Bethlehem the official Christian presence in the region was Greek Orthodox. On Christmas Day 1100, Baldwin I, first king of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, was crowned in Bethlehem, and that year a Latin episcopate was also established in the town. In 1187, Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria who led the Muslim Ayyubids, captured Bethlehem from the Crusaders. The Latin clerics were forced to leave, allowing the Greek Orthodox clergy to return. Saladin agreed to the return of two Latin priests and two deacons in 1192. However, Bethlehem suffered from the loss of the pilgrim trade, as there was
Baldwin of Forde heir, Prince Richard, who had rebelled against his father. After Henry's death, Richard sought and obtained absolution for the sin of disobedience to his father from both Baldwin and Walter de Coutances, Archbishop of Rouen. Baldwin, along with Coutances, was with Richard on 20 July 1189 at Rouen when the king was invested with the Duchy of Normandy. Baldwin crowned Richard at Westminster Abbey on 13 September 1189 in the first English coronation for which a detailed description survives. After the death of Henry II, and the accession of Richard as king, the monks of Christ Church Priory petitioned Richard