Titans of History

… if you had been there you would have seen our feet colored to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared.

Fulcher of Chartres, medieval chronicler and chaplain to the armies of Godfrey of Bouillon and his brothers, describing the siege of Jerusalem in 1099

The crusader warrior Godfrey of Bouillon became the first ruler of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, after indiscriminately slaughtering thousands of Jews and Muslims, “purifying” the city in the name of God.

Godfrey was born in 1060, probably in Boulogne-sur-Mer, to Eustace II, count of Boulogne (who had fought on the side of the Normans at the Battle of Hastings in 1066), and Ida “the Blessed” of Boulogne (a pious and saintly figure who founded a number of monasteries). Godfrey was an athletic and fair-haired boy of “pleasing” features, who, in the words of William of Tyre, was “tall of stature … strong beyond compare, with solidly built limbs and a stalwart chest.” As the second son of the family, Godfrey did not stand to inherit much from his father, but in 1076 his childless hunchback uncle bequeathed him the duchy of Lower Lorraine.

If Godfrey was in many ways the typical crusader, the idea of the crusade belonged to one visionary: in 1095, Pope Urban II announced a new theological concept—Christian holy war. In Clermont on November 27, Urban addressed a crowd to declare that all who took the Cross and fought to liberate and cleanse the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, to liquidate the infidel, would be granted remission of sins. As many as 80,000 people—from princes to peasants—answered the call and set off for Jerusalem, raising money any way they could, often with massacres and looting of Jewish communities. Some were adventurers who hoped to make their fortunes (as Godfrey’s family did) but this was an age of faith and the great majority were believers who risked their lives (and most died on the way) to reach Jerusalem. Godfrey himself, along with his brothers Eustace and Baldwin, answered the call. Godfrey declared he was determined to avenge the blood of Jesus on the Jews.

In August 1096, Godfrey’s army—estimated at 40,000—began the long march through Hungary toward Constantinople. When they arrived in November, it soon became apparent that the crusaders and Emperor Alexius I had very different priorities. Alexius wanted to concentrate on winning back the lands he had lost to the Turks, whereas the crusaders were eager to conquer Jerusalem and capture the Holy Land. After a period of political tension throughout 1097—in which Godfrey’s troops pillaged the neighborhood of Salabria—Godfrey tentatively agreed that his army would submit to Alexius’s orders for a time before marching southwards toward Jerusalem.

From the summer of 1098, Godfrey’s force—and other crusading armies—began to make inroads into Muslim lands, his reputation growing as he did so. In October, he reportedly killed 150 Turks with only twelve knights in a battle outside Antioch and the following month he cut a Turk in half with a single, downward swipe of his sword. Eventually, in February 1099, the various crusading armies finally conquered Antioch and Edessa and began their advance on Jerusalem, fighting through Tripoli and Beirut before arriving to besiege the city in June. Only about 12,000 crusaders had survived to reach the Holy City, under the command of five princes, Raymond the count of Toulouse, Robert the count of Flanders and Robert the duke of Normandy, plus the princely Norman adventurer Tancred de Hauteville and Godfrey. On the morning of Friday July 15, Godfrey was among the first crusaders to breach the city’s weak spot in its northern wall, after his men had built and scaled a movable tower which they had placed against the defenses. Ferocious fighting took place on the parapets as Godfrey bravely held his position and directed his men into the city so that they could open the gates.