Rilhac-Lastours is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in west-central France.
The First Crusade (1095–1099) was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to recapture the Holy Land, called for by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095. Urban called for a military expedition to aid the Byzantine Empire, which had recently lost most of Anatolia to the Seljuq Turks. The resulting military expedition of primarily Frankish nobles, known as the Princes' Crusade, not only re-captured Anatolia but went on to conquer the Holy Land, which had fallen to Islamic expansion as early as the 7th century, and culminated in July 1099 in the re-conquest of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The Château de Lastours is a ruined castle in the commune of Rilhac-Lastours in the Haute-Vienne département of France.
Gouffier's date of birth is unknown. He was the son of Guy I of Lastours and Agnes, sister of the lord of Chambon-Sainte-Valérie. He had two brothers, Guy II and Gerald.[1] Along with his brothers, he donated land to Beaulieu Abbey sometime between 1062 and 1072, in return for masses to be said for their deceased father.[2]
Chambon-sur-Voueize is a commune in the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France.
Pope Urban II, born Odo of Châtillon or Otho de Lagery, was Pope from 12 March 1088 to his death in 1099.
Limoges is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region in west-central France.
The Army of Raymond of Saint-Gilles was one of the first to be formed after Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade. Raymond, better known as Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, formed a Provençal army and left Toulouse in October 1096, traveling over the land route. He was the only leader of a major army that did not swear an oath of fealty to Alexius I, Emperor of Byzantine.
The accounts of Gouffier's actions in the early part of the crusade are somewhat unreliable. He supposedly distinguished himself at the Siege of Nicaea. On the crusaders' subsequent march through Anatolia, the army was split into two. Gouffier was supposedly part of the smaller army that was ambushed at Dorylaeum in July 1097, and was sent to the larger army to request help from Godfrey of Bouillon, who arrived just in time to defeat the Turks. However, it is more likely that Gouffier was already in the larger army, travelling with Godfrey and Raymond.[4]
The Siege of Nicaea took place from May 14 to June 19, 1097, during the First Crusade. The city belonged to the Seljuk Turks who surrendered to the crusaders. After the siege followed the Battle of Dorylaeum, and the siege of Antioch all in modern Turkey.
The Battle of Dorylaeum took place during the First Crusade on July 1, 1097, between the crusaders and the Seljuk Turks, near the city of Dorylaeum in Anatolia. It was won by the crusaders.
Godfrey of Bouillon was a Frankish knight and one of the leaders of the First Crusade from 1096 until its conclusion in 1099. He was the Lord of Bouillon, from which he took his byname, from 1076 and the Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1087. After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He refused the title of King, however, as he believed that the true King of Jerusalem was Jesus Christ, preferring the title of Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre. He is also known as the "Baron of the Holy Sepulchre" and the "Crusader King".
At the Siege of Antioch, Gouffier was part of the group that blockaded the route out of the city over Mount Silpius. The crusaders also built a bridge of boats over the Orontes River, and Gouffier crossed over it on horseback and killed three Turks who were waiting to ambush the crusaders on the other side. A few days later during another skirmish, he killed an emir and captured his horse. At another skirmish, he saved Raymond of Toulouse by killing fifteen Turks, breaking all of his weapons and shield in the process.[5]
The Siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and 1098. The first siege, by the crusaders against the Muslim-held city, lasted from 21 October 1097 to 2 June 1098. Antioch lay in a strategic location on the crusaders' route to Palestine. Supplies, reinforcements and retreat could all be controlled by the city. Anticipating that it would be attacked, the Muslim governor of the city, Yaghi-Siyan, began stockpiling food and sending requests for help. The Byzantine walls surrounding the city presented a formidable obstacle to its capture, but the leaders of the crusade felt compelled to besiege Antioch anyway.
The Orontes or Assi is a northward-flowing river which begins in Lebanon and flows through Syria and Turkey before entering the Mediterranean Sea.
An emir, sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is an aristocratic or noble and military title of high office used in a variety of places in the Arab countries, West Africa, and Afghanistan. It means "commander", "general", or "High King". The feminine form is emira. When translated as "prince", the word "emirate" is analogous to a sovereign principality.
In 1098 the crusaders took Antioch and successfully broke a countersiege by the Turks. After this, Gouffier's deeds are better-recorded in the sources. He helped capture a town referred to as "Talamania", possibly al-Bara, and he was instrumental in the Siege of Ma'arra in December 1098. On the evening of 11 December Gouffier climbed onto the walls of Ma'arra, followed by so many other crusaders that the ladder broke under their weight.[6]
The Siege of Maarat, or Ma'arra, occurred in late 1098 in the city of Ma'arrat al-Numan, in what is modern-day Syria, during the First Crusade. It is infamous for the claims of widespread cannibalism displayed by the Crusaders.
The crusaders arrived at Jerusalem in July 1099, and captured the city on 15 July. Gouffier was with Raymond of Toulouse, who pressed the Muslim defenders back into the Tower of David before they surrendered.[7]
Gouffier then briefly passes back into legend. Supposedly, he saved a lion from the clutches of a snake, and the lion then followed him everywhere, even into battle. When Gouffier departed for Europe by boat, the sailors were afraid of the lion and would not let it on board, so the lion swam after the boat and drowned.[8]
When he returned to Lastours, he donated five Muslim standards to the Abbey of Saint Martial in Limoges. He also donated tapestries to the castle of Arnac-Pompadour. His brother Guy had died on the crusade, but in 1114, Gouffier and his other brother Gerard donated land to Gerald of Sales to found the Abbey of Dolon. The last mention of Gouffier is around 1126, when he is recorded as castellan of Hautefort. The date of his death is unknown, but he was buried at Le Chalard.[9]
Supposedly he also intervened on behalf of an unnamed queen of France, who had been accused of adultery. Gouffier defeated her accuser in a duel, and was then allowed to add the fleur de lis, the symbol of French royalty, to his own coat of arms.[10]
Family
Gouffier was married to Agnes, daughter of Ranulf of Aubusson. Her dowry was the castle of Gimel. They had three children, Gouffier, Olivier, and Guy. Guy died in Jerusalem during the Second Crusade. Olivier had a daughter, Agnes, who was married to Constantine, the brother of the troubadour Bertran de Born.[11]
Legacy
Although he was a relatively minor noble, Gouffier was a local celebrity in the Limousin thanks to his participation in the crusade. From the period following the Siege of Antioch to the crusaders' arrival at Jerusalem, he is mentioned in the eyewitness accounts of Raymond of Aguilers, Peter Tudebode, and the author of the Gesta Francorum (who had been following Bohemond of Taranto but joined Raymond of Toulouse after Antioch).[12]
His earlier exploits are less certain. Evidently there was an Occitan poem about Gouffier, the Canso d'Antioca, written by Gregory Bechada. Gouffier was Bechada's patron, and Bechada presumably heard about the crusade from Gouffier himself and others who were there, but his work survives only in fragments. It was, however, an influence on the Castilian Gran Conquista de Ultramar, which records Gouffier's deeds at Nicaea, Dorylaeum, and Antioch. It also influenced the troubadour Uc de Pena, who mentions Gouffier's role as a messenger at Dorylaeum.[13]
The legends of the lion and of the queen of France must have developed after Bechada wrote his poem. The legend of the queen of France is very late, dating from the sixteenth century. The lion story first appears in a note appended to the end of the chronicle of Geoffrey of Vigeois, probably added around 1200.[14] The story strongly resembles Yvain, the Knight of the Lion by Chrétien de Troyes.[15]
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The Canso d'Antioca was a late twelfth-century Occitan epic poem in the form of a chanson de geste describing the First Crusade up to the Siege of Antioch (1098). It survives only in a manuscript fragment of 707 alexandrines preserved in Madrid.
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François Arbellot, "Les chevaliers limousins à la première croisade (1096-1102)". Bulletin de la Société archéologique et historique du Limousin 29 (1881), pp.5–72.
Claude Bernard, "Un Chevalier limousin: Goufier de Lastours", Bulletin de la Société archéologique et historique du Limousin 86 (1955), pp.23–33.
Marcus Bull, Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade: The Limousin and Gascony, c. 970-1130. Oxford, 1993.
Carol Sweetenham and Linda M. Paterson, The Canso d'Antioca: An Occitan Epic Chronicle of the First Crusade. Ashgate, 2003.
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