Isabella I of Jerusalem

Isabella I (Old French: Ysabel; c. 1172 – 1205) was the queen of Jerusalem who reigned from the early 1190s to her death. She received the homage of her vassals as the rightful heir to the throne after the death of her half-sister Queen Sibylla in 1190, but Sibylla's widower, Guy of Lusignan, held onto the kingdom until 1192. Isabella became queen upon her coronation in 1198. Having little political ambition, she passed the government on to three successive husbands: Conrad of Montferrat, Henry II of Champagne, and Aimery of Lusignan. Isabella was the daughter of King Amalric and his second wife, Maria Komnene. After Amalric's death in 1174, Queen Maria married Balian of Ibelin. The marriage of Amalric's elder daughter, Sibylla, to the controversial Guy of Lusignan divided the nobility in two camps, with Isabella's stepfamily opposing Guy. Isabella's half-brother King Baldwin IV arranged for her to marry the lord Humphrey IV of Toron, whose family supported Guy and opposed the Ibelins. Baldwin IV suffered from leprosy and could not sire an heir; when his relationship with Guy soured, he made Sibylla's son, Baldwin of Montferrat, his heir to prevent Guy from eventually becoming king. The High Court stipulated that a committee of Western European rulers was entitled to decide whether Sibylla or Isabella should inherit the throne if Sibylla's son died. Baldwin IV died in 1185, and when Baldwin V died in 1186, Sibylla seized the throne before the committee could make a choice. Guy's opponents wished to install Isabella as anti-queen, but her husband, Humphrey, recognized Sibylla and Guy as rulers. In 1190, after Queen Sibylla died in the midst of the Third Crusade, Isabella's mother and stepfather forced her to leave Humphrey so that she could marry Marquis Conrad of Montferrat and claim the throne against Guy. The crusading Kings Richard I of England and Philip II of France arbitrated and declared that Guy should retain the kingship for his lifetime and be succeeded by Isabella and Conrad. Conrad was elected king when Guy left the kingdom in 1192, but was assassinated shortly after. The nobles selected Count Henry II of Champagne to succeed Conrad, and Isabella hastily married him. Her fourth marriage, celebrated shortly after Henry's accidental death in 1197, was to Guy's brother, King Aimery of Cyprus. Conrad, Henry, and Aimery all based their right to rule on marriage with Isabella and included her in the issuing of their charters. Her co-reign with Aimery saw the compilation of the Livre au Roi, a law treatise establishing the rights and obligations of queens regnant of Jerusalem. Isabella briefly reigned alone after Aimery's death in April 1205. Upon her own death a few months later, Isabella was succeeded by Maria of Montferrat, the eldest of her five surviving daughters.