William of Tyre: HISTORIA RERUM IN PARTIBUS TRANSMARINIS GESTARUM

CAPUT PRIMUM Octava die, post urbem captam, principes conveniunt, ut ex se unum eligendo urbi et regioni praeficiant; clerus indiscrete nititur contraire.

CHAPTER ONE On the eighth day, after the city had been captured, the princes convene, to appoint one from among themselves to be set over the city and the region; the clergy indiscriminately strives to contravene.

Sancta igitur civitate per Domini superabundantem gratiam Christiano populo restituta, et rebus ad aliquem modum in tranquillo collocatis, decursis in multa laetitia, in timore tamen Domini et gaudio spirituali, diebus septem, octava die convenerunt principes, habituri tractatum, invocata sancti Spiritus gratia, ut aliquem de suo eligant collegio, qui regioni praesit, et regiam provinciae impendat sollicitudinem. Dumque essent in eo, congregati sunt quidam de clero, spiritu superbiae tumidi, quaerentes quae sua sunt, non quae Christi Jesu, dicentes se habere verba secretiora, quae perferri velint ad principes, intus in conclavi residentes; et intromissi dixerunt: Nuntiatum est clero, quod ad hoc, ut de vobis unum eligatis in regem, convenistis. Videtur autem nobis propositum vestrum sanctum, et utile, et omni cura exsecutioni mandandum, si tamen ad id ordine congruo veniatur.

Therefore, the holy city, by the Lord’s superabundant grace, having been restored to the Christian people, and things being set in some manner in tranquility, with seven days having run their course in much gladness—yet in the fear of the Lord and in spiritual joy—on the eighth day the princes assembled, being about to hold a discussion, the grace of the Holy Spirit having been invoked, that they might elect someone from their own college to preside over the region and to expend a royal solicitude for the province. And while they were at this, certain men of the clergy gathered, swollen with a spirit of pride, seeking the things that are their own, not the things of Christ Jesus, saying that they had more secret words which they wished to be conveyed to the princes, sitting within in the conclave; and, admitted, they said: It has been announced to the clergy that you have come together for this purpose, that you may choose one from among yourselves as king. Moreover, your plan seems to us holy and useful, and to be committed to execution with every care, if, however, it be approached in a congruous order.

Certum est porro spiritualia temporalibus digniora esse; quae vero digniora sunt, merito debere praecedere. Unde videtur nobis nisi ordo praeposterus studiose quaeratur, quod prius eligenda sit Deo placens et religiosa persona, quae Ecclesiae Dei praeesse sciat et prodesse, quam de saecularis potestatis electione agatur. Si hoc ordine velitis incedere, placet nobis admodum; vobiscum sumus corpore et spiritu; si vero secus, invalidum censemus, et viribus carere decernimus, quidquid extra nostram conniventiam ordinaveritis. Haec autem eorum postulatio, etsi in superficie videretur aliquid honestatis habere, tamen intrinsecus habebat malitiae plurimum, ut docebunt sequentia.

Moreover, it is certain that spiritual things are more worthy than temporal things; and indeed, the things that are more worthy ought by merit to go before. Whence it seems to us that, unless a preposterous order be zealously sought, a person pleasing to God and religious, who knows how to preside over and benefit the Church of God, ought first to be chosen before there is any dealing with the election of secular power. If you are willing to proceed in this order, it pleases us exceedingly; we are with you in body and in spirit; but if otherwise, we deem it invalid, and we determine that whatever you shall ordain outside our connivance is lacking in force. This request of theirs, although on the surface it seemed to have something of honesty, yet inwardly it contained very much of malice, as what follows will teach.

Hujus autem factionis primicerius erat quidam episcopus de Calabria, Marturanensis videlicet, qui Arnulpho cuidam, de quo superius satis dictum est, nimia familiaritate conjunctus erat; et ipsum infra sacros ordines constitutum et sacerdotis filium, et nimia notatum incontinentia, ita ut in expeditione canticum populis se exhiberet, et esset materia fatuis et lascivis hominibus in choro canentibus, contra sacros canones et contra omnium honestorum voluntatem, in patriarchalem nitebatur locare sedem. Erat enim perversae mentis homo, pro nihilo ducens honestatem: unde et cum supradicto Arnulpho facile poterat convenire, juxta illud: Qualis quisque est, talium consortio delectatur. Pares enim paribus, veteri proverbio, facile junguntur. Invaserat autem hic idem Bethleemiticam ecclesiam, pactus cum praedicto Arnulpho, quod si ejus studio in patriarcham promoveretur, jam dictam ecclesiam sine quaestione et molestia, perpetuo sibi liceret possidere; sed ejus omnia haec molimina, mors vicina praevenit, sicut in sequentibus dicetur.

The primicerius of this faction was a certain bishop from Calabria, namely of Marturana, who was joined to a certain Arnulf—of whom enough has been said above—with excessive familiarity; and he strove to place that same man, though set within the sacred orders, the son of a priest, and marked by excessive incontinence, so that on expedition he would present himself as a singer to the people, and was material for foolish and wanton men singing in chorus—against the sacred canons and against the will of all honorable men—in the patriarchal see. For he was a man of perverse mind, reckoning honesty as nothing: whence also he could easily agree with the aforesaid Arnulf, according to that: As a man is, so he delights in the fellowship of such. For equals with equals, as the old proverb has it, are easily joined. Moreover, this same man had invaded the Bethlehemite church, having bargained with the aforesaid Arnulf that, if by his effort he should be promoted to patriarch, it would be permitted to him to possess the already mentioned church in perpetuity without question and molestation; but all these endeavors of his impending death forestalled, as will be said in what follows.

Defecerat sane in clero religionis et honestatis vigor; et dissolutus passim et sine delectu per illicita defluebat, postquam dominus Ademarus piae in Domino recordationis Podiensis episcopus, apostolicae sedis legatus, in fata concessit. Dominus tamen Willelmus Aurasiensis episcopus, vir religiosus ac timens Deum, post praedicti beati viri transitum, eamdem curam suscepit, et quandiu vixit, administravit fideliter; sed modico elapso tempore apud Marram quievit in Domino. His autem defunctis, factum est sicut in propheta dicitur: Sicut populus, ita et sacerdos (Ose.

Truly, in the clergy the vigor of religion and honesty had failed; and, dissolute everywhere and without selection, it was sinking away through illicit things, after Lord Ademar, of pious remembrance in the Lord, bishop of Le Puy, legate of the apostolic see, departed to his fate. Lord, however, William, bishop of Orange, a religious man and fearing God, after the passing of the aforesaid blessed man, took up that same care and, as long as he lived, administered it faithfully; but when a little time had elapsed, at Marra he rested in the Lord. But with these men dead, it came to pass as it is said in the prophet: As the people, so also the priest (Ose.

IV, 9); excepto domino Albariensi episcopo, et paucis aliis, qui timorem Domini habebant prae oculis.

4, 9); except for the lord Bishop of Albara, and a few others, who had the fear of the Lord before their eyes.

CAPUT II. Principes, neglecta cleri contradictione, dominum ducem eligunt, et electum cum hymnis et canticis sepulcro Domini repraesentant.

CHAPTER 2. The princes, the clergy’s contradiction neglected, elect a lord duke, and present the elected one to the Lord’s Sepulchre with hymns and canticles.

Principes tamen leve et frivolum reputantes praedictorum verbum; coepto insistentes operi, nihilominus tractabant de proposito. Tradunt quidam eos, ut magis secundum Deum et secundum merita personarum in electione procederent, de familiaribus cujusque magnorum principum assumpsisse quosdam seorsum, et eos ad jurisjurandi religionem praestandam compulisse, quatenus de moribus et conversatione dominorum suorum interrogati, verum sine admistione falsitatis dicerent: hoc autem ea fiebat intentione, ut sic de meritis eligendorum, plenius et fidelius instruerentur electores. Qui postmodum ab electoribus, sub debito praestiti juramenti, diligentius interrogati, multa dominorum suorum vitia coacti sunt secretius confiteri, virtutesque nihilominus enumerare, ut nudo apertoque judicio constaret, qualis quisque esset eligendorum, inter quos domini ducis familiares interrogati, responderunt, quod in omnibus domini ducis actibus, in magis absonum domesticis suis videbatur, quod ecclesiam ingressus, etiam post divinorum consummatam celebrationem, inde separari non poterat; sed de singulis imaginibus et picturis rationem exigebat a sacerdotibus et iis qui horum videbantur aliquam habere peritiam; ita quod sociis suis affectis aliter, in taedium verteretur, et nauseam: et prandia quae certo et opportuno tempore parata erant, diutina et importuna nimis exspectatione, minus tempestive, magisque insipida sumerentur.

Nevertheless the princes, reckoning the word of the aforesaid men light and frivolous, persisting in the work begun, nonetheless kept deliberating about their purpose. Some report that, so that they might proceed more according to God and according to the merits of the persons in the election, they had taken aside certain of the familiars of each of the great princes, and had compelled them to render the religion of an oath, to the end that, when asked about the morals and conversation (conduct) of their lords, they should speak the truth without any admixture of falsity: and this was done with this intention, that thus the electors might be more fully and more faithfully instructed concerning the merits of those to be chosen. Who, afterward, being more diligently interrogated by the electors, under the debt of the oath rendered, were forced to confess many vices of their lords in secret, and nonetheless to enumerate their virtues, so that by a naked and open judgment it might be clear what sort each one of those to be elected was; among whom, the familiars of the lord duke, when interrogated, answered that in all the acts of the lord duke, this seemed to his domestics the more out-of-tune thing: that, having entered a church, even after the celebration of the divine offices was consummated, he could not be separated from it; but he demanded an account from the priests, and from those who seemed to have some skill in these things, about each of the images and pictures; with the result that, his companions being otherwise disposed, it turned into tedium and nausea; and the luncheons which had been prepared at a fixed and opportune time, by a long and quite importunate expectation, were taken less seasonably and the more insipidly.

Quod audientes qui electorum gerebant officium, beatum dixerunt virum cui haec sunt; et cui inter defectus computatur, quod alius sibi ascriberet ad virtutem; tandemque consonantes ad invicem post multas deliberationum partes dominum ducem unanimiter eligunt, electumque sepulcro Domini, cum hymnis et canticis, devotissime obtulerunt. Dicitur tamen, quod in dominum comitem Tolosanum Raimundum, procerum pars maxima conveniret; sed hoc intelligentes, quod nisi regnum consequeretur, domum esset statim rediturus, natalis soli dulcedine ducti, etiam contra conscientiam suam, multa de domino comite confinxerunt, ut reprobus haberetur. Ille tamen nihilominus patriam spernens, Christum devotissime secutus, non abiit retrorsum; sed in anteriora se extendens, peregrinationem, quam semel ingressus est, et voluntariam paupertatem usque in finem prosecutus est; sciens quia qui perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit (Matth.

Hearing this, those who were bearing the office of the electors called blessed the man to whom these things belong; and him for whom, among defects, there is counted that which another would ascribe to himself as a virtue; and at length, consonant with one another after many parts of deliberations, they unanimously choose the lord duke, and most devoutly offered the elected to the Sepulchre of the Lord, with hymns and canticles. It is said, however, that upon the lord Count Raymond of Toulouse the greatest part of the nobles would have agreed; but, understanding this, that unless he should obtain the kingdom, he would straightway be about to return home, led by the sweetness of their native soil, even against their conscience they fabricated many things about the lord count, so that he might be held reprobate. He, however, nonetheless spurning his fatherland, having most devoutly followed Christ, did not go backward; but, stretching himself to the things ahead, he pursued to the end the pilgrimage which he once entered, and voluntary poverty; knowing that he who perseveres to the end, this one will be saved (Matt.

XXIV, 13). Et illud: Nemo mittens manum ad aratrum, et respiciens retro, aptus est regno Dei (Luc. IX, 62).

24, 13). And that: No one putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is apt for the kingdom of God (Luke 9, 62).

CAPUT III. Dux promotus, a comite Tolosano turrim David quam ab hostibus susceperat, reposcit; dissentiunt principes, sed tandem turrim obtinet postulatam.

CHAPTER 3. The Duke, having been promoted, demands back from the Count of Toulouse the Tower of David, which he had received from the enemies; the princes dissent, but at length he obtains the requested tower.

Domino igitur duce, de communi voto, concurrente omnium consensu, regni apicem obtinente, comes sancti Aegidii civitatis praesidium, arcem videlicet David, quam sibi ab initio, ut praemisimus, hostes tradiderant, possidebat. Erat autem in eminentiore civitatis parte, versus occidentem sita et ingentibus quadris constructa lapidibus, unde totam urbem inferius positam erat intueri. Hanc, quasi totius civitatis novissimum refugium, videns dux sibi deesse, curtatum nisi illam haberet, arbitratus se habere principatum, coepit a domino comite in auditorio principum reposcere.

Therefore, with the lord duke, by common vote, the concurrence of all in consent running together, obtaining the apex of the kingdom, the Count of Saint-Gilles was possessing the city’s defense, namely the Citadel of David, which, as we have premised, the enemies had delivered to him from the beginning. It was, moreover, in the more eminent part of the city, situated toward the west and constructed of huge squared stones, whence it was possible to behold the whole city set below. This, as the very last refuge of the whole city, the duke, seeing to be lacking to himself, judging that he held the principate curtailed unless he should have it, began to demand back from the lord count in the audience-hall of the princes.

Comes vero eam, tanquam sibi ab hostibus traditam, usque in Pascha, quo transire et domum redire proposuerat, eam sibi velle habere, ut interim cum suis honestius in regno moram facere posset, allegabat. Dux vero nisi turrim habeat, universa se velle deserere, dicebat; allegans omnino inhonestum esse ut, eo domino designato, alter civitatis haberet praesidium, quem quasi parem aut superiorem conspiceret. Comes autem Normanniae et Flandrensium comes domini ducis partes fovebant; qui vero cum domino comite Sancti Aegidii, ejus etiam familiares erant, ut domino suo, saltem hac via, occasionem praeberent abeundi, partem juvabant adversam.

But the count alleged that, as though delivered to him by the enemies, he wished to have it for himself until Easter, when he had proposed to cross over and return home, so that in the meantime he might be able to make a stay more honestly with his own in the kingdom. The duke, however, said that unless he should have the tower, he wished to abandon all things; alleging that it was altogether dishonorable that, with himself designated lord, another should hold the city’s stronghold, whom he would regard as a peer or even a superior. But the Count of Normandy and the Count of the Flemings were fostering the lord duke’s party; whereas those who were with the lord Count of Saint-Gilles, and were even his familiars, so that they might afford their lord, at least by this route, an occasion of departing, were aiding the opposing side.

Factum est autem, ut quousque de jure decerneretur, cui cedere deberet, turrim in manu domini Albariensis episcopi, quasi apud sequestrum de communi consilio commiserit. Ille vero non exspectato judicio, ante litis contestationem domino duci dicitur eam tradidisse, cumque id sibi postmodum a nonnullis imputaretur, vim sibi illatam publice asserebat. Dominus igitur comes, exacerbatus plurimum et indignatione plenus, quod turrim ita ignominiose, ut sibi videbatur, amiserat, et quod caeteri principes, non satis beneficiorum ejus memores, quae in via saepius eis contulerat, secus eum minus agerent amice, descendens ad Jordanem et aquis ejus lotus, ad propria redire, suorum satisfaciens desideriis, disponebat.

It came to pass, moreover, that, until it should be determined by right to whom it ought to cede, he committed the tower, by common counsel, into the hand of the lord Bishop of Albara, as it were in sequestration. He, however, not awaiting the judgment, before the contestation of the suit, is said to have handed it over to the lord duke; and when this was afterward imputed to him by some, he publicly asserted that violence had been brought to bear upon him. Therefore the lord count, greatly exasperated and full of indignation, because he had thus ignominiously, as it seemed to him, lost the tower, and because the other princes, not sufficiently mindful of his benefactions, which on the way he had oftentimes conferred upon them, were behaving toward him less amicably, going down to the Jordan and washed in its waters, was disposing to return to his own lands, satisfying the desires of his men.

CAPUT IV. Episcopus Marturanensis, vir subdolus et nequam, quemdam Arnulphum sibi similem, in patriarcham nititur promovere; sed non proficit. Crux Dominica reperitur

CHAPTER 4. The Bishop of Marturana, a crafty and nefarious man, strives to promote a certain Arnulf, like himself, as patriarch; but he does not succeed. The Lord’s Cross is found

At vero praedictus Marturanensis episcopus, vir subdolus et nequam, non cessabat interea plebem indoctam contra pios concitare principes; et in vulgus serere, quod invidiae causa, ut eam liberius possent sine pastore conculcare, principes nollent Ecclesiae providere. Assumensque secum ejusdem factionis complices, praedictum Arnulphum, aliis contradicentibus, elegit; et auxilio fretus comitis Normannorum, cujus erat et fuerat in tota expeditione familiaris et conviva, in sedem patriarchalem, fatuo populo suffragia consulta ministrante, inthronizavit; sed neuter suis adinventionibus laetatus est diu. Nam Arnulphus temere assumptam coactus est deponere dignitatem, et ejus turpitudinis impudens patronus, viarum suarum fructus recollegit in proximo.

But indeed the aforesaid bishop of Marturana, a sly and wicked man, meanwhile did not cease to incite the unlearned plebs against the pious princes; and to sow among the masses that, out of envy—so that they might more freely trample it without a shepherd—the princes were unwilling to provide for the Church. And taking with him accomplices of the same faction, he chose the aforesaid Arnulf, while others objected; and, relying on the aid of the Count of the Normans, of whom he was and had been throughout the whole expedition a familiar and table-companion, he enthroned him in the patriarchal see, the foolish populace furnishing canvassed ballots; but neither rejoiced long in their contrivances. For Arnulf was compelled to lay down the dignity rashly assumed, and the shameless patron of his disgrace reaped the fruits of his ways shortly thereafter.

Per idem tempus, inventa est in parte Sanctae Resurrectionis ecclesiae, seorsum, portio una crucis Dominicae, quam ob metum gentilium, quorum jugum patiebantur, fideles ad ampliorem cautelam, multo ante, paucis admissis, occultaverant. Hanc studio et opera cujusdam hominis Syri, qui ejus tam pretiosi depositi fuerat conscius, repertam, theca reconditam argentea, primum ad Domini sepulcri, deinde ad templum Domini, cum hymnis et canticis spiritualibus deportantes, prosequente eam universo clero et populo, consolationem quasi de coelo missam omnes in commune acceperunt, arbitrantes se laborum et molestiarum suarum mercedem condignam recepisse.

At the same time, in a part of the Church of the Holy Resurrection, set apart, there was found one portion of the Lord’s Cross, which, out of fear of the gentiles, whose yoke they were suffering, the faithful, for fuller caution, long before, with few admitted, had concealed. This, discovered through the zeal and effort of a certain Syrian man, who had been conscious of so precious a deposit, having been laid away in a silver case, they bore, first to the Lord’s Sepulcher, then to the Temple of the Lord, with hymns and spiritual canticles, the whole clergy and people accompanying it; all together they received it as a consolation as if sent from heaven, thinking that they had received the condign reward of their labors and troubles.

CAPUT V. Quis et unde fuerit, et quibus majoribus progenitus dux Godefridus, aperitur.

CHAPTER 5. Who and whence he was, and from which ancestors Duke Godfrey was begotten, is revealed.

Saepedicto igitur domino duce per Dei gratiam in regni culmine confirmato, scandalisque omnibus, si qua emerserant, amputatis, regnum diebus ejus convalescere, et confirmari coepit. Regnavit autem anno uno; peccatis hominum id exigentibus, ne diuturniore tanti principis solatio, regni novella plantatio recrearetur, et adversus ingruentes molestias reciperet consolationem. Raptus est de medio, ne malitia immutaret cor ejus, sicut scriptum est: Viri misericordiae colliguntur, et non est qui reputet (Isa.

Therefore, with the oft-mentioned lord duke, by the grace of God, confirmed at the summit of the kingdom, and with all scandals, if any had emerged, cut off, the realm in his days began to convalesce and to be confirmed. He reigned, however, for one year; the sins of men demanding this, lest by the longer solace of so great a prince the new planting of the kingdom be refreshed, and receive consolation against the impending troubles. He was snatched from the midst, lest malice should change his heart, as it is written: Men of mercy are gathered, and there is no one who considers (Isa.

LVII, 1). Oriundus vero fuit de regno Francorum, de Remensi provincia, civitate Boloniensi quae est secus mare Anglicum sita; ab illustribus et religiosis originem ducens progenitoribus. Pater ejus fuit dominus Eustachius senior, illustris et magnificus ejusdem regionis comes; cujus multa et memorabilia fuerunt opera, quorum adhuc apud seniores finitimarum regionum, memoria est in benedictione et in pia recordatione viri religiosi et timentis Deum. Mater vero inclyta et inter Occidentis nobiles matronas, tum morum praerogativa, tum generositatis titulo praeclara, Ida nomine, Lotharingiae ducis eximii Godefridi, qui cognominatus est Struma, soror.

57, 1). He was, in truth, sprung from the kingdom of the Franks, from the Remensian province, from the city of Boulogne which is situated beside the English Sea; drawing his origin from illustrious and religious progenitors. His father was lord Eustace the Elder, illustrious and magnificent count of the same region; whose deeds were many and memorable, the memory of which is still among the elders of the neighboring regions, in blessing and in the pious remembrance of a religious man and one fearing God. His mother indeed, illustrious and among the noble matrons of the West distinguished both by the prerogative of morals and by the title of nobility, Ida by name, sister of Godfrey, the distinguished duke of Lotharingia, who was surnamed Struma.

Qui postmodum cum sine liberis esset, nepotem aequivocum, in filium suum adoptavit; eumque universi patrimonii sui haeredem constituit, unde eidem defuncto, in eodem ducatu successit. Fuerunt porro huic tres ex utroque parente fratres, quibus et morum dignitas et virtutum praestantia, tanti principis vere dabat esse germanos: dominus videlicet Balduinus comes Edessanus, qui eidem postea successit in regno; dominus quoque Eustachius comes Boloniensis, patri synonymus, qui in bonis succedens paternis, post patrem obtinuit comitatum; cujus filiam illustris et magnificus Anglorum rex Stephanus, Mahaldem nomine, uxorem duxit. Hic etiam, ut domino Balduino fratri absque liberis defuncto in regno succederet, a principibus orientalibus citatus, venire noluit: timens ne sine scandalo ejus promotio celebrari non posset.

Who afterward, when he was without children, adopted as his son a homonymous nephew, and appointed him heir of his entire patrimony; whence, upon his death, he succeeded in the same duchy. There were moreover to him three brothers by both parents, to whom both the dignity of morals and the excellence of virtues truly gave proof that they were germane to so great a prince: to wit, Lord Baldwin, Count of Edessa, who later succeeded the same in the kingdom; and also Lord Eustace, Count of Boulogne, a namesake of his father, who, succeeding to the paternal goods, after his father held the county; whose daughter the illustrious and magnificent king of the English, Stephen, Mahald by name, took to wife. He also, that he might succeed Lord Baldwin his brother, dying without children, in the kingdom, though summoned by the eastern princes, was unwilling to come: fearing lest his promotion could not be achieved without scandal.

Tertius fuit dominus Willelmus, vir inclytus, a paterna et fratrum simul honestate et strenuitate non degener. Duo primi dominum et fratrem suum in expeditione secuti sunt, tertio domi remanente. Fuit autem, sicut et secundum carnem primogenitus, ita et secundum interiorem hominem, morum gerens praerogativam, et cui merito primitiva competerent, dominus Godefridus vir religiosus, clemens, pius ac timens Deum, justus, recedens ab omni malo, serius et stabilis in verbo; saeculi vanitates contemnens, quod in illa aetate et militari praesertim professione rarum est; in orationibus jugis, in operibus pietatis assiduus, liberalitate insignis, affabilitate gratiosus, mansuetus et misericors; in omni via sua commendabilis et Deo placens.

The third was lord William, a renowned man, not degenerate from the honesty and strenuous valor of his father and brothers alike. The first two followed their lord and brother on the expedition, the third remaining at home. Now, as he was according to the flesh the firstborn, so also according to the inner man, bearing the prerogative of morals, and to whom by merit the primitiva (birthright) belonged, lord Godfrey was a religious man, clement, pious and God-fearing, just, departing from every evil, grave and steadfast in word; despising the vanities of the age—which in that age, and especially in the military profession, is rare; continual in prayers, assiduous in works of piety, distinguished by liberality, gracious by affability, gentle and merciful; in all his way commendable and pleasing to God.

Fuit autem et corpore procerus, ita ut et maximis minor et mediocribus major haberetur: robustus sine exemplo, membris solidioribus, thorace virili, facie venusta, capillo et barba flavus mediocriter; in usu armorum et exercitio militari omnium judicio quasi singularis.

He was moreover tall in body, such that he was considered both smaller than the very greatest and greater than the middling: robust beyond example, with more solid limbs, with a manly chest, with a comely face, with hair and beard moderately fair; in the use of arms and in military exercise, in the judgment of all, as if singular.

CAPUT VI. Matris praesagium de futuro statu filiorum.

CHAPTER 6. The mother’s presage concerning the future state of her sons.

Horum tantorum principum mater, sancta, religiosa et Deo placens femina, dum adhuc essent in aetate tenera, spiritu plena divino, futuras praevidit conditiones; et statum qui praeparabatur adultis, quasi quodam praedixit oraculo. Nam dum semel circa matrem, sicut mos est puerulis, luderent adinvicem, et sese lassescentes, ad matris gremium frequenter haberent recursum, accidit quod eis sub ejus chlamide latentibus, vir venerabilis comes Eustachius, eorum pater, ingressus est. Ubi cum mutuo se provocarent, pedes et manus agitantes, matris, qua induta erat, operti chlamide, quaesivit comes, quidnam esset quod ibi tam crebro moveretur; cui illa respondisse dicitur: Tres magni principes, quorum primus dux, secundus rex, tertius comes esset futurus. Quod postmodum benigna dispensatione divina implevit clementia; et verum praedixisse matrem, rerum eventus subsequens declaravit.

The mother of these so great princes, a holy, religious, and God-pleasing woman, while they were still in tender age, full of the divine spirit, fore-saw the future conditions; and the status which was being prepared for them as adults, she as it were fore-told by a certain oracle. For when once, around their mother, as is the custom for little boys, they were playing with one another, and, growing weary, they frequently had recourse to their mother’s lap, it happened that, as they were hiding beneath her cloak, a venerable man, Count Eustace, their father, entered. There, as they mutually provoked one another, moving feet and hands, covered by the cloak of their mother with which she was clothed, the count asked what it was that was being moved there so frequently; to whom she is said to have responded: Three great princes, of whom the first would be a duke, the second a king, the third a count. Which afterward the benign divine dispensation fulfilled by its clemency; and the subsequent event of things declared that the mother had predicted truly.

Primus enim dominus Godefridus, ut praemissum est, defuncto succedens avunculo, ejus ducatum obtinuit, regnum etiam Hierosolymorum postmodum, universorum principum electione, consecutus; in quo secundus natu, dominus ei Balduinus successit; tertius, dominus Eustachius qui, defuncto patre, succedens in universum, avitam eorum, ut praemissum est, obtinuit haereditatem. Praeterimus denique studiose, licet id verum fuisse plurimorum astruat narratio, Cygni fabulam, unde vulgo dicitur sementivam eis fuisse originem; eo quod a vero videatur deficere talis assertio. Unde his praetermissis, ad id quod coeperamus de domino duce, prosequendum redeamus.

For, first, lord Godfrey, as has been premised, succeeding his deceased uncle, obtained his duchy, and afterward, by the election of all the princes, likewise attained the kingdom of Jerusalem; in which the second by birth, lord Baldwin, succeeded him; the third, lord Eustace, who, his father being deceased, succeeding in the entirety, obtained, as has been premised, their ancestral inheritance. We purposely pass over, although the narration of many affirms it to have been true, the fable of the Swan, whence it is commonly said there was for them a seminal origin; because such an assertion seems to depart from the truth. Wherefore, these matters omitted, let us return to pursue what we had begun concerning the lord duke.

Huic autem inter caetera, quae more suo gessit egregie, accidisse dicitur quiddam memoria dignum, quod praesenti dignum duximus inserere narrationi.

To him, however, among the other things which he, in his customary manner, carried out excellently, there is said to have happened a certain matter worthy of memory, which we have deemed worthy to insert into the present narration.

CAPUT VII. Recensetur factum ejus memorabile in quadam monomachia.

CHAPTER 7. His memorable deed is recounted in a certain monomachy.

In singulari namque quodam certamine, quod ipse multum invitus subiit, sed tamen juxta regionis consuetudinem, salva opinionis suae integritate declinare non poterat, exstat factum ejus memorabile, et praesenti narratione dignum. Passus est vir insignis a quodam nobili et potente viro (qui de numero erat principum, ejusque dicebatur consanguineus) in curia domini imperatoris, super quibusdam ingentibus praediis, et late diffuso patrimonio quaestionem; super qua, cum utrique parti, experiendi gratia dies esset praefixus, eo adveniente, praesentes se exhibuerunt, tam reus quam actor in curia. Ubi lite contestata, cum praedictus vir nobilis rei proponeret vindicationem; dux autem quantum poterat reniteretur; secundum leges patriae, adjudicata est inter eos monomachia et pugna singularis.

For in a certain single combat, which he himself underwent very unwillingly, yet according to the custom of the region, he could not decline it with the integrity of his reputation preserved, there stands forth his memorable deed, worthy of the present narration. The distinguished man endured a dispute with a certain noble and powerful man (who was of the number of the princes, and was said to be his kinsman) in the court of the lord emperor, over certain vast estates and a widely diffused patrimony; over which, when for the sake of trial a day had been fixed for each party, upon its arrival they presented themselves, both defendant and plaintiff, in the court. Where, the suit having been contested, when the aforesaid noble man proposed the vindication of the thing; but the duke resisted as much as he could; according to the laws of the fatherland, a monomachy and single combat was adjudged between them.

Cumque imperii majores principes ad hoc tantis elaborarent viribus, ne tam insignes viri spectaculum de se populo praestarent indignum; seque tanto vellent subjicere discrimini, in quo alterutrius opinionis integritas posset periclitari, et non proficerent: mandata est exsecutioni imperialis sententia, et vulgi stante corona, principibus de more circumpositis, locum ingressi sunt, futuro certamini deputatum, Martem dubium experturi. Dumque in eo conflictu a viris illustribus et magnificis, strenue nimis decertaretur et viriliter, casu contigit quod, vibrato in adversarii clypeum ictu, ducis confractus est gladius, ita ut supra capulum vix ad semipedalem quantitatem in manu ejus fieret residuum. Quod videntes qui astabant principes, quod ducis conditio facta esset multo deterior, indicta pace, imperatorem adeunt, et supplicantes impetrant, ut de compositione inter tam egregios principes tractare liceat.

And when the greater princes of the empire exerted such mighty efforts to the end that men so distinguished might not present to the people an unworthy spectacle of themselves; and that they might not be willing to subject themselves to so great a danger, in which the integrity of either party’s reputation could be imperiled, and they did not prevail: the imperial sentence was commanded to execution, and, with the corona of the crowd standing, the princes set around according to custom, they entered the place assigned for the coming combat, about to experience doubtful Mars. And while in that conflict by illustrious and magnificent men it was fought out most strenuously and manfully, it happened by chance that, with a blow brandished against the adversary’s shield, the duke’s sword was broken, so that above the hilt scarcely to a half‑foot’s measure there remained a residue in his hand. Seeing this, the princes who stood by, that the duke’s condition had been made much worse, with peace proclaimed, approach the emperor, and, supplicating, obtain leave to treat of a composition between such outstanding princes.

Unde dum inter eos tractaretur diligentius, eos quae ad pacem erant rogantes, dux omnino repulit; et irrevocabiliter perseverans, agonem reiterat, rediens in id ipsum. Dumque ejus adversarius propter integritatem gladii sui, sibi quasi superior factus videtur, instat protervius, duci negans requiem, quousque dux ad solitam recurrens virtutem, qua singulariter praeminebat, et ira succensus, irruens capulo quem gestabat in manu, tanta circa tempus laevum virtute percussit adversarium, quod eum quasi seminecem, solo dejecit prostratum, ut pene vita videretur omnino destitutus, et ejecto proprii fragmento gladii, et hostis prostrati gladium manu tenens, principes ad se vocat, qui eum prius de compositione convenerant; et rogat attentius, monens ut de pace tractantes, virum insignem, qui jam defecerat tam ignominiosae morti subtraherent. Qui admirantes ducis virtutem egregiam et misericordiam incomparabilem, pace impetrata, controversiam tam honesto fine sopierunt, ut tamen dux victor et immortali dignus gloria apud omnes haberetur.

Whence, while it was being handled more diligently between them, they asking for those things which tended to peace, the duke utterly repelled them; and, persevering irrevocably, he reiterates the agon, returning to that same thing. And while his adversary, on account of the integrity of his sword, seems to himself to have been made, as it were, superior, he presses more insolently, denying the duke respite, until the duke, reverting to his accustomed valor, in which he was singularly preeminent, and kindled with ire, rushing with the hilt which he was bearing in his hand, struck his adversary with such force about the left temple that he cast him down to the ground as if half-dead, so that he seemed almost altogether bereft of life; and, having cast away the fragment of his own sword, and holding in his hand the sword of the prostrate foe, he calls the princes to himself, who had previously dealt with him concerning a composition; and he asks more intently, admonishing that, as they were treating of peace, they withdraw the distinguished man, who had already failed, from so ignominious a death. They, admiring the duke’s outstanding virtue and incomparable mercy, peace having been obtained, lulled the controversy to rest with so honorable an end, with the result that nevertheless the duke was held among all as victor and worthy of immortal glory.

CAPUT VIII. Factum ejusdem egregium in victoria imperatoris Henrici, contra Radulphum pseudoregem Saxonum.

CHAPTER 8. The same man’s distinguished deed in the victory of Emperor Henry, against Rudolph the pseudo-king of the Saxons.

Illud quoque factum, haud inferioris gloriae, in frequenti versatur hominum memoria, quod praesenti lectioni nihilominus dignum duximus inserere. Saxonum populus, inter Germanicas nationes ferocissimus, Romani imperii juga ferre detrectans, et liberioribus habenis, excussa disciplinae regula, vagari cupiens, a domino imperatore Henrico defecerat: inque sua adeo erat obstinatus protervia, ut, contra praedictum Augustum, regem sibi crearet quemdam comitem, Radulphum nomine, virum nobilem de eodem populo. Hac injuria permotus imperator, universos imperii principes ad se generaliter fecit evocari.

That deed also, of no inferior glory, lives in the frequent memory of men, which we have nonetheless judged worthy to insert in the present reading. The people of the Saxons, most ferocious among the Germanic nations, refusing to bear the yokes of the Roman Empire, and, with freer reins, the rule of discipline shaken off, desiring to wander, had defected from lord emperor Henry: and was so obstinate in its own insolence that, against the aforesaid Augustus, it created for itself as king a certain count, by the name Radulph, a noble man from the same people. Moved by this injury, the emperor caused all the princes of the empire to be summoned to himself in general assembly.

Quibus ante se constitutis, injuriam omnibus tamen, notam, pandit, ad ultionem invitat. Illi vero omnes imperii gloriam aemulantes et Saxonum enorme delictum nimis aegre ferentes, certatim se ipsos exponunt: vires compromittunt; non esse dissimulandam tantam contra Romanum imperium asserunt injuriam, sed plectendum morte tam piaculare flagitium; et laesae crimen majestatis, ultore gladio feriendum decernunt. Ex condicto igitur et domini imperatoris mandato, ad locum destinatum, die praefixa, infinita millia secum trahentes, adsunt, de universis imperii finibus tam ecclesiastici quam caeteri principes, Saxonum regionem violenter ingressuri et exacturi de tantis injuriis vindictam.

With them set before him, he lays open the injury, known to all, and invites to vengeance. They indeed, all emulating the glory of the empire and bearing most grievously the enormous offense of the Saxons, vie with one another in exposing themselves; they pledge their forces; they assert that so great an injury against the Roman Empire is not to be dissembled, but that so piacular a scandal must be punished with death; and they decree that the crime of injured majesty is to be struck by the avenging sword. Therefore, by covenant and at the lord emperor’s mandate, to the appointed place, on the fixed day, drawing with them countless thousands, there are present, from all the borders of the empire, both ecclesiastical and the other princes, about to enter the region of the Saxons by force and to exact vengeance for such great injuries.

Cumque congressionis dies immineret et ordinatis legionibus uterque exercitus in procinctu se haberet praeliandi, convocatis ad se principibus imperator, quaerit cui tute possit imperiale committere vexillum, et tantorum exercituum constituere primicerium. Cui de communi consilio datum est responsum: Dominum ducem Lotharingiae Godefridum. prae omnibus ad id oneris idoneum et sufficientem esse. Cui, tanquam viro a tot millibus electo, et singulariter omnium judicio excellenti, tradidit aquilam, multum invito et renitenti.

And when the day of the engagement was looming, and, the legions having been arrayed, each army stood in battle-array for fighting, the emperor, having summoned the princes to himself, asks to whom he could safely entrust the imperial standard, and whom to set as primicerius over such great armies. To which, by common counsel, the answer was given: Lord Duke Godfrey of Lotharingia. before all others, he is suitable and sufficient for that burden. To whom, as to a man chosen by so many thousands and singularly outstanding in the judgment of all, he handed over the eagle, though he was very unwilling and resisting.

Contigit autem illa die quod, confligentibus inter se hinc inde exercitibus, et hostiliter nimis adinvicem gladiis instantibus, dux cum aquila praecedens imperatorem, versus aciem, cui praeerat pseudorex Radulphus, contendens, illuc aciem, cui praeerat imperator direxit; ad quam perveniens, confracta et dissoluta acie regis, praesente imperatore et de principibus aliquot, vexillum quod gestabat, regi per vitalia pectoris immersit; et eo transverberato, ad terram dejecit exanimem: denuo signum, licet cruentatum, erigens imperiale. Videntes autem Saxones, regem suum defecisse, defecerunt et ipsi, domino imperatori se dedentes; et satisfactione injuncta pro delicti modo, receptis munitionibus et obsidibus, quorum interventu se obligaverunt, ne aliquando simile attentarent, in gratiam reversi sunt. Haec autem idcirco interseruimus, ut quantus esset apud maximos orbis terrarum principes, hic de quo agitur, vir inclytus, insinuetur.

It befell, moreover, on that day that, as on this side and that the armies were clashing with one another, and were pressing each other too hostilely with swords, the duke, going before the emperor with the eagle, making for the battle-line which the pseudo-king Radulphus commanded, directed thither the line which the emperor commanded; and, arriving there, the king’s line being broken and dissolved, the emperor being present and several of the princes, he plunged the standard which he was bearing into the king through the vital parts of the chest; and he, having been transfixed, he cast to the ground lifeless: again he raised the imperial sign, albeit blood-stained. But when the Saxons saw that their king had failed, they too failed, surrendering themselves to the lord emperor; and satisfaction being enjoined according to the measure of the offense, the strongholds and hostages having been received, by whose intervention they bound themselves that they would never attempt the like, they returned into favor. These things, moreover, we have inserted for this reason: that it may be insinuated how great, among the greatest princes of the circle of lands, was this renowned man of whom the discourse is.

Maximum enim esse, nemo est qui dubitet, a tantis principibus, qui pares in orbe non dicuntur habere, unum omnium judicio optimum designari; praesertim cum ipse eorum judicium opere tam insigni approbaverit; et praesenti argumento, quod vere de illo sensissent, edocuerit. Fuerunt et alia multa ejusdem inclyti viri magnifica et admiratione digna opera, quae usque in praesens in ore omnium, pro celebri vertuntur historia. Inter caetera quoque propositum jam habens peregrinationem ineundi, castrum, unde ei cognomen erat, Bulionem videlicet, agro, situ, munitione, commoditatibus, et longe lateque diffuso territorio, celebre ac nominatissimum, ecclesiae Leodiensi, pia liberalitate in perpetuam eleemosynam concessit habendum.

For that it is a very great thing—no one doubts—that by such great princes, who are said to have no peers in the world, one should be designated, by the judgment of all, as the best; especially since he himself has approved their judgment by so distinguished a work, and by present argument has taught that they truly felt thus about him. There were also many other magnificent works of the same renowned man, worthy of admiration, which even to the present are on everyone’s lips, circulated as a celebrated history. Among the rest as well, already having the purpose of entering upon a pilgrimage, the castle whence he had his cognomen—namely Bouillon—celebrated and most renowned for its land, site, fortification, amenities, and territory spread far and wide, he granted by pious liberality to the Church of Liège, to be held in perpetual alms.

Sed nos qui ea tantum quae apud nos gessit, describere sumus aggressi, ad propositum redeamus.

But we, who have undertaken to describe only those things which he accomplished among us, let us return to our proposed subject.

CAPUT IX. Quam pia liberalitate erga ecclesias quae sunt Hierosolymis, abundaverit; et quod humilitatis intuitu, regio diademate noluit insigniri.

CHAPTER 9. With what pious liberality he abounded toward the churches which are at Jerusalem; and that, out of a regard for humility, he was unwilling to be marked with the royal diadem.

Postquam igitur regnum obtinuit, paucis diebus interpositis, sicut vir religiosus erat, in his quae ad decorem domus Dei habebant respectum, sollicitudinis suae Domino coepit offerre primitias. Nam protinus in ecclesia Dominici sepulcri et templi Domini canonicos instituit, eisque ampla beneficia, quae praebendas vocant, simulque et honesta domicilia circa praedictas Deo amabiles ecclesias, assignavit: ordinem et institutionem servans, quas magnae et amplissimae a piis principibus fundatae ultra montes servant ecclesiae; plura etiam, nisi mors eum praevenisset, collaturus. Adduxerat etiam praedictus vir Deo amabilis peregrinationem ingressurus, de claustris bene disciplinatis monachos, viros religiosos, et sancta conversatione insignes, qui toto itinere, horis diurnis et nocturnis, ecclesiastico more divina illi ministrabant officia.

After therefore he obtained the kingdom, with a few days interposed, as he was a religious man, he began to offer to the Lord the first-fruits of his solicitude in those things which had regard to the adornment of the house of God. For straightway in the church of the Lord’s Sepulchre and the Temple of the Lord he established canons, and to them he assigned ample benefices, which they call prebends, and likewise respectable dwellings around the aforesaid God‑beloved churches: preserving the order and institution which the great and most ample churches founded by pious princes beyond the mountains observe; and he would have bestowed more besides, had not death anticipated him. He had also brought—this aforesaid man lovable to God, when he was about to enter upon the pilgrimage—from well‑disciplined cloisters monks, religious men and distinguished for holy way of life, who through the whole journey, by day and by night hours, according to ecclesiastical custom, ministered to him the divine offices.

Quos, postquam regnum adeptus est, juxta eorum postulationem, in valle Josaphat locavit; amplissimumque loco, eorum gratia, contulit patrimonium. Quae autem, et quanta sint, quae ecclesiis Dei pia liberalitate concessit, longum esset enumerare; ex tenore tamen privilegiorum ecclesiis indultorum, colligere est, quot et quanta sunt, quae vir Deo plenus, pro animae suae remedio locis venerabilibus erogavit. Promotus autem, humilitatis causa, corona aurea, regum more, in sancta civitate noluit insigniri: ea contentus et illi reverentiam exhibens, quam humani generis reparator, in eodem loco usque ad crucis patibulum pro nostra salute spineam deportavit.

Whom, after he had attained the kingdom, in accordance with their request he settled in the Valley of Josaphat; and to the place, for their sake, he bestowed a most ample patrimony. But what things, and how great they are, which by pious liberality he granted to the churches of God, would be long to enumerate; yet from the tenor of the privileges indulged to the churches, one may collect how many and how great are the things which the man full of God disbursed to venerable places for the remedy of his soul. Moreover, upon his elevation, for the sake of humility, he was unwilling in the holy city to be adorned with a golden crown, after the manner of kings: content with that one, and paying reverence to that which the Repairer of the human race, in the same place, carried even to the gibbet of the cross for our salvation—the thorny one.

Unde quidam in Catalogo regum, non distinguentes merita, eum dubitant connumerare: magis attendentes quae exterius geruntur in corpore, quam quae fidelis et Deo placens anima mereatur. Nobis autem non solum rex, sed optimus, lumen et speculum videtur aliorum. Non enim consecrationis munus, et ecclesiastica sprevisse credendus est princeps fidelis sacramenta; sed pompam saeculi, et cui omnis creatura subjecta est, vanitatem; et perituram humiliter declinasse coronam, ut immarcescibilem alibi consequeretur.

Whence certain men, in the Catalogue of kings, not distinguishing merits, hesitate to reckon him among them: attending rather to the things which outwardly are carried on in the body, than to what a faithful and God-pleasing soul may merit. But to us he seems not only a king, but the best, a light and mirror of others. For the faithful prince is not to be believed to have spurned the gift of consecration and the ecclesiastical sacraments; but rather the pomp of the world, and the vanity to which every creature is subject; and to have humbly declined the perishable crown, that he might obtain an unfading one elsewhere.

CAPUT X. Princeps Aegyptius militiam et vires suas omnimodas, contra nostros excitat et in Syriam dirigit.

CHAPTER 10. The Egyptian prince rouses his soldiery and his forces of every kind against our men and directs them into Syria.

Per idem tempus, urbe recens capta, dum adhuc principes, qui eam divino mancipaverant cultui, nondum essent divisi abinvicem, rumor insonuit, et vere sic erat, quod princeps Aegyptius, inter Orientales potentissimus, ex universis regionibus suae ditioni subjectis militares convocaverat copias et exercitus collegerat infinitos, indigne ferens quod populus barbarus, de ultimis egressus terrarum finibus, in regnum suum introierat, et provinciam imperio suo subditam, occupaverat violenter. Vocatoque ad se militiae suae principe Elafdalio, qui alio nomine dicebatur Emireus, praecipit ut universum Aegypti robur, et omnes imperii vires colligens, in Syriam ascendat; et populum praesumptuosum deleat de superficie terrae, ita ut non memoretur nomen illius ultra. Erat autem hic idem Emireus Armenius * nomine, a Christianis originem habens parentibus; sed divitiarum immensitate suffocatus, apostataverat a Creatore suo, fide neglecta, ex qua justus vivit.

At the same time, the city having been recently captured, while as yet the princes who had consigned it to divine cult were not yet divided from one another, a rumor resounded—and so indeed it was—that the Egyptian prince, most powerful among the Orientals, had from all the regions subjected to his dominion convoked military forces and had gathered innumerable armies, taking it ill that a barbarian people, having come forth from the farthest ends of the earth, had entered into his kingdom and had violently occupied a province subject to his imperium. And having called to himself the commander of his soldiery, Elafdalius, who by another name was called Emireus, he orders that, gathering all the strength of Egypt and all the powers of the empire, he ascend into Syria; and that he blot out the presumptuous people from the surface of the earth, so that the name of it be not remembered any longer. Now this same Emireus was Armenian * by name, having his origin from Christian parents; but choked by the immensity of riches, he had apostatized from his Creator, the faith neglected, from which the just lives.

Hic idem, etiam eodem anno, quo a fideli populo est obsessa et fidei restituta Christianae, eamdem a Domino protectam civitatem, a Turcorum potestate domino suo vindicaverat; vixque eam mensibus undecim obtinuerat quietam, cum Christianus exercitus eam, propitio Domino, ab indebitae jugo servitutis eripuit. Indignatus ergo, quod tam reciso tempore sua potitus erat victoria; et quod momentanea videbatur, et erat per eum domino suo acquisita possessio, laborem sibi gratanter assumit injunctum, sperans de his qui fatum ejus denigraverant, posse facilius triumphare. Assumpto igitur sibi universo exercitu, et universis Aegypti viribus, quales Aegyptiaca dioecesis in optimo statu constituta tunc poterat ministrare, ascendit in Syriam, in spiritu vehementi et intolerabili fastu, propositum habens populum nostrum delere, ne etiam ejus exstaret memoria.

This same man, even in the same year in which the city was besieged by the faithful people and restored to the Christian faith, had vindicated that same city, protected by the Lord, for his lord from the power of the Turks; and he had scarcely held it in quiet for eleven months, when the Christian army, with the Lord propitious, rescued it from the yoke of undue servitude. Indignant, therefore, that he had enjoyed his victory for so curtailed a span; and that the possession acquired by him for his lord seemed momentary, and was, he gladly assumes the task enjoined upon him, hoping to be able more easily to triumph over those who had denigrated his fate. Therefore, having taken to himself the entire army and all the forces of Egypt, such as the Egyptian diocese, established in its best condition, could then furnish, he ascended into Syria in a vehement spirit and with intolerable arrogance, having the purpose to destroy our people, lest even its memory should remain.

Sed Domino visum est aliter, qui est terribilis in consiliis super filios hominum (Psal. LXV, 4). Veniens igitur cum equitatu magnifico et ingentibus copiis, ante Ascalonam castrametatus est. Denique associaverant se eorum expeditionibus, ex universa Arabia et finibus Damascenis, ingentes copiae.

But to the Lord it seemed otherwise, who is terrible in counsels over the sons of men (Psal. 65, 4). Coming therefore with magnificent cavalry and vast forces, he encamped before Ascalon. Moreover, from all Arabia and the Damascene borders, immense forces had joined themselves to their expeditions.

Et licet Turci prius non satis bene cum Aegyptiis convenirent, sed suspectas mutuo suas haberent vires, et aemulum contra se alternatim dilatare satagerent imperium; tamen nostrorum metu, etsi non ob gratiam, quam haberent mutuam, convenerunt adinvicem, ut in nostrorum qui de novo advenerant supplantationem molirentur aliquid: satius arbitrati, suorum pati fastus aemulorum, et jugum etiam portare, quam barbarorum duros et feroces nimium gladios experiri. Sic igitur Aegyptiorum, Arabum et Turcorum congregatis in unum innumerabilibus copiis, in agro, ut praediximus, Ascalonitano castra contulerant, inde Hierosolymam profecturi; nec enim arbitrabantur, quod tantae multitudini noster occurrere praesumeret exercitus.

And although the Turks had not previously gotten along very well with the Egyptians, but held each other’s powers in mutual suspicion, and strove in turn to extend a rival imperium against themselves, yet, from fear of our men, even if not out of any favor they bore one another, they came together mutually, to contrive something for the supplantation of our people who had newly arrived: judging it better to endure the haughtiness of their rival kinsmen, and even to bear the yoke, than to experience the hard and overly ferocious swords of the barbarians. Thus, with the innumerable forces of the Egyptians, Arabs, and Turks gathered into one, they had pitched camp in the Ascalonite field, whence they intended to set out to Jerusalem; for they did not suppose that our army would presume to meet so great a multitude.

CAPUT XI. Dux e diverso, completis apud Hierosolymam litaniis et orationibus, circa Ramulam congregatis principibus, expeditiones colligit.

CHAPTER 11. The Duke, on the other side, the litanies and orations completed at Jerusalem, with the princes gathered around Ramla, gathers the expeditions.

Quo audito, congregati adinvicem nostri principes, episcopi, clerus et populus universus, arma bajulantes spiritualia, et ante sepulcrum Domini cum gemitu et lacrymis, corde contrito et humiliato prostrati orabant, postulantes a Domino ut populum suum clementer ab imminentibus liberaret periculis, quem usque in praesens misericorditer sibi conservaverat victorem; et qui locum sanctificationis suae mundari voluerat, eum ulterius contaminari propter gloriam nominis sui non pateretur. Inde etiam nudis pedibus, cum hymnis et canticis spiritualibus, ad templum Domini eodem devotionis fervore accedentes, effusis coram Domino praecordiis, orabant, dicentes: Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo, et ne des haereditatem tuam gentibus in perditionem (Joel. II, 17). Quibus de more completis, percepta ab episcopis benedictione, et ordinatis qui medio tempore urbi praeessent ad custodiam viris prudentibus, dux cum comite Flandrensium ex urbe profectus, in campestria descendit Ramulensia, caeteris principibus in urbe relictis.

Hearing this, our princes, bishops, clergy, and the whole people gathered together, bearing spiritual arms, and before the Sepulcher of the Lord, with groaning and tears, prostrate with a contrite and humbled heart, they prayed, asking from the Lord that he would mercifully free his people from the imminent dangers, whom up to the present he had mercifully preserved for himself as victor; and that he who had willed the place of his sanctification to be cleansed would not allow it to be further contaminated, for the glory of his name. Thence also, with bare feet, with hymns and spiritual canticles, approaching the Temple of the Lord with the same fervor of devotion, with their hearts poured out before the Lord, they prayed, saying: Spare, Lord, spare your people, and do not give your inheritance to the nations for perdition (Joel. 2, 17). These things, as is customary, having been completed, the blessing having been received from the bishops, and prudent men appointed who in the meantime should preside over the city for its guard, the duke, with the count of the Flemings, set out from the city and descended into the Ramulan plains, the other princes having been left in the city.

Porro viri illustres, dominus Eustachius, ducis frater, et dominus Tancredus, evocati a civibus Neapolitanis, ut urbem sine molestia reciperent, illuc de mandato ducis erant profecti: ubi moram facientes, tum propter loci opulentiam, tum ut urbi sufficientem designarent custodiam, horum quae sic dicebantur erant ignari; sed evocati a domino duce, sine dilatione redierunt, reliquis principibus associati. Dux vero et Flandrensium comes, pervenientes Ramulam, ubi de facto plenius sunt edocti, certum habentes quod praedictus Emireus cum suis copiis ante Ascalonam consedisset, misso sub omni celeritate nuntio, reliquos principes, qui rei exspectantes certitudinem in urbe remanserant, praecipit evocari.

Moreover the illustrious men, lord Eustace, the duke’s brother, and lord Tancred, summoned by the Neapolitan citizens that they might recover the city without molestation, had set out thither by mandate of the duke; where, making a delay, both on account of the opulence of the place and to designate a sufficient guard for the city, they were unaware of these things which were thus being said; but, summoned by the lord duke, they returned without delay, associated with the remaining princes. But the Duke, together with the Count of the Flemings, arriving at Ramla, where they were more fully instructed about the fact, holding it certain that the aforesaid Emir had encamped before Ascalon with his forces, a messenger having been sent with all celerity, orders the remaining princes, who, awaiting certainty of the matter, had remained in the city, to be summoned.

CAPUT XII. Commititur praelium, et nostris divinitus confertur victoria, receptis divitiis innumerabilibus.

CHAPTER 12. A battle is joined, and to our men victory is divinely conferred, with innumerable riches recovered.

At vero comes Tolosanus, et alii Deo devoti principes, cognito, per ducis nuntium, quod in tam gravi multitudine hostes advenerant, quodque tam in vicino castra locaverant, invocato de supernis auxilio, collectis quas pro tempore et loco habere poterant viribus, in campestria Philisthiim ad eum locum qui hodie dicitur Ibelim, ubi dominum ducem esse cognoverant, descenderunt. Erant autem eis equitum mille ducenti, peditum vero circa novem millia. Cumque ibi per diem noster quievisset exercitus, circa noram undecimam apparuit eis in campestribus, quasi de remoto, multitudo ingens; quam rati hostilem esse exercitum, praemissis ducentis levioris armaturae equitibus, qui de eorum statu et numero reliquos instruerent, ipsi ad arma se praeparant; cumque accederent propius qui praemissi fuerant, cognoverunt armenta esse boum, equorum, camelorumque phalanges.

But indeed the Count of Toulouse, and other princes devoted to God, having learned through the duke’s messenger that the enemies had come in so grave a multitude, and that they had pitched camp so near, with aid invoked from on high, having gathered the forces which they were able to have for the time and place, descended into the Philistine plains to that place which today is called Ibelim, where they had learned the lord duke was. Now they had 1,200 horse, and about 9,000 foot. And when our army had rested there for the day, around the eleventh hour there appeared to them on the plains, as if from afar, a huge multitude; which, supposing to be a hostile army, after sending forward 200 horsemen of lighter armament, to instruct the rest about their condition and number, they themselves prepare for arms; and when those who had been sent ahead drew nearer, they learned that they were herds of oxen, and phalanxes of horses and camels.

Erant tamen ibi animalibus curam praestantes equites, pastorum vice armentis custodiam intendentes. Ad quos cum pervenisset noster exercitus, non exspectato congressu, fugerunt tam pastores, quam qui pastoribus praeerant equites, gregibus et armentis sine custode relictis. Capti tamen sunt quidam ex eis, quorum relatione de hostium statu et proposito penitus edocti, cognoverunt quod praedictus princeps juxta eos, quasi ad milliaria septem castra locaverat, propositum habens post biduum accedere et nostrum delere exercitum.

There were, however, knights there providing care for the animals, in the stead of shepherds attending to the custody of the herds. When our army reached them, without awaiting an engagement, both the shepherds and the knights who were set over the shepherds fled, leaving the flocks and herds without a guardian. Nevertheless some of them were captured, and by their report, being thoroughly instructed about the state and the purpose of the enemies, they learned that the aforesaid prince had pitched his camp near them, at about seven miles’ distance, intending after two days to advance and to annihilate our army.

At vero nostri certi de praelio, acies instruunt novem; quarum tres praeponunt, tres locant in medio, tres praecipiunt subsequi, ut undecunque ad eos hostium fiat accessus, triplicem ibi reperiant acierum ordinem sibi objectum. De hostium vero numero nullus poterat habere certitudinem; nam et infinita erat eorum multitudo et singulis diebus incrementi aliquid eorum accedebat viribus. Sic igitur obtenta sine contradictore praeda, quae prae nimia multitudine numerum excedebat, noctem illam ibi transegerunt gaudentes; more tamen prudentum, et quibus disciplinae militaris plenior erat experientia, curam circa se pervigilem et debitas observantes excubias.

But indeed our men, certain about battle, draw up nine battle‑lines; of which three they set in front, three they place in the middle, three they order to follow, so that from wherever there is made an approach of the enemies to them, there they may find a triple order of battle‑lines opposed to them. But as to the number of the enemies no one could have certainty; for both their multitude was infinite and with each single day some increment was being added to their forces. Thus therefore, the booty having been obtained without opposition, which by reason of its excessive multitude exceeded counting, they passed that night there rejoicing; in the manner, however, of prudent men, and of those whose experience of military discipline was fuller, they maintained a wakeful vigilance about themselves and observed the due watches.

Mane autem facto, voce praeconia bellum indicitur, et instructis ordinibus, Domino rei commendantes exitum, in hostes unanimiter properant, victoriae spem in eo collocantes, cui facile est cum paucis multos superare. Porro Aegyptii, et qui eis adhaeserant de partibus Syriae, nostrorum videntes instantiam et animositatem importunam, longe aliter sapientes quam prius, coeperunt de viribus diffidere; et in sua numerositate spei minus et minus habere fiduciae, arbitrantes omnem illam quae occurrebat multitudinem, hominum esse cobortes. Nostrorum sane, ut dictum est, modicus erat numerus; sed praeda, de qua superius fecimus mentionem, casu, nemine ducente, nostris legionibus se applicaverat, ita ut nostris iter figentibus non procederet; et eisdem proficiscentibus continuo sine duce sequeretur.

But when morning had been made, by a herald’s voice war is declared; and, the ranks drawn up, commending the outcome of the matter to the Lord, they hasten with one mind against the enemies, placing the hope of victory in Him to whom it is easy with few to overcome many. Furthermore, the Egyptians, and those who had adhered to them from the parts of Syria, seeing our men’s instancy and importunate animosity, being far otherwise wise than before, began to distrust their forces; and in their own numerosity to have less and less confidence of hope, judging that all that multitude which was meeting them was cohorts of men. Of our men, indeed, as has been said, the number was modest; but the booty, of which above we made mention, by chance, with no one leading, had attached itself to our legions, so that when our men were setting their march it would not go forward; and as the same set out it would continually, without a leader, follow.

Arbitrati ergo nostrorum infinitum esse numerum, viresque incomparabiles, fugerunt nemine persequente, vix etiam fuga salutem invenire posse sperantes. Amissus est ergo illa die, casu incognito, scandalorum fomes, auctor seditionum, Marturanensis episcopus, ignorantibus cunctis ejus exitum; quocunque tamen casu id acciderit, rebus humanis exemptus, desiit comparere. Dicitur tamen quod a domino duce ad vocandos principes qui in urbe remanserant missus, dum rediret, captus sit ab hostibus et occisus; aut carceri perpetuo mancipatus.

Therefore, supposing our men’s number to be infinite and their forces incomparable, they fled, with no one pursuing, scarcely even hoping that by flight they could find safety. Thus on that day, by an unknown chance, the tinder of scandals, the author of seditions, the Bishop of Marturano, was lost, all being ignorant of his end; yet by whatever chance it befell, removed from human affairs, he ceased to appear. It is said, however, that, sent by the lord duke to summon the princes who had remained in the city, while he was returning he was seized by the enemies and slain; or consigned to perpetual imprisonment.

Collata igitur de supernis victoria, in hostium castra noster pervenit exercitus. Ubi tantam variae supellectilis et peregrinarum copiam invenit divitiarum, ut usque ad nauseam satiati, mella fastidirent, et placentas: et pusillus et abjectior dicere posset: Inopem me copia fecit. OVID. Sic igitur fugientibus adversariis, palma nobis sine labore concessa, cum ingentibus gratiarum actionibus reversi sunt Hierosolymam, tam principes quam universus Christianus exercitus onerati manubiis, et praedam inauditam secum trahentes; gaudentes et exsultantes in Domino, tanquam victores, capta praeda quando dividunt spolia.

Therefore, with victory bestowed from on high, our army reached the enemies’ camp. There it found such a copious quantity of various furnishings and of foreign riches that, satiated even to nausea, they began to disdain honey and cakes; and even the least and most abject could say: Abundance has made me poor. OVID. Thus, with the adversaries in flight, the palm was granted to us without labor; and with immense thanksgivings they returned to Jerusalem—both the princes and the entire Christian army—laden with spoils, and dragging along unheard-of booty with them; rejoicing and exulting in the Lord, like victors when, the prey having been taken, they divide the spoils.

CAPUT XIII. Discedunt principes ab invicem; Normannus et Flandrensis repatriant; Tolosanus redit Constantinopolim; Tancredus urbi praeficitur Tiberiadensi.

CHAPTER 13. The princes depart from one another; the Norman and the Fleming repatriate; the Toulousan returns to Constantinople; Tancred is put in charge of the city of Tiberias.

His ita gestis Deo amabiles, Deoque devoti principes, domini Normannorum et Flandrensium comites, consummato feliciter assumptae sibi peregrinationis itinerario, ad propria redire disponunt: inde iter arripientes, navigio Constantinopolim ad dominum imperatorem Alexium pervenerunt; a quo benigne tractati et cum honestis dimissi muneribus, auctore Domino, sani et incolumes in suam se patriam receperunt. Quorum alter, Normannorum videlicet comes, domum rediens, rerum statum, ab eo quem reliquerat, peregre proficiscens, secus a voto, longe invenit mutatum; nam dum in expeditione Domino militaret, frater ejus primogenitus Willelmus, qui cognominatur Ruffus, rex Anglorum, vita sine liberis decessit; cumque ei successionis jus et regni primitiva merito competerent, frater ejus Henricus natu se posterior, persuadens regni principibus, quod frater suus Hierosolymis rex constitutus, redeundi animum non haberet, regnum Angliae hac fraude obtinuit. Reversus ergo frater, ab eo coepit, sicut et de jure poterat, regnum instanter reposcere.

With these things thus done, the princes lovable to God and devoted to God, the lords the counts of the Normans and the Flemings, their itinerary of the pilgrimage undertaken by them having been happily completed, resolve to return to their own: thence, taking up the journey, by ship they came to Constantinople to the lord emperor Alexius; by whom they were kindly treated and dismissed with honorable gifts, and, the Lord being the author, safe and unharmed they betook themselves to their own fatherland. Of whom one, namely the count of the Normans, returning home, found the state of affairs, from that which he had left when setting out abroad, contrary to wish, much changed; for while on expedition he was soldiering for the Lord, his eldest brother William, who is surnamed Rufus, king of the English, departed life without children; and since to him the right of succession and the primogeniture of the realm rightly belonged, his brother Henry, later-born, persuading the princes of the realm that his brother, established as king at Jerusalem, would not have the mind to return, obtained the kingdom of England by this fraud. Therefore the brother, having returned, began urgently to demand back the kingdom from him, as also he could by right.

Cumque ille id negaret penitus, classe parata et convocatis copiis in Angliam ingressus est violenter: ubi cum omni regni illius robore frater occurrens, paratus erat cum fratre congredi; sed intercedentibus pacis mediatoribus, pax inter eos reformata ea conditione, quod rex fratri suo primogenito certam pecuniae summam singulis annis daret nomine census. Quo facto, dux in terram suam reversus est pacificus; postmodum vero, cum quaedam castella, quae rex in Normannia etiam antequam in regem promoveretur possidebat, dux ab eo reposceret, et ille reddere negaret, obsedit ea ut violenter comprehenderet. Quo audito, rex in Normanniam cum ingentibus copiis transfretavit; et cum fratre dimicans, coepit eum, et perpetuo carceri mancipavit: ubi et defunctus est, fratre postmodum eidem in universum succedente.

And when he utterly denied that, with the fleet prepared and the forces convoked he entered England violently; where his brother, meeting him with all the strength of that realm, was prepared to engage with his brother; but, peace mediators interceding, peace between them was reformed on this condition: that the king should give to his firstborn brother each year a certain sum of money under the name of a census-tribute. This done, the duke returned peaceably to his own land; afterwards, however, when the duke demanded back from him certain castles which the king had possessed in Normandy even before he was promoted to be king, and he refused to return them, he besieged them in order to seize them by force. On hearing this, the king crossed over into Normandy with huge forces; and, fighting with his brother, he took him and consigned him to perpetual prison; where he also died, his brother afterwards succeeding to him in the whole.

Dominus quoque comes Sancti Aegidii usque Laodiciam Syriae reversus, uxore ibi dimissa, ad eam in proximo rediturus, iterum Constantinopolim, ad eumdem dominum imperatorem, cum honesto comitatu profectus est; ubi ab imperatore susceptus magnifice, benigne tractatus, et ingentibus donis et ampla remissus munificentia, in Syriam ad uxorem et familiam post biennium, ut in sequentibus dicetur, sospes reversus est. Dominus vero dux detento secum inclyto et nobili viro domino Tancredo, comite quoque Garnerio de Gres et aliis quibusdam nobilibus, commissum sibi a Domino regnum prudenter strenueque administrabat. Concessit autem et solita liberalitate donavit jure haereditario in perpetuum possidendam, urbem Tiberiadensem super lacum Genesar sitam, cum universo principatu Galileae, simul et Caypham, quae alio nomine dicitur Porphiria, urbem maritimam cum suis pertinentiis praedicto domino Tancredo.

The Lord Count of Saint-Gilles likewise, having returned as far as Laodicea of Syria, his wife left there, about to return to her shortly, set out again to Constantinople, to that same lord emperor, with an honorable retinue; where, received magnificently by the emperor, treated benignly, and dismissed with huge gifts and ample munificence, he returned safe and sound to Syria to his wife and household after two years, as will be said in what follows. The lord duke indeed, having detained with him the renowned and noble man Lord Tancred, and also Count Garner of Gres and certain other nobles, prudently and strenuously administered the kingdom committed to him by the Lord. Moreover he granted and, with his customary liberality, donated to be possessed in perpetuity by hereditary right, the city of Tiberias situated upon the Lake of Gennesar, with the whole principality of Galilee, and likewise Caypha, which by another name is called Porphyria, a maritime city, with its appurtenances, to the aforesaid Lord Tancred.

In quo principatu ita Deo placide et laudabiliter se habuit, quod usque in praesentem diem memoria ejus in benedictione est apud illius homines provinciae. Sed et ecclesias ejusdem dioeceseos ingenti fundavit sollicitudine, et amplis dotavit patrimoniis, Nazarenam videlicet et Tiberiadensem, sed et montis Thabor; et insuper ecclesiastica contulit ornamenta. Quorum portionem non modicam, per fraudem et calumnias subsequentium principum praedicta amiserunt loca venerabilia.

In which principate he bore himself toward God so placidly and laudably that up to the present day his memory is in benediction among the people of that province. And he founded the churches of the same diocese with great solicitude, and endowed them with ample patrimonies—namely the church of Nazareth and that of Tiberias, and also of Mount Tabor—and moreover he bestowed ecclesiastical ornaments. Of which a not small portion, through the fraud and calumnies of subsequent princes, the aforesaid venerable places have lost.

Tamen usque hodie de residuo necessaria sibi procurant, pro illius orantes anima, qui tam pia liberalitate, et tantae charitatis visceribus erga Dei ecclesias abundavit. Et quia in modico fuit fidelis, supra multa constitutus est a Domino; et intravit in gaudium patrisfamilias, pro universis quae dederat centuplum accipiens. Nam mox infra biennium meritis exigentibus, ad principatum vocatus Antiochenum, illam quoque, a temporibus apostolorum gloriosam et nobilem, magis et magis, plurima largiendo, nobilitavit Ecclesiam.

Yet even to this day, from what remains they procure the necessaries for themselves, praying for his soul, who abounded toward the churches of God with such pious liberality, and with the bowels of so great charity. And because he was faithful in a little, he was set over many things by the Lord; and he entered into the joy of the householder, receiving a hundredfold for all that he had given. For soon, within two years, as his merits required, called to the Antiochene principate, that Church also, glorious and noble from the times of the apostles, he made more and more noble, by bestowing very many gifts.

Sed et principatum pluribus subjugatis urbibus et praesidiis mancipatis, longe lateque promotis finibus ampliavit, sicut in sequentibus dicetur.

But he also amplified the principate, with many cities subjugated and garrisons delivered into his possession, the boundaries advanced far and wide, as will be said in what follows.

CAPUT XIV. Boamundus Antiochenorum princeps et Balduinus comes Edessanorum, Hierosolymam veniunt, Nativitatem Dominicam ibi celebrantes.

CHAPTER 14. Bohemond, prince of the Antiochenes, and Baldwin, count of the Edessenes, come to Jerusalem, celebrating the Lord’s Nativity there.

Dum haec in regno sic aguntur, dominus Boamundus Antiochiae princeps, dominus quoque Balduinus praedicti domini ducis frater, comes Edessanus, multorum relatione habentes compertum quod reliqui eorum fratres et tantae consortes peregrinationis, prosequente eos favore divino, urbem sanctam sibi vindicaverant et viae causam consummaverant feliciter, condicunt inter se diem certum, quo paratis ad iter necessariis, illuc auctore Domino proficiscantur, ut laborum suorum causam vota, Domino solventes, compleant; et ut domino duci, domino quoque Tancredo et aliis principibus fraternum impendant solatium. Remanserant enim hi duo illustres et magnifici viri, alter apud Antiochiam, ut principatum conservaret; alter apud Edessam, ut ab irruentibus hostibus protegeret comitatum. Ita enim ab initio statim post captam Antiochiam, de communi providentia fuerat ordinatum, ut uterque concessas sibi divinitus, Dei cultrices urbes, non desererent; sed curam ad earum tuitionem impenderent pervigilem, ne forte recurrentibus hostibus, et reparatis copiis, rediviva pararentur bella, et sic in vacuum cucurrissent.

While these things are thus being done in the kingdom, lord Bohemond, prince of Antioch, and likewise lord Baldwin, brother of the aforesaid lord duke, count of Edessa, having learned by the report of many that their remaining brothers and companions of so great a pilgrimage, with divine favor attending them, had claimed the holy city for themselves and had happily consummated the purpose of the journey, appoint between themselves a fixed day, on which, the things necessary for the journey having been prepared, they should set out thither with the Lord as author, that, paying their vows to the Lord, they may complete the end of their labors; and that they may extend brotherly solace to the lord duke, to lord Tancred also, and to the other princes. For these two illustrious and magnificent men had remained behind, the one at Antioch, that he might preserve the principality; the other at Edessa, that he might protect the county from the inrushing enemies. For thus from the beginning, immediately after Antioch had been captured, it had been ordained by common forethought, that each should not desert the cities divinely granted to them, worshippers of God, but should expend a ever‑wakeful care for their protection, lest perchance, with the enemies returning and their forces repaired, renewed wars be prepared, and so they should have run in vain.

Licet ergo uterque negotiosus esset plurimum, tamen consummandae peregrinationis gratia propositum urgent, et die praefixa iter arripiunt. Dominus itaque Boamundus, assumptis secum eis qui ejusdem peregrinationis desiderio trahebantur, et ingentibus tam equitum quam peditum copiis, jam usque Valeniam urbem maritimam, quae est sub castrum Margat, pervenerat, ubi fixerat invitis civibus sua tentoria. Porro dominus Balduinus, eum e vestigio sequens, apud praedictam urbem eumdem repperit, ubi conjunctis adinvicem agminibus coepto insistunt itineri.

Although therefore each was very much occupied with business, nevertheless, for the sake of the consummation of the pilgrimage, they press their proposed plan, and on the pre-fixed day they take up the journey. Lord Boamund, then, taking with him those who were drawn by desire of the same pilgrimage, and with huge forces of both horse and foot, had already come as far as Valenia, a maritime city, which is under the castle Margat, where he had pitched his tents, the citizens being unwilling. Furthermore, Lord Baldwin, following on his very heels, found him at the aforesaid city, where, their columns joined to one another, they persist in the undertaken journey.

Applicaverant autem per eosdem dies, apud Laodiciam Syriae, homines de Italia: inter quos erat vir litteratus et prudens, religiosus quoque valde et honestatis amicus, dominus Daimbertus, Pisanorum archiepiscopus; quidam quoque de Apulia episcopus, Arianensis; hi etiam castris praedictorum principum se adjunxerant: unde et numerus factus est major, ita ut sexus promiscui, tam equitum quam peditum, diceretur esse multitudo ad viginti quinque millia. Iter ergo agressi, et oram secuti maritimam, non nisi hostium reperiunt urbes, unde cum maxima difficultate et alimentorum inopia viam poterant incoeptam conficere; cum enim non haberent commercia et venalia non reperirent, defecerat viaticulum in eorum cistarciis. Sed et algoris vehementia, et imbrium intemperies, multos ad supremum compulit defectum; hiems enim erat, mensis December.

But in those same days there had put in at Laodicea of Syria men from Italy: among whom was a lettered and prudent man, very religious too and a friend of honesty, Lord Daimbert, archbishop of the Pisans; also a certain bishop from Apulia, of Ariano; these likewise had joined themselves to the camps of the aforesaid princes: whence also the number became greater, so that, of mixed sex, both cavalry and infantry, the multitude was said to be up to twenty-five thousand. Therefore, having set out and followed the maritime shore, they find nothing but cities of the enemy, whence with very great difficulty and a scarcity of food they could complete the undertaken way; for since they had no commerce and found no wares for sale, the provisions for the journey had failed in their chests. But both the vehemence of the cold and the intemperance of the rains drove many to a final collapse; for it was winter, the month of December.

Soli enim Tripolitani et Caesarienses, in tam prolixo itinere, transeuntibus obtulerunt venalia; et tamen cum multo alimentorum defectu et famis angustia procedebant, non habentes jumenta et apta sarcinis devehendis animalia. Tandem, protegente eos divina clementia, pervenerunt Hierosolymam, ubi a domino duce et ab universo clero et populo devote suscepti, loca sancta corde contrito et in spiritu humilitatis perlustrantes, fide discunt oculata, quod verbo et doctrina prius comprehenderant. Celebrato sane in sancta Bethleem Dominicae nativitatis die, praesepe vident, et speluncam admirabilem, ubi pia Dei genitrix, salutis porta, mundi Reparatorem pannis involvit et lacte pavit vagientem.

For only the Tripolitans and the Caesareans, on so prolonged a journey, offered goods for sale to the passers-by; and yet they proceeded with much deficiency of provisions and the anguish of hunger, not having beasts of burden and animals apt for conveying baggage. At length, with divine clemency protecting them, they arrived at Jerusalem, where, devoutly received by the lord duke and by the whole clergy and people, traversing the holy places with a contrite heart and in a spirit of humility, they learn by eye-witnessing faith what they had previously comprehended by word and doctrine. Having indeed celebrated at holy Bethlehem the day of the Lord’s Nativity, they see the manger, and the admirable cave, where the pious Mother of God, the gate of salvation, wrapped in swaddling-clothes and with milk fed the world’s Repairer as he wailed.

CAPUT XV. Daimbertus Ecclesiae Pisanae archiepiscopus, Hierosolymitanae praeficitur Ecclesiae patriarcha.

CHAPTER 15. Daimbert, archbishop of the Pisan Church, is set over the Church of Jerusalem as patriarch.

Cum igitur usque ad illum diem, quasi per menses quinque Hierosolymitana vacasset Ecclesia, proprium non habens antistitem, convenerunt qui praesentes erant principes, ut in ea parte, Ecclesiae Dei providerent. Demumque post multa deliberationum libramina, praedictum venerabilem virum dominum Daimbertum, de communi omnium consilio in sedem collocant patriarchalem; nam quod de Arnulpho prius factum fuisse diximus, sicut imprudenter factum fuerat, ita et subito et facile dissolutum est. Praedicto ergo viro Dei in sede collocato, tam dominus Godefridus, quam dominus princeps Boamundus, hic regni, ille principatus humiliter ab eo susceperunt investituram, ei arbitrantes se honorem impendere, cujus tanquam minister ille in terris vicem gerere credebatur.

Accordingly, up to that day, for almost five months the Church of Jerusalem had stood vacant, not having its own prelate; the princes who were present assembled, that in that matter they might provide for the Church of God. And at length, after many weighings of deliberations, they place the aforesaid venerable man, lord Daimbert, by the common counsel of all, in the patriarchal see; for what we said had previously been done concerning Arnulf, as it had been done imprudently, so also it was dissolved suddenly and easily. Therefore, with the aforesaid man of God seated in the see, both lord Godfrey and lord Prince Bohemond, the former of the kingdom, the latter of the principality, humbly received investiture from him, thinking that they were paying honor to him whose place, as minister, he was believed to hold on earth.

Quo facto, assignatae sunt domino patriarchae possessiones, tam illae quas tempore gentilium, a diebus Graecorum, Graecus habuerat patriarcha, quam quaedam erogatae de novo; ut haberet unde honeste sustentari posset domus patriarchalis. His ita rite completis, sumpta a domino duce licentia, dominus Boamundus, dominus quoque Balduinus, in fines suos reversuri, ad Jordanem descenderunt: inde per vallem Illustrem, ejusdem fluminis ripam sequentes, Scytopolim transeuntes, usque Tiberiadem pervenerunt. Ubi assumptis sibi necessariis ad iter alimentis, secus mare Galileae viam carpentes, Phoenicem Lybanicam ingressi, Paneadem, quae est Caesarea Philippi, a dextris praetereuntes, Itureamque ingredientes, usque ad locum cui nomen Heliopolis, quae alio nomine dicitur Malbec, accesserunt.

This having been done, possessions were assigned to the lord patriarch, both those which in the time of the Gentiles, from the days of the Greeks, the Greek patriarch had held, and certain others granted anew, so that the patriarchal house might have whence it could be honorably sustained. These matters thus duly completed, leave having been taken from the lord duke, lord Bohemund and likewise lord Baldwin, about to return to their own borders, descended to the Jordan; thence, through the Illustrious valley, following the bank of the same river, and passing Scythopolis, they came as far as Tiberias. There, having taken for themselves provisions necessary for the journey, striking the road along the Sea of Galilee, entering Phoenicia Libanica, passing Paneas, which is Caesarea Philippi, on the right, and entering Ituraea, they reached the place whose name is Heliopolis, which by another name is called Malbec.

Inde ad oram maritimam redeuntes, Antiochiam, protegente eos divina clementia, sani et incolumes attigerunt.

Thence, returning to the maritime coast, they reached Antioch, divine clemency protecting them, safe and unharmed.

CAPUT XVI. Studio malignorum inter ducem et patriarcham graves cum simultate suscitantur quaestiones, super turri David, et quarta parte civitatis

CHAPTER 16. By the zeal of the malicious, grave questions are stirred up with enmity between the duke and the patriarch, concerning the Tower of David, and a fourth part of the city

Interea Hierosolymis, studio et opera quorumdam malignorum, quibus semper cordi est scandalum serere et aliorum invidere tranquillitati, suscitata est quaestio inter dominum patriarcham et dominum ducem, domino patriarcha reposcente ab eo civitatem sanctam Deo ascriptam, et ejusdem civitatis praesidium: simulque urbem Joppensem, cum suis pertinentiis. Cumque aliquandiu agitata esset praesens quaestio, dux, sicuti vir humilis erat, et mansuetus, ac timens sermones Domini, in die purificationis beatae Mariae, praesente clero et populo universo, ecclesiae Sanctae Resurrectionis, quartam partem Joppe resignavit. Postea die sancto subsequentis Paschae, in praesentia cleri et populi, qui ad diem festum convenerant, urbem Hierosolymam cum turri David et universis ejus pertinentiis, in manu domini patriarchae resignavit; ea tamen conditione, ut praedictis urbibus cum territoriis suis ipse interim frueretur uteretur, quousque captis ex aliis urbibus una vel duabus, regnum Dominus permitteret ampliari.

Meanwhile at Jerusalem, by the zeal and efforts of certain malign men, to whom it is always at heart to sow scandal and to begrudge others’ tranquility, a question was stirred up between the lord patriarch and the lord duke, the lord patriarch demanding back from him the Holy City assigned to God, and the garrison of that same city, and likewise the city of Joppa with its appurtenances. And when the present question had been agitated for some time, the duke—inasmuch as he was a humble and mild man, and one who feared the words of the Lord—on the day of the Purification of blessed Mary, with the clergy and all the people present, at the Church of the Holy Resurrection, resigned the fourth part of Joppa. Afterwards, on the holy day of the subsequent Pasch, in the presence of the clergy and people who had gathered for the feast day, he resigned into the hand of the lord patriarch the city of Jerusalem with the Tower of David and all its appurtenances; on this condition, however, that he in the meantime should enjoy and use the aforesaid cities with their territories, until, one or two other cities having been captured, the Lord should permit the realm to be enlarged.

Quod si medio tempore dux absque legitimo defungeretur haerede, praedicta omnia absque difficultate, omni contradictione remota, in ditionem domini cederent patriarchae. Haec omnia, etsi aliorum relatione comperta, et etiam quorumdam opera scripto mandata, praesenti interseruimus narrationi; miramur tamen, quibus rationibus motus dominus patriarcha, hanc adversus ducem suscitaverit quaestionem, cum nec uspiam legerimus, aut a viris fide dignis audierimus, ea conditione domino duci, regnum a victoribus principibus fuisse traditum, ut alicui personae, alicujus praestationis annuae vel perpetuae vinculo se sciret obligatum. Nec pro crassa et supina nostra ducenda est ignorantia, cum quolibet mortalium amplius harum rerum veritatem, diligenter investigaverimus, ad hoc specialiter studiose, ut ea praesenti scripto mandaremus, sicuti in nostro longe ante fuerat proposito.

But if in the meantime the duke should depart this life without a legitimate heir, all the aforesaid, without difficulty, with every contradiction removed, would pass into the dominion of the lord patriarch. All these things, although discovered by the report of others, and even by the agency of some committed to writing, we have interwoven into the present narration; we marvel, however, by what reasons moved the lord patriarch has raised this question against the duke, since we have neither read anywhere, nor heard from men worthy of faith, that on that condition the kingdom was handed over to the lord duke by the victorious princes, to wit, that he should know himself bound to some person by the bond of some annual or perpetual prestation. Nor is our ignorance to be accounted crass and supine, since, more than any of mortals, we have diligently investigated the truth of these matters, especially studiously to this end, that we might commit these things to the present writing, just as it had long before been in our purpose.

CAPUT XVII. Qua ratione quarta pars civitatis in jus et potestatem domini patriarchae cesserit.

CHAPTER 17. By what rationale the fourth part of the city has passed into the right and power of the lord patriarch.

Verumtamen, quartam partem civitatis, ab introitu Latinorum, et etiam a multis retro temporibus, Hierosolymorum patriarcham certum est tanquam propriam possedisse. Quod qualiter acciderit, et unde initium possidendi habuerit et causam, breviter aperiendum est; nam nos studiosius haec investigantes, frequenti inquisitione tandem ad hujus rei pervenimus indaginem. Habent veterum traditiones, dum civitas illa ab infidelibus detineretur, nunquam pacem continuam, vel ad tempus medicum, habuisse; sed frequentibus bellis et crebris obsidionibus, finitimis principibus eam sibi vindicare volentibus, perpetuo fuisse fatigatam; unde ejus et turres et moenia, tum vetustate, tum obsidentium opera, in ruinam collapsa, hostium insidiis locum late patere cogebant.

Nevertheless, it is certain that the patriarch of Jerusalem possessed, as his own, the fourth part of the city from the ingress of the Latins, and even from many times back. How this befell, and whence it had the beginning and the cause of its possession, must be briefly opened; for we, investigating these matters more studiously, by frequent inquiry at length have come upon the trace of this affair. The traditions of the ancients hold that, while that city was held by the unfaithful, it never had continuous peace, nor even for a remedial interval; but by frequent wars and repeated sieges, the neighboring princes seeking to vindicate it to themselves, it was perpetually wearied; whence its towers and its walls, both by age and by the work of the besiegers, having collapsed into ruin, forced the place to lie widely open to the ambushes of enemies.

Cum igitur ea tempestate Aegyptiorum regnum viribus et divitiis, sed et prudentia saeculari, caeteris quae vel in oriente vel in austro erant regnis esset praestantius, volens Aegyptius calipha imperii sui fines porrigere et suam longe lateque propagare ditionem, missis exercitibus, universam Syriam usque Laodiciam, quae Antiochiae contermina, Coeles Syriae limes est, violenter occupavit; designatisque praesidibus, qui urbibus tam maritimis quam mediterraneis praeessent, vectigalia constituit, et universam regionem fecit tributariam; praecipiens singulorum civibus locorum, civitatis suae muros reaedificare, et turres validas per circuitum erigere. Hac communi lege, procurator qui Hierosolymis praeerat ejusdem loci compulit habitatores legibus parere communibus et moenia cum turribus in statum reformare priorem. Quibus cum partes futuri designarentur operis, contigit ex malitia magis quam ex opum comparatione, quod quarta pars structurae illius, miseris Christianis, qui in urbe degebant, designaretur.

Since therefore at that time the kingdom of the Egyptians was more outstanding than the other kingdoms which were either in the East or in the South, in forces and in riches, but also in secular prudence, the Egyptian caliph, wishing to extend the borders of his empire and to propagate his dominion far and wide, having sent armies, violently occupied the whole of Syria as far as Laodicea—which, contiguous to Antioch, is the boundary of Coele Syria; and, governors having been designated to preside over the cities both maritime and inland, he established imposts and made the whole region tributary; ordering the citizens of each place to rebuild the walls of their city and to erect strong towers around the circuit. By this common law, the procurator who presided at Jerusalem compelled the inhabitants of the same place to obey the common laws and to restore the walls with the towers to their prior state. And when the parts of the future work were being assigned, it befell, from malice more than from a comparison of resources, that a fourth part of that structure was assigned to the wretched Christians who dwelt in the city.

Erant autem praedicti fideles, tot angariis et parangariis, tributis, vectigalibus et aliorum sordidorum munerum praestatione attenuati adeo, quod omnium opes vix sufficerent ut una vel duae de praedictis turribus resarcirentur. Videntes, ergo quod occasiones quaererent adversus eos, non habentes aliud refugium, ad praesidem accedunt, cum lacrymis supplicant, orantes, ut juxta eorum possibilitatem onus eis imponatur: nam quod injunctum eis fuerat, omnino insufficientes erant portare. Qui cum a sua praesentia eos excludi praecepisset sub gravi interminatione, dixit: Edicta summi principis, sacrilegium est violare; aut ergo opus injunctum consummabitis aut ultoribus gladiis, tanquam laesae majestatis reos, vos oportet succumbere. Tandem multiplicatis intercessoribus et munerum interventu, apud praesidem ferias obtinent, quousque missis legationibus, ad dominum Constantinopolitanum imperatorem, ejus ad peragendum opus praedictum, implorent eleemosynam.

Now the aforesaid faithful were so worn down by so many angaries and parangaries, tributes, imposts, and the exaction of other sordid duties, that the resources of all scarcely sufficed for one or two of the aforesaid towers to be repaired. Seeing, therefore, that they were seeking pretexts against them, and having no other refuge, they approach the governor, with tears they supplicate, praying that a burden be imposed upon them according to their capability; for they were altogether insufficient to bear what had been enjoined upon them. He, when he had ordered them to be excluded from his presence under a grave menace, said: To violate the edicts of the supreme prince is sacrilege; either, therefore, you will consummate the work enjoined, or you must succumb to avenging swords, as defendants of lèse-majesté. At length, with intercessors multiplied and by the intervention of gifts, they obtain from the governor a reprieve, until, legations having been sent to the lord Emperor at Constantinople, they might implore his alms for carrying through the aforesaid work.

CAPUT XVIII. Item de eodem, et quae loca venerabilia saepedicta pars infra se contineat.

CHAPTER 18. Likewise concerning the same, and which venerable places the oft-mentioned part contains within itself.

Destinati ergo nuntii ad praedictum principem accedentes, gemitus et lacrymas fidelis populi, non sine suspiriis audientium, quantum possunt exprimunt diligentius; pandentes ex ordine, sputa, colaphos, vincula, carceres, bonorum direptiones, cruces, supplicia, quae miser ille populus pro Christi nomine incessanter pateretur; et nunc quas de novo adversus eamdem plebeculam ad perdendum eos quaererent occasiones. Porro tunc agebat in sceptris, vir prudens et magnificus dominus Constantinus, qui cognominatus est Monomachus, Constantinopolitanum imperium strenue et viriliter administrans. Is lacrymosis Christi fidelium petitionibus gratuitum impendens assensum, pecuniam promittit, unde opus injunctum possit absolvi, eorum molestiis et continuis afflictionibus plena charitate compatiens.

Therefore the designated envoys, approaching the aforesaid prince, set forth as carefully as they can the groans and tears of the faithful people, not without the sighs of the hearers; laying out in order the spittings, buffetings, bonds, prisons, direptions of goods, crosses, punishments, which that wretched people was incessantly suffering for the name of Christ; and now what new occasions they were seeking against that same plebeian crowd to destroy them. Moreover, at that time there was wielding the scepters a prudent and magnificent man, lord Constantine, surnamed Monomachus, vigorously and manfully administering the Constantinopolitan empire. He, bestowing gratuitous assent to the tearful petitions of Christ’s faithful, promises money, whereby the enjoined work may be completed, compassionating with full charity their molestations and continual afflictions.

Adjicit tamen conditionem, quod ea lege praedictam sit eis pecuniam largiturus, si apud regionis dominum id obtinere possint, ut infra praedictum muri ambitum, quem de imperialibus eleemosynis erigere proposuissent, nulli nisi Christiano habitare liceret. Scribit igitur ad Cyprios, ut si Hierosolymitae fideles id possent impetrare, de vectigalibus et fisco debitis, tantam eis pecuniam ministrarent, quae praedicto operi sufficere posset. Illi vero ad propria reversi, domino patriarchae et plebi Dei quomodo egerint, pandunt seriatim; qui gaudentes verbum amplexi sunt et ad implendam legem pactorum, quam dominus adjecerat imperator, omni studio fideliter elaborant.

He adds, however, a condition: that under this law he would bestow the aforesaid money upon them, if they could obtain from the lord of the region that within the aforesaid circuit of wall, which they had proposed to erect from imperial alms, it would be permitted for no one to dwell unless a Christian. He therefore writes to the Cypriots, that, if the faithful Jerusalemites could obtain this, they should supply to them, from the tributes and the fisc that were due, so much money as could suffice for the aforesaid work. But they, having returned to their own, unfold in order to the lord patriarch and the people of God how they had conducted themselves; who, rejoicing, embraced the word, and to fulfill the law of the pacts which the lord emperor had added, labor faithfully with all zeal.

Missis igitur nuntiis ad magnum et supremum eorum principem, Aegyptum videlicet calipham, prosequente eos divino favore, apud eumdem, praedictam impetrant postulationem; et munimentum, ejus subscriptione et sigillo corroboratum, insuper obtinent. Tandem feliciter consummato negotio, ad propria reversi, designatam muri partem auctore Domino, compleverunt; anno ab Incarnatione Domini 1063, regnante apud Aegyptios, et id fieri permittente Bomensor Elmostensab, anno tricesimo sexto ante urbis liberationem. Habitaverant sane usque in illum diem, promiscue cum fidelibus, Sarraceni; sed ab ea hora, audita jussione principali, ad alias civitatis partes de necessitate se contulerunt, quarta praedicta, fidelibus sine contradictione relicta.

Accordingly, messengers having been sent to their great and supreme prince, namely the Caliph of Egypt, with divine favor accompanying them, with that same man they obtain the aforesaid request; and moreover they secure a muniment, corroborated by his subscription and seal. At length, the business having been happily consummated, returning to their own, they completed, with the Lord as author, the designated part of the wall; in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1063, Bomensor Elmostensab reigning among the Egyptians and permitting it to be done, in the thirty-sixth year before the liberation of the city. Indeed, up to that day the Saracens had lived indiscriminately together with the faithful; but from that hour, the princely command having been heard, of necessity they betook themselves to other parts of the city, the aforesaid quarter being left to the faithful without contradiction.

In quo servi Christi conditione suam videntur fecisse longe meliorem; nam de cohabitatione virorum Belial, multo saepius oriebantur scandala et multiplices eis accedebant molestiae; tandem seorsum habitantes, sine admistione zizaniorum, degebant quietius; si quas habebant quaestiones, ad cognitionem referebant Ecclesiae, et mediante domini patriarchae, qui pro tempore erat, arbitrio, controversias inter se decidebant. Sic ergo ab ea die et ea ratione qua praediximus, praedicta pars civitatis quarta, alium non habuit judicem vel dominum nisi patriarcham; et eam quasi propriam, Ecclesia sibi perpetuo vindicavit. Distinguitur autem quarta praedicta hoc modo: a porta Occidentali, quae dicitur David, per turrim angularem, quae cognominatur Tancredi, usque ad portam Septentrionalem, quae dicitur protomartyris Stephani, est ambitus muri exterioris; interius vero limes est via publica, quae ab eadem porta usque ad mensas nummulariorum directe protenditur, et inde ad portam occidentalem.

In this the servants of Christ seem to have made their condition much better; for from the cohabitation of men of Belial, scandals arose far more often, and manifold annoyances accrued to them; at length, dwelling apart, without the admixture of tares, they lived more quietly; if they had any questions, they referred them to the cognizance of the Church, and, through the mediation of the lord patriarch who was for the time being, by his arbitration they decided controversies among themselves. Thus therefore from that day and on that basis which we have aforesaid, the aforesaid fourth part of the city had no other judge or lord but the patriarch; and the Church claimed it for itself in perpetuity as if its own. Now the aforesaid fourth is distinguished in this way: from the Western gate, which is called David, through the corner tower, which is surnamed Tancred’s, as far as the Northern gate, which is called of the protomartyr Stephen, is the circuit of the outer wall; but on the inside the boundary is the public way, which from that same gate stretches straight to the tables of the money-changers, and thence to the western gate.

Continet autem intra se venerabilem locum Dominicae passionis et resurrectionis, domum hospitalis, utrumque monasterium, virorum videlicet et sanctimonialium, quorum utrumque cognominatur de Latina; domum etiam patriarchalem et canonicorum Dominici sepulcri claustrum, cum suis pertinentiis.

It contains, moreover, within itself the venerable place of the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection, the house of the hospital, both monasteries—namely of men and of nuns—each of which is surnamed “of the Latin”; also the patriarchal house and the cloister of the canons of the Lord’s Sepulchre, with their appurtenances.

CAPUT XIX. Quis fuerit regni status per illa tempora; et quomodo dux urbem maritimam Assur obsedit; et qua de causa eamdem solverit obsidionem.

CHAPTER 19. What the status of the kingdom was during those times; and how the duke besieged the maritime city Assur; and for what cause he lifted that same siege.

Eodem tempore, cum jam fere omnes principes qui in expeditione venerant, essent ad propria reversi, ita quod dux solus, cui regnum erat commissum, et dominus Tancredus, qui in partem sollicitudinis a domino duce tanquam vir prudens, strenuus et felix, erat detentus; tam modicae erant nostrorum facultates et militantium copiae, ut omnibus convocatis et certatim concurrentibus, vix invenirentur equites trecenti et peditum duo millia. Urbes autem, quae in nostram venerant ditionem, paucae admodum erant; et locis hostilibus interjectis, interpolatae, ita ut summo periculo, cum necessitas id exposcebat, de una ad alteram veniretur. Suburbana autem, etiam in nostrorum finibus universa ab infidelibus et Sarracenis incolebantur; quibus saeviores hostes nostro non erant populo; eoque pejores quo et domestici; nulla enim pestis efficacior ad nocendum quam familiaris inimicus. Hi non solum nostros incaute gradientes viis publicis obtruncabant et hostium mancipabant servituti; verum etiam et agrorum culturae denegabant, ut fame nostros affligerent; malentes ipsi esuriem pati quam nostris, quos hostes reputabant, aliquam ministrare commoditatem.

At the same time, when now almost all the princes who had come on the expedition had returned to their own places, so that the duke alone, to whom the kingdom had been committed, and Lord Tancred—who, as a prudent, strenuous, and fortunate man, had been detained by the lord duke to take a part in the solicitude—remained; our people’s faculties and the forces of those in arms were so meager that, with all summoned and running together in emulation, scarcely three hundred horsemen and two thousand foot-soldiers could be found. Moreover, the cities that had come under our dominion were very few; and, with hostile places interposed, they were interpolated, so that only with the utmost peril, when necessity demanded it, could one go from one to another. The suburbs, moreover, even within our borders, were all inhabited by unbelievers and Saracens; than whom our people had no enemies more savage, and the worse for being also domestic; for no pestilence is more efficacious for harming than a familiar enemy. These men not only cut down our people walking incautiously on the public roads and consigned them to the servitude of the enemy, but also denied cultivation of the fields, so as to afflict our people with famine; preferring to endure hunger themselves rather than to furnish any convenience to our men, whom they reckoned enemies.

Nec solum urbibus egressi, suspectas habebant semitas; verum et in domibus, infra urbium moenia constitutis, propter inhabitantium raritatem, et patulas hostibus murorum ruinas, vix tutus inveniebatur ad quiescendum locus. Nocturni enim fures, urbes vacuas et raro habitatore cultas, clandestinis irruptionibus effringebant, in propriis domiciliis multos opprimentes: unde nonnulli clam, multi etiam manifeste possessiones quas acquisierant deserentes, revertebantur ad propria; arbitrantes quod una die hi qui patriam tueri nitebantur, opprimerentur ab hostibus, et non esset qui eos ab imminentibus cladibus posset eruere. Hi causam edicto dederunt, ut annua praescriptio locum haberet et eorum foveret partes, qui in tribulatione perseverantes per annum et diem tranquille et sine quaestione aliquid possederant.

Not only, having gone out of the cities, did they hold the by-paths suspect; but even in houses situated within the walls of the cities, on account of the rarity of inhabitants and the gaping ruins of the walls lying open to enemies, scarcely was a place found safe for resting. For nocturnal thieves, the cities vacant and tended by a sparse inhabitant, by clandestine irruptions were breaking in, overwhelming many in their own domiciles; whence some secretly, many even openly, abandoning the possessions they had acquired, were returning to their own, thinking that in a single day those who were striving to defend the fatherland would be overwhelmed by the enemies, and that there would be no one who could rescue them from the impending disasters. These gave occasion for an edict, that an annual prescription should have place and should favor the side of those who, persevering in tribulation, had possessed something peacefully and without question for a year and a day.

Quod introductum est, ut praediximus, odio illorum qui timoris causa suas reliquerant possessiones, ne post annum redeuntes, ad earum admitterentur vindicationem. Cumque tanta regnum laboraret inopia, adjecit tamen vir Deum timens Deoque amabilis, auctore Domino, regni fines ampliare; convocatisque militaribus auxiliis et populo regionis, urbem maritimam, Joppensi conterminam, quae olim dicta est Antipatrida, nunc vero vulgari appellatione dicitur Assur, obsedit. Sed, cum in ea essent viri fortes et strenui, armis, victualibus et caeteris ad hos usus necessariis abundantes; dux vero exterius gravem sustineret inopiam, et maxime quia naves non habebat, quibus obsessis introitum negaret et exitum; necessitate compulsus, praedictam solvit obsidionem, exspectans ut tempore procedente, magis opportuna sibi ad id complendum concessa, divinitus eidem se offerret occasio; sed morte praeventus immatura, ad optatum propositum non pervenit.

That which was introduced, as we have said before, from hatred of those who for fear’s sake had relinquished their possessions, lest, returning after a year, they be admitted to the vindication of them. And although the realm labored under such indigence, nevertheless the man God-fearing and dear to God, with the Lord as author, set himself to enlarge the borders of the kingdom; and, military auxiliaries and the people of the region having been convoked, he besieged a maritime city, conterminous with Joppa, which once was called Antipatris, but now by vulgar appellation is called Assur. But, since in it there were brave and strenuous men, abounding in arms, victuals, and the other things necessary for these uses; while the duke without was sustaining grievous want, and especially because he did not have ships with which he might deny the besieged entrance and exit; compelled by necessity, he dissolved the aforesaid siege, awaiting that, as time proceeded, more opportune means granted to him for accomplishing this, an occasion would present itself to him by divine favor; but, anticipated by untimely death, he did not attain to the desired purpose.

CAPUT XX. Factum memoria dignum, quod eidem in eadem obsidione accidit.

CHAPTER 20. A deed worthy of memory, which befell the same man in the same siege.

Accidit autem in eadem obsidione dignum memoria quiddam, quod praesenti curavimus lectioni inserere. De montibus Samariae, in quibus urbs Neapolitana sita est, quorumdam suburbanorum reguli, deferentes secum exenia panis et vini, caricarum quoque et uvae passae, ad praedictam descenderunt obsidionem, magis, ut credimus, ut nostrorum explorarent vires et multitudinem, et de statu eorum plenius edocerentur, quam ut duci deferrent munera. Hi, postquam in exercitum pervenerunt, ut ante ducem introducerentur, coeperunt instanter postulare: in cujus constituti praesentia, obtulerunt donaria quae secum detulerant.

It happened, moreover, in the same siege, something worthy of memory, which we took care to insert into the present reading. From the mountains of Samaria, in which the city of Neapolis is situated, the petty rulers of certain suburban districts, carrying with them gifts of bread and wine, and also of figs and raisins, descended to the aforesaid siege—more, as we believe, to explore the forces and multitude of our men, and to be more fully instructed about their condition, than to bring gifts to the leader. These, after they had come into the army, began insistently to ask to be introduced before the leader: and when established in his presence, they offered the gifts which they had brought with them.

Dux autem, sicut vir humilis erat et saeculi pompam omnino declinans, super saccum stramine plenum, humi positum, residebat; suos exspectans quos pabulatum emiserat. Quod intuentes illi, admiratione stupidi, quaesierunt cur tantus princeps, et tam admirabilis dominus, qui ab Occidente veniens, totum concusserat Orientem et regnum maximum in manu valida occupaverat, ita sederet inglorius, ut neque tapetia, neque holoserica circa se more haberet regio; nec stipatus satellitibus armatis, formidabilem se praeberet accedentibus. Quibus ita percunctantibus, quaesivit dux quid loquerentur; quo cognito, respondit: Quod homini mortali sufficere merito terra pro sede temporali poterat, cui post mortem perpetuum domicilium est praestitura. Quod audientes qui gratia tentandi accesserant, admirantes viri responsum, humilitatem et prudentiam, abierunt dicentes: Quia vere hic est, qui universas regiones debeat expugnare; et cui repositum est de vitae merito, populis et nationibus principari. Mirabantur et timebant pariter finitimarum habitatores regionum, peregrini virtutem et successum populi; eoque in majorem rapiebantur et admirationem et metum, quo haec suorum relatione, quibus amplius credere tenebantur, cognoverant; et usque ad Orientis ulteriora factum hoc, tam mirabile, divulgabatur.

Duke, however, as he was a humble man and entirely declining the pomp of the age, was sitting upon a sack full of straw, placed on the ground; awaiting his own whom he had sent out to forage. Observing this, they, stupid with admiration, asked why such a great prince, and so admirable a lord, who, coming from the West, had shaken the whole East and had occupied a very great kingdom with a strong hand, should sit thus ingloriously, so that he had neither tapestries nor silk stuffs about him in regal fashion; nor, thronged by armed satellites, should present himself as formidable to those approaching. As they thus questioned, the duke asked what they were saying; and when this was learned, he replied: That for a mortal man the earth might rightly suffice as a seat for the temporal span, to whom after death it is to grant a perpetual domicile. Hearing this, those who had come for the sake of trying him, admiring the man’s answer, humility, and prudence, went away saying: For truly this is he who ought to conquer all regions; and to whom, laid up on account of the merit of life, it is to be prince over peoples and nations. The inhabitants of the neighboring regions alike were wondering at and fearing the prowess and success of the pilgrim people; and they were thereby swept into the greater both admiration and fear, the more because they had learned these things by the report of their own men, to whom they were bound to give fuller credence; and this deed, so wondrous, was being spread abroad even to the farther reaches of the East.

CAPUT XXI. Boamundus Antiochenorum princeps apud urbem Meleteniam capitur.

CHAPTER 21. Boamundus, prince of the Antiochenes, is captured at the city of Melitene.

Dum haec ita in regno Hierosolymorum aguntur, accidit quod quidam Gabriel nomine, Armenius natione, qui urbi Meleteniae, trans Euphratem in Mesopotamia sitae praeerat, Persarum timens incursum et eorum non valens sustinere molestias, legatos misit ad dominum Boamundum Antiochenorum principem, invitans ut ad se venire non differat, praedictam urbem quibusdam interpositis conditionibus, illico recepturus. Quod audiens vir magnificus dominus Boamundus, vocationem viri impigre secutus, assumpto sibi solito comitatu, transito Euphrate, Mesopotamiam ingressus, pene jam ad urbem praedictam pervenerat, cum ecce Turcorum quidam potentissimus satrapa, Danisman nomine, ejus adventu praecognito, ex improviso in ejus comitatum irruit; et incautos opprimens, quosdam in ore gladii peremit; reliquos vero multitudinem hostium ferre non valentes, adegit in fugam. Ipse vero dominus Boamundus, peccatis exigentibus, captus est ab hostibus et eorum vinculis mancipatus.

While these things were thus being transacted in the kingdom of the Jerusalemites, it happened that a certain man named Gabriel, Armenian by nation, who presided over the city of Meletenia, situated beyond the Euphrates in Mesopotamia, fearing the incursion of the Persians and not able to sustain their molestations, sent legates to lord Bohemond, prince of the Antiochenes, inviting him not to defer to come to him, promising that, certain conditions interposed, he would straightway receive the aforesaid city. Hearing this, the magnificent man, lord Bohemond, promptly following the man’s vocation, and having taken with him his customary retinue, after crossing the Euphrates and entering Mesopotamia, had almost now reached the aforesaid city, when behold, a certain most powerful satrap of the Turks, by name Danisman, having learned beforehand of his advent, unexpectedly rushed upon his retinue; and, overwhelming the incautious, slew some at the edge of the sword; but the rest, not able to bear the multitude of the enemy, he drove into flight. But lord Bohemond himself, sins requiring it, was taken captive by the enemies and made over to their bonds.

Quo successu elatus, de multitudine exercitus, quem secum trahebat copiosum, praesumens, eamdem urbem obsidione vallat, in proximo sperans eam se habiturum. At vero qui de praedicto evaserant periculo, Edessam pervenientes, comiti ex ordine pandunt casum, qui domino principi et eis acciderat. Quod intelligens vir strenuus, domino principi tanquam fratri uterino compatiens et periculoso rei eventu commotus interius, militares cum omni celeritate convocat copias: et sumptis ad iter necessariis, ad partes velox accelerat.

Elated by this success, presuming upon the multitude of the army which he was bringing with him in copious numbers, he girds that same city with a siege, hoping shortly to have it in his possession. But those who had escaped from the aforesaid peril, arriving at Edessa, unfold in order to the count the mishap which had befallen the lord prince and themselves. Understanding this, the strenuous man, commiserating with the lord prince as with a uterine brother and inwardly moved by the perilous outcome of the affair, with all celerity convokes the military forces; and, the necessities for the journey having been taken up, he swiftly hastens to those parts.

Distare autem dicitur praedicta civitas ab Edessa, itinere dierum trium; quod subito et mature conficiens, jam proximus urbi aderat; sed audiens praedictus Danisman comitis adventum, obsidione soluta, secum deducens dominum Boamundum, quem tenebat in vinculis, in partes regni sui, praelium declinans, secessit ulteriores. At vero comes audiens quod praedictus Danisman, ejus formidans adventum, ab obsidione discesserat, insectatus est per triduum fugientem: videns quod non proficeret, Meleteniam reversus est, ubi a praedicto Gabriele magnifice, cum ingenti gloria susceptus, tractatus optime, civitatem eisdem conditionibus, quibus domino Boamundo praedictus Gabriel obtulerat habendam, recepit. Hisque peractis, ad propria reversus est.

The aforesaid city is said to be distant from Edessa by a journey of three days; which, completing swiftly and in due time, he was already near the city; but hearing of the count’s arrival, the aforesaid Danisman, having lifted the siege, and leading with him lord Boamund, whom he held in chains, withdrew into the further parts of his kingdom, declining battle. But the count, hearing that the aforesaid Danisman, fearing his arrival, had departed from the siege, pursued the fugitive for three days; seeing that he was not making progress, he returned to Meletenia, where by the aforesaid Gabriel he was magnificently, with huge glory received, and most excellently treated, and he received the city, to be held on the same conditions on which the aforesaid Gabriel had offered it to lord Boamund. And with these things accomplished, he returned to his own places.

CAPUT XXII. Factum ducis dignum memoria in regione Arabum.

CHAPTER 22. A deed of the duke, worthy of memory, in the region of the Arabs.

Interea dum vir insignis dominus dux, et sui, qui cum eo, aliis discedentibus, ut regnum conservarent, Hierosolymis remanserant, tanta laborarent inopia, tanta affligerentur paupertate, quantam vix aliquis verbo possit exprimere, accidit quod per exploratores, quibus merito fides erat adhibenda, nuntiatum est, quod in partibus Arabiae trans Jordanem, in regione Ammonitarum, quidam Arabes incautius se haberent: unde, si super eos repente irrueretur, ingentia possent lucra reportari. Quibus vir illustris persuasus, convocatis secretius tam equitum quam peditum copiis, quales regnum recens ministrare poterat, transito Jordane, hostium fines ingressus est: ubi feliciter consummato negotio, dum cum ingenti praeda gregum et armentorum, et infinitis mancipiis reverteretur, nobilis quidam, et in populo suo praeclarus princeps, de gente Arabum, industrius, et disciplinae militaris ferventissimus amator, impetrata pace per internuntios, ad eum cum honesto nobilium ejusdem gentis accessit comitatu. Audierat enim multorum relatione, de populi hujus viribus et gloria, qui ab Occidente descendens, per tot terrarum spatia et tantam laborum multitudinem, universum sibi Orientem subjecerat; et praecipue de ducis virtute singulari et strenuitate praecipua: unde, studio ferventissimo, eum videre gestiebat.

Meanwhile, while the distinguished man, the lord duke, and his own men—who, with him, had remained at Jerusalem, others departing, in order to conserve the kingdom—were laboring under such want, were afflicted with such poverty as scarcely anyone could express in words, it happened that through scouts, to whom trust was deservedly to be given, it was announced that in the parts of Arabia across the Jordan, in the region of the Ammonites, certain Arabs were conducting themselves too incautiously: whence, if one were suddenly to rush upon them, enormous lucre could be carried back. Persuaded by this, the illustrious man, having secretly called together both cavalry and infantry forces such as the recently beleaguered kingdom could furnish, with the Jordan crossed, entered the borders of the enemy: where, the business felicitously consummated, while he was returning with a huge prey of flocks and herds, and with countless slaves, a certain noble, and in his own people a most renowned prince, of the nation of the Arabs, industrious, and a most fervent lover of military discipline, peace having been obtained through inter-nuncios, approached him with an honorable retinue of nobles of the same nation. For he had heard by the relation of many about the powers and glory of this people who, descending from the West, through so many stretches of lands and so great a multitude of labors, had subjugated the whole Orient to themselves; and especially about the duke’s singular virtue and preeminent strenuousness: whence, with most fervent zeal, he was eager to see him.

Accedens igitur, et exhibita reverentia, cum debitae salutationis affatu, multa precum ducem rogavit instantia, ut in conspectu ejus, gladio suo, camelum maximum, quem praesentem ad eum usum exhibuerat, ferire dignaretur, ut et ipse posset virtutis ejus aliis testimonium perhibere. Cui dux, quoniam ad videndum eum de remoto venerat, acquievit; et, evaginato gladio, cameli praesentis caput amputavit ita facile, tanquam si rem fragilem jussus esset praecidere; quo viso, obstupuit Arabs virtutis immensitatem; sed in mente sua, multum id ascribebat ensis acumini. Unde impetrata licentia, ut confidentius loqueretur, quaesivit utrum cum alterius gladio simile quid posset operari?

Accordingly approaching, and, reverence having been shown with the address of due salutation, he begged the duke with much insistence of entreaty to deign, in his sight, to strike with his own sword a very large camel, which he had produced, present, for that use, so that he too might be able to bear to others testimony of his virtue (valor). To whom the duke, since he had come from a distance to see him, acquiesced; and, his sword unsheathed, he amputated the head of the present camel so easily as if he had been ordered to cut a fragile thing; which seen, the Arab was astonished at the immensity of the prowess; but in his mind he ascribed it much to the sword’s acumen (sharpness). Wherefore, leave having been obtained that he might speak more confidently, he asked whether with another’s sword he could accomplish something similar.

Dux vero subridens, ejusdem nobilis viri sibi dari praecepit gladium; quo arrepto, aliud sibi ejusdem generis animal jussit praesentari: quo percusso, caput ejus uno ictu sine difficultate praecidit. Hic vero primum saepe dictus vir nobilis admirari coepit, cum stupore vehementi; et ictus vehementiam non ex ferri acie, sed ex robore viri cognovit procedere. Quodque de viri virtute audierat, verum esse comperit: unde oblatis muneribus in auro, argento, et equis, domini ducis sibi conciliavit gratiam; et reversus ad propria, virtutis, quam in duce viderat, praeco factus est, ad quoscunque loquebatur.

But the duke, smiling, ordered that the sword of that same noble man be given to him; which, seized, he bade another animal of the same kind be presented to him: it being struck, he cut off its head with one blow without difficulty. Then for the first time the oft-mentioned noble man began to marvel, with vehement astonishment; and he recognized that the vehemence of the stroke proceeded not from the edge of the iron, but from the man’s strength. And what he had heard about the man’s virtue (prowess) he found to be true: wherefore, with gifts offered in gold, silver, and horses, he won for himself the favor of the lord duke; and, returned to his own, he became a herald of the valor which he had seen in the duke, to whomever he spoke.

Dux vero cum praeda et manubiis Hierosolymam reversus est.

But the duke returned to Jerusalem with booty and spoils.

CAPUT XXIII. Obitus ducis, et sepultura.

CHAPTER 23. The death of the duke, and the burial.

Eodem mense, Julio videlicet, idem dominus Godefridus, regni Hierosolymorum egregius moderator, valida et incurabili correptus aegritudine, aegrotare coepit ad mortem. Tandem invalescente morbo nec exaudiente remedia, assumpto salutis nostrae viatico, devote poenitens, et verus Christi confessor, viam universae carnis ingressus est, centuplum accepturus et cum beatis spiritibus vitam possessurus aeternam. Obiit autem XV Kalend.

In the same month, namely July, that same lord Godfrey, the distinguished moderator of the kingdom of Jerusalem, seized by a strong and incurable illness, began to be sick unto death. At length, as the disease grew stronger and the remedies did not avail, having taken the viaticum of our salvation, devoutly penitent and a true confessor of Christ, he entered the way of all flesh, about to receive the hundredfold and to possess eternal life with the blessed spirits. Moreover, he died on July 18.

Augusti, anno ab Incarnatione Domini 1100. Sepultus est vero in ecclesia Dominici sepulcri, sub loco Calvariae, ubi passus est Dominus; ubi et successoribus ejus, usque in praesentem diem, pro sepultura deputatus est locus.

of August, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1100. He was indeed buried in the church of the Lord’s Sepulchre, beneath the place of Calvary, where the Lord suffered; where also for his successors, down to the present day, a place has been appointed for burial.