General Notes

Godfrey of Bouillon, French nobleman, soldier, and Crusader. In 1082 he was
created duke of Lower Lorraine by Henry IV, Holy Roman emperor, and had his
capital at Bouillon. He and his brother Baldwin I, later king of Jerusalem,
led an army from the Low Countries in the First Crusade. Arriving in
Constantinople in December 1096, he succeeded in establishing relations with
the Eastern Roman emperor Alexius I Comnenus. In 1099 Godfrey participated
in the siege and capture of Jerusalem; offered the title of king of
Jerusalem, he refused it for religious reasons and was instead named baron
and defender of the Holy Sepulcher. In August 1099, when Egyptian forces
moved to attack Jerusalem, Godfrey defeated them at Ascalon (now Ashquelon,
Israel). As the first Christian ruler of Jerusalem, Godfrey later became the
hero of many songs, legends, and literary works, including several of the
French medieval epics known as chansons de geste and of the epic poem
Jerusalem Delivered (1575; trans. 1884), by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso.