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The Principality of Achaea or Principality of 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 was captured by Theodore, the despot of Epirus, in 1224. After this, Achaea became for a while the dominant power in Greece.
William of Villehardouin was the fourth prince of Achaea in Frankish Greece, from 1246 to 1278. The younger son of Prince Geoffrey I, he held the Barony of Kalamata in fief during the reign of his elder brother Geoffrey II. William ruled Achaea as regent for his brother during Geoffrey's military campaigns against the Greeks of Nicaea, who were the principal enemies of his overlord, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople Baldwin II. William succeeded his childless brother in the summer of 1246. Conflicts between Nicaea and Epirus enabled him to complete the conquest of the Morea in about three years. He captured Monemvasia and built three new fortresses, forcing two previously autonomous tribes, the Tzakones and Melingoi, into submission. He participated in the unsuccessful Egyptian crusade of Louis IX of France, who rewarded him with the right to issue currency in the style of French royal coins.
Robert II of Taranto, of the Angevin family, Prince of Taranto (1331–1346), King of Albania (1331–1364), Prince of Achaea (1332–1346), and titular Latin Emperor.
Nicholas III of Saint-Omer was one of the most powerful and influential lords of Frankish Greece. He was hereditary Marshal of the Principality of Achaea, lord of one third of Akova and of one half of Thebes. He also served on three occasions as bailli of the Principality of Achaea.
Centurione I Zaccaria (1336–1376) was a powerful noble in the Principality of Achaea in Frankish Greece. In 1345 he succeeded his father, Martino Zaccaria, as baron of Damala and lord of one half of the Barony of Chalandritsa, and in 1359 he acquired the other half. In about 1370 he was named Grand Constable of Achaea and received also the Barony of Estamira. He also thrice held the post of bailli (viceroy) for the principality's Angevin rulers.
John Chauderon was the Baron of Estamira and Grand Constable of the Principality of Achaea, the strongest of the principalities of Frankish Greece.
The Barony of Akova was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the mountains of eastern Elis in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the fortress of Akova or Mattegrifon. It was among the twelve original baronies of Achaea, but was conquered by the Byzantines in 1320.
The Barony of Gritzena or Gritsena was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in eastern Messenia, in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the settlement of Gritzena.
The Barony of Kalavryta was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Kalavryta.
The Barony of Karytaina or of Skorta was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Karytaina in the mountainous region known as Skorta.
The Barony of Arcadia was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located on the western coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, and centred on the town of Arcadia, ancient and modern Kyparissia.
Richard Orsini was the count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos from before 1260 to his death in 1303/4, and also Count of Gravina in 1284–91. He also served on behalf of the Angevin Kingdom of Naples as captain-general of Corfu in 1286–90 and as the bailli in the Principality of Achaea from 1297 to 1300. He assisted the Despot of Epirus in battle against the Byzantine Empire, and secured the marriage of his son, John I, to the Epirote ruler's daughter, which would lead in 1318 to the Orsini takeover of Epirus.
The Barony of Estamira or Stamira was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the fertile plains of the Elis region of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, and centred on the now vanished fortress of Estamira.
Geoffrey of Briel, in older literature Geoffrey of Bruyères, was a French knight and the third lord of the Barony of Karytaina in the Principality of Achaea, in Frankish Greece. He led a colourful and turbulent life, narrated in detail in the Chronicle of the Morea. Accounted the finest knight in the Principality, he fought in the wars against the Byzantine Greeks, was captured in the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259, and was sent back to Achaea bearing the Byzantine terms in 1261. Geoffrey was twice deprived of his barony, once for rebelling against his uncle, the Prince of Achaea William II of Villehardouin, and then for abandoning the Principality without leave in order to spend time with a mistress, the wife of one of his feudatories, in Italy. He was pardoned both times, but henceforth held his title as a gift of the Prince. He died childless in 1275, and the Barony of Karytaina was split up.
Andronikos Asen Zaccaria de Damala or Asanes was a Genoese lord of the Principality of Achaea in southern Greece.
John of Durnay was the Baron of Gritzena in the Principality of Achaea in the late 1280s and early 1290s.
The Battle of Geraki took place in c. 1375 between the Latin Principality of Achaea and the Byzantine Greek Despotate of the Morea, at the fortress of Gardiki in Arcadia, southern Greece.
The bailli, bailie, or bailiff was the administrative representative of the Princes of Achaea, ruling the Principality of Achaea in the Prince's absence. The early princes, who belonged to the founding Villehardouin dynasty, resided in the principality, and governed it directly. In 1278, Achaea passed to Charles of Anjou, the King of Naples. Charles, and many of his successors, ruled the principality through their baillis, and never visited it in person. Originally, the baillis were Angevin officials, but the post was often given to powerful feudatories from Achaea and the rest of Frankish Greece.
Erard I of Aulnay was lord of one half of the Barony of Arcadia in the Principality of Achaea.
Geoffrey of Aulnay was Baron of Arcadia in the Principality of Achaea in the late 13th century.