Throughout her life, the “Damsel of Cyprus” (born circa 1177) was used as a political and diplomatic tool in the conflicts of men. She was the daughter of Isaac Komnenos, the emperor of Cyprus. Her own name was never recorded, although historians have suggested it may have been either Beatrice or Maria.
While the princess was often powerless, the small snippets of evidence that we have about her present the life of a young woman with the resolve and tenacity to survive and thrive. She’s one of the many women I’ve come across during my research into elite women’s experiences of confinement across 11th to 13th-century medieval Europe.
As a child, the princess and her brother were used as hostages in a war that her father was involved in. Isaac was captured while fighting in Armenia and given into the custody of Bohemond III, the prince of the Greek city of Antioch (which was in what is now Turkey). A ransom of 60,000 gold coins was set. After paying half the ransom, Isaac was released and he gave his children as hostages into Bohemond’s custody as surety for the remaining ransom payment.
