King of Cyprus and titular king of Jerusalem and Cilicia (1460-1473).
James was the illegitimate son of King John II of Cyprus (1414-1458), who was initially succeeded by his daughter Charlotte and her husband, Louis of Savoy. However, James gained recognition from the Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Inal, who was the suzerain of Cyprus, and in 1460 Mamluk military assistance enabled James to conquer Cyprus (with the exception of Kyrenia castle and the Genoese colony of Famagusta [mod. Ammochostos], which held out until 1464).
Living in exile in Italy and Rhodes (mod. Rodos, Greece), Charlotte and Louis subsequently sought the aid of Savoy, the papacy, Milan, Naples, Genoa, and the Hospitallers in fruitless projects to regain Cyprus. After Louis died (1482), Charlotte ceded her title to the house of Savoy (1485). She died in 1487. Meanwhile, James, fearing Ottoman aggression or an invasion by Charlotte’s supporters, fostered closer links with Venice. In the 1470s James supported Hospitaller and Venetian efforts against the Ottomans and favored plans to help Persia block Ottoman expansion.
In 1468 James married Catherine, a member of the powerful Venetian Cornaro family. Venice undertook to protect Cyprus and declared Catherine a “daughter of Venice,” giving it a claim to control Cyprus after James died on 6 July 1473.
-Kristian Molin
Bibliography
Hill, George, A History of Cyprus, 4 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940-1952).
Mas Latrie, Louis de, Histoire de I’tle de Chypre sous le regne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, 3 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Imperiale, 1852-1861).
World History
