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KINGS OF JERUSALEM.

1187

1189

Pope Urban the Third died, and was succeeded by Gregory the Eighth. The new pontiff exhorted all the faithful to assist the Holy Land; but died one month after he had filled the papal chair, when he was succeeded by Clement the Third.

The following year, Philip the Second of France, with the advice of the ecclesiastical and temporal lords of his realm, issued an edict, whereby all such persons as did not choose to take the cross should be bound to forfeit onetenth of their possessions: from that law there were no exceptions, except the Carthusian monks, the fraternity of Fontevraud, and the Hospitalers of the lepers. To that tax was given the name of Saladin's Tenth.

Henry the Second of England, having ascertained that a secret intelligence existed between prince Richard, his son, and Philip, king of France, and terms being proposed to him which he would not consent to ratify, Richard broke out into open rebellion against his father. The pope's legate then interfered, excommunicating Richard as the chief source of the discord that reigned between the kings of England and France. Philip, however, subsequently despised a similar menace wherewith he was threatened, when many cities belonging to the crown of England surrendered to the French monarch, and among the rest Tours, which so subdued the spirits of king Henry, that he agreed to the terms formerly refused. At length, seeing at the head of a list of confederates leagued against him, the signature of his favourite second son, John, the unhappy monarch, in despair, cursed the day in which he was born, and then bestowed a malediction on his ungrateful sons, which he could never be prevailed upon to retract. This last decisive blow quite subdued the care-worn spirit of Henry the Second, who fell into a lingering fever, of which he expired at the castle of

Chinon, near Saumur, on the sixth of July, 1189, in the A.C. - 58th year of his age, and the 35th of his reign. Henry only left two legitimate sons: Richard, who succeeded him, and John, who, from inheriting no territory, was denominated Lackland.

During the reign of Henry the Second, the seamen of England were already so much admired for their dexterity at home and abroad, that a law was passed to prohibit their entering into any foreign service.

Henry the Second of England was succeeded by his second 1189 son, Richard the First, surnamed Coeur de Lion, sixth monarch from the Norman conquest. He honoured the remains of his injured father with the most pompous obsequies, who was interred at Fontevraud in Poitou.

At the coronation of Richard the First, which was solemnized at Westminster, the appearance of the Jews having been prohibited, it was rumoured that the king had ordered a massacre of that people, and a general slaughter, in consequence, took place in London, York, and other cities, when their houses were also plundered.

The kings of England and France set forward for the expedition to the Holy Land, the regency of England_being delegated to William, the pope's legate, and that of France to the queen mother, and William of Champaine, cardinal archbishop of Rheims.

The armies of the two monarchs marched in company as far as Lyons, where they separated, in order to procure nutriment with more facility, and then resolved to embark, in order to curtail the difficulties attendant on a land expedition.

The emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, marched into Greece on his route to the Holy Land, when part of his numerous army perished by the perfidy of the Greeks.

William the Third, surnamed the good king of Sicily, died without offspring; upon which his aunt, Constance, wife of Henry, son of the emperor, strove to succeed him; but Tancred, natural brother of that prince, took possession of the throne.

The ensuing year, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa obtained two complete victories over the Seljukian sultan of Iconium, in Asia Minor; he then penetrated in Cilicia, where his horse carried him into the stream Cydnus, whose waters proved so fatal to Alexander; he was, however, rescued from his danger, but expired some hours after. He was succeeded by his son Henry the Sixth, who had been elected king of the Romans in 1169.

A.C.

1191

1192

Philip Augustus of France arrived at Messina on the 16th of September, and Richard of England gained that port eight days after.

Henry the Sixth was crowned emperor, and his wife Constance empress, by pope Celestinus the Third, the successor of Clement. Henry was anxious to lay claim to the kingdom of Sicily, but was compelled to postpone that business to a future occasion.

The French monarch arrived at Ptolemaïs (San Jean d'Acre) on the 2d of April; Richard of England did not gain that place until some months after, having been retarded while effecting the conquest of the island of Cyprus, which he captured from the Greeks. The two kings then undertook the siege of Acre, which capitulated. Philip was then seized with a distemper which deprived him of his hair, the nails of his hands and feet, and the external skin of his body, when he left the command of his forces to Eudes of Burgundy, and quitted the place on the 3d of August, on his return to France. In his way he passed through Rome, and arrived at Fontainbleau on the festival of Christmas.

Richard Cour de Lion left the kingdom of Cyprus to Guy of Lusignan for that of Jerusalem, which he hoped to conquer from the infidels.

Richard the First, being then sole conductor of the war in Palestine, determined on attempting the siege of Ascalon, to prepare the way for that of Jerusalem. Saladin opposed him at the head of 300,000 combatants, when the greatest and most celebrated battle took place: at the commencement both wings of the Christian forces were defeated, when Richard, who led on the main body, restored order by his presence and intrepid conduct, behaving as a consummate general and the most undaunted soldier, when the result was a complete overthrow of the Saracens, of whom 40,000 are said to have remained dead on the field. The English monarch then marched within sight of Jerusalem, but his army was so wasted by famine, fatigue, and even the effects of victory, as to be unable to second his daring projects; and it was, in consequence, found requisite to come to an accommodation with Saladin, which was ratified for precisely three years, three months, three weeks, three days, and three hours, a mysterious number, the meaning of which is not recorded in any contemporary record.

Richard at length resolved to return to England, when he was shipwrecked on the coast of Istria, upon which he assumed a disguise in order to traverse Germany, but Leopold, duke of Austria, caused his person to be seized in revenge

for Richard's having substituted his own standard at the A.C. siege of Acre in place of that which Leopold had planted on the tower of that city: he then delivered Richard over to the emperor Henry the Sixth, who retained him captive for 14 months. His brother John, afterwards surnamed Sansterre or Lackland, in consequence, took possession of the kingdom of England.

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The following year, Philip of France made himself master many places in Normandy: he espoused Ingeburg, sister of Canute the Sixth king of Denmark, from whom he however separated some time after, under the plea of consanguinity.

The emperor Henry the Sixth made himself master of 1194 Sicily, Calabria, and La Pouille, (or the kingdom of the Two Sicilies) founded by the Norman princes; and then caused himself to be crowned king at Palermo, after having stripped of his possessions prince William, son of Tancred.

Richard Coeur de Lion obtained his freedom, and returned to England, where he was inaugurated anew; he then equipped a numerous fleet, landed on the coast of Normandy, and captured several places of which the French monarch had possessed himself.

During this year, Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, died at Damascus, and was succeeded in his dignities by his son Al Afdal.

The following year, Isaac Angelus was deposed by his brother Alexius, who caused his eyes to be put out, and then took possession of the empire of the East.

The emperor Henry the Sixth despatched an army of 1197 60,000 men into Palestine, who gained several victories over the Saracens. He then prepared to march to the Holy Land, but was poisoned at Messina, by his wife Constance, who felt indignant, owing to the cruelties exercised by him throughout Sicily, which territory she had brought him as her dowry.

Philip, brother of Henry the Sixth, and Otho, duke of Saxony, disputed the possession of the empire.

Pope Celestinus the Third consented to the coronation of Frederick, son of the emperor Henry the Sixth, as king of Sicily, on condition that he should pay him 1000 marks in silver, and an equal sum to the cardinals.

Innocent the Third succeeded to the papal dignity.

Cardinal Peter of Capoua, legate of Innocent the Third, 1198 excommunicated Philip Augustus king of France, and interdicted his kingdom, because he refused to take back his

A.C. wife Batilda, whom he had repudiated, and relinquish Mary, daughter of the duke of Aquitaine, whom he had married: the publication of the sentence was, however, remitted until after the festival of Christmas.

1199

Richard Cour de Lion had never ceased to carry on war against Philip of France, without obtaining any decisive results. He attacked the fortress of Chalus, where the besieged offered to surrender, provided their lives were spared, and that they were suffered to march away bearing their arms. Richard was deaf to those proposals, and pursued the attack with increased ardour, which was repelled with equal vigour, when Gourdon, one of the besieged, pierced his shoulder with an arrow. The wound was not dangerous, but the want of surgical skill rendered it mortal; so that finding his life was drawing towards a close, Richard sent for Gourdon and said: "Wretch, what have I ever done to you that you should seek my life." "What have you done to me?" replied the interrogated, coolly, "You killed with your own hand my father and my brothers, and you intended to have hanged me; I am now in your power, take revenge by inflicting on me the most severe torments; but I shall endure them all with pleasure, provided I can think that I have been so happy as to rid the world of a tyrant." Richard, struck with this dauntless reply, ordered Gourdon to be freed and a sum of money given him, but the commanding officer, unknown to the king, flayed him alive.

It was towards the close of Richard's reign, in an action which took place at Freteval between Chateaudun and Vendome, between that monarch and Philip of France, that the king of England assumed for his motto the words Dieu et mon Droit.

Richard died some days after of his wound, and was succeeded by John Lackland his brother, to the prejudice of Arthur, duke of Brittany, son of Geoffrey the Second, elder brother of Richard.

John, seventh king from the Norman conquest, and fourth son of Henry the Second, was crowned on the 27th of May at Westminster, by Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury.

Philip Augustus caused the excommunication thundered against him to be abrogated, by separating from the daughter of the duke of Aquitaine, and taking again to his bed Batilda his first wife: he, however, soon after repudiated the latter a second time.

Philip, brother of Henry the Sixth, was proclaimed emperor at Mulhausen, and crowned by the bishop of Trente.