Godfrey De Bouillon

Godfrey de Bouillon Biography Workbook Series Godfrey de Bouillon GODFREY DE BOUILLON (1060-1100) In the year 1094, the Turks such fathers to achieve yet greater besieged the Holy City of Jerusalem, deeds. As the burning words dropped then ruled by the Fatimid caliphs, and from his lips they lighted a flame in took it. It became rumored that every heart. Christian pilgrims were then subjected to every form of violence and 2. Who urged French nobles and insult. The Greek emperor Alexius princes to embark upon a crusade Comnenus, whom the Turks had to conquer the Holy Land? recently defeated, implored the ___________________________________ assistance of the great Christian ___________________________________ states of Europe against this new and ___________________________________ formidable foe. Pope Urban, to whom the letter was addressed, summoned a The whole assembly suddenly council of nobles and prelates in rose, and shouted with one voice, "It is Auvergne. God's will! It is God's will!" Urban caught up the cry: "Yes, 1. Who ruled Jerusalem prior to the without doubt, it is God's will. He has Turkish conquest of 1094? dictated to you the words, let them be ___________________________________ your war-cry, and be this your badge!" ___________________________________ As he spoke he held up a crucifix. ___________________________________ The great meeting was moved like one man. Falling on their knees, With solemn and weighty words, all confessed their sins, received Pope Urban appealed to the princes absolution, and took vows of service in and soldiers of France who were the Holy War. A red cross, seated before him. He reminded them embroidered on the right shoulder, of the national exploits of their was the common sign assumed by all fathers, whom Charles Martel and the soldiers, who thence acquired the Charlemagne led against the name of "Crusaders." Estates were Saracens, and called on the sons of pawned and sold to obtain money for www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Page 2 Godfrey de Bouillon the expenses of the undertaking, and Swabia1, fell in that decisive many commercial cities purchased encounter. Godfrey's sword, swayed by important liberties from their lords at his young and powerful wrist, is said this favorable opportunity. The chief of to have shorn off the right arm of one of three great divisions into which Rudolph at a single stroke. For this the Christian army was formed was a valiant deed, Henry IV created man whom we have taken as the very Godfrey Duke of his province of type and model of a true Crusader— Bouillon; or, according to some Godfrey de Bouillon. historians, Lower Lorraine. 3. What was the common sign 5. Who made Godfrey Duke of assumed by all Crusaders? Bouillon? ___________________________________ a. Gustavus of Bouillon ___________________________________ b. Henry IV ___________________________________ c. Pope Urban ___________________________________ d. Saladin He was the son of Gustavus, At the subsequent siege of Count of Bouillon, or Boulogne, in the Rome, Godfrey made himself again district of Ardennes and province of prominent by scaling the city walls Luxembourg, and was born about the among the first. This action colored year 1060. His profession had been his whole life. All his contemporaries from his youth that of arms, and his portray his nature as displaying the earliest services in the field were loftiest integrity and deepest piety. rendered to his lord, the Emperor of Sound and clear as his intellect was, Germany. he yet shared in the superstition of his times, and was led by reflection to 4. Who was Godfrey’s father? believe that, in bearing arms against ___________________________________ God's vicegerent, and attacking a city ___________________________________ where so many apostles and martyrs ___________________________________ lay buried, he had been guilty of a heinous sin. Remorse worked on his In the war of Investiture he had mind so heavily that he took a vow to taken an active part against Gregory VII, and bore the Imperial standard at 11 The land of Swabia was located in the southwestern the battle of Merseberg. By his hand portion of what is now Germany. The Suebi or Suevi migrated to the region, starting approximately 2000 the usurper, Rudolph, Duke of years ago, from near the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Page 3 Godfrey de Bouillon join in the Crusade, from a conviction Godfrey’s knightly heart and that his glaring crime could only be statesman's mind never ran counter, blotted out by a heroism equally and whatever generous policy the one conspicuous. dictated, was carried into effect by the wisdom of the other. Although averse 6. Describe the guilty feelings that led to distinction, it was thrust upon Godfrey de Bouillon to join the Godfrey by the votes of his fellow- First Crusade. chiefs, and their decision was gladly ___________________________________ hailed by the common soldiers, who ___________________________________ loved Godfrey as a father. He would ___________________________________ not, therefore, refuse the post of ___________________________________ general, but applied himself to its ___________________________________ duties with activity. ___________________________________ Godfrey first set an example of ___________________________________ unselfish zeal to his brother nobles, by ___________________________________ disposing of his duchy for the purpose ___________________________________ of his expedition—an example faithfully followed by the leading Godfrey’s noble birth, and yet nobility of France and the Rhine. He nobler character, won for him so high then summoned his army to join him a place in the estimation of his fellows, in August, 1096, on the banks of the that, on announcing his intention of rivers Meuse and Moselle. At the undertaking the Crusade, hundreds appointed time, a force of 80,000 foot flocked to his standard. A worthy and 10,000 horse assembled under his general, truly, of soldiers thus ardent banner, and set out on its march in a cause which they deemed divine! through Germany—the two other To the qualities of bodily strength and divisions of the Christian army taking beauty, which in those days were a different route. chiefly valued in the head of an army, Godfrey happily united the more 8. When did Godfrey assemble his durable strength of intellect and army on the banks of the rivers beauty of soul. Meuse and Moselle? ___________________________________ 7. Few wanted to join the Crusade ___________________________________ because Godfrey was hated. ___________________________________ a. True ___________________________________ b. False ___________________________________ www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Page 4 Godfrey de Bouillon On reaching Hungary, therefore deemed it politic to guard Carloman, who then ruled that against danger to himself by country, showed some signs of demanding homage from all the objection to the passage of so Crusaders who entered his dominions. formidable a body, remembering the The two other divisions of the licentious excesses that had been Christian army were now on their way committed by the rabble which to Constantinople (modern Istanbul in followed Peter the Hermit. Here Turkey), by a different road from that Godfrey's wisdom was admirably taken by Godfrey. One of the French displayed. By his firm measures of nobles, the Count de Vermandois, was restraint on the impetuosity of his shipwrecked on the coast of Epirus, troops he first proved that they were and Alexius unjustifiably detained under the influence of strict discipline. him as a prisoner or hostage for the Then, confiding himself to the justice good faith of the other leaders. and good faith of Carloman, he disarmed that monarch's suspicions by 10. Who was shipwrecked on the frankness and simplicity. The result coast of Epirus? was that, instead of opposition, the ___________________________________ Hungarian prince gave him help, and ___________________________________ escorted the Crusaders with a body of ___________________________________ cavalry into the territories of Greece. On learning these tidings, 9. Who ruled Hungary in 1096? Godfrey, who was now in Thrace, sent ___________________________________ to the emperor, requiring the count's ___________________________________ release. This was not accorded, and ___________________________________ Godfrey therefore treated the country as hostile, levying contributions on the Alexius Comnenus was by this people as he marched through. The time alarmed at the eagerness with emperor immediately saw his error, which the Christian states had and promised to grant the count's responded to his appeal for aid against release on the arrival of the French the infidel. He mistrusted, not without army. This promise satisfied Godfrey, reason, the intentions of some of the and his march was once more chiefs of the expedition—mere peaceful. adventurers, like the Norman The wily emperor, in the Bohemond of Tarentum for example, meanwhile, obtained from his prisoner who was his avowed foe—and an oath of homage, hoping to induce www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Page 5 Godfrey de Bouillon the other Crusaders to follow the served for a season to promote the example. Godfrey, on his arrival, at success of the Crusade. first refused this, as unbecoming the rank and character which he bore. 11. Imagine that you are Godfrey de But, finding that the act would Bouillon. Would you agree to make appease the jealousies which had an oath of homage to Alexius already broken out between the Comnenus?

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