Crowning of Baldwin I

Date: December 25, 1100 • Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Baldwin I was crowned the first king of Jerusalem (depicted) in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Baldwin I was the first count of Edessa from 1098 to 1100 and king of Jerusalem from 1100 to his death in 1118. He was the youngest son of Count Eustace II of Boulogne and Ida of Lorraine and married a Norman noblewoman, Godehilde of Tosny. He received the County of Verdun in 1096, but he soon joined the crusader army of his brother Godfrey of Bouillon and became one of the most successful commanders of the First Crusade.