He was the older brother of Conrad, Boniface, Azalaïs, and Renier, and a cousin of both Emperor Frederick I and King Louis VII of France.
Despite his eligibility as the eldest son of one of the greatest magnates in northern Italy, with many royal and imperial connections and the fair good looks of his family, he did not marry until he was well into his thirties.
In 1167, his father had tried to arrange marriages for him and Conrad to daughters of Henry II of England or sisters of William I of Scotland - but these failed, the English match probably because of consanguinity (the boy's mother Judith was related to Eleanor of Aquitaine), the Scottish match because the princesses were already married.
William of Tyre describes him as tall, blond, and handsome; brave, frank and unpretentious, but inclined to eat and drink copiously, though not to the impairment of his judgment.
He fell ill, probably from malaria,[2] at Ascalon in April 1177, and died there in June,[3] leaving Sibylla pregnant with the future king Baldwin V.[1] His body was taken to Jerusalem and buried at the Hospital of St John.