Jean de Montfort

Who was Jean de Montfort?

Jean de Montfort was lord of Toron from 1257 to 1266 and Lord of Tyre from 1270 to 1283. He was the son of Philip of Montfort, and his second wife Maria of Antioch-Armenia.

When he came of age, he received the lordship of Toron from his father, but the Mamluks conquered it in 1266. On 22 September 1268 he married Marguerite de Lusignan, daughter of Henry of Antioch and of Isabella of Antioch. Marguerite de Lusignan was the sister of king Hugh III of Cyprus, who later became king of Jerusalem and negotiated a certain number of alliances with the nobility of the kingdom in order to shore up his pretence against Charles I of Sicily. On the occasion of this marriage, Hugh III confirmed Montfort's possession of Tyre but reserved the throne's right to retake the fiefdom if Jean and Marguerite died without issue.

Jean succeeded his father in 1270 after he was killed by the Assassins, and governed Tyre until his death in 1283. He had no children, so Hugh III allowed Humphrey of Montfort to succeed his brother.