as yet King of Jerusalem; it was a matter of importance to him to be recognised as King of Cyprus; and he accordingly did homage to the Emperor Henry VI. He was crowned by the Bishop of Hildesheim, who was sent over from Sicily to perform the ceremony; this was done in 1197. Immediately after this, Amalrie succeeded to the crown of Jerusalem; the crown of Jerusalem which, after the year 1369, became permanently united with that of Cyprus, was an independent crown, and the king of Jerusalem an anointed king: the union of the crowns therefore seems to have precluded any question as to the tenure by which the kingdom of Cyprus should be held. The crown of Cyprus was conferred at Nicosia, that of Jerusalem at Tyre or at Acre, and, after the capture of Acre, at Famagosta. The homage then due to Richard, or to the crown of England, ceased at the death of Guy; although the discontented barons of Cyprus are said to have revived the idea of such a relation when they wanted the aid of Edward I, in 1271. The homage secured to the Emperor by Amalrie was possibly recognised until 1269, but was throughout complicated by the claims of Frederick II and his sons on the kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1459 the illegitimate pretender, James II, did homage to the Sultan of Egypt as suzerain of Cyprus; but that act was not the recognition of a right; it was only a bid for support, and was one of the immediate causes of the entire downfall of the house of Lusignan. Guy, however, does not seem to have troubled himself about his title. His reign lasted only two years, and his whole time was given to the restoration of something like prosperity in the desolate land[1]. According to the contemporary ' Chronique d'Outremer' he opened an asylum for the dispossessed Franks of Armenia and Palestine. These, to
- ↑ There were five classes of native cultivators in Guy's time:—
(1) Parici—πάροικοι—slave cultivators.
(2) Lefteri—ἐλεύθεροι— freed folk.
(3) Albanesi—descendants of Albanian soldiery.
(4) Veneziani bianoM—descended from the soldiers of Vital Michaele in the first Crusade.
(5) Perperiarii, enfranchised Paroeci—paying a tax of 15 perperi; (cited from Bustron by Beugnot, Assizes of Jerusalem, i. 207).
