Amalric II of Jerusalem or
Amalric I of Cyprus (
1145 –
April 1, 1205), King of Jerusalem 1197–1205, was an older brother of
Guy of Lusignan.
The
Lusignan family was noted for its many Crusaders. Amalric 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, Amalric arrived in Palestine c.
1174, Guy possibly later. Amalric 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
April 22, 1179. Guy married the king's widowed older sister,
Sibylla of Jerusalem in
1180, and so gained a claim to the kingdom of Jerusalem.
Amalric was among those captured with his brother after the disastrous
Battle of Hattin in
1187. In
1194, on the death of Guy, he became
King of Cyprus as Amalric I. By his first wife, Eschiva of Ibelin, he was the father of
Hugh I of Cyprus and was crowned in
Nicosia on
September 22, 1197. After Eschiva's death in
October, 1197 he married
Isabella, the daughter of
Amalric I of Jerusalem by his second marriage, and became
King of Jerusalem in right of his wife and crowned at
Acre in
January, 1198.
In 1198 he was able to procure a five years' truce with the
Muslims, owing to the struggle between
Saladin's brothers and his sons for the inheritance of his territories. The truce was disturbed by raids on both sides, but in
1204 it was renewed for six years.
Amalric died of dysentery (allegedly brought on by "a surfeit of white mullet") or even poisoned at Saint Jean d'
Acre in 1205, just after his son Amalric and just before his wife, and was buried at
Saint Sophia, Nicosia. The kingdom of Cyprus passed to
Hugh, his son by Eschiva, while the
kingdom of Jerusalem passed to
Maria, the daughter of Isabella by her previous marriage with
Conrad of Montferrat. 
