Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conquest: The Accounts of Cypriot and other Chronicles and the Wider Context

Nicholas Coureas

doi:10.35765/pk.2021.3302.12

Abstract

The accounts of various chronicles of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries on settlement in Cyprus in the years following the Latin conquest, from the end of the twelfth to the early thirteenth century, will be examined and compared. The details provided by the chronicles, where the information given derived from, the biases present in the various accounts, the extent to which they are accurate, especially in cases where they are corroborated or refuted by documentary evidence, will all be discussed. The chronicles that will be referred to are the thirteenth century continuation of William of Tyre, that provides the fullest account of the settlement of Latin Christians and others on Cyprus after the Latin conquest, the fifteenth century chronicle of Leontios Makhairas, the anonymous chronicle of “Amadi” that is probably dateable to the early sixteenth century although for the section on thirteenth century Cypriot history it draws on earlier sources and the later sixteenth century chronicle of Florio Bustron. Furthermore, the Chorograffia and Description of Stephen de Lusignan, two chronicles postdating the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottoman Turks in 1570, will also be referred to on the subject of settlement in thirteenth century Cyprus. By way of comparison, the final part of the paper examines the extent to which the evidence of settlement in other Mediterranean lands derives chiefly from chronicles or from documentary sources.

Highlights

The evidence presented by the chronicles overall, despite differences in detail, ideological orientation and time, is fairly consistent as far as the geographical origins, confessional allegiance and ethnicity of the people settling in Cyprus after 1192 is concerned
The chronicles that will be referred to are the thirteenth century continuation of William of Tyre, that provides the fullest account of the settlement of Latin Christians and others on Cyprus after the Latin conquest, the fifteenth century chronicle of Leontios Makhairas, the anonymous chronicle of “Amadi” that is probably dateable to the early sixteenth century for the section on thirteenth century Cypriot history it draws on earlier sources and the later sixteenth century chronicle of Florio Bustron
The Chorograffia and Description of Stephen de Lusignan, two chronicles postdating the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottoman Turks in 1570, will be referred to on the subject of settlement in thirteenth century Cyprus

Summary

Introduction

The evidence presented by the chronicles overall, despite differences in detail, ideological orientation and time, is fairly consistent as far as the geographical origins, confessional allegiance and ethnicity of the people settling in Cyprus after 1192 is concerned. Florio Bustron, a chronicler of Syrian origin who wrote his history in the second half of the sixteenth century, gives an account of the settlement of Cyprus following the Latin conquest resembling that of the Lyon‐Eracles in its general outlines He states that Guy brought many French nobles to Cyprus with him on receiving it from the Templars, as well as others wishing to have a salary, perhaps a reference to salaried knights. The chronicle of Leontios Makhairas likewise adds significant information absent from the Lyon‐Eracles, stating that settlers arrived from Western Europe as well as from the eastern Mediterranean lands adjacent to Cyprus, and that both Syrians and Latins were granted legal and financial privileges not enjoyed by the island’s indigenous Greek population, an assertion corroborated by legal texts. This is not the case for Venetian Crete and Hospitaller Rhodes, where the source materials recording the arrival of the first Latin settlers are wholly documentary

Primary Sources

Secondary Literature