Although Eschiva
d'Ibelin never wore a crown, she was the founder of a dynasty that ruled Cyprus
for roughly 300 years. Eschiva was married to a landless adventurer as a child
and ended up married to a king without changing husbands. While we know very
little about her, what we do know hints at a vital role during a critical
juncture in history.
Eschiva was the
daughter of Baldwin d'Ibelin, who held the barony of Ramla and Mirabel by right
of his wife, Richildis. Eschiva’s birthdate is not recorded, but she must have
been born about 1165 and had one sister, Stephanie. The Ibelins’ comparatively
low rank at this time is illustrated by the fact that Stephanie married Amaury,
viscount of Nablus (i.e., a household official, not a lord), while Eschiva was married
to a landless adventurer from France, Aimery de Lusignan. Aimery was the third
son of the French Lord de la March, and he married Eschiva before his brother
Guy came to Jerusalem and seduced his way to a crown.
Eschiva was
probably already married when her father distinguished himself at the Battle of
Montgisard in 1177, an event which appears to have gone to his head and sparked
new ambitions. In that same year but months before the battle, the heiress of
Jerusalem, King Baldwin’s sister Sibylla, had been widowed, and rumours soon
started to circulate that Baldwin of Ramla hoped to marry her. Of course, that was
only possible if he could rid himself of his wife, Richildis, the mother of his
two daughters. He successfully did, although she appears to have been blameless,
and no grounds for the divorce are given in the surviving records.
Furthermore, the
divorce did not bring him the desired results. Princess Sibylla was instead
betrothed to the far more powerful and prestigious Duke of Burgandy. Ramla evidently
consoled himself with a marriage to the daughter of the Lord of Caesarea,
Elizabeth Gotman. Two years later, however, she was dead, and Baldwin’s
ambitions again turned towards Sibylla. He may have had some form of encouragement
from Sibylla herself because when he found himself in Saracen captivity in the
summer of 1179, Saladin felt he could ask a king’s ransom for Ramla’s release.
Presumably, the sultan had heard rumours that Ramla was about to marry the heir
apparent to Jerusalem’s throne and would one day be king-consort. Furthermore,
the Byzantine Emperor proved willing to pay a large portion of that ransom on
the assumption that Baldwin of Ramla would become king of Jerusalem in due time.
Instead, Sibylla
married Guy de Lusignan in haste and secrecy. This meant that with one stroke, Eschiva’s
brother-in-law had snatched away from her father the prize he had been pursuing
for roughly three years – and the justification for humiliating her mother. That act created an
irreparable breach between Sibylla’s father and husband. Although her father
married a third time to Maria of Beirut, Ramla never reconciled with Guy de
Lusignan.
Meanwhile, around
1182, Baldwin IV appointed Eschiva’s husband, Aimery de Lusignan, constable of
the kingdom. While this was a prestigious and important position, Eschiva’s joy
at seeing her husband raised in status may have been dimmed by rumours that he
owed his appointment to an intimate relationship with Queen Mother Agnes de
Courtenay.
At the death of Baldwin IV, Eschiva’s father
and husband found themselves on a collision course. Aimery backed Sibylla and
Guy’s usurpation of the throne, while Baldwin of Ramla opposed them and sought
to crown Isabella. Although Sibylla’s coup was successful, and she crowned Guy
herself, Ramla was one of two barons who flatly refused to accept it. Rather
than do homage to his hated rival Guy, Ramla chose exile, abandoning his third
wife Maria, his infant son Thomas – and Eschiva, who probably never saw him
again.
While we cannot
know what Eschiva felt, it is hard to imagine that such a bitter break between
her father and her husband did not cause her emotional distress. On the
surface, she remained loyal to her husband, but any joy in the triumph of Guy
de Lusignan must have rapidly turned sour. Firstly, Aimery benefitted in no way
from Guy’s crown; Aimery was neither appointed to new offices nor awarded lands
and titles. Secondly, within a year, Guy had led the kingdom to disaster at the
battle of Hattin, and Aimery was a prisoner of Saladin. Soon Ramla and Mirabel,
along with Acre, Jaffa and Ascalon, had been overrun by Saladin’s armies.
Eschiva was a refugee with several young children. Her father had disappeared,
her husband was a prisoner, and she had no means to support herself or her
children, let alone raise a ransom for her husband. We have no idea where she
found refuge in this period of great uncertainty. The most likely scenario is
that she joined the household of her father’s younger brother, Balian d'Ibelin,
Lord of Nablus.
The Lord of Nablus had
fought his way off the field at Hattin and was described by contemporary Arab
sources as ‘like a king’ among the Christians in the immediate aftermath of Hattin.
He extracted his family from Jerusalem before the siege began and had them
taken to an unspecified place of safety, possibly Tyre or Tripoli. Most likely,
his niece Eschiva and her children were welcomed into his household and
maintained by Nablus as long as needed.
Meanwhile, after a
year in captivity, Aimery was released by Saladin along with his brother Guy.
He remained loyal to the latter, joining him at the siege of Acre in 1189. However,
Eschiva’s whereabouts during this period are unknown. There is no mention of
her at the siege camp of Acre. Had she been there, she would have attended her
sister-in-law, Queen Sibylla, at the time of her death. It appears she was left
somewhere safer. It is also possible that in the wake of Guy’s disastrous reign,
she and Aimery were estranged at this time.
At the end of the
Third Crusade, Richard of England sold the island of Cyprus to Guy de Lusignan.
Meanwhile, Aimery de Lusignan is conspicuously absent from the names of those
who went with Guy to Cyprus to establish his rule there. Instead, Aimery
remained in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, where he continued to hold the post of constable.
However, his situation there was undermined by Guy’s resentment at losing the
Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was believed that Guy was plotting against Queen
Isabella and her husband, Henri de Champagne, to regain the crown of Jerusalem
with the support of the Pisans. When Aimery spoke up in favour of the Pisans, Henri
de Champagne ordered Aimery’s arrest on the assumption that Aimery sided with
his brother Guy. Aimery’s arrest aroused the anger of the other barons, however,
and the High Court pressured Champagne into releasing him. Yet, there was no
longer any trust between the two men, and Aimery could ill resume his tenure as
constable. Instead, he followed his brother to Cyprus. There is no evidence
that Eschiva went with him at this time.
In 1194, Guy de
Lusignan died in Cyprus. Despite Aimery’s years of loyal support and service to
his younger brother, Guy slighted Aimery to bequeath the island to their elder
brother Hugh. For Eschiva, Guy’s ungratefulness would have been particularly
bitter given that Aimery’s loyalty to Guy cost her all contact with her father.
Hugh de Lusignan, however, had no interest in abandoning his French
lands for distant Cyprus, and the rich island fell to Aimery by default. Aimery
seized the opportunity and rapidly proved to be a far more able administrator
than his brother had ever been. He pacified Cyprus, and opened it to
immigration by those made homeless through Saladin’s victories in Syria, yet
left the Greek civil service largely in control and made no disruptive changes
to the tax structure. Likewise, although he established a Latin church on the
island, he left the Greek church in possession of most of its lands and tithes.
Finally, to elevate his own status, he offered to do homage to the Holy Roman
Emperor for Cyprus in exchange for a crown. Emperor Henry VI agreed and sent
word that he would crown Aimery when he came to the Holy Land on his planned
crusade. In the meantime, the emperor sent the archbishops of Brindisi and
Trani a sceptre as a symbol of monarchy. Aimery styled himself ‘King of Cyprus’
from this time forward.
Meanwhile, sometime
after Aimery became lord of Cyprus, but before he was made king, Eschiva joined
him. By then, she was roughly 30 years of age and had given Aimery six children,
three boys and three girls. Two of her sons and a daughter, however, had died
young. The surviving children were Burgundia, Helvis and Hugh. Significantly,
Hugh was born in 1196, so he was presumably conceived and born in Cyprus after Eschiva
had joined her husband there.
That same year, Eschiva
took ill from an unknown cause, probably in the aftermath of Hugh’s birth. This
led to her becoming a victim of her husband’s otherwise admirable efforts to
curb the rampant piracy in the eastern Mediterranean. What befell her is
described in considerable detail in the Lyon Continuation of William of Tyre. The
account deserves to be quoted in full.
‘[The pirate Canaqui] learned that … the queen and her children had come
to stay near the sea in a village named Paradhisi. The queen had been ill, and …
had come there to rest and recuperate. As soon as Canaqui knew where she was, he
landed with some companions. He was familiar with the lie of the land, and he
came at dawn to the village where he surprised the people who were with her,
captured the queen and her children, and took them off in his galley.[i]
‘After he had absconded with the queen, the hue and cry arose in the
land and the news came to the king who was greatly angered … The king and
queen’s relations and everyone else were very sorrowful at this shameful event that
had taken place in the Kingdom of Cyprus … When Leo of the Mountain, who was
lord of Armenia, came to hear of the outrage that had befallen King Aimery and
his lady, he was deeply saddened because of the love that he had both for King
Aimery who was his friend and for Baldwin of Ibelin whose daughter she had
been. He immediately sent messengers to Isaac [the backer of Canaqui] to say
that if he valued his life, he would have the lady and her children brought to
Gorhigos the moment he read this letter. As soon as Isaac heard this order from
the lord of Armenia, he accepted that he would have to do as he was told. He
sent [the kidnapped lady and her children] to Gorhigos is fitting style, and
when Leo heard of their arrival, he went to meet them and, receiving them with
appropriate honour, did much to please them.[ii]
‘As soon as the lady had arrived in Gorhigos, he sent messengers to King
Aimery telling him not to be angry or troubled for he had freed his wife and
children from the power of their enemies. When the king heard this news, he was
delighted at the great service and act of kindness [Leo] had done them. He had
galleys made ready and went to Armenia, accompanied by his best men. There he
was received honourably, and he was overjoyed to find his wife and children
safe and sound’.[iii]
Several points are striking
in this account. The reference to Baldwin d’Ibelin being a friend of Leo of the
Mountain is intriguing, as it suggests that after leaving the Kingdom of
Jerusalem, the former lord of Ramla went to Armenia. More significant for
Eschiva herself, however, is that there is no hint of sexual abuse or disgrace.
On the contrary, much is made of her being greeted with ‘appropriate honour’.
Furthermore, Eschiva was clearly welcomed back by Aimery without recriminations
or doubts. Was this because the kidnapper was Orthodox Christian rather than
Muslim or because the entire episode was considered political hostage-taking
rather than a criminal or military kidnapping?
Even in the absence
of sexual abuse, however, the experience of being held hostage by a known
pirate must have been traumatic in the extreme for Eschiva, both as a young
woman and the mother of two young, possibly nubile, daughters and an infant son.
Although Eschiva returned with Aimery to Cyprus, she appears to have never fully
recovered from the trauma or the illness that had taken her to Paradhisi in the
first place. Although she lived long enough to witness the reconciliation
between her husband and Henri de Champagne, who came to Cyprus explicitly for
that purpose, she died before she could be crowned. Her husband of more than
twenty years was crowned and anointed king of Cyprus in September 1197 without
Eschiva at his side. Within weeks, Henri of Champagne would fall to his death,
and before the end of the year, Aimery had married the widowed Queen Isabella I
of Jerusalem.
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Eschiva
lived in the vortex of Jerusalem politics in the last two decades of the twelfth
century. She was an Ibelin by birth and a Lusignan by marriage. She founded a
dynasty that would rule Cyprus for more than 300 years. But we do not know if
she was politically active. Did she have a say in affairs of state? Did she
whisper advice to her husband? Or did she console and support her
sister-in-law Sibylla? Did she advise Sibylla not to renounce Guy, no matter the
pressure from the High Court? Or did she see what her father and uncle saw in
him, that Guy would make a disastrous king and try to talk Sibylla into abandoning
him? Unless new sources come to light, we will never know.
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Yet it does not
take too much imagination to see Eschiva as the bridge that enabled the Ibelins
to become the most powerful supporters of the Lusignan dynasty in Cyprus.
Historians puzzle over the fact that the Ibelins, who were inveterate opponents
of Guy de Lusignan, could quickly become so entrenched in his brother's Kingdom
of Cyprus. Eschiva was likely the key.
[i]
The Lyon Continuation of William of Tyre, 127,
paragraph 149.
[ii]
The Lyon Continuation of William of Tyre, 127, paragraph
150.
[iii]
The Lyon Continuation of William of Tyre, 128, paragraph
152.
Find out more about the House of Ibelin in Dr. Schrader's comprehensive study of the crusader states.
Dr.
Helena P. Schrader is also the author of six books set in the Holy Land
in the Era of the Crusades. Eschiva is a character in Balian d'Ibelin, Defender of Jerusalem, Envoy of Jerusalem, and is a leading character in The Last Crusader Kingdom.
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