Leper King Crowned: Baldwin IV Takes Jerusalem at 13
Baldwin IV was diagnosed with leprosy at age nine when his tutor noticed the boy felt no pain during a game where children scratched each other's arms. He was crowned King of Jerusalem at thirteen in 1174, already showing visible symptoms of a disease that would progressively destroy his face, hands, and mobility. Despite this, Baldwin personally commanded the Crusader army, defeating Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard in 1177 when he was just sixteen, routing a force that outnumbered his own roughly ten to one. He ruled for eleven years, often carried to the battlefield on a litter when he could no longer ride, holding the fractured Crusader states together through sheer will until his death at twenty-four.
July 11, 1174
852 years ago
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