Alice of Champagne

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_of_Champagne Alice of Champagne From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Alice Queen consort of Cyprus Reign 1210-1218 Predecessor Eschiva of Ibelin Successor Alix of Montferrat Spouse Hugh I of Cyprus Bohemond V of Antioch Raoul de Soissons Issue Henry I of Cyprus Marie, Countess of Brienne Isabella, Princess of Antioch House House of Champagne Father Henry II, Count of Champagne Mother Isabella I of Jerusalem Born 1195/1196 Jerusalem Died 1246 Acre, Israel

Alice of Champagne (1195/1196–1246) was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and her third husband Henry II, Count of Champagne. Alice and her sister Philippa spent part of their life fighting for their father's homeland of Champagne, over another branch of their family. Alice was also Queen consort of Cyprus by her marriage to Hugh I of Cyprus. She was also a Princess of Jerusalem through her mother. Contents [show]

   * 1 Family

   * 2 Engagement and marriage

   * 3 Regency of Cyprus

   * 4 Champagne

   * 5 Jerusalem and Later life

   * 6 Issue

   * 7 Ancestry

   * 8 References

[edit] Family

Alice was the second daughter of Henry II, Count of Champagne and Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem. Her paternal grandparents were Count Henry I of Champagne and Marie of France, Countess of Champagne, daughter of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Her maternal grandparents were King Amalric I of Jerusalem and Maria Comnena. She had two sisters, her elder sister Marie of Champagne (died as a child) and Philippa, who married and had issue. Maria had an older half-sister Maria of Montferrat from her mother's second marriage to Conrad of Montferrat. In 1197, her father was killed after falling from a first floor window in Acre. The county of Champagne passed to his brother Theobald III. Following his death, Isabella married her fourth husband, King Amalric II of Jerusalem. The marriage produced three half-siblings for Alice, Maria, Marie and Philippa: Sybilla, Melisende, and Almaric. In 1205, her mother, stepfather, and infant half-brother all died, leaving Alice an orphan at the age of nine. Her eldest half-sister, Maria of Montferrat succeeded as Queen of Jerusalem. [edit] Engagement and marriage

Shortly after Alice's birth, her father negotiated a treaty of reconciliation between the kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus. The plan was to marry his three daughters: Marie, Alice and Philippa to Amalric of Cyprus's sons: Guy, John and Hugh[1]

With the death of Alice's father, the approximation provided between the two realms lead to a union between Amalric, who was elected king of Jerusalem[2] and Alice's mother Isabella. The proposed engagements were subsequently forgotten, besides Alice's sister Marie, Alice's proposed husband John and his brother Guy all died[3]. This left Alice, Philippa and Hugh.

After the death of Amalric II and Isabella I, the two kingdoms were again separated and regents were elected because the heirs were still minors. Jean d'Ibelin took the regency of Jerusalem in the name of Alice's half-sister Maria de Montferrat. Gautier de Montbéliard took regency over Cyprus on behalf of Hugh [4]. The two regents took up the proposed combination of the kingdoms and negotiated the marriage of Alice and Hugh. Alice's maternal grandmother Maria Komnene conducted the marriage negotiations with Cyprus in 1208. The marriage was celebrated in September 1210. [edit] Regency of Cyprus

Hugh died eight years later on January 10, 1218, leaving two daughters and a son Henry I of Cyprus, who was only a few months old. Alice became regent of Cyprus on behalf of her son[5].

Alice's uncle Philip of Ibelin wished to become regent instead of Alice. He did so in September 1218

In 1225, a dispute between Philip and Alice broke out. Pope Honorius III rejected Alice as regent in favour of Philip. Apparently Alice tried to remove Philip as regent and replace him with her new husband Bohemond V of Antioch, who she had married in July 1225.

She retired to Syria and separated from her second husband in 1227 on the grounds of consanguinity. On the death of Philip of Ibelin, the regency was taken over his brother, Jean d'Ibelin, Lord of Beirut. Opponents of the latter supported Alice, this led to the involvement of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor who had married Alice's half-niece Isabella II of Jerusalem on the death of her mother Maria. They tried to end the regency of Ibelin. Frederick was in the Sixth Crusade at the time. Jean d'Ibelin resigned from office, the five barons Cypriot became the regents of Cyprus[6]. [edit] Champagne

When her father Henry II had enlisted in the Third Crusade, she was not yet married and had stated in his will that the County of Champagne be left to his brother Theobald III, Count of Champagne unless he returned to the East. Theobald died in 1201 leaving a minor son and his wife Blanca of Navarre; however, the daughters of Henry II felt that their father could not disinherit them and would give them Champagne if he knew the sisters had children, Alice and Philippa claimed the county of Champagne. First Philippa and her husband Erard of Brienne triggered the War of Succession of Champagne, then gave up the county in 1221 but Alice did not give up. She was supported by a large number of French barons who had also drawn more or less in rebellion against Blanche of Castile for supporting Blanca of Navarre as regent. Alice was not dispatched and arrived in France at the beginning of 1233, which seriously harmed the project, since the chief baron made their submission to Louis IX of France. In September 1234, Alice was offered the sum of forty thousand crowns and an area of two thousand livres income if she gave up her claim, which she did[7].

Alice returned to Syria. In 1236 she tried to move to Cyprus, but her son made it clear she was not welcome[8]. In 1241 she married Raoul de Soissons, Lord of Couevre. Two years before, in 1239 fighting had broken out in the Holy Land involving Theobald I of Navarre, who was Theobald III and Blanca of Navarre's son. [edit] Jerusalem and Later life

During her absence, the civil war had raged between the Levantine barons and supporters of the emperor. The emperor had lost his wife, Alice's grandniece Isabella II of Jerusalem. Isabella left a son, Conrad. Frederick wanted to become regent of Jerusalem but the barons were against this idea. The barons legitimize their position by appointing Alice and her husband Raoul de Soissons as regent, to secure a legitimate political position against Roger Filangeri, who was representing the emperor. Raoul then asked to receive the city of Tyr, on behalf of her regency, but Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre preferred to keep it to increase his stronghold of Toron, and supported by other barons, made it clear to Raoul that the title of regent is only symbolic. In the end Raoul left the Holy Land and his wife and went to the West early in 1244[9].

Alice of Jerusalem and Champagne remained at Saint-Jean d'Acre and assumed the title of (symbolic) regent of the kingdom of Jerusalem and died in 1247[10]. Her son took over as regent for Conrad. [edit] Issue

Alice had three children all from her first marriage to Hugh:

  1. Marie de Lusignan (before March 1215 – 5 July 1251 or 1253), who married Count Walter IV of Brienne in 1233 (ca 1200 – murdered at Cairo, 1244). She became mother of Hugh of Brienne (c 1240-1296), who was Count of Lecce and Brienne and pursued the kingdoms in Levant for himself when his uncle Henry's line began to go extinct. This claim fell to her grandson Walter V of Brienne and his descendants. They are the heirs-general of King Amalric I of Cyprus and Hugh I himself.

  2. Isabelle de Lusignan (1216–1264), who married Henry of Antioch, and who was the mother of Hugh III of Cyprus and ancestress of the line named later as the second dynasty of Lusignan

  3. Henri I de Lusignan (1217–1253), namesake of his maternal grandfather, who became King of Cyprus upon his father's death in 1218, with his mother acting as regent. References

1. ^ Grousset 1936, p.170-1.

  2. ^ Grousset 1936, p.186-8.

  3. ^ Foundation for Medieval Genealogy

  4. ^ Grousset 1936, p.216-8.

  5. ^ Grousset 1936, p.218.

  6. ^ Grousset 1936, p.311-6.

  7. ^ de Mas Latrie 1861, p.305-310.

  8. ^ Morembert 1989, p.940.

  9. ^ Grousset 1936, p.413-8.

 10. ^ Jerusalem, Medieval Lands

This page was last modified on 30 June 2010 at 16:00.

Alice of Cyprus (1195/1196 – 1246) was queen consort of Hugh I of Cyprus, and regent of Jerusalem for Conrad IV of Germany from 1243 to 1246. She was the daughter of Isabella, Queen of Jerusalem and Henry II, Count of Champagne (Henry I of Jerusalem), born Adela or Alice of Champagne, also of Jerusalem. In 1208, Alice's grandmother Maria Comnena, dowager queen of Jerusalem, conducted the marriage negotiations with Cyprus on behalf of 12-year-old Alice, and arranged her marriage to Hugh I of Cyprus, who was Alice's stepbrother. Blanche of Navarre, Regent and Countess of Champagne, widow of Alice's paternal uncle, provided the dowry for Alice. She and Hugh wed in September 1210 at Nicosia. They had three children: Maria (died c. 1252), who married Walter IV of Brienne. Their son Hugh of Brienne claimed the regency of Jerusalem in 1264, but was passed over by the Haute Cour in favor of his cousin Hugh III of Cyprus. He was later an ally of Charles of Anjou. This claim fell to his son Walter V of Brienne, Duke of Athens, and his descendants. Isabella, who married Henry of Antioch, and who was the mother of Hugh III of Cyprus. Henry I, who became King of Cyprus on his father's death in 1218. Alice acted as regent. Shortly before January 10, 1223 Alice married Bohemund V of Antioch, which was dissolved by annullment on July 5, 1227. She then married Raoul de Couevres de Soissons in 1241. From 1243 to 1246 she served as regent of Jerusalem for Conrad IV of Germany, her half-sister Maria's grandson.