A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem 1095-1127

A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem 1095-1127
Historia Hierosolymitana
by Fulcher of Chartres
Translated by Frances Rita Ryan
Edited by Harold S. Fink
University of Tennessee Press, 1969


This primary source of the First Crusade, translated in 1916 by Frances Rita Ryan, covers nearly thirty years of history lived and seen by a chaplain that accompanied the armies that went east after the appeal to go forth on crusade by Pope Urban II in 1095.  Separating from his original commitment with the contingent under the command of Stephen of Blois, Fulcher of Chartres the author of the narrative, joined the party of Baldwin of Boulogne, continuing on with the latter through his election as King of Jerusalem (1100-1118) as the king's personal chaplain.  Surviving the king by another nine years into the reign of Baldwin II of Jerusalem, Fulcher of Chartres was one of the few westerners to remain in the east as a permanent resident until his death.

Fulcher's work is unique on the one hand as being the only testament to its author's life and personal experiences available to scholars.  No other information about Fulcher is known including his actual place of origins, except for an inclusion of his desire to be back in Chartres or Orleans during the heat of battle.  Later a comment on his current age during a period in which corroborating evidence helps us to determine a set year, places his age of departure on crusade at about thirty years, and his death at sixty-seven.

As a contemporary of the First Crusade, Fulcher demonstrates interests for scholars on many levels, but in particular are his observations on reform policy spearheaded by the papacy, the relative weakness of the Kingdom of Jerusalem under its first kings, and his attentiveness to the feelings and thoughts of the ecclesiastical and lay community of the kingdom.  Though not so concerned with the average day to day problems of the common people, the chaplain shows a keen interests in all levels of the society united for better or for worse in the holy land, seeing the crusade and its participants as part of a greater whole; in effect a second 'Chosen People' led by God to the redemption of His patrimony.

Though prone to poetic turns of phrase and biblical quotations in times of praise or mourning, as is common in many ecclesiastical authors of the medieval period, Fulcher of Chartres separates himself in the way that he approaches his narrative, more a free form journal than a strictly ordered history.  His curiosity and predisposition to explore, noting geography and natural science wonders, demonstrate a unique individual that suggests not all medieval educated were as myopic as is generally believed.  His lack of care on the other hand regarding the 'enemy' faced by the crusaders, fit more naturally into a mentality bound to its time and societal dispositions, not so different from perceptions directed towards German and Japanese soldiers during the Second World War.  A born communicator through the written word, Fulcher of Chartres' amazing chronicle is easily accessible to any reader interested in the voice of an actual crusader, and one who witnessed the very beginning of an event of vast historical importance.

-John Lowe (J. Sharp)