University of Virginia Library

IV.4. CHAPTER IV

HOW THE KING TOOK THE CROSS FOR HIS LAST PILGRIMAGE — HIS DEATH, BURIAL, AND CANONIZATION; AND OF THE VISION THAT APPEARED TO THE LORD OF JOINVILLE.

AFTER the events above narrated, it came to pass one Lent, that the King summoned all his barons to Paris. I excused myself, on account of a quartan fever, from which I was suffering at the time, and begged him to allow me to stay away. But he sent me word that he was absolutely determined I should come, for he had good doctors there who well understood the cure of quartan fever. So to Paris I went. When I arrived, on the evening of the Vigil of Our Lady in March, I found neither the King, nor anyone who could tell me why the King had sent for me. Now it so happened by God's will that I fell asleep at Matins; and in my sleep methought I saw the King on his knees before an altar, and methought several prelates in their vestments were clothing him

with a crimson chasuble of Rheims serge. After this vision, I called my priest, Lord William, who was a very clever man, and told him the vision; and this is what he said to me: " Sir, you will see that the King will take the Cross to-morrow." I asked him, why he thought so? and he told me that he thought so because of the dream that I had dreamed, for the chasuble of crimson serge betokened the Cross which was crimsoned with the blood that God had shed from his side and hands and feet; " As for the chasuble being of serge of Rheims, that signifies that the Crusade will be one of small note as you will see if God grants you life."

When I had heard mass at the Magdalen at Paris I went into the King's chapel, and found the King, who had gone up into the gallery of relics and was having the true Cross brought down. Whilst the King was on his way down, two knights of his Council began talking together; and one of them said, " Never trust me again, if the King does not take the Cross while he is here." And the other replied " If the King takes the Cross, it will be one of the saddest days in France that ever were. For if we do not take the Cross, we shall lose the

King, and if we do take the Cross we shall lose God, for it will not be for His sake that we take it." Now it came to pass, that the King took the Cross on the morrow and his three sons besides; and afterwards it came to pass that the Crusade was of little note, just as my priest had foretold. I was much urged by the King of France and by the King of Navarre to take the Cross. To this I replied, that all the while that I had been serving God and the King over-seas, and also after my return, the serjeants of the King of France and the King of Navarre had destroyed and impoverished my people; so that I and they should be the worse for it for all time to come. And I told them this: that if I wished to work God's will, I should stay where I was to help and protect my people; for that if I risked my life on the chances of this pilgrimage, seeing as I did quite plainly that it would be to the harm and injury of my people, I should anger God, who gave His life to save His people.

To my mind they committed a deadly sin who encouraged his going; for France had reached a condition when all the kingdom was at peace within itself and with its neighbours; and never again has

it been so since he left it; but the state of the kingdom has steadily gone from bad to worse. A very great sin it was in those who encouraged him to go, seeing how weak he was in health at the time; for he could endure neither to drive nor ride. His weakness was so great that he let me carry him in my arms from the Count of Auxerre's house, where I took leave of him, as far as the Greyfriars. And yet, weak as he was, if he had stayed in France, he might still have lived a good while and done a great deal of good.

I shall not say anything about his journey to Tunis, nor give any account of it, because I was not there thank God! And I do not wish to say or put anything in my book of which I am not quite sure. So we will speak only of our holy King, and say, that after he landed at Tunis, before the castle of Carthage, he fell sick of a catarrh of the stomach, by reason of which he took to his bed, and felt that the time was come for him to pass from this world to the next. Thereupon he called for my Lord Philip his son, and bade him to observe, as though it were his testament, all the instructions that he left him; which instructions are

written below in the common tongue; [1] and the King wrote them so they say with his own blessed hand.

When the good King had given his instructions to my Lord Philip, his infirmity began to increase greatly upon him, and he asked for the sacraments of Holy Church. And he received them with a sound mind and right understanding, as was plain; for, whilst they were anointing him and repeating the seven psalms, he repeated the verses in response. And I heard my lord the Count of Alençon, his son, relate, that when death drew near, he cried on the saints to aid and succour him; and likewise on my Lord St. James, repeating his prayer the while, which begins: "Esto Domine," which means " May the Lord sanctify and watch over our people." Next he called upon my Lord St. Denis to help him, saying his prayer, which means "Lord God, grant that we may so despise the ruggedness of this world that we may fear no adversity." And then I heard my Lord of Alençon say that his father called upon St. Genevieve.

After that, the holy King made them lay him on bed strewn with ashes, and laid his hands upon

his breast, and looking up to heaven, yielded up his spirit to our Creator, in the very same hour when the Son of God died upon the Cross.

A precious matter and worthy of tears is the death of this holy Prince, who so righteously and faithfully watched over his kingdom; who did so many fair works of charity, and founded so many fine institutions. And just as a writer when he has ended his book illuminates it with gold and azure, so did this King illuminate his kingdom with the fair abbeys that he built, and with the almshouses, and convents of Preachers, Greyfriars and other orders aforetold.

On the morrow of the feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, passed away from this world Louis, a good King, in the year of the Incarnation of Our Lord, the year of grace, MCCLXX; and his bones were preserved in a casket and buried at St. Denis in France, where he had chosen his burying-place. In this same place was he buried; and there God has wrought many a fair miracle for his sake and by his merits.

Afterwards, at the instance of the King of France [Philip III], and by the Pope's orders, the

Archbishop of Rouen came, and Brother John of Samoys, who afterwards became bishop. They came to St. Denis in France, and stayed there a long while, inquiring into his life and works and miracles; and I got word to go to them, and they kept me for two days. And after they had made inquiry of me and others, what they had learnt was taken to the Court of Rome, and the Pope and Cardinals diligently perused it. And in accordance with what they had read, they did him justice, and placed him among the number of Martyr Confessors; which was, and always should be, a great joy to the kingdom of France, and a great honour to all of his descendants who will copy him in well doing; and a great honour to all of his race who by good works seek to follow in his footsteps; but a great dishonour to those of his race who seek to work evil, for men will point at them, and will say, that the holy King from whom they sprang would never have done such wickedness.

After this good news had arrived from Rome, the King [Philip IV] appointed a day, the morrow of St. Bartholomew, on which day the holy body was lifted. When it was lifted, the Archbishop of

Rheims, that then was God rest his soul! and Lord Henry of Villars, my nephew, who at that time was Archbishop of Lyons, bore it in front, with many others, archbishops and bishops, whose names I cannot tell; and it was carried to the stage that had been erected.

There, Brother John of Samoys preached the sermon; and among the other great deeds of our holy King, he recorded one to which I had borne witness on my oath, and which I had seen; saying as follows: "In order that you may see that he was the most faith-abiding man that ever lived in his day, I must tell you that he was so faithful, that even when dealing with the Saracens he wanted to keep his promise, though he had only given them his bare word; and though, had it been kept, he would have lost ten thousand pounds and more." And he related all that had happened as it is written further back. And at the end, he said, " Do not imagine that I am deceiving you, for I see a man here who told me this and bore witness to it under oath."

When the sermon was over, the King and his brothers, assisted by their kindred, carried the holy body back into the church; for it behoved them to

do him honour; for great honour has been done to them, if, as I said before, they do not thwart it. Let us beseech him that he will pray God to grant us all we need both for soul and body. Amen.

* * * * * * * *

There is still something that I want to tell you about our holy King, which is to his honour. It is this. In a dream methought I saw him in front of my chapel at Joinville; and methought he was wondrous joyous and light-hearted. And I myself was very happy at seeing him in my castle; and I said to him: " Sir, when you leave this place, I will lodge you in a house of mine, which stands in one of my towns called Chevillon." And he answered me laughing, and said, " By my faith, Sir de Joinville, I am in no such hurry to leave this place."

When I awoke, I thought it over, and it seemed to me that it was God's pleasure and his that I should give him a dwelling in my chapel; and so I have done. For I have built an altar in honour of God and of himself; and there is a revenue appointed in perpetuity for the service of it.

I have reminded my Lord King Louis of these things, who inherits his name; and methinks he would please God and our holy King Louis, if he were to procure some relics of the true holy body, and send them to the said chapel of St. Lawrence at Joinville; so that those who come to his altar may be moved to greater devotion.

I give all men to know that I have herein set down a great part of the deeds of this our holy King, by me seen and heard, and a great part of his deeds that I have come across in a narrative, which I have caused to be written in this book. This I mention, in order that those who shall hear this book may believe firmly in what the book says, which I have truly seen and heard.

This was written in the year of grace MCCCIX, in the month of October.

NOTE TO CHAPTER IV

Guillaume de Nangis supplies a full account of the King's second and last crusade, of which the following is an extract:

The King set out in March, 1270, leaving Simon de Nesle and the Abbot of St. Denis as regents, and was

joined at Aigues Mortes by a crowd so vast that it was impossible to lodge them all in the vicinity.

In the beginning of July the King set sail, having on board with him his three sons, Philip (afterwards King Philip the Bold), Peter, Count of Alençon, and John, Count of Nevers (the same who was born at Damietta and surnamed "Tristan").

On the voyage they met with severe storms, and the fresh water went bad, causing the death of many men and horses. Instead of four days, they took eight days to reach Cagliari in Sardinia.

Arrived at Cagliari, they were very inhospitably received by the inhabitants, who were afraid of them, and removed their goods at the Crusaders' approach. It was with difficulty that Louis procured accommodation ashore for his sick, or bread, water, and vegetables; and at prices more than fifty per cent above the usual value.

When the rest of the fleet arrived, a council was held to decide where first to go.

King Louis had for some time past been corresponding with the King of Tunis, and was assured that the King of Tunis was only waiting for a good opportunity to become a Christian. This inclined him personally to go first to Tunis. His councillors also urged that, in case the King of Tunis proved obstinately heathen, the town was full of riches and easy to take; and that it was in the habit of furnishing supplies to the Sultan of Egypt in his wars with the Christians.

Hence it was decided to go to Tunis first, on the way to the Holy Land; and the fleet left Cagliari on July 18th, and came off Tunis on the 20th. The admiral of the fleet

being sent to reconnoitre for a landing, captured some merchant ships, and landed. Having thus exceeded his instructions, he sent a request to the King for a force to support him. He was fetched back, but the next morning a large army of Saracens on foot and horseback surrounded the harbour; whereupon the King landed in full force, and the Saracens retreated. The Christians camped at a distance of about three arbalest-shots, on a sort of island, where, however, there was no fresh water. Two or three days later, they marched on, and pitched their tents under the walls of Carthage in a well-watered valley.

The sailors volunteered with the help of the cross-bowmen to take the fortress of Carthage. They carried it by assault, assisted by five hundred cross-bowmen and four battalions of foreign knights, but found few supplies inside except barley. The fortress was garrisoned, and the women, the sick, and the wounded were placed in it.

Beyond skirmishing and entrenching the camp nothing was done, as King Louis was awaiting the arrival of his brother Charles of Anjou (now King of Sicily). Whilst they were waiting encamped, John Tristan fell sick, and died on board one of the ships on August 3rd. A few days later the Legate also died and many other persons, some of fever, some of dysentery. Philip, the King's eldest son, fell sick with fever; and the King was taken with dysentery (the complaint to which he nearly succumbed in his first Crusade) and died on August 25th.

Charles of Sicily arrived before the body of his brother was cold, and pitched his tents within a mile or two of the French camp.

The King of Tunis then led up his army against the

Christians, and there was a pitched battle, which the Crusaders won; but soon afterwards, plague broke out in the camp; and King Philip himself left the camp for fear of it and took refuge in caves.

Hereupon the King of Tunis made overtures of peace, and a ten years' truce was made, after much discussion.

This treaty concluded, the Crusaders determined to return home, for they were hopeless of accomplishing anything in the Holy Land, with their principal leaders dead, and their troops sick and demoralized. On the way home they met with a terrible storm, in which eighteen large ships were wrecked and four thousand persons perished.

Edward of England (afterwards Edward I) arrived at Tunis after the French had concluded peace, and sailed thence to Acre, followed by many French knights. With his return, the last Crusade ended.

See G. de Nangis, "Vie de St. L.," end, and "Vie de Phil. III," beginning.