Isabella II (Jerusalem)

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The wedding of Frederick II to Isabella II of Jerusalem. Next to the bride is her father Johann von Brienne. Giovanni Villani , Nuova Cronica, 14th century, Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana , Codex Chigi LVIII 296, fol. 74r.
The death of Isabella of Jerusalem, miniature in a 13th century manuscript
Isabella is said to be buried in a coffin in one of the two floor niches in the crypt of Andria Cathedral.

Isabella II. (* 1212 in Acre ; † a few days after April 25, 1228 in Andria ) was a Queen of Jerusalem from the House of Brienne and the second wife of the Roman-German Emperor Frederick II. With her second name Jolanda ( or similar) it is obviously an early modern error.

Surname

Isabella II bears her name (also Isabel , Izabel , Isabeau , Ysabell , Hysabella , Elisabeth ) after her maternal grandmother, Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem . Since the 17th century there has been an indication that she was also known as Jolanda ( Yoland , Iole , Iolantha or similar), but this form of name is neither contemporary (in documents and historical works) nor can it be proven centuries after her death. Later historians, including luminaries like Steven Runciman , used the false name without questioning its origin.

Life

She was born in Acre as the daughter of the royal couple of Jerusalem, John of Brienne and Maria of Montferrat . Her mother died shortly after she was born. Since the royal dignity came from her mother, her father had no direct claim to the throne after her death. Instead, the newborn Isabella succeeded her as Queen of Jerusalem in 1212. Because of her minority her father Johann remained regent until 1225. In November 1225, Emperor Friedrich II married the thirteen-year-old queen because of dynastic interests. This connection was established by legates from Pope Honorius III. mediated, who, because of the territorial interests of the Roman Curia, insisted on an early start of the participation in the Fifth Crusade , which was promised by Frederick II on the occasion of the coronation in 1219 .

The wedding took place on November 9, 1225 in the Cathedral of Brindisi . Friedrich promptly claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem for his house, which immediately led to the break with the bride's father Johann von Brienne . On the wedding night, Friedrich cheated on his wife with her own cousin Anais von Brienne . The marriage can be described as indifferent, the emperor seems to have had little interest in his wife and even publicly referred to the very young Isabella as a “chick”. Nevertheless, she gave him two children, a girl in 1226 who died soon after giving birth, and in 1228 her son Konrad . A few days after his birth, she died, presumably of puerperal fever .

After the wedding, Isabella was sent by her husband to Terracina (near Naples ) and then to Monreale not far from Palermo . In August 1227 she stayed in the crusader camp near Brindisi near Friedrich, while a devastating epidemic raged among the crusaders. At the end of August 1227, she went to Otranto , where the emperor finally said goodbye to her. It was here that Friedrich, who was also sick himself, made the decision to break off the crusade in view of the heavy losses (his Marshal Ludwig IV of Thuringia and probably also the papal legate Konrad von Urach fell victim to the disease).

After Isabella's death Friedrich was from the law of his infant son Konrad Regent of Jerusalem, took during his 1228/29 finally carried out crusade after negotiations with Sultan al-Kamil Jerusalem 1,229 owned and proclaimed in the Holy Sepulcher himself king of Jerusalem. The legal situation regarding Konrad's position remains unclear in the contemporary reports on this proclamation and remained controversial in the next decades, since Friedrich's position was not recognized by the majority of the Crusader nobility and the church.

Isabella was buried in the crypt of Andria Cathedral, where Isabella of England , Friedrich's third wife, is also buried.

literature

Web links

Commons : Isabella II of Jerusalem  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guy Perry: Isabella II or Yolanda? The Name of the Queen of Jerusalem and Spouse of the Emperor Frederick II ( Medieval Prosopography Vol. 30/2015, pp. 73-86)
  2. ↑ Peter Koblank: Staufer graves - facilities: Andria Cathedral (Italy) on stauferstelen.net. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
predecessor Office successor
Johann and Maria Queen of Jerusalem
1212–1228 		Konrad II.
Constance of Aragon Roman-German Empress
November 1225–1228 		Isabella of England
personal data
SURNAME Isabella II
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yolanda; Jolante of Brienne; Isabella II of Jerusalem
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of Jerusalem
DATE OF BIRTH 1212
PLACE OF BIRTH Acre
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1228
Place of death Andria