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both in the eyes of Church and State.1
But if it was a long married life Theodora had hoped for, it was not to be. She died some time before 1182, barely in her middle age.
Andronicus outlived her, and outshone her in the long run. Through a sense of the main chance, he marched out of Anatolia in 1182 and successfully claimed the Byzantine throne. He climbed to the Emperor's dais over the bodies of his rivals, including the former Empress and her son the boy emperor Alexius II, both of whom he murdered.
Andronicus assumed the throne aged 62 in November 1182.
He shared his imperial bed with 12 year old Agnes of France, the newly created widow of the tragic Alexius.
Andronicus' reign was, however, to prove short lived: another round of blood letting and treachery in 1184 resulted in this inglorious career of sexual and political conquests reaching a pathetic end.
Andronicus fled from usurpers, was captured and paraded around Constantinople on a mangy camel, and then was torn to death by a mob.
These larger than life adventures of Jerusalem's queens disguise the fact that they were typical of their fellow female citizens of Outremer in an important way. Crusading women proved equally, if not more, tenacious than the males. Christian ladies in Outremer tended to outlive their husbands, who died in battle, of heat, exhaustion, or of disease.Thus, six of the nine queens outlived their kings by many years.
Of these, perhaps the most formidable was Agnes of Courtenay, sister to the kingmaking baron Joscelin of Courtenay.
Strictly speaking, she was never Queen, only Countess of Jaffa, and is so described in the documents. But she was the mother of a king and the wife of a king: at one stage, she all but ruled the kingdom herself.
She married four times: at puberty to Reynald of Marash, who was killed in 1149; in about 1156 to King Amalric, who repudiated her; to Hugh Ibelin; and on his death to Reynald of Sidon in 1169. Reynald, like Amalric, divorced Agnes, on the grounds of consanguinity.
Amalric married Maria Comnena after separating from Agnes. He died in 1174: Maria remarried to Balian of Ibelin, and outlived him by a quarter of a century. She herself became a key player in the power broking surrounding the crown, and she remained bitterly opposed to the Courtenay faction.
There was no love between these two queens, their husbands and their children: their family quarrels, rivalries and hatreds brought the kingdom to dust.
The epic death throes of the kingdom begin with the unfortunate life of Agnes of Courtenay, who stands condemned by her fellows as "...a woman hateful to God and a shameless money grabber." William of Tyre, who wrote this unfavourable summary of her character sided with the faction opposed to the Agnes: his judgment is therefore questionable. However, that she was twice divorced suggests that her strong character did not endear itself to her companions.
Amalric was prepared to set her aside in order to take the crown. Reynald simply appears to have tired of her.
On the other hand, Agnes had a clear will when it came to men: she was famed for the number and range of her lovers, including Amalric of Lusignan. He was the second son of the count of Lusignan, and came to Palestine as a knight errant. On the death of Humprey of Toron the elder he was appointed Constable. Agnes supported this lover when he persuaded Agnes' daughter Sybilla of the good looks and charming personality of his younger brother, Guy. Sybilla urged Amalric to fetch the gilded youth, who turned out to be one of the vainest, most stupidly wrong headed men ever to travel east. Despite the opposition of the elders of the kingdom, Sybilla insisted on marrying him, which she did at Easter 1180. It was rumoured that the marriage saved Guy's life because Sybilla had already taken him as her lover, arousing the wrath of the king who wished Guy put to death but spared him at the request of the Templars, who were incidentally the allies of Agnes. Guy was rewarded with the counties of Jaffa and Ascalon.
The kingdom was thus presented with the unusual spectacle of a Queen mother and a daughter sharing the beds of two brothers.2
But this was only part of the web of sexual politics ensnaring the fortunes of the kingdom.
Equally outrageous were Agnes' affections for a handsome but barely literate priest from the Auvergne.
Heraclius was an adventurer, like the Lusignans. His handsome visage brought for him the reward of the Archbishopric of Caesarea, and to celebrate his status, the wife of a leading Italian draper as his well publicized mistress. Her name was Paschia de Riveri, and she was notable for the way she paraded herself through the streets dressed as richly as a countess in silks and jewels.
Soon, she was sneeringly endowed with the epithet of Patriarchess, because on October 16, 1180, Agnes persuaded the Chapter of Jerusalem to pronounce Heraclius to be the Patriarch.3
Agnes' motivations are often difficult to decipher at this distance. But certainly, her hatred of William of Tyre had a comprehensible basis in human relationships. He it was who had forced the annulment in 1161 of her marriage to Amalric. She later repaid him, amongst other things, by this appointment of Heraclius to the post of Patriarch, which William believed should have gone to him.
The annulment of that early marriage to Amalric was possible only because Agnes was promised that her children Baldwin and Sybilla should have their rights to inheritance recognised. As a result on the death of his father Baldwin inherited the crown and Agnes became the Queen Mother.4
The tragedy for the kingdom was that Baldwin's life was doomed to be short. William of Tyre, who was appointed as his tutor, noted how impervious the child seemed to the pain of rough boys' games. When the child king achieved puberty, the archbishop's fears were confirmed: the boy had leprosy.
This was a sign of the perdition to come. Leprosy was not seen as a disease: it was a curse, the outcome of great sin.
The boy would undoubtedly have proved an able ruler, and if he had lived, the kingdom's life would have been extended for some time.
Raymond of Tripoli was appointed to safeguard the kingdom until Baldwin IV's cousin Baldwin V should come of age. This child, Baldwin V, was the son of Baldwin IV's sister Sybilla.
Agnes' other marriage was also to add to the woes of the kingdom. Probably at the insistence of Amalric, she had married almost immediately after their separation to Hugh Ibelin of Ramleh. This was perhaps because she was in fact penniless, due to some
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