Theodora Komnene (Ancient Greek: Θεοδώρα Κομνηνή; born c. 1145) was a member of the Byzantine imperial Komnenos family who became queen consort of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

[2] In 1157, envoys from the Kingdom of Jerusalem arrived in Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, to request a marital alliance with Manuel.

[4] It was in dire need of money and military assistance against the Muslim ruler Nur al-Din Zengi, and so when its high court debated the marriage of their young king, Baldwin III, a decision was reached to seek a Byzantine bride.

[3] The Franks were fully satisfied:[3] Theodora set out with a "colossal dowry of 100,000 hyperpyra,[3][6] with a wardrobe worth a further 14,000, and another 10,000 for the costs of the royal wedding.

[8] Contrary to the Western practice, Theodora was first crowned and then married;[9] her marriage to Baldwin was celebrated, also by the Antiochene patriarch, a few days after her coronation.

[8] Hamilton surmises that Theodora and Baldwin were happy together: the king, whose earlier lechery scandalized his subjects, became "a reformed character" after the marriage.

[10] Baldwin associated Theodora in only two acts: one involving Acre, her dower-fief, and the other concerning a major land exchange with his vassal Philip of Milly, the importance of which required that it be witnessed by the entire royal family.

[12] Historian Deborah Gerish considers it "highly likely" that Theodora's Greek ethnicity and Eastern Orthodoxy were to her disadvantage; although Hans Eberhard Mayer has suggested that she may have converted to Roman Catholicism.

Hamilton surmises that Theodora's life as a foreigner amongst the Frankish nobility must have been dull, and the queenly precedence she enjoyed lapsed when Amalric married her kinswoman Maria Komnene in 1167.

Manuel had appointed him governor of Cilicia but the duties bored him, and he went to Antioch, where he seduced Philippa, who was a member of the Antiochene ruling family and the emperor's sister-in-law.

[15] Archbishop William of Tyre wrote that Andronikos, behaving towards the king "like a mouse in a wallet", invited Theodora to visit him in Beirut, abducted her as she traveled, and carried her off to the court of Nur al-Din Zengi in Damascus.

Concerned that the illicit relationship would put his meticulously crafted policy at risk and wishing to demonstrate to the Franks that he took the insult of their royal house seriously, Manuel sent orders to his agents in the kingdom to blind Andronikos.

[15] The defection of a Byzantine prince and a queen of Jerusalem delighted the Muslim world and the couple were enthusiastically received throughout it.