Henry II of Jerusalem and
Henry II of Cyprus, born
Henri de Lusignan (1271 – 31 August 1324) was the last ruling and first titular
King of Jerusalem (after the
fall of Acre on 28 May 1291, this title became titular) and also ruled as
King of Cyprus as
Henry II. He was a
Lusignan dynast.
He was the second surviving son of
Hugh III and succeeded his brother
John I on 20 May 1285; there was some suspicion that Henry had been involved in poisoning John. He was crowned at
Santa Sophia,
Nicosia, 24 June 1285.
Charles of Anjou, who contested John's claim to the throne, had died in 1285, allowing Henry to recover
Acre from the
Angevins. With a fleet Henry attacked Acre, defended by Charles' lieutenant
Hugh Pelerin, and the city was captured on 29 July. Henry had himself crowned King of Jerusalem there on 15 August 1286, but returned to Cyprus and appointed his uncle Philip of Ibelin as
Bailiff in his absence. By this time Acre was one of the few coastal cities remaining in the remnant of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem. During his reign the
Mameluks captured
Tyre,
Beirut, and the rest of the cities, and destroyed the similarly weakened
County of Tripoli in 1289. The final
siege of Acre began on 5 April 1291 with Henry present in the city. He escaped to Cyprus with most of his nobles, and the city fell to
Khalil on 28 May.
Henry continued to rule as King of Cyprus, and continued to claim the kingdom of Jerusalem as well, often planning to recover the former territory on the mainland. He attempted a coordinated military operation in 1299/1300 with
Ghazan, the
Mongol ilkhan of
Persia, when Ghazan invaded Mameluk territory in 1299 (see
Franco-Mongol alliance); he tried to stop
Genoan ships from trading with the Mameluks, hoping to weaken them economically; and he twice wrote to
Pope Clement V asking for a new
crusade. His reign in Cyprus was prosperous and wealthy, and he was very much involved with the justice and administration of the kingdom — he had the
Haute Cour keep written records for the first time (in
Italian or
French, rather than
Latin), and extended the court's role from a
feudal advisory body to a true court responsible for trying and punishing criminals. However, Cyprus was in no position to fulfill his true ambition, the recovery of the Holy Land. He suffered from epilepsy, which at times incapacitated him, and his nobles were unsatisfied with him. He had his brother Guy, the
Constable of Cyprus, put to death in 1303 for conspiring against him. In 1306 his brother
Amalric, Prince of Tyre,
Constable of Jerusalem, conspired with the
Templars to remove him from power. However, Amalric assumed the title of Governor and Regent of Cyprus, rather than of King. Henry was deposed on 26 April and exiled to
Armenia, where King
Oshin of Armenia was Amalric's brother-in-law. However, upon the murder of Amalric in 1310, Oshin released Henry, who returned to Cyprus and resumed his throne with the aid of the
Hospitallers on 26 August 1310, imprisoning many of Amalric's co-conspirators, including their brother Constable Aimery, brother-in-law
Balian II of Ibelin,
Prince of Galilee, and other relatives of Balian. In 1313, he oversaw the dissolution of the Templars in Cyprus and the transfer of their property to the Hospitallers.
He married Constanza of Sicily (1303/1307 – in
Cyprus after 19 June 1344), daughter of
Frederick III of Sicily and
Eleanor of Anjou, at
Santa Sophia,
Nicosia, on 16 October 1317 but they didn't have any children. She later married
Leon V of Armenia and
Jean de Lusignan, Titular
Prince of Antioch.
Henry died on 31 August 1324 at his Villa in
Strovolos, near
Nicosia, was buried at the
Franciscan Church of
Nicosia and was succeeded by his nephew
Hugh IV.
Category:Roman Catholic monarchsCategory:1324 deathsCategory:Kings of JerusalemCategory:Kings of CyprusCategory:Claimant Kings of JerusalemCategory:Medieval child rulersde:Heinrich II. (Zypern)el:Ερρίκος Β' της Κύπρουfr:Henri II de Chyprenl:Hendrik II van Cypruspl:Henryk II Cypryjskiru:Генри II (король Кипра)