King of Jerusalem 1946. The Kingdom of Jerusalem had its origins in the First Crusade, when Godfrey of Bouillon, after refusing a crown and the title of King "upon the plea that he would never wear a crown of gold where his Saviour had worn a crown of thorns", took the title "Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri" (Protector of the Holy Sepulcher) in 1099 and was inaugurated as ruler of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The following year, his brother Baldwin I was the first to use the title king and the first to be crowned king in the Church of
Baldwin I of Jerusalem his adoptive father, but he did nothing when the rioters broke into the citadel on 9March. Thoros and his wife were captured and murdered. On the following day, the townspeople acknowledged Baldwin as their ruler (or "doux"). He assumed the title of count and established the first crusader state. The Seljuqs had captured Edessa from the Byzantines in 1087, but Alexios I Komnenos did not demand that Baldwin hand over the town. 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