LIX. rank and perfonal characters of Conrad and Louis, CHA P. gave a dignity to their caufe, and a difcipline to their force, which might be vainly expected from the feudatory chiefs. The cavalry of the emperor, and that of the king, was each compofed of feventy thoufand knights and their immediate attendants in the field; and if the light-armed troops, the peafant infantry, the women and children, the priefts and monks, be rigorously excluded, the full account will scarcely be fatisfied with four hundred thoufand fouls. The West, from Rome to Britain, was called into action; the kings of Poland and Bohemia obeyed the fummons of Conrad; and it is affirmed by the Greeks and Latins, that in the paffage of a ftreight or river, the Byzantine agents, after a tale of nine hundred thoufand, defifted from the endless and formidable computation "3. In the third crufade, as the French and English preferred the navigation of the Mediterranean, the hoft of Frederic Barbaroffa was lefs numerous. Fifteen thousand knights, and as many fquires, were the flower of the German chivalry: fixty thousand horse, and one hundred thousand foot, were mustered by the emperor in the plains of Hungary; and after 12 William of Tyre, and Matthew Paris, reckon 70,000 loricati in each of the armies. 13 The imperfect enumeration is mentioned by Cinnamus (ELVEYRONTA MUPs des), and confirmed by Odo de Diogilo apud Ducange ad Cinnanum, with the more precise sum of 900,556. Why must therefore the verfion and comment suppose the modeft and infufficient reckoning of 90,000? Does not Godfrey of Viterbo (Pantheon, p. xix. in Muratori, tom. vii. p. 462.) exclaim? -Numèrum fi pofcere quæras. fuch CHAP. fuch repetitions we shall no longer be startled at LIX. the fix hundred thousand pilgrims, which credu Paffage through lity has ascribed to this last emigration **. Such extravagant reckonings prove only the astonishment of contemporaries; but their astonishment most strongly bears teftimony to the existence of an enormous though indefinite multitude. The Greeks might applaud their fuperior knowledge of the arts and ftratagems of war, but they confeffed the strength and courage of the French cavalry and the infantry of the Germans "; and the strangers are described as an iron race, of gigantic ftature, who darted fire from their eyes, and spit blood like water on the ground. Under the banners of Conrad, a troop of females rode in the attitude and armour of men; and the chief of these Amazons, from her gilt fpurs and bufkins, obtained the epithet of the Golden-footed Dame. II. The numbers and character of the strangers the Greek was an object of terror to the effeminate Greeks, empire. and the sentiment of fear is nearly allied to that of hatred. This averfion was suspended or foftened 14 This extravagant account is given by Albert of Stade (apud Struvium, p. 414.); my calculation is borrowed from Godfrey of Viterbo, Arnold of Lubeck, apud eundem, and Bernard Thefaur. (c. 169. p. 804.). The original writers are filent. The Mahometans gave him 200,000, or 260,000, men (Bohadin, in Vit. Saladin, p. 110.). 15 I must obferve, that in the fecond and third crufades, the fubjects of Conrad and Frederic are ftyled by the Greeks and Orientals Alamanni. The Lechi and Tzechi of Cinnamus, are the Poles and Bohemians; and it is for the French, that he referves the ancient appellation of Germans. He likewise names the BT, or Epitavyal. by LIX. by the apprehenfion of the Turkish power; and CHAP. the invectives of the Latins will not bias our more candid belief, that the emperor Alexius diffembled their infolence, eluded their hoftilities, counfelled their rafhnefs, and opened to their ardour the road of pilgrimage and conqueft. But when the Turks had been driven from Nice and the fea-coaft, when the Byzantine princes no longer dreaded the diftant fultans of Cogni, they felt with purer indignation the free and frequent paffage of the western Barbarians, who violated the majesty, and endangered the fafety, of the empire. The fecond and third crufades were undertaken under the reign of Manuel Comnenus and Ifaac Angelus. Of the former, the paffions were always impetuous, and often malevolent; and the natural union of a cowardly and a mifchievous temper was exemplified in the latter, who, without merit or mercy, could punish a tyrant, and occupy his throne. It was fecretly, and perhaps tacitly, refolved by the prince and people to destroy, or at least to difcourage, the pilgrims, by every species of injury and oppreffion; and their want of prudence and difcipline continually afforded the pretence or the opportunity. The Western monarchs had ftipulated a fafe paffage and fair market in the country of their Chriftian brethren; the treaty had been ratified by oaths and hostages; and the poorest foldier of Frederic's army was furnished with three marks of filver to defray his expences on the road. But every engagement was violated by treachery and injuftice; and the complaints of the Latins are attefted by LIX. 16 CHAP. the honeft confeffion of a Greek hiftorian, who has dared to prefer truth to his country ". Inftead of an hofpitable reception, the gates of the cities, both in Europe and Afia, were closely barred against the crusaders; and the fcanty pittance of food was let down in bafkets from the walls. Experience or forefight might excufe this timid jealoufy; but the common duties of humanity prohibited the mixture of chalk, or other poisonous ingredients, in the bread; and fhould Manuel be acquitted of any foul connivance, he is guilty of coining bafe money for the purpose of trading with the pilgrims. In every step of their march they were ftopped or misled the governors had private orders to fortify the paffes and break down the bridges against them: the ftragglers were pillaged and murdered; the foldiers and horfes were pierced in the woods by arrows from an invifible hand; the fick were burnt in their beds; and the dead bodies were hung on gibbets along the highways. Thefe injuries exafperated the champions of the crofs, 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 guefts. On the verge of the Turkish frontier Barbaroffa fpared the guilty Philadelphia rewarded the hofpitable Laodicea, 17 16 Nicetas was a child at the fecond crufade, but in the third he commanded against the Franks the important post of Philippopolis. Cinnamus is infected with national prejudicé and pride. 17 The conduct of the Philadelphians is blamed by Nicetas, while 17 LIX. Laodicea, and deplored the hard neceffity that CHAP. had stained his fword with any drops of Christian blood. In their intercourfe with the monarchs of Germany and France, the pride of the Greeks was expofed to an anxious trial. They might boast that on the first interview the feat of Louis was a low ftool, befide the throne of Manuel 18 but no fooner had the French king tranfported his army beyond the Bofphorus, than he refufed the offer of a fecond conference, unless his brother would meet him on equal terms, either on the fea or land. With Conrad and Frederic, the ceremonial was ftill nicer and more difficult: like the fucceffors of Conftantine, they styled themfelves emperors of the Romans '; and firmly maintained the purity of their title and dignity. The first of thefe reprefentatives of Charlemagne would only converfe with Manuel on horfeback in the open field; the fecond, by paffing the Hellefpont rather than the Bofphorus, declined the view of Conftantinople and its fovereign. An emperor, who had been crowned at Rome, was while the anonymous German accufes the rudeness of his coun- 19 Ego Romanorum imperator fum, ille Romaniorum (Anonym. Canif. p. 512.). The public and historical style of the Greeks was Pn... princeps. Yet Cinnamus owns, that Imparop is fynonymous to Βασιλευ; reduced |