Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/412

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
390
THE LESSER EASTERN CHURCHES

cousin of the last Armenian king, Leo IV[1] (1320-1342). Guy (1342-1344) fought valiantly against Turks and Egyptians; he lost nothing of the land he had inherited. He was murdered by traitors in 1344. A usurper (Constantine II, 1344-1363) followed; but the princes of the house of Lusignan came back. Leo V,[2] the last king who ever reigned over Armenians, succeeded in 1374. But the Amir of Ḥālib (Aleppo) attacked him, and after a year of war finally conquered the whole country. The king was taken prisoner; for some time he was in danger of death for the faith which he refused heroically to deny. Eventually the Amir accepted a ransom. Leo came to France, died in 1393, and was buried in the church of the Celestine monks at Paris.[3] That was the last ray of the old glory of the Armenian kingdom.[4] The Ottoman Turks under Bayazet II (1481-1512) easily added all the Armenian lands to their vast empire. These were now the frontier-land between Turkey and Persia. The Armenians, always a weak folk on the border of two great powers, suffered equally from Turks and Persians. It was policy to keep one's frontier-land a desert, so that the enemy should find no provisions there if he invaded. The Turks systematically ravaged the land with this idea. In 1575 a Persian invasion brought fresh horrors. In the 17th century Shah Abbas (1586-1628) fought with the Turks over what had once been Armenia. In the 18th century an Armenian hero David († 1728) for a short time maintained a successful rebellion. Then Russia appears on the scene. The Armenians had already appealed to Peter the Great (1689-1725) and Catherine II (1762-1796) for protection, without result. In 1829, after the Russian-Turkish war, Russia annexed the east of

  1. Otherwise Leo V.
  2. Or Leo VI.
  3. On his tomb they wrote: "Cy gist très noble et excellent prince Lyon de Lysingne, quint, roy latin du royaume d'Arménie, qui rendit l'âme à Dieu, à Paris, l'an 1393. Priez pour lui" (Tournebize: op. cit. p. 751). His title "King of Armenia," went to his cousin James I (de Lusignan), King of Cyprus (1382-1398). From then to Catherine Cornaro (1474-1489) the Kings of Cyprus (and Jerusalem) added Armenia to their title. She sold her rights to the Republic of Venice, which advanced a claim on the shadowy kingdom of Armenia. But the house of Savoy inherits (through Charlotte de Lusignan, † 1487, who married Louis of Savoy) the empty titles of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia.
  4. Most of the above account is condensed from Tournebize: Hist. polit. et relig. de l'Arménie.