Ambroise (around 1190), Norman poet, and chronicler of the Third 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 a crusader. The poem is known to us only through one Vatican manuscript, and long escaped the notice of historians. Events March 16 - Massacre and mass-suicide of the Jews of York, England prompted by Crusaders and Richard Malebys kill 150-500 Jews in Cliffords Tower June 10 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowned in the Saleph River while leading an army to Jerusalem. ... The Normans (adapted from the name Northmen or Norsemen) were a mixture of the indigenous people of France and the Viking invaders under the leadership of Hrolf Ganger, who adopted the French name Rollo and swore allegiance to the king of France (Charles the Simple). ... A poet exists within a cultural and intellectual tradition and usually writes in a specific language, but the qualities of good poetry are to some extent timeless and address issues common to all humanity. ... The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin. ... An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... Verse is a writing that uses meter as its primary organisational mode, as opposed to prose, which uses grammatical and discoursal units like sentences and paragraphs. ... Richard I (September 8, 1157 – April 6, 1199) was King of England from 1189 to 1199. ... This article is about the medieval crusades. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... A historian is a person who studies history. ...

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). Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris (August 9, 1839 - March 6, 1903), was a French scholar, the son of Alexis Paulin Paris. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Monumenta Germaniae Historica (frequently abbreviated MGH in bibliographies and lists of sources) is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published sources for the study of German history (broadly conceived) from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Ambroise followed Richard I as a noncombatant, and not improbably as a court-minstrel. He speaks as an eye-witness of the king's doings at Messina, in Cyprus, at the siege of Acre, and in the abortive campaign which followed the capture of that city. Non-combatant is a military and legal term describing civilians not engaged in combat. ... A minstrel was a medieval European bard who performed songs whose lyrics told stories about distant places or about (real or imaginary) historical events. ... Location within Italy Messina with a population of about 260,000 is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, Italy and the capital of the province of Messina. ... The Siege of Acre was the most important event of the Third Crusade, lasting from August 28, 1189 until July 12, 1191, and the first time in the history of the crusades that the king was compelled to personally see to the defense of the Holy Land. ...

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 his pilgrimage. 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 the Saracens, against the French, and against all the rivals or enemies of his master, including the Polein party which supported Conrad of Montferrat against Guy of Lusignan. He is rather to be treated as a biographer than as a historian of the Crusade in its broader aspects. None the less he is an interesting primary source for the events of the years 1190-1192 in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Chronology is the science of locating events in time. ... Events Priory of St Marys, Bushmead, founded. ... Pilgrim at Mecca For other uses of the word pilgrimage, see Pilgrimage (disambiguation). ... Politics, sometimes defined as the art and science of government. ... For the rugby club Saracens see Saracens (rugby club) The term Saracen comes from Greek sarakenoi. ... Conrad of Montferrat (c. ... Guy of Lusignan (c. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Official language Latin, French, Italian, and other western languages; Greek and Arabic also widely spoken Capital Jerusalem, later Acre Constitution Various laws, so-called Assizes of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christian kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 by the First Crusade. ...

The Itinerarium Regis Ricardi (formerly attributed to Geoffrey Vinsauf, but apparently compiled by Richard, a canon of Holy Trinity, London) from the work of more than one author, is closely related to Ambroise. The first book of the Itinerarium contains some additional facts; and the whole of the Latin version is adorned with flowers of rhetoric which are foreign to the style of Ambroise. But it is no longer possible to regard the Itinerarium as a first-hand narrative. Stubbs's edition of the Itinerarium (Rolls Series, 1864), in which the contrary hypothesis is maintained, appeared before Gaston Paris published his discovery. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Rhetoric from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is the art or technique of persuasion, usually through the use of language. ... In non-technical terms, no matter what the context (whether scientific, philosophical, legal, etc) a narrative is a story, an interpretation of some aspect of the world that is historically and culturally grounded and shaped by human personality (per Walter Fisher). ... William Stubbs (June 21, 1825 - April 22, 1901) was an English historian and Bishop of Oxford. ... A hypothesis (from ancient Greek hypotithenai meaning to put under or to suppose) offers a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. ...

Published edition

Ambroise, The History of the Holy War, translated by Marianne Ailes. Boydell Press, 2003.

See also

• Anglo-Norman literature
• Norman language

Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language developed during the period 1066-1204 when the Duchy of Normandy and England were united in the Anglo-Norman realm. ... The Norman language is a Romance language, one of the Oïl languages. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.