Maria of Montferrat

Also known as la Marquise

Only child of Isabella I and Conrad of Montferrat, Maria — called la Marquise for her father's title — was born months after Conrad's assassination and acceded to the throne at thirteen on her mother's death in 1205. She was placed under the regency of her uncle John of Ibelin, the “Old Lord of Beirut,” who governed with quiet competence for five years.

In 1210 she was married to the elderly but battle-hardened French champion John of Brienne, chosen by Philip II of France at the barons' request. Her coronation in the cathedral of Tyre on 3 October 1210 was marked by an awkward coincidence: while the ceremony was under way inside, al-Adil's troops were probing the walls of Acre twenty miles down the coast, and the news of the raid reached the altar before the couple had left it.

She died in the autumn of 1212, aged twenty, a few days after giving birth to her only child, the infant Isabella II. Maria left little personal trace in the chronicles beyond the title on her seal — Mater regni — and the succession she had secured. She is remembered as the transitional queen whose brief reign cemented the Ibelin family as the effective rulers of the Second Kingdom.

Preceded by Isabella I. Succeeded by Isabella II.

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