The Deeds of God through the Franks

G >> Guibert of Nogent >> The Deeds of God through the Franks

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Among the rest of the leaders, it seems to me that Hugh the Great,
the brother of Philip the king of the Franks, must be dealt with
first. Although others were wealthier or more powerful, he was
second to none in birth or in the probity of his behavior. He was
most justly celebrated for being forceful in arms, serenely secure in
his noble birth, and, even more important, humble towards every
sacred order, forthright and restrained. Certain leaders attached
themselves to him, thinking that they would make him king if it
happened that, after the Gentiles were driven out, the occupation of
the land came about as a result of battle.

After him came Count Stephen, a man endowed with such power that,
according to report, he controlled as many castles as the year has
days. His generosity was unexcelled, his presence very pleasing, his
performance in council sober, steady, and thoughtfully mature; he so
excelled in his activities as a knight, that the entire holy army
chose him as their chief magistrate and general for the duration of
the battle against the Turks. His wife was the wisest of women, the
daughter of King William the elder, who had conquered the kingdoms of
the English and the Scots. If we wish to praise her wisdom,
generosity, bountifulness, and opulence, I fear lest, by praising his
wife, we cast shadow on the magnificent man, which he has earned now
that he has been deprived of her. Robert the younger, son of Robert
the elder, to whom the emperor had sent a letter, with great
eagerness took charge of building up their forces; he gave up the
county of Flanders, which he had ruled with great military skill, to
become a fellow soldier on the journey with those who had chosen to
become exiles for Christ. The rest of the present history will
indicate how steadily he carried out what he had begun. Leaving
behind their superb wives and their fine sons, they put aside
whatever they felt great affection for, choosing instead exile. I
say nothing about their honors and possessions, which are outside our
concerns. But what surprises us most is the way in which loving
husbands and wives, attached even more closely to each other by the
bond of children, could be separated, when there was no present
danger to either.

It would hardly be right to remain silent about Robert, Count of
Normandy, whose bodily indulgences, weakness of will, prodigality
with money, gourmandising, indolence, and lechery were expiated by
the perseverance and heroism that he vigorously displayed in the army
of the Lord. His inborn compassion was naturally so great that he
did not permit vengeance to be taken against those who had plotted to
betray him and had been sentenced to death, and if something did
happen to them, he wept for their misfortune. He was bold in battle,
although adeptness at foul trickery, with which we know many men
befouled themselves, should not be praised, unless provoked by
unspeakable acts. For these and for similar things he should now be
forgiven, since God has punished him in this world, where he now
languishes in jail, deprived of all his honors.

Each of the illustrious leaders was followed on the journey by many
lesser princes, whom we shall not list at this point, because it
might seem to be distracting, and we shall perhaps have better reason
for naming them in the course of the narration. Who can
count the masters of one, two, three, or four castles? There were so
many that the siege of Troy could scarcely have brought so many
together. At the time that this expedition was being undertaken by
the magnates of the kingdom, and a meeting was being held by them
with Hugh the Great, with Philip the king present, at Paris, in the
month of February, on the eleventh day of the month, a lunar eclipse
took place just before midnight. Little by little the moon turned to
the color of blood, until it had turned completely and hideously
blood red, but at dawn an unusually bright splendor shone around the
circle of the moon. Soon afterward stars seemed to fall from the
skies, like a heavy rain. This was so like a portent that many
churches considered it to be one, and they instituted public prayers
to avert the punishment that it might signify, and they wrote down
the time of the event.

Soon after, in the month of August, on the eighth day, just before
sunset, the part around the center of the moon turned black, and many
people saw this happen. It should be said that, although the moon
normally undergoes eclipses when full, nevertheless some of these
changes of colors are manifestations of portents, and are customarily
recorded in the pontifical books and in the deeds of kings. Other
things were also seen, most of which we shall pass over.

Raymond, Count of Saint Gilles is placed last, not because he is of
no worth, but to complete the list. Because he lived at the furthest
edge of France, he has offered us less information about his
activities; but he ennobles the telling of this history, from the
beginning to the end, with the model of his great virtue and
constancy. Having left behind his own son to rule his land, he
brought with him his present wife and the only son he had had with
her. Raymond was older than the other leaders, but his army was in
no way inferior, except perhapsfor the Provencal habit of talking too
much. When this large force of powerful knights, having traveled
over the road which we customarily take to Rome, arrived in Apulia,
they had contracted a great many illnesses, and many died, because of
the great heat of the summer, the foul air, and the strange food. To
cross the sea they gathered at different ports:

many went to Brundisi, pathless Hydrus (Otrante) received others,
while the fishy waters of Bari welcomed others.[112]

Hugh the Great did not wait for his men and the knights of the
princes who were his allies, but hastily and unwisely went to the
port of Bari, and after a fortunate sea-journey, arrived at
Dyrrachium.[113] He should have considered that at the prospect of
so many men, such great numbers of knights and foot soldiers, all of
Greece, as one might say, trembled to its very foundations. And
although other leaders had greater repute among us than he,
nevertheless, among foreigners, and particularly among the Greeks,
who are the laziest of men, his unbounded fame as the brother of the
king of France preceded him. Therefore, when the leader appointed by
the emperor to govern that place saw such well-known man without a
large retinue about him, he seized the opportunity to make something
out of his isolation. He took the man and ordered him to be
conducted carefully and respectfully to Constantinople, with one
purpose in mind: that he might promise the frightened prince that he
would not harm his life or honor. Thus what happened to this famous
man weakened the courage of the great leaders who came after him, for
the cleverness of the treacherous prince compelled the others, either
by force, or in secret, or by imprecations, to do what he had done.
But now the end of this book has come.

Book Three

When the vast army drawn from nearly all the Western lands approached
Apulia, word of the arrival of that multitude reached Bohemund, son
of Robert who was called Guiscard, a man of remarkable greatness. At
that time he was engaged in besieging Amalfi. After the messenger
had made his way through the crowd of people, he told Bohemund the
reasons for the journey: they were hastening to free Jerusalem, the
Lord's tomb, and the sacred places which were being abused there,
from the power of the Gentiles. He also told him of the kind of
people, of how many fine men, as I might say, left their honorable
positions and were striving with unheard-of eagerness to join this
expedition. He asked if they were carrying arms, packs, what
insignia of this new pilgrimage they were wearing, and finally, what
war-cries they called out in battle. He replied that the Franks were
carrying their usual arms, and that they had sewn the sign of the
cross on their shoulders or elsewhere, out of any material or rag
they had at hand; they had renounced individual battle-cries as
arrogant, and instead they all humbly and faithfully shouted in
battle, "God wishes it." His heart was deeply stirred by these words,
and, inspired by God, he was stung by conscience; he ordered that
his most precious mantle be brought to him, and he had it cut up into
little crosses; he put one on himself, and gave out the other crosses
to be worn by those of his men who subscribed to the cause to which
he had dedicated himself. The knights who had followed him to this
siege also experienced a sudden change of heart, and set out on the
same journey that their leader had chosen. Such a crowd of knights
made this choice at that moment that Bohemund's brother, count Roger
of Sicily, grieved deeply that he was robbed of nearly all of his
retainers at this siege.

But I should say a few words about Bohemund's parentage, and about
the steps by which he proceeded to this position of honor. Robert,
whose surname we have given as Guiscard, was from Normandy, and was
born to a family of no great distinction. He went from there to
Apulia, but whether he left his native land voluntarily or was driven
from it I don't know. There, by some means or other, he earned
horses and arms to become a knight. He assembled, from various
places, a group of thieves to help him in his endeavours, took over
certain castles, with the aid of disgraceful treachery, occupied some
other castles after wearing them down with frequent attacks, laid
sieges to wealthy cities, and compelled them to surrender. To finish
in a few words, this "new man" extended his power, conquering at will
to such an extent that the verses on his epitaph read, "he drove him
out whom the Ligurians, Rome, and Lake Leman recognized as king,
"[114]that is, Henry Augustus, a man favored by fortune with
innumerable, almost continual victories.

Parthia, Arabia, the phalanx of Macedonians did not protect Alexis,
[115]

the prince of the Greeks, who has often been our concern. Having
defeated him often, Robert, they say, would have worn the crown in
the city of Constantinople in a few days, had draught of poison not
suddenly snatched his life from him. Anyone who wishes today may see
the power of his son Bohemund who, obliterating the low origin of his
family, married the daughter of Philip, king of France, and tried to
take by violence the empire of the above mentioned king Alexis.
While his brother Roger returned to Sicily, unhappy that he had lost
so many men of all ranks, that it seemed that the whole people was
about to go off to Jerusalem, Bohemund collected the troops and
supplies that were necessary for such an expedition, embarked with
his army, and with a favoring wind easily reached the Bulgarian shore.
His retinue was filled with many wise knights and great princes,
among whom was Tancred, who was, if I am not mistaken, the son of a
certain marquis and Bohemund's sister. Tancred's brother, whose name
was William, had set out before him with Hugh the Great. In addition
there was Richard of the First City,[116] a remarkably good-looking
man, whom we saw perform the office of delegate to the king of the
Franks, to ask for the hand of Constantia as wife for Bohemund. Then,
when he and his men entered the land of Bulgaria, they found a great
supply of every kind of food. When they arrived in the valley of
Andropolitanus,[117] they remained there waiting for the rest of the
fleet to finish the journey. When everyone had arrived, the leaders
met, and Bohemund told his plan to his men, ordering everyone alike
who was about to pass through territory inhabited by Christians to
behave peacefully, to do no harm, and not to depopulate the land of
those whose rights they had come to protect; they should take, as
peacefully as possible, and after having paid for it, only the food
that they needed. They went forward, and as they passed from city to
city, from field to field, from camp to camp, they found abundant
trade everywhere, until they arrived in the province called Castoria,
and there they solemnly celebrated Christmas, remaining for several
days. They asked the people of the province for permission to trade,
but they refused to grant permission, fearing that our men, whom they
considered warriors, not pilgims, wanted to destroy their land and
crush them. Angered, their restraint now turned to fury, and they
seized horses, cows, asses, and whatever else was useful. Then they
left Castoria and entered Pelagonia, where they came upon a fortified
town of heretics, which they attacked on every side, compelling them
to surrender. They then burned it to the ground, together with its
inhabitants. From there they went to the river called the Baudarus.
[118] Bohemund moved forward with part of his knights and left the
rest in the hands of a certain one of his counts. When the emperor's
army, which was not far off, learned of this, it attacked the count,
who was now without the aid of Bohemund, who had gone on ahead of him,
and the count's men were thrown into confusion by the attack of the
enemy. When brave Tancred heard of this, he swiftly turned back,
leaped into the river mentioned above, and swam back to those who
were being attacked. He then assembled the nearly two thousand men
who swam behind him, found the enemy, who were fighting fiercely
against his own men, and attacked them with equal fierceness, quickly
overcoming them. Many of them were captured and brought before
Bohemund in chains. To them the prince said, "Why do you pursue my
people, the people of Christ? I am not trying to overthrow your
emperor." They replied, "We do nothing by our own deliberation. We
are soldiers who earn money by carrying out the orders of the emperor;
whatever he tells us to do we do." When the splendid man heard this,
he let them go, without punishment and without ransom. This battle
took place on the fourth day of the week, which among Christians is
called the beginning of the fast[119]

The emperor Alexis, when he heard of Bohemund's exemplary action,
then sent for the councilor upon whom he most relied, and told him to
lead the magnanimous duke, together with his army, through his own
land, and into his own presence at Constantinople. While the army
was passing through all the towns and cities of the empire, an
imperial edict commanded all the inhabitants of these regions to see
to it that Bohemund and his men had a supply of everything that could
be bought. However, although the army was allowed to proceed through
the provinces, none of Bohemund's men were permitted to enter the
walls of any city. The knights were about to invade a certain fort
that seemed abundant with supplies, but the illustrious man forbade
it, partly out of respect for the laws of the land, partly to avoid
offending the emperor, or rather, he did not want to break the pact
he had just made with him through intermediaries. Angry at their
foolish attempt, and particularly at Tancred, he forbade them to go
on. This happened in the evening. The next morning the inhabitants
of the fort came out, bearing the banners of the Cross before them,
demonstrating their humility and religious belief to Bohemund. He
greeted them affably and courteously, thanked them, and sent the
contented people back to the town. Then they reached a city called
Serra, where they pitched their tents, and successfully traded in the
marketplace. Here Bohemund was reconciled with his two courtly
prefects. In keeping with the recent treaty and with the law of the
land, he ordered that everything which had been taken from the
inhabitants be restored to them. Then they proceeded to the
outskirts of city called Rusa,[120] where a crowd of Greeks, both
aristocrats and commoners, rushed to greet the noble man, offering
all kinds of merchandise. They made camp there three days before the
feast of the Lord. Bohemund then left his retinue behind and set out
for Constantinople, together with a few of his knights, to confer
with the emperor. In the meanwhile Tancred was in charge of the army,
and when he saw that food was difficult to purchase with empty
purses, he decided to leave the major routes and move along the less
frequented ones, where a greater supply of necessary items for
everyone might be found. Therefore he lead them from the public way,
out of consideration for the poor, and entered a valley abundantly
supplied with different kinds of food. There the people piously
celebrated Easter (April 5, 1097). When Alexis heard that Bohemund
was coming to meet with him, he ordered that he be given the most
respectful welcome, and that he be given quarters just outside the
city wall.[121] When he arrived, he was invited to speak with the
emperor; he went and was received in secret.

Meanwhile Duke Godfrey, together with his brother Baldwin and the
count of Saint-Gilles, each leading a strong group of men, reached
the outskirts of Constantinople. The perfidious Alexis, who once was
thought to be eager for support against the Turks, gnashed his teeth
in the bitterness of his anger, and pondered on a means to bring
about the total destruction of the large army that was, as he thought,
about to attack him. But God, whose force drove this pious army,
watched over them so well that no occasion presented itself for the
scoundrel to harm them; furthermore, cut off from all possibility of
doing harm, the wretch was stricken with great fear. The people of
Constantinople were disturbed at the sight of so many battalions
assembling, and they held a meeting to determine what to do. Fearful
that the city would be crushed by the great number of men who were
arriving, and that the provinces would be taken over and devastated,
they decided, after considering several alternatives, that their
tyrant should demand an oath from the Franks that they would never
harm him or his people. When our leaders learned of this, they
showed great contempt and scorn. They understood clearly that if the
initial army happened to deviate from this pact, it would be
necessary for such a large army, stripped of all resources by poverty,
to wage war against the perfidious prince, contrary to the oaths
they had taken. "And certainly," they said, "Even if no fear of what
might happen in the future weighed upon us, the fact that we had been
compelled by the puny Greeks, laziest of all people, to swear an oath
would be to our eternal shame. We cannot doubt that they would say
that we, willy-nilly, had submitted to their rule." The emperor came
to mighty Bohemund about this matter, and was ready to entice him
whom he greatly feared with gifts, for Bohemund had often defeated
him in battle; Alexis concentrated particularly on Bohemund, because
he regarded him as his greatest rival. Therefore he offered him land
the other side of Antioch, whose length would take fifteen days to
cross, and whose width would take no less than eight days to cross.
The great man's firmness was broken by this offer, and what Hugh the
Great had promised, compelled by necessity and the enticement of
money, Bohemund agreed to swear to on condition that if Alexis
reneged on what he had agreed to, he himself would not have to carry
out what he had sworn to. If anyone asks why he and the others
relaxed their firmness by swearing oaths to the tyrant, he should
understand that the leaders were helping their fellow soldiers in God
out of necessity, for they would have been in dire poverty if they
had been denied their pay. Alexis swore oaths also, stating, "that
he would come with them, at the head of his own army, aid them on
land and on the sea, and he would order that food be brought from
everywhere for them to purchase; if they suffered any losses, he
would indemnify them fully; finally, he would not wish or allow
anyone on this expedition, to the extent that he had the ability, to
be harassed, harmed, or killed."

The Count of Saint-Gilles had established camp in the outskirts of
Byzantium before the entire army had arrived, and the tyrant sent a
messenger to ask the count to do what the others had done, that is,
offer him homage. The cleverness of the insolent tyrant demanded
this, but the wisdom of the glorious count set about devising a way
to take vengeance against the envy of the scoundrel. But the leaders,
that is, Godfrey, Hugh the Great, and Robert of Flanders, and the
others, said that they would never take up arms against someone who
was considered to be a Christian. Bohemund added that if Raymond
waged war against the Emperor, and thereby broke the oath he had
given the Emperor, he himself would take the emperor's part. And so
the count, after consulting with his closest advisors, swore to
protect the life and honor of the impious Alexis, and that he would
not for his own sake or to aid others work to destroy him. When they
considered the clause about hommage, he said that he would rather
undergo mortal danger than submit to such a proposition. Meanwhile
Bohemund's army drew near to the towers of Constantinople. Having
learned what oaths the emperor had exacted, Tancred, together with
the men he was leading (almost the entire forces of Bohemund),
quickly crossed the Arm of Saint George. The army of the Count of
Saint-Gilles had scattered, setting up its tents at the edge of the
city. Bohemund remained with the Emperor, so that he might more
easily supervise the carrying out of the imperial edict which ordered
the people beyond Nicaea to bring food from everywhere to his army.
Duke Godfrey had gone ahead, together with Tancred, to Nicomedia, a
city founded by Nicomedes, who, according to a poem, won a battle
against Caesar, but did not triumph.[122] Each of them remained
there with his troops for three days. The duke, considering that the
roads were filled with obstacles, and that an army as large as theirs
could not make its way along them, since the road that Peter the
Hermit's men had used could not accommodate so many men, sent three
thousand men ahead of him, with axes and hoes to widen the roads and
make them passable as far as Nicea. The road was incredibly
difficult, filled with sharp stones, and moving over steep mountains.
Those who were in the lead widened the road by cutting up the rocks,
and they placed crosses of iron and wood on tall stakes, so that our
men, when they saw these signs aloft, would not wander from the road.
Finally they came to Nicea, the central city of Armenia, and the
chief city of Bythinia, famous for the synod of 318 fathers, but even
more famous for the declaration of Omousion, and the condemnation of
Arius. The next day was the sixth of May, and they pitched their
camps in the area around the city, on the third day after they had
left Nicomedia. Before the army of Bohemund arrived, they say that
there was such shortage of bread that one loaf of bread cost twenty
or thirty pennies. But when Bohemund appeared, he brought great
quantity of food by land and by sea, and suddenly plentiful supply of
everything necessary flowed.

On the day of the Ascension of Our Lord, they began to attack the
city from all sides, to draw up machines, to erect ladders, prepare
fire-bombs, and to fire at the ramparts of the walls and towers with
their crossbows.[123] The siege of the city was undertaken with such
sharp fervor that within two days they had undermined the walls. The
Turks, who held the city, sent messengers to other cities, asking for
them to bring help, and to enter without fear by the southern gate,
since that part was not under siege, and presented no obstacle to
those wishing to bring help. On that very day, however, the sabbath
after the Ascension of Our Lord, the entrance of that gate was being
guarded by the Count of Saint-Gilles and the Bishop of Puy. An event
occurred there that was truly noteworthy. This same noble count,
faithful to God, strong and competent in arms, surrounded by a no
less competent army, found in front of him enemy reinforcements
hurrying towards the town. Relying in his spirit upon divine
assistance, he attacked and conquered the Turks, compelling them to
flee, and slicing most of them to pieces. Hideously defeated, the
Turks went about finding new forces with which they enthusiastically
decided to go to battle again, carrying ropes with which they
proposed to tie up our men and bring them back to Khorasan.
Encouraged by this empty hope, they began, in single file and step by
step, to descend from the top of the mountain that towered over the
city. They were welcomed with pleasure by our men, as was fitting,
and they left their severed heads as proof of our victory. After the
Turks fled, our catapults and slings fired the severed heads into the
city to terrify the Gentiles. However, the bishop of Puy of blessed
memory and Count Raymond of Saint-Gilles, pressing forward to weaken
the city, attacked a tower near their own camp by digging tunnels to
undermine its foundations. After the miners were in place to carry
this out, they were given protection by men with bows and crossbows,
by men swinging balearic ropes, and by others defending the sappers.
Thus the tower was undermined to the depths of its foundation, while
the collapsing wall was held only with beams and poles; when the base
of the foundation had been entirely demolished, they set fire to the
beams:

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20