Outremer
Baldwin's Last Days
King Baldwin had one final campaign left in him. In 1118 he invaded Egypt, with a tiny army of only 216 knights and 400 foot soldiers. No Egyptian army came forth to oppose the terrible King of the Franks and he advanced all the way to the Nile River. There, he fell ill and the army retreated to Palestine. The king was dying.
The real founder of Outremer was Baldwin I. Godfrey conquered the city and fended off the first Egyptian attack, but it was Baldwin who captured most of the territory in the Kingdom, and it was Baldwin who really organized the government. We have few details on this matter, but it appears that Baldwin tried to keep most of the power in his own hands, establishing lords at various strongholds but always making it clear that they served at his choosing. He tried to oppose the tendency for these knights to form dynasties of their own.
He also made it clear that he would rule the Church. He did this almost immediately by establishing his power over against Daimbert; in fact, within a year, Baldwin had engineered it so Daimbert was deposed. His successor was an old man who would never oppose the king, as was the Patriarch after that. The fourth Patriarch was that same Arnulf who had been first selected by the Crusaders themselves and later deposed by Daimbert. He was Baldwin's ally, and so church and state cooperated closely.
Baldwin fell sick in 1117. He believed he was about to die. His confessors told him that he would die in a state of sin because of his treatment of his ex-Queen, who was now living in Constantinople. Baldwin recovered, but he now declared his marriage to Adelaide had been invalid and he set her aside. She returned to Sicily angry and dishonored, with most of her great wealth gone to finance Baldwin's wars. Sicily became adamantly uninterested in helping Jerusalem.
Before Baldwin could recall his former Queen, he died, in 1118 on April 2. That same year saw the death of Emperor Alexis, Pope Paschal, the Patriarch Arnulf, and the Caliph Mustazhir. The generation of the First Crusade was passing away.