The Hethoumids had ruled the Armenian Kingdom…

1375 CE

The Hethoumids had ruled the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia from 1266 until the murder of Leo IV in 1341, when his cousin Guy Lusignan had been elected king.

The Lusignan dynasty is of French origin, and had already had a foothold in the area, the Island of Cyprus.

There had always been close relations between the Lusignans of Cyprus and the Armenians.

However, when the pro-Latin Lusignans took power, they had tried to impose Catholicism and the European way of life.

The Armenian leadership had largely accepted this, but the peasantry had opposed the changes.

Eventually, this led way to civil strife.

Constantine IV, the son of Hethum of Neghir, a nephew of Hethum II of Armenia, had come to the throne in 1362 on the death of his cousin Constantine III, whose widow, Maria, daughter of Oshin of Korykos, he had married.

He had formed an alliance with Peter I of Cyprus, offering him the port and castle of Korykos, and on Peter's death in 1369 had sought a treaty with the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt.

The barons were unhappy with this policy, fearing annexation by the sultan, and in 1373 Constantine was murdered.

Upon his death he had been succeeded by his distant cousin Leo V, the son of John of Lusignan (Constable and Regent of Armenia) and his wife (or, more probably, mistress) Soldane, daughter of George V of Georgia.

Constantine III, in order to wipe out all claimants to the throne, had given orders to kill Levon and his brother Bohemond, but they had escaped to Cyprus before the murder could be carried out.

He had been made a Knight of the Chivalric Order of the Sword in 1360 and Titular Seneschal of Jerusalem on October 17, 1372.

After a short regency by Maria, Levon had left Famagusta in spite of the ongoing conflict between Cyprus and Genoa.

Landing at Korykos, he had managed with difficultly to reach Sis, which was already being besieged by the Muslim emir of Aleppo.

Leo and Marguerite of Soissons, daughter of Jean de Soissons, whom he had married at Cyprus in May, 1369, had been crowned at Sis on July 26 or September 14, 1374, according to both the Latin and Armenia rites.

His right to the throne is challenged by a baron named Ashot and his reign has been marked by numerous disputes between the various factions.

The fall of Sis in April, 1375 puts an end to the kingdom; after several battles against superior Mamluk forces, Levon locks himself in the Kapan fortress and eventually surrenders in 1375 after being granted safe passage, thus putting an end to the Armenian state.

(Ransomed in 1382, he will die in exile in Paris in 1393 after calling in vain for another Crusade.)

Sis, demolished by the order of the Mamluk sultan, is never to recover its prosperity.