[459] Greek fire was made in various ways, but its main ingredients were sulphur, Persian gum, pitch, petroleum, and oil. It was a highly inflammable substance and when once ignited could be extinguished only by the use of vinegar or sand. It was used quite extensively by the Saracens in their battles with the crusaders, being usually projected in the form of fire-balls from hollow tubes.
[460] An acid liquor made from sour apples or grapes.
[461] Charles, count of Anjou—a brother of Saint Louis.
[462] Joinville's story of the remainder of the campaign in Egypt is a long one. Enough has been given to show something of the character of the conflicts between Saracen and crusader. In the end Louis was compelled to withdraw his shattered army. He then made his way to the Holy Land in the hope of better success, but the four years he spent there were likewise a period of disappointment.
[463] The treaty here referred to is that of Paris, negotiated by Louis IX. and Henry III. in 1259. By it the English king renounced his claim to Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou, while Louis IX. ceded to Henry the Limousin, Périgord, and part of Saintonge, besides the reversion of Agenais and Quercy. The territories thus abandoned by the French were to be annexed to the duchy of Guienne, for which Henry III. was to render homage to the French king, just as had been rendered by the English sovereigns before the conquests of Philip Augustus. Manifestly Louis IX.'s chief motive in yielding possession of lands he regarded as properly his was to secure peace with England and to get the homage of the English king for Guienne. For upwards of half a century the relations of England and France had been strained by reason of the refusal of Henry III. to recognize the conquests of Philip Augustus and to render the accustomed homage. The treaty of Paris was important because it regulated the relations of France and England to the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War. It undertook to perpetuate the old division of French soil between the English and French monarchs—an arrangement always fruitful of discord and destined, more than anything else, to bring on the great struggle of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries between the two nations [see [p. 417] ff.].
[464] A fur much esteemed in the Middle Ages. It is not known whether it was the fur of a single animal or of several kinds combined.
[465] A woven fabric made of camel's hair.
[466] After his retirement from the royal service in 1254 Joinville frequently made social visits at Louis's court.
[467] On the Franciscans and Dominicans [see [p. 360]].
[468] To the east from Paris—now a suburb of that city. The chateau of Vincennes was one of the favorite royal residences.