This book is a syudy of the First Crusade and the formative period of the Frankish states in Outremer, focusing on the reign of the first two rulers of the kingdom of Jerusalem, Godfrey of Bouillon (1099-1100) and his brother Baldwin I (1100-1118). The main text provides a narrative of the means by which the Bouillon-Boulogne dynasty acquired, maintained, and finally lost the rulership of the kingdom of Jerusalem, tracing its history from the brothers’s ancestry in Lotharingia and Flanders to the dynastic struggles of the reign of Baldwin II.  A prosopographical catalogue provides documentation on some 140 key individuals who formed the basis of Bouillon-Boulogne power on crusade and during the first two decades the Frankish rule in Outreme. Appendices deal with the marriages and descendants of Eustache II of Bouologne, witnesses to documents of baldwin I, and the claim of Baldwin II to the throne of Jerusalem.

This study will appeal to a broad range of readers with interests in the crusades, the Latin East, and the history of western Europe in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, including professional historians, undergraduates, postgraduates and genealogists.