|
COPYRIGHT 2005 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
Byline: DOUG TSURUOKA
The greatest of the Christian kings to rule Jerusalem during the Crusades began life as a hapless boy, who to all appearances, should never have ruled at all.
He was Baldwin IV, the so-called Leper King of Jerusalem. A stammerer as a young child, he contracted leprosy when he was 9. He was 13 in 1174 when his father died and Baldwin was crowned as his successor in the city's Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Historians marvel that Baldwin, for a time, overcame his sickness to become a wise and able ruler. He also proved an ace strategist who scored some of the kingdom's biggest triumphs against Saladin, the Saracen leader who had vowed to drive the Crusaders from the Holy Land.
It wasn't just Crusaders who admired Baldwin: he also won Saladin's respect with his strength of character. During Baldwin's reign, the two signed a truce that ushered in a rare period of peace before it fell apart.
A scion of one of France's royal families, Baldwin was descended from...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
