Baldwin V (1177 or 11781186) was the
king of Jerusalem
The king or queen of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Church, Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was Siege of Jerusalem (1099), conquered in ...
who reigned together with his uncle
Baldwin IV
Baldwin IV (1161–1185), known as the Leper King, was the king of Jerusalem from 1174 until his death in 1185. He was admired by historians and his contemporaries for his dedication to the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the face of his debilitating ...
from 1183 to 1185 and, after his uncle's death, as the sole king from 1185 to his own death in 1186. Baldwin IV's
leprosy
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...
meant that he could not have children, and so he spent his reign grooming various relatives to succeed him. Finally his nephew was chosen, and Baldwin IV had him crowned as
co-king
A coregency is the situation where a monarchical position (such as prince, princess, king, queen, emperor or empress), normally held by only a single person, is held by two or more. It is to be distinguished from diarchies or duumvirates (su ...
in order to sideline the child's unpopular stepfather,
Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan ( 1150 – 18 July 1194) was King of Jerusalem, first as husband and co-ruler of Queen Sibylla from 1186 to 1190 then as disputed ruler from 1190 to 1192. He was also Lord of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194.
A French Poitevin kni ...
. When Baldwin IV died, Count
Raymond III of Tripoli
Raymond III (1140 – September/October 1187) was count of Tripoli from 1152 to 1187. He was a minor when Nizari Assassins murdered his father, Count Raymond II of Tripoli. His cousin, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who was staying ...
assumed government on behalf of the child king. Baldwin V died of unknown causes and was succeeded by his mother,
Sibylla, who then made Guy king.
Background
Baldwin of Montferrat was born in December 1177 or January 1178 to
Sibylla, sister of King
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem
Baldwin IV (1161–1185), known as the Leper King, was the king of Jerusalem from 1174 until his death in 1185. He was admired by historians and his contemporaries for his dedication to the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the face of his debilitating ...
, after whom he was named. His father,
William of Montferrat, had died in June 1177. Though only 16, the king was not expected to live long, nor could he marry and have children, because he had contracted
leprosy
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...
and was growing weaker. Baldwin had thus been expected to succeed his uncle. By July 1178, the king recognized his sister as his new
heir presumptive
An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...
. Her son, Baldwin of Montferrat, followed her in the line of succession.
The
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...
, a
Crusader state
The Crusader states, or Outremer, were four Catholic polities established in the Levant region and southeastern Anatolia from 1098 to 1291. Following the principles of feudalism, the foundation for these polities was laid by the First Crusade ...
in
the Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultura ...
ruled by
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
Franks
file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty
The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...
, was often threatened by the neighbouring
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
powers.
Because of the king's illness, it was imperative that the young Baldwin's mother, Sibylla, remarry soon; she married
Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan ( 1150 – 18 July 1194) was King of Jerusalem, first as husband and co-ruler of Queen Sibylla from 1186 to 1190 then as disputed ruler from 1190 to 1192. He was also Lord of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194.
A French Poitevin kni ...
in early 1180 and had four daughters with him. Baldwin IV initially intended Guy to become the next king, but soon realized that Guy was a poor candidate because of his unpopularity with the
barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the Crusader states that was created in 1099, was divided into a number of smaller seigneuries. According to the 13th-century jurist John of Ibelin, the four highest crown vassals (referred to as barons) in the ...
and rulers of the neighbouring
Crusader states
The Crusader states, or Outremer, were four Catholic polities established in the Levant region and southeastern Anatolia from 1098 to 1291. Following the principles of feudalism, the foundation for these polities was laid by the First Crusade ...
, Prince
Bohemond III of Antioch
Bohemond III of Antioch, also known as Bohemond the Child or the Stammerer (; 1148–1201), was Prince of Antioch from 1163 to 1201. He was the elder son of Constance of Antioch and her first husband, Raymond of Poitiers. Bohemond ascended to the ...
and Count
Raymond III of Tripoli
Raymond III (1140 – September/October 1187) was count of Tripoli from 1152 to 1187. He was a minor when Nizari Assassins murdered his father, Count Raymond II of Tripoli. His cousin, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who was staying ...
.
Kingship
In 1183, King Baldwin IV summoned a council to discuss who could succeed him as king instead of his brother-in-law, Guy. The supporters of the king's sister, Sibylla, were not present, while his younger half-sister,
Isabella
Isabella may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Isabella (surname), including a list of people
Places
United States
* Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpo ...
, and Isabella's husband,
Humphrey IV of Toron
Humphrey IV of Toron ( 1166 – 1198) was a leading baron in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He inherited the Lordship of Toron from his grandfather, Humphrey II, in 1179. He was also heir to the Lordship of Oultrejourdan through his mother, Step ...
, were not viable candidates as they were
besieged in Kerak by the Egyptian ruler
Saladin
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...
.
Agnes of Courtenay
Agnes of Courtenay ( – ) was a Franks, Frankish noblewoman who held considerable influence in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the reign of her son, King Baldwin IV. Though she was never queen, she has been described as the most powerful wom ...
, mother of Sibylla and Baldwin IV, suggested that the young Baldwin, son of Sibylla, should be made
co-king
A coregency is the situation where a monarchical position (such as prince, princess, king, queen, emperor or empress), normally held by only a single person, is held by two or more. It is to be distinguished from diarchies or duumvirates (su ...
with Baldwin IV. Agnes may have acted to foil the ambitions of Raymond of Tripoli, who also had a claim to the throne. As the boy had the next best claim after his mother, his grandmother's proposal was widely accepted. Baldwin V was
acclaimed
An acclamation is a form of election that does not use a ballot. It derives from the ancient Roman word ''acclamatio'', a kind of ritual greeting and expression of approval towards imperial officials in certain social contexts.
Voting Voice vot ...
,
crowned and
anointed
Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or oth ...
in the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem. The church is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchat ...
on 20 November 1183, and he received
homage from all the barons except his stepfather, Guy.
Roger de Moulins
Roger de Moulins was the eighth Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller from 1177 until his death in 1187. He succeeded Jobert of Syria.Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). " St John of Jerusalem, Knights of the Order of the Hospital of". ''Encyclopædia ...
and
Arnold of Torroja
Arnold of Torroja (; ? – 30 September 1184) was a knight of Crown of Aragon and the ninth Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1181 until his death in 1184.
Personal life
While no date of birth survives for Torroja; he was very old at h ...
,
grand masters of the
Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...
and
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...
respectively, and the
Latin patriarch of Jerusalem
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem () is the Latin Catholic ecclesiastical patriarchate in Jerusalem, officially seated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is the archbishop of Latin Church Catholics of th ...
,
Heraclius
Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas.
Heraclius's reign was ...
, travelled to Western Europe in mid-1184 to seek military aid in defense of the kingdom against potential Muslim attacks. It became apparent in late 1184 or early 1185 that Baldwin IV was dying. He summoned the
High Court to select a
regent
In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
for his nephew. Both the king and the barons wanted to prevent Guy from ruling in the boy's name. They appointed Raymond, but made
Joscelin of Courtenay the child's guardian. Baldwin V suffered from ill health, and the contemporary chronicler
Ernoul Ernoul was a squire of Balian of Ibelin who wrote an eyewitness account of the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. This was later incorporated into an Old French history of Crusader states">Crusader Palestine now known as the ''Chronicle of Ernoul and Berna ...
states that Raymond insisted on not having custody of the king so that he would not be blamed if the child died; the historian Bernard Hamilton doubts that the custody arrangement was Raymond's idea. Joscelin was Baldwin V's granduncle with no claim to the throne and had a vested interest in keeping the boy alive. On the other hand, the High Court suspected that Raymond might seek to make himself king and imposed limits on his power to ensure that he could not usurp the royal dignity.

After the question of regency was settled, Baldwin V and Raymond received homage as king and regent, respectively. The young king then took part in a solemn crown-wearing ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at his uncle's command. From there the boy was carried to banquet on the shoulders of
Balian of Ibelin
Balian of Ibelin (; ), also known as Barisan the Younger, was a Crusades, crusader noble of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. He was Vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem#Lordship of Ibelin, Lord of Ibelin from 1170 to 1193. As the ...
"because he was the tallest of the great lords present"; in reality, Balian was chosen to carry the young king because he was a staunch opponent of Guy and the stepfather of Baldwin IV and Sibylla's half-sister, Isabella, the only other possible contender for the throne. Balian's gesture thus signified Isabella's family's support of the boy king. Baldwin IV had died by 16 May 1185, leaving Baldwin V as the sole monarch.
The kingdom faced no external threats during Baldwin V's reign, as Raymond succeeded in procuring a truce from Saladin. Western princes refused to come to aid, likely because they could not be offered the crown but, at most, the prospect of a temporary rule on behalf of a minor. Only the king's paternal grandfather, experienced
crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
r Marquess
William V of Montferrat
William V of Montferrat (occ./piem. ''Guilhem'', it. ''Guglielmo'') ( 1115 – 1191) also known regnally as William III of Montferrat while also referred to as William the Old or William the Elder, in order to distinguish him from his eldest ...
, moved to the East, ensuring that the child's rights would be upheld. Though the failure of the mission to Europe secured his regency, Raymond could not exercise much power; key government posts were occupied by the supporters of Guy, who continued to resent not being regent for his stepson.
Death and aftermath

Baldwin V died of unknown causes in
Acre
The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...
between May and mid-September 1186. The exact date is not known; the historian
Steven Runciman
Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman (7 July 1903 – 1 November 2000), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume '' A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54). His works had a profound impact on the popula ...
proposes late August. The contemporary chronicler
William of Newburgh
William of Newburgh or Newbury (, ''Wilhelmus Neubrigensis'', or ''Willelmus de Novoburgo''. 1136 – 1198), also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon of Anglo-Saxon descent from Bridlington, Eas ...
wrote that Baldwin was poisoned by his regent, Raymond of Tripoli, but William was generally hostile to the count. Hamilton considers foul play by Raymond unlikely because the king was in the care of his granduncle Joscelin of Courtenay.
Baldwin V's death led to another crisis. Joscelin handed his body to the Templars, who took it to Jerusalem for funeral. Raymond did not attend the funeral–historian
Malcolm Barber
Malcolm Charles Barber (born 4 March 1943) is a British medievalist. He has been described as the world's leading living expert on the Knights Templar. He is considered to have written the two most comprehensive books on the subject, ''The Trial ...
argues that he was mustering supporters to claim the throne–but Joscelin,
Reginald of Châtillon, Patriarch Heraclius, Baldwin's grandfather William, and the masters of the military orders were present. Baldwin became the seventh and last of the Latin kings to be buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Baldwin's mother, Sibylla, promptly established herself as the successor to her son and then invested her husband, Guy, with kingship. Jerusalem was
conquered
Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or legal prohibitions against conquest ...
by Saladin in 1187. Baldwin's mother and half-sisters died in 1190, leaving his half-aunt, Isabella I, as the heir to what remained of the kingdom.
Baldwin V's elaborate tomb, likely commissioned by Sibylla, survived until 1808 when it was destroyed in a fire.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin 05 Of Jerusalem
1170s births
1186 deaths
12th-century monarchs of Jerusalem
Aleramici
Burials at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Kings of Jerusalem
Medieval child monarchs
Monarchs who died as children
Sons of queens regnant