Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus After the Latin Conquest: the Accounts of Cypriot and Other Chronicles and the Wider Context

perspektywy kultury / Varia perspectives on culture No. 33 (2/2021) Nicholas Coureas http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8903-8459 Cyprus Research Centre in Nicosia [email protected] DOI: 10.35765/pk.2021.3302.12 Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conquest: The Accounts of Cypriot and other Chronicles and the Wider Context 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 Leon- tios Makhairas, the anonymous chronicle of “Amadi” that is probably date- able 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 Medi- terranean lands derives chiefly from chronicles or from documentary sources. KEYWORDS: chronicles, settlement, conquest, Guy de Lusignan, Latins, Jerusalem, Europe, Syria STRESZCZENIE Osadnictwo na Cyprze pod władzą Lusignanów po podboju łacińskim: relacje Cypryjczyków, innych kronikarzy oraz szerszy kontekst Artykuł bada i porównuje relacje na temat osadnictwa na Cyprze w latach następujących po podboju łacińskim od końca XII do początku XIII w. zamieszczone w różnych kronikach od XIII do XVI w. Omówiono informacje Suggested citation: Coureas, N. (2021). Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conqu- est: The Accounts of Cypriot and other Chronicles and the Wider Context. Creative-Commons CREATIVE-COMMONS-BY Perspectives on Culture, 2(33), pp. 175–190. DOI: 10.35765/pk.2021.3302.12. 175 Submitted: 25.01.2021 Accepted:15.06.2021 perspektywy kultury / perspectives on culture Varia No. 33 (2/2021) przekazane przez kronikarzy, a także uprzedzenia obecne w różnych relacjach oraz stopień dokładności tych informacji, szczególnie w przypadkach, gdy są one potwierdzone lub obalone przez inną dokumentację. Kroniki, o których mowa, to XIII‑wieczna kontynuacja Wilhelma z Tyru, która zawiera najpeł- niejszy opis osiedlania się łacinników i innych osób na Cyprze po łacińskim podboju, XV‑wieczna kronika Leontiosa Machairasa, anonimowa kronika „Amadiego”, którą prawdopodobnie można datować na początek XVI w., chociaż w części dotyczącej historii Cypru w XIII w. opiera się ona na wcześ- niejszych źródłach, oraz późniejsza XVI‑wieczna kronika Florio Bustrona. Ponadto przywoływane są Chorograffia i Opisanie Stefana z Lusignan, dwie kroniki datowane na okres po podboju Cypru przez Turków Osmańskich w 1570 r., poruszające temat osadnictwa na XIII‑wiecznym Cyprze. Dla porównania, końcowa część artykułu bada, w jakim zakresie dowody na osadnictwo w innych regionach basenu Morza Śródziemnego wywodzone są z kronik lub ze źródeł dokumentalnych. SŁOWA KLUCZE: kroniki, osadnictwo, podbój, Gwidon z Lusignan, łacinnicy, Jeruzalem, Europa, Syria 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. This evidence is also 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 con- quered by the Muslims as a result of Saladin’s victories over the Latin Christians. Looking at the issue more broadly, one discovers that contemporary documentary evidence for the settlement taking place on Cyprus immediately after the Latin conquest is exiguous. The few extant docu- ments corroborate in general the evidence of the chronicles. In order to place the evidence of settlement from Cyprus, both chronicles and docu- ments, 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 also be examined and discussed. 176 Nicholas Coureas – Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conquest Cypriot and other Chronicles of the 13th to the 16th Centuries Of the various chronicles mentioning settlement on Cyprus the Lyon manuscript of the text known as La Continuation de Guillaume de Tyr (1184– 1197) containing the most detailed account of the events of 1184–1197 found in the various continuations of Archbishop William of Tyre’s history ends its narration in 1248 and was written in the middle of the thirteenth century. Called the Lyon Eracles on account of Archbishop William’s ref- erence to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius at the start of his own history, it also gives the most detailed version of settlement on Cyprus following King Richard I of England’s conquest of the island from the Byzantine usurper Isaac Comnenus (Edbury, 1996, pp. 3–4; Morgan, 1984, p. 13). It begins by stating that Guy de Lusignan, the dispossessed king of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, solicited Saladin’s advice on taking possession of Cyprus on how to safeguard his dominion over it. Saladin advised him “to give it all away” if he wished to secure his rule there, advice that Guy fol- lowed assiduously. As the Lyon Eracles states: Now I shall tell you what King Guy did when he had taken seisin of the island of Cyprus. He sent messengers to Armenia, to Antioch, to Acre and throughout the land saying that to all those who wished to come and dwell in Cyprus he would give generously so that they might live. The knights, sergeants and burgesses whom the Saracens had dispossessed heard the word of King Guy. They set off and came to him, as did great numbers of young women and orphans whose husbands and fathers were killed and lost in Syria. He gave rich fiefs both to the Greeks and the knights he had bought with him and to shoemakers, masons and Arabic scribes so that (may God be merciful!) they became knights and great vavasors in the island of Cyprus. He had them marry the women on their arrival as befit- ted their station, and he provided them out of his wealth so that those who married them would be well satisfied. He granted so much land away to those who would take it that he enfeoffed 300 knights and 200 mounted sergeants, not to mention the burgesses who lived in the cities to whom he gave substantial lands and allowances. When he had finished this distribu- tion, he had not kept enough for himself to support 20 knights. Thus did King Guy people the island of Cyprus, and I will tell you that if the emperor Baldwin had peopled Constantinople in the same manner in which Guy had peopled the island of Cyprus he would never have lost it. For he died because he wanted to retain too much of his empire in his domain, and because of this he lost it all. As the saying goes in reproof: “Who covets all, loses all” (Edbury, 1996, (§§135–136; Morgan, 1984, (§§135–136). 177 perspektywy kultury / perspectives on culture Varia No. 33 (2/2021) A contemporary Arabic source confirms that Guy was in friendly com- munication with Saladin shortly after acquiring Cyprus, thereby cor- roborating the assertion that Guy solicited Saladin’s advice regarding his retention of Cyprus. Furthermore, by the mid‑thirteenth century, when the Lyon Eracles was being written, Saladin enjoyed a high reputation in Western Europe as a man of honour. The author of this passage was pos- sibly Ernoul, a squire of Balian of Ibelin who was a leading opponent of Guy among the nobles of the kingdom of Jerusalem. According to this hypothesis Ernoul wrote this passage in order to belittle Guy by showing that the idea to settle Cyprus originated with Saladin and that Guy had been overgenerous to people of non‑noble, that is humble, social origins. If not Ernoul, the author might have been a noble cleric prejudiced against non‑nobles and the base origins of the Cypriot feudatories. The assertion against Guy, however, is uncorroborated. It is also problematic inasmuch as it does not explain why at the end of the passage cited Guy is compared very favourably to the emperor Baldwin of Jerusalem, the first Latin ruler of Constantinople. What does emerge clearly from the account is that the first settlement of Cyprus following its conquest took place under Guy, the settlers had varied social, ethnic and geographical origins, although they all originated from the eastern Mediterranean basin, and that it enabled Guy and his successors to retain Cyprus (Edbury, 1991, 19942, pp. 16–19 and esp. p. 17 note 19; Edbury, 2015, pp. 31–37 and 43–46). Another continuation of William of Tyre’s Chronicle, surviving as a single manuscript in the Biblioteca Medicea‑Laurenziana in Florence and known as the Florentine Eracles, has a unique text from the years 1191–1197 closely related to the abovementioned Lyon Eracles but usu- ally more concise.

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