Duchy of Athens

The Duchy of Athens was one of the Crusader states in Greece which were established after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. In its scope, the Duchy corresponded largely to the present-day regions of Attica and Boeotia, and later up to Thessaly into it.

History

The first lord of Thebes and Athens, Otto de la Roche, a Burgundian knight and participants of the Fourth Crusade. He received these cities from the end of 1204 as a fief of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. When this was in 1224 but was conquered by Theodoros I. Angelos, Despot of Epirus, the Prince of Achaia raised a sovereignty claim on Athens. An arbitration award of King Louis IX. of France, the rule of Thebes and Athens was raised to a duchy in 1260.

The duchy consisted of the Attica peninsula, extended as far as Macedonia in, and had an unspecified border with Thessaloniki and Epirus. The islands of the Aegean were not included, which were Venetian territory. The buildings of the Acropolis in Athens and the Kadmeia in Thebes served as the Dukes Palace.

The de la Roche family had the title of duke in 1308 to hold them followed Walter V of Brienne, of the Catalan Company, a band of mercenaries under Roger de Flor, signed her to fight against the Byzantine successor states of Epirus and Nicaea. When Walter in 1311 tried to get rid of the company again, the Catalans defeated him at the Battle of Kephissos and took over the rule in Athens. They made Catalan the official language and replaced adopted from France and Achaia laws by Catalan. The duchy became a Sekundogenitur the Aragonese royal house of Sicily. The son Walters kept only Argos and Nauplia under his control, where he was still dubbed Duke.

1318/1319 conquered by the Catalans Siderokastron and the south of Thessaly and created the Duchy Neopatria, which was united with Athens. Parts of Thessaly in 1337 went to the Serbs lost. After the death of King Frederick III. of Sicily in 1377 were Athens and Neopatria by his daughter Maria governed. 1379 captured the Navarrese Company in the service of Latin pretenders Jacques des Baux Thebes and parts Neopatrias while occupied the rest Neopatrias and the Attica Peter IV of Aragon. 1379 the Duchy was directly subordinated to the Crown of Aragon and administered by vicars. 1385 came the Florentine Nerio I. Acciaiuoli with a mercenary army to Attica and occupied the lower city of Athens. The Acropolis was first in Catalan hand, but the crew eventually resulted on May 2, 1388, this Peter's son John I sold the Duchy ( initially without Neopatria that followed until 1390 ) to Nerio.

Under the Acciaiuoli family were able for the first time since the fourth crusade again Greeks participate in the political life of the country. It was also the first time an Orthodox diocese, besides the Latin, tolerated. Neopatria 1394 was occupied by the Ottomans. From 1395 to 1402 the Venetians ruled the duchy, in 1444 it was Constantine Palaeologus tributary, the Despot of Morea and heir to the Byzantine throne. 1456, three years after the fall of Constantinople by the Turks, Sultan Mehmed II conquered the last remnants of the Duchy.

List of Dukes of Athens

Mateu de Montcada, Vicar
Roger de Llúria, Vicar
Mateu de Peralta, Vicar
Luis Fadrique de Aragón, Vicar
Viscount of Rocabertí, Vicar
Bernat de Cordella, Vicar

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