Baldwin IV: The King Who Refused to Die

Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:25 Saladin's Rise 05:16 Game of Thrones 06:17 The Boy King Strikes 08:44 The Succession Crisis 10:51 The Battle 15:28 Jacob's Ford 17:59 Enemies Within 19:25 Ruling from a Litter 23:39 Thie Siege of Kerak 25:05 Baldwin's End 26:38 The Fall of Jerusalem In 1170 AD, a 9-year-old boy was diagnosed with leprosy, and four years later, he was crowned King of Jerusalem. Over the next decade, Baldwin IV held together a crumbling kingdom, defeated Saladin's armies from horseback and eventually from a stretcher, all while his own body slowly destroyed itself. Sources: -William of Tyre, Historia Rerum in Partibus Transmarinis Gestarum (c. 1170–1184), the primary contemporary chronicle and Baldwin's own tutor -Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, Vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge University Press, 1952) -Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge University Press, 2000) -Malcolm Barber, The Crusader States (Yale University Press, 2012) -Baha al-Din ibn Shaddad, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin (c. 1198), a biography by Saladin's personal secretary -Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, Conquête de la Syrie et de la Palestine par Saladin (c. 1190s), an eyewitness account from Saladin's court -Andrew D. Buck, The Principality of Antioch and the Crusading World (Boydell Press, 2017)