It is difficult to think of a more admirable example of leadership than that set by Baldwin IV, King of Jerusalem.
After all, kingship is its own burden. To bear it at a time when your kingdom is faced with imminent annihilation is all the heavier. To bear all of this when fighting one of the most horrifying diseases known to man — leprosy — is, however, nothing short of mythical heroism.
Yet Baldwin was not a man of myth, but one of flesh and blood, who in the less than twenty four years of life he was allowed, ensured that the Kingdom of Jerusalem would not go down without a fight. He serves as a reminder, too, that the Crusades themselves were capable of bringing out the very best in men, and best of Christendom.
Here is what the Leper King of Jerusalem can teach you about rising above the worst of misfortunes…
A Marked Life
Timestamp: 00:04:16
When Baldwin was born in 1161, it was never imagined that he would one day rule. Above all because the reigning King of Jerusalem, his uncle Baldwin III, was a young man in the prime of life who had recently married.
Longevity, however, is a gift that few of the Latin kings in the East would enjoy. Two years later, the King succumbed to dysentery, thrusting the monarchy onto young Baldwin’s father, Amalric. Worse, for reasons that remain unclear to this day, Amalric was forced to separate from his wife as a condition of the succession. Baldwin’s home, therefore, was broken when he was just a toddler.
Amalric however was determined that his son would receive the finest education available, and appointed the most learned man in the kingdom, Archdeacon William of Tyre, as his tutor. An exceptionally well travelled and studied man, William was an able master. However, he would soon discover that his student was extraordinary in the most brilliant of ways, yet so too the most tragic of ways:
“He was playing one day with his companions of noble rank, when they began, as playful boys often do, to pinch each others’ arms and hands with their nails. The other boys gave evidence of pain by their outcries, but Baldwin, although his comrades did not spare him, endured it altogether too patiently, as if he felt nothing…”
William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, Book XXI
Before long, the terrible truth dawned. Prince Baldwin, heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, was a leper, cursed to never see old age, and to live a life of ever worsening agony. At just nine years of age, it seemed his life was already over…
The Kingdom of Jerusalem
Timestamp: 00:32:58
Baldwin lost his uncle young, and so too his father. Thus in 1174, just as the debilitating symptoms of leprosy had begun to manifest, the unfortunate boy was crowned King Baldwin IV at the age of just thirteen.
He had come to the throne at a time of unprecedented crisis, with the kingdom gravely threatened by increasingly unified and determined Muslim armies, rallied by the new ruler of Egypt — Saladin.
Baldwin would have to navigate not only this, but the complicated factions that made up the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the men of dubious loyalty and competence who sought to take advantage of him, all while grappling with his own ever approaching mortality…
The Triumph of the King
Timestamp: 00:57:04
As the power of Saladin grew, the body of Baldwin wasted away. Struggling to use his hands and feet, few would have judged the King if he had delegated his duties to others.
But Baldwin IV’s broken body housed an unbroken spirit. Rallying the crusaders, in 1177 he took the field to defend his kingdom in person against the gravest threat it had ever faced. He would do so at the head of a threadbare army, against a vast Saracen host.
As Jerusalem descended into panic, and the twilight of a Christian Holy Land seemed imminent, her King overcame his crippling disabilities to face the invader down. With the relic of the True Cross at his side, Baldwin led his astounded men into the fray, and charged the host of Saladin at Montgisard, 848 years ago today.
It would be a day long remembered in the annals of Christendom…
Pushing the Limit
Timestamp: 01:15:08
“To be deprived of the use of one’s limbs is of little help to one in carrying out the work of government. If I could be cured of the disease of Naaman, I would wash seven times in Jordan, but I have found in the present age no Elisha who can heal me. It is not fitting that a hand so weak as mine should hold power when fear of Arab aggression daily presses upon the Holy City and when my sickness increases the enemy’s daring…”
King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem to King Louis VII of France
While others fell into complacency, or looked to self-interest, the stricken gaze of the King remained resolutely fixed on the horizon, and the long-term future of the kingdom.
Baldwin knew that Saladin could not be fought off indefinitely, and that victories would only delay the inevitable unless broader Christendom could be awakened from its slumber. As leprosy claimed the last of his mobility, and thereafter his sight, Baldwin devoted his every waking moment to securing a future for his people, while continuing to accompany his soldiers at the front, through victory and reversal, until the very end.
Baldwin IV was allowed just 23 years of life. Beyond his ceaseless diligence, and moving devotion, he would leave his subjects, and us, an inspirational reminder.
That no matter how much injustice you are up against, no matter how helpless you may feel or how great your misfortunes may be, there is always something you can do to make a difference…
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