Personal Characteristics
William of Tyre knew Baldwin personally and gives a lengthy description of the king:
| “ | …He was taller than the average man, but his limbs were so well proportioned to his height that no feature seemed out of harmony with the whole. His features were comely and refined, his complexion florid, a proof of innate strength…His eyes were of medium size, rather prominent and sparkling. He had straight yellowish hair and wore a rather full beard on cheeks and chin. He was of somewhat full habit, although he could not be called fleshy like his brother or spare like his mother… | ” |
Baldwin was well educated, well spoken, and exceptionally intelligent. Unlike his father he had an excellent memory. He spent much of his spare time reading history and was knowledgeable in the jus consuetudinarium of the kingdom, later collected by lawyers like John of Ibelin and Philip of Novara as "the assizes of Jerusalem". He respected church property and did not burden them with taxes. He was friendly to people of all classes, and "voluntarily offered an opportunity of conversing with him to anyone who wished it or whom he casually met. If an audience was requested, he did not refuse it." As a young man he enjoyed dice and other games, and carried on affairs with married women, but as an adult he "became changed for the better", as William says, and remained faithful to Theodora. He was popular and respected by all of his subjects, and even had the respect of his enemy Nur ad-Din, who said of Baldwin's death, "the Franks have lost such a prince that the world has not now his like."
Read more about this topic: Baldwin III Of Jerusalem
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