Janus of Cyprus - Biography

Biography

He was born in Genoa where his father, King James I of Cyprus was a captive. His mother, Helvis of Brunswick-Grubenhagen gave him the name Janus which was the name of the god who founded Genoa, according to a mythological tradition.

When his father was elected King, he made an agreement with the Genoese to release him to go to Cyprus; he negotiated with them and signed an agreement on 2 February 1383. Under that agreement, the Genoese had new privileges for commercial activities. However, under Genoese demand, his father left his son Janus in their city as hostage. James sent a noble to Genoa, John Babin, as act as stepfather of his son. As the Cypriot historian Leontios Makhairas wrote, James ordered a special tax which required the Cypriots - both nobles and people - to buy an amount of salt in order to collect the amount of money needed to release his son from the Genoese; this was achieved on October 1392, when Janus was 18 years old.

After his father's death on 9 September 1398, Janus took over the throne of Cyprus. He was crowned in Saint Sophia Cathedral of Nicosia on 11 November 1398.

As a king he tried to take back Famagusta, which was under Genoese rule, in 1402. The administrator of Famagusta, the Genoese Antonio de Karko, according to writings of Amati was the Janus' godfather. Janus conspired with a priest who was the spiritual father of de Karko, in order to return the city to the Cypriot King, by which the priest was to become Bishop of Famagusta. Involved in that conspiracy was Peter Makhairas, brother of Leontios. They made secret keys for the City Gates and there were many preparations to take over Famagusta and to murder de Karko by Brother Gregory and to open the gates for Janus' soldiers. However, at the last moment the plan was betrayed, and the conspirators were arrested at Famagusta; 28 of them were executed and this resulted in the city remaining in Genoese hands.

The King continued his effort to take back Famagusta (whose territory included also Kyrenia). In 1403, the Governor of Genoa, de Mengre, had talks with Janus' representative Giorgio Billi and the talks ended with an agreement, by which the cities remained under Genoese hands. Later, he forced the Cypriot people to pay special taxes to assemble an army and machines for siege and he besieged Famagusta. The siege lasted for three years but it proved useless since there was access from the sea to the city. In 1406, the siege ended and the Genoese tried to occupy Limassol, but they were defeated.

Two years later, the island was affected by epidemics. Simultaneously, there were many raids of locusts on the island, which caused destruction to agriculture. A new epidemic arrived in 1419–20 and that probably caused the death of Janus' second wife Charlotte. Because the King was very distraught, the body of the dead queen was moved out of the palace where her funeral was, in order to not be seen by Janus. She died on 15 January 1422.

Meanwhile, because Cyprus was still a permanent base of campaign of pirates and adventurers, after raids around Cypriot costs, Janus had repeated discussions with the Sultan of Egypt via the Sultan's representatives. Janus was not able to stop those raids and that gave the Muslim reason to attack Cyprus. Those raids were participated by Cypriot nobles and officials of the Kingdom.

Barsbay, the Sultan of Egypt, sent military forces to Cyprus several times. A small force, around in 1424, hit Limassol and in 1425 the Egyptian army attacked Famagusta, and then pillaged Larnaca together with the area beside it, Kiti, Dromolaxia, Kellia, Aradippou and Agrinou. After Larnaca, they moved to Limassol, which was also sacked, as well as the city's castle.

In the summer of 1426, the Mamluks launched a large scale attack against the island. Their army arrived in the island with 180 ships in Avdimou. Led by Tangriver Mohamed and Inal el Kakimi, the army contained more than 3,000 men and included Mamliks, Turks and Arabs. Limassol was occupied again. Janus mustered his army and moved from Nicosia to Limassol. He asked from help from the forces in Europe, but it did not arrive: the Genoese were his enemies, and the Venetians and others did not want to destroy commercial relations with the sultan.

Following the Battle of Chirokitia (7 July 1426) against the Mamluks, King Janus was captured by the Egyptian forces. After ten months of captivity in Cairo, he was ransomed. During his captivity his brother Hugh of Lusignan, Archbishop of Nicosia, took charge of Cyprus.

After their victory the Mamluks pillaged Larnaca again and then the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia. The royal family retreated to the fortified Kyrenia and were rescued. The invaders took a great deal of loot and captives and left the island.

That disaster, together with the previous raids, the war operations of Janus against Genoese, the epidemics and the invasion of locusts caused the Cypriot serfs who lived in conditions of utter poverty to revolt. The leader of the Cypriot revolutionaries was a person called Alexis who was declared as King in Lefkoniko. The revolution was big, and was supported by the people who elected their own leaders in many places of Cyprus.

Meanwhile, Janus was humiliated in Cairo: they took him, tied up with chains and riding a donkey, in front of the Sultan, after which he was forced to kneel and worship nine times the soil on which he stepped. The release of Janus was effected after the mediations of Europeans, who offered money for the collection of the required ransoms. Also Cyprus had to offer the Sultan annual tax based on 5,000 duchies. That tax continued to be offered, even after the end of the Frankish rule in Cyprus. Together with Janus, some of the captives managed to buy their freedom after their families collected money. Some others remained as captives and were sold as slaves.

While Janus was captive, in Cyprus, the nobles and the royal family members were trying to face the Alexis' Rebellion and concurrently began to try for the release of Janus. With help from Europe, the rebellion was repressed after 10 months. The leader of the rebels was arrested as a captive. After terrible tortures, he was executed in Nicosia on 12 May 1427, the same day that King Janus arrived in Paphos from Cairo.