Barony of Karytaina

Barony of the Principality of Achaea

1209–1275/89

Map of the Peloponnese with its principal locations during the late Middle Ages

Capital

Karytaina
37°29′N 22°3′E / 37.483°N 22.050°ECoordinates: 37°29′N 22°3′E / 37.483°N 22.050°E

Government

Feudal lordship

Historical era

Middle Ages

•

Established

1209

•

Return to the princely domain

1275/89

The Barony of Karytaina or of Skorta was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Karytaina (Greek: Καρύταινα; French: Caraintaine; Italian: Caritena) in the mountainous region known as Skorta.

The Barony of Kaytaina was established ca. 1209, after the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Crusaders, and was one of the original twelve secular baronies within the Principality of Achaea. The Chronicle of the Morea mentions that the barony, centred on the mountain town of Karytaina, comprised twenty-two knight's fiefs. Karytaina was of particular strategic importance, as it controlled the southern part of the Skorta region and the ravine of the Alpheios valley, which was the main route from and into the central Peloponnese from the coastal plains of Elis.

The first baron was probably Renaud of Briel (or Brières), from the Champagne, who is attested in the Treaty of Sapienza in 1209. He was succeeded by his brother, Hugh of Briel, who married a daughter of Prince Geoffrey I of Villehardouin. His son and successor, Geoffrey of Briel, was the one who built the Castle of Karytaina in the middle of the century. Due to his participation in the War of the Euboeote Succession against the Prince William II of Villehardouin, and his absence from the Peloponnese in 1263–65 without authorization, as required by Achaean feudal law, he was dispossessed twice, but was each time pardoned and restored to the barony, albeit now no longer by inalienable right of conquest, but as a gift from the Prince. Geoffrey had no heirs, and on his death in 1275 the barony was split: one half remained with his widow, Isabella de la Roche, and the other reverted to the Prince's domain. Two pretenders to the barony appeared a few years later: a certain John Pestel, and Geoffrey's nephew, Geoffrey the Younger, who after much persistence managed to obtain the fief of Moraina.

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