George I Ghisi (Italian : Giorgio Ghisi) (died 15 March 1311) was a Latin feudal lord in medieval Greece.
A son of Bartholomew I Ghisi, through his first marriage to a daughter of Guy II of Dramelay he was Baron of Chalandritsa in the Principality of Achaea. In 1292, he was also named as castellan of Kalamata. [1] In that year, following a series of destructive raids in the Greek and Latin-held islands of the Aegean Sea, the Aragonese admiral Roger of Lauria led his fleet to anchor at Navarino. Fearful lest the Aragonese seize possession of lands in Achaea, or repeat their plundering raids, and with Prince Florent of Hainaut absent in Italy, George assembled two hundred knights at Androusa and attacked the Aragonese. In a brief but bloody combat, the Achaeans were defeated and George captured, only to be ransomed for 8,000 hyperpyra shortly after when the Aragonese fleet sailed to Glarentsa. [2] [3]
In 1303, when his father died, he inherited the lordship of the Aegean islands of Tinos, Mykonos, with fiefs on Serifos and Keos. [1] [4] Through his second wife, Alice dalle Carceri, he also became triarch of Negroponte (Euboea). He was killed in the Battle of the Cephissus against the Catalan Company in 1311. According to A. Bon, his wife Alice died in 1313. [5]
The Principality of Achaea or Principality of Morea was one of the 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 Epirus in 1224. After this, Achaea became the dominant power in Greece, lasting continuously for 227 years and cumulatively for 229.
The Duchy of the Archipelago, also known as 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. It included all the Cyclades. In 1537, it became a tributary of the Ottoman Empire, and was annexed by the Ottomans in 1579; however, Christian rule survived in islands such as Sifnos and Tinos.
During the late Middle Ages, the two cities of Argos and Nauplia formed a lordship within the Frankish-ruled Morea in southern Greece.
The Battle of the Olive Grove of Kountouras took place in the summer of 1205, in Messenia in the Morea peninsula, between the Frankish Crusaders and the local Byzantine Greeks, resulting in a victory of the Franks and the collapse of the local resistance.
The Battle of Halmyros, known by earlier scholars as the Battle of the Cephissus or Battle of Orchomenos, was fought on 15 March 1311, between the forces of the Frankish Duchy of Athens and its vassals under Walter of Brienne against the mercenaries of the Catalan Company, resulting in a decisive victory for the mercenaries.
Louis of Burgundy was a member of the Capetian House of Burgundy who ruled the Principality of Achaea and claimed the defunct Kingdom of Thessalonica.
Isabella of Villehardouin was reigning Princess of Achaea from 1289 to 1307. She was the elder daughter of Prince William II of Achaea and of his third wife, Anna Komnene Doukaina, the second daughter of Michael II Komnenos Doukas, the despot of Epiros.
Martino Zaccaria was the Lord of Chios from 1314 to 1329, ruler of several other Aegean islands, and baron of Veligosti–Damala and Chalandritsa in the Principality of Achaea. He distinguished himself in the fight against Turkish corsairs in the Aegean Sea, and received the title of "King and Despot of Asia Minor" from the titular Latin Emperor, Philip II. He was deposed from his rule of Chios by a Byzantine expedition in 1329, and imprisoned in Constantinople until 1337. Martino then returned to Italy, where he was named the Genoese ambassador to the Holy See. In 1343 he was named commander of the Papal squadron in the Smyrniote crusade against Umur Bey, ruler of the Emirate of Aydin, and participated in the storming of Smyrna in October 1344. He was killed, along with several other of the crusade's leaders, in a Turkish attack on 17 January 1345.
The War of the Euboeote Succession was fought in 1256–1258 between the Prince of Achaea, William of Villehardouin, and a broad coalition of other rulers from throughout Frankish Greece who felt threatened by William's aspirations. The war was sparked by Villehardouin's intervention in a succession dispute over the northern third of the island of Euboea, which was resisted by the local Lombard barons with the aid of the Republic of Venice. The Lord of Athens and Thebes, Guy I de la Roche, also entered the war against William, along with other barons of Central Greece. Their defeat at the Battle of Karydi in May/June 1258 effectively brought the war to an end in an Achaean victory, although a definite peace treaty was not concluded until 1262.
Nicholas I Sanudo was the fifth Duke of the Archipelago from 1323 to his death. He was the son and successor of William I of the House of Sanudo.
The Barony of Vostitsa was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the northern coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Vostitsa.
The Barony of Patras was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the northwestern coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Patras. It was among the twelve original baronies of the Principality of Achaea, but passed into the hands of the Latin Archbishop of Patras at about the middle of the 13th century. From 1337 on, Patras was an ecclesiastical domain de facto independent of the Principality, although the archbishops still recognized its suzerainty for their secular fiefs. The archbishops maintained close relations with the Republic of Venice, which governed the barony in 1408–1413 and 1418. The barony survived until the Byzantine reconquest in 1429–30.
The Barony of Chalandritsa was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the northern Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, and centred on the town of Chalandritsa south of Patras.
Guy (II) of Dramelay was the third Baron of Chalandritsa in the Principality of Achaea in Frankish Greece, and also bailli of the Principality in 1282–85.
Bartholomew II Ghisi was a Latin feudal lord in medieval Greece, lord of Tinos and Mykonos, Triarch of Negroponte and Grand Constable of the Principality of Achaea.
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.
Peter dalle Carceri was a Triarch of Euboea and Baron of Arcadia. He was descended from the noble Dalle Carceri family, son of Grapozzo dalle Carceri and Beatrice of Verona, both Lords of Euboea.
John of Durnay was the Baron of Gritzena in the Principality of Achaea in the late 1280s and early 1290s.
The Battle of Saint George took place on 9 September 1320 between the Latin Principality of Achaea and the forces of the Byzantine governor of Mystras, at the fortress of Saint George in Skorta in Arcadia. As a result of the battle, Arcadia, the heartland of the Morea, came firmly under Byzantine control.
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.