Isabella, Queen of Armenia

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Isabella Զապել
Queen Isabella with Hethum I on a coin
Queen of Armenian Cilicia
Reign	1219 – 1252
Coronation	14 May 1226
Predecessor	Leo I
Successor	Hethum I
Regent	Adam of Baghras Constantine of Barbaron
Co-rulers	Philip (1222–1225) Hethum I (1226–1252)
Born	27 January 1216/ 25 January 1217 (unknown)
Died	23 January 1252 Ked
Burial	Monastery of Trazarg
Spouses	Philip, King of Armenia ​ ​ (m. 1222; died 1225)​ Hethum I, King of Armenia ​ ​ (m. 1226)​
Issue among others...	Euphemia, Countess of Sidon Sybilla, Princess of Antioch Rita, Lady of Servantikar Leo II, King of Armenia
House	Roupenians
Father	Leo I, King of Armenia
Mother	Sybilla of Cyprus
Religion	Armenian Apostolic

Isabella (Armenian: Զապել; 27 January 1216/ 25 January 1217 – 23 January 1252), also Isabel or Zabel, was queen regnant of Armenian Cilicia from 1219 until her death in 1252.

She was proclaimed queen.^[1][2] After he was assassinated, Constantine of Baberon (of the Hethumid family) was nominated as guardian.^[2] At this juncture, Raymond-Roupen, grandson of Roupen III (the elder brother of Isabella’s father, King Leo I), attempted to claim the throne of Cilicia for himself, but he was defeated, captured, and executed.^[2]

He arranged a marriage between the young princess and Philip,^[2] His father was Bohemond IV.^[3]Philip, however, offended the Armenians’ sensibilities, and even despoiled the royal palace, sending the royal crown to Antioch; therefore, he was confined in a prison in Sis (now Kozan in Turkey), where he died, presumably poisoned.^[2]

The lawful heiress of the empire, Isabella, governed the country together with her husband, and led a pious, religious life. She was blessed for her good deeds and exemplary life by many children, the numerous offsprings of a famous race.

— Vahram of Edessa: The Rhymed Chronicle of Armenia Minor^[4]

Isabella was the only child of King Leo I by his second wife, Sybilla of Cyprus.^[5] She was betrothed to Andrew, but the betrothal did not occur.^[6]

King Leo I died on May, 1219.^[1] Raymond-Roupen believed he should become the ruler.^[7] John of Brienne felt that a member of his family should succeed.^[1]

Her wedding to Philip occurred during 1222.^[7]

In the year 675 AE /1226/ the Armenian princes, together with the Catholicos, Lord Constantine, assembled and enthroned Hethum, son of Constantine, bailli of the Armenians, and also gave him /as a wife/ Isabel, King Leo’s daughter. Thereafter there was peace in the House of the Armenians, and year by year they strived for the heights.

— Smbat Sparapet: Chronicle^[8]

The marriage was legalized by Rome in 1237.^[9]

There is evidence that Isabella shared a degree of royal power, for we learn from several sources that she co-signed with her husband an official deed transferring to the Knights of the Teutonic Order the strategic castle and town of Haronie.^[10]

The queen being near the end of her life, and staying in a place called Ked, she heard a voice from heaven, crying aloud, «come my dove, come my love, thy end is near.» She felt joyful on this happy vision, imparted it to the bystanders, and died in the Lord; her body was brought to the grave by a large assembly of the priesthood and laid in consecrated earth.

— Vahram of Edessa: The Rhymed Chronicle of Armenia Minor^[4]

She was buried in the monastery of Trazarg.

# (1) 25 January 1221 – 24 January 1222: Philip of Antioch (? – Sis, 1225/1226)^[11]

# (2) 14 May 1226: Hethum I, king of Cilician Armenia (1215 – 28 October 1270)^[12]

• Euphemia^[1] (? – 1309), the wife of Julian of Sidon (? – 12 January 1275/ 11 January 1276)^[13]
• Sybilla (? – 1290), the wife of Prince Bohemond VI of Antioch (c. 1237 – May/ 11 July 1275)^[13]
• Rita (? – ?), the wife of Constantine of Servantikar^[13]
• Leo II, king of Cilician Armenia ( 24 January 1236/ 23 January 1237 – 6 February 1289)
• Thoros (1244 – 24 August 1266)
• Isabella (? – c. 1268)
• Marie, who married Guy of Ibelin,^[13] son of Baldwin of Ibelin, Seneschal of Cyprus.

• Der Nersessian, Sirarpie (1969) [1962]. "The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia". In Setton, Kenneth M.; Wolff, Robert Lee; Hazard, Harry W. (eds.). A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 (Second ed.). Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 630–659. ISBN 0-299-04844-6.
• Edwards, Robert W.: The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia: Dumbarton Oaks Studies XXIII; Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, 1987, Washington, D.C.; ISBN 0-88402-163-7
• Engel, Pál (Author) – Pálosfalvi, Tamás (Translator): The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526; I.B. Tauris, 2005, London and New York; ISBN 1-85043-977-X
• Ghazarian, Jacob G: The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins (1080–1393); Routledge Curzon (Taylor & Francis Group), 2000, Abingdon; ISBN 0-7007-1418-9
• Nickerson Hardwicke, Mary (1969) [1962]. "The Crusader States, 1192–1243". In Setton, Kenneth M.; Wolff, Robert Lee; Hazard, Harry W. (eds.). A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 (Second ed.). Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 519–555. ISBN 0-299-04844-6.
• Riley-Smith, J. (1967). Knights of St.John in Jerusalem and Cyprus. Palgrave MacMillan.
• Runciman, Steven (1954). A History of the Crusades, Volume III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Stopka, Krzysztof (2016). Armenia Christiana: Armenian Religious Identity and the Churches of Constantinople and Rome (4th-15th century). Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press. ISBN 9788323395553.