ABSTRACT
Templars feature in comparatively few episodes: they purchased the island from King Richard of England in 1191 and ruled it until the early months of 1192; in the 1270s they quarrelled with the king of Cyprus, Hugh III, over their recognition of his rival, Charles of Anjou, as King of Jerusalem, and Hugh confiscated their Cypriot lands; they participated in some Cyprus-based military operations around the year 1300 which culminated in their occupation of Ruad; and, finally, there exists some interesting material from Cyprus on the circumstances of the suppression of the Order. At Easter 1191 the people of Nicosia rose in revolt. Another version of the same narrative tells us that the Templars mustered all the available Latins and that the total came to fourteen knights, twenty-nine other mounted men and seventy-four foot soldiers. Although they were richly endowed, the Templars are unlikely to have maintained a substantial military establishment in Cyprus before 1291.
