A Medieval Golden Parachute

When the crusade was about to be resumed, Richard thought that Cyprus just would be a burden to him. He sold the island to the Order of the Knights Templar. A year later, Guy de Lusignan, the previous king of Jerusalem, took up this contract of sale as a consolation for his losses in the Holy Land. The Sultan Saladin, the illustrious supreme commander of the Islamic armies of the Middle East, had recaptured the Holy City to the Muslims. Thus Cyprus became part of some kind of a medieval golden parachute. In this way a Frankish rule for 300 years began, in the form of the Lusignan dynasty.