Alice of Champagne, Queen-Consort & Regent of Cyprus, Regent of Jerusalem, Countess of Jaffa

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About Alice of Champagne, Queen-Consort & Regent of Cyprus, Regent of Jerusalem, Countess of Jaffa

Alice of Champagne (French: Alix; c. 1193 – 1246) was the Queen-Consort of Cyprus [1210 - 1218], the Regent of Cyprus [1218 - 1232], and the Regent of Jerusalem [1243 - 1246].

She was the eldest daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and Count Henry II of Champagne.

In 1210, Alice married her step-brother Hugh I King of Cyprus, receiving the County of Jaffa [Joppa, also known as Tel Aviv] as her dowry. After her husband's death in 1218, she assumed the Regency for their infant son, King Henry I, but her maternal uncle Philip of Ibelin became the actual head of state administration as baillie (governor).

Alice began seeking contacts within her father's counties in France to bolster her claim to Champagne and Brie against her cousin Theobald IV. but the kings of France never acknowledged her claim. After a dispute with Philip of Ibelin, she left the island in 1223. She married Bohemond, heir apparent to the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli, but their marriage was annulled on grounds of consanguinity—they were too closely related according to canon law. In 1229, she laid claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the infant Conrad (the son of her niece Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II) who was absent from the kingdom, but the High Court of Jerusalem rejected her claim. When her son reached the age of majority in 1232, Alice abdicated her regency and departed for France to claim Champagne and Brie. She subsequently renounced her claim and returned to the Holy Land.

In 1240, she married Raoul of Nesle who was about half of her age at the time. The High Court of Jerusalem proclaimed Alice and her husband regents for Conrad in 1243, but their power was only nominal. Raoul of Nesle left the kingdom, and Alice, before the end of the year. Alice retained the regency until her death in 1246.

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