Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 262 The Issue of Successors
"Once upon a time, Scotland was called Alba."

"At that time, there was a king who went to the forest to hunt after his wife died. He met the beautiful woman Precin."

"The two immediately fell in love, and when the king proposed, Presin agreed, but only on the condition that the king swore never to see her when she was giving birth or bathing a child."

"Later, Precin gave birth to triplets of daughters."

"The king was so overjoyed that he ignored his oath and pushed open the door of the delivery room."

"Guess what he saw?"

In the gorgeously and elegantly decorated bedroom, Isabella was flipping through a storybook and telling some ancient stories to the children beside her.

Including Alice, his four nieces were all around him. The oldest was only eight years old and the youngest was just two years old.

Sibilla is not feeling well and seems to have been infected with some disease. She has been sent to the clinic for treatment.

Although there is a nanny who can take care of these clever little ones, Isabella still spends her free time with them, telling them stories and playing games.

Since the city of Acre was recaptured, Saladin's forces quickly retreated from the north of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and gave up many territories as a new buffer.

The sword of Damocles that was originally hanging over the kingdom was moved away so that the people in Tyre could take a breath.

There are reports that Saladin's army has retreated to Tiberias, and his Turkish troops have also assembled in Damascus, and more Mamluks have appeared in the port of Alexandria.

Saladin's army was gathering, and they could attack the Crusaders from any of three directions: the north, the east, or the south.

Saladin can lose once, twice, or three times, but what about the kingdom?

If a kingdom goes to war with its own destiny at stake, it will lose everything if it loses once.

Of course, Isabella didn't think she would lose.

Therefore, when the heavy work is over, she will come to take a break.

The two oldest kids bit their fingers, looking thoughtful.

Then, suddenly, one of them raised his hands and looked very excited.

"I see!"

"Know what?"

"You must have seen a monster, right? That Precin must be some kind of monster in disguise! In fact, it has... six arms!"

The little girl's speech was still a little unfluent, but the movements she made by swinging her arms were so funny that Isabella couldn't help laughing.

Another child nearby also expressed his own guess, which was almost the same: he thought Precin must be some terrible thing.

Isabella smiled and shook her head, then continued reading.

To be honest, even without the storybook, she would be familiar with this story.

"No, the king saw a fairy."

"Presin, who had just given birth to triplets, revealed her true form."

"She has long hair that shines like a silver moon, and the fine hair falls to her waist, like a flowing galaxy."

"Her skin was as white as snow, with a faint rose hue, and a soft luster under the light."

Isabella's words left the two active little girls speechless for a moment. They had never expected things to develop like this.

"and then?"

"Because of the king's broken oath, Precin took the three little girls and moved to Avalon."

"The three sisters grew up in Avalon, and their mother would take them to the top of a mountain every morning to look out over the kingdom that was originally their home."

"On their fifteenth birthday, the eldest sister, Melusina, asked their mother why she and her sisters were taken away from Alba."

"After learning the truth, Melusina felt that their father had abandoned her, so she persuaded her sisters."

"They used magic to lock their father and his wealth deep in the mountains, where they died of hunger and thirst."

"But when Precin learned everything her daughters knew, the fairy was furious."

"Even though the king broke his promise, he is still her husband and the father of the triplets."

"Since everything was irreversible, in order to punish his daughters for killing their father, Precin imprisoned his youngest daughter in the same mountain as the king and sealed his second daughter in a castle."

"As for the eldest daughter, Melusina, she was driven out of Avalon as the instigator and cursed to turn into a snake from the waist down every Saturday."

The kids looked at each other in silence. What's the point of this story? It's so confusing.

"Do you know why I tell this story?"

The little guys naturally shook their heads.

Isabella clicked her lips and didn't say it directly, because the sequel to this story was related to these little guys.

Of course, it is actually related to their father.

According to some rumors, their father, Guy de Lusignan, had married a beautiful wife when he was in France.

The name of that beautiful wife was Melusina.

I don't know how this ridiculous rumor came about, and it seems to be intentionally or unintentionally smearing Guy's image.

But, that's actually the case.

Isabella was actually very familiar with this story because she had heard another version of it when she was a child.

In that version, the protagonist is actually the ancestor of the House of Anjou.

But compared to the romantic story of the King of Scotland marrying a fairy, the ancestor of the House of Anjou may have slept with the devil...

From then on, the descendants of the House of Anjou were called the Sons of the Devil, believed to have the blood of hell and to be the source of trouble.

Originally, Isabella didn't really care about such rumors. After all, the devil always seemed unreal.

But now that the [prophet] has emerged, the devil is of course real.

As for whether his ancestors had slept with the devil, and whether he had inhuman blood in his body...

These questions troubled Isabella, and she even suspected that this was the reason why she had not been able to get pregnant for such a long time.

There was a look of slight loneliness in Isabella's eyes.

In the Middle Ages, when the world was not yet clear, there were always many unclear things. Even Isabella could not fully understand the "truth" that Gellis mentioned.

On the other hand, Richard the Lionheart, who also had the blood of the House of Anjou, was Isabella's nephew in terms of seniority and blood relationship.

He sat on the throne of the palace of the Kingdom of Sicily without any hesitation.

In front of him, King Tancred of Sicily had his hands tied and was being brought up by Norman knights.

However, these Norman knights did not care at all that Tancred was actually a Norman.

"Come on, have a drink and stop looking so sad."

Richard waved his hand, signaling the Norman knights to untie the ropes that bound Tancred's hands behind his back and stop making things difficult for the king.

After all, the king's ancestors were French aristocrats.

"Let's talk about it. If we continue like this, there will be no proper conclusion to this matter."

Richard, sitting on the throne, motioned to Tancred, King of Sicily, to express his views, thus facilitating the subsequent conversation.

There are many reasons why Richard appeared in this place and sat on the throne in a dignified manner.

One of them was that Tancred bullied Joan and took away her share of the dowry and inheritance.

The second was that the citizens of Messina, perhaps at the behest of the King of Sicily, marched in protest against his army.

Three of them...

Apart from the various reasons mentioned above, there is another reason that Richard found himself without money.

Although this Crusade was put together by his father and Philip.

But before leaving, judging from the attitudes of those two people towards him, he knew that they would not prepare too much military funds for him.

In fact, the military expenditure had been almost spent by the time they first arrived in Sicily.

Thousands of people need money for food, drink, and shelter. If the money cannot be raised, even though these Crusaders will follow him to the Holy Land, forget about expecting them to fight hard.

Coincidentally, the Sicilian King Tancred in front of him provided an excuse just when Richard the Lionheart landed.

The origin of this excuse may seem complicated, but it is actually not simple at all. It takes a lot of thought to explain it clearly.

If we trace back further, we have to go back to the first King of Sicily, Roger II.

Roger II's heir to the throne was his son William I, and he also had a daughter named Constance.

William I, known as "William the Bad", fought wars in Sicily every year during his reign, but he still died of old age.

William I's successor was his son William II, known as "William the Good". During his reign, he rarely had to fight wars in Sicily and also married Joan as queen.

Then there was the problem. Joan had never been able to have children.

Of Roger II's legitimate descendants, only Constance was left alive at this time; the others had all died without an heir.

At this time, under the pressure of Barbarossa, Constance became engaged to Barbarossa's son, Eden's brother, Henry VI.

In other words, Henry VI, as Barbarossa's successor, would not only inherit the Holy Roman Empire, but would also inherit Sicily from his wife.

However, the Sicilian court officials did not want Sicily to be forced to join the Holy Roman Empire, nor did they want to be ruled by the Germans.

Therefore, after the death of William the Good, the Sicilian court officials found Tancred, the illegitimate son of Roger II, to usurp the throne.

Tancred's usurpation of the throne was naturally a disruption to the succession order of "William the Good", and "William the Good's" Queen Joan had openly supported Constance's succession to the throne.

In retaliation, Tancred imprisoned Joan and seized her dowry and the inheritance that she was entitled to according to William the Good's will.

This is truly bullying the "widow" and they are going to destroy the entire family.

There's nothing wrong with this.

But Queen Joan of Sicily had a father named Henry, a man with an ordinary name but a little fame in Europe. He was the King of England.

He also had an older brother named Richard, nicknamed "Lionheart".

Moreover, Joan was imprisoned in 1189. Joan's brother Richard "Lionheart" joined the Crusades with brothers. Everyone thought Richard was reliable and was willing to listen to him.

As luck would have it, as soon as he landed in Sicily, Richard the Lionheart heard the news that his sister was bullied and destitute by her husband's family.

What’s even more coincidental is that Richard the Lionheart was short of money.

After that, everything went smoothly. Joan was released by Tancred, but Tancred refused to pay him. Lionheart refused to leave Sicily, and Tancred incited Sicilians to protest and boycott Lionheart's army, letting Lionheart know that he was not welcome here.

But Tancred didn't understand why "Lionheart" wanted to stay in Sicily.

When the demonstrators came near the "Crusaders".

A pile of rotten eggs or leaves were thrown into the military camp.

Next, the furious Crusaders, led by Richard, sacked Messina, the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily, and captured Tancred.

Finally, the current scene appeared.

Tancred, who was not prepared for the war, became a prisoner facing more than 10,000 empty-pocketed Crusaders, while Richard the Lion-hearted sat on the throne of Sicily.

"Look at what has happened. What bad luck!"

"devil."

Tancred cursed under his breath, not loud enough but loud enough for Richard to hear.

Richard knew what this meant, that there was devil's blood mixed with the Lionheart's Angevin blood.

But Richard didn't care. Unlike Isabella, Richard not only did not worry about the fact that he might have "hell blood", but accepted it calmly.

Anjou's family motto: [We are all descendants of the devil and are destined to go to hell.] For Richard, this is so cool!
"Come on, let's talk about the price."

Richard's sunny and cheerful face seemed inexplicably eerie in this dimly lit room, and his huge body, with his back slightly hunched, looked a little scary.

You have to know that Richard was very handsome. His hair was between red and blond, his eyes were bright, his face was pale, and his height was unique for the era, at 6 feet 5 inches.

Tancred took two deep breaths and began the unequal negotiations.

After all, as a prisoner, what is actually being discussed now is his own ransom.

Finally, Richard and Tancred came to an agreement.

The dowry that England had asked Joan to bring had to be returned in full, and she had to pay 570 ounces, or kilograms, of gold as compensation.

Moreover, Richard declared his nephew Arthur, his brother's son, as his heir.

Tancred wanted to marry one of his daughters to Arthur when he came of age, and also give him another 20,000 ounces of gold as a dowry.

It can be said that during this period, Tancred not only had to pay Richard the Lionheart a ton of gold as compensation, but also had to send a daughter to the House of Anjou.

One ton of gold is roughly equivalent to 24 gold dinars.

This amount of wealth was also a threat to the wealthy Kingdom of Sicily.

As for Richard the Lionheart, his ruthless attitude once again made the Anjou family famous.

……

Birth, aging, sickness and death, these things are unavoidable.

For Garys, he just had a little more medical skills and knowledge from later generations, so he could treat some diseases within his ability.

But he is not a miracle doctor and cannot cure all diseases.

Some people are sick, but he can't save them. Even the diagnosis of their illness is beyond the reach of Gellis without the equipment of the 21st century.

To put it bluntly, I was not a professional doctor in my previous life. At best, I was someone who knew a lot about first aid and had received medical training.

Sibilla was lying on the hospital bed, looking at Garys with her bright and beautiful eyes.

At this moment, she was no longer a noble queen, but just a person.

She was tormented by illness, and looked pale, sweaty and weak.

Garys had no way of diagnosing what disease Sibilla had. Simply prescribing medicine based on symptoms would not cure her. At most, it could only relieve some of her pain.

What can we do?

The answer is that there is nothing he can do, and he has experienced this kind of helplessness too many times.

It has nothing to do with a person's status or whether he is close or distant.

Just watching people's lives slip away is extremely difficult to endure.

At this point, there was only one thing Gellis could do: anoint the sick.

When the priest prays and anoints the sick, the whole Church entrusts the sick to Christ, the suffering and glorified Lord, asking Him to comfort and help the sick; and He also encourages the sick to contribute their strength to the benefit of God's people by willingly participating in Christ's suffering and death.

Gailis asked someone to bring holy oil and anointed Sibylla's forehead and hands with the holy oil.

This holy oil made from olive oil made Sibylla's pale skin slightly smoother.

And at this time, Garys also began to recite scriptures.

“By this holy unction, may the Lord of infinite mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and may He who has forgiven you your sins save you and restore you to your feet.”

Sibylla's face turned slightly redder and she pulled the corners of her mouth. She had been lying here for a long time. At this critical moment, she could only entrust her life to the "Lord" who was infinitely glorious and saved the world.

The unction of the very last rites is actually derived from the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. The anointing of the seriously ill Sibylla by Gaillis is not completely equivalent to the sacrament of the very last rites.

Sometimes, Gaillis had to admire the fact that Christianity had a very clear design concept since its inception. Many times, it was difficult to tell whether many things were a coincidence or a deliberate design.

In the 12th century, the mainstream churches in Christianity had already achieved a high level of theological consistency.

Quite a number of rituals, sacraments, and church laws are clearly designed to serve believers and encourage them to become more religious.

This, in Gellis's view, is completely different from Eastern religions.

In Eastern religions, whether it is Buddhism or Taoism...

When it was first born, it did not have any missionary fervor like the Abrahamic religions.

As an enlightened being, without discussing the various subsequent mythological colors and the exaggeration of Chinese native culture, historically, the Buddha should have never thought of saving all living beings.

As for Taoism, let alone Taoism...

This is not to belittle any particular religion, but in terms of their performance, both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church have demonstrated a strong quality of leadership and guidance.

Non-Abrahamic religions, especially Eastern ones, seem to show positive feedback from the masses.

Among them, the Catholic Church, because it has the Roman Curia as its leader, has the characteristic of "leadership giving guidance and opinions" fully developed.

Before the 6th century AD, Christianity actually had the concept of reincarnation, but it was abolished and declared a heresy at the Second Council of Constantine.

There are actually quite a lot of similar examples. For Christianity, it is natural to interpret doctrines according to missionary needs and to enforce unification.

But in other non-Abrahamic religious systems, this is actually very rare.

After the seven sacraments were summarized and refined, Christianity sought to allow a believer to live in a strong religious atmosphere from birth to death.

Taking the Anointing of the Sick that Gellis was performing at the time as an example, if Sibyl died, she would be called by the Lord to enter Purgatory or Heaven through the sacrament of the Last Hour.

Purgatory is not hell, but it is the place where one can go to heaven after cleansing one's sins.

If Sibylla survived, it would mean that the Lord had mercy on her and gave her the opportunity to redeem herself.

It's not that non-Abrahamic religions don't have this kind of situation. After all, if they couldn't do something like this, they would have been eliminated early in history.

But relatively speaking, non-Abrahamic religions are not so coercive, so unified, and so clear, and they are not designed and implemented in this way from the beginning.

This means that Christianity, especially Catholicism, has a place in the long river of history, no matter how the times change, and it has the largest religious population in the world.

In his previous life, Garys had discussed a topic with others, which was the Catholic doctrine of celibacy for priests.

The prohibition on priests marrying and having children is not completely enforceable.

However, a large number of priests did voluntarily sever their bloodlines, so that the priest community did not have a large number of cases where the father died and the son succeeded the son from generation to generation.

Since the clergy group itself did not have a system of succession from father to son, their jobs were naturally favored by the nobles, who could use them to arrange for their second son or illegitimate son.

This meant that there was no opposition between the nobility and the church, and there was no life-and-death struggle, but rather an organic combination.

Even many believers from the lower classes were able to climb up because the upper classes had no descendants and left vacancies, thus obtaining an alternative channel for upward mobility.

When it comes to extinction, Garys actually has a lot to think about.

The situation in Europe is indeed quite different from that in China.

There are indeed some crazy kings who just want a son of their own to inherit the throne.

But most people don't really care about blood inheritance.

Take "William the Good" as an example. As the King of Sicily, his wife was unable to give birth to children, and Roger II's legitimate bloodline was about to be cut off. However, he was not in a hurry at all and did not even take a mistress to look for one.

This is completely different from what China does.

Garys also understood the situation in the Celestial Empire. The core reason behind this might be the knowledge of the afterlife.

Traditionally, the Eastern Celestial Empire's understanding of the afterlife began to clearly manifest itself in the Zhou Dynasty and after, as one who treated death as life.

If a person wants to live comfortably in the underworld, he needs someone to worship him.

Apart from certain "gods" who receive large-scale offerings, the worship that the dead receive basically comes from their descendants.

This leads to the situation that everyone worships their ancestors, but as long as they leave bloodline, they will become an ancestor and be worshipped, thus living a relatively comfortable life in the underworld.

Moreover, the richer you are, the more famous you are, and the higher you climb in the social pyramid, your descendants will be able to provide you with better sacrifices.

This had two very important impacts on the Chinese people.

One is the obsession with bloodline inheritance, and the other is the worry that his social status will lead to extinction and difficulty in worshipping his ancestors.

The obsession with bloodline inheritance will lead to a very special consequence. Take Wu Zetian as an example, when it comes to the issue of whether the Wu family should inherit the throne.

Wu Zetian's subconscious reaction was that her nephews had their mother to be worshipped after all, and it was actually an unknown how the Wu family would treat her after her death, which was a very worrying thing.

As Li Xian's mother, no matter how many mistakes she had made, Li Xian could not change this fact.

Then Li Xian must worship Wu Zetian.

This was later confirmed.

In the first year of Shenlong, after the Shenlong Revolution, Wu Zetian abdicated and was given the title of "Zetian the Great Emperor".

In November of the same year, Wu Zetian died in Shangyang Palace at the age of 82.

Zhongzong followed her will and changed her title to "Empress Zetian Dasheng" and buried her in Qianling Mausoleum as an empress. She was later posthumously named "Empress Zetian Shunsheng".

The fear of the unknown world after death prompts humans to be extremely cautious in dealing with the matter of death.

The ancestor worship in the Celestial Empire provides a solution that is very consistent with human subconscious experience, but it also seems to have led to an obsession with bloodline inheritance that is difficult for other ethnic groups and religions to understand.

(End of this chapter)