Leo V of Armenia

In 1365, Pope Urban V selected Leo as the potential ruler of Cilician Armenia, but Constantine IV ascended the throne instead. After Constantine IV's murder, Catholicos Constantine V led the people in crowning Leo on September 14, 1374. However, his reign encountered internal opposition concerning the spiritual authority of the Pope. Leo ruled until April 13, 1375, when he was overthrown and captured following the Fall of Sis by an invading army from the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt led by Sultan Al-Ashraf Sha'ban, ending the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. In July 1377, he met monk Jean Dardel, who accompanied him as counselor, ambassador, and historian-biographer. Leo was held hostage in Alexandria, Egypt with his wife and daughter for seven years until ransomed by the King of Castile, John I. In October 1382, he embarked from Alexandria to Europe. ==Life in Europe==

Leo arrived ill and poor to Medina del Campo. King John I of Castile gifted Leo V the lordship of Madrid together with those of Villa Real and Andújar in 1383. The Madrilenian concejo made sure that the privilege of lordship did not become hereditary, also presumably receiving a non-sale privilege guaranteeing never again to be handed over by the Crown to a lord. He was also provided an annual gift of 150,000 maravedis. Leon rebuilt the towers of the Royal Alcázar. According to father Juan de Mariana, Leo left Castile for France after the death of his protector in 1390. Federico Bravo, however, states that he left after two years of ruling, and five years later, the Madrilenians were conceded the revocation of the lordship by John. Leo V apparently went to Paris in June 1384, and received the Saint-Ouen castle and a sizable pension from King Charles VI of France. He attempted to reconcile the French and the English (at the time fighting against each other in the Hundred Years' War) in order to set up a new Crusade and obtain help to recover his lands, but the meeting he organized in 1386 between Boulogne and Calais were unsuccessful. Leo continued his diplomatic mission to England in 1389 and in 1392. ==Death==

, Paris. , France. Leo V never recovered his throne, and died in Paris on November 29, 1393. His remains were laid to rest in the Couvent des Célestins, the second most important burial site for royalty after the Saint-Denis Basilica, located near what is now the Place de la Bastille in Paris. The prestigious convent was located nearby Leo's residence of Hôtel des Tournelles, itself near Hôtel Saint-Pol, the favourite residence of Charles V and Charles VI in the area of Le Marais. Leo received lavish funerals and had a lavish tomb, located in the choir of the church. However, the convent was profanated during the French Revolution. He had one legitimate daughter, Marie de Lusignan (ca 1370 – Cairo, before July 4, 1381, who predeceased her mother and father), and two illegitimate sons, Guy de Lusignan or Guido de Armenia (died 1405), a Canon in Autun, Bayeux, Paris and Arras and Captain de la Tour d'Amblay, and Stephan or Etienne de Lusignan, a Knight in Sis. Upon his death the title of King of Armenia was claimed by Leo's second cousin James I of Cyprus. ==See also==