John II or III of Cyprus (16 May 1418 – 28 July 1458) was the

King of Cyprus The Kingdom of Cyprus (french: Royaume de Chypre, la, Regnum Cypri) was a state that existed between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan. It comprised not only the island of Cyprus, but it also had a foothold on the Ana ...

and

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

and also titular

King of Jerusalem The King of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was conquered in 1099. Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of ...

from 1432 to 1458. He was previously a titular

Prince of Antioch Prince of Antioch was the title given during the Middle Ages to Norman rulers of the Principality of Antioch, a region surrounding the city of Antioch, now known as Antakya in Turkey. The Princes originally came from the County of Sicily in Sou ...

History

Born 16 May 1418 in Nicosia, John was the son of king

Janus of Cyprus Janus (1375 – 29 June 1432) was King of Cyprus and titular King of Armenian Cilicia and Jerusalem from 1398 to 1432. Early life Janus was born in Genoa, where his father, James I of Cyprus, was a captive. His mother, Helvis of Brunswick ...

and

Charlotte of Bourbon Charlotte of Bourbon (1546/1547 – 5 May 1582) was a Princess consort of Orange as the third spouse of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. She was the fourth daughter of Louis III de Bo ...

. In May, sometime between 1435 and 1440, he married Amadea Palaiologina of Monferrato, daughter of John Jacob Palaiologos,

Marquess of Montferrat The Marquises and Dukes of Montferrat were the rulers of a territory in Piedmont south of the Po and east of Turin called Montferrat. The March of Montferrat was created by Berengar II of Italy in 950 during a redistribution of power in the ...

. They had no children. His second wife, a distant relative of his first, was

Helena Palaiologina Helena Palaiologina ( el, ; 3 February 1428 – 11 April 1458) was a Byzantine princess of the Palaiologos family, who became Queen of Cyprus and Armenia, titular Queen consort of Jerusalem, and Princess of Antioch through her marriage to King ...

, only child and daughter of

Theodore II Palaiologos Theodore II Palaiologos or Palaeologus (Greek: Θεόδωρος Β΄ Παλαιολόγος, ''Theodōros II Palaiologos'') (c. 1396 – 21 June 1448) was Despot in the Morea from 1407 to 1443 and in Selymbria from then until his death. Life Th ...

Despot of the Morea The Despotate of the Morea ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μορέως) or Despotate of Mystras ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μυστρᾶ) was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centu ...

, and his wife Cleofa Malatesta By his second marriage he had: *

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, Queen of Cyprus, married Prince John of Antioch * Cleopha of Lusignan, died young John died in Nicosia on 28 July 1458 and his daughter Charlotte succeeded to the throne. During his rule,

Corycus Corycus ( el, Κώρυκος; also transliterated Corycos or Korykos; hy, Կոռիկոս, translit=Koṙikos; tr, Kız Kalesi, lit. "maiden castle") was an ancient city in Cilicia Trachaea, Anatolia, located at the mouth of the valley calle ...

, the only Cypriot stronghold in mainland Anatolia, was lost to the

Karamanids The Karamanids ( tr, Karamanoğulları or ), also known as the Emirate of Karaman and Beylik of Karaman ( tr, Karamanoğulları Beyliği), was one of the Anatolian beyliks, centered in South-Central Anatolia around the present-day Karaman Pr ...

in 1448. John had an illegitimate son by Marietta de Patras * James II, King of Cyprus John appointed James, Archbishop of Nicosia at the age of 16. James did not prove ideal archbishop material, and was stripped of his title after murdering the royal chamberlain. His father eventually forgave him and restored him to the Archbishopric. James and Helena were enemies, vying for influence over John. After Helena died in 1458, it appeared that John would appoint James as his successor, but John died before he could make it so. Coat of Arms of the House of Lusignan (Kings of Armenia)

Coat of Arms of the House of Lusignan (Kings of Armenia)

References

Sources

* * * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:John 02 Of Cyprus Kings of Cyprus Kings of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia 1418 births 1458 deaths 15th-century Cypriot people Claimant Kings of Jerusalem House of Poitiers-Lusignan