Boniface of Verona

Boniface of Verona (Italian: Bonifacio da Verona, died late 1317 or early 1318) was a powerful Lombard Crusader lord in Frankish Greece during the late 13th and early 14th century. A poor knight from a junior branch of his family, he became a protégé of Guy II de la Roche, Duke of Athens, expelled the Byzantines from Euboea in 1296, and advanced to become one of the most powerful lords of Frankish Greece. He served as regent for the Duchy of Athens in 1308–09, following Guy II's death, and was captured by the Catalan Company in the Battle of Halmyros in March 1311. Boniface, whom the Catalans esteemed, refused their offer to become their leader, but retained close relations with them, sharing a hostility towards the Republic of Venice and her own interests in Euboea. Boniface died in 1317/18, leaving his son-in-law, the Catalan vicar-general Alfonso Fadrique, as the main heir of his extensive domains.

Boniface was born probably around 1270, as the son of Francesco of Verona, and grandson of Giberto I of Verona, one of the three original Lombard barons (the "triarchs") who divided the island of Negroponte (Euboea) in central Greece between them. Boniface's father, as a younger son, did not inherit his father's triarchy. The identity of Boniface's mother is unknown.

Boniface, himself the youngest of three brothers, inherited a single castle from his father, which he sold in 1287 in order to arm and equip himself and ten attendants, and went to the court of the Duchy of Athens. There he became a friend and close companion of the under-age Duke, Guy II de la Roche. In June 1294 the ceremony for the coming of age of Guy was celebrated with great splendour at the co-capital of Thebes, and Guy chose Boniface to be the one to knight him. As described in the chronicle of Ramon Muntaner, Boniface stood out by his splendid attire even among the assembled nobility of Frankish Greece, dressed in its finery. As a reward for the knighting, Guy gave Boniface an annuity of 50,000 sols, conferred on him thirteen castles on the mainland, including the lordship of Gardiki in southern Thessaly, which Guy had inherited from his mother, and the island of Salamis. Boniface was also given the hand of a lady, identified as "Agnes de Cicon" by earlier scholars, the lady of Aegina and of Karystos on the southern tip of Euboea. In addition, the Duke stipulated that in the event of his own premature death, Boniface was to become regent of the duchy.

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