Hugh IV of Cyprus

Hugh IV (1293-1296 – 10 October 1359) was King of Cyprus from 31 March 1324 to his abdication, on 24 November 1358 and, nominally, King of Jerusalem, as Hugh II, until his death. The son of Guy, Constable of Cyprus (son of Hugh III of Cyprus), and Eschiva of Ibelin, Hugh succeeded his father as Constable of Cyprus in 1318, and later succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on the death of his uncle Henry II, since Henry II had no sons. He was a member of the House of Poitiers-Lusignan. The Kingdom of Cyprus reached the peak of its power and prosperity during the reigns of Hugh IV and Peter I. Youth Hugh was the son of Guy, a brother of King Henry II of Cyprus, and Eschiva, a member of the Ibelin family who had lost her lordship of Beirut to the Egyptian Mamluks shortly before marrying Guy in 1291. Hugh was three years old when his father died and was raised in the household of his uncle the king. In 1306 Henry was forced to relinquish effective power to the eldest of his brothers, Amalric, who was his heir presumptive. Amalric was found murdered in 1310, paving the way for Henry's restoration. By the early 1310s, Henry was over forty, unmarried, and unlikely to have children. His last surviving brother, Aimery, in theory, stood to succeed him but was imprisoned for aiding Amalric from 1310 until his death in 1316. In 1318 the king made Hugh the constable of Cyprus, as Guy had once been. Rather than any of the sons of his brothers Amalric and Guy, the eldest of the king's sisters, Maria, was the presumed heir until her death in 1322. She and Henry were both married into the Aragonese royal family, but neither had children. By the end of his reign Henry probably intended, though there is no concrete evidence, to be succeeded by Hugh. Henry's surviving siblings, Alice and Helvis, however, had a stronger claim in law, as they were more closely related to Henry than Hugh was.