Isabella Pallavicini sometimes Jezebel, was the marchioness of Bodonitsa

Margrave of Bodonitsa

The margraviate or marquisate of Bodonitsa , today Mendenitsa, Phthiotis , was a Frankish state in Greece following the conquests of the Fourth Crusade. It was originally granted as a margravial holding of Guy Pallavicini by Boniface, first king of Thessalonica, in 1204...

 from 1278. She succeeded her brother Ubertino

Ubertino Pallavicini

Ubertino Pallavicini was the son and successor of Guy as Margrave of Bodonitsa in 1237.Despite the fact that, since the fall of the Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1224, Bodonitsa was a vassal of the Principality of Achaea, Ubertino assisted his cousin Guy de la Roche, Duke of Athens, in war against...

 and also inherited her elder sister Mabilia's Italian possessions in Parma

Parma

Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....

. The three were the only children of the first margrave Guy

Guy Pallavicini

Guy, Guido, or Galdo Pallavicini , called Marchesopoulo by his Greek subjects, was the first margrave of Bodonitsa in Frankish Greece from 1204 to his death in 1237...

. In 1278, the year of her succession, Isabella was requested by her new lord, Charles of Anjou

Charles I of Sicily

Charles I , known also as Charles of Anjou, was the King of Sicily by conquest from 1266, though he had received it as a papal grant in 1262 and was expelled from the island in the aftermath of the Sicilian Vespers of 1282...

, to do homage to his new vicar at Glarentsa. When the barons of the Principality of Achaea

Principality of Achaea

The Principality of Achaea or of the Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, along with the Duchy of Athens, until Thessalonica...

, of which the ruler of Bodonitsa was chiefest of twelve peers, refused to do homage to the bailiff

Bailiff

A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...

 Galeran d'Ivry as vicar general

Vicar general

A vicar general is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular...

, the primary reason was the absenteeism of their primus inter pares, Isabella. Isabella was old at her accession and did not live long thereafter. She died childless and left open a succession dispute, which was eventually solved by the arbitration of William I of Athens

William I de la Roche

William I de la Roche succeeded his brother, John I, as Duke of Athens in 1280. He was the first official "duke" of Athens; previous dukes had actually been "lords."...

, then acting bailiff of Achaea, in favour of her cousin Albert

Albert Pallavicini

Albert Pallavicini was the fifth margrave of Bodonitsa from his father's death until his own in 1311. His father was Thomas, a great nephew of the first margrave Guy. Albert married Maria dalle Carceri, a Venetian noblewoman from Euboea. He even obtained a sixth of that island with the official...

. She left a widower in Antoine le Flamenc

Antoine le Flamenc

Anthony was the Frankish baron of Karditsa . He was married to Isabella Pallavicini and co-ruled the March of Bodonitsa with her from 1278 to 1286, when she died...

.

She is possibly the trobairitz

Trobairitz

The trobairitz were Occitan female troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries, active from around 1170 to approximately 1260. The word trobairitz was first used in the 13th-century romance Flamenca. It comes from the Provençal word trobar, the literal meaning of which is "to find", and the...

 known only as Ysabella

Ysabella (trobairitz)

Ysabel or Ysabella was a 13th-century trobairitz. Almost nothing is known about her with certainty, but many conjectures have been put forward...

.

Sources

• Hopf, Carl. Chroniques gréco-romanes.
• Setton, Kenneth M. (general editor) A History of the Crusades: Volume III — The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Harry W. Hazard, editor. University of Wisconsin Press: Madison, 1975.
• Miller, W. "The Marquisate of Boudonitza (1204-1414)." Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 28, 1908, pp 234-249.
• Latin Lordships of Greece: Boudonitza.