The Zaccaria family was an ancient and noble Genoese dynasty that had great importance in the development and consolidation of the Republic of Genoa in the thirteenth century and in the following period. The Zaccarias were characterized by, according to scholarly handwritten documents of the time, having broad intelligence and their effective way of maintaining political power through manipulation.
The Zaccaria family was a very prominent family in the Republic of Genoa. Also following the Treaty of Nymphaeum of 1261, Michael VIII Palaiologos granted the Genoese the commercial exploitation of the Empire of Nicaea, as a reward for the help received in the recovery of the Byzantine Empire, and, more generally, in an anti-Venetian function. In this scenario, the Zaccaria family, in 1275 , assumed the lordship of Phocaea, first with Manuele then with his son Tedisio and, then, with Benedetto I Zaccaria. Phocaea was an important commercial port, with its hinterland rich in alum, mineral at the time used for the tanning of leathers and fabrics. [1]
In Genoa, they established intense relationships with the most important families of the aristocracy through marriages:
The Zacharias controlled all the alum trade: from extraction to transport to its transformation and sale mainly in Flanders.
After alternating events that saw the Zaccarias lose, at the hands of the Venetians, and reconquer Phocaea and the island of Chios, they also took possession of the island of Samos. Benedict II, known as the Palaeologus, son of Benedetto Zaccaria, on his death in 1307, assumed the title of lord of Phocaea and Chios. [2]
He was succeeded in the title by his two sons, Martino Zaccaria and Benedetto III, a lordship that was reconfirmed with the dominion of Samo, Tenedo, Marmora, Mytilene and Martino's investiture as King and Despot for himself and all his descendants. After various events, he married in 1320 with Jacqueline de la Roche, the last heir of the Dukes of Athens, receiving as a dowry the baronies of Veligosti in Messenia and Damala in Argolide, he died in İzmir in 1345. His son Centurione I Zaccaria inherited the title of Baron of Damala. Centurione was married to the daughter of Andronikos Asen, the son of Ivan Asen III of Bulgaria and Irena Palaeologus, daughter of Michael VIII Palaiologos. Centurione assumed the office of Balio of Morea which he kept until his death in 1382. [3] [4]
Andronikos III Palaiologos, commonly Latinized as Andronicus III Palaeologus, was the Byzantine emperor from 1328 to 1341. He was the son of Michael IX Palaiologos and Rita of Armenia. He was proclaimed co-emperor in his youth, before 1313, and in April 1321 he rebelled against his grandfather, Andronikos II Palaiologos. He was formally crowned co-emperor in February 1325, before ousting his grandfather outright and becoming sole emperor on 24 May 1328.
The House of Doria originally de Auria, meaning "the sons of Auria", and then de Oria or d'Oria, is an old and extremely wealthy Genoese family who played a major role in the history of the Republic of Genoa and in Italy, from the 12th century to the 16th century. Numerous members of the dynasty ruled the republic first as Capitano del popolo and later as Doge.
Centurione II AsanesZaccaria, scion of a powerful Genoese merchant family established in the Morea since the marriage of the lord of Chios Martino Zaccaria to the baroness Jacqueline de la Roche. Centurione was installed as Prince of Achaea by Ladislaus of Naples in 1404 and was the last ruler of the once Latin Empire not under Byzantine suzerainty.
The Lordship of Chios was a short-lived autonomous lordship run by the Genoese Zaccaria family. Its core was the eastern Aegean island of Chios, and in its height it encompassed a number of other islands off the shore of Asia Minor. Although theoretically a vassal of the Byzantine Empire, the Zaccaria ruled the island as a practically independent domain from its capture in 1304 until the Greek-Byzantines recovered it, with the support of the local Greek population, in 1329. The island would return to Genoese control in 1346 under the Maona of Chios and Phocaea.
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.
Benedetto I Zaccaria was an Italian admiral of the Republic of Genoa. He was the Lord of Phocaea and first Lord of Chios, and the founder of Zaccaria fortunes in Byzantine and Latin Greece. He was, at different stages in his life, a diplomat, adventurer, mercenary, and statesman.
Jacqueline de la Roche, was sovereign baroness of Veligosti and Damala in 1308–1329, from 1311 in co-regency with her spouse.
Andronikos Asen was the epitropos of the Byzantine province of the Morea between 1316 and 1322.
Oberto D'Oria was an Italian politician and admiral of the Republic of Genoa, ruling the republic as Capitano del popolo.
Centurione I Zaccaria 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.
Benedetto II Zaccaria was the co-Lord of Chios, as well as many other Aegean islands from 1314 until ca. 1325.
Leo Kalothetos was a provincial governor of the Byzantine Empire.
Andronikos Asen Zaccaria or Asanes Zaccaria was a Genoese lord of the Principality of Achaea in southern Greece.
John Asen Zaccaria or Asanes Zaccaria was a son of Centurione II Zaccaria and one unknown lady of the great Byzantine family of Asen - Palaiologos.
The Lordship of Phocaea was founded after in 1275, when the Genoese nobleman Manuele Zaccaria received the twin towns of Old Phocaea and New Phocaea as a fief from the Byzantine emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos. The Zaccaria family amassed a considerable fortune from their properties there, especially the rich alum mines. The Zaccaria held the lordship until 1340, when it was repossessed by the Byzantines under Andronikos III Palaiologos.
Tedisio Zaccaria was lord of Thasos and governor of Phocaea from 1302 to 1307. A descendant of the important Genoese family of Zaccaria, he was the son of Manuele Zaccaria and Clarisia Fieschi. His father was the brother of Benedetto I Zaccaria, the founder of Zaccaria fortunes in Byzantium and Latin Greece.
The House of Palaeologus-Montferrat or Palaiologos-Montferrat, or just Palaeologus or Paleologo, was an Italian noble family and a cadet branch of the Palaiologos dynasty, the last ruling family of the Byzantine Empire. The cadet branch was created in 1306 when Theodore Palaiologos, fourth son of Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, inherited the March of Montferrat through his mother, and Andronikos II's second wife, Yolande of Montferrat.
The Zaccaria family was an ancient and noble Genoese dynasty.
The House of Zaccaria-Damalà or commonly Damalas is a Genoese-Byzantine noble House established in the 14th century; with roots originating from the island of Chios during the first Genoese occupation. Created as a result of intermarriages among the Imperial House of Palaiologos with the Genoese noble House of Zaccaria.
Asenina-Palaiologina was the wife of Centurione II Zaccaria, one of the last Princes of Achaea (1404-1429) and after her marriage, she became consort of the Latin Principality.
| History |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Government |
| |
| Economy and Finance | ||
| Military | ||
| Main aristocratic families | ||
| Geography |
| |
| Culture | ||
