The
Armenian state of Cilicia (1080-1375) started as a princedom under the
rule of Rupen I (1080-1095). It played an important role during the
first Crusades under the Rupenian dynasty. In a hundred years, it would
become a kingdom due to the efforts of Prince Levon II.
Levon
(known as Leo in non-Armenian sources) was born in 1150. His father
Stepan, the third son of Prince Levon I (1129-1137), was murdered by the
Byzantines in 1165. His paternal uncle, Mleh I (1169-1175), had made a
host of enemies and was assassinated by his own soldiers in Sis. Levon’s
elder brother, Rupen, elected to succeed Mleh, was imprisoned in 1183
by Prince Bohemond III of Antioch, who had begun hostilities against him
in alliance with Prince Hetum III of Lambron.
Levon
became regent during his brother’s absence. Rupen was released in 1187
after the payment of a large ransom and cession of two cities to
Antioch. He relinquished power to his brother and retired to the
monastery of Drazark.
Levon
II had an initial rapprochement with Bohemond III as a result of the
alliance between Byzantium and Sultan Saladin of Egypt. He even married
Isabelle, a niece of his rival’s wife.
He
approached Frederick I Barbarossa, the German emperor, when he entered
the Armenian territories on his way during the Third Crusade, but the
emperor drowned in Cilicia in 1190. Nevertheless, Levon participated in
the siege of Acre and in 1191 he joined King Richard the Lionheart in
the conquest of Cyprus.
Levon
II was intent upon ensuring the security of Cilicia. He entered in
conflict with Saladin, who died in 1193, and Bohemond III, whom he took
prisoner in the same year. A solution of the conflict between Cilicia
and Antioch was found when Raymond of Antioch, son of Bohemond III,
married Levon’s niece Alice. However, Raymond died soon and Alice and
her infant son Raymond-Rupen were returned to Cilicia. The Armenian
prince determined that his great-nephew should inherit Antioch on the
death of Bohemond III.
Levon
II pressed for a royal crown and sought the assistance of German
emperor Henry VI and Pope Celestine III. The latter required submission
of the Armenian Church to Rome, but this was opposed by the Armenian
bishops. Byzantine emperor Alexios III sent Levon a royal crown, and the
negotiations between an Armenian embassy headed by Bishop Nerses of
Lambron and the Byzantine side in Constantinople centered on religious
questions, and were fruitless in the end.
Finally,
Levon II was crowned on January 6, 1198, in Tarsus by Catholicos
Gregory VI Abirad, and received another royal insignia by the Papal
legate, Archbishop Conrad of Mainz. After the fall of the Bagratuni
kingdom of Ani in 1045, an Armenian kingdom had been restored. He was
Levon II when a prince, but after his coronation, he became Levon I,
because he was the first king of that name. He would issue coins with
the legend “King of All Armenians” (Takavor Amenayn Hayots).
Levon
I was entangled in the conflict of succession of Antioch. When Bohemond
III died in 1201, although the barons had sworn allegiance to the
king’s great-nephew Raymond-Roupen, Bohemond’s second son, Count
Bohemond of Tripoli, opposed the validity of the oath and was installed
as Bohemond IV of Antioch. The Papacy, the Templars, the emir of Aleppo,
and the Seljuk Sultan of Konia were involved in the conflict at one
time or another. Levon was finally able to install Raymond-Roupen as
prince of Antioch in 1216.
Meanwhile,
he received “injurious information” about his wife Isabelle. The king
imprisoned her in the fortress of Vahka, where she died around 1206. He
married Sibylle, the half-sister of King Hugh I of Cyprus, in 1211. His
daughter Rita (d. in 1220) married King John I of Jerusalem in 1214.
However,
before his death in 1219, Levon quarreled with his great nephew Raymond
Roupen and named his young daughter Zabel (born in 1215) as his
rightful heir. Levon I is known in Armenian history as Levon I Medzakordz
(the Magnificent). Several years of conflict for the succession of the
throne of Cilicia would ensue. Finally, in 1226 Zabel would marry Hetum,
son of Constantin of Baberon, and this would end the long dynastic and
territorial rivalry, unifying the two most powerful families of the
kingdom: the Rupenians and the Hetumians.
