+ To save time and space, I shall represent, in a short table, the particular references to the great events of the first crusade.

P. 390-392. P. 392-395. P. 392.

Sc. 8-13.
218. 19.

Sc. 14-16. 221-47.

c. 48-71. c. 72-91. c. 100

100-109. c. 111-138.

P. 389. 390.

P. 396-400.

Sp.

Sp.491–493.2 1-493+} 1.496.497.

CHAP.
LVIII.

The chiefs

crusade.

None of the great sovereigns of Europe embarks ed their persons in the first crusade. The emperor of the first Henry the Fourth was not disposed to obey the summons of the Pope; Philip, the First of France, was occupied by his pleasures; William Rufus of England, by a recent conquest; the kings of Spain were engaged in a domestic war against the Moors; and the northern monarchs of Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, were yet strangers to the passions and interests of the South. The religious ardour was more strongly felt by the princes of the second order, who held an important place in the feudal system. Their situation will naturally cast, under four distinct heads, the review of their names and characters; but I may escape some needless repetition, by observing at once, that courage and the exercise of arms are the common attribute of these Christian adventurers. 1. Godfrey I. The first rank both in war and council is justly due to Godfrey of Bouillon; and happy would it have been for the crusaders, if they had trusted themselves to the sole conduct of that accomplished hero, a worthy representative of Charlemagne, from whom he was descended in the female line. His father was of the noble race of the Counts of Boulogne: Brabant, the lower province of Lorraine t, was the inheritance of his mother;

of Bouil

lon.

*The author of the Esprit des Croisades has doubted, and might have disbelieved, the crusade and tragic death of Prince Sueno, with 1500 or 15,000 Danes, who was cut off by Sultan Soliman in Cappadocia, but who still lives in the poem of Tasso. (Tom. iv. p. 111-115.).

The fragments of the kingdoms of Lotharingia, or Lorraine, were broken into the two duchies, of the Moselle, and of the Meuse; the first has preserved its name, which in the latter has been changed into that of Brabant. (Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 283-288.).

LVII.

mother; and by the emperor's bounty, he was CHAP. himself invested with that ducal title, which has been improperly transferred to his lordship of Bouillon in the Ardennes *. In the service of Henry the Fourth, he bore the great standard of the empire, and pierced with his lance the breast of Rodolph, the rebel king: Godfrey was the first who ascended the walls of Rome; and his sicknefs, his vow, perhaps his remorse for bearing arms against the Pope, confirmed an early resolution of visiting the holy sepulchre, not as a pilgrim, but a deliverer. His valour was matured by prudence and moderation; his piety, though blind, was sincere; and, in the tumult of a camp, he practised the real and fictitious virtues of a convent. Superior to the private factions of the chiefs, he reserved his enmity for the enemies of Christ; and though he gained a kingdom by the attempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknowledged by his rivals. Godfrey of Bouillon was accompanied by his two brothers, by Eustace the elder, who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and by the younger, Baldwin, a character of more ambiguous virtue. The Duke of Lorraine was alike celebrated on either side of the Rhine; from birth and education, he was equally conversant with the French and Teutonic languages.

*See, in the description of France, by the Abbe de Longuerue, the articles of Boulogne, part i. p. 54. Brabant, part ii.. P. 47, 48. Bouillon, p. 134. On his departure, Godfrey sold or pawned Bouillon to the church for 1300 marks.

See the family-character of Godfrey in William of Tyre, 1. ix. c. 5-8.; his previous design in Guibert (p. 485.); his sickness and vow, in Bernard. Thesaur. (c. 78.).

LVIII.

of Vermandois,

Robert of

Normandy, Ro.

bert of

Stephen

of Char

CHAP. languages. The barons of France, Germany, and Lorraine, assembled their vassals; and the confederate force that marched under his banner was composed of fourscore thousand foot, and about ten thousand horse. II. In the parliament that was held at Paris, in the king's presence, about two months after the council of Clermont, Hugh, Count of Vermandois, was the most conspicuous of the Flanders, princes who assumed the cross. But the appellation of the great was applied, not so much to his tres, &c. merit or possessions, (though neither were contemptible), as to the royal birth of the brother of the king of France *. Robert, Duke of Normandy, was the eldest son of William the Conqueror; but on his father's death he was deprived of the kingdom of England, by his own indolence, and the activity of his brother Rufus. The worth of Robert was degraded by an excessive levity and easiness of temper; his chearfulness seduced him to the indulgence of pleasure; his profuse liberality impoverished the prince and people; his indiscriminate clemency multiplied the number of offenders; and the amiable qualities of a private man became the essential defects of a sovereign. For the trifling sum of ten thousand marks, he mortgaged Normandy during his absence to the English usurpert; but his

engagement

* Anna Comnena supposes, that Hugh was proud of his nobility, riches, and power (1. x. p. 288.); the two last articles appear more equivocal; but an eye which, seven hundred years ago, was famous in the palace of Constantinople, attests the ancient dignity of the Capetian family of France.

+ Will. Gemeticensis, 1. vii. c. 7. p. 672, 673. in Camden. Normanicis.

LVIII.

engagement and behaviour in the holy war, announ- CHAP. ced in Robert a reformation of manners, and restored him in some degree to the public esteem. Another Robert was Count of Flanders, a royal province, which, in this century, gave three queens to the thrones of France, England, and Denmark. He was firnamed the sword and lance of the Chri stians; but in the exploits of a soldier, he sometimes forgot the duties of a General. Stephen, Count of Chartres, of Blois, and of Troyes, was one of the richest princes of the age; and the number of his castles has been compared to the three hundred and fixty-five days of the year. His mind was improved by literature; and, in the council of the chiefs, the eloquent Stephen was chosen to discharge the office of their president. These four were the principal leaders of the French, the Normans, and the pilgrims of the British isles; but the list of the barons, who were possessed of three or four towns, would exceed, says a contemporary, the catalogue of the Trojan war t. III. III. RayIn the south of France, the command was assumed mond of by Adhemar, bishop of Puy, the Pope's legate, and

*

by

Normanicis. He pawned the duchy for one hundredth part
of the present yearly revenue.
Ten thousand marks may be
equal to five hundred thousand livres, and Normandy annually
yields fifty-seven millions to the king. (Necker, Administra
tion des Finances, tom. i. p. 287.).

His original letter to his wife is inserted in the Spicilegium of Dom. Luc. d'Acheri, tom. iv. and quoted in the Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 63.

+ Unius enim, duum, trium, seu quatuor oppidorum dominos quis numeret? quorum tanta fuit copia, ut non vix totidem Trojana obsidio coegisse putetur. (Ever the lively and interesting Guibert, p. 486.).

Tholoufe.