The Barony of Akova was a medieval
Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
fiefdom of the
Principality of Achaea
The Principality of Achaea () or Principality of Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire, which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom o ...
, located in the mountains of eastern
Elis
Elis or Ilia ( el, Ηλεία, ''Ileia'') is a historic region in the western part of the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. It is administered as a regional unit of the modern region of Western Greece. Its capital is Pyrgos. Until 2011 it was ...
in the
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...
peninsula in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, centred on the fortress of
Akova or Mattegrifon (situated near
Vyziki in the
Tropaia
Tropaia ( el, Τρόπαια) is a village and a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Gortynia
Gortynia ( el, Γορτυνία) is a municipality in the Arc ...
municipal unit). It was among the twelve original baronies of Achaea, but was conquered by the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
s in 1320.
History
![Akova Castle (Gortynia, Greece)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Akova_Castle_%28Gortynia%2C_Greece%29.jpg)
The Barony of Akova was established ca. 1209, after the conquest of the
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...
by the
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
, and was one of the original twelve secular
baronies Barony may refer to:
* Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron
* Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron
* Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...
within the
Principality of Achaea
The Principality of Achaea () or Principality of Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire, which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom o ...
. Along with the
Barony of Patras, Akova was one of the two largest and most important baronies of the Principality, with twenty-four
knight's fees
In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. Of necessity, it would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish him ...
attached to it.
[Miller (1921), pp. 71–72] The barony's capital was the fortress of
Akova or Mattegrifon (''kill Greek'', ''grifon'' being a
Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
term for the Greeks) built on the mountainous area known in the ''
Chronicle of the Morea
The ''Chronicle of the Morea'' ( el, Τὸ χρονικὸν τοῦ Μορέως) is a long 14th-century history text, of which four versions are extant: in French, Greek (in verse), Italian and Aragonese. More than 9,000 lines long, the ''Ch ...
'' as
Mesarea
Skorta ( el, τὰ Σκορτὰ, french: Escorta) was a name used in the 13th and 14th centuries, during the period of Frankish rule in the Peloponnese, to designate the mountainous western half of the region of Arcadia, which separated the coas ...
, separating
Elis
Elis or Ilia ( el, Ηλεία, ''Ileia'') is a historic region in the western part of the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. It is administered as a regional unit of the modern region of Western Greece. Its capital is Pyrgos. Until 2011 it was ...
from
Arcadia
Arcadia may refer to:
Places Australia
* Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* Arcadia, Queensland
* Arcadia, Victoria
Greece
* Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese
* Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...
and dominating the upper valley of the
Alpheios
The Alfeiós or Alpheios ( el, Αλφειός, grc, Ἀλφειός, Latin Alpheus) is the main stream of the Alpheios Valley drainage system, a dendritic type, originating on the north slopes of Mount Taygetus, located in the center of the Pelop ...
river, by the baronial family of de Rosières, of
Burgundian origin.
The only known baron of the barony's early period is
Walter of Rosières Walter of Rosières (french: Gauthier de Rosières) was a French knight who participated in the Fourth Crusade and became the first lord of the Barony of Akova in the Frankish Principality of Achaea
The Principality of Achaea () or Principalit ...
, who is first recorded in a list of fief folders in 1228/30 and by the ''Chronicle'' as having died childless, ca. 1273. To fill the period down to 1209,
Karl Hopf Karl Hopf may refer to:
* Karl Hopf (historian)
Karl Hopf (Hamm, Westphalia, February 19, 1832 – Wiesbaden, August 23, 1873) or Carl Hermann Friedrich Johann Hopf was a historian and an expert in Medieval Greece, both Byzantine and Frankish.
...
hypothesized that there were two barons, father and son, named Walter, but, as A. Bon points out, the existence of a now-forgotten baron before 1228/30 is equally possible. Walter's sole heir was
Margaret of Passavant Margaret of Nully (french: Marguerite de Nully) also known as Margaret of Passavant, was the hereditary Lady of Passavant, Akova and Mitopoli in the Principality of Achaea, in Frankish Greece.
Life
Margaret, born some time before 1240, was a d ...
, his sister's daughter by
John of Nully John of Nully (french: Jean de Neuilly or ''Nully'') was a French knight from Nully became the first Baron of Passavant in the Principality of Achaea. The date of his death is unknown.
Life
John of Nully is generally supposed to have been the ...
,
Baron of Passavant. Margaret had resided in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
as a hostage to the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
court since 1262, and on her return to the Principality, she tried to claim her inheritance but was unable to do so, since by Achaean feudal law, any heir had to bring his claim within at least two years and two days from the death of the last holder, or the claim was forfeit. As Margaret had delayed her arrival, Prince
William II of Villehardouin
William of Villehardouin (french: Guillaume de Villehardouin; Kalamata, 1211 – 1 May 1278) was the fourth prince of Achaea in Frankish Greece, from 1246 to 1278. The younger son of Prince Geoffrey I, he held the Barony of Kalamata ...
had already confiscated the Barony of Akova (Passavant having been lost to the Byzantines). Margaret's claims became the subject of a celebrated legal dispute, which was abjudicated in a parliament held at
Glarentsa
Glarentza ( el, Γλαρέντζα), also known as or Clarenia, Clarence, or Chiarenza, was a medieval town located near the site of modern Kyllini in Elis, at the westernmost point of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. Founded in t ...
, probably in 1276. Even though she married the influential
John of Saint Omer
John of Saint Omer (Jean de Saint-Omer) was baron of a third of Akova and marshal of the Principality of Achaea.
Life
He was a younger son of Bela of Saint Omer and Bonne de la Roche, sister of the Lord of Athens and Thebes, Guy I de la Roche. ...
to promote her claims, the parliament found in favour of the Prince, who nevertheless ceded a third of the barony (8 fiefs) to Margaret and John, while the remainder, along with the fortress of Akova itself, became a fief of William's youngest daughter,
Margaret
Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian.
Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...
.
Margaret of Villehardouin augmented her domains in 1297 through the donation of a few fiefs and castles by her sister, Princess
Isabella
Isabella may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Isabella (surname), including a list of people
Places
United States
* Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...
. In ca. 1311, Margaret sought, by virtue of her descent, to claim the Principality, or at least a portion of it, from the
Angevin
Angevin or House of Anjou may refer to:
*County of Anjou or Duchy of Anjou, a historical county, and later Duchy, in France
**Angevin (language), the traditional langue d'oïl spoken in Anjou
**Counts and Dukes of Anjou
* House of Ingelger, a Frank ...
Kings of Naples
The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501)
House of Anjou
In 1382, the Kin ...
who had controlled it since 1278. To this end, in February 1314 she wedded her only daughter,
Isabel of Sabran Isabel of Sabran (1297 – 7 May 1315) was a princess of Majorca.
She was daughter of Isnard of Sabran, Lord of Ansouis, and Margaret of Villehardouin.
Isabel married Ferdinand of Majorca in 1314. She gave birth to the future James III of Majorca ...
, to
Ferdinand of Majorca
Ferdinand of Majorca ( ca, Ferran de Mallorca; 1278 – 5 July 1316) was an ''infant'' of the Kingdom of Majorca; he was born at Perpignan, the third son of King James II. He was Viscount of Aumelas and Lord of Frontignan from 1311 and c ...
, and passed her titles and claims to them. She then returned to Achaea, where she was imprisoned by the Angevin ''
bailli
A bailiff (french: bailli, ) was the king's administrative representative during the ''ancien régime'' in northern France, where the bailiff was responsible for the application of justice and control of the administration and local finances in h ...
''
Nicholas le Maure Nicholas le Maure (french: Nicolas le Maure; ) was a French people, French knight of the Principality of Achaea, lord of Saint-Sauveur, who served as the Principality's ''bailli'' on behalf of the Kingdom of Naples, Angevins of Naples between 1314 a ...
and died in captivity in February or March 1315. Ferdinand invaded Achaea and tried to claim the Principality from
Louis of Burgundy
Louis of Burgundy (1297 – August 2, 1316) was a member of the Capetian House of Burgundy who ruled the Principality of Achaea and claimed the defunct Kingdom of Thessalonica.
Louis was a younger son of Duke Robert II of Burgundy and Agnes of F ...
, but fell in the
Battle of Manolada
The Battle of Manolada was fought on July 5, 1316, at Manolada, on the plains of Elis in the Peloponnese. The two leaders were Louis of Burgundy and the ''infante'' Ferdinand of Majorca, both of whom claimed the Principality of Achaea in right of ...
in July 1316. In the wake of Margaret's death and the Majorcan invasion, the Barony of Akova was confiscated and added to the princely domain. Five years later,
in 1320, Akova along with the castles of
Karytaina
Karytaina or Karitaina ( el, Καρύταινα or Καρίταινα) is a village and a community in Arcadia (regional unit), Arcadia, Greece. Karytaina is situated on a hill on the right bank of the river Alpheios, near its confluence with the L ...
,
Polyphengos, and
Saint George in Skorta
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Orth ...
, fell to the Byzantines under
Andronikos Asen
Andronikos Asen (? - 1322?) was the ''epitropos'' ("steward, overseer") of the Byzantine province of the Morea between 1316 and 1322.
Life
Andronikos Asen was the son of Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Asen III and Irene, who was the sister of Byzantine e ...
.
[Topping (1975), p. 117]
References
Sources
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akova, Barony of
States and territories established in 1209
States and territories disestablished in 1320
Medieval Arcadia
Medieval Elis
Baronies of the Principality of Achaea