The engagements were as sanguinary and obstinate as any which had marked the holy wars. If the Latins at any time prevailed, they speedily lost their advantages, by abandoning themselves to plunder, and allowing the vigilant enemy to collect his broken battalions. When the Saracens conquered, the Christians kept within the shelter of their fortified camp,[59] and did not again take the field till pressed to action by some new bands of crusaders. The conflicts between the Moslems and Christians were by sea as well as by land; but the naval forces were so equally balanced, that the Latins could not finally prevent the Egyptians from succouring Acre, and Europe kept up its communications with the camp. In the last year of the siege the deaths by famine and pestilence exceeded the destruction which former battles had occasioned. Both armies were wasted by a swift decay, for the presence of such numbers had exhausted the Mussulman as well as the Christian neighbourhood. At the siege of Acre, as well as at the old siege of Antioch, the morals of the holy warriors were as depraved as their condition was miserable. Yet an appearance of holiness pervaded the camp. Religious exercises were performed, and vice was reprehended. The crusaders were seemingly devout, but in reality were dissolute,[60] and compromised for personal excesses by pharisaical scrupulosity and uncharitableness.
Conrad, marquis of Tyre, had joined, and afterwards left his friends, and to his departure all the miseries of the Christians from famine were attributed. But his own principality was his most important charge, and he could not furnish provisions for his people and for the whole of the army at the same time. Disease reached and destroyed princes as well as plebeians; and when Queen Sybilla and her two young children died, Guy de Lusignan lost his principal political support. New competitors appeared for the visionary kingdom. Isabel, the sister of Sybilla, had been married at the early age of eight years to Humphry lord of Thoron; but when the warm passions of youth succeeded the indifference of infancy, the gallantry and knightly accomplishments of Conrad, marquis of Tyre, gained her affections. In the Middle Ages consanguinity or some canonical impediment was always discovered, when disgust or ambition urged the dissolution of the marriage contract; and when the will is resolved the mind is not scrupulous in its choice of arguments of justification. The church terminated the union of Humphry and Isabel, and the day after the proclamation of the divorce the bishop of Beauvais married the amorous fair one to the marquis of Tyre. As husband of the princess, Conrad claimed the honours of respect which were due to the king of Jerusalem; Humphry was too prudent to contend for an empty distinction, but Lusignan, who had once enjoyed the crown would not forego the hope of recovering it. The Christian cause was scandalised and injured by these divisions among the chiefs, but the candidates for the pageant sceptre were obliged to submit to the general opinion of the army, and reserve the decision of their claims for the judgment of the French and English monarchs.
RICHARD’S VOYAGE
[1190-1191 A.D.]
Richard’s fleet had not arrived at Marseilles at the appointed time; and so great was his impatience that after waiting for it only eight days he hired some galleys and put to sea. He went to Genoa, and conferred with the French king, whose illness had kept him in that city. He then made a brief stay at Pisa, and shortly afterwards an accident which happened to his vessel compelled him to enter the Tiber.
He made some stay in Naples, and then travelled on horseback to Salerno, where he resolved to wait till he should hear of the arrival of his navy in the Mediterranean. The English fleet had been dispersed off Portugal by a violent storm, but the ships finally reached Lisbon, and circumstances enabled them to pay their obligation of gratitude. The Moors of Spain and Africa were menacing Portugal, five hundred English soldiers joined the king and marched to Santarem. Their warlike aspect awed the Saracens, and the fortunate death at this juncture of the Moorish commander broke the union of the enemy, and the country was saved. The English fleet coasted Portugal, and the southern part of Spain, and arrived at Marseilles. It then set sail for Messina, and reached that place a few days before the arrival of Philip and the French.
A Knight of the Third Crusade
Richard left Salerno on the 13th of September, and on the 21st reached Mileto. He then pursued his journey, accompanied only by one knight. He assembled all the English ships, and entered the harbour of Messina with so much splendour and such clangour of horns and trumpets that the Sicilians and French were astonished and alarmed. Tancred, the illegitimate son of Roger, duke of Apulia, was at that period the king of the island.