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V 
THE INSTITUTIONS 
OF THE KINGDOM 
OF CYPRUS 
 he adoption by the kingdom of Cyprus of institutions which existed in the
Latin kingdom of Jerusalem is well known to historians. Yet it is sometimes
not sufficiently recognized that over a period of three centuries (1192—1489),
these institutions underwent a development which profoundly modified them.
 From 1192 to 1197 Cyprus formed a simple seigneury, at first in the possession
of the English king; then, when Richard the Lionhearted renounced his suzerainty,
and his protégé Guy of Lusignan died in 1194, Guy's brother
and heir Aimery (1194—1205) was clever enough to acknowledge himself
the vassal of the emperor Henry VI, who sent him a royal crown. In the same
year, 1197, pope Celestine III created 
 There is an extensive bibliography on the history of Cyprus in earlier volumes
of the present work, II, 599, and III, 340—341. The institutions of
the kingdom have been briefly treated by George Hill, A History of Cyprus,
II (Cambridge, Eng., 1948), 50-57. The high officers have been listed in
the old work of Emmanuel G. Rey, Les Families d'outremer de Du Cange (Paris,
1869). 
Nevertheless, the sources are abundant. Besides the Description de toute
l'isle de Cypre of Estienne de Lusignan (Paris, 1580), which, though still
useful, must be used with caution, the Livre de Philippe de Novare and the
Livre contrefais des Assises (published under the title Abrégé
du livre des assises de la cour des bourgeois), have been edited in RHC,
Lois, I, 469571, and II, 227—352, respectively. The chronicles of Leontius
Machaeras (Makhairas), Recital concerning the Sweet Land of Cyprus, entitled
"Chronicle' ed. and tr. Richard M. Dawkins (2 vols., Oxford, 1932) (in which
the translation of terms respecting institutions is not always accurate),
and of Florio Bustron, Chronique de l'Ile de Chypre, ed. René de Mas
Latrie, in Collection des documents inédits sur l'histoire de France,
Mélanges historiques, v (Paris, 1886), are particularly useful. The
invaluable Histoire de l'Ile de Chypre sous le règne des princes de
la maison de Lusignan by Louis de Mas Latrie (3 vols., Paris, 1852—1861)
should be supplemented by his "Nouvelles preuves de l'histoire de Chypre,"
Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des chartes, XXXII (1871), 341—378;
xxxiv (1873) 47—87; and xxxv (1874), 99—158; and "Documents nouveaux
servants de preuves a l'histoire de l'Ile de Chypre," Collection des documents
inédits sur l'histoire deFrance, Mélanges historiques, iv (Paris,
1882), 337—619. See also Jean Richard, Documents chypriotes des archives
du Vatican (XIVe et XVe siècles) (Institut francais d'arché150