Isabella I, Queen of Jerusalem

Isabella I
Marriage of Isabella I (on the right) and Conrad of Montferrat
Queen of Jerusalem
Reign	1190/1192 – 5 April 1205
Coronation	January 1198 at Acre
Predecessor	Sibylla and Guy
Successor	Maria
Born	1172 Nablus, Kingdom of Jerusalem
Died	5 April 1205 (aged 32–33) Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem
Spouse	Humphrey IV of Toron Conrad of Montferrat Henry II of Champagne Amalric I of Cyprus
Issue more...	Maria, Queen of Jerusalem Alice, Queen of Cyprus Philippa, Lady of Ramerupt Sybilla, Queen of Armenia Melisende, Princess of Antioch
House	House of Anjou
Father	Amalric I of Jerusalem
Mother	Maria Comnena
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Isabella I (1172 – 5 April 1205) was Queen regnant of Jerusalem from 1190 to her death. She was the daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his second wife Maria Comnena. Her half-brother, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, engaged her to Humphrey IV of Toron. Her mother's second husband, Balian of Ibelin, and his stepfather, Raynald of Châtillon, were influential members of the two baronial parties. The marriage of Isabella and Humphrey was celebrated in Kerak Castle in autumn 1183. Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to the fortress during the wedding, but Baldwin IV forced him to lift the siege.

Baldwin IV, who suffered from lepromatous leprosy, had made his nephew (the only son of his sister, Sybilla by her first husband), Baldwin V, his heir and co-ruler, to prevent Sybilla's second husband, Guy of Lusignan, from mounting the throne. The High Court of Jerusalem stipulated that a committee of Western European rulers was entitled to choose between Sybilla and Isabella to succeed Baldwin V if he died before reaching the age of majority, but Sybilla and Guy of Lusignan were crowned soon after Baldwin V died in 1185. Guy's opponents tried to play Isabella and her husband off against him, but Humphrey did homage to the royal couple.

Isabella was the daughter of Amalric, King of Jerusalem, by his second wife, Maria Comnena. Maria Comnena (who was a grandniece of the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos) married Amalric on 29 August 1171. Isabella was born before September 1172.