The Deeds of God through the Franks

G >> Guibert of Nogent >> The Deeds of God through the Franks

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Then Raymond, count of Saint Gilles, enter the territory of the
Saracens, and led his army to a city called Albara, which he attacked
and quickly captured, putting to death all the Saracen men and women
he found there. Once in control of the city, he filled it with
Christian colonists, and, on the advice of wise men, ordered that a
bishop be ordained for the city, who would gradually teach the
natives Christian doctrine, and who would carry out in their temples,
once they had been purified, the services of devotion, and the
mysteries of rebirth. They chose a man of an appropriate age, who
was known for his learning, and they brought him to Antioch to be
ordained. After he had been ordained a bishop, he did not neglect to
carry out the journey to Jerusalem, but he assigned the task of
guarding the city to someone who volunteered for the task, and set
out with the others, brave man, with little income, he who remained
behind set out to protect the citadel with the few people he could
afford to hire. Because there were very few Saracens in the city,
those pagans who remained submitted to his authority, and in exchange
for their lives gave him part of their earned income.

Antioch was now flourishing with prosperity, and the holiday of All
Saints was approaching, at the end of which the expedition was
scheduled to begin again. Mindful of this, the leaders assembled at
Antioch, and began to consult with each other about how they might
best expedite the journey for which they had come. Before the army
of the Lord made a move, Bohemund brought up the matter of turning
the city over to him, according to the agreement which had been made.
But the count of Saint Gilles refused to assent, since he respected
the oath he had given to the emperor. The bishops, who acted as
intermediaries between them, met frequently in the church of the
blessed Peter. Bohemund said that after the city had been betrayed
by Pyrrus, parts of the city had been granted to him generously by
the leaders themselves. The count of Saint Gilles replied that he
had given an oath to restore the city to the ruler of Constantinople,
unless their agreement was broken by the emperor, and that all this
was done on the advice of Bohemund. Meanwhile, the bishops, who were
trying to bring the disagreement to an end, summoned duke Godfrey,
the counts of Flanders and Normandy, and other leaders, listened to
what each had to say, and then met separately to sift the arguments
and to come to a correct decision. However, after having heard the
arguments, they remained undecided, and when they returned to the
assembled leaders, afraid to alienate such men, they postponed making
a decision. When the count saw that this was done deliberately, he
said: "To prevent the present disagreement from generating discord
among those faithful to Christ, and thereby delaying the day on which
the tomb of the Savior will be set free, and to prevent us from being
tainted with the charge of greed, I agree to the decision of my peers,
the princes now present, as long as it does not contradict what you
know, brothers and leaders, I unwillingly promised to the prince of
Constantinople." Bohemund immediately agreed to the count's proposal,
and they put aside their quarrel, placed their right hands in the
hands of the bishops as a sign of good faith, and swore solemnly that
the army of God in no way would be disturbed by their disagreements.
After consulting with the others, Bohemund then fortified his
fortress with men and food from the mountains. The count of Saint
Gilles also consulted with his men, and fortified at great expense
the palace of Cassian, which the pagans called the Emir, as well as
the tower which guarded the gate of the bridge which led to the port
of Saint Simon.

The city of Antioch is incomparably beautiful, second to none in the
majesty of its buildings; it is pleasantly situated, with an
unequalled climate, and with fertile vines and rich fields. To the
east it is surrounded by four high mountains; to the west its walls
are washed by a river renowned in the Bible,[185] the Pharphar, whose
waves are dense with fish. At the top of one of the mountains
remarkable, impregnable fortification stands; below it stands the
city itself, filled with past glory and fiercely proud of the noble
monuments of its ancient splendor, with 360 churches within its
confines. The pontiff of the city, by right of apostolic succession
honored with the title of patriarch, was in charge of 153 bishops.
The city was surrounded by a double wall, one of which was of normal
height, the other, however, remarkably broad and high, built out of
massive stones, surrounded by four hundred and fifty towers. They
say that it was rebuilt from that ancient Antioch in testimony of
whose power many monuments have survived, and that such lofty
citadels and such a variety of buildings were erected by the efforts
of 50 subject kings and their subjects.[186] This is false, since
Pompeius Trogus correctly said that it was founded by king Seleucus,
who named it after his father, and it was built up by him and by the
kings who succeeded him, even as he founded Laodicea, named after his
mother, and Seleucia, which he named after himself. All sorts of
siege engines were of no avail against this city, and had Pyrrus not
betrayed it to the besiegers, or rather had God not aided those whom
he wished, French bravery would have endured famine and other
suffering in vain. Our men had besieged the city for eight months
and one day. Then they were themselves besieged for three weeks by
an uncountable horde of pagans; after they finally defeated them, the
Christians remained there five months and eight days, until the
people were urged by their leaders again to take up the journey to
Jerusalem.

But because it seems to me that I shall not have another chance to
report what happened to the Pyrrus whom I mentioned earlier, I should
do it now. Having received the sacraments, he accepted Christianity,
taking, as his baptismal name, Bohemund. He helped us out at the
siege of Jerusalem, and, when it was captured, returned to Antioch.
There he sent out a messenger to announce that any Christian in the
city or in the vicinity of the city might come with him to a far-off
land, where he had considerable land, and he offered to make everyone
rich. He inspired a large group of people with this hope, and he is
said to have led this deceived group off to what he called his own
land. When he had reached his own encampments, he betrayed some of
the knights who had accompanied him by killing them, and he exiled
others. Had word of the betrayal not reached the others, who were
lodged outside of the encampment because of their great numbers, and
who therefore managed to hide or to escape wretchedly, the freedom of
all of them would have perished by the sword or in slavery. There
Pyrrus deserted Christianity and returned to the filth of his old
lechery and paganism. Nor was this unfitting, for the name Pyrrus in
Greek is Rufus[187] in Latin, and the mark of treachery is branded on
red-haired people; he is shown by no means to have been deprived of
his lineage.

Towards the end of November, Count Raymond of Saint-Gilles moved his
army out of Antioch; after passing the cities of Rugia and Albara, on
the fourth day, which was the last day of November, he reached the
city of Marrah.[188] A large group of Saracens, Turks, and Arabs had
come together in that city, and the count prepared to attack with all
his forces on the day after he arrived. Bohemund and his army
quickly followed the count, and set up his camp next to him on a
Sunday. The next day they attacked the walls so vigorously that
their ladders clung to the walls, and they stepped on the walls
themselves as they went up. The inhabitants resisted with such
energy that nothing could be gained by our men that day. Then the
count of Saint-Gilles, seeing that his men were toiling in vain,
ordered that a very tall, strong wooden fort be built, placed on four
wheels, with room at at the top for a large group of soldiers. This
armed group then moved the war-machine with great force against the
walls of the city, near one of the towers. In response, the
inhabitants quickly built a ballistic machine, with which they tried
to bombard our fort with huge stones, threatening to destroy both our
machine and men. They also hurled Greek fire at the machine, trying
to set the scaffolding afire, but God thwarted their plan. The
machine stood high over the city wall, and, in the midst of the clash,
the sound of trumpets ringing stirred the combatants. Meanwhile,
some of our soldiers who were in the upper part of the machine,
including William of Montpellier and some others, were hurling huge
stones against those who were defending the walls. As a result, many
shields were pierced, and the shields and their owners, both now
useless, fell from the wall. Others, with iron hooks at the tips of
their spears, tried to hook the Saracen defenders on the walls, to
pull them off. The battle went back and forth, and was hardly over
by evening. In the rear, priests, clerics, and monks, dressed in
sacred attire, each according to his rank, earnestly prayed that God
intervene by reducing the strength of the pagans, and by increasing
the strength of those who fought for the true faith. On the other
side of the siege machine, other knights were climbing ladders that
had been set in place, while the wildly energetic pagans tried to
push them off the walls. A certain Goufier, impatient with their
resistance, was the first to climb the wall, together with a very
small group of men. The inhabitants fiercely attacked these brave
men, with spears and arrows, and some of them became frightened at
this resistance, and jumped from the wall. Those who remained stood
up to the enemies' missiles, spurning flight, returning blow for blow,
while those who remained below continued to mine the wall. Soon the
inhabitants saw that they were doomed by the mining of the wall, and,
intent only on the safety of flight, climbed back down into the city.
This happened on a Sunday, while the sun was already setting in the
West, when December had reached its eleventh day. Bohemund quickly
sent an interpreter to the Saracen leaders, offering to conduct them,
together with their own knights, children, and wives, and with all
the goods and supplies they could gather, to a palace near the gate
of the city, promising to protect their lives, and to defend their
people and possessions. Having taken the city in this manner, they
took possession of everything they found in the caves and in the
homes. When night had ended and daylight began to appear, a crowd of
our people raced through the city, killing every pagan they found.
No gate of the city, no matter how small, was without a pile of dead
Saracens, and the narrow streets were impassable, because pagan
bodies obstructed the public ways. Bohemund himself attacked those
whom he had commanded to shut themselves up in the palace mentioned
before, and took what they had from them. Some he killed, others he
ordered brought to Antioch and sold. The Franks remained there for a
whole month and four days, and the people suffered from great hunger.
Some of our men, entirely without resources, finding nothing in
nearby areas to satisfy their needs, desecrated the bellies of dead
Saracens, daring to probe their internal organs, because they had
heard that pagans in serious danger would try to preserve their gold
and silver by eating them. Others, they say, cut pieces of flesh
from the corpses, cooked them and ate them, but this was done rarely
and in secret, so that no one could be sure whether they actually did
this.

Meanwhile, Bohemund had not forgotten the quarrel that had taken
place between him and the count of Saint-Gilles, but returned angrily
to Antioch when the count refused to yield to him. The count quickly
sent men to Duke Godfrey, to the count of Flanders, to the count of
Normandy, and to Bohemund, summoning them to a conference in Rugia (a
city I mentioned above). They hurried to the meeting to arrange for
an agreement, so that the journey to Jerusalem might be delayed no
longer. Angry and proud, Bohemund resisted reconciliation unless the
count agreed to what Bohemund wanted, granting him the part of
Antioch over which he had control. The count, however, was adamant,
insisting that he had given his word to the emperor. Therefore,
divided against each other by bitterness of mind, the man from
Saint-Gilles, Bohemund, and the duke returned to Antioch. The count
of Saint-Gilles, however, placed his knights in charge of the palace
and castle that looked down upon the gate at the bridge, and went off
to Marrah, which he had recently captured. However, the count was
not entirely unreasonable; considering that everyone would suffer
because of his obstinacy, which would delay the liberation of the
Tomb of the Lord, the noble man went barefooted out of Marrah on the
thirteenth of January, and reached Capharda,[189] where he stayed
three days. There he was joined by the count of Normandy, who gave
up his resistance.

The king of Caesarea had often sent ambassadors to the count of
Saint-Gilles, to persuade him to enter into a pact with him,
promising that he would offer aid to the Christians everywhere in his
kingdom, permitting them to purchase food, clothing, horses, and
whatever else they needed. Pleased with this offer, our men chose to
set up their tents near the city, where the Pharphar river flowed
near the city walls. But the king of the city, not overjoyed at the
prospect of such an army so close to him, took the move badly, and
forbade them to purchase supplies unless they quickly moved further
away. The next day he sent two of his people together with our own
men, to show them a passage of shallows across the river, and to lead
them to where they might capture some booty. Our men were led to a
valley below the encampment, where they found many animals, and they
took about five thousand of them; they also found abundant wheat and
other supplies, so that God's cavalry was ready again for action.
The fort was also surrendered to the count, giving him a considerable
amount of gold as well as horses. They also promised that they would
not harm our men. After remaining there five days, our men left, and
reached another fort which was held by Arabs. When they had set up
their tents, the leader of the town came out and made an agreement
with the count. After hastily packing their tents, the Christians
moved on to a beautiful, prosperous town called Kephalia,[190]
situated in a valley. When the inhabitants heard that the Franks
were coming, they fled from the city, leaving homes filled with food,
and gardens overflowing with produce; all that was in their minds was
to save their lives. Our men left this city after three days; they
climbed tall, jaggedly rocky mountains, then descended into a valley
no less fertile than the valley in which Kephali was situated, where
they stayed for fifteen days, rejoicing in the abundance, and resting.
The Franks then found out that there was a nearby fort, to which
many pagans had come. Our men quickly laid siege to it, and were
about to win the town, when the inhabitants offered a plentiful
supply of cattle to them, together with some flattering words,
tricking them into delaying the siege for a while. The next morning,
our men moved their tents closer to the city, preparing to undertake
the siege. When the pagans perceived what was happening, they fled
quickly, leaving the town deserted. The Christian army entered, and
found plentiful supplies of grain, wine, wheat, oil, and other useful
items. They celebrated the holiday of the Purification of the
Blessed Mary there, and received the delegates sent by the king of
the city of Camela, who promised to give the count horses, gold and
silver, and to do no harm to the Christians, but to show them
appropriate respect. The king of Tripoli[191] asked the count if he
wished to enter into an agreement with him, in exchange for ten
horses, four mules, and a large amount of gold. The count said that
he would not consider a peaceful settlement with him, unless the king
became Christian. Then they left the fertile valley, which I
mentioned above, and reached a place well fortified by nature, high
on a rock, called Archas, on the thirteenth of February, on the
second day of the week. They set up their tents near the fortress,
which was filled with an innumerable multitude of pagans, Turks,
Saracens, and Arabs, whose numbers increased the original strength of
the locations. At this point, fourteen knights from the Christian
army fighting at Tripoli, which was near to this fortress, happened
to come along, for no other reason, I think, than to find food. The
fourteen of them came upon nearly sixty Turks, who were accompanied
by others, leading more than fifteen hundred men and animals whom
they had captured. Those who were carrying out the Lord's promise
that two would make ten thousand flee before them, and one would make
a thousand flee, called to their pious minds the sign of the cross
and, with the aid of God, attacked them with unbelievable bravery,
killing six men and capturing as many horses. From the retinue of
the count of Saint-Gilles, Raymond, to whom we have given the
additional name of Pelet, who deserves to be mentioned often in this
little book, man remarkable for sternness as well as for eagerness in
battle, together with another man whose surname I do not know, who
performed the duties of a vicount,[192] sought out the city of
Tortosa. At their first attack, which they launched with great
ferocity, they terrified the inhabitants. Like a swarm of flies, a
remarkably large crowd of pagans flocked to the fort. The following
night, our men set up their tents at one end of the city, and lit
many beacon fires, giving the impression that the entire Frankish
army was there. Desperately afraid, the pagans judged that they
could not protect their lives with their shields, and decided that
the only way to escape death was to flee on foot. During the night
they slipped away silently, leaving the city filled with wealthy
treasure, and empty of inhabitants. Thus they piously fulfilled
Scripture, which says that, "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath
he will give for his life."[193] This city, situated on the sea, has
a fine port in one of its suburbs. The next day our men prepared to
attack the city in full strength, but when they assembled to fight,
they found that the city was empty. After entering, they remained
there only until they set off to besiege the city of Archas, which I
mentioned above. However, there was another city nearby, which was
called Maraclea. He who was in charge of it, whom they called the
emir, immediately prepared to enter into an agreement, and soon
accepted our men and their banners in the city.

Meanwhile duke Godfrey, Bohemund and the count of Flanders had
reached Laodicia.[194] But Bohemund, impatient at being separated
from his beloved Antioch, left his companions and returned to her.
With equal desire, the others set out to besiege a city called Gibel.
[195] Rumor reached count Raymond of Saint-Gilles that a huge force
of pagans had assembled to wage war against him. He quickly called
all the leaders of his army together, and asked them what should be
done. The group replied that there was nothing to be done in these
circumstances, except to call for help from their companions on the
Lord's journey. He accepted and quickly carried out this plan. When
the leaders, that is duke Godfrey and Robert of Flanders, found out
that their companions were in trouble, they made an agreement with
the ruler of the city of Gibel, who gave them magnificent gifts of
horses and gold, and they gave up the siege of the city, and went off
to bring help to the count. Their expectation of waging war was
disappointed, however, and they all decided to go back to the siege
of the fort at Archas. They gave themselves to the project
energetically, and a short time later undertook an expedition against
the inhabitants of Tripoli, whom they found ready for battle, with an
army of Turks, Saracens, and Arabs lined up in front of the walls of
the city. Our men attacked them vigorously and compelled them to
take refuge in flight. The result was not merely a carnage of the
nobles of the city, but wholesale slaughter, to the point that the
waves of the river that ran through the city were died red with their
blood, and the sewers were stained with this foulness. From that
point on a day of no commerce[196] arose in the minds of the pagans,
and the hearts of those who survived were so riddled with fear that
none of them, for any reason whatsover, dared to go beyond the walls
of the city. On the next day, our men went beyond the valley of Sem,
an area which had been reached by those mentioned above on the third
day after the capture of Kephalia. They found that it was rich in
supplies, and stayed there fifteen days. They happily returned with
what they had found there: cows, asses, sheep, with many other kinds
of animals, including three thousand camels. They continued to lay
siege to the fort of Archas for three months less one day, and
celebrated Easter there on April 10. While they were engaged in the
siege, the fleet which usually brought them provisions reached a
nearby port, bringing a large amount of grain, wine, meat, cheese,
barley, and oil, which provided the Lord's army with abundant
supplies. Although they had to suffer no privation in this place, it
seems to me foolish to have undertaken for such a long time such a
useless task for such a trivial result.

After the death of the noble bishop of Puy, who had managed, by a
combination of love for his flock and discipline, to bind them
together in harmony and unity, arguments and rude, arrogant behavior
began to arise among the leaders; in particular, the middle and lower
ranks began to behave badly, so that one might have thought that the
Old Testament statement, "There was no longer a king in Israel, but
each man did what seemed right in his own eyes,"[197] was being
fulfilled. The bishops and others who remained, after the death of
that glorious man who had been assigned the office of father and
leader, did not have the same concern for them, particularly because
they knew that that had not been granted the same powers that had
been given to the bishop of Puy. Therefore, since they had no single
ruler, and every man thought himself the equal of every other man,
justice diminished among them, and the will of the mob often
prevailed. Therefore it happened that, after the discovery of the
Lance, which the late bishop had accepted devoutly, a shameful and
faithless rumor began to circulate; some said that the discovery had
been staged, and that he had exhibited not the Lord's Lance, but
merely lance. Many people from the lower ranks began to grumble, and,
by relentlessly lying, they corrupted those who had believed truly
and had venerated the lance. They demanded proof of the discovery;
they asked that the discoverer be tested by divine judgment. The man
was compelled to pledge his word to those who were in doubt; he was
compelled to offer what they forced from him, merely to deal with
their lack of faith. Two pyres were constructed, in accordance with
his orders, scarcely a cubit apart; many of the people, avid for
novelty, heaped up a mass of kindling material, and when they had
crowded together on both sides of the fire, only a narrow path
remained between the flames. He then delivered a pitiful prayer, as
was fitting, to merciful God, who is the Truth, without whose
permission he knew he could do nothing about the situation, and
walked briskly across the dark path of the flames, and then returned
by the same path. A large crowd of western soldiers, in their
war-gear, was present at this spectacle, awaiting, with different
expectations, the outcome of this unusually daring undertaking. When
he had returned, as I said, a huge crowd welcomed him as he came
forth from the flames, and when they saw that he had escaped from the
fire safe and sound, they snatched at his body and at his clothes, as
though they were relics, and in the tumult of tearing and pushing,
they killed him. Having barely escaped from the flames with his life,
frightened by the danger from which he would not have escaped
without God's help, trapped by people clutching at him from all sides,
exhausted by the terror he had undergone, he could hardly have
avoided being suffocated. When the man died, the common people,
unreliable and fickle in their judgement, were disturbed by an even
worse form of confusion, arguing about the outcome of the trial by
fire. Some said that he had come out of the flames burned, others
that he had escaped unharmed, and they reproached those who had
killed him for no reason. However, whatever popular opinion may have
been, we know that the glorious bishop embraced the sacred Lance with
veneration, to the point that, in accordance with his directions, the
body of the bishop was buried in the place where the Lance was found.
So much for this matter.

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