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It is (not only) the will of god»: the king-doms of Cyprus and Cilician Armenia... 153

snapshot of political possibilities and motivations in the midst of a
very changeable political landscape. It identifies a pattern that was
simultaneously widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean in the late
twelfth century but also particular to it.

Sources and Historiography

The primary documents regarding late-twelfth- and early-thir-
teenth-century Cyprus are predominantly papal correspondence,
other letters, and chronicles. However, although the primary evi-
dence for the involvement of the island in Crusading activity in sub-
sequent centuries is relatively significant, fewer surviving documents
relate to the early Lusignan period in Cyprus . Likewise, in Cilician
5
Armenia, the late twelfth century is poorly served. The scarcity of
documents is perhaps the outcome of the colonial structure of Cy-
prus and the multifaceted political history of the Latin East; histori-
cal documents will have been vulnerable to loss in times of crises or
drastic changes. The archives of the kingdom and those of the mili-
tary orders have either been lost due to the island's beleaguered past
or are rather insubstantial. Moreover, the Genoese (1373), the Mam-
luk (1426), and the Ottoman (1571) invasions, in addition to the
«Trial of the Templars», which eventually led to the dissolution of the
Order in 1313, also caused the destruction of archival evidence.
Therefore, studies of the Latin East, especially those concerning Cy-
prus and Cilician Armenia, usually rely on archives external to the
regions of study, which differ from region to region . Materials
6

5 For a selection of primary sources as collections, see Rrh, which is composed of
formal documents, letters, and charters produced between 1097 and 1291 in the King-
dom of Jerusalem, Cyprus, Armenia and the principalities of the Latin East, holds a
significant place as a widely available and far-reaching compendium of the source ma-
terial. Another important collection of primary documents, composed in the nineteenth
century, of several documents regarding the Latin East and the Crusades, is Rhc. This
collection includes documents from Western European, Greek and the Armenian writ-
ers. Rhc is a collection of five series (See «Abbreviations»). Another significant work spe-
cifically regarding the documents related to the Lusignans is Louis Mas Latrie’s Histoire
de l’ile de Chypre sous le regne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, which brings
together a wide range of sources, as well as providing important synthesis. L. Mas Latrie,
Histoire de l’île de Chypre sous le règne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, 3 vols.,
Imprimerie impériale, Paris, 1852–1861.
6 For Armenian documentary evidence in Vatican archives, see J. S. Arlen, Armenian
Manuscripts in the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, «Manuscripta», 62-1 (2018), pp. 1-
32, especially pp. 9, 14-15, 18-21. For the dissolution of the Templars, see N. Coureas,
Fluctuating Territoriality: The Military Orders and The Crown of Cyprus: 1191-1313, in
M-A Chevalier, (ed.), Ordres Militaires et Territorialité au Moyen Âge: entre Orient et

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