rdfs:comment
| - Following the Fourth Crusade, southern Greece had been divided among several Latin lordships, the most powerful of which was the Principality of Achaea, which controlled the entire Peloponnese peninsula. William II of Villehardouin, who in 1246 had succeeded his elder brother as prince, was a most energetic ruler, who aimed to expand and consolidate his rule over the other Latin states. Guy I de la Roche, the "Great Lord" of Athens and Thebes, was already his vassal for the fief of Argos and Nauplia, which lay in the Peloponnese, and William was also suzerain of the three Lombard baronies (terzieri, "thirds") of Negroponte (the medieval name of both the island of Euboea and its capital, modern Chalkis).
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abstract
| - Following the Fourth Crusade, southern Greece had been divided among several Latin lordships, the most powerful of which was the Principality of Achaea, which controlled the entire Peloponnese peninsula. William II of Villehardouin, who in 1246 had succeeded his elder brother as prince, was a most energetic ruler, who aimed to expand and consolidate his rule over the other Latin states. Guy I de la Roche, the "Great Lord" of Athens and Thebes, was already his vassal for the fief of Argos and Nauplia, which lay in the Peloponnese, and William was also suzerain of the three Lombard baronies (terzieri, "thirds") of Negroponte (the medieval name of both the island of Euboea and its capital, modern Chalkis). In 1255, William's second wife, Carintana dalle Carceri, baroness of the northern third of the island, died, and her husband laid claim to her inheritance, even minting coins presenting himself as "Triarch of Negroponte". The other two triarchs, however, Guglielmo I da Verona and Narzotto dalle Carceri, rejected his claim. Although they were William's nominal subjects and, in Guglielmo's case, even related to him by marriage, they were loath to surrender Euboeote territory to someone outside their own families. Instead, they ceded Carintana's barony to their kinsman, Grapella dalle Carceri. In this, they were supported by Paolo Gradenigo, the Venetian bailo (representative) at Chalkis, the capital of Euboea. Venice had a long presence at Chalkis, which was an important trading station, and exercised considerable influence over the island and the triarchs.
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