Kingdom of Cyprus

The Kingdom of Cyprus was a crusader state founded on the island of Cyprus in 1192 and lasting until 1489. Richard I of England had seized Cyprus from the Byzantine governor Isaac Komnenos in 1191 during the Third Crusade, then sold it to the Knights Templar; their harsh rule provoked a revolt, and Richard transferred the island to Guy of Lusignan, the dispossessed king of Jerusalem. Guy's brother Aimery succeeded him in 1194, and his royal title was confirmed in 1196. The Lusignan kings ruled a predominantly Greek Orthodox population while a small Latin elite held the castles, fiefs and church lands, with Nicosia as the capital and Famagusta as the main port. Cyprus became a centre of Latin trade with the Levant after the fall of Acre in 1291, but Genoese pressure and the Mamluk invasion of 1426 reduced the kingdom to a tributary. The last queen, Catherine Cornaro, was forced to abdicate in 1489, and Venice took over the island.