House of Lusignan


The House of Lusignan was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries during the Middle Ages. It also had great influence in England and France.
The family originated in Lusignan, in Poitou, western France, in the early 10th century. By the end of the 11th century, the family had risen to become the most prominent petty lords in the region from their castle at Lusignan. In the late 12th century, through marriages and inheritance, a cadet branch of the family came to control the kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus. In the early 13th century, the main branch succeeded to the Counties of La Marche and Angoulême.
As Crusader kings in the Latin East, they soon had connections with the Hethumid rulers of the Kingdom of Cilicia, which they inherited through marriage in the mid-14th century. The Armenian branch fled to France, and eventually Russia, after the Mamluk conquest of their kingdom.
The claim was taken by the Cypriot branch, until their line failed. This kingdom was annexed by the Republic of Venice in the late 15th century.

First House of Lusignan

Origins

The Château de Lusignan, near Poitiers, was the principal seat of the Lusignans. It is shown at its height in the March illumination in the Trés Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry. Louis XIV fortified it and it was used as a prison, a school—and a handy quarry for building materials. It was leveled to the ground in the 18th century in order to create a park for local residents. Only its foundations remain today. According to folklore, the earliest castle was built by Melusine, a water-spirit.
The lords of the castle at Lusignan became counts of La Marche in the 12th century. They added the county of Angoulême to their holdings in 1220, when Hugh X of Lusignan married Isabella of Angoulême, daughter of Count Aymer of Angoulême and widow of John, King of England. These acquisitions produced complicated titles. For example, Hugh XI of Lusignan was Hugh VI of La Marche and Hugh II of Angoulême. Hugh XIII died in 1303. His sisters, Jeanne and Isabelle, sold the county of Angoulême to Philip IV of France. Hugh was succeeded by his brother, Guy I, who died in 1308, making their sister Yolande Countess of La Marche. After Yolande's death, in 1314, King Philip annexed La Marche.

In France

Lords of Lusignan

Guy's sisters, Jeanne and Isabelle, sold Angoulême to Philip IV of France after Guy's death. Yolande sold the fiefs of Lusignan, La Marche and Fougères to Philip IV of France in 1308. They became a part of the French royal demesne and a common appanage of the crown.

Crusader kings

Aimery at the Jerusalem court

In the 1170s, Aimery of Lusignan arrived in Jerusalem, having been expelled from his realm by Richard the Lionheart, then acting Duke of Aquitaine, which included the family lands of Lusignan near Poitiers. Aimery, named Amalric by outdated scholarship, married Eschiva, the daughter of Baldwin of Ibelin, and entered court circles.
Aimery had also obtained the patronage of Agnes of Courtenay, who held the county of Jaffa and Ascalon. Agnes appointed Aimery as Constable of Jaffa, and later as Constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Hostile rumours alleged that Aimery was Agnes's lover, but this is questionable. It is more likely that his promotions were aimed at weaning him away from the political orbit of the Ibelin family, who were associated with Raymond III of Tripoli, the cousin of King Amalric of Jerusalem and a former bailli or regent.

Guy of Lusignan

Aimery’s younger brother, Guy of Lusignan, arrived in Jerusalem at some unknown date before Easter 1180, although Ernoul said that he arrived on the advice of Aimery. Some modern historians believe that Guy was already well established in Jerusalem by 1180, but there is no supporting contemporary evidence. Aimery's success certainly facilitated the social and political advancement of Guy.
Older accounts, derived from William of Tyre and Ernoul, claim that Agnes of Courtenay was concerned that her political rivals, headed by Raymond of Tripoli, intended to exercise more control by forcing her daughter, the widowed Sibylla to marry a man of their choosing. Agnes was said to have foiled these plans by advising her son Baldwin to have Sibylla married to Guy; however Baldwin, now believed to have been less malleable than earlier historians have portrayed, was considering the international implications of his sister's marriage. The best husband for her would be a knight who could rally external help to the kingdom, and not a local nobleman. As the new King of France, Philip II, was still a minor, Baldwin's first cousin King Henry II of England seemed the best prospect for such help and he owed the Pope a penitential pilgrimage to the Holy Land on account of his responsibility for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket. Guy was a vassal of both King Henry and of his son Richard of Poitou and had formerly been rebellious, so they wanted to keep him overseas.
Guy and Sibylla were hastily married at Easter 1180, apparently preventing a coup by Raymond's faction to marry her to Baldwin of Ibelin, the father-in-law of Aimery. By this marriage, Guy became Count of Jaffa and Ascalon and Bailli of Jerusalem. Sibylla already had a son from her first marriage to William of Montferrat, and by Guy she had two daughters, Alice and Mary de Lusignan.
Image:Map Crusader states 1165-en.svg|thumb|Map of the Crusader States in 1165. At the height of their power, the Lusignans ruled the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Tripoli
An ambitious man, Guy convinced King Baldwin IV to name him as regent in early 1182. But he and Raynald of Châtillon provoked Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, during a two-year period of truce. More important to Baldwin IV's disillusionment with him was Guy's military hesitation during the Siege of Kerak. Throughout late 1183 and 1184 Baldwin IV tried to have his sister's marriage to Guy annulled, showing that Baldwin still held his sister with some favour. Baldwin IV had wanted a loyal brother-in-law, and was frustrated in Guy's hardheadedness and disobedience. Sibylla remained at Ascalon, though perhaps not against her will.
Image:Battle of Cresson.jpg|left|thumb|Battle of Hattin in which Guy de Lusignan was captured by Saladin, and Jerusalem was lost. From a copy of the Passages d’outremer, c.1490.
Unsuccessful in prying his sister and close heir away from Guy, the king and the Haute Cour altered the succession. They placed Baldwin V, Sibylla's son from her first marriage, in precedence over Sibylla. They also established a process to choose the monarch afterwards between Sibylla and Isabella, though Sibylla was not herself excluded from the succession. After the death of Baldwin V in 1186, Guy and Sibylla went to Jerusalem for the funeral, accompanied by an armed guard. Sibylla was crowned as Queen of Jerusalem, on the condition that she annul her marriage with Guy. In return she could marry whom she chose. Her decision to remarry Guy angered the barons.
Image:Jan Lievens Saladin and Guy of Lusignan.jpg|thumb|Guy de Lusignan and Saladin. Saladin en Guy de Lusignan, 1625 painting by Jan Lievens.
Guy's term as king is generally seen as a disaster; he was defeated by Saladin at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, and was imprisoned in Damascus while Saladin reconquered almost the entire kingdom.
Upon his release, Guy and Sibylla sought refuge in Tyre, but were denied entry by rival Conrad of Montferrat, the husband of Isabella. During the Siege of Acre in 1191, Sibylla and their two daughters died. Isabella succeeded to the throne as the queen of Jerusalem. Guy left for Limassol and met with Richard, now king of England. He joined the latter's conquest of Cyprus, which was retaliation for the lord of Cyprus having taken Richard's fiancée as prisoner. Afterwards Richard and Guy returned to the siege of Acre. Richard gave up his claim to Jerusalem and supported Guy, while the king of France and the duke of Austria supported their kinsman Conrad. Guy still saved Conrad's life when he was surrounded by the enemy. Richard put the matter of the kingdom of Jerusalem to a vote, which Conrad won, leaving Guy powerless.
Richard sold Cyprus to the Knight Templars, who in turn sold it to Guy. Guy died in 1194, leaving Cyprus to his older brother Aimery.

Aimery becomes king

crowned Aimery as the first king of Cyprus. In 1197 Aimery married Isabella, which brought the crown of Jerusalem back to the Lusignans. One of Aimery's first actions as king was to make a five-year truce with the Ayyubids.

In England

Meanwhile, in France, Hugh le Brun de Lusignan, like most of the lords of Poitou, backed Arthur of Brittany as the better heir to Richard the Lionheart when the latter's brother John Lackland acceded to the throne of England in 1199. John's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine traded English claims for their support of her son. To secure his position in La Marche, the widowed Hugh arranged a betrothal with the heiress Isabella of Angoulême. However John obtained her hand first, and married her in August 1200, thus depriving Hugh of La Marche and his brother of Eu in Normandy.
The aggrieved Lusignans turned to their feudal overlord Philip Augustus, King of France, who demanded John's presencea tactical impossibilityand declared John a "contumacious vassal." As the Lusignan allies managed to detain both Arthur and Eleanor, John surprised their unprepared forces at the castle of Mirebeau in July 1202, and took Hugh prisoner with 200 of his troops. King John's savage treatment of the captives caused outrage among his supporters, and his French barons began to desert him. The Lusignans' diplomatic rebellion resulted in the loss to England of half its territory in France, soon incorporated into his kingdom by Philip Augustus.. John died in 1216, leaving his son Henry III as king. His widow Isabella of Angoulême finally married Hugh X of Lusignan in 1220, and bore him five children.
File:Coat of Arms of William de Valence as Earl of Pembroke.svg|thumb|Coat of arms of
William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke, a difference of Lusignan
In 1247, Guillaume de Lusignan, a younger son of Hugh X and Isabella, moved from France to England along with two of his brothers at the request of their half-brother King Henry III. Guillaume and his brothers were quickly placed in positions of power by the king; William was married to Joan de Munchensi, a granddaughter and heiress to the great William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and was granted custody of the lands and the title of Earl of Pembroke, giving him great wealth and power in his new land. As a result he was unpopular and was heavily involved in the Second Barons' War, supporting the King and Prince Edward against the rebels led by Simon de Montfort. After the final defeat of the rebels at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, William continued to serve Henry III, and then Edward I, until his death in 1296.
William's eldest surviving son, Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, succeeded to his father's estates, but he was not formally recognized as Earl of Pembroke until after the death of his mother Joan in 1307. He was appointed guardian of Scotland in 1306, but with the accession of King Edward II to the throne and the consequent rise of his favourite Piers Gaveston to power, his influence declined and he became prominent among the discontented nobles. In 1312, after the Earl of Warwick betrayed him by executing the captured Gaveston, Aymer de Valence left the allied lords and joined the King. Valence was present at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and later helped King Edward defeat the Earl of Lancaster. However, by the time of his death in 1324, he had again been marginalized at court, and also suffered financial trouble. His wife Mary de Châtillon founded Pembroke College, Cambridge and also Denny Abbey, between Cambridge and Ely, where she spent her last days surrounded by nuns.