Land and Landowners in the Greek Territories 81
and the Franks. In doing so, occasional references will be made to other Latin
domains in Greece, such as Venetian Euboea, the Venetian ports of Modon and
Coron, the Cyclades, Genoese Chios and Hospitaller Rhodes, whose landown-
ing regimes remain even more obscure.
Venetian Crete
Colonisation and the Process of Land Distribution
In 1211, with the document of the first colonisation, the Concessio Crete, Venice
set the foundations of the landowing system, defining her own relations with
the land of Crete as well as the relations of the colonists with their land and
with the State.14 Through this act, the Venetian authorities granted to the pres-
ent and future colonists—henceforth feudatories (milites)—all the land of
the island, although much of the island was yet to be conquered. In actuality,
Venice was not yet distributing all of the land of Crete in 1211; she was however
recognising that all of the land of Crete, with the exception of a small part that
would remain under the direct control of the state (Comune) and an equally
small part which was reserved for the Church and the monasteries, was des-
tined to be distributed to fief-holders. Accordingly, Venice determined both
the number of fiefs that the island would be divided into, as well as the num-
ber of fief-holders that would receive them. The latter were divided into two
categories, knights (milites) and footsoldiers or sergeants (pedites). Thus Crete
was to be divided into 200 fiefs which would be distributed to 132 knights and
408 footsoldiers.
It is doubtful that the offer of land and high social status in the new colony
was motive enough to attract substantial numbers of aspiring feudatories from
Venice in that particular period. Only 120 people answered the first call of the
Venetian authorities in 1211, 94 of whom were designated as knights, with the
remaining 26 being designated footsoldiers. These people had been divided
into six groups according to the Venetian administrative department (sexte-
rium) from which they originated. Each group was then divided into knights
and footsoldiers. Though we know the names of the feudatories who partici-
pated in this first mission, we do not know the number of the fiefs ceded to
them. We also do not know whether the number of participants had been
decided by the Venetian authorities, or whether it was simply defined by the
number of people who answered the motherland’s call. Though the number
of participants was much smaller than the positions on offer (120 instead of
14 Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:129–42, nos. 229 and 230.