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It is (not only) the will of god»: the king-doms of Cyprus and Cilician Armenia... 157

by the Crusaders and, thanks to Guy of Lusignan’s encouragement,
many more coming from Cilician Armenia and Syria settled on the is-
land, meaning that references in our surviving sources to ‘Armenians’
on Cyprus likely refer to people with a wide range of backgrounds and
histories on the island. In Leontios Makhairas’ chronicle, it can be
17
observed that the cooperation between the Latins and the Armenians
continued, as he comments that Armenians served in the Cypriot army
as mercenaries in the fourteenth century . This quick change of loy-
18
alties might also have engendered a negative view of the Armenians
among some communities on the island, further complicating any uni-
form evaluation of the status of Armenians in Cyprus.
Despite the domination of the source material by records of the
papacy, it is nonetheless clear that the papacy did not always exer-
cise complete control even over the different components of the Latin
Church in the East. The military orders in the Eastern Mediterranean
are perhaps the clearest example of this, since they emerged as semi-
independent (sometimes independent) organisations, involved in pol-
itics yet with a clearly ecclesiastical identity. At the end of the twelfth
century, the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Teutonic Order had
already established themselves in the Eastern Mediterranean. In Ci-
licia in the twelfth century, for instance, Armenians had built rela-
tions with the Hospitallers and the Templars – albeit with ups and
downs. The Hospitallers received endowments and sustained a rela-
tively unobtrusive presence in Cilicia in the first half of the century,
while Templar-Armenian relations tended to be shaped by the activ-
ities of the surrounding polities such as the Principality of Antioch
and the Byzantine Empire. After Leo took over in 1187, he endeav-
oured to maintain a fortified position in the region and belatedly had
an opportunity to engage with the Teutonic Order, a valuable ally
through which diplomatic relations with the Holy Roman Emperor
would become possible .
19

17 The Frankish armies had employed Armenians since the First Crusade alongside
the Maronites. See J. France, Crusading Warfare and Its Adaptation to Eastern Condi-
tions in the Twelfth Century, «Mediterranean Historical Review», 15-2 (2000), pp, 55, 59.
18 In his work Makhairas demonstrates his negative opinion towards the Armenians,
expressing a belief common among the Greek population. Leontios Makhairas was prob-
ably born in a family serving the Lusignan rulers. For his life and chronicle, see N.
Coureas, The Armenians in Cyprus cit., pp. 76-77; A. Nicolaou-Konnari, Diplomatics and
Historiography: The Use of the Documents in the Chronicle of Leontios Makhairas, in A.D.
Beihammer, M.G. Parani, C. Schabel, (eds.), Diplomatics in the Eastern Mediterranean
cit., pp. 293-326.
19 M-A. Chevalier, Les Ordres Religieux-Militaires et les Pouvoirs Armeniens en Orient
(XIIe -XIVe siecles), in P. Josserand, L. F. Oliveira, D. Carraz, (eds.), Elites et Ordres

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