Hethum II, King of Armenia

Hetoum II (also transliterated "Hethoum", "Hethum", "Het'um", or "Hayton" from Armenian: Հեթում Բ) (1266-August, 1307) was king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ruling from 1289 to 1293, 1295 to 1296 and 1299 to 1303, while Armenia was a client state of the Mongol Empire. He was the son of Leo II of Armenia and Kyranna de Lampron, and was part of the Hetoumid-family, being the grandson of Hetoum I, who had originally submitted Cilicia to the Mongols in the 1240s.

Hethum married Helvis de Lusignan, the daughter of King Hugh III of Cyprus. Hethum's son and heir Thoros was murdered in 1296 by the usurper Sempad.

Reign

In 1292 Armenia was invaded by Khalil, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, who had conquered the Kingdom of Jerusalem the year before, and Hromgla was sacked. Hethum was forced to abandon Behesni, Marash and Tel Hamdoun to the Turks. In 1293, he abdicated in favour of his brother Thoros III and entered the Armenian monastery of Mamistra.

However, Thoros III asked Hethum to resume the throne in 1295 to help renew the Mongol alliance. This effort was successful, and in 1296, Hethum and Thoros further allied with the powerful Byzantine Empire: they went to Constantinople to bestow their sister Rita upon the Caesar Michael IX Palaeologus. During their absence, their brother Sempad usurped the throne with the aid of Constantine, and captured them in Caesarea as they returned. Hethum and Thoros were imprisoned in the fortress of Partzerpert, where Hethum was partially blinded by cauterization. In 1298, Thoros was murdered in Partzerpert; but Constantine turned against Sempad and freed Hethum.

Hethum resumed the crown in 1299 after recovering from his blindness, and soon engaged Armenian troops alongside the Mongols in their attempts at conquering Syria.

Offensive into Syria

In the summer of 1299, King Hetoum II sent a message to the Mongol khan of Persia, Ghâzân to obtain his support. In response, Ghazan marched with his forces towards Syria and sent letters to the Franks of Cyprus (the King of Cyprus, and the heads of the Knights Templar, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights), inviting them to come join him in his attack on the Mamluks in Syria. [Demurger, p.143] The Mongols and their allies defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, on December 23 or 24, 1299. [Demurger-142] One group of Mongols then split off from Ghazan's army, and pursued the retreating Mamluk troops as far as Gaza, [Demurger, p.142 "The Mongols pursued the retreating troops towards the south, but stopped at the level of Gaza"] pushing them back to Egypt.

According to tradition, King Hethoum visited Jerusalem in 1300 after helping with the Mongol offensive. The origin of the account is a document by a medieval Armenian historian, Nerses Balients:

According to some historians, the account does not match with any other accounts by any other historians of the time period, and in modern times has been recognized as having originated from an unreliable source. In other words, it was simply Armenian propaganda of the time. [Angus Donal Stewart] [Amitai, "Mongol Raids into Palestine, 1987]

However, in "The Crusaders and the Crusader States", Andrew Jotischky used Schein's 1979 article and later 1991 book to state, "after a brief and largely symbolic occupation of Jerusalem, Ghazan withdrew to Persia" [Jotischky, "The Crusaders and the Crusader States", p. 249] . According to Peter Jackson in "The Mongols and the West", the Mongols liberated the Holy City. ["The Mongol liberation of the Holy City, of course, furnished the opportunity for Pope Boniface and Western chroniclers alike to castigate Latin princes by claiming that God had preferred a pagan ruler as His instrument", p.173, Peter Jackson, "The Mongols and the West"] Steven Runciman in "A History of the Crusades, III" stated that Ghazan penetrated as far as Jerusalem, but not until the year 1308. [Runciman, p.439. "Five years later, in 1308, Ghazzan again entered Syria and now penetrated as far as Jerusalem itself. It was rumoured that he would have willingly handed over the Holy City to the Christians had any Christian state offered him its alliance."] Claude Mutafian, in "Le Royaume Arménien de Cilicie" mentions the writings and the 14th century Armenian Dominican which claim that the Armenian king visited Jerusalem as it was temporarily removed from Muslim rule. [Claude Mutafian, p.73] Demurger, in "Les Templiers", mentions the possibility that the Mongols may have occupied Jerusalem, quoting an Armenian tradition describing that Hethoum celebrated mass in Jerusalem in January 1300. [Demurger, p.143]

According to the historian Claude Mutafian, this may be on this occasion that Hetoum II remitted his amber scepter to the Armenian convent of Saint James of Jerusalem. [Mutafian, p.73]

Defeat of Shaqhab

The remaining Templars from Cyprus continued making raids on the Syrian coast in early 1303, and ravaged the city of Damour, south of Beyrouth. As they had lost Ruad, though, they were not capable of providing important troops.Demurger, p158]

In 1303, the Mongols appeared in great strength (about 80,000) together with the Armenians, but they were defeated at Homs on March 30, 1303, and at the decisive Battle of Shaqhab, south of Damas, on April 21, 1303. It is considered to be the last major Mongol invasion of Syria. [Nicolle, p. 80] Also in 1303, Ghazan had again sent a letter to Edward I, in the person of Buscarello de Ghizolfi, reinterating Hulagu's promise that they would give Jerusalem to the Franks in exchange for help against the Mamluks. [Encyclopedia Iranica article] But Ghazan died on May 10, 1304, and dreams of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land were destroyed. Hethum resigned his crown to his nephew Leo and retired to a monastery, although he retained the office of Regent of Armenia.

In 1304, the Mamluks continued their assault on Cilician Armenia, and succeeded in taking back all the lands which the Armenians had acquired during the Mongol invasion. In 1305, he and Leo led an Armenian army to victory over Mameluke raiders at the Battle of Ayas.

In 1307, Hetoum II and Leon III were assassinated by the Mongol general of Cilicia, [Mutafian, p.73] Bilarghu, [ [http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=NUMM-51557&I=793&M=imageseule, Receuil des Historiens des Croisades, Documents arméniens I, p.664] ] following an internal plot against Hetoum's efforts to unite the Armenian Church with Rome.

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