HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

" At Clermont in Auvergne were met gieat hosts from near and far, From France and from ail Christendom, unto the Lord His war."

Translation from Contemporary Poeni.

That séries of great wars known as the Crusades, the

first of which is recounted in this book, has attracted the

attention of every reader of history, if not Place of .

the through the fanatical preaching of the hermit

Crusades pg^er, at any rate through the feats and prowess

in History. ' ■' °

of Richard the Lion-hearted, or St. Louis.

To fully reaUse their importance in the field of médiéval wars, we must do more than regard them as a sequel to the pilgrimages which, from the days of Constantine onwards, had been made with varyihg regularity to the cradle of Christianity. Nor must we be content to attribute them to a mère wish on the part of the Pope for territorial aggrandisement which would bring with it an increased spiritual and temporal power. The wars waged by the men who wore on their arms the badge of the Cross, were one great portion of the struggle between the two great religions of the world, Christianity and Mahometanism, which began in the seventh century on the confines of Arabia and Syria.

At the base of Mahomet's teaching lay the precept that an unbeliever was a rebel who must be brought to his sensés at the point of the sword, and no sooner was

Historical Introduction xi

the unknown citizen acknowledged in ?^Iecca than he proceeded to put this precept into exécution.

About this time the pilgrimages to the East received a severe check on account of the victorious progress of the Persian king, Khosru IL In one of The those periodical struggles between the powers Persian In-

^ °° vasion of

of Persia and Rome, Khosru had succeeded Palestine,

in conquering Palestine and was moving into ^■°- ^^°-

Egypt, when the prophet of Mecca demanded the

obédience of both the Persian king and the Byzantine

emperor to himself as the représentative of God. Both

ahke treated this demand with scorn. INIahomet met

their contempt with an appeal to the faithful to arm

against the rebels, and to carry their religion into the

countries of Syria and Western Asia. The men who

rose up in answer to the prophet's appeal, were not

unlike the first soldiers of the Cross in their boundless

enthusiasm and their stubborn spirit of endurance —

" men dwelling beneath the shadow of their lances, and

cooking their food upon the ashesof the conqueredtowns."

The warnings of the manof Mecca were indeed fulfiUed.

By the year 716 ail Western Asia, the northern coast

of Africa, and Spain, were in the possession Advanceof

of !Mahomet's successors, and their armies Mahomet-

anism, were victorious even beyond the Pyrénées. a.d.

But their advance in the West was checked by 600-700.

the strength of Charles Martel ; during his rule and that of

his grandson Charlemagne the armies of Egypt were driven

back and the struggle was in abeyance for the next two

centuries, only coming up at intervais in Spain and Syria.

The period of rest completely changed the character

xii Histoire de la Première Croisade

of the combatants. The peopleswho professed the worship Character of Mahomet from being fanatical murderers Wa^d gradually became more cultured and sober- 800-1000. minded thinkers. On the other hand, the European nations, more especially after the splendid Une of the Othos had passed away, sank into a déplorable and hopeless lethargy. Even in the days of Charlemagne, who regarded his impérial mission as more particularly a religions one, they had confined themselves more and more exclusively within narrow ecclesiastical paths, and devoted themselves to a religion bound by outward observance. While the people of the East were developing the political and intellectual side of life, the Western nations were deteriorating in this respect under the rule of petty tyrants. In their desperation, they Growth of seem to hâve readily fallen victims to a mental fanàdcism dyspepsia which made them look for the in W. destruction of the weary and sin-laden world in which they lived at the end of the IMillennium. With this thought they turned their minds more frantically to their religion. FuU of hatred against this earthly world, and under the influence of a mystical excitement, men sought the lonehness of mountains and the seclusion of forests in order to mortify their flesh. Everywhere new monasteries sprang up and were as quickly filled. With utter contempt men turned from the sciences and art ; "upon such toys," they said, "we hâve wasted our youth, but now we hâve cast them from us." Their one désire was to see their Divinity with mortal eyes, and with this as the prominent idea before them, they readily gave credence to reports of mysterious visions and apparitions.

Historical Introduction xiii

When religious enthusiasm had impregnated mankind to such a degree, anger against the unbeliever rose of its own accord. To be able to give their intense passion some practical turn was to most of them a privilège granted them by the will of Heaven. Consequently, wherever the war against the infidels, as they called the foUowers of Mahornet, had smouldered on since the eighth century, thitlier thousands of volunteers flocked to victory, or death and Paradise. Such was the prevailing spirit in Western Christendom when in the early décades of the eleventh century the attack on Mahometanism was renewed.

Now other circumstances were promoting an organised movement for the complète overthrow of the Islamites. The volunteers who had rushed ^^^^ ^^^ impetuously forth to sacrifice themselves in fluence of Spain and Syria, were beginning to realise the need of a commander-in-chief to direct their warfare, and of a ruler to command it. The same ecclesiastical spirit which had prompted their going now directed them to the Pope. The power of the Papacy had been acquiring strength out of the weakness of the Empire, and when that power was wielded by Gregory VU., it became an irrésistible passion for ecclesiastical dominion.

Hildebrand possessed a universal genius for ruling, such as has only since been displayed in the two greatest self-made men of modem history, Cromwell Qj-e^ory and Bonaparte. He was at one and the same vil, a.d. time a reformer of the Church, a statesman ^°^^~ ^' and a conqueror, a démagogue and a diplomatist. " AU princes," he had said, "shall kiss the Pope's foot, for he

xiv Histoire de la Première Croisade

alone is answerable to God for the sins of kings." With this in view, he had demanded subservience from kings, had deposed the Emperor, and had proved himself ready to grasp the temporal as well as the spiritual povver. When he turned his attention to foreign affairs, it was to plan a décisive attack upon the kingdoms of the Islamites. He soon found a pretext for setting his plan in motion ; Islam was being attacked at two points, by the Morabites in Spain and the Seljukian Turks in Asia. The incursions of the Turks were threatening great danger, and in order to resist them Hildebrand addressed a letter to the faithful, caUing upon them to sweep such undisciplined unbelievers from the earth. His appeal was answered by 50,000 warriors ; but the exécution of his design to become absolute lord both of East and West was hindered by internai quarrels, and finally extinguished by his death.

Ten years afterwards Urban IL, who had a superior adroitness in the management of détails, and whose in- ^ , fluence was more generally honoured than

A.D. Gregory's had ever been, had it in mind to -99- cg^i-ry out a similar plan.

In the interval between the death of Hildebrand and the succession of Urban the Turks had rnade great progress, and were even then threatening the capital of the Eastern Emperor. In addition, horrible taies of the sufferings of pilgrims and of the outrages on the Christians in Palestine had been spread abroad, and increased the already burning zeal of the Christians in the West.

When, then, Urban at the Council of Clermont

Historical Introduction xv

brought forward the pétition of Alexius, which had been deferred at the Council of Piacenza, his speech ^^^^^^^ ^f was interrupted by the passionate cry of " Dieu Ciermont, le veut," " Dieu le veut." In their drunken ^'^' ^°^^" relisrious zeal, thousands of his hearers revelled in the idea of rescuing the tomb of the Saviour from the défilement of the heathen, and of freeing themselves from the pressure of earthly wretchedness.

Thus was the die cast for the venture which is recounted in the fuUest détail in the following pages.

There remains only to state the character of the army which journeyed to the East in answer to this summons, and the conditions under which it served.

Among the soldiers who thus willingly pledged themselves to rescue the Holy Land must be reckoned ail sorts and conditions of men. In thèse days it is Q^aracter almost impossible to conceive the state of mind of the in which they entered upon their task.^ The support given to their undertaking by the Pope ensured to the superstitions the reward of Paradise ; to the ambitious and covetous, dominion and wealth; to the vicions and voluptuous, indulgences ; to the criminal, pardon ; and to ail, impunity. The strong superstitions spirit which they displayed throughout the war cannot be wondered at, when it is remembered that thousands of them had never before caught a glimpse of anything beyond the narrow circle of their own parish ; and that they were firmly convinced that since the mystery of the

1 The sudden oiitbreak of the Afridis on the Indian frontier in August 1897 is a good example of the influence religious fanaticism can produce.

xvi Histoire de la Première Croisade

Crucifixion nothing had been seen like this vvar, which was a work of God and not of man. When they were brought face to face with the splendeur and greatness of the East, their intoxicated eyes were constandy beholding visions of the saints and armies of heaven. The effect of the Crusade on their religions sentimentality was very great ; from a monkish dévotion it became a chivalrous enthusiasm, and from an ascetic renunciation of the world a knightly valour.

In matters of military discipline and organisation the

army of the Crusaders was wholly déficient. The most

Their perfect Personal freedom existed ; each knight

mihtary served first under one prince and then under

organisation and another ; that prince who for the time offered

discipline, ^^iq highest wage, or who had distinguished

himself most in battle, found himself with the largest

foUowing. The gênerai arrangements were in the hands

of a war committee of twenty, who had the power to

sélect one, from time to time, to be commander-in-chief.

It may truly be said that the army was held together by

the intense keenness of its soldiers for the enterprise

which they had before them;land that its success was

largely due to the fact that the enemy were in a very

unsettled state, for pretenders were quarrelling about the

Sultan's throne, the émirs of principalities were quite

independent of the Sultan, and were engaged in warring

against each other ; and that the Caliph of Egypt was,

at the same time, seeking to overthrow the power of

the Seljukians.