Knights in Armenia

These are the walls and a man made, rock cut ditch of the medieval, Hospitaller castle in Silifke (modern Turkey). The fortress was built n the early 13^th C. by a Catholic, Latin military order of the knights of St John. It served as a capital of a large lordship – a border march that was to guard the western border of the kingdom of Armenian Cilicia against the attack of the Turkish, Karaman emirate based in the nearby city of Larende. Although Cilicia was an Armenian kingdom – it shared the fate of the crusader states as a Christian outpost in the Levant. The kings of Armenia cooperated with the papacy and donated lands to Western European military orders – particularly the Teutonic knights and the knights of St John – in exchange for their military assistance. Silifke was the most impressive fortress constructed by Latins as a result of that cooperation.

The union between the Papacy and the Armenians was growing stronger. In 1222 the queen of Armenia, Zabel I (who was half Latin herself because her mother was a Frankish princess from Cyprus), married Philip, a Norman prince from Antioch, and thus, made him the rightful king of Armenian Cilicia. Latin rule over Cilicia, however, met with strong local resistance, just two years later Armenian barons rebelled and imprisoned and poisoned Philip. Betrayed, Zabel fled to the largest Latin held castle in the realm – Silifke, and asked the knights of St John for protection. The commander of the fortress was in a difficult position – his castle was soon surrounded by the Armenian army – the leaders of the revolt demanded that he hand the queen to them and that Zabel should merry again one the Armenian barons so that he would become the king. Rather than fighting the rebels – the commander sold his castle, together with queen Zabel inside, to the barons. In exchange, the barons paid the knights of St John and maintained the alliance with them. Civil war avoided and queen Zabel was forced to marry Hethum I who ruled the kingdom for 44 years and become one of its most powerful monarchs. Cilicia flourished and was strong enough to repel Turkish attacks. Although they did not protect Zabel, the knights of St John retained their position in Cilicia and continued to serve the kingdom.  Abandoning the queen as well as the castle of Silifke (which became part of the royal domain) was far from heroic but was seen as a small price to pay, for these later, positive developments. Nonetheless, part of me wonders what would happen if the knights would not betray Zabel – after all, when she sought help in Silifke, she was only 12 years old.