Baldwin II

Also known as of Bourcq

Baldwin of Bourcq, a cousin of the childless Baldwin I and formerly Count of Edessa, arrived in Jerusalem in April 1118 just as his predecessor's funeral procession was reaching the city. Some chroniclers hint at a palace coup by the Lorrainer faction over the rival claims of Baldwin I's brother Eustace III of Boulogne; in practice, the presence of a seasoned crusader already in the East closed the debate. The High Court elected him on the spot.

His thirteen-year reign was defined by near-constant warfare — he spent about four of those years in Muslim captivity, mostly in the hands of the Artuqid emir Balak at Kharput — yet the kingdom's institutions grew around him. He convened the Council of Nablus in 1120 to establish the first major body of written law, addressing both secular governance and clerical discipline; he officially recognised the Knights Templar and granted them quarters on the Temple Mount, turning a small protective brotherhood into a permanent standing army. In 1124, while he was still a prisoner, his regency government and a massive Venetian fleet captured Tyre — the last great Muslim-held port on the coast.

Deeply pious — William of Tyre noted callouses on his hands and knees from constant prayer — Baldwin was also criticised for a “love of money,” the inevitable reflection of perpetual campaign costs. He was devoted to his Armenian wife Morphia and refused to set her aside even under baronial pressure to produce a male heir, dying in 1131 and leaving the kingdom to their eldest daughter Melisende and her husband Fulk of Anjou. Historians remember him as the monarch who consolidated the frontiers and institutionalised the Crusader States, bequeathing a kingdom legally and militarily stronger than the one he inherited.

Preceded by Baldwin I. Succeeded by Melisende & Fulk.

Read more on Wikipedia: English article