Hugh II of Cyprus

Who was Hugh II of Cyprus?

Hugh II of Cyprus was king of Cyprus and, from the age of 5 years, also Regent of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

On January 18, 1253, at the age of two months, he succeeded his father Henry I as king of Cyprus, with his mother, Queen Plaisance, acting as regent, and was crowned at Santa Sophia, Nicosia, later in that year. Although he had only a weaker claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, many felt that he was a better candidate than Conradin, the Hohenstaufen claimant who was also a child but absent in Europe. In 1258 John of Ibelin, lord of Jaffa, and Bohemund VI of Antioch brought Hugh and Plaisance to Acre, where Hugh was set up as regent for Conradin, and Plaisance was chosen to carry out Hugh’s regency while he remained underage, becoming Lord of Jerusalem.

In 1261 Plaisance died and the regency of Cyprus passed to Hugh of Antioch-Lusignan, Hugh II's 25-year-old first cousin. His mother, Hugh II's younger aunt Isabella of Lusignan became acting regent of Jerusalem in Acre. Hugh II died in Nicosia in November 1267 at the age of 14 and was buried in the Dominican Church in Nicosia. He had been betrothed and was possibly married at Nicosia in 1264/1265 to Isabella of Ibelin, Lady of Beirut 1264, but the marriage was never consummated. He was succeeded by Hugh of Lusignan-Antioch as Hugh III of Cyprus, though his heir-general was another first cousin, Hugh of Brienne, son of Mary of Cyprus, the eldest aunt of the deceased Hugh II. This claim fell to his son Walter V of Brienne and his descendants. They are the heirs-general of King Amalric I of Cyprus.