Duchy of Athens

Duchy of Athens Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν (Greek) Ducat d'Atenes (Catalan)
1205–1458
Arms of the Duchy under the de la Roche family
Morea		1444
• Ottoman conquest	1458
Currency	Denier tournois
Preceded by Succeeded by Byzantine Empire Ottoman Empire
Today part of	Greece

The Duchy of Athens (

in the 15th century.

History

Establishment of the Duchy

The first duke of

: Μέγας Κύρης, "Great Lord"), from which the shortened form "Megaskyr", often used even by the Franks to refer to the Duke of Athens, is derived.

Athens was originally a

Treaties of Viterbo

in 1267.

The Duchy occupied the

Acropolis

in Athens served as the palace for the dukes.

Aragonese conquest

The Duchy was held by the family of la Roche until 1308, when it passed to

, where his claims to the Duchy were still recognized.

In 1312, the Catalans recognized the suzerainty of King Frederick III of Sicily, who appointed his son Manfred as Duke. The ducal title remained in the hands of the Crown of Aragon until 1388, but actual authority was exercised by a series of vicars-general. In 1318/19 the Catalans conquered Siderokastron and the south of Thessaly as well, and created the Duchy of Neopatras, united to Athens. Part of Thessaly was conquered from the Catalans by the Serbs in the 1340s.

Under Aragonese rule, the feudal system continued to exist, not anymore under the

instead of French. Each city and district—on the example of Sicily—had its own local governor (veguer, castlà, capità), whose term of office was fixed at three years and who was nominated by the Duke, the vicar-general or the local representatives. The principal towns and villages were represented by the síndic, which had their own councils and officers. Judges and notaries were elected for life or even inherited offices.

Decline and fall

In 1379 the

and part of the Duchy of Neopatras. Meanwhile, the Aragonese kept another part of Neopatras and Attica.

After 1381 the Duchy was ruled by the

captured Athens. Neopatras was occupied in 1390.

From 1395 to 1402 the

Kings of Spain

, up to the present day.

The Latin Church in the Duchy of Athens

Athens was the seat of a

, however, an educated Catalan, had a successful career in Greece as archbishop.

The Parthenon, which had been the Orthodox church of the Theotokos Atheniotissa, became the Catholic Church of Saint Mary of Athens. The Greek Orthodox church survived as an underground institution without official sanction by the governing Latin authorities. The Greek clergy had not typically been literate in the twelfth century and their education certainly worsened under Latin domination, when their church was illegal.^[3]

The archdiocese of Thebes also lay within the Athenian duchy. Unlike Athens, it had no suffragans.^[4] However, the Latin archbishopric produced several significant figures as archbishops, such as Simon Atumano. It had a greater political role than Athens because it was situated in the later capital of the duchy at Thebes. Under the Catalans, the Athenian diocese had expanded its jurisdiction to thirteen suffragans, but only the dioceses of Megara,^[5] Daulia, Salona, and Boudonitza lay within the duchy itself. The archiepiscopal offices of Athens and Thebes were held by Frenchmen and Italians until the late fourteenth century, when Catalan or Aragonese people began to fill them.

Dukes of Athens

De la Roche family

Of Burgundian origin, the dukes of the petty lordly family from La Roche renewed the ancient city of Plato and Aristotle as a courtly European capital of chivalry. The state they built around it was, throughout their tenure, the strongest and most peaceful of the Latin creations in Greece.

• Otto
  (1205–1225)
• Guy I (1225–1263)
• John I (1263–1280)
• William I (1280–1287)
• Guy II (1287–1308)

Briennist claimants

The Athenian parliament elected the

.

• Walter V of Brienne
  (1308–1311)
• Joanna of Châtillon (1311–1354)
• Walter VI of Brienne
  (1311–1356)
• Isabella of Brienne
  (1356–1360)
• Sohier of Enghien
  (1356–1367)
• Walter IV of Enghien
  (1367–1381)
• Louis of Enghien
  (1381–1394)

Aragonese domination

The annexation of the duchy to first the

.

• Roger Deslaur (1311–1312)
• Manfred
  (1312–1317)
• William II
  (1317–1338)
• John II (1338–1348)
• Frederick I
  (1348–1355)
• Frederick II
  (1355–1377)
• Maria (1377–1379)
• Peter IV (1379–1387)

Catalan vicars-general

These were the vicars-general of the Crown of Sicily, and after 1379 of the Crown of Aragon.

• Berenguer Estañol (1312–1316)^[6]
• Alfonso Fadrique (1317 – ca. 1330)^[7]
• Walter VI of Brienne in 1331^[8]
• Nicholas Lancia (ca. 1331–1335)^[8]
• Raymond Bernardi (1354–1356)^[9]
• Gonsalvo Ximénez of Arenós (1359)^[10]
• Matthew of Moncada (1359–1361)^[10]
• Peter de Pou (1361–1362)^[10]
• Roger de Llúria (1362–1369/70), de facto and unrecognized until 1366^[11]
• Gonsalvo Ximénez of Arenós (1362–1363), uncertain^[10]
• Matthew of Moncada (1363–1366), only de jure^[10]
• Matthew of Peralta (1370–1374)^[12]
• Louis Fadrique (1375–1382)^[12]
• Philip Dalmau, Viscount of Rocaberti (1379–1386, de facto only during his stay in Greece 1381–1382)^[13][14]
  • Raymond de Vilanova (1382–1386), deputy of Philip Dalmau after his departure from Greece^[15]
• Bernard of Cornellà (1386–1387), never actually went to Greece^[16]
• Philip Dalmau, Viscount of Rocaberti (1387–1388)^[17]
  • Peter of Pau (1386–1388), deputy of Bernard of Cornellà and then of Philip Dalmau in Greece until the fall of Athens to Nerio Acciaioli^[18]

Acciaioli family

The Florentine Acciaioli (or Acciajuoli) governed the duchy from their removal of the Catalans, with the assistance of the Navarrese. While Nerio willed the city and duchy to Venice, it returned to the Florentines until the Turkish conquest.

• Nerio I (1388–1394)
• Antonio I (1394–1395)
• Venetian control (1395–1402), under podestàs:
  • Albano Contarini (1395–1397)
  • Lorenzo Venier (1397–1399)
  • Ermoaldo Contarini (1399–1400)
  • Nicolo Vitturi (1400–1402)
• Antonio I (1402–1435), restored
• Nerio II (1435–1439)
• Antonio II (1439–1441)
• Nerio II (1441–1451), restored
• Claire (1451–1454)
  • with Bartolomeo Contarini (1451–1454)
• Francesco I (1451–1454)
• Francesco II (1455–1458)

The Duchy, Dante Alighieri, and William Shakespeare

Italian poet

. In Dante's Divine Comedy (especially in Inferno), there are many references to Pelasgian mythology, and the poet connects them to Late Middle Ages Balkans, such as with the Duke of Athens.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

References

Sources

• ISBN 0-472-08260-4
  .
• OCLC 563022439
  .
• Setton, Kenneth M. (1975). Catalan Domination of Athens 1311–1380 (Revised ed.). London: Variorum.
• ISBN 0-299-06670-3
  .
• ISBN 0-299-06670-3
  .