University of Virginia Library

III.7. CHAPTER VII

ANECDOTES OF THE CAMP AT CESAREA.

Now let us return to our subject, and tell, how, whilst the King was fortifying Cesarea, there came to the camp Lord Alenard of Semingham, who told us that he had built his ship in the realm of Norway, which lies at the end of the world towards the West; and in coming to join the King, he went all round Spain, and was obliged to pass through the Straits of Morocco. He passed through great perils before he reached us. The King retained him, with nine other knights besides. And he told us, that in Norway the summer nights are so short, that there is no night when one does not see both the brightness of the departing and of the dawning day.

He and his followers took to hunting lions, and attacked several in a most dangerous fashion; for they rode full gallop and shot at the lion as they

went by; and when they had shot, the lion came after them, and would have caught them up and devoured them, but in the nick of time they let fall a piece of old cloth; and the lion would check at the cloth and rend it and devour it, thinking that he had got hold of a man. And whilst he was tearing the cloth, another would turn back and shoot at him; and the lion would drop the cloth and rush at him; and as soon as he let fall another piece of cloth, the lion would turn his attention again to the rag, and so it went on until the lions perished by their arrows.

Whilst the King was fortifying Cesarea he was joined by Lord Narjot of Toucy. The King used to say that he was his cousin, for he was descended from one of the sisters of King Philip, whom the Emperor himself had to wife. The King retained him with nine other knights for a year; and then he departed, and went away back to Constantinople, whence he had come. He told the King, that the Emperor of Constantinople with the other rich men in that city, were leagued at that time with a race called Comninians, that they might have their help against Vataces, who at that time was Emperor of

the Greeks. And in order that the alliance might be faithfully observed, the Emperor and the rich men with him had to bleed themselves and put some of their blood into a great silver goblet. And the King of the Comninians and the rich men with him did the same, and mingled their blood with the blood of our people, and tempered it with wine and water, and drank of it, and our people likewise, and then they said that they were " blood-brothers."

Further, they drove a dog between our people and theirs, and they, and our people too, hacked the dog in pieces with their swords; and said, so might they be cut in pieces if they failed one another.

Further, he related to us a most wonderful thing that took place whilst he was in the camp of the Comninians how a rich knight had died, and they had dug a deep, wide grave for him in the ground, and had seated him with great pomp and richly dressed in a chair, and put in with him the best horse that he had, and the best serjeant all alive. Before the serjeant was placed in the grave with his lord, he came before the King of the Comninians and the other rich lords, and as he took leave of them, they placed in his sash a great quantity of

gold and silver, and said each to him: "When I come into the other world thou shalt give back to me that which I now deposit with thee! " And he said: " That will I readily do." The great King of the Comninians entrusted to him some letters addressed to their first King, telling him that he had lived like a good and gallant man, and bidding him reward him for his services. When this was done, they placed him alive in the grave with his master and the living horse, and then they threw across the grave planks firmly secured, and all the host came running with earth and stones. And before they slept, they had raised above the grave a great mound, in memory of those whom they had buried there.

Whilst the King was fortifying Cesarea, I went to his lodging to visit him. Directly he saw me enter his chamber, where he was talking to the Legate, he rose and drew me aside, and, " You know," said the King to me, I' that I have only retained you until Easter; now I beg you to tell me what I must give you for a year from Easter." And I told him: that I did not want him to give me any more of his money; but that I would like to

make another bargain with him. "Because," I said, "you always get angry when anyone asks you for anything; therefore I want you to make a compact with me, that if I ask you for anything in the course of this year, you will not be angry; and that if you refuse me, I will not be angry." When he heard this, he burst out laughing heartily, and told me that he retained me on that understanding. And he accepted me on those terms and led me up to the Legate and the Council, and related the bargain that we had made; and they were very glad, because I was the richest man in the army.

And here I will tell you, how I ordered and managed my affairs during the four years that I spent abroad, after the King's brothers went away. I had two chaplains with me, who said my hours before me; one of them sang me my mass at daybreak, and the other waited until my knights and the knights of my troop were risen. When I had heard my mass I went off to the King. When the King wished to go riding I accompanied him. Sometimes it would happen that messengers would arrive for him, so that we had to transact business all the morning.

My bed was so arranged in my tent, that no one could enter without seeing me lying in it; and this I did to avoid all scandal about women. When the feast of St. Rémy [Oct. 1] drew near, I had my pig-yard stocked with porkers, and my sheep-run with wethers, and bought in a supply of flour and wine, to serve the household through the winter; this I did, because the price of goods went up in winter, because of the sea which is more treacherous in winter than in summer. I used to buy about a hundred casks of wine, and always had the best drunk first; and the servants' wine I always had mixed with water, and less water with the wine for the squires. At my own table they used to serve up to my knights a large jug of wine and a large jug of water, and they mixed them as they chose.

The King had given me fifty knights in my troop. At every meal, I used to have ten knights at my table with my own ten; and they used to eat opposite one another, according to the custom of the country, sitting on mats on the ground. Every time that they cried "to arms" I used to send fifty-four knights, who were called "decant" because they each headed ten men whenever we rode out

under arms. The whole fifty knights used to eat in my house on their return. At all the yearly festivals, I used to invite all the rich men in the camp, so that the King had several times to borrow some of my guests.

And now you shall hear the punishments and sentences that I saw awarded in Cesarea, whilst the King was staying there. First of all, I will tell you of a knight who was caught in a house of ill fame. He was offered according to the custom of the country an alternative: either to be led by a rope through the camp, stripped to his shirt; or to forfeit his horse and armour, and be turned out of the army. He left his horse and armour to the King, and quitted the camp; and I went and begged the King to grant me the horse for a poor gentleman that was in the army. The King replied that it was an unreasonable request, for that the horse was still worth from eighty to a hundred pounds, which was no small sum. Said I: " See how you have broken our bargain, by being angry at what I asked you!" And he said to me, laughing: "Say whatever you please, I will not be angry." But, all the same, I did not get the horse for the poor gentleman.

The second sentence was as follows: The knights of our troop were hunting a wild animal, called a gazelle (which is just like a roebuck). The Brethren of the Hospital dashed in amongst them, and hustled and drove away our knights. I complained to the Master of the Hospital; and he said he would do me justice according to the custom of the Holy Land; which was this; that he would make the brothers who had insulted us, eat on the ground, with only their cloaks under them, until those whom they had insulted should raise them up. The Master kept his word by them. And when we saw that they had been eating in this manner for a good while, I went to the Master, and found him sitting at table, with the brothers eating on their cloaks in front of him; and I begged him to allow them to be properly seated. The knights also to whom the insult had been shown, entreated him. He replied, that he would do nothing of the sort, for that he would not have the brethren ill-use those who came on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Thereupon I sat down with the brothers, and began to eat with them, telling him I would rise when they rose. And he told me, that I left him no choice,

and granted my request; and he made me and the knights with me sit at meat with him, and the brothers went and ate with the rest at a raised table.

The third judgment that I saw delivered at Cesarea was as follows: One of the King's serjeants, called "the Glutton," laid hands on a knight of my troop. I went and complained to the King. The King told me: That it seemed to him I might let the matter rest, for he had done no more than give him a push.-And I told him, that I would never let it rest, and that if he would not see justice done me, I should quit his service, since his serjeants were to be allowed to strike knights. I got justice from him, and the punishment was according to the custom of the country: namely, the serjeant came to my quarters, barefoot and in his breeches, nothing more, with a naked sword in his hand, and kneeled down before the knight, and said to him: " Sir, I come to make amends for laying my hand on you; and I bring you this sword, that you may cut off my hand, if so please you." I begged the knight to lay aside his grudge, and forgive him; which he did.

The fourth punishment was as follows: Brother Hugh of Joy, who was Marshall of the Temple, was sent to the Sultan of Damascus from the Master of the Temple, to come to some agreement with the Sultan about a large piece of land which the Templars used to hold, and which the Sultan wanted to share with them. The agreement was concluded on the condition, that the King approved, and Brother Hugh brought an Emir to represent the Sultan of Damascus, and brought the contract in a document called a Power of Attorney. The Master told the King all about it; whereupon the King fell into a great passion, and told him, that he was very presumptuous to have had any dealings or negotiations with the Sultan, without telling him. And the King insisted that he should do penance to him. And the penance was this: the King had the skirts of three of his pavilions removed; and all the rank and file of the camp that chose to come, assembled there; and thither came the Master of the Temple with all his convent, all barefooted through the camp, for their quarters were outside the camp. The King made the Master of the Temple and the Sultan's messenger

sit down in front of him; and the King said in a loud voice to the Master: "Master, you will tell the Sultan's messenger, that you repent having made any treaty with him, without telling me; and that because you had not consulted me, you acquit him of his part of the bargain, and return him all his contracts." The Master took the contracts and handed them to the Emir. And then the King told the Master to stand up and make all his brethren stand up; and, when he had done so: "Now kneel down" said the King "and make me amends for having opposed my will." The Master knelt down, and held out the end of his cloak to the King, and offered to the King whatever was his due by way of amends, whatever he might please to dictate. " I order," said the King, " first of all, that Brother Hugh, who made the contract, be banished out of all the kingdom of Jerusalem." Neither the Master, nor the fact that Brother Hugh was gossip to the King through the Count of Alençon (that was born at Castle Pilgrim) nor even the Queen nor anyone, could avail him, but he must quit the Holy Land and the kingdom of Jerusalem.

NOTE TO CHAPTER VII

The King had already, while in Cyprus, fallen foul of the Master of the Temple for venturing to listen to overtures of peace from the Sultan of Egypt.

Joinville's remarks are needed to show that the King had a temper behind his meek exterior; for the priestly chroniclers harp upon his patience. It seems plain that the discipline of his household suffered from his piety. He " ate patiently whatever the cooks sent up "; and after his captivity, when he reaches his own ship after terrible trials and half dead with sickness, it is to find that his people have " got no bed ready for him," and no wardrobe. His wife's confessor, besides some revolting particulars of his insistence on kissing lepers and eating off beggars' plates, tells how, returning from a morning's work hearing "cases," of all the sixteen chamberlains whose duty it is to wait on him, not one was to be found anywhere. Even they seem to have been somewhat surprised at the mildness of his rebuke. The same day they send him off to Vincennes without his dinner-coat, the chamberlain whose business it was to pack having locked it up in the wrong box and kept the key. Another day one of them, flushed from supper, insults him as he sits talking to some knights over the fire, with a freedom to which even old family servants rarely attained. Nangis speaks of the open contempt of his nobles after the Egyptian disaster; Matthew Paris talks of his wonted submissiveness,

and gives (Thucydidean wise) the meek speech with which he replied to William Longsword's complaints against Robert of Artois and to the latter's insolence, after which William Longsword left the camp, remarking: " I will no longer serve a King who is no King."