of tussles between Hugh and a rather lesserfigure, Bertrand of Réaulx.
Despite repeated injunctions, Hugh was still in possession of the con-
tested territory of Bovino, near Foggia, as late as 1283. In fact, long after
his death, the government at Naples was able to enumerate a list of three
other lordships that Hugh had occupied illegally.^122
It is quite clear that, for thefirst few years, at least, Hugh saw all of this
as steps on the road to a possible invasion of Cyprus. In 1275, it seems,
he accompanied Charles on a mission to Rome, and it is possible that
the matter was discussed there.^123 Whatever the truth on this particular
point, it is noteworthy that, in the same year, the pope, Gregory X, wrote
to Charles to try to prevent the enterprise.^124 It is easy to underestimate
the significance of these developments, but it is believable that Hugh’s
constant imprecations about the doubtful legality of the Lusignan regime
played a significant part in the events that followed over the course of the
next couple of years. In 1277, with papal approval, Charles completed his
purchase of the rights to the crown of Jerusalem from the disappointed
claimant, Maria of Antioch.^125 This was the start of direct Angevin
involvement in the affairs of the Latin East, which would do so much
to confuse and complicate matters as the mainland Crusader States
staggered towards theirfinal extinction.
The growth of Hugh’s power on one side of the Adriatic, though, had
much more impact on the other–that is, in Angevin Greece. It is clear
that Hugh crossed to and fro quite a lot, certainly from the mid-1270s
onwards.^126 This may well provide the context for his marriage to
Isabella de la Roche, sister of the duke of Athens and widow of Geoffrey,
lord of Karytaina.^127 The couple produced a son, the future Count
Walter V, and a daughter, Agnes.^128 However, Isabella’s death–perhaps
(^122) SeeRCA, xviii, reg. 80, no. 554; xxvii, reg. 115, nos. 110, 318; xxxii, reg. 11, no. 39;
xliii, reg. 42, no. 480; xlv, reg. 51, no. 22; xlvi, reg. 57, no. 607; and also de Sassenay,
Brienne, 144 n. 1.
(^123) See Dunbabin,The French in the Kingdom of Sicily, 143.
(^124) Bullarium Cyprium, compiled by C. Schabel, 3 vols. (Nicosia, 2010–), vol. ii, i–12.
(^125) For an alternative view, placing the onus entirely on the pope, see Dunbabin,Charles I of
Anjou, 96. p. 93.
(^126) RCA, xv, reg. 77, no. 69; xvi, reg. 78, no. 303; xx, additions to reg. 82, no. 12; xxi, add.
to reg. 89, no. 420.
(^127) The marriage is described inCrusaders as Conquerors: The Chronicle of the Morea, ed. and
tr. H. E. Lurier (London, 1964), 275–6. See also C. T. M. Shawcross,The Chronicle of
the Morea: Historiography in Crusader Greece(Oxford, 2009), 260–3. It is interesting to
note that Geoffrey’s family had originally hailed from Briel (mod. Briel-sur-Barse), near
Troyes, where they had been vassals of the houses of Champagne and Brienne. For this,
see T. Evergates,‘The Origins of the Lords of Karytaina in the Frankish Morea’,
128 Medieval Prosopography15, part 1 (1994), 89.
Walter’s birth is mentioned inCrusaders as Conquerors, 276.
128 The Angevins and Athens (c. 1267–1311)