Abbot Baldwin is a fine example of the way the intimacy of bodily care could bring physicians to the heart of political power. His ability to survive the political, military, and even ecclesiastical upheavals of the Norman Conquest, without losing his position or influence, was no doubt due largely to his knack of being close to those in power at the right moment, and staying there, but it must have been his medical skill and reputation that helped him to get there in the first place. He is recorded as having served as physician successively to three kings, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, and William Rufus. It was probably as a reward for his medical services that he was appointed abbot of Bury by the Confessor, and very likely for similar services, or the expectation thereof, as well as his documented diplomatic activities, that he was kept there by the first two Norman kings. Baldwin is also represented in Herman the Archdeacon's Miracles of St Edmund as using his medical skills at Bury in the defence of the saint and his abbey (see below). It is therefore of great interest to discover what other evidence there is for medical activity at Bury during his abbacy, and what kind of activity it reveals.