Robert said to have refused the crown of Jerusalem.
His return. authority for the statement which was very soon afloat, that the crown of Jerusalem was offered to Robert and was refused by him.[1] Robert could not have been as Godfrey; but we can believe that his career would have been more honourable in a Syrian than in a Norman dominion. He was at least one of the first to stand on the rescued walls of the Holy City;[2] and in the fight for the newly-won realm against the Fatimite Caliph, it was not merely by cutting down the Saracen standard-bearer with his own hand, but by a display of really skilful tactics, that Robert did much to win the day for Christendom.[3] He then turned his face towards Constantinople and towards Apulia, and we shall meet him again in his own land.
William takes possession of Normandy. As soon as Robert had set forth for Jerusalem, William took possession of the duchy of Normandy—in modern phrase, he took upon him its administration—without opposition from any side. There was indeed no side, except the side of mere anarchy, from which opposition could come. It was perhaps a little humiliating for a great duchy to be handed over from one prince to another by a personal bargain, like a house or a field. But there
- [Footnote: *mesnil and certain others. See Orderic, 738 D. Stephen of Chartres too
decamped for a while in a manner which did not please his wife.]
- ↑ The words of William of Malmesbury (iv. 389) are remarkable; "Robertus, Jerosolymam veniens, indelibili macula nobilitatem suam respersit, quod regnum, consensu omnium sibi utpote regis filio delatum, recusaret, non reverentiæ, ut fertur, contuitu, sed laborum inextricabilium metu."
- ↑ His exploits in the storm come out in all the accounts. In William of Malmesbury (iv. 369) he and his namesake of Flanders are as usual grouped together; "Hæc quidem victoria in parte Godefridi et duorum Robertorum evenit."
- ↑ Will. Malms. iv. 371. "Duces, et maxime Robertus Normannus, qui antesignanus erat, arte artem, vel potius virtute calliditatem eludentes, sagittariis et peditibus deductis, medias gentilium perruperunt acies." This seems to prove more than the story in iv. 389, where Robert, with Philip of Montgomery and others, makes use of the worn-out stratagem of the feigned flight.
