Death of Baldwin II of Jerusalem

August 21, 1131

The second king of the Crusader state, who had spent long stretches of his reign as a prisoner of the Turks, died after commending his daughter Melisende, her husband Fulk, and their infant son Baldwin to his barons as co-rulers. The arrangement immediately began to fray. Baldwin II had spent two decades defending a kingdom perennially short of knights, and his death exposed the dynastic tensions his personal authority had kept in check.