Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/57

Rh to Spain to enforce their just claims. It seems strange that such an attempt should have been seriously contemplated, or that Raymond should have conceived it possible that this extraordinary arrangement would be permitted. Certain it is that he did make the effort, and, as might have been anticipated, met with very meagre success. From the king of Navarre he could obtain no redress whatever, that prince naturally ignoring the power of Alfonso to make any such disposition of his kingdom. From the king of Aragon he did receive some compensation in the form of certain manorial rights. With this compromise he and his brother deputies were forced to content themselves, and so they returned to the Holy Land.

The first real blow received by the Christian power in the East at the hand of the Saracens was the loss of Edessa. This city was captured by Zenghi, sultan of Mosul and Aleppo, at that time the most powerful of the Eastern potentates. The prince of Edessa was the son of Jocelyn de Courtenay, who, although inheriting his father’s possessions, was utterly devoid of the warlike qualities with which that ruler had upheld his principality. Plunged into a course of reckless dissipation, and a mere tool in the hands of worthless favourites, he saw his capital torn from his grasp without an effort to save it. Nothing but the death of Zenghi, who was at that critical moment assassinated in his tent, prevented the loss of the remainder of his dominions.

As it was, the capture of the city of Edessa was a sad blow to the Latin power. Most of the gallant spirits who had contributed to the first establishment and subsequent extension of the kingdoms of Palestine were no more, and their successors retained but little in common with them save their titles. The only exception to this degeneracy was Baldwin III., king of Jerusalem, who, with the assistance of the two military Orders, was the main support of the tottering Latin power. That prince no sooner heard of the assassination of Zenghi, and the check thereby caused to his army, than he conceived the idea of once more recovering the lost city. He advanced rapidly at the head of such troops as he could collect, conspicuous amongst whom was a detachment of Hospitallers. On arriving before the walls of Edessa the Christian inhabitants of the town rose against the Saracen garrison, opened their gates and admitted Baldwin.