Pirates, princes and hostages: inside the mysterious life of the unnamed medieval princess of Cyprus

Throughout her life, the “Damsel of Cyprus” (born circa 1177) was used as a political and diplomatic tool in the conflicts of men. She was the daughter of Isaac Komnenos, the emperor of Cyprus. Her own name was never recorded, although historians have suggested it may have been either Beatrice or Maria.

While the princess was often powerless, the small snippets of evidence that we have about her present the life of a young woman with the resolve and tenacity to survive and thrive. She’s one of the many women I’ve come across during my research into elite women’s experiences of confinement across 11th to 13th-century medieval Europe.

As a child, the princess and her brother were used as hostages in a war that her father was involved in. Isaac was captured while fighting in Armenia and given into the custody of Bohemond III, the prince of the Greek city of Antioch (which was in what is now Turkey). A ransom of 60,000 gold coins was set. After paying half the ransom, Isaac was released and he gave his children as hostages into Bohemond’s custody as surety for the remaining ransom payment.

The ransom was then supposedly stolen by pirates. Isaac argued that this was a ploy invented by Bohemond and refused to repay it. This left his children in custody for two years until Bohemond, realising that Isaac would never repay the ransom, released them. The princess was seven years old at the time of her release. After the death of her brother, she was Isaac’s sole heir.

In 1191, the princess was again taken captive as a result of one of her father’s conflicts, this time by Richard I of England. Isaac had attempted to capture Richard’s ship, which carried the king’s sister, Joanna of Sicily, and his future wife, Berengaria of Navarre. In retaliation, Richard laid siege to Cyprus.

Isaac eventually fled from Richard’s forces. According to 12th-century English chronicler, Roger of Hoveden, when Richard captured the castle that the princess was hiding in, she went out to meet the king and surrendered. A brave move from a young girl who was only around 14 or 15 years old.

Isaac, who loved his daughter dearly, despite having previously offered her as ransom collateral, soon surrendered and was imprisoned. Richard placed the princess into the custody of his new wife and sister “to be cared for and educated in their customs”. Although she was treated as a ward of the two queens, in reality she was a captive.

Freedom or control? The travels of the princess

A new chapter of the princess’s life began. She travelled with the two queens to Acre (in modern-day Israel), Rome, Pisa, Genoa, Marseilles, Aragon (on the Iberian Peninsula) and Poitou, in west-central France.

The historian Annette Parks has suggested that this offered an “odd kind of freedom” for the princess, travelling further than she ever had before and quite possibly crossing paths with the likes of the queen mother of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine. But despite her relative “freedom” in accompanying the two queens, these travels were not at the princess’s own discretion, and her movements were controlled.

After Richard’s own capture by the Holy Roman Emperor, the agreement for his release included his consenting to the marriage of both the princess and Eleanor of Brittany (who was also in Richard’s custody) to the sons of Leopold V of Austria.

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The two women began to travel to Austria together in 1193 only to turn around part way through the journey, as the death of Leopold brought an end to the agreement. The princess may then have accompanied Joanna of Sicily during her second marriage to Raymond VI of Toulouse in 1196.

With Richard’s death in 1199, the princess was finally freed and went on to make two advantageous marriages. First, to Raymond VI, the same man who had been married to Joanna of Sicily until her death also in 1199. Second, to Thierry of Flanders after the annulment of her first marriage. Raymond had repudiated the princess in favour of a stronger marriage alliance with Leonor, the daughter of Alfonso II of Aragon.

It was during this second marriage that the princess briefly becomes visible in the historical record again.

In 1204 Thierry attempted to reclaim Cyprus through the rights of his wife. By this point, the political circumstances of Cyprus had changed and a new king had been installed. Thierry and the princess’s attempt was unsuccessful and the two were forced to flee, after which they disappear from the record for good.

The Damsel of Cyprus had almost no control over her life. But the record shows instances in which her own strength and tenacity were able to shine through. From facing King Richard in surrender, to forming advantageous marriages when she had no networks of her own, she navigated the circumstances that captivity brought upon her and she found ways to survive and retain her status as an elite woman. I would even speculate that the attempt to reclaim Cyprus was at the princess’s instigation, in an effort to regain her home.

As a young girl with no say over much of her life, the Damsel of Cyprus is a reminder of how medieval women continued to find ways to overcome the limitations placed on them.

Leticia Jeeval Pala receives funding from Nottingham Trent University.