130 Papadia-Lala
Greeks in return for military service. The gradual implementation of the sys-
tem was accompanied by a considerable amount of divergence. In Crete, as a
characteristic example, right up to the 17th century the parcels of land were
named fiefs and their holders feudatories. In fact, however, and despite the
prohibitory regulations brought in by Venice, a large portion of the fiefs had
been handed over to simple landowners who rarely fulfilled any feudal obliga-
tions to the state. In parallel, many among the original feudal lords were unable
to carry out their economic, and particularly military, duties. The decline of the
once robust feudal cavalry was especially evident in the regular review of the
troops (mostra generale) held by the feudal lords in the 16th and 17th centuries,
and has been described in dismal terms by the Venetian dignitaries of the age.
In other regions, such as the Ionian Islands, the feudal system gradually
receded. In the 18th century, the number of fiefs on Corfu had dropped to 15
(many of which belonged to the state) from an original 25, while in Zakynthos
merely 12 were left and on Cephalonia only six. Of particular interest is the
case of Corfu where, a few decades after the annexation of the island to the
Venetian state (1386), the Assizes of Romania were introduced through the ini-
tiative of the local feudal lords.26
The cultivators of the fiefs during the first period of Venetian rule were the
villeins (villani, parici). They were unfree with regard to their personal status,
bound to the feudal land or to the feudal lord and burdened with the entire
web of feudal obligations. At the same time, however, there also developed a
category of free tenant peasants who were connected with the feudal demesne
via various forms of contracts.27
The Venetian sources vividly describe the oppression exercised by the
feudatories upon rural populations, e.g. via arbitrary increase of fees due,
imposition of unpaid labour, forceful intervention into their private life.
26 Concerning the feudal institutions, see Jacoby, La féodalité en Grèce médiévale. Generally
concerning landownership in the Greek-Venetian lands, see Anastasia Papadia-Lala, “Το
γαιοκτητικό καθεστώς” [“The Landowning Regime”], in Όψεις της ιστορίας, pp. 198–214.
Specifically concerning Crete, see Elisabeth Santschi, La notion de “feudum” en Crète
Vénitienne (xiiie–xve siècles) (Montreux, 1976); Salvatote Cosentino, Aspetti e problemi
del feudo veneto-cretese (secc. xiiι–xiv) (Bologna, 1987); Charalambos Gasparis, Η γη και οι
αγρότες στη Μεσαιωνική Κρήτη, 13ος–14ος αιώνες [Land and Peasantry in Medieval Crete, 13th–
14th centuries] (Αthens, 1997). Concerning the Ionian Islands, see Spyros I. Asdrachas,
“Φεουδαλική πρόσοδος και γαιοπρόσοδος στην Κέρκυρα την εποχή της βενετικής κυριαρχίας”
[“Feudal Revenue and Land Revenue in Corfu under Venetian Rule”], Τα Ιστορικά 2.4
(1985), 371–86.
27 Kostas Lambrinos, “Κοινωνική συγκρότηση στην ύπαιθρο” [“The Social Make-up of the
Countryside”], in Βενετοκρατούμενη Ελλάδα, 1:131–53.