THE APPEAL OF ALEXIUS FOR AID IN IO95 1 39 



any appeal for aid.^ The next entry in the Annales after 1095 is a 

 notice of Urban's death in 1099. Moreover, the authorship of this por- 

 tion of the Annales is unknown and no allusions are made to Placentia 

 or to the Eastern Empire. 



The Crusaders and Their Historians 



Yet another indication of the general ignorance of such an appeal as 

 Bemold describes appears in the letters and chronicles written by the 

 Crusaders in the East. Their indignation against Alexius waxed hot 

 when they discerned that he was using them for his own purposes. They 

 complained about many things. They even declared in a letter to 

 Urban that Alexius had promised much and granted little, thus violating 

 the agreement at Constantinople.^ In all these complaints, however, 

 there is no phrase accusing the Emperor of lack of hospitality to invited 

 guests. The Crusaders did not suggest the claims of hospitality at Con- 

 stantinople, nor do they recall any such promises when their sufferings 

 ought to have provoked these charges as the very first accusation. 

 Though a hundred thousand Crusaders^ were directly concerned in this 

 matter, they have left no record of it either in their extant letters or in 

 the influence which they must undoubtedly have exerted, after their 

 return, upon the writers of chronicles in the West. 



Among the historians of this crusade two contemporaries deserve 

 especial mention. One of these was Guibert of Nogent, a French 

 abbot, who probably witnessed the Council of Clermont. Here he may 

 have talked with members of Urban's retinue who had come from Italy. 

 Some years later, after the capture of Jerusalem, Guibert decided to 

 write a history of the expedition.'* He gave it a famous title — Gesta Dei 

 per Francos. While it is a valuable account, its author confesses his 



' M. G. SS., XXVI, p. 489, MS. S. Mariae de Voto. Sigebert's Chronicon mentions only the massacre 

 of the Jews and the storming of Jerusalem in his account of the crusade. 



' Consult numerous letters in Hagenmeyer, Kreuzzugsbriefe, especiaUy that of the Leaders to Urban 

 from Antioch, 1098; " . . . . tu vero nos filios, pater piissime, debes separare ab iniusto imperatore qui 

 multa bona proniisit sed minime fecit." Hence they ask to be absolved from their contract with Alexius. 

 See Hagenmeyer, ibid., 161 and 357. 



3 Some estimates exceed 300,000: Sybel, Gesch. des ersten Kretiz., 284. note. 



•• Rccueil des Hist, des Crois., IV, 120: "Ncc difEteor me post Iherosolym captionem, ex quo illi qui inter- 

 fuerant expeditioni redire coeperunt. ad scribendum ea animum appulisse." 



