Isabella I of Jerusalem tried to play Isabella and her husband off against him, but Humphrey did homage to the royal couple. Isabella was the daughter of Amalric, King of Jerusalem, by his second wife, Maria Comnena. Maria Comnena (who was a grandniece of the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos) married Amalric on 29 August 1171. Isabella was born before September 1172. Amalric died unexpectedly on 11 July 1174. His son by his first marriage, Baldwin IV, was crowned king two weeks later. Before long, it became obvious that Baldwin suffered from lepromatous leprosy. To secure the succession of the ailing king, his sister,
Baldwin I of Jerusalem the Seljuq Sultan of Rum, in the Battle of Dorylaeum on 1July 1097, Baldwin and the Norman Tancred broke away from the main body of the army. They marched as far as Heraclea where they again joined their fellows around 15 August. The long march across Asia Minor in the heat of summer exhausted the crusaders and most knights' horses died. To secure a supply of food and forage, Baldwin and Tancred were sent to the fertile plains of Cilicia. They could count on the local Armenians' support, especially as Baldwin had already been befriended by an Armenian nobleman, Bagrat.