Henry II (king of Cyprus)

Henry May 20, 1285 inherited his older brother John (Jean) I , while, according to some authors, Henry ordered his brother to be poisoned.

Henry inherited the rights to the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his father and brother. However, in his hands initially were only the regions of Tire and Beirut . The enemy of his father, King of Sicily and Albania, Charles I of Anjou , who owned part of the kingdom (including Acre ), died back in January 1285, and Charles's heir, Charles II , was held captive. In order to avoid war, Henry, through the mediation of the Order of Hospitallers, was in talks with the Grand Master of the Order of the Templars , with whom his father had been at enmity since 1273. As a result, a peace agreement was signed, and on June 24, 1286, Henry de Lusignan entered Acre. Balli , still appointed by Karl of Anjou, took refuge in the castle, however, surrendered on June 29. After that, Henry was crowned on August 15 in the Cathedral of Tire . Then he returned to Cyprus, appointing the bali of Jerusalem to his uncle Philip Ibelin .

Soon, however, the remnants of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were captured by the Mamelukes . They captured Laodicea , the last city of the Principality of Antioch (1287), then Tripoli fell (1288). Henry tried his best to protect the kingdom. In 1289, he managed to negotiate a truce with the Mamluk sultan . On September 26, Henry appointed the balls of his brother Amory . He sent Seneschal Jean de Grailly to Pope Nicholas IV with a call for help. But on May 28, 1291, the Mamluks captured Acre. The few survivors took refuge in Cyprus. Henry tried to recapture the lost lands, concluded an agreement with the Mongol khan of Persia, but did not succeed.

As a result, Henry concentrated on managing Cyprus. However, he suffered from bouts of epilepsy, which made him helpless, which is why the Cypriot nobility plotted against him. In 1303, one of the brothers, Guy , a Cypriot constable, rebelled against him, but he was captured and executed. And in 1306, another brother, Amory , the former lord of Tire, conspiring with the Templars, managed to seize power. Henry was sent to Cilicia , where he was held captive by King Oshin (Amory was married to the king's sister ). Amory did not accept the royal title, he called himself the governor and regent of Cyprus.

Only after Amory was killed in 1310 , Oshin freed Henry. Returning to Cyprus, with the help of the Knights of the Order of Hospitallers, he regained power and seized Amory's supporters, among whom were his brother Emery , son-in-law of Balian Ibelin , titular prince of Galilee , Hugo Ibelin and several other representatives of the Ibelin family. In 1313, Henry issued a decree on the dissolution of the Order of the Templars in Cyprus, his property was transferred to the Order of Hospitallers.

In 1317, Henry married Constance , daughter of the Sicilian king Federigo II , but they did not have children. He died on August 31, 1324. The throne of Cyprus was inherited by his nephew Hugo IV , the son of the executed Guy.

Wife: from October 16, 1317 ( Nicosia ), Constance of Sicily (c. 1307 - after June 19, 1344), infante of Sicily, daughter of Federigo II , king of Sicily, and Eleanor of Anjou Sicilian ^[1] . There were no children.

• Richard, Jean . Latin-Jerusalem Kingdom / Per. with fr. A. Yu. Karachinsky; Entry Art. S.V. Bliznyuk. - SPb. : “Publishing Group Eurasia”, 2002. - 448 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-8071-0057-3 .
• René Grousset. L'Empire du Levant: Histoire de la Question d'Orient. - Paris: Payot, 1949 (réimpr. 1979). - 648 p. - (Bibliothèque historique). - ISBN 2-228-12530-X .

• KINGS of CYPRUS 1267-1489 (LUSIGNAN (POITIERS) ) . Foundation for Medieval Genealogy . Date of treatment November 17, 2009. Archived on August 25, 2011.