Helvis was a child-bride at 12 to her step-brother to keep things in the family.

She is my 15th great-grandmother.

She was born in 1353¹. She is the daughter of Philipp Herzog von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen, Constable of Jerusalem and Alisia de Dampierre². It is logical to conclude she was born in Jerusalem.

Titles

In May³ 1385, they crowned her Queen consort of Cyprus in the cathedral of St Sophia, Nicosia⁴.

Family

On 15 May 1365, she married her step-brother James^{5 6}. Pope Urban V signed a Papal dispensation on 15 May 1365⁷.

The marriage took place in a debtors’ prison in Genoa, known as “La Mal Paga”⁸. Since it is close to the Vatican, it’s likely they married soon after the Pope approved it.

King Jacques I & his wife had 11 children^{9 10}:

• An unnamed daughter, born in 1372
• Janus, who went on to be King Janus I.
• Philippe
• Eude
• Hugh
• Henri
• Maria
• Isabelle
• Eschiva
• Agnes
• Guy

Notable events

While her husband was in prison, Genoa forced her into manual labour before they allowed her to join him¹¹. There is no mention of what this would have meant.

In fiction and media

In 2024, two Turkish Cypriots worked on an exhibition called “Mediaval women of Cyprus.”¹² The mediavelist Ahmet Hilmi and artist Semra Bayhanli collaborated to showcase the women who were misunderstood, or unfairly portrayed as malicious in Cypriot history¹³. Helvis was one of the women portrayed in the exhibition¹⁴.

Death

Records list her death in 1422^{15 16} as a result of the plague that hit Cyprus¹⁷. They buried her in St Nicholas Church, Nicosia^{18 19 20}.

Lineage

This person is my 15th great-grandmother.

References

1. Brunswick; Charles Cawley; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
2. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
3. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
4. List of Cypriot sovereigns; Royal Tombs; (Retrieved 2024-05-21) [↩]
5. List of Cypriot sovereigns; Royal Tombs; (Retrieved 2024-05-21) [↩]
6. The Manuscript Torino J.II.9: A late medieval perspective on musical life and culture at the court of the Lusignian kings at Nicosia; Andrée Giselle Simard; University of Akron; 2005-12[↩]
7. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
8. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
9. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
10. List of Cypriot sovereigns; Royal Tombs; (Retrieved 2024-05-21) [↩]
11. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
12. Rakoczy, A. (2024). Mediaeval aristocratic women brought back to life. [online] Cyprus-mail.com. Available at: https://cyprus-mail.com/2024/05/26/mediaeval-aristocratic-women-brought-back-to-life/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2026].[↩]
13. Rakoczy, A. (2024). Mediaeval aristocratic women brought back to life. [online] Cyprus-mail.com. Available at: https://cyprus-mail.com/2024/05/26/mediaeval-aristocratic-women-brought-back-to-life/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2026].[↩]
14. Rakoczy, A. (2024). Mediaeval aristocratic women brought back to life. [online] Cyprus-mail.com. Available at: https://cyprus-mail.com/2024/05/26/mediaeval-aristocratic-women-brought-back-to-life/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2026].[↩]
15. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
16. The Manuscript Torino J.II.9: A late medieval perspective on musical life and culture at the court of the Lusignian kings at Nicosia; Andrée Giselle Simard; University of Akron; 2005-12[↩]
17. The Manuscript Torino J.II.9: A late medieval perspective on musical life and culture at the court of the Lusignian kings at Nicosia; Andrée Giselle Simard; University of Akron; 2005-12[↩]
18. Brunswick; Charles Cawley; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
19. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2024-05-28) [↩]
20. List of Cypriot sovereigns; Royal Tombs; (Retrieved 2024-05-21) [↩]

Family Tree