Mamluks Conquer Cyprus

1426

Sultan Barsbay's fleet invaded the Lusignan kingdom of Cyprus, defeating King Janus at the Battle of Khirokitia and carrying him back to Cairo in chains through streets lined with jeering crowds. The king was ransomed for two hundred thousand ducats and forced to accept humiliating Mamluk suzerainty over his diminished island. The last independent Crusader-descended kingdom in the eastern Mediterranean had been thoroughly humbled by an Islamic power.