The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

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would either restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests as the
humble and loyal vassals of the Roman empire. Their independent
spirit was fired at the mention of this foreign and voluntary
servitude: they successively yielded to the dexterous application
of gifts and flattery; and the first proselytes became the most
eloquent and effectual missionaries to multiply the companions of
their shame. The pride of Hugh of Vermandois was soothed by the
honors of his captivity; and in the brother of the French king,
the example of submission was prevalent and weighty. In the mind
of Godfrey of Bouillon every human consideration was subordinate
to the glory of God and the success of the crusade. He had
firmly resisted the temptations of Bohemond and Raymond, who
urged the attack and conquest of Constantinople. Alexius esteemed
his virtues, deservedly named him the champion of the empire, and
dignified his homage with the filial name and the rights of
adoption. ^67 The hateful Bohemond was received as a true and
ancient ally; and if the emperor reminded him of former
hostilities, it was only to praise the valor that he had
displayed, and the glory that he had acquired, in the fields of
Durazzo and Larissa. The son of Guiscard was lodged and
entertained, and served with Imperial pomp: one day, as he passed
through the gallery of the palace, a door was carelessly left
open to expose a pile of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of
curious and costly furniture, that was heaped, in seeming
disorder, from the floor to the roof of the chamber. "What
conquests," exclaimed the ambitious miser, "might not be achieved
by the possession of such a treasure!" - "It is your own,"
replied a Greek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul;
and Bohemond, after some hesitation, condescended to accept this
magnificent present. The Norman was flattered by the assurance
of an independent principality; and Alexius eluded, rather than
denied, his daring demand of the office of great domestic, or
general of the East. The two Roberts, the son of the conqueror
of England, and the kinsmen of three queens, ^68 bowed in their
turn before the Byzantine throne. A private letter of Stephen of
Chartres attests his admiration of the emperor, the most
excellent and liberal of men, who taught him to believe that he
was a favorite, and promised to educate and establish his
youngest son. In his southern province, the count of St. Giles
and Thoulouse faintly recognized the supremacy of the king of
France, a prince of a foreign nation and language. At the head
of a hundred thousand men, he declared that he was the soldier
and servant of Christ alone, and that the Greek might be
satisfied with an equal treaty of alliance and friendship. His
obstinate resistance enhanced the value and the price of his
submission; and he shone, says the princess Anne, among the
Barbarians, as the sun amidst the stars of heaven. His disgust
of the noise and insolence of the French, his suspicions of the
designs of Bohemond, the emperor imparted to his faithful
Raymond; and that aged statesman might clearly discern, that
however false in friendship, he was sincere in his enmity. ^69
The spirit of chivalry was last subdued in the person of Tancred;
and none could deem themselves dishonored by the imitation of
that gallant knight. He disdained the gold and flattery of the
Greek monarch; assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician;
escaped to Asia in the habit of a private soldier; and yielded
with a sigh to the authority of Bohemond, and the interest of the
Christian cause. The best and most ostensible reason was the
impossibility of passing the sea and accomplishing their vow,
without the license and the vessels of Alexius; but they
cherished a secret hope, that as soon as they trod the continent
of Asia, their swords would obliterate their shame, and dissolve
the engagement, which on his side might not be very faithfully
performed. The ceremony of their homage was grateful to a people
who had long since considered pride as the substitute of power.
High on his throne, the emperor sat mute and immovable: his
majesty was adored by the Latin princes; and they submitted to
kiss either his feet or his knees, an indignity which their own
writers are ashamed to confess and unable to deny. ^70

[Footnote 67: There are two sorts of adoption, the one by arms,
the other by introducing the son between the shirt and skin of
his father. Ducange isur Joinville, Diss. xxii. p. 270) supposes
Godfrey's adoption to have been of the latter sort.]

[Footnote 68: After his return, Robert of Flanders became the man
of the king of England, for a pension of four hundred marks. See
the first act in Rymer's Foedera.]

[Footnote 69: Sensit vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia non
fingere. Tacit. vi. 44.]

[Footnote 70: The proud historians of the crusades slide and
stumble over this humiliating step. Yet, since the heroes knelt
to salute the emperor, as he sat motionless on his throne, it is
clear that they must have kissed either his feet or knees. It is
only singular, that Anna should not have amply supplied the
silence or ambiguity of the Latins. The abasement of their
princes would have added a fine chapter to the Ceremoniale Aulae
Byzantinae.]

Private or public interest suppressed the murmurs of the
dukes and counts; but a French baron (he is supposed to be Robert
of Paris ^71) presumed to ascend the throne, and to place himself
by the side of Alexius. The sage reproof of Baldwin provoked him
to exclaim, in his barbarous idiom, "Who is this rustic, that
keeps his seat, while so many valiant captains are standing round
him?" The emperor maintained his silence, dissembled his
indignation, and questioned his interpreter concerning the
meaning of the words, which he partly suspected from the
universal language of gesture and countenance. Before the
departure of the pilgrims, he endeavored to learn the name and
condition of the audacious baron. "I am a Frenchman," replied
Robert, "of the purest and most ancient nobility of my country.
All that I know is, that there is a church in my neighborhood,
^72 the resort of those who are desirous of approving their valor
in single combat. Till an enemy appears, they address their
prayers to God and his saints. That church I have frequently
visited. But never have I found an antagonist who dared to
accept my defiance." Alexius dismissed the challenger with some
prudent advice for his conduct in the Turkish warfare; and
history repeats with pleasure this lively example of the manners
of his age and country.

[Footnote 71: He called himself (see Alexias, l. x. p. 301.) What
a title of noblesse of the eleventh century, if any one could now
prove his inheritance! Anna relates, with visible pleasure, that
the swelling Barbarian, was killed, or wounded, after fighting in
the front in the battle of Dorylaeum, (l. xi. p. 317.) This
circumstance may justify the suspicion of Ducange, (Not. p. 362,)
that he was no other than Robert of Paris, of the district most
peculiarly styled the Duchy or Island of France, (L'Isle de
France.)]

[Footnote 72: With the same penetration, Ducange discovers his
church to be that of St. Drausus, or Drosin, of Soissons, quem
duello dimicaturi solent invocare: pugiles qui ad memoriam ejus
(his tomb) pernoctant invictos reddit, ut et de Burgundia et
Italia tali necessitate confugiatur ad eum. Joan. Sariberiensis,
epist. 139.]

The conquest of Asia was undertaken and achieved by
Alexander, with thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks; ^73
and his best hope was in the strength and discipline of his
phalanx of infantry. The principal force of the crusaders
consisted in their cavalry; and when that force was mustered in
the plains of Bithynia, the knights and their martial attendants
on horseback amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men,
completely armed with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of
these soldiers deserved a strict and authentic account; and the
flower of European chivalry might furnish, in a first effort,
this formidable body of heavy horse. A part of the infantry
might be enrolled for the service of scouts, pioneers, and
archers; but the promiscuous crowd were lost in their own
disorder; and we depend not on the eyes and knowledge, but on the
belief and fancy, of a chaplain of Count Baldwin, ^74 in the
estimate of six hundred thousand pilgrims able to bear arms,
besides the priests and monks, the women and children of the
Latin camp. The reader starts; and before he is recovered from
his surprise, I shall add, on the same testimony, that if all who
took the cross had accomplished their vow, above six millions
would have migrated from Europe to Asia. Under this oppression
of faith, I derive some relief from a more sagacious and thinking
writer, ^75 who, after the same review of the cavalry, accuses
the credulity of the priest of Chartres, and even doubts whether
the Cisalpine regions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were
sufficient to produce and pour forth such incredible multitudes.
The coolest scepticism will remember, that of these religious
volunteers great numbers never beheld Constantinople and Nice.
Of enthusiasm the influence is irregular and transient: many were
detained at home by reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness;
and many were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the more
insuperable as they were unforeseen, to these ignorant fanatics.
The savage countries of Hungary and Bulgaria were whitened with
their bones: their vanguard was cut in pieces by the Turkish
sultan; and the loss of the first adventure, by the sword, or
climate, or fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred
thousand men. Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that
pressed forwards on the holy pilgrimage, were a subject of
astonishment to themselves and to the Greeks. The copious energy
of her language sinks under the efforts of the princess Anne: ^76
the images of locusts, of leaves and flowers, of the sands of the
sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly represent what she had
seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius exclaims, that Europe
was loosened from its foundations, and hurled against Asia. The
ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labor under the same doubt of
a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to believe,
that a larger number has never been contained within the lines of
a single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first operation of
the Latin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their
arms, have been already displayed. Of their troops the most
numerous portion were natives of France: the Low Countries, the
banks of the Rhine, and Apulia, sent a powerful reenforcement:
some bands of adventurers were drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and
England; ^77 and from the distant bogs and mountains of Ireland
or Scotland ^78 issued some naked and savage fanatics, ferocious
at home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition condemned the
sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest
Christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with
mouths but without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek
empire, till their companions had opened and secured the way of
the Lord. A small remnant of the pilgrims, who passed the
Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the holy sepulchre. Their
northern constitution was scorched by the rays, and infected by
the vapors, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with heedless
prodigality, their stores of water and provision: their numbers
exhausted the inland country: the sea was remote, the Greeks were
unfriendly, and the Christians of every sect fled before the
voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire
necessity of famine, they sometimes roasted and devoured the
flesh of their infant or adult captives. Among the Turks and
Saracens, the idolaters of Europe were rendered more odious by
the name and reputation of Cannibals; the spies, who introduced
themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond, were shown several human
bodies turning on the spit: and the artful Norman encouraged a
report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence and the
terror of the infidels. ^79

[Footnote 73: There is some diversity on the numbers of his army;
but no authority can be compared with that of Ptolemy, who states
it at five thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, (see Usher's
Annales, p 152.)]

[Footnote 74: Fulcher. Carnotensis, p. 387. He enumerates
nineteen nations of different names and languages, (p. 389;) but
I do not clearly apprehend his difference between the Franci and
Galli, Itali and Apuli. Elsewhere (p. 385) he contemptuously
brands the deserters.]

[Footnote 75: Guibert, p. 556. Yet even his gentle opposition
implies an
immense multitude. By Urban II., in the fervor of his zeal, it
is only rated at 300,000 pilgrims, (epist. xvi. Concil. tom. xii.
p. 731.)]

[Footnote 76: Alexias, l. x. p. 283, 305. Her fastidious
delicacy complains of their strange and inarticulate names; and
indeed there is scarcely one that she has not contrived to
disfigure with the proud ignorance so dear and familiar to a
polished people. I shall select only one example, Sangeles, for
the count of St. Giles.]

[Footnote 77: William of Malmsbury (who wrote about the year
1130) has inserted in his history (l. iv. p. 130-154) a narrative
of the first crusade: but I wish that, instead of listening to
the tenue murmur which had passed the British ocean, (p. 143,) he
had confined himself to the numbers, families, and adventures of
his countrymen. I find in Dugdale, that an English Norman,
Stephen earl of Albemarle and Holdernesse, led the rear-guard
with Duke Robert, at the battle of Antioch, (Baronage, part i. p.
61.)]

[Footnote 78: Videres Scotorum apud se ferocium alias imbellium
cuneos, (Guibert, p. 471;) the crus intectum and hispida chlamys,
may suit the Highlanders; but the finibus uliginosis may rather
apply to the Irish bogs. William of Malmsbury expressly mentions
the Welsh and Scots, &c., (l. iv. p. 133,) who quitted, the
former venatiorem, the latter familiaritatem pulicum.]

[Footnote 79: This cannibal hunger, sometimes real, more
frequently an artifice or a lie, may be found in Anna Comnena,
(Alexias, l. x. p. 288,) Guibert, (p. 546,) Radulph. Cadom., (c.
97.) The stratagem is related by the author of the Gesta
Francorum, the monk Robert Baldric, and Raymond des Agiles, in
the siege and famine of Antioch.]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.

Part IV.

I have expiated with pleasure on the first steps of the
crusaders, as they paint the manners and character of Europe: but
I shall abridge the tedious and uniform narrative of their blind
achievements, which were performed by strength and are described
by ignorance. From their first station in the neighborhood of
Nicomedia, they advanced in successive divisions; passed the
contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened a road through the
hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital, their pious
warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum extended
from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred the
pilgrimage of Jerusalem, his name was Kilidge-Arslan, or Soliman,
^80 of the race of Seljuk, and son of the first conqueror; and in
the defence of a land which the Turks considered as their own, he
deserved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to
posterity. Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he
deposited his family and treasure in Nice; retired to the
mountains with fifty thousand horse; and twice descended to
assault the camps or quarters of the Christian besiegers, which
formed an imperfect circle of above six miles. The lofty and
solid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by
three hundred and seventy towers; and on the verge of
Christendom, the Moslems were trained in arms, and inflamed by
religion. Before this city, the French princes occupied their
stations, and prosecuted their attacks without correspondence or
subordination: emulation prompted their valor; but their valor
was sullied by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into envy
and civil discord. In the siege of Nice, the arts and engines of
antiquity were employed by the Latins; the mine and the
battering-ram, the tortoise, and the belfrey or movable turret,
artificial fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and the
crossbow for the casting of stones and darts. ^81 In the space of
seven weeks much labor and blood were expended, and some
progress, especially by Count Raymond, was made on the side of
the besiegers. But the Turks could protract their resistance and
secure their escape, as long as they were masters of the Lake ^82
Ascanius, which stretches several miles to the westward of the
city. The means of conquest were supplied by the prudence and
industry of Alexius; a great number of boats was transported on
sledges from the sea to the lake; they were filled with the most
dexterous of his archers; the flight of the sultana was
intercepted; Nice was invested by land and water; and a Greek
emissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept his master's
protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender, from
the rage of the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or
at least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder,
were awed by the Imperial banner that streamed from the citadel;
^* and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance this important
conquest. The murmurs of the chiefs were stifled by honor or
interest; and after a halt of nine days, they directed their
march towards Phrygia under the guidance of a Greek general, whom
they suspected of a secret connivance with the sultan. The
consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been honorably
restored without ransom; and the emperor's generosity to the
miscreants ^83 was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause.

[Footnote 80: His Mussulman appellation of Soliman is used by the
Latins, and his character is highly embellished by Tasso. His
Turkish name of Kilidge-Arslan (A. H. 485 - 500, A.D. 1192 -
1206. See De Guignes's Tables, tom. i. p. 245) is employed by
the Orientals, and with some corruption by the Greeks; but little
more than his name can be found in the Mahometan writers, who are
dry and sulky on the subject of the first crusade, (De Guignes,
tom. iii. p. ii. p. 10 - 30.)

Note: See note, page 556. Soliman and Kilidge-Arslan were
father and son - M.]

[Footnote 81: On the fortifications, engines, and sieges of the
middle ages, see Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae, tom. ii.
dissert. xxvi. p. 452 - 524.) The belfredus, from whence our
belfrey, was the movable tower of the ancients, (Ducange, tom. i.
p. 608.)]

[Footnote 82: I cannot forbear remarking the resemblance between
the siege and lake of Nice, with the operations of Hernan Cortez
before Mexico. See Dr. Robertson, History of America, l. v.]

[Footnote *: See Anna Comnena. - M.]

[Footnote 83: Mecreant, a word invented by the French crusaders,
and confined in that language to its primitive sense. It should
seem, that the zeal of our ancestors boiled higher, and that they
branded every unbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice still
lurks in the minds of many who think themselves Christians.]

Soliman was rather provoked than dismayed by the loss of his
capital: he admonished his subjects and allies of this strange
invasion of the Western Barbarians; the Turkish emirs obeyed the
call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hordes encamped round
his standard; and his whole force is loosely stated by the
Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty
thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they had left
behind them the sea and the Greek frontier; and hovering on the
flanks, observed their careless and confident progress in two
columns beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they
could reach Dorylaeum in Phrygia, the left, and least numerous,
division was surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by
the Turkish cavalry. ^84 The heat of the weather, the clouds of
arrows, and the barbarous onset, overwhelmed the crusaders; they
lost their order and confidence, and the fainting fight was
sustained by the personal valor, rather than by the military
conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They were
revived by the welcome banners of Duke Godfrey, who flew to their
succor, with the count of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse;
and was followed by Raymond of Tholouse, the bishop of Puy, and
the remainder of the sacred army. Without a moment's pause, they
formed in new order, and advanced to a second battle. They were
received with equal resolution; and, in their common disdain for
the unwarlike people of Greece and Asia, it was confessed on both
sides, that the Turks and the Franks were the only nations
entitled to the appellation of soldiers. ^85 Their encounter was
varied, and balanced by the contrast of arms and discipline; of
the direct charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched lance,
and the brandished javelin; of a weighty broadsword, and a
crooked sabre; of cumbrous armor, and thin flowing robes; and of
the long Tartar bow, and the arbalist or crossbow, a deadly
weapon, yet unknown to the Orientals. ^86 As long as the horses
were fresh, and the quivers full, Soliman maintained the
advantage of the day; and four thousand Christians were pierced
by the Turkish arrows. In the evening, swiftness yielded to
strength: on either side, the numbers were equal or at least as
great as any ground could hold, or any generals could manage; but
in turning the hills, the last division of Raymond and his
provincials was led, perhaps without design on the rear of an
exhausted enemy; and the long contest was determined. Besides a
nameless and unaccounted multitude, three thousand Pagan knights
were slain in the battle and pursuit; the camp of Soliman was
pillaged; and in the variety of precious spoil, the curiosity of
the Latins was amused with foreign arms and apparel, and the new
aspect of dromedaries and camels. The importance of the victory
was proved by the hasty retreat of the sultan: reserving ten
thousand guards of the relics of his army, Soliman evacuated the
kingdom of Roum, and hastened to implore the aid, and kindle the
resentment, of his Eastern brethren. In a march of five hundred
miles, the crusaders traversed the Lesser Asia, through a wasted
land and deserted towns, without finding either a friend or an
enemy. The geographer ^87 may trace the position of Dorylaeum,
Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may
compare those classic appellations with the modern names of
Eskishehr the old city, Akshehr the white city, Cogni, Erekli,
and Marash. As the pilgrims passed over a desert, where a
draught of water is exchanged for silver, they were tormented by
intolerable thirst; and on the banks of the first rivulet, their
haste and intemperance were still more pernicious to the
disorderly throng. They climbed with toil and danger the steep
and slippery sides of Mount Taurus; many of the soldiers cast
away their arms to secure their footsteps; and had not terror
preceded their van, the long and trembling file might have been
driven down the precipice by a handful of resolute enemies. Two
of their most respectable chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the
count of Tholouse, were carried in litters: Raymond was raised,
as it is said by miracle, from a hopeless malady; and Godfrey had
been torn by a bear, as he pursued that rough and perilous chase
in the mountains of Pisidia.

[Footnote 84: Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to his
brother Roger, (A.D. 1098, No. 15.) The enemies consisted of
Medes, Persians, Chaldeans: be it so. The first attack was cum
nostro incommodo; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon
and Hugh brothers! Tancred is styled filius; of whom? Certainly
not of Roger, nor of Bohemond.]

[Footnote 85: Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione;
et quia nullus homo naturaliter debet esse miles nisi Franci et
Turci, (Gesta Francorum, p. 7.) The same community of blood and
valor is attested by Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99.)]

[Footnote 86: Balista, Balestra, Arbalestre. See Muratori,
Antiq. tom. ii. p. 517 - 524. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. i. p.
531, 532. In the time of Anna Comnena, this weapon, which she
describes under the name of izangra, was unknown in the East, (l.
x. p. 291.) By a humane inconsistency, the pope strove to
prohibit it in Christian wars.]

[Footnote 87: The curious reader may compare the classic learning
of Cellarius and the geographical science of D'Anville. William
of Tyre is the only historian of the crusades who has any
knowledge of antiquity; and M. Otter trod almost in the footsteps
of the Franks from Constantinople to Antioch, (Voyage en Turquie
et en Perse, tom. i. p. 35 - 88.)

Note: The journey of Col. Macdonald Kinneir in Asia Minor
throws considerable light on the geography of this march of the
crusaders. - M.]