WI War of Cypriot Succession in 1489?

In 1468, James II the Bastard, became King of Cyprus. In 1473 he chose Caterina Cornaro for a wife and Queen of the Kingdom of Cyprus. The King's choice was extremely pleasing to the Republic of Venice as it could henceforth secure the commercial rights and other privileges of Venice in Cyprus.

James died soon after the wedding due to a sudden illness (or by poison), and according to his will, Caterina, who at the time was pregnant, acted as regent. She became Queen when their infant son James III died in August, 1474 before his first birthday, under suspicious circumstances.
The kingdom had long since declined, and had been a tributary state of the Mameluks since 1426. Under Caterina, who ruled the island from 1474 to 1489, the island was controlled by Venetian merchants, and in 1489 she was forced to abdicate and to cede the administration of the country to the Republic of Venice.

WI Charles I of Savoy claimed the title by force? He had a higher claim than Venice and ties with the Lusignans being the nephew of Charlotte de De Lusignan... He could petition Pope Innocent VIII (who was Genoese and Genoa had interests in Cyprus) to declare James II and Caterina Cornaro usurpers (because of James's illegitimacy) and be crowned as King of Cyprus... Thus leading to a War between Venice and Savoy/Genoa over the crown of Cyprus...
 
Hmm, that's interesting. Which sides would the powers then go for? France would probably side with Savoy, I would think.
 
It's quite possible that this would go down in history as the first of the Italian Wars. I can see this serving as the new catalyst for the OTL wars to cut down Venice and Milan to size.
 
Cyprus

I don't think that the Savoyans were that interested in taking over a poor, isolated, and weak kingdom. By the late 1400s, it was generally held that the kingdom would eventually fall to the Turks due to it's increasingly isolated position. And with the Savoyans being Roman Catholic, this would definitely not suit the majority Orthodox population of the island, which had suffered terribly under the rigid Catholicism of the Lusigans.
 
I don't think that the Savoyans were that interested in taking over a poor, isolated, and weak kingdom. By the late 1400s, it was generally held that the kingdom would eventually fall to the Turks due to it's increasingly isolated position. And with the Savoyans being Roman Catholic, this would definitely not suit the majority Orthodox population of the island, which had suffered terribly under the rigid Catholicism of the Lusigans.

Thats why i implicated the Papacy in this conflict... Pope Innocens VIII was Genoese and Genoa always tried to outbid Venice in trade... Innocens VIII could push the reluctant (in OTL) young Duke of Savoy to claim the Cyprus/Jerusalem Crown... If there is an alliance of Savoy/Genoa and possibly France against Venice that could disturb the balances in Italy and weaken Venice significantly and at the same time the French influence would grow in Italy...
 
Cyprus

The Genoese were only recently expelled from Famagusta. I can't see the native Cypriots supporting a Genoese/Savoyan alliance. They tended to ignore the foreign monarchs who quarreled and fought over the throne.
 
The Genoese were only recently expelled from Famagusta. I can't see the native Cypriots supporting a Genoese/Savoyan alliance. They tended to ignore the foreign monarchs who quarreled and fought over the throne.

Well Pope Innocens VIII besides a Genoese he was fond of Crusading too... He could persuade France/Savoy/Genoa that capturing Cyprus from Venice would be the first step to a new Crusade against Levant... Plus he had a good bargaining card against any attempts of Ottomans to intervene in Cyprus or the Levant... He was holding the Sultan's brother Cem a prisoner and threatened to release him any time if they tried anything funny...
 
Cyprus.

Why would France be interested in this? At that time, France was still suffering from the effects of the long war with England. I doubt they would have given any support.
 
Why would France be interested in this? At that time, France was still suffering from the effects of the long war with England. I doubt they would have given any support.

By 1489 Charles VIII of France was given the Kingdom of Naples by the Pope (in which he had a vague claim) because Innocens VIII was at odds with Ferrante I of Naples... Given the fact that Charles had already bought succession rights from the Palaelogi family to the Byzantine Crown a very romantic idea could have grown in his head if Cyprus was on stake too...
 
Charles VIII and the reconstitution of the Byzantium through possession of Cyprus

Chairetai, fellow Cypriot-history ponderers...:)

I think what you propose about Charles VIII and Cyprus was just beyond his abilities.

Charles, known as the Affable, was thought of by contemporaries as a kindly but not very effective King. He was also poorly for most of his short life and there seems evidence that he was quite a passive character and not very dynamic.

His big foreign policy adventure, in Italy, totally ensnared him in a web of intrigue with much trickier and cleverer characters than he could handle. Ultimately, he retreated from Naples leaving behind military defeat, political failure and huge debts for the Exchequer.

If you are proposing that a POD for the reconstituting of a Byzantine State, under a Catholic Monarch, should begin in Charles VIII's reign, and proceed via the capture of the Kingdom of Cyprus, then quite frankly you need a brilliant tactical and strategic genius as the "power behind the throne". There weren't too many of those in Charles' court, which probably added to the failures described above.

Maybe you can think of a POD featuring one of the more dynamic Kings of Cyprus, perhaps a century or two before, and involving some sort of alliance or dynastic marriage with an unfallen Byzantine Empire...;)
 
Well France and Genoa could ally with Savoy (and thus supporting the Savoyard claim over Cyprus) not only beacause of a romantic Crusading idea but to overthrow the Venetian dominance in Eastern Mediterranean too... Genoa would emerge then as a new trade centre while Venice could end up (if they loose the war) as a French outpost in Italy or a Milanese protectorate... But in such a case and if Rodrigo Cardinal Borja is still elected Pope in 1492 i can see a war between French and Papal States...
 
Well Pope Innocens VIII besides a Genoese he was fond of Crusading too... He could persuade France/Savoy/Genoa that capturing Cyprus from Venice would be the first step to a new Crusade against Levant... Plus he had a good bargaining card against any attempts of Ottomans to intervene in Cyprus or the Levant... He was holding the Sultan's brother Cem a prisoner and threatened to release him any time if they tried anything funny...

Cem was a fairly weak bargaining card, and would not have stopped Ottoman intervention if there was a good reason for it. The establishment of a Crusading Latin state in Cyprus far outweighs the danger from a rival claimant to the throne.

The Ottomans went after Constantinople largely because the Union threatened just such a situation.

I think it's unlikely that the Ottomans won't be appealed to in this situation or that they'll just sit it out. Beyazid's overriding concern was to evict the Venetian's from the Morea - If hard pressed, I wouldn't put it past the Venetians to evacuate their citadels there in exchange for Ottoman assistance in Cyprus.
 
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