Barony of Patras

Barony of the Principality of Achaea

1209–1429/30

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

Capital

Patras
38°15′N 21°44′E / 38.250°N 21.733°ECoordinates: 38°15′N 21°44′E / 38.250°N 21.733°E

Government

Feudal lordship

Historical era

Middle Ages

•

Established

1209

•

Independence from Achaea

1337

•

Venetian administration

1408–13

•

Byzantine reconquest

1429/30

The Barony of Patras was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the northwestern coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Patras. It was among the twelve original baronies of the Principality of Achaea, but passed into the hands of the Latin Archbishop of Patras at about the middle of the 13th century. From 1337 on, it was an ecclesiastical domain independent of the Principality. It maintained close relations with the Republic of Venice, which governed the barony in 1408–13 and 1418. The barony survived until the Byzantine reconquest in 1429–30.

The Barony of Patras 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. With twenty-four knight's fiefs attached to it, Patras, along with Akova, was the largest and one of the most important baronies of the Principality. Patras was in addition the seat of a Latin Archbishopric, which ranked as a distinct ecclesiastic vassal fief with eight knightly fiefs to its name. Relations between the Archbishop and the secular barons, and indeed with the Prince himself, were initially strained. This was due to quarrels between the Archbishop and the Prince over the Latin clergy's allegiance and obligations to the Principality, and resulted in such incidents as the baron's forcible eviction of the Archbishop from his residence and the cathedral of St. Theodore, which were incorporated into the Patras Castle.

According to the French, Greek and Italian versions of the Chronicle of the Morea, the secular barony was granted to a knight from the Provence, William Aleman, but the Treaty of Sapienza between Achaea and the Republic of Venice, concluded in June 1209, mentions Arnulf Aleman as baron, probably William's otherwise unknown predecessor. In addition, the Aragonese version of the Chronicle lists a completely different, but unverifiable series of barons, beginning with Walter Aleman, who was succeeded by his son Conrad and he in turn by William (II), who then sold the rights to the barony to the Archbishop of Patras ca. 1276. Historians have generally followed this account in dating the cession of the barony to the Archbishopric to about or shortly after the middle of the century, but the transfer may have taken place, or at least begun, as early as the 1220s, for the first Archbishop, Antelm of Cluny, is said to have had possession of the Patras Castle by 1233.

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