The Portable Medieval Reader

by James Bruce Ross

  And so, joyous and content, the messengers returned to Sicily with everything signed, and found Frey Roger at Alicata and told him all they had done and gave him the grants of everything, and the baton and the hat and the banner and the seal of the office of grand duke. And henceforth he will be called the grand duke.

  And when the grand duke had received everything, he went to the lord king whom he found at Palermo with my lady the queen, and then he told him all about the matter. And the lord king was very joyous thereat and, incontinent, had ten galleys of the dockyard and two lenys given him, and had them repaired and fitted out for him. And the grand duke already had eight of his own, and so he had eighteen and two lenys; and then he freighted three large ships and many terides and more lenys, and sent word to all parts that everyone who was to go with him should come to Messina. And the lord king assisted everyone as much as he could with money and gave each person, man, woman and child, who was going with the grand duke, whether Catalan or Aragonese, one quintal of biscuits and five cheeses, and between every four persons one baco of salted meat and also garlic and onions.

  So all embarked with their wives and children, very joyous and satisfied with the lord king; there never was a lord who behaved more liberally to people who had served him than he did, as much as he could and even above his power. Everyone may know that the lord king had no treasure; he had come out of such great wars that he had nothing left. And so, likewise, the rich homens and knights embarked, and the knights and horsemen had double rations of everything.... And so, when they had embarked, there were, between galleys and lenys and ships and terides, thirty-six sails; and there were one thousand five hundred horsemen, according as it was written down, fitted out with everything except horses. And there were full four thousand almugavars and full a thousand men afoot; without the galley-slaves and seamen who belonged to the shipping. And all these were Catalans and Aragonese and the greater part brought their wives or their mistresses and their children. And so they took leave of the lord king and departed from Messina at a suitable hour with great cheer and content.

  Then God gave them fine weather and in a few days they landed at Monemvasia and there they found those who showed them great honour, and they were given great refreshment of all things. And they found there an order of the emperor to go straight to Constantinople, and so they did. They left Monemvasia and went to Constantinople. And when they were at Constantinople, the emperors, the father and the son, and all the people of the empire, received them with great joy and great pleasure. But if these were pleased at their arrival, the Genoese were sorry. They saw well that if these people remained there, they themselves would lose the honour and power they had in the empire; that the emperor had dared do nothing but what they wished, but that, henceforth, he would despise them. What shall I tell you? The wedding was celebrated, the grand duke took to wife the niece of the emperor, who was one of the beautiful and learned damsels of the world and was about sixteen; and the wedding was celebrated with great joy and content and every man received pay for four months.

  But whilst this feast was great, some Genoese, by their arrogance, caused a fight with the Catalans; it was a great fight. And a wicked man, called Roso de Finar, carried the banner of the Genoese and came before the palace of Blanquerna; and our almugavars and the seamen came out against them, and even the grand duke and the rich homens and the knights could not hold them back; and they came out with a royal pennon carried before them and only about thirty squires and light horse went with them. And when they came near each other, the thirty squires proceeded to attack; and they attacked where the banner was and felled Roso de Finar to the ground and the almugavars hit out amongst them. What shall I tell you? This Roso and over three thousand Genoese were killed there; and the emperor saw all this from his palace and had great joy and content thereat. He said before all: “Now the Genoese, who have behaved with such arrogance, have found their match; and the Catalans were quite in the right, it was the fault of the Genoese.”

  And when the banner of the Genoese was on the ground and Roso and other important people had been killed, the almugavars, engaged in killing their enemies, wanted to go and pillage Pera, which is a select city of the Genoese, in which are all their treasure and merchandise. But upon this, when the emperor saw they were going to plunder Pera, he called the grand duke and said to him: “My son, go to your people and make them turn back; if they sack Pera the empire is destroyed, for the Genoese have much of our property and of that of the barons and the other people of our empire.”

  And, at once, the grand duke mounted a horse and, mace in hand, with all the rich homens and knights who had come with him, he went towards the almugavars, who already were preparing to demolish Pera, and he made them turn back. And so the emperor was very content and joyous.

  And next day he had more pay given to all and ordered all to prepare to proceed to Boca Daner and attack the Turks, who, at that place, had taken from the emperor land to the extent of more than thirty days’ journeys, covered with good cities and towns and castles which they had subdued and which paid tribute to them. And also, which is a greater disgrace, if a Turk wished to marry the daughter of the most important man in one of these cities or towns or castles which they had conquered, her parents or friends had to give her to him to wife. And when children were born, if they were males, they made them Turks and had them circumcised as if they were Saracens; but if they were females, they could follow which law they pleased. You see in what grief and subjection they were, to the great disgrace of all Christendom. Wherefore you may well see how necessary it was that that company should go there. And what is more, the Turks had, in truth, made such conquests, that an army of them came opposite Constantinople; there was not more than an arm of the sea, less than two miles broad, between them and the city, and they drew their swords and threatened the emperor, and the emperor could see it all. Imagine with what grief he beheld it. If they had had wherewith to cross this arm of the sea, they could have taken Constantinople.

  From The Chronicle of Muntaner, trans. Lady Goodenough (London: Hakluyt Society, 2nd ser., vol. 50, 1921).

  The Far East: Missionaries and Merchants

  The Tartar Menace to Europe

  MATTHEW PARIS

  1238

  ABOUT this time, special ambassadors were sent by the Saracens, chiefly on behalf of the old man of the mountain, to the French king, telling him that a monstrous and inhuman race of men had burst forth from the northern mountains, and had taken possession of the extensive, rich lands of the East; that they had depopulated Hungary Major, and had sent threatening letters, with dreadful embassies; the chief of whom declared, that he was the messenger of God on high, sent to subdue the nations who rebelled against him...

  The inhabitants of Gothland and Friesland, dreading their attacks, did not, as was their custom, come to Yarmouth, in England, at the time of the herring-fisheries, at which place their ships usually loaded; and, owing to this, herrings in that year were considered of no value, on account of their abundance, and about forty or fifty, although very good, were sold for one piece of silver, even in places at a great distance from the sea. This powerful and noble Saracen messenger, who had come to the French king, was sent on behalf of the whole of the people of the East to tell these things; and he asked assistance from the Western nations, the better to be able to repress the fury of the Tartars; he also sent a Saracen messenger from his own company to the king of England, who had arrived in England, to tell these events, and to say, that if they themselves could not withstand the attacks of such people, nothing remained to prevent their devastating the countries of the West....

  He therefore asked assistance in this urgent and general emergency, that the Saracens, with the assistance of the Christians, might resist the attacks of these people. The bishop of Winchester, who happened to be then present, and wearing the sign of the cross, interrupted his speech, and replied jocosely, “Let us leave these dogs to devour one another, that t
hey may all be consumed, and perish; and we, when we proceed against the enemies of Christ who remain, will slay them, and cleanse the face of the earth, so that all the world will be subject to the one Catholic Church, and there will be one shepherd and one fold.”

  From English History, trans. J. A. Giles (London: Bohn, 1852).

  A Mission to the Great Khan

  WILLIAM OF RUBRUCK

  1253-54

  TO THE most excellent lord and most Christian Louis, by the grace of God illustrious king of the French [Louis IX], from Friar William of Rubruck, the meanest in the order of Minor Friars, greetings, and may he always triumph in Christ. It is written in Ecclesiasticus of the wise man: “He shall go through the land of foreign peoples, and shall try the good and evil in all things.” This, my lord King, have I done, and may it have been as a wise man and not as a fool; for many do what the wise man doth, though not wisely, but most foolishly; of this number I fear I may be. Nevertheless in whatever way I may have done, since you commanded me when I took my leave of you that I should write you whatever I should see among the Tartars, and you did also admonish me not to fear writing a long letter, so I do what you enjoined on me, with fear, however, and diffidence, for the proper words that I should write to so great a monarch do not suggest themselves to me.

  Be it known then to your Sacred Majesty that in the year of our Lord one thousand CCLIII, on the nones of May (7th May), I entered the Sea of Pontus, which is commonly called Mare Majus, or the Greater Sea....

  On the Octave of the Innocents (3rd January, 1254) we were taken to court; and there came certain Nestorian priests, whom I did not know to be Christians, and they asked me in what direction I prayed. I said, “To the east.” And they asked that because we had shaved our beards, at the suggestion of our guide, so as to appear before the chan according to the fashion of our country. ’Twas for this that they took us for Tuins, that is idolaters. They also made us explain the Bible. Then they asked us what kind of reverence we wanted to make the chan, according to our fashion, or according to theirs. I replied to them, “We are priests given to the service of God. Noblemen in our country do not, for the glory of God, allow priests to bend the knee before them. Nevertheless, we want to humble ourselves to every man for the love of God. We come from afar: so in the first place then, if it please you, we will sing praises to God who has brought us here in safety from so far, and after that we will do as it shall please your lord, this only excepted, that nothing be required of us contrary to the worship and glory of God.” Then they went into the house, and repeated what I had said. It pleased the lord, and so they placed us before the door of the dwelling, holding up the felt which hung before it; and, as it was the Nativity, we began to sing:“A solis ortus cardine

  Et usque terre limitem

  Christum canamus principem

  Natum Maria virgine.”

  When we had sung this hymn, they searched our legs and breasts and arms to see if we had knives upon us. They had the interpreter examined, and made him leave his belt and knife in the custody of a door-keeper. Then we entered, and there was a bench in the entry with cosmos, and near by it they made the interpreter stand. They made us, however, sit down on a bench near the ladies. The house was all covered inside with cloth of gold, and there was a fire of briars and wormwood roots —which grow here to great size—and of cattle dung, in a grate in the centre of the dwelling. He (Mangu) was seated on a couch, and was dressed in a skin spotted and glossy, like a seal’s skin. He is a little man, of medium height, aged forty-five years, and a young wife sat beside him; and a very ugly, full-grown girl called Cirina, with other children sat on a couch after them. This dwelling had belonged to a certain Christian lady, whom he had much loved, and of whom he had had this girl. Afterwards he had taken this young wife, but the girl was the mistress of all this ordu, which had been her mother’s.

  He had us asked what we wanted to drink, wine or terracina, which is rice wine (cervisia), or caracosmos, which is clarified mare’s milk, or bal, which is honey mead. For in winter they make use of these four kinds of drinks. I replied: “My lord, we are not men who seek to satisfy our fancies about drinks; whatever pleases you will suit us.” So he had us given of the rice drink, which was clear and flavoured like white wine, and of which I tasted a little out of respect for him, but for our misfortune our interpreter was standing by the butlers, who gave him so much to drink, that he was drunk in a short time. After this the chan had brought some falcons and other birds, which he took on his hand and looked at, and after a long while he bade us speak. Then we had to bend our knees. He had his interpreter, a certain Nestorian, who I did not know was a Christian, and we had our interpreter, such as he was, and already drunk. Then I said: “In the first place we render thanks and praise to God, who has brought us from so far to see Mangu Chan, to whom God has given so much power on earth. And we pray Christ, by whose will we all live and die, to grant him a happy and long life.” For it is their desire, that one shall pray for their lives. Then I told him: “My lord, we have heard of Sartach that he was a Christian, and the Christians who heard it rejoiced greatly, and principally my lord the king of the French. So we came to him, and my lord the king sent him letters by us in which were words of peace, and among other things he bore witness to him as to the kind of men we were, and he begged him to allow us to remain in his country, for it is our office to teach men to live according to the law of God. He sent us, however, to his father Baatu. and Baatu sent us to you. You it is to whom God has given great power in the world. We pray then your mightiness to give us permission to remain in your dominion, to perform the service of God for you, for your wives and your children. We have neither gold, nor silver, nor precious stones to present to you, but only ourselves to offer to you to serve God, and to pray to God for you. At all events give us leave to remain here till this cold has passed away, for my companion is so feeble that he cannot with safety to his life stand any more the fatigue of travelling on horseback.”

  My companion had told me of his infirm condition, and had adjured me to ask for permission to stay, for we supposed that we would have to go back to Baatu, unless by special grace he gave us permission to stay. Then he began his reply: “As the sun sends its rays everywhere, likewise my sway and that of Baatu reach everywhere, so we do not want your gold or silver.” So far I understood my interpreter, but after that I could not understand the whole of any one sentence: ’twas by this that I found out he was drunk, and Mangu himself appeared to me tipsy. His speech, it seemed to me, however, showed that he was not pleased that we had come to Sartach in the first place rather than to him. Then I, seeing that I was without interpreter, said nothing, save to beg him not to be displeased with what I had said of gold and silver, for I had not said that he needed or wanted such things, but only that we would gladly honour him with things temporal as well as spiritual. Then he made us arise and sit down again, and after awhile we saluted him and went out, and with us his secretaries and his interpreter, who was bringing up one of his daughters. And they began to question us greatly about the kingdom of France, whether there were many sheep and cattle and horses there, and whether they had not better go there at once and take it all. And I had to use all my strength to conceal my indignation and anger; but I answered, “There are many good things there, which you would see if it befell you to go there.”

  Then they appointed someone to take care of us, and we went to the monk. And as we were coming out of there to go to our lodgings, the interpreter I have mentioned came to me and said: “Mangu Chan takes compassion on you and allows you to stay here for the space of two months: then the great cold will be over. And he informs you that ten days hence there is a goodly city called Caracarum. If you wish to go there, he will have you given all you may require; if, however, you wish to remain here, you may do so, and you shall have what you need. It will, however, be fatiguing for you to ride with the court.” I answered: “May the Lord keep Mangu Chan and give him a happy and long life!
We have found this monk here, whom we believe to be a holy man and come here by the will of God. So we would willingly remain here with him, for we are monks, and we would say our prayers with him for the life of the chan.” Then he left us without a word. And we went to a big house, which we found cold and without a supply of fuel, and we were still without food, and it was night. Then he to whom we had been entrusted gave us fuel and a little food....

  A certain woman from Metz in Lorraine, Paquette by name, and who had been made a prisoner in Hungary, found us out, and she gave us the best food she could. She belonged to the ordu of the Christian lady of whom I have spoken, and she told me of the unheard-of misery she had endured before coming to the ordu. But now she was fairly well off. She had a young Ruthenian husband, of whom she had had three right fine-looking boys, and he knew how to make houses, a very good trade among them. Furthermore, she told us that there was in Caracarum a certain master goldsmith, William by name, a native of Paris: and his family name was Buchier, and the name of his father was Laurent Buchier.

  She believed that he had still a brother living on the Grand Pont, called Roger Buchier. She also told me that he supported a young man whom he considered as his son, and who was a most excellent interpreter. But as Mangu Chan had given this said master three hundred iascot, that is three thousand marks, and L workmen to do a certain work, she feared he would not be able to send his son to me. She had heard people in the ordu saying, “The men who have come from your country are good men, and Mangu Chan would be pleased to speak with them, but their interpreter is worth nothing.” ’Twas for this that she was solicitous about an interpreter. So I wrote to this master of my coming, asking him if he could send me his son; and he replied that in that month he could not, but the following he would have finished his task and then he would send him to me....