Volumes II and III of this work, comprising the history of the Frankish Period, were completed in manuscript while the issue of the War of 1939–45 was still in suspense, while communications in the world of scholarship were closed, and much material in this country that ought to have been consulted was inaccessible. Experience of the aftermath of the War of 1914–18 showed that it may be long before all such difficulties can be smoothed away. At the risk of leaving many points undecided, which reference to the relevant authority might settle in a moment, it has seemed better to present the work with a number of ragged edges, rather than postpone publication indefinitely in the hope of achieving a tidier result.

Such as it is, then, the material of these two volumes takes the history of the island from the Frankish settlement down to the Turkish conquest in 1571. The most difficult part of my task has been to maintain the true proportions in the picture of the role which Cyprus played in the political and military history of the age; its place within the framework of the feudal system and of Italian colonial adventure; its activity in the Crusades and generally in the struggle with Islam. The expert medievalist will probably find that this composition by one, whose training has been rather in the field of antiquity, is in this respect ill-balanced. But I trust that the domestic aspect of the story, with its picturesque parade of striking personalities, has not been inadequately presented.