History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 45 the Leper King.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the fall of two giants in the form of the unexpected deaths of Neuradin and King Amaric,

both due to illness and both within a few months of each other.

Next week we will discuss the ramifications of this for the Muslim world, but today we will be seeing how the Latin Christians dealt with the untimely death of their leader.

You may remember that in last week's episode King Amaric was

grappling with some succession issues. Around four years before his death, his

successor the nine-year-old Baldwin, was displaying

worrying signs of something that looked a bit like leprosy.

As a consequence, King Amalric was scrambling to look for alternatives to placing Baldwin on the throne.

Unfortunately, he died before any of his plans came to fruition. So upon his death, the High Court

in Jerusalem met to decide whom to elevate to the throne.

This is what they had to work with.

Young Baldwin was now 13 years old,

two years away from being able to rule in his own right.

He had all the makings of a fine king. He was intelligent, quick-witted,

likable, and an excellent horseman. But his right arm was dead, and the best physicians in the land had declared that this may be due to the terrible disease leprosy.

No one wanted a leper king. The disease itself was bad enough.

Leprosy disfigured and deformed the body of its sufferer and rendered them seriously ill for lengthy periods of time.

But it was the stigma attached to the disease that was the kicker.

Lepers were despised and feared during the Middle Ages.

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