Lombard war

In 1212, the Queen of Jerusalem, Mary of Jerusalem , died. The new queen was her young daughter, Iolanthe , with her father John de Brienne as regent. In 1225, Iolanthe married the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II , who, having removed John de Brienne, began to rule the kingdom of Jerusalem himself. In 1228, Iolanta gave birth to a son, Conrad , the rightful heir to the throne of Jerusalem; she herself died three days later from a fever. Frederick decided that if John ruled the kingdom on behalf of his daughter, then nothing prevents him from ruling the kingdom on behalf of his son.

On June 28, 1228, the emperor went on a crusade , and on July 21, the imperial fleet arrived in Limassol , Cyprus. By cunningly capturing the regent of the Kingdom of Cyprus Jean Ibelin the Old and his two sons, Balyan and Baldwin , the emperor demanded that he pay an amount equal to the income of Cyprus for ten years, as well as transfer him the lord Beirut ^[1] . The minor king of Cyprus Henry I Lusignan, the emperor also actually imprisoned and kept with him in the castle of Limassol ^[2] . Jean Ibelin was forced to recognize the emperor’s sovereignty over the kingdom and resign as regent, but categorically refused to give up his Beirut fief .

In 1229, the emperor arrived in the Holy Land, where he managed to agree with the Muslims on the peaceful transfer of Jerusalem , after which he returned to Italy.

Frederick II sold the position of regent of the Kingdom of Cyprus to five Ibelin opponents at once: Amory de Barle, Amori de Beisanne, Gauvin de Chenes, Guillaume de Rive and Hugo Jabail ^[3] , who pledged to pay the amount requested by the emperor. Regents imposed high taxes on Ibelin supporters, and then captured and tried to kill Philip Novarsky, one of Jean Ibelin's closest supporters. On July 14, 1229, a battle near Nicosia took place between the regent’s troops and supporters of Jean Ibelin and Philip Novarsky, as a result of which the regents were defeated and took refuge in royal castles with the young king Henry. Ibelins besieged these castles until the middle of 1230, after which Jean Ibelin regained the position of regent of the kingdom and formally reconciled with Amory de Barlet.

In the fall of 1231, Marshal Ricardo Filangeri arrived in the Middle East as a representative of the emperor and bailly of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; with him was a large army, consisting mainly of Lombards. He managed to take Beirut and Tire, which were the strongholds of the opposition.

In May 1232, taking advantage of the fact that Jean Ibelin was in Beirut with his own forces, the troops of Ricardo Filangeri (recently defeated Ibelin supporters at Casal Imbert) and again joined the Emperor Amory de Barla landed in Cyprus and almost without a fight took all the Cypriot castles , except for Buffavento and the castle of Dieu d'Amour , which were besieged. Filangeri began ruthlessly pursuing the Ibelin supporters. However, Jean Ibelin did not take long to wait: with the support of the Genoese fleet, on June 6, 1232, Ibelin’s army landed in Famagusta at night, taking Filangeri by surprise. The troops of Jean Ibelin quickly occupied the castle of Kantara , after which Famagusta voluntarily passed under his control. Soon Nicosia was busy without much labor. On June 15, 1232, the imperial troops were completely defeated at the battle of Agridi .

In 1233, Filangeri attempted to form an alliance with Bohemund of Antioch and Hetum of Armenia , but to no avail; his requests to the emperor to send reinforcements also remained unanswered. After some time, only Tyr remained under his control.

After the son of the emperor Conrad was declared an adult (thus becoming the legal king of Jerusalem), the local nobility in 1243 elected Regent with the missing king Alice of Jerusalem , the widow of the Cypriot king Hugo I and the daughter of the Queen of Jerusalem Isabella . Ignoring Conrad, who was in Italy, Alice began to behave like a full-fledged queen, and in July 1243 her troops captured Tire.

The war ended in favor of local feudal lords. Continuing to recognize the formal king of Jerusalem as representatives of the Hohenstaufen clan, they got the opportunity to really rule without any restrictions.