AFTER having dissolved the Council of Clermont, Urban the Second travelled through France to preach the crusade and describe the miseries of the Christians in the East. Wherever the Pope went, men of all ranks listened with sympathy; and, far and wide, spread rumors of the war about to be undertaken for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. Almost every country of Europe was agitated; and in France, where the excitement was most felt, warriors of pride and nobility borrowed money and enlisted men to take part in the expedition. Among the chiefs, Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, a man of piety, learning, and courage, was most eminent.
Godfrey of Bouillon was son of that old Count, in whose household Peter the Hermit commenced life; and from his mother, in whose veins flowed Carlovin-gian blood, he inherited the dukedom of Lorraine. Few men in Europe appeared to occupy a position more enviable than Godfrey. His name was stainless, his reputation high, his influence great, his property vast, and none of his castles without the means of rendering feudal life pleasant. But all these advantages failed to insure happiness; for memory was perpetually recalling scenes in which he had figured conspicuously, and in which he had played a part of which his conscience could no longer approve.
It appears that Godfrey, born in the castle of Baysy, and trained from youth at the German court, was early engaged in that memorable struggle between the Pope and the Emperor, which is known in history as "The War of Investiture." While fighting in that war for Henry the Fourth against Hildebrand, Godfrey won high renown. It was he who, in the bloody battle on the banks of the Elster, struck down, with his own hand, Rodolph of Swabia, whom Hildebrand had gifted with the crown of Germany; and it was he who, at the siege of Rome, on that day when Henry's banners appeared before the Eternal City, and when Hildebrand took refuge in the Castle of St. Angelo, first forced his way through the walls, and opened the gate to the Imperial troops. He had since reflected with remorse on the part he had taken against the head of the church; and he now eagerly assumed the cross, in hopes of expiating exploits which he could not recall without sadness.
No sacrifices appeared to Godfrey too great to entitle him to pardon for what he deemed the sin of having fought against the vicar of Christ. Not only did he with that object exhibit willingness to leave his home; but before doing so he deprived himself of every temptation to return. He alienated his castles and domains, sold his cities and principalities, and disposed of all right in his duchy. With the money thus obtained he arrayed a magnificent army; and marched eastward at the head of ten thousand horse and eighty thousand foot. Godfrey's brother Eustace, Count of Bouillon, his brother Baldwin, and his kinsman Baldwin du Bourg, accompanied him, and many knights and nobles of the province joined his standard.
At the time when Godfrey was mustering his forces, other chiefs were preparing to share his peril and his glory. Hugh, Count of Vcrmandois, brother of the King of France; Robert, Count of Flanders; Stephen, Count of Blois; and Count Robert of Paris, were among the distinguished.
But no crusader displayed more promptness than Raymond, Count of Thoulouse, under whose banner gathered the men of the south of France. Raymond was a warrior of age and experience, who had fought against the Saracens in Spain at the right hand of the Cid, and wedded the daughter of the great Alphonso. But age had not diminished his ardor, and he roused himself to take part in the enterprise. "In my youth," he said, "I fought the Saracens in Europe; and, in my old age, I will go and fight them in Asia." The Bishop of Puy, who after the Council of Clermont had been named papal legate, accompanied Raymond of Thoulouse, and a hundred thousand men of Gascony and Provence followed the old Count's standard.
While Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Thoulouse, Robert of Flanders, and Hugh of Vermandois, were taking the cross, fame carried tidings of the crusade to two princes, who resided at the Castle of Rouen. They were bosom friends, though utterly unlike, physically and mentally. One was short of stature, fat to excess, volatile, adventurous, and ever aspiring to something which he could not attain. The other was tall, handsome, fair to behold, slow, unready, and much too inert even to claim a crown which was his by hereditary right and popular election. Both had reached the age of forty, displayed high courage, and borne much adversity. One was Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror; the other was Edgar Atheling, heir of the Anglo-Saxon kings.
Excluded by his younger brother, William Rufus, from the English throne, the situation of Curthose was not enviable. It is true he was Duke of Normandy and lord of numerous castles. But in regard to pecuniary matters, he was so improvident that he found himself continually in difficulties. Women and parasites, jesters and mountebanks, preyed without mercy on his substance, and he was sometimes reduced to ludicrous distress. Indeed the chronicler states that he was frequently prevented from leaving his bed and . being present at mass for want of decent clothes.
While affairs in the castle of Rouen were in this unhappy state, and when the crusade became the fashion, the imagination of Curthose was immediately inflamed by the idea. Perhaps of all people in Europe, he had least temptation to stay at home. The prospect of escaping from the avarice of usurers and the insolence of duns, must under the circumstances have been too tempting to be resisted; and Curthose, resolving to take part in the expedition, looked around for money to defray the expenses.
Fortune proved rather propitious than otherwise. Less difficulty was experienced in obtaining the means than might have been anticipated. William Rufus, in fact, was glad to hear of his brother's intention of leaving Euflope, and willing, on certain conditions, to provide him with funds. A bargain was accordingly struck. Rufus furnished the sum of ten thousand marks, and Curthose gave a mortgage over Normandy for five years.
When Curthose took the cross, Edgar Atheling had long resided at Rouen, amusing himself with dogs and horses, and reflecting with philosophic calmness on the crown of which he had been deprived and the country from which he had been banished. He had now passed the age of forty, and suppressed every personal ambition. But, infected by the prevailing enthusiasm, he resolved to take part in the expedition to Jerusalem, and associate the history of the House of Cerdic with the history of the Holy War.
At this period, however, a Scottish prince, named Donald Bane, happened to have usurped the throne of Atheling's nephew; and the heir of Cerdic exhibited, in regaining the rights of his sister's son, a degree of energy which he hail never displayed when his own interests were at stake. When the crusade was preached, he was just setting out to head an army of Anglo-Saxons and Scoto-Saxons against the usurper. But he engaged to join Curthose in the Holy Land, and to lead against Saracens the army with which he was now going to conquer Scots.
In the meantime, Curthose was nobly attended. When he set up his white banner embroidered with gold, multitudes came readily to fight under a leader so generous and brave. A goodly band of warriors, led by feudal barons sprung up in Normandy; and Stephen, Earl of Albemarle, and Everard Percy, Aubrey De Vere, Earl of Oxford, and Jofceline Cour-tcnay, Conan de Montacutc, and Girard de Gourney, were among the Norman barons whom England sent forth to accompany the Conqueror's heir.
The pilgrim princes appointed Constantinople as a rendezvous, and agreed to set out at different dates and to pursue different routes. Indeed so numerous were those who took the cross, that, marching in one army, they would have exhausted the countries through which they had to pass. They therefore commenced their expedition eastward in four divisions, all grandly arrayed. Every warrior wore a casque and a hauberk of chain mail. The infantry carried long shields, the cavalry round bucklers for their defence, and a goodly supply of swords, lances, poinards, axes, maces, bows, slings, and cross bows, with which to pursue the work of carnage and destruction.
It would appear, however, that the crusaders had no adequate notion of the dangers and difficulties of the way. Knights and nobles, 'grooms and squires, were equally unaware of the obstacles to be encountered. Many of the warriors took with them their wives and children, and rode along with bugles at their girdles, hawks on their wrists, and hounds running by their side. They seem to have considered the crusade as a sort of pleasant excursion, and to have anticipated reaching the Holy City if not without fighting battles, at least without storming fortresses.
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From John G. Edgar
The Crusades and the Crusaders, 1860
