Alice (Champagne)
Alice de Champagne (also called Alix ; * 1196 ; † 1246 ) was a daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem († 1205) and Count Henry II of Champagne († 1197) from the House of Blois .
biography
The legitimacy of Alice as well as that of her sister Philippa was at times controversial, since the first husband of her mother Humfried IV of Toron had never recognized the forced divorce in 1190. Her mother married King Amalrich I of Cyprus (as Amalrich II, King of Jerusalem) from the House of Lusignan, the fourth marriage in 1198 . After her mother died in 1205, Alice's older half-sister, Mary of Montferrat, became the new Queen of Jerusalem.
Alice was married to her stepbrother, King Hugo I of Cyprus , around the year 1208 , with whom she had three children:
- Maria (before 1215; † July 5, 1251/53)
- ⚭ 1233 with Count Walter IV of Brienne (* 1205; † 1246), Count of Jaffa and Askalon
-
Isabella (* before 1216; † 1246)
- ⚭ 1233 with Heinrich of Antioch
- Henry I (March 3, 1217 - January 18, 1254 in Nicosia ), King of Cyprus
After the death of her husband in 1218, Alice took over the reign of her underage son Heinrich, but was in the shadow of her uncle Philip of Ibelin , who officiated as Bailli of Cyprus. In conflict with him, she withdrew to Tripoli in 1223 , where she married the future prince of Antioch , Bohemond V , around 1225 . She then offered Amalrich Barlais , an enemy of the Ibelins , the reign of Cyprus, but could not prevail either. After the death of Philip of Ibelin in 1227, his brother Johann "the old gentleman" was appointed by the barons as the new regent, at the same time Alice separated from Bohemond. She moved to Acre in 1229 to assert a claim to the crown of Jerusalem, which was rejected by the high court in favor of the Hohenstaufen Conrad II . In the same year, Konrad's father and regent, Emperor Friedrich II , achieved the surrender of the city of Jerusalem to the Christians through diplomatic channels.
In 1233 Alice traveled to the land of her ancestors and there raised a claim to Champagne against her cousin Count Theobald IV of Champagne , as the eldest daughter of his uncle . Her younger sister Philippa had already tried this, but gave up in 1222 after a hard fight. Alice stubbornly carried on with the claims, adding to the tension in France at the time. As early as 1227 she tried to marry the rebellious Baron Peter Mauclerc , an enemy of Theobald, but was prevented by the objection of the church. Ultimately Alice was unable to assert herself either, but in 1234 she managed to get her cousin to buy up her claims for a one-off sum of 40,000 and an annual pension of 2,000 livres .
Back in the Holy Land , Alice married Raoul von Soissons in 1241 , a crusader and trouvère who came to Palestine during the Crusade of the Barons (1239-1241). With him she was entrusted with the reign of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (in Acre) in 1242 after the overthrow of the imperial governors ( Lombards War), since the coming of age King Konrad II himself did not appear in the kingdom. Together with the Ibelins, she conquered Tire from the Filangieri, which they then gave to Philip of Montfort . Raoul separated from Alice in 1244 and returned to his homeland, in the same year Jerusalem was overrun by a horde of choristers and handed over to Sultan al-Salih . Alice remained regent until her death and was inherited in this office by her son King Henry I of Cyprus.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| --- |
Regent of Cyprus 1218–1223 |
Philip of Ibelin |
| Emperor Friedrich II. |
Regent of Jerusalem 1243–1246 |
Henry of Cyprus |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Alice |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Alice de Champagne |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Daughter of Isabella I. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1196 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1246 |