volume one

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 375
Other Crusaders, to whom Christendom paid very little
attention, prosecuted a more successful war on the banks of
the Tagus. It was several centuries since Spain had been
invaded by the Moors, and still two rival nations disputed
empire and fought for territory in the names of Maliomet
and Jesus Christ.* The Moors, often conquered by the Cid
and his companions, had been driven from several provinces,
and when the second crusade set out for the East, the
Spaniards were besieging the city of Lisbon. The Christian
army, small in numbers, was in daily expectation of reinforcements,
when a fleet which was transporting to the East
a great number of French Crusaders, entered the mouth of
the Tagus. Alphonso, a prince of the house of Burgundy
and grandson of King Kobert, commanded the besieging
army. He visited the Christian warriors, whom Heaven
appeared to have sent to his assistance, and promised, as
the reward of their co-operation, the conquest of a flourishing
kingdom. He exhorted them to join him in combating
those same Saracens whom they were going to seek in Asia
through all the perils of the sea. " The Grod who had sent
them would bless their army ; noble pay and rich possessions
would be the meed of their valour." Nothing more was
necessary to persuade warriors who had made a vow to fight
with the infidels and who were eager for adventures. They
abandoned their vessels and joined the besiegers. The Moors
opposed them with determined pertinacity, but at the end
of four months Lisbon was taken, and the garrison put to
the sword. They afterwards besieged several other cities,
which were wrested from the Saracens ;
Portugal submitted
to the power of Alphonso, and he assumed the title of king.
Amidst these conquests the Crusaders forgot the East, and,
without incurring much danger, they founded a prosperous
* Arnold, a Flemish preacher, on the publication of the second crusade,
exhorted the nations of France and Germany to enrol themselves in this
pious army; he followed the Crusaders who laid siege to Lisbon, under
the command of Arnold count d'Arschot. Arnold sent an account of this
siege to Milo, bishop of Terouane, in a letter published by Dom Martene,
in the first volume of his great collection, upon two manuscripts. The
relation of Arnold, an eye-witness, different from that of Robert of the
Mount, is adopted by Fleury. The historian of Portugal, Manoel de
Faria y Sousa, speaks also of this expedition of the Crusaders.