History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
Philip Augustus, and Richard the First, are the only kings of France and
England who have fought under the same banners; but the holy service
in which they were enlisted was incessantly disturbed by their national
jealousy; and the two factions, which they protected in Palestine, were
more averse to each other than to the common enemy. In the eyes of the
Orientals; the French monarch was superior in dignity and power; and, in
the emperor's absence, the Latins revered him as their temporal chief.
[71] His exploits were not adequate to his fame. Philip was brave,
but the statesman predominated in his character; he was soon weary of
sacrificing his health and interest on a barren coast: the surrender
of Acre became the signal of his departure; nor could he justify this
unpopular desertion, by leaving the duke of Burgundy with five hundred
knights and ten thousand foot, for the service of the Holy Land. The
king of England, though inferior in dignity, surpassed his rival in
wealth and military renown; [72] and if heroism be confined to brutal and
ferocious valor, Richard Plantagenet will stand high among the heroes
of the age. The memory of _Cur de Lion_, of the lion-hearted prince, was
long dear and glorious to his English subjects; and, at the distance of
sixty years, it was celebrated in proverbial sayings by the grandsons of
the Turks and Saracens, against whom he had fought: his tremendous name
was employed by the Syrian mothers to silence their infants; and if
a horse suddenly started from the way, his rider was wont to exclaim,
"Dost thou think King Richard is in that bush?" [73] His cruelty to the
Mahometans was the effect of temper and zeal; but I cannot believe that
a soldier, so free and fearless in the use of his lance, would have
descended to whet a dagger against his valiant brother Conrad of
Montferrat, who was slain at Tyre by some secret assassins. [74] After
the surrender of Acre, and the departure of Philip, the king of England
led the crusaders to the recovery of the sea-coast; and the cities
of CÊsarea and Jaffa were added to the fragments of the kingdom of
Lusignan. A march of one hundred miles from Acre to Ascalon was a great
and perpetual battle of eleven days. In the disorder of his troops,
Saladin remained on the field with seventeen guards, without lowering
his standard, or suspending the sound of his brazen kettle-drum: he
again rallied and renewed the charge; and his preachers or heralds
called aloud on the _unitarians_, manfully to stand up against
the Christian idolaters. But the progress of these idolaters was
irresistible; and it was only by demolishing the walls and buildings of
Ascalon, that the sultan could prevent them from occupying an important
fortress on the confines of Egypt. During a severe winter, the armies
slept; but in the spring, the Franks advanced within a day's march
of Jerusalem, under the leading standard of the English king; and
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