APPENDIX 527 from a crusader's journal,— is incorporated in the Gesta Henrici II. et Ricardi I., which goes under the name of Benedict of Peterborough (who, though he did not compose the work, caused it to he compiled). [Edited by Stubbs in the Rolls scries, 1867.] Material for Richard's Cru.sade will also be found in other contem- porary English historians, such as Ralph de Diceto, William of Xewburgh, &c. AVii,LiAM OF Ttre is the greatest of the historians of the Crusades and one of the greatest historians of the ^Middle Ages. He was born in Palestine in 1127 and became archbishop of Tyre in 1174. A learned man, who had studied ancient Latin authors (whom he often cites), he had the advantage of being acquainted with Arabic, and he used Arabic books to compose a history of the Saracens from the time of Mohammad (see his Prologue to the Historj- of the Crusades). He was always in close contact with the public affairs of the kingdom of .Jerusalem, political as well as ecclesiastical. He was the tutor of Baldwin IV., and was made Chancellor of the kingdom by that king. His great work (Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum) falls into two parts : (1) Books 1-15, to a.d. 1144 : so far his narrative depends on " the relation of others " (Bk. 16, c. 1), and he has used (though he does not say so) the works of earlier writers (such as Fulcher of Chartres, and Albert of Aachen), as well as the memories of older ^men with whom he was acquainted; but his judgment is throughout entirelj' ' independent. (2) Books 16-2.3, to a.d. 1184 : here he writes as a contemporary eye-witness, but he is careful and conscientious in informing himself, from every possible source, concerning the events which he relates ; and lie is remarkably cautious in his statements of facts. The miraculous seldom plavs a part in his story ; he is unfeignedly pious, but he seeks an earthly explanation of every earthly event. -^ His history, along with the Book of the Assises, is the chief material for forming a picture of the Latin colonies in Palestine. Chronology, Sybel remarks, is the weak side of his work ; and we may add that it is often spoiled by too much rhetoric. It was translated into French in the second quarter of the 13th century. [Included in the Recueil, Hist. Occ. vol. i. (1844).] The work of William of TjTe was continued in French by Ernoul (squire of Balian, lord of Ibelin ; he had taken part in the battle of Hittin and the siege of Jerusalem) down to 1229 ; and by Bernard (the Treasurer of St. Peter at Corbie) down to 12.31. These continuations were continued by anonymous writers dovn to 1277 ; and the French translation of William along with the continuations was curi;ent as a single work under the title of the Chronique d'Outrem.er, or L'Estoire de Eracles.^ [The Continuations were first critically examined and analysed by M. de Mas Latrie,^-' who edited the works of Ernoul and Bernard (1871). Edition of Guillaume de Tyr et ses Continuateurs, by P. Paris, 2 vols., 1879-80.] It may be added here that the charters and letters pertaining to the Kingdom of .Jerusalem have been edited under the title Regesta Regni Hierosolymitaui, b}* Rohricht, 1893. The numismatic material has been collected and studied by M. G. Schlumberger : Numismatique de I'Orient Latin, 1878. Marshal Villehardouix's Conquest of Constantinople is, along with Nicetas, the main guide of Gibbon in his account of the Fourth Crusade. Gibbon thought, and it has been generally thought till late }'ears, that this famous book, composed by one of the wisest and most moderate of the Crusaders, was a perfectly naive and candid narrative, partial indeed to the conduct of the conquerors, but still — when allowance has been made for the point of view — a faithful relation of facts with- out an arriere pcnsec. But, though there are some, like his editor M. de Wailly, who still maintain the unblemished candour of Villehardouin as an author, recent 22 Cp. Stubbs, Introd. to Itinerarium, p. xxxviii. 23 Sybel, Gesch. des ersten Kreuzzuges, ed. 2, p. 120. 24 An absurd title taken from the opening sentence of William of Tyre. 25 Essai de classification, &c., in Bibl. de I'^cole des chartes, SSr. V. t. i. 38 sqq., 140 sqq. (i860) ; and in his ed. of Ernoul and Bernard, p. 473 sqq.
