Fulcher of Chartres

Fulcher of Chartres ( in or near Chartres – after 1128) was a priest who participated in the First Crusade. He served Baldwin I of Jerusalem for many years and wrote a Latin chronicle of the Crusade. Life Fulcher was born . His appointment as chaplain of Baldwin of Boulogne in 1097 suggests that he had been trained as a priest, most likely at the school of Chartres. However, he was probably not a member of the cathedral chapter, since he is not named in the listing of the Dignitaries of the Church of Our Lady of Chartres. The details of the Council of Clermont of 1095, in his history, suggest he attended the council personally, or knew someone who did; perhaps Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, who influenced Fulcher's opinions on Church reform and the investiture controversy with the Holy Roman Empire. Fulcher was part of the entourage of Count Stephen of Blois and Robert of Normandy which made its way through southern France and Italy in 1096, crossing into the Eastern Roman Empire from Bari and arriving in Constantinople in 1097, where they joined with the other armies of the First Crusade. He travelled through Asia Minor to Marash, shortly before the army's arrival at Antioch in 1097, where he was appointed chaplain to Baldwin of Boulogne. He followed his new lord after Baldwin split off from the main army, to Edessa, where Baldwin founded the county of Edessa.