Guy of Lusignan

Guy of Lusignan ( 1150 – 18 July 1194) was king of Jerusalem, first as husband of and co-ruler with Queen Sibylla from 1186 to 1190, then as disputed ruler from 1190 to 1192. He was also Lord of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194. Throughout his reign, Guy was highly unpopular amongst the nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and is often blamed for the fall of the kingdom to Saladin.

A French Poitevin knight, Guy was the youngest son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and the younger brother of Aimery of Lusignan. After killing Patrick, 1st Earl of Salisbury, in a failed attempt to kidnap Eleanor of Aquitaine, he was banished from Poitou. After arriving in the Holy Land at an unknown date from 1173 to 1180, Guy was hastily married to Sibylla, the sister of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, in 1180 to prevent a political coup. As Baldwin's health deteriorated thanks to his leprosy, he appointed Guy as regent in 1183. However, Guy proved to be unpopular and incompetent as a leader, and Baldwin IV resumed power later that year. He stripped Guy of his inheritance, naming Baldwin V, Sibylla's son by her first husband William, as his co-king and eventual successor instead. Baldwin IV died in 1185, followed shortly by the sickly Baldwin V in 1186, leading to the succession of Sibylla. Sibylla was told to annul her marriage to Guy in order to ascend to the throne on the condition that she would be allowed to pick her next husband, but astonished the court by choosing to remarry and crown Guy. Guy's reign was marked by increased hostilities with the Ayyubids, ruled by Saladin, culminating in the Battle of Hattin in July 1187—during which Guy was captured—and the fall of Jerusalem itself three months later.

Following a year of imprisonment in Damascus, Guy was released by Saladin and reunited with his wife. After being denied entry to Tyre, one of the last crusader strongholds, by Conrad of Montferrat, Guy besieged Acre in 1189. The siege, during which Guy's wife and children were killed during an epidemic, developed into a rallying point for the Third Crusade, led by Philip II of France and Richard I of England. Guy entered a bitter conflict with Conrad over the kingship of Jerusalem; despite Richard's support for the widower king, Conrad married Sibylla's half-sister Isabella and was elected king by the kingdom's nobility. Guy was compensated for the dispossession of his crown by being given lordship of Cyprus in 1192, which Richard had taken from the Byzantine Empire en route to the Levant. Conrad was killed by Assassins days after the election; Guy ruled the Kingdom of Cyprus until he died in 1194 when he was succeeded by his brother Aimery. Provided by Wikipedia