Identifier: shorthistoryof00robi (find matches)
Title: A short history of France from Caesar's invasion to the Battle of Waterloo
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Robinson, A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances), 1857-1944
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Unwin
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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^^ible__result o£ the Crusades—for all these littleFrench courts were fostering places and nursery gardensfor French culture and for the French language, while,in their turn, they communicated to the mother-country the secrets and the marvels of the East.Trade plied from shore to shore. There was a richFrench colony at Saint Jean dAcre, which, for twocenturies, remained a golden link uniting East andWest. There were eight Crusades between Jt£9^and 1270^;and doubtless many of them were irresistible explosionsof faith and enthusiasm, especially the first, and thosetwo latter ones due to the saintly and heroic impulsionof Saint Louis. But, in all human effort, there is analloy. 4 Others were prompted by the desire of wealth ;s\ some were political adventures ; but, whether holywars, romances of chivalry, or commercial enterprises,these eight heroic expeditions certainlysfmodified thecourse of civilization. Their grandeur was fecund andtheir agitation not in vain, although the heathen
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THE FIRST RENAISSANCE 69 regained possession of the Holy Sepulchre. Thenations learned to know each other : tfie East wasrevealed to them ; VRichard and Saladin saw each thatthe other was, not a savage, but a very perfectknight. If he Crusaders brought home with themnew arts :-fche weaving in figures of silk and linen, andthe mejfcri: incrustations of Damascus which still preservethe citys name (damask, damascene) , the glass of Tyr,which was imitated at Venice ; the gauze or muslin ofGaza; the weaving of carpets ; ^he use of cotton ;talso the invention of windmills, so simple, so efficacious.The Crusaders returned with new plants for theirgardens : Saint Louis brought back the ranunculus,the King of Navarre the Damask rose ; and few treesfor their orchards : tlie damson or Damask plum;rhe mulberry-tree, which was so greatly to enrich bothItaly and France ; and the sugar-cane, which wouldonly grow in Sicily and Spain ; ^nd doubtless theybrought home microbes enough—leprosy seems to

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