Hethum II
Hetoum II (Armenian: Հեթում Ա) (1266-August, 1307) was king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ruling from 1289 to 1293, 1295 to 1296 and 1299 to 1303, while Armenia was a client state of the Mongol Empire. He was the son of Leo III of Armenia and Kyranna de Lampron, and was part of the Hetoumid-family, being the grandson of Hetoum I, who had originally submitted Cilicia to the Mongols in the 1240s.
In 1292 Armenia was invaded by Khalil, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, who had conquered the Kingdom of Jerusalem the year before, and Hromgla was sacked. Hethum was forced to abandon Behesni, Marash and Tel Hamdoun to the Turks. In 1293, he abdicated in favour of his brother Thoros III and entered the monastery of Mamistra.
However, Thoros asked Hethum to resume the throne in 1295 to help renew the Mongol alliance. This effort was successful, and in 1296, Hethum and Thoros went to Constantinople to bestow their sister Rita upon the Caesar Michael IX Palaeologus. During their absence, their brother Sempad usurped the throne with the aid of Constantine, and captured them in Caesarea as they returned. Hethum and Thoros were imprisoned in the fortress of Partzerpert, where Hethum was partially blinded. In 1298, Thoros was murdered in Partzerpert; but Constantine turned against Sempad and freed Hethum. Hethum resumed the crown in 1299 after recovering from his blindness, and Armenian troops fought on the side of the Mongols when the Ilkhanate defeated the Mamluks at the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar. However, the Mongol-Armenian forces were beaten in 1303 at the Battle of Marj es-Suffer, and Hethum resigned his crown to his nephew Leo and retired to a monastery, although he retained the office of Regent of Armenia.
In 1305, he and Leo led an Armenian army to victory over Mameluke raiders at Bagras. However, Hethum and Leo were both murdered in August, 1307 while visiting the Mongol emir Bilarghu at Anazarva.
Hethum married Helvis de Lusignan, the daughter of King Hugh III of Cyprus. Hethum's son and heir Thoros was murdered in 1296 by the usurper Sempad.
Offensive into Syria
In the summer of 1299, King Hetoum II sent a message to the Mongol khan of Persia, Ghâzân to obtain his support. In response, Ghazan marched with his forces towards Syria and sent letters to the Franks of Cyprus (the King of Cyprus, and the heads of the Knights Templar, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights), inviting them to come join him in his attack on the Mamluks in Syria.[2] The Mongols and their allies defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, on December 23 or 24, 1299.[3] One group of Mongols then split off from Ghazan's army, and pursued the retreating Mamluk troops as far as Gaza,[4] pushing them back to Egypt.
According to tradition, King Hethoum visited Jerusalem in 1300 after helping with the Mongol offensive. The origin of the account is a document by a medieval Armenian historian:
"The king of Armenia, back from his raid against the Sultan, went to Jerusalem. He found that all the enemies had been put to flight or exterminated by the Tatars, who had arrived before him. As he entered into Jerusalem, he gathered the Christians, who had been hiding in caverns out of fright. During the 15 days he spent in Jerusalem, he held Christian ceremonies and solemn festivities in the Holy Sepulchre. He was greatly comforted by his visits to the places of the pilgrims. He was still in Jerusalem when he received a certificate from the Khan, bestowing him Jerusalem and the surrounding country. He then returned to join Ghazan in Damas, and spend the winter with him"
— Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Armeniens I, p.660[5]
According to some historians, the account does not match with any other accounts by any other historians of the time period, and in modern times has been recognized as having originated from an unreliable source. In other words, it was simply Armenian propaganda of the time.[6][7]
However, in The Crusaders and the Crusader States, Andrew Jotischky used Schein's 1979 article and later 1991 book to state, "after a brief and largely symbolic occupation of Jerusalem, Ghazan withdrew to Persia"[8]. According to Peter Jackson in The Mongols and the West, the Mongols liberated the Holy City.[9] Steven Runciman in "A History of the Crusades, III" stated that Ghazan penetrated as far as Jerusalem, but not until the year 1308.[10] Claude Mutafian, in Le Royaume Arménien de Cilicie mentions the writings and the 14th century Armenian Dominican which claim that the Armenian king visited Jerusalem as it was temporarily removed from Muslim rule.[11] Demurger, in Les Templiers, mentions the possibility that the Mongols may have occupied Jerusalem, quoting an Armenian tradition describing that Hethoum celebrated mass in Jerusalem in January 1300.[12]
According to the historian Claude Mutafian, this may be on this occasion that Hetoum II remitted his amber scepter to the Armenian convent of Saint James of Jerusalem.[13]
Notes
- ^ In "Le Royaume Armenien de Cilicie", p.74-75
- ^ Demurger, p.143
- ^ Demurger-142
- ^ Demurger, p.142 "The Mongols pursued the retreating troops towards the south, but stopped at the level of Gaza"
- ^ Historiens Armeniens, p.660
- ^ Angus Donal Stewart
- ^ Amitai, Mongol Raids into Palestine, 1987
- ^ Jotischky, The Crusaders and the Crusader States, p. 249
- ^ "The Mongol liberation of the Holy City, of course, furnished the opportunity for Pope Boniface and Western chroniclers alike to castigate Latin princes by claiming that God had preferred a pagan ruler as His instrument", p.173, Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the West
- ^ Runciman, p.439. "Five years later, in 1308, Ghazzan again entered Syria and now penetrated as far as Jerusalem itself. It was rumoured that he would have willingly handed over the Holy City to the Christians had any Christian state offered him its alliance."
- ^ Claude Mutafian, p.73
- ^ Demurger, p.143
- ^ Mutafian, p.73
Bibliography
- Boase, T. S. R. (1978). The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. ISBN 0-7073-0145-9.