Baldwin I

1058-1118, king of Jerusalem 1100-18: fought in the first crusade.

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I

born 1172, Valenciennes

died 1205

First Latin emperor of Constantinople (1204–05).

Count of Flanders and Hainaut, he was a leader of the Fourth Crusade, which was directed against the Byzantine Empire. He helped install a pro-Latin emperor (1203). When the Crusaders in Constantinople seized power, he was elected emperor (1204) and recognized by the pope. He created a government on the western European model, granting Greek lands to his knights, but was defeated, taken prisoner, and executed by invading Bulgars.

II

known as Baldwin of Boulogne

(b. 1058?

d. April 2, 1118, Al-Arish, Egypt) King of Jerusalem (1100–18).

The son of a French count, he joined the First Crusade and created the first Crusader state when he gained control of Edessa (now in Turkey) in 1098. In 1100 his brother Godfrey died in Jerusalem, and Baldwin was summoned by the nobles to succeed him as king of the Crusader state and defender of the Holy Sepulchre. He expanded the kingdom by conquering coastal cities such as Arsuf and Caesarea, built the important castle Krak de Montréal, and established an administration that served for 200 years as the basis for Frankish rule in Syria and Palestine.

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▪ Byzantine emperor

born 1172, Valenciennes, France

died 1205

      count of Flanders (as Baldwin IX) and of Hainaut (as Baldwin VI), a leader of the Fourth Crusade (Crusades), who became the first Latin emperor of Constantinople (now Istanbul).

      The son of Baldwin V, count of Hainaut, and Margaret of Alsace, countess of Flanders, Baldwin I was an ally of the English royal house of the Plantagenets, fighting at the side of Richard I against Philip II Augustus of France. During the Fourth Crusade, which was conceived by Pope Innocent III in 1198, he took part in the installation of the pro-Latin Alexius IV Angelus as emperor in Constantinople in 1203. After Alexius and his father, Isaac II (Isaac II Angelus), were deposed in February 1204, the Crusaders seized power, and Baldwin, with Venetian support, was elected ruler of a new Latin state. He was crowned emperor on May 16, 1204, in the church of Hagia Sophia. The Pope, although initially shocked at the Crusaders' pillage of Constantinople and disconcerted by their failure to consult him on the partition of the empire, quickly recognized the Latin emperor. Even his enemies conceded that Baldwin was a man of bravery, piety, and self-control.

      Baldwin created a new government, based on the western European feudal model, to replace the traditional hierarchy of the Byzantine Empire. In October 1204 he enfeoffed 600 knights with lands formerly held by Greek nobles.

      A Byzantine revolt in Thrace provided the Bulgarian tsar Kalojan with a pretext for invasion. Baldwin led a small force to confront him at Adrianople in March 1205. Defeated, taken prisoner, and executed by the Bulgars, he was succeeded by his brother Henry.

▪ count of Flanders

byname  Baldwin Iron-arm , French  Baudouin Bras-de-fer , Flemish  Boudewijn De Ijzere Arm 

died 879

      the first ruler of Flanders. A daring warrior under Charles II the Bald of France, he fell in love with the king's daughter Judith, the youthful widow of two English kings, married her (862), and fled with his bride to Lorraine. Charles, though at first angry, was at last conciliated, and made his son-in-law margrave (Marchio Flandriae) of Flanders (864), which he held as a hereditary fief. The Norsemen were at this time continually devastating the coastlands, and Baldwin was entrusted with this outlying borderland in order to defend it. He was the first of a line of strong rulers of Flanders, who early in the 10th century exchanged the title of margrave for that of count.

▪ king of Jerusalem

byname  Baldwin of Boulogne , French  Baudouin de Boulogne 

born 1058?

died April 2, 1118, Al-ʿArīsh, Egypt

      king of the Crusader state of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, kingdom of) (1100–18) who expanded the kingdom and secured its territory, formulating an administrative apparatus that was to serve for 200 years as the basis for Frankish rule in Syria and Palestine.

      Son of Eustace II, count of Boulogne, and Ida d'Ardenne, Baldwin was the younger brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, whom he accompanied on the First Crusade (1096–99). While Baldwin was campaigning against the Seljuq Turks in Anatolia, Toros, the Christian prince of Edessa (now Urfa, Turkey), promised to make him his heir in return for military aid. Baldwin forced Toros to abdicate and took possession of Edessa in 1098. He consolidated his new principality and strengthened its ties with the native Armenians by marrying Arda, the daughter of an Armenian noble.

      In July 1100 his brother Godfrey died in Jerusalem, and Baldwin was summoned by the nobles to succeed him as Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri (Defender of the Holy Sepulchre). In December, after leading a campaign in the south to impress the Egyptian Fāṭimids with his strength and after subduing the opposition of the Crusader nobles, he was crowned the first king of Jerusalem.

      Once he had consolidated his strength at home, Baldwin seized the coastal cities of Arsuf (Tel Arshaf, Israel) and Caesarea (orbat Qesari, Israel) in 1101; by 1112 he had captured all the coastal cities except Ascalon and Tyre. In 1115 he built the castle of Krak de Montréal to protect the kingdom in the south.

      In 1113 Baldwin forced his wife to enter a convent and married Adelaide of Saona, countess dowager of Sicily. He died without an heir and was succeeded by Baldwin of Bourcq, a cousin whom he had named count of Edessa in 1100.

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