[11] Eustace and Baldwin jointly fought for their brother, Godfrey, against Count Albert III of Namur and Bishop Theoderic of Verdun at Stenay in 1086.

[20] The dissolution of Godfrey's allodial lands deprived all future dukes of the basis of their authority in Lower Lotharingia, which facilitated Baldwin's decision to take the Cross.

[36] Their commanders (including Godfrey and Baldwin) swore fealty to Alexios and pledged that they would cede all conquered lands that the Seljuk Turks had seized from the Byzantines to the emperor's representatives.

[41][42] After the crusaders defeated Kilij Arslan, the Seljuk Sultan of Rûm, in the Battle of Dorylaeum on 1 July 1097, Baldwin and the Italo-Norman leader Tancred broke away from the main body of the army.

[60][61] He joined the main army at Marash, but Bagrat persuaded him to launch a campaign towards the River Euphrates across a region densely populated by Armenians.

[77] Alone among the contemporary historians of the First Crusade, Albert of Aix claims that the local customs of adoption required Thoros to take Baldwin under his shirt.

With the father-and-son relationship thus confirmed on both sides, [Thoros] one day suggested to Baldwin, in his position as son, that he call his men together, all the army and those serving for pay, taking the citizens of Edessa likewise, and set out for the fortification at Samosata which was next to the Euphrates and conquer Balduk, prince of the Turks, who had unjustly seized that same citadel, which belonged to Edessa, and was holding it.Unlike the majority of the Armenians, Thoros adhered to the Orthodox Church, which made him unpopular among his Miaphysite subjects.

[88] Historian Christopher MacEvitt argues that the local population did not regard Baldwin's ascension as "a change in regime, but the replacement of one strongman with vague Byzantine ties with another of the same ilk".

[83] The acquisition of Ravendel, Turbessel and Edessa strengthened the position of the main crusader army during the siege of Antioch, which was taking place at the same time.

[118] Daimbert sent a letter to him, stating that Baldwin's rule would "bring about the downfall of the church and the destruction of Christianity itself", according to later chronicler William of Tyre.

[129] For instance, a charter of grant in 1104 referred to him as "Baldwin, king of Judea and Jerusalem, and defensor of the Holiest Sepulchre of our Lord, Jesus Christ".

[140][141] Always in need of funds, Baldwin concluded an alliance with the commanders of a Genoese fleet, offering commercial privileges and booty to them in the towns that he would capture with their support.

[139] During a passionate debate in the presence of the papal legate, Daimbert stated that Baldwin should not "presume to make tributary and servant the holy Church".

[151] At least two of the five or six crusader corps were almost annihilated during the first phase of the battle, but Baldwin persuaded the remnants of his army to launch a fresh attack, surprising the Egyptians.

[157][167] After the prelates unanimously stated that Daimbert had almost provoked a civil war and had abused his ecclesiastic authority, the legate allowed them to elect a pious priest, Evremar, as patriarch.

[172][173][174] The town surrendered on 26 May after Baldwin promised a free passage to those who wanted to move to Ascalon, but the Italian sailors plundered the wealthy emigrants and killed many of them.

[178][179] After Egyptian horsemen and foot soldiers invaded the kingdom from the south, and Syrian mounted archers from the west in August 1105, Baldwin assembled the largest crusader army since the beginning of his reign.

[182] Early the following year, he made a raid into Oultrejordain and forced the enemy to destroy a fortress recently built by Damascene troops to control the caravan routes.

[182] In late 1108, he concluded a ten-year truce with the Turkoman Emir of Damascus Toghtekin in exchange for one-third of state revenues from the northern regions of Oultrejordain.

[187][189] At the assembly in June 1109, Tancred agreed to abandon Turbessel in return for his restoration to his old domains in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (Galilee, Haifa and the Temple of the Lord).

[200] Before leaving the county, Baldwin suggested that the Christian (mainly Armenian) peasants should be transferred to the lands west of the Euphrates, because the Seljuk rulers had frequently raided the eastern regions.

[195][201] The following year Baldwin marched to Ascalon:[202] to prevent a siege the Egyptian governor of the town, Shams al-Khalīfa, promised to pay 70,000 dinars as a tribute and allowed crusader troops into the citadel.

[227] On his deathbed, he named Eustace III of Boulogne as his successor, but also authorised the barons to offer the throne to Baldwin of Edessa or "someone else who would rule the Christian people and defend the churches", if his brother did not accept the crown.

"[230] 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.

[225] 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.

"[231] Christopher Tyerman emphasises that Baldwin was a talented military commander and a clever politician, who "established a stable kingdom with defined and defensible borders.

[233] Maalouf attributes Baldwin's success primarily to the "incorrigible fragmentation of the Arab world," which made the crusaders a "genuine regional power.

"[233] 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.

[245] According to William of Tyre, Baldwin wanted to marry her because he had learnt of her wealth, and even agreed to make her son, Roger II of Sicily, his heir in Jerusalem.

[249] Historians Hans Eberhard Mayer, Christopher Tyerman and Malcolm Barber agree that William of Tyre most probably referred to Baldwin's homosexuality.