MEDIEVAL HISTORY LIBRARY

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER II.

FREDERIC II. [1220—1226.

Coronation-Progress—Affairs of Sicily—Negotiations concerning Crusade—Fifth Crusade, in Egypt—Success—Failure— Frederic’s second Marriage—Frederic and his Father-in-law—Frederic’s love of Letters. 

Frederic, his own principal object being thus accomplished, endeavoured to soften the anger which the Pope, he knew, could not but feel at Henry’s election, as a step towards perpetuating that very union of states, which he, like his predecessors, had always reprobated. He assured his Holiness, that this election should in no wise interfere with the promised severance of Sicily and Apulia, from the Empire and Germany; and pledged himself to set forth upon his Crusade, so soon as the remaining obstacles should be removed. And obstacles, in truth, remained, even in Germany.

Brilliant as had hitherto been his career, and as was his actual position, Frederic had not yet acquired the power necessary for inforcing any of the contested Imperial rights. He had obeyed the Ghibeline call to Germany, bringing no support beyond his name, and the favour of the Pope, for which last he had been compelled to pay a ruinously high price. In like manner, he had been compelled to purchase the forbearance of neighbours, the allegiance of vassals, and the election of his son, by concessions, some of which were materially detrimental to the sovereign authority. And still was he dependent upon the goodwill of Honorius, for obtaining the Imperial crown, without being obliged, as a preliminary condition, to resign that of either Germany, or the Sicilies. But his chief embarrassments no longer lay in Germany. His maternal heritage, to which he looked as the foundation of that power that should enable him to regain the exalted position held by his father and grandfather, was in a still worse condition than his northern kingdom. Advantage had there been taken, now of his prolonged absence, as previously of his youth. More especially had this been the case, since his summons of the Queen to Germany had transferred the administration to regents less zealous, less cordially sympathizing in his views. Baronial usurpations had increased, and a degree of anarchy consequently prevailed, which must be remedied, and the causes of which must be extirpated, before the Sicilian Sovereign could undertake a distant, and possibly tedious, expedition.

Honorius was satisfied with Frederic’s explanations and promises; and, by a liberal use of ecclesiastical weapons, frankly assisted in removing the German portion of the obstacles in question. This done, Frederic provided for the government of Germany, and the education of the little king, whom, as nominal ruler, he left there, by committing both to Engelbert von Berg, Archbishop of Cologne. He could not have chosen better. This prelate was distinguished alike by his abilities, his inflexible justice, his energy of character, personal beauty that actually fascinated the multitude, and moral purity. Elected Bishop of Munster at the early age of nineteen, he was, even then, in a manner, promised Cologne; but, embracing Innocent III’s opinions, as to the indissolubleness of the connexion between a bishop and his see, he firmly and honestly rejected all such ambitious aspirations. Nothing less, than the express desire of the Pope himself and of the King, had induced him to accept his metropolitan See, and he had since proved an invaluable supporter to Frederic. In his own ecclesiastical principality he had so effectually quelled the disorders, especially the increasing depredations by the swarms of robber-knights—now mostly associated as Ganerlen—to which the two successive contests for the empire had given birth, that, according to the usual illustration of such reforms, a woman or a child might now, it was said, have safely carried a purse of gold from one extremity of the archbishopric to the other. At ease in having intrusted his kingdom and his son to such an Imperial Vicar, Frederic, in the month of September, of this same year. 1220, crossed the Alps, accompanied by his Queen, and the princes attendant upon, or forming part of, the Coronation-Progress.

He found northern Italy unusually quiet, though, almost of course, not perfectly so. The pacification of the various feuds and broils in Lombardy, which Innocent had been prevented by death from even attempting, had been committed to Cardinal Ugolino, afterwards Gregory IX, whose exertions had proved, if not perfectly, yet extraordinarily, successful. He had prevailed upon those cities that had incurred excommunication by invading the rights, privileges, and immunities of the clergy, even upon Milan, habitually as refractory to spiritual as to temporal authority, to submit; whereupon he had reconciled them to the Church. Still the tranquillity was neither absolute nor likely to be permanent. Milan, irritated rather than tamed by a second defeat that she had suffered, A.D. 1218, from the Cremonese, still betrayed so much of her old hatred for the Swabian Emperors—obstructing, in direct violation of the Peace of Constance, Frederic’s coronation with the iron crown of Lombardy—that the King, anxiously impatient to achieve his Imperial coronation and revisit the Sicilies, was glad to find an excuse for avoiding present collision with her turbulent citizens. This was supplied by the absence of the Archbishop of Milan in Palestine, a sufficient plea for postponing this previous coronation until the prelate, whose right it was to place the iron crown upon his brow, should be present to officiate. Deferring, therefore, to visit Milan until that occasion, he hastened forward.

Upon his road, he carefully avoided all causes of contention with either Lombard or Tuscan cities, endeavouring, on the contrary, as far as might be, to conciliate them. Neither purpose was easy of execution, the last a nearly hopeless attempt. The Guelph cities, no longer content with the rights and privileges, whose acquisition by the treaty of Constance had, not half a century before, been so exultingly hailed, now watched, in surly quiescence, for an opportunity of revolt, through which to extort nominal as well as complete virtual independence. The Ghibeline cities, on the other hand, still cherished expectations of Imperial favour so extravagant, that they could by no possibility be satisfied; whilst every grace to one provoked the angry jealousy of the others; as did every attempt to conciliate a Guelph rival, the wrath of all. The demands of commercial privilege’s and preferences in Sicily made by the Genoese, upon the strength of the services they had rendered Frederic, during his adventurous expedition to Germany, were so exorbitant, that unless he had been prepared wholly to sacrifice the mercantile portion of his own subjects to them, and leave them sole masters of Syracuse, he had no resource but to postpone his answer, until he should reach his southern realms. He accordingly invited the Republic to name embassadors, who should accompany him thither, to discuss the business upon the spot, after first attending his coronation at Rome.

To Rome, Frederic was now making the best of his way, and, upon his arrival, was friendlily received by Honorius; there being, in fact, but two points that could then give rise to differences between the benevolently disposed aged pontiff, and the ex-ward of the Church, who had assented to everything required of him. These points were, the continued delay of the promised Crusade, and the recent election of the child Henry. With respect to the first of these points, Frederic had no difficulty in convincing Honorius, that the disorders then convulsing Sicily, on either side of the Faro, must be repressed, and an efficient government of the kingdom organized, before he could leave his bounden duty for an indefinite length of time; especially as he offered, though not to lead, to send ample assistance to the Crusaders in Egypt. Honorius, accordingly, consented to give him another year prior to setting forth, as pledged by his vow; but he did so upon two conditions; the one, that Frederic should again formally receive the Cross, and from the hand of the most active preacher and promoter of the Crusade, Cardinal Ugolino; the other, that he should plight his word to concur in all measures, requisite for the eradication of heresy and the punishment of obdurate heretics. This last clause is a remarkable increase of severity, when compared with the language of Innocent III and his Council; explicable, perhaps, by the greater influence that bigoted counsellors would exercise over a mild and weak old man, than over one of powerful intellect and middle age. With respect to his son’s election, Frederic assured his Holiness, that his sole object had been, thus to strengthen the Regents, to whom the tranquillity of Germany was intrusted during his own absence; and he renewed his promise, to transfer his Sicilian kingdom to his son, when of years to govern; further promising, then to transfer the duchy of Spoleto, with such Tuscan towns of the long-contested Matildan heritage as should be at his disposal, to the Roman See. He is said to have added, that, should he himself die childless, he would rather bequeath the Sicilies to that See, than to the Empire. Honorius accepted Frederic’s explanations with unexpected facility, and a perfectly good understanding prevailed between them.

No impediment to the coronation, therefore, occurred; and, upon the 22nd of November, 1220, in the Basilica of St. Peter, Honorius, with all due rites and forms, crowned Frederic and Constance Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. The ceremony was performed amidst the joyous acclamations of all present; to wit, German Princes, spiritual and temporal, Italian vassals, and Envoys from most of the great towns. Even the usually turbulent Romans, upon this occasion, formed no exception to the general satisfaction.

Nevertheless amidst this harmonious concord the seed of a fierce war between Pisa and Florence, ay, perhaps of the ultimate inthralment of the former, then powerful city, was sown by an incident, so ludicrously trivial, that, even as exemplificative of the poet’s admiration for the “mighty contests” that “rise from trivial things,” its mention scarcely seems consistent with the dignity of history. The Cardinals, in honour of the Imperial coronation, gave entertainments, to which they invited the strangers then visiting Rome. The Florentine Envoy, being a guest at one of these banquets, expressed great admiration of a dog, belonging to his Eminence, the reverend host, who immediately made a present of the animal to the admirer of canine beauty. The diplomatist thankfully accepted, but neglected to take the gift away with him, or to send for it next morning. At noon that day the same Prince of the Church gave another banquet, to which the Pisan Envoy was bidden. He, like the Florentine, was captivated with the beauty of the greyhound, and again the Cardinal—whether actuated, by mere sportive malice, whether his festivals were of so Bacchanalian a character as to induce forgetfulness of what had passed, or whether he made presents in the Spanish style, which requires from the donee perseverance in refusal, transcending the donor’s in pressing acceptance—offered the dog to the admiring guest. Again the gift was thankfully accepted and not taken away. The following morning the Florentine sent for the dog, and got it. Soon afterwards the Pisan sent, and was informed that the creature had been delivered to the representative of Florence. When the rivals for the possession of the dog first met in the streets of Rome, a wordy war broke out, in which the Pisan had the decided advantage. So had he and his countrymen in the skirmish with more substantial weapons that presently ensued. But now a young Florentine, collecting all his fellow­townsmen then at Rome, arranged with them a plan of campaign against the triumphant Pisans; and so thoroughly revenged their previous defeat, that Pisa herself thought proper to retaliate, by laying an embargo upon all Florentine goods within her walls. Florence, however thriving, was still so much the weaker of the two cities, that she shrank from war with Pisa, and earnestly solicited the restitution of some small portion, at least, of the embargoed wares, as a salvo for her honour, even proposing to pay, out of the state funds, for what should thus be restored to her merchants. Pisa, arrogant in her power, refused; and so sanguinary was the war in which this absurd quarrel resulted, that Villani writes: “One might suppose it the work of Satan, under the form of a dog.”

To return to the coronation. The Emperor upon this occasion published several laws; but as his legislation will claim special attention at a subsequent period, when assuming a more enlarged and philosophically political character, the subject may here be passed over with the statement, that, at the Pope’s express desire, he enacted stringent laws against heresy, condemning obstinate heretics to exile and confiscation of property—still without mention of death—and that he strictly prohibited the plunder of wrecked vessels, except those of pirates and misbelievers. This last law did not appear as meritorious to Frederic’s contemporaries, as it does to their posterity, but was highly approved by Honorius, who recommended the inforcement of these laws throughout the Empire. In fact the progress of humanity and civilization was always warmly favoured and promoted by the popes, except when suspected of threatening an infringement of privileges and immunities, claimed, justly or unjustly, by the Church.

In the beginning of December, Frederic, in perfect amity with Honorius, appointed his German Chancellor, Conrad Bishop of Metz, Imperial Vicar in northern and central Italy; that is to say, in all parts of Italy not belonging, to the papacy or the duchy of Apulia; and left Rome for his maternal kingdom. There, his presence was indeed wanted.

Both Apulia and Sicily were again in a state of actual anarchy, the royal authority having well nigh ceased to exist, since the departure of the Empress for Germany. Time out of mind, the most lavish grants of all descriptions had dilapidated the public resources. They had been made by Tancred, to secure his usurped throne, by the several contending guardians of Frederic’s youth, to purchase partisans; some of which last the young King had compulsorily ratified. This improvident, or rather this selfish prodigality of royal domains, combined with malversation in the finances, with forcible appropriations of public property by the potent nobles, and with the absolute exemption of all ecclesiastics from taxation, and from the jurisdiction of lay tribunals, had completely stripped the crown of the means of upholding authority. Taking advantage of this weakness in the sovereign power, arbitrary violence everywhere set the government at defiance; and those, who had cause to fear lawful chastisement, were everywhere erecting strong castles, calculated to brave the royal forces; whilst an underhand, if not yet an open, attempt was afoot, to set up the pretender Innocent had apprehended, the son of Tancredo’s eldest daughter Albina, against Frederic. Licence and immorality were, as usual, the offspring and associates of anarchy.

The Emperor re-entered his Italian realms, upon the 15th of December, 1220, and did not long hesitate as to the course to be pursued. He summoned an assembly of the Estates of the continental provinces to sit at Capua, and assist him in finding remedies for the existing disorders. To this assembly the usurping nobles came, prepared to defend their usurpations; and, should need be, to dare the royal authority. But, on the other hand, he found in the union of the less potent of the order—who envied those formidable barons the seizures of property and tyranny which, singly, they themselves were too weak either to resist or to imitate—sufficient strength to support his energetic measures. They constituted a numerical majority; and, with their concurrence, the King both issued laws for the observance of order and morality, and took steps for facilitating the resumption of noxious alienations of crown rights or property, by requiring the production of documents and vouchers, relative to all royal grants, made since the death of William II, in order to the investigation of their legality. Numbers of these grants, upon the various grounds of illegality, of the grantor’s acting under compulsion, or being destitute of authority to dispose of the property, of offences implying forfeiture on the part of the grantees—as traitorous correspondence with Otho IV, arbitrary oppression of the people, breaches of the peace, and the like—were revoked; thus at once weakening the turbulent party, and materially adding to the wealth and power of the monarch. Amongst the concessions thus cancelled, are found many of those to two brothers of Innocent, Cardinal Stefano and Conte Ricciardo. Whether the ground were, that the grants were exorbitant, and obtained by an unauthorized use of the Pope’s name, or that Frederic’s sanction had been given rather from inability to refuse, or a sense of his great need of future papal support, than in token of gratitude to his guardian, can only be matter of conjecture.

The powerful Conte di Celano was compelled to surrender many fiefs; so was the still imprisoned Diephold, amongst others, apparently, the county of Acerra, which soon afterwards appears in the possession of the Aquina family. Diephold himself was immediately released from captivity, either as the reward of this surrender, or by way of conciliating the Germans, settled in Apulia. Further, all recently built strong castles were ordered to be dismantled, and obedience to the laws just published at Frederic’s coronation, was enjoined.

Amidst these important cares, Frederic forwarded the preparations for the crusading armament, with an activity, resembling the original and genuine crusading spirit. But as the enlightened Emperor, whose philosophic toleration afterwards brought upon him the charge of atheism, cannot well be supposed so actuated, the idea suggests itself, of his having looked upon the Syro-Frank states, as valuable outworks of Christendom against Saracen ambition and the rapacity of the savage Turcoman tribes. Frederic’s early-developed statesmanship, and the degree in which the Mahommedans had very lately shown them­selves threatening to Oriental Christendom, make this more probable, than that he was reluctantly fulfilling a rash engagement, or veiling a projected breach of that engagement. He certainly did not propose, as yet, to go in person to the Holy War; but he diligently collected reinforcements for the Crusaders; and managed, in the spring of 1221, to send an armament of some forty galleys, under the command of the Duke of Bavaria and the Bishop of Passau, to Egypt. This armament was followed, some months later, by another, even more considerable, under Sicilian leaders, the Grand-Chancellor, Bishop of Troja, and the Grand-Admiral, the Conte di Malta. Finding himself deficient in funds for equipping these armaments, the Emperor had required his clergy to assist in defraying the expense of a hallowed expedition; for which Honorius severely censured him, as also for not himself accompanying his Crusaders, although the Holy Father had previously allowed that he must, for the moment, be excused so doing.

The theatre of the holy warfare, in which Frederic’s Crusaders were designed to participate, had not the powerful hold, upon all Christian sympathies, of the Holy Land. King John, carrying out the idea that Jerusalem would be best recovered in Egypt, had, as before intimated, sailed for that country, upon the arrival of the Crusaders from the Rhine; and, landing in the month of May, 1218, had laid siege to Damietta. The place was bravely attacked and as bravely defended; but Kameel, his father Malek el Adel’s Lieutenant in that part of his dominions, had no army with which to attempt its relief; the movements of the Christians appearing to have awakened so little anxiety for Egypt, that the Sultan remained in the neighbourhood of Damascus, without attending to his son’s repeated demand for troops to meet the invaders. The siege, nevertheless, lasted a year and a half, chiefly owing to the way, in which the warrior King’s measures were thwarted, by his ecclesiastical colleagues and masters. The besiegers were making good progress, when, in September, Cardinal Pelayo Galvan, Bishop of Alba, arrived, bringing reinforcements; but, also, his own appointment as Legate; in which character, as the representative of the Pope, he claimed not merely “a voice potential, double as the King’s,” but the actual command of the army. Cardinal Pelayo, as a Spaniard, was probably little versed in Oriental affairs; and at all events was no experienced general. But still worse, he was, if disinterested, very conceited—as Legate at Constantinople he had given great offence by his arrogance—and seemingly, somewhat incapable.

The length of the siege gave birth to some improvements in the machinery employed; that most admired, apparently, being the protection with netting, or perhaps wicker-work, of the platforms and drawbridges of the towers, standing upon vessels in the river, against the stones hurled by the besieged, and of the whole tower, with skins, against the Greek fire. It gave birth, likewise, to many displays of fortitude, and many feats of heroism, especially on the part of the Teutonic Knights and their Grand-Master, Hermann von Salza, and of the Duke of Austria; none, however, so peculiar, or so important as to be entitled to specific notice.

When the Sultan was at length awakened to the danger of Damietta, and preparing to assist his son, his proceedings were suddenly arrested by death. Kameel succeeded him, as Sultan of Egypt; but, though acknowledged by his five younger brothers as a sort of Lord Paramount, received no help from them. The fraternal wars, usual amongst the numerous sons—by rival mothers—of a deceased Moslem potentate, speedily broke out; and Kameel, remaining for the moment too weak to encounter the Crusaders, could attempt nothing for the relief of Damietta. At length, when the eighteenth month of the siege was in progress, and the town reduced to such extremities that its early fall was anticipated by all parties, Kameel obtained from his brother Moaddham Isa, Sultan of Damascus—the Corradinus of Latin chroniclers—assistance, of a kind least to have been expected. Moaddham, to whose share of the family dominions Palestine appertained, allowed his brother to offer the restoration of all the conquered portion of the Holy Land, except the two southern fortresses of Karac and Montreal, as the price of evacuating Egypt.

That the King of Jerusalem was eager to close with an offer, which—whatever might be his misgivings as to his power of permanently keeping what was restored—realized, for the moment, all his hopes, proving the wisdom of his plan of operations, hardly need be said. As little, that the bulk of the Crusaders were delighted to have thus fulfilled their vow, and achieved its grand object, the recovery of the Holy City. But again the Legate interfered. He would almost seem to have regarded the invasion of Egypt, not as the means but the end; inasmuch as he now averred that the possession of Jerusalem, so regained, by negotiation with God’s enemies, dilapidated as it was—Moaddham had dismantled the town preparatory to offering its restitution—could be neither beneficial nor permanent, unless the Sultan paid down 300,000 gold pieces towards repairing the fortifications, and added the two southern fortresses. Nay, he contended that even then Damietta,—which must immediately fall—would, by giving the command of the trade of Egypt, form the nucleus of a Christian realm, far stronger than the Kingdom of Jerusalem in its best condition; and must not, therefore, be given in exchange for Palestine. This view, throwing the recovery of the Holy Places into the background, if a larger or more desirable territory could be acquired elsewhere, is so repugnant to the Crusading spirit, as to seem unintelligible. The recollection, that the Roman See claimed every country conquered from the presumed enemies of God, might lead to seeking its origin in the individual ambition of the Cardinal, who would naturally expect to be the Papal Governor of Damietta. But the suspicion dies away as the narrative proceeds; for, whilst his ignorance, folly, and arrogance, would account for any blunder, he will be found still convinced that he had taken the best way to recover Palestine. King John was not supported. The Legate’s view was adopted, not only by all the prelates in the army, the Patriarch of Jerusalem included, but by the three Grand-Masters; who professed apprehension of some snare in Moaddham’s extraordinary liberality; and, perhaps, thought to gain by negotiation instead of the sword, degrading. Kameel’s proposal was rejected.

Damietta had now become little better than a charnel­house, its 70,000 or 80,000 inhabitants having dwindled to 10,000, or, according to some authorities, even to 3000, and those, dying of famine and an epidemic. Being thus incapable of longer resistance, upon the 5th of November, 1219, four days after the offer was rejected, the town was taken, and a massacre of the few wretched survivors commenced. This the leaders interfered to check; though hardly from an impulse of humanity; the wealthy being saved in the expectation of their paying heavy ransoms, the indigent, to be sold as slaves. The actual fall of Damietta and of the few neighbouring places which immediately surrendered, is said to have been mainly due to the Marians and their Grand-Master—another of the remarkable men of the epoch and whose name will frequently recur during the next few years. Hermann von Salza was the fourth Grand-Master of his Order, and upon him devolved the office of completing its previously imperfect constitution; whilst, under him, the Marians first rose to rivalry with the Templars and Hospitallers. His great abilities and universally acknowledged unimpeachable rectitude of character gave him weight throughout Christendom; and the historians of the Order depict him, as good, as he was valiant and able; tending the sick in person, and punctually discharging every duty both of a Grand-Master and of a Knight Hospitaler, the Order to which he naturally most assimilated his Teutonic Knights, whose origin had been so nearly the same.

The Legate now triumphed, and was pronounced, by Honorius, a second Joshua; but with this conquest terminated the military success of Cardinal Pelayo. In the first place, the disposal of Damietta produced dissension; John’s claim to it as a province of, or at least a dependency upon, his monarchy—seemingly a necessary part of the project of conquering Egypt in order to give the kingdom of Jerusalem stability—was vehemently resisted by the Legate: and, when at last allowed, pretensions were advanced and successfully inforced, to large portions of the town, for the Papal See, and for every nation, French, English, German, and Italian, that had contributed Crusaders to the enterprise. A species of partnership-sovereignty, peculiar to the Syro-Latin States and the Latin Empire of Constantinople.

A long period of inaction followed, very many Crusaders choosing—since the Crusade, after a year and a half’s continuance of toils and hardships, was not held to be over—to enjoy their share of the booty in idleness and pleasures, ere returning to similar toils and hardships. As many went home, deeming their vow sufficiently performed, since Jerusalem had been offered them. The Legate seemed disposed to rest awhile upon his laurels; and he, who was most interested in prosecuting the war, the King of Jerusalem, in his indignation at Pelayo’s thwarting his plans and disappointing his hopes, appears to have eagerly seized an occasion, just then offering, to quit Egypt and the army that he had brought thither.

The occasion was this. Since the death of Maria Yolanthe, her widower had married another royal heiress, the eldest daughter of Leo King of Armenia. Leo had died, and John declared that his presence, in his wife’s kingdom, was indispensable to secure her succession. He accordingly hastened to Armenia, but he went without his consort; and the Armenians had not adopted the European notion, that heiresses were mere conductors, through which a birthright might be transmitted to men. They would acknowledge, as their sovereign, only their native Princess, not her husband in her stead, and he returned to Acre to fetch her. But, at Acre, a violent quarrel occurred between the royal pair, originating in the King’s suspicion that his Armenian wife had attempted to poison her step­daughter, the infant Queen of Jerusalem; though why she should commit a crime, not merely useless, but likely to rob her husband and herself of a kingdom, does not appear. In this quarrel, John treated his wife so brutally, that her death was the consequence. With her died, of course, his hopes of Armenia; to which realm her younger sister succeeded; or rather a kinsman of Leo’s, named Constant, who, as regent for her, reigned over Armenia as long as he lived.

In Egypt, the year 1220 passed in the inaction above mentioned, prolonged sorely against the will of the Legate; the penalty of his illiberality towards King John. After a brief period of winter’ repose, to enjoy his triumph, the Cardinal had grown impatient to advance upon Cairo; but the Crusaders positively refused to march without a proper leader. It might seem that, if they objected to the Legate, notwithstanding his paramount authority, as wanting soldierly experience, the three Grand-Masters were amply able to supply his deficiency in that respect But perhaps the supremacy of Pelayo’s legatine authority could, in the opinion of the Crusaders, be counterbalanced only by a royal general; and, whilst no European monarch presented himself, the King of Jerusalem had been driven away in disgust. During such protracted inaction, licentiousness more and more prevailed in this host of insubordinate volunteers; and is said to have been latterly accompanied by dishonesty.

Francis of Assisi’s attempt to convert Sultan Kameel, is placed during this year, 1220. Some of the old chroniclers have stated that, at the time of his visit, a price had been set upon the heads of all Christians; which, however repugnant to the characters of Saladin, Malek el Adel, and yet more, as will be seen of Kameel, is possible, from the intolerant spirit of the age, and the unprovoked invasion. If true, the threat would only be an incentive to the future saint, since it is by no means clear whether he were more desirous of converting the Sultan and his people, or of gaining the crown of martyrdom. With the last he seemed likely to be indulged, being seized and carried before the Sultan in chains. Thus to confront the Moslem sovereign had been his object, and boldly exhorting him to embrace the Christian faith with all his subjects, he offered, as a test of which was the true religion, Christianity or Islam, to ascend a burning pile in company with an Imam. The Imams showed no disposition to accept the challenge, but vehemently insisted that the Giaour should be put to death. Kameel disappointed both parties. He refused to tempt the Almighty, by calling for a miracle to confirm his faith; whilst he silenced his intolerant priests, much as Saladin had done in a similar case, saying: “Far be it from me to slay him who came hither desiring, however mistakenly, to do us good.” He sent the eager missionary unharmed to the Christian camp, and thenceforward showed mercy to Christian prisoners.

Still the conquerors of Damietta lingered idly there; but Kameel was unable to profit by their inaction. The Mongols, under Genghis Khan, were then beginning to menace the civilized world with thraldom and barbarism. Vanquishing and enslaving all around them, pressing the most warlike into their service—modern investigation makes the bulk of Genghis Khan’s army not Mongols but Turks or Turcomans—expelling those who would not submit to the yoke, they drove whole nations of barbarians onward. If the Mongols themselves had not yet become objects of general terror to the civilized world, the Kharismians, flying before them, were pouring—devastators, if not conquerors—upon western Asia; and Kameel’s brothers, anxiously watching the advancing flood, durst not, had they been ever so fraternally disposed towards him, send a man from their own dominions to his assistance. He, however, diligently employed the unexpected pause to prepare his own resources.

In 1221, the aspect of affairs in Egypt changed. In May the first division of Imperial Crusaders, under the Duke of Bavaria, landed. Their arrival stimulated the conquerors of Damietta to fresh enterprise; the Legate’s plan for attacking Cairo was now generally approved, and King John rejoined the army, to take the conduct of the operation upon himself. But all, whilst approving the plan, objected to beginning its execution at that moment. The Duke of Bavaria announced the second armament, which the Emperor was sedulously equipping, together with the Imperial desire, that its arrival should be the signal for renewing hostilities. But he and his companions urged delay, in vain. As vainly, did John represent both the respect due to the wishes of the Emperor—to whom they looked as their main support, independently even of the wisdom of his advice—and the absurdity of undertaking a march along the banks of the Nile, at the very season when the fertilizing inundation of its waters might be daily expected. Cardinal Pelayo calculated upon reaching Cairo before the inundation should make much progress, and was peremptory; the Crusaders, weary of their long repose, were impatient; and the forward movement began.

The result was, what had been foretold; and has been graphically described by one of their body, who says “they went like birds to the snare, like fish to the net.” Some progress was indeed made in safety, but the Crusaders were still far distant from Cairo, when calamities began to accumulate around them. Kameel’s preparations were now complete, and, skilfully watching his opportunities, he began to act against the invaders. His first measure was the capture of the vessels, conveying their provisions up the river. Just as the Crusaders were thus thrown for their subsistence upon the country, through which they were passing, the Nile overflowed; and they found themselves without food, surrounded by water, mud, and the enemy, in considerable and ever-increasing force. In this distressed situation the Legate attempted to retreat as idly as he had attempted to advance; the inundation obstructed the one movement as much as the other. The whole army escaped drowning or starvation only by surrendering at discretion. Kameel, clement and politic, even in this condition of the invaders, judged it expedient to propose a fair compensation, for the bloodless clearance of his territories. Whilst he permitted the Crusaders freely to purchase provisions, he himself supplied the indigent among them with bread; and in this extremity of their distress, he again offered the city of Jerusalem, with the district requisite for communication with Acre, and the true Cross, in return for the immediate restitution of Damietta and evacuation of Egypt; to be preceded by a general release of prisoners. That the Crusaders, in the position in which they then were, thankfully accepted these conditions, need hardly be said. For the punctual execution of the Crusaders’ part, hostages were given, of whom the King of Jerusalem was one: whence arose a cordial friendship betwixt him and Sultan Kameel. They concluded separately an eight years’ truce for their dominions, liable to be at any time terminated, by the appearance in the East, of a Crusade headed by an European monarch. Moaddham, however, did not hold himself bound by the promise of his brother, whom he probably thought weakly liberal of another’s property, and gave up neither Jerusalem nor the True Cross.

Whether the Emperor’s second armament reached the mouth of the Nile only after this catastrophe, or whether the leaders, arriving when the forward march had already begun, were paralysed by want of instructions, and even of communications from the Legate,—that King John and the Duke of Bavaria should not have guarded against such an omission, seems impossible—or whether they were duped, or scared, by Moslem agents, from ascending the Nile in their vessels to the relief of their brethren, are still disputed questions amongst historians. The third hypothesis derives probability from the circumstance that, of the two leaders, the Grand­Chancellor fled, from his master’s apprehended displeasure, to Venice, where he died in obscurity; whilst the Earl of Malta, who returned with the fleet to Sicily, was deprived of his post of Grand-Admiral, and of several fiefs. But so does the first, from the remark of an Arab writer, Makrisi, that it was Allah’s mercy the Emperor’s fleet did not arrive earlier.

Hermann von Salza carried to Italy the first tidings of this self-invited catastrophe, which overwhelmed Honorius with grief and disappointment. According to Muratori, he threatened, in his exasperation to excommunicate the Emperor, to whose absence he attributed disasters, caused by his own Legate’s presumptuous incapacity; and which, had Frederic sailed at the appointed time, August 1221, he would have been too late to prevent, though not, perhaps, to relieve and diminish. If the Pope were thus unreasonably irritated, his anger appears to have been speedily allayed by the representations of the respected Marian Grand-Master; who, after pacifying the pontiff, proceeded with his melancholy intelligence to the Imperial court; and Frederic declared that the news pierced his heart like a sword. It was upon this occasion, that Hermann von Salza first became known to the Emperor, by whom he was at once appreciated and, thenceforward, highly valued : the Grand-Master, on his part, conceiving both profound admiration and devoted attachment for the Emperor. Honorius, convinced, apparently, that the disaster was not owing to any needless procrastination in the Emperor, appointed an interview with him, in the following April, 1222, to consult upon the measures which the sad occasion required. They met accordingly; and merely agreed to invite an assembly of European sovereigns, or their representatives, with deputies from all Christian states, to meet at Verona, in the month of November next ensuing, then and there to deliberate and decide upon the means of relieving the Holy Land. At this assembly, they invited the King of Jerusalem and the Grand-Masters of the three Orders to attend, and afford the benefit of their knowledge and experience. At the preliminary April interview, the Emperor-King was prevailed upon to soothe the Pope’s mortification and sorrow, by publishing a law, that condemned obstinate heretics to the flames; their usual doom, when sentenced to death, as too often has been seen, though not exclusively theirs, and never pronounced against them by Innocent III, or previously sanctioned by Frederic II.

But, if the Holy Father were thus consoled in April, in November everything was unpropitious. He himself was ill; Frederic, occupied by intestine wars in Sicily, where his Saracen subjects were in rebellion; the Oriental dignitaries invited, and for whose conveyance the Emperor had sent vessels, were unable, and the European unwilling, to attend. The projected Congress therefore did not take place ; and only in the following spring of 1223, did the Pope, the Emperor, the King and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the three Grand-Masters, and a few other judicious and important personages, anxious for the object in view, assemble at Ferentino. Great harmony here prevailed, owing chiefly to the exertions of Hermann von Salza, who, strong in his high character and in the renown he and his Marians had acquired at the siege of Damietta, interposed his mediation and impartial representations, whenever views clashed or discord threatened. The calm consideration, thus secured, satisfied those most interested, and therefore most inclined to suspicion, that no disposable force, sufficient to effect any material object, so as to compensate for terminating the truce which assured temporary repose to the Syro-Frank states, at that moment existed. Under such circumstances, the unanimous decision of all parties was, that the projected Crusade must again be deferred for two years; during which, every nerve should be strained to render it then effective. Honorius undertook to endeavour, at least, by letter, to revive the zeal of the European Sovereigns, for the redemption of the Holy Land from the yoke of misbelievers. King John was to assist these endeavours, by personally visiting the several courts, vividly portraying the distress of the Syrian Christians, and urgently imploring the exertions of all Christian princes in their behalf; and the Emperor pledged himself to make such strenuous efforts to get rid of the difficulties still hampering him—especially extinguishing the Saracen rebellion in Sicily—as to be certainly ready to sail, by Midsummer, 1225. The Grand­Master of the Marians suggested to Honorius that, Frederic being then a widower—the Empress Constance had died the preceding year—a marriage between him and Yolanthe, the young Queen of Jerusalem, would bind him, by his own interest, to the cause they had at heart. The idea was generally approved. The Pope saw no alarming increase of Imperial power in the possession of a small and remote state, which must, at Frederic’s death, be again severed from the Empire, as the heritage of the second wife’s children. Frederic himself was well pleased to add to his kingdoms another, of such high name and dignity, even if to be reconquered ere possessed; and to make the acquisition, by accepting a youthful bride, reported to be very lovely; whilst the other party most interested, the lady’s father, King John, was gratified with the prospect of seeing his daughter an Empress; and yet more, with the persuasion that, even if his nominal abdication should form part of the scheme, the authority must perforce still be his, from the necessarily habitual absence of the Emperor; whereas a son-in-law’, in the position that had been his own, would reside in his wife’s kingdom, and struggle for the power, in addition to the name, of a king.

Frederic exerted himself vigorously to clear the way for fulfilling the engagements anew, to which he was pledged. The leader of the Apulian rebellion was again the Conte di Celano; in revenge, perhaps, for the forfeiture of some of his grants. This potent Earl, to whom Muratori imputes the poisoning of Marchese Aldrovandini di Este, the Emperor completely subdued; whereupon the other turbulent nobles submitted. And now, having tranquillized the continental portion of his Italian dominions, he passed over into Sicily, in force sufficient to recover Syracuse from the Genoese, and to reduce the mountain Saracens to absolute subjection. He then determined, as a preventive of their future revolts, to remove them from those fastnesses constituting their strength, and from that proximity to Africa enabling them to draw constant reinforcements thence, jointly fostering in them a spirit of independence; and settle them upon the continent of Italy. There he proposed to give them a large district of the Capitanata with Luceria for their capital, and another in the Principato Citra, with Nocera for their chief city; thinking, probably, that, even in their new homes, to divide them between two provinces, in both of which the Christians would still be the more numerous, were better than again to concentrate the whole Saracen population in one place. This wholesale migration he could not, indeed, at once accomplish; as he desired to induce, rather than compel, removal; and numbers refused to quit their mountain dwellings. Nevertheless, the valuable estates and other advantages, offered, tempted about 20,000 families to comply with their conquering monarch’s wishes; and, in the Capitanata, they found every necessary and every comfort that could reconcile them to their transplantation. In a very short time, the Lucerian Saracens became, not only quiet and loyal subjects, but devotedly attached to Frederic and his race. To avoid the necessity of recurring to this measure, chiefly interesting by its completeness, it may be here stated, that, in the course of the next ten years, the report of their happy establishment influenced those who had at first refused to move. They followed their countrymen, and were domiciliated in and about Nocera—called, in reprobation of their religion, Nocera del Pagani. The Sicilian mountains were thus nearly cleared of Mohammedans.

Simultaneously with the Emperor’s exertions to crush actual, and prevent future, rebellion, had proceeded his preparations for the Crusade, designed to recover for his betrothed bride the whole of her patrimonial kingdom. He had had almost to new create the once formidable Sicilian navy; in which the armaments sent to Egypt shew him already reasonably successful. By the beginning of the appointed year, 1225, he had in his ports, ready for sea, two galleys, with transports sufficient for the conveyance of 2,000 knights or men at arms, with their horses, and 10,000 infantry. Whilst this had been in progress, some few causes of dissension with the Pope had occurred; but, on either side, a conciliatory spirit existed, preventing the evil consequences that might have been apprehended. 

John’s efforts had been less successful. He found the Kings of France and England, Lewis VIII and Henry III,—or rather his guardians—too much occupied by broils with their respective great vassals, and by wars with each other—although the former had seemingly abandoned his pretensions to the English throne—to engage in a distant expedition. He found further, that the French chivalry had either outlived the crusading spirit, or had discovered a more convenient theatre for indulging their zeal at home, amongst the half-avowed, half-concealed remnant of the Albigenses. Lewis’s own Crusade against those unfortunate sectarians, during his father’s life, not less replete with perfidy than its more anarchial predecessors, had materially contributed to Simon de Montfort’s secure possession of his conquests. The able as unprincipled conqueror’s acknowledgment of the King’s sovereignty had been little more than nominal: but he was now gone to his final account; and his eldest son and heir, Amaury de Montfort, seems to have been as free from the inordinate ambition, as he was destitute of the talents of the conquering Crusader. After losing most of his father’s acquisitions to Raymond VII, he had deemed it expedient to surrender the small remainder, with his empty title of Comte de Toulouse, to the King; who, on his part, thought the most advantageous use to be made of this surrender, was to regrant the title, with reduced dominions, to his own near kinsman, the hereditary earl Raymond VII: that is to say, he granted him all that he, Raymond, had himself recovered, and a little more. But, the Albigenses being still unconverted, even this step did not quite put an end to the Crusade, alias, civil war, in those provinces. The Peninsular monarchs were, as usual, fighting the battle of the Church, together with their own, at home. And the only result of King John’s crusade-exciting mission seems to have been his own third marriage with a daughter of Alfonso IX of Leon; and, perhaps, the payment of a bequest, by Philip Augustus, towards the expenses of recovering Jerusalem, of 300,000 lb. of silver; to be allotted, in equal shares, for that purpose, to the Syro-Frank King, the Templars, and the Hospitallers. But the bequest itself is problematical, and the payment yet more so. John asserted that he should not thus have failed, had his exertions not been counteracted, however unintentionally, by those zealous crusade preachers the Mendicant Friars: who themselves failed—the Dominicans, through their being unfurnished with papal authority to grant absolution to those who took the Cross; the Franciscans, through their recklessly granting it for every sin and crime, of which a crusader could be guilty, superadded to their coarse manners.

The Pope, upon receiving this very unsatisfactory report, imputed, seemingly, the King’s want of success, to want of skill, and sent legates of acknowledged abilities to preach the Crusade throughout western Europe; whilst the Emperor, with his approbation, employed the Marian Grand-Master, now his most trusted friend and counsellor, to excite the religious zeal of Germany. All proved so ineffective, that Honorius himself judged it expedient to give two years more to the necessary preparations: which intervening time was to be employed in rekindling the extinguished enthusiasm. The King and the Patriarch of Jerusalem both concurred in the propriety of the delay. But, with respect to the Emperor, though his own interest might now have been deemed sufficient guarantee against his even wishing to evade his engagement, conditions more stringent than before were attached to the extension of time. The minimum number of the vessels he was to provide, of the troops he was to furnish, &c., was fixed; and failure in any one of the points specified, or of setting forth upon, if not before, the appointed day, was ipso facto to incur excommunication. A Diet, for the regulation of all crusade operations, was convoked to meet at Cremona, in the year 1226.

During this fresh delay of two years, Honorius assuredly did not intentionally neglect the interests of the Holy Land, or the furtherance of the expedition for its relief; but he devoted much time and thought to the affairs of the Latin empire of Constantinople; which he favoured in a manner, that proved detrimental to his other and principal object. This Empire, conquered seemingly only to be torn to pieces, was in a state of disorder approaching to anarchy. The Venetians did not indeed quarrel, as might have been feared, with their partners in empire; but fully occupied in winning and keeping the islands and maritime districts of the Morea, with their three eighths of the capital forming their share, they afforded the Emperor no support. The Greeks refused both payment of tithes and spiritual obedience to the intrusive Latin priests the Latin conquerors grudged all payments, even to the pastors of their own Church; and the Latin Patriarch aspired to absolute spiritual supremacy, independent of Rome. Palace plots and political factions divided the corrupt and licentious laity, of both creeds and both races; and over all these elements of irreconcileable discord, Robert, a weak, rude, ignorant and profligate youth, too cowardly to head his troops,—habitually defeated by his able rival, Vatazes of Nicaea, son-in-law and successor of Theodore Lascaris,—pretended to reign. Of the style of his government, of what he dared to do, and what he was obliged to endure, as also of the state of society at Constantinople, his matrimonial adventures may afford a tolerable specimen.

A marriage contract had, with judicious policy, been negotiated and concluded for the young Emperor, with a daughter of the most formidable amongst his Greek rivals for the Byzantine Empire, Vatazes, Emperor of Nicaea. But chancing, before the wedding was actually solemnized, to see the affianced bride of one of his own knights, a Burgundian, he was so enamoured of her beauty, that, forgetful of what was due, alike to his betrothed empress and her powerful father, to his faithful vassal, as to his own character and station, he caused the Burgundian’s bride to be seized, and, together with her mother, brought to his palace. There, possibly finding her inflexible to solicitations yet more illicit, he secretly married her. The defrauded and infuriated bridegroom—whether aware of her actual marriage seems doubtful, as, indeed, Gibbon leaves the marriage itself—assembled his friends to avenge the insult offered him. They broke into the palace, flung the new-made Empress’s mother, as the Emperor’s tool, into the sea, and seizing the faithless beauty, not only shaved her head, but more permanently and savagely disfigured her, by cutting off her nose. The Emperor was unable to punish so gross an outrage! And for the sake of supporting a throne so helplessly tottering, from which nothing could rationally be expected towards healing the schism, Honorius really sacrificed the last chance of recovering the Holy Land 1 Untaught by the analogous mistake of Innocent III, he permitted any Crusaders who should take their way through Constantinople, to perform their vow in Robert’s service.

Meanwhile, in the year 1225, a deputation of Palestine Barons escorted Yolanthe to Palermo, where her nuptials with Frederic were immediately celebrated. The Barons thereupon did homage to him as King of Jerusalem; and he, assuming that title, despatched a bishop and two noble­men to Acre, as his Commissioners, in his name to receive oaths of allegiance from the whole vassalage, and to confirm the Chevalier Bertrand, who conducted the government as King John’s deputy, in his post. This measure, which at once blighted all de Brienne’s views of personal ambition and vanity, appears to have suddenly and completely alienated the ex-monarch from his Imperial son-in­law. For such an effect, Frederic might, possibly, have cared little, had not his father-in-law’s enmity been the means of envenoming the dissensions with Honorius, which about this time revived and increased.

At every step in the history of Frederic II, his deep resentment of the concessions extorted from his dying mother and from himself, when oppressed by the difficulties under which she had yielded, becomes more and more evident. Equally so, that, how much soever he may have compulsorily repressed, or even dissembled these sentiments, he was resolved to adhere to those concessions, at the utmost, only whilst claimed by a Pope to whom he owed gratitude, which, notwithstanding those extortions, he confessed that he did to Innocent III. He now no longer conformed to those concessions. When prelates, personally or politically exceptionable, were elected by Sicilian or Apulian chapters, he now refused his sanction; the indispensableness of which Innocent himself had virtually acknowledged, by always giving that sanction, during his regency, in the royal name, not in his own. The chapters did not upon these refusals proceed to new elections, having, it may be surmised, been forbidden so to do by the Pope; and the sees remained vacant. To keep sees vacant, in order to appropriate  their revenues, was the very objectionable, but very common practice of those days; and, although in the present case the cause of vacancy was different, there can be little doubt but that Frederic would gladly take advantage of the pecuniary consequence. Such vacancy had been a ground of constantly increasing dissatisfaction, to Honorius; and when, in the year 1225, he saw Capua, Aversa, Brindisi, Salerno, and Cosenza, without bishops, through Frederic’s rejection of the elected prelates, his power of toleration was exhausted. He now, as the proper assertion of the right ceded by the Empress­Queen Constance, and the proper penalty of her son’s resistance to that cession, appointed prelates to all those sees, merely accompanying his announcement of the nomination to the Emperor-King of Sicily—to whom he had made no previous communication of his purpose—with a civilly expressed hope that the selection would be agreeable to him, the new prelates being distinguished for their learning and their virtues, as well as natives of his kingdom. The indignant Frederic refused to admit the Pope’s nominees as bishops; Honorius resented the refusal: other, minor causes of offence, on both sides, occurred, and an angry correspondence ensued. The ex-King of Jerusalem, in revenge for his disappointment of the vice-regal authority over Palestine, which at least he had hoped to retain, stimulated to the utmost of his power the Pope’s wrath. He revived the exploded allegation that Frederic was a supposititious child, and he accused him, not only of neglecting Yolanthe for licentious amours, and having completely and permanently separated himself from her, in resentment of her jealousy and complaints, but of having degraded himself by personal ill-usage and brutal violence towards the hapless young Empress-Queen. He gave weight to these accusations, by quitting his son-in-law’s court, and withdrawing, with his Spanish wife, to Bologna; where he was accused by Frederic of caballing to place his nephew, Walter, Tancred’s grandson, upon the Sicilian throne.

Upon John’s charges a few words must be bestowed. With respect to the first, it may be enough to remind the reader, that when first brought forward, it was held to have been beforehand refuted by the measures of precaution, now customary, but then nearly unprecedented, taken at Frederic’s birth, to prove him really the offspring of his mother; dispelling any doubts to which eight years of previous sterility, in a woman no longer young, might have given rise. Of the second charge, a part borrows credibility from the undeniable laxity of Frederic’s principles in regard to women. But his apologists aver that he indulged in illicit amours only during his periods of viduity; and. as far as such matters admit of proof from records, the assertion is corroborated by what is known touching the births of his illegitimate children. The eldest of his natural sons, Enzio, was born either between the death of Constance and his marriage to Yolanthe, or, at worst, during the five or six years of separation between the very juvenile husband and his wife, whilst Queen Constance acted as Regent of the Sicilies; Frederic of Antioch and Manfred, certainly between the death of Yolanthe and his nuptials with the English princess, Isabella; the dates of the birth of his natural daughters appear less ascertainable. As to the rest of this charge, that Yolanthe may have been jealous, and that conjugal quarrels may have ensued, is very possible; but that they caused no permanent separation of the royal and imperial pair, is demonstrated by the birth of their son Conrad, two years afterwards. The charge of personal ill-usage is too repugnant to Frederic’s whole character—John perhaps judged him by himself—to merit further notice than the remark, that no allusion to anything of the kind appears, in the epistles of Honorius to Frederic, of this date, blaming him for depriving his father-in-law of the government of the kingdom of Jerusalem (which the unfriendly Muratori deems the root of the ex-king’s anger), nor, subsequently, in Gregory IX’s fierce attack upon him.

During these delays, and amidst these dissensions, Frederic found spare time and attention to devote to the advancement of letters and of education, in his Italian realms; where, prior to his accession, such objects appear, except at the Abbey of Montecassino, to have scarce been thought of;—the University of Salerno was little more than a school of medicine. Daring his minority, indeed, some improvement had taken place; Cardinal Pietro, of Capua, having, by the direction of Innocent III, founded some schools at Naples. This Frederic considered to be a very inadequate provision for the enlightenment of his subjects. Therefore, uniting and remodelling these schools, he formed them, upon an enlarged and systematic plan, into the University of Naples. In order to render this university superior to all others, he sought for it the ablest Professors of all known sciences, which were to be there taught. He especially invited Dominicans to occupy any of the chairs; and, what is more remarkable, Franciscans, to teach theology. To make sure of the eminence of his Professors, he gave them salaries, in addition to the remuneration obtained from students, upon which, at other universities, they were then wholly dependent. But to these unwonted salaries, he attached the condition, that professors, who accepted them, were never to teach elsewhere, unless authorized to do so by himself. For that he did not quite give Naples a monopoly, appears from a letter of his, announcing a Professor of Civil Law, sent to Vercelli; a curious passage from which may be given:—“Need is that the majesty of the Empire be not only adorned with arms, but armed with laws. Whilst providing for the uses of our subject, we believe that we advantage ourselves, when we afford them means to acquire a kind of learning, which having mastered, they may take the field as pleaders of causes; and, made bold in the succour of an illustrious science, protect themselves, those next belonging to them, and their country”.

CHAPTER III. FREDERIC II. [1226—1228.

Affairs of Germany—Administration of Archbishop Engelbert— His Murder—Hostility of the Lombards—Delay of Cru­sade—Duke of Mazovia and the Prussians — Death of Honorius III—Gregory IX Pope—New delay of Crusade—Emperor excommunicated—Sails for Palestine.