Leo II (Armenia)

Leo II of Lesser Armenia, portrait after a coin

Leo II (also Lewon ; † May 1, 1219 in Cilicia ) was the first king of Lesser Armenia and ruled from 1187 to 1219. The count as Leon II includes the Rubenid "lords of the mountains" - as the first king of Lesser Armenia he is also counted as Leo I.

Leo was born in 1187, after the death of his brother Ruben III. Prince of Lesser Armenia. In order to strengthen the independence of his principality from Byzantium, he pursued a policy of rapprochement with the Roman-German Empire . He generously supported Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa when he reached his principality on the Third Crusade , and later maintained diplomatic contact with his son, Emperor Heinrich VI. He brought the Armenian Apostolic Church closer to the Roman Catholic Church and paid homage to the Holy Roman Emperor in order to be elevated to King by him.

Leo was crowned king on January 6, 1199 in Tarsos in today's Old Mosque by Archbishop Konrad von Mainz , in the presence of the Armenian Catholicos Grigor VI. Apirat (1194–1203), the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and the Greek Metropolitan of Tarsus. For the celebration, Nerses von Lambron had previously translated the Latin coronation liturgy into Armenian.

Leo was married twice: In his first marriage around 1188 he married Elisabeth “von Österreich” († 1207). The chronicler Smbat Sparapet describes her as the niece (daughter of the brother) of the Sibylle, the third wife of Bohemond III. of Antioch . Elisabeth was cast out by Leo in 1206, imprisoned and poisoned in 1207. Around 1210 he married Sibylle von Lusignan , daughter of King Amalrich II / I. from Jerusalem and Cyprus . Leo made his daughter from his second marriage, Isabella his heir, although he had a grandson from his oldest daughter from his first marriage, Rita, and with Raimund Ruben a grandson of his brother Ruben III. existed.

In 1203 Leo attacked Antioch, but was repulsed. He then took the Templar castles of Roche Roussel and Roche Guillaume and tried to recapture Darbsak from the Aleppines . In 1213, the Templars attacked Baghras , which they did not get back until 1216, despite Leo's excommunication.

literature

• Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase (Ed.): The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia. Scottish Academic Press, 1978.

Web links

• Lewon of Armenia at fmg.ac (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Ruben III.	Prince of Lesser Armenia from 1199, King 1187–1219	Isabella