Alice, Queen Consort of Cyprus, had a speech impediment, cured by a miracle due to a fragment of Christ’s Cross.

She is my 16 x great-grandmother.

Alice or Alix was born sometime between 1304 and 1306¹, most likely in Nicosia. She is the daughter of Guy Ibelin, the castellan of Nicosia, and Isabelle Ibelin¹.

Titles

Cyprus crowned her Queen consort of Cyprus when her husband became King of Cyprus². They held the coronation at the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia^{1 2 3 4}.

On 13 May, in Famagusta, they crowned her Queen consort of Jerusalem when her husband became King².

Family

In 1310 she was betrothed to Henri de Lusignan, son of Amaury of Cyprus. Amaury’s family was exiled to Armenia, so this betrothal was terminated¹.

In 1318, she married Hugh de Lusignan, Amaury’s nephew^{1 5}. Hugh later became King Hugh IV of Cyprus¹. Pope John XXII issued the papal dispensation for this marriage on 18 June of that year, and they married on 17 September¹.

Hugh and Alice were second-cousins and shared common great-grandparents

• Guy Ibelin and Philippa Berlais had two children:
  • A daughter, Isabelle who married Hugh III of Cyprus. They had a son:
    • Guy, who married Eschiva Ibelin. Their son is Hugh.
  • A son, Bailon who married Alix of Lampron. They had a son:
    • Guy who married Isabelle Ibelin. Their daughter is Alice.

Hugh and Alice had 9 children¹:

• Guy of Cyprus
• Eschiva of Lusignan, born in 1325, died in 1363 of the plague.
• Peter (Pierre) who became Pierre I, King of Cyprus. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Peter I is the “worthy Peter” in his catalogue of fallen heros.
• John (Jean) of Cyprus (born between 1329 and 1330), murdered in Nicosia in 1375. He inherited the title of Titular Prince of Antioch.
• James (Jacques) I of Lusignan (1334-1398).
• Thomas of Cyprus, who died on 15 November 1340.
• Isabelle, who died in June 1340.
• Marguerite of Lusignan who married in 1337 and in 1347.

She became a widow in 1359¹.

In 1359 she married Philipp von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen¹, the son of Heinrich von Braunschweig, Duke of Saxony⁶. Pope Urban V issued the papal dispensation for this wedding on 29 May 1368^{1 6}. She was his second wife, and they did not have any children⁶.

Philipp was also her son’s father-in-law, which is why they needed a papal dispensation.

Notable events

Contemporary records show Alix had an “impeded tongue” cured by divine intervention of “la Santa Croce di Tochni”¹. This is a reference to a chapel in the Tochni village of Cyprus that claimed to house a piece of the True Cross of Christ.

Death

She died after 6 August 1386 in Cyprus, and they buried her in the Dominican Church^{1 3 5}. The cause of her death is unknown.

Lineage

This person is my 16 x great-grandmother.

References

1. Cyprus; Medieval lands; Charles Cawley; (Retrieved 2024-05-20) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. A History of Cyprus; Sir George Francis Hill; Cambridge University Press; 2010-11[↩][↩][↩]
3. List of Cypriot sovereigns; Royal Tombs; (Retrieved 2024-05-21) [↩][↩]
4. The Reign of Hugues IV; Cyprus History; (Retrieved 2024-05-21) [↩]
5. Hugh IV; Genealogy.eu; (Retrieved 2024-05-20) [↩][↩]
6. Brunswick; Medieval lands; Charles Cawley; (Retrieved 2024-05-20) [↩][↩][↩]