A Threat to Invade Cyprus: Pope John XXII, Walter of Brienne Duke of Athens, and the Latin East in 1331

Abstract

Abstract The Brienne family first laid claim to the throne of Cyprus in the 1260s. The family subsequently rose high in the service of the Angevin kings of Naples and continued to assert their claim from time to time, but they seem never to have been a serious threat to Lusignan rule. Nevertheless, recently discovered papal letters demonstrate that as late as 1331 there were concerns that Walter VI of Brienne, duke of Athens, would divert to Cyprus a planned expedition against the Catalans occupying his duchy. Although King Robert the Wise of Naples was the rival of King Hugh IV of Cyprus for the title of king of Jerusalem, the letters also reveal that Pope John XXII called upon Robert to prevent such an invasion, as other newly uncovered letters show the pope to have done when the Genoese threatened to send invasion fleets to the island in 1317 and 1328. The new letters are published in an appendix.