Levon II of Armenia (King)

For another Armenian monarch occasionally referred to as Leo II, see Levon I of Armenia

Levon II Լեիոն Բ
King
Predecessor	Hetoum I
Successor	Hetoum II
Dynasty	House of Lambron

Levon II or Leo II (occasionally numbered III) (Armenian: Լեիոն Բ, c. 1236-1289) was king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ruling from 1269^[1]/1270 to 1289. He was the son of Hethoum I of Armenia and Queen Zabel of Armenia and was a member of the Hetoumid family. His name is sometimes spelled as Leo or Leon.

In 1262 Leo married Keran (Kir Anna), the daughter of Prince Hethum of Lampron. In 1266 Leo was captured and his younger brother Thoros killed while fighting the Mamluk invaders. Leo was ransomed by his father, who abdicated in his favour shortly after. He was known as a pious king, devoted to Christianity. During twenty-one years of marriage Leo had fifteen children by his wife Keran, eight sons and seven daughters. Two sons and two daughters died at an early age. Five of his children reached the throne. The eldest, Hethum II of Armenia, abdicated after four years in favor of his younger brother Thoros III of Armenia, but was placed back on the throne in 1294. In 1296, their brother Sempad of Armenia strangled Thoros and blinded Hethum, in order to seize power. Sempad was then overthrown in 1298 by their younger brother Constantine III of Armenia, who was replaced by older brother Hethum, who then abdicated in 1305 in favor of Thoros's son Leo IV of Armenia.^[1]

1. Hethum II (ruled 1289 to 1293, 1294 to 1297, 1299 to 1307)
2. Princess Fimi of Armenia (born c. 1266)
3. Princesse Sybil of Armenia (born c. 1269)
4. Thoros III (ruled 1293 to 1298)
5. Prince Ruben of Armenia (born c. 1272)
6. Princess Zablun of Armenia (born c. 1274)
7. Isabelle (Zabel) or Sybil, Princess of Armenia (born c. 1276)

The Mamluks kill Thoros and capture Levon at the disaster of Mari, 1266: illumination from Le Livre des Merveilles, 15th century

Leon II, queen Guerane, and their five children, 1272.

1. Sempad (ruled 1297 to 1299)
2. Constantine III (ruled 1299)
3. Isabella of Armenia (died c. 1321), who married Amalric of Tyre
4. Princess Theophane of Armenia (born c. 1278)
5. Rita of Armenia, who married Michael IX Palaeologus, co-Emperor of the Byzantine Empire with his father Andronicus II Palaeologus
6. Prince Nerses of Armenia (born c. 1279}
7. Oshin (ruled 1308 to 1320)
8. Prince Alinakh of Armenia (born c. 1283}

Five of the fifteen children, Hetoum, Thoros, Sembat, Constantine, and Oshin, later became the Armenian kings, who often fought each other to gain the throne. Finally, it were the descendants of his daughter Isabella that would inherit the throne. He was succeeded by his son Hetoum II.

Notes

Bibliography

• Boase, T. S. R. (1978). The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. ISBN 0-7073-0145-9. 
• Toumanoff, C. (1966). "Armenia and Georgia", Cambridge Medieval History, vol. IV.