Baldwin crowned King of Jerusalem

July 15, 1100

A year after his brother Godfrey died refusing the title of king in the city where Christ had worn thorns, Baldwin of Boulogne marched south from Edessa and accepted the crown in Bethlehem on Christmas morning. The Latin kingdom now had a monarch willing to rule like one, consolidating Crusader holdings along the Levantine coast and forging the feudal institutions that would govern the Holy Land for nearly a century.