Barons and castellans · Kingdom of Cyprus · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Liegemen of Cyprus

When Guy took Cyprus in 1192 he sent word through the Latin East and gave land 'in great plenty' to knights, widows and orphans who had lost their fiefs to Saladin, and large holdings to burgesses: 'thus King Guy peopled the island of Cyprus' (Ernoul, pp.

342-343). The result was a Frankish nobility of refugees from the mainland and Poitevins of the Lusignan following, holding villages with their Greek peasants, or rents in money and kind (money fiefs) from the royal revenues. Aimery, finding the domain bare, took some of this back by persuasion and pressure. These liegemen form the High Court of Cyprus, which chose Aimery in 1194, and they owe him knight service, which he uses on the mainland.

Few of them can be named that winter. Rainier of Gibelet, of the house of Gibelet (Byblos), carried Aimery's request for a crown to Henry VI and swore fealty for him at Gelnhausen in October 1195. Reynald Barlais, a Lusignan partisan, is called Aimery's bailli of Jaffa in 1197, before Jaffa fell. Hugh Martin was marshal of Cyprus in 1194-1196. Where any of them held land on 1 January 1200 is not recorded.

Who he is

Name
Named men of Aimery's circle: Rainier of Gibelet, Reynald Barlais, Hugh Martin; the rest are not named for 1200
Title
The king's liegemen, the members of the High Court of Cyprus
Since
Enfeoffed by Guy from 1192 and by Aimery from 1194
Born
not pinned
Family
Rainier of Gibelet: of the house of Gibelet (Byblos), the Embriaco lords of that town in the county of Tripoli (exact parentage not pinned). Reynald Barlais: father of Amaury Barlais, later the leader of the imperial party in Cyprus (1228-1233), and husband of Isabella of Bethsan (Wikipedia, Amalric Barlais). Hugh Martin: marshal of Jerusalem in 1191 and of Cyprus in 1194-1196 (La Monte).
Confidence
medium

Ernoul (Mas Latrie ed., pp. 342-344); Wikipedia, Aimery of Cyprus (Hamilton 1997, p. 16; Furber 1969, p. 604; Runciman and Edbury on Rainier's embassy); La Monte pp. 286, 288; Wikipedia, Amalric Barlais.

Overlord

King Aimery

What it holds

  • Villages (casalia) with their Greek peasants, granted as fiefs by Guy and Aimery (not located for 1200)
  • Money fiefs: yearly rents from the royal revenues
  • Membership of the High Court of Cyprus

How it was acquired

Guy's enfeoffments of 1192-1194, partly resumed and regranted by Aimery from late 1194.

Allies and rivals

Loyal to Aimery, who is their own choice. The later split between the Ibelin party and the imperial party (Barlais, Bethsan, Gibelet, Rivet) lies in the 1220s (later).

How things stand that morning

Hold their fiefs of the king; some serve with him at Acre. No quarrel among them is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Village revenues and money rents; not recorded.

Military

Knight and mounted sergeant service. Ernoul says Guy enfeoffed a great many knights and mounted sergeants besides burgesses (p. 343); French Wikipedia gives 300 knights and 200 squires, figures not legible in the online scan of the chronicle.

Threats

  • Further resumption of fiefs by the king
  • Greek unrest in the villages
  • Service on the mainland

Where the sources disagree

  • Rainier of Gibelet's and Reynald Barlais's Cypriot fiefs are not recorded for 1200; their names come from Hamilton (1997) as cited on Wikipedia and from the embassy of 1195.

Evidence: The settlement is described by Ernoul and the Eracles in general terms; individual fiefs of the 1190s are almost unrecorded.

On the map: No fief of 1200 can be located; the card sits at Nicosia, where the High Court meets.

Primary sources for Cyprus

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 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 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
  • Calendar of the Acts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Various, calendared by Reinhold Rohricht (documents 1097 to 1291; calendar published 1893, Additamentum 1904). A chronological calendar of every charter, letter and treaty of the Latin East then known, with date, parties, witnesses and the edition where each is printed. Read online
  • The Registers of Pope Innocent III (pontifical years 1 to 3, 1198 to 1201), Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Segni) and the papal chancery (1198 onwards, year by year). The register for the second and third pontifical years (February 1199 to February 1201) holds the letters that set the eastern stage for 1200: the exchange with Kaloyan of Bulgaria opened in December 1199 and continued through 1200 over union with Rome and a crown, letters to Vukan of Zeta and to Stefan of Serbia, letters to Alexios III and the patriarch John Kamateros pressing for church union and help for the crusade, the preaching commissions and the legation of Peter Capuano, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond and Leo of Armenia, letters to Aimery of Cyprus and Jerusalem, and the French interdict over Ingeborg. Read online
  • The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
  • General Cartulary of the Order of the Hospital, Various, edited by Joseph Delaville Le Roulx (documents 1100 to 1310; published in 4 vols, Paris, 1894 to 1906). Volume 1 (1100 to 1200) and volume 2 (1201 to 1260) print in full the Hospital's charters: royal and baronial grants in Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch and Cilicia, papal bulls, the order's European priories and its agreements with the Temple and the Italians. Read online
  • The Rule of the Templars: the Latin Rule, the French Rule and the hierarchical statutes, Anonymous (the Council of Troyes and the order's chapter) (Latin rule 1129; French translation about 1140; hierarchical statutes (retrais) about 1165; further statutes to about 1260). Not a chronicle but the constitution of the Temple as it stood in 1200: the hierarchical statutes describe the master, seneschal, marshal and the commanders of Jerusalem, Tripoli and Antioch, the drawing up of the line of battle, the convent's discipline and the horses, squires and tents allowed to each rank. Read online
  • Excerpta Cypria, Various, translated by Claude Delaval Cobham (texts from antiquity to the 19th century, translated and published 1908). Collects in English the passages on Cyprus from Greek, Latin, Arabic and other writers. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Tresorier, ed. Mas Latrie (1871), pp. 342-344
  2. Wikipedia: Aimery of Cyprus (citing Edbury 1994, Hamilton 1997, Furber 1969)
  3. J. L. La Monte, Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1932), appendix of officers, pp. 286-289
  4. Wikipedia: Amalric Barlais

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.