1332 Robert, titular emperor of Romania, succeeds his father Philip as prince, while his mother Catherine of Valois becomes suzerain. John of Gravina still disputes the principality. The Achæan barons fail in attempt to transfer their fealty to Constantinople and to Don Jayme II of Majorca.
1346 At death of Catherine de Valois, Robert becomes suzerain of Achaia as well as prince.
1364 Death of Robert, leaving principality to his widow Mary of Bourbon, the suzerainty devolving on Philip III titular emperor of Romania. Mary establishes herself in Greece, but is unable to hold the position.
1373 James de Baux becomes suzerain.
1387 Mary retires to Italy. She is last sovereign to rule over the whole of the principality. Achaia falls into a state of anarchy. The country is ravaged by the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks; the strategi and despots of the Palæologus family established by the emperor of Constantinople in the Morean territory that was the price of William Villehardouin’s ransom, gradually reconquer the Peloponnesus from the French feudal lords. About 1425, Murad II sets about ruining the Byzantine possessions in the Peloponnesus. After this the Ottoman power in the land steadily increases. In 1458 Muhammed II visits the Peloponnesus, and it is finally conquered by him in 1460, except some cities still in the hands of the Venetians. For world-historic interest, perhaps the most important feature of the feudal states in Greece is thus stated by Finlay: “The Franks ruled the greater part of the Peloponnesus for two centuries, and the feudal system which they introduced was maintained in full vigour for sufficient time to admit of its effects on civilised communities living under the simpler system of personal rights, traced out in the Roman law, being fully developed. The result was that the Franks were demoralised, the Greeks impoverished, and Greece ruined.”
THE VENETIAN ACQUISITIONS (1207-1566 A.D.)
In the partition of the Byzantine Empire, the republic of Venice receives about three-eighths of the whole empire of Romania; but her resources not being adequate to conquer this amount of territory, she makes no effort to take a considerable portion of her share. We have seen how a portion of Thessaly was exchanged with Boniface of Montferrat, and a considerable amount of land falls into the hands of the other adventurers. Venice pursues the policy, allowing her barons personally to conquer certain territories, on condition that they be held as fiefs of the republic. Thus the Dandolo and Viaro families take Gallipoli and the island of Andros; the Ghisi seize Tinos, Scyros, Mycone, and other islands. Ceos falls to the Justiniani and Michicle, Lemnos to the Navigajosa, Astypalia to the Quirini. The twelve islands of the Archipelago forming the Byzantine theme of the Ægean Sea are taken by Mark Sanduno. He invades Naxos about 1207. The Sanduno and Della Carceri rule the islands, vassals of Romania and Venice—uneventful rules in which a fierce Seljuk invasion of Naxos in 1330 is perhaps the most important event—until 1381 when through conspiracy the Crispo family seizes the duchy. In the treaty between Muhammed II and Venice after the capture of Constantinople, the dukes of the Archipelago act as subjects of Venice. When the republic and the Ottoman Empire engage in hostilities, the duke of the Archipelago is compelled to become a vassal of the Sublime Porte, 1537. In 1566, on complaint of the Greek residents, the sultan Selim II seizes the duchy and adds it to his empire, and the last fief of the Romanian Empire is extinguished.
