LX. he eluded the fearch of his enemies, paffed the CHAP. Hellefpont, and found a fecure refuge in the ifle of Sicily. After faluting the threshold of the apostles, and imploring the protection of pope Innocent the third, Alexius accepted the kind invitation of his fifter Irene, the wife of Philip of Swabia, king of the Romans. But in his paffage through Italy, he heard that the flower of Weftern chivalry was affembled at Venice for the deliverance of the Holy Land; and a ray of hope was kindled in his bofom, that their invincible fwords might be employed in his father's restoration. fourth crufade, 1198. About ten or twelve years after the lofs of Jeru- The falem, the nobles of France were again fummoned to the holy war by the voice of a third prophet, A.D. lefs extravagant, perhaps, than Peter the hermit, but far below St. Bernard in the merit of an orator and a statesman. An illiterate priest of the neighbourhood of Paris, Fulk of Neuilly 25, forfook his parochial duty, to affume the more flattering character of a popular and itinerant miffionary. The fame of his fanctity and miracles was fpread over the land; he declaimed, with feverity and vehemence, against the vices of the age; and his fermons, which he preached in the ftreets of Paris, converted the robbers, the ufurers, the prostitutes, and even the doctors and scholars of the univerfity. No fooner did Innocent the third afcend the chair of St. Peter, than he proclaimed in Italy, Germany, and France, 25 See Fleury, Hift. Ecclef. tom. xvi. p. 26, &c. and Villehardouin, No 1. with the obfervations of Ducange, which I always mean to quote with the original text. the CHAP. the obligation of a new crusade 26. The eloquent LX. pontiff defcribed the ruin of Jerufalem, the triumph of the Pagans, and the shame of Chriftendom: his liberality propofed the redemption of fins, a plenary indulgence to all who should ferve in Palestine, either a year in perfon, or two years by a fubftitute 27 ; and among his legates and orators who blew the facred trumpet, Fulk of Neuilly was the loudest and moft fuccessful. The fituation of the principal monarchs was averfe to the pious fummons. The emperar Frederic the fecond was a child; and his kingdom of Ger. many was difputed by the rival houfes of Brunfwick and Swabia, the memorable factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. Philip Augustus of France had performed, and could not be perfuaded to renew, the perilous vow; but as he was not lefs ambitious of praife than of power, he chearfully inftituted a perpetual fund for the defence of the Holy Land. Richard of England was fatiated with the glory and misfortunes of his first adventure, and he prefumed to deride the exhortations of Fulk of Neuilly, who was not abashed in the presence of kings. "You advise "me," faid Plantagenet, "to dismiss my three 26 The contemporary life of pope Innocent III. published by Baluze and Muratori (Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. pars į. p. 486-568.), is most valuable for the important and original documents which are inferted in the text. The bull of the crusade may be read, c. 84, 85. 27 Por-ce que cil pardon fut ifsi gran, fi s'en efmeurent mult k cuers des genz, et mult s'en croifierent, porce que li pardons ere fi gran. Villehardouin, No 1. Our philofophers may refine on the causes of the crufades, but such were the genuine feelings of a French knight. "daughters, LX. daughters, pride, avarice, and incontinence: CHAP. "I bequeath them to the most deserving; my 28 pride to the knights-templars, my avarice to "the monks of Cifteaux, and my incontinence "to the prelates." But the preacher was heard and obeyed by the great vaffals, the princes of the fecond order; and Theobald, or Thibaut, count of Champagne, was the foremost in the holy race. The valiant youth, at the age of twenty-two years, was encouraged by the domeftic examples of his father, who marched in the fecond crufade, and of his elder brother, who had ended his days in Palestine with the title of king of Jerufalem two thousand two hundred knights embraced owed service and homage to his peerage 2: the by the banobles of Champagne excelled in all the exercises of war 29; and, by his marriage with the heirefs of Navarre, Thibaut could draw a band of hardy Gafcons from either fide of the Pyrenæan mountains. His companion in arms was Louis, count of Blois and Chartres; like himself of regal lineage, for both the princes were nephews, at the fame time, of the kings of France and England. In a crowd of prelates and barons, who imitated their zeal, I distinguish the birth and merit of Matthew of Montmorency; the famous Simon of Montfort, the fcourge of the Albigeois; and a valiant 28 This number of fiefs (of which 1800 owed liege homage) was enrolled in the church of St. Stephen at Troyes, and attested A. D. 1213, by the marshal and butler of Champagne (Ducange, Obferv. p. 254.). 29 Campania.... militiæ privilegio fingularius excellit.... in tyrociniis . . . . prolufione armorum, &c. Ducange, p. 249. from the old Chronicle of Jerufalem, A. D. 1177-1199. rons of France. noble, LX. 30 32 CHAP. noble, Jeffrey Jeffrey of Villehardouin °, marfhal of Champagne ", who has condefcended, in the rude idiom of his age and country ", to write or dictate 33 an original narrative of the councils and actions, in which he bore a memorable part. At the fame time, Baldwin count of Flanders, who had married the fifter of Thibaut, affumed the cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry and the principal knights and citizens of that rich and industrious province 3+. The vow which the chiefs had pronounced in churches, they ra tified in tournaments: the operations of the war were debated in full and frequent affemblies; and it was refolved to feek the deliverance of Palestine in Egypt, a country, fince Saladin's death, which 34 30 The name of Ville-hardouin, was taken from a village and castle in the diocefe of Troyes, near the river Aube, between Bar and Arceis. The family was ancient and noble; the elder branch of our historian existed after the year 1400; the younger, which acquired the principality of Achaia, merged in the house of Savoy (Ducange, p. 235-245.). 31 This office was held by his father and his defcendants, but Ducange has not hunted it with his usual fagacity. I find that, in the year 1356, it was in the family of Conflans; but these provincial, have been long fince eclipfed by the national, marshals of France. 32 This language, of which I fhall produce fome fpecimens, is explained by Vigenere and Ducange in a version and glossary. The prefident des Broffes (Mechanisme des Langues, tom. ii. p. 83.) gives it as the example of a language which has ceafed to be French, and is understood only by grammarians. 33 His age, and his own expreffion, moi qui ceste oeuvre di&a (N° 62, &c.), may justify the suspicion (more probable than Mr. Wood's on Homer), that he could neither read nor write. Yet Champagne may boaft of the two first hiftorians, the noble authors of French profe, Villehardouin and Joinville. 34 The crufade and reigns of the counts of Flanders, Baldwin and his brother Henry, are the fubject of a particular history by the Jefuit Doutremens (Conftantinopolis Belgica; Turnaci, 1638, in 41), which I have only seen with the eyes of Ducange. was But was almost ruined by famine and civil war. CHA P. the Vene tians, A. D. 1200. In the invafion of Italy by Attila, I have men- State of tioned as the flight of the Venetians from the fallen cities of the continent, and their obfcure fhelter in the chain of iflands that line the extremity of the Adriatic gulf. In the midft of the waters, free, indigent, laborious, and inacceffible, they gradually coalefced into a republic: the first foundations of Venice were laid in the island of Rialto; and the annual election of the twelve tribunes was fuperfeded by the permanent office of a duke or doge. On the verge of the two empires the Venetians exult in the belief of primitive and perpetual independence 3. Against the Latins, 35 35 Hiftory, &c. vol. vi. p. 126–129. their 36 The foundation and independence of Venice, and Pepin's invafion, are difcuffed by Pagi (Critica, tom. iii. A. D. 810, No 4, &c.) and Beretti (Differt. Chorograph. Italiæ medii Evi, in Muratori, Script. tom. x. p. 153.). The two critics have a flight |