The Christian camp was thronged with Saracens. The emperor wore a
Saracen dress. In his privacy he did not hesitate to say, "I came not
here to deliver the Holy City, but to maintain my estimation among the
Franks." To the Sultan he appealed: "Out of your goodness surrender
to me Jerusalem as it is, that I may be able to lift up my head among
the kings of Christendom." Accordingly, the city was surrendered to
him. The Pope repudiated the transaction.

66. While the emperor proclaimed his successes to Europe, the pope
denounced them. Frederick crowned himself at Jerusalem, being unable
to find any ecclesiastic who dared to perform the ceremony, and
departed from the Holy Land. He prepared to enter on his conflict with
the pontiff, and drew over to his side the general sentiment of
Europe; the Pope was made to give way, and peace proclaimed. The
treaty, which closed the sixth crusade, was for ten years.

THE SEVENTH CRUSADE.

67. On neither side probably was the truce strictly kept, and the
injuries done to pilgrims on their way from Acre to Jerusalem were
alleged as a sufficient reason for sending out the expedition headed
by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of the English Henry III, and
afterward King of the Romans. This expedition may be regarded as the
seventh in the list of crusades, and deserves notice as having been
brought to an end, like that of Frederick, by a treaty, in 1240. The
terms of the latter covenant were even more favorable to the
Christians, but, two years later, the Latin power, such as it was, was
swept away by the sword of Korasmians, pushed onward by the hordes of
Jenghiz Khan. The awful inroad was alleged by Pope Innocent IV as
reason for summoning Christendom again to the rescue of the Holy Land.