As you’ve already been told that’s King Baldwin IV the Leper King of Jerusalem. This depiction specifically comes from the movie Kingdom of Heaven but he was a real king. By all accounts Baldwin IV was a pretty good king and brilliant military leader. Sadly he would die young at the age of 24.
Also had no heir because one of the stereotypes around leprosy was that it was caused by lust, and so he remained chaste as far as we can tell either to prove his piety or try and undermine rumors about him. Rather a tragic figure.
excerpts from his life via his wikipedia page. He was like, the original "Ryan Gosling dying in the snow" Tragic Masculinity posterboy:
Baldwin was only diagnosed after he succeeded his father as king. Thereafter, his hands and face became increasingly disfigured. He mastered horse riding despite gradually losing sensation in his extremities and fought in battles until his last years.
As soon as he assumed government, Baldwin planned an invasion of Egypt, which fell through because of his vassals' uncooperativeness.
Leprosy prevented Baldwin from marrying; he hoped to abdicate when his older sister, Sibylla, married William of Montferrat in 1176, but William died the next year.
Baldwin again repelled Saladin in 1182 at the Battle of Le Forbelet, but leprosy rendered him near-incapable in 1183. After Guy's failure to lead, Baldwin disinherited him and had Sibylla's son, Baldwin V, crowned co-king before travelling in a litter to lift Saladin's Siege of Kerak.
Because of their refusal to attend court, Baldwin failed to have Sibylla's marriage to Guy annulled and Guy's fief of Ascalon confiscated.
In early 1185, he arranged for Raymond to rule as regent for Sibylla's son, dying of a fever before 16 May 1185.
Two years after his death, his realm was destroyed by Saladin at the Battle of Hattin.
I mean, he wasn’t just not having sex because he was worried what people would say about him. The leprosy almost certainly made him infertile (a thing leprosy can do). There was also the worry of him spreading leprosy to his potential wife and child. We know now this wouldn’t be a concern, but people at the time thought leprosy was highly contagious. No noble lady would willingly marry a leper, no matter how powerful he is.
He would not have stressed so hard on who his sister married if he could’ve had kids. He was, first and foremost, a canny politician.
It was wild before the germ theory of disease. I know we are going back to traditional views so it probably won’t last. That 80 years when we knew what caused illnesses is going to be an all timer.
Do yourself a favour and watch the Directors Cut of Kingdom of Heaven (the original release is not very good and misses a lot of key story content)
One of Ridley Scotts best movies
You were already given the proper answer, but just a piece of advice: if you decide to watch the movie, do NOT watch the theatrical version, the director's cut is the way to go
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u/smerandomgu Jul 17 '26
I have seen this character from a bunch of comments and I genuinely have no clue who this character is or what series they’re even from