Janus of Cyprus was a King of Cyprus and the titular King of Armenian Cilicia and Jerusalem. He was born in captivity in Genoa.

He is one of my maternal 14 x great-grandfathers.

Janus was born in the prison called ‘La Mal Paga’ in Genoa, Italy sometime in 1374 or 1375¹. He was the son of James I of Cyprus and Helvis of Brunswick-Grubenhagen^{1 2}.

Titles

In 1392 he succeeded as titular Prince of Antioch².

On Monday, 11 November 1399, they crowned Janus King of Cyprus and Armenia and titular King of Jerusalem in Nicosia’s Saint Sophia Cathedral³.

Family

Sometime in 1400 he married the Milanese Eloisa Visconti¹. He annulled the marriage between 1407 and 1409^{1 2 3}.

On Wednesday, 2 August 1409, he married Charlotte de Bourbon by proxy. She was the daughter of Jean de Bourbon and his wife Catherine Countess de Vendôme. They married in person at the Santa Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia on Sunday, 25 August 1411^{1 4}.

Janus and Charlotte had six children of their own²:

• James of Lusignan, who died before 1416.
• John, who became King John II of Cyprus.
• Anne of Lusignan, who married the Duke of Savoy.
• Mary of Lusignan, who died in 1437.
• Twins, born on 7 November 1415 but there is no record of their name.

Charlotte died of the plague on Tuesday, 15 January 1422 and they buried her in the Dominican church in Nicosia, Cyprus².

He had a further 3 children out-of-wedlock²(there is no record of the mother):

• Aloysius of Lusignan, who became Grand Commander of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
• Guy of Lusignan, who the Pope legitimised on 13 July 1428.
• Caterina of Lusignan, who married Galceran Suárez de los Cernadilla in 1427.

Notable events

Before he was born, the Genoese had taken his parents captive in Rhodes. Janus, and each of his 11 siblings, were all born in prison in Genoa. His mother named him Janus after the god of the same name who, according to legend, founded Genoa.

They left him in Genoa while his parents travelled to Cyprus with two of his brothers. He stayed in prison until 1390 while his father negotiated with the Genoese².

As King, he tried to take back the Cypriot city of Famagusta which was under Genoese control⁵. Their power in Europe had begun to fade so Janus tried to take advantage of the changing power dynamics⁵. In 1402 he assembled a fleet to besiege Famagusta⁵. Hostilities ended when the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallier mediated a truce⁵. Both parties decided to raid Muslim controlled countries instead³.

The Genoese remained in Cyprus until Janus’ great-grandson, King James the Bastard, expelled them.

Cyprus was an awful place in Janus’ reign. In 1408, there were plagues of locusts which affected agriculture and led to rebellions⁵.

Besides these disasters, the island was still a haven for pirates who Janus could not stop. Muslims attacked Cyprus to eradicate the pirates, as did the Sultan of Egypt. In 1425, the Egyptian Marmeluk fleet appeared off the coast of Cyprus and ravaged Larnaca and Limassol on the southern coast^{4 5}. In 1426, a larger force attacked and the Egyptians marched on Nicosia^{1 4}. Janus met them at Kherokitia where they fought on Friday, 7 July 1426^{1 2 4}.

The Egyptians captured King Janus and took him to Cairo in captivity^{2 3}. On Tuesday, 11 July 1426, they sacked Nicosia. The attackers destroyed every building, stole all they could and burnt the city down³.

They released Janus after 10 months when the Knights of St John negotiated for his freedom^{2 3 4}. In return, Janus had to promise an enormous payment, an annual tribute to Egypt and recognise the Sultan’s suzerainty^{2 3 4}.

Given the awful situation in Cyprus, it’s strange to see that Cairo received “an enormous payment”. This happened because the Cornaro family – a noble Venetian family – continued its strategic plan to buy influence with Cypriot royalty. They lent him the money for this⁶, adding on to huge sums they’d already given to Janus’ uncle, the late King Peter I.

In 1417, Louis de Bourbon immortalised him in the stained glass window of Chartres’ cathedral’s chapel of Vendôme. Louis was his father-in-law.

Death

Janus died on Thursday, 28 June 1432^{1 4 5}. He was ill and had a stroke which had left him paralysed in bed for a whole year, causing rumours of poisoning⁴.

On 30 June 1432⁴, they buried him at the monasterio delli Predicatori, i.e., the Dominican Church in Cyprus^{1 2}.

References

1. Royaltombs.dk. (2024). CYPRUS. [online] Available at: http://www.royaltombs.dk/cyprus.html [Accessed 20 Dec. 2024][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Cyprus; Medieval Lands; Charles Crawley; (Retrieved 2018-10-01) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
3. Reign of Janus, The; Cyprus History; (Retrieved 2018-10-23) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
4. The Manuscript Torino J.II.9: A late medieval perspective on musical life and culture at the court of the Lusignian kings at Nicosia; Andrée Giselle Simard; University of Akron; 2005-12[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
5. The Reign of Janus; Cyprus History; (Retrieved 2024-05-21) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
6. Cipro Veneziano; Evangelia Skoufari; Rome; 2011 [↩]