Margaret (floruit 1249–55) was the Lady of Caesarea. She was the eldest daughter and heiress of

John of Caesarea John (died 1238–41) was the Lord of Caesarea from 1229 and an important figure in the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem. He was the only son of Walter III of Caesarea and Marguerite d'Ibelin, daughter of Balian of Ibelin. He was often called "th ...

and Alice de Montaigu, and both of her parents came from the upper echelons of the nobility of

Outremer The Crusader States, also known as Outremer, were four Catholic realms in the Middle East that lasted from 1098 to 1291. These feudal polities were created by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade through conquest and political in ...

. Margaret was the second lady to inherit Caesarea, after her great-grandmother

Juliana Juliana (variants Julianna, Giuliana, Iuliana, Yuliana, etc) is a feminine given name which is the feminine version of the Roman name Julianus. Juliana or Giuliana was the name of a number of early saints, notably Saint Julian the Hospitaller, wh ...

Life

It is unclear when exactly Margaret inherited her fief. Her father died between 1238 and 1241, but she is not recorded as lady until 1249. In his ''

Assizes of Jerusalem The Assizes of Jerusalem are a collection of numerous medieval legal treatises written in Old French containing the law of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and Kingdom of Cyprus. They were compiled in the thirteenth century, and are the largest c ...

'', the jurist John of Ibelin records that his cousin, the lord of Caesarea, refused the bailliage of Jerusalem in 1243, and instead the ''

Haute Cour {{Expand French, Haute Cour (France), date=November 2015, topic=gov In France, the Parliament sitting in High Court (''Haute Cour'') is the jurisdiction responsible for pronouncing the impeachment of the President of the Republic "if he should fa ...

'' gave it to Queen Alice of Cyprus. Since her father was dead, this is probably a reference to her husband,

John Aleman John Aleman (died after 1264) was the Lord of Caesarea (as John II) in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, exercising this right through his wife, Margaret, from at least 1243 until his death. He was the son of Garnier l'Aleman and Pavie de Gibelet, and the ...

, indicating that she was already ruling Caesarea by then.John L. Lamonte, "The Lords of Caesarea in the Period of the Crusades", ''Speculum'' 22, 2 (1947): 158–59. In April 1249, Margaret and John sold six ''

casalia In the Middle Ages, a ''casalis'' or ''casale'' (Latin and Italian; Old French/Spanish ''casal''), plural ''casalia'' (''casali'', ''casales''), was "a cluster of houses in a rural setting". The word is not classical Latin, but derives from the Lat ...

'' to the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

. In 1253 they sold

Al-Damun Al-Damun ( ar, الدامون, ''al-Dâmûn''), was a Palestinian Arab village located from the city of Acre that was depopulated during 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In 1945, the village had 1,310 inhabitants, most of whom were Muslim and the remainder ...

near Acre to the

Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

for 12,000 besants. In 1255 they also sold the Hospitallers everything they owned in Acre as well as the ''casalia'' of Chasteillon and Rout. On this occasion they were accepted into the lay

confraternity A confraternity ( es, cofradía; pt, confraria) is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most c ...

of the order as ''confrater'' and ''consoror''. Some of the money from the sales to the Hospitallers was used to pay the dower of John's sister-in-law. Margaret's eldest son and heir, Hugh, died in a riding accident in 1264. Her second son, Nicholas, succeeded her. She had one other son named Thomas. The date of Margaret's death is unknown; she is never mentioned after 1255. Her son was in power by 1277.

Notes

{{S-end Lords of Caesarea 13th-century women rulers 13th-century Greek people Nobility of the Kingdom of Jerusalem