Geoffrey I of Villehardouin - His Reign in Achaea

His Reign in Achaea

In 1208 William I of Achaea departed for France in order to claim an inheritance his brother had left to him. William I appointed Geoffrey to administer the principality as bailiff until the prince’s nephew, Hugh should arrive. However, both the first prince of Achaea and his nephew died very shortly.

In May 1209, Geoffrey went to the parliament that the Latin Emperor Henry I (1206–1216) had convoked at Ravennika to assure the emperor of his loyalty. The emperor confirmed Geoffrey as prince of Achaea and made him immediate imperial vassal. Moreover, Henry I also appointed Geoffrey seneschal of the Latin Empire.

The Chronicle of the Morea narrates that Geoffrey only became prince of Achaea some time later, because the late William I’s nephew, Robert had a year and a day to travel to the Peloponnese and claim his inheritance. According to the story, all sorts of ruses were used to cause delays in Robert’s trip east, and when he finally arrived in the Peloponnese Geoffrey kept moving from place to place with the leading knights until the time had elapsed. Geoffrey then held an assembly that declared that the heir had forfeited his rights and elected Geoffrey hereditary prince of Achaea.

Nevertheless, Geoffrey I made a pact with the Venetians already in June 1209 on the island of Sapientza. He acknowledged himself to be the vassal of the Republic of Venice for all the lands extending from Corinth to the roadstead of Navarino (now Pylos, Greece). Geoffrey I also gave Venice the right to free trade throughout his principality. According to the treaty, he and his successors were also to receive Venetian citizenship, own a house in Venice, and present the Republic with three silk broadcloths a year, one for the doge and two for St Mark's Basilica.

Afterward Geoffrey I devoted himself to enlarging his possessions. With the aid of Otto I, the lord of Athens (1204–1225), he seized, in 1209, the fortresses of Acrocorinth where first Leo Sgouros, and then Theodore Komnenos Doukas, brother of Michael I of Epirus had resisted the attacks of the crusaders. In 1210 he also achieved the surrender of Corinth, the other fortress held by the Greeks. In the month that followed, Nauplia was also taken, and early in 1212 the stronghold of Argos, where Theodore Komnenos Doukas had stored the treasure of the Church of Corinth, likewise fell into the hands of Geoffrey I and Otto I. When Albertino and Rolandino of Canossa, the lords of Thebes had left their town, the lordship of Thebes was divided equally between Geoffrey I and the lord of Athens.

Geoffrey I sent to France, mainly to Champagne, for young knights to occupy the newly conquered lands and the fiefs of those who had returned to the west. Under Geoffrey I the assignment of fiefs and the obligations which went with them were reviewed before the barons assembled in a great parliament at Andravida. Thus a dozen or so great baronies came into being in the principality, and those who received the titles to them made up with their many vassals the High Court of Achaea.

At the time of the conquest much ecclesiastical property had been secularized and, despite the demands of the clergy, this had not been returned to the churches. The Chronicle of the Morea reports that when the churches refused to provide their fair share of military aid, Geoffrey I seized their property and devoted the income from it to the construction of the powerful castle of Clermont. Furthermore, Geoffrey I was also accused of treating the Greek priests as serfs because their numbers had considerably increased, since the Greek prelates showed no hesitation in conferring orders on peasants to permit them to escape the burdens of serfdom. These events resulted in a prolonged conflict with the church.

First the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, Gervasius promulgated a decree of excommunication against Geoffrey I and laid an interdict upon Achaea. Upon the request of Geoffrey I, however, on February 11, 1217 Pope Honorius III (1216–1227) declared that the patriarch was to relax the sentence within a week after the receipt of the papal letter. Then the patriarch sent out a legate who laid a new interdict upon the Principality of Achaea. But his act was again qualified by the pope as usurpation of the power of the Holy See.

Next the papal legate Cardinal Giovanni Colonna who was travelling through the Peloponnese in 1218 excommunicated Geoffroy I because of the prince's contumacious retention of certain abbeys, churches, rural parishes, and ecclesiastical goods. Upon the request of the local high clergy, the pope confirmed Geoffrey I's excommunication on January 21, 1219. The pope even declared Geoffrey I to be an enemy of God “more inhuman than Pharaoh”.

The conflict lasted some five years, until 1223 when Geoffrey I decided to negotiate and sent one of his knights to Rome. Finally on September 4, 1223 Pope Honorius III confirmed the accord that had been drawn up between the prince and the church of Achaea. According to the treaty, Geoffrey I restored the church lands, but he kept the treasures and furnishings of the churches in exchange for an annual indemnity and the number of Greek priests enjoying liberty and immunity was also to be limited in proportion to the size of the community.

In the meantime, Theodore I of Epirus (1215–1224) had attacked the kingdom of Thessalonica and laid siege the kingdom's capital. William I, despite the urgent appeals of the pope, did not appear to have assisted the threatened city that finally surrendered near the end of 1224.

Geoffrey died sometime between 1228 and 1230 at the age of about sixty. He was buried in the Church of St James in Andravida.