Money And Currency In Medieval Greece 243
at Naupactus was inferior to that of Glarenza. With the restoration of direct
Angevin rule over Achaea in 1304/06 any rogue specie was rounded up and
cancelled. We have concrete evidence for this activity at Corinth, but this may
reflect activities throughout the peninsula. The Naupactus mint continued
also after October 1304 with a small issue, but we do not currently know when
around 1306 these minting operations might have ceased altogether, and when
(presumably sometime before) Philip of Taranto started issuing tournois at
Glarenza. When he did, the quantities which were being emitted there appear
to have been inferior to those of his predecessor Philip of Savoy, and certainly
inferior to the combined output of the Glarenza and Naupactus mints during
1301–04.
The duchy of Athens, in the form of the prolific gvi.dvx issues, was also
steadily producing large quantities of tournois at Thebes in the early 1300s.
Under Athenian guidance, a tournois issue was launched in the name of
John ii Angelos Doukas at Neopatras, presumably in 1303. Just as Achaea was
experiencing a downturn after a certain point, matters unravelled at Thebes
and Neopatras due to the premature death of Guy ii de la Roche in October
- This caused, in both places, the halt of the normal issues and the launch
of irregular issues on a reduced scale. At Thebes this was accompanied by a
renewed output of petty denomination issues. In 1309 Gauthier of Brienne
arrived as the new duke, but John ii definitively broke his alliance with Athens
in favour of Byzantium. A final tournois issue which requires mention is that
produced on the island of Tenos at an unknown point during the same decade
by George i Ghisi, who had close personal and political ties to Achaea.
In general terms, the first decade of the 14th century began with an enor-
mous output of tournois at diverse Greek mints. For different dynastic and
strategic reasons minting became compromised after mid-decade. During
1309–11, in the face of the rapid advance of the Catalans, the minting effort was
renewed at Glarenza, Thebes, Neopatras, and perhaps at Tenos, each mint in
its own way, in an attempt to assemble armies or to pay off the foe. This was
to no avail and the Catalan occupation of Attica and Boeotia after 1311 left a
deep mark on the monetary affairs of Greece. The minting of regular tournois
issues was after that date for some time limited to Glarenza. It is possible that
the Catalans themselves produced a sub-standard issue at Thebes bearing the
names of the earlier dukes of Athens, which was perhaps required to make
payments connected to the military efforts. A large number of hoards was
deposited and not retrieved during the conquest itself.
With the Catalan army, and with the establishment of a political class which
owed its allegiance to the Aragonese kingdom of Sicily, more monetary specie