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Articles and Studies

Eyewitnessing in Accounts of the First Crusade: the Gesta Francorum and Other Contemporary NarrativesFootnote

Yuval Noah HarariJerusalem
Pages 77-99 | Published online: 17 Feb 2023

  • I would like to thank Susan Edgington for providing me with extracts from her forthcoming new edition-cum-translation of Albert of Aachen’s Historia.
  • Susan B. Edgington, “Albert of Aachen and the Chansons de Geste”, p. 37. In their edition of Walter the Chancellor’s The Antiochene Wars Edgington and Thomas Asbridge accordingly devote considerable attention to Walter’s purposes in writing this work: Thomas S. Asbridge and Susan B. Edgington, eds., Walter the Chancellor’s The Antiochene Wars (Aldershot, 1999), pp. 11–42. However, they limit themselves to a rather traditional discussion of Walter’s political purposes, arguing that he presented the events and characters of his history in such a way as to “explain the principality [of Antioch]’s varying fortunes on the basis of divine will”: Ibid., p. 73. They devote very little attention to discussing Walter’s literary purposes. A more thorough examination of the literary purposes of a crusader chronicler is to be found in Epp’s study of Fulcher of Chartres: Verena Epp, Fulcher von Chartres: Studien zur Geschichtsschreibung des ersten Kreuzzuges (Düsseldorf, 1990), pp. 140–52.
  • See Odo of Deuil, De profectione Ludovici VII in orientem, ed. and trans. Virginia Gingerick Berry (New York, 1948), p. 4; Robert de Clari, La Conquête de Constantinople, ed. Philippe Lauer (Paris, 1924), section 120; Gunther of Pairis, The Capture of Constantinople: The “Hystoria Constantinopolitana” of Gunther of Pairis, ed. and trans. Alfred J. Andrea (Philadelphia, 1997), p. 65; George Gordon Coulton, From St. Francis to Dante: Translations from the Chronicle of the Franciscan Salimbene (1221–1288) (London, 1907; repr. 2nd ed., Philadelphia, 1972), p. 4. Note though that an apology for a rude style coupled with a promise to tell only the truth was a standard medieval formula, used even by the most scholarly and eloquent of authors. In their treatment of Walter the Chancellor, Asbridge and Edgington discuss only once the status of eyewitnessing, when arguing that Walter “showed some desire to establish the credibility of his sources, commenting on his own eye-witness status and on one occasion noting that he received his knowledge from ‘reliable intermediaries’”: Asbridge and Edgington, Walter the Chancellor, p. 7.
  • Yuval Noah Harari, “History and I: War and the Relations between History and Personal Identity in Renaissance Military Memoirs, c. 1450–1600”, unpublished D.Phil. Thesis, University of Oxford, 2001, p. 58.
  • The theory presented here regarding eyewitness accounts is based on extensive research I conducted during my doctoral studies on medieval, Renaissance and twentieth-century memoirs and eyewitness accounts. The medieval texts I examined include accounts of later crusades, in particular accounts of the Second Crusade by Odo of Deuil; of the Third Crusade by Ambroise; of the Fourth Crusade by Robert de Cléri, Geoffroy de Villehardouin, and Henri de Valenciennes; of the Fifth Crusade by Oliver of Paderborn; of the crusade of 1228–29 by Philip of Novara; and of crusades of King Louis IX by Jehan de Joinville. Other accounts relating to the crusades include the memoirs of Usāma ibn Munqidh and those of the thirteenth-century Armenian prince Hetoum, and Gunther of Pairis’s history of the Fourth Crusade. Other medieval texts I examined include Gerald of Wales’s Expugnatio Hibernica; Fernan Alvarez de Albornoz’s Memorias; the chronicles of Salimbene of Parma, Muntaner, and Kings Jaume I and Pere III of Aragon; the chronicles of the Valenciennes school (particularly those of Jean le Bel and Froissart); and the writings of the caballero school in late medieval Castile, in particular Pedro López de Ayala’s Crónicas de los reyes de Castilla. Some of the relevant material can be found in Harari, “History and I”, part 2, chapter 2.
  • “Stilo rusticano, tamen veraci, dignum ducens memoriae commendandum, prout valui et oculis meis in ipso itinere perspexi, diligenter digessi”: Fulcher of Chartres, Fulcheri Carnotensis historia Hierosolymitana (1095–1127), ed. Heinrich Hagenmeyer (Heidelberg, 1913), Prologue 2 (hereafter cited as Fulcher).
  • “Malui ego Fulcherus scientia rudis, ingenio debilis, temeritatis naevo notari quam haec opera non propalari, prout oculis vidi vel a relatoribus veridicis perscrutans diligenter didici. Precor autem haec legentem, ut nescientiae meae caritative indulgeat et dictamen istud nondum a quolibet correctum oratore locatim, si velit, corrigat; veruntamen historiae seriem propter pulchritudinem partium pompaticam non commutet, ne gestorum veritatem mendaciter confundat”: Fulcher, 2.34.1–2. For the importance of truthfulness for Fulcher see Epp, Fulcher von Chartres, pp. 143–44.
  • Fulcher, 3.20.6.
  • “Sed qui hoc narro, a veritate non devio”: Ibid., 3.39.5.
  • Ibid., 3.43.1–2. See also Epp, Fulcher von Chartres, p. 147.
  • Lance: Ibid., 1.18; Ramla: Ibid., 2.13–14; Bohemond: Ibid., 3.57.4.
  • “Ego Fulcherus Carnotensis cum ceteris iens peregrinis, postea sicut oculis meis perspexi, diligenter et sollicite in memoriam posteris collegi”: Ibid., 1.5.12.
  • “Vidi tunc plures tabernaculis carentes imbrium algore exstingui. Ego Fulcherus Carnotensis, qui his intereram, vidi quadam die plures utriusque sexus, bestiasque quamplurimas hac pluvia mori algidissima”: Ibid., 1.33.12.
  • “Quod ego Fulcherus experimento didici, cum in illum de mula mea descendens et ori meo manu haustum inmittens gustu probavi et elleboro amariorem esse inveni”: Ibid., 2.5.1.
  • “Illic inter arbores ceteras vidi quasdam poma terentes, de quibus cum collegissem, scire volens cuius naturae essent, inveni, rupto cortice, interius quasi pulverem atrum et exinde inanem prodire fumum”: Ibid., 2.5.6.
  • “In qua aquula ego meos adaquavi equos”: Ibid., 2.5.8.
  • Ibid., 2.9.8, 2.11.11, 3.47.
  • “Bellum cernebam, mente nutabam, ictus timebam”: Ibid., 2.12.1. For the importance of eyewitnessing in Fulcher’s text see also Epp, Fulcher von Chartres, p. 144.
  • Language: Fulcher, 1.13.4; Baldwin: Ibid., 1.14.2; chaplain: Ibid., 1.14.15; journey: Ibid., 2.2.4; Bethlehem: Ibid., 1.33.15–18; 1105: Ibid., 2.31.7–12; 1111: Ibid., 2.45.9.
  • For an unusual exception see Ibid., 2.32.6.
  • “De numero callebant”: Ibid., 1.10.4–5.
  • Conjectures: Ibid., 1.34.4; 2.v.3; Bohemond: Ibid., 1.35.1–3; Godfrey: Ibid., 1.36; Carrha: Ibid., 2.26.11–12; Red Sea: “ego ipse avido corde ... rimabar”: Ibid., 2.56.4.
  • “Et quia procul a nobis facta haec aberant, vix certitudinem rei addiscere poteramus; verumtamen quem verius potui, a relatoribus mihi intimatum chartae commendavi”: Ibid., 3.26.5.
  • “Cum proeliantibus praesens fuit”: Ibid., 3.31.6. The fact that Fulcher never mentions his reliance on the Gesta Francorum and on Raymond of Aguilers is of little importance. For I am interested here in the attitude of Fulcher’s text to truth, rather than in its truthfulness.
  • Epp, Fulcher von Chartres, pp. 144–45.
  • Raymond of Aguilers, Le ‘Liber’ de Raymond d’Aguilers, ed. John H. Hill and Laurita L. Hill (Paris, 1969), p. 36 (hereafter cited as Raymond).
  • “Oro igitur et obsecro omnes qui hec audituri sunt, ut credant hec ita fuisse. Quod si quicquam ego preter credita et visa studio, vel odio alicuius aposui, aponat michi Deus omnes plagas inferni, et deleat me de libro vite. Etenim licet ut plurima ignorem, hoc unum scio quia cum promotus ad sacerdotium in itinere Dei sim, magis debeo obedire Deo testificando veritatem, quam in texendo mendatia, alicuius muneris captare dispendia”: Ibid., pp. 107–8.
  • Except for two minor occasions: Ibid., pp. 55–56, 110–11.
  • Ibid., pp. 45–46.
  • Ibid., p. 74.
  • Ibid., p. 102.
  • Ibid., p. 120.
  • “Cum ad omnem causam tres idonei testes sufficiunt”: Ibid., pp. 121–22.
  • Ibid., p. 123.
  • Ibid., p. 72.
  • “Et ego qui scripsi hec cum solus mucro adhuc appareret super terram, osculatus sum eam”: Ibid., p. 75.
  • Ibid., p. 119.
  • Ibid., p. 76.
  • “Vidi ego hec que loquor, et dominicam lanceam ibi ferebam. Quod si quis dicat Heraclium vicecomitem vexilliferum episcopi in hoc bello vulneratum fuisse, sciat quod et vexillum suum alii tradiderat, et ordinem nostrum longe reliquerat”: Ibid., pp. 81–82.
  • Adhémar: Ibid., p. 84; Chastel Rouge: Ibid., pp. 89–90; fire ordeal: Ibid., pp. 120–21; Peter Desiderius: Ibid., pp. 131–32; St George: Ibid., p. 132.
  • Ibid., pp. 123–24.
  • Letters: Ibid., pp. 110, 135–36; deserters: Ibid., p. 57; hearsay: Ibid., p. 158.
  • John France, “The Anonymous Gesta Francorum and the Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem of Raymond of Aguilers and the Historia Hierosolymitano itinere of Peter Tudebode: An Analysis of the Textual Relations between Primary Sources of the First Crusade”, in Crusades Sources, p. 59; John John, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 378–79. See also Susan Edgington, “The First Crusade: Reviewing the Evidence”, in The First Crusade. Origins and Impact, ed. Jonathan Phillips (Manchester, 1997), pp. 57–77.
  • Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, ed. and trans. Rosalind Hill (London, 1962), pp. 59–60, 64–65 (hereafter cited as Gesta).
  • “Hec uerba credenda sunt, quia plures ex nostris uiderunt”: Ibid., p. 69.
  • Ibid., pp. 57–60.
  • Colin Morris, “The Gesta Francorum as Narrative History”, Reading Medieval Studies 19 (1993), 56–57.
  • Gesta, p. 94. It is noteworthy that in those occasions when the protagonists are concerned with the problem of truth – for example, in the disputed visions and Stephen of Blois’s report of the situation in Antioch – neither the protagonists nor the Anonymous appeal to eyewitnessing as a test of truth. Rather, the visionaries try to establish their truthfulness by oaths and ordeals, whereas Stephen’s account is discredited on the grounds that he is a coward, without the fact that he is an eyewitness being disputed: Ibid., pp. 57–60, 65.
  • “Nemo est in his partibus siue clericus siue laicus qui omnino possit scribere uel narrare, sicut res gesta est”: Ibid., p. 44.
  • Morris, “Gesta Francorum”, 67–68.
  • Ibid., 61, 66–67; Edgington, “First Crusade”, p. 55.
  • Peasants’ Crusade: Gesta, pp. 2–4; Byzantine councils: Ibid., p. 11; crusader leaders: see for example Ibid., pp. 44–45; Nicaea: Ibid., pp. 14–15; Kerbuqa: Ibid., pp. 53–56; Stephen of Blois: Ibid., pp. 63–65; Antioch: Ibid., pp. 68–69; Ascalon: Ibid., pp. 96–97.
  • “Quia pene omnes montes et colles et ualles et omnia plana loca intus et extra undique erant cooperta de illa excommunicata generatione”: Ibid., p. 19.
  • “Ut si uos aut aliquis illic adesset, putaret quod omnes montes et colles uallesque et omnia plana loca plena essent illorum multitudine”: Ibid., p. 22.
  • Ibid., pp. 95–96, 96–97.
  • For two rare exceptions see Fulcher, 1.22.4–8, 1.31.5.
  • E.g., Raymond, pp. 80, 101, 155, 157.
  • It is interesting to note that analogous techniques have been re-adopted in present day military memoirs. Late-modern military memoirs, though written by eyewitnesses of wars, make extensive use of the imagination for interpretative purposes. Indeed, some of the most influential twentieth-century “eyewitness accounts” of wars are either partially or completely fictional (for example, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Good Soldier Švejk, and Catch-22).
  • “His ergo etsi non verbis, tamen intentionibus usus est”: Guibert de Nogent, Dei gesta per Francos et cinq autres textes, ed. Robert B. C. Huygens, CCCM 127A (Turnhout, 1996), p. 111 (hereafter cited as Guibert). About interpretation and facts, see also Guibert, p. 303.
  • Albertus Aquensis, “Historia Hierosolymitana”, 3.36 in RHC Oc 4 (hereafter cited as Albert).
  • Walter the Chancellor, Bella Antiochena, ed. Heinrich Hagenmeyer (Innsbruck, 1896), pp. 83–84; Chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier, ed. Louis de Mas Latrie (Paris, 1871), pp. 163–64.
  • An interesting case is Fulcher’s account of a dream which the Turkish leader Belek had. Fulcher puts this dream into a factual context, and hints how he got wind of it, by informing the readers that when he woke up Belek told the dream to his priests, and on their advice sent men to kill Joscelin: Fulcher, 3.24.1.
  • For similarities between the Gesta and chansons de geste see Morris, “Gesta Francorum”, 61–63. See also: Kenneth Baxter Wolf, “Crusade and Narrative: Bohemond and the Gesta”, Journal of Medieval History 17 (1991), 207–16.
  • Guibert, p. 80.
  • “Pabulum eloquentiae ... honestas”: Ibid., p. 79.
  • Ibid., pp. 79–80, 329.
  • Ibid., pp. 80–81.
  • Ibid., p. 80.
  • Ibid., pp. 81–82.
  • Ibid., pp. 81–82, 200.
  • Ibid., p. 82. See also pp. 277, 351.
  • “Si michi plane id obicitur quia non viderim, id obici non potest quod non audierim, cum visui auditum quodammodo supparem profecto crediderim”: Ibid., p. 166.
  • Ibid., pp. 329–30.
  • Ibid., p. 197.
  • Ibid., pp. 330–31.
  • Ibid., p. 344. Epp (Fulcher von Chartres, p. 148) argues that indeed Fulcher’s earlier numerical estimates were grossly exaggerated, but later, when he developed his skills as a historian, his estimates became far more realistic.
  • Guibert, p. 332. It is noteworthy that Guibert knew that Fulcher was at Edessa during the siege of Antioch thanks to the careful way in which Fulcher’s text distinguishes between events Fulcher eyewitnessed himself and events he did not.
  • “Cum enim vir isdem ampullas et sesquipedalia verba proiciat et luridos inanium scematum colores exporrigat, nuda michi rerum gestarum exinde libuit membra corripere meique qualiscumque eloquii sacco potius quam pretexta contegere”: Ibid., p. 329.
  • “Quae facta sunt in Antiochena obsidione nemini relatu possibilia existimamus, quia inter eos qui ibidem interfuerunt nullus profecto potuit repperiri qui cuncta, quae circa eandem urbem agi potuerunt, valuisset pervidere vel ita comprehendere ad integrum, sicut se habet ordo gestae rei”: Ibid., p. 200; and see pp. 227, 312.
  • Ibid., p. 199; and see pp. 323–27.
  • Ibid., pp. 159–60.
  • Ibid., pp. 213–16.
  • “Quibus gentilis hominis verbis illa quae superius relata sunt Curbaran matris dicta concordant”: Ibid., p. 320.
  • Cahen suggests that, given the wealth of accurate details in books 7 to 12, Albert may have lived in the East for some time. Yet Albert could have gathered these details from his informers – or invented at least some of them himself. For a discussion of Cahen’s argument and Albert’s sources of information, see Edgington, “Albert of Aachen”, pp. 23–28.
  • Ibid., p. 35.
  • “Temerario ausu decrevi saltem ex his aliqua memoriae commendare quae auditu et relatione nota fierent ab his qui praesentes affuissent”: Albert, 1.1. The translation is taken from Edgington, “Albert of Aachen”, p. 35.
  • Albert, 1.1.
  • “His qui praesentes affuissent”: Ibid., 1.1.
  • “Comperimus etiam illic, non ex auditu solum, sed ex veridica eorum relatione qui et participes fuerunt ejusdem tribulationis”: Ibid., 3.2.
  • “Super his miseriis et attenuationibus nobilium procerum, mirantur solummodo hi qui nunquam simile huic audierunt, nec mala viderunt quae in tam longo exsilio contigerunt tam egregiis viris, sed non mirantur qui ipsum ducem Godefridum et Robertum, principem Flandriae, ad ultimum egere rebus et equis se vidisse testati sunt”: Ibid., 4.55. The translation is taken from Edgington’s forthcoming edition.
  • “Eguit pariter Robertus ... quem saepius in exercitu mendicasse asserunt qui affuerunt et oculis inspexerunt; ipsumque equum quem in die belli ascenderat mendicando eum acquisisse multorum relatione didicimus”: Ibid., 4.55. The translation is taken from Edgington’s forthcoming edition.
  • For example, “ut aiunt qui praesentes fuerunt” (Ibid., 1.23) or “ut aiunt pro vero qui haec oculis viderunt” (Ibid., 8.21). See also Ibid., 1.24, 2.33, 3.1, 3.4, 4.34, 6.23, 6.50.
  • “Verum, ut a veridicis et nobilibus viris relatum est”: Ibid., 8.46.
  • “Oculis viderant”: Ibid., 4.12–14.
  • Ibid., 4.1–4.
  • “Cetera quae in hoc bello acta sunt, tam in populo Christiano quam Gentili, quae etiam in obsidione urbis Antiochiae mira et inaudita gesta sunt, nullius stylo, nullius memoria aestimo retinenda: tot tamque diversa illic exsitisse referuntur”: Ibid., 4.56. The translation is taken from Edgington’s forthcoming edition.
  • Edgington, “Albert of Aachen”, pp. 28–31, 36–37.
  • For visions see Albert, 1.4, 4.38, 5.25, 6.26, 6.33, 6.36–37; for the Holy Lance see Ibid., 4.43, 5.32; for a similar argument see Edgington, “Albert of Aachen”, p. 35.
  • Albert, 3.54.
  • Ibid., 9.52.
  • Ibid., 4.1–6.
  • Ibid., 4.7–8.
  • Ibid., 4.53.
  • Ibid., 5.7. See also 1.19, 2.39, 3.30, 3.35, 3.63, 8.18–19, 9.28. It is likely that some information about the Muslim side was received from deserters, but Albert only once refers to deserters giving information: Ibid., 3.66.
  • Letters: for example, Ibid., 2.2–3, 9.43, 9.46; speeches: for example, Ibid., 2.3, 2.35, 2.40, 3.6–7, 3.9, 3.36, 4.15.
  • Ibid., 3.37, 4.16, 5.3, 6.14, 6.24, 6.44, 6.49, 7.32, 8.39.

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