MEDIEVAL HISTORY LIBRARY

BOOK I.

CHAPTER V.

CONRAD III. [1147—1148.]

The Second Crusade.—March of the German Crusaders.—Passage through Hungary.—Through the Greek Empire.—Intercourse with Constantinople.—March of the French Crusaders.—Disasters of the Crusaders in Asia Minor.—Crusaders in Palestine.—Siege of Damascus.—Of Ascalon.— Unsatisfactory end of the Crusade

The German Crusaders assembled, as had been preordained, at Ratisbon; Conrad took his station at their head, and soon after Easter 1147, the march began in the direction of Hungary. Geisa fulfilled his engagements; the Crusaders conformed to Conrad’s laws, and the kingdom was happily traversed. During this operation, the Emperor, in proof of his satisfaction, and in token of his abandoning the cause of Boris, affianced his son, the young king, to a sister of Geisa’s, although the marriage does not appear to have proceeded further.

Upon reaching the frontiers of the Eastern Empire the scene changed. Constantinopolitan Envoys there met the army, to insist upon Conrad’s swearing, in their presence, to keep the peace during his passage; the object apparently being thus to render any act of aggression the more sinful. Conrad was deeply offended, both at the suspicion which this precaution more than implied, and at the insult to his dignity; the coronation oath being apparently the last taken by monarchs in person. Some excuse for his excessive mistrust, Manuel might plead in the fact, that Roger was even then waging fierce war against him, upon the matrimonial quarrel before mentioned; Corfu had surrendered to his Grand-Admiral, George of Antioch, and Normans were overrunning Corinth, Thebes, and Athens; whence Manuel might naturally enough fear some concert among the three western potentates; though Conrad, knowing Roger his own enemy, would hardly understand the apprehension. But however offended, as a Crusader he had no choice, and took the oath required; whereupon a convention was made, regulating the supply of provisions by sale to the army, and of vessels in which to cross the Bosphorus. At the passage of the Danube the Greek Envoys are reported to have attempted to count the host, giving it up in despair when they had got to 900,000, which number it has been sought to reduce to 90,000. But when the numbers of armed followers of every knight, and of non-combatants who attached themselves to a crusade, are recollected, one number seems nearly as inconsistent as the other with the 70,000 knights, assigned by William of Tyre,—may it not be presumed reckoning their men-at-arms with the knights themselves?—to the German and to the French armies respectively.

No sooner had the Crusaders entered the Eastern Empire than complaints, accusations, and recriminations on both sides were heard, on both probably but too well founded. The Germans complained of the exorbitant price demanded by the Greeks for their provisions; the Greeks of plunder and ill-treatment by the Germans. And while it must be supposed that the inhabitants would be well disposed to make the most of a casual and extraordinary demand for their produce; it is self-evident that the passage of such a host as Conrad’s, depending for its daily bread upon the country traversed, must—unless magazines had been purposely prepared, or the country were in the habit of exporting corn and cattle—have very speedily completely consumed the stock of food on hand; when scarcity, and scarcity prices, would naturally ensue. On the other hand, unquestionably those of the Crusaders who had not wherewithal to purchase bread—and of these there were many independently of the converted robbers—would be pretty certain to seize with the strong hand upon the necessaries of life, at least; and but too likely to maltreat such as should attempt to defend their property. Conrad severely punished all convicted offenders. But his authority over the volunteer host was imperfect, and more would escape than could be convicted.

The wants, and with them the violence of the Crusaders, and the exasperation of the Greeks increased from day to day; and at Philippopolis, upon a provocation too absurd to be mentioned consistently with the dignity of history, were it not illustrative of the intellectual condition of the age, broke out into actual hostilities. In a tavern where some Germans were refreshing themselves, a juggler, either to amuse or to astound the barbarians, exhi­bited, amongst his sleight-of-hand tricks, some of the usual feats of oriental snake-charmers with serpents. Astounded the Germans were; but in their superstitious ignorance ascribed such familiarity with, such command over, venomous reptiles, to the Black Art; whence inferring that to kill the disciple and votary of Satan, would be to labour diligently in their vocation as Crusaders, they slew the juggler. His countrymen resented his death, and an affray ensued. The Bishop of Philippopolis, however, interfered to allay the irritation, and repress the vindictive fury of the Greeks; whilst Conrad and the German Princes similarly exerted themselves to quiet the excited Crusaders; and by their joint efforts the conflicting parties were at length separated, and apparently pacified. The march was then prosecuted something more tranquilly; although the troops sent from Constantinople under Prosuch—a Turcoman there educated and converted—to protect the natives, and repress the disorders of the Crusaders, sought to effect that object by putting all stragglers from the main body to death. In relation to a phenomenon so startling as a Turcoman general of a Christian king, it is to be remarked that, Scandinavia having ceased to recruit the ranks of the foreign mercenaries, upon whom the Eastern Empire had long depended for every military movement, with Varangians, their place had perforce been very much supplied from the wild Turcoman hordes. The employment of such troops as a guard against Christians, was in the eyes of the Crusaders demonstration of Manuel’s sacrilegious connexion with the enemies of God, and perfidious intentions towards themselves.

The efforts of the Commanders had however produced such an appearance of concord, that, when the army passed through Adrianople, a nobleman, reported to have been a relation of Conrad’s, being too ill to proceed with comfort, remained there, to await his recovery in a monastery, or a lodging dependent upon one. The tempting opportunity for vindictive retaliation was not overlooked by the angry Greeks, and he was presently assassinated, it was said, by Constantinopolitan soldiers, who seized the property of their victim. But they had neither done their work completely, nor had patience to wait till the flagitious deed could be perpetrated with more chance of impunity. Some of the murdered man’s attendants effected their escape, and carried the tidings of his fate to the army. Conrad immediately ordered a halt, and commissioned his nephew to return to Adrianople, in force sufficient to punish so flagrant a crime. Duke Frederic, who had kept his division of the army in far better order than the rest, hastened to obey. He led back a body of troops, overpowered the resistance offered by Prosuch, seized and hung the murderers, recovered the plundered property, and burnt the monastery to which his kinsman’s lodging had belonged. Then, having satisfied his desire for retributive justice, he listened to the remonstrances of his vanquished opponent, Prosuch, against punishing the innocent together with the guilty, and rejoined his uncle

The army resumed its march; but from this moment the mutual exasperation of Crusaders and Greeks knew no bounds. Prosuch would fain have sought a favourable position in which to give battle; but this, Manuel, who, however mistrustful of his unwelcome guests, wished not to quarrel with them if they really entertained no aggressive designs against himself, positively forbade. A prohibition for which he deserves the more credit, inasmuch as the elements themselves appeared to have confederated with the Greeks, for the chastisement of the multifarious acts of violence imputed to the Crusaders, and certainly offered Prosuch strong temptation to attack such troublesome visitors.

Upon a fair and cloudless September afternoon the . crusading army encamped between two streams, with the purpose of spending the next day in so convenient a situation, promising a satisfactory supply of clear water; there, in devout repose, to celebrate the nativity of the Blessed Virgin. But the period of equinoxial tempests was at hand. In the night a storm arose; a deluge of rain fell in the mountains, converting every rill and brook into a torrent. Overfed by these torrents both streams swelled, overflowed their banks, and before dawn swept away tents, baggage, cattle, and men, in undistinguished ruin. The camp of Duke Frederic, for which he had wisely selected a more elevated position, alone escaped the general devastation ; and thither fled Conrad with his half-brother Otho, Bishop of Freising, the historian, and all who were roused from sleep in time to escape from the flood. The loss of all kinds was immense; but the numerical strength of the army was in some measure recruited by the speedy arrival of the Lorrain division of Crusaders, who had not chosen to wait for the French.

The host now approached Constantinople, and it has been supposed that difficulties of etiquette alone prevented an interview between the Imperial brothers-in-law; of whom Manuel acknowledged no equal—no Roman Emperor but himself; the other, Conrad—who, although, for want of leisure to visit Italy, not yet crowned at Rome by the Pope, entitled himself Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire— successor of Caesar and Augustulus could acknowledge no superior. Assuredly the common forms of courtesy and hospitality would seem to have required, that the sovereign of the country should receive and entertain as his guest a brother sovereign, closely connected moreover with his own consort, who was traversing his dominions. But, from the tone of their correspondence, both Emperors appear to have sympathized too keenly with the reciprocal exasperation of their respective subjects, to render an interview either agreeable or advantageous. A short extract from that correspondence, showing as well the temper that had much to do with the unfortunate course of the immediately ensuing operations, as the style of diplomatic intercourse in the twelfth century, may not unaptly be here given.

Conrad, not his minister for foreign affairs, but the Emperor himself, or at least a private secretary in his name, wrote to Manuel: “He who judges by the event, without regard to causes and to objects in view, will neither praise wisely nor censure upon just grounds; will run the risk of confounding friend with foe, if the one be the author of a casual evil, the other of as casual a benefit. If stragglers from our innumerable host, incited either by curiosity or by want, have trespassed, have done mischief, consider the impossibility of preventing disorder in such multitudes, and blame not us.” To this apologetic missive the sarcastic and crafty as valiant Manuel replied, We, though well aware of the difficulty of controlling multitudes, took measures when you entered our Empire, calculated to protect you from injury, ourself from the reproach of ill-treating hereditary claimants upon our hospitality. But as you, an astute and experienced ruler, have proved that such matters can never be imputed to the leaders, we thank you for the lesson, and pray you not to suffer individuals to straggle, since it will be no fault of ours if such as do, suffer violence from the multitude.”

A correspondence conducted in such a tone was not likely to conciliate suspicious tempers, or to alleviate the difficulties created by etiquette of sovereignty between rival emperors. Although the Crusaders were now encamped in the immediate vicinity of Constantinople, all thoughts of an interview were abandoned, and Conrad merely requested the use of Greek vessels, as previously arranged, to transport his army across the Bosphorus. Manuel was at all events desirous of removing those whom he dreaded as enemies and hardly valued as friends, if such they were, to a distance from his capital, before they should be reinforced by the arrival of their allies; and readily supplied ships to carry them away. Conrad and his division of the Crusade passed over at once to Asia Minor.

Meanwhile the French portion of this same Crusade was on its way. The King and Queen of France had been joined at Metz by the Earls of Flanders, Toulouse, Dreux, Soissons, Ponthieu, Nevers and Maurienne—the last, a Burgundian vassal, probably joining them for convenience or relationship, being the maternal uncle of Lewis VII—as also by a son of the lately vanquished Earl of Champagne, and by an English band of crusaders under the Earl of Warwick and Lord Roger de Mowbray. Lewis began his inarch at the head of 70,000 knights or lances, whichever be meant, besides infantry. It had been prearranged that he should cross the Rhine at Worms, where he was both well received, and found vessels prepared for conveying his troops to the right bank of the river. But the insolence of some of the rabble, then seemingly inseparable from a crusading army, produced quarrels with the German boatmen employed in ferrying them over; some of which became so fierce, that the passengers, being the more numerous body, flung the boatmen overboard. The citizens, indignant at this ungrateful usage of their fellow townsmen, flew to arms, and much tumultuary fighting ensued, costing many idly lost lives on both sides. The city itself was with some difficulty preserved from destruction by fire at the hands of its pseudo-devout guests, who were at length transferred to the eastern side of the river. The French army next reached Ratisbon, where they found the vessels that had conveyed the baggage, &c., of the Germans down the Danube, sent back for their use; and as no mention occurs of disorders similar to those that took place at Worms, it is to be hoped that the French had learned not again to offend or quarrel with those, whose services were indispensable to them.

Upon leaving Ratisbon the French King followed the Emperor’s line of march, everywhere profiting by the bridges he had constructed or the vessels he had collected for the passage of rivers. He traversed Hungary, as Conrad had done, by convention with Geisa touching the supply of provisions (which the French it should seem were to purchase), and the observance of strict discipline. One incident, however, threatened to disturb this amicable arrangement. Boris, who had not, because deserted by Conrad, deserted himself, or renounced his hopes of inforcing his right to the crown, secretly repaired to the French camp, and besought the aid of Lewis in accomplishing his object. Lewis refused to interrupt his hallowed enterprise in order to wage war upon a Christian prince, even if he were an usurper. But if he declined compliance with the prayer of Boris, he equally rejected the demand of Geisa; who, learning the suspicious presence of his rival in the French camp where a Hungarian Greek had recognized him, claimed from the King of France the surrender of that rival’s person. Lewis, instead of complying, warned Boris of his danger, giving him his own horse on which to fly in disguise; and Geisa, satisfied with his deliverance from what had seemed an imminent danger, accepted Lewis’s excuses. As Boris will not reappear in these pages it may be here briefly stated, that he safely effected his escape, and, repairing to Constantinople, entered Manuel’s service, in which he thenceforward lived and ultimately died.

Upon entering the Greek Empire the French found difficulties as to food, fully equal to those the Germans had encountered. They suffered, probably, both from the previous drain and from the exasperation of the Greets against their crusading predecessors, whilst the French, from their mercurial temperament, were yet more intolerant than Germans of such annoyances. They unanimously imputed tergiversation if not actual treachery to the Greek Emperor; and Lewis, oblivious in his own cause of the scruples that had prevented his interfering in behalf of Boris, is said to have seriously discussed with his chief counsellors the expediency of taking Constantinople prior to crossing the Bosphorus. The reasons urged for the attempt were, that the negligence of the Byzantine Court, which had originally suffered the Holy Sepulchre to fall into Paynim hands, ought to be punished; and that these perfidious, schismatic Greeks appeared to be the main impediment to that habitual intercourse between Western Europe and the Syro-Frank States, necessary to the support of the latter. Upon mature deliberation, however, it was decided that the capture of a Christian, though schismatic, city, could not be esteemed the fulfilment of a vow to fight the Mohammedans in defence of the kingdom of Jerusalem, even if conducive to that defence; and the proposal was rejected.

As the King of France advanced no pretensions to imperial rank, no difficulties of etiquette opposed an interview between the two monarchs, and Lewis repaired to Constantinople. Manuel, whether he were or were not apprised that Lewis really had contemplated the seizure of Constantinople, seemed anxious to conciliate him. He received his royal visitor with Oriental politeness; with magnificent hospital­ity, intermingled with blandishments and professions of friendship, seemingly calculated to show that if Conrad had been differently treated, the fault must have lain with himself, not with the courteous Byzantine. But amidst all these amicable demonstrations the Emperor so thoroughly maintained his own superior dignity, that French vanity was rather wounded than flattered  while the army neither fared better, nor behaved better, than their German predecessors. The poorer crusaders were half starved, and the marauders of the host plundered the vicinity of the metropolis.

Lewis—charmed after the annoyances of his march with the pleasures of a court, luxurious beyond his previous imaginings—was disposed to linger at Constantinople, not­withstanding the dissatisfaction of his nobles and the sufferings of his troops. Elinor—who with her company of amazons had, from their appearing in public, been con­sidered by the Greeks, accustomed to Oriental seclusion of women, as a troop of courtesans, and insulted accordingly—was, in spite of these insults, no less so. Manuel, on the contrary, was most anxious to get rid of his much-distrusted visitors, and studied to expedite their departure. To this end he caused reports of great victories gained by the Ger­mans over the Turks of Asia Minor to be circulated. And now the French army—already impatient of the privations they were still enduring whilst their royal commander was indulging and recreating himself after his—feared that all the glory of the enterprise would be forestalled by their allies, as the vanguard of the Crusade, and became clamorous to proceed. Lewis could no longer close his ears to the general urgency, and requested means of trans­port over the Bosphorus. With these Manuel joyfully furnished him; and the French followed the Germans to Asia Minor.

Scarcely had they landed ere new dissensions occurred. Some wealthy traders visited the camp ; and whilst the leaders were dealing with them for their wares, the poorer pilgrims plundered their travelling-shops. The owners, obtaining no redress from the King, as little able as the Emperor, probably, to control his host of Crusaders, fled to Constantinople, to lay their complaints before Manuel. He judged it proper to pass over in person, in order to insist upon the observance of better discipline, so long as the army should remain upon his territories; and the resentment he expressed at the treatment of his peaceful subjects, could only be appeased by Lewis’s submitting to his demand, that the French nobles should do homage to him, pros­pectively, for all conquests to be made in Asia. His and Conrad’s refusals to allow of such homage had been one ground of Manuel’s distrust and ill-will; and it is to be re­membered that, however humiliating the demand may seem, the conquests hoped for were all of provinces torn from the Eastern Empire. Still his whole conduct relative to the Crusaders, whom Greek writers allow that he all along disliked and betrayed, seems inexplicable in a brave and able ruler. All these difficulties materially retarded the progress of the French, eager as they were to overtake their German precursors.

It was indeed high time that Lewis should overtake Conrad, although not in order to prevent those German precursors from monopolizing triumph and glory. In Asia Minor Conrad had found all the evils he had experi­enced in Roumelia—i.e. deficiency and reported adulteration of food, with exorbitant prices, and the murder of strag­glers from his ranks, as much by the Greek troops escorting him, as by the peasantry—enhanced by the apparent absence of administrative authorities to which to appeal. Under such circumstances, the suspicions previously con­ceived of the Greek Emperor revived, and led to new calamities.

When the choice between two roads to Syria—the one long-, through the dominions of Manuel, the other short, through those of the naturally inimical Seljuk Sultan of Iconium—was submitted to Conrad, he and his Council differed in opinion. Numbers thought the covert enmity of the Greeks, however noxious, less important, because less likely to obstruct and delay the advance of the army, than actual warfare with Turks, who, not being the assail­ants of the Syro-Franks, were not the especial misbelievers whom they were pledged to combat. Others, with Conrad and his nephew Frederic at their head, judged it better to fight their way through avowed foes by the shortest road, than to remain for any length of time exposed to the covert hostility of false friends. But, as before observed, at the head of a host of voluntary crusaders, the imperfect authority of a feudal sovereign was yet further reduced; and the Emperor had no power to compel obedience to his decision. The Crusaders did the worst thing possible; they divided. Those who preferred the longer coast-road, a large body, electing the Bishop of Freising their leader, set forward upon their protracted and weary march, during which they suffered, in a yet increased degree, all the annoyances and privations, often amounting to famine, that they had previously endured, and which the majority now pronounced intolerable.

Conrad, on his part, ordered the guides, furnished him by Manuel, to conduct him with his reduced force by the direct road across the Seljuk dominions. They so far obeyed that they did conduct him into those dominions; but they had been either charged by Manuel, or bribed by the Sultan, to mislead the Crusaders. By tedious as arduous paths they brought them into a desert, affording neither food nor water; and being threatened with the chastisement they merited, disappeared under cover of the night. The dawn discovered the Turkish host, in count­less multitudes, menacing the Christian army upon all sides.

The Crusaders, as before observed, had no desire for battles in Asia Minor, and endeavoured to prosecute their march. They were harassed at every step by the light Turkish cavalry, which, whilst inflicting upon such an encumbered mass disasters and losses insupportable, eluded, by the peculiar tactics adapted to its character, alike the regular engagement it seemed to provoke, and the charge or the pursuit of the heavily-armed German knights. These incessant skirmishes, in which only the Germans suffered, lasted many days. Conrad himself was twice wounded by the arrows of the Turks; and without a battle, without an opportunity of retaliation, it is averred that this army—which, after all his disasters, and its division, must have comprised at least 70,000 fighting men—was reduced to 7,000. Of women, children, and even male pilgrims, if . unarmed, no account was taken.

In this distressful condition, Conrad learned that the French division of the Crusade had reached Asia Minor, accompanied by a body of Templars under their Grand Master. Already the estates bestowed upon the two military Orders had diverted many of the brethren from their main duty, by requiring their presence, in their European establishments, save when recalled by some special emergency to Palestine; and those so recalled had now joined the King of France. Conrad at once resolved to fall back, with the poor remains of his army, upon his allies. Frederic carried the tidings of their disasters and intentions to the French camp; and Lewis, all jealous fears relieved, expressed the warmest sympathy for the suf­ferings of his brother Crusaders. The two monarchs met near Nicaea; and Lewis, warned by the calamities that had befallen the Emperor, resolved to take the longer way, through what he believed a friendly country, but not that pursued by Bishop Otho and his division. Upon the road he had selected—if for awhile he avoided the Turkish arrows, which, with faithful guides and the Templars’ experience in Turkish warfare, an undivided army hardly need have shunned—he encountered all the evils that Conrad had apprehended from Greek animosity, whether encouraged or not by Manuel.

The German Emperor did not long accompany his ally. Mortified at appearing through his losses in a position inferior to that of the French King, irritated by French presumption, that taunted the Germans with their disasters, as with the obligations under which they lay to their allies, and suffering in health both from his wounds, and from those hardships and privations that had prevented the tendance they required, he accepted the invitation which Manuel, now no longer fearing his army, but still anxious to prevent the union of the two crusading sovereigns, pressed upon him, to seek medical aid and repose in his Court. In the vicinity of Ephesus he embarked with his princes and chief nobles for Constantinople; flattering himself, perhaps, that, in his brother Emperor’s more conciliatory mood, he might obtain from him the. cordial assistance of which the Crusaders were so much in want. But Manuel, if relieved from his immediate apprehensions, still disliked the pre­sence of the Crusaders in Syria, and strove, with the most refined address, to evade Conrad’s requests, whilst he courted, amused, and detained him at Constantinople, studying bv all means to alienate and sever, both morally and physically, the Emperor and the French King from each other.

This policy in so far answered the Greek Emperor’s purpose, that of the body of Germans remaining as auxiliaries with the French army, many—disheartened by the absence of their Emperor, in addition to their past hardships and privations—persuaded themselves that they had done and suffered enough to discharge their vow, and were now free. They deserted to return home, or rather to attempt returning; for few indeed thus unconnectedly succeeded in so doing. Their loss was, however, ere long, made good, and the ranks of the braver spirits recruited, by the junction of the Dukes of Poland and Bohemia with their bands.

Meanwhile, amidst difficulties, annoyances, and priva­tions, such as have already been described, Lewis marched on, sharing, in proof of his devout penitence, all the hard­ships endured by the poorest pilgrim, and performing all the military duties incumbent upon the poorest knight, in his army. But the sufferings he had preferred to the necessity of fighting his way to the scene of action, did not ' permanently exempt him from the hostilities he was en­deavouring to avoid. The Turks, elated by their recent success, entered the Greek territories, to meet the new army of Crusaders, and oppose its passage of the Meander. For­tunately for the French this same spirit of elation impelled their enemies to abandon the system of warfare that had en­abled them really to defeat the Germans without ever giving battle, and they engaged in close combat with their fresh antagonists. They, much as they too had suffered from want and hardships, were in a very different condition from their unfortunate predecessors; and having the advantage of coming to close quarters with their enemies, defeated them with great slaughter, amply avenging their allies.

But here ended the success of King Lewis and his army. The ill-will of the Greeks, and the repugnance with which their Emperor viewed the Crusade, were no longer dis­sembled. The Greek towns, professing distrust of the good faith of the French, closed their gates against them, whilst opening them to the fugitive Turks. Manuel sent Lewis information that, having just concluded a truce for twelve years with the Sultan of Iconium, he must preserve a strict neutrality between them. But that the supply of pro­visions, always scanty, was thenceforward altogether withheld, must still be chiefly imputed to the timid suspicions, as well as to the disinclination of the inferior magistracy, and to the hatred borne by the whole Greek population to Latin Schismatics.

Not long afterwards the want of discipline, the self-willed imprudence prevalent in the French army, brought upon it a calamity, singly as overwhelming as had been the many undergone by the Germans. The vanguard had been ordered to encamp upon a height, commanding the road by which the army was to advance ; but perceiving a delight­fully fruitful valley beyond this height, the troops, heed­less of the consequences to the main body, deserted the inconvenient, allotted post, and eagerly hurried down to enjoy the refreshment there inviting them. The Turkish troops, that still hung upon the line of march, observing this important eminence unoccupied, hastened to seize it; and the French main body unexpectedly found enemies advantageously placed to oppose their progress, in the very position whence they had confidently expected protection during their passage. They were thus surprised in some disorder, and, though they made a gallant resistance, were in a short time nearly cut to pieces. The King, with difficulty swinging himself up, by the help of the branch of a tree, on to an insulated rock, there defended himself, until a party coming to his relief enabled him to escape, and join his vanguard. That, having taken no share in the battle, was still complete; and with it he at length reached Attalia, upon the sea-coast, in not much better plight than the German Emperor had joined him.

At Attalia the Greek authorities, professing friendship, proposed to furnish him ships, in which to transport the remnant of his army to Antioch. Lewis gladly accepted the offer. But the authorities demanded an exorbitant price for the use of their vessels. Lewis resisted; and, between haggling and the necessity of waiting for a fair wind, to which the royal Crusader seems to have thought him­self entitled, several weeks were lost. In the end, the French King, whether from ill-will or the poverty of the place, obtained barely vessels enough to convey himself and the higher classes of the Crusaders. With these he embarked, leaving all the humbler Crusaders—warriors, invalids, women, and children—to make their way by land, under the conduct of the Earls of Flanders and Archambaud de Bourbon, with the promised protection of an escort of Greek troops. To defray the expense of this escort, as also of nursing his sick, the King placed a sum of money in the hands of the Attalian authorities. The money was taken, but the sick received no tendance, and the promised escort never appeared.

Unescorted, therefore, the appointed chiefs found them­selves obliged to set forth with only a small body of drooping infantry, and the half-helpless, and now more than half-defenceless band committed to their guidance. But the attacks of the Turks were incessant, and, under such circumstances, sanguinarily successful; and the Earls, despairing of the possibility of executing the task assigned them, ere long deserted their charge. Escaping by sea with as many as could procure means of embarkation, they rejoined the King at Antioch. Of those who remained behind, struggling on by land, to the computed number again of 7,000, the majority were destroyed by the Turks, and obtained the crown of martyrdom in lieu of the palm­branch, indicative of a consummated pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The survivors were plundered, otherwise ill- used, and enslaved by the Greeks: the sick left at Attalia were massacred. The Turks, on the other hand, after their victory, showed humanity; and the consequence was, that some 3,000 Christians, preferring Turkish to Greek slavery, took refuge with their former enemies. Of these, very many are believed to have apostatized.

Of all the divisions of these two hosts of Crusaders, Bishop Otho’s alone reached Antioch in martial array, although not unscathed in numbers and condition. They had never been admitted into towns, and had with great difficulty procured, at exorbitant prices, food sufficient to support them under their toils. Still they reached Antioch in warrior guise; and were there joined by such German and Italian Crusaders as had preferred a sea-voyage to a land-march. The Earl of Toulouse, who, if he had joined Lewis at Metz, had not accompanied him, but returned to his principality to proceed, with his body of Crusaders, by sea, was of the number. Thus something like an army was again assembled.

The Prince and Princess of Antioch received their royal French relations—Raymond, it may be recollected, was Elinor’s uncle—with a splendid hospitality that, after the sufferings of the march through Asia Minor, proved yet more irresistible to their guests than had been the magnificence of Constantinople. Raymond was anxious to employ the warriors of the Cross in furthering his own schemes, and, as a step that way, to detain them at Antioch. To this end he sought in every way to please his niece, and render her residence there delightful to her. And in this he succeeded. Declaring herself too completely worn out with what she had undergone to prosecute her pilgrimage further, Elinor announced her intention of sojourning at Antioch, until the King should be ready to conduct her home. In this preference of her still youthful uncle’s society to his, Lewis's jealousy, and the dissensions of the royal pair, so disastrous in their consequences to France, are generally said to have originated; though some historians affirm that his jealousy alone had compelled his Queen to take the Cross. The King, nevertheless, postponing to the performance of his devotions at the Holy Sepulchre all other considerations, even his dissatisfaction with his wife’s conduct, and the necessary deliberations concerning the best employment of the crusading army, proceeded with merely an escort, it should seem, to Jerusalem.

There Conrad and the German princes, brought by Greek vessels from Constantinople to Ptolemais, or Akkon, since called Acre, or St. Jean d’Acre, joined him. The royal and noble pilgrims duly performed all the customary religious rites appertaining to a pilgrimage; and then repaired to Acre, if it may be allowable at once to adopt the later and more familiar form, there to meet Baldwin with his chief princes and nobles, as also the two Grand Masters, in order, resuming their more knightly character, to consult upon and concert a plan of operations. To Acre, moreover, those leaders, who had been left in charge of the troops remaining at Antioch to recover from their fatigues and sufferings, brought the forces, now recruited in health and strength, if but little in numbers.

At the Council there held, various proposals were made and discussed. The Emperor was bent upon the enterprise for which the crusade had been expressly undertaken, namely, the recovery of Edessa; and Prince Raymond earnestly supported his opinion. But Raymond desired to recover Edessa, not to restore it to its rightful though un­worthy Lord, who was manifestly unable to defend it, but to incorporate it with his own, i. e. his wife’s principality; and the King and Barons of Jerusalem, unwilling to augment the power of Antioch, of which they were already jealous, urged that the city, dismantled as it was, could not be a valuable bulwark to the kingdom, or indeed securely held, without either a great expenditure of time and money in fortifying it anew, or the possession of all the Moslem strongholds in its vicinity. Raymond then proposed the conquest of Aleppo, and the other Moslem states that separated Antioch from Jerusalem, and weakened both, by obstructing their inter­course and power of cooperation. Baldwin and the Jerusa­lemites might have preferred the conquest of Aleppo to the recovery of the more remote Edessa; but Aleppo, if taken, must from its locality have fallen to the share of Antioch; and the same jealousy induced the rejection of this plan. The two Grand Masters, warmly supported by the young King, then unfolded their scheme; it was the acquisition of Damascus. They represented that Damascus, both in strength and in geographical position, was a far more formidable enemy to the kingdom of Jerusalem, and, if acquired, would be a far more satisfactory bulwark against the Mohammedans, than Aleppo, Edessa, or any other place that could be named. They brought forward another Damascene rebel, the Emir of two towns appertaining to that principality, who vehemently pressed the subjugation of his former Lord, and asserted his own power of giving assistance to the invaders. The wishes of the monarch, boy as he was, whom they had come to aid, and the opinion of leaders so experienced in Syrian warfare as the Heads of the real champions of Christendom, naturally prevailed, and it was resolved to besiege that stronghold of Islam. Accordingly, in the month of June 1148, the German and French Crusaders, how cruelly soever reduced in numbers once more a respectable army, uniting with the troops of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and with the Knight Templars and Hospitalers, amounting altogether to 20,000 horse and 60,000 foot, marched for Damascus.

The situation of Damascus is described by all travellers as most beautiful; and relatively to the science of attack and defence, as understood in the twelfth century, the town was very strong; being defended by double walls, thick set with towers, and washed on one side by the river Barady, which afforded irrigation and fertility to the gardens, orchards, and vineyards, of the numerous villas adorning that side. Beyond them lay the plain spreading out widely till it became the desert. To the north-west the ground rises gradually to the foot of the Lebanon range of mountains.

Little deliberation was needful to decide, that only upon the villa side could Damascus, with any prospect of success, be attacked, because only here could the besieging army find the necessary supply of water; the Emir having compelled the inhabitants of all the villages within con­venient reach to fill up their wells and remove, carrying their cattle and stock of provisions with them. The villas had been kept as outworks, and of these the allies pre­pared, as their first operation, to make themselves masters. Baldwin, as the principal in the war, and the two Grand Masters, as a prerogative inherent in the character of the Orders of Knights Templars and Hospitalers, claimed the post of honour and of danger, the van, as their right. Lewis and his French Crusaders, reluctantly yielding to a claim so incontestable, formed the second battle as it was then called; and Conrad, whether on account of inferior numbers, of the protection and assistance he had, when in danger and distress, received from the French in their then unbroken strength, or yielding to avert dissensions, was obliged, notwithstanding his superior rank, to be content with the third.

Between the walls and hedges, a wide road led across the river to one of the city gates, whilst on either hand narrow paths wound amidst the inclosures. Along the wide road the besiegers moved to the attack; but the hedges and loopholed walls were lined with Turks, and flights of arrows met the assailants as they advanced. They turned from the main road to seek their invisible enemies by the narrow paths; but here again walls and hedges bristling with spears or pouring forth fresh flights of arrows, opposed their progress. Their array fell into no little disorder. But Baldwin's impetuosity, the never failing valiancy of the Monk-Knights, and the ardour of the Crusaders, in the end proved irresistible. They forced the enclosures, drove out the Turks, and pursued their victorious course to the bank of the river.

Here they had hoped to quench the intolerable thirst produced by hard fighting under a southern sun; but the Mohammedans had rallied, and occupied this important position in great strength. Here, therefore, the strug­gle was renewed, and here the Emperor was to find some compensation for the many mortifications he had endured. The victory was obstinately contested; twice the Jerusalemites, Templars and Hospitalers included, despite their utmost efforts, were repulsed; and the second battle was kept inactive, with no impugnment of French courage, by the sheer difficulties of the ground. But Conrad was not so to be baffled. His German knights possessed an advantage over their rivals in being trained to fight on foot as well as in the saddle and to this he had recourse. He hade them dismount, setting them the example, and on foot, at their head, he broke through the stationary ranks of French Cavalry before him, through the disordered ranks of the Palestine cavalry, before them, and fell, sword in hand, upon the enemy. When thus brought into action, Conrad is said to have displayed ex­traordinary personal prowess, and even to have performed a feat, similar to one recorded of Godfrey of Bouillon ; to wit, the slicing off, with a single stroke of his sword, the head and shoulder of a gigantic Turk, clad in complete armour; a feat yet more surprising when thus performed on foot than from the height of a horse’s back. His nephew Frederic upon this, as upon every occasion, vigorously seconded him; and by their joint exertions, duly supported by their small but stalwart band, they afforded their allies time to rally and return to the charge. Again victory declared for the Christians. The river was mastered ; the Mohammedans retreated within the city walls; and the victors encamped upon the theatre of abundance that their valour had won.

Amongst the most distinguished warriors on the Moslem side in this battle was the Kurd Nodshmeddin Eyub, the father of the celebrated Saladin, and founder of the Eyubite dynasty. He was then in the service of Noureddin, and, having been sent by him upon some mission to Anar, whose daughter Noureddin had married, took an active part in the defence of Damascus. His eldest son was among the slain, and young Saladin, although not more than eleven years old, is said to have been upon the field. Anar, who had commanded in person, was wholly discouraged by his defeat. Noureddin and Saifeddin, whose assistance he had solicited, though upon their march to his relief, were still far distant, and inferior in numbers to the united forces of the three Christian sovereigns. On both sides the early fall of the besieged city was anticipated.

But selfish ambition, petty interests, weakness, or treason, interfered to render the loss of life by which this advantage had been purchased, unavailing. Many are the reports as to the mode in which these noxious causes wrought their noxious effects. It is said that the apologue of selling the lion’s skin whilst planning the chase, was here for the thousandth time enacted, the princes quarrelling about the disposal of the expected conquest. According to this tale, Theodore Earl of Flanders, husband of Baldwin’s half-sister, Sybilla of Anjou, upon the plea of this being his second expedition in defence of the Holy Land, laid claim to Damascus, of course in vassalage to Jerusalem. The Earl was so warmly supported by the King of France as to offend the German Emperor; and whatever might be Baldwin’s individual inclination, the Jerusalem Baronage did not choose to resign so valuable a prize to an European intruder; while the Templars, whose right it ever was to lead when a place was to be stormed, wanted the principality for their Order.

Thus, through the very intensity of the desire for its possession, the disposition to conquer Damascus is supposed to have died away, in all but the Crusaders. Another report is that Baldwin, his Barons, and the Grand Masters wished not such a remote acquisition, and were very anxious to conciliate the potent protectors of Anar, Noureddin, and Saifeddin. A story refuted in respect to the young King by his character, brave even to rashness, and his age far too boyish for prudential consideration; to the Grand Masters, by the fact that they were the very persons who selected Damascus as the object of the enter­prise; though as regards the Barons, it is by no means unlikely that they might both be growing weary of the overbearing arrogance of the Crusaders, and think con­ciliating the foes they dreaded the safest course. A third report, resting upon very general Arab authority, is that Anar sent a threatening message to Baldwin and his Jerusa­lemites, intimating that if the siege were not immediately raised, he would deliver up the city to Noureddin, who was rapidly advancing at the head of an immense army; thus so augmenting the power of that already formidable prince, as must insure his speedy subjugation of Palestine. That very exaggerated rumours of the numerical strength of the approaching brothers were sedulously circulated, seems cer­tain; and if the receipt and the effect of the message be confined to Baldwin’s courtiers and counsellors, who might easily delude an inexperienced youth as to the purpose and probable result of the measures they advised, this is upon the whole the most probable explanation of the strange proceedings, to be narrated when the fourth report, the most irksome of all to believe, unless it also were limited to the courtiers and counsellors who fostered and stimulated the boy-king’s faults, alienating him from his sagacious mother, shall have been disposed of. This report is, that Anar offered enormous pecuniary bribes, either to Baldwin, or to the Barons, or to the Templars, or to the Hospitalers, or to any two, or three, or all of them, if they would either procure the raising of the siege by scaring away the Franks through rumours of the over­whelming numbers hastening to his relief, or baffle its apparently certain success, by inducing some ruinous change in the plan of attack. The story goes on to say, that when the work was done and the price to be received, the briber cheated the bribed; sent the mercenary traitors barrels apparently full of gold, but the contents of which, upon examination, proved to be brass, under a layer of gold. This disgraceful account is the one most generally adopted by European historians, because a letter still extant, addressed by Conrad to his habitual corres­pondent, the Abbot of Corvey, seems to give it confirmation. In this letter he says, “We have suffered from treason where it was least to be feared, through the avarice of the Jerusalemites and some princes.” It is however to be considered, in weighing the Emperor’s evidence, without in the least questioning his veracity, that he might be likely to impute to treason and bribery, what was simply the offspring of a dread of Noureddin’s power, which he would be incompetent to appreciate; and that even if bribery there were, he would hardly know where to fix the guilt.

But whatever were the cause, the hopes which the recent victory awakened were disappointed by the following inex­plicable proceeding. The Jerusalemites, upon the plea that the city walls were weaker on the other side, persuaded the crusading monarchs to remove their camp from the excel­lent position so hardly won, and pitch it in the situation previously rejected. The consequence is said to have been that, the walls being equally strong, still all assaults upon the town were repulsed, and the besiegers languished with­out water, almost without food. In this suffering and depressing condition the Crusaders were easily alarmed by the rumours in circulation of the imminent arrival of Noureddin, and of the innumerable myriads he was bringing to the relief of Damascus. The siege was raised.

Conrad and Lewis, however mortified at this result of their exertions, however disgusted at the general conduct of affairs in Palestine, had not quite renounced the hope of strengthening by enlarging, or rather consolidating, the kingdom of Jerusalem. They therefore agreed to co­operate in the siege of Ascalon, a strong town, just within the southern frontier of the Holy Land; the possession of which, as a defence against Egypt, seemed more important to its security than that of Damascus. They led the Crusaders thither and sat down before the place. But again their well digested schemes were foiled by the fault of those whom they were labouring to benefit. No Syro-Frank army, not even the Templars and Hospitalers, joined them at the appointed time; and in another letter from the Emperor to Abbot Wibald, appears the following passage:—“Faithful to our engagement we came to “Ascalon, but found no Syro-Latin Christians there. After waiting for .them eight days, we turned back, for he second time deceived by them.”

And now, finally and thoroughly disgusted with their allies, and disappointed of the success, the merit, the glory they had anticipated, the two crusading sovereigns began to recollect the claims of their own realms and subjects, as also of their own individual interests, upon their time and care. Conrad, with the poor remnant of his German host, embarked at Acre, upon the 8th of September of this same year 1148; and Lewis a little later followed his example. This last monarch upon his return was taken by some Greek vessels, whether pirates or in the Emperor’s service is not clear; but they were carrying him off a prisoner, when the Sicilian Admiral, in his triumphant cruize en­countering them, released the King of France from their clutches.

The Earl of Toulouse had not lived to take part in these operations; and as he was the eldest son of the Earl who conquered Tripoli, his death was ascribed to poison given him by his kinsman of the younger line, the Earl of Tripoli, fearing that he would claim the county. But as the deceased was accom­panied by his son, who survived to inherit his preten­sions, there seems to be no adequate motive to so flagitious a deed.

This crusade is estimated to have cost Europe 180,000 lives, including non-combatants; surely a moderate compu­tation, but which even if allowed to bj2 below the mark, fully extinguishes the Greek enumeration of 900,000 Germans at the passage of the Danube. One of the one hundred and eighty thousand may deserve specification, although for a claim upon our gratitude of which he himself was unconscious. Cacciaguida, the great-grandfather of Dante, made known to us by the poet as a censurer of modern luxury, that is to say, of the progress towards luxury made since this second Crusade, received, upon this expedition, knighthood from the hand of the Emperor, and the crown of martyrdom from that of a Turk.

CHAPTER VI. CONRAD III. [1147—1152.]

Conrad at Constantinople. — King Henry's Govern­ment.—Relations with the Pope.—Henry the Lion's Crusade.—Conrad's Return. — Rebellion of Welf.— Henry the Lion.—Death of King Henry.—Of Conrad. —Of St. Bernard.—State of Europe and Palestine.