Seeking Jerusalem Read online

  ‘However, you have been crowned as king by the patriarch whereas Conrad hasn’t; but the lords of the crusader states won’t forgive you for the disaster at Hattin in a hurry,’ Balian of Ibelin observed.

  ‘Conrad’s right to be called king relies on the fact that he claims to have married Isabella.’ Isabella was Sibylla’s younger sister and the last surviving descendant of the kings of Jerusalem. ‘The truth is that Isabella is married to Humphrey here and Conrad already has a wife in Constantinople,’ Guy stated, not without a touch of whinging.

  The annulment of his marriage to Isabella still rankled with Humphrey. He wasn’t sure he entirely believed Balian’s assertion that he had played no part in what had happened. After the death of Amalric, a previous king of Jerusalem and the father of Baldwin the leper and his sisters, Sibylla and Isabella, Balian had married the dowager queen, Maria Comnena, a Byzantine princess. Isabella was therefore Balian’s step-daughter.

  Maria was a strong character, whereas Humphrey of Toron was not. She had opposed the marriage of Guy and Sibylla and, when the latter died, she was adamant that Guy had lost his right to the throne. She held that Guy was a hopeless king, with some justification, and that Conrad of Montferrat, whose arrival after the battle of Hattin had saved what remained of the kingdom, would be a much better ruler. She had therefore brought pressure on Humphrey and her daughter Isabella to annul their marriage on the grounds that Isabella was underage at the time. It was true that she was only eleven when she married the seventeen year old Humphrey but, although marrying so young was not usual, neither was it unknown and was not normally grounds for annulment.

  Humphrey and Isabella had no desire to end their marriage and so Maria had to arrange for the girl’s abduction. She then bullied Isabella into marrying Conrad, who was in his mid-forties and only interested in the girl because she gave him a claim to the throne.

  ‘I wish Richard would hurry up and arrive. As I owe him fealty of my lands in Poitou I’m sure he will support my claim to Jerusalem, rather than Conrad, who is a vassal of the French king. I don’t understand why he didn’t arrive when Philip Augustus did.’ Balian sighed and thought that if he heard Guy moan anymore he would say something he might regret, so he made his excuses and left.

  Standing outside the king’s pavilion he first looked up at the standard whipping in the warm breeze blowing off the sea and smiled wryly at the five gold crosses on a light blue field – the device of the kings of Jerusalem – then looked across at the siege lines around Acre and out to sea where Italian warships from Pisa and Genoa enforced the blockade. He too wondered when Richard would arrive: not because he might support Guy’s claim, but because he was the one man who might be able to take the city.

  ~#~

  However, King Richard had other things on his mind at that moment. When Richard de Cuille reported back to him he paced up and down the deck, fuming.

  ‘Right. I’ll teach that cocksure upstart who’s the inferior one here’ he yelled. ‘Get the boats hoisted outboard from the transports and start getting the men ashore. Captain, get your rowers to work, and those of the other galley, and beach us straight ahead.’

  The king was the first ashore, leaping from the prow of his galley. On landing he stumbled, just as his ancestor, William the Conqueror, had done when landing at Pevensey Bay for the invasion of England. Within a few minutes he was joined by the knights, serjeants, men-at-arms, archers and crossbowmen on the galleys and shortly afterwards the boats started landing men from the five transports.

  The Cypriot army just stood behind their makeshift barricade and watched. Within an hour Richard had landed his three hundred and thirty men. He drew them up with the sixty dismounted knights in the centre and the serjeants and men-at-arms on the flanks. The longbow men and crossbowmen took up position in a single rank a hundred yards in front of the main body.

  The crusaders advanced up the beach until the archers were two hundred yards from the Cypriots. This would have been long range if they had been firing at an armoured enemy but their foes wore little more than tunics or long cotton robes. Only a few even had helmets.

  Richard halted his men and the archers began firing. The crossbowmen fired slow but steady volleys directly at the front ranks whilst the longbow men fired their arrows at high trajectory to hit those behind them. One by one Isaac’s men crumpled to the ground. After ten minutes of this the self-styled emperor sent his slingers and archers forward to return fire but it didn’t improve matters for the Cypriots. However hard the boys slung their stones they bounced off shields and helmets with only the odd lucky hit in the face or on an exposed leg. The archers were similarly ineffectual. Their small bows lacked power and couldn’t penetrate chain mail.

  Richard’s archers changed their target to the shepherd boys and the archers. Every quarrel and arrow killed or wounded an unarmoured Cypriot and after five minutes of this they broke and ran away to the flanks. The archers then directed their fire at the main body again, most of whom were now looking decidedly nervous. Most only stayed in position because Isaac Comnenus and his bodyguard stood at the rear of the main body and killed anyone who broke ranks.

  Eventually it dawned on Isaac that this would continue all day unless he did something to regain the initiative, especially as he had spotted boats bringing barrels of fresh arrows and boxes of quarrels ashore. Then he saw horses being unloaded into the sea.

  Once the ships had unloaded their troops the squires had little to do except watch events unfold onshore.

  ‘All that sea water will corrode chain mail nicely’ Tristan observed gloomily. ‘We’ll spend all night getting the rust off.’

  ‘My, aren’t we the little optimist?’ Gervase commented, coming up to join the three friends in the bows of their ship.

  ‘How come that’s being optimistic?’ David was puzzled.

  ‘Because you are assuming that all those thousands of Cypriots are not going to massacre the few hundred men that we have,’ Gervase explained patiently.

  ‘Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.’

  ‘God, you lot are thick.’ With that Gervase wandered away to climb the rigging to get a better view of the battle.

  ‘Insufferable prig,’ Tristan muttered. ‘No wonder Sir Miles can’t stand Waldo Cuille if he is anything like his squire.’ Before David could ask him what he meant, Warin suddenly had a thought.

  ‘We should get the harnesses rigged so we can get the horses unloaded,’ he exclaimed. ‘If our men do succeed in breaking the enemy they’ll want to pursue them.’

  ‘You are right, of course, but after so long at sea it will take some time before the horses recover sufficiently to be ridden into combat’ Gervaise called from above them. ‘But it wouldn’t do any harm to start ferrying them ashore. If we lose the battle it won’t make any difference and if we win we will gain some kudos with the king.’

  Half an hour later the idea had been conveyed to the other transports and harnesses and cranes had been rigged on both sides of all five transports. The two hundred horses were slowly hoisted out of the holds ten at a time and lowered into the sea where the squires and the grooms swam them to the beach. When they arrived the stood there unsteadily, their flanks quivering, partly from the shock of unloading and partly due to lack of exercise whilst they had been on board. The squires and grooms started to walk them slowly up and down the beach, seemingly oblivious to the battle taking place at the top of the beach.

  Comnenus had left it too late. Just as he was about to order his men to advance King Richard let his men forward, not in a charge but at a slow menacing walk. The Cypriots had had enough. Many turned and fled and there was nothing that Isaac’s bodyguard could do to stop them. If they tried they were overwhelmed by the panic stricken soldiers and killed. A few hundred, braver than the rest, stood their ground. Richard de Cuille reached the barricade and, whilst Miles and another knight pulled the piles of furniture out of the way, Richard protected them from the spears of the enemy with his
shield. When he saw an opening he thrust forward with his sword into the innards of his opponent, who fell screaming to the ground.

  The same was happening all along the line and within five minutes those of the enemy who had the courage to stand and fight were either dead or dying. Emperor Isaac, the only one of the Cypriots to be riding a horse, realising that the day was lost, dug his spurs and quickly overtook his fleeing soldiers. King Richard watched him go and considered for moment giving chase but, although many of his own horses had now been brought ashore, they were still too weak and lacked saddles and tackle. Nevertheless he swore to himself that the emperor’s horse would soon be his.

  Early the next morning a patrol returned to the crusader camp with the news that Comnenus was camped near a castle called Kolossi with a large army. Presumably the force that had opposed the landing had only been a scratch force from the Limassol area. Richard led his sixty knights followed by their squires at a slow trot towards Kolossi. The horses were still suffering from the effects of the sea voyage and lack of exercise and had to be treated with care.

  When the small force arrived at Kolossi they found a vast encampment of the soldiers asleep in the open around the Emperor’s huge pavilion. Amazingly there didn’t appear to be any sign of sentries or picquets. The knights took their helms, shields and lances from the squires and formed up in a line with one man’s left knee touched the right knee of the next man. They advanced in this tight formation, only breaking into a canter at the last moment before sweeping through the encampment trampling the recumbent soldiers under their horses’ hooves. Soon the Cypriots were up and fleeing for their lives, pursued by the knights for all the world like foxes in a chicken coop.

  Waldo Cuille caught sight of the naked emperor running out of his pavilion followed by two equally naked boys who can’t have been more than twelve or thirteen. Isaac Comnenus leaped onto his stallion and sped out of the camp. There was no chance that armoured knights mounted on unfit destriers or coursers could catch him. Waldo raised his sword to cut down the two boys but, just as he was about to deliver the first blow, King Richard rode his horse between him and the two frightened children.

  ‘Easy, Sir Waldo. It is not these boys’ fault that Comnenus has made them his catamites.’ Turning to the boys he told them in Greek to go back into the pavilion and get dressed.

  ‘What are you going to do with them, sire?’ Waldo was still smarting from the king’s intervention. He felt that anyone in the enemy camp should have been fair game.

  ‘Oh, I think that they should make suitable servants for Princess Berengaria. I’m sure she will be charmed by them, as she will by my thoughtfulness in giving them to her.’ Richard smirked at Waldo then dismounted and entered the pavilion. Waldo followed him inside.

  The two boys were now dressed in tunics and sandals and rushed to open chests and show Richard their contents. They were full of coins, gold cups and plates and rich clothes made of fine cotton and silk embroidered with gold and encrusted with precious stones. Lying on the corner was the heavily embroidered imperial standard that had been carried by one of the embassy on Limassol beach. The king had the contents and the pavilion itself loaded onto packhorses and then he returned to Limassol.

  Back at the town Richard showed that he was an astute statesman as well as a gifted general. He issued a proclamation which was sent to all the major towns on the island promising that all Cypriot citizens who came and surrendered would be allowed to keep their property as his subjects, but any who didn’t do so would be deprived of all their possessions and sold into slavery. To show his good intent towards the local population he established his army’s camp outside the town, rather than billeting them in Limassol. He had evidently learned the lesson of Messina.

  As soon as the rest of the fleet had arrived from Rhodes he married Berengaria in the chapel of Limassol Castle. She was attended by the two pages who Richard had rescued from Isaac Comnenus as well as by her ladies. As the king had predicted, his new queen was delighted by the two boys. For their part the boys evidently welcomed their change of fortune wholeheartedly. Not only had their former master abused them in bed but he was a sadistic bully who used to delight in forcing them to beat each other. Richard determined to hunt the man down and sent for Richard de Cuille and Miles of Byrness.

  No doubt righteous anger at Isaac’s depravity played a part in the king’s decision, but his desire to capture him probably had more to do with using the wealth and produce of Cyprus to support his campaign in the Holy Land, which lay some two hundred miles away across the sea.

  ‘You two are the only ones to have seen Isaac Comnenus up close enough to recognise him again,’ King Richard began without preamble. I want you to take a conroi of knights and another of serjeants and find him for me. The last reports I received from those Cypriots who are now loyal to me indicate that he is hiding in the Troodos Mountains. If you succeed you will not find me ungrateful.’

  ‘Do you want him brought to you alive, sire?’

  ‘Yes, if at all possible. Locked away securely he will be forgotten. If he is killed it would worsen relations with his family, especially the Byzantine emperor, and might turn him into a martyr, making Cyprus more difficult to govern.’

  Chapter Three – Silver Chains for an Emperor– May 1191

  At the end of April, Richard de Cuille led his force of one hundred and twenty men out of the camp near Limassol to hunt down the former ruler of Cyprus. In addition to the conroi of thirty knights and their squires, he had forty serjeants, half of whom were armed with crossbows in addition to the usual swords and long handled axes. The other twenty were grooms, servants, a farrier, a clerk to make a record of events for the king and a local Cypriot called Alexandros, who had volunteered to act as guide. The force was travelling light so their supplies and spare equipment were carried on packhorses.

  Although senior in status to Richard, Hervey de Keith, Marishal of Scotland, had asked to accompany the expedition, mainly because he was bored by the tedium of life in camp whilst the pacification of the island continued. Hervey was now in his late forties but he had the constitution of a man ten years younger. Richard was several years his junior but envied the older man his stamina and energy. Tristan was happy with de Keith’s decision as this meant that his brother David would also be coming along. Even better, Waldo Cuille wasn’t part of the conroi so they wouldn’t have to put up with the obnoxious Gervaise. Miles wasn’t so pleased as he was still seeking an opportunity to kill his father’s murderer.

  After three days in the Troodos Richard eventually found the village where Isaac had taken refuge. The village elders told him that the former emperor had been joined by the remnants of his bodyguard, but they had all left two days ago.

  ‘Ask them where Isaac went,’ Richard told Alexandros. After a brief exchange the guide turned back to Richard.

  ‘They say that he mentioned Famagusta. That would seem logical as that is the island’s major port, and it’s also where his daughter and the treasury will be.’

  Richard had a vision of Isaac being able to use the money to raise another army. That would be the last thing that the king would want and he would blame Richard for his failure to prevent it. He turned back to Alexandros after thinking for a moment.

  ‘How far is Famagusta?’ Alexandros shrugged. ‘Perhaps four or five days’ ride.’

  Richard sent a messenger back to the king to let him know the situation and wearily turned his back on the mountains in the west of the island and headed for the east coast.

  ~#~

  The King of England watched as the three ships sailed into Limassol harbour. From the blue flag with its gold crosses flying from the top of the mast of the leading one he assumed that it was Guy de Lusignan, but he couldn’t imagine why Guy would have left the siege of Acre to come to Cyprus.

  ‘Guy, I’m pleased to see you looking so well after your captivity at the hands of Saladin, but I thought you were at Acre?’ Richard wasted no time on c
eremony once Guy stepped ashore.

  ‘I was, and have been for the past two years, but Philip Augustus sent… asked me to come and beseech you to come to Acre as soon as possible. The siege engines are built but we need more men before we can launch the assault on the walls.’ Guy thought it politic not to relay the words that Philip had actually used, which were profane in the extreme and could essentially be summed up as ‘stop farting around in Cyprus and focus on what we came here to do.’

  However, Richard was not about to leave Cyprus and its wealth until he had captured Isaac and established his own rule there.

  ‘If Acre has waited for two years then another few weeks won’t make much difference,’ Richard said dismissively. ‘How many men have you brought with you on those transports?’

  ‘One hundred and sixty knights and their squires. Why?’

  ‘Have you brought Balian of Ibelin with you?’

  ‘No, I left him behind to command my part of the army at Acre. But I brought Humphrey of Toron. Why?’

  ‘I was hoping for an experienced captain, not an apathetic boy still wet behind the ears,’ Richard said disappointedly. Humphrey was hardly a boy but he certainly hadn’t displayed much leadership or ambition. In his position, Richard would never have agreed to the annulment of the marriage to Isabella and would have claimed the throne of Jerusalem in her name, paying Saladin to keep Guy a prisoner if necessary. He was short of captains who were experienced in warfare in the Near East and he had a very low opinion of Guy’s abilities. He was in two minds whether to continue to support Guy’s claim to Jerusalem until Guy spoke again.

  ‘Another reason for coming was to make sure that you were aware that Philip is supporting Conrad of Montferrat’s claim against mine.’