Papers by Nicholas Coureas
The Latin Elite on Cyprus: Trying to keep apart, 2000
It is argued in this paper that after the Latin conquest of Cyprus in 1191 and the establishment ... more It is argued in this paper that after the Latin conquest of Cyprus in 1191 and the establishment of the Lusignan royal dynasty that ruled the island until 1473 a Latin aristicracy of mainly Frankish origin was established. Following the wars against the Turks, the Mamluks and the Genoese invasion of Cyprus in 1373, this Latin ruling class suffered heavy numerical losses. Its numbers were replenished in the fifteenth century by Armenians, Greeks and Syrians. Noenetheless the numbers of non-Latins entering the nobility were few, and the latins strove to maintain a distinct and separate identity in the judicual, ecclesiastical and economic areas, notwithstanding extensive interactions in the fields of literature and the fine arts.
Zwischen Ostsee und Adria, volume 2, eds., Attila Barany, Roman Czaja, Helmut Flachenecker, Lazlo Posan, 2024
In this paper I discuss how Cypus and Dalmatia came under Venetian control in stages from the twe... more In this paper I discuss how Cypus and Dalmatia came under Venetian control in stages from the twelfth century onwards, so that by the late fifteenth century both were under direct Venetian rule. But whereas Dalmatia suffered because its Croatian hinterland was systematically ravaged by Ottoman raids and warfare Cyprus was free from Ottoman invaders until the Ottoman conquest of 1570. As a result of their growing trade and population, especially refugees from the Ottoman invaders, the Dalmatian coastal cities needed foodstuffs, especailly supplied from Cyprus, although in the second half of the sixteenth century cotton became a more impotant Cypriot export. Furthermore, as Cyprus's own population increased under Venetian rule, it became less able to supply wheat to Dalmatia. Other contacts between Dalmatia and Cyprus included the dispatch of military engineers to supervise the erection and strengthening of fortifications in both places, while the careers of officials in Venetian sevice, notably that of Michel Membre, spanned both these regions.
Controversial Histories, Current Views on the Crusades: Engaging the Crusades, vol. 3, eds. Felix Hinz & Johannes Meyer-Hamme, May 18, 2021
In this paper I discuss how the Crusading movement and especially the Third Crudade resulting in ... more In this paper I discuss how the Crusading movement and especially the Third Crudade resulting in the conquest of Cyprus, a former Byzantine province, by King Richard I of England is peceived in modern Greek Cypriot historiography. It is argued that overall the Greek Cypiot historiographical viewpoint is negative, with stress placed on the forced subordination of the Greek Church to the papacy and the Latin Church established in Cyprus soon after the Latin Conquest, despite the literary and artistic effluorescences that resulted from the establishment of a Latin kingdom (1192-1473) as a result of this conquest. Even the notable commercial development, especially the role Cyprus played in the carrying trade between East and West is regarded as benefit9ng the Latin nobility and the merchants from the West, especially the Venetians and the Genoese, rather than the indigenous population.
Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages, 2019
Byzantina Symmeikta, Sep 17, 2020
16339-0 (ebk) This book, consisting of 21 chapters, contains primarily the published papers given... more 16339-0 (ebk) This book, consisting of 21 chapters, contains primarily the published papers given initially at the homonymous conference that took place at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens between 5-6 September 2014. As the editors point out, it was decided from the outset not to include papers regarding art, archaeology and material culture. Therefore, the papers published here cover historical, literary and religious topics and are subdivided into four parts: Part I, Setting the Scene; Part II, Byzantium and the West during the Early Crusades; Part III, Cross-Cultural Contacts in the Margins of East and West and Part IV, The Latins and Late Byzantium: Perception and Reality. Part I begins with a paper by Anthony Kaldellis titled 'Keroularios in 1054: Nonconfrontational to the papal legates and loyal to the emperor' (pp. 9-24). Here he argues, unlike most modern scholars, that Michael Keroularios the patriarch of Constantinople deliberately avoided confrontation with the papal legate Cardinal Humbert over liturgical and theological matters. Far from controlling the supposedly ineffective emperor Constantine IX and trying to undermine his foreign policy regarding Italy, Keroularios was following his orders. Kaldellis argues on the basis of primary sources-such as the letters written by Archbishop Leo of Ochrid in 1053 criticising the use of unleavened communion bread, Pope Leo IX's polemical reply to it and two letters from the Byzantine emperor to the pope urging the maintenance of the anti-Norman alliance-that later perceptions of Keroularios as bellicose and domineering the emperor are mistaken. These derive from Cardinal Humbert's perception that Keroularios was behind Archbishop Leo's letter on unleavened communion bread, causing him to present the patriarch as a heretic in http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e
Mamluk Cairo, A Crossroads for Embassies: Studies on Diplomacy and Diplomatics, Dec 18, 2019
This article discusses diplomatic relations between the Mamluk Sultanate and the Lusignan Kingdom... more This article discusses diplomatic relations between the Mamluk Sultanate and the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus during a period when the Cypriot Kingdom had been reduced to tributary status following the Mamluk invasion of Cyprus in 1426 and the defeat of King Janus at the battle of Khirokitia. The social status of the envoys exchanged, their nationality, their treatment and the means of communication they emploed are discussed, as are some of the specific issues they dealt with, such as the transfer of power on Cyprus from the Lusignan dynasty to the venetains and the Mamluk acceptance of this. The main souce materials are the accounts of the Castilian nobleman Pero Tafur, the Chronicle of the Cypriot Georgios Boustronios and the writings of the Mamluk historian Ibn Taghri Birdi. All three authors lived in the fifteenth century and so are contemporary to the events they recounted.
L'Eglise armenienne entre grecs et latins fin XIe Siecle - milieu XVe siecle, eds. Isabelle Auge & Gerard Dedeyan, 2009
This article discusses the position of Armenians living in the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus (1192-1... more This article discusses the position of Armenians living in the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus (1192-1473) with specila emphasis on the efforts of the Latin Church to bring the Armenian of Cyprus under its ecclesiastical jurisdiction and to induce them to accept papal primacy. The extent to which the Latin Church succeeded in doing so is discussed with reference to braoder political developments taking place in the wider geographical context of the Eastern Mediterranean, which impacted on the relations of the Armenians on Cyprus and those of the Cilician kingdom of Armenia with the latins in general and the Latin church in particular.
Mercenaries and Crusaders, edited by Attila Barany, Debrecen, 2024
In this paper I discuss how during the civil war on Cyprus between the years 1456-1464 James, Kin... more In this paper I discuss how during the civil war on Cyprus between the years 1456-1464 James, King James II from 1466 onwards, employed mercenaries from various countries and of various faiths to defeat his half-sister Queen Charlotte, the legitimate ruler of Cyprus, and seize power. They included Mamluks, Greeks, Savoyards, Catalans, Neapolitans and Sicilians. Once he had won the civil war, however, the mercenaries who acquired the greatest power and influence in term sof incomes, offices and estates were Catalans as well as Sicilians and Neapolitans, given that Sicily and southern italy came under Catalan rule after the conquests of King Alfonso the Magnanimous in 1442. This was because those particular mercenaries as Roman Catholics were best placed to help James secure papal recognition and thereby legitimise his seizure of power.
Germania et Italia. Liber Amicorum Hubert Houben, eds. Francesco Filotico, Lioba geis and Francesco Somaini, 2 volumes, Salento, 2024
Cereals were a commodity that was frequently in short supply on Hospitaller Rhodes, even though w... more Cereals were a commodity that was frequently in short supply on Hospitaller Rhodes, even though wheat, barley, oats and pulses were grown on the island. Wheat and barley from nearby Kos were imported to Rhodes as well as from other Aegean and Mediterranean regions, such as Old and New Phocaea in Anatolia, Euboea, Lesbos, the Peloponnese, Southern Italy, Sicily and Cyprus, although the demand for barley was smaller. Shortages were felt during the fourteenth century. As early as 1317, less than a decade after the Hospitallers' conquest of Rhodes from Byzantium, Pope John XXII alluded to the great shortage of foodstuffs on the island, and in June 1347 there was a new shortage. This impelled the Hospitallers to secure grain from various areas. They concluded an agreement with the Genoese Ettore Vicenzi on 26 July 1347 for him to supply Rhodes with 20,000 modia of wheat and barley in Rhodian measures. Alberto Gentile of Genoa was dispatched on 3 September 1347 to the Aegean area (Romania) to buy an additional 20,000 Rhodian modia of grain and on 22 March 1348 the merchant and burgess of Rhodes Bartolomeo degli Albizzi was licensed to borrow 2,000 florins in order to buy grain in the Aegean area and the Black Sea region. The Hospitallers also imported foodstuffs from the Turkish mainland opposite Rhodes. When in 1386 Grand Master Juan Fernandez de Heredia granted the Commandery of Kos, Kalymnos and Leros to the German Hospitaller Hesso Schlegelholz, among the obligations imposed on the latter were a ban on exports of wheat to any destination besides Rhodes. Furthermore, the population of Rhodes, perhaps less than 10,000 in 1310, may have more than doubled by 1522 to over 20,000. This rise in population exacerbated the shortages of grain and other foodstuffs, increasing the need to import them 1 .
Mesaionike Leukosia, Protevousa osmosis metaxy anatoles kai dyses, ed. Demetra Papanikola-Bakirtzi, Nicosia 2020, 2020
In this paper, written in Modern Greek, I discuss the evolution of the economy of Cyprus under th... more In this paper, written in Modern Greek, I discuss the evolution of the economy of Cyprus under the Lusignans and the Venetians, who ruled Cyprus from 1192 to 1571. While arguigthat as previously land formed the basis of economic production, as wellas that of economic and even social relations, I stress how under the Lusignans and the venetian the economybecame increasingly export orientated, exporting products such as sugar, camlets, grain, oliveoiland wine throughout the Mediterranean. Cyprus was also active as a transilt point but also as a point of consumption of goods in the international carrying trade between East and West. The Cypriot economy reached its peak in the years 1291-1344 followingthe imposition of a papal embargo on direct trade between Western merchants and Mamluks lands after the fall of the Latin Syria, but began to decline in the second half of the fourteenth century,a decline aggravated by ruinous wars with Genoa (1373-1374) and with Mamluk Egypt (1424-1426). Under Venice, however, the economy recovered recovered, and Nicosia the capital became a major centre of consumption until the island fell in 1571 to the Ottoman Turks.
Mesaionike Leukosia Protevousa osmosis metaxy anatoles kai dyses, ed. Demetra Papanikola-Bakirtzi, 2020
In this paper, written in Modern Greek, I discuss the Assizes of the Court of the Burgesses in th... more In this paper, written in Modern Greek, I discuss the Assizes of the Court of the Burgesses in the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus within the context of the genesis and evolution of law in the Latin kingdom of jerusalem founded after the First crusade and later on within the kingdom of Cyprus, created in 1192 as a result of the Third Crusade. The origins of the assizes, traceable to elements Roman law as later codified in southern France and in the Byzantine Empire are discussed,as are the scope of the laws found in the Assizes of Lusignan Cyprus, translated from the French Assises de la Cour de Bourgeois in the early fourteenth century.
BYZANTINA SYMMEIKTA, 2014
Book Review: <font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font><p ... more Book Review: <font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%" class="MsoNormal"><span><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Nikolaos G. <span style="font-variant:…
The Military Orders Volume VII, 2020
This paper discusses the conditions under which Hopsitaller slaves and serfs cound obtain manumis... more This paper discusses the conditions under which Hopsitaller slaves and serfs cound obtain manumission, mindful of the differences betweenthese two groups, slaves being property and serfs individuals with limited freedom. It discusses the respective obligatins of both groups sand the ways in which they obtained their freedom, whci could be full or only partial, with conditions attached. Among the ways in which these grioups could obtain their freedom was through servivce to the Hospitaller order, by purchasing it or, in the case of serfs, to facilitate their marriages to other free persons, thereby increasing the free population on Rhodes.
The Ignatianum Philosophical Yearbook, 2023
This paper examines the evidence gleaned from Venetian and Genoese notarial deeds prepared on Cyp... more This paper examines the evidence gleaned from Venetian and Genoese notarial deeds prepared on Cyprus during the period 1362-1458 to examine and discuss the relations between domestic slaves or servants, usually but not invariably female, and their masters, predominantly male. Some of these deeds were wills, containing bequests to servile women who had probably been in long term sexual relationships with their owners and to the illegitimate children who had been born from such relationships. Some of the apprenticeship contracts drawn up in Famagusta, the chief port of the island, also concern illegitimate children born to female slaves or maidservants, who were apprenticed at the owner's expense for a number of years to a master craftsman so as to learn a trade and make a living on their completion of the apprenticeship. Some owners
L'Armenie et les Armeniens entre Byzance et le Levant, 2 vols., eds. I. Auge, M-A. Chevalier, C. Mutafian and I. Ortega, 2023
This paper discusses the services, as soldiers on Lusignan Cyprus and in the Genoese enclave of F... more This paper discusses the services, as soldiers on Lusignan Cyprus and in the Genoese enclave of Famagusta (1374-1464), of Armenians originating from Cilician Armenia, despite the fact that they had also been among the forces of the Byzantine usurper Isaac Comnenus who resisted the first Latin conquest of the island in 1191. It examines why these Armenians were recruited, and the reasons why they eventually ceased to served as soldiers when Cyprus came under the control of Venice in 1474.
Religions, 2023
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The Armenian Church of Famagusta and the Complexity of Cypriot Heritage, 2017
This paper discusses the importance of Famagusta, the premier port of the Lusignan kingdom of Cyp... more This paper discusses the importance of Famagusta, the premier port of the Lusignan kingdom of Cyprus, in supporting the embattled kingdom of Ciliician Armenia, threatened and attacked by Mamluks, Mongols and Seljuk Turks. Grain was exported there in large qunatities, armed men, ships and supplies from Famagusta were sent to the fortreses of Cilician Armenia and Famagusta received Armenian refugess during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Exploring Outremer Vol. 1, Studies in Medieval History in Honour of Adrian J. Boas, 2023
The Genoese invasion of Cyprus in 1373 and their ensuing occupation of Famagusta between the year... more The Genoese invasion of Cyprus in 1373 and their ensuing occupation of Famagusta between the years 1373 and 1460 had an effect on the religious institutions as well as on other aspects of the city's life. Ships from other trading nations, like Venice, Barcelona and the Provençal towns, ceased to frequent the port, causing a contraction of trade, a drop in the population and an overall decrease in revenues. Genoa attempted to remedy this by transferring the governance of the city in 1447 to the Office of St George, an association of Genoese bond-holders, but Famagusta remained impoverished. 1 Nonetheless, the religious life of the city during those years does not present a picture of unrelieved and unqualified decline. A church of St Catherine is recorded as a new construction in the fifteenth-century Genoese massaria, the accounts of the treasury of Famagusta under Genoese rule. The massaria is invaluable in serving as evidence for the churches, fortifications and other monuments of the city. 2 In 1427 the incumbent bishop of Famagusta, Nicholas of Tenda, desired to import planks from Genoa to repair his episcopal palace. Furthermore, in 1450 an indulgence was promulgated for the repair of the circuit of walls of the city. 3 New constructions or repairs of existing edifices also occurred in the capital Nicosia during the fifteenth century, although both in Nicosia and Famagusta these were far fewer than in the preceding century. This paper shall focus, with the exception of burials, on the non-liturgical uses, namely uses other than the celebration of Mass, to which the churches of Famagusta were put in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. The principal sources are the notarial deeds of Antonio Folieta, a Genoese notary working there in the mid-fifteenth century. Additional sources are the judicial inquests into the
BYZANTINA SYMMEIKTA, 2008
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Papers by Nicholas Coureas