Margaret of Antioch-Lusignan

Margaret of Antioch-Lusignan (; 1244 - 30 January 1308), also known as Margaret of Tyre, was an Outremer noblewoman who ruled the Lordship of Tyre in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. A member of the House of Antioch-Lusignan, she married John of Montfort, Lord of Tyre, and was granted rule of the city as widow in 1284. She concluded a truce with the Egyptian sultan Al-Mansur Qalawun and ruled until 1291, when she ceded the lordship and moved to Cyprus. Dynastic position Margaret was the younger child of the Lusignan Cypriot princess Isabella and Henry, member of the Ramnulfid dynasty which ruled the Principality of Antioch. Like her brother, King Hugh III of Cyprus, Margaret adopted her mother's name. The Templar of Tyre, who served as her page in 1268, recorded that she was "particularly fair of face" at the time, but that later in life she became "enormously fat" and started to resemble her father. According to British historian Steven Runciman, Margaret was considered "the loveliest girl of her generation". King Hugh III of Cyprus, Margaret's brother, became also King of Jerusalem in 1268, ending a long period of absentee Hohenstaufen kings during which the city of Tyre had been alienated from the royal demesne by Philip of Montfort. Hugh was, however, not only too weak to act against Philip but also needed his help in defending the remnants of the kingdom against the neighbouring Mamluk Sultanate. The two men thus came to an agreement: Philip's son John would marry Margaret and Hugh would grant Tyre to John and his descendants by Margaret.