Godfrey of Bouillon: Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Ruler of Latin Jerusalem, C.1060-1100

300 Pages·2018·3.383 MB·English

by  Simon John

Godfrey of Bouillon
This book offers a new appraisal of the ancestry and career of Godfrey
of Bouillon (c.1060–1100), a leading participant in the First Crusade
(1096–1099) and the first ruler of Latin Jerusalem (1099–1100), the polity
established by the crusaders after they captured the Holy City. While previous
studies of Godfrey’s life have tended to focus on his career from the point
at which he joined the crusade, this book adopts a more holistic approach,
situating his involvement in the expedition in the light of the careers of
his ancestors and his own activities in Lotharingia, the westernmost part of
the kingdom of Germany. The findings of this enquiry shed new light on
the repercussions of a range of critical developments in Latin Christendom
in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, including the impact of the
‘Investiture Conflict’ in Lotharingia, the response to the call for the First
Crusade in Germany, Godfrey’s influence upon the course of the crusade,
his role in its leadership, and his activities during the initial phases of Latin
settlement in the Holy Land in its aftermath.
Simon John is Lecturer in Medieval History at Swansea University. He
previously taught at the University of Oxford, and held a Junior Research
Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research. Much of his work to date
has focussed upon the crusades and their socio-cultural impact in Latin
Christendom. He has published articles in the English Historical Review, the
Journal of Medieval History, and the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and is the
co-editor (with Nicholas Morton) of Crusading and Warfare in the Middle Ages:
Realities and Representations. Essays in Honour of John France (2014).
Rulers of the Latin East
Series editors
Nicholas Morton
Nottingham Trent University, UK
Jonathan Phillips
Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Academics concerned with the history of the Crusades and the Latin East
will be familiar with the various survey histories that have been produced
for this fascinating topic. Many historians have published wide-ranging
texts that either seek to make sense of the strange phenomenon that was
the Crusades or shed light upon the Christian territories of the Latin East.
Such panoramic works have helped to generate enormous interest in this
subject, but they can only take their readers so far. Works addressing the
lives of individual rulers – whether kings, queens, counts, princes or patri-
archs – are less common and yet are needed if we are to achieve a more
detailed understanding of this period.
This series seeks to address this need by stimulating a collection of politi-
cal biographies of the men and women who ruled the Latin East between
1098 and 1291 and the kingdom of Cyprus up to 1571. These focus in detail
upon the evolving political and diplomatic events of this period, whilst
shedding light upon more thematic issues such as: gender and marriage,
intellectual life, kingship and governance, military history and inter-faith
relations.
Godfrey of Bouillon
Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Ruler
of Latin Jerusalem, c.1060–1100
Simon John
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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© 2018 Simon John
The right of Simon John to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: John, Simon (Simon A.), author.
Title: Godfrey of Bouillon : Duke of Lower Lotharingia, ruler of
Latin Jerusalem, c. 1060–1100 / Simon John.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017027850 | ISBN 9781472458964 (hardback :
alkaline paper) | ISBN 9781315585345 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Godfrey, of Bouillon, approximately 1060–1100. |
Godfrey, of Bouillon, approximately 1060–1100—Family. | Crusades—
First, 1096–1099—Biography. | Jerusalem—History—Latin Kingdom,
1099–1244—Biography. | Knights and knighthood—France—
Biography. | Lorraine (France)—Kings and rulers—Biography.
Classification: LCC D183.3 .J64 2018 | DDC 956/.014 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017027850
ISBN: 978-1-4724-5896-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-58534-5 (ebk)
Typeset in NewBaskerville
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of illustrations vii
List of abbreviations viii
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction 1
1 Ancestry and parentage 14
Lotharingia and its place in the Western Empire 14
Godfrey’s maternal ancestry: the house of Ardennes-Bouillon 18
The career of Godfrey the Bearded 18
The career of Godfrey the Hunchback 28
Godfrey’s parents: Count Eustace II and Ida of Boulogne 38
2 Godfrey’s career in the West, c.1060–1095 56
Godfrey’s early years and arrival in Lotharingia 56
The succession to the office of duke of Lower Lotharingia
in 1076 59
Godfrey’s matrilineal inheritance 61
Godfrey’s career in Lotharingia, 1076–1087 64
The military campaigns of Henry IV of Germany 69
Godfrey’s career as duke of Lower Lotharingia, 1087–1095 72
3 The coming of the First Crusade, 1095–1096 91
Pope Urban II’s call for the First Crusade 91
Godfrey’s response to the call for the First Crusade 94
Godfrey’s preparations for the First Crusade 103
4 The First Crusade, 1096–1099 116
Lotharingia to Constantinople, August–December 1096 116
Constantinople, December 1096–April 1097 121
Asia Minor, May–October 1097 127
vi Contents
Antioch, October 1097–June 1098 136
Impasse, June 1098–May 1099 146
Jerusalem, May–July 1099 157
5 In Jerusalem, 1099–1100 178
Godfrey’s appointment as ruler of Jerusalem, July 1099 178
Ruling Jerusalem 190
Godfrey’s death and the succession of Baldwin I 203
6 Conclusion 219
Epilogue: Godfrey’s reputation in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 227
Bibliography 254
Index 273
Illustrations
Maps
1.1 Lotharingia and the Western Empire 15
2.1 Bouillon and its environs 62
4.1 Godfrey’s route to Constantinople 117
4.2 The route of the First Crusade across Asia Minor 128
4.3 Antioch 136
4.4 Antioch and its region 150
4.5 The crusaders’ route from Arqa to Jerusalem 159
4.6 Jerusalem 160
5.1 The early Latin settlements in the Holy Land 196
Figures
0.1 Genealogy of the house of Ardennes-Bouillon (simplified) xvi
0.2 The dukes of Lotharingia in the eleventh century xvi
0.3 Equestrian statue of Godfrey of Bouillon in the Place
Royale, Brussels (designed by Eugène Simonis,
inaugurated 1848) 2
2.1 Godfrey of Bouillon’s seal (from Pierre de Ram, ‘Notice
sur un sceau inédit de Godefroi de Bouillon’, Bulletin
de l’académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de
Belgique, 13 (1846), 355–600, annexe, plate 1) 74
Abbreviations
c.p. = continuous pagination
AA Albert of Aachen, Historia Ierosolimitana: History
of the Journey to Jerusalem, ed. and tr. Susan B.
Edgington (Oxford, 2007).
AAM Annales Altahenses Maiores, MGH SS, rer. Germ., vol. 4.
Anna Anna Komnene, The Alexiad, tr. E. R. A. Sewter, rev.
Peter Frankopan (London, 2009).
ANS Anglo-Norman Studies
Anselm, Opera Sancti Anselmi Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, Opera
Omnia, ed. F. S. Schmitt, 6 vols (Edinburgh, 1946–
1963), with translations of the letters in The Letters
of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, tr. Walter Frölich, 3
vols (Kalamazoo, 1990).
Bartolf ‘Bartolf of Nangis’, Gesta Francorum Iherusalem
Expugnantium, RHC Occ., vol. 3, pp. 487–543.
BB Baldric of Bourgueil, Historia Ierosolimitana, ed.
Steven Biddlecombe (Woodbridge, 2014).
Benzo Benzo of Alba, Ad Heinricum IV, imperatorem libri VII,
MGH SS rer. Germ., vol. 65.
Bernold Bernold of St Blasien, Chronicle, in Bertholds und
Bernolds Chroniken, ed. I. S. Robinson (Darmstadt,
2002), pp. 383–540, tr. in Eleventh-Century
Germany: The Swabian Chronicles, tr. I. S. Robinson
(Manchester, 2008), pp. 245–337.
Berthold I Berthold of Reichenau, Chronicle [First Version],
in Bertholds und Bernolds Chroniken, ed. I. S.
Robinson (Darmstadt, 2002), pp. 161–203, tr. in
Eleventh-Century Germany: The Swabian Chronicles,
tr. I. S. Robinson (Manchester, 2008), pp. 99–107.
Abbreviations ix
Berthold II Berthold of Reichenau, Chronicle [Second Version],
in Bertholds und Bernolds Chroniken, ed. I. S.
Robinson (Darmstadt, 2002), pp. 204–381, tr. in
Eleventh-Century Germany: The Swabian Chronicles,
tr. I. S. Robinson (Manchester, 2008), pp. 108–244.
Bonizo Bonizo of Sutri, Liber ad amicum, MGH Libelli, vol.
1, pp. 568–620, tr. in The Papal Reform of the Eleventh
Century: Lives of Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII, tr.
I. S. Robinson (Manchester, 2004), pp. 158–261.
Bruno Brunonis Saxonicum Bellum, Q H IV, pp. 191–405.
Cantatorium La Chronique de Saint Hubert dite Cantatorium, ed.
Karl Hanquet (Brussels, 1906).
Carmen Carmen de Bello Saxonico, Q H IV, pp. 143–89.
Cartulaire Gorze Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Gorze, ed. Armand
d’Herbomez (Paris, 1898).
CCSSJ Le Cartulaire du Chapitre du Saint-Sépulcre de
Jérusalem, ed. Geneviève Bresc-Bautier (Paris,
1984).
ChAnt La Chanson d’Antioche, ed. Suzanne Duparc-Quioc,
2 vols (Paris, 1977–1978), tr. in The Chanson
d’Antioche: An Old French Account of the First Crusade,
tr. Susan B. Edgington and Carol Sweetenham
(Farnham, 2011).
Chartes Saint-Hubert Chartes de l’abbaye de Saint-Hubert en Ardenne, ed.
Godefroid Kurth, 2 vols (Brussels, 1903).
ChJér The Chanson des Chétifs and Chanson de Jérusalem:
Completing the Central Trilogy of the Old French Crusade
Cycle, tr. Carol Sweetenham (Farnham, 2016).
CMC Leo Marsicanus, Chronica monasterii Casinensis,
MGH SS, vol. 34.
CPC Heinrich Hagenmeyer, Chronologie de la Premiére
Croisade, 1094–1100 (Paris, 1902).
CW Chronicon Wirziburgense, MGH SS, vol. 6, pp. 17–31.
DK Epistulae et Chartae ad Historiam Primi Belli Sacri
Spectantes Quae Supersunt Aevo Aequales ac Genuinae:
Die Kreuzzugsbriefe aus des Jahren 1088–1100, ed.
Heinrich Hagenmeyer (Innsbruck, 1901).
DULKJ Die Urkunden der lateinischen Könige von Jerusalem, ed.
Hans E. Mayer, 4 vols, c.p. (Hannover, 2010).
EC1 Marcus Bull and Norman Housley (eds), The
Experience of Crusading, Volume 1: Western Approaches
(Cambridge, 2003).