A Source Book of Mediaeval History Part 38

Joinville's memoirs of St. Louis were completed about 1309--probably nine years before the death of the author--and they were first published soon after the death of Philip the Fair in 1314. They const.i.tute by far the most important source of information on the history of France in the middle portion of the thirteenth century.

Joinville had the great advantage of intimate acquaintance and long a.s.sociation with King Louis and, what is equally important, he seems to have tried to write in a spirit of perfect fairness and justice. He was an ardent admirer of Louis, but his biography did not fall into the tempting channel of mere fulsome and indiscriminate praise.

Moreover, the work is a biography of the only really satisfactory type; it is not taken up with a bare recital of events in the life of the individual under consideration, but it has a broad background drawn from the general historical movements and conditions of the time. Its most obvious defects arise from the fact that it comprises largely the reminiscences of an old man, which are never likely to be entirely accurate or well-balanced. In his dedication of the treatise to Louis, eldest son of Philip IV., the author relates that it had been written at the urgent solicitation of the deceased king's widow.

The biography in print makes a good-sized volume and it is possible, of course, to reproduce here but a few significant pa.s.sages from it.

But these are perhaps sufficient to show what sort of man the saint-king really was, and it is just this insight into the character of the men of the Middle Ages that is most worth getting--and the hardest thing, as a rule, to get. Incidentally, the extract throws some light on the methods of warfare employed by the crusaders and the Turks.

Source--Jean, Sire de Joinville, _Histoire de Saint Louis_.

Text edited by M. Joseph Noel (Natalis de Wailly) and published by the Societe de l'Histoire de France (Paris, 1868). Translated by James Hutton under t.i.tle of _Saint Louis, King of France_ (London, 1868), _pa.s.sim_.

[Sidenote: The king's birth]

As I have heard him say, he [Saint Louis] was born on the day of St. Mark the Evangelist,[446] shortly after Easter. On that day the cross is carried in procession in many places, and in France they are called black crosses. It was therefore a sort of prophecy of the great numbers of people who perished in those two crusades, i.e., in that to Egypt, and in that other, in the course of which he died at Carthage;[447] for many great sorrows were there on that account in this world, and many great joys are there now in Paradise on the part of those who in those two pilgrimages died true crusaders.

[Sidenote: His early training]

G.o.d, in whom he put his trust, preserved him ever from his infancy to the very last; and especially in his infancy did He preserve him when he stood in need of help, as you will presently hear. As for his soul, G.o.d preserved it through the pious instructions of his mother, who taught him to believe in G.o.d and to love Him, and placed about him none but ministers of religion. And she made him, while he was yet a child, attend to all his prayers and listen to the sermons on saints' days. He remembered that his mother used sometimes to tell him that she would rather he were dead than that he should commit a deadly sin.

[Sidenote: Difficulties at the beginning of his reign]

Sore need of G.o.d's help had he in his youth, for his mother, who came out of Spain, had neither relatives nor friends in all the realm of France. And because the barons of France saw that the king was an infant, and the queen, his mother, a foreigner, they made the count of Boulogne, the king's uncle, their chief, and looked up to him as their lord.[448] After the king was crowned, some of the barons asked of the queen to bestow upon them large domains; and because she would do nothing of the kind all the barons a.s.sembled at Corbei.[449] And the sainted king related to me how neither he nor his mother, who were at Montlheri,[450] dared to return to Paris, until the citizens of Paris came, with arms in their hands, to escort them. He told me, too, that from Montlheri to Paris the road was filled with people, some with and some without weapons, and that all cried unto our Lord to give him a long and happy life, and to defend and preserve him from his enemies....

[Sidenote: Louis takes the cross]

After these things it chanced, as it pleased G.o.d, that great illness fell upon the king at Paris, by which he was brought to such extremity that one of the women who watched by his side wanted to draw the sheet over his face, saying that he was dead; but another woman, who was on the other side of the bed, would not suffer it, for the soul, she said, had not yet left the body. While he was listening to the dispute between these two, our Lord wrought upon him and quickly sent him health; for before that he was dumb, and could not speak. He demanded that the cross should be given to him, and it was done. When the queen, his mother, heard that he had recovered his speech, she exhibited as much joy as could be; but when she was told by himself that he had taken the cross, she displayed as much grief as if she had seen him dead.

[Sidenote: Prominent Frenchmen who followed his example]

After the king put on the cross, Robert, count of Artois, Alphonse, count of Poitiers, Charles, count of Anjou, who was afterwards king of Sicily--all three brothers of the king--also took the cross; as likewise did Hugh, duke of Burgundy, William, count of Flanders (brother to Count Guy of Flanders, the last who died), the good Hugh, count of Saint Pol, and Monseigneur Walter, his nephew, who bore himself right manfully beyond seas, and would have been of great worth had he lived. There was also the count of La Marche, and Monseigneur Hugh le Brun, his son; the count of Sarrebourg, and Monseigneur d'Apremont, his brother, in whose company I myself, John, Seigneur de Joinville, crossed the sea in a ship we chartered, because we were cousins; and we crossed over in all twenty knights, nine of whom followed the count of Sarrebourg, and nine were with me....

The king summoned his barons to Paris, and made them swear to keep faith and loyalty towards his children if anything happened to himself on the voyage. He asked the same of me, but I refused to take any oath, because I was not his va.s.sal....

[Sidenote: Embarking on the Mediterranean]

In the month of August we went on board our ships at the Rock of Ma.r.s.eilles. The day we embarked the door of the vessel was opened, and the horses that we were to take with us were led inside. Then they fastened the door and closed it up tightly, as when one sinks a cask, because when the ship is at sea the whole of the door is under water. When the horses were in, our sailing-master called out to his mariners who were at the prow: "Are you all ready?" And they replied: "Sir, let the clerks and priests come forward." As soon as they had come nigh, he shouted to them; "Chant, in G.o.d's name!"

And they with one voice chanted, "_Veni, Creator Spiritus._" Then the master called out to his men: "Set sail, in G.o.d's name!" And they did so. And in a little time the wind struck the sails and carried us out of sight of land, so that we saw nothing but sea and sky; and every day the wind bore us farther away from the land where we were born. And thereby I show you how foolhardy he must be who would venture to put himself in such peril with other people's property in his possession, or while in deadly sin; for when you fall asleep at night you know not but that ere the morning you may be at the bottom of the sea.

[Sidenote: Preparations made in Cyprus]

When we reached Cyprus, the king was already there, and we found an immense supply of stores for him, i.e., wine-stores and granaries.

The king's wine-stores consisted of great piles of casks of wine, which his people had purchased two years before the king's arrival and placed in an open field near the seash.o.r.e. They had piled them one upon the other, so that when seen from the front they looked like a farmhouse. The wheat and barley had been heaped up in the middle of the field, and at first sight looked like hills; for the rain, which had long beaten upon the corn, had caused it to sprout, so that nothing was seen but green herbage. But when it was desired to transport it to Egypt, they broke off the outer coating with the green herbage, and the wheat and barley within were found as fresh as if they had only just been threshed out.

[Sidenote: An emba.s.sy from the Khan]

The king, as I have heard him say, would gladly have pushed on to Egypt without stopping, had not his barons advised him to wait for his army, which had not all arrived. While the king was sojourning in Cyprus, the great Khan of Tartary[451] sent envoys to him, the bearers of very courteous messages. Among other things, he told him that he was ready to aid him in conquering the Holy Land and in delivering Jerusalem out of the hands of the Saracens. The king received the messengers very graciously, and sent some to the Khan, who were two years absent before they could return. And with his messengers the king sent to the Khan a tent fashioned like a chapel, which cost a large sum of money, for it was made of fine rich scarlet cloth. And the king, in the hope of drawing the Khan's people to our faith, caused to be embroidered inside the chapel, pictures representing the Annunciation of Our Lady, and other articles of faith. And he sent these things to them by the hands of two friars, who spoke the Saracen language, to teach and point out to them what they ought to believe....

[Sidenote: The departure from Cyprus]

As soon as March came round, the king, and, by his command, the barons and other pilgrims, gave orders that the ships should be laden with wine and provisions, to be ready to sail when the king should give the signal. It happened that when everything was ready, the king and queen withdrew on board their ship on the Friday before Whitsunday, and the king desired his barons to follow in his wake straight towards Egypt. On Sat.u.r.day[452] the king set sail, and all the other vessels at the same time, which was a fine sight to behold, for it seemed as if the whole sea, as far as the eye could reach, was covered with sails, and the number of ships, great and small, was reckoned at 1,800....[453]

[Sidenote: Decision to proceed against Cairo]

Upon the arrival of the count of Poitiers, the king summoned all the barons of the army to decide in what direction he should march, whether towards Alexandria, or towards Babylon.[454] It resulted that the good Count Peter of Brittany, and most of the barons of the army, were of the opinion that the king should lay siege to Alexandria, because that city is possessed of a good port where the vessels could lie that should bring provisions for the army. To this the count of Artois was opposed. He said that he could not advise going anywhere except to Babylon, because that was the chief town in all the realm of Egypt; he added, that whosoever wished to kill a serpent outright should crush its head. The king set aside the advice of his barons, and held to that of his brother.

At the beginning of Advent, the king set out with his army to march against Babylon, as the count of Artois had counseled him. Not far from Damietta we came upon a stream of water which issued from the great river [Nile], and it was resolved that the army should halt for a day to dam up this branch, so that it might be crossed. The thing was done easily enough, for the arm was dammed up close to the great river. At the pa.s.sage of this stream the sultan sent 500 of his knights, the best mounted in his whole army, to hara.s.s the king's troops, and r.e.t.a.r.d our march.

[Sidenote: A skirmish between the Saracens and the Templars]

On St. Nicholas's day[455] the king gave the order to march and forbade that any one should be so bold as to sally out upon the Saracens who were before us. So it chanced that when the army was in motion to resume the march and the Turks saw that no one would sally out against them, and learned from their spies that the king had forbidden it, they became emboldened and attacked the Templars,[456] who formed the advance-guard. And one of the Turks hurled to the ground one of the knights of the Temple, right before the feet of the horse of Reginald de Bichiers, who was at that time Marshal of the Temple. When the latter saw this, he shouted to the other brethren: "Have at them, in G.o.d's name! I cannot suffer any more of this." He dashed in his spurs, and all the army did likewise. Our people's horses were fresh, while those of the Turks were already worn out. Whence it happened, as I have heard, that not a Turk escaped, but all perished, several of them having plunged into the river, where they were drowned....[457]

One evening when we were on duty near the cat castles, they brought against us an engine called _pierriere_,[458] which they had never done before, and they placed Greek fire[459] in the sling of the engine. When Monseigneur Walter de Cureil, the good knight, who was with me, saw that, he said to us: "Sirs, we are in the greatest peril we have yet been in; for if they set fire to our towers, and we remain here, we are dead men, and if we leave our posts which have been intrusted to us, we are put to shame; and no one can rescue us from this peril save G.o.d. It is therefore my opinion and my advice to you that each time they discharge the fire at us we should throw ourselves upon our elbows and knees, and pray our Lord to bring us out of this danger."

[Sidenote: The Saracens make use of Greek fire]

As soon as they fired we threw ourselves upon our elbows and knees, as he had counseled us. The first shot they fired came between our two cat castles, and fell in front of us on the open place which the army had made for the purpose of damming the river. Our men whose duty it was to extinguish fires were all ready for it; and because the Saracens could not aim at them on account of the two wings of the sheds which the king had erected there, they fired straight up towards the clouds, so that their darts came down from above upon the men. The nature of the Greek fire was in this wise, that it rushed forward as large around as a cask of verjuice,[460]

and the tail of the fire which issued from it was as big as a large-sized spear. It made such a noise in coming that it seemed as if it were a thunderbolt from heaven and looked like a dragon flying through the air. It cast such a brilliant light that in the camp they could see as clearly as if it were daytime, because of the light diffused by such a bulk of fire. Three times that night they discharged the Greek fire at us, and four times they sent it from the fixed cross-bows. Each time that Our sainted king heard that they had discharged the Greek fire at us, he dressed himself on his bed and stretched out his hands towards our Lord, and prayed with tears: "Fair Sire G.o.d, preserve me my people!" And I verily believe that his prayers stood us in good stead in our hour of need. That evening, every time the fire fell, he sent one of his chamberlains to inquire in what state we were and if the fire had done us any damage. One time when they threw it, it fell close to the cat castle which Monseigneur de Courtenay's people were guarding, and struck on the river-bank. Then a knight named Aubigoiz called to me and said: "Sir, if you do not help us we are all burnt, for the Saracens have discharged so many of their darts dipped in Greek fire that there is of them, as it were, a great blazing hedge coming towards our tower."

We ran forward and hastened thither and found that he spoke the truth. We extinguished the fire, but before we had done so the Saracens covered us with the darts they discharged from the other side of the river.

[Sidenote: Progress of the conflict]

The king's brothers mounted guard on the roof of the cat castles to fire bolts from cross-bows against the Saracens, and which fell into their camp. The king had commanded that when the king of Sicily[461] mounted guard in the daytime at the cat castles, we were to do so at night. One day when the king of Sicily was keeping watch, which we should have to do at night, we were in much trouble of mind because the Saracens had shattered our cat castles. The Saracens brought out the _pierriere_ in the daytime, which they had hitherto done only at night, and discharged the Greek fire at our towers. They had advanced their engines so near to the causeway which the army had constructed to dam the river that no one dared to go to the towers, because of the huge stones which the engines flung upon the road. The consequence was that our two towers were burned, and the king of Sicily was so enraged about it that he came near flinging himself into the fire to extinguish it. But if he were wrathful, I and my knights, for our part, gave thanks to G.o.d; for if we had mounted guard at night, we should all have been burned....[462]

It came to pa.s.s that the sainted king labored so much that the king of England, his wife, and children, came to France to treat with him about peace between him and them. The members of his council were strongly opposed to this peace, and said to him:

[Sidenote: The treaty of Paris, 1259]

"Sire, we greatly marvel that it should be your pleasure to yield to the king of England such a large portion of your land, which you and your predecessors have won from him, and obtained through forfeiture. It seems to us that if you believe you have no right to it, you do not make fitting rest.i.tution to the king of England unless you restore to him all the conquests which you and your predecessors have made; but if you believe that you have a right to it, it seems to us that you are throwing away all that you yield to him."

To this the sainted king replied after this fashion: "Sirs, I am certain that the king of England's predecessors lost most justly the conquests I hold; and the land which I give up to him I do not give because I am bound either towards himself or his heirs, but to create love between his children and mine, who are first cousins.

And it seems to me that I am making a good use of what I give to him, because before he was not my va.s.sal, but now he has to render homage to me."...[463]

After the king's return from beyond sea, he lived so devoutly that he never afterwards wore furs of different colors, nor minnever,[464] nor scarlet cloth, nor gilt stirrups or spurs. His dress was of camlet[465] and of a dark blue cloth; the linings of his coverlets and garments were of doeskin or hare-legs.

[Sidenote: The king's personal traits]

When rich men's minstrels entered the hall after the repast, bringing with them their viols, he waited to hear grace until the minstrel had finished his chant; then he rose and the priests who said grace stood before him. When we were at his court in a private way,[466] he used to sit at the foot of his bed, and when the Franciscans and Dominicans[467] who were there spoke of a book that would give him pleasure, he would say to them: "You shall not read to me, for, after eating, there is no book so pleasant as _quolibets_,"--that is, that every one should say what he likes.

When men of quality dined with him, he made himself agreeable to them....

[Sidenote: His primitive method of dispensing justice]

Many a time it happened that in the summer he would go and sit down in the wood at Vincennes,[468] with his back to an oak, and make us take our seats around him. And all those who had complaints to make came to him, without hindrance from ushers or other folk. Then he asked them with his own lips: "Is there any one here who has a cause?"[469] Those who had a cause stood up, when he would say to them: "Silence all, and you shall be dispatched one after the other." Then he would call Monseigneur de Fontaines, or Monseigneur Geoffrey de Villette, and would say to one of them: "Dispose of this case for me." When he saw anything to amend in the words of those who spoke for others, he would correct it with his own lips.

Sometimes in summer I have seen him, in order to administer justice to the people, come into the garden of Paris dressed in a camlet coat, a surcoat of woollen stuff, without sleeves, a mantle of black taffety around his neck, his hair well combed and without coif, a hat with white peac.o.c.k's feathers on his head. Carpets were spread for us to sit down upon around him, and all the people who had business to dispatch stood about in front of him. Then he would have it dispatched in the same manner as I have already described in the wood of Vincennes.

FOOTNOTES:

[446] April 25, 1215.