WHILE Edward was in England preparing for the crusade, and overcoming the obstacles that delayed his departure, the Kings of the Continent began to move.
Alphonso of Castillo had taken the cross; but, having claims on the crown of Germany, that monarch declared his inability to proceed to the East. Alphonso, however, furnished his neighbor, James, King of Arragon, with a thousand knights and a thousand maravedis in gold. At the same time, the knights of St. James, and the cities of. Barcelona and Majorca, aided the King of Arragon with men, money, and ships; and James, with a formidable fleet, sailed from Barcelona. The elements, however, proved adverse to the King and his friends; and a violent tempest having dispersed the fleet, his own vessel was cast on the coast of Languedoc.
Nothing daunted by this disastrous opening of the expedition, King Louis continued his preparations; and having, early in March, 1270, received the symbols of pilgrimage from the church of St. Denis, and walked barefooted from the Louvre to Notre Dame to hear a solemn mass, he took leave of Queen Margaret, whom he was not destined to see again, and repaired to Aigues Mortes, where his army was to embark.
Few of the crusaders had come to the rendezvous, and Louis was under the necessity of reminding them of their vows. His example and exhortations proved effectual; and ere long his brother, the Count of Poic-tiers, and many of the chief nobles of France, gathered around his standard. Several of the cities likewise sent forth bands of warriors to fight for the cross under their saintly King; and Louis found himself attended by his sons, Philip, heir of France, and John, Count of Nevers, and by his son-in-law the King of Navarre, and surrounded by a gallant and chivalrous host.
Nor on this occasion, notwithstanding the absence of Margaret of Provence, were bright eyes and fair faces wanting to cheer and inspire the champions of the cross; for among those who placed themselves under the protection of St. Louis, were his daughter, the Queen of Navarre; his daughter-in-law, the wife of Philip; his sister-in-law, the Countess of Poictiers; and other ladies of high rank and noble name.
While chivalrous warriors were congregated, and feudal banners displayed at Aigues Mortes, a strange band of crusaders presented themselves. From the bogs, the islets, and the marshes of Friesland, five hundred men, arrayed in leathern jerkins, in waistcoats of horse-cloth, and in rusty coats of mail, came to take part in the expedition. " At all times," said they, as they ranged themselves under the oriflamme, "our nation has been proud to obey the Kings of France."
Everything now looked promising. Crusaders from Castillo and other parts of the Spanish Peninsula swelled the French army; and Louis, without waiting for Prince Edward, who, though too poor to be deem-ed of much importance, would, in all probability, being a man of unrivalled genius, have enabled the aged monarch to avoid many of the evils that awaited him, embarked at Aigues Mortes early in July, and in a few days anchored off Cagliari.
It was the 20th of July, a whole month before Edward sailed from Dover, when the French King appeared in sight of Carthage; and no sooner did the fleet become visible from the shore, than the inhabitants fled to their mountains. Next morning, at dawn, the crusaders began to land; and when the whole army had disembarked, opposite the ruins of Carthage, Louis pitched his camp, formally took possession of the territory, seized a tower at the point of the cape, lodged the women and the sick in a village hard by, and sent soldiers to place the standard of France on the castle of Carthage. Having taken these steps, the King ordered his men to pitch their tents, and awaited the arrival of his brother, the King of Sicily.
While Louis was looking eagerly for the appearance of the Sicilian fleet, and deluding himself with the hope of converting the King of Tunis, that Moorish prince sent a messenger to intimate his intention of giving the crusaders battle, at the head of a hundred thousand men; and added, with a sneer, which dissipated all the French monarch's hopes of making a convert, that he should require baptism on the field of fight. Louis received this insulting message with patient composure. It was well, by-the-bye, for the Bey that our Edward had not then arrived. Had Longshanks been before Tunis that day, the Moorish prince might have found to his cost that all Christians were not saints, and that all crusaders were not missionaries.
Edward and his knights, however, were still on the sea, and Louis remained inactive. Perhaps he expected to be attacked. But the Bey did not fulfil his threat; and the French were beginning to regard their enemies with contempt, when they learned, not certainly without emotions of awe, that Bibars Bendocdar, the terrible Sultan of Egypt, was preparing to march to the relief of Tunis.
While such was the position of affairs, and the crusaders, with the prospect of encountering so formidable a foe, were looking somewhat wistfully for the sails of the King of Sicily, the climate, the hot winds, and the want of water, began to be severely felt; and suddenly the plague invaded the French camp. The consequences were fearful; for soon so many men of all ranks yielded to the influence of that dire disease, that it became impossible to bury the dead; and the corpses, thrown confusedly into the ditches of the camp, added to the infection of the atmosphere.
At length, after thousands of the crusaders had fallen victims to the climate, the Pope's Legate and the Count de Nevers, the King's son, yielded to the pestilence. Louis, who was also prostrate, heard of their deaths with grief and tears; and soon after became so ill, that no hope could be entertained of his recovery. Finding his end drawing nigh, Louis employed some hours in giving advice to Philip the Bold, liis heir; and then, abandoning himself wholly to the offices of religion, caused his attendants to lay him, covered with liair-cloth, upon a bed of ashes. On the 25th of August, he appeared slightly to revive, but it was only for a brief period; and, feeling his last moments approach, he opened his eyes, looked towards heaven, and exclaimed -- "I will enter into Thy house; I will worship in Thy holy tabernacle;" and with this pious ejaculation, the Saint-king gave up his soul to God.
On the day when Louis died, and while gloom overspread the camp, Charles of Anjou, brother of the Saint-king, arrived at Tunis, and took the command of the French army. Several conflicts with the Moors ensued. But it soon appeared that on neither side was there any strong desire to continue the war; and when the Bey of Tunis offered to treat, the French did not decline to open negotiations. Terms were soon agreed upon. The Moorish prince, in his anxiety to get rid of the invaders, offered to allow Christian priests free exercise of their religion in his capital; to tolerate the profession of Christianity by such of the Saracens as might be converted; to defray the whole expense of the crusade; and to pay yearly to Charles of Anjou the sura of forty thousand crowns. On these terms the crusaders consented to relinquish their enterprise; and Philip, the young King of France, having negotiated a treaty, prepared to return to Europe.
The peace concluded between the King of Tunis and Philip of France, however agreeable to Charles of Anjou, was not destiued to give universal satisfaction. Bibars Bendocdar expressed the utmost indignation at the conduct of the Bey of Tunis. "Such a prince," said the Sultan, "ought to be dethroned; he is unworthy to reign over Mussulmans." At the same time, many of the crusaders expressed their regret. "What," they indignantly asked, "would Christendom say on hearing that the crusaders had fled before their vanquished foes, and robbed themselves of their own victory?"
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From John G. Edgar
The Crusades and the Crusaders, 1860
