The mountain lords of Cilicia

These are the ruins of the medieval, Armenian fortress of Anavarza in Cilicia (modern Turkey). Located on a high plateau on top of a mountain  and surrounded by steep, almost vertical walls of solid rock, Anavarza was one of the largest and most important castles of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia. It was also a seat of an Armenian archbishop who had his cathedral built in the castle. On the right side of the photograph, you can see the gate tower that separated the outer bailey, where the magnificent cathedral of Toros is located from the upper bailey where the Armenian mountain lords had their dwellings and chapel. Just below the main crack on the wall of the tower, you can still see the preserved, white plaque with medieval, Armenian inscription commemorating the Armenian lord who constructed it (you might need to click full view to see it accurately)

The lords of Anavarza were refugees from the destroyed, Armenian capital of Ani in Armenia which was first conquered by the Byzantine armies and soon afterwards, ravaged once again by the Turks. The emperor in Constantinople offered to accept them as his servants and offered them imperial titles but they refused and gradually, carved their own domain in the frontier, mountainous region of Cilicia by fighting both the Turks and Byzantine armies. Seen as traitors by the Greeks, and attacked by both Byzantine and Islamic forces, the Armenians endured and proved to be valuable allies to the newly established crusader states of Antioch and Edessa. Their close cooperation with the crusaders, albeit difficult and marked by border conflicts with Antioch, was rewarded with the support of the Pope in Rome and the German Emperor who both agreed to crown the Armenian ruler of Cilicia as king. Thus, on the 6^th of January 1198 in the presence of the Imperial chancellor, Conrad of Hildesheim, and the papal legate, Conrad of Mainz, the first king of Armenian Cilicia, Leon, was crowned. In the style of the western kings, the monarchs of Cilicia encouraged their knights to adopt western customs and coats of arms and to intermarry with Frankish nobility. They also invited western monastic orders, including the knights of St. John and the Teutonic knights to settle in their lands. They also offered protection to refugees from the principality of Antioch after the city of Antioch was taken by the Islamic forces. Despite their royal title, however, many chroniclers continued to refer to the Armenian kings simply as ‘The Lords of the Mountains’ to emphasize that much of their medieval kingdom comprised fortresses high in the mountains where first Armenian refugees, warlords and brigands settled after defying the authority of Constantinople and promising revenge for the destruction of their ancestral homeland.