The Principality of Ahaea in 1377

THE PRINCIPALITY OF ACHAEA IN 1377

A. T. LUTTRELL / EDINBURGH

An important document for the history of Latin Greece is the list of thecastles and barons of the Morea which commences "Quisti sono li castelliehe madama ave in lo princepato de Achaya." The list, which is reprintedbelow, is preserved in the archives of the Hospitallers.1 It has been extensiv-ely used in descriptions of the principality,2 usually with the date of 1364which Karl Hopf arbitrarily assigned to it when utilizing its Contents in1868, and when publishing the text - with some errors - in i873.3 Hopfassumed that the ''madama*' was Marie de Bourbon, who ruled the princi-pality for a brief period in 1364, but since the list mentions CenturioneZaccaria äs lord of Stamirra, which he was granted only in 1371/72, it musthave been written after 1371. It belongs therefore to the period between1374 and 1382 in which another "madama", Joanna of Anjou, Queen ofNaples, ruled the principality.4 Furthermore, Argos and Nauplia arelisted äs belonging to the "conte de Cupersano". Hopf and his successors,although aware that between 1356 and 1376 Argos and Nauplia were heldby Guyd'Enghien,ignored the discrepancy. Guy 's brother Louis d'Enghien,who was Count of Conversano, dtd however act äs lord of Argos andNauplia in 1377, so the list must belong to that year.

Guy d'Enghien was alive at Nauplia in October 1376,5 but he died soonafter. His possessions passed to his young daughter Marie, and for a briefperiod her uncle, the Count of Conversano, administered Argos andNauplia for her. One of his acts was to grant a fief in the lordship toJacopo de Joya in Heu of 1000 ducats which Guy had owed him. Accord-ing to a Venetian document of 1389, the fief was "datum per dominumLodovicum de Engino pro satisfactione ducatorum mille quos haberedebebat a domino Guidone de Engino et postea renovatum et datum per

1 On two sheets found in Royal Malta Library, Valletta: Archives of the Order ofSt. John of Jerusalem, codex 55.

2 E. g., to cite the Standard work, J. Longnon, L'empire latin de Constantinople etla principaute de Moree, Paris 1949, pp. 329-330.

8 K. Hopf , Geschichte Griechenlands vom Beginn des Mittelalters bis auf die neuereZeit, ii (J. Ersch - J. Gruber, Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste,85), Leipzig 1868, p. 7; id., Chroniques greco-romanes, inedites ou peu connues, Berlin1873, pp. xxviii, 227-229.

4 Libro de los fechos et conquistas del principado de la Morea compilado por coman-damiento de Don Fray Johan Ferrandez de Heredia maestro del Hospital de S. Johan deJerusalem, ed. A. Morel-Fatio, Geneva 1885, p. 155. Cf. A. Lut t re l l , CA FourteenthCentury List of the Barons of Achaea (1377 ?),' Byz. Zeitschr. 51 (1958) 355-356.

5 Hopf , Chroniques, pp. 240-242.

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A. T. Luttrell: The Principality of Achaea in 1577

nobilem virum ser Petrum Cornario et dominam Mariam eius consortemut apparet privilegiis et litteris eorundem." Louis also arranged Marie'smarriage to Pietro Cornaro of Venice with bis father Federigo Cornaro.Part of a Venetian document of 5 November 1394 replying to the proctorof Engelbert d'Enghien, who was then claiming Argos and Nauplia, read:'Visa sint tarn instrumenta emptionis facte a domina Maria de Enginodomina olirn locorum predictorum et similiter instrumenta et omnescontractus celebrati tempore nuptiarum contractarum inter dominumPetrum Cornario et eam cum domino Lodovico comite Cupersani patruodicte domine Marie et gubernatore seu administratore locorum et bono-rum predictorum seu cum suis procuratoribus ab una parte et dominumFedericum ab altera."6 The marriage was apparently concluded by Louisd'Enghien's proctor at Venice on 17 May 1377.7 On 16 July the VenetianSenate gave permission for Federigo Cornaro to arm a galley to fetch hisdaughter-in-law Marie and carry her to Venice. Soon after Argos andNauplia were probably in the hands of the Cornaro family, for on 8 March1378 the Senate conceded to Federigo Cornaro a ship to take supplies"ad loca sua Argi et Neapolis" for their defence.8 Louis d'Enghien'scontrol of Argos and Nauplia presumably came to an end in 1377 or verysoon after. However, he apparently remained for a while in Greece, for ina letter of 8 May 1381 Peter IV of Aragon complained that Louis hadcaptured Joan de Lluria in an attack on the Catalans of the Duchy ofAthens three years earlier and still held him prisoner.9

The document in the Hospitallers' archives, which named the castlesheld by the barons äs well äs those of Joanna, probably passed to theHospitallers when they were acquiring the Principality of Achaea in 1377prior to sending an expedition to defend the Christians of Greece. TheAragonese Chronicle of the Morea, compiled soon after for Fr JuanFernändez de Heredia, Master of the Hospital, stated that Joanna reachedan agreement with the Hospitallers and gave them the principality forfive years "con ciertos pactos et convenciones que avieron entre ellos"; andthereafter she sent the Hospitaller Fr Daniele de! Carretto äs her bayleto govern the Morea and to receive it for the Hospitallers.10 On i June

6 Archivio di Stato, Venezia: Misti, 41, f. 35; 43, f. 34. Hopf knew something of themodern copies of these documents but many of his references defy the researcher's com-prehension.

7 C. Ducange , Histoire de l'empire de Constantinople sous les empereurs fraru^ais,ed. J. Buchon, ii, Paris 1826, p. 209. Ducange was clearly citing a document he had seen,and the date and the other details he gives concord with those established here; hisdocument mentioned that Marie held Cines, which must be a corrupt form of Kiveri, aplace claimed together with Argos and Nauplia by Engelbert d'Enghien in 1393 (Misti,42. f. i29v).

8 Misti, 36, f. 23v, 56.9 A. R u b i o i L l u c h , Diplomatari de l'Orient catalä: 1301-1409, Barcelona 1947,

doc. 714.10 Libro de los fechos, pp. 159-160; the rent was probably 4000 ducats annuallv (see

the document of 1409 below).



342 /. Abteilung

1377 Pope Gregory XI confirmed t he agreement by which the "custodia etregimen" of the principality were to pass to the Hospitallers "sub certispactis . . . ordinatis et ordinandis".11 On i September Fr Daniele delCarretto who had been Papal Rector in Campania and Marittima hadlately vacated that office.12 He probably went to Greece soon after. On24 September 1377 Fr Juan Fernändez de Heredia was provided byGregory XI to the vacant Mastership of the Hospital, and early in 1378he and a body of Hospitallers reached Vonitza in Epirus, having acquiredthe town in 1377 from Maddalena Buondelmonti, widow of LeonardoTocco, Duke of Leucadia. The Hospitallers' invasion of Epirus soonended in their defeat by the Albanians. Three years later the Navarresemercenaries forced them to abandon the Morea, and some time before24 August 1381, less than the agreed five years after the leasing of thePrincipality of Achaea, Fr Dominico de Alamania, acting for the Order,paid Joanna at least 6000 ducats äs part of the rent and resigned theprincipality to her officials.13

Years later the Marquis of Monferrat seized a preceptory of the Hospit-allers on the grounds that they owed him 20,000 ducats of rent which heclaimed they had not paid when they leased the principality from Joanna;he maintained that Joanna had granted this rent to her husband, Otto ofBrunswick, whose legal heir he, the marquis, was. So on 9 July 1409 FrPhilibert de Naillac, Master of the Hospital, wrote from Pisa to Fr Domin-ico de Alamania at Rhodes,instructing him to send Information äs to whatreally had occurred and also,if possible, proofs that the rent had been paid.The entry in the Master's register read:

Die nona lulii CCCCIX in Pisis scriptum fuit fratri Dominico deAlamania quomodo illustris memorie lohanna regina Sicilie, diu est,in affictum tradidit ad quinque annos magistro et conventui principa-tum Aquaye pro quatuor milibus ducatis auri anno quolibet qui ascen-dunt ad summam XX milium ducatorum pro dictis quinque annis,occasione quorum illustris dominus marchio Montisferrati, ut heresmagnifici domini, domini Ottonis de Bresuic, consortis quondam dicteregine, quo eidem domino Ottoni dictum affictum dederat, preceptoriamseu baiuliam de Mocrent14 cameram prioris Lombardie detinuit etdetinet occupatam, licet asseratur quod per dictum fratrem Dominicumaut alium vel alios nomine religionis de premissis extiterit satisfactum,ut cicius poterit, ea que gesta sunt super hoc informat domino magistro

11 Archivio Vaticano: Reg. Aven. 203, f. 27-27v.12 Archivio Vaticano: Reg. Aven. 201, f. 139v-140.13 R.-J. Loener tz , «Hospitaliers et Navarrais en Grece, 1376-1383: regestes et docu-

ments,' Orient. Christ. Period. 22 (1956), pp. 350-351; A. Lut t re l l , 'Interessi fiorentinineireconomia e nella politica dei Cavalieri Ospedalieri di Rodi nel Trecento', AnnaliScuola Norm. Super, di Pisa: lettere, storia e filosofia, serie II, 28 (1959), pp. 322-324.

14 Mocrent is uncertain and unidentified.



A. T. Luttrell: The Principality of Achaea in 1377 343

[et] mittat domino magistro quittancias et alia documenta de solucionepremissorum si que habet, et ea que de premissis seit scribat, ut dictabaiulia distracta a proprietate religionis ad ipsam reducatur.15

Fr Dominico de Alamania, however, had certainly paid some of therent, had paid it to Joanna and had resigned the principality to her offi-cials, so the Marquis of Monferrat's claims were at least partly, and per-haps largely, false. It was presumably from this document that Hopfderived the erroneous and frequently repeated idea, finally corrected byR.-J. Loenertz, that in 1377 Joanna conferred the principality on Otto ofBrunswick. The text of the document of 1409, which was not available toFather Loenertz, makes it clear that there is no evidence that Joannagranted Otto the principality in 1377·16

Royal Malta Library, Valletta: Archives of the Order of St John; incodex 55.

Quis t i sono li castel l i ehe madama ave in lo pr incepato deAchaya

Primo in ello p[ia]no della morealo castello de Claramonte apud clarenzalo castello de Sancto ho[mer]o

In ella griseralo castello de beluedere dicto ponticholo castello della montangia delle monachelo castello de belloreguardolo castello de Vunario17

lo castello de chillidonijIn la Scorta

Ic castello delo polcellectok castello della smirina18

k castello de crepacorek castello della Cumbak castello della pigriak castello de ferro

In Calamatak castello de Calamatak castello de porto de Junco1ε terre de mayna

15 Malta, codex 335, f. 130v.18 Loene r t z , pp. 321-325. I wish to thank for their generous help and advice Count

Zeinnger de Borja, Mr. Wallace E. McCleod, Miss Julian Crysostomides and, aboveall, Jadre R.-J. Loenertz, OP.

17 Or Viniario ?118 3r Sinirina?

33 B-zant. Zeitschrift (57) 1964



344 I.Abteilung

Quist i sol i castell i del l i ba ron i in la Moreadel freri de sanct Johan

lo castello de paleopulilo castello della fustena

lo castello novo de messer marchisanode messer centurione

la caladritzala stamirrala lissarea

dello singiore de la Avostitza della da patraxola AvostitzaSancto nicola delo sflacto

le fortize de Archivescovo de patraxopatraxolo castello del cacta ficholo castello dello castrilo castello de ferro sopra patrassolo castello de la caminzalo castello della terre del boscolo castello del piano de patrasso

In ella griseralo castello de sancto Elya de messer nicola alamangnolo castello de Joya de messer Jacobo de Joyalo castello del fanari del singior de la Avostitzala terre de la cristiana dello grant Senescallo

In la scortalo castello de scala de messer Janni Misido

In Calamata del singior dellarchadialo castello della Archidialo castello de sancto salvatorelo castello della Aquila

Del gran Senescallolo castello de sancto Archangelolo castello de Bulcano

De messer Janni misidolo castello del grebinilo castello della turchata

In la castellania de coranto del gran senescallolo castello de corantolo castello de malvicino presso a corantolo castello de basilicatalo castello de sancto basile



A. T. Luttrell: The Principality of Achaea in 1377 34$

lo castello de sancto Giorgio de polisengnolo castello de sorcastellilo castello de Angelo Castiolo castello de pyegatalo castello delo ligorio

Del conte de Cupersanolo castello dargolo castello de napoli de Romania19

19 Identifications and analysis of this list in Hopf, Geschichte, ii. 7, and Longnon,pp. 329-330; but the document clearly gives terre, not torre.



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The Principality of Ahaea in 1377