Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part III

Between the age of Charlemagne and that of the crusades, a
revolution had taken place among the Spaniards, the Normans, and
the French, which was gradually extended to the rest of Europe.
The service of the infantry was degraded to the plebeians; the
cavalry formed the strength of the armies, and the honorable name
of miles, or soldier, was confined to the gentlemen 55 who served
on horseback, and were invested with the character of knighthood.
The dukes and counts, who had usurped the rights of sovereignty,
divided the provinces among their faithful barons: the barons
distributed among their vassals the fiefs or benefices of their
jurisdiction; and these military tenants, the peers of each other
and of their lord, composed the noble or equestrian order, which
disdained to conceive the peasant or burgher as of the same
species with themselves. The dignity of their birth was preserved
by pure and equal alliances; their sons alone, who could produce
four quarters or lines of ancestry without spot or reproach,
might legally pretend to the honor of knighthood; but a valiant
plebeian was sometimes enriched and ennobled by the sword, and
became the father of a new race. A single knight could impart,
according to his judgment, the character which he received; and
the warlike sovereigns of Europe derived more glory from this
personal distinction than from the lustre of their diadem. This
ceremony, of which some traces may be found in Tacitus and the
woods of Germany, 56 was in its origin simple and profane; the
candidate, after some previous trial, was invested with the sword
and spurs; and his cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight
blow, as an emblem of the last affront which it was lawful for
him to endure. But superstition mingled in every public and
private action of life: in the holy wars, it sanctified the
profession of arms; and the order of chivalry was assimilated in
its rights and privileges to the sacred orders of priesthood. The
bath and white garment of the novice were an indecent copy of the
regeneration of baptism: his sword, which he offered on the
altar, was blessed by the ministers of religion: his solemn
reception was preceded by fasts and vigils; and he was created a
knight in the name of God, of St. George, and of St. Michael the
archangel. He swore to accomplish the duties of his profession;
and education, example, and the public opinion, were the
inviolable guardians of his oath. As the champion of God and the
ladies, (I blush to unite such discordant names,) he devoted
himself to speak the truth; to maintain the right; to protect the
distressed; to practise courtesy, a virtue less familiar to the
ancients; to pursue the infidels; to despise the allurements of
ease and safety; and to vindicate in every perilous adventure the
honor of his character. The abuse of the same spirit provoked the
illiterate knight to disdain the arts of industry and peace; to
esteem himself the sole judge and avenger of his own injuries;
and proudly to neglect the laws of civil society and military
discipline. Yet the benefits of this institution, to refine the
temper of Barbarians, and to infuse some principles of faith,
justice, and humanity, were strongly felt, and have been often
observed. The asperity of national prejudice was softened; and
the community of religion and arms spread a similar color and
generous emulation over the face of Christendom. Abroad in
enterprise and pilgrimage, at home in martial exercise, the
warriors of every country were perpetually associated; and
impartial taste must prefer a Gothic tournament to the Olympic
games of classic antiquity. 57 Instead of the naked spectacles
which corrupted the manners of the Greeks, and banished from the
stadium the virgins and matrons, the pompous decoration of the
lists was crowned with the presence of chaste and high-born
beauty, from whose hands the conqueror received the prize of his
dexterity and courage. The skill and strength that were exerted
in wrestling and boxing bear a distant and doubtful relation to
the merit of a soldier; but the tournaments, as they were
invented in France, and eagerly adopted both in the East and
West, presented a lively image of the business of the field. The
single combats, the general skirmish, the defence of a pass, or
castle, were rehearsed as in actual service; and the contest,
both in real and mimic war, was decided by the superior
management of the horse and lance. The lance was the proper and
peculiar weapon of the knight: his horse was of a large and heavy
breed; but this charger, till he was roused by the approaching
danger, was usually led by an attendant, and he quietly rode a
pad or palfrey of a more easy pace. His helmet and sword, his
greaves and buckler, it would be superfluous to describe; but I
may remark, that, at the period of the crusades, the armor was
less ponderous than in later times; and that, instead of a massy
cuirass, his breast was defended by a hauberk or coat of mail.
When their long lances were fixed in the rest, the warriors
furiously spurred their horses against the foe; and the light
cavalry of the Turks and Arabs could seldom stand against the
direct and impetuous weight of their charge. Each knight was
attended to the field by his faithful squire, a youth of equal
birth and similar hopes; he was followed by his archers and men
at arms, and four, or five, or six soldiers were computed as the
furniture of a complete lance. In the expeditions to the
neighboring kingdoms or the Holy Land, the duties of the feudal
tenure no longer subsisted; the voluntary service of the knights
and their followers were either prompted by zeal or attachment,
or purchased with rewards and promises; and the numbers of each
squadron were measured by the power, the wealth, and the fame, of
each independent chieftain. They were distinguished by his
banner, his armorial coat, and his cry of war; and the most
ancient families of Europe must seek in these achievements the
origin and proof of their nobility. In this rapid portrait of
chivalry I have been urged to anticipate on the story of the
crusades, at once an effect and a cause, of this memorable
institution. 58

55 (return) [ Of the words gentilis, gentilhomme, gentleman, two
etymologies are produced: 1. From the Barbarians of the fifth
century, the soldiers, and at length the conquerors of the Roman
empire, who were vain of their foreign nobility; and 2. From the
sense of the civilians, who consider gentilis as synonymous with
ingenuus. Selden inclines to the first but the latter is more
pure, as well as probable.]

56 (return) [ Framea scutoque juvenem ornant. Tacitus, Germania.
c. 13.]

57 (return) [ The athletic exercises, particularly the caestus
and pancratium, were condemned by Lycurgus, Philopoemen, and
Galen, a lawgiver, a general, and a physician. Against their
authority and reasons, the reader may weigh the apology of
Lucian, in the character of Solon. See West on the Olympic Games,
in his Pindar, vol. ii. p. 86-96 243-248]

58 (return) [ On the curious subjects of knighthood,
knights-service, nobility, arms, cry of war, banners, and
tournaments, an ample fund of information may be sought in
Selden, (Opera, tom. iii. part i. Titles of Honor, part ii. c. 1,
3, 5, 8,) Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. tom. iv. p. 398-412, &c.,)
Dissertations sur Joinville, (i. vi.—xii. p. 127-142, p.
161-222,) and M. de St. Palaye, (Memoires sur la Chevalerie.)]

Such were the troops, and such the leaders, who assumed the cross
for the deliverance of the holy sepulchre. As soon as they were
relieved by the absence of the plebeian multitude, they
encouraged each other, by interviews and messages, to accomplish
their vow, and hasten their departure. Their wives and sisters
were desirous of partaking the danger and merit of the
pilgrimage: their portable treasures were conveyed in bars of
silver and gold; and the princes and barons were attended by
their equipage of hounds and hawks to amuse their leisure and to
supply their table. The difficulty of procuring subsistence for
so many myriads of men and horses engaged them to separate their
forces: their choice or situation determined the road; and it was
agreed to meet in the neighborhood of Constantinople, and from
thence to begin their operations against the Turks. From the
banks of the Meuse and the Moselle, Godfrey of Bouillon followed
the direct way of Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria; and, as long as
he exercised the sole command every step afforded some proof of
his prudence and virtue. On the confines of Hungary he was
stopped three weeks by a Christian people, to whom the name, or
at least the abuse, of the cross was justly odious. The
Hungarians still smarted with the wounds which they had received
from the first pilgrims: in their turn they had abused the right
of defence and retaliation; and they had reason to apprehend a
severe revenge from a hero of the same nation, and who was
engaged in the same cause. But, after weighing the motives and
the events, the virtuous duke was content to pity the crimes and
misfortunes of his worthless brethren; and his twelve deputies,
the messengers of peace, requested in his name a free passage and
an equal market. To remove their suspicions, Godfrey trusted
himself, and afterwards his brother, to the faith of Carloman,
581 king of Hungary, who treated them with a simple but
hospitable entertainment: the treaty was sanctified by their
common gospel; and a proclamation, under pain of death,
restrained the animosity and license of the Latin soldiers. From
Austria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of Hungary,
without enduring or offering an injury; and the proximity of
Carloman, who hovered on their flanks with his numerous cavalry,
was a precaution not less useful for their safety than for his
own. They reached the banks of the Save; and no sooner had they
passed the river, than the king of Hungary restored the hostages,
and saluted their departure with the fairest wishes for the
success of their enterprise. With the same conduct and
discipline, Godfrey pervaded the woods of Bulgaria and the
frontiers of Thrace; and might congratulate himself that he had
almost reached the first term of his pilgrimage, without drawing
his sword against a Christian adversary. After an easy and
pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to Aquileia,
Raymond and his provincials marched forty days through the savage
country of Dalmatia 59 and Sclavonia. The weather was a perpetual
fog; the land was mountainous and desolate; the natives were
either fugitive or hostile: loose in their religion and
government, they refused to furnish provisions or guides;
murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and day the
vigilance of the count, who derived more security from the
punishment of some captive robbers than from his interview and
treaty with the prince of Scodra. 60 His march between Durazzo
and Constantinople was harassed, without being stopped, by the
peasants and soldiers of the Greek emperor; and the same faint
and ambiguous hostility was prepared for the remaining chiefs,
who passed the Adriatic from the coast of Italy. Bohemond had
arms and vessels, and foresight and discipline; and his name was
not forgotten in the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever
obstacles he encountered were surmounted by his military conduct
and the valor of Tancred; and if the Norman prince affected to
spare the Greeks, he gorged his soldiers with the full plunder of
an heretical castle. 61 The nobles of France pressed forwards
with the vain and thoughtless ardor of which their nation has
been sometimes accused. From the Alps to Apulia the march of Hugh
the Great, of the two Roberts, and of Stephen of Chartres,
through a wealthy country, and amidst the applauding Catholics,
was a devout or triumphant progress: they kissed the feet of the
Roman pontiff; and the golden standard of St. Peter was delivered
to the brother of the French monarch. 62 But in this visit of
piety and pleasure, they neglected to secure the season, and the
means of their embarkation: the winter was insensibly lost: their
troops were scattered and corrupted in the towns of Italy. They
separately accomplished their passage, regardless of safety or
dignity; and within nine months from the feast of the Assumption,
the day appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes had reached
Constantinople. But the count of Vermandois was produced as a
captive; his foremost vessels were scattered by a tempest; and
his person, against the law of nations, was detained by the
lieutenants of Alexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh had been
announced by four-and-twenty knights in golden armor, who
commanded the emperor to revere the general of the Latin
Christians, the brother of the king of kings. 63 631

581 (return) [ Carloman (or Calmany) demanded the brother of
Godfrey as hostage but Count Baldwin refused the humiliating
submission. Godfrey shamed him into this sacrifice for the common
good by offering to surrender himself Wilken, vol. i. p. 104.—M.]

59 (return) [ The Familiae Dalmaticae of Ducange are meagre and
imperfect; the national historians are recent and fabulous, the
Greeks remote and careless. In the year 1104 Coloman reduced the
maritine country as far as Trau and Saloma, (Katona, Hist. Crit.
tom. iii. p. 195-207.)]

60 (return) [ Scodras appears in Livy as the capital and fortress
of Gentius, king of the Illyrians, arx munitissima, afterwards a
Roman colony, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 393, 394.) It is now called
Iscodar, or Scutari, (D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p.
164.) The sanjiak (now a pacha) of Scutari, or Schendeire, was
the viiith under the Beglerbeg of Romania, and furnished 600
soldiers on a revenue of 78,787 rix dollars, (Marsigli, Stato
Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 128.)]

61 (return) [ In Pelagonia castrum haereticum..... spoliatum cum
suis habi tatoribus igne combussere. Nec id eis injuria contigit:
quia illorum detestabilis sermo et cancer serpebat, jamque
circumjacentes regiones suo pravo dogmate foedaverat, (Robert.
Mon. p. 36, 37.) After cooly relating the fact, the Archbishop
Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnes siquidem illi viatores, Judeos,
haereticos, Saracenos aequaliter habent exosos; quos omnes
appellant inimicos Dei, (p. 92.)]

62 (return) [ (Alexiad. l. x. p. 288.)]

63 (return) [ This Oriental pomp is extravagant in a count of
Vermandois; but the patriot Ducange repeats with much complacency
(Not. ad Alexiad. p. 352, 353. Dissert. xxvii. sur Joinville, p.
315) the passages of Matthew Paris (A.D. 1254) and Froissard,
(vol. iv. p. 201,) which style the king of France rex regum, and
chef de tous les rois Chretiens.]

631 (return) [ Hugh was taken at Durazzo, and sent by land to
Constantinople Wilken—M.]

In some oriental tale I have read the fable of a shepherd, who
was ruined by the accomplishment of his own wishes: he had prayed
for water; the Ganges was turned into his grounds, and his flock
and cottage were swept away by the inundation. Such was the
fortune, or at least the apprehension of the Greek emperor
Alexius Comnenus, whose name has already appeared in this
history, and whose conduct is so differently represented by his
daughter Anne, 64 and by the Latin writers. 65 In the council of
Placentia, his ambassadors had solicited a moderate succor,
perhaps of ten thousand soldiers, but he was astonished by the
approach of so many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The
emperor fluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and
courage; but in the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom, I
cannot believe, I cannot discern, that he maliciously conspired
against the life or honor of the French heroes. The promiscuous
multitudes of Peter the Hermit were savage beasts, alike
destitute of humanity and reason: nor was it possible for Alexius
to prevent or deplore their destruction. The troops of Godfrey
and his peers were less contemptible, but not less suspicious, to
the Greek emperor. Their motives might be pure and pious: but he
was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond,
651 and his ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs: the courage of
the French was blind and headstrong; they might be tempted by the
luxury and wealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion
of their invincible strength: and Jerusalem might be forgotten in
the prospect of Constantinople. After a long march and painful
abstinence, the troops of Godfrey encamped in the plains of
Thrace; they heard with indignation, that their brother, the
count of Vermandois, was imprisoned by the Greeks; and their
reluctant duke was compelled to indulge them in some freedom of
retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the submission of
Alexius: he promised to supply their camp; and as they refused,
in the midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters
were assigned among the gardens and palaces on the shores of that
narrow sea. But an incurable jealousy still rankled in the minds
of the two nations, who despised each other as slaves and
Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of suspicion, and suspicion
was inflamed into daily provocations: prejudice is blind, hunger
is deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starve or assault
the Latins in a dangerous post, on all sides encompassed with the
waters. 66 Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net,
overspread the plain, and insulted the suburbs; but the gates of
Constantinople were strongly fortified; the ramparts were lined
with archers; and, after a doubtful conflict, both parties
listened to the voice of peace and religion. The gifts and
promises of the emperor insensibly soothed the fierce spirit of
the western strangers; as a Christian warrior, he rekindled their
zeal for the prosecution of their holy enterprise, which he
engaged to second with his troops and treasures. On the return of
spring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a pleasant and plentiful
camp in Asia; and no sooner had he passed the Bosphorus, than the
Greek vessels were suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The
same policy was repeated with the succeeding chiefs, who were
swayed by the example, and weakened by the departure, of their
foremost companions. By his skill and diligence, Alexius
prevented the union of any two of the confederate armies at the
same moment under the walls of Constantinople; and before the
feast of the Pentecost not a Latin pilgrim was left on the coast
of Europe.

64 (return) [ Anna Comnena was born the 1st of December, A.D.
1083, indiction vii., (Alexiad. l. vi. p. 166, 167.) At thirteen,
the time of the first crusade, she was nubile, and perhaps
married to the younger Nicephorus Bryennius, whom she fondly
styles, (l. x. p. 295, 296.) Some moderns have imagined, that her
enmity to Bohemond was the fruit of disappointed love. In the
transactions of Constantinople and Nice, her partial accounts
(Alex. l. x. xi. p. 283-317) may be opposed to the partiality of
the Latins, but in their subsequent exploits she is brief and
ignorant.]

65 (return) [ In their views of the character and conduct of
Alexius, Maimbourg has favored the Catholic Franks, and Voltaire
has been partial to the schismatic Greeks. The prejudice of a
philosopher is less excusable than that of a Jesuit.]

651 (return) [ Wilken quotes a remarkable passage of William of
Malmsbury as to the secret motives of Urban and of Bohemond in
urging the crusade. Illud repositius propositum non ita
vulgabatur, quod Boemundi consilio, pene totam Europam in
Asiaticam expeditionem moveret, ut in tanto tumultu omnium
provinciarum facile obaeratis auxiliaribus, et Urbanus Romam et
Boemundus Illyricum et Macedoniam pervaderent. Nam eas terras et
quidquid praeterea a Dyrrachio usque ad Thessalonicam
protenditur, Guiscardus pater, super Alexium acquisierat; ideirco
illas Boemundus suo juri competere clamitabat: inops haereditatis
Apuliae, quam genitor Rogerio, minori filio delegaverat. Wilken,
vol. ii. p. 313.—M]

66 (return) [ Between the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and the River
Barbyses, which is deep in summer, and runs fifteen miles through
a flat meadow. Its communication with Europe and Constantinople
is by the stone bridge of the Blachernoe, which in successive
ages was restored by Justinian and Basil, (Gyllius de Bosphoro
Thracio, l. ii. c. 3. Ducange O. P. Christiana, l. v. c. 2, p,
179.)]

The same arms which threatened Europe might deliver Asia, and
repel the Turks from the neighboring shores of the Bosphorus and
Hellespont. The fair provinces from Nice to Antioch were the
recent patrimony of the Roman emperor; and his ancient and
perpetual claim still embraced the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt.
In his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged, or affected, the ambitious
hope of leading his new allies to subvert the thrones of the
East; but the calmer dictates of reason and temper dissuaded him
from exposing his royal person to the faith of unknown and
lawless Barbarians. His prudence, or his pride, was content with
extorting from the French princes an oath of homage and fidelity,
and a solemn promise, that they

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

67 (return) [ 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.]

68 (return) [ 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.]

69 (return) [ Sensit vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia non
fingere. Tacit. vi. 44.]

70 (return) [ 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.

71 (return) [ 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.)]

72 (return) [ 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

73 (return) [ 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.)]

74 (return) [ 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.]

75 (return) [ 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.)]

76 (return) [ 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.]

77 (return) [ 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.)]

78 (return) [ 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.]

79 (return) [ 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.]