Baldrick, Son of Robin the Dung Gatherer, was an ex-dung Shoveller who becam freinds with Prince Edmund and Lord Percy in The Black Adder.
Biography
The medieval Baldrick was probably the only Baldrick of the four who could really be described as clever. Baldrick, an ex-dung shoveller (a respected position, which he had worked very hard to get - earlier jobs include milking pigs and mucking out lepers), first met Prince Edmund at the feast before the Battle of Bosworth Field. The two, along with Lord Percy, toasted their new friendship, unaware that from that point onwards, their descendants' lives would be eternally entwined.
Although cleverer than the Prince, Baldrick, knowing his place in the mediaeval pecking-order, holds him in awe. He often leads cheers in the Prince's honour (along with Lord Percy, who tries hard to join in), fills his head with illusions of grandeur, and often ends up doing his dirty work. This included carrying the decapitated body of Richard III and sleeping with the Spanish Infanta, Edmund's fiancée, so that Edmund didn't have to. The latter task resulted in several injuries, including a seriously blackened eye. When Baldrick is abandoned by Edmund in the final episode, a tear falls from his eye.
This Baldrick also has cunning plans that, contrary to most of the "cunning plans" of his descendants, mostly work, although they often initially seem ridiculous (and sometimes get messed up due to the actions of Lord Percy). For instance, when Edmund seeks to kill Dougal McAngus, Baldrick suggests that he gets an enormous great cannon, takes McAngus outside, makes him stick his head down the cannon and then blow it off. Edmund scoffs at this, and instead tries to kill McAngus using several different "cunning plans" of his own. After having failed miserably with all of these, he resorts to using Baldrick's original plan, which works.
It was this Baldrick who suggested the title 'The Black Adder' for Prince Edmund (Edmund wanted to be called 'The Black Vegetable'), which his descendants later adopted as a surname.
This Baldrick survived the last episode as he and Lord Percy had poisoned the wine to stop The Black Seal. But Percy poisoned the whole batch, killing The King, the queen, Prince Harry, the entire court and Edmund. He and Percy tried to stop them but they were too late.
The "clever" Baldrick character was ditched after the first series, becoming steadily more imbecilic with each incarnation.