Last modified: 2009-10-02 by ivan sache
Keywords: bouillon | godefrey of bouillon | cross:potent (red) | cross:jerusalem (red) | crosslets: 4 (red) | oriflamme | crusade |
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![[Flag of Bouillon]](../images/b/be-wlxbo.gif)
Municipal flag of Bouillon - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 11 December 2005
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The municipality of Bouillon (5,477 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 14,957 ha) is located in the massif of Ardenne on the river Semois, close to the border with France. The municipality of Bouillon is made since 1977 of the former municipalities of Bellevaux, Bouillon, Corbion, Dohan, Les Hayons, Noirefontaine, Poupehan, Rochehaut, Sensenruth, Ucimont and Vivy.
Bouillon is located in a large curve of river Semois; the town is mostly known for its medieval fortress recalling Godfrey of Bouillon. The local tradition claims that the fortress was built in the 8th century; there is historical evidence of a central donjon flanked by the smaller donjons existing in 1050. The other fortifications are much more recent and were mostly designed by Vauban in 1679. The fortress was mentioned, but not described, in 988 as belonging to the family d'Ardenne. The town developed below the fortress, near the river. The main purpose of the fortress was to watch the road between Lower and Upper Lotharingia, known as avenue des François and used as a convenient invasion path until 1940.
In 1082, Godfrey of Bouillon, son of Eustace of Boulogne and Ulda of Ardenne and nephew of Godfrey the Hunchbacked, inherited the Duchy of Lower-Lotharingia (aka as Lower-Lorraine or Lothier); he was the fifth and last lord of the Ardenne family. When he decided to go on the First Crusade called by Pope Urban II, he sold his domain in 1096 to Otbert, Bishop of Liège to fund his expedition. Otbert was not rich and even looted the abbeys and churches of his own domain in
order to collect the funds.
Godfrey took part to the seizure of Jerusalem in 1099, being the
first Crusader to enter the town. However, he refused the title of King
of Jerusalem, refusing to bear a golden crown where Christ had borne a
spine crown, and was entitled Warden of the Holy Sepulcher on 22 July
1099. He died the next year, aged 39, and was buried in the St.
Sepulcher's church, close to the Calvary. The contract signed with the
Bishop of Liège allowed the purchase of the Duchy by Godfrey's
successors, but none of them exercized his right.
It seems, however, that the title of Duke of Bouillon was not used
before the 15th century; in 1456, Bishop John of Heinsberg was entitled
par la grâce de Dieu évêque de Liège, duc de Bouillon, comte de Looz,
..., a title which was later used until 1794.
Bouillon belonged to Liège until 1679, with a few breaks; the town was allowed to build fortifications but was never granted the title of good
town (bonne ville). Bouillon was seized by the Count of Verdun and
taken over by Liège in 1140. In 1415, the castle was ceded against a
rent to the de la Marck family, which ruled the Duchy as an independent
state. The most famous member of the family was William de La Marck,
aka the Ardennes Boar. Emperor Charles V reattributed Bouillon to Liège in 1521. The town was seized by King of France Henri II in 1552, but he had to retrocede it to Liège after the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed in 1559.
In 1591, Charlotte of la Marck, whose family had been confirmed rights
on Bouillon and Sedan, married Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount of
Turenne. During the Holland War, Bouillon was besieged by Marshal of
Créquy for the King of France. In spite of the Prince-Bishop of Liège's protesting he was the legal Duke of Bouillon, Godefroid-Maurice de la Tour d'Auvergne was confirmed as the Duke of Bouillon after the Treaty of Nijmegen (1679), and Bouillon remained French until the end of the Ancient Regime.
The printer Pierre Rousseau (1727-1785) was banned from Liège and
Brussels, where he had attempted to spread Voltaire's philosophy. He
set up in 1759 a big printing house in Bouillon where the Journal
Encyclopédique was published again from 1760 to 1793.
On 24 April 1794, the People's Assembly of the Duchy, which then
included 150 villages, proclaimed the Republican regime; the former
Duchy was integrated to the French Republic on 26 October 1795. It was
said: "The shark from the Seine has swallowed the Republican gudgeon
from the Semois."
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 11 December 2005
According to Servais [svm55], these arms were granted to the town of Bouillon by (Dutch) Royal Decree
on 18 November 1818 and confirmed by (Belgian) Royal Decree in 1841; they had been used by the
town for ages. Such arms were traditionally assigned by the medieval heralds to the Dukes
of Lothier / Lower-Lotharingia of the family of Ardenne.
The Gelre Armorial shows "Argent a fess gules" for the Duchy of
Bouillon (Hertoge v. Bulgoen, #1342, folio 95v).
The very same arms (with a different origin) are used by the town of
Leuven, whose municipal flag is therefore the same as the municipal flag of Bouillon, as is of course the national flag of Austria.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 27 May 2007
![[Flag of the castle of Bouillon]](../images/b/be-wlxb1.gif)
Flag hoisted over the fortress of Bouillon - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 December 2005
The flag hoisted over the fortress of Bouillon is not the municipal flag of Bouillon. The TV program Télétourisme (RTBF) showed close-ups of the flag, which is white with a red cross potent and another four crosslets in the four cantons. A similar cross pattern, but with yellow crosses, is associated with the Kingdom of Jerusalem set up by the Crusaders after the seizure of the city in 1099.
Godfrey was the son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne (1024?-1080?)
and Ida of Lorraine (1030?-1113). Eustace II, a powerful lord,
fought together with William of Normandy at the battle of Hastings in 1066.
Godfrey had been appointed heir by his uncle Duke Godfrey III the
Hunchback, Duke of Lower-Lorraine, but after Duke Godfrey's murder
in 1076 he inherited only Bouillon, Verdun, and Antwerp. His succession as Duke was disputed by his cousin Albert III, Count of Namur, but at
first neither contender won, because the German King Henri IV
appointed his own two year-old son Conrad as the new Duke, clearly
demonstrating that Lower-Lorraine had lost its significance as a
political entity. Eleven years later, in 1087, Godfrey finally did
become Duke of Lower-Lorraine, after Conrad had been appointed King of
Germany by his father, who had himself been crowned Emperor in 1084.
Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade in 1095. The lords who left
for the Crusade often bequeathed or sold their domains to the church,
in order both to secure their goods and to get the money required for
the expedition.
The first wave of crusaders, led by Peter the Hermit and Walter Sans
Avoir, was annihilated in 1096 by the Turks. The second wave of
crusaders, known as the lords' crusade, was led by powerful lords such
as Hugh of Vermandois, Robert II of Flanders, the Count of Toulouse,
the Count of Normandy and the Italian Normands Tancred of Hauteville
and his uncle Bohemond I. Each lord fought together with his vassals.
Godfrey of Bouillon led a troop of Lotharingian knights. The
Crusaders took Antioche and Edesse in 1099 and marched against
Jerusalem. The siege started on 7 June; the Counts of Normandy and
Flanders stayed in the north, Bouillon and Hauteville in the west and the
Count of Toulouse in the south. It was impossible to attack the eastern
flank of the town because of the torrent Cedron. A first attempt failed
in 13 June. Timberwood and carpenters were brought from Jaffa in order
to build the required machines of war, that is three rolling towers and
catapults. The attack started during the night of 9 to 10 July; with
the main attack launched on the evening of 13 July. On 15 July,
Godfrey of Bouillon put his tower against the wall and entered the
town with his brother Eustace of Boulogne. The northern part of the
town was progressively seized. The seizure of the southern part of the
town was delayed because it was necessary to fill up the ditch. The
Egyptian Fatimid garrison of the citadel was liberated against a ranson
but the Moslim and Jewish population of the town was slaughtered.
Godfrey of Bouillon was proposed the crown of Jerusalem but he
refused "to bear a golden crown in the place where Christ had borne a
spine crown"; he was elected Warden of the Holy Sepulcher on 22 July
and died the next year from the black plague.
Godfrey of Bouillon's fame was huge in the Middle Ages; he was considered, together with Clovis and Charlemagne, as a hero of the Christian religion. In the 13th century, Vincent of Beauvais published his Great Mirror (Speculum Majus), a kind of universal encyclopaedia reprinted by the Jesuits in Douai in 1624. The Mirror was divided into four chapters, the Mirror of Nature, the Mirror of Science, the Mirror of History and the Moral Mirror, the latter having been written in the 14th century, probably after Vincent's sketches. In his Historical Mirror, that is the history of the Church, Vincent of Beauvais relates in great detail the exploits of Clovis, Charlemagne and the Crusaders, whose model is Godfrey of Bouillon. The great medievist Émile Mâle has shown that the Speculum Majus was the main source of inspiration of the religious iconography of that period: there are very few historical characters portrayed as statues or in the coloured windows of the cathedrals but the Christian leaders, including Godfrey of Bouillon.
Encyclopaedia Universalis gives a more nuanced account of Godfrey of Bouillon's career. His main role seems to have been arbitration in the
conflicts that broke up among the winners after the conquest; his
military action seems to have been very small until the assault of the
walls of Jerusalem. The military leader of the Crusade, appointed by
the Pope, was the ambitious and inflexible Raymond of Saint-Gilles.
After the victory, the barons preferred to elect Godfrey of Bouillon;
morevoer, the status of the new Latin Empire was not specified by the
Pope and the power of the new ruler was fairly virtual, something the
ambitious warlords could not accept. Therefore, Godfrey of Bouillon
is no longer considered as the founder of the Eastern Latin Empire by
most historians.
Since Bouillon is today located in Belgium, Godfrey of Bouillon is
considered as a Belgian national hero. For the 175th anniversary of the
independence of Belgium, Godfrey of Bouillon's sword was offered in
Jerusalem by a Franciscan monk to Karel De Gucht, the Belgian Minister
of Foreign Affairs. Historians questioned the authenticity of the sword
and wondered how it could have been preserved since the 11th century
and attributed to Godfrey of Bouillon. Moreover, there was a
controversy in Belgium about the real significance of Godfrey of
Bouillon's acts. For decades, the history of the Crusades has been
revised and several historians have shown that the western point of
view was very biased. The late Georges Despy also revised Godfrey of
Bouillon's legend and showed that the hero was not very different from
the warlords of that time, that is sometimes immoral, violent and
greedy and sometimes repentant, religious and courageous. Godfrey of
Bouillon was recently revised in the best-seller Les grands mythes de
l'histoire de Belgique. A leftist position is defended by Anne
Morelli, historian at the Free University of Brussels, who says that
the official concern about the sword was a case of "apology of a crime
against humanity". On the other side of the debate, Jean Solé defends
the traditional image of Godfrey of Bouillon as a Christian hero who
saved Europe from the Muslims.
![[Flag of Godfrey of Bouillon]](../images/b/be^wlxbo.gif)
Alleged banner of Godfrey of Bouillon - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 December 2005
Godfrey of Bouillon's oriflamme is presented by the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which uses it as its emblem. The
oriflamme is white with the red cross and crosslets and the
Crusaders' motto Deus lo vult, granted to them by Pope Urban II on 27 November 1095. The Order says that the banner was used by "Godfrey
of Bouillon and his successors". The wording is ambiguous, and it can be
read that the crosses, representing the Christ's five wounds, were also
granted by the Pope.
A similar emblem, but with yellow cross and crosslets, is known as the
flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1291.
Since the municipal arms of Bouillon ("Gules a
fess argent") were traditionally attributed by the medieval heralds to
the dynasty of Bouillon, it is possible that their colour was
associated to the design of the Jersualem crosses, then considered as
Godfrey of Bouillon's arms. For the moment, I have not found any evidence that Godfrey of Bouillon ever bore such arms.
Ivan Sache, 11 December 2005