Chapter XII.
The Arrival at Acre
1190
The besieging army at Acre
While Richard was thus, with his fleet, drawing near to Acre, the armies of the Crusaders that were besieging the town had been for some time gradually getting into a very critical situation. This army was made up of a great many different bodies of troops, that had come in the course of years from all parts of Europe to recover the Holy Land from the possession of the unbelievers. There were Germans, and French, and Normans, and Italians, and people from the different kingdoms of Spain, with knights, and barons, and earls, and bishops, and archbishops, and princes, and other dignitaries of all kinds without number. With such a heterogeneous mass there could be no common bond, nor any general and central authority. They spoke a great variety of languages, and were accustomed to very different modes of warfare; and the several orders of knights, and the different bodies of troops, were continually getting involved in dissensions arising from the jealousies and rivalries which they bore to each other. The enemy, on the other hand, were united under the command of one great and powerful Saracen leader named Saladin.
Motives of the Saracens
Motives of the Christians
There was another great difference between the Crusaders and the Saracens which was greatly to the advantage of the latter. The Saracens were fighting simply to deliver their country from these bands of invaders. Thus their object was one. If any part of the army achieved a success, the other divisions rejoiced at it, for it tended to advance them all toward the common end that all had in view. On the other hand, the chief end and aim of the Crusaders was to get glory to themselves in the estimation of friends and neighbors at home, and of Europe in general. It is true that they desired to obtain this glory by victories over the unbelievers and the conquest of the Holy Land, but these last objects were the means and not the end. The end, in their view, was their own personal glory. The consequence was, that while the Saracens would naturally all rejoice at an advantage gained over the enemy by any portion of their army, yet in the camp of the Crusaders, if one body of knights performed a great deed of strength or bravery which was likely to attract attention in Europe, the rest were apt to be disappointed and vexed instead of being pleased. They were envious of the fame which the successful party had acquired. In a word, when an advantage was gained by any particular body of troops, the rest did not think of the benefit to the common cause which had thereby been secured, but only of the danger that the fame acquired by those who gained it might eclipse or outshine their own renown.
Envyings and jealousy among the besiegers
King of Jerusalem
The various orders of knights and the commanders of the different bodies of troops vied with each other, not only in respect to the acquisition of glory, but also in the elegance of their arms, the splendor of their tents and banners, the beauty and gorgeous caparisons of the horses, and the pomp and parade with which they conducted all their movements and operations. The camp was full of quarrels, too, among the great leaders in respect to the command of the places in the Holy Land which had been conquered in previous campaigns. These places, as fast as they had been taken, had been made principalities and kingdoms, to give titles of rank to the crusaders who had taken them; and, though the places themselves had in many instances been lost again, and given up to the Saracens, the titles remained to be quarreled about among the Crusaders. There was particularly a great quarrel at this time about the title of King of Jerusalem. It was a mere empty title, for Jerusalem was in the hands of the Saracens, but there were twenty very powerful and influential claimants to it, each of whom manœuvred and intrigued incessantly with all the other knights and commanders in the army to gain partisans to his side. Thus the camp of the Crusaders, from one cause and another, had become one universal scene of rivalry, jealousy, and discord.
A common danger makes a common cause
There was a small approach toward a greater degree of unity of feeling just before the time of Richard's arrival, produced by the common danger to which they began to see they were exposed. They had been now two years besieging Acre, and had accomplished nothing. All the furious attempts that they had made to storm the place had been unsuccessful. The walls were too thick and solid for the battering-rams to make any serious impression upon them, and the garrison within were so numerous and so well armed, and they hurled down such a tremendous shower of darts, javelins, stones, and other missiles of every kind upon all who came near, that immense numbers of those who were brought up near the walls to work the engines were killed, while the besieged themselves, being protected by the battlements on the walls, were comparatively safe.
The terrible loss of life in the siege of Acre
The unwieldy armor of the knights
In the course of the two years during which the siege had now been going on, bodies of troops from all parts of Europe had been continually coming and going, and as in those days there was far less of system and organization in the conduct of military affairs than there is now, the camp was constantly kept in a greater or less degree of confusion, so that it is impossible to know with certainty how many were engaged, and what the actual loss of life had been. The lowest estimate is that one hundred and fifty thousand men perished before Acre during this siege, and some historians calculate the loss at five hundred thousand. The number of deaths was greatly increased by the plague, which prevailed at one time among the troops, and committed fearful ravages. One thing, however, must be said, in justice to the reckless and violent men who commanded these bands, and that is, that they did not send their poor, helpless followers, the common soldiers, into a danger which they kept out of themselves. It was a point of honor with them to take the foremost rank, and to expose themselves fully at all times to the worst dangers of the combat. It is true that the knights and nobles were better protected by their armor than the soldiers. They were generally covered with steel from head to foot, and so heavily loaded with it were they, that it was only on horseback that they could sustain themselves in battle at all. Indeed, it was said that if a full-armed knight, in those days, were, from any accident, unhorsed, his armor was so heavy that, if he were thrown down upon the ground in his fall, he could not possibly get up again without help.
Notwithstanding this protection, however, the knights and commanders exposed themselves so much that they suffered in full proportion with the rest. It was estimated that during the siege there fell in battle, or perished of sickness or fatigue, eighteen or twenty archbishops and bishops, forty earls, and no less than five hundred barons, all of whose names are recorded. So they obtained what they went for – commemoration in history. Whether the reward was worth the price they paid for it, in sacrificing every thing like happiness and usefulness in life, and throwing themselves, after a few short months of furious and angry warfare, into a bloody grave, is a very serious question.
King Richard received by the besieging army
As soon as Richard's fleet appeared in view, the whole camp was thrown into a state of the wildest commotion. The drums were beat, the trumpets were sounded, and flags and banners without number were waved in the air. The troops were paraded, and when the ships arrived at the shore, and Richard and his immediate attendants and followers landed, they were received by the commanders of the Crusaders' army on the beach with the highest honors, while the soldiers drawn up around filled the air with long and loud acclamations.
Berengaria a bride
Berengaria had come from Cyprus, not in Richard's ship, although she was now married to him. She had continued in her own galley, and was still under the charge of her former guardian, Stephen of Turnham. That ship had been fitted up purposely for the use of the queen and the princess, and the arrangements on board were more suitable for the accommodation of ladies than were those of Richard's ship, which being strictly a war vessel, and intended always to be foremost in every fight, was arranged solely with a view to the purposes of battle, and was therefore not a very suitable place for a bride.
Philip's conciliation
Berengaria and Joanna landed very soon after Richard. Philip was a little piqued at the suddenness with which Richard had married another lady, so soon after the engagement with Alice had been terminated; but he considered how urgent the necessity was that he should now be on good terms with his ally, and so he concealed his feelings, and received Berengaria himself as she came from her ship, and assisted her to land.
Chapter XIII.
Difficulties
1191
It was but a very short time after Richard had landed his forces at Acre, and had taken his position in the camp on the plain before the city, before serious difficulties began to arise between him and Philip. This, indeed, might have been easily foreseen. It was perfectly certain that, so soon as Richard should enter the camp of the Crusaders, he would immediately assume such airs of superiority, and attempt to lord it over all the other kings and princes there in so reckless and dictatorial a manner, that there could be no peace with him except in entire submission to his will.
Richard's arrogance produces dissension in the camp
This was, accordingly, soon found to be the case. He began to quarrel with Philip in a very short time, notwithstanding the sincere desire that Philip manifested to live on good terms with him. Of course, the knights and barons, and, after a time, the common soldiers in the two armies, took sides with their respective sovereigns. One great source of trouble was, that Richard claimed to be the feudal sovereign of Philip himself, on account of some old claims that he advanced, as Duke of Normandy, over the French kingdom. This pretension Philip, of course, would not admit, and the question gave rise to endless disputes and heartburnings.
The progress of the quarrel between Richard and Philip
Presently the quarrel extended to other portions of the army of the Crusaders, and the different orders of knights and bodies of soldiers espoused, some one side and some the other. The Knights Hospitalers, described in a former chapter, who had now become a numerous and very powerful force, took Richard's side. Indeed, Richard was personally popular among the knights and barons generally, on account of his prodigious strength and the many feats of reckless daring that he performed. When he went out every body flocked to see him, and the whole camp was full of the stories that were told of his wonderful exploits. He made use of the distinction which he thus acquired as a means of overshadowing Philip's influence and position. This Philip, of course, resented, and then the English said that he was envious of Richard's superiority; and they attempted to lay the whole blame of the quarrel on him, attributing the unfriendly feeling simply to what they considered his weak and ungenerous jealousy of a more successful and fortunate rival.
However this may be, the disagreement soon became so great that the two kings could no longer co-operate together in fighting against their common enemy.
The English and French armies no longer co-operate
Philip planned an assault against the town. He was going to take it by storm. Richard did not join him in this attempt. He made it an excuse that he was sick at the time. Indeed, he was sick not long after his arrival at Acre, but whether his illness really prevented his co-operating with Philip in the assault, or was only made use of as a pretext, is not quite certain. At any rate, Richard left Philip to make the assault alone, and the consequence was that the French troops were driven back from the walls with great loss. Richard secretly rejoiced at this discomfiture, but Philip was in a great rage.
Not long afterward Richard planned an assault, to be executed with his troops alone; for Philip now stood aloof, and refused to aid him. Richard had no objection to this; indeed, he rejoiced in an opportunity to show the world that he could succeed in accomplishing a feat of arms after Philip had attempted it and failed.
Preparations for an assault
So he brought forward the engines that he had caused to be built at Messina, and set them up. He organized his assaulting columns and prepared for the attack. He made the scaling-ladders ready, and provided his men with great stores of ammunition; and when the appointed day at length arrived, he led his men on to the assault, fully confident that he was about to perform an exploit that would fill all Europe with his fame.
A repulse
But, unfortunately for him, he was doomed to disappointment. His men were driven back from the walls. The engines were overthrown and broken to pieces, or set on fire by flaming javelins sent from the walls, and burned to the ground. Vast numbers of his soldiers were killed, and at length, all hope of success having disappeared, the troops were drawn off, discomfited and excessively chagrined.
Reflections
Dangers of the army
The reflections which would naturally follow in the minds of Philip and Richard, as they sat in their tents moodily pondering on these failures, led them to think that it would be better for them to cease quarreling with each other, and to combine their strength against the common enemy. Indeed, their situation was now fast becoming very critical, inasmuch as every day during which the capture of the town was delayed the troops of Saladin on the mountains around them were gradually increasing in numbers, and gaining in the strength of their position, and they might at any time now be expected to come pouring down upon the plain in such force as entirely to overwhelm the whole army of the Crusaders.
A nominal friendship between real enemies
So Richard and Philip made an agreement with each other that they would thenceforth live together on better terms, and endeavor to combine their strength against the common enemy, instead of wasting it in petty quarrels with each other.
From this time things went on much better in the camp of the allies, while yet there was no real or cordial friendship between Richard and Philip, or any of their respective partisans. Richard attempted secretly to entice away knights and soldiers from Philip's service by offering them more money or better rewards than Philip paid them, and Philip, when he discovered this, attempted to retaliate by endeavoring to buy off, in the same manner, some of Richard's men. In a word, the fires of the feud, though covered up and hidden, were burning away underneath as fiercely as ever.
Chapter XIV.
The Fall of Acre
1191
The distress of the besieged city
Famine
Disappointed hopes
Although the allies failed to reduce Acre by assault, the town was at last compelled to submit to them through the distress and misery to which the inhabitants and the garrison were finally reduced by famine. They bore these sufferings as long as they could, but the time arrived at last when they could be endured no longer. They hoped for some relief which was to have been sent to them by sea from Cairo, but it did not come. They also hoped, day after day, and week after week, that Saladin would be strong enough to come down from the mountains, and break through the camp of the Crusaders on the plain and rescue them. But they were disappointed. The Crusaders had fortified their camp in the strongest manner, and then they were so numerous and so fully armed that Saladin thought it useless to make any general attack upon them with the force that he had under his command.
The various methods of warfare
Undermining the walls
The effect on the walls
The siege had continued two years when Philip and Richard arrived. They came early in the spring of 1191. Of course, their arrival greatly strengthened the camp of the besiegers, and went far to extinguish the remaining hopes of the garrison. The commanders, however, did not immediately give up, but held out some months longer, hoping every day for the arrival of the promised relief from Cairo. In the mean time, they continued to endure a succession of the most vigorous assaults from the Crusaders, of which very marvelous tales are told in the romantic narratives of those times. In these narratives we have accounts of the engines which Richard set up opposite the walls, and of the efforts made by the besieged to set them on fire; of Richard's working, himself, like any common soldier in putting these engines together, and in extinguishing the flames when they were set on fire; of a vast fire-proof shed which was at last contrived to cover and protect the engines – the covering of the roof being made fire-proof with green hides; and of a plan which was finally adopted, when it was found that the walls could not be beaten down by battering-rams, of undermining them with a view of making them tumble down by their own weight. In this case, the workmen who undermined the walls were protected at their work by sheds built over them, and, in order to prevent the walls from falling upon them while they were mining, they propped them up with great beams of wood, so placed that they could make fires under the beams when they were ready for the walls to fall, and then have time to retreat to a safe distance before they should be burned through. This plan, however, did not succeed; for the walls were so prodigiously thick, and the blocks of stone of which they were composed were so firmly bound together, that, instead of falling into a mass of ruins, as Richard had expected, when the props had been burned through, they only settled down bodily on one side into the excavation, and remained nearly as good, for all purposes of defense, as ever.
A spy in the city
The letters which came on arrows
It was said that during the siege Richard and Philip obtained a great deal of information in respect to the plans of the Saracens through the instrumentality of some secret friend within the city, who contrived to find means of continually sending them important intelligence. This intelligence related sometimes to the designs of the garrison in respect to sorties that they were going to make, or to the secret plans that they had formed for procuring supplies of provisions or other succor; at other times they related to the movements and designs of Saladin, who was outside among the mountains, and especially to the attacks that he was contemplating on the allied camp. This intelligence was communicated in various ways. The principal method was to send a letter by means of an arrow. An arrow frequently came down in some part of the allied camp, which, on being examined, was found to have a letter wound about the shaft. The letter was addressed to Richard, and was, of course, immediately carried to his tent. It was always found to contain very important information in respect to the condition or plans of the besieged. If a sortie was intended from the city, it stated the time and the place, and detailed all the arrangements, thus enabling Richard to be on his guard. So, if the Saracens were projecting an attack on the lines from within, the whole plan of it was fully explained, and, of course, it would then be very easy for Richard to frustrate it. The writer of the letters said that he was a Christian, but would not say who he was, and the mystery was never explained. It is quite possible that there is very little truth in the whole story.
A flag of truce
At all events, though the assaults which the allies made against the walls and bulwarks of the town were none of them wholly successful, the general progress of the siege was altogether in their favor, and against the poor Saracens shut up within it. The last hope which they indulged was that some supplies would come to them by sea; but Richard's fleet, which remained at anchor off the town, blockaded the port so completely that there was no possibility that any thing could get in. The last lingering hope was, therefore, at length abandoned, and when the besieged found that they could endure their horrible misery no longer, they sent a flag of truce out to the camp of the besiegers, with a proposal to negotiate terms of surrender.
Terms proposed by the Saracens
Richard's exactions and his threats
Then followed a long negotiation, with displays of haughty arrogance on one side, and heart-broken and bitter humiliation on the other. The Saracens first proposed what they considered fair and honorable terms, and Philip was disposed to accept them; but Richard rejected them with scorn. After a vain attempt at resistance, Philip was obliged to yield, and to allow his imperious and overbearing ally to have his own way. The Saracens wished to stipulate for the lives of the garrison, but Richard refused. He told them they must submit unconditionally; and, for his part, he did not care, he said, whether they yielded now or continued the contest. He should soon be in possession of the city, at any rate, and if they held out until he took it by storm, then, of course, it would be given up to the unbridled fury of the soldiers, who would mercilessly massacre every living thing they should find in it, and seize every species of property as plunder. This, he declared, was sure to be the end of the siege, and that very soon, unless they chose to submit. The Saracens then asked what terms he required of them. Richard stated his terms, and they asked for a little time to consider them and to confer with Saladin, who, being the sultan, was their sovereign, and without his approval they could not act.
The convention
Hostages
The ransom of the captives
So the negotiation was opened, and, after various difficulties and delays, a convention was finally agreed upon. The terms were these:
I. The city was to be surrendered to the allied armies, and all the arms, ammunition, military stores, and property of all kinds which it contained were to be forfeited to the conquerors.
II. The troops and the people of the town were to be allowed to go free on the payment of a ransom.
III. The ransom by which the besieged purchased their lives and liberty was to be made up as follows:
1. The wood of the cross on which Christ was crucified, which was alleged to be in Saladin's possession, was to be restored.
2. Saladin was to set at liberty the Christian captives which he had taken in the course of the war from various armies of Crusaders, and which he now held as prisoners. The number of these prisoners was about fifteen hundred.
3. He was to pay two hundred thousand pieces of gold.
IV. Richard was to retain a large body of men – it was said that there were about five thousand in all – consisting of soldiers of the garrison or inhabitants of the town, as hostages for the fulfillment of these conditions. These men were to be kept forty days, or, if at the end of that time Saladin had not fulfilled the conditions of the surrender, they were all to be put to death.
Saladin's assent
Perhaps Saladin agreed to these terms, under the pressure of dire necessity, compelled as he was to assent to whatever Richard might propose by the dreadful extremity to which the town was reduced, without sufficiently considering whether he would be really able to fulfill his promises. At any rate, these were the promises that he made; and as soon as the treaty was duly executed, the gates of Acre were opened to the conquerors, while Saladin himself broke up his encampment on the mountains, and withdrew his troops farther into the interior of the country.
Richard enters Acre in triumph
The Archduke of Austria's banner
Although the treaty was made and executed in the name of both the kings, Richard had taken into his hands almost the whole conduct of the negotiation, and now that the army was about to take possession of the town, he considered himself the conqueror of it. He entered with great parade, assigning to Philip altogether a secondary part in the ceremony. He also took possession of the principal palace of the place as his quarters, and there established himself with Berengaria and Joanna, while he left Philip to take up his residence wherever he could. The flags of both monarchs were, however, raised upon the walls, and so far Philip's claim to a joint sovereignty over the place was acknowledged. But none of the other princes or potentates who had been engaged in the siege were allowed to share this honor. One of them – the Archduke of Austria – ventured to raise his banner on one of the towers, but Richard pulled it down, tore it to pieces, and trampled it under his feet.
This, of course, threw the archduke into a dreadful rage, and most of the other smaller princes in the army shared the indignation that he felt at the grasping disposition which Richard manifested, and at his violent and domineering behavior. But they were helpless. Richard was stronger than they, and they were compelled to submit.
Philip in trouble
Philip's secret plans
As for Philip, he had long since begun to find his situation extremely disagreeable. He was very sensitive to the overbearing and arrogant treatment which he received, but he either had not the force of character or the physical strength to resist it. Now, since Acre had fallen, he found his situation worse than ever. There was no longer any enemy directly before them, and it was only the immediate presence of an enemy that had thus far kept Richard within any sort of bounds. Philip saw now plainly that if he were to remain in the Holy Land, and attempt to continue the war, he could only do it by occupying an altogether secondary and subordinate position, and to this he thought it was wholly inconsistent with his rights and dignities as an independent sovereign to descend; so he began to revolve secretly in his mind how he could honorably withdraw from the expedition and return home.
Title of King of Jerusalem
Sibylla
While things were in this state, a great quarrel, which had for a long time been gradually growing up in the camp of the Crusaders, but had been restrained and kept, in some degree, subdued by the excitement of the siege, broke out in great violence. The question was who should claim the title of King of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was at this time in the hands of the Saracens, so that the title was, for the time being at least, a mere empty name. Still, there was a very fierce contention to decide who should possess it. It seems that it had originally descended to a certain lady named Sibylla. It had come down to her as the descendant and heir of a very celebrated crusader named Godfrey of Bouillon, who was the first king of Jerusalem. He became King of Jerusalem by having headed the army of Crusaders that first conquered it from the Saracens. This was about a hundred years before the time of the taking of Acre. The knights and generals of his army elected him King of Jerusalem a short time after he had taken it, and the title descended from him to Sibylla.
Guy of Lusignan
Isabella
Conrad of Montferrat
Sibylla was married to a famous knight named Guy of Lusignan, and he claimed the title of King of Jerusalem in right of his wife. This claim was acknowledged by the rest of the Crusaders so long as Sibylla lived, but at length she died, and then many persons maintained that the crown descended to her sister Isabella. Isabella was married to a knight named Humphrey of Huron, who had not strength or resolution enough to assert his claims. Indeed, he had the reputation of being a weak and timid man. Accordingly, another knight, named Conrad of Montferrat, conceived the idea of taking his place. He contrived to seize and bear away the Lady Isabella, and afterward to procure a divorce for her from her husband, and then, finally, he married her himself. He now claimed to be King of Jerusalem in right of Isabella, while Guy of Lusignan maintained that his right to the crown still continued. This was a nice question to be settled by such a rude horde of fighting men as these Crusaders were, and some took one side of it and some the other, according as their various ideas on the subject of rights of succession or their personal partialities inclined them.
The positions of Richard and Philip respecting the title
Now it happened that Philip and Richard had early taken opposite sides in respect to this affair, as indeed they did on almost every other subject that came before them. Guy of Lusignan had gone to visit Richard while he was in Cyprus, and there, having had the field all to himself, had told his story in such a way, and also made such proposals and promises, as to enlist Richard in his favor. Richard there agreed that he would take Guy's part in the controversy, and he furnished him with a sum of money at that time to relieve his immediate necessities. He did this with a view of securing Guy, as one of his partisans and adherents, in any future difficulties in which he might be involved in the course of the campaign.
One of Richard's compromises
On the other hand, when Philip arrived at Acre, which it will be recollected was some time before Richard came, the friends and partisans of Conrad, who were there, at once proceeded to lay Conrad's case before him, and they so far succeeded as to lead Philip to commit himself on that side. Thus the foundation of a quarrel on this subject was laid before Richard landed. The quarrel was kept down, however, during the progress of the siege, but when at length the town was taken it broke out anew, and the whole body of the Crusaders became greatly agitated with it. At length some sort of compromise was effected, or at least what was called a compromise, but really, so far as the substantial interests involved were concerned, Richard had it all his own way. This affair still further alienated Philip's mind from his ally, and made him more desirous than ever to abandon the enterprise and return home.