Mleh of Armenia
Mleh of Armenia (died 1175) was prince of the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ruling from 1170 to 1175.
Exiled from Armenia for plotting the assassination of his half-brother
Thoros II of Armenia, he went to
Antioch and became a
Knight Templar. However, he soon after turned his coat again and left for
Aleppo, to take service with Emir
Nur ad-Din, where he is accused by some chroniclers of having converted to
Islam. Nur ad-Din supported the ambitions of the disaffected Mleh, and upon the death of Thoros in 1169, sent him into
Cilicia with an army.
Ruben II was a minor child, and the Regent Thomas could not resist the invasion. He fled to Antioch, where he was murdered on the orders of Mleh; Ruben, left in episcopal custody at
Hromgla, was poisoned.
Mleh, while he hated the
Latin Crusader princes, also despised the
Byzantines, and drew his support from the Islamic states. Nonetheless, his military position was such that he obtained recognition from
Manuel I Comnenus as ruler of Cilicia in 1173. At home, he practiced all manner of extortion and tyranny and accumulated a great deal of wealth. In 1175, his barons seized an opportunity and murdered him in
Sis, summoning his nephew
Ruben III to take the throne.
* T.S.R. Boase, editor.
The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia. Scottish Academic Press, 1978.
*
The Barony of Cilician Armenia (Kurkjian's History of Armenia, Ch. 27)
*
Smbat Sparapet's Chronicle
