Lesser barons

Who he is

Name

As listed in holds (Smbat's list, pages 70-71 of Bedrosian's translation)

Title

Princes (paron, kyr, sir) holding castles of King Leo

Since

Named in the list Smbat gives with the coronation (1198 or 1199). Der Nersessian argued the list was not drawn up at the coronation itself, so each tenure on 1 January 1200 is likely, not certain.

Born

not pinned

Family

Armenians, Franks with Armenian fiefs, and Greeks; families not pinned except where noted.

Confidence

medium

Search of Smbat's chronicle (tr. Bedrosian) for every name; the whole list could not be read in one piece, so lines whose holder has a name not searched for may be missing.

Overlord

Leo I (the Greek lords of the western coast: nominally, not pinned).

What it holds

• Bardzrberd (Partzerpert), the old Roupenid castle: Gēorg (Smbat's list). Site said to lie in Andırın district; not drawn.
• Kopitar: Kostandin. Site not located.
• Chanchi: Kostandin (a different man). Site not located.
• Kanch': Ashot. Site not located.
• Manash: Het'um. Site not located.
• Siwil: O'shin. Site not located.
• T'lsap: T'oros. Site not located.
• Berdus (Pertous), on the Marash side: Lewon and Grigor jointly. In 1208 the Seljuks seize its lord Grigor, Lewon's son, and Berdus is lost to the Armenians (Smbat): later.
• Enkuzut: Baldwin ('Paghtin'). Site not located.
• T'or'nika: Stephen ('Stefn'). Site not located.
• Ane: Henry ('Her'i'). Site not located.
• Norberd and Komartas (Norpert, called Castellum Novum, and Camardias, in the west): the sebastos Henry, son-in-law of John (the future catholicos). Leo seizes him and his sons Kostants of Kumartias, Joscelin and Baldwin in 1207 (Smbat); Norpert and Camardias later go to the Hospitallers with Seleucia (Der Nersessian): later.
• Andoshts and Kupa: Baldwin (a different man). Sites not located.
• Lakrawen: Kostandin and Nikephoros jointly. Site not located.
• Lavzat and Timitupolis (Dometiopolis?) in Isauria: Christopher. Sites not located.
• Maghva, Sik and Palapol on the western coast: Kyr Isaac ('Ker'asak'); a Kyr Sahak, lord of Maghva, is captured with the constable in 1216 (Smbat). Sites not located.
• Manavgat and Alara on the Pamphylian coast: Michael. Their tie to Leo on 1 January 1200 is not pinned; the coast is the byw researcher's.
• Kalon Oros (Alanya), Ayzhutap, 'the blessed Sophia' and Naghlon: Kyr Vard. His tie to Leo on 1 January 1200 is not pinned; the coast is the byw researcher's.
• Not in this record: Baghras ('the prince of Baghras, Adam'), a Church map record (Baghras); the constable Aplgharib of Kutaf and the marshal Vasil of Vaner (Officers of the crown).

How it was acquired

Grants of the Roupenid lords and of Leo; the western lords by Leo's campaigns of about 1188-1190 or by their own submission (not pinned).

Allies and rivals

The king's vassals. The Greek lords of the west sit between Leo, the Seljuks and the Byzantine governors of the coast.

How things stand that morning

Probably held by these lords as Leo's vassals; the western coast lords' allegiance is not pinned.

Military

Each lord's castle. No numbers.

Threats

• Seljuk pressure on the Marash side (Berdus) and in the west.

Where the sources disagree

• The list may include lords from a later moment in Leo's reign (Der Nersessian's argument); Kyr Vard of Kalon Oros surrenders his town to the Seljuk sultan Kayqubad I in the 1220s (later), which shows these lords outlasted Leo.

Evidence: Each holding rests on one line of Smbat's list. Most castles cannot be identified, and the list was read piecemeal.

On the map: Nothing drawn: the castles are not located, and the western coast is drawn by the byw researcher.

Primary sources for Cilicia

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Anonymous Syriac Chronicle to 1234, Anonymous (a Syrian Orthodox writer, probably of Edessa) (about 1234 to 1240). An Edessene chronicle independent of Michael the Syrian in its later part, with a secular section reaching 1234 that gives the Jazira, Edessa, Harran, Mardin and Melitene about 1200 under al-Adil's sons and the Artuqids, the Seljuks of Rum, the Armenians of Cilicia and the Franks of Antioch, and a church section to 1207 on the Jacobite succession after Michael's death in 1199. Read online
• The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. Read online
• The Chronicle of Smbat Sparapet (Sempad the Constable), Smbat Sparapet, brother of King Hetum I of Cilicia (about 1270 to 1276). The Cilician court chronicle, drawing on Matthew of Edessa for its early part and on family memory later. Read online
• The Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, Ernoul, squire of Balian of Ibelin, and later compilers (the 1187 core soon after the event; the whole in its present form 1227 to 1232). The Ibelin household's version of events in Outremer. Read online
• The Cream of the History of Aleppo, Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (about 1240 to 1260). The annals of Aleppo. Read online
• The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (Eracles), Anonymous continuators, the earliest drawing on Ernoul (about 1220 to 1277; the first continuation (1184 to 1197, the Lyon Eracles) compiled about 1230 from material of the 1190s). For the Latin East at 1200 it narrates the aftermath of the Third Crusade: the truce of 1192, the succession to Jerusalem through Queen Isabella's marriages to Henry of Champagne (died September 1197) and Aimery of Lusignan, Aimery's rule as king of Jerusalem from 1198 while king of Cyprus, the German crusade of 1197 to 1198 and the recovery of Beirut and Sidon, the truce with al-Adil of 1198, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond IV and Leo of Armenia, and the Pisan plot against Aimery. Read online
• History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
• The Historical Compilation of Vardan Areveltsi, Vardan Areveltsi (about 1267 to 1271). A short universal history that for the 12th and 13th centuries follows Samuel of Ani, Michael the Syrian (which Vardan helped translate into Armenian in 1248) and Kirakos. Read online

6 more in the sources library for Anatolia and the Caucasus.