Godfrey of Bouillon

""I will not wear a crown gold where my Savior wore one of thorns""

- Godfrey of Bouillon Godfrey of Bouillon (18 September 1060 - 18 July 1100) was a Frankish knight who was one of the leaders of the First Crusade from 1096 until his death. He was the Lord of Bouillon, which he took his byname, from 1076 and the Duke of Lower Lorraine until 1087. After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey became the ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. although he refused the title of "King"; as he believed that the true King of Jerusalem was Christ. preferring the title of "Apostle of the Holy Sepulchre".

It was in Jerusalem that the legend of Godfrey of Bouillon was born. The army reached the city in 1099 and built a wooden siege tower (from lumber provided by some Italian sailors who intentionally scrapped their ships) to get over the walls. The major attack took place on July 14 and 15 1099. Godfrey and some of his knights were the first to take the walls and enter the city. It was an end to three years of fighting by the Crusaders, but they had finally done what they had set out to do in 1096 - namely, to recapture the Holy Land, and in particular, the the city of Jerusalem and its Holy sites. such as the Holy Sepulchre, the tomb of Jesus Christ. He endowed the hospital in the Muristan after the First Crusade.