



Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive.)









  THE HISTORY OF CHIVALRY.


  BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.,
  AUTHOR OF "DE L'ORME," "DARNLEY," "RICHELIEU," ETC.


  NEW YORK:
  HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
  82 CLIFF STREET.




PREFACE.


In writing the pages which follow this Preface, I have had to encounter
the difficulty of compressing very extensive matter into an extremely
limited space. As the subject was, in my eyes, a very interesting one, and
every particular connected with it had often been food for thought and
object of entertainment to myself, the task of curtailing was the more
ungrateful: nor should I have undertaken it, had I not been convinced by
my publisher that one volume would be as much as the public in general
would be inclined to read. I wished to write upon Chivalry and the
Crusades, because I fancied that in the hypotheses of many other authors I
had discovered various errors and misstatements, which gave a false
impression of both the institution and the enterprise; and I have
endeavoured, in putting forth my own view of the subject, to advance no
one point, however minute, which cannot be justified by indisputable
authority. A favourite theory is too often, in historical writing like the
bed of the ancient Greek; and facts are either stretched or lopped away to
agree with it: but to ensure as much accuracy as possible, I have taken
pains to mark in the margin of the pages the different writers on whose
assertions my own statements are founded, with a corresponding figure, by
which each particular may be referred to its authority.

In regard to these authors themselves, it seems necessary here to give
some information, that those persons who are inclined to inquire beyond
the mere surface may know what credit is to be attached to each.

On the first crusade we have a whole host of contemporary writers, many of
whom were present at the events they describe. Besides these are several
others, who, though they wrote at an after-period, took infinite pains to
render their account as correct as possible. The authors I have
principally cited for all the earlier facts of the Holy War are, William
of Tyre, Albert of Aix, Fulcher of Chartres, Raimond of Agiles, Guibert of
Nogent, Radulph of Caen, and Robert, surnamed the Monk.

William of Tyre is, beyond all doubt, the most illustrious of the many
historians who have written on the crusades. Born in Palestine, and though
both educated for the church and raised step by step to its highest
dignities, yet mingling continually in the political changes of the Holy
Land--the preceptor of one of its kings--frequently employed in embassies
to Europe, and ultimately Archbishop of Tyre and Chancellor of the kingdom
of Jerusalem, William possessed the most extensive means of gathering
materials for the great work he has left to posterity. He brought to his
task, also, a powerful mind, as well as considerable discrimination; and
was infinitely superior in education and every intellectual quality to the
general chroniclers of his age. He was not born, however, at the time of
the first crusade; and consequently, where he speaks of the events of
that enterprise, we may look upon him as an historian, clear, talented,
elegant, and not extremely credulous; but we must not expect to find the
vivid identity of contemporaneous writing. In regard to the history of his
own days he is invaluable, and in respect to that of the times which
preceded them, his work is certainly superior, as a whole, to any thing
that has since been written on the subject.

A much more vivid and enthusiastic picture of the first crusade is to be
found in Albert of Aix, from whom William of Tyre borrowed many of his
details; but the Syrian Archbishop, living long after, saw the events he
recounted as a whole, rejected much as false that Albert embraced as true,
and softened the zealous fire which the passions and feelings of the
moment had lighted up in the bosom of the other. Albert himself was not
one of the crusaders; but living at the time, and conversing continually
with those who returned from the Holy Land, he caught, to an extraordinary
extent, the spirit of the enterprise, and has left behind him a brilliant
transcript of all the passed-by dreams and long-extinguished enthusiasms
of his day.

Thus, as a painting of manners and customs, the _Chronicon
Hierosolymitanum_ is one of the most valuable records we possess, and the
account there given of Peter the Hermit and _Gautier sans avoir_ is in
many points more full and comprehensive than any other.

Fulcher of Chartres set out for the Holy Land with Stephen, Count of
Blois, one of the first crusaders. He soon after became chaplain to
Baldwin, the brother of Godfrey de Bouillon, and ended his days a canon of
the Holy Sepulchre. His relation is useful in many respects, especially in
regard to the march of the crusaders through Italy--the proceedings of
Baldwin at Edessa, and the history of Jerusalem for several years after
its conquest. His style, however, is tumid and circumlocutory, and his
credulity equal to that of Raimond d'Agiles.

Raimond d'Agiles accompanied the Count of Toulouse on the first crusade,
in quality of chaplain. Superstitious to the most lamentable degree, and
as bigoted in party politics as in religion, he wrote as he lived, like a
weak and ignorant man. Nevertheless there is, in his account, much
excellent information, detailed with simplicity; and very often, through
the folly of the historian, we arrive at truths which his prejudices
concealed from himself.

Guibert of Nogent did not visit the Holy Land; but he lived during the
first crusade, and, in common with all Europe, felt deeply interested in
the fate of that expedition. He examined and noted with accuracy all the
anecdotes which reached Europe, and painted, with great vivacity, scenes
that he had not himself witnessed. In his account of the crusade many
circumstances, evincing strongly the spirit of the age, are to be met with
which do not appear elsewhere; and, as we have every reason to feel sure
of his general accuracy, it is but fair to suppose that these are well
founded.

Radulph, or Raoul, of Caen, is inflated in style, and often inexact; but
he is perhaps less superstitious than any other chronicler of the
crusades. By poetical exaggeration, he often renders his narrative
doubtful; yet, as the biographer of Tancred, he tends to elucidate much
that would otherwise have remained in darkness. Robert, called the Monk,
was present at the council of Clermont, at which the first crusade was
determined; and, though he did not immediately take the Cross, he set out
for the Holy Land not long after, and was present at the siege of
Jerusalem. He is, in general, accurate and precise; and, though not a
little credulous in regard to visions, apparitions, and such imaginations
of the day, he is on the whole more calm, clear, and exact than any other
contemporary author.

Besides these writers, I have had occasion to cite several others of less
authority. Of these, Baldric bears the highest character; and,
notwithstanding the fact of his not having been present at the crusade, he
is in general accurate. Tudebodus is both brief and imperfect. Matthew of
Edessa deserves little or no credit; and the part of the Alexiad which
refers to the first crusade is far more likely to mislead than to assist.
The most important part, of the whole work, as it is published at present,
consists in the notes of Ducange. William of Malmsbury is more useful, but
still his account is merely a repetition of what we find in other sources.
For all the affairs of Normandy, I have consulted Orderic, Vital, and
William of Jumieges.

The history of William of Tyre was afterward continued by several writers,
the chief of whom is an author taking the title of Bernard the Treasurer.
A Latin version of his book was published by Muratori: Martenne, however,
has since printed a work from an old French manuscript, the identity of
which with the account of Bernard the Treasurer has been proved by Mansi.
This work is one of the most interesting extant; for although it wants
entirely either the power or the grace of William of Tyre's composition,
and is full of errors, in respect to every thing beyond the immediate
limits of the Holy Land, yet there is a simple and interesting
minuteness--an individuality of tone through the whole, where it relates
to the affairs of Syria, which could not have been given but by an
eyewitness. Even the old French in which it is written, slightly different
from the exact language of France at the same period, gives it a peculiar
character, and stamps it as the work of a Syrian Frank. Another
continuation of William of Tyre is extant, by a Suabian of the name of
Herold. This, however, is a much later composition, and possesses few of
the qualities of the other. The Cardinal de Vitry also wrote an
abbreviated history of the Crusades, bringing it down to his own time A.
D. 1220. His work is principally to be consulted for the account it gives
of the events which passed under the author's own eyes, while Bishop of
Acre, and for a great many curious particulars concerning the manners and
customs of the Saracens, which are to be found in no other work. The
second book of the Cardinal de Vitry's History has been omitted, I cannot
conceive why, in the Gesta Dei per Francos. It is, nevertheless,
infinitely valuable, as showing the horrible state of the Christians of
Palestine, and displaying those vices and weaknesses which eventually
brought about the ruin of the Latin kingdom.

The authorities for the second crusade are lamentably few, and by their
very paucity show what a change had come over the spirit of the age in the
short space of fifty years. The only eyewitnesses who have written on the
subject, as far as I can discover, are Odo, a priest of Deuil, or
Diagolum, in the neighbourhood of Paris, and Otho, Bishop of Freysinghen.
The first of these authors followed Louis VII. to the Holy Land as his
chaplain, and his account is, more properly speaking, an epistle to the
famous Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, than a chronicle.

Otho of Freysinghen was nearly related to the emperor Conrad, whom he
accompanied on his unfortunate expedition. Both these authors, therefore,
had the best means of obtaining information; and in the writings of each
there is an air of truth and sincerity, which does much towards
conviction. I have had occasion in speaking of this crusade to cite
casually a number of authors, of whom it is not necessary to give any very
detailed account. Their works are to be found in the admirable collections
of Dom Bouquet, Duchesne, Martenne, or Muratori.

Wherever I have been obliged to quote from any of the Arabian writers, I
am indebted to the extracts of Monsieur Reinaud.

In regard to the crusade of Richard Coeur de Lion and Philip Augustus; for
the history of the first, I have borrowed from Benedict of Peterborough,
from Hovedon, and especially from Vinesauf, whose work is inestimable.
These, with the other English authorities I have cited, are too well known
to need comment. Having some time ago written a romance, not yet
published, on the history of Philip Augustus, I had previously studied
almost all the old chroniclers who speak of that monarch. The most
important treatise on his reign is the work of Rigord, who was at once
monk, physician, and historiographer at the court of Philip. William the
Breton, one of the king's chaplains, continued his history in prose, from
the period where Rigord abandoned the task. He also wrote a bombastic poem
on the reign of his patron, which, however exaggerated and absurd, is
useful as an historical document, and a painting of the manners and
customs of the time. On the taking of Constantinople by the French, I have
found no want of authorities. Villehardouin, one of the principal actors
in the scenes he describes, has been my chief source of information. I
have also met with much in Nicetas, who was present; and I have confirmed
the evidence of other writers, by the chronicle in the Rouchy dialect,
published by Monsieur Buchon, and by the metrical chronicle of Philippe
Mouskes in the same collection. I need hardly say that the works of
Ducange have proved invaluable in every part of my inquiry, and that his
history of Constantinople under its French monarchs both gave me facts and
led me to authorities.

Joinville is the principal writer on the crusade of St. Louis. He was an
eyewitness, a sufferer, and a principal actor in the scenes he describes.
Of all old chroniclers, with the exception, perhaps, of Froissart,
Joinville offers the most original, simple, and delightful painting of
times and manners long gone by. With the notes of Ducange, his work is an
erudite repertory for antique manners and usages, and may be read and
reread with gratification, and studied deeply with advantage.

The folio edition in my own library comprises the Observations, and
Dissertations of Ducange, and the Commentaries of Claud Menard; together
with the Establishments of St. Louis, and a curious treatise upon the
ancient law of France, by Pierre de Fontaines. All these works afford a
great insight into the spirit of that day; and many other particulars are
to be found in the _Branche aux royaux Lignages_, and in the Sermon of
Robert de Sainceriaux. Besides the authors I have here particularized, I
have had occasion to cite casually a great number of others, whose names,
with some account of the works of each, may be found in the _Manuel_ of
Brunet. Vertot also has furnished us with much information concerning the
Knights of St. John; and Dupuy, Raynouard, &c. have spoken largely of the
Templars. I cannot close the enumeration of authors to whom I am under
obligations for information or instruction without mentioning M. Guizot,
one of the most clearsighted and unprejudiced of all modern historians.
His views of causes I have often adopted, sometimes with very slight
modifications, and sometimes with none; and, in all instances to which his
writings extend, I have been indebted to him for light to conduct me
through the dark sanctuary of past events, to the shrine of Truth, even
where he has not unveiled the deity herself. I can only regret that his
essays did not embrace more of the very comprehensive subject on which I
was called to treat.

Several motives have impelled me to give this long account of my
authorities; one of which motives was, that often, in reading works on
history, I have myself wished that the sources from which facts were
derived had been laid open to my examination; but still, my principal view
in the detail was, to show the ground on which I had fixed opinions
directly opposed to those of several other authors. In many cases, the
aspect under which I have seen the events of the Crusades has been
entirely different from that under which Mills has regarded them, and I
felt myself called upon not to attack any position of a clever writer and
a learned man, without justifying myself as completely as possible.

In regard to my own work I shall say nothing, but that I have spared
neither labour nor research to make it as correct as if it had appeared
under a much more imposing form. In space, I have been confined; and in
time, I have been hurried: but I have endeavoured to remedy the one
inconvenience, by cutting off all superfluous matter; and to guard against
evil consequences from the other, by redoubling my own exertions. Whether
I have succeeded or not the world must judge; and if it does judge with
the same generous lenity which it has extended to my other productions, I
shall have every reason to be both satisfied and grateful.




CONTENTS.


                                                                      Page

  CHAPTER I.

  A Definition, with Remarks and Evidence--An Inquiry into the
  Origin of Chivalry--Various Opinions on the Subject--Reasons
  for doubting the great Antiquity of Chivalry, properly so
  called--The State of Society which preceded it, and of that
  which gave it Birth--Its Origin and early Progress.                   17


  CHAPTER II.

  Of Chivalrous Customs--Education--Grades--Services on the
  Reception of a Knight--On Tournaments--Jousts--Combats at
  Outrance--Passages of Arms--The Round Table--Privileges of
  Knighthood--Duties of Knighthood.                                     31


  CHAPTER III.

  The Progress of Chivalry in Europe--Exploits--That some great
  Enterprise was necessary to give Chivalry an extensive and
  permanent Effect--That Enterprise presented itself in the
  Crusades--Pilgrimage to Jerusalem--Haroun Al Raschid--
  Charlemagne--Cruelties of the Turks--Pilgrimages continued--
  Peter the Hermit--Council of Clermont.                                53


  CHAPTER IV.

  The Effects of the Council of Clermont--State of France--
  Motives of the People for embracing the Crusade--Benefits
  produced--The Enthusiasm general--Rapid Progress--The first
  Bodies of Crusaders begin their March--Gautier sans avoir--
  His Army--Their Disasters--Reach Constantinople--Peter the
  Hermit sets out with an immense Multitude