Baldwin, the name of five kings of Jerusalem. - Baldwin I., born in 1058, died in 1118. He was a descendant of the fifth count of Flanders, and joined his brother Godfrey de Bouillon in the first crusade. He quarrelled with Tancred and other crusaders, retired to Edessa, where he was elected count, and in 1100, after the death of Godfrey, was chosen to the throne of Jerusalem. In 1102, after commanding in the disastrous battle of Rama, he was besieged in Jaffa by the Saracens, but put them to flight. The next year he was repulsed before St. Jean d'Acre (Ptolemais), but he captured it with the aid of the Genoese in 1104, after a 20 days' siege. In 1109 he took Berytus (Beyrout) after a siege of 75 days, and in 1110 Sidon (Saida). He fell ill during an expedition to Egypt and died on his homeward journey to Jerusalem. His intestines were buried in a place which is called the sepulchre of Baldwin, and the rest of his remains were interred in Jerusalem by the side of his brother. - Baldwin II., surnamed Du Bourg, died Aug. 21, 1131. He was the son of Hugh, count of Rethel, and a cousin of the preceding, whom he succeeded as ruler of Edessa in 1100. In 1118 he was crowned king of Jerusalem, and in 1119 relieved Antioch from the Moslems. In February, 1124, while attempting to rescue Jocelin, count of Edessa, and Galeran, his relative, he was captured, and ransomed in August together with Jocelin, Tyre having been conquered during his absence by the regent Eustache Gamier. After his return to Jerusalem Baldwin made an ineffectual attempt to take Aleppo, but he succeeded in other military exploits, and considerably extended the boundaries of his kingdom.

The order of the templars was sanctioned by the Roman see under his reign. He was one of the bravest knights of his day, and remarkable both for his valor and his piety. He was succeeded by his son-in-law Fulk of Anjou. - Baldwin III., grandson of the preceding, born about 1130, died Feb. 23, 1162. He succeeded his father Fulk in 1143, under the guardianship of his mother Melisanda. In 1148 he joined the emperor Conrad and Louis VII. of France in the siege of Damascus. After the failure of this enterprise, he restored and fortified the ancient town of Gaza; and in 1153 he captured Ascalon after a siege of seven months, and made his Irother Amaury its ruler. In 1159 he took Caesarea, which he gave to Re-naud, prince of Antioch. He secured the alliance of the Greek emperor Manuel by marrying his daughter Theodora, but died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Amaury. He was regarded as a model knight. - Baldwin IV., nephew of the preceding, born in 1160, succeeded his father Amaury in 1173, died March 11, 1186. It was in his reign that Sala-din assumed the title of sultan, and began his warfare with the Franks of Palestine, narrowly missing the capture of Baldwin near Sidon in 1178, but being defeated in 1182 near Tiberias. Attacked with leprosy in 1183, Baldwin caused his nephew, the son of his sister Sibyl by her first marriage with Count William of Montfer-rat, to be crowned as Baldwin V., and at the same time chose Guy de Lusignan as second husband of his sister and regent during Baldwin's minority.

Guy, however, was soon displaced at the demand of the barons, and retired to Ascalon, where he defied a weak effort of Baldwin to bring him to trial. Baldwin IV. died while an embassy from his court was on the way to Europe to invoke assistance against Saladin. Baldwin V. was supposed to have been poisoned by his mother (1186) in order to secure the crown for Lusignan, who accordingly succeeded.