cousin of the last Armenian king, Leo IV[1] (1320-1342). Guy (1342-1344) fought valiantly against Turks and Egyptians; he lost nothing of the land he had inherited. He was murdered by traitors in 1344. A usurper (Constantine II, 1344-1363) followed; but the princes of the house of Lusignan came back. Leo V,[2] the last king who ever reigned over Armenians, succeeded in 1374. But the Amir of Ḥālib (Aleppo) attacked him, and after a year of war finally conquered the whole country. The king was taken prisoner; for some time he was in danger of death for the faith which he refused heroically to deny. Eventually the Amir accepted a ransom. Leo came to France, died in 1393, and was buried in the church of the Celestine monks at Paris.[3] That was the last ray of the old glory of the Armenian kingdom.[4] The Ottoman Turks under Bayazet II (1481-1512) easily added all the Armenian lands to their vast empire. These were now the frontier-land between Turkey and Persia. The Armenians, always a weak folk on the border of two great powers, suffered equally from Turks and Persians. It was policy to keep one's frontier-land a desert, so that the enemy should find no provisions there if he invaded. The Turks systematically ravaged the land with this idea. In 1575 a Persian invasion brought fresh horrors. In the 17th century Shah Abbas (1586-1628) fought with the Turks over what had once been Armenia. In the 18th century an Armenian hero David († 1728) for a short time maintained a successful rebellion. Then Russia appears on the scene. The Armenians had already appealed to Peter the Great (1689-1725) and Catherine II (1762-1796) for protection, without result. In 1829, after the Russian-Turkish war, Russia annexed the east of
- ↑ Otherwise Leo V.
- ↑ Or Leo VI.
- ↑ On his tomb they wrote: "Cy gist très noble et excellent prince Lyon de Lysingne, quint, roy latin du royaume d'Arménie, qui rendit l'âme à Dieu, à Paris, l'an 1393. Priez pour lui" (Tournebize: op. cit. p. 751). His title "King of Armenia," went to his cousin James I (de Lusignan), King of Cyprus (1382-1398). From then to Catherine Cornaro (1474-1489) the Kings of Cyprus (and Jerusalem) added Armenia to their title. She sold her rights to the Republic of Venice, which advanced a claim on the shadowy kingdom of Armenia. But the house of Savoy inherits (through Charlotte de Lusignan, † 1487, who married Louis of Savoy) the empty titles of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia.
- ↑ Most of the above account is condensed from Tournebize: Hist. polit. et relig. de l'Arménie.
