Constantine I (Armenia)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Constantine I ( Armenian Կոստանդին Ա, Middle Greek Κωνσταντῖνος Α ' ; † between 1099 and 1103 in Vahka ) was the second prince of Lesser Armenia . He ruled in Cilicia from 1095 .

Life

Constantine was the eldest son of Rubens , the founder of the Rubenid dynasty . When his father retired in 1090 for reasons of age, Constantine took over the business of government from him. In the same year he captured the strategically important fortress Vahka , which later became the headquarters of the Rubenids. After Rubens' death in 1095 he succeeded him as "Lord of the Mountains".

In the First Crusade , Constantine, as an avowed Armenian Christian, sided with the Crusaders. During the siege of Antioch in the winter of 1097/1098, he generously supplied the hunger- plagued Franks with food, for which he was honored with the title of count as thanks . At the same time, after the conquest of Tarsus by Tankred of Taranto , he took advantage of the collapse of Seljuk supremacy in Cilicia to expand his sphere of influence further east into the Anti-Taurus .

There are different sources of information about Constantine's end of life. Matthias von Edessa names February 25, 1099 (or February 24, 1100) as the date of death, while King Hethum II's chronicle mentions February 24, 1102 (or February 23, 1103). According to the chronograph of Samuel von Ani , Constantine died in his fortress Vahka as a result of a lightning strike . Like his father Ruben, he was buried in the monastery of Kastalon near Sis .

With his wife, unknown by name, who allegedly descended from the Byzantine general and usurper Bardas Phokas , Constantine had the sons of Thorus , who succeeded him as prince of Lesser Armenia, and Leo . His daughter Beatrice married the crusader Joscelin I of Edessa , another daughter (allegedly) Gabriel von Melitene .

swell

literature

  • Jacob G. Ghazarian: The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades. The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins (1080-1393). Routledge / Curzon, Abingdon 2000, ISBN 0-7007-1418-9 .
  • William Henry Count Rüdt-Collenberg : The Rupenides, Hetumides, and Lusignans. On the structure of the Armeno-Cilician dynasties. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon 1963, p. 49.
  • Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades, Volume 1. The First Crusade and the Establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Beck, Munich 1968 (reprint), ISBN 3-40-639960-6 , p. 197.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Ruben I. Prince of Lesser Armenia
1095-1099 / 1103 		Thoros I.
personal data
SURNAME Constantine I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Կոստանդին Ա (Armenian); Κωνσταντῖνος Α '(Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prince of Lesser Armenia
DATE OF BIRTH 11th century
DATE OF DEATH between 1099 and 1103
Place of death Vahka