Believing that your holiness is desirous to receive details of what was done by the emperor, of ‘that which we have looked upon and our hands have handled’,2 without any improper admixture of falsity, we have been at pains to write to you with the utmost brevity.3
The discretion of your sanctity should know therefore that after having been honourably received by King Bela of Hungary and having been kindly and humanely treated by him, no sooner had we entered the kingdom of Greece than we fell into the hands of thieves and robbers, for no trust is to be placed in the Greeks. For contrary to the common law of not maltreating envoys they imprisoned the Bishop of Münster and Count Rupert. We marched with great difficulty through the regions of Bulgaria, and after a long time on the road we first captured and sacked the city of Philippopolis, and then destroyed the famous citadel of Berrhoë, putting the whole of the surrounding region to the sword. We also captured the noble city of Adrianople and the towns around about, while the Duke of Swabia captured the impregnable city of Dimotika, killing a vast number of the inhabitants of the town. A fortress called Maniceta was destroyed by our knights and a few [others] from the army.4 Some six thousand Greeks perished there through fire and sword, many other fortresses were captured and there was a great massacre of the Greeks. When, however, they were perished with hunger, suitable hostages were received from the Emperor of Constantinople, and our envoys were returned to us, along with those whom the sultan and his son had sent to us, who had [also] previously been detained. We crossed the Arm of St George during the feast of Easter, with both people and goods in excellent condition. But afterwards what had been sworn and promised to us by the aforesaid emperor was never observed.
We then marched through the region of Philadelphia until we came to Laodicia, with the troops of the army of Christ mustered in arms every day. As we travelled on the sixth day before Rogation Day, we suffered terrible losses among the horses through lack of water and grazing, and through a day’s march that was much longer than normal.5 On the following Sunday we came to the source of the River Maeander, and while we were there envoys of the sultan and his son [arrived], who brought great presents for the lord emperor, and promised us an absolutely secure peace, pledging their faith unequivocally to this. However, we discovered a large force of Turks drawn up against us who had been sent to put us to death; but through the help and guidance of God and under the banner of the Holy Cross we put them to the sword at dawn the next day, which was the first of the Rogation days, and we slew a great many of them.6 That same day we passed through the extremely narrow defiles of the mountains on the way to Sozopolis. During our difficult journey through this region, we once again killed a great host of Turks on the eve of the Ascension of the Lord.7 And since we now were aware of the number of horses that had been killed or wounded, we did not find crops or grazing because of the cold, and we were beginning to suffer from hunger – nor did we get any helpful advice from the envoys of the sultan – we were forced by necessity to turn away to the left from the royal road that the Emperor Manuel customarily used to travel, because it ran through a desert region and took a very lengthy route to Iconium, entirely overlooked by mountains.
On Ascension Day, climbing to the tops of the mountains through which our journey lay, we travelled through very steep hills and along a very narrow path, which seemed to offer men little hope, and with the utmost difficulty and suffering great losses of both men and equipment we descended that same day down to the plain of Philomelium. For the Turks had completely surrounded the army on all sides, like a crown, and attacked it. The Duke of Swabia, with the Duke of Merano, the Margrave of Baden, other nobles and the archers, stayed in the rear to protect those who went in front, who having sent their horses on ahead had to descend on foot. The attacks of the Turks, with arrows, slingshots and stones, were so heavy that our men became split up and were placed in a situation of great danger. The Duke of Swabia was wounded; one of his upper teeth was completely knocked out and he lost half of a lower one. But although many of our knights were wounded, only one was killed. Many of the pack animals were lost along with the money, clothing and equipment [they carried]. However, a great many of the Turks were killed. The strength of the Turks increased from day to day, more than one would believe to be possible, for we now encountered the Governor of Philomelium and his army, the Governor of Gradra and his army and the Governor of Firmin and his army, along with a great number of others. Through the days that followed we fought against all these combined forces from morning to evening, but God always placed victory in our hands, even though many of our men were wounded and many of the horses were killed. On the Sunday after Ascension Day Frederick of Hunlith fell from his horse while pursuing them and died from a broken neck.8 We made camp the following day at Philomelium. Around Vespers the Turks attacked our camp there; they had already seized booty from some of our huts (hospitia) when we put them to flight, and more than six thousand Turks were slain, and among these three hundred and seventy-four of the best men from the whole of Turkey were killed, while none of our men perished, although many horses were killed. And ‘the mountains broke forth with the noise of lamentation’,9 and night divided us one from another. Famine had now got us in its grip, both wine and flour were totally exhausted, and I and others were eating horseflesh. The horses were also suffering from hunger, since we found neither corn, nor crops nor grazing, and the Turks hemmed us in day and night with such a large force that nobody was allowed to venture outside the camp. Note that on the fourth day before Pentecost we killed a great host of them.10
After the holy day of Pentecost we found the Malik, the son of the Great Sultan, and his forces disposed against us and the multitude of Turks [numbered] some forty thousand horsemen, who filled the earth like locusts.11 We raised up at our head the victorious eagles in the name of Christ against them; nor did we feel weakness from either hunger or wounds, and even though we had only some six hundred mounted men under the sign of the life-giving Cross we defeated them and put them to flight. The Malik, son of the sultan, was thrown from his horse there, and four of his most distinguished princes were killed, along with many others. Something else happened here that is worthy of record: for on that same day St George was seen by Ludwig of Helfenstein to ride before some of our squadrons, giving aid to our army. Ludwig publicly attested to this, under oath and in accordance with his religious duty as a pilgrim, in the presence of the emperor and of the army.12 Indeed, the Turks afterwards told us that they had seen squadrons clad in white garments and with white horses.
This same day, after pursuing the Malik who had fled towards Iconium, we arrived at our lodging around nightfall, having won this great and glorious victory, but we found no water there, and there were men, horses and animals with nothing to eat or drink, and we began, to some extent anyway, to fear for our lives. For almost all of the horses who had up to then remained to us were [now] dead, from hunger or from the length of the journey. So we set out at the crack of dawn, since we were only about a mile away from Iconium, and as we got nearer we found water, where we remained for the whole of that Wednesday.
The following day we stationed ourselves next to a most pleasant walled garden next to the city of Iconium, where we also destroyed two most noble palaces of the sultan. And since we were in a situation of most deadly danger, because we were suffering desperately from hunger and now had scarcely five hundred knights who still had horses, and no means of either advancing further or retreating, we were forced by our situation to divide our forces into two parts, and on the sixth day after Pentecost we marched out to make a frontal attack to capture the city.13 It seems extraordinary and incredible to say this, but with the help of God the Duke of Swabia, along with six others, seized the city at sword point and slaughtered its inhabitants. Meanwhile the lord emperor remained outside, fighting the other Turks who were attacking us in the rear, and although they had about two hundred thousand horsemen he fought them with ‘the power of the Highest’ and put them to flight.14 It is worth noting that the city of Iconium is about the same size as Cologne. After ransacking it for booty, we stayed there from the Friday until the next Wednesday, until the sultan, who had taken refuge with his men in the citadel, was constrained by fear of death to surrender twenty hostages of our choosing. These we afterwards held as prisoners, since he did not observe the faith that he had pledged.
We then raised camp on the next Sunday and set off by the shortest route towards Karaman, where we stayed on the Friday, namely 1 June. And ‘during the silence of the night’ there was a great earthquake, which we thought was [the noise of] the army of the Turks charging upon us. Now we think that it was a presentiment of what was going to happen to the lord emperor. For when we set off forthwith on our march, we went towards the [River] Saleph. We discovered the way across the mountains to be extremely steep and difficult, and we were only able to reach the Saleph with terrible loss of equipment. We arrived there on a Sunday, which was the vigil of the feast of the Apostle Barnabas.15
The lord emperor had crossed these valleys and mountains through a short cut: and on this same day he traversed this fast-flowing river and reached the other side in safety. He had lunch there, and, after the many and terrible exertions that he had undergone in the previous month and more, he decided to bathe in that same river, for he wanted to cool down with a swim. But by the secret judgement of God there was an unexpected and lamentable accident and he drowned.
We carried his remains with us with proper reverence until we arrived at the most renowned city of Tarsus. Marching onwards towards Antioch, we have however suffered from a great loss of our equipment and we have laboured for six weeks on end with food in very short supply, for we could not obtain supplies to buy.
We have been at pains to write to you, albeit briefly, about our dangers, hoping for relief hereafter through the mercy of God.
1 Translated from Quellen, pp. 173–8.
2 I John 1:1.
3 Chroust suggests that the addressee of the letter was probably one of the German bishops rather than the pope, as one might assume, Quellen, p. xcviii.
4 Moniac in the Rhodope Mountains. This was also named in the Historia Peregrinorum, p. 147, but not in the Historia de Expeditione.
5 27 April 1190.
6 30 April.
7 2 May.
8 Both the Historia de Expeditione and the Historia Peregrinorum call him Frederick of Hausen, Quellen, pp. 79, 159. See above, p. 103 note 288.
9 Wisdom 17:18; cf. Isaiah 44:23.
10 9 May.
11 Cf. Judith 2:11: ‘who covered the face of the earth like locusts’; and also Judges 6:5.
12 The Historia de Expeditione called him simply ‘a religious layman called Ludwig’ [above, p. 106 and n. 304]; the Historia Peregrinorum ‘a certain powerful man in our army called Ludwig’, Quellen, p. 165. Both agree that this incident took place on 14 May.
13 18 May.
14 Luke 1:35.
15 10 June.