only for forty days, hoping to chop up these Albigenses at a bit. The place being nearer, the service shorter, the work less, the wages the same with the voyage into Syria, many entered themselves in this employment, and neglected the other.”

[70] The pope and emperor were struggling for supremacy, and the cunning pontiff thought he could get rid of his rival by commanding him to take the cross; and such was the state of the times that Frederick would not have been considered a Christian if he had refused. Voltaire is right in saying, “_L’empereur fit le vœu par politique; et par politique il différa le voyage_.” _Essai sur les Mœurs des Nations_, Chap. 52.

[71] A curé at Paris, instead of reading the bull from the pulpit in the usual form, said to his parishioners, “You know, my brethren, that I am ordered to fulminate an excommunication against Frederick. I know not the motive. All that I know, is, that there has been a quarrel between that prince and the pope. God alone knows who is right. I excommunicate him who has injured the other; and I absolve the sufferer.” The emperor sent a present to the preacher, but the pope and the king blamed this sally; _le mauvais plaisant_ was obliged to expiate his fault by a canonical penance.

[72] The soldiers employed on these occasions were Saracens, subjects of the emperor in Sicily. Like their master, they derided the papal bulls.