Editing Baldwin I of Jerusalem (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Baldwin I of Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|An 1844 portrait of Baldwin I by [[Merry-Joseph Blondel]]]]

[[Fulcher of Chartres]] described Baldwin as his subjects' "shield, strength and support; their right arm; the terror of his enemies."{{sfn|Tyerman|2006|p=202}} The Muslim historian, [[Ali ibn al-Athir]], who completed his chronicle a century after Baldwin's death, thought that "al-Bardawil" had started the First Crusade.{{sfn|Maalouf|1984|p=63}} Presenting a fictional correspondence between Baldwin and [[Roger I of Sicily]], al-Athir claimed that Baldwin had initially wanted to conquer [[Ifriqiya]], but Roger, who wanted to secure the territory for himself, talked him into attacking Jerusalem.{{sfn|Hillenbrand|2000|p=52}}

Among modern historians, [[Thomas Asbridge]] states that Baldwin was one of the commanders of the First Crusade "whose skill, ambition and devotion drove the enterprise, and by turns threatened to rip it apart."{{sfn|Asbridge|2004|p=62}} [[Christopher Tyerman]] emphasises that Baldwin was a talented military commander and a clever politician, who "established a stable kingdom with defined and defensible borders."{{sfn|Tyerman|2006|pp=202–203}} [[Amin Maalouf]] also concludes that Baldwin was the "principal architect of the occupation" of the [[Holy Land]] by the crusaders.{{sfn|Maalouf|1984|p=64}} Maalouf attributes Baldwin's success primarily to the "incorrigible fragmentation of the Arab world," which made the crusaders a "genuine regional power."{{sfn|Maalouf|1984|p=64}} Historian Christopher MacEvitt proposes that Baldwin was "adept at navigating the complexities of a world of competing local warlords," because the "political landscape" of his homeland, with its castellans dominating the countryside, was "not so different."{{sfn|MacEvitt|2010|p=62}}

Baldwin's earliest extant charters were issued in the early 1100s, but the establishment of a [[Chancery (medieval office)#In the crusader states|chancery]] took years.{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=105}}{{sfn|Murray|2000|p=168}} Initially, clerics from Baldwin's homeland compiled the royal documents.{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=105}} The first chancellor, [[Pagan (chancellor)|Pagan]], was appointed only in 1115.{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=105}} Pagan had come to the Holy Land in the entourage of Baldwin's third wife, [[Adelaide del Vasto]].{{sfn|Murray|2000|p=216}} The [[Lake Bardawil|Bardawil lagoons]] are named after Baldwin, who died in nearby El-Arish.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Montefiore |first=Simon Sebag |title=Jerusalem: the biography |date=2011 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=9780307594488 |edition=1st American |location=New York |oclc=763182492 |author-link=Simon Sebag Montefiore}}</ref>