A fact from Maria Komnene, Queen of Jerusalem appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 23 August 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Queen Maria Comnena(pictured) abducted her daughter and coerced her into divorcing to place her on the throne of Jerusalem?
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I've removed the description, about her "being no beauty": the sentence was directly lifted from Payne's popular work The Dream and the Tomb, and I've seen no primary source for it - in fact, I've never seen a contemporary or near-contemporary physical description of her. (I do wonder if Payne had confused her with the other Maria Comnena?) Must admit I'm somewhat concerned about the use of Payne (and, even worse, Reston!) by some contributors. Silverwhistle09:51, 20 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I revised the statement that her brother Alexios (this is Alexios pinkernes, I take it) was briefly Emperor of Thessalonica. He claimed to be Byzantine emperor, according to Nicetas (p. 319 van Dieten), but that's not the same as setting up a separate state of Thessalonica and being recognised as emperor of it. However, if some other source says he did that, please remove my alteration! User:Andrew Dalby19:29, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that Queen Maria Comnena(pictured) abducted her daughter and coerced her into divorcing to place her on the throne of Jerusalem? Source: "Maria Comnena and a group of nobles ... abducted her ... Maria set out to persuade her to agree to be parted from Humphrey." (Riley-Smith 1973)
ALT1:... that through scheming and ruthlessness Maria Comnena(pictured) went from a powerless queen to a political leader and kingmaker?
ALT2:... that the account of Saladin receiving banquet dishes in return for not bombarding royal newlyweds besieged at Kerak probably comes from the bride's mother, Queen Maria Comnena(pictured)? Source: "The most vivid account of the siege is that of Ernoul, which probably derives from the bride’s mother, Maria Comnena, wife of Ernoul’s patron, Balian of Ibelin. This relates how, when the siege began, Stephanie de Milly sent food to Saladin from the wedding banquet, and he courteously instructed his engineers not to range their mangonels on the tower in which the bride and groom were lodged." (Hamilton 2005)
Comment: The image is the highest resolution miniature reproduction I have seen, and it offers an opportunity to have a woman depicted on the Main Page. ALT2 is arguably the most interesting hook, but the first two hooks focus more on the subject. I also hope that the expansion or GA promotion of another article (e.g. Stephanie of Milly or Siege of Kerak) might provide a more apt opportunity for ALT2. I am offering it here in case a fault is found in the first two hooks.
Overall: You refer many times in the article to (Hamilton 2000), (Runciman 1999), (Hodgson 2007), (Riley-Smith 1973), these works aren't in the bibliography list. Please fix this first. el.ziade (talkallam) 11:46, 2 August 2021 (UTC) el.ziade (talkallam) 09:32, 12 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Surtsicna The article is interesting, as is the hook. It is clear, neutral, and free from copyvio. I don't have any comments concerning the image. It took me some time to go through the entire article because I have conducted a thorough, almost line by line source review. Congratulations on your thorough work. el.ziade (talkallam) 09:32, 12 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]