Kingdom of Cyprus

The Kingdom of Cyprus (Royaume de Chypre; Regnum Cypri) was a medieval kingdom of the Crusader states that existed between 1192 and 1489. Initially ruled as an independent Christian kingdom, it was established by the French House of Lusignan after the Third Crusade. It comprised not only the entire island of Cyprus, but it also had a foothold on the Anatolian mainland: Antalya between 1361 and 1373, and Corycus between 1361 and 1448. Cyprus in the Middle Ages and Theme of Cyprus After the division of the Roman Empire into an eastern half and a western half, Cyprus came under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire. At that time, its bishop, while still subject to the Christian Church, was made autocephalous by the First Council of Ephesus in 431. The Arab Muslims invaded Cyprus in force in the 650s, but in 688, the Byzantine emperor Justinian II and the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān reached an unprecedented agreement. For the next 300 years, Cyprus was ruled jointly by both the Arabs and the Byzantines as a condominium, despite the nearly constant warfare between the two parties on the mainland. The Byzantines recovered control over the island for short periods thereafter, but the status quo was always restored. This period lasted until the year 965, when Niketas Chalkoutzes conquered the island for a resurgent Byzantium. In 1185, the last Byzantine governor of Cyprus, Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus from a minor line of the Imperial house, rose in rebellion, and attempted to seize the throne. His attempted coup was unsuccessful, but Comnenus was able to retain control of the island. Byzantine actions against Comnenus failed because he enjoyed the support of William II of Sicily. The Byzantine emperor had an agreement with the sultan of Egypt to close Cypriot harbours to the Crusaders. The island of Cyprus was conquered in 1191 by King Richard I of England during the Third Crusade, from Isaac Komnenos, an upstart local governor, Byzantine Prince and self-proclaimed emperor of the Byzantine Empire.