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they were reconciled, on the condition that, as the marquis was heir by
marriage to the throne, he should have the government of Tyre,
i.e. Tyre,
Sidon, and Baruth, with the title of count, as a recompense for the
assistance he had given during the siege, and that Godfrey of Lusignan
should
be count of Joppa,
i.e. Joppa and Askalon, as a recompense for his
services, being brother to King Guy. And if King Guy died first, the
marquis should receive his crown, although he had married in so unlawful
a manner the heiress to the throne, as we have before said; but that if the
marquis and his wife should happen to die while King Richard was in
those parts, it should be left to him to dispose of the kingdom at his
pleasure.
On these conditions, the disputants were one and all pacified.
Chapter XXI. Ñ
How, after the city was restored, the king of France amidst the
wonder, disapproval, and execrations of all, prepared to return home.
Affairs being in this position, at the end of the month of July, within
which the Turks had promised to restore the holy cross, and receive back
their hostages, a
rumour spread amongst the army, that the king of France,
on whom the hope of the people rested, intended to return home, and was
making active preparations for his journey. Oh how wicked and how
insulting a proceeding, while as yet so much work remained on hand, to
wish to go away, when his duty was to rule so large a multitude of people,
and when his presence was so necessary to encourage the Christians to so
pious a work, and to provide for the
progress of so arduous an
undertaking! O why did he come so long a way, with so much toil, if he
intended to return almost immediately! O wonderful performance of his
vow, by merely entering the Holy Land, and contending against the Turks
with such small triumph! But why need we say more? The king of France
alleged sickness as the cause of his return; and said that he had performed
his vow as far as he was able; most of all, because
he was well and sound
when he took up the cross with King Henry between Trie and Gisors. But
in making this assertion, he produced no one by whose evidence it could
be confirmed. It must not be denied, at the same time, that the king of
France expended much labour and money in the Holy Land for the
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assaulting of the city, and that he afforded aid and assistance to very many,
and that by the influence of his presence, he procured the more speedy
execution and consummation of so great a work
in the capture of the city,
as the most powerful of Christian kings. and of the highest dignity, should
have done: whence, by how much the greater in valour and surpassing in
excellence, by so much the more he was held bound to recover a land so
cast down and destitute of aid, against which the heathen had come to
pollute it; for, according to St. Gregory, when gifts are increased, the
reasons for them increase also, and to whom much is given, of the same
much will be required. But when the inflexible
determination of the king of
France to return became known to all, and his refusal to yield to the
murmurs of his men, or their supplications to remain, the French would
have renounced their subjection to him, if it could have been done, and
would have loathed his dominion; and they imprecated on him every kind
of adversity and misfortune that could fall to the lot of man in this life. But
for all that, the king of France hastened
his voyage as much as possible,
and left in his stead the duke of Burgundy, with a large number of men.
Moreover, he begged King Richard to supply him with two galleys, and the
king readily gave him two of his best: how ungrateful he was for this
service, was afterwards seen.
Chapter XXII. Ñ
How the king of France swore to King Richard that he would
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