Peter i was murdered on 16 January 1369. Later that same day his thirteen-year-old son was proclaimed king as Peter II. As the new monarch was too young to rule in his own right, it was necessary to appoint a regent, and the High Court immediately ratified the candidature of his uncle, John prince of Antioch. On the basis of thirteenth-century precedents it could have been argued that the widowed queen-mother should have been chosen instead: in 1218 Alice of Champagne had become regent for the infant Henry I, and in 1253 it was Plaisance of Antioch who nominally at least held the reins of government for Hugh II. But in 1369 Eleanor of Aragon was passed over. What in effect had happened was that the regicides themselves had seized power. The prince evidently enjoyed the support of the overwhelming majority of the nobility and was to remain the dominant figure in the kingdom until 1373. For her part, Eleanor became the focus for opposition to the new regime, increasingly determined to seek vengeance on her husband's killers.

The chief problems facing the regent were how to end the war with the Muslims and the related question of how to get the royal finances back on an even keel. As we have seen, since 1367 the Cypriots had been keeping up their attacks on the Mamlūk coastline in the hope of extracting advantageous terms in a negotiated settlement.