A Warlord's Wisdom: Literacy and Propaganda at the Time of the First Crusade

Abstract

At some time in the second half of the twelfth century, a scribe working in the vicinity of Tours in northwest Francia copied a series of verses in praise of the leaders of the First Crusade (1095–99). Each hero was assigned his own line, fashioned to end with a rhyme in the masculine superlative. The qualities ascribed to the crusaders read like a laundry list of knightly virtues, including “magnanimus,” “obstinatus,” “accerimus,” and “expeditus.” But while Eustace, count of Boulogne, is said to have been “the best man” (“vir optimus”) and the count of Hainaut, Baldwin of Mons, is identified as both “prudent and well spoken” (“prudens et facundus”), for Bohemond, commander of the crusading forces from Norman southern Italy, is reserved the high praise of “sapientissimus”: “the wisest.”