Morea, Despotate of

The Nicaeans, occupied against Constantinople, are faced with so much resistance in Epirus that they are forced to withdraw; by 1260 Michael II, with further help from Manfred, recovers Arta and the rest of his domains.

Constantinople’s new dynasty has been founded in an atmosphere of dissension, but its founder is determined that it shall succeed.

Michael VIII takes measures for the rehabilitation, repopulation, and defense of the reclaimed capital; orders the restoration of damaged churches, monasteries, and public buildings; and stimulates a revival of trade by granting privileges to Italian merchants.

The Genoese, who have agreed to lend him ships for the recovery of the city from their Venetian rivals, are especially favored; and soon they have built their own commercial colony at Galata opposite Constantinople, and cornered most of what has long been a Venetian monopoly.

Inevitably, this leads to a conflict between Genoa and Venice, of which the Greeks are the main victims, and hostilities are to continue against Charles of Anjou in a war stemming from earlier Nicaean actions against Epirus.

Some territory has been taken back from the Latins, notably in the Morea and the Greek islands, but little is added to the imperial revenue; and Michael VIII's campaigns there and against Epirus and Thessaly consume the resources that had been accumulated by the emperors at Nicaea.

Prince William II Villehardouin, a grandnephew of the Fourth Crusade historian Geoffrey of Villehardouin, was the ruler of the Frankish Principality of Achaea, established in 1205 after the conquest of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.

William had in 1249 built a strong castle, the "Oriokastro", which is to play an important role in the history of the last centuries of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Latins in 1261 had ceded Mystras and other forts in the southeastern Peloponnese as ransom for William II, who had been captured in Pelagonia, and Michael VIII Palaeologus had made the city the seat of the new Despotate of Morea.

It has remained the capital of the despotate, ruled by relatives of the Greek emperor, although the Venetians still control the coast and the islands.

Mystras and the rest of Morea have become relatively prosperous since 1261, compared to the rest of the empire.

In an action which ignored the rights of the Villehardouin Princes, Charles of Anjou had been given Achaea in 1267 by the exiled Baldwin II of Constantinople, who hoped Charles could help him restore the Latin Empire.

Charles and his descendants will not rule in Achaea personally, but they will send money and soldiers to help the principality defend against the Greeks.

The principality has since been governed essentially as a province of the Kingdom of Naples.

With the decreasing power and influence of Achaea, the Duchy of Athens has become the most powerful state in Greece.

Charles II of Naples had at first granted the fiefdom of Morea or Achaea to Princess Isabella of Villehardouin, but he had deposed her in 1307 and granted it to his brother, Philip I of Taranto, inaugurating what is to be a three-generations long and sometimes violent succession dispute.

Constantinople’s empire is again near collapse; the south Slavs of the Western Balkans, united under Serbian monarch Stephen Dusan, have take most of Greece and southern Dalmatia, capturing Epirus and Thessaly in 1348.

Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos nevertheless does what he can to restore the economy and stability of the Greek empire.

To coordinate the scattered fragments of its territory he assigns them as appanages to individual members of the imperial family.

His son Manuel takes over the province of the Morea in 1349 with the rank of despot.

Kantakouzenos' relationship with the Turks had been based on personal friendship with their leaders, among them Orhan, to whom he had given his daughter in marriage.

However, now that the Turks have set up a base on European soil and have seen the possibilities of further conquest, such relationships are no longer practicable.

Kantakouzenos is anxious to continue his rule and in 1354 crowns his son, Matthew, co-emperor, but he soon falls from power, at least partially because of his cooperation with the Turks, and Europe begins to be aware of the extent of the Turkish danger.

In November of the same year, John V Palaiologos, encouraged by the anti-Kantakouzenist party, appeals to the Venetians for aid.

After a period of guerilla warfare waged by John V, the deposed emperor’s adherents successfully storm Constantinople in December, compel the abdication of Kantakouzenos, and installing the twenty-two-year-old John V as sole emperor.

John VI Kantakouzenos, having abdicated the imperial throne, retires to a monastery in Mistra, in the Morea, where he will write his memoirs, a valuable source for the history of the period from 1320 to about 1357.

Kantakouzenos' son Matthew has fought on for a few years following his father's abdication, but the dynasty of Kantakouzenos will not be perpetuated.

From his Thracian domain, centered on Gratzianous, a well-fortified town named for the Roman emperor Gratian, has led several wars against the Serbs.

An attack, which he had prepared in 1350, had been frustrated by the defection of his Turkish auxiliaries.

However with five thousand Turks he had tried to reestablish his former appanage along the Serbian-Byzantine border by attacking this region but had failed to take Serres and soon is defeated in battle in late 1356 or early 1357 by a Serb army under Vojvoda Vojihna, the holder of Drama, a major fortress in the vicinity.

The Serbs capture Matthew with the intention of releasing him when he has raised the large ransom they demand.

However John V Palaiologos, who has rapidly moved in to occupy Matthew's lands, offers Vojihna an even larger sum to turn Matthew over to him.

In exchange for the Despotate of the Morea, Matthew surrenders Gratzianous and all his Thracian domains to John V.

Fine frescoes decorate the vaults of the Church of Pantanasa, constructed in 1365 Mistra.

The frescoes in the Peribleptos Monastery Church, dating between 1348 and 1380, are a very rare surviving late Byzantine cycle, crucial for the understanding of Byzantine art.

Manuel Kantakouzenos had been recognized eventually as governor of Morea by the new regime in Constantinople.

Following the abdication of his father John Kantakouzenos, who is now the monk Josaph, the rest of his family had joined Manuel in the Morea.

Some of Manuel's enemies circulated a rumor that his older brother, the former Emperor Matthew Kantakouzenos, was plotting to replace him as governor, but when he was persuaded the rumor was false, the two worked together in the administration of the province.

For the larger portion of his reign, Manuel maintains peaceful relations with his Latin (Western European)neighbors and secures a long period of prosperity for the area.

Greco-Latin cooperation includes an alliance in the 1360  to contain the raids of Murad I into Moreas.

The Aragonese version of the Chronicle of the Morea states that, in alliance with Gautier de Lor, the Venetians, and the Hospitallers, he scored a naval victory over a Turkish fleet off Megara, setting fire to thirty-five of the enemy ships; the survivors then fled to Roger de Llúria, the Aragonese vicar-general at Thebes.

The Navarrese and Gascon mercenaries, placing themselves under the command of Peter IV of Aragon early in 1377, had been reformed as four companies, commanded by four captains: the Gascon Mahiot of Coquerel and Pedro de la Saga and the Navarrese Juan de Urtubia and Guarro.

Internecine squabbles among the Latin lords of the Peloponnese weaken resistance to pressure from the Greeks, especially from the 1370s onward.

The Navarrese enter the Morea in the spring or early summer of 1378, some coming at the invitation of Gaucher of La Bastide, the Hospitaller prior of Toulouse and commandant in the Principality of Achaea and others probably at the bequest of the Florentine adventurer Nerio Acciaioli.

Gaucher hires Mahiot and the remnant of the company for eight months during the captivity of the Grand Master Juan Fernández de Heredia.

Meanwhile, …

…Juan de Urtubia is in Corinth with a following of more than one hundred soldiers.