Baldwin IV of Jerusalem
Baldwin IV, known as the Leper King, was the king of Jerusalem from 1174 until his death in 1185. Baldwin ascended to the throne when he was thirteen despite having leprosy. He launched several attempts to curb the increasing power of the Egyptian ruler Saladin, though much of his life was marked by infighting amongst the kingdom's nobles. Throughout his reign, and especially at the end of his life, he was troubled by his succession, working to select a suitable heir and prevent a succession crisis. Choosing competent advisers, Baldwin ruled a thriving crusader state, protecting it from Saladin.
Baldwin's parents, King Amalric and Agnes of Courtenay, separated when Baldwin was two. At nine years old, he was sent to be educated by Archbishop William of Tyre. William noticed preliminary symptoms of leprosy, but Baldwin was only diagnosed after he succeeded his father as king. Thereafter, his hands and face became increasingly disfigured. He mastered horse riding despite gradually losing sensation in his extremities and fought in battles until his last years. First, Miles of Plancy ruled the kingdom in Baldwin's name, then Count Raymond III of Tripoli took over until the King reached the age of majority in 1176. Baldwin's mother then returned to court, and he became closer to her and her brother, Joscelin.
As soon as he assumed government, Baldwin planned an invasion of Egypt, which fell through because of his vassals' uncooperativeness. Leprosy prevented Baldwin from marrying; he hoped to abdicate when his older sister, Sibylla, married William of Montferrat in 1176, but William died the next year. Saladin attacked Baldwin's kingdom in 1177, but the King and the nobleman Raynald of Châtillon repelled him at Montgisard, earning Baldwin fame. In 1180, to forestall a coup by Count Raymond III of Tripoli and Prince Bohemond III of Antioch, Baldwin had Sibylla marry Guy of Lusignan. However, Guy was opposed by a large fraction of the nobility, and soon permanently impaired his relationship with Baldwin through his insubordination. Although Baldwin wished to abdicate, the internal discord that followed forced him to remain on the throne, as only he was capable of uniting the quarreling nobility.
Baldwin again repelled Saladin in 1182 at the Battle of Le Forbelet, but leprosy rendered him near-incapable in 1183. After Guy's failure to lead, Baldwin disinherited him and had Sibylla's son, Baldwin V, crowned co-king before travelling in a litter to lift Saladin's Siege of Kerak. Because of their refusal to attend court, Baldwin failed to have Sibylla's marriage to Guy annulled and Guy's fief of Ascalon confiscated. In early 1185, he arranged for Raymond to rule as regent for Sibylla's son, dying of a fever before 16 May 1185. Two years after his death, his realm was destroyed by Saladin at the Battle of Hattin.
Childhood
Baldwin was born in mid-1161, probably in Ascalon, but there is no official record of this. His parents were Amalric, then the count of Jaffa and Ascalon, and Agnes of Courtenay, making him the first prince whose parents were both born in the crusader states. Baldwin's godfather was his paternal uncle, King Baldwin III, who joked that his christening present was the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The kingdom and other crusader principalities, though surrounded by Arab Muslim states, were ruled by Franks, French-speaking Catholics who had arrived in the Levant from Western Europe and remained Western in culture. The King was young and recently married, making a nephew's accession seem unlikely; yet Baldwin III died childless in 1163. Amalric was his heir, but the nobles of the kingdom were strongly opposed to Amalric's wife, Agnes; the historian Bernard Hamilton suggests that they were likely threatened by the prospect of her increased influence. The High Court forced Amalric to agree to an annulment of his marriage on the grounds of consanguinity in order to be accepted as king. Amalric succeeded in having his and Agnes's children, Sibylla and Baldwin, declared legitimate despite the annulment.As Agnes remarried soon after the annulment, Baldwin grew up without a mother; Hamilton surmises that she only saw Baldwin on public occasions. He also seldom saw his sister, Sibylla, who was raised in the Convent of Saint Lazarus by their grand-aunt Ioveta. When Baldwin was six, King Amalric married Maria Komnene, who was not close with Baldwin. Queen Maria was an ambitious woman who, in Hamilton's opinion, likely saw Baldwin as an obstacle to her progeny.
To ensure that his son and heir apparent received a good education, King Amalric sent the nine-year-old Baldwin to live with William of Tyre, a sophisticated and well-traveled cleric famed for his learning. William noticed that, unlike other noble children in the playground, Baldwin did not cry when pinched by his peers. After multiple reports of this, William realized that Baldwin could not feel pain in his right arm and grew worried about the boy's health. The King hired the Arab physician Abu Sulayman Dawud to treat Baldwin and his relative, Abul'Khair, to teach the boy horse riding, an essential skill for a Frankish nobleman. Having sensation in one hand, Baldwin learned to control his horse using solely his knees, and mastered riding despite this handicap. It was suspected that Baldwin had leprosy, but without visible symptoms, the physicians hesitated to diagnose him because of the stigma and limitations the boy would face; had such a diagnosis been made when he was a child, Baldwin might have been required by law to enter the Order of St Lazarus, a military order composed of affected knights and serjeants.
William said that Baldwin was precocious, determined, and optimistic in the face of his illness as an adolescent. He inherited his father's good looks, body shape, and manner of walking and expressing himself. Baldwin was a quick learner, but stuttered. He enjoyed listening to stories and history lessons. His memory was excellent, and he forgot neither kindness nor slights done to him by others.
In 1169, Amalric started seeking a mature husband for Sibylla so that a capable regent could rule the kingdom in case Amalric died while Baldwin was still a child. Count Stephen I of Sancerre accepted the offer. After his symptoms developed, Baldwin's accession became uncertain and attention turned to Sibylla and Stephen, but their match fell through. In June 1174, Amalric came down with dysentery, and died on 11 July 1174, leaving an underage heir as he had feared might happen.
Accession
Upon Amalric's death, the High Court convened to discuss the kingdom's succession. Though Baldwin was not diagnosed, Hamilton believed the High Court must have been aware of the royal physicians' suspicions that Baldwin had contracted leprosy. There was no viable alternative to succeed Amalric, however. Baldwin was the King's only son; Amalric's second marriage had produced two daughters, of which only Isabella survived infancy. Female succession was expressly allowed, but Sibylla was an unmarried adolescent, and Isabella was only two years old. The male candidates, Amalric's cousins Prince Bohemond III of Antioch, Baldwin of Antioch, and Count Raymond III of Tripoli, were politically unsuitable: Bohemond was bound to distant Antioch, Baldwin was in the service of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, and Raymond was virtually a stranger to the barons after nine years spent in Muslim captivity.After three days of deliberation, Baldwin IV was unanimously chosen, with the expectation that a husband would be found for Sibylla to succeed him if he proved to be affected. The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Amalric of Nesle, crowned the young king in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Although medieval rulers were typically crowned on Sundays, 15 July 1174 was chosen for Baldwin's coronation instead as it was the 75th anniversary of the First Crusade's seizure of Jerusalem.
Regency
Until he reached the age of majority, Baldwin needed a regent to rule in his name. The government was initially assumed by the seneschal, Miles of Plancy. Shortly thereafter, Count Raymond III of Tripoli arrived in Jerusalem and laid a claim to the regency as the King's closest kinsman. Miles was murdered in October 1174 while trying to extend his hold on the government. With the unanimous support of the bishops and most of the kingdom's noblemen, Raymond was named regent after a two-day debate presided over by the 13-year-old king. No new seneschal was appointed for two years, and so the young and sickly king presided over burdensome High Court meetings when Raymond was away on military duties or in Tripoli.Baldwin's mother, Agnes, returned to court when Raymond became regent. Historians frequently accuse her of exploiting her son's condition for self-gain; Hamilton notes that contemporary sources, including Baldwin's tutor, William of Tyre, are strongly biased against her. Hamilton believes that Baldwin had no memories of his mother because he grew up without her since the age of two, but that she became devotedly kind to him and he developed a strong attachment to her.
At the beginning of 1175, Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid Sultanate, laid siege to the Zengid-held city of Aleppo, and the inhabitants of the city wished for the crusaders to carry out a diversion. This was Baldwin's first opportunity to lead in a military campaign. At the end of spring, Baldwin left Jerusalem, crossing Samaria and Galilee. The target was Damascus, whose countryside was pillaged and burned by the crusaders; the operation was successfully repeated in August of the following year. According to historian Pierre Aubé, Baldwin and Raymond III of Tripoli defeated a Damascene army commanded by Saladin's brother, Turan-Shah, at Ain Anjar.
During his regency, it was confirmed that the King was affected by leprosy. It is not clear from whom he caught it. Medical historian Piers Mitchell concludes that it must have been someone with whom Baldwin had spent a lot of time at a young age, such as a family member, a wet nurse, or another servant, and who did not exhibit easily visible symptoms. Puberty may have accelerated the development of the lepromatous form of the illness, and his condition worsened rapidly. Most severely affected were his extremities and face, which made his subjects feel uneasy when they approached him. Yet, to the surprise of Muslim observers and contrary to the common practice, Baldwin was never segregated. As a leper, he could not marry or expect to have children; it thus became a priority to arrange a marriage for Baldwin's sister and heir presumptive, Sibylla. Raymond's choice was William of Montferrat, cousin of both Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and King Louis VII of France.