All through her life, the “Damsel of Cyprus” (born circa 1177) was used as a political and diplomatic software within the conflicts of males. She was the daughter of Isaac Komnenos, the emperor of Cyprus. Her personal title was by no means recorded, though historians have advised it might have been both Beatrice or Maria.
Whereas the princess was typically powerless, the small snippets of proof that we’ve about her current the lifetime of a younger girl with the resolve and tenacity to outlive and thrive. She’s one of many many ladies I’ve come throughout throughout my analysis into elite ladies’s experiences of confinement throughout eleventh to Thirteenth-century medieval Europe.
As a toddler, the princess and her brother had been used as hostages in a battle that her father was concerned in. Isaac was captured whereas combating in Armenia and given into the custody of Bohemond III, the prince of the Greek metropolis of Antioch (which was in what’s now Turkey). A ransom of 60,000 gold cash was set. After paying half the ransom, Isaac was launched and he gave his kids as hostages into Bohemond’s custody as surety for the remaining ransom fee.
Joanna of Sicily, circa 1300.
Royal MS 14 B VI
The ransom was then supposedly stolen by pirates. Isaac argued that this was a ploy invented by Bohemond and refused to repay it. This left his kids in custody for 2 years till Bohemond, realising that Isaac would by no means repay the ransom, launched them. The princess was seven years outdated on the time of her launch. After the demise of her brother, she was Isaac’s sole inheritor.
In 1191, the princess was once more taken captive because of one in all her father’s conflicts, this time by Richard I of England. Isaac had tried to seize Richard’s ship, which carried the king’s sister, Joanna of Sicily, and his future spouse, Berengaria of Navarre. In retaliation, Richard laid siege to Cyprus.
Isaac finally fled from Richard’s forces. Based on Twelfth-century English chronicler, Roger of Hoveden, when Richard captured the citadel that the princess was hiding in, she went out to satisfy the king and surrendered. A courageous transfer from a younger woman who was solely round 14 or 15 years outdated.
Isaac, who liked his daughter dearly, regardless of having beforehand provided her as ransom collateral, quickly surrendered and was imprisoned. Richard positioned the princess into the custody of his new spouse and sister “to be cared for and educated in their customs”. Though she was handled as a ward of the 2 queens, in actuality she was a captive.
Richard I being anointed throughout his coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1189, from Thirteenth-century chronicle.
Chetham MS Ms 6712 (A.6.89), fol.141r
Freedom or management? The travels of the princess
A brand new chapter of the princess’s life started. She travelled with the 2 queens to Acre (in modern-day Israel), Rome, Pisa, Genoa, Marseilles, Aragon (on the Iberian Peninsula) and Poitou, in west-central France.
The historian Annette Parks has advised that this provided an “odd kind of freedom” for the princess, travelling additional than she ever had earlier than and fairly presumably crossing paths with the likes of the queen mom of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine. However regardless of her relative “freedom” in accompanying the 2 queens, these travels weren’t on the princess’s personal discretion, and her actions had been managed.
After Richard’s personal seize by the Holy Roman Emperor, the settlement for his launch included his consenting to the wedding of each the princess and Eleanor of Brittany (who was additionally in Richard’s custody) to the sons of Leopold V of Austria.
In search of one thing good? Lower by way of the noise with a fastidiously curated number of the newest releases, reside occasions and exhibitions, straight to your inbox each fortnight, on Fridays. Enroll right here.
Eleanor of Brittany circa 1300.
British Library/Royal MS 14 B V
The 2 ladies started to journey to Austria collectively in 1193 solely to show round half manner by way of the journey, because the demise of Leopold introduced an finish to the settlement. The princess might then have accompanied Joanna of Sicily throughout her second marriage to Raymond VI of Toulouse in 1196.
With Richard’s demise in 1199, the princess was lastly freed and went on to make two advantageous marriages. First, to Raymond VI, the identical man who had been married to Joanna of Sicily till her demise additionally in 1199. Second, to Thierry of Flanders after the annulment of her first marriage. Raymond had repudiated the princess in favour of a stronger marriage alliance with Leonor, the daughter of Alfonso II of Aragon.
It was throughout this second marriage that the princess briefly turns into seen within the historic report once more.
In 1204 Thierry tried to reclaim Cyprus by way of the rights of his spouse. By this level, the political circumstances of Cyprus had modified and a brand new king had been put in. Thierry and the princess’s try was unsuccessful and the 2 had been pressured to flee, after which they disappear from the report for good.
The Damsel of Cyprus had nearly no management over her life. However the report reveals situations through which her personal power and tenacity had been in a position to shine by way of. From going through King Richard in give up, to forming advantageous marriages when she had no networks of her personal, she navigated the circumstances that captivity introduced upon her and he or she discovered methods to outlive and retain her standing as an elite girl. I might even speculate that the try to reclaim Cyprus was on the princess’s instigation, in an effort to regain her residence.
As a younger woman with no say over a lot of her life, the Damsel of Cyprus is a reminder of how medieval ladies continued to search out methods to beat the constraints positioned on them.
