When in 1191 Richard I was fighting against the last Byzantine ruler of the island, Isaac Comnenus, he assigned the capture of the castles to Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem. According to the description of eyewitness Galfrid de Vinsauf, in the “Itinerary of Richard I”:
King Guy laid siege to the three forts, Cerines, Didimus and Butphenes, the two first he easily gained possession of; with the help of a guide who knew the ways and the placers of difficult access, the army approaching the fort of Cerines by land and by sea, assaulted it instantly…King Guy proceeded to attack the second fort, called Didimus, very strong by situation, and exposed to attack on no side; and those who were shut up therein prepared to defend themselves, and for some days kept throwing stones and darts at the besiegers, until they were commanded by the emperor to give it up; and in it the king placed the emperor’s daughter, to prevent her being recaptured.
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