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The history of the kingdom of Jerusalem and its loss is in large part the history of its queens and princesses.

They were the most strong willed and self evident group of women of authority  between the end of Rome and age of Elizabeth and Catherine de Medici.

There were nine queens in all from the foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem until its effective extinction at the Battle of Hattin and the failure to reclaim the Holy City during the Third Crusade.

Anything seemed possible for these remarkable women, including fairytale romance in the best courtly tradition.

Theodora Comnena, for example, seems to have been determined to turn her life into a chivalric tale worthy of the pen of Chretien de Troyes.

She was the niece of the Byzantine emperor Manuel, and was given in marriage by the Byzantine Emperor to King Baldwin III as a token sealing  their alliance in the summer of 1157.
The negotiations were carried out by Humphrey II of Toron and the Archbishop of Nazareth, who haggled over the details of the deal. At last, her dowry was set at 100,000 golden coins, together with 10,000 gold pieces for wedding expenses, plus an extra 30,000 for "gifts". Her marriage portion from Baldwin was to be Acre if her husband should die childless.
The splendid ceremony was performed at Jerusalem in the autumn of 1158.
The thirteen year old bride was attractive and well grown: her husband gave up his philandering ways and remained faithful to her for the rest of his life. It was to be brief marriage. Baldwin - a tall, strong, fair haired man - died suddenly at the age of 33 on February 10 1162.
Poison administered by his political enemies was spoken of.
Theodora was now a childless widow at sixteen. The kingdom passed to Amalric, Baldwin's brother. She could at this moment have withdrawn from the  stage of public life into respectable widowhood, or entered a nunnery, as many women chose to do. The life of a nun might well be an attractive option for women otherwise disillusioned by the world.
But the life of a nun was not for the adventurous former queen Theodora. Heading in her direction was a man who would call her to a life of adventure.
In 1166, the feckless Greek princeling, the 46 year old Andronicus Comnenus, arrived at Antioch. He had already experienced a lifetime of adventure in the service of his cousin the emperor Manuel. Sent to Armenia by Manuel to pacify the locals, Andronicus drifted on to Antioch. There he began a relationship with Bohemond II's sister Philippa.
In the great new style of the errant knight, he wooed the princess Philippa by serenading her beneath her window. She fell for him.
Bohemond was not pleased, and Andronicus was recalled by Manuel.
He decamped, however, abandoning his mistress but keeping a large share of the imperial revenues he had gathered in the area.
The spurned lady was hastily married off to old Humphrey of Toron, a widower, and a man much experienced in the arranged marriages of his country. Their marriage was to prove childless, and the Toron line passed on through an earlier marriage to an unknown woman. How stultifying the whole union to Humphrey must have seemed to Philippa after the glamour of Antioch and the wandering Greek nobleman.
Meanwhile, the said Andronicus wandered south to Jerusalem, where he won the favour of king Amalric through deeds of bravery. But first he impressed the beautiful, carefree Theodora while Amalric was away on campaign. By the time Amalric first met Andronicus, the Greek was already the secret lover of Theodora.
The king rewarded the unsuspected betrayer of his trust with the fief of Beirut. The rather deceitful Andronicus retired to his new princedom, invited Theodora to visit him from her principality of Acre, and then abducted her from her escort while she was on her journey.
The eloping couple then fled the kingdom for Damascus and the court of Nureddin.
There are two possible reasons for this latter piece extraordinary conduct: one is that Manuel had heard of their liaison, and had demanded that Amalric end it. Amalric, wishing to court Manuel's favour, would have acceded. However, Theodora intercepted the messages between king and emperor, and the couple therefore thought it wise to decamp, staging a kidnapping to cover their tracks.
A slightly different version has it that Amalric remained innocent of the fact that Theodora was already living openly with Andronicus, but that Manuel learned of it, and intended to have his cousin blinded. This was his only alternative, as the marriage could not be regularised because of the small matter of Andronicus' wife still living in Constantinople.
Whatever the reasons for their decamping, a decade of happy life in the welcoming world of Islam ensued for Theodora and her paramour. The couple had two children, Alexis and Irene. They toured widely, as far as Baghdad, and were eventually given a castle of their own by an emir. Andronicus seems to have been prepared to risk all for this woman, his greatest love:  not only did he eke out his living by robbery of his fellow Christians, but he was excommunicated for his elopement. He was thus doubly damned,

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