Marco Sanudo
Encyclopedia
Marco Sanudo was the creator and first Duke of the Duchy of the Archipelago
, after the Fourth Crusade
.
Maternal nephew of Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo
, he was a participant in the Fourth Crusade
(1204). He was part of the negotiations when the Republic of Venice
bought the island of Crete
from Boniface of Montferrat.
Between 1205 and 1207, or a little after 1213-1214 according to sources, he gathered a fleet and captured the island of Naxos
, laying the foundations of the Duchy of the Archipelago
. He built a new capital city on the island, Kastro
(now the main port). During his reign, he blended the Byzantine and occidental organizations
He became Vassal
of the Latin Emperor
Henry of Flanders
around 1210 or 1216. For his lord, he fought against the Empire of Nicaea
. But for Venice, he took part to the Cretan expedition of 1211.
, a member of the Sanudo family only writes about Marco Sanudo:
Doge
Andrea Dandolo
wrote a history of Venice (called Chronica extensa) around 1350. This text is the first relating the conquest of Ægean islands, and has been the foundation of all posterior accounts:
A chronicle in Venetian dated of 1360-1362 and attributed to an Enrico Dandolo gives a short biography of Marco Sanudo starting with his struggle in Crete
against Enrico Pescatore. But the text is not reliable, most of it is either invented or contradicted by official documents. Also, it's the first text stating that Marco Sanudo and Doge Enrico Dandolo
are related. In 1454, Flavio Biondo
published his De Origine et gestis Venetorum in which he copies Andrea Dandolo's account and introduces the idea of the Venetian Republic giving to its citizens official right to conquer lands in the Orient, as long as they would never be transmitted to a non-Venetian. This rule, asserted in the 15th century is thus extended to the start of the 13th century by Biondo.
The most commonly used chronicle, because it gives a lot of geographical and chronological details, is the one written by Daniele Barbaro
in the 16th century. He combined different other older chronicles to create a coherent story based on both Dandolo's accounts. His version is the one used by all posterior writers and historians, as J. K. Fotheringham
in 1915. Guillaume Saint-Guillain, in a 2004 article, suggests another interpretation, based on his recent works on official documents.
The Histoire nouvelle des anciens Ducs de l'Archipel, another widely used account was written in the second half of the 17th century by a French Jesuit from Naxos monastery, Father Saulger.
where Marco Sanudo's ancestors held charges. The family came to the Venetian islands at the beginning of the 9th century after their city was destroyed. The family may have for a time been called Candiano and under that name given doges
to the City: Pietro I Candiano
(887), Pietro II Candiano
(932-939), Pietro III Candiano Canuto (white hair) or Sanuto (wise)
(942-959), Pietro IV Candiano
(959-976) and Vitale Candiano
(978-979). The last Candiani (11th century) may have tried to take power in the Republic and keep it hereditarily in their family. Thus discredited, the name disappeared, and afterwards, only the Sanudo family exists.
Four generations after Pietro IV, a Marco Sanudo is recorded (second half of 11th century) as an "councilor" and "captain". He might also have been ambassador to Constantinople
where he might have negotiated the Byzantine Emperor recognition of Venice's domination over Dalmatia
and Croatia
circa 1084-1085. He might then have built numerous friendships and relations in Greece
and around the Aegean sea
. He was then nicknamed Costantinopolitani (the "Constantinopolitan"). He had a son, Pietro, of whom we only know that he married Zabarella, sister of Enrico Dandolo
. Pietro and Zabarella had at least three sons: Marco, Bernardo et Lunardo.
Bernardo Sanudo, as a young man, was among the electors of Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1192. Lunardo was one of the officers commanding the Venetian fleet attacking Abydos in 1196. Lunardo, or according to other Venetian chronicles, Bernardo, was Capitan delle Navi (Commander of a portion of the Venetian fleet) for Enrico Dandolo during the conquest of Constantinople in 1204.
Marco Sanudo's date of birth is not known. It is often deducted by deducing his probable age at his probable death. According to the Père Saulger, he would have been 67 in 1220. He might have been born around 1153. He is first mentioned in the medieval chronicles aboard Venetian galleys circa 1176-1177 when 30 galleys from Venice, under the command of Doge Sebastian Ziani clashed against 75 galleys commanded by Otto I, Count of Burgundy
, son of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
. But the historic existence this battle is not certain.
Thus, the first certain fact known about Marco Sanudo is that he took part to the Fourth Crusade
. He was noted for his courage, but with no other details, during the captures of Zara
and Constantinople. But, his name is not among those of the officers commanding galleys. It is probable he was aboard a galley commanded by one of his brothers (Bernardo or Lunardo) or by his uncle Enrico Dandolo.
, the Byzantine Empire was organized in Themes. In the 10th century, a theme of the Aegean Sea
(tò théma toû Aiyaíou Pelágous) ruled by an admiral (dhrungarios) was created. It included the Cyclades, Sporades
, Chios
, Lesbos end Lemnos
. But quickly, the central government was no longer capable to control these small and scattered lands. At the beginning of the 13th century, it had given up the very idea altogether. It appears the Cyclades might then have been ruled from Rhodes
by a former Byzantine civil servant Leo Gabalas
self-styled "Caesar
" and "Lord of Rhodes and the Cyclades
". But even he was not able to collect the taxes, mainly because of the Genoans and Turk pirates.
At that time, inhabitants left villages by the sea to create new ones in the mountains, such as the villages on the Traghea plateau on Naxos.
and Republic of Genoa
, developed their trade with the Orient, mostly Constantinople
and Egypt
, first stages of the silk road. Trade routes of both cities were almost identical. Venetian boats ran alongside the East coast of the Adriatic Sea
with stops in Zara
, Dyrrachium
and Corfou, then around the Peloponese with Koroni
and up the Aegean and Cyclades with stops in Naxos, Euboea
and Thessaloniki
to Constantinople, or via Crete, Alexandria and Syria to Egypt. The Genoan ships ran alongside the West coast of Italy, crossed the Strait of Messina
then the Strait of Otranto
to Corfou, round the Peloponese stopping at Monemvasia
, up the Aegean and Cyclades with stops in Chios to Constantinople or via Milos
, Naxos
and Amorgos
to Egypt and Syria. Thus, the cities were competing to control the stopping places.
The competition grew in the 12th century. Venice had secured privileges from Emperor Isaac II Angelos
. His successor Alexios III Angelos
resented Venetian control of the Byzantine trade. He tried to give more room to Genoa, as well as Pisa
(to avoid giving Genoa all the power). Thus, the Genoan marine crushed the very pirates the Republic had created to cripple Venetian (and Byzantine) trade. The Genoan district in Constantinople became larger in 1201. The Pisan influence grew also in Thessaloniki. Venice could not let these go unadressed. When Alexios Angelos
asked the crusaders
to help him become Emperor, they could not refuse. A new Emperor, owing his throne to the crusaders and Venice, was what the city needed to regain its commercial power in the Byzantine Empire.
In July 1203, the Crusaders took Constantinople and put Alexios IV Angelos on the throne, as promised. But, the fire in August brought him down. Hostility between the Crusaders and the inhabitants of Constantinople was also growing. Fighting between the Crusaders and the troops of Alexios V Doukas broke out.
Finaly, on the 13th of April 1204, the Crusaders, or as they became called "Latins" or "Franks", took again Constantinople and shared the conquered Byzantine Empire. The treaty Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae
was probably drafted during the autumn of 1204 by a commission of 24 people (12 Venetians, 12 non-Venetians). One fourth went to Baldwin VI Count of Hainaut
, elected Latin Emperor
, three eights went to Venice, and the remaining three eights to the other Crusaders. The Cyclades were not mentioned as such, contrary to the Sporades or the Ionian Islands. Only Andros and Tinos were mentioned : the one was given to Venice and the other to the Emperor. Historians tried to identify the others cycladic islands in the text but nothing is really convincing. Paul Hetherington suggest two simple explanations for the absence of the Cyclades, even the bigger ones such as Naxos, in the text. The treaty was drafted using the Byzantine taxes of 1203 and they were no longer collected on most of the islands. Venice might also have don it deliberately as the Republic was the only one with a real geographic knowledge of the Aegean. Thus, the Republic kept aside essential stopping points on its trade routes.
In the conquered Constantinople, Marco Sanudo became judge at the consular court (giudice del commun) and then took part to the negotiations between the Republic of Venice and Boniface I, Marquess of Montferrat that ended with the purchase of Crete
, given to Boniface, by Venice. Boniface de Montferrat was to close to the Genoans for the Venetians. Thus, he was not elected Latin Emperor and was given, as compensation, the Kingdom of Thessalonica
and Crete. But Macedonia had not been conquered, when the Latin imperial army began the conquest, Boniface rebelled, considering the Emperor was trying to take his share from him. So, he besieged Adrianople. Enrico Dandolo sent a mission to reason Boniface. The head of the ambassadors was Geoffroi de Villehardouin and Marco Sanudo was among them. The main objective of the mission was to avoid that Boniface sold Crete to the Republic of Genoa, as he had announced. On the 12th of August 1204, the Treaty of Adrianople between Boniface and Venice was signed. The Republic got the island of Crete and guaranted to Boniface the possession of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. Some medieval chronicles -after the one by Enrico Dandolo (1360–1362)- say that this Treaty of Adrianople explicitely gave Marco Sanudo lands on Crete. But the original text, preserved, says no such thing.
The Republic of Venice was afraid that its rival, the Republic of Genoa, should take advantage of the troubled situation in the Eastern Mediterranean to gain ground. Venice barely could buy Crete just before Genoa. Even then, the Ligurian republic threatened its rival with war if it did not abandon the big island. The war was inevitable and started. At the beginning of 1205, the news reached Constantinople that a Genoan fleet had just arrived in the Aegean. Marco Sanudo, with his uncle Enrico Dandolo
's and the Latin Emperor's blessings, armed with his own money eight galleys that had been entrusted to him in order to fight the Genoans. All the sailors were Venetians and came on their own accord.
In order to achieve this goal, control of Naxos
was essential. Sanudo's fleet landed on the South-West of the island, near Potamides. The local population did not oppose them. The main objective was the Byzantine fortress of Apalyrou, approxomately three kilometers inland. It was guarded by Greek and Genoan troops. According to some sources, Sanudo did literally burn its vessels to motivate his soldiers. The siege lasted for five weeks. The capture of the fortress gave Sanudo control of the whole island.
Marco Sanudo had to have his conquest certified by the Latin Empire authorities. But, the Emperor Balwin
had died during the Battle of Adrianople (1205)
and Marco Sanudo's uncle Enrico Dandolo also died in June. In Constantinople, the podestà
and the Council of the Venitians assured him there would be no problem. But, one condition was made : Naxos could only go to a Venetian after Sanudo's death.
In July 1205, Sanudo left for Venice, carrying the news of the death of the Doge, and also to get the confirmation of his conquest. There, he took part to the election of the new Doge, Pietro Ziani
. He was then authorized to take, as private property, all Cyclades islands not included in the Partitio Terrarum. In fact, this right was given to all Venetian citizens for all the Byzantine lands not included in the Partitio Terrarum.
Meanwhile, the Genoans had set foot and fortified in Crete and Corfou, threatening the Venetian power. The Republic armed a fleet to oust them. Marco Sanudo took part to the expedition in Crete because the Genoans there were a threat to his island. Enrico Pescatore, working for Genoa, with a fleet comprising eight galleys had set foot in Crete in 1206. The Venetian fleet captured four Genoans galleys in Spinalonga
, then patrolled the Cretan seas, boarding all ships. But no attempt was made to land on and recapture the island. At the end of the campaign, the Venetian fleet went back home and Sanudo sailed to Constantinople to get the new Emperor's (Henry of Flanders
) confirmation for his conquest and his new project: conquering the other Cyclades.
The authorization given by Venetian and Imperial authorities gave ideas to other adventurers. A new expedition, still privately financed, set sail in 1206-1207. That year, Marco Sanudo controlled all Cyclades with his companions or relatives. His cousin Marino Dandolo (another nephew of Enrico Dandolo) became Lord of Andros
. Other relatives, the brothers Andrea and Geremia Ghisi became Lords of Tinos
and Mykonos
, with fiefs on Kea
and Serifos
(also in the Sporades
). The Pisani shared Kea with the Ghisi and with the Michieli and the Guistiniani. Jaccopo Barozzi (from Bologna
) took Santorini
. Anafi
went to Leonardo Foscolo. Pietro Guistianini and Domenico Michieli each received a quarter of Serifos and a quarter of Kea. Marco Sanudo took a dozen of the bigger islands : Naxos, Paros
, Antiparos
, Milos
, Kimolos
, Ios
, Amorgos
, Siphnos, Sikinos
, Syros
, Folegandros
and Kythnos
(where the Castelli and the Gozzadini were his vassals). Some chronicles suggest that he might have already conquered Smyrna
at that time.
The conquest seems to have been relatively easy. There are no accounts of battles or fighting. It seems that all the conquerors had to do was to show up in the principal harbour of an island and announce they were taking charge. Historians suggest some explanations. The first is linked to the insecurity caused by the pirates in the Aegean at the time and only the Venetian fleet was strong enough to fight them. Locals did not care that the new lords were private persons and not captains in the service of Venice. Better them than the insecurity. Also, Sanudo did not alienate the Greek ruling class: the archontes. He let them keep their properties, their privileges and their religion. Thus, nothing was to be feared from a local population controlled by the local ruling class.
Guillaume Saint-Guillain, in an article published in 2006, after working on the many medieval chronicles and proved they are not reliable, uses documents produced by the contemporaries of Marco Sanudo. Thus, the archbishop of Athens, Michael Choniates
, who had taken refuge from the Latin troops on Kea
wrote at the end of 1208 or at the beginning of 1209 a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in which he refused to take charge of the vacant bishop seat of Paros-Naxos. It seems not probable that he would have fled the Latins in Athens to go into Latin-conquered lands on Naxos. In his poem Théanô, he writes about the Greek resistance to the Latins. Reading that text, we can infer that the island he was living on, Kea, was not conquered at the time he wrote (1212). He suggests in the same poem a failed attempt of conquest of the Cyclades in 1205, but there is no mention of Marco Sanudo. It might then be necessary to suggest a later date for the conquest of the Cyclades by the Venetians.
In 1210, Marco Sanudo pledged homage to the Latin Emperor
Henry
who bestowed him the title of Peer
of the Byzantine Empire and Duke of the Archipelago. It is probable that it was this Duchy that created the word "archipelago" from the Venetian, a deformation of the Greek name of the Aegean Sea "Aigaion Pelagos" (Αιγαιον πελαγος). By that homage, Sanudo chose to become the vassal of the Emperor to avoid ending a mere governor of the islands in the name of Venice. Thus, he made sure his conquests became his own properties, in exchange of the usual feudal obligations: aid and counsel.
Thus, the occidental feudal system came to Greece. Except for the Ghisi who might have been direct vassals of the Emperor, all the Italians in the Cyclades were Marco Sanudo's vassals, himself vassal of the Emperor. Sanudo rewarded his soldiers and sailors who conquered the islands with him in the way it was done in Occident: by conferring knighthood
and fiefs in exchange of the usual feudal obligations: aid and counsel. They became known as feudati or feudatori, living from the income of their lands. They became a new social elite alongside the Greek archontés. When the news that yeomen could become knights in Greece reached Western Europe, a new wave of adventurers arrived from Italy, France or Spain.
Marco Sanudo recognised the rights and deeds to their properties of all the Greek archontés. On Naxos, 56 fiefs (τόποι) are known for that time: half were in Greek hands. It seems there was enough unclaimed lands and lands taken from the ancient Byzantine public domain for Sanudo to give to his new "Franks" vassals without confiscating Greek properties. At the same time, in Crete, Venice confiscated the properties of the Greek archontés and in doing so alienated them for the following centuries during which the Republic had to face numerous rebellions. Marco Sanudo never had any trouble with "his" locals.
The "Frankish" feudal system was simply added to the ancient Byzantine adminsitrative one kept by the new lords: the ancient Byzantine administrative organisation was used for the new feudal taxes and corvées and the Byzantine agricultural techniques were used on the new fiefs. Byzantine law was also used for the local Greek population being for the marriages or the properties. It was the same for the religious organisation: even if the Catholic hierarchy was in power, an Orthodox hierarchy still existed (albeit without a bishop but with a protopappas). And, when a Catholic priest was not available, the mass was said by an Orthodox priest.
Quickly, the two communities became more and more close. The "noblemen", Italians as well as Greeks, were speaking Italian, called by all the Greeks "Frank" and the lower classes spoke a blending of the two languages, an "italohellenic". Thus, they were able to understand each other on some level.
, the first duke of Athens, departed for France
, three years after the Kingdom of Thessalonica
collapsed, and a short while before the death of Geoffrey I of Villehardouin
, Prince of Achaea. In a very short time, the whole political landscape of Frankish Greece was radically altered.
family. Miller identified her as a sister of Constantine Laskaris
and Theodore I Laskaris
. He based this theory on his own interpretation of Italian chronicles. The "Dictionnaire historique et Généalogique des grandes familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople" (1983) by Mihail-Dimitri Sturdza rejected the theory based on the silence of Byzantine primary sources.
In any case, Marco I had one known son: Angelo Sanudo
. Marino Sanuto the Elder
is considered a descendant but his exact lineage is not known.
Duchy of the Archipelago
The Duchy of the Archipelago or also Duchy of Naxos or Duchy of the Aegean was a maritime state created by Venetian interests in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, centered on the islands of Naxos and Paros.-Background and establishment of the...
, after the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
.
Maternal nephew of Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo — anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus — was the 41st Doge of Venice from 1195 until his death...
, he was a participant in the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
(1204). He was part of the negotiations when the Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
bought the island of Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
from Boniface of Montferrat.
Between 1205 and 1207, or a little after 1213-1214 according to sources, he gathered a fleet and captured the island of Naxos
Naxos (island)
Naxos is a Greek island, the largest island in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture....
, laying the foundations of the Duchy of the Archipelago
Duchy of the Archipelago
The Duchy of the Archipelago or also Duchy of Naxos or Duchy of the Aegean was a maritime state created by Venetian interests in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, centered on the islands of Naxos and Paros.-Background and establishment of the...
. He built a new capital city on the island, Kastro
Naxos (city)
Naxos is a town and a former municipality on the island of Naxos, in the Cyclades, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Naxos and Lesser Cyclades, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It has 6,533 inhabitants . The Naxos municipal unit covers an...
(now the main port). During his reign, he blended the Byzantine and occidental organizations
He became Vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
of the Latin Emperor
Latin Empire
The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...
Henry of Flanders
Henry of Flanders
Henry was the second emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. He was a younger son of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut , and Margaret I of Flanders, sister of Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders....
around 1210 or 1216. For his lord, he fought against the Empire of Nicaea
Empire of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...
. But for Venice, he took part to the Cretan expedition of 1211.
Sources
All biographies of Marco Sanudo have been written centuries after the facts they tell. Most of them are Venetian chronicles dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. In the first one, Istoria di Romania, Marino Sanudo TorselloMarino Sanuto the Elder
Marino Sanuto or Sanudo the Elder of Torcello was a Venetian statesman and geographer.He is best known for his life-long attempts to revive the crusading spirit and movement; with this object he wrote his great work, the Secreta Fidelium Crucis, otherwise called Historia Hierosolymitana, Liber de...
, a member of the Sanudo family only writes about Marco Sanudo:
he conquered the islands.
Doge
Doge of Venice
The Doge of Venice , often mistranslated Duke was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...
Andrea Dandolo
Andrea Dandolo
Andrea Dandolo was elected the 54th doge of Venice in 1343, replacing Bartolomeo Gradenigo who died in late 1342....
wrote a history of Venice (called Chronica extensa) around 1350. This text is the first relating the conquest of Ægean islands, and has been the foundation of all posterior accounts:
Sailing separately, Marco Sanudo and those following him conquered the islands of NaxosNaxos (island)Naxos is a Greek island, the largest island in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture....
, ParosParosParos is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Municipality of Paros includes numerous uninhabited offshore islets...
, MilosMilosMilos , is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete...
and SantoriniSantoriniSantorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...
, and Marino Dandolo conquered AndrosAndrosAndros, or Andro is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, approximately south east of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . Its surface is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and well-watered valleys. The area is...
. Also, Andrea and Geremia Ghisi [took] TinosTinosTinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. In antiquity, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa and Hydroessa . The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos...
, MykonosMykonosMykonos is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island spans an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 9,320 inhabitants most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also...
, SkyrosSkyrosSkyros is an island in Greece, the southernmost of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC and slightly later, the island was known as The Island of the Magnetes where the Magnetes used to live and later Pelasgia and Dolopia and later Skyros...
, SkopelosSkopelosSkopelos , ancient Peparethos or Peparethus , is a Greek island in the western Aegean Sea. Skopelos is one of several islands which comprise the Northern Sporades island group. The island is located east of mainland Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea and is part of the Thessaly Periphery....
and SkiathosSkiathosSkiathos is a small Greek island in the northwest Aegean Sea. Skiathos is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades group, east of the Pelion peninsula in Magnesia on the mainland, and west of the island of Skopelos.-Geography:...
.
A chronicle in Venetian dated of 1360-1362 and attributed to an Enrico Dandolo gives a short biography of Marco Sanudo starting with his struggle in Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
against Enrico Pescatore. But the text is not reliable, most of it is either invented or contradicted by official documents. Also, it's the first text stating that Marco Sanudo and Doge Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo — anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus — was the 41st Doge of Venice from 1195 until his death...
are related. In 1454, Flavio Biondo
Flavio Biondo
Flavio Biondo was an Italian Renaissance humanist historian. He was one of the first historians to used a three-period division of history and is known as one of the first archaeologists.Born in the capital city of Forlì, in the Romagna region, Flavio was well schooled from an early age,...
published his De Origine et gestis Venetorum in which he copies Andrea Dandolo's account and introduces the idea of the Venetian Republic giving to its citizens official right to conquer lands in the Orient, as long as they would never be transmitted to a non-Venetian. This rule, asserted in the 15th century is thus extended to the start of the 13th century by Biondo.
The most commonly used chronicle, because it gives a lot of geographical and chronological details, is the one written by Daniele Barbaro
Daniele Barbaro
Daniele Matteo Alvise Barbaro was an Italian translator of, and commentator on, Vitruvius. He also had a significant ecclesiastical career, reaching the rank of Cardinal....
in the 16th century. He combined different other older chronicles to create a coherent story based on both Dandolo's accounts. His version is the one used by all posterior writers and historians, as J. K. Fotheringham
John Knight Fotheringham
John Knight Fotheringham FBA was a British historian who was an expert on ancient astronomy and chronology. He established the chronology of the Babylonian dynasties.J.K...
in 1915. Guillaume Saint-Guillain, in a 2004 article, suggests another interpretation, based on his recent works on official documents.
The Histoire nouvelle des anciens Ducs de l'Archipel, another widely used account was written in the second half of the 17th century by a French Jesuit from Naxos monastery, Father Saulger.
Family and youth
The Sanudo family may have originated in EracleaEraclea
thumb|250px|right|Location of Eraclea in the province of Venice.Eraclea is a town and comune in the province of Venice, Veneto, Italy. SP42 goes through it.Eraclea Mare is the Lido of Eraclea....
where Marco Sanudo's ancestors held charges. The family came to the Venetian islands at the beginning of the 9th century after their city was destroyed. The family may have for a time been called Candiano and under that name given doges
Doge of Venice
The Doge of Venice , often mistranslated Duke was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...
to the City: Pietro I Candiano
Pietro I Candiano
Pietro I Candiano was briefly the sixteenth Doge of Venice in 887.He followed Orso I Participazio and Giovanni II Participazio as Doge of Venice, elected to the throne at the side of the elderly, and beloved, Giovanni circa April 887. He launched a military attempt against the Dalmatian Croat...
(887), Pietro II Candiano
Pietro II Candiano
Pietro II Candiano was the nineteenth Doge of Venice between 932 and 939. He followed his father, Pietro I Candiano , Pietro Tribuno , and Orso II Participazio to become Doge of Venice in 932....
(932-939), Pietro III Candiano Canuto (white hair) or Sanuto (wise)
Pietro III Candiano
Pietro III Candiano was the Doge of Venice from 942 until 959. In 948 he led a fleet of 33 Galleys to punish the Dalmatian pirates - Narentines - for repeatedly raiding across the Adriatic Sea...
(942-959), Pietro IV Candiano
Pietro IV Candiano
Pietro IV Candiano was the twenty-second or twentieth Doge of Venice from 959 to his death. He was the eldest son of Pietro III Candiano, with whom he co-reigned and whom he was elected to succeed.-Rise:...
(959-976) and Vitale Candiano
Vitale Candiano
Vitale Candiano was the 24th doge of the Republic of Venice.He probably was the fourth son of the 22nd doge, Pietro IV Candiano. He was elected by the popular assembly in September of 978 CE. This after having to flee to Saxony because of the revolt against his father. His predecessor Pietro I...
(978-979). The last Candiani (11th century) may have tried to take power in the Republic and keep it hereditarily in their family. Thus discredited, the name disappeared, and afterwards, only the Sanudo family exists.
Four generations after Pietro IV, a Marco Sanudo is recorded (second half of 11th century) as an "councilor" and "captain". He might also have been ambassador to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
where he might have negotiated the Byzantine Emperor recognition of Venice's domination over Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
and Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
circa 1084-1085. He might then have built numerous friendships and relations in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and around the Aegean sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
. He was then nicknamed Costantinopolitani (the "Constantinopolitan"). He had a son, Pietro, of whom we only know that he married Zabarella, sister of Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo — anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus — was the 41st Doge of Venice from 1195 until his death...
. Pietro and Zabarella had at least three sons: Marco, Bernardo et Lunardo.
Bernardo Sanudo, as a young man, was among the electors of Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1192. Lunardo was one of the officers commanding the Venetian fleet attacking Abydos in 1196. Lunardo, or according to other Venetian chronicles, Bernardo, was Capitan delle Navi (Commander of a portion of the Venetian fleet) for Enrico Dandolo during the conquest of Constantinople in 1204.
Marco Sanudo's date of birth is not known. It is often deducted by deducing his probable age at his probable death. According to the Père Saulger, he would have been 67 in 1220. He might have been born around 1153. He is first mentioned in the medieval chronicles aboard Venetian galleys circa 1176-1177 when 30 galleys from Venice, under the command of Doge Sebastian Ziani clashed against 75 galleys commanded by Otto I, Count of Burgundy
Otto I, Count of Burgundy
Otto I was Count of Burgundy from 1190 to his death and briefly Count of Luxembourg from 1196 to 1197...
, son of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
. But the historic existence this battle is not certain.
Thus, the first certain fact known about Marco Sanudo is that he took part to the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
. He was noted for his courage, but with no other details, during the captures of Zara
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
and Constantinople. But, his name is not among those of the officers commanding galleys. It is probable he was aboard a galley commanded by one of his brothers (Bernardo or Lunardo) or by his uncle Enrico Dandolo.
The Cyclades at the beginning of the 13th century
After HeracliusHeraclius
Heraclius was Byzantine Emperor from 610 to 641.He was responsible for introducing Greek as the empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, successfully led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.Heraclius'...
, the Byzantine Empire was organized in Themes. In the 10th century, a theme of the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea (theme)
The Theme of the Aegean Sea was a Byzantine province in the northern Aegean Sea, established in the mid-9th century. As one of the Byzantine Empire's three dedicated naval themes , it served chiefly to provide ships and troops for the Byzantine navy, but also served as a civil administrative...
(tò théma toû Aiyaíou Pelágous) ruled by an admiral (dhrungarios) was created. It included the Cyclades, Sporades
Sporades
The Sporades are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. It consists of 24 islands, of which four are permanently inhabited: Alonnisos, Skiathos, Skopelos and Skyros.-Administration:...
, Chios
Chios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
, Lesbos end Lemnos
Lemnos
Lemnos is an island of Greece in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos peripheral unit, which is part of the North Aegean Periphery. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Myrina...
. But quickly, the central government was no longer capable to control these small and scattered lands. At the beginning of the 13th century, it had given up the very idea altogether. It appears the Cyclades might then have been ruled from Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
by a former Byzantine civil servant Leo Gabalas
Leo Gabalas
Leo Gabalas was a Byzantine Greek magnate, who in 1204, with the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire by the Fourth Crusade seized the island of Rhodes...
self-styled "Caesar
Caesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
" and "Lord of Rhodes and the Cyclades
Cyclades
The Cyclades is a Greek island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around the sacred island of Delos...
". But even he was not able to collect the taxes, mainly because of the Genoans and Turk pirates.
At that time, inhabitants left villages by the sea to create new ones in the mountains, such as the villages on the Traghea plateau on Naxos.
Competition between Venice and Genoa
After the 11th century, Italian merchant cities, mainly the Republic of VeniceRepublic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
and Republic of Genoa
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
, developed their trade with the Orient, mostly Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, first stages of the silk road. Trade routes of both cities were almost identical. Venetian boats ran alongside the East coast of the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
with stops in Zara
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
, Dyrrachium
Durrës
Durrës is the second largest city of Albania located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is one of the most ancient and economically important cities of Albania. Durres is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian ports of Bari...
and Corfou, then around the Peloponese with Koroni
Koroni
Koroni or Coroni is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is a municipal unit. Known as Corone by the Venetians and Ottomans, the town of Koroni Koroni or Coroni is a...
and up the Aegean and Cyclades with stops in Naxos, Euboea
Euboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
and Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
to Constantinople, or via Crete, Alexandria and Syria to Egypt. The Genoan ships ran alongside the West coast of Italy, crossed the Strait of Messina
Strait of Messina
The Strait of Messina is the narrow passage between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of Calabria in the south of Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea with the Ionian Sea, within the central Mediterranean...
then the Strait of Otranto
Strait of Otranto
The Strait of Otranto connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and separates Italy from Albania. Its width at Punta Palascìa, east of Salento is less than . The strait is named after the Italian city of Otranto.- History :...
to Corfou, round the Peloponese stopping at Monemvasia
Monemvasia
Monemvasia is a town and a municipality in Laconia, Greece. The town is located on a small peninsula off the east coast of the Peloponnese. The peninsula is linked to the mainland by a short causeway 200m in length. Its area consists mostly of a large plateau some 100 metres above sea level, up to...
, up the Aegean and Cyclades with stops in Chios to Constantinople or via Milos
Milos
Milos , is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete...
, Naxos
Naxos (island)
Naxos is a Greek island, the largest island in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture....
and Amorgos
Amorgos
Amorgos is the easternmost island of the Greek Cyclades island group, and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group. Along with several neighboring islets, the largest of which is Nikouria Island, it comprises the municipality of Amorgos, which has a land area of...
to Egypt and Syria. Thus, the cities were competing to control the stopping places.
The competition grew in the 12th century. Venice had secured privileges from Emperor Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos was Byzantine emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204....
. His successor Alexios III Angelos
Alexios III Angelos
Alexios III Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from 1195 to 1203.- Early life:Alexios III Angelos was the second son of Andronikos Angelos and Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa. Andronicus was himself a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus...
resented Venetian control of the Byzantine trade. He tried to give more room to Genoa, as well as Pisa
Republic of Pisa
The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa during the late tenth and eleventh centuries. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century before being surpassed and...
(to avoid giving Genoa all the power). Thus, the Genoan marine crushed the very pirates the Republic had created to cripple Venetian (and Byzantine) trade. The Genoan district in Constantinople became larger in 1201. The Pisan influence grew also in Thessaloniki. Venice could not let these go unadressed. When Alexios Angelos
Alexios IV Angelos
Alexios IV Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from August 1203 to January 1204. He was the son of emperor Isaac II Angelus and his first wife Irene. His paternal uncle was Emperor Alexius III Angelus....
asked the crusaders
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
to help him become Emperor, they could not refuse. A new Emperor, owing his throne to the crusaders and Venice, was what the city needed to regain its commercial power in the Byzantine Empire.
The Fourth Crusade
Finaly, on the 13th of April 1204, the Crusaders, or as they became called "Latins" or "Franks", took again Constantinople and shared the conquered Byzantine Empire. The treaty Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae
Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae
The Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae was a treaty signed after the sack of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, by the Fourth Crusade in 1204...
was probably drafted during the autumn of 1204 by a commission of 24 people (12 Venetians, 12 non-Venetians). One fourth went to Baldwin VI Count of Hainaut
Baldwin I of Constantinople
Baldwin I , the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, as Baldwin IX Count of Flanders and as Baldwin VI Count of Hainaut, was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the capture of Constantinople, the conquest of the greater part of the Byzantine...
, elected Latin Emperor
Latin Empire
The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...
, three eights went to Venice, and the remaining three eights to the other Crusaders. The Cyclades were not mentioned as such, contrary to the Sporades or the Ionian Islands. Only Andros and Tinos were mentioned : the one was given to Venice and the other to the Emperor. Historians tried to identify the others cycladic islands in the text but nothing is really convincing. Paul Hetherington suggest two simple explanations for the absence of the Cyclades, even the bigger ones such as Naxos, in the text. The treaty was drafted using the Byzantine taxes of 1203 and they were no longer collected on most of the islands. Venice might also have don it deliberately as the Republic was the only one with a real geographic knowledge of the Aegean. Thus, the Republic kept aside essential stopping points on its trade routes.
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, given to Boniface, by Venice. Boniface de Montferrat was to close to the Genoans for the Venetians. Thus, he was not elected Latin Emperor and was given, as compensation, the Kingdom of Thessalonica
Kingdom of Thessalonica
The Kingdom of Thessalonica was a short-lived Crusader State founded after the Fourth Crusade over the conquered Byzantine lands.- Background :...
and Crete. But Macedonia had not been conquered, when the Latin imperial army began the conquest, Boniface rebelled, considering the Emperor was trying to take his share from him. So, he besieged Adrianople. Enrico Dandolo sent a mission to reason Boniface. The head of the ambassadors was Geoffroi de Villehardouin and Marco Sanudo was among them. The main objective of the mission was to avoid that Boniface sold Crete to the Republic of Genoa, as he had announced. On the 12th of August 1204, the Treaty of Adrianople between Boniface and Venice was signed. The Republic got the island of Crete and guaranted to Boniface the possession of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. Some medieval chronicles -after the one by Enrico Dandolo (1360–1362)- say that this Treaty of Adrianople explicitely gave Marco Sanudo lands on Crete. But the original text, preserved, says no such thing.
Conquest of Naxos
The Republic of Venice was afraid that its rival, the Republic of Genoa, should take advantage of the troubled situation in the Eastern Mediterranean to gain ground. Venice barely could buy Crete just before Genoa. Even then, the Ligurian republic threatened its rival with war if it did not abandon the big island. The war was inevitable and started. At the beginning of 1205, the news reached Constantinople that a Genoan fleet had just arrived in the Aegean. Marco Sanudo, with his uncle Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo — anglicised as Henry Dandolo and Latinized as Henricus Dandulus — was the 41st Doge of Venice from 1195 until his death...
's and the Latin Emperor's blessings, armed with his own money eight galleys that had been entrusted to him in order to fight the Genoans. All the sailors were Venetians and came on their own accord.
In order to achieve this goal, control of Naxos
Naxos (island)
Naxos is a Greek island, the largest island in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture....
was essential. Sanudo's fleet landed on the South-West of the island, near Potamides. The local population did not oppose them. The main objective was the Byzantine fortress of Apalyrou, approxomately three kilometers inland. It was guarded by Greek and Genoan troops. According to some sources, Sanudo did literally burn its vessels to motivate his soldiers. The siege lasted for five weeks. The capture of the fortress gave Sanudo control of the whole island.
Political confirmations
Baldwin I of Constantinople
Baldwin I , the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, as Baldwin IX Count of Flanders and as Baldwin VI Count of Hainaut, was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the capture of Constantinople, the conquest of the greater part of the Byzantine...
had died during the Battle of Adrianople (1205)
Battle of Adrianople (1205)
The Battle of Adrianople occurred on April 14, 1205 between Bulgarians under Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria, and Crusaders under Baldwin I. It was won by the Bulgarians after a skillful ambush using the help of their Cuman and Greek allies. Around 300 knights were killed, including Louis of Blois, Duke...
and Marco Sanudo's uncle Enrico Dandolo also died in June. In Constantinople, the podestà
Podestà
Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...
and the Council of the Venitians assured him there would be no problem. But, one condition was made : Naxos could only go to a Venetian after Sanudo's death.
In July 1205, Sanudo left for Venice, carrying the news of the death of the Doge, and also to get the confirmation of his conquest. There, he took part to the election of the new Doge, Pietro Ziani
Pietro Ziani
Pietro Ziani was the forty-second Doge of Venice from 15 August 1205 to 1229, succeededing Enrico Dandolo. He was the son of Doge Sebastian Ziani of the very rich noble family....
. He was then authorized to take, as private property, all Cyclades islands not included in the Partitio Terrarum. In fact, this right was given to all Venetian citizens for all the Byzantine lands not included in the Partitio Terrarum.
Meanwhile, the Genoans had set foot and fortified in Crete and Corfou, threatening the Venetian power. The Republic armed a fleet to oust them. Marco Sanudo took part to the expedition in Crete because the Genoans there were a threat to his island. Enrico Pescatore, working for Genoa, with a fleet comprising eight galleys had set foot in Crete in 1206. The Venetian fleet captured four Genoans galleys in Spinalonga
Spinalonga
The island of Spinalonga , officially known as Kalydon , is located in the Gulf of Elounda in north-eastern Crete, in Lasithi prefecture, next to the town of Elounda....
, then patrolled the Cretan seas, boarding all ships. But no attempt was made to land on and recapture the island. At the end of the campaign, the Venetian fleet went back home and Sanudo sailed to Constantinople to get the new Emperor's (Henry of Flanders
Henry of Flanders
Henry was the second emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. He was a younger son of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut , and Margaret I of Flanders, sister of Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders....
) confirmation for his conquest and his new project: conquering the other Cyclades.
Conquest of the other islands
The authorization given by Venetian and Imperial authorities gave ideas to other adventurers. A new expedition, still privately financed, set sail in 1206-1207. That year, Marco Sanudo controlled all Cyclades with his companions or relatives. His cousin Marino Dandolo (another nephew of Enrico Dandolo) became Lord of Andros
Andros
Andros, or Andro is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, approximately south east of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . Its surface is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and well-watered valleys. The area is...
. Other relatives, the brothers Andrea and Geremia Ghisi became Lords of Tinos
Tinos
Tinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. In antiquity, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa and Hydroessa . The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos...
and Mykonos
Mykonos
Mykonos is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island spans an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 9,320 inhabitants most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also...
, with fiefs on Kea
Kea
The Kea is a large species of parrot found in forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wings and has a large narrow curved grey-brown upper beak. The Kea is the world's only alpine parrot...
and Serifos
Serifos
Serifos is a Greek island municipality in the Aegean Sea, located in the western Cyclades, south of Kythnos and northwest of Sifnos. It is part of the Milos peripheral unit. The area is 75.207 km² and the population was 1,414 at the 2001 census. It is located about ESE of Piraeus...
(also in the Sporades
Sporades
The Sporades are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. It consists of 24 islands, of which four are permanently inhabited: Alonnisos, Skiathos, Skopelos and Skyros.-Administration:...
). The Pisani shared Kea with the Ghisi and with the Michieli and the Guistiniani. Jaccopo Barozzi (from Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
) took Santorini
Santorini
Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...
. Anafi
Anafi
Anafi is a Greek island community in the Cyclades. In 2001, it had a population of 273 inhabitants. Its land area is 40.370 km². It lies east of the island of Thíra...
went to Leonardo Foscolo. Pietro Guistianini and Domenico Michieli each received a quarter of Serifos and a quarter of Kea. Marco Sanudo took a dozen of the bigger islands : Naxos, Paros
Paros
Paros is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Municipality of Paros includes numerous uninhabited offshore islets...
, Antiparos
Antiparos
Antiparos is a small inhabited island in the southern Aegean, at the heart of the Cyclades, which is less than one nautical mile from Paros, the port to which it is connected with a local ferry...
, Milos
Milos
Milos , is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete...
, Kimolos
Kimolos
Kimolos is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, belonging to the islands group of Cyclades, located on the SW tip of them, near the bigger island of Milos. It is considered as a middle class, rural island, not included in the tourist hotspots, thus, ferry connection is sometimes of bad quality...
, Ios
Ios (Island)
Ios is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides, situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about 18 km long and 10 km wide, with an area of about 109 km² . Population was 1,838 in 2001...
, Amorgos
Amorgos
Amorgos is the easternmost island of the Greek Cyclades island group, and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group. Along with several neighboring islets, the largest of which is Nikouria Island, it comprises the municipality of Amorgos, which has a land area of...
, Siphnos, Sikinos
Sikinos
Sikinos is a Greek island and municipality in the Cyclades. It is located midway between the islands of Ios and Folegandros. Sikinos is part of the Santorini peripheral unit....
, Syros
Syros
Syros , or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located south-east of Athens. The area of the island is . The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and Vari. Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and the Cyclades...
, Folegandros
Folegandros
Folegandros is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea which, together with Sikinos, Ios, Anafi and Santorini, forms the southern part of the Cyclades. Its surface area is about and it has 667 inhabitants....
and Kythnos
Kythnos
Kythnos is a Greek island and municipality in the Western Cyclades between Kea and Serifos. It is from the harbor of Piraeus. Kythnos is in area and has a coastline of about . It has more than 70 beaches, many of which are still inaccessible by road...
(where the Castelli and the Gozzadini were his vassals). Some chronicles suggest that he might have already conquered Smyrna
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
at that time.
The conquest seems to have been relatively easy. There are no accounts of battles or fighting. It seems that all the conquerors had to do was to show up in the principal harbour of an island and announce they were taking charge. Historians suggest some explanations. The first is linked to the insecurity caused by the pirates in the Aegean at the time and only the Venetian fleet was strong enough to fight them. Locals did not care that the new lords were private persons and not captains in the service of Venice. Better them than the insecurity. Also, Sanudo did not alienate the Greek ruling class: the archontes. He let them keep their properties, their privileges and their religion. Thus, nothing was to be feared from a local population controlled by the local ruling class.
Alternate hypothesis
Guillaume Saint-Guillain, in an article published in 2006, after working on the many medieval chronicles and proved they are not reliable, uses documents produced by the contemporaries of Marco Sanudo. Thus, the archbishop of Athens, Michael Choniates
Michael Choniates
Michael Choniates , Byzantine writer and ecclesiastic, was born at Chonae . At an early age he studied at Constantinople and was the pupil of Eustathius of Thessalonica. Around 1175 he was appointed archbishop of Athens...
, who had taken refuge from the Latin troops on Kea
Kea (island)
Kea , also known as Gia or Tzia , Zea, and, in Antiquity, Keos , is an island of the Cyclades archipelago, in the Aegean Sea, in Greece. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos peripheral unit. Its capital, Ioulis, is inland at a high altitude and is considered quite picturesque...
wrote at the end of 1208 or at the beginning of 1209 a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in which he refused to take charge of the vacant bishop seat of Paros-Naxos. It seems not probable that he would have fled the Latins in Athens to go into Latin-conquered lands on Naxos. In his poem Théanô, he writes about the Greek resistance to the Latins. Reading that text, we can infer that the island he was living on, Kea, was not conquered at the time he wrote (1212). He suggests in the same poem a failed attempt of conquest of the Cyclades in 1205, but there is no mention of Marco Sanudo. It might then be necessary to suggest a later date for the conquest of the Cyclades by the Venetians.
West met East
Marco Sanudo was the initiator of the two main political lines of all the rulers of the Duchy of Archipelago throughout its existence: independence from the Republic of Venice and good relations with the Greek population of his islands.Occidental feudalism in Orient
In 1210, Marco Sanudo pledged homage to the Latin Emperor
Latin Empire
The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...
Henry
Henry of Flanders
Henry was the second emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. He was a younger son of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut , and Margaret I of Flanders, sister of Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders....
who bestowed him the title of Peer
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
of the Byzantine Empire and Duke of the Archipelago. It is probable that it was this Duchy that created the word "archipelago" from the Venetian, a deformation of the Greek name of the Aegean Sea "Aigaion Pelagos" (Αιγαιον πελαγος). By that homage, Sanudo chose to become the vassal of the Emperor to avoid ending a mere governor of the islands in the name of Venice. Thus, he made sure his conquests became his own properties, in exchange of the usual feudal obligations: aid and counsel.
Thus, the occidental feudal system came to Greece. Except for the Ghisi who might have been direct vassals of the Emperor, all the Italians in the Cyclades were Marco Sanudo's vassals, himself vassal of the Emperor. Sanudo rewarded his soldiers and sailors who conquered the islands with him in the way it was done in Occident: by conferring knighthood
Accolade
In the Middle Ages, the accolade was the central act in the rite-of-passage ceremonies conferring knighthood.-Ceremony:...
and fiefs in exchange of the usual feudal obligations: aid and counsel. They became known as feudati or feudatori, living from the income of their lands. They became a new social elite alongside the Greek archontés. When the news that yeomen could become knights in Greece reached Western Europe, a new wave of adventurers arrived from Italy, France or Spain.
Marco Sanudo recognised the rights and deeds to their properties of all the Greek archontés. On Naxos, 56 fiefs (τόποι) are known for that time: half were in Greek hands. It seems there was enough unclaimed lands and lands taken from the ancient Byzantine public domain for Sanudo to give to his new "Franks" vassals without confiscating Greek properties. At the same time, in Crete, Venice confiscated the properties of the Greek archontés and in doing so alienated them for the following centuries during which the Republic had to face numerous rebellions. Marco Sanudo never had any trouble with "his" locals.
The "Frankish" feudal system was simply added to the ancient Byzantine adminsitrative one kept by the new lords: the ancient Byzantine administrative organisation was used for the new feudal taxes and corvées and the Byzantine agricultural techniques were used on the new fiefs. Byzantine law was also used for the local Greek population being for the marriages or the properties. It was the same for the religious organisation: even if the Catholic hierarchy was in power, an Orthodox hierarchy still existed (albeit without a bishop but with a protopappas). And, when a Catholic priest was not available, the mass was said by an Orthodox priest.
Quickly, the two communities became more and more close. The "noblemen", Italians as well as Greeks, were speaking Italian, called by all the Greeks "Frank" and the lower classes spoke a blending of the two languages, an "italohellenic". Thus, they were able to understand each other on some level.
Death and successor
Marco died in 1227, two years after Otto de la RocheOtto de la Roche
Otto de la Roche was a Burgundian nobleman from the castle of La Roche-sur-l'Ognon, in the Franche-Comté commune of Rigney, Doubs. He joined the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and became the first Duke of Athens...
, the first duke of Athens, departed for France
Kingdom of France
The Kingdom of France was one of the most powerful states to exist in Europe during the second millennium.It originated from the Western portion of the Frankish empire, and consolidated significant power and influence over the next thousand years. Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, developed a...
, three years after the Kingdom of Thessalonica
Kingdom of Thessalonica
The Kingdom of Thessalonica was a short-lived Crusader State founded after the Fourth Crusade over the conquered Byzantine lands.- Background :...
collapsed, and a short while before the death of Geoffrey I of Villehardouin
Geoffrey I of Villehardouin
Geoffrey I of Villehardouin was a French knight from the County of Champagne who joined the Fourth Crusade. He participated in the conquest of the Peloponnese and became the second prince of Achaea ....
, Prince of Achaea. In a very short time, the whole political landscape of Frankish Greece was radically altered.
Marriage and children
According to William Miller, Marco I married ... Laskaraina, a woman of the LaskarisLaskaris
The Laskaris or Lascaris family was a Byzantine Greek noble family whose members formed the ruling dynasty of the Empire of Nicaea from 1204 to 1261 and remained among the senior nobility up to the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire, whereupon many emigrated to Italy and then to Smyrna...
family. Miller identified her as a sister of Constantine Laskaris
Constantine Laskaris
Constantine Laskaris was Byzantine emperor for a few months from 1204 to early 1205.-Early years:Constantine Laskaris was born of a noble but not particularly renowned Byzantine family. Virtually nothing is known of him prior to the events of the Fourth Crusade...
and Theodore I Laskaris
Theodore I Laskaris
Theodoros I Komnenos Laskaris was emperor of Nicaea .-Family:Theodore Laskaris was born to the Laskaris, a noble but not particularly renowned Byzantine family of Constantinople. He was the son of Manuel Laskaris and wife Ioanna Karatzaina . He had four older brothers: Manuel Laskaris Theodoros...
. He based this theory on his own interpretation of Italian chronicles. The "Dictionnaire historique et Généalogique des grandes familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople" (1983) by Mihail-Dimitri Sturdza rejected the theory based on the silence of Byzantine primary sources.
In any case, Marco I had one known son: Angelo Sanudo
Angelo Sanudo
Angelo Sanudo was the second Duke of the Archipelago from 1227, when his father, Marco I, died, until his own death.-Family:Angelo was a son of Marco I Sanudo. According to "The Latins in the Levant. A History of Frankish Greece " by William Miller, Marco I married ... Laskaraina, a woman of the...
. Marino Sanuto the Elder
Marino Sanuto the Elder
Marino Sanuto or Sanudo the Elder of Torcello was a Venetian statesman and geographer.He is best known for his life-long attempts to revive the crusading spirit and movement; with this object he wrote his great work, the Secreta Fidelium Crucis, otherwise called Historia Hierosolymitana, Liber de...
is considered a descendant but his exact lineage is not known.
Sources
- J.K. Fotheringham and L.R.F. Williams, Marco Sanudo, conqueror of the Archipelago, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1915.
- Charles A. Frazee, The Island Princes of Greece: The Dukes of the Archipelago, Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1988. ISBN 9025609481
- Paul Hetherington, The Greek Islands: Guide to the Byzantine and Medieval Buildings and their Art, Londres, 2001. ISBN 1-8999163-68-9 Guillaume Saint-Guillain, «Les Conquérants de l'Archipel. L'Empire latin de Constantinople, Venise et les premiers seigneurs des Cyclades.», in Gherardo Ortali, Giorgio Ravegnani et Peter Schreiner (dir.), Quarta Crociata. Venezia - Bisanzio - Impero Latino., Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venise, 2006. ISBN 8888143742
- Setton, Kenneth M. (general editor), A History of the Crusades: Volume II — The Later Crusades, 1189–1311. Robert Lee Wolff and Harry W. Hazard, editors. University of Wisconsin PressUniversity of Wisconsin PressThe University of Wisconsin Press is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It primarily publishes work by scholars from the global academic community but also serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and...
: Milwaukee, 1969. J. Slot, Archipelagus Turbatus. Les Cyclades entre colonisation latine et occupation ottomane. c.1500–1718., Publications de l'Institut historique-archéologique néerlandais de Stamboul, 1982. ISBN 9062580513.