A History of the Crusades-Vol 1 (39 page)

Godfrey’s Last
Illness

When he returned to Galilee, about 18 June, from
his raid in the Jaulan, Godfrey learnt that a strong Venetian squadron had put
into Jaffa. Knowing how useful it would be for the control of the coasts, he
hurried down to greet it. From Tiberias he travelled past Acre and Haifa to
Caesarea. The Emir, anxious to show respect to his suzerain, invited him to a
banquet where he was treated with the utmost honour. From the banquet Godfrey
went straight on to Jaffa. He was feeling ill when he arrived, and collapsed
when he reached the hostel that he had himself constructed for distinguished
visitors. His friends remembered all the fruit that he had eaten at the Emir’s
table and whispered of poison. In truth his illness was probably typhoid. Next
day he had recovered his strength sufficiently to receive the commander of the
Venetian fleet and a bishop that accompanied him, and to discuss the terms on
which they would aid the Crusaders. But the effort was too much for him; and he
asked his household to convey him up to Jerusalem. In the cooler air of the
capital he rallied a little; but he was too weak to conduct business.

Round his sick-bed the politicians wrangled.
Daimbert waited impatiently for the moment when he should take over the city.
The Venetians were eager to fix up their arrangements. They came in two parties
up to Jerusalem to worship at the holy places, the first on 21 June and the
second on the 24th; but their commander and their bishop probably remained
longer to carry on the negotiations. Hearing of their coming, and of Godfrey’s
illness, Tancred hastened south from Galilee. From his sick-room Godfrey
deputed his cousin, the Burgundian count, Warner of Gray, to act for him; and
he gave his approval to the terms that the Venetians put forward. They were to
be allowed to trade freely throughout the Frankish state; they were to receive
a church and a market in every town of the state; they were to receive a third
of every town that they helped to capture, and the whole of the city of
Tripoli, for which they would pay Godfrey a tribute. In return they would give
their aid to the Crusaders up to 15 August. Discussions then were held to
decide which towns should be attacked that summer. It was agreed that, in spite
of the Emir’s treaty with Godfrey, Acre should be the main objective, and Haifa
should also be taken. Tancred hoped to secure Acre for his principality; but
Godfrey personally promised Haifa to his friend Geldemar Carpenel.

During the first fortnight of July Godfrey
seemed a little stronger; and it was thought that he might recover. Plans for
the expedition against Acre were pushed ahead. Tancred’s troops joined him at
the capital; and Warner of Gray was put in command of Godfrey’s troops. The
Patriarch Daimbert then determined to accompany the expedition, in order to
show himself as the chief authority in the land and to have a say in any
distribution of territory. He distrusted Warner, and he thought it safe to
leave Jerusalem when Godfrey was too ill to take any action and all his men
were away on the campaign. He never made a worse calculation.

The Patriarch, Tancred and Warner and all their
men left Jerusalem on 13 July and marched down to Jaffa to establish liaison
with the Venetians. As they approached Jaffa Warner fell suddenly ill. He was
clearly in no state to continue on the campaign; so he remained for four days
at Jaffa and then was carried back in a litter to Jerusalem. Meanwhile the army
marched swiftly northward along the coast; and the Venetian ships prepared to
sail up on its flank. But the north wind held them back, and they made little
progress.

Warner had hardly arrived in Jerusalem when
Godfrey’s weary heart gave out. On Wednesday, 18 July, strengthened by the last
rites of the Church, Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine and Advocate of the Holy
Sepulchre, sank quietly to his rest. He had been a weak and unwise ruler; but
men of every nation had respected him for his courage, his modesty and his
faith. In Jerusalem the news of his death was greeted with mourning. For five
days he lay in state; then they buried him in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

CHAPTER IV

THE KINGDOM OF
JERUSALEM

‘Nay; but we
will have a king over us.
I SAMUEL VIII, 19

As he lay ill Godfrey of Lorraine had made a
will in which, faithful to his promise at Easter, he bequeathed the city of
Jerusalem to the Patriarch. When he died there was no one of any authority left
in Jerusalem, except for Warner of Gray. The Patriarch and the leading knights
were all away on the campaign against Acre. Warner himself was a dying man, but
he saw what must be done. Rising from his sick-bed he at once occupied the
Tower of David and manned it with Godfrey’s personal guard. Then, after
consulting with the officers of Godfrey’s household, Matthew the Seneschal and
Godfrey the Chamberlain, and with Robert, Bishop of Ramleh, and the ex-Patriarch
Arnulf, he sent the Bishop of Ramleh with two knights post-haste to Edessa, to
tell Baldwin of his brother’s death and to summon him to take over the
heritage; for they would only obey one of his kin. The move had been planned
beforehand; for the invitation to Baldwin ran in the names also of knights at
present with the army, such as Geldemar Carpenel and Wicher the Aleman. The
group consisted of Lorrainers and northern French, who had come to the Crusade
with Godfrey or who had attached themselves to him, and who were bitterly
opposed to the Normans and the Italians, under whose influence Godfrey had
fallen. But their secret was well kept; and they thought it wise still to keep
it. News of the Duke’s death was not sent to the army.

But while the Venetian ships were still close
to Jaffa waiting for the north wind to drop, a messenger came through to them
from Jerusalem to tell them that Godfrey was dead. Their commander, wondering
how this would affect the campaign, at once dispatched his three swiftest
galleys up the coast to overtake Tancred and the Patriarch and ask what their
plans would now be. The news came as a shock to the army, by whom Godfrey was
well liked. Daimbert seems to have hesitated. He was anxious about his
inheritance. But he had confidence in Godfrey’s will, and he believed the
Lorrainers to be leaderless. When Tancred, who was determined not to waste this
opportunity of Venetian aid, suggested that the attack on Acre might be
postponed but that Haifa at least should be taken, he concurred. But he sent an
envoy to Jerusalem to take over the Tower of David in his name.

The army moved on to Haifa and encamped on the
slopes of Mount Carmel; and soon afterwards the Venetian squadron sailed into
the bay. Haifa was inhabited mostly by Jews, with a small Egyptian garrison.
The Jews, remembering how their colonies in Jerusalem and Galilee had fared,
were ready to defend themselves to the end. The Moslems provided them with
arms; and they fought with all the tenacity of their race. The Venetians after
losing a ship in a battle in the harbour moved out discouraged into the bay;
while Tancred, furious on learning suddenly that Godfrey had promised Haifa to
Geldemar Carpenel, called off his men and retired to sulk in his tent. Daimbert
needed all his tact to persuade him to resume the attack. He pointed out that
the Venetians were already preparing to sail away, and he promised to see to it
that the best man should be given Haifa. When Tancred agreed to co-operate once
more, a fresh assault was launched. After a desperate struggle the chief tower
in the defences was stormed and an entrance was forced. Those of the Moslems
and Jews that could escape from the town fled to Acre or to Caesarea; but the
majority were massacred.

Daimbert’s
Appeal to Bohemond

Haifa fell on about 25 July. Immediately
afterwards the leaders of the army held a conference to decide to whom it
should be allotted. Tancred had the larger forces and Daimbert’s support.
Geldemar Carpenel could do nothing against him and was driven out of the town.
He retired, accompanied by the Lorrainers in the army, and made his way to the
south of Palestine, where he established himself in Hebron; whose former lord,
Gerard of Avesnes, was probably still at Haifa with Tancred. Next, Daimbert and
Tancred came together to discuss the greater question, the future of the
government of Jerusalem. Daimbert had by now heard from Jerusalem. His envoy
had found Warner of Gray in possession of the Tower of David, which he refused
to hand over to the Patriarch’s representatives; and he learnt that Baldwin had
been summoned south. Warner himself died on 23 July, worn out by his last
exertions; but though the Patriarch’s friends saw in his death the hand of God,
punishing him for his impiety, it did them no good; for the tower was safely in
the possession of the Lorrainers. Daimbert could not hope to realize his claims
un-aided. Tancred’s alliance was essential; for his principality now stretched
from the east of the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean, cutting off Jerusalem
from the north. Tancred, for his part, had loathed Baldwin ever since their
quarrels in Cilicia, three years before. With Tancred’s full approval, Daimbert
decided that the government of Palestine should be offered to Bohemond. His own
secretary, Morellus, was ordered to set off at once for Antioch with a letter
for the prince.

Daimbert did not intend Bohemond to hold any
illusions about the nature of his future sovereignty. He opened his letter by
recalling that Bohemond had helped to elect him to the Patriarchate of the see
which he described, with a superb disregard of the claims of Rome, as the
mother of all Churches and the mistress of the nations. He next told of the
concessions that he had extracted from Godfrey and complained of the attempts
of the Duke’s entourage to prevent them. He repeated the terms of the endowment
made on Easter Day and emphasized that by it Jerusalem should have passed to
him on Godfrey’s death. But Warner of Gray had wrongfully seized the Tower of
David and had offered the inheritance to Baldwin. Daimbert therefore summoned
Bohemond to come to his assistance, just as Bohemond’s father had come to the
assistance of Pope Gregory VII when the German emperors oppressed him — a
memory that was not so propitious for the Church as Daimbert seems to have
thought. Bohemond was to write to Baldwin to forbid him to come to Palestine
without the permission of the Patriarch; and if Baldwin disobeyed then Bohemond
must use force to restrain him. That is to say, in order that the Patriarch
might rule over Palestine in defiance of the wishes of the knights on whom the
defence of the country rested, the Christian Prince of Antioch was to declare
war on the Christian Count of Edessa.

What answer Bohemond would have given to the letter
cannot be known. It is unlikely that he would have been rash enough to risk a
conflict with Baldwin; nor, had he come to Palestine, would he have long
remained subservient to the Patriarch. But the invitation never reached him.
Daimbert’s luck was out.

Raymond Visits
Constantinople

During the last few months there had been
changes in the situation in northern Syria. Raymond of Toulouse had spent the
winter months at Lattakieh, governing it in condominium with the
representatives of the Emperor. He was on excellent terms with the governor of
Cyprus, from whom he could receive supplies. Some time in the spring he
received a letter from Alexius, thanking him for his help and asking him to
hand over Lattakieh to the Byzantine authorities. An invitation to visit the
imperial court was included. It is probable that the letter was conveyed from
Constantinople by the eunuch Eustathius, recently elevated to be admiral of the
imperial fleet, who came out with a strong squadron and at once set about the
recapture of the ports of western Cilicia, Seleucia and Corycus, and then
extended his power over Bohemond’s Cilician territory further east, occupying
Tarsus, Adana and Mamistra. Raymond accepted the invitation and sailed for
Constantinople at the beginning of June. At Cyprus he met the Venetian squadron
that was on its way to Jaffa, and he arrived at the imperial capital about the
end of the month. His countess, Elvira of Aragon, who had stayed by his side
throughout all his travels, remained at Lattakieh, under the protection of the
Byzantine authorities, together with what was left of the armies of Toulouse
and Provence.

Daimbert’s secretary Morellus arrived at
Lattakieh at the end of July on his way to Antioch. The authorities detained
him to examine his papers and discovered the letter to Bohemond. Raymond’s men,
to whom it was sent for translation, were so shocked by it that they suppressed
it and arrested Morellus.

Had Bohemond received the letter, his whole
future would have been happier. At the beginning of August, still ignorant of
events in Palestine, he marched from Antioch up the Euphrates, in answer to an
appeal from the Armenians of Melitene. In the early summer he had been able to
consolidate his south-eastern frontier beyond the Orontes, defeating a counter-attack
from Ridwan of Aleppo, who was driven to ask for help from the Emir of Homs.
Relations between Homs and Aleppo were too uncertain to cause Bohemond any
alarm, even though the Moslems were able to recapture Tel-Mannas, which had
been left without an adequate garrison when Raymond Pilet had left it to travel
south with the Count of Toulouse. Bohemond felt able to extend his dominions
towards the north. Owing to lack of sea-power he had not been able to prevent
the Byzantine reconquest of Cilicia; but he was anxious to control the passes
of the Anti-Taurus, through which any Byzantine expedition against Antioch
itself would probably travel. In consequence, when Gabriel of Melitene, in
expectation of an attack from Malik Ghazi Gumushtekin, the Danishmend Emir of
Sebastea, begged for his help, Bohemond gladly responded. For three summers the
Danishmend Emir had raided Gabriel’s territory; and it was feared now that he
would march on the town itself. After the experience of his son-in-law Thoros
of Edessa, Gabriel was unwilling to appeal to Baldwin, although he was nearer
at hand. But Bohemond showed consideration towards the Armenians. Amongst his
friends were the Armenian bishop of Antioch, Cyprian, and Gregory, Bishop of
Marash. Using their mediation Gabriel offered to yield his city to Bohemond, if
only the Turkish menace could be ended.