Heroines of the Crusades Part 43

"_Opened Negotiations with the Sultan of Egypt._"--Frederic signed a treaty with Camel, which more effectually promoted the object of the Holy Wars than the efforts of any former sovereign. For ten years the Christians and Mussulmans were to live upon terms of brotherhood.

Jerusalem, Jaffa, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and their appendages, and the Holy Sepulchre, were restored to the Christians.

NOTE KKKK.--PAGE 348.

"_Simon de Montfort._"--The family of Montforts seems to have been fiercely ambitious. They trace their origin to "Charlemagne."

Simon de Montfort, the true leader of the war against the Albigeois was a veteran of the crusades, hardened in the unsparing battles of the Templars and the a.s.sa.s.sins. On his return from the Holy Land he engaged in this b.l.o.o.d.y crusade, in the South of France.

His second son seeking in England the fortune which he had missed in France, fought on the side of the English commons, and threw open to them the doors of Parliament. After having had both king and kingdom in his power, he was overcome and slain. His son (grandson of the celebrated Montfort, who was the chief in the crusade against the Albigeois) avenged him by murdering in Italy, at the foot of the altar, the nephew of the king of England, who was returning from the Holy Land. This deed ruined the Montforts. Ever after they were looked upon with _horror and detestation_.--_Michelet._

NOTE LLLL.--PAGE 351.

"_Richard of Cornwall_," in the spring of the year 1240, embarked for the crusade. The Christian name of the Earl of Cornwall alarmed the Saracens.

The very word Richard was dreaded in Syria; so great was the terror which Coeur de Lion had spread.

NOTE MMMM.--PAGE 351.

"_Greek Fire._"--This was invented in the 7th century. When the Arabs besieged Constantinople, a Greek architect deserted from the Caliph to the Greeks, and took with him a composition, which by its wonderful effects, struck terror into the enemy, and forced them to take flight. Sometimes it was wrapped in flax attached to arrows and javelins, and so thrown into the fortifications and other buildings of the enemy to set them on fire.

At other times it was used in throwing stone b.a.l.l.s from iron or metallic tubes against the enemy. The use of this fire continued at least until the end of the 13th century, but no contemporary writer has handed down to us any accurate account of its composition.

NOTE NNNN.--PAGE 351.

"_King Louis._"--The superst.i.tion of a French king, and the successes of the savage Korasmians, gave birth to the seventh crusade. One night during the Christmas festival (A.D. 1245), Louis caused magnificent crosses, fabricated by goldsmiths, to be sown on the new dresses, which, as usual upon such occasions, had been bestowed upon the courtiers. The next day the cavaliers were surprised at the religious ornaments which had been affixed to their cloaks; but piety and loyalty combined to prevent them from renouncing the honors which had been thrust upon them.

NOTE OOOO.--PAGE 351.

"_Statutes of Oxford._"--The English barons a.s.sembled at Oxford, on the 11th of June, 1258, and obliged the king and his eldest son, then eighteen years of age, to agree to a treaty by which twenty-four of their own body, at the head of whom was De Montfort, had authority given them to reform all abuses.--_History of England._

NOTE PPPP.--PAGE 355.

"_Mamelukes._"--Slaves from the Caucasian countries, who, from menial offices, were advanced to the dignities of state. They did not, however, form a separate body; but when Genghis Khan made himself master of the greatest part of Asia, in the thirteenth century, and carried vast numbers of the inhabitants into slavery, the Sultan of Egypt bought twelve thousand of them, and had them instructed in military exercises, and formed a regular corps of them. They soon exhibited a spirit of insubordination and rebellion, and in 1254 appointed one of their own number Sultan of Egypt. Their dominion continued two hundred and sixty-three years.--_Encyclopedia._

NOTE QQQQ.--PAGE 355.

"_Damascus Steel._"--Damascus was celebrated in the middle ages for the manufacture of sabres, of such peculiar quality as to be perfectly elastic and very hard.

NOTE RRRR.--PAGE 358.

"_Eva Strongbow._"--Dermot, King of Leinster, formed a treaty with Pritchard, surnamed Strongbow, earl of Strigul. This n.o.bleman who was of the ill.u.s.trious house of Clare, had impaired his fortune by expensive pleasures, and being ready for any desperate undertaking, he promised a.s.sistance to Dermot on condition that he should espouse Eva, daughter of that prince, and be declared heir to all his dominions.--_Hume's History of England._

NOTE SSSS.--PAGE 362.

"_Queen Gold._"--One great cause of the queen's unpopularity in London originated from the unprincipled manner in which she exercised her influence to compel all vessels freighted with corn, wool, or any peculiarly valuable cargo, to unlade at her hithe, or quay, called Queen-hithe, because at that port the dues which formed a part of the revenues of the queens-consort of England, and the tolls, were paid according to the value of the lading. In order to annoy the citizens of London, Henry, during the disputes regarding the queen's gold, revived the old Saxon custom of convening folkmotes which was in reality the founding the House of Commons.--_Queens of England._

NOTE TTTT.--PAGE 365.

"_Holy crown of Thorns._"--This inestimable relic was borne in triumph through Paris by Louis himself--barefoot and in his s.h.i.+rt, and a free gift of ten thousand marks reconciled the emperor, Baldwin de Courtenay, to his loss. The success of this transaction tempted him to send to the king a large and authentic portion of the true cross, the baby linen of the Son of G.o.d, the lance, the sponge, and the chain of his Pa.s.sion.--_Gibbon_, vol. vi. p. 122.

NOTE UUUU.--PAGE 367.

"_Lay concealed._"--During the captivity of her husband and son, it is a.s.serted that Eleanor, of Provence, made more than one private visit to England, but she ostensibly resided in France with her younger children, under the kind protection of her sister, Queen Marguerite. Robert, of Gloucester said that she was _espy_ in the land for the purpose of liberating her brave son.--_Queens of England._

NOTE VVVV.--PAGE 373.

"_Shouts of pursuers._"--Lady Maud Mortimer having sent her instructions to Prince Edward, he made his escape by riding races with his attendants till he had tired their horses, when he rode up to a thicket where dame Maud had ambushed a swift steed. Mounting his gallant courser, Edward turned to his guard, and bade them "commend him to his sire the king, and tell him he would soon be at liberty," and then galloped off; while an armed party appeared on the opposite hill, a mile distant, and displayed the banner of Mortimer.--_Queens of England._

NOTE WWWW.--PAGE 386.

When the Old Man rode forth, he was preceded by a crier who bore a Danish axe with a long handle, all covered with silver, and stuck full of daggers, who proclaimed, "Turn from before him who bears the death of kings in his hands."--_Joinville_, p. 97.

NOTE x.x.xX.--PAGE 387.

"_Fedavis._"--Henri, Count of Champagne, visiting the grand-prior of the a.s.sa.s.sins, the latter led him up a lofty tower, at each battlement of which stood two fedavis (devotees). On a sign from him, two of these sentinels flung themselves from the top of the tower. "If you wish it," he said to the count, "all these men shall do the same."--_Michelet._

NOTE YYYY.--PAGE 390.

"_Loving lips._"--"It is storied," says Fuller, "how Eleanor, his lady, sucked all the poison out of his wounds without doing any harm to herself.

So sovereign a remedy is a woman's tongue, anointed with the virtue of a loving affection. Pity it is that so pretty a story should not be true (with all the miracles in love's legends); and sure he shall get himself no credit, who undertaketh to confute a pa.s.sage so sounding to the honor of the s.e.x."

NOTE ZZZZ.--PAGE 406.

"_Earl of Devon._"--The Courtenays derive their ancestry from "Louis the Fat." Beside the branch that was established upon the throne of Constantinople, a part of the family settled in England, and twelve Earls of Devons.h.i.+re of the name of Courtenay were ranked among the chief barons of the realm, for a period of more than two hundred years.

By sea and land they fought under the standard of the Edwards and Henrys.

Their names are conspicuous in battles, in tournaments, and in the original list of the Order of the Garter; three brothers shared the Spanish victory of the Black Prince. One, the favorite of Henry the Eighth, in the Camp of the Cloth of Gold broke a lance against the French monarch. Another lived a prisoner in the Tower, and the secret love of Queen Mary, whom he slighted perhaps for the princess Elizabeth, and his exile at Padua, has shed a romantic interest on the annals of the race.--_Gibbon's Rome._

NOTE AAAAA.--PAGE 407.

"_Merlin._"--Merlin Ambrose, a British writer who flourished about the latter end of the fifth century. The accounts we have of him are so mixed up with fiction, that to disentangle his real life from the ma.s.s would be impossible. He was the greatest sage and mathematician of his time, the counsellor and friend of five English kings, Voltigern, Ambrosius, Uther, Pendragon, and Arthur. He uttered many prophecies respecting the future state of England.--_Encyclopedia._