124 Papadia-Lala
had been established on Corfu after 1259 by its new lord Manfred of Sicily and
its governor Philip Chinardo. The fiefs were divided into those of the State, the
Latin Church and private persons, these last being mainly Latin but also includ-
ing numerous Greeks. While the great majority of the inhabitants became vil-
leins of various types, the city residents formed a community (universitas) at
the head of which were the feudal lords and the rich merchants.16
The Latin lords of the Greek lands primarily originated from western
Europe, an exception being a very few who, irrespective of their various
western European origins, were formerly residents in the Latin Kingdom of
Jerusalem. One such exception were the Lusignan, who founded the Kingdom
of Cyprus (1192–1474/1489), one of the most enduring Latin regimes in the
East, a few years before the events of 1204.17 Another, much later and long-
lasting such regime, intimately connected with the Holy Land, was set up by
the Knights Hospitaller of St John throughout most of the south-east Aegean
Islands, known as the Dodecanese, with its focal point on the island of Rhodes
(1309–1522).18
Under Hospitaller rule, the island of Rhodes became a centre for piracy.
Meanwhile, the town of Rhodes developed into a cosmopolitan economic
and cultural centre thanks to the contribution of numerous Latins, includ-
ing Venetians, Genoese, Florentines and Catalans who converged on the
island from various regions, as well as of Greeks both native to the island an
non-native.
16 For the Angevin period on Corfu, see Maria Dourou-Eliopoulou, Η Ανδεγαυική κυριαρχία
στη Ρωμανία επί Καρόλου Α ́ (1266–1285) [Angevin Rule in Romania under Charles I (1266–
1285)] (Athens, 1987), pp. 58–61, 88–91 and 116–21; Spyros N. Asonitis, Ανδηγαυική Κέρκυρα
(13ος–14ος αι.) [Angevin Corfu (13th–14th Centuries)] (Corfu, 1999).
17 Some aspects of the history of the Kingdom of Cyprus are discussed in the chapters by
Charalambos Gasparis and Nicholas Coureas, in this volume.
18 Concerning the Hospitallers in the South-East Aegean Islands, see the numerous articles
on this subject reprinted in Anthony Luttrell, The Hospitallers in Cyprus, Rhodes, Greece
and the West, 1291–1440 (London, 1978), especially “The Hospitallers at Rhodes, 1306–1421,”
originally published in Setton, History of the Crusades, 3:278–313; Anthony Luttrell,
Latin Greece, the Hospitallers and the Crusades, 1291–1440 (London, 1982); idem, The
Hospitaller State on Rhodes and its Western Provinces, 1306–1462 (Aldershot, 1999), as well
as in Zacharias N. Tsirpanlis, Η Ρόδος και οι Νότιες Σποράδες στα χρόνια των Ιωαννιτών Ιπποτών
(14ος–16ος αιώνες) [Rhodes and the Southern Sporades Islands in the Age of the Hospitallers
(14th–16th Centuries)] (Rhodes, 1991). See also, idem, ed., Ανέκδοτα έγγραφα για τη Ρόδο και
τις Νότιες Σποράδες από το Αρχείο των Ιωαννιτών Ιπποτών, 1 (1421–1453): εισαγωγή, διπλωματική
έκδοση, σχόλια [Unpublished Documents on Rhodes and the Southern Sporades Islands
from the Hospitaller Archive, 1 (1421–1453): Introduction, Diplomatic Edition, Commentary]
(Rhodes, 1995).