Outlines of Universal History Part 21

ATTACKS OF RUSSIANS AND BULGARIANS.--Left to itself, the empire showed some energy in repelling the attacks of the Russians and Bulgarians. A number of capable rulers arose. The Russians, of the same race of Northmen who had ravaged Western Europe, kept up their a.s.saults until their chief, _Vladimir_, made peace, accepted Christianity, and married the sister of the emperor, Basil II. (988). The empire between 988 and 1014 was invaded twenty-six times by King _Samuel_ of Bulgaria. But the Bulgarian kingdom was overthrown, in 1019, by _Basil II_. In the twelfth century it regained its independence.

THE GREEK EMPERORS.--In the ninth century the Greeks made head against the Arabs, especially by means of their navy. In the tenth century _John I_. (_Zimisces_) crossed the Euphrates, and created alarm in Bagdad. The tenacity of life in the Greek Empire was surprising in view of the languishing sort of existence that it led. After _Heraclius_, there were three dynasties, the last of which, the _Macedonian_ (867-1056), produced three remarkable men, _Nicephorus Phocas_, _Zimisces_, and _Basil II_. But the dynasty of _Comneni_, which, in the person of _Isaac I_., ascended the throne in 1057, had to combat a new and vigorous enemy, the _Turks_, who had now made themselves masters of Asia. One of this line of emperors, _Alexius I_., appealed to the Germans for help. This had some influence in giving rise to the first of the Crusades. In these conflicts the Latins bore the brunt. The exhausted Greek Empire played a minor part.

CONQUESTS OF THE TURKS.--The Mussulman dominion of the _Arabs_ had become enfeebled. The _Ommiad_ dynasty at _Cordova_ had disappeared under the a.s.saults of Christians, and of the _Moors_ of Africa. The _Fatimite_ caliphs were confined to Egypt. The rule of the _Aba.s.sids_ of Bagdad had been well-nigh demolished by the Seljukian Turks in 1058. They founded in the eleventh century an extensive empire. The sultan, _Alp Arslan_, took the emperor, _Roma.n.u.s IV. Diogenes_, prisoner (1071), and conquered _Armenia_. _Malek Shah_ invaded Syria, Palestine, Jerusalem, and carried his arms as far as Egypt, while a member of the Turkish family of _Seljuk_ wrested Asia Minor from the Greeks, and established the kingdom of _Iconium_, which was called _Roum_, extending from Mount Taurus to the Bosphorus. After the death of _Malek Shah_, there were three distinct sultanates, _Persia_, _Syria_, and _Kerman_,--the last being on the sh.o.r.es of the Indian Ocean.

THE PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM.--The immediate occasion of the Crusades was the hard treatment of the Christian pilgrims who visited the sepulcher of Christ in Jerusalem. There the Empress _Helena_, the mother of Constantine, had erected a stately church. Pilgrimages--which had become more and more a custom since the fourth century--naturally tended to the sacred places in Palestine. Especially was this the case in the eleventh century, when piety had been quickened by the _Cluny_ movement. In 1064 a great pilgrimage, in which seven thousand persons, priests and laity, of all nations, were included, under _Siegfried_, archbishop of _Mentz_, made its way through Hungary to Syria. Not more than a third of them lived to return. The reports of returning pilgrims were listened to with absorbing interest, as they told of the spots to which the imagination of the people was constantly directed. What indignation then was kindled by the pathetic narrative of the insults and blows which they had endured from the infidels who profaned the holy places with their hateful domination! In the ninth century, under caliphs of the temper of _Haroun Al-Raschid_, Christians had been well treated. About the middle of the tenth century the Fatimite caliphs of Egypt were the rulers at Jerusalem. _Hakem_ was fierce in his persecution, but his successors were more tolerant. When the Seljukian Turks got control there, the hara.s.sed pilgrims had constant occasion to complain of insult and inhumanity.

THE CALL OF THE GREEKS.--The Greek emperor, _Alexius Comnenus_, threatened by the Mussulmans on the opposite bank of the Bosphorus, sent his call for succor to all Christian courts. Two popes, _Sylvester II._ and _Gregory VII._, had in vain exhorted the princes to rise in their might, to do away with the wrong and the shame which the disciples of Jesus were suffering at the hands of his enemies.

MOTIVES TO THE CRUSADES.--After this, only a spark was needed to kindle in the Western nations a flame of enthusiasm. The summons to a crusade appealed to the two most powerful sentiments then prevalent,--the sentiment of _religion_ and that of _chivalry_. The response made by faith and reverence was reinforced by that thirst for a martial career and for knightly exploits which burned as a pa.s.sion in the hearts of men. The peoples in the countries formed by the Germanic conquests were full of vigor and life. Outside of the Church, there was no employment to attract aspiring youth but the employment of a soldier. Western Europe was covered with a net-work of petty sovereignties. Feudal conflicts, while they were a discipline of strength and valor, were a narrow field for all this pent-up energy. There was a latent yearning for a wider horizon, a broader theater of action. Thus the Crusades profoundly interested all cla.s.ses. The Church and the clergy, the lower orders, the women and the children, shared to the full in the religious enthusiasm, which, in the case of princes and n.o.bles, took the form of an intense desire to engage personally in the holy war, in order to crush the infidels, and at the same time to signalize themselves by gallant feats of arms. There was no surer road to salvation. There was, moreover, a hope, of which all in distressed circ.u.mstances partook, of improving their temporal lot.

THE COUNCIL OF CLERMONT.--The prime author of the first Crusade was Pope _Urban II_. He authorized an enthusiast, _Peter the Hermit_, of Amiens, to travel on an a.s.s through Italy and Southern France, and to stir up the people to the great undertaking of delivering the Holy Sepulcher. With an emaciated countenance and flashing eye, his head bare, and feet naked, and wearing a coa.r.s.e garment bound with a girdle of cords, he told his burning tale of the inflictions endured by the pilgrims. At the great council of _Clermont_, in 1095, where a throng of bishops and n.o.bles, and a mult.i.tude of common people who spoke the Romanic tongue, were a.s.sembled, _Urban_ himself addressed the a.s.sembly in a strain of impa.s.sioned fervor. He called upon everyone to deny himself, and take up his cross, that he might win Christ. Whoever would enlist in the war was to have a complete remission of penances,--a "plenary indulgence." The answer was thundered forth, "G.o.d wills it."

Thousands knelt, and begged to be enrolled in the sacred bands. The red cross of cloth or silk, fastened to the right shoulder, was the badge of all who took up arms. Hence they were called _crusaders_ (from an old French word derived from _crucem_, Lat. acc. of _crux_, a cross).

THE UNDISCIPLINED BANDS.--The farmer left his plow, and the shepherd his flock. Both s.e.xes and all ages were inspired with a common pa.s.sion. Before a military organization could be made, a disorderly host, poorly armed and ill-provided, led by _Peter the Hermit_ and _Walter the Penniless_, a French knight, started for Constantinople by way of Germany and Hungary. They were obliged to separate; and, of two hundred thousand, it is said that only seven thousand reached that capital. These perished in Asia Minor. They left their bones on the plain of _Nicoea_, where they were found by the next crusading expedition.

FIRST CRUSADE (1096-1099).--"The Crusades were primarily a Gaulish movement:" in French-speaking lands, the fire of chivalric devotion was most intense. The first regular army of soldiers of the cross departed by different routes under separate chiefs. First of these was _G.o.dfrey of Bouillon_, duke of Lower Lorraine, the bravest and n.o.blest of them all. With him were his brothers, _Baldwin_, and _Eustace_, count of Boulogne. Prominent among the other chiefs were _Hugh_, count of Vermandois; _Robert_, duke of Normandy, who had p.a.w.ned his duchy to his brother, _William II_., the king of England; _Robert_, count of Flanders; _Raymond_, count of Toulouse; _Bohemond_ of Tarentum, son of Robert Guiscard; and _Tancred_, Robert Guiscard's nephew. The Spaniards were taken up with their own crusade against the Moors. In consequence of the late absorbing struggles between emperors and popes, the Germans and Italians did not now embark in the enterprise. The relation of the Norman dynasty in England to the conquered Saxons prevented the first crusading host from receiving substantial aid from that country. The leaders of the army finally consented to become the feudal dependents of the emperor _Alexius_ while they should be within his borders, and to restore to him such of their conquests as had been lately wrested by the Turks from the Eastern Empire. _Alexius_ was more alarmed than gratified on seeing the swarm of warriors which he had brought into his land. After a siege of seven weeks, _Nicea_ was surrendered, not, however, into the hands of the European soldiers who had conducted the siege, but to the shrewd _Alexius_. At _Doryleum_, in a desperate battle the Turks were defeated; but, on their march eastward, they wasted the lands which they left behind them. The crusaders suffered severely from disease consequent on the heat. A private quarrel broke out between _Tancred_ and _Baldwin_. _Baldwin_, invited to _Edessa_ by the Greek or Armenian ruler, founded there a Latin princ.i.p.ality. After besieging _Antioch_ for several months, by the treachery of a renegade Christian, _Bohemond_, with a few followers, was admitted into the city. The Christians slew ten thousand of its defenders; but, three days after, _Antioch_ was shut in by a great army of Turks under the sultan _Kerboga_. The crusaders were stimulated by the supposed discovery of the "holy lance," or the steel head of the spear which had pierced the side of Jesus. The Turks were vanquished, and the citadel of Antioch was possessed by _Bohemond_. The wrangling chieftains were now compelled by the army to set out for Jerusalem. When they reached the heights where they first caught a glimpse of the holy city, the crusaders fell on their knees, and with tears of joy broke out in hymns of praise to G.o.d. But, not accustomed to siege operations, and dest.i.tute of the machines and ladders requisite for the purpose, they found themselves balked in the first attempts to capture the city. Yet after thirty days, their needs having been meantime in a measure supplied, _Jerusalem_ was taken by storm (July 15, 1099). The infuriated conquerors gave the rein to their vindictive pa.s.sions. Ten thousand Saracens were slaughtered. The Jews were burned in the synagogues, to which they had fled. When the thirst for blood and for plunder was sated, feelings of penitence and humility took possession of the victors. The leaders, casting aside their arms, with bared heads and barefoot, entered into the church of the Holy Sepulcher, and on their bended knees thanked G.o.d for their success. After debate, the princes united in choosing _G.o.dfrey of Bouillon_ as ruler of the city. He would not wear a royal crown in the place where the Saviour of the world had worn on his bleeding forehead a crown of thorns. He designated himself Protector of the Holy Sepulcher. Shortly after, at _Ascalon_, he won a great victory against the vastly superior forces of the Egyptian sultan. G.o.dfrey died the next year (1100), and was succeeded by his brother _Baldwin_, who first took the t.i.tle of King of Jerusalem. The force of the Moslems, and the almost incessant strife and division among the crusaders themselves, made the kingdom hard to defend.

THE NEW KINGDOM.--Venice, Genoa, and Pisa had the most to do with the defense and enlargement of the new kingdom. It was organized according to the method of feudalism. It continued until the capture of Jerusalem by _Saladin_ in 1187.

THE MILITARY ORDERS.--The princ.i.p.al supporters of the new kingdom at Jerusalem were the orders of knights, in which were united the spirit of chivalry and the spirit of monasticism. To the monastic vows of chast.i.ty, poverty, and obedience, they added a fourth vow, which bound them to fight the infidels, and to protect the pilgrims. These military orders acquired great privileges and great wealth. Each of them had its own peculiar apparel, stamped with a cross. The two princ.i.p.al orders were the Knights of St. John, or the _Hospitallers_, and the _Knights Templar_. The Hospitallers grew out of a hospital established in the eleventh century near the Holy Sepulcher, for the care of sick or wounded pilgrims. The order, when fully const.i.tuted, contained three cla.s.ses of members,--knights, who were all of n.o.ble birth, priests and chaplains, and serving brothers. After the loss of the Holy Land, the island of _Rhodes_ was given up to them. This they held until 1522, when they were driven out by the Turks, and received from the emperor, _Charles V._, the island of _Malta_. The Templars gained high renown for their valor, and, by presents and legacies, acquired immense wealth. After the loss of their possessions in Palestine, most of their members took up their abode in _Cyprus_: from there many of them went to France. Not a few of them became addicted to violent and profligate ways. They were charged, whether truly or falsely, with unbelief, and Oriental superst.i.tions caught up in the East from their enemies. These accusations, coupled with a desire to get their property, led to their suppression by _Philip V._ in the beginning of the fourteenth century. A third order was that of _Teutonic Knights_, founded at Jerusalem about 1128. In the next century they subjugated the heathen _Wends_ in Prussia (1226-1283).

WELFS AND WAIBLINGS.--The emperor _Lothar_ died on a journey back from Italy in 1137. _Henry the Proud_, of the house of _Welf_, to whom he had given the imperial insignia, hoped to be his successor, and hesitated to recognize _Conrad III_. (1137-1152) of the house of _Hohenstaufen_, who was chosen. Conrad required him to give up _Saxony_, for the reason that one prince could not govern two duchies. When he refused, _Bavaria_, also, was taken from him, and given to _Leopold_, margrave of Austria. This led to war, in which the king, as usual, was strongly supported by the cities. Henry the Proud left a young son, known later as _Henry the Lion_. Count _Welf_, the brother of Henry the Proud, kept up the war in Bavaria. He was besieged in _Weinsberg_. During the siege, it is said that his followers shouted "_Welf_" as a war-cry, while the besiegers shouted "_Waiblings_,"--_Waiblingen_ being the birthplace of _Frederick_, duke of Swabia, brother of Conrad. These names, corrupted into _Guelphs_ and _Ghibellines_ by the Italians, were afterwards attached to the two great parties,--the supporters, respectively, of the popes and the emperors. _Henry the Lion_ afterwards received _Saxony_; and the mark of _Brandenburg_ was given in lieu of it to _Albert the Bear_.

_Welf I._ was a powerful n.o.bleman, who received from _Henry IV_. the fief of _Bavaria_. When _Henry V_ died, the natural heirs of the extinct Franconian line were his nephews, _Frederick_ of _Hohenstaufen_, duke of Swabia, and _Conrad_. But the Saxons supported the wealthy _Lothar_, who was chosen emperor, and won over to his side _Henry the Proud_, grandson of _Welf I._, to whom _Lothar_ gave his daughter in marriage, and gave, also, the dukedom of _Saxony_, in addition to his dukedom of _Bavaria_. In these events lay the roots of the long rivalship between the _Welfs_ and the _Hohenstaufens_. _Henry the Lion_, as stated above, was the son of _Henry the Proud_.

GENEALOGY OF THE WELFS.

WELF, Duke of Bavaria, 1070-1101.

| +--HENRY the Black, Duke of Bavaria, 1120-1126.

| +--Judith, _m._ to Frederic, Duke of Swabia (d. 1147), | the son of Agnes, who was the daughter of HENRY IV. FREDERIC I | (Barbarossa) was the son of Judith, and this Frederic of Swabia.

| The Swabian dukes were called _Hohenstaufens_, from a | castle on _Mount Staufen_ in Wurtemberg.

| +--HENRY the Proud, Duke of Bavaria 1126, of Saxony 1137; deprived, 1138.

| +--HENRY the Lion, _m_.

Matilda, daughter of Henry II of England.

| +--HENRY the Young, _d_. 1227.

| +--OTTO IV, _d_. 1218.

SECOND CRUSADE (1147-1149).--The preacher of the second Crusade was _St. Bernard_, whose saintly life and moving eloquence produced a great effect. _Louis VII._ of France and _Conrad III._ were the leaders. The expedition was attended by a series of calamities. The design of recapturing _Edessa_ from _Noureddin_, the sultan of Aleppo, was given up. The siege of _Damascus_ failed (1148). _Conrad_ returned home with broken health. Soon after, Damascus fell into the hands of _Noureddin_, who was a brave and upright leader. Through one of his lieutenants, he conquered Egypt. After his death, _Saladin_, who sprung from one of the tribes of _Kurds_, and was in his service, rose to power there, and set aside the Fatimite caliphate (1171). He was not less renowned for his culture and magnanimity than for his valor. _Saladin_ united under his scepter all the lands from Cairo to Aleppo. In the battle at _Ramla_, not far from Ascalon (1178), the crusaders gained their last notable victory over this antagonist, which served to prolong for some years the existence of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Afterwards victory was on his side: the crusaders were overthrown in the fatal battle of _Tiberias_, and _Jerusalem_ was taken by him (1187). Thus the Latin kingdom fell. The Saracen conqueror was much more humane after success than the Christian warriors had been in like circ.u.mstances.

FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.--_Frederick I.--Barbarossa_, or Redbeard, he was called in Italy--(1152-1190) was one of the grand figures of the Middle Ages. He was thirty-one years of age at his election as emperor, and had already been with the crusaders to the Holy Land. In him great strength of understanding and a capacity for large undertakings were combined with a taste for letters and art. His aim was to bring back to the empire the strength and dignity which had belonged to it under the Saxon and Franconian emperors. The rulers of _Bohemia_ and _Poland_ he obliged to swear fealty as va.s.sals. He put down private war, and restored order in Germany. The palatinate on the Rhine, formerly a part of Franconia, he gave to his half-brother _Conrad_, who founded _Heidelberg_ (1155).

STRUGGLE WITH THE LOMABARD CITIES.--The princ.i.p.al conflict of Frederick I. was in Italy, where he endeavored to restore the imperial supremacy over the Lombard cities, which had grown prosperous and freedom-loving, and were bent on managing their own munic.i.p.al affairs. They had thrown off the rule of bishops and counts. The burghers of _Milan_, the princ.i.p.al town, had obliged the neighboring n.o.bles and cities to form a league with them. The smaller cities, as _Como_ and _Lodi_, preferred the emperor's control to being subject to Milan. _Pavia_ clung to the empire. But most of the cities prized their independence and republican administration. The Pope and the emperor were soon at variance, and the cities naturally looked to the pontiff for sympathy and leadership. In 1158 _Frederick_ again crossed the Alps, bent on establishing the imperial jurisdiction as it had stood in the days of Charlemagne. The study of the Roman law was now pursued with enthusiasm at _Bologna_ and _Padua_. At a great a.s.sembly in the _Roncalian Fields_, Frederick caused the prerogatives of the empire to be defined according to the terms of the civil law. The emperor was proclaimed as "lord of the world,"--_dominus mundi_. In the room of the consuls, a _Podesta_ was appointed as the chief officer in each city, to represent his authority. _Milan_, which had submitted, revolted, but, after a siege of two years, was forced to surrender, and was destroyed, at the emperor's command, by the inhabitants of the neighboring cities (1162). In 1159 _Alexander III_. was elected Pope by a majority of the cardinals. _Victor IV_. was chosen by the imperial party, and was recognized at a council convened by _Frederick_ at _Pavia_. On the death of Victor, another anti-pope, _Paschal III_., was elected in his place; and, on the fourth visit of Frederick to Italy (1166-1168), he conducted Paschal to Rome. In 1167 the cities of Northern Italy, which maintained their cause with invincible spirit, united in the _Lombard League_. They built the strongly fortified place, _Alessandria_,--named after the Pope,--and took possession of the pa.s.ses of the Alps. The emperor, whose army was nearly destroyed by a pestilence at Rome, escaped, with no little difficulty and danger, to Germany.

FREDERICK I. AND POPE ALEXANDER III.--For nearly seven years Frederick remained in Germany. He put an end to a violent feud which had been raging between _Henry the Lion_ and his enemies (1168). In 1174 he was ready to resume his great Italian enterprise. But he did not succeed in taking _Alessandria_. All his efforts to induce _Henry the Lion_ to come to his support failed. He was consequently defeated in the battle of _Legnano_ (1176). The extraordinary abilities and indefatigable energy of the great emperor had been exerted in the vain effort, as he himself now perceived it to be, to break down the resistance of a free people to a system which they felt to be an obsolete despotism. A reconciliation took place at Venice in 1177 between Pope _Alexander III_. and Frederick, in which the latter virtually gave up the plan which he had so long struggled to realize. It was a day of triumph for the Papacy. At _Constance_, in 1183, a treaty was made with the Lombard cities, in which their self-government was substantially conceded, with the right to fortify themselves, and to levy armies, and to extend the bounds of their confederacy. The overlordship of the emperor was recognized. There was to be an imperial judge in each town, to whom appeals in the most important causes might be made. The "regalian rights" to _forage, food_, and _lodging_ for the emperor's army, when within their territory, were reduced to a definite form. The cities grew stronger from their newly gained freedom; yet the loss of imperial restraint was, on some occasions, an evil.

FREDERICK IN GERMANY.--After his return to Germany, Frederick deprived _Henry the Lion_ of his lands; and when Henry craved his forgiveness at the Diet of Erfurt in 1181, he was allowed to retain _Brunswick_ and _Luneburg_. He was to live for three years, with his wife and child, at the court of his father-in-law, _Henry II_., king of England. His son _William_, born there, is the ancestor of the present royal family in England. In 1184 the emperor, in honor of his sons, King _Henry_, and _Frederick_, duke of Swabia, who were of age to become knights, celebrated at _Mentz_ a magnificent festival, where a great throng of attendants was gathered from far and near. In a last and peaceful visit to Italy, his son _Henry_ was married to _Constance_, the daughter of _Roger II_., and the heiress of the Norman kingdom of Lower Italy and Sicily.

THIRD CRUSADE (1189-1192).--The old emperor now undertook another Crusade (1189), in which he was supported by _Philip II_. (_Philip Augustus_), king of France, and _Richard_ the Lion-Hearted (_Caeur-de-Lion_), king of England, but of French descent. Having spent the winter at _Adrianople_, Frederick crossed into Asia Minor, and conquered _Iconium_. In his advance he showed a military skill and a valor which made the expedition a memorable one; but at the river Calycadnus in _Cilicia_, either while bathing or attempting to cross on horseback, the old warrior was swept away by the stream, and drowned (1190). His son _Frederick_ died during the siege of _Acre_. _Richard_ and _Philip_ quarreled, before and after reaching _Acre_, which surrendered in 1191. _Philip_ returned to France. _Richard_, with all his valor, was twice compelled to turn back from Jerusalem. Nothing was accomplished except the establishment of a truce with _Saladin_, by which a strip of land on the coast, from _Joppa_ to _Acre_, was given to the Christians, and pilgrimages to the holy places were allowed. _Richard_ was distinguished both for his deeds of arms and for his cruelty. On his return, he was kept as a prisoner by _Leopold_, duke of Austria, by the direction of the emperor, _Henry VI_., for thirteen months, and released on the payment of a ransom, and rendering homage. He was charged with treading the German banner in the filth at Acre. His alliance with the _Welfs_ in Germany is enough to explain the hostility felt towards him by the imperial party.

HENRY VI.: POPE INNOCENT III.--Henry VI. (1190-1197) had the prudence and vigor of his father, but lacked his magnanimity. He was hard and stern in his temper. Twice he visited Italy to conquer the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the inheritance of his wife. He waged a new war with _Henry the Lion_ (1192-1194), which ended in a marriage of _Agnes_, the emperor's cousin, with _Henry_, the son of Henry. It was a project of the emperor to convert Germany and Italy, with Sicily, into a hereditary monarchy; but the princes would not consent. He aspired to incorporate the Eastern Empire in the same dominion. While engaged in strife with the aged Pope, _Coelestin II_., respecting the Tuscan lands of _Matilda_, which she had bequeathed to the Church, the emperor suddenly died. His son _Frederick_ was a boy only three years old. On the death of _Coelestin II_., early in 1198, _Innocent III_., the ablest and most powerful of all the popes, acceded to the pontifical chair. Innocent was a statesman of unsurpa.s.sed sagacity and energy. He was imbued with the highest idea of the pontifical dignity. He made his authority felt and feared in all parts of Christendom. He exacted submission from all rulers, civil and ecclesiastical. The Empress _Constance_, in order to secure Italy for _Frederick_, accepted the papal investment on conditions dictated by the Pope. After her death _Innocent_ ruled Italy in the character of guardian of her son. He dislodged the imperial va.s.sals from the Tuscan territory of _Matilda_, and thus became a second founder of the papal state.

FOURTH CRUSADE (1202-1204).--Under the auspices of _Innocent III_., a Crusade was undertaken by French barons, with whom were a.s.sociated _Baldwin_, count of Flanders, and _Boniface_, marquis of Montferrat. Arrived at _Venice_, the crusaders were not able to furnish to the Venetians the sum agreed to be paid for their transportation. The Venetians, whose devotion was strongly tempered with the mercantile spirit, under the old doge, _Henry Dandolo_, greatly to the displeasure of the Pope, persuaded them to a.s.sist in the capture of _Zara_, which the king of Hungary had wrested from Venice. Then, at the call of _Alexius_, son of the Eastern emperor, _Isaac Angelus_, they went with the Venetian fleet to Constantinople, and restored these princes to the throne. The result of the contentions that followed with the Greeks was the pillage of Constantinople, and the establishment of the _Latin Empire_ under _Baldwin_. Princ.i.p.alities were carved out for different chiefs; the Venetians taking several Greek coast towns, and afterwards _Candia_ (Crete). The patriarch of Constantinople had to take his pallium from Rome. The Latin service was established in the churches. There was no real union between the Greeks and the invaders, but constant strife, until, in 1261, _Michael Paloeologus_, the head of a Greek empire which had been established at _Nicoea_, put an end to the Latin kingdom.

CHILDREN'S CRUSADE.--The failure of the stupendous undertakings for the conquest of the infidels was attributed to the wicked wrangles, and still more to the vicious lives, of the crusaders, whose defeat was regarded as indicative of the frown of Heaven on their evil courses. This feeling gave occasion to the Children's Crusade, in 1212. Many thousands of French and German boys made their way, in two distinct expeditions, to _Ma.r.s.eilles_ and the seaports of Italy, in order to be conveyed thence to the Holy Land. But few returned: nearly all perished by the way, or were seized, and carried off to slave-markets. The enterprise grew out of a wild construction of the injunction of Jesus to let little children come to him.

OTTO IV.: CIVIL WAR IN GERMANY.--Frederick had been elected king; but, on the death of his father, his claims were disregarded. The _Hohenstaufens_ chose _Philip_, brother of Henry VI.: the _Welfs_ appointed _Otto_, the second son of _Henry the Lion_. Innocent claimed the right, not to appoint the emperor, but to decide between the rival claimants. He decided, in 1201, in favor of _Otto IV_. (1198-1214). _Philip's_ party, however, seemed likely to succeed; but, in 1208, he was murdered. _Otto_, having made large promises of submission to the Pope's requirements, was crowned emperor, and universally acknowledged. When he failed to fulfill his pledges, and began to a.s.sert the old imperial prerogatives in Italy, he was excommunicated and deposed by Innocent (1210).

FREDERICK (II.) MADE KING.--Innocent was now led to take up the cause of young _Frederick_ (1212). The latter won Germany over to his side, and received the German crown at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1215. _Otto_ was restricted to his ancestral territory in Brunswick.

CHARACTER OF FREDERICK II. (1214-1250).--_Frederick II._, on account of his extraordinary natural gifts and his accomplishments, was called _the wonder of the world_. He knew several languages, and, in intercourse with the Saracens_ in Sicily, had acquired a familiarity with the sciences. In many of his ideas of government he was in advance of his time. But his reign was largely spent in a contest with the Lombard cities and with the popes. He is styled by an eminent modern historian, "the gay, the brave, the wise, the relentless, and the G.o.dless Frederick." He was often charged with skepticism in relation to the doctrines of the Church. The main ground of this imputation seems to have been a temper of mind at variance with the habit of the age,--a very moderate degree of reverence for ecclesiastical authority, and the absence of the usual antipathy to heresy and religious dissent.

FIFTH CRUSADE (1228-1229).--Having caused his son _Henry_ to be elected king of Rome, _Frederick_, in 1220, left Germany for fifteen years. It was the policy of the popes to keep the Sicilian crown from being united with the empire, and the emperor from gaining the supremacy in _Lombardy_. Frederick, at his coronation at _Aix_, and afterwards, had engaged to undertake a crusade. But he had postponed it from time to time. Pope _Honorius III_. had patiently borne with this delay. But when Frederick, in 1227, was about to start, and was prevented, as he professed, by the contagious disease in his army, from which he himself was suffering, _Gregory IX_., the next pope, placed him under the ban of the Church. Nevertheless, the emperor, in the following year, embarked on his crusade. His vigor as a soldier, and, still more, his tact in conciliating the Saracens, enabled him to get possession of _Jerusalem_. No bishop would crown an excommunicate, and he had to put the crown on his own head. That he left a mosque unmolested was a fresh ground of reproach. He negotiated an armistice with the sultan, _Kameel_ (El Kamil), who ceded _Nazareth_ and a strip of territory reaching to the coast, together with _Sidon_. Fifteen years later (in 1244) _Jerusalem_ was finally lost by the Christians.

CONTEST OF FREDERICK WITH THE POPES.--On his return to Italy, Frederick drove the papal troops out of _Apulia_. In a personal interview with _Gregory IX_. at _San Germane_, a treaty was made between them, the ban was removed, and the treaty of Frederick with the Sultan was sanctioned by the Pope. Frederick now displayed his talent for organization in all parts of his empire. His const.i.tution for the Sicilian kingdom, based on the ruins of the old feudalism, is tinged with the modern political spirit. His court, wherever he sojourned, mingled an almost Oriental luxury and splendor with the attractions of poetry and song. A sore trial was the revolt of his son _Henry_ (1234), whom he conquered, and confined in a prison, where he died in 1242. The efforts of Frederick to enforce the imperial supremacy over the Lombard cities were met with the same stubborn resistance from the _Guelfs_ which his grandfather had encountered. In 1237 he gained a brilliant victory over them at _Cortenuova_. But the hard terms on which Frederick insisted, in connection with other transactions offensive to the Pope, called out another excommunication from _Gregory IX_. (1239). The Genoese fleet, which was conveying ecclesiastics to a council called by the Pope at Rome, was captured by direction of _Frederick_; and the prelates were thrown into prison. Pope _Innocent IV_. (1243-1254) fled to _Lyons_, and there published anew the ban against the emperor, declared him deposed, and summoned the Germans to elect another emperor in his place. The ecclesiastical princes in Germany chose _Henry Raspe_ (1246-1247), landgrave of Thuringia, who was defeated by _Conrad_, Henry's son. The next emperor thus chosen, _William of Holland_ (1247), made no headway in Germany. During this period of civil war, many German cities gained their freedom from episcopal rule, attained to great privileges, and came into an immediate relation to the emperor. A fearful war raged in Italy between the _Guelfs_ and _Ghibellines_, in the midst of which _Frederick_ died, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Had he been as conscientious and as capable of curbing his pa.s.sions and appet.i.tes as he was highly endowed in other respects, he might have been a model ruler. As it was; although his career was splendid, his private life, as well as his public conduct, was stained with flagrant faults.

THE SICILIAN KINGDOM.--The kingdom of the Two Sicilies was bravely defended by _Manfred_, son of Frederick II, in behalf of young _Conradin_, the son of the new emperor, _Conrad IV_. The Pope gave the crown to _Charles of Anjou_, brother of _Louis IX_. of France. _Charles_, after the fall of _Manfred_ at _Beneventum_ (1266), gained the kingdom. _Conradin_ went to Italy, but was defeated and captured in 1268, and was executed at Naples. Such was the tragic end of the last of the _Hohenstaufens_. The unbearable tyranny of the French led to a conspiracy called the _Sicilian Vespers_ (1282); and, at Easter Monday, at vesper time, the rising took place. All the French in Sicily were ma.s.sacred. _Peter of Aragon_, who had married the daughter of _Manfred_, became king of Sicily. The dominion of Charles of Anjou was restricted to Naples.

SPAIN.--The Spaniards had a crusade to carry forward in their own land, which lasted for eight hundred years. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, especially under _Abderrahman III_. (912-961), the Moorish civilization was most brilliant. In _Cordova_, there were six hundred mosques. There were said to be seventeen universities and seventy large libraries in Spain. The caliph's fleets were dominant in the Mediterranean. He was mild in his policy towards Jews and Christians. In the eleventh century the caliphs gave themselves up to luxury, and the control of their forces was in the hands of the viziers. Of these, Almanzor, the general of _Hakem II_ (976-1013), was the most famous. He took the city of _Leon_, and plundered the church of St. James of Compostella, the patron saint of Spain. After this time the caliphate of _Cordova_ broke up into numerous kingdoms. The Christian _Visigoths_ in the north-west had built up the little kingdom of _Oviedo_, which later took the name of _Leon_. The rest of Christian Spain was united under _Sancho the Great_ (970-1035). To one of his sons, _Ferdinand I_, he left _Castile_, to which _Leon_ and the _Asturias_ were united; to another, _Aragon_; and, to a third, _Navarre_ and _Biscay_. It was under _Ferdinand_ that the exploits of the Spanish hero, the _Cid_ (_Rodrigo Diaz_ of Bivar), in conflict with the infidels, began. The complete conquest of the Moors was prevented by the strife of the Christian kingdoms with one another. Under _Alfonso VI_ (1072-1109), they were all once more united.

GREAT DEFEAT OF THE MOORS.--The invasion of the _Almoravids_, invited over from Africa by the Mussulman princes (1086), checked the progress of the Christian conquest. These allies of the Arabs built up a kingdom for themselves, reconquered _Valencia_, and taxed to the utmost the power of the Christians to resist their progress. New sects of fanatical Moslems, the _Almohads_, having conquered Morocco, pa.s.sed over into Spain. The Mohammedans were thus at war among themselves, and were divided into three parties. Military orders were established in Spain; and the kings of _Castile_, _Leon_, and _Navarre_, aided by sixty thousand crusaders from Germany, France, and Italy, defeated _Mohammed_, the chief of the Almohads, with great slaughter, in a decisive battle near Tolosa (1212). The Spanish crusade built up the little kingdom of _Portugal_, and the states of _Castile_ and of _Aragon_. They were destined to play an important part in the history of commerce and discovery. The Spanish character owed some of its marked traits to this prolonged struggle with the Moslems.

THE MONGOLIAN INVASIONS.--At the beginning of the thirteenth century, _Genghis Khan_, the leader of Mongolian hordes which roamed over the Asiatic plateau between China and Siberia, conquered China, and overthrew the ruling dynasty. He subdued _Hindustan_ and the empire of the _Chowares_, which had been founded by a _Seljukian_ slave, and spread his power from the Caspian Sea through Persia to India (1218). _Bokhara_ and _Samarcand_ were among the populous cities which were burned with all their treasures by these ruthless invaders. Libraries were converted into stalls for the horses of the brutal conquerors. The sons and successors of _Genghis Khan_ swept over the countries north of the Black Sea, captured _Moscow_ and _Kiev_, burned _Cracow_, and pursued their murderous and devastating path over _Poland_ and _Hungary_, At the battle of _Wahlstatt_ (1241), the Germans under _Henry the Pious_, duke of Liegnitz, were defeated. The victories of the Tartars were frightful ma.s.sacres. It was a custom of the Mongols to cut off an ear of the slaughtered enemy. It was said that at Liegnitz these trophies filled nine sacks. The Mongol hosts retired from Europe. They attacked the caliphate of _Bagdad_, a city which they took by storm, and plundered for forty days. They destroyed the dynasty of the _Aba.s.sids_. They marched into Syria, stormed and sacked _Aleppo_, and captured _Damascus_. For a time the central point of the Tartar conquests was the city or camping-ground of _Karakorum_ in Central Asia. After a few generations their empire was broken in pieces. The "Golden Horde," which they had planted in _Russia_, on the east of the Volga, remained there for two centuries. _Bagdad_ was held by the Mongols until 1400, when it was conquered, and kept for a short time, by _Tamerlane_.

The religion of the Tartars was either _Lamaism_--a corrupted form of Buddhistic belief and worship,--or _Mohammedanism_. In China and Mongolia they were _Lamaists_: elsewhere they generally adopted the faith of _Islam_. Their original religion was _Shamaism_, a worship of spirits, akin to fetichism. The later Mongol sovereigns, especially _Kublai Khan_, were ready to promote peaceful intercourse with Europe. It was at this time that _Marco Polo_ resided at their court.

SIXTH CRUSADE (1248-1254): SEVENTH CRUSADE (1270).-Two additional Crusades were undertaken under the leadership of that upright and devout king, _Louis IX_. of France. The first (1248-1254) resulted in the taking of _Damietta_ in Egypt (1249); but the next year _Louis_, with his whole army, was captured, and obtained his release after much delay, by the surrender of his conquests, and in return for a large ransom. Not disheartened by this failure, the pious monarch, in 1270, sailed to _Tunis_, where he and most of his army perished from sickness. In 1291 _Acre_, the last town held by the Christians, was taken by the Egyptian _Mamelukes_; and the Crusades came to an end.

EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADES.--The Crusades were a spontaneous movement of Christian Europe. It was a great tide, which bore away all cla.s.ses of people. It lends to the Middle Ages an ideal and heroic character. An overpowering sentiment, submerging calculation and self-interest, swept over society. There was infinite suffering: countless lives were the forfeit. The results, however, were beneficent, 1. It is true that the conquests made in the East were all surrendered. The holy places were given up. Yet the _Turks_ had received a check which was a protection to Europe during the period when its monarchies were forming, and were gaining the force to encounter them anew, and repel their dangerous aggressions. 2. The Feudal System in Europe was smitten with a mortal blow. Smaller fiefs, either by sale or by the death of the holders, were swallowed up in the larger. The anarchical spirit was counteracted. _Political unity_ was promoted. 3. There was a lessening of the social distance between _suzerain_ and _serf_. They fought side by side, and aided one another in common perils. The consequence was an increase of sympathy. 4. There was _an expansion of knowledge_. There was a widening of geographical knowledge. An acquaintance was gained with other peoples and countries. To the more civilized Saracens, the crusaders seemed brutal and barbarous. The crusaders in turn were impressed with the superior advancement and elegance of the Saracens. It was not the lord only who beheld distant lands: the serf was taken from the soil to which he had been tied. He drew stimulus and information from sojourning under other skies. 5. A great impulse was given to trade and commerce. An acquaintance was gained with new products, natural and artificial. New wants were created. 6. The cities advanced in strength and wealth.

Important social consequences resulted from their growth.

WHY THE CRUSADES TERMINATED.--After the thirteenth century it was impossible to rekindle the crusading enthusiasm. The fire had burned out. It seemed as if the idea had exhausted itself in action. This effect was due, (1) to the absence of novelty in such undertakings; (2) to the long experience of the hardships belonging to them, which tended to dampen the romantic zeal that had formed a part of the motive; (3) to the disappointments following upon the practical failure of so prodigious and costly exertions; (4) to an altered condition of public feeling of a more general character. Antipathy to the infidel, the more exclusive sway of religious sentiment, were giving way to a mingling of secular aims and interests. There were new and wider fields of activity at home. The mood of men's minds was no longer the same.

LUXURIES INTRODUCED BY THE CRUSADES.--The effect of the Crusades in bringing in new comforts and luxuries, and in thus altering the style of living, was remarkable. At the very outset, a great deal of money, obtained by the sale or p.a.w.ning of estates, was spent in the outfit of the hundred thousand n.o.bles, who, at the beginning, took the cross. Costly furs, embroidered cushions, curtains of purple dye, pavilions worked with gold, banners of purple or of cloth-of-gold, showy costumes, and shining armor,--such was the splendor that met the eyes of thousands who had never before beheld such a spectacle. The journey to the East brought under the observation of the crusaders, arts and fashions to which they had been strangers, They saw the gilded domes and marble palaces of _Constantinople_, and the treasures of ancient art which had been gathered within the walls of that ancient capital. _Antioch_, with all its wealth, fell into their hands. Later, the merchants of both religions followed in the wake of the armies, and met one another. The superb fabrics of the East were carried to the West by routes which now became safe and familiar. The precious ores and tissues of _Damascus_, and the beautiful gla.s.sware of _Tyre_, were conveyed to _Venice_, and thence to places more distant. Silk stuffs of exquisite beauty were brought from _Mosul_ and _Alexandria_. The elegance of the East, with its rich fabrics, its jewels and pearls, was so enchanting that an enthusiastic crusader termed it "the vestibule of Paradise." It was not the n.o.bles alone in the West who acquired these attractive products of skill and industry. The cities shared in them. Even the lower cla.s.ses partook of the change in the way of living.

LIFE IN THE CASTLE.--Even in the earlier days of feudalism, the seclusion of the castle was not without an influence in promoting domestic intercourse and affection. A new sentiment respecting woman sprang up in the Middle Ages, and was fostered by the honor which the New Testament and the teaching of the Church rendered to saintly women. A spirit of gallantry and devotion to woman, partly natural to the Germanic race, and partly arising from causes like that just named, sprang up in the midst of prevailing ignorance and perpetual strife. In the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries life in the castle is found to be very much improved. In the eleventh century it lacked comfort, to say nothing of luxury. The lights were torches of dry wood: even candles were not in general use. Houses in France, England, and Germany commonly had thatched roofs. They were made of logs covered with a sort of clay or mud. They were built with low and narrow doors, and with small windows which admitted but little light. In the middle of the smoky hall was a large, round fireplace. There was no chimney, but only a funnel, which pierced the ceiling. The seats were benches and stools. The feet of the family and guests were kept warm by hay spread beneath them. In the later period the subst.i.tution of dry rushes and straw was thought to be a marvelous gain. Beds of straw were introduced into all the apartments of n.o.bles, and even of kings. To sleep on a straw couch was deemed a regal luxury. One consequence of the Crusades was to introduce carpets and hangings into the dwellings of the great. Improved timepieces took the place of the water-clocks, which were a wonder in the days of Charlemagne. In the twelfth century the castle begins to look less like a dungeon. Within and without, it ceases to wear so exclusively the aspect of a fortress. The furniture has more beauty. In the great hall are the large tables attached to the floor, the sideboards, the cupboards, the stately chair of the lord, the couch with its canopy, the chests for the wearing-apparel, the armor on the walls. In the thirteenth century France was covered with chateaux, which, in the case of princes and n.o.bles of highest rank, had their s.p.a.cious courts, their stables, their lodgings for the servants. All these were within the precincts of the palace. In the great hall were held the a.s.semblies of va.s.sals, banquets, judicial trials. In the wealthiest mansions, there was a main saloon on the floor above, reached by a spiral stairway, and serving also for the princ.i.p.al bed-chamber. There the stone floor gave place to marble of varied colors. Mosaics and other ornaments were introduced. Sculptures, carvings, and mural paintings decorated the apartments. Gla.s.s mirrors, imported by way of Venice, began to supersede the mirrors of polished metal. Larger windows, of painted gla.s.s, became common among the rich, in the room of the small pieces of gla.s.s, or of alabaster, which had before served to let in a few rays of light. Tallow candles came into vogue. Lamps were not unknown. On great occasions, lanterns and wax candles were used for a festive illumination. Chimneys were in use, and about the vast fire-place the family group could gather. The hospitality of the castle was often bountiful. The chase, the favorite amus.e.m.e.nt, gave life and animation to the scene, and prepared the inmates for the feast that followed. Minstrels enlivened the social gathering. Troops of mountebanks and buffoons furnished amus.e.m.e.nt, and were sometimes lavishly rewarded. There were singers and buffoons who were attached permanently to the household. There were others who traveled from place to place, and were even organized into corporations or guilds. The _fool_, or _jester_, to whom a large license was allowed, was long deemed a necessary adjunct of the castle-hall. Carriages were little used; rank was indicated by the accouterments of the war-horse or of the palfrey. From the twelfth century onward, the improvement in the comforts of living was not confined to the n.o.bles and to rich burghers in cities. It was shared by the rural cla.s.ses, notwithstanding the miseries--such as insecurity, and dangers of famine--that belonged to their condition.

POVERTY AND DISEASE.--A French writer on the history of luxury, speaking of France in this period, says, "In the cities, we meet at once luxury, certain beginnings of prosperity, and frightful misery. _Beggary_ exists in a form the most hideous: there is an organization of it with grades, and a sort of hierarchy. In the face of sumptuous costumes, of chateaux better adorned, of the nascent wealth of industry, France included more than two thousand _lepers_, and knew not how to treat maladies born of the most imperfect hygiene and the most sordid filth. Such were the extremes. The course of general progress went forward between them."

The condition of the poorest cla.s.s in England was no better. "The absence of vegetable food for the greater part of the year, the personal dirt of the people, the sleeping at night in the clothes worn in the day, and other causes, made skin-diseases frightfully common. At the outskirts of every town in England, there were crawling about emaciated creatures covered with loathsome sores, living Heaven knows how. They were called by the common name of lepers; and probably the leprosy, strictly so called, was awfully common." Such being the life of the poor in villages, and in the absence of drainage and other modern safeguards of health, in large towns, it is no wonder that in the Middle Ages there were terrible pestilences, and that the average length of life was much less than at present.

ORIGIN AND NATURE OF CHIVALRY.--It was in the period of the crusades that the mediaeval inst.i.tution of chivalry was enn.o.bled by receiving a religious consecration. Chivalry is a comprehensive term, denoting a system of ideas and customs that prevailed in the middle ages. In the western kingdoms of Europe there was gradually formed a distinct cla.s.s of warriors of superior rank, who fought on horseback, and were recognized as _knights_ by a ceremony of equipment with arms. Among the customs of the ancient Germans, which are noticed by Tacitus, and in which may be discovered the germs of chivalry, are the remarkable deference paid to women, attendance of the aspiring youth on a military superior,--out of which va.s.salship arose,--and the formal receiving of arms on reaching manhood. At the outset, knighthood was linked to feudal service: the knights were landholders. In the age of Charlemagne, the warriors on horseback--the _caballarii_--were the precursors, both in name and function, of the _chevaliers_ of later times. The word _knight_, meaning a youth or servant, and then a military attendant, came to be a term of equivalent meaning. The necessary connection of knighthood with the possession of fiefs was broken in the thirteenth century, through changes in the circ.u.mstances of warfare. Knighthood became independent of feudalism. It was a personal distinction, frequently bestowed as a reward for brave deeds, and often conferred with elaborate ceremonies, partly of a religious character. When the boy of gentle birth pa.s.sed from under the care of females, he first served as a _page_ or valet at the court of a prince or the castle of a rich n.o.ble. Having been thus trained in habits of courtesy and obedience, he was advanced, not earlier than the age of fourteen, to the rank of _squire_, and instructed in horsemanship and in the use of weapons. He followed his master to the tournament and in battle, until finally he was himself dubbed a _knight_, was clothed in armor of steel, and took on him all the obligations and privileges of his order. The introduction of hereditary surnames and of armorial bearings served to distinguish the members of this order. He who was a knight in one place was a knight everywhere.

There were different cla.s.ses of knights. The "bachelor," who bore a forked pennon, was below the "knight-banneret," who alone had the right to carry the square banner. The banneret was required to have a certain estate, and to be able to bring into the field a certain number of lances, _i.e._, inferior knights with their men-at-arms and foot-soldiers. Each knight was accompanied by his squire and personal attendants. Not seldom two knights joined together in a brotherhood in arms, pledging themselves to sustain each other in every peril.