factor, and neither gardens, nor palaces, nor churches, were safe from their depredations. For his own safety, Alexius allured them to pass over to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; but their blind impetuosity soon urged them to desert the station which he had assigned, and to rush headlong against the Turks, who occupied the road of Jerusalem. The hermit, conscious of his shame, had withdrawn from the camp to Constantinople; and his lieutenant, Walter the Penniless, who was worthy of a better command, attempted without success to introduce some order and prudence among the herd of savages. They separated in quest of prey, and themselves fell an easy prey to the arts of the sultan. By a rumour that their foremost companions were rioting in the spoils of his capital, Soliman tempted the main body to descend into the plain of Nice: they were overwhelmed by the Turkish arrows, and a pyramid of bones 40 informed their companions of the place of their defeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred thousand had already perished before a single city was rescued from the infidels, before their graver and more noble brethren had completed the preparations of their enterprise.11

The chiefs

crusade.

None of the great sovereigns of Europe embarked their persons in the first crusade. The emperor Henry the Fourth was not of the first 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, 42 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

40 Anna Comnena (Alexias, 1. x. p. 287) describes this irr xoλaves as a mountain ὑψηλὸν καὶ βάθος καὶ πλάτος αξιολογώτατον. In the siege of Nice such were used by the Franks themselves as the materials of a wall.

41 See Table on following page.

42 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).

Soliman had been killed in 1085, in a battle against Toutouch, brother of Malek Schah, between Aleppo and Antioch. It was not Soliman, therefore, but his son David, surnamed Kilidge-Arslan, the "Sword of the Lion," who reigned in Nice. Almost all the Occidental authors have fallen into this mistake, which was detected by M. Michaud, Hist. des Crois.

4th edit. [vol. i. p. 2041, and Extraits des Aut. Arab. rel. aux Croisades, par M. Reinaud, Paris, 1829, p. 3. His kingdom extended from the Orontes to the Euphrates, and as far as the Bosphorus. Kilidge-Arslan must uniformly be substi tuted for Soliman. Brosset, note on Le Beau, tom. xv. p. 311.-M.

and the exercise of arms are the common attribute of these Christian adventurers. I. The first rank both in war and council is justly due I. Godfrey to Godfrey of Bouillon; and happy would it have been for of Bonillon. 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, 43 was the inheritance of his mother; and by the emperor's bounty he was 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 sickness, his vow, perhaps his remorse for bearing arms against the pope, confirined 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 45 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 his birth and education, he was equally conversant with the French and Teutonic languages: the barons of France, Germany, and Lorraine assembled their vassals; and the confederate force that marched under his banner was comII. Hugh of posed of fourscore thousand foot and about ten thousand Vermandois, horse. II. In the parliament that was held at Paris, in the Normandy, king's presence, about two months after the council of Clermont, Hugh, count of Vermandois, was the most conspicuous Chartres, &c. of the princes who assumed the cross. But the appellation

Robert of

Robert of
Flanders,

Stephen of

43 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).

"See, in the Description of France, by the Abbé 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."

45 See the family character of Godfrey in William of Tyre, 1. ix. c. 5-8; his previous design in Guibert (p. 485 [1. ii. c. 12]); his sickness and vow in Bernard. Thesaur. (c. 78).

The sum is uncertain. Several authors make it much less. Michaud, vol. i. p. 166.-S.

a

of the Great was applied, not so much to his merit or possessions (though neither were contemptible), as to the royal birth of the brother of the king of France. 46 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 cheerfulness 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 usurper; 17 but his engagement and behaviour in the holy war announced 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 surnamed the Sword and Lance of the Christians; 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 sixty-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.49 III. In the south of France the command III. Raymond was assumed by Adhemar, bishop of Puy, the pope's legate, of Toulouse. and by Raymond count of St. Giles and Toulouse, who added the

48

46 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 ivyviía, which seven hundred years ago was famous in the palace of Constantinople, attests the ancient dignity of the Capetian family of France.

47 Will. Gemeticensis, 1. vii. c. 7, p. 672, 673, in Camden. Normanicis [ed. Frankf. 1603]. 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, Administration 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.

49 Unius enim, duùm, trium seu quatuor oppidorum dominos quis numeret? quorum tanta fuit copia, ut vix totidem Trojana obsidio coegisse putetur. (Ever the lively and interesting Guibert, p. 486 [1. ii. c. 17]).

a Some authors say that he was called great on account of the height of his

stature. Michaud, vol. i. p. 173; Finlay, Byzantine Empire, vol. ii. p. 122.-S.

51

prouder titles of duke of Narbonne and marquis of Provence. The former was a respectable prelate, alike qualified for this world and the next. The latter was a veteran warrior, who had fought against the Saracens of Spain, and who consecrated his declining age, not only to the deliverance, but to the perpetual service, of the holy sepulchre. His experience and riches gave him a strong ascendant in the Christian camp, whose distress he was often able, and sometimes willing, to relieve. But it was easier for him to extort the praise of the Infidels than to preserve the love of his subjects and associates. His eminent qualities were clouded by a temper, haughty, envious, and obstinate; and, though he resigned an ample patrimony for the cause of God, his piety, in the public opinion, was not exempt from avarice and ambition. 50 A mercantile, rather than a martial, spirit prevailed among his provincials, a common name, which included the natives of Auvergne and Languedoc, the vassals of the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles. From the adjacent frontier of Spain he drew a band of hardy adventurers; as he marched through Lombardy, a crowd of Italians flocked to his standard, and his united force consisted of one hundred thousand horse and foot. If Raymond was the first to enlist and the last to depart, the delay may be excused by the greatness of his preparation and the promise of an everlasting farewell. IV. The name of Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard, was already famous mond and by his double victory over the Greek emperor: but his father's will had reduced him to the principality of Tarentum, and the remembrance of his Eastern trophies, till he was awakened by the rumour and passage of the French pilgrims. It is in the person of this Norman chief that we may seek for the coolest policy and ambition, with a small allay of religious fanaticism. His conduct may justify a belief that he had secretly directed the design of the pope, which he affected to second with astonishment and zeal: at the siege of Amalphi his example and discourse inflamed the passions of a

IV. Bohe

Tancred.

50 It is singular enough that Raymond of St. Giles, a second character in the genuine history of the crusades, should shine as the first of heroes in the writings of the Greeks (Anna Comnen. Alexiad, 1. x. xi.) and the Arabians (Longueruana, p. 129).* 51 Omines de Burgundiâ, et Alvernia, et Vasconiâ, et Gothi (of Languedoc), provinciales appellabantur, cæteri vero Francigena; et hoc in exercitu; inter hostes autem Franci dicebantur. Raymond de Agiles, p. 144.

32 The town of his birth, or first appanage, was consecrated to St. Egidius, whose name, as early as the first crusade, was corrupted by the French into St. Gilles, or St. Giles. It is situate in the Lower Languedoc, between Nismes and the Rhône, and still boasts a collegiate church of the foundation of Raymond (Mélanges tirés d'une Grande Bibliothèque, tom. xxxvii. p. 51).

a He seems to have led a force equal or superior to that of Godfrey, and his exploits against the Saracens of Spain

would render his name memorable among the Arabian writers.-S.