History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire

Edward Gibbon, Esq.

With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman

Vol. 6



The Crusades.

Part I.

Preservation Of The Greek Empire. - Numbers, Passage, And

Event, Of The Second And Third Crusades. - St. Bernard. - Reign

Of Saladin In Egypt And Syria. - His Conquest Of Jerusalem. -

Naval Crusades. - Richard The First Of England. - Pope Innocent

The Third; And The Fourth And Fifth Crusades. - The Emperor

Frederic The Second. - Louis The Ninth Of France; And The Two

Last Crusades. - Expulsion Of The Latins Or Franks By The

Mamelukes.

In a style less grave than that of history, I should perhaps

compare the emperor Alexius ^1 to the jackal, who is said to

follow the steps, and to devour the leavings, of the lion.

Whatever had been his fears and toils in the passage of the first

crusade, they were amply recompensed by the subsequent benefits

which he derived from the exploits of the Franks. His dexterity

and vigilance secured their first conquest of Nice; and from this

threatening station the Turks were compelled to evacuate the

neighborhood of Constantinople. While the crusaders, with blind

valor, advanced into the midland countries of Asia, the crafty

Greek improved the favorable occasion when the emirs of the

sea-coast were recalled to the standard of the sultan. The Turks

were driven from the Isles of Rhodes and Chios: the cities of

Ephesu and Smyrna, of Sardes, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were

restored to the empire, which Alexius enlarged from the

Hellespont to the banks of the Maeander, and the rocky shores of

Pamphylia. The churches resumed their splendor: the towns were

rebuilt and fortified; and the desert country was peopled with

colonies of Christians, who were gently removed from the more

distant and dangerous frontier. In these paternal cares, we may

forgive Alexius, if he forgot the deliverance of the holy

sepulchre; but, by the Latins, he was stigmatized with the foul

reproach of treason and desertion. They had sworn fidelity and

obedience to his throne; but he had promised to assist their

enterprise in person, or, at least, with his troops and

treasures: his base retreat dissolved their obligations; and the

sword, which had been the instrument of their victory, was the

pledge and title of their just independence. It does not appear

that the emperor attempted to revive his obsolete claims over the

kingdom of Jerusalem; ^2 but the borders of Cilicia and Syria

were more recent in his possession, and more accessible to his

arms. The great army of the crusaders was annihilated or

dispersed; the principality of Antioch was left without a head,

by the surprise and captivity of Bohemond; his ransom had

oppressed him with a heavy debt; and his Norman followers were

insufficient to repel the hostilities of the Greeks and Turks. In

this distress, Bohemond embraced a magnanimous resolution, of

leaving the defence of Antioch to his kinsman, the faithful

Tancred; of arming the West against the Byzantine empire; and of

executing the design which he inherited from the lessons and

example of his father Guiscard. His embarkation was clandestine:

and, if we may credit a tale of the princess Anne, he passed the

hostile sea closely secreted in a coffin. ^3 But his reception in

France was dignified by the public applause, and his marriage

with the king's daughter: his return was glorious, since the

bravest spirits of the age enlisted under his veteran command;

and he repassed the Adriatic at the head of five thousand horse

and forty thousand foot, assembled from the most remote climates

of Europe. ^4 The strength of Durazzo, and prudence of Alexius,

the progress of famine and approach of winter, eluded his

ambitious hopes; and the venal confederates were seduced from his