Isabella II (12124 May 1228), also known as Yolande of Brienne, was a princess of French origin, the daughter of

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

, the queen-regnant of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, and her husband,

John of Brienne John of Brienne ( 1170 – 19–23 March 1237), also known as John I, was King of Jerusalem from 1210 to 1225 and Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1229 to 1237. He was the youngest son of Erard II of Brienne, a wealthy nobleman in Champag ...

. She was reigning

Queen of Jerusalem This is a list of queens of Jerusalem, from 1099 to 1291. Throughout 200 years of its existence, the Kingdom of Jerusalem had one protector, 18 kings (including 7 ''jure uxoris'') and five queens regnant. Six women were queens consort, i.e. qu ...

from 1212 until her death in 1228. By marriage to Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Isabella also became

Holy Roman Empress The Holy Roman Empress or Empress of the Holy Roman Empire (''Kaiserin des Heiligen Römischen Reiches'') was the wife or widow of the Holy Roman Emperor. The elective dignity of Holy Roman emperor was restricted to males only, but some empresse ...

and

Queen of Sicily The monarchs of Sicily ruled from the establishment of the County of Sicily in 1071 until the "perfect fusion" in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816. The origins of the Sicilian monarchy lie in the Norman conquest of southern Italy which oc ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Infant Queen

Isabella II was born in Andria, in the southern Italian Kingdom of Sicily. She was the only child of

Maria of Montferrat Maria of Montferrat (1192–1212) was the queen of Jerusalem from 1205 until her death. Her parents were Isabella I and her second husband, Conrad of Montferrat. Maria succeeded her mother under the regency of her half-uncle John of Ibelin. After ...

, Queen of Jerusalem, and

. Maria was the daughter of Queen

Isabella I of Jerusalem Isabella I (1172 – 5 April 1205) was reigning Queen of Jerusalem from 1190 to her death. She was the daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his second wife Maria Comnena, a Byzantine princess. Her half-brother, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, eng ...

by her second husband Conrad I, and heiress, on her mother's death, of the

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...

. Maria died shortly after giving birth to Isabella II in 1212, possibly by puerperal fever. Because of this, Isabella II was proclaimed Queen of Jerusalem when she was only a few days old. Because her father John did not have a direct claim on the throne, he ruled as regent.

Marriage with Frederick II

During a meeting between John of Brienne, Pope Honorius III and Frederick II in the city of

Ferentino Ferentino is a town and ''comune'' in Italy, in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, southeast of Rome. It is situated on a hill above sea level, in the Monti Ernici area. History ''Ferentinum'' was a town of the Hernici; it was captured from the ...

in 1223, Isabella's fate was decided: Frederick accepted to finally go to the Crusade, but only as the legitimate King of Jerusalem, and this was only possible if he agreed to take the young Queen Isabella II as his wife (by this time, Frederick was a widower). This was planned by the Pope, who hoped by this bond to attach the Emperor firmly to the Sixth Crusade. The betrothal was confirmed, but the Emperor still delayed his departure until August 1225, when he and Isabella were married by

proxy Proxy may refer to: * Proxy or agent (law), a substitute authorized to act for another entity or a document which authorizes the agent so to act * Proxy (climate), a measured variable used to infer the value of a variable of interest in climate ...

in the

City of Acre Acre ( ), known locally as Akko ( he, עַכּוֹ, ''ʻAkō'') or Akka ( ar, عكّا, ''ʻAkkā''), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel. The city occupies an important location, sitting in a natural har ...

.The proxy marriage was performed by Giacomo, Bishop of Patti (Riccardo di San Germano, ''Cronaca''). Days later, Isabella II was crowned as Queen of Jerusalem. Isabella arrived in Italy with twenty galleys sent by Frederick II to bring her to her father and married in person to Frederick II in the cathedral of Brindisi, on 9 November 1225.Jaroslav Folda, ''Crusader Art in the Holy Land, From the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre'', (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 148. During the ceremony, Frederick declared himself King of Jerusalem and immediately saw to it that his new father-in-law John of Brienne, the current regent of Jerusalem, was dispossessed and his rights transferred to him. The contemporary chronicles described the exotic wedding celebrations, which took place in the Castle of Oria, and the indignant reaction of her father John of Brienne, now without royal authority.

Death

After the wedding, Isabella was kept in seclusion by her husband, in Palermo. Aged 14, in November 1226, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter (referred to by some sources as Margaret); the baby died in August 1227. Isabella died 4 May after giving birth to her second child, a son, Conrad, in Andria, Bari, on 25 April 1228. She was buried in the Andria Cathedral.

Ancestry

Notes

References

*Uwe A. Oster: ''Die Frauen Kaiser Friedrichs II'', Piper, Munich 2008. *Jacqueline Alio: ''Queens of Sicily 1061-1266'', Trinacria, New York 2018. *Alberto Gentile
''LE QUATTRO MOGLI DI FEDERICO II: FRA MITO E REALTÀ''
(Italian) in stupormundi.it etrieved 22 May 2014 , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Isabella 02 Of Jerusalem 1212 births 1228 deaths 13th-century kings of Jerusalem 13th-century women rulers 13th-century women of the Holy Roman Empire Queens regnant of Jerusalem 15th-century Italian women Holy Roman Empresses Italian queens consort German queens consort Royal consorts of Sicily Medieval child rulers House of Brienne Wives of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Deaths in childbirth 15th-century Sicilian people