- Ambroise
Ambroise (flourished c. 1190) was a Norman
poet and chronicler of theThird Crusade ,author of a work called "L'Estoire de la guerre sainte", which describes in rhyming French verse the adventures of Richard Coeur de Lion as acrusade r. The poem is known to us only through one Vaticanmanuscript , and long escaped the notice ofhistorian s.The credit for detecting its value belongs to
Gaston Paris , although his edition (1897) was partially anticipated by the editors of the "Monumenta Germaniae Historica ", who published some selections in the twenty-seventh volume of their Scriptores (1885). Ambroise followed Richard I as anoncombatant , and not improbably as a court-minstrel . He speaks as an eye-witness of the king's doings at Messina, inCyprus , at thesiege of Acre , and in the abortive campaign which followed the capture of that city.Ambroise is surprisingly accurate in his
chronology ; though he did not complete his work before 1195, it is evidently founded upon notes which he had taken in the course of hispilgrimage . He shows no greater political insight than we should expect from his position; but relates what he had seen and heard with a naïve vivacity which compels attention. He is by no means an impartial source: he is prejudiced against theSaracens , against the French, and against all the rivals or enemies of his master, including the "Polein" party which supportedConrad of Montferrat againstGuy of Lusignan . He is rather to be treated as abiographer than as a historian of the Crusade in its broader aspects. Nonetheless he is an interesting primary source for the events of the years 1190-1192 in theKingdom of Jerusalem .The "
Itinerarium Regis Ricardi ", a Latin prose narrative of the same events apparently compiled by Richard, a canon of Holy Trinity, London, is closely related to Ambroise's poem. It was formerly sometimes regarded as the first-hand narrative on which Ambroise based his work, but that can no longer be maintained.Published edition
Ambroise, "The History of the Holy War", translated by Marianne Ailes. Boydell Press, 2003.
ee also
*
Anglo-Norman literature
*Norman language References
*1911
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