The Lusignan Dynasty and the End of New Armenia (1342-1375)
When Levon V died, leaving behined no children, the throne of Armenia went to the family of Lusignan. This family, was a member of the French great nobility which still ruled in Cyprus the last Christian state originating from the crusaders in the East. The family gained rights to the Armenian throne by the marriage of Isabelle II, daughter of the Armenian king Hetoum II, and Amoy de Tyr, brother of the former Cyprus king, Henry II.
The marriage resulted in two sons, Jean and Guy, who both spent a period serving Byzantine. After the death of Levon V, Jean came to Armenia and, for a short period of time, became the crown prince of the country. Soon after his brother, Guy, returned to Armenia and was crowned to the new king. As soon as he sat on the throne he stopped payment of the annual tax to the sultan of Egypt. The sultan attacked Armenia and Guy turned to the Christian world for assistance. Pope Clement sent 6,000 riders to his aid. The new king, who was Catholic, selected his men from amongst the Catholics and continued to openly discuss the union of the Apostolic Armenian and the Catholic Churches, which irritated the Armenian people to such a degree that they killed him in 1344.
After his death, the throne of Armenia passed to two other Catholic persons, first of whom was Constantine IV (1344-1363), who was the son of the great Armenian commander Baudouin.. He withstood the Egyptian advances and, as an ally of the Latin states of Cyprus and Rhodes, himself attacked the territories of Egypt and took the port of Eskanderun (1357). His successor, who also was a Catholic and named Constantine V, was killed by the Armenians and the country was ruled by his widow, Marie de Gorigos, until the year 1374 when the last Armenian king, Levon VI Lusignan, nephew to Isabelle, the sister of Hetoum II, sat on the throne. This new Armenian king inherited the country in a sorry state: a major part of the country was occupied by the Egyptian sultan, Melik el Ashraf, together with the Turkish forces belonging o the Emirs Dauodbach and Boubakir.
The Egyptian sultan had decided to destroy the last Asian Christian state at any cost, forestalling any future plans of the west to launch an offensive from such a foothold. The only possibility for New Armenia existence was through the conversion of its king and people to Islam.
As the king and his people refused to accept this term, war broke out and the Muslims advanced with an army of 30,000 face an opponent with only a few thousand men. The Armenians eventually took cover in the fortress of Sis and began a hopeless resistance. The last battle of New Armenia ended tragically. This was due in part to the tension that still existed between the king and certain Armenian noble families, who believed that if this king, of the Lusignan family emerged victorious from the war, he would continue along the route of his predecessors and finally realize the union between the Armenian and the Catholic Churches. In 1375 the fortress of Sis was compelled to surrender, bringing to a close the kingdom of New Armenia. The country was forced down on its knees while still holding the weapon in its hand, as the Romanian historian Jorga laments. 103
Levon VI was taken as a prisoner to Cairo and there, in the presence of the sultan, refused the offer of his throne and country in exchange for his conversion to Islam. In 1382, after the intervention of the king of Castile, he was set free and went to Rome, then Spain and finally to France. In Paris, he lived at the court of king Charles II until 1393 when he died and was buried in the St Dennis Cathedral, beside the French royals.
|
