Barony of Veligosti

Barony of Veligosti
Barony of the Principality of Achaea
1209–c. 1300/1380s →
Map of the Peloponnese with its principal locations during the late Middle Ages
Capital		Veligosti, then Damala
Government		Feudal lordship
Historical era		Middle Ages
-	Established	1209
-	Disestablished	c. 1300/1380s

The Barony of Veligosti or Veligosti–Damala was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, originally centred on Veligosti (Greek: Βελίγοστι or Βελιγόστη; French: Véligourt; Spanish: Viligorda; Italian: Villegorde) in southern Arcadia, but also came to include the area of Damala (Greek: Δαμαλᾶ, French: Damalet) in the Argolid when it came under a cadet branch of the de la Roche family. After Veligosti was lost to the Byzantines towards 1300, the name was retained even though the barony was reduced to Damala.^[1]

History

Veligosti, near ancient Megalopolis, appears to have fallen to the Frankish Crusaders without resistance ca. 1206.^[2] The name's origin is obscure. Karl Hopf thought that the Greek name derived from the French form Véligourt, and that this was in turn a corruption of the name of the first baron, Matthew of Mons, who, as Hopf proposed, came from Valaincourt/Walincourt. Antoine Bon, on the other hand, considers the form "Veligosti" to be the original one—of ultimately Slavic origin—and the French name to have been derived from it.^[3]

The barony, established ca. 1209, was one of the twelve original secular baronies of the Principality of Achaea and comprised four knight's fiefs.^[3][4] Matthew held the barony until his marriage to a Byzantine princess, a daughter of Theodore II Laskaris. Karl Hopf conjectured the existence of two barons of the same name, Matthew I and II, and that it was the latter who married the princess.^[5] It appears that after this marriage, and Matthew's departure for Constantinople, the fief and the associated title passed on to a junior branch of the de la Roche family that ruled the Duchy of Athens, and also held the region of Damala as fief.^[6][7] Damala (ancient and modern Troezen in the Argolid) was captured easily in the first days of the Frankish conquest of the Morea, unlike the neighbouring citadels of Argos and Nauplia, which continued to resist until 1212.^[8] Although the latter were given as a separate fief, that of Argos and Nauplia, to the de la Roche dukes of Athens; Damala itself is not mentioned in the French and Greek versions of the Chronicle of the Morea, and only the Aragonese version mentions a knight, who received six fiefs in the area and raised a castle, as well as the possession of three fiefs there by the Foucherolles family.^[9] These reports date to the second half of the century, and the area appears to have been entirely devoid of Frankish presence before that.^[10]

In the early 14th century, Damala is mentioned as belonging to Renaud "de Véligourt", son of James "de Véligourt" and Maria Aleman, daughter of William Aleman, Baron of Patras.^[11] Renaud is elsewhere attested as a de la Roche, hence the possession of Damala by the lords of Veligosti/Véligourt is commonly explained by their being a junior branch of the de la Roche family, founded by William de la Roche, younger brother of the Duke of Athens Guy I de la Roche. William is held to have married a sister of Matthew of Mons and to have inherited his lands and title; he is hence held to have been the unnamed knight of the Aragonese version, and the father of James.^[12]

From the 1260s, Veligosti became an important base for the Principality of Achaea in its war against the Byzantine province of Mystras in the southeastern Morea. Along with Nikli it guarded the passes leading from Byzantine territory into the plateau of central Arcadia, the heart of the peninsula.^[13] After ca. 1272 the Frankish presence at Veligosti began to come under increasing threat, as the Byzantines gradually encroached into the area. By ca. 1300, both Nikli and Veligosti had been lost to the Franks, and indeed seem to have been razed and/or abandoned entirely, as they are no longer mentioned in the sources.^[14] Although now confined to the fief of Damala, the family continued to use the title of Veligosti, or rather its French version, Véligourt, thereafter.^[7][15]

Renaud was probably killed at the Battle of the Cephissus in 1311, and his heiress, Jacqueline de la Roche, married Martino Zaccaria, who was also Lord of Chios and Baron of Chalandritsa, some time before 1325.^[7][16] Martino was succeeded by his two sons, first Bartholomew, and after his death in 1336, Centurione I. After Centurione's death in 1382, Damala seems to have been lost to the Zaccaria.^[16]

References

Sources

• Bon, Antoine (1969). La Morée franque. Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaïe (in French). Paris: De Boccard. 
• Miller, William (1921). Essays on the Latin Orient. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
• Topping, Peter (1975). "The Morea, 1311–1364". In Hazard, Harry W. A History of the Crusades, Volume III: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 104–140.