Godfrey of Bouillon

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Godfrey of Bouillon
Roman Catholicism

Godfrey of Bouillon (

Latin: Godefridus Bullionensis; 1060 – 18 July 1100) was a preeminent leader of the First Crusade, and the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100. Although initially reluctant to take the title of king , he agreed to rule as prince (princeps) under the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, or Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre.[1][2][3]

He was the second son of

Duke of Lower Lorraine, in reward for his support during the Great Saxon Revolt
.

Along with his brothers

Fatimids at Ascalon a month later, bringing the First Crusade to an end. He died in July 1100 and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin as King of Jerusalem
.

Early life

Godfrey of Bouillon was born around 1060, second son of

Duchy of Lower Lorraine.[6] This duchy was an important one at the time, serving as a buffer between the French kingdom
and the German lands.

In fact, Lower Lorraine was so important to the

Rudolf of Swabia and in Italy when Henry captured Rome
itself.

A major test of Godfrey's leadership skills was shown in his battles to defend his inheritance against a significant array of enemies. In 1076 he had succeeded as designated heir to the Lotharingian lands of his uncle, Godfrey the Hunchback, and Godfrey was struggling to maintain control over the lands that Henry IV had not taken away from him. Claims were raised by his aunt Margravine

Arnold I of Chiny
.

As these enemies tried to take away portions of his land, Godfrey's brothers, Eustace and Baldwin, both came to his aid. Following these long struggles and proving that he was a loyal vassal to Henry IV, Godfrey finally gained Lower Lorraine in 1087.

First Crusade

Main article: First Crusade
The "sword of Godfrey of Bouillon" displayed at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem since 1808 (1854 photograph)[7]

In 1095

Verdun and used the money to recruit an army of Crusaders. He was joined by his older brother, Eustace, and his younger brother, Baldwin, who had no lands in Europe and was seeking them in the Holy Land. Others did the same, the largest being that raised by Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, who at 55 was the oldest and most experienced of the Crusader nobles. As a result, he expected to lead the expedition, a claim boosted by the presence of Adhemar of Le Puy, the papal legate who travelled with him. Significant forces also accompanied Bohemond of Taranto, a Norman knight from southern Italy, and Robert II, Count of Flanders.[8]

Godfrey with his brothers Eustace and Baldwin meeting with Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos

Following advice provided by Pope Urban, most of these armies set out in mid-summer and headed for Constantinople where they could expect assistance from Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.[9] Each travelled separately, since it was impossible for one region to feed and supply such large numbers on their own; the first to leave in spring 1096 was what became known as the People's Crusade, an army of 20,000 low ranking knights and peasants which journeyed through the Rhineland, then headed for Hungary.[10] Most of those from southern and northern France sailed from Brindisi across the Adriatic Sea, while Godfrey and his two brothers, leading an army from Lorraine reportedly 40,000 strong, set out in August 1096 following the route taken by the People's Crusade.[11]

Pope Urban II's call for the crusade spurred a wave of violence against Jews across Europe, beginning with

marks, Godfrey "assured them of his support and promised them peace".[13] [14] [15]

After the People's Crusade entered Hungary in June, a series of incidents had culminated in a full-scale battle with their hosts and the deaths of over 10,000 Crusaders; as a result, when Godfrey and his troops approached the border in September, it took several days of negotiations before they were allowed in.

Seljuk Turks, while the Crusaders sought to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims. When Alexios demanded an oath of loyalty, Godfrey and most of the Crusaders agreed a modified version in which they promised to restore some lands to the Emperor, Raymond of Toulouse being a notable exception: he would just promise to do the Emperor no harm.[17]

Capture of Nicaea and Antioch

In February 1097, Godfrey and his army crossed the

Bosporus Straits, where he was joined by Bohemund, Robert of Flanders and Hugh of Vermandois.[18] Accompanied by Byzantine soldiers, in early May the Crusaders invested Nicaea, a city close to Constantinople captured by the Turks in 1085. Godfrey and his troops played a minor role, with Bohemond successfully commanding much of the action but as the Crusaders were about to storm the city, they noticed the Byzantine flag flying from the top of the walls. Wanting to minimise damage to what was an important Byzantine city and suspecting the Crusaders would demand a heavy ransom for handing it over, Alexios had made a separate peace with the Turkish garrison. Although the majority of the Crusader leaders accepted Alexios' right to do so, it was an illustration of the level of mutual suspicion between the two sides.[19]

Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville

Godfrey continued to play a minor, yet significant, role in the battles against the Seljuks until the Crusaders finally reached Jerusalem in 1099. At Dorylaeum in July 1097, he helped relieve the vanguard at Dorylaeum which had been pinned down by a Turkish force under Kilij Arslan I, then sacked their camp. After this battle and during the trek through Asia Minor, some sources suggest that Godfrey was attacked by a bear and received a serious wound which incapacitated him for a time.[20]

Godfrey also took part in the Siege of Antioch, which began in October 1097 and did not surrender until June 1098 after long and bitter fighting. During the winter, the crusading army came close to starvation and many returned to Europe, while Alexios assumed all was lost at Antioch and failed to provide them with supplies as promised. When the city finally fell, Bohemond claimed it for himself and refused to hand it over to the Emperor citing the Emperor's failure to help the crusaders at Antioch as breaking the oath; after repulsing a Muslim force from Mosul led by Kerbogha, Antioch was secured.

March on Jerusalem

After this victory, the Crusaders were divided over their next course of action. The bishop of Le Puy had died at Antioch. Bohemond decided to remain behind in order to secure his new principality; and Godfrey's younger brother, Baldwin, also decided to stay in the north in the Crusader state he had established at

Fatimids, who had adopted the name of the ruling family in Cairo, Egypt. The Fatimids had taken Jerusalem in August 1098. The Crusaders would be battling them for the final prize of the First Crusade in the siege of Jerusalem
.

It was in Jerusalem that the legend of Godfrey of Bouillon was born. The army reached the city in June 1099 and built a wooden siege tower (from lumber provided by some Italian sailors who intentionally scrapped their ships) to get over the walls. The major attack took place on July 14 and 15, 1099. Godfrey and some of his knights were the first to take the walls and enter the city. It was an end to three years of fighting by the Crusaders, but they had finally achieved what they had set out to do in 1096—to recapture the Holy Land and, in particular, the city of Jerusalem and its holy sites, such as the Holy Sepulchre, the empty tomb of Jesus Christ. Godfrey endowed the hospital in the Muristan after the First Crusade.

Kingdom of Jerusalem

Main article: Kingdom of Jerusalem
Godfrey of Bouillon being created the Lord of the city. From the Histoire d'Outremer by William of Tyre, detail of an historiated initial S, in a British Library Manuscript in the Yates Thompson Collection (No. 12, fol. 46), 13th century.

Once the city was returned to Christian rule, some form of government had to be set up. On 22 July 1099, a council was held in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and after Raymond of Toulouse had refused the crown, Godfrey agreed to become ruler.[21] However, he preferred the title Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre to that of king, allegedly refusing to "wear a crown of gold where his Saviour had worn a crown of thorns.[22] Both the meaning and usage of his title is disputed.[3] Some of the original chroniclers used the more ambiguous term princeps, or his previous rank of duke. Later chroniclers who did not participate in the First Crusade suggest he took the title of rex, or king".[23] [24] [25]

During his short reign, Godfrey had to defend the new kingdom against the

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
, who was allied with Tancred. Although the Latins came close to capturing Ascalon, Godfrey's attempts to prevent Raymond of St. Gilles from securing the city for himself meant that the town remained in Muslim hands, destined to be a thorn in the new kingdom's side for years to come.

In 1100, Godfrey was unable to directly expand his new territories through conquest. However, his impressive victory in 1099 and his subsequent campaigning in 1100 meant that he was able to force

fiefdom of the pope, but his full intentions are not clear. Much of the evidence for this comes from William of Tyre, whose account of these events is troublesome; it is only William who tells us that Dagobert forced Godfrey to concede Jerusalem and Jaffa, while other writers such as Albert of Aachen and Ralph of Caen suggest that both Dagobert and his ally Tancred had sworn an oath to Godfrey to accept only one of his brothers or blood relations as his successor. Whatever Dagobert's schemes, they were destined to come to naught. Being at Haifa at the time of Godfrey's death, he could do nothing to stop Godfrey's supporters, led by Warner of Grez
, from seizing Jerusalem and demanding that Godfrey's brother Baldwin should succeed to the rule. Dagobert was subsequently forced to crown Baldwin as the first Latin king of Jerusalem on 25 December 1100.

Death

Cenotaph of Godfrey of Bouillon in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (1870, after a 15th-century woodcut)

The Arab chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi reported that "In this year [1099], Godfrey, lord of Jerusalem, appeared before the fortified port of 'Akkā [Acre] and made an assault upon it, but was struck by an arrow, which killed him".[26] While this claim is repeated in other Muslim sources, it does not appear in Christian chronicles; Albert of Aix and Ekkehard of Aura suggest Godfrey fell ill while visiting Caesarea in June 1100 and died in Jerusalem on 18 July.[27]

Suggestions he was poisoned are unlikely and it is more probable he died from a disease similar to

typhoid. Godfrey never married.[a]

Legacy

Hofkirche, Innsbruck

According to William of Tyre, the later 12th-century chronicler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Godfrey was "tall of stature, not extremely so, but still taller than the average man. He was strong beyond compare, with solidly-built limbs and a stalwart chest. His features were pleasing, his beard and hair of medium blond."

As the first ruler of the

Raymond IV of Toulouse, Bohemond of Taranto, Robert of Flanders, Stephen of Blois and Baldwin of Boulogne to name a few, along with papal legate Adhemar of Montiel, Bishop of Le Puy. Baldwin I of Jerusalem
, Godfrey's younger brother, became the first titled king when he succeeded Godfrey in 1100. The assizes were the result of a gradual development.

Godfrey's role in the crusade was described by various authors, including

chansons de geste dealing with the First Crusade, which connected him to the legend of the Knight of the Swan,[30] most famous today as the storyline of Wagner's opera Lohengrin
.

By William of Tyre's time later in the 12th century, Godfrey was already a legend among the descendants of the original crusaders. Godfrey was believed to have possessed immense physical strength; it was said that in Cilicia he wrestled a bear and won, and that he once beheaded a camel with one blow of his sword.

Equestrian statue of Godfrey of Bouillon in Brussels

Since the mid-19th century, an

equestrian statue of Godfrey of Bouillon has stood in the centre of the Place Royale/Koningsplein in Brussels, Belgium. It was made by Eugène Simonis
, and inaugurated on 24 August 1848.

Godfrey is a key figure in the

pseudohistorical theories put forth in the books The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code
.

In 2005 Godfrey came in 17th place in the

Dutch speakers in De Grootste Belg
(the Greatest Belgian).

Literature and music

Genealogical table

Godfrey's relation to the rulers of Lorraine, Boulogne, Tuscany, and Rome[33]
Godfrey I of Verdun
Gothelo I of Lower Lorraine
Godfrey III of Lower Lorraine
DodaGothelo II of Lower LorrainePope Stephen IXRegelinda
Albert III of Namur
Eustace III of Boulogne
Godfrey of BouillonBaldwin I of Jerusalem

Notes

  1. ^ Marjorie Chibnall (Select Documents of the English Lands of the Abbey of Bec, Camden (3rd Ser.) 73 (1951) pp. 25–26) followed earlier writers in suggesting that since the names Godfrey and Geoffrey shared a common origin, Godfrey is identical to the Geoffrey of Boulogne who appears in English records, marrying Beatrice, daughter of Geoffrey de Mandeville and that he left behind in England a son, William de Boulogne (adult by 1106, died c. 1169). However, Alan Murray analyzed the argument in detail and concluded that contemporary documents clearly distinguish between the two names, and as there is no evidence for their identity and traditions of the Crusade indicate Godfrey was unmarried and childless, the two must be considered to have been distinct. Geoffrey, the English landholder, was apparently an illegitimate brother of Godfrey, the Crusader.[28]

References

  1. ISBN 9781642938203
    . God forbid", said he, "that I should be crowned with a crown of gold, where my Saviour bore a crown of thorns.
  2. ^ Murray 2000, pp. 70–77.
  3. ^ a b Rubenstein 2008, pp. 61–62.
  4. ^ Butler & Burns 2000, p. 93.
  5. ^ Andressohn 1947, p. 95.
  6. Duke Godfrey of Lorraine
    who was known as Struma. That Duke Godfrey, since he had no children, adopted his nephew Godfrey as his own son and bestowed his entire patrimony upon young Godfrey as his heir. Thus, when the elder Duke Godfrey died, the young Godfrey succeeded him as Duke.
  7. ^ "The tomb of Godfrey was destroyed in 1808, but at that time a large sword, said to have been his, was still shown." L. Bréhier, "Godfrey of Bouillon" in The Catholic Encyclopedia (1909).
  8. ^ Asbridge 2004, pp. 92–93.
  9. ^ Asbridge 2004, p. 90.
  10. ^ Asbridge 2004, pp. 84–85.
  11. ^ Asbridge 2004, pp. 94–95.
  12. ^ Asbridge 2004, p. 84.
  13. ^ a b John 2017, pp. 186–187.
  14. ^ Golb 1998, p. 123.
  15. ^ Eidelberg 1996, p. 25.
  16. ^ Asbridge 2004, p. 95.
  17. ^ Asbridge 2004, pp. 109–111; John 2017, p. 201.
  18. ^ Asbridge 2004, p. 118.
  19. ^ Asbridge 2004, pp. 128–130.
  20. ^ Natasha Hodgson 'Lions, Tigers and Bears: encounters with wild animals and bestial imagery in the context of crusading to the Latin East' Viator (2013)
  21. ^ Asbridge 2004, p. 321.
  22. ^ Porter 2013, p. 18.
  23. ^ Riley-Smith 1979, pp. 83–86.
  24. ^ Murray 1990, pp. 163–178.
  25. ^ France 1983, pp. 321–329.
  26. ^ Ibn al-Qalanisi 1932, p. 51.
  27. ^ Asbridge 2004, pp. 117–118.
  28. ^ Murray 2000, pp. 155–165.
  29. ^ John 2022, pp. 80–81.
  30. ^ Holböck 2002, p. 147.
  31. ^ Weill, Isabelle; Suard, François. "Genealogie de Godefroi de Buillon de Pierre Desrey" (in French). Università degli Studi di Milano. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
  32. ^ Pierre Desrey; Vincent de Beauvais (1511), La genealogie avecques les gestes et nobles faitz darmes du trespreux et renommé prince Godeffroy de Boulion et de ses chevaleureux frères Baudouin et Eustace (in French), Michel Le Noir
  33. ^ John 2017, Figure 0.1.

Sources

Further reading

Primary sources

  • Albert of Aachen (fl. 1100), Historia Ierosolimitana, History of the Journey to Jerusalem, ed. and tr. Susan B. Edgington. Oxford: Oxford Medieval Texts, 2007. The principal source for Godfrey's march to Jerusalem.
  • Gesta Francorum, ed. and tr. Rosalind Hill, Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum. Oxford, 1967.
  • Ralph of Caen, Gesta Tancredi, ed. Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach, The Gesta Tancredi of Ralph of Caen: A History of the Normans on the First Crusade. Ashgate Publishing, 2005.
  • Fulcher of Chartres, Chronicle, ed. Harold S. Fink and tr. Francis Rita Ryan, Fulcher of Chartres, A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 1095–1127. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessy Press, 1969.
  • Raymond of Aguilers, Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem, tr. John Hugh Hill and Laurita L. Hill. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1968.
  • Ekkehard of Aura (d. 1126), tr. W. Pflüger, Die Chronik des Ekkehard von Aura. Leipzig, 1893.
  • William of Tyre (d. 1186), Historia, ed. R. B. C. Huygens, Willemi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon. Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis 38. Turnholt: Brepols, 1986; tr. E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey, William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea. Columbia University Press, 1943.
  • Comnena, Anna (1928). Alexiad. Medieval Sourcebook. Translated by Elizabeth S. Dawes. Fordham University.

External links

Regnal titles
New title Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre
1099–1100 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Conrad II
Duke of Lower Lotharingia

1087–1100 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Godfrey IV
Margrave of Antwerp

1076–1100
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