1/2 Gros - Amaury

Amaury of Tyre seized control of Cyprus in 1306 by effectively imprisoning his own brother, King Henry II, who was reportedly incapacitated by what chroniclers described as epileptic fits. Amaury ruled as Governor-General rather than king — a deliberately ambiguous title that reflected the political impossibility of formally deposing a crowned crusader monarch. His assassination in 1310 ended the experiment abruptly, and Henry II was restored. The four-year window this coin occupied is narrow enough that surviving examples are uncommon, and the type rarely appears in anything approaching undamaged condition.