Foundation of the Kingdom of Cyprus (1191-1205)

The loss of Jerusalem in the War of Ḥaṭṭīn waged in 1187 against Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (1171-1191), had drawn great attention and interest in Europe, as it was seen as one of its sacred bastions of great value and importance in the East. The Papacy immediately began calling for a new Crusade, but the ongoing struggle between the two important powers of Europe; France and England at the time, led to the expected assistance being delayed. Subsequently, the King of England Richard I (1157-1199) and Philip II the King of France (1179-1223) decided to take the naval route, while the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1155-1190) opted to cross Anatolia by land, on their ways to the East. The German armies suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the Turks who put up a very successful resistance and with the news in 1190 that the Emperor had been drowned in the Saleph River, the Third Crusade as far as the Germans were concerned ended in failure. On the other front of the Crusades, the French navy managed to reach Acre and played an important role in its capture, as the one of the success of the Third Crusade. The English had gone through a totally different process though, under the leadership of their King, Richard I. The English fleet entered a struggle and fought with the ruler of the island of Cyprus Isaakios Dukas Komnenos who had reportedly misbehaved King Richard I's fiancé Berengaria and her sister Johanna. Later, with the subsequent loss of Jerusalem's Kingdom of Crusaders, a committee arrived from the East, which included former King of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan, and was received by Richard I. There was a convergence of ideas that the island should be captured. The ruler Isaakios Dukas Komnenos was then ousted under the leadership of Guy de Lusignan, and Cyprus was completely captured. With the conquest of Cyprus completed, Richard I moved to the East and joined the French army there, but fell short of achieving any success against Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn. Following unrest against the English rule in Cyprus, King Richard I sold the island to the Templars in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid further problems, but this just proved the opposite, problems got bigger and bigger. The Templars quelled unrest in 1192 with heavy bloodshed, and wanted to return the island to King Richard I, who facilitated for the island's sale to the King of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan who had had to flee Jerusalem. Guy de Lusignan took over Cyprus and thus, the Lusignan Rule in Cyprus officially began. Although Guy de Lusignan (1192-1194) did everything he could to establish a permanent kingdom on the island, it was his successor Amaury de Lusignan (1194-1205), his brother who'd managed to lay the foundations of a real permanent Kingdom there. During his rule, Amaury entered a power struggle with the Kingdom of Acre (Jerusalem), and with the death of Henry de Champagne (1192- 1197) he managed to merge the two kingdoms under his name. He was also in contact with the German Emperor Heinrich VI (1191-1197) and was later crowned as the King of Cyprus (1197). On the sidelines, he pioneered the establishment of the Latin Church in Cyprus. King Amaury de Lusignan later organized and laid the foundation stones of the Crusades Kingdom of Cyprus, by initiating many services and concepts including political, religious and economic.