Hugh I of Cyprus

Hugh I
Bezant of Hugh I of Cyprus, 1205–1218. Inscription: HUGO REX CYPRI
king of Cyprus
Reign	1 April 1205 - 10 January 1218
Predecessor	Aimery of Cyprus
Successor	Henry I of Cyprus
Born	1194/95
Died	10 January 1218 Tripoli
Spouse	Alice of Champagne
Issue	Mary de Lusignan Isabella de Lusignan Henry I of Cyprus
House	House of Lusignan
Father	Aimery of Cyprus
Mother	Eschiva d' Ibelin

Hugh I of Cyprus (or Hugues I de Lusignan) (1194/1195 – January 10, 1218) succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on April 1, 1205 underage upon the death of his elderly father Aimery of Lusignan, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem. His mother was Eschiva of Ibelin, heiress of that branch of Ibelins who had held Bethsan and Ramleh.^[1]

Hugh was married September, 1210 at Nicosia to his stepsister Alice of Champagne of Jerusalem (1193/1198–1246), daughter of his father's last wife Isabella I of Jerusalem and her previous husband Henry of Champagne, king of Jerusalem. The couple had three children:

1. Mary of Lusignan (before March, 1215 – 5 July 1251 or 1253), who married Count Walter IV of Brienne in 1233 (ca. 1200 – murdered at Cairo, 1244). She became mother of Hugh of Brienne (ca. 1240–1296), who was Count of Lecce and Brienne and pursued the kingdoms in Levant for himself when his uncle Henry's line began to go extinct. This claim fell to her grandson Walter V of Brienne and his descendants. They are the heirs-general of King Aimery of Cyprus and Hugh I himself.
2. Isabella of Lusignan (1216–1264), who married Henry of Antioch, and who was the mother of Hugh III of Cyprus and ancestress of the line named later as the second dynasty of Lusignan
3. Henry I of Lusignan (1217–1253), namesake of his maternal grandfather, who became King of Cyprus upon his father's death in 1218, with his mother acting as regent.

He died at Tripoli and was buried at the Church of the Hospitallers at Tripoli, then at the Church of the Hospitallers at Nicosia.

References

1. Hans Eberhard Mayer, The Crusades 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 241

Besant of Hugh I Rex Cypri

coat-of-arms of Lusignan of Cyprus