Arda of Armenia

She was the first queen consort of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as Baldwin's brother and predecessor Godfrey of Bouillon was unmarried.

This was a politically convenient marriage, as Baldwin was the first count of Edessa, a crusader state carved out of Armenian territory in Mesopotamia.

Baldwin succeeded his brother as king of Jerusalem in 1100, but Arda did not immediately accompany him south; she travelled by sea and arrived probably in 1101.

In 1105 Baldwin had the marriage annulled, supposedly because Arda had been unfaithful, or, according to Guibert of Nogent, because she had been raped by pirates on the way to Jerusalem.

In reality, Thoros had paid very little of the dowry, Arda had produced no children, and an Armenian wife was less useful in Jerusalem than in Edessa.