REMEMBERING THE FIRST CRUSADE: LATIN NARRATIVE HISTORIES 1099-c.1300 Barbara Packard Royal Holloway University of London PhD Thesis 1 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Barbara Packard, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: 04/01/2011 2 ABSTRACT The success of the First Crusade by the Christian armies caught the interest and arrested the imagination of contemporaries, stimulating the production of a large number of historical narratives. Four eyewitness accounts, as well as letters written by the crusaders to the West, were taken up by later authors, re-worked and re-fashioned into new narratives; a process which continued throughout the twelfth century and beyond. This thesis sets out to explore why contemporaries continued to write about the First Crusade in light of medieval attitudes towards the past, how authors constructed their narratives and how the crusade and the crusaders were remembered throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It will analyse the development in the way the First Crusade was recorded and investigate the social, religious, intellectual and political influences dictating change: How, why and under what circumstances was the story re- told? What changed in the re-telling? What ideas and concepts were the authors trying to communicate and what was their meaning for contemporaries? The thesis will also aim to place these texts not only in their historical but also in their literary contexts, analyse the literary traditions from which authors were writing, and consider the impact the crusade had on medieval literature. The focus will be on Latin histories of the First Crusade, especially those written in England and France, which produced the greatest number of narratives. Those written in the Levant, the subject of these histories, will also be discussed, as well as texts written in the Empire and in Italy. 3 CONTENTS Abbreviations 5 Introduction 6 Chapter 1 Remembering the First Crusade 1099-c.1135 23 Chapter 2 Remembering the First Crusade c.1135-1200 78 Chapter 3 Remembering the First Crusade 1200-1250 112 Chapter 4 Remembering the First Crusade 1250-c.1300 141 Conclusion 163 Appendix 1 Narrative Histories 175 Bibliography 181 4 ABBREVIATIONS Autour de la première croisade Autour de la première croisade: Actes du Colloque de la Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (Clermont-Ferrand, 22-25 juin 1995), ed. M. Balard (Paris, 1996). EHR English Historical Review Geschichtsquellen Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachen und des Freistaat Anhalt, Urkenden des Erzstifts Magdeburg Teil 1, ed. F. Israël and W. Möllenburg (Magdeburg, 1937). JMH Journal of Medieval History MGH SS Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores RHC Occ Recueil des historiens des croisades: Historiens occidentaux, ed. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1844-95), 5 vols. RHGF Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, ed. M. Bouquet and L. Delisle (Paris, 1869-1904), 24 vols. TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5 INTRODUCTION The chapters of my thesis trace in chronological form the memory of the First Crusade. This thesis sets out to explore why contemporaries continued to write about the First Crusade and how the crusade and crusaders were remembered throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It analyses the development of the way the First Crusade was recorded and investigates the social, religious, intellectual and political influences dictating change. It aims also to place these works in both their historical and their literary contexts. Studies on literature naturally raise the question of audience and the reception of texts, issues that are discussed in conjunction with the influences of culture and identity. The main themes emerging from this study are: the impact of developing theological ideas; the evolving literary traditions from which authors drew inspiration and constructed their texts; the purpose of these works and their intended recipients; the culture of authors and audience; and the ways in which these writers’ perception and construction of identity affected their work. By identity I mean the way in which chroniclers understood and characterised themselves and their society, and distinguished it from others. The first chapter analyses texts written between 1099 and c.1135; this short period saw the production of almost half of the narratives under consideration here, most of which were of considerable length. The first chapter therefore makes up a major part of the thesis. Although displaying significant differences between themselves, the texts up to c.1135 shared certain traits such as concern for legitimacy - both regarding the work itself and the idea of the crusade - and a search for an identity for the crusading host. The development of theological ideas in connection with the crusade became more firmly established by the 1130’s, which also suggests it was logical to view the texts up to this date as a group, albeit a large one. As we move further in time from the First Crusade the narratives become fewer in number and shorter in length and my chapters are necessarily more concise. The second chapter discusses changes in the way the First Crusade was remembered between c.1135 and 1200. Crusade narratives are placed in the wider context of medieval literature and analysed in light of the effect that other literary works had on the production of these texts. Furthermore, the impact of the crusade on other contemporary literature, such as hagiographical works, is 6 considered. This chapter also traces the development and creation of the lay leaders of the crusade into heroes. Chapter 3 considers the development of narratives from 1200 to 1250. I analyse the ways in which the pontificate of Innocent III and the rise of the mendicant orders changed how the First Crusade was remembered. The impact of the rise of vernacular literature on the Latin histories of the First Crusade, as well as the new interest in ‘travel’ literature, or works describing far away lands, are also explored. In comparison to the first 150 years after the First Crusade, few extant Latin narratives of the First Crusade were written between 1250 to c.1300; the final chapter therefore focuses on the memory of the First Crusade reflected through sermons and in treatises on how to recover the Holy Land. Within this thesis the terms ‘narrative’, ‘text’, and ‘account’ are used interchangeably to describe the works detailing or referencing the First Crusade during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Literature in this context refers to written works in general, produced in the Middle Ages. The focus here is on histories written in Latin rather than the vernacular. Latin was the dominant literary language for most of the period in question; as the language of the learned, it carried authority and lent authenticity to the work. Most of the earliest narratives of the First Crusade were expressed in Latin. Vernacular texts were gaining popularity, especially by the end of the twelfth century, but being largely of a different genre, these are subjects for a later study. Until the thirteenth century the vernacular was used more for songs and poetry than for works of history. The majority of First Crusade narratives were produced in England and France; France had the greatest involvement in the crusade movement, and England enjoyed great historiographical productivity. Texts from these regions therefore form the core of this study. Attention is also directed at those written works in the Levant, the subject of these histories. Texts produced within the Empire and in Italy, however, are also considered. In contrast to many aspects of the First Crusade, such as preaching, military events, aims and intentions of the participants and the ideological background, little attention has been given to the ‘post-history’ of this crusade. Given the profound impact of the expedition across western Europe this is surprising. Powell, in a brief article, has considered changes in the way the history of the crusades was being written, but he 7 concentrated on intended audience and did not discuss the first forty years of the twelfth century.1 There have been some recent studies placing selected crusade accounts in their historical contexts, analysing why and for whom they were written, or charting the development of a particular idea expressed within their pages. Notable in these studies is an article by Rubenstein that discusses the provenance of a specific manuscript, MS BNF lat. 14378, containing the histories of Fulcher of Chartres, Walter the Chancellor and Raymond of Aguilers. He considers its recipient and the possible effects of its message.2 In another article, Rubenstein has also scrutinised the different types of spirituality on the crusade and examined how these shaped the interpretation of the crusade and identity of the participants.3 Bull has assessed how the construction of these identities was reflected in the texts.4 Paul has analysed the use of First Crusade narratives as political propaganda in Amboise in the mid-twelfth century.5 Throop has traced the development of the idea of vengeance in crusade histories.6 Although not specifically related to crusade texts, Otter has written interesting work on the inclusion of fiction in historical accounts and the value this might have for historians.7 In a similar vein, Hodgson has analysed the insertion of apparently fictional material into the Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum and briefly discussed the impact this might have had on later histories of the First Crusade.8 However, the focus of most of these works is on crusade histories written in the early twelfth century. Little notice has been taken of narratives of the First Crusade produced in the late twelfth century (with the exception of the history of William of Tyre) and almost none of those produced in the thirteenth century.