Cyprus: Historical and Descriptive

by Franz von Löher

After all these things were arranged, the emperor came to Famagusta, and the next day, the 2nd of September, seven weeks after his landing in Cyprus, embarked, taking the young king with him, and accompanied by all the chivalry of the island. Their landing was effected at Beyrut, Sidon, Sarepta, and Tyre, as Frederick was desirous of becoming more intimately acquainted with the coast of Syria; he probably likewise intended that the armies of the Crusaders, employed upon the fortifications of Sidon and of Cæsarea, should enter Akkon while he remained upon the coast. In the last-mentioned city, the most populous and the most important in the Holy Land, the emperor was received with great ceremony. The Crusaders, more especially those from Germany, were jubilant; the clergy sang hymns of praise; the Templars and the Knights of St. John did homage to their sovereign, by kneeling before him and kissing his knees, according to the custom of the times. Nevertheless Frederick was well aware that, to use the words of an old writer, he was in a land where neither God nor man had ever yet found truth or loyalty.

The truth of this he soon found out. The Cyprians formed by far the greater part of the host of Eastern warriors, led by the high marshal Felingher, but the number of these was not more than two thousand. Rome had already taken her precautions. A Papal bull was issued denouncing Frederick, and he was placed under an interdict. Messages both from the Pope and the Patriarch warned the knights not to obey the emperor’s commands, and it was promulgated amongst the soldiery, that Frederick was under the curse of God, and of the Church, and that all his acts were of no effect. Multitudes of the Crusaders, despairing of the success of their undertaking, deserted. The Knights of the Temple and of St. John fell away from the emperor’s standard, and the rest of the warriors of the Cross refused to be led to battle. The Cyprian barons began to discuss the question whether the oath they had taken to Frederick, was not overridden by the feudal allegiance they owed to their king.

The Germans who had come over with the emperor under the command of their leader, Hermann von Salza, kept their plighted faith, and were the only supporters of the imperial authority: these, however, taking them all together, knights and squires, soldiers from Germany, Sicily, and Lombardy, hardly amounted to twelve thousand men. With so feeble an army—with the Eastern knights partly at open enmity, partly vacillating, with the clergy altogether inimical—it was quite impossible for Frederick to think of giving battle to the unbelievers. He established himself in a camp near Akkon, and while he strengthened the defences of Joppa, gave all his attention to the establishment of a secret understanding with the Sultan. Overtures to this effect had in truth been already made by him from Italy, and during his stay in Cyprus had been still further advanced.

Immediately on his arrival in the Holy Land it became clear what were the necessities of his position, and what there might be a possibility of his obtaining. The possession of the holy places; a free pass for pilgrims in Syria and Palestine, who must necessarily be under Christian jurisdiction; peace secured by the strength of the fortress and the solemn oath of the Mussulmans; all these were secured. Jerusalem, which, for nearly half a century had been in their hands, was, with the surrounding country, again placed in the power of the Christians, who held, moreover, Bethlehem and the intervening land. Joppa and a strip of country between that town and Jerusalem; Nazareth and the road from thence to Akkon; the fertile plain of Sidon; and in its neighbourhood the castle Turon, commanding the entire coast; all these castles and towns were permitted to be again fortified, and on the other side the Sultan promised that he would raise no new fortifications. All Christian prisoners, some of whom had been a long while in the hands of the Mussulmans, were to be set free. This peace was to last during ten years. All these arrangements were to be confirmed by the solemn oaths of both the contracting parties.

When the terms of this peace became known in Joppa, great joy was manifested by the Christians who accompanied the emperor to Jerusalem, where, on the day of his arrival (March 18, 1229), he offered up thanks in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. After this, approaching the high altar, he placed the crown of Jerusalem upon his head, and then returned to his place. No priest was allowed to take part in the rejoicings, which included festivities of every description. Their general, Hermann von Salza, read before all the soldiers and common people a manifesto by the emperor, explaining why he had not been able to come before, and telling them that the Pope had been compelled to publish his bann by pressure of circumstances, and that everything should now be arranged to secure peace among the heads of Christendom. Next day the Patriarch of Jerusalem assailed him with the Papal interdict. Frederick, in order to give no pretence for suppressing public worship, returned to Joppa, and from thence to Akkon.

Here the emperor remained for about five weeks, doing everything which his position allowed to make peace with the adherents of the Pope, at the head of whom stood the Patriarch of Jerusalem. The patriarch, however, found him, to use his own expression, “unhealthy from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot,” and seemed rather exasperated than otherwise at all the good that Frederick had achieved in so short a time. The proud Templars and Knights of St. John, were furious because the chief control lay no longer with them, but with the Germans. Even the ecclesiastics were principally from France, very few of them from Italy. Probably at no period of the world’s history has a body of men existed so steeped in pride, so full of haughtiness, luxury, and immorality, as the Templars. Well might they think that in his heart the emperor had the intention of expelling them from the Holy Land. The governors of the towns had instructions to watch them strictly, and from his first arrival in Syria, the emperor had endeavoured to give the ascendancy to his German followers, while he scarcely concealed his design of making the huge possessions of the Templars and Knights of Jerusalem subservient to the worship of Christ, instead of ministering to their insatiable debaucheries.

No wonder, therefore, that the burning hatred of the Templars was aroused. Were it now possible to trace out all their conspiracies against the life of Frederick, we should indeed have to deal with a tangled web, while the enmity of the Pope still further increased the dangers that surrounded him. The whole land was filled with the Papal troops, whose business was to plunder and to destroy, so that all the energies of the emperor were put in requisition to govern and defend the unhappy country. Balian of Sidon, a man universally respected, a nephew of Idelin and Walter d’Allemand, who deeply reverenced the Church, were appointed chief governors, and all fortified places received efficient garrisons and abundant supplies of provisions.

Above everything else, Frederick had in his mind the kingdom of Cyprus. That rich island must now furnish him with money to pay his officials in the Holy Land, and to supply his army with provisions and warlike stores. The kingdom of Jerusalem was no longer in a condition to pay the heavy costs; it now indeed consisted only of a few straggling towns, and a narrow strip of the sea-coast of Syria. Cyprus had already been made to pay considerable sums, which had been forwarded to the emperor, and in addition to these, the Archbishop of Nikosia found himself compelled to contribute largely; and now, before taking their departure for Akkon, came Amalrich von Balas, Hugo von Giblet, Gavain von Chenichy, and Wilhelm von Rivet, all belonging to the highest nobility in Cyprus, who had all of them conspired against Ibelin, and so represented him to the emperor, that he was deprived of his lordship. Undoubtedly they had all been sent for by the emperor himself, who thought that the best way to insure the safety of the island, was to put it into the hands of his most trusty friends, under the auspices of the young king. These five noblemen were instructed to form a regency, which should continue for three years, during which time they were to protect and govern the country, and to send over year by year ten thousand marks to be paid directly into the hands of Balian and Werner in Syria.

And now, after these arrangements, the emperor thought himself secure, and hoped that at least for a few years he should be able, not only to hold Cyprus, but also to defend his little kingdom of Jerusalem. At the end of that time he trusted that the people would have become accustomed to his government, or that at least he should be able to return with a greater force and more freedom of action.