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The Angevin Power
The Angevin Power; Part 2

The Angevin Power; Part 2

In the year 635 Jerusalem, hitherto belonging to the Christian Empire of the East, had fallen into the hands of the Arabs, but the way to the holy places had not been shut by this conquest. Christian pilgrims had been allowed to come and go at all seasons, and especially to the great Easter Fair at Jerusalem, with no other hindrance than the payment of the usual tolls which travellers always paid in alien lands. In the eleventh century, however, a fresh horde of Eastern invaders swept over Syria, of a fiercer type than the Arabs. These were the Seljuk Turks. When they conquered Jerusalem in 1076 they began a policy of persecution. Christians were robbed, insulted, sometimes murdered. A pilgrim who visited the Holy Land did so at the risk of his life.

Stories of Turkish brutality flowed westwards and fell on ears open to catch them. It is easy to misunderstand and even to resent that policy of the Church, which aimed at setting it free from the control of kings, striving to exalt the Pope at their expense, but that is partly because we look at it from the modern standpoint of the nation. To a Briton, or a Frenchman, or a German, his own nation is everything; "Europe" is but a name. But in the eleventh century the idea of nationality was vague. At the time England had scarcely emerged from being a conquered people, and France was divided, Spain was divided, Italy was divided, Germany was divided. There were no " nations" as we know them. All European monarchs, instead of regarding themselves as separate heads of separate nations, thought of themselves as members of one great body - "Christendom". And Christendom had badges of unity, its temporal head the Emperor, its spiritual head the Pope - the twin champions of Christendom. "Behold here are Two Swords"; at times one sword was turned against the other, but against the infidel both could unite. As it was a matter touching the faith, the popes should take the lead To do them justice they did not shrink from the task. And it was no light task to end the jarring wars of greed and selfishness at home, and send forth men of all races, to fight side by side for Christendom.

There was another motive besides zeal for the faith on which the popes could rely: this was the spirit of adventure. To undertake a difficult and dangerous enterprise, to rescue the downtrodden, to go where blows fell thickest, even though the reward was but empty renown, was the duty of the knight, the spirit of what a later age called " chivalry". And so when, at the Council of Clermont in 1095, Peter the Hermit preached the Crusade, he had no lack, not merely of hearers, but doers, of the Word. Some in impetuous zeal even hurried off unarmed, a mere rabble, and perished by the way, but they were followed by a disciplined force including the bravest knights in Christendom. Jerusalem was taken in 1099, and Godfrey de Bouillon was chosen as its king. Unhappily the mere love of fighting had mastered other feelings in the Crusaders' hearts. Even a good and virtuous knight like Godfrey, too pious to wear a crown of gold where once Christ had worn a crown of thorns, had no spirit of mercy. He, like the rest, regarded himself as an avenger. Without shrinking, he took his share in the hideous massacres, even of women and children, that followed the storming of Jerusalem. And this pitiless fury turned too against the Jews. Not merely in Palestine, but in distant parts of Europe, they were plundered and ill-treated by kings and barons. The result of this violence reacted on the Christian kingdom in Palestine. Founded on force, it could only be upheld by force. The Crusaders were no more than a garrison in a hostile country, whose power was maintained by their castles and their strong arms.

The Angevin Power; Part 2

Chronology