ABSTRACT
Also at the same time, in the seventh year of the reign of Baldwin the Christian king of Jerusalem,1 an exceedingly great navy of the Christian people of the English, around seven thousand men, in ships which they call busses, with another force from the kingdom of the Danes, from Flanders and Antwerp, sailed in after taking the long sea route and anchored in the harbour of the town of Jaffa, deciding they should delay there until they had received the king’s permit and safe conduct and had been allowed to go and worship in Jerusalem in safety. The most eminent and eloquent of them came to the king and spoke in this way: ‘Long live the king in Christ, and may his kingdom prosper day after day! From the distant land of the English kingdom, from Flanders and Denmark we men and soldiers of the Christian faith have sailed here through the waters of the exceedingly vast and extensive sea, with God’s assistance, for the sake of worshipping in Jerusalem and seeing the Lord’s Sepulchre. And so we have come together to beseech your mercy on this matter, and ask that by your favour and safe-conduct we can peacefully go up to Jerusalem, worship and return.’
