The story of the voyages of Englishmen in the twelfth-century Crusades, recorded in chronological order, opens with the chivalrous adventure of Edgar, grandson of Edmund, surnamed “Ironsides,” accompanied by “valiant Robert the son of Godwin,” in the year 1102, when, immediately upon their arrival out, signal aid was rendered by them to Baldwin, the second Latin king of Jerusalem, whom they found hard pressed by the Turks at Rama. The “valiant Robert” sprang to the forefront, and going before the king with his drawn sword, he cut a lane through the enemy’s camp, “slaying the Turks on his right hand and his left.” So Baldwin escaped. But the knight fared ill. “Upon this happy success, being more eager and fierce, as he went forward too hastily, his sword fell out of his hand. Which as he stooped to take up, being oppressed by the whole multitude, he was there taken and bound.” His fate was tragic. “From thence (as some say) being carried into Babylon, or Alcair, in Egypt, when he would not renounce Christ, he was tied unto a stake in the midst of the market-place, and being shot through with arrows, died a martyr.” Edgar having lost his beloved knight, retired from crusading, and returned to England honoured with “many rewards both by the Greekish and the German Emperor.” Five years later, in 1107, a “very great warlike fleet of the Catholic nation of England to the number of about seven thousand,” together with “more men of war of the kingdom of Denmark, of Flanders, and of Antwerp,” set sail in ships then called “busses”—small vessels carrying two masts, and with two cabins, one at each end—for the Holy Land. This body of warring zealots reached Joppa after a prosperous voyage, and thence, under a strong guard provided them by King Baldwin, passed to Jerusalem safely from all assaults and ambushes of the Gentiles. When they had solemnly offered up their vows in the Temple of the Holy Sepulchre, they returned with great joy to Joppa, and were ready to fight for Baldwin in any venture he might propose against the enemy. Plans were formed to besiege a stronghold. But the move ended with an effective demonstration of the fleet in brave array, displaying “pendants and streams of purple and diverse other glorious colours, and flags of scarlet colour and silk.”