CHAP. had favoured the idea at first, angry with the lukewarmness of the French king, and perhaps not disinclined to make tardy reparation to the family of Toulouse. But however sincere and just might have been the views of Innocent in this respect, they were totally changed in his seven days' interview with the King of France at Cluny. It gives a high idea of the address of Louis, that he on that occasion gained all that he desired from the Church, giving in return nothing that the Pontiff sought. The Pope granted him a tenth from the clergy for his crusade, and promised to withhold the dispensation necessary for the marriage of Raymond; whilst Louis by no means consented to abet the Pope's hostility to the Emperor Frederic. Provence, however, was an imperial fief, and transferring its possessions and suzerainty to a French prince was to deal a blow to the German. What Louis proposed was to allow the Marquis of Provence to bequeath his dominions to Beatrice, and then to secure the marriage of that heiress with his younger brother Charles, who was already endowed with Anjou. The marquis expired in 1245, leaving a will, in accordance with the French king's wishes, instituting Beatrice his heiress. Raymond, relying on the Pope and supported by the King of Aragon, advanced to claim his affianced bride. But Charles of Anjou of a sudden arrived with an army. The whole of Provence preferred the French to the Toulousan prince, foreseeing in the choice of the latter a war which would devastate the country; and the marriage of Charles of Anjou with the heiress of Provence was concluded. This acquisition by a French prince of one of the most important imperial fiefs must have roused the ire of Frederic; but the emperor could not at that time engage in a quarrel with the King of France. Henry the Third complained that the sixteen fortresses which formed the dowry of his wife, Eleanor of Pro vence, were confiscated and lost by this marriage and by the French invasion. He laid the blame chiefly on his mother-in-law Beatrice. She had visited England some time previous, and had been received with great honours. But when she had opportunity to discover and judge of the weakness of the King of England and his brother Richard, Beatrice regretted aloud "the having given her gars (daughters) to such imbecile princes." Another disputed succession that St. Louis decided about the time was that of Flanders and Hainault. Jeanne, who inherited these duchies, and who had given them to her husband, Thomas of Savoy, dying without heirs, they passed to her sister Margaret. The countess had first married Bouchard, Lord of Avesnes, by whom she had several children. But it appeared that Bouchard had taken deacons' orders before entering upon military service: this coming to the ears of the Pope, His Holiness declared that he must in consequence put away his wife. D'Avesnes having repaired to Rome, was reluctantly compelled to submit to the Pope's injunction. There is an affecting account of his return and meeting with his wife, who, till then, had remained ignorant of the papal sentence. Margaret afterwards married the Count of Dampierre, by whom she had also a family; and as the sons by each marriage claimed the heritage, the dispute was likely to terminate in civil war. Margaret, however, referred the decision of the cause to St. Louis; and he settled it with his usual sense of equity, paying no attention to the ecclesiastical nullification of the marriage with D'Avesnes. The king accorded Hainault to the issue of the first marriage, and Flanders to the second, which thus passed to the family of Dampierre. In 1248 the king had almost completed his preparations for the crusade. Possessed as yet but of the right bank of the Rhone, there was no port on the Mediterranean deep and capacious enough to contain a fleet, or CHAP. VI. СНАР. to be the place of naval communication with the Levant. He therefore founded the town of Aigues Mortes, Dead Waters, on one of the lakes towards the issue of the Rhone. In order to people it, he excepted it from the taille, and allowed it free municipal government. Another preliminary to the crusade was to make amends to those wronged, and restitution of property unlawfully taken. The king appointed commissioners to inquire and restore whatever the crown or its officers had unjustly taken. Richard of Cornwall not inaptly seized the opportunity to demand the restoration of Normandy and the provinces taken from King John. Louis's conscience was sadly perplexed, but he at length declared that he could not restore those provinces against the wishes of his nobles and the advice of his mother. Several English joined Louis in his expedition: Simon de Montfort, and William Longue-Epée, Earl of Salisbury, amongst others. The Count of Toulouse also promised to accompany the King of France, as did the young Trencavel, Count of Beziers. A great many of the faydits, or dispossessed Albigenses, followed the example. And it is possible that these followers of St. Louis, entering into the order of the Templars, introduced amongst them those heretical opinions and doctrines for which the papal monks and soldiers were afterwards, like the Albigenses, massacred and burned. In the summer of 1248, St. Louis, taking the national banner and at the same time his pilgrim's staff from the monks of St. Denis, began his journey on bare feet to the convent of St. Antoine, and from thence mounted on horseback. His mother, Blanche, remained to govern in his absence. His queen, Margaret, accompanied him, as did his three brothers. Louis flung off his courtly robes and furs, and would wear nothing but brown stuff and rabbit skin on his royal garments. At Lyons he met the Pope, who was as usual employed and absorbed in cursing the Emperor Frederic, and preaching a cru sade against him, rather than against the Saracens. The king, out of respect to the Count of Toulouse, who accompanied him, besought the Pope to allow the body of his father Raymond to be buried. But even this the Pontiff refused to grant. Louis did not embark until August, and reached Cyprus, which was the place of rendezvous, in September. His brother crusaders and their forces, in different vessels, were slow to arrive; so that winter surprised them and kept them in Cyprus; nor was it till the following June that the king could sail to Egypt. The Sultan of that country was the most powerful of the Mussulman princes; it was he who had taken Jerusalem, and slain the Christians there, so that the Holy Land was considered to be best conquered in Egypt. Several of the Mussulman chiefs in Palestine sent embassies, and sought alliance; as did one of the great Tartar princes, affecting an inclination to Christianity. But little came of these overtures, and a fleet of nearly 2000 sail bore 3000 knights, and their still more numerous followers, to the shores of Egypt. There were not more than 6000 Saracens to oppose the landing, which took place without impediment, the king jumping almost the first into the water up to his shoulders. It happened that the Sultan of Egypt was seriously ill at the moment and at the point of death, which made his general, Fakreddin, retire in haste to Cairo, and abandon Damietta to the crusaders without resistance. Here began the necessity for good generalship, for skilful and authoritative command. But the King of France, who in Paris knew so well how to reduce his barons to obedience, in camp could not command his soldiers. His chiefs gave themselves up to all kinds of licence and debauchery, Louis afterwards complaining that there were brothels kept by his followers within a stone's throw of his tent! To have marched on with the army, while the river Nile was yet low, would have CHAP. VI. CHAP. VI. been the wisest step. But the king resolved to await his brother Alphonso, who had been blown off by a tempest to one of the ports of Syria; and thus the army remained at Damietta till November. Peter of Brittany was then for proceeding to Alexandria; but the Count d'Artois insisted on marching to Cairo, "the best way to kill a snake being to aim at the head." The crusaders accordingly marched forth from Damietta, and great was the consternation in Cairo. The Egyptians, however, took courage on perceiving the French advance very slowly. When obstructed by the current of the Nile, they set about piling up earth to make a causeway, and stopped to put together immense wooden towers to protect the work. These towers, or chats chatels, were not completed till Christmas; and they proved useless, the Saracens digging holes in front of the Christian mounds. The infidels, too, made use of Greek fire, flinging it several times in the night: it resembled "a huge tun, with a tail as long as a spear." When King Louis saw these fiery dragons coming upon his towers and his warriors, he shed tears, and prayed loudly to God "to preserve his people." The French, nevertheless, saw all their engines destroyed, and instead of forcing their way, were indebted for their final passage to a ford, the disclosure of which they purchased from a Bedouin. In the passage of this ford, the English and Templars were ordered to advance first, and to guard it, whilst the second and third divisions, under the Count d'Artois and the king, should be crossing. But this order was disobeyed by Robert d'Artois, who galloped off at once to engage the Saracen. The Templars expostulated, but the prince called them traitors, and they felt obliged to follow him in order to refute the reproach. Robert d'Artois had, on a former occasion, insulted the English crusaders, especially William of the Long Sword, illegitimate son of King Henry. William had |