: Walter the Chancellor (also known as Galterius cancellarius, the Latinized form of his French name, Gautier) was a French or Norman

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...

r and author of the twelfth century. He served as Chancellor of the Principality of Antioch and wrote ''Bella Antiochena'' ("Wars of Antioch" or "The Antiochene Wars") about the history of the principality from 1114–1122, mostly during the reign of

Roger of Salerno Roger of Salerno (or Roger of the Principate) (died June 28, 1119) was regent of the Principality of Antioch from 1112 to 1119. He was the son of Richard of the Principate and the 2nd cousin of Tancred, Prince of Galilee, both participants on the ...

. He was certainly present at the

Battle of Ager Sanguinis In the Battle of ''Ager Sanguinis'', also known as the Battle of the Field of Blood, the Battle of Sarmada, or the Battle of Balat, Roger of Salerno's Crusader army of the Principality of Antioch was annihilated by the army of Ilghazi of Mardin, ...

in 1119, in which Roger was defeated and killed by

Ilghazi Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq (died November 8, 1122) was the Turkmen Artukid ruler of Mardin from 1107 to 1122. He was born into the Oghuz tribe of Döğer. Biography His father Artuk Bey was the founder of the Artukid dynasty, and had be ...

, and Walter was probably taken into captivity for a brief time in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

. Nothing more is known about him. Even his place of origin is uncertain, as the editorial introduction of ''Recueil des Historiens des Croisades'' points out. Some authors claim on the basis of "gallicisms" in his Latin that he is of French origin, while others cite the fact that he is in the party, and writing a history of, the Norman Roger of Salerno. The text itself gives no indication. The ''Bella Antiochena'' was written in two parts, the first sometime before Ager Sanguinis in 1119, and the second probably around 1122, or in stages from 1119 to 1122. The work was published in

Jacques Paul Migne Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a ...

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...

in 1853, the

Recueil des Historiens des Croisades {{italic title The ''Recueil des historiens des croisades'' (trans: ''Collection of the Historians of the Crusades'') is a major collection of several thousand medieval documents written during the Crusades. The documents were collected and publish ...

in 1895, and by H. Hagenmeyer in 1896. Walter was used as a source by the later 12th-century chronicler

William of Tyre William of Tyre ( la, Willelmus Tyrensis; 113029 September 1186) was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walter The Chancellor Crusade literature 12th-century French historians 12th-century Normans Norman warriors 12th-century Latin writers

Further reading

References