This new study, which is based on original research, traces the fortunes of Cyprus under its royal dynasty and its role in the crusades and in the confrontation of Christian and Muslim in the Near East until the 1370s when it was severely weakened in a war with Genoa. It is both a major contribution to the history of the crusades in the Levant and the only scholarly study of medieval Cyprus currently available.

1. Conquest; 2. Settlement; 3. The Lusignan dynasty; 4. The house of Ibelin; 5. The defence of Latin Syria; 6. The reign of Henry II; 7. Dynastic politics, commerce and crusade, 1324-69; 8. Kingship and government; 9. Climacteric; Bibliography; Index.