Failure of the Third Crusade

Though the failure of the Third Crusade may at first seem strange, its causes are perhaps not difficult to understand. The defection of Philip, the quarrel for the crown, the national rivalries that had gone far to wreck the two previous Crusades, all precluded vigorous action. Had Richard been able to advance on Ascalon some weeks earlier, as he doubtless intended to have done, the whole coast south of Acre would probably have fallen into his hands without a blow; so disheartened were the Saracens at the fall of this city. Probably a second tactical mistake was also made in not pushing on for Ascalon at every hazard after the battle of Arsuf. Such at all events seems to have been the opinion of so capable a general as Conrad of Montferrat who, according to Ibn Alathir, reproached the king keenly for this neglect : at the very rumour of its projected destruction, he urged, Richard ought to have hurried up and saved a town which the Sultan could not defend, and which, if once destroyed, Richard must well have known he would have to rebuild. * By Christ's truth,' concluded Conrad,  had I been near thee, Ascalon would be in our hands this day and that without the loss of a single tower.'

Again there seems to be little doubt that had Richard marched Boldly on Jerusalem in the early part of June, 1192 it would have fallen. But it is more doubtful whether he would have been able to retain it. The great crowd of warriors, having fulfilled their vows and worshiped at our Lord's tomb, would have hurried home, taking no thought for the defenceless land. Nor could the Holy City have itself held out long after their departure. The feudal polity which, five years before, had proved too weak to defend the state could not have been reorganized in a few weeks or months. It was a sound instinct which taught the Crusaders that the true way to the reconquest of Palestine was across the Delta of the Nile. Their ancestors had acquired the Holy Land and held it at a time when Damascus and Cairo were at variance ; directly the valleys of the Orontes and the Nile acknowledged one lord the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem fell. Whether any Crusading force could have been mustered strong enough not only to conquer but to garrison Egypt while its fellows pushed on against Jerusalem is uncertain ; but so long as the wealth, the fertility and the fleet of the Lower Nile were at the disposal of the Sultan of Damascus, Aleppo and the further East, no Christian power could hope for the permanent possession of Jerusalem.

A Character of King Richard I of England

The Lord of the ages had given him (Richard) such generosity of soul and endued him with such virtues that he seemed rather to belong to earlier times than these. . His was the valor of Hector, the magnanimity of Achilles ; he was no whit inferior to Alexander,! or less than Roland in manhood. Of a truth he easily surpassed the more praiseworthy characters of our time in many ways. His right hand, like that of a second Titus, scattered riches, and — a thing that is, as a rule, but very rarely found in so famous a knight — the tongue of a Nestor and the prudence of a Ulysses (as they well might) rightly rendered him better than other men in all kinds of business, whether eloquence or action was required. His military science did not slacken his inclination * Richard I (1189-1199). was born Sept. 8, 1157, at Oxford. About August, 1187 , he was made duke of Aquitaine. He took the cross in Nov. 1187, and died Tuesday, April 6, 1199.

The allusions here are to various chansons de geste which seem to have been favorite reading with this writer. The twelfth century derived its knowledge of the Trojan war from the spurious prose writings of Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygrius. Both works profess to have been written by contemporaries of the events they describe, but were really composed, or translated into Latin, after the Christian era. Benoit de St. Maur's Roman de Troie in octosyllabic French verse dates from about 1180. The Chanson de Roland belongs to the latter half of the eleventh century. The Geste d' } Alexandre, which is said to have given its name to the French Alexandrian metre, was woven together out of earlier octosyllabic or decasyllabic poems by Alexander de Bernay or de Paris before the year 1191.

The for vigorous action ; nor did his readiness for action ever throw a doubt upon his military prudence. If any one chances to think him open to the charge of rashness, the answer is simple : for, in this respect, a mind that does not know how to acknowledge itself beaten, a mind impatient of injury, urged on by its inborn high-spirit to claim its lawful rights, may well claim excuse. Success made him all the better suited for accomplishing exploits, since fortune helps the brave. And though fortune wreaks her spleen on whomsoever she pleases, yet was not he to be drowned for all his adverse waves.

He was lofty in stature, of a shapely build, with hair half-way between red and yellow. His limbs were straight and flexible, his arms somewhat long and, for this very reason, better fitted than those of most folk to draw or wield the sword. Moreover he had long legs, matching the character of his whole frame. His features showed the ruler, while his manners and his bearing added not a little to his general presence. Not only could he claim the loftiest position and praise in virtue of his noble birth, but also by reason of his virtues. But why should I extol so great a man with labored praise ?

He far surpassed other men in the courtesy of his manners and the vastness of his strength; memorable was he for his warlike deeds and power, while his splendid achievements would throw a shade over the greatest praise we could give them. Surely he might have been reckoned happy (I speak as a man) had not rivals envied his glorious deeds — rivals whose sole cause of hatred was his princely disposition ; for of a truth there is no surer way of annoying the envious than by observing virtue.


References:
Itinerarium Regis Ricardi, ii., c. 45.

Archer (T. A.), The Crusade of Richard I, London, 1889.

Franciscus Pippinus

Franciscus Pippinus, a native of Bologna, was probably born in the latter half of the thirteenth century. He was a Dominican friar. History and geography are very largely indebted to his labors. He translated the Italian version of Marco Polo into Latin ; wrote an account of his travels in the Holy Land (whither he was sent about 1320) ; translated William of Tyre, Ernoul and Bernard the treasurer into Latin ; and compiled a history of times nearer his own age, from 1176 to 1313 A.D.

Bibliography:

Johann (A. F.), Bibliotheca Latina mediae et infimae aetatis, Baracchi, Bd. 1 (1858).

Archer (T. A.), The Crusade of Richard I, London, 1889.

Caesarius of Heisterbach

Caesarius of Heisterbach (near Bonn) was born about 11S0, and was brought up at the monastery whence he draws his name. He also studied in Paris, and returned to Heisterbach about 1210. He was a Cistercian by profession. His best known work, " Dialogi de Miraculis," is divided into twelve books, each of which is devoted to anecdotes illustrative of certain religious topics” conversion, contrition, confession,.. These dialogues have often preserved interesting details of manners and customs though, as their title would imply, they are full of the miraculous. Caesar appears to have died about 1240 A.D.

Bibliography:

Archer (T. A.), The Crusade of Richard I, London, 1889.

PONCELET, Note sur les Libri VIII miraculorum in Analecta Bollandiana, Brussels, 1902.

Matthew Paris

Matthew Paris, the greatest of English chroniclers, became a monk of St. Albans, 21 Jan. 1217, and seems to have died about May 1259. As stated above his Chronica Majora is a continuation of Roger of Wendover. It reaches to the year 1258. The record of his life belongs to another period. For the Third Crusade he has followed Roger ; but the story of the duke of Austria's banner is an addition of his own ; though the same tale in a slightly varied form is to be found in Richard of Devizes.

Bibliography:

Archer (T. A.), The Crusade of Richard I, London, 1889.

Matthew Paris, Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History, 2 vols, London, 1849.

Lee (S.),  "Paris, Matthew" in Dictionary of National Biography. 43. London, 1895.

Vincent of Beauvais (1190-1264)

Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190-c. 1264) was a Dominican, and probably belonged to the house of the order whence he draws his name. He was appointed reader or librarian to Louis IX., and had some share at all events in the education of one or more of Louis' children. His great work the Speculum Majus is an attempt to combine the whole learning of the thirteenth century into one. It was probably intended to be divided into four parts Speculum Naturale (Natural History. Science, &c), Speculum Doctrinale (a practical treatise on the various arts, &c), Speculum Historiale (a history of the world from its creation to the author's own days, c. 1250), and Speculum Morale (a treatise on Divinity). Only the three first treatises are however due to Vincent. The fourth, as now extant, is from the pen of a late contemporary.

Bibliography:

Potamian (B.), "Vincent of Beauvais". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, 1913.

Thorndike (L.), "A History of Magic and Experimental Science. During the First Thirteen Centuries of our Era",  (1929) vol 2.

Abu El-Faraj (1226–1286) ابن العبري

Abu El-Faraj (ابن العبري) or Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abulpharagius, or Bar-Hebrseus, Bishop of Aleppo, a Jew by descent, was bora at Malatia (Melitene), in Armenia. At the age of twenty he was consecrated Bishop of Gaba. Later in life he was appointed to the See of Aleppo, and in 1266 he became Primate of the Eastern Jacobites. He died in 1286, One of the most learned men of his age, Abulpharagius wrote a History of the World from the Creation in Syriac and in Arabic. The value of his works as they reach his own time is very considerable. They have been translated into Latin by Dr. Pococke (Oxford 1663), and partly by Bruns and Kirsch. The quotations in the text are from the latter.

Bibliography:

بولس الفغالي: أبو الفرج غريغوريوس ابن العبري: محاضرات ومقالات، مؤسسة دكاش للطباعة 2003م

.جرجوريوس ابو الفرج ابن العبري: تاريخ مختصر الدول، بيروت 1983م.

Charles (H.),  "Bar Hebræus", in Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, 1913.

Hidemi (T.), Barhebraeus: A Bio-Bibliography. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005

Jean of Joinville (1224-1317)

Jean of Joinville or Jean, lord of Joinville (1224-1317), was a vassal of Theobald IV., Count of Champagne. He accompanied Louis IX. on his Crusade 1249, and was with him, taking his pay both in Egypt and Syria. His great work, the History of St. Louis, was begun towards the end of his life in 1305, and dedicated to Louis le Hutin, afterwards Louis X. So far as Richard I. is concerned it probably represents the stories current within fifty years of this king's death.

Bibliography:

Delaborde, Recherches critiques sur les premiers seigneurs de Joinville in Bib. Ecole des Chartes (1890).

Fawtier (R.), The Capetian Kings of France: Monarchy and Nation, 987-1328, (1942; trans. 1960).

William of Newburgh

William of Newburgh or William the Little of Newburgh [Parvus], canon of the Augustinian priory of Bridlington in Yorkshire, was according to his latest editor born in 1136, and died probably in 1198. Of his life there is practically nothing known. His great work, Historia Rerum Anglicarum, extends nominally from 1066 to 1198, as originally written by the author; the continuation reaches to 1298.

William of Newburgh, like his namesakes of Malmesbury and of Tyre, is among the few mediaeval historians who are not mere chroniclers.

Bibliography:

Archer (T. A.), The Crusade of Richard I, London, 1889.

Stevenson (J.), The History of 'William of Newburgh' (1066–1194), LLanerch Press, 1996.

Ibn Al-Athir ابن الاثیر الجزري

Ibn Al-Athir or Abu'l-Hasen Ali ibn al-Athir was the son of Abu'l-Kerim Mohammed Athir ed-Din, who was governor of Djezirat ibn Omar in Mesopotamia, for Kotb-ad-Din Maudoud, the son of Zengy (Zengi زنكي) and brother of Nuradin (نور الدين محمود ابن عماد الدين زنكي), the famous ruler of Damascus and Aleppo. Abu'l Hasen Ali was born 12 May, 116o. At about the age of twenty he went to Mosul with his father, and was in the city at the time of Saladin's siege (Feb. 1186). At Mosul he devoted himself to historical and other studies, but not to the entire neglect of public affairs. He was often sent to the Caliph of Bagdad, and in 1 188-9 accompanied the prince of Sindjar to the Holy War. He must thus have been an eyewitness of the state of things in Syria towards the beginning of the siege of Acre. From this point till his death he appears to have given himself up to letters. He can be traced at Mosul, at Aleppo (where the Arminian eunuch Toghril” who was then ruling in the name of Saladin's little grandson Al Malec al Aziz, the son of that Ad-Daher who figures so frequently in Bohadin بهاء الدين ابن شداد” was his patron), at Damascus, and again at Mosul, where he died in Shaban 630 a.h.

Of Ibn Al-Athir's two chief works one is a history of the Atabecs of Mosul, i.e. an account of the doings of Zengy and his descendants. This work is of great importance in Crusading history, more especially as the recollections of the writer's own father extended back to early days of Frank conquest in the East. It was given to the world in 121 1. More noteworthy still is his gieat Mohammedan history, which embraces the whole period from the creation of the world to the year of the Hegira 628 (9 Nov. 1230—28 Oct. 1 231). This great work was compiled under the protection of Loulou (ob. 1259), who ruled at Mosul first as minister of Naser ad-Din Mahmoud [Zengy's last descendant,] and afterwards in his own name. Upon this great work, one of the glories of Arabic historical literature, Abu'lfeda أبو الفدا based his own history to a great extent.

Bibliography:

ابن الأثير: مقدمة كتاب الكامل في التاريخ، تحقيق أبي الفدا عبد الله القاضي، 10 أجزاء، بيروت 1987م.

Little (D.), "Historiography of the Ayyubid and Mamluk epochs", in The Cambridge History of Egypt, Vol.1, ed. by.  Daly (M.) and Petry (C. F.), Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Partner (P.), God of Battles: Holy wars of Christianity and Islam, Princeton University Press, 1997.

Ralph of Coggeshall

Ralph of Coggeshall or the abbot of Coggeshall (on the Blackwater, near Colchester, in Essex), from 1207 to 1218, is the author of a Latin chronicle which extends from the year 1066 to 1223 or 1224. This chronicle is a very meagre collection of facts till 1117 a.d. With this year however they became much fuller. The writer gives a great number of details relative to the third Crusade, some of which, such for example as that telling how the Syrian woman in Jerusalem kept king Richard posted up in all that was going on within the c'ty, are to be found nowhere else. This incident is perhaps mere legendary gossip ; but the account Ralph gives of the loss and recapture of Joppa (Aug. 1192) is, on the whole, as important as either of those given in this book. It was drawn from the lips of Hugh de Neville, who was present in the battle. More valuable still is Ralph's account of the king's adventures after leaving the Holy Land. This narrative too, as will be seen from the text, our author drew from the (probably verbal) account of Anselm, the king's chaplain, who accompanied Richard on his voyage home, and, as it seems, wrote a history of this king which is now, however, unfortunately lost. Of the facts of Ralph's life hardly anything is known. He is said to have resigned his office owing to ill-health, but the date of his death has not been ascertained.

Ralph of Coggeshall's Chronicon Anglicanum, like Richer' s History and Sigebert's Chronicle, is one of the comparatively speaking few mediaeval histories of which the author's autograph is preserved. In the parts relative to Richard's captivity the original MS. (Cotton Vespasian, 8 x.) has inserted an appeal to Anselm's authority in the margin ; and the many erasures and additions here are doubtless due to the author himelf, who availed himself of the occasion furnished by the chaplain's visit, to make his narrative fuller and more correct. A thirteenth century writer tells us that Anselm, the king's chaplain, " regis comes ubique intus et foris," wrote the Acta of Richard the First ; as also, according to the same authority, did Milo, abbot of le Pin, the king's almoner.

Bibliography:

Stevenson (J.), Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum, De expugnatione Terræ Sanctæ libellus, Thomas Agnellus De morte et sepultura Henrici regis Angliæ junioris, Gesta Fulconis filii Warini, excerpta ex Otiis imperialibus Gervasius Tileburiensis, London, 1875.

Corner (D.), "Coggeshall, Ralph of (1207–1226)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press

William Breton (William le Breton)

William Breton appears to have been born between 1165 and 1 1 70 a.d. He was thus almost of exactly the same age as Philip Augustus, whose exploits he has celebrated in his two great works "The History of the Life and Deeds of Philid Augustus" (prose) and the " Philippeis " in verse. William is said to have studied at Nantes. Later in life he became Philip's elerk or chaplain, and followed this king on more than one expedition. He was also tutor to one of Philip's natural children, and seems to have died in or after 1224.

The Historia continues Rigord's work mentioned above, and extends to 12 19; the concluding part thence to 1223 is the work of an anonymous monk of St. Denys. The Philippeis, a Latin hexameter epic in XII. books, is dedicated to Philip's son, alluded to above, then a boy some fifteen years old.

Bibliography:

"William the Breton". Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press, 1911

Rigord

Rigord or Rigold was a native of Languedoc, where this name is found in the 13th century. He is possibly the Bernardus Rigordi whose name is in the necrology of the abbey of St. Denis under May 5. As he tells us he was already getting old in 1205, it has been inferred that he was born about 1 145 a.d. He was a physician before he became a member of St. Denys, somewhere about the year n 90, when he would have unequalled opportunities for collecting the material for the great work he had begun at least ten years before, at his abbot's request, he gave it to the world and presented a copy to the king himself early in 1196. He issued three editions of his work. These seem to have been issued about the years 1196, 1200, and 1206.

Bibliography:

Archer (T. A.), The Crusade of Richard I, London, 1889.

Benedict of Peteiborough (1177-1193)

The chronicle which goes under the name of this writer extends from the Christmas of 1169 to Easter, 1 192. According to Dr. Stubbs' theory it is a strictly-Speaking contemporaneous document for the years 1172 to 1177 - the period at which the first issue of the original work seems to have ended - and also, in all probability, more or less contemporaneous from 1180 to the end. It is assigned to Benedict, abbot of Peterborough, on the insufficient authority of a MS. which is headed " Gesta Henrici II. Benedicti Abbatis" (Cotton MS. Julius A. xi). This superscription is however probably more than half a century later than the MS. itself, and is to be explained by the words of a thirteenth century writer, Robert of Swaflham, who tells us that Benedict of Peteiborough or abbot of Peteiborough (1177-1193) " caused many books to be copied out ' ' for the monastic library. Amongst these was the " Gesta Regis Henrici Secimdi."

Thus Benedict seems merely to have had a copy made of a MS. that already existed and of which there is no reason to suppose that he was the author. On the whole Dr. Stubbs is inclined to see in the first section of this work an adaptation of the Tri-Columnis " a treatise in which Richard Fitz-Neal, the king's treasurer from 1159-1198, drew up an annual account of the most important occurrences in English ecclesiastical, regal, and legal affairs. The passages relating to the first Crusade, more especially the journal of Richard's progress from Lyons to Messina, probably embody the information contained in some Crusader's journal, or news brought home to England before the return of the expedition.

Of the principal MSS. one ending in 1177 seems to represent the earliest form of the work; while others represent it as continued down to 1 192. The latter MS. has been seriously damaged by fire, though fortunately not before it had been most carefully copied out by Wanley. It was of course on a copy of the later edition of the Gesta Henrici that Roger of Howden based that part of his chronicle which extends from 1170-1192. Dr. Stubbs' edition of Benedict has superseded all others.


Bibliography:

GILES, Life and Miracles of St. Thomas of Canterbury, by Benedict, etc. (Caxton Society, 1850).

Mullinger, Introduction to the Study of English History, London, 1894.

Thomas Rymer (1641-1713)

Thomas Rymer (I641-I713), born in Yorkshire, and educated at Cambridge and Gray’s Inn, was appointed Historiographer Royal in 1692. It was almost immediately after this that, under the patronage of Lord Somers and Lord Halifax, he began to publish the state papers from the original documents preserved in the royal archives. The documents printed are nominally limited to the negotiations with foreign powers, though some latitude must be allowed to this description The early edition of this work extends to twenty volumes folio and embraces the period between 1101 and I654.


Bibliography:

Gerard (R.), "Rymer and history". Clio. 7 (3), 1978.

Curt (Z.), The Critical Works of Thomas Rymer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955.

Pipe Rolls

The Rolls, or Pipe Rolls, which contain the accounts of the Royal Exchequer date, as a continued series, from the early years of Henry II., though there is one roll belonging to 31, Henry I. Of these accounts three copies were made -one for the treasurer, one for the chancellor, and one (the Pipe Roll) for the king. The Pipe Rolls, so called from their being rolled up in the form of a pipe, are preserved almost complete from the year 1155. They are now being published (down to the year 1200) by the Pipe Roll Society.

Bibleography:

Archer (T. A.), The Crusade of Richard I: 1189-1192, London, 1912.

Britnell (R. H.), The Winchester Pipe Rolls and Medieval English Society, Woodbridge, 2003.

Pipe Rolls of the Exchequer of Normandy for the Reign of Richard I: 1194-5 Et 1197-8 ; Printed from the Originals in the National Archives, Pipe Roll Society, 2016.

Epistolae Cantuarienses

This, Epistolae Cantuarienses, series of letters passing between Canterbury, Rome, and elsewhere in the latter part of the 1 2th century, extends from 1185-1199. The collection seems to have been made in the early days of the next century, possibly by that sub-prior Reginald whom the monks elected as successor to Hubert Walter in 1205. Tne MS. belongs to the ' earliest part, of the same century.

Bibleography:

Gervase of Canterbury, The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Stubbs (W.), Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Ansbert

Frederick Barbarossa's Crusade has been related by four contemporaries, all of whom took part in the expedition. Of Ansbert nothing is known except that he appears to have been a priest, and certainly accompanied the emperor's army on its march all the way from the borders of Hungary to the banks of the Cydnus. Ansbert's "Historia de Expeditione Frederici Imperatoris" was discovered in the year 1824 by Joseph Dietrich, in later life the director of the Catholic School at Leipzig.

In the course of the preceding century it had been stolen or lost from the library to which it belonged and had fallen into the hands of certain Jews, who sold it to a surgeon at Postelberg in Bohemia. This surgeon had already begun to destroy the MS., when Dietrich heard of its existence and communicated his discovery to Joseph Dobrowsky. Dobrowsky recognised the MS. from his friend's description, secured it from destruction, and published it at Prague in 1827. The MS. in question appears to date from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century.


Bibliography:

Wolff (R. L.), "The Crusades of Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI", in Setton, A History of the Crusades, volume, II, University of Wisconsin Press, 1969, pp. 86-122.

Freed (J.), Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth, Yale University Press, 2016.

Bohadin (1145-1234)

Bohadin or Beha-ed-Din (بهاء الدين بن شداد) (Beha-ed-Din Abu'l-Mehasen ibn Sheddad) was born at Mosul 6 March, 1145, and died at Aleppo 8 Nov., 1234. He devoted himself to the study of the Koran at an early age, and was still quite young when he knew the sacred volume by heart. He has left us an interesting account of the teachers under whom he studied. By 30 June, 1 165 he had been authorized to teach. Some years later he went to Bagdad, but in 569 A.H. (12 Aug. 1 1 73-1 Aug. 1 1 74) returned to Mosul as professor. In 583 (13 Mch 1188-1 Mch. 1188) he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his way back was summoned to Saladin's presence. A little later he presented himself before Saladin at the siege of the Castle of Curds with a treatise on the Holy Wat. Saladin dissuaded him from carrying out his intention of retiring from the world, and received him into his service Jom. 1, 584 a.h. (June- July, 1188.) He was appointed cadi at Jerusalem. After Saladin's death he was employed as an intermediary between the Sultan's sons.

At first he refused Ad -Daher's offer to make him cadi of Aleppo, but accepted the office a little later. At Aleppo he was occupied in establishing a legal school and, having no children, he was able to spend his considerable wealth in buildings for the study of Mohammedan law. In the latter years of his life he received his future biographer Ibn Khallican "ابن خلكان" among his pupils ; but he was at this time too old to do more than exercise a general supervision. Ibn Khallican draws a pleasing picture of tbe aged man "feeble as a fallen bird" and so weak that he had to keep the same seat in winter and summer alike. In winter a brazier of burning coal was always at his side ; but even thus he could not drive away the cold. "When we were near him", says Ibn Khallican, "the heat used to inconvenience us much, but he did not perceive it, so chilled was his body with age. It was only after great efforts that he could rise up to pray, and even then he had much trouble to keep himself upright. Once I noticed his legs while he was at prayer; they were so fleshless that they looked like rods." He died 8 Nov., 1234.


Bibliography:

Behâ ed-Dîn, C. R. Conder, ed. The Life of Saladin. London, 1897.

Lyons (M. C.) and Jackson (D. P.), Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War. Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Chronicle of Ernoul

The monumental Historia de rebus transmarinis in which William of Tyre traces the history of the Latin Kingdom of the East from the days of the first Crusade, breaks of abruptly at the end of 1183, three years and a half before the battle of Hittin. William's great work, the historical masterpiece of medieval literature, was written in Latin; but the theme was of such surpassing interest that before forty years had passed away it was continued by a certain Ernoul, who, in his early life, had been squire to the great Palestine Lord, Balian of Ibelin. Under the direction of this Ernoul, who had shared in the romantic adventures of his liege before the battle of Nazareth (May, 1 187), the story of the Kingdom was carried on from the point where William ceases to about the year 1228.

This continuation is written in French and, thus, is the first attempt at telling the story of one of the great kingdoms of Latin Christendom in its own tongue without the aid of rhyme. Of Ernoul nothing more is known ; but his histoiy, though full of a most romantic charm, such as attaches to no other historical work of the time, is strictly speaking the work of a contemporary, and, in its French sympathies, is a priceless reflection of the anti-English sentiment that seems to have actuated most of the warriors of the third ciusade.

References:

Morgan(M. R.), The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre, Oxford University Press, 1973.

Pringle (D.), Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291, New York, 2012.

The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (Estoire d'Eracles)

It is uncertain whether William of Tyre's history has been turned into French before the composition of Ernoul, continuation ; but the probability is in favor of this hypothesis; otherwise it is difficult to see why the latter work was not at least translated into Latin at the time of its first appearance. This difficulty is removed if we imagine Ernoul's Chronicle to have been written for the purpose of carrying down to the year 1228 a narrative of the history of the Holy Land, that had already been turned from Latin into old French. Otherwise we must suppose Ernoul to have written independently, in which case some third person may have conceived the idea ot prefixing to his chronicle a Romance version of William's great work.

The French translation of William of Tyre with its continuations by Ernoul, Bernard the Treasurer, and other anonymous writers towards the middle or end of the thirteenth century, were often regarded as one work. In this form they are the Chronique d'Outremer quoted by Jouville. They are also known under the title of the Estoire d'Eracles, from the opening words of the French translation of William of Tyre, ' Les ancients Estoires dient que Eracles.'

It has seemed desirable in the selections made for this volume from the Chronique d'Outremer to distinguish the contemporary authority of Ernoul from the more legendary form his narrative has assumed in certain * remaniements ' of the Chronique d'Outremer. Accordingly, whatever is taken from Ernoul without alteration is assigned to him ; whereas the later accretions are headed Estoire d'Eracles to mark that they are by no means to be regarded as absolutely historical.

As a whole the Chronique d'Outremer (excluding the translation from William of Tyre) is one of the most charming works in the French language. Its delicious simplicity, its delight in action, the innocent credulity with which it will give two versions of the same story almost in the same page, even its undisguised partisanship all impress the reader as a far more serious history would fail to do. That perhaps which marks it out from almost all other historical literature of the century is that it is the work, not of a clerk, but of a layman. Ernoul, in this respect, if in no other, ranks with Joinville and Villehardouin and Henry of Valenciennes.


References:

Shatzmiller (M.), Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria, Netherlands, 1993.

Phillips (J.), Holy Warriors, New York, 2009.

Carmen Ambrosii

In the opinion of Dr. Stubbs, the Itinerarium was written originally in Latin and not in French, though this editor even in 1864 admitted that the hasty notes on which he supposed it to have been based might have been jotted down in the latter tongue. But the work, as it is now preserved, could not possibly, he contended, be a translation from the French or even a free rendering of a French history. On the other hand, as Dr. Stubbs himself pointed out, there was the distinct assertion of the author of the Chronicon Terrae Snnctae that the stoiy of Richard's expedition was to be found fully treated in the book which the prior of the Holy Trinity at London caused to be translated out of French (ex Gallica lingua) into English. Trivet also, as noticed above, declares the author of our Itinerarium, from which he quotes, to have written his work both in prose and verse. Hence the only way to reconcile the statements of Trivet and the author of the Chronicon is to assume that the Itinerarium was based on a French poem— a theory which a remarkable discovery of the last few years has rendered highly probable.

In 1873 an entirely new light was thrown upon the question by MM. Gustave Monod and Gaston Paris. These scholars drew attention to a late thirteenth century MS. the value of which, though it had long been known to exist in the National library at Paris, they were the first to appreciate.

This MS. written in seven-syllabled rhyming couplets of French verse turned out to be an account of Richard I.'s Crusade, and at a first glance was seen to correspond to Books II.-VI. of the Itinerarium. Its author more Jhan once discloses his name, Ambrose; and from his calling the Normans his ancestors it would seem that he was a Norman by birth, or at least by origin. He is probably to be identified with a certain Ambrose, one of the king John's Jrrlvswho in the English Rolls receives a payment for singing a hymn at king John's second coronation [Oct. 2, 1200].

There can be no doubt that Itinerarium is based upon the Carmen Ambrosii, or vice versa. The close resemblances of the two narratives can be explained on no other supposition. Of the two alternatives, even if we set aside Trivet's evidence, there need be no hesitation in embracing the first. The Itinerarium is plainly a rhetorical exercise, and is from this point of view distinctly a development of the simple rhymes of the Noiman poet. Again, where the two writers make any allusion to themselves the author of the Itinerarium uses the vague "we" a striking contrast to the direct use of the first person singular which we find in Ambrose.

From these remarks it will be seen that there are elements of truth in the statements made both by the author of the Chronicon Terra Sanctce and Nicholas Trivet. For, as we have just shewn, the Itinerarinm is closely related to a French poem.

There still however remains the problem as to how a writer who was so plainly amplifying and embellishing an earlier work could possibly speak of the Itinerarium as drawn up amid the din of camps. The full solution of the difficulty must be left till we have the edition of the whole poem promised us by MM. Monod and Paris. Till then it would seem either that Richard de Templo, if he be the author of the Itinerarium, was uttering a deliberate falsewood or, we must assign to Ambrose not only the French original but also the Latin translation. The latter alternative seems preferable, and indeed is in closer consonance with the words of the Chronicon Terroe Sanctce, which does not say that the Prior of the Holy Trinity translated his work but caused it to be translated (ex Gallica lingua in Latinum fecit transferri) . It is well however to notice that the writer of the Itinerarium appears to have reached the Holy Land along with Archbishop Baldwin in Sept. 1190; whereas Ambrose was still in Sicily at Christmas.

Dr. Stubbs has recorded his opinion that there is no difference of style between the earlier and later books of the Itinerarium. This is a very delicate topic on which to touch ; but, to the present editor, it seems indisputable that the later books (perhaps even including the second itself) are written with far more rhetorical display than the first. They may possibly be the work of the same author, but they are far more verbose than the earlier one. Now, as the preface, in one MS. at least, belongs to this first book only, there is nothing to prevent us from holding that the writer is there offering his apology for the somewhat blunt and, as he would think, inartistic style of these early chapters which he may actually have written, in their first form, during the siege of Acre. Later, when he completed his history and touched up the entire narrative, he may not have been unwilling to allow his original preface to stand for an introduction to the whole work, as a kind of apology for any short-comings and an assurance to his readers that they had not yet got the best he was capable of giving them. If this be so, the Itinerarium in its present form holds towards the original first book and the Song of Ambrose much the same position as Baldric of Dol holds to Tudebodc, or the author of the Gesta Francorum among the historians of the first Crusade.


References:

1- Ambroise, The third crusade : an eyewitness account of the campaigns of Richard Coeur-de-Lion in Cyprus and the Holy Land,    Folio Society, 1958.

2- Edbury (E.), Third Crusade, Pearson Education, Limited.

3- Tyerman (Ch.), The Third Crusade: 1188-1192, Folio Society, 2004.

Itinerarium Peregrinorum

The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi is the chief European account of the Third Crusade. After a minute examination of all the evidence that could be collected, Dr.Stubbs in 1864 came to the conclusion that this work is the production of a certain Richard, canon of the Holy Trinity in London. Richard, we learn ofNich0lais Trivet, a Franciscan writer of the early fourteenth century, “ wrote an itinerary of this king in prose and verse.” Trivet then proceeds to quote a phrase from the preface to the Itinerarium, and the exact words in which the author of the Itinerarium , as now preserved and translated in this book, describes Richarcl’s character and personal appearance. From such evidence it would seem that Trivet in this passage was alluding to our Itinerarium, which in this case can hardly fail to be the production of Richard of the Holy Trinity, despite the fact that one MS. refers it to Geoffrey Vinsauf.

This Richard of the Holy Trinity, according to Dr. Stubbs, is probably to be identied with “ Richard de Temple,” who was clcctcd prior of the Holy Trinity in I222 A.D., and died perhaps about I250. His name, if the De Templo is not a surname, would scein to imply that he was a Templar; in which case he was perhaps only a chaplain and not a knight of that Order.

The writer of the Itinerarium, whoever he may have been, declares in his prologue that he was an eye witness to the things he narrates, and that he has written them out while they were still “ warm ” in his memory. He excuses his want of rhetorical grace on the ground that he jotted down his story in the din of war, and he bids the reader remember that it was while engaged on the campaign that he wrote : “ auditor noverit nos in castris fuisse cum scripsimus.” This passage Dr. Stubbs has interpreted to mean that he made hasty notes for his work during the Crusade itself, and afterwards worked these notes up into the elaborate treatise as we now have it. The work itself, in Dr.Stubbs’ opinion, was certainly composed in Latin and not in French.

The Itinerarium, is divided into six books of which the first is devoted to the expedition of Frederic Barbarossa and the siege of Acre down to Lent I191. Book II. conducts Richard on his way through I

References:

William Stubbs, Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis Ricardi, London, 1864.

Mayer (H. E.), Das Itinerarium Peregrinorum. Eine zeitgenössische englische Chronik zum dritten Kreuzzug in ursprünglicher Gestalt. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1962.

Primary Sources of the Third Crusade

Group 1:

Contemporary writers who, for the most part, were in Palestine when the events they described took place.

1. Author of the Itinerarium.

2. Bohadin. (بهاء الدين بن شداد)

3. Ernoul.

4. Ambrose.

5. Ansbert.

6. (Pixie Rolls).

7. Epistolae Cantuarienses.

8. Rymer's Foedera

Group 2:


Contemporary writers who, for the most part, were mu‘ in Palestine when the events they describe occurred.


1- Roger of Howden.

2- Benedict.

3- Rigord

4- William le Breton

5- Ralph of Coggeshall.

6- Richard of Devizes.

7- Ibn Alathir.

8- William of Newburgh.

9- Ralph de Dicto


Group 3:


Writers of the next generation who lived in Syria or, having visited it, could there pick up the living tradition of the third crusade.

1- Joinvillo.

2- Le Estoire d’Eraclés.

3- Gregory Abulfaraj (Bar Hebraeus) (1226-1286) (ابن العبري)


Group 4:


Writers of the next generation who were not in the Holy Land.


1- Vincent of Beauvais.

2- Roger of Wendover.

3- Matthew Paris.

4- Caesar of Heisterbach.

5- Franciscus Pipplnus belongs to a generation later still.


References:

Archer (T. A.), The Crusade of Richard I (1189-1192), London, 1912.

Edbury (P. W.), The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation, Ashgate 1998.

Baldwin III (1143–1163)

A month later King Baldwin II. secured his liberation. In 1 129 he strengthened his throne by the marriage of his daughter, Melisende, to Foulque of Anjou, son of the notorious Bertrade, who had deserted her legitimate husband for the embrace of King Philip of France. This monarch had put away his wife Bertha for this new union. Thus was brought upon Philip the famous excommunication of the Pope. Two years later (August 13, 1 131) Baldwin II. died and was buried with Godfrey and Baldwin I. in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Foulque ascended the throne. His first work was to settle a dispute for the lordship of Antioch, which was accomplished only after bloodshed between brethren. Next he baffled the Greek emperor, John Comnenus, who attempted to gain for himself the kingdom of Jerusalem. Later he made alliance with the Mussulman Prince of Damascus and fought against Zenghi, Prince of Mosul. His queen, Melisende, by her rumored amours brought him additional perplexity. King Foulque died from an injury while hunting (November 13, 1143), leaving two children, Baldwin and Amalric.

Baldwin III succeeded his father at the age of thirteen, with Melisende as regent. Effeminacy not only marked the government, but infected the spirit of the people. The heroism of the founders of the kingdom seemed to die in the blood of their successors, or, if danger fired the ancient valor, it was without the light of discretion.

Young Baldwin III. inaugurated his reign by a foolish expedition to take Bozrah, which had been offered in surrender by its traitorous commandant. To accomplish this it was necessary to break a fair and useful alliance which the Christians had made with the Sultan of Damascus, the rightful lord of Bozrah. On reaching Bozrah, instead of the keys of the city, there was placed in the hands of the king an announcement from the wife of the treacherous governor that she herself would defend the walls. The perplexity of the king and his equally callow advisers was followed by an ignoble retreat. The enemy pursued not only with sword, but with fire. The wind, which seemed to the retreating army to be the breath of God's wrath, covered them with smoke and cinders, while the flames of the burning grass chased their fleeing feet. The Christians would have perished had not, say the chronicles, the wood of the True Cross, raised with prayer, changed the direction of the breeze and beaten back the pursuers.

At this time there was felt the need of an astute mind at the head of the kingdom. Christian progress had been arrested, and events of evil omen were thickening, especially tThe star of Zenghi, the ruler of Mosul, the father of Nourredin, and the forerunner of Saladin, had arisen.

References:

Archer (T. A.) and Others, The Crusades; The story of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, New York, 1902.

James (M. L.), The age of the crusades, New York, 1914.

Murray (A. V.), The Crusades: an encyclopedia, CA : ABC-CLIO, 2006.