Ioveta

Ioveta (c. 1120 – 6 September 1178) was a Latin princess from the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Her name appears in various other forms, including Joveta, Yveta, Yvette, Ivetta, and Juditta. She headed the Convent of Saint Lazarus in Bethany, the richest abbey in the kingdom, from the late 1130s or early 1140s until her death.

Ioveta was the youngest of the four daughters of King Baldwin II and Queen Morphia. After Baldwin's capture and release from Muslim captivity in 1124, the four-year-old princess was handed over by her family as a hostage in his place until he paid his ransom the following year. In the late 1120s she was sent to live at the Convent of Saint Anne in Jerusalem, and became a nun there in c. 1134. Her sister Queen Melisende had a new abbey constructed in Bethany so that Ioveta could be an abbess. As abbess, Ioveta dealt with other religious communities both within and outside the kingdom. She retained close links to her family, and was the guardian of her grandniece Sibylla when the girl was thought likely to succeed to the throne. Despite the secular and spiritual authority she wielded, Ioveta remains an elusive figure in crusader scholarship.