Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conquest

Nicholas Coureas

doi:10.35765/rfi.2019.2502.3

Abstract

In the article “Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conquest: The Accounts of Cypriot and other Chronicles and the Wider Context” the narratives 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 Chorogra a and the 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 examined the extent to which the evidence of settlement in other Mediterranean lands derives chiefly from chronicles or from documentary sources. In conclusion, it can be stated that the various accounts of settlement on Cyprus following its cession to King Guy of Jerusalem in 1192 show differences in terms of the value of the fiefs, the geographical regions from which the settlers came and the types of properties which were granted to them. The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem resembles Cyprus in that the source material for early Latin settlement is narrative, not documentary. But this is not the case for the Venetian Crete and the Hospitaller Rhodes, where the source materials recording the arrival of the first Latin settlers are wholly documentary.

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
This evidence is consistent in seeing the settlement on early Lusignan Cyprus as a result of royal encouragement, especially on the part of Guy de Lusignan, the first Latin ruler of Cyprus, and a consequence of the desire of Christians in the eastern Mediterranean basin to come to Cyprus to escape from lands conquered by the Muslims as a result of Saladin’s victories over the Latin Christians
In order to place the evidence of settlement from Cyprus, both chronicles and documents, in a wider context, the evidence for the settlement of Latins in the Holy Land after the First Crusade, of Latins in Crete and the Peloponnese after the Fourth Crusade and of Latins on Rhodes after the Hospitaller conquest of the island in 1309 will be examined and discussed

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 M akhairas 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.

Primary Sources

Secondary Literature