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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Godfrey Biography GODFREY DE BOUILLON, (c.1058-1100). One of the leaders of the First Crusade and the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem. He was the son of Eustace of Boulogne and Ida, sister of Gozelo, or Godfrey, the Humpbacked, of Lower Lorraine. The year of his birth is uncertain, but it was about 1058. His family traced its descent from Charles the Great, and later legends made Lohengrin, "the Knight of the Swan," Godfrey's progenitor. In the strife over investiture (q.v.) he was on the side of the Emperor, and it was said that he was the first to scale the walls of Rome when it was attacked by Henry IV in 1084. The legends also recount how he was stricken with disease because of his sacrilege at Rome and then miraculously healed when he took the Crusader's vow. In 1089 he became Duke of Lower Lorraine. He was one of the leaders in the First Crusade (1096-99), but not commander in chief, and after the capture of Jerusalem was elected "Baron and Defender of the Holy Sepulchre." According to an untrustworthy legend, he was offered the title of King, but refused "to wear a crown of gold where the Savior had worn a crown of thorns." He held this dignity for about a year, and died July 17 or 18, 1100. Godfrey is described as a man of large stature and great bodily strength. Many feats of bravery and strength are ascribed to him, such as his combat single-handed with a ferocious bear, or his cleaving asunder the body of a Moslem emir with a single blow of his sword. He made an excellent and energetic ruler of Jerusalem. Many legends clustered about his name, and many deeds were falsely imputed to him. Consult: Sybel, Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges (Leipzig, 1900); Froboese, Gottfried von Bouillon, (Berlin, 1879); Röhricht, Die Deutschen im Heiligcn Lande (Innsbruch, 1894); Pigeonneau, Le cycle de la croisade et de la famine do Bouillon (Saint-Cloud, 1877). Hagenmeyer, Gesta Francorum, (Heidelberg, 1890), gives a bibliography of all the best works on Godfrey. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. X (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 76. |