Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/189

 THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST 177 The new Latin kingdom was to be administered as a complete and perfect example of the feudal system of society. The system was embodied in the code called the Assize 3 The Latin of Jerusalem ; but it is undoubtedly an error to Kingdom of ascribe this compilation to Godfrey himself, who Jerusalem - died within the year, and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin. Godfrey and Tancred stand out conspicuously as the most admirable types of the chivalry of their time, a time in which it is difficult to discover characters of any real nobility. These two may be accounted precursors of that higher type of chivalry which reached its best development in the age of Simon de Montfort and Edward 1. It was well for Europe when knighthood began to model itself upon men like Godfrey and Tancred, rather than men like William Rufus. What we speak of as the crusades mean in general the great expeditions of large forces encouraged by European princes, which took place at intervals usually of about a what the generation, during the next hundred and seventy Crusades years. It was not however these expeditions on a weTe - great scale which were their most important characteristic. From the time when the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was first founded the forces permanently in the east were not large. They required to be perpetually supplemented, and there was a perpetual stream of military pilgrims to the Holy Land, who went to humble themselves in its Holy Places, but could also find opportunity for doing battle with the Saracens. The east became a sort of military school for venturesome knights, whose own feudal superiors could not find them a convenient supply of fighting. There was nearly always fighting to be had in Syria, accompanied by a comfortable sense that a man might compensate for a good deal of moral aberration by trying to kill a few Turks. So the stream flowed out and flowed back, but flowed always ; and thus large numbers from the knighthood of Europe gathered from their eastern experiences ideas which they would never have acquired while they abode at home in the west. Baldwin 1. was succeeded by Baldwin 11. , his kinsman. The Christian kingdom and principalities were strengthened along M