150

RICHARD SETS SAIL FROM ENGLAND.

Henry, and also to confirm him in the archbishopric of York.

So entirely, indeed, did the placable monarch forget his anger, that he added, of his own free will, some additional gifts and privileges; and, in return, Geoffrey received the personages whom Richard had nominated to offices in the church of York, promising to have them duly and solemnly installed after his consecration. Having terminated his short visit to England with an act of beneficence, Richard, with his attendants and the cardinal legate, set sail from Dover on the 11th of December, and landed safely at Calais, where he was honourably received by Philip, Count of Flanders, who escorted him, with every mark of respect, to the confines of Normandy.

BOOK XIV.

IN a preceding part of this volume I have given a detailed account of the events which had occurred in the Holy Land previous to the year 1176, at which period Henry of England and Louis of France solemnly pledged themselves to take the cross, and march to the deliverance of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem from the enemies and dangers which menaced it on every side. The narrative then conducted us down to the period when the power of Saladin was consolidated by the union of almost all the Syrian dominions of Noureddin with those territories in Egypt, which his own genius and that of his uncle had only nominally added to the Attabec empire. I have shown how he triumphed over the son and over the kinsman of his former lord, while, by temporary expedients, he suspended the operations of the Christians against him, and if he did not actually lull them into a feeling of security, at all events sowed dissensions in their councils, and deprived them of both harmony and vigour, at the only moment when the combined exertions of the knights and nobles of the Latin kingdom might have found a fair opportunity of preventing the reunion, under one Mahommedan prince, of that vast military power which, at the death of Noureddin, had been scattered and divided.

ASPECT OF AFFAIRS IN THE EAST.

151

Having related these facts, it seemed necessary to turn to the events immediately connected with English history, which took place between the year 1176 and Richard's accession to the throne; and in so doing, I have been frequently obliged to refer to the progress made by the Mahommedans of Syria in their warfare against the Christian princes of Palestine, contenting myself, however, with general statements respecting the disastrous condition to which the kingdom of Jerusalem was reduced, and reserving a more detailed account of the tragic occurrences which involved that kingdom in utter ruin for the part of the work which immediately precedes the famous expedition of Richard himself to the Holy Land, in order that every reader may comprehend the views and feelings with which the crusaders at this time drew the sword. We have now arrived at the point where it is necessary to resume once more the history of the Latin States of Palestine, and to bring it down to the time when Philip and Richard commenced, in earnest, their preparations for the third crusade.

In describing the political state of the Holy Land previous to the inglorious expedition of Louis VII., William of Tyre informs us that the country was divided into four separate principalities, of which the kingdom of Jerusalem was the chief; and he gives a lamentable picture of the selfish and interested views upon which all the princes of these four small states acted, utterly thoughtless of the common good, except in the presence of immediate and pressing danger, and each seeking nothing but his own aggrandisement by the extension of his territories. The aspect of all things, however, was very different at the period of which I now speak, and the object of ambition to the nobles of the Holy Land was no longer the acquisition of territories to be wrested from the infidel, but the government of the kingdom of Jerusalem, either as the minister of a diseased and declining monarch, as his successor on the throne, or as regent of the kingdom under a still weaker and less talented sovereign.

Perceiving that the malady under which he himself suffered was daily increasing, while the internal diseases of the state were making as rapid a progress, Baldwin, in order to put a stop to the intrigues which were going on around him, invited from Italy, William, called Longsword, son of the Marquis

152

THE COUNT OF FLANDERS IN PALESTINE.

of Montferrat, and bestowed on him the hand of his sister Sybilla. By the military skill for which he was famous, and by the mighty houses to which he was allied, the Leper monarch doubtless expected that William of Montferrat would prove a strong prop to the tottering throne of Jerusalem; but ere he had been many months in the Holy Land, the Italian prince was seized with a fatal distemper, and terminated an illustrious career in June, 1177, leaving his wife some months advanced in pregnancy.

Scarcely had he closed his eyes when the arrival of Philip, Count of Flanders, with considerable forces, and a numerous body of nobles, raised the hopes of the Christians of Palestine, fonly, however, to disappoint them severely. New intrigues sprang up immediately after his arrival; and though Baldwin, incapacitated for the time by illness, either to mount his horse or to conduct the civil government of his country, offered to his distinguished guest the regency of the kingdom of Jerusalem, it soon became evident to all the monarch's counsellors that Philip aimed at still greater advantages. He was frustrated, however, by the penetration and firmness of Baldwin's advisers, and, mortified and angry, he brought disunion into all the councils of the King of Jerusalem, impeding, and, in the end, preventing, the execution of a long-arranged enterprise against Egypt, in which the Emperor of Constantinople was to have borne a part.

After much hesitation and unknightly delay, having learned that Saladin, alarmed at the demonstrations made on the side of Egypt, had gathered together all the forces he could collect, and quitted Syria to defend the African portion of his dominions, leaving the defence of his Asiatic territories to his brother, Touranschah, a weak and incompetent prince, the Count of Flanders agreed to lead his men towards Aleppo, supported by a large body of the troops of Jerusalem, and co-operating with another Christian army under Renault, Prince of Antioch, who had been appointed regent of the kingdom upon his own refusal of that office.

It is necessary to remark that, according to the account of the Arabians, a truce existed between the King of Jerusalem and Malek Saleh, the young sovereign of Aleppo; but a strange clause, it would seem, had been inserted in the convention, to the effect that if the Franks of Palestine received

succour from the west, they were at liberty to resume the war. The first efforts of this expedition were directed against Hamah, but the Christians were there repulsed with great loss, and they then turned their arms against Harem, which they hoped more easily to reduce, as it was actually in a state of insurrection against Malek Saleh. That city had been for some time ruled by an emir named Kemeschtekin, supposed to have been of Christian origin, and even of European descent, if not actual birth. He was accused by the bigoted Mahommedans of still retaining the true faith at heart, or at least of feeling so much tenderness towards the professors of the Christian religion, as to favour them at the expense of his duty. Certain it is, that for some motives which we do not clearly perceive, he had liberated a number of Frankish prisoners; amongst whom is said to have been the famous Renault de Chatillon, who afterwards played a remarkable part in the Holy Land under the name of the Lord of Carac, as one of the most terrible scourges of the infidel. These charges had prevailed so much with Malek Saleh, that he ordered the arrest of Kemeschtekin, and afterwards put him to death. But before the latter act was perpetrated, the people of Harem had thrown off the yoke of Aleppo, and were besieged by the Christian forces under the command of the Count of Flanders and the Prince of Antioch. Of this siege it will be merely necessary to say that it lasted for several months, occupying the Christian troops in a vain and ineffectual effort; and that, in the end, it was terminated by the payment of a sum of money to the besiegers, and an ignominious retreat, after they had spent the time which ought to have been devoted energetically to the reduction of the fortress, in games, drunkenness, and debauchery.*

While such proceedings were taking place in Syria, much more important events occurred on the Arabian frontier of Palestine. Saladin received speedy intelligence that the Christians had broken their truce with Malek Saleh; and, either ignorant of the stipulation which enabled them to do so without a breach of faith, or regarding that stipulation in itself as unjust and iniquitous, he complained loudly of the act, and subsequently caused a number of Christian captives

• Guil. Tyr. lib. xxi., who in all these details is supported by the Arabian historians.

154

DEPARTURE OF SALADIN FOR ASCALON.

to be beheaded, by way of reprisals. At the same time, with his usual keen and clear-sighted decision, he prepared to take advantage of the gross error which the Christians had committed in consequence of the perfidious conduct of the Count of Flanders.

Instead of attacking the strongest enemy of Palestine, instead of carrying the great bulk of the Latin forces to the point where the kingdom of Jerusalem was menaced by immediate danger, instead of opposing their arms to a monarch actually at war with them, the Christian leaders-shackled by the Count of Flanders, who, against their expressed opinion, insisted upon marching into the territory of a prince with whom they were at peace-had directed their efforts to a quarter where no peril existed, had undertaken an enterprise where little or nothing was to be gained, and deprived the kingdom of Jerusalem of its best troops at the moment when they were most needed, and had left the Arabian frontier exposed to the most powerful and active enemy which the young kingdom had ever encountered.

To suppose that Saladin would not seize the opportunity, was to suppose him deprived of his senses. He knew that the districts of Gaza and Ascalon, and even Jerusalem itself, were almost destitute of troops; he knew that the bulk of the Christian force was occupied at a distance of several hundred miles from the southern frontier; he knew that the talented, but suffering, monarch of the Latin kingdom was lying ill of a distressing and fatal disease; and that Humphrey de Thoron, the constable of the kingdom, was himself upon a bed of sickness. The redoubtable Knights of the Temple and the Hospital, except a few of the former order, who remained to defend the town of Gaza, were wasting their time before Harem, and the way to the enemy's capital seemed at once open before him.

Without delay or hesitation, then, the sultan called all his forces together, bringing more men into the field, and taking greater precaution for their equipment and provision than he had ever done before; and, crossing the desert by forced marches, he reached the ancient town of Laris, where he left a part of his baggage, and a small body of his troops. Eager to make the most rapid progress possible, and confident of success, he did not pause to attack the towns on his way, as