Sibylla of Cyprus

Sibylla of Cyprus (Template:Langx; 1198-Template:Circa 1230/52) was the queen of Armenia from 1210 until 1219 as the second wife of King Leo I. A member of the House of Lusignan, she was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and King Aimery of Cyprus. Her half-brother, King Hugh I of Cyprus, married her off to the 60-year-old King Leo when she was 12. She had one child, Isabella, who succeeded Leo as queen when he died in 1219. She had a strong claim to the throne of Jerusalem, but her Armenian marriage made it difficult to enforce.

Family

Sibylla was born in 1198Template:Sfn into the House of Lusignan.Template:Sfn She was the elder daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and her fourth husband, King Aimery of Cyprus.Template:Sfn While Aimery's children from his first marriage carried Lusignan names, those born to him and Isabella were named after their maternal relatives; Sibylla was named after her mother's half-sister Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem. Because their mother already had four daughters from her previous marriages, Sibylla and her sister, Melisende, had little chance of inheriting the crown of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn The validity of Isabella's second and third marriages, to Margrave Conrad of Montferrat and Count Henry II of Champagne, respectively, were disputed because her first husband, Humphrey IV of Toron, lived until 1198. This cast a doubt on the legitimacy of Sibylla's older maternal half-sisters, Maria of Montferrat and Alice and Philippa of Champagne. The legitimacy of Sibylla and Melisende was not questioned.Template:Sfn

King Aimery, Queen Isabella, and their young son, Amalric–who had stood to inherit the Kingdom of Jerusalem from Isabella–all died in 1205.Template:Sfn Isabella was succeeded by Maria, the eldest of her five surviving daughters, while Aimery's Kingdom of Cyprus passed to Hugh I, his son from his first marriage.Template:Sfn Sibylla became a ward at Hugh's court.Template:Sfn Template:Chart top Template:Tree chart/start Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart/end Template:Chart bottom

Queenship

In 1210, King Leo I of Armenia visited Cyprus and Hugh, who had just reached his age of majority, arranged for his half-sister Sibylla to marry Leo and his full sister, Helvis, to marry Leo's grandnephew and designated heir, Raymond-Roupen.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Sibylla was 12 and Leo 60.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Armenian chronicler Kirakos of Gandzak records that Leo married Sibylla "to secure assistance", but does not elaborate on that. The marriage enraged his subjects, and there was an unsuccessful attempt to prevent him from returning to his kingdom in Cilicia.Template:Sfn

The countess of Champagne, Blanche of Navarre, wished to challenge the right of Sibylla's half-sisters Alice and Philippa to the County of Champagne and thus demanded an inquiry into the legality of their mother's second and third marriages. Pope Innocent III was not convinced that the marriages were legal. Had he made such a decision, Sibylla–as the elder of the two daughters born of Isabella's undisputed marriage with Aimery–would have been seen as the rightful heir to the throne of Jerusalem. It is unlikely, however, that the barons of the kingdom would have accepted Sibylla's Armenian husband, Leo, as king, and the pope thus declined to pursue the matter.Template:Sfn

Sibylla and Leo had one child, Isabella, born in 1215 and named after Sibylla's mother.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Leo had a daughter from his first marriage, Rita (Stephanie). On his deathbed in mid 1219 Leo changed his mind and named Isabella, Sibylla's daughter, as his heir.Template:Sfn Rita's husband, John of Brienne, pressed her claim, but she and their son died. Raymond-Roupen, to whom Leo had earlier promised succession, invaded Cilicia and captured Tarsus, while the nobles accepted Sibylla's daughter as queen under the regency of Adam of Baghras and then Constantine of Baberon. In 1221 Constantine dislodged Raymond-Roupen, securing Isabella on the throne.Template:Sfn

According to the Armenian chronicler Sempad the Constable, Queen Sibylla was sober and pious.Template:Sfn She died between 1230 and 1252.Template:Sfn

References

Bibliography

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