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illuminates the way in which alliance and negotiation shaped political
fortunes in this political and diplomatic landscape. Second, despite
the fact that religion framed the actions of medieval states, especially
the Crusader states, it is observable that some decisions explained in
this study, which were religious in nature, were political in practice,
helping to illustrate the complex inter-dependence of politics and reli-
gion in the Medieval Mediterranean. This study opts to discuss these
decisions from the perspective of two smaller and more vulnerable
states, rather than that of the larger or older states with whom they
dealt because this allows a more intimate and detailed picture of the
pressures and possibilities facing rulers and makes it easier to identify
specific aims and how rulers sought to achieve them. It also focuses
on their interrelationship, considering especially their intermarriages,
derived from political necessity but gradually evolving into a situation
that contradicted ecclesiastical rules, because this highlights the ways
in which religious authorities were bound to the complexities of polit-
ical affairs, just as much as political leaders were beholden to religious
imperatives.
Pursuing this approach necessitates some parameters to make
comparison useful and feasible. This study, for example, does not ig-
nore the Latin East’s century-long history of previous Crusader activ-
ity but does focus directly on the factors that led to the birth of these
specific kingdoms in the late twelfth century. Their timelines mean
that the analysis presented her begins roughly in the wake of the fall
of Jerusalem, which had devastated the entire region, pushing its rul-
ers to seek further alliances and changing the earlier and highly com-
plex political and religious landscape, which is not the intention of this
study to address. Although this political turmoil indubitably affected
the whole Latin East, an appealing aspect of the comparison of the
efforts of Cyprus and Cilician Armenia is that, despite different agen-
das and different histories, they ultimately achieved their goals in sim-
ilar ways, highlighting particularities of this new, twelfth-century po-
litical landscape that are not simply timeless aspects of the Latin East.
Of particular interest is their emphasis on religious sensitivities. This
article thus asserts that despite both being Eastern Mediterranean
states, the kingdoms of Cyprus and Cilician Armenia evolved quite dif-
ferently yet followed the same pattern in their elevation to kingdoms.
Leaders of these kingdoms were from different Christian denomina-
tions, proximate but different political milieux, and had their own dis-
tinctive motivations. Moreover, after being elevated, these kingdoms
tended to follow different programs in pursuit of their interests and
survival in the region. The specific moment of their elevation to king-
doms and the methods used to achieve it, therefore, provide a

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XIX - Aprile 2022
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)