king of Jerusalem

Baldwin spent his childhood and youth at his father's court in Jerusalem, with little contact with his mother, Agnes of Courtenay, Countess of Jaffa and Ascalon (and later Lady of Sidon), whom his father had been forced to divorce. Baldwin IV was educated by the historian William of Tyre (later Archbishop of Tyre and chancellor of the kingdom), who discovered that the boy suffered from leprosy: the boy and his friends were playing at pricking each other's arms one day, but Baldwin felt no pain when they pricked him, and William immediately recognised this as a sign of leprosy. His father died in 1174 and the boy ascended the throne at the age of thirteen. During his minority, the kingdom was ruled by two successive regents, first by Miles of Plancy, albeit unofficially, and then by Raymond III of Tripoli. As a leper, Baldwin was not expected to reign for long or produce an heir, so courtiers and lords sought to influence Baldwin's heirs: his sister Princess Sibylla and his half-sister Princess Isabella. Raymond of Tripoli, as regent, married Sibylla to William of Montferrat in the autumn of 1176, and they were given the titles of Counts of Jaffa and Ascalon. But he died the following year, leaving Sibylla pregnant with the future Baldwin V of Jerusalem. That year, Philip of Flanders, the king's first cousin and closest relative on his father's side, arrived as a crusader. As such, he attempted to rule above the authority of the regent, but the Haute Cour refused to allow this. Philip abandoned the kingdom and supported the principality of Antioch.

Baldwin IV, called the Leper King or the Saint (Jerusalem, 1161 - Jerusalem, March 16, 1185), son of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his first wife Agnes of Courtenay, was king of Jerusalem from July 15, 1174 h.