NOTES. (continued 2)

[787] Nicetas; Villehardouin; Gest. Innoc. III.

[788] Villehardouin intimates that Murzuphlis put Alexius to death immediately after having seized the crown; and the Chronicle in the Rouchy dialect, No. 148, Bibliothéque de l’Arsenal, says, “Et ne demeura gaires après que Morcuffle estrangla le josne empereur Alexes en la prison.”

[789] Nicetas.

[790] Ducange; Villehardouin.

[791] Villehardouin; Ducange.

[792] Gunther; Ducange.

[793] Villehardouin.

[794] Ducange.

[795] 2d April, 1204.

[796] Nicetas.

[797] Gest. Inn. iii.

[798] Gunther; Villehardouin.

[799] Villehardouin; Ducange.

[800] Nicetas; Gunther.

[801] Nicetas.

[802] See note XI.

[803] Nicetas.

[804] Villehardouin; Ducange.

[805] Villehardouin.

[806] Nicetas; Ducange; Villehardouin; Alberic.

[807] Ducange.

[808] The cardinal legate invested Baldwin with the purple with his own hands, and Innocent confirmed, in all points but those of ecclesiastical government, the treaty by which the Venetians and the Franks had bound themselves. He also took the greatest interest in the new state, and wrote to all the prelates of France and Germany to support it by their preaching and influence. This may be added to other proofs, that Innocent never seriously opposed the expedition against the schismatic empire of the Greeks. The truth in all probability is, that he made a show of turning the crusaders from their purpose, both to preserve consistency and to afford room for any after-exertion of his authority that he might judge necessary: but that, at the same time, the cardinal legate very well understood that he was to promote the enterprise, and to be slightly blamed for it afterward, in order to screen his superior from the charge of that ambitious craving for which, however, he was notorious. It would be difficult to believe that Innocent, who triumphed over Philip Augustus, the greatest monarch of the day, and forced him to abandon his dearest wishes, would confine himself to idle threats, if he entertained any serious disinclination to the attack of Constantinople.

[809] Reinaud rec. des Hist. Arabes.

[810] Vertot.

[811] Ducange.

[812] Alberic. Mon. Trium Fontium.

[813] Jacob. de Voragine; Albert Stadensis.

[814] Albericus.

[815] Jacob. de Voragine; Albert. Stadensis.

[816] Gest. Innocent III: Labbe concil. Matthew Paris, A. D. 1213.

[817] Chron. Godefrid Mon.; Bonfinius.

[818] Bernard the Treasurer.

[819] Jacob. Vitriae; Bernardus.

[820] Bernardus.

[821] Mere restlessness is stated by Mills to have been the cause of Andrew’s abandonment of the enterprise, but this was any thing but the case. Andrew, it is true, was of a weak and unstable character; but there were far too many dissensions in Hungary, and tragic horrors in his own family, to permit of his remaining in Palestine without total ruin to himself and his dominions.—See Bonfinius.

[822] Godefrid. Moc.; James of Vitry.

[823] Bernardus; James of Vitry.

[824] Matthew Paris.

[825] The whole of the siege of Damietta, and the events that followed, I have taken from James of Vitry and the old French of Bernard the Treasurer, with the Recueil des Hist. Arabes.

[826] James of Vitry, Bernard the Treasurer.

[827] This pestilence seems to have been somewhat like the sea scurvy. It was not at all confined to the city, though it raged more furiously within the walls. Nevertheless, many of the soldiers of the Cross were attacked by it. James of Vitry, describing its effects, says, “A sudden pain took possession of the feet and legs: soon after, the gums and the teeth became affected with a sort of gangrene, and the sick persons were not able to eat: then, the bones of the legs became horribly black; and thus, after having suffered long torments, during which they showed much patience a great number of Christians went to repose in the bosom of the Lord.”

[828] James of Vitry; Bernardus.

[829] Recueil des Hist. Arabes; Matthew Paris; Bernard the Treasurer.

[830] Bernard.

[831] Matthew Paris.

[832] Matthew Paris, ad. ann. 1228.

[833] Bernardus.

[834] Rainaldus; Sanut.; William of Nangis, 1232.

[835] Bernard the Treasurer; Cont. of William of Tyre.

[836] For some curious particulars concerning the disputes between the emperor and the Templars, see the old French of Bernard the Treasurer.

[837] Bernard.

[838] This story is doubtful. Matthew Paris says, that the Templars and Hospitallers gave information to the sultaun that Frederic would, on a certain day, make a pilgrimage to bathe in the River Jordan. It was not at all likely, however, that two Orders which were always at enmity should unite for such a purpose.

[839] Matthew Paris, ann. 1229.

[840] There were many motives which induced Frederic to return to Europe besides disgust at the ungrateful conduct of the Syrian Christians. The Pope, not content with using the spiritual sword against him, had unsheathed the temporal one, and was waging a furious war against the imperial lieutenant in Italy. It would seem a strange fact that John of Brienne, ex-king of Jerusalem, and father-in-law of the emperor, was in command of the papal forces which ravaged his son-in-law’s territories, had we not good reason to believe that Frederic’s conduct to Violante (who was now dead) had been of a nature that so chivalrous a man as John of Brienne was not likely to pass unnoticed, when his daughter was the sufferer. However, it is but just to remark that the reason why his crusade did not entirely restore the Holy Land to the dominion of the Christians, is to be found in the vindictive and unchristian enmity of Pope Gregory IX. towards the Emperor Frederic.

[841] Matthew Paris.

[842] Sanutus.

[843] Regist. Greg. Noni, Vertot Preuves.

[844] Matthew Paris, 1237.

[845] Matthew Paris; Sanutus.

[846] Sanutus, lib. iii. page 216.

[847] The Emir of Karac was but a dependant of the Sultaun of Damascus.

[848] Matthew Paris; Litteræ Comit. Richardi.

[849] Sanutus; Vertot.

[850] Bibliothéque Oriental; Joinville; Ducange; Sanutus, 217; Continuation of William of Tyre.

[851] Joinville; Matthew Paris; Bernard in Martenne.

[852] Joinville; Matthew Paris; Epist. Fred. Imper.

[853] Ducange; Joinville; Bernard.

[854] Bernard; Joinville, Matthew Paris.

[855] The whole of these events are extremely obscure in history. I have followed Joinville more than any other author, because I find his account more clear and satisfactory. Ducange’s valuable notes have greatly aided me; but even that indefatigable investigator has not been able to arrive at precise certainty. The accounts in Matthew Paris do not well harmonize with those of persons who had more immediate means of information. Vincent of Beauvais states, that the Corasmins were finally exterminated, not in a battle, but in separate bodies by the peasantry. Their whole number seems to have been about twenty thousand men. Bernard the Treasurer, in Martenne, corroborates the statement of Vincent of Beauvais.

[856] Joinville; Bernard in Martenne; Guillaume Guiart.

[857] Matthew Paris; Joinville.

[858] Joinville.

[859] Guillaume Guiart; Joinville.

[860] Joinville; Branche des royaux Lignages.

[861] Joinville.

[862] Joinville; Guillaume Guiart; Ducange.

[863] Joinville; Ducange, Guillaume Guiart.

[864] See note XII.

[865] Ducange; Joinville; Guillaume Guiart.

[866] A. D. 1254.

[867] A. D. 1270.

[868] Joinville.

[869] Guillaume Guiart.

[870] Joinville.

[871] Branche des royaux et Lignages; Sermon de Robert de Saincereaux.

[872] Charles, King of Sicily, was brother to St. Louis.

[873] Guillaume Guiart; William of Nangis.

[874] Hemingford; Langtoft; Matthew Paris, continuation.

[875] The popular version of this story is, that Eleonora, the wife of the prince, who had accompanied him to Palestine, sucked the poison from the wound, at the risk of her own life. Camden sanctions this account.

[876] Hemingford; Langtoft.

[877] Villani; Vet. Script.; Bernard, old French.

[878] Martenne; Villani.

[879] Martenne, Vet. Script.; Villani; Sanutus.

[880] Raynouard.

[881] For the history of the Templars, see Raynouard and Du Puy, Vertot, William of Nangis, Historia Templariorum, &c. Almost all the modern writers are more or less in favour of the Templars, while every contemporary authority condemns them. As to Mills’s assertion, that they were loyal and virtuous, it is perfectly untenable. All the historians of the Holy Land, many of whom died while the Templars were at the height of their power, declare that they were a corrupt, proud, perfidious body. Mills himself shows that such was the opinion entertained of them by the Saracens; and all the general letters of the popes accuse them of manifold vices and depravities.

[882] Vertot.

[883] Will. of Nangis.

[884] Vertot.

[885] He was afterward pardoned when the sultaun’s wrath had abated but Soliman would never see him more.

[886] Vertot.

[887] Watson; Vertot; Nic. Villagagnon.

[888] Vertot; Com. de Bel. Mel.

[889] Vertot; Com. de Bel. Mel. Nic. Villag.; Watson.

[890] Watson; Vertot; Com.

[891] Vertot.

[892] Jouvencel; Ordre de Chevalerie; Fabliaux de le Grand d’Aussi; Chevalier de la Tour; Notes on St. Palaye.

[893] Froissart, chap. 290.

[894] Ibid. chap. 329.

[895] Alain Chartier Le Grand.

[896] La Colombiere Theatre.