Juan de Urtubia
Juan de Urtubia[a] (died 1381) was a Navarrese royal squire (escudero del Rey in contemporary documents) who led first a contingent of fifty men-at-arms on an expedition to recover the Kingdom of Albania (1376–1377) and later a large army against Thebes and Boeotia, which he conquered in 1379.
Albania and Achaea
In January and February 1374, Urtubia was rewarded 1,000 Aragonese gold
After the successful conquest of
Conquest of Boeotia
When Urtubia invaded Boeotia, which was part of the
After crossing the territory of his erstwhile employer, Nerio Acciajuoli, Urtubia made for Thebes, the capital of Athens and the chief city of Boeotia. It was a strategic gem, controlling communications between Athens in the south and the
After Thebes
After Galcerán's failure, Louis Fadrique, the vicar of the duchy, attacked Urtubia (1380), but the latter, with the help of the Hospitallers, fended him off. Fadrique refused to make peace with Urtubia, but the Hospitallers constrained him with thinly veiled threats of war on the Navarrese's behalf.
After the fall of Thebes, the Navarrese under Urtubia conquered Livadeia as well (1381). Urtubia, however, disappears from the record in late fall 1381 and this has been taken to indicate his death. When the Company signed a treaty with Venice on 2 January 1382, Urtubia was not a signatory. By his conquest of Thebes, however, he left his mark on the history of the Catalans in Greece: he brought it to a swift end.
Notes
- ^ The surname is spelled Durthubie or Durthubia in the Pamplonese archives and de Ortobia, Ortubia, or Ortuvia in the Barcelonan archives of the Crown of Aragon. He is sometimes called Joan de Urtúvia in Catalan. In English, his first name is "John".
References
- Antonio Rubió y Lluch.
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-299-06670-3.
- Setton, Kenneth M. Catalan Domination of Athens 1311–1380. Revised edition. London: Variorum, 1975.
- Setton, Kenneth M. "The Byzantine Background to the Italian Renaissance." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 100, No. 1. (Feb. 24, 1956), pp 1–76.