Who married Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem?

Sibylla (Old French: Sibyl; c. 1159 – 25 July 1190) was the queen of Jerusalem from 1186 until her death in 1190. She reigned alongside her husband Guy of Lusignan, whom she continued to support despite his unpopularity among the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Sibylla was the eldest daughter of King Amalric and the only daughter of his first wife, Agnes of Courtenay. Her father died in 1174, making her heir presumptive to her younger brother, King Baldwin IV; when it became clear that the 13-year-old king had contracted leprosy, the matter of Sibylla's marriage became urgent. The regent, Count Raymond III of Tripoli, arranged for her to marry William Longsword of Montferrat in late 1176, but within a year, William died, leaving her pregnant and in possession of the County of Jaffa and Ascalon.

Shortly after giving birth to a son, Baldwin, Sibylla came to be associated with her brother in public acts, thereby being designated as next in line to the throne. Sibylla's brother arranged her second marriage to Guy of Lusignan in 1180, likely to foil a coup planned by Raymond III of Tripoli and Bohemond III of Antioch, but the marriage deeply divided the nobility. By 1183, King Baldwin had become completely incapacitated by his disease as well as disillusioned with Guy's character and inability to lead. To prevent Guy's accession to the throne, Baldwin had Sibylla's son crowned as co-king and attempted to separate Sibylla from Guy, but the couple refused to show up at court.

Baldwin IV died in 1185, having named Raymond to rule as regent for Baldwin V instead of Sibylla or Guy. The boy king died the next year, and Sibylla moved quickly to claim the throne against Raymond's ambitions. She agreed to her supporters' demand to set Guy aside on the condition that she could choose her next husband, and outwitted them at her coronation in mid-September 1186 by choosing to remarry Guy and crown him herself. Saladin took advantage of the discord in the kingdom to invade in 1187, reducing the Kingdom of Jerusalem to a single city, Tyre. Sibylla visited her husband, who had been taken captive at the decisive Battle of Hattin, and procured from Saladin his release. She died in July 1190, along with her daughters with Guy, of an epidemic outside Acre while Guy was besieging it.

Wilhelm z Montferratu zwany Długim Mieczem (zm. 1177) – hrabia Jafy i Aszkelonu, pierwszy mąż królowej Sybilli Jerozolimskiej i ojciec króla Baldwina V.

Był najstarszym synem Wilhelma V, markiza Montferratu i Judyty Babenberg. W 1167 jego ojciec próbował zaaranżować małżeństwa Wilhelma i jego brata Konrada z córkami Henryka II Plantageneta, króla Anglii lub siostrami Wilhelma I Lwa, króla Szkocji. Plany te nie powiodły się prawdopodobnie z powodu zbyt bliskiego pokrewieństwa między braćmi a angielskimi księżniczkami (matka Wilhelma Judyta była spokrewniona z Eleonorą Akwitańską), a księżniczki szkockie były już mężatkami.

W 1176 Wilhelm został wybrany przez Rajmunda III, hrabiego Trypolisu i Baldwina IV Trędowatego, króla Jerozolimy na męża dla księżniczki Sybilli. Wilhelm otrzymał tytuł hrabiego Jafy i Aszkelonu. Wilhelm z Tyru opisał go jako wysokiego blondyna, przystojnego, mężnego, otwartego, bezpretensjonalnego, ale skłonnego do jedzenia i picia.

Za zgodą Baldwina IV, Wilhelm i Renald z Châtillon przyznali część swoich ziem nowemu zakonowi przybyłemu z Kastylii – Monte Gaudio, któremu przewodził hrabia Rodrigo Alvarez de Sarria. Wilhelm zmarł nagle w czerwcu 1177 w Aszkelonie, prawdopodobnie na malarię, pozostawiając ciężarną żonę. Jego zwłoki przewiezione do Jerozolimy i złożone w grobie przy Szpitalu św. Jana. W 1190 jego młodszy brat – Konrad poślubił przyrodnią siostrę jego żony – Izabelę.

Guy of Lusignan (c. 1150 – 1194) was king of Jerusalem, first as the husband and co-ruler of Queen Sibylla from 1186 to 1190, then as disputed ruler from 1190 to 1192. He was also lord of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194. As king, Guy was highly unpopular amongst the nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and is often blamed for the fall of the kingdom to Saladin.

A Frankish Poitevin knight, Guy was the youngest son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and the younger brother of Aimery of Lusignan. After killing Patrick, 1st Earl of Salisbury, in a failed attempt to kidnap Eleanor of Aquitaine, he was banished from Poitou. After arriving in the Holy Land at an unknown date from 1173 to 1180, Guy was hastily married to Sibylla, the sister of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, in 1180 to prevent a political coup. As Baldwin's health deteriorated due to his leprosy, he appointed Guy as regent in 1183. However, Guy proved to be unpopular and incompetent as a leader, and Baldwin IV resumed power later that year. He stripped Guy of his inheritance, naming Baldwin V, Sibylla's son by her first husband William, as his co-king and eventual successor instead. Baldwin IV died in 1185, followed shortly by the sickly Baldwin V in 1186, leading to the succession of Sibylla. Sibylla was told to annul her marriage to Guy in order to ascend to the throne on the condition that she would be allowed to pick her next husband, but astonished the court by choosing to remarry and crown Guy. Guy's reign was marked by increased hostilities with the Ayyubids, ruled by Saladin, culminating in the Battle of Hattin in July 1187—during which Guy was captured—and the fall of Jerusalem itself three months later.

Following a year of imprisonment in Damascus, Guy was released by Saladin and reunited with his wife. After being denied entry to Tyre, one of the last crusader strongholds, by Conrad of Montferrat, Guy besieged Acre in 1189. The siege, during which Guy's wife and children died during an epidemic, developed into a rallying point for the Third Crusade, led by Philip II of France and Richard I of England. Conrad married Sibylla's half-sister Isabella and entered a bitter conflict with Guy over the kingship of Jerusalem. Despite Richard's support for the widower king, the kingdom's nobility elected Conrad king in 1192, and Richard compensated Guy for the dispossession of his crown by giving him lordship of Cyprus. Conrad was killed by Assassins days after the election; Guy ruled the Kingdom of Cyprus until he died in 1194 when he was succeeded by his brother Aimery.