House of Lusignan

Also known as Lusignans

Poitevin dynasty that produced two kings of Jerusalem (Guy and Aimery) and ruled the Kingdom of Cyprus from 1192 until 1474.

The Lusignans were a cadet branch of an old Poitevin family, several of whose sons came east in the second half of the 12th century to seek their fortune. Guy of Lusignan married Sibylla, sister and eventual heir of Baldwin IV, and through her became king of Jerusalem in 1186. His ill-fated decision to give battle at Hattin in 1187 cost him the kingdom.

After 1192 the family found a second realm in Cyprus, which Richard I had captured from the Byzantines during the Third Crusade and sold to Guy. From Guy's brother Aimery onwards the Lusignans ruled Cyprus as a Latin kingdom, and from 1198 they also held the empty title of King of Jerusalem in continual rivalry with the Hohenstaufen claim. The line ruled Cyprus continuously until the Venetian takeover of 1474 and the formal annexation of 1489.

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