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BALDWIN I

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 246 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BALDWIN I  ., See also:prince of See also:Edessa (1098-1100), and first See also:king of See also:Jerusalem (1 oo-III8), was the See also:brother of See also:Godfrey of See also:Bouillon (q.v.) . He was originally a clerk in orders, and held several prebends; but in ro96 he joined the first crusade, and accompanied his brother Godfrey as far as See also:Heraclea in See also:Asia See also:Minor . When See also:Tancred See also:left the See also:main See also:body of the crusaders at Heraclea, and marched into See also:Cilicia, See also:Baldwin followed, partly in See also:jealousy, partly from the same See also:political motives which animated Tancred . He wrested See also:Tarsus from Tancred's grip (See also:September 1097), and left there a See also:garrison of his own . After rejoining the main See also:army at See also:Marash, he received an invitation from an Armenian named Pakrad, and moved eastwards towards the See also:Euphrates, where he occupied Tell-bashir . Another invitation followed from Thoros of Edessa; and to Edessa Baldwin came, first as See also:protector, and then, when Thoros was assassinated, as his successor (See also:March 1098) . For two years he ruled in Edessa (1098-1100), marryingan Armenian wife, and acting generally as the intermediary between the crusaders and the Armenians . During these two years he was successful in maintaining his ground, both against the See also:Mahommedan See also:powers by which he was surrounded, and from which he won See also:Samosata and Seruj (Sarorgia), and against a See also:conspiracy of his own subjects in ro98 . At the end of 1099 he visited Jerusalem along with See also:Bohemund I.; but he returned to Edessa in See also:January 11oo . On the See also:death of Godfrey he was summoned by a party,in Jerusalem to succeed to his brother . A See also:lay reaction against the theocratic pretensions of Dagobert, who was counting on See also:Norman support, was responsible for the See also:summons; and in the strength of that reaction Baldwin was able to become the first king of Jerusalem . He was crowned on See also:Christmas See also:Day, 'See also:loo, by the See also:patriarch himself; but the struggle of See also:church and See also:state was not yet over, and in the See also:spring of See also:riot Baldwin had Dagobert suspended by a papal See also:legate, while later in the See also:year the two disagreed on the question of the contribution to be made by the patriarch towards the See also:defence of the See also:Holy See also:Land .

The struggle ended in the deposition of Dagobert and the See also:

triumph of Baldwin (1102) . As Baldwin had secured the supremacy of the lay See also:power in Jerusalem, so he extended into a compact See also:kingdom the poor and straggling territories to which he had succeeded . This he did by an See also:alliance with the See also:Italian trading towns, especially See also:Genoa, which supplied in return for the concession of a See also:quarter in the conquered towns, the See also:instruments and the skill for a See also:war of sieges, in which the See also:coast towns of See also:Palestine were successively reduced . See also:Arsuf and Caesarea were captured in i'oi; See also:Acre in 1104; See also:Beirut and See also:Sidon in r See also:Ito (the latter with the aid of the Venetians and Norwegians) . Meanwhile Baldwin repelled in successive years the attacks of the Egyptians (1102, 1103, 11o5), and in the latter years of his reign (1115–1118) he even pushed See also:south-See also:ward at the expense of See also:Egypt, penetrating as far as the Red See also:Sea, and planting an outpost at Monreal . In the See also:north he had to compose the dissensions of the See also:Christian princes in See also:Tripoli, See also:Antioch and Edessa (1109–IIIo), and to help them to maintain their ground against the Mahommedan princes of N.E . See also:Syria, especially Maudud and Aksunk-ur, amirs of See also:Mosul . In this way Baldwin was able to make himself into See also:practical suzerain of the three Christian principalities of the north, though the See also:suzerainty was, and always continued to be, somewhat nominal . In 1118 he died, after an expedition to Egypt, during which he captured Farama, and, as old See also:Fuller says, " caught many See also:fish, and his death in eating them." Baldwin was one of the " adventurer princes " of the first crusade, and as such he stands alongside of Bohemund, Tancred and See also:Raymund . On the whole he was the most successful of his class . By his defence of the lay power against a nascent See also:theocracy, and by his alliance with the Italian towns, he was the real founder of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem . Events worked for him: he might never have come to the See also:throne, unless Bohemund had fallen into the hands of Danishmend; and the dissensions among the Mahommedans alone made possible the subsequent consolidation of his kingdom .

But he had See also:

virus as well as See also:fortuna; and on his tombstone it was written that he was " a second Judas Maccabaeus, whom Kedar and Egypt, See also:Dan and See also:Damascus dreaded." As king, he still retained something of the clerk in the See also:habit of his See also:dress; but he was at the same See also:time a See also:warrior so impetuous, as to be sometimes foolhardy, and his policy was on the whole See also:anti-clerical . He may be accused of greed: his See also:life was not chaste; and the two defects met in his rejection of his Armenian wife and his See also:marriage to the See also:rich Sicilian widow See also:Adelaide (1113) . But " on the holiest See also:soil of See also:history, he gave his See also:people a fatherland "; and See also:Fulcher of See also:Chartres, his See also:chaplain, who paints at the beginning of Baldwin's reign the terrors of the lonely See also:band of Christians in the midst of their foes, can celebrate at the end the formation of a new nation in the See also:East (qui fuimus occidentales, nunc facti sumus orientales)—an achievement which, so far as it was the See also:work of any one See also:man, was the work of Baldwin I . Jerusalem during his reign, is the See also:primary authority for Baldwin's career . There is a monograph on Baldwin by See also:Wolff (See also:Kong Baldwin I. von Jerusalem), and his reign is sketched in R . Rohricht's Geschichte See also:des Ronigreichs Jerusalem See also:Innsbruck, 1898) C. i.-iv . (E .

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