In fictional stories, the heroes and princes are all young, heroic and handsome, always in good health, even during a plague, but in reality, things aren't always like that.
There have been kings, princes and war heroes who may have been young, but they weren't handsome or were not in good health. This is the case of Baudouin IV of Jerusalem, who went down in history as The Leper King.
There is not much to say about the reason for his nickname, Baudouin was a king, and he was ill with leprosy. On what is his story, so much has been said, so much has been written, and so much more remains to be discovered.
Baldwin IV of Anjou , was born in Jerusalem in 1161, from the union of Amalrico I of Anjou , King of Jerusalem, and Agnes of Courtenay, of the county of Edessa , the northernmost of the 12th century Crusader states.
Baudouin belongs to that European elite engaged in the search for new lands and the creation of new kingdoms beyond the borders of Europe., Because the land in Europe was not enough to satisfy the needs of the European nobility. This search for new lands would have resulted, at that time, in the various Crusader wars, for the conquest of Jerusalem, and the establishment of safe harbors that would simplify trade with the East along the Silk Road.
Baldwin of Anjou spends his youth in the palace, at the paternal court in Jerusalem, and had little contact with his mother, Countess of Jaffa and Ascalona , due to the annulment of the marriage, which took place in 1164, when the prince was just 3 years old, just one year after Almarico's accession to the throne of Jerusalem, which took place in 1163 at the death of his brother Baldwin III, who died without leaving heirs . The annulment of the marriage of the new King of Jerusalem was wanted by the church and endorsed by numerous nobles hostile to the house of Courtenay, whose intent, it is supposed, could have been to settle on the throne of Jerusalem using the consanguinity of Amalric and Agnes as a weapon. . The annulment of the marriage would have made the young Baldwin illegitimate, who would therefore have been excluded from the succession chain, thus making the crown change hands.
However, thanks to the influence of his family in Europe, Amalric managed to obtain the recognition of legitimacy of his children Sibilla and Baldovino.
The education of the heir to the throne of Jerusalem was entrusted to William of Tire , archdeacon of the city from 167 at the request of Amalric and subsequently Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1174, the year of Amalrico's death and ascension to the throne of Baldwin. According to the Archbishop's diaries, William of Tire was the first, during the education of Baudouin, to notice that the young man felt no pain when his right arm was pinched, which would later prove to be a symptom of the disease of which the young suffered, but was initially mistaken for a high ability to resist pain. After the necessary examinations and tests, it was discovered that the prince's right arm and hand were partially paralyzed and later leprosy was diagnosed.
In the third quarter of the 12th century, leprosy underwent a strong course and the disease spread rapidly in its most severe form, that of lepromatous leprosy.
Many opponents of the Anjou family interpreted the disease as a divine plague, a sign of God's will that Baldwin, the son of consanguineous parents, did not ascend to the "sacred" kingdom of Jerusalem However, the allies of the family of Anjou on earth were influential and powerful enough not to jeopardize the succession of Baudouin, even though his reign and government were put under a lot of pressure due to his conditions of health and war.
In 1174 Amalric of Jerusalem died, and on July 15, the thirteen year old Baldwin IV was crowned king of Jerusalem, under the regency of Raymond III of Tripoli, who, in 1175 managed to enter into a peace treaty with the sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb ., known in the West as Saladin, and the following year, in 1176, Raymond, withdrew from the regency, but not before having initiated treaties to organize the marriage between Princess Sibilla, Baldwin's sister, and William of Monferrato , also known as Guglielmo Spadalunga. Guglielmo was, at that time, one of the most coveted men in Europe, as the son, albeit fifth-born, of one of the most powerful feudal lords in Italy and was a cousin of both Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Louis of France. VII.
The union of William with Sibyl, would have guaranteed to the house of Anjou an heir of the highest lineage, who would not have had too much difficulty in reigning over Jerusalem at the death of Baldwin, after all, Baldwin's health conditions were not the best, and anyone at court, in nearby courts and in Europe, suspected that the leper king could reign for a long time, which is why there was a long political struggle to secure the favors of potential heirs to the throne, especially Sibyl and her half-sister Isabella d'Angiò , born in 1172 from the second marriage of Amalrico I with Maria Comnena, daughter of Manuele I, Byzantine emperor.
The succession of Baudouin was at the center of a real political confrontation at the top, which indirectly involved the Emperor of the Holy Roman Germanic Empire, the kingdom of France, the kingdom of England and the Byzantine Empire, all under constant threat. of the Islamic empire.
When Baldwin reached the age of majority (which at the time was 14 years old) the young king, still strong and apparently healthy, since not yet worn out by the disease, undertook a first military action, making some forays into the territory of Damascus, at that time part of the kingdom of Saladin, with whom Jerusalem had stipulated in 1175 a peace treaty. Strengthened by the first victories in Syria, and supported by the Byzantine Empire, Baudouin began planning an attack on Egypt, at that time the central region of the kingdom of Saldino.
Defeating Saladin and taking control of Egypt had strategic as well as political value. By taking Egypt, the entire North African coast could be conquered by the European powers, and thus ensure Europe, full control of the trade routes in the Mediterranean.
To ensure Byzantine support for the kingdom of Jerusalem, Baudouin sent Rinaldo of Chatillon to Constantinople , formerly prince of Antioch, cousin of his father Amalrico. Rinaldo's choice was not dictated by chance. Between 1160 Rinaldo had been taken prisoner during a fight against some Syrian and Armenian peasants near Marash, and his imprisonment, which lasted 16 years, ended in 1176, when the Byzantine emperor Manuel redeemed his freedom, at the cost of 120,000 gold denarii.
In 1177 Rinaldo returned to Jerusalem, thanks to an agreement with the Byzantine Empire, which guaranteed the kingdom of Jerusalem the Byzantine naval support during the attack on Egypt, and for this reason, Baldwin offered him in marriage Stefania di Milly heir to the fiefdoms of Kerak and the Oltregiordano, thanks to which Rinaldo had access to the Red Sea. This marriage had significant strategic reasons in view of an imminent war against Egypt and, already in November 1177, Rinaldo was entrusted with the command of an army which, starting from Jerusalem, clashed with Saladin, in the battle. of Montgisard which took place on November 25th.
In the following years Jerusalem was perpetually at war and Baldwin did not fail in his duties as ruler, fighting as a crusader, together with his own soldiers. In 1179 he suffered some defeats and risked being killed at the hands of a grandson of Saladin.
As the crusader armies of Jerusalem fought Saladin's armies, and the disease began to show its first signs and Baudouin's succession became more and more complicated as new "suitors" began to claim their inheritance rights.
In August 1777 Philip of Flanders , cousin of Baudouin, arrived in Jerusalem as a crusader and immediately claimed his kinship with the sovereign and as a closest relative, as son of Folco d'Angiò, brother of Amalric, this made him first cousin of the King of Jerusalem , while, the designated heir was only a second cousin.
In 1180 Sibyl of Anjou, Baldwin's sister and widow of Guglielmo Spadalunga , she remarried with Guido di Lusignano . This second marriage of Sibilla is still the subject of many historiographical discussions, however, Sibilla's second husband had a high lineage pedigree, like her first husband, as Guido was linked both to Philip II than to Henry II , respectively king of France and England.
In 1182 Baldwin appointed his brother-in-law, Guido di Lusognano, regent of the kingdom but in 1183, following some tensions with Guido, who in the meantime had proved too ambitious and disobedient, for Baldwin's tastes, the sovereign of Jerusalem tried, unsuccessfully, to have the marriage between his sister, at that moment first in line of succession for the throne of Jerusalem, and Guido annulled. According to contemporary chroniclers, Baldovino was worried that after his death, Guido could have Sibilla and Baldovino V of Monferrato murdered , thus obtaining the throne of Jerusalem for himself and his descendants, he thus decided, together with the High Court of Jerusalem, to change the line of succession, thus placing Baldwin V as heir to the throne of Jerusalem. Between 1183 and 1185 a period of co-reign was established, in which Baldwin IV and Baldwin V, born in 1177, officially reigned together, and on the death of Baldwin IV, Raymond III of Tripoli , former regent of Baldwin IV, and Bohemond III of Antioch , became regents under the authority of Joscelin III of Edessa.
Their regency, however, was short-lived because in 1186 Baldwin V died and the throne passed to his mother, Sibilla of Anjou, while Guido di Lusignano was appointed King Consort of Jerusalem.
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