CYPRUS

The Lusignan Dynasty,
300 years of Frankish rule
| complete genealogy |
| Sources, see: Bibliography, Cyprus |

 Overview Cyprus | previous | map |

395 AD - 1191
Cyprus becomes part of the Byzantine Empire
1191 - 1192
Rule by Richard  the Lionheart of England
1192 - 1489
Rule by the Frankish Lusignan dynasty
1489 - 1570
Venetian domination of the island
1571 - 1878
Conquest of Cyprus by the Ottoman Empire
The successor of James I, Janus I (1398-1432), had to face further hardship. In retaliation for riots of Cypriot pirates the Sultan of Egypt landed on the island with an army of Mamelukes and defeated the troops of the King at Chirokitia. The King himself was captured and, together with 3500 captives, led in a triumphal procession through Cairo. After the imposition of an annual tribute the King was released one year later against the payment of a high ransom.

In this connection it is not uninteresting to remark that the Christian Genoese, the rulers of Famagusta, took the side of the Mamelukes.

The absence of the King and the devastations by the raids of the Mamelukes ultimately lead to an island-wide insurrection of the population which was however suppressed by the superior discipline and armament of the royal troops. The day the ship of the returning King was sighted off Paphos (May 12, 1427), Alexis, who had been declared King by the insurgents, was hanged in Nicosia.

John II, King of Cyprus, wrongly named Philip.
(Diary of Georg von Ehingen, Stuttgart Library).

The son of Janus, John II (1432-1458), had no easy heritage to administer. Besides being tributary to the Genoese and the Mamelukes, the island suffered from a plague (1438) which lasted one and a half years.

But also the marriage of the King with Helena Palaeologina (1432-1458), daughter of Cleopa Malatesta and Theodoros III, Palaeologos, the despot of Morea (Peleponnes) would prove fatal for the stability of the Frankish royal family. Until the death in February 1451 of the Papal Legate Andrea de Pera, a Dominican, Helena had a dangerous opponent. But afterwards, and when she was made regent of the island, she supported those forces in the Greek-Orthodox church which aimed at undermining the regulations laid down in the Bulla Cypria of 1260.

Especially the Monastery of Mangana in Nicosia became the centre of these activities. When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, many monks found their first support and shelter in Cyprus.

John, Duke of Coimbra and grandson of the King of Portugal who was chosen as husband for the daughter of John II, Carlotta (Charlotte) [ link: her rule and fate ], came to the island in 1456. The couple was married the same year. He died shortly after and it was generally believed that his disagreements with Helena about her pro-Greek activities played a great role in his early death.

John II and Helena both died in 1458 and Carlotta now married her cousin Louis of Savoy.