At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the nascent Cilician Armenian kingdom found itself on the verge of a political crisis. After extending his authority over the Principality of Antioch in 1219, Cilicia’s first king Lewon shifted his attention towards his own kingdom’s dynastic future. However, rather than nominating the grandnephew he had just installed as Prince of Antioch, Lewon chose his only surviving child, three year old princess Zabel, as the next ruler of Cilicia. In the months following Lewon’s death in 1219 Cilicia was plunged into factional violence, finally culminating with the ascendancy of the house of Barberon who took Queen Zabel into its custody. Rather than doing away with Zabel however, the house of Barberon chose to uphold the succession and build upon Lewon’s established kingship through marriage with his daughter. Although contemporary sources are silent on Zabel’s role in regional politics, they do reveal a robust domestic sphere of influence that she created and managed. As the Barberons treated with the Mongols and fought in the crusades, Zabel gained immense popularity at home for her patronage of churches and hospitals. From these parallel threads of active and symbolic authority, this paper will argue for the reign of Queen Zabel (1219-1252) as a turning point in Armenian kingship in the Mediterranean. Using textual sources written by Armenian, as well as Latin authors, and numismatic sources, the paper will discuss the ways in which kingly legitimacy developed to be shaped by proximity to the Zabel’s bloodline, rather than by papal or imperial recognition. The paper will also utilize contemporary chronicles to highlight the ways in which Zabel was able to wield agency through her strategic avenues of patronage and her connection to the Cilician people.