Godfrey of Bouillon

c.1060-1100. French Crusader. Member of the French nobility, he led a German contingent in the First Crusade of Urban II in 1096. Three years later, after Raymond of Toulouse had marched on Jerusalem, he took a leading part in the siege and capture of the city. When Raymond refused the offer to rule Jerusalem, Godfrey was chosen and took the title “Protector of the Holy Sepulcher.” After his death his successor and brother Baldwin established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. In later legend Godfrey was often depicted as the personification of the ideal Christian knight. The Assizes of Jerusalem, a law-book claiming to contain the laws of the kingdom of Jerusalem laid down by Godfrey, was in fact a fifteenth-century work by John of Ibelin.