​From the end of the First Crusade, victorious Christian leaders claimed rulership of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and surrounding territories. We call these the Crusader States or the Latin States. These states were regularly involved in continued fighting as the Latins tried to claim more territory and the Islamic leaders sought to reclaim what they had lost. Many male leaders on both sides died in this ongoing conflict, and women became essential for stability in the region. Even leaders from kingdoms that had never recognized a woman’s claim to rule, such as France, supported the right of daughters to inherit their father’s titles. The frequent loss of male guardians also meant that women needed to serve regents and feudal lords. Finally, marital alliances created ties between people from the West and Christian leaders among the Greeks, Syrians, and other areas within the Levant. The existence of stable Latin States made pilgrimage to the Holy Land easier and encouraged even more women to make the journey.

However, this does not mean that female leaders were always welcomed with open arms. Often, women who ruled were as dangerous a proposition as were women who fought. This led to mixed and contradictory accounts of the women who helped stabilize the Latin States in the wake of the Crusades. Alice of Antioch, for example, gained a historical reputation as an evil and greedy usurper for trying to take over the principality of Antioch. Her husband of four years was killed in 1130 when their daughter Constance, his heir, was only an infant, so Alice intended to rule as her regent as so many other royal mothers have done throughout history. Alice had support among her vassals, but her father, Baldwin II of Jerusalem, wanted a male regent to run Antioch until Constance grew up. He sent forces to remove Alice from power, and she retreated to Latakia and Jabala, cities she had received as dowry upon her marriage. From there, Alice consolidated support and went on to make two attempts to take over Antioch, which is painted as a woman trying to wrestle power away from others, when it was truly her trying to resume the position of power she had rightfully held. During all this time, Alice created the tools of government, appointing a constable and other offices, setting up a scriptorium to handle her decrees and alliances, and establishing a clear court culture. It was all for nothing. Alice finally admitted defeat when Raymond of Poitiers arrived and was chosen as Constance’s consort in 1136. Once the heir had a male partner to cement her claim to the principality, all of Alice’s supporters shifted to what seemed like a more stable option.

​Melisende of Jerusalem, Alice’s sister, had a different fate and much more support for her claim to Jerusalem. Baldwin II had married Melisende to Fulk, the Count of Anjou. Upon Baldwin’s death, Fulk and Melisende ascended to the throne. Together, they resisted one of Alice’s attempts on Antioch and it was Fulk who chose Raymond to marry Constance. However, at Melisende’s request, Fulk agreed to stay out of Alice’s affairs in the future.

​In 1143, Fulk died and Melisende remained on the throne. It was under her leadership that the Crusader State of Edessa fell. She sent word to the pope and inspired the call that launched the Second Crusade. Still, Melisende found herself in Alice’s shoes. In 1150, Melisende had to fight her own son, Baldwin III, to hold onto Jerusalem. She used many of the same tactics Alice had tried, and ultimately settled for serving as a regent while Baldwin was still young or away on campaign. Unlike Alice, however, Melisende is remembered fondly in the chronicles because of  her involvement in the Second Crusade.

The family drama continued into the next generation of the royal family. Melisende’s son, Count Almaric of Jaffa, married Agnes of Courtenay, a Frankish countess born in Edessa. Almaric was not initially meant to take the throne in Jerusalem, but after Baldwin III died childless in 1163, he became king. Yet, in 1161, the High Court of Jerusalem rejected Agnes as queen. Since Edessa had fallen to Turkish forces, Agnes was no longer politically useful, so the High Court forced Almaric to annul their marriage, although they agreed to recognize the couple’s children as legitimate heirs. The children, Baldwin IV and Sibyalla, were raised in separate courts.

When Baldwin took the throne in 1174, his mother joined him in Jerusalem and accompanied him on military campaigns. She did so, in part, because he had leprosy and was losing his eyesight. Baldwin trusted his mother and even appointed her to choose the Latin patriarch in Jerusalem. Since he had no heirs of his own, Baldwin oversaw the second marriage of his sister Sibyalla. A rival had paired her with someone else in order to undermine Baldwin, but Sibyalla’s first husband died when she was pregnant with her first child, so she joined her brother and mother in Jerusalem.

Over time, Sibyalla’s brother, Baldwin, grew to distrust her and her new husband. Ever sickly, he named Sibyalla’s son as his heir and preemptively appointed a regent to rule while the child was young. Baldwin died in 1185 and the child, Baldwin V, died the year after. Sibyalla swiftly claimed the throne for herself, and ruled Jerusalem alongside her husband. In theory, they ruled from 1186 to 1190, however, the Third Crusade began under their reign and they lost the city of Jerusalem in 1187  to Saladin, the Kurdish sultan of Egypt and Syria. The chaos among the Latin rulers was not lost on Islamic leaders and Saladin took advantage. Sibyalla retreated to Acre and died of illness in 1190 while it was under siege. Although the early queens of the Latin States had fought to bring stability, the last generation was just as enmeshed in politics as the noblemen.