WAR IN CIIRISTEN DOM. 3?

East, more loudly than ever, implored the warriors
of Europe to come to their rescue. But, as it hap-
pened, most of the princes of Christendom were in
too much trouble at home to attend to the affairs of
Jerusalem. Baldwin Courtenay, Emperor of Constan-
tinople, was constantly threatened with expulsion
_by the Greeks; Frederick, Emperor of Germany,
was at war with the Pope; the King of Castille
was fighting with the Moors; the King of Poland
was fully occupied with the Tartars; the King of
Denmark had to defend his throne against his own
brother; the King of Sweden had to defend his
throne against the Tolekungers. As for Henry
King of England, he was already involved in those
disputes with the Anglo-Norman barons which ulti-
mately led to the Barons’ War. One kingdom alone
was at peace; and it was France, then ruled by
Louis [X., since celebrated as St. Louis, that Hesones
to the cry of distress.

At that time Louis King of France, then not
more than thirty, but already, as we have seen, noted
for piety and valour, was stretched on a bed of sick-
ness, and so utterly prostrate that, at times, as has
been related, he was thought to be dead. Never-
theless, he did recover; and, snatched as if by
miracle from the gates of death, he evinced his
eratitude to Heaven by ordering the Cross to be fixed
to his vestments, and vowing to undertake an expe-
dition for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre.

The resolution of the saintly monarch was not
quite agreeable to his family or his subjects, any
more than to his mother, Blanche of Castille; and

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