The name of the princess was never recorded, although historians have suggested it may have been either Beatrice or Maria. Throughout her life, the Princess of Cyprus, also known as 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, realizing 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.
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.