Gattilusio
Gattilusio | |
---|---|
Francesco Gattilusio | |
Final ruler | Niccolò Gattilusio |
Titles | |
Dissolution | 15th century |
The House of Gattilusio was a powerful Genoese family who controlled a number of possessions in the northern Aegean from 1355 until the mid 15th century. Anthony Luttrell has pointed out that this family had developed close connections to the Byzantine ruling house of the Palaiologos—"four successive generations of Gattilusio married into the Palaiologos family, two to emperors' daughters, one to an emperor, and one to a despot who later became an emperor"—which could explain their repeated involvement in Byzantine affairs.[1] The Gattilusi were Lords of Lesbos (present-day in Greece) from 1355 to 1462 and Lords of Aenus (present-day in Turkey) from 1376 to 1456.
History
The Gattilusi family was founded by two brothers,
After the
Archaeological excavations in the castle of Mytilene since 1984 by the University of British Columbia under the direction of Caroline and Hector Williams have uncovered the burial chapel of the Gattilusi and a few graves that probably belonged to dependents of the family. The building was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman capture of Mytilene in 1462; an earthquake in February 1867 destroyed it. The Canadian excavations have also added a considerable number of Gattilusi coins to the known corpus, now published by Dr. Robert Weir[citation needed]
Lords of Lesbos
- Francesco I Gattilusio (1355–1384)
- Francesco II Gattilusio (1384–1404)
- Jacopo Gattilusio (1404–1428)
- Dorino I Gattilusio (1428–1455)
- Domenico Gattilusio (1455–1458)
- Niccolò Gattilusio (1458–1462)
Lords of Aenus
- Niccolò Gattilusio (1376–1409)
- Palamede Gattilusio (1409–1455)
- Dorino II Gattilusio (1455–1456)
Notes
References
- ISBN 0-87169-114-0.
- ISBN 0-87169-127-2.