Guy of Lusignan

French Poitevin knight and King of Jerusalem by right of marriage (c.1150–1194) (r. 1186–1192)

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Lived 1150–1194, aged 44France

France Historical Figures

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47 languages
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Era
1150–1194
Aged 44

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

The king who lost Jerusalem. Guy of Lusignan took the crown through his wife's defiant choice in 1186, led the kingdom straight into catastrophe at Hattin a year later, and watched Saladin dismantle nine decades of Crusader rule while he sat in a Damascus cell.

Biography

About

Guy, youngest son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan, fled Poitou after killing an earl in a botched kidnapping of Eleanor of Aquitaine. He arrived in the Holy Land sometime between 1173 and 1180, where Baldwin IV hastily married him to his sister Sibylla in 1180 to block a coup. Baldwin, dying of leprosy, made Guy regent in 1183 but stripped him of power within months for incompetence, naming Sibylla's young son Baldwin V as heir instead. When both Baldwins died by 1186, Sibylla was told to annul her marriage to ascend alone—then stunned the court by choosing Guy again and crowning him herself. His rei…

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