plik

A MANUSCRIPT OF THE OLD FRENCH WILLIAM OF TYRE

(PAL . LAT . 1963) IN NORWAY

The manuscript Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal . Lat .

1963 contains an Old French translation of Historia rerum in par-
tibus transmarinis gestarum, the celebrated crusading chronicle
of William, Archbishop of Tyre (d . 1186) . The French transla-
tion is known both as Histoire d’Outremer and L’Estoire d’Era-
cles, conventionally abbreviated as Eracles . This name is derived
from the opening chapter, describing the loss of the True Cross
in Jerusalem to the Persian king Chosroes II (590–628)

. The

Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (610–641) defeated Chosroes in 627,
and restored the True Cross to the Holy Sepulchre in 629 . This
story became no less important in the years following William of
Tyre’s death, after the loss of Jerusalem and the Holy Cross by the
Saracens in 1187 .

Eracles is preserved in many manuscripts, but Pal . Lat . 1963 is of

special interest partly because its provenance and ownership . It has
been suggested that this manuscript was produced in a scriptorium
in Antioch, and Pal . Lat . 1963 is one of few manuscripts of Eracles
with an ex libris that shows with certainty one of its first owners,
and presumably, readers . This ex libris shows that shortly after its
production it was in the possession of a Norwegian queen, making it
the only known version of Eracles known to have reached medieval
Scandinavia .

The owner of the manuscript was Isabella Bruce, sister of King

Robert Bruce of Scotland and the queen of Norway from 1293 .
After her husband, King Eirik Magnusson, died in 1299, she lived in
Bergen, at the time the main city in Norway, until she died in 1357
or 1358

. Isabella’s ownership is beyond reasonable doubt, since the

ex libris, in red majuscles at the upper margins on both the first and
last leaves: “Liber Domine Isabelle, Dei gratia Regine Norwegie” .
Queen Isabella’s ownership was pointed out by Jacques Bongars as

The first lines of Pal . Lat . 1963 read: Les anciens estoires dient que Eracles, qui

fu mult bons cretiens, governa l’empire de Rome (“Ancient histories say that Eracles
[Herakleios], who was a very good Christian, governed the Roman Empire”) .

On Isabella Bruce’s marriage to King Eirik Magnusson (1280-1299) and her

life in Norway, see R . B . W

ærdAhl

, Dronning Isabella Bruce, in Eufemia: Oslos midde-

lalderdronning, edited by B . Bandlien, Oslo 2012, pp . 99-108 .

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early as in 1611, and by Paul Riant in 1865

. However, the manu-

script has received no attention from Norwegian scholars at all .

The ownership of such a manuscript by a medieval queen may

not be unique in a European context, but from a Norwegian per-
spective there are several reasons to make a closer study of this man-
uscript and its context . It is the only manuscript in French known
to have been in Norway at this time . Although there are many
translations of French romances and chansons de geste into Old
Norse sagas in the thirteenth century, especially during the reign of
Håkon IV Håkonsson (1217-1263), Pal . Lat . 1963 is unique in sug-
gesting a readership of French in Norway . Second, its appearance in
Bergen some decades after its production may shed light on the pos-
sible cultural connections of the Norwegian élite with the Eastern
Mediterranean and the Holy Land in the late thirteenth century .

Although there are many interesting questions raised by the

presence of this manuscript in the otherwise unknown library of
Isabella Bruce, my focus in this study will be on the possible routes
of the manuscript from the Eastern Mediterranean to Bergen, and
its place in the interest of crusading in Norway . In the only study to
date devoted to this manuscript, published in 1970, leading expert
on manuscript illumination from the crusader period, Jaroslav
Folda, was puzzled how it might have come in the possession of
Isabella Bruce:

It is a mystery how this manuscript was taken from Antioch to
Norway to become part of the library of Isabella the Queen between
1293 and 1358 . Count Paul Riant speculated that the codex was
probably bought in the Latin East by a certain Brother Maurice
who was the negociator of the marriage of Isabella Bruce and Erik
II Magnusson . This is the best, and only, suggestion to date

J . B

ongArs

, Gesta Dei per Francos, sive Orientalivm expeditionvm, et regni

Francorum Hierosolimitani Historia, etc. Hanoviæ 1611, section XI of the introduc-
tion, next to last paragraph . Bongars’ introduction was reprinted in Patrologia Latina,
vol . 201 (see col . 209) . P . r

iAnt

, Expéditions et pèlerinages des Scandinaves en Terre

Sainte au temps des croisades, Paris 1865, p . 440 . The ownership of Isabella Bruce was
also mentioned (citing Riant) in F . o

, Die altfranzösische Übersetzung der Geschichte

der Kreuzzüge Wilhelms v. Tyrus, Halle 1899, p . 18, and in passing by T . d

AmsgAArd

lsen

, Den høviske litteratur, in Norrøn Fortællekunst. Kapitler af den norsk-islandske

middelalderlitteraturs historie, edited by H . Bekker-Nielsen, T . Damsgaard Olsen and
O . Widding, Copenhagen 1965, pp . 92-117 (p . 103) .

J . F

oldA

, A crusader manuscript from Antioch, in «Atti della Pontificia

Accademia romana di archaeologia», XLII (1969-1970), pp . 283-298 (p . 297) .

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Here, I will argue that the manuscript’s journey from Eastern

Mediterranean to Norway was not as mysterious as it might seem
at first glance . In fact, there are many links between Norway and
the Eastern Mediterranean, and the pilgrimage of friar Maurice to
the Holy Land in the early 1270s is just one of several options for
its appearance in Bergen . Although it will be impossible to trace its
route with certainty, the journey of the manuscript from one corner
of the Latin Europe to the other, may add new light on the flow
and exchanges of literature, ideas, political relations and how the
crusades became a feature of art, literature, rhetoric of warfare and
rulership, and formation of identities among the élites of Europe
around 1300 .

proBlemAtiC

provenAnCe

. l

. 1963

Pal . Lat . 1963 consists of 258 leaves, each with two columns of

40–42 lines . There are twenty-one extant miniatures, introducing
each of the twenty-two books of William’s work . One miniature
has been removed (for Book III, fol . 23) and the original portrait of
William of Tyre on the first folio was replaced with a panel c . 1400

There is no indication that the manuscript at some point contained
other texts than Eracles .

The origin of the manuscript is difficult to determine . Most man-

uscripts of Eracles were produced in France, but at least eight were
produced in Acre from the mid-thirteenth century to 1291, and a few
in Flanders, England and Italy . Pal . Lat . 1963, however, is more dif-
ficult to place with certainty, both concerning textual peculiarities
and style of illumination .

Karl Christ, the author of the catalogue of the Old French manu-

scripts in the Vatican Library, noted in passing the distinct style of
its miniatures, quite different from comparable French book illumi-
nations of the thirteenth century . He concluded that if this indeed
was a French manuscript, the illuminator must have been under
strong Byzantine or Italian influence

. Art historian Hugo Buchthal

included a brief discussion of Pal . Lat . 1963 in his study of minia-
ture painting in the manuscripts of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem .
He compared the manuscript with those produced in Acre, and
concluded that the style and colour scheme was quite distinct from

The manuscript is described in K . C

hrist

, Die altfranzösischen Handschriften

der Palatina, Leipzig 1916, pp . 56-60 .

hrist

, Die altfranzösichen Handschriften, p . 56 .

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these . Although its cycle of illustration may have been influenced by
an Acre-manuscript of Eracles, Buchthal was not able to connect it
to any known Latin school of illumination . He did not rule out the
possibility of a provincial Western scriptorium, although the initial
for Book XII (115r) speaks against it . This initial depicts Xerxes,
the ancient King of Persia, with his dignitaries . Xerxes is clothed in
the manner of a thirteenth century sultan, and the style of the ini-
tial indicates that it was an adaptation of a miniature in an Arabic
manuscript of the Baghdad school

Jaroslav Folda analysed the illuminations in more detail, and tried

to explain the different styles and influences

. He argues that the scribe

most certainly was French and that the calligraphy dates to latter half
of the thirteenth century . He also notes that the original plan seemed
to have been to illustrate the codex with panel miniatures in the new
style, but for some reason this plan was abandoned after the text was
written . The format was changed into the older style and large histori-
ated initials were used instead . These letters on a framed gold ground
seemed to have been inspired by earlier crusader manuscripts of the
Holy Land, but can be found in Sicilian ateliers as well . The many
shifts of style indicate, according to Folda, not a strong and independ-
ent school, but a scriptorium that was influenced from several milieus .

Folda furthermore noted that the cycle of illuminations also

show some peculiarities, and that the choice of motives distinguish
the artist from both the Acre and Northern French groups . Most
striking is that many illuminations depict scenes from Antioch,
more than in other manuscripts of Eracles, and they depict the
city in a strikingly detailed manner (esp . Books V, VI, XI, XVI) .
Particular features from the architecture and the topography in the
miniatures depicting Antioch strongly suggest that the artist must
have had an intimate knowledge of this city, and if not originated
here himself, he must have stayed there for some time in order to
paint ‘a city portrait of some precision’

H . B

uChthAl

, Miniature painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Oxford

1957, p . 102 . Buchthal suggested that the miniature of Book XII was inspired from a
thirteenth century manuscript of the popular Kit

āb al-aghānī, or al-Harīrī’s Maqāmāt .

oldA

, A crusader manuscript . The miniatures for Books V, VI, VIII, XIII, XIX

and XX are reproduced in Folda’s article, and reproductions in black and white of all
are included on the CD-ROM attached to J . F

oldA

, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, from

the Fall of Jerusalem to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291, Cambridge 2005, nos . 183-203 . The
manuscript has recently been digitized by Heidelberg University Library, http://digi .
ub .uni-heidelberg .de/diglit/bav_pal_lat_1963 .

oldA

, A crusader manuscript, p . 293 .

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According to Folda, it might be possible to date the manuscript

within a rather narrow timeframe . King Louis IX had visited the
region in 1252, intervening in the Antiochene succession dispute,
something that increased French cultural influence in Antioch .
Folda also points out that Count Bohemund VI of Antioch and
Tripoli visited the Ilkhan Hülagü, who in the late 1250s established
a new Mongol rule in Persia, in Baghdad on friendly terms in 1260 .
This relation may have established cultural exchange as well as
political submission . Based on this, Folda concludes that the best
explanation for the peculiarities in the miniatures of Pal . Lat . 1963
is that it was produced in Antioch between 1260 and the capture of
the city by the Mamluks in 1268 .

More recently, Peter Edbury has initiated a project on the

origins, developments and variants of the Old French translation
of William of Tyre . In a study concerning mainly the patterns of
chapter divisions or amalgamations in the manuscripts, as well as
beginnings and endings of chapters, Edbury notes the similarities
of Pal . Lat . 1963 with the largest group of manuscripts, mainly
from Northern France (the

β-group) . The Acre-manuscripts (of the

α-group) produced in the late thirteenth century seem to have been

produced with the intention of export to Western Europe with the
scribes working simultaneously from several manuscripts

.The

Acre-manuscripts have several readings that clearly distinguish
them from the Western manuscripts, and Pal . Lat . 1963 does not
share any of these readings

. However, the manuscript contains

some peculiarities . It is the only manuscript in the

β-group with-

out a continuation after 1184

. Second, as pointed out by Philip

P . W . e

dBury

, The French translation of William of Tyre’s Historia: the manu-

script tradition, in «Crusades», VI (2007), pp . 69-105 (at p . 85) .

Edbury points out that the lack of a continuation in Pal . Lat . 1963 suggests

a bifurcation between

α- and β-manuscripts already before the 1230s, when the first

continuation was adapted from the Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer,
see P . W . e

dBury

, New perspectives on the Old French continuations of William of Tyre,

in «Crusades», IX (2010), pp . 107-113 .

dBury

, The French translation, pp . 92-97 . Edbury’s handlist is an updated

version of that found in J . F

oldA

, Manuscripts of the history of Outremer by William of

Tyre: a handlist, in «Scriptorium», XXVII (1973), pp . 90-95 . However, he omits sec-
tion II (F16-29) in Folda’s list, since they are manuscripts of the Chronique d’Ernoul et
de Bernard le Trésorier or of the text known as the Estoires d’Outremer et de la naissan-
ce Saladin . Edbury still follows the numbering of the manuscripts made by Folda; Pal .
Lat . 1963 is here F06 . Louis de Mas Latrie made the first overview of the manuscripts
of Eracles in his Essai de classification des continuations de l’histoire des croisades de
Guillaume de Tyr, in Chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier, Paris 1871, pp . 473-

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Handyside, there is one place where the scribe appears to show an
understanding of the Latin East by attempting to correct an error
made by the translator of William of Tyre’s chronicle . In Book 11 .14
of the Latin chronicle, William relates the arrival of a fleet led by
King Sigurd of Norway . The Norwegians joined Baldwin to besiege
Sidon in 1110 . The Old French translation added that a Muslim fleet
left Acre to help Sidon . Acre was under Christian control at this time
and a few manuscripts attempt to correct this mistake . They are all
Acre manuscripts (

α-group), except for Pal . Lat . 1963 . Unfortunately,

the manuscripts that correct the origin of the Muslim fleet are not
consistent; some say that it was a Christian fleet, not a Muslim one,
while other have the fleet leaving from various cities that were under
Muslim control . Pal . Lat . 1963 is unique in having an unspecified
fleet, not pointing out whether it was Christian or Muslim, com-
ing from Acre to Sidon . This correction is the only textual evidence
that clearly would link it with the East and the Acre-manuscripts,
while other textual markers point at the

β-group

. Peter Edbury is

thus more inclined to place the manuscript somewhere outside the
crusader states, with reference to French scribes active elsewhere in
Eastern Mediterranean – such as in Apulia, Cyprus, Sicily, Morea
and not least in Lusignan Cyprus

However, Folda’s analysis of the illuminator’s still points towards

Antioch . How likely is it that a skilled French scribe and illumina-
tors influenced both from Baghdad and Italy, both quite independ-
ent of the scriptoria of Paris and Acre, but with some knowledge

565 at pp . 480-488, while the first guide to the manuscripts with modern shelf marks
was made by P . r

iAnt

, Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits de L’Eracles, in «Archives

de l’Orient Latin», I (1881), pp . 247-256, and pp . 716-717 . Riant included eleven
manuscripts in this group, but several manuscripts are fragmentary (if they had con-
tinuations is merely a hypothesis), and also a few that originally ended in 1184, with
continuations added by a later scribe, see e

dBury

, The French translation, p . 73 .

P . h

Andyside

, The Old French William of Tyre, Leiden 2015, p . 128 .

Recent surveys on French literate culture in Eastern Mediterranean include

C . A

slAnov

, Le français au Levant, jadis et naguère: à la recherché d’une langue perdue,

Paris 2006; L . m

inervini

, Produzione e circolazione di manoscritti negli stati crociati:

biblioteche e scriptoria latini, in Medioevo romanzo e orientale: Il viaggio dei testi, edi-
ted by A . Pioletti and F . Rizzo Nervo, Venezia 1999, pp . 79-96; i

., Le français dans

l’Orient latin (XIIIe - XIVe siècles). Éléments pour la caractérisation d’une scripta du
Levant, in «Revue de Linguistique Romane», LXXIV (2010), pp . 119-198; G . g

rivAud

Literature, in Cyprus. Society and culture 1191-1374, edited by A . Nicolaou-Konnari
and C . Schabel, Leiden 2005, pp . 219-284; G . p

Age

, Literature in Frankish Greece, in

A companion to Latin Greece, edited by N . I . Tsougarakis and P . Lock, Leiden 2015,
pp . 288-325 .

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of the crusader states and the illuminator specifically acquainted
with the topography of Antioch, would meet and work together at
the third quarter of the thirteenth century? The lack of Antiochene
manuscripts in the crusader period makes it impossible to use
scribal hands and mise en page to verify or falsify the origin of Pal .
Lat . 1963 to Antioch

. On the other hand, references to Antioch as

a city of learning and writing do exist . Especially in the early twelfth
century, the city was a link between Arabic and Latin culture . Both
Adelard of Bath and Stephen of Pisa stayed in Antioch and found
Arabic texts they translated into Latin

. Raymond of Poitiers, son

of William IX of Poitiers and the prince of Antioch 1136–1149, was,
according to William of Tyre, illiterate, but still a cultivator of lit-
erature . According to the Chanson de Chétifs, Raymond had asked a
canon of St . Peter’s at Antioch to compose this verse narrative based
on events at the crusade of 1101, in which his father participated

Early in the thirteenth century, Theodore of Antioch learned Syrian,
Latin and ‘sciences of the ancients’ in Antioch

. However, after his

initial education, he had to leave Antioch for more extensive studies
in medicine and mathematics and he eventually became connected
to the court of Frederick II . Frederick II went on crusade in 1228
and met Bohemund IV of Antioch in Cyprus on his way to the Holy
Land, and again in Acre in 1229 . He was also on friendly terms with

Conventionally, only a copy of the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium

from 1121, without any illuminations, has by any certainty been connected to an
Antiochene scriptorium . This manuscript (Milan, Ambrosiana, Cod . E . 7 sup .) proba-
bly belonged to Stephen of Antioch (aka Stephen of Pisa or Stephen the Philosopher),
a Pisan who became treasurer at the Benedictine monastery of St Paul in Antioch,
see C . S . F . B

urnett

, The transmission of Arabic astronomy via Antioch and Pisa in the

second quarter of the twelfth century, in The enterprise of science in Islam. New per-
spectives, edited by J . P . Hogendijk and A . I . Sabra Cambridge, Mass . 2003, pp . 23-51
(p . 35) .

C . S . F . B

urnett

, Antioch as a link between Arabic and Latin culture in the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in Occident et Proche-Orient. Contacts scientifiques au
temps des Croisades, edited by I . Draelants, A . Tihon and B . van den Abeele, Turnhout
2000, pp . 1-78; cf . R . h

iestAnd

, Un centre intellectuel en Syrie du Nord? Notes sur la

personnalité d’Aimery d’Antioche, Albert de Tarse et Rorgo Fretellus, in «Le Moyen Âge»,
C (1994), pp . 7-36 .

L . M . p

Aterson

, Occitan Literature and the Holy Land, in The world of Eleanor

of Aquitaine. Literature and society in Southern France between the eleventh and thirte-
enth century, edited by M . Bull and C . Léglu Woodbridge 2005, pp . 83-98 (pp . 85-88) .

B . Z . k

edAr

and E . k

ohlBerg

, The intercultural career of Theodore of Antioch,

in «Mediterranean Historical Review», X (1995), pp . 164-176 . The learned Jacobite
Bar-Hebraeus, who included a brief biography of Theodore in his works, had studied
in Antioch as well as in Tripoli .

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the Italian Albert, patriarch of Antioch 1226-1246, who occasionally
negotiated between the emperor and the papacy

. According to

the prologue of Livre de Sidrach, a French translation of the Book of
Sidrach, a text whose origin and language is unknown, a copy of this
work had been sent by Frederick’s philosopher ‘Todre’ (most likely
Theodore of Antioch) to Albert, Latin patriarch of Antioch

Some scholars have suggested that the ‘intellectual exile’ of

Theodore of Antioch at the court of Frederick II signals a growing
cultural isolation of Antioch in the thirteenth century, not provid-
ing those with high aspiration for learning with sufficient schools
and manuscripts

. Still, those interested in learning continued to

find some stimulus here . In 1219, the young magister Philip from
Umbria followed his uncle Ranerius to the Levant; Ranerius had
recently been appointed Latin patriarch of Antioch . In 1227 the pope
granted Philip a canonry in Tripoli, but a few years later he returned
to Antioch with the purpose of finding an Arabic manuscript of
the pseudo-Aristotelian work Secretum secretorum . Although rare,
Philip of Tripoli got his hands on a copy here and made the first
complete translation of this work into Latin

. Philip of Tripolis’

translation of Secretum secretorum could very well have been given
to Frederick II at his visit to Acre, as it appears to have been known
at his court already in the early 1230s .

In 1282, John of Antioch translated texts into French, among

them Otia Imperalia of Gervase of Tilbury and Cicero’s two work
De inventione and Rhetorica ad Herennium . He edited these two lat-
ter works into one work at the behest of the Hospitaller William of
Santo Stefano . Although working in Acre, he possibly had his early
learning in Antioch before its capture by the Mamluks in 1268

B . h

Amilton

, The Latin Church in the crusader states. The secular church,

London 1980, pp . 229-230 . Albert of Antioch had before being appointed patriarch in
Antioch been bishop elect of Brixen .

S . J . W

illiAms

, The Secret of Secrets. The scholarly career of a pseudo-Aristote-

lian text in the Latin Middle Ages, Ann Arbor 2003, p . 140 .

S . B . e

dgington

, Antioch: Medieval city of culture, in East and West in the

medieval Eastern Mediterranean, I, edited by K . N . Ciggaar and D .M . Metcalf, Leuven
2006, pp . 247-259 . After his short stay in Antioch in 1255, William of Rubruck descri-
bed the city as “in a gravely weakened condition”, The mission of Friar William of
Rubruck. His journey to the court of the Great Khan Möngke 1253-1255, translated
by P . Jackson, introduction, notes and appendices by P . Jackson with D . Morgan,
London 1990, p . 275 .

illiAms

, The Secret of Secrets, pp . 60-108 .

L . d

elisle

, Notice sur la Rhétorique de Cicéron traduite par maître Jean d’Antio-

che . Ms 590 du Musée Condé, in «Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque

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He also shows knowledge of Italian language and literature, and
presumably had close contact to Italian centres of learning

Philip of Tripoli and John of Antioch were not the only learned

men in Antioch linked to Italy in the mid-thirteenth century . The
presence of Italian clerics in Antioch seems to have been significant
at this time, and some of the popes actively sought to increase their
influence there . The most intriguing example is perhaps Opizzo
Fieschi (d . 1292) from Genoa, a relative (most likely grandnephew)
of Pope Innocent IV . He had been a papal legate in Prussia in 1245,
but in 1247, Innocent IV appointed him Latin patriarch of Antioch .
Opizzo probably went to Cyprus in the company of Louis IX in
1248, before his arrival in the Holy Land, first to Acre and then to
Antioch . He visited Rome in 1254 and on his return to the Holy Land
later in the same year he was accompanied by the friar Augustine
of Nottingham . Augustine was the brother of the provincial minis-
ter of the Franciscans in England, and had been appointed titular
bishop of Latakia . At around this time, Opizzo had a calendar for
the Antiochene church made, a calendar that remains one of the few
surviving sources to the liturgical practice for this crusader state

Furthermore, the translator of Secretum secretorum, Philip of
Tripoli, who originally had come from Italy, did business for Opizzo
Fieschi in 1257 and in 1259

. In 1264, however, Opizzo returned to

Rome and did not return the Holy Land . In Rome, he was associated
with his close relative Ottobuono Fieschi, who in 1276 briefly ruled
as a pope as Adrian V

nationale et autres bibliothèques», XXXVI (1899), 1-63; i

., Maître Jean d’Antioche,

traducteur, et Frère Guillaume de Saint-Étienne, Hospitalier, in «Histoire littéraire de
la France», XXXIII (1906), pp . 1-40 (esp . pp . 2-22); La Rectorique de Cyceron tradotta
da Jean d’Antioche, edited by E . Guadagnini, Firenze 2009 .

C . p

ignAtelli

, Jean d’Antioche et les exempla ajoutés à la traduction des Otia

imperalia de Gervais de Tilbury, in “Lors est ce jour grant joie nee”. Essais de langue
et littérature françaises du Moyen Âge, edited by M . Goyens and W . Verbeke, Leuven
2009, pp . 127-136; Les traductions françaises des ‘Otia imperialia’ de Gervais de Tilbury
par Jean d’Antioche et Jean de Vignay, Édition de la troisième partie, edited by C .
Pignatelli and D . Gerner, Genève 2006 .

V . s

Axer

, Le calendrier de l’Eglise latine d’Antioche à l’usage du patriarche

Opizzo ler Fieschi (1254-55), in «Rivista de storia della chiesa in Italia », XXVI (1972),
pp . 105-123 .

illiAms

, The Secret of Secrets, p . 82 .

On Opizzo’s career and his position in the Fieschi family, see D . C

AlCAgno

Il patriarca di Antiochia Opizzo Fieschi, diplomatico di spicco per la Santa Sede fra
Polonia, Oriente Latino ed Italia del XIII secolo, in I Fieschi tra Papato e Impero, edited
by D . Calcagno, Lavagna 1997, pp . 145-267; h

Amilton

, The Latin Church, pp . 231-235 .

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It can hardly be a coincidence that about the time of Opizzo’s

return to Italy, an unnamed cantor of Antioch asked Thomas
Aquinas to formulate arguments the Latin Christians could use
against the Saracens when debating with them . As a response to
this request, Aquinas wrote the short tract De Rationibus fidei contra
Saracenos during his stay in Orvieto in 1264

. Possibly, the cantor

had accompanied Opizzo to Rome, made the request to Aquinas in
Italy and then returned to Antioch with the tract in his hand .

The Antioch provenance and dating seems plausible, but not

conclusive . Pal . Lat . 1963 simply resists to be linked to a specific city
or scriptorium, but rather to a milieu where many cultures influ-
enced its production . The uniqueness of the manuscript corrobo-
rates a connection with a place of origin outside the other scriptoria
in the region connected to Eracles . The short survey of Antioch’s
position in the Eastern Mediterranean leaned culture given above,
at least do not contradict an origin in Antioch .

These considerations point to a scribe trained in Northern

France with knowledge of the east, cooperating with an illumina-
tor who had been influenced by several scriptoria in the Eastern
Mediterranean, but who, if making the illuminations in Italy or
Latin Greece, probably had stayed in Antioch for a considerable
time . Considering the contacts between Antioch and Italy, espe-
cially Rome, in the mid-thirteenth century, competent scribes and
itinerant illuminators working both in Italy and in Antioch would
seem as a distinct possibility . The learning of Theodore of Antioch,
the translation from Arabic by Philip of Tripoli, and the works in
French on the works of Cicero by John of Antioch,– all these suggest
a small, but active literary circle in Antioch . This milieu would have
had a lively contact to Western circles, with their translations being
known and influential in Italy and further west, while other texts
came to Antioch by Italy . Although politically and culturally some-
what marginalised in Outremer compared to Tripoli and Acre, and
with the increasing pressure from the Mamluks as a distinct threat,
the least years of Latin Antioch seems to have been vibrant, absorb-
ing impulses from both the Arab, Mongol and Italian cultures .

J . k

enny

, Reasons for the faith against Muslim objections (and one objection of

the Greeks and Armenians) to the Cantor of Antioch, in «Islamochristiana», XXII (1996),
pp . 31-52 . See also J . W

Altz

, Muhammad and the Muslims in St. Thomas Aquinas, in

«The Muslim World», LXVI (1976), pp . 81-95; J . t

olAn

, Saracens. Islam in the medie-

val European imagination, New York 2002, pp . 242-245; T . m

AstnAk

, Crusading peace.

Christendom, the Muslim world, and Western political order, Berkeley 2002, pp . 209-216 .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

Wnership

And

movements

Eracles-

mAnusCripts

urope

And

possiBle

routes

. l

. 1963

From

eAstern

editerrAneAn

orWAy

The French translation of William of Tyre’s chronicle met the

new expectations of a courtly audience in the thirteenth century,
writing a more entertaining prose chronicle in the vernacular, influ-
enced by romances and chansons

. In the words of John Pryor, the

text of the Eracles

was composed as an epic chronicle of the deeds of the French nobil-
ity in the crusades and in many respects suggests a prose version
of a chanson de geste ( . . .) The author was a cleric, probably drawn
from a noble family ( . . .) He was a Westerner, most probably hav-
ing connections with the Ile de France or Champagne ( . . .) Almost
certainly he had been on pilgrimage or crusade to the Holy Land
sometime after ca . 1180

Eracles tends to given extended emphasis on the role of the

French, and minimizing some of William of Tyre’s criticism against
some of the crusaders (notably the ‘elephant of God’, Renaud de
Châtillon) . In general, moralizing passages in the Latin chroni-
cle are omitted or condensed in Eracles, but the hostility towards
the Templars found in William of Tyre’s chronicle seems rather
strengthened than toned down

Of the many preserved manuscripts of Eracles, a handful are

connected to commissioners and owners . In addition to these

N . R . h

odgson

, Women, crusading and the Holy Land in historical narrative,

Woodbridge 2007, pp . 15-25 . See also G . M . s

piegel

, Romancing the past. The rise of ver-

nacular prose historiography in thirteenth-century France, Berkeley, 1993 . Spiegel does
not include Eracles or the continuations in her discussion, but discusses extensively
Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, a text copied frequently in scriptoria in the Holy Land .

J .H . p

ryor

, The Eracles and William of Tyre. An Interim Report, in The Horns of

Hattin. Proceedings of the second conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades
and the Latin East, edited by B . Z . Kedar, Jerusalem 1992, pp . 270-293 (p . 272) .

P . h

Andyside

, Differing views of Renaud de Châtillon: William of Tyre and

L’Estoire d’Eracles, in Deeds beyond the sea. Essays on William of Tyre, Cyprus and
the military orders presented to Peter Edbury, edited by S . B . Edgington and H . J .
Nicholson, Farnham 2014, pp . 43-52; h

Andyside

, The Old French William of Tyre,

pp . 75-77; B . h

Amilton

, The Old French translation of William of Tyre as an histo-

rical source, in The Experience of Crusading, vol . 2: Defining the crusader kingdom,
edited by P . Edbury and J . Phillips, Cambridge 2003, pp . 93-112; P . e

dBury

, The

Old French William of Tyre, the Templars and the Assassin envoy, in Hospitallers, the
Mediterranean, and Europe. Festschrift for Anthony Luttrell, edited by K . Borchardt, N .
Jaspert and H . Nicholson, Farnham 2007, pp . 25-37 .

jørn

andlien

manuscripts of known provenance, I will include references to lost
manuscripts, made for example in wills or chronicles, although the
texts hiding behind the titles listed in such sources are not always
clear . Although scant, the evidence points to owners of the royalty
or high nobility . In some cases, it is possible to speculate about the
various functions the text may have had; for example to remember
chivalric deeds, French identity connected to the crusading histo-
ry, to inspire new crusades, or as part of universal history . Another
intention for this section is to study the movements of such manu-
scripts, often from the Mediterranean courts to Northern Europe,
and connections between the Norwegian court and élite to other
milieus familiar with Eracles, and thus to try to say something
on the many possible routes Pal . Lat . 1963 may have taken from
Antioch to Bergen .

Friar Mauritius in the Holy Land in the 1270s
In the 1270s, we also find Norwegian crusaders in the Holy

Land . They had probably taken the cross after the preaching of a
crusade in the late 1260s by Clement IV

. In January 1271 a group

of nobles and their followers assembled at Selje, a place with special
religious symbolism as it was where St Sunniva was martyred . It
was led by the magnate Andres Nikolasson, who began his career in
the reign of King Håkon IV

One of those who accompanied Andres Nikolasson was the friar

Mauritius . Friar Mauritius is known from other sources as a dip-
lomat and envoy from the Norwegian kings to Scotland from the
1260s onwards . Mauritius returned to Norway 1274 and wrote an
itinerary of his travel to the Holy Land

. Only two leaves of this

See C . T . m

Aier

, Preaching the crusades. Mendicant friars and the cross in the

thirteenth century, Cambridge 1994, pp . 80-81 .

Andres Nikolasson had been in the entourage that accompanied the king’s

daughter to Spain in 1258, and on his return, he stayed a full year in France . In 1263,
he joined the campaign against Scotland . He was also one of the trusted men of King
Magnus Håkonsson, a pious king but who, as far as we know, never took the cross .
Andres died on his return from Jerusalem, see Islandske annaler indtil 1578, edited by
G . Storm, Christiania 1888, p . 331 .

The text is edited in Monumenta Historica Norvegiae, edited by Gustav Storm,

Kristiania 1880, pp . 165-168 . It has been translated into English by D . p

ringle

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187-1291, Aldershot 2012, pp . 237-240 .
See also B . B

Andlien

, Mauritius’ Itinerarium in Terram Sanctam og nordmennenes

reise til Det hellige land i 1270, in «Vellum», VI (2011), pp . 44-55 . Pringle follows r

iAnt

Expéditions, pp . 357-358, in dating the departure from Norway 1271 – the year for the
departure is not mentioned in the fragments . Riant’s source for the dating was the

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

itinerary are now preserved, as parts of a copy made in the late
thirteenth century for the Register of the Bishops of Bergen

. The

first leaf contains a description of the sea journey from Spain to
Sardinia, and the second leaf an account of distances and churches
to visit in The Holy Land . Paul Riant, the only scholar who has
tried to explain how Pal . Lat . 1963 came into the library of Queen
Isabella, suggested that Mauritius must be the one who brought the
manuscript to Bergen

Mauritius never went as far north as Antioch during his journey,

but if indeed the Pal . Lat . 1963 was produced in Antioch it could
have been removed before the conquest of the city by the Mamluks in
1268 . It might have been commissioned by Prince Bohemund VI who
became the ruler of Antioch in 1252, when he was only 15 years old .
During his reign, the principality experienced not only rivalry between
Venetians and Genoese, causing much trouble in the 1250s, but he
also had to handle the Mongol threat after their capture of Baghdad
and extension of their territories into Syria . Early in 1260, Bohemund
went to Baghdad and became Ilkhan Hülegü’s vassal, and the situation
seemed to be more stable

. He supported the Mongol troops when

Aleppo and Damascus were captured . Luck turned, however, and late
in September 1260 the Mamluk army defeated the Mongols at Ain

1858-edition of the sixteenth century chronicle by Absalon Pederssøn Beyer . Beyer
had seen the itinerary when it was complete, and according to the 1858-edition, he
dated the departure to 1271 . However, a manuscript of Beyer’s chronicle was reco-
vered after Riant’s published his study, and here the date is 1270 . Since Mauritius
described the route from Spain to Marseille and Cagliari, and Louis IX in July 1270
went from Marseille to Cagliari, it is tempting to connect the Norwegians’ pilgrimage
to the crusade in Tunis . Unfortunately, there are some leaves missing in the manu-
script, causing a lacuna in the itinerary after mentioning Cagliari until Mauritius rea-
ched Tartus . Because of the pagination made in the sixteenth century, we know that
three leaves, or six pages, are missing . If the journey started in January 1271, they
could have joined Edward who had left England in August 1270, but did not arrive at
Acre until May 1271; alternatively, they accompanied Edward’s brother Edmund who
left England in 1271 .

The fragments are part of the ms . 92 in the Latin fragment collection in the

State Archives in Oslo (in Storm’s introduction to his edition it is named ms . 29, a
mistake often repeated in later works) . In the sixteenth century, Absalon Pederssøn
Beyer had seen the manuscript when it was more complete and gives a few details
that otherwise would be lost, G . s

torm

, Historisk-topografiske Skrifter om Norge og

norske Landsdele, forfattede i Norge i det 16de Aarhundrede, Christiania 1895, p . 53 .

iAnt

, Expéditions, p . 440 n4 .

D . s

ourdel

, Bohemund VI et les chrétiens à Damas sous l’occupation mongole,

in Gesta Dei per Francos. Etudes sur les croisades dédiées à Jean Richard, edited by M .
Balard, J . Riley-Smith and B . Z . Kedar, Aldershot 2001, pp . 295-300 .

jørn

andlien

Jalut . From then on, the Mamluk pressure against Antioch increased,
and the city was finally captured in 1268 . Antioch was destroyed, but
Bohemund VI was then in Tripoli . Baibars besieged Tripoli in 1271,
but in May the English prince Edward arrived and negotiated a peace
treaty with Baibars, and it was not long after that the Norwegians,
including Andres and Mauritius, arrived . Mauritius mentioned that
Crac de Chevaliers had just fallen to the Saracens (April 1271) . The
Norwegians seem to have stayed behind after Edward left in autumn
1272, and they appear to have reached Jerusalem and visited the Holy
Sepulcher . As Mauritius also mentions Tripoli and Syria, it is quite
possible that the Norwegians met Bohemund VI and that he might
have given or sold the manuscript as a gift . Bohemund’s generosity
was also noticed by Joinville, who himself was offered many gifts
from the prince

. The costly manuscript might have been intended

for King Magnus in order to inspire him to help the pressured princi-
palities in the Holy Land .

Norwegians in Tunis and Egypt
A second possibility is that the manuscript was brought to

Norway by traders or envoys to a Muslim ruler in Northern Africa .
In 1262, there was a Norwegian embassy to Tunis led by the more or
less professional envoy and diplomat Lodin Lepp . Sturla Þórðarson,
the author of the saga that tells about this embassy, had probably
met Lodin himself and made a poem on how the Norwegians were
respectfully received by the “Soldan of Tunis” (elsewhere known as
the Hafsid ruler Mohammad al-Mustansir) and how the gifts they
brought from Norway were highly appreciated .

Sturla does not explain the purpose of this embassy, but it is

possible that the Norwegians had met envoys from al-Mustansir in
Valladolid in 1258

. At that time, the Norwegians accompanied

the daughter of King Håkon Håkonsson who was to be married to
the brother of King Alfonso X of Castile . In return, Alfonso X asked
the Norwegian king to assist him in a campaign against the hea-

oinville

, The Life of Saint Louis, in Chronicles of the Crusades, translated by

C . Smith, London 2008, p . 295 (§ 600) .

According to the Saga of King Håkon Håkonsson, there were many envoys

in Valladolid, “both Christian and heathens”, see Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, edited
by G .Vigfusson, London 1887, ch . 294 . Two of the leaders of the large entourage
of the daughter of King Håkon to Spain were the magnates Torlaug bósi and Ivar
Engelsson, went on to the Holy Land . Ivar died on the journey, while Torlaug later
returned from Jerusalem to Norway .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

thens

. There was a rumour that al-Mustansir was positive towards

Christianity and a potential convert and ally . Alfonso X or Louis IX
might have asked the Norwegians to bring al-Mustansir exotic gifts
on behalf of the Castilian king, or possibly for Jaume I of Aragon
who was on friendly terms with the emir

. This was an important

aspect in the last and not very successful crusade of the French king
Louis IX directed at North Africa in 1270 where he died of disease
outside Tunis

. To the Norwegians, the gifts may have been a kind

of advertising for northern falcons . Ibn Sa‘id al-Magribi, who was
working in Tunis and Cairo at the end of the thirteenth century,
mentions that falcons from the North were so prestigious that even
dead ones were bought for a very high price . Moreover, manuscripts
are known to have been sent from Tunis to the Angevin court of
Naples at this time, and it is not impossible that the Norwegians
also were offered manuscripts during their stay at the court of al-
Mustansir

This was probably the crusade against Morocco launched in 1260 . Henry III was

supposed to have assisted as well, but had neither finances nor papal approval, see B .
h

Amilton

, Eleanor of Castile and the crusading movement, in International contacts in the

medieval Mediterranean, edited by B . Arbel, London 1996, pp . 92-103 . The envoy from
Norway to Spain in 1255, the marriage of the daughter of King Håkon to don Felipe
in 1258, and the hope of assistance from the Norwegian king, are found in Hákonar
saga, chs . 284, 287-288, 290, 294, 296 . B . g

elsinger

, A thirteenth-century Norwegian-

Castilian Alliance, in «Medievalia et Humanistica», X (1981), pp . 55-80, connected the
alliance with Alfonso’s imperial ambitions and the need of control in the northern parts
of the empire . N . B

jørgo

, 800-1536: Makt og avmakt, in Norsk utenrikspolitisk historie,

vol . 1: Selvstendighet og union fra middelalderen til 1905, Oslo 1995, pp . 17-132, and J .
F . o’C

AllAghAn

, The Gibraltar Crusade. Castile and the battle for the Strait, Philadelphia

2011, p . 17, both argues for a connection to Alfonso’s need for a blockade at sea against
the Marinids in Morocco in 1260 . See also on the development of naval force of Castile
against the Moors, J . M . r

odríguez

ArCíA

, Idea and Reality of Crusade in Alfonso’s Reign,

in Autour de la première croisade, edited by M . Balard, Paris 1996, pp . 379-390 .

R . B

runsChvig

, La Berbérie orientale sous les Hafsides des origines à la fin du XVe

siècle, 2 vols . (Paris 1940-1947, vol . I, p . 50; o’C

AllAghAn

, Gibraltar Crusade, pp . 21-22 .

On the unstable rule of al-Mustansir, see R . r

ouighi

, The Making of a Mediterranean

Emirate. Ifr

īqiyā and Its Andalusis 1200-1400, Philadelphia 2011, pp . 34-37 . According

to a marginal addition in Annales regii, the Norwegians returned from Tunis in 1263
and were accompanied by envoys from al-Mustansir, see Islandske annaler, p . 135 .

R . I . B

urns

, Christian-Muslim confrontation in the West. The thirteenth-century

dream of conversion, in «American Historical Review», LXXVI (1971), pp . 1386-
1434; M . l

oWer

, Tunis in 1270. A Case Study of Interfaith Relations in the Late

Thirteenth Century, in «International History Review», XXVIII (2006), pp . 504-514;
i

., Conversion and St Louis IX’s Last Crusade, in «Journal of Ecclesiastical History»,

LVIII (2007), pp . 211-231 .

The most famous book from Tunis contained the Arabic text of the medical

jørn

andlien

Falcon trade might be the background for a later journey that

Lodin Lepp made to Egypt . According to an Icelandic saga, Lodin
made a visit to the ‘Soldan of Babylonia’ during the reign of King
Magnus Håkonsson (1263-1280)

. ‘Babylonia’ usually designates

Egypt at this time, and the addressee of the visit was most likely
Baibars or Qalawun, the Mamluk sultans of Egypt . After the con-
quests of the Mamluks in Syria, there were certainly many Christian
captives in Cairo . In addition, church portals and sculptural pieces
are known to have been removed from the Holy Land to Cairo after
the conquests of cities in Palestine

. It is not impossible that Pal .

Lat . 1963, along with other manuscripts, was taken as a part of
booty by the Mamluks after the conquest of Antioch in 1268 . On the
other hand, there continued to be a significant presence of Christian
merchants and artisans both there and in Alexandria

. The most

likely purpose was to promote trade, most probably of gyrfalcons

work al-Hawi, and was given to Charles I of Anjou . The work was translated by the
Jew Farag of Salerno and illuminated by Giovanni de Montecassino, and is now pre-
served as BnF lat . 6912, see C . C . C

oulter

, The Library of the Angevin Kings at Naples,

in «Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association», LXXV
(1944), pp . 141-155 (pp . 150-151); J . d

unBABin

, Charles I of Anjou. Power, kingship and

state-making in thirteenth-century Europe, London 1998, p . 209 .

Árna saga biskups, in Biskupa sögur, 3, edited by Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir,

Reykjavík 1998, pp . 1-212 (ch . 57, p . 81) . This saga was written early in the fourte-
enth century and is an important source for information . The author was probably
Árni Helgason, a priest at Skálholt during Lodin Lepp’s visit on Iceland in 1280-1281 .

Z . j

ACoBy

, Crusader sculpture in Cairo. Additional evidence on the Temple

area workshop of Jerusalem, in Crusader art in the twelfth century, edited by J . Folda,
Oxford 1982, pp . 121-138; D . p

ringle

, The churches of the Crusader Kingdom of

Jerusalem: A corpus, vol . 4: The cities of Acre and Tyre, with addenda and corrigenda to
vol. I-III, Cambridge 2009, pp . 24-25 .

J . l

oiseAu

, Frankish captives in Mamluk Cairo, in «Al-Masaq», XXIII (2011),

pp . 37-52; O . r

emie

onstABle

, Funduq, Fondaco, and Khān in the wake of Christian

commerce and crusade, in The Crusades from the perspective of Byzantium and the
Muslim world, edited by A . E . Laiou and R . P . Mottahedeh, Washington DC 2001,
pp . 145-156; D . B

ehrens

-A

BouseiF

, European arts and crafts at the Mamluk court, in

«Muqarnas», XXI (2004), 45-54 .

iAnt

, Expéditions, p . 376 speculated that the purpose was a commercial

treaty, a suggestion accepted by L . de m

Atrie

, Relations et commerce de l’Afrique

septentrionale ou Maghreb avec les nations chrétiennes au Moyen Age, Paris 1886,
pp . 242-243 . The Genoese traded with the Mamluks in this period, and the Mamluks
seems to have been eager to promote trade with Christian merchants, see for exam-
ple Baibars’ treatise from 1271, in P .M . h

olt

, Early Mamluk diplomacy, 1260-1290.

Treatises of Baybars and Qalawun with Christian rulers, Leiden 1995, pp . 49-57; see
also L . S . n

orthrup

, From slave to sultan. The career of Al-Mansur Qalawun and the

consolidation of Mamluk rule in Egypt and Syria (678-689 A.H./1279-1290 A.D.),

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

Although there are little direct evidence for falcon trade with the
Mamluks, it is telling that King Magnus Eriksson in 1347 asked
the pope for permission to export falcons to the land of “Soldan of
Babilonia” . Since this trade was very profitable, it would finance
his crusade against the Russians

. There is thus a distinct pos-

sibility that manuscript may have been given to the Norwegians in
exchange for falcons or another exotic gift in the 1270s

The French connection
A third hypothesis as to how Pal . Lat . 1963 came in the posses-

sion of Isabella Bruce is that it first arrived in France, and from there
was brought to Norway . After all, most of the Eracles manuscripts
made are connected to Northern France . The earliest of the extant
Eracles manuscripts that includes illuminations is BnF fr . 9081 .
This manuscript was probably made in the mid-1240s, and – like
Pal . Lat . 1963 – is one of the few that did not include a continuation
of William of Tyre’s chronicle . The illuminations in BnF fr . 9081
point to a workshop in Paris that also produced psalters and Bible
moralisées for the French royal family

. It has been suggested that

Stuttgart 1998, pp . 281-296; Y . F

riedmAn

, Encounters between enemies. Captivity and

ransom in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Leiden 2002, pp . 99-102; A . S . A

tiyA

, Egypt

and Aragon. Embassies and diplomatic correspondence between 1300 and 1330 A.D.,
Leipzig 1938 . One commodity much sought after in Norway and Iceland was expen-
sive textiles, such as for example fustan, probably cotton weaved in a certain pattern,
often used in chasubles . D .M . d

unlop

, Relations between Norway and the Maghrib

in the 7

/13

Century, in «Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society», XI (1979),

pp . 41-44, adds little to this, besides confirming that there are hard to find direct
references to Norwegians in Tunis or Egypt in Arabic sources .

Diplomatarium Norvegicum, eds . C .A . Lange et al ., 23 vols ., Christiania/Oslo

1847-2011, vol . VII, no . 198 (hereafter cited as DN) . See in general G . h

oFmAnn

Falkenjagt und Falkenhandel in den nordischen Ländern während des Mittelalters, in
«Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur», LXXXVIII (1957-1958),
pp . 115-149; B . F

ritz

and E . o

delmAn

, Svensk falkexport till Egypten på medeltiden.

Studier kring en affärshandling från 1345 i Barcelona, in «Rättshistoriska studier»,
XVIII (1992), pp . 64-94 .

Another exotic gift could have been polar bears . One polar bears ended up in

Damascus, as a gift from Frederick II to al-Kamil, see T . J . o

lesen

, Polar Bears in the

Middle Ages, in «Canadian Historical Review», XXXI (1950), pp . 47-55 .

On the use of the Old Testament imagery for crusading ideology in one of the

manuscripts of Bible moralisée associated with Louis IX (Vienna, Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek Cod . 2554), see C . m

Aier

, The bible moralisée and the Crusades,

in The Experience of Crusading, vol . 1: Western approaches, edited by M . Bull and N .
Housley, Cambridge 2002, pp . 209-221; D . H . s

triCklAnd

, Saracens, demons and Jews.

Making monsters in medieval art, Princeton 2004, pp . 171-173 .

jørn

andlien

BnF fr . 9081 was commissioned by the king, his mother Blanche of
Castile, or someone close to them . The copy would probably have
been used by Louis IX himself in the immediate years before the
first crusade in 1248, perhaps as a part of a mental preparation for
the journey to the Levant

The Dominican Humbert of Romans (d . 1277), an eager cru-

sader preacher and a friend of Louis IX, recommended preachers
of the crusades to use, besides the Old Testament battles connected
with the Holy Land, also chronicles about the crusades and images
based on these stories . He implores preachers to have a knowledge
of history, ‘for this science, dealing with both the faithful and infi-
dels, abounds in examples which furnish the preacher with valuable
lessons .’

. He recommended the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle, Historia

transmarina by Jacques de Vitry, and for the heroic story of the cap-
ture of Antioch, the chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and the history
of ‘episcopus tyrensis’

The Norwegian efforts in the crusading movement in the thir-

teenth century have not acquired the same fame as the crusade of
King Sigurd Magnusson’s participation at the siege of Sidon in 1110 .
King Håkon IV Håkonsson (1217-1263) was on friendly terms with
the leading rulers who had taken the cross in the early thirteenth
century; Louis IX (1226–1270), Henry III (1216–1272), Frederick II
(1220-1250), and Alfonso X (1252-1284) . In 1237, Håkon IV him-
self took the cross

. This seems to have been well known to other

European rulers who requested Håkon’s participation in the expedi-
tions; probably because the Norwegian fleet would have made the
logistics in their planned expeditions easier

oldA

, Crusader Art in the Holy Land from the Third Crusade, pp . 235-236 .

umBert

omAns

, Treatise on Preaching, translated by the Dominican

Students Province of St . Joseph, edited by W . M . Conlon, Westminster 1951, ch . 2 .2
(p . 30) .

P . J . C

ole

, Humbert of Romans and the Crusade, in Experience of Crusading,

vol . 1: Western approaches, edited by M . Bull and N . Housley, Cambridge 2003,
pp . 157-174, see also h

umBert

omAns

, Liber de predicatione sct. Crucus, edited by

K . v

illAds

ensen

, in Scriptores ordinis predicatorum online, Odense, 2007, especially

chs . 16 and 43 . http://www .jggj .dk/saracenos .htm (read 03 .11 .2014) .

Islandske annaler, pp . 130, 188, 327 . Gregory IX in 1241 allowed King Håkon

to fight his heathen neighbours instead of going to the Holy Land, DN I 24 . Innocent
IV referred to Håkon’s promise in 1246 (DN I 33), 1247 (DN I 40; DN VII 19), and
1252-1253 (DN I 47, 48) . Urban IV admonished King Håkon in 1262 to be ready to
fight the Tartars in the Holy Land, Hungary and Poland (DN I 55; cf . nos . 56-57) .

Most famous is perhaps how Louis IX asked King Håkon to lead his crusading

fleet in 1247, reported by the envoy himself, Matthew Paris (Chronica Majora, edited

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

King Håkon’s engagement in the crusades has been judged as

somewhat half-hearted at best

. King Håkon seems to have used

the crusading discourse for his own purposes

. The same applied

to the two most powerful magnates in Norway during the reign of
Håkon

However, there might have been some Norwegians who went to

the Holy Land during King Håkon’s reign

. According to Joinville,

a certain Elnart of Seninghem came to Caesarea to join Louis IX
in 1251 . He had hired a ship in Norway and brought with him nine
knights

. Several scholars have taken Elnart for being a Norwegian,

since his ship came from Norway . This is mistaken, as already Riant
pointed out, since this must refer to Elinard of Seninghem in the
vicinity of Saint-Omer in Flanders

. Riant suggested that some of

by H .R . Luard, 7 vols ., London 1872-1884, IV, 651) . On the relations with Frederick
II, see T . B

ehrmAnn

, Norwegen und das Reich unter Hákon IV (1217-1263) und

Friedrich II (1212-1250), in Hansische Literaturbeziehungen. Das Beispiel der Þiðreks
saga und verwandter Literatur, edited by S . Kramarz-Bein, Berlin 1996, pp . 27-50 . On
the relationship between King Håkon and King Alfonso X, see the discussion above .

Henry III met similar charges, both by modern historians and by contem-

porary writers, see C . t

yermAn

, England and the Crusades, 1095-1588, Chicago

1988, pp . 111-112; A . J . F

orey

, The Crusading Vows of the English King Henry III, in

«Durham University Journal», LXV (1973), pp . 229-247 .

See for instance B . W

eiler

, The Negotium Terrae Sanctae in the Political

Discourse of Latin Christendom, 1215-1311, in «International History Review», XXV
(2003), pp . 1-36 .

Earl Skule Bårdsson took the cross in 1226 (DN I 9-10), and seemed to have

planned to go in 1229 (DN IX 2), in connection to Frederick II’s crusade . In 1233 and
in 1235 Skule prepared for a crusade (DN XIX 209 and 219), but this was never to be .
Also Earl Knut took the cross in the 1230s, but was in 1243 allowed to either assist
Hungary against the Tartars, or pay what the crusade would have cost him (DN I 27) .
There were few Norwegians fighting against Mongols, see J . H . l

ind

, Mobilisation of

the European periphery against the Mongols, in The reception of medieval Europe in the
Baltic Sea region, Visby 2009, pp . 75-90 .

Several Norwegian magnates who went to the Holy Land early in the thir-

teenth century . Reidar sendimaðr and Peter steypir went to the Holy Land in 1210 .
While Peter died during the journey, Reidar continued to Constantinople and died
there in 1214 . In 1217, a large fleet headed for the Holy Land, led by Sigurd, Roar
(both were relatives to King Håkon), Gaut Jonsson of Mel and Erlend Torbergsson
(a nephew of the former Archbishop Eysteinn of Nidaros) . In 1222, Ogmund of
Spånheim went to Jerusalem by way of Russia (Hákonar saga, ch . 81), and in 1229
Andres skjaldarband, a relative of King Håkon, headed for Jerusalem, but disappea-
red on sea on his way there, apparently taking the sea route into the Mediterranean
(Hákonar saga, ch . 164) .

oinville

, The Life of Saint Louis, p . 267 (§493) .

iAnt

, Expéditions, pp . 352-353; and with revised notes in the Danish transla-

tion of this work, Skandinavernes Korstog og Andagtsreiser til Palæstina (1000-1350),

jørn

andlien

the nine knights might have been Norwegians, but it seems more
likely that Elinard’s companions were from his home district .

However, it is curious that Elinard bothered to travel to Norway,

most likely to Bergen, to acquire a ship – this can hardly be a coin-
cidence . Moreover, it is difficult to imagine that Elinard and his
nine knights sailed to Caesarea themselves; they needed a crew for
the ship as well . Thus, it seems likely that the ship had a Norwegian
crew, perhaps some who had taken the cross and were experienced
at sea . It might be that Innocent IV referred to these men in a letter
dated 29 November 1250 . The Dominican Prior and the Franciscan
Minister of the province of Alemannia were ordered to help to
urge and persuade all those who had taken the cross in Frisia and
Norway ‘to sail to the relief of the Holy Land by the next passage’,
that is by spring 1251

. Instead of going himself, King Håkon IV

might have assisted Elinard by providing a ship and a crew . Elinard
was probably related to the chatelaine family of Saint-Omer who
had a special connection to the Holy Land . Several of its members
had been rulers of the Principality of Galilee or Tiberias, one of the
four major seigneuries of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, in the twelfth
century

. After the Fourth Crusade, the family acquired land in

Frankish Greece . Perhaps the most famous member of this family in
the late thirteenth century was Nicholas II of Saint-Omer, who mar-
ried Mary of Antioch and built the castle of Theben (see below) . The
connections between Saint-Omer and Norway around 1300 seems to
have concerned mostly trade . A certain Ingelram of Saint-Omer is
mentioned as a citizen of Nidaros (Trondheim) in the early years of
the fourteenth century . He was regularly trading in Lynn in England
in the period 1305-1314, and at least on one occasion, he was in the
companionship with Johannes Page of Saint-Omer

Copenhagen 1868, pp . 492-493 .

Les Régistres d’Innocent IV, edited by É . Berger, 3 vols . Roma 1888-1895,

II, no . 4927; translated in P . j

ACkson

, The Seventh Crusade, 1244-1254. Sources and

Documents, Aldershot 2009, p . 198 . My interpretation of these two sources differs
slightly from Jackson, p . 23 .

On the rule and rivalry over this principality by the family of Saint-Omer

up to the mid-twelfth century, see H . E . m

Ayer

, The Crusader Principality of Galilee

between Saint-Omer and Bures-sur-Yvette, in Itinéraires d’Orient. Hommages à Claude
Cahen, edited by R . Curiel and R . Gyselen, Bures-sur-Yvette 1994, pp . 157-167 .

DN XIX 440-441, and 487 . On Ingelram of Saint-Omer, see A . B

ugge

, Norge

og de Britiske Øer i Middelalderen, in «Historisk Tidsskrift», XXIII (1914), pp . 299-378
(p . 345) . Ingelram is a version of the form of the French Enguerrand, a name very
popular for instance among the lords of Coucy in the thirteenth century .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

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. l

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Although Louis IX never made it to the Holy Land in 1270, the

contact between France and the Holy Land continued . This is wit-
nessed for instance by the import of manuscripts from Acre

. The

political and cultural relations between Norway and France were
also close in the latter part of the thirteenth century . We have already
mentioned the offer from Louis IX to King Håkon IV of Norway
to lead the crusading fleet in 1249 . In 1258, some of those who
accompanied Kristin, daughter of Håkon IV Håkonsson, to Spain,
visited King Louis on behalf of King Håkon . One of them, Andres
Nikolasson (the same who went on crusade in the early 1270s),
stayed a full year in France on his return . The Christina Psalter may
have been a gift from Louis IX to the Norwegian princess, as she was
on her way to marry don Felipe of Castilla and Léon, the brother of
Alfonso X . This manuscript was made in Paris in the 1230s, perhaps
originally commissioned by Blanche of Castile for her children . It
shows affinities with the famous Toledo-New York Bible that was
given by Louis IX to Alfonso X some years before

In 1274, during his stay at the Council of Lyons, Archbishop Jon

of Nidaros received from Philip III a thorn from the Crown of Christ
kept in Sainte-Chapelle . It is said to have been preserved in a crystal
carried by a silver angel . In Norway, King Magnus Håkonsson hand-
ed the relic over to the Church of Apostles in Bergen, and the recon-
struction and enlargement of the church started in 1275 . Although
smaller than to Sainte-Chapelle, this royal chapel was most likely
intended as a Norwegian parallel

J . F

oldA

, Crusader Manuscript Illumination at Saint-Jean-d’Acre, Princeton 1976 .

Copenhagen, Royal Library, GKS 1606 4° . See M . v

idAs

, The Christina Psalter.

A study of the images and texts in a French early thirteenth-century illuminated manu-
script, Copenhagen 2006, esp . pp . 50-53 . An alternative explanation is that Matthew
Paris brought it to Norway when he, on behalf of Louis IX, tried to recruit King
Håkon to join the crusade in 1248 . If Kristin indeed received the manuscript in
France and had it with her in Spain, someone in her retinue might have taken it to
Norway after her premature death in 1262 .

De Spinea Corona, in Monumenta Historica Norvegiæ, pp . 161-162 . Edward

I was also inspired by Sainte-Chapelle in his decoration of the painted chamber at
Westminster and the memorials of his queen Eleanore of Castile in the 1290s, see M .
M . r

eeve

, The painted chamber at Westminster, Edward I and the crusade, in «Viator»,

37 (2006), pp . 189-221; N . C

oldstreAm

, Eleanor of Castile and the New Jerusalem,

in Image, memory and devotion. Liber Amicorum Paul Crossley, edited by Z . Opa

čić

and A . Timmermann, Turnhout 2011, pp . 223-228 . A possible countergift from the
Norwegian king to King Philip III is a magnificent walrus tusk with runes that was
kept in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris . It is now in Florence, see H . k

oht

, Gange-Rolvs

drikkehorn?, in «Historisk Tidsskrift», XXVIII (1928), pp . 344-355; Norges indskrifter

jørn

andlien

King Philip IV continued to have close contact with the Norwegian

kingdom . In 1295, the Norwegian baron Audun Hugleiksson (who in
1290 had sealed the Brigham treaty in Scotland) negotiated the trea-
ty that led to a Franco-Scottish-Norwegian alliance . He also made
a deal with Comtess Marie de Mercœur (widow of Jean I of Joigny)
that the Norwegian Duke Håkon Magnusson, later King Håkon V
(1299-1319), was to marry her daughter Isabella

. Some years later,

in 1299, Audfinn Sigurdsson met Philip IV to receive 60 Parisian
livres for a falcon that his brother Arne had given to the king . Arne
Sigurdsson is called a canon of Bergen and student at Orléans at the
time, and most likely his brother Audfinn also studied there . They
both became bishops in Bergen in the early fourteenth century

and

were close friends of Isabella Bruce . A book catalogue that has been
connected to Bishop Arne Sigurdsson of Bergen lists 34 books, most
of them Latin titles on theology, canon law and grammatics . Many
of them probably were of French origin, but most are now lost

A beautiful illuminated French Bible from the middle thirteenth
century, probably produced in Paris, is preserved, although we do
not know when and how it came to Norway

. Even more interest-

ing is a copy of De regimine principum mentioned in the testament
of the baron Bjarne Audunsson in 1320 . Although several works
by different authors were known by this title, it is probably that by
Giles of Rome written at the end of the 1270s . It was commissioned
by Philip III and soon after translated to French . It became popular

med de yngre runer, vol . V, ed . M . Olsen, Oslo 1960, pp . 236-237; A . l

iestøl

, Andres

gjorde meg, in «Universitetets Oldssakssamlings årbok» (1979), pp . 228-234 .

DN V 29 . Håkon married Eufemia of Rügen in 1299 .

A . O . j

ohnsen

, Hvor studerte biskopbrødrene Arne og Audfinn?, in «Historisk

Tidsskrift», XXXVI (1952), pp . 89-98 . In 1320, Pål Bårdsson, another canon of
Bergen, studied in Orléans and Paris . Pål later became archbishop of Nidaros 1333-
1346 . Bishop Håkon Erlingsson of Bergen 1330-1342 had most likely studied in
Orléans .

Three manuscripts connected to Bishop Arne are preserved, all in Uppsala

Library, C 29, C 233, C 564, containing works that shows he was updated on con-
temporary theology and canon law, see O . k

olsrud

and G . r

eiss

, Tvo norrøne latinske

kvæde med melodiar, Kristiania 1913 .

By the end of the fourteenth century it is connected to the Archbishopric of

Nidaros, see O . g

Arstein

, Erkebiskop Aslak Bolts Bibel fra midten av 1200-tallet, in

«Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok- og Biblioteksväsen», LXXVI (1989), pp . 97-111 . King
Håkon V sponsored a French Bible for the Dominicans in Haderslev in 1310, althou-
gh this Bible had not been in Norway, see E . p

etersen

, Broder Knud fra Haderslev

og en Bibel fra Frankrig, in «Magasin fra Det Kongelige Bibliotek», XV:4 (2002),
pp . 45-53 .

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Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

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orWAy

in England and elsewhere in Europe, but if Bjarne had brought it
with him from France after his studies in the 1290s, his lost copy
might have been one of the first manuscripts of Giles’ work outside
of France . From the title it seems to be the Latin, not the French,
version that was in Norway at this time . Some years later parts of
Giles’ work, together with parts of Thomas Aquinas’ advice to the
king of Cyprus, were translated into Swedish for the young Magnus
Eriksson, king of both Norway and Sweden from 1319

Most spectacular were the gifts from King Philip IV to King

Håkon V in 1303 or 1304 . He gave two relics to the Norwegian king .
The first was two gilded angels in silver holding a crown of gold with
a thorn from the Crown of Thorns in it . The second item was an
image of St . Louis in silver with a crown of gold and a golden basin
that mirrored the image . The combination of these relics indicates
a special relationship between kingship and Christ, and was placed
in the royal chapels that were founded with papal permission

. To

Håkon V, these relics were clearly of great value . He built a chapel
close to Bergen dedicated to St . Louis and included the relic of the
Holy Thorn in his royal chapel in St . Mary’s Church in Oslo . At
this time Håkon V tried to establish, partly inspired by Philip IV,
a network of royal chapels with clergy that were for the most part
exempt from episcopal control, something that was granted by Pope
Clement V in 1308

. The relics from France became closely related

DN XVI 2 . A . O . j

ohnsen

, En lærebok for konger fra kretsen omkring Håkon

V Magnusson, Oslo 1973 . Some decades later, Giles of Rome’s work was adapted
into a Swedish prince’s mirror, see C . p

éneAu

, Um styrilsi konunga ok höfþinga, un

miroir inspiré de Gilles de Rome dans la Suède de la première moitié du XIVe siècle, in
Le Prince au miroir de la littérature politique de l’Antiquité aux Lumières, edited by F .
Lachaud and L . Scordia, Mont-Saint-Aignan 2007, pp . 191-216 .

A . O . j

ohnsen

, Filipp IV’s relikviegaver til Håkon V (1303-1304), in «Historisk

tidsskrift», XLIV (1965), pp . 151-156; cf . M . C . g

AposChkin

, The Making of Saint Louis.

Kingship, sanctity, and crusade in the later Middle Ages, Ithaca 2008, p . 77 . The surplus
of thorns of Norway made it possible for King Håkon V to give one of them to the
cathedral of Skara . Bishop Brynolf Algotsson of Skara also had studied in Paris along
with his brothers, who had been envoys and courtiers in Norway since the 1290s, see
S .-B . j

Ansson

, Algotssönerna och den höviska kulturen, in Brynolf Algotsson – scenen,

mannen, rollen, edited by K .-E . Tysk, Skara 1995, pp . 51-68; R . e

kre

, Pilgrimsvägarna

genom Lödöse och törntaggens färd till Skara, in Biskopen och törntaggen, edited by J .
Hagberg, Skara 2003, pp . 45-68 .

DN I 113-115; DN VI 70 . Håkon V sent his chancellor Åke to the curia of

Clemens V in Poitiers, and he stayed for a full year from the summer of 1307 to
1308, see B . B

Andlien

, Åke kansler i Poitiers, in En aktivist for middelalderbyen Oslo.

Festskrift til Petter B. Molaug, edited by L .-M . B

ohAnsen

, Oslo 2015, pp . 165-187 .

jørn

andlien

to the royal ideology and power in the early fourteenth century .

If Pal . Lat . 1963 had been brought to Acre after the fall of

Antioch in 1268, perhaps by John of Antioch or someone like him,
France would have been the natural destination for the manuscript .
Had it been at the royal court of Philip III or Philip IV, or circulat-
ing at the university, at the end of the thirteenth century there are
many visitors to and from Norway who might have bought it there
or received it as a gift for the Norwegian court .

The English connection
Another early Eracles-manuscript, perhaps slightly post-dating

BnF fr . 9081, has been attributed an English origin (British Library,
Yates Thompson MS 12)

. However, its provenance is debated –

there are scribal conventions and stylish features that point to Paris
and Picardy, or even further south or east . Alison Stones has sug-
gested that the illuminations in Yates Thompson 12 were the work
of an itinerant painter named Nicolaus, known from some Italian
manuscripts connected to Rome, but with a style heavily influenced
from Paris

. Itinerant scribes and illuminators frequented Italian

courts in the later thirteenth century – also Englishmen who had
been trained in Paris, is found working in Italy

. However, Jaroslav

Folda has recently argued for an English provenance, possibly to a
scriptorium in Salisbury, where the artist made a wholly independ-
ent cycle of illuminations compared to other manuscripts

The illuminations in Yates Thompson 12 might be connected to

frescos made for English king . Henry III commissioned the paint-
ing of no less than four so-called ‘Antioch chambers’ between 1250
and 1252 (first for the Queen’s Chamber at Westminster, followed
by commissions at the Tower of London, Winchester Castle and
Clarendon Palace) . Although the motivation for these commissions
may have been to remember the deeds of Robert Curthose at the

oldA

, Crusader manuscript illumination, p . 32n33 .

A . s

tones

, Review of F. Avril and M-T. Gousset, in collaboration with C. Rabel,

Manuscrits enluminés d’origine italienne, 2: XIIIe siècle, in «Speculum», LXI (1986),
pp . 886-890 (p . 889) .

This is especially the case with Paris and Bologna, see R . H . r

ouse

and M . A .

ouse

, Bound fast with letters. Medieval writers, readers, and texts, Notre Dame 2013,

pp . 423-458 .

J . F

oldA

, The Panorama of the Crusades, 1096 to 1218, as seen in Yates

Thompson MS. 12 in the British Library, in The study of medieval manuscripts of
England. Festschrift in honor of Richard W. Pfaff, edited by G . H . Brown and L . E .
Voigts, Tempe 2010, pp . 253-280 .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

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. l

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orWAy

capture of Antioch in 1098, at a time Henry III himself had taken
his second (of three in all) crusading vow

. Furthermore, since

the first painted chamber is connected to Queen Eleanor, sister of
Queen Margaret of Provence, she might have sought to encourage
her husband to join his brother-in-law Louis IX in the Holy Land

Although the mural paintings in the chambers are lost, it is recorded
that King Henry III requested a great book (librum magnum) written
in French (gallico ydiomate scriptum) from the Master of the English
Templars at the New Temple in London . The book was to be used
by one of the king’s painters who decorated a room in Westminster
in 1250 . Several scholars have suggested that this book was the
Chanson d’Antioch, but it may very well have been a copy of the
French version of William of Tyre’s chronicle similar to the Yates
Thompson 12

. These images may have been commissioned both

for the piety of the king, and for him to remember the deeds of his
brave ancestors .

An obvious hypothesis would be that Prince Edward or Eleanor

of Castile brought the Eracles manuscript back from the Holy Land
in 1272, or perhaps some of the many other nobles that returned
with them . While the book export from the Holy Land to France
flourished, it seems that fewer manuscripts reached England in the
thirteenth century . However, there is some scattered evidence of
general import of goods from the Holy Land in the late thirteenth
century . Queen Eleanor of Castile had contact with the merchant
Roger of Acre, from whom she bought metalwork, silk and other
goods from Outremer

. A book that most likely was brought from

the Holy Land was a French translation of Vegetius’ De re militari .
It has been suggested that it was commissioned by Queen Eleanor

S . l

loyd

, King Henry III, the crusade and the Mediterranean, in England and

her neighbours 1066-1453. Essays in honour of Pierre Chaplais, edited by M . Jones and
M . Vale, London 1989, pp . 97-120 (pp . 102-103) . Lloyd suggests that it depicted the
legendary single combat between Robert Curthose and Kerbogha outside Antioch .

odgson

, Women, crusading and the Holy Land, pp . 116-119; L . J . W

hAtley

Romance, crusade, and the Orient in King Henry III of England’s Royal Chambers, in
«Viator», XLIV:3 (2013), pp . 175-198 (pp . 178-179) .

hAtley

, Romance, crusade, and the Holy Land, pp . 185-187 follows earlier

suggestions that it was Chanson d’Antioch without considering the possibility of
Eracles, but see D . j

ACoBy

, Knightly values and class consciousness in the Crusader

States of the Eastern Mediterranean, in «Mediterranean Historical Review», I:2 (1986),
pp . 158-186 .

J . C . p

Arsons

, The Court and Household of Eleanor of Castile in 1290, Toronto

1977, p . 85; t

yermAn

, England and the Crusades, pp . 232-233 .

jørn

andlien

of Castile when staying in the Holy Land with her husband Edward
in 1271-1272

. Edward also seems to have brought romances

with him to the east . Rustichello de Pisa, famous for writing the
Devisement du Monde on the travels of Marco Polo in a Genovese
prison in 1298, compiled a book of romances based on a manuscript
belonging to Edward of England who was in Sicily in 1270-1271 .
It has been suggested that Rustichello himself followed Edward
from Sicily to the Holy Land and that the romances in Edward’s
manuscript was left behind or copied in Acre . The manuscript may
perhaps have inspired the plays based on romances of the Knights of
the Round Table performed by knights in connection to the corona-
tion of Henry II of Lusignan as king of Jerusalem in 1286

L . t

horpe

, Mastre Richard, a Thirteenth-Century Translator of the De Re

Militari of Vegetius, in «Scriptorium», VI (1952), pp . 39-50; F

oldA

, Crusader manu-

script illumination, pp . 16-17; C . A

llmAnd

, The De re militari of Vegetius. The recep-

tion, transmission and legacy of a Roman text in the Middle Ages, Cambridge 2011,
pp . 152-156 . This is the first known translation of this work into the vernacular .
Master Richard is otherwise unknown, but if the date and context of the translation is
correct, he probably worked in Acre . Richard does not name the patroness, only that
he promised to return to the lady’s service in France – implying that she is in France
while he was working on the translation in Acre, see r

ouse

and r

ouse

, Bound Fast

with Letters, p . 221 . If it is indeed Eleanor, she might have been in Bayonne where
she gave birth to Alphonse in 1273 .

E . l

öseth

, Le Roman en prose de Tristan, Le Roman de Palamède et la

Compilation de Rusticien de Pise: Analyse critique du Roman de Tristan en prose
Française, Paris 1890, pp . 423-424: …et sachiez tout vraiement que cist livres fut tran-
slatez du livre monseigneur Edouart, le roi d’Engleterre, en cellui temps que il passa
oultre la mer ou service nostre seigneur Dame Dieu pour conquester le saint sepulcre, et
maistre Rusticiens de Pise, le quel est ymaginez yci dessus, compila ce rommant . In the
epilogue of the romance Meliadus, it is said that Rustichello wrote the compilation on
the behest of King Edward I: …ians est de pluseurs hystoires et de pluseurs croniques
don’t je les ay estraites et compilees a la requeste du roy Edouart d’Engleterre, sicomme
il est contenu au commencement de mon livre (l

öseth

, Le Roman en prose de Tristan,

p . 472) . On the thematic overlap between Rustichello’s Arthurian romance and
the Devisement du Monde, see J . R . g

oodmAn

, Chivalry and Exploration, 1298-1630,

Woodbridge 1998, pp . 83-103 . The festivities in Acre in 1286 is mentioned in Geste
di Chipre: “And great festivities were held at Tyre . And when the king came to Acre,
they put on a festival that lasted fifteen days in a place at Acre called the Auberge of
the Hospital of St . John, where the Hospitallers had a very great palace . It was the
loveliest festival anyone had seen for a hundred years, with amusements and jousts
with blunted lances . They re-enacted the stories of the Round Table and also of the
Queen of Feminie, with knights dressed up like women jousting together . Then they
had nuns who were dressed as monks and who jousted together (bendois, ‘blindfol-
ded’?), and they role-played Lancelot and Tristan and Pilamedes and many other fair
and delightful and pleasant scenes .” (The ‘Templar of Tyre’, Part III of the ’Deeds of the
Cypriots’, translated by P . Crawford, Aldershot 2003, pp . 86-87 (§439)) . On the pos-

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

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. 1963)

orWAy

Antioch seems to have had a special prestige in England . Thus,

books and items from this city would probably have had some spe-
cial prestige in England . Several inventories from 1295 onwards
makes special mention of ‘cloth of Antioch’, perhaps brought from
the Holy Land when Prince Edward returned or possibly imported
later via the Mamluks

. As seen above, Henry III had already in

1250 commissioned his Antioch chambers and one of painters seems
to have used a manuscript of Eracles as a model . The Fieschi family
again seems to have been crucial in the communication between
the Mediterranean and England, something that Edward II’s let-
ter to the Emperor Andronicus II of October 1313 might reveal .
This letter concerned the request of the release of the Englishman
Giles of Argenteim who had been captured on his way to Rhodes,
but who the king had learned was imprisoned in Thessalonica .
Moreover, he had multiple copies of the letter to the Emperor made,
and sent them to a range of recipients in the Byzantine Empire
and others in the east

. This suggests a much deeper knowledge

of the contemporary conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean than
for example romances or Mandeville’s travel book would make us
believe . Jonathan Harris argues that this knowledge was communi-
cated especially by the members of Fieschi family . The presence of
Ottobuono Fieschi in England in 1265-1268 also had connections
to Norway, and Edward II had close relations to the cardinal Luca
Fieschi and appointed Francesco Fieschi, Count of Lavagna, and

sible link between Rustichello’s manuscript and the festivities in Acre, see D . j

ACoBy

La littérature française dans les états latins de la Méditerranée orientale à l’époque des
croisades: diffusion et création, in Essor et fortune de la Chanson de geste dans l’Euro-
pe et l’Orient latin, edited by A . Limentani, Modena 1984, pp . 617-646 (pp . 623-624)
and j

ACoBy

, Knightly values, pp . 166-168, while the Queen of Feminie, or Amazons,

might be linked to some manuscripts of the Histoire ancienne, see A . d

eBres

and M .

AndonA

, Amazons and crusaders: The Histoire Universelle in Flanders and the Holy

Land, in France and the Holy Land. Frankish culture at the end of the crusades, edited
by D . H . Weiss and L . Mahoney, Baltimore 2004, pp . 187-229 .

T . v

orderstrAsse

, Trade and Textiles from Medieval Antioch, in «Al-Masaq»,

XXII (2010), pp . 151-171 .

J . h

Arris

, Edward II, Andronicus II and Giles of Argenteim: A neglected episode

in Anglo-Byzantine relations, in Porhpyrogentia. Essays on the history and literature
of Byzantium and the Latin East in honour of Julian Chrysostomides, edited by C .
Dendrinos et al ., Aldershot 2003, pp . 77-84 . Giles was released and returned to
England in time to be killed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 . His death was
mourned by Barbour, who claimed that he was regarded as the third-best knight of
his day .

jørn

andlien

Carlo Fieschi to his household and council

If Edward or Eleanor brought the manuscript Pal . Lat . 1963

back to England in 1272, there are many ways that it might have
reached Norway some years after . The trade between Norway
and England flourished at the time, and the translations of Anglo-
Norman romances into Old Norse in the thirteenth century are
witnesses of extensive political and cultural contact during the
thirteenth century

. The best known royal gift of a book in the

thirteenth century is an English Psalter and Book of Hours that
belonged to Queen Margrete Skulesdatter (d . c . 1270), the wife of
King Håkon IV Håkonsson . This manuscript probably belonged to
Isabella of Angoulême, the wife of King John and mother of Henry
III . Henry III gave other personal gifts to Queen Margrete, such as
scarlet cloth, in 1238 and 1240, and it might have been on one of
these occasions that it was brought to Norway

It is of interest here that the envoy that Henry III frequently used

on these occasions was Richard of St . Albans . If Richard was con-
nected to St . Albans Abbey, his connections in Norway might explain

Arris

, Edward II, Andronicus II, pp . 83-84 . Already Opizzo Fieschi had pro-

bably, during his stay in the Prussia in 1245 or at the papal curia, met and consulted
William of Sabina (or, of Modena) who had been a papal legate in Scandinavia and
Livonia since the 1220s and would have known these areas better than most among
the pope’s officials would, even before his stay in the Holy Land . While Opizzo went
to the Levant in 1248, his associate William of Sabina visited Norway in 1247 in
connection to the coronation of King Håkon IV . Pope Clement IV sent his relative
Ottobuono Fieschi to England in 1265 to reform the clergy, oppose the rebels and
to preach the crusade . The Fieschi family had already a firm position in England,
Robert de Lavagna, for one, was King Henry III’s clerk, and Ottobuono seems to have
given prebends to members of the family during his stay in England, see J . s

Ayers

Centre and locality. Aspects of papal administration in England in the later thirteenth
century, in Authority and Power: Studies on medieval law and government presented
to Walter Ullmann on his seventieth birthday, edited by B . Tierney and P . Linehan,
Cambridge 1980, pp . 115-126 . The Pope also stated that, if Ottobuono found it neces-
sary, he should preach crusade against the rebels against Henry III even in Denmark
and Norway, and he was to collect tithes from not only in Britain and in Ireland, but
in Norway as well, see DN VII 23-4 . On the family relations of Opizzo Fieschi, which
has been subject for discussion, and his relations by marriage to the Palaiologoi
emperors of Byzantium and other princes in the Eastern Mediterranean, including
King Oshin of Armenia, see C

AlCAgno

, Il patriarca di Antiochia, p . 266 .

K . h

elle

, Trade and shipping between Norway and England in the reign of

Håkon Håkonsson, in «Sjøfartshistorisk Årbok», (1967), pp . 7-34; A . n

edkvitne

Handelssjøfarten mellom Norge og England i høymiddelalderen, in «Sjøfartshistorisk
Årbok», (1976), pp . 7-254; H . G . l

eACh

, Angevin Britain and Scandinavia, Cambridge,

Mass . 1921 .

idAs

, The Christina Psalter, pp . 52-53 .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

why Matthew Paris went to Norway in 1248 to reform Nidarholm
Abbey and deliver an invitation to King Håkon to lead the fleet on
Louis IX’s first crusade

. Matthew Paris knew the work of William

of Tyre well . He probably used a copy of William’s Historia in cir-
culation in England before 1231, and he also received a manuscript
of William’s now lost work, Gesta orientalium principum based on
Arab sources . The manuscript was given to Matthew by Peter des
Roches, bishop of Winchester, who in 1231 returned from the Holy
Land with both this book and several relics

If Pal . Lat . 1963 indeed were a royal gift from Edward I or

Eleanor of Castile, it would most likely have been offered in the late
1280s or early 1290s, when Edward seems to have tried to recruit
Norwegians on crusade to Holy Land . The motivation might then
have been to motivate Eirik II to join him or support the cause .
Later, the book would then have come into the possession of his
widow, Isabella Bruce .

A Mongol-Italian route
Pal . Lat . 1963 might also have been brought to Baghdad after

the capture of Antioch in 1268, possibly by some of the Westerners
who stayed at the Ilkhan’s court . We have noted above that the his-
toriated initial to Book V shows influence from a Baghdad school of
illumination . Could it be that it was brought to Norway by envoys
from Baghdad itself?

There were extensive diplomatic contact between the Mongol

Ilkhans of Persia and Europe at the end of the thirteenth century

Richard of St Albans travelled to Norway in the period 1234-1241 . On his

relationship to Matthew Paris, see R . v

AughAn

, Matthew Paris, Cambridge 1958,

pp . 5-7 . B . W

eiler

, Matthew Paris in Norway, in «Revue Bénédictine», CXXII (2012),

pp . 153-181, argues that Matthew Paris was sent to Norway “first and foremost for
his expertise in the shady practices of international banking”, especially his knowled-
ge to the financial practices of the Cahorsi . Weiler doubts that Richard of St Albans
knew Matthew Paris, and points out that the Norwegians might have recommended
Matthew through the royal officials at the court .

R .H .C . d

Avis

, William of Tyre, in Relations between East and West in the Middle

Ages, edited by D . Baker, Edinburgh 1973, pp . 64-76 . On his crusade, see N . v

inCent

Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics 1205-1238, Cambridge 1996, pp . 229-258 .
Two preserved manuscripts from the early thirteenth century of William’s Historia has
an English provenance, one is from Waltham Abbey while the provenance of the other
is uncertain . A reference to a Hystoria ierlm is found in a catalogue of the Rochester
library in 1202, but this might be another work on Jerusalem, see P . W . e

dBury

and J .

G . r

oWe

, William of Tyre. Historian of the Latin East, Cambridge 1988, p . 3 .

For a recent overview, see P . j

ACkson

, The Mongols and the West, 1221-1410,

jørn

andlien

Most spectacular perhaps, was the apparently unannounced appear-
ance of a Mongol embassy at the Council of Lyons in 1274 . They
were accompanied by the Dominican Adam of Ashby who had
stayed in Persia for some time, as well as Ilkhan Abaqa’s Latin sec-
retary Richardus

. Also present at Lyons were three leading clerics

from Norway; Archbishop Jon of Nidaros, Bishop Andres of Oslo
and Bishop Askatin of Bergen

. A few years later, Abaqa sent two

Catalans and a Nestorian Christian to Norway to purchase gyrfal-
cons . They never arrived in Norway, but seems to have pretended to
be Abaqa’s ambassadors at several courts in Europe

. Some years

later, in 1286, envoys from Ilkhan Arghun (1284-1291) arrived to
Norway . Arghun frequently sent missions to Europe, of which four
are known . The first came to Pope Honorius IV in 1285, led by the
Nestorian Christian Isa Kelemechi, offering to give Jerusalem to
the Christians after their joint army had defeated the Mamluks

Harlow 2005, pp . 165-185 .

B . r

oBerg

, Die Tartaren auf dem 2. Konzil von Lyon 1274, in «Annuarium

Historiæ Conciliarum», V (1973), pp . 241-302 . Not only were some Englishmen,
French and Genoese in the service of the Mongol ruler in the 1270s and 1280s, but
Edward I had relations with the Mongols during his stay in the Holy Land, see R .
A

mitAi

, Edward of England and Abagha Ilkhan: A reexamination of a failed attempt at

Mongol-Frankish cooperation, in Toleration and Conflict in the Age of Crusades, edited
by M . Gervers and J . M . Powell, Syracuse 2001, pp . 75-82 . Also a French Cistercian
who had been bishop in Denmark, Peter of Odense, went as an envoy to Abaga in
1280, see R . h

iestAnd

and H . E . m

Ayer

, Ein Bischof von Odense bei den Tataren, in

«Deutsches Archiv», LVIII (2002), pp . 219-227 . It might be noted that falcons were
a part of the gifts he brought to the Tartars, just as Edward I gave gyrfalcons to the
Ilkhan Gaikhatu in 1292, cf . C . d

esimoni

, I Conti dell’ambasciata al Chan di Persia nel

MCCXCII, in «Atti della Societá Ligure di Storia Patria», XIII:3 (1879), pp . 540-698
(esp . pp . 593-616) .

Islandske annaler pp . 139, 194, Árna saga biskups, ch . 30 (p . 48) . Most annals

mention the reunion with the Greek Church, only one of the annals includes the pre-
sence of Mongols at the Council of Lyons: sendi menn Arabe Tartara kongs (Islandske
annaler, p . 332) .

C .-V . l

Anglois

and C . k

ohler

, Lettres inédites concernant les croisades (1275-

1307), in «Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes», LII (1891), pp . 46-63 (p . 57) . Their
purpose might have been to obtain gyrfalcons as gifts and then pocket the Ilkhan’s
money, see P . j

ACkson

, Marco Polo and his “Travels”, in «Bulletin of the School of

Oriental and African Studies», LXI (1998), pp . 82-101 (p . 100) .

K .-E . l

uppriAn

, Die Beziehungen der Päpste zu Islamischen und Mongolischen

Herrschern im 13. Jahrhundert anhand ihres Briefwechsels, Città del Vaticano 1981,
pp . 244-246 . The letter mentions five names; the envoy of Qubilai Khan himself,

᾽Isā Kelemechi, the Mongols Bogagoc and Mengilic, the Genoese banquier Thomas
Anfossi, and the interpreter Ugueto, see L . p

eteCh

, Les marchands Italiens dans

L’Empire Mongol, in «Journal Asiatique», CCL (1962), pp . 549-574; D . A

igle

, De la

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

It is not impossible that at least a part of this embassy went fur-
ther north, even to Norway

. Huguccio of Castiglione had been

appointed papal collector for Norway and left Rome, accompanied
by Florentine merchants, during spring 1286, arriving in Norway
late August 1286

. The Mongol embassy in Rome in 1285 might

have heard about Huguccio’s planned journey to Norway, and fol-
lowed the papal collector and his Florentine companions by land

If Opizzo Fieschi or one of his companions had brought Pal . Lat .
1963 to Rome already in the early 1260s, there is a possibility that
this manuscript could have been brought to Norway by the Mongol-
papal embassy in 1286

100

“non-négocation” à l’alliance inaboutie réflexions sur la diplomatie entre les Mongols et
l’Occident Latin, in «Oriente Moderno», LXXXIII (2008), pp . 395-436 .

A motivation would be falcon trade, but Arghun may well have heard about

the Norwegian strong fleet . The only substantial result of Arghun’s diplomatic efforts
to the West, seems to have been the arrival of 800 Genoese to build ships that were
supposed to prevent trade to Egypt from the Red Sea, see j

ACkson

, Mongols and the

West, p . 169 .

DN I 75, 78 . There have been few studies of Huguccio’s activities in

Scandinavia, but see P .A . m

unCh

, Det norske Folks Historie, Anden Hovedafdeling, 2

vols ., Christiania 1862-1863, I, pp . 55-58 . Huguccio and the Mongol embassy could
not have accompanied Alv Erlingsson from England, as has been sometimes sugge-
sted, since Alv stayed in England until September, see DN XIX 325, and there is no
report of Mongols in England in 1286 .

Rabban Sauma travelled also by land to Paris and Bordeaux in 1287 .

Huguccio presumably did perform his task well; in 1290 the tithes were sent to Rome .
However, the representatives of the Florentine merchants were attacked and robbed
in the diocese of Bremen . Eleven men were allegedly killed, and Pope Nicholas IV
asked the Archbishop of Bremen, the citizens in Bremen and King Rudolph of the
Romans to hunt the robbers down and get the money back (DN VI 54) . Huguccio and
his companions presumably stayed in Århus during summer 1286 to collect tithes in
Denmark .

100

Of the five envoys to Rome in 1285, two of them appear also in the company

of Bar Sauma, who travelled from Baghdad in 1286 and arrived in Rome 1287, see
l

uppriAn

, Die Beziehungen der Päpste, p . 248 . The leader of the Mongol embassy to

Rome in 1285,

᾽Isā Kelemechi (‘Jesus the interpretor’), returned to China after his

visit to Rome . This still leaves open the possibility that the Tartars arriving in Norway
1286 were Bagogoc and Mengilic (probably Mongolian Menggelig or Mönglik) .
Eracles was also known and copied elsewhere in Italy . Marino Sanudo Torsello, who
himself had spent time at the French courts of Achaea and travelled widely in the
Eastern Mediterranean, used Eracles as a source for the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem
when writing a history of the Holy Land in his Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis, M .R .
m

orgAn

, The Chronicle of Ernoul and the Continuations of William of Tyre, London

1973, pp . 22-23 . The Dominican Francisco Pipino of Bologna used passages from
Eracles for his chronicle written in 1320 . He had access to Eracles rather than a Latin
copy of William of Tyre, but translated passages of the French text into Latin as part

jørn

andlien

The Armenian connection
In 1313 or 1314, an Armenian embassy came to King Håkon V

of Norway (1299-1319) . The very short references to their arrival
emphasize that they brought rich gifts with them

101

. The Armenian

connection is relevant here, since the dynastic and economic rela-
tions between kingdom of Armenian Cilicia (or ‘Lesser Armenia’)
and the principality of Antioch during the crusader era . This is
especially evident when, in 1254, Prince Bohemund VI of Antioch
(1251-1275) married Sibylla (d . 1290), daughter of King Het‘um I
of Armenia (1226-1270)

102

. In 1259 King Het‘um I went to Tripoli

to negotiate peace between the Bohemund VI and the Count of
Tripoli in 1259

103

. A few years later, in 1263, he visited Antioch and

made large donations to the poor, the churches and the monasteries
there

104

. After the fall of Antioch in 1268, most of the Armenians in

the area were allowed to go to Cilicia, along with many other refu-
gees – amongst them Simon Mansel, the commander of Antioch

105

When Bohemund VI died in 1275, his son with Sibylla of Armenia,

of a universal history, m

orgAn

, The Chronicle of Ernoul, pp . 23-24, 51-54 .

101

The embassy is only recorded in three Icelandic annals; see Islandske annaler,

pp . 150, 343, 393 . The sources, dating, context and purpose of this envoy is discussed
in B . B

Andlien

, The Armenian embassy to King Håkon V of Norway, in «Journal of the

Society of Armenian Studies», XXIII (2014), pp . 49-82 .

102

On the many dynastic relations between the royal families of Armenia and

Cyprus, as well as Antioch, see W .H . r

üdt

ollenBerg

, The Rupenids, Hethumides

and Lusignans. The structure of the Armeno-Cilician dynasties, Paris 1963; C . m

utAFiAn

L’Arménie du Levant (XI-XIVe siècle), 2 vols ., Paris 2012, II, Tables .

103

S .

der

ersessiAn

, The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad or of the

“Royal Historian”, in «Dumbarton Oaks Papers», XIII (1959), pp . 143-168 (p . 160) .

104

ersessiAn

, The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad, pp . 161-

162: “In the year 1263, Het’um, King of the Armenians, went on a friendly visit to
Antioch to see the city, and he took with him the venerable doctor and Archbishop of
Anazarba, Der Hagop [T

ēr Yakob], also some priests and deacons, and many golden

and silver treasures from the treasury of his father Constantine, in order to distribute
them among the poor and to offer them to the sanctuaries as a memorial to his soul .
When the King entered the city, he was joyfully greeted; walking through the city;
he visited Saint Paul and Peter and other churches, and offered them presents; he
also went to the monastery called Djebik’ and made his father Constantine a fellow-
member of their brotherhood; he, the King himself, became their brother and he
gave them many gifts, by testament, so that they should come to his country each
year to collect them . He remained in Antioch for some time and then returned to his
country, Cilicia .” See also La Chronique attribuée au connétable Smbat, translated by
G . Dédéyan, Paris 1980, p . 111; G . d

édéyAn

, Les arméniens au Liban (Xe-XIIIe siècle),

in Le comté de Tripoli. État multiculturel et multiconfessionnel (1102-1289), edited by
G . Dédéyan and K . Rizk, Paris 2010, pp . 73-99 .

105

ersessiAn

, The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad, p . 165 .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

Bohemund VII, was still a minor . He had grown up at the court of
Sibylla’s brother, King Leo II of Armenia (1269–1289) but returned
to Tripoli in 1277 . Following Bohemund VII’s death in 1287, the
rivalry for power in Tripoli intensified, and the lords rejected coun-
tess Sibylla and her bailli, Bishop Bartholomew of Tortosa as rul-
ers . Instead, they sent for Benedetto Zaccaria of Genoa who had
ambitions of making Tripoli an important trading centre for the
Genoese . Sibylla withdrew to his brother’s court in Armenia early in
1288, while Zaccaria shortly after went to Ayas, the most important
trading city in Cilician Armenia, to arrange a commercial agreement
with King Leo II . Later the same year, Sibylla’s daughter Lucie was
acknowledged as the countess of Tripoli

106

If Pal . Lat 1963 had been rescued to Tripoli after the fall of

Antioch in 1268, we should consider the possibility that it had been
brought to Cilician Armenia by Sibylla, the Genoese merchants in
Tripoli, or the refugees from Antioch . The manuscript might then
have been brought by Armenian envoys to Norway, or through
some other channel between the West and Armenia . The gifts from
the Armenians to King Håkon V are not mentioned, but it is not
unthinkable that it included a book . King Oshin (1307-1320) seems
himself to have had an interest for books and it is reported that he
had a substantial library . In a colophon added in 1320 to a manu-
script of the Gospels, Step‘annos, Bishop of Sebasteia in Northern
Anatolia, reports that he had been received with great honours by
King Oshin . He had been offered to choose a book for himself as a
present by the king: “I entered the treasure room of the house where
manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures were assembled, and although
I saw many, and of different kinds, this is the one that pleased me,
written in a rapid and beautiful script and adorned with many-hued
miniatures by a gifted painter .”

107

. The kings of Armenia obviously

had more books than just Armenian Holy Scriptures and the royal
family and the élite had good knowledge of French, partly caused by
the dynastic and diplomatic relations to Antioch, Cyprus and Italy .
Cilician Armenia was a multi-lingual and –cultural society, with a
royal house that at times were positive to the doctrines of the Latin
Church at the same time as they paid tribute to the Mongols and

106

The ‘Templar of Tyre’, pp . 96-98; d

édéyAn

, Les arméniens au Liban, pp . 93-95 .

Lucie escaped the siege of Tripoli in 1289 and went to Cyprus, while at least two
Venetian galleys headed for Armenia, The ‘Templar of Tyre’, p . 100 .

107

S .

der

ersessiAn

, Miniature painting in the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia from

the twelfth to the fourteenth century, Washington, DC 1993, p . 104 .

jørn

andlien

traded with the Mamluks . This perilous position in a complex politi-
cal landscape influenced the texts read and distributed . While many
distinct Armenian scriptoria existed, there are also links to Arabic,
Persian as well as French book art . One example is the art of T‘oros
Roslin that was influenced by both the Persian and French tradi-
tions

108

. Another result of this multicultural society is an Armenian

translation of an Arabic treatise on the care of horses . This was cop-
ied for Prince Smbat, younger brother of Het‘um II, in 1295-1298

by the Syrian Faratj who, after living many years in Baghdad, had
settled in Cilicia . In Sis he met a man named T‘oros who was versed
in Arabic and who translated his work

109

Hayton of Korikos is an obvious example of the knowledge of

French in Armenia . He dictated his Flor des estoires in French at the
papal curia at Poitiers in 1307, and also wrote an historical text in
1296 entitled “History [in the form] of a Chronicle that I, the humble
servant of Christ Het’um, Lord of Korikos, translated from French
in the year of the Armenians 745 [AD 1296]”

110

. Later, in 1306, an

anonymous translator wrote an Armenian version of the genea-
logical work Lignages d’Outremer

111

. The brother of King He‘tum I,

Smbat the Constable (d . 1276), wrote an Armenian chronicle that
was ended shortly before his death . He may have used a version
of Estoire d’Eracles as one of his sources

112

. Smbat also translated

the Assises of Antioch in the early 1260s for use by the law courts

108

S . L . Merian, Cilicia as the locus of European influence on medieval Armenian

book production, in «Armenian Review», XLV:4 (1992), pp . 61-72; L . C

hookAsziAn

Remarks on the portrait of Prince Lewon (Ms Erevan 8321), in «Revue des etudes
armeniennes», XXV (1994-1995), pp . 299-335; H . C . e

vAns

, Armenian art looks West:

T‘oros Roslin’s Zeut‘un Gospels, in Treasures in heaven. Armenian illuminated manu-
scripts, edited by T . F . Mathews and R . S . Wieck, New York 1998, pp . 103-114; L .
C

hookAsziAn

, L’Art occidental, l’art français et la miniature arménienne du XIIIe siècle,

in L’Église arménienne entre Grecs et Latins, fin XIe-milieu XVe siècle, edited by I . Augé
and G . Dédéyan, Paris 2009, pp . 107-132 . T‘oros Roslin (d . 1270) stated himself that
he was called “Roslin after my forebears” . Since Roslin is not an Armenian name,
it has been guessed that he may have been the offspring of a marriage between an
Armenian and a Western knight, perhaps named from German roeslin (“small rose”)
or connected to Roslin in Scotland .

109

ersessiAn

, Miniature painting, p . 126 .

110

The translation of the title is from R . W . t

homson

, The Eastern Mediterranean

in the thirteenth century. Identities and allegiances, the peripheries: Armenia, in
Identities and allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204, edited by J . Herrin
and G . Saint-Guillain, Farnham 2011, pp . 197-214 (p . 200n13) .

111

Lignages d’Outremer, edited by M .-A . Nielen, Paris 2003, p . 35 .

112

ersessiAn

, The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad, pp . 151-153,

notes 35ff .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

of Cilicia . In his preface, Smbat states that a French copy had been
sent to him by his relative, Simon, Constable of Antioch, who in turn
had received it from his father . After he had completed the transla-
tion, Smbat “sent it again to the Court of Antioch, so that they might
confront it [with the original]; and they confirmed in writing and by
their testimony that it is correct and agrees [with the original] word
for word”

113

. Also of interest here, is the translated copy of Pseudo-

Albert Magnus’ Liber de Alchimia, received by Hospitaller Boniface
of Calamandrana (d . 1298) from an unnamed king of Armenia –
probably King Leo II (1269-1289) during Boniface’s stay in Cilicia
in 1288

114

To the Norwegian court and bishops, the Armenian kingdom in

Cilicia would have been well known as the Christian outpost in Eastern
Mediterranean that Pope Clement V (1305–1314) wanted to help dur-
ing his preparations for crusade . The Armenian envoys to Norway

113

Translation from d

ersessiAn

, The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable

Smpad, p . 167 . Smbat is connected to several manuscripts of ancient Greek and
Byzantine philosophical writings translated into Armenian, he had summarized
or written a commentary himself on the Dialectica of John Damascene, he owned
a manuscript of the Scholia of Cyril of Alexandria, the works of Dionysius the
Areopagite, he commissioned a copy of the Categories of Aristotle and the Treatise on
the Nature of Man attributed to Gregory of Nyssa . In addition he owned a Lectionary
(to which he added a long colophon in verse), and an illuminated Gospel book . d

ersessiAn

, The Armenian Chronicle of the Constable Smpad, p . 167-168; i

., Miniature

painting, pp . 86-87 . See also the d

édéyAn

’s introduction in La Chronique attribuée

au connétable Smbat, pp . 9-26, on the chronicle attributed to him . He also wrote a
letter in French to his brother-in-law King Henry I of Cyprus, while on his way to
the Mongol court in 1248, see J . r

iChArd

, La lettre du Connétable Smbat et les rapports

entre Chrétiens et Mongols au milieu du XIIIème siècle, in Armenian Studies / Études
Arméniennes in memoriam Haïg Berbérian, edited by D . Koumjian, Lisboa 1986,
pp . 683-696 .

114

A . l

uttrell

, The Hospitallers’ Interventions in Cilician Armenia, 1291-1375, in

The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia, edited by T . S . R . Boase, New York 1978, pp . 118-
144 (p . 121) . On Boniface, see J . B

urgtorF

, A Mediterranean career in the later thir-

teenth century. The Hospitaller Grand Commander Boniface of Calamandrana, in The
Hospitallers, the Mediterranean and Europe. Festschrift for Anthony Luttrell, edited
by K . Borchardt, N . Jaspert and H . J . Nicholson, Aldershot 2007, pp . 73-85 . The
Armenian communities in Cyprus were important scribal centers in the early fourte-
enth century, supported among others by Adils, sister of Leo II’s queen Keran, who
had married the seneschal Balian of Ibelin, see d

ersessiAn

, Miniature painting,

p . 134; m

utAFiAn

, L’Arménie du Levant, I, pp . 700-701 . See also on the exile Armenians

in Cyprus, who opposed the pro-Latin politics of King Oshin, N . C

oureAs

, Between the

Latins and native tradition. The Armenians in Lusignan Cyprus, 1191-1473, in L’Église
arménienne entre Grecs et Latins, fin XIe-milieu XVe siècle, edited by I . Augé and G .
Dédéyan, Paris 2009, pp . 205-214 (pp . 209-210) .

jørn

andlien

would have made themselves well understood in French, and they
would perhaps already have met Norwegians at the curia of Poitiers or
the council of Vienne

115

. In this context, the exchange of a manuscript

like Pal . Lat . 1963, along with other exotic valuables, such as hunting
falcons, furs or other luxury items from the north is plausible .

Angevin Naples and Flanders
In the late thirteenth century, there is only scattered evidence

of the relations between the kingdom of Angevin Naples and
Norway . However, parts of the nobility of Flanders was deeply
involved in politics and culture in Naples as well as further east in
the Mediterranean, at the same time as there were close relations
between Flanders and Norway .

Rutebeuf in his poem La complainte d’outremer, composed in

1266, referred to the crusaders of the First Crusade, especially the
capture of Antioch and Godfrey of Bouillon, and lamented the lack
of heroes defending the Holy Land in his own days (‘Ah Antioch,
Holy Land! Your state is lamentable when you have no more
Godfreys!’) . In his account of the first crusade, he seems to have
been using a French source, either Chanson d’Antioch or the French
version of William of Tyre’s chronicle

116

One of the few crusaders that Rutebeuf considered a hero in his

own days, was the French nobleman Eudes de Nevers, who provides
us with an example of the flow of manuscripts between Europe and
the Levant . Eudes arrived in the Holy Land in 1265 with a contingent
of men, but died in Acre already the following year . In his posses-
sion was, among several other unnamed books and a chansonnier,
the romanz des Loheranz and a copy of romanz de la terre d’outre
mer, possibly another name for the Eracles

117

. Eudes’ daughter,

Marguerite de Tonnerre (1248-1308) was the second wife of Charles I

115

For a possible meeting between Hayton of Korykos and the Norwegian chan-

cellor in Poitiers, see B

Andlien

, The Armenian Embassy, pp . 56-57 .

116

Once Poèmes de Rutebeuf, concernant la Croisade, edited by J . Bastin and E .

Faral, Paris 1946, p . 63; Crusade and Christendom: Annotated documents in transla-
tion from Innocent III to the fall of Acre, 1187-1291, edited by J . Bird, E . Peters and J .
M . Powell, Philadelphia 2013, p . 393; see also j

ACoBy

, La littérature française, p . 622 .

117

ACoBy

, Knightly values, p . 165; F

oldA

, Crusader Art in the Holy Land from the

Third Crusade, pp . 274-275 . The Romanz des Loheranz has been interpreted as a ver-
sion of the Garin le Loherain, a part of the provincial epic cycle known as the geste des
Loherains . In Les Gestes des Chiprois, §339, it is said that in his will ‘he stipulated that
everything that was found to belong to him, whether money or equipment, should all
be given to the poor’ (The ‘Templar of Tyre’, p . 48) .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

of Anjou . In her will of 1308, a Psalter given to her by her mother, as
well as a ‘white book’ to be given to Marguerite de Brienne, sister of
Henry de Beaumont and the widow of Bohemund VII of Antioch

118

Marguerite de Tonnerre is herself associated with Paris, Bibliothèque
de l’Arsenal MS 3516, a devotional and literary miscellany in French
possibly made in Paris for the wedding to Charles I of Anjou in Milan
in 1268 . It was probably brought from Paris to Milan, partly copied
in Italy, before Marguerite brought it back to northern France after
Charles’ death in 1285

119

. In 1278, Marguerite’s husband, Charles I

of Anjou, himself commissioned a copy of a Roman de Godefroi de
Bouillon, possibly a version of Eracles, but this is no longer extant

120

Indeed, the Angevin court of Naples was at the late thirteenth and
early fourteenth centuries a cultural and intellectual centre, with
scribes and illuminators from many parts of Europe, and importing
manuscripts and translating texts from several parts of the Eastern
Mediterranean

121

. Although the Provençal troubadours and com-

posers of sirventes did little to praise him, and the Angevin court
at Naples was rather a French court than an Italian one, poets and
courtiers including Adam de la Halle and Sordello stayed there, and
Northern French poets, such as Rutebeuf and Jean de Meung, praised
him although not being there in person

122

Another manuscript of interest is a ‘Godeffroi de Buillon’ that was

inherited by Robert de Béthune from his father Guy of Dampierre

118

A . s

tones

, Manuscripts illuminated in France 1260-1320 and their patrons, in

Wege zum Illuminierten Buch. Herstellungsbedingungen für Buchmalerei in Mittelalter
und früher Neuzeit, edited by C . Beier and E . T . Kubina, Wien 2014, pp . 26-44 (p . 41) .

119

A . s

tones

, Gothic Manuscripts 1260-1320, Part One, 2 vols ., London 2013, I,

503-504 .

120

ACoBy

, La littérature française, p . 639; G . o

roFino

, Cavallerie e devozione.

Libri miniati francesi a Napoli e a Bari in età protoangioina, in Il Gotico europeo in
Italia, edited by V . Pace and M . Bagnoli, Napoli 1994, pp . 375-389 (p . 380); d

unBABin

Charles I of Anjou, p . 208 .

121

See for example C

oulter

, The Library of the Angevin Kings; d

unBABin

, Charles I

of Anjou, pp . 203-209; R . W . C

orrie

, Angevin Ambitions: The Conradin Bible Atelier and

a Neapolitan Localization for Chantilly’s Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, in France
and the Holy Land. Frankish culture at the end of the crusades, edited by D . H . Weiss
and L . Mahoney, Baltimore 2004, pp . 230-249 .

122

M . A

urell

, La vielle et l’épée: Troubadours et politique en Provence au XIIIe

siècle, Paris 1989, ch . 3; L . s

hepArd

, The Poetic Legacy of Charles d’Anjou in Italy: The

Poetics of Nobility in the Comune, in Shaping courtliness in medieval France. Essays
in honor of Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, edited by D . E . O’Sullivan and L . Shepard,
Cambridge 2013, pp . 271-284 . Adam de la Halle composed Le Jeu de Robin et Marion
for the entertainment of Charles’ court, and begun his work on (the unfinished) Le
Roi de Sicile here after Charles’ death, see d

unBABin

, Charles I of Anjou, p . 207 .

jørn

andlien

in 1305 . It has been suggested that this title can be identified with
Paris, BNF fr . 9084, one of the manuscripts of Eracles made in
Acre shortly before its fall in 1291

123

. Guy of Dampierre was count

of Flanders from 1251-1305 and grandson of Baldwin, first Latin
emperor of Constantinople . His son Robert of Béthune had sup-
ported Charles I of Anjou in his Italian campaigns from 1267 and
married his daughter Blanche in 1265 . In 1270, he was one of two
regents during Charles I of Anjou’s absence at the Tunisian crusade .
His father, Guy of Dampierre, was also in Tunis, and was accompa-
nied by the minstrel Adenet le Roi

124

. Guy and his son Robert prob-

ably had in their possession in Naples the famous manuscript (BAV,
Pal . Lat . 1071) of Frederick II’s falcon book, De arte venandi avibus .
This book had belonged to Frederick II’s son Manfred of Sicily, but
came in the possession of Charles I of Anjou after his victory over
Manfred at the battle of Benevento in 1266 . Robert seems to have
brought Manfred’s copy home and gave it to, or lent it to, his half-
brother John II of Dampierre and Saint-Dizier who commissioned a
French translation of it

125

. Also a copy of Histoire ancienne jusqu’à

César (Chantilly, Musée Condé, ms . 726), a work that blended
romance and history and especially popular in Flanders, northern
France and the crusader states, has been suggested to have been
produced at Naples, perhaps at the instigation of Guy or Robert who
would have been familiar with this book from Flanders

126

. Alice

of Brittany, countess of Blois and related to the crusader families
of Avesnes, Châtillon and Dampierres, has been suggested to have
commissioned a copy of the Histoire ancienne (BnF fr . 21205) in
Acre in 1287

127

123

P . M .

inter

, La bibliothèque de Philippe le Hardi, du de Bourgogne (1364-

1404), Paris 1985, pp . 58, 172, 257-258 . According to an inventory of 1405, Philip the
Good and Margaret of Flanders owned two copies of a livre de Godefroy de Buillon
de la conqueste de Jherusalem, one of these is listed in a later inventory, from 1420,
named Estoire de Eracles, possibly Guy of Dampierre’s copy of the chronicle . The
duke also had in his possession a tapestry with scenes from this book, see M . J .
h

ughes

, The Library of Philip the Bold and Margaret of Flanders, first Valois Duke and

Duchess of Burgundy, in «Journal of Medieval History», IV (1978), pp . 145-188 .

124

On Guy of Dampierre and Adenet le Roi in Sicily and Tunis, see S . r

omAnA

Un viaggio del conte di Fiandra, Guido de Dampierre, in Sicilia nel 1270, in «Archivio
Storico Siciliano», XXVI (1901), pp . 285-309 .

125

H . t

ouBert

, Les enluminures du manuscript fr. 12400, in Federico II: De arte

venandi cum avibus/L’art de la chace des oisiaus, edited by L . Minervini, Napoli 1995,
pp . 387-393; s

tones

, Gothic Manuscripts, vol . I, Part II, p . 455 .

126

orrie

, Angevin Ambitions, pp . 243-244 .

127

eBres

and s

AndonA

, Amazons and crusaders . Doubts have been raised about

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

The court of Naples was closely linked to principality of Morea,

or Achaea, dominated in the thirteenth century by the Villehardouin
dynasty . William II of Villehardouin, prince of Morea 1246-1278
when the province prospered, is connected to the ‘Manuscript de roi’,
a large collection of French songs, a chansonnier, with notation

128

Leonardo da Veroli, chancellor of William II Villehardouin for some
17 years and a close friend of Charles I of Anjou, owned several French
vernacular romances

129

. Indeed, French courtly ideals, literature and

conduct were arguably cultivated even more in Latin Greece than
in France . In this context, it is interesting to note that Eracles was
known and used in the principality . Also connected to this court is the
French version of Chronicle of Morea, known for its blend of histori-
ography and romance . The crucial event for the establishment of the
principality was of course the Fourth crusade . In the Chronicle, this
is to a certain extent paralleled with the First crusade, and the French
crusaders’ bravery at the conquests of Antioch in 1098 and Jerusalem
in 1099 found its equals among Baldwin of Flanders or Boniface of
Montferrat during the conquest of Constantinople . In the context of its
mention of the capture of Antioch in 1098, mentions a ‘grant estorie
dou reaulme de Jherusalem’, while the Greek version refers to a ‘Book
of Conquest’ . Moreover, textual borrowing suggest that the chronicler
had access to Eracles, and probably a copy without a continuation

130

other manuscripts, but not BnF fr . 21205, connected to the Acre scriptorium by
Buchthal, for instance the Histoire universelle in the British Libary, the Riccardiana
Psalter, and the Arsenal Old Testament, see D . j

ACoBy

, Society, Culture, and the Arts in

Crusader Acre, in France and the Holy Land. Frankish culture at the end of the crusades,
edited by D . H . Weiss and L . Mahoney, Baltimore 2004, pp . 97-137 .

128

J . l

ongnon

, Le prince de Morée chansonnier, in «Romania», LXV (1939),

pp . 95-100; p

Age

, Literature in Frankish Greece, pp . 292-298 . J . h

Aines

, The Songbook

for William of Villehardouin, Prince of the Morea (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de
France, Fonds Français 844): A crucial case in the history of vernacular song collec-
tions, in Viewing the Morea. Land and people in the late medieval Peloponnese, edited
by S . E . J . Gerstel, Washington, DC 2013, pp . 57-109 .

129

unBABin

, Charles I of Anjou, p . 208 . Leonardo da Veroli married Béatrice, the

daughter of Charles I’s Admiral Philippe de Toucy .

130

Crusaders as conquerors: The chronicle of Morea, translated by H . E . Lurier,

New York 1964, pp . 69-70, and note 13; T . s

hAWCross

, The chronicle of Morea:

Historiography in crusader Greece, Oxford 2009, pp . 65-68 . On the romantic and
chivalric aspects of this chronicle, see K . D . u

itti

, Historiography and Romance:

Explorations of Courtoisie in the Chronique de Morée, in Autobiography, histo-
riography, rhetoric. A Festschrift in honor of Frank Paul Bowman, edited by M .
Donaldson-Evans, L . Frappier-Mazur and G . Prince, Amsterdam 1994, pp . 265-286 .
The networks between Flanders, Naples and Latin Greece also extended in other
directions . Philip of Novara, writing chronicles in Cyprus in the mid-thirteenth cen-

jørn

andlien

Nicholas II of Saint-Omer lord of Thebes, married Mary of

Antioch, the daughter of Bohemund VI of Antioch . She brought
with her a large dowry, used by Nicholas II to build a magnificent
castle in Thebes between 1258 and 1280, with frescoes depicting
French conquests in the Holy Land . These were probably based on
a version of the Old French translation of the chronicle of William
of Tyre . Nicholas II of Saint-Omer seems to have identified his con-
temporary struggles

with the heroic achievements of the Franks .

Also among his noble relatives in Saint-Omer, the interest in the
Holy Land continued . A copy of the Chronicle of Ernoul associated
to the family was included in a manuscript copied probably shortly
after 1300, along with a vernacular Pseudo-Turpin, a French text of
Haymarus Monachus’ poem on the siege of Acre, Pierre of Beauvais’
Olympiade (a list of the thirteen conquests of Jerusalem), and Jean
of Thuin’s Old French adaptation of Lucan’s Pharsalia, depicting
Caesar as a model for Christian knights

131

As mentioned above in the discussion of Elinard of Seringhem,

relations flourished between Norway and family of Saint-Omer
in the late thirteenth century . Although the evidence for direct
diplomatic or trading relations between Norway and the Angevin
court of Naples, there was close contact with the court of Flanders .
This contact was formalized in the 1308, when King Håkon V of
Norway concluded a trading treaty with Robert of Béthune . As

tury, seems to have used a copy of Eracles in his own works, j

ACoBy

, La littérature

française, p . 643 . The author of Gestes de Chiprois also used Eracles as one of his
sources; see g

rivAud

, Literature, p . 241 . The author of a part of the chronicle was

possibly Gerard of Monréal, a page in the service of Margaret of Lusignan, who was
married to the lord of Tyre, John of Montfort . He late moved to Acre and became the
secretary of William of Beaujeu, grandmaster of the Templars . He even did transla-
tions from Arabic . After the fall of Acre, he went to Cyprus and became a servant of
the seneschal, Philip of Ibelin .

131

ACoBy

, La littérature française, pp . 637-639 . The manuscript is Saint-Omer,

Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 722, for the dating see R . N . W

Alpole

, The Old French

Johannes Translation of the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle: Supplement, Berkeley 1976,
pp . 431-437; m

orgAn

, The Chronicle of Ernoul, pp . 190-191 . On Jean of Thuin’s

Hystore de Jules César, see s

piegel

, Romancing the Past, pp . 182-213, see also M . L .

erkey

, Pierre de Beauvais’ Olympiade . A mediaeval outline-history, in «Speculum»,

XLI (1966), pp . 505-515 . On Haymarus Monachus, possibly Aymar of Corbizzi,
Archbishop of Caesarea , see h

AymArus

onAChus

, De expugnata Accone, edited by P .

Riant, Paris 1866; r

oger

oveden

, Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houedene, edited

by W . Stubbs, London 1870, pp . cv-cxxxvi; C . g

rAsso

, Un prelate fiorentino all’assedio

di Acri. Monaco e il “Rithmus de expeditione Ierosolimiatana”, in I Fiorentini alle cro-
ciate. Guerre, pellegrinaggi e immaginario “orientalistico” a Firenze tra Medioevo ed età
moderna, edited by S . Agnoletti and L . Mantelli, Firenze 2007, pp . 64-82 .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

seen above, Robert of Béthune, his father Guy of Dampierre, and
also his grandmother Margaret of Flanders, had close relationship
with both Naples and Latin Greece, and commissioned many works
and manuscripts connected to the crusades . One of the works con-
nected to Margaret of Flanders, the daughter of Baldwin, first Latin
emperor of Constantinople, was Elye de Saint-Gilles . This chanson
de geste was translated in Norway as Elis saga in the 1250s, and
might indicate the influence of crusading ideology from Flanders
into Norway . Thus, it is not unlikely that Pal . Lat . 1963 arrived to
Bergen from Flanders

132

A Scottish route
We will finally consider another route, that Queen Isabella

Bruce of Norway, sister of Robert Bruce of Scotland, brought the
manuscript to Norway herself from her homeland . This seems to be
a likely scenario, as noble women often would bring manuscripts
with them when they were married off to spouses in other coun-
tries

133

. Scots were also quite well represented in the crusades in

the Holy Land in the early 1270s . Some participated already in Louis
IX’s campaign in Tunis in 1270, but the main contingent joined
Lord Edward to the Holy Land in 1270 or his brother Edmund
in March 1271 . Among those who followed Edmund was Isabella’
grandfather, Robert Bruce, 5

Lord of Annandale (d . 1295), while

his son with the same name, Isabella’s father, seems to have joined
Edward’s campaign in 1270

134

132

The treaty between King Håkon V of Norway and Robert of Béthune is

printed in DN XIX 459 . On the connection between Elye de Saint-Gilles and counts
and countesses of Flanders, see the introduction in Elye of Saint-Gilles: A Chanson
de geste, edited and translated by A . R . Hartman and S . C . Malicote, New York 2011 .
The relationship between Elye de Saint Gilles and the Old Norse Elis saga is discussed
by S . G . e

riksen

, Writing and reading in medieval manuscript culture: The translation

and transmission of the story of Elye in Old French and Old Norse literary contexts,
Turnhout 2014 . The Norwegian version of Elis saga is only preserved in a manuscript
from c . 1270 . The theme of crusades in this manuscript is discussed in B . B

Andlien

“Sir Snara Asláksson owns me”: The historical context of Uppsala De la Gardie 4-7’,
in Riddarasögur. The translation of European court culture in medieval Scandinavia,
edited by K . G . Johansson and E . Mundal, Oslo 2014, pp . 245-271 .

133

S . G . B

ell

, Medieval women book owners. Arbiters of lay piety and ambassa-

dors of cultures, in Women and Power in the Middle Ages, edited by M . Erler and M .
Kowaleski, Athens 1988, pp . 149-187 .

134

A . m

ACquArrie

, Scotland and the Crusades 1095-1560, Edinburgh 1997,

pp . 58-59 . Some doubts have been made concerning the participation Robert Bruce,
lord of Carrick (d . 1304), but see R . M . B

lAkely

, The Brus Family in England and

jørn

andlien

In the early 1290s, Edward I tried to organise a crusade again

and he got support from the pope to collect tithes for the purpose,
also from Scotland . When he failed to go on crusade, he partly
blamed the troubles in Scotland . However, Robert Bruce, Isabella’s
brother who was to be king, wanted himself to go on crusade . Philip
IV invited him to join his planned crusade in 1309, but Robert was
forced to decline . However, when Scotland was at peace “King Philip
would find not only the king of Scots but all the natives of his king-
dom ready to join the crusade with all their power .”

135

. His desire to

travel to the Holy Land is well known; after his death, his heart was
brought by Sir James Douglas to Spain and thus was present in bat-
tles against the infidels . Moreover, there were several houses of the
knightly orders in Scotland . Some of the chronicles connected to the
other religious houses show signs of being informed by returning
crusaders or pilgrims from the Holy Land

136

. The crusading ideal

was thus something that Isabella Bruce grew up with in her youth
in Scotland .

Fortunately, the inventory of goods that Isabella brought with

her to Norway in September 1293 is preserved . This details costly
clothing, bed furnishings, crowns and silver plates

137

. However,

there is no mention of any books . Most likely, a splendid manu-
script as Pal . Lat . 1963 would have been noted . We can thus be quite
certain that it was not brought to Norway in connection with the
wedding .

On the other hand, it is possible that it was brought to Norway

from Scotland on another occasion . One possibility is the time
when the first Scottish queen of King Eirik Magnusson, Margaret,
daughter of Alexander III, came to Norway in 1281 . We have no
evidence about what she brought with her, as in the case of Isabella
Bruce, but she would hardly have travelled empty-handed nor alone .
There is a famous wedding song in Latin composed to the occasion
preserved in a near-contemporary manuscript, hailing her as the
light of Norway and comparing her to women in the Bible

138

. In the

Scotland 1100-1295, Woodbridge 2005, pp . 81-82; M . B

roWn

, The wars of Scotland

1241-1371, Edinburgh 2004, pp . 138-139 .

135

G .W .S . B

ArroW

, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland, 4

edn, Edinburgh 2005, p . 237; see also m

ACquArrie

, Scotland and the Crusades, p . 72 .

136

ACquArrie

, Scotland and the Crusades, pp . 53-55 .

137

DN XIX 390; cf . B . E . C

rAWFord

, North Sea kingdoms, North Sea bureaucrat.

A royal official who transcended national boundaries, in «Scottish Historical Review»,
LX (1990), pp . 175-184 (pp . 183-184) .

138

Translated in The Triumph Tree: Scotland’s Earliest Poetry AD 550-1350, edited

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

Lanercost Chronicle it is said that Margaret altered the manners of
the Norwegians for the better, “taught them the French and English
languages, and set the fashion of more seemly dress and food .”

139

The chronicler might exaggerate her role as a teacher (as well as
the ignorance of French of the Norwegian magnates, see below), it
seems probable that she as a member of the royal family would have
knowledge of French .

Although Latin was more important as a written language and

Gaelic, and Scottish and English more important as spoken lan-
guages, the political and dynastic connections with French were
close among the élite, especially at the court

140

. The second wife of

Alexander II was Marie de Couci (d . 1285) . She returned to Picardie
in 1251, but a relative, Yolande de Dreux, became Alexander III’s
second wife in 1285 . When widowed one year later, she also moved
back to France, but the family ties to the House of Couci remained
strong

141

. Of no less importance in this context, is that the son of

Alexander III, Prince Alexander, married Margaret of Flanders in
1282 . She was the daughter of Guy of Dampierre, and half-sister of
Robert of Béthune . From the 1290s, the Franco-Scottish alliance
was of great importance in the wars against England . Moreover,
there were Scots who studied in France in the thirteenth century
and returned to clerical or royal office

142

However, there are few manuscripts written in French preserved

in the period before Isabella Bruce went to Norway, especially manu-
scripts owned by women . One of the few secular manuscripts known
to have been owned by a Scotswoman is a copy is of the Roman de la
Rose that was made for the marriage of Christian de Lindsay, niece
of King John Balliol, in 1323

143

. Illuminated books were collected

by T . O . Clancy, Edinburgh 1998, pp . 295-296 .

139

Chronicle of Lanercost, translated by H . Maxwell, Glasgow 1913, pp . 22-23 .

140

On French language in Scotland, see G .W .S . B

ArroW

, French after the style of

Petithachengon, in Church, chronicle and learning in medieval and early renaissance
Scotland, edited by B . E . Crawford, Edinburgh 1999, pp . 187-194; and for a more
sceptical view see A .A .M . d

unCAn

, The kingship of the Scots, 842-1292. Succession and

independence, Edinburgh 2002, pp . 172-173 .

141

roWn

, The wars of Scotland, p . 160 .

142

D .E .R . W

Att

, Scottish university men of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,

in Scotland and Europe, 1200-1850, edited by T .C . Smout, Edinburgh 1986, pp . 1-18,
could identify 600 Scottish university men between 1200 and 1340 .

143

P . B

AWCutt

, “My bright buke”: Women and their books in medieval and

renaissance Scotland, in Medieval Women. Texts and contexts in late medieval Britain.
Essays for Filicity Riddy, edited by J . Wogan-Browne et al ., Turnhout 2000, pp . 17-34
(p . 27) . Christian de Lindsay had by then moved from Scotland married Enguerande

jørn

andlien

and commissioned by Scottish patrons . A well known example is a
psalter (Bodleian Library, Douce 50) made in a workshop in Paris,
and probably commissioned by “an influential but not a major noble
family in the Stewart lands”

144

. The Coldingham Breviary (British

Library, Harley MS 4664), probably made in England in the 1270s
and heavily influenced by French art, was made for a Scottish per-
son with royal connections, possibly Dervorguilla of Galloway (d .
1290) . She was the heiress of Alan, lord of Galloway and mother of
King John Balliol, and a benefactor to Coldingham . Her father had
employed men of learning in her retinue, and possibly had a library
from which she might have inherited books

145

. The Old French

Roman de Fergus from the mid-thirteenth century shows some local
knowledge of Scotland, although it has been argued that it was com-
posed and circulated mainly in Flanders

146

. Mention should also be

made of the curious story told by John Barbour about Robert Bruce,
brother of Isabella Bruce, who read from the romance of Fierabras
while his men fled across a river in 1307 . Another late source says
that Robert Bruce had Dominican Friars to tutor his son, the future

de Guines, the cousin of Alexander III, became Lord of Coucy in 1311 . Enguerande
was not a close friend to Robert Bruce, see B

ArroW

, Robert Bruce, pp . 18-19 .

144

V . g

lenn

, Court Patronage in Scotland 1240-1340, in Medieval art and archi-

tecture in the diocese of Glasgow, edited by R . Fawcett, London 1999, pp . 111-121
(p . 114) .

145

lenn

, Court Patronage, p . 114; M .D . l

egge

, Some Notes on the Roman

de Fergus, in «Transactions of Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and
Antiquarian Society», XXVII (1948-1949), pp . 163-172 . Dervorguilla has her ex libris
on an twelfth-century manuscript with texts of Jerome and Hugh of St . Victor, later
owned by the Sweetheart Abbey of the Cistercian order (Bodleian Library, MS Fairfax
5) . She might also have commissioned the ‘Sweetheart Bible’ for this Abbey, an illu-
minated Bible in four volumes (three volumes remain, Princeton University Library,
Garrett MS 27), see J . h

iggitt

, Manuscripts and libraries in the diocese of Glasgow

before the Reformation, in Medieval art and architecture in the diocese of Glasgow,
edited by R . Fawcett, London 1999, pp . 102-110 . Her connection to Balliol College in
Oxford is well known .

146

uillAume

lerC

, Fergus of Galloway: Knight of King Arthur, translated by

D .D .R Owen, London 1991; R . z

emel

, The Quest of Galiene. A study of Guillaume le

Clerc’s Arthurian romance Fergus, Münster 2006 . Zemel suggests an author who may
have visited Edinburgh, possibly from Liège . The link to Liège is interesting con-
sidering the probable provenance of Leiden for the late thirteenth-century chapter
seals of Dunkeld and Oslo cathedrals, see V . g

lenn

, The late 13

-century chapter seals

of Dunkeld and Oslo Cathedrals, in «Proceedings of the Society of the Antiquities of
Scotland», CXXXII (2002), pp . 439-458 . On the problems of linking the Fergus in
the romance to the historical Fergus of Galloway, see R . D . o

rAm

, Fergus, Galloway

and the Scots, in Galloway: Land and lordship, edited by R . D . Oram and G . P . Stell,
Edinburgh 1991, pp . 117-130 (pp . 119-120) .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

king David II, and bought books for his use . A document from 1364
claims that Robert ‘used continually to read, or have read in his
presence, the histories of ancient kings and princes, and how they
conducted themselves in their times, both in wartime and in peace-
time; from these he derived information about aspects of his own
rule .’

147

. Of course, this might have been a lost Middle English ver-

sion, or perhaps a one of Barbour’s narrative devices, but still might
indicate the knowledge of Fierabras in Scotland not much later than
the lifetime of Isabella Bruce

148

An Old French manuscript could thus be present in Scotland,

and the many embassies from the peace treaty drawn up in Perth in
1266 between Alexander III and King Magnus Håkonsson, up to the
time of King David II (d . 1371), nephew of Isabella Bruce, opens up
several occasions when such a manuscript might have been brought
to Norway . We know at least one romance that resulted from these
contacts . One of the Norwegians sent to Scotland to lead the nego-
tiations with the Scots after the death of Alexander III in the winter
1286/87, Bjarne Erlingsson, is said to have “found” a romance on
Olive and Landres written in English and had it translated into Old
Norse

149

. The diplomacy during the negotiations concerning the

marriage between Edward, Prince of Wales, and Margaret, Maid of
Norway, and later the Great Cause in 1291-1292 implies intense con-
tacts across the North Sea

150

. The Anglo-Scottish brothers Weland

and Henry of Stiklaw entered the service of King Erik II (1280-1299)
and that of his brother King Håkon V (1299-1319)

151

. Although

not sending troops during the first war of Scottish independence,

147

M . p

enmAn

, Robert Bruce, King of Scots, New Haven 2014, p . 16 .

148

ohn

ArBour

The Bruce edited by A .A .M . Duncan, Edinburgh 1999, III, ll .

435-462 (pp . 132-135); see T . s

ommerField

Barbour’s Bruce. Compilation in retrospect

Writing war. Medieval responses to warfare edited by C . J . Saunders et al ., Woodbridge
2005, pp . 107-125 .

149

Karlamagnús saga ok kappa hans, edited by C .R . Unger, Christiania 1860, p . 50 .

150

K . h

elle

Norwegian Foreign Policy and the Maid of Norway, in «Scottish

Historical Review», LX (1990), pp . 142-156; A . O . j

ohnsen

, Kong Erik Magnussons

krav på Skottland 1292, in «Historisk tidsskrift», XXXVII (1954-1956), pp . 145-
175 . One of the representatives of the Norwegian king during the Great Cause was
Huguccio, the papal collector who might have accompanied the Mongols to Norway
in 1286, see above .

151

B . E . C

rAWFord

, Weland of Stiklaw: A Scottish royal servant at the Norwegian

court, in «Historisk tidsskrift», LII (1973), pp . 329-339; cf . i

., North Sea kingdoms . Their

background was from Northern England, and the Stiklaw family came to prominence
when they inherited from Adam of Jesmond who died on crusade in 1271, see F . W .
d

endy

, An Account of Jesmond, in «Archaeologica Aeliana», 3

ser ., I (1904), pp . 37-65 .

jørn

andlien

Norwegian kings showed sympathy with the Scottish cause

152

Some sources indicate that the Norwegians supported Scottish
armies in the 1330s and 1340s

153

. In addition, trade continued

between Norway and Scotland in the beginning of the fourteenth
century, and the earls of Orkney-Caithness were earls of both the
Norwegian and Scottish kingdom at this time

154

152

The antient kalendars and inventories of the Treasury of his Majesty’s Exchequer

ArroW

Robert Bruce maiden who had joined the Scottish queen to Norway (either

Margaret or, more likely, Isabella Bruce) and shortly after returned to Scotland . Ellen
de Prendrelath (or Plenderleith) is mentioned as a former damsel (damoysele) of the
queen of Norway, see Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery) Preserved
in the Public Record Office, vol. I: Henry III and Edward I, London 1916, p . 525 . In
August 1304 she claimed the land of Moneylaws (Manylawes) in Northumbria, confi-
scated by Edward I from John Wishart at 27 April 1296, see Documents illustrative of
the History of Scotland, edited by J . Stevenson, 2 vols ., Edinburgh 1870, II, p . 46 (no .
358); see also J .A . t

uCk

, Northumbrian Society in the Fourteenth Century, in «Northern

History», VI (1971), pp . 22-39 (pp . 25-6); K . H . v

iCkers

, A History of Northumberland,

vol . XI: The Parishes of Carham, Branxton, Kirknewton, Wooler, and Ford, Newcastle
1922, pp . 87-88 . Ellen was able to show a document where John Wishart had leased
her the land for seven and a half years on 29 September 1295, before Moneylaws had
been confiscated . Edward I gave the land back to her in April 1305, Calender of the
Close Rolls preserved in the Record Office, Edward I, vol. V: 1302-07, London 1908,
p . 257, indicating that Edward I did not use her stay in Norway against her . Ellen
was probably the daughter of Nicholas de Prendrelathe, lay abbot of Jedburgh Abbey .
Her sister was in that case Joan who had married John Wishart c . 1290 . John Wishart
was probably related to Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow (1273-1316), who at times
was Robert Bruce’s chief advisor and who had in November 1289 met king Edward
I and Norwegian envoys to negotiate the terms of the marriage between Margaret
(the ‘Maid of Norway’), and Edward Caernarfon . Before this, John Wishart had been
William Douglas’ accomplice in the siege of Fa’side Castle in 1288, and because of
this temporarily fallen out with Edward I . In 1299 John Wishart, with the deposed
abbot of Jedburgh, John Morel, went on a diplomatic mission to King Philip IV of
France, see Barrow, Robert Bruce, p . 126 . On the Wisharts in Glasgow in the 1290s,
see G . W . S . B

ArroW

, The Scottish Clergy in the War of Independence, in «Scottish

Historical Review», XLI (1962), pp . 1-22 (pp . 9-10); i

., Robert Bruce, pp . 105-106 .

153

The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel 1290-1360 Chronica de Johannis de Reading

et Anonymi Cantuariensis 1346-1367

154

D . d

itChBurn

, A note on Scandinavian trade with Scotland in the later Middle

Ages, in Scotland and Scandinavia, 800-1800, edited by G . G . Simpson, Edinburgh
1990, pp . 73-89 . The customs of Aberdeen repaid a fee to a Norwegian merchant April
1340×May 1341 on the instigation of Isabella Bruce and her sister Christian Bruce,
the widow of Andrew Murray of Bothwell (DN XIX 560) . Edward II and Edward III
tried to both restrict Norwegian trade on Scotland and attract them to England, see
W .R . C

hilds

, England and Europe in the Reign of Edward II, in The reign of Edward

II. New perspectives, edited by G . Dodd and A . Musson, Woodbridge 2006, pp . 97-118
(pp . 100-102) . On the Orkney earls, see B . E . C

rAWFord

, The northern earldoms. Orkney

and Caithness from AD 870 to 1470, Edinburgh 2013 . There is also a late source

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

The returning Scottish crusaders in the 1270s and the interest

of French manuscripts at the end of the thirteenth century offers
the possibility that Pal . Lat . 1963 might have been in Scotland
before it was given to Isabella Bruce . The example of Devorguilla
of Galloway shows the interest of Scottish noble-women in books
and religious institutions, a trait shared with Isabella Bruce .
Interest in crusades was something Robert Bruce and several of
his closest friends had in mind, although nothing came of it until
after Robert died . David II supported crusading, and several Scots
went to Prussia in his lifetime

155

. The extensive contact between

Norway and Scotland between the 1260s and 1340s provides
many opportunities for such a manuscript to reach Norway . If the
manuscript indeed came from Scotland, it might have come after
Isabella became a widow and when she lived on the estates of the
bishops of Bergen . A possible date is the early 1320s, when we
know Isabella had contact with her brother . In the registrum of
the Bergen bishops is included the so-called Bruce-Harclay treaty
from 3 January 1323 . This treaty was concluded between Bruce
himself and Sir Andrew Harclay, Earl of Carlisle . King Edward
II had not been informed about these negotiations, and Harclay
was shortly after tried for treason and executed . Even though the
treaty was never ratified, the text appears in the Bergen copybook .
It must have been sent to Bergen quite soon after the negotiations,
possibly on the instigation of Robert Bruce himself, maybe to show
the acknowledgement of the Scottish kingdom by the English

156

This means that an envoy brought with him this document from
Scotland to Bergen early in 1323, and that there was an inter-
est among the circle of Isabella Bruce in this document . It might
also be relevant that it is from this period we find documents that
address Isabella in the same phrase as the ex libris on the first and

saying that William, Earl of Ross, fled – or was banished, to Norway after the Battle
of Halidon Hill in 1333, see Ane Breve Cronicle of the Earlis of Ross, edited by W .R .
Baillie, Edinburgh 1850, p . 6 . This seems credible, since his mother was Marjorie
Bruce, sister of Queen Isabella of Norway . Malise V of Streathern (d . 1350) might
also have been in Norway in the 1330s, when he married his daughters to Swedish
magnates .

155

M . A . p

enmAn

, Christian days and knights. The religious devotions and court of

David II of Scotland, 1329-71, in «Historical Research», LXXV (2002), pp . 249-272 .

156

P .A .

unCh

Concordia facta inter Anglicos et Scotos, 3d January, 1322-3,

communicated by Professor Munch in a Letter to David Laing

in «Proceedings of the

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland», III (1857-1860), pp . 454-461; see also

ArroW

Robert Bruce, pp . 321-323 .

jørn

andlien

last pages on Pal . Lat . 1963 . Isabella continued to be addressed as
queen in her long widowhood, but it is only in two letters from her
friend, Bishop Audfinn of Bergen, that she was addressed as ‘Lady
Isabelle, with God’s grace the queen of Norway”

157

The strongest argument for the Scottish route is within the

manuscript itself . On fol .78vb, next to line 21 is some marginalia
that reads “et en escoce le bon Roy David le p’mier de ce nom” . The
marginalia looks to be a thirteenth century gothic hand, but the ink
is very different to that used by the scribe . It is located next to the list
of those ruling at the time of the capture of Jerusalem by the First
Crusade in 1099 . The list includes the pope, emperor and kings of
England and France . The marginalia is incorrect, David I was not
ruling in 1099 (he was born 1084 and king 1124-1153) . Still, this
indicates that someone who read Pal . Lat . 1963 had a Scottish con-
nection or a strong interest in the Scottish monarchy already in the
thirteenth century

158

. If the marginalia was not written by someone

in Scotland before Isabella Bruce went to Norway in 1293, it might
have been by someone in the service of Isabella Bruce in Bergen –
for example the Stiklaws, or indeed by Isabella herself .

ossiBle

reAdings

. l

. 1963

orWAy

In what way was Pal . Lat . 1963 a part of the literary culture in

Bergen around 1300? There have been several suggestions as to
how Estoire d’Eracles was conceived in medieval Europe . To inspire
knights to go on crusade is one obvious use of the Eracles, but in
situations where this was not realistic, it seems to have been con-
ceived of as more of ‘a virtual crusade of sorts, out of practical or
military necessity .’

159

. Then more emphasis will be on the historical

content and encyclopaedic knowledge, as part of Christian history .
The ownership of the manuscript by Isabella Bruce might on the
other hand be an indication of the interest in powerful women for

157

DN II 152 and DN II 154: varar virdulegrar fru fru Isabelle mæder guders

miskun Noregs drothningar . Elsewhere, she is addressed as dróttning (‘queen’) in
DN III 64 (1306), DN XXI 15 (1316), DN VII 89 (1320); domine regine in DN VIII 82
(1328×30), DN XIX 560 (1341); regine in DN XIX 563 (1342); minni virðuligri frú (‘my
honourable lady’) in DN VIII 96 (1337) and min frú (‘my lady’) in DN VIII 122 (1339),
both by her friend Bishop Håkon of Bergen .

158

Andyside

, The Old French William of Tyre, p . 159 .

159

J . d

oBrAtz

, Conception and reception of William of Tyre’s Livre d’Eracles in

-century Burgundy, in “Als ich can”. Liber amicorum in memory of Professor Dr.

Maurits Smeyers, edited by B . Cardon et al ., Leuven 2002, pp . 583-609 (p . 607) .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

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orWAy

didactic purposes, ‘accepting them as a normal, indeed essential
part of History’

160

. The interest of royal women in crusading history

is evident in the example of Jeanne, Queen of France and Navarre,
who commissioned the chronicle of Joinville where queens have an
important role

161

An important question, however, is whether the manuscript

reached a wide audience at all . Even though there are plenty of
translations of Old French texts in the thirteenth century, this is
the only evidence of an Old French manuscript of a text that was
not translated into Old Norse

162

. As is well known, many French

and Anglo-Norman romances and chansons de geste were translated
during the reign of King Håkon Håkonsson (1217-1263) . Some of
these translated chivalric sagas (riddarasögur) show that there were
competent translators who were skilled in French . At the same time,
the need for translations into the vernacular might indicate that the
audience was not familiar with either French or courtly culture . The
translations from the first half of the thirteenth century seem to have
been initiated by the king rather than by the aristocracy itself

163

This was to change at the close of the century, with more evi-

dence for literary patronage and ownership of books among the
Norwegian élite . We should also have in mind that after she became
a widow, Isabella Bruce became closely attached to the bishops of
Bergen . In 1324 she was granted the right, with the consent of all
canons, to dispose of several buildings belonging the bishop

164

. Her

large gifts to the bishopric indicate her piety, as well as her wealth .
She also gave a large donation to the altar of St Mary in St Mary’s

160

J . M . F

errAnte

, To the glory of her sex. Women’s roles in the composition of

medieval texts, Indianapolis 1997, p . 106 .

161

For other examples of women’s interest in crusading history, see h

odgson

Women, crusading and the Holy Land, esp . pp . 36-38 .

162

A unique example of French text in medieval Norway is on a finger-ring

found in the ruins of a church at Veøya, a small trading site in Northwestern Norway .
It has been dated to the early thirteenth century, and the inscription in French has
been interpreted as:

Eric among friends, I am a true mistress, A.M.

see B .

olli

Jan

R .

AglAnd

and A .

Ammervold

Ein gullring frå mellomalderen funne på Veøya, in

«Viking», LV (1992), pp . 121-136 .

163

M . F

errer

, State formation and courtly culture in the Scandinavian kingdoms

in the high Middle Ages, in «Scandinavian Journal of History», XXXVII (2012),
pp . 1-22 .

164

DN II 152 . There were several buildings and storerooms in Isabella’s posses-

sion . This is one of the two letters that address Isabella as ‘Of God’s grace, Queen of
Norway’ (see note 157 above), the same as on the ex libris on Pal . Lat . 1963 .

jørn

andlien

Church in Bergen for the care of her soul, and Bishop Audfinn
bought large estates with the money to finance annual masses
before the altar of the Virgin

165

. The many buildings indicate that

she continued to have a fairly large household in Bergen, closely
related to the bishops, canons and the learned culture in Bergen . In
this milieu, knowledge of French became more general than during
the reign of Håkon Håkonsson . The Norwegian Konunga skuggsjá
(‘King’s Mirror’), composed c . 1260, states that of all the languages
a merchant and traveller should learn in order to be called ‘wise’, the
most important were Latin and French

166

. There were also quite a

number of Norwegian students in France in the thirteenth century,
and most bishops of Bergen in the decades around 1300 had stud-
ied there

167

. Isabella’s close contact with the bishop and canons in

Bergen indicates that they may have been included in a possible
audience for a crusading chronicle .

In addition, Isabella kept in contact with the royal family, even

though the centres of royal power and power increasingly moved
eastwards, to Oslo and Sweden . Perhaps just as important, she
stayed in contact with the royal envoys, the learned clerics at the
royal chapel (Apostle’s church) . Many of the most important mag-
nates in Western Norway had a house in Bergen and spent time
there, at the same time as they had farms in their home districts .
This meant that even though Isabella travelled outside Bergen in
her lifetime, her manuscript had was accessible to a large part of the
learned élite of Norway .

Norwegian historiography has traditionally not connected this

élite to the crusading movement, but their involvement in the
intense struggles of power within and between Scandinavian king-
doms

168

. Even though the warring classes at the time were heavily

involved in the inter-Nordic conflicts, the idea and ideal of crusade
was not forgotten . We have already seen that Huggucio was sent to
Norway to collect crusading tithes, and this continued to be done
here as elsewhere in Europe . Letters from Clement V (1305-1314)

165

These properties are reflected in the entry for the altar in Bergens Kalvskind, p . 23 .

166

Konungs skuggsía, 2nd ed ., edited by L . Holm-Olsen, Oslo 1983, p . 5 .

167

S . B

Agge

, Nordic students at foreign universities until 1660, in «Scandinavian

Journal of History», IX (1984), pp . 1-29 .

168

For a recent analysis of these struggles, see S . B

Agge

, Aims and means in the

inter-Nordic conflicts 1302-1319, in «Scandinavian Journal of History», XXXII (2007),
pp . 5-37 .

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Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

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. 1963)

orWAy

calling for a crusade reached Norway in August 1308

169

. The grant

of privileges to the royal chapels in February the same year might
have led the pope to expect the support of the Norwegian king at this
time . One of the chapels was St . Mary’s Church in Tromsø, located
“close to the heathen”

170

. The letters were directed to the clergy

however, since Clement V wanted them to preach the crusade to
the people . This call for crusade was renewed after the council of
Vienne, at which Audfinn – later bishop of Bergen and the friend
of Isabella – was also present

171

. However, the same Audfinn, now

bishop of Bergen, showed little enthusiasm when the guardian of
the king of Norway and Sweden tried to get the Church’s support
for his border conflicts in the North . In the summer of 1325, the
guardian Erling Vidkunsson had asked the Archbishop of Nidaros if
the church of Norway could help with “finance and weapons” those
who wanted to go and fight against “God’s enemies, Finns, Russians
and Karelians” . Already in 1323, Pope John XXII (1313–1334) wrote
to all Christians in Norway, probably at the instigation of the guard-
ian Erling Vidkunsson, and confirmed that those who participated
in the battle against the heathen “Finns” were granted the same
indugence as to those who went to the Holy Land

172

Archbishop Eilif of Nidaros (1309–1331) complied with Erling

Vidkunsson’s request for financial assistance, and in December 1325
Eilif asked for the bishops’ consent . Bishop Audfinn answered that
he refused to hand over the tithes to the guardian, partly because
there had been a bad harvest and the clergy endured poverty, sec-
ond that they already – with great hardships – had collected money
for the pope, and thirdly because Audfinn, with reference to ‘Liber
Extra’, thought that a secular power could not initiate such a col-
lection of money . Audfinn also wondered in general where all the

169

DN VIII 22-25 .

170

DN I 113: Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae de Trums iuxta paganos . The chapel had

been founded c . 1250 by King Håkon Håkonsson . Innocent IV had in 1246 granted
the king privileges of patronate for the churches built in connection to the planned
crusade against the heathens in the north (DN I 37), cf . S . F

igensChoW

, Da korstogene

kom til Tromsø…?, in «Ottar», CCLXXXVI (2011), pp . 29-35 . The attempt of King
Håkon Magnusson (1299-1319) to convert the Sámi seems to be restricted to granting
those who accepted baptism to pay just one third of the usal fines, see E . m

undAl

Kong Håkon Magnussons rettarbot for Hålogaland av 1313 og andre kjelder til kristnin-
ga av samane i mellomalderen’, in Sápmi Y1K – livet i samernas bosättningsområde för
ett tusen år sedan, edited by A . Amft and M . Svonni, Umeå 2006, pp . 97-114 .

171

DN VIII 39-42 .

172

DN VI 106 .

jørn

andlien

income of the royal court had gone – he seems sceptical about the
guardian’s handling of the money and probably also about the real
intentions of the crusade

173

. John XXII however, granted the king

and his guardians half of the six-year crusading tithes in August
1326

174

The reply of Bishop Audfinn does not necessarily imply however

that he was sceptical about a crusade as such, but rather against the
Archbishop and Erling Vidkunsson . Audfinn, as well as his brother
Arne, was perhaps more interested in canon law and fiscal adminis-
tration . Still, we have no reason to believe that Audfinn or Arne did
not promote the preaching of crusades in their diocese as such, but
the rivalries both with Erling Vidkunsson and the royal court on the
one hand, and with the Archbishop of Nidaros and royal chapels on
the other, made it difficult for the bishops of Bergen to wholeheart-
edly support the plans of a crusade in the north .

There are some indications that other members of the élite

in Bergen had greater interest in the Holy Land . Norwegians and
Icelanders seem to have had much of the same information concern-
ing the hope of recovering Jerusalem . One of the widespread rumours
at the time informed Europeans about the deeds of the Mongols for
Christianity after the fall of Acre in 1291 . According to some, the
Ilkhans of Baghdad had managed to conquer Jerusalem

175

. This

rumour was the result of wishful thinking rather than fact, but was
recorded in Italian and English chronicles

176

. This rumour is also

found in Scandinavian sources . For instance, one of the Icelandic
annals records that the Tartars killed “Soldan of Babylon” and

173

DN VIII 79 . A peace treaty between Norway and Novgorod had by then alre-

ady been concluded, sealed with kisses on a cross: Item quicunque infregerit istam
osculationem crucis, vindicet ac judicet eum deus. (DN VIII 80) .

174

DN VI 112-113 . The pope sent two legates with the letter to collect the

six-year tithe from the church, and evaluate if the king really needed half of it . On
their journey to Norway in 1326-1328, see T . j

ørgensen

and G . s

AletniCh

Letters

to the Pope. Norwegian relations to the Holy See in the late Middle Ages

Stavanger

1999, pp . 90-99 . See also the overview in J . m

øller

ensen

Politics and crusade.

Scandinavia, the Avignon Papacy and the Crusade in the XIVth Century, in La Papauté
et le croisades/The Papacy and the Crusades, edited by M . Balard, Farnham 2011,
pp . 269-285 .

175

For this tradition, see S . s

Chein

, Gesta Dei per Mongolos 1300: The genesis of

a non-event, in «English Historical Review», XCIV (1979), pp . 805-819 .

176

J . p

Aviot

, England and the Mongols, in «Journal of Royal Asiatic Society»,

ser ., X (2000), 305-318 (pp . 315-317); P . A

rmour

, The twelve ambassadors and

Ugolino’s Jubilee inscription: Dante’s Florence and the Tartars in 1300, in «Italian
Studies», LII (1997), pp . 1-15 .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

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. l

. 1963)

orWAy

“burned Maumet and Bachus and the heretics against the pope .”

177

This awareness of attempts to recover Jerusalem seems to have

affected the piety of the élite . Orm Kavle Borgarsson, a member of
the local gentry in the Voss area, but also with contacts to Bergen,
bought a Jerusalem cross from Vinje parish church for the price
of two cows in the early fourteenth century

178

. Another Jerusalem

cross was owned by another church in Bergen diocese, mentioned in
the inventory of Hålandsdalen church in 1306

179

. Such a Jerusalem

cross, usually depicted as a cross with four crosses surrounding it,
was connected to Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of the Kingdom

177

Islandske annaler, p . 50 : Þa drapv Tattarar Solldán af Babilón ok XXX manna

honvm. Þeir brendv Maumet ok Bacjvs ok villo papa . Some of the other annals only
mention the killing of Soldan and 30 men in 1277 (pp . 140, 195, 259) . According
to Annales regii the king of Tartars and king of Armenia won the land of Jerusalem
after a victory over Soldan of Babilon in 1299 (pp . 145-146), and in the entry for
1306 it is said that the king of Tartars freed the land of Jerusalem from the power
of “Saleciena” (probably misspelling of Saracens), and the the envoys of the king of
Tataras were baptised in Rome (p . 148) . The Annals of Skálholt mentions the Tartars’
victory and baptism in 1306, but not for 1299 (p . 201) . The Annals of Flatey, however,
mention both the events in 1306 (p . 390) and those in 1299: bardiz Tattara kongr i
Armenia ok i Campus Damsci og i Egipta landi ok hafdi iafnan sigr ok drap solldan i
siduzstu ok fridadi Jorali [sic] land (p . 386) . One Norwegian pilgrim seems to have
been in Jerusalem in the 1290s, a smith from Oslo (DN III 145) . An English priest
from York in the service of King Eirik Magnusson took the cross in 1293 and went
to England to join Edward I’s planned crusade . In 1311, we find a man with the
nickname ‘Jerusalem-man’, possibly alluding to a pilgrimage performed some years
before (DN II 110) .

178

Bergens Kalvskind (Bjørgynjar Kalfskinn), edited by P .A . Munch, Christiania

1843, p . 73: Itæm a honn tuæir kyr med sik. firir jorsala kross ær sælldr var orme
kafla . Orm appears ca . 1300 as witness both in the district of Voss and in the city of
Bergen . He was alive in 1324, but dead in 1339 at latest . For a short biography of
Orm Borgarsson Kavle, see J . R . u

gulen

, ’…alle the knaber ther inde och sædescwen-

ne…’: Ei undersøking i den sosiale samansetjinga av den sosiale eliten på Vestlandet i
mellomalderen, Bergen 2008, p . 225 . According to a travel account by the American
Charles Bace from 1856, there was at that time a painting of Jerusalem – strikingly
similar to Bergen – in the ceiling of the medieval church at Voss, see Th .S . h

Aukenæs

Natur, Folkeliv paa Voss og Vossestranden, Hardanger 1877, p . 69 . For the veneration
of crosses, either crucifixes or paintings of crosses, in Norwegian churches, see M . C .
s

tAng

, Paintings, patronage and popular piety. Norwegian altar frontals and society, c.

1250-1350, Oslo 2009, p . 194 .

179

DN XXI 7: Item æin Josala kross . In contrast to for example Iceland, there

are very few inventories of Norwegian churches from the Middle Ages . There is a
Jerusalem cross also found on the altar frontal in the Ringsaker church, a work from
c . 1530 . This has been interpreted in light of the fear of the Ottomans in the early
sixteenth century, see N . A . y

treBerg

, Ringsaker kirkes alterskap i kulturhistorisk lys,

in «Kirke og kultur», LXI (1978), pp . 23-42 .

jørn

andlien

of Jerusalem, and thus a powerful sign of devotion to the cause of
the Holy Land .

One possible reference to the text could be the altar frontal in

Nedstryn, made at a workshop in Bergen at the beginning of the
fourteenth century . The antependium depicts the legend of the res-
toration of the Holy Cross by Heraclius in eight scenes

180

. The story

of how the Persian king Chosroes first plundered Jerusalem and
then how the Byzantine Emperor later killed him and brought the
Holy Cross back to Jerusalem became known soon after in the West
and a legend developed connected to the celebration of Exaltatio
Crucis on 14 September each year

181

By the late eleventh century, the legend was known in Norway .

In Theodoricus Monachus’ chronicle of Norwegian kings from c .
1190, the emphasis is on how Chosroes was killed by his own son
as a fitting punishment for his pride

182

. At the turn of the thirteenth

century, another version was included in a sermon on In exaltatione
sancte crucis in the Old Norwegian Book of Homily . Here the empha-
sis is also on the pride of Chosroes, especially connected to how he
made a ‘glass-heaven’ (glerhimin) where he sat on a golden chair and
by clever devices could collect rain water and pretend that he was a
god when he let it rain

183

. Heraclius challenged the son of Chosroes

to single battle on a bridge and was victorious . He killed Chosroes,

180

Analysed with illustrations in U . p

lAther

et al ., Painted Altar Frontals of

Norway 1250-1350, 3 vols, London 2004 .

181

S . B

orgehAmmAr

, Heraclius learns humility: Two early Latin accounts compo-

sed for the celebration of Exaltatio Crucis, in «Millenium», VI (2009), pp . 145-201 .
Borgehammar argues that a mass existed in Rome already c . 645, and a public vene-
ration of a relic of the Cross was established in St . Peter’s in 665 at the latest, and two
or three decades later in the Lateran as well . By the middle of the eighth century, the
mass had been established in most ecclesiastical centres in the Frankish kingdom .

182

heodoriCus

onAChus

, An Account of the Ancient History of the Norwegian

Kings, translated by D . McDougall and I . McDougall, London 1998, pp . 41-42 . The
source seems to be Landulf Sagax’ Historia Romana . A similar historical use of the
story of Heraclius and Chosroes is found in Iceland (Veraldar saga and Nikuláss saga
II) .

183

The term ‘glass-heaven’ is unique to the Norwegian version, but seems to be a

Norse version of the usual description: ‘ . . . a silver tower, in which he had construced
a golden dome set with glimmering gems, where he had place a chariot of the sun and
the likeness of moon and stars and had installed hidden pipes for running water, so
that he would seem to pour out rain from above like a god .’ (B

orgehAmmAr

, Heraclius

learns humility, p . 163 . This ‘kind of man-made heaven’ was also recorded in Persian
sources and might have some foundation in monumental buildings with domes of
heaven as connected to for example Nero, see K . l

ehmAnn

, The Dome of Heaven, in

«The Art Bulletin», XXVII (1945), pp . 1-27 .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

destroyed the glass-heaven and took the Cross back to Jerusalem .
However, he was unable to find the gate into Jerusalem until he
walked barefoot into the city in a similar way as Christ . When the
Cross was restored, miracles happened in the same way as when
the Cross was found by Helena; people rose from death and sick
people were healed

184

. The theme of pride is then reinforced, while

Chosroes is punished for pretending to be a god, Heraclius humbly
imitates Christ .

The Nedstryn frontal seems to visually reinforce the moral of

humility of the homily

185

. Some have pointed out, however, that

during the thirteenth century the story of Heraclius and Chosroes
became more connected to crusading ideology . Most visibly, this
became known in the decorative program in Sainte-Chapelle, that
Louis IX had built in connection with the relics of the Passion he
received from Constantinople . The French king became the new
guardian of these relics, restoring them to his chapel in Paris to
preserve them in a better way than the Byzantines could and thus
succeeded Constantine, Helena and Heraclius

186

As the Norwegian kings twice received thorns both from Philip

III and Philip IV, it has been suggested that the altar frontal was ini-
tially made for the chapel in Bergen built soon after the first thorn
came to Norway

187

. This would seem like a more suitable church

184

Gamal norsk homiliebok, edited by Gustav Indrebø, Oslo 1931, pp . 135-136 .

185

On the relationship between the homily and the altar frontal, see S . H .

uglesAng

, Norwegian frontals with tituli: Nedstryn and Kinsarvik, in Norwegian

medieval altar frontals and related material, Rome 1995, pp . 25-30; M . s

tige

Nedstrynantemensalet – en 1300-talls tegneserie, in Bild och berättelse, edited by H .
Edgren and M . Roos, Åbo 2003, pp . 229-241; K . B . A

AvitslAnd

, Visualisert didaktikk?

Det talte og det malte ord i norsk middelalder, in Vår eldste bok. Skrift, miljø og biletbruk
i den norske homilieboka, edited by O . E . Haugen and Å . Ommundsen, Oslo 2010,
pp . 217-246 .

186

D . H . W

eiss

, Art and Crusade in the Age of St. Louis, New York 1998,

esp . pp . 11-77; B . B

renk

, The Sainte-Chapelle as a Capetian political program, in

Artistic integration in Gothic Buildings, edited by V . C . Raguin, K . Brush and P .
Draper, Toronto 1995, pp . 195-213; G . k

ühnel

Heracles and the crusaders. Tracing the

path of a royal motif, in France and the Holy Land: Frankish culture at the end of the
crusades, edited by D . H . Weiss and L . Mahoney, Baltimore 2004, pp . 63-76 .

187

H .

von

Chen

, Keiser Herakleios i Nedstryn: Bysantinske motiv på norske fronta-

ler, in Hellas og Norge: Kontakt, komparasjon, kontrast, edited by Ø . Andersen and T .
Hägg, Bergen 1990, pp . 211-220 . Von Achen suggested that the altar frontal originally
was placed in Fana, a royal chapel outside Bergen which was dedicated to the Holy
Cross, see also A . h

Ammervold

, Han som satte seg i Guds sted: Nedstryn-frontalets

fremstiling av “Den hedenske konge i Serkland”, in «Kunst og kultur», LXXXVI (2002),
pp . 218-232 . According to a recent art historical analysis, the motif of Heraclius

jørn

andlien

than the small local church of Nedstryn in Nordfjord . However, in a
recent study the church of Nedstryn has been connected to the local
magnate Peter Gudleiksson . He was an important local landholder
just before and after 1300, but also in the service of the king and
an envoy to Iceland in 1293 . His father had been a member of the
council of King Erik Magnusson and it is likely that it was for his
loyalty that his son Peter was knighted . Peter became a good friend
of the young priest Laurentius Kalvsson, a student of canon law
in Nidaros and later bishop of Hólar in Iceland . He returned from
Iceland to Bergen in 1294 and celebrated Christmas at the court of
King Erik Magnusson and Isabella Bruce

188

. There is no evidence

that Peter had ambitions to take the cross and go to the Holy Land,
but if it indeed was he who commissioned the altar frontal, it would
indicate how a member of the aristocracy transferred the idea of
humility, piety, crusade and reverence for the Holy Cross from
Sainte-Chapelle, Bergen and to his local area .

Such a tendency by the Norwegian aristocracy to identify them-

selves by the defence of the Holy Cross through a combination of
chivalry and pious patronage, is to some extent confirmed by lit-
erature of the time . Another royal servant based in Bergen, Snare
Aslaksson, is connected to the manuscript Uppsala, De La Gardie
4-7 fol . written c . 1270 . This manuscript contains not only an Old
Norse translation of Anglo-Norman lais, and two translation of
Latin texts, but also Elis saga, a translation of the chanson de geste
Elye de Sainte-Gilles about a knight who fought against the Saracens,
and also connects King Olaf Tryggvason to the Holy Land

189

. In

addition, Bevers saga, a translation of the Anglo-Norman Boeve de
Haumtone, concerns Saracen-Christian encounters, and might be
connected to the same group of Norwegian learned royal servants

was imported from Sainte-Chapelle to the workshop in Bergen quite directly, cf . H .
t

orp

, Un paliotto d’altare norvegese con scene del furto e della restituzione della Vera

Croce: Ipotesi sull’origine bizantina dell’iconografia occidentale dell’imperatore Eraclio,
in Medioevo: il tempo degli antichi, edited by A . C . Quintavalla, Milan 2006, pp . 275-
300 . See also B . B

Aert

, Das Antependium von Nedstryn (Norwegen, 1310) und die

Kreuzerhöhungslegende, in «Das Münster», LIV (2001), pp . 46-57, who connects the
cross that Heraclius wears with the Teutonic order, and the altar frontal as a whole
to both crusading ideology and church consecration .

188

M . C . s

tAng

, Peter Gudleiksson på Eide og alterforntalet fra Nedstryn, in En

sann historiker. Festskrift til Svein Henrik Pedersen, edited by J . F . Hatlen and P .
T . Sandvik, Trondheim 2007, pp . 27-31; i

., Paintings, patronage and popular piety,

pp . 192-197 .

189

See B

Andlien

, “Snara Asláksson owns me” .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

who went abroad as envoys . In these romances, it is not the jour-
ney to Jerusalem in itself that matters, but more how to keep the
Christian, chivalric identity in the encounter against strong military
force, riches beyond the ones at home, and the Christian faith as the
asset or ‘cultural capital’ that ultimately wins the beautiful Saracen
princess over to the hero . These translated sagas do not so much
construct a national identity in Norway, as argued in the case of
England, as an élite identity for those who travelled or aspired to be
more like the European élite .

If Isabella Bruce herself used the manuscript, she would find

many women of authority in the history of the Holy Land . The most
famous is probably Queen Melisende of Jerusalem (1131-1161) .
William of Tyre attributed to her great wisdom and said she ‘ruled
the kingdom and administered the government with such skilful
care that she may be said truly to have equalled her ancestors in
that respect .’ She was crowned with her husband Fulk in 1131,
symbolically on the feast of the Holy Cross 14

September in the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre . In Pal . Lat . 1963 only King Fulk is
shown enthroned (fol . 137v, Book XIII) . The ceremony is repeated
when Baldwin III, the son of Melisende, is crowned in 1143 . William
of Tyre stated that the young king was anointed, consecrated and
crowned together with his mother . In Pal . Lat . 1963, Melisende
appears in the margin of the historiated initial as a passive witness
(fol . 160r, Book XVI) .

On the other hand, it has been pointed out that this manuscript

include representations of more women than any other illustrated
William of Tyre manuscript

190

. The first historiated initial appears

at the start of Book IX (fol . 78v), depicting a baron and his wife pay-
ing homage to Godefroy de Bouillon . Book XVIII (fol . 188r) opens
with an initial showing Raynaud de Châtillon forcing the patriarch
of Antioch to sit in the heat of the sun with his head smeared with
honey . This act was strongly condemned by William of Tyre, but in
his chronicle, he did not mention his wife in connection to this act .
The artist of the initial, however, shows Raynaud’s wife, Constance
of Antioch, by his side . Both these initials depict wives at the side of
their husbands, the first showing loyalty while the second episode
emphasises the wife’s part in her husband’s misdeeds . Raynaud
holds his hand around Constance, while she holds her right hand
towards her husband, almost as if she is telling him what to do .

190

J . F

oldA

, Images of Queen Melisende in Manuscripts of William of Tyre’s

History of Outremer: 1250-1300, «Gesta», XXXII (1993), pp . 97-112 .

jørn

andlien

William of Tyre had previously showed his criticism of Constance
and her choice of husband: ‘many there were, however, who mar-
velled that a woman so eminent, so distinguished and powerful,
who had been the wife of a very illustrious man, should stoop to
marry an ordinary knight .’

191

. The situation of the young widow

Constance, rejecting ‘sensible’ suitors and choosing a trouble-maker
from lower ranks, could remind the Norwegian audience of the situ-
ation concerning Isabella’s niece, Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter who as a
young widow first allied with a controversial Swedish knight, Knut
Porse, and later married him in the 1320s . Also King Erik II, Isabella
Bruce’s husband, and many members of his council had opposed
the ecclesiastical élite . The scene of Constance and Raynaud might
have warned Isabella of the dangers of remarrying an ambitious
aristocrat .

The two last initials show two more positive marriages, first

King Amaury I marrying Princess Maria of Byzantium, or Maria
Comnena in 1167 (Book XX, fol . 218v), and second – in the upper
half of the initial – the betrothal of Sibylla, sister of Baldwin IV,
to Guy de Lusignan in 1180 (Book XXII, fol . 243v) . According to
William of Tyre, the first of these marriages was not problem-
atic . The second marriage, however, became questioned already
in William of Tyre’s lifetime, when Baldwin IV tried to annul the
marriage of Guy de Lusignan and Sibylla and exclude them from
inheritance . Also William seems to view the marital alliance as a
decision made in haste . The conflict over this marriage might be
the reason why Sibylla and Guy are seen as not married, but just
bethrothed with the king (not the patriarch) t sitting on the throne
between them . It is also telling that the lower part of the initial
shows the patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem riding to Antioch, also
because of marital trouble . Excommunication had been pronounced
against prince Bohemund III of Antioch, since he had put aside his
wife and had married his mistress, a woman who was rumoured to
practice evil arts .

In the episodes of the chronicle that were emphasised by the

illuminations, the part of women is partly connected to their role
of being loyal wives – and as advisor, but also connected to trouble-
some marriages . At the end of the chronicle, desperate marital alli-
ances, adultery, rumours of love affairs, divorces and annulments,

191

S . s

Chein

, Women in medieval colonial society: The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

in the twelfth century, in Gendering the Crusades, edited by S . B . Edgington and S .
Lambert, Cardiff 2011, pp . 140-153 (p . 143) .

A M

Anuscript

the

rench

illiAM

yre

. l

. 1963)

orWAy

seem to be connected with the failure to defend Jerusalem

192

. In

Isabella Bruce’s world, this cannot have seemed too far away from
her own times, after having experienced the death of the Maid of
Norway, the Great Cause, the many intermarriages – but also tragic
love affairs – in the Scandinavian royal families and aristocracy

193

Although there might be much to learn from the women of author-
ity in the Latin East, the ideal queen might have been drawn rather
from the Old Testament – Judith, Rachel, Leah and Susannah, as in
the wedding song for Queen Margrete, daughter of Alexander III, or
the women depicted in Sainte-Chapelle

194

onCluding

remArks

The manuscript Pal . Lat . 1963 travelled from one corner of

Christendom to another during the last decades of the thirteenth
century or early in the fourteenth century . Riant’s suggestion in
1865 that the friar Mauritius brought it with him after his pilgrim-
age to the Holy Land in the 1270s still seems one of the best and eas-
iest solutions to the puzzle as of how it was brought from Antioch to
Norway . The main result from the discussion above, however is that
this is merely one of many more possible routes from the Eastern
Mediterranean to Norway . Although we have focused here on direct
links between the Holy Land and Norway, as well as diplomatic, lit-
erary and economic relations to France, Scotland, England, Spain,
Flanders, Armenian Cilicia, Tunis, Egypt and Baghdad, other courts
in Iberia and Eastern Europe could have been discussed in connec-
tion to the Norwegian court as well . These many potential routes
illustrate how the Norwegian élite was part of the networks of courts

192

On marriage, adultery, and the many images of women in crusader chroni-

cles, see h

odgson

, Women, crusading and the Holy Land, esp . pp . 77-80 on Sibylla’s

marriage to Guy de Lusignan; p . 91 on Maria Comnena to Aumaury I; and pp . 130-
131 on Bohemund III of Antioch’s relationship with Sibyl .

193

For some Scandinavian examples from late thirteenth and early fourteenth

centuries, see B . B

Andlien

, Eufemias gåter, in Eufemia: Oslos middelalderdronning,

edited by B . Bandlien, Oslo 2012, pp . 13-31 .

194

On Esther (the good counselor) and Judith (the good widow) in Sainte-

Chapelle and their possible relationship with Blanche of Castile, see B

renk

, Sainte-

Chapelle, pp . 203-205; A . A . j

ordAn

, Material girls: Judith, Esther, narrative modes and

models for queenship in the windows of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, in «Word & Image»,
XV (1999), pp . 337-350 . See also L . h

uneyCutt

, Intercession and the high-medieval

queen: The Esther topos, in Power of the weak. Studies on medieval women, edited by
J . Carpenter and S .-B . MacLean, Urbana 1995, pp . 126-146 .

jørn

andlien

that transmitted not only texts, but also manuscripts, ideas, material
culture, and identities across the Middle East, the Mediterranean
world and Northern Europe .

Pal . Lat . 1963 suggests furthermore that the Norwegian court

and élite shared the concern for recovery of the Holy Land around
1300 as other Europeans did . Although the kings in Norway never
went on crusade to the Holy Land themselves after the famous expe-
dition of King Sigurd in the early twelfth century, the Norwegian
élite was part of a crusading discourse, constantly being reminded
of the crusading past, present and future . They sponsored the dedi-
cation to the Holy Cross in local churches, listened to the moral side
of the story about the recovery of the cross, took part of the liturgy
connected to the crusades, and listened to papal collectors, thus
sharing a similar experience with much of the élites elsewhere in
Europe . Such pilgrimages to a local Jerusalem cross, or perhaps a
church with crusading relics or altars, became more important in
the fourteenth century than before, although not as prestigious as a
journey to the Holy Land itself . In this context, the Antioch manu-
script of Eracles may have been an important part of the memory
and ideology of the crusades at the Norwegian court, as well as pro-
viding its owner, Queen Isabella Bruce, a connection between her
family history and the crusades . It could have been part of a pious,
virtual pilgrimage attached to reading books about the Holy Land .
Moreover, the book may have been a mirror for the queen, showing
examples of female agency and how the good and bad women of
power acted in perilous times . For such reading, Isabella Bruce may
have found Pal . Lat . 1963 most useful in her life as queen and queen
dowager in Norway .

jørn

Andlien