The Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus and the sea, 13^th–15^th centuries

Summary

ABSTRACT. Although strategically placed between the West and the East, Cyprus under the Lusignans built fleets of warships only, which participated in naval leagues and expeditions against the Saracens and the Turks. The kingdom left the control of maritime commerce to the Westerners and thus caused its own impoverishment.

RÉSUMÉ. Chypre, pourtant bien située comme intermédiaire entre l'Orient et l'Occident, n'a armé sous les Lusignan que des flottes de guerre, qui participèrent aux ligues navales et aux expéditions contre les Sarrasins et les Turcs. Le royaume a laissé la maîtrise du commerce maritime aux Occidentaux, ce qui a provoqué son appauvrissement.

The Lusignan dynasty originating from Poitou in France (1192–1473) ruled Cyprus for nearly three centuries. Despite developing naval forces from the end of the thirteenth century onwards, the availability of timber from the island's forests and the existence of ship construction in the arsenal of Famagusta, the island's chief port, the kingdom never became a great maritime power, nor did it acquire a large merchant fleet. Cyprus became a centre of the international carrying trade from 1291, when the Mamluks of Egypt re-conquered the last outposts of Latin Syria, until 1342, when its role in this trade began to decline following the lifting of the papal embargo on direct trade between Western merchants and Muslims. This notwithstanding, the Cypriot economy remained agriculturally based with landed estates forming the foundation of the wealth possessed by the noble and knightly classes. The evidence for Cypriots engaged in seaborne trade is practically non-existent. It remained chiefly in the hands of Western merchants, especially the Venetians and the Genoese, while merchandise entering and exiting the island's ports was carried mainly on Western vessels. Even when non-Westerners participated, they were either Greeks from Crete, Constantinople, Chios and the Peloponnese or Arabic speaking Eastern Christians who had come to Cyprus as refugees after the fall of the Latin outposts on the Syrian littoral in the years 1260 to 1291. Nonetheless, there is limited evidence of Cypriot merchants participating in overseas trade in Alexandria towards the end of the fourteenth century.