Chronicles Of The Crusades: Contemporary narratives of the Crusade of Richard Couer De Lion and of the Crusade of Saint Louis. Lord John De Joinville
who was also one of the ancient besiegers of Acre, followed the king of the English as a participator in the possession of his portion, and because, as his standard was borne before him, he was thought to take to himself a part of the triumph; if not by command, at least with the consent, of the offended king, the duke’s standard was cast down in the dirt, and to his reproach and ridicule trampled under foot by them. The duke, although grievously enraged against the king, dissembled his offence, which he could not vindicate; and having returned to the place where he had carried on the siege, betook himself that night to his tent, which was set up again, and afterwards, as soon as he could, returned to his own country full of rancour.
Sect. 68. Messengers on the part of the captives having been sent to Saladin for their ransom, when the heathen could by no entreaty be moved to restore the Holy Cross, the king of the English beheaded all his, with the exception of Mestocus only, who on account of his nobility was spared, and declared openly without any ceremony that he would act in the same way towards Saladin himself.
Sect. 69. A certain marquess of Montferrat, a smooth-faced man, had held Tyre, which he had seized on many years ago, to whom the king of the French sold all his captives alive, and promised the crown of the region which was not yet conquered; but the king of the English withstood, him to the face. “It is not proper,” said he, “for a man of your reputation to bestow or promise what is not yet obtained; but further, if the cause of your journey be Christ, when at length you have taken Jerusalem, the chief of the cities of this region, from the hand of the enemy, you will without delay or condition restore the kingdom to Guy, the legitimate king of Jerusalem. For the rest, if you recollect, you did not obtain Acre without a participator, so that neither should that which is the property of two be dealt out by one hand” Oh! oh! how fine for a godly throat! The marquess, bereft of his blissful hope, returns to Tyre, and the king of the French, who had greatly desired to strengthen himself against his envied ally by means of the marquess, now fell off daily; and this added to the continual irritation of his mind,—that even the scullion of the king of the English fared more sumptuously than the cupbearer of the French. After some time, letters were forged in the tent of the king of the French, by which, as if they had been sent by his nobles out of France, the king was recalled to France. A cause is invented which would necessarily be respected more than it deserved; his only son, after a long illness, was now despaired of by the physicians; France exposed to be desolated, if, after the son’s death, the father (as it might fall out) should perish in a foreign land. So, frequent council being held between the kings hereupon, as they were both great and could not dwell together, Abraham remaining, Lot departed from him. Moreover, the king of the French, by his chief nobles, gave security by oath for himself and his vassals, to the king of the English, that he would observe every pledge until he should return to his kingdom in peace.
Sect. 70. On that day the commonalty of the Londoners was granted and instituted, to which all the nobles of the kingdom, and even the very bishops of that province are compelled to swear. Now for the first time London, by the agreement conceded to it, found by experience that there was no king in the kingdom, as neither King Richard himself, nor his predecessor and father Henry, would have suffered it to be concluded for one thousand thousand marks of silver. How great evils forsooth may come forth of this agreement, may be estimated by the very definition, which is this. The commonalty is the pride of the common people, the dread of the kingdom, the ferment of the priesthood.
Sect. 71. The king of the French, with but few followers, returning home from Acre, left at that place the strength of his army to do nothing, to the command of which he appointed the bishop of Beauvais and the duke of Burgundy. The English king, having sent for the commanders of the French, proposed that in the first place they should conjointly attempt Jerusalem itself; but the dissuasion of the French discouraged the hearts of both parties, and dispirited the troops, and restrained the king, thus destitute of men, from his intended march upon that metropolis. The king, troubled at this, though not despairing, from that day forth separated his army from the French, and directing his arms to the storming of castles along the sea-shore, he took every fortress that came in his way from Tyre to Ascalon, though after hard fighting and deep wounds But to Tyre he deigned not to go, because it was not in the compass of his part of the campaign.
IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD MCXCII.
Sect. 72. Philip, king of the French, having left his companion, Richard, king of the English, in the territory of Jerusalem amongst the enemies of the cross of Christ, returned to France, without obtaining either the liberation of the Holy Cross or of the Holy Sepulchre. Godfrey, bishop of Winchester, restored to his church a great part of the treasure, which, as related above, he had appointed, on the third of the calends of February. The feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mary was celebrated on the very Sunday of Septuagesima* at Winchester. But the Sunday had nothing belonging to Sunday but its memory at vespers and matins, and the morning mass. One full hide of land at the manse which is called Morslede, of the village of Ciltecumba, was let to a certain citizen of Winchester of the name of Pentecuste, to hold for twenty years for the annual and free service of twenty shillings, without the privity of the convent.
Sect. 73. Queen Eleanor sailed from Normandy and landed at Portsmouth on the third of the ides of February.† The chancellor repaired to the king of the French, and deposed before him his complaint relative to the loss of his treasures in Flanders, but he got nothing more there than what makes men ridiculous.
The king of the French caused all manner of arms to be fabricated both day and night throughout his whole realm, and fortified his cities and castles, as was thought, by way of preparation for a struggle against the king of the English, if he should return from his journey. Which being known in the territories of the king of the English, his constables throughout Normandy, Le Mans, Anjou, Tours, Bourges, Poitou, and Gascony, of themselves fortified every place that could be fortified in the fullest manner. Moreover, the son of the king of Navarre, to spite the French, ravaged the country about Toulouse. A certain provost of the king of the French, desiring to become greater than his forefathers, set up a castle on the confines of Normandy and France, where there had never yet been any fortification; which, ere it was built, the Normans, by the impulse of their natural anger, totally overthrew, and tore the provost himself to pieces.
Sect. 74. Queen Eleanor, a lady worthy of repeated mention, visited certain houses appertaining to her dower within the diocese of Ely. To meet her there came out of all the hamlets and manors, wherever she passed, men with women and little children, not all of the lowest class, a piteous and pitiable company, with their feet bare, their clothes unwashed, and their hair unshorn. They speak in tears, for which, in very grief, they had failed to utter words, nor was there need of an interpreter, as more than they desired to say might be read in the open page. Human bodies lay unburied everywhere throughout the country, because their bishop had deprived them of sepulture. The queen, on understanding the cause of so great severity, as she was very compassionate, taking pity on the people’s misery for the dead, immediately neglecting her own, and following other men’s matters, repaired to London; she entreated, nay, she demanded, of the archbishop of Rouen, that the confiscated estates of the bishop should be restored to the bishop, and that the same bishop should in the name of the chancery be proclaimed absolved from the excommunication denounced against him, throughout the province of Rouen. And who could be so harsh or obdurate that that lady could not bend him to her wishes? She, too, forgetful of nothing, sent word into Normandy to the lord of Ely, of the public and private restitution which she had obtained for him, and compelled him to revoke the sentence of excommunication he had pronounced against the Exchequer barons. So by the queen’s mediation there was peace between the implacable, though their vexation was apparent, as the disaffection of their minds, contracted in their former hatred, could not be changed, without each giving some utterance to his feelings.
Sect. 75. Earl John, sending messengers to Southampton, commanded shipping to be made ready for him to depart, as was thought, to the king of the French; but the queen his mother, fearing lest the light-minded youth, by the counsels of the French, might go to attempt something against his lord and brother, with anxious mind takes in hand with her utmost ability to divert the intention of her son. The fate of her former