Aimery of Cyprus: Difference between revisions

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Aimery of Lusignan (Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Amorí;Template:Sfn before 1155Template:Snd1 April 1205), erroneously referred to as Amalric (Template:Langx) in earlier scholarship,Template:Efn was the first king of Cyprus from 1196 and the king of Jerusalem as the husband of Queen Isabella I from 1198 to his death. He was a capable ruler whose reign was a period of peace and stability in both kingdoms, and the progenitor of the Lusignan dynasty of the Kingdom of Cyprus.

Aimery was a younger son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan, a nobleman from Poitou. After participating in a rebellion against King Henry II of England in 1168, Aimery went to the Latin East and settled in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Aimery's marriage to Eschiva of the influential Ibelin family strengthened his position in the kingdom. His younger brother Guy married Sibylla, the sister and heir presumptive of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. Baldwin made Aimery constable of Jerusalem around 1180. Guy and Sibylla became king and queen in 1186. Aimery was one of the commanders of the Christian army in the Battle of Hattin, which ended with a decisive defeat of Christians by the Muslim Ayyubids in 1187 and the subsequent near destruction of the kingdom.

Aimery supported King Guy when the latter besieged Acre and remained loyal to him after Queen Sibylla's death in 1190, when most barons insisted that the throne had passed to Sibylla's half-sister, Isabella I. Amid insurmountable unpopularity, Guy left for Cyprus in 1192 while Aimery remained in the kingdom as constable. Isabella married Count Henry II of Champagne, who arrested Aimery after discovering a plot to deliver the city of Tyre to Guy. Upon his release, Aimery joined Guy on Cyprus. When Guy died in 1194, the Cypriot nobles elected Aimery as their new lord. Aimery immediately sought to raise Cyprus to the status of a kingdom, with a government and institutions modelled after those of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He acknowledged Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI as his suzerain, and Henry VI authorized Aimery's coronation as king of Cyprus in 1197.

Soon after they were both widowed, the barons of Jerusalem offered Aimery to marry Isabella and become king of Jerusalem too; he accepted and was crowned at her side. He kept the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem separate, but sent Cypriot troops to fight on the mainland, where he spent most of his reign. He sought to codify the laws of Jerusalem, resulting in the compilation of the Livre au roi. After surviving an assassination attempt in 1198, Aimery attempted to circumvent the law to banish Isabella's seneschal, Ralph of Saint Omer, whom he thought responsible. He signed two consecutive truces with al-Adil I, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, the latter of which secured the Christian possession of the coastline from Acre to Antioch. The personal union of the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem ended when Aimery died of food poisoning; Cyprus passed to his only surviving son, Hugh I, while Isabella retained the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Early career

Aimery was born before 1155.Template:Sfn He was the son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan, a lord from Poitou, and his wife, Burgundia of Rancon.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The House of Lusignan was noted for generations of crusaders who had fought for the Holy Land in the Levant. His great-grandfather, Hugh VI of Lusignan, died in the Battle of Ramla in 1102; Aimery's grandfather, Hugh VII of Lusignan, took part in the Second Crusade.Template:Sfn Aimery's father departed for the Levant in 1163, leaving his lands to be governed by Aimery's eldest brother, Hugh Brunus. The elder Hugh was captured by Muslims at the Battle of Harim and died in captivity in the 1160s.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In 1168 Aimery joined a rebellion against his family's suzerain, King Henry II of England.Template:Sfn The Lusignan brothers ambushed Henry's wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, as the queen travelled to Poitiers and killed the leader of her guard, Patrick, earl of Salisbury.Template:Sfn Shortly after the rebellion, Aimery left Poitou for the Levant and settled in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was captured in battle by Muslims and held in Damascus. According to a 13th-century tradition, King Amalric of Jerusalem ransomed Aimery; people were fascinated by the similarity of their names and the story entered the folklore of the Latin East.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Efn

Aimery secured his position in the Latin East by marrying Eschiva of Ibelin, the elder daughter of the lord of Ramla, Baldwin of Ibelin, who was one of the most powerful noblemen in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn According to Ernoul, whose reliability in this instance is questionable, Aimery became a lover of King Amalric's former wife, Agnes of Courtenay. Ernoul consistently portrays Agnes unfavorably; his information about her probably came from her rival, Maria Komnene, Amalric's second wife.Template:Sfn King Amalric died on 11 July 1174 and was succeeded by his and Agnes's thirteen-year-old son, Baldwin IV.Template:Sfn Aimery became a member of the royal court with his father-in-law's support.Template:Sfn He may have been appointed chamberlain, which would indicate a close relationship with the royal family.Template:Sfn

File:Mariage de Gui de Lusignan et Sibylle de Jérusalem.jpeg

Baldwin IV had his sister, Sibylla, marry Aimery's brother Guy. One chronicle credits Aimery with the match.

Aimery's youngest brother, Guy, married Baldwin IV's widowed sister, Sibylla, in April 1180. Ernoul writes that Sibylla had promised herself to Aimery's father-in-law, Baldwin of Ibelin, but Aimery had described Guy as a handsome and charming young man to her and her mother, Agnes, and then travelled to Poitou in the winter of 1179/80 and brought Guy to Jerusalem. Another source, William of Tyre, does not accord to Aimery any role in Guy and Sibylla's marriage. The historian Bernard Hamilton dismisses this account and argues that King Baldwin arranged the match. Because the young king had lepromatous leprosy, Sibylla was his heir presumptive and Guy's marriage to her put him in line to become the next king, much to the dismay of the Ibelins and their allies.Template:Sfn

Constableship

Baronial division

By 24 February 1182, Aimery had become constable of Jerusalem,Template:Sfn the highest military authority in the kingdom after the king.Template:Sfn He may have been granted the office shortly after his predecessor, Humphrey II of Toron, died in April 1179;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn alternatively, his appointment may have only come around 1181, as the consequence of the growing influence of his brother Guy.Template:Sfn Aimery's legal ability may have developed during his long tenure in public office.Template:Sfn

In 1183 King Baldwin IV appointed Guy regent. As regent, Guy was also the commander-in-chief of the royal army.Template:Sfn Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, launched a campaign against the kingdom on 29 September. Aimery defeated the sultan's troops in a minor skirmish with the support of his father-in-law, Baldwin, and Baldwin's brother Balian of Ibelin. After the victory, the crusaders' main army could advance as far as a spring near Saladin's camp, forcing him to retreat nine days later. Both William of Tyre and Ernoul were disappointed that the Christian army did not engage the Muslims. During the campaign, it became apparent that other military leaders were unwilling to cooperate with Guy.Template:Sfn The ailing king dismissed Guy from regency and had his five-year-old nephew, Baldwin of Montferrat, crowned co-king on 20 November 1183.Template:Sfn The boy king, known as Baldwin V, was Sibylla's son and Guy's stepson.Template:Sfn

In early 1185, Baldwin IV decreed that the pope, the Holy Roman emperor and the kings of France and England were to choose between his sister, Sybilla, and half-sister, Isabella, if Baldwin V died before reaching the age of majority.Template:Sfn Baldwin IV died in 1185, followed by his nephew in mid-1186.Template:Sfn Ignoring Baldwin IV's decree and the protests of Guy's opponents, led by Aimery's Ibelin in-laws, Sybilla's partisans proclaimed her queen and she crowned Guy king.Template:Sfn Aimery was among Sibylla's supporters.Template:Sfn Aimery's father-in-law, Baldwin of Ibelin, left the kingdom rather than pay homage to Guy.Template:Sfn

Hattin and the Third Crusade

As constable, Aimery organised the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem into units before the Battle of Hattin, which ended with the decisive victory of Saladin on 4 July 1187. Along with most commanders of the Christian army, Aimery was captured in the battlefield.Template:Sfn The victory enabled Saladin to conquer almost all of the Latin East; the only city in the kingdom that remained in Christian hands was Tyre.Template:Sfn During the siege of Ascalon, Saladin promised the defenders that he would set free ten persons whom they named if they surrendered.Template:Sfn Aimery and Guy were among those whom the defenders named before surrendering on 4 September, but Saladin postponed their release until early 1188.Template:Sfn In response to the Christian losses, Kings Richard I of England and Philip II of France led the Third Crusade to the Levant. Geoffrey of Lusignan, brother of Aimery and Guy, arrived with this crusade.Template:Sfn

File:Lusignan Tyr.jpg

After Sibylla died in the middle of the Third Crusade, Guy's opponents sought to dislodge him from the kingdom. Aimery remained loyal to his brother.

In 1189 Guy gathered a force and laid a siege to Acre. Aimery and Geoffrey supported him during the siege.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Most barons held that Guy lost his claim to kingship when Sybilla and their daughters died in late 1190, but Aimery remained loyal to his brother.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Ibelins supported Marquis Conrad of Montferrat, the defender of Tyre, who married Sybilla's half-sister, Isabella, in late November.Template:Sfn King Richard supported the Lusignans,Template:Sfn and made Geoffrey count of Jaffa in 1191.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn An assembly of the noblemen unanimously declared Conrad the lawful king on 16 April 1192.Template:Sfn Conrad was murdered twelve days later, and Isabella hastily married Count Henry II of Champagne, whom the barons had selected to rule the kingdom.Template:Sfn To compensate him for the loss of the kingdom, Richard authorized Guy to purchase the island of Cyprus–which the English king had conquered from its Byzantine governor, Isaac Komnenos, in May 1191–from the Knights Templar.Template:Sfn Guy was to pay 40,000 bezants to Richard, who granted the right to collect the sum to Henry.Template:Sfn Guy settled in Cyprus in early May.Template:Sfn

Aimery remained in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as constable. When Geoffrey returned to France, Aimery claimed Jaffa. He paid homage to Isabella, but apparently not to her new husband, Henry of Champagne, who doubted his loyalty. In May 1192 Henry discovered that the Pisan merchants had been plotting to deliver Tyre to Guy and clamped down on them. Aimery intervened on behalf of the Pisans and Henry had him imprisoned in the citadel of Acre. Aimery insisted that Henry had no right to imprison a vassal and constable, while Henry refused to recognize Aimery's constableship and denied that Aimery was his vassal. In exchange for Aimery's freedom, Henry demanded that Guy surrender Cyprus. Despite his long association with his unpopular brother Guy, Aimery was well-liked by the barons, who–together with the grand masters of the Templars and the Hospitallers–prevailed on Henry to release him.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After regaining his freedom, Aimery followed the example of the other Lusignan partisans and left the kingdom for Cyprus, abandoning both his office and the fief of Jaffa.Template:Sfn Henry then granted the constableship to Isabella's half-brother, John of Ibelin.Template:Sfn The Third Crusade ended in September with the Kingdom of Jerusalem regaining a narrow strip of land along the coast of Palestine from Jaffa to Tyre.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Saladin, the crusaders' greatest enemy, died in 1193.Template:Sfn

Reign

Lord of Cyprus

Consollidation

Guy made Aimery constable of Cyprus.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He died in late 1194, having bequeathed Cyprus to Geoffrey.Template:Sfn Richard had granted Cyprus to Guy for life, but neither the English king nor his nephew Henry II of Champagne, to whom he had transferred his rights, claimed the reversion.Template:Sfn Geoffrey showed no interest in ruling in the Latin East and had already returned to Poitou. Guy's vassals elected Aimery to be their new lord.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Henry of Champagne demanded, as the ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, to be consulted about the succession in Cyprus, but he was ignored.Template:Sfn

Upon succeeding his brother, Aimery realized that the treasury was almost empty because Guy had granted most landed property on the island to his supporters. He summoned his vassals to an assembly. After pointing out that each of them was richer than him, he persuaded them one by one "either by force, or by friendship, or by agreement" to surrender some of their rents and lands. By the end of his reign, the revenues of Cyprus had increased to at least 200,000 bezants.Template:Sfn Aimery continued Guy's work on the island's fortresses.Template:Sfn Guy's entourage, including Rainier of Gibelet, became part of Aimery's court in Cyprus. They were joined by new arrivals, many of whom were Aimery's fellow Poitevins, including Aimery of Rivet, who became seneschal, and Reynald Barlais.Template:Sfn

Church and crown

File:Coelestin III.jpg

With the help of Pope Celestine III and Emperor Henry VI, Aimery worked on establishing Cyprus as a kingdom.

When Aimery assumed the rule over Cyprus, the island only had Greek Orthodox bishops. In 1195 Aimery dispatched the archdeacon of Laodicea, known only by the initial B., to Pope Celestine III, to request the establishment of a Latin Church hierarchy on Cyprus. This was probably seen as a condition for raising Cyprus to the status of a kingdom.Template:Sfn In order to be recognized as a king, a ruler had to receive a crown from either an emperor or the pope.Template:Sfn At about the same the archdeacon of Laodicea left for Rome, Aimery dispatched his vassal Rainier of Gibelet to the Holy Roman emperor, Henry VI, who was preparing to lead a new crusade. Aimery proposed acknowledging the emperor's suzerainty if the emperor recognized him as king. He was prompted by the concern that the Byzantines would attempt to recover Cyprus; additionally, obtaining a crown would enhance his prestige, secure Cyprus for his descendants, and quash any suggestions that the island should be considered dependent on the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn

Aimery's envoy Rainier of Gibelet swore loyalty to Henry VI on behalf of Aimery in Gelnhausen in October 1195.Template:Sfn The emperor promised that he would personally crown Aimery and tasked the archbishops of Brindisi and Trani with delivering a golden sceptre to Aimery.Template:Sfn Henry VI's envoys landed in Cyprus in April or May 1196. Aimery may have adopted the title of king around that time, because Pope Celestine styled him as king already in a letter in December 1196.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn At that time the pope set up the archbishopric of Nicosia, of which the first incumbent was Aimery's chancellor, Alan, and the suffragan dioceses of Paphos, Limassol, and Famagusta.Template:Sfn Aimery's coronation was postponed to allow Henry VI to arrive.Template:Sfn

Relations with neighbors

File:Kızkalesi - Korykos 01.jpg

Aimery retrieved his wife and children from the Corycus fortress after their abduction by a pirate.

In the mid-1190s,Template:Sfn Aimery's wife, Eschiva, was at the coast recovering from an illness when she and their children were abducted by the pirate Kanakes, on whom Aimery had put a bounty. They were taken to Antiochetta and held as hostages. Their release was procured by the lord of Armenian Cilicia, Leo II. Leo housed them in the fortress of Corycus, where Aimery soon came to retrieve them. The incident helped establish friendly relations between Aimery and Leo.Template:Sfn Leo invited Aimery, his family, and his men to stay for a feast, but they had to leave when the weather started to change; a storm at sea followed, and William of Tyre's continuator believes that they would have died if they had been caught in it.^[1] Eschiva, having been in poor health, died shortly after her release.Template:Sfn She and Aimery had had six children: Burgundia, Alice, Helvis, John, Guy, and Hugh.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn^[2]

A truce between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Ayyubid Sultanate expired in 1196 and the kingdom, already a rump state, was in danger of renewed attacks. Its barons and merchants felt that the rivalry between Henry of Champagne and Aimery was detrimental to both kingdoms. Some, such as the Bethsan family, held land and privileges in Cyprus as well, while many of the most prominent figures were related to Aimery's wife. The Bethsan family were among those who urged Henry to reconcile with Aimery.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Henry thus visited Aimery on Cyprus in 1197. The two rulers made peace and even forged an alliance, whereby the three sons of Aimery and Eschiva were betrothed to the three daughters of Henry and Isabella.Template:Sfn It is possible that Aimery was restored to the office of constable of Jerusalem at this point because he used the title again in November. As part of the settlement, Isabella and Henry promised that Jaffa would be restored to the Lusignans as dowry and Aimery's debt to Henry for the purchase of Cyprus was remitted.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Muslims invaded during the negotiations, and Aimery promptly sent Reynald Barlais to take possession of Jaffa.Template:Sfn

Kingship

Crusade and coronations

File:Der Dichter, begleitet vom Kanzler Konrad von Querfurt, überreicht dem Kaiser Heinrich VI. das Werk (cropped).jpg

Aimery was crowned by Emperor Henry VI's chancellor, Conrad, because the emperor was too ill to come and do it himself.

A rebellion in Sicily and a subsequent illness prevented Emperor Henry VI's departure to the Latin East. His chancellor, Conrad of Querfurt, bishop of Hildesheim, set sail ahead of him. Conrad crowned Aimery in Nicosia in September 1197 and received homage from the newly made king. The emperor died that month and the Holy Roman Empire was plunged into a long succession war, leaving Aimery without the alliance he had desired.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Henry of Champagne also died in September, having fallen from a window of his palace in Acre, only weeks after reconciling with Aimery. Aimery's garrison at Jaffa was not able to resist the Ayyubid attack and Jaffa was lost again shortly after Henry's death. Although it was not successful, this was the first instance of a king of Cyprus intervening militarily on behalf of the mainland kingdom.Template:Sfn

Immediately after the death of Henry of Champagne, the barons of Jerusalem demanded that his widow, Isabella, seek a fourth husband, who would rule the kingdom.Template:Sfn The aristocratic-yet-impoverished seneschal of Jerusalem, Ralph of Saint Omer, was a candidate, but the masters of the military orders opposed him vehemently.Template:Sfn Conrad of Wittelsbach, archbishop of Mainz, arrived in Acre on 20 September and proposed that the throne should be offered to Aimery. Aimery would have been an attractive candidate because of his Cypriot resources, and the Germans likely appreciated that he was an imperial vassal. Since Aimery's first wife, Eschiva, had recently died, he was free to marry Isabella. Joscius, archbishop of Tyre, led the negotiations. The patriarch of Jerusalem, Aymar the Monk, initially complained that the marriage would be uncanonical. The marriage, or at least a betrothal, was celebrated in October.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Sensing an opportunity while the Ayyubids were preoccupied with Jaffa, Aimery assisted the German and Brabancon crusaders commanded by Duke Henry I of Brabant in recovering Beirut and Sidon in October 1197. Sidon had been destroyed by the time they arrived, and they captured Beirut on 21 October after forcing the Ayyubid ruler of Damascus, al-Adil I, to withdraw.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Toron was besieged in November.Template:Sfn The patriarch withdrew his objections to the marriage of Aimery and Isabella and crowned them in January 1198.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn When news of Emperor Henry VI's death reached the Levant, the Germans decided to return home, and the siege of Toron was abandoned on 2 February.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Germans left behind a new military order, the Teutonic Knights, to whom Aimery granted the Gate of St Nicholas in Acre on the condition that they return it at the king's request.Template:Sfn Pope Celestine III's successor, Innocent III, immediately began preaching a new crusade.Template:Sfn

Governance and legislation

File:Map Crusader states 1197-en.svg

The eastern Mediterranean in 1197

King Aimery spent more time at Acre than in Nicosia.Template:Sfn He did not hesitate to send Cypriot troops to fight on the mainland, but declared that he could not maintain the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his own treasury.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The government and laws of Cyprus were modelled after those of Jerusalem, and a High Court of Cyprus was established as an equivalent to the High Court of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn These institutions remained separate, as did the chanceries; the two kingdoms were linked only by the king's person Template:Sfn and he made no attempts to unite them.Template:Sfn Cyprus was Aimery's and was to pass to his heirs, while in Jerusalem he owed his kingship to Queen Isabella. Isabella already had an heir, her eldest daughter, Maria of Montferrat, and three more daughters, Maria, Alice, and Philippa of Champagne.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Aimery was in no haste to make significant changes to his wife's advisors, nor did he try to curtail the influence of the men who had served her previous husband, Henry. He relied much on Baldwin of Bethsan, constable of Cyprus, who often accompanied him on the mainland.Template:Sfn He thought highly of the senechal of Jerusalem, Ralph of Saint Omer, but did not like him.Template:Sfn According to a later tradition, Ralph was the only man who knew the laws of Jerusalem better than Aimery. The king sought to preserve and codify what was remembered of the laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and he wanted to delegate the task to a commission under his presidency. He requested Ralph's assistance, but Ralph took no part in the endeavor. The resulting Livre au roi dealt with, among other things, the rights and obligations of the queen regnant and her husband, the succession rights of her children, and the question of regency in case of her death–issues which were of particular concern at the time.Template:Sfn

In March 1198, Aimery and his court were travelling from Acre and riding through the orchards of Tyre when four German horsemen galloped up to the king and attacked him. His retainers rescued him, but the attackers refused to say who had hired them.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn While recovering, the king became convinced that Ralph of Saint Omer, lately his rival for Isabella's hand and the throne, stood behind the attack.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Aimery convoked a full session of the High Court of Jerusalem, at which he sentenced Ralph to banishment, apparently referencing an assise of King Baldwin III that allowed the king to punish a treacherous vassal without trial. Ralph insisted that the Assise sur la ligece entitled him to be tried by his peers. The High Court tried to persuade Aimery to grant a trial and threatened to withdraw their knights from his service if he refused, which they did when Aimery proved obdurate. The matter was only resolved when Ralph announced that he would leave the kingdom voluntarily because he had lost the king's goodwill.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn This incident may have precluded Ralph from participating in Aimery's compilation of the laws of the kingdom.Template:Sfn

Foreign relations

Aimery pursued an active and adaptable foreign policy,Template:Sfn and maintained good relations with the merchant republics of Europe to strengthen the economy.Template:Sfn He signed a truce with al-Adil on 1 July 1198, securing the possession of the coast from Acre as far as to Antioch for the crusaders for five years and eight months. Aimery was left with Beirut, al-Adil with Jaffa, and Sidon was divided between them. Al-Adil took control of Egypt in November and, with a succession war brewing in Antioch, Aimery became all the more eager to keep the peace.Template:Sfn The king was dismayed by the struggle between Leo of Armenia and Count Bohemond of Tripoli for the succession to Prince Bohemond III of Antioch, and he pressured Cardinal Soffred to mediate.Template:Sfn Aimery's sympathies lay with the Armenians, but he never intervened.Template:Sfn

Aimery continued to fear that the Byzantines might attempt to reclaim Cyprus; his ambassadors at the papal court voiced this concern in early 1199.Template:Sfn In the early 1200s the Byzantine emperor, Alexios III Angelos, also turned to Pope Innocent III.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He feared that Constantinople would become the target of the Fourth Crusade.Template:Sfn Alexios promised that he would help the crusaders fight in the Holy Land if the pope forced Aimery to hand the island to the Byzantines under the pain of excommunication. The pope was anxious that Aimery's efforts to secure the Holy Land not be disturbed and refused Alexios, arguing that the Byzantines had lost their right to Cyprus when Richard I of England conquered the island in 1191.Template:Sfn Alexios did not press the issue again, but Innocent mentioned his designs to Kings John of England and Philip II of France and urged them to send help to Cyprus and the Holy Land.Template:Sfn

In 1202, groups of men split off from the Fourth Crusade arrived in Acre. Reynald II of Dampierre, who arrived at the head of 300 French crusaders, demanded that Aimery break off the treaties with the Muslims and launch a campaign. Aimery told him that more than 300 soldiers were needed to wage war against the Ayyubids and that he would wait for the rest of the crusaders. Reynald called him a coward to his face and left to join Bohemond of Tripoli.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In 1203 another crusader, Thierry of Flanders, landed in Cyprus and came before Aimery. He demanded that Cyprus be turned over to him in right of his wife, a daughter of the island's former ruler, Isaac Komnenos. He was brusquely ordered to leave.Template:Sfn

Aimery launched one reprisal against the Muslims during the period of truce. An Egyptian emir seized a fortress near Sidon and plundered the neighbouring Christian territory. As al-Adil failed to force the emir to respect the truce, Aimery sent a retaliatory fleet that seized 20 Egyptian ships; afterwards he led the barons, the Temmplars, and the Hospitallers on raids into the Ayyubid land of Galilee. In response, al-Adil's son al-Mu'azzam Isa plundered the region of Acre. Each side took care to avoid a clash: Aimery held back awaiting the crusade's arrival, while al-Adil sought not to provoke it. In May 1204, Aimery exhibited further naval strength when his fleet sacked Fuwwah, a small Ayyubid town in the Nile Delta.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

File:Konstantinopol1204.jpg

When the Fourth Crusade targeted Constantinople instead of assisting him, Aimery negotiated another truce with the Muslims.

The Fourth Crusade ended up diverted to Constantinople, bringing no benefit to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn Aimery's reaction to the crusade's sack of Constantinople and the subsequent establishment of the Latin Empire in its ruins is not known, but it provoked resentment and dismay in the Latin East.Template:Sfn As no new armies would arrive to support him, Aimery proposed a peace, which al-Adil gladly accepted. A new truce for six years was signed in September 1204. Under the terms of the treaty, al-Adil ceded Jaffa and the Ayyubid portions of Sidon and Ramla to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and simplified the Christian pilgrims' visits to Jerusalem and Nazareth.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Aimery arranged for the widowed lady of Sidon, Helvis of Ibelin, to marry the crusader Guy of Montfort, who thus took up rule over the newly conquered town in the name of Helvis's son, Balian.Template:Sfn

Family, death, and succession

Aimery and Isabella's marriage produced two more daughters, Sibylla and Melisende, and a son, Amalric, who stood to succeed to the throne of Jerusalem. While the children of his first marriage were given typical Lusignan names, Aimery's children with Isabella were named after her relatives. This, as well as the consistent references to Isabella as the daughter of King Amalric in Aimery's charters, suggests that Aimery strove to position himself and their children as part of her dynasty.Template:Sfn Of the children Aimery had had with Eschiva, only Burgundia, Helvis, and Hugh survived their father; John and Guy died young, as did Alice,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn^[3] who had leprosy.Template:Sfn Around 1202 Aimery gave Burgundia in marriage to the crusader Walter of Montbéliard. Aimery wished to name his new son-in-law and favourite to the office of constable of Jerusalem so that he could command the army in his absence. To do this, he granted Beirut to John of Ibelin in return for John's resignation from constableship.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The young Amalric, son of Aimery and Isabella, died on 2 February 1205.Template:Sfn Amalric's death precluded the establishment of the Lusignan dynasty in the mainland kingdom.Template:Sfn After eating an excess of white mullet, King Aimery himself fell seriously ill. He died in Acre shortly after on 1 April.Template:Sfn His body was taken to Cyprus and buried in the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Nicosia.Template:Sfn Aimery was succeeded in Cyprus by his only surviving son, 9-year-old Hugh I. Queen Isabella died shortly after, and her kingdom passed to her eldest daughter, Maria of Montferrat.Template:Sfn Of the three marriages Aimery had planned with Henry of Champagne, only one could be celebrated, that of King Hugh to Henry's daughter Alice in 1210; it "bore its dynastic fruit in time to come".Template:Sfn Template:Chart top Template:Tree chart/start Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Script error: No such module "Tree chart". Template:Tree chart/end Template:Chart bottom

Legacy

The historian Mary Nickerson Hardwicke describes Aimery as a "self-assured, politically astute, sometimes hard, seldom sentimentally indulgent" ruler.Template:Sfn His reign was a period of peace and consolidation,Template:Sfn and he laid the foundations for the prosperity that Cyprus enjoyed under his successors.Template:Sfn For the historian Steven Runciman, Aimery was "not a great king", but "had a political wisdom that was very valuable". Runciman underlines that Aimery succeeded in preserving the mainland kingdom's monarchy;Template:Sfn Hardwicke notes that he failed to strengthen it, although "it was not his fault".Template:Sfn

Among those who knew him, Aimery inspired little affection but commanded respect.Template:Sfn The lawyers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem held him in high esteem.Template:Sfn One of them, John of Ibelin, emphasized that Aimery had governed both Cyprus and Jerusalem "well and wisely" until his death.Template:Sfn

Notes

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References

Citations

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Bibliography

Primary sources

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Secondary sources

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External links

Letters from Aimery

Template:S-end Template:Jerusalem Monarchs Template:Cypriot Monarchs Template:Authority control Template:Portal bar

Regnal titles
Aimery of Cyprus House of Lusignan Born: Template:Circa 1153 Died: 1 April 1205
Preceded by Template:Delink question hyphen-minus Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/check	Lord of Cyprus 1194–1196 Template:S-ttl/check	Became king
Became king	King of Cyprus 1196–1205 Template:S-ttl/check	Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by Template:Delink question hyphen-minus Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter
Preceded by Template:Delink question hyphen-minus Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter as uncrowned ruler Template:S-bef/check	King of Jerusalem 1198–1205 with Isabella I Template:S-ttl/check	Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by Template:Delink question hyphen-minus Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter as sole ruler
Political offices Template:S-break
Preceded by Template:Delink question hyphen-minus Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/filter Template:S-bef/check	Constable of Jerusalem 1179/1181–1194 Template:S-ttl/check	Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by Template:Delink question hyphen-minus Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter Template:S-aft/filter

↑ The Old French Continuation, pp. 127-128.
↑ The Colbert-Fontainebleu Continuation, p. 205
↑ The Colbert-Fontainebleu Continuation, p. 205

[1] The Old French Continuation, pp. 127-128.

[2] The Colbert-Fontainebleu Continuation, p. 205

[3] The Colbert-Fontainebleu Continuation, p. 205

[1]

[2]

[3]

Aimery of Cyprus: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:02, 12 November 2025

Contents

Early career

Constableship

Baronial division

Hattin and the Third Crusade

Reign

Lord of Cyprus

Consollidation

Church and crown

Relations with neighbors

Kingship

Crusade and coronations

Governance and legislation

Foreign relations

Family, death, and succession

Legacy

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

External links

Navigation menu

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 |name         = Aimery
 |title        =
-|image        = King Aimery of Cyprus and Jerusalem, seal.PNG
+|image        = Aimery II de Lusignan.png
 |image_size   =
-|alt=Photo of two ancient silver circular seals of Aimery, with Latin words framing the outer part of the seals.
+|alt=Photo of an ancient silver circular seal of Aimery, with Latin words framing the outer part of the seal
-|caption= Aimery's seal as king of Cyprus and Jerusalem
+|caption= Depiction of Aimery on his seal
-|succession   = [[List of kings of Cyprus|Lord of Cyprus]]
+|succession   = [[Lord of Cyprus]]
 |reign        = 1194–1196
 |coronation   =
@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 |reign2       = 1198–1205
 |coronation2   = January 1198
-|cor-type     =
+|cor-type2     = [[Coronations of the kings and queens of Jerusalem|Coronation]]
-|predecessor2  = [[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella I]]
+|regent2      = [[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella I]]
-|successor2    = Isabella I
-|regent2      = Isabella I
 |reg-type2    = Co-ruler
 |spouses      = [[Eschiva of Ibelin (died 1196)|Eschiva of Ibelin]]<br>[[Isabella I of Jerusalem]]
 |issue        = {{plainlist|
-* Bourgogne, Countess of Toulouse
+* [[Burgundia of Cyprus|Burgundia]]
-* [[Helvis of Lusignan|Helvis, Princess of Antioch]]
+* [[Helvis, Princess of Antioch]]
 * [[Hugh I, King of Cyprus]]
-* [[Sibylla of Lusignan|Sibylla, Queen of Armenia]]
+* [[Sibylla, Queen of Armenia]]
-* [[Melisende of Lusignan|Melisende, Princess of Antioch]]}}
+* [[Melisende, Princess of Antioch]]}}
-|issue-link   =#Family
+|issue-link   =#Family, death, and succession
 |issue-pipe   =more...
 |house        = [[House of Lusignan|Lusignan]]
@@ Line 49: / Line 47: @@
 }}
-'''Aimery of Lusignan''' ({{langx|la|Aimericus}}, {{Langx|el|Αμωρί}}, ''Amorí'';{{sfn|Savva|2011}} before 1155{{snd}}1 April 1205), erroneously referred to as '''Amalric''' ({{langx|fr|Amaury}}) in earlier scholarship, reigned as the first [[king of Cyprus]] from 1196 to his death in 1205. He also reigned as the [[king of Jerusalem]] as the [[husband and co-ruler]] of [[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Queen Isabella I]] from 1197 to his death. He was a younger son of [[Hugh VIII of Lusignan]], a nobleman in [[Poitou]]. After participating in a rebellion against [[Henry II of England]] in 1168, he went to the [[Holy Land]] and settled in the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]].
+'''Aimery of Lusignan''' ({{langx|la|Aimericus}}, {{Langx|el|Αμωρί}}, ''Amorí'';{{sfn|Savva|2011}} before 1155{{snd}}1 April 1205), erroneously referred to as '''Amalric''' ({{langx|fr|Amaury}}) in earlier scholarship,{{efn|name=fn1|Aimery's name was frequently mistranscribed as "Amalric" ({{langx|fr|Amaury}}), leading to him formerly being known as "Amalric II" and the true [[King Amalric]] as "Amalric I".{{sfn|Richard|1979|p=289}}{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=45|loc=Note 1}} No extant coins bearing Aimery's name survive. It is probable that the extant copies of the coins of Amalric were made and circulated during Aimery's reign, the two names having been similar enough to the people handling the coins for one to be accepted for the other. Even educated contemporaries confused the two names: the historian [[Marino Sanudo Torsello]] ({{circa}} 1270-1343) refers to both [[Amalric of Tyre|Amalric]] and [[Aimery, Constable of Cyprus|Aimery]], brothers of King [[Henry II of Cyprus]], as ''Almericus''.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=45|loc=Note 1}}}} was the first [[king of Cyprus]] from 1196 and the [[king of Jerusalem]] as the husband of Queen [[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella I]] from 1198 to his death. He was a capable ruler whose reign was a period of peace and stability in both kingdoms, and the progenitor of the [[Lusignan dynasty]] of the [[Kingdom of Cyprus]].
-Aimery's marriage to [[Eschiva of Ibelin (died 1196)|Eschiva of Ibelin]] (whose [[Baldwin of Ibelin|father]] was an influential nobleman) strengthened his position in the kingdom. His younger brother, [[Guy of Lusignan|Guy]], married [[Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem|Sibylla]], the sister and [[heir presumptive]] of [[Baldwin IV of Jerusalem]]. Baldwin made Aimery the [[constable of Jerusalem]] around 1180. He was one of the commanders of the Christian army in the [[Battle of Hattin]], which ended with a decisive defeat at the hands of the army of [[Saladin]], the [[Ayyubid]] sultan of Egypt and Syria, on 4 July 1187.
+Aimery was a younger son of [[Hugh VIII of Lusignan]], a nobleman from [[Poitou]]. After participating in a rebellion against King [[Henry II of England]] in 1168, Aimery went to the [[Latin East]] and settled in the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]. Aimery's marriage to [[Eschiva of Ibelin (died 1196)|Eschiva]] of the influential [[Ibelin family]] strengthened his position in the kingdom. His younger brother [[Guy of Lusignan|Guy]] married [[Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem|Sibylla]], the sister and [[heir presumptive]] of King [[Baldwin IV of Jerusalem]]. Baldwin made Aimery [[constable of Jerusalem]] around 1180. Guy and Sibylla became king and queen in 1186. Aimery was one of the commanders of the Christian army in the [[Battle of Hattin]], which ended with a decisive defeat of Christians by the Muslim [[Ayyubid]]s in 1187 and the subsequent near destruction of the kingdom.
-Aimery supported Guy even after he lost his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem according to most barons of the realm, because of the death of Sibylla and their two daughters. The new king of Jerusalem, [[Henry II of Champagne]], arrested Aimery for a short period. After his release, he retired to [[Jaffa]] which was the fief of his elder brother, [[Geoffrey of Lusignan]], who had left the Holy Land.
+Aimery supported King Guy when the latter [[siege of Acre (1191)|besieged Acre]] and remained loyal to him after Queen Sibylla's death in 1190, when most barons insisted that the throne had passed to Sibylla's half-sister, Isabella I. Amid insurmountable unpopularity, Guy left for Cyprus in 1192 while Aimery remained in the kingdom as constable. Isabella married Count [[Henry II of Champagne]], who arrested Aimery after discovering a plot to deliver the city of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] to Guy. Upon his release, Aimery joined Guy on Cyprus. When Guy died in 1194, the Cypriot nobles elected Aimery as their new lord. Aimery immediately sought to raise Cyprus to the status of a kingdom, with a government and institutions modelled after those of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He acknowledged [[Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI]] as his [[suzerain]], and Henry VI authorized Aimery's coronation as king of Cyprus in 1197.
-After Guy died in May 1194, his vassals in Cyprus elected Aimery as their lord. He accepted the suzerainty of [[Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI]]. With the emperor's authorization, Aimery was crowned king of Cyprus in September 1197. The widowed Aimery soon married Henry of Champagne's widow, Isabella I of Jerusalem. Aimery and Isabella were crowned king and queen of Jerusalem in January 1198. He signed a truce with [[Al-Adil I]], the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, which secured the Christian possession of the coastline from [[Acre (city)|Acre]] to [[Antioch]]. His rule was a period of peace and stability in both of his realms.
+Soon after they were both widowed, the barons of Jerusalem offered Aimery to marry Isabella and become king of Jerusalem too; he accepted and was crowned at her side. He kept the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem separate, but sent Cypriot troops to fight on the mainland, where he spent most of his reign. He sought to codify the laws of Jerusalem, resulting in the compilation of the ''[[Livre au roi]]''. After surviving an assassination attempt in 1198, Aimery attempted to circumvent the law to banish Isabella's [[seneschal]], [[Ralph of Saint Omer]], whom he thought responsible. He signed two consecutive truces with [[al-Adil I]], the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, the latter of which secured the Christian possession of the coastline from [[Acre (city)|Acre]] to [[Antioch]]. The [[personal union]] of the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem ended when Aimery died of food poisoning; Cyprus passed to his only surviving son, [[Hugh I of Cyprus|Hugh I]], while Isabella retained the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
-== Early life ==
+== Early career ==
+<!---[[File:Nur ad-Din Zangi.jpg|thumb|Aimery was the fourth generation of Lusignans to fight in the [[crusader states]]. His father fought in the Battle of Harim.]]--->
+Aimery was born before 1155.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}} He was the son of [[Hugh VIII of Lusignan]], a lord from [[Poitou]], and his wife, Burgundia of Rancon.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=23}}{{sfn|Painter|1957|pp=39–40}} The [[House of Lusignan]] was noted for generations of [[crusade]]rs who had fought for the [[Holy Land]] in the [[Levant]]. His great-grandfather, [[Hugh VI of Lusignan]], died in the [[Battle of Ramla (1102)|Battle of Ramla]] in 1102; Aimery's grandfather, [[Hugh VII of Lusignan]], took part in the [[Second Crusade]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=97}} Aimery's father departed for the [[Levant]] in 1163, leaving his lands to be governed by Aimery's eldest brother, [[Hugh Brunus]]. The elder Hugh was captured by Muslims at the [[Battle of Harim]] and died in captivity in the 1160s.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=97}}{{sfn|Painter|1957|p=41}}
-Aimery was born before 1155.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}} He was the fifth son of [[Hugh VIII of Lusignan]] and his wife, [[Burgundia of Rancon]].{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=23}}{{sfn|Painter|1957|pp=39–40}} [[House of Lusignan|His family]] had been noted for generations of crusaders in their native [[Poitou]]. His great-grandfather, [[Hugh VI of Lusignan]], died in the [[Battle of Ramla (1102)|Battle of Ramla]] in 1102; Aimery's grandfather, [[Hugh VII of Lusignan]], took part in the [[Second Crusade]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=97}} Aimery's father also came to the [[Holy Land]] and died in a Muslim prison in the 1160s.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=97}}{{sfn|Painter|1957|p=41}} Earlier scholarship erroneously referred to him as Amalric (or Amaury, its French form), but evidence from documentaries shows he was actually called ''Aimericus'', which is a distinct name (although it was sometimes confused with ''Amalricus'' already in the [[Middle Ages]]).{{sfn|Hill|2010|pp=32 (note 3), 45 (note 1)}}{{sfn|Hazard|1975|p=108 (note 125)}} Runciman{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=506}} and other modern historians erroneously refer to him as Amalric II of [[Jerusalem]], because they confused his name with that of [[Amalric of Jerusalem|Amalric "I" of Jerusalem]].{{sfn|Hill|2010|pp=32 (note 3), 45 (note 1)}}{{sfn|Hazard|1975|p=108 (note 125)}}
+In 1168 Aimery joined a rebellion against his family's [[suzerain]], King [[Henry II of England]].{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=23}} The Lusignan brothers ambushed Henry's wife, [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]], as the queen travelled to [[Poitiers]] and killed the leader of her guard, [[Patrick, earl of Salisbury]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=157}} Shortly after the rebellion, Aimery left Poitou for the Levant and settled in the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]. He was captured in battle by Muslims and held in [[Damascus]]. According to a 13th-century tradition, King [[Amalric of Jerusalem]] ransomed Aimery; people were fascinated by the similarity of their names and the story entered the [[folklore]] of the [[Latin East]].{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=23}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=97}}{{efn|name=fn1}}
-Aimery joined a rebellion against [[Henry II of England]] (who also ruled Poitou) in 1168, according to [[Robert of Torigni]]'s chronicle, but Henry crushed the rebellion. Aimery left for the Holy Land and settled in the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]. He was captured in a battle and held in captivity in [[Damascus]]. A popular tradition (which was first recorded by the 13th-century [[Philip of Novara]] and [[John of Ibelin (jurist)|John of Ibelin]]) held, the [[King of Jerusalem]], Amalric, ransomed him personally.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=23}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=97}}
+Aimery secured his position in the Latin East by marrying [[Eschiva of Ibelin (died 1196)|Eschiva of Ibelin]], the elder daughter of the [[lord of Ramla]], [[Baldwin of Ibelin]], who was one of the most powerful noblemen in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=35, 98}} According to [[Ernoul]], whose reliability in this instance is questionable, Aimery became a lover of King Amalric's former wife, [[Agnes of Courtenay]]. Ernoul consistently portrays Agnes unfavorably; his information about her probably came from her rival, [[Maria Komnene, Queen of Jerusalem|Maria Komnene]], Amalric's second wife.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=25, 97–98}} King Amalric died on 11 July 1174 and was succeeded by his and Agnes's thirteen-year-old son, [[Baldwin IV]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=32}} Aimery became a member of the royal court with his father-in-law's support.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=99}} He may have been appointed [[chamberlain of Jerusalem|chamberlain]], which would indicate a close relationship with the royal family.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|p=153}}
+[[File:Mariage de Gui de Lusignan et Sibylle de Jérusalem.jpeg|thumb|Baldwin IV had his sister, Sibylla, marry Aimery's brother Guy. One chronicle credits Aimery with the match.]]
+Aimery's youngest brother, [[Guy of Lusignan|Guy]], married Baldwin IV's widowed sister, [[Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem|Sibylla]], in April 1180. Ernoul writes that Sibylla had promised herself to Aimery's father-in-law, Baldwin of Ibelin, but Aimery had described Guy as a handsome and charming young man to her and her mother, Agnes, and then travelled to Poitou in the winter of 1179/80 and brought Guy to Jerusalem. Another source, [[William of Tyre]], does not accord to Aimery any role in Guy and Sibylla's marriage. The historian Bernard Hamilton dismisses this account and argues that King Baldwin arranged the match. Because the young king had [[lepromatous leprosy]], Sibylla was his [[heir presumptive]] and Guy's marriage to her put him in line to become the next king, much to the dismay of the Ibelins and their allies.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=152-158}}
-[[Ernoul]] (whose reliability is questioned) claimed Aimery was a lover of Amalric of Jerusalem's former wife, [[Agnes of Courtenay]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=9, 97–98}} Aimery married [[Eschiva of Ibelin (died 1196)|Eschiva of Ibelin]], a daughter of [[Baldwin of Ibelin]], who was one of the most powerful noblemen in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=35, 98}} Amalric of Jerusalem, who died on 11 July 1174, was succeeded by his thirteen-year-old son by Agnes of Courtenay, [[Baldwin IV of Jerusalem|Baldwin IV]] who suffered from [[Lepromatous leprosy|leprosy]].{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=61}} Aimery became a member of the royal court with his father-in-law's support.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=99}}
+== Constableship ==
+===Baronial division===
+By 24 February 1182, Aimery had become [[constable of Jerusalem]],{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=167}} the highest military authority in the kingdom after the king.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=45}} He may have been granted the office shortly after his predecessor, [[Humphrey II of Toron]], died in April 1179;{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|pp=419, 424}}{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=274}} alternatively, his appointment may have only come around 1181, as the consequence of the growing influence of his brother Guy.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=167}} Aimery's legal ability may have developed during his long tenure in public office.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|pp=153-154}}
-Aimery's youngest brother, [[Guy of Lusignan|Guy]], married Baldwin IV's widowed sister, [[Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem|Sibylla]], in April 1180.{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=66}} Ernoul wrote, it was Aimery who had spoken of his brother to her and her mother, Agnes of Courtenay, describing him as a handsome and charming young man.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=152}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|p=424}} Aimery, continued Ernoul, hurried back to Poitou and persuaded Guy to come to the kingdom, although Sibylla had promised herself to Aimery's father-in-law.{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|p=424}} Another source, [[William of Tyre]], did not mention that Aimery had played any role in the marriage of his brother and the King's sister.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=152}} Consequently, many elements of Ernoul's report (especially Aimery's alleged journey to Poitou) were most probably invented.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=152, 157}}
+In 1183 King Baldwin IV appointed Guy [[regent]]. As regent, Guy was also the [[commander-in-chief]] of the royal army.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=188-189}} [[Saladin]], the [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] sultan of Egypt and Syria, launched a campaign against the kingdom on 29 September. Aimery defeated the sultan's troops in a minor skirmish with the support of his father-in-law, Baldwin, and Baldwin's brother [[Balian of Ibelin]]. After the victory, the crusaders' main army could advance as far as a spring near Saladin's camp, forcing him to retreat nine days later. Both William of Tyre and Ernoul were disappointed that the Christian army did not engage the Muslims. During the campaign, it became apparent that other military leaders were unwilling to cooperate with Guy.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=190-191}} The ailing king dismissed Guy from regency and had his five-year-old nephew, [[Baldwin of Montferrat]], crowned [[co-king]] on 20 November 1183.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=194}} The boy king, known as Baldwin V, was Sibylla's son and Guy's stepson.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=215}}
-== Constable of Jerusalem ==
+In early 1185, Baldwin IV decreed that the [[pope]], the [[Holy Roman emperor]] and the [[kings of France]] and [[kings of England|England]] were to choose between his sister, Sybilla, and half-sister, [[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella]], if Baldwin V died before reaching the age of majority.{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|p=443}} Baldwin IV died in 1185, followed by his nephew in mid-1186.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|pp=210, 216}} Ignoring Baldwin IV's decree and the protests of Guy's opponents, led by Aimery's Ibelin in-laws, Sybilla's partisans proclaimed her queen and she [[Coronations of the kings and queens of Jerusalem|crowned]] Guy king.{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|pp=447–448}} Aimery was among Sibylla's supporters.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=218}} Aimery's father-in-law, Baldwin of Ibelin, left the kingdom rather than pay [[homage (feudal)|homage]] to Guy.{{sfn|Donnachie|2021|pp=184-185}}
-[[File:Gui sybila.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A young crowned man (surrounded by bishops and clerics) puts the hands of a young woman and man together|Marriage of Aimery's younger brother, [[Guy of Lusignan]], and [[Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem|Sibylla]], the sister of [[Baldwin IV of Jerusalem]]]]
+===Hattin and the Third Crusade===
-[[File:Map Crusader states 1197-en.svg|thumb|The eastern Mediterranean in 1197, during Aimery's reign.]]
+As constable, Aimery organised the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem into units before the [[Battle of Hattin]], which ended with the decisive victory of Saladin on 4 July 1187. Along with most commanders of the Christian army, Aimery was captured in the battlefield.{{sfn|Barber|2012|pp=303–304}} The victory enabled Saladin to conquer almost all of the Latin East; the only city in the kingdom that remained in Christian hands was [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=230}} During the siege of [[Ascalon]], Saladin promised the defenders that he would set free ten persons whom they named if they surrendered.{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=309}} Aimery and Guy were among those whom the defenders named before surrendering on 4 September, but Saladin postponed their release until early 1188.{{sfn|Painter|1969|p=55}} In response to the Christian losses, Kings [[Richard I of England]] and [[Philip II of France]] led the [[Third Crusade]] to the Levant. [[Geoffrey of Lusignan]], brother of Aimery and Guy, arrived with this crusade.{{sfn|Donnachie|2021|p=185}}
+[[File:Lusignan Tyr.jpg|thumb|After Sibylla died in the middle of the Third Crusade, Guy's opponents sought to dislodge him from the kingdom. Aimery remained loyal to his brother.]]
+In 1189 Guy gathered a force and [[siege of Acre (1189–1191)|laid a siege to Acre]]. Aimery and Geoffrey supported him during the siege.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=18}}{{sfn|Donnachie|2021|p=185}} Most barons held that Guy lost his claim to kingship when Sybilla and their daughters died in late 1190, but Aimery remained loyal to his brother.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=30}}{{sfn|Edbury|1994|pp=26–27}} The Ibelins supported Marquis [[Conrad of Montferrat]], the defender of Tyre, who married Sybilla's half-sister, Isabella, in late November.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=31}} King Richard supported the Lusignans,{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|p=116}}  and made Geoffrey [[count of Jaffa]] in 1191.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|p=153}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}} An assembly of the noblemen unanimously declared Conrad the lawful king on 16 April 1192.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=64}} Conrad was murdered twelve days later, and Isabella hastily married Count [[Henry II of Champagne]], whom the barons had selected to rule the kingdom.{{sfn|Painter|1969|p=81}} To compensate him for the loss of the kingdom, Richard authorized Guy to purchase the [[island of Cyprus]]&ndash;which the English king had conquered from its [[Byzantine]] governor, [[Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus|Isaac Komnenos]], in May 1191&ndash;from the [[Knights Templar]].{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=66–67}} Guy was to pay 40,000 [[bezant]]s to Richard, who granted the right to collect the sum to Henry.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=28}} Guy settled in Cyprus in early May.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=67}}
-Aimery was first mentioned as [[Constable of Jerusalem]] on 24 February 1182.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=167}} According to [[Steven Runciman]] and Malcolm Barber, he had already been granted the office shortly after his predecessor, [[Humphrey II of Toron]], died in April 1179.{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|pp=419, 424}}{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=274}} Historian Bernard Hamilton writes that Aimery's appointment was the consequence of the growing influence of his brother and he was appointed only around 1181.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=167}}
+Aimery remained in the Kingdom of Jerusalem as constable. When Geoffrey returned to France, Aimery claimed Jaffa. He paid homage to Isabella, but apparently not to her new husband, Henry of Champagne, who doubted his loyalty. In May 1192 Henry discovered that the [[Republic of Pisa|Pisan]] merchants had been plotting to deliver [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] to Guy and clamped down on them. Aimery intervened on behalf of the Pisans and Henry had him imprisoned in the [[citadel]] of [[Acre (city)|Acre]]. Aimery insisted that Henry had no right to imprison a vassal and constable, while Henry refused to recognize Aimery's constableship and denied that Aimery was his vassal. In exchange for Aimery's freedom, Henry demanded that Guy surrender Cyprus. Despite his long association with his unpopular brother Guy, Aimery was well-liked by the barons, who&ndash;together with the [[Grand Master (order)|grand master]]s of the Templars and the [[Hospitallers]]&ndash;prevailed on Henry to release him.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=83-84}}{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|pp=153-154}} After regaining his freedom, Aimery followed the example of the other Lusignan partisans and left the kingdom for Cyprus, abandoning both his office and the fief of Jaffa.{{sfn|Donnachie|2021|p=185}} Henry then granted the constableship to Isabella's half-brother, [[John, Old Lord of Beirut|John of Ibelin]].{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=60}} The Third Crusade ended in September with the Kingdom of Jerusalem regaining a narrow strip of land along the coast of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] from [[Jaffa]] to Tyre.{{sfn|Donnachie|2021|p=183}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=232}} Saladin, the crusaders' greatest enemy, died in 1193.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=78-78}}
-[[Saladin]], the [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] sultan of Egypt and Syria, launched a campaign against the Kingdom of Jerusalem on 29 September 1183.{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=66}}{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=281}} Aimery defeated the sultan's troops in a minor skirmish with the support of his father-in-law and his brother, [[Balian of Ibelin]]. After the victory, the crusaders' main army could advance as far as a spring near Saladin's camp, forcing him to retreat nine days later.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=190}} During the campaign, it turned out that most barons of the realm were unwilling to cooperate with Aimery's brother, Guy, who was the designated heir to Baldwin IV.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=191}} The ailing king dismissed Guy and made his five-year-old nephew (Guy's stepson), [[Baldwin V of Jerusalem|Baldwin V]], his co-ruler on 20 November 1183.{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=68}}
-In early 1185, Baldwin IV decreed that the Pope, the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] and the Kings of France and England were to be approached to choose between his sister, Sybilla, and their half-sister, [[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella]], if Baldwin V died before reaching the age of majority.{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|p=443}} The leper king died in April or May 1185, his nephew in late summer of 1186.{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=70}} Ignoring Baldwin IV's decree, Sybilla was proclaimed queen by her supporters and she crowned her husband, Guy, king.{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|pp=447–448}} Aimery was not listed among those who were present at the ceremony, but he obviously supported his brother and sister-in-law, according to Hamilton.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=218}}
-As Constable, Aimery organised the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem into units before the [[Battle of Hattin]], which ended with the decisive victory of Saladin on 4 July 1187.{{sfn|Barber|2012|pp=303–304, 365}} Along with most commanders of the Christian army, Aimery was captured in the battlefield.{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=304}} During the siege of [[Ascalon]], Saladin promised the defenders that he would set free ten persons whom they named if they surrendered.{{sfn|Barber|2012|p=309}} Aimery and Guy were among those whom the defenders named before surrendering on 4 September, but Saladin postponed their release until the spring of 1188.{{sfn|Painter|1969|p=55}}
-Most barons of the realm thought that Guy lost his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem when Sybilla and their two daughters died in late 1190, but Aimery remained loyal to his brother.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=30}}{{sfn|Edbury|1994|pp=26–27}} Guy's opponents supported [[Conrad of Montferrat]] who married Sybilla's half-sister Isabella in late November.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=31}} An assembly of the noblemen of the realm unanimously declared Conrad the lawful king on 16 April 1192.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=64}} Although Conrad was murdered twelve days later, his widow soon married [[Henry II of Champagne]], who was elected King of Jerusalem.{{sfn|Lock|2006|pp=77–78}} To compensate Guy for the loss of Jerusalem, [[Richard I of England]] authorized him to purchase the island of [[Cyprus]] (that Richard had conquered in May 1191) from the [[Knights Templar]].{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=66–67}} He was also to pay 40,000 [[bezant]]s to Richard who donated the right to collect the sum from Guy to Henry.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=28}} Guy settled in Cyprus in early May.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=67}}
-Aimery remained in the Kingdom of Jerusalem,{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=67}} which was reduced to a narrow strip of land along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea from [[Jaffa]] to [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]].{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=78}} King Henry ordered the expulsion of the merchants from [[Pisa]] from [[Acre (city)|Acre]] in May, because he accused them of plotting with Guy of Lusignan.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=83}} After Aimery intervened on behalf of the merchants, Henry had him arrested. Aimery was only released at the demand of the [[Grand Master (order)|grand master]]s of the Templars and the [[Hospitallers]]. He retired to Jaffa, which King Richard had granted to Aimery's eldest brother, [[Geoffrey of Lusignan]].{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}}
 == Reign ==
+=== Lord of Cyprus ===
+====Consollidation====
+Guy made Aimery [[constable of Cyprus]].{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=44}}{{sfn|Ghazarian|2000|p=143}} He died in late 1194, having bequeathed Cyprus to Geoffrey.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=29}} Richard had granted Cyprus to Guy for life, but neither the English king nor his nephew Henry II of Champagne, to whom he had transferred his rights, claimed the reversion.{{sfn|Furber|1969|pp=603-604}} Geoffrey showed no interest in ruling in the Latin East and had already returned to Poitou. Guy's vassals elected Aimery to be their new lord.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=29}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}} Henry of Champagne demanded, as the ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, to be consulted about the succession in Cyprus, but he was ignored.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}}
-=== Lord of Cyprus ===
+Upon succeeding his brother, Aimery realized that the treasury was almost empty because Guy had granted most landed property on the island to his supporters. He summoned his vassals to an assembly. After pointing out that each of them was richer than him, he persuaded them one by one "either by force, or by friendship, or by agreement" to surrender some of their rents and lands. By the end of his reign, the revenues of Cyprus had increased to at least 200,000 bezants.{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=604}} Aimery continued Guy's work on the island's fortresses.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=66}} Guy's entourage, including [[Rainier of Gibelet]], became part of Aimery's court in Cyprus. They were joined by new arrivals, many of whom were Aimery's fellow Poitevins, including [[Aimery of Rivet]], who became [[seneschal of Cyprus|seneschal]], and [[Reynald Barlais]].{{sfn|Hamilton|1997|p=16}}
-Guy died in May 1194, and bequeathed Cyprus to his elder brother, Geoffrey. However Geoffrey had already returned to Poitou, thus Guy's vassals elected Aimery their new lord.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=29}} Henry of Champagne demanded the right to be consulted about the succession in Cyprus, but the Cypriote noblemen ignored him. Around the same time, Henry replaced Aimery with [[John, Old Lord of Beirut|John of Ibelin]] as constable of Jerusalem.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}}
+==== Church and crown ====
+[[File:Coelestin III.jpg|thumb|With the help of Pope Celestine III and Emperor Henry VI, Aimery worked on establishing Cyprus as a kingdom.]]
+When Aimery assumed the rule over Cyprus, the island only had [[Greek Orthodox]] bishops. In 1195 Aimery dispatched the [[archdeacon of Laodicea]], known only by the initial [[B. (bishop of Paphos)|B.]], to [[Pope Celestine III]], to request the establishment of a [[Latin Church]] hierarchy on Cyprus. This was probably seen as a condition for raising Cyprus to the status of a kingdom.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|pp=29, 31}} In order to be recognized as a king, a ruler had to receive a crown from either an emperor or the pope.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=89}} At about the same the archdeacon of Laodicea left for Rome, Aimery dispatched his vassal Rainier of Gibelet to the Holy Roman emperor, [[Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry VI]], who was preparing to lead [[Crusade of Henry VI|a new crusade]]. Aimery proposed acknowledging the emperor's [[suzerain]]ty if the emperor recognized him as king. He was prompted by the concern that the Byzantines would attempt to recover Cyprus; additionally, obtaining a crown would enhance his prestige, secure Cyprus for his descendants, and quash any suggestions that the island should be considered dependent on the Kingdom of Jerusalem.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=31}}
-Aimery realized that the treasury of Cyprus was almost empty because his brother had granted most landed property on the island to his supporters, according to Ernoul.{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=604}} He summoned his vassals to an assembly.{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=604}} After emphasizing that each of them owned more land than he had, he persuaded them one by one "either by force, or by friendship, or by agreement" to surrender some of their rents and lands.{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=604}}
+Aimery's envoy Rainier of Gibelet swore loyalty to Henry VI on behalf of Aimery in [[Gelnhausen]] in October 1195.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=85}} The emperor promised that he would personally crown Aimery and tasked the archbishops of [[Archdiocese of Brindisi-Ostuni|Brindisi]] and [[Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie|Trani]] with delivering a golden [[sceptre]] to Aimery.{{sfn|Johnson|1969|p=119}} Henry VI's envoys landed in Cyprus in April or May 1196. Aimery may have adopted the title of king around that time, because Pope Celestine styled him as king already in a letter in December 1196.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=31}}{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=528}} At that time the pope set up the [[archbishopric of Nicosia]], of which the first incumbent was Aimery's chancellor, [[Alan (archbishop of Nicosia)|Alan]], and the [[suffragan diocese]]s of [[bishop of Paphos|Paphos]], [[bishop of Limassol|Limassol]], and [[bishop of Famagusta|Famagusta]].{{sfn|Edbury|1994|pp=29, 31}} Aimery's coronation was postponed to allow Henry VI to arrive.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=31}}
-[[File:Kaiser Heinrich VI. im Codex Manesse.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A young bearded man sitting on a throne|[[Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI]], who authorized the coronation of Aimery in exchange after Aimery acknowledged his suzerainty]]
+====Relations with neighbors====
+[[File:Kızkalesi - Korykos 01.jpg|thumb|Aimery retrieved his wife and children from the Corycus fortress after their abduction by a pirate.]]
+In the mid-1190s,{{sfn|Edbury|1997|p=31}} Aimery's wife, Eschiva, was at the coast recovering from an illness when she and their children were abducted by the pirate [[Kanakes]], on whom Aimery had put a bounty. They were taken to [[Antiochetta]] and held as hostages. Their release was procured by the lord of [[Armenian Cilicia]], [[Leo I, King of Armenia|Leo II]]. Leo housed them in the fortress of [[Corycus]], where Aimery soon came to retrieve them. The incident helped establish friendly relations between Aimery and Leo.{{sfn|Ghazarian|2000|p=144}} Leo invited Aimery, his family, and his men to stay for a feast, but they had to leave when the weather started to change; a storm at sea followed, and [[William of Tyre]]'s [[continuator]] believes that they would have died if they had been caught in it.<ref>The Old French Continuation, pp. 127-128.</ref> Eschiva, having been in poor health, died shortly after her release.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=57}} She and Aimery had had six children: [[Burgundia of Cyprus|Burgundia]], Alice, [[Helvis of Cyprus|Helvis]], John, Guy, and [[Hugh I of Cyprus|Hugh]].{{sfn|Edbury|1991|p=30}}{{sfn|Donnachie|2021|p=193}}<ref>The Colbert-Fontainebleu Continuation, p. 205</ref>
-Aimery dispatched an embassy to [[Pope Celestine III]], asking him to set up Roman Catholic [[Diocese|dioceses]] in Cyprus.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=29}} He also sent his representative, [[Rainier of Gibelet]], to the Holy Roman Emperor, [[Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry VI]], proposing that he would acknowledge the emperor's suzerainty, if the emperor sent a royal crown to him.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=85}} Aimery primarily wanted to secure the emperor's assistance against a potential [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] invasion of Cyprus,{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=604}} but he also wanted to strengthen his own legitimacy as king.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=31}} Rainier of Gibelet swore loyalty to Henry VI on behalf of Aimery in [[Gelnhausen]] in October 1196.{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=80}} The emperor who had decided to lead a crusade to the Holy Land promised that he would personally crown Aimery king. He dispatched the archbishops of [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brindisi-Ostuni|Brindisi]] and [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie|Trani]] to take a golden [[sceptre]] to Aimery as a symbol of his right to rule Cyprus.{{sfn|Johnson|1969|p=119}}
+A truce between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Ayyubid Sultanate expired in 1196 and the kingdom, already a [[rump state]], was in danger of renewed attacks. Its barons and merchants felt that the rivalry between Henry of Champagne and Aimery was detrimental to both kingdoms. Some, such as the Bethsan family, held land and privileges in Cyprus as well, while many of the most prominent figures were related to Aimery's wife. The Bethsan family were among those who urged Henry to reconcile with Aimery.{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=525}}{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=32}} Henry thus visited Aimery on Cyprus in 1197. The two rulers made peace and even forged an alliance, whereby the three sons of Aimery and Eschiva were betrothed to the three daughters of Henry and Isabella.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=32}} It is possible that Aimery was restored to the office of constable of Jerusalem at this point because he used the title again in November. As part of the settlement, Isabella and Henry promised that Jaffa would be restored to the Lusignans as [[dowry]] and Aimery's debt to Henry for the purchase of Cyprus was remitted.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=32}}{{sfn|Hamilton|1997|p=13}} Muslims invaded during the negotiations, and Aimery promptly sent Reynald Barlais to take possession of Jaffa.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=32}}
-=== King of Cyprus ===
+===Kingship===
+====Crusade and coronations====
+[[File:Der Dichter, begleitet vom Kanzler Konrad von Querfurt, überreicht dem Kaiser Heinrich VI. das Werk (cropped).jpg|thumb|Aimery was crowned by Emperor Henry VI's chancellor, Conrad, because the emperor was too ill to come and do it himself.]]
+A rebellion in [[Sicily]] and a subsequent illness prevented Emperor Henry VI's departure to the Latin East. His chancellor, [[Conrad of Querfurt]], [[bishop of Hildesheim]], set sail ahead of him. Conrad crowned Aimery in [[Nicosia]] in September 1197 and received [[Homage (feudal)|homage]] from the newly made king. The emperor died that month and the Holy Roman Empire was plunged into [[German throne dispute|a long succession war]], leaving Aimery without the alliance he had desired.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=85}}{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=31}} Henry of Champagne also died in September, having fallen from a window of his palace in Acre, only weeks after reconciling with Aimery. Aimery's garrison at Jaffa was not able to resist the Ayyubid attack and Jaffa was lost again shortly after Henry's death. Although it was not successful, this was the first instance of a king of Cyprus intervening militarily on behalf of the mainland kingdom.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|pp=32-33}}
-Henry VI's two envoys landed in Cyprus in April or May 1196. Aimery may have adopted the title of king around that time, because Pope Celestine styled him as king already in a letter in December 1196.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=31}}{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=528}} In the same month, the Pope set up a [[Roman Catholic archdiocese in Nicosia]] with three [[suffragan bishop]]s in [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Famagusta|Famagusta]], [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Nemosia|Limassol]] and [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Paphos|Paphos]].{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=31}} The [[Church of Cyprus|Greek Orthodox bishops]] were not expelled, but their property and income were seized by the new Catholic prelates.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=86}}
+Immediately after the death of Henry of Champagne, the barons of Jerusalem demanded that his widow, Isabella, seek a fourth husband, who would rule the kingdom.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=33}}
+The aristocratic-yet-impoverished [[seneschal of Jerusalem]], [[Ralph of Saint Omer]], was a candidate, but the masters of the military orders opposed him vehemently.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=93}} [[Conrad of Wittelsbach]], [[archbishop of Mainz]], arrived in Acre on 20 September and proposed that the throne should be offered to Aimery. Aimery would have been an attractive candidate because of his Cypriot resources, and the Germans likely appreciated that he was an imperial vassal. Since Aimery's first wife, Eschiva, had recently died, he was free to marry Isabella. [[Joscius, archbishop of Tyre]], led the negotiations. The [[Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem|patriarch of Jerusalem]], [[Aymar the Monk]], initially complained that the marriage would be [[Canon law of the Catholic Church|uncanonical]]. The marriage, or at least a betrothal, was celebrated in October.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=33}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=94–95}}
-Henry VI's [[Archchancellor|chancellor]], [[Conrad of Querfurt|Conrad]], [[Bishop of Hildesheim]], crowned Aimery king in [[Nicosia]] in September 1197.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=31}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=85}} Aimery did [[Homage (feudal)|homage]] to the chancellor.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=85}} The noblemen who owned fiefs in both Cyprus and the Kingdom of Jerusalem wanted to bring about a reconciliation between Aimery and Henry of Champagne.{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=525}} One of them, [[Baldwin of Beisan]], Constable of Cyprus, persuaded King Henry to visit Cyprus in early 1197.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}}{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=32}} The two kings made peace, agreeing that Aimery's three sons were to marry Henry's three daughters. Henry also renounced the debt that Aimery still owed to him for Cyprus and allowed Aimery to garrison his troops at Jaffa. Aimery sent [[Reynald Barlais]] to take possession of Jaffa. Aimery again used the title of Constable of Jerusalem in November 1197, which suggests that he had also recovered that office as a consequence of his treaty with Henry.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=32}}
+Sensing an opportunity while the Ayyubids were preoccupied with Jaffa, Aimery assisted the German and Brabancon crusaders commanded by Duke [[Henry I of Brabant]] in recovering [[Beirut]] and [[Sidon]] in October 1197. Sidon had been destroyed by the time they arrived, and they captured Beirut on 21 October after forcing the Ayyubid ruler of Damascus, [[al-Adil I]], to withdraw.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=96}}{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=530}} Toron was besieged in November.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=61}} The patriarch withdrew his objections to the marriage of Aimery and Isabella and crowned them in January 1198.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=33}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=94–95}} When news of Emperor Henry VI's death reached the Levant, the Germans decided to return home, and the siege of Toron was abandoned on 2 February.{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=530}}{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=61}} The Germans left behind a new military order, the [[Teutonic Knights]], to whom Aimery granted the Gate of St Nicholas in Acre on the condition that they return it at the king's request.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=98}} Pope Celestine III's successor, [[Innocent III]], immediately began preaching a new crusade.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=62}}
-=== King of two realms ===
+====Governance and legislation====
+[[File:Map Crusader states 1197-en.svg|thumb|The eastern Mediterranean in 1197]]
+King Aimery spent more time at Acre than in Nicosia.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=60}} He did not hesitate to send Cypriot troops to fight on the mainland, but declared that he could not maintain the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his own treasury.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=33}}{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=60}} The government and laws of Cyprus were modelled after those of Jerusalem, and a [[High Court of Cyprus]] was established as an equivalent to the [[High Court of Jerusalem]].{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=85}} These institutions remained separate, as did the chanceries; the two kingdoms were [[personal union|linked only by the king's person]]{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=33}} and he made no attempts to unite them.{{sfn|Hamilton|1997|p=17}} Cyprus was Aimery's and was to pass to his heirs, while in Jerusalem he owed his kingship to Queen Isabella. Isabella already had an heir, her eldest daughter, [[Maria of Montferrat]], and three more daughters, Maria, [[Alice of Champagne|Alice]], and [[Philippa of Champagne]].{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=60}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=95, 102}}
-Henry of Champagne fell from the window in his palace and died in Acre on 10 September 1197. The aristocratic-yet-impoverished [[Raoul of Saint Omer]] was one of the possible candidates to succeed him, but the grand masters of the military orders opposed him vehemently. A few days later, [[Al-Adil I]], the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, occupied Jaffa.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=93}}
+Aimery was in no haste to make significant changes to his wife's advisors, nor did he try to curtail the influence of the men who had served her previous husband, Henry. He relied much on [[Baldwin of Bethsan]], constable of Cyprus, who often accompanied him on the mainland.{{sfn|Hamilton|1997|p=17}} He thought highly of the senechal of Jerusalem, Ralph of Saint Omer, but did not like him.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=95}} According to a later tradition, Ralph was the only man who knew the laws of Jerusalem better than Aimery. The king sought to preserve and codify what was remembered of the laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and he wanted to delegate the task to a commission under his presidency. He requested Ralph's assistance, but Ralph took no part in the endeavor. The resulting ''[[Livre au roi]]'' dealt with, among other things, the rights and obligations of the [[queen regnant]] and her husband, the succession rights of her children, and the question of regency in case of her death&ndash;issues which were of particular concern at the time.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|p=155}}
-[[File:Omfroi isabela.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A young man in a long cloth, with a woman on his right and a priest on his left|Marriage of Aimery's second wife [[Isabella I of Jerusalem]] and her first husband, [[Humphrey IV of Toron]]]]
+In March 1198, Aimery and his court were travelling from Acre and riding through the orchards of Tyre when four German horsemen galloped up to the king and attacked him. His retainers rescued him, but the attackers refused to say who had hired them.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=95–96}}{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=61}} While recovering, the king became convinced that Ralph of Saint Omer, lately his rival for Isabella's hand and the throne, stood behind the attack.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|p=156}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=95}}{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=34}} Aimery convoked a full session of the High Court of Jerusalem, at which he sentenced Ralph to [[banishment]], apparently referencing an ''[[assizes of Jerusalem|assise]]'' of [[King Baldwin III]] that allowed the king to punish a treacherous vassal without trial. Ralph insisted that the ''[[Assise sur la ligece]]'' entitled him to be [[jury of peers|tried by his peers]]. The High Court tried to persuade Aimery to grant a trial and threatened to withdraw their knights from his service if he refused, which they did when Aimery proved obdurate. The matter was only resolved when Ralph announced that he would leave the kingdom voluntarily because he had lost the king's goodwill.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=96}}{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|pp=156-158}} This incident may have precluded Ralph from participating in Aimery's compilation of the laws of the kingdom.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1973|p=155}}
-[[Conrad of Wittelsbach]], the [[archbishop of Mainz]], who arrived to Acre on 20 September, was the first to propose that the crown should be offered to Aimery. Since Aimery's first wife had died, he could marry the widowed queen of Jerusalem, Isabella I.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=94}} Although [[Aymar the Monk|Aymar]], the [[Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem|patriarch of Jerusalem]], stated that the marriage would be uncanonical, [[Joscius, archbishop of Tyre]], started negotiations with Aimery who accepted the offer. The patriarch also withdrew his objections and crowned Aimery and Isabella in Tyre in January 1198.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=33}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=94–95}}
+====Foreign relations====
+Aimery pursued an active and adaptable foreign policy,{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=96}} and maintained good relations with the [[merchant republics]] of Europe to strengthen the economy.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=62}} He signed a truce with al-Adil on 1 July 1198, securing the possession of the coast from Acre as far as to [[Antioch]] for the crusaders for five years and eight months. Aimery was left with Beirut, al-Adil with Jaffa, and Sidon was divided between them. Al-Adil took control of Egypt in November and, with [[Antiochene War of Succession|a succession war]] brewing in Antioch, Aimery became all the more eager to keep the peace.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=98}} The king was dismayed by the struggle between Leo of Armenia and Count [[Bohemond IV of Antioch|Bohemond of Tripoli]] for the succession to Prince [[Bohemond III of Antioch]], and he pressured Cardinal [[Soffred]] to mediate.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=65}} Aimery's sympathies lay with the Armenians, but he never intervened.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=101}}
-The [[Cypriot Army]] fought for the Kingdom of Jerusalem during Aimery's rule, but otherwise, he administered his two realms separately.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=33}} Even before his coronation, Aimery united his forces with the German crusaders who were under the command of Duke [[Henry I of Brabant]] to launch a campaign against the Ayyubid troops. They forced Al-Adil to withdraw and captured [[Beirut]] on 21 October. He laid siege to [[Toron]], but he had to lift the siege on 2 February, because the German crusaders decided to return to the Holy Roman Empire after learning that Emperor Henry VI had died.{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=530}}
+Aimery continued to fear that the Byzantines might attempt to reclaim Cyprus; his ambassadors at the papal court voiced this concern in early 1199.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=11}} In the early 1200s the Byzantine emperor, [[Alexios III Angelos]], also turned to [[Pope Innocent III]].{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=608}}{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=11}} He feared that [[Constantinople]] would become the target of the [[Fourth Crusade]].{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=63}} Alexios promised that he would help the crusaders fight in the Holy Land if the pope forced Aimery to hand the island to the Byzantines under the pain of [[excommunication]]. The pope was anxious that Aimery's efforts to secure the Holy Land not be disturbed and refused Alexios, arguing that the Byzantines had lost their right to Cyprus when Richard I of England conquered the island in 1191.{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=608}}<!--- Furber says 1201, Hamilton c. 1201, Edbury 1203.---> Alexios did not press the issue again, but Innocent mentioned his designs to Kings [[John of England]] and Philip II of France and urged them to send help to Cyprus and the Holy Land.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=62}}
-Aimery was riding at Tyre when four German knights attacked him in March 1198.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=95–96}} His retainers rescued him and captured the four knights. Aimery accused Raoul of Saint Omer of hiring the assailants and sentenced him to banishment without a trial by his peers. At Raoul's demand, the case was submitted to the High Court of Jerusalem which held that Aimery had unlawfully banished Raoul. Nevertheless, Raoul voluntarily left the kingdom and settled in [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]], because he knew that he had lost Aimery's goodwill.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=96}}
+In 1202, groups of men split off from the Fourth Crusade arrived in Acre. [[Reynald II of Dampierre]], who arrived at the head of 300 French crusaders, demanded that Aimery break off the treaties with the Muslims and launch a campaign. Aimery told him that more than 300 soldiers were needed to wage war against the Ayyubids and that he would wait for the rest of the crusaders. Reynald called him a coward to his face and left to join Bohemond of Tripoli.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=101-102}}{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=531}} In 1203 another crusader, [[Thierry of Flanders (flourished 1197–1207)|Thierry of Flanders]], landed in Cyprus and came before Aimery. He demanded that Cyprus be turned over to him in right of [[damsel of Cyprus|his wife]], a daughter of the island's former ruler, Isaac Komnenos. He was brusquely ordered to leave.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=10}}
-Aimery signed a truce with Al-Adil on 1 July 1198, securing the possession of the coast from Acre as far as to [[Antioch]] for the crusaders for five years and eight months.{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=81}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=98}} The Byzantine emperor, [[Alexios III Angelos]], did not abandon the idea of recovering Cyprus. He promised that he would help a new crusade if [[Pope Innocent III]] excommunicated Aimery to enable a Byzantine invasion in 1201, but Innocent refused him, stating that the Byzantines had lost their right to Cyprus when Richard I conquered the island in 1191.{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=608}}
+Aimery launched one reprisal against the Muslims during the period of truce. An Egyptian emir seized a fortress near Sidon and plundered the neighbouring Christian territory. As al-Adil failed to force the emir to respect the truce, Aimery sent a retaliatory fleet that seized 20 Egyptian ships; afterwards he led the barons, the Temmplars, and the Hospitallers on raids into the Ayyubid land of [[Galilee]]. In response, al-Adil's son [[al-Mu'azzam Isa]] plundered the region of Acre. Each side took care to avoid a clash: Aimery held back awaiting the crusade's arrival, while al-Adil sought not to provoke it. In May 1204, Aimery exhibited further naval strength when his fleet sacked [[Fuwwah]], a small Ayyubid town in the [[Nile Delta]].{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=531}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|pp=101-102}}
+[[File:Konstantinopol1204.jpg|thumb|When the [[Fourth Crusade]] targeted Constantinople instead of assisting him, Aimery negotiated another truce with the Muslims.]]
+The Fourth Crusade ended up diverted to Constantinople, bringing no benefit to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|pp=531-532}} Aimery's reaction to the crusade's [[sack of Constantinople]] and the subsequent establishment of the [[Latin Empire]] in its ruins is not known, but it provoked resentment and dismay in the Latin East.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=34}} As no new armies would arrive to support him, Aimery proposed a peace, which al-Adil gladly accepted. A new truce for six years was signed in September 1204. Under the terms of the treaty, al-Adil ceded Jaffa and the Ayyubid portions of Sidon and [[Ramla]] to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and simplified the Christian pilgrims' visits to Jerusalem and [[Nazareth]].{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|pp=531-532}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}} Aimery arranged for the widowed [[lady of Sidon]], [[Helvis of Ibelin]], to marry the crusader [[Guy de Montfort, Lord of Sidon|Guy of Montfort]], who thus took up rule over the newly conquered town in the name of Helvis's son, [[Balian of Sidon|Balian]].{{sfn|Hamilton|1997|p=17}}
-Aimery kept the peace with the Muslims, even when [[Reynald II of Dampierre]], who arrived at the head of 300 French crusaders, demanded that he launch a campaign against the Muslims in early 1202. After Aimery reminded him that more than 300 soldiers were needed to wage war against the Ayyubids, Reynald left the Kingdom of Jerusalem for the [[Principality of Antioch]]. An Egyptian emir seized a fortress near Sidon and made plundering raids against the neighbouring territory. As Al-Adil failed to force the emir to respect the truce, Aimery's fleet seized 20 Egyptian ships and he invaded Al-Adil's realm. In retaliation, Al-Adil's son, [[Al-Mu'azzam Isa]] plundered the region of Acre. In May 1204, Aimery's fleet sacked a small town in the [[Nile Delta]] in Egypt. The envoys of Aimery and Al-Adil signed a new truce for six years in September 1204. Al-Adil ceded Jaffa and [[Ramleh]] to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and simplified the Christian pilgrims' visits to Jerusalem and [[Nazareth]].{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}}{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=531}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=102}}{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=86}}
+====Family, death, and succession====
+Aimery and Isabella's marriage produced two more daughters, [[Sibylla of Cyprus|Sibylla]] and [[Melisende of Cyprus|Melisende]], and a son, Amalric, who stood to succeed to the throne of Jerusalem. While the children of his first marriage were given typical Lusignan names, Aimery's children with Isabella were named after her relatives. This, as well as the consistent references to Isabella as the daughter of King Amalric in Aimery's charters, suggests that Aimery strove to position himself and their children as part of her dynasty.{{sfn|Donnachie|2021|p=188}} Of the children Aimery had had with Eschiva, only Burgundia, Helvis, and Hugh survived their father; John and Guy died young, as did Alice,{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=30}}{{sfn|Donnachie|2021|p=193}}<ref>The Colbert-Fontainebleu Continuation, p. 205</ref> who had [[leprosy]].{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=75-76|loc=Note 4}} Around 1202 Aimery gave Burgundia in marriage to the crusader [[Walter of Montbéliard]]. Aimery wished to name his new son-in-law and [[favourite]] to the office of constable of Jerusalem so that he could command the army in his absence. To do this, he granted Beirut to John of Ibelin in return for John's resignation from constableship.{{sfn|Hamilton|1997|p=17}}{{sfn|Edbury|1994|pp=40-41}}
-After eating an excess of [[white mullet]], Aimery fell seriously ill. He died after a short illness on 1 April 1205. His six-year-old son, [[Hugh I of Cyprus|Hugh I]], succeeded him in Cyprus; and Queen Isabella ruled the Kingdom of Jerusalem until her own death four days later.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}}{{sfn|Lock|2006|p=87}}
+The young Amalric, son of Aimery and Isabella, died on 2 February 1205.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}} Amalric's death precluded the establishment of the Lusignan dynasty in the mainland kingdom.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=34}} After eating an excess of [[white mullet]], King Aimery himself fell seriously ill. He died in Acre shortly after on 1 April.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}} His body was taken to Cyprus and buried in the [[Selimiye Mosque, Nicosia|Cathedral of Saint Sophia]] in Nicosia.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=66|loc=Note 3}} Aimery was succeeded in Cyprus by his only surviving son, 9-year-old Hugh I. Queen Isabella died shortly after, and her kingdom passed to her eldest daughter, Maria of Montferrat.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|pp=34, 42}} Of the three marriages Aimery had planned with Henry of Champagne, only one could be celebrated, that of King Hugh to Henry's daughter Alice in 1210; it "bore its dynastic fruit in time to come".{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}}
+{{chart top|Aimery's kinship and affinity with the rulers of the Latin East{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|loc=Appendix III: Genealogical trees (1)}}}}
+{{tree chart/start|align=center}}
+{{tree chart |border=0| |,|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|.|}}
+{{tree chart |border=0| |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |,|-|-|-|*|-|-|.| | | | |!|}}
+{{tree chart |border=0| |!| | |Agnes|y|Amalric|y|Maria|y|Balian| | |!| |Baldwin| | |Geoffrey|Amalric='''[[Amalric of&nbsp;Jerusalem]]'''|Maria=[[Maria Komnene, Queen of Jerusalem|Maria Komnene]]|Balian=[[Balian of&nbsp;Ibelin]]|Baldwin=[[Baldwin of&nbsp;Ibelin]]|Agnes=[[Agnes of&nbsp;Courtenay]]|Geoffrey=[[Geoffrey of&nbsp;Lusignan]]}}
+{{tree chart |border=0| |!| | | |,|-|^|-|.| |!| | |,|^|-|-|-|-|-|*|-|-|*|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|.||}}
+{{tree chart |border=0| |!| | | |!| | | |!| |!| |John| | | | | |!| | |!| | |Philip| |Helvis|John=[[John, the Old Lord of Beirut|John of&nbsp;Ibelin]]|Philip=[[Philip of Ibelin (1180–1227)|Philip of&nbsp;Ibelin]]|Helvis=[[Helvis of&nbsp;Ibelin]]}}
+{{tree chart |border=0|Guy|~|Sibylla| |Baldwin|!| | | | | | | | | |!| | |!| | | |!| | | |!|Baldwin='''[[Baldwin IV of&nbsp;Jerusalem]]'''|Sibylla='''[[Sibylla of&nbsp;Jerusalem]]'''|Guy='''[[Guy of&nbsp;Lusignan]]'''}}
+{{tree chart |border=0| |,|-|-|-|'| | | | | |!| |F|~|~|~|~|y|Aimery|y|Eschiva| |John| |Balian|Aimery=[[Aimery of&nbsp;Cyprus]]|Eschiva=[[Eschiva of Ibelin (wife of Aimery)|Eschiva of&nbsp;Ibelin]]|Balian=[[Balian of Sidon]]|John=[[John of Ibelin (jurist)|John of Ibelin]]}}
+{{tree chart |border=0| |!| | |Conrad|y|~|~|Isabella|A|y|Henry|!| | | |)|-|-|-|v|-|-|.|Isabella='''[[Isabella I of&nbsp;Jerusalem]]'''|Conrad=[[Conrad of&nbsp;Montferrat]]|Henry=[[Henry II of&nbsp;Champagne]]}}
+{{tree chart |border=0|Baldwin| |,|-|-|'|,|-|-|-|v|-|'| |,|-|^|-|.|Hugh| |Helvis| |Burgundia|Baldwin='''[[Baldwin V of Jerusalem]]'''|Hugh=[[Hugh I of&nbsp;Cyprus]]|Helvis=[[Helvis of&nbsp;Cyprus]]|Burgundia=[[Burgundia of&nbsp;Cyprus]]|Walter=[[Walter of&nbsp;Montbéliard]]}}
+{{tree chart |border=0| | | |Maria| |Alice| |Philippa| |Sibylla| |Melisende|Alice=[[Alice of&nbsp;Champagne]]|Philippa=[[Philippa of&nbsp;Champagne]]|Maria='''[[Maria of&nbsp;Montferrat]]'''|Melisende=[[Melisende of&nbsp;Cyprus]]|Sibylla=[[Sibylla of&nbsp;Cyprus]]}}
+{{tree chart/end}}
+{{chart bottom}}
 == Legacy ==
+The historian Mary Nickerson Hardwicke describes Aimery as a "self-assured, politically astute, sometimes hard, seldom sentimentally indulgent" ruler.{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=532}} His reign was a period of peace and consolidation,{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=34}} and he laid the foundations for the prosperity that Cyprus enjoyed under his successors.{{sfn|Hill|2010|p=66}} For the historian [[Steven Runciman]], Aimery was "not a great king", but "had a political wisdom that was very valuable". Runciman underlines that Aimery succeeded in preserving the mainland kingdom's monarchy;{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}} Hardwicke notes that he failed to strengthen it, although "it was not his fault".{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=532}}
-Historian Mary Nickerson Hardwicke described Aimery as a "self-assured, politically astute, sometimes hard, seldom sentimentally indulgent" ruler.{{sfn|Hardwicke|1969|p=532}} His rule was a period of peace and consolidation.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=34}} He initiated the revision of the laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to specify royal prerogatives.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=95}} The lawyers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem held him in high esteem.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=34}} One of them, John of Ibelin, emphasized that Aimery had governed both Cyprus and Jerusalem "well and wisely" until his death.{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=605}}
+Among those who knew him, Aimery inspired little affection but commanded respect.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}} The lawyers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem held him in high esteem.{{sfn|Edbury|1994|p=34}} One of them, [[John of Ibelin (jurist)|John of Ibelin]], emphasized that Aimery had governed both Cyprus and Jerusalem "well and wisely" until his death.{{sfn|Furber|1969|p=605}}
-== Family ==
+== Notes ==
+{{notelist}}
-Aimery's first wife, [[Eschiva of Ibelin (died 1196)|Eschiva of Ibelin]], was the elder daughter of Baldwin of Ibelin, lord of Mirabel and Ramleh, and Richelda of Beisan.{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=35}}{{sfn|Runciman|1989a|p=423, Appendix III: Genealogical trees, Number 4.}} They had five children:
+== References ==
-* Bourgogne, who married (1) [[Raymond VI of Toulouse]] in 1193 (div 1196 with no issue);{{sfn|William of Puylaurens|2003|p=18}} (2) [[Walter of Montbéliard]] in 1204. Walter was the regent of Cyprus for her younger brother, [[Hugh I of Cyprus|Hugh I]], from 1205 to 1210.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=134, Appendix III: Genealogical trees, Number 1.}}
+===Citations===
-* [[Helvis of Lusignan (1190-1218)|Helvis]], who married [[Raymond-Roupen]],{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=138, Appendix III: Genealogical trees, Number 1.}} the [[prince of Antioch]] from 1216 to 1219.
+{{Reflist|20em}}
-* Guy, who died young{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}}
-* John, who died young{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}}
-* [[Hugh I of Cyprus|Hugh I]], who married [[Alice of Champagne]]{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=84}}
-Aimery's second wife, Isabella I of Jerusalem,{{sfn|Tyerman|2006|p=493}} was the only daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and [[Maria Komnene, Queen of Jerusalem|Maria Komnene]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2000|p=31}} They had three children:
+=== Bibliography===
-* [[Sybilla of Lusignan|Sybilla]], who was the second wife of [[Leo I, king of Armenia]].{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=95, Appendix III: Genealogical trees, Number 1. and 4.}}
+====Primary sources====
-* [[Melisende of Lusignan|Melisende]], who married [[Bohemond IV of Antioch]].{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=95, Appendix III: Genealogical trees, Number 1-2.}}
+{{Refbegin}}
-* Amalric, who died during childhood, 2 February 1205.{{sfn|Runciman|1989b|p=103}}
+* {{cite book | translator-last=Edbury | translator-first=Peter W. | title=The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade: Sources in Translation|chapter=The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre, 1184-97 | publisher=Routledge | year=2017|orig-date=First published in 1998| isbn=978-1-351-89242-1 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dkdBDgAAQBAJ&q=%2522conquest%2520of%2520jerusalem%2520and%2520the%2520third%2520crusade%2522&pg=PT251 | access-date=24 August 2025}}
+* {{cite book | editor1-last=Edbury | editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Gaggero | editor2-first=Massimiliano | title=The Chronique d'Ernoul and the Colbert-Fontainebleau Continuation of William of Tyre|volume=2| publisher=BRILL | date=10 July 2023 | isbn=978-90-04-54759-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egMVEQAAQBAJ&q=%2522alice%2522%2520OR%2520%2522alix%2522%2520%2522burgundia%2522%2520OR%2520%2522bourgogne%2522%2520%2522helvis%2522%2520OR%2520%2522heloise%2522%2520%2522aimery%2522&pg=PA205 | language=fr | access-date=24 August 2025}}
-== References ==
+* {{cite book |last=William of Puylaurens |title=The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens: The Albigensian Crusade and its Aftermath |editor1-first=W.A. |editor1-last=Sibly |editor2-first=M.D. |editor2-last=Sibly |publisher=The Boydell Press |year=2003 }}
-{{Reflist|30em}}
+{{Refend}}
-== Sources ==
+====Secondary sources====
 {{Refbegin}}
 * {{cite book |last=Barber |first=Malcolm |author-link=Malcolm Barber |year=2012 |title=The Crusader States |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-11312-9 }}
 * {{cite book |last=Edbury |first=Peter W. |year=1994 |title=Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-45837-5 }}
+* {{cite book|last=Edbury|first=Peter W.|title=John of Ibelin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem|publisher=Boydell Press|year=1997|isbn=0851157033|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/johnofibelinki00edbu}}
+* {{cite book | last=Donnachie | first=Stephen | title=Settlement and Crusade in the Thirteenth Century | chapter=The predicaments of Aimery de Lusignan | publisher=Routledge | publication-place=London | date=27 May 2021 | isbn=978-0-429-20388-6 | doi=10.4324/9780429203886-15}}
 * {{cite book |last=Furber |first=Elizabeth Chapin |editor1-last=Setton |editor1-first=Kenneth M. |editor2-last=Wolff |editor2-first=Robert Lee |editor3-last=Hazard |editor3-first=Harry |title=A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 |publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press |year=1969 |pages=599–629 |chapter=The Kingdom of Cyprus, 1191–1291 |isbn=0-299-04844-6 }}
+* {{cite book | last=Ghazarian | first=Jacob G. | title=The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia During the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins, 1080-1393 | publisher=Routledge | date=2000 | isbn=978-0-7007-1418-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3W89PVbKLZwC&pg=PA54 | access-date=22 August 2025}}
+* {{cite book|last=Hamilton|first=Bernard|editor-last=Mayer|editor-first=Hans E.|editor-link=Hans E. Mayer|year=1997|title=Die Kreuzfahrerstaaten als multikulturelle Gesellschaft|trans-title=The Crusader States as a Multicultural Society|url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1524/9783486595895-004/html?srsltid=AfmBOorTPIxqkbQPh8pxUGL3njH8P7s6BS0gSvEYnAi3dIqOpLPRl5pr|chapter=King Consorts of Jerusalem and their Entourages from the West|pages=13–24|series=|publisher=De Gruyter Brill|doi=10.1524/9783486595895-004 |isbn=3-486-56257-6}}
 * {{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Bernard |year=2000 |title=The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-64187-6 }}
-*{{cite journal |last=Hazard |first=Harry W. |title=Caesarea and the Crusades |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Supplementary Studies |volume=1 |issue=19 The Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima |pages=79–114 |year=1975 }}
+* {{cite book |last=Hardwicke |first=Mary Nickerson |editor1-last=Setton |editor1-first=Kenneth M. |editor2-last=Wolff |editor2-first=Robert Lee |editor3-last=Hazard |editor3-first=Harry |title=A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 |publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press |year=1969 |pages=522–554 |chapter=The Crusader States, 1192–1243 |isbn=0-299-04844-6 }}
 * {{cite book |last=Hill |first=George Francis |author-link=George Francis Hill |year=2010 |title=A History of Cyprus, Volume II. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-02063-3 |orig-year=1948}}
-* {{cite book |last=Hardwicke |first=Mary Nickerson |editor1-last=Setton |editor1-first=Kenneth M. |editor2-last=Wolff |editor2-first=Robert Lee |editor3-last=Hazard |editor3-first=Harry |title=A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 |publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press |year=1969 |pages=522–554 |chapter=The Crusader States, 1192–1243 |isbn=0-299-04844-6 }}
 * {{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Edgar N. |editor1-last=Setton |editor1-first=Kenneth M. |editor2-last=Wolff |editor2-first=Robert Lee |editor3-last=Hazard |editor3-first=Harry |title=A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 |publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press |year=1969 |pages=87–122 |chapter=The Crusades of Frederick Barbarossan and Henry VI |isbn=0-299-04844-6 }}
-* {{cite book |last=Lock |first=Peter |year=2006 |title=The Routledge Companion to the Crusades |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-39312-6 }}
 * {{cite journal |last=Painter |first=Sidney |author-link=Sidney Painter |title=The Lords of Lusignan in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries |journal=Speculum |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=27–47 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=1957 |doi=10.2307/2849244 |jstor=2849244 |s2cid=161153870 |issn=0038-7134 }}
 * {{cite book |last=Painter |first=Sidney |author-link=Sidney Painter |editor1-last=Setton |editor1-first=Kenneth M. |editor2-last=Wolff |editor2-first=Robert Lee |editor3-last=Hazard |editor3-first=Harry |title=A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 |publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press |year=1969 |pages=45–85 |chapter=The Third Crusade: Richard the Lionhearted and Philip Augustus |isbn=0-299-04844-6 }}
-* {{cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Runciman |year=1989a |title=A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-06163-6 }}
+* {{cite book | last=Richard | first=Jean|author-link=Jean Richard (historian)| title=The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem | publisher=North-Holland Publishing Company | series=Europe in the Middle Ages: selected studies| volume=11A | year=1979 | isbn=978-0-444-85092-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_w1nAAAAMAAJ | access-date=2025-01-02|translator=Janet Shirley}}
-* {{cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Runciman |year=1989b |title=A History of the Crusades, Volume III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-06163-6 }}
+* {{cite book |last=Riley-Smith|first=Jonathan|author-link=Jonathan Riley-Smith|year=1973 |title=The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1147–1277|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0208013482}}
+* {{cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Runciman |year=1989a |title=A History of the Crusades|volume=II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-06163-6 }}
+* {{cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Runciman |year=1989b |title=A History of the Crusades|volume=III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-06163-6 }}
 * {{cite thesis |last1=Savva |first1=Panagiotis |title=Η περίοδος της ακμής του βασιλείου των Λουζινιάν στην Κύπρο (1285-1369) |trans-title=The heyday of the Lusignan kingdom in Cyprus (1285-1369) |language=el |date=1 March 2011 |doi=10.12681/eadd/30282 |doi-access=free |hdl=10442/hedi/30282 |hdl-access=free }}
-* {{cite book |title=God's War: A New History of the Crusades |first=Christopher |last=Tyerman |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 }}
-* {{cite book |last=William of Puylaurens |title=The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens: The Albigensian Crusade and its Aftermath |editor1-first=W.A. |editor1-last=Sibly |editor2-first=M.D. |editor2-last=Sibly |publisher=The Boydell Press |year=2003 }}
 {{Refend}}
-== Further reading ==
+==External links==
-* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Gerish |first=Deborah |title=Aimery of Lusignan |editor-last=Murray |editor-first=Alan V. |encyclopedia=The Crusades: An Encyclopedia |volume=1 |page=24 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-576-07862-4}}
+*[https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/people/25254.html Letters from Aimery]
 {{s-start}}
 {{s-hou|[[House of Lusignan]]| |{{circa}} 1153|1 April|1205| }}
 {{s-reg}}
 {{s-bef|before=[[Guy of Lusignan|Guy]]}}
-{{s-ttl|title=[[List of kings of Cyprus|Lord of Cyprus]]|years=1194–1196}}
+{{s-ttl|title=[[Lord of Cyprus]]|years=1194–1196}}
 {{s-non|reason=Became king}}
 |-
@@ Line 175: / Line 202: @@
 {{s-aft|after=[[Hugh I of Cyprus|Hugh I]]}}
 |-
-{{S-bef|before=[[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella I]]|as=sole ruler}}
+{{s-bef|before=[[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella I]]|as=uncrowned ruler}}
 {{S-ttl|title=[[King of Jerusalem]]|years=1198&ndash;1205|regent1=[[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella I]]}}
 {{S-aft|after=[[Isabella I of Jerusalem|Isabella I]]|as=sole ruler}}
@@ Line 181: / Line 208: @@
 {{s-off}}
 {{s-break}}
-{{s-bef|before=[[Humphrey IV of Toron]]}}
+{{s-bef|before=[[Humphrey II of Toron]]}}
 {{s-ttl|title=[[Constable of Jerusalem]]|years=1179/1181–1194}}
 {{s-aft|after=[[John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut|John of Ibelin]]}}

Aimery of Cyprus: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:02, 12 November 2025

Early career

Constableship

Baronial division

Hattin and the Third Crusade

Reign

Lord of Cyprus

Consollidation

Church and crown

Relations with neighbors

Kingship

Crusade and coronations

Governance and legislation

Foreign relations

Family, death, and succession

Legacy

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

External links

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