1148: Quarrels
in the Christian Camp
The Christian army, the greatest that the
Franks had ever put into the field, set out from Galilee through Banyas in the
middle of July. On Saturday, 24 July, it encamped on the edge of the gardens
and orchards that surrounded Damascus. The emir Unur had not at first taken the
news of the Crusade very seriously. He had heard of its heavy losses in
Anatolia, and in any case he had not expected it to make Damascus its
objective. When he discovered the truth he hastily ordered his provincial
governors to send him all the men that they could spare; and a messenger
hurried off to Aleppo, to ask for help from Nur ed-Din. The Franks first halted
at Manakil al-Asakir some four miles to the south of the city, whose white
walls and towers gleamed through the thick foliage of the orchards; but they
moved quickly up to the better watered village of al-Mizza. The Damascene army
attempted to hold them there but was forced to retire behind the walls. On
their victory the Crusader leaders sent the army of Jerusalem into the orchards
to clear them of guerrilla fighters. By afternoon the orchards to the south of
the city were in the possession of the Franks, who were building palisades out
of the trees that they cut down. Next, thanks chiefly to Conrad’s personal
bravery, they forced their way to Rabwa, on the river Barada, right under the
walls of the city. The citizens of Damascus thought now that all was lost and
began to barricade the streets ready for the last desperate struggle. But next
day the tide turned. The reinforcements summoned by Unur began to pour in
through the north gates of the city and with their help he launched a
counterattack which drove the Christians back from the walls. He repeated the
attacks during the next two days, while guerrilla fighters penetrated once more
into the gardens and orchards. So dangerous were their actions to the camp that
Conrad, Louis and Baldwin met together and decided to evacuate the orchards
south of the city and to move eastward, to encamp in a spot where the enemy
could find no such cover. On 27 July the whole army moved to the plain outside
the east wall. It was a disastrous decision, for the new site lacked water and
faced the strongest section of the wall; and Damascene sally parties could now
move more freely about the orchards. Indeed, many of the Frankish soldiers
believed that the Palestinian barons who advised the Kings must have been
bribed by Unur to suggest it. For with the move the last chance of their taking
Damascus vanished. Unur, whose troops were increasing in number and who knew
that Nur ed-Din was on his way southward, renewed his attacks on the Frankish
camp. It was the Crusading army, not the beleaguered city, that was now on the
defensive.
While discouragement and murmurs of treachery
passed through the Christian army, its leaders openly quarrelled over the
future of Damascus when they should capture it. The barons of the kingdom of
Jerusalem expected Damascus to be incorporated as a fief of the Kingdom, and
had agreed that its lord should be Guy Brisebarre, the lord of Beirut, whose
candidature was, it seems, confirmed by Queen Melisende and the Constable
Manasses. But Thierry of Flanders coveted Damascus, which he wished to hold as
a semi-independent fief, of the same type as Tripoli. He won the support of
Conrad and Louis, and of King Baldwin, whose half-sister was his wife. The anger
of the local baronage when they learnt that the Kings favoured Thierry inclined
them to slacken their efforts. Those amongst them that had always opposed the
attack on Damascus won more converts. Perhaps they were in secret touch with
Unur. There were whispers of vast sums, paid, it is true, in money that was
found to be counterfeit, passing between Damascus and the Court of Jerusalem
and Elinand, Prince of Galilee. Perhaps Unur told them that if they retreated
at once he would abandon his alliance with Nur ed-Din. This argument, whether
or no Unur made specific use of it, undoubtedly swayed the nobles of the
Kingdom. Nur ed-Din was already at Homs, negotiating the terms of his aid to
Unur. His troops must, he demanded, be allowed entry into Damascus; and Unur w
a
s
playing for time. The Frankish army was in a difficult position before
Damascus. It could expect no reinforcements, whereas in a few days Nur ed-Din’s
men could be in the field. If they arrived, not only might the whole Crusading
force be annihilated, but Damascus would surely pass into Nur ed-Din’s power.
The Palestinian barons were all now, too late,
convinced of the folly of continuing the war against Damascus; and they pressed
their views on King Conrad and King Louis. The westerners were shocked. They
could not follow the subtle political arguments, but they knew that without the
help of the local Franks there was little to be done. The Kings complained
publicly of the disloyalty that they had found amongst them and of their lack
of fervour for the cause. But they ordered the retreat.
1148: King
Conrad leaves Palestine
At dawn on Wednesday, 28 July, the fifth day
after their arrival before Damascus, the Crusaders packed up their camp and
began to move back towards Galilee. Though Unur’s money may have bought their
retreat, he did not let them depart in peace. All day long, and during the next
few days, Turcoman light horsemen hung on their flanks, pouring arrows into
their masses. The road was littered with corpses, of men and of horses, whose
stench polluted the plain for many months to come. Early in August the great
expedition returned to Palestine and the local troops went home. All that it
had accomplished was to lose many of its men and much of its material and to
suffer a terrible humiliation. That so splendid an army should have abandoned
its objective after only four days of fighting was a bitter blow to Christian
prestige. The legend of invincible knights from the West, built up during the
great adventure of the First Crusade, was utterly shattered. The spirits of the
Moslem world revived.
King Conrad did not linger in Palestine after
the return from Damascus. Together with his household he embarked from Acre on
8 September on a ship bound for Thessalonica. When he landed there he received
a pressing invitation from Manuel to spend Christmas at the imperial Court.
There was now perfect concord between the two monarchs. Though his young nephew
Frederick might continue to bear rancour against the Byzantines, blaming them
for the German losses in Anatolia, Conrad only thought of the value of Manuel’s
alliance against Roger of Sicily and he was captivated by Manuel’s personal
charm and his delightful hospitality. During his visit the marriage of his
brother, Henry of Austria, to Manuel’s niece Theodora was celebrated with the
greatest pomp. Shocked Byzantines wept to see the lovely young princess
sacrificed to so barbarous a fate — ‘immolated to the beast of the West’, as a
court poet wrote sympathetically to her mother — but the wedding marked the
complete reconciliation of the German and Byzantine Courts. When Conrad left
Constantinople in February 1149 to return to Germany an alliance had been made
between them against Roger of Sicily, whose lands on the Italian peninsula it
was proposed to divide.
While Conrad enjoyed the comforts of
Constantinople, King Louis lingered on in Palestine. The abbot Suger wrote to
him again and again to beg him to come back to France; but he could not make up
his mind. Doubtless he wished to spend an Easter at Jerusalem. His return
would, he knew, be followed by a divorce and all its political consequences. He
sought to postpone the evil day. In the meantime, while Conrad renewed his
friendship with Byzantium, Louis’s resentment against the Emperor increased the
more he thought of it. He changed his policy, and sought the alliance of Roger
of Sicily. His quarrel with Raymond of Antioch had removed the chief obstacle
to this alliance, which would enable him to gratify his hatred of Byzantium. At
last in the early summer of 1149 Louis left Palestine in a Sicilian ship, which
soon joined the Sicilian squadron cruising in eastern Mediterranean waters. The
Sicilian war against Byzantium was still in progress; and as the fleet rounded
the Peloponnese it was attacked by ships of the Byzantine navy. King Louis
hastily gave orders for the French flag to be flown on his vessel and was
therefore allowed to sail on. But a ship containing many of his followers and
his possessions was captured and taken as a war-prize to Constantinople. Many
months passed before the Emperor would agree to send back the men and the goods
to France.
1149:
Bernard
of Toulouse
Louis landed at Calabria at the end of July and
was received by King Roger at Potenza. The Sicilian at once suggested the
launching of a new Crusade whose first object should be to take vengeance on
Byzantium. Louis and his advisers readily agreed and went on to France telling
everyone as they went of the perfidy of the Byzantines and the need to punish
them. Pope Eugenius, whom King Louis met at Tivoli, was lukewarm; but there
were many of his Curia who welcomed the scheme. Cardinal Theodwin set about
finding preachers to promote it. Peter the Venerable lent his support. When
Louis arrived in France he persuaded Suger to agree; and, most important of
all, Saint Bernard, puzzled by the ways of Providence that had permitted his
great Crusade to come to so lamentable an end, greedily accepted Byzantium as
the source of all its disasters, and flung his whole energy into the task of
abetting divine vengeance on the guilty Empire. But, if the movement were to
succeed, it must have the help of Conrad of Germany; and Conrad would not
co-operate. He saw too clearly the hand of his enemy Roger and saw no reason to
break his alliance with Manuel in order to add to Roger’s power. Vain appeals
were made to him by Cardinal Theodwin and by Peter the Venerable; and Saint
Bernard himself besought him and thundered at him in vain. The last time that
Conrad had taken the Saint’s advice had been over the Second Crusade. He was
not to fall into the trap again. With Conrad’s refusal to help, the scheme had
to be dropped. The great betrayal of Christendom, urged by Saint Bernard, was
postponed for another half-century.
Only one of the princes of the Second Crusade
remained on in the East; and his sojourn was involuntary. The young Bertrand of
Toulouse, Count Alfonso’s bastard son, could not endure to see the rich
inheritance of Tripoli remain in the hands of a cousin whom he suspected as his
father’s murderer. He stayed on in Palestine till King Louis left, then marched
his men of Languedoc northward, as though he intended to embark from some north
Syrian port. After passing across the plain where the Buqaia opens out towards
the sea, he suddenly turned inward and seized the castle of Araima. There he
defied the troops that Count Raymond sent from Tripoli to dislodge him. It was
a well-placed eyrie, for it dominated the roads from Tripoli to Tortosa and
from Tripoli inland up the Buqaia. Count Raymond found no sympathy amongst his
fellow-Christian princes, so he sent to Damascus for help from Unur. Unur
responded gladly and invited Nur ed-Din to join him. He could thus show his
willingness to co-operate with Nur ed-Din against the Christians without damaging
his attempt to restore good relations with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Indeed, he
would gratify Queen Melisende by helping her brother-in-law. The two Moslem
princes descended on Araima, which was unable to hold out long against so great
a host. The Moslem victors razed the castle to the ground, after sacking it
completely. They then left it for Count Raymond to reoccupy and retired with a
long string of captives. Bertrand and his sister fell to Nur ed-Din’s share. He
took them to Aleppo where they were to spend twelve years in captivity.
It was a fitting end to the Second Crusade that
its last Crusader should be held captive by the Moslem allies of the
fellow-Christian prince whom he had tried to despoil. No medieval enterprise
started with more splendid hopes. Planned by the Pope, preached and inspired by
the golden eloquence of Saint Bernard, and led by the two chief potentates of
western Europe, it had promised so much for the glory and salvation of
Christendom. But when it reached its ignominious end in the weary retreat from
Damascus, all that it had achieved had been to embitter the relations between
the western Christians and the Byzantines almost to breaking-point, to sow
suspicions between the newly-come Crusaders and the Franks resident in the East,
to separate the western Frankish princes from each other, to draw the Moslems
closer together, and to do deadly damage to the reputation of the Franks for
military prowess. The Frenchmen might seek to throw the blame for the fiasco on
others, on the perfidious Emperor Manuel or on the lukewarm Palestinian barons,
and Saint Bernard might thunder against the wicked men who interfered with God’s
purpose; but in fact the Crusade was brought to nothing by its leaders, with
their truculence, their ignorance and their ineffectual folly.
BOOK IV
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
CHAPTER I
LIFE IN OUTREMER
‘
Ye
. . .
have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you
.’ EZEKIEL
XI, 12
The failure of the Second Crusade marked a
turning-point in the story of Outremer. The fall of Edessa completed the first
stage in the renascence of Islam; and the gains of Islam were confirmed by the
pitiful collapse of the great expedition that was to have restored Frankish
supremacy.