Geoffrey of Lusignan

This enmity resulted from the Lusignan claim to the County of La Marche, which was held by the Norman Montgommery family with the recognition of the Plantagenets.

When Count Aldebert IV sold the County of La Marche directly to King Henry II in 1177, It was Geoffrey, the head of the family, who once again took up arms to fight for the rights of the Lusignans.

His brother, Guy of Lusignan, had meanwhile risen to become King of Jerusalem, an almost unheard-of career leap which, according to the Chronicle of Ernoul, Geoffrey mockingly commented: "Next, he wants to become God!"

[3][4] In June 1191, in front of Acre, Geoffrey publicly insulted and challenged Conrad of Montferrat during the general parliament meeting to settle the conflict between him and his brother Guy.

After capturing the city, he was enfeoffed on 28 July 1191 with the county of Jaffa, then still occupied by Saladin and only reconquered in 1192 during the further course of the Third Crusade, ironically by Richard I, who was by then the Lusignans' most important ally in the Holy Land.

He moved in 1202 together with Prince Arthur of Brittany and his nephew Hugo IX against the castle of Mirebeau, on which the Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine was seated.