82 Gasparis
540), Venice went ahead with the plan, aiming perhaps to send more colonists
at a later date, although this cannot be discerned in the 1211 document. The
document did, however, grant power to the local authorities (i.e. the duke and
his councillors) to give land to other individuals of their own choosing. These
people, who would in essence complete the ranks of the feudatories, would be
treated in exactly the same way as the colonists who set off from Venice in this
first organised mission. It is implied, though not explicitly stated, that these
other individuals would be Venetian citizens who were either already on the
island, or who would arrive separately.
The document of the first colonisation does not specify which area of Crete
would be distributed to the fief-holders but based on later notices it is evident
that they were installed in, and received, the eastern part of the island (the
modern-day prefectures of Herakleion and Lasithi) which had already been
conquered. The exact process of land distribution remains unknown. The doc-
ument does, however, specify precisely the area of land around Candia which
remained under the direct control and usufruct of the state. According to later
notices, this area, which included fertile lands and many villages, was named
Paracandia (or Paracandida).
In 1222, eleven years after the first mission, Venice attempted a second
organised colonisation, this time at the request of the Venetian feudatories
already on the island, who wanted to strengthen Venetian authority in Crete
and safeguard the colony.15 Citing the original division of Crete into 200 fiefs,
the Venetian authorities increased the number of feudatories, sending over
39 knights and 28 sergeants, who shared 60 fiefs in the territory of Rethymnon.
This second colonisation, as a continuation of the first one, took place under
the exact same terms, but the new document contains a further important ele-
ment: it lists the feudatories along with the precise number of fiefs that each
would receive. In 1233, as part of the previous two missions, a small comple-
mentary expedition of nine feudatories received 11 fiefs, whose location, how-
ever, remains unknown.16
It took another 30 years for a third full-blown expedition to be decided.
Though by this time conditions were completely different from those of 1211,
the colonisation of the territory of Canea in 1252 was based on the same princi-
ples as the original colonisation of Candia.17 In this case, however, the surviving
15 Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:236, no. 263.
16 Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:314, no. 284.
17 Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden, 2:470–80, no. 322. Compare Georgios Α. Sefakas, Παραχώρησις
υπό της ενετικής Συγκλήτου του διαμερίσματος των Χανίων ως φεούδου εις Ενετούς ευγενείς εν έτει
1252 [Cession of the Department of Canea as a Fief to Venetian Nobles by the Venetian Senate