Knightly The Order of the Sword of Cyprus or Silence
The Dynastic Knightly Order of the
Royal de Lusignan family.
The Order of the Sword of Cyprus or Silence
was founded in 1195 by Guy de Lusignan for the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.
The Order of the Sword, which was given for purely military chivalry was first instituted in 1193 by Guy De Luisignan. King of Jerusalem to encourage resistance to attacks of the infidels. The members were named by the constable, carrying the title of Chevaliers and following the rule of Saint-Basil.
In 1347 Prince Peter de Lusignan refounded the Chivalric Order of the Sword, whose motto was Pour Lealte Maintenir the motto of his house.
The insignia of the Knights Order of the Sword consist of a sword upright, hilt in chief, twisted around with a blue ribbon inscribed POUR LOYAUTE MAINTENIR in golden letters.
Ulrich Richental: Chronicle of the Council of Constance fol. 138.
1417 Arms: of the Crown of Cyprus.
Banner of Janus and device of, The Order of the Sword.
Manchester, John Rylands, Latin MS 28, p 121
King Janus of Cyprus 1374 - Died 29.06.1432
Prince of Antiochia 1392-1398
King of Cyprus 1398-1432
Charlotte de Bourbon †1422
Janus (1375 – 29 June 1432) was King of Cyprus and titular King of Armenian Cilicia and Jerusalem from 1398 to 1432.
King of Cyprus
Reign : 9th September 1398 – 29th June 1432
Predecessor : James I
Successor : John II
Born 1375 Genoa
Died Nicosia : 29th June 1432 (aged 56–57)
Spouse: Anglesia Visconti (1401–1407)
Charlotte de Bourbon (1411–1422)
Issue : John II, King of Cyprus
Anne, Duchess of Savoy
House : Poitiers-Lusignan
Father : James I of Cyprus
Mother : Helvis of Brunswick-Grubenhagen
Janus had nine children. Sometime after January 1400 he married Anglesia Visconti (died 1439), daughter of Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan, but the marriage was annulled and they divorced in 1408 or 1407/1409 without issue.
In 1411, he married Charlotte de Bourbon (born 1388 – died of the plague on 15 January 1422 and buried in Nicosia), daughter of John I, Count of La Marche and Catherine of Vendôme, at Nicosia; they had six children:
John II or III of Lusignan (1414–1458)
James of Lusignan (d. ca. 1426)
Anne of Lusignan, Princess of Cyprus (1418 or 1419 – 1462), married at Chambéry on 1 November 1433 or 12 February 1434 to Louis of Savoy.
Mary of Lusignan (died 1437)
Hugo of Lusignan, Cardinal (born 1415)
Phebus or Philip of Lusignan, sire of Sidon (born 1415)
Out of wedlock, he had three more children:
Aloysius of Lusignan (1408 – after 1421)
Guy of Lusignan (1410—1470), legitimized by the Pope Martin V in 1428
A daughter de Lusignan, married 1427 Garceran Suarez de los Cernadilla, Admiral of Cyprus.
The insignia of the Order consist of a sword upright, hilt in chief, twisted around with a blue ribbon inscribed POUR LOYAUTE MAINTENIR in golden letters.
The Order of the Sword is said to have been created by Peter of Poitiers-Antioch of Lusignan in 1347, when he was only the titular Count of Tripoli, and certainly maintained by him after he succeeded his father on the throne of the Kingdom of Cyprus in 1359. There is some reason to think that this order was given a monarchical constitution by its founder, but the only trace of its statutes that have survived is a summary in the diary of a fifteenth century pilgrim of the pricipal obligations then undertaken by its members, and very little is known about the nature of the Order during its founder’s brief reign. The Order survived in some form until the fall of the Cypriot monarchy in 1489.
The insignia of the Order consist of a sword upright, hilt in chief, twisted around with a blue ribbon inscribed POUR LOYAUTE MAINTENIR in golden letters.
A brief history
The shield on the left of the quarterly of Jerusalem and Cyprus-Lusignan, the shield on the right charged with the device of the Order of the Sword, founded by Peter I in 1347, consisting of a sword upright and the motto POUR LEALTE MAINTENIR on a scroll.
Arms of the King of Cyprus on Corner Piscopia Palace, Venice.
The sword of Levon VI (sometimes Leo V or VI) Lusignan, the last king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, is now kept in the Mekhitarist Museum on the island of St. Lazzaro in Venice.
Levon VI (1342 – November 29, 1393) was King of Cilician Armenia from the Armenian branch of the French noble family de Lusignan. He reigned from 1374 to 1375. Levon was the son of John de Lusignan (constable and regent of Armenia) and his wife Soldane of Georgia, daughter of the Georgian king George V the Brilliant.
In 1360, Levon was made a Knight of the Chivalric Order of the Sword. On October 17, 1372, he became the Seneschal of Jerusalem.
