XLIV.

After the surrender of Acre Philip returned to CHAP. France; and Richard, whose tremendous name was mentioned, sixty years afterwards, by mothers to silence their infants *, proceeded, at the head of the crusaders, for the recovery of the sea-coast. Cæsarea and Jaffa were taken, a march of a hundred miles. from Acre to Ascalon † was a continual battle, but Saladin found his enemy to be irresistible, and it was only by destroying the walls of Ascalon that he could prevent Richard from occupying an important fortress on the frontiers of Egypt. The armies slept during a severe winter; but it is probable that in the spring Richard would have taken Jerusalem, from whence he was at no great distance, if he had not been impatient to return to England, to punish a perfidious rival, who had invaded Normandy during his absence. After he went back to Acre, being informed that Jaffa was surprised by the sultan, he sailed with some merchant vessels, leaped foremost on the beach, relieved the castle by his presence, and sixty thousand Turks and Saracens fled before his The discovery of the weakness of his forces induced them to return in the morning, and they found him carelessly encamped before the gates, with only seventeen knights and three hundred archers. Without counting their numbers, he sustained their charge; and we learn, from the evidence of his enemies, that the king of England, grasping his lance, rode furiously along their front, from the right to the left wing, without meeting an adversary who dared to encounter his career. history of Orlando or Amadis ?

arms.

Am I writing the

* Joinville, p. 17. Cuides-tu que ce soit le roi Richart?

+ The expeditions to Ascalon, Jerusalem, and Jaffa, are related by Bohadin and Abulfeda. The author of the Itinerary, or the Monk of St. Albans, cannot exaggerate the cadhi's account of the prowess of Richard (Vinisauf), and on the whole of this war there is a marvellous agreement between the Christian and Mahometan writers, who mutually praise the virtues of their enemies.

'CHAP.

between

Saladin,

The war between Richard and Saladin was termiXLIV. nated by a treaty, of which the principal conditions Treaty were the free and open pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Richard and the holy sepulchre, without tribute or vexation; that, after the demolition of Ascalon, the Christians should inclusively possess the sea-coast from Jaffa to Tyre; that the count of Tripoli, and the prince of Antioch, should be comprised in the truce; and that all hostilities should cease during three years and three months*.

1192.

Death of

Saladin, 1193.

Fourth cru

sade against Constantinople.

Fifth crusade, 1218.

Richard departed for Europe, to experience a long captivity, and meet a premature grave; and the and the space of a few months concluded the life and glories of Saladin. The unity of empire was dissolved by his death. His sons were oppressed by their uncle Saphadin, and the hostile interests of the sultans of Egypt, Damascus, and Aleppo, were again renewed. Acre became the capital of the Franks or Latins; and they stood, and breathed, and hoped, in their fortresses along the coast of Syria, till they were finally expelled from the Holy Land, a hundred years after the surrender of Acre to Richard, and near two centuries after the conquest of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon.

The fourth and fifth crusades were undertaken at the voice of Pope Innocent the Third; but, except the king of Hungary, the princes of the second order were at the head of the pilgrims. The fourth crusade was diverted from Syria to Constantinople, and the conquest of the Greek empire by the Latins will form the important subject of the next chapter.

In the fifth crusade † two hundred thousand Franks

*The most copious and original account of this holy war is Galfridia Vinisauf Itinerarium Regis Anglorum Richardi et aliorum in Terram Hierosolymorum, in six books, published in the second volume of Gale's Scriptores Hist. Anglicanæ. Roger Hoveden and Matthew Paris afford likewise many valuable materials, and the former describes with accuracy the discipline and navigation of the English fleet.

† See the fifth crusade, and the siege of Damietta, in Jacobus a Vitriaco, an eye

XLIV.

were landed at the eastern mouth of the Nile. After CHAP. a siege of sixteen months, Damietta was taken; but the army of the Christians was wasted by sickness, desertions, and the inundations of the Nile. The remainder of the Franks were glad to obtain a safe retreat by the restoration of Damietta, and some concessions for other pilgrims who might afterwards be desirous of visiting Jerusalem.

crusade,

1248--1254.

The two last crusades were conducted by Louis Sixth the Ninth, king of France, who is better known by St. Louis, the title of St. Louis. Convinced that to effect a permament establishment in Palestine, it was necessary to begin with the conquest of Egypt, the last crusades were directed to that country. For this object Louis covered the sea of Cyprus with eighteen hundred sail, and disembarked an army, which, by the most moderate computation, amounted to fifty thousand, and by Oriental vanity has been swelled to nine thousand five hundred horse, and a hundred and thirty thousand foot *. Damietta was abandoned by the Moslems; but the same causes which ruined the fifth crusade were, on the same ground, productive of similar calamities to the sixth. The utmost exertions of the courage of the French, under the eye of their intrepid monarch, were not able to overcome pestilential diseases and the overflowings of the Nile. After taking Damietta, Louis advanced into the interior, and approached the capital; but the count of Artois, the king's brother, who led the van

witness, Bernard Thesaurarius, a contemporary, and Sanutus, a diligent compiler; and of the Arabians, Abulpharagius, and the extracts at the end of Joinville.

* Joinville, p. 32; Arabic Extracts, p. 549. I have two editions of the noble and gallant Joinville, who shared the friendship and captivity of St. Louis. The first of these editions (Paris, 1688) most valuable for the observations of Ducange; the other (Paris, au Louvre, 1761) most precious for the pure and authentic text, a MS. of which has been recently discovered. The last editor proves, that the history of St. Louis was finished A. D. 1309, without explaining, or even admiring, the age of the author, which must have exceeded ninety years (Preface, p. xi. ; Observations de Ducange, p. 17).

XLIV.

CHAP. guard, was overpowered and slain. The Nile was commanded by the Egyptian galleys, the open country by the Arabs. All provisions were intercepted; each day aggravated the sickness and distress. A retreat was found to be impracticable; and Louis, who would not desert his subjects, was made a prisoner, with the greatest part of his nobles. of his nobles. All who could not redeem their lives were inhumanly massacred. By the surrender of Damietta, and the payment of four hundred thousand pieces of gold, the king was at length permitted to depart; and, after waiting four years within the walls of Acre, he returned to France, without being able to visit Jerusalem.

Seventh crusade, 1270.

After an interval of sixteen years, Louis was induced to undertake the seventh and last crusade. He embarked with six thousand horse and thirty thousand foot; but was tempted, by the hope of baptizing the king of Tunis, to steer for the coast of Africa. Instead of a proselyte, he found a siege. The French panted and died on the burning sands. St. Louis expired in his tent, and his son immediately gave the signal of retreat.

Besides the seven great armaments of which I have spoken, almost every year was marked by the emigration of warlike pilgrims from the west of Europe. Among these, the emperor Frederic the Second, and Prince Ed- the English prince Edward, deserve to be noticed. ward, 1271. The former was more successful than most of the

preceding crusaders, and he obtained many privileges and advantages for the Latin Christians*. Our first Edward assumed the cross in the lifetime of his father. His design was to unite his forces with those of St. Louis in the seventh crusade; but the French mon

The original materials for the crusade of Frederic II. may be drawn from Richard de St. Germano (in Muratori Script. Rerum Ital.), and Matthew Paris. The most rational moderns are Fleury, Vertot, Giannone, and Muratori.

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arch expired before the arrival of the British prince CHAP. on the coast of Africa. Edward, though deprived of his ally, proceeded to Palestine. He landed at Acre with one thousand of his brave followers; and, animating the garrison by his courage, compelled the Moslems to abandon the siege of the city, which they had already undertaken. Emulating the fame of his great uncle Richard, he obtained many advantages over the enemy, and advanced as far as Nazareth. Notwithstanding a dangerous wound which he received from the dagger of aù assassin *, he extorted, by his successful valour, a truce for ten years in favour of the Christians. His departure for Europe was hastened by the declining health of his father (1272); and this was the last attempt deserving of notice that was made by the princes of the West in favour of the Christians in Palestine. The situation of those Christians in a few years became very precarious. After the taking of Antioch by Bondocdar or Badars, sultan of Egypt and Syria, the maritime towns of Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli, Berytus, Sidon, Tyre, and Jaffa, successively fell, and the existence of the Franks was confined to the city of St. John of Acre. That city continued to be the metropolis of the Latin Christians during the exact period of a century, from 1191, when it was taken by Richard, Acre taken, to the year 1291, when it was besieged by the sultan Franks exKhalil, at the head of an army of sixty thousand horse pelled from and one hundred and twenty thousand foot. The royal historian Abulfeda was a spectator of the siege. The defence was obstinate; but, at the end of thirtythree days, the city was carried by storm. Death or

* See Carte's History of England, vol. ii. p. 165-175, and his original authors, Thomas Wilkes and Walter Hemingford (1. iii. c. 34, 35), in Gale's Collection (tom. ii. p. 97, 589-592). They are both ignorant of the princess Eleanor's piety in sucking the poisoned wound, and saving her husband at the risk of her own life.

and the

Syria, 1291.