Afterward two lords came privately to speak with Jean d’Ibelin. Let us go with you to the emperor, they said. We will carry knives in our hose. We will stab him and our people will be on horseback at the door.
Jean d’Ibelin threatened to strike them, telling them that by such an act they would be disgraced. Throughout Christendom it would be said that traitors oversea had slain the Lord Emperor. Then must our right become wrong, the truth of our cause discredited. He is my lord, said Jean d’Ibelin to those who would assassinate Frederick, and I will keep my faith and honor.
After forty-three days on Cyprus the emperor embarked, whence he sailed to Acre and put ashore during the feast of Our Lady. Templars and Hospitalers dropped to the earth when he arrived and kissed his knees, thinking his appearance foretold the salvation of Israel. Citizens and clergy greeted him with respect but since he was excommunicate they did not confer on him the kiss of peace nor wish to join him at table. Most bitterly did Frederick rage against the pontiff, complaining that anathema was unjust.
Straightway he began cajoling and flattering Sultan al-Kamil because he coveted the throne of Jerusalem. He despatched ambassadors with fine gifts to Nablus where the sultan had encamped. Al-Kamil responded with gold, silver, jewels, racing camels, many wondrous things made of silk, and so forth. Anon they reached accord, which gave Frederick what he wanted. For a period of ten years, five months, and forty days there should be a truce enabling pilgrims to visit the Holy City. Nazareth, Bethlehem, Emmaus, Ramlah, Lydda, all would be restored to the kingdom. The road from Joppa would be secure. In exchange, Frederick vowed that his army would not threaten Egypt.
From Acre he marched south with eight hundred red knights and ten thousand foot soldiers to Joppa where it had been arranged for ships to victual the army. Now it may be the Lord God was furious because a storm blew up. Yet through His vast mercy, which permits no man to be tried beyond endurance, the wind abated, the sea abated. Then came a fleet to anchor with necessities. Rumors of this host gathering strength at Joppa disturbed the Saracens.
On the seventeenth day of March, in our year of grace 1229, Frederick entered Jerusalem. He requested the archbishops of Capua and Palermo to celebrate a coronation mass, but they would not, fearing the pontiff’s wrath. Nor would the patriarch of Jerusalem attend. Frederick went to the Holy Sepulcher on Sunday, lifted the crown from the altar and crowned himself. Hermann of Salza, Grand Master of Teutonic knights, read first in German, next in French, a proclamation justifying this arrogance.
Patriarch Gerold wrote in a missive to the faithful that it should be known how astonishing and deplorable was the conduct of this emperor to the great detriment of our Lord and Christianity, there being no common sense in him from the sole of his foot to the summit of his head. He came oversea excommunicate, impoverished, attended by not enough knights. He came first to Cyprus where most discourteously he seized Jean d’Ibelin and his sons who were invited to his table under pretext of discussion. And the king of Cyprus he retained almost captive. Thus through violence and fraud he got possession. Then to Syria, promising marvels, boasting loudly. Thither to Jerusalem on Sunday eve when Oculi mei is sung, which is the third Sunday of Lent. Without due ceremony he went next day to the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, and to the manifest prejudice of honor and imperial dignity placed the diadem upon his own forehead. All this to the chagrin and bewilderment of pilgrims.
Once there had been cordial interchange, such as existed between King Fulk and the emir Mu’in al-Din. Or between Richard Lionheart and Saladin’s brother Malik al-Adil. But there lurked in the soul of this German some perverse and wicked taste for Mahometry. All knew he did not scruple to employ eunuchs as though he were a Muslim prince. All knew he bought Islamic girls for the harem. Yet he was not embraced by Saracen lords. He could not win their hearts. It was written in the Collar of Pearls that this balding emperor with weak eyes, smooth cheeks, and reddish body hair would not fetch two hundred dirhems at the slave market, did not in the least resemble those Christian paladins from long ago. Nor did Muslims think him religious in any way but an atheist, a skeptic who pretended.
During his first night in Jerusalem no muezzins called. Next day he consulted Shams al-Din, the qadi who guided him. Why did they not call the prayer? he asked.
Out of respect for your visit, said the qadi.
I am not pleased, said the emperor. If I spent this night in Jerusalem it was to hear the muezzins call.
Yet those he sought to flatter through egregious blasphemy mistrusted him. That he could disparage the faith to which he was born disquieted them. Christ, Mahomet, and Moses, said he to the Muslims, all three were imposters. And so they considered him void of faith.
He wished to see the mosque of Omar. When he had climbed the steps he saw a Christian priest seated beside the footprint of Mahomet, Bible in hand, begging alms. Frederick threatened him with death, struck him, cursed him for a pig. Going round the Dome of the Rock he stopped to read a mosaic scription placed there by Saladin after every trace of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost had been expunged. With a smile he asked who these polytheists might have been. He wondered about gratings over the windows and learned they kept out sparrows. Now, said he, instead of sparrows God Almighty has sent
