Gesta Francorum

c. 1100

The Deeds of the Franks and the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem: an anonymous account of the First Crusade by a man who fought in it, finished soon after the capture of Jerusalem. Later Latin histories drew on it.

The author does not name himself. He writes as one of the fighting men (“our men”, “we”), in plain Latin, and follows the army from the first preaching to the capture of Jerusalem and the choice of a ruler for the city. The Fordham Sourcebook’s note describes him as a writer connected with Bohemond of Antioch and dates the work about 1100–1101.

Robert the Monk, Baldric of Dol and Guibert of Nogent each rewrote this text in a more polished style, as Krey’s introduction explains. The Gesta is therefore both an eyewitness account and the base of much of the later Latin tradition. It reports the killing at Jerusalem without apology and as a victory.

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