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Caterina Cornaro and the Colonization of Cyprus

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Part of the book series: Queenship and Power ((QAP))

Abstract

Married as a teenager to the last Lusignan King of Cyprus , James II, Caterina Cornaro achieved the surprising feat of translating her initial position of queen consort into that of queen regnant. Although she was always little more than a puppet of the Venetian Republic in whose favor she was eventually induced to abdicate, she and her story exercised an extraordinary fascination over both contemporaries and posterity; moreover, her principal rival for the crown of Cyprus was another potential queen regnant, Carlotta de Lusignan , James’s sister. This chapter examines the way these two women attempted to negotiate queenship , the conducting of trade , and the vexed question of whether Cyprus would be forced into the status of a colony of Venice .

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Acknowledgements

With thanks to Jim Fitzmaurice, Michael Paraskos, and Nicholas Coureas.

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Hopkins, L. (2017). Caterina Cornaro and the Colonization of Cyprus. In: Paranque, E., Probasco, N., Jowitt, C. (eds) Colonization, Piracy, and Trade in Early Modern Europe. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57159-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57159-1_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57158-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57159-1

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