Leo VI of Armenia

Leo V or Levon V (occasionally Levon VI; hy, Լևոն, ''Levon V''; 1342 – 29 November 1393), of the House of Lusignan, was the last Latin king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. He ruled from 1374 to 1375.

Leo was described as "Leo V, King of Armenia" on his own personal seal (),Mutafian, p.90 and as "Leo of Lusignan the Fifth" in the Middle French inscription on his cenotaph: .

Family and early life

Leo was the son of John constable of Armenia, Constable and Regent of Armenia. According to the contemporary chronicler Jean Dardel, Leo's mother, Soldane, was the daughter of a Georgian king. Soldane is otherwise unknown from the medieval sources, and scholars such as Rüdt-Collenberg have cast doubt on the credibility of Dardel's genealogy. Surviving documentary evidence suggests that Jean de Lusignan never married Leo's mother and she was, rather, his concubine. Were this identification to be true, this would make Leo the only Armenian king to not just be the descendant of the Rubenid, Hethumid, and Lusignan dynasties on his father's side, but also the descendant of the Bagratid, Artsruni, Arsacid, Artaxiad, and Orontid dynasties on his mother's side.

Constantine V, in order to wipe out all claimants to the throne, had given orders to kill Leo and his brother Bohemond, but they escaped to Cyprus before the murder could be carried out. He was made a Knight of the Chivalric Order of the Sword in 1360 and Titular Seneschal of Jerusalem on October 17, 1372.

King of Armenia

Leo was elected to the throne on the death of his distant cousin Constantine VI of Armenia in 1373. After a short regency by Mary of Korykos, widow of Constantine, Leo left Famagusta in spite of the ongoing conflict between Cyprus and Genoa. Landing at Korykos, he managed with difficulty to reach Sis, which was already being besieged by the Muslim emir of Aleppo. Leo and his wife, whom he married at Cyprus in May 1369, Marguerite of Soissons, daughter of Jean de Soissons and wife, were crowned at Sis on July 26 or September 14, 1374, according to both the Latin and Armenia rites. His right to the throne was challenged by Ashot and Leo's short reign was marked by numerous disputes between the various factions.

After several battles against superior Mamluk forces, he locked himself in the fortress at Gaban (modern Geben) and eventually surrendered in 1375, thus putting an end to the last Armenian state until the establishment of the short lived First Republic of Armenia (1918–1920) and the Republic of Armenia in 1991.

The Mameluks took Leo to Cairo with his family, where he was placed under surveillance for several years.Mutafian, ''Leon V'' In August 1377, he met with Jean Dardel, a Franciscan who was on his way for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Leon befriended him and employed him as his secretary. Dardel returned to Europe to plead the case of Leon V, and managed to convince King John I of Castile to pay a ransom of precious stones, silks, and birds of prey in 1382. His wife had died in Cairo, between 1379 and July 4, 1381.

Life in Europe

Leon de Lusignan arrived ill and poor to Medina del Campo.
In 1382 or 1383, the King of Castile named Leon Lord of Madrid. John I granted him for life the town of Madrid, Andújar, Guadalajara and Villareal (today Ciudad Real) and a yearly gift of 150,000 maravedis. Leon rebuilt the towers of the Royal Alcázar.

According to father Juan de Mariana, Leon left Castile for France after the death of his protector in 1390. Federico Bravo, however, states that he left after two years of ruling, and five years later, the Madrilenians were conceded the revocation of the lordship by John.
Leon V apparently went to Paris in June 1384, and received the Saint-Ouen castle and a sizable pension from King Charles VI of France. He attempted to reconcile the French and the English (at the time fighting the Hundred Years' War) in order to set up a new Crusade and obtain help to recover his lands, but the meeting he organized in 1386 between Boulogne and Calais were unsuccessful. Leon continued his diplomatic mission to England in 1389 and in 1392.

Death

Leon V never recovered his throne, and died in Paris on November 29, 1393. His remains were laid to rest in the Couvent des Célestins, the second most important burial site for royalty after Saint-Denis, located near what is now the Place de la Bastille in Paris. The prestigious convent was located nearby Leon's residence of Hôtel des Tournelles, itself near Hôtel Saint-Pol, the favourite residence of Charles V and Charles VI in the area of Le Marais.

Leon received lavish funerals and had a lavish tomb, located in the choir of the church. However, the convent was profanated during the French Revolution. After the revolution, his tombstone was recovered by Alexandre Lenoir who placed it in his Musée des monuments Français in the Saint-Denis Basilica. In 1815, during the Restoration, a new cenotaph was established for Leon V at the royal Saint Denis Basilica where most representatives of the French monarchy lie.

The effigy on the tombstone, by an anonymous artist, is of a high realism and quality, and it is thought that it was made while Leon was still alive. Leon V is depicted holding a scepter (now broken) and gloves, symbol of great princes.
The tombstone bears the following inscription in Old French:

English translation:Translation by Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, ''Tomb of Leon V de Lusignan''

He had one legitimate daughter, Marie de Lusignan (ca 1370 – Cairo, before July 4, 1381, who predeceased her mother and father), and two illegitimate sons, Guy de Lusignan or Guido de Armenia (died 1405), a Canon in Autun, Bayeux, Paris and Arras and Captain de la Tour d'Amblay, and Stephan or Etienne de Lusignan, a Knight in Sis.

Upon his death the title of King of Armenia was claimed by Leo's distant cousin James I.

See also

* Armenia-France relations

Notes

References

*
*
*Claude Mutafian
''Leon V of Lusignan, last king of Armenia''
(PDF)
*Pierre-Yves Le Pogram
''Tomb of Leon V de Lusignan''
(PDF)

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leo V, King Of Armenia
House of Poitiers-Lusignan
1342 births
1393 deaths
Roman Catholic monarchs
Kings of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
History of Madrid