The de Lusignan Dream - Cyprus 1337
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A New Kingdom (1360-1362)
The capture of Jerusalem was a colossal event in the history of Christendom. The fall of the city's walls reverberated throughout Europe and was met by general rejoicing and celebratory masses. For a generation raised on and steeped in stories of the heroics of the crusades this was an event without parallel since 1099. For those closer to the events however the reactions were far more pragmatic. None typified this more than the all new conquering Christian hero himself.
The comparisons with 1099 were obvious
Guy's only concession to the occasion in the days following the capture of the city appears to have been a brief private visit to the Holy Sepulchre on the last night of February. Aside from this he spent the following weeks holding court in the newly reoccupied Tower of David citadel complex and laying the foundations of his new kingdom. The first task at hand was to ensure that a city remained for him to govern. While the Franks had enjoyed a day of wanton looting, Guy and his marshals swiftly acted to restore discipline to the army. Needless slaughter of the city's inhabitants was discouraged, though where it did occur no action was taken, and the soldiers were assembled outside the city walls.
Once Jerusalem was secure the King had to consider the management of the new lands as a whole. Eager to avoid the political infighting that had paralysed the old Kingdom of Jerusalem, Guy made certain only to reward those who could be counted upon to be loyal to the de Lusignan name. The most obvious candidates for this were members of the family themselves - both his son Hugues and brother Jacques did well and received a duchy each (Cyprus and Tripoli respectively). The shedding of Cyprus from the royal demesne was itself highly symbolic of the King's dedication to his new realm.
Running parallel to the establishment of this new realm was a heated argument within the Frankish court as to its borders. There was a strong current of opinion that the crusade should press on to reclaim all the lost territories of Jerusalem. In particular the lands of Transjordan were still held by the Emir of El-Arish and, to a lesser degree, the Mamluk Sultan. The opposing faction urged caution and desired time to rebuild both the treasury and army after a punishing campaign. In the end it appears to be the influence of external parties that influenced the Guy's decision. Contemporary accounts make clear that the military orders advised the recovery of the old land, just as they had during the Fifth Crusade all those years ago. Without the buffer of Transjordan, Jerusalem itself was vulnerable and exposed. The arguments of the Noble Crusade, only now reaching Jerusalem, were less convincing but more passionate - the nobles had travelled far to aid in the recovery of Jerusalem and were unwilling to return home without campaigning in the Sinai.
Guy holds court in Jerusalem
After a single week lodged within Jerusalem Guy mobilised his remaining army and marched south. He was apparently confident enough not to call for further reinforcements from the north and could muster just over ten thousand men at arms divided into three armies. Confidence within the army was said to be running high as scouts reported that the bulk of the Hosni of El-Arish's armies were busy prosecuting the war against Mallorca and Pisa across the Mediterranean. Such reports were apparently correct and what few Arab regiments were left in El-Arish were destroyed mere days after the crusaders crossed the borders on 23 March 1360.
With such little opposition the campaign was swift. By the end of September the last settlement in the Sinai had fallen to the Franks and contact had been made with the English crusaders in Egypt. Arab armies returning from their campaign in Sardinia did so in piecemeal and were easily destroyed. To the north a freshly raised army had secured Antioch on 24 September and effectively destroyed the Emirate of El-Arish.
On 7 November 1360 Pope Innocent VI declared the crusade to recover the Holy Land to be complete… although he notably did not praise the de Lusignans by name. The d'Anjou family still wielded much influence in Rome and were busy pressing their own claim to the newly restored throne. A few weeks later the Nobles Crusade also came to an official end with the majority of its members returning to their home courts with many tales of heroism and daring in the Holy Land. For those that remained lay the hard, but potentially rewarding, task of building a new kingdom.
Outremer in 1360
A big slice of land there with some rich areas - I see you've got Antioch and Alexandretta etc. The Byzantines look really compacted now and I suspect in a decade or so you could give them a good fight if you wanted to.
Who's that in Crete?
Who's that in Crete?
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Well then... it seems my idea was already acted upon. Outstanding. Now comes the real fun part. Keeping the Kingdom within the power of the de Lusignans!
Fantastic! I'm sure that once the armies recover, Jerusalem will be the most powerful country in the area. How strong are the Mamluks? And I'm still worried about the Il-Khanate. 
Still Venice probably.Vincent Julien said:
yeah the State looks wonderful on the map, the Ilkhanate mass to the east still fears me with dread.
Great looking kingdom, I'm looking forward to seeing what you will do once Jerusalem recovers her strength- hopefully the Khanate will give you time for that.
As always thanks for the comments. With Jerusalem in Guy's possession this AAR can move into the final stages.
Vincent Julien: Crete is still a Venetian possession. I'm in two minds as to whether to relieve them of it or not.
Shuma: The Mamluks were pretty battered during that war with Jerusalem. The Sultanate has stopped falling apart, largely because there's nothing else to go independent, so now they've begun to rebuild. They're still a shadow of their former selves though. As of 1360 I'd reckon they have roughly 15k men.
Bonafacio: I'm not too worried about the Mongols right now. They seem to have left a skeleton force to guard the border while they go rampaging through Europe. As you can see they've been inflicting some pretty serious damage and have reached the Adriatic by 1362:
Light Blue: Il-Khanat
Light Green (?): Sicily
Grey: Serbia
Dark Blue: Bulgaria
White: Venice
Vincent Julien: Crete is still a Venetian possession. I'm in two minds as to whether to relieve them of it or not.
Shuma: The Mamluks were pretty battered during that war with Jerusalem. The Sultanate has stopped falling apart, largely because there's nothing else to go independent, so now they've begun to rebuild. They're still a shadow of their former selves though. As of 1360 I'd reckon they have roughly 15k men.
Bonafacio: I'm not too worried about the Mongols right now. They seem to have left a skeleton force to guard the border while they go rampaging through Europe. As you can see they've been inflicting some pretty serious damage and have reached the Adriatic by 1362:
Light Green (?): Sicily
Grey: Serbia
Dark Blue: Bulgaria
White: Venice
A Tale of Two Kings (1362-1365)
In almost thirty years the de Lusignans had redrawn the map of Outremer. Guy de Lusignan now ruled the lands once governed by his, considerably less capable, namesake. Pilgrims arriving as Jerusalem, the centre of the Christian world, were greeted by Cypriot guards standing below the de Lusignan standard. Despite the court residing in Dorylaion the King himself spent most of his time in the Holy City and had largely divested himself of his Anatolian lands. Yet Guy's work was not yet over.
Like most of his predecessors, Pope Innocent VI relied heavily on the goodwill and soldiers of the Kingdom of Sicily to remain on his throne and in combating the imperialist ambitions of both Germany and, later, France in northern Italy. It is not surprising that the various Popes had long supported the d'Anjou claim to the throne of Jerusalem. Even as Frankish soldiers entered the Holy City the Pope refused de Lusignan petitions to recognise Guy as the true king of Jerusalem. For two years the diplomatic wrangling continued but to no avail.
Nnggg
The d'Anjou claim to the throne had its origins in the attempt by Charles d'Anjou, King of Sicily, to annex the remnants of the original kingdom, in the face of Cypriot opposition, from 1277-1285. The attempt was disastrous and, together with Charles' ambitions in the Balkans, shattered what little unity remained in Christian Outremer. Despite this, and the continued Cypriot rule over Acre prior to its fall in 1291, the Papacy recognised d'Anjou claim and proclaimed Charles titular King of Jerusalem. Needless to say the de Lusignans were not amused and had continued to lobby for recognition of their claim.
The de Lusignan campaign was hardly aided by the bitter stories being circulated through the European courts by agents of King Borzyslaw Piast of Poland, recently returned from his disaster in the Holy Land. Borzyslaw's version of events drew heavily from crusader lore, with which European audiences would have been intimately familiar with, and cast Guy in the role of the cowardly and treacherous Byzantines abandoning the brave crusaders. Guy was to be the duplicitous general Tatikios abandoning the crusade at Antioch with, by extension, Borzyslaw filling the role of Godfrey of Bouillon, the pious Christian warrior. Devious "Easterners" had long been a staple, and scapegoat, of crusader tales and the de Lusignan alliance and marriage with the Imperial Palaiologos dynasty hardly helped Guy's cause.
Despite this Guy de Lusignan still ruled Jerusalem, whether it was recognised by many or not, and by 1362 the kingdom was in good health. The same could not be said of Naples where Mathieu d'Anjou had lost most of his kingdom's Hungarian possessions to the ferocious Il-Khanat. Having torn through what is today the Ukraine, the Mongol horde had only concluded peace with Mathieu after the political disintegration of the Holy Roman presented an opportunity to expand northwards through Germany. The conflict had greatly weakened the Neapolitans and would spell the end of d'Anjou ambitions in Eastern Europe. Both Poland and Serbia seized the opportunity to expand at Mathieu's expense and began to seize what remained of Naples' empire.
The Cypriot armies prepare to set sail
Events in the Balkans were being closely watched by Jerusalem and on 13 May 1362 Guy de Lusignan publicly had himself crowned, for the second time, as King of Jerusalem. The coronation took place in the Holy Sepulchre and was a grand event… one designed to underline his position on the throne. In the context of the times it could only be seen as a direct challenge or attempt to usurp the d'Anjou claim. Mathieu's refusal to relinquish his claim led Guy to consult with his princes over the next few months. The King could only be aware that universal recognition of his position was vital if his new kingdom was to survive.
By late November Guy committed himself to action and the call for mobilisation went out across the kingdom. With the royal treasury and armies still weakened from the last war Guy would be relying on the aid of his vassals to press his claim. Princes throughout Anatolia, which had remained relatively untouched by the conflict further south, were required to supplement a meagre royal force. Of the 17,000 strong army assembled by March 1363 a mere 4,000 men were drawn from the royal lands. On 6 March the grand fleet set sail for Naples from ports along the Anatolian coast. Ioannes Palaiologos of Byzantium was the guarantee that neither Neapolitan allies nor armies in the Balkans would be permitted to reach Cypriot lands by passing through his territory… an action that kicked off another round of Byzantine skirmishing with the Bulgarians and Transylvanians.
d'Anjou lands in Naples
The Cypriot invasion army made landfall in late September 1363 and rapidly secured Foggia before moving south through Salerno and Napoli, the latter falling on 17 November. Despite having huge reserves of men (over thirty thousand strong) Mathieu was still campaigning to the east and would have to march his armies home over long distances to recover his lands. He still refused to contemplate relinquishing his claim though… a stance that forced Guy to take the bulk of his army, over ten thousand men, and set sail for the far flung Neapolitan territories of Provence (on the Mediterranean coast) and Podlaise (in distant Lithuania). Hugues de Lusignan, Prince of Cyprus, was tasked with securing the Italian held territories against any attempts to recover them.
Arriving in Provence in early April 1364 Guy was just in time to hear that one of his vassals, Prince Andreas Madrites of Sinai, had taken advantage of his absence to declare his independence of Cypriot rule. It was a chilling omen of what could occur of Guy failed to secure the title of Jerusalem. Legend has it that so great was the King's fury at this news that the garrison at Provence promptly surrendered when they themselves heard the rumour. The Cypriot army entered the castle a mere week after landing at Provence. Leaving a skeleton garrison behind, Guy's army began the long trek north towards Mathieu's Lithuanian possessions. It was a journey that took almost a year to complete as Guy stopped often to avail of the hospitality offered by towns eager to host a crusader hero. It may have gone quicker if Guy had been aware of events in Italy.
Entry of the crusaders into Provence
When Guy began his great tour, in late November 1363, the only remaining Sicilian regiments in Italy were badly under strength and no challenge to Hugues' force of 5,000 men. For almost a year however the numbers of Italian soldiers returning from overseas steadily increased and required almost constant campaigning from Hugues, and an auxiliary army of Milanese mercenaries, to defend the Cypriot holdings on the peninsula. The skirmishing would continue until Hugues secured a vital victory over Mathieu's larger army at Bari on 6 November 1364. The next several months would be spent harassing the Neapolitan armies in a much lauded and studied campaign to prevent them concentrating again.
By the time Guy's army finally reached and conquered Podlaise on 27 March 1365, a situation made all the more difficult by the King's reputation in neighbouring Poland, Hugues army had been constantly fighting in Naples for a year and a half. The news of Podlaise's fall and Guy's march south was understandably welcomed with enthusiasm and despair amongst the Cypriots and Italians respectively. On 9 April 1365 Mathieu met with Hugues outside Salerno and agreed to renounce the d'Anjou claim to Jerusalem in favour of the de Lusignans.
Contemporary accounts record that Guy believed that victory in Naples was "the sweetest triumph of them all"… a markedly odd sentiment for his only campaign against fellow Christians. Of course it was this war that finally gave Guy the universal recognition as King of Jerusalem. Now he could truly claim to have matched his 12th century predecessor.
Guy de Lusignan, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem
Exactly what was needed. The title is restored. I thought for a moment he might be creating an Eastern/Central Med Empire, but apparently not. Perhaps something for his heirs to do?
I had completely forgotten that the d'Anjou having claim on Jerusalem was more than just a story prop, that they in fact hold the title in CK.
Congratulations on securing the title for the de Luisignans, it sounds it was a tough campaign but well executed. I've said this before, but as I've read this update I must say it again... you're writing is brilliant!
In light of getting Jerusalem firmly under your control, I have to ask how long you plan on continuing this AAR. If you choose to end it soon, I'd love to see you start another one.
Congratulations on securing the title for the de Luisignans, it sounds it was a tough campaign but well executed. I've said this before, but as I've read this update I must say it again... you're writing is brilliant!
In light of getting Jerusalem firmly under your control, I have to ask how long you plan on continuing this AAR. If you choose to end it soon, I'd love to see you start another one.
Recognition as King of Jerusalem. Amazing that belief caught up to reality in only one war. Now it is up to the de Lusignan's to throw back the Mongol Horde.
All Hail the King!
And now, now it is time for the de Lusignan to cement their hold on the Kingdom of Jerusalem... prior to expanding outward to create an empire of the Levant!
And now, now it is time for the de Lusignan to cement their hold on the Kingdom of Jerusalem... prior to expanding outward to create an empire of the Levant!
Kerak and Beyond (1365-1370)
It was a triumphant Guy de Lusignan that returned to the Holy Land in early 1366. His adventure in Naples had established beyond all doubt his credentials as King of Jerusalem and the ever increasing military forces at his disposal. The troubles of Christendom - where the long threatened war between England and France finally begun with a vengeance and the Holy Roman Empire was openly disintegrating before the Il-Khanat armies - were a world away from the rising star and relative peace of Jerusalem. This was a realm that stretched from the Black Sea in the north to the Red Sea in the south. Yet for all the triumphs Guy's lands still did not quite encompass the borders of the old pre-Hattin kingdom.
Amongst the arid lands of Transjordan the imposing fortress of Kerak, known as Crac des Moabites, still lay in Mamluk hands. The hugely impressive fortress had been built in the 12th century by crusaders to defend the southern approaches to Jerusalem and to dominate the trade routes passing south. Even today Kerak is remembered as one of the most indomitable of crusader citadels, commanding as it did the countryside for miles around. Having been lost by its last lord, the infamous Reynauld de Chatillon, to Saladin in 1187 the fortifications had only been enhanced by various Mamluk rulers. Such was its strength and fame that its lords in the 14th century simply took their names from the citadel - witness the ruler in 1366, Muhammad of Kerak.
The view from the fortress at Kerak
Mamluk protection had safeguarded Muhammad from the Frankish Palestine Campaign of 1359 but the chronicles express little doubt that Guy would eventually seek to return his kingdom to its pre-Hattin borders. To medieval observers only the divine hand of God could explain the miraculous reconquest of the Levant. In this scenario it was only a matter of time before the Kingdom of God was restored to its full territory. The lure of this early revanchism was all the more tempting given the stagnant and much diminished state of the Mamluk Sultanate. Once the ruler of an empire stretching from Africa to Antioch, Shihab Bahri had lost everything but his Syrian possessions and now ruled from the small town of Al Bichri.
On 27 December 1367 Guy began to mobilise his realm's forces. In contrast to the Sicilian war these regiments were primarily drawn from the Kingdom's Levant possessions. These lands had largely recovered from the prior wars of conquest and their Frankish lords were able to aggressively recruit from the local populations. Just over three weeks later two separate Latin armies had been raised - at the head of the Jerusalem regiment Guy de Lusignan commanded ten thousand men in the vicinity of Hebron while Marshal Charles von Tschudi had mustered almost twice that from the lands around Aleppo. While preparing for war against Kerak Guy was clearly determined not to be caught unawares by any Mamluk response.
The Syria Campaign
Guy's southern army departed Hebron in the direction of Kerak on the 23 January 1368. To the north the army under von Tschudi awaited the Sultan's reaction. After achieving a swift and predictable victory against the local garrison on 17 February, Guy's army began to invest the fortifications. Perhaps encouraged by the ease of his victory, or worried by reports of Mamluk mobilisation, the King gave the word for the northern army to advance into Syria. Von Tschudi's forces would begin to advance against significantly tougher opposition than Guy had faced in the south as the Sultanate's many regiments began to take to the field. By the time Kerak fell to the Franks, on 12 March, the fighting around Hama in the north had only intensified as various Muslim relief armies sought to throw the Christians back. Their efforts were made in piecemeal however and on 26 March the Hama garrison was driven into submission by relentless attacks on their walls.
By the time Hama fell Guy had already moved north and the siege of Amman was well underway. By ignoring the scarcely populated Arabian provinces it is clear that the King hoped to both end the raiding into his lands, Tiberias having briefly been besieged in March, and strike at the source of Mamluk power and wealth in Syria. There the fighting was still hard as von Tschudi's army fought their way to Asas. Constant reinforcements were needed to replace the heavy losses being paid to quench the Muslim counterattacks and a small army was detached to guard the right flank at Homs. Their perseverance was successful however when the settlement of Asas fell on 6 May and it appeared that the worst of the fighting was over. As von Tschudi remained behind to safeguard his new lands, the army continued west to the Mamluk capital and secured victory in Al Bichri on 15 June.
Frankish knights approach Palmyra
To the south Guy's rapid pace continued as he liberated Irbid before occupying, the supposedly neutral, Al Mafraq while en route to Syria. On 19 August Guy's army followed the example of the Second Crusade by invading and investing the city of Damascus. To the north the progress was slower but the wealthy trade nexus of Palmyra was finally secured on 27 August. This achievement, coupled with the surrender of Damascus a month later, would effectively mark the end of the campaign. Over the next two weeks favourable terms would be agreed upon with the various Arabian sheikdoms still under Mamluk rule. Peace with the Sultan himself, currently ruling from a port in North Africa, was finalised on 28 November 1368. Taken together the profitable peace treaties would at least eliminate the Treasury debt incurred by the war. The campaign was over before Guy's Byzantine allies could even reach the front.
The Lusignan family was considerably enriched by this war. In a lavish ceremony on 22 January 1369 Guy added the crown of Syria to his existing titles and was equally generous to his family. His brother Jean was granted Damascus and the lands surrounding it, with the attached dukedom of course, while nephew Ademar took possession of the southern lands as Duke of Oultrejordan. The capable Charles von Tschudi was not forgotten as he was made Prince of Aleppo to complement his gains during the war. It was the latter who commented wryly that it had been a "good war for all".
The Kingdom of Cyprus-Jerusalem in 1370
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Keep going, add all the Mamluk land to the de Lusignan lands. You should let the Byzantines do some of the fighting, next time.
I just have to say very many thanks for putting the red line into that last pic. All the green was confusing me.
I think Charles von Tschudi has it completely right - a good war for all providing you weren't a moslem.
I think Charles von Tschudi has it completely right - a good war for all providing you weren't a moslem.
D'oh. I knew there was something I'd forgotten. I'll add borders to that campaign pic now.stnylan said:
Edit: There we go. Not the prettiest but it should do.
Chief Ragusa: After Sinai went independent I was much more wary about picking up lands over which I had no king title
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