Ruben II

Roupen II
Ռուբեն Բ
Lord of Cilicia
Lord of Armenian Cilicia
Reign1169–1170
PredecessorThoros II
SuccessorMleh I
Bornc. 1165
Died1170
Hromgla
HouseRoupenians
FatherThoros II
MotherAn unnamed daughter of Regent Thomas

Ruben II[citation needed] (Armenian: Ռուբեն Բ), also Roupen II[1][2] or Rupen II,[citation needed] (c.1165–1170) was the seventh lord of Armenian Cilicia[1] (1169–1170).[citation needed]

Roupen was the son of Thoros II, lord of Armenian Cilicia, by his second wife (and great niece) whose name is unknown.[citation needed] (Thomas was the child’s maternal grandfather).[citation needed] However, Thoros II’s brother, Mleh disputed the succession; Mleh had fled to Nur ad-Din (the emir of Aleppo) and become a Muslim after quarreling with Thoros II and attempting to assassinate him.[2]

Thoros left a child under age, whom he committed, together with the country, to the care of a certain Baron and Baillie Thomas, his father-in-law, with an injunction to deliver to him the country as soon as the child should have attained his majority. Mleh (…) was with the Sultan of Aleppo, and hearing of the death of his brother he came with an army into the country, and dealt very cruelly with its inhabitants. Not being able to conquer the possessions of his brother he returned to Aleppo, and came back with still greater forces. Receiving a message from the Armenian Barons that they would freely acknowledge him as their sovereign, he sent back the Turks, and governed in peace for some time. But he soon drove into exile the Baillie Thomas, who went afterwards to Antioch. The child of Thoros was killed by the command of Mleh by some wicked people.

— Smbat Sparapet: Chronicle[3]
  1. ^ a b Ghazarian, Jacob G. The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins (1080–1393).
  2. ^ a b Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades – Volume II.: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East: 1100–1187.
  3. ^ Smbat Sparapet (Sempad the Constable) (2005). "Chronicle". History Workshop: Armenian Historical Sources of the 5th–15th Centuries (Selected Works). Robert Bedrosian’s Homepage. Retrieved 2009-07-21.