Henry shared the historical stage with some of the most colorful and impressive figures of medieval history — Emperor Frederick II, John the “Old Lord” of Beirut, and King Louis IX of France, a Saint. These giants have dwarfed him, and he is largely forgotten or dismissed as unimportant. Yet under his reign, his island kingdom enjoyed peace and prosperity. He fostered trade, defended the rights of his diverse subjects, and avoided squandering Cypriot resources in the defense of Syria. King Henry I of Cyprus deserves a reassessment.
The
day of his greatest humiliation was also the day on which King Henry
came of age. He had been forced to flee in his night-shirt on the back
of a borrowed horse, while his entire army was decimated by the
Emperor’s troops. Yet on his arrival in Acre as dawn broke, he was, at
last, his own man. At fifteen, he was recognized as an adult, no longer
tied to guardians, regents, and baillies. This meant that the Lord of
Beirut was no longer his guardian and Baillie — he was his subject and
vassal.
Henry
was free to show his loyalties and make his own policies. He also had a
very clear choice between the nearly destroyed Ibelins or the ascendant
Imperial faction.
Henry
had the option of returning to Cyprus, abandoning the Ibelins and
blaming the Lord of Beirut for squandering his army, his resources, and
his trust. In Cyprus, he could have embraced the former baillies. With
Beirut and all his men in Syria, he could have — without risk — declared
Beirut and the rest of his family traitors and confiscated their fiefs.
Furthermore, he could have requested support from Marshal Filangieri in
destroying the rebellious and traitorous Ibelins. Since Filangieri was
already under orders from the Emperor to destroy the Ibelins, Henry
would have secured the aid of Imperial mercenaries.
Instead,
King Henry stayed with Beirut and started offering fiefs in Cyprus to
any Syrian knights who would fight with him to regain his kingdom from
the Imperialists. He also made substantial concessions to the Genoese,
granting the wide-ranging trading privileges and immunities to secure a
new fleet. He indebted himself to some of the Syrian lords to raise
money to finance an expedition to regain his kingdom. Last but not
least, he appealed (through Beirut) to the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
complaining that the traitors (former baillies) had taken his ships,
occupied his kingdom and were besieging his sisters. King Henry appealed
to the Patriarch, who was also the Papal Legate in the Holy Land, to
confiscate the Imperial ships in the harbor of Acre on the grounds that
Imperial forces had deprived a crowned and anointed king of his navy and
his kingdom.
The
patriarch was reluctant to excommunicate the Emperor’s men, but he
encouraged the seizure of the Imperial ships, which Henry’s supporters
promptly did. King Henry returned in these imperial vessels to Cyprus,
took Famagusta by surprise and advanced cautiously toward Nicosia. His
army advanced through land which the Imperial forces had burned and
wrecked. The sight of the harvest burnt in granges and broken mills,
actions that impoverished both himself and his subjects, can only have
increased King Henry’s hatred of the traitors and their Imperial
puppet-masters. His feelings for his queen must equally have been soured
further by the fact that she chose to retreat with the Imperial forces
rather than welcome the return of her husband.
At
Beirut’s command, the royal army camped outside of Nicosia to avoid a
second Casal Imbert. The situation remained very precarious. Filangieri
and the traitorous lords of Cyprus together fielded a force of more than
2,000 knights supported by a substantial force of sergeants and
archers. The Cypriot army was had just 233 knights, still desperately
short of horses (some knights had only one), and an unnamed number of
sergeants. Furthermore, the castle of St. Hilarion where King Henry’s
sisters were besieged was running out of supplies; there was a serious
risk that the castle would surrender to the Imperial forces giving them
valuable hostages. Under the circumstances, Beirut (who remained in
command) opted to take the Cypriot army to the relief of St. Hilarion.
This
entailed passing before the front of the Imperial army, that had taken
up strong positions on the southern slope of the mountain range that
runs east-west north of Nicosia. They sat across the road connecting
Nicosia to the north-coast port of Kyrenia. This position was
unassailable given the weakness of the Cypriot forces.
When
the Cypriot army was strung along the east-west road leading to St.
Hilarion below the Imperial forces, the pathetic size of the Cypriot
forces was exposed to the enemy. This very weakness proved too tempting
to the proud Italian leaders of the Imperial host. They charged down the
slope to demolish the Cypriots. As soon as they abandoned their
positions, Novare tells us, the Lord of Beirut fell on his knees to
thank God. Then he remounted to defend his King. The King was kept in
the rear of the army with Beirut, his youngest sons (roughly 15 and 16
years old) and his young nephew (later the famed jurist and Count of
Jaffa). The battle was won by the Ibelin’s leading divisions. These
mauled the Imperial forces so soundly that they broke and fled — to be
pursued all the way to Kyrenia. Beirut and the King, meanwhile,
continued to St. Hilarion, scattered the besieging force and rescued the
King’s sisters.
Although
the siege of the fortress at Kyrenia was to continue for ten months,
Henry had regained control of his kingdom. Frederick II never again
attempted to interfere in Henry’s realm or his affairs. Meanwhile, one
of Henry’s first acts was to summon the High Court of Cyprus and charge
the former Imperial baillies with treason. After a unanimous judgment
against them, they were sentenced to death in absentia (they were safely
in the fortress of Kyrenia at the time) and their fiefs were forfeit to
the crown. Henry bestowed them on those who had supported him in his
hour of need.
Yet
while Henry was finally master of his own house, his treasury was
depleted by the year-long campaign and further drained by the ongoing
siege of Kyrenia. In fact, many of his vassals who held money-fiefs had
seen no income in years. Strikingly, they remained loyal to him despite this. To try to spur the economy and recover financially, Henry
not only expanded the privileges of the Genoese but extended trading
privileges to Marseilles and Montpellier. He also fostered trading ties
with the Sultan of Iconium and with Armenia. These actions show
foresight and an appreciation of the economic advantages of trade to an
island kingdom. Ironically, while the maligned King Henry was
encouraging trade, Frederick II — usually depicted as “ahead of his
time” — was introducing trade restrictions.
In
1236, at 19, Henry negotiated a marriage for himself to replace Alix de
Montferrat, who had died during the siege of Kyrenia. He chose the
sister of the King of Armenia, Stephanie, and the couple was married in
1237. This was the same year in which the pope suggested creating a
joint kingdom of Jerusalem and Cyprus to be reigned by Henry King. The
pope’s suggestion was driven by his hatred of Frederick II Hohenstaufen
and was designed to disinherit his heirs, yet it was almost certainly
made without the slightest consultation with King Henry.
Henry
was not interested in the crusader states on the mainland. He refused
to come to the aid of Jerusalem when the city fell in 1244 to the
Khwarizmians, and he provided only reluctant and inadequate forces to
relieve the siege of Ascalon three years later. Even when his mother
died in 1246 and the High Court of Jerusalem recognized him as the
rightful regent for the still absent Hohenstaufen king, Henry showed no
interest in Syrian affairs. Instead of taking up the role of ruler, he
appointed Balian of Beirut (John of Beirut’s eldest son and success
after his death in 1236) Baillie of Jerusalem.
King
Henry appears to have far more pleased by the fact that in the same
year (1246) the pope absolved him of all oaths of fealty to the Holy
Roman Emperor. This act recognized legally what had been a fact since
the complete expulsion of the Imperial forces from Cyprus thirteen years
earlier. Cyprus was an independent kingdom and its king vassal to
none.
When
the vast crusading army of King Louis IX descended on Cyprus, King
Henry remained notably aloof from crusading fever. He welcomed King
Louis and his queen. Cyprus hosted the crusaders throughout the winter,
and the flower of Cypriot chivalry was allowed to participate in the
crusade — notably under the command of the Constable of Cyprus, Guy
d’Ibelin, the youngest son of the Old Lord of Beirut. Indeed, the
Ibelins were well represented in the crusade with John d’Ibelin, Count
of Jaffa, Baldwin the Seneschal of Cyprus and Guy the Constable all
impressing the Seneschal of France, Jean de Joinville, by their prowess,
extravagance, wisdom, command of Arabic and concern for their men. Yet
King Henry, after entering Damietta with King Louis in June 1249,
retired to Cyprus.
Henry
was only three-two at this time, an age at which most medieval noblemen
were keen to demonstrate their prowess at arms, but Henry was no
warrior king — and he had the sense to recognize that. Indeed, Henry had
earned the nickname “the fat.” It appears that his near escape from
disaster at Casal Imbert had left a lasting scar upon his psyche. At a
minimum, he had learned the vital lesson that battles could be lost, and
lost battles could lead to lost kingdoms.
Henry
had turned his attention to fostering the economy and to administrative
reforms instead. One of the latter was the first recorded introduction
of written court records. This practice that was not adopted in France
until after King Louis returned from his crusade, i.e. after his contact
with King Henry.
Henry
also defended the majority of his subjects who still adhered to the
Greek Orthodox faith against attempts by the Latin church to interfere
with their clergy. This conflict escalated to the point that the
Archbishop of Nicosia placed the entire kingdom under interdict — and
Henry withheld revenues due to the Archbishop and the church.
In
1250, in the midst of King Louis’ disastrous crusade, Henry’s Armenian
queen died childless. A king did not have the luxury to mourn for long;
he needed heirs. In 1251, Henry took as his third wife, Plaisance of
Antioch. She, at last, gave him the son he needed. He was christened
Hugh after the father Henry had never known. Less than two years later,
on January 18, 1254[1] Henry I of Cyprus died. He was not yet 47. The cause of death went unrecorded.
In
looking back and assessing his reign, it is easy to dismiss Henry as a
colorless, fat, puppet, yet this ignores the fact that he inherited a
bankrupt kingdom subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and bequeathed a
prosperous and independent kingdom to his son. It also ignores the fact
that Henry retained the respect and loyalty of his vassals throughout
his reign — despite his conspicuous lack of revenues in the early years
and military accomplishments.
The
trade treaties, the administrative reforms, and his steadfastness in
the face of clerical sanctions suggest a man who was not so much weak as
diligent — yet focused on the unglamorous aspects of good-governance:
the economy, the legal system and the spiritual well-being of his
subjects. It is notable too that throughout his reign Henry relied
heavily on various members of the Ibelin family, a clear indication of
where his affections lay in the long struggle that dominated his
childhood.
Henry
I could be viewed as a mirror image of Richard the Lionheart. The
latter is accused of being a bad king because he was focused on warfare
and crusading with the result that he was absent from his kingdom most
of his reign. Henry I left his kingdom only under duress and for never
more than a few months. He avoided wars and left his kingdom richer than
he found it. Henry I of Cyprus deserves more respect.
[1] The
date is often given as Jan. 1253, but Peter Edbury had brought evidence
that in the Kingdom of Cyprus at this time the year began March 25 and
that according to our practice the correct date of his death was 1254.
See: Peter Edbury, “Redating the Death of King Henry I of Cyprus?” Law and History in the Latin East (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014) 339-348.
Henry plays an important role in my current series, "The Rebels of Outremer":
