HUGH III

died 1284 French Hugues king of Cyprus and Jerusalem who founded the house of Antioch-Lusignan that ruled Cyprus until 1489. Succeeding his cousin Hugh II as king of Cyprus in 1267, he obtained the disputed crown of the dwindling crusader kingdom of Jerusalem two years later. The efforts of his rival, Charles I of Anjou, king of Sicily, who also claimed his rights to be a king of Jerusalem, and the resistance of his subjects prevented him from effectively establishing his authority in the Holy Land.