Guy De Lusignan JERUSALEM, King

   Other names for Guy were JERUSALEM King and CYPRUS King.

   General Notes:

King of JERUSALEM Reigned Aug 1186-1187, King of CYPRUS 1191-1194.

BOOKS
The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch XVI
p342: [1185] "...Before the meeting of the council in London Baldwin IV had closed his unhappy reign and was succeeded by his nephew Baldwin V, a child who never reached his majority..."
p349: [1187] "As the year drew to its close frequent letters and messengers from the Holy Land made known to the west one terrible disaster after another. Saladin with a great army had fallen on the weak and divided kingdom and had won incredible successes. The infant king, Baldwin V, had died before these events began, and his mother Sibyl was recognized as queen. She immediately, against the expressed wish of the breat barons, gave the crown to her husband, Guy of Lusignan. He was a brave man and an earnest defender of the Holy Land, but he could not accomplish the impossible task of maintaining a kingdom, itself so weak, in face of open and secret treachery..."

Ch XVII, p367:
"It was only on April 10, 1191, that Richard at last set sail on the real crusade. He sent on a little before him his intended bride, Berengaria, with his sister Joanna, the widowed queen of Sicily. The voyage proved a long and stormy one, and it was not until May 6 that the fleet came together, with some losses, in the harbour of Limasol in Cyprus. The ruler of Cyprus, Isaac, of the house of Comnenus, who called himself emperor, showed so inhospitable a mein that Richard felt called upon to attack and finally to overthrow and imprison him and to takepossession the island. This conquest, in a moment of anger and quite in accordance with the character of Richard, though hardly to be justified wven by the international law of that time, was in the end the most important and most permanent success of the third crusade. Shortly before his return home Richard gave the island to Guy of Lusignan, to make up to him his loss of the kingdom of Jerusalem; and his descendants and their successors retained it for four centuries, an outpost of Christendom against the advancing power of the Turks."
p368: "...The siege of the important port and fortress of Acre, which had been taken by Saladin shortly before the fall of Jerusalem, had been begun by Guy of Lusignan at the end ofAugust 1189, as the first step toward the recovery of his kingdom...Guy of Lusignan had never been a popular king, and during the siege his wife Sibyl and their two daughters had died, while his rival, Conrad Marquis of Montferrat, had persuaded her sister Isabel to divorce her husband and to marry him. The result was a conflict for the crown, which divided the interests and embittered the spirits of those whom the crusaders had come to aid. Philip had declared for Conrad. Guy was aman somewhat of Richard's own type, and he would have been atracted to him apart from the natural effect of Philip's action..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Micropaedia, Vol VI, p397, Lusignan:
"Two other sons of Hugh VIII became kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus. Guy, through his marriage to Sibyl, the sister of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, got the kingdom in 1186 but lost his capital city in wars with the Muslims (1187) and finally exchanged his empty title for the sovereignty of Cyprus (1192).
"Guy's brother Amalric II (Died 1 Apr 1205) succeeded to the crown of Cyprus and became king of Jerusalem in 1197 by marrying Sybil's sister Isabella after the death of her two previous husbands. Amalric was the founder of a dynasty of sovereigns of Cyprus...His descendants after 1269 regularly enjoyed the title of King of Jerusalem..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Micropaedia, Vol I, 1981, p754, Baldwin V:
"A boy of delicate health, Baldwin died and wasburied in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the last Latin king to have that distinction. He was succeeded by Guy de Lusignan, Sybille's second husband."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol I, The Conquering Family, Thomas B Costain, 1949, Doubleday & Co, p125:
"...The Christians in Palestine had not been able to maintain themselves against a great leader who had arisen among the Sracens named Sallah-ed-din, which later was corrupted to Saladin. The royal house of Jerusalem had ended in a girl named Sibylla, and the man she married, Guy of Lusignan, had been declared King. He was not capable of contending against Saladin. Tiberias fell to the infidels, and the capture of Jerusalem itself followed soon after. As a result the Holy Cross was taken by the Saracen forces."
p173: "Mention has already been made of Conrad of Montferrat. This proud and difficult member of the crusading band had married Isabella, the second daughter of the last Kingof Jerusalem. Sibylla, the eigne daughter, had married Guy of Lusignan, and the latter had acted as king in her fight. But Sibylla died and Conrad promptly claimed the title because his wife survived. The pretensions of the two husbands splitthe camp of the Crusaders into factions. Richard had supported Guy of Lusignan. The majority favored Conrad, however, and so the English King had been compelled to give in. He had promised Guy the throne of Cyprus as consolation."

   Marriage Information:

Guy married Princess Sibyl JERUSALEM, daughter of King Baldwin JERUSALEM, III and Theodora COMNENUS.