This “tyrant” was Isaac Comnenos, who, sent to Cyprus as governor for the Byzantine Emperor in 1185, had made himself master of the island and ruled it as an independent sovereign for six years. His “tyranny,” or usurpation, was not one of the least of the hindrances to the deliverance of Holy Land; the Franks in that land had in former times depended largely on the fertile and wealthy Greek island for its supplies, but now they could get nothing thence, for Isaac was in close alliance with Saladin, and “never ceased doing as much ill to Christians as he could.”[593] Whether April Richard’s detour to Rhodes had any special motive or was caused merely by circumstances and stress of weather we do not know; but it seems quite clear that he went out of his direct way from Rhodes to Acre in consequence of information received at Rhodes as to what was going on in Cyprus. Probably, too, he thought Cyprus a likely place in which to obtain news of his strayed ships; and so it proved to be. Among the ships dispersed in the great storm of Good Friday were the three dromonds which carried the ladies and their escort. These three and some others had drifted southward, and while Richard was sailing by the north coast of Crete to Rhodes, they were passing through the open sea between Crete and Libya. On April 24, two or three days after Richard’s arrival at Rhodes, they were trying to put into the harbour of Limisso, or as the Crusade writers call it Limasol, the ancient Amathus, on the south April 24 coast of Cyprus, when a storm arose and dashed two of 1191 them to pieces against the rocks;[594] a third ship put back into the open sea in time to save itself[595] and its precious freight—it was the ship which carried not only a considerable part of the king’s treasure (under the charge of Stephen of Turnham, now restored to the king’s favour and acting as his marshal and treasurer), but also Joan and Berengaria. The “Griffons” of Cyprus took the men who struggled ashore from the wrecks to a fort hard by, promising them food and shelter, but stripped them of their arms on the plea that this was necessary till the pleasure of the “Emperor” (Isaac) concerning them should be known; and they also seized the clothes and other necessaries which the knights on the remaining ships sent to their distressed comrades. These latter, finding themselves prisoners and May 2 almost starved, at the end of a week made a determined effort to escape. With three bows which they had either secreted or found in the fort they did such execution that the whole party was able to make its way to the harbour, where their friends in the ships, seeing what was going on, had meanwhile landed and were fighting hard with the Griffons; finally the Griffons were worsted, and the queen’s ship was brought into the harbour.[596] That evening Isaac came to Limasol; the pilgrims appealed to him, and he May 3 promised them redress for their wrongs. Next day he sent the queen and her future sister-in-law a courteous invitation to land; this being prudently declined, he followed it up May 4 on the morrow with hospitable gifts of bread, meat, and the famous wine of Cyprus. On the Sunday he again tried May 5 to persuade the ladies to come ashore; after anxious consultation they, fearing that longer resistance might lead to their being taken captives by force—for Isaac meanwhile was assembling his troops on the shore—promised to commit themselves to his protection on the morrow. But on that same Sunday Richard’s fleet came in sight.[597] It had left Rhodes on May 1; the galleys, headed as usual by Richard’s 1191 own ship, had been driven by the wind into the dangerous gulf of Satalia (or Atalia) on the coast of Pamphylia, and narrowly escaped destruction, but were extricated and brought in safety to Cyprus, seemingly by the fine seamanship May 6 of their royal leader.[598] On the morning of Monday they reached the entrance to the harbour of Limasol. As soon as Richard learned what had been taking place there he sent a messenger ashore with a civilly worded remonstrance to Isaac and a request that he would make amends for his people’s ill-treatment of Crusaders. Isaac was on the shore with all the troops that he had been able to collect from every part of his island “empire.” He cut the messenger short with an insulting word—“Tproupt, sir!”; the messenger went straight back and repeated it to the king. Richard’s retort was equally brief; it was a command to his own men—“To arms!”[599]
Between the fleet and the shore five armed galleys lay in the harbour. On the shore Isaac’s troops were drawn up behind a barricade composed of every bit of wood that the town could supply, doors and window-frames or shutters, barrels and casks, shields and bucklers, pieces of old ships and boats, planks, steps, benches, boxes, all piled up along the water’s edge.[600] At the back of the troops was the fortified town, overtopped by a lofty castle or citadel built on the rock.[601] The Crusaders could land only by means of their boats. Knights and crossbowmen hurriedly obeyed the king’s order, and all weary and worn with long tossing on the sea and laden with their heavy armour and cumbrous weapons, crowded into the tiny cockle-shells[602] to join battle as foot-soldiers with an army of which part at least was well provided with good horses and mules, and which, moreover, was on its own soil; “but,” as one of the pilgrims says, “we knew the most about war.” Richard’s crossbowmen opened 1191 the fight by shooting at the enemy’s galleys; “there were some who did not miss their aim,” says the same eye-witness; the Greek sailors in a panic leaped into the water, and while they were struggling there their ships were captured and taken outside the harbour to be guarded by the English fleet. Meanwhile the king, when he saw his comrades struggling to land from the boats under a storm of arrows, “leaped from his boat into the sea and made for the Greeks, and assailed them.” His men followed his example and drove the Greeks back, some into the town, more into the fields. Isaac took to flight; Richard, running after him, caught a horse “with a sack attached to its saddle, and stirrups of cord,” sprang on its back, and shouted “Emperor! come and joust!” But Isaac “had no mind to joust,” and continued his flight.[603] The town of Limasol now submitted to Richard, and he brought his sister and his bride ashore.[604] That same night the horses were May 7 landed and exercised; and next morning Richard with a small force set out in search of the enemy. A party of them was soon found in an olive garden, dislodged, and chased till the main body suddenly came into view. Then Richard, having with him at the moment only fifty knights, called a halt. Meanwhile the shouts of the Greeks whom he had been chasing reached the ears of Isaac, half a league in advance, where he had stopped to dine and sleep, for he had no idea that the Franks possessed any horses. He and his escort climbed a hill “to see what their folk would do.” All they did was to keep turning about and shooting and shouting back at the little band of Franks, who stood motionless. One Hugh de la Mare, who though he bore arms was a clerk, said to the king, “Come away, sire, their numbers are too overwhelming.” “Get you to your own writing-business, sir clerk, and leave matters of chivalry to us,” retorted Richard. He knew that reinforcements were not far behind him; even before they came up, the suddenness and vehemence of his onset threw the Greeks into confusion; and the victory was soon complete. Isaac fled to the mountains; his standard-bearer was struck 1191 down and the standard taken by Richard’s own hand. After chasing the enemy for a couple of leagues the king called off his troops from the pursuit and leisurely returned, the men-at-arms stopping on the way back to collect countless spoils left by the Emperor in the place where he had camped. On reaching the town the king caused a proclamation to be made that “all people of the land who did not desire war might come and go in safety; but such as did seek war should have no peace or truce from him.”[605]
On the way from Rhodes to Cyprus Richard had spoken a ship westward bound from Acre and heard of Philip’s arrival there.[606] Some vessel sailing from Rhodes or Cyprus to Acre seems to have carried thither news of Richard’s whereabouts. On May 11 three galleys were seen approaching Limasol. Richard characteristically[607] set off in a little May 11 boat to ascertain for himself what they were,[608] and found that they carried King Guy of Jerusalem and some of his chief nobles, who had come in search of the king of England to secure his alliance and support against a scheme which had been set on foot at Acre under Philip’s auspices for deposing Guy and making Conrad of Montferrat, the lord of Tyre, king in his stead. Richard welcomed them cordially and royally. His marriage and the coronation of his queen took place next day (May 12). A few more days were spent in festivities and in waiting for some belated ships to come into port.[609] Among those irretrievably lost in the great storm there seem to have been several galleys, but some at least of these were now replaced by the Cypriote ones which had been captured.[610] When at last the tale of vessels was complete, Richard prepared to resume his pursuit of Isaac. 1191 Isaac, however, who had retired inland to the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, anticipated him by sending proposals for a parley. It took place “in a garden of fig trees between the shore and the Limasol road.”[611] The king went in regal state, attired in a tunic of rose-coloured samite and a mantle “bedight with small half-moons of solid silver set in rows, interspersed with shining orbs like suns”; his head was covered with a scarlet cap; he was girt with a well-proved sword “with a golden hilt, a silken belt, and a finely chased scabbard edged with silver”; his spurs were golden (or gilt), and he was mounted on a Spanish horse of great beauty as well as of a size befitting a rider of such lofty stature; “his saddle was red, studded with little golden and bright-coloured stars, and having on its hinder part two golden lion-cubs rampant, and as if snarling at each other.”[612] Isaac swore fealty to Richard, promising to accompany him to Holy Land and serve under him there with five hundred knights; meanwhile Richard was to hold the castles and imperial domains of Cyprus in pledge and to receive an indemnity of three thousand five hundred marks. On these terms they exchanged the kiss of peace.[613] That night, however, Isaac mounted his fleetest horse, a wonderful animal called Fauvel, and fled to Famagosta (the ancient Ammochontos, on the east coast). His flight was discovered immediately, but Fauvel seems to have had a reputation which was already known to Richard, for the king forbade all direct pursuit as useless. Instead, he took stronger measures; he put to sea at the head of his galleys and May 15-30 sailed round to Famagosta while his land-forces were, at his request, led by Guy along the coast-road to meet him there. When they reached the place, however, they found it deserted. Richard sent some ships round to the other coast-towns to guard against Isaac’s escape by sea; he himself stayed three days at Famagosta, and there gave an audience to some envoys from Philip, charged with a pressing request that he would proceed to Acre without further delay. Their urgency was so vehement and so 1191 insulting that “the king grew angry, and raised his eyebrows, and there were words spoken which it is not meet to write.” “Not for half the wealth of Russia” would he leave Cyprus till he had conquered it and made sure that the supplies of food of which it was the storehouse should be available for the Crusade. So he marched upon Nicosia, whither Isaac had again retired. This time Richard, fearing an c. May 18 attack from behind, took the command of the rearguard. Isaac was lying in wait with his household troops; after an unsuccessful attempt to check the advance of the Frankish vanguard, he “like a Turcople” harassed the flanks of the host till he came near enough to Richard to shoot at him two arrows. Richard dashed forward and would have taken summary vengeance, but the Cypriote Emperor was mounted on Fauvel, and the matchless steed carried him away, at a pace which defied pursuit, to the strong castle of Candaria or Kantara. His troops retired in confusion. Next morning the citizens of Nicosia made their submission to Richard, and he “had their beards shaved off in token of the transfer of their allegiance to a new lord.” He then divided his army into three parts, probably intending himself to take the command of one of them; but he fell sick and was obliged to remain at Nicosia and leave the direction of the campaign to the king of Jerusalem. Guy, who seems to have known the country, besieged and took the castle of Cherina,[614] on the north coast, and found within its walls the emperor’s only child, a young girl. Her father was so dismayed at her capture that he ordered the immediate surrender of the next fortress, “Didemus,”[615] to which Guy laid siege. Richard, as soon as he recovered, went to attack a third stronghold, “Bufevent.”[616] Scarcely had he reached it when Isaac offered complete surrender of his castles, lands, “everything,” begging only to be spared the indignity of “irons or bonds.” Isaac followed close on his messenger and threw himself at the king’s feet. Richard raised him up graciously, seated him at his side, and relieved his anxiety 1191 about his daughter by bringing her to meet him. As for the fetters, Isaac’s request evidently ran counter to the king’s inclination or to his fears of a possible escape; but, “lest folk should make an outcry,” he granted it after a fashion: he put the fallen tyrant in chains of silver.[617]
May 18-
June 1
Thus in fifteen days—the last fortnight of May[618]—Richard, with Guy’s help, had “won the mastery of Cyprus for the service of God.” For the same purpose he took possession of a mass of treasures of all kinds which he found in the castles.[619] Moreover, the people of the land, to whom Isaac had been a “tyrant” in every sense of the word,[620] gave to their new ruler “the half of all they possessed” “for the restoration of the laws and institutes which they had had under the Emperors of Constantinople” and which Richard confirmed to them by charter.[621] He further secured his conquest by turning out all the Greek garrisons,[622] replacing them with Franks, and appointing two Englishmen, Richard de Camville and Robert of Turnham, governors or “keepers” of the island,[623] who were charged to send regular supplies of the victuals—barley, wheat, sheep, bullocks—which Cyprus produced in abundance, to the Franks in Syria, “where,” adds the poet-pilgrim, “they were of great use.”[624] Meanwhile he had sent Isaac, under the charge of Guy,[625] straight across the sea to the nearest point on the Syrian coast, the fortress of Markab in Tripoli. The Damsel of Cyprus, who seems to have been almost a child, was placed under the care of the two queens and remained with them throughout the Crusade.[626] On June 5, the Wednesday in Whitsun week, 1191 the fleet sailed for Palestine.[627] The various losses which it had sustained in the Mediterranean Sea were compensated by the acquisition of the Cypriote navy; the total of ships was now a hundred and sixty-three, of which thirteen were three-masted busses and fifty were triremes.[628]
One more adventure at sea awaited the king before he reached the Holy Land. “Full of health, and light as a feather,” he led the way “as fast as a stag could run” in a direct line across the water till Markab was sighted. Thence the fleet sailed down the coast past Tortosa, Tripoli, and June
6 or 7 Beyrout.[629] Suddenly, between Beyrout and Sidon, Richard and his companions in the leading galley saw ahead of them a ship of such size “that we read of no larger one ever existing save the ark of Noah.”[630] On a nearer view they perceived that it had three tall masts; one side of it was covered with green felt or tarpaulin, the other with yellow;[631] and its whole appearance, to western eyes, was unnatural and uncanny.[632] Richard’s men hailed it and demanded whence it came and where it belonged. “We are Genoese, for Tyre,” was the answer. But one of Richard’s oarsmen said: “Hang me, sire, if that ship be not Turkish!” At his suggestion another galley was ordered to go close up to the ship without hailing her; this was done, and her crew immediately opened fire on the galley with arbalests and Damascus bows. Richard’s galley came swiftly up; his men tried to board the ship, but in vain. The king swore he would hang them all if they let the Turks escape. Again and again they renewed the attack; at last they fairly stormed the ship, but were driven back again into their own vessels. Then Richard bade them make a breach in the enemy ship’s side or keel; in this they succeeded, and she sank. Some thirty-five of her officers and engineers were saved and kept as prisoners by Richard’s orders; the rest 1191 of the men on board her were either slain or drowned.[633] When the victors reached their destination they learned that the ship had been specially built by order of Saladin’s brother Safadin and despatched from Beyrout to carry reinforcements and supplies to the besieged Saracens in Acre, but had been unable to enter the harbour and was, when the Franks overtook her, cruising about, waiting for an opportunity to return thither;[634] she carried, besides her crew, at least six hundred and fifty picked soldiers;[635] a man, doubtless one of the prisoners, who had seen her loaded at Beyrout, said eight hundred, and further asserted that she contained a hundred camel-loads of arms of all kinds, victuals and other stores “beyond reckoning,” bottles filled with Greek fire, and two hundred “ugly grey serpents” which, according to one account, he had himself helped to stow in her, and which were destined to be let loose against the Christian host;[636] probably these were some kind of serpent-like contrivances for throwing the fire. In the Saracen camp the story of the catastrophe was somewhat differently told by a Moslem who represented himself as its sole survivor, rescued and sent by the Christians to inform his people of the disaster which had befallen their cause. He seems to have stated that the dromond had been sunk by its own captain to save it from capture. Saladin’s biographer, however, frankly admits that the issue of Richard’s first encounter with Turks was a severe blow to the defenders of Acre.[637] To Richard and his followers it 1191 must have seemed a good omen; and it was immediately followed by another. At the opening of the fight they had had the wind in their faces;[638] suddenly it dropped[639] and then shifted to the north and carried them before nightfall to Tyre.[640] Here Richard landed, intending to spend the night in the city, but its keepers refused to admit him, asserting that their lord, Conrad of Montferrat, and the king of France had forbidden them to do so.[641] Next day the wind still favoured him and his fleet, and bore them past Scandalion and Casal Imbert straight to the haven where they would be.[642]
CHAPTER III
THE FALL OF ACRE
1191.
What brave chief shall head the forces
Where the Red Cross Legions gather?