Melisende would go on to become one of the most powerful and formidable Queens of the Medieval era. The eldest of four daughters with no brothers in sight, Melisende’s father did the unthinkable: he named her as heir and then actually trained her to rule. Melisende’s rise to power has some familiar tropes: a husband that schemed to exclude her from power (he failed miserably), a potential lover that schemed to usurp the throne in her name (he failed miserably) and way too many men named Baldwin.

In a world that would do anything in its power to keep women from attaining any power of their own, Melisende refused to be set aside. And even her husband learned to keep a weapon on him at all times in her presence in a tale that reminds us . . . happy wife = happy life.