Baldwin of Ibelin

Who was Baldwin of Ibelin?

Baldwin of Ibelin, also known as Baldwin II of Ramla, was an important noble of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. He was the second son of Barisan of Ibelin, and was the younger brother of Hugh of Ibelin and older brother of Balian of Ibelin. He first appears in the historical record as a witness to charters in 1148.

After the death of his eldest brother Hugh in 1169, the castle of Ibelin passed to Baldwin, who remained Lord of Mirabel or Majdal Yaba and Ramla and passed Ibelin to his younger brother Balian. He introduced the Lusignan family to court in 1174, in the person of Amalric of Lusignan, who had married his daughter Eschiva. Baldwin and Balian supported Raymond III of Tripoli over Miles of Plancy as regent for King Baldwin IV in 1174, and in 1177 the brothers were present at the Battle of Montgisard.

It is suspected that, after the death of his second wife Isabella, in 1177, he became Raymond of Tripoli's favoured candidate to marry the widowed Princess Sibylla of Jerusalem. His brother Balian had recently married her stepmother, Dowager Queen Maria Comnena. The Chronicle of Ernoul, or Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, partly written by a former squire of Balian, but thirteenth-century in its current form, claims that Baldwin and Sibylla had been in love and exchanged letters during Baldwin's captivity, but this is highly questionable.