Dynasty: the Lusignans of Jerusalem and Cyprus

If ever there was a family that equaled the Plantagenets in ambition, temper, drama and descent from supernatural beings, it was the Lusignans of Poitou.  One Lusignan, Guy of Lusignan, would rival Richard the Lionheart for the title of King of Jerusalem.  Guy would win, sort of.  Another Lusignan, Hugh, would marry the widow of Richard's brother John, Isabella of Angouleme, and his intrigue would start a war between his stepson Henry III and Henry's barons.  In the process the Lusignans were Kings of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenian Cilicia, laid claim to the Crusader states of Galilee, Antioch, Tyre, Tripoli (in Syria), Jaffa and Ascalon, Beirut and Sidon.  They would also hold land in Armenia, Spain, Portugal and France.  And, they would claim the English earldom of Pembroke and Baron Hastings. 

The family took their name from the Chateau de Lusignan, in Poitiers, which had supposedly been built by a water-sprite named Melusine, who also mated with an early Lusignan forebear and transmitted her turbulent personality to her off-spring.  In fact, the Lusignans achieved most of their immense holdings and influence through luck, bravery, and fortuitous marriages with ranking heiresses.  The early Lusignans were Counts of Le Marche and Eu.  They were rivals of the Counts of Angouleme and the Plantagenets, as Counts of Poitou and Dukes of Aquitaine.  Richard expelled Amalric de Lusignan from his holdings in Poitou, leaving Amalric no choice but to head to the Holy Land, where enterprising knights could win points in the afterlife and carve out their own crusader states.  Amalric would marry the daughter of Baldwin of Iberlin and eventually become a counselor (and maybe lover) to Agnes of Courtenay, mother and regent of the Leper King, Baldwin IV.  Almaric's brother, Guy, would marry Baldwin's sister Sybilla, laying claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem itself.  Guy's intrigue and belligerent behavior would eventually destabilize his brother-in-law's kingdom.  After the death of Baldwin IV and Baldwin V, Guy claimed the crown of Jerusalem though he and Sybilla were estranged at that point and she would die soon after.  Needing to win new allies for his claim to Jerusalem, Guy allied with Richard the Lionheart in 1191, as he was busy taking Cyprus apart in revenge for the local emperor's treatment of Richard's sister Joanna and fiancée Berengaria. 

Richard needed cash rather than land at that moment and sold Cyprus to the Templars.  They pulled off a major real estate flip by selling Cyprus to Guy.   Guy died in 1194, leaving his claims to Cyprus and Jerusalem to his brother Aimery.  Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, crown Aimery King of Cyprus.  He married Isabella, another heiress to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and proclaimed himself King in right of his wife.  Meanwhile, back in France, Hugh X was fortunate enough to marry the widow of John, Isabella of Angouleme and claim her inheritance, becoming Count of Angouleme through right of his wife.  He persuaded his stepson Henry III to marry his half-brother William to one of the heiresses of William Marshal, making the Lusignans Earls of Pembroke.  The intrigues of Hugh and William would cause war between Henry III and Phillip Augustus of France, stripping the Plantagenets of over half their ancestral holdings in France. 

The Lusignans in Cyprus would use the same strategies to claim lands in Armenia, and later Spain and Portugal.  They would hold onto Cyprus until 1472, their dynasty coming to a direct end only a decade before that of their old rivals from Poitou, the Plantagenets.  Several families would claim descent from the Lusignans, most notably the Dukes of La Rouchefoucauld, who survived the French Revolution and still exist today.   Side-note, the La Rouchefoucaulds and the Plantagenets are sometimes claimed to be among the 13 Illuminati families, for what it's worth. 

   

Melusine

There once was a King of Alba (now part of Scotland) named Elynas, who went hunting one day and came across a beautiful woman named Pressyne.  He fell in love with her and persuaded him to marry her.  She agreed, on condition that he never spy on her while she was bathing or birthing their children.  She gave birth to three beautiful daughters, the eldest named Melusine.  Everything went according to plan until Elynas couldn't contain his curiosity and spied on Pressyne as she bathed, finding out to his shock and horror that she was half-woman and half-beast, fish, etc.  She took their three daughters and disappeared, taking up residence on the Isle of Avalon.  Later the three girls determined to pay their father back for disrupting their family.  They caught Elynas and locked him in a mountain for all time.  Pressyne thought this very disrespectful and punished her daughters by condemning them to spend a day a week as a mermaid, undine or other supernatural creature.  Melusine happened to meet Raymond of Poitier (1115-1149, uncle of Eleanor of Acquitaine), Fulk of Anjou (970-1040-an early forbear of the Plantagenets), Guy of Lusignan's father, or an early Count/Duke of Luxembourg and began the cycle again, marrying him on condition he not spy on her in her bath.  Only this time, when he broke the condition she forgive him and stuck by him, until forced to hear Mass, or he insults her by being called a "serpent", "witch" or some such, and she turned into a serpent or worse and disappeared. 

Obviously, a quick check of the relevant records reveals that Fulk of Anjou's wives were Elizabeth of Vendome and later Hildegarde of Sundgau, both very mortal women.  Elizabeth's fate was bad enough, after being caught by her husband in an adulterous affair she was burned in the marketplace of Rouen in her wedding dress, but more on this later.  Guy of Lusignan's father Hugh (c 1110-1171) was married to a woman named Burgondie de Rancon and had a mother named Sarrasine.  Raymond of Poitier's wife was named Philippa and each of these women had an otherwise-normal life as a noble Medieval wife and mother.  No record that any of them looked like the lady on a Starbucks cup. 

So why the fairytale underpinnings of these royal houses?  It depends on which sources one checks.  Normal, in dealing with royal and noble men and women of that age, was a relative term.  If it's normal to fly into a rage and order the slaughter of 3,000 Saracens to get back at their Sultan for refusing demands, than Richard I was normal.  If its normal to leave one's wife and have a relationship with a woman who goes by the nickname of Dangereuse de Chatelherault and have rumors that one's niece (Eleanor) is one's mistress, than Raymond was normal.  Guy is a whole other blogpost and whether his life was mundane or normal I'll leave the reader to decide.  It was a rough and violent age, not a time for sissies.  These men were powerful, knew their way around swords and other weapons, and were in control of lands, castles and men.  To defy any of them was to risk one's life.  To have the power of life and death over those under their control was taken as a given.  But was with the other trappings of power, retinues, arms, jewels and wealth, it didn't hurt to have people believing one had a bit of the supernatural behind them, just a touch in the form of a distant ancestress.  Richard I said openly that his family was born of the Devil and would return to the Devil in due time.  Guy readily boasted that his mother had a undine (a water sprite similar to the Starbucks lady) in his mother's ancestry somewhere.  Fear is a potent part of power and, knowing that one's lord or king might be in league with darker elements added that fear.