of LVIII. yoke. In the pillage of public and private wealth, the CHA P. adventurers had agreed to refpect the exclufive property the first occupant; and the fpoils of the great mofch, feventy lamps and maffy vafes of gold and filver, rewarded the diligence, and displayed the generofity of Tancred. A bloody facrifice was offered by his mistaken votaries to the God of the Chriftians: refiftance might provoke, but neither age nor fex could mollify, their implacable rage: they indulged themfelves three days in a promifcuous matfacre (110); and the infection of the dead bodies produced an epidemical disease. After feventy thousand Moflems had been put to the fword, and the harmlets Jews had been burnt in their fynagogue, they could still reserve a multitude of captives, whom intereft or laffitude perfuaded them to fpare. Of these favage heroes of the crofs, Tancred alone betrayed fome fentiments of compaffion; yet we may praife the more felfifh lenity of Raymond, who granted a capitulation and safe conduct to the garrifon of the citadel (111). The holy fepulchre was now free; and the bloody victors prepared to accomplish their vow. Bareheaded and barefoot, with contrite hearts, and in an humble pofture, they afcended the hill of Calvary, amidst the loud anthems of the clergy; kiffed the ftone which had covered the Saviour of the world; and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence the monument of their redemption. This union of the fiercest and most tender paffions has been variously confidered by two philofophers; by the one (112), as eafy and natural; by the other (113), as abfurd and incredible. Perhaps it is too rigorously applied to the fame perfons and the fame hour: the example of the virtuous Godfrey awakened the piety of his companions; while they cleanfed their bodies, they purified (110) Befides the Latins, who are not afhamed of the maffacre, fee Elmacin (Hift. Saracen.p. 363.), Abulpharagius (Dynaft. p.. 243.), and M. de Guignes (tom. ii. r. ii. p. 99.), from Aboulmahafen. (1) The old tower Prephina, in the middle ages Neblofa, was named Caftellum Pifanum, from the patriarch Daimbert. It is ftill the citadel, the refidence of the Turkish aga, and commands a profpect of the Dead Sea, Judea, and Arabia (d'Anville, p. 19-23.). It was likewife called the Tower of David, πύργος παμμέγεθεςατος. (112) Hume, in his Hiftory of England, vol. i. p., 311, 312. otavo edition. (113) Voltaire, in his Effai fur l'Hiftoire Générale, tom. ii. c. 54 P. 345, CHA P. purified their minds: nor fhall I believe that the most arLVIII. dent in flaughter and rapine were the foremost in the proceffion to the holy fepulchre. Election to regain by a fecond crufade and an honourable death. Baldwin was established at Edeffa, and Bohemond at Antioch, and two Roberts, the duke of Normandy (114) and the count of Flanders, preferred their fair inheritance in the Weft to a doubtful competition or a barren fceptre. The jealousy and ambition of Raymond were condemned by his own followers, and the free, the juft, the unanimous voice of the army, proclaimed Godfrey of Bouillon the firft and moft worthy of the champions of Chriftendom. His magnanimity accepted a trust 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 himfelf with the modeft title of Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. His government of a fingle year (115), 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 prodigious inequality of numbers, though I fhall not count the myriads of horse and foot on the fide of the Fatimites; August 12. but, except three thousand Ethiopians or blacks, who were armed with flails or fcourges of iron, the Barbarians Battle of Afcalon, A D. 1099, of (114) The English afcribe to Robert of Normandy, and the Provincials to Raymond of Tholoufe, the glory of refufing the crown; but the honeft voice of tradition has preferved the memory of the ambition and revenge (Villehardouin, N° 136.) of the count of St. Giles. He died at the fiege of Tripoli, which was poffeffed by his defcendants. (115) See the election, the battle of Afcalon, &c. in William of Tyre, 1. ix. c. 112. and in the conclufion of the Latin hiftorians of the fir erufade. LVIII. of the South fled on the first onset, and afforded a pleafing CHA P. 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 fultan, the new king (he deserves the title) embraced his departing companions, and could retain only with the gallant Tancred three hundred knights, and two thoufand foot foldiers, for the defence of Paleftine. 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 jurisdiction of the lawful patriarch were ufurped by the Latin clergy: the exclufion of the Greeks and Syrians was justified by the reproach of herefy or fchifm (116); 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 fpiritual 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 their feudal poffeffions. Nor was this fufficient; Daimbert claimed the immediate property of Jerufalem and Jaffa: instead of a firm and generous refufal, the hero negociated with the priest; a quarter of either city was ceded to the church; and the modeft bishop was fatisfied with an eventual reverfion of the reft, on the death of Godfrey with out children, or on the future acquifition of a new seat at Cairo or Damascus. dom of Je Without this indulgence, the conqueror would have The king almost been stripped of his infant kingdom, which con- rufalem, fifted A. D. 1099-1187, (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 inde pendence of the conquerors and kings of Jerufalem. CHAP. fifted only of Jerufalem and Jaffa, with about twenty vil LVIII. lages and towns of the adjacent country (118). Within this narrow verge, the Mahometans were ftill lodged in fome impregnable caftles; and the husbandman, the trader, and the pilgrim, were exposed to daily and domestic hoftility. By the arms of Godfrey himfelf, 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 (119). After the reduction of the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and Afcalon (120), which were powerfully affifted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa, and Pifa, and even of Flanders and Norway (121), the range of fea-coaft from Scanderoon to the borders of Egypt was poffeffed by the Chriftian pilgrims. If the prince of Antioch difclaimed his fupremacy, the counts of Edeffa and Tripoli owned themfelves 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 conquefts in Syria (122). The laws and language, the manners and titles, of the French nation and Latin church, were introduced into thefe tranfmarine colonies. According to the feudal jurisprudence, the principal ftates and fubordinate baronies defcended in the line of (118) Willerm. Tyr. l. 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 muster, 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 flaves, may imply a population of thirteen millions, in a country fixty leagues in length, and thirty broad The honest and rational Le Clerc (Comment. on 2d Samuel xxiv. and ift Chronicles xxi.) æftuat anguflo in limite, and mutters his fufpicion of a false tranfcript; a dangerous fufpicion ! (120) Thefe fieges are related, each in its proper place, in the great hiftory of William of Tyre, from the 9th to the 18th book, and more briefly told by Bernardus Thefaurarius (de Acquifitione Terræ San&tæ, c. 89-98. p. 732-740.). Some domeftic facts are celebrated in the Chronicles of Pifa, Genoa, and Venice, in the 6th, 9th, and 12th tomes of Muratori. (121) Quidam populus de infulis occidentis egreffus, et maxime de eâ parte quæ Norvegia dicitur. William of Tyre I. xi. c. 14. p. 804.) marks their courfe per Britannicum mare et Calpen to the fiege of Sidon. (122) Benelathir, apud de Guignes, Hift. des Huns, tom. ii. part ii. på 150, 151, A. D. 1127. He must speak of the inland country. LVIII. of male and female fucceffion` (123); but the children C H A P. of the first conquerors (124), a motley and degenerate race, were diffolved by the luxury of the climate; the arrival of new crufaders from Europe, was a doubtful hope and a cafual event. The fervice of the feudal tenures (125) 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 horfeback (126). Five thoufand and feventy-five ferjeants, moft probably foot-foldiers, were fupplied by the churches and cities; and the whole legal militia of the kingdom could not exceed eleven thousand men, a flender defence against the furrounding myriads of Saracens and Turks (127). But the firmeft bulwark of Jerufalem was founded on the knights of St. John (128), and of the temple of Solomon (129); on the ftrange affociation of a monaftic and military life, which fanaticifm might fuggeft, but which policy (123) Sanut very fenfibly defcants on the mifchiefs 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 husband and champion (Affifes de Jerufalem, c. 242, &c.). See in M. de Guignes (tom. i. p. 441-471.) the ac curate and useful 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. 545. 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 Affises de Jerusalem (c. 324-326-331.). Sanut (1. iii. p. viii. c. r. p. 174) reckons only 518 knights, and 5775 followers. (126) The fum total, and the divifion, ascertain the fervice of the three great baronies at 100 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 (lays Sanut) the barons brought a voluntary aid, decentem comitivam militum juxta ftatum fuum. (128) William of Tyre (l. xviii. c. 3, 4, 5.) relates the ignoble origin, and early infolence, of the Hofpitalers, who foon deferted their humble pation, St. John the Eleemofynary, for the more auguft character of St. John the Baptift (fee the ineffectual struggles of Pagi Critica, A. D. 1099, No 14-18.). They affumed the profeflion of armis about the year 1120, the Hofpital was mater, the Temple, filia; the Teutonic order was founded A.D. 1190, at the fiege of Acre (Mofheim. Inftitut. p. 389, 390.). (129) See St. Bernard de Laude Nova Militia Templi, compofed A.D. 1132-1136, in Opp. tom. i. p. ii. p. 547-563. edit. Mabillon. Venet. 1750. buch an encomium, which is thrown away on the dead Templars, would be highly valued by the hiftorians of Malta. |