Richard, after wintering in Sicily, had set sail en route to the Holy Land as a leader of the Third Crusade, but in April 1191 his fleet is scattered by storms off Cyprus.

Two ships are wrecked off the southern coast, and a third, carrying Richard's fiancee Berengaria of Navarre, seeks shelter in Lemesos (Limassol).

The wrecked ships are plundered and the survivors robbed by the forces of the usurper governor Isaac Komnenos, and the party of the bride-to-be is prevented from obtaining provisions and fresh water.

When Richard arrives and learns of these affronts, he takes time out from crusading, first to marry Berengaria in the chapel of the fortress at Lemesos and then to capture Cyprus and depose Komnenos.

The capture of Cyprus, seemingly a footnote to history, actually proves beneficial to the crusaders whose foothold in the Holy Land has almost been eliminated by the Muslim commander Saladin.

Cyprus will become a strategically important logistic base and will be used as such for the next hundred years.