Guy of Lusignan (c. 1150 – 1194) was king of Jerusalem, first as the husband and co-ruler of Queen Sibylla from 1186 to 1190, then as disputed ruler from 1190 to 1192. He was also lord of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194. As king, Guy was highly unpopular amongst the nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and is often blamed for the fall of the kingdom to Saladin.
Guy, a Frankish Poitevin knight, was the youngest son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan. After killing Patrick, 1st Earl of Salisbury, in a failed attempt to kidnap Eleanor of Aquitaine, he was banished from Poitou. After arriving in the Holy Land at an unknown date from 1173 to 1180, Guy was hastily married to Sibylla, the sister of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, in 1180 to prevent a political coup. As Baldwin's health deteriorated due to his leprosy, he appointed Guy as regent in 1183. However, Guy proved to be unpopular and incompetent as a leader, and Baldwin IV resumed power later that year. He stripped Guy of his inheritance, naming Baldwin V, Sibylla's son by her first husband William, as his co-king and eventual successor instead. Baldwin IV died in 1185, followed shortly by the sickly Baldwin V in 1186, leading to the succession of Sibylla. Sibylla was told to annul her marriage to Guy in order to ascend to the throne on the condition that she would be allowed to pick her next husband, but astonished the court by choosing to remarry and crown Guy. Guy's reign was marked by increased hostilities with the Ayyubids, ruled by Saladin, culminating in the Battle of Hattin in July 1187—during which Guy was captured—and the fall of Jerusalem itself three months later.
Following a year of imprisonment in Damascus, Guy was released by Saladin and reunited with his wife. After being denied entry to Tyre, one of the last crusader strongholds, by Conrad of Montferrat, Guy besieged Acre in 1189. The siege, during which Guy's wife and children died during an epidemic, developed into a rallying point for the Third Crusade, led by Philip II of France and Richard I of England. Conrad married Sibylla's half-sister Isabella and entered a bitter conflict with Guy over the kingship of Jerusalem. Despite Richard's support for the widower king, the kingdom's nobility elected Conrad king in 1192, and Richard compensated Guy for the dispossession of his crown by giving him lordship of Cyprus. The Assassins killed Conrad days after his election; Guy ruled the Kingdom of Cyprus until he died in 1194 when he was succeeded by his elder brother Aimery.
Born c. 1150, Guy was a member of the House of Lusignan, the youngest son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and his wife, Burgundia of Rancon. The family's land holdings were in Poitou, which was a part of King Henry II of England's territories within the Kingdom of France. Both the Lusignans and the Rancons had a long history of involvement in the Crusades, starting with the participation of Guy's great-grandfather Hugh VI of Lusignan at the Battle of Ramla in 1102. Guy's grandfather, Hugh VII of Lusignan, and maternal uncle, Geoffrey the Poitevin, both took part in the Second Crusade. Guy's father also came to Jerusalem on a crusade, dying in Muslim captivity in the 1160s after the Battle of Harim.
On 27 March 1168, Guy and his brothers ambushed and killed Patrick, 1st Earl of Salisbury and governor of Poitou, who was escorting Eleanor of Aquitaine to Poitiers. They captured Patrick's nephew William the Marshal, then a knight-errant serving in his uncle's household, and allowed Eleanor to pay for his freedom. The brothers were subsequently banished from Poitou.
Guy went to Jerusalem at some date between 1173 and 1180, initially either as a pilgrim or Crusader. He also may have arrived with the French Crusaders of 1179. In 1174, his older brother Aimery married Eschiva, daughter of the powerful nobleman Baldwin of Ibelin, and entered court circles. Aimery also obtained the support of King Baldwin IV and of his mother Agnes of Courtenay, and he was appointed Agnes's Constable in Jaffa and later Constable of the Kingdom. Aimery's success likely facilitated Guy's social and political advancement whenever he arrived. However, as King Baldwin had leprosy, he was not expected to live much longer, making the kingdom's succession uncertain.
During the Holy Week in 1180, Raymond III of Tripoli and Bohemond III of Antioch, two of the most powerful men in the kingdom, were preparing to invade Jerusalem. Historian Bernard Hamilton believed they wished to force King Baldwin to have his sister, Sibylla, marry Baldwin of Ibelin, Aimery of Lusignan's father-in-law, and then to abdicate. They would therefore remove the King's mother, Agnes, from power and promote a local noble to the throne instead of a foreigner. Guy and Sibylla were hastily married at Eastertide to prevent this coup. The ceremony was noticeably hurried; the wedding was canonically invalid and there was no public notice.
From 1180, Guy held Jaffa and Ascsalon alongside Sibylla and had four daughters with her. Their marriage split the nobles into two factions: One faction supporting Guy primarily composed of Sibylla's maternal kin, and one faction opposing him, composed primarily of Sibylla's paternal kin. To prevent the opposing party from setting up a rival claimant, King Baldwin took his mother's advice and, in October 1180, betrothed his half-sister Isabella, the stepdaughter of Baldwin of Ibelin's brother Balian, to Humphrey IV of Toron. From March 1181, both Guy and Sibylla were associated with Baldwin IV in public acts such as charters.
Baldwin IV's leprosy worsened quickly; by 1183, he had become blind and could no longer walk unsupported or use his hands. Having developed a deadly fever, Baldwin summoned the High Court to his bedside in June and made Guy regent. Since Guy was next in line to the throne and Baldwin was not expected to survive, this regency was supposed to be permanent. The King kept only his royal title and his authority over the city of Jerusalem, but he made Guy swear that he would not crown himself king or alienate parts of the royal demesne as long as Baldwin was alive.
The powerful nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, namely Raymond III of Tripoli, Bohemond III of Antioch, and the grand masters of the military orders, refused to cooperate with Guy. Not wanting to anger them, Baldwin failed to give Guy any training in military leadership before making him regent. Baldwin unexpectedly recovered from his sickness and, now believing Guy to be incompetent and foolish, returned to Jerusalem to resume power. Finding that the coastal climate was better for his health, Baldwin offered Jerusalem to Guy in exchange for Tyre. Guy refused, likely because Tyre was more wealthy, leaving Baldwin deeply offended.
The wedding of Sibylla's half-sister, Isabella, and Humphrey IV of Toron was celebrated in Kerak in late 1183. Saladin attacked during the ceremony and laid siege to the castle, hoping to capture the newlyweds. The defence of the castle and the King's half-sister within it could not be entrusted to Guy, who was not able to effectively command the troops. Although Heraclius, along with the grand masters of the Templars and Hospitallers, tried to mediate in Guy's favor, it did not work; Raymond and Bohemond convinced the King to dismiss Guy from the regency. Since Guy's removal from power was essentially disinheritance, the nobles discussed the kingdom's succession. They accepted Agnes's proposal that Sibylla's five-year-old son from her first husband, Baldwin V, be crowned co-king. The coronation took place on 20 November, and the boy received the homage of all the barons except for Guy, who was not invited.
Despite his leprosy, Baldwin went with his troops to relieve the siege at Kerak. Although he was disgraced, Guy still led the men of Jaffa and Ascalon. After the battle, he went directly to Ascalon and asked Sibylla to join him there; the King wanted to annul Guy's marriage to her, which could not happen if the couple refused to show up in court. Guy and Sibylla refused to leave Ascalon despite the King's summons, foiling his plan to make them annul their marriage.