ABSTRACT
William is vague as to the exact date and circumstances of this engagement. The particular problem posed by William is the identity of this Godfrey, who is not mentioned in any other narrative source. William of Malmesbury and the Hospitaller cartulary reveal that in the second decade of the twelfth century the nobility of the kingdom of Jerusalem included a bastard of the Bouillon- Boulogne family who was associated with his uncle Baldwin I. Since the counts of Boulogne were major landholders in England, this personal knowledge could most readily be explained by the assumption that Godfrey the Bastard was a son of Eustace III, rather than of Godfrey of Bouillon who had spent most of his adult life before the First Crusade in Lotharingia.
