Guy I de la Roche

13th-century Duke of Athens Coat of arms of Guy I 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 century, historians assumed Guy to have been a nephew of the first duke of Athens, Othon de la Roche, but a charter from 1251, published by J. Longnon in 1973, establishes him as Othon's son. It is unknown when he succeeded to the duchy; Othon is last mentioned in 1225, and was certainly dead by 1234. Earlier scholars, following J.A. Buchon and Karl Hopf, supposed that Othon returned to his native Burgundy after 1225, whereupon Guy inherited from him in Greece; as J. Longnon pointed out, although this might be possible, there is no evidence for it. The charter indicates that initially, Guy inherited the duchy and some lands in France, but not Othon's other Greek possession. The lordship of Argos and Nauplia in the Principality of Achaea passed to Guy's brother Othon, lord of Ray, who kept it until 1251, when Guy purchased it from him for 15,000 hyperpyra and in exchange for his own lands and cla