At the moment that Alexander went to prostrate himself at Sarai, the Suzdalian army, united to that of Novgorod, and commanded by his son Dmitri, defeated the Livonian knights and took Dorpat by assault. The khan Berkai gave Alexander a kind greeting, accepted his explanations, dispensed with the promised contingent, but kept him for a year near his court. The health of Alexander broke down; he died on his return before reaching Vladimir. When the news arrived at his capital, the metropolitan Cyril, who was finishing the liturgy, turned toward the faithful and said, "Learn, my dear children, that the Sun of Russia is set, is dead."
"We are lost," cried the people, breaking forth into sobs. Alexander, by this policy of resignation, which his chivalrous heroism does not permit us to despise, had secured some repose for exhausted Russia. By his victories over his enemies of the West he had given her some glory, and hindered her from despairing under the most crushing tyranny, material and moral, which a European people had ever suffered.
THE SIXTH CRUSADE
TREATY OF FREDERICK II WITH THE SARACENS
A.D. 1228
SIR GEORGE W. COX
For six years after the end of the Fifth Crusade—in which the crusaders, forgetting their vows, instead of delivering Jerusalem sacked Constantinople—the Christians of Palestine were protected by a truce with Saphadin, who had succeeded his brother Saladin in power. This truce was broken by the action of the Latin Christians, Pope Innocent himself, who had been the leading spirit of the Fifth Crusade, continuing to make known his designs for the recovery of the Holy Land. Between the Fifth and the Sixth Crusades occurred that which was in some respects the strangest manifestation of the crusading mania, whereby the inspiration of the Pope and other preachers of a new crusade carried some fanatics to the maddest extremes. This movement, or series of movements, is known as the "Children's Crusade," 1212.
In response to the appeals of certain priests who went about France and Germany calling upon the children to perform what, through wickedness, their fathers had failed to do, and assuring them of miraculous aid and success, fifty thousand boys and girls, braving parental authority, gathered together and pervaded both cities and countries, singing: "Lord Jesus, give us back thy Holy Cross," and saying, "We are going to Jerusalem to deliver the Holy Sepulchre." Some of them crossed the Alps, intending to embark at Italian ports; others took ship at Marseilles. Many were lost in the forests, and perished with heat, hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Some, after being stripped by thieves, were reduced to slavery, and a remnant, in sorrow and shame, returned to their homes. Of those who sailed, some were lost by shipwreck, and others sold as slaves to the Saracens. "No authority," says Michaud, "interfered, either to stop or prevent the madness; and when it was announced to the Pope that death had swept away the flower of the youth of France and Germany, he contented himself with saying: 'These children reproach us with having fallen asleep, while they were flying to the assistance of the Holy Land.'"
Innocent now called a general council of the Church—the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215—for the purpose of stimulating a new crusade. "The necessity for succoring the Holy Land," said his letters of convocation, "and the hope of conquering the Saracens, are greater than ever. We renew our cries and our prayers to you to excite you to this noble enterprise."
The Sixth Crusade, which was inspired by the Pope and preached in France by his legate, Robert de Courçon, was divided in the sequel into three maritime expeditions. The first, 1216, consisted mainly of Hungarians under their King, Andrew; the second, 1218, was composed of Germans, Italians, French, and English nobles and their followers; and the third, 1228, was led by Frederick II in person. The first two produced no considerable advantage for the Christians; while Frederick, involved in the Hohenstaufen struggle with the papacy, evaded his crusading vows made long before. Innocent III died in 1216; Honorius III, the next pope, died in 1227; and his successor, Gregory IX, urged Frederick on to fulfil his promise. The Emperor embarked in 1227, but when he had been only three days at sea, by reason of his own illness or the sickness of his troops—accounts are not agreed—he returned to port. The Pope, furious at his conduct, excommunicated him. But in the following year, notwithstanding the ban, Frederick set sail for Palestine, and the story of this expedition is the essential history of the Sixth Crusade.