the First of France was occupied by his
pleasures; William Rufus of England by a recent conquest; the kin`gs of
Spain were engaged in a domestic war against the Moors; and the northern
monarchs of Scotland, Denmark, [42] Sweden, and Poland, were yet
strangers to the passions and interests of the South. The religious
ardor was more strongly felt by the princes of the second order, who
held an important place in the feudal system. 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 adventurers. 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 Charlemagne, from
whom he was descended in the female line. His father was of the noble
race of the counts of Boulogne: Brabant, the lower province of Lorraine,
[43] 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. [44] 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 valor was matured by prudence and
moderation; his piety, though blind, was sincere; and, in the tumult
of a camp, he practised the real and fictitious virtues of a convent.
Superior to the private factions of the chiefs, he reserved his enmity
for the enemies of Christ; and though he gained a kingdom by the
attempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknowledged by his rivals.
Godfrey of Bouillon [45] was accompanied by his two brothers, by Eustace
the elder, who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and by the
younger, Baldwin, a character of more ambiguous virtue. The duke of
Lorraine, was alike celebrated on either side of the Rhine: from his
birth and education, he was equally conversant with the French and
Teutonic languages: the barons of France, Germany, and Lorraine