FULCHER OF CHARTRES

born c. 1059, , Chartres, Fr. died c. 1127, , Jerusalem French chaplain and chronicler of the First Crusade. Apparently educated for the priesthood in Chartres, Fulcher attended the Council of Clermont and accompanied his overlord, Stephen of Blois, to southern Italy, Bulgaria, and Constantinople in 1096. In June 1097 he became chaplain to Baldwin of Flanders, with whom he remained. He went to Jerusalem in the winter of 1099 with Baldwin and spent the rest of his life there. His Gesta Francorum Jherusalem peregrinantium (written in three installments, 1101, 1106, and 112427) is a vivid and reliable account of the First Crusade, Baldwin's journey to Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem to 1127. Despite his loyalty to Baldwin, Fulcher remained quite objective and provided a restrained portrait of the Byzantine Empire.