Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/75

Rh cester, was an especial object of fear to Henry and the Prince; and his word was so lightly esteemed that it was thought requisite to bind him by oaths and pledges to form one of the expedition. He, it will be observed, was the only one of the Prince's followers who had not a gift of money; indeed, his vast possessions, which placed him almost on an equality with his leader, rendered a gift unnecessary, although a loan of a little ready money might be needful after the waste his estates had suffered during the late war.

The sum allotted to each knight was, as it appears from the above account, 100 marks, with the exception of Hamon L'Estrange, who received the larger sum of 1200 marks, and Edmund, the king's brother, who had 10,000 marks. The number of knights, one hundred and four, corresponds very nearly with the number said to have received the cross from the hands of the Legate Ottoboni, at Northampton, in June, 1269.

The utter failure of this crusade is so well known that I shall allude to it further for the purpose only of calling the attention of the Institute to a curious negotiation which was, in all probability, the only fruit of it. Dr. Lingard, after noticing Edward's arrival at Acre in 1271, and the retreat of the Sultan of Babylon, who had already prepared to assault the city, says, "Abagha, the Tartar Khan of Persia, proposed to him an offensive alliance against the common enemy of the Moguls and Christians." Under the corrupted form of Abagha, we have the name of Abaka-Kaan, son of Hulagu-il-Khan, and nephew of Kublaï-Khan, the Tartar Emperor of China. The Moghuls under Hulagu had captured Bagdad, and put to death the last of the Abbassite Khalifs, in the year 1258. The Persian sovereigns of the new, or Moghul dynasty, were therefore the religious and political foes of all the Mohammedan races; and hence the likelihood that such an offer was really made by Abaka to the English prince. Although this negotiation led to no result at the time, and Edward was compelled to evacuate Acre and return to Europe, the policy of concluding an alliance with the sovereigns of England and France was not abandoned by the Moghul princes who succeeded Abaka on the throne of Persia. On the death of his uncle Ahmed-Khan, in 1284. Arghun, the son of Abaka, ascended the throne, and he immediately renewed the rela-