Isabella I (1172 – 5 April 1205) was reigning
Queen of Jerusalem
This is a list of queens of Jerusalem, from 1099 to 1291.
Throughout 200 years of its existence, the Kingdom of Jerusalem had one protector, 18 kings (including 7 ''jure uxoris'') and five queens regnant. Six women were queens consort, i.e. que ...
from 1190 to her death. She was the daughter of
Amalric I of Jerusalem
Amalric or Amaury I ( la, Amalricus; french: Amaury; 113611 July 1174) was King of Jerusalem from 1163, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. He was the second son of Melisende and Fulk of Jerusalem, and succeeded his older broth ...
and his second wife
Maria Comnena, a Byzantine princess. Her half-brother,
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, engaged her to
Humphrey IV of Toron
Humphrey IV of Toron ( 1166 – 1198) was a leading baron in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He inherited the Lordship of Toron from his grandfather, Humphrey II, in 1179. He was also heir to the Lordship of Oultrejourdan through his mother, Step ...
. Her mother's second husband,
Balian of Ibelin Balian or Balyan may refer to:
People
* Balian of Ibelin (disambiguation), a name shared by several members of the Ibelin family from the crusader kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus
* Balian Buschbaum (born 1980), German pole vaulter
* Roger Balian, ...
, and his stepfather,
Raynald of Châtillon
Raynald of Châtillon (french: Renaud; 11254 July 1187), also known as Reynald or Reginald, was a Crusader knight of French origin but also Prince of Antioch from 1153 to 1160 or 1161, and Lord of Oultrejordain from 1175 until his death. He wa ...
, were influential members of the two baronial parties. The marriage of Isabella and Humphrey was celebrated in
Kerak Castle
Kerak Castle ( ar, قلعة الكرك, Qal'at al-Karak) is a large medieval castle located in al-Karak, Jordan. It is one of the largest castles in the Levant. Construction began in the 1140s, under Pagan and Fulk, King of Jerusalem. The Crusa ...
in autumn 1183.
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
, the
Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...
sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to the fortress during the wedding, but Baldwin IV forced him to lift the siege.
Baldwin IV, who suffered from
lepromatous leprosy
Lepromatous leprosy is a form of leprosy characterized by pale macules in the skin.
It results from the failure of Th1 cell activation which is necessary to eradicate the mycobacteria (Th1 response is required to activate macrophages that engulf ...
, had made his nephew (the only son of his sister,
Sibylla by her first husband),
Baldwin V
Baldwin is a Germanic name, composed of the elements ''bald'' "bold" and ''win'' "friend".
People
* Baldwin (name)
Places Canada
* Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario
* Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District
* Baldwin's Mills, ...
, his heir and co-ruler, to prevent Sibylla's second husband,
Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan (c. 1150 – 18 July 1194) was a French Poitevin knight, son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and as such born of the House of Lusignan. He was king of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla of Jerusalem, and King o ...
, from mounting the throne. The
High Court of Jerusalem
{{inline, date=May 2017
The Haute Cour ( en, High Court) was the feudal council of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was sometimes also called the ''curia generalis'', the ''curia regis'', or, rarely, the ''parlement''.
Composition of the court
The H ...
stipulated that a committee of Western European rulers was entitled to choose between Sibylla and Isabella to succeed Baldwin V if he died before reaching the age of majority, but Sibylla and Guy of Lusignan were crowned soon after Baldwin V died in 1185. Guy's opponents tried to play Isabella and her husband off against him, but Humphrey did homage to the royal couple.
Early life
Childhood
Isabella was the daughter of
Amalric
Amalric or Amalaric (also Americ, Almerich, Emeric, Emerick and other variations) is a personal name derived from the tribal name ''Amal'' (referring to the Gothic Amali) and ''ric'' (Gothic ''reiks'') meaning "ruler, prince".
Equivalents in di ...
,
King of Jerusalem
The King of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader states, Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Church, Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was Siege of Jerusalem (1099), conqu ...
, by his second wife,
Maria Comnena. Maria Comnena (who was a
grandniece of the Byzantine Emperor,
Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Romanization of Greek, Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; "born in the purple"), w ...
) married Amalric on 29 August 1167. Isabella was born before September 1172.
Amalric died unexpectedly on 11 July 1174. His son by his first marriage,
Baldwin IV, was crowned king two weeks later. Before long, it became obvious that Baldwin suffered from
lepromatous leprosy
Lepromatous leprosy is a form of leprosy characterized by pale macules in the skin.
It results from the failure of Th1 cell activation which is necessary to eradicate the mycobacteria (Th1 response is required to activate macrophages that engulf ...
. To secure the succession of the ailing king, his sister,
Sibylla, was given in marriage to
William of Montferrat in November 1176, but he died seven months later. Baldwin's cousin,
Philip I, Count of Flanders
Philip I (1143 – 1 August 1191), commonly known as Philip of Alsace, was count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191. During his rule Flanders prospered economically. He took part in two crusades and died of disease in the Holy Land.
Count of Flanders
...
, who landed at Acre in August, 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. The
High Court of Jerusalem
{{inline, date=May 2017
The Haute Cour ( en, High Court) was the feudal council of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was sometimes also called the ''curia generalis'', the ''curia regis'', or, rarely, the ''parlement''.
Composition of the court
The H ...
refused both proposals.
Isabella's mother married
Balian of Ibelin Balian or Balyan may refer to:
People
* Balian of Ibelin (disambiguation), a name shared by several members of the Ibelin family from the crusader kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus
* Balian Buschbaum (born 1980), German pole vaulter
* Roger Balian, ...
in autumn 1177. His brother,
Baldwin of Ibelin
Baldwin of Ibelin, also known as Baldwin II of Ramla (French: ''Baudouin d'Ibelin'', early 1130s – c. 1187 or 1186/1188), was an important noble of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and was lord of Ramla from 1169-1186. He was t ...
, wanted to marry Sibylla, but the king preferred another candidate,
Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan (c. 1150 – 18 July 1194) was a French Poitevin knight, son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and as such born of the House of Lusignan. He was king of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla of Jerusalem, and King o ...
. After the marriage of Sibylla and Guy on Easter 1180, a division emerged between Guy of Lusignan's supporters and opponents. The first group included the mother of Baldwin IV and Sibylla,
Agnes of Courtenay
Agnes of Courtenay ( – ) was a Frankish noblewoman from the Crusader states. Agnes's parents, Joscelin II of Edessa and Beatrice of Saone, lost the County of Edessa in 1150. As the widow of Reynald of Marash, Agnes married Count Amalric of ...
, her brother,
Joscelin, and
Raynald of Châtillon
Raynald of Châtillon (french: Renaud; 11254 July 1187), also known as Reynald or Reginald, was a Crusader knight of French origin but also Prince of Antioch from 1153 to 1160 or 1161, and Lord of Oultrejordain from 1175 until his death. He wa ...
,
Lord of Oultrejordain
The Lordship of or (Old French for "beyond the Jordan", also called Lordship of Montreal) was the name used during the Crusades for an extensive and partly undefined region to the east of the Jordan River, an area known in ancient times as Edo ...
. Their opponents included Isabella's mother and stepfather, and
Raymond III of Tripoli
Raymond III (1140 – September/October 1187) was count of Tripoli from 1152 to 1187. He was a minor when Assassins murdered his father, Raymond II of Tripoli. Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who was staying in Tripoli, made Raymond's mother, Hodierna ...
. To secure Guy's position, the king arranged the betrothal of Isabella to Raynald of Châtillon's stepson,
Humphrey IV of Toron
Humphrey IV of Toron ( 1166 – 1198) was a leading baron in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He inherited the Lordship of Toron from his grandfather, Humphrey II, in 1179. He was also heir to the Lordship of Oultrejourdan through his mother, Step ...
in October 1180. Isabella was sent to
Kerak Castle
Kerak Castle ( ar, قلعة الكرك, Qal'at al-Karak) is a large medieval castle located in al-Karak, Jordan. It is one of the largest castles in the Levant. Construction began in the 1140s, under Pagan and Fulk, King of Jerusalem. The Crusa ...
to be educated by Humphrey's mother,
Stephanie of Milly. Stephanie forbade her to pay visits to her mother and stepfather at
Nablus
Nablus ( ; ar, نابلس, Nābulus ; he, שכם, Šəḵem, ISO 259-3: ; Samaritan Hebrew: , romanized: ; el, Νεάπολις, Νeápolis) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a populati ...
.
The relationship between Baldwin IV and Guy of Lusignan deteriorated. 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
Baldwin is a Germanic name, composed of the elements ''bald'' "bold" and ''win'' "friend".
People
* Baldwin (name)
Places Canada
* Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario
* Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District
* Baldwin's Mills, ...
, his heir and co-ruler on 20 November 1183. 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. Guy's principal supporters, Joscelin of Courtenay and Raynald of Châtillon, were not present at Baldwin V's coronation, because they attended the wedding of Isabella and Humphrey of Toron.
First marriage
The wedding took place in Kerak Castle.
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
, the
Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...
sultan of Egypt and Syria laid siege to the fortress. According to
Ernoul Ernoul was a squire of Balian of Ibelin who wrote an eyewitness account of the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. This was later incorporated into an Old French history of Crusader Palestine now known as the ''Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer ...
'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
In many traditions and statutes of civil or religious law, the consummation of a marriage, often called simply ''consummation'', is the first (or first officially credited) act of sexual intercourse between two people, following their marriage to ...
. Baldwin IV assembled a relief army and departed from Jerusalem to Kerak, although he was unable to ride a horse. Saladin lifted the siege and retreated without fight on 3 or 4 December.
The dying Baldwin IV appointed Raymond of Tripoli regent for Baldwin V in April 1185. On Raymond's demand, the
High Court of Jerusalem
{{inline, date=May 2017
The Haute Cour ( en, High Court) was the feudal council of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was sometimes also called the ''curia generalis'', the ''curia regis'', or, rarely, the ''parlement''.
Composition of the court
The H ...
ruled that a committee consisting of the pope, the
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
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. Baldwin IV died on 16 March 1185. About a year and a half later (before mid-September 1186) the child Baldwin V also died.
Sibylla's uncle Joscelin of Courtenay persuaded Raymond III of Tripoli and his allies to leave Jerusalem, and urged her supporters (including Raynald of Châtillon) to assemble in the town. 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. Those who were opposed to Sibylla (including Raymond III of Tripoli and Balian of Ibelin) assembled in Nablus. They argued that Sibylla's legitimacy was dubious, because her parents' marriage had been
annulled
Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost ...
. They also emphasized that Isabella
was born after the coronation of her father. They sent envoys to Jerusalem to protest against Sibylla's coronation, but
Heraclius
Heraclius ( grc-gre, Ἡράκλειος, Hērákleios; c. 575 – 11 February 641), was List of Byzantine emperors, Eastern Roman emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exa ...
,
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem ( la, Patriarchatus Latinus Hierosolymitanus) is the Latin Catholic ecclesiastical patriarchate in Jerusalem, officially seated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was originally established in 1099, wit ...
, crowned her in mid-September. Heraclius also anointed Guy of Lusignan king after she placed a crown on Guy's head.
On Raymond of Tripoli's proposal, the noblemen who assembled in Nablus decided that they proclaim Isabella and Humphrey of Toron queen and king. However, Humphrey (whose mother and stepfather were Sibylla's supporters) fled from Nablus to Jerusalem and did homage to Sibylla and Guy. Before long, all barons followed his example and swore fealty to the queen and her husband, with the exception of Raymond of Tripoli who left the kingdom.
Saladin imposed a crushing defeat on the united army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the
Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of t ...
on 4 July 1187. Isabella's husband was captured on the battlefield. Before long, Saladin's troops seized most towns and fortresses of the Kingdom of Jerusalem:
Tiberias
Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Fo ...
fell soon after the battle,
Acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
on 9 July,
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
before 6 August, and Jerusalem on 2 October. 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.
Conrad regarded himself the ruler of Tyre, forbidding Guy of Lusignan to enter the town in summer 1189. Guy laid siege to Acre, but
James of Avesnes
James (also ''Jacques'' or ''Jacob''; 1152 – 7 September 1191) was a son of Nicholas d'Oisy, Lord of Avesnes and Matilda de la Roche. He was the lord of Avesnes, Condé, and Leuze from 1171. In November 1187, James joined the Third Crusade ...
,
Louis III of Thuringia and other crusader commanders who came to the Holy Land also questioned his claim to leadership. Guy's wife, Sibylla, and their two daughters died in autumn 1190. Guy's opponents argued that he had only been king by marriage, and his wife's half-sister, Isabella, inherited the crown. Guy did not want to abandon his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Taking advantage of the situation, Conrad of Montferrat decided to marry Isabella.
Isabella's stepfather supported Conrad's plan. Isabella resisted, but her mother put her under pressure. Maria Komnena also swore that Baldwin IV had forced the eight-year-old Isabella to marry Humphrey of Toron, whose effeminacy was well known. Before long, the
papal legate
300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate.
A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...
,
Ubaldo Lanfranchi Ubaldo Lanfranchi (died 19 June 1207) was an Italian Catholic archbishop.
A member of the noble Lanfranchi family, he was consecrated archbishop of Pisa on 11 April 1176. The primacy of the Pisan church extended to the ecclesiastical provinces of T ...
,
,_and_Philip_of_Dreux.html" ;"title="717, Pisan">708, Pisan); on 30–31 July 1716 [1717, Pisan and on 31 J ...
, and Philip of Dreux">717, Pisan">708, Pisan); on 30–31 July 1716 [1717, Pisan and on 31 J ...