The Normans in European historyHaskins, Charles Homer
History
The Normans in European history
Haskins, Charles Homer
Europe -- History; Great Britain -- History -- Medieval period, 1066-1485; Normans -- Europe
Nevertheless a peace was patched up, and the unwilling Philip was
unable to hold aloof from the crusade which fired the military ardor
of his chief vassal and rival. Large sums of money were raised by
every means, and the two kings made an agreement to divide equally all
the spoil of their expedition. They also arranged to go by sea to the
East after they had assembled their ships and followers at Messina,
thus avoiding the usual complications with the Eastern Empire and the
fatal march through the barren and hostile interior of Asia Minor
which now claimed another victim in the gallant German emperor. At the
best, however, a crusade was not an organized campaign under efficient
direction, but merely a number of independent expeditions which found
it convenient to go at the same time and by the same route. There
was no supreme command, and there was constant jealousy and friction
between feudal lords who were ever impatient of restraint and careful
of points of dignity and precedence. The presence of a king was of
some help, the presence of two only made matters worse. If the causes
of rivalry at home and the slighting of Philip’s sister could have
been forgotten, there was still the fact that Richard was Philip’s
vassal as well as his equal, and Richard was not of the type to spare
Philip’s susceptibilities. Rich, open-handed, fond of display,
Lion-Heart “loved the lime-light,” and his overbearing nature and
lack of tact made it impossible for him to coöperate with others. He
characteristically went his own way, paying scant attention to Philip
and acting as if the leadership of the expedition belonged to himself
as a matter of course. Relations became strained during the sojourn at
Messina and grew worse in Palestine, where the affairs of the Latin
kingdom and the rivalries of lesser princes added fuel to the flame.
“The two kings and peoples,” says an English chronicler, “did less
together than they would have done separately, and each set but light
store by the other.” Sick of the whole enterprise, after four months in
the East, Philip seized the first excuse to return home, departing in
August, 1191.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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