In the year 1185 A.D. the powerful ruler of Cilicia, Levon of the Royal House of Rubinian, came to power. He became a great ruler and warrior king who lead the great Christian victory against the Turkish horde under certain Rustam (killed in battle) and the united forces of the Sultans of Aleppo and Damascus. Levon's troops also took part in the siege of Acre, and he was among the lords who assisted Richard I Coeur de Lion of England in the conquest of Cyprus (1191) from the Byzantine renegade Isaac Ducas Comnenus.

Levon was crowned as a king Levon II by the Catholicos of All Armenians, Grigor VIth Apirat, and with also the blessing of the Archbishop of Mainz, Conrad Vittelbach, in the year 1198, in the St. Sophia monastery of the city of Taursus in front of the royal guests from the Holy Roman Empire, representatives of the Pope and the Byzantine court and by the presence of large Armenian nobility. For his great deeds, the people of Cilicia and the nobility bestowed him the title of Levon the Magnificent. The principality of Cilicia became the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia or Lesser Armenia as it was known to the European historians. The kingdom lasted for nearly 300 years.

The main part of the Armenian manuscript collection dates back to the Cilician period, mainly due to Levon's great efforts of preservation and establishment of many schools and universities. New castles and churches were also built by the orders of Levon, incidently many of the church designs and castle buildings, were immitated by the Crusaders who learned of the form of round castles instead of square design of the castles and the domed Armenian churches too had an effect of later gothic church buildind in Europe as well.

The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia, the last outpost of Christianity and Christian faith, fell to the Moslem Invaders, the Mameluks who having destroyed the Christian Crusader states of Jerusalem and Antioch had turned their attention to the remaining obstacle in their reconquest of the Near East. The last Armenian king of the House of Lusignan, which had Frankish descent and blood lines with the Royal House of Rubinian, king Levon VI was captured in the year 1375 A.D. by the Mameluks in the siege of Sis, the great capital of Cilicia. He was taken prisoner and later on released for the runsack of his head, paid by the Franks. He spent the remainder of his life in Courts of France, Spain and other European Royal Courts, trying to convince the European powers of a launch of a new Crusade for the liberation of Cilicia and Holy Land, from the Moslem rule, which he was not able to accomplish.

Greater Armenia was east and south of the Black Sea. Its boundaries changed during the centuries as invaders carved out chunks for the empires of Rome, Byzantium and the Mongols. It was eventually absorbed into the Ottoman Empire.

Cilicia or Lesser (sometimes called "Little") Armenia was an important Armenian kingdom from 1198 to 1375. It was along the eastern end of the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor. Its port cities included Tarsus, Korykos, and Ayas. Cilicia's western neighbor was Isauria. The Amanus mountains were on the east. In the north, the plains meet the Taurus mountains and these peaks separate Cilicia from Cappadocia. In its mountains were the many large castles which controlled the mountain passes, including the famous Cilician Gates, through which pilgrims and Crusaders travelled to the Holy Land and luxury goods from the east travelled to Europe.

TIMELINE

• The Cilician kings named Levon are numbered differently by various historians. It is often easier to understand who is who by the dates of their reigns than by I, II, etc.)

• Alternative spellings for the names: Reuben = Roupen = Ruben, Constantine = Gosdantin, Toros = Thoros, Leo = Levon = Leon, Isabella = Isabel = Zabel, Hetum = Hetoum = Hethoum = Hethum, Smpat = Smbad = Sembat = Smpad, Guy = Guidon.

1080 Armenian state (Principality or Duchy, from 1198 Kingdom) founded in the Cilicia region, (1137 - 1145 under Byzantine occupation).
1185 (1178?) - Prince Levon II of the Royal House of Rubinian becomes ruler.
1189-1192 - The Third Crusade - After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, led by Saladin, the sultan of Egypt (Saladin was a Kurd by birth), another cry arose to save the Holy Land. During this Crusade Levon II and King Richard invaded and conquered Cyprus, which had broken away from the Byzantine Empire under a renegade relative of the former ruling house. Fredrick I, Emperor of the Roman Empire, planned to thank Levon II for Armenia’s assistance during the Crusade, and present Levon II with a crown. 1190: Levon sends Nerses of Lampron as ambassador to meet Emperor Frederick Barbarossa when he approaches Cilicia, but on June 10 Barbarossa drowns in the Saleph River near Silifke, ending negotiations for Levon's royal crown.
1193 or 1194 - Catholicos Grigor Tgha dies and his nephews, Hetoum and Shahnshah, are assassinated
Gregory V is elected catholicos (patriarch) but doesn't get along with Levon and is imprisoned and dies trying to escape.
1198 - January 6 - Levon II or is crowned king of Lesser Armenia by the new Armenian catholicos with a crown from the Hohenstaufen emperor. In return, he is forced to recognize the German emperor as his lord and the pope in Rome as the head of the Armenian Church. The Armenian church however stalls and does not change or adopt the Roman Catholic forms of worship.
1202-1204 - The Fourth Crusade
1204 - Constantinople is sacked by crusaders of the Fourth Crusade
1205 - Catholicos John of Sis accuses Isabelle of Austria, Levon's queen and mother of his daughter Rita, of adultery and she is imprisoned at Vahka where she died.
1210 - King Levon of Cilicia marries Sybilla of Lusignan, the daughter of King Aimery of Cyprus and Queen Isabeau Plantagenet, and later mother of Levon's daughter and heir Zabel (aka Zapel or Isabelle).
1211 - Levon gives his wife's sister, Helvis, to Raymond-Roupen of Antioch.
1212 - The Children's Crusade.
1217-1229 - The Fifth Crusade.
1219 - King Levon II dies after reigning 32 (34) years. Zabel becomes queen, Adam of Baghras is regent.

Close contacts with the Crusaders and with Europe led to absorbing Western European ideas, including its feudal class structure. Cilician Armenia became a country of barons, knights and serfs. The court at Sis adopted European clothes. Latin and French were used alongside Armenian. The Cilician period is regarded as the Golden Age of Armenian Illumination, noted for the lavishness of its decoration and the frequent influence of contemporary western manuscript painting. Their location on the Mediterranean coast soon involved Cilician Armenians in international trade between the interior of Western Asia and Europe. For nearly 300 years, the Cilician Kingdom of Armenia prospered, but in 1375 it fell to the Mamelukes of Egypt. The last monarch, King Levon VI, died at Calais, France in 1393, and his remains were laid to rest at St. Denis (near Paris) among the kings of France.

Coins Of The Kingdoms Of Cilician Armenia