Good morning. Thanks for starting your day with the Best of the West.
Today's reading time is 4 minutes.
Spotlight: King Baldwin IV
Coronation of Baldwin IV, illumination from the 14th c.
King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, remembered as the ‘Leper King,’ lived one of the most extraordinary lives of the Middle Ages. Born in 1161 A.D., he was crowned at just thirteen years old, inheriting a kingdom that was under constant threat.
Diagnosed with leprosy as a child, Baldwin refused to let his illness define his reign. As his condition worsened, he continued to lead armies, preside over councils, and govern a fragile kingdom surrounded by powerful enemies. His courage was not theatrical but habitual: he carried out the duties of kingship long after most men would have withdrawn from public life.
His best-known military success came at the Battle of Montgisard in 1177, where he helped lead a much smaller Christian force to an unexpected victory over the Muslim Sultan Saladin. Baldwin’s triumph secured the Kingdom of Jerusalem for years to come and became one of the most celebrated victories of the Crusading era. Even his enemies came to respect the determination of the young king who refused to surrender despite his relentless physical decline.
Beyond his military accomplishments, Baldwin proved to be a capable statesman. He sought to maintain unity among the often-divided Christian nobility, carefully balancing competing political factions to preserve stability within the kingdom. Recognising that his illness would prevent him from producing an heir, he also attempted to secure an orderly succession in hopes of avoiding civil conflict after his death.
For many throughout medieval Europe, Baldwin became the embodiment of Christian kingship: steadfast in adversity, devoted to duty, and unwavering in his defence of the Holy Land. While his reign was short-lived, his leadership made possible the continued safeguarding of principal pilgrimage routes and holy places that held profound significance for Latin Europe.
Baldwin died in 1185 A.D. at just 23 years old. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, established in 1099 A.D., would fall to Saladin two years later. (After a revival in 1192, it would disappear from the map forever in 1291.) Baldwin left his mark on the history of the West not through any single achievement, but through the example he set. More than eight centuries after his death, he remains an inspiring model of endurance and leadership under exceptional circumstances.
Verse: 'Ozymandias’ by Percy Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
‘Ozymandias’ refers to Pharaoh Ramses II and was first published in London’s The Examiner in 1818. The poem’s ironic ending makes Shelley’s message plain: all men and their works — no matter how great — eventually fade to dust.
Pensées
The Dunning-Kruger effect – named for the psychologists who identified the phenomenon, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when people with limited knowledge of a subject overestimate their competency in it. Essentially: when you know a thing or two, you can think you know more than you do, until you know a fair amount, at which point you realise you barely know anything. You only actually know a lot about a subject when you’ve put in the time to become an expert.
The trouble is, as Dave Dunning and Justin Kruger noted, far too many people who know only a little of a thing think that this limited knowledge qualifies them to make judgements regarding it. The worst part? Their misplaced confidence means they may never recognise their errors as errors, allowing poor judgements to go unchallenged.
Q - What subject areas are you most confident in? How can ensure that confidence is justified?
Diversions
Long listen: Mendelssohn’s (sublime) violin concerto in E minor
Quick read: Why is white still required at Wimbledon? A short history of ‘tennis whites’
Less quick read: ‘How the progressive fixation on identity perverts the arts’, a C2C article by T.G. Keleman
Enjoyed this issue?
The Foundations Forum newsletter is your semi-weekly opportunity to reflect on the good, the true, and the beautiful. No news cycle drama. Just the Best of the West in five minutes or less. If you enjoy reading FF with your morning cuppa, help us encourage more people by forwarding this email to a friend.
Forwarded this issue?
Subscribe below for twice-weekly reflections from the Foundations Forum: