title: A History of the Crusades: Volume 1, The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
author:  Steven Runciman 
description: 'I do not know when, in recent years, I have read a book which so enlarged my knowledge of and interest in a period of history ... It sets before us one of the formidable moral and romantic epics of our time, with scholarship and imagination worthy of it.' The Times Literary Supplement<br /><br />'The three volumes ring with battle trumpets and drums, glitter with the splendor of noble parades, and are replete with true stories of bravery and cowardliness, rash daring and wily intrigue ... To the specialist (Runicman) offers a wealth of new interpretations ... To the layman, he tenders romance and suspense at nearly every page.' The Yale Review<br /><br />' ... the best scholarly survey of the subject by a single author. It will always remain the first considerable work of its kind in the English language.' The English Historical Review<br /><br />'One of the grand historical monuments of the twentieth century ... Written with imagination and based on immense scholarship, (the volumes) are filled with true stories of rash daring and wily intrigue as the flower of Western knighthood assaults the infidel East for God, gold and glory.' Washington Post Book World
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  _**Jerusalem Delivered**_
  
    
  
   **The First Crusade**
  
   **T** HE story of "Jerusalem Delivered" is a romantic treatment of the First
  Crusade, which followed upon the preaching of Peter the Hermit, supported by
  Pope Urban II, who, from a high scaffold at the Council of Clermont, bade the
  Christians go on their errand of love, to die and possess mansions in heaven,
  or to live and pay their vows before the Holy Sepulchre. The Crusaders were to
  set out on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1096. They were a throng
  gathered from all Christendom, of which the chief among many leaders was
  Godfrey, son of Eustace II, Count of Bouillon in the Ardennes, who through his
  mother claimed descent from Charlemagne. At the age of about four-and-twenty
  he was with the Emperor's force at the siege of Rome, in 1084, and was the
  first to scale the walls. For this service, he was made Marquis of Antwerp and
  Duke of Lorraine. When the Crusade was being preached, he rose from a fever,
  shook off