Isabella I of Jerusalem

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Isabella I (1172 – 5 April 1205) was the queen of Jerusalem from 1190 to her death in 1205. She was the daughter of King Amalric of Jerusalem and his second wife, the Byzantine princess Maria Comnena. Isabella was a younger half-sister of King Baldwin IV and Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem. Her half-brother married her to Humphrey IV of Toron. Isabella and Humphrey's respective stepfathers, Balian of Ibelin and Raynald of Châtillon, were influential members of the two baronial parties. The couple's marriage was celebrated in Kerak Castle in autumn 1183. Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to the fortress during the wedding, but Baldwin IV forced him to lift the siege.

Baldwin IV suffered from leprosy and made his nephew Baldwin of Montferrat (Sibylla's son) his heir and co-ruler to prevent the boy's stepfather, Guy of Lusignan, from becoming king. The High Court of Jerusalem stipulated that a committee of Western European rulers was entitled to choose between Isabella and Sibylla to succeed Baldwin V if he died before reaching the age of majority. However, Sibylla and Guy were crowned soon after her son died in 1185. Guy's opponents tried to play Isabella and her husband off against him, but Humphrey did homage to the royal couple.

After her half-sister died in 1190, Isabella's mother and stepfather had her marriage to Humphrey annulled so she could marry Conrad of Montferrat. Isabella and Conrad claimed the throne in opposition to the widowed Guy, and they were elected queen and king of Jerusalem in 1192, shortly before Conrad's assassination. Count Henry II of Champagne was hastily elected king and married to Isabella. Her fourth marriage, following Henry's death in 1197, was to King Aimery of Cyprus. Isabella and Aimery were crowned at Acre in 1198. After the couple both died in 1205, Isabella was succeeded by Maria, her eldest daughter with Conrad of Montferrat.

Early lifeEdit

ChildhoodEdit

Isabella was the daughter of King Amalric of Jerusalem by his second wife, Maria Comnena.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Maria Comnena (who was a grandniece of the Byzantine emperor, Manuel I Komnenos) married Amalric on 29 August 1167.Template:Sfn Isabella was born before September 1172.Template:Sfn

Amalric died unexpectedly on 11 July 1174.Template:Sfn His son by his first marriage, Baldwin IV, was crowned king two weeks later.Template:Sfn Before long, it became obvious that Baldwin suffered from lepromatous leprosy.Template:Sfn To secure the succession to the ailing king, his sister, Sibylla, was given in marriage to William of Montferrat in November 1176, but he died seven months later.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Baldwin's cousin Count Philip I of Flanders, who landed at Acre in August,Template:Sfn offered Robert of Bethune for Sibylla's new husband, also proposing that Isabella (who was Baldwin's and Sibylla's half-sister) should marry Robert's younger brother, William of Bethune.Template:Sfn The High Court of Jerusalem refused both proposals.Template:Sfn

Isabella's mother married Balian of Ibelin in autumn 1177.Template:Sfn His brother, Baldwin of Ibelin, wanted to marry Sibylla, but the king preferred another candidate, Guy of Lusignan.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After the marriage of Sibylla and Guy on Easter 1180, a division emerged between Guy of Lusignan's supporters and opponents.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The first group included the mother of Baldwin IV and Sibylla, Agnes of Courtenay, her brother Joscelin, and Raynald of Châtillon, the lord of Oultrejordain.Template:Sfn Their opponents included Isabella's mother and stepfather, and Raymond III of Tripoli.Template:Sfn To secure Guy's position, the king arranged the betrothal of Isabella to Raynald of Châtillon's stepson, Humphrey IV of Toron in October 1180.Template:Sfn Isabella was sent to Kerak Castle to be educated by Humphrey's mother, Stephanie of Milly.Template:Sfn Stephanie forbade her to pay visits to her mother and stepfather at Nablus.Template:Sfn

The relationship between Baldwin IV and Guy of Lusignan deteriorated.Template:Sfn Baldwin IV removed Guy from the regency and denied his right of succession, making Guy's stepson (Sibylla's son from her first marriage), Baldwin V, his heir and co-ruler on 20 November 1183.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A version of Ernoul's chronicle suggests that the child Baldwin V was made heir, because the ailing Baldwin IV wanted to avoid a debate between his sisters' supporters about his succession.Template:Sfn Guy's principal supporters, Joscelin of Courtenay and Raynald of Châtillon, were not present at Baldwin V's coronation, because they attended Isabella's wedding to Humphrey.Template:Sfn

First marriageEdit

File:Omfroi isabela.jpg

Marriage of Isabella and her first husband, Humphrey IV of Toron

The wedding took place in Kerak Castle.Template:Sfn Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to the fortress.Template:Sfn According to Ernoul's chronicle, Stephanie of Milly sent meals to the besiegers from the feast and Saladin forbade his engineers to destroy the tower of the fortress in which Humphrey and Isabella spent the wedding night.Template:Sfn Baldwin IV assembled a relief army and departed from Jerusalem to Kerak, although he was unable to ride a horse.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Saladin lifted the siege and retreated without a fight on 3 or 4 December.Template:Sfn

[Stephanie of Milly] sent to Saladin bread and wine, sheep and cattle in celebration of her son's wedding ... . And when Saladin received these gifts he was exceedingly delighted and gave thanks to those who brought them to him, asking where the bride and bridegroom were staying: their tower was pointed out to him. Thereupon Saladin gave out orders throughout his army that no attack should be directed at this tower.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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The dying Baldwin IV appointed Raymond of Tripoli regent for Baldwin V in April 1185.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On Raymond's demand, the High Court of Jerusalem ruled that a committee consisting of the pope, the Holy Roman Emperor and the kings of France and England would be entitled to choose between Sibylla and Isabella if Baldwin V died before reaching the age of majority.Template:Sfn Baldwin IV died on 16 March 1185.Template:Sfn About a year and a half later (before mid-September 1186) the child Baldwin V also died.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Sibylla's uncle Joscelin of Courtenay persuaded Raymond of Tripoli and his allies to leave Jerusalem, and urged her supporters (including Raynald of Châtillon) to assemble in the town.Template:Sfn Ignoring the 1185 ruling of the High Court, the noblemen and prelates who came to Jerusalem concluded that Sibylla was the lawful heir to her son.Template:Sfn Those who were opposed to Sibylla (including Raymond of Tripoli and Balian of Ibelin) assembled in Nablus.Template:Sfn They argued that Sibylla's legitimacy was dubious, because her parents' marriage had been annulled.Template:Sfn They also emphasized that Isabella was born after the coronation of her father.Template:Sfn They sent envoys to Jerusalem to protest against Sibylla's coronation, but Heraclius, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, crowned her in mid-September.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Heraclius also anointed Guy of Lusignan king after she placed a crown on Guy's head.Template:Sfn

On Raymond of Tripoli's proposal, the noblemen who assembled in Nablus decided that they proclaim Isabella and Humphrey queen and king.Template:Sfn However, Humphrey (whose mother and stepfather were Sibylla's supporters) fled from Nablus to Jerusalem and did homage to Sibylla and Guy.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Before long, all barons followed his example and swore fealty to the queen and her husband, with the exception of Raymond, who left the kingdom.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

File:Conrad of Montferrat - Conrad arrives at Tyre.jpg

Voyage of Conrad of Montferrat to Tyre

Saladin imposed a crushing defeat on the united army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Battle of Hattin on 4 July 1187.Template:Sfn Isabella's husband was captured on the battlefield.Template:Sfn Before long, Saladin's troops seized most towns and fortresses of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Tiberias fell soon after the battle, Acre on 9 July, Beirut before 6 August, and Jerusalem on 2 October.Template:Sfn Tyre was an exception, holding out for months under the command of Conrad of Montferrat who had come to the Holy Land from Italy a few weeks after the battle.Template:Sfn

Conrad regarded himself as the ruler of Tyre, forbidding Guy of Lusignan to enter the town in the summer of 1189.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Guy laid siege to Acre, but James of Avesnes, Louis III of Thuringia and other crusader commanders who came to the Holy Land also questioned his claim to leadership.Template:Sfn Guy's wife, Sibylla, and their two daughters died in the autumn of 1190.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Guy's opponents argued that he had only been king by marriage, and his wife's half-sister, Isabella, inherited the crown.Template:Sfn Guy did not want to abandon his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn Taking advantage of the situation, Conrad of Montferrat decided to marry Isabella.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Isabella's stepfather supported Conrad's plan.Template:Sfn Isabella resisted, but her mother put her under pressure.Template:Sfn Maria Comnena also swore that Baldwin IV had forced the eight-year-old Isabella to marry Humphrey of Toron, whose effeminacy was well known.Template:Sfn Before long, the papal legate, Ubaldo Lanfranchi, archbishop of Pisa, and Philip of Dreux, the bishop of Beauvais, annulled the marriage of Isabella and Humphrey.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury forbade her to marry Conrad, stating that both Isabella and Conrad would commit adultery if they married.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, Archbishop Baldwin died on 19 November 1190.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Second marriageEdit

Conrad married Isabella on 24 November.Template:Sfn Isabella returned to Humphrey the Lordship of Toron that Baldwin IV had annexed to the crown in 1180.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Guy of Lusignan refused to abdicate,Template:Sfn but most barons regarded him as the lawful monarch.Template:Sfn Conrad and Isabella returned to Tyre.Template:Sfn After Philip II of France, who landed at Acre on 20 April 1191, acknowledged Conrad's claim to Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan and Conrad's opponents (including Humphrey of Toron and Bohemond III of Antioch) sought assistance from Richard I of England, who decided to support them.Template:Sfn Guy adopted the title of "king-elect of Jerusalem" in May.Template:Sfn

The crusaders captured Acre on 11 July 1191.Template:Sfn On 28 July, Richard and Philip agreed that Guy could retain the title of king till the end of his life, but Conrad would rule Tyre, Beirut and Sidon; after Guy's death, the kingdom would be united under the rule of Conrad and Isabella or their issue.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Three days later, Philip left for France and Richard became the sole supreme commander of the crusaders.Template:Sfn The native barons remained hostile towards Guy.Template:Sfn After Richard decided to return to England in April 1192, the barons urged him to revise the previous decision about the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn

ReignEdit

ElectionEdit

Richard held an assembly on 16 April 1192.Template:Sfn The prelates and the noblemen who attended the meeting unanimously voted for Conrad.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Richard accepted their decision, granting Cyprus to Guy in compensation for his lost kingdom.Template:Sfn Richard dispatched his nephew Count Henry II of Champagne to inform Conrad about the barons' decision.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Henry arrived at Tyre about four days later.Template:Sfn It was agreed that Conrad and Isabella would be crowned at Acre.Template:Sfn

Isabella, who loved lingering in her bath, spent unusually much time there on 28 April.Template:Sfn Being hungry, Conrad decided to have a dinner with Philip of Dreux, but by the time he arrived at Philip's house, the bishop had already finished his meal.Template:Sfn Conrad wanted to return home, but two men ambushed and stabbed him in a narrow street.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Most sources agree that they were sent by Rashid ad-Din Sinan, head of the Assassins.Template:Sfn While dying, Conrad ordered Isabella not to give Tyre to anyone but Richard or to the new king of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn When Duke Hugh III of Burgundy, the French king's lieutenant in the Holy Land, urged Isabella to deliver Tyre to him, she shut herself up in the fortress and refused to open its gates.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Third marriageEdit

On learning of Conrad's assassination, Henry of Champagne, who had meanwhile returned to Acre, hurried back to Tyre.Template:Sfn Henry, who was the nephew of both Richard I of England and Philip II of France, was acclaimed king by the barons and the citizens of Tyre.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn According to Ernoul, Henry was hesitant, because Isabella was pregnant, possibly with a son.Template:Sfn The barons and the citizens, continued Ernoul, promised him that his children would inherit the Kingdom of Jerusalem to convince him to accept the crown.Template:Sfn The betrothal of Henry and Isabella was announced two days after Conrad's death.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The marriage was celebrated in Acre on 10 May 1192.Template:Sfn

Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, who was present at the wedding, wrote:

Henry of Champagne married the Marquis' wife on the same night, maintaining that he had first right to the dead man's wife. She was pregnant, but this did not prevent himself uniting himself with her, something even more disgusting than the coupling of the flesh. I asked one of their courtiers to whom paternity would be awarded and he said: "It will be the Queen's child." You see the licentiousness of these foul Unbelievers!{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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Isabella and Conrad's child, Maria of Montferrat, was born in 1192. Henry and Isabella then had three daughters, Margaret (born 1193/1194), Alice (born 1196)Template:Sfn and Philippa (born 1197).Template:Sfn Henry died in 1197 when a balcony or window-trellis gave way and he fell out of a window.

Fourth marriageEdit

After his death, Isabella married for a fourth time to King Aimery of Cyprus, brother of Guy of Lusignan.Template:Sfn They were crowned together as king and queen of Jerusalem in January 1198 in Acre.Template:Sfn They had two daughters, Sibylla (born 1198) and Melisende (born 1200), and one son, Amalric (born 1201). King Aimery died in 1205 of food poisoning caused by white mullet, four days before his wife, and shortly after their son. On her death on 5 April 1205,Template:Citation needed Isabella was succeeded as queen by her eldest daughter Maria.

The legality of Isabella's divorce from Humphrey was challenged in 1213, during the dispute over the succession to Champagne between her daughters Alice and Philippa and their paternal cousin, Theobald IV of Champagne. However, the validity of the divorce seems to have been upheld: no challenge was made to the legitimacy of Maria and her descendants to succeed to the throne of Jerusalem, and in Champagne, Theobald bought off his cousins.

FamilyEdit

Isabella's first marriage to Humphrey IV of Toron was childless.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

From her second marriage to Conrad of Montferrat she had one daughter:

Maria (1192–1212), succeeded Isabella as Queen of Jerusalem.

From her third marriage to Henry II of Champagne she had three daughters:

Margaret<ref>Lignages d'Outremer, Le Vaticanus Latinus 7806, El parentado del conte de Campagna 7, p. 164.</ref> (1193/1194 – before 1205) betrothed to Guy of Cyprus but they both died as children.
Alice (1195/1196–1246), firstly married Hugh I of Cyprus, secondly she married Bohemond V of Antioch and thirdly married Raoul de Soissons. She was a rival claimant of Champagne.
Philippa (c. 1197 – 20 December 1250), married Erard de Brienne-Ramerupt and was also a claimant of Champagne.

From her fourth and final marriage to Aimery of Cyprus she had the following children:

Sibylla (October–November 1198 – c. 1230 or 1252), married King Leo I of Armenia Template:Sfn
Melisende (c. 1200 – aft. 1249), married 1 January 1218 Bohemund IV of Antioch Template:Sfn
Amalric (1201 – 2 February 1205, Acre)Template:Sfn

AncestryEdit

Template:Ahnentafel

In popular cultureEdit

Isabella has made few fictional appearances, but she is a major character in Graham Shelby's The Knights of Dark Renown (1969) and its sequel The Kings of Vain Intent (1970). Shelby idealises her marriage to Humphrey, depicting them as his young romantic leads. He then goes on to depict her being beaten and raped by Conrad in a sadistically abusive relationship. This sensationalist depiction is not supported by any evidence. Shelby implies that Isabella plotted Conrad's murder in revenge for his abuse, and depicts her as mentally numbed and indifferent to Henry.

She is the title character of Alan Gordon's mystery novel, The Widow of Jerusalem (2003), which paints a more sympathetic portrait of her marriage to Conrad. She is introduced as a spoilt, vain young woman, but she matures in the course of the story. Only when it is too late does she realise that her husband loves her. His murder, and the later death of Henry, are investigated by the hero, the fool Theophilos (Feste).

She is positively portrayed as a child and young woman in Sharon Kay Penman's The Land Beyond the Sea.