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    The First Crusade

    This etching depicts the triumphant moment when Frankish nobleman Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen as the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem, after crusaders captured the Holy City from the Muslims in 1099 AD. Godfrey is depicted in the center with a solemn expression and arms stretched out, wearing a white tunic and carrying a sheathed sword on his hip. The crusader in the right-foreground, perhaps Count Raymond IV of Toulouse, assertively points to Godfrey and looks directly at the etching's viewers, as if urging us to accept Godfrey as the new ruler. The crusaders depicted in the left-foreground, opposite Godfrey, motion toward him in recognition. In the left-background, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem blesses this scene, thus signifying divine support for Godfrey’s claim. However, not everyone is pleased—some onlookers in the right-background seem to express their apprehension at Godfrey’s selection. Overall, the dark lines contrasted with the white background gives this etching a luminous quality. Godfrey was chosen as the new ruler of Jerusalem after this title was declined by Count Raymond IV of Toulouse, another leading figure from the First Crusade. Crusader sources remark that, upon his selection, Godfrey refused the title of ‘king’ and instead preferred ‘Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri’ (Advocate of the Holy Sepulcher). Massard gestures to this tension in the etching—in the caption, Massard specifically uses the French word ‘roi’ (king) in reference to Godfrey. This choice may reflect the ambiguity of reception regarding Godfrey—many Franks of the time, as well as later historians, considered Godfrey to be the first Latin 'king' of Jerusalem despite him rejecting this title. Finally, Massard’s desire to depict a scene from the First Crusade may point to larger 19th century trends in Europe, i.e. renewed interest in the Medieval period and the Crusades.

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