Chronicle of Ernoul

The monumental Historia de rebus transmarinis in which William of Tyre traces the history of the Latin Kingdom of the East from the days of the first Crusade, breaks of abruptly at the end of 1183, three years and a half before the battle of Hittin. William's great work, the historical masterpiece of medieval literature, was written in Latin; but the theme was of such surpassing interest that before forty years had passed away it was continued by a certain Ernoul, who, in his early life, had been squire to the great Palestine Lord, Balian of Ibelin. Under the direction of this Ernoul, who had shared in the romantic adventures of his liege before the battle of Nazareth (May, 1 187), the story of the Kingdom was carried on from the point where William ceases to about the year 1228.

This continuation is written in French and, thus, is the first attempt at telling the story of one of the great kingdoms of Latin Christendom in its own tongue without the aid of rhyme. Of Ernoul nothing more is known ; but his histoiy, though full of a most romantic charm, such as attaches to no other historical work of the time, is strictly speaking the work of a contemporary, and, in its French sympathies, is a priceless reflection of the anti-English sentiment that seems to have actuated most of the warriors of the third ciusade.

References:

Morgan(M. R.), The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre, Oxford University Press, 1973.

Pringle (D.), Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291, New York, 2012.

The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (Estoire d'Eracles)

It is uncertain whether William of Tyre's history has been turned into French before the composition of Ernoul, continuation ; but the probability is in favor of this hypothesis; otherwise it is difficult to see why the latter work was not at least translated into Latin at the time of its first appearance. This difficulty is removed if we imagine Ernoul's Chronicle to have been written for the purpose of carrying down to the year 1228 a narrative of the history of the Holy Land, that had already been turned from Latin into old French. Otherwise we must suppose Ernoul to have written independently, in which case some third person may have conceived the idea ot prefixing to his chronicle a Romance version of William's great work.

The French translation of William of Tyre with its continuations by Ernoul, Bernard the Treasurer, and other anonymous writers towards the middle or end of the thirteenth century, were often regarded as one work. In this form they are the Chronique d'Outremer quoted by Jouville. They are also known under the title of the Estoire d'Eracles, from the opening words of the French translation of William of Tyre, ' Les ancients Estoires dient que Eracles.'

It has seemed desirable in the selections made for this volume from the Chronique d'Outremer to distinguish the contemporary authority of Ernoul from the more legendary form his narrative has assumed in certain * remaniements ' of the Chronique d'Outremer. Accordingly, whatever is taken from Ernoul without alteration is assigned to him ; whereas the later accretions are headed Estoire d'Eracles to mark that they are by no means to be regarded as absolutely historical.

As a whole the Chronique d'Outremer (excluding the translation from William of Tyre) is one of the most charming works in the French language. Its delicious simplicity, its delight in action, the innocent credulity with which it will give two versions of the same story almost in the same page, even its undisguised partisanship all impress the reader as a far more serious history would fail to do. That perhaps which marks it out from almost all other historical literature of the century is that it is the work, not of a clerk, but of a layman. Ernoul, in this respect, if in no other, ranks with Joinville and Villehardouin and Henry of Valenciennes.


References:

Shatzmiller (M.), Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria, Netherlands, 1993.

Phillips (J.), Holy Warriors, New York, 2009.