People/Latin Crusaders and Crusader states

c. 1060–1100 · Leader of the First Crusade and ruler of Jerusalem

Godfrey of Bouillon

Other names · Godfrey of Bouillon

Crusade leader who became the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem in 1099 with the title Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre.

Godfrey of Bouillon
Verified biography·Histoire d’Outremer, British Library Yates Thompson MS 12 / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER

Life and historical role

01

Life and political setting

Godfrey belonged to the Boulogne dynasty and held the duchy of Lower Lotharingia. To finance his expedition he sold or mortgaged part of his lands and travelled east with a substantial following alongside his brothers Eustace and Baldwin. Contemporary evidence presents him as one of several senior princes rather than the sole commander of the First Crusade.

02

Role in the Crusades

He took a leading part in the operations at Nicaea, Dorylaeum, Antioch and Jerusalem. After the capture of Jerusalem he accepted a title commonly rendered as Advocate or Defender of the Holy Sepulchre rather than the royal title. He also participated in the victory over the Fatimid army at Ascalon in August 1099 and governed Jerusalem until his death in 1100.

Method note

Biographical information is linked to the sources shown on the page and to the connected event records. Disputed dates are given as approximate, gaps are not filled by conjecture, and later literary or visual depictions are not treated as contemporary portraits.

CONTEXTUAL READING

Related cases

1096 (late)–May 1097 · Constantinople

Princes' armies assemble at Constantinople

From autumn 1096 to spring 1097 the crusading princes' armies reached Constantinople by different routes. Alexios I took oaths from the leaders that they would return former Byzantine territory; over Antioch in particular, this oath became a lasting dispute.

Open record →14 May – 19 June 1097 · Nicaea

Siege of Nicaea

From 14 May 1097 the crusader army and Byzantine forces besieged Nicaea, capital of the Anatolian Seljuks. Kilij Arslan I's relief attempt was repulsed, and on 19 June the city surrendered to Byzantium through a secret agreement before the crusaders could storm it.

Open record →1 July 1097 · Eskişehir region

Battle of Dorylaeum

After Nicaea the crusader army advanced in two columns. On 1 July 1097 the vanguard was attacked near Dorylaion (Eskişehir) by Kilij Arslan I and his allies. The second column's arrival in the afternoon forced the Turkish forces to withdraw and opened the road through Anatolia.

Open record →7 June – 15 July 1099 · Jerusalem

Capture of Jerusalem

The crusader army arrived before Jerusalem on 7 June 1099. After a month-long siege it broke in through the northern walls on 15 July; the Fatimid governor Iftikhar al-Dawla surrendered the Tower of David and withdrew, while most of the city's inhabitants were killed.

Open record →22 July 1099 · Jerusalem

Political foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

A week after the capture of Jerusalem, on 22 July 1099, the crusade leaders chose Godfrey of Bouillon as ruler of the city. Godfrey used the title “Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre” instead of king, laying the foundation of Latin rule in Jerusalem.

Open record →12 August 1099 · Ascalon

Battle of Ascalon

The army that the Fatimid vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah brought to retake Jerusalem was scattered by a surprise crusader attack before Ascalon on 12 August 1099. The victory saved the newly founded Latin government from its first great threat, but Ascalon remained Fatimid until 1153.

Open record →