Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/300

 278 THE DECLINE AND FALL The chiefs of Noiic of the great sovereigns of Europe embarked their per- the first crusade SOUS ill the first crusade. The emperor Henry the Fourth was not disposed to obey the summons of the pope ; Phihp the First of France was occupied by his pleasures ; William Rufus of England by a recent conquest ; the kings of Spain were en- gaged in a domestic war against the Moors ; and the northern monarchs of Scotland, Denmark/* Sweden, and Poland, were yet strangers to the passions and interests of the South. The religious ardour was more strongly felt by the princes of the second order, who held an important place in the feudal sj'stem. Their situation will naturally cast, under four distinct heads, the review of their names and characters ; but I may escape some needless repetition by observing at once that courage and the exercise of arms are the common attribute of these Christian ad- I. Godfrey of venturers. I. The first rank both in war and council is justly due to Godfrey of Bouillon ; and happy would it have been for the crusaders, if they had trusted themselves to the sole conduct of that accomplished hero, a worthy representative of Charle- magne, from whom he was descended in the female line. His father Avas of the noble race of the counts of Boulogne : Brabant, the lower province of Lorraine,^^ was the inheritance of his mother ; and, by the emperor's bounty, he was himself invested with that ducal title, which has been improperly transferred to his lordship of Bouillon in the Ardennes.*'' In the service of Henry the Fourth he bore the great standard of the empire, and pierced with his lance the breast of Rodolph, the rebel king : Godfrey was the first who ascended the walls of Rome ; and his sickness, his vow, perhaps his remorse for bearing arms against the Pope, confirmed an early resolution of visiting the holy sepulchre, not as a pilgrim, but a deliverer. His valour was matured by prudence and moderation ; his piety, though blind, ■•^ The author of the Esprit des Croisades has doubted, and might have disbe- lieved, the crusade and tragic death of Prince Sueno, with 1500 or 15,000 Danes, who was cut off by Sultan Soliman in Cappadocia, but who still lives in the poem of Tasso (torn. iv. p. 111-115). ■•^The fragments of the kingdoms of Lotharingia, or Lorraine, were broken into the two duchies, of the Moselle, and of the Mcuse ; the first has preserved its name, which in the latter has been changed into that of Brabant (Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 283-288). [Lothringen had been divided into Upper and Lower in the latter part of the reign of Otto I. The two duchies were again united, under Conrad IL, in the hands of Duke Gozelo ; but on his death in 1044 were sepai'ated, going to his two sons, by permission of Henry IIL] ■^''See, in the description of France, by the Abb6 de Longuerue, the articles of Bouh^ne, part i. p. 54 ; B?'ab<2iit, part ii. p. 47, 48 ; Bouillon, p. 134. On his de- parture, Godfrey sold or pawned Bouillon to the church for 1300 marks.