v09_0990 - KINGDOM OF CYPRUS - PIERRE II Gros c. 1372-1373 Famagouste

KINGDOM OF CYPRUS - PIERRE II

(1369-1382)

Cyprus, a Byzantine possession, was quasi-autonomous until the third crusade when Richard the Lionheart seized the island in 1191. The following year, he sold Cyprus to Guy de Lusignan, the last king of Jerusalem in title, who had been driven from the Holy Land after the defeat of Hattin in 1187 against Saladin and the siege of Acre the previous year. The island was to remain in Crusader hands until 1473. There were two mints in Cyprus, Famagusta and Nicosia. Peter II succeeded his father Peter I who had been assassinated. His uncle John was regent until his coronation in 1372. Kings were crowned in Nicosia for Cyprus and in Famagusta for Jerusalem. That year, a fratricidal struggle opposed Genoese and Venetians. The king was taken prisoner by the Genoese and had to pay an indemnity of 2 million gold florins in twelve years, an annual tribute of 40,000 florins, and reimburse the expenses of the Genoese expedition. Pierre died childless in 1382 and his uncle, Jacques, succeeded him..