Read Online Archers and Crusaders: Historical fiction: Novel of Medieval Warfare by Marines, Navy sailors, and Templar knights in the Middle Ages during England's ... (The English Archers Saga Book 6) by Martin Archer - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Martin Archer
Tags: Historical fiction
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It’s a message to me from the Pope and explains why Cardinal Bertoli has arrived at our door in the company of a large number of papal guards.
“In the name of God I command you and your fellow Englishmen to immediately carry Cardinal Bertoli to Venice on an important mission. It is a matter of importance and he must leave with you immediately as his mission and his life may otherwise be in great danger.” Venice? That’s where the crusaders are gathering to go on the Pope’s new crusade. And why is his life in danger?
Bertoli explains that the Pope’s desire that we take him to Venice is in regards to the crusade the Pope has recently called to arms to recapture Jerusalem. It will be the Fourth Crusade and second such effort to retake Jerusalem since it was lost to the Saracens due to the stupidity of the man who was then Jerusalem’s king, King Guy.
Cardinal Bertoli has come to me, he tells me, because he has an important letter from the Pope that must be delivered to the Pope’s ambassador to the crusaders as soon as possible. The ambassador is a papal legate and a cardinal and, of course, an Italian. His name is Peter of Capua. The latest word is that Cardinal Capua is with the crusaders in either Venice or Pula.
Monk’s note: Jeffrey and Thomas obviously sympathize with the Pope’s desire to recapture Jerusalem. Their company of archers had gone crusading with Richard and was in the Holy Land when he got within twenty miles of Jerusalem and then decided to turn around and go home. What was left of the Company of Archers weren’t with Richard at the time – months earlier they’d stopped serving with him and signed on to help Lord Edmund defend his fief outside of Damascus. They did so after Richard murdered the Saracens who surrendered at Acre.
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Sailing all the way down the coast of Italy and back up the other side to Venice to deliver the Pope’s letter will take many days – but not as many days as it would have taken Cardinal Bertoli to travel on a mule all the way to Venice overland or to travel overland across Italy and catch a ship bound for Venice from one of the Italian ports on the Adriatic Sea.
There is no doubt about it - sailing from Rome in a well manned galley is the fastest way for Cardinal Bertoli to get to Venice and deliver the Pope’s letter.
Cardinal Bertoli and I talk a lot during the voyage. According to the cardinal, the crusade Pope Innocent has called, the fourth crusade as it’s now being called, will be more like Richard’s almost successful third crusade than the first two. It will go to the Holy Land by sea from Venice via Egypt and Acre instead of marching overland from Constantinople along the increasingly dangerous and Moslem dominated route the first two crusades traveled.
According to the cardinal, the Fourth Crusade is leaving from Venice only because the elderly and now-blind Doge who rules seafaring Venice is the only one willing to provide enough ships and galleys to carry the crusaders to a staging area in Egypt and then on to Acre. Acre is important because it is the port of Jerusalem and one of the few places in the Holy Land still held by Christians – the Templar knights.
The crusaders, and thus the Pope because he’s the one who called for the crusade and wants it to succeed, have a problem. It is that no state except Venice has enough sailors and cargo ships to carry the crusaders to Egypt and the Holy Land and is also willing to do so - and the crusaders don’t have sufficient coins to pay the Venetians enough to even cover their expenses.
Although no one realizes it yet, Cornwall could carry many of the crusaders to Acre if we wanted to do so. We’ve taken so many galleys off the Moors that we have as many or more galleys than the Venetians – but we don’t want to carry them for
“In the name of God I command you and your fellow Englishmen to immediately carry Cardinal Bertoli to Venice on an important mission. It is a matter of importance and he must leave with you immediately as his mission and his life may otherwise be in great danger.” Venice? That’s where the crusaders are gathering to go on the Pope’s new crusade. And why is his life in danger?
Bertoli explains that the Pope’s desire that we take him to Venice is in regards to the crusade the Pope has recently called to arms to recapture Jerusalem. It will be the Fourth Crusade and second such effort to retake Jerusalem since it was lost to the Saracens due to the stupidity of the man who was then Jerusalem’s king, King Guy.
Cardinal Bertoli has come to me, he tells me, because he has an important letter from the Pope that must be delivered to the Pope’s ambassador to the crusaders as soon as possible. The ambassador is a papal legate and a cardinal and, of course, an Italian. His name is Peter of Capua. The latest word is that Cardinal Capua is with the crusaders in either Venice or Pula.
Monk’s note: Jeffrey and Thomas obviously sympathize with the Pope’s desire to recapture Jerusalem. Their company of archers had gone crusading with Richard and was in the Holy Land when he got within twenty miles of Jerusalem and then decided to turn around and go home. What was left of the Company of Archers weren’t with Richard at the time – months earlier they’d stopped serving with him and signed on to help Lord Edmund defend his fief outside of Damascus. They did so after Richard murdered the Saracens who surrendered at Acre.
@@@@@
Sailing all the way down the coast of Italy and back up the other side to Venice to deliver the Pope’s letter will take many days – but not as many days as it would have taken Cardinal Bertoli to travel on a mule all the way to Venice overland or to travel overland across Italy and catch a ship bound for Venice from one of the Italian ports on the Adriatic Sea.
There is no doubt about it - sailing from Rome in a well manned galley is the fastest way for Cardinal Bertoli to get to Venice and deliver the Pope’s letter.
Cardinal Bertoli and I talk a lot during the voyage. According to the cardinal, the crusade Pope Innocent has called, the fourth crusade as it’s now being called, will be more like Richard’s almost successful third crusade than the first two. It will go to the Holy Land by sea from Venice via Egypt and Acre instead of marching overland from Constantinople along the increasingly dangerous and Moslem dominated route the first two crusades traveled.
According to the cardinal, the Fourth Crusade is leaving from Venice only because the elderly and now-blind Doge who rules seafaring Venice is the only one willing to provide enough ships and galleys to carry the crusaders to a staging area in Egypt and then on to Acre. Acre is important because it is the port of Jerusalem and one of the few places in the Holy Land still held by Christians – the Templar knights.
The crusaders, and thus the Pope because he’s the one who called for the crusade and wants it to succeed, have a problem. It is that no state except Venice has enough sailors and cargo ships to carry the crusaders to Egypt and the Holy Land and is also willing to do so - and the crusaders don’t have sufficient coins to pay the Venetians enough to even cover their expenses.
Although no one realizes it yet, Cornwall could carry many of the crusaders to Acre if we wanted to do so. We’ve taken so many galleys off the Moors that we have as many or more galleys than the Venetians – but we don’t want to carry them for
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