History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 50, the very short reign of King Baldwin the 5th.

Episode 50, I can't believe I got to episode 50.

Yay!

Okay, sorry about that. Right, back to the script. Where are we? Okay, here we go.

Hello again. We left last week's episode with the death of the Leper King, the 24-year-old King Baldwin the 4th.

King Baldwin's designated heir was his sister's son from her first marriage, an 8-year-old boy also called Baldwin. as we mentioned last week

as we mentioned last week Raymond of Tripoli became regent

ruling on the boy's behalf while Jocelyn of Courtney became the boy's guardian.

Now, as Regent, Raymond of Tripoli had his work cut out for him. For the past few years the increased tensions between

Sullardin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem had disrupted trade and affected the local economy.

To make matters worse, the winter rains had failed, and in the spring of 1185,

Ramon was looking down the barrel of a major famine in the Crusader states.

Despite persistent calls for assistance, only a smattering of crusaders had drifted in from Europe, and none of them were proving much use.

Some 18 months earlier, Emperor Andronicus had signed a truce between the Byzantine Empire and Sulladin.

Andronicus was still on the throne in Byzantine,

but would be killed and overthrown in the coming months.

Basically, this meant that it was pointless asking the Byzantine Empire for any assistance.

The Crusaders, beset by internal strife, impoverished by continual skirmishers with

Saladin, facing the threat of famine with a sickly eight-year-old boy on the throne were officially on their own.

There really was only one sensible course of action, and Raymond of Tripoli took it.

He called all the noblemen of Jerusalem to an assembly, and obtained their support to seek

...