Catherine Cornaro

Catherine Cornaro was Queen of Cyprus from 1474 - 1489. Daughter of a old Venetian family, she married James II of Cyprus in 1473. James died soon after the wedding, and she became Queen when their infant son James died in 1474. The kingdom had long since declined, and had been a tributary state of the Mameluks from 1426. Under Catherine, the island was controlled by Venetian merchants, and in 1489 she was forced to abdicate. The last Crusader State became a colony of Venice, and Catherine, the last ruler from the Lusignan dynasty, died in 1510.

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