What made Baldwin IV a great king was his unbelievable courage at the famous battle of Montgisard, who, at only 16 years old, defeated an elite army ten times larger. Philip of Flanders abandoned the Egyptian campaign and brought his army to Jerusalem's northern border, where Raymond of Tripoli joined him. This puts Jerusalem in an extremely dangerous position. The king is seriously ill ( leprosy ), and the soldiers have all left. Saladin , of course, could not miss the opportunity that Allah had given him. He led 26,000 elite soldiers and the Egyptian Khassaki guard to march towards Jerusalem. On his deathbed, Baldwin called together 600 Templar knights and several thousand local soldiers to resist Saladin. His health was so bad that people thought he was about to die. On the way to Jerusalem, Saladin attacked Ramla, Lydda, and Arsuf and spread his army out over a very wide area, leaving them free to plunder because he believed that the king could do nothing with that disabled ar...
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