bby_682017 - CILICIE - ROYAUME D'ARMÉNIE - LÉON Ier roi d'Arménie Tram d'argent

CILICIA - KINGDOM OF ARMENIA - LEO I King of Armenia

(1198-1219)

Armenians first lived around Lake Van. Nicephorus II Phocas (963-969) settled a significant part of the Armenian people in Cilicia. After the Seljuk invasion in Asia Minor, it constituted an independent principality whose first monarch was Roupen (1080-1095). Leo II received from Emperor Henry VI, in 1198, a crown which made him an independent monarch of Byzantium which would fall in 1204. Leo II made Sis his capital in 1196. Leo II (Levon II) is sometimes called Leo I ( Levon I) as king of Armenia, but this numbering is not unanimous. Indeed, he is the first to be crowned king of Armenia in 1198, before they were "Princes of the mountains".