Baldwin II of Jerusalem - King of Jerusalem

King of Jerusalem

Upon the death of Baldwin I in 1118, the crown was offered to the king's elder brother Eustace III, but Joscelin of Courtenay insisted that the crown pass to Baldwin of Bourcq, despite Count Baldwin having exiled Joscelin from Edessa in 1113. Baldwin of Edessa accepted and was crowned king of Jerusalem as Baldwin II on Easter Sunday, 14 April 1118. Almost immediately, the kingdom was simultaneously invaded by the Seljuks from Syria and the Fatimids from Egypt, although by showing himself ready and willing to defend his territory, Baldwin forced the Muslim army to back down without a battle. In 1119, the crusader Principality of Antioch was invaded, and Baldwin hurried north with the army of Jerusalem. Roger of Salerno, prince of Antioch, would not wait for Baldwin's reinforcements, and the Antiochene army was destroyed in a battle the crusaders came to call Ager Sanguinis (the Field of Blood). Although it was a crushing blow, Baldwin helped Antioch recover and drove out the Seljuks later that year.

Around this time, the second of three military orders were created. In 1118, Hugues de Payens founded the Knights Templar in Jerusalem, while the Knights Hospitaller, which had been founded in 1113, evolved into a military order from the charitable order that they had originally been. Baldwin also called the Council of Nablus in 1120, where he probably established the first written laws for the kingdom, and extended rights and privileges to the growing bourgeois communities. King Baldwin allowed Hugues de Payens to set up quarters in a wing of the royal palace, the captured Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. Because of where it was built, on the ruins of the older Temple, the Crusaders referred to this structure as the Temple of Solomon, and it was from this structure that they took their name of "Knights of the Temple", or Templars.

In 1122 Joscelin, who had been appointed count of Edessa when Baldwin became king, was captured in battle. Baldwin returned to the north to take over the regency of the county, but he too was taken captive by the Ortoqids while patrolling the borders of Edessa in 1123, and was held captive with Joscelin. Eustace Grenier acted as regent in Jerusalem, and at the Battle of Yibneh defeated an Egyptian invasion hoping to take advantage of the king's absence. Baldwin and Joscelin escaped from captivity with help from the Armenians in 1124. Meanwhile, the crusaders besieged and captured Tyre, with help from a Venetian fleet. This would lead to the establishment of Venetian and other Italian trading colonies in the coastal cities of the kingdom, which were autonomous and free from taxes and military duties, under the terms of the Pactum Warmundi.

In 1125 Baldwin assembled the knights from all the crusader territories and met the Seljuks at the Battle of Azaz. Although the Seljuk army was much larger, the crusaders were victorious, and they restored much of the influence they had lost after the Ager Sanguinis. Had Antioch and Edessa not been fighting amongst themselves after the battle, Baldwin may have been able to attack Aleppo; however, Aleppo and Mosul were soon united under Zengi in 1128. Baldwin attempted to take Damascus in 1126 with the help of the Templars, but the attempt was pushed back by emir Toghtekin.