Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey of Bouillon took Jerusalem in 1099 and refused to be called king in the city where Christ had worn a crown of thorns. He was Duke of Lower Lorraine, of middling importance among the princes who took the cross in 1096, and had spent his career on the imperial side in the investiture wars — which makes his crusading an odd fit and is one reason he sold or mortgaged almost everything he had to finance the journey, including the castle he is named for. He led one of the four main contingents to Constantinople, quarrelled with Alexios I over the oath demanded of the leaders, and eventually swore it. The march through Anatolia, the siege of Antioch and the year of delay that followed cost most of the army to hunger, disease and desertion. He was among the first over the wall at Jerusalem on 15 July 1099, and the massacre that followed killed most of the Muslim and Jewish population of the city over two days. The princes then offered him the crown. He took the title advocate of the Holy Sepulchre instead, and whether that was piety or a way of avoiding a quarrel with the papal legate over who ruled the city has been argued since. He beat an Egyptian army at Ascalon in August and spent his year securing the coast. He died in July 1100, probably of typhoid, and his brother Baldwin took the title of king without hesitation. He became one of the Nine Worthies of medieval legend, the model crusader in a literature that had already stopped resembling him within a century. The kingdom he declined to name lasted eighty-eight years in Jerusalem and another century on the coast.
- Lived: 1060 CE – 1100 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: military_leader
