Baldwin of Exeter

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Baldwin of Exeter (d. November 19, 1190) was Archbishop of Canterbury between 1185 and 1190.

He was born in Exeter, where he became archdeacon and then became abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Ford. He became Bishop of Worcester in 1180 and was elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1185. During his time as Archbishop there was a dispute with the monks of Christ Church in Canterbury, who resented Baldwin's attempts to impose stricter control over them, and who disputed the legitimacy of Baldwin's election: they had traditionally been the sole electors of the archbishop, but Baldwin, who came from outside their order, was elected by the rest of the English bishops, per Canon law. Baldwin then moved the residence of the Archbishop from Canterbury to Lambeth Palace.

In 1188 King Henry II of England called for a tithe to support a new crusade, the Third, following the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187. It was popularly known as the "Saladin tithe" and was the most extensive tax ever collected in England up to that point. Because it was a tithe rather than a secular tax, it was collected by dioceses rather than by shires, and Baldwin was especially blamed for its harshness. Wisely, perhaps, he spent most of 1188 in Wales, preaching the crusade, accompanied by the chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis.

In 1189 Baldwin accompanied Henry's son and successor King Richard I of England on crusade. In June 1190 he arrived at Acre, ,at the head of the English forces (Richard did not arrive until 1191). At this time, the city was under siege by the Frankish forces led by King Guy and Queen Sibylla, who in turn were being besieged by Saladin. Soon after Baldwin's arrival, there was a succession crisis in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Sibylla - a first cousin of Henry II - and her two young daughters died in July, leaving Guy without a legal claim as he had held the kingship through his wife. The heiress of the Kingdom was Sibylla's half-sister Isabella; she was already married to Humphrey IV of Toron, but he was loyal to Guy and seems to have had no ambition to be king. A more promising candidate for the throne was the dynamic and charismatic Conrad of Montferrat, uncle of the last undisputed king, Baldwin V. Conrad had saved the Kingdom from total destruction by leading the successful defence of Tyre, and had the support of Isabella's mother Maria Comnena and stepfather Balian of Ibelin. Maria and Balian abducted Isabella from Humphrey, and compelled her to seek an annulment, so that she could be married to Conrad and enable him to claim the kingship. Since her marriage to Humphrey had been arranged by her half-brother Baldwin IV of Jerusalem when she was eleven, having been betrothed to him when she was eight, they argued that she had not been able to give real consent.

Baldwin supported Guy's claim, but Ubaldo, Archbishop of Pisa, Philip of Dreux, Bishop of Beauvais, and Eraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem supported Conrad. Isabella and Humphrey's marriage was forcefully annulled. Baldwin, already ailing, attempted to excommunicate everyone involved in the annulment, but he died on 19 November. The annulment and new marriage were performed by the Archbishop of Pisa and the Bishop of Beauvais on 24 November.

When news of his death reached England in 1191, he was succeeded briefly by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, Bishop of Bath and Wells; Reginald soon died and the seat remained vacant until 1193 when Hubert Walter, Bishop of Salisbury and a fellow crusader, was elected Archbishop.

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Preceded by Richard of Dover	Archbishop of Canterbury 1185–1190	Succeeded by Reginald Fitz-Jocelin

[edit] Sources

• Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades. Cambridge University Press, 1951-54.
• Christopher Tyerman, England and the Crusades, 1095-1588. University of Chicago Press, 1988.
• Catholic Encyclopedia article