{{for|the companion of Joan of Arc|Ambroise of Loré}}
'''Ambroise''' (flourished c. [[1190]]) was a [[Normans|Norman]] [[poet]] and chronicler of the [[Third Crusade]], [[author]] of a work called ''L'Estoire de la guerre sainte'', which describes in rhyming [[Old French language|French]] [[poetry|verse]] the adventures of [[Richard I of England|Richard Coeur de Lion]] as a [[crusade]]r. The poem is known to us only through one [[Vatican Library|Vatican]] [[manuscript]], and long escaped the notice of [[historian]]s.

The credit for detecting its value belongs to [[Gaston Paris]], although his edition ([[1897]]) was partially anticipated by the editors of the ''[[Monumenta Germaniae Historica]]'', who published some selections in the twenty-seventh volume of their Scriptores ([[1885]]). Ambroise followed Richard I as a [[noncombatant]], and not improbably as a court-[[minstrel]]. He speaks as an eye-witness of the king's doings at [[Messina, Italy|Messina]], in [[Cyprus]], at the [[siege of Acre]], and in the abortive campaign which followed the capture of that city.

Ambroise is surprisingly accurate in his [[chronology]]; though he did not complete his work before [[1195]], it is evidently founded upon notes which he had taken in the course of his [[pilgrimage]]. He shows no greater [[politics|political]] insight than we should expect from his position; but relates what he had seen and heard with a naïve vivacity which compels attention. He is by no means an impartial source: he is prejudiced against the [[Saracens]], against the [[France|French]], and against all the rivals or enemies of his master, including the ''Polein'' party which supported [[Conrad of Montferrat]] against [[Guy of Lusignan]]. He is rather to be treated as a [[biographer]] than as a historian of the Crusade in its broader aspects. Nonetheless he is an interesting primary source for the events of the years 1190-1192 in the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]].

The ''[[Itinerarium Regis Ricardi]]'', a Latin prose narrative of the same events apparently compiled by Richard, a canon of Holy Trinity, London, is closely related to Ambroise's poem. It was formerly sometimes regarded as the first-hand narrative on which Ambroise based his work, but that can no longer be maintained.

==Published edition==
Ambroise, ''The History of the Holy War'', translated by Marianne Ailes. Boydell Press, 2003.

==See also==
*[[Anglo-Norman literature]]
*[[Norman language]]

==References==
*{{1911}}

[[Category:12th century deaths]]
[[Category:Anglo-Norman literature]]
[[Category:Crusade literature]]

[[fr:Ambroise (Normandie)]]