Morphia of Melitene

Morphia of Melitene was queen consort of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1118 until her death. She was an Armenian by ethnicity and a Melkite Greek Orthodox Christian. Her father, Gabriel, was a warlord in northern Syria. He wished to marry her off to one of the crusader leaders who were carving out states in the Levant, and eventually chose Count Baldwin II of Edessa. They married around 1100 and had four daughters: Melisende, Alice, Hodierna, and Ioveta. In 1118, Baldwin was elected king of Jerusalem; the next year, Morphia became the first woman to be crowned as the queen of Jerusalem. She did not participate in the government but took initiative to liberate her husband after he was captured in 1123. She died a few years later. According to historian Bernard Hamilton, her religious practices left a lasting mark on the status of Orthodox Christians in the crusader kingdom.