volume one

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 445
learnt the conquest of Jerusalem on the very day that the
Saracens had entered the lioly city, and rejoiced at this
lamentable event, saying tliat it would furnish a means of
salvation for the warriors of the AVest.*
The multitude of those who presented themselves to receive
the cross was so great, that means were obliged to be
taken to repress their ardour. Prederick, who had followed
liis uncle Conrad in the second crusade, was aware of the
disorders and misfortunes that might result from too great
a number of followers. He refused to receive under his
banners any who coidd not take with them three marks of
silver ; and rejected all such vagabonds and adventurers as
had, in the other expeditious, committed so many excesses,
and dislionoured the cause of the Christians by their
brigandage.
iVedericli, before his departure, sent ambassadors to the
emperor of Constantinople, and the sultan of Iconium, to
demand freedom of passage through their states ; and wrote
to Saladin, to declare war, if he did not restore to the Franks
Jerusalem and the other Christian cities that had surrendered
to his arms.f The embassy addressed to Saladin, shows the
spirit of chivahy in which Frederick entered upon this
crusade. That which, without doubt, induced him to
address the sultan of Iconium, was an opinion then spread
through Europe, that the IMussulman prince had evinced a
desire of embracing the Christian religion.;]; Frederick left
Eatisbon at the head of an army of a hundred thousand
combatants, and crossed Hungary and Bulgaria, as the first
Crusaders had done. He arrived in the provinces of the
Greek empire before Kichard and Philip had embarked for
Palestine.
Isaac Angelus was then seated on the throne of Constan-
tinople ;
this prince had only been brave on one single day,
and his coiu-age procured him an empire. Andronicus, the
* Canfipratensis apud Suriimi, die Junii, cap 20. This is likewise
related by Besoldo, De JlegiOvs Hyerosolimitanorum, p. 274.
t Tiie letter written by Frederick to Saladin, and the answer of Saladin
to Frederick, have been preserved by Baronius and Matthew Paris.
X In the w.orks of Peter of Blois is a letter which Alexander III. wrote
to the sultan of Iconium, giving him counsels to direct him in his con-
rersion. The same letter is in many other collections.