[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 21, Ed. 1, Tree #1186, Date of Import: Apr 26, 1999]
Baldwin I, was a member of the official First Crusade led by the nobles,
Robert of Normandy(son of William the Conqueror), who headed a northern
French army, Godfrey of Bouillon(Baldwin's brother), and Robert of
Flanders comanding an army of Lotharingians and Flemings; Raymond of
Toulouse led the men of Languedoc; and Bohemond of Taranto and his
brother Tancred marshaled the Normans of southern Italy. These four
armies moved by various overland and sea routes to Constantinople,
arriving there in 1096 and 1097. Although the leaders of the First
Crusade had intended to conquer lands in the East in their own name,
Emperor Alexius demanded from them an oath of fealty in exchange for his
provisioning the armies as they marched to Palestine. Grudgingly, they
agreed, promising to regard the emperor as the overlord of the lands they
might reconquer from the Turks. Subsequently, both the emperor and the
Western leaders accused each other of violating the terms of the oath.
The failure of the crusaders and the Byzantines to find a firm basis for
cooperating ultimately weakened, although it did not defeat, the
enterprise. In 1097 the crusaders entered their first major joint
victory at Dorylaeum. Baldwin I, then separated his troops from the
main body and conquered Edessa(Southern Turkey/Northern Iraq today),
where he established the first crusader state in the East. The decisive
victory of the First Crusade came in the battle for the port city of
Antioch. After that, the road to Jerusalem was open before the
crusaders. On 15 July 1099, they stormed the Holy City and pitilessly
slaughtered the entire infidel population. Besides a high level of
organizational skill and their own considerable daring, the Westerners
had a critical advantage in the tumultuous political situation in the
East. The Seljuk Turks, newly risen to power, had had little opportunity
to consolidate their rule and were contending with the Fatimids, the
ruling dynasty of Egypt, over the possession of Palestine. In addition,
the ancient schisms among the Islamic religious sects continued to divide
and weaken the community. The inability of Muslimsto present a united
front against the crusaders was probably the decisive factor in the final
success of the First Crusade. The crusaders now had the problem of
organizing a government for their conquered territories. They chose as
ruler Godfrey of Bouillon, but death cut short his reign in 1100, and his
younger brother Baldwin, the conqueror of Edessa, succeeded him. Baldwin
set out to strengthen his realm through the application of feudal
concepts and institutions. He retained a direct dominion over Jerusalem
and its surroundings, including a stretch of coast extending from Gaza to
Beirut. The the north three fiefs, the County of Tripoli, the
Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa, were made subject to
his suzerainty. Although King Baldwin and his successors were able to
exert a respectable measure of authority over all these lands, profound
weaknesses undermined the security of their hold. For one thing, the
kings were never able to push their frontiers to an easily defensible,
strategic border, such as the Lebanese Mountains. Furthermore, the
administration remained critically dependent upon a constant influx of
men and money from the European homeland. Many knights and pilgrims
came, but relatively few stayed as permanent settlers. The Westerners
constituted a foreign aristocracy, small in number and set over a people
of largely different faith, culture, and sympathies. The wonder is not
that the crusader states ultimately succumbed, but that some of their
outposts could have survived on the mainland of Asia Minor for nearly two
centuries.