The careers of both Guy of Warwick and Godfrey of Bouillon involve a crusade or pilgrimage to the holy land and violent encounters with Saracen forces in Jerusalem.
Godfrey of Bouillon, like Guy of Warwick, would have been a popular hero familiar to an Elizabethan theatre audience due to Godfrey's reputation as a Christian knight and his inclusion in the list of the Nine Worthies, a group of champions who exemplified the qualities found in great military leaders.
(26) 'Godfrey of Bouillon', Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009.
More importantly, this particular exemplum illustrates that the deeds of crusaders other than Godfrey of Bouillon circulated in the medieval West and could be used as models for aspiring crusaders.
Using Godfrey of Bouillon as an example of a virtuous crusader, Bromyard states that greed and disunity among the crusaders and clerics after the capture of Jerusalem led, over time, to the city's loss to the Muslims.
Unlike the shorter printed version, the manuscript adds several details that leave no doubt of the tale's familiarity with the historic Godfrey of Bouillon. He is described as "Lord of Provence and Lorraine and Anicho." Godfrey was Duke of Lower Lorraine; Provence was well south and not his domain, but the text may have originally read "the Province (rather than Provence) of Lorraine and Emicho." (Count Emich of Flonheim led the slaughter of the Rhineland Jews in May l096.) [35] Moreover, Godfrey is identified as being of "royal descent" and, indeed, he was descended from Charlemagne on his mother's side.
Godfrey of Bouillon, aged 15, received his claim to Lorraine (but not possession of it) by virtue of being adopted by his uncle, known as Godfrey the Hunchback, who was assassinated in February 1076 at age 35.
Andressohn, The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon (Bloomington: Indiana University Publications, Social Sciences Series, No.
The major armies were commanded by the great prices - Raymond of Toulouse,
Godfrey of Bouillon. Robert Duke of Normandy, Robert Count of Flanders, Stephen of Blois, Hugh of Vermandois and Bohemond, son of Robert Guiscard.
Many of Europe's leading lords took part, among them
Godfrey of Bouillon, Stephen of Blois and Robert of Normandy.