Duchy of Athens

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The Duchy of Athens was one of the Crusader States set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade.

The first duke of Athens (as well as of Thebes, at first) was Otto de la Roche, a minor Burgundian knight of the Fourth Crusade. Although he was known as the "Duke of Athens" from the foundation of the duchy in 1205, the title did not become official until 1280.

Athens was originally a vassal state of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, but after Thessalonica was captured in 1224 by Theodore, the Byzantine Despot of Epirus, the duchy became a vassal of the Principality of Achaea. The Duchy occupied the Attic peninsula and extended partially into Macedonia, sharing an undefined border with Thessalonica and then Epirus. It did not hold the islands of the Aegean Sea, which were Venetian territories. The buildings of the Acropolis in Athens served as the palace for the dukes.

The Duchy was held by the family of la Roche until 1308, when it passed to Walter V of Brienne. Walter hired the Catalan Company, a group of mercenaries founded by Roger de Flor, to fight against the Byzantine successor states of Epirus and Nicaea, but when he tried to cheat and kill them in 1311, they slew him at the Battle of Halmyros and took over the Duchy, making Catalan the official language and replacing the French and Byzantine-derived laws of the Principality of Achaea with the laws of Catalonia. Walter's son Walter VI of Brienne retained only the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, where his claims to the Duchy were still recognized.

In 1318/1319 the Catalans conquered Siderocastron and the South of Thessalia and created the Duchy of Neopatras, united to Athens. Part of Thessalia was conquered by Serbs in 1337.

In 1379 the Navarrese Company, in the service of the Emperor James of Baux, conquered Thebes and part of Neopatria. Meanwhile, the Catalans kept another part of Neopatras and Attica.

After 1381 the Duchy was ruled by the Catalan kings of Aragon and Sicily until 1388 when the Acciajuoli family of Florence bought Athens. Neopatras was occupied in 1390.

From 1395 to 1402 the Venetians briefly controlled the Duchy. In 1444 Athens became a tributary of Constantine Palaeologus, the despot of Morea and heir to the Byzantine throne. In 1456, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmed II conquered the remnants of the Duchy.

1 Dukes of Athens
2 Vicaries 1381–1388

[edit] Dukes of Athens

[edit] De la Roche family

Of Burgundian origin, the dukes of the petty lordly family from La Roche renewed the ancient city of Plato and Aristotle as a courtly European capital of chivalry. They state they built around it was, throughout their tenure, the strongest and most peaceful of the Latin creations in Greece.

[edit] Briennist claimants

The Athenian parliament elected the count of Brienne to succeed Guy, but his tenure was brief and he was deposed in battle by the Catalans. His wife briefly had control of the city, too. The heirs of Brienne continued to claim the duchy, but were recognised only in Argos and Nauplia.

[edit] Catalan domination

The annexation of the duchy to first the Catalan Company and subsequently the Mediterranean Aragonese Empire came after a disputed succession following the death of the last Burgundian duke. The Catalans recognised the King of Sicily as sovereign over Athens and this left the duchy often as an appanage in the hands of younger sons and under vicars general.

Roger Deslaur (1311–1312)
Manfred (1312–1317)
- Berenguer Estanyol (1312–1317)
William II (1317–1338)
- Alfonso Frederick (1317–1338)
John II (1338–1348)
Frederick I (1348–1355)
Frederick II (1355–1377)
Mary (1377–1388)
- with Peter IV of Aragon from 1381

[edit] Acciajuoli family

The Florentine Acciajuoli governed the duchy from their removal of the Catalans, with the assistance of the Navarrese. While Nerio willed the city and duchy to Venice, it returned to the Florentines until the Turkish conquest.