Countess Hodierna of Tripoli: From Crusader Politician to ‘Princesse Lointaine’
By Kevin James Lewis
Assuming Gender, Volume 3, Issue 1 (2013)
Abstract: This case study of Hodierna (c. 1115 to c. 1161), princess of Jerusalem and countess of Jerusalem, highlights how any given woman’s historical reputation is subject to unpredictable forces, often beyond her control and rarely reflective of her actions in life. Hodierna has been ignored or dismissed by most historians of the crusades, except insofar as they define her by her male relatives and her more famous sisters, Melisende of Jerusalem and Alice of Antioch. Hodierna is perhaps best known today as one possible model for the ‘Distant Princess’, with whom the troubadour Jaufré Rudel supposedly fell in love without ever seeing. This article aims to outline earlier historians’ attitudes towards Hodierna and to explain how these have been shaped by the various exigencies of poor source survival, a singularly unfortunate scribal error and the arguably misogynist legend of the ‘Distant Princess’. In doing so, the article hopes to demonstrate how such obstacles – familiar to all historians of medieval women – can be overcome, allowing a reassessment of Hodierna’s agency and contemporary significance. Like her sisters, she was able to use her social status as derived from kinship bonds to transcend the gendered norms and constraints of the Latin East. A devoted mother and sister, but also an active politician in the two ‘crusaders states’ of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the county of Tripoli, she ought not to be neglected as has hitherto been the case. This article thus encourages a closer investigation of other obscure figures of crusading history, especially women.
Introduction: The fate of any given woman’s historical reputation is subject to often unpredictable forces, frequently beyond her control and unreflective of her actual actions in life. One individual in particular – Countess Hodierna of the crusader county of Tripoli – exemplifies this phenomenon. There would have been no reason to assume on the basis of Hodierna’s character and endeavours during her lifetime that she would now be consigned to obscurity as a nearly irrelevant figure in the history of the crusades or subjected to archetypal and misogynist classification as the romanticised target of a troubadour’s affections, had this not been precisely what happened. How this process took place is worth consideration, shedding light on the manner in which an individual’s legacy turns upon such vagaries as source survival and literary tradition, whilst hopefully pointing towards means of overcoming such obstacles and thereby encouraging a closer investigation of other hitherto obscure figures of crusading history, especially women.
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During and after the First Crusade of 1096 to 1099, four superficially ‘western’ or ‘feudal’ lordships were established in the Near East, namely the kingdom of Jerusalem, the county of Tripoli, the principality of Antioch and the county of Edessa – known collectively as the ‘crusader states’ or ‘Latin East’. These polities were founded by European nobles of varying origins. For example, it was the Southern French Count Raymond IV of Toulouse and Saint-Gilles who founded the dynasty which ruled the county of Tripoli up until 1187, and which is the main focus of this present paper.
By Kevin James Lewis
Assuming Gender, Volume 3, Issue 1 (2013)
Abstract: This case study of Hodierna (c. 1115 to c. 1161), princess of Jerusalem and countess of Jerusalem, highlights how any given woman’s historical reputation is subject to unpredictable forces, often beyond her control and rarely reflective of her actions in life. Hodierna has been ignored or dismissed by most historians of the crusades, except insofar as they define her by her male relatives and her more famous sisters, Melisende of Jerusalem and Alice of Antioch. Hodierna is perhaps best known today as one possible model for the ‘Distant Princess’, with whom the troubadour Jaufré Rudel supposedly fell in love without ever seeing. This article aims to outline earlier historians’ attitudes towards Hodierna and to explain how these have been shaped by the various exigencies of poor source survival, a singularly unfortunate scribal error and the arguably misogynist legend of the ‘Distant Princess’. In doing so, the article hopes to demonstrate how such obstacles – familiar to all historians of medieval women – can be overcome, allowing a reassessment of Hodierna’s agency and contemporary significance. Like her sisters, she was able to use her social status as derived from kinship bonds to transcend the gendered norms and constraints of the Latin East. A devoted mother and sister, but also an active politician in the two ‘crusaders states’ of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the county of Tripoli, she ought not to be neglected as has hitherto been the case. This article thus encourages a closer investigation of other obscure figures of crusading history, especially women.
Introduction: The fate of any given woman’s historical reputation is subject to often unpredictable forces, frequently beyond her control and unreflective of her actual actions in life. One individual in particular – Countess Hodierna of the crusader county of Tripoli – exemplifies this phenomenon. There would have been no reason to assume on the basis of Hodierna’s character and endeavours during her lifetime that she would now be consigned to obscurity as a nearly irrelevant figure in the history of the crusades or subjected to archetypal and misogynist classification as the romanticised target of a troubadour’s affections, had this not been precisely what happened. How this process took place is worth consideration, shedding light on the manner in which an individual’s legacy turns upon such vagaries as source survival and literary tradition, whilst hopefully pointing towards means of overcoming such obstacles and thereby encouraging a closer investigation of other hitherto obscure figures of crusading history, especially women.
During and after the First Crusade of 1096 to 1099, four superficially ‘western’ or ‘feudal’ lordships were established in the Near East, namely the kingdom of Jerusalem, the county of Tripoli, the principality of Antioch and the county of Edessa – known collectively as the ‘crusader states’ or ‘Latin East’. These polities were founded by European nobles of varying origins. For example, it was the Southern French Count Raymond IV of Toulouse and Saint-Gilles who founded the dynasty which ruled the county of Tripoli up until 1187, and which is the main focus of this present paper.
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