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Aimery of Cyprus

King of Cyprus and Jerusalem

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ453325 ↗
Source-derived summary

Aimery of Lusignan (Latin: Aimericus, Greek: Αμωρί, Amorí; before 1155 – 1 April 1205), erroneously referred to as Amalric (French: Amaury) in earlier scholarship, was the first king of Cyprus from 1196 and the king of Jerusalem as the husband of Queen Isabella I from 1198 to his death. He was a capable ruler whose reign was a period of peace and stability in both kingdoms, and the progenitor of the Lusignan dynasty of the Kingdom of Cyprus.

Aimery was a younger son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan, a nobleman from Poitou. After participating in a rebellion against King Henry II of England in 1168, Aimery went to the Latin East and settled in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Aimery's marriage to Eschiva of the influential Ibelin family strengthened his position in the kingdom. His younger brother Guy married Sibylla, the sister and heir presumptive of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. Baldwin made Aimery constable of Jerusalem around 1180. Guy and Sibylla became king and queen in 1186. Aimery was one of the commanders of the Christian army at the Battle of Hattin, which ended with a decisive defeat of Christians by the Muslim Ayyubids in 1187 and the subsequent near destruction of the kingdom.

Aimery supported King Guy when the latter besieged Acre and remained loyal to him after Queen Sibylla's death in 1190, when most barons insisted that the throne had passed to Sibylla's half-sister, Isabella I. Amid insurmountable unpopularity, Guy left for Cyprus in 1192 while Aimery remained in the kingdom as constable.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Aimery of Cyprus” as king of Cyprus and Jerusalem. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1155, 1205, 1196, 1198—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1152. The account is most persuasive where Aimery, Cyprus and King can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as king of Cyprus and Jerusalem. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q453325. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1155, 1205, 1196 and 1198.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Aimery of Cyprus”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Aimery of Cyprus primary sources, Aimery of Cyprus archive and Aimery research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Aimery of Cyprus”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Aimery of Cyprus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.