De expugnatione Lyxbonensi

[6] Charles Purton Cooper, in recognition of the text's form as an epistle, designates it Cruce Signati anglici Epistola de expugnatione Ulisiponis ("English Crusaders' Letter on the Conquest of Lisbon").

Since at least the time of Archbishop Matthew Parker he has been known as "Osbern" and the manuscript's table of contents, written in a Renaissance hand, lists the work as Historia Osberni de Expeditione etc.

[6] Ulrich Cosack, in his doctoral dissertation, argued that "Osbern" was an Anglo-Norman on the grounds that he showed a marked preference for narrating their deeds.

[3] The bishop, who persuaded the crusaders to turn aside and attack Lisbon, had seen his own cathedral of Santa Maria plundered by the Muslims in 1140, when they took off with some liturgical vestments and killed and enslaved members of his clergy.

[9] To incite them to his aid, Pedro called the crusaders "God's people", who were on "a blessed pilgrimage", and told them that "[t]he praiseworthy thing is not to have been to Jerusalem but to have lived a good life while on the way".

[3] Hervey's speech appeals to family pride, the desire for glory, "the counsels of honour" and the unity to which the crusaders had sworn at the onset of the expedition.

He ended with a line he probably got from a letter written by Bernard de Clairvaux to the English crusaders in 1146: "Here, therefore, to live is glory and to die is gain".