Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

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Sibylla
House of Anjou
FatherAmalric of Jerusalem
MotherAgnes of Courtenay

Sibylla (

barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
.

Sibylla was the eldest daughter of

Raymond III of Tripoli, arranged for her to marry William Longsword of Montferrat in late 1176, but within a year William died, leaving her pregnant and in possession of the County of Jaffa and Ascalon
.

Shortly after giving birth to a son,

coup
planned by Raymond, the marriage deeply divided the nobility. By 1183, King Baldwin had become completely disabled as well as disillusioned with Guy's character and ability to lead. In order to prevent Guy's accession to the throne, he had Sibylla's son crowned as co-king and attempted to separate Sibylla from Guy, but she refused.

Sibylla's brother, Baldwin IV, died in 1185, having named Raymond to rule as regent for Baldwin V instead of Sibylla or Guy. The boy king died the next year, and Sibylla moved quickly to claim the throne against Raymond's ambitions. She agreed to her supporters' demand to set Guy aside on the condition that she could choose her next husband. At her coronation in mid-September 1186, she outwitted her supporters by choosing Guy and crowning him herself. Saladin took advantage of the discord in the kingdom to invade in 1187, reducing the Kingdom of Jerusalem to a single city, Tyre. Sibylla visited her husband, who had been taken captive at the decisive Battle of Hattin, and procured from Saladin his release. She died, along with their daughters, of an epidemic outside Acre while Guy was besieging it.

Childhood

Sibylla was the elder of the two children of the

Catholics who had arrived in the Levant from Western Europe and remained Western in culture.[3] Sibylla was named after the countess of Flanders, her father's half-sister.[4]

When King Baldwin III died in 1163, the High Court forced Amalric to agree to an annulment of his marriage to Agnes in order to be accepted as the new king.[5] He succeeded in having his and Agnes's children declared legitimate by Pope Alexander III.[6] In common with Western practices, Sibylla was educated by the king's aunt Abbess Ioveta, Queen Melisende's youngest sister, at the Convent of Saint Lazarus near Jerusalem.[7] She consequently had little contact with her mother[8] or brother,[6] who was heir apparent to their father.[9] With his second wife, Maria Komnene, the king had two daughters, of whom Isabella survived infancy.[10]

King Amalric feared that, like his brother and their father,

Stephen I of Sancerre, the brother-in-law of King Louis VII of France and relative of the English royal house. Stephen thus came to Jerusalem in 1171.[12] Sibylla's brother was suspected of having contracted leprosy,[12] then an incurable disease that would prevent him from marrying and having children,[13] and Amalric may have seen Sibylla and Stephen as eventual monarchs.[12] Stephen rejected the match, however, for unknown reasons.[10]

Heir presumptive

Death of King Amalric as depicted in the 13th century

When King Amalric died of dysentery in July 1174, the High Court met to discuss who should succeed him.

Raymond III of Tripoli and Baldwin of Antioch were too closely related, and a marriage to one of the barons in the kingdom could have caused resentment among the others. A match had to be found abroad, but that would have taken too long.[15] Baldwin IV was therefore chosen, with the expectation that a husband would be found for Sibylla to succeed him if he proved to be affected during his minority.[16]

Marriage

Count Raymond of Tripoli, who was by then also

William V of Montferrat and cousin of both Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and King Louis VII of France.[20]

William arrived in the East in October 1176. By that time, the

abdicate in William's favour, but William would have declined because he knew he lacked support among the nobility.[21]

Countess

Map of the fiefs in the Kingdom of Jerusalem

Around April 1177, shortly after he and Sibylla conceived a child, William fell critically ill. He died in June, by which time her pregnancy was known.

lord of Ramla, Baldwin of Ibelin, who hoped to be the chosen suitor.[26]

Sibylla gave birth to a son, named Baldwin in honour of her brother, in the winter of 1177–78. Her mourning period ended in June 1178, and it became appropriate to negotiate a new marriage. Baldwin of Ibelin's suit was rejected, but his brother Balian was allowed to marry Queen Maria, stepmother of Sibylla and the king. On 1 July 1178, Sibylla began to be associated with her brother in public acts, reminiscent of their grandmother Melisende's association with her father, King Baldwin II. Baldwin IV thus confirmed Sibylla's status as his heir presumptive.[22]

The High Court agreed unanimously that Sibylla should next marry Duke

Henry I of Champagne, Peter I of Courtenay, and Philip of Dreux, arrived in July 1179. They failed to prevent the Egyptian ruler Saladin from destroying the crusader fortress of Le Chastellet, but remained in the kingdom in the hopes of assisting at Sibylla and Hugh's coronation the following year.[30]

Remarriage

13th-century Acre depiction of Baldwin IV betrothing Sibylla to Guy and Sibylla marrying Guy

Things took an unexpected turn during the Holy Week in 1180. The brewing conflict in France that followed the accession of King Philip II prevented Hugh from leaving his domain.[31] Contemporary chroniclers Ernoul and William of Tyre relate the events differently. According to Ernoul, Sibylla wrote to Baldwin of Ibelin when he was in Saladin's captivity, promising that she would convince her brother to allow their marriage if he could ransom himself, but was persuaded by her mother to marry Guy of Lusignan, a Poitevin knight, instead.[32] Historian Bernard Hamilton argues that Ernoul's account, though accepted in older historiography,[32] is biased in favour of the Ibelins.[33]

William of Tyre reports that during the Holy Week in 1180 Count Raymond III of Tripoli and Prince

coup against King Baldwin.[34] Hamilton concludes that their intention was to force the king to have Sibylla marry Baldwin of Ibelin and to then abdicate,[35] and that the king foiled their plan by arranging her marriage to Guy.[36] Baldwin of Ibelin had never been approved by Sibylla's brother, possibly because his family had only recently risen to lordly rank. Another factor was that Saladin had been informed by Raymond and Bohemond's conspiracy to enthrone Baldwin and therefore set Baldwin's ransom to that of a king; a successor with such a debt was not desirable.[37]

From 1180, Sibylla held Jaffa and Ascalon with Guy,

lord of Oultrejordain, Raynald of Châtillon) and a faction opposing him (Sibylla's paternal kinsmen Bohemond of Antioch and Raymond of Tripoli; Baldwin and Balian of Ibelin; and her stepmother, Maria Komnene).[40] In order to prevent the opposing party from setting up a rival claimant, the king took his mother's advice and, in October 1180, betrothed his half-sister Isabella, Maria's daughter and Balian's stepdaughter, to Humphrey IV of Toron, stepson of Raynald of Châtillon.[41] From March 1181, both Sibylla and Guy were associated with King Baldwin in public acts.[42]

Sibylla's family,[43] including Guy and his partisans (blue rectangular) and Guy's opponents (red rounded)[40]
Baldwin II of JerusalemMorphia of Melitene
Ioveta of Jerusalem
Raymond III of Tripoli
William of Montferrat
Sibylla of JerusalemGuy of LusignanBaldwin IV of JerusalemIsabella I of JerusalemHumphrey IV of ToronBohemond III of AntiochMaria of AntiochManuel I KomnenosBaldwin of Antioch
Baldwin V of Jerusalem

Disinheritance

Baldwin IV's leprosy progressed quickly; in 1183 he lost his sight and could no longer walk unsupported or use his hands.

Tyre.[46]

Saladin attacked

co-king was accepted because his was the next strongest claim after Sibylla's. The coronation took place on 20 November, and the boy received the homage of all the barons except his stepfather.[50] Baldwin IV and his army then relieved the siege of Kerak.[51]

Death of Baldwin IV, coronation of Baldwin V, and nomination of Raymond to regency as depicted in Acre in the 13th century

The question of who would rule the kingdom as regent for Baldwin V troubled the disabled king. Sibylla and Guy would have the best claim to regency if Baldwin IV died. Her brother knew that this could only be prevented by having their marriage

Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Heraclius.[52] Baldwin failed to take into account Sibylla's steadfast devotion to Guy as well as Guy's friendship with Heraclius, who may have warned the count about Baldwin's intentions. Instead of going to Jerusalem with the rest of the army after lifting the siege of Kerak, Guy went straight to Ascalon and sent a message to Sibylla, who joined him there.[53] The annulment could not proceed without their presence, and the couple's refusal to leave Ascalon despite the king's summons frustrated the scheme to separate them.[54] Baldwin next attempted to confiscate Jaffa and Ascalon, but only succeeded in revoking Jaffa.[55]

On Baldwin IV's deathbed in early 1185, the right to rule the kingdom as regent in the name of Baldwin V, then a sickly child, was offered to the count of Tripoli.

William V of Montferrat, arrived in Jerusalem to safeguard the young king's rights.[57]

Reign

Accession

The elaborate tomb commissioned by Sibylla for her son, Baldwin V

Sibylla's son died in

Ralph, and Odo of Saint Omer. Contemporaries believed that Raymond intended to claim the throne for himself.[60] Meanwhile, Sibylla's uncle Joscelin of Courtenay took possession of Acre and Beirut in her name. Sybilla hurried to Jerusalem to attend her son's funeral.[59] She and Guy garrisoned the city with their strong armed escort.[61]

The count of Tripoli underestimated the support for Sibylla. The lord of Oultrejordain and her first husband's father, the marquess of Montferrat, came to Sybilla's side. She was also backed by the patriarch and the

legitimisation of her daughters by Guy, Guy's retention of Jaffa and Ascalon, and the freedom to choose a new husband as she saw fit. The conditions were accepted.[63]

Coronation

Sibylla crowned by Heraclius while monks sent from Nablus spy on them

On the advice of Heraclius and Gerard, Sibylla sent an invitation to the nobles at Nablus to attend her coronation.

acclaimed queen by the citizens of Jerusalem at the urging of Raynald of Châtillon.[59]

As was traditional, the coronation was held at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,[59] likely in mid-September.[65] After crowning her, the patriarch gave a second crown to Sibylla and asked her to choose a new consort. She astonished the attendees by calling forth Guy and placing the crown on his head.[63] Having agreed that she should choose a husband after setting Guy aside, the assembled noblemen could raise no objection to her choice. Upon hearing about this turn of events, Raymond proposed crowning Isabella and Humphrey as rival monarchs, but Humphrey sneaked out of Nablus at night and rode to Jerusalem.[65] Upon arrival, he demanded an audience with the queen, who agreed after initial reluctance.[66] He swore fealty to her,[67] and she took him to see Guy, to whom he paid homage.[68] Roger des Moulins and Heraclius mediated peace, and all the barons except Raymond of Tripoli and Baldwin of Ibelin came to Jerusalem to submit.[69]

Fall of Jerusalem

Sibylla was well-positioned to wield power because Guy's authority was entirely dependent on her. She was associated with her husband in public acts in the first months of their reign, but this was cut short by Saladin's invasion.[61] In an act of continued defiance, Raymond had retired to his fief of Galilee, allied with Saladin, and garrisoned Tiberias with Muslim troops.[70] The sultan attacked the kingdom on 26 April 1187.[71] After Muslim troops annihilated the combined armies of the Templars and the Hospitallers at Cresson near Nazareth on 1 May, Raymond was forced by his own vassals to submit to Guy.[72] Though now unified, the kingdom had been critically weakened by the defeat at Cresson.[73] The Christian army led by Guy suffered a crushing defeat at the Horns of Hattin on 4 July.[74] The king was taken prisoner; Raynald was executed; and Raymond died of an illness in Tripoli in September.[75]

At the time of King Guy's defeat and imprisonment at Hattin, Queen Sibylla was in Jerusalem.[61] The queen went to Ascalon with her daughters to defend the city and only surrendered it to Saladin in return for Guy's release, but the sultan nevertheless kept him imprisoned.[76] In September, Saladin besieged Jerusalem.[77] The queen commanded the defence with the assistance of Patriarch Heraclius and Balian of Ibelin, but intense bombardment forced them to surrender. Saladin allowed the defeated to ransom themselves, and Sibylla was further permitted to visit Guy in Nablus while she travelled to Antioch.[78] She was apparently prevented from embarking there for Europe when her ship was seized by Conrad of Montferrat,[78] her first husband's brother who had taken up the defence of Tyre.[79] Sibylla instead joined her stepmother, Queen Maria, in Tripoli.[39] In the months following the Battle of Hattin, all of the kingdom except Tyre fell to Saladin.[74]

1295 depiction of Guy and Sibylla outside Tyre

Sibylla repeatedly pleaded with Saladin for Guy's release, and the sultan granted her request in July 1188.[80] The couple reunited on the island of Arwad near Tortosa, from where they went north to Antioch and then back south to Tripoli, gathering an army along the way.[78] They marched to Tyre in April 1189.[81] The city's defender, Conrad, refused to allow the king and queen into the city, forcing them to spend months outside its walls.[39] Conrad posited that Guy had forfeited the kingdom at Hattin and that Tyre was being held in trust for the Holy Roman emperor and the kings of England and France, who would decide to whom the government should be assigned.[81]

Death

The

siege of Acre along with Humphrey, Isabella, Maria, and Balian. An epidemic struck the crusaders' camp in 1190.[39] Sibylla died on 25 July,[39] a few days after her daughters Alice and Maria.[82] It is not clear whether the other two daughters had died earlier or at the same time.[39] The Itinerarium recorded accusations of foul play against Guy, but in truth their deaths deprived Guy of any right to the throne. Sibylla's heir was her half-sister Isabella I.[83]

Assessment

Historian Bernard Hamilton disagrees with Ernoul's characterization of Sibylla as fickle, foolish, and sentimental, arguing that the portrayal "bears little relation to the known facts".[33] Influenced by the prevailing medieval perception of ideal queenship, Sibylla's contemporaries and near-contemporaneous chroniclers were interested more in her relationship with Guy than in her military activity.[84] Standing by her husband won her approval of her contemporaries; Roger of Wendover described her as:

A most praiseworthy woman, to be commended both for her virtue and for her courage. She so arranged matters that the kingdom obtained a ruler while she retained a husband.[65]

Due to the distortion of her image by contemporary gender ideals, resourcefulness and loyalty remain Sibylla's chief traits in modern historiography.[85]

See also

  • Kingdom of Heaven – film portraying Sibylla as an orientalized princess who loves Balian rather than Guy

References

  1. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 24.
  2. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 39.
  3. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 57–58.
  4. ^ Hodgson 2007, p. 71.
  5. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 23.
  6. ^ a b c Hamilton 2000, p. 26.
  7. ^ Hodgson 2007, p. 65.
  8. ^ a b Hamilton 1978, p. 164.
  9. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 27.
  10. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 31.
  11. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 29.
  12. ^ a b c Hamilton 2000, p. 30.
  13. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 109.
  14. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 32.
  15. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 40.
  16. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 41.
  17. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 89.
  18. ^ Hamilton 1978, p. 165.
  19. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 100.
  20. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 101.
  21. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 110.
  22. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 139.
  23. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 122-123.
  24. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 125–126.
  25. ^ Runciman 1952, p. 415.
  26. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 125.
  27. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 139-141.
  28. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 145.
  29. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 157.
  30. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 147.
  31. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 150.
  32. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 152.
  33. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 153.
  34. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 151–152.
  35. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 154–155.
  36. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 156.
  37. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 155.
  38. ^ Hamilton 1978, p. 168.
  39. ^ a b c d e f Hamilton 1978, p. 172.
  40. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 158.
  41. ^ Hamilton 1978, p. 167.
  42. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 167.
  43. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. xviii, xx.
  44. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 187, 240.
  45. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 188.
  46. ^ a b c d Riley-Smith 1973, p. 107.
  47. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 191.
  48. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 192.
  49. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 193–194.
  50. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 194.
  51. ^ Runciman 1952, p. 441.
  52. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 195.
  53. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 196.
  54. ^ a b Hamilton 1978, p. 170.
  55. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 197.
  56. ^ Riley-Smith 1973, p. 108.
  57. ^ a b Runciman 1952, p. 444.
  58. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 210.
  59. ^ a b c d e f g Riley-Smith 1973, p. 109.
  60. ^ Hamilton 2000, pp. 217–218.
  61. ^ a b c Hamilton 1978, p. 171.
  62. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 218.
  63. ^ a b c d e Hamilton 2000, p. 220.
  64. ^ Runciman 1952, p. 447.
  65. ^ a b c Hamilton 2000, p. 221.
  66. ^ Runciman 1952, p. 448.
  67. ^ Riley-Smith 1973, p. 171.
  68. ^ Runciman 1952, p. 449.
  69. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 222.
  70. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 223.
  71. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 227.
  72. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 228.
  73. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 229.
  74. ^ a b Hamilton 2000, p. 230.
  75. ^ Hamilton 2000, p. 231.
  76. ^ Nicholson 2004, p. 112.
  77. ^ Runciman 1952, pp. 462–463.
  78. ^ a b c Nicholson 2004, p. 113.
  79. ^ Runciman 1952, p. 471.
  80. ^ Runciman 1954, p. 19.
  81. ^ a b Runciman 1954, p. 21.
  82. ^ Runciman 1954, p. 30.
  83. ^ Hodgson 2007, p. 80.
  84. ^ Nicholson 2004, p. 114.
  85. ^ Nicholson 2004, p. 124.

Bibliography

  • Hamilton, Bernard (1978). "Women in the Crusader States: The Queens of Jerusalem". In Baker, Derek (ed.). Medieval Women. Ecclesiastical History Society.
    ISBN 978-0631192602
    .
  • Hamilton, Bernard (2000). The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press.
    ISBN 9780521017473
    .
  • Hodgson, Natasha R. (2007). Women, Crusading and the Holy Land in Historical Narrative. Boydell Press.
    ISBN 978-1843833321
    .
  • JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt7zssjh
    .
  • Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1973). The feudal nobility and the kingdom of Jerusalem, 1147 - 1277. Macmillan.
  • ISBN 0241298768
    .
  • ISBN 0-521-06163-6
    .
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sibylla of Jerusalem.
Titles of nobility
Vacant
Merged into
royal domain
Title last held by
Amalric
Countess of Jaffa and Ascalon
1176-1186
with William of Montferrat (1176-1177)
Guy of Lusignan
(1180-1186) 		Vacant
Merged into
royal domain
Title next held by
Geoffrey of Lusignan
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Baldwin V
Queen of Jerusalem
1186-1190
with Guy
 Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sibylla,_Queen_of_Jerusalem&oldid=1219023948"