Isabella, Queen of Armenia

Isabella (Armenian: Զապել; 27 January 1216/ 25 January 1217 – 23 January 1252), also Isabel or Zabel, was queen regnant of Armenian Cilicia from 1219 until her death in 1252.

She was proclaimed queen under the regency of Adam of Baghras. After he was assassinated, Constantine of Baberon (of the Hethumid family) was nominated as guardian. At this juncture, Raymond-Roupen, grandson of Roupen III (the elder brother of Isabella’s father, King Leo I), attempted to claim the throne of Cilicia for himself, but he was defeated, captured, and executed.

Constantine of Baberon was soon convinced to seek an alliance with Prince Bohemond IV of Antioch, and he arranged a marriage between the young princess and Philip, a son of Bohemond IV. Philip, however, offended the Armenians’ sensibilities, and even despoiled the royal palace, sending the royal crown to Antioch; therefore, he was confined in a prison in Sis (now Kozan in Turkey), where he died, presumably poisoned.

The unhappy young Isabella was forced to marry Constantine of Barbaron’s son, Hethum. Although for many years she refused to live with him, in the end she relented. The apparent unification in marriage of the two principal dynastic forces of Cilicia (the Roupenids and the Hethumids) ended a century of dynastic and territorial rivalry and brought the Hethumids to the forefront of political dominance in Cilician Armenia.

The lawful heiress of the empire, Isabella, governed the country together with her husband, and led a pious, religious life. She was blessed for her good deeds and exemplary life by many children, the numerous offsprings of a famous race.

— Vahram of Edessa: The Rhymed Chronicle of Armenia Minor