Baldwin of Ibelin
Encyclopedia
Baldwin of Ibelin, also known as Baldwin III of Ramla (French: Baudouin d'Ibelin, early 1130s – c. 1187 or 1186/1188), 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 first appears in the historical record as a witness to charters in 1148.
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 Mirabel or Majdal Yaba
and 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 of Tiberias. 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. Baldwin was in Jerusalem at the time of Sibylla'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, in order gain support for another crusade from the west. 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
, to further reduce the Ibelins' influence.
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, but Humphrey 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.
1. Richilde de Bethsan, before or in 1157, divorced and annulled 1174. They had three children:
2. Isabelle or Elizabeth Gothman, married 1175, d. 1177 or 1178, no surviving issue.
3. Marie, daughter of Renier, Constable of Tripoli, m. after April, 1180, d. after 1228, no surviving issue.
Another Baldwin of Ibelin was the son of this Baldwin's nephew John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut
.
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
in the 12th century. He was the second son of Barisan of Ibelin
Barisan of Ibelin
Barisan of Ibelin was an important figure in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and was the founder of the Ibelin family. His name was later written as "Balian" and he is sometimes known as Balian the Elder or Balian I....
, and was the younger brother of Hugh of Ibelin
Hugh of Ibelin
Hugh of Ibelin was an important noble in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.Hugh was the eldest son of Barisan of Ibelin and Helvis of Ramla. He was old enough to witness charters in 1148, as was his younger brother Baldwin of Ibelin, which suggests he was born c. 1130-1133, as the male age of...
and older brother of Balian of Ibelin
Balian of Ibelin
Balian of Ibelin was an important noble in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century.-Early life:Balian was the youngest son of Barisan of Ibelin, and brother of Hugh and Baldwin. His father, a knight in the County of Jaffa, had been rewarded with the lordship of Ibelin after the...
. He first appears in the historical record as a witness to charters in 1148.
After the death of his eldest brother Hugh (third husband of Agnes of Courtenay
Agnes of Courtenay
Agnes of Courtenay was the daughter of Joscelin II of Courtenay by his wife Beatrice , and the mother of king Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and queen Sibylla of Jerusalem.-Dynasty:...
) in 1169, the castle of Ibelin
Ibelin
Ibelin was a castle in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century , which gave its name to an important family of nobles.-The castle:...
passed to Baldwin, who remained Lord of Mirabel or Majdal Yaba
Majdal Yaba
Majdal Yaba was a Palestinian Arab village located northeast of Ramla and east of Jaffa. A walled city stood at the same site as early as 3000 BCE, and Majdal Yaba is first mentioned by the name Aphek in Egyptian Execration texts dating to the 19th century BCE...
and Ramla and passed Ibelin to his younger brother Balian. He introduced the Lusignan
Lusignan
The Lusignan family originated in Poitou near Lusignan in western France in the early 10th century. By the end of the 11th century, they had risen to become the most prominent petty lords in the region from their castle at Lusignan...
family to court in 1174, in the person of Amalric of Lusignan
Amalric II of Jerusalem
Amalric II of Jerusalem or Amalric I of Cyprus, born Amalric of Lusignan , King of Jerusalem 1197–1205, was an older brother of Guy of Lusignan....
, who had married his daughter Eschiva. Baldwin and Balian supported Raymond III of Tripoli
Raymond III of Tripoli
Raymond III of Tripoli was Count of Tripoli from 1152 to 1187 and Prince of Galilee and Tiberias in right of his wife Eschiva.-Early life:...
over Miles of Plancy
Miles of Plancy
Miles of Plancy , also known as Milon or Milo, was a noble in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.He was born in Champagne and came to the east in the 1160s, where he served King Amalric I, to whom he was distantly related. Amalric made him seneschal of Jerusalem, and in 1167 he participated in...
as regent for King Baldwin IV
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem , called the Leper or the Leprous, the son of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his first wife, Agnes of Courtenay, was king of Jerusalem from 1174 to 1185. His full sister was Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem and his nephew through this sister was the child-king Baldwin V...
in 1174, and in 1177 the brothers were present at the Battle of Montgisard
Battle of Montgisard
The Battle of Montgisard was fought between the Ayyubids and the Kingdom of Jerusalem on November 25, 1177. The 16 year old King Baldwin IV, seriously afflicted by leprosy, led an out-numbered Christian force against the army of Saladin...
.
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
Sibylla of Jerusalem
Sibylla of Jerusalem was the Countess of Jaffa and Ascalon from 1176 and Queen of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1190. She was the eldest daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and Agnes of Courtenay, sister of Baldwin IV and half-sister of Isabella I of Jerusalem, and mother of Baldwin V of Jerusalem...
. His brother Balian had recently married her stepmother, Dowager Queen Maria Comnena. The Chronicle of Ernoul
Ernoul
Ernoul is the name generally given to the author of a chronicle of the late 12th century dealing with the fall of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.-Biography:Ernoul himself is mentioned only once in history, and only in his own chronicle...
, or Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
Continuation of William of Tyre
William of Tyre
William of Tyre was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from a predecessor, William of Malines...
, 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
Odo de St Amand
Eudes de St. Amand was the 8th Grand Master of the Knights Templar, between 1171 and 1179.- Personal life :St Amand was born to a family from Limousin, France. He was Marshal of Jerusalem and later Viscount. He was a headstrong leader of the order, which earned him praise and resentment in equal...
, Grand Master of the Templars, and Raymond of Tripoli's stepson, Hugh of Tiberias. Baldwin was ransomed by Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and later in 1180 he visited Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. 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. Baldwin was in Jerusalem at the time of Sibylla'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, in order gain support for another crusade from the west. She was married to Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan was a Poitevin knight, son of Hugh VIII of the prominent Lusignan dynasty. He was king of the crusader state of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla of Jerusalem, and of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194...
, younger brother of Baldwin of Ibelin's son-in-law Amalric. That same year, the king betrothed his younger half-sister Isabella of Jerusalem
Isabella of Jerusalem
Isabella I was Queen regnant of Jerusalem from 1190/1192 until her death. By her four marriages, she was successively Lady of Toron, Marchioness of Montferrat, Countess of Champagne and Queen of Cyprus....
, Balian's stepdaughter, to Humphrey IV of Toron
Humphrey IV of Toron
Humphrey IV of Toron was the lord of Toron, Kerak, and Oultrejordain in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.-Biography:...
, to further reduce the Ibelins' influence.
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
Baldwin V of Jerusalem
Baldwin V of Jerusalem was the son of Sibylla of Jerusalem and her first husband, William of Montferrat...
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, but Humphrey 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
Principality of Antioch
The Principality of Antioch, including parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria, was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade.-Foundation:...
, 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
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
, and probably died in his self-imposed exile in 1187.
Family
Baldwin of Ibelin married three times. His wives were:1. Richilde de Bethsan, before or in 1157, divorced and annulled 1174. They had three children:
- Thomas d'Ibelin (before 1175 – in or c. 1188), Lord of Ramla, unmarried and without issue
- Eschive d'Ibelin (c. 1160 – CyprusCyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
in Winter, 1196/1197), married Amalric of LusignanAmalric II of JerusalemAmalric II of Jerusalem or Amalric I of Cyprus, born Amalric of Lusignan , King of Jerusalem 1197–1205, was an older brother of Guy of Lusignan....
before October 29, 1175; Queen-consort of Cyprus (1194-1196), mother of Hugh I of CyprusHugh I of CyprusHugh I of Cyprus succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on April 1, 1205 underage upon the death of his elderly father Amalric of Lusignan, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem...
. (After her death, Amalric married Isabella of Jerusalem and became King of Jerusalem.) - Stephanie d'Ibelin, married before November, 1175 Amalric or Amaury, Viscount of Nablus
2. Isabelle or Elizabeth Gothman, married 1175, d. 1177 or 1178, no surviving issue.
3. Marie, daughter of Renier, Constable of Tripoli, m. after April, 1180, d. after 1228, no surviving issue.
Another Baldwin of Ibelin was the son of this Baldwin's nephew John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut
John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut
John of Ibelin , called the Old Lord of Beirut, was a powerful crusader noble in the 13th century, one of the best known representatives of the influential Ibelin family...
.
Sources
- William of TyreWilliam of TyreWilliam of Tyre was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from a predecessor, William of Malines...
, 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 PrawerJoshua PrawerJoshua Prawer was a notable Israeli historian and a scholar of the Crusades and Kingdom of Jerusalem.His work often attempted to portray Crusader society as a forerunner to later European colonialist expansion...
. Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute, 1982. - Steven RuncimanSteven RuncimanThe Hon. Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman CH — known as Steven Runciman — was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages...
, A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press, 1952.