The Admirals of Lusignan Cyprus

Nicholas Coureas

Cyprus Research Centre

ncoureas@hotmail.com

Abstract
This article examines the admirals of Cyprus in chronological order, beginning with the
origins of the office and of the war fleet of the Lusignan kings of the island in the late
thirteenth century. It discusses the social and ethnic backgrounds of the admirals, their
relations with the kings they served, their service in offices or capacities other than those
of admiral of the fleet and the eventual demise of this office following the annexation of
Cyprus by Venice in 1473. It endeavours to show that the ethnic background of the admirals
was varied, for, besides Franks from Cyprus, Catalans and Italians also held this office.
Socially their background was more uniform: all had aristocratic antecedents apart from
John Monstry, whose origins from the burgess class caused resentment among the Frankish
Cypriot nobility, leading to his incarceration and death. Certain admirals stand out for
showing loyalty to their king in adverse conditions, sometimes to the extent of risking their
lives. However, what also comes through is that from the late fourteenth century onwards the
Lusignan war fleet’s operational effectiveness declined, making it unable to combat piracy
effectively in the course of the fifteenth century or to defeat the Mamluk fleet during the
invasion of Cyprus in 1425–26. This naval weakness facilitated the Venetian annexation of
Cyprus in 1473, although following the annexation the island came under the governance
and protection of the powerful Venetian fleet, a development that rendered the office of
admiral obsolete.

Introduction

In this article I shall discuss in chronological order the genesis of the office of
admiral in the Lusignan kingdom of Cyprus and what factors led to its creation; the
persons holding the office, who included outsiders from Western Europe as well as
native-born Frankish Cypriots; their naval activities; and their relations with the
kings they served as well as with the nobles and soldiers who were their associates.
Also to be examined and discussed are the hostility the admirals confronted on
account of their social class or their identification with a particular noble faction,
the political animosity of foreign powers towards them, especially during King
Peter’s crusade of 1365 against Alexandria in Egypt but also later in the fifteenth
century, and finally why this office was eventually abolished following the Venetian
annexation of Cyprus in 1473.

117
118 NICHOLAS COUREAS

The Thirteenth Century

There are no recorded admirals of the Lusignan kingdom of Cyprus, founded in

1192 as a result of the Latin conquest of the island, throughout the first century of
its existence. Indeed, there is no record of a Cypriot fleet in the thirteenth century
resisting the attackers at sea when the island was attacked twice by Muslim naval
forces setting sail from Egypt, in 1220 and in 1271. Perhaps the thirteenth-century
Lusignan kings of Cyprus, when required, simply leased vessels and their crews from
the Western merchants owning them and trading regularly in Cyprus. Following the
fall of Acre and Tyre in 1291, however, and the transfer of the military orders of
the Temple and the Hospital to Cyprus, it became imperative to develop strong
naval forces, both to continue warfare against the Muslims and to defend Cyprus
against a possible invasion, given that the Mamluk sultan intended to construct a
powerful fleet to invade Cyprus, even if this intention was not realised at the time. A
Hospitaller admiral in Cyprus was first mentioned by 1299, and in 1301 a Templar
admiral in Cyprus was also attested. The forces of the Lusignan kingdom likewise
developed a naval arm in the last decade of the thirteenth century, for the first
recorded admiral of the kingdom is mentioned in a letter of 1298, discussed below.
In this context it should also be noted that two admirals of the Cilician kingdom of
Armenia – Iacobus Tornellus, a Genoese, and Iacobus Zervasius – are mentioned
in notarial documents of Lamberto di Sambuceto (the Genoese notary resident in
Famagusta between the years 1296 and 1307), dated 5 July and 8 August 1302
respectively, an indication that Cilician Armenia as well as Cyprus was developing
a naval arm in the early fourteenth century and possibly earlier.1 From the year
1298 onwards the kingdom of Cyprus had admirals right up to its annexation by
Venice in 1473, but information on them and on the campaigns they took part in is
centred largely on the mid-fourteenth century and especially on the reign of King
Peter I, who waged war vigorously against the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria and
against the Turks of southern Asia Minor.
In a letter dated to around 1298, the Venetian merchant Marco Micheli,
complained to the Venetian government about the difficulties attendant on obtaining
justice from King Henry II of Cyprus following the plunder of six sporte of ginger
he had purchased from Lajazzo in Cilician Armenia and eighteen sacks of cotton
purchased in Aleppo, which had been seized by the Genoese corsair Francesco
Grimaldi. In his complaint he referred to a certain “miser Lanzaroto, admiral of the
lord king of Cyprus,” who had recovered the stolen wares in the course of returning
with royal galleys from a journey to Constantinople. The wares had been then

1 
George Hill, A History of Cyprus, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1940–52), 2:205; Peter W. Edbury, The
Kingdom of Cyprus and the Crusades 1191–1374, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1994), 103 and n. 8; idem, “The
Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus and its Muslim Neighbours,” in idem, Kingdoms of the Crusaders from
Jerusalem to Cyprus (Aldershot, 1999), no. XI, 227 and 233–34; Notai Genovesi in Oltremare: Atti
rogati a Cipro da Lamberto di Sambuceto (gennaio–agosto 1302), ed. Romeo Pavoni, Collana Storica
di Fonti e Studi 49 (Genoa, 1987), nos. 253 and 281.
 THE ADMIRALS OF LUSIGNAN CYPRUS 119

deposited in the royal warehouses at the port of Famagusta, but despite repeated
appeals to the king Marco Micheli had failed to recover his goods or even to obtain
an audience with the king, who had given no reply to his requests. There is no other
record for this admiral, but his name suggests that he was of Italian extraction. Nor
is it known what hierarchical status Cypriot admirals enjoyed in relation to other
military officers of the kingdom, such as the constable, who seems to have been the
commander-in-chief of the kingdom’s armies in the king’s absence, or the marshal
who was the constable’s deputy.2

The Early Fourteenth Century

The second recorded admiral was Bohemond Rouss, mentioned as admiral in 1308,
during the time that Cyprus was under the governance of King Henry II’s brother,
Amaury. With the support of a group of Cypriot nobles Amaury had unseated his
brother in 1306 and ruled Cyprus until his own murder in June 1310, followed by
Henry’s restoration. Bohemond Rouss is specifically mentioned as a feudatory in
the anonymous sixteenth-century chronicle known as “Amadi” after its last owner,
and as one of the persons guarding Philip of Ibelin, the seneschal of Cyprus, when
Amaury decided to exile him to Armenia. This suggests that he was a native of
Cyprus; indeed, one of the funerary slabs found by the Latin cathedral of the Holy
Wisdom in Nicosia records the burial of a nobleman named Rubeus Pesarus, an
indication that a noble family under the name of Rubeus, or Rouss in its French
form, existed on Cyprus. It is possible that Bohemond Rouss was appointed under
King Henry as admiral but decided after Amaury’s coup in 1306 to support the
latter. He is subsequently mentioned as Amaury’s marshal in January 1310, proof
that he continued to support him, although he then disappears from record.3
The next recorded admiral was certainly appointed by King Henry’s brother
Amaury, possibly following the appointment of Bohemond Rouss to the office of
marshal. The admiral in question, Novello of Argento, mentioned in the anonymous
fifteenth-century chronicle known as “Amadi” as a salaried knight from among
the lord of Tyre’s companions, is specifically described as “the lord of Tyre’s
appointee as admiral of Famagusta.” This description constitutes recognition of
the importance this port had acquired after the fall of Acre and the reinforcement
of its fortifications by Amaury. After Amaury’s assassination, Novello came to
take an oath of fealty to King Henry, still in exile in Armenia at the time. Having
gained the trust of those knights in Famagusta who supported King Henry’s return

2 
Louis de Mas Latrie, ed., “Nouvelles preuves sur l’histoire de Chypre sous le règne des princes
de la maison de Lusignan,” Bulletin de l’Ecole des Chartes 34 (Paris, 1873): 52–53; Edbury, Kingdom
of Cyprus, 182–83.
3 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” in Chroniques d’Amadi et de Strambaldi, ed. René de Mas Latrie, 2 vols.
(Paris, 1891–93), 1:275 and 316; Lacrimae Cypriae: Les larmes de Chypre, ed. Brunehilde Imhaus, 2
vols. (Nicosia, 2004), 1, no. 454.
120 NICHOLAS COUREAS

he was entrusted in the spring of 1310 with an embassy to Armenia, along with the
Hospitaller commander Guy of Severac and a knight named John le Petit, with the
objective of freeing the king. Once the embassy had reached Armenia, however,
Novello rode away at once to the Armenians awaiting their arrival and proceeded
to denounce the Hospitallers and the Cypriot knights supporting King Henry as
having engineered not only Amaury’s assassination but also that of his wife and
children. The irate Armenians then tried to seize the other members of the embassy,
who narrowly escaped capture, returned to Cyprus and reported Novello’s treason
to Aygue of Bethsan, the leader of the knights supporting King Henry. Aygue
issued orders for Novello’s house to be looted and for his wife and children to be
imprisoned, and he is not heard of again, not surprisingly given that King Henry’s
party prevailed, securing his return from Armenia and restoration to the throne of
Cyprus in late August 1310.4
There is no record of an admiral for the period from 1310 to 1324 (that is, the
second part of Henry II’s reign, following Amaury’s murder and his restoration
to the throne), but “Amadi” imparts the significant information that the knight
Hugh Beduin commanded a fleet of three galleys and three fuste sent in 1322 to
assist Cilician Armenia, then under attack by the Mamluks. Hugh Beduin had
distinguished himself by his loyalty to Henry II during Amaury’s usurpation. He
was one of the ten knights Henry was permitted to keep according to the terms of
the first agreement he signed with his brother Amaury in 1307, whereby the latter
was recognised as governor of Cyprus, and he accompanied Henry in his secret
move from Strovolos to Nicosia together with the seneschal Philip of Ibelin when
the king discovered a plot Amaury was hatching against him. He was also among
the feudatories and salaried knights arrested and sent away to castles for detention
there in 1308, among the knights exiled to Armenia in 1309, where King Henry was
also exiled, and among the six knights whom King Oshin of Armenia had placed in
irons and incarcerated in the citadel of Sis, the Armenian capital, on learning of the
murder of Amaury, who also happened to be his brother-in-law.5
Following Hugh Beduin’s return to Cyprus in 1310 with his loyalty above
reproach, King Henry assigned important tasks to him. In February 1313, he was sent
on a embassy to Aragon along with two Franciscan friars and John of Laodicea, the
bishop of Limassol who himself originated from Aragon and had previously been a
member of the Hospitaller Order. These negotiations culminated in the marriage of
King Henry’s sister Maria to King James II of Aragon in 1315. In June 1315, Hugh
Beduin and Bartholomew Montolif, the lord of Petra, went to Buffavento castle,
where Philip of Ibelin, the prince of Galilee, and other supporters of Amaury were
being held in custody, removed the prince and had him incarcerated in the dungeons
of Kerynia, where he was fed only on bread and water and eventually died. Hugh
Beduin obtained papal favour as well, for two letters of Pope John XXII of late

4 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 337–38 and 379.
5 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 252–53, 264, 299, 338 and 400.
 THE ADMIRALS OF LUSIGNAN CYPRUS 121

1321 and early 1323 instructed the bishop of Paphos to grant him a dispensation
regarding a marriage he had contracted within the prohibited fourth grade of affinity
with Hauyam Hardiau of the diocese of Paphos.6
Following King Henry’s own death in 1324, Hugh Beduin remained on good
terms with his nephew and successor King Hugh IV of Cyprus, for in the treaty of
peace and commerce the king concluded in September 1328 with Doge Giovanni
Soranzo of Venice, Hugh Beduin is mentioned as one of the royal councillors along
with the marshal Thomas de Montolif, the bailli of the secrète Thomas de Picquigny
and Simon de Montolif the butler of the kingdom of Jerusalem. He is explicitly
mentioned as the admiral of Cyprus under King Hugh on two occasions: firstly
in the peace treaty of 1329 between Cyprus and Genoa where he is mentioned
as one of its negotiators; and secondly as one of the witnesses to the ratification
by King Hugh IV in January 1330 of the contract of marriage between his eldest
son Guy and Maria de Bourbon, the daughter of Duke Louis de Bourbon. It is
noteworthy that, although Cyprus took part in the naval alliances formed with the
papacy, the Hospitallers, Venice and Byzantium to combat Turkish piracy in the
Aegean from 1333 onwards, there is no specific mention of Hugh Beduin or of any
Cypriot admiral in the operations that took place, although Cyprus contributed its
share of galleys, both for combating Turkish piracy and, after 1344, for the defence
of Smyrna. Nonetheless, the growth of Turkish sea power from the second quarter
of the fourteenth century onwards and the resultant increase in Turkish piracy at
the expense of the Latin states in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean impelled
various Latin powers, Venice, the papacy, the Hospitallers and Cyprus, to maintain
war galleys on a regular basis so as to combat these pirates. This development
explains the existence of a regular fleet of Cypriot war galleys from the second
quarter of the fourteenth century onwards.7

The Later Fourteenth Century

The fourteenth-century chronicle of Guillaume de Machaut on the capture of

Alexandria in 1365 and on the military operations against the Turks of southern
Asia Minor and the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria in the years that followed, as
well as the two fifteenth-century chronicles of Leontios Makhairas and “Amadi”
mentioned above, provide the most information on Cypriot admirals, and especially
on John of Tyre. Makhairas makes the interesting observation that there were two
kinds of royal offices, those conferred on the king’s coronation, which were held

6 
Lettres communes du pape Jean XXII analysées d’aprés les registres dits d’Avignon et du Vatican,
ed. Guillaume Mollat, BEFAR, 3rd series, 16 vols. (Paris, 1904–47), nos. 14681 and 16909; “Chronique
d’Amadi,” 390, 395 and 397; Edbury, Kingdom of Cyprus, 136–38; Nicholas Coureas, The Latin Church
of Cyprus, 1313–1378 (Nicosia, 2010), 199 and 209.
7 
Louis de Mas Latrie, Histoire de l’île de Chypre sous le règne des princes de la maison de
Lusignan, 3 vols. (Paris, 1852–61), 2:142, 150 and 162; Coureas, Latin Church 1313–1378, 97–132.
122 NICHOLAS COUREAS

for life, and those conferred at other times, the holders of which could be replaced,
even if in practice this did not occur until after the death of King Peter I. The
office of admiral fell within the latter group. John of Tyre appears as the admiral
of Cyprus right at the beginning of King Peter’s reign, for he is mentioned among
the royal officers sent to quell the disturbances that erupted in the Latin cathedral
of the Holy Wisdom in 1359, when the Carmelite friar and papal legate Peter
Thomas assembled the Greek clergy there and allegedly attempted to impose Latin
confirmation practices upon them.8
Given this early appearance it is possible that he became admiral under King
Hugh IV. He is recorded as having obtained papal permission to journey to the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem with twelve persons in 1353, but the document mentions
him simply as a knight of Famagusta, so if he became admiral under King Hugh it
would have been towards the close of his reign. Makhairas mentions John of Tyre as
participating in the capture of Adalia on the southern Turkish coast in 1361, but the
relevant passage refers to “Sir John of Tyre in his galley and the admiral of Cyprus
in another” while in “Amadi” a certain John Fortin is specifically called the admiral
and John of Tyre is not mentioned at all in the passage on the capture of Adalia.
Makhairas, moreover, refers once more to the admiral of Cyprus, whom he does
not name, further on in the same chapter. One possible explanation, if Makhairas is
right about the office of admiral not being held for life, is that John of Tyre was not
admiral at this particular time, although he was subsequently mentioned as admiral.
He was explicitly mentioned as admiral in a letter of Pope Urban V of 30 May 1363,
which referred to a petition he had submitted sometime previously recounting how
he had had a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Compassion built outside Famagusta
during the time of the plague. A confraternity centred on this chapel had come into
existence and John of Tyre intended to have a hostel built nearby. In his petition he
asked the pope to grant permission for the second priest of the chapel to administer
the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist to the confraternity’s members, given
that they faced peril of their souls as there were virtually no Latins in the area,
overwhelmingly populated by Greeks.9
In 1362 Adalia was attacked by the Turkish emir Çaka. John of Tyre is mentioned
by both Makhairas and “Amadi” as admiral of the fleet sent to relieve the turcopolier
of Cyprus who was leading the defence of the city, and this fleet then proceeded to
besiege, take and sack Myra, taking with it the icon of St. Nicholas that was found
there and bringing it back to Famagusta, where it was placed in the Latin cathedral
of St. Nicholas. According to Makhairas, John of Tyre also replaced the turcopolier
as the garrison commander of Adalia and strengthened its defences in many places.

8 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 410–11; Leontios Makhairas, Recital concerning the Sweet Land of
Cyprus, entitled “Chronicle”, ed. Richard McGillivray Dawkins, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1932), 1, §88.
9 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 411; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§117–19; Wipertus H. Rudt de Collenberg,
“Les graces papales, autres que les dispenses matrimoniales, accordées à Chypre de 1305 à 1378,”
Epeteris Kentrou Epistemonikon Ereunon 8 (1978): 200–01; Acta Urbani V, ed. Aloysius L. Tautu
(Rome, 1964), no. 27.
 THE ADMIRALS OF LUSIGNAN CYPRUS 123

If this is so, it indicates that the office of admiral, and perhaps other key offices in
the kingdom of Cyprus, was fluid in the sense that its incumbents were at times
assigned tasks not strictly pertaining to their office. Nonetheless, John of Tyre is
recorded by Makhairas as actively prosecuting naval warfare against the Muslims,
although in the course of this he excited the enmity of fellow Christians. In 1363,
he led a fleet of eight galleys and some light ships in a raid against Anamur on the
southern Turkish coast, taking and pillaging the town, including the castle, and
bringing Turkish captives back to Cyprus. He also besieged the locality of Syki, but
without taking it, and he returned to Cyprus to confront a certain Muhammad Rais
who was raiding the island.10
It was in the course of such duties that John of Tyre incurred the enmity of
Genoa. Relations between Genoa and Cyprus had been tense from the time of
King Henry II (1285–1324) onwards, with clashes in 1331 and 1344 involving
the Genoese on Cyprus. In 1364 John of Tyre was instructed by John prince of
Antioch, regent of Cyprus during the absence overseas of King Peter I his brother,
to equip four galleys for the island’s defence. Two Genoese seamen who deserted
these galleys after receiving their pay were apprehended and had their right ears cut
off. As a result of this, a Genoese galley hired to take supplies to Adalia and which
happened to be in Famagusta at the time boarded a Cypriot galley likewise laden
with supplies for Adalia, seized the goods and went to the island of Chios, then a
Genoese possession. The regent issued orders for the Genoese in Cyprus and the
guarantors of the Genoese galley to be arrested and John of Tyre as admiral was
ordered to take measures for the return of the supplies taken. When the Genoese
podestà of Famagusta arranged for the galley’s return, Sicilian mercenaries in
the king’s pay boarded it and killed some Genoese on board. In retaliation the
podestà had a Pisan on board one of the king’s ships seized, maintaining that he
was Genoese, and his tongue was cut out. The admiral on being informed of this
by the royal bailli John de Soissons went to the Genoese loggia and threatened the
podestà, telling him that, unless the Genoese went home and disarmed, they would
all be cut down. The quarrel assumed dimensions that reached King Peter, then
in Europe soliciting support for a crusade, and even Pope Urban V. It was finally
resolved in a treaty between Cyprus and Genoa of April 1365 in which the king
essentially agreed to all the Genoese demands, including the exile of John of Tyre
and John de Soissons for life.11
The chronicler Makhairas, an ardently pro-Lusignan and anti-Genoese source of
the mid-fifteenth century, explicitly states that Peter did not confirm the nineteenth
article of the treaty stipulating the banishment of the two royal officers, and that
John of Tyre participated in the fleet that attacked Alexandria, but only as the
captain of a galley, the fleet itself being under the command of Prince John of
Antioch. He also states that John of Tyre’s galley became separated from the rest

10 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 412; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§127, 132 and 143.
11 
Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§145–147 and 154; Edbury, Kingdom, 155.
124 NICHOLAS COUREAS

during the journey to Alexandria and was the first to land there. These claims are
not corroborated by the accounts of the other chronicles, namely “Amadi” and
Guillaume de Machaut’s account of the capture of Alexandria, and the latter has the
merit of being a contemporary source. “Amadi” simply states that the admiral John
of Tyre was sent to Genoa with other lords to announce the capture of Alexandria.
Machaut states that an admiral and Simon Tenoury “king’s marshals both,” as
the chronicle strangely puts it, came ashore at Alexandria along with the count of
Geneva, although his son is probably meant, given that the count was quite old at
this time. Machaut also states that in the course of a council “an admiral” addressed
them, putting forward various arguments against continuing the assault, following
which “The prince and the admiral heard and agreed and so did everyone.” It would
seem that the first admiral was perhaps a deputy or vice-admiral, the second being
the admiral of Cyprus, but neither of them is named.12
In addition, Makhairas himself states that on the return of the fleet to Famagusta
after the sack of Alexandria in 1365 the galleys were unloaded and dismantled
except for that of John of Tyre, whom the king ordered to go to the lands in the
West “according to the agreement he had made with the Genoese,” an admission
that the sentence of exile as stipulated in the treaty of April 1365 was applied.
One could argue, albeit implausibly, that its application was deferred until after
the Alexandria campaign. More probably, however, John of Tyre was exiled from
Cyprus immediately after the treaty of April and that Makhairas’ account of his
participation in the Alexandria crusade is fictitious. The chronicler records that
John of Tyre returned from exile in the second half of 1367 after concluding a
peace with the Genoese, and “Amadi” corroborates this information, stating that
his return took place on board the galley of the Genoese Sir Giovanni Grimaldi and
that he reached Famagusta on 22 September 1367 in the company of the bishop
of Famagusta. His last known action as admiral of Cyprus occurred in April 1368,
when he fitted out two light ships in the port of Famagusta, appointed Sir John
de Colie captain of them, and sent the galleys off to raid a Muslim village called
Sarepta. One month later, in May 1368, John of Tyre died.13
Peter of Tyre, son of the late John, succeeded his father as admiral of Cyprus,
but it is unclear when this took place. Both Makhairas and “Amadi” record him as
admiral of Cyprus on the date of his death, 22 October 1372, but neither chronicle
states when he obtained this office. Makhairas states that Peter of Tyre accompanied
King Peter I on his journey to Venice and Aragon in 1362 to discuss crusading plans
with the pope and the Venetians, and that in 1369 he commanded a galley during a
raid on Sidon that took place under the overall command of Sir John of Morphou.
He also commanded a galley that sailed into the old harbour of Alexandria to attack
a large Moroccan sailing ship but failed to capture it despite sending for three
12 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 415; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§155, 163 and 171; Guillaume de Machaut,
The Capture of Alexandria, trans. Janet Shirley, introduction and notes by Peter Edbury (Aldershot,
2001), 63 (inc. nn. 13–14) and 71.
13 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 417; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§173, 209, 220 and 222.
 THE ADMIRALS OF LUSIGNAN CYPRUS 125

additional galleys by way of assistance. In the end all the galleys left, raided Sidon
and went back to Cyprus via Beirut. Nothing else is known of Peter of Tyre and it
is noteworthy that there is no record of his participation in any naval engagements
in Guillaume de Machaut’s chronicle on the capture of Alexandria in 1365 and on
various raids and relief operations on the southern Turkish and Syrian littorals in
the years immediately following its capture.14
Both Guillaume de Machaut and Makhairas impart considerable information on
the naval activities of John Monstry, who is specifically mentioned as the admiral
of Cyprus only once by Guillaume, who nonetheless praises his abilities, and once
by “Amadi” and Makhairas. Given his burgess origins, which aroused resentment
among the nobility, it is possible that the chronicles, which have an aristocratic
bias, were reluctant to overly emphasize that he held this office. His loyalty and
commitment to King Peter I, who appointed him admiral despite his non-noble
origins, comes through clearly in the accounts of both chronicles, but was ultimately
to bring about his undoing. Machaut first mentions him as the admiral of a fleet of
25 ships that Peter I had prepared for a raid against the Mamluks early in 1366,
but the planned raid was cancelled following Venetian intervention, as they did not
want to jeopardise their own negotiations with the Mamluk sultan at this time over
the release of Venetian merchants whom he had incarcerated. He also mentions
Monstry as the admiral who commanded an unsuccessful raid against Scandelore
in May or June 1366. Makhairas mentions him as captain of a ship in the fleet of
more than 100 ships, including four Hospitaller galleys, which raided Tripoli in
January 1367.15
Monstry also took part in the expedition that set out to relieve Corycos, then under
attack from the emir of Karaman, in the spring of 1367, with Makhairas giving the
number of galleys as ten. Guillaume de Machaut, who recounts in detail the relief of
this formerly Armenian city, drawing on eyewitness reports of French knights who
had taken part in the expedition, mentions Monstry on several occasions. He states
that two knights, Sir John Pastés and Guy de Baveux, wanted Monstry to command
the expedition but that King Peter refused, stating that he would appoint him to
secure supplies but send him to Corycos as a fellow combatant, not as commander.
In addition he was not in the initial six galleys sent, arriving instead one day later
with Brémond de la Voulte, and the men he had brought on board his ship sustained
heavy casualties in the fighting, so that of the 60 armed men fewer than 20 remained
fit to fight.16
Makhairas narrates that Monstry was appointed captain of the ships bringing
wages and supplies to the mercenary troops stationed in Adalia, although told not
to leave Famagusta until the king gave him permission. He was also a captain in the
fleet that sailed in May 1367 to Adalia to suppress the mutiny there. The relevant
14 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 435; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§131, 285, 288 and 341.
15 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 417; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§180 and 190; Machaut, Capture of
Alexandria, 91, 94–95 and 163 n. 15.
16 
Makhairas, Recital, 1, §194; Machaut, Capture of Alexandria, 107–08, 111–12 and 117.
126 NICHOLAS COUREAS

chapter states that the king sent word to the admiral to ready the fleet for this
enterprise, but does not name him. Since John of Tyre did not return from Genoa
until the autumn of 1367 and Monstry is mentioned simply as a captain, the identity
of this admiral must remain a mystery, for the date appears too early for Peter of
Tyre, whose naval activity has been discussed above. Machaut mentions Monstry’s
participation in a second raid on Tripoli that took place in September 1367, in
which he was ordered to disembark at once with his men and engage the Muslims
in combat so as to clear the way to Tripoli, since his forces constituted the advance
party. Monstry accomplished this task, something corroborated by the Chronique
des Quatre Premiers Valois, an anonymous late fourteenth-century account which
mentions his participation in this raid and states that victory was secured for King
Peter’s forces, outnumbered three to one by their Muslim opponents, when the
seamen who had stayed back to guard the Christian ships mounted a surprise attack
on the Muslims from behind.17
Despite being contemporary, Machaut does not mention Monstry’s involvement
in the quarrel that erupted between Florimond de Lesparre, the Lord of Rochefort
and King Peter, simply stating that the king quarrelled with Lesparre after the
raid of September 1367 on Tripoli, when the cash-strapped king refused to enlist
his services, prompting Lesparre to challenge him to a duel. Makhairas is more
enlightening, recounting that the initial quarrel took place just after June 1367
between the lord of Rochefort and the admiral John Monstry, with the king supporting
Monstry and Lesparre the lord of Rochefort, and the latter two challenging the king
to a duel, a version of the dispute also corroborated in the sixteenth-century Cypriot
chronicle of Florio Bustron. King Peter took up the challenge, but eventually
Lesparre apologised to him in the presence of the pope when the parties met at the
Roman curia in October 1367, a journey on which Monstry accompanied the king,
while the lord of Rochefort failed to make an appearance, and was condemned as
a blackguard. King Peter continued to favour Monstry, sending him in the summer
of 1367 as his envoy to negotiate a peace with the Turkish emir Çaka, which he
succeeded in doing, and assigning to him large sums of money to assist various
monasteries, including the establishment of the Poor Clares outside Nicosia.18
Monstry’s days of good fortune, however, were numbered. Makhairas records
how he attempted to reconcile the king with his brothers and other knights who were
angered at his treatment of the nobility, and Machaut mentions that he was present
during the king’s quarrel with the viscount Henry of Jubail, whose greyhounds
he wanted to obtain, as well as when, angered at the viscount’s refusal to comply,
he had the viscount’s daughter seized and forced into marriage with a commoner.

17 
Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§199–200; Machaut, Capture of Alexandria, 147; Chronique des Quatre
Premiers Valois (anon.), relevant extract translated into English in Machaut, Capture of Alexandria,
196–97.
18 
Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§206, 208, 214 and 248; Machaut, Capture of Alexandria, 158–72; Florio
Bustron, “Chronique de l’île de Chypre,” ed. René de Mas Latrie in Collection des documents inédits sur
l’histoire de France: Mélanges historiques 5 (Paris, 1886), 265–67.
 THE ADMIRALS OF LUSIGNAN CYPRUS 127

Despite any attempts he might have made to mend King Peter’s relations with his
nobles, shortly after the king’s murder in 1369, the lord of Arsur, angered over an
alleged intrigue between Monstry and his wife, had him imprisoned in the castle
of Kerynia, whence he managed to escape to Turkey in a small boat. His captors
sent a galley in pursuit of him on discovering his escape and Monstry died of the
exhaustion caused by his attempt to elude the men on board the galley. He was
buried in the church of St. Marina near Adalia. Peter of Tyre, already discussed
above, may have succeeded him as admiral of Cyprus at this point, but not for long,
for he died in October 1372.19
Guy de Mimars who succeeded him as admiral was to hold this office in the most
turbulent period of the kingdom’s history. First mentioned in Makhairas as taking
part in the crusade against Alexandria, he then captained a ship that took part in
the raid against Tripoli in January 1367. He was also one of the knights sent to the
Genoese podestà after the violence that erupted between Genoese and Venetians in
the course of King Peter II’s coronation as king of Jerusalem in Famagusta, in order
to obtain the podestà’s reply to the demands the king had presented him over the
behaviour of his compatriots. Following the Genoese invasion of Cyprus in 1373,
Guy de Mimars was one of the four knights unwilling to agree to the proposition
that twelve Cypriot and twelve Genoese representatives should meet in the citadel
of Famagusta to discuss terms, “because if the Genoese set foot in the citadel they
would not depart soon” as he observed, a prediction that was to prove correct. Guy
de Mimars was also among those Cypriot knights taken captive to Genoa in April
1374 at the close of the war as a security for the 900,000 gold ducats the king was
to pay Genoa as an indemnity, although this figure given in “Amadi” varies from
that found in the terms of the treaty concluded with Genoa on 21 October 1374.
Both he and Peter Caffran, his successor to the office of admiral, managed to escape
captivity along with other knights but were recaptured following their betrayal by
Hamerin le Moine, a fellow captive. There is no record of when Guy de Mimars
died or when Peter Caffran succeeded him as admiral of Cyprus.20
In April 1385 Peter Caffran returned to Cyprus from captivity in Genoa, along
with the other knights held hostage and King James I, a brother of the late King
Peter I, who succeeded King Peter II as king in 1383 but continued to be held
hostage in Genoa until 1385. Following his return to Cyprus the new king assigned
to Peter Caffran the difficult task of negotiating with the Genoese over the sum
of money to be paid annually by Cyprus to Genoa. An attempt he made to obtain
from Venice an advance of 300,000 gold florins out of the 952,000 due to Genoa
early in 1390 was unsuccessful, and he eventually had to go to Genoa himself
with his wife and two sons as security for the return of Janus, King James’ son.
The letter assigning him this mission, dated 12 November 1390, specifically
mentions him as admiral of Cyprus and a member of the royal council. Following
19 
Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§273 and 283; Machaut, Capture of Alexandria, 180 and 183.
20 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 447; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§ 163, 190–91, 333–34, 392 and 548; Hill,
History, 2:413–15.
128 NICHOLAS COUREAS

the down-payment of 800,000 white bezants, corresponding to roughly 200,000

gold florins, by the admiral on his arrival in Genoa, and his conclusion of a treaty
as the royal ambassador with the Genoese on 30 May 1391, Janus was released,
returning to Cyprus in October 1392. According to “Amadi,” Caffran was rewarded
for his services by the grant of the office of admiral (although he in fact held it
from sometime before 12 November 1390) and the casalia of Kritou of Antiochia
and Themocrini. Makhairas mentions only Kritou as being granted to him, also
stating that a certain John Sozomenos also got Kritou, but “Amadi” clarifies this
issue, recording that Sozomenos acquired Kritou Marottou, not Kritou of Antiochia
mentioned above. Peter Caffran died on 11 April 1393 and his tombstone survives
in a complete state of preservation. It is noteworthy that shortly before his death
he established a scholarship to enable Cypriot students to study at the University
of Padua in Italy. A capital sum of 5,000 Venetian ducats yielding a yearly income
of 200 ducats was assigned to the Procurators of St. Mark, who would apportion
the revenue among four students pursuing studies in law, medicine, the arts and
theology.21

The Fifteenth Century

By this period the kingdom of Cyprus, financially weakened by the costly war
with Genoa and especially by the loss of Famagusta, the island’s main port, lacked
the financial wherewithal to maintain a regular fleet as it had done in the previous
century and one observes that none of the admirals of this era is ever mentioned
as commanding Cypriot warships. Peter le Jeune, a member of a Frankish noble
family originating from Tripoli in Syria, is the first recorded admiral of Cyprus in
the fifteenth century. He served under King Janus, who succeeded King James in
1398, and is mentioned as a royal councillor in two documents, one of 9 October
1410 in which the king authorised Thomas Prevost and Thomas de Zenieres to
conclude a peace treaty with the Genoese captain of Famagusta, Bartholomew
Porco, and another of 1 October 1411 in which the king exempted the Hospitallers
from paying the royal tithe on their Cypriot commandery. He is also mentioned
as a guarantor and a “loyal and beloved” servant of the king in a document of 3
October 1411 in which the king exempted the Hospitallers from payment of the
royal tithe specifically on their Cypriot commanderies of Phinikas and Templos.
In the same year, on 27 November, he was accorded a papal grace at the king’s
request, becoming a familiaris et scutifer papae, while also obtaining the right to

21 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 493–94; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§542, 548 and 619–20; Hill, History,
2:436–37; Agamemnon Tselikas, “He diatheke tou Petro de Cafrano kai hoi praxeis ekloges kyprion
phoiteton gia to panepistemio tes Padovas” [The will of Petro de Cafrano and the acts of election of
Cypriot students for the University of Padua], Epeteris Kentrou Epistemonikon Ereunon 17 (1989):
261–92; Bianca Betto, “Studenti ciprioti all’ Università di Padova (1393–1489),” Thesaurismata 23
(1993): 40–80; Imhaus, Lacrimae Cypriae, 1:304–05 (fiche no. 569).
 THE ADMIRALS OF LUSIGNAN CYPRUS 129

choose his confessor. He is first mentioned as admiral of Cyprus in 1415, when he

and his wife Isabelle are recorded as receiving the right of absolution at the point
of death. He is last recorded on 8 March 1420, when he represented the king at the
handover of the fief of Tamassos by Alice Proth, wife of Paul of Tabaria, to her
daughter Andriola and her direct and legitimate descendants. It is not known when
he died, for his tombstone, discovered by Louis de Mas Latrie, is preserved in a
fragmentary condition and with the date of death missing.22
The next recorded admiral of Cyprus under King Janus was a foreigner, the
Castilian Carceran Suárez from the town of Segovia in Spain. While in the king’s
service during the Mamluk invasion of Cyprus, he displayed great bravery at the
battle of Khirokitia that took place on 7 July 1426. He apparently saved the life of
the unhorsed king by falling over his body just as the Muslims were about to kill
him and shouting “It’s the king! It’s the king!” The Mamluks, be it noted, raided
Cyprus in the years prior to the invasion virtually unopposed at sea. There was
no regular Cypriot fleet to resist the Mamluk invasion fleet on the high seas, and
the royal fleet of twelve ships that faced them off Larnaca in 1425 was defeated.
Carceran was taken captive to Cairo after Khirokitia with the king and according to
the narration of his contemporary and fellow Castilian, the chronicler Pero Tafur,
both were treated well there, being given horses to ride. The sultan then sent Suárez
back to Cyprus to negotiate the king’s ransom from captivity, and Makhairas
likewise states that on 23 November 1426 he reached Cyprus. He apparently went
from there as far as the pope in Rome to raise money and was eventually sent back
to Cairo with others by Cardinal Hugh de Lusignan, the king’s brother, to arrange
for the king’s release, taking 300,000 ducats with him. On his return to Cyprus in
May 1427 the grateful king appointed Suárez admiral of Cyprus and married him to
an illegitimate daughter of his, whose name is not recorded. Following King Janus’
death in 1432 and the accession to the throne of his son, King John II, Carceran
Suárez was reconfirmed in the office of admiral.23
In 1438 he fell temporarily into disfavour when two Catalan galleys he was
commanding seized a Genoese ship belonging to Tobias Piccamiglio and robbed
it of its cargo of cotton. This incident formed the subject of a claim Pier Battista
Lomellini brought against the government of Genoa on 18 July 1440. He recounted
how he and his associates were on board a ship belonging to the late Tobias
Piccamiglio, between the Cypriot and Syrian coastlines, having purchased 25 sacks

22 
Mas Latrie, Histoire, 2:495, 498–99 and 500; Paul Viollet, “Les remembrances de la Haute Cour
de Nicosie – Les usages de Naxos,” AOL 1 (1883): 610–13; Wipertus Rudt de Collenberg, “Les Lusignan
de Chypre,” Epeteris Kentrou Epistemonikon Ereunon 10 (1980): 151 and n. 400; idem, “Études de
prosopographie généalogique des chypriotes mentionnés dans les registres du Vatican 1378–1471,”
Meletai kai Hypomnemata 1 (1984): 590–91; Chypres sous les Lusignans: Documents chypriotes des
archives du Vatican (XIVe et XVe siècles), ed. Jean Richard (Paris, 1962), 155 n. 4; Imhaus, Lacrimae
Cypri, 1:306 (fiche no. 572).
23 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 507–08; Makhairas, Recital, 1, §§683, 699 and 704; Pero Tafur and
Cyprus, trans. Colbert I. Nepaulsingh (Albany, NY, 1997), 12–13; Albrecht Fuess, “Rotting Ships and
Razed Harbours: The Naval Policy of the Mamluks,” Mamluk Studies Review 5 (2001): 53–55.
130 NICHOLAS COUREAS

of cotton and other goods from Syria. They were suddenly attacked by two Catalan
galleys under the command of Carceran Suárez. According to the claimant he had
armed his galleys precisely in order to seize Lomellini’s ship, which was seized by
force and taken to Rhodes, the principal base for Catalans trading in the eastern
Mediterranean. Lomellini and his associates sought redress before the Genoese
captain of Famagusta who referred the case to the king of Cyprus, who decided that
Suarez should compensate the Genoese. Suárez, however, then in Paphos, refused
to appear in court in Nicosia and went back to Rhodes. The case was brought
before the High Court of Nicosia but, because Suárez had disappeared, no charges
were brought against him there, although the Cypriot authorities confiscated his
properties. The injured Genoese resolved to obtain compensation to the sum of
3,500 ducats from these properties and, failing this, to report a violation of the
peace treaty of 1383 between Cyprus and Genoa. They also asked the doge and the
council of elders to grant them the right to take reprisals against the king of Cyprus
and his subjects. Doge Tomaso di Campofregoso and the council agreed to examine
the case, but the final outcome is not known.24
In 1457 Sir Bernard Rousset, possibly descended from the noble Cypriot family
of Rubeus recorded in a funerary inscription of the fourteenth or fifteenth century,
as mentioned above, is recorded as the admiral of Cyprus in the chronicle of George
Boustronios, whose eyewitness account of the civil war between Queen Charlotte
and her illegitimate half-brother James in the years 1458–64, and of the Venetian
annexation of Cyprus that followed the death of James in 1473, was probably
written in the early sixteenth century. Bernard tried without success to dissuade
James from sailing from Famagusta to Rhodes on board the caravel of John Tafur,
later mentioned as count of Tripoli and captain of Famagusta. He was also one
of the knights present when King John had James summoned into his presence,
showing his illegitimate son great favour following the death of the queen, Helena
Paleologina, in April 1458.25
Under Queen Charlotte, who succeeded her father King John as the legitimate
heir on his death in 1458, Rousset maintained his office, for he is recorded as
one of the knights who tried to prevent James from entering the citadel with an
escort. The knight named Carceran Suárez who was also mentioned among them
was the former admiral, who later became constable of Cyprus. Both Rousset
and Suárez were present at the royal court on 15 December 1458, when James
unsuccessfully conspired to surround the court with his supporters, kill Suárez
and seize those within. Rousset was among those who later brought the chronicler
George Boustronios before the queen to give an account of James’ plans. He is
last mentioned as present in the fleet of Queen Charlotte’s supporters assembled in
the harbour of Kerynia in the autumn of 1460. Carceran Suárez, who like Rousset
24 
Die Genuesen auf Zypern. Ende 14. und im 15. Jahrhundert, ed. Svetlana Bliznyuk (Frankfurt
am Main, 2005), no. 51; Hill, History, 2:490–91 and n. 7.
25 
George Boustronios, A Narrative of the Chronicle of Cyprus 1456–1489, trans. Nicholas Coureas
(Nicosia, 2005), §7 and n. 16, and §19.
 THE ADMIRALS OF LUSIGNAN CYPRUS 131

remained loyal to Queen Charlotte, is last mentioned in the chronicle as having

been informed of James’ plans to go to Cairo by one of his servants, a plan he and
the queen’s supporters were unable to foil.26
James, who eventually won the civil war with Mamluk assistance by 1464, was
recognised as king in 1466 by Pope Paul II and ruled Cyprus until his death in
1473, likewise appointed an admiral of Cyprus following his victory. This was one
of his supporters, the Sicilian knight Muzio Costanzo, who also became regent
of the kingdom after King James’ death. The accounts of the chroniclers George
Boustronios and his relation Florio Bustron, a high official in Cyprus after the
island came under Venetian control who wrote a history of Cyprus in the sixteenth
century, impart interesting information on Muzio and his familial antecedents.
Boustronios describes him as a Sicilian knight, stating that he arrived in Paphos
on 30 October 1461 and that King James “within the space of some days” granted
him “a wonderful income,” these being the casalia of Vavla, Kornokipos, Lympia,
Kakotrygeti, the Arsos of Mesaoria and other villages; the king also granted him
the houses of Benedetto Pallavicini, appointed him admiral and married him to the
daughter of Sir Thomas de Verni, the titular marshal of Jerusalem. Florio Bustron
adds the information that, following his victory over Queen Charlotte, James also
granted Muzio the casalia of Ayios Dometios, Ara, Kendenari, Aglandja, Malloura
and the casalia that his wife Anne de Verni held as a dowry; the extant document
recording the grant of Aglandja on 3 December 1471 refers to him as the admiral
and governor of Cyprus. Bustron also states that Muzio’s family had Neapolitan
antecedents, having been established there by Robert Guiscard, their coat of arms
consisting of a red shield with a golden lion passant bordered in white. Muzio
is also mentioned as admiral of Cyprus in several royal documents found in the
records of the royal financial office, the secrète, of the years 1468–69, concerning
royal exemptions from the payment of rents, assignments of revenues, exchanges
of serfs, donations of fiefs, enfranchisements of serfs and exchanges of income.
As admiral of Cyprus, Muzio was also entitled to property rentals, although the
chronicler Boustronios unfortunately does not specify their location.27
Unlike other high officers of King James II, Muzio Costanzo successfully made
the transition from Lusignan to Venetian rule. Mentioned as admiral and regent
of Cyprus after the king’s death on 5 July 1473, he was also granted the office of
chamberlain early in August 1473, following his return from Famagusta. When
Queen Catherine Corner, the Venetian widow of King James II, summoned Sir
Morphou de Grenier, count of Edessa and executor of the royal will, from Nicosia
to Famagusta on 10 September, Muzio Costanzo acted as his deputy in Nicosia.
On 26 October he and Nicholas de Morabit, the viscount of Nicosia who was
also from Sicily, registered the possessions of the recently deceased titular count
26 
Boustronios, Narrative, §§25, 30, 34, 36 and 50.
27 
Boustronios, Narrative, §§83–84 and 189; Bustron, “Chronique de Chypre,” 407–09 and 418;
Le livre des remembrances de la secrète du royaume de Chypre (1468–1469), ed. Jean Richard (Nicosia,
1983), nos. 159–65, 182 and App. I, Doc. II; Hill, History, 3:589–94 and 1159.
132 NICHOLAS COUREAS

of Jaffa and the Carpass, the Catalan John Fabrigues Perez who was also the
brother of Louis Fabrigues Perez, archbishop of Nicosia, both of whom had been
prominent supporters of King James II in the civil war against Queen Charlotte.
Muzio subsequently acted for Queen Catherine on a number of occasions. On
14 November he was informed of the murder of Sir Marco Bembo, the queen’s
nephew, Sir Andrew Corner, her uncle, Sir Paul Chappe, and the doctor Gentile,
all prominent supporters of Venice, by members of the so-called “Catalan party.”
This faction, in which were included Archbishop Louis, Rizzo de Marino, a Sicilian
who was chamberlain of Cyprus, and Sir James Zaplana, the Catalan constable
of Cyprus, hoped to rid Cyprus of the Venetian presence and place it under the
rule of King Ferdinand of Naples. On the following day he and the viscount of
Nicosia issued a proclamation on the queen’s behalf that the people of Nicosia
should stay at home and refrain from carrying weapons publicly; shortly afterwards
the queen instructed Sir Paolo Contarini the castellan of Kerynia to place the castle
in the possession of Sir Louis Alberic, who was later to flee Cyprus with the other
abovementioned members of the faction opposed to Venice, and Tuccio Costanzo,
Muzio’s son. Muzio in early December sent a letter from the queen’s supporters
in Nicosia to Queen Catherine, still in Famagusta at that time, urging her to come
to Nicosia. Following her arrival in Nicosia and just after the flight of the persons
opposed to Venice on 1 January 1474, the queen sent the admiral to Famagusta to
guard it for her.28
Muzio’s loyalty to Queen Catherine and to Venice, her patron, did not go
unrewarded, for he continued to serve her as chamberlain until his death on 9
August 1479, while his descendants in Cyprus prospered under Venetian rule,
imposed directly after Queen Catherine’s abdication early in 1489. Giovanni
Costanzo was recorded as among the island’s wealthiest fief-holders, enjoying an
annual income in the region of 2,500 gold ducats. Muzio’s son Tuccio, rewarded
by King James II for his loyalty by being granted the casalia of Agridi, Krini,
Alethriko and an annual sum of 1,500 bezants from the casale of Pelendri, also
married Helen Podocataro, a scion of a Greek ennobled family that was to become
very prominent under Venice. Tuccio’s son Bruto is recorded in 1510 as possessing
the Hospitaller commandery of Templos near Kerynia. The late sixteenth-century
chronicler Stephen de Lusignan, known for his unreliability, erroneously states that
King James II bestowed the office of admiral on Nicholas Morabit and that of
marshal on Muzio Costanzo on a hereditary basis, and that a son of his, named
Alexander, succeeded him and then Tuccio, but that Venice did not confirm these
two in this office. In an earlier chronicle he states that Tuccio distinguished himself
in the course of the Ottoman siege of Nicosia in 1570 and was taken captive. One
of the eleven bastions of the walls of Nicosia, the Costanza bastion, bears the name
of his family, although following the abolition of the high offices of the Lusignan

28 
Boustronios, Narrative, §§102, 133, 148, 153–54, 156, 158 and n. 300, 171 and 202; Bustron,
“Chronique de Chypre,” 433.
 THE ADMIRALS OF LUSIGNAN CYPRUS 133

kingdom with the annexation of Cyprus by Venice in 1489 the office of admiral
ceased to exist.29

Conclusion

Looking back over the history of the admirals of Lusignan Cyprus certain common
features emerge. In general, the holders of this office were loyal servants of the
crown, on occasion proving their loyalty to it under the most trying circumstances,
especially in the fourteenth century, when Hugh Beduin proved his loyalty to King
Henry II through imprisonment and exile, the admiral John of Tyre suffered exile
for upholding the rights of King Peter I against Genoese claims, while the admirals
Guy de Mimars and Peter de Caffran were both imprisoned in Genoa for defending
King Peter II and Cyprus against the Genoese invaders. John Monstry likewise
quarrelled with foreign mercenaries in the defence of royal interests and, following
King Peter I’s murder, was imprisoned, subsequently dying during his escape.
Fifteenth-century admirals like Carceran Suárez and Muzio Costanzo similarly
upheld their monarchs’ interests, the former even placing his own life at risk in
battle in order to save that of King Janus. Yet what also comes through is that none
of these admirals is recorded as fighting a naval battle at sea against enemies of the
realm. They and Cyprus were fortunate inasmuch as the Mamluks of Egypt and
Syria had no navy worth speaking of in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while
Ottoman military expansion in the same period was centred on the Balkans.30 The
poor performance of the Cypriot fleet in sea battles with Mamluk warships, both
at the early stages of the Mamluk invasion, and in the summer of 1426 after the
capture of King Janus at the battle of Khirokitia, offers a singular but nonetheless
vivid indication of Lusignan weakness at sea.31 This weakness was remedied when
Venice, a pre-eminent naval power, annexed Cyprus in 1489.

29 
Bustron, “Chronique de Chypre,” 418; Richard, Livre des remembrances, no. 159 n. 1, although
the reference to Tuccio as Muzio’s brother is mistaken, see Anthony Luttrell, “Ta stratiotika tagmata”
[The military orders], in Historia tes Kyprou, vol. 4, Mesaionikon Basileion, Henetokratia, ed. Th.
Papadopoullos (Nicosia, 1995), 755 and n. 77; Steffano de Lusignan, Chorograffia et breve historia
universale dell’ isola de Cipro principiando al tempo di Noe per in fino al 1572 (Bologna, 1573; repr.
Nicosia, 2004), fols. 75v, 105r and 110v; idem, Description de toute l’isle de Chypre (Paris, 1580), fol.
81r–v; Hill, History, 3:766 and 982–83.
30 
Edbury, “Lusignan Kingdom and its Muslim Neighbours,” 228–35; Fuess, “Rotting Ships,”
45–71; Norman Housley, The Later Crusades from Lyons to Alcazar, 1274–1580 (Oxford, 1992), 62–79.
31 
“Chronique d’Amadi,” 509–10; Fuess, “Rotting Ships,” 54–55; Chypre dans les sources arabes
médiévales, trans. Tahar Mansouri (Nicosia, 2001), 84–86, 97–98, 105–06 and 121–22; Robert Irwin,
“Hoi eisboles ton Mameloukon sten Kypro” [The Mamluk invasions in Cyprus], in Historia tes Kyprou,
4:172–74.
134 NICHOLAS COUREAS

Appendix: Admirals of Lusignan Cyprus

Name Probable Period References

origin
Lanzaroto Italian Late 13th century Mas Latrie “Nouvelles Preuves,”
BEC 34, 52–53
Noel d’Argent Cypriot Early 14th century “Amadi,” 326–27 and 337

Hugh Beduin Cypriot Early 14th century “Amadi,” 252–53, 264, 299, 338 &
400; Mas Latrie, Histoire, 2:142, 150
& 162
John of Tyre Cypriot Mid-14th century “Amadi,” 409–12; Makhairas,
Recital, §§88, 117–19; Acta Urbani
V, no. 27
Peter of Tyre Cypriot Late 14th century “Amadi,” 435; Makhairas, Recital,
§§131, 285, 288 & 341
John Monstry (?) Cypriot Late 14th century Guillaume de Machaut, 91 &
94–95, 107–08, 111–12 et passim;
Makhairas, Recital, §§194, 199–200,
206, 208, 214 & 248; Florio Bustron,
265–67
Guy de Mimars Cypriot Late 14th century “Amadi,” 447; Makhairas, Recital,
§§163, 190–91, 333–34, 392 & 548
“Amadi,” 493–94; Makhairas,
Peter Caffran Cypriot Late 14th century Recital, §§ 542, 548 & 619–20
“Amadi,” 507–08; Makhairas,
Carceran Suárez Castilian Early 15th century Recital, §§ 683, 699 & 704; Pero
Tafur, 12–13; Die Genuesen auf
Zypern, no. 51
George Boustronios, §§ 7, 19, 25, 30,
Bernard Rousset Cypriot Mid-15th century 34 & 50
George Boustronios, §§ 83–4, 102,
Muzio Constanzo Sicilian Late 15th century 133, 148, 153–54, 156 & 158; Florio
Bustron, 407–09, 418 & 433; Livre
des Remembrances, nos. 159–65, 182
& App. I, Doc.II