The Death of Godfrey of Bouillon
Following his final campaign in the lands of Duqaq of Damascus, Godfrey of Bouillon began to feel ill, and was taken to a secret guesthouse in Jaffa, where four of his companions supported his head and feet. The Doge of Venice had recently come to the Holy Land with a force of Venetians to aid the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Doge and Tancred arrived to visit Godfrey. Aware of his dire condition, Godfrey traveled to Jerusalem. While the Venetians visited the Holy Sepulcher, they were assured Godfrey was well, and they returned to Jaffa. Meanwhile Tancred led a campaign against Acre. Godfrey, after receiving last rites and communion, died July 18, 1100, a year after his election.
We can see, then, how Godfrey’s brief reign laid the initial groundwork for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. While consolidating his hold over a small network of cities and castles, Godfrey imposed tributary status on neighboring Saracen lords through effective raids, or the threat of raids, by his knights. However, Godfrey was chronically short of funds and men. During his reign, his Kingdom’s borders were ill-defined, and the roads were swarming with bandits and Saracen raiders. Travel was unsafe without a considerable military escort.
Godfrey also had to rely heavily on aid from the Church, the Italian maritime powers, and visiting Crusaders. Godfrey’s younger brother, Baldwin, who became King of Jerusalem after Godfrey’s death, would dramatically expand the Kingdom beyond the tiny statelet ruled by Godfrey. Baldwin would also bring the Church under control, taming the patriarchate so that it was a loyal arm of the crown. In contrast to Godfrey, who had been forced to make considerable concessions to Bishop Daibert, Baldwin utterly rejected his brother’s arrangement to hand Jerusalem over to the Church, and instead established the crown and the high court as supreme in the Kingdom. This was ultimately the best thing for Jerusalem, since the Kingdom needed, above all, a strong military leadership to face its numerous Saracen enemies.
Godfrey may have not been the strikingly brilliant king that his younger brother would be, but he was a competent ruler who showed himself capable of handling the perilous circumstances of the infant Kingdom of Jerusalem.
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