Baldwin III of Jerusalem
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Baldwin III (1130 – 10 February 1163) was the king of Jerusalem from 1143 until his death. Although he only took up sole rule in 1152 and died young, he was the longest-reigning of the 12th-century kings of Jerusalem. He expanded the borders of the kingdom, paved the way for the later kings' attempts to conquer Egypt, and acted as the defender of the other crusader states in the Levant. Baldwin was the eldest son of Queen Melisende and King Fulk. Melisende's father, King Baldwin II, conferred the Kingdom of Jerusalem on the young Baldwin and his parents in 1131, but Baldwin III was only crowned after the death of his father in 1143. Baldwin initially reigned alongside his mother, who was the true ruler of the kingdom. He attempted to assert himself in warfare even before reaching the age of majority at 15, but after an initial military success in quelling a popular rebellion at Wadi Musa in 1144, he suffered a defeat in the Hauran and participated in the Second Crusade's failed attempt to capture Damascus in 1148. Baldwin took on the traditional responsibility of the kings of Jerusalem to look after the Principality of Antioch and the counties of Edessa and Tripoli. In 1149 he intervened in Antioch after the death of its prince, Raymond of Poitiers, and in 1150 arranged the sale of the last of the Edessan fortresses to the Byzantine Empire. His relationship with his mother soured as he strived for a greater role in the government and she sought to marginalize him. Matters came to a head in April 1152, when he deposed her in a swift military action. He was soon called on to settle the affairs of the County of Tripoli after the assassination of Count Raymond II. In 1153, Baldwin conquered the vital city of Ascalon and welcomed the marriage of his cousin Constance, widow of Prince Raymond, to Raynald of Châtillon. After nearly being killed or captured in a battle against the Aleppan ruler Nur ad-Din in 1157, he established an alliance with Emperor Manuel I Komnenos and married the emperor's niece Theodora. The king and the emperor developed a close relationship, marred only by the latter's failure in the early 1160s to marry Baldwin's cousin, Melisende of Tripoli. Baldwin took up rule in Antioch once more in 1161 after the capture of Raynald by Turkic forces. Baldwin died of an illness in 1163, having produced no children with Theodora, and was succeeded by his brother, Amalric.