Melisende of Jerusalem (c. 1105–1161) was not a queen “beside” power—she was power. She was the daughter and designated heir of Baldwin II, and when he died in 1131, Melisende inherited the kingdom. Her husband, Fulk of Anjou, ruled with her, but the crown’s legitimacy ran through Melisende’s bloodline. That fact shaped everything. Early in their reign, tensions between Fulk’s followers and Melisende’s faction hardened into a court crisis. The politics of Jerusalem weren’t polite: this was a fro