Levon the Great

Levon the Great was the first king of Cilician Armenia, of the Rubenid dynasty. He reigned from 1199 to 1219 and rebuilt Armenian power after the Seljuks had scattered the Armenians.¹

He sought a royal crown from both the pope and the German emperor. In 1198, with the approval of the pope, Archbishop Conrad of Mainz presented him with the royal insignia on behalf of Emperor Henry VI, and Cardinal Conrad of Wittelsbach, the legate of Pope Celestine III, crowned him. His good relations with the emperors Frederick I Barbarossa and Henry VI helped make this possible.²¹

He allied the Armenian kingdom with the West, although the Byzantine emperor had also courted him, and he joined the Crusaders at Cyprus and Acre.¹² The Rubenids held the crown until 1226.³