Transcript

32 - Popular History of France from the Earliest Times by Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot · Popular History of France from the Earliest Times

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Speaker 1: Section thirty two of Volume one, A Popular History of
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Speaker 1: France from the Earliest Times. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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Speaker 1: by Emili Jomr. Volume one of A Popular History of
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Speaker 1: France from the Earliest Times by Francois Ghiseau, translated by
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Speaker 1: Robert Black, Chapter sixteen The Crusades, their Origin and their
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Speaker 1: success Part two in one thousand ninety five, after the
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Speaker 1: preaching errantry of Peter the Hermit Pope Urban. The second
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Speaker 1: was at Clermont in Auvergne, residing at the Grand Council,
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Speaker 1: at which thirteen archbishops and two hundred and five bishops
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Speaker 1: or abbots were met, together with so many princes and laylords,
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Speaker 1: that about the middle of the month of November, the
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Speaker 1: towns and the villages of the neighborhood were full of
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Speaker 1: people and diverse were constrained to have their tents and
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Speaker 1: pavilions set up amidst the fields and meadows, notwithstanding that
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Speaker 1: the season and the country were cold to an extreme.
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Speaker 1: The first nine sessions of the Council were devoted to
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Speaker 1: the affairs of the church in the west, but at
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Speaker 1: the tenth Jerusalem and the cushions of the East became
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Speaker 1: the subject of deliberation. The Pope went out of the
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Speaker 1: church wherein the council was assembled, and mounted a platform
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Speaker 1: erected upon a vast open space in the midst of
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Speaker 1: the throng. Peter, the hermit, standing at his side, spoke
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Speaker 1: first and told the story of his sojourns at Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: all he had seen, of the miseries and humiliations of
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Speaker 1: the Christians, and all he himself had suffered there, for
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Speaker 1: he had been made to pay tribute for admission into
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Speaker 1: the Holy City and for gazing upon the spectacle of
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Speaker 1: the exactions, insults, and tortures he was recounting. After him,
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Speaker 1: Pope Urban the second spoke in the French tongue, no
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Speaker 1: doubt as Peter had spoken, for he was himself a Frenchman,
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Speaker 1: as the majority of those present were grandeis and populace.
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Speaker 1: He made a long speech entertaining upon the most painful
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Speaker 1: details connected with the sufferings of the Christians of Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: that royal city which the Redeemer of the human race
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Speaker 1: had made illustrious by his coming, had honored by his residence,
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Speaker 1: had hallowed by his passion, hadst by his death, had
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Speaker 1: distinguished by his burial. She now demands of you her deliverance.
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Speaker 1: Men of France, men from beyond the mountains, nations chosen
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Speaker 1: and beloved of God. Right valiant knights. Recall the virtues
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Speaker 1: of your ancestors, the virtue and greatness of King Charlemagne
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Speaker 1: and your other kings. It is from you above all
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Speaker 1: that Jerusalem awaits the help she invokes, for to you,
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Speaker 1: above all nations, God has vouchsafed single glory in arms.
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Speaker 1: Take ye, then the road to Jerusalem for the remission
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Speaker 1: of your sins, and depart assured of the imperishable glory
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Speaker 1: which awaits you in the Kingdom of Heaven. From the
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Speaker 1: midst of the throng arose one prolonged and general shout, God,
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Speaker 1: willeth it, God willeth it. The book paused for a moment,
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Speaker 1: and then making a sign with his hand as if
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Speaker 1: to ask for silence, he continued, if the Lord God
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Speaker 1: were not in your souls, ye would not have all
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Speaker 1: uttered the same words in the battle. Then be those
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Speaker 1: your war cry, those words that came from God in
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Speaker 1: the army of the Lord. Let not be heard but
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Speaker 1: that one shout God, willeth it, God willeth it. We
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Speaker 1: ordain not, and we advise not that the journey be
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Speaker 1: undertaken by the old or the weak, or such as
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Speaker 1: be not suited for arms. And let not women set
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Speaker 1: out without their husbands or their brothers. Let the rich
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Speaker 1: help the poor. Nor priests nor clerks may go without
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Speaker 1: the leave of their bishops. And no layman shall commence
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Speaker 1: the march, save with the blessing of his pastor. Whosoever
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Speaker 1: hath a wish to enter upon this pilgrimage, let him
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Speaker 1: wear upon his brow or his breast the cross of
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Speaker 1: the Lord. And let him who, in accomplishment of his
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Speaker 1: desire shall be willing to march away, place the cross
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Speaker 1: behind him between his shoulders. For thus he will fulfill
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Speaker 1: the precept of the Lord, who said, he that doth
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Speaker 1: not take up his cross and follow me is not
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Speaker 1: worthy of me. The enthusiasm was general and contagious, as
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Speaker 1: the first shout of the crowd had been, and a
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Speaker 1: pious prelate, Ademar Bishop of pri was the first to
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Speaker 1: receive the cross from the Pope's hands. It was of
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Speaker 1: red cloth or silk, sewn upon the right shoulder of
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Speaker 1: the coat or cloak, or fastened on the front of
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Speaker 1: the helmet. The crowd dispersed to assume it and spread it.
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Speaker 1: Religious enthusiasm was not the only, but the first and
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Speaker 1: the determining motive of the crusade. It is to the
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Speaker 1: honor of humanity, and especially to the honor of the
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Speaker 1: French nation, that it is accessible to the sudden sway
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Speaker 1: of a moral and disinterested sentiment, and resolves without prevision,
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Speaker 1: as well as without premeditation, upon acts which decide for
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Speaker 1: many a long year, the course and the fate of
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Speaker 1: a generation, and it may be of a whole people.
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Speaker 1: We have seen in our own day in the conduct
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Speaker 1: of populace, national assemblies and armies under the impulse not
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Speaker 1: any longer of religious feeling, but of political and social agitation.
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Speaker 1: France thus giving herself up to the rush of sentiments, generous,
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Speaker 1: indeed and pure, but without the least forecast touching the
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Speaker 1: consequences of the ideas which inspired them or the acts
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Speaker 1: which they entailed. It is with nations as with armies,
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Speaker 1: the side of glory is that of danger, and great
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Speaker 1: works are wrought at a heavy cost, not only of happiness,
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Speaker 1: but also of virtue. It would be wrong, nevertheless, to
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Speaker 1: lack respect for and to speak evil of enthusiasm. It
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Speaker 1: not only bears witness to the grandeur of human nature,
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Speaker 1: it justly holds its place and exercises its noble influence
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Speaker 1: in the course of the great events which move across
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Speaker 1: the scene of human errors and vices. According to the
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Speaker 1: vast and inscrutable design of Trod, it is quite certain
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Speaker 1: that the Crusaders of the eleventh century, in their haste
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Speaker 1: to deliver Jerusalem from the Mussulman, were far from foreseeing
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Speaker 1: that a few centuries after their triumph, Jerusalem and the
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Speaker 1: Christian East would fall again beneath the yoke of the
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Speaker 1: Mussulman and their barbaris. Their extagnation, and this future, had
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Speaker 1: they caught but a glimpse of it, would doubtless have
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Speaker 1: chilled their zeal. But it is not a whit the
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Speaker 1: less certain that, in view of the end, their labor
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Speaker 1: was not in vain. For in the panorama of the
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Speaker 1: world's history, the Crusades marked the date of the arrest
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Speaker 1: of Islamism and powerfully contributed to the decisive preponderance of
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Speaker 1: Christian civilization. To religious enthusiasm, there was joined another motive,
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Speaker 1: less disinterested, but natural and legitimate, which was the still
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Speaker 1: very vivid recollection of the evils caused to the Christians
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Speaker 1: of the West by the Mussulman invasions in Spain, France
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Speaker 1: and Italy, and the fear of seeing them begin again. Instinctively,
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Speaker 1: war was carried to the east to keep it from
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Speaker 1: the West. Justice. Charlemagne had invaded and conquered the country
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Speaker 1: of the Saxons to put an end to theirs the
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Speaker 1: inroads upon the Franks. And this prudent plan availed not
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Speaker 1: only to give the Christians of the West a hope
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Speaker 1: of security, it afforded them the pleasure of vengeance. They
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Speaker 1: were about to pay back alarm for alarm, and evil
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Speaker 1: for evil to the enemy from whom they had suffered.
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Speaker 1: In the same way, hatred and pride, as well as piety,
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Speaker 1: obtained satisfaction. There is moreover, great motive power in a
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Speaker 1: spirit of enterprise and a taste for adventure. Care for
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Speaker 1: nothingness is one of mankind's chief diseases, and if it
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Speaker 1: plays so conspicuous a part in comparatively enlightened and favored
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Speaker 1: communities amidst the labors and the enjoyments of an advanced civilization.
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Speaker 1: Its influence was certainly not less in times of intellectual
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Speaker 1: sloth and harshly monotonous existence to escape therefrom to satisfy
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Speaker 1: in some sort the o energy and curiosity inherent in man.
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Speaker 1: The people of the eleventh century had scarcely any resource,
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Speaker 1: but war, with its excitement and distant excursions into unknown regions,
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Speaker 1: thither rushed the masses of the people, whilst the minds,
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Speaker 1: which were eager above everything for intellectual movement and for knowledge,
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Speaker 1: thronged on the mountain of Saint Genevieve to the lectures
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Speaker 1: of Abelard. Need of variety and novelty, and an instinctive
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Speaker 1: desire to extend their views and enliven their existence, probably
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Speaker 1: made as many crusaders as the feeling against the Mussulman
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Speaker 1: and the promptings of piety. The Council of Clermont, at
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Speaker 1: its closing on the twenty eighth of November one thousand
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Speaker 1: ninety five, had fixed the month of August in the
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Speaker 1: following year, and the feast of the Assumption for the
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Speaker 1: departure of the crusaders for the Holy land. But the
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Speaker 1: peoples impatience did not brook this waiting short as it
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Speaker 1: was in view of the greatness and difficulties of the enterprise.
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Speaker 1: As early as the eighth of March one thousand ninety six,
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Speaker 1: and in the course of the spring, three mobs, rather
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Speaker 1: than armies, set out on the crusade with a strength
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Speaker 1: it is said, of eighty or one hundred thousand persons
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Speaker 1: in one case, and of fifteen or twenty thousand in
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Speaker 1: the other two persons not men, for there were amongst
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Speaker 1: them many women and children, whole families in fact, who
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Speaker 1: had left their villages without organization and without provisions, calculating
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Speaker 1: that they would be competent to find their own way,
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Speaker 1: and that he who feeds the young ravens would not
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Speaker 1: suffer to die of want. Pilgrims wearing his cross, whenever
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Speaker 1: on the road a town came in sight, the children
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Speaker 1: asked if that were Jerusalem. The first of these mobs
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Speaker 1: had for its head Peter the Hermit himself and a
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Speaker 1: Burgundian knight called Walter have not. The second had a
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Speaker 1: German priest named Gottschalk, and the third a Count Emiko
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Speaker 1: of Leningen, potent in the neighborhood of Mayns. It is
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Speaker 1: wrong to call them heads, for they were really nothing
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Speaker 1: of the kind. Their authority was rejected at one time
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Speaker 1: as tyrannical, at another as useless. The grasshoppers was the
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Speaker 1: saying amongst them, in the words of Solomon's proverbs, have
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Speaker 1: no king, and yet they go in companies in crossing Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria,
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Speaker 1: and the provinces of the Greek Empire. These companies, urged
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Speaker 1: on by their brutal passions or by their necessities and
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Speaker 1: material wants, abandoned themselves to such irregularities that as they went,
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Speaker 1: princes and peoples, instead of welcome among them as Christians,
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Speaker 1: came to treat them as enemies of whom it was
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Speaker 1: necessary to get rid at any price. Peter the Hermit
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Speaker 1: and Gottschock made honorable and sincere efforts to check the
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Speaker 1: excesses of their following, which were a source of so
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Speaker 1: much danger. But Count Emico, on the contrary, says William
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Speaker 1: of Tire, himself, took part in the plunder and incited
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Speaker 1: his comrades to crime, thus at one time taking the offensive,
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Speaker 1: at another compelled to defend themselves against the attacts of
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Speaker 1: the justly irritated inhabitants. These three immense companies of pilgrims,
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Speaker 1: these disorderly volunteers with great difficulty, arrived after enormous losses,
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Speaker 1: at the gates of Constantinople. Either through fear or through pity,
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Speaker 1: the Greek emperor Alexis or Alexius Comnenus permitted them to
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Speaker 1: pitch their camp there. But before long, plenty, idleness and
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Speaker 1: the sight of the riches of Constantinople brought once more
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Speaker 1: into the camp license in discipline and athirst. After brigandage,
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Speaker 1: while awaiting the war against the Mussulman, the pilgrims pillaged
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Speaker 1: the houses, the palaces, and even the churches in the
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Speaker 1: outskirts of Byzantium. To deliver his capital from these destructive guests,
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Speaker 1: Alexis furnished them with vessels and got them shipped off
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Speaker 1: across the Bosporus. Whilst the crusade was commencing under these
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Speaker 1: sad auspices, chieftains of more sense and better obeyed were
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Speaker 1: preparing to give it another character and superior fortunes. Two
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Speaker 1: great and real armies were forming in the north, the
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Speaker 1: center and the south of France, and a third in
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Speaker 1: Italy amongst the Norman knights, who had founded there the
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Speaker 1: Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. Just before the their countrymen,
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Speaker 1: William the Bastard conquered England. First of these armies had
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Speaker 1: for its chief Godfrey de Bouillon, Duke of Loren, whom
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Speaker 1: all his contemporaries have described as the model of a
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Speaker 1: gallant and pious knight. He was the son of Eustace,
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Speaker 1: the second Count of Boulogne, and the luster of nobility,
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Speaker 1: says Raoul of Khan, chronicler of his times, was enhanced
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Speaker 1: in his case by the splendor of the most exalted virtues,
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Speaker 1: as well in affairs of the world as of heaven.
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Speaker 1: As to the latter, he distinguished himself by his generosity
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Speaker 1: toward the poor, and his pity for those who had
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Speaker 1: committed faults. Furthermore, his humility, his extreme gentleness, his moderation,
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Speaker 1: his justice, and his chastity were great. He shone as
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Speaker 1: a light amongst the monks, even more than as a
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Speaker 1: duke amongst the knights. And nevertheless, he could also do
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Speaker 1: the things which are of this world, fight, marshal the ranks,
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Speaker 1: and extend by arms the domains of the church. In
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Speaker 1: his boyhood he learned to be first, or one of
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Speaker 1: the first, to strike the foe. In youth he made
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Speaker 1: it his habitual practice, and in advancing age he forgot it.
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Speaker 1: Never he was so perfectly the son of the warlike
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Speaker 1: Count Eustace, and of his mother Ida de Brionne, a
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Speaker 1: woman full of piety and versed in literature, that at
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Speaker 1: sight of him even a rival would have been forced
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Speaker 1: to say of him, for zeal in war, behold his father,
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Speaker 1: for serving God, behold his mother. The second army, consisting
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Speaker 1: chiefly of crusaders from southern France, marched under the orders
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Speaker 1: of Raymond, the fourth Count of Toulouse, the oldest chieftain
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Speaker 1: of the Crusade, who still, however, united the ardor of
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Speaker 1: youth with the experience of ripe age and the stubbornness
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Speaker 1: of the graybeard. At the side of the seed he
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Speaker 1: had fought and more than once beaten the moors in Spain.
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Speaker 1: He took with him to the east his third wife, Elvira,
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Speaker 1: daughter of Alphonso, the sixth King of Castile, as well
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Speaker 1: as a very young child he had by her, And
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Speaker 1: he had made a vow which he fulfilled, that he
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Speaker 1: would return no more to his country and would fight
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Speaker 1: the infidels to the end of his days in expiation
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Speaker 1: of his sins. He was discreet, though haughty, and not
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Speaker 1: only the richest, but the most economical of the Crusader chiefs.
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Speaker 1: Accordingly says Raoul of con When all the rest had
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Speaker 1: spent their money, the riches of Count Raymond made him
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Speaker 1: still more distinguished. The people of Provence formed his following,
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Speaker 1: did not lavish their resources, but study tread economy even
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Speaker 1: more than Glory, and his army Ads Guibert of Nujon
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Speaker 1: showed no inferiority to any other, save so far as
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Speaker 1: it is possible to reput the inhabitants of Vence, touching
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Speaker 1: their excessive locacity. Bauemond, Prince of Tarento, commanded the third Army,
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Speaker 1: composed principally of Italians and warriors of various origins come
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Speaker 1: to Italy to share in the exploits and fortunes of
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Speaker 1: his father, the celebrated Robert Giscau, founder of the Norman
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Speaker 1: Kingdom of Naples, who was at one time the foe
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Speaker 1: and at another the defender of Pope Gregory the seventh,
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Speaker 1: and who died in the island of Cephalonia, just as
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Speaker 1: he was preparing to attempt the conquest of Constantinople. Bauemond
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Speaker 1: had neither less ambition nor less courage and ability than
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Speaker 1: his father. Appearance, says Anna Cumnena, impressed the eye as
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Speaker 1: much as his reputation astounded the mind. His height surpassed
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Speaker 1: that of all his comrades. His blue eyes gleamed readily
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Speaker 1: with pride and anger. When he spoke, you would have
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Speaker 1: said he had made eloquence his study. And when he
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Speaker 1: showed himself an armor, you might have believed he had
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Speaker 1: never done aught but handle lance and sword. Brought up
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Speaker 1: in the school of Norman heroes, he concealed calculations of
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Speaker 1: policy beneath the exterior of force. And although he was
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Speaker 1: of a haughty disposition, he knew how to be blind
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Speaker 1: to a wrong when there was nothing to be gained
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Speaker 1: by avenging it. He had learned from his father to
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Speaker 1: regard as foes all whose dominions and riches he coveted,
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Speaker 1: and he was not restrained by fear of God, or
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Speaker 1: by man's opinions, or by his own oaths. It was
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Speaker 1: not the deliverance of the tomb of Christ which fired
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Speaker 1: his zeal or decided him upon taking up the cross.
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Speaker 1: But as he had vowed eternal enmity to the Greek emperors,
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Speaker 1: he smiled at the idea of traversing their empire at
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Speaker 1: the head of an army, and full of confidence in
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Speaker 1: his fortunes, he hoped to make for himself a kingdom.
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Speaker 1: Before arriving at Jerusalem, Bohemond had as friend and faithful
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Speaker 1: comrade his cousin Tancred d'auteville, great grandson through his mother
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Speaker 1: Emma of Robert Giscard, and, according to all his contemporaries,
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Speaker 1: the type of a perfect Christian knight, neither more nor
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Speaker 1: less from his boyhood, says Raoul of Kan, his servitor
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Speaker 1: before becoming his biographer. He surpassed the young by his
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Speaker 1: skill in the management of arms, and the old by
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Speaker 1: the strictness of his morals. He disdained to speak ill
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Speaker 1: of whoever it might be. Even when ill had been
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Speaker 1: spoken of himself about him, he would say not, but
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Speaker 1: he had an insatiable desire to give cause for talking.
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Speaker 1: Thereof glory was the only passion that moved that young soul.
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Speaker 1: Yet was it disquieted within him, and he suffered great
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Speaker 1: anxiety from thinking that his knightly combats seemed contrary to
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Speaker 1: the precepts of the Lord. The Lord bids us give
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Speaker 1: our coat and our cloak to him who would take
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Speaker 1: them from us, whereas the knight's part is to strip
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Speaker 1: all that remains from him, whom he hath already taken
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Speaker 1: his coat and his cloak. These contradictory principles be numbed
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Speaker 1: sometimes the courage of this man, so full of propriety.
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Speaker 1: But when the declaration of Pope Urban had assured remission
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Speaker 1: of all their sins to all Christians who should go
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Speaker 1: and fight the Gentiles, then Tankered awoke in some sort
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Speaker 1: from his dream, and this new opportunity fired him with
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Speaker 1: a zeal which cannot be expressed. He therefore made preparations
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Speaker 1: for his departure, but, accustomed from his infancy to give
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Speaker 1: to others before thinking of himself, he entered upon no
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Speaker 1: great outlay, but contented himself with collecting insufficient quantity knightly arms, horses, mules,
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Speaker 1: and provisions necessary for his company. With these four chieftains,
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Speaker 1: who have remained illustrious in history, that grave, wherein small
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Speaker 1: reputations are extinguished, were associated for the deliverance of the
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Speaker 1: Holy Land, a thong of feudal lords, some powerful as
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Speaker 1: well as valiant, others valiant but simple knights. Hugh, Count
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Speaker 1: of Vermoudois, brother of Philip, the first King of France,
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Speaker 1: Robbed of Normandy, called short Hose, son of William the Conqueror, Robert,
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Speaker 1: Count of Flanders, Stephen, Count of Blois, Haimbault, Count of Vauge, Baldwin,
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Speaker 1: Count of Venault, Raoul of bourgoncill Gerard of Russion, and
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Speaker 1: many others whose names contemporary chroniclers and learned moderns have
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Speaker 1: gathered together. Not one of the reigning sovereigns of Europe,
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Speaker 1: Kings or emperors of France, England, Spain or Germany, took
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Speaker 1: part in the First Crusade. It was the feudal nation,
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Speaker 1: great and small castle owners and populace who rose in
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Speaker 1: mass for the deliverance of Jerusalem and the honor of Christendom.
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Speaker 1: These three great armies of Crusaders got on the march
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Speaker 1: from August to October one thousand ninety six, wending their way.
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Speaker 1: Godfrey de Bouillon by Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria, Boemonde by
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Speaker 1: the south of Italy and the Mediterranean, and Count Raymond
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Speaker 1: of Toulouse, by northern Italy, Friuli and Dalmatia. They arrived
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Speaker 1: one after the other in the Empire of the East,
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Speaker 1: and at the gates of Constantinople. Godfrey de Brillon was
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Speaker 1: the first to appear there, and the Emperor Alexis Comnenus
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Speaker 1: learned with dismay that other armies of Crusaders would soon
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Speaker 1: follow that which was already so large. It was not
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Speaker 1: long before Beauemond and Raymond appeared. Alexis behaved toward these
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Speaker 1: formidable allies with a mixture of pusillanimity and haughtiness, promises
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Speaker 1: and lies, caresses and hostility, which irritated without intimidating them,
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Speaker 1: and rendered it impossible for them to feel any confidence
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Speaker 1: or conceive any esteem. At one time he was thanking
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Speaker 1: them profusely for the support they were bringing him against
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Speaker 1: the Infandels. At another he was sending troops to harass
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Speaker 1: them on their road, and when they reached Constantinople, he
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Speaker 1: demanded that they should swear fealty and obedience to him,
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Speaker 1: as if they were his own subjects. One day he
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Speaker 1: was refusing them provisions and attempting to subdue them by famine,
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Speaker 1: and the next he was lavishing feast and present upon them.
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Speaker 1: The Crusaders on their side, when provisions fell short, spread
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Speaker 1: themselves over the country and plundered it without scruple, And
25:20
Speaker 1: when they encountered hostile troops of Greeks charged them without warning.
25:26
Speaker 1: When the Emperor demanded of them fealty and homage, the
25:30
Speaker 1: Count of Toulouse answered that he had not come to
25:32
Speaker 1: the east in search of a master. Godfrey de Bouillon,
25:36
Speaker 1: after resisting every haughty pretension, being as just as he
25:40
Speaker 1: was dignified, acknowledged that the Crusaders ought to restore to
25:45
Speaker 1: the Emperor the towns which had belonged to the Empire,
25:48
Speaker 1: and an arrangement to that effect was concluded between them.
25:52
Speaker 1: Beauemond had a proposal submitted to Godfrey to join him
25:56
Speaker 1: in attacking the Greek Empire and taking possession at once
25:59
Speaker 1: of Vizantium, but Godfrey rejected the proposal with the reminder
26:05
Speaker 1: that he had come only to fight the infidels. The Emperor,
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Speaker 1: fully informed of the greediness as well as ambition, of Bauemond,
26:13
Speaker 1: introduced him one day into a room full of treasures. Here,
26:18
Speaker 1: said Baemond, is wherewith to conquer kingdoms. Alexis had the
26:23
Speaker 1: treasures removed to Boemond's, who at first refused, and ended
26:27
Speaker 1: by accepting them. It is even said that he asked
26:30
Speaker 1: the Emperor for the title of Grand Domestic or General
26:34
Speaker 1: of the Empire of the East. Alexis, who had held
26:38
Speaker 1: that dignity and who knew that it was the way
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Speaker 1: to the throne, gave the Norman chieftain a present refusal,
26:45
Speaker 1: with a promise of it on account of future services
26:47
Speaker 1: to be rendered by him to the Empire and the Emperor.
26:53
Speaker 1: The chiefs of the Crusade were not alone in treating
26:56
Speaker 1: with disdain this haughty, wily and feeble sovereign. During a
27:01
Speaker 1: ceremony at which some French princes were doing homage to
27:04
Speaker 1: the Emperor, a count, Robert of Paris went and sat
27:08
Speaker 1: down free and easily beside him, when Baldwin, Count Iveinaut,
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Speaker 1: took the intruder by the arm, saying, when you are
27:18
Speaker 1: in a country, you must respect its masters and its customs.
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Speaker 1: Verily answered Robert, I hold it shocking that this jackanapes
27:26
Speaker 1: should be seated, while so many noble captains are standing yonder.
27:31
Speaker 1: When the ceremony was over, the Emperor, who had no
27:34
Speaker 1: doubt heard the words, wished to have an explanation. So
27:38
Speaker 1: he detained Robert and asked him who and whence he was.
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Speaker 1: I am a Frenchman, quoth Robert, and of noble birth.
27:47
Speaker 1: In my country there is hard by a church a
27:50
Speaker 1: spot repaired to by such as burn to prove their valor.
27:54
Speaker 1: I have been there often without any one's daring to
27:56
Speaker 1: present himself before me. The Biber did not care to
28:01
Speaker 1: take up this sort of challenge, and contented himself with
28:04
Speaker 1: replying to the warrior, if you there waited for foes
28:07
Speaker 1: without finding any, you are now about to have what
28:10
Speaker 1: will satisfy you. I have, however, a piece of advice
28:14
Speaker 1: to give you. Don't put yourself at the head or
28:17
Speaker 1: the tail of the army. Keep in the middle. I
28:21
Speaker 1: have learned how to fight with Turks, and that is
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Speaker 1: the best place you can choose. The Crusaders and the
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Speaker 1: Greeks were mutually contemptuous, the former with a ruffianly pride,
28:31
Speaker 1: the latter with an ironical and timid refinement. This posture
28:37
Speaker 1: on either side of inactivity, ill will, and irritation could
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Speaker 1: not last long. On the approach of the spring of
28:45
Speaker 1: one thousand, ninety seven, the Crusader chiefs and their troops,
28:50
Speaker 1: first Godfrey de Bouillon, then Boemann and Tankered, and afterwards
28:55
Speaker 1: Count Raymond of Toulouse, passed the Bosporus, being conveyed made
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Speaker 1: across either in their own vessels or those of the
29:03
Speaker 1: Emperor Alexis, who encouraged them against the Infidels, and at
29:07
Speaker 1: the same time had the Infidels supplied with information most
29:11
Speaker 1: damaging to the Crusaders. Having effected a junction in Bithnia,
29:17
Speaker 1: the Christian chiefs resolved to go and lay siege to Nicea,
29:22
Speaker 1: the first place of importance in possession of the Turks.
29:26
Speaker 1: Whilst marching towards the place they saw coming to meet
29:30
Speaker 1: them with every appearance of the most woeful destitution, Peter
29:35
Speaker 1: the Hermit, followed by a small band of pilgrims, escaped
29:39
Speaker 1: from the disasters of their expedition, who had passed the
29:43
Speaker 1: winter as he had in Bythnia, waiting for more fortunate Crusaders. Peter,
29:49
Speaker 1: affectionately welcomed by the chiefs of the army, recounted to
29:52
Speaker 1: them in detail, says William of Tire, how the people
29:56
Speaker 1: who had preceded them under his guidance had shown them
30:00
Speaker 1: self's destitute of intelligence, improvident and unmanageable at the same time.
30:05
Speaker 1: And so it was far more by their own fault
30:08
Speaker 1: than by the deed of any other, that they had
30:11
Speaker 1: succumbed to the weight of their calamities. Peter, having thus
30:15
Speaker 1: relieved his heart and recovered his hopes, joined the powerful
30:19
Speaker 1: army of Crusaders who had come at last, and on
30:22
Speaker 1: the fifteenth of May one thousand ninety seven, the siege
30:25
Speaker 1: of Nicia began. The town was in the hands of
30:29
Speaker 1: a Turkish sultan, kilige Arslan, whose father Solomon twenty years before,
30:35
Speaker 1: had invaded Bithnia and fixed his abode at Nicea. He,
30:40
Speaker 1: being informed of the approach of the crusaders, had issued
30:43
Speaker 1: forth to go and assemble all his forces. But he
30:47
Speaker 1: had left behind his wife, his children, and his treasures.
30:51
Speaker 1: And he had sent messengers to the inhabitants, saying, be
30:55
Speaker 1: of good courage and fear not the barbarous people who
30:58
Speaker 1: make show of besieging oars. Tomorrow, before the seventh hour
31:03
Speaker 1: of the day, ye shall be delivered from your enemies.
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Speaker 1: And he did arrive on the sixteenth of May, says
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Speaker 1: the Armenian historian Matthias of Edessa at the head of
31:14
Speaker 1: six hundred thousand horsemen. The historians of the Crusaders are
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Speaker 1: infinitely more moderate as to the number of their foes.
31:22
Speaker 1: They assigned to kill a Jarslon only fifty or sixty
31:25
Speaker 1: thousand men, and their testimony is far more trustworthy, being
31:30
Speaker 1: that of the victors. In any case, the Christians and
31:33
Speaker 1: the Turks fought valiantly for two days under the walls
31:37
Speaker 1: of Nicea, and Godfrey de Bouillon did justice to his
31:41
Speaker 1: fame for valor and skill by laying low a Turk
31:45
Speaker 1: remarkable amongst all, says William of Tire, for his size
31:49
Speaker 1: and strength, whose arrows caused much havoc in the ranks
31:52
Speaker 1: of our men. Kill a Jarcelan being beaten withdrew to
31:57
Speaker 1: collect fresh troops. And after six weeks siege, the Crusaders
32:01
Speaker 1: believed themselves on the point of entering Nicea as masters.
32:05
Speaker 1: When on the twenty sixth of June they saw floating
32:08
Speaker 1: on the ramparts the standard of the Emperor Alexis. Their
32:13
Speaker 1: surprise was the greater, and that they had just written
32:16
Speaker 1: to the Emperor to say that the city was on
32:18
Speaker 1: the point of surrendering, and they added, we earnestly invite
32:22
Speaker 1: you to lose no time in sending some of your
32:24
Speaker 1: pusses with sufficient retinue that they may receive and keep
32:28
Speaker 1: in honor of your name. The city which will deliver
32:30
Speaker 1: itself up to us. As for us, after having put
32:34
Speaker 1: it in the hands of your Highness, we will not
32:37
Speaker 1: show any delay in pursuing, with God's help, the execution
32:40
Speaker 1: of our projects. Alexis had anticipated this loyal message, being
32:46
Speaker 1: in constant secret communication with the former subjects of the
32:49
Speaker 1: Greek Empire and often even with their new masters, the Turks.
32:54
Speaker 1: His agents in Nicea had induced the inhabitants to surrender
32:58
Speaker 1: to him and not to the Latins, who would treat
33:01
Speaker 1: them as vanquished. The irritation amongst the Crusaders was extreme.
33:06
Speaker 1: They had promised themselves, if not the plunder of Nicea,
33:09
Speaker 1: at any rate, great advantages from their victory, and it
33:13
Speaker 1: was said in the camp that the convention concluded with
33:16
Speaker 1: the emperor contained an article purporting that if with God's help,
33:20
Speaker 1: there were taken any of the towns which had belonged
33:23
Speaker 1: aforetime to the Greek Empire, all along the line of
33:26
Speaker 1: March up to the Syria. The town should be restored
33:30
Speaker 1: to the Emperor, together with all the adjacent territory, and
33:34
Speaker 1: that the booty, the spoils, and all objects whatsoever found
33:38
Speaker 1: therein should be given up without discussion to the Crusader
33:42
Speaker 1: in recompense for their trouble and indemnification for the expenses.
33:47
Speaker 1: The wrath waxed still fiercer when it was known that
33:50
Speaker 1: the Crusaders would not be permitted to enter more than
33:53
Speaker 1: ten at a time the town they had just taken,
33:56
Speaker 1: and that the Emperor Alexis had set at liberty. The
34:00
Speaker 1: wife of killige Arslan, together with her two sons and
34:04
Speaker 1: all the Turks, led prisoners of war to Constantinople. The
34:09
Speaker 1: chiefs of the Crusaders were themselves indignant and distrustful, but
34:14
Speaker 1: they resolved with one accord, says William of Tire, to
34:17
Speaker 1: hide their resentment, and they applied all their efforts to
34:21
Speaker 1: calming their people, while encouraging them to push on without
34:24
Speaker 1: delay to the end of the glorious enterprise. End of
34:29
Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, Part two