BALDWIN I., EMPEROR OF CONSTANTINOPLE

 

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BALDWIN I., EMPEROR OF CONSTANTINOPLE 

Baldwin I., Emperor of Constantinople 

Baldwin I, Emperor of Constantinople, was the son of Count Baldwin VIII of Flanders. As Count Baldwin IX, he assumed the rule of Flanders and Hainaut in 1195. In 1200, he participated in the Crusade to the Holy Land. After the Crusaders captured Constantinople in 1204, Baldwin was elected Emperor of the newly established Latin Empire. He was a pious, chaste, wise, and courageous prince. However, he had barely reigned for two years when he was captured by the Bulgarian King John (Johannicus, [Kaloyan]) during the siege of Adrianople and thrown into prison. 

There, the wife of the Bulgarian king came to see the noble prisoner and demanded time and time again that he abduct her and take her along with him to his homeland. But since Baldwin bravely resisted her advances, as they went against his conscience, the enraged queen accused him before her husband, stating that Baldwin had repeatedly tried to seduce her. Thereupon, the credulous and cruel King John had him mistreated in such a barbaric manner that Baldwin died after three days as a model of chastity, like a second Egyptian Joseph. 

His mortal remains were collected and buried by a pious woman. He did not, however, receive any public veneration from the Church.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 1, Augsburg, 1858)

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org