Maria Komnene (Greek: Μαρία Κομνηνή; c. 1154 – 1217), Latinized Comnena, was the queen of Jerusalem from 1167 until 1174 as the second wife of King Amalric.

When Amalric died in 1174, the crown passed to Maria's stepson, Baldwin IV, and she withdrew with her daughter, Isabella, to the city of Nablus, which she was to rule as queen dowager.

Sibylla died in 1190 while Guy was retaking Acre, and his opponents asserted that his reign had thus ended and that Maria's daughter Isabella was the rightful heir.

[3] Nearly all of the Christian peasants in the Kingdom of Jerusalem belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church, but the ruling class, the Franks, were Roman Catholics.

[8] Amalric was forced by the High Court of Jerusalem to agree to an annulment of his marriage to Agnes of Courtenay, but he successfully appealed to Pope Alexander III to have their children, Sibylla and Baldwin, declared legitimate.

[9] Wishing to restore the alliance with the powerful Byzantine Empire,[10] King Amalric took his vassals' advice and in 1165 sent his butler, Odo of St Amand, and the archbishop of Caesarea, Ernesius, as envoys to Emperor Manuel.

[15] Historian Bernard Hamilton concludes that the new queen was neither particularly attractive, as not even her supporters flattered her, nor endowed with an impressive dowry, as her cousin Theodora had been.

[1] Maria and her household represented Byzantine interests in the crusader states,[16] but like Theodora in Baldwin III's reign, she had no influence on the government as queen.

Amalric and Baldwin III were both keen to avoid sharing authority with their wives; Hamilton suggests that they might have been mindful of the power once wielded by their mother, Queen Melisende.

[17] Hamilton believes that Maria was also disadvantaged by having no son,[17] while historian Deborah Gerish considers it "highly likely" that her Greek heritage and religion were also obstacles.

Maria proved markedly ambitious, and Hamilton believes that she probably resented Baldwin's precedence over her own progeny in the line of succession.

[19] The lack of a son in the royal marriage became troubling as suspicion grew that Baldwin had contracted leprosy, which was then an incurable and much stigmatised illness.

[23] Maria found herself in an unusual situation after Amalric's death: she was the queen dowager, but the new king, Baldwin IV, had a living mother, Agnes of Courtenay.

The young king started planning an invasion of Egypt, ruled by the Muslim sultan Saladin,[29] who had become a threat to crusader states during Raymond's regency.

[32] He was tasked by his liege, King Louis VII of France, with discussing a Franco-Byzantine alliance with Emperor Manuel on his way back to Europe.

The queen dowager must have been in contact with the Byzantines in the Levant and aware of their intention to cancel the expedition due to their allies' failure to cooperate.

[38] The match may have been a consolation prize to the House of Ibelin, as Balian's brother Baldwin had been denied marriage to Maria's stepdaughter, Sibylla, who was heir presumptive to the throne.

[40] Remarriage ended any possibility that Maria might manage the king's court; the role was assumed by Agnes, whose influence over Sibylla and Baldwin steadily increased.

It is probably she who informed her granduncle Manuel about the scheme to have Baldwin marry Sibylla, prompting the emperor to pay his extortionate ransom.

[43] In October, King Baldwin arranged the betrothal of his half-sister Isabella, Maria's daughter, to Raynald's stepson, Humphrey IV of Toron.

[45] Isabella, then aged eight,[45] was sent to live at Kerak Castle with Humphrey's mother, Stephanie of Milly, who prevented her from visiting Maria in Nablus.

He arranged for Sibylla's son, Baldwin V, to undergo a crown-wearing ceremony after which Maria's husband, Balian, expressed their family's support for the boy by carrying him to banquet on his shoulders.

[56] When news of Sibylla and Guy's coronation in Jerusalem reached them, Raymond suggested crowning Isabella and Humphrey as rival monarchs.

[67] With her party, which included Balian, Reynald of Sidon, and Pagan II of Haifa, she abducted her daughter from her tent next to Humphrey's.

[69] Isabella had been happy with Humphrey, and Maria had to browbeat her into agreeing to have their marriage annulled,[67] arguing that her succession rights could not otherwise be enforced.

[70] Maria then stated before the papal legate, Archbishop Ubaldo Lanfranchi of Pisa, and the bishop of Beauvais, Philip of Dreux,[71] that Isabella had been forced by Baldwin IV to marry Humphrey and that she was underage at the time.

[75] The heir presumptive to the young queen was her younger half-sister Alice of Champagne, who presumably came under the guardianship of their grandmother, Maria Komnene.

[75] Having outlived all the principal figures of Christian-ruled Jerusalem, Maria may have provided valuable recollections of the kingdom's laws and customs to her son John, who became a noted jurist.

[40] A very hostile source, the Itinerarium Regis Ricardi, describes Maria as being "steeped in Greek filth from the cradle",[76] and says that the character of her husband Balian "matched her own": Where he was savage, she was godless; where he was shallow-minded, she was fickle; where he was treacherous, she was scheming.