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Baldwin (BALDOUIN or BALD- UIN the name)

BALDOUIN, or BALD- UIN, the name of a long line of sovereign Counts of Flanders, of whom the most celebrated was Baldwin IX., who became, afterward, Emperor of Constantinople.

BALDWIN I., the son of Baldwin VIII., Count of Flanders and Hainault, born in Valenciennes in 1170. In 1200, he joined the crusaders with his brother Thierry, and, in 1202, aided the Venetians in their attack upon Constantinople, of which city he was crowned Emperor, May 16, 1204. In the next year Baldwin was taken prisoner by the King of Bulgaria, and, it is said, died in captivity in 1206. He was much esteemed by the Greeks for his charity, temperance, and justice. BALDWIN II., the last Frank Emperor of Constantinople, born in 1217. He was the son of Pierre de Courtenay, and succeeded his brother Robert in 1228.

He was twice besieged in his imperial city, and being too weak to defend his dominions, repaired to Italy to seek aid from the Pope. At the court of France, Baldwin was favorably received by the king, St. Louis, to whom he presented a crown of thorns, which was held by all Christendom to be the genuine relic.

Baldwin, in 1239, set out for Constantinople with a body of crusaders, who, however, soon quitted him, and took the route to Palestine. He succeeded, ultimately, in raising new forces in the West, and regained his capital; but, in 1261, Michael Paleologus invested it, and entered Constantinople on the 29th of July. Baldwin fled to Sicily, where he died in obscurity, in 1273.

BALDWIN I., King of Jerusalem, was the son of Eustace, Count of Bouillon, and accompanied his brother Godfrey of Bouillon into Palestine, where he gained the sovereignty of the state of Edessa.

He succeeded his brother on the throne of Jerusalem in 1100, and for 18 years waged war against the Turks, the Arabs, the Persians, and the Saracens.

He secured for the Christians the coast of Syria, from the Gulf of Issus to the confines of Egypt. He died at Laris, in the desert, in 1118, and was buried on Mount Calvary.

BALDWIN II., King of Jerusalem, son of Hugh, Count of Rethel, was crowned in 1118, after Eustace, brother of Baldwin I., had renounced all claim to the vacant throne. In 1120 he gained a great victory over the Saracens, but, in 1124, he was taken prisoner by them, and was ransomed only by giving up Tyre. In 1131 he abdicated in favor of 1 BALDWIN his son-in-law, Foulques of Anjou, and retired to a monastery, where he died.

The Order of Templars, for the defense of the Holy Land, was instituted in his reign.

BALDWIN III., King of Jerusalem, son of Foulques of Anjou, whom he sucof his mother. He took Ascalon and ceeded in 1142, under the guardianship of his mother. He took other places; but under his reign the Christians lost Edessa. Born in 1130; died at Antioch, in 1162. He was succeeded by his brother, Amaury I. BALDWIN IV., son of Amaury, succeeded to the throne of Jerusalem on the death of his father, in 1174; but being leprous, Raymond, Count of Tripoli, governed the kingdom for him. He afterward resigned the throne to his nephew, Baldwin V., in 1183, and died in 1185.

BALDWIN V., King of Jerusalem, son of Sibylla, sister of Baldwin IV., was called to the throne when five years old, in 1183, and died of poison, supposed to have been administered by his mother, in order that her second husband, Guy de Lusignan, might enjoy the throne.

The following year, 1187, the Christians lost Jerusalem, which was taken by Saladin.