Baldwin V of Jerusalem - Baldwin V in Fiction

Baldwin V in Fiction

Baldwin appears as a minor character in several novels, notably Zofia Kossak-Szczucka's Król trędowaty (The Leper King), Graham Shelby's The Knights of Dark Renown, and Cecelia Holland's Jerusalem, as a sickly small child. Depending on the authors' depictions of Sibylla, he is variously shown as spoiled or neglected. He features in the director's cut of the 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven, but was edited out of the theatrical release. In the Director's Cut the young Baldwin is depicted as having leprosy, like his uncle Baldwin IV. His death in the film is attributed to poisoning at the hands of his mother, shown as a merciful way to spare him his uncle's sufferings. There is no evidence for his having leprosy (which is neither hereditary nor easy to catch), nor for his mother killing him.