House of Montferrat

Also known as Aleramici

Powerful north-Italian marcher dynasty whose sons and daughters married into the royal house of Jerusalem repeatedly across two generations, producing among others Conrad of Montferrat and Queen Maria.

The marquesses of Montferrat in Piedmont sent a striking number of sons and daughters east in the second half of the 12th century. William Longsword of Montferrat married Sibylla, the heir presumptive of the kingdom, and fathered the boy-king Baldwin V before dying young. Conrad of Montferrat, William's brother, defended Tyre against Saladin in 1187 — saving the rump kingdom — and was elected king in 1192, only to be assassinated by the Hashishiyya within days of his election.

Their niece Maria of Montferrat reigned as queen in her own right (1205–12), and through her marriage to John of Brienne the Hohenstaufen claim to the kingdom was eventually transmitted via Yolande / Isabella II to Frederick II. The Montferrat house was one of the principal political vectors connecting the Latin East to north Italy in the central period of the kingdom.

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