Hugh IV of Cyprus

[4] 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.

[4] On 31 March 1324, when King Henry died, a hurried assembly of liege men swore to protect Hugh's rights against any challengers.

[12] One of Hugh's first acts upon his accession was having the High Court declare the forfeiture of the fiefs of all the vassals who had resisted his predecessor's restoration.

In 1318, after her death, Hugh obtained a papal dispensation to marry her distant kinswoman Alice of Ibelin, with whom he had at least eight children, of whom five reached adulthood.

Having plenty of children enabled Hugh to forge dynastic links with Western European rulers, which his predecessors had little luck achieving.

[18] The outbreak of France's Hundred Years' War with England in 1337 put an end to Louis's hopes to lead a crusade.

Hugh may have hoped to salvage his relationship with the Aragonese as well as to save money by providing an income for John out of Constance's Cypriot and Armenian dowers.

By the time this wealthy and significantly older wife, Eschiva of Montfort, died, Peter was regarded as the heir apparent to the throne and his marriage could be used to further Hugh's interests in foreign affairs.

[19] This appears to be corroborated by the king's actions in 1349 when his sons Peter and John secretly and against his wishes left Cyprus for a visit to Western Europe.

Hugh worked hard and spent a lot to retrieve them, whereupon he had them imprisoned at Kyrenia Castle until the pope intervened.

Pope Clement VI expressed his endorsement of the grandson's claim provided that the clause existed, but the text of the contract as published by the 19th-century French historian Louis de Mas Latrie does not contain it.

The payment of Maria's dower remained contentious, and the king apparently ignored the pope's requests to provide an income for her son.

[22] On 24 November 1358, in an effort to pre-empt his grandson's claim, Hugh IV had Peter crowned king of Cyprus.