Note 123 — LETTER I. (continued 2)

Busbecq is evidently referring to the exploits of his countrymen in the days of the Crusades. ‘At the same time’ (A.D. 1200), says Gibbon (chap. lx.), ‘Baldwin, Count of Flanders, assumed the Cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry, and the principal knights and citizens of that rich and industrious province.’ See also page 105.