purer indignation the free and frequent passage of the Western barbarians, who violated the majesty and endangered the safety of the empire. The second and third crusades were undertaken under the reign of Manuel Comnenus and Isaac Angelus. Of the former, the passions were always impetuous, and often malevolent; and the natural union of a cowardly and a mischievous temper was exemplified in the latter, who, without merit or mercy, could punish a tyrant and occupy his throne. It was secretly, and perhaps tacitly, resolved by the prince and people to destroy, or at least to discourage, the pilgrims by every species of injury and oppression; and their want of prudence and discipline continually afforded the pretence or the opportunity. The Western monarchs had stipulated a safe passage and fair market in the country of their Christian brethren; the treaty had been ratified by oaths and hostages; and the poorest soldier of Frederic's army was furnished with three marks of silver to defray his expenses on the road. But every engagement was violated by treachery and injustice; and the complaints of the Latins are attested by the honest confession of a Greek historian, who has dared to prefer · truth to his country.16 Instead of an hospitable reception, the gates of the cities, both in Europe and Asia, were closely barred against the crusaders; and the scanty pittance of food was let down in baskets from the walls. Experience or foresight might excuse this timid jealousy; but the common duties of humanity prohibited the mixture of chalk, or other poisonous ingredients, in the bread; and should Manuel be acquitted of any foul connivance, he is guilty of coining base money for the purpose of trading with the pilgrims. In every step of their march they were stopped or misled: the governors had private orders to fortify the passes and break down the bridges against them: the stragglers were pillaged and murdered: the soldiers and horses were pierced in the woods by arrows from an invisible hand; the sick were burnt in their beds; and the dead bodies were hung on gibbets along the highways. These injuries exasperated the champions of the cross, who were not endowed with evangelical patience; and the Byzantine princes, who had provoked the unequal conflict, promoted the embarkation and march of these formidable guests. On the verge of the Turkish frontier Barbarossa 16 Nicetas was a child at the second crusade, but in the third he commanded against the Franks the important post of Philippopolis. Cinnamus is infected with national prejudice and pride. "The French crusaders, however, seem to have experienced a better treatment than the Germans who preceded them. This result was mainly owing to the pro dence and politeness of Louis VII. Wilken, vol. iii. p. 137, sq., and 141; Michaud, vol. ii. p. 187.-S. 18 but no spared the guilty Philadelphia,'' rewarded the hospitable Laodicea, and deplored the hard necessity that had stained his sword with any drops of Christian blood. In their intercourse with the monarchs of Germany and France, the pride of the Greeks was exposed to an anxious trial. They might boast that on the first interview the seat of Louis was a low stool beside the throne of Manuel; sooner had the French king transported his army beyond the Bosphorus than he refused the offer of a second conference unless his brother would meet him on equal terms either on the sea or land. With Conrad and Frederic the ceremonial was still nicer and more difficult like the successors of Constantine, they styled themselves cmperors of the Romans, and firmly maintained the purity of their title and dignity. The first of these representatives of Charlemagne would only converse with Manuel on horseback in the open field; the second, by passing the Hellespont rather than the Bosphorus, declined the view of Constantinople and its sovereign. An emperor who had been crowned at Rome was reduced in the Greek epistles to the humble appellation of Rex, or prince, of the Alemanni; and the vain and feeble Angelus affected to be ignorant of the name of one of the greatest men and monarchs of the age. While they viewed with hatred and suspicion the Latin pilgrims, the Greek emperors maintained a strict, though secret, alliance with the Turks and Saracens. Isaac Angelus complained that by his friendship for the great Saladin he had incurred the enmity of the Franks; and a mosque was founded at Constantinople for the public exercise of the religion of Mahomet.20 Turkish warfare. III. The swarms that followed the first crusade were destroyed in Anatolia by famine, pestilence, and the Turkish arrows; and the princes only escaped with some squadrons of horse to accomplish their lamentable pilgrimage. A just opinion may be formed of their knowledge and humanity; of their knowledge, from the design of subduing Persia and Chorasan in their way to Jeru 17 The conduct of the Philadelphians is blamed by Nicetas, while the anonymous German accuses the rudeness of his countrymen (culpâ nostrâ). History would be pleasant if we were embarrassed only by such contradictions. It is likewise from Nicetas that we learn the pious and humane sorrow of Frederic. 18 Χθαμάλη έδρα, which Cinnamus translates into Latin by the word Σίλλιον [p. 83, ed. Bonn]. Ducange works very hard to save his king and country from Buch ignominy (sur Joinville, dissertat. xxvii. p. 317-320). Louis afterwards insisted on a meeting in mari ex æquo, not ex equo, according to the laughable readings of Some MSS. 19 Ego Romanorum imperator sum, ille Romaniorum (Anonym. Canis. p. 512). The public and historical style of the Greeks was Ph.... princeps. Yet Cinnamus owns that 'lurgdrag is synonymous to Bariatus [p. 69, ed. Bonn]. In the Epistles of Innocent III. (xiii. p. 184), and the History of Bohadin (p. 129 130), see the views of a pope and a cadhi on this singular toleration. salem; of their humanity, from the massacre of the Christian people, a friendly city, who came out to meet them with palms and crosses in their hands. The arms of Conrad and Louis were less cruel and imprudent; but the event of the second crusade was still more ruinous to Christendom; and the Greek Manuel is accused by his own subjects of giving seasonable intelligence to the sultan, and treacherous guides to the Latin princes. Instead of crushing the common foe by a double attack at the same time, but on different sides, the Germans were urged by emulation, and the French were retarded by jealousy. Louis had scarcely passed the Bosphorus when he was met by the returning emperor, who had lost the greatest part of his army in glorious, but unsuccessful, action on the banks of the Mæander. The contrast of the pomp of his rival hastened the retreat of Conrad : the desertion of his independent vassals reduced him to his hereditary troops and he borrowed some Greek vessels to execute by sea the pilgrimage of Palestine. Without studying the lessons of experience, or the nature of the war, the king of France advanced through the same country to a similar fate. The vanguard, which bore the royal banner and the oriflamme of St. Denys,21 had doubled their march with rash and inconsiderate speed; and the rear, which the king commanded in person, no longer found their companions in the evening camp. In darkness and disorder, they were encompassed, assaulted, and overwhelmed by the innumerable host of Turks, who, in the art of war, were superior to the A.D. 1148. 21 As counts of Vexin, the kings of France were the vassals and advocates of the monastery of St. Denys. The saint's peculiar banner, which they received from the abbot, was of a square form, and a red or flaming colour. The oriflamme appeared at the head of the French armies from the xiith to the xvth century (Ducange sur Joinville, dissert. xviii. p. 244–253). This was the design of the pilgrims under the archbishop of Milan. See note, p. 240.-M. b This description of the march of the German and French armies is incorrect. Conrad, with half the German forces, took the road to Iconium; whilst the other half, under the command of bishop Otho of Freysingen, chose the route of Ephesus. Conrad was treacherously Inisled by the Greek guides into the mountains of Cappadocia, which were occupied by the Turks; and being hemmed in on every side, was compelled to a disastrous retreat, in which he lost the greater part of his troops. division under Otho met with an almost similar fate. Instructed by their example, Louis avoided both the routes which had proved so fatal to the Germans, and marched by way of Philadelphia and Smyrna, though he was subsequently compelled by the want of provisions to diverge to Demetria and Ephesus. Conrad, who had accompanied him to the latter place, returned thence to Constantinople, at the invitation of Manuel. Louis then proceeded on his way, and it was he, not Conrad, who fought a glorious," but not "unsuccessful," ac tion with the Turks, on the banks of the Mæander. In attributing this battle to Conrad, Gibbon was misled by Nicetas. It was on the march from Laodicea to The Attalia that the disastrous engagement occurred which is described in the text. Wilken, vol. iii. p. 156-184; Michaud, vol. ii. p. 193-200.-S. Christians of the twelfth century. Louis, who climbed a tree in the general discomfiture, was saved by his own valour and the ignorance of his adversaries; and with the dawn of day he escaped alive, but almost alone, to the camp of the vanguard. But instead of pursuing his expedition by land, he was rejoiced to shelter the relics of his army in the friendly seaport of Satalia. From thence he embarked for Antioch; but so penurious was the supply of Greek vessels that they could only afford room for his knights and nobles; and the plebeian crowd of infantry was left to perish at the foot of the Pamphylian hills. The emperor and the king embraced and wept at Jerusalem; their martial trains, the remnant of mighty armies, were joined to the Christian powers of Syria, and a fruitless siege of Damascus was the final effort of the second crusade. Conrad and Louis embarked for Europe with the personal fame of piety and courage; but the Orientals had braved these potent monarchs of the Franks, with whose names and military forces they had been so often threatened.22 Perhaps they had still more to fear from the veteran genius of Frederic the First, who in his youth had served in Asia under his uncle Conrad. Forty campaigns in Germany and Italy had taught Barbarossa to command; and his soldiers, even the princes of the empire, were accustomed under his reign to obey. As soon as he lost sight of Philadelphia and Laodicea, the last cities of the Greek frontier, he plunged into the salt and barren desert, a land (says the historian) of horror and tribulation.23 During twenty days every step of his fainting and sickly march was besieged by the innumerable hordes of Turkmans,24 whose numbers and fury seemed after each defeat to multiply and inflame. The emperor continued A.D. 1190. 22 The original French histories of the second crusade are the Gesta Ludovici VII., published in the ivth volume of Duchesne's collection. The same volume contains many original letters of the king, of Suger his minister, &c., the best documents of authentic history. 23 Terram horroris et salsuginis, terram siccam, sterilem, inamonam. Anonym. Canis. p. 517. The emphatic language of a sufferer. 24 Gens innumera, sylvestris, indomita, prædones sine ductore. The sultan of Cogui might sincerely rejoice in their defeat. Anonym. Canis. p. 517, 518. a They descended the heights to a beautiful valley which lay beneath them. The Turks seized the heights which separated the two divisions of the army. The modern historians represent differently the act to which Louis owed his safety, which Gibbon has described by the undignified phrase "he climbed a tree." According to Michaud, vol. ii. p. 200, the king got upon a rock, with his back against a tree; according to Wilken, vol. iii. p. 183, he dragged himself up to the top of the rock by the roots of a tree, and continued to defend himself till nightfall.-M. b Satalia, more usually called Adalia, is the modern name of Attalia, a city of Pamphylia.-S. The abbé Suger was perhaps the only man in Europe who had opposed the crusade. Michaud, vol. ii. p. 236. Yet, at the age of 70, he dreamed of leading him. self an army to the holy sepulchre! Ib. p. 244.-S. 246 June 10. OBSTINATE ENTHUSIASM OF THE FIRST CRUSADES. CHAP. LIX. to struggle and to suffer; and such was the measure of his calamities, that when he reached the gates of Iconium no more than one thousand Knights were able to serve on horseback. By a sudden and resolute assault he defeated the guards, and stormed the capital, of the sultan,25 who humbly sued for pardon and peace. The road was now open, and Frederic advanced in a career of triumph till he was unfortunately drowned in a petty torrent of Cilicia.26 The remainder of his Germans was consumed by sickness and desertion; and the emperor's son expired with the greatest part of his Swabian vassals at the siege of Acre. Among the Latin heroes Godfrey of Bouillon and Frederic Barbarossa could alone achieve the passage of the Lesser Asia; yet even their success was a warning; and in the last and most experienced age of the crusades every nation preferred the sea to the toils and perils of an inland expedition.27 The enthusiasm of the first crusade is a natural and simple event, while hope was fresh, danger untried, and enterprise congenial to the spirit of the times. But the obstinate perseverance of Europe may indeed excite our pity and admiration; that no instruction should have been drawn from constant and adverse experience; that the same confidence should have repeatedly grown from the same failures; that six succeeding generations should have rushed headlong down the precipice that was open before them; and that men of every condition should have staked their public and private fortunes on the desperate adventure of possessing or recovering a tombstone two thousand miles from their country. In a period of two centuries after the council of Clermont, each spring and summer produced a new emigration of pilgrim warriors for the defence of the Holy Land; but the seven great armaments or crusades were excited by some impending or recent calamity: the nations were moved by the authority of their pontiffs and the example of their kings: their zeal was kindled, and their reasor was silenced, by the voice of their Obstinacy of the enthusiasm of the crusades. 25 See in the anonymous writer in the Collection of Canisius, Tagino, and Bohadin (Vit. Saladin. p. 119, 120 [P. ii. c. 69]), the ambiguous conduct of Kilidge Arslan, sultan of Cogni, who hated and feared both Saladin and Frederic. 26The desire of comparing two great men has tempted many writers to drown Frederic in the river Cydnus, in which Alexander so imprudently bathed (Q. Curt. 1. iii. c. 4, 5). But, from the march of the emperor, I rather judge that his Saleph is the Calycadnus, a stream of less fame, but of a longer course." "Marinus Sanutus, A.D. 1321, lays it down as a precept, Quod stolus ecclesiæ per terram nullatenus est ducenda. He resolves, by the Divine aid, the objection, or rather exception, of the first crusade (Secreta Fidelium Crucis, 1. ii. pars ii. c. i. p. 37). The Calycadnus is now called GhiukSu. It passes Selefkieh, the ruins of Se leucia, by which name the river also is sometimes called.-S. |