Queens of Jerusalem - Isabella I of Jerusalem (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Isabella I of Jerusalem (1172 5 April 1205) was Queen regnant of Jerusalem 1190/11925 April 1205. She was the daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his second wife Maria Comnena, making her a younger half-sister of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Sibylla of Jerusalem. She was also the aunt of Baldwin V, and a grandniece of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, who had received the town and territory of Nablus as a dower from her husband the king. She married four times. Maria of Montferrat, Queen of Jerusalem was her daughter by her second husband, Conrad of Montferrat. She had a total of seven children by her various husbands. Isabella spent her early years in the court of her mother and stepfather Balian of Ibelin, mostly in Nablus. She was described by the poet Ambrose as "exceedingly fair and lovely"; according to the Muslim chronicler Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, she had black hair and a pale complexion. Isabella's father's previous marriage to Agnes of Courtenay had been annulled, but he had succeeded in having his children from that marriage legitimised. Her half-brother Baldwin IV was recognised unanimously as king, as he was the only male available, but he suffered from leprosy (then incurable). The succession would therefore fall to either his full sister Sibylla, or, if her legitimisation were challenged, to his half-sister Isabella. Isabella's mother and the Ibelins had strong ambitions for her to succeed, although Baldwin IV's diplomacy regarding overseas marriages clearly indicates that he regarded Sibylla as his immediate heir. In 1180, when Isabella was 8 (according to William of Tyre), she was betrothed to Humphrey IV of Toron, on the orders of her half-brother Baldwin IV, in payment of a debt of honour to Humphrey's grandfather Hump... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=357760