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fled in the midst of the winter. It was a bad season and they barely escaped
drowning, but, as it so pleased God, they finally arrived at Tortosa. The Emperor
held Cyprus. The Cypriots who were in his army were very uncomfortable and, had
the Lord of Beirut sanctioned it, they would have carried off and kidnapped the
young King Henry and would have fled from the Emperor's camp.
The Emperor was now disliked by all the people of Acre. He was the object of the
Templars' special disfavor. There was at that time a very brave Templar, Brother
Peter de Montagu, a most valiant and noble man, as was also the master of the
Teutonic Knights. The people of the lowlands also had little use for the Emperor.
The Emperor seemed to be delaying. [Conjectural reading of "de lais"] Every day,
even in winter, he kept his galleys armed, with the oars in the locks. Many people
said that he wished to seize the Lord of Beirut and his children, Sir Anceau de Bries
and his other friends, the Master of the Temple and other persons and have them
shipped to Apulia. Another said that he wished to have them killed at a council to
which he had called and summoned them but that they had been aware of this and
went to the council with such forces that he dared not do it.
He made his truce with the Saracens in all particulars as they wished it. He went to
Jerusalem and then to Acre. The Lord of Beirut never left him and, though he was
often advised to leave, he did not wish to do so. The Emperor assembled his people
at Acre and had all the people of the city come and there were many who thought
well of him.
The Emperor secretly prepared to depart. At daybreak on the first of May, he
boarded a galley before the Butchers' Street, without notifying anyone. Thus it
happened that the butchers and the old people who lived on the street and who
were very unfriendly saw his party and pelted him most abusively with tripe and
scraps of meat....
Thus the Emperor left Acre
[Adapted from Brundage] By diplomacy and without spilling a drop of blood,
Frederick won the goals for which the Crusade had been launched. Jerusalem and
Bethlehem were restored to Christian hands and a corridor linking the cities with
the sea was also ceded to the Latins. Moreover, a ten-year truce was arranged and
trading rights were guaranteed to Christians and Moslems alike. But the Emperor,
who had won so much, lost what he had come to gain. The Latin Kingdom was not
to be a part of Frederick's Empire. The barons and clergy unanimously rejected him
as regent and Frederick was forced to return to the West almost immediately to
meet an attack which had been launched against his Sicilian Kingdom during his
absence by his father-in-law and the Pope.
While the Emperor was in the Holy Land the Pope was preaching a crusade against
him at home. The papal troops, with the keys of St Peter on their banner, led by
John de Brienne, the ex-king of Jerusalem, and by two cardinals, invaded Southern
Italy, and the Mendicant Peace of Friars exhorted the people to maintain the cause
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 49 of 200