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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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[66] Saladin had but little indulgence in religious matters. The abbé Renaudot, in his manuscript history, relates that he caused a philosopher to be strangled who ventured to preach new doctrines in the city of Aleppo.
[67] [The well-known story of the discovery of Richard in Leopold’s hands, by Blondel, through the singing of a song which king and minstrel had composed together, is now believed to be apocryphal and quite fabulous.]
CHAPTER V. THE FOURTH TO THE SIXTH CRUSADES
Bound for Holy Palestine,
Nimbly we brush’d the level brine,
All in azure steel array’d;
O’er the wave our weapons play’d,
And made the dancing billows glow;
High upon the trophied prow,
Many a warrior-minstrel swung
His sounding harp, and boldly sung.
—Warton, The Crusade.
[1195-1229 A.D.]
Wars and rebellions had filled all the thoughts of Saladin, and he had established no principles of succession. Three of his numerous progeny became sovereigns of Aleppo, Damascus, and Egypt; others had smaller possessions, and the emirs and atabegs of Syria again struggled for independence. The soldiers of the late sultan rallied round his brother Saphedin [Saif ad-Din] whose wisdom and valour were familiar to them. Both by stratagem and liberal policy he reared a large fabric of empire in Syria, and he was the most powerful of all the Moslem princes, when the time for the expiration of the peace arrived. The Saracenic power was, however, palsied for a while by a dreadful famine in Egypt, and the Latins in Palestine suffered also from the miserable state of this general granary.
The knights of St. John cast their regards towards Europe, and particularly to England, for succour, and entreated that new armies would march to Palestine, and destroy the exhausted Moslems.
POPE CELESTINE III PROMOTES A CRUSADE (1195 A.D.)
[1195-1198 A.D.]
Two years before this favourable moment, the daring and ambitious pope Celestine III had again sounded the trumpet of war. France had not revived from its losses in the Third Crusade, and Philip Augustus heard the appeal with indifference. Many of the people of England enrolled their names as holy warriors, obtained spiritual absolution, and then abandoned their pious resolves. The pope hurled his thunders against those who deserted their profession, except for some legitimate cause; but all thoughts of a crusade gradually died away in England, for the king was too much occupied in political concerns to encourage it. But wild schemes of war were occasionally in his mind, and the early writers have ascribed to his dauntless spirit the vast design of conquering Egypt and, after having gained the Holy Land, of possessing himself of the throne of Constantinople.
Designs equally ambitious were entertained by the emperor Henry, the enemy of Plantagenet. Seconded by imperial influence, the clergy successfully preached the crusade through all the German states. The emperor declared that he would provide a passage for both rich and poor who wished to go. But, though influenced, he was not absorbed by the love of barren glory, and when the possession of Sicily seemed an easy achievement, he postponed the gathering of laurels in Palestine till he had added a great state to his empire in Europe. Tancred, prince of Sicily, had lately died, and Henry, in right of his wife Constanza, put in his claims. This defection from the holy war was declared to be in accordance with the opinions of his wisest princes and lords, and it did not quench the spirit of fanaticism and romance.
THE FOURTH (OR GERMAN) CRUSADE (1195-1198 A.D.)
From the north to the south of Germany the frenzy of crusading had spread, and it had infected the bishops of Bremen, Würzburg, Passau, and Ratisbon; the dukes of Saxony, Brabant, Bavaria, and the son of the duke of Austria; the marquis of Brandenburg and Moravia; the landgraf of Thuringia; the count Palatine, and the counts of Habsburg and Schwembourg. The son of Henry duke of Limburg and the archbishop of Mainz led the vanguard of the holy warriors; and in the passage through Hungary they were joined by Margaret, sister of the French king and queen of Hungary, who, as one mode of consolation for the loss of her husband, had vowed to pass the remainder of her life in the pains of pilgrimage. Though the time of peace, as settled by the treaty between Richard and Saladin, had expired, yet the Christians and Mussulmans continued to live in amity. When the new champions of the cross arrived at Acre, no remonstrances of the Latins against fresh wars, no suggestions that all new crusaders ought to be obedient to the discretion of the residents in the Holy Land could abate the furious desire of the Germans for hostility.
Their aggressions were quickly returned by the Mussulmans, civil feuds were hushed, and Saphedin again headed the veteran forces of Syria and of Egypt. The important city of Joppa was taken by him before the Christian army from Acre could relieve it. The care and expense of Richard were dissipated in a moment; the fortifications were destroyed, and several thousands of the people of Joppa were put to the sword. In these unhappy moments another portion of the German force, under the command of the dukes of the lower Lorraine and Saxony, arrived at Acre. They had made the voyage from the northern ports of Germany, and in their route had chastised the Moors of Portugal. Confident in their strength, the united forces of Europe and Palestine, led by the duke of Saxony, directed their march towards the city of Berytus; but Saphedin, ever observant of events, quitted the vicinity of Joppa, and overtook his foes between Tyre and Sidon. The close columns of the duke of Saxony’s army were impenetrable to his vigorous and continual attacks. The victory of the Christians appeared to be decisive, the enemy’s force was scattered, and so extensive was the panic that the Saracens abandoned Laodicea, Gabala, Joppa, Sidon, and Berytus. Nine thousand prisoners were redeemed without ransom; and the statement that there were three years’ provisions for the inhabitants of Berytus in the storehouses of that town shows the importance of the day of Sidon. The exultation of the crusaders was still further advanced by the arrival of a third body of friends, headed by Conrad, bishop of Hidelsheim and chancellor of the German Empire. By the usual process of ambitious princes Henry had subjugated Sicily; and now, devoted to the conquest of the Holy Land, he sent his third army as his immediate precursors.
It seemed that the hour was now at hand when Europe would receive the reward of her invincible heroism. All the sea coast of Palestine was already in the possession of the Christians: and even they who had generally most desponded were now elevated with the conviction that the cross must ere long surmount the walls of Jerusalem. But in their march from Tyre towards the Holy City they made a fatal halt at the fortress of Thoron. The lofty and solid pile of stones withstood the attacks of the common engines of violence. But by a month’s labour of some Saxon miners the rock itself which supported the fortress was pierced through; and the battlements tottered to their foundation. The Saracens were now at the feet of the Christians suing for clemency. A free passage into the Moslem territories was all that they asked, and the fort might then be at the disposal of the crusaders. After much time had been passed in balancing considerations of revenge or mercy, a treaty founded on these terms was signed; but although just principles of war prevailed with the majority, yet the smaller party, who breathed nothing but slaughter, impressed their menaces so deeply on the minds of the Saracens that the latter vowed to submit to the last extremity, rather than confide in the agreements and oaths of champions of the cross.