Melisende (Tripoli)
Melisende von Tripolis (also: Melisendis) (* around 1143, † after 1161) was the younger daughter of the Count of Tripoli Raimund II and his wife Hodierna , a daughter of the king of Jerusalem Baldwin II.
After his first wife Bertha von Sulzbach had died in 1159, Manuel I of Byzantium was looking for a new wife. Balduin's cousins Maria von Antiochia (daughter of Constanze and her first husband Raimund von Poitiers ) and Melisende were considered. Since Baldwin II did not want to increase the Byzantine influence in Antioch, he proposed Melisende to the emperor. Since there were rumors that she was born out of wedlock, she was rejected as a bride by Emperor Manuel I of Byzantium in 1160. Melisende was so upset about this that she never found herself again.
Possibly she was the real figure behind the "distant love", the Princesse Lointaine who sang in the twelfth century by the poet and troubadour Jaufré Rudel (1130–1170) and who later became known through Edmond Rostand 's play of the same name - but possibly also her mother. Just as she may have been the real figure behind Francesco Petrarca's Trionfo d'Amore , Swinburnes Triumph of Time and Browning's pack to the Lady of Tripoli .
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Melisende |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Melisende of Tripoli (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Daughter of the Count of Tripoli |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1143 |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1161 |