[2] "King Tafur" took harsh vows of poverty, relinquished his weapons and armour and donned a sack-cloth and a scythe, urging his followers to do the same.
[1][2] Most of the barons (with the notable exception of Bohemond of Taranto) seem to have held the Tafurs in contempt and never mention them in "official" accounts sent back to Europe.
[1] They are, however, featured in chronicles written from a lower social standpoint, such as Dei gesta per Francos, and in popular epics such as the Chanson d'Antioche.
[1][2][3] However, while the cannibalism at the siege of Ma'arra is well-documented, the evidence for Antioch is less clear, and none of the earliest chronicles written about the Crusade hold the Tafurs responsible.
[5] He called it "indeed remarkable that historians have continued to embrace his rather cynical solution", adding that "the Tafurs survived in the historical imagination only because they made such convenient scapegoats".