Godfrey of Bouillon

‘…Bertha did not allow her courage to be broken down, but advancing with a timid grace towards Godfrey, she placed in his hands the signet, which had been restored to her by the young page, and, after a deep obeisance, spoke these words: 'Godfrey, Count of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine the Lower, chief of the holy enterprise called the crusade, and you, his gallant comrades, peers, and companions, by whatever titles you may be honoured, I, an humble maiden of England, daughter of Engelred, originally a franklin of Hampshire, and since chieftain of the Foresters, or free Anglo-Saxons, under the command of the celebrated Ederic, do claim what credence is due to the bearer of the true pledge which I put into your hand, on the part of one not the least considerable of your own body, Count Robert of Paris —…'

Godfrey of Bouillon arrived at Constantinople on December 23^rd, 1096, and it is here that the action of Walter Scott’s “Count Robert of Paris” takes place.   Godfrey, of course, was destined to reach Jerusalem during the First Crusade, becoming its first ruler after Jerusalem fell in 1099.  Godfrey of Bouillon died about a year later, on July 18, 1100.

Siege of Jerusalem

'While the fire continued, the two parties laboured in active union, like the jarring factions of the Jews during the siege of Jerusalem, when compelled to unite in resisting an assault of the besiegers. But when the last bucket of water had hissed on the few embers that continued to glimmer--when the sense of mutual hostility, hitherto suspended by a feeling of common danger, was in its turn rekindled--the parties, mingled as they had hitherto been in one common exertion, drew off from each other, and began to arrange themselves at opposite sides of the hall, and handle their weapons, as if for a renewal of the fight.'

Sir Walter Scott uses the siege of Jerusalem as an analogy in "Peveril of the Peak".  The Siege of Jerusalem began on June 7, 1099, with Raymond of Toulouse and Godfrey of Bouillon taking the city by July 15.