| Isabella II | |
|---|---|
 Isabella's death, 13th-century depiction | |
| Queen regnant of Jerusalem | |
| Reign | 1212 – May 1228 |
| Coronation | August 1225 |
| Predecessor | Maria andJohn |
| Successor | Conrad II |
| Co-rulers | John (1212–1225) Frederick (1225–1228) |
| Holy Roman Empress; Queen consort of Sicily | |
| Tenure | 1225 – 4 May 1228 |
| Born | late 1212 |
| Died | May 1228 (aged 15) |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor |
| Issue | Conrad II of Jerusalem |
| House | House of Brienne |
| Father | John of Brienne |
| Mother | Maria of Montferrat |
Isabella II (Old French:Ysabel; 1212 – May 1228), sometimes calledIsabella of Brienne and erroneouslyYolanda,[a] was thequeen of Jerusalem who reigned from 1212 to 1228. She was the daughter and successor ofMaria of Montferrat, who died shortly after giving birth to her. Like her mother, Isabella died young before she could make an impression on politics.
Isabella's father,John of Brienne, ruled during her long minority; while he continued to regard himself as king for life, his opponents insisted that he was merelyregent for Isabella. In 1223 John arranged for her to marryEmperor Frederick II, king of Sicily. Aproxy wedding was held in theKingdom of Jerusalem in August 1225, followed by Isabella'scoronation as queen of Jerusalem. She then promptly departed for theKingdom of Sicily, where she married Frederick in person. The marriage made herqueen of Sicily andempress of the Holy Roman Empire. Defying his agreement with her father, Frederick declared himself king of Jerusalem immediately after their wedding and seized control of her kingdom. He sidelined Isabella, whose role in government was minimal. Her father's supporters alleged that Frederick abused her. She died shortly after giving birth to her only son,Conrad II, who succeeded her under Frederick's tutelage.
Isabella was born in late 1212 in theKingdom of Jerusalem,[2] then arump state that did not include the city ofJerusalem.[3] She was the only child of thequeen of Jerusalem,Maria of Montferrat, whodied from childbirth complications.[4][5] The infant was named after Maria's mother and predecessor, QueenIsabella I.[6] Isabella II thus inherited the kingdom within days of her birth,[2] but the situation was unprecedented because her father,John of Brienne, was still alive. He had become king when he married Maria and expected to keep the crown for his lifetime. While most nobles were apparently willing to still recognize him as king, a faction aligned with the powerfulIbelin family considered John's reign to be over and held that, at best, he could rule only asregent on Isabella's behalf.[7][8] In a letter of condolence on the queen's death, PopeInnocent III promised to John that he would support him and Isabella, and further wrote to PrinceBohemond IV of Antioch and the clergy of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to instruct them to do the same.[9]
Isabella I had left five daughters from three marriages: Maria of Montferrat,Alice andPhilippa of Champagne, andSibylla andMelisende of Cyprus. Alice, then queen of Cyprus, was the eldest of Isabella II's half-aunts and thus herheir presumptive. Because Alice and Philippa held a strong claim to theCounty of Champagne,Blanche of Navarre, the ruling countess, pressed for an inquiry into the validity of Isabella I's marriages, hoping to weaken the sisters' position by questioning theirlegitimacy. Her argument carried weight: Isabella I's childless first marriage toHumphrey IV of Toron had been annulled under dubious circumstances, and Humphrey lived throughout her two subsequent unions. Maria, Isabella II's mother, was herself the child of one of these disputed marriages. Nevertheless, Pope Innocent III refused to pursue the case, likely wary of the political consequences in theLatin East, and Isabella II's claim to the throne of Jerusalem stood unchallenged.[10]
| Isabella II's family in the Latin East, with marriages (dashed) in sequence[11] |
|---|
Isabella's father, King John, remarried in 1214. His second wife,Stephanie of Armenia, died in 1220. According to theChronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, she had tried to poison Isabella; when John heard about it, he beat her so hard that–rumor had it–she died from it. The historians Ludwig Böhm and Guy Perry dismiss this account.[12][13] In 1221, Isabella started giving her consent to her father's acts.[3][8] In the only surviving such document, she is referred to simply as the king's daughter, in contrast to her mother, Maria, who had been titled "the honourable lady of the kingdom" prior to her coronation. The lack of reference to her status may reflect John's insistence that he was the reigning king rather than merely regent for Isabella.[14]
In late 1222, after the failure of theFifth Crusade, King John travelled to Europe to solicit support for the kingdom. Although she was only nine or ten, John took this opportunity to seek a husband for Isabella. The objective was to find a powerful leader who could summon substantial Western aid for the beleaguered kingdom. John nevertheless continued to regard the kingship as his for life and assumed that Isabella's future husband would only take up rule after John's death.[5][15]
At a conference inFerentino in March 1223, Isabella was proposed as a bride forFrederick II, the recently widowedemperor of the Holy Roman Empire andking of Sicily, who was preparing to lead the nextcrusade.[16] The match was suggested byHermann of Salza,grand master of the Teutonic Knights. Although John welcomed the prospect of such a distinguished alliance, he wavered until Hermann promised him the kingdom's government for life.[17] PopeHonorius III may also have encouraged the union since he soon issued adispensation permitting the couple to marry despitebeing third cousins. Frederick then persuaded John to remain in Europe and join the forthcoming crusade.[16]
At a conference inSan Germano in July 1225, Frederick swore that he would depart on crusade by 15 August 1227 and received John's permission to marry Isabella without delay. A fleet was promptly sent to fetch her.[18] CountHenry of Malta andJames, archbishop-elect of Capua, reached Acre with fourteen imperialgalleys in August. Isabella wasmarried by proxy in theCathedral of the Holy Cross, with James standing in for Frederick. She was then taken to Tyre andcrowned queen of Jerusalem by theLatin patriarch of Jerusalem,Ralph of Mérencourt. The ceremony was attended by the leading nobles, including theconstable andbailiff,Odo of Montbéliard; thearchbishop of Tyre,Simon of Maugastel; and even thelord of Caesarea,Walter III, who had once been her father's opponent. The Ibelins, however, were absent.[19][20] After a fortnight of celebrations, Isabella embarked together with the archbishop of Tyre and her cousin thelord of Sidon,Balian Grenier.[19] According to theGestes des Chiprois, a pro-Ibelin chronicle, Isabella made a stop at Cyprus, where she met with her aunt Queen Alice.[21]
Isabella disembarked atBrindisi, where she was received with full imperial ceremony. Frederick and John awaited her there, and she was married to the 31-year-old emperor in person in theCathedral of Saint John the Baptist on 9 November 1225.[19] Isabella thus became alsoempress of the Holy Roman Empire andqueen of Sicily.[2]
Shortly after the wedding, Frederick summoned John and declared that he would take all his wife's rights and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Although this was clearly a breach of his agreement with John, the leading figures of the kingdom who had arrived with Isabella–including Balian, lord of Sidon, and Simon, archbishop of Tyre, one of John's chief supporters among the clergy–accepted Frederick as their new king. Frederick then sent a delegation to the kingdom, where the bailif, Odo of Montbéliard, promptly recognized Frederick and was reconfirmed as bailif in Frederick's name. Because Isabella was the rightful heir andqueen regnant, Frederick's assumption of power rested on firm legal grounds.[22] According to theEstoire d'Eracles, John had expected to continue as regent at least until Isabella reached theage of majority in 1227.[23] For the next six years, theHoly See refused to address Frederick as king of Jerusalem and continued to recognize John.[24]
According to theColbert–Fontainebleau continuation of theEstoire d'Eracles, Frederick seduced John's niece, a cousin and companion of Isabella, soon after the wedding, and Isabella informed her father about this in tears. Several contemporary sources state that Frederick mistreated Isabella.[25] Ernoul-Bernard narrates that, when in 1226 John went toLombardy to incite a rebellion against the emperor, Frederick beat Isabella so hard that she almostmiscarried.[26] Perry does not credit the stories of domestic abuse or illicit seduction.[25][b] The historianDavid Abulafia says that the "hostile tales" come from sources close to John. He concedes that the emperor may have neglected his wife in favor of hisharem women, but also notes that the couple frequently travelled together.[27] The historianAlan V. Murray speculates that Frederick might have denied Isabella autonomy because he was mindful of the disputes between his own parents,Emperor Henry VI andEmpress Constance, over the governance of the Kingdom of Sicily and Constance's role in it as queen regnant.[28]
Soon after the wedding, Frederick placed Isabella in relative seclusion in his harem atPalermo.[29][30] The young empress was isolated from her kin and supporters in the Latin East.[28] When in September 1227 Frederick finally set sail to her kingdom to fulfill his promise to lead a crusade, he did not take her with him; he left the fleet after an outbreak ofmalaria and was swiftlyexcommunicated by the new pope,Gregory IX.[29] Mainly because her life was cut short, but also because her husband sidelined her, Isabella had a minimal role in government.[28] Frederick issuedroyal charters for her kingdom together with her,[31] of which one survives and mentions her consent.[5] Isabella also issued the first charter sinceMelisende's reign (1131–1152) in which a queen of Jerusalem appeared as the principal grantor; in this document, a donation to theTeutonic Order, she is named "Isabella,by the grace of God, empress of the Romans,semperaugusta, queen of Jerusalem and Sicily".[32][33] The title presumably appeared on her seal, which has not survived.[5]
Isabella gave birth on 25 April 1228 and died a few days after aged fifteen.[2][34][c] Like her mother, she left behind a surviving child–a newborn son,Conrad II, who succeeded her. She was buried in theCathedral of Saint Peter in Andria.[36][34] Rumors, probably approved by her father and described by Abulafia as "blatant nonsense", alleged that Frederick had killed Isabella.[37] The news of her death reached her kingdom that summer.[38] Although it reduced his status to that of a guardian for the infant king,[39] Frederick continued to view himself as king of Jerusalem.[40]
Thanks to Isabella II's marriage, the Kingdom of Jerusalem passed to a series of largely absentee kings untilit fell 66 years later.[36] Like Isabella I and Maria, Isabella II is for the most part neglected–"frequently referred to, but little more than that"–in the studies of the kings and queens of Jerusalem. Perry argues that "she simply did not live long enough to have much impact".[36][41]
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Queen regnant of Jerusalem 1212–1228 withFrederick (1225-1228) | Succeeded by |
| Royal titles | ||
| Vacant Title last held by Constance of Aragon | Queen consort of Sicily 1225–1228 | Vacant Title next held by Isabella of England |
| Holy Roman Empress 1225–1228 | ||
Monarchs of theKingdom of Jerusalem | ||
|---|---|---|
.svg) | ||
