Alice of Armenia

Alice of Armenia (* 1182 ; † after 1234, before 1240) was an Armenian princess and mistress of Toron . She was the eldest daughter of Prince Ruben III. of Lesser Armenia and his wife Isabella of Toron .

When her father died in 1187, her uncle Leo II succeeded him as prince.

Alice was married three times. Her first marriage was in 1189, when she was still a minor, with the Armenian nobleman Hethum von Sassun , Lord von Misis . The marriage was never consummated, as Hethum died in 1193. He may have been murdered to enable Alice to be married for a second time.

When in the winter of 1194/95 her uncle Leo II. With Prince Bohemond III. of Antioch made peace, Alice was married to the affirmation of this peace with Bohemond's son and heir Raymond I of Antioch , who had already been Raimund IV. Count of Tripoli from 1187 to 1189. With him she had a son, Raymond II Ruben . However, Alice's husband died before his father Bohemund III, so that her brother-in-law Bohemund IV , Raimund's younger brother, inherited the principality of Antioch in 1201 and Alice and her son were expelled to Lesser Armenia.

Together with her son Raymond II Ruben, Alice later tried to overthrow her brother-in-law. They succeeded in doing this in 1216 with the capture of Antioch, where Raymond II reigned Reuben, but in 1219 Bohemond IV was able to drive them out and regain the throne. Alice and Raimund II. Ruben then invaded Cilicia, a little Armenian , where they settled in Tarsus and demanded their claims to the throne of Little Armenia, which came from Alice's father.

In her third marriage, Alice married Vahram of Korykos , the marshal of Lesser Armenia, there in 1220 . They were defeated and imprisoned by Constantine von Lambron in 1221. Raymond II. Ruben died in prison in 1222, Vahram was murdered in the same year.

After her release, Alice turned to her inheritance claims in Palestine . From her mother she had inherited their claims to Toron and Oultrejordain , lords in the Kingdom of Jerusalem , which, however, had been occupied by the Muslim Ayyubids since 1187 and 1189 , respectively. In 1229, the rule of Toron was returned to the Christians as part of the Peace of Jaffa ( Frederick II's crusade ) and initially handed over to the Teutonic Order , which restored Toron Castle before Alice made his claims to Toron with Emperor Frederick II as King of Jerusalem and after the decision of the Haute Cour of Jerusalem was enfeoffed with the rule of Toron in their favor.

The rule was recaptured by the Muslims in 1239, when the 10-year peace of Jaffa ended. When Toron was peacefully returned to the Christians in the winter of 1240/1241 as part of the barons' crusade , it was Alice's granddaughter (daughter of Raymond II Rubens) Maria of Antioch or her husband Philip of Montfort who was enfeoffed with Toron.

Web links

• Alix at fmg.ac (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Isabella (titular mistress)	Lady of Toron 1229-1239	Maria (titular mistress)