ABSTRACT
On 2 April 1118 Baldwin I, Latin king of Jerusalem, died at the town of El ‘Arîsh in northern Sinai while returning from campaign in Egypt. The first two rulers of the crusader kingdom, Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin I, as well as the disappointed claimant of 1118, Eustace III of Boulogne, were the children of a marriage that had been contracted at some point in the third quarter of the eleventh century. The lords of Le Puiset, a royal castellany, were also vassals of the count of Chartres for their vicomte in that city. Because of these new arrivals, there were now far more kinsmen of the king present in Jerusalem than had been the case in the previous reign. It is no coincidence that the reign of Baldwin II saw the first appearance of baronial seals.
