Charlotte was born in Nicosia on 28 June 1444, the eldest and only surviving daughter of King John II of Cyprus and Helena Palaiologina.

[1] Her younger sister Cleopha died in June 1448, shortly before Charlotte's fourth birthday, leaving her the sole legitimate heir to the Cypriot throne and her father's titles.

The marriage might have been intitiated by John's aunt Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy, in order to acquire a naval base in the Mediterannean for safe passage of band of Burgundian Crusaders into the Holy Land.

But after a time the relationship between John and his mother in law had become so strained that he and Charlotte moved to the home of Peter of Lusignan.

[8] After a short illness, (allegedly due to poisoning by Helena)he died in 1457 and was buried in the Church of St. Francis in Nicosia.

Pope Pius II, who was acquainted with her described Charlotte as "a woman of about twenty-four, of middle height: bright eyes, complexion betwixt dark and pale; speech smooth and flowing torrent like after the manner of the Greeks; French costume; manners becoming her royal blood".

Charlotte had intended to maintain the continuity of the dynasty through her niece, and circa 1473, accompanied by Alonso, she visited Sultan Al-Asraf Khalil in Cairo to discuss a possible restoration to the throne.

The former queen's opponents ensured this would never happen by imprisoning the little girl in Padua; she died there before her twelfth birthday in 1480.

Instead, around February 1485, in exchange for an annual pension of 4,300 florins, Charlotte ceded her claims to her cousin's son, Charles I of Savoy, the next in the legitimate line of succession.