Zabel (b. around 1210)

Queen of Lesser Armenia. Name variations: Isabella; Zabel the Rupenid. Born around 1210 in Sis, Lesser Armenia (Cilicia in modern-day Turkey); younger daughter of Leo the Great, king of Lesser Armenia, and his second wife Sibylla of Cyprus; married Andrew of Hungary (divorced 1219); married Philip of Antioch, later king of Lesser Armenia, in 1222 (died 1225); married Hetoum (Hayton) I of Baberon, later king of Lesser Armenia, on June 14, 1226; children: (third marriage) Leo II, king of Lesser Armenia; Thoros; Sybilla; Euphemia; Maria.

The medieval Armenian princess Zabel was the heir of her father, King Leo the Great of Lesser Armenia, also called Cilicia, located in modern-day Turkey. Her mother was Sibylla of Cyprus , princess of a French crusader kingdom. King Leo had no sons, and named nine-year-old Zabel his heir before he died in 1219. Zabel was thus the first woman to succeed to the throne in Cilicia. She had been married to the prince Andrew of Hungary (though they did not live together) as part of a political alliance, but this marriage was annulled in 1219 by Zabel's regent, her cousin Prince Constantine of Baberon. In 1222, Constantine arranged a marriage for Zabel with her cousin Philip of Antioch, son of the French crusader-king Bohemond IV of Antioch. However, Philip's refusal to live in Armenia and join the Armenian Church, coupled with his politics in favor of alliances with Western Europe, led to his arrest and execution in 1225. Forced to marry Constantine's 11-year-old son Hetoum, Zabel was coerced into a double coronation with him in 1225, but then fled to Seleucia (modern Silifke). The Knights Templar who held the city allowed Constantine to take control of Seleucia the following year, and Zabel returned to her capital at Sis. During their long coreign as adults, Hetoum and Zabel considerably expanded the kingdom through warfare and allowed the arts to flourish, though Zabel in practice was allowed little authority. The eldest of her five children, Leo, became king in 1269 as Leo II on his father Hetoum's abdication.

sources:

Boase, T.S.R., ed. The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1978.

Jackson, Guida M. Women Who Ruled. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1990.

Laura York , M.A. in History, University of California, Riverside, California