Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-03-24

the Latin Emperors of Constantinople, had as
sumed the title of King of Jerusalem a heri-
tage of his consort, princess of Navarro and
descendant of Godfrey de Bouillon.
No less than four other princes besides the Ger
man Emperor Frederick II were indebted for their
title of King Of Jerusalem to their marriages with
heiresses of the first Crusader sovereign. One or
these four-JOhn Of Brienne-has already been
mentioned; the other three were Henry IL OF
Navarro, Foulques, Duke of Anjou and Guy de
Lusignan. Each Of the four transmitted the utu-
lar sovereignty of Jerusalem to his descendants.
Guy de Lusignan went further, for he ac-
tuay ceded it in due form to the English Cru
sader monarch Richard Coeur de Lion, in 1872,
in exchange for the throne of the island Of Cy-
prus. Later, with utter disregard for his plighted
word, he took advantage of Richards captivity in
Austria to resume the title of King Of Jerusalem,
which used by all his successors on the throne
of Cyprus
The Lusignan princes reigned prosperously in
Cyprus for nearly three hundred years, and in the
fourteenth century their house also furnished five
kings to the throne of Armenia. Their rule ended
in 1889, when Caterina CornarO widow of James
II of Cyprus, ceded her kingdom to the republic
of Venice. The remainder of her life spent
in retirement at Asolo, in Venetia, and with her
death the royal line of Lusignan became extinct.
James II of Cyprus also Duke of Savoy,
and it is through him that the house Of Savoy,
which now holds the throne of Italy, inherited
its claim to the title of King of Jerusalem.
checkered history. 1t took its name from the town
and castle of Lusignan in the French department
of Vienne, about a dozen miles to the southeast
of POitiers. Both the castle and the family were
founded according to tradition, by the fairy Mel
usine Of the Forest of Broceliande, who with
the magician Merlin figures largely in medieval
romance and in the traditions of French chivalry.
Descended from the ancient Kings Of Brittany,
Melusne married Raymond, sovereign Count of
Poitou, and the children born of this union be-
came known as the Seurs de Lusignan.
later Sieur de Lusignan, Guy by name, mar
ried Sybil, only daughter and heress of Amaury,
one of the crusader Kings Of Jerusalem, and
the occasion of his wedding he was created Count
of Jaffa and. Of Ascalon. On the death of his
father-in-law, this Guy de Lusignan was pro-
claimed and crowned King Of Jerusalem; but in
11S7 he was defeated by the Sultan Saladin In the
battle of Tiberias, taken prisoner, and was
Obliged to surrender Jerusalem to the Saracens.
a few years later, as has already been related,
he became King of Cyprus.
While his descendants ruled in Cyprus the
Iuslgnans who had remained in France lost both
mower and prestige and deprived of their
petty dominions. Finally the family became ex-
tinct, at any rate, in the male line.
During the reign Of Nicholas 1 Of Russia. some
Armenian agitators, the lookout for q man
who could pretender, to form the nu-
cleus Of a nationalist movement found an ed-
venturer named Klenko, who wont to boast
that he had in his veins the blood of the former
Lusignan rulers Of Cyprus, Of Jerusalem, and Of
Armenia. They dubbed him Louis de Lusfgnan
Prince of Armenia Cyprus, and Jerusalem They
concocted parchments endowing him with a pedi-
gree that traced his descent to Guy de Lusignan
the crusader sovereign.
1t suited Russia's policy, at the time, to cOun-
tenance his pretensions. Klenko, alias Louis de
Lusignan, was invested by the Car with the
rank of colonel in the Russian army, and hailed
as Prince-not King-of Armenia, Cyprus, and
Jerusalem. But later the Gar declined to have
anything further to do with him. This Louis de