This was the main battle fought against the Cypriots during the Mamluk invasion of Cyprus. The Mamluk forces, commanded by Taghribirdi al-Mahmudi and Inal al-Jakami, comprised 500-1,000 Royal Mamluks,
1,000 amirs’ mamluks, 2,000 Turcomans and 600 Arabs, against which array King Janus mustered at the most 10,000 men, of whom up to 2,300 may have been cavalry (Makhairas gives Cypriot strength as 1,600 cavalry and 4,000 infantry). Amongst the Cypriot forces were a number of French, German and Savoyard crusaders and adventurers, and it was these who advised the king to march out against the Mamluks rather than fall back on Nicosia as the C)T3riot nobles in the army had recommended.
Following a clash between the opposing scouting forces (that of the Cypriots being comprised of 300 horse and ‘a great company of foot-soldiers’, chiefly Hospitallers and Frenchmen), the Cypriot army drew up in close order to await the Mamluk attack. Makhairas reports of the king’s position that ‘all round him the ground was level, so he ordered the foot-soldiers to take their equipment and to stand each man close up to the next so as to be like a wall.’ The king commanded the centre, while his brother Henry, prince of Galilee, commanded the right, and Sir Jean de Grinier and Sir Badin de Nores the left, ‘and all the army [stood in array] like a wall.’ At first only a handful of Mamluks arrived on the battlefield, in pursuit of the king’s reconnaissance force. Taghribirdi wrote that they numbered only 70 men at the outset, not drawn up in any kind of order, so it is no surprise that a charge led by the king himself killed most of them and routed the rest. However, disaster now befell the Cypriots even as more Mamluks began to arrive on the field, for as the king’s cavalry turned to fall back on their infantry panic seems to have suddenly seized the latter, who threw down their spears and shields and ran, and the cavalry apparently followed suit. If Monstrelet is to be believed the cause appears to have been the breaking of the girth-straps on the king’s saddle (Janus was very fat), which unhorsed the king and led many to believe he had been killed. Makhairas states simply that the army routed ‘because they were ignorant of warfare and were badly commanded.’
The Mamluks, perceiving the C)q)riot rout, returned to the attack only with extreme caution, suspecting at first that it was all part of some devious ploy to tempt them into a trap, and though their hesitation enabled many of the Cypriots to escape they were still able to kill up to 2,000 on the battlefield (Monstrelet says 1,600-1,700), plus many more in the rout. The Prince of Galilee was among those killed, whilst the king was taken captive along with many of his nobility.
World History
