Senoria Negroponta

Ground

According to the division of Byzantine territory, Euboea went to Boniface of Monferratos , who also received the Kingdom of Thessaloniki , which became one of the formal vassals of the Latin Empire with its center in Constantinople. The island was transferred to them in a personal feud by the Flemish knight Jacques d'Aven , who fortified Chalkida.

After his death in 1205, the island went to three Lombard lords from the city of Verona : Ravano dalle Carcheri , Giberto dalle Carcheri and Pecoraro da Mercanuovo. They divided the island into three equal parts (tertiary, in Italian. "Third") or Lena . Ravano dalle Carcheri occupied the north with the capital in the village of Orei (Italian: tercero del Rio), his brother Giberto dalle Carcheri took the south with the capital in the village of Caristo , and Pecoraro da Mercanuovo occupied the center with the capital in the city of Chalkida (the largest settlement of the island). Chalkida also received the nickname "Lombard City" due to the high concentration of the Crusaders and Venetians, who turned it into an impregnable fortress for many centuries. At the same time, the former Byzantine Euboea received its new Italian name - Negropont (e).

In 1209, against the backdrop of a failed Lombard rebellion against the ruler of the Latin Empire, Heinrich of Flanders , Ravano already proclaimed himself the sole ruler of Euboea with the title dominus insulae Nigropontis , and in March of this year entered into an alliance with the Republic of Venice . The contract recognized the supremacy of this state, and its citizens were granted significant trade privileges. Despite this, in May Ravano simultaneously recognized his vassal dependence on the Latin Empire.

The Fight of the Heirs

After the death of Ravano in 1216, his heirs did not agree with the order of succession, which allowed the Venetian bali to intervene as a mediator. In place of three possessions, he created six, thereby forming a hexarchy (sestieri). Orea's northern flax was divided between the nephews of Ravano Marino and Riccardo; southern tertia was divided between the widow of Carcheri Isabella and his daughter Berta; the central possession went to the heirs of Giberto: Guglielmo and Alberto. In the event of the death of the owner of one of the six flax, the owner of one of the five plots, and not his children, became his heir. As a result, most of the sestieri went to brothers, sons or nephews, thereby preserving the duchy in a narrow circle of Lombard families.

In 1255, the death of Carintana dalla Carcieri, the ruler of Orea and the wife of the ruler of Achaea and the nominal ruler of Negrapont, Guillaume II Villardouin , caused the war for Euboea . He proclaimed himself the heir to the deceased wife, while the Lombard rulers opposed. On June 14, 1256, the remaining triarchs Guglielmo Veronsky and Narzotto dalla Carcieri refused to obey the widower, and moved to the bosom of Venice. The ruler of Achaea in response captured Halkida, which the Venetians recaptured only at the beginning of 1258. The war ended at the Battle of Caridi in May / June 1258, where Villarduen's troops defeated the Athenian Duke Guy I de la Rocha, who was on the side of the Lombards. In August 1259, the Venetian doge Reniero Zeno proposed peace; by agreement of 1262, Guillaume suzerainty over the island was recognized, but not his right to inherit the Orea triarchy.

Byzantine period

By this time, of the Greek states that appeared after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire - Nicaea , Trebizond and Epirus, only the first was able to become a dominant force in the fight against the Latins and the restoration of the empire. After the capture of Constantinople in 1261 and the restoration of Byzantium, its ruler Michael VIII Palaeologist decided to annex the crusader states in southern Greece. Having taken the service of the commander Ikarios (Licario), who had his own base at Karistos , the Romans after the battles of 1276-1277 were able to recapture most of Euboea with the exception of Chalkida. After 1280, this person disappears from sight, and by 1296, with the help of Venice, Boniface Veronsky completely replaced the Byzantines from Negropont.

Subsequent Events

In 1317, Karistos went to the leader of the Catalan mercenaries Alfonso Fadrique, vice-general of the duchy of Athens and the illegitimate son of Federigo II of Sicily . In 1319, Venice signed a peace with him, according to which he retained this city, the rights to which the Venetians received only in 1365. With the death of the last triarchs, Niccolo III dalle Carcieri and Giorgio III Jizzi in 1383 and 1390, their lands passed to the republic, which finally occupied the entire island. Nevertheless, the system of triarchs has already been preserved for Venetian families with the presence of a Venetian podest in Chalkida. The rule of the Italians lasted until 1470, when during the Turkish-Venetian war of 1463-1479 on July 12, 1470 Negroponte fell under the blows of the Ottoman armies. The ruler of the city of Chalcis, took refuge in one of the towers and surrendered only at the promise of the Sultan to keep his head on his shoulders. Mehmed II fulfilled his promise by ordering to cut his body.

The name Negropont itself is still used in the tourist sector of the island (names of hotels, souvenirs, etc.)

The Greek population was estranged from military-political life and constituted an estate of dependent peasants. The Western knights and their heirs were constantly fighting for the island.

By the beginning of the XIII century, due to general turmoil and constant wars, many villages of Euboea were depopulated. In order to replenish the declining population, the Venetians allowed semi-nomadic ramparts and Arnauts to graze cattle in the mountainous areas of the island.

• Cawley, Charles Latin lordships in Greece: Euboea (neopr.) . Medieval Lands . Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Date of treatment August 9, 2011. Archived April 11, 2012.
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• Koder, Johannes (1973), Negroponte: Untersuchungen zur Topographie und Siedlungsgeschichte der Insel Euboia während der Zeit der Venezianerherrschaft , Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, ISBN 3-7001-0020-5  
• Miller, William (1908), The Latins in the Levant, a History of Frankish Greece (1204–1566) , New York: EP Dutton and Company  
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