← Explore on the interactive map

Kingdom of Cilician Armenia

Type Object Region Anatolia Time 1080–1375

Armenian exile state founded by the Rubenid dynasty in 1080 in the Cilician mountains under Byzantine and Seljuk pressure, with Sis as capital;…

Timeline

  1. 1080–1198Cilician highlands · CiliciaArmenian nobles such as Ruben I, amid the collapse of Byzantine eastern power and Seljuk expansion, held the Tarsus–Cilician highlands, establishing an exile Armenian principality centered on a network of castles and gradually breaking free of Byzantine suzerainty.
  2. 1198–1219Sis · CiliciaLeo II received recognition of his royal title from Pope Celestine III and the Holy Roman Empire, allying with Antioch, Jerusalem, and Cyprus; the kingdom became a logistical and diplomatic hub for the crusaders in the East, while Leo I in his later years maintained treaty networks with Western and Near Eastern Christian powers.
  3. 1219–1375Sis · CiliciaAfter Leo I died in 1219, his daughter Zabel succeeded him, later marrying Hetum I to consolidate the Rubenid–Hetumid dynasty; under pressure from Mongol invasions and Mamluk expansion the kingdom gradually lost its coastal territories, until the capital fell in 1375 and the Armenian royal house went into exile.

Sources