Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem
Melisende was Queen of Jerusalem from 1131 to 1153, and regent for her son between 1153 and 1161, while he was on campaign. She was the eldest daughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, and the Armenian princess Morphia of Melitene.
Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem
An illustration from the Melisende Psalter, commissioned during the Queen's reign
Chapel of Saints Joachim and Anne, originally the tomb of Queen Melisende of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Latin Kingdom, was a Crusader state that was established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 until the fall of Acre in 1291. Its history is divided into two periods with a brief interruption in its existence, beginning with its collapse after the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 and its restoration after the Third Crusade in 1192.
After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The funeral of Baldwin I from the book Les Passages d'outremer faits par les Français contre les Turcs depuis Charlemagne jusqu'en 1462.
Depiction of Crusaders from a 1922 edition of Petit Larousse
The Tower of David in Jerusalem as it appears today
