90 Gasparis
At the same time two corresponding sizes of fiefs were instituted; one for the
sergeants which comprised of one unit (una pars) and one for the knights
which was six times as large (sex partes). Soon afterwards these fiefs acquired
their own units of measurement, named after the title of their recipients, the
cavallaria or militia and the serventaria. The former described the fief of the
miles and the latter described the fief of the pedes or servens. Both these units
of measurement of value were based on the size of the fief and not on the
quality of its elements; it follows then that they were not necessarily based on
the value of the revenues that it generated. The purpose of these units was to
facilitate the estimation of military service owed by the feudatories. In the 14th
century we have the appearance of a third, smaller unit, the caratum, which
equalled 1/24 of the serventaria.
The Financial Stratification of Feudatories in the 13th Century
It is apparent from the 1211 document of the Concessio that the class of the
feudatories had not been envisioned as a class whose members were all on
an equal financial standing; after all there were two different types of fiefs up
for distribution, cavallarie and serventarie, the former of which were six times
larger than the latter. Unfortunately this first document does not clarify how
many fiefs each of the feudatories would receive. The only distinction made
is between knights and sergeants, that is, those who would receive cavallarie
and serventarie respectively. Assuming that each of these individuals received
a single fief, then two distinct tiers of feudatories emerge, which moreover dif-
fered greatly in terms of the size of their landed property.
According to this first, theoretical plan, 540 feudatories would be sent to
Crete in total, 132 or one-fourth of whom would be knights; the remaining
408 (three-fourths of the total number) would be sergeants. Assuming again
that each of these feudatories were to receive one fief (cavallaria or serven-
taria accordingly) then the island would have to be divided into 200 cavalla-
rie or 1200 serventarie. Three quarters of the land would then be given to the
knights, who only made up one-fourth of the feudatories and one-fourth of
the land would be given to the sergeants who represented three-fourths of the
feudatories.
In practice, only 120 people participated in the first expedition, 94 of whom
were knights, the remaining 26 being sergeants. The ratio of knights to ser-
geants is thus reversed in comparison to the theoretical one, with three-fourths
(78 per cent) of the participants being knights and only one-fourth (22 per
cent) being sergeants. We do not know whether this creation of a core of great
landowners was a conscious decision of the Venetian authorities or whether
it occurred fortuitously because of the high social and financial standing of