"Yarbro,.Chelsea.Quinn.-.Olivia.02.-.Crusader's.Torch.(V1.0)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yarbro Chelsea Quinn)

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CRUSADER'S TOUCH
Atta Olivia Clemens Book 2
By
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

CONTENTS
Part I - Valence Rainaut
1аа 2аа 3аа 4аа 5аа 6аа 7аа 8аа 9аа 10аа 11аа 12аа 13аа 14аа 15аа 16аа 17аа 18
Part II - Atta Olivia Clemens
1аа 2аа 3аа 4аа 5аа 6аа 7аа 8аа 9аа 10аа 11аа 12аа 13аа 14аа 15аа 16аа 17аа 18аа 19аа 20
Epilogue

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Author's Note
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Few military undertakings are as puzzling to modern students as the Crusades. Coming at the end of the Romanesque period, they provide an historical watershed that is more easily noticed than understood in twentieth-century terms.
The First Crusade began in 1096, two years after El Cid took Valencia from the Moors in Spain. Its first exponents were Geoffroi de Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, and Tancred, nephew of the Norman Robert Discard who conquered Palermo, among other things. Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade the year before and offered various inducements to the nobility if they were willing to participate. The First Crusade lasted roughly three years; the Crusaders defeated the Turks at Doryalaeym, Nicaea, and Antioch, and in 1099 captured Jerusalem. Geoffroi was appointed Advocate or Defender of the Holy Sepulcher, and went on to defeat the Egyptians at Ascalon in the same year. A European presence established itself in the Near East as a result. In 1104 Acre was taken by Crusaders as part of the general expansion of their power base at the time, although the First Crusade was officially over. Pope Paschal II, who reigned until 1118, was more involved with European affairs than with Near Eastern, and aside from granting a charter for the founding of the Order of the Knights Hospitalers of Saint John, Jerusalem for the protection, housing, and medical careЧsuch as it wasЧof pilgrims in the Holy Land, did not concern himself overmuch with Crusading.
The next several Popes (Gelasius II, 1118-9; Calistus II, 1119-24, during whose reign priests were officially forbidden to marry; Honorius II, 1124-30, who officially recognized the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, or the Knights Templar; Innocent II, 1130-43, and the antipope Anacletus II, 1130-38; Celestine II, 1143-44; and Lucius II, 1144-45) were more active in matters of European politics and Church restructuring; it was not until 1145 that Pope Eugene III proclaimed the Second Crusade. Two years later, as Queen Mathilda left Britain, the Second Crusade failed when a significant portion of the Crusaders died, more of disease and thirst than from fighting, in Asia Minor. But although the Crusade did not succeed, the European presence in the Near East was not significantly reduced.
Pope Eugene III was succeeded in 1153 by Anastasius IV, and a year later the only English Pope, Hadrian IV, ascended the Throne of St. Peter; in the following year he essentially gave Ireland to Henry II of England. On the Continent, Frederick Barbarossa was the major military/ diplomatic leader. While Henry II was starting to have problems with his former chancellor and friend Thomas р Becket, Barbarossa was carving out an empire in Europe. The same year that Becket became Archbishop of Canterbury, Barbarossa sacked Milan. Four years later (1165), while Becket remained a self-exile in France, Byzantium and Venice made common cause against Barbarossa, fearing (and not without justification) that they might be next on his list.
Alexander III, one of the great reformer-Popes (reigned 1159-1181), was not terribly concerned about the state of affairs in Jerusalem, although he did express fear for the safety of Christians in Moslem countries as the influence of Saladin increased. While the Orthodox and Catholic Churches were very separate bodies, there was a shared sense of danger from the expanding forces of Islam, and apparently a fair amount of diplomatic negotiation took place between the two Churches at this time. One of the most lasting influences of Pope Alexander III was his establishment of the rules for canonization of saints: one of the first canonizations under the rules was of Thomas a Becket, only two and a half years after his murder in Canterbury Cathedral.
In 1178, Frederick Barbarossa was crowned King of Burgundy for the first time (he repeated the ceremony eight years later); he had already been made Holy Roman Emperor by his own antipope, Paschal III, in 1167. Despite his defeat at the Battle of Legnano, Frederick's star was still regarded as rising. The shift of power in Europe was heightened in 1180 with the death of Louis VII of France; his son, Philippe II Augustus, was only fifteen at the time and was an unknown quantity. Frederick's power reached its zenith in 1184 at the Great Diet of Mainz, and with the possible exception of Moslem Spain, most of Europe had come under his direct or indirect influence.
In 1185, the Shi'ite Moslems took over Egypt, bringing a more zealous regime to the Islamic part of the Mediterranean. Norman French forces from Sicily, then under Norman control, campaigned against the Byzantines, and after a fairly successful invasion were defeated at Demetritsa by a Byzantine army under the command of Alexius Branas. With two major European factionsЧthe Sicilian Franco-Normans and the Holy Roman Empire under Frederick I BarbarossaЧas well as Moslem forces on expansionist programs, the situation was volatile in many ways. The new Byzantine Emperor, Isaac II Angelus, though a capable politician, was unable or unwilling to curb the corruption in his government, aware that to undertake reform at such a time was to invite treachery. Through various clandestine channels, he approached the new Pope, Urban III, apparently encouraging another Crusade, which would provide an effective wedge between the beleaguered Byzantine Empire and the armed might of Islam.
Matters worsened steadily. By 1187 Saladin had defeated the Christians at Hittin and had taken Jerusalem. The rivalry between France and England was sharpened when the heir to the English throne, Richard, was required to do homage to Philippe of France for English possessions in France; Henry II of England, fifty-three years of age, was offended enough to turn this episode into a fracas, the result of which was that he was forced to accept all the French demands and to give full recognition to Richard as his heir and as partial vassal to France.
Pope Urban III was succeeded in 1187 by Pope Gregory VIII, and, in the same year, by Pope Clement III, who proclaimed the Third Crusade, charging all Christian chivalry to reclaim Jerusalem and once again restore European rule to that city. Frederick I Barbarossa made certain his reign and succession were in order with a triple coronation at the end of 1186, and began to prepare for war. In France, the first tax ever imposed on the French people, called the Saladin tax, was levied to raise money to pay the enormous cost of the Crusade.
In May of 1189, Barbarossa, with his Holy Roman army, set out from Regensburg for the Holy Land. The French were almost ready to leave for the war when circumstances changed again; on July 6, Henry II of England died at Chinon shortly after surrendering the territories of Gracy and Issoudon to France. He was succeeded promptly by Richard Coer de Leon, who all but broke off diplomatic relations with France, repudiated his lifelong engagement to Alais, the sister of Philippe, and announced his intention of retaining all French territory held by the English. Only the two kings' intention to Crusade kept either from direct hostile action, and by the end of the year, they had pledged mutual good faith for the Crusade.
While both Richard and Philippe spent the winter of 1189-90 preparing for the Crusade, Frederick had already reached Greece, where he drowned in the Calycadnus River on June 10, thus leaving his men, and the entire Third Crusade, temporarily without a leader. Richard, determined to take advantage of this, effectively mortgaged part of his kingdom in order to raise and equip an army of 4,000 men-at-arms and 4,000 footsoldiers for the Crusade. Philippe, not to be outdone or outmaneuvered, established the means to allow him to continue to rule France while he was away from Paris: he relied on a complex system of personal heralds to relay his messages from the Holy Land.
By the following winter, both Richard and Philippe were under way, but because of weather and diplomatic circumstances, spent a good portion of time in Sicily quarreling. When Richard was able to leave, in March of 1191, he conquered Cyprus (which had only recently won its independence from Byzantium) where on May 11 and 12,1191, he married Barengaria of Navarre, then sold the island to the Knights Templar. Richard and his English army went in June to join Leopold of Austria at the siege of Acre; Leopold was as favorably impressed by Richard's military capabilities as he was offended by Richard's arrogant conduct.
Philippe of France became ill and withdrew from the Crusade, making excellent time in his homeward journey, even though he detoured on the way to Paris to form an anti-Richard alliance with Frederick I Barbarossa's heir, Henry VI, the new Holy Roman Emperor.
In the Holy Land, Richard's campaign continued successful, and before the end of the year, the Crusaders were within a few miles of the gates of Jerusalem. This became the limit of the Third Crusade's achievements; the following year, between treachery, plague, famine, desertion, and unreliable intelligence, the number of fighting men, once approximately 100,000, was reduced to little more than 5,000.
Finally a truce was arranged between Saladin and Richard which would permit the Crusaders, unarmed and on foot, free access to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The coastal towns then in European hands were to remain in European hands. Richard, thwarted and chagrined, started for England in October, only to be captured December 20, 1192, in Vienna by Leopold of Austria, who surrendered Richard to Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. A ransom of 150,000 marks was demanded for his return. Although only a portion of the ransom was ever paid, Richard returned to England in March of 1194. Of his approximately ten-year reign, Richard spent less than a year of it in England, and this occasion was typical of that pattern. As soon as he had redelegated authority, he returned to the English possessions in France.
In 1195, Isaac II Angelus, Emperor of Byzantium, was replaced by his brother Alexius III Angelus, who had organized a palace coup. The new Emperor of Byzantium did not get on well with the Holy Roman Emperor, and Henry VI was prepared to go on crusade against Alexius III Angelus when he fell ill and died, September 28,1197.
Richard Coer de Leon, determined to regain the English lands in France, completed Chateau Gaillard on the Seine in the same year, in effect throwing down the gauntlet to Philippe II. In 1198, he declared that EnglandЧand the King of EnglandЧwere not vassals of France, but nevertheless lost ground to Philippe, who was having trouble of his own when the new Pope, Innocent III, excommunicated him for repudiating his marriage to Ingeborg of Denmark. During this dispute between the Pope and Philippe of France, Richard disputed with the vicomes (viscount) of Limoges, and the following spring he besieged the castle of Chalus, where he was wounded by a crossbow quarrel and died of gangrene on April 6 after apologizing to his wife Barengaria that God had not made him a lover of women. He was thirty-two years old.
In 1202, Pope Innocent III proclaimed a Fourth Crusade and for the first time the VenetiansЧwho were actively engaged in commerce with Islamic countriesЧwere persuaded to participate beyond providing transport. Manrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, formidable still at age ninety-four, finally agreed, but on the condition that the Crusaders sack the city of Zara on the Dalmatian coast. The Crusaders accepted the condition, and were excommunicated for the act by the same Pope who had proclaimed the Crusade. The Crusaders, undaunted, proceeded to Constantinople, and restored the blinded Isaac II Angelus to the throne with his son Alexius acting as regent. After six months, both father and son were deposed by the general Mourzouphles who took the title of Alexius V Ducas, and for this usurpation, the Fourth Crusade besieged Constantinople, and as a result a short-lived Latin kingdom was established in Byzantium. Two separate Byzantine Empires were established, one at Trebizond, one at Epirus; the former lasted until 1461, the latter less than ten years.
The Fourth Crusaders fell victim not only to their excommunication, but to Bubonic Plague, and the forces never reached Jerusalem.
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For the purposes of this book, I have used Norman French for names of people and places wherever such information is available and fairly consistent. In the case of Richard Coer de Leon, since he never learned to speak English, I have used his own usual Norman variant of his name. For help with Norman French of the late twelfth century, I wish to thank Jeanet Simeon and R. L. Hansen for their assistance; providing other research material, thanks as always to the indefatigable Dave Nee. Whatever errors may be in the text are not theirs but mine. I would also like to thank Jill Sherman and Paul McNutt for their assistance. And, of course, thanks to the good people at Tor for their support and encouragement of my vampire tales.

PART I
Valence Rainaut
Text of a letter of the Venetian merchant Giozzetto Camarmarr from Cyprus to the Benedictine scholar Ulrico Fionder.
My dear cousin and esteemed teacher, I fear your apprehensions were well-founded. As you warned me, the situation has become worse. It is not only the presence of the Islamites that brings trouble to this island, but since the people reclaimed this place as their own, there has been an alarming increase in piracy, and the venture our united families were so hopeful of I must now recommend we abandon, at least until more order is restored here.
The great Islamite warrior Saladin has demonstrated his capacity for conquest now that Hittin has fallen and Jerusalem is in his hands. I am far from certain that this will be the limit of his expansions; one has only to think of Spain to know that Christian countries are not beyond his plans. I, for one, do not agree with those who say that the Byzantines will be able to hold his forces back. Consider that the Cypriots have already defeated them. The armies of Saladin are more formidable than the people of Cyprus.
Of course one hears rumors. When does not the world buzz with them, like bees and mosquitos? It is said that Isaac II Angelus desires the aid of his Christian brethren in the West. There are those who have denied the chance that there will be another Crusade. Most kingdoms cannot afford the expense, according to what I have heard. The loss of life in the last one has given many leaders pause, and the disharmony between kings has become so great that few kingdoms are able to sponsor such an expedition. However, it may be that with Saladin in Jerusalem, the Pope will decide that Christians must demonstrate their faith by restoring Catholic rule to that most holy of cities. Unlikely though many think it may be, I believe that the Christians must act; since the Byzantines are not inclined to fight the Islamites alone, we must assume that it will fall to good Catholics to defend the Holy Sepulcher.
I wish to make a suggestion to you and to our families: on the chance that there is another Crusade, rather than take the kinds of risks that are currently entailed in trade, we might instead invest in transport ships, for troops bound for the Holy Land will need our assistance, not only to carry them to Acre and Tyre, but to keep them supplied once they are there, for it can hardly be expected for the Catholic communities there will be able to supply an entire army.
It is true that many of the Crusaders are likely to take the overland route through Hungary, but many others will prefer the faster sea routes, and all will rely on transport ships for additional arms and supplies. I realize that there are those who frown on Venetians profiting from such holy undertakings as Crusades, especially since we do not take up the Banner of Christ. To those, I say that the Crusaders would be the worse for lack of our support, and that as long as la Serenissima trades with Islamite kingdoms and cities, then we must be careful to be sure our conduct does not worsen the conflict. By shipping and supplying the Crusaders, we fulfill the obligations we have as Christians as well as maintaining our necessary positions as Venetians.
You are more knowledgeable in these matters than I am, but if I have understood what you have told me, there is nothing in this proposition that is contrary to the laws of our Repubblica or the dictates of the Church. If I have erred, I pray you will tell me of it and aid me to correct my faults.
I solicit your prayers and instruction, and upon my return I will avail myself of your company. I miss the solace of learning and the joys of our families. To be two years away from wife and children is a trying thing for a man; I long to return. May God send me a swift and safe passage to Venezia. I will depart in two weeks. You will have this in good time so that our families need not delay in coming to a decision in this matter.