ersons in the
first crusade. The emperor Henry the Fourth was not disposed to obey
the summons of the pope: Philip the First of France was occupied by his
pleasures; William Rufus of England by a recent conquest; the kings of
Spain were engaged 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 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, 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 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 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 c