Ernoul (chronicler)

Balian von Ibelin hands over Jerusalem to Saladin (illustration of a manuscript from 1490)

Ernoul (bl. 1187) was a chronicler of the Crusades. Ernoul's work (in old French ) has not survived , but is available in arrangements from the 13th century, partly as a continuation of the Chronicle of William of Tire .

Life

Ernoul's Chronicle describes the defeats of the crusaders at Cresson (May 1, 1187) and at Hattin (July 4, 1187) as well as the loss of Jerusalem (October 2, 1187) from the perspective of a Frankish nobleman from the Outremer .

In connection with the Battle of Cresson, the author of the chronicle appears by name only as a squire of Balian II of Ibelin : To his astonishment, Balian found the crusader castle La Fève ( castrum Fabe ) in Galilee abandoned. "Don't fist descendre .i. sien varlet qui avoit à nom Ernous. Ce fu cil qui cest conte fist meter en escript. ”As it turned out, the castle's garrison, 50 to 60 Templars, had fallen at Cresson. (This is a sensitive point in the Chronicle as the reader wonders why Balian of Ibelin did not participate in this battle.)

An Arnais of Gibelet ( Jebail ) was a feudal lord in Cyprus in the 13th century; Margareth Ruth Morgan thought it possible that he was identical to Ernoul (spelling in the manuscripts: Ernous, Hernoul).

plant

Which of the adaptations comes closest to the lost original of Ernoul is controversial in research:

• L'Estoire de Eracles Empereur et la Conqueste de la Terre d'Outremer (Colbert-Fontainebleau text);
• L'Estoire de Eracles Empereur et la Conqueste de la Terre d'Outremer (Lyons text);
• Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier , also known as Abrégé .

content

The political events up to 1182 are only briefly reported by Ernoul. In the illustration of the years 1182 to 1185, descriptions of the geography of Palestine have been inserted, which were taken from another source. Before the report on the siege of Jerusalem, Ernoul devotes a separate chapter (in the version of the Abrégé ) to the description of the city of Jerusalem. This detailed representation ( La Citez de Iherusalem ) shows the knowledge of an eyewitness and was probably a separate work written before the siege of the city, possibly the work of another, anonymous author.

It is not clear to what year Ernoul's chronicle was continued: 1227, 1229 or 1232.

tendency

Ernoul's chronicle is most easily recognizable behind the passages that are common to all three textual traditions. It differs from all other Christian chronicles of the time in that it portrays Saladin more positively than the so-called court party around Guido von Lusignan . Among the Christian actors are Balian of Ibelin and Raimund III. of Tripoli by Ernoul. Ernoul was keen to justify the undeniable contacts of his Christian heroes to the Muslim side by presenting Saladin as the epitome of chivalrous virtues and as noble pagans.

reception

In Lessing's work Nathan the Wise , the idealized Saladin figure created by Ernoul is presupposed.

The film Kingdom of Heaven takes over the characterization of Balian by Ibelin and Guidos by Lusignan from Ernoul's Chronicle. (This film, however, has no influence on the portrayal of the city of Jerusalem by Ernoul.)

Text output

• Peter W. Edbury: The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation . Ashgate, 1996.
• Margareth Ruth Morgan: The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tire . Oxford University Press, 1973.
• Janet Shirley: Crusader Syria in the Thirteenth Century: The Rothelin Continuation of the History of William of Tire with part of the Eracles or Acre text . Ashgate, 1999.
• Margareth Ruth Morgan: La Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr (1184-1192). Paris, 1982.
• Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier, publiée, pour la première fois, d'après les manuscrits de Bruxelles, de Paris et de Berne, avec un essai de classification des continuateurs de Guillaume de Tyr, pour la Société de l'histoire de France , Paris 1871. ( Description of the city of Jerusalem: pp. 189–210. )
• Henri Michelant, Gaston Raynaud: Itinéraires à Jérusalem et descriptions de la Terre Sainte , Geneva 1882.

Web links

Commons : Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• Niels Brandt: Good knights, bad pagans: The image of the Turks on the Crusades (1095–1291) . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar 2016. ISBN 978-3-412-50337-6 . Pp. 289-305.
• Catherine Croizy-Naquet: La description de Jérusalem dans la Chronique d'Ernoul. In: Romania, Volume 118, No. 457-458, pp. 69-89.
• Denys Pringle : Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291 . Routledge, 2016. ISBN 978-0-754-65125-3 . Pp. 29-34.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier . Paris 1871, p. 149 .
2. ↑ Niels Brandt: Good knights, bad pagans: The image of the Turks on the Crusades (1095–1291) . S. 289-290 .
3. ↑ Peter W. Edbury: Thoros of Armenia and the Kingdom of Jerusalem . In: Nicholas Morton, Simon John (Eds.): Crusading and Warfare in the Middle Ages: Realities and Representations . Ashgate, 2014, p. 181 .
4. ↑ Niels Brandt: Good knights, bad pagans: The image of the Turks on the Crusades (1095–1291) . S. 291 .
5. ↑ Niels Brandt: Good knights, bad pagans: The image of the Turks on the Crusades (1095–1291) . S. 298.301-302 .