Baldwin V

Also known as the child king

Born in 1177 to Sibylla of Jerusalem and her first husband William of Montferrat, the little Baldwin was crowned co-king in 1183 at the insistence of his dying uncle Baldwin IV, who was determined that the crown should not pass through his sister to her second husband Guy of Lusignan. When Baldwin IV died in the spring of 1185 the seven-year-old became sole king under the regency of Count Raymond III of Tripoli.

The regency did real work in a desperate hour. Raymond secured a four-year truce with Saladin that bought the kingdom breathing space, while custody of the sickly king was handed separately to Joscelin III of Courtenay — a deliberate split designed to ensure that the regent could not be blamed if the boy died in his care. At his earlier coronation, Balian of Ibelin had famously carried the six-year-old on his shoulders up the steps of the Holy Sepulchre, a piece of public theatre that declared the united support of the baronial party.

He died in Acre in August 1186, aged about eight, almost certainly of natural causes — no contemporary chronicler hints at poison, though later novelists have added it. His death was the catastrophe the regency had tried to plan against. The truce held for a few months more, but the succession crisis he left behind handed the crown to his mother Sibylla and, through her, to Guy of Lusignan.

Preceded by Baldwin IV. Succeeded by Sibylla & Guy.

Read more on Wikipedia: English article