78 Gasparis
peculiarities because during the short Frankish reign that preceded the Venetian
one some lands had been given to Frankish knights. Moreover, some of the
possessions of Venetian inhabitants of Modon and Coron were now situated
within the borders of the Principality of Achaea. These issues were settled by
the two sides, allowing mobility between the two dominions.9 This did not,
however, prevent occasional serious problems.
In September 1211, shortly after the acquisition of Modon and Coron, Venice
sent a first group of settlers to Crete, as part of an organised expedition, to
conquer the entire island. Most of the terms of the document that accompa-
nied the expedition, known as the Concessio Crete, concern the distribution
and administration of the island’s land.10 The content of the document might
not reflect the reality that emerged during the following decades, but never-
theless Venice appears perfectly aware not only of the importance of the land-
ownership question, but also of the prevalent conditions on the island. Quite
probably she was aware of the large number of powerful landowners on the
island and of the threat they presented to her rule. It is precisely for this reason
that the ambitious and, ultimately, unachievable plan contained in this docu-
ment was to marginalise those men. In theory, the entirety of the island’s land
devolved to the Venetian state, which would then grant it to Venetian settlers;
moreover, the document stipulated that, should any of this land be sold, it
could only be passed on to Venetians. A relatively small zone surrounding the
capital of Candia would remain under the direct control of the state. Two short
paragraphs make reference to the issue of churches and native inhabitants:
all the churches and their priests would maintain their status quo, but their
property would be made available to the local government to administer as it
saw fit. The natives, both in person and in terms of their property, were also at
the disposal of the local authorities. These references hardly resolve the issue;
essentially, all we learn is that the duke and his councillors had the power to
interfere with the property of the natives, to confiscate it, or even to grant it
back to them. In any case, however, these actions would have to be undertaken
9 See David Jacoby, “Peasant Mobility across the Venetian, Frankish and Byzantine Borders
in Latin Romania: Thirteenth–Fifteenth Centuries,” in I Greci durante la venetocrazia:
uomini, spazio, idee (xiii–xviii sec.): atti del convegno internazionale di studi, 3–7 Dicembre
2007 , ed. Chryssa A. Maltezou, Angeliki Tzavara and Despina Vlassi (Venice, 2009), pp.
525–39. For the borders between the Principality of Achaea and the Venetian cities of
Modon and Coron and the disputes over them, see Christine Hodgetts and Peter Lock,
“Some further Fortifications in the Peloponnese,” in The Archaeology of Medieval Greece,
ed. Peter Lock and Guy D.R. Sanders (Oxford, 1996), pp. 77–85.
10 Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:129–42, nos. 229 and 230.