Godfrey of Bouillon

Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Ruler of Latin Jerusalem, c.1060-1100

Simon John

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317126300
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

This book offers a new appraisal of the ancestry and career of Godfrey of Bouillon (c.1060-1100), a leading participant in the First Crusade (1096-99), and the first ruler of Latin Jerusalem (1099-1100), the polity established by the crusaders after they captured the Holy City. While previous studies of Godfrey's life have tended to focus on his career from the point at which he joined the crusade, this book adopts a more holistic approach, situating his involvement in the expedition in the light of the careers of his ancestors and his own activities in Lotharingia, the westernmost part of the kingdom of Germany. The findings of this enquiry shed new light on the repercussions of a range of critical developments in Latin Christendom in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, including the impact of the 'Investiture Conflict' in Lotharingia, the response to the call for the First Crusade in Germany, Godfrey's influence upon the course of the crusade, his role in its leadership, and his activities during the initial phases of Latin settlement in the Holy Land in its aftermath.

1 Ancestry and parentage

Lotharingia and its place in the Western Empire

Godfrey of Bouillon’s maternal forebears played a prominent role in the Western Empire in the era in which it was ruled over by the Salian dynasty (1027–1125), particularly during the tumultuous reigns of Henry III (1039–1056) and his son, Henry IV (1056–1105/6).¹ In the eleventh century, the Empire encompassed the constituent kingdoms of Germany, Italy, and, from 1034, Burgundy. Although the three kingdoms notionally had a common ruler, they were not united by any common governmental or institutional framework. The king of the Germans was traditionally elected by the German princes, usually within his father’s lifetime. However, the king could only be inaugurated as emperor by the pope in Rome. The length of the duration between an individual’s inauguration as king of Germany and his inauguration as emperor thus depended on his relationship with the pope. During the reigns of Henry IV and his son Henry V (1105–1125), the Salian monarchy was embroiled in a bitter dispute with the papacy, a struggle often described by modern scholars as the ‘Investiture Conflict’.² The clash between Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085) had repercussions which reverberated throughout Latin Christendom.³

The chief secular offices in the kingdom of Germany in this period were those of duke, count, and margrave. In the eleventh century, the kingdom consisted of six duchies: Swabia, Bavaria, Carinthia, and Saxony, and to the west, the duchies of Upper Lotharingia and Lower Lotharingia (see Map 1.1). In the Salian era, the office of duke (dux) was essentially a military position. The king expected the dukes to assemble the military forces of their duchies and lead them on royal campaigns. The dukes were responsible for maintaining peace and for holding regular assemblies of the counts and other nobility of the duchy. A biographer of Henry II (d.1024), the last Ottonian king of Germany, wrote that as duke of Bohemia Henry ‘stood higher than all the counts of the [duchy]’.⁴ Although it was not essential for a duke to be a native of his duchy or to possess extensive lands within it to hold the office, in practice, the authority of a duke was determined by the extent and wealth of his personal holdings.⁵ The Salian kings regarded dukes as royal officials, whom they could appoint and dismiss at will. According to Weinfurter, over the course of the eleventh century several forces combined steadily to undermine the authority of the dukes. While the Salian kings sometimes considered hereditary principles when appointing a new duke, and would grant the ducal office to the son of the former incumbent if he was politically acceptable, they were often more concerned with aligning ducal offices with the crown.⁶ As the biographer of Henry II recognised, the counts of the kingdom of Germany were intended to operate under the authority of the dukes. Over the course of the tenth and eleventh centuries, the nature of comital authority in Germany altered drastically. In the Carolingian age, counts had been public officials appointed by the crown. By the Salian era, however, the title of count essentially denoted an aristocrat who held a monopoly of power in his locality. The counties were not specific areas of land, but, rather, were associated with the exercise of authority over people and places.⁷ The office of margrave denoted lordship over a march, that is, authority in an area at the frontier of the kingdom of Germany.⁸

Map 1.1 Lotharingia and the Western Empire

Modern historians have devoted much attention to the nature of the relationship between the Salian monarchy and the Church both in Germany and more widely in the Empire. The Salian kings sought to impose close control over bishoprics throughout the Empire for several reasons. Bishops provided hospitality and financial support to the kings, and facilitated royal itinerations throughout the Empire. The king sought closely to control appointments to high-ranking church offices in the Empire; these often held great wealth, and so selling them to the highest bidder could be lucrative. Perhaps most importantly, bishops often wielded considerable political influence in their dioceses. The kings were thus apt to utilise bishops as agents of central monarchical authority. The tradition of cooperation between the Salian kings and the imperial episcopate has been described in modern historiography as the ‘imperial Church system’ (Reichskirchensystem). The growing dependence of the crown on the episcopate seems to have been one of the factors that served to diminish the power of secular offices in the Empire over the course of the eleventh century.⁹ When Henry III intervened in Rome in December 1046 to install Pope Clement II, he seemed even to have incorporated the bishop of Rome into this system.¹⁰ Also important in Germany and the Empire at this time were lay advocates. These were secular lords who were appointed by religious houses to look after their worldly interests.¹¹

Godfrey of Bouillon’s maternal ancestors were aristocrats in the politically turbulent region of Lotharingia, and Godfrey himself spent most of his adult career there. Some historical context on Lotharingia will therefore be essential for what follows. Lotharingia came into existence in 843 with the Treaty of Verdun, through which the grandsons of Charlemagne, that is, the sons of Louis the Pious (d.840), divided his empire into three kingdoms: West Francia, East Francia, and Middle Francia.¹² The third of these kingdoms was granted to the eldest son, Lothair I. Upon Lothair I’s death in 855, his son, Lothair II (d.869) inherited the kingdom, and it subsequently became known as the regnum Lotharii: Lotharingia.¹³ In 925, the first Ottonian monarch, Henry I, king of the Germans (d.936), brought Lotharingia under his control. He incorporated it into his kingdom as a duchy, although its rulers retained their autonomy. Henry I’s son Otto I (d.973) strengthened the crown’s hold upon the region. In 959 Otto divided Lotharingia into the duchies of Upper and Lower Lotharingia.¹⁴ He entrusted Upper Lotharingia to Count Frederick of Bar. Frederick was the brother of Bishop Adalberon of Metz (d.962) and Gozelo (d.943), who held Verdun. Gozelo’s son, Godfrey ‘the Captive’ (d.1002), count of Verdun, was the founder of the house of Ardennes-Bouillon, the dynasty of which Godfrey of Bouillon was a member (see Figure 0.1).¹⁵ Crucially, the manner in which the Carolingian Empire fractured in the ninth and tenth centuries created conditions which permitted several inter-connected noble families to assume pre-eminence in Lotharingia.¹⁶ The house of Ardennes-Bouillon was one of the principal beneficiaries of this development.¹⁷

In the eleventh century, Lotharingia was delineated to the north by Frisia and the North Sea, and to the south by the border with the kingdom of Burgundy. To the west, where Lotharingia bounded the kingdom of France and the county of Flanders, and to the East, where it straddled the other duchies of the kingdom of Germany, its approximate frontiers were marked by the rivers Meuse and Rhine respectively (see Map 1.1).¹⁸ At this time, the count of Flanders was one of the most important vassals of the king of France, but he also owed homage to the emperor for part of the comital territory (so-called imperial Flanders).¹⁹ The duchy of Upper Lotharingia broadly corresponded to the archbishopric of Trier, comprised of the bishoprics of Trier, Verdun, Metz, and Toul. The duchy of Lower Lotharingia roughly correlated with the archbishopric of Cologne, which incorporated the dioceses of Cologne, Utrecht, Liège, and, from 1093, Cambrai. Bouillon and other principal holdings of the house of Ardennes-Bouillon were located in the diocese of Liège, and its members had close dealings with their local bishop throughout the eleventh century.²⁰ Within the diocese lay several wealthy monasteries, including St Hubert and St Laurent. The diocese also occupied an important place in the ‘imperial Church system’. Crucially, Liège lay on the frontier of the king of Germany’s authority; while the diocese was nominally subject to the archbishop of Cologne, at times the archbishop of Rheims (who was usually allied to the king of France and the pope) could also exert an influence there.²¹ As we shall see, the diocese of Liège proved to be an important battleground in the ‘Investiture Conflict’.

It is important to note that the borders of Lotharingia were largely political, rather than ethnic or cultural. While the Lotharingian duchies were components of the Empire in politic...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Ancestry and parentage
• 2 Godfrey’s career in the West, c.1060–1095
• 3 The coming of the First Crusade, 1095–1096
• 4 The First Crusade, 1096–1099
• 5 In Jerusalem, 1099–1100
• 6 Conclusion
• Epilogue: Godfrey’s reputation in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
• Bibliography
• Index