Carmen de expugnatione Salaciae

[3] The Carmen is "the most detailed and full account to have survived for the definitive taking of Alcácer" from the Almohads by the Portuguese with help from the soldiers of the Fifth Crusade.

As stands evident, God brought you to shore on our coasts, in order that by means of your arms our yoke may be destroyed.

[8] Alcácer is described as defended by a palisade, a ditch and "a two-fold wall" with many towers.

The ensuing battle is a victory for the attackers, who see a cross in the sky and a heavenly army fighting alongside them.

[13] The author was first identified as the Cistercian monk Goswin of Bossut by Fortunato de São Boaventura [pt] in the 19th century.

[15] It would appear that Goswin was a priest who accompanied the fleet and remained behind in Portugal in the service of Bishop Soeiro.

[18] The Carmen is preserved in one manuscript, now Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Fundo Alcobacense 415, which was copied at the Cistercian monastery of Alcobaça in the mid-thirteenth century.

[1] The title Gosuini de expugnatione Salaciae carmen was given to the text by Alexandre Herculano in his 1856 edition for the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica.

It has been the common title ever since, although in the manuscript it is entitled Quomodo capta fuit Alcaser a Francis ('How Alcácer was Captured by the Franks').

[21] Auguste Molinier rearranged Herculano's title and omitted Goswin's name: Carmen de expugnatione Salaciae.