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The Historians' History of the World 08 [Parthians, Sassanids and Arabs; The Crusades and the Papacy]
- Автор: Gutenberg
- Год: 1905
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: История
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DISSENSION BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH KINGS
The joy with which the French regarded the English was soon changed for the bitter feelings of military envy and national hatred. The religious objects of the war appeared to be forgotten. The Genoese and Templars sided with Philip; and the Pisans and Hospitallers with Richard. The king of France prepared his soldiers and their battering engines for a vigorous and general assault on the walls of Acre; and murmured revenge when his martial competitor declined co-operation on the ground of illness. The choicest part of the French troops marched to the walls, eager to shame the English.
But high as was the valour of the assailants, their numbers were not adequate; and they were repulsed in every point. When Saladin, however, attempted to carry destruction into the army and camp of his baffled foes, he was driven back with loss. The French reappeared as assailants; but once again displayed their imprudent spirit. In sickness and in convalescence Richard was carried to his military engines on a mattress, and was so active in making and using his petrariæ, that he soon destroyed half of one of the Turkish towers. He preserved his machines from the Greek fire of the city; and he rewarded his balistarii for every stone which they removed from the walls. The ditch was filled up; the tower was completely levelled; and the English heroes, particularly the earl of Leicester and the bishop of Salisbury, prepared to enter the breach. The conflict was close and sanguinary. The Pisans came to the assistance of the English, but the fury of the Turks was irresistible and the walls were cleared of the enemy.
A Knight of the Third Crusade
The failure of the ambitious attempts of each of the monarchs at the capture of Acre without the aid of his rival, evinced the necessity of their co-operation.[62] A reconciliation in consequence was effected between Richard and Philip: and they determined that one should attack the walls, while the other guarded the camp from the approaches of Saladin. But Acre had suffered so dreadfully from a two years’ siege, that the inhabitants were reduced to the melancholy necessity of resolving to desist from defence. Saladin endeavoured to infuse his own invincible spirit into the minds of his people, and revived for a moment their languid courage, by directing their hopes to succour from Egypt. The expected aid from Cairo did not arrive; and the citizens wrung from Saladin his permission for them to capitulate. Their safety was accordingly purchased by their agreeing to deliver unto the two kings the city itself, and five hundred Christian prisoners who were in it. The true cross was to be resigned, and one thousand other captives, and two hundred knights selected by the allies from those who were in the hands of Saladin; and unless the Mussulmans paid to Richard and Philip the sum of two hundred thousand pieces of gold within forty days, the inhabitants of Acre should be at the mercy of the conquerors.
These conditions were assented to, and, before the city changed its lords, a proclamation was made in the French and English camps that no one should injure or insult such of the Turks as quitted the place. The Christians entered Acre; the banners of the two kings floated on the ramparts; but precedence seems to have been given to Richard, for he and his wife and sister inhabited the royal palace, while Philip occupied the house of the Templars. They could not refuse the justice of their soldiers’ claim, founded on the principle that those who had shared the labours should divide the reward; but payment was so long deferred, that many persons were forced by poverty to sell their military equipments, and return to Europe. The kings were divided in opinion respecting the title to the sovereignty over Palestine. The English monarch was persuaded to espouse the cause of the weak and miserable Lusignan. The disputes were sometimes heard of during the siege; but after the capture they raged with violence. Negotiations however were entered into, and the agreement reached that Lusignan should be styled king of Jerusalem, and lord of Joppa and Askalon; yet that if Conrad should be the survivor, he and his heirs were to have perpetual sovereignty. The English monarch afterwards generously surrendered the isle of Cyprus to Lusignan.
A few weeks after the capitulation of Acre, and before the time had elapsed for the performance of all the conditions of the treaty, Philip Augustus expressed his wish of returning to Europe. The duke of Burgundy, and the largest portion of the French army, it was stipulated, were to remain in Syria under the command of Richard. Philip Augustus went to Tyre, gave to the marquis of that city his moiety, both of Acre and of the Turkish prisoners, and then set sail for Europe.b
REVIEW OF THE SIEGE
[1189-1191 A.D.]
Such was the confusion of this famous siege, which lasted nearly three years, and in which the crusaders shed more blood and exhibited more bravery than ought to have sufficed for the subjugation of the whole of Asia. More than a hundred skirmishes and nine great battles were fought before the walls of the city; several flourishing armies came to recruit armies nearly annihilated, and were in their turn replaced by fresh armies. The bravest nobility of Europe perished in this siege, swept away by the sword or disease. Among the illustrious victims of this war, history points out Philip, count of Flanders, Guy de Chatillon, Bernard de St. Vallery, Vautrier de Mory, Raoul de Fougères, Eudes de Gonesse, Renaud de Maguy, Geoffroi d’Aumale, viscount de Châtellerault, Josselin de Montmorency, and Raoul de Marle; the archbishops of Besançon and Canterbury; with many other ecclesiastics and knights whose piety and exploits were the admiration of Europe.
In this war both parties were animated by religion; each side boasted of its miracles, its saints, and its prophets. Bishops and imams equally promised the soldiers remission of their sins and the crown of martyrdom. Whilst the king of Jerusalem caused the Book of the Evangelists to be borne before him, Saladin would often pause on the field of battle to offer up a prayer or read a chapter from the Koran. The Franks and the Saracens mutually accused each other of ignorance of the true God and of outraging him by their ceremonies. The Christians rushed upon their enemies crying, “It is the will of God! It is the will of God!” and the Saracens answered by their war-cry, “Islam! Islam!”
Fanaticism frequently augmented the fury of slaughter. The Mussulmans from the heights of their towers insulted the religious ceremonies of the Christians. They raised crosses on their ramparts, beat them with rods, covered them with dust, mud, and filth, and broke them into a thousand pieces before the eyes of the besiegers. At this spectacle the Christians swore to avenge their outraged worship, and menaced the Saracens with the destruction of every Mohammedan pulpit. In the heat of this religious animosity, the Mussulmans often massacred disarmed captives; and in more than one battle they burned their Christian prisoners in the very field of conflict. The crusaders but too closely imitated the barbarity of their enemies; funeral piles lighted up by fanatical rage were often extinguished in rivers of blood.
The Mussulman and Christian warriors provoked each other during single combats, and were as lavish of abuse as the heroes of Homer. Heroines often appeared in the mêlée, and disputed the prize of strength and courage with the bravest of the Saracens. Children came from the city to fight with the children of the Christians in the presence of the two armies. But sometimes the furies of war gave place to the amenities of peace, and Franks and Saracens would for a moment forget the hatred that had led them to take up arms. During the course of the siege several tournaments were held in the plain of Acre, to which the Mussulmans were invited. The champions of the two parties harangued each other before entering the lists; the conqueror was borne in triumph, and the conquered ransomed like a prisoner of war. In these warlike festivities, which brought the two nations together, the Franks often danced to the sound of Arabian instruments, and their minstrels afterwards played or sang to the dancing of the Saracens.