13; HFC 89: “brother of King Philip I [of the Franks] who at this time [subjected Francia to his authority]”]. Whereas the Anonymous defined Frankishness in the broadest possible terms to incorporate most of Western Christianity, Robert therefore identifies the Franks more specifically as the inhabitants of the France of his day.14 This more limited definition illustrates the target audience of the work: Robert’s message—as was that of Urban II at Clermont—is directed above all to Frenchmen like himself, not to the whole of the Latin West.
While far fewer than those of the Anonymous, Robert’s Franks play a role of paramount importance. They, above all others, are called upon to answer the crimes perpetrated by an enemy immediately defined through scripture.15 The Franks are especially suited for this struggle because of their remarkable military achievements and their excellent pedigree in warfare, seen in the successes of Charlemagne and Louis, which a secular audience must have known primarily through the popular chansons. The importance of both sacred and profane writings in Robert’s concept of and exhortation to Crusade is therefore made clear from the very beginning of his work. In Urban’s speech, the scriptural is joined to the secular in Crusade as revenge, not defined as in the Gesta as vengeance for the wrongs inflicted on God by his enemies but defined as a moral need of caritas for other Christians brutalized by the Gentiles.
Throughout the remainder of the Historia, Robert expands upon the basic premise of this speech to describe the deeds of the Franks—as in the Gesta, almost no reference is made to others partaking in the holy war16—on the road to Jerusalem as the continuation and reiteration of two historico-literary traditions. On the one hand, scripture confirms the status of the Crusade as a reflection and continuation of exemplary biblical struggles; it defines the nature of the Crusade as a new Exodus, and the Crusaders as the fulfillment of age-old prophecy. On the other hand, secular martial history gleaned from the chansons de geste demonstrates that the past has proven the Franks chosen for victory; this indicates the suitability of his audience for the struggle at hand and their obligation to continue the wars of their ancestors—“A vobis quidem precipue exigit subsidium, quoniam a Deo vobis collatum est pre cunctis nationibus … insigne decus armorum” [HI 7; HFC 81: “Indeed it is your help [Jerusalem] particularly seeks because God has granted you outstanding glory in war above all other nations”]. Both combine to forge a new chosen people, unparalleled in war and supported by God, an irresistible force that has the power to right the wrongs of the world and take whatever it wants in the process.17
THE WONDERS OF GOD AT WORK
Writing in his northern cloister, far from the battlefields of the First Crusade, it was clear to Robert of Reims that the events of 1096–1099 had long been prophesied. Prophecy, or its pagan counterpart soothsaying, had already informed the calculations of Kerbogha’s mother in the Gesta Francorum;18 in the Historia Iherosolimitana, too, she sees the eventual destruction of her son’s mighty army as long established:
A centum annis et infra invenerunt patres nostri in sacris deorum responsis, et in sortibus et divinationibus suis et animalium extis, quod Christiana gens super nos esset ventura nosque victura. Concordant igitur super hos aruspices, magi et arioli, et numinum nostrorum responsa, et prophetarum dicta, in quibus dicitur: A solis ortu et occasu, ab aquilone et mari, erunt termini vestri, et nullus stabit contra vos.
[HI 63; HFC 156: Our forefathers discovered a hundred years and more ago through the sacred oracles of the Gods, in their casting of lots and their divinations and the entrails of animals, that the Christian race would come upon us and defeat us. The soothsayers, mages and diviners, the oracles of our divine powers and the words of the prophets (in which it is said: from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south shall your coast be. There shall no man be able to stand before you) all agree.]
Robert’s interpolation of echoes from the books of Psalms and Deuteronomy into the words of Kerbogha’s mother indicates, however, that he sees the Crusade prophesied beyond the arcane dealings of augurs and diviners.19 He emphasizes that scripture, in its sensus plenior, anticipated the events of 1096–1099. For instance, when describing the Battle of Dorylaeum, he refers to the Gospel of Luke (“Esurientes etenim suos replevit bonis, divites vero non suos dimisit inanes; deposuit potentes, exaltavit humiles” [HI 28; HFC 113: “For He hath filled his own with good things and those not his own he hath sent empty away; he hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree”])20 and the book of Isaiah (“Hoc est quod per Ysaiam prophetam spopondit sue dilecte Iherusalem: Ponam te in superbiam seculorum, gaudium in generationem et generationem, et suges lac gentium, et mamilla regum lactaberis” [HI 28; HFC 113: “This is what he promised to his beloved Jerusalem through the Prophet Isaiah: I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings”])21 to put the great victory over the Turks into its proper historical and religious context. Concluding his narrative in book 9 of the Historia Iherosolimitana, Robert reiterates that the Frankish triumph he has just recounted was prefigured in divine revelation:
Cum autem ipsi Domino placuit, adduxit Francigenam gentem ab extremis terre, et per eam ab immundis gentilibus liberare voluit. Hoc a longe per Isaiam prophetam predixerat, cum ait: Adducam filios tuos de longe, argentum eorum et aurum eorum cum eis, in nomine Domini Dei tui, et sancto Israheli, quia glorificavit te. Edificabunt filii peregrinorum muros tuos, et reges eorum ministrabunt tibi. Hec et multa alia invenimus in propheticis libris, que congruunt huic liberationi facte etatibus nostris.
[HI 110; HFC 213–14: But when it so pleased God, he led the Frankish race from the ends of the earth with the intention that they should free [Jerusalem] from the filthy Gentiles. He had long ago foretold this through the prophet Isaiah when he said: “I shall bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of pilgrims shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee.” We have found this and many other things in the books of the prophets which fit exactly the context of the liberation of the city in our era.]
Far from being an isolated event in history, the Crusade fulfilled ancient portents and reiterated biblical history. The first lines of the quotation above, however, also indicate the implications of this: scriptural omens serve to show the hand of God active in the present. There is no accident, coincidence, or fortune of war in the Historia; rather, all occurrences show the will of God. At the very beginning of his work, Robert highlights that the Crusade armies set out for the East because God wanted them to. The remarkable enthusiasm that greeted Urban’s address at Clermont could only have been the work of God:
Et ut cunctis clarescat fidelibus quod hec via a Deo non ab homine sit constituta, sicut a multis postea comperimus, ipso die quo hec facta et dicta sunt, fama preconans tante constitutionis totum commovit orbem, ita ut etiam in maritimis Oceani insulis divulgatum esset, quod Iherosolimitanum iter in concilio sic stabilitum fuisset.
[HI 8; HFC 82: And, to make it quite clear to all believers that this pilgrimage had been set in train by God rather than men—as we have since established from many sources—on the very day these speeches and deeds took place, the news announcing such an undertaking set the whole world astir so that even in the islands of the sea it was common knowledge that a pilgrimage to Jerusalem had been launched at the Council.]
When the armies gather at Constantinople, Bohemond, who had earlier realized “omnia hec non tantum esse hominum” [HI 14; HFC 92: “that this could not be the work of men alone”], emphasizes that all are there as a result of divine agency: “O bellatores Dei et indeficientes peregrini sancti Sepulchri, quis ad hec peregrina loca vos adduxit, nisi ille qui filios Israel ex Egypto per mare Rubrum sicco vestigio transduxit?” [HI 19; HFC 98: “O soldiers of the Lord and tireless pilgrims to the Holy
