Queen
Plaisance of Cyprus, born
Plaisance of Antioch or
Plaisance de Poitiers (
1235/1236 or c.
1235 –
September 27/22, 1261) was a daughter of
Bohemund V of Antioch and his second wife, the Italian noblewoman Lucienne dei Conti di Segni, kinswoman of
Pope Innocent III. She became
Queen consort and
Queen regent of the
Kingdom of Cyprus and acting
Regent of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem between
1236 and
1261.
She was firstly married in
1250 to the
Henry the Fat of Cyprus, who died in
1253. Their son, the child
Hugh II, became king with Plaisance as regent, and it was determined that Hugh did not (yet) have a legal claim to the kingdom of Jerusalem, which was at the time nominally ruled by the child
Conradin. Nevertheless, in
1258, Plaisance's brother
Bohemund VI of Antioch brought Hugh and Plaisance to
Acre and demanded that they be recognized as king and regent, respectively.
John of Ibelin (
count of Jaffa), the
Knights Templar, and the
Teutonic Knights agreed with this, against the opposition of the
Knights Hospitaller and various jurists who still wished to recognize Conradin as king, even though he was not present in the kingdom. In any case, the position of regent belonged by birthright to the underage Hugh, who was Conradin's immediate heir and hereditarily the next king if Conradin failed to have his own progeny.
Plaisance, supported by a majority of the nobles, was accepted as acting regent and then appointed her former father-in-law
John of Ibelin (lord of Arsuf) to rule as
bailiff in her place; he had already been bailiff before her arrival and both Bohemund and John of Jaffa had hoped the presence of Plaisance and Hugh would eliminate the need for another bailiff. The dispute continued and
Pope Alexander IV sent the
Genoese to attempt to settle it; John of Jaffa convinced Bohemund and Plaisance to unite Jerusalem,
Antioch, and
Tripoli against them. In 1260 the high churchman (a future pope)
Jacques Pantaleon arrived to take up the vacant
patriarchate, hoping to solve the crisis. Around this time Plaisance apparently became John of Jaffa's mistress, against the new patriarch's wishes.
Before
December 7, 1254, as a widow, Plaisance married
Balian d'Ibelin, Lord of Arsuf, son of
Jean d'Ibelin, Lord of Arsuf, but they divorced and had the marriage annulled in
1258. Plaisance died in 1261 and the regency passed to her sister-in-law
Isabella of Lusignan, who was married to Plaisance's brother and who was the sister of Plaisance's late husband.
She died at
Cyprus and was buried there.