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It is (not only) the will of god»: the king-doms of Cyprus and Cilician Armenia... 169

Cilician Armenia: Church, and Politics

Originally living in the Southern Caucasus, large numbers of Ar-
menian people were displaced after the Battle of Manzikert between
the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire in 1071, after which Byz-
antine authority in the region collapsed. By that time, some Armenian
families had already resettled in Cilicia . Cilicia’s mountainous geog-
70
raphy proved to be a shelter for the Armenians, with multiple rivers
preventing easy passage to the plains and the Mediterranean Sea mak-
ing the region relatively secure . During the First Crusade, the Arme-
71
nians scattered around the East Mediterranean region assisted the
crusading parties, who were seen as the saviors of Christendom . Ac-
72
cording to Albert of Aachen, the first encounter between the Armeni-
ans and the crusaders occurred during the Siege of Nicaea, with Bald-
win of Boulogne meeting the Armenian prince Bagrat who was a for-
mer officer in the Byzantine army and brother of prince Kogh Vasil .
73
On their passage to Antioch, the Rubenid prince Constantine I as-
sisted the crusaders and provided safe passage through Cilicia. Dur-
ing the siege of Antioch, some crusaders were stationed in Tarsus. In
1098, Thoros, Armenian Chalcedonian ruler of Edessa, welcomed
Baldwin of Bolougne into the city, which soon became a crusader
county. Between 1099 and 1187, three queens of the Kingdom of Je-
rusalem were of Armenian descent; the Rubenid Prince Thoros I’s
daughter Arta married Baldwin I, and their daughter, Melisende mar-
ried Fulk of Anjou. Baldwin II also married Morphia of Melitene. .
74

70 For the late ninth and eleventh centuries, see G. Dédéyan, Les Arméniens sur La
Frontière Sud-Orientale de Byzance, Fin IXe–in. XIe Siècles, La Frontière. «Seminaire de
Recherche sous la Direction d’Yves Roman. Travaux de La Maison de l’Orient», 21
(1993), p. 67-85.
71 T.S.R. Boase, The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia, Scottish Academic Press, Edin-
burgh, 1978, p. 2; P. Cowe, The Armenians in the Era of the Crusades cit., pp. 407-408.
72 J. France, Crusading Warfare, cit., p. 59.
73 Kogh Vasil ruled the western Euphrates. See J. Ghazarian, The Armenian Kingdom
in Cilicia during the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins,
1080-1393, RoutledgeCurzon, London, New York, 2000, p. 96. For Albert of Aachen’s
chronicle, see S. B. Edgington, (trans.), Albert of Aachen’s History of the Journey to Je-
rusalem: The First Crusade, 1095-1099, vol. 1:1-6, Routledge, London, New York, 2013.
74 C. Mutafian, Prélats et Souverains Arméniens à Jérusalem à léepoque des Croi-
sades: Légendes et Certitudes: XIIe-XIVe Siècle, «Studia Orientalia Christiana, Collecta-
nea», 37 (2004), pp. 115, 122; P. Cowe, The Armenians in the Era of the Crusades cit., p.
410; J. France, La stratégie Arménienne de la Première Croisade, in C. Mutafian, (ed.),
Les Lusignans et l’Outre Mer: Actes du Colloque, Poitiers, Lusignan, 1995; J.H. Forse,
Armenians and the First Crusade, «Journal of Medieval History», 17 (1991), pp. 13-22.
There is a scholarly debate over whether Antioch fell to treachery and whether the traitor
might have been an Armenian: see, J. France, Victory in the East: A Military History of
the First Crusade, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, pp. 257-258.

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