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Search of
Sir
Roger de Mowbray BRAVE
KNIGHT FROM THE
NORTH OF ENGLAND BOLD
CRUSADER, ADVERSARY OF A FAMOUS SARACEN CHAMPION AND SLAYER OF AN EXTREMELY VICIOUS DRAGON! SYRIA, DECEMBER
2005 It
was recently my very good fortune to take a short holiday in Syria, with a
couple of days in Lebanon at the end. When I read in the Voyages Jules
Verne brochure that their Restoration Story tour was one of the Great
Journeys of the World I dim-wittedly dismissed the notion, since in my view it
did not appear to be far enough, long enough, and definitely not expensive
enough at under £650, to merit that claim; but I decided to go anyway. My
journey proved to be one of the most rewarding I have ever undertaken, and I
hope to be able return to Syria before too long. Yes, convoluted politics and
exotic-sounding allegiances that confound and confuse most westerners can make
this an anxious part of the world in which to find oneself, and, with the Iraq
debacle showing little sign of sorting itself, we did wonder what sort of
reception a small party of Britons (17) in Syria could expect, but the people
were courteous, helpful and welcoming, and theft and muggings appear to be very
rare. I had travelled to Egypt many years ago and expected Syria to be similar,
that is, bulging with tourists, but the difference is refreshing; yes, the postcard salesmen and boys are around
every corner, but the whole atmosphere is much more gentle; it is much easier to
actually stop and converse with local people trying to sell you the stuff you
don’t really want. I shall never
forget the droves of excited schoolchildren in Aleppo Museum who wanted to
practise their English on real westerners; because there are still relatively
few tourists, there is genuine interest in western visitors and a healthy
curiosity about them. Syria
is a beautiful country with a string of mighty fortresses associated with the
Crusaders, and vast ancient sites like
Ugarit, Ebla, Palmyra and Apamea, many of them World Heritage Sites, on a scale
that cannot be comprehended from photographs. My own camera failed early on, and in a way I am glad
it was not working, because I saw these wonderful places and friendly people
exactly as they were, with my own two eyes, not through the lens as I was attempting to compose a picture,
and I believe that my long-term memories will be the richer for it. iiiii What
an outrageous and daunting adventure it must have been in the twelfth century
when knights such as Sir Roger de Mowbray set off for the Holy Land!
Times were tough at home in England, with the Stephen and Matilda civil war
dragging on, probably as tough as English people have ever faced, and Sir Roger
had been in the thick of the action from his teenage years, but the hardships
endured by long-distance travellers in the days before seasickness tablets and
diarrhoea remedies must have been unmentionable, quite apart from the toll on
the general health; and that’s before the fighting had even started! Roger
took part in the Second Crusade, heading east in 1147, and
in Syria I found myself thinking about him often, and not just when we visited
the great castle of Krak des Chevaliers near Homs, the Saladin Citadel near Latakia, the
great Citadel of Aleppo or the castles looking down on the monumental remains of
the vast Roman cities of Palmyra and Apamea. Madiq Citadel,
overlooking the 1½-mile long remains of the colonnaded main street of Apamea is
still occupied by local people who resolutely refuse to leave their village
within the castle walls, its huddled rooftops complete with satellite dishes.
Was Sir Roger de Mowbray ever here, in these exotic and majestic places? I
also thought about him as we made our way through the narrow streets of Old
Damascus. Roger was a religious man who had founded or aided many English abbeys
and who was much admired by the Knights Templar, to whom he was a
benefactor. Would he, I wondered, ever have ventured down Straight Street to the house of
Ananias – still a tourist hot spot today – where St. Paul was taken after
the incident on the road to Damascus two thousand years ago? I, from North
Lincolnshire, ancient Mowbray territory, am as far removed in time from Roger as he was
from St Paul, and yet he would not go very far away from my thoughts. I
am always on the look out for information on the Mowbray family, but most of all
I would like to find information on the Saracen champion Roger is supposed to
have defeated in single combat during the Second Crusade; any information would
be much appreciated (info@queens-haven.co.uk) Sir
Roger must have been a tough sort of chap, a survivor who lived to be an old man
in times when life expectation, even for an extremely wealthy man like him, was
short. In the 1180’s, ten years after he rebelled against Henry II, for which
some of his castles were destroyed, we find him in the Holy Land again, but this
time further south. He was captured at the battle of Hittîn but soon ransomed
by the Templars and is believed to have died near Tyre in present day Lebanon. There
is an alternative story that after his release he came home to Thirsk in
Yorkshire, accompanied by a grateful lion he had met on the way back and had
saved from certain death as it fought a terrible dragon. Some believe he is
buried at Byland Abbey, which he had co-founded with his mother. Marilyn
Roberts December
2005 Voyages
Jules Verne Travel
Express Inc (ground operator for Voyages Jules Verne in Syria) P.O.
Box 416 Aleppo Syria
For
information about Syria and photographs of the main places of interest visit
The
8.55 to Baghdad - Andrew Eames retraces
the journey Agatha Christie made alone from London to Baghdad in 1928. Agatha
later spent many winters in Syria with her second husband, the archaeologist Max
Mallowan. |
For more information, or to comment on the website, email: info@queens-haven.co.uk You may require extra fonts to view this website correctly; to check please click here. Copyright M. Roberts 2006
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