Lusignan

The House of Lusignan began as petty lords of Lusignan castle in Poitou, traced to the early tenth century, and legend made the water-sprite Melusine its foundress. Its French branch became counts of La Marche, and Hugh X's marriage to Isabella of Angouleme added Angouleme in 1220; that line ended with Philip IV's annexation of La Marche in 1314.

A younger branch meanwhile rose in the Latin East: Guy of Lusignan wore the crown of Jerusalem, and in 1192, after the Third Crusade, the family settled on Cyprus, ruling from Nicosia for nearly three centuries. In 1337 a Lusignan still ruled a prosperous island enriched by Famagusta's trade.

By marriage it inherited the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia in the mid-fourteenth century, losing it to the Mamluks in 1375. After capturing King Janus in 1426, the Mamluks made Cyprus a tributary state, and in 1489 the last queen, Catherine Cornaro, was forced to sell the island to Venice, ending the Lusignan royal line.