Orgueilleuse of Harenc

The main source of her life is the {{lang|fr|Lignages d'Outremer}},{{sfn|Buck|2017|p=146}} a monograph about the royal and aristocratic families of the Crusader states and Cilician Armenia compiled {{circa|1270}}.{{sfn|Nielen|2006|p=726}} She is mentioned in princely charters between 1170 and 1175.{{sfn|Runciman|1989|p=419 (note 2)}} Both her parentage and the circumstances of her marriage to Bohemond are unclear.{{sfn|Buck|2017|pp=99, 14}} The historian Andrew D. Buck presents her as the heiress of Harenc (now at Harem, Syria), a strategically important fortress defending the frontiers of the Principality of Antioch against attacks from the Muslim emirate of Aleppo.{{sfn|Buck|2017|pp=131, 146}}

Orgueilleuse became the first wife of Bohemond III of Antioch in the 1160s, according to Buck. He argues that she must have "come from a family deeply entrenched within Antioch's political history" to be married by the ruling prince. Consequently, he identifies her as a scion of the noble Fresnel family established by the Norman aristocrat Guy Fresnel who had seized Harenc {{circa|1111}}. Harenc, with Buck's words, "had a turbulent history", as it had been captured and recaptured by Antiochene and Aleppan troops many times before it was definitely lost to Antioch in 1164, although Bohemond would try to reconquer it several times during the 1170s and 1180s.{{sfn|Buck|2017|pp=131, 146}}

Orgueilleuse gave birth to Bohemond's two sons, Raymond (in 1169) and the younger Bohemond (in 1171).{{sfn|Rüdt-Collenberg|1963|loc=Table I}} Buck assumes that Bohemond's younger half-brother Baldwin left Antioch to join the Varangian Guard after their birth, because Bohemond wanted to secure his heir's smooth succession in case of his early death.{{sfn|Buck|2017|p=83}} The medievalist Malcolm Barber says that Orgueilleuse was last mentioned in February 1175,{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=418 (note 79)}} while an other historian, Guy Perry adds March 1175 as the final date.{{sfn|Perry|2013|p=114 (note 27)}}

{{Reflist}}

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• {{cite book|last=Barber|first=Malcolm|author-link=Malcolm Barber|year=2012|title=The Crusader States|url=https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300208887/the-crusader-states/|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-11312-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Buck|first=Andrew D.|year=2017|title=The Principality of Antioch and Its Frontiers in the Twelfth Century|url=https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783271733/the-principality-of-antioch-and-its-frontiers-in-the-twelfth-century/|publisher=The Boydell Press|isbn=978-1-78327-173-3}}
• {{cite book|last=Nielen|first=Marie-Adélaïde|editor-last=Murray|editor-first=Alan V.|title=K–Q|year=2006|chapter=Lignages d'Outremer|pages=726–727|series=The Crusades: An Encyclopedia|volume=III|publisher=ABC Clio|isbn=978-1-57607-862-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Perry|first=Guy|year=2013|title=John of Brienne: King of Jerusalem, Emperor of Constantinople, c. 1175–1237|url=https://www.cambridge.org/hu/universitypress/subjects/history/european-history-1000-1450/john-brienne-king-jerusalem-emperor-constantinople-c11751237?format=HB&isbn=9781107043107|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-04310-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Runciman|first=Steven|author-link=Steven Runciman|orig-year=1951|year=1989|title=The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcrusade02runc|series=A History of the Crusades|volume=II|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-06162-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Rüdt-Collenberg|first=Count W. H.|year=1963|title=The Rupenides, Hethumides and Lusignans: The Structure of the Armeno–Cilician Dynasties|url=https://archive.org/details/rudt-collenberg-1963-rupenides-hethumides-lusignans|publisher=Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Library|oclc=5122239}}

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Category:13th-century women

Category:Princesses of Antioch