We found the city of Antioch very extensive, fortified with the greatest strength and almost impossible to be taken. In addition, more than 5,000 bold Turkish soldiers had entered the city, not counting the Saracens, Publicans, Arabs, Turcopolitans, Syrians, Armenians, and other different races of whom an infinite multitude had gathered together there. In fighting against The beginning of the siege these enemies of God and of us we have, by God's grace, endured many sufferings and innumerable hardships up to the present time. Many also have already exhausted all their means in this most holy enterprise. Very many of our Franks, indeed, would have met a bodily death from starvation, if the mercy of God and our money had not come to their rescue. Lying before the city of Antioch, indeed, throughout the whole winter we suffered for our Lord Christ from excessive cold and enormous torrents of rain. What some say about the impossibility of bearing the heat of the sun in Syria is untrue, for the winter there is very similar to our winter in the West.
I delight to tell you, dearest, what happened to us during Lent. Our princes had caused a fortress to be built before a certain gate which was between our camp and the sea. For the Turks, coming out of this gate daily, killed some of our men on their way to the sea. The city of Antioch is about five leagues distant from the sea. For this purpose they sent the excellent Bohemond and Raymond, count of St. Gilles,[406] to the sea with only sixty horsemen, in order that they might bring mariners to aid in this work. When, however, they were returning to us with The Christians defeated near the seashore these mariners, the Turks collected an army, fell suddenly upon our two leaders, and forced them to a perilous flight. In that unexpected fight we lost more than 500 of our foot-soldiers—to the glory of God. Of our horsemen, however, we lost only two, for certain.
On that same day, in order to receive our brethren with joy, and entirely ignorant of their misfortunes, we went out to meet them. When, however, we approached the above-mentioned gate of the city, a mob of foot-soldiers and horsemen from Antioch, elated by the victory which they had won, rushed upon us in the same manner. Seeing these, our leaders went to the camp of the Christians to order all to be ready to follow us into battle. In the meantime our men gathered together and the scattered leaders, namely, Bohemond and Raymond, with the remainder of their army came up and told of the great misfortune which they had suffered.
Our men, full of fury at these most evil tidings, prepared to die for Christ and, deeply grieved for their brethren, rushed upon the wicked Turks. They, enemies of God and of us, hastily fled before us and attempted to enter the city. But by God's grace the affair turned out very differently; for, when they tried to cross a bridge built over the great river Moscholum,[407] A notable victory over the Turks we followed them as closely as possible, killed many before they reached the bridge, forced many into the river, all of whom were killed, and we also slew many upon the bridge and very many at the narrow entrance to the gate. I am telling you the truth, my beloved, and you may be assured that in this battle we killed thirty emirs, that is, princes, and three hundred other Turkish nobles, not counting the remaining Turks and pagans. Indeed the number of Turks and Saracens killed is reckoned at 1230, but of ours we did not lose a single man.
On the following day (Easter), while my chaplain Alexander was writing this letter in great haste, a party of our men lying in wait for the Turks fought a successful battle with them and killed sixty horsemen, whose heads they brought to the army.
These which I write to you are only a few things, dearest, of the many which we have done; and because I am not able to tell you, dearest, what is in my mind, I charge you to do right, to watch carefully over your land, and to do your duty as you ought to your children and your vassals. You will certainly see me just as soon as I can possibly return to you. Farewell.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE GREAT CHARTER
54. The Winning of the Charter
The reign of King John (1199-1216) was an era of humiliation, though in the end one of triumph, for all classes of the English people. The king himself was perhaps the most unworthy sovereign who has ever occupied the English throne and one after another of his deeds and policies brought deep shame to every patriotic Englishman. His surrender to the papacy (1213) and his loss of the English possessions on the continent (1214) were only two of the most conspicuous results of his weakness and mismanagement. Indeed it was not these that touched the English people most closely, for after all it was rather their pride than their real interests that suffered by the king's homage to Innocent III. and his bitter defeat at Bouvines. Worse than these things were the heavy taxes and the illegal extortions of money, in which John went far beyond even his unscrupulous brother and predecessor, Richard. The king's expenses were very heavy, the more so by reason of his French wars, and to meet them he devised all manner of schemes for wringing money from his unwilling subjects. Land taxes were increased, scutage (payments in lieu of military service) was nearly doubled, levies of a thirteenth, a seventh, and other large fractions of the movable property of the realm were made, excessive fines were imposed, old feudal rights were revived and exercised in an arbitrary fashion, and property was confiscated on the shallowest of pretenses. Even the Church was by no means immune from the king's rapacity. The result of these high-handed measures was that all classes of the people—barons, clergy, and commons—were driven into an attitude of open protest. The leadership against the king fell naturally to the barons and it was directly in consequence of their action that John was brought, in 1215, to grant the Great Charter and to pledge himself to govern thereafter according to the ancient and just laws of the kingdom.