The age of the crusades

by James M. Ludlow

The Christians also fought among themselves. The jealousies of Templars and Hospitallers were intense. These two orders had, since their founding early in the century, grown to be powerful organizations, not only in Palestine, but throughout Europe. They held valuable property in all lands. Princes, feudal lords, and high dignitaries of the church were enrolled in their membership. They were rivals everywhere for the repute of bravery, as well as in wealth and political influence. The Roman see exempted their members from secular taxation, and even from religious oversight, except by the Holy Father himself. Their grand masters were autocratic sovereigns within their orders. Naturally they became overbearing, intolerant of interference, amenable to no counsel but their own. Their power bred audacity, and ecclesiastical privileges fostered the conceit of saintship, which even their crimes could not tarnish. As they despised the rest of mankind, so the two orders hated each other as rivals.

The Pope appealed for a new crusade, but could not evoke any popular response. Richard of England and Philip of France had such mutual suspicion that neither would leave his domain to the depredations of the other; and they hated each other too cordially to again unite their arms in the common cause. A few listened to the Pope’s appeal, among them Simon de Montfort, afterwards known for his butchery of the Albigenses.

It was reserved for Henry VI., the contemptible persecutor of Richard, to represent the royalty of Europe in response to the call of the Holy Father. He emulated the fame of his father, Frederick Barbarossa, whose ambition he inherited with neither his character nor ability. Not content with issuing royal mandates, he himself became a preacher of the holy war (spring of 1195). An army under the Archbishop of Mayence, which was joined by Queen Margaret of Hungary, moved eastward by way of the Danube. Another, under the dukes of Saxony and Brabant, left the ports of the Baltic. Henry marched with a force for Italy, but had his eye rather on Sicily than Palestine.

The first army reached Acre, and began ravaging the Moslem lands in spite of the protests of the Christian inhabitants, who could not bring themselves to so shameful a breach of treaty. Instantly the divisions of the Infidels were healed. From Egypt, Damascus, and Mesopotamia, the Moslems rallied to Jerusalem. Assigning command to Malek-Ahdel, they took summary vengeance upon the invaders. Jaffa fell at once into their hands.

The second army of Christians, having made the voyage down the Atlantic and through the Mediterranean, landed at Beirut and inflicted a crushing defeat upon Malek-Ahdel, who had advanced from Jaffa to oppose its progress.

Henry VI. busied himself in Sicily until he had secured that country, and with it restored the imperial preponderance in the affairs of Italy. This he accomplished through the perpetration of barbarities from which the Turks would have recoiled, and in which the Greeks at Constantinople were his only competitors. He put out the eyes of the son of Tancred, ruler of Cyprus, and stole his daughters. With the instinct of a ghoul, he dug up the body of Tancred in order to strip from it the badge of dead royalty. When he had satisfied his remorseless ambition in this section, he allowed the remnant of his army to proceed to Palestine for the succor of their brethren. He engaged to keep a force of fifty thousand in the Holy Land for one year at his own expense. The third army was led by Conrad, Bishop of Hildesheim, chancellor of the empire.

Thus augmented, the Christians in the East were enthusiastic for the recapture of Jerusalem; but the coming of winter, the well-known strengthening of the fortifications about the Holy City, and, above all, the dissensions among the rival leaders, who cared more for the maritime cities, with their treasures, than for a place whose chief glory was its sacredness, led to the postponement of the enterprise until the spring.

An assault upon Thoron occupied them meanwhile. The fortress of Thoron, between the Lebanons and the Mediterranean, was the great menace to the ambition of the invaders. This stronghold was on the top of a mountain, and guarded from hostile approach by precipitous walls and deep ravines. Its seeming impregnability did not daunt the spirit of the crusaders; they bridged chasms and dug into cliffs, until they thoroughly undermined the masonry of the fortress.

The Moslems, realizing their extremity, proposed to capitulate on simply being guaranteed their lives. The proposition divided the Christian leaders, the majority being willing to accept this condition of surrender; but many, overcome by their passion for blood, voted to give no quarter. The attitude of this latter party in the conference convinced the Moslem deputies that the lives of their people would not be safe even under the sacredness of an agreement, an impression which was confirmed by the remembrance of past occasions when the Christians won the name of truce-breakers. Believing that they had nothing to hope for, the Moslems resolved to fight it out. In vain did the more moderate among the besiegers assure them of protection. The broken ramparts were repaired, or the gaps filled with solid ranks of soldiers who with upraised swords invoked the judgment of Allah. They countermined, and met their assailants in subterranean passages. The Saxon miners who entered these shafts often reappeared in the hands of captors upon the walls, whence they were hurled by the engines through the air, to fall dead in the camp they had left. The desperate valor of the Moslems depressed the hosts which but yesterday were waiting to bathe their victorious swords in the blood of the victims. The chiefs accused one another of cowardice and treachery. The miserable rivalry led them one by one to desert and retire to the coast. One day, when the orders for general assault had been issued, the various divisions found themselves without leaders and without plans. Disorder was followed by panic, augmented by the report that Malek-Ahdel had been joined by Aziz, the son of Saladin and Sultan of Egypt, and that soon this force would be upon them. A furious tempest swept over the mountain. Their superstition heard in the thunders the malediction of heaven, and saw in the freshets which obliterated the paths the vengeance of nature for their having turned aside from the conquest of Jerusalem. The Germans made a wretched flight for Jaffa; the Syrian Christians huddled themselves into Acre. Malek-Ahdel quickly assaulted Jaffa, and, though repulsed, left the dukes of Saxony and Brabant dead upon the field.

News soon came of the death of the Emperor Henry VI. (September 28, 1197). The German chieftains hastened their return to Europe in order to secure their individual interests with the successor to the imperial throne. In vain did the Pope protest against the desertion of the pious cause. A woman, Queen Margaret of Hungary, alone remained with her soldiers on the sacred soil. The remnant left at Jaffa were surprised during a roisterous and drunken celebration of the feast of St. Martin, and were massacred almost to a man by the Moslems.