Janus, King of Cyprus

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Janus (1375 – 29 June 1432) was

Janus was born in Genoa, where his father, James I of Cyprus, was a captive.^[2] His mother, Helvis of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, named him in honor of the god Janus, the founder of Genoa according to mythological tradition.

When his father was elected king, he negotiated an agreement with the Genoese to release him to go to Cyprus, which he signed on 2 February 1383. Under that agreement, the Genoese were given new commercial privileges. However, the Genoese demanded that his father leave his son Janus in their city as a hostage. James sent a noble to Genoa, John Babin, to act as stepfather to his son. As the Cypriot historian

Reign

After his father's death on 9 September 1398, Janus took over the throne of Cyprus. He was crowned in Nicosia's

As king he tried in 1402 to take back Famagusta, which was under Genoese rule. According to writings of Amati, the administrator of Famagusta, the Genoese Antonio de Karko, was Janus' godfather. Janus conspired with a priest who was the spiritual father of de Karko, in order to return the city to the Cypriot kingdom, upon which the priest was to become Bishop of Famagusta. Involved in that conspiracy was Peter Makhairas, brother of Leontios. They made secret keys to the city gates and there were many preparations to take over Famagusta and to murder de Karko with the help of Brother Gregory and to open the gates for Janus' soldiers. However, at the last moment the plan was betrayed, and the conspirators were arrested at Famagusta; 28 of them were executed and the city remained in Genoese hands.

The king continued his effort to take back Famagusta (whose territory also included

Barsbay, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, sent military forces to Cyprus several times. A small force, around 1424, attacked Limassol, and in 1425 the Egyptian army attacked Famagusta and then pillaged Larnaca together with the nearby area, including Kiti, Dromolaxia, Kellia, Aradippou and Agrinou. After Larnaca, they went to Limassol, which was also sacked, including the city's castle.

In the summer of 1426, the Egyptian

After their victory the Mamluks pillaged Larnaca again and then the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia. The royal family retreated to fortified Kyrenia and were rescued. The invaders took a great deal of loot and captives before they left the island.

That disaster, together with the previous raids, the war operations of Janus against Genoese, the epidemics and the invasion of locusts caused the Cypriot serfs, who lived in conditions of utter poverty, to revolt. The leader of the Cypriot revolutionaries was a person called Alexis, who was declared king in Lefkoniko. The revolution was big, and was supported by the population, who elected their own leaders in many places of Cyprus.

Meanwhile, Janus was humiliated in Cairo: they took him, tied up with chains and riding a donkey, in front of the sultan, after which he was forced to kneel and worship nine times the soil on which he stepped. The release of Janus was effected after the intervention of Europeans, who collected money for the required ransom. Cyprus also had to offer the sultan an annual tax^[3] based on income from 5,000 duchies. This tax continued to be paid even after the end of Frankish rule in Cyprus. Together with Janus, some of the captives managed to buy their freedom after their families collected money to ransom them. Others remained captive and were sold as slaves.

While Janus was captive in Cyprus, the nobles and the royal family members were trying to deal with Alexis' rebellion and concurrently trying to achieve the release of Janus. With help from Europe, the rebellion was repressed after 10 months. The rebels' leader was arrested and after terrible tortures was executed in Nicosia on 12 May 1427, the same day that King Janus arrived in Paphos from Cairo.

Family and issue

Janus had nine children. Sometime after January 1400 he married Anglesia Visconti (died 1439), daughter of Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan, but the marriage was annulled and they divorced in 1408 or 1407/1409 without issue.

In 1411, he married

• John II or III of Lusignan (1414–1458)^[6]
• James of Lusignan (d. ca. 1426)
• Louis of Savoy^[7]
• Mary of Lusignan (died 1437)
• Hugo of Lusignan, Cardinal (born 1415) [8]
• Phebus or Philip of Lusignan, sire of Sidon (born 1415) ^[9]

Out of wedlock, he had three more children:

• Aloysius of Lusignan (1408 – after 1421)
• Guy of Lusignan (1410—1470), legitimized by the
  Martin V
  in 1428
• a daughter de Lusignan, married 1427 Garceran Suarez de los Cernadilla, Admiral of Cyprus

References

Sources

• Malloy, Alex (1994). Coins of the Crusader States, 1098-1291: Including the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Its Vassal States of Syria and Palestine, the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus (1192-1489), and the Latin Empire of Constantinople and Its Vassal States of Greece and the Archipelago. Attic Books.
• Coureas, Nicholas (2016). "Latin Cyprus and its relations with the Mamluk sultanate, 1250-1517". In Boas, Adrian (ed.). The Crusader World. Routledge.
• Edbury, Peter W. (1994). The Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades, 1191-1374. Cambridge University Press.
• Luke, Harry (1975). "The Kingdom of Cyprus". In Setton, Kenneth Meyer (ed.). A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Vol. III. University of Wisconsin Press.
• Scott, John Beldon (2003). Architecture for the Shroud: Relic and Ritual in Turin. University of Chicago Press.
• Albizzi, Antonio (1608). Reges Hierusalem et Cypri". Blatt XXIV aus "Principum Christianorum Stemmata". Augsburg.
• Lusignan, Guy (2004). Mes Familles – Nos Mémoires: De l'Empire ottoman à nos jours. Les Éditions Universelles, Édition Numérique.