Richard the Lion Heart

by Kate Norgate

In vi Sancti Spiritus.

Berter of Orleans.

1191

Two main roads led southward from Acre. One crossed the river Kishon at a point which on the map is about half way between Nazareth and the sea, passed over the middle of Mount Carmel, and then along the eastern side of the plain which lies between the coast and the mountain-range of Samaria and Judea. Cross-paths through the defiles of this range led from the road to the Holy Places of southern Palestine—Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron—and connected it with the great lines of communication running through these places southward to Egypt and Mecca and northward up the Jordan valley to Damascus; paths across the plain connected it with the other great main road, which followed the coast-line all the way to the mouth of the Nile. The inland route was the more direct way to Jerusalem; but for the Crusaders the coast route was the safer, indeed the only safe one. The re-conquest of the land must begin with the re-conquest of the seaboard towns. Acre might serve as principal base for the whole expedition; but this was not enough; before the Crusaders could venture into the interior of the land they must make sure of being able to communicate with Cyprus and with Europe through other ports besides Acre, and with Acre itself by sea as well as by land. They must also endeavour to block at least 1191 one of the enemy’s lines of communication with Egypt; and of these the most frequented and important was the coast route, to which the entrance from Egypt, both by land and sea, was commanded by the great fortress of Ascalon. Thus the plan of campaign implied in the order issued on the night of August 20 was to regain, first and foremost, the whole seaboard of the Holy Land.

The fortifications of Acre had been carefully repaired under Richard’s personal superintendence;[744] and the other preparations for departure were so far advanced that one day sufficed to complete them. The two queens and the damsel of Cyprus were left in the palace, with the king’s treasure, under suitable guard. Bertram de Verdon and Stephen de Longchamp were appointed constables of the city.[745] Every man in the host was bidden to take with him food for ten days; the ships were already loaded up with the rest of the stores, and their skippers were instructed Aug. 21 to sail close along the shore, ready to put in at intervals and supply the host with whatever it might need. “Thus they were to go,” says one of the pilgrims, “in two bodies, one by sea and one by land; for Syria could be reconquered from the Turks in no other manner.”[746] The total number of the Frank forces is reckoned by the same authority at three hundred thousand.[747] On Thursday August 22 they began to cross the “river of Acre” (the Belus, or Nahr el Namein, which falls into the sea just below the city) and pitch their tents between it and the sea.[748] A large proportion of them, however, had become already so demoralised by their stay in the city, now once more filled with all the luxuries and temptations of Eastern life, that they were Friday
Aug. 23 very reluctant to leave it; and it was not till the next day that Richard succeeded in getting the greater part of the 1191 host together in its new encampment, and himself followed it thither, having taken his position in the rear to guard against possible attack from the Moslems.[749] The detachment at Keisan was, however, too small to venture upon anything more than a harmless demonstration at a safe distance;[750] Sat.
Aug. 24 and it was altogether withdrawn next day, when Saladin, being now assured of the route which the Franks intended to take, disposed his army on the hills above Shefr’ Amm, ready to attack them on their march along the shore.[751] They seem not to have started till Sunday, August 25.[752] Richard led the vanguard; his English and Norman followers had charge of the great Standard which was surmounted by his royal banner and was to serve as guide and rallying-point for the whole host. The Frenchmen under the duke of Burgundy formed the rearguard. They soon found themselves in difficulties. The roads of Palestine had been originally good Roman ones; but by the closing years of the twelfth century even the highroads had become in many places little more than trackways. The transport corps, struggling through an awkward passage, fell into confusion; at the critical moment the Saracens swooped down, cut them off from the rearguard, and drove them towards the sea. One John FitzLuke spurred forward and told Richard what had occurred; “and the king with his meinie galloped back at a great pace; he fell upon the Turks like a thunderbolt—I know not how many he slew”;[753] “and they fled before him like the Philistines of old from the face of the 1191 Maccabee.”[754] The Franks re-formed in order, and proceeded Aug. 25 without further interruption till they found a convenient camping-ground, seemingly near the mouth of the Kishon, whence a short day’s march brought them to Cayphas, the modern Haïfa. Here they encamped for two days between the castle, which they found deserted, and the sea. This first brief stage of their journey from Acre—it is only about ten miles—had taught them at least one practical lesson: that on a march along the burning sand of the Syrian coast in August superfluous baggage was to be avoided. They therefore discarded everything that was not strictly necessary. The fight on the way had also another good result; it had healed Richard’s feud with William des Barres. William had fought with such valour that the king’s admiration had overcome his anger, and the gallant Frenchman was received back into favour by the Lion-Heart.[755]

On Tuesday August 27 the Crusaders set out again, and wound their way unmolested round the point of Carmel to Capharnaum, a distance of about eight miles; finding this place also deserted, they stopped there to dine; and thence another march of four miles brought them to a spot where in later days the Templars were to rear a famous fortress known as Athlit, or Pilgrims’ Castle, but which the earlier pilgrims called the Casal (village) of the Straits—why, it is hard to guess, for the distance from the shore to the foot of the Carmel range increases all the way from Capharnaum southward, so that even from the north the approach to Athlit is much less of a “strait” than the pass which the host had just come through round the promontory.[756] The 1191 site indeed afforded an ample and convenient camping-ground, and also a place where the ships could put in. This they had been ordered to do, so the host waited there two Aug. 27 days to receive from them a fresh store of provisions.[757]

Aug. 24

Meanwhile Saladin had on the night of the 24th removed his headquarters from Shefr’ Amm to Kaimoun (the ancient Jokneam of Carmel), where the inland road from Acre to Aug. 25 the south crosses the Kishon. Next day he rode over Carmel on a reconnoitring expedition to Mallâha, “the Salt-pit,” called by the Franks Merle. Returning on the 26th to Kaimoun, he there reviewed his army, and on the Aug. 28 morrow led it across the mountains to “the head of the river which runs by Caesarea.”[758] Caesarea lies, fifteen miles south of the Casal of the Straits, midway between the mouths of two rivers which are five miles apart. The northern one was called by the Crusaders “the River of Crocodiles”;[759] between its two principal springs passes Aug. 28-30 the main road leading south from Kaimoun. In the next three days Saladin shifted his camp three times among the hills above these springs.[760] From these hills, or from the last spur of Carmel, a little further south, he would see his first opportunity of checking or hindering his enemy’s advance. The slopes of the Carmel range were too steep to be practicable for his cavalry; it was doubtless for this reason that Cayphas and Capharnaum had been evacuated, and also that the fortifications of Caesarea had been dismantled.[761] When the Crusaders should reach Caesarea, however, they would be on the verge of Sharon, “the Level,” on whose eastern border the comparatively low mountains of Samaria rise by a gradual ascent, in terrace-like ridges, broken by many easy passes leading into the valleys and level spaces among the hills; while the distance between mountains and sea, which round the promontory of Carmel is only two hundred yards, is at the lower end of 1191 the Carmel range six miles. On August 28 Richard advanced from Casal of the Straits to Merle and spent the night on the ground where Saladin had been three nights before. Aug. 29 Next day the whole host followed, and with the king at its head and the Knights of the Temple and Hospital forming the rearguard proceeded towards Caesarea. By Richard’s orders all the sick had been transferred to the ships; but even for the able-bodied the day’s march—some fifteen miles—was a long, slow, and painful one over the burning sand in the heat of an August day in Syria; not a few died by the way; and the outskirts of the host were attacked by some skirmishing parties of Turks, who were, however, driven off by Richard. The weary pilgrims camped that Aug. 30 night on the bank of the River of Crocodiles, and next day entered the ruins of Caesarea, which were evacuated at their approach. Here on that evening or the next the ships came into port, bringing further supplies and also some of the “lazy folk” from Acre, who in response to an urgent summons sent to them by Richard had thus at length come to rejoin their comrades in arms.[762]

Sept. 1

With these reinforcements the march was resumed on Sunday, September 1. On the preceding day Saladin had taken up a position on the hills whence he could, as soon as the Franks issued from Caesarea, make it impossible for them to avoid an encounter. They had scarcely set out when they were well-nigh surrounded by his light cavalry, 1191 and a shower of arrows fell upon them from all directions.[763] But his attack proved less effective than he had hoped, owing to the order of march which the Crusaders had now adopted. The princes, knights, and mounted men-at-arms advanced between two columns of infantry, of which one, marching on their left—the side nearest to the hills and the enemy—“protected them,” says an eye-witness, “as with a wall.” These foot-soldiers in their thick felt jerkins and mailcoats recked little of the Turkish arrows, while the heavier missiles which they hurled at their assailants in return wrought execution on both horses and riders. On the other side of the cavalry, along the sea-shore, marched another body of foot-soldiers who carried the baggage, and, being safe from attack, were always comparatively fresh, and ready to change places with their comrades on the exposed side when the latter were worn out with fatigue or wounds. Of the cavalry thus enclosed, the van consisted of the knights of the kingdom of Jerusalem under King Guy; the rearguard was composed of the mounted troops of Galilee and others, including no doubt the Military Orders; in the centre were the king of England, the duke of Burgundy, and their followers, with the Standard in their midst. Thus, slowly and cautiously, the host moved along; on this first day it advanced only about two or three miles, to the “river of Caesarea.”[764] This seems to be what is now called the Nahr el Mefjir; the Crusaders called it the Dead River, perhaps because the Turks—such at least is the pilgrims’ account of the matter—had done their utmost to choke it up and conceal its existence, so as to make it a trap for the strangers to fall into; but the trap may have been the work of nature, for the stream appears to be the same to which Bohadin gives the name of Nahr el Casseb, river of reeds or rushes. The host reached this stream at Sept. 1 mid-day, crossed it in safety, and pitched their tents on its southern bank: whereupon the Turks retired, “for,” says 1191 Bohadin, “whenever they were in camp, there was no hope of doing anything with them.” That afternoon Saladin shifted his headquarters to a place a little higher up on Sept. 1-3 the same river;[765] and for two nights both parties remained in their respective encampments, close to each other, but quiescent.