The king of leprosy, and the greatest ruler of the Middle Ages. The forgotten Baldwin IV
Saladin’s army was thundered not by the famous Richard the Lionheart, but by the forgotten King Baldwin IV. He was one of the greatest rulers of the Middle Ages. His worst enemy, however, turned out to be illness.
In 1161, the brother of Jerusalem’s King Baldwin III — Count Amalric — had reason to rejoice. His wife, the beautiful Agnes bore him a first-born son. At the baptism the toddler was named Baldwin. Two years later, the toddler’s namesake died, leaving the reign to Amalric. The succession was not without problems. The most powerful magnates of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, for unknown reasons not fond of Agnes, gave the new lord an ultimatum: the throne or his wife. Willing not to, Amalric divorced his wife and married the cousin granddaughter of Byzantine Emperor Manuel — Maria.
The leprous Prince Baldwin
However, he took care of the education of his firstborn, the heir to the throne. He sent him to a prominent scholar, William, later Archbishop of Tyre. One day the clergyman, observing the play of the boys, among whom was his protégé, noticed something strange: when other children pinched the little prince, he did not react at all.
