Amalric II of Jerusalem

Who was Amalric II of Jerusalem?

Aimery of Jerusalem or Aimery of Cyprus, born Aimery of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem 1197–1205, was an older brother of Guy of Lusignan.

Note: Older scholarship mistook the two names Amalric and Aimery as variant spellings of the same name, so these historians erroneously added numbers: Amalric I, r. 1163-1174 and Amalric II, r. 1197-1205. Now scholars recognize that the two names were not the same and no longer add the number for either king: Amalric, r. 1163-1174 and Aimery, r. 1197-1205.

The Lusignan family was noted for its many Crusaders. Aimery and Guy were sons of Hugh VIII of Lusignan, who had himself campaigned in the Holy Land in the 1160s. After being expelled from Poitou by their overlord, Richard the Lion-hearted, for the murder of Patrick of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Salisbury, Aimery arrived in Palestine c. 1174, Guy possibly later. Aimery married Eschiva, daughter of Baldwin of Ibelin. He then took service with Agnes of Courtenay, wife of Reginald of Sidon and mother of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. The pro-Ibelin Chronicle of Ernoul later claimed that he was her lover, but it is likely that she and Baldwin IV were attempting to separate him from the political influence of his wife's family. He was appointed Constable of Jerusalem soon after 22 April 1179. Guy married the king's widowed older sister, Sibylla of Jerusalem in 1180, and so gained a claim to the kingdom of Jerusalem.