William de la Roche was a Baron of Veligosti and Damala in the Principality of Achaea, and a relative of the ruling Dukes of Athens of the de la Roche family.
William's exact parentage and position within the de la Roche family is unknown. The 19th-century scholar of Frankish Greece, Karl Hopf, proposed that he was a brother of the second Duke of Athens, Guy I de la Roche, who at the time was supposed to be the nephew of the duchy's founder, Otto de la Roche. [1] More recent research has established that Guy was in fact Otto's son, leaving William's identity open to question. He may indeed have been a son of Ponce de la Roche, Otto's brother, who was once believed to have been Guy's father, or alternatively a son of Otto like Guy, or a descendant of another branch of the family altogether. [2]
Whatever his origin, William by 1256 became the lord of the Barony of Veligosti (Miser Guglielmo de Villegorde in Marino Sanudo's history) in the Principality of Achaea. The exact manner of his acquisition of this fief is unknown. The barony originally belonged to the Mons family, but was probably ceded to William after Matthew of Mons married a Byzantine princess and left the principality. Hopf hypothesized that William may have married a sister of Matthew of Mons. [3] [4] William also held the region of Damala in the Argolid as a fief—apparently detached from the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, which was held by Guy—and the two domains of Damala and Veligosti became united under the same title. [5]
In 1257–58 he became involved in the War of the Euboeote Succession, siding with the Lombard triarchs of Euboea and the Republic of Venice against his suzerain, Prince William II of Villehardouin. As he was likely to lose his domain as a result of this act of rebellion, he was promised by the Venetians territory in the value of 1,000 hyperpyra in compensation. In the event, despite William II's victory in the war, he was pardoned and allowed to retain his barony in the peace treaty of 1262. [4]
William was succeeded by James de la Roche, evidently his son, while in the early 14th century, Renaud "de Véligourt", son of James and Maria Aleman, daughter of the Baron of Patras William Aleman, is mentioned as "lord of Damala" (sires de Damalet), after the family had lost Veligosti (Véligourt in French) to the Byzantines. [6]
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.
During the late Middle Ages, the two cities of Argos and Nauplia formed a lordship within the Frankish-ruled Morea in southern Greece.
Guy I de la Roche (1205–1263) was the Duke of Athens, the son and successor of the first duke Othon. After the conquest of Thebes, Othon gave half the city in lordship to Guy.
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.
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.
John of Saint Omer was baron of a third of Akova and marshal of the Principality of Achaea.
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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.
The Barony of Veligosti or Veligosti–Damala was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, originally centred on Veligosti in southern Arcadia, but also came to include the area of Damala in the Argolid when it came under a cadet branch of the de la Roche family in the 1250s. After Veligosti was lost to the Byzantines towards 1300, the name was retained even though the barony was reduced to Damala.
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John II of Nivelet is the name given in modern historiography to the last Baron of Nivelet in the Principality of Achaea, in Frankish Greece.
The De la Roche family is a French noble family named for La Roche-sur-l'Ognon that founded the Duchy of Athens of the early 13th century.