115

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the army, proclaimed Godfrey of Bouillon the CHAP. first and most worthy of the champions of Chriftendom. His magnanimity accepted a truit as full of danger as of glory; but in a city where his Saviour had been crowned with thorns, the devout pilgrim rejected the name and enfigns of royalty; and the founder of the kingdom of Jerufalem contented himself with the modeft title of Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. His government of a fingle year "5, too fhort for the public happiness, was interrupted in the first fortnight by a fummons to the field by the approach of the vizir or fultan of Egypt, who had been too flow to prevent, but who was impatient to avenge, the lofs of Jerufalem. His total overthrow in the battle of Afcalon fealed the establishment of the Latins in Syria, and fignalized the valour of the French princes, who in this action bade a long farewel to the holy wars. Some glory might be derived from the pro- Battle of digious inequality of numbers, though I fhall. Afcalon, not count the myriads of horfe and foot on the fide of the Fatimites; but, except three thoufand Ethiopians or blacks, who were armed with flails, or fcourges of iron, the Barbarians of the South fled on the first onfet, and afforded a pleafing comparison between the active valour of the Turks and the floth and effeminacy of the natives of Egypt. After fufpending before the holy fepulchre the fword and ftandard of the

115 See the election, the battle of Afcalon, &c. in William of Tyre, l. ix. c. 1-12. and in the conclufion of the Latin historians of the first crusade.

A.D.

1099,

Auguft 12.

CHAP. fultan, the new king (he deferves the title) emLVIII. braced his departing companions, and could

retain only with the gallant Tancred three hundred knights, and two thousand foot foldiers, for the defence of Palestine. His fovereignty was foon attacked by a new enemy, the only one against whom Godfrey was a coward. Adhemar, bishop of Puy, who excelled both in council and action, had been swept away in the laft plague of Antioch: the remaining ecclefiaftics preferved only the pride and avarice of their character; and their feditious clamours had required that the choice of a bishop should precede that of a king. The revenue and jurifdiction of the lawful patriarch were ufurped by the Latin clergy: the exclufion of the Greeks and Syrians was juftified by the reproach of herefy or schism ""; and, under the iron yoke of their deliverers, the Oriental Christians regretted the tolerating government of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert, archbishop of Pisa, had long been trained in the fecret policy of Rome: he brought a fleet of his countrymen to the fuccour of the Holy Land, and was installed, without a competitor, the spiritual and temporal head of the church. The new patriarch 117 immediately grafped the fceptre which had been acquired by the toil and blood of the victorious pilgrims; and both Godfrey and Bohemond fubmitted to receive at his hands the inveftiture of

116 Renaudot, Hift. Patriarch. Alex. p. 479.

117 See the claims of the patriarch Daimbert, in William of Tyre (1. ix. c. 15-18. X. 4. 7. 9.), who afferts with marvellous candour the independence of the conquerors and kings of Jeru falem.

LVIII.

their feudal poffeffions. Nor was this fufficient; CHAP. Daimbert claimed the immediate property of Jerufalem and Jaffa: instead of a firm and generous refusal, the hero negociated with the priest; a quarter of either city was ceded to the church; and the modeft bifhop was fatisfied with an eventual reversion of the rest, on the death of Godfrey without children, or on the future acquifition of a new feat at Cairo or Damafcus,

118

Without this indulgence, the conqueror would have almost been stripped of his infant kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem and Jaffa, with about twenty villages and towns of the adjacent country Within this narrow verge, the Mahometans were still lodged in fome impregnable caftles; and the husbandman, the trader, and the pilgrims, were expofed to daily and domestic hoftility. By the arms of Godfrey himself, and of the two Baldwins, his brother and coufin, who fucceeded to the throne, the Latins breathed with more eafe and fafety; and at length they equalled, in the extent of their dominions, though not in the millions of their fubjects, the ancient princes of Judah and Ifrael ". After the reduction of the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre,

118 Willerm. Tyr. 1. x. 19. The Hiftoria Hierofolimita of Jacobus à Vitriaco (1. i. c. 21-50.), and the Secreta Fidelium Crucis of Marinus Sanutus (1. iii. p. i.), describe the state and conquefts of the Latin kingdom of Jerufalem.

119 An actual mufter, not including the tribes of Levi and Benjamin, gave David an army of 1,300,000, or 1,574,000 fighting men; which, with the addition of women, children, and slaves, may imply a population of thirteen millions, in a country fixty Leagues in length, and thirty broad. The honeft and rational Le Clerc (Comment, on 29 Samuel xxiv, and 1st Chronicles xxi, æftuat

The kingrufalem,

dom of Je

A. D. 1099

1187.

CHAP. Tyre, and Afcalon 120, which were powerfully LVIII. affifted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa,

121 the range

and even of Flanders and Norway "",
of fea-coaft from Scanderoon to the borders of
Egypt was poffeffed by the Chriftian pilgrims.
If the prince of Antioch disclaimed his fupremacy,
the counts of Edeffa and Tripoli owned them-
felves the vaffals of the king of Jerufalem: the
Latins reigned beyond the Euphrates; and the
four cities of Hems, Hamah, Damafcus, and
Aleppo, were the only relics of the Mahometan
conquests in Syria 12. The laws and language,
the manners and titles, of the French nation and
Latin church, were introduced into thefe tranf-
marine colonies. According to the feudal jurif-
prudence, the principal ftates and fubordinate
baronies defcended in the line of male and female
fucceffion 123; but the children of the first con-

querors,

æftuat angufto in limite, and mutters his fufpicion of a falfe tranfcript; a dangerous fufpicion!

120 Thefe fieges are related, each in its proper place, in the great hiftory of William of Tyre, from the ixth to the xviiith book, and more briefly told by Bernardus Thefaurarius (de Acquifitione Terræ Sanctæ, c. 89–98. p. 732-740.). Some domestic facts are celebrated in the Chronicles of Pifa, Genoa, and Venice, in the vith, ixth, and xiith tomes of Muratori.

12 Quidam populus de infulis occidentis egreffus, et maxime de eâ parte quæ Norvegia dicitur. William of Tyre (1. xi. c. 14. p. 804.) marks their course per Britannicum mare et Calpen to the fiege of Sidon.

122 Benelathir, apud de Guignes, Hift. des Huns, tom. ii. part ii. p. 150, 151. A. D. 1127. He muft fpeak of the inland country.

123 Sanut very fenfibly defcants on the mischiefs of female fucceffion, in a land hoftibus circumdata, ubi cuncta virilia et virtuofa effe deberent. Yet, at the fummons, and with the approbation, of her feudal lord, a noble damfel was obliged to chufe a hufband

24

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querors 124, a motley and degenerate race, were CHA P. diffolved by the luxury of the climate; the arrival of new crufaders from Europe, was a doubtThe fervice of the

125

ful hope and a casual event.
feudal tenures was performed by fix hundred
and fixty-fix knights, who might expect the aid
of two hundred more under the banner of the
count of Tripoli; and each knight was attended
to the field by four fquires or archers on horfe-
back 126
Five thoufand and feventy-five ferjeants,
most probably foot foldiers, were fupplied by the
churches and cities; and the whole legal militia
of the kingdom could not exceed eleven thou-
fand men, a flender defence against the furround-
ing myriads of Saracens and Turks 27. But the
firmeft bulwark of Jerufalem was founded on the

a husband and champion (Affifes des Jerufalem, c. 242, &c.). See in M. de Guignes (tom. i. p. 441-471.) the accurate and ufeful tables of these dynasties, which are chiefly drawn from the Lignages d'Outremer.

124 They were called by derifion Poullains, Pullani, and their name is never pronounced without contempt (Ducange, Gloff Latin. tom. v. p. 535. and Obfervations fur Joinville, p. 84, 85. Jacob à Vitriaco, Hift. Hierofol. 1. i. c. 67. 72. and Sanut, 1. iii. p. viii, c. 2. p. 182.). Illuftrium virorum qui ad Terræ Sanctæ liberationem in ipfâ manferunt degeneres filii .. .. in deliciis enutriti, molles et effæminati, &c.

125 This authentic detail is extracted from the Affifes de Jerufalem (c. 324. 326-331.). Sanut (1. iii. p. viii. c. 1. p. 174.) reckons only 518 knights, and 5775 followers.

126 The fum total, and the divifion, afcertain the fervice of the three great baronies at roo knights each; and the text of the Affifes, which extends the number to 500, can only be juftified by this fuppofition.

127 Yet on great emergencies (says Sanut) the barons brought a voluntary aid, decentem comitivam militum juxta ftatum fuum.

knights