Introduction

Among the half-dozen or so Latin accounts of the First Crusade written by

participants and those with substantial access to participants, the Gesta

Tancredi by Ralph of Caen is the least studied and least well known.1

However, by contrast with the authors of several of these other texts, Ralph’s

biography is not particularly obscure. His family probably came from Caen

or the region (pagus) administered from this flourishing Norman city. This is

suggested by the fact that Ralph spent his youth studying in the city, likely at

the cathedral school, where Arnulf of Chocques, who later was to become

patriarch of Jerusalem, served as young Ralph’s teacher. The two men were to

maintain a close life-long relationship.2