Agnes of Courtenay

Some women in the Middle Ages became pawns as wives to powerful men. Some women had power in their own right and wielded it despite opposition from their husbands, like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Queen Melisende of Jerusalem. Agnes of Courtenay, who became Melisende's daughter-in-law, found herself in similar straits.

Agnes was born c.1136, daughter of Count Joscelin II of Edessa (a second cousin of Melisende) and Beatrice of Saone. She was married to Reginald of Marsah, who was killed in the Battle of Inab (along with several others) in 1149.

Her next husband was...well, there historians disagree. She came to Jerusalem and married Amalric, Melisende's son, in 1157. When Amalric was about to succeed his brother and become King of Jerusalem, there was opposition to the marriage from Fulcher of Angoulême, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. 

William of Tyre (who was a contemporary and writing a history of the Crusader states) claims it was because the two were too closely related. A later chronicler claims she was essentially abducted by Amalric because she was betrothed to another, Hugh of Ibelin, and that the objection was the impropriety of Amalric's abducting her.

Modern historians have other theories. One is that she was already married to Hugh of Ibelin, and therefore Amalric's actions made the two guilty of bigamy. Another theory was an objection from the Jerusalem nobles that she would wind up wielding too much power and give favors to exiles from Edessa. Also, it might have been that Amalric could make a more advantageous match.

Whatever the case, Amalric did not let a wife stand in the way of the kingship: he had the marriage annulled in 1163 (see them being separated in the illustration) rather than be excommunicated for bigamy or reasons of consanguinity.

Immediately after the annulment, she married Hugh of Ibelin, removing from Amalric any responsibility for supporting her. Hugh died c.1169, and Agnes (only in her 30s) married Reginald Grenier, heir to the Lord of Sidon.

But Agnes was not done with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. She had given birth to two children with Amalric: Sibylla of Jerusalem and Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. Let's go back to Amalric and what happened when he died.

Amalric

Queen Melisende and Fulk of Anjou had a second son, Amalric, born in 1136. When his grandfather, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, was on his deathbed in 1131, he conferred the kingdom on Melisende, Fulk, and the elder son, Baldwin III. Fulk tried to cut Melisende out of authority, but she had enough regard from the local nobles that he had to offer peace and cooperation. It is possible that she, in turn, accepted reconciliation because she only had one son, whereas Fulk had adult children from an earlier marriage and might have tried to put them in the line of succession.

Amalric is seen as the result of that reconciliation, a "spare" to follow the "heir."

Fulk died in 1143, and Melisende became co-ruler with her son, the 15-year-old Baldwin. Years later, when she and Baldwin continued to be at odds, she named the 15-year-old Amalric the Count of Jaffa, giving him power and making him beholden to her.

A year later, in 1152, Baldwin took the bold move of besieging his mother and her most loyal advisors in the Tower of David. Baldwin was successful. He managed to depose his mother and return Jaffa to Baldwin's own control. Two years later, in 1154, Baldwin gave his younger brother Jaffa and Ascalon.

Melisende was retired to Nablus, 30 miles  north of Jerusalem: sufficient territory to give her an income, but no fortifications that she could hide behind if she tried to stir up trouble for Baldwin.

Amalric married Agnes of Courtenay in 1157, the daughter of Melisende's second cousin. William of Tyre wrote that the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fulcher of Angoulême, objected because the couple were too closely related. A later chronicle of the lineages of the Crusader families states that the marriage was inappropriate in another way: Agnes, recently widowed, had been about to marry another, Hugh of Ibelin, but Amalric married her instead. A more recent historian claims Agnes was already married to Hugh, and Amalric kidnapped her to marry her, making them bigamous.

Amalric, like Baldwin, kept good relations with the Byzantine Empire, especially through Manuel I Comnenos (Baldwin was married to Manuel's niece, Theodora). They had no children, and so when Baldwin was nearing death, he named Amalric as his heir.

Tomorrow I want to take a look at Agnes of Courtenay, her life, her marriage to Amalric, and what happened when Amalric wanted to be King of Jerusalem. It didn't work out in Agnes' favor.