Just as the native population of Cyprus
differed in character from the local inhabitants of Syria and Palestine, the
Frankish elite that established itself on Cyprus also differed in subtle but
significant ways from the elite of the earlier crusading states. Frankish rule
was created on Cyprus not by crusaders who had slogged their way across Europe
and Asia in a grueling campaign inspired by religious fervor and characterised
by hardship, attrition, and blood, but rather by the disinherited descendants
of those first crusaders.
The first Frankish lord, Guy de Lusignan, had the
dubious honour of being responsible for the loss of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
and, with it, the respect of his vassals and subjects. When he arrived in
Cyprus in late 1192 with only a few supporters as landless as himself, he was a
deposed king, unable to come to terms with his fate and still claiming his lost
crown. Fortunately for Cyprus, Guy de Lusignan died within two years of his
arrival, and his far more competent elder brother Aimery shaped the future
kingdom.
Although not born in Outremer, Aimery had
settled there around 1170. He married into one of the established families, the
Ibelins, and rose to Constable of the Kingdom under Baldwin IV. When Aimery
stepped into his brother's shoes as Lord of Cyprus in 1194, he was more
‘Poulain’ than crusader. That meant he understood compromise, adaptation and
survival in an ‘alien’ environment. The knights with Aimery were likewise men
who had lost their lands in Syria, men who had once held fiefs in
Oultrejourdain and Galilee, in Hebron, Bethsan, Nazareth or Ascalon – all the
areas of the former Kingdom of Jerusalem that had not been
regained in the course of the Third Crusade. They, too, knew that survival in
the Near East required more than a force of arms; it required cooperation with
the native population and exchange with the surrounding states in the form of
trade and diplomatic relations.
The Lusignans adopted a conscious policy of
encouraging immigration. According to legend, Guy sent word to Armenia,
Antioch, Acre and throughout the Latin East, saying he would give land
generously to all settlers. Allegedly, Guy offered to reward not only knights
but sergeants and burgesses as well, and the response included ‘shoemakers,
masons and Arabic scribes‘.[i]
The reference to Arabic scribes is notable as it highlights that Orthodox
Christians also resettled in Cyprus after the establishment of Frankish rule.
In particular, Maronites, Melkites and Armenians appear to have moved to
Cyprus, settling on the coastal plains, principally on the north of the island.
These ‘Syrian’ immigrants were granted special
status by the Lusignan kings, who recognized their service and loyalty to the
Franks on the mainland and gave them special privileges. Immigrants from the
mainland crusader states also continued to provide turcopoles and infantry for
the armies of their Frankish lords.
In the second half of the thirteenth century,
Cyprus experienced regular waves of refugees from Syria and Palestine as one
metropolitan area after another fell to the Mamluks. The waves became a
veritable ‘flood’ of refugees in 1291 when the last vestiges of the crusader
states on the mainland collapsed under the Mamluk onslaught. Yet, like
emigration to America centuries later, it was rarely the destitute and
unskilled who escaped impending disaster. The bulk of the refugees from Latin
Syria were noblemen, knights, affluent merchants and administrators, or, at
least, skilled burgesses. By the end of the thirteenth century, the Franks and
their Syrian allies made up approximately one-quarter of the population of
Cyprus, which means they were between 35,000 and 40,000 strong.
Long before that flood, however, Cyprus
benefitted from the arrival of the nobility of Outremer: the Bethsans,
Gibelets, Montbeliards, Briennes, Montforts and, of course, the Ibelins. These
were not landless families like most of the refugees, but powerful lords that
retained sizeable landholdings and titles on the mainland. They had resources
and interests outside the Kingdom of Cyprus, a fact that proved both
advantageous and dangerous. On the one hand, their holdings in Syria enabled
them to bring resources and men to Cyprus. On the other hand, their interests
in Syria often led them to draw resources away from Cyprus to prop up their
holdings on the mainland. Critically, and often overlooked, Cypriot fiefs held
from these nobles enabled ordinary knights, who had lost their fiefs on the
mainland, to maintain their character and status as landholders. The lack of a
Syrian fief did not necessarily mean that a Frankish knight belonged to the
landless urban class, living on the handouts from the crown; many knights such
as Philip de Novare held land-fiefs from the Syrian barons — on Cyprus.
The Kings of Cyprus, on the other hand, were
surrounded not by jihadist states but by water. The fiefs they distributed
brought their holders income and status without requiring huge investments in
the construction, manning and maintenance of expensive fortresses. The nobles
of Cyprus had money for the pleasures of life – hunting, hawking, patronage of
the arts and church. For the kings, it meant that the nobility was not
well-positioned to rebel and far more dependent on royal patronage for status
and prestige.
The Cypriot nobles became famous for their
wealth and love of pleasure. One visitor in the mid-fourteenth century claimed
that the Cypriot knights and nobles were the richest in the world. He noted
that the Count of Jaffa (a Cypriot, despite the title) had 500 hunting dogs,
while others had dozens of falconers and some kept leopards for hunting. They
also engaged in frequent tournaments. The Lusignan palace in Nicosia was
considered one of the finest in the medieval world, with a great throne room,
many golden ornaments, tapestries, paintings, organs, clocks, multiple baths
and fountains, gardens and a menagerie.[ii]
Unfortunately, the Lusignan palaces were destroyed during the Ottoman
occupation, and all that remains are fragments now preserved in the museums of
Cyprus.
Slaves
No description of medieval Cyprus is complete without reference to
slavery. Unlike the Latin Church, the Orthodox Church did not condemn the slavery
of fellow Christians. In the crusader states on the mainland, Latin dominance
was strong enough to eliminate Christian slavery despite tolerating the
enslavement of Muslims, primarily captives. In Cyprus, however, the custom of
owning slaves was so widespread among the native elites that the ‘tolerance’ of
the Lusignans shamefully extended to the acceptance of Christian slavery.
[i]
Continuation of William of Tyre quoted in Peter Edbury, The Kingdom of
Cyprus and the Crusades 1194-1374 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1991), 16.
[ii] A
History of the Crusades: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States,
Vol. 4, ed. Harry W. Hazard (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977),
175.
The bulk of this entry is an excerpt from Dr. Schrader's comprehensive study of the crusader states.
Dr.
Helena P. Schrader is also the author of six books set in the Holy Land
in the Era of the Crusades.
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