Baldwin of Ibelin

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Baldwin of Ibelin, also known as Baldwin of Ramla (early 1130s-c. 1187), was an important noble of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. He was the second son of Barisan of Ibelin, and was the younger brother of Hugh of Ibelin and older brother of Balian of Ibelin. He was old enough to witness charters in 1148, which suggests he may have been born c. 1133, the age of majority for boys being 15. (H. E. Mayer has suggested a limited degree of competence may have been accepted from the age of 8, reducing his age further, but the examples he gives to support this are of males of the royal house, whose situation was somewhat different.)

After the death of his eldest brother Hugh (third husband of Agnes of Courtenay) in 1169, the castle of Ibelin passed to Baldwin, who remained lord of Ramla and passed Ibelin to his younger brother Balian. He introduced the Lusignan family to court in 1174, in the person of Amalric of Lusignan, who had married his daughter Eschiva. Baldwin and Balian supported Raymond III of Tripoli over Miles of Plancy as regent for King Baldwin IV in 1174, and in 1177 the brothers were present at the Battle of Montgisard.

It is suspected that, after the death of his second wife Isabella, in 1177, he became Raymond of Tripoli's favoured candidate to marry the widowed Princess Sibylla of Jerusalem. His brother Balian had recently married her stepmother, Dowager Queen Maria Comnena. The Chronicle of Ernoul, or Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, partly written by a former squire of Balian, but thirteenth-century in its current form, claims that Baldwin and Sibylla had been in love and exchanged letters during Baldwin's captivity, but this is highly questionable.

Baldwin was captured in battle at Marj Uyun in 1179, along with Odo de St Amand, Grand Master of the Templars, and Raymond of Tripoli's stepson, Hugh de St Omer of Tiberias. he was released on bail, and was in Jerusalem at the time of Princess Sibylla of Jerusalem's wedding in 1180. Raymond of Tripoli seems to have been planning a coup to marry Sibylla to Baldwin, but the king needed to marry her to a non-native, for political reasons. She was married to Guy of Lusignan, younger brother of Baldwin of Ibelin's son-in-law Amalric. That same year, the king betrothed his younger half-sister Isabella of Jerusalem, Balian's stepdaughter, to Humphrey IV of Toron, further to reduce the Ibelins' influence. Baldwin was ransomed by Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and later in 1180 he visited Constantinople. Supposedly, the emperor sat him in a chair and covered him up to his head in the gold coins that were to be used as his ransom money. During his stay in Constantinople, the emperor died.

In 1183 he supported Raymond against Guy, who was by now regent for the ailing Baldwin IV. Lord Baldwin was among the barons who advised the king to crown Sibylla's son Baldwin V in 1183, while Baldwin IV was still alive; this was an attempt to prevent Guy from succeeding as king. Baldwin V became sole king while still a child in 1185, and when the young king died in 1186, Sibylla was crowned queen with Guy as her consort. The Ibelins and Raymond favoured the accession of Isabella of Jerusalem, Balian's stepdaughter, but her husband, Humphrey of Toron, refused to be crowned and cause a civil war, and instead swore allegiance to Sibylla and Guy. All the other barons of the kingdom paid homage to Guy as well, except for Raymond and Baldwin. Baldwin placed his young son Thomas under the care of his brother Balian, and exiled himself to the Principality of Antioch, where he was welcomed with great fanfare.

Baldwin considered Guy "a madman and a fool", and refused to pay homage because his father had not paid homage to Guy's father (i.e., regarding Guy as an upstart incomer, where Baldwin was a native baron). He refused to return to Jerusalem to assist Guy against Saladin, and probably died in his self-imposed exile in 1187.

[edit] Family

Baldwin of Ibelin married 3 times. His wives were:

1. Richilde of Bethsan, m. 1157, annulled 1174. They had three children:

• Thomas of Ibelin, lord of Ramla (died 1188)
• Eschiva of Ibelin (d. 1196); married Amalric of Lusignan before 1175; Queen-consort of Cyprus (1194-96), mother of Hugh I of Cyprus. (After her death, Amalric married Isabella of Jerusalem and became King of Jerusalem.)
• Stephanie of Ibelin, married Amalric, viscount of Nablus

2. Isabella or Elizabeth Gothman, m. 1175, d. 1177, no surviving issue.

3. Maria, daughter of Renier, constable of Tripoli, m. after 1180, no surviving issue.

Another Baldwin of Ibelin was the son of this Baldwin's nephew John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut.

[edit] Sources

• William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea. E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey, trans. Columbia University Press, 1943.
• Peter W. Edbury, The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation. Ashgate, 1996.
• Peter W. Edbury, John of Ibelin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Boydell Press, 1997.
• Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and his Heirs. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• H. E. Mayer, "Carving Up Crusaders: The Early Ibelins and Ramlas", in Outremer: Studies in the history of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem presented to Joshua Prawer. Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute, 1982.
• Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press, 1952.