Page "Kingdom of Jerusalem" Paragraph 9

During Baldwin I's reign the kingdom expanded even further.

The numbers of Latin inhabitants increased, as the minor crusade of 1101 brought reinforcements to the kingdom.

Baldwin repopulated Jerusalem with Franks and native Christians, after his expedition across the Jordan in 1115.

With help from the Italian city-states and other adventurers, notably King Sigurd I of Norway, Baldwin captured the port cities of Acre ( 1104 ), Beirut ( 1110 ), and Sidon ( 1111 ), while exerting his suzerainty over the other crusader states to the north – Edessa ( which he had founded in 1097 during the crusade ), Antioch, and Tripoli, which he helped capture in 1109.

He successfully defended against Muslim invasions, from the Fatimids at the numerous battles at Ramla and elsewhere in the southwest of the kingdom, and from Damascus and Mosul at the Battle of al-Sannabra in the northeast in 1113.

As Thomas Madden says, Baldwin was " the true founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem ", who " had transformed a tenuous arrangement into a solid feudal state.

With brilliance and diligence, he established a strong monarchy, conquered the Palestinian coast, reconciled the crusader barons, and built strong frontiers against the kingdom's Muslim neighbours.