| Henry I | |
|---|---|
 Miniature of Henry receiving a message in a 1375–1380 edition of theGrandes Chroniques de France | |
| King of Cyprus | |
| Reign | 10 January 1218 – 18 January 1253[a] |
| Predecessor | Hugh I |
| Successor | Hugh II |
| Born | 3 May 1217 Nicosia, Kingdom of Cyprus |
| Died | 18 January 1253(1253-01-18) (aged 35)[a] Nicosia, Kingdom of Cyprus |
| Spouse | Alix of Montferrat Stephanie of Lampron Plaisance of Antioch |
| Issue | Hugh II of Cyprus |
| House | House of Lusignan |
| Father | Hugh I of Cyprus |
| Mother | Alice of Champagne |
Henry I (French:Henri; 3 May 1217 – 18 January 1253[a]), calledthe Fat, was theking of Cyprus from 1218 until his death. Noted for his corpulence, Henry was a pliant king who relied heavily on his kin from the powerfulIbelin family.
Henry was the son of KingHugh I, whom he succeeded as an infant. His mother,Alice of Champagne, held the regency during his minority, but power was wielded by her unclesPhilip andJohn of Ibelin.Emperor Frederick II also claimed the right to ruleCyprus during Henry's minority, leading toa long war with the Ibelins, which dominated the first part of Henry's reign. The Ibelins prevailed and retained a leading role after Henry reached the age of majority in 1232.
In 1246, King Henry succeeded his mother, Queen Alice, as regent of theKingdom of Jerusalem in the name of his kinsman KingConrad II. He appointedBalian of Ibelin to rule the mainland state in his name. In 1248 he sailed with KingLouis IX of France to Egypt on theSeventh Crusade, but returned to Cyprus shortly after, leaving his men to serve under Louis.
Henry's first two marriages, toAlice of Montferrat andStephanie of Lampron, were childless. In 1250 he marriedPlaisance of Antioch. He died shortly after the birth of their only child,Hugh II, who succeeded him as king.
Henry was born on 3 May 1217 toHugh I of Cyprus andAlice of Champagne. He had two sisters,Maria andIsabella.[1] Alice was the aunt andheir presumptive toIsabella II of Jerusalem.[2] King Hugh died on 10 January 1218 and the 8-month-old Henry succeeded him with Queen Alice as both hisregent and guardian. She appointed her unclePhilip of Ibelin to govern theKingdom of Cyprus as herbailli.[3][4] The kingdom had been established by Hugh's father,Aimery of Lusignan (died in 1205), who accepted thesuzerainty ofEmperor Henry VI (died in 1197) in return for a crown.[5]
During Henry's minority, DukeLeopold VI of Austria laid a claim on the kingdom. Leopold was a second cousin once removed of the lastByzantine ruler of Cyprus,Isaac Komnenos, and must have tried to displace Henry in 1217-1219, while participating in theFifth Crusade. The attempt was thwarted by the barons. Philip's brother,John,lord of Beirut, credited himself and his family with preserving the island for Henry.[3][6]
By 1223 or 1124, relations between Alice and Philip had broken down and the queen left forSyria.[8][9] In an attempt to get rid of her uncle, Alice marriedBohemond of Antioch and possibly tried to pass the government to him.Philip of Novara, an Ibelin partisan, relates that the barons of Cyprus unanimously rejected Bohemond out of fear for Henry's safety. Alice then appointedAimery Barlais, but Aimery was not able to dislodge Philip.[10]
Another claimant to the rule over Cyprus during Henry's minority wasEmperor Frederick II, who considered himself Henry's suzerain on the basis of King Aimery's fealty to Emperor Henry VI. Frederick married Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem on 9 November 1225 and planned to come to theLatin East on acrusade. Fearing that the emperor might seize the regency of Cyprus, the Ibelins decided to expedite Henry'scoronation. Henry was thus crownedking of Cyprus theCathedral of Saint Sophia in 1225 by thearchbishop of Nicosia,Eustorge of Montaigu. Frederick was enraged about not having received prior notification.[11][12] In early 1226,Pope Honorius III instructed Philip to govern to the benefit of King Henry and the kingdom. He also ordered themilitary orders and people of Cyprus to be loyal to Philip and Henry, and placed the king under papal protection. After Philip died in 1127 or 1128, his brother John, lord of Beirut, seized power.[13][14]
Empress Isabella died in 1228 after giving birth to her successor,Conrad II. The widowed Emperor Frederick set out for the Latin East nonetheless and arrived in Cyprus in July 1228. At the emperor's request, John joined Frederick at a banquet inLimassol and brought his sons and King Henry. John and the emperor argued at the banquet, and John soon took up armed resistance. In September the men agreed that Queen Alice was the rightful regent, that the emperor should have the profits from the royal revenues, that the fortresses should nominally be under the young king's control and in the custody of his vassals until he came of age, and the emperor took the fealty of the Cypriots as the kingdom's suzerain. Henry was left in Frederick's hands. A plot was hatched to kidnap King Henry and desert Frederick, but John refused to sanction it.[13][14]
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When in 1229 Emperor Frederick decided to return to Europe, he took King Henry to Limassol and had himmarried by proxy toAlice of Montferrat, a daughter of the emperor's kinsman and vassalWilliam VI of Montferrat. The emperor then handed over Henry to his supporters in Cyprus and named Aimery Barlais,Amalric of Bethsan,Hugh of Jubail,William of Rivet andGauvain of Cheneche–leaders of the opposition to the Ibelins–as co-baillis. In June 1229 the emperor was back in Italy.[15][16] With the emperor gone, thebaillis invited Philip of Novara–according to Philip's testimony–to King Henry's court and tried to tempt him into abandoning the Ibelin party while the young king looked at him helplessly. An armed conflict followed. Thebaillis sent the king under guard toDieudamour before being defeated by the Ibelins at Nicosia in July. They retired to the castles of Dieudamour,Kyrenia, andKantara, which the Ibelins promptly besieged. Kyrenia was taken swiftly, but the siege of Dieudamour lasted for nearly a year, starving the defenders. John of Ibelin feared that thebaillis might smuggle the king away to Italy. Dieudamour capitulated in April or May 1230. A peace was then concluded and thebaillis handed over the fortresses and Henry and his sisters.[17]
In late 1231, Emperor Frederick sent a great host to Cyprus. John of Ibelin was warned, and he took King Henry toKiti. The first detachment of the imperial host anchored offCape Gata and demanded an audience with the king; when told that he was at Kiti, the emperor's messengers sailed there. They relayed to Henry a message from the emperor, who requested that the king banish John and all of John's family. Henry took counsel with his advisors and responded, through his vassalWilliam Visconte, that the emperor's command was astonishing because John was his granduncle and vassal.Richard Filangieri then arrived with the rest of the imperial forces and attacked John'slordship of Beirut in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. John appealed to King Henry and his fellow vassals for help at a meeting of theHigh Court of Cyprus in Nicosia, and they all agreed.[18]
Unable to lift the siege of Beirut, John of Ibelin negotiated the marriage of Henry's sister Isabella withHenry, the youngest son of PrinceBohemond IV of Antioch. In 1232, King Henry sentBalian of Ibelin, William Visconte, and Philip of Novara to conclude this alliance.[19] The Imperialists overran Cyprus and seized all fortresses except Dieudamour andBuffavento, which was defended by the king's cousinEschiva of Montbéliard. John allied with theGenoese and decided to attack Filangieri atTyre. After news reached him that his son Balian had raised the siege of Beirut, John decided to go toAcre to make peace. He left King Henry atCasal Imbert with his three sons, Baldwin, Hugh, and Guy of Ibelin; his nephewJohn of Ibelin; andAnselm of Brie. The Imperialists surprised them at night and defeated them. Henry escaped to Acre riding under guard almost naked. There he recruited men by offering fiefs and took out loans fromJohn of Caesarea and the younger John of Ibelin. The king and the lord of Beirut took their small force to Cyprus, defeated the Imperialists in battle, and proceeded to retake the fortresses.[20][21]
King Henry reached theage of majority on 3 May 1232.[22] Emperor Frederick was thus deprived of his principal justification for intervening in the affairs of Cyprus,[23] but he may have continued to regard Henry as a minor because inGermany the age of majority was 25.[24] On 10 June Henry rewarded the Genoese with momentous concessions: legal autonomy in Cyprus, trade exemptions, houses and bakeries in major towns, and thecasale of Despoire near Limassol. The king and the Ibelins won a decisivebattle at Agridi on 15 June.[25]
King Henry's wife, Queen Alice, who was on the side of the Imperialists, died of an illness while he and the Ibelins were besieging Kyrenia in the winter of 1232/33. A truce was arranged for the queen's body to be delivered to the king and buried.[26] The couple may have met;[27] they could not have seen each other since the Ibelins took custody of the king in April or May 1230.[28] The king's elder sister, Maria, married CountWalter IV of Brienne in 1233.[29] Henry generously bestowed lands on Walter and on his other brother-in-law, Henry of Antioch, husband of Isabella.[30]
After the definite restoration of the Ibelin party to power, Henry accused the Imperialist barons of treason at the High Court. All who had waged war against him after he reached majority–a list headed by Aimery Barlais, Amaury of Bethsan, Hugh of Jubail, andPhilip Chenard–had their fiefs confiscated and granted to the king's supporters.[31][28] With the surrender of Kyrenia in April 1233, the War of the Lombards ended in Cyprus. The last engagements of the conflict drained Henry's treasury. Vassals who had not received payment since the rule of the king's mother, Queen Alice, complained at a session of the High Court, but the lord of Beirut convinced them that the requisite formalities for the case were not observed and they apologized to the king.[32]Tithes were also owed, and Henry had to compensate the archbishop of Nicosia with royal lands.[33]
John, lord of Beirut, died in 1236.[34] He had enjoyed King Henry's confidence.[35] His son Balian succeeded him as lord of Beirut and King Henry's counsellor.[36] Henry was not an assertive king.[37][38] He was noted chiefly for his corpulence, which earned him the nickname "the Fat"[38][39] and which may have been linked to mental lethargy.[40] The Ibelins led his council and the High Court, but appear to have been loyal and had no differences with Henry.[37]
In 1237 or 1238, King Henry marriedStephanie of Lampron, a half-sister of KingHethum I of Cilicia, cementing the continuously good relations with theArmenian Kingdom of Cilicia.[36]
King Henry's mother, Queen Alice, was elected regent of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in place of the absent King Conrad in 1243.[41] Henry ignored the appeals to relieve the city ofJerusalem in 1244 whenit was besieged by theKhwarazmian army.[42] When his mother died in 1246, both Henry and her half-sisterMelisende of Cyprus claimed the regency.[43][44] Although his aunt was more closely related to Conrad, the High Court awarded the regency to Henry. The reasoning is unrecorded, but he was likely preferred as a male and an anointed monarch, and evidence suggests he also secured support by distributing land to court members.[45] The promotions ofGuy andBaldwin of Ibelin to the offices ofconstable andseneschal of Cyprus, respectively, which took place in the 1240s, may have been part of Henry's efforts to win this regency.[37]
Conrad was still technicallyking of Jerusalem, but Henry ruled the mainland kingdom as "lord of Jerusalem". Henry appointed Balian of Ibelin as hisbailli and granted thelordship of Tyre toPhilip of Montfort. After Balian's death in 1247, his brotherJohn becamebailli.Tiberias fell to Khwarazmian on 16 June 1247. When theAyyubids laid asiege to Ascalon soon after, theKnights Hospitaller requested Henry's help. Although he sent eight ships, Ascalon fell in October.[46]
In 1247Pope Innocent IV formally released Henry from all oaths sworn to Frederick, permanently ending imperial claims to suzerainty over Cyprus.[31][46] In September 1248, KingLouis IX of France, QueenMargaret, and the king's brothers CountCharles I of Anjou andRobert I of Artois arrived in Cyprus on their way to theSeventh Crusade. King Henry and the Ibelins welcomed the French king. The French crusaders overwintered in Cyprus, the resources of which proved unable to support a great force, and many died of an epidemic. Henry's wife, Queen Stephanie, also fell ill. Henry and Louis set sail together from Limassol to Egypt. After accompanying Louis on his solemn entry intoDamietta on 6 June 1249, Henry returned to Cyprus, leaving his force behind to serve under Louis for a year. The Egyptian campaign ended in a defeat in April 1250.[47]
Archbishop Eustorge died in Egypt in April 1250.[48] Henry quarreled with the new archbishop,Hugh of Fagiano, who left Cyprus and imposed aninterdict on the kingdom.[49] In September 1250, shortly after the death of Queen Stephanie, King Henry married once again. His third wife,Plaisance, was the daughter of PrinceBohemond V of Antioch. Some months after Queen Plaisance gave birth to his only child,Hugh, King Henry I died in Nicosia.[50] His death is generally dated to 18 January 1253 following the late medieval ItalianChronicle of Amadi; alternatively, it may have taken place in 1254.[a] He was buried in a Templar church. He had appointed Guy of Ibelin, Philip of Novara, and Robert of Montgisard to be hisexecutors. He was succeeded by his son, King Hugh II, under the regency of Queen Plaisance.[50]
Throughout the 20 years of his personal rule, Henry appears to have never stood at the forefront of theLatin East's political scene.[53] The historianGeorge Francis Hill describes Henry as a "colourless personality" whose reign saw significant events in which he apparently played no leading part. He considers it significant thatJohn of Joinville, who chronicled the Seventh Crusade, does not even mention him.[50][39]
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | King of Cyprus 1218–1253 | Succeeded by |
