Duchy of the Archipelago
Encyclopedia
The Duchy of the Archipelago or also Duchy of Naxos or Duchy of the Aegean was a maritime state created by Venetian
interests in the Cyclades
archipelago
in the Aegean Sea
, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade
, centered on the islands of Naxos
and Paros
.
, Pisa
, and the Republic of Venice, had been interested in the islands of the Aegean long before the Fourth Crusade. There were Italian trading colonies in Constantinople
and Italian pirates frequently attacked settlements in the Aegean in the 12th century. After the collapse and partitioning of the Byzantine Empire
in 1204, in which the Venetians played a major role, Venetian interests in the Aegean could be more thoroughly realized.
The Duchy of the Archipelago was created in 1207 by Marco Sanudo
, a participant in the Crusade and a nephew of the former Venetian
doge
Enrico Dandolo
, who had led the Venetian fleet to Constantinople. This was an independent venture, without the consent of the Latin emperor
Henry of Flanders
. Sanudo was accompanied by Marino Dandolo and Andrea and Geremia Ghisi, as well as Ravano dalle Carceri
, lord of Euboea
, and Philocalo Navigaioso, lord of Lemnos
. He arranged for the loan of eight galleys from the Venetian Arsenal
, set anchor in the harbor of Potamidides, in the southwest of Naxos, and largely captured the island.
The Greek Orthodox Naxiotes continued to resist, however, and established a base inland, around the fortress of Apalyros/Apalire. The latter fell to Sanudo after five or six weeks' siege, despite the assistance rendered to the Greeks by the Genoese
, Venice's main competitors.
With the entire island occupied in 1210, Sanudo and his associaties soon conquered Melos and the rest of the islands of the Cyclades, and he established himself as Duke of Naxia, or Duke of the Archipelago, with his headquarters on Naxos. Sanudo rebuilt a strong fortress and divided the island into 56 provinces, which he shared out as fiefs
among the leaders of his men, most of whom were highly autonomous and apparently paid their own expenses. Carceri and Navigaoiso had been granted their island domains by Henry of Flanders and were technically vassals of the Latin Empire; Sanudo himself recognized the Latin Empire's authority rather than making the Duchy a vassal of Venice.
The conqueror himself ruled for twenty years (1207–27). He held in his personal possession Paros
, Antiparos
, Melos, Sifnos
, Kithnos, Ios
, Amorgos
, Kimolos
, Sikinos
, Syros
, and Pholegandros. Other islands included Andros
(held by Dandolo), Tinos
, Mykonos
, , Skiathos
, Skyros
, Skopelos
, Serifos
, Cea
(held by the Ghisi brothers), Thera
(held by Jacopo Barozzi), Anaphe (held by Leonardo Foscolo
), Kythera (or Cerigo held by Marco Venier), and Antikythera
(or Cerigotto, held by Jacopo Viaro).
caused little disruption to the Greek islanders, who were familiar with the rights of a landowner class under the similar Byzantine system of the pronoia
. In most cases, they lived relatively peacefully with their new Venetian lords. Sanudo and his successors prudently followed a conciliatory course with their Greek subjects, granting even fiefs to certain among them, in an effort to bind them to the dynasty.
The Venetians brought the Catholic Church with them, but, as they were a minority of habitually absentee landowners, most Greeks remained Greek Orthodox. Marco Sanudo himself established a Latin archbishopric on Naxos, but in contrast to his successors did not attempt to forcibly convert the Greek Orthodox majority. These moves consisted primarily in imposing restrictions on Orthodox clergy and the exclusion of Orthodox Christians from positions of authority. Thus, the denominational division between Catholics and Orthodox gradually became a social division, with the Catholic ruling classes living in the towns on the islands and the Orthodox predominating in the countryside.
The major concerns of the Venetians in the Duchy were the valuable trade routes with the larger islands off of Anatolia
, which they could now control; although those islands themselves remained part of the Latin Empire, and later the restored Byzantine Empire, until taken by the Ottoman Empire
in the 14th century. Aside from providing safe traveling routes to Venetian ships, the Venetians also exported to Venice corundum
and marble
, which they mined on Naxos. Certain Latin feudal rights survived in the island of Naxos and elsewhere until they were abrogated in 1720 by the Ottomans.
dynasty of princes of Achaea
, of the Angevins
of the Kingdom of Naples
(in 1278), and after 1418 of the Republic of Venice.
In 1236, the Duchy was nominally granted to William of Villehardouin, later Prince of Achaea. Marco II Sanudo lost many of the islands, except Naxos and Paros, to the forces of the renewed Byzantine Empire under the admiral Licario
in the late 13th century. The Byzantine revival was to prove short-lived though, as they relinquished control of their gains in 1310.
In 1317 the Catalan Grand Company raided the remnants of the Duchy; in 1383, the Crispo family led an armed insurrection and overthrew Sanudo's heirs as Dukes of Archipelago. Under the Crispo dukes, social order and agriculture decayed, and piracy became dominant.
Before the last Latin Christian duke, Jacopo IV Crispo, was deposed in 1566 by Ottoman Sultan
Selim II
, he was already paying the Sultan tribute. The Sultan's appointed representative, the last Duke of Archipelago (1566-79) was a Portuguese Jew
(Marrano
), Joseph Nasi
.
Latin Christian rule was not entirely removed after that date: the Gozzadini family in Bologna
survived as lords of Siphnos and other little islands in the Cyclades until 1617, and the island of Tenos remained Venetian until 1714. The last Venetian ports in Morea
(the Peloponnese
) were captured in 1718. Gaspar Graziani
, a Dalmatia
n nobleman, was awarded the title of Duke of the Archipelago in 1616, but the island was again under direct Ottoman rule at the end of 1617; he was the last to hold the title.
from Boniface of Montferrat
, leader of the Fourth Crusade, in 1204, and from 1207 to 1211 the Venetians conquered it from the Maltese
Enrico Pescatore (who had taken it in 1206). Jacopo Tiepolo
was installed as the first duke.
Venice also controlled much of Euboea
(Negroponte), where they had a trading colony, and controlled various ports on mainland Greece
.
(interregnum)
(interregnum)
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
interests in the Cyclades
Cyclades
The Cyclades is a Greek island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around the sacred island of Delos...
archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
in the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
, centered on the islands of Naxos
Naxos (island)
Naxos is a Greek island, the largest island in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture....
and Paros
Paros
Paros is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Municipality of Paros includes numerous uninhabited offshore islets...
.
Background and establishment of the Duchy
The Italian city states, especially the Republic of GenoaRepublic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
, Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, and the Republic of Venice, had been interested in the islands of the Aegean long before the Fourth Crusade. There were Italian trading colonies in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and Italian pirates frequently attacked settlements in the Aegean in the 12th century. After the collapse and partitioning of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
in 1204, in which the Venetians played a major role, Venetian interests in the Aegean could be more thoroughly realized.
The Duchy of the Archipelago was created in 1207 by Marco Sanudo
Marco Sanudo
Marco Sanudo was the creator and first Duke of the Duchy of the Archipelago, after the Fourth Crusade.Maternal nephew of Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo, he was a participant in the Fourth Crusade...
, a participant in the Crusade and a nephew of the former Venetian
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
doge
Doge of Venice
The Doge of Venice , often mistranslated Duke was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...
Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo — anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus — was the 41st Doge of Venice from 1195 until his death...
, who had led the Venetian fleet to Constantinople. This was an independent venture, without the consent of the Latin emperor
Latin Empire
The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...
Henry of Flanders
Henry of Flanders
Henry was the second emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. He was a younger son of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut , and Margaret I of Flanders, sister of Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders....
. Sanudo was accompanied by Marino Dandolo and Andrea and Geremia Ghisi, as well as Ravano dalle Carceri
Ravano dalle Carceri
Ravano dalle Carceri was a Lombard nobleman. He was one of the first triarchs of Negroponte from 1205.In August 1205 Ravano was among those who led forces in the capture of the island of Euboea from the Byzantine Empire as part of the Fourth Crusade...
, lord of Euboea
Euboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
, and Philocalo Navigaioso, lord of Lemnos
Lemnos
Lemnos is an island of Greece in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos peripheral unit, which is part of the North Aegean Periphery. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Myrina...
. He arranged for the loan of eight galleys from the Venetian Arsenal
Venetian Arsenal
The Venetian Arsenal was a complex of state-owned shipyards and armories clustered together in Venice in northern Italy. It was responsible for the bulk of Venice's naval power during the middle part of the second millennium AD...
, set anchor in the harbor of Potamidides, in the southwest of Naxos, and largely captured the island.
The Greek Orthodox Naxiotes continued to resist, however, and established a base inland, around the fortress of Apalyros/Apalire. The latter fell to Sanudo after five or six weeks' siege, despite the assistance rendered to the Greeks by the Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
, Venice's main competitors.
With the entire island occupied in 1210, Sanudo and his associaties soon conquered Melos and the rest of the islands of the Cyclades, and he established himself as Duke of Naxia, or Duke of the Archipelago, with his headquarters on Naxos. Sanudo rebuilt a strong fortress and divided the island into 56 provinces, which he shared out as fiefs
Fiefdom
A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...
among the leaders of his men, most of whom were highly autonomous and apparently paid their own expenses. Carceri and Navigaoiso had been granted their island domains by Henry of Flanders and were technically vassals of the Latin Empire; Sanudo himself recognized the Latin Empire's authority rather than making the Duchy a vassal of Venice.
The conqueror himself ruled for twenty years (1207–27). He held in his personal possession Paros
Paros
Paros is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Municipality of Paros includes numerous uninhabited offshore islets...
, Antiparos
Antiparos
Antiparos is a small inhabited island in the southern Aegean, at the heart of the Cyclades, which is less than one nautical mile from Paros, the port to which it is connected with a local ferry...
, Melos, Sifnos
Sifnos
Sifnos is an island municipality in the Cyclades island group in Greece. The main town, near the center, is known as Apollonia home of the island's folklore museum and library. The town's name is thought to come from an ancient temple of Apollo on the site of the church of Panayia Yeraniofora...
, Kithnos, Ios
Ios (Island)
Ios is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides, situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about 18 km long and 10 km wide, with an area of about 109 km² . Population was 1,838 in 2001...
, Amorgos
Amorgos
Amorgos is the easternmost island of the Greek Cyclades island group, and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group. Along with several neighboring islets, the largest of which is Nikouria Island, it comprises the municipality of Amorgos, which has a land area of...
, Kimolos
Kimolos
Kimolos is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, belonging to the islands group of Cyclades, located on the SW tip of them, near the bigger island of Milos. It is considered as a middle class, rural island, not included in the tourist hotspots, thus, ferry connection is sometimes of bad quality...
, Sikinos
Sikinos
Sikinos is a Greek island and municipality in the Cyclades. It is located midway between the islands of Ios and Folegandros. Sikinos is part of the Santorini peripheral unit....
, Syros
Syros
Syros , or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located south-east of Athens. The area of the island is . The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and Vari. Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and the Cyclades...
, and Pholegandros. Other islands included Andros
Andros
Andros, or Andro is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, approximately south east of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . Its surface is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and well-watered valleys. The area is...
(held by Dandolo), Tinos
Tinos
Tinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. In antiquity, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa and Hydroessa . The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos...
, Mykonos
Mykonos
Mykonos is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island spans an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 9,320 inhabitants most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also...
, , Skiathos
Skiathos
Skiathos is a small Greek island in the northwest Aegean Sea. Skiathos is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades group, east of the Pelion peninsula in Magnesia on the mainland, and west of the island of Skopelos.-Geography:...
, Skyros
Skyros
Skyros is an island in Greece, the southernmost of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC and slightly later, the island was known as The Island of the Magnetes where the Magnetes used to live and later Pelasgia and Dolopia and later Skyros...
, Skopelos
Skopelos
Skopelos , ancient Peparethos or Peparethus , is a Greek island in the western Aegean Sea. Skopelos is one of several islands which comprise the Northern Sporades island group. The island is located east of mainland Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea and is part of the Thessaly Periphery....
, Serifos
Serifos
Serifos is a Greek island municipality in the Aegean Sea, located in the western Cyclades, south of Kythnos and northwest of Sifnos. It is part of the Milos peripheral unit. The area is 75.207 km² and the population was 1,414 at the 2001 census. It is located about ESE of Piraeus...
, Cea
Cea
-People:* Eusebio Rodolfo Cordón Cea , Salvadoran politician* José Pedro Cea , Uruguayan footballer* José Roberto Cea , Salvadoran novelist and poet-Places:* Cea River, Spain...
(held by the Ghisi brothers), Thera
Santorini
Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...
(held by Jacopo Barozzi), Anaphe (held by Leonardo Foscolo
Leonardo Foscolo
Leonardo Foscolo was a Venetian commander.During the Candian War , Leonardo Foscolo seized several forts, retook Novigrad, temporarily captured the Knin Fortress, and managed to compel the garrison of Klis Fortress to surrender.-Bibliography:...
), Kythera (or Cerigo held by Marco Venier), and Antikythera
Antikythera
Antikythera or Anticythera is a Greek island lying on the edge of the Aegean Sea, between Crete and Peloponnese. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Kythira island....
(or Cerigotto, held by Jacopo Viaro).
Administration, faith and economics
In effect, the substitution of a Latin feudalismFeudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
caused little disruption to the Greek islanders, who were familiar with the rights of a landowner class under the similar Byzantine system of the pronoia
Pronoia
Pronoia refers to a system of land grants in the Byzantine Empire.-The Early Pronoia System:...
. In most cases, they lived relatively peacefully with their new Venetian lords. Sanudo and his successors prudently followed a conciliatory course with their Greek subjects, granting even fiefs to certain among them, in an effort to bind them to the dynasty.
The Venetians brought the Catholic Church with them, but, as they were a minority of habitually absentee landowners, most Greeks remained Greek Orthodox. Marco Sanudo himself established a Latin archbishopric on Naxos, but in contrast to his successors did not attempt to forcibly convert the Greek Orthodox majority. These moves consisted primarily in imposing restrictions on Orthodox clergy and the exclusion of Orthodox Christians from positions of authority. Thus, the denominational division between Catholics and Orthodox gradually became a social division, with the Catholic ruling classes living in the towns on the islands and the Orthodox predominating in the countryside.
The major concerns of the Venetians in the Duchy were the valuable trade routes with the larger islands off of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
, which they could now control; although those islands themselves remained part of the Latin Empire, and later the restored Byzantine Empire, until taken by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in the 14th century. Aside from providing safe traveling routes to Venetian ships, the Venetians also exported to Venice corundum
Corundum
Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminium oxide with traces of iron, titanium and chromium. It is a rock-forming mineral. It is one of the naturally clear transparent materials, but can have different colors when impurities are present. Transparent specimens are used as gems, called ruby if red...
and marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
, which they mined on Naxos. Certain Latin feudal rights survived in the island of Naxos and elsewhere until they were abrogated in 1720 by the Ottomans.
Later history
The Annals of the Latin Archipelago center on the family histories of Sanudo and Dandolo, Ghisi, Crispo and Sommaripa, Venier and Quirini, Barozzi and Gozzadini. Twenty-one dukes of the two dynasties ruled the Archipelago, successively as vassals of the Latin Emperors at Constantinople, of the VillehardouinVillehardouin
The name Villehardouin may refer to:* Villehardouin, a former commune of the Aube department, now part of Val-d'Auzon*Geoffrey of Villehardouin, knight, crusader , Marshal of Romania and author of the "Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople"*Geoffrey I of Villehardouin,...
dynasty of princes of Achaea
Principality of Achaea
The Principality of Achaea or of the Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, along with the Duchy of Athens, until Thessalonica...
, of the Angevins
Capetian House of Anjou
The Capetian House of Anjou, also known as the House of Anjou-Sicily and House of Anjou-Naples, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct House of Capet. Founded by Charles I of Sicily, a son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century...
of the Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
(in 1278), and after 1418 of the Republic of Venice.
In 1236, the Duchy was nominally granted to William of Villehardouin, later Prince of Achaea. Marco II Sanudo lost many of the islands, except Naxos and Paros, to the forces of the renewed Byzantine Empire under the admiral Licario
Licario
Licario, called Ikarios by the Greek chroniclers, was a Byzantine admiral of Italian origin in the 13th century. At odds with the barons of his native Euboea, he entered the service of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos , and reconquered many of the Aegean islands for him in the 1270s...
in the late 13th century. The Byzantine revival was to prove short-lived though, as they relinquished control of their gains in 1310.
In 1317 the Catalan Grand Company raided the remnants of the Duchy; in 1383, the Crispo family led an armed insurrection and overthrew Sanudo's heirs as Dukes of Archipelago. Under the Crispo dukes, social order and agriculture decayed, and piracy became dominant.
Collapse and Ottoman conquest
Ottoman Dynasty
The Ottoman Dynasty ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922, beginning with Osman I , though the dynasty was not proclaimed until Orhan Bey declared himself sultan...
Selim II
Selim II
Selim II Sarkhosh Hashoink , also known as "Selim the Sot " or "Selim the Drunkard"; and as "Sarı Selim" or "Selim the Blond", was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574.-Early years:He was born in Constantinople a son of Suleiman the...
, he was already paying the Sultan tribute. The Sultan's appointed representative, the last Duke of Archipelago (1566-79) was a Portuguese Jew
History of the Jews in Portugal
The history of the Jews in Portugal reaches back over two thousand years and is directly related to Sephardi history, a Jewish ethnic division that represents communities who have originated in the Iberian Peninsula .-Before Portugal:...
(Marrano
Marrano
Marranos were Jews living in the Iberian peninsula who converted to Christianity rather than be expelled but continued to observe rabbinic Judaism in secret...
), Joseph Nasi
Joseph Nasi
Don Joseph Nasi was a Jewish diplomat and administrator, member of the House of Mendes, and influential figure in the Ottoman Empire during the rules of both Sultan Suleiman I and his son Selim II...
.
Latin Christian rule was not entirely removed after that date: the Gozzadini family in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
survived as lords of Siphnos and other little islands in the Cyclades until 1617, and the island of Tenos remained Venetian until 1714. The last Venetian ports in Morea
Morea
The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It also referred to a Byzantine province in the region, known as the Despotate of Morea.-Origins of the name:...
(the Peloponnese
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...
) were captured in 1718. Gaspar Graziani
Gaspar Graziani
Gaspar Graziani Gaspar (or Gaşpar) Graziani Gaspar (or Gaşpar) Graziani (also credited as Grazziani, Gratiani and Graţiani; Kasper Gratiani in Polish; ca...
, a Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
n nobleman, was awarded the title of Duke of the Archipelago in 1616, but the island was again under direct Ottoman rule at the end of 1617; he was the last to hold the title.
Other Venetian territories in the Aegean
The Venetians controlled other islands as colonies, not as part of the Duchy or the Latin Empire. They bought CreteCrete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
from Boniface of Montferrat
Boniface of Montferrat
Boniface of Montferrat was Marquess of Montferrat and the leader of the Fourth Crusade. He was the third son of William V of Montferrat and Judith of Babenberg, born after his father's return from the Second Crusade...
, leader of the Fourth Crusade, in 1204, and from 1207 to 1211 the Venetians conquered it from the Maltese
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
Enrico Pescatore (who had taken it in 1206). Jacopo Tiepolo
Jacopo Tiepolo
Jacopo Tiepolo was Doge of Venice from 6 March 1229 to 2 May 1249. Previously, served as a first Venetian duke of Crete and podestà in Constantinople ....
was installed as the first duke.
Venice also controlled much of Euboea
Euboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
(Negroponte), where they had a trading colony, and controlled various ports on mainland Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
.
Sanudo dynasty
- Marco I Sanudo (1207–27)
- AngeloAngelo SanudoAngelo Sanudo was the second Duke of the Archipelago from 1227, when his father, Marco I, died, until his own death.-Family:Angelo was a son of Marco I Sanudo. According to "The Latins in the Levant. A History of Frankish Greece " by William Miller, Marco I married ... Laskaraina, a woman of the...
(1227–62) - Marco IIMarco II SanudoMarco II Sanudo was the third Duke of the Archipelago from 1262 to his death.-Family:Marco was the eldest son and successor of Angelo Sanudo. According to "The Latins in the Levant. A History of Frankish Greece " by William Miller, his mother was "a French dame of high degree", daughter of...
(1262–1303) - Guglielmo IWilliam I SanudoWilliam I Sanudo was the fourth Duke of the Archipelago from 1303 to his death. He was the son and successor of Marco II....
(1303–23) - Niccolò INicholas I SanudoNicholas I Sanudo was the fifth Duke of the Archipelago from 1323 to his death. He was the son and successor of William I....
(1323–41) - Giovanni IJohn I SanudoJohn I Sanudo was the sixth Duke of the Archipelago from 1341 to his death.He was the brother and successor of Nicholas I and son of William I. His other brother was Marco Sanudo, Lord of Milos....
(1341–62) - FiorenzaFlorence SanudoFlorence Sanudo was the daughter and successor as the seventh Duchess of John I, Duke of the Archipelago, in 1362, reigning with her second husband until her death....
(1362–71) - Niccolò IINicholas II SanudoNicholas II Sanudo , called Spezzabanda, Lord of Gridia and eight Consort Duke of the Archipelago, was a son of Guglielmazzo Sanudo, Lord of Gridia, and wife, and the second husband of his cousin Florence Sanudo, seventh Duchess of the Archipelago, with whom he reigned until her death.Her first...
(1364–71) - Niccolò III dalle CarceriNicholas III dalle CarceriNicholas III dalle Carceri , ninth Duke of the Archipelago and Lord of Euboea, was the only son of the first marriage of eight Duchess Florence Sanudo, whom he succeeded in 1371, to Giovanni dalle Carceri, Lord of Euboea....
(1371–83)
Crispo dynasty
- Francesco I CrispoFrancesco I CrispoFrancesco I Crispo, Patrizio Veneto was the tenth Duke of the Archipelago through his marriage and the will of Venice.He was Baron of Artrogidis and Lord of Milos between 1376 and 1383...
(1383–97) - Giacomo IGiacomo I CrispoGiacomo I Crispo was the eleventh Duke of the Archipelago, etc., from 1397 to 1418, son of the tenth Duke Francesco I Crispo and wife Fiorenza I Sanudo, Lady of Milos, and brother of John II and William II....
(1397–1418) - Giovanni IIJohn II CrispoJohn II Crispo was the twelfth Duke of the Archipelago, etc, from 1418 to 1433, son of the tenth Duke Francesco I Crispo and wife Fiorenza I Sanudo, Lady of Milos and brother of Giacomo I and William II....
(1418–33) - Giacomo IIGiacomo II CrispoGiacomo II Crispo was the thirteenth Duke of the Archipelago, etc., from 1433 to 1447, son of twelfth Duke John II Crispo and wife Nobil Donna Francesca Morosini, Patrizia Veneta....
(1433–47) - Gian GiacomoGian Giacomo CrispoGian Giacomo Crispo was the fourteenth Duke of the Archipelago, etc., from 1447 to 1453, son of the thirteenth Duke Giacomo II Crispo and wife Ginevra Gattilusio.He died at only age six or seven and was succeeded by his grand-uncle William II....
(1447–53) - Guglielmo IIWilliam II CrispoWilliam II Crispo was the fifteenth Duke of the Archipelago, etc, from 1453 to 1463, son of the tenth Duke Francesco I Crispo and wife Fiorenza I Sanudo, Lady of Milos, and brother of Giacomo I and John II....
(1453–63) - Francesco II (1463-63)
- Giacomo III (1463–80)
- Giovanni III (1480–94)
(interregnum)
- Francesco III (1500–11)
(interregnum)
- Giovanni IV (1517–64)
- Giacomo IVGiacomo IV CrispoGiacomo IV Crispo was the last Duke of the Archipelago, ruling from 1564, when he succeeded his father Giovanni IV Crispo , until the duchy was attributed to Joseph Nasi in 1566. He then fled to Venice, to which he ceded his titles to the duchy and whose service he entered...
(1564–66)
See also
- Byzantine Greece