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A. D.

stantinople was taken, Isaac released, and his son, Alexius IV., placed on the throne. Alexius and his father were murdered by his cousin, named Murzufle 1204. (Alexius V.). Under the pretext of avenging Alexius, the crusaders took and plundered the city, and placed Baldwin count of Flanders on the vacant throne, assigning him a fourth of the empire, and dividing the remainder among themselves.

Theodore

Three states were formed by the Greeks. Lascaris, son-in-law of Alexis III., established himself in Nice, and, under the title of emperor, governed a great part of Lesser Asia. One of the Comnenian family settled at Trebisond, on the eastern end of the Black Sea, and was also styled emperor. Another Comnenian, of the family of Angelus, ruled, under the title of despot, over a principality in Epirus, Ætolia, and Thessaly.

Baldwin reigned but one year; he was taken prisoner and cruelly put to death by the Bulgarians. His brother 1205. and successor, Henry, an abler prince, died by poison. 1216. The throne then came to his brother-in-law, Peter de Courtenay, grandson of Louis VI., and his children.

John Lascaris and his son governed their Asiatic empire with prudence and valour. His grandson, of the same name, came to the throne a minor, and was murdered by Michael Palæologus, one of whose generals retook, in one night, the imperial city, which the Latins 1261. had held but fifty-s -seven years.

The Crusades.

The kingdom of Jerusalem was continually harassed by its Mohammedan neighbours in Syria and Egypt. The formation of the orders of the Templars and the Hospitallers, and the constant accession of volunteers from Europe, enabled it to resist its enemies; and prodigies of valour equal to any in romance were achieved by the warriors of the cross. But in less than half a century after the conquest, the state of Edessa having been subdued by the attabeg of Moussel, more powerful

was terrified at their

aid was deemed requisite, and St. Bernard preached a new crusade. At his persuasion, the cross was assumed A. D. by Louis VII. of France and Conrad III. of Germany. 1147. The number of all ranks engaged in this crusade is estimated at 300,000. The Germans went first, and the same ravages which had disgraced the first crusade occurred also in this. The Greek emperor, Manuel, numbers, and employed artifice to get rid of them. They passed over; and the imprudence of Conrad caused him to march into the 1148. heart of Lesser Asia, where his troops were cut to pieces by the sultan of Iconium. Conrad fled to the French army, and then returned to Constantinople. Louis pursued his march near Laodicea he sustained a partial defeat; but he reached Antioch, and thence proceeded to the Holy Land, and he and his troops aided at the unsuccessful siege of Damascus.

1187.

When intelligence arrived in Europe of the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, the utmost grief and indignation prevailed; and Clement III. ordered a crusade to 1188. be preached every where. The emperor, Frederic Barbarossa, assembled a diet at Mentz, where he and his son Frederic, and the greatest of the German nobles, took the cross. The same was done by Richard I. and Philip Augustus. It was not now, as in the first crusade, piety that actuated these kings and nobles, that motive had given place to the passion for military fame and glory.

The emperor, on marshalling his forces, found them to amount to 100,000 fighting men, care having been taken to keep off the beggarly rabble which had attended the former expeditions. He marched through Hungary into the Greek territories, where the emperor, Isaac Angelus, harassed the crusaders as far as he was able. Frederic laid the country under contribution, cut to pieces the Greek troops, and made the emperor sue for peace. He wintered at Adrianople, passed over to Asia in spring, defeated the Turks in several battles, took Iconium, and crossed Mount Taurus. But coming on

a sultry day (June 10th) to the Selef, a gelid mountainstream, he threw himself into its waters, and was un- A. D. fortunately drowned.

1190.

Richard of England, Philip of France, Henry count of Champagne, Thibaut of Blois, Philip of Flanders, and numerous other princes and nobles, collected their forces on the plain of Vezelay, and found them to 1190. amount to 100,000 fighting men. Aware of the evils that had attended the former land expeditions, they resolved to convey their forces by sea. Richard led his troops to Marseilles, Philip his to Genoa, where they embarked. The appointed place of rendezvous was Messina; and while they stayed there, various incidents occurred to excite jealousy and disunion between the monarchs. Driven by a storm to the isle of Cyprus, Richard deposed, for his cruelty to the crews of some of his ships, Isaac Comnenus, who tyrannised over the island, and sold the sovereignty of it to Guy de Lusignan, the king of Jerusalem, in whose family it continued for three hundred years.

An army of Christians, aided by the slender remains of that of the emperor Frederic, was besieging Acre, or Ptolemais. After a heroic resistance, it was forced to surrender to the emulative valour of Richard and Philip. But the latter, instead of pursuing this success, jealous of the superior fame of the English monarch, returned to Europe, under the pretext of ill health, leaving 10,000 of his troops, under the duke of Burgundy. The siege of Ascalon was now resolved on. The Christian army marched along the sea-coast: Saladin collected all his strength to oppose them: a bloody and well-contested battle took place. Nothing could resist the valour and impetuosity of Richard; 8000 of the 1192. Moslems were left dead. Ascalon and Joppa were razed by Saladin at their approach; the crusaders came within sight of the holy city; but the fickle king of England was weary of the war, and anxious to return home. A truce was concluded with Saladin, by which the Christians were to hold Ptolemais, Joppa, and other

sea-ports, and to visit the holy sepulchre unmolested. The gallant Richard was, on his return through Germany, basely thrown into prison by Leopold duke of A. D. Austria, whom he had offended at Ptolemais.

1202.

The fourth crusade was composed of French and Germans, led by Baldwin count of Flanders. The Venetians furnished ships. Its first efforts were directed against the city of Zara in Dalmatia, which had revolted from Venice, and, in spite of the pope's excommunication, it was reduced. The arms of the faithful were now directed against Constantinople, which, as we have 1201. seen, they took, placing their leader on the throne. In the partition, Venice got the islands and the Morea, the marquis of Montferrat Thessaly, Ville Hardouin (the historian of this conquest) Achaia, and Otto de la Roche, a Burgundian, became duke of Athens.

1216.

The fifth crusade was chiefly composed of Germans and the neighbouring people; Andrew II., king of Hungary, was its commander. The main body marched to Italy, to embark in its ports; others sailed from the ports of Saxony, and, being driven by a storm into Lisbon, were prevailed on by Don Sancho to assist him against the Moors. The king of Hungary and his troops, with the king of Cyprus, landed at Ptolemais, where John de Brienne, the titular king of Jerusalem, gladly received them. They attempted in vain to take Tabor; were obliged to divide for subsistence; the king of Cyprus died, and the king of Hungary found it necessary to return home. On being joined by the fleet from Portugal, it was resolved in council to besiege Damietta, in Egypt. An army, led by the sultan to its 1219. relief, was defeated. The duke of Austria and his forces now returned home; but a reinforcement arrived, under the cardinal Albano, to whom, as the officer of the pope, John de Brienne was obliged to resign the command, and the military priest injudiciously led his army between two branches of the Nile, at the season that river was beginning to overflow. The sultan opened the sluices, and burned the ships of the Christians, who were forced

A. D.

to restore Damietta, and bind themselves not to serve for 1221. eight years against the sultan.

The emperor Frederic II., who had long promised, 1228. at length sailed to the East. He did not spill any blood; but he made an advantageous treaty with Malekel-Kamel, sultan of Egypt, who ceded to him Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and all the villages between the former place and Jaffa, and Ptolemais.

The Khowaresmians, flying before the Mongols, had 1244. poured down on Lower Asia, and had seized on Syria and Palestine. St. Louis, having in a fit of sickness vowed a crusade, he collected a fine army, and sailed for the East. He resolved to commence by reducing Egypt, and landed at Damietta, which was abandoned to him. But his troops were wasted by sickness, and defeated at Massoor, where his brother Robert of Artois was killed at his side, and himself, his two brothers, and all his chief nobility taken prisoners. At the price of a large ransom and the city of Damietta they were set at liberty.

1250.

Twenty years afterwards, this excellent monarch, 1270. whose only defect almost was superstition, sailed with another expedition for the Holy Land; but hearing that the king of Tunis was inclined to embrace Christianity, he directed his course thither. Finding the intelligence to be false, he laid siege to the city; but he here caught a fever and died, and with him died the spirit of the crusades. Edward, son of our Henry III., revived the fame of Richard; but the Latin power gradually declined, and Acre, its last seat, fell to the sultan of Egypt. 1291. The crusades, though originating in folly and superstition, and productive of a large quantity of positive suffering to both Europe and Asia, have, in the order of Providence, been also productive of good. They awoke the mind of Europe from its slumber of ignorance and barbarism, by bringing it into contact with the more polished nations of the East; they enlarged the sphere of ideas, gave a taste for elegance and refinement, extended navigation and commerce, and thereby increased the wealth and power of cities; they diminished the

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