The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenian Cilicia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries during the Middle Ages. It also had great influence in England and France.
The family originated in Lusignan, in Poitou, western France, in the early 10th century. By the end of the 11th century, the family had risen to become the most prominent petty lords in the region from their castle at Lusignan. In the late 12th century, through marriages and inheritance, a cadet branch of the family came to control the kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus. In the early 13th century, the main branch succeeded to the Counties of La Marche and Angoulême.
As Crusader kings in the Latin East, they soon had connections with the Hethumid rulers of the Kingdom of Cilicia, which they inherited through marriage in the mid-14th century. The Armenian branch fled to France, and eventually Russia,The Advocate: America's Jewish Journal, Volume 44. 21 December 1921 p. 628 after the Mamluk conquest of their kingdom.
The claim was taken by the Cypriot branch, until their line failed. This kingdom was annexed by the Republic of Venice in the late 15th century.
First House of Lusignan Origins
The Château de Lusignan, near Poitiers, was the principal seat of the Lusignans. It is shown at its height in the March illumination in the Trés Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry (circa 1412). Louis XIV fortified it and it was used as a prison, a school—and a handy quarry for building materials. It was leveled to the ground in the 18th century in order to create a park for local residents. Only its foundations remain today. According to folklore, the earliest castle was built by Melusine, a water-spirit.
The lords of the castle at Lusignan became counts of La Marche in the 12th century. They added the county of Angoulême to their holdings in 1220, when Hugh X of Lusignan married Isabella of Angoulême, daughter of Count Aymer of Angoulême and widow of John, King of England. These acquisitions produced complicated titles. For example, Hugh XI of Lusignan was Hugh VI of La Marche and Hugh II of Angoulême. Hugh XIII died in 1303. His sisters, Jeanne and Isabelle, sold the county of Angoulême to Philip IV of France. Hugh was succeeded by his brother, Guy I, who died in 1308, making their sister Yolande Countess of La Marche. After Yolande's death, in 1314, King Philip annexed La Marche.
In France Lords of Lusignan
Hugh I (early 10th century) Hugh II (died 967) Hugh III Hugh IV Hugh V (died 1060), who married Almodis of La Marche, the daughter of Count Bernard I of La Marche.
Counts of La Marche / Counts of Eu Hugh VI (died 1110), who inherited by collateral succession the County of La Marche (1091) as a descendant of Almodis of La Marche. Hugh VII (died 1151) Hugh VIII (died 1165), whose younger son was Aimery of Lusignan, the first King of Cyprus also King of Jerusalem Hugh IX (died 1219), Count of Eu
Raoul I (1191–1219), Count of Eu, second son of Hugh IX Raoul II (1219–1246), Count of Eu Marie (1246–1260), Count of Eu
Counts of La Marche and Angoulême
Hugh X (died 1249), son of Hugh IX, married Isabelle of Angoulême, thus securing Angoulême (1220) Hugh XI (died 1250) Hugh XII (died 1270) Hugh XIII (died 1303) Guy (died 1308) Yolande (died 1314)
Guy's sisters, Jeanne and Isabelle, sold Angoulême to Philip IV of France after Guy's death. Yolande sold the fiefs of Lusignan, La Marche and Fougères to Philip IV of France in 1308. They became a part of the French royal demesne and a common appanage of the crown.
Crusader kings
Aimery at the Jerusalem court In the 1170s, Aimery of Lusignan (c.1145-1205) (a younger son of Hugh VIII (died 1165)) arrived in Jerusalem, having been expelled from his realm by Richard the Lionheart, then acting Duke of Aquitaine, which included the family lands of Lusignan near Poitiers. Aimery, named Amalric by outdated scholarship, married Eschiva, the daughter of Baldwin of Ibelin, and entered court circles.
Aimery had also obtained the patronage of Agnes of Courtenay (the divorced mother of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and the wife of Reginald of Sidon), who held the county of Jaffa and Ascalon. Agnes appointed Aimery as Constable of Jaffa, and later as Constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Hostile rumours alleged that Aimery was Agnes's lover, but this is questionable. It is more likely that his promotions were aimed at weaning him away from the political orbit of the Ibelin family, who were associated with Raymond III of Tripoli, the cousin of King Amalric of Jerusalem and a former bailli or regent.
Guy of Lusignan Aimery’s younger brother, Guy of Lusignan (c.1150-1194), arrived in Jerusalem at some unknown date before Easter 1180, although Ernoul said that he arrived on the advice of Aimery. Some modern historians believe that Guy was already well established in Jerusalem by 1180, but there is no supporting contemporary evidence. Aimery's success certainly facilitated the social and political advancement of Guy.
Older accounts, derived from William of Tyre and Ernoul, claim that Agnes of Courtenay was concerned that her political rivals, headed by Raymond of Tripoli, intended to exercise more control by forcing her daughter, the widowed Sibylla (sister and heir presumptive to King Baldwin IV) to marry a man of their choosing. Agnes was said to have foiled these plans by advising her son Baldwin to have Sibylla married to Guy; however Baldwin, now believed to have been less malleable than earlier historians have portrayed, was considering the international implications of his sister's marriage. The best husband for her would be a knight who could rally external help to the kingdom, and not a local nobleman. As the new King of France, Philip II, was still a minor, Baldwin's first cousin King Henry II of England seemed the best prospect for such help and he owed the Pope a penitential pilgrimage to the Holy Land on account of his responsibility for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket. Guy was a vassal of both King Henry and of his son Richard of Poitou (the future King Richard I) and had formerly been rebellious, so they wanted to keep him overseas.
Guy and Sibylla were hastily married at Easter 1180, apparently preventing a coup by Raymond's faction to marry her to Baldwin of Ibelin, the father-in-law of Aimery. By this marriage, Guy became Count of Jaffa and Ascalon and Bailli of Jerusalem. Sibylla already had a son from her first marriage to William of Montferrat, and by Guy she had two daughters, Alice and Mary de Lusignan.
An ambitious man, Guy convinced King Baldwin IV to name him as regent in early 1182. But he and Raynald of Châtillon provoked Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, during a two-year period of truce. More important to Baldwin IV's disillusionment with him was Guy's military hesitation during the Siege of Kerak. Throughout late 1183 and 1184 Baldwin IV tried to have his sister's marriage to Guy annulled, showing that Baldwin still held his sister with some favour. Baldwin IV had wanted a loyal brother-in-law, and was frustrated in Guy's hardheadedness and disobedience. Sibylla remained at Ascalon, though perhaps not against her will.
Unsuccessful in prying his sister and close heir away from Guy, the king and the Haute Cour altered the succession. They placed Baldwin V, Sibylla's son from her first marriage, in precedence over Sibylla. They also established a process to choose the monarch afterwards between Sibylla and Isabella (whom Baldwin and the Haute Cour thus recognized as at least equally entitled to succession as Sibylla), though Sibylla was not herself excluded from the succession. After the death of Baldwin V in 1186, Guy and Sibylla went to Jerusalem for the funeral, accompanied by an armed guard. Sibylla was crowned as Queen of Jerusalem, on the condition that she annul her marriage with Guy. In return she could marry whom she chose. Her decision to remarry Guy angered the barons.
Guy's term as king is generally seen as a disaster; he was defeated by Saladin at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, and was imprisoned in Damascus while Saladin reconquered almost the entire kingdom.
Upon his release, Guy and Sibylla sought refuge in Tyre, but were denied entry by rival Conrad of Montferrat, the husband of Isabella. During the Siege of Acre in 1191, Sibylla and their two daughters died. Isabella succeeded to the throne as the queen of Jerusalem. Guy left for Limassol and met with Richard, now king of England. He joined the latter's conquest of Cyprus, which was retaliation for the lord of Cyprus having taken Richard's fiancée as prisoner. Afterwards Richard and Guy returned to the siege of Acre. Richard gave up his claim to Jerusalem and supported Guy, while the king of France and the duke of Austria supported their kinsman Conrad. Guy still saved Conrad's life when he was surrounded by the enemy. Richard put the matter of the kingdom of Jerusalem to a vote, which Conrad won, leaving Guy powerless.
Richard sold Cyprus to the Knight Templars, who in turn sold it to Guy. Guy died in 1194, leaving Cyprus to his older brother Aimery.
Aimery becomes king Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor crowned Aimery as the first king of Cyprus. In 1197 Aimery married Isabella, which brought the crown of Jerusalem back to the Lusignans. One of Aimery's first actions as king was to make a five-year truce with the Ayyubids.
In England
Meanwhile, in France, Hugh le Brun de Lusignan ("Hugh the Brown-haired"), like most of the lords of Poitou, backed Arthur of Brittany as the better heir to Richard the Lionheart when the latter's brother John Lackland acceded to the throne of England in 1199. John's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine traded English claims for their support of her son. To secure his position in La Marche, the widowed Hugh arranged a betrothal with the heiress Isabella of Angoulême. However John obtained her hand first, and married her in August 1200, thus depriving Hugh of La Marche and his brother of Eu in Normandy.
The aggrieved Lusignans turned to their feudal overlord Philip Augustus, King of France, who demanded John's presencea tactical impossibilityand declared John a "contumacious vassal." As the Lusignan allies managed to detain both Arthur and Eleanor, John surprised their unprepared forces at the castle of Mirebeau in July 1202, and took Hugh prisoner with 200 of his troops. King John's savage treatment of the captives caused outrage among his supporters, and his French barons began to desert him. The Lusignans' diplomatic rebellion resulted in the loss to England of half its territory in France, soon incorporated into his kingdom by Philip Augustus. (The other "half", Aquitaine, remained the possession of John's surviving mother Eleanor of Aquitaine). John died in 1216, leaving his son Henry III as king. His widow Isabella of Angoulême finally married Hugh X of Lusignan in 1220, and bore him five children.
In 1247, Guillaume de Lusignan, a younger son of Hugh X and Isabella, moved from France to England along with two of his brothers at the request of their half-brother King Henry III. Guillaume (known in English as William de Valence) and his brothers were quickly placed in positions of power by the king; William was married to Joan de Munchensi (d. 1307), a granddaughter and heiress to the great William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and was granted custody of the lands and the title of Earl of Pembroke, giving him great wealth and power in his new land. As a result he was unpopular and was heavily involved in the Second Barons' War, supporting the King and Prince Edward against the rebels led by Simon de Montfort. After the final defeat of the rebels at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, William continued to serve Henry III, and then Edward I, until his death in 1296.