William de la Roche was a Baron of Veligosti and Damala in 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 ...

, and a relative of the ruling

Dukes of Athens The Duchy of Athens (Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade as part of the ...

of the de la Roche family.

Life

William's exact parentage and position within the

de la Roche The De la Roche family is a French noble family named for La Roche-sur-l'Ognon that founded the Duchy of Athens of the early 13th century. People *Alice de la Roche, (Unknown-1282) Lady of Beirut, Regent of Beirut * Guy I de la Roche, (1205–1 ...

family is unknown. The 19th-century scholar of

Frankish Greece The ''Frankokratia'' ( el, Φραγκοκρατία, la, Francocratia, sometimes anglicized as Francocracy, "rule of the Franks"), also known as ''Latinokratia'' ( el, Λατινοκρατία, la, Latinocratia, "rule of the Latins") and ...

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. ...

, proposed that he was a brother of the second Duke of Athens,

Guy I de la Roche Guy I de la Roche (1205–1263) was the Duke of Athens (from 1225/34), the son and successor of the first duke Othon. After the conquest of Thebes, Othon gave half the city in lordship to Guy. Life Guy's early life is obscure. Since the 18th cen ...

, who at the time was supposed to be the nephew of the duchy's founder,

Otto de la Roche Othon de la Roche, also Otho de la Roche (died before 1234), was a Burgundian nobleman of the De la Roche family from La Roche-sur-l'Ognon. He joined the Fourth Crusade and became the first Frankish Lord of Athens in 1204. In addition to Athen ...

. More recent research has established that Guy was in fact Otto's son, leaving William's identity open to question. He may indeed have been a son of

Ponce de la Roche Ponce may refer to: *Ponce (surname) * *Ponce, Puerto Rico, a city in Puerto Rico ** Ponce High School ** Ponce massacre, 1937 *USS Ponce, USS ''Ponce'', several ships of the US Navy *Manuel Ponce, a Mexican composer active in the 20th century * B ...

, Otto's brother, who was once believed to have been Guy's father, or alternatively a son of Otto like Guy, or a descendant of another branch of the family altogether. Whatever his origin, William by 1256 became the lord of the Barony of Veligosti (''Miser Guglielmo de Villegorde'' in Marino Sanudo's history) in the

. The exact manner of his acquisition of this fief is unknown. The barony originally belonged to the Mons family, but was probably ceded to William after

Matthew of Mons Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Chi ...

married a Byzantine princess and left the principality. Hopf hypothesized that William may have married a sister of Matthew of Mons. William also held the region of

Damala Troezen (; ancient Greek: Τροιζήν, modern Greek: Τροιζήνα ) is a small town and a former municipality in the northeastern Peloponnese, Greece, on the Argolid Peninsula. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the munic ...

in the Argolid as a fief—apparently detached from the lordship of

Argos and Nauplia During the late Middle Ages, the two cities of Argos ( el, Άργος, french: Argues) and Nauplia (modern Nafplio, Ναύπλιο; in the Middle Ages Ἀνάπλι, in French ''Naples de Romanie'') formed a lordship within the Frankish-ruled ...

, which was held by Guy—and the two domains of Damala and Veligosti became united under the same title. In 1257–58 he became involved in the

War of the Euboeote Succession War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, siding with the Lombard triarchs of

Euboea Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poin ...

and the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

against his suzerain, 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 Kalamat ...

. As he was likely to lose his domain as a result of this act of rebellion, he was promised by the Venetians territory in the value of 1,000 ''

hyperpyra The ''hyperpyron'' ( ''nómisma hypérpyron'') was a Byzantine coin in use during the late Middle Ages, replacing the ''solidus'' as the Byzantine Empire's gold coinage. History The traditional gold currency of the Byzantine Empire had been the '' ...

'' in compensation. In the event, despite William II's victory in the war, he was pardoned and allowed to retain his barony in the peace treaty of 1262. William was succeeded by James de la Roche, evidently his son, while in the early 14th century, Renaud "de Véligourt", son of James and Maria Aleman, daughter of the

Baron of Patras The Barony of Patras was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the northwestern coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Patras. It was among the twelve original baronies of the Principa ...

William Aleman, is mentioned as "lord of Damala" (''sires de Damalet''), after the family had lost Veligosti (''Véligourt'' in French) to the Byzantines.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roche, William De La 13th-century people of the Principality of Achaea

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

Barons of Veligosti-Damala