FOOTNOTES
[1] This chapter makes no pretence of being based upon an exhaustive examination of all the sources. Scattered as these are through the historical and romantic literature of several centuries, it is not unlikely that important printed materials have been overlooked, while many manuscripts of the poetic cycle of the Crusade still lie unprinted. It is hoped, however, that enough material has been found and used to give an adequate view of the legendary accretions which gathered about Robert’s name, and to throw an interesting light upon the repute in which he was held in after times.
[2] See supra, p. 118, and n. 156.
[3] G. R., ii, pp. 460-461; cf. the superlatives of William of Newburgh, writing at the end of the twelfth century: “Qui tamen armis tantus fuit, ut in ilia magna et famosa expeditione Ierosolymitana in fortissimos totius orbis procres clarissimae militiae titulis fulserit.” Historia Rerum Anglicarum, ed. H. C. Hamilton (London, 1856), i, p. 15.
[4] Roman de Rou, ii, pp. 415-416.
[5] Lestorie des Engles, ed. T. D. Hardy and C. T. Martin (London, 1888-89), i, pp. 244-245.
[6] “Le duc de Normandie a été, en tant que croisé, le héros de tout un cycle poétique qui s’est perdu, mais non sans laisser des traces.” “Robert Court-Heuse à la première croisade,” in Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1890, 4th series, xviii, p. 208.
[7] Gaston Paris (op. cit., p. 211, n. 3) believes that the Robert legend was extinguished first by Robert’s disastrous and inglorious end, and second by the growing popularity of the Godfrey cycle. He thinks that the “lutte des deux traditions poétiques, de provenances différentes, dont l’une avait pour héros Robert et l’autre Godefroi” can be seen in an episode of the Chanson d’Antioche which may be briefly paraphrased as follows. Godfrey, “because he is preux and courageous and of the lineage of Charlemagne,” has just been chosen to represent the Christian army in a proposed single combat with a champion from Kerboga’s host; on hearing which Robert is so incensed at being himself passed over that he prepares to withdraw with his forces from the crusading army. Compared with his own splendid lineage, the ancestors of Godfrey, he declares, are not worth a button. Thereupon the descent of Godfrey from the Chevalier au Cygne is explained to him. And then Godfrey himself comes and humbles himself before Robert and expresses his willingness to yield the honor to him. At that Robert is mollified and consents to remain. La Chanson d’ Antioche, ed. Paulin Paris (Paris, 1848), ii, pp. 177-183. It is difficult to see where support for Paris’s theory can be found in the matter thus summarized. All that concerns Robert, it seems clear, exists not for itself at all, but as a mere literary foil for setting off the merits of Godfrey and his descent from the Chevalier au Cygne. The evidence of the Saint-Denis window which Gaston Paris cites must be ruled out. See Appendix G.
The Chanson d’ Antioche, in the form in which we now have it, is held to have been composed early in the reign of Philip Augustus by Grandor of Douai, a Flemish trouvère, upon the basis of an earlier poem, now lost, by Richard le Pèlerin, a minstrel who actually took part in the First Crusade. Histoire littéraire de la France, xxii (1852), pp. 355-356; Auguste Molinier, Les sources de l’histoire de France (Paris, 1901-06), no. 2154.
[8] Supra, p. 190.
[9] Li estoire de Jérusalem et d’ Antioche, in H. C. Oc., v, pp. 629-630. This chronicle, in old French prose of the second half of the thirteenth century, is based ultimately upon Fulcher of Chartres, but it is filled with matter of a purely imaginary character. It seems to contain almost no points of contact with the other sources from which the Robert legends are to be drawn. It represents Robert as taking part in the battle with Kilij Arslan at Nicaea—actually Robert had not yet arrived at Nicaea—and overthrowing him and taking his horse. It also portrays Robert as the principal leader at Nicaea, and the one to whom Kilij Arslan sent the messenger Amendelis to open negotiations.
[10] H. C. Oc., iii, p. 761; cf. the fifteenth century Anonymi Rhenani Historia et Gesta Ducis Gotfredi, ibid., v, p. 454.
[11] H. C. Oc., iii, p. 622. Ralph’s whole account of the battle is almost epic in character; cf. the poems (pp. 625-629) devoted to the exploits of individual heroes, and especially the two lines on p. 627:
Rollandum dicas Oliveriumque renatos,
Si comitum spectes hunc hasta, hunc ense, furentes.
[12] P. 221.
[13] Chronique de Robert de Torigni, i, pp. 82-83; Ralph de Diceto, Opera Historica, ed. William Stubbs (London, 1876), i, p. 222; Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum, ed. H. O. Coxe (London, 1841-44), ii, p. 87; Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora, ed. H. R. Luard (London, 1872-83), ii, p. 64; idem, Historia Minor, ed. Frederick Madden (London, 1866-69), i, pp. 85-86; Flores Historiarum, ed. H. R. Luard (London, 1890), ii, p. 29; Le livere de reis de Brittanie e le livere de reis de Engletere, ed. John Glover (London, 1865), p. 166; Robert of Gloucester, Metrical Chronicle, ed. W. A. Wright (London, 1887), ii, pp. 585-586; Thomas Walsingham, Y podigma Neustriae, ed. H. T. Riley (London, 1876), p. 79.
[14] Supra, p. 106.
[15] P. 224.
[16] Chronique de Robert de Torigni, i, p. 84; Ralph de Diceto, i, p. 223; Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora, ii, p. 74; Flores Historiarum, ii, p. 29; Robert of Gloucester, ii, p. 591; Walsingham, Y podigma, p. 80. See also the references given in nn. 17 and 18 infra.
[17] Roger of Wendover, ii, p. 103; Matthew Paris, Historia Minor, i, p. 102.
[18] Le livere de reis, p. 168.
[19] Supra, pp. 107-108.
[20] G. R., ii, p. 460.
[21] Geoffrey Gaimar, in the extract quoted on p. 191, supra; Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi, ed. William Stubbs (London, 1867), i, p. 329; cf. Roger of Hoveden, i, p. 274.
[22] Roman de Rou, as quoted on p. 191, supra.
[23] The reading and the meaning are here uncertain. I follow the conjecture of the editor.
[24] “Le trebuche el begart.” According to Godefroy (Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française) the meaning of begart is undetermined. Again I follow the conjecture of the editor.
[25] Chanson d’ Antioche, ii, pp. 245-246.
[26] Ibid., p. 261. Red Lion is perhaps to be identified with Kilij Arslan, sultan of Iconium.
[27] Paul Riant and Ferdinand de Mély, in Revue de l’art chrétien, 1890, pp. 299-300. Their view has been rightly rejected by Gaston Paris in Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1890, p. 208. See Appendix G. In Le Chevalier au Cygne et Godefroid de Bouillon, ed. F. A. F. T. le Baron de Reiffenburg (Brussels, 1846-59), ii, pp. 231-232, Red Lion is killed by Count Baldwin.
This version of the Godfrey matter has been assigned to the fourteenth century both by Paulin Paris (Histoire littéraire, xxv, p. 508) and by Célestin Hippeau (La conquête de Jérusalem, p. ix), but A.-G. Krüger, in a more recent discussion, has placed it as late as the first half of the fifteenth century. “Les manuscrits de la Chanson du Chevalier au Cygne et de Godefroi de Bouillon,” in Romania, xxviii (1899), p. 426.
[28] Le Chevalier au Cygne et Godefroid de Bouillon, ii, p. 212-213.
[29] La conquête de Jérusalem, ed. Célestin Hippeau (Paris, 1868), pp. 308-311. There is as yet no edition of this poem worthy of the name. Much difference of opinion has been expressed as to the date of its composition. It has been ascribed by its editor to the thirteenth century. Ibid., pp. xviii, xix, xxv. But Paulin Paris held it to be a part of the work of Grandor of Douai, compiler of the Chanson d’Antioche, and thought it, too, like the latter, was based upon the lost work of Richard le Pèlerin. Histoire littéraire, xxii, p. 370, and cf. p. 384. And Molinier has somewhat carelessly assigned it to circa 1130. Sources de l’histoire de France, no. 2154. On the other hand Henri Pigeonneau, while he would ascribe it to the late twelfth century, still holds that it certainly is not by the author of the Chanson d’Antioche, and that it is a later composition than the latter. Le cycle de la croisade et de la famille de Bouillon (Saint Cloud, 1877), pp. 42-55. Certainly one works over the poem with a growing conviction that it is late rather than early. It is almost wholly a work of imagination, in which traditions of events centring around Antioch are hopelessly mingled with others pertaining to the region of Jerusalem. One can hardly say whether the imaginary battle of Ramleh contains more of the battle of Ascalon or of the battle against Kerboga.
It may be noted in passing that in the battle of Ascalon Robert performed an actual feat of arms (cf. supra, pp. 115-116) which may perhaps form the basis of all the legendary exploits which we have been passing in review. The references to the enemy’s ‘standard’ in Wace (supra, p. 190) and in the Chanson d’Antioche (supra, p. 195) would seem to lend some color to this view. But it should be borne in mind that such exploits of knightly valor are a commonplace of the chansons de geste, and are attributed to Godfrey and to other chiefs as well as to Robert.
[30] Gaimar is specific in his statement that the election of Robert was due to his reputation for valor (supra, p. 191), as is also the author of an anonymous Norman chronicle of the thirteenth century, excerpted by Paul Meyer from a Cambridge manuscript in Notices et extraits des manuscrits, xxxii, 2, p. 65: “Li quens Rob., por les granz proesces que il feseit e qu’il avoit fetes, e por sa grant valor e son grant hardement, fu eslit a estre roi de Sulie.”
[31] Supra, p. 114.
[32] G. R., ii, p. 461.
[33] Pp. 229, 236.
[34] H. C. Oc., iii, p. 225.
[35] Chronique de Robert de Torigni, i, p. 87; Annales de Waverleia, in Annales Monastici, ii, p. 207; Gesta Henrici Secundi, i, p. 329; Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, in H. F., xiv, p. 13; Chronique de Normandie, ibid., xiii, p. 247; Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora, v, p. 602; Flores Historiarum, ii, p. 32; Robert of Gloucester, ii, pp. 607-608; John Capgrave, Chronicle of England, ed. F. C. Hingeston (London, 1858), p. 133; idem, Liber de Illustribus Henricis, ed. F. C. Hingeston (London, 1858), p. 55.
[36] Supra, p. 114.
[37] H. C. Oc., iv, p. 485.
[38] La conquête de Jérusalem, pp. 183-191. The legend is repeated in substantially the same form in Le Chevalier au Cygne et Godefroid de Bouillon, iii, pp. 81-88.
[39] Chronica Universalis, in M. G. H., Scriptores, xxvii, p. 334.
[40] An inedited Flemish chronicle of uncertain date, cited by Pigeonneau, Le cycle de la croisade, p. 76; Roger of Wendover, ii, p. 146; Matthew Paris, Historia Minor, i, pp. 149-150; Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon, ed. J. R. Lumby (London, 1865-86), vii, p. 424; Eulogium Historiarum, ed. F. C. Haydon (London, 1858-63), iii, p. 64. Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris make the explanation that when his candle had been lighted, Robert secretly extinguished it, meaning to refuse the crown.
[41] Peter Langtoft, Chronicle, ed. Thomas Wright (London, 1866-68), i, p. 460.
[42] H. C. Oc., iii, p. 225. The account of the election given in Li estoire de Jérusalem et d’Antioche appears to have no connection with any of our other sources. Ibid., v, p. 639.
[43] Henry of Huntingdon, pp. 229-230, 236; Chronique de Robert de Torigni, i, pp. 87, 128-129; Annales de Waverleia, in Annales Monastici, ii, p. 207; Gesta Henrici Secundi, i, pp. 329-330; Roger of Wendover, ii, p. 146; Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora, ii, pp. 106-107, 132; v, p. 602; idem, Historia Minor, i, p. 205; Flores Historiarum, ii, p. 32; Robert of Gloucester, ii, pp. 607-608, 628-629; Capgrave, Chronicle of England, p. 133; idem, De Illustribus Henricis, pp. 55, 57.
[44] Supra, p. 179.
[45] “Rex autem, memor fraternitatis, eundem comitem Robertum in libera carceris custodia, sine ciborum penuria vel luminis beneficio vel preciosarum vestium ornatu, salvo tamen fecit reservari. Liceret etiam ei ad scaccos et aleas ludere. Robas etiam regis, sicut ipse rex, accipiebat; pomeria vicina et saltus et loca delectabilia perambulando, ex regis licentia, visitavit.” Flores Historiarum, ii, p. 39.
[46] Gesta Henrici Secundi, i, p. 330.
[47] Annales de Wintonia, in Annales Monastici, ii, p. 50; Chronicon Thomae Wykes, ibid., iv, p. 15; Annales de Wigornia, ibid., iv, p. 378; Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora, ii, p. 133; idem, Historia Minor, i, pp. 30, 213; Flores Historiarum, ii, p. 39; Henry Knighton, Chronicon, ed. J. R. Lumby (London, 1889-95), i, p. 113; Eulogium Historiarum, iii, p. 58; Capgrave, De Illustribus Henricis, p. 65.
[48] H. F., xii, p. 432.
[49] Matthew Paris, Historia Minor, i, pp. 212-213; idem, Chronica Maiora, ii, p. 133; Flores Historiarum, ii, p. 39.
[50] Matthew Paris, Historia Minor, i, p. 213.
[51] Matthew Paris, Historia Minor, i, p. 248. The translation is a free and somewhat condensed rendering of the original. Cf. the same, Chronica Maiora, ii, pp. 160-161; Capgrave, De Illustribus Henricis, p. 65.