Sibilla Anjou, 25th Great-Grandmother

March 14, 2014 — 3 Comments

Sibilla Anjou

My 25th great grandmother was from the House of Anjou (like the pear) .  Her father, Fulk, was a crusader who is buried at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, as King of Jerusalem, which is a very big deal, and pretty creepy. I have been there but did not think to look for my ancestors at the time.  The Anjous are Plantagenets in that way that royal Euros had lots of different names and houses.  The crusade thing is equally confusing.  This is how the Anjous took over the English throne:

The Plantagenets are also called Angevins, because their immediate paternal progenitors were Counts of Anjou, an autonomous county in northern France. They descend in the male line from from the Counts of Gatinais, one of whom had married an heiress to the county, her Anjou ancestors deriving from an obscure 9th century nobleman named Ingelger.  It is due to this lineage that the Plantagenets are sometimes referred to as the First House of Anjou. One of the more notable Counts was Fulk, a crusader who became King of Jerusalem. It was his son, Geoffrey, nicknamed Plantagenet, who gave his name to the dynasty, and Fulk’s grandson, Henry, was the first of the family to rule England.
Henry’ s claim to the English throne came through his mother, the Empress Matilda, who had claimed the crown as the daughter of Henry I of England. Empress Matilda’s brother William Adelin had died in the wreck of the White Ship, leaving Matilda her father’s only surviving legitimate child.  However, on Henry’s death in 1135, Matilda’s cousin Stephen of Blois was supported by much of the Anglo-Norman nobility, and was able to have himself crowned instead.  A tightly fought civil war known as The Anarchy ensued, with Matilda gaining support from her illegitimate half-brother, Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester.  The balance swayed both ways during the war, Matilda gained control at one point and carried the title “Lady of the English” before Stephen forced her out to Anjou. Unrest and instability continued throughout Stephen’s reign, while on the continent, Geoffrey managed to take control of the Duchy of Normandy for the Angevins in 1141 but seemingly showed no interest in campaigning across the Channel.

Sibilla went to Jerusalem where her father married the queen. Later she became a nun, like lots of my royal female ancestors:

Sibylla of Anjou (c. 1112-1165) was a daughter of Fulk V of Anjou and Ermengarde of Maine, and wife of William Clito and Thierry, Count of Flanders.

In 1123 Sibylla married to William Clito, son of the Norman Robert Curthose and future Count of Flanders. Sibylla brought the County of Maine to this marriage, which was annulled in 1124 on grounds of consanguinity. The annulment was made by Pope Honorius II upon request from Henry I of England, William’s uncle; Fulk opposed it and did not consent until Honorius excommunicated him and placed an interdict over Anjou. Sibylla then accompanied her widower father to the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, where he married Melisende, the heiress of the kingdom, and became king himself in 1131. In 1139 she married Thierry, Count of Flanders, who had arrived on his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

She returned to Flanders with her new husband, and during his absence on the Second Crusade the pregnant Sibylla acted as regent of the county. Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut took the opportunity to attack Flanders, but Sibylla led a counter-attack and pillaged Hainaut. In response Baldwin ravaged Artois. The archbishop of Reims intervened and a truce was signed, but Thierry took vengeance on Baldwin when he returned in 1149.

In 1157 she travelled with Thierry on his third pilgrimage, but after arriving in Jerusalem she separated from her husband and refused to return home with him. She became a nun at the convent of St. Lazarus in Bethany, where her step-aunt, Ioveta of Bethany, was abbess. Ioveta and Sibylla supported Queen Melisende and held some influence over the church, and supported the election of Amalric of Nesle as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem over a number of other candidates. Sibylla died in Bethany in 1165.

With Thierry she had six children:

• Philip, Count of Flanders
• Matthew, Count of Boulogne, married Marie of Boulogne
• Margaret, Countess of Flanders and Hainaut, married Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut
• Gertrude
• Matilda
• Peter

Sibilla d’Anjou born about 1105 Anjou, France died 1165/67

father: *Foulques V “le Jeune” Count of Anjou & King of Jerusalemborn 1092 Anjou, France
died 10 November 1143 Jerusalem, Holy Landburied Church Of Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, Holy Land

mother: *Ermengarde (Ermentrude) du Maineborn about 1096 Maine, France
died 1126 Maine, Francemarried 11 July 1110 France

siblings:
*Geoffrey V “le Bon” Plantagenet born 24 August 1113 Anjou, France; died 7 September 1151 Chateau, France
Mathilde d’Anjou born about 1104 Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France; died 1154 Fontevrault Abbey, Fontevrault, Maine-et-Loire, France
Elias d’Anjou born about 1111 Anjou, France; died 15 January 1151 St Serge Abbey, Angers, Anjou, France buried L’Abbey des Sergela, Angers, France

spouse: *Dietrich (Thierry) d’ Alsaceborn about 1099 Alsace, France
died 17 January 1168married 1134

children:
*Marguerite de Lorraine born about 1135 Alsace, France died 15 November 1194
*Matthieu d’ Alsace born about 1137 Flanders, Belgium died 1214 buried St. Judoc, Ponthieu, France