[Hugh then sought help from the Egyptians of Ascalon — a grave error that lost him most of his important supporters among the nobility. The patriarch of Jerusalem managed to make peace between Hugh and the king and the count was to go into exile for three years. As he waited to leave he was stabbed.]
But one sentiment issued from the lips of all; namely, that not without the knowledge of the king could this crime have been committed. . . . Through the crowd ran the cry that the count had been suffering unjustly from a charge of which he was innocent. . . . Accordingly, the count grew in universal favour and good will and it was felt that the accusations made against him, of whatever nature, proceeded entirely from malice.
[Fulk managed to exonerate himself from having ordered the murder, but the issue rumbled on.]
From that time, all who had informed the count and thereby incited the king fell under the displeasure of Queen Melisende and were forced to take diligent measures for their own safety. . . . It was not safe for these informers to come into her presence. . . . Even the king found that no place was entirely safe among the kindred and partisans of the queen. At length, through the mediation of certain intimate friends, her wrath was appeased, and the king finally, after persistent efforts, succeeded in gaining a pardon for the other objects of her wrath — at least to the extent that they could be introduced into her presence with others. But from that day forward, the king became so uxorious that, whereas he had formerly aroused her wrath, he now calmed it, and not even in unimportant cases did he take any measures without her knowledge and assistance.
William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, ed. Emily Babcock, tr. August Krey, 2 vols, Columbia University Press, New York, 1943, vol. 2, pp. 50-1, 45-6, 70-6.
(ii) The version of Orderic Vitalis
To begin with he [Fulk] acted without the foresight and shrewdness he should have shown, and changed governors and other dignitaries too quickly and thoughtlessly. As a new ruler he banished from his counsels the leading magnates who from the first had fought resolutely against the Turks and helped Godfrey and the two Baldwins to bring towns and fortresses under their rule, and replaced them with Angevin strangers and other raw newcomers to whom he gave his ear; turning out the veteran defenders, he gave the chief places in the counsels of the realm and the castellanships of castles to new flatterers. Consequently great disaffection spread, and the stubbornness of the magnates was damnably roused against the man who changed officials so gauchely. For a long time, under the influence of the powers of evil, they turned their warlike skills, which they should have united to exercise against the heathen, to rend themselves. They even allied on both sides with the pagans against each other, with the result that they lost many thousands of men and a certain number of fortresses.
Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History, ed. and tr. Marjorie Chibnall, 6 vols, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1969-80, vol. 6, pp. 391-3.
DOCUMENT 10 THE SETTLERS’ TREATMENT OF MUSLIMS IN THE FRANKISH EAST
Ibn Jubayr was a Spanish Muslim from Granada who made the haj (pilgrimage) to Mecca in the mid-1180s. He spent a short period of time (32 days) in the Latin East in 1184 and has left this important account of the treatment of his co-religionists. Document ii concerns the Hanbalis, a radical Islamic sect who farmed land around Nablus until they fled to Damascus in the 1150s. The writings of Diya al-Din reflect this radical position and were written after Saladin’s conquests of 1187.
(i) Ibn Jubayr
(a) One of the astonishing things that is talked of is that although the fires of discord burn between the two parties, Muslim and Christian, two armies of them may meet and dispose themselves in battle array, and yet Muslim and Christian travellers will come and go between them without interference. In this connection we saw at this time, that is the month of Jumada ‘l-Ula, the departure of Saladin with all the Muslims troops to lay siege to the fortress of Kerak, one of the greatest of the Christian strongholds lying astride the Hejaz road and hindering the overland passage of the Muslims. Between it and Jerusalem lies a day’s journey or a little more. It occupies the choicest part of the land in Palestine, and has a very wide dominion with continuous settlements, it being said that the number of villagers reaches four hundred. This Sultan invested it, and put it to sore straits, and long the siege lasted, but still the caravans passed successively from Egypt to Damascus, going through the lands of the Franks without impediment from them. In the same way the Muslims continuously journeyed from Damascus to Acre (through Frankish territory), and likewise not one of the Christian merchants was stopped or hindered (in Muslim territories).
The Christians impose a tax on the Muslims in their land which gives them full security; and likewise the Christian merchants pay a tax upon their goods in Muslim lands. Agreement exists between them, and there is equal treatment in all cases. The soldiers engage themselves in their war, while the people are at peace and the work goes to him who conquers. Such is the usage in war of the people of these lands; and in the dispute existing between the Muslim Emirs and their kings it is the same, the subjects and the merchants interfering not. Security never leaves them in any circumstance, neither in peace nor in war. The state of these countries in this regard is truly more astonishing than our story can convey. May God by His favour exalt the word of Islam.
(b) This city [Banyas] is on the frontier of the Muslim territories. It is small, but has a fortress below the walls of which winds a river that flows out from one of the gates of the city. A canal leading from it turns the mills. The city had been in the hands of the Franks, but Nur ad-Din — may God’s mercy rest upon his soul — recovered it [in 1165]. It has a wide tillage in a continuous vale. It is commanded by a fortress of the Franks called Hunin three parasangs from Banyas. The cultivation of the vale is divided between the Franks and the Muslims, and in it there is a boundary known as ‘The Boundary of Dividing’. They apportion the crops equally, and their animals are mingled together, yet no wrong takes place between them because of it.
(c) We moved from Tibnin — may God destroy it — at daybreak on Monday. Our way lay through continuous farms and ordered settlements, whose inhabitants were all Muslims, living comfortably with the Franks. God protect us from such temptation. They surrender half their crops to the Franks at harvest time, and pay as well a poll-tax of one dinar and five qirat [24 qirats to one dinar] for each person. Other than that, they are not interfered with, save for a light tax on the fruits of trees. Their houses and all their effects are left to their full possession. All the coastal cities occupied by the Franks are managed in this fashion, their rural districts, the villages and farms, belonging to the Muslims. But their hearts have been seduced, for they observe how unlike them in ease and comfort are their brethren in the Muslim regions under their Muslim governors. This is one of the misfortunes afflicting the Muslims. The Muslim community bewails the injustice of a landlord of its own faith, and applauds the conduct of its opponent and enemy, the Frankish landlord, and is accustomed to justice from him.
Ibn Jubayr, The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, tr. Ronald Broadhurst, Jonathan Cape, London, 1952, pp. 300-1, 315, 316-17.
(ii) Diya al-Din — The Account of the Hanbalis
I heard more than one of our teachers saying that the Muslims fell under the domination of the Franks in the regions of Hayt al-Maqdis and its provinces, working the land for them. They [the Franks] used to punish them [the Muslims], jail them and levy a fee which resembles jizya. The greatest of the Franks was Ahuman b. Barizan [Baldwin of Ibelin] — may God curse him. Under his rule were Jamma’il, the village of our teachers, Marda, Yasuf and other villages. It so happened that whereas the infidels used to collect one dinar from everyone under their control, he — may God curse him — levied four dinars from each of them. He used to mutilate their legs. Among the infidels there existed no one more evil or greater in violence than him — may God put a shame on him. So Ibn Barizan planned to kill Ahmad b. Qudama. One of his [Ibn Barizan’sj clerks, w
hose name was Ibn Tasir, informed the shaykh. The shaykh came to a decision to proceed to Damascus and he went there. Ibn Tasir was an official of Baldwin and his assistant [wazir]. He believed in Muslim holy men and was benevolent towards them. This was told to me by Muhammad b. Abi’ Attaf. Another person said that of those who were under the subordination of the Franks, shaykh Ahmad was the first to emigrate both out of fear for his life and because he was unable to practise his religion.
Joseph Drory, ‘Hanbalis of the Nablus Region in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Asian and African Studies 22 (1988), pp. 93-112.
DOCUMENT 11 THE CALL TO THE SECOND CRUSADE, 1146
This is the first surviving papal bull calling a crusade to the Holy Land. It was first issued at Viterbo, near Rome, on 1 December 1145, and was reissued, with minor amendments, in the form here four months later. It was the centrepiece of the preaching campaign of 1146-47 and would be the cornerstone of papal appeals for the next three decades.
Pope Eugenius III, writing to King Louis VII of France and his subjects, proclaims the Second Crusade on God’s behalf. The bull Quantum praedecessores, 1 March 1146.
We have learned from what men of old have said and we have found written in their histories how greatly our predecessors the Roman pontiffs have worked for the liberation of the eastern Church. Indeed our predecessor of happy memory, Pope Urban, sounding forth like a heavenly trumpet, took care to induce sons of the Holy Roman Church from several parts of the world to free it. In answer to his call men from beyond the Alps, especially the most strong and vigorous warriors of the kingdom of the French, and also those from Italy, fired with the ardour of love, assembled and once a great army had been collected together, not without much shedding of their own blood but attended by divine aid, freed from the filth of the pagans that city in which it was Our Saviour’s will to suffer for us and where he left us his glorious Sepulchre as a memorial of his passion, together with many other places of which, to avoid being lengthy, we have refrained from reminding you. By the grace of God and the zeal of your fathers, who strove to defend them over the years and to spread the Christian name among the peoples in the area, these places have been held by Christians until now and other cities have courageously been taken from the infidels. But now, because our sins and those of its people demanded it, there has occurred what we cannot make known without great sadness and lamentation. The city of Edessa, in our togue known as Rohais, which also, it is said, alone under Christian rule had respect for the power of God at that time when all the land in the East was held by the pagans, has been taken by the enemies of the cross of Christ, who have also occupied many Christian castles. And the archbishop of that city and his clerics and many other Christians have been killed there, while the relics of the saints have been trampled under the infidels’ feet and dispersed. We recognise how great the danger is that threatens the Church of God and all Christianity because of this and we do not believe that it is hidden from your understanding. It will be seen as a great token of nobility and uprightness if those things acquired by the efforts of your fathers are vigorously defended by you, their good sons. But if, God forbid, it comes to pass differently, then the bravery of the fathers will have proved to be diminished in the sons.
And so in the Lord we impress upon, ask and order all of you, and we enjoin it for the remissions of sins, that those who are on God’s side, and especially the more powerful and the nobles, should vigorously gird themselves to oppose the multitude of the infidels who are now rejoicing in the victory they have gained over us, to defend in this way the eastern Church, which was freed from their tyranny, as we have said before, by so much spilling of your fathers’ blood, and to strive to deliver from their hands the many thousands of our captive brothers, so that the dignity of the name of Christ may be enhanced in our time and your reputation for strength, which is praised throughout the world, may be kept unimpaired and unsullied. And let the good Mattathias be an example to you. He did not hesitate for a moment to expose himself with his sons and relatives to death and to leave all he had in the world to preserve his ancestral laws; and at length with the help of divine aid and with much labour he and his offspring triumphed powerfully over their enemies.
We, providing with a father’s concern for your peace of mind and the abandonment of the eastern Church, by the authority given us by God concede and confirm to those who, inspired by devotion, decide to take up and complete so holy and very necessary a work and labour that remission of sins which our aforesaid predecessor Pope Urban instituted. And we decree that their wives and children, goods and possessions should remain under the protection of the Holy Church; under our protection and that of the archbishops, bishops and other prelates of the Church of God. And by apostolic authority we forbid any legal suit to be brought thereafter concerning all the possessions they hold peacefully when they take the cross until there is absolutely certain knowledge of their return or death. Since, moreover, those who fight for the Lord ought not to care for precious clothes or elegant appearance or dogs or hawks or other things that are signs of lasciviousness, we, in the Lord, impress upon your understanding that those who decide to begin so holy a work ought to pay no attention to multi-coloured clothes or minivers or gilded or silvered arms, but should with all their strength employ care and diligence in taking such arms, horses and the rest with which they may the more ardently overcome the infidels. All those who are encumbered with debts and undertake so holy a journey with pure hearts need not pay usury on past loans; and if they or others on their behalf are bound by oath or faith to usurious contracts we absolve them by apostolic authority. And they may raise money on their lands or other possessions, having informed relatives or the lords to whose fiefs they belong, and they may freely pledge them to churches or churchmen or to others of the faithful without any counterclaim, for otherwise they will not want or have the means to go. By the authority of omnipotent God and that of Blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles conceded to us by God, we grant remission of and absolution from sins, as instituted by our aforesaid predecessor, in such a way that whosoever devoutly begins and completes so holy a journey or dies on it will obtain absolution from all his sins of which he has made confession with a contrite and humble heart; and he will receive the fruit of everlasting recompense from the rewarder of all good people.
Louise and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095-1270, Edward Arnold, London, 1981, pp. 57-9.
DOCUMENT 12 RECRUITMENT FOR THE SECOND CRUSADE — TROUVERE SONG, 1146-47
As well as official documents such as Quantum praedecessores, unofficial forms of recruitment also existed. This song was written in Old French and would have been sung in courts and public places as the crusade gathered support. It is important as a secular source (rare at this time), although in this instance, the composer seems to have heard Quantum praedecessores because there are some similarities of message. In other respects, however, this is plainly a secular document appealing to the interests and sensibilities of the knightly classes.
Troubadour Song (Anonymous)
Knights, you are in very good hands now that God has called for your help against the Turks and the Almoravids who have done Him such dishonour. They have wrongfully snatched his fiefs; our sorrow at this should indeed be great since it was there that God was first offered service and acknowledged as Lord.
Anyone who now goes with Louis need have no fear of Hell, for his soul will be in Paradise with the angels of Our Lord.
Edessa is taken, as you know, and the Christians are sorely afflicted because of it: the churches are burnt and abandoned, God is no longer sacrificed there. Knights, make your decisions, you who are esteemed for your skill in arms; make a gift of your bodies to Him who was placed on the cross for you.
Take your example from Louis, who has more to lose than you: he is rich and powerful above all other crowned kings; yet he has given up miniver and ermine, castles, towns and citadels and turned to Him who was crucified f
or us.
God gave up his body to the Jews that He might free us from bondage. They wounded Him in five places so that he suffered passion and death. Now He is calling upon you because the Canaanites and the troops of the cruel Sanguin [Zengi] have played many a wicked trick upon Him: the time has come to pay them back for it!
God has organised a tourney between Heaven and Hell, and so He is asking all His friends who are willing to support His cause not to fail Him. . . .
For the son of God the Creator has fixed a day for being at Edessa; there shall the sinners be saved . . . who will fight fiercely and, for love of Him, will go and help Him in this hour of need . . . to wreak the vengeance of God.
Let us go and take possession of Moses in his tomb on Mount Sinai. Let us snatch it from the hands of the Saracens as also the rod with which, at a single stroke, he opened the Red Sea and all his people came after; Pharaoh followed in pursuit and was killed with all his men.
The Crusades 1095-1197 Page 26