The war against the infidels was preached in all the churches. Happy, said the sacred orators, are they who undertake this holy voyage; more happy are they who never return from it. Among the prodigies that appeared to announce the will of Heaven, the miraculous vision of a virgin of Lewenstein, is particularly mentioned. She had learnt the conquest of Jerusalem on the very day that the Saracens had entered the holy city, and rejoiced at the lamentable event, saying that it would furnish a means of salvation for the warriors of the West.[319]
The multitude of those who presented themselves to receive the cross was so great, that means were obliged to be taken to repress their ardour. Frederick, who had followed his uncle Conrad in the second crusade, was aware of the disorders and misfortunes that might result from too great a number of followers. He refused to receive under his banners any who could not take with them three marks of silver; and rejected all such vagabonds and adventurers as had, in the other expeditions, committed so many excesses, and dishonoured the cause of the Christians by their brigandage.
Frederick, before his departure, sent ambassadors to the emperor of Constantinople, and the sultan of Iconium, to demand freedom of passage through their states; and wrote to Saladin, to declare war, if he did not restore to the Franks Jerusalem and the other Christian cities that had surrendered to his arms.[320] The embassy addressed to Saladin, shows the spirit of chivalry in which Frederick entered upon this crusade. That which, without doubt, induced him to address the sultan of Iconium, was an opinion then spread through Europe, that the Mussulman prince had evinced a desire of embracing the Christian religion.[321] Frederick left Ratisbon at the head of an army of a hundred thousand combatants, and crossed Hungary and Bulgaria, as the first Crusaders had done. He arrived in the provinces of the Greek empire before Richard and Philip had embarked for Palestine.
Isaac Angelus was then seated on the throne of Constantinople; this prince had only been brave on one single day, and his courage procured him an empire. Andronicus, the Nero of the Greeks, having been warned by soothsayers that he would be dethroned by one of his subjects, who bore the name of Isaac, desired to get rid of Isaac Angelus, and sent one of his officers to conduct him to prison. Isaac, animated by despair, instead of obeying, threw himself upon the minister of Andronicus, struck him to the earth, and running into the public streets, cried out: “I have killed the devil! I have killed the devil!” Upon the report of this event spreading through the city, the people assembled in crowds and proclaimed Isaac emperor. In vain Andronicus endeavoured to quiet the storm; he was seized by his own soldiers, and loaded with chains. Dragged through the streets by an infuriated multitude, he underwent in one day more torments than he had inflicted upon his enemies during all his reign, and Constantinople beheld a populace a hundred times more barbarous than all her tyrants.
It was amidst these bloody and disgusting scenes that Isaac was clothed with the imperial purple. He did not possess the savage character of Andronicus, but he was entirely incapable of defending the empire against its enemies. Instead of raising armies, he gathered together in his palace a troop of monks, who kept up his sense of security by their prayers, and turned his attention from the cares and duties of state by their visions and prophecies. The mutual hatred of the Greeks and Latins had increased under his reign and that of Andronicus. The Latins who inhabited Constantinople were driven from the city, their houses were given up to the flames, and a great number of them were put to death. They who escaped the carnage took refuge in the vessels and galleys, and made sanguinary reprisals on the islands and shores of the Hellespont. The monks who surrounded Isaac partook of the blind hatred entertained by the people for the Christians of the West, and dreaded their vengeance. They advised the successor of Andronicus to mistrust the emperor of Germany, and to betray him if he could not conquer him.
Faithful to their counsels, Isaac promised to entertain the Germans in his states, and at the same time formed an alliance with Saladin. He sent orders to his governors to harass the Crusaders, and even to attack them by open force. These imprudent hostilities exposed the weakness of the Greeks, and were of service to the Germans; for Frederick, after having put the troops of Isaac to flight, took every advantage of his victory. Isaac, constantly intoxicated by the incense of his courtiers, and seduced by the promises of the monks, only replied to the victories of Frederick by letters full of haughtiness and menaces; he refused to acknowledge him as emperor, and could see nothing but a vassal in a prince who was marching in triumph towards his capital. Whilst his subjects were from all parts flying before the Germans, he gave himself in his letters the titles of most sublime, most powerful emperor, the angel of the whole earth; and caused the ambassadors of Frederick to be imprisoned. The patriarch of Constantinople preached, by his orders, in the church of St. Sophia, the murder of the Latins.
Nevertheless, terror at length took possession of the heart of Isaac, and from that moment this prince altered the tone of his language, and became the most humble of suppliants. Frederick was now for him, the most virtuous emperor of the Germans, and he voluntarily granted him much more than he had before refused him. After having required hostages, he himself gave them, and fed during several months an army he had sworn to destroy. He endured without a murmur the violences which the Crusaders committed in their passage, and treated an army that laid waste his provinces as if they had saved his empire. The emperor of Germany received magnificent presents, and all the vessels of the Greek navy were employed in transporting the Crusaders into Asia.
The Germans embarked at Gallipoli, and crossed the Hellespont. The sight of the coasts of Asia, and the easy victories they had obtained over the Greeks, made them forget the obstacles and dangers of a long and painful march. They saw nothing in the regions they were about to traverse but laurels to be gathered and kingdoms to be destroyed or founded; but it was not long ere this brilliant prospect disappeared. Whilst they remained in the territories of Isaac, they had to suffer from the perfidy of the Greeks; and when they arrived among the Turks, they had fresh enemies to contend with. The sultan of Iconium, who had been as liberal of his promises as the emperor of Constantinople, did not prove at all more faithful to his word. When the Germans arrived on the banks of the Meander, near Laodicea, they found the Turks drawn up in order of battle upon the heights, and ready to surprise them in the defiles: the latter were, however, punished for the treachery of their master, and cut to pieces; their bodies covered the passages they had been charged to defend.
The Crusaders, ever persuaded that Heaven protected their arms, attributed this victory to miracles. Several knights declared, upon oath, that they had seen St. George and St. Victor,[322] clothed in white, and armed with lances, fighting at the head of the Christians; but the celestial powers that had thus enabled the Germans to triumph over the arms of their enemies, did not destroy the obstacles which impeded the march of their victorious army. The Crusaders soon felt the want of provisions in a country ravaged at the same time by the conquerors and the conquered. Snow, rain, and the rigours of winter rendered their march exceedingly painful through a mountainous region, intersected by torrents that had overflowed their banks. Hunger and disease destroyed a great number of the soldiers. To remedy the evils which threatened his army with entire ruin, Frederick was obliged to attack Iconium, the very capital in which he had expected to find peace and all the provisions he stood in need of.
At the first signal the ramparts were scaled; Iconium was taken by assault, and given up to pillage. The beaten sultan then fulfilled his promises, and this last victory restored abundance in the Christian army.