| Abstract: | This examination of the murder of King Peter I of Cyprus concentrates on trying to understand the grievances which led a group of his vassals to kill him. An attempt is made to bring the Cypriot narrative accounts of the event under critical control, in the course of which the murder is redated and the guilt of the king's brothers established. The careers of the other knights involved are then analysed, and this analysis — together with a survey of an ordonnance issued in the immediate aftermath of the murder — help place the deed in the context of the effects that Peter's warfare against the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt was having on Cypriot noble society. A suggestion is then offered as to why the vassals resorted to murder rather than relying on constitutional restraints to achieve their aims. |
