Principality of Achaea

The Principality of Achaea 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.

Achaea was founded in 1205 by William of Champlitte, a minor knight who had participated in the crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, along with the Duchy of Athens, until Thessalonica was captured by Theodore, the despot of Epirus, in 1224. After this, Achaea became the dominant power in Greece.

Achaea was rather small, consisting of little more than the interior of the Peloponnese (which the crusaders called Morea) and a few ports such as Monemvasia. It was surrounded by Epirus as well as territory held by Venice in the Aegean Sea, but it was fairly wealthy, and helped the Latin Empire against the exiled Byzantine emperors of the Empire of Nicaea.

The capital of the principality was originally at Andravida. In the mid-13th century the court at Andravida was considered to be the best representation of chivalry by western Europeans. Prince William II Villehardouin was a poet and troubadour, and his court had its own mint, literary culture, and form of spoken French. The Principality produced the Chronicle of Morea, a valuable history of the Crusader States in Greece. Achaea's laws became the basis for the laws of the other Crusader States, combining aspects of Byzantine and French law, and nobles often used Byzantine titles such as logothetes and protovestarios, although these titles were adapted to fit the conceptions of Western feudalism. The Byzantine pronoia system was also adapted to fit Western feudalism; peasants (paroikoi) technically owned their land, but military duties and taxes that they had not been subject to under the pronoia system were imposed on them by their new French lords. Essentially, the early Principality was a little French colony.

William II moved the capital of Achaea to Mistra, near Sparta, in 1249. In 1255 he began a war against the Venetian territories in the Aegean, and in 1259 he allied with Michael II, despot of Epirus, against Michael VIII Palaeologus of Nicaea. However, Michael II then deserted to join the Nicaean side, and William was taken prisoner at the Battle of Pelagonia. After Michael recaptured Constantinople in 1261, William was released in 1262 in return for Mistra and the rest of Morea, which became a Byzantine despotate.

After William, the Principality passed to Charles I of Sicily. In 1267 Charles was given Achaea by Baldwin II of Constantinople, who hoped Charles could help him restore the Latin Empire. Charles and his descendants did not rule in Achaea personally, but they sent money and soldiers to help the principality defend against the Byzantines. In 1311 the Duchy of Athens was taken over by the Catalan Company, whose actions helped to destabilize Achaean territory. Achaea came under the control of Italian nobles, who held on to the decreasing territory for another century before it was conquered by Thomas Palaeologus, the Byzantine despot of Morea, in 1432. The Byzantines held it for less than 30 years, until the area was taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1460.

The feudal conflict of Morea (1307-1383)

For this period the principality was under a violent succession dispute, which originated from the dispossessed Latin Emperor Baldwin II's gift of the overlordship of Achaea to Charles I of Sicily in return for support in his attempt to reconquer the throne in Constantinople, an action which ignored the rights of the Villehardouin Princes of Achaea. The Angevin kings of Naples subsequently gave Achaea as their fief to a series of their own relatives and creatures, who fought against Princess Margaret of Villehardouin and her heirs.

Charles II of Naples had at first granted the fiefdom of Morea or Achaea to Princess Isabella of Villehardouin (from the Villehardouin dynasty), but he deposed her in 1307 and granted it to his brother Philip I of Taranto, who in 1313 transferred it to Matilda (or Mafalda, or Maud) of Hainaut, heiress of Isabella of Villehardouin, who was married to Louis of Burgundy, titular King of Thessalonica. But Margaret, younger daughter of William II Villehardouin, claimed her rights from 1307. In 1313 she claimed them again without success and then transferred her rights to her daughter Isabelle of Sabran, wife of Ferdinand of Majorca. The son of Ferdinand and Isabelle, known as James the Unfortunate, was proclaimed prince of Morea in 1315 under the regency of his father, who conquered the principality between 1315 and 1316 but was defeated and executed by Louis of Burgundy and Matilda in 1316. In 1316 Louis of Burgundy died and King Robert of Naples deposed Matilda and gave the principality to his brother John of Durazzo, to whom Matilda was briefly married under duress before being imprisoned.

From 1331 the feudal lords began to recognize the rights of James, and in 1333 the recognition was total. Then John transferred his rights to his sister-in-law, Catherine of Valois, titular Empress of Constantinople, wife of Philip I of Taranto, whose stepson Robert claimed her rights until 1346 when she died. Then the claim was issued by the son of Philip and Catherine, Philip II of Taranto. In 1349 James was succeeded by his son James IV (II of Morea). In 1364 Robert of Taranto, stepson of Catherine and eldest surviving son of Philip I of Taranto, died. In 1373 Philip II transferred his rights to his cousin, overlord and former sister-in-law Queen Joan I of Naples, whose third husband James IV of Majorca, when he died in 1375, left her his own claim to the principality, at which point she became more or less uncontested Princess of Achaea. However, when Joan was imprisoned in Naples in 1381, another, much younger, James, James of Baux, grandson of Catherine and nephew of Philip II, who in 1374 had become titular Emperor of Constantinople, used the opportunity and seized Achaea. In 1383, Achaea was annexed by Charles III of Naples, successor and murderer of Queen Joan of Naples, who was the grandson of John of Durazzo, and James of Baux was driven away. In 1383 the Vicary government began, lasting until 1396, under Durazzo kings of Naples.

In 1404, Ladislaus, King of Naples, installed Centurione II Zaccaria, the lord of Arcadia, as prince. Centurione continued to hold the post until 1430, when invasions by Thomas Palaeologus, Despot of Morea, forced him to retreat to his ancestral Arcadian castle. He subsequently married off his daughter and heiress, Catherine, to Thomas, and so on his death in 1432, the principality—the last remaining state of Frankish Greece—was united with the despotate. In about 1450, his illegitimate son, John Asen, was the focus of rebellions against the despot Constantine Dragases.

Princes of Achaea

House of Champlitte

• 1205 – 1209 William of Champlitte
  • 1209 Hugh of Champlitte, regent for William

William died away and Hugh relinquished Achaea to Geoffrey I of Villehardouin when his suzerain, King Demetrius of Thessalonica, granted it to him.

House of Villehardouin

• 1209 – c.1228 Geoffrey I of Villehardouin, nephew of the historian Geoffrey of Villehardouin
• c.1228 – 1246 Geoffrey II of Villehardouin
• 1246 – 1278 William II of Villehardouin

William II, by treaty, ceded Achaea to his overlord, the King of Naples, Charles I, on his death.

House of Anjou

• 1278 – 1285 Charles I
• 1285 – 1289 Charles II

Charles II, who had no interest in Greece, appointed the heiress of William II as princess, along with her husband as prince, in 1289.

• 1289 – 1312 Isabella of Villehardouin
  • 1289 – 1297 Florent of Hainaut, in right of his wife
  • 1301 – 1307 Philip of Savoy, in right of his wife

Charles deprived Isabella of the principality, though she never recognised this, in 1306 and bestowed it on his own son Philip of Taranto. Philip of Savoy gave up his claim in 1307, though both his son James and grandson Amadeus kept the title and the latter was even recognised as prince by the Achaean baronage, though he never succeeded in coming to Greece to take back the fief.

• 1306 – 1313 Philip I of Taranto

The principality was disputed after the death of Isabella in 1312. In 1313, Philip gave Achaea as a fief to her daughter Matilda. However, Ferdinand claimed Achaea in right of Isabella of Sabran, daughter of Margaret of Villehardouin, second daughter of William II.

• 1381 – 1383 James of Baux
• 1383 – 1386 Charles III of Naples
• 1383 – 1396 interregnum, principality sought by five pretenders, of whom none can be considered to have reigned, though the Navarrese Company had great influence and its leader, Peter, proclaimed himself prince in 1396.
• 1396 – 1402 Peter of Saint Superan
• 1402 – 1404 Maria II Zaccaria
• 1404 – 1432 Centurione II Zaccaria

With the death of Centurione, the principality passed to the despotate of Morea.

See also

• Roman and Byzantine Greece
• Lists of office-holdersde:Fürstentum Achaia

el:Πριγκιπάτο της Αχαΐας fr:Principauté d'Achaïe it:Principato d'Acaia hu:Akháj Fejedelemség ja:アカイア公国 pl:Księstwo Achai sk:Achájske kniežatstvo fi:Akhaian ruhtinaskunta sv:Furstendömet Achaea

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