122 Papadia-Lala
while old Greek families, pro-Florentine, but also anti-Florentines (like the
Chalcocondylae) played a significant role in local affairs.12
New administrative and social institutions were also established after 1204
in the island dominions of the Aegean and Ionian Seas. More specifically, both
the island of Euboea during the early Latin domination under the triarchs
(13th–14th centuries)13 and the Cyclades islands under the rule of the Sanudo
and other Venetian families (13th–16th centuries)14 witnessed the setting up of
multiple ties of subjugation with the Latin Empire of Constantinople and later,
from 1248 onwards, with the Principality of Achaea—including the develop-
ment of feudal institutions based on the code of the Assizes of Romania—
along with multifaceted relations with Venice.
Meanwhile, the population’s close attachment to the land was the chief fac-
tor defining the structure of the local society. In Euboea the fiefs remained in
the hands mainly of the Latins. In the 14th century, the old triarchs held on to
their pre-eminent positions, although during the decades preceding 1390 they
began to be regarded by the Venetian state as simple Venetian feudal lords. In
their vast majority, the indigenous Greek populations continued to be landless
peasants, of both dependent and free status, cultivators on the properties of
the Latins. Nevertheless, it was during this same period that the island also
began to flourish as an anchorage and ship-repair yard for Venetian vessels as
well as an important commercial centre for both imports and exports and for
12 Kenneth M. Setton, “Τhe Catalans and Florentines in Greece (1380–1462),” in A History of
the Crusades, 3:225–77, repr. in Setton, Athens in the Middle Ages, vi. See also Demetrios K.
Giannakopoulos, Δουκάτο των Αθηνών: Η κυριαρχία των Acciaiuoli [The Duchy of Athens: The
Reign of the Acciaiuoli] (Thessalonica, 2006).
13 For a brief overview of Latin Euboea, see Lock, Franks, pp. 150–151. See also Raymond J.
Loenertz, “Les seigneurs tierciers de Négrepont de 1205 à 1280: régestes et documents,”
Byzantion 35 (1965), 235–76. Specifically concerning Venetian Euboea, see Silvano Borsari,
L’Eubea veneziana (Venezia, 2007). Concerning Euboean topography, see Johannes Koder,
Negroponte. Untersuchungen zur Topographie und Siedlungsgeschichte der Insel Euboia
während der Zeit der Venezianerherrschaft (Vienna, 1973).
14 Raymond J. Loenertz, Les Ghisi, dynastes Vénitiens dans l’Archipel, 1207–1390 (Florence,
1975); Ben J. Slot, Archipelagus Turbatus: Les Cyclades entre colonisation latine et occupa-
tion ottomane c. 1500–1718, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1982); Marina Koumanoudi, “Τhe Latins in the
Aegean after 1204: Interdependence and Interwoven Interests,” in Urbs capta: Τhe Fourth
Crusade and its Consequences, ed. Angeliki E. Laiou (Paris, 2005), pp. 247–67; Nikos G.
Moschonas and M.-G. Lilly Stylianoudi, eds., Il Ducato dell’Egeo: atti dell’incontro di stu-
dio (Nasso—Atene 2007) (Athens, 2009). Specifically on Serifos, see Walter Haberstumpf,
“L’isola di Serifo e i suoi dinasti (1204–1537): Note storiche e prosopografiche,”
Thesaurismata 24 (1994), 7–36.