Nicosia

Who holds it

Name

Aimery of Lusignan

Title

King of Cyprus (royal town)

Since

1194

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

King Aimery (royal town); his seneschal Aimery of Rivet and chancellor-archbishop Alan govern in his absence.

Overlord

King Aimery

How things stand that morning

The king's capital, quiet that winter; the king himself is most likely at Acre (not pinned).

Charter

None known. The Frankish burgesses are under the king's justice; a court of burgesses under a royal viscount on the Jerusalem model is the later pattern, not pinned for 1200.

Communities

Greeks, the majority; Franks of the court, the clergy and the burgesses; Armenians, who had churches here in the Frankish era; Syrian Christians; Jews (Benjamin of Tudela found three Jewish communities on the island in 1163, places not given). The Latin cathedral chapter was newly founded in 1196-1197.

Fairs and markets

None recorded for 1200.

Militia

None recorded; the king's liegemen and the Templars' castle garrison were the force in 1192.

Walls and castle

Unwalled: a testimony of 1211 says Nicosia was not yet a walled city. A weak Byzantine fort; the castle in which the Templars held out in 1192. Walls come later in the Frankish period.

Trade and crafts

The island's chief market for grain, wine, oil and livestock from the Mesaoria; under the Byzantines also luxury goods and metal ware tied to the governor's court (Wikipedia, History of Nicosia). The royal and archiepiscopal households are the great consumers.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1209 (later)Archbishop Thierry begins the cathedral of St Sophia.Depends on: Funds and a new archbishop. Stopped by: War or poverty.

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia (History of Nicosia) gives St Sophia as built 1209-1228 in one place and 1326 in another; 1326 is the consecration. Either way it does not exist on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: Its status as capital and the events of 1192 and 1197 are well recorded; its institutions in 1200 are not.

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